A Place at the Table

Look who has joined family dinners for real! Otto's booster arrived today and we wasted no time getting him settled in at the head of the table (reserved for the youngest family member). He is pretty happy to be a part of all the dinner (and craft) time socialization (and nonsense).

Special Pick-up!

There wasn't much mathing to do on this one...My car is still in the shop, Kyle had a busy afternoon at work, I was scheduled for a long run (4 miles) today AND Nora needed to be picked up from school, which is 2 miles away...soooo. I ran the 2 miles to get her with the 2 boys and Cort (so the 3 boys?) and let me tell you, for starters it was warm and secondly, the little hills that aren't very noticeable when driving in the car sure do seem significant when you're pushing little people up them. We made it to Nora's school on time and sweaty then loaded her onto the buggy board and headed for home. I walked pretty much the entire way home because let's face it, the 3 kid set up is heavy and by that time it was even hotter out! Thank heavens we took a slightly shady route and there were some clouds and a bit of a breeze today because that round trip would have done me in otherwise - and Cort, it about did him in, we were both hot and tired by the time we got to the front door! Not looking like the car will get done today so we'll see if tomorrow ends up being a similar set up! At least I got my run in...kind of!

Photo Credit: Katie Majewski
As we were pulling up to "the paper store" AKA Rifle Paper Co. for our customary Katie is visiting visit I noticed that the sprayground at the park across the street was open again and made mention that I should take Lincoln there one of these mornings, while Nora is at school. The universe must have decided that there's no time like the present, because after a picking up a few cards in the store we came back out to a car that wouldn't start! It turned over once and then...nothing! Lights and radio were fine but no engine. So, we called Kyle and needed to kill some time while we waited for him to come to our rescue. (Thank goodness we were only in Winter Park!) Off to the sprayground we went - Lincoln was a little hesitant at first but once he got "all wet" he enjoyed playing in the water until he got cold and tired. We went back to the car and hung out for a bit longer (Lincoln in a dry diaper and a comfy blanket since we didn't have spare clothes) and once Kyle arrived, we all piled into the truck to go pick Nora up. She was pretty surprised to find me sitting in her carseat when Kyle opened the door for her. Anywho, Kyle met up with the tow truck guy on his way home from work (turns out that was earlier than what I thought it was due to a microwave clock mix-up that had me about an hour and a half ahead of schedule all afternoon and evening.) Although Katie was due to leave today, she was kind enough to stick around until we figured out the car stuff a little. Nora was thrilled (to be honest we were all excited to keep her for an extra day!) Now, to wait and see what the poor Asleighdia's prognosis is.

End of the Weekend

It was a gray and drizzly day around here today. Not necessarily a bad thing. There were long naps and some laziness around here - with the exception of Kyle who did a lot of work out in the front yard. Nora declared rest time in Katie's bed at this point. We did head out on a rain walk this afternoon, Kyle had a fantasy football draft this evening and Katie, I and the crew made a late afternoon trek to pick up a new hiking pack so both boys can join Jessica and I on some hikes this fall. We all met back at the house for some dinner in tonight and tomorrow Katie plans to head North to South Carolina on the beginning of her journey back to Ohio. Does it have to be the end of the weekend already??

We've been keeping a close eye on our Texan relatives and are hoping that they come out on the other side of Harvey with as little damage as possible. Things are rough and it's scary and hard to watch from far away, but we're sending lots of love and hoping to help however we can in the days and weeks ahead!

11 Years

11 years! And...that's about how long the battle over cleaning Nora's room has felt. It's actually been about 8 days of NOs and NOT GOING TO DO ITs - including missing a birthday party, not being allowed to play outside, no runs with dad and various other chances to earn screen time, treats, etc and plenty of things lost. After exercising A LOT of patience it may have come down to some forceful placement in the room, raised voices and perhaps even a garbage bag full of favorite items set to go out to the trash...BUUUUT at last, at last, at last, she relented and participated in cleaning her room. It really didn't take all that long and she admitted at the end that she should have done it earlier - and was pretty excited to get to vacuum at the end. We'll see how this lesson holds up next time. Anyway, after her room was FINALLY clean we went out and about with Katie too. A shopping stop that didn't yield much success then some tasty ice cream from a new to us place in Orlando. After dessert we decided dinner was in order. We went to a restaurant we last visited a lot of years ago and despite being different than we remember the food was still good and the kids did ok making it an overall successful dinner out. Not going to lie there were some - "whoa, life" glances exchanged across the table. What a difference 11 years makes! Haha! Romantical day right?!

PS - It's taken quite a few years and some random bursts here and there but 100,000 hits! WHAAAT?? Thanks everyone for following along with us as we journal life on this little page!

Guest Ready Gameroom

Guess who is excited to have clean dishes!!!?? Actually, that's me, but this guy is learning to be happy! The smiles seem to be outweighing the screams (sometimes) these days. The boys were somewhat cooperative this morning while I returned to the game room to somewhat inhabitable condition. Why you ask? Because Katie arrived today!!! We're excited that she added us on to her somewhat impromptu Orlando trip and is going to spend the weekend with us! This evening we didn't do a whole lot other than eat some "Changs" at Nora's request. Turns out the girl has pretty good ideas sometimes, as I was in no mood to cook and Chinese was a pretty tasty selection. Let the weekend begin!!

Steel Anniversary

With our 11th anniversary coming up this weekend and a sale going on at Lowes this week we decided to take the steel anniversary gift to a new level and FINALLY replace our dishwasher. After months (like 18 months...) of having our once new dishwasher on the fritz, with multiple attempts to repair and two rounds of ruined floors along with a few months of relenting and doing dishes by hand tonight was the big night! Kyle picked up the new addition last night and came home from work a little early this evening to install! First steps, pull out the old, take out and replace the ruined section of floor then...move the newbie in and hook it up. That was the tough part. We were reminded how NOT FUN dishwasher installation is, AND why people often opt to pay someone else to do it (probably what we'll do next time). Anyway, after hours and hours and a pretty fierce wrestling match with a copper waterline, we have a dishwasher that we think is functioning! We'll find out in the morning when we check out our first load. Happy anniversary to us!!