Catching up/ a Sept. weekend

Gosh, I didn’t mean to go 6 days without posting, but apparently I did. Well, it’s not that surprising, because my life continues to feel a bit like a tilt-a-whirl over here…

Backing up to the weekend:

So what I wanted to do this weekend looked about like this:

I did not, however, curl up and nap all weekend. Sadly.

My parents came Friday night (the happily revolving door continues spinning… my mother-in-law and brother-in-law are still in town, too). The main reason my parents came now, too, was so my dad could help us get started on our bathroom remodel.

I think we all agree the timing on this is not ideal, given just…. life, lately. BUT, it’s one of those things that needs to happen, and we need my dad’s help, and this is when he is available to help us. So it is what it is.

Friday night was fun though- we went out for Mexican and had a nice time.

Saturday was kind of a hodgepodge day.

The weather has cooled off enough that the hot tub is sounding really good again. So I jumped in there early Saturday morning for a while:

Asher has been obsessed with fishing lately. He was out with a friend Friday night fishing, and then again Saturday morning. And then again Saturday night… Literally, obsessed.

Ivan did multiple loads of laundry on Saturday morning, I did other misc. household stuff and my mom ran Asher + friend around to the fishing pond.

We said goodbye to the current state of the boys’ bathroom:

This is one of those things that looks just fine if you don’t look too closely. The previous owners did a “makeover”- they painted the cabinets, added a tile floor, installed new fixtures.

But if you look more closely (as we do, every day…), the drywall is crappy, the shower surround is obviously from the 70s, the tile floor is cracking, and the painted cabinets are chipping. It needs an official re-do, badly.

This is also the main bathroom that guests use, as it’s off the kitchen and living room area. So, I’ve been getting squirmy about its declining state for a while now.

My dad started ripping it apart and eventually had to basically smash apart the old tub to get it out:

It was a team effort to carry out all the heavy shower surround pieces.

The plan is to modernize everything with a tile shower, new paint, new cabinets, new floor, new vanity, new sink, etc. etc. We won’t replace the bathtub and instead will put in a glass shower door. (My teen boys do not need a bathtub….).

Also, while the bright primary colors and fishies were adorable when the boys were little, I think we’re ready for a more grown-up look in there, too.

In the afternoon, Ethan had to volunteer at school as a ball chaser during the Varsity game. Before picking him up, my mom and I went to The Tile Shop to browse tile options.

Sigh. What I really just want is a new bathroom, minus any effort, time or decisions on my part. Unrealistic??? Well, I suppose. Though I guess if you have enough money you can make anything happen, but, I don’t. 😆

Saturday night we decided to go out again for dinner. The day had been chaotic/random and well, no one had cooked anything.

We went to a local place for pizza. It was very good!

After dinner, somehow the boys started challenging people to arm wrestles. (This is a casual place and it was noisy/ had a bunch of kids in there, so this was not inappropriate.. lol!)

I was fairly shocked/ mortified/ devastated to realize that I cannot beat either of my boys at an arm wrestle!!! What the heck.

Ethan literally crushed me, and he barely lifts weights right now (just 2x/ week with soccer practice). Though I guess he did a lot of lifting over the summer.

Even Asher, who is still many inches shorter than I am, beat me handedly!! I realize height doesn’t exactly matter, but my point is: I feel like I am still just way bigger than he is yet, AND I lift weights multiple times a week!!!! And yet, I am the apparent weakling of the family. Boo. haha. I found this a little depressing, because I guess my work in the gym needs… more work.

On Sunday Ivan had soccer in the morning, so I went to the gym. As a result of my repeated arm-wrestling losses on Saturday, I therefore stood and did bicep curls for an hour straight, willing my biceps to get stronger. Just kidding! 😂

By 11:00 the boys, mom and I headed downtown to volunteer at the Ironman Wisconsin! It was the full 140.6 Ironman. The boys and I were signed up to work at one of the aid stations along the run portion.

(Ethan needs 100 volunteer/ service hours in order to graduate high school, so we’ve been on the lookout for opportunities.)

We worked from 11:30-4 which got Ethan a nice chunk of hours. It was a beautiful day, and our station was right along the lakefront path at Lake Mendota.

