Labor Day long weekend

Labor Day is always the last summer hurrah around here, because the public schools all start today (the Tuesday after Labor Day). It’s a little anti-climactic for us, given that Ethan started several weeks ago and Asher last week.

But we had some HOT SUMMER WEATHER this weekend and it definitely felt like “summer”. It was pretty great, actually. I know fall is on the horizon and will be here soon, and I love fall, too, but this hot spell was a nice summer send-off. 🙂

Friday

Asher skipped school and was up north already with his friend’s family.

Ethan had school, but had plans to go stay at his cousin’s house all weekend. (If you recall, Asher spent some time there in August while Ethan was at my parents’ house. Ethan had been bummed to miss out on the cousin time, so we’d arranged that he would spend Labor Day weekend there.) They actually picked him up from his high school at 6:00 after soccer practice and took him straight to their house.

Ivan and I went out for dinner alone and had a little pre-celebration for our 16th anniversary!

Saturday

Saturday was a nice, slow morning since the boys were gone. It was a gorgeous day, too. I sat outside for quite a while and drank my tea on the deck and read; Ivan joined me when he woke up.

Ivan had to go into work for a little bit on Saturday morning, which is rare, and of course had to fall on our anniversary… oh well! I enjoyed a quiet house. Did a huge email clean out and a bunch of household admin stuff.

Eventually I had the bright idea to take advantage of the open time this weekend and fix our master bath ceiling, which has had some issues with peeling paint on the ceiling. “Fix master bath ceiling and repaint” has been on the “list” for a very long time and we never seem to have time to tackle it, yet it has been annoying me every day for ages. So I decided, I’m going to do it!! (Ivan came home from work and saw our entire bathroom emptied out and drop cloths all around and was like….uh, what is happening here…. hahahaha.)

Well. It turned into a Project, involving a couple trips to the hardware store and paint store, etc. Also, I am not an experienced drywall repairer (lol), nor a super experienced painter, for that matter, but, I tried my best. 😩

I spent way more time than planned in our tiny master bathroom this weekend. HA. It turned out decent enough, at least better than it was. (The area in question doesn’t really show up in this pic.) *This project also spread into much of Sunday, since I had to space out the repairs + first coat + second coat…)

Saturday night Ivan had a soccer game at 8 pm (they played Saturday instead of Sunday this week). Since it was our anniversary and all, I went along to watch. 🙂 It was a very pleasant evening and it was actually fun! I forgot my phone at home, darn it. So no soccer pics. 😦 I did remember my book, though, and enjoyed sitting in peace and reading during half-time.

Sunday

The boys were both still gone on Sunday, so I read on the deck again early Sunday morning for a while. More bathroom project stuff ensued, and we also cleaned almost the entire house in preparation for having people over Sunday night. This took up most of the day! But I put some music on and didn’t mind all the chores.

We also squeezed in a quick lunch at Chipotle with Ivan’s youngest brother and a grocery store run. (I stocked up on some stuff for the week; they grabbed stuff we needed for grilling and beer.)

People came over by around 5 p.m. We had Ivan’s mom, brother, Ivan’s cousin/wife/son (and they brought Ethan home with them ;)), Ivan’s sister + her kids and Ivan’s other brother + girlfriend over for dinner and a bonfire.

Ivan made carne asada on the grill, we had frijoles charros (pinto beans with beans and bacon), rice, elote (corn on the cob) and I made brownies. Everyone chipped in and brought parts of it so it was pretty easy to pull together.

I set up the bonfire pit with extra chairs and am usually the designated Bonfire Starter.

It was a beautiful night! Light breeze, NO mosquitoes at all, warm (almost too warm for a fire, really)…we were out there until almost midnight before everyone headed home. We do not use our bonfire pit that often- Ivan isn’t really a fan of “smelling like campfire smoke” (#suchacityboy) 🙄- but he agrees to it now and then. haha. And it’s really great fun with a big group like that. Everyone was talking and laughing and it felt very festive.

