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The kids have spent a lot of time at the in-laws house since they passed away for various reasons.  From taking care of cats to yard work to wanting a quiet place to do homework, we have spent time there.  I think having the house so close has helped us all to feel close to them still. 

We have told them they would be able to take whatever they wanted from the house.  The hubs and I met with the estate sale lady last week so on Friday I told the kids it was time to go to the house and get what they wanted.  It’s time to take the things that make us feel close and bring them over to our house.

My oldest wanted the globe and the computer from the office.  The globe is from 1938 – pre WWII!!  He also went into the front closet and got the Lincoln Logs out.  He took two boxes of them with him.  Later we were talking about him making muffins and he took the muffin tin and some muffin papers.

My middle kid ended up taking a German walking stick with badges on it. He took two of the beer steins my FIL collected and some lighters including one that was engraved with his name and rank. He took a commemorative discharge certificate and his wallet. 

My daughter took a couple of stuffed animals from her bed there. She took a jewelry set with silver and pearls. She took some small crystal kitties and some small wooden ones.  She found a baby pic charm and birth certificate card for my husband. She took her box of art supplies and some homemade magnets they have had on their fridge since I first met them.  She also took their glass coke bottle change jar.

For me, this past weekend was the transition for me to move from a joint house where we still had our connection with them to bringing everything we need to feel connected with them to our house adn start letting go of the other ‘things.’

I had a little bit different flavor of the things I took to our house.  I took a necklace I gave her – a James Avery mother’s love necklace.  It was still in the box and tarnished, but I took it and plan to get a new chain for it and will wear it and think of her.  I took a set of sterling silver stacking rings and some earrings.  She had a lot of holiday jewelry.  I ended up taking a Chirstmas charm bracelet, but it ended up breaking before I even got it home (old elastic string).  I took his picture of the first space shuttle landing that was signed by the crew.  I took a picture of our family.  I moved the flag they had in the living room from her dad’s funeral for his military service and put in my dining room on the display cabinet we have.  I took a glass butter dish and some pyrex measuring cups from the kitchen.  I took the mounted quail they have that my MIL and her dad raised (he raised game birds and this one was unique).  I grabbed the cookie jar my half BIL wanted.  Finally, I took their urns to my house.  They fit nicely on the hutch in my dining room.  I also took the little trinkets/memories my daughter had put around the urns so they could stay with them.

That was my first pass at getting the things we want over to our house to disconnect with the things that will have to be sold in their house.  

They have a chest full of pictures.  We plan to add the rest of the pictures around the house to it and bring the whole thing to our house.  I want one of their wagon wheels they have on the back fence.  They have had those there since they bought the house, and I want to put one in the location where the fence overlaps between our yards as another memory.  My hubs also wants some of the 1904 world fair stuff my MIL had collected.  We will also keep the 2009 F-150 since we will soon gain a new driver.  The rest will be sold.  Saying that is starting to give a little closure (although the whole process will still take a while).

Well, it’s Christmas Eve, and I placed an order at 4:30 am to finish my Christmas shopping for the family. Yep. It’s one of those years. Yes, the whole year has been crazy. It’s our first Christmas without my MIL so today will probably be pretty tough. 

I actually was doing pretty well kicking off Christmas in early November, but then life caught up. I just couldn’t do Christmas after my MIL passed. It was a block in my head. I am not even prepared for today. I want to start some new family traditions though.  Not entirely sure what that means. The things we normally do just won’t happen this year. 

Oh, and to seal the deal this being a crazy year – our A/C died on Thursday. It’s been a hot few days. But wait!  There is more!  Thursday I saw our cat looking at something in the dining room. Water was dripping from my the ceiling. My daughter had taken a shower and the liner was out (it was cleaning day) and water got a over the floor and leaked out into downstairs. Craziness. And to really not be outdone – the A/C tech stepped into the ceiling of my office over my desk when they were inspecting the A/C system in the attic.  Whew!

I have not enjoyed the number of people that have asked, “Are you ready for Christmas?,” this year. No. I am not ready. Not in any capacity. Is anyone ever that ready where they can confidently say yes???  I dunno. I hope we just love each other as a family today. 

My MIL is just completely worn out. I am sitting here with her and that’s all I can really do. I brought her to the ER last weekend and it turns out that she had the flu, but they did not admit her. She’s here again now and she is just weak and tired. 

Before I skip to the latest string of events, I should mention that she was recently diagnosed with leukemia (MDS) and was supposed to start chemo today. I was supposed to be in Aruba but stayed back to help with everything, such as taking her to her appointment this AM. 

