Goodbye 2022

From my travelers - they are having fun, enjoyed the Sugar Bowl even though the results were not what they were hoping for.  Cameron highly advised getting out of New Orleans before the New Year’s Eve crowd headed in!   

I’m sure she would have had more fun if the score was a little less disappointing!  

Looks like they made some time to meet Mike the LSU tiger.  

Here at the home front, we finished 99% of the painting.  I have a little problem over the stairs, it is too angled to reach with my super long paint stick.  It is too tall to reach from the floor and too deep to reach from the landing.  I think they make a tool that might work, but I don’t own one.  Also, we ran out of paint.  I will run talk to someone at Home Depot on Monday.  I’m happy to be mostly done.  I could not have done this project without Mallory’s persistence to keep moving.  Or without Harper who rolled a whole lot of wall space, and did a great job taking down and putting back outlet covers, and Quincy who was the muscle with furniture moving.  I could quote Jim on  what kind of a team it is, but I try to keep the blog pg rated.  I truly love how it turned out.  It looks so bright and cheerful in here.  Now I just have to re-hang stuff and maybe shampoo carpet!  But first I must. rest! 

We had a very small New Year’s Eve celebration this evening.  We still had fun.   Evelyn said she wanted to spend the night, but when she realized her parents were not staying, she wanted to go home.   She makes me smile. 

This year was a good one.  I can’t wait to see what 2023 brings!  Happy new year!  

Out of town=project time

Last week, Jim decided he would really like to go see where Cameron and Lauren are living, and attend the Sugar Bowl, which KSU is playing in, and happens to be in NOLA, which happens to be about an hour from Cameron.   Since he could stay with Cameron and Lauren, it would be an inexpensive get away.  Saige and  Preston decided they both really wanted in on this action, and then they decided to see if Colin wanted them to swing by and pick him up (he did!).  They all took off this morning before the sun was up.  Saige kept me informed of their progress (and might have been tattling on her dad when he spent an ungodly amount of cash at the wall of beef jerky inside Bucee’s).   Now, I would love to go to see Cameron, but the trip they planned out includes 2 bowl games (stopping in Dallas on the way home), a basketball game, and a swamp tour.  I’m sure they will have fun, but if I’m making a 12 hour trip, ideally I would like to do some nerdier stuff. I opted to stay home, and with the opportunity to be home with Quincy and Harper to help, decided this would be the weekend to tackle a giant project that I have been putting off for over a year.  Painting the living room.  Mallory  even volunteered to help.  

The trip troop made it in about the same amount of time as it took us to finish the living room, and the kitchen, most of the dining room and 1 coat of the hallway.  Because if you’re going to bite off a huge, ridiculous project, you should go big right?  

The reason I’ve been putting the living room project off is the 16 foot vaulted ceilings.  I am a 5 foot tall woman who is scared of heights (or more accurately, scared of falling). Yesterday, as I was shopping with Grace, I decided to buy an extendable paint pole.  The pole cost more than a gallon of paint, but holy bat nuts it was worth every single penny!   I was able to reach the vaults, and I also painted the ceiling, all while standing flat on the floor!  

Mallory is a master of cutting in edges.  She saved us so much time -she cut all the trim, we followed behind with a couple rollers.  I did the high stuff, Harper did the low stuff.  Quincy got home  from work and helped with rolling too.  

We sent this picture to Preston, as he told me it was dumb to repaint a room the exact same color.  I explained it was nowhere near the same.    

I also wanted to do an accent photo wall, and wanted to pick an accent wall color.  Grace helped me pick this blue color.  I was a little worried when we started, thinking I might have gone a little wacky, but I absolutely love how it looks! 

The thing I hate most about painting, the need to move around all the stuff in the house.  It’s a mess in here!  Tomorrow we will put an additional coat in the hallway, finish above the stairs (has been the hardest part of this job), and clean up all the messes. I’m hoping to be done in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve with some of my people!  

Tonight, I am thankful that everyone made the Louisiana trip safely!  I am also thankful that my girls were such hard workers today!    

So long for now

Cameron headed back to Baton Rouge today.  Yesterday, we had lunch at the bar all together as a goodbye party.  I am sad to see him go. It was amazing to have him here for a couple weeks.  He keeps things entertaining for sure.  

Pretty sure Bella was happy to be back with her BFF!   After I dropped him off at the rental car place, I met my friend Grace.  She helped me shop for paint (project upcoming), we had lunch, and hung out for a pretty good chunk of the day. It made the goodbye to Cameron a little bit easier.  It was amazing to have a day to spend with her.  

