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- Happy Father’s Day, Derrick! (see past Father’s Day photos here & here) I know you probably won’t believe this, but this photo is literally the FIRST photo I snapped after setting everyone up. I’m serious!! I set everyone in position, backed up, looked thru my viewfinder, and BAM – took this photo. Every once in a blue moon, it is just that easy – but no worries: it will never happen again.
- See all our baby flowers growing in the background of this photo? (No, those aren’t weeds!) We planted zinnia & marigold seeds that we harvested & saved from our flowers last summer & they’ve all come up beautifully!! There are morning glories popping up on the left side garden too! Fingers crossed that everything continues to grow so well!
- Leander has learned two new tricks over the last 2 weeks – and both have to do with climbing (no surprise there, right?) He can now successfully (and mostly safely) come down the steps all by himself. Derrick has been working with him to learn this new skill & now he’s a little pro! He plops his little butt down, turns around, and slides/climbs down the steps so fast! He also has learned how to climb up the slide outside – which means not only can he go up & down the slide by himself, but now he can play in the “treehouse”. We are missing the ladder from the ground to the first level of the treehouse – so he has never been able to climb up into it before. But now? He has a whole new dominion! Our swingset’s treehouse has 3 levels – so he gets to the second level via climbing up the slide, then he can climb the ladder up to the 3rd level – but the problem is – he hasn’t mastered climbing down the ladder yet. So, he just hangs his feet out over the ladder & screams until someone helps him.
- I’ve had 2 harddrives crash on me in the past month – one was a SUPER old drive (literally over 10 years old), so I knew it was nearing the end of it’s life & I had already pulled all of the files from it onto a new drive. The harddrive that crashed on me last week though – that was a newer one – in fact, it had all of my photos & files from May 2019 until today on it (about 3TB of data). Thankfully (praise the Lord) I have BackBlaze – a cloud-based backup system that backs up all of my files. It’s been as simple as ordering a new harddrive from Amazon & then downloading all of those files from the cloud back onto my new drive. 3TB is a ton of data, so it’s taken quite a bit of time – but I’m elated to report that I’ve got it all back & am fully back in business!! (I learned my lesson the very very hard way when I had a harddrive crash on me back in 2013 – it cost me about $2,000 to recover those files (plus a ton of anxiety, heartache, and tears). I had no choice tho but to pay the money & get my files back – I didn’t have them backed up anywhere else. From then on, I’ve subscribed to a cloud-based backup system & it’s saved me thousands of dollars (plus a ton of anxiety, heartache, and tears!))
- Did you know? If you hang a blown-up brown paper lunch bag in the corner of your porch – that it will trick the bees into thinking it’s a wasp’s nest & they’ll stay away? We have a problem with wood-boring bees on our porch & ever since my sister shared this trick & we tried it – we haven’t had a single issue!
- Derrick’s parents came for a quick visit last weekend & they brought Cameron with them! Braelynn was over-the-moon elated to see her favorite-best-friend cousin! They had a blast & Braelynn is already counting down the days until she can see her cousin again.
- Speaking of last weekend – I photographed my first wedding of 2020 last Saturday! It was wonderful. It felt so good to hold my camera in my hands & capture the memories of a wedding day again! As much work as wedding days are – they are truly what makes me SO happy – I LOVE photographing weddings! If you missed it – you can see the highlights of last Saturday’s wedding here!
- Leander had his 18-month check-up this week. He always struggles with the sweet nurses at our doctor’s office – they are so wonderful to him & he just does not like them weighing & measuring him! Poor dude. Thankfully, he seems to like our doctor (maybe it’s because he’s a man?) and he always does really well for Dr. H. No matter what he thinks – he is a healthy, growing little boy who is doing super well!
- You’d think that the USPS would really be on top of their game right now with so many people ordering things (instead of going out to the store to buy them) – but nope. We’ve had two packages get “lost” in the mail over the last 2 weeks! It’s been so strange! And you know these things come in “threes”, so I’m just waiting to see what gets lost in the mail next.
- So, by this point in 2020, we were supposed to be just getting home from our second roller coaster riding “tour”. We had originally planned a trip to ride coasters back in April & then had another trip planned for this past week. Obviously – neither of those trips have happened. Up until this point – that was super depressing – but things are finally looking up!! Over the last 2 weeks, amusement parks have been announcing their opening dates & we’ve finally been able to get some solid plans in place to get out & ride some new coasters! I am SO excited!
- I mentioned last week that Derrick & I got another new mattress. In a nutshell, we got a Nectar mattress a few weeks ago & we just didn’t like it (thankfully, they have a great return policy & we were able to get our money back). This time, we decided to try a more traditional mattress – no more memory foam! It’s now been a week of us sleeping on it & so far, so good – I think? It’s a firm mattress – so it’s better for Derrick’s back (and his back-sleeping habits). It’s not quite so ideal for me (I’m a side-sleeper). I’ll be honest: the first few nights – I felt like I was sleeping on the floor: it’s a firm mattress. Then, I decided to fold up an oversized plush blanket we have & add it as a layer under the fitted sheet & that seems to have done the trick for me!! It’s just enough softness to make me feel like I’m not on the floor & I’ve slept really well the last few nights! Derrick seems to be seeing improvement with his back & hip pain too – so fingers-crossed that this is a winner!
[…] a great father to our kiddos.(If you want to see past Father’s Day photos – they’re here! #304, #251, #204)PS: can you tell which member of the family did not want to cooperate in this year’s […]