I came back from urgent care yesterday afternoon (about 4pm) to find her sleeping on my couch. She was tired and weak. I gave her some peditye and she had some water, but the only thing she ate was maybe a cracker. She just is not feeling well. She asked how we were going to handle the morning and I told her that she could stay at my house and we could go from there. She did not have the energy to get up so that’s what she did. My daughter slept on the floor near her. She woke me a couple of times during the night to say grandma needed me. The last time was to tell me that grandma threw up. This was at 3:30 am. My MIL said she had diarrhea and wanted to go home. 

I drove her home where she had it a few more times. She then said she needed me to call an ambulance. I told her I would drive her but she wanted the ambulance. I ended up driving her about 5 am. 

I think she has had 2.5 bags of fluids. She was so dehydrated they could not find her vein. She feels like crap and wants to get admitted so they can help her feel better. 

But rewind – why was I at urgent care? My daughter broke her arm near the wrist yesterday. When it rains, it pours!! I was not able to get her into the doctor we wanted today so that is now a problem for tomorrow. Of course my big guy is also getting Invisalign tomorrow so I will have a big day hauling kids all over the place. And dealing with whatever my MIL has going on. 

I am still trying to deal with the emotions on the broken arm. That was completely avoidable. And now she will miss the swim meet where I expected her to do really well and I was excited about. I will probably have her miss a season of water polo at this point. I am just so frustrated over the whole thing. 

So yeah – that’s an update about all of the things I am dealing with right at this moment. 

I was supposed to go to Aruba on Thursday with my hubs. We were going to rent an AirBNB and a jeep with another couple for a long weekend, and then he had some stuff to do for work so I was planning to relax at the hotel or the beach. I downloaded a bunch of books to my kindle. It was planned to be a week-long trip. My first time to South America! 

But I didn’t get to go. My MIL ended up with some health stuff so I am staying behind with her. I am a little sad, but trying to make the most of it. I had fun with my kids Thursday night (the night I was supposed to leave). I bought some rum punch that I might try today to pretend I am being tropical. I also got a few different beach-scented body spray so I can mix scents on my faux vacay.

I bought a tray of fruit and a salad with avocado lime dressing. I have also been wearing the clothes and jewelry I bought for the trip.

So yeah, sad I am not in Aruba, but trying to enjoy what I do have here.

We are trying to figure out which vehicle we should take to Florida for our Thanksgiving trip.  We currently have two vehicles – a 2017 F-250 with probably about 190k miles on it and a 2013 Explorer with less than 89k miles on it.  A third option is to rent a vehicle.  

We plan to bring our family of 5 and our two dogs with us on this trip. It will be a very long drive, but we are really looking forward to spending time with family.  We plan to stay in a hotel that is close to my sister and accepts dogs including our 100 lb. lab.  

So how do we get there?  To take the big dog, we pretty much have to drive (my dog is small enough to fly, but we want to drive).  That leaves us with 3 options – truck, Explorer, or a rental (which is still cheaper than flying even if we leave the dogs out of equation).

Let’s look at these options:

The F-250 – this is a big truck and very spacious with great leg room.  The problem is that two of my kids are over 6′ tall and the big dog likes her butt on the seat when she rides so that probably won’t fit.  The adults will be very comfortable in front.  The kids, probably not as much.  Hubs wants to drive his truck for his comfort on the long drive, but recognizes it’s a lot of miles and doesn’t 100% fit the bill for space for the kids.

The Explorer – if we take the Explorer, we will put up the 3rd row seating option.  This will change our spread out space from leg room to more booty space (for kids and big dog).  It also reduces the cargo area.  It’s not as comfy for hubby to drive as his truck is.  Also, I had an incident with road debris last year that means my new windshield, which was poorly installed, has a weird buzzing sound it makes.  

The final option we are trading is renting an Expedition.  That will allow more space in all directions.  It will be a much nicer ride than the two vehicles we own.  The problem with this is that it’s a bunch of money to rent the Expedition.  

I have looked at this in a few ways.  First, it’s the cost of the trip to rent a vehicle that the whole family will fit in.  It will be nice and spacious and comfortable.  Renting an Expedition is cheaper than buying a new vehicle we can all fit in for a long ride.  Even recent trailer trips where we have had all of us have been in both vehicles.  

But…the cost to rent it could also help purchase an Expedition.  Why rent when we can apply that money to a purchase?  I looked to see what is out there at the nearby Ford dealer.  I found a used 2021 Expedition with 96k miles for $26,485.  It is newer and has more features than my 2013 base model Explorer, but clearly it has more miles than my vehicle.

