High Five for Friday (5.12.23)

 

One

Today my sister, Sara, turns 40-something years old. Nearly a decade ago, Will and Hallie made up a birthday song for her. They put their own lyrics to the tune of Sarasponda* - because the word "Sarasponda" contains the name "Sara" - and every year they perform it for her over the phone or in a video. 

Sara Ekena turns 34** on May 12th of this year.
Sara Ekena turns 34** on May 12th of this year.
Ha-PPY birth-day! A happy, happy day!
I hope you have a lot of fun and eat a lot of cake. Yum!

I've spent the last hour trying to find a video of Will and Hallie singing this song to her - I KNOW one exists - but unfortunately I've come up empty-handed. I also know they won't agree to perform it for a video to be shared here (though they absolutely WILL sing it to her over the phone tonight), so I'm forced to celebrate Sara by posting cute pictures of us through the years. Happy birthday, Sara. I love you.

* The original Sarasponda is here.

** They change her age in the song every year.

Two

I spent what felt like most of last week handling a variety of PTO responsibilities. I'm certainly not complaining, of course - I love volunteering with and for both PTO and the kids' schools. I am, however, realizing that last week marked the final time in my kids' academic "careers" that my (school-related) volunteer loyalties would be divided between two schools. That's right - next year both Will and Hallie will be in high school, which means my time on the Board of their middle school's PTO has come to an end. I'm excited for the possibilities this newfound "free" time will allow me, but I wish the hourglass would slow down...

Three

Last Friday night was our final Lads event of the season: the end-of-year banquet. I was running around like a crazy person during most of the night so I took zero pictures, but I did grab these two pictures from other moms who were more on top of things with their cameras. 

2022-2023 Varsity Lads

Varsity Lads Mamas

We held the banquet at a new sports and event space (Legends, in Bryan) which meant that when dinner and the awards had wrapped, the boys got to change clothes and go play soccer, dodgeball, basketball, volleyball, and arcade games. They would have stayed all night if we'd let them.

~

I wrote this about Will's (first year of his) high school soccer experience, and it all rings true again this year. My favorite parts of the season are the relationships established and strengthened during early morning workouts, after school practices, ice baths, hours on the bus, and late night stops at Whataburger and Buccee's. The laughs shared over good food at team dinners. The camaraderie forged through shared triumphs and defeats. Pridefully representing your high school locally, regionally, and throughout the state of Texas. 

Being a part of something matters, and I'm so grateful Will has been able to be a part of this.

Pregame ritual = disc golf in our yard and in
the empty lot across the street from our house.

Just for fun, one more with Will's fathead.

Signing off for the final time this year...

#wegoagain

Four

Tom spent the last two weeks working in Michigan. When he had a little free time, he visited Ann Arbor - where we lived for 6.5 years while Tom was attending graduate school at the University of Michigan - and our old stomping grounds. He took a video (which won't load) of our old house, which looks mostly the same, and photos of Tigers Stadium, one of our favorite parks/disc golf courses, and the American Red Cross, where I worked. I don't regret moving to Texas, but there are definitely things about Michigan that I miss a lot.

Five

We have new babies! Milton (the one I'm holding in the first picture, and the one who isn't look in the group picture) is the social butterfly of the group. Kirawee (who we're calling Kira), is petite and shy*, but she clearly wants to play and I can tell she's trying exceptionally hard to come out of her shell. Wooloomooloo (yes, that's his name, but we're calling him a combination of Wooly, Louie, and Lou) is a the tuxedo babe, and while he's PAINFULLY shy*, he's stolen my heart. Hallie and I are committed to socializing Kira and Louie..."the sweatshirt" (see pics below) will be most certainly be part of the process!

* These kittens were born in foster care with Six Kittens Rescue, so it's a little strange they're still - at seven weeks old - so shy. Just goes to show that they have personalities all their own, regardless of where they're born and how they're raised!

