The thought snuck into my mind that this might be his last summer living at home for his birthday, but I had to quash that thought real fast! I’ll take every summer I can get with this kiddo. 💕
Friday was a hot one, as was the whole weekend, so after work and school three of us went out for ice cream! (the 4th didn’t want to come) The kids played on the play structure a bit and we all enjoyed the treat.
Saturday, Lex woke up before me so I didn’t have a chance to get the birthday table done first! Eeek! LOL. He said his birthday was just as good even though he didn’t see his birthday table until after he went upstairs to brush his teeth… for a good long time. :) He is so responsible these days that he sets a 9am alarm every day. He said (rightfully so) that the schedule and routine is easier for his sleep cycle. I got that table set up though and he did a wonderful job of acting surprised to humor me. LOL. He’s a good kid.
The kids had DND plans in the afternoon, so we did presents and ate birthday cookies before they left. I packaged up a bunch of birthday cookies for him to share with the group, but apparently other people don’t think oatmeal raisin cookies are the greatest and so he came home with many cookies still left. We have been munching on them all weekend.
Books, Minecraft, and Legos, of course.
Mema knows what’s good!! Lex had two types of oatmeal cookies to enjoy this weekend.
A year later I finally got around to framing his black belt certificate and photo. I wanted a better mat option, but I didn’t want to pay the hefty framing price. I might redo it some other time. We’ll see.
Then the kids went off to play DND. I went off to bicker with the owner of a new car wash that scratched up my car (🤬) and get a mani/pedi (💅🏻). One obviously was much more fun and productive than the other.
It’s weird to photograph toes. I think. I liked that they painted them with my sandals already on though! No smudges at all.
On my fingers I got color changing “cats eye” polish. There is magnetic material in it that forms the “eye” line and the color changes in heat and cold. I asked how it worked and the girl said 🌟 science 🌟
At bedtime my responsible 19yr old reminded me to measure him on the way. I got out the step stool, which resulted in some silliness. In terms of height, Lex has only grown a touch since he was 17, but it feels to me like he keeps growing! Maybe I’m shrinking.
Recreating an old picture Mema posted on FB.
The “behind the scenes.” Don’t ask why they are both on the stool. LOL.
Recreating my fond memories of being taller than my kids.
I’m sure you can guess how this was done. 😁
On Sunday we picked up the birthday squad and headed to an escape room! Alan met us there and together we solved puzzles and rescued Dr. Jones! Go team! We celebrated our success and hunger at a tasty pizza place in town.
The crew!
A cool and tricky code to crack.
Sometimes we take shortcuts. LOL.
Today we are enjoying our bonus weekend day. The kids were going to play DND again, but one of them is sick and a few others are sick of the group (Saturday’s game was rough) so they are taking a break from it instead. Everyone is quite and enjoying some down time on this rainy Memorial Day Monday. Living our best lives for those who gave theirs.
River had his last concert last week. Lex and I went to watch. It occurred to me part way through that this might be my last concert at HHS. I mean, I know I can go to any of them, but it might be the last time I have a kid in the show. It was a weird realization.
It was a good concert though. The photo above is of the jazz band. For full band River sits right in the middle and you can’t see him at all. :) It was fun to have Lex by my side, instead of onstage. He had comments on the performance that I never would have thought of on my own. At the post-concert ice cream social he was a minor celebrity, with lots of band kids happy to have him back. I think River is happy to be done with it for now. One more thing checked off the list on the slow march to graduation!
Eve decided to attend prom this year with a group of friends. She rented a partial tux (vest, shirt, pants, shoes) and added her own flair. We all met for photos by a lovely river, then the kids went to Panera Bread for dinner and the moms went to a much nicer place. 😂
Eve and her friend Liv coincidentally wore the exact same shade of shiny emerald green! It was beautiful and funny that they both chose that color.
The kids had a great time at prom. Afterwards they all went to Simon’s house, built a huge pillow/blanket fort, and watched movies all night. I think a good time was had by all.
Ever since we built the house we’ve been talking about making in a fenced in backyard for the doggo. This summer Eve worked out the plan, mostly, and talked me in to taking action! Last weekend we bought creeping thyme ground cover and ordered some easy-install wire fencing. The plan was to buy fencing local and do the work last weekend, but we couldn’t find any so we had to order online and wait. So far only one box has arrived, so we put that up and planted ten thyme plants, along with some morning glories that Eve started indoors last month.
The goal is to have a 6′ x 30′-ish fenced in area with low-grow ground covering that’s native and doesn’t need to be mowed. I hope it works out!!
Once the other fencing arrives we’ll put that up. I think we are going to do the ground covering in stages and not tear up the whole back yard right away. In theory the creeping thyme will overpower the grass and spread. We’ll see how that goes!
For some reason Friends has been on my mind (probably because social media REALLY wants it to be on my mind for some reason), so here are a few life updates, in episode format.
