The Rest of Our Summer: July

As we march into fall, it's probably a good idea to wrap up the end of our summer!

Working with this pup home is so fun. Love being with him.

We finally had Sarge over for a playdate!

I don't think I shared about Paige's orthodontia journey. *Makes note for a future blog post.* BUT she got braces this summer {among other bits of oral hardware} for a phase 1 of orthodontia. Yay for our pocketbook!

Brace Face!

Lots of puppy love!

We had to wait for Gus to be vaccinated to be able to start walks.

We practiced a lot in the house and backyard to get him used to the leash and somewhat how to behave on walks.

The aftermath {grin}

We had a family reunion in July, where I got to spend a lot of time with my baby.

Patty and I traded kids, and I got Mayer. He lost a tooth with us!

At the end of July, I took Drew's Girl Scouts troop on their cookie season reward trip to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. We did the theme park 1 day and the water park the second. 7 of our 9 girls went, and we had a blast!

The girls and the leaders!

We closed out our summer with our trip to Broken Bow which was an awesome trip with our framily. Now I'm ready for cooler weather and all the fun that fall brings!

Movie Review: It Ends With Us

I cheated on Allison a few weeks back and saw It Ends With Us with my studio instructor friends. {Actually, I asked Allison to go, but she didn't want to see this movie, ha.}

Plot: When a woman's first love suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with a charming, but abusive neurosurgeon is upended and she realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.

Review: Y'all. I didn't love this like I wanted to, boo. I really enjoyed the book [although I've since broken up with Colleen Hoover] and was so excited about the movie...and well, I didn't think it was very good. You might ask why I felt that way, and the answer is: I thought Blake Lively was boring as Lily. Hate on me if you must, but I just thought she did a bad job. She was boring and her portrayal fell flat, and well, she's the MAIN CHARACTER. Sigh. It ended, and I was glad it was over because I was BORED. I hate that! 

Bad picture quality but GREAT friends!

First Day of School 2024-25

We are in week 4 of the school year and things are moving along pretty smoothly. Our biggest issue is timing the dropoff correctly as the process changed this year, and we can't seem to get it right to get Paige to school on time, ha.

We had some big changes last year with all 3 kids changing schools to our new K-12 charter school, so this year felt way less stressful as we had way less adjustment to make. Paige moved up to 2nd grade, Drew to 6th, and Drew to 10th!

Paige was the most excited for school - she has been very happy in the elementary program at Gateway. We were bummed that she didn't have any friends from 1st grade in her class this year, BUT she has the best personality and I wasn't worried about her making friends. Sure enough, she's already got a few friends she's having a blast with.

For most schools in our area, 6th grade is the beginning of middle school, but for us, it's 5th grade, so Drew was going into her 2nd year in middle school. She signed up for pre-athletics and theater, I was so excited to see her branching out to try new things. She doesn't have any classes with her best friend but does have friends in every class, so she has settled in pretty nicely!

And last but not least, our big 10th grader!! I can't believe that in 3 short years, he will be out of the house and in college. Trent is doing great, and while I wouldn't say he's HAPPY, he's content. He has all of his classes with 2 of his best friends which definitely helps! 

It really felt like a non-event after all the changes last year presented, and we all settled in rather quickly. Pickup last year was a huge ordeal, but the process changed this year and is so much easier this year! [quite the opposite of drop-off ha] 

This guy comes with me sometimes to get his friends {grin}

August 2024 Book Review

We are 2/3 of the way through 2024 {how, I don't know!}, and I'm cruising along happily towards my goal of 100 books for the year!

This month started off slowly for me as I was doing some re-reading of some of my favorite series [but not full re-reads to where they count in my total], but I ended the month with 6 books, bringing my total for the year to 81. I also realized I forgot to blog about 1 book I read in July, so I'm putting here so my totals add up at the end of the year!

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto [audiobook] - My work book club asked for something 'light' to read over the summer, so we picked this! The title might make you question our definition of 'light', but this really was a cute/fun read! Yes, there was a murder, but it wasn't really the point of the book. The story really follows Vera Wong who is an older woman who owns a teahouse and the people she comes to suspect of killing the man who was found dead in her teahouse. Vera is just a wonderful character, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was so excited to find out another one is coming out!

Watchers of Time by Charles Todd - Continuing to make my way through this series my mom bought me - this was book 5. I enjoy these but don't LOVE them.

Family Family by Laurie Frankel [audiobook] - This was our Blog Friend Book Club selection of the month, and it was a delight! I really think Laurie Frankel is such a gifted author and has a beautiful way with words. This book was about adoption and was such an interesting spin on the topic. In BFBC, we have 1 member who was adopted and 1 member who is an adoptive parent, so it was really great for discussion to bring their perspectives into our chat.

Never Lie by Freida McFadden - My BFF is obsessed with this author {she loves thrillers} and gave me this book, and I devoured it! It was such a quick read with some really good twists about a married couple who gets stuck in a house of a missing doctor during a snowstorm! It was a little far-fetched, but I really loved it.

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul - This book toggled between a present day storyline [about a family of Black actors who received a large inheritance from a white actress who was popular in the 50s/60s] and the story of that white actress growing up. I really enjoyed the past storyline but found the present day one to be a little slow/boring. It picked up at the end, but I found myself looking forward to the storyline about Kitty and not so much the one about today.

Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac [audiobook] - I read this because Drew was reading it for school, and it seemed really interesting. I didn't realize it was a fictionalized story {but obviously historical fiction}, but it was really good. We both enjoyed it and learned a lot about the Navajo code talkers. 

The Break-up Pact by Emma Lord [audiobook] - This was a cute fake dating trope story {two former best friends pretend to date after their break-ups go viral} but nothing earth shattering. I previously read a YA book from this author, Tweet Cute, that was really cute. I liked that there wasn't a big dramatic 3rd scene breakup and there was a lot of growth by the characters, I just didn't find myself LOVING it.

So that was my month! My average for the month was 3.6 against the year being 3.8 so not my best month of reading but still some enjoyable picks!