Back to School, Back to School

Welp.  Summer has come and gone (according to the school calendar) and we've made it to hump day on the first week!  Well technically we're already more than half way through since school is closed Friday for the holiday weekend.

Lily woke up Monday morning absolutely giddy.  She was dressed and ready to go nearly 40 minutes before the bus was due to arrive.  And then the meltdowns started...her first day shoes didn't fit...she swore her feet grew an inch since we'd purchased the shoes a week ago...she wasn't going to know anyone at the new bus stop...her hair wasn't the way she wanted it...

And then there was Julia...too stubborn to eat breakfast...had to put her own underwear, romper, and shoes on...

And then there was Diesel...she just wanted to play ball....

And then there was me...ready to spike my coffee...threatening if they didn't get outside in the next 5 seconds for a picture I'd lose my mind...

And then there was that second we almost missed the bus but thank goodness it was 10 minutes late on the first day....

Welp.  I'm glad this week is almost over.  The anticipation of the first day is great - the jitters and the excitement - and then all hell breaks loose trying to get into our evening school year routine.  Mike and I made the mistake of thinking we could take a quick boat ride last night and enjoy the fallish weather.  Idiots.  

This year we skipped the whole school supply shopping thing and bought into a fundraiser through our elementary.  When we went to Lily's open house, a box containing all of her goodies was waiting for her on her desk.  IT. WAS. AMAZING.  I didn't spend what seemed like hours arguing with her about what was or wasn't on her list.  Or reminding her she didn't need the furry pencil pouch or the glitter covered notebook.  I got enough of that just trying to help her find a suitable backpack and first day outfit.

So here's to hoping for a great school year.  Oh.  And for things to slow down just a little.

Our Blueberry Adventure

This past week marked our last "summer" schedule.  Monday the girls will go back to Appletree for a full week before school starts for Lily the following week.  And really, Wednesday was our last day home together since Mike and I snuck off to celebrate our anniversary on Friday.

When I asked Lily what she wanted to do on our last day home together, she put together an insane list - blueberry picking, movie theater and popcorn, sleepover with Adalyn, pedicures - I told her none of those things were probably happening with her two year old sister in tow but that we'd see.  After we woke up on Wednesday morning, the forecast was promising for blueberry picking and since we'd been wanting to go all summer, I decided it was now or never.  It was 62 and cloudy when we took off so we threw on sweatshirts, loaded up the wagon, double checked my camera battery, and we set out on our adventure.  Thirty minutes later when we arrived at the blueberry farm, the clouds had parted, the sun was shining, and I was super disappointed my photos might not turn out in full sun.

Who was I kidding?  A photoshoot blueberry picking without another adult on my side - Julia was laughing at me before I even pulled out my camera.  Luckily the farm was pretty quiet and we had an entire end row all to ourselves.  The wagon was genius - I'll never do it without again - and the girls picked nearly four pounds of blueberries.  I'm pretty sure Julia ate about two pounds but the lady at checkout reassured me that was part of the fun.  Lily would have stayed for hours if I had let her but Julia was over it after about 3 minutes and really over it after another 30 minutes.  She spent some time in the wagon eating pretzels before deciding that wasn't nearly as appetizing as the blueberries so she ran up and down the row shoveling them in her mouth.  It was at that point I packed everyone up and we returned home.

A look back @ 10 years of marriage

In a blink of an eye, we went from this...

to this...

Okay, okay, so it was 10 years but still.  It's becoming something of a reoccurring theme here - me saying I can't believe time is flying by so quickly...

Ten years ago tonight I was attempting to get some sleep in a hotel room surrounded by some of my best girlfriends while Mike was closing down Z’s bar around the block.  Never could I have imagined the journey where life was going to take us after we walked down that aisle.  It’s no secret - marriage isn’t easy - if someone tells you theirs is perfect, I strongly believe they are lying to you.  I’d be lying to you if I told you we never ever fight and everything is always 100% hunky dorey.  It's crazy to say, but I've known Mike for more than half my life - we met in sixth grade, started dating our junior year, and fast forward, we're navigating parenthood together trying to figure out the best way to live our lives in a world that's changing immensely every single day.

Earlier this year, during a conversation about our monthly budget, Mike asked me a question I couldn’t answer - what’s your life goal?  When I started to answer he cut me off - not your career goal or your parenting goal, but YOUR life goal?  It's a question I've been trying to find the answer to ever since.  Mike challenges me to see things in a different light every single day.  He's always in my corner even when we're fighting against each other.

