pa-jammy
Nine years ago today, Ziggy, the best dog in the whole world*, came to live with us. We guessed he was around 1 when we got him, so in our house, at least, today he is ten years old. A whole decade! And yet he is still my little baby puppy. Funny how that happens.
*except when he pees on things inside the house
Here’s to ten more years! At least!
December! Gotta finish this so I can do my year-end recap, which in retrospect seems kind of silly after writing the monthly recaps but whatever.
The boys turned 16! They had friends over a couple of nights before, and we went to the bonfire, as usual. We had steaks for dinner on their actual birthday.
I got to see my friend Zandy for the first time since 2019!
Their big gift was Saints tickets, which we went to (and this time, they won, woo!)
Ziggy was cute, duh.
Soccer was played. They actually won a game! Twice!
Took them shopping individually. I only had to have sushi twice!
Christmas was nice. We did the usual Christmas Eve traditions (steak dinner, eggnog daiquiri for me, read TNBC, took the stocking pic. My sister and fam came to Baton Rouge for Christmas, so we went there on Christmas Day.
The next day, they came to New Orleans and we went to Christmas fest. I ice skated!
Later in the week, I went to Baton Rouge alone to help my mom and Larry after she had a procedure on her hand. I don’t want to talk about it.
Lots of driving happened.
Then it was New Year’s Eve and Miles and I watched the fireworks on the levee!
Other random things: my car broke down, pretty decorations, our friend’s birthday party, moms blog Christmas party, camellias bloomed, Oliver made an island, advent calendars, hooray! etc.
Well that was a busy and fun month!
Started off quiet. I finally tested negative for Covid. I made a shirt.
Went to Los Angeles and Vegas, but I already posted about that. (But here are a few highlight pics anyway…)
The day after I got home, the boys and I went to a Pelicans game, because tickets were super cheap.
Not a whole lot happened for a while. I made that moto jacket.
Ziggy was cute.
Took the boys driving a bunch to practice before they started the driving portion of their driver’s ed class.
Then I went on my the second trip of the month! Also to see Kiki and go to a show!
I flew to DC Friday, and we went to a Caps game.
Hung out with Maxie and I tried on $80k worth of jewelry on Saturday. We went to some thrift stores to finish off our costumes, and Kiki bought me this Friends Christmas sweatshirt. Later that evening we heard about Matthew Perry. 😦
Saturday night we went to a Halloween party. Our costumes were awesome.
Sunday, Kiki and I drove to Silver Spring to go see a concert and spent the night at a hotel there. Then I flew home the next day. A short but super fun trip. I hate not knowing when we’ll see each other again. Hmmph.
I did get to see lots of fall colors, which was neat.
And then yesterday was Halloween. I handed out candy, but not many kids came. Mark my words, next year I’m going to get full-sized candy bars. I’m going to be one of those houses. Don’t let me forget.
March was obviously kind of low-key, because I haven’t felt the need to post anything since the monthly picture.
Today they had their 15 year well visits, and I was excited to see how tall they were. I assumed Oliver and I were the same height, 5’10”.
I was right and wrong. We are the same height, but we are 5’9″.
This has shaken me to my core. I’m actually fine with getting older and shrinking. I am not okay with the idea that I was never 5’10”. So we’re going to go with shrinking. It’s fine.
And Miles and Linus are only half and a quarter inch behind Oliver, and they’re all within a pound in weight, which is wild. I don’t think they’ve ever been this similar since they were born! (I was going to look to see how long they were at birth, and apparently this is not documented anywhere. Not on this blog, not in my medical records, not in any emails. Nowhere. Huh.)
My sister to the rescue: Her nephews were 16.5, 17, and 17 inches long. Which means, yes, they are (relatively) closer in height and weight now than they were at birth. Wild.
And boy, is it true that they just stretch out like taffy at this age. In the past two years, Linus gained almost 9 inches in height but less than a pound in weight. Crazy.
So let’s see, what else happened in May?
Let’s see. Ziggy was cute. No change there.
Oliver and Linus got haircuts. Zzz.
I made a pretty skirt! Oh that’s nice. It’s the Upton skirt by Cashmerette, this floral embroidered mesh came from Joann’s, of all places. I used a pale pink satin for the underlayer. (Thank you Ren for the runway photo from the hotel hallway.)
The most exciting part of the month was going up to Natchitoches for my 30th high school reunion. (Yes, I graduated at the tender age of 7.)