Also, s’mores are yummy (in small doses for me- I usually like one full s’more, then 1 extra roasted marshmallow, and then I’m good.)

Monday

Monday was our bonus day, thank God, because it was a late night Sunday.

Slept in a little until like, 7. Ha. I just can’t sleep in anymore no matter what it seems.

I think I made it 3/3 days having my tea on the deck. By 9 or so I headed to the gym, because I ended up skipping my gym workouts Saturday and Sunday! Gasp, I know. But I was just too busy and was so active with the bathroom painting thing and cleaning and all the rest that I just decided to forget it. Not like I was just sitting around. I definitely didn’t want to make it a habit though, so I got back over there Monday morning.

We had family in the house much of the day yesterday again, from ~11-4 or so. (Well, Ivan’s little brother is staying with us, so he’s here most of the time.) But his mom, sister and other brother came back over. His mom made chilaquiles, which is tortilla strips simmered in salsa and then topped with sprinkled cheese and onion. It’s usually served with thin steak and eggs. We didn’t have the eggs, though. They were SO good.

Asher would be returning from the lake by early evening. His friend’s mom sent some cute pics:

Ethan was at his cousin’s until almost 6 p.m…. (They had all gone to our house Saturday night, but then Ethan wanted to go back to their house until Sunday… He had taken off of work, so might as well enjoy.)

After everyone left, all I really wanted to do was…. nothing….but Ivan and I went out to run a few errands. (I had, ahem, wanted to do this during the DAY, but with all the family in town (from, you know, another country and all…) + the holiday, it felt like we obviously should spend time with them for a while! And it was very nice. We all had a really good time, great food, wonderful conversation. But, you know. It’s complicated. 🙃

Anyway, it got much, much later than I wanted to be going out. We ran our errands and also stopped by a few stores to look for some new t-shirts for Ethan. Almost all of his current tees are too small, but we just hadn’t had a chance to get out shopping. I really wanted to at least pick up a few so he isn’t wearing the same couple t-shirts that fit all week! Since he wasn’t with us, I was texting him pictures and asking which he liked. Complicated! Some options…

Eventually we ended up with I think maybe 5 t-shirts and a new zip up hooded sweatshirt.

We also really wanted to stop at a couple of mattress stores. There are always big sales on Labor Day weekend and we badly need a new mattress. Ours is getting soooo old now and it is way too soft for my back issues. The chiropractor said to go as firm as possible!

We hit up two stores.

Eventually we said we were just going to stop “quickly” at a Sleep Number store to see what they had. Hmm. We ended up getting a very, very long introduction to the whole Sleep Number system and were there for like, an hour and a half!!! It was quite the immersive process and experience, though very informative. We ended up leaving with no mattress, though it was tempting and we are still deciding. (The Sleep Number mattresses + bases are $$$…. but also, it’s an investment and the place you spend ~1/3 of your life and I have apparently chronic back issues, so…. is it worth it?? I do not know.) It was almost 8:30 p.m. when I declared: I don’t care about the sale that “ends today”, I am not deciding this tonight. Vámonos!

Finally got home to the boys, made sure they were all situated for back to school and I was asleep by 10!

A full-feeling, busy, yet also very nice weekend. Some fun, some family, some relaxing, some productivity.

Today I have a quiet house today for work, but I need to wrap up early for an eye doctor appointment, then straight to a chiro appt. From there I need to drive Asher to soccer by 4:45 before rushing to Ethan’s soccer game (starts at 4:30; I’ll be late and hopefully make at least 2nd half. Fortunately it’s an away game that’s actually pretty close to our house, so I want to try to make this one.). Asher’s done with soccer at 6:45 AND then has his first swim practice of the fall season from 7:30- 8:45. Yawn. Ivan can do the pickup from that one. 😉

We are officially off to the races now with both in school and all the activities firing back up this week. Wish me luck. 🙂

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for some delicious food this weekend! Both the carne asada and the chilaquiles were YUM. Oh, and Chipotle on Saturday!! 😋