Fourth Festivities

Our crowd keeps getting younger . . . I'm used to most of my friends here being in their mid-30's, some are starting to spill over into the 40's, but lately we've been running with the newlywed, 20-something crowd and it is a different experience altogether, lol! So much exuberance :)

We had lots of potential plans for Independence Day. Those got switched up a bit with Graysen's sleepless night and need of breathing machine nearness. He and I watched church at home while the rest of the Crew went in person. We had tentatively planned to attend a pancake breakfast with our NGFs, but decided the preceding no-sleep nights for most of us made a little extra rest a better idea. 

In the end, we decided to join hundreds of our uniquely-dressed neighbors (there are some very strange fashion senses out there--Hollywood meets Duck Dynasty might give you an idea of what I mean) at a first time celebration. Who doesn't want to eat at a questionable food truck or stand in line for an hour to get a scoop of melty ice cream? That's America! :) At the same time, a comedian did his best, a few speeches were made, and a country band did a GREAT job covering all the classics, new and old (new can have classics, too).

The very young guest pastor who preached at our church that morning (I had his wife in high school youth group with our girls at our previous church) was still FULL OF ENERGY even as we waited an hour past due for fireworks. He had our boys so riled up with goofiness and general life enthusiasm that it is amazing they didn't just deflate like balloons when we got to the van.

As the fireworks finally lit the sky, our friends' daughter climbed into a seat with Caelan to watch the show. Her dad, another young pastor who the boys lift weights with twice each week, sat in the "row" (it was an outdoor amphitheater, so not real rows) behind us. When there was a break in the action he said, "That's not it. They're not over!" I tended to agree with him, being an experienced fireworks watcher. But, sure enough, the organizers lit the big screen back up thanking everyone for attending. "What?! No grand finale? I've never seen a fireworks show without a grand finale!" Ha! He was right, it just sort of ended . . . then as we were all sitting in our vehicles waiting for the traffic to move through the natural bottleneck exit, they must have found a few more, because more sparklies lit the sky.

Fireworks always make me think of my dad. Maybe because his birthday was in July. He always encouraged us to, "Oooh! Ahhh!" appreciatively and as loudly as we could on the 4th, just made it a little bit more fun and interactive watching those pretty lights dazzle in the sky.

Demo Day! Reno Day(s)!

Our kids like to renovate spaces. So, I texted the young homeowners, "Are you tearing out carpet tomorrow?" and got the response, "Yup, at 4!" So, I heard myself say to my sons . . . "Grab your masks, gloves, and some knives. Ooh, a crowbar! Good idea!" In any other context, this might have sounded suspicious, ha! And so promptly at 4, fully prepared for demolition (or a robbery :) I showed up with two eager teenaged boys and within minutes they had the carpet removed from the laundry room. Soon after, the closet bathroom (so weird) was also carpetless. Not long after that, the entire basement was down to bare floor. Zoomy! 

What took a little longer was the paneling. In the laundry room, there was a bulge in the dark brown paneling. Mrs. New Homeowner said, "Oooh, what's behind it?" Kind of like 10 minutes after they signed papers and arrived at their new home home she said, "Oooh, Graysen. Get a knife. Let's see if there's hardwood under the kitchen linoleum!" Ha!

Well, as soon as she spotted drywall behind the paneling, we were ripping and tearing that stuff out like gangbusters. The trim--gone! The curtain rods (held in with extremely gigantic nails for such a purpose)--gone! The electric sockets--still in metal housing. Sparks. Zap. Lights out. But only in that room, and no long term damage done :)

Three hours flew by in a flash (that was NOT an electricity-issue pun :)! We loaded the dumpster to capacity, plus. While we were finishing up, the girls were scouting out a housesitting job after they finished up work. They really wanted to come help at the reno house, but at 7 p.m. we called it quits. Mr. New Homeowner looked around and said, "Wow. I thought we were just painting today." Ummm, yes, that was your pre-us plan, ha!

However at 7 a.m.  the following morning, Gabby and G$ were up and out the door to do a couple of hours of painting before Gabby headed in to work. After I picked Brennen up from work, he wanted to go tot he house to help. G$--still there! Calean made up for the time she missed, by going after she got done with work, too. Tile, shiplap, paint, bring it! :)

The immediate plan was still paint, which really the boys and I weren't jazzed about, so I offered to drive Mrs. Homeowner to the home improvement store where she and I picked out power tools and got planks cut for cheap shiplap on this rad giant saw!! 

