Ziggy and Ollie and Leslie Knope.
triplets
01/21/2020
The boys were trying to teach me how to make this face they make, with limited success. Photo by Oliver. (Sometimes you gotta outsource, you know?)
01/20/2020
The boys had the day off, and it was a lovely cold, crisp day, so we took the Zigster for a walk. We stopped at the neighborhood market because I needed butter. All they had was $5 Amish butter (that’s for two sticks!) so yeah basically we are fancy is what I’m saying.
01/16/2020
The boys play for the varsity (7/8 grade) soccer team at school, even though they’re only in 6th grade. And last night their team won the championships! Their team was undefeated, and I’m so proud they were a part of it, and that they played with older (and bigger!) kids, even though they were nervous about it at first.
Linus’s smile after the game is the best thing about all of it. They will not smile with their teeth showing (I have no idea why, they have perfect teeth) so catching this genuine, huge smiles from the boy who was most upset about not being put on a team with his classmates is the real victory.
01/15/2020
What I imagine the kids on the other team are thinking…”wait, there ARE two of them!”
01/05/2020
Look! It’s our house! Sorta. Oliver is building a model of it for a school project. Not bad, eh? Windows and doors and other details will be added tomorrow.
01/04/2020 (145 months)
We made a quick trip to Baton Rouge, just for the day, so the monthly picture was taken in front of Grandee’s garage door. Could they be any more handsome? Possibly I am biased, but I think not.
2019 in review
This year sure went fast!
I read about 100 books. (I didn’t keep track, but I think it’s safe to say 100.)
I sewed a million things. (Who knows? I also didn’t keep track.)
I went on 3 trips. (Serbia, Virginia/NY, Orlando)
I worked out at Orangetheory 85 times.
I wrote 46 blog posts (shameful!)
In 2020, I hope to read just as many books, and I probably won’t keep track of them. I’ll keep sewing, and hopefully I’ll get better about keeping track of my makes. I’m definitely going to travel more (Lisbon this month, Vienna in the spring, hopefully the UK in the summer, and Orlando again in the fall – all but one are work trips.) I have a goal of averaging 3 OTF workouts a week, but let’s say 150 workouts throughout the year. And since I’ve started another 366 project, my blog post count should definitely go up!
2019 in photos
January:
Was on sabbatical! Turned 44! Kristina came to visit!
Ferry mimosas
After lunch
February:
Still on sabbatical!
Rompers for my cousin’s sons
Mario shirt for Miles
Purple masks – $22
March:
Mardi Gras! Bought a new car! Sabbatical ended, went back to work.
Marching in Alla
Me as Frida
Shiny!
April:
Went to Serbia for work! Took the boys to Natchitoches!
Inside the High School Building
May:
Ran a 5K with the boys, sewed things, soccer ended (for the spring), went on a field trip.
June:
I made a bunch of shirts for Isa’s quinceanera! Soccer again!
July:
Road trip to Virginia and New York!
Linus cheering for his team
August:
The boys started middle school! Uncle Evan and Ellie came to visit! I sewed a dress for a friend!
September:
Went to Orlando for the Grand Meetup!
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October:
Hmm. Soccer? Yeah. Also I sewed stuff like Halloween costumes.
November:
Aunt Jenny and Uncle Rob and Emily and Andrew came for Thanksgiving! The boys started school soccer! I sewed a cool jacket!
December:
The boys turned 12! Christmas! We closed out the year with a bathroom flood!
Miles in his PSG PJs
I’m quite proud of how I wrapped the soccer balls
Yuck.
Christmas 2019
Man, Christmas came fast this year, didn’t it? Stupid late Thanksgiving. In spite of the lack of time, it was still a wonderful day. So far (I mean, only 3 weeks in), the age of 12 is wonderful – there was no whining or complaining or anything this year. Well, very little.
As usual, I took all three boys out shopping by themselves for their brothers. First was Miles. He picked out gloves for Linus and pants for Oliver from H&M. And a shirt for himself that I told him to forget we were buying. After we shopped, we had sushi for lunch.
Linus was up next, and we headed to Baton Rouge for our shopping. I was meeting up with two dear friends (I don’t want to say old since they’re my age, but Kristie and I have been friends since we were 12, and Ann and I were freshman roommates in college.) So good to see them! Again, sushi for lunch. And later, Five Guys for dinner.
