She Said Yes

This is was a very fast and very fun weekend. Mom, Shannon, and I met Becca in New York to do some bridal gown shopping! We all met up Friday evening, and we had an amazing Italian dinner. I had chingale for the first time state-side, and I was very, very happy.

Saturday morning we have breakfast at the hotel before going to Kleinfeld's:

These people know what they are doing. Becca was able to share her vision with the consultant while the three of us cozied into a couch. We stayed put, and Becca got to play fashion show! I don't remember exactly how many dresses we tried on, but I do know we found the most perfect dress:

Complete with a champagne toast:

We had lunch at Eataly and did a little shopping before having a super cool dinner at Beauty and Essex. We found a few of the recipes we want to try, including the most perfect tortilla soup with a cheese dumpling and a kale and apple salad that was amazing. 

Sunday morning we had brunch before Mom and I flew back. 

We had such a fun weekend catching up and chatting about wedding plans. It was a whirlwind, and I'm so tired, but I am very, very grateful we were able to be together and find the perfect dress!

 

That Did Not Go As Planned

Sunday afternoon was Monarch's season debut! We had a great morning getting ready and were out the door early:

Stephanie snapped a picture of the seniors before the show began:

And then things went south. 16 counts into Issa's first dance she went down. She did it very gracefully and got herself off stage, but I knew it was bad. When I got backstage she was in the wings with Brooke evaluating. Thankfully we have a team mom who is an EMT. She ruled out bone and really, really bad. As a true gift, Stephanie told her she was done for the day, and we were advised to go straight to ortho urgent care. 

Our Monarch family stepped up. Vicki all but carried her to the dressing room to change. Her team helped her plan for her littles and stepped into that gap. Moms hugged me and helped me pack. Issa stayed freakily calm, and we headed out:

We received awesome care and a super cool brace:

She was diagnosed with an ugly sprain after a lot of images. Given what we were afraid of, Issa was thrilled. She was cleared to dance in the brace as tolerated starting yesterday. She did everything but big jumps and up and down off the floor no problem. Her senior season is going to happen!

And Kai came in clutch. He drove Mom and Evan home and then joined us in urgent care:

He is so sweet taking care of her. 

Everything could have been so much worse, and we feel so lucky and so loved. I would also like to never do that again thank you.
 

Extra Cozy and Special

Since it has been cold, the critters have been extra snuggly. Issa is still very much Inks's person:

And just look at those toe beans:

And then there is this knuckle head:

Why sleep on the bed when you can be under it!
 

Book 2

 

I finished book 2 of 2024 this week:

I'm still in the Poldark world, and I'm still loving it. The characters keep growing and shifting in interesting ways, and the story is evolving over the decades. It's just nice to visit somewhere else for a while every morning and settle in to see what is happening with this circle of friends. I am already worried about what I will do when this series ends. Thankfully, I still have seven books left.

You Say Yes

Brad is traveling for work this week, and Issa was at Kai's for dinner last night, so this guy and I were on our own:

Mondays are usually his sacred alone time. He emerges for dinner, but aside from that he kind of does his own thing.

Last night, though, he asked to hang out. He made bean dip for dinner, which we ate on the couch watching TV, and then he asked me to play Madden with him. I lost every game, but boy did we laugh. I'm grateful for the times he wants to hang, and I will always say yes.

 

That's a Wrap for the JV Season

Evan wrestled his last JV tournament for the season on Saturday:

This was our only tournament that was divided into tiers as well as weight class. Evan was not thrilled to be placed in the top tier, which was mostly upper classmen. He only lost on points in the first round, and that kid pinned everyone else in the first. He was also a junior who usually wrestles varsity. We'll take it! 

Now we wait...the varsity team is still wrestling through the play-offs, so we will see if Evan gets more mat time. He is truly fine either way. I think we are all hoping he at least gets to go to see some of the meets as a back-up even if he doesn't wrestle.

It's Cold

 We are freezing down here.

Brad and I were laughing this morning about how when we were little 18 in January felt warm. Now it's freezing. The kids actually had a three hour delay yesterday because temps were in the single digits. I actually wore my winter coat into work today.

It's funny how quickly cold becomes relative. We are looking forward to some 40s this weekend, and we are very sad this cold didn't at least bring some snow.

