Bumgarner (Birthday!) Beach Week

With all the grandkids getting older and starting school, in a variety of school districts with varying school district schedules, we opted last year to move our family's beach week to August instead of spring break. So we had to wait several extra months this year to scratch our beach itch, but we finally made it! And celebrated Charlotte's birthday there, to boot!

(Girl's going to start thinking she gets a trip every year for her birthday.)

I made a laughably fundorable janky sunshine cake, per her beach birthday request, and it was... something. (She loved it.)

In better crafty news, I also made that shirt myself with a roll of iron on glitter paper and a blowing up a fun font and tracing it, oh yes I did, LIKE A BOSS.

Her one birthday request for the beach was to have an egg hunt. Normally we have always been there near Easter of course, and we often do a big family egg hunt outside on Easter afternoon after our beach arrival. Egg hunts aren't really part of our Easter celebration at home, so she totally associates eggs with the beach, not Easter itself. And. So. She wanted one for her birthday. At the beach. BECAUSE EGG HUNTS ARE A NORMAL BEACH ACTIVITY DUH.

After her birthday, the rest of the week was full of drinking and ice cream and watching the Olympics together, which was sort of fun since we hadn't done that together since we were kids.

We also took some of the kids to a tye dye event in the little pavilion by the town hall. Excellent activity.

We waited by a turtle nest for some turtle rescuers to shepherd some babies into the ocean (Holden Beach is a turtle sanctuary and we were there exactly the right week!) but it had already mostly hatched, so we only got to see leftover eggs, no babies.

John and Mark and the kids built a lot of sandcastles. Like, a lot. A LOT. Sometimes I think those two only pretend to be into it "for the kids" because they just legit like digging themselves.

Anneliese figured out how to ride waves in on the boogie board, and spent literal hours doing it. At one point during the week she asked me if there was an olympic medal for boogie boarding. "No reason, just curious."

We had some lovely evenings out on the beach, too. Our normal (little kid) routine had been to bring everyone in by 4 or 5 for dinner and then into bed afterwards. But this time of year, when it's hot in the day and everyone doesn't need to be in bed super early (because Olympics) (and getting older), it became easier to have some a/c time inside in the middle of the afternoon, and play to our hearts' content in the evening. Just so amazingly beautiful.

And fun uncles make things pretty fun too.

Thanks for a fun week as always, Dad and Cathy! It's so fun to see how the kids grow up all crowded around you at the beach every year. We are lucky to do this and lucky to have you.

It seems every Carolinian family has "their" beach town that they go to every year, a thing that is apparently unfamiliar outside of this part of the country. But it happens, it starts to feel like home, everyone has one, and this one is ours.

See you next year, Holden Beach.

Clemson, Brene, Sunshine Charlotte

When I was in Illinois, Mark took Nathan to Clemson for a football game, and he met up with his college roommate Jeff, and his kids, and they all watched the game together. I can't remember the last time I have gotten happier sweeter texts from Mark while I was gone. It turns out that thing we all did in college, where we dreamed of the day we would be back in the fun college places we loved, with our college friends, and our college friends' future hypothetical children? Yeah, men do that too. And it's just as sweet and happy.

I love seeing Marky share his special joys with our kids. (The girls will get their turn next.)

I went on another road trip, too, just a quick jaunt yesterday to Charlotte to meet up with my sister and see Brene Brown give a talk downtown. We knew she would be good, but we weren't expecting her to be so funny. She was great. She is brilliant and sassy and somehow makes both her brilliance and her sassiness super... accessible? Yes, accessible is the word I think I want. Everyone should go and read all of her books, immediately, stat, post haste, yes right now.

A bonus of our night (besides our super ability to find the most flattering light for selfies, OBVS) was that we stumbled into the most random of random Mexican places for a snack before the event (like, random as in, they looked a little surprised to have customers at all, much less white lady mom types) and anyway it ended up being freaking delicious, but on top of that, a group of older men (post-work types? grandpa types? we don't even know) bought us drinks, and tried to buy us more, and just... whaaaa?

That is the first time a stranger has ever bought me a drink in public. It was not what I was expecting. They also did not speak any English. SO. Random adventures for the win.

This has nothing to do with anything, but look: here is Charlotte and baby Claire at the bus stop. She got lots of waves that day.

Also, it's a good thing she is basically a ray of sunshine (at least here) (ha), because this picture was taken the last time the actual sun was out. It's been over a week of rain. COME BACK, SUN.

I don't even remember anymore what this post was intended to being about when I started writing it but! This... (?) is apparently what it's about now! Hi!

Bluffton

We went to the Savannah area to see my brother Brad!

