Just kidding—but to be able to park in the garage by the time it starts snowing was one of my few requests when we bought this house. And Tom came through today.
Over the last 20 years the only times my car (either car, frankly) was garaged was when a hurricane was coming through and we moved enough crap to get one car protected…or for a 2-minute photo opportunity when the garage was briefly empty.
I wish I would have been recording the kids when they saw it because it was hilarious—both of their eyes got really wide in disbelief. Because they’ve literally never experienced it.
So we did a few minor updates to the half bath—mostly courtesy of Amazon Vine—new mirror, lights, and shelves plus we bought a toilet paper holder and towel rack (pipes to match the shelves). I absolutely love it.
We weren’t sure what trick or treating was going to look like because we knew a lot of people wouldn’t be participating but we told the kids we’d walk around the neighborhood to check it out.
Our treat table.
There were a lot of creative solutions to managing candy delivery. Most were just on tables in some way, but we saw a bunch of chutes, some spread in the grass, and one on a truck bed (below).
I think Halloween may be forever changed after Covid Style 2020 Halloween. The general consensus among moms I talked to was that we kinda liked it more than usual Halloween! I loved not ringing doorbells or wondering who was/wasn’t participating (the city had delivered red and green signs for people to put up to show if they were participating or not and a lot of people used them so that was nice) but most people were outside watching anyway. There were no huge groups of kids. All kids we saw were being really respectful and gingerly taking a piece of candy or a bag or whatever. And we loved how creative a lot of the houses were!
The weather was also gorgeous! We started with our winter coats but they got unzipped pretty quick.
We were out for about an hour and then as we were almost home we saw some neighbors around a fire pit in their driveway so we headed over to say hi—they are the guys Tom has played poker with but we haven’t really met the wives so we thought it was a good time to hang out. So we had a few drinks and visited while we sent the kids on without us to hit more of the neighborhood. (It’s so wonderful they can be out on their own! They came back and checked in with us a few times but pretty much were on their own for two hours!)
Then we left there to go to a nighttime outdoor candy hunt at our friend’s house—which had been planned in case trick or treating was a big fail. We literally just threw candy in the back yard and let them hunt with headlamps and flashlights while we had mulled cider and s’mores and visited around the fire.
So one night a few days ago the doorbell rang and we didn’t think much of it since Amazon always rings the bell and we get lots of deliveries. But the kids usually run out to see. Today Katie did and said she saw a kid running away—but he left a bag of Halloween goodies with a note that we had to pass it on! We looked at our camera feed and saw the kid but we have no idea who it is! Well the kids were super excited for TREATS! CANDY! SLIME! and definitely wanted to Boo other people.
Thankfully Tom stepped up and did it with them because while I did want to be a part of the neighborhood, I didn’t really want to do all of it. He took them shopping. He supervised the building of the baskets. My contribution was printing out the instruction. Then Tom took them to the houses where they successfully delivered the baskets without being seen!
One of the kids cut this tumeric this morning. Both flat out deny it. I know it’s not a big deal but OMG I am furious that they can’t just admit it.
I didn’t even get mad. I told them they weren’t in trouble. I wanted whoever it was too help me decide how and when to use it. They both still denied it.
I told both of them that I didn’t care that it was cut but that because we had discussed the staining issue last night (when they first saw it and asked what it was, I told them how badly it could stain everything) I wished they would’ve washed the knife. They both still deny it.
Fast forward to that evening.
We talked to them both. We said no one was getting in trouble, we weren’t mad, we just want them to tell the truth. Both still deny it.
So then we told them they needed to talk to each other and then tell us together who did it. After about five minutes they both said they didn’t do it. GRRR.
The thing is that it’s ALL THE TIME about stupid and annoying stuff, nothing that’s a huge deal. Things that happen all the time?
The running joke for countless years has been that Tom was only in this marriage for my dad’s tools. Well, the time has finally come…my dad agreed to give up some of his tools that he just doesn’t use anymore.
So Tom and David drove up to the U.P. with a trailer (and David’s truck) to haul everything back. David had never been up there before so of course Tom had to take him up Brockway Mountain.
They were only there for about an hour and a half siteseeing and loading and then it was back home in the same day! They left at 5a and got home shortly after 10p!
First games of the season were so hot you couldn’t stand it. Today? We’re in winter coats, gloves, and blankets!
They won 13-3 in six innings!
Owen getting his trophy!
We didn’t get any great team pics this season due to social distancing and temperature.
It was the last game together for these boys. Aden is transferring to a different city team and Jackson is moving to travel ball. Jackson’s dad is the head coach which means he’s moving to be with his son…so that means Tom has decided to be the head coach next season!!
He was kinda worried about having surgery but he handled it like a champ. Tom went with him and said he had all the ladies laughing afterward. We had gotten him excited about counting down from 10 once they started the sleepy drugs…but he didn’t even get to 10. He said they told him they were putting it in and then he was waking up!