** Hallie is the queen of the comforting, nurturing, socialization kitten sweatshirt:

Curly

Aretha

Bill, Molly, AND Annie

Dumpling

Happy weekend, friends!

"Fixer Upper"

Right before we moved into our house nearly 12 (?!) years ago, we - in partnership with the sellers - replaced our countertops and backsplash. Throughout the last decade, we replaced all of the appliances (the refrigerator more than once), then a few years ago my mom and I added hardware to the cabinets and drawers, and over spring break my mom painted the kitchen walls for us.

But the kitchen still felt - for lack of a better word - blah, to me. And so, after years and years of hemming and hawing and trying to decide what I wanted to change, what colors I wanted to use, how I wanted it done, and when I wanted it done, I finally pulled the trigger and had our kitchen updated. 

First we removed the drop ceiling light and the less-than-functional light over the sink, added pancake lights, and refinished the ceiling. Then we painted the cabinets and drawers (our cabinetry is well-made of quality materials and is still in good shape) and replaced all of the hardware.

The difference in this room, and by extension all the rooms the kitchen touches, is night and day. 

The process took five days. The beforehand prep and the afterwards labor (moving everything out and then putting everything back in) were extensive and it was tough living in varying levels of chaos while the work was being done (the kitchen was completely closed off four days, the laundry room was closed off for two full days, and poor Plié and Popeye had to live in the playroom from start to finish), but I'm SO glad we finally made this happen. 

Popeye, wondering why there were
so many boxes out in the kitchen...

Oh right, that's why. That's a panoramic photo of the office, where
we stored the majority of our kitchen for the better part of a week.

Plié and Popeye had to go outside by way of
the playroom's exterior door. They did NOT like it.

An "in progress" photo I took for my mom by
unzipping the kitchen's plastic cocoon and sticking
just my arm through the slightly open zipper gap.

If you're interested in who we used for the project, let me know - I'm happy to share their information!

High Five for Friday (5.5.23)

 

One

As of today (at 12pm), all four of Hallie's four STAAR and EOC tests and Will's two EOC tests and first-ever AP exam are DONE! They (we?) made it through that challenging test "season" in one piece...which means it's now time to study for finals.

Two

On Friday night a severe thunderstorm rolled through town right around the time ballet was ending and pointe was scheduled to begin. Because we live less than a mile and about a 90-second drive from the studio, a few friends joined us at our house to ride out the storm. These ballerinas were excited to discover that keeping us informed during the storm was our celebrity Mother Ginger (meteorologist Shel Winkley) from last year's production of The Nutcracker.  

Three

Will made the tough call to skip a soccer showcase in San Antonio so he could compete in the area chess tournament. His decision paid off: he went 5-0 - accumulating the highest number of points of any player in the tournament (and highest number of points possible) - to win the high school division.

When I arrived for the awards ceremony, I asked Will how he did and he explained that while he'd won his first four matches, he'd lost his fifth and final match. I gave him a hug and told him I was proud of him no matter what, and then he went to sit with his team and I found a place to sit in the back of the auditorium. (Where I ended up holding a stranger's baby for the next 45 minutes, but that's another story for another time.) When the time came to announce the winners in the high school division, I was expecting to hear his name called for maybe 6th or 5th place. But those places were awarded to other players, and then 4th was awarded to another player...and then 3rd was awarded to another player...and as 2nd was awarded to another player, I realized that he had - per usual - just been messing with me. When Will was announced as the winner, he stood up, looked over his shoulder, and winked at me before heading to the stage. 

"Mom, it was more fun that way, right?"

I'm not sure I agree...but I am sure I'm proud of him.

Four

Tom has been out of town for two weeks, but he's returning home tonight. My "gift" to him was taking care of the lawn in his absence:

This is how Tom takes pictures of the lawn when he wants
to show me how well-coiffed the freshly-mowed grass looks.