Mallory went to Wichita last night to look at the botanical lights with Colin and Spencer.  She said it was awesome.  I am always happy to see my adult kids being friends.   

I made everyone get out of bed to tell Cameron goodbye this morning.  Let’s just say they were less than amused, and were definitely not happy that I thought pictures were a good idea.   Despite their grouchy appearance, they were also sad that Cameron’s visit was over.  Preston and Saige will see him tomorrow though, as they are traveling with Jim and Colin to the Sugar bowl, and staying with Cameron and Lauren this weekend. 

Cameron and Lauren have kept me updated on the progress they are making, which I appreciate.   I was a little sad to learn they did. Not eat hamburgers while stopping in Hamburg though.  

So this might not be the best looking hat I’ve ever laid eyes on, but I am pretty impressed with how Quincy has picked up crocheting.  

I have enjoyed break a lot, but I miss my girl!  We have seen her some of course, but not having her on the daily is weird!  

Harper had an orthodontist appointment this week. We stopped at the feed store and they had their dog jammies half off.  Carlos seemed pretty happy about it.  He looks adorable!  

  

Big, big weekend plans for the home front.  More to come.  

Enjoying time off

I had a few days off from working. It was a nice break.  Hard to believe it’s almost over!   I have enjoyed being home with the kids, and catching up with Cameron.  

We had a tragedy with the parakeets, and Jerry ended up killing both of them.  We do not know how he did it, but both were  in the cage with scratches and wing injuries.  Both died.  I was sad, but have decided that having birds is just not on the cards for me.  I threw out the parakeet food on the deck for the little birds outside.  It has brought a lot of joy to all of us as we sit in the dining room, so I am probably going to continue to do this.  At one point today we had about 20 little wrens, chickadees, a blue jay and some cardinals.   The kids were watching them with me, then accused me of officially getting old, as bird watching is an old lady hobby.  Whatever. 

Preston and Carlos have spent days sitting under his new electric blanket.  Preston got mad at me for saying Carlos had to go out for a potty break. They were napping after all!  

Cameron home =living room sparring.  For the record, Preston can’t beat him at this point in time.  Must spar before leaving on a sonic run.  Must spar before bed.  

During the sonic run, Quincy talked the boys into a Walmart stop.  She picked up some yarn and a crochet hook,  came back and asked me to show her how to crochet.  It took a little bit, but she’s about 5 rows into some sort of a beanie cap.  Or at least that is the plan.  It may become a pot holder - who knows. :) it is a good craft to know.   

I always wish breaks lasted longer, but this one has been pretty good.  The kids have another week off.  I can at least sleep a little later and leave for work in the daylight!   

Merry little

We have had a really nice Christmas around here.  We attended evening mass, where the kids were squirrels so as a punishment, I forced them to pose for photos.  Father Jo told me my Christmas letter was too long….I told him I was just trying to keep up with his homilies. 

We headed home to eat fried Chicken made by Amy, and soup.   Mallory (and the doggos) spent the night. She helped me clean the kitchen and finish preparing for Christmas.   This is the first year we had nobody to hide the preparations from.  It was sort of nice.  The girls put out all the gifts, and helped stuff the stockings.   We had everything done by 10:00 pm.   I guess I am  officially out of the little kid business.   I should be sad about it, but I am enjoying this season of our lives. 

Everyone was up early, Colin and Spencer were here a little after 7.   Madison, Andrew and Evie were here shortly after that.  Motivation for posing for a group photo is opening gifts!   We missed Lauren, but certainly understand that she has limited time to spend with her family.   I was thrilled to have all of our kids home, and to hang out with Spencer (she has been busy with classes and we hadn’t seen her for a little bit).  

We were very blessed this year.  A couple of stand out things - Preston used his own money to buy the girls a VR headset.  They all had a lot of fun today fighting zombies, boxing and playing football.  It was entertaining to watch!  

Colin bought Preston a game where you hold onto these wands as you increase voltage and the game actually shocks you. The first person to let go loses.  I’m not sure that I will ever be brave enough to play, but it was hilarious to watch.   Andrew even played, even though he had already been shocked here recently.   

We were entertained by an amazing singer!  

We tried our hands (again) at making gingerbread houses.  Again, we are pretty terrible at this activity.  

We laughed alt GG smack talking the VR boxing game.  Had a nice dinner, and then everyone rushed off because they realized it was sleeting. This reminded me of the great Larry Lang and him always saying “nothing is over like Christmas!”   

It may be over, but I will hold this day in my heart forever.