It was so much fun. Really nice to reconnect with friends I haven’t seen in a while. Bittersweet, though, because this is when the boys would be getting their acceptance letters if they’d applied. I mean, obviously I’m glad they’re not leaving me, but it’s hard not to want the same experience I had, when it was so life-changingly wonderful. And the new dorms are very nice.
There was lots of soccer too. A tournament in Baton Rouge where Oliver got the only goal for their team all weekend. Then another game last weekend where Oliver got the only goal. This weekend is another tournament, but I guess you’ll have to wait for the next monthly update to hear about it!
I also made a stuffed bunny for a mom in the neighborhood who lost her baby daughter earlier this year. I felt honored that she trusted me with the task. It came out cute, I think. She was happy, which is the important thing.
The jasmine is blooming, which is the only good thing about spring. Well, and daylight savings time (ending? beginning? I can never remember.) but I need to get a new grill because the one we had fell apart.
I read a good book, I recommend it.
I got to have lunch with a work friend.
The boys ate a lot of saltines.
Stephanie chopped off her hair for St. Baldrick’s. Tragically, I forgot to wear my giant medal.
24 years after graduating from LSU with a friggin general studies degree, I paid off my student loans! Wheeee!
And yeah, that’s about it.
Oh, except starting on April 3, I will be on a new team at work for three months, working on Tumblr support. I’m very excited for the change of scenery!
Yikes, it’s been a while since I posted, and a lot has happened. Well, for one, we came home. Wheee!
Let’s see, the last post was taken on a Saturday, and power came back on late Monday night, so we went home on Tuesday the 7th. All told, we were away from home for 11 days, and boy was our fridge gross. We’d thrown out all of the food the previous Friday when George and Miles and I went to check things out, so it could have been worse, for sure.
Gas was still hard to come by when we got home, as were groceries. Even now, two weeks after coming home, stores aren’t fully stocked. But it’s getting better.
We had to get a tree removed, and while we had a crew, we also had them prune some of our other trees. I was sad to see the tree go – though I’m hoping that the increased sunlight in the yard will mean my new plants from when we had the yard redone last spring will start thriving.
It’s sad to look out of the upstairs bathroom window and not see the tree, though.
I’ve also been sewing a bit more. I made a new cardigan for myself and a skirt for Terry for her birthday.
I’ve also been baking a bunch. I found this no-knead recipe that is so easy, it seems silly not to make bread every day. Well, last night it was pizza. We also made flour tortillas the other night because, why not?
Ziggy is still cute.
Oliver has eaten avocados.
The boys still haven’t gone back to school in person yet – this week has been virtual. In theory they’ll go back to campus next week. (Mold issues, not COVID.) And soccer was supposed to start last week, but we’re waiting on that too. Hopefully soon!
So yeah. That’s about it for now. Yay for fall!
Five years ago, a coworker dropped off this dog at our house and our family became complete.
Some pics from just the last few months of our sweet Zig Zig, who is loving quarantine.
My sweet boys at the bus stop.
An exquisite loaf of sourdough bread that I made for Thanksgiving. Recipe here.
Grandee and Larry came for Thanksgiving. We had zero vegetables.
Ziggy has been cute, as usual. We got our Christmas tree up!
Random leftover photos. Finally got the fabric for my cape! I was going to make it over Thanksgiving break, but I didn’t have the pattern yet. But it’s coming soon! Also the delicious beet salad I made. I like making things that are yummy.
Now it’s December 2 and the boys will be 13 in two days and I cannot believe it.
Same old, same old.
Lots and lots of work.
Sewing:
Made myself another Artists Box Top out of the Liberty lawn I bought in May. Cotton lawn is by far my favorite fabric in the world. So light but crisp and easy to sew and doesn’t wrinkle horribly. Perfect for summer. Also I’m rather proud of this one because I made my own facings instead of trying to use bias tape, which I’ve never been able to find a good tutorial for using it on a v-neck.
I also made George another button down shirt for Father’s Day. I couldn’t find any more Doctor Who fabric, but I found this one covered in cocktails at a local sewing store. (I had to make an appointment to shop. I felt v important.)
And I made myself this Holyoke sundress from Cashmerette. The top ended up a little big, and I’m not super comfortable with my arms out like this, but I’ll get over it when the temp is 100. This one is made out of a linen/rayon blend.
Baking:
Bagels that looked funky but tasted good.
Dinner rolls that look and taste amazing.
Beignets from scratch!
The boys and I ate at a restaurant for the first time since March! We went to Tartine, which friends of our own. It was delightful and the food was delicious and nice to feel sorta normal.
Premier League games started up again, so now it’s even harder to get the boys to focus on summer reading.
And when they’re not watching soccer or avoiding reading, they’re playing Minecraft with their cousins, which warms my heart.
