Eleven Questions

Okay apparently we are being meme-y on the internet this week and I am not complaining because these things are fun to read, fun to write, and easy on mah brain. Elizabeth tagged me. So. Here goes.

1. What is your favorite type of cheese? I have no real feelings about cheese. Maybe... any cheese that is not smoked? And preferably melted. For to dip things like chips.

2. What are you excited about? Hmmm I... don't know, actually. Sad. I have spent the last few weeks so filled with nerves and dread and worry that I don't think I have been looking forward to anything. Let's remedy that now! *brisk clap* Okay, I think I am excited about summer, at least the kids being home from school part. (I miss them.) I am alllllmost excited about my new iPhone coming this week. (I have never owned an Apple product, and now I will. I don't even know who I am anymore.) And I might get to go on a road trip in August to the midwest which will be weird but also fun and I could totally get it up to feel excited about that. Oh! Oh! And we are taking a day trip to the beach on Monday! Okay I just hit legit excitement. Good talk.

3. How did you celebrate your last birthday? What awesome thing has your dad done this week? (I think I answered the birthday thing in the New Year survey, so I changed the question, don't mind if I do.) Y'all! My dad is retiring from teaching! Teaching, which was a late-ish-in-life career change for him (when I was a senior in high school), after many years (and several master's degrees) in corporate America, which was after several years in the military, and anyway it turns out he is pretty awesome teacher, and has been for almost twenty years now. And he is retiring and his kids and colleagues love and respect him, and we do too. We are super crazy proud of his work and (warning: cheesy ahead) the difference it makes. You should watch this sweet and funny video some of his students made for/about him. Love it.

4. What is on your bedside table? A lamp I used to love and now find incredibly ugly, an alarm clock blinking the wrong time, a booklight, a baby monitor whose mate was abandoned months ago in Charlotte's room, a bottle of gatorade, and all these books. (I am currently reading all of these, save one I haven't started yet. Yes really. I tend to read one novel at a time, and nonfiction type stuff a chapter at a time, rotating through each of them once a week or so. I don't know why. Now that I am trying to explain why I have all these books on my nightstand it doesn't seem like a very good system.)

I am also reading another but I took it off the nightstand before I took this pic because some shiz is private from Some People Reading) (not to you, you can ask and I will gladly tell you).

NOT on my nightstand: my glasses. Even though they should be. I can't find them, again, story of my life, whatever.

5. What do you order from the movie theater concession stand? Small popcorn and the largest size of diet coke (for to share!) because only the largest size gets refills, and I want the option for the refill, even though I never actually get it refilled.

6. Do you have a garden? What’s growing? I have some flowers in some boxes on the deck, planted by the previous owners. (They couldn't pay their mortgage and a third of the house was termite-destroyed, but sure! Keep the flowers alive!) Other than that, I do not garden. Although, Nathan wants to plant some dinosaur garden this summer, some something about prehistoric plants that would have grown when dinos roamed? I might humor him on that. He put it on the summer bucket list! It is now sacred!

7. Any summer plans? Well, the dinosaur garden, apparently. Especially now that I have told the internet about it, I have to. Also learning to get into a rhythm with Ali. Also sitting by my pool and reading, hopefully a lot. Also, a week at Montreat with Nathan again for youth conferences. Also, probably more crying than in some other summers. Just putting that out there.

8. Which TV couple(s) are you rooting for? Julia and Joel. (And, in case we never get to see them again, I will put my emotional cheering into Mindy and Danny instead.)

9. What’s the last thing you bought? I can't remember, so I will go out on a limb and say... something from Starbucks? (Oh wait! The new iPhones. I bought those today.) If I wait til tomorrow to post this, I can maybe say new jeans. I think I might need to make a jeans purchazzie tomorrow, because none of my pants fit, because mono. (Not that I recommend the mono diet. I stridently dis-recommend the mono diet.) Hmm I should take a picture like in a diet ad. Should I do it?

(I did it.)

