On Cars and Such

 I rode in a Tesla to get to work today.

We are having a saga at our house. Last Thursday evening, Brad had an epic flat. As it turns out, the rim cracked in the whole process. Not a big deal. We dropped it off at the mechanic in town. With Covid and techs being out and parts taking longer, we are supposed to get it this afternoon. We can function pretty well with one car and just a little juggling.

This morning, Brad and I were dropping Issa off, and then the plan was for him to take me to work so he could have the car for all the things today. However, as we were pulling out of the parking lot it started making a terrible noise. We are thinking wheel bearing. It shouldn't be on the highway.

So...I Ubered to work, and I will Uber home. The plan is to drop off the Subaru when we pick up the Ford. We are lucky that we have options and make it work, but it is a saga.

Back in a School

 For the first time since the Pandemic started, I spent an entire day in a middle school. I was invited to do a college and career prep session for seventh and eighth grade, and it was so lovely to see so many kids and spend an entire day back in a school.

That said, it was also surreal. These teachers are heroes. I was even more tired at the end of the day. With masks, the energy demands are so much higher to emote and hear and project your voice. The sanitation work takes time, and my hands were dry by the end of the day.

But...kids are still kids. They make me laugh, and they have adapted to this new normal. The school has had five Covid cases all year because of their protocols, and kids are learning. It's a good thing.

A Big Weekend for the Boy

Evan had a very big weekend! Saturday, he and Dad drove to Rockingham, NC to watch some amateur and semi-pro drifters. Evan has loved playing drifting video games, and he had fun watching them in real life:

Brad actually tricked me into believing Evan got to ride in one of the cars when he sent me a video. It was not funny. Evan is pretty sure he would like to go watch again, though!

The big highlight was last night, though. For his birthday, we gave Evan tickets to the Dude Perfect live show. It has been postponed twice due to Covid, but we finally go to go:

It was so fun to watch him laugh so hard. While we were waiting for the show, the boys were watching some of the videos online:

And then we got to see similar things live! They did trick shots, some of the favorite segments, and were generally ridiculous. Evan was thrilled.

Evan doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve, so it's extra special when he gets really excited about something. I think it's an afternoon none of us will forget.

 

A Crowning Achievement

Issa was supposed to have her big dance kick-off a few weeks ago, but it had to be cancelled due to Covid. They are now doing a shortened version next week. 

One of the highlights of the kick-off is the coronation. The plan is that every year any new Monarchs will receive a crown that they will wear every year from then on. This year, everyone has to create a crown, though! Since the event is shorter, the teachers dropped off crown kits for the girls to decorate this week. Issa was on it:

She had so much fun making a crown to match her sparky personality:

Pictures really don't do her sequin goodness justice, but I sure do love seeing her so happy!
 

Cozy Fall

 Fall is absolutely my favorite season! I love the coziness of it, and the animals agree. We are finally starting to have some temperatures that feel like fall, and Neela has claimed my pillow stack as her cozy spot:

And the kitten cats have taken to curling up together:

We have never had two cats that are as close as these two, and it makes my heart very happy to see them all snuggled up together.

A Fall Treat

When Issa and I went to the grocery store on Saturday, she fell in love with a little pumpkin that said "Boo y'all" and had a little ghost on it. Her eyes lit up so fast I agreed that it could be the exception to the no outside decorations rule. By Monday, a squirrel found it:

By last night, the squirrel had really enjoyed it:

We are considering it a little fall treat for our squirrel friends, but Issa is less amused than the rest of us.
 

I Work with Good People

I work with really good people. A couple of weeks ago, we were talking about how grateful we were for all that our campus doctor and the entire health department have been doing to keep us safe. We know they are stretched thin, and we wanted to bring them some joy. So...we decided to make a visit last Friday. One of our department dressed up as Gumby:

We carried signs and brought flowers and candy. The health center truly was so grateful, so we decided to visit the other offices that have had to stay open and work to keep us safe:

It was a little thing, but we brought great joy. I love that the people I work with are so quick to think of others and then act.
 

Celebrating a Happily Ever After

For the first time since Covid hit, we went to an actual wedding reception this weekend:

 We had to get Evan new dress clothes, and we all had to remember how to do this. It was surreal, but it was totally worth it!

Ryan and Emily were actually married in April, but they held a very small reception to celebrate Saturday night. It was outdoors, and everyone there was vaccinated, which made us all feel so much better. We are still tip-toeing into the out. 