A Big Wrestling Weekend

We spent most of the weekend in a gym! 

Friday, Evan started in the varsity tri. He lost on points and then got a pin! Brad and I had a blast sitting with a bunch of other wrestling parents. They are just a fun group. 

Saturday morning, we were up way too early to go to a JV tournament. The team had a great day, and Evan took second:

He lost by one point to the guy who took home gold, so we will take it:

He is very excited to have a metal that actually has wrestlers on it. His one medal from last year has a volleyball player on the front even though it says wrestling on the back.

He just keeps getting better every weekend!

 

A Big Win

Evan had a huge wrestling tournament last Friday! He had three matches:

He won the first one on points, got a pin on the second, and won the third on points:

That meant he officially won his bracket:

He also got his first black eye:

That pictures was when he walked off the mat; it got way worse. He actually ended up with a broken blood vessel, so his eye is pretty gnarly. He thought it was pretty cool until the adrenaline wore off and he actually could feel the pain. 

We are so proud of how much he has grown this year, and it was so fun to have such a huge win!

 

Slow Reentry

This has been a gentle reentry into the real world. I'm back to work as of Wednesday, but I have not had to drive in yet. Students don't arrive back on campus on next week, so I have been able to do all of the paperwork and what not from home. It was even warm enough to do some of the work in my tree house:

I still love that space! The wifi is shockingly strong, so it's a nice way to get some fresh air and be productive at the same time.

I also finished book one of the new year:

I'm still loving the Poldark series. It is now officially past the point where the BBC show left off, so I really have no idea what is going to happen! The show did depart from the books quite a bit, so I've had plenty of surprised up until this point, too!
 

A Very Merry Christmas Break

We had an absolutely lovely Christmas break. I literally did not turn my computer on the entire time, so this will be a big catch up!

We started the official festivities the day Aunt Shannon landed on Thursday with our annual sugar cookie adventure. Kai joined this year, and it was his first time making this kind of cookie:

The siblings humored me with one decent picture:

And we created our usual crazy assortment of cookies:

Nana did request one plate of normal ones to take to the neighbors, and we managed to make that happen.

Saturday poor Nana went down with a stomach bug, so Shannon and I took Issa shopping. We did get plenty of dressing room door footage to share, and Issa humored us with a full fashion show! 

Christmas Eve was at Nana's house:

Our pajamas celebrated Issa's college choice this year:

We had a great evening of mashed potato bar, gift giving, and watching Frosty the Snowman for research purposes (more to come on that later).

Christmas morning saw Santa's arrival at our place:

Evan has a pretty big ask, so he was surprised to still see three packages under the tree for him:

Santa brought his requested VR headset along with some video gaming fuel in the form of chips and soda.

Issa's Christmas started her college preparation, and Santa brought her all things coffee, including a Nespresso, pod drawer, and cups:

Nana and Shannon joined us for a charcuterie lunch:

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing a Christmas version of Dungeons and Dragons and cooking. Brad smoked turkey and pork belly, and Mom and Shannon brought sweet potato latkes and brussel sprouts.

The next day Shannon went down with the bug, so our final celebrating was delayed until Thursday when we did a Frosty themed Cake Wars.

Brad and Shannon's team stuck to the central character with their stacked cake pops and rice krispie treat hat:

Mom and I recreated the green house scene where Frosty saves his friend but melts in the process:

We had a tough team of judges, but they ultimately awarded Brad and Shannon the win:

New Year's Eve found us back at our place finishing the D&D campaign while munching all the things: cheesy potatoes, potato skins, and Greek nachos. New Year's Day we finished the whole to-do list at Nana's house before Shannon flew home! I managed to take not a single picture.

The rest of the week was a lovely combination of cozy and chaos. There were snuggly fires:

I finished book 37:

I'm still enjoying the series, and it was nice to have some extra time to read! I also started cross-stitching again, which has been lovely.

We also had two wrestling tournaments:

Both were two day tournaments with top teams from across the region. Evan learned a lot, but he didn't get a win at either one.

I will be forever grateful for this coaching team, though:

They have to be exhausted by they just keep showing up and coaching! Evan is still enjoying wrestling, and he's excited to have the varsity starting position at the meet tonight!

Brad and I are back to work, and the kids went back to school today! It's looking the 2024 is going to be a great one...

