Happy Friday my friends!
Last Friday, Phil, my parents and I went out to dinner at the restaurant next to our shop to celebrate the closing of the Cottage, and it was delicious!
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| My mom will happily give up carbs at dinner to leave room for dessert :) |
The next day was spent deep cleaning, with little helpers:
In this off season, we will be replacing the roof and floors and are currently getting quotes. We called it the Ice Cream COTTAGE because it is a tiny space, but the prices we are getting for roofs and floors feel like they're for a mansion.
I took a half day from work last Friday, just because I wanted a little break, and decided to try and take my half day off in the morning, instead of after lunch. I dropped the kids at school, walked on the treadmill at the gym and took a delightfully hard cardio and weight class, came home and walked the dog a mile. I had almost hit my daily move goal by 10:30am! It was my perfect way to spend the morning, and then I showered and ate and went into work for 4 hours. I think I prefer taking half days like this because when I used to work in the morning and leave at lunch time, I would go to the gym, then drive home, shower, eat and the kids would be getting home from school already. It didn't really feel like time off. Having hours to myself in the morning felt luxurious! I can't wait to be a stay-at-home grandma one day.
Saturday morning brought Declan's first soccer game:
and then a birthday party at Top Golf:
On Sunday, my parents were at their Third Order retreat and my mom wasn't feeling well, so they went outside to get some fresh air and my mom passed out and got sick. My poor dad thought she died because she was unconscious for a little bit. The ambulance was called and she went to the hospital for an overnight stay. She fractured a bone in her foot when she fell, so now she's in a boot, but seems to be much better. It was probably her blood pressure and the new meds she was taking that caused it, but it certainly sent a shockwave through our family and made us all remember how lucky we are to still have our wonderful parents in our life. Give a hug and an "I love you" to those special people in your life.
School pictures happened this week, and I'm not sure if I want to order them yet so here are the watermarked versions:
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| 5th Grade |
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| 7th Grade |
Every week, I ask in the family group text for the kids to send me photos or stories from the week. Xander said "I don't have any pictures. All I do is go to school and run at Cross Country." Pretty accurate, and he had two meets this week. Eamon said he had to lock in this week for three exams, but sent this sunset photo:
Andrew snuck this photo of Eamon in a lab:
...to which Eamon said "I don't know what I'm doing here."
I replied (tired of the college kids recently questioning their majors and careers and saying it's too hard) "You're becoming a physical therapist".
And Eamon said "I just meant I don't know what I'm doing in this lab."
Oh, whoops, thought it was more of an existential crisis type of statement.
The first four got together for Mass and cooked brunch on Sunday and we FaceTimed them and talked about our next family vacation at Christmas - we're all excited!
JP is half-way through finals for this med school block, and showed us how he and his classmates were studying. These are your future doctors :)
Swim team started up this week for Brendan. Practice is Mon, Wed and Fri from 4:30 to 5:30 and Phil uses that time to workout at the gym so it's not too bad.
Soccer practice is on Tuesday afternoons with games on Saturday mornings.
Basketball pre-practice starts up tomorrow for Declan and Brendan, but it's a drop-off and pick-up type situation.
Xander has cross-country everyday after school but I pick him up on my way home from work at 4 so that's easy, thankfully.
I was very worried about losing all our drivers but these schedules are manageable for the parental chauffeurs.
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| Brendan got Most Improved for his age group last season but we didn't go to the awards banquet, so he picked up his awards this season. Life of the seventh child y'all! |
Phil and I (mostly Phil, let's be honest) are clearing out Maggie's bedroom and putting a queen bed in there so guests can use it. The amount of dust and candy wrappers we found under her bed was disgusting. I guess she thought nobody would ever find them down there! It feels like just yesterday that we built this bedroom for her.
