Eclipse

Today we need to go way back a year and a few months ago to when we took a family trip up to the Philadelphia to celebrate my niece's baptism. While we were there my sister's FIL told Bill and I about this strange thing he called a totality. I'd never heard of the word before but he showed us a website of how this was going to happen in a year and four months and how we lived right there and wow, that was cool! We kind of filed that away and moved on.

Fast forward to January 2017. Bill started reaching out to companies to interview because he was sure he was just about done and wanted to start the job hunt. We found a fabulous place very quickly and started negotiations only to discover a couple months later he wasn't as close as he thought and our timeline backed up to August of this year. And I thought wow, that totality thing is going to happen just after we graduate and leave. Bummer.

Then the timeline backed up to December. And guess what?! We got to be here for the eclipse! This totality thing everyone talked about. Guess what else? It was a HUGE deal here because not only were we in the path but we had the best spot in the whole state to watch just by stepping outside. And then all the schools provided glasses for the kids and people planned trips and there was loads of excitement. And today was the day and we didn't have to do any of that. I got to pick my kids up from school at noon, meander over to Bill's work, then go over to Bill's lab and watch Magic School Bus until the eclipse started. It was in the mid 90s and sunny as could be, so we went in and out for the first 45 minutes and peeked at the sun's progress. And when it got much closer we setup our chairs and enjoyed the cooler temps and watched the show.

I didn't want to still be here in grad school at this point, but wow, the eclipse delivered and I'm glad we didn't miss it. I saw the world darken up and a 360 degree sunset around the horizon. I saw the most beautiful corona for two and a half minutes and that cool effect of seeing the sun peek through the mountains and valleys of the moon as it came out of totality. I heard the crickets go crazy. Then I saw sunrise at 2:45 in the afternoon. It was awe inspiring.

Spencer was jazzed the whole time. He caught right on to wearing the glasses and he ran in and out on repeat checking to see the progress. Genevieve and Aaron were underwhelmed at first because it was still so bright and they had a hard time seeing just the sun. Genevieve got scared because she hurt her eyes a bit first go when she didn't hold her glasses close enough to her face. Hurt in the sense that she got sun in her eyes a bit and immediately didn't want to try again. We got both of them to come around when it got closer to total eclipse and they figured out the glasses, and then they loved it. Chloe just buzzed around, happy to be outside. She pushed her chair around, and completely ignored what was happening in the skies above, lol. We're going to remember this one for a long time. It kind of gave me goosebumps when that corona burst forth around the moon. It was so stinking beautiful. This world is an amazing place.

Moana

My kids love Moana and Grandma was nice enough to send Genevieve a Moana costume as a gift plus fun things for her siblings as well. Today was a dream come true for my kids when they opened the boxes. Here's a few pictures I took. I couldn't catch Chloe slowing down for anything, so these are quite unposed of her. 

Chloe's favorite things to do, holding her new doll and climbing on our chairs.

A girl and her dolls. She loves them so much.

A boy and his Maui hook. He hasn't put the thing down all day.

She giggled in delight when I pulled this doll out of the bag and rushed over. She knows what she likes. :)

All her dreams came true when she opened this costume and especially the necklace. It is so cool. Disney actually did a good job with this one. :) 

Babies and food

I've used baby-led weaning for my three younger kids. That's fancy for letting them eat whole food from the get go. They gnawed on apples or pears as first foods and we just let them have a go at basically whatever we were eating at the time, supervised of course. All three have progressed amazingly fast into being proficient eaters. It's fabulous. And Chloe has not disappointed. She LOVES to eat. And drink water. Don't even dare drink water in front of her without giving her some. She gets ragey if you do, lol. She's a meat lover and loves trail mix and granola bars and cereal and all sorts of fruit and veggies and generally she just loves to eat. This was her first go at corn on the cob. Bill asked me if he ought to cut the corn off and I said let her have a go and we can cut it if she can't handle it. That was not an issue. She didn't leave a single piece of corn on that cob. Ha! 

This and That

I've been doing something revolutionary lately. I have been doing memory worthy things with my kids and not taking any pictures. Gasp! We went on a really cool hike on Saturday to this beautiful waterfall, had a great hike and a great time swimming, and this is the only picture I have. I didn't even take it. It's from Bill's phone. Part of it is my phone camera isn't doing so hot lately and I hate the bad pictures, but mostly it's because I spend a lot of time on my phone and this is one way to push against that. 

So there you go. A really cool waterfall we hiked to and swam at and had a grand ole time.