The One With the College Boy
Lex is home! Have I mentioned that already?! He came home last weekend after completely rocking his freshman year of college. He made friends, he aced his classes, he joined five different bands, he joined (briefly) a karate club, and he has plans to room with six friends next year in a college apartment! When he got home he set up a LinkedIn account and applied for a few summer jobs. He’s waiting to hear back from them. He also cleaned his room and cleared off his desk (which we haven’t see the surface of in years!) so he could have the dual-monitor setup he had in the dorm. One of his friends also set up a Minecraft server, so he’s been in his room most of the time, playing Minecraft online with his friends. I can’t even complain about it, though sometimes we do forget that he’s home. :)
The One With the Flowers
George is in full bloom! It’s funny because the branches are still short and the tree is barely taller than me, but it’s blooming like crazy! The garden in front of the house is full of tulips, with hostas starting to fill in the gaps. I did some weeding and pruning of the little rose bush and it’s looking way less dead now. I hope it thrives! Eve and I also have a plan for the backyard to fence it in, plant native ground cover, and grow some morning glories. We bought everything last weekend, but couldn’t find appropriate fencing locally so now we’re just waiting on the Amazon order to deliver the fence, then the planting will begin.
The One Where They Kidnapped a Cat (Briefly)
There is a beautiful Siamese cat that is free range in our neighborhood. It is very friendly, love pets, and will follow you home and try to come inside. Last summer we thought maybe it was homeless (though it doesn’t look scraggy or unkempt), but after asking around for a bit the general consensus was that it had a home. Most people thought it lived “at the house at the end of Davis, you know, the one with the rabbits.” I don’t actually know, but people seemed certain so that was enough for me.
Last week I saw this LOST CAT sign and immediately realized we hadn’t seen the cat in awhile. A few days later it ran through our yard! I sent Eve out to track it down, which wasn’t hard since it’s such a friendly cat. I took a quick drive down the street to get the phone number off the sign while Lex and Eve captured the cat in the garage.
We texted and called the number, from both my phone and Eve’s. We set up a lawn chair in the garage and took turns sitting with the cat. It loved the cat treats we bought for Jazzy awhile ago that the refuses to eat. The cat is adventurous, but also has no respect for personal space. If it’s on your lap, it’s on your chest and in your face too. I started to worry about what to do if we didn’t hear from the people. Fortunately, after an hour or so, they texted back and said it wasn’t their cat!!! Apparently other people in our neighborhood had also reported seeing this cat and thinking it was theirs. They said “we probably should just take the signs down.” They hadn’t found their cat yet though. :(
So we released the cat. It zipped right out of the garage when we opened the door, but then when I opened the garage door to pull the car back into the garage, the cat ran back in for more cuddles with Eve. Silly cat. Imagine if it went home and was able to tell it’s owners about it’s adventures. LOL.
The One Where They Went Geocaching
This weekend was Mother’s Day weekend. Saturday was beautiful and Alan was in town (before his big trip to Texas and Belize this week!), so I decided to drag everyone outside for a little sunshine and fresh air. Alan and the cooperative kids came along and we explored a local watering hole. I wanted to do a Geocache because we haven’t done one in awhile and because a colleague and I are making one at work. I thought it would be fun to get out there and try it again. I found one at a place I’ve heard of before but never knew where it was. It’s one of those places that always comes up in conversation about swimming holes, so I’m happy to now know where it is. And it’s beautiful!
It was a short little hike, punctuated with views of the falls and some rock climbing, then an fairly easy cache find.
Hello!
Swimming hole
Alan is there too if you expand the photo.
Eve
<3
Lex thought that handwriting looked like Aunt Katie’s writing. We concocted a whole story of Katie’s secret geocaching lifestyle. :)
Then the boys went home while Eve and I went grocery shopping. Can’t change the Saturday routine too much!
That evening we all played Catan. Eve and I teamed up and still got our butts kicked. Alan went home the champion, but we all had a great day.
The One With No Pretty Sky Lights
The other big thing this weekend was a huge solar storm the resulted in Aurora Borealis sightings as far south as Florida! All weekend the skies were full of color for some people, and clouds for others! Alan got some good photos in Montpelier, but we had solid cloud coverage all weekend. Every night I went out to check (and also walk the dog) and every night I got this:
Boring clouds. No colors. I (and probably everyone else) did learn that the lights look better in photos than in real life. Apparently the camera can see the depth of colors better at night, so those amazing photos you see probably didn’t actually look that amazing IRL. I still wanted to see them anyway. I enjoyed the discussions and the memes, even if I didn’t get to see them in person. I also reminded myself that we got a beautiful view of a full solar eclipse this year, so really I can’t expect too much of the New England skies in spring!
The One With Back Pain
My back and sciatic pain has been pretty minimal lately. My gym plans fell apart though, and I haven’t been doing much of any exercise lately. I’ve been thinking about exercising a lot, which really should count for something, but sadly it does not. After having such a nice day on Saturday, I decided to do some light stretching. Thinking maybe I’d ease myself back into a fitness routine. Slow and steady, right. Wrong!! Somehow, by doing light stretching for like 5 minutes, stretches I’ve done plenty of times in the past, I reactivated the back pain!! I’m soo mad! And sad. And in pain. I didn’t feel an immediate pain, but as the evening progressed it started to feel tight. Then by Sunday evening it was so painful and by Monday I was back to that awkward walk, hurts to stand and sit, and I’m miserable. I was hoping it would get better overnight and with ice, but nope. Today I emailed the physical therapist that I saw last year. Maybe he can squeeze me in for a quick appt. Maybe this will be the final straw to motivate me to make changes. Maybe not. We’ll see. First, I have to get rid of the pain again. Sigh. 😭
Life has it’s ups and downs, but overall I can’t complain. Some days you get eclipses and beautiful handmade cards, other days you get clouds and back pain. Overall though, life is good.
