Baby Eve turned 17 today! Not such a baby anymore, but she’ll always be my baby.
I had lots of celebration ideas, but she vetoed them all this year, so instead we’ve had a really nice low-key day. We had presents and cake in the early afternoon, with Lex joining us via Discord. :)
The usual birthday table. The yellow thing at the bottom is actually a present, not the table. :)
Queen E
I’m curious to see the rest of this costume come together.
Anything that arrives in the mail around an birthday becomes a birthday present. :)
Afternoon cake
Blue Angel Food cake with Cool Whip and dino sprinkles.
Party table
Alan got her a Lego succulent set, so we had fun building that while chatting with Lex. Lex was moved to the phone after R took his computer away. LOL.
:)
E decided she wanted to spend some time in nature, so we took a walk along Mink Brook, a Connecticut River tributary. It was a beautiful day. We brought Huxley along for the outing and we all had a lovely time.
Huxley wants to catch up!
Smiles
Can’t forget the doggo.
Fun in the sun.
Zoom in to see the “Princess” sign on the bench. I decided it must be Eve’s bench.
Practicing for her senior pictures? LOL.
There’s the Connecticut!
There’s the Connecticut!
This spirally thing (bark, perhaps) was so cool. There were several others on the tree as well, but this was the biggest and best.
We had dinner at Molly’s and now we’re home, watching The Simpson’s, E’s favorite show to watch with her daddy. Overall it was a beautiful day for a beautiful girl.
Also, it’s Easter! I totally skipped it this year. We put up a few tiny decorations, bought some jelly beans last week, and that was it. No eggs or baskets or anything. Oh well. Happy Easter to those who celebrate it better than I do. Happy Birthday to those who celebrate today (both E and my bestie Lisa!). Happy Sunday to all. 🐰💖
We’ve got some big things coming up, so I thought I’d do a quick “little things” blog post first. Here are some of the things going on.
Dogs
Last weekend E agreed to dog-sit for a friend/ex-co-worker/teacher who was going out of town for the weekend. The original plan was that E was going to stop by their house a few times a day to walk the dog and feed her, but then we got a HUGE snowstorm prediction and all the weather warnings, so I asked if we could just have the dog at our house for the weekend. It went well, but I won’t be taking any more dogs from now on. Jasmine, already afraid of dogs, spent the weekend hiding, even though Bella was a complete angel to her. Eve tried to bring Jasmine to the laundry room a few times so she could eat and use her liter box, but she peed on Eve. Twice! Not sure if it was fear, age, or just a very full bladder. Either way, not fun. Bella was a nice, chill dog, but also guarded her food and Huxley’s water. She tore apart some his toys and sat on our laps while he stared us from afar. I think neither of the pets were happy, even though our visitor was a very nice doggo.
Snow
We got A LOT of snow last weekend. The reports said 24″ fell in about 12 hours. More snow than we’ve had all winter. It would have been amazing in December. Less amazing in March. I was supposed to work on Saturday, but the boss closed the library. Thankfully!! We all stayed home and watched the snow fall. It was lovely.
The snow was deeper than Huxley’s legs. He couldn’t walk through it. On this walk both dogs peed and pooped in the driveway and then went right back to the door to go in. Shortest successful walk ever!
On Saturday, as the snow came down, our plow truck got stuck on the side of the neighbor’s driveway! He had to have a buddy pull him out with a chain!
Sunday was BEAUTIFUL!
Somehow the driver got stuck again! On Sunday. In a different neighbor’s driveway. LOL. Again had to have his buddy pull him out.
The path to the library. See the benches on the left side of this picture?
Sunday was beautiful. Sunny and clear. My co-worker who was supposed to work on Sunday was 100% snowed in (he lives out in the boondocks!) so I agreed to work instead. It was actually a pretty nice day.
Blood
This is a silly thing to write about, but here we go. Last summer E had bloodwork done that showed she had low iron and B vitamins. The doctor recommended supplements. We bought a bottle of each, she took them for a few months and decided they didn’t work, and the bottles have been sitting there ever since. So a few weeks ago I decided to add them to my daily pills. I used to take B and D (?) vitamins daily, but stopped at some point. Anyway, I decided to sign up to donate blood again, curious if the iron supplements would help. The past two times I’ve tried to donate blood I was turned away because my iron levels were too low. This time… success!! Mostly. I signed up to do the “power red” because successfully did that a few times many (many!) years ago, but my iron was too low for it this time. Apparently you need more iron for that then you do to donate “whole blood.” My levels were good enough for “whole blood” but not “power red.” So I did that. The folks there told me I was a fast donor too. Apparently it only took 4m25s to fill the bag. They said that’s good. *shrug* The technician did an excellent job with the needle! Got the vein first time and didn’t even leave a bruise!
Life
My brain is juggling a thousand balls lately, trying to keep my April plans in order. I’m soooo grateful for the ease of my new job. I’ve started doing more, but not too much, and feeling very appreciated there. Plenty of flexibility to deal with life as well. I’ll post another time about the eclipse! It may be amazing, it may be gridlock for days, it may be a total dud. Time will tell.
I went to the high school talent show last night. It was fun. I sat with a few other mothers, and Eve. Tonight I went to the theater with some other friends. We saw a play called “The Play That Goes Wrong.” It was HYSTERICAL! If you ever have the chance to see it, I’d highly recommend it.
Sometimes Eve dresses up and cooks dinner. 🤷🏻♂️
I sent Lex an “Easter basket.”
He got an email when the package arrived. It made him laugh, so he sent me a screenshot. I consider my mission a success.
Jasmine got a little brave while Bella was here.
I feel like there was something else I wanted to write about, but it’s slipping my mind right now. Maybe I’ll remember another time. Or maybe it doesn’t really matter anyway.
I am now the proud founder of two successful book clubs! Both inspired and supported by cool people around me.
My personal book club met last night. I leave these “meetings” in such high spirits. So much laughter and fun. We now have seven members and I love all of them.
Tonight was the first night of my work-related sci-fi book club. I was worried no one would come and, simultaneously, worried too many people would come! I ended up with five people in the room and one on Zoom. (Many of our programs at the library are hybrid like that.) Everyone was excited and engaged. Everyone has great things to say about the book, and everyone took a book for next month’s meeting. Yay!
I’m feeling pretty good tonight, and wondering why it’s not Friday night. 😄
Local and primary elections were today and Lex coincidentally happened to be home between terms, so I took him to vote! Last night we reviewed the ballots, discussed the candidates, did some research on the additional budget questions, and made a plan to vote. He was pretty into it. Today after work (me) and DND (him), we went over to the high school. He was already registered, so it was quick and easy to get the ballots and fill them out. Weirdly, there was a huge line for the tabulator machines! We waited for a little over a half an hour, chatting about all sorts of things, then it was our turn. I asked the poll worker standing by the machine if I would be allowed to take a picture, she said sure, then congratulated Lex on his first time voting. 😄
I’m proud of this young man and I’m happy that I got to experience grownup milestone with him. 🇺🇲
discussed the definition of “done” with the middle teen (hint: homework is not “done” if you just have a plan to do it on Thursday and haven’t actually DONE it), discussed why failing grades are not ok, and dropped hints about the consequences that will be forthcoming if said grades do not improve soon;
discussed with the oldest what tomorrow’s town ballot will look like, researched several ballot questions, and made a plan to take him to vote;
and delicately broke the news to the youngest that her bestie and her new brother (along with two other people) are at a fun event tonight and that, although she wasn’t invited, it might come up in conversation at their DND game tomorrow.
Calm and chaos looks a little different with teens (more emotional, less rambunctious), but it’s still there!
