October, a recap

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.

August was a long month

Why did August take fifteen times longer than any other month? Maybe because it was so friggin hot? Apparently record-breakingly so? It feels like the first was a million years ago.

It started with another tattoo. This one is all of the birth months of everyone in my family.

Those are the flowers for February, May, July, August, October, and December, covering everyone in my immediate family. It was thoughtful of them to limit themselves to six of the twelve months.

And everyone better appreciate it, because I had to lay on my stomach for hours and also that part of the arm is very sensitive! It’s like the soft underbelly of your forearm. It hurt a lot. It was neat, though, because I let the artist draw directly on my arm instead of stenciling it from a digital drawing.

Okay, well, after that…

The boys started sophomore year of high school, but you knew that already.

Evan and Ellie came to visit, and I made her take a lot of pictures with me.

I sewed a bunch, actually. The Lawrence top and dress and skirt, and a purse!

I went to an advance screening of a movie, donated blood, and bought some 90s jeans.

And, as usual, Ziggy was really freaking cute.

Am looking forward to September, as it involves a trip to Dublin! My first time going to Ireland! And also, hopefully, cooler weather.

June, in review

June was a busy month! So let’s get to it.

It started with a trip to California for my niece Eleanor’s high school graduation. Just me, not the boys or George.

We went to UCLA (that’s where Ellie is going in the fall) and walked around (after having In and Out for lunch.)

Before the trip, my brother said, “bring hiking shoes.” I said, “do I look like the type of person to own hiking shoes?” so it was in my sneakers that he tried to kill me the next day. We hiked up to Echo Park on an extremely damp and foggy and misty day, on a very narrow trail, and I was 100% convinced that only one of us at most was going to make it down to the bottom in one piece. Thank god I was wrong. I wouldn’t have wanted to mess up Ellie’s graduation week.

I’m not kidding, it was grueling (at least to me, someone who lives in a very flat place) and even my brother said later that he was nervous for me. Sheesh. Here are a bunch of random pics, including none of the view because you couldn’t see anything! But, in spite of that, I felt very accomplished, and it was nice to spend time with my brother. (Don’t tell him I said that.)

I googled this hike to get some info about it, and if I’d read “The majority of the trail is along the side of the mountain with some narrow switchbacks – it may be difficult for those that have trouble with heights” (emphasis mine) then maybe I would have rethought this decision. This is a good post that has pictures of, wow, what it might have looked like had I been able to see anything! It’s fine, it’s fine. Probably best that I couldn’t see how far I would have plummeted to my death.

The rest of the trip was hanging out with family, eating, going to Paper Source, Ellie’s graduation, going back to UCLA, seeing Pawnee City Hall, shopping at Mood, and basically spending a lot of time in electric cars.

I was really excited to give Ellie her graduation gift, a quilt I made for her in UCLA colors. I hope it keeps her warm and cozy while she’s at college. Sniff, sniff. She was just a tiny baby, I can’t believe she’s off to college.

Okay, so then I went home, and the day after I got back, George left for his long-awaited trip to the UK. He was going to be gone for two weeks, and little did he know that I had big plans while he was gone. Kiki came to visit and while she was here, we redid his bathroom downstairs. It’s so much better! (Of course I posted a ton more pictures and details here.)

He came home last week, and since then, life has gotten significantly quieter (that’s good.) Oh, I made this (Selwyn by Cashmerette) shirt early in the month, but I haven’t been able to get a good picture of it, so after a few glasses of wine, my friends stuck me in a bathtub to get some.

hee hee

The boys are finishing up driver’s ed today, so expect the July recap to be full of danger and intrigue!

Bench #7

My brother and niece were in town and we took the 7th bench picture. Or sixth, if you choose not to count last year’s curb pic. I’m not sure if I do or not.

