Spooky Month

 I am really excited that I decorated for Halloween by Oct. 3rd this year. The front porch and entryway are ready for the season! I also got some mums that should take us all the way through fall. 

The weather has been beautiful and that has really helped me get out in the morning and get my exercise in! I knew I hadn't missed any runs last week because my knees started to ache, so this week I took a couple of days off. LOL 

Yesterday, was Alex's first Marching Band festival. They will get a rating from the festival at Washburn University so that will be good feedback for them! At the awards ceremony they got one trophy for their percussion (IYKYK). Fellow 501 school Topeka West swept all of the award categories. So, if my 501 school can't be the outstanding band of the night, I'm glad it was our 501 neighbor! 

Jeff was out of town for a work conference this week but made it home in time to go watch marching bands, I will be out the next two weeks for work conferences and am relieved he will be keeping the home front taken care of. October is usually a blur and this one will be no exception. Ready, set, go! 

House Project #1!

When we started 2026, Jeff and I had three house projects in mind: a new fence, redoing our main-floor bathroom, and redoing the dining room. When I started looking at fences to decide what to put in, I found some lovely fences that were categorized as “custom.” I later found out that “custom” is another word for expensive!

But before I figured that out, I had already fallen in love with some metal panels that I wanted to use in our fence. Jeff did the math, and if we put them all around our backyard, one of the kids wasn’t going to college…so we compromised! I put them at the front and back of the fence, and we took the bathroom off the list!

I love how it turned out, and the company finished on Tuesday. On Saturday, we’re hauling off the rest of the debris in the backyard, and then it will be perfect. Yay, compromise!

Today, the 20th, is also Daryl’s 18th birthday! He’ll get his own post next week when I get to celebrate with him, but today I am officially the mom of an adult. (Legally speaking.) Time flies!

Just to show the debris that still has to go. But you can also see the "plain" sides of the fence are pretty too!

From Farm to You Week!

How are we halfway through April?! This month is flying by! I’ve been watching more sportsball than normal this month, and the weather is being really crazy. In other words, April in Kansas.

One fun thing that happens this time of year is my office’s From Farm to You program. Minus a few COVID years, I have enjoyed seeing second graders come in every year and learn about agriculture since 2010. With the help of a lot of awesome volunteers, we set up 10 learning stations where the kids learn about crops, livestock, soil, and weather. New this year, we had a milking demonstration where most of the kids saw a cow milked for the very first time!

Helping kids make this connection is one of my favorite parts of my job. The fact that my entire office helps pull this off is another favorite part. It’s a long day, but it’s worth it. And I got 12,000 steps this year!

Another fun thing this week is that I got one step closer to creating multiple “cozy” spots in our house. When we moved in, we set up a nice space on the enclosed porch, it’s great on a breezy day. This year, I created a cozy spot on the front porch too. I found some awesome rocking chairs at the store, but they only had them in white. Luckily, they come in a ton of colors, so I ordered this awesome shade of blue and got a little gray table to go with them. It’s the perfect shady spot to read after work. I finished a book out there this week and love how it all turned out!

Most of the 50 pictures I took at FFY were of this precious baby!

Cutie! 

First of three groups getting ready to see the milking demonstration

Tippy was such a good girl!

Ready for front porch rocking!

Including this picture to document how tall Daryl is getting!

New Stadium and New Deck!

Started November off with my first KU football game at the new Memorial Stadium. KU played OSU, and they got the win! It was such a fun atmosphere, and I think OSU fans are the best in the Big 12. We all cheered for our teams and no one got rude. We had OSU fans in front of us and to our left, and everyone was fun to be around.

The last game the boys and I went to was in Stillwater, and the Cowboys came away with the W. They were still so nice and gracious.

Of course, half the fun is the band, mascots, and cheer teams. I think there was something for everyone, and we all had a good time.

Our deck has been built for a while now, but we finally got the last coat of stain on it, and I really like how it turned out. It’s not a huge visible difference, but now you won’t fall through it because of rotten boards. Yay!

Enjoy today and tomorrow, it’s going to get cold in Kansas on Sunday!

I will cut in front of some kids to get a picture of Baby Jay!

First smores at the new house!

New Deck, it is solid! 

Middle School Band and more!

We made it to our second Topeka High Football game of the year. Alex and the rest of the 7th and 8th grade middle school band performed a pre game show with the Topeka High marching band. They did great! 

I really hope that Alex continues with band in High School, it is fun to watch and listen to. 

On Saturday, Alex had a tennis lesson, Aaron had roller derby and I had an 11-mile long run. Felt like we all accomplished a lot. Oh ya, and Jeff finished the install of a light in the sewing room so it is more functional when I don't have bright sunlight. Yay! Now I need to get in there sometime this week after work and try it out. 

Mittens wants to remind everyone he is still around. He is getting brave and coming upstairs at night. 

 

Let there be light! 

One busy day!