I got rid of our changing table this week. That felt kind of epic. We got it seven years ago while I was pregnant with Spencer. Chloe is still in diapers and will be for at least another year, but I just put the changing station on top of my sewing desk and it works great. It's super easy to take it off if I actually want to sew, which unfortunately doesn't happen very often at the moment. Someone give me money for fabric, please! I have all sorts of things I'd love to try but alas, no fabric to do it with. I used to have a few other random things on that desk that were much harder to take off so I'm quite pleased with the change. 

I've been plugging away at my current paint-by-number. It's more done than this now, but this is the last picture I took. My poor right thumb and pointer finger are super stiff every morning when I wake up, and I'm sure it's because hello, I haven't held a writing device, or in this case a paint brush, to use for this purpose in years. But if anyone knows anything that will calm down the stiffness, I'd love advice. I'm not going to stop painting, so for now I'm just dealing with it. It is too calming and stress relieving to do otherwise.

The last few days I've been looking at buying vs. renting options in northern Colorado. The goal is still to graduate in December, so that time is fast approaching. I've come to the sad conclusion that when you only have a few thousand bucks to your name it's hard to buy a house, lol. We're skidding into the finish with hardly anything left but hey, we're going to finish!

The timing of finishing in December is so awkward for moving with kids in school and winter but hey, this is not a complaint. OMG, not a complaint! Ten years of school is just about done and I'm mentally jumping for joy. After that long though everything is pretty worn out, us included. One of the springs on my old couch just broke and sitting in that spot is now significantly lower than the other two. Both of our old cars make me wonder on a regular basis if we are going to make it to our destination. The washer and dryer are barely functioning. Five more months. One more semester. Ten more college size paychecks, give or take. How many other ways can I find to count down? 😍

The last few weeks in pictures

Just hanging out, leaning against the back of the kid chair, acting like she's not going to follow over the back, eating some chips. She didn't, but thankfully.

This girl and her purses. And stuffed toys. Dog in a purse!

Wearing one of my dresses from when I was a baby.

She's a water lover. Just try to drink some without giving some to her. She'll let you know how she feels about that.

Spencer's creation this week at Lego Storybuilders at the library. 

I have a picture of Genevieve in this same outfit at this same age that is basically identical. 

Spencer picked his outfit for church and don't even try to tell him it's July and 95 degrees outside and humid and a sweater vest is overkill. He rocked it regardless. lol.

Take a picture of Goonie, mom.  

They love their new swimsuits from Grandma. Ignore Aaron's expression. And I've noticed lately that Genevieve always throws a pose. It's hilarious as I scan through pictures on my phone. 

July is better

Where June was a month to get past as fast as possible and never look back, July has been just lovely. I could stay here for awhile. 4th of July was not just an awesome day but an awesome entire week. Aaron's birthday was the next week and we had a great time. This last week my brother came. July has treated us well.

Aaron is my big three year old now. That kid. He's fabulous. He's mischievous and determined. He is a problem solver. He uses whatever tools he can find to get what he wants done. He's obsessed with bums right now. Potty humor is his jam. He's a great little hiker. He loves to climb on anything. He is loud all the time. He carried the bug net the entire hike on the Appalachian Trail on Friday just because he wanted to catch bugs like his uncle. He has an innate handle on comedic timing. He got that from his dad and it's hilarious. He talks up a storm but he still has a bit of a baby voice so it's surprising sometimes what he comes up with. That mind of his is noticing everything and making a million connections a minute. He loves the color green and his Goonie stuffed animal and wearing his swimsuit and riding his scooter. He equally pesters and loves on his siblings. He's totally not above a cheap shot to the head and he's getting more and more into wrestling with Spencer, which Spencer both loves and hates. Aaron will snuggle up to me and be completely content. He still naps daily, though it means he is usually wired at bedtime. I prefer that to cranky from 5-8pm. This kid is just a treasure.












My brother came into town to visit us last week. He came all the way from Utah to do some bug collecting in Tennessee and was only going to be three hours from us, so he came that much further. We had a fabulous time, including staying up all night the night he arrived talking, taking him to our favorite local waterfall, and driving up to Tennessee to hike on the Appalachian Trail where he was searching for the bug he wanted. It was all great fun and I'm so glad he came.























Bill's mom sent the kids new swimsuits. They love them. They also fail miserably at taking pictures in them, lol.



And Chloe fails at taking a smiling picture in her cute new dress. 😊

Turning a corner

June was a month. Boy howdy was it a month. I got an IUD. It didn't agree with me. I'll leave out the details but it took the entire month to fix that and it was unpleasant in the extreme.

