We were getting some windows replaced today…
Category Archives: Photos
Popsicles with the principal.
One of the back-to-school events…
Owen took over pushing the swing and then Katie joined as well. He had a blast.
I JUST CANNOT EVEN.
So this is what I walked downstairs to see this morning after the kids left to go out and ride their bikes. AYFKM?! 🤬 So when I ran into them on my walk, they had to go home and take care of it all and then stop they were doing and go on my walk with me.
Who wears it better?!
I took it to Facebook and Katie was the unequivocal winner. 🙂
Her second haircut in seven years!
Seriously. Second haircut in seven years. She didn’t want to go but ended up loving it—and asked when she can go back to the salon while she was still in the chair. 🤦🏻♀️
Wet and dry…
It’s so bouncy now—she almost prances around. (I didn’t get a good front pic since it was so bright so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for good first day of school pics.)
Any bets on how often she’ll actually let me style it? She said she would let me but I’m not holding my breath.
It’s a purple day…
I think I’ve found my regular color…
So the bottled purple turned out pretty well…
If I wanted to do my whole head I’d probably have needed three more bottles.
Katie also wanted a little purple so I did one chunk.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it before she went in the pool for many multiple hours…(and after one day it was about gone).
F***ing cat.
Apparently when you’re gone all day at the pool and come home, you get Kitty belly.
DANGER! DANGER!
We looooove potato chips and are always up to try a new flavor. (I honestly don’t want to admit how much money we spend on chips. It’s utterly embarrassing.) So Tom saw these at Costco and sent me a pic to gauge my interest. You can see our exchange. 😂
Fast forward to tasting them. 😳😳 Yeah, we should have really gotten 23. Holy hell they’re good. It was SOOOOO hard to put them away after a small handful with dinner, but… accountability. If I didn’t physically put them away I could have easily eaten half the bag. Plus the kids actually like them, too.
That said, I’m not sure they beat my all-time favorites Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream and Lay’s Biscuits & Gravy, but they’re right up there.
What are some of your favorite chips? Bonus points if it’s something new to us that we can source locally and try!!
Katie’s Fashion Shop
This was taking up the entire two feet at the head of her bed right inside the door. Cute and imaginative but not in the best place (of course, this is what she was doing instead of cleaning her room). So I took a picture and we discussed moving it.
Taking a walk first thing…
Free ice cream!
Since they got their rooms finished (FINALLY) we headed to the pool and stopped by the orthodontist who was having a free ice cream day. I was good and didn’t get one.
Room cleaning drama, day 2.
Today started rough but in the end, I think we all got on the same page.
So they knew that today they were going to have to continue and I was going to ask them again to make their bed and put everything left on the floor on their bed.
So I literally stood outside in the hallway between their two bedrooms to keep prodding them.
When I say put everything from the floor on the bed, I mean it. Don’t put anything away. Don’t play with anything. Don’t try to leave the room. Literally put every piece of everything from the floor onto the bed.
Okay, now… Katie, pull out all the Barbies. No not the clothes. No not the Legos. The Barbies. Not the garbage. No! Not the stuffed animals. The Barbies. Okay, now the clothes and just the clothes. No not the Legos. One thing at a time. One thing. Clothes.
Owen, you pick out socks and underwear. Just socks and underwear. No! Don’t put them away. Get all of them first. You dropped one, pick it up. I see more socks. Dig through everything on the bed.
Katie, are you done? Now do stuffed animals. Good. Now crayons and pencils. Put them in your art basket. No, don’t do Legos. Just pencils. Don’t touch anything else.
Owen, now do Pokémon cards. Move stuff around and find them all. No don’t set them there. Put. Them. Away. You have a Pokémon card box. Use it.
Katie! Just crayons and pencils. In the art box, not on your bedside table…
Left, right, left, right, left right. The ping pong match from hell. An hour later it was passable.
We were up there so long Maggie even joined us…and napped!
Their reward for keeping their rooms clean? The Amazon dots they’ve spied in my room. Their rooms get too messy? Unplugged and removed. Easy.
Wish us all luck.
Room cleaning drama, day 1!
Unfortunately it was back to normal life post-vacation so it was time for the kids to clean their rooms. So I told them they had to clean their rooms. Multiple times. They couldn’t concentrate for more than a few minutes before stopping to play or getting otherwise sidetracked. I started to lose my mind.
👩🏻 You guys have to clean your rooms.
👫 …
An hour later.
👩🏻 You guys have to clean your rooms and Katie remember you wanted to finish your library reading to earn the prize.
👫 …
An hour later.
👩🏻 You guys need to finish your rooms. Katie you have to read that book.
👫…
Katie: Can I have a snack?
Owen: Can we go to the pool?
Katie: Can I go to Sophia’s?
Owen: Can we have the dots in our rooms?
👩🏻: 😳🤯🤬 You do understand that I’ve been asking you to do the same thing all day right? And you haven’t done any of it yet?
Katie reads for 5 minutes and Owen reads for 10. They go back to playing.
👩🏻 Hey guys, take a quick sweep around and pick up everything that’s yours and put it away.
👫 (They pick up one or two things and go back to playing.)
Lather, rinse, repeat three times. I warn them that the garbage will be the next stop. This is NOT a new thing.