We have been planning to have my son use the Explorer when he turns 16.  It’s better to have him in a used car we know the history of instead of getting something completely unknown.  I have been dreaming about my next vehicle and have been thinking about the Mach-E (and that’s a whole other discussion).  An Expedition is not something at the top of my list, but it is something the family needs?

I am not sure we should rush into a new vehicle purchase for our Thanksgiving ride.  My son doesn’t even have a permit yet.  I also think that it would be fun to rent the Expedition and have the most comfortable ride possible for our trip.  I feel weird because of the dog hair we will be dumping into the thing.  I think my car is cozy and comfy, but I will just have Pepper in my seat – the extra space will probably be much appreciated by the rest of the family.  I can also try driving the Expedition around to see if I like it.

I am guessing we would rent from Monday – Sunday since we are planning to travel Tuesday – Saturday.  We will see what we roll up in, but you know I like venting to think about decisions! 🙂

I had a great weekend as an aquatics mom!  First, my son’s high school team won the state water polo championship!  It was super awesome!!  The games were fun (and LOUD), and the boys really worked hard and earned it.  It was great!  What an awesome experience for him!  

I took off two days from work to have all of the experiences. I went to the send off at the high school and did the cheering and pictures. I got a room at the team hotel and the other parents used my room as the staging area to decorate the boys’ rooms. I went to the games and cheered!!  The finals game was on Saturday, and a bunch of the girls showed up, too!  We ended the weekend with a police escort for the bus back to the high school. People made signed and cheered, and it was just a whole lot of fun!!

My daughter also had an AMAZING swim meet this past weekend.  She made five BB times at the meet she did last month and got her 6th and 7th times in 100 back and 100 free. Yes, she was excited about the 6-7. Anyway, her final event of the meet was the 50 Fly. She had recently crushed a new PR so I wasn’t expecting much, but she took off another 2 seconds and got her first A time!!  I am super happy for her. Today we are planning to get sushi for lunch to celebrate!  🙂

We are spending the weekend at what I like to think of as my second home. We are at the property. We have friends with us, and we are staying in the shipping container. We have friends here for the day and friends staying in their camper. 

We had 5 vehicles here earlier! Busy weekend! Luckily we have lots of space. The guys are working on the trail to the creek right now and seeing if there is any water in the creek (nope). We have football playing on the TV, and we are making chicken on the grill tonight. 

I took the 4 wheeler out for a long ride this morning and have been doing a lot of reading. I finished my September Book of the Month subscription book (Play Nice) which I was saving for October since it’s about a haunted house. My October book is also a paranormal thriller so I will keep going this month with some Halloweenish reading. Well, I also need to read my book club book for the month. I am about to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited. They have a good sign up deal right now, and they have the book I need for October. I think its time to join. I love the reads I have found on Amazon Prime, but this will greatly expand what’s available including a bunch of books I have on my list of books to read. 

The boys want to go home with our friend tonight instead of staying another night. I will probably let them although then we won’t have the extra hands in the morning. Maybe we can get them to help clean up tonight.😛

I finally switched purses this evening. Whew! It has been on my mind! Ha! First world problems…or distractions??

OK, seriously, one of the things I obsess over for fun is purses. I have a purse bestie (FOR REAL!) and we feed each other all the excitement. She has been my bestie since grad school, and our paths just keep crossing. The universe wants to make sure we stay friends!! 

So…I have been carrying a blue palm print MCM tote bag I found on clearance before my daughter and I went to the Junior Olympics this summer. It’s so cute and perfect for a trip to California. I went for it and have had a hard time getting out of it. I love it so much! The thing is, it’s past Labor Day now, and I want to use it (at least the pouch) for an upcoming tropical vacation. I have swapped out a daily carry bag, but I have been stuck in that tote!

So what bag do I use? Next obvious is my red MCM tote. It’s the color of my favorite football team, perfect for fall, and a power color for me for sure. But I wasn’t jumping into it. Then I realized I need to go straight to my favorite bag – my Speedy 35. I LOVE this bag. It’s classic, beautiful monogram print, and I have a bunch of charms on it to make it a little less serious. I even have handle covers on it that I found on Etsy.

It holds my MacBook Air (M2 if you are curious) and anything else I might need. It really is beautiful and the perfect bag to use as we transition into fall. My handbag bestie and I will be getting into PSLs soon, and we have been into Boston bags lately (Boston is also the area in which we met) so it just seems perfect right now.