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| Bye bye twin trundle bed |
Meanwhile, out in Ohio, Maggie is either living it up or stressed out about her hard nursing classes:
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| Bonfire |
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| Dropped cake |
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| Dirty after a beach volleyball game |
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| Lost her ID but found it again! |
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| She called to tell me her chem test was going to be wicked hard, and she only understood it when studying with a friend, so that she would for sure fail when she took the test on her own. I told her Jesus was her bestie and would be with her during the test, so she wouldn't be alone. She went to study later and guess who showed up?! Her study buddy :) |
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| If this is how she's studying, then she'll probably be a doctor too ;) |
And I think that's a wrap! I hope you all have a wonderful fall weekend! Anyone gone apple picking yet??
We had a very weird spring where it got hot in April and then there was a really cold snap again in May. (Like with freeze warnings.) This was not great for the apple crop but it is nearly apple season here with what remains. A half-day off in the morning is an interesting concept. I may try it. Glad you're all taking the reminder of health seriously, your mom is great, I love when we hear about her on the blog. I will pray she is okay for a long time and her foot heals nicely. And it was actually just yesterday you built that room for Maggie so...
ReplyDeleteIt certainly feels like just yesterday! That's too bad about the apple crops, I have no idea what they're like around here but we're hoping to go this weekend :)
DeleteWonderful post! Beautiful photos and lovely smiles! Thank you so much for sharing! Warm greetings from a retired lady living in Montreal, Canada.
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda!
Deleteoh, little Maggie was so adorable! Giving her walls all those years was such a great gift! I bet she'll love the queen sized bed when she's home again! - mbmom7
ReplyDeleteOh how she used to pray for walls and tell her teachers at school that all she wanted was walls. The littles are dying to try out the new bed but we are saving it for Phil's sister who's coming to visit next week.
DeleteSo glad your mom is on the mend! I remember the blog post where you talked about Maggie's new room. How time flies!
ReplyDeleteThank you, she is doing so much better now!
DeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed your morning off. I am very blessed to have my fridays off. I cannot imagine going back to 5 workdays. The docs sleeping /studying pic is so funny. So glad that your mom is OK. That was very scary.
ReplyDeleteCoach and i are driving back from a college visit with Reg. It was a lot of fun. I ran my first 5k. And lived to tell about it. No apple picking for us.
I would love to take Fridays off, I try to take half day Fridays for most of the school year, so that's pretty good I guess. How on earth have you never run a 5k when you run regularly? I'm shook!
DeleteOkay, these photos are fantastic. Such a great mix of, ahem, normal and hilarious!
ReplyDeleteSo very glad that your mom is okay. What a scary experience for you all.
Thank you, it was but especially for my poor dad. Life is short!
DeleteThe wrappers are the bane of my existence, and Greta is the worst offender! I constantly find them shoved down in the couch cushions where she usually sits. I'm always like, "How do your preschool-aged siblings know to throw their wrappers away and you don't?" Hahaha this makes me feel better because Maggie is such a hard worker and so conscientious and sweet!
ReplyDeleteI'm so relieved to hear that your mom is okay. So very scary and my heart just breaks for your poor dad, thinking she was gone. Your dinner looks delicious!
Awww their school photos look so nice! I'm still debating about whether or not to buy the daycare school pictures. They are maybe the least flattering pictures ever taken of Elizabeth and Victoria. I may be biased but E and V are pretty cute kids and these pictures are just not it. LOL. If it was $5 per picture I would buy them just for kicks but they're super expensive!
Maggie went through a sneaky food phase in middle school...she laughs about it now, but I think those wrappers were from all the way back then! I think sneaking it was probably the only way she would be sure to get it with all her brothers. And your kids are beautiful, you are not biased about that at all!
DeleteI feel like you just moved into the Cottage, and now you need a roof and floors? WHAT?
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry about your mom passing out---that is so very scary. I do hope that she's feeling better and they've remedied her meds or whatever caused it in the first place.
Awwww....updating Maggie's room for guests. How bittersweet. I went back and looked at when she got an 'actual room with walls'---yes, I can see why it seems like it was yesterday and not ten years ago.
When we renovated the shop before opening, we were kind of slapping lipstick on the pig and now we can afford to get the pig cosmetic surgery, if that makes any sense at all!
DeleteThat makes perfect sense!!
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