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.

New Car

Somewhat reluctantly...and I can only say that because I still went along with it...Kristen got a new car today as part of getting ready to start her new job.  She said it was a "requirement" so that she could drive int he snow and feel safe.  I hope that is the case.  It is a pretty car and I can honestly say I wasn't sure I was ever going to buy "New"...but here I am.  11 miles on the car when we bought it.

Jacob Artwork during the school year

As the kids are now out of school, I thought I would post a few of Jacob's art pieces for the year for a good keepsake:

Jaden - ECNL Stars team

Jaden will tell you he knew it and always expected to be on it...and he probably did, because he does NOT lack for confidence most of the time...but...today he officially was offered a contract to play on the Stars ECNL team...the highest level team they have.

It will mean a bit more travel even than this year, which is a bit scary, but I am excited for him and hoping that between this and Varsity soccer in High School we will really see his game level up.

CrossFit Open Review

So, I went online and checked out how I finished...before I go there...I will say that for the first time through, despite not being happy with the result of a given workout, I was happy that I was able to RX each one and post a score...so that was good.

My RESULTS:

225th in MA Masters (40-44).

Now, I would love to think that was awesome...but there were only 549 guys registered in MA for our age group...so...not exactly burning things up....and not all of those guys even posted scores...

I was 10,565th in the world in the Masters 40-44 age group...out of just over 25,000...kind of right in the middle of the pack...

Now, I could be overly competitive and lament that or I could take it as good since I have only been doing crossfit for about a year.

I will not answer that though ;)