Let’s weekend recap eh? My great aunt Sara died last week so my mom and dad went to the funeral in Alabama on Thursday. They then came here for a quick visit, arriving around 5:30. It was a little rushed that day: Ash and I got the second hand Crazy Cart working. See above – could not get it to go down here. I hate new WordPress. So anyway, it was around 4:45 when the younger kids were able to ride it and I kept thinking Elliot would get home to also ride it any second but he never did. Then I realized he probably had Cross Country practice. There’s been so little communication from those coaches this season and I have just about given up. Just two more meets! So anyway, I had to go up and get him then go to the store and then my parents got in. And then, Ash and I decided to go up to the new World of Beer. After all it was our 15th wedding anniversary. WoB was fun: we each got a flight and we shared a giant pretzel. I hope the place survives but they should have put it on my side of town.

We came home and drank some beer my parents had picked up from a relatively new panhandle brewery. So all in all, a busy but nice night. The next day, I had work until about 10 and then they came over and the four of us went to Costco. Once done, we unloaded and went up to El Jalisco. I love spending time with my parents and cherish these days, honestly. We took a break at home and played Silver Strike bowling. My dad now holds the high score (276) so I had better practice a little more! (For those of you familiar with Golden Tee, it uses the same roller ball and we have an arcade panel for it.) After bowling a bit, we went up to Deep and had some beer. After all that, no one felt like cooking so we picked up Chinese. Everyone was tired that night, including my night owl husband who legitimately went to bed at 8:30! I wasn’t far behind. A long, busy day but really nice.

Saturday we spent time at the ball fields for practices, then got subs. Ash went to a friend’s house to work on projects and took Koda, since she is friends with the guy’s daughter. The boys and I ran errands after my parents left then I literally sat around. Well, after making dinner. I rested because I knew Sunday would bring more work. I ran early and then it was all hands on deck to work in the yard. Boys mowed, we brushed and skimmed the pool, got the robot going, then put the winter cover on. It was time; even though we’re still seeing 80s, the cooler nights and mornings have dropped the temp too much. I know my friends and I were hoping for more swimming but we’ve accepted the Fall now. It was evident with Tiff invited us to do pumpkin carving next Friday. Yes, it really is that far into the year.

Fall always makes me have some moments where I am nostalgic. I don’t know if it’s just a reflective time of year or it’s the cool refreshing mornings or what but I was really feeling emotional last night. Perhaps not helped by beer and the fact that my in-laws are having a conflict of crisis lately. I want everyone to know that despite who you vote for, I will treat you the same and with kindness. And I’d certainly never mistreat family for feeling differently than I do. But it seems not everyone has those kinds of morals. I know they’ll come around eventually; they live in Chicago so they get that crud fed to them all the time and I think it gets easier and easier to live within your own echochamber. Ah well; I have to focus on me and mine, right?

I hate to keep ragging on my oldest son but good lord, 13 is an annoying age. (Nervous chuckle.) He’s both a great kid and a huge pain in my ass, depending on the day. Last year during sports, he was mortified if I stayed for practice. He told me that every other kid’s parent dropped them off. This was fine by me since a 6 pm practice means the other kids and my husband are in dinner time range so I would drive about 9 minutes to the fields, drop him off for about an hour and fifteen minutes, and while he was there, hit the store and/or prepare dinner. Well, how things have changed. Now he’s mad that all the other parents stay and I’m “abandoning him”. This past week, I did what I explained: hit the store, brought food home and ate, then made sure his was warming in the oven. Practice ended at 7 and I pulled back into the complex at 6:58. I also got caught behind cars stopping to let people out and I had to park pretty far from his field. As I approached him at about 7:03, he ripped me a new one for being late. I think my newest reaction to this BS is to simply say, “I love you, Elliot!” and move on. This may diffuse his anger.

So anyway, another week and more work. This part of any semester feels super busy and harried. But I am making it ok. One set of courses is ending and one is about to begin (so, on top of the other 6 ongoing ones.) I feel like I need a vacation and yet, my weekend was full of fun stuff so hey, what am I complaining about?

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OK music! Freebie week. When I’m not headbanging, I listen to soft stuff in the background of grading papers, you know. So, I went to pick up this one song that I’ve heard on the yacht rock station and was sad to see that I could only find a live version on itunes. I hate Apple, btw. But anyway, this song is so dang upbeat!

This is one of those other Toto songs (you know, not Roseanna or Africa) but I love it so.

Here’s another one I’ve come to like through the Sirius rotation. Such good stuff.