Live from Tormville!

weekend rundown

So Friday night we had volleyball
And Saturday I woke up and started the day with an hour long walk.  

My husband set his alarm and got an early start on changing out the side door (the last time he changed this door, it took three days as one project led to the next led to the next and you know how it goes) 

I brought Brian to soccer while Greg worked on the door. Brian surprised me by volunteering to be goalie. 

Back at home, I puttered about and took care of a few of my own projects and then responded to the 'there's a 68% chance we'll fly tonight, can you crew?" text with - "I'll be there" 

The winds took awhile to die down - so we watched Jerry test 'em out first....

...then Denny headed up. It was windy - the landing was a little rough. He was glad that Laura and I managed to keep up and find them in time to help pull them out of the bramble. 

The balloon packed away and the vehicle retrieved - I headed home, Uncle George was over. He changed the strings on Wendy's guitar - she had popped one during her first guitar lesson last week 

I snapped a picture of the new door. The trim will go up this week, and then I'll paint the wall. No idea what color yet.

I forgot to photograph the outside of the door. It's FUN. 

Sunday afternoon, after Sunday School, church and dinner, my husband took four kids to the lake to go fishing.  He asked if I wanted to come too. I passed - took the moment to catch my breath. 

Brian came back miffed/crushed - seems everyone caught fish but him. He was discouraged and ready to huck his fishing stuff into the trash. Instead, I hauled him across the street and made him talk with our trophy winning bass fisherman neighbor. It worked. He won't be throwing out his tackle box this week. 

We then packed some burgers and Sweet Baby Rays and headed over to a friend's house for barbeque where I played camera tag with their second grader. 

I won. 

Now for another week of busy busy. 

But first - bonus: George testing out Wendy's new strings combined with me trying out my new video option: 

and that's that

Wendy's last volleyball games were last night - they did well and had fun. The next few practices will be for scrimmages against the other teams from the same rec, and a pizza party, or so I've heard. She just hopes it's not on Thursday because that's her spring choir concert. 

Today is Brian's first soccer game. 

Have a great day. 
be good 

accidental revenge

This morning, typical for us, was a bustle bustle rush rush, get out the door type of scene. To fully appreciate and understand this next part, I have to remind you that I was not home last evening and that my boys were long in bed by the time I did return home. 

That being said...

We bustled our way out the door, zipping backpacks and switching shoes to the right feet and I finally took a moment to breath when we arrived at the entrance of the kindergarten hallway. It was there, a minute before the bell rang, that the neighbor asked, "Mark, what happened to your forehead?" 

???? 

I glanced Mark's way and was all, My Lands Boy! What happened to your head???  

It was the first I saw the sizable scrape. Sizable enough that he got asked about it all day long. 

In the minute before the bell rang I figured out that it had something to do with the rope swing and his brother. I nodded. I've become good at filling in the blanks. Made sense to me. 

Home from school now, I took the time to break down the story a little more clearly. 

It seems that the boys (Brian and Mark) were mutually rough housing and it went a little wrong with Mark getting whacked a bit hard in the forehead with the rope swing resulting in a noteworthy rope burn.

Brian went on to explain that it was an accident, but that Mark had sat on his head earlier - so, HAHA, he got his revenge. 

I lectured that we don't believe in that type of thinking, and that he shouldn't be out to exact revenge on his brother. But! Brian reminded me, It was an accident - so, ha ha, it was an accidental revenge! 

I was supposed to be in Ohio about now. 

 

A day of camera carrying

Yesterday I was gone from 8:30 am to 11 pm, only home for 45 minutes around suppertime - 20 minutes of which I tried to take a quick nap, equalling supper wasn't much and I forgot to eat altogether. 

The day started with the second grade walking tour field trip. We walked from the school to town, and proceeded to walk from building to building for the next five hours. 

At each tour, the kids opened their passports and got a stamp saying that they'd been there. 

The courthouse was the biggest letdown ever. I've been on this tour before, and my big kids had been telling Brian all week - oooh, just wait until you see inside the courthouse! It's SOOO cool!  And it is. Only they've eliminated it from the tour and nobody seems to know why. It's been condensed to a brisk waste of a walk in one door and out the other. I would have been more impressed with a walk of the exterior and a mention of the architecture and clock at that point. 

Does anyone know why it's been taken away?  None of the tour guides or teachers can get an answer as to why. 

From there we went to Peanut Row and learned some more history. The kids were sweltering by this time, so I'm not sure how much they took in - but they loved the peanuts that came at the end. 

With the courthouse no longer in the running, the Opera House is the favorite part of the tour by the landslide. (If you don't count Dairy Queen) 

Random fact: Melissa Gilbert stopped by and visited this very Opera House just last week. Having grown up on Little House on the Prairie, that would have been a kick to be walking downtown and have seen her, but alas - my timing is off as usual. 

Brian was a little creeped out though by the feeling of ghosts in the place. 

Field trip done, I ran home real quick - hopped in the van and scooted my sunburnt self over to my sister-in-laws for a quick visit and cup of coffee with my sister who is up from Raleigh for a couple days. 

I then ran home for my 45 power minutes - then took off with Wendy to volleyball....and to ballooning which was conveniently right next to volleyball. 

Last night Denny did an inspection of Jerry's balloon. By law the balloons have to be inspected once a year. 