2022:

If you look at the previous pictures, you might ask yourself if that’s the same bench as in previous years. LSU apparently rearranged the furniture a little, because they seemed to have moved the bench over about six feet to the right and removed the tree that was on the right side in all the pics (that’s now the shrubbery behind Linus and Ellie.)

We determined that this is the old location of the bench, you can see that the concrete is a bit lighter where it was:

Irritatingly, the children would not help us move the solid concrete bench so we could more accurately recreate the old photos. Jerks.

Here are the previous bench pics. Watch everyone get smaller!

We went to California and here is a post about it

The boys and I went to California last week to visit my brother and sister-in-law and niece, and I will never be able to spell “niece” right the first time.

It was a tough decision to go, after we found out that Molly’s services were being held while we’d be away. She was never far from our mind during the trip, especially on Monday.

We arrived Wednesday evening, and were pretty exhausted, so we had some pizza and went to bed. I slept terribly that night, for some reason (oh right because I’m old and have insomnia) but fortunately, we didn’t have a ton planned for Thursday. Ellie and I went for a walk, where we did a little light celebrity stalking. Later, we went swimming in the neighbor’s pool and hit up Target for supplies because Friday we…

went to Disneyland! We got up super early and were on the road a bit after 6 so we could arrive around 7. In the cars on the way there (I was in the girl car with Jennifer and Ellie, and the boys rode with Uncle Evan) we all were on our phones at exactly 6:59:59 to get reservations (or whatever they call it) for the new Star Wars ride. I managed to get them for us, yay!

We spent the entire day at the park. This should really be its own post. We rode a bunch of rides (the Rise of the Resistance was completely worth the stress of getting on it, and we didn’t have to wait in any line at all, which was nice) and walked a zillion steps and had dinner at a Tiki restaurant (so good) and my feet are still disgustingly blistered, but it was worth it.

Oh, and Linus is now obsessed with Dole Whip. Hard to blame him, it was delicious!

Saturday we mostly rested, except we went and got some famous Italian sandwiches from a place down the road for lunch. In the evening, Evan and I took the boys to a LAFC (Los Angeles Football Club) game. It was fun. The food was good. I got a jacket which will come in handy during football season here (they have the same colors as the Saints) and the boys got jerseys and as usual when we go to pro soccer games, the score ended us 2-2.

(I guess we have a streak of draws too.) (When we got home, we watched Season 2, Episode 1 of Ted Lasso.)

Sunday, the kids and I went to visit my friend Robyn who used to work at Automattic, and I made a new best friend who is three years old. We had delicious ice cream after hanging out at her house and eating pizza.

Maybe my favorite picture from the entire trip. My heart was in a puddle here.

Monday was the day of Molly’s service, and I still needed to take the boys to the beach, so we stopped for some flowers on the way and made a little tribute to her at the beach. Now, she probably preferred a more tropical beach, but I like to think she would have appreciated it, even if it was cloudy and the temperature was hovering around 68 degrees.

The boys filled their bathing suits with sand and Miles swallowed half of the Pacific Ocean, so we left after a couple of hours before heading back to Evan and Jennifer’s to relax and pack. (Boo!) A few of us went to the Huntington for a sunset stroll, which was stunning, but also, my feet were still killing me. So kind of painful too.

We came home yesterday after a long day of travel to a heat index of 105 after a week of 70s, but Daddy and Ziggy were very happy to see us!

Bench pic 6

Except this time it’s a step.

The last time we took a bench pic was 2019. You can see the previous five pics here.

Bench picture #5

When Uncle Evan and Ellie are in town, I take a picture of them on a certain bench in the LSU quad. This is number 5.

2012:

April 2015:

2017:

2018:

And today!

It’s always Linus, Ellie, Evan, Oliver, and Miles.

Girls’ day!

Last Thursday, I took the day off to spend with Ellie, who was in town while her parents went gallivanting around New York City with some tennis players or something.

Yes, this Ellie! ❤

Okay, not exactly that Ellie. More like this Ellie:

She’s a little taller now. I mean, 13 years does that to a person.

