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- Well, I was really hoping that this photo would look different than it does.
That desire doesn’t have anything to do with Abby or my skills as a photographer – but lies completely in our new mudroom itself.
See, when the kids and I spent last week at the Lakehouse, Derrick was planning on sanding down the walls and getting our new mudroom primed and painted. He was going to build our new bench and I was planning on moving all of our shoes and jackets out to the new mudroom this week! (I was pretty pumped.)
However, as Derrick was working on sanding – he discovered a leak. Up in the one corner where the new roof had been constructed, water was seeping in somehow.
Which obviously ground all of our plans to a screeching halt.
Thankfully, it was a small leak.
Thankfully, Derrick was able to get it repaired (both on the outside and inside).
Thankfully, nothing was dramatically ruined.
But, our mudroom plans were put on pause while we waited for everything to dry out, the repairs to set, and to make sure no more water was leaking through.
So, while I had a photo with our newly painted, newly finished mudroom in mind for this week – this is what I have instead. And I could have taken another photo somewhere else, but I decided that I would still take a photo in this corner – even if it doesn’t look like I wanted it to – just to remind myself that good things take time and it’s okay. - So, poor Braelynn has been sick all week. (Sickness seems to be the theme of our summer – how does that even happen?!) It cut our time at the Lakehouse short last week and she’s been struggling to recover all this week. What started out as what I was assuming to be a cold, led to throwing up on Saturday, which led to a sore throat on Monday, which led to pink eye on Wednesday. She’s literally run the gamut this week. As each thing would ease up and she’d start to feel better – she’d be hit with something else. Thankfully (crossing all of my fingers and toes), she’s officially on the mend and finally feeling better!
- It was Prime Days on Amazon this week – meaning piles and piles of good deals! I did a little shopping (of course). I’m actually super proud of myself though: I found some amazing deals on some items I had been watching for Christmas presents this year (super pumped about that!) and I found a few other things as well.
Our blender kicked the bucket last week so a new blender was at the top of my “want” list. I make smoothies for breakfast 2-3 times a week (sometimes more) and use a blender for so many recipes – I need a good, high-powered blender. The one I wanted was the same price across the board: on Amazon, Target, and Kohl’s. But ultimately, Kohl’s won my purchase because I got $20 Kohl’s cash on top of everything!
The other “big” item I bought that I’m MOST excited about is a hammock!! I’ve been asking Derrick for a hammock forever – the kids spend SO much time outside and the only seating we have is around our table. And while the chairs we have are fine – they aren’t super comfortable. Most of the time, I just want to sit outside and read while they’re playing – so a hammock seemed the perfect solution. I remember my parents getting a hammock when I was around 9/10 years old and I loved that thing! I remember waking up early in the morning, just to go lay out in the hammock and read as the sun came up (hmmm, maybe that’s where Braelynn gets her “early riser” instincts).
So, it will arrive next week and I am beyond excited. I cannot wait!! - Last week, Derrick’s Instagram account hit 100k followers and he’s gained another 60k followers this week!! Big jumps in followers like this seem to come in waves, and the wave has definitely crested and we’re coming down the other side, but holy smokes what a ride the last few weeks have been!! Needless to say: with such a gigantic following all of a sudden, we’ve been doing a lot of research in capitalizing on that! It’s led to lots of late nights and deep discussions about what the future of XscreamThrills might be – we’ve been dreaming big this week and it’s all so exciting!
First on the docket is a website: Derrick desperately needs a website where he can publish his work, show off his credentials, and act as his “digital handshake”. It’s been a long time since I researched website options (in fact, it’s been 10 years!) and there are many more options now than there were 10 years ago!! So, it’s been really fascinating to research and see all the new possibilities out there nowadays. I think we’ve figured out the route we want to take and now we just need to work on ironing out the design, putting some promo stuff together, writing website copy – you know, all the “fun” stuff. I’ve become the “PR wing” of XscreamThrills and I’m SUPER excited to see what happens next!!