I've actually always liked mowing the lawn, and while I enjoy it less here than in other places we've lived (the ground here is different - like a sponge - which makes mowing so much more physically difficult, there are a lot more critters in the grass, and it's too hot outside), I was still happy to take this one task off Tom's plate.

Five

Happiness Highlights

April 21st - the latest we've ever had the fireplace on.
(Hallie's phone to document the date. I forgot to post
this pic last week, but it still deserves a place...we
went from winter to summer pretty darn quickly.)

Inside the bathroom stall at one of the places
where I regularly set up shop with my computer.

Playing "blindfolded" chess with Will to
help him prepare for the chess tournament. 

Unsurprisingly, he beat me. I don't know how he does it.

They came back again. The moment these flowers push
through the soil and bloom is of my favorite spring happenings.

Will's high school hosted the State Gymnastics Championships. I couldn't let
something that cool take place so close to home without going to see it, so on
Saturday I spent a couple of hours watching these fantastic gymnasts compete. 

This is Binx, who used to be Bader. His family went out of town
last weekend, so we took care of him. He wished we were his mama
every time we walked in, but we were happy to see him. (He was,
however, thrilled we were there to feed him - sweet boy loves to eat.)

First swim of the season!

Happy weekend, friends!

Monthly Medley: April 2023

Writing

No articles this month, but my fingers certainly weren't idle: I spent a lot of time writing - "about us" blurbs, mission and vision statements, position descriptions, etc. - for the two Boards on which I'm currently serving. It's been fun to flex the (writing) muscles I used at the Red Cross more than a decade ago but haven't worked all that much in recent years. 

Reading

This month I read How to be Eaten by Maria Adelmann. The novel, about five women who gather in a support group-like setting to share their traumas, was much different than what I usually read....which is probably good, given that I mostly read true crime and murder mysteries. The story gives off dark fairytale vibes, with each of the characters taking a turn as protagonist and waves of intrigue weaving their edgy, twisted stories together. 

Watching

Hallie and I added Leap Year and Look Both Ways to our Corona RomCom list. I hadn't updated this list in quite a while, so it was fun to go back and look at all we made our way through during the pandemic. I'd seen Leap Year many years ago and didn't quite remember the ending; Hallie, on the other hand, watched seven minutes of the movie before she called the ending perfectly. I think she has the romantic comedy formula figured out. (We still watched and enjoyed the ever-so-predictable movie.) Look Both Ways, which essentially tells two parallel stories - stemming from one moment on the night the main character graduates from college - simultaneously, didn't follow the typical romantic comedy formula. I made quite a few predictions as we watched, and I wasn't right...which made the movie even more fun. 

Tom, Hallie, and I finished the second season of The Mysterious Benedict Society, and were then crushed when we read that Disney decided not to film a third season. 

I watched The Night Agent and Who Were We Running From, both on Netflix, by myself. The Night Agent was tough to get into - I think mainly because I initially didn't like either of the main characters - but it and they grew on me as the episodes played on. I'm glad to hear a second season is coming. Who Were We Running From - about a nameless woman and her daughter, Bambi, who live a glamorous but fugitive-esque lifestyle - was one of the strangest shows I've watched in a long time. I honestly don't know what to say about it other than even though I wouldn't consider it a good show, I couldn't stop watching it.  

Listening To

I recently circled back around to Serial, listening to both seasons eight and nine. Season eight, We Were Three, is a three-part series about how COVID affected one family, the members of which - one woman, her father, and her brother - held vastly different beliefs about the virus and the vaccine. Season nine, The Coldest Case in Laramie, is about unsolved murder that took place while the host was in high school nearly 40 years ago in Laramie, Wyoming. Both were interesting and engaging, certainly in different ways, but each lived up to the Serial name and reputation with regard to reporting and podcasting.

Following

A couple of weeks ago a friend posted a link to this video: a musical-worthy, song-and-dance birthday tribute by Ryan Reynolds for friend Rob McElhenney of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame. (Disclaimer: the video contains a couple of swear words.) I've watched it multiple times since that day, mostly because it makes me smile and it's the kind of video that if I had lots of time and even more money, I'd spend both making. I've since followed Reynolds on his @vancityreynolds Instagram page (he and McElhenney co-own Wrexham Football Club) and I'm looking forward to watching Welcome to Wrexham, a documentary about the purchase and stewardship of the club by Reynolds and McElhenney.

Wearing

I recently picked up these jeans from Target. They're not particularly high quality, but I wanted to determine if I could wear this style (I'm trying to at least occasionally break away from my usual skinny jeans) - at a lower price point - before purchasing a higher quality pair. I'm reasonably satisfied with them, especially for $32! 

Also from Target, I picked up a couple of these tanks. Young people might wear them as actual shirts; I, however, will wear them as layering tanks. (Remember how we used to wear incredibly long layering tanks? I still have quite a few of those but it's time to start cleaning those out of my closet.)

Trying/Using

Both of these purchases are kind of boring unless you really like organization, but since I do like organization, I'm sharing them. 

I picked up a set of these bins to help reorganize my kitchen drawers. These pictures are not of these bins exclusively, but one set of these bins helped me move things around and get all four of these drawers in order. I will definitely buy these again!

I also swapped out my kitchen paper towel holder - this one was sleek and simple, and very easy to install. (It attached with just a sticky back, but it also came with screws in case your family is really rough with your paper towel holder.) 

Eating/Drinking

I made this Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake - using the strawberry syrup Hallie and I made after our spring break strawberry picking adventure - for Hallie's birthday. If I were making it a second time, I would swirl the strawberry sauce less, and I would cook the cheesecake exactly according to the recommended amount of time. (I didn't think the cheesecake looked done, so I left it in for an extra five minutes...which was a mistake.)

I made a second birthday cake for Hallie's birthday sleepover with her besties. She requested chocolate, and gave me carte blanche...so I used this Chocolate Explosion Cake as my guide and created this:

It was a hit. 

Feeling Good About

• This dog, helping save his best friend dog - who is blind - when he fell in a swimming pool.
• This tree art is beautiful, and the process of creating it is mesmerizing. 
• This incredibly cool (even though it doesn't initially sound cool) photoshoot of the evolution of the school parking lot.
• This dog, who keeps lonely and/or distressed coffee shop customers company.

On to May, friends! 

High Five for Friday (4.28.23)

One

Last Thursday night was Will's final orchestra concert of the year. (They still have one more "performance" at graduation, but the rest of us won't attend that one.) It was especially entertaining with its "Pops" theme, and while Hallie missed it because she had dance, Tom and I enjoyed the show. 

Two

Would an orchestra concert evening be complete without a late-night (and in the middle of a severe thunderstorm) dinner at IHOP?

Side note: wearing my hair like this makes it look completely gray instead of blond with a little bit of gray, so I won't be doing that again. Lesson learned.

Three

Both kids spent at least part of their weekend trying out/auditioning...Will at the Rome City Institute Serie A Elite Camp and Hallie for The Ballet Academy's Encore Company for the 23-24 year. Trying out or auditioning for anything TERRIFIED me growing up, so it continues to make me particularly proud that both kids are so willing to put themselves out there in ways I wasn't. 

Four

Happy (belated) birthday, Hallie!

For fun, here's the first (we think) picture of the three of them together. They were three.

Five

This kid won Most Outstanding Teammate for his club soccer team at the club's annual banquet on Tuesday night. The truth is that this year he would have liked to receive a soccer "skills" award or honor. But as his mom, I can honestly say that I couldn't care less about whether or not he ever brings one of those home, and I couldn't be prouder of his accomplishments on and off the pitch this year.

My friend Anne put it best, I think, when she said, "What they don't know is that soccer 'skills' are important for two more years and not remotely connected to future success or well-being. Being a good friend and teammate, though? 100% predictor of better things to come." 

Happy weekend, friends!