Yes, on the road again. Just a few short weeks after being on the road for many many many days. But it was worth it, because he has a new house and new job and he lives near the beach! Yay!

Y'all, it rained. Boo.

(Charlotte was basically reduced to abject weeping by the time we left town and she still hadn't seen the beach.)

But Uncle Brad was still sweet enough to take Nathan out to the Savannah harbor where he works, and show him his boat, and the container ships coming in and out, and even let him sit in the captain's chair. Which probably isn't called a captain's chair. That's what they call it in a minivan. I assume on a boat it has a better name? A bridge maybe? Is this even a boat, or is it a ship?

I don't know the lingy loo. I am not boat savvy. WHATEVER BOAT NERDS.

And we spent the rest of the weekend lounging with coffee and snacks and Netflix and target toys, which was just fine even though it wasn't the beach.

On Saturday night my sister came down with her whole family too, and one other brother Collin from Hilton Head nearby, and we threw the kids in bed and drank a lot of Draaanks and played Cards Against Humanity and here is what I have learned about my family while playing drinky card games:

1.) Brad has a super sick sense of humor. Not sick in a good way. Like, sick in a wide eyes way.
2.) Ashley's husband John cannot make a joke without explaining it. CANNOT.
3.) I miss Marky when everyone else is hanging out and he's not there.
4.) Collin's girlfriend has no idea what she's getting into if she wants into this Bumgarner mess.
5.) Brad and Marija were champs to have all of us in their house at once. Champs I say.

CHAMPS, I SAY.

It was a weekend of bad sleep and I came home exhausted, but I am so glad we went. It's fun whenever we can all be together, and it doesn't happen enough. Also, the kids and I didn't mind at all being on the road even more. We have gotten good at it! We listened to The BFG on the way down, and Matilda on the way back, and the kids loved both of them. I had forgotten how either of them ended, and was startled on both counts.

And now I need to crawl in bed and sleep for many days. I am officially traveled out.

Things I Am Crabby About

Happy April! I am crabby.

1.) I don't know if it's a cold or allergies or what, but my head is killing me and I am sneezy and this is terrible timing for going to the beach next week.

2.) It is still cold out. It's getting ridiculous. I cannot remember a winter that lingered this long. We are back to life, back to reality, spring break is over, yet it somehow isn't spring yet. Spring, you suck, and you're over a month late, and I'm pissed at you.

3.) This morning in preschool chapel, they celebrated Easter. IN THE MIDDLE OF HOLY WEEK. There are still crushed palms on the floor that have been poignant and achy (appropriately so) for the Lent services all week; I don't want to watch kids doing a choreographed hallelujah cheer in the middle of Holy Week. I mean what? Why not wait until next week? It'll be actual Eastertide then. Today would have been much more appropriate to do a lesson around the Last Supper, or even the Hosanna parade from Palm Sunday (since they were on spring break last week). Not Easter. Not yet. We are doing ourselves and our kids a disservice when we cheapen church for them. TELL THEM THE WHOLE STORY. (Hi I have officially become a curmudgeon.)

4.) Delta changed my schedule home from the Blathering in Seattle in a few weeks (my connection between Salt Lake City and Atlanta is now a misconnect) and that's a normal thing they're totally allowed to do, and they don't owe me any particular connection points, and I certainly didn't pay to stop in SLC for any amount of time, and I had to look on the timetables and then use a million search filters to force the website to offer me that option anyway, because the schedule is terrible, but I WANTED the stop in Salt Lake City (hi I am a worker-of-the-system), because I had an hours-long layover and dinner plans with Liz. And now I don't get that. And it's not the end of the world, but: CRABBY. (Mostly sad.)

5.) The stupid B key on my stupid computer still doesn't work, and that makes it hard to type an all-caps word like CRABBY.

6.) There is a general underlying assumption about my time: that I am around, available, and at everyone's disposal, to schedule (or unschedule) things for me, and even at the last minute it's assumed that's fine. I, uh... I exist outside of what People need me for. I am not a public commodity. And yes this is cryptic because Some Of The People Who Do This are reading here, and I am too chicken sh!t (and exhausted) (and passive aggressive, apparently) to address it directly, I just need to be pissy about it and vent for a second. I feel gross and taken for granted. (If you think you might be Some People -- check yoself. Whether it's about me or any other stay-at-home-parent you know. Our time is not "free time" or "available time" unless you PLAN and ASK. End rant.)

6.) April Fool's Day makes the whole internet annoying. Pranks are annoying to me anyway (#teamRoss) and half of what people post are not even pranks or April Fool's jokes. Saying something that isn't true? Not a prank. Shut up. It's annoying. (And companies who need to make their ads and promos into jokes are even worse than the general population.)