10. What’s one thing you are passionate about? I feel like I always answer this type of question about apostrophe usage, but that is mostly a joke. (Not really. I am dead serious about it.) But also, I think: inclusive language. I am more and more bothered/ranty/willing to fight about how we talk about things, especially in terms of privilege, and propagating stigma. I know that all sounds like a bunch of nothing but I don't have it in me to be more articulate about it right now. Friday! Lazy! Language! Passion! Something!

11. What are you grateful for this week? My awesome Marky who lets me be as chatty or as quiet as I need to be, always. Another Nathan who makes time for me and our creature-of-habit habits, even when his own life gets crazy. My sister who is always in my phone and understands me. My minivan. My guest house fridge full of gatorade. And warm spring weather that is freaking gorgeous. Oh! And a pool to sit beside in said weather.

The rules say I must now tag eleven bloggers: Emily, whose answers to these things always crack me up. Arwen, who hasn't blogged in too long for my taste. Elsha, who (apparently) already knew I would tag her. And Emu, who can use this bloggity survey to kill time while she is in labor any day now.

I'm on a Boat! (Don't Call the Ship a Boat.)

Look! I am all bloggity caught up! And it is (yet another) emotional week here, so let's talk about our cruise! We went on a cruise!

The most important thing to know is that my spleen did not explode. (Someday I will stop talking about the frikking mono. Apparently that day isn't today.) The second most important thing to know is that this was a kid! free! cruise!

(Well, there were kids on the boat.* Just not my kids.) (*Apparently if you call it a boat, you get scolded. It is a ship. A boat is a thing you get on when the ship sinks. We have been on many cruises and had never heard it explained... quite like that.) (Somewhere, my maritime-oriented brother is reading this and hanging his head in shame. Don't call it a boat, Erin!)

So, pictures, for no other purpose than preserving my own memories and hoping that for once I don't have to be the one feeling jealous that someone else got to go somewhere tropical:

on the top decks of Enchantment

I love him. That is all.

Our ship, from Coco Cay

In light of Mark's promotion, Another Nathan made him take this pic
and I am *so glad* because nothing about it doesn't make me laugh.

Cruise ships are so tacky-fabulous they are hard to describe.
Just... whoa.

But some of the cheesiness is totally fun. I will never not love towel animals.

Make sure your travel group includes dapper friends in suits.
You will not hate it. #ProTip

We took a sunset sailing trip around Paradise Island (now home to Atlantis)

my bestest fraaand
(not even seasick this time)

Enchantment of the Seas, at twilight (docked in Nassau)

He's on a boat! (Actually a boat.)

Coco Cay with my very own Marky

On a cruise ship! With champagne!
(Even mono cannot get me down!)

We spent our days in the sun -- by the pool, and one day at the beach, and one day wandering through Nassau where it was hot as the blazes but we found respite at a random rum distillery. We shared bottles of wine every night at dinner and spent our evenings at cheesy shows and floating in the indoor pool and sitting in the breeze of the top deck in the dark. (And one night in a hot tub, drinking tropical bevvies and gawking at beautiful people dancing by the edge of the pool.) We went late to our muster drill (not late! everyone else was early!) and collected hate-stares from the hundreds of people we had to walk by on the way to our lifeboat. We had a sting-y encounter (minor, but still sting-y) with the remnants of a jellyfish. We bought Christmas ornaments shaped like the ship. We spent the second half of the week avoiding a super awkward family from our first night at dinner (we saw them everywhere). We got to snuggle late into the night and late into the morning and keep no kind of schedule at all. We played car games and we all read long books, and most of us got sunburned, but only in odd patches, because of course. We made the same dumb jokes all week, in terrible caribbean accents. It was everything I could have wanted in a week away from real life, is what I'm saying.