This morning I got the long run in early so I could go to Alex's tennis tournament in Lawrence. This was his first USTA tournament, and while he didn't get the Ws, he learned a lot and knows playing better players makes him better. He left with his head down, but a couple of hours later he was ready to sign up again and he knew things he wanted to do differently. I thought he played really well. Match 1 and 3 were close and could have easily gone his way, his second match was a level of player he rarely sees and he still got some points. 

While our family is busy with everything else, our back deck is also being replaced. We thought it would be done in September but some wrong materials showed up, so it put us back a couple of weeks. I'm really hoping it gets done this week. I am missing our backyard! 

Bring on weather cool enough so we can sit and enjoy our new deck! 

The before picture, hard to tell but there is a lot of rot in this deck.

The in-process picture, hopefully an after picture is coming soon! 

Projects Day!

Sometimes you just need a day at home. Today was that day! Jeff got a screen mounted on the wall, finally hung all of our wall decor, I finished a shirt resize I got mad at two months ago, did a long run and finally got two trash-trees out of our landscape. Those trash-trees pop out of nowhere, and then in a week they are three feet tall. Nice trees don't do that, sadly. 

Yesterday, Jeff and I got to be volunteer bartenders for my Johnson County Extension Foundation friends. Tara promised it would be simple, and it was! It was nice to be able to help, because sometimes I feel like all I do is ask for help. So if you need free bartenders, that is something Jeff and I will consider. Just remember, you get what you pay for! LOL!

Next up on the sewing machine will be starting the Alpaca quilt. I would love to get that done in 2025!  

This may not look like a lot, but we hung stuff in many areas today!

From months ago, the before of my OKC half marathon finisher shirt!

The after! No close ups, this has more puckers than a lemon eating contest. The fabric was very slippery and since it is a running shirt, I did not go for perfection! 

Officially Cohabitating

 The month long move-in was complete this Saturday. Jeff's family and mine are now officially mingled! The unpacking of boxes will take awhile but so far this arrangement is exactly what we though it would be. Loud and fun when we are all seven in the house, and a little too quite when it is just the two of us. Like the large family that we now are, almost everyone had something to do this weekend. We had a marching band festival, roller derby practice, friend's birthday party, 4-H meeting and practice driving time. In between all of that, the movers got everything in the house. If that isn't a preview into our new life I don't know what would be! 

I know it won't always be easy and it won't always be fun, but it is mostly easy and it is mostly fun. I'll take it! 

Finally got to use the new placemats!

Daryl being Daryl

Jeff's youngest is always creating, this homestead he made was pretty cute!
You should see what he can do with Legos! 

There is now a place for everyone to sit in the living room!
Undecided if the coffee table will stay.....

Table for Seven

 Fun exciting things are coming for the crew. One being adding some placemats to a bigger table to accommodate all of us in October. Jeff and his three kiddos will be joining the craziness and we are going from a family of three (sometimes four when Grandma was in town) to a family of seven! The technical terms for 5 kids are; gaggle, pack, herd or bunch. Since Jeff and I both have co-parents they are rarely all there at the same time, but when they are...you know it! 

I haven't lived with another adult for seven years, so if you could keep Jeff in your thoughts that would be great. LOL First compromise, he is not using any of my closet, at all...so I think this thing has legs. <3 

Anywho, just in case you were wondering who the new faces were in my posts. Now, please admire the EIGHT placemats I made for our bigger table. 

Deck the Halls!

 Oddly enough, there are no Christmas decorations in the hallway...hmmm. But the Living Room and Dining room are decked! 

Alex started bugging me to put up the tree about two minutes after we got home from Thanksgiving. I waited until we were snowed in on Sunday to drag everything out of the basement. He helped me for a solid 15 minutes before he went outside to play in the snow. 

I don't know why I put off decorating. Once everything is up, it's perfect! I love the lights...just feels like Christmas now. Will I get lights put up outside of the house?! I don't know, the snow is going to have to melt first!  

Love to display my KU ornaments that I receive from 
my mom. A new one every year!

My Santa collection with my Christmas cactus!
It is officially "no playing in the living room" season!

The boys hand knit stockings and my 
ceramic Christmas tree! 

Alex was in charge of plugging in the tree!

Operation: Send Mom to Her Room

 More or less my bedroom refresh is complete! I still need to acquire two comfy chairs and a makeup vanity, but the heavy lift is done. I love my bedroom now, come this weekend I may not leave it! 

What all was done: 

New Paint

Removed Carpet

Installed ceiling light

Changed ceiling fan 

New Bed, Rug and TV 

Threw away a LOT of clutter! 

The space feels so much better and I'm glad I finally prioritized the project. It started with just wanting to get rid of the red wall in my room and turned into so much more. The last big project I did in the house was installing a shower and tile surround into the hall bath. That was almost three years ago, and I think every other year is the right timeframe for big inside projects. The mess is just too much to deal with all the time. 

You can kinda see the new ceiling fan

Good shot of the new light installed

Before picture with the hated red wall

Where my bed is now was the "desk" area
More like catching junk area