Back at the house, the boys headed to the basement to work on cleaning out the left behinds of the couple that moved out. They put everything that seemed keepable on some shelving and hauled maybe 60 or 70 bags of trash out to the garage!! Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner are ordering another dumpster soon, but the one that was hauled away that morning had a homeless man in it the night before. I guess he threw stuff all over their yard, looking for goodies. They called the police and the police chased him off, but then the young couple had to clean up what trash treasures the homeless fellow thought he'd found. I should mention that this house is on the more sketchy side of town, and the reason the owners sold it to the young couple at such a good price is because they wanted a gospel presence to stay in the neighborhood. So, we're already praying for the crack house on the corner.

Anywho, so after refueling Mrs. Homeowner with a desperately needed trip to Starbucks, we headed back to the house to find Caelan had arrived after work. She got to work painting the kitchen "conservative gray" while the boys finished up the basement. I headed home to switch laundry, work on school planning, and to tend the chicken birds. At 5 when Gabby was off work, the reno trio wanted to keep going, so Gabby and grabbed the crockpot meal I'd thrown together earlier and hauled dinner to the work crew. 

Gabby did her edge painting thing (artist's steadiness of hand) while Caelan rolled the high places (karate student steadiness of feet?). Brennen helped put the tile down in the laundry room and then moved to the closet bathroom (it's the stick tile, so no spacing or grouting, but a quick, satisfying amount of project completion :)

After 12 hours, I told Graysen, "You have to stop, it's time to go home." He was ready to take down that entire basement popcorn ceiling himself, even if it took all night (perhaps because he was offered $50 to do it :) Unfortunately the day of dust, mold, and basement took a toll on his lungs, as it always does, and he spent the night on the couch with his inhaler. He stayed home from church and I broke out the nebulizer. They forgot to grab the constructions masks that I meant when I said, "Grab some masks"--my pandemic purse-carry face covering didn't really do the trick for 20-year-old + popcorn. He's doing at least three breathing treatments a day. Super glad my Uncle Jim gave this nebulizer to us when the kids were little. God knew their lungs would need its assistance over the decades :)

Today, Mrs. Homeowner came over to sew a gender-reveal blanket for her sister's upcoming baby shower or gender-reveal party or however that works. My Crew followed her back to the reno house to put in some more reno time. Caelan painted, Gabby came home white and dusty like a ghostie (no such thing as ghosties, kids) from helping Graysen (with a real mask) take another run at popcorn scraping. While they were gone, my friend Mrs. Worship Director's Wife came over to visit and she brought me chai (Mrs. Homeowner bought me a chai this week, too! What a great week! :) She and I chatted for so long, that when I texted Mrs. Homeowner for a progress report, she said they were wrapping up for the day! 

I drove over to pick up the boys and learned that Brennen spent his time helping cut and nail the shiplap strips for and to the laundry room walls. They made good progress, but quickly learned covering eight-foot high walls and leveling six-inch-wide boards with matching gaps between was no easy task, especially in a room with six walls to cover. He and Graysen looked EXHAUSTED. Understandable as we've been there a lot this week on top of our usual busy schedule, and we had a late night at delayed fireworks last night due to unforeseen pyrotechnic issues. Tomorrow we hope to finish our coop project! They're going to need a summer vacation from their summer vacation ;)

Anyway, I'm glad God keeps providing a house each year that they can tear into and beautify. Pretty awesome life skills and a fun way to serve families in ministry who are on a tight budget. Plus, who doesn't love a good before and after story? It's like a life transformed by Christ--where it once was worn down and in need of repair, then Jesus steps in and makes it bright, beautiful, and clean again!

Mother's Day Take II

This year for Mother's Day, rather than a wrapped gift, I told the Crew I preferred a fun activity, out-and-about, together. We decided on a historic tour of old mansions. We envisioned it a little different than it was--hard wooden seats in a hot bus with iffy a/c and a very determined 80-something gal who only took us to the homes of people she knew personally. 

