monday mash up, April 30 edition

Happy new week everybody! So far Callum and I are managing to survive without Papa pretty well, although it's lonely around here. You know? The dogs never saw his suitcase, and I I think they haven't realized he's out of town! We had a crazy busy weekend, which helps, but with Neel gone it feels like ten times the work, not just double. I shouldn't complain. This happens to us very rarely, and I have a really helpful 12-year old to keep things running. Although Neel had a plant delivered the minute he left that he'd been waiting on for weeks. Callum and I don't know how to take care of it, and we're freaking out.

We were gone all day Saturday. It was picture day at baseball, which meant we had to be at the ballpark over an hour before the game. When I left I the house, I worried that my sweater was going to be to heavy (remember my red neck of last week?) and I ended up freezing my butt off the entire game. Like, literally shivering. It was the! most! exciting! game! we'd! had! all! season! Neel's plane had just landed as things were getting interesting, and I texted him updates as our guys (warning: baseball content ahead) went from down by three to Callum putting us on that board with a sacrifice bunt, to Callum losing a tooth, to us tying the game, to them going ahead in the top of the last inning, to us loading the bases in the bottom, of the last to us scoring a final winning run. TEN-SION. But so exciting! I pride myself on knowing my sports, but Neel said that getting my texts was just like sports radio. Blush. I really try not to talk baseball too much, even though it's what we live and breathe around here, but man, that was an exciting day.

Cal had a party Saturday. Girl's birthday party. 134 kids. DJd dance party. Crazytown. He said it was fun, but a lot of dancing. While he was gone, I went to Nordstrom's with a girlfriend and may have bought some lipstick. Maybe. We went to Aveda so I could refill some hair stuff I use and both got free hand massages! BONUS! Later that night as I was heading back out to pick my Cal at his party, about five police cars went screaming down our normally quite street. And I mean screaming-fast police cars. I stood in the driveway with my neighbor on my way to head out and we probably watched fifteen more cars pelt down the street. Just before I left, a police car pulled past our house, headed the other way to tell us that the people involved had been detained. Which was reassuring, sort of. I avoided that way out of the hood, but the next morning, Callum and I headed down the street to find that sign. Apparently a car had jumped the curb, plowed into the street sign and the side of a house. That's what we call excitement around here.

Sunday afternoon, we headed back down the street to a reception for a neighbor who is running for city council. All my Norfolk friends, don't forget to vote tomorrow! The reception was held in the backyard of our mayor's house (that's him there talking in the last photo), and we ate a little and chatted a little. I wanted to take a ton of pictures of this gorgeous yard for Neel, but I felt like that might look a little odd. Callum is a great wingman at events like this because we barely know anybody, but we really want to support the people who have worked so hard for our city and continue to do so. It's funny. Neel gets made at me when I get restless (this is the longest that we've ever lived anywhere), and Callum must have my wandering gene because he chatted with me a bit saying that if his school weren't here, he might want to live in a different kind of town. For me, it's not the town so much as...I don't know, I get hemmed in by suburbia. And yet, I love our neighbors and neighborhood. I get silly and yearning sometimes. But yesterday afternoon, as we walked home from the mayor's house (and let's face it, how cool is that?) down the middle of the street, all I could think was how lucky we are to live here.

Cal and I had our artichoke dinner Sunday night. We've been taken so well care of. On Friday our friends Rebecca and Evans invited us for pizza, and last night our next-door neighbors and dear friends Tyler and Catherine asked us to join them for dinner as well. Since we had the artichokes steaming, we just sat with them, but how lovely was that. Low golden light, and kids running in the back yard. You'll see some photos from that dinner soon, I think. As I described eating artichokes to Catherine, we decided maybe we needed to have a dinner dedicated to things you dip in butter. Good idea, yes?

So what was everybody up to this weekend? I see that some of my favorite ladies got together and that makes me very happy! Does it feel more like March than April where you are? I'm so glad I haven't packed away my sweaters yet. They're promising warmer weather later this week. I'm ready. Really ready.

So I have a lot to say, but posting may be light this week. I'm feeling the weight of the work I have and hanging with my boy. He's missing his dad for sure and needs my attention now. But first I have to go run the dishwasher.

Monday Mash Up, April 23

Happy Monday Peeps! Our weekend was as full as expected; how was yours? Callum had a great baseball game this weekend, highlighted by my first redneck sunburn. Woot! I got my face and the front of me covered in the sunscreen really good, but not the back of my neck. It feels like a learning curve every year, this whole spring time thing. Next week: sundress and hat. I'll be in better shape. After the game we went to Lowes only to discover that they don't make the glider and chair that I wanted for our front yard anymore. That's a huge bummer. I'll need to do some research to see if I can find them somewhere else. Then Neel and Callum went to the train store. I made it about ten minutes before heading back to the car to read a magazine! I like the train stuff once it's in my house and my boys are putting it together, but the train store is not so much my thing. I don't make them buy lipstick with me, so I figure it's fair.

We went to dinner Saturday night. First let me mention my gin and tonic. You'll note the photo. That's the gin. The tonic is in the bottle behind! Impressive, yes? I knew I had to post that shot for Leah, and that many of you would appreciate it. When I first had a gin and tonic at this restaurant, I thought, "Oh! Nice pour!" When our server set my drink down in front of me. Aaaaaand then he added the tonic. Ah yes. That was nice. And bacon lolly pops too.

Yesterday was the forensics tournament. Noreen asked in the comments on Friday if the parents got to watch, and we didn't. We drop the kids off at 12:30 p.m. and come back for the awards ceremony. Sadly, Sunday was not the day for our boy. Just before three, I got an email from Cal that said, "Hi! Waiting for callbacks. I think it went well." We emailed back and forth a bit until finally at 3:30 he wrote, "No callbacks for me." Heartbreaking. We met up at the awards ceremony, and I saw lots of friends from our old school which was just lovely. And let me say this. We try really hard to teach our son about fair play and sportsmanship. He was a good sport, and supported his teammates even though he didn't win. His school came in second over all, which was awesome. However. When the host school wins first place in five of the eight categories and places in seven of the eight, well, that feels a little suspect to us. We waited until we were in the car, but once safely inside, we didn't keep our mouths shut. (In fact, it was a little tricky to keep Neel's mouth shut during the awards ceremony. He was keeping stats on his program.) The fact that Cal's old school, which generally does a tremendous job in this competition, only had one winner, is mind-boggling to me. So while we generally don't disagree with refs or upms or judges; in this case we did and it felt great. Made Cal feel better too, and that's all that matters to me.

Also, apparently today is my birthday. Who knew? In some years, my birthday is met with much anticipation, and in other years, like this year, well, as I said to a friend last week, it may as well be January it feels so un-like my birthday. Another friend of mine has a theory that off years (the non 0s or 5s) feel like that, but last year was an off year, and we did more. I'm not bothered by it. Just kind of interested. But! I'm getting a facial in the morning and having lunch with a girlfriend. We had a nice dinner out on Saturday night, and we'll do something easy for dinner, although there will be prosecco. There will be presents too. I always save my presents until the end of the day. It's not hard for me at all. Can you do it? Not sure if I'll be here on Tuesday. I might just let the good times roll.

Love you, ducks! How was everybody's weekend? xoxo