14+1
Right in the middle of our three day winter! (Not that their wardrobe really changes…)
Category: triplets
2021 in review
I feel like maybe the last thing I want to do is revisit 2021, but you know, there were some real high points, so let’s do it.
January
I turned 46. I sat around the fire pit at my friend Jen’s house and it was all I wanted to do for my birthday – so it was perfect. Spending time with my friends was what made 2021 bearable, but it happened so infrequently, so that is what made it terrible.
February
Mardi Gras! I spent a lot of January preparing for this, the Schitt’s Creek house float that I participated in. It was one of the high points of 2021. I had so much fun making my Moira costume (and Jen’s!) and helping with the creation (mostly telling Chris what to do) and then on Mardi Gras day, seeing all the people and BEING INTERVIEWED BY THE BBC.
You know, in case you wanted to watch it.
That wasn’t the only excitement in February. The boys were also enrolled in a COVID vaccine trial (Moderna) and we learned later in the year that they actually did get the vaccine (first one in February, second in March.)
March
Really, not much happened. Well, I got my vaccine. That was nice.
April
My sister & fam came down for Easter.
Our yard renovation was completed!
May
I went to visit Kiki! We baked a lot.
Linus was hospitalized for asthma. (He’s fine.)
June
Things were looking up. We found out the boys were fully vaccinated. Was it over? We were able to take off our masks and do things! I took the boys to a couple of soccer games. We ate at a restaurant! We booked a trip to California! Life was back to normal! I call this “the golden time.” Boy were were we naive.
July
My blog turned 20.
We got devastating news in the middle of the month when my sweet cousin Molly died suddenly. I still can’t believe it.
The boys and I went to California to visit Evan and Jennifer and Ellie. It was a lovely trip, even though it was under a cloud of sadness. Things still felt normal. We went to Disneyland and to an LAFC game and to the beach, and I got to meet my best friend in person finally. (She’s 3.)
This is when the golden time ended. LA had re-introduced a mask mandate not long before we got there. Delta was coming. Thank god we went when we went, or we wouldn’t have been able to go at all.
August
We got to hang out with the Murphys, which was wonderful.
The boys started 8th grade.
We went on a terrible road trip. Thanks Ida!
September
We finally got to go home! After spending 11 days in Houston and Baton Rouge, we were ready. And that’s about all I can say about September.
October
I went to the Rosebud Motel with my friends. That was fun.
That’s about it. Oh, I did some sewing.
The boys finally got to start soccer again. Or was that September? I don’t know. One of those months.
November
KIKI CAME TO VISIT! That was awesome. We did a lot of stuff around the house and ate at restaurants. Things were starting to feel normal-ish again.
I made a quilt!
Obviously it was Schitt’s Creek themed.
We had a quiet Thanksgiving, just the five of us.
December
My sweet baby boys turned 14!
My mom turned 75 and my brother and sister came in for it.
Finally, we celebrated Christmas with Grandee and Larry and negative COVID tests.
On to 2022!
My genius idea (Christmas edition)
Fourteen.
Feels older than 13, maybe because of the deepening voices and growth spurts going on in our house.
(the 168th monthly picture, which I forgot to take before we left to go meet their friends at the park)
Friends at park:
13 years, 11 months
Yes, Oliver is taller now. Not that much taller, he has shoes on and Linus and Miles don’t. But they did get measured at the vaccine clinic last week and Oliver is 3/4″ taller than Miles and an inch taller than Linus. So.
(And yes, I took this on time, but haven’t had a chance to post it til now. Kiki was visiting!)
(And yes, we got an outside outlet, finally! So exciting!)
(And yes, they’re going to be 14 in a month! Hold me, please.)
13 + 10
Miles was not into smiling before 7am. Hard to blame him.
Getting back to normal
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!
13.75 years old, Evacuation edition
I wonder how many monthly pics we’ve done while evacuated? It’s not the first monthly pic we’ve done away from home, but it’s usually because we’re on the fun kind of vacation.
Still don’t have power yet, but Miles and George and I went to the house the other day and everything looks fine. We cleaned out the fridge and the yard so now it’s just a waiting game. Some of our neighbhorhood has power, and they say Wednesday so we’ll see!
Is this Schitt’s Creek or is it life?
Because suddenly I find myself living indefinitely with my family in two hotel rooms, squabbling siblings included.
Okay, fine, we’re really staying in a Courtyard by Marriott on the outer edge of Houston and we’re probably heading back to Louisiana soon.
16 years ago I was blogging about our evacuation from Katrina, so I figured I should probably blog about this.
We booked hotel rooms on Thursday but for Sunday and Monday nights, reasoning that we could cancel them if we needed to. Well, we didn’t need to, but we did need to tack on Saturday night. Good thing, because if we hadn’t left Saturday we couldn’t have.
We packed up the car with a few changes of clothes (you’d think I’d have learned from Katrina?) and the boys and Ziggy. After 11 hours of winding back roads, torrential rain, horrific traffic, and a lot of snacks, we made it to our hotel. (Normally it would be 6 hours.)
Yesterday a friend went by our house and checked for any possible damage. The news was good! A few ridge caps from our roof are missing, the shed fell over, and the top half of a tree came down. We won’t know until we are able to get back in if we have any water damage or something else, but fingers crossed everything inside is okay.
We will stay at my mom’s for a while – we have no idea when power will be restored to the city. But Baton Rouge isn’t in great shape either, which is why we’re staying in Houston as long as we can afford to.
So yeah, that’s where we’re at. At least this time we don’t have to re-plan a wedding!
(More random evacuation photos.)
First day of 8th grade!
That is the sound of silence. Yes, it’s very quiet in the house now. Gloriously so, in fact. The boys went back to school today! I mean, who knows for how long. So I am going to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts.
And with masks, since that’s what they’ll actually look like for most of the day:
and waiting for the bus:
And just for funsies, the first day of school ever, ten years ago yesterday, and today.
They’re a little taller now.
Last day of summer
Tomorrow the boys go back to school! I am both sad (won’t get to sleep late anymore) and anxious (duh) and excited (I like our morning routines on school days even if it does mean waking up at 6am.) Also they’re going to be in eighth grade which, I mean, what.
(Next year, high school. Let’s not think about that.)
So this is the last day of summer break. It’s been a quiet one. We didn’t do too much aside from our trip to California. Went to a few Jesters games. Ate at some restaurants in that glorious month of June when we thought things were going back to normal.
And now we live in the worst place on earth for COVID, I know too many people who have gotten it (vaccinated and not) and I am disgusted with the state of humanity in general.
I was supposed to go to Las Vegas at the end of the month with friends to see Morrissey.
Obviously that’s not happening anymore.
Okay, this was supposed to be a happy post. YAY SUMMER. The good things about this summer? It rained nearly every day so I didn’t have to water my plants very often. I think I only had to pull the hose out once.
On the other hand, about a third of the plants we had put in are not at all thriving. That makes me sad. But I’m going to try not to stress about it.
We got to see old friends, that was fantastic.
What else did we do this summer? I cut my hair. Ziggy remained cute. Oliver and I put together a puzzle. We visited Grandee and Larry. I begrudgingly made more masks. Stocked up on COVID tests. Sewed shades for my office. Kept a houseplant alive.
So, that’s it, summer of 2021.
One hundred and sixty-four months
Well that’s not gonna happen.
It’s that time of year when I panic that their birthday is coming up. It’s okay, though. I can handle 14. It’s fine. It’s fine.
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