Lots of things + some wins

Whew this was a busy Saturday. I had a list a mile long of things I wanted/needed to do this weekend. Unfortunately I can’t say I checked everything off, but I did check off some big things, so, that’s a win. Of course, as usually happens, I also did several things that were not on my list to start with…. yet these things occupied a lot of my day! Such is life.

Teen sleepover

Last night Ivan and I went out, Asher went to a football game with a friend, and Ethan and his friends went to the University of Wisconsin basketball game. After the BB game 3 of Ethan’s friends came back to our place and all slept over.

We have not had kids for a “sleepover” in ages! We stopped on our way home for some snacks, popcorn, and beverages, plus Ethan requested cinnamon rolls for in the morning.

The boys all hung out in the basement and it made me feel grateful, as always, to have a nice finished basement. We don’t have the big sprawling house that might be “best” suited for a big sleepover with teenagers complete with a pool table and game room and all of that. But we do have a nice basement space, a big screen TV, and cool lighting around our bar + bar signs that give off a fun ambiance.

Also, we have a hot tub! The boys ended up going in the hot tub at like, midnight, for over an hour!! Ethan said it was really fun and they were just hanging out and talking with the colored lights on in the hot tub.

In the morning I made our family sleepover breakfast tradition, lol. The ever fancy Pillsbury cinnamon rolls!

They polished off all 16 that I made, plus I put together a little fruit salad.

I’ve said this before, but I’m so glad that Ethan’s friends are really so nice. One popped his head up the basement stairs and said, “Hi Mrs. Lopez!” when we got home… I just never really worry about them doing stupid things, either. They’re just a good group of kids who are very laid back and stay out of trouble and don’t like drama and are smart and seem to make good choices.

Car rental:

I also spent a LONG while this morning unexpectedly figuring out a rental car for our time in Ireland over Christmas. This was not really on my radar, for some reason. Long story short, there were various options re: where we’d pick up the car vs how we’d transport out to my sister’s and what made the most sense vs the days + rental car office hours, etc.

We finally got it sorted out, with what I think is a good rate. This will be Ivan’s first time driving in Ireland, so, God speed. HA. (It will be a manual transmission which I do not know how to drive, so it’s all him. Which is fine by me.) He’s a confident driver and a quick learner, so hopefully we’ll be okay?!

We ended up booking it through the Chase Travel portal (paid in $$, not points) because there was a good price there, although it kept giving me an error so I ended up on the phone for like 40 minutes straightening that out….

Speaking of Chase Travel, did I tell you that we did finally use some of our new credit card points???

We did!! We ended up booking BOTH of our round trip tickets to Mexico next week in FIRST CLASS both ways, completely on our points!! And it was a good deal, too. Woohoo!!

(I still mostly stand by my claim that credit card rewards are too complicated for me, lol, but we literally just booked these in the Chase Portal on a Points Booster thing and it seemed like a good deal especially for first class tickets (which we have never, ever flown before). (The first-class tickets include checked bags for free, which with going for a wedding, we can actually really use…).

I’ll admit, getting these tickets for free was pretty sweet and did make us both think, hmmmmm….maybe we shouldn’t give up on this yet!

Errands

I spent from probably 2 pm to 6 pm running errands. I had several returns to package and return at the UPS store. I needed gas in my car. I had a return at Target and then picked up some Impress nails for the wedding + some hair mousse. I browsed their women’s section to see if I’d get lucky and find a little sweater or shawl for over my dress?

Then I stopped by Bass Pro Shops because I wanted to look at their wool socks. I want some new socks that don’t slide down in my Uggs! (Many of my winter socks are kind of like, a slippery material!) I didn’t find what I was looking for but browsed around a while pondering Christmas gifts, etc. and left empty handed.

Finally I ended up at the mall on the hunt for something to go over my dress. The closest mall to me is NOT very good anymore but I did finally find several decent options. I really sort of suck at shopping though and I’m HIGHLY indecisive and was literally texting pictures to Ivan who sort of played along for a couple minutes and then was abruptly done being interested in that and was like, “dude JUST PICK ONE”. 😅

I had checked the weather report for the wedding location, and it looks like it will be quite warm in the daytime (70s) but quite chilly in the evening, with lows in the 40s! I tend to run very cold….some options I looked at seemed too thin. Many were either white or black. My dress is navy, so black is out. I actually don’t really like how I look in pure white very much, either

Finally I found this faux fur jacket which is kind of a light beige/grey combo and I really like the color on me.

On the plus side, this definitely seems like something I can use again here at home. On the negative side, it might be a little overkill for the temperatures?? (Although, this is NOT a beach wedding at all. And it is November. And people do seem to embrace the winter season fashions in Mexico (and people seem to wear big winter coats even when it is NOT cold, by my standards… ha.) Remember there’s no central heat really anywhere there, and buildings are mostly concrete, so it can tend to feel chillier.

I bought it, though the tags are still on. I guess I could look for something lighter, but Ivan says it’s perfect and to just stop now. Hahaha.

Since I had my dress on, I went through my things and picked out my shoes (from the 2 dressy pairs I own) and my jewelry and made sure my purse worked.

I’m officially all set for the wedding, I think, clothes wise. I’m happy overall with this fuzzy jacket purchase mostly because I feel like living in Wisconsin, it will come in handy again! And it’s so neutral. AND I think it could easily be dressed down, too.

My poor to do list is still very long and incomplete but tomorrow is another day. Also, no, I did not exercise today, haha, as I’d hoped I would….I am tired now…. We just finished up eating some random quesadillas for dinner, Ivan is finishing up watching his Mexican soccer team play and then we were going to maybe put on a movie with the boys, but between you and me, I have a feeling I’m going to be dozing off about 10 minutes into a movie…

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for having a basement! I do wonder sometimes how people live without them. (I’m a lifelong basement-haver.)

Bonus gratitude: I am grateful that we scored those completely FREE-to-us FIRST CLASS plane tickets!! (Now if we can just get our plane to get off the ground and not be cancelled with the airspace closures…😬). I had to text Kathleen and share how proud I was, ha. If you have not checked out Kathleen’s podcast The Reframe yet, she has had a big series on travel hacking there recently! She is an amazing resource and extremely skilled travel hacker!