Denny tried to (tease) tell them that there might be some problems, but he needs to work on his poker face. 

Rita was in town! 

There goes Wendy's ELA teacher - her first flight. 

And there goes Denny and Rita. 

I slept well last night. 

As for today - 

work
volleyball
catch up.

Happy Friday!  

Taking time to smell the lilacs

I've been so happy with my lilacs this year. We have four lilac bushes and each one is the fullest as I've ever seen them with every bud in bloom. If you look through my photo catalog, you'll see I've taken pictures of them every day this past week. 

And now it's Thursday. Today was the day I was going to head out of dodge.  Ah well. You'd think that being home now would have me with a free day, but not so. Today is packed full. 

• Field trip with the second grader (he's been counting days for two weeks) 
• a visit/late lunch with my sister at my sister-in-laws
• volleyball
• ballooning
• and anything else I can squeeze in between the cracks - lots of end of school year stuff/graduation/etc that needs to be done. 

Hope your Thursday is awesome! 

be good.

random

• So much going on right now
• I've had two days off work and haven't made real good use of my time. Although today has been a wonderful line drying day - six loads and counting. 
• Yesterday we were on our way home and just happened to see a pedal biker spin out and go skidding across the pavement, just missing a car. My first thought was, oh my goodness - is that Allan?? My second thought was - after realizing it wasn't him - was, I have to pull over and see if he needs help. 
  Wendy piped up, nervously - He's smoking and he has tattoos!
  The 8 year old, with much wisdom, quickly responded: Dad smokes [the occasional cigar] and has a tattoo.
  The biker was fine. 
• I ordered three months worth of pictures for my Project Life album yesterday. Stay tuned 
• For those who have been asking about the church directory - it's been out of my hands since before Easter...I've heard rumors that it should be done soon.  update: they'll be at church on Sunday
• Wendy starts guitar lessons this week
• She also has her last volleyball game this week. 
• Between three kids we are signed up for 5 camps in June. 
• Balloonfest is in June. 
• Not sure how much I'll be able to play along this year since it coincides with St. Ignace, but I'll be playing along some. 
• caps and gowns come home this week
• I'm not ready

be good!  

yesterday was brutal, but there was ballooning

I won't sugarcoat it. 
I had a rough day yesterday. Unusual for me, and pretty much previously unheard of for a Monday.

It started normal enough. I tend to hit the ground running on Mondays. On this Monday I had plans to take care of the back end of my week. I was revved up to arrange the week, make lists, catch up on laundry - I was charged.

And then Greg emailed and said - uh - that Friday you wanted me to take off? It looks like they want me in Kentucky. sigh.  It's been like this for 20 years. I'm not sure why I thought this time would be different. (it was hope)

I canceled my plans and spent the day holding back tears. I'm emotionally due for a break, and not going this weekend means there won't be another chance available until August at the earliest. We're booked solid until then. 

The day progressed, nothing got done. At 4:15 I headed out with the teenager back to Novi for yet another (boring, draggy, tedious, brain-wracking) college visit. He took a test, I discussed money with the financial aid department, we agreed that we can take another day to decide on some key points (starting in July or September, the loan process, etc) and this meeting ended up being only an hour compared to last week's three hour. 

On our way home and discussing options - the kid says, "I might actually like to go to school for psychology"  They don't offer that at the Art Institute. I about wrung his neck. 

I happened to glance at the clock and realized that I'd be back on home turf in time for ballooning - something I'd said earlier in the day I wouldn't be able to help with. Dropped off the undecided senior and headed back out. 

Caught the launch just in time - 

highlight of my day. 

And worthy of a laugh:  We went out to eat afterwards (I hadn't yet eaten dinner) and sitting next to me, part of Jerry's balloon crew, was the teacher who went dumpster diving for Wendy's retainer on the sewage plant field trip last week. What are the chances?  

I probably didn't share here about Wendy's field trip to the sewage plant, did I. I should video tape her telling about it. It's a scream. She puked. 

-----

Back at home after dinner, Greg informed me that he got a late evening email telling him that someone from the Louisville office would handle the Kentucky trip, so he's off the hook for the weekend. But it's too late.

I'm planning a getaway for 2019. I figure that's a safer bet. 

My Finnish-blooded balloon buddy would tell me to take a sauna and chillax. 

Here's to a better Tuesday. 

two boys, two portraits of me

Hard to believe that they both have the same mom, but I promise - they do. 

Happy Monday! 

May Studio AE Blog Hop from Technique Tuesday

Hey there!

Happy Friday! And here we are at the tenth again!  This month we played with the May Studio AE - Heartfelt by Ali Edwards.  I made a layout earlier this month and now I wanted to try out a few fun cards. 

Be sure to check out the rest of the hop for inspiration and chances to win! 

Ali

Tobi <--- This month's special guest

Daniela

Nichol

Laura

Teri

Sharyn <------ that's me

 

Prize:

We'll randomly pick one lucky commenter to receive a $25 gift certificate from Technique Tuesday.com. the winner will be announced on the Technique Tuesday blog sometime on the 15th. 

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Happy Thursday!

I almost titled this Happy Wednesday, and then I banged my head upon my desk and lamented another week whisking by too quickly. 

But hey, look at the pretty blooming tree that has my whole house coughing and sneezing.