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- First things first: one day this week, while we were playing outside – Braelynn asked Derrick & I, “What’s our house made out of?”
A little blindsided, we just kind of looked at her – not entirely sure what she was asking – so we were not entirely sure how to answer her. “What do you mean?” we asked for clarification.
“What’s our house made out of?” she repeated, pressing us for an answer she obviously thought was a quick response.
We looked at each other & Derrick responded, “Umm, well there’s cement blocks at the bottom & wood at the top.”
A shocked look came across her face: “Wood? Like sticks?!”
Confused even more, we said, “What?”
Concerned, she faced us & said, “You mean our house is made out of sticks? Not bricks?!”
We waited for her to continue – she was going somewhere with this – but we didn’t know where.
“What will we do when the Big Bad Wolf comes knocking on our door? He will blow our house down if our house is made out of sticks!!” - Today was a BIG day – today was my sister Amy’s bridal shower! Thanks to the current craziness going on in our world, we had to change up our original plans for her coffee-themed traditional bridal shower, to look completely different. In a nutshell, we invited everyone to “drive by” my parent’s house, to see Amy, and deliver her their gifts – all from a safe, “social” distance. As the icing on the “untraditional” cake – it decided to SNOW today – and it snowed like crazy! Pretty much the whole time we were outside welcoming our bridal shower guests thru, it snowed – it was absolutely wacky.
After the “drive by” portion of the shower, we had a small lunch & then celebrated with Amy as she opened the rest of her gifts (gifts people had either mailed to my parent’s house or dropped off previously). Our “physical” group was small – basically just our immediate family – but it was perfect. I will be writing a full blog post all about what we did & how we did it this coming week – I think other brides would really benefit to see what we did! So, more to come soon! - Even though it snowed yesterday & today – earlier this week it was beautiful. We’ve spent so much time outside, it’s been so good.
- Braelynn has been begging for a scooter for weeks, ever since she saw her friend riding around on one & yesterday, all of her scooter dreams came true when her new pink scooter & helmet arrived in the mail!! She has been so excited to “practice” around the house (since it’s been snowing outside) & we cannot wait for this cold-snap to move on thru so we can get back outside & try it out in our alley out back!
- I downloaded an app called Marco Polo this week & WOW what fun I’ve had! I had heard about it from a podcast I listen to, but I had written it off as “just another social media app” that I really don’t have time for. But, I kept thinking about it & then my sister mentioned that she had gotten it & I decided to try it out. In a nutshell, it’s like a walkie-talkie, but with video. It allows me to take a video, of me talking to the camera, & then I send that message to a friend. Then, they can take a video of them talking to the camera, to talk back to me. It’s like FaceTime – but with a pause button – and you both don’t have to be on the phone at the same time. I can watch (and re-watch) messages whenever. I’ve been able to talk to a bunch of friends this week that I haven’t seen in forever and it’s been SO MUCH FUN!
- On Wednesday, after going for my run in the morning, I went upstairs to take a shower, leaving Braelynn in the living room watching TV (and Leander was still sleeping). As I came back downstairs to do a few business tasks before Leander woke up, I found Braelynn, standing proudly in the middle of the clean living room. Unknown to me, while I was taking a shower, Braelynn took it upon herself to clean the downstairs. She put away all of her toys, straightened up the blankets & pillows on the couches, she even mopped the kitchen & dining room floors. Needless to say, Mama was quite impressed & felt so so so loved.
- So, this is kind of embarrassing: I was looking for a roller coaster photo for Derrick this week & I realized that I never edited & gave him any of the roller coaster photos I took at Dollywood when we went on our trip there in 2016. I mean, I had given him about 6 of my favorites, but I still had around 100 that I had never followed thru & edited for him. OOPS. So, I guess you know what I’ll be doing tonight.
- The Shoot & Share Photo Contest officially opened for voting this week! I’ve been a part of this totally free & fair contest 7 years now (I’m not sure how that’s even possible) and every year it’s just so much fun! Photographers are allowed to enter up to 50 images & it takes about a month to make it thru all 12 rounds of voting. I’ve written about my experiences the last few years here – just know that voting in this contest is incredibly addicting & it’s definitely a huge source of excitement – especially in these dreary days.
- I have been so tempted to give Leander a haircut. His hair is getting so long. It really needs trimmed! The only thing holding me back from turning Baby Shark on & getting out the scissors is the fact that Amy & Nathan’s wedding is 4 weeks from today. If I would screw it up – it probably wouldn’t grow back in time to be fixed! Hopefully we can squeeze in a little haircut appointment before the wedding (Derrick too! His hair is wild right now!)