7.) Nathan gifted Anneliese one of the clay boat hulls he had carefully molded for his science project (the project is done now), and she broke it into a million tiny pieces and put it in a ziplock bag. And then looked at me confused when I told her it isn't really nice to break something someone gives you, especially if they made it. She was all, "why? he gave it to me so it's mine." How can kids be so wonderful and have such awful moments? (Not singling out Anneliese, either. Charlotte has been tantruming in the pre-dawn hours every day for the last week, and Nathan took a huge amount of nagging to do said science project in the first place. IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM I DON'T WANT TO MANAGE IT.)

(I got lost in the Wal-Mart parking lot a few weeks ago -- yes really, shut up, it was more complicated than it sounds but I don't care enough about explaining myself to explain myself -- but then I found this bright scarf, and it came in a 2-pack but I threw the other one away immediately, so anyway at least I have a relatively pretty $3 scarf? Whatever.)

Next week will be 75 and we will be at the beach and life will be less annoying right?

The New Year: Minus Eighteen

Minnesota, take three: the one where I laugh at myself because I thought it was frigid cold when it snowed in the middle of November last fall, but that was before we showed up to visit Another Nathan in January and it was EIGHTEEN BELOW.

What I'm saying is, Mark and I have a new record for cold under our belts. We don't have to live in it all the time, therefore we can laugh about it. And also totally brag about how hardy* we are. (*Not that hardy. We were wide-eyed and mostly horrified. Ask  me if I remembered to pack a hat and gloves. Go ahead, ask me.)

Anyway, we had some air miles, a free place to stay, and free coverage for the kids (thanks Ashley! and Grandma!) so after several of the worst and most chaotic days of 2014 (seriously the van broke and the washing machine broke at the same time, and it was also the day my sister's kids were visiting, and that is a LOT of repairmen and rides to juggle with six children you have no way of transporting, but that's a sob story that is long over now), we happily boarded a plane at the ass-crack of dawn so we could have a grownup getaway for New Year's Eve weekend.

We had a fancy NYE (slash Mr. David's birthday) dinner at a trendy foodie place in downtown Minneapolis. (If you're reading this in MN, go to Coup D'Etat - it is a cool space with a great bar and a delicious menu, and we loved it.) We ate some crazy ridiculous tasty food and had some Kir Royales and other fun champagne cocktails.

Mark ordered bone marrow, proving he's the only actual foodie amongst us, but we all tried it, so HEY ADD THAT TO THE NEW THINGS WE DID IN 2014 LIST (yes we made a list).

(Bone marrow not pictured. You're welcome.)

And then we went to a really fun symphony concert with delightful music, which afterwards had a party with more champagne and there were light-up tambourines and a free vuvuzela (there is almost nothing in life that Marky loves more than an unnecessary vuvuzela) (and let's be honest, they are allll unnecessary) and two stories' worth of crowds cheering in fun glow-stick type lighting, and Sylvia McNair singing "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" and it was just all.. so fun. Laughing fancy fun.

And not because we all buzzed that vuvuzela on each other in any inappropriate ways or anything. We are for sure too classy for that. Ahem.

Our very favorite people for ringing in a new year, true story.

After our fancy night out, we had some easy slow days at Another Nathan's house. Exactly the kind of cozy and lazy you want when you're kid-free with no agenda except to hang out and recharge. We slept laaaaate every day. (Mark slept more than he has in literally months.)

This is thirty.
(Read: thirty-four.)
(It's not 2015 til I creep on naptime with phone pics.)

We ventured out for a few lunches and dinners. We listened to Nathan practice at church. We made a fondue dinner together. We had winter cocktails by the fire.

One afternoon the boys all went to see the Hobbit movie (zzzzzz amiright?) (Mark and Another Nathan have seen all of them together, so it's some sort of tradition for them) while I stayed home and read in his bathtub which is a thousand percent better than our kiddie-bathroom non-garden tub here at home.

We wandered around St. Olaf since Mark had never been there, and it's so lovely in the snow. We went to church with Another Nathan and heard THE St. Olaf choir sing in his worship service (his church founded the college and choir, so it's an annual tradition to have them sing there) and it was stunning.

And! We went to Sarah's tiny town and got to see her again. Two times in two months!

This time I got to meet her husband and she got to meet Mark, and y'all! Like internet friends turned real-life friends aren't great enough, meeting each other's spouses is even better. We had a double date at this little restaurant on a lake, except it's MINNESOTA IN JANUARY so the lake is totally FROZEN and you can WALK ON IT.