My cilantro is practically thriving.
And Ziggy is as ridiculously cute as ever. He got a new collar! And I got a lick to the face!
Until next time….
It looks like I’ll be writing one post with more than a dozen words in it per month. I don’t know why I can’t motivate myself to blog more. It’s not like I’m not sitting at my computer all day, every day. (Work is busy.)
So let’s see.
Mother’s Day was great. I usually leave the house and go see a movie with Terry on Mother’s Day but that obviously wasn’t an option this year. But George got me a picnic basket full of goodies from Tartine, and I relaxed and spent the day outside (the weather was outstanding) and drank a bottle of rose that Kiki had sent me. Delightful!
And then later that week, George turned 50! George doesn’t care about birthdays as much as I do, but I tried to make it special. Dinner was from Tartine (shepherd’s pie), I got my friend Angela to bake a cake, and I got him a bottle of expensive whiskey and this portrait of Ziggy. His favorite gift (and I don’t blame him) though was the cards the boys made him.
I’ve been sewing quite a bit – some masks, of course, but also clothes. It makes me happy. I need to do separate posts on these, but I’ve made shirts, mostly. This is all leading up to me deciding which pattern I’m going to use when I sew up this length of Liberty cotton lawn I bought when a fabric store had a sale. All the heart eyes!
I’ve been enjoying my Peloton too. It is so nice to have the outlet for stress relief. Yesterday I hopped on it three different times when I was stressed out of my mind. Just a ten minute ride really helps! In five and a half weeks, I’ve done 80 rides! (I mean, yes, some of those are 5 minute warm ups or cool downs, but plenty are 45 minutes or longer!)
If you use the Peloton app, follow me! I’m…guess what…yep, pyjammy. Easy to find.
I’ve been watching all of the Marvel movies in the order suggested here, because Kiki was doing it, and it sounded fun. I realized I’d missed a couple of the movies over the years, so it was nice to get caught up. (And now the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War makes sense!) Sometimes I have it on my phone while I sew and kind of half-watch (I mean, I don’t want to sew over my finger or anything) or sometimes I have it on while I work on a puzzle. The boys watched Spiderman: Homecoming with me the other night, but otherwise it’s just me.
Speaking of the boys watching things, they were so happy last weekend to have a soccer game to watch on TV again!
Ziggy likes to watch sports too.
And he’s just generally cute.
Tomorrow is the boys’ last day of sixth grade! Last night they put on their school uniforms because they missed wearing them. So hopefully they won’t mind putting them back on for a last day of school pic!
So handsome! Got it here.
Oops, it’s been almost two weeks since I posted. My bad!
So let’s see, what’s been going on since my last update post?
I got my Peloton last week, that’s pretty exciting. I have been doing about 45 minutes a day of classes or “scenic rides” but I am still waiting for my butt to acclimate. It’s getting better.
The boys have also been riding it, which is great. They haven’t been going outside enough, even though the weather has been pretty great.
Last week was spring break so they didn’t have any school work. So their brains rotted and oozed from their ears.
I’ve been baking a lot, still. The highlight was when King Arthur flour commented on my hot dog buns.
We got Pictionary, which was fun until SOMEONE stormed off because he didn’t think me saying “looseleaf paper” when the answer was “paper” should count.
We haven’t been watching movies as much, since we started watching Brooklyn Nine Nine. I love it, but I also miss movie nights. We’re about halfway through, I think. Maybe next week we’ll be back to movies.
My hair is long and gray. I can’t wait to cut it off. I wonder if it’ll still happen in May.
The Grand Meetup for this year (slated to be in September) was cancelled, which is sad but understandable.
I started this post three days ago. I can’t say a lot has changed since then, except my butt is getting more used to the Peloton seat.
Oops. I started this post 8 days ago. My bad!
My butt is definitely used to the Peloton seat. I’ve done 35 rides since I got it two weeks ago! Sounds impressive until you realize that includes the 5 minute cooldown rides. Anyway, who cares?
I am even closer to chopping off my ponytail myself. I long for the day I can wash my hair in five minutes.
Sunday I drove over a glass bottle and got my first flat tire in my new (I still consider it new) car. Bummer. I had another tire with a slow leak, so I figured I’d just end up replacing all the dang tires today, but I just had to get three of them repaired! (Yes, that means two tires had nails in them and one a shard of glass.) Only cost me $45 instead of the $700 I was anticipating. That was exciting!
Ziggy being cute all over the place:
Well. I’m going to just go ahead and post this now or else I never will.
pyjammy dot blog 