As I roused this morning, probably 5 minutes before my alarm, I woke from the weirdest dream. We were going from large mansion to large mansion, interviewing rich people. I can’t remember why but almost like we needed to choose one for a charity or something. And after the 3rd or 4th, I pointed out that they all had the same exact books on their shelves in the same order in almost identical rooms. They all had these seemingly made up pedigrees so I determined they were all just fakes. Then my family and I went home to a large house, not a mansion, and figured we liked ours best anyway. And I remember thinking, in between dreams, that the moral of the story was to be happy with what you have if it’s real and authentic. Weird. Then I dreamt Ash and I were going to take a long bike ride and I was prepping and the biggest concern was getting it in with enough time to do other things. I wanted to go in the morning but we were leaving at about 5 pm and I was worried about it getting dark. Granted, we ARE going to start taking long rides so this must be my way of mentally prepping.

Funny how dreams can coat our mornings and affect the feel. Anyway, the weekend. I went to work Thursday and it was…A DAY. My students had their first in-class peer workshop for a rough draft. It’s always a mess because of technology and them not understanding directions. So my focus was on explaining clearly. Most everyone got it but there’s always some snafus. Then, between classes 2 and 3, I realized that I’ve been messing up something in one of my online schools. I knew they changed the content and the LMS but I somehow missed a key element of how the actual flow of the class goes. So this was pretty major and I had to talk to someone and apologize and figure out how to fix it. We are early into the term but it was still a mess. I felt so bad/stupid but I also didn’t have time to dwell on it because we were leaving.

I got home, packed, then picked up my daughter, then put the sump pump into the pool for the predicted rain, then the four of us left, 2 cars. We were headed to Pensacola for a beer fest, which happened to coincide with the first week of football and Isaac’s first soccer tournament. Granted, we got the fest tickets months ago, and I honestly had no idea which tournament his coach would choose.

Anyway, Dakota and I drove together and were about 45 minutes behind Ash and Isaac. They went to my parent’s house first but we went straight to Bubba’s 33, which had sort of a sports bar/Chili’s vibe. We met them and then my sister and her boyfriend came so that was nice. My dad likes to take us all out, since they got this extra money from my grandfather’s estate. It’s not like they got a ton but it makes him feel good to be able to treat us. And he did – he ordered three appetizers! We never do things like that. Needless to say (which is a phrase I hate, btw) I ate way too much. But we had a nice time with family and while watching football. Here’s a really awful photo because it focused on my daughter’s face instead of us. Also, my middle child always make an awful face in pics.

We went back to my parents’ house and just hung out for a while. We were up a little too late, to be honest, after such a long day. Friday morning, we eased into it; actually, my husband slept in a lot. The kids and I knocked around, not doing too much since it was rainy, which was the theme of the weekend. I also did some work; online teaching goes with me everywhere. For lunch, we went to a taco place and then split up: me, Ash, and Isaac went to the mall; my mom and daughter took my dad and the leftovers home then went to Academy and then the mall. The original plan was to not even have brought kids this weekend but then my mom decided that for a belated birthday gift, she would take Dakota shopping. Isaac ended up coming with because it made sense for the tournament.

Anyway, we had fun at the mall, mostly because Pensacola’s is rather thriving, in an age where most are dying out. We smelled a variety of fragrances at my sister’s store, got some fun socks, and attempted to have ice cream but the Chik-fil-a machine was broken. What is this, McDonalds?? We went home and rested for a bit before it was time for the Emerald Coast beer fest. Ash and I grabbed our umbrellas and my dad dropped us off. We were early so we went to a place called the 5 Barrel, which we’d been to before and liked, though they seem to have a lot less of their own beer on tap now. We each just had one then got in line. We had friends going and with the rain and all, it wasn’t hard to find them right away due to lower numbers.

My sister’s boyfriend works at the place that was hosting the location (they own the entire block, actually) so he got in for free. We met up and he said he thought he had ponchos in the car – score! We sent the umbrellas back to my parents’ with him and the ponchos made it a lot easier. We were pretty worn out by the time we booked the uber back. It wasn’t even all that late, thankfully.

See the top picture with the weird pottery pumpkin fish? Yeah, we bought that. Well, Ash bought it for me and then I bought him a mug. The guy is in one of the homebrew clubs that was there and every year he makes mugs with a little symbol on it for the festival.

On the drive home, we got a call from my son saying he was literally about to quit his job because working 8 hour shifts three days in a row was really killing him. And then, they came into the kitchen and handed him a check for 430 bucks from, I guess, back pay they owed him from miscalculations. He then felt a lot better about it!

I was exhausted by the time we got home and went to bed. Didn’t sleep great and then Ash woke around 6 our time (stupid Pensacola in Central) and decided he was ready to go. He’d planned to go home early because he agreed to help out at another beer fest at which our club was serving. Originally, we’d bailed out entirely but at the last minute, a friend and the VP of the club asked if he could actually help. So he and Dakota got on the road so he could shower and head up to Thomasville. It was the first iteration of said fest so we wanted to make it good for the folks running it.

Meanwhile, Isaac and I didn’t leave until about 9. Originally, I planned to stay with my uncle in Enterprise, which is about 35 minutes from Dothan. But as we were talking that morning, my parents sort of talked me out of it. Really, it was because of the gap between games. His Saturday times were 12:30 and 6:30; what were we going to do in the interim?? So I just bit the bullet and booked a hotel room. So he and I left and went straight to the soccer complex. He didn’t play great in game one but they tied 0-0. I had to laugh because their keeper is this kid my oldest son played on teams with a long time ago. We always called him “pirouettes” because he often did little dances out in the field. LOL. He’s grown a lot since then though.

In between games, Isaac and I got some food then checked into the hotel and subsequently took naps, which was really nice, given just how much activity we’d had up to that point. We went back to the field for his night game, which gave us a fantastic sky, even though it was still generally cloudy. I was just thankful it didn’t rain on us, which had been the assumption. I even told my daughter, who wanted to go with me instead of back home, that she’d have been miserable sitting under an umbrella out there.

Sadly, his team did not win any of their 3 games. The Sunday game was even worse (and rainy); he has good players on this team but their hearts weren’t in it. Oh well. It is what it is, I suppose. He was done by 12:30 and we could finally go home. It was a long drive back (well, nearly 2 hours) but it poured rain. And for some reason, GPS took me back roads instead of I10; presumably because of the rain. I don’t know. I was SO glad to be back home but then I had to deal with all the fallout: Friday night after Elliot got home, he called to say yet another branch had fallen from the front yard tree. For those following along at home, that makes 3 now. Sigh. That means a lot more chainsawing and carrying to the corner.

Oh, and on Saturday, halfway through Isaac’s first game (and once Ash had gotten home but had left again for the other festival) Elliot called to say he went to leave for work but my car wouldn’t start! So I asked my neighbor if she could take him and she could; now I owe her one, for real! Once Ash got back from the fest, he verified that our son had indeed left my headlights on overnight. To his credit, his car’s automatically turn off. But still. Ugh. Now I have to reset my XM code and all that. He also left me on empty, the little brat.

I did laundry all last evening and watched football and tried not to panic about the crushing weight of SO MUCH STUFF. I have a zoom meeting with someone from the college where I messed up later, so that’s not fun. It’s more like a check in to make sure I get it now. I am about to go make notes. I already do understand but I want her to know it. I also began another section at TSC but online so I have to add assignments and due dates. A lot of online teaching is “set it and forget it” but I have to – ahem – SET IT.

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The them has to do with a variety of things but cow appreciation is one of them apparently. As our host posted about cowbells, I had to share this good old SNL skit.