We thought maybe we'd get to go in some homes or at least be allowed to speak (nope, against the rules!) Oh my goodness, we laughed so much on this tour. "I know you can't see the house, because of all these giant, old trees, but I've just GOT to tell you a story about it." Us: looking at foliage and sweating for two hours. Lol!!! 

We were practically contortionists, bending and twisting, ducking and peering, trying to catch a glimpse of the structures our guide (when she wasn't giving driving directions through the microphone to our incredibly patient bus driver) described. At one stop, the bus pulled up right in front of the biggest oak tree you've ever seen. It was perfectly framed out the window of a younger couple who got the giggles, the silent giggles. The guy took a picture with his phone of the tree. Idk hashtag:best tour ever . . . hashtag:such a beautiful house . . . hashtag:did I get on the right bus? All you could do was laugh (very quietly ;) 

We actually did learn quite a few interesting facts and we did see some pretty cool mansion exteriors. I didn't realize so many famous people lived in this area in the days of old (many of them unhappily with tragic ends, but you know, they were here). As it turns out, the a/c above the kids worked perfectly well and they were cool and contented throughout the ride. Oh and we all had our picture taken for a magazine; I guess we'll have to keep a lookout for it, if only I could remember the name, ha!

After the tour, we took our Easter gift card from Grandma J to The Olive Garden for dinner. Even though it was before 5 p.m., there was a line and a wait! Super weird! We were all so hungry that when we did get seated and that meal hit the table--no photos were taken--just this waiting in the hallway pic of the kids (Caelan chose to sit by us) beforehand. 

I would say, it was a good Mother's Day celebration, gotta love the laughs!

Summertime Take II

Appropriately, a production, which may or may not include "takes" is part of this blog post! Once upon a time, our girls auditioned for a theatrical production in a musty, old, falling apart theater. But then the theater moved to a freshly renovated location within a former brick warehouse. But then . . . pandemic, so all the productions came to a halt. And then, theater came back! One of the young ladies in our youth group happened to be in the show. Interestingly, she was the cookie-making mouse in the very same church Christmas production in which Brennen starred many years ago (I'll see if I can find a photo)! 

The new theater space is way snazzy! We were super impressed and thinking what a fun place it would be for special events, dances, etc. Oh, so back to the show--it was super well done, and really funny, and all kids under the age of 18! My Crew recognized a bunch of the song and came home singing, "If I were a rich man da-da-da-za-dinga-za." Caelan knew the lead guy character (pictured in the masked photobomb below) from the dances she attended at the Catholic school in recent years. Overall, even though we had to sit in separate rows for social distancing (I ended up sitting with a family I've had in youth group at two churches :), we had a great evening out at the theater--and finished the night with a big old rainbow stretched across the sky :)

Brennen in red, mouse in green apron--I know I have a better one somewhere :) Five years ago!

Other summer stuff--finishing math. Graysen wore out his first laptop, and then inherited Caelan's when she bought one for school. Muriel stepped on it and snapped the hinge shortly thereafter. Now the left side of the screen is blank, so he mostly watches school videos in a minimized window on the right. It works . . . sort of :)

Next up, an increasingly frequent summer visitor! My cutie nephew came to play while his dad enjoyed a night on the town with dinner and dancing. We did our best to run the energy out of M's almost-four-year-old battery--baby chickens, more baby chickens, bubbles, up the hill, down the hill, back up the hill, on the plasma car, around the neighborhood, up the stairs, down the stairs, little man was busy! Eventually he settled into some light reading (Caelan's senior year book) and showed Brennen every picture that Brennen was in :) The next day, while my bro's sweetheart was running a race, the father-son duo came to hang out with us. Most of my Crew was at work, so my bro and G$ and Mr. M went to the bounce park. They jumped, they danced, they burned off some energy. Good times!

Another summer activity, youth group! There was a movie night recently and sludge wars (basically a food fight with the slimiest foods you can imagine) before that. I've noticed Brennen keeps popping up in the background for his own photobombs . . . Graysen might also be adding some comedy to my otherwise lovely photos, ha! (I actually only took the sunset one :)

One of the summer fb silly things, turn yourself into a cartoon character. We didn't actually post ours anywhere, so we'll share them here :) (I only end punctuate with smiley faces in the summer :)

When the dogs don't get fed until waaaay late, they don't mind eating side-by-side. Awww, friendsies!