Silver Linings

Okay after a fair amount of complaining, I feel like I owe the universe (myself) the admission that there were lots of silver linings in the clouds and misery of April. Not the least of which was our beach trip and (kid! free!) cruise, but also many sweet and helpful friends who brought dinners and gave rides to my kids to/from school, and games and rehearsals and sweet Marky who not only started his new job but also did all the parenting (when he was home), along with most of the cleaning and grocery shopping too, and between all of those efforts, I really was able to cut waaaaay back on things, and rest. I got to the point where I canceled everything "extra" off my calendar, and got rides for the kids for as many things as I could, and tried to limit myself to a One Thing Per Day rule. Most of the time it was to pick up or drop someone off at school, but other days I got to sneak away to starbucks or go to choir or that kind of thing, and anyway it was all very helpful and I felt very loved.

Also, two days after the stitches/fever/ER fiasco with Charlotte, Anneliese totally found my lost glasses. (Anneliese! Who can never find anything!) She was right pleased with herself, and I was too. I might have picked her up and squealed gleefully and spun her in a circle. Maybe.

And before the whole stitches/fever/ER fiasco ever happened, we spent a long morning at church doing our Lenten cantata, which in hindsight totally pushed me longer than I should have been there (I sang two services and sat one out), but I don't regret for one second that I went and did it, even feeling super sick, because dang we worked hard on it this year, and I was not going to not be there.

We did a somewhat obscure Bach Cantata (39, the 1st movement, if you're curious about that kind of thing) and it was an ambitious undertaking for our choir but whoa dang we pulled it off! Another Nathan is a totally legit teacher and conductor and I felt super proud of him and really proud of us too. (He had some angsty weeks in there worrying that it might not happen well, but we burned CDs, and part-prominent midi files, and made a video of the sheet music against a good recording) (oh yes we did) (I am his I/T person haaaaa HAomg) (but really) and that Sunday was just beautiful.

hm I just realized this pic isn't from Lent, it is from December, but...
it looked about the same, minus the greenery, so just go with it :)
(PS that flute player in the front row is pretty cute, yes?)

So anyway I ended up being really glad I sat out one service (thanks, mono! #thumbsup) because being able to just listen to the whole thing was really lovely. I might have maybe tackle hugged Another Nathan in the hallway behind the sanctuary after he conducted the Bach. Maybe. (No spinning in circles with him like Anneliese though.)

At some point in the last month, Nathan announced that he was finally (!) learning to use the bow on his cello. (I guess they teach the fingering, music reading, etc, just by plucking, which makes sense. I know next to nothing about string instruments, actually.) He offered to give Mark and me a lesson on using the bow so we said yes, obviously. Hi there, silver lining! I can play cello at a not-quite-first-grade level now!

Also, I bought Nathan this shirt at the Carter's outlet (the outlet store was my One Thing that day), and he loved it, and when we put it on the next morning, he yelled down to me, "Mom! My sperm shirt is the perfect size!"

Sperm WHALE shirt, Nathan. Always say sperm WHALE.

Speaking of clothes and kids and awkwardness -- when left to her own devices, Anneliese will wear every. single. color. she owns, all in one outfit. I call this her "my mommy has mono and is too tired to talk about my clothes" look.

Hmm what else? Oh, here is a silver lining: we went to Dave & Buster's one night to play video games and drink drinks (Another Nathan's Christmas present to Mark), and while I later paid dearly for the drink-drinking part (I didn't know! I felt off but I didn't know yet it was mono!), before that it was quite fun, and also I think (now that I am looking at this picture) that I might have made peace with my haircut. Which means you may now see it:

And, here, enjoy a picture of Charlotte, because she is the very definition of a silver lining in any tough day/season/whatever.

If swaddling a pony (read: insisting Daddy help you swaddle a pony, repeat times infinity) and singing it a lullaby is wrong, she doesn't want to be right.

Happy, Churchyard Edition

Our parenting transition back to real life after the cruise was... whoa. (Is it just me, or does time away make it hard to tell if the kids were always like This, or if This is normal, or if our tolerance for This has just changed, or if we needed some space to see that x and y and z parts of This are actually unacceptable? I don't know. I don't know!) (And Nathan has just been flat-out troubling. Respecting his privacy here, by request, by not detailing it -- but it has been complicated and hard in the way that raising children to be good polite decent humans is often complicated and hard.)