My mom wasn’t signed up to volunteer, but since she was in town, she came along and hung out on a bench and watched.

It was fun! We were stationed at about mile 8 of the 26.2 marathon portion. We got everything set up, and then had to wait a while until the first runners came through. It was fun to see the elite triathletes come breezing through with the motorcycle accompaniment holding the “1st Place” sign.

Our big aid station had various tables. We were at the first table, a water station. Beyond our table was: ice, gatorade, gels, bananas/oranges, chips/pretzels for salt, fig newtons, a Red Bull station (ew!), more water/ice/ gatorade and a table with little cups of Coca Cola.

Most of the front pack runners came in knowing exactly what they wanted… they’d shout out “Ice! Ice!” or “Water! Water!” or “Gatorade! Gatorade!” and then we would all shout back what we had so they knew where to grab.

I primarily was the “cup filler” and the boys did all the handing out. They got a lot of “Thanks, man” responses from the runners. 🙂

When our shift was done, Asher insisted on throwing his fishing line in the water for a few minutes. (He had brought it along….). So pretty on the lake there!

Ethan then had some homework, Ivan’s mom/sister/kids/brother all stopped by for a while, and then we finally watched the opening game of the Green Bay Packers (first game without Aaron Rodgers!), recorded so we could start it late.

Monday was a work day, though my parents were still around for much of the day. My dad was doing some more work in the bathroom. They left around 4 p.m.

Oh, funny story: I attended a work Grand Rounds education session from 12-1. It was a hybrid in-person or Zoom. Most people on the call-in line did not have their cameras on (we were just watching the slides and speaker).

Well, this one woman did have her camera on… but it, um, did not appear that she knew she was on camera. She was walking all over her house, carrying the laptop (which gave us awkward close-ups of her chest region…), was putting away stuff in her kitchen cabinets and then proceeded to sit (in a very sprawled out, relaxed method) while scrolling on her phone.

I couldn’t stand the embarrassment on her behalf (I have no idea who she is, though), so I looked her up in the directory and webex messaged her:

When my message popped up, I saw a horrified look cross her face before she reached over and turned off her video. LOL!!!! THIS IS WHY I KEEP A PIECE OF MASKING TAPE OVER MY LAPTOP CAMERA AT ALL TIMES. (I remove it for meetings, and then put it back on when meeting is over!) Not that I carry my laptop into the bathroom, but still. I want to know when I’m on camera, no mistakes. ha.

Anyway, thankfully it wasn’t worse (she did not go into the bathroom that I saw, anyway- can you imagine?!?!) and I was happy to be the Good Samaritan to give her a much-needed heads up.

My afternoon was capped off with getting a flat tire, in my nice new van. I’d noticed the tire pressure light had come on, but I thought it was just the cooler temps causing it to be low…. Nope.

It turned into a little headache/ annoyance… how does any family live without two cars?! Fortunately Ivan was able to leave work early and got home in time to drive Asher to 5 pm soccer practice.

I waited for the tow truck (covered by my Roadside Assistance, at least) to take my van in to the Honda dealership.

It took almost 3 hours for the guy to show up, so obviously they didn’t fix it last night. I just got a call this morning that- yay! My tire is damaged (I guess I drove on it too much before realizing it was actually flat…ugh….) and lucky me, I get to now purchase a $320 new tire! For my ~1.5 month old van.

I ended up walking to the gym last night (no car, anyway) while Ivan shuttled Asher from soccer to swim. After another hectic weekend, I needed the respite of a quiet walk and a delightfully empty gym.

Today Ethan has a soccer game after school, but I won’t be at it- it’s a farther away location so we’re sitting this one out.

He went off to school in his “game day dress up” wear (the whole team wears matching white shirts, khakis and school color ties on Conference game days- so cute!):

Trying to just keep treading water here as things feel busy as ever. All the out-of-town guests really trips me up and makes me feel rather unsettled…. but how can I even complain, when at the same time, it’s so wonderful to spend time with everyone?! One of the classic catch-22s of life, I think. 🙂

I think I just would like a couple more empty days in each week and to tack on a few hours to each day. 😉 Maybe I will suggest that if I ever get to provide input for a future World 2.0. hehe.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a handyman dad who can help us with house stuff!!! We are not particularly “handy-people”, unfortunately.