We loved celebrating with them, but mostly we love seeing Ryan so very, very happy. 

What a Week...

 This has been quite possibly one of the craziest weeks we have had in about forever. Last night just put the icing on the cake when Buddy broke his toenail all the way off. I will not post the picture, but we did send it to our vet who graciously talked us through how to cleanly remove it. Basically, it is just like when a human drops something on their foot and loses a toe nail. He is fine; I am almost recovered. TGIF.

Happy, happy birthday, Issa!

We had a fabulous weekend celebrating our girl turning 15:

After pandemic birthdays, I was truly overwhelmed by watching Issa's people love her well on her birthday--including a few that were surprises even for me!

Saturday morning, Issa actually got to have a birthday party! Her competition dance team joined us at AR Workshop:

I had so much fun painting pillows with these girls:

They are truly just fun people to hang out with! Our teacher had also been a competitive dancer, so she jumped right in--watching their videos and laughing with us:

And the gifts were so incredibly thoughtful. A butterfly necklace:

A World's Best Mom candle because she is the one who is always prepared with the Band-Aids and snacks:

A photo album of them over the years:

I kept tearing up all morning just watching them love each other so well, and the final pillows were pretty great, too:

Saturday night we had birthday dinner number one at our place, and Issa opened Evan's gift:

He had wrapped it in 15 layers of tape, and she was not amused:

But it was worth it:

She now has her very own copy of her favorite movie, In the Heights:

We were supposed to go to a dance performance, but Issa had been mildly glutened and opted to just stay home and watch the movie and have cake:

She woke up on her actual birthday to the usual decorations:

She also got a surprise visit from her dance student with an Easy Bake Oven cake:

She had dance rehearsal, where they sang to her and had brownies from the local bakery:

I sat in the car and snapped a picture of their celebration before they yelled at me to come join:

Issa and Nana went shopping, and we all met up for Maggiano's. She came home and blew out the candle on her cake so she could send a picture to Etta:

I am so, so proud of this girl, and it makes me so happy to see her celebrated so well.
 

Seasonal Fun

One of the many perks of working in an education department is that we still get to have a little seasonal fun! I very much look forward to changing my message board throughout the year, and my new fall décor makes me very happy:

 The bonus is I get to see that cute little gnome every time I look up from my desk. 

Grateful

 We are finally really settling into a routine and the new school year. We have the general drop-off and pick-up schedule figured out, and we are a lot less tired at the ends of the days. We are eating more solid meals, and the house is actually staying tidy. We have found a groove.

A huge part of that groove has been Brad. Since he is the only one home during the day, he has taken to throwing in laundry and cleaning the kitchen. He has jumped in for me on pick-up when I have a random meeting pop up, and he has taken to fixing me breakfast and packing my lunch. (I am good at a great many things, but taking care of myself is not always one of them.) 

Beyond everything, I'm just so, so grateful for him. He makes our crazy possible in so many ways, and I don't know how to do life without him--I'm awfully glad I don't have to.

We had the most lovely, quiet weekend. I did some yardwork and Brad did a little garage cleaning, but other than that it was just rest and family time. We toyed with the idea of a beach or zoo run, but we decided we were all tired and a little rest was exactly what we needed!

The only big thing we did was decorate for Halloween. I am usually a stickler for waiting for October 1, but it's Issa's favorite holiday. I did put my foot down about waiting on the outside things, but I am loving the fall mantle:

Tora is also loving snuggling Squish:

If the last 18 months have taught us anything, it's that we double down on the little things that bring us joy. Watching Halloween movies all snuggled up on the couch brought us great joy, and now we have an extra month to enjoy it!
 

We Made It!

 It's Friday! We made it! We are slowly settling into routines, and we had a great evening last night with very little homework and time to enjoy some fall weather on the front porch.

This was supposed to be a big dance weekend for Issa, but those plans got cancelled. We are looking forward to a slow, quiet, restful long weekend!

I feel like this sums up life right now:

 It was the best of times. It was the most puzzling of times. I feel like I am constantly scratching my head trying to figure out the next right thing.

Thankfully, Brad is really stepping into the breach. Yesterday I literally packed myself grapes for lunch; I forgot to actually make the sandwich because I got interrupted by something. This morning, in addition to making me breakfast like he does every morning, he packed my lunch. We are laughing our way through this crazy transition and the Delta variant, and there is no one else I would rather do life with right now.