I won't bore you with the details of the last 16+ years we've spent together - you could rewind this blog a bit to find a good chunk of our journey.  When I decided to highlight our ten year anniversary, I set out on a goal to find at least one picture of us each year.  It turned out to be A LOT harder than I thought it would be - apparently we don't ever take pictures of ourselves unless we're at a wedding, a tailgate, or drunk on the boat.  Apologies for the terribly blurry ones - that's what happens when you have to dig back into the digital archives.  Oh...and if there's one thing I've learned from this...Mike's taste in suits has certainly gotten better.

2009 - Our Honeymoon

2010

2011 - Pregnant with Lily

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016 - On our anniversary and had just found out I was pregnant with Julia

2017

2018

2019

Goodbye June, and almost July

As I flipped through the Target ad last Sunday I wanted to vomit when I saw their Back to School/College deals scattered about with smiling faces.  I mean seriously.  JUNE JUST ENDED.  Ok - ended over two weeks ago.  School has been out for well over a month now and as soon as we get used to our new summer schedule, the bus will be coming again.

Speaking of our new summer schedule - I'm learning a lot more about patience being home with the girls two days a week.  I thought things would slow down this summer with me being home but instead the days are still just whipping by.  The weather has finally taken a turn to summer - we all but skipped over spring and went straight into the high 80s.  Mike nicely reminded me that it will be January soon and to quit complaining when he shut off the AC and opened all the windows this weekend.

On our first Wednesday adventure, we met up with some friends at the library for Touch a Truck day.  We stayed busy inside for a bit, checking out way more books than needed before heading home for lunch and naps.  In the afternoon, Julia got to experience her first swimming lesson at Goldfish and she was not overly pleased.  Lily picked right back up where she left off while Julia screamed for a majority of the 30 minutes.  All she's talked about since then is how much she loves her teacher so that's a plus.

We spent our Friday running errands before packing up and heading to White Lake for the weekend.  We had high hopes of spending Father's Day weekend on the water but the weather didn't quite cooperate.  Instead we explored Muskegon, letting the girls run wild on the dunes near the pier and taking in the start of the powerboat poker run.  I'm sorry to say Father's Day was unfortunately not Mike's traditional day filled with bloody mary's and sunshine - we headed home early to clean house, do laundry, meal prep, and get ready for the week.

Monday Mike headed off to Virginia while I held down the fort.  With extreme fear I might go insane on Wednesday, I made plans with a girlfriend to go strawberry picking.  Since Mother Nature has been a real B this year, the crop has been terrible and every place we looked into had very limited pickings or none at all.  We opted to not take our two two year olds out on a witch hunt for berries and instead lucked out with the weather on the river.

The weekend brought us our first gorgeous river weekend.  We camped out at the sandbar and soaked up the sun (and cocktails) with friends.  The following Monday I headed off to Chicago for the week for work before returning to a house full of Hoys for our second annual river weekend.  We couldn't have asked for better weather and we are so grateful we got to spend the weekend with family from Chicago, Indy, Seattle, and Detroit!  And of course there was Sunday Funday with the Tollas clan.

Fourth of July weekend came and went faster than I could have imagined.  I am disappointed with myself for not taking nearly as many pictures as I should have but did my best to keep my phone away and just be present with the family.  It was a different year this year - quiet.  And it was extremely hard to adjust back to work after a five day weekend.

We spent this past weekend enjoying the river in all it's glory with family and friends.  You know the girls are having a good summer when the first words out of their mouths when they wake up are "when are we going tubing?".  We've gotten into a pretty good rhythm on weekend mornings - coffee, skiing, cruise, tubing, sandbar, nap? who needs a nap, tubing, swimming in the pond, dinner, s'mores, repeat.

Today - the sun is shining and it would appear to be a beautiful day until you step outside and can barely breath.  I think this must be what it's like to live in a southern state - extremely high humidity, air quality alerts, and 90 degrees.  The girls ran around with the neighbor kids for a few minutes before seeking refuge in our cool basement.  As Mike so kindly reminds me, it will be snowing soon, so after  nap we'll try and find a cool spot in the shade to read before heading off to swim lessons.

Happy hump day everyone.  School starts in less than six weeks so soak up summer while you can.  XOXO