ANYWAY.

In the midst of both being overwhelmed by my children and drinking in their sweet presence that I had missed so much, we found ourselves rolling around in the grass outside church after youth choir. And they were playful and sweet and fun.

And it was exactly what I needed.

Spring Sucktastic (or, Effing Mono)

{Note 5/21: Still playing bloggity catch-up. In re-reading this, I am super glad most of this is over. And May has been... well, exhausting, but in a different way, and much MUCH better than this.}

So! Hi! Hello! It has been a crappy month.

There were some light and easy days (mostly: I got to go on a cruise! with! no! kids!) but basically this spring has exhausted me and kicked my ass and I am all out of feelings about it (that's not true, I am never out of feelings, and sometimes I hate that about myself because again: exhausted) but now that it is (mostly) over, it seems more bloggable, although it is all just going in this one post because although any one of these things would have been hard on its own and deserve its own ranty post, I am out of rants and words about my feelings, if not the feelings themselves (omg was that all one sentence? You know what, I don't even care).

***

Okay so I got mono. Can we just take a moment to note the fact that 33-year-olds do not get mono? That is some bullsh!t for teenagers, right there. Not exhausted moms of three kids.

The diagnosis came two days before Mark started his new job. Meaning he could not miss work. Meaning I had to manage life, and all the kids, and blah blah blah the logistics are boring, but suffice it to say "rest" was not really an option there for a while. And can I just say, my life is super hard with mono. I admit it.

*** 

In the throes of the mono, Charlotte fell down the stairs and sliced her forehead open. She was going up to bed by herself (guilt) for Nathan to tuck her in (guilt) because I was alternating between flat on the couch in fever misery, and crying on the bathroom floor in vommy misery. So she fell. And it was an injury-causing fall. She needed three stitches, she was in pain, I had to manage all three kids at the ER for many hours, by myself, after bedtime, with a mono fever. Also I could not find my glasses anywhere. Not being able to find things makes me crazy. Not wearing my glasses makes me feel super disoriented and out of it, obviously, and a fever makes it worse, obviously. (Nathan suggested I use my old ones. Besides being the six-year-old-hero who tucks his baby sister in bed because mommy is sick, he is apparently also the only voice of reason in my house when I am overwhelmed and throwing up and sick and my child is bleeding from the head OH MAH GAH THAT NIGHT SUCKED SO MUCH.)

A nearby church does a "blanket ministry" for kids whose parents rush
off to the hospital without lovies and such. To that church I say THANK YOU.

So anyway it is over now and the stitches are gone and she is left with a perfect little Frankenstein scar line of stitches and I secretly call her Frankenbooler in my head every time I see it.

***

Okay this is the one that I wasn't sure I would ever tell the internet about, but it turns out I want to: Charlotte let go of my hand and ran into a street in front of a car, and she is fine (fine!) but it was still every bit as traumatic as you would assume. I ran after her and grabbed her, and the person was driving really appropriately slow and was paying attention (insert here times infinity: THANK GOODNESS), and there were slamming breaks and squealing tires but she missed us both.

You always assume you would throw yourself in front of a moving vehicle for your child, but when the day comes that you actually do it, it turns out it is super traumatizing, and you spend many many hours afterwards in tears.

Also, and this seems laughably irrelevant juxtaposed against the bigger picture (she is fine!) but it adds to my horrible Feelings about the whole thing so I am saying it anyway: my pants are all too big (mumble mumble mono something) and they totally fell down to my knees when I ran and lunged into the street. So I was sobbing and scared for my baby girl's life, with my unders showing. It was emotional and embarrassing and yeah, THAT DAY SUCKED A LOT TOO.

I feel very sure this is an event that will haunt my dreams for years. Ooof, is that too heavy? Back to something else.