This is the perfect bag for me, and I need to embrace and love it. Fall is a season for change, and I am all about the positive changes this fall can bring. 

This summer (maybe July?) I realized that my Amazon Prime membership not only has one free book I can check out each month, but I actually have unlimited Prime titles!  I had no clue!  I was trying to finish one by the end of the month so I could check out another before the month turned over, and I realized that you can have unlimited Prime check outs!  It’s not as great of a selection as Kindle Unlimited, but it’s still a lot!  It is so on right now for me!

I am in a book club that I love because it gets me to read more (and new) books. I love that we get to talk about them, too!  What’s even cooler is that last month one of my book club friends said she loves character development so I got her a copy of a book I wanted to talk about (Plane James Haunted).  It’s great to connect with these awesome readers that are all around me!

I also recently joined the Book of the Month subscription service.  It’s great so far!  They have pre-reviewed books that you can pick from a monthly selection (and also can see other month’s selections and order other books).  I made the decision at some point that I wanted to read more kindle books whenever possible because my books were stacking up – especially as I have a habit or reading more than one book at once.  But, after clearing out a bunch of books in our house and seeing that people in my neighborhood often share books, I decided that I can do some more print books.  It will be fun!  I used to be afraid of joining BOTM because I was worried that I would just stack up a bunch of unread books, but you can actually skip months so it’s not really a huge risk. I even signed up for a whole year to get the best deal! 🙂

I keep a list of books to read.  Some are upcoming books from my book club, some are things the book club talks about, some are suggestions from friends.  In looking at this list, I think I am close to also taking the leap and subscribing to Kindle Unlimited.  I can find and have a lot of good stuff to read, but this will expand my reading into more stuff that other people are reading and talking about so it’s probably worth it.

August ‘Club’ Books:

Book Club – One Golden Summer by Carly Fortune

BOTM – Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham

I honestly don’t know what else I read in August because I just entered them as ‘Read’ in the Goodreads app since early July.  🤪  I know I finished The Surgeon on Labor Day, so that’s my first book to report I finished in September. 🙂

We are spending the weekend in our travel trailer at an RV resort about an hour and a half from the house.  This is the 54th trip we have had in the trailer.  As the years have gone by, the frequency with which we use the trailer has definitely decreased, but it feels so good to be in the trailer.  It’s definitely our second home.

We did such a good job researching and then luckily stepping up a couple of sizes from our original plan when we bought this.  This one has grown well with our family.  I honestly think it’s the perfect travel trailer for us.  It has two full size beds (bunks) in the back.  The boys used to share the top bunk, but not the big guy sleeps on the u-shaped dinette.  We originally weren’t going to get one with the larger dinette, but decided it made sense to get one with a bigger table that fits our family of 5 which is provided to be very useful.  The extra trailer length also means it has a wardrobe in addition the pantry which we have been grateful for.  My daughter was a baby when we were trailer shopping so I was looking for a small tub, but I love the big shower we have instead.  The extra door to the bathroom was great when the kids were little.  I love the seat and shoe storage by the door. I love that we can swing the TV around to the bedroom (we have since added a second TV we can use outside).  

We have also done some upgrades.  We immediately replaced the faucet in the bathroom to a real metal one. We changed the comforter that came with it (that matched the window treatements) with the quilt my hubby got for graduation.  We upgraded the speakers outside.  We replaced the cover for the vent fan in the bathroom.  We have replaced the thermostat for the main A/C unit (we have a second, stand alone unit in the master).  We replaced the jackknife love seat with two electric recliners and had the cushions of the dinette redone in the same fabric. We added lighting to the closets in the master.

There are so many other personal touches we have put on this thing, too, from bedding to pillows to towels and even stickers inside my daugher’s bunk (since it’s still more like her personal play room at this point). We know where things go, and are very comfortable being here.

I love all of the things we have done to it over the years and the memories we have built.  I hope that continues this weekend and into the future.

We have been talking about selling it, but when I am in it, it just feels so much like home to me.  It has definitely shown signs of wear after 54 trips, but that is to be expected.  It has some bumps and bruises, but it’s really not that bad.  This trailer has been so great for us and still brings us joy.  The only negative is that we are paying to store it. Over three hundred bucks a month to store and not use it.  Not sure what the best path forward is on that, but I am interested in talking about options including making some more plans to use the thing. This is only our second trip of 2025 – our lowest use-year to date. I do have some other ideas for us so we will see what we can do. More to come on this adventure…