Summer Chaos--I mean fun!

 Summer is here.  And we aren't messing around.  It's a busy time.

Libby started nannying--and is loving it.  She loves the independence.  The money.  And she loves Jed & Rory.  So it's great for her.  She is missing Andrew (although she saw him several times this week.)  And she's missing doing ceramics.  But our shelves are pretty full.  So I think we could use a little break.  Then she got her wisdom teeth out on Friday.  Today has been the worst day so far.  Lots of swelling and discomfort.  But hopefully she'll feel better soon and then it's done! 

Ben and Sarah started summer swim team this week.  They both really like it.  It's from 7-8 am--so nice and early.  Then this week Ben has been working with one of Derek's former wrestlers, doing yard work.  He's been busy!  He loves the money, the company, and being busy.  Especially because his neighborhood friends have been out of town.  Ben also got a new hair do.  Happened in 3 stages. 

New cut, then bleach, then 4th of July theme! 

The Buzz

The bleach

The 4th of July--courtesy of Libby 

All 3 kids have been going to afternoon wrestling practice.  It's not something we've done before, but one of Derek's assistants wanted to do it.  It's going to be great for them to get in some mat time.  (And I love having the house to myself in the afternoons!) 

Sarah also started water polo on Saturday . Libby is going to play too--but obviously wasn't up for it this week.  Sarah found it hard--but is committed to giving it a try this summer.  Sarah will miss the next two weeks, but then will be back at it.  Another of Sarah's summer goals was to do some voice lessons.  I found her a voice teacher and we'll start on that after Center Circle.  She'll only get in 4 lessons, but she's really excited.  Sarah got to wrestle in some actual competitive matches this weekend--Saturday was the Summer Duals camp.  She won one and lost 2.  But a good day overall considering everything else she'd been up to this week--and that she had already done water polo that day!

I really only had this one week of summer to do any projects, since I'm going to have hip surgery on July 22nd--(right after Center Circle) and we have a short summer this year (going back a week early).   So I decided to forgo painting the entryway bathroom.  (Maybe next year?) But the grout in the entryway really needed patching.  So--I watched some YouTube and got to work.  It looks--fine.  This floor has about 40 years of wax on it.  So the new grout needs to be waxed to sort of match (it has been patched in lots of other spots too--so the color variety here is nuts.)  I hate a job that is "good enough," but yeah.  That's what we have here.  Some of the holes were big and deep, so it took a couple of days to get it to fully dry.  Grout is not a new favorite project. While it was drying I started cleaning out cabinets and drawers.  Did my dressing table, night table, the whole kitchen and the garage storage.  It felt really good.  I got in a book and a half, as well as lots of Law and Order and some Modern Family. 

In progress (seriously--why do I never take before pictures.) 

Now.  I won't call it after since I do need to wax it.  You can some darker spots from other patches.  So basically don't look to close in the entryway. I'm planning to get a cute new rug to distract from all of this.  At some point. 

Last Day of School Pics

Ben's done with 7th grade!  He looks so different, contacts!  Shaggy hair! Man size feet.  But still has that Husky love.  (I rebuzzed his hair yesterday, wish he would have let me do it before school ended.)

Sarah--she's so grown up.  And officially life guard certified as of yesterday!  So she's going to look for a job.  She has had a great year, 4.0 baby! 

I made it through another year of 5th grade.  I loved this class--but I was ready to send them on.  

And Libby--too tired for school. She's been having a rough(er than normal) time sleeping.  But her nanny job starts tomorrow.  So, no more sleeping in! 

 

Last Week of School Shennanigans

The last week of school should be a nice downhill slide.  But--when you teach 5th grade and have to put on a big Moving On ceremony and celebration (including lunch for all 5th graders) it's a lot.  You have to decorate, write a speech, pronounce all the kids' names correctly as you hand over their certificates, etc.  But it's super fun.  I do love event planning.  So of course I did the bulk of it.  (Another teacher did the programs, invite and certificates.  I basically managed the rest with the help of some great parent volunteers.).  Anyway, the stress and physical toll was heightened by another Totally Trish project.  I decided to take on 2 storage closets that were overflowing with old crap. 

I thought I'd use high school volunteers--and Sarah and her friends got it started.  But then I used my students (when 1/2 my class was on a patrol celebration field trip) to finish.  We emptied out enough books to fill a recycling dumpster.  We tossed materials that were from before I graduated high school.  One of my students asked if it was a 5th grade tradition to have them do some clean out.  I said, "if we are purging stuff from 1993, what do you think?"  Haha. 