***

So as if all those (kinda big) things weren't enough, there was also:
- a long-awaited pair of rx sunglasses that the optic assistant broke and had to re-order before I ever got out of the office,
- a broken dryer,
- a g/i bug that hit everyone but Charlotte and me, who fled the scene in immuno-compromised mono panic,
- pool ladders with missing parts,
- a broken heater/ac in the guest house,
- a never-ending saga with diagnosing and fixing a weird smell in the car (we fixed one problem before we realized it was tires, which was a huge pain and involved several trips for purchase/alignment/messed up appointments/etc),
- an extra trip to the ER, right when I thought my mono was better (nope),
- in which the whole (!) hospital was full (FULL) and they treated people in the waiting room,
- a dormer window upstairs leaking rain into our foyer through a light fixture in the ceiling
- our (semi-celebrity) neighbor's kids drinking in our yard on weekends, loudly and while littering

WAIT WAIT I'M NOT DONE.

***

We went on our cruise which was just lovely, but when we got back, the parenting was super hard, like miserable hard, like existential crisis hard, for several weeks (*side eye Nathan*).

AND it turns out while we were on the ship, a cement truck doing work next door had their line explode, and cement blasted all over our car and house (and even one house past ours). And then in cleaning it up, they pressure washed off our house paint. Mark is still working on getting all of this fixed with the contractor.

And, finally and sadly, my engagement and wedding rings never made it off the cruise ship. I am super sad about this. I know it is "just" a Thing, and doesn't change my love or my marriage, but to me it is a Thing that matters. I guess it is also a Thing that you can only lose once and get lucky enough to find it again. *sob*

May will be better.

Alleluia!

{Update 5/21: Still catching up on the happy things from April. Still not in the mood to hit "post" on the Craptastic. Instead, here is some Easter loveliness.}

We had a fun and lovely Easter this year, which I desperately needed, because April was hard, and also because I felt super detached from church through Lent (with mono, I was trying to do only the most bare minimum of outings, so extra worship services seemed expendable, and I guess they were, but dang it messed up my churchy rhythm, especially in Holy Week, and good grief I just realized I sound like a big ol nerd, but there you go).

We had the kids up and Easter dressed by 7:30 (!!) (Mark and I would like our parenting medals now) which means we got to barrage them with pictures before we went to church, which was totally worth their eye rolling because I loved all of their spring outfits so much this year.

Our church, like many, does a flowering of the cross every year on Easter. All the children bring plants and flowers and decorate a cross in the courtyard -- bringing new life to a symbol of shame and death, which is kind of the whole point, yknow? Anyway it is a cool thing that the kids love, and this year they were the first ones at church so they were the first three flowers on the cross.

We went back after all the services and took some pictures, with Another Nathan too. I've said it before and I'm sure this won't be the last time either: we love being his Raleigh family.

Because I was trying to lay low, we didn't make any grand brunch or big meal plans, which at first I felt kind of sad about but then ended up being a good thing. We just did a simple dinner of mini Easter pies (there is nothing made from puff pastry I won't eat) and a strawberry almond tart (thanks for the idea, A'Dell!) that looked nothing like the picture in the recipe but was kind of tasty nonetheless. 

Nathan and I spent the afternoon making it, and he basically did it all himself. I supervised a lot but he is getting really good at reading recipes and stirring carefully on the stove and slicing gently (while I watch nervously and try not to panic). He spent a lot of his cooking time saying adorable things like "Do you think the blended strawberries will taste like a smoothie? That is my hypothesis." (He took a kitchen chemistry elective at school last quarter. You could have guessed that, right?)

Anyway he has been my kitchen buddy for years, and I love it more than ever.

So, yeah. It was a sweet day. Happy Easter!