Kristie, me, Ann in 2019
Me, Kristie, Ann in 1996 or so
Linus got Miles gloves (cute) and Oliver a charger and cable for his iPod. He also helped me pick out an outfit for Miles from me and George. (Miles only asked for shoes and clothes for Christmas.)
Finally on Monday, Oliver and I headed out. We got all of our shopping done at Marshall’s and TJ Maxx, which are now Oliver’s favorite stores. He got Linus an Adidas backpack and Miles a Saints shirt. We did not have sushi, thank goodness. We went to Five Guys instead.
On Tuesday I had sewing to do – I had bought team fabric for each of the boys’ favorite soccer teams, and I needed to finish them up, but I couldn’t do it while they were home, so I had George take them out for a bit. Later we had steak for dinner and we watched Klaus (good!) and read The Night Before Christmas before I tucked the boys in.
Reading The Night before Christmas in 2019
and in 2008
Christmas morning was gray but the boys were pretty happy with their presents. Linus was thrilled with his Saints jersey (I was pretty excited because I bought it before he put it on his list) and they loved their gifts from each other and Kiki and Santa. It was a good morning. We had eggnog French toast and bacon and I had mimosas for breakfast.
Oh, and I got excellent presents, which is of course the most important things. Two pairs of earrings I wanted and a gift certificate to a local glass studio where I’ll get to make something! So fun! I’ve always wanted to do that. And the boys picked out a glass penguin from the studio as well. I haven’t named him yet. Hmm.
Also fabric and tea and the softest scarf from Nepal (where Kiki and Mike went in the fall.)
More pics of presents and whatnot:
Earrings and scarf
Nepalese fabric!
Kiki sent these to the boys. They cannot wear them to school.
Miles in his PSG PJs
I’m quite proud of how I wrapped the soccer balls
Linus representing his two favorite teams – the Saints and Real Madrid
We went to the pub for Christmas lunch, and then came home and chilled for the rest of the day. All in all, a lovely Christmas (even though of course it will never compare to 2016.)
Twelve years old
Happy birthday to my baby boys!
One dozen years. A gross of monthly pictures. Number one hundred and forty-four. I guess we can stop now.
(HA HA HA YEAH RIGHT THEY WISH.)
On Thanksgiving, I made them let me take close up pictures of their faces because I love their eyes. Of course they all had to smirk.
Those freckles kill me. ❤
Anyway, they opened presents this morning, but this evening we have to go back to school because they have to present some living history stuff. They’re decidedly not thrilled about that, but we’ll have steak for dinner after, which should make up for some of it.
Twelve years old. Can you even believe it?
And in case you want to see how much they’ve grown…
Recent goings-on
It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted so I’d better get back to it! I was looking at my blog stats earlier today and I’ve only posted 42 times this year, which is waaaay fewer than any other year since my stats begin. Eek! So let’s see.
The boys had their first school soccer game. They won! They were put on the 7/8 grade team, even though they’re only in 6th grade. I like to think it’s because they’re just that good, but it’s probably mostly because they’re among the older kids in their class. In any case, I’m very proud.
There’s also been some sickness. Miles and Linus have both had a day home with me. Oliver was not happy.
Oops. I started this a week ago so I’d better finish. But at least now I can add some Thanksgiving pics!
The wild grownups spent time watching recorded episodes of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. (Always watch Jeopardy first and then WoF so you can claw back a modicum of dignity.)
My sister and I went to Orangetheory on Thanksgiving morning.
The boys didn’t touch any of the three soccer balls they brought with us, instead playing football with Uncle Rob and their cousins.
After dinner on Thursday, we had a little early birthday celebration for the boys.
And of course the money they got was immediately burning holes in their pockets, so we hit up Best Buy that night. Wasn’t too crazy, thank goodness.
The long-coveted Xbox.
Grandee with most of her grandkids:
So now it’s two days before the boys turn 12, so I need to go weep in a corner.
11 + 11
Some sweet smiles this time around, for #143.
Eleven years, eleven months. Twelve is only a month away, which sounds so old. But not as bad as a year from now when I’ll be sobbing about how I almost have teenagers. But I still have some time. Whew.