I took this picture so on an upcoming day when she’s being a little brat, I can point out to Tom that there was a point at which she was being cute and sweet.
We did have Anna take a family photo later on the walk to prove we actually got out of the house.
Going off trail to explore the lake. They were so excited you’d think they’d never seen water before.
Tom was home for the long weekend so I told him he got ALL tech questions and school issues today. He kind of said WHATEVS and planted himself on the couch playing video games.
School starts at 9.
8:55—Owen discovers he has no power on his entire workstation. No lights, no Chromebook charging, nothing. Katie (across the room) is fine. Whaaaaat?! Tom looked at me like AYFKM? I just smiled, chuckled, and said welcome to my Life.
While he was troubleshooting, I was getting Owen set up on my laptop (I kinda wanted to make Tom do that as well so he could truly experience what my days are like, but I didn’t want to be that cruel). Then, because he was messing around with the breaker box, he cut power to Katie’s station (and Chromebook!) so the WiFi went out and she was dropped from her class. And of course could not reconnect. SO PANIC AND DRAMA ENSUED.
Time? 9:03am
Me: Yep. That’s about right. Hubby: ——
Turns out one half of the wall outlet Owen was plugged into just up and died. Completely random. You can’t make this shit up.
Then there was drama with Katie’s headphones (every damn day) and Owen was caught watching YouTube. 臘♀️
Needless to say Tom has newfound respect for me and promises not to complain about my daily texts I send him when he’s not here.
So we’ve been letting the kids go to both parks—the one across the street and the one on the other end of the neighborhood. I originally thought Katie was a little young to go by herself so I made her go with Owen a few times but eventually they want to do different stuff plus she wasn’t afraid to go by herself so I let her go alone. She has to take her watch and be home at a certain time. She might meet a friend there or just go to see who is there. No big deal.
Well today Owen was also at the park (her went before her) but he texted me from his friend’s phone to ask if it was okay to go to the friend’s house. Yep, thanks for texting and asking.
Fast forward to Tom coming home early to surprise me…and then noon when Katie was supposed to be home. And she wasn’t home. Hmmm. Okay. We’ll give her a few extra minutes.
And then…I got a text from a mom friend asking if Katie could come to the park to play. Um, what? She’s there. Or rather she most definitely SHOULD be there. They looked around and said she wasn’t.
CUE INSTANT PANIC.
Tom took off toward the park while I finished talking to the mom. I was about ready to get in the car to also head to the park when it hit me—she was probably with Owen at his friend’s house. Which would have been fine…except no one told me and she was supposed to be home at noon.
I texted the friend and Owen called me back immediately. Yes, she was there. Phew. So I told them they were both to leave immediately and meet us at the park. “But Mom you said I could stay here!” Change of plans, buddy.
Needless to say she got in big trouble. She got a stern talking to in the parking lot from both of us, she got her bike thrown in the car, plus she also had to see her friends at the park that she couldn’t play with because she didn’t follow the rules. Owen also got into some trouble because (long story short) he didn’t put his foot down and tell her no she couldn’t be there. (She actually bullies him into things by threatening to tattle on him for stuff he didn’t even do but he’s afraid of getting in trouble so he lets her get away with murder.) He did not want her there but since he let her, he was also kind of responsible for her and to let us know what was going on. (We also told him he could have called us when she wouldn’t listen and let us deal with it.)
It’s tough because they have both gone over before to swim in their pool and Katie ended up playing with one of the older daughters (like age 12) so she thinks she can just go over and play with them any time. She doesn’t really understand that they really only played with her that day because they were over on a play date with the brother and the boys went off and did their own thing and they were nice and hung out with her—and that a 12yo doesn’t really want to hang out with an 8yo.
So they both got a huge lecture about us needing to know where they are and if they can’t handle the responsibility they will no longer be able to go on their own. And Owen is the big brother so he needs to watch out for his sister.
Tom had to run somewhere before we could discuss her punishment so Katie got sent to her room—no music, no Alexa, no talking to Owen—until further notice. After a mere 15 minutes or so, she announces on Alexa that she doesn’t want to stay in her room. Hahahahahahahaha! She’s never really been punished before so she doesn’t get that I don’t really care and it’s not supposed to be fun. Then I didn’t hear this but it came across as a notification…
Tom and I eventually decided that she was locked down at home for two days, then for the next few days she could only go to the close park if Owen wanted to (because she had to stay with him), and then she could start going by herself but had to come home and check in at random times (like in 20 minutes or 10 minutes).
Owen’s punishment was having to take Katie with him. Haha.
We have been leaving the kids for short amounts of time to go run errands. Tonight we decided to run to Aldi.
Owen generally texts us at some point just to check in and let us know they’re okay. This was today’s conversation.
I about died when I read his WTH comment. I mean yeah, technically swearing, but it fit perfectly. I actually couldn’t stop laughing as we were walking through Aldi.
