May 31

Happy Birthday Clay!

After church, Julia had a driving lesson with a driving school to fine-tune her driving and make sure she’s ready for her driving test in early July. The instructor said she did really well. She needs to practice parallel parking, but otherwise she is ready for her test. 

I took Elliott and Lucy to a nearby park during Julia’s driving lesson. The periodical cicadas were loud and their casts were everywhere.

We picked Kat up from work and headed to Huber’s for strawberry-picking. Except someone, who will remain nameless (the birthday boy *cough*), refused to pay the $3 per person tractor ride to the strawberries... so we left without any. I guess we will have to find a new place to pick strawberries. 

May 30

Happy Birthday Grandpa Tim!!!

If you had told me 25 years ago that I would give blood voluntarily every couple of months I wouldn’t have believed you. Once I learned that O+ blood is a universal donor, I started donating. After having four babies, a needle prick is no big deal. 

When it’s unseasonably chilly outside, we shuck corn inside?  

Kat wanted to make her side of the room look more teenagery-ish. She bought LED lights and got a new bedspread. She’s a bit of a minimalist. We had to rearrange Julia’s fairy lights to make room for Kat’s LED lights. I think both sides look nice. 

May 29

Apparently the not-so-wee ones were tuckered out.

I declared that I am no longer doing teenage girl laundry. Since I didn’t feel like hearing them fight over whose turn it was to do their collective laundry, I got them each their own laundry basket. Back in my Resident Advisor days in the dorms, I can’t tell you how many freshmen I had to teach to do their own laundry. 

May 28

Lucy and I enjoyed Wild Lights at the zoo last night.

May 27

We are super cool. I was laughing hysterically at Clay’s mowing outfit. 

A rainy day was a good day to finish Elliott and Lucy’s school books. They have pictures of field trips, holidays, extracurricular activities, etc. This was my last time adding to Elliott’s. It only goes through 5th grade... and his is about to bust at the seam.


Jack spent the night last night. I threatened Elliott that I will use this Comfy to make him and Lucy hang out the next time they fight. 

May 26

Somehow that sweet little baby on the left is now a Junior in high school! To say that her tenth grade year was weird, hard, sad, and frustrating is an understatement. But, she not only survived, she kicked school’s butt! Her lowest grade was a 95%. She finished 10th grade with at least 3 college credit hours (possibly 6, depending on the results of her AP World History test). 

May 25

We had a nice, quick visit with Nonna yesterday.

May 24

Another busy weekend (for the kids-I am just the shuttle bus)! 

Kat worked five hours on Saturday afternoon, babysat Sunday from 6-9:30am, and then worked from 10:15am-6pm. 

Julia went to Bethany’s Sweet 16 party Saturday night.

Raymond hung out at our house yesterday.

Elliott and Lucy invited the neighbors over for a water balloon fight and then spent a couple of hours swimming at a neighbor’s house. 

May 23

We played games and had dinner with Mamaw and Bapaw yesterday. 

Lucy drew our house’s floor plan. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent drawing floor plans growing up! 

May 22

Summer fun with the neighbors

Got my hair did

May 21

Clay and I enjoyed the zoo without the kids yesterday. It’s been at least 16 years since we have been to the zoo without kids. 


Julia sent me proof that most of the kids were alive! They managed to survive for 24 hours without us.

New schoolbooks arrived for the ‘21-‘22 year. That big pile? That is for Kat. She’s going to have a hard year of Calculus and Chemistry, plus others. All of them have more books than this. These are just the new books we had to purchase for next year.

May 20

Yesterday I tackled the entryway and hall closets. 

Clay and I celebrated our anniversary with a nice steak dinner (and creme brûlée).

We spent the night at a local bed and breakfast. It was a nice little getaway. 

May 19

Happy 20th Anniversary to us!

Yesterday was spent spring-cleaning Elliott and Lucy’s room. It always has an odd smell to it. It could be the pre-teen boy, the dog bedding, the huge dust bunnies lurking behind furniture, etc. Who knows!?! Hopefully it smells better now that we shampooed the carpets and washed all bedding. 

Gus went to the groomer’s yesterday.

While Elliott was at wrestling open mat, I took Ava and Lucy to the nearby park.