There wasn’t a trip this week. Summer is winding down, and only a few more weeks until school starts up again. A few days ago, Rosie was not so excited about the idea; after going back-to-school shopping and picking out some pretty slick shoes, now she is pumped again.
It has just been a normal week. We got together with friends to celebrate their newest kid being born, Millie. Her story is a great one, and if you get a chance, ask Houston about it.
This group- Charles, Chad, Houston and I were roommates back in our App State days. The picture from below is from 2007.
Time with these friends is just special; we all are turning out ok. And, after a little bit of polish, we got a picture of all of our kiddos, including the newest edition:
Shortly afterwards, it descended into chaos with uncle Charles.
Why uncle? These guys have been around my life for at least 20 years; Houston for 30+ years (and we aren’t too old). So Rosie only knows them as “uncle”, and they only know me as “uncle pooks”.
The other things
Rosie seems to have an abundance of friends everywhere, and they are sweet. They laugh. And they are getting a little older, and not having the same types of arguments as they did in kindergarten about sharing; you know what I mean, the kinds of arguments where parents have to intervene. Now, it is a little more hands off, and fun to watch the smiles.
Rosie did a dance camp last week. All the kids seem to know their moves, but the timing isn’t there. Isn’t there usually someone around snapping their fingers on tempo to keep the dancers in sync? I dunno, they have a “snapper” role like that in the dance scenes in movies.
Mercy has been a lot of fun the past several weeks too. We may be getting past the hardest time. Her personality is shining; she is learning to play by herself, and she is even smiling a bit more:
Also, at the pool, next year is gonna be great; what I mean is, Taylor and I might get back closer to the “kids can swim and they need less life-saving attention.” Mercy is on the right track, at 2, to really start swimming:
Remodel?
I’m a bit hesitant to write this as time is running short before the kids wake up, and I want to do it justice.
Our house is great. It was built in the mid 50’s, which means it is around 70 years old. Taylor wants to redo our kitchen. Again, I want to be as delicate as I can with each of these words; let’s take a step back and look at the big picture.
What I wrote about last week in our anniversary post was how the thing I love most about Taylor is how she is nice to people; this is very true. Taylor and I host well together, and it is something we enjoy. We both work towards something (A meal, good conversations, cleaning), and work as a team during those times.
An extension of that is to have a great place to host. Currently, (I think) our kitchen is fine; good lighting, large enough, good appliances, etc. It isn’t the original kitchen from the 1950s.
Taylor wants an island to make the kitchen better for hosting; and in order to add an island, a load-bearing wall needs to come down, the dining room would need to be removed, and who knows what else.
Without getting too far in the details, we both think on this differently, and that’s (mostly) fine.
What will it take to get you excited about a kitchen?
-Taylor
Since our house is 70 years old, what is the smartest way to approach it? My response was As soon as all of the other needs of the house are addressed, and we have enough in savings in case a car dies, the AC dies, the water heater goes, or anything else needs fixing. What is that amount? I don’t know. However, we have a few cracks in the plaster in the house. What causes those? Are they a big issue? Something that can be ignored? I am not a house-guy, I have no idea.
What we both agree on is that a new roof is the first need. So, this week, after a few unsuccessful attempts to claim hail damage through insurance, we are taking the steps to get a new roof.
Stay tuned.