The chickens decided to try a new trick--see that nest? Clear in the back? BEHIND the nesting boxes, in the far reaches of the dog kennel coop? Ay-yi-yi . . .

And then there's whatever this is . . . (Brennen ;) . . . the summer selfie smolder?? :)

Here's a fun summer activity . . . say fresh sushi three times fast! And then ask yourself, why would a store sell sushi that wasn't fresh, was it necessary to put it on the sign? Does that mean at sometime their raw fish dinners were not fresh? Hmmmm . . . freshushi, fresooshi, fresssoooshie . . .

Summertime

The girls had all this musical equipment in their already squeezy space. We decided to move the collection to the classroom (now the classroom seems to have shrunk!) Can you believe all these black cases? Why not some variety and color? I think there are a dozen in this picture and we just attained another bass and another amp. Good gravy, Marie that's a lot of strings!

Well, it took a few weeks, but we finally got everyone home at the same time to celebrate our delayed last day of school ice cream celebration . . . three weeks late and after 9 PM, but it happened! :) Brennen and Caelan are completely done. The Gs have math (and Graysen has Spanish, shhhhh don't tell him, he doesn't read the blog :)

One afternoon, three of the kids were home, so we went on a shopping excursion (I needed to replace the broken glass in the graduation frame, for one). Caelan wanted to buy hair lightening stuff and a hula hoop to train Muriel to jump through. We decided we didn't have as much time as we first thought, so skipped all the rest of the errands and came home so no one else would be late for work. This summer schedule is a doozie! Oh, but Muri caught on pretty quickly that if she jumped through the hoop, she got a treat. If she walked around the hoop and looked longingly at Caelan, she did not get a treat :)

The summery outfit below is one the many gift card purchases Caelan has gotten to make off her graduation gift receipts! Her first romper (well, probably not the very first because I dressed the girls in these types of things as toddlers--but her first grown-up romper :) Graysen went on this particular shopping excursion with her. Sibling summertime bonding :)

And speaking of summertime bonding, these four loaded their bikes (which are mostly fixed now, except Caelan's needs work) and we drove two cars (we really should get a bike rack) about 20 minutes away to a big old bike trail. The kids've been asking to ride it forever! Brennen rode part of it with a buddy who lives alongside it, but he's the only one who had any experience on the trail. G$ liked the offshoots and came back with mulberry stains on the back of his shirts from some of his "mountain" biking. I sat in the car and caught up on my Bible study and a couple of other books I'm reading. So many at the same time! I can't seem to finish anything. But, when they finished their ride--I was their in the air-conditioned vehicle. We popped into another local ice cream shop (we'd only been there once before, a couple years ago with our NGFs) and then Brennen drove us to drop off eggs to our egg family. I didn't realize the bag I grabbed at random (actually didn't know we even had a bag from this establishment) was from KFC, but found it pretty funny and perhaps ironic packaging in which to deliver eggs.

Another summer project . . . planting some love from Caelan's graduation party . . . I'm not great at getting things to grow (just ask the palm tree in the corner), but hopefully some of the seeds will take!

Do you see the little bunny nibbling near the chickens? Isn't it fun that creatures who aren't in each others' food chain don't mind having dinner together? :)

There's that hat I mentioned in a previous post :) Quite the outfit, right?! ;) Talk about summer style!

While the other three were working, Buck and G$ took Buck's bike for a ride on the acclaimed trail. They went about 5 miles round trip (whereas I think the kids did 8 on their first trek). Actually a few days later, the boys had a campout at their buddy's house and, sleep-deprived, met us on the trail behind his house. My NGF and I walked for two hours and the kids rode bikes and walked and talked, discovered some animals (one very not alive), and did some seemingly dangerous climbing over the edge of an old trestle bridge. It's all good, the worst we got was bug bites. So many bug bites. Oh, but Buck loved his bike, loved being able to ride again like he used to as a mountain kid with a mountain bike, just on less mountainous mountains ;)

I have more summertime pictures, but they are on my phone and it is plugged in upstairs where I should be sleeping. So, I guess you can stay tuned for Summertime, Take II! :) I know, it's crazy exciting :)