It was exhausting (and a bunch of the possible "keeper" stuff had to be moved twice because we put it in a spare room that someone decided they wanted to move into.) But oh, so satisfying.  One student said it was his favorite day all year.  Not sure what that says about my teaching.  Haha.  Anyway, we'll be glad for this space to organize things. 

 We had a day off during the last week.  

Ben used it to go hang with Jed & co.

I used it to decorate for Moving On and get a mammogram (clean, yay!) and new glasses prescription.   

Happy Father's Day

We celebrated the June birthdays on Father's Day.  We did drive by visits to Derek's dad, who can't really go father than from chair to bed and back (and sometimes not even that far...).  

Derek is a great dad to our kids, a great partner in life.  (We also celebrated our 21st anniversary on the 21st.). We are lucky to have Derek! 

 

Happy Birthday Ben!

 He's an actual teenager now!  Yikes.  He's still so sweet.  Hopefully he'll stay that way.  

He wanted to invite over his friends that are from the 7th grade basketball team (mostly) and one from the wrestling team, for pizza and hanging out.  He wanted to make them all Team Ben shirts.  And the party was a success!  They had a great time, but didn't eat as much pizza as I planned.  So we ate a lot of leftover Costco Pizza this week.

He asked for a new Rudis hiking backpack.  He loves it.  His photo book came the day after his birthday, but he wanted to wait to open it until his family party, which is today.  Aren't these some great looking boys?  (I wasn't sure about the Team Ben shirts, but as soon as the boys saw them they wanted to put them on.  So cute.  They all wore them to school the next day.) 

I guess he has some admirers? 

Then we went to help Geneva put in her garden...and got a flat.  Ugh.  These are basically brand new tires.  We used our insurance Road Side assistance, because we couldn't get the spare off (actually Ben, Sarah and I went to help Geneva and left Derek with the car.)  They couldn't get the spare off either.  So we got a tow to Les Schwab, where they fixed the tire the next day for free.  Whew. And mission accomplished on getting the garden ready with Grammy.  

Ben got to open his awesome backpack.  Yay! 

Here's Sarah standing near the garden.  But don't let this fool you.  She was NOT into the gardening. She picked up pinecones from the yard.  Ben thought the gardening was fun! (Libby was babysitting and missed all the fun!) 

Concert Week June 2024

 All the final concerts are always around the same week. So we had an SCC concert on June 1st and the SW choir concert on June 5.  We got a bonus concert because Sarah also got a chance to sing a solo with the band in their concert, and then a solo in the choir concert as well. 

It was all awesome!  Scroll to the bottom to see videos of her solos.  She also won the SW Choir Outstanding Musician Award.  (She's not going to sing with the SW choir next year, so it was her last concert.) 

I love watching updo reels on FB.  She let me try one.  I should have given it another try, but I did like it! 

Singing with the band!  Such an interesting and haunting song! It was called Angels in the Architecture.  They used some interesting "instruments." 

Happy Birthday Derek!

I tried really hard to make Derek's birthday fun for him.  Always a challenge.  I was going to have his sibs go in with me for new computer parts, but when I clandestinely tried to figure out what he needs, he said it's not worth fixing.  So then I got him new Hokas.  But apparently he won't wear shoes that aren't blue.  Who knew.  So he got nothing.  But Mariner's tickets for the family (which I gave the kids for Easter--double dipping?  maybe.) And it turns out he hates going to Mariners games.  So, add it to the list of things that have been a big fail for his birthday.  haha.  But I did get him chocolate ice cream for his birthday treat.  So that was okay I guess. 

We ate at Ivar's on the water before the game.  Our kids wanted to pelt seagulls with fries.  Who are these children? 

He actually did have (I think) a pretty good time at the game--except when the manager pulled starting pitcher, the relief pitcher gave up a grand slam, allowing the other team to tie it up.  But in the end the Mariner's prevailed.  And the beer that was spilled on D by the funny guys behind us wasn't too bad.  

We brought Andrew along.  Super fun to have him. 

Also, SPD got a new interim chief.  And Derek has already had words with her.  Ugh.  No surprise. 

Anyway, there's always next year for me to satisfy this guy with a nothing birthday, which is actually a little something birthday.  But next Mariners game I'll go without him.