Erin's Rules of Cell Phone Use

{Update 5/20: In catching up on blog posts I found this in my draft folder and it has nothing to do with anything; I wrote it a month ago (apparently on my phone, based on all the terrible typos I just corrected) and it amused me, so I'm hitting publish. Hi! You missed me in this corner of the internet, yes?}

With all the crap "old" people like to give "young" people about the "dangers" of cell phones and security and whatnot (all those quotes are because obviously the scolders and scoldees are not always defined by age or generational lines, but by how scared they are themselves of "technology" -- I don't think that word means what most people seem to think it means -- and frequently those people doing the most warning are the ones who least understand what they think they're warning about. Hence, "warning.")

ANYWAY I am here to be the person giving some crap back. Let's talk about current etiquette, because these things change, you know, and I would hate for anyone to be so out of touch that they are rude without intending to be, right? I also have many thoughts on social media (which, yes, is a relevant enough thing now that you do need to learn to do it well) but for now let's talk about phones.

1. Turn your phone noises off. Vibrate is okay, ring noises and notification noises and game beeps and music are not. There are some exceptions (wandering around the mall or the grocery store is... whatever), but for the most part, if you are stationary in a public place -- not only official meetings, but even in restaurants, waiting rooms, etc -- no one wants to hear your phone beep. Be honest, you're already staring at it anyway. You won't miss a notification. Turn it down. (Addendum: if you are too confused by your phone settings to know how to turn it down, you should not have that phone. Get one you can manage kthx.) You have a one-oops grace period on a noisy phone in public before people give you hate stares.

2. Don't call anyone before 10am or after 9pm unless you text and ask first, or have a standing thing, or a phone date, or whatever. (Somewhere my parents are applauding this. Oh how they fought to keep me off the phone after 9. I am with them on it now.) It is invasive and kinda rude. Just ask first. No out of the blue early/late calls.

3. Group texting is ONLY for people who ALL know each other. This is crucial and non-negotiable. I will repeat it: ONLY for people who ALL know each other. Don't loop me into a thread full of people I don't know, telling you something that has nothing to do with me or a group I am part of. Congrats on your baby's cute valentine card or your fancy new car or whatever, but don't tell me about it with a group of other people by text when I don't know them. Then I cannot get out of the thread! No.

3, let's review. I will say it again (in case you missed or think you're a special snowflake with a special snowflake reason to copy a bunch of people into a message who will then be riddled with replies from folks they don't know): group texts are ONLY for people who ALL know each other. No special snowflakes. Okay? Okay.

4. If you need to talk to someone in a public space airport/waiting room/etc, step away. We don't want to hear it. If you're the type of person who does this, I promise you are the type of person who also does it TOO LOUDLY. You are not important or interesting enough that we secretly are curious. Nope. You are who our grandparents warned us about with these newfangled portable phones. Go away.

I'm sure there is more, but that's all I've got for now. Whew. Glad to get that off my chest.

Another Bumgarner Beach Week

{Update 5/20: I have not blogged in so long I don't know where to start, and I tried to start by telling about the sh!tstorm this spring has been, but then I decided that even though it has sucked, there have been some fun lovely things too, and I feel like thinking about that today instead. So, the brief version of the sucktastic: I got mono, Charlotte sliced her forehead open, a million things in our house broke, and and AND (longer version of the sucktastic can wait for another day). Here is something happy instead.} {Yes I said mono WHAT THE FRESH HELL.}

Bumgarner beach week, in happy pictures.

All the grandkids, post egg hunt. You cannot even imagine the shenanigans my dad was pulling behind the camera to make them all laugh like that.

All my kids wanted turns holding baby Sully.

Ashley's kids have the best facial expressions. I want to pull this picture of Sully out anytime I need to say "come at me brah." And from Liam, he is clearly saying "b!tch please."

Anneliese and I have cornered the market on excellent beach hair.

Look at all my sweet babies! (I made them stand like this because I have a photo of just Nathan and Anneliese like this and every time I walk up the stairs and see it on the wall it makes me sad that Charlotte isn't in it. Hey! I have three babies to look at the ocean together now!)

We don't love being up bright and early, but if we're going to be, it might as well be for the beach, right?

