Week in Review: Spring Weather, Pay the Groomers, and Naked Day Laughs

Happy Friday!  This week the weather has been so lovely, with temps getting up to fifties which is play-outside-in-shorts-and-tshirts weather if you're a New Englander.  We've all been playing outside more and going for even longer walks, it's delightful.

There's been lots of pickleball:

Andrew + JP (+ Maggie taking photo)

Golfing after school:

Cousin Tommy + Andrew (+ Eamon taking photo)

Six hour off-season volleyball tournaments for the girl:

Even Lucy Doodle got a bath and a short cut for the spring:

Phil and I attempted to groom Lucy for the first time ever at home.  With high hopes of saving lots of money spent at the groomers, I bought this dog grooming kit that's basically like a Flowbee for dogs.  Unfortunately, Lucy's hair was so long and curly and thick that it took furever (see what I did there?). 

 She was pretty patient with us, even laying down on her side at one point and practically falling asleep, but after 2 hours, Phil grabbed the backup hair clippers we used on the boys (we just bought a new pair of clippers, so these weren't going to touch their heads again).  They worked so much better but also made a huge mess.  After 3 hours we decided she looked pretty, pretty, pretty, good if we closed one eye and backed up, and then vacuumed up the hair that was all over the rug.  

All in all, I think this experience showed us that dog groomers get paid what they deserve!

A few weeks ago, Eamon (who has never run more than a 5k race) talked about running in the New Bedford Half Marathon which is this Sunday.  Phil and I have run that race three times, so I told him how we followed a 12 week training plan, and expressed that he didn't have enough time to train properly.  Having just finished Winter Track Season, he insisted he could do it and I said, well you need to be able to run 10 miles first before you can run 13.1 miles, so he proved himself on Monday:

Show off ;)

Declan's class had to create a new donut and write an essay about it to try to make others want to try it.  It was a big deal in 5th grade and for weeks he talked about it and hoped he would win because there was some sort of treat reward involved (maybe donuts?).  The teacher kept putting off the big decision, and finally on Fat Tuesday she announced that the winners would be decided the next day.  Declan (who is so shy) bravely spoke up and said "But tomorrow Lent starts, and I gave up sweets for Lent".  The sweet teacher said, wellllll how about we announce the winners but we will wait until after Easter to have the rewards.  Our boy won 3rd place and was soooooo excited since "Xander won 3rd place when he was in 5th grade too!".  I'm proud of this hard-working and holy little guy:

Declan is 3rd from left

One day this week, I had my annual dermatology skin check appointment (as did Phil) and a mammogram (sans Phil) or as I liked to call it "Naked Day".  Thankfully, everything was good and I only had to have a wisdom spot frozen off on my back.  Phil was also good, but chose to have a spot on his face removed for cosmetic reasons only.  Truthfully, I was the one who wanted it removed because it looked just like the basal cancer spot he had removed last year, even though the dermatologist said it was just a cyst.  As she was prepping Phil to remove the spot, she said to me "Do you want to come say goodbye?"  I was shocked "What do you mean?  What is happening?" and realizing what she had mistakenly implied, she started laughing and said "To the spot! Say goodbye to the spot!"  Aaaaahhhhh!  We all got a good chuckle out of that one.

When I went to the mammogram later, I told the nice tech that I had already been to the dermatologist that day and at the end of the scan, she said "Ok you're all set, you're all touched out for the day!"  I cheekily replied "Can you tell my husband that?" and she quickly said "I can write you a note!" and we laughed, oh did we laugh.  It's so nice when the medical professionals have a sense of humor, isn't it?

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Happy *almost* St. Patrick's Day!