We knew storms were coming (I even moved patio furniture) but then we heard the sirens! Everyone down to the basement—cats and all! Owen actually did really well for being the one who gets super freaked out about storms. I worked on getting the pantry organized and opened a bag of M&Ms as a treat for everyone. Tom was working on the bathroom toilet as we learned it’s in need of fixing. It only lasted about an hour, nothing bad happened, and then it was back to normal!
The margarita motherlode! It’s not my favorite flavor but it will do!
And then it was the start of an unexpected round robin to buy some new bedroom furniture…
The movers ruined some of our bedroom dressers so we knew we’d have to replace them eventually. (We also realized they were like almost 20 years old—and they’ve been moved a bunch of times—so it was time. We’d also been looking at new headboards.)
So we were at Costco and saw a set we both liked (!!) and one piece was on sale…but we weren’t ready. Well…the more we thought about it, the more we decided it was a good idea since it was a good price and if you see something at Costco you need to grab it otherwise you’ll never see it again.
I wanted to do some due diligence though so we went to a local furniture store just to see what they had…and it was slim pickings. So we went to our local Costco to see what they had (we had been at the Wisconsin Costco earlier). Well, they were almost out of everything (!!) but they had two pieces of floor samples that they sold us at a discount (!!) but that meant the rest of our day was trying to get that stuff home AND going back to Wisconsin to grab the other pieces while they were still in stock! And borrowing a friend’s truck to do it. Gah! That was NOT what was on our schedule for the day!!!
We managed to get everything but the king headboard (we ran out of time before they closed)…and shoved everything in our already-full garage!
So one of the neighbor guys (completely unrelated to any of the women I met) came over and invited Tom to a beer night!
While he was gone he texted me this:
And then didn’t answer…for like five minutes! So I was all freaking out. Then he finally continued…
It turns out all the guys (couples) had been friends of the past owners!
That was all I heard from him until he walked in around 11:30. He didn’t say much—which made me a little crazy because I wanted to know all about them. I found out in the morning that he was a little more drunk than he thought so he just went straight to bed. Haha.
It was supposed to be a quick and easy project: repaint the front door. Tom had a new paint sprayer and it should have taken 30 minutes. Should have being the key phrase.
Tom started to paint the door and got clumps and spatter and he had no idea what was wrong and it was drying and it was a disaster. He tried to fix it with what he had handy (all our paint stuff was obviously packed away) and I was trying to be helpful by googling the brand of paint and the brand of sprayer and hints but it was just not a good time.
Longer story short, turns out the sprayer hadn’t been fully cleaned after the last job. Doh! Lesson learned. So once that was fixed—and once the door was scrubbed with hot soapy water and then sanded—the door was painted in about two minutes.
Thankfully we had enough paint left to do the door…plus my cement Michigan!
BUT THEN! We had also wanted to put new hardware on and that was an epic disaster. It took FIVE attempts (from least to most expensive!) over a week to get working hardware:
Amazon refurb—was missing pieces.
Amazon new (same as refurb)—broke during install!
Home Depot—after much debate we settled in one and Tom got it fully installed…and then realized the keys were missing (it had obviously been returned).
Home Depot—deadbolt too big (who knew there were two sizes?)
He had to switch out our Nest and so he had been smart and took a picture of the wire setup…but for whatever reason his phone screwed up and he didn’t actually get the picture… So he was watching YouTube and winging it and it wasn’t working and the next thing he tells me is that something blew up (?!) or was burned or something in the basement.
WHAAAA—?!?!
I guess it could have been completely random but the timing was too perfect. So we had to call someone to come check it. So the poor cleaning lady had no AC for most of the time so it was probably 85° in the house (though it could have been much worse considering how hot it was). Thankfully the guy could come in two hours and it was just a $70 blown transformer and a $70 service call.
So Tom has been working from home since March. He’s thought he had to go back a few times but they always cancelled it. So it’s been awesome having him here as we prepped for buying the house and moving. The packers are scheduled to be here tomorrow…so just freaking GUESS when he has to go back to work? 😒
A simple thing like unhooking the refrigerator turns to shit because the water valve doesn’t turn off to the fridge so we had a mad dash to find buckets and we had to turn off the water to the house and it still leaks. Only then did Tom remember from three years ago that there’s ANOTHER valve in the basement. What next?!
When you wake up at 5am with an idea to hopefully make Katie’s pool noodle birthday candles a bit better (adding the letters) …and you’re hoping the rain stops so the whole thing doesn’t get ruined (because you were cheap and used the cardboard school folders instead of going to Target or Walmart to find the plastic ones) …but who expected it to storm this week (it’s never rained once on her birthday) …so you were taping candle flames to the sticks in the rain in your PJs (hoping the neighbors weren’t watching because the PJs were too short for public). Oh, and Tom put the letters facing the house instead of facing the street, so that required a last-minute complete rearrangement (because the letters were already pinned on—because we already moved the glue gun/craft bin to the new house). Phew.
But she LOVED it so that’s all that matters, right?