We dropped the boys off at school, and got beignets (her first! okay, my brother says she’s had them before but she doesn’t remember so they don’t count)

and wandered around the sculpture garden at City Park a little bit (shh it wasn’t open yet but the gates were open so we wandered around a bit and didn’t get caught – we’re such rebels!)

Then we went to get manicures. She got blue and I got red.

After that, we went to my favorite local fabric store and she picked out some blue fabric so I could make her some pants for school. With pockets! Then we went and met our cousin Lisa for lunch at this great place called Toast. Ellie and I had crepes, yum! I didn’t take any pictures at lunch, boo! So unlike me. Ellie was very excited because there was a Tesla parked outside. She is a tad obsessed with Teslas.

It was pouring, so we headed home so I could start on her pants before we had to head to the bus stop to get the boys. We didn’t embarrass them too much there but of course, I did make them take some pictures together.

Goofballs. Don’t worry, that house is vacant.

The boys were supposed to have soccer that night, but it was canceled. For the life of me, I can’t remember what we did for dinner. I know the night before we made pizzas, which was notable because we got a cauliflower crust from Trader Joes for one of the pizzas and no one noticed! SCORE! Oh well, I guess it doesn’t really matter what we had for dinner that night.

The next day we headed to Baton Rouge to hang out with my brother and sister in law, who were back from NYC, and we did fun things like swim (MY MOM WENT DOWN THE WATER SLIDE) and went to LSU to take the bench picture again and I made Jennifer an apron for her birthday. Pics!

Jennifer in the apron I made her

Pants for Ellie

Jump!

In the pool!

Linus and Miles and Ellie underwater

Miles

Ellie

Later, we went to LSU to take the bench picture again (here are the 2012, 2015, and 2017 versions) but it was pouring rain. When there was a break, we got the photo. Whew!

Playing in the rain:

They went home the next day, but we’ll see them again in just a few months at Thanksgiving!

Then and then and now

August 2012

7867845480_9e86ce6d20_k — Boys: 4; Ellie: 7; Evan: 42

In April 2015, we recreated it:

And today, September 2017:

Life as of today

I haven’t posted a normal post in a while, just an update on what’s going on in the world. So let’s see…

The boys are a couple of weeks into fourth grade. So far so good. Except they’re not super fond of the bus driver, who is apparently very strict and gruff. Which is exactly how bus drivers should be, I’d say. Well, except for last Wednesday when he forgot that school got out an hour early so we waited at the bus stop for over an hour. Fortunately, the bus stop is the mall, so I dropped into Ulta and made an appointment to get my hair did. Fun colors to come!

Speaking of fun colors, last night, I put in some extra-orange color (blood orange, to be exact) into Oliver’s hair because it was getting too hard to tell him and Linus apart at a glance. Better now. Pics later.

I have a work trip coming up in a couple of weeks, to Whistler again. I’m super excited to see everyone, but the forecast for the next ten days is not making me happy. I need some autumn weather while I’m there, dammit! I’ll get there a few days after the end of the forecast, so all I can say is, a cool front better arrive before I do.

Speaking of weather, it’s very weird here, thanks to Harvey. Pouring one minute, clear blue skies the next. Can’t complain, though. Seeing what’s going on in Houston makes my heart hurt. Just sickening.

If you’re looking for something you can do to help people in Texas, this page has some great links.

I made pesto (no nuts, George is allergic to most of the ones that would go in pesto) out of the basil I grew this summer. First time it really thrived, probably due to the very wet summer we had. It was not bad, but maybe I’ll put one fewer clove of garlic in it next time (sorry person I worked out next to this morning!)

A good thing this week – Evan and Ellie are in town! I love seeing that girl (okay, both of them, really) and I can’t believe how grown up she is! (Look, we’re both bigger! Hahaha)

2005

2017

Ooops, I went down a rabbit hole looking for old pictