There’s definitely not a lot of lonely time around here, despite the empty house. Last weekend Alan and I went down to WPI to watch Lex’s band performance. Joyce met us there. The game was awful, the sun was HOT, but the band was great! We had fun. Then we took Lex out to dinner at the Olive Garden, where he ate new food! LOL.
The next day Mema and G’Tom came to visit for a few days. We saw an AMAZING musical at Northern Stage, had brunch in a tasty diner, checked out the (very dry) gorge, and have a lovely time together.
A few days later, E came home for the weekend!! She flew into Burlington and Alan picked her up. She wanted a fall-fun weekend, so we’ve been watching Halloween movies, apple picking, pumpkin carving, and baking tasty goods.
Eve’s taking a photography course at school and she brought home a DSLR camera for the weekend. Her assignment is “lighting” so she’s been grabbing the camera for random shots. Of course, I had to take pictures of her taking pictures. I couldn’t resist. :) She’s heading back to school on Tuesday, and the boys are coming home on Friday! Whew! Who knew it would be so busy in my empty nest. LOL.
We moved Lex into his first ever apartment this weekend. He’s living off-campus this year, with two of the guys from his campus apartment last year. They seem like a good group. One of his roommates who lives an hour away was there as well, with his family for a bit, unpacking and moving in. We had a nice chat. The boys have a nice apartment a few blocks from school. Second floor, three bedroom, classic old house with wood paneling, gypsum lath and plaster walls, and high ceilings. Lex has the smallest of the three rooms, but he seems fine with it. We bought him a new dresser, desk, mattress (he has a hand-me-down bedframe from a roommate who upgraded to a bigger bed), and window AC. The tenant before him left a pile of Christmas lights on the floor, so E and I put them up around the window for a little whimsy.
A cute little house…… on a cute little street.Building a dresser. They started it, but Eve finished it and built all the drawers.Building a desk.Photos by MemaGoats and musicCozy room with little sister resting on the bed.Good night.
Alan and Lex went out to buy an AC and some groceries while E and I finished building the furniture and unpacking his bags. We ordered pizza for dinner and finally said goodbye around 10pm.
I almost forgot to take a family photo! Fortunately I remembered, just as we were saying our goodbyes. I was sad to leave my baby, alone at night in that apartment by himself, but he was ready to settle in and start making it a home for the next year or two.
The next day he had his drumline audition. He’ll be playing Bass 2 again this year. He was hoping for snare, but he said bass is fun too and he’s just happy to be back on the field with his band friends. <3
My tiny baby boy entered a new decade last week! Years ago my grandpa made a comment about how we take so many more pictures of babies than of older people. That came back to me just now as I realized I only took two pictures of Lex on his 20th birthday, but probably a hundred on the actual day of his birth!
The pile was small, but high quality..The photos weren’t even good photos. Poor kid. I’ll have to do better on the 21st!
The weekend before, E and her friends went to Senior Prom. They took photos at the Powerhouse, had dinner at Panera, survived torrential rain to get there, then danced their hearts out at the Marriott.
We also attended the FRC wrap party on a recent weekend. E and her teammates designed trophies for the coaches and we 3D printed them. We had fun at the party and everyone enjoyed the awards.
G and E presenting the awards.The gold is their robot design. :)
I’m currently home alone, getting a tiny taste of the upcoming year. Lex and E drove to Worcester together to meet with Lex’s roommates and landlord for next year. They planned the trip, including extra time for whimsey, and seem to be having a great trip. They’ll be home soon. E sent me some photos while Lex and his roomies made plans. I can’t wait for the full update when they get home!
The living roomHis bedroom. Now to figure how to furnish it!
R spent the day sleeping, waking up at 4pm when I woke him!, then headed out to spend the evening with friends. I’ve been alone with the cat and dog for company.
We are skewing towards calm around here, but the chaos still rears up… usually around midnight! And I love it. <3
Last Sunday I took R down to MA to catch his bus back to college. He had a very busy spring break, so it was nice to have some time to catch up with him before he left for school again. We had a good trip down, despite the on again, off again rain.
After dropping him off, I made a spur of the moment decision to zip over to Worcester to watch Lex march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was a total spontaneous trip and I loved it! The weather was perfect, the crowds were varied in all ways, and suitably drunk for noon on a Sunday. LOL. The WPI marching band was early in the parade, but I parked near the end, so I walked along with the band as they finished up the route. There was another band mom there too (probably more than one), and she was following the band the whole way. We joked that we are “with the band” and therefore must be cool. 😂
This is a playlist with five videos. Not the best quality, but fun anyway. Dad — watch until the end! I took a video just for you! :)
I met up with Lex at the end and we got bagels for lunch. He said several band members didn’t make it to the parade, the bus never came, and he had to play two drum parts, but otherwise he had fun. Alan had just brought him back to WPI on Saturday, so it hadn’t been that long, but it was still nice to see him. 💗 I also enjoyed the walk back along the parade route. The energy was high and it was fun to be part of it.
On the drive home, things took a turn for the worse. I was routing to a charging station, cruising along, then suddenly started getting an error message saying “Vehicle may not restart. Service is required.” Umm… ok. I kept on to the charging station. When I got there, I plugged in, the car said “charging” for a second, then “stopped charging.” Threw a few more random error codes. I unplugged/replugged a few times, but no change. So I decided to move to a different plug, but when I tried to put the car in drive, it didn’t work. Just threw a bunch of more errors. So now it won’t charge, won’t drive, and is spewing error messages across the screen. I then spent the next few hours researching error codes, calling Tesla, calling my insurance company, calling Eve, calling Alan, and calling a tow company. Not necessarily in that order. In this time the battery died completely, with the window down, and the wind whipped ahead of an impending storm.
Eventually, about four hours later, the tow truck came and towed the car to the nearest Tesla service station. Alan picked up Eve and they came down to pick me up. Alan thought maybe we could replace the 12V battery and get the car going again, so we went to the service station. He and Eve braved the winds to do some diagnostics, then we went to WalMart (the only place open at that hour) to buy a battery and some tools. Back at the dealership we got the old battery out, the new battery in, and the car started. Yay! Lights on, screen on, windows up… but still no drive. Each time we tried to put it in drive, we got all the same slew of error messages. So we gave up and Alan brought us home, after a quick stop to recharge our bellies and his car. We drove home in heavy wind and think fog. It was a late night for us, especially him!
The Tesla service center was able to diagnosis it today. I was hoping it was a big battery issue, because I have another year left on that warranty. But, alas, it was not. It’s a “PTC heater failure.” Apparently that’s an important thing and part of the “high voltage” circuit thing and no longer under warranty. 😭
Tomorrow, E and I are taking the day off from work/school and going back to MA to pick up the car. Maybe we’ll swing by and see Lex again. LOL.
This year Lex and River are both going to be at college for election day, so we all voted by mail together. (This was a few weeks ago, I just forgot to post it then.) It was nice to be able discuss the ballot together, talk about the candidates, and let the boys hear my thought process. Alan was there too, so they got some of his insight as well. Of course we all made our own decisions and completed our own ballots.
My first time voting was at the campus center at Syracuse University. I went into the booth and pulled a big lever to vote for Bill Clinton. That was probably a more memorable experience that Lex and River got, but I think this election is more critical! I’m glad they both got the chance to vote. It’s their first presidential election, but, let’s hope, not their last!
We met Rosy at WPI this weekend to take in a pep band concert (with a little football on the side)! It was a great fall day for a day trip. The sun was shining, the leaves were falling, and the WPI Engineers won! We took Lex out to dinner afterwards (Olive Garden, of course), then had to say goodbye again. :( Good thing we’ll see him again in a few weeks for Thanksgiving!
This is a playlist, so just click play and let it run through all six videos.
We brought Lex back to WPI today. The summer went by waaayyy too fast! He went back a week early again this year for band camp. This year he’s living in a campus apartment with six other guys. He’s in a friend group that decided to get two adjoining (or at least near by) campus apartments. He’s sharing a room with the same roommate he had last year. They both got along well. They are also both in band so they will be the only two in the apartment this week.
The apartment is nice, but the bedrooms are TINY. I was reminiscing about my freshman dorm and it was probably twice the size of his room!
His dorm last year was that building in the background. His room was the window in the peak. :)
In this picture you can see his current window (and him in it) and last year’s window. :)
The path from the car to his room felt like a Donkey King game. Glad no one was throwing barrels at us!
The living room. (we were all pretty hot and sweaty by this point!)
The other side of the living room. That TV looked a lot bigger in last year’s room.
The kitchen / dining room.
His bedroom.
They have bunk beds! They aren’t allowed to unloft them, which is fine because there’s no available floor space anyway. I think this will be hard for Lex this year.
Looking out the front door of their apartment.
Campus is just across the street.
Once again he had drumline auditions so we couldn’t spend the day with him. We did have time to get him moved in and somewhat unpacked before he had to go. Plus a few photos, of course!
I texted him tonight and he said the audition went well. He’ll be playing Bass 2 in pep band this year. He again was hoping for snare, but seems happy with bass. I’m looking forward to seeing him perform, and just seeing him again! :)
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.
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. 🇺🇲
I took Eve and Simon on a road trip yesterday down to WPI to watch a women’s basketball game. More accurately, E & S agreed to come with me to WPI to watch a pep band concert with a side of basketball. LOL. We have lots of fun. We took Lex out to lunch before the game, then took a little campus tour with him afterwards. The game was great, both teams played hard and kept the score very close throughout the whole game. WPI ended up losing in the last few seconds. The band played loud and often. I loved it!
Lunch at the OG (or course!)
Krazy Kids
Hanging with Gompei
The goat
<3
The church bells rang at 4pm and Lex pointed out that the “bells” are really just giant speakers in the bell tower. LOL.
Here’s a playlist with seven videos. Check your sound volume, click the play button, and settle in for the show!