We take this picture every year, my dad with all the kids. This year everyone is happy, and is almost looking at the camera. (We have some years where everyone is crying. Which is funny. But this is better.) Someday I want to line them all up and we can watch the babies multiply. I remember when it was just Dad and Nathan!

Bumgarners on a beach! Ashley and I made everyone climb out of their beach chairs and smile for this picture; we flagged down a random passer-by to take it for us. They all roll their eyes at taking the pics, but some day they will thank us for having the pics. Oh they will. (Mark is still exhausted from the Salzburg incident of 2002, so I don't think he is ready to thank us for all our photo memory-making just yet, but he will get there.)

This has seriously become one of our favorite weeks every year. Dad and Cathy are so lovely to keep making this happen, and the kids just love running around and playing with each other. (Nathan and Anneliese barely know what to do with themselves on the rare occasions we are on a beach without their cousins.) It makes me feel warm and happy and fully of family nostalgia, even as it is happening. Even with mono.

Sweet Cousins

My kids got to hang out with Alana this morning, all together for the first time, and it was just too impossibly sweet not to share pics:

They brought her a birthday present -- a stuffed dog they picked out/made together at Build-a-Bear a few weeks ago before she was born. It has three hearts in it because awwwwwww.

And then I got to snuggle the baby while Barbara napped, and I did not hate it at all.

THAT HAND! THAT CHEEK! I just cannot.

And now I shall nap too, because I can. Spring break woo hoo.

Random Spring Break Updates

I was having a conversation recently with some teenagers I know, and they were telling me about some kid they knew who got a bad grade and as punishment, since she didn't have a phone to take away, her parents took away her clothes instead. I mean, not all her clothes. Just her cute clothes. So she had to wear jeans and tennis shoes. GASP. Y'all, they were horrified. Jeans! And tennis shoes! Okay this is when I know I have moved into a mom generation because yeah, that still looks totally normal to me. But they were horrified. Appalled. Rallying the troops to bring her different shoes to borrow. They all claimed they would rather have their phones taken away than have to wear jeans! and tennis shoes! to school.

Really? Really??

Okay then. I am clearly a fuddy duddy mom, because I rock some tennis shoes with jeans frequently and without shame.

Also we canceled our cable which has nothing to do with anything except it feels like a giant weight off our shoulders. Also it means we watched the HIMYM finale live like it is still 1998 which was really fun and nostalgic with take-out and excitement and whatever, and then it sucked, and I hated the ending, and it crapped up my mood for a whole evening. Yes, a television show. You can judge me, I don't even care.

So. It is spring break this week. We have been using our staycation time for things like taking Nathan to the dentist, followed promptly by Dunkin Donuts, where Nathan ate a donut with a peep on it (SO GROSS) and drank an iced coffee, much to the judgement of the man working there (who is a little scary anyway) (but it was decaf! and FREE. shut it, dude) and the most lovely part is that we ate outside.

We also spent a morning at a bounce house place, which was very calm and chill and not overrun with children, which I loved. And Mark took the kids to the zoo which they all loved. And we had the carpets steam cleaned this morning because nothing says SPRING BREAK! when you're in your thirties like getting the carpets steam cleaned, right?

The kids were somewhat tired waiting to be allowed back inside after the floors were done. I found this picture on Mark's phone and it made me laugh:

And I found this one which made me grin, because HI BOOLER I LOVE YOUR SMILE:

Oh and also I got a haircut yesterday, which I am feeling sort of meh about, which is why there is no picture. Basically I went into it wanting some highlights, and a trim but not losing a lot of length. Instead, my hair was so super damaged, with burn spots (my hair dryer keeps igniting, which everyone is horrified when I tell them about, but simmer down, I will get a new one soon) and fried ends so high up that we ended up needing to cut off eight inches to get the damaged part (almost) gone. So yeah it is a lot shorter than I was ready for, and it is fine, I know objectively it looks normal and fine or whatever, I have had hair shorter than this many times in my adult life, but I just... wasn't prepared for it this week. I miss my long hair! I am sad! (I will be fine.)