 

So Much to Celebrate

We had another really fun weekend! Friday night, we went over to help Nana with her giant tree since she needed our big ladder:

Kai got to experience decorating Nana's tree, which was hysterical on so many levels. We had no idea he had never decorated a tree before. His family has the cool tradition where the parents decorate and then reveal the tree Christmas Eve. Nana has the world's most organized tree, so it was hysterical. We all laughed all night, but Kai's final evaluation was "it wasn't very efficient." I'm still chuckling.

Dad also started rearranging the snowmen so they can admire the tree:

Saturday we had the neighborhood cookie walk:

It is such a fun event, and this year was even lower stress!

And, Issa's college decision was officially announced on the school's social pages:

 It has been so fun to see so many people in her village repost and celebrate her!

I'm officially off work until January, and today is the kids' last day of school. We still have wrestling, but we are so looking forward to settling in for a very merry Christmas.

All's Well That Ends Well

 Yesterday afternoon and evening was just a hot mess express!

Issa and I got caught in an accident on the way to our facials, so we were late. Thankfully, they were still able to give us our full treatment because we were their last clients of the day! Amazing! That meant we would have to book it home to get Issa to dance and make it to Evan's wrestling tournament.

We walk our from facials and the car battery is dead. We hadn't left anything on; it had just reached the end of the road. Not amazing. We call AAA, but it will be an hour until they get there, and where I am parked it's impossible to get a jump. We let the studio know Issa will not make it to dance, and Brad comes to tag in to wait for AAA so I can head to the meet. 

AAA comes and can jump it but can tell we also need a replacement, so Brad goes to Advance Auto, who was awesome! They replaced the battery and were super nice.

Issa and I missed Evan's first exhibition, but we got there to see the second. He lost on points in the first and got pinned in the second. This team was incredible, and Evan now has a goal to learn more cradle escapes. That was their move, and all but two of our Varsity guys got pinned last night.

It was not a stellar night on a lot of fronts.

BUT:

The car is good to go, and while we missed some things, it was also not the world's worst timing. No one missed anything mission critical.

Evan was in good company getting pinned, and he is still able to view his freshman year as a growing season. I so appreciative of his attitude.

I got some extra time with Issa, which I will always take as college gets closer and closer.

And...we got word last night that Stephanie went down with a stomach bug. It's been going around the studio--so much so they closed Wednesday to try to get ahead of it. But Stephanie was the one who cleaned, so I'm not sure how successful that was. I'm glad Issa was spared another exposure.

We all got to sit around the table when we got home last night and catch up. Everyone was good, and we are ready for the weekend.

Book 36

I finished book 36 this morning:

I love this series, and I'm very invested in the characters. There is nothing remarkable about the book, but it's just a nice, easy read, which is really lovely at this point in the semester.
 

Life is a blur right now-- a good blur, but a blur none the less. So...this is a random dump!

Our tree is finally decorated. Issa hung the first ornament, her new Meredith one:

I love our tree. Every ornament is a memory, and it makes me blissfully happy just to sit and look at it:

Buddy the Elf is still bringing much holiday happiness, and I love that my teenagers still wake up every morning and look for him. They are also both fully invested in whatever the day's activity is:

But the biggest news is Evan got to do two official varsity matches this weekend, and he got a pin in his first:

 He got pinned in the second, but coach was impressed he held in as long as he did. Only two of our starters won their matches against that team. He learned something in it, though, and he was still so excited. 

Book 35

I received this whole series of books for Christmas years ago, and I am finally making time to read them:

I loved the television series, and the books are every bit as good. It's a great period piece set in the late 1700s in Cornwall. I'm already half way through book two, and I'm so grateful I have the complete set to look forward to!
 

Big Weekend

We had a huge weekend around here. Evan competed in a wrestling tournament Friday night and got his first two official wins of his high school career:

His first match was over in 43 seconds; he won with a massive pin. His second match he won on points 5-3 after two blood delays for the other guy's busted lip. He has gotten so much better since his first tournament a couple of weeks ago. He is learning how to be more aggressive and just try something.

Saturday, Issa had her team dance pictures:

It went so well, and we actually finished early!

Sunday, we had the town holiday parade:

Issa was so excited to dance in her last parade:

It was bizarrely warm for December, but we stayed dry!