I started to get trigger thumb. I did a 12-day diminishing steroid treatment. That fixed it for the most part. Yay!

I got stung mowing my lawn. First time bee sting. I made it 34 years. Thankfully I'm not allergic. At least not in the anaphylactic shock sort of way. But I have a beastly local reaction. Then I got stung the next week I mowed. Then the week after that I got four stings. Turns out we had at least two yellow jacket nests in holes in that area of the yard. They've now been gassed. Hopefully that fixes the problem. I took another three-day round of steroids to help with that. Today was the last day.

I finally got the hospital bill for my kidney stone surgery back in January. It was for $2,000, bringing the total for that little medical surprise that happened the day before my anniversary and four days before my birthday up to $3,000. Weee!!!!

Chloe got a cold and passed it right along to me a few days later. I'm now on day ten of it and it's finally winding down. Hers turned into a middle ear infection so she has ear drops and amoxicillin for it. And Spencer needed drops for a similar infection earlier in June, then Genevieve got an inner ear infection mid June. Aaron hasn't gotten the memo thankfully.

So yeah, June was a beast! This year has been a beast. Who am I kidding? 2017 is only halfway done and it is already going to go down in history as my worst health year ever.

But never fear. July is looking up. My brother is coming to visit. I am nearly back to full health. I started running and biking and yoga back in earnest about ten days ago in the midst of all the health disasters in some sense as a reaction to handle all the crazy and I have crazy amounts of energy coming back. I love how exercise does that for a person. There's something magical about the self-discipline a quality exercise routine brings to life. It seems to beget more energy and more can do attitude. Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to kick the last 10-15 lbs of baby weight from Chloe. But even if not, I feel better already and that is enough for now.

And this has been a fabulous week. We took our kids to their first fireworks show the 3rd of July. Clemson sure knows how to throw a good party. The festival beforehand was the perfect amount of fun for us. The fireworks were amazing.

Yesterday we went to our friends' annual 4th of July pool party. We've gone every year since we moved to South Carolina. Every year has been fun, but this was by far the best because my three biggest put their vests on and I didn't have to worry a bit about their imminent death by drowning. Hahaha! I just put Chloe in a baby floatie thing and she was happy as can be. Both Bill and I got a chance to sit and shoot the breeze with friends. That has never happened before. We always have a good time at this party but leave feeling totally worked over making sure our kids didn't die.

Then last night we hosted some friends over to another bbq and roasted marshmallows and our kids ran wild and we ate good food and it was just lovely. I had to run to the store to get some paper plates and plasticware because I really don't know when the last time was we had friends over. I love hosting parties but my heavens, the first year with a new baby is a total black hole and we haven't done anything lately. It was so nice to do that again.

Today I took my kids to their first ever movie in a real theater. Our local place does free movies every week and this week it was Kung Fu Panda 3, which my kids have seen and love so I knew it'd be a home run. They loved it, of course. Chloe even fell asleep on me so I was able to watch too without wrangling the one year-old who isn't even remotely interested in watching a movie. My kids laugh so loud. Haha! Especially Genevieve. I hope she never loses her amazing cackle of a laugh.

After last month and let's be honest, this whole year, I feel like something has changed. Chloe is walking. That's a huge deal. That's when the new baby black hole ends for me. I still carry her a lot, but I don't have to. She can follow along and it only gets better from here. It's like I can breathe again and that feels really good.

Aaron turns three on Monday! Time to party for him! We have four summer birthdays we get to celebrate and it's so fun.

It's crazy but we only have six weeks of summer left. And this week has been so fun already. I want more of that in the next six weeks and I think this newfound sense of energy will help make that happen. So goodbye health problems and colds and stress. Hello enjoying the rest of summer. Maybe we'll make it down to the beach. We'll certainly do lots of hiking. It's going to be great.

One More Piano Post

This is kind of the project that will never end, but the wheels finally came in the mail on Saturday and Bill and I put them on the piano last night. It involved him lifting a side up, me sliding a cinder block under it to hold it up, then laying all over the floor in the dustiness attaching wheels to the underside. It was not my favorite part of the process but they sure look good on. Though of course, in the spirit of never being done, we checked to see if it was level when we were done and it is on the long side but the front wheels are a bit shorter than the back, so it slopes forward about a quarter of an inch. Garrr! So I'll be making a little block to lift that up, and repeating the process another day to fix that problem. But not today. And it's not that bad. So it will keep until I'm ready to finish that last bit.