(Okay, all ye people of the winter, who just shrugged -- all the southerners just read that and gasped, I promise.)

We thought it was the coolest thing, and I wasn't even that nervous* except at first (*bold-faced lie).

Oh! Here is another awesome Northfield thing. One night we went downtown for drinks (and popcorn! best, right?) and I somehow left my phone in the bar all night. When I when I went back for it the next day, not only did the owner see me through the window and open up the closed bar for me, and know exactly what I was there for, he had also called Nathan's church to say they found it (someone there saw him and thought someone said he worked at that church), and, AND! They had charged it all night. Charged my lost phone for me! SMALL TOWNS, MAN. Delightful.

Almost delightful enough to make up for that thing where it's minus eighteen degrees in broad daylight.

Nathan, David, Sarah: I would like to put each of your faces in this cartoon:

So. Good trip. Happy New Year, y'all.

First of Fall

It's fall! Happy beautiful fall! To those of you who have refrained from drinking your pumpkin-spiced things until today, I thank you. You, my people, are part of the solution, instead of part of the problem. Here, have some bonus Erin-loves-you points.

It actually got legit chilly (well, NC version of chilly) this morning for the first time, and sometimes I like it when the the weather aligns perfectly with the calendar. It will get warm again, surely, and the leaves aren't changing yet, of course, but I did put a leaf sticker on my to-do list, so there's that.

(Yes, really.)

The kids put on warm(er) clothes which always makes me want to hug them extra. Charlotte (whose giant bruise is courtesy of falling out of her bed yesterday morning, oh my accident prone delicate flower) has been counting the days til she can wear this new owl sweatshirt, and when she put it on she kept saying "Bow owl has pockets!"

Yes, sweetie, the owl has a bow just like you always wear, and there are pockets, and I am delighted by your delight in those things. (The hood also has ears, which she says are her favorite part.)

Also mostly these days she just cries at everything and nothing (THREENAGER), so hey if this sweatshirt is what quells it, I will take it.

Nathan also eagerly pulled out his new favorite sweatshirt, from Montreat, and if this cooler weather means he stops asking to wear the yellow shorts every day, I will take that too.

Anneliese has been sad of late, and she did not want a picture (unusual for her, in any kind of mood), but rest assured she looked falldorable today too.

Welcome back, hoodie season!

Yay September

It's September! I love September. It is still warm, hot even, but not opressively so. Feels like fall is coming but the chill itself isn't here yet. Kids are back to school and full of energy and smiles. Facebook is a dream of first-day photos, and very little arguing or stress. A routine is coming back. The whole lovely fall is still ahead of us, to look forward to. I like that.

I'm not sure what else I have to say about that besides... yay September?

So here, look at some pictures instead.

Nathan and I went to Starbucks with our library books and it was lovely. Often I am a chatterbox, and he can be one too, but sometimes when I want to be with someone, but also be quiet, he is just the best.

(Mark also gets millions of points in this department.)

Anneliese and Charlotte snuggled on the couch for a bit. This is rare. So I took a picture.

Also Charlotte and I took some selfies, because we just do that a lot.

Note the "I just stopped sucking my thumb for this pic" thumbs up that is the clear mark of a Goettsch child.

Aaaaaand here is a sperm whale wearing a onesie, because emu says I don't know how to blog without mentioning a sperm whale, so why not prove her right?

Also, I feel very sure no one reading this (THAT'S RIGHT I SAID NO ONE) is has ever seen a sperm whale wearing a onesie. So... you're all welcome. (Nathan also says you're welcome.)

Also heeeeeeeeey my sweet Montreat friend Liz was here last night. We went to dinner which was meh and got lost in an office building parking deck because I thought I knew I shortcut (spoiler alert! I didn't) but the drinks were good and the company was great, and here is part of our little dinner group and besides my adorable Marky, mostly I just want to say isn't Liz SO PRETTY?

I mean she is a wonderful human too, of course, but seriously so! pretty! She's my favorite thing about Utah. (I have never been to Utah but I can still say this with certainty.) Even the MoTab choir is only a very distant second. Yes, I get to call it the MoTab choir I HAVE A PRETTY FRIEND WHO LIVES THERE SO I CAN USURP THEIR COOL NICKNAMES. (Our other friend in that pic is Amy. She is pretty fantastic too.)

That's all I've got for today. Happy September.

The End of This Summer

Well since labor day is over and Nathan started back to school last week and the girls start back to preschool tomorrow, I guess it means summer is over... and I feel complicated about that. I don't know whether to feel relieved that this season is passed (because it kinda sucked), or cry because it isn't what I wanted to be and I don't get to go back to re-do it, time being one-directional and kind of a bummer like that.