Guess all the shit I threw away? Shoes, notebooks with drawings, water balloons, Legos, stuffed animals, beads, figurines…
I’m currently waiting for hell to break out when they discover it.
So, accountability time, folks.
Remember me saying I was trying to lose weight…again? Well, things went SMASHINGLY well for 2+ weeks and I lost almost 20# (I think it was 17). YES, THAT MUCH. I was feeling motivated. I was being strong. I was surviving without margaritas. I knew I could do it.
And then.
A minor slip up—one drink with a friend to celebrate a reunion. And then another minor slip up—an extra piece of pizza at my kids’ birthday pool party that I ate without even thinking. And then honestly I kind of lost track after that because…summer, friends, BBQs, late nights, kids being away, vacation, etc. And I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was so I gained 16 of those 17 back and could just kick myself.
This Monday I was back at it again. Because I know I can do this. I have to do this. I worked too hard the first time around to let myself slip farther.
I’m down a few so far this week. It’s better than going up so I’m thrilled. Now I only have *cough*grumble*cough* more to go. 😂
Who wants to be my accountability buddy since this crazy kid is a good walking partner but not much help otherwise…?! 😂
Sidenote: Owen and I might have the same size shoes!
No more salon purple…
So I’ve made the decision to stop coloring my hair purple. I absolutely love it but it’s just too expensive to keep up like I want…but before I go cold turkey (and to take advantage of my already-bleached hair!), I’m going to use this semi-permanent dye.
Wish me luck. It won’t be today but it will be within a week or so…
Owen’s bucket list: the raft!
Owen really wanted to go out to the raft in the middle of the harbor but Grannie and Papa were afraid to let him do it on his own because they wouldn’t be able to help him at all. I wouldn’t have had a problem with him going but they wanted to wait until Tom was there. Tom did agree to go out with him…even knowing full well that it was freezing cold water. So here is their experience.
Tom was ready to stop right here—that water is COLD—but he agreed, so…
We had one happy boy!!
And one cold daddy.
Who deserved a beer!
Lay’s Smiles!
These kids crack me up. Grannie Lin thought they were so creative coming up with this…until they showed her the back of the bag that suggests doing it. 😂 I need to teach them to not share the secrets!! 🤫
Centennial party time!
Y’all know I love a good before and after! And if they tell me it’s formal, you can be damn sure my tiara is coming out!! (We were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Agate Harbor Land Pool.)
Time for pics since we were all dressed up!
Owen didn’t even know this was on his bucket list until we got here and discovered Liam is a distant cousin. He was giddy. Don’t feel bad is you have no idea, either—I don’t do sportsball so I had no idea either…but it’s Liam McHugh.
He is a sports announcer for NBC Sports coverage of the NHL as well as Notre Dame Fighting Irish football and the NFLNBC Sunday Night Football. He is also perhaps the face of NBC Sports Network, anchoring much of its staple programming, including the NHL, Tour De France, college football, college basketball and the Premier League.
Who?! 😂 It’s okay, it made me feel like I was 14 again (which is the age I last saw some of these people)!
Vacation is for day drinking.
Now how can I turn this into a margarita?!
We found some thimbleberries on the path by the house!
And a few blueberries that got missed earlier in the week.
At the top of the world…in Michigan!
We took the kids up Brockway Mountain today. The bonus? Better WiFi!!
Cheers to our AMAZING travel agent!
All we can say right now is HOLY SHIT and CHEERS to our AMAZING travel agent David Platt with Mouse Master Travel—he just found a new military and kids discount for our upcoming cruise that saved us…are you ready?!!
$1412!!
When he told me I couldn’t even breathe. That pays for all our flights…and now we don’t feel guilty about the Deluxe Beverage Package! 😂🍹🍺
Pontoon ride + camera = Captain Owen
My one vacation bucket list item, year 2.
Y’all remember last year when I got to go behind the bar and stick my head under the thimbleberry margarita spout, right?
Well, this year I wasn’t expecting that but I did want more of those delicious thimbleberry margaritas… The kids were at a birthday party so the four of us headed out.
But let’s start at the beginning…
Step 1. Thar she is. Thimbleberry margaritas. 💕
Step 2. Soooooo good.
Professional (me) vs Amateur (Linda) 😂 Round 2 coming shortly.
Step 3. Ask to go behind the bar to get a picture. Get told no because there’s a camera. Say “Well I’ve been back there before…” and get the response “OH THAT WAS YOU? I REMEMBER THAT! COME ON BACK!” 😍🙌
Step 4. Get a third drink because VACATION. They also aren’t that strong.
Step 5. Time to go home. 😭😂 See you next year!!
Look what Tom caught!
Tom went fishing but didn’t catch much. But he did catch this back at the house.
Time to kayak!
Papa and Grannie bought Katie a smaller kayak so she could do it herself…but for now she was still tethered to Grannie. Owen does really well in the bigger kayak!
I’m surprised she’s not more in the sun.
Maggie is relaxed as usual.
Swimming with Papa
A quick trip next door to go swimming off the dock…
Katie didn’t feel like swimming today.
I left them there and went home. Imagine my surprise when I looked out and saw this:
So I ran out to get a better pic, though he was still pretty far out.
