Where do I begin? I guess with last Thursday which was – finally – the last night of practices. We’ve never had so many. Even when the three were all playing soccer, they each had one weekday time at the same park (with the exception of one time when my oldest was at a different park). And now we are at the same place, four days in a row. And one day overlaps kids (that’d be today, Monday.) So Friday, Ash and I planned to get a lot done because with him being back at work and weeknights being busy, we haven’t been super house-productive.

We installed a projector and screen a few months ago and had left our TV behind the screen in case we wanted to use it. We literally never did so we took that down and mounted it in our room. It’s been 3 years since we had a TV in our room and truth be told, I highly doubt we’ll even use it. We’re very used to not watching in there. Once the TV was off the wall, we took a couple floating shelves from the old house and mounted those behind the screen, giving us a place to put all the boxes (DirecTV, etc) so we can get rid of this ugly and falling apart TV stand. We got one up but then, for some really weird reason, these next few toggle bolts kept breaking! It felt like an episode of the Twilight Zone because we’ve never had one simply break and fall behind the wall before. That was kind of the end of that because it got frustrating. Anywho, around 5:15 I made the kids an early dinner because we had plans with our friend, Chris, and his wife. I had not really met her formally before (if you don’t count running into them at Publix) so that was cool; we got along very well, I’d say. We went to a new place called Horizons and it was tasty! I had mahi tacos and Ash had ribeye and mashed potatoes. Really nice meal. Afterwards, we walked across to McGowan’s, one of our favorite beer places in town.

There, since I was technically celebrating my birthday, I got a pint and a piece of dulce de leche cheesecake which was fabulous! We talked some more and by about 10:45, the four of us were exhausted. LOL. But a good time was had by all. The next day, I took Dakota to baseball practice and then after, we finished the annoying shelf/toggle bolt project before making hamburgers for my official birthday lunch (mine was the 27th). In the afternoon, we went over to our friend’s house, as it was also his birthday and a big one too: 50. His wife got him a huge yard sign and we set up in the driveway. Ash had invited a bunch of people from work and they came and went throughout the 3 or so hours we were there. Even though his yard is fairly shaded, I managed to get a sunburn! Oh well. We got pizza when we got home and then just hung around.

On Sunday, I woke up and did a 4 mile run with my middle boy. He was motivated to go with me and we had quite a nice little run together. My oldest went with my husband on a five miler and then we made lunch. In the afternoon we ended up brewing a pale ale and then in the evening, we started watching the Snyder Cut Justice League. We didn’t quite finish, since it is four hours long!

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Seems like birthdays are the theme lately so for this one, we’re building a playlist of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller songs for our host.

I know this is the most basic but I always liked it:

Here’s my fave Dean Martin song (if you don’t count Marshmallow World)

I was a GIGANTIC Frank fan in high school, which did make me a weirdo I guess because what 16 year old in 1995 liked Frank?? But hey, I never claimed to be normal.