I am trying to think less about Mark traveling so much, less about the sad screamy-baby months, less about the best friend goodbye, less about the largely-untouched bucket list of family fun -- and think more about the lovely moments (yes! they were there! swearsies!) and fun trips and and new memories. I'm trying. I am! But I'm having trouble shaking that overall, it wasn't what I wanted it to be, and now it's over.

Blah.

At least we did up our last day of summer in style. And by "in style" I mean in a frenzy. Although you would never know it from this here, right?

Besides Charlotte being halfway out of the picture (even after I tilted the camera to accommodate her), and Ali working on her poetic Thoreau-contemplating-Walden gaze, we look like a completely together and un-frazzled lot, yes? Right? SAY YES.

So anyway our frenzy involved taking an extra friend, Beatrice, for the morning (there was a fifth kid) (of course there was a fifth kid) (she is a friend of Anneliese's and her mom needed to work and she is a dream to have around, and after a few days of Anneliese being weepy, she needed some happy distraction so I have never been gladder to have a fifth kid, actually) and then getting Nathan on the bus and Ali to her first day of MMO (see, that's how the fifth kid thing balances out, you send two others to school).

Also, it should not be called MMO, not only because I'm an aunt, not a mom here (and isn't it all about me?) but because I am not the only non-mom who might want or have a kid in the program, and the language around it is gross, and I will begin my campaign to change it shortly.

Like after some more coffee.  Several weeks's worth.

So Ali went to church and I took the big (big?) (middle?) girls out for coffee treats, which was really fun and cute until Anneliese spilled hers and then even Beatrice couldn't quell the weepies. Sigh.

Starbucks with outdoor seating + September = RECOMMEND.

We regrouped and went back to church to do preschool orientations, which were all fine and easy. Charlotte's teacher is one we already know well (both Nathan and Anneliese also had her, but at different ages). Anneliese's teacher is new to us, but seems like maybe the most on it preschool teacher I have yet to encounter, so I'm pretty thrilled about that match.

Anneliese found her coat hook and she loves it.

She also took posession of a rainbow nametag.

Charlotte danced in the hallway with no one watching, as she is wont to do, and then stopped and got all smiley instead when I wanted her to do more.

Then Beatrice and Anneliese climbed on her, because we are the dream family to have lingering in preschool hallways when teachers are trying to do orientations.

Seriously you want us around. We are delightful. And definitely not loud or anything.

And then we skipped grocery shopping to swim in the pool because y'all, the schedule only had so much room.

Also it was hot as the blazes outside. Is it September? It was like mid-nineties today. I literally sat under a bush by the pool like freaking Jonah, just for a tiny spot of shade. I took a picture but it ain't pretty so you don't get to see it.

And then we went back to church to pick Ali up from Aunt's Morning Out™ because apparently three round-trips in one morning is how much I needed to drive to church today. Oh wait! I also did two more, for children's choir in the afternoon, after Nathan's carpool! Yay! Five round-trips! My life is full of meaning and purpose. Wait, what? Anyway.

Ali did just fine at church this morning and was smiling and happy to see me after lunch and she napped hard after her big morning.

But not before she pooped all over me and then (after I took my shirt off) spit up all over my back and down my jeans so I got to do extra laundry and get an extra shower today! I also got to change not one but TWO sets of poopy underwear, AND wait in a carpool line that was longer and slower than it would have taken the bus to get home. Sigh, again.

MEANING AND PURPOSE.

But actually it was not a bad day, just a frenzy. After a few sad no-Another-Nathan tears, Nathan had a fun first children's choir of the year, and he and Anneliese were giggly and playful all evening, excited for her school tomorrow reading books together and practicing writing. Anneliese wanted to write a letter, so Nathan showed her how to write hi and I love you, and I think the love might have just been a heart shape, but it still totally counts. Also she wanted to dot all her i's with hearts, which I would have (probably patronizingly) discouraged, but Nathan sweetly told her "okay just make them as tiny as you can," which is why he's a better person than I am.

(Queen poopy crabbypants went to bed early. If you pretended not to hear her tantruming upstairs, watching Nathan and Anneliese together was lovely.)

Whoever tells me to *cherish every moment* gets a chair to the face.

Hm  it occurs to me (brace yourself, obvious epiphany coming up) that sometimes real life tedium and lovely tender moments happen all at the same time, and maybe my disappointing summer can be disappointing but also okay too? No happy ending needed. No brilliant closure better-next-year takeaways required. Just letting it be what it was, missing what it wasn't, and now starting the next thing.  I think I will try to be okay with that.