Jaden’s first car purchase



Jaden sold his car and put the money towards a down payment on a newer, nicer car.  Dad is co-signing on the loan, but Jaden was not going to let Jacob have a nicer car…and he said this would make more sense as he is driving for doordash to make some money.

I hope he will be as happy 1-2 years from now after making all the payments.

Year in books - 2020

 

That was a lot of books.  Audio has really bumped this up as I have really gotten into hearing the story done by voice actors.  I can accomplish a book and yard work or other chores at the same time…so long as I don’t do it in a common space near Kristen.  Inevitably she talks to me while I am in that space and will get very annoyed at me for not hearing her…so, don’t keep doing that :)

The one thing I do notice is that I think I will keep most, if not all, non-fiction books to the physical copy and reading…rather than audio.  I think performance of the fictional story goes over so much better than trying to dig into and learn topics where you may want to stop and soak in the information.

10 of the 60 were non-fiction.

20th anniversary

 This will be a memory hard to top for anniversaries.  Kristen scheduled a photographer and a hotel and she opened up her wedding dress, I rented a tux and we had a photo shoot in Boston.

Kristen was the princess she always wanted to be and it was so neat to see all the people who waved and watched and congratulated us as we wandered through the park in our “best”.

Besides incredible pictures, it was just such a fun thing to do…we then stayed the night at a very strange hotel room where the shower was not in the bathroom and enjoyed a new wedding cake that we will save a piece of for a year from now to enjoy.  It was very yummy and expensive :)

Year in books - 2019

 

My annual post on the books I read over the last year.

7 non- fiction books and 39 fiction books.

Obligatory First Day of School Post

New School Year started today...to go with the normal issues of getting up and moving, Jaden had a scrimmage with the Varsity team after school and we had painters in the house finishing up the kitchen work.  Wonder what the year will bring when we are starting it off as hectic as this? ;)

Never Ending Project.....

Maybe not "Never-Ending"...as there is an end in sight.  We hope to have the painting done largely over this weekend...

I have spent lots and lots of hours over the last few weekends and time during weeknights trying to get this done.

I think it was worth it, but I guess we will see with the final product.

HOME WORK

Well, in anticipation of Tina and Martin visiting with the family from Germany in a few short weeks, Kristen decided that all the work has to get done now on the house...so, she has torn out all the baseboards and started taking everything off the wall in anticipation of the painters that should be coming in a couple weeks.

She also wants wainscoting through a whole bunch of the downstairs that I am now going to try to do on my own...wish me luck...


some what I hope will be before pictures:

How can you not love that floral wallpaper that we uncovered under the badly put together under the crown molding?












Yes, that floral print continues...and you can also see just a few of the numerous holes I need to fix from all the stuff we had up on the walls....

Kristen LOVED this coffee swirl type of painting when we first moved in...now, 11 years later I think she believes it is swirly dirt.  To say she is ready for a change is probably an understatement.

Jude got teeth pulled

We had tried previously at our current dentist to get 2 of Jude's baby teeth pulled.  They had tried but were unsuccessful at keeping him calm enough to do anything.

Hence bringing us to today...

Jude was calm to the dentist and did very well right up until the needles went in...at which point we were very close to not being able to finish up.  After about 5 minutes or so of calming him back down and convincing him that we had gotten the worst part over they were able to extract the two baby teeth despite some screaming on his part as it happened :(

NOT easy to be a part of it...but glad that he was able to soldier on...he even says he wants them as his regular dentist despite going through that with them....

Boys working out together

Was really neat this morning....
Jaden wanted to take some drone shots for his summer reading project at the high school and asked Jacob to come with him.  I didn't even think they would get up....but they did.  They were on their bikes and on their way at 5am...right as I was getting ready to leave for CrossFit.  I will try to get some of those shots too maybe...but what was neat was not only were they KIND to each other but they went to breakfast together after and then came home and did a workout together!  I only wish this would be the norm :)

Happy 17th Anniversary

Spending an overnight in Hull, MA with Kristen was a wonderful way to enjoy our anniversary.  Too much food for sure, but enjoyable.  The Beacon Luxury Waterfront Inn was very comfortable but gave Kristen way too many ideas on updates for our home!

A nice dinner at a local Italian place,









breakfast at TOAST,

a walk along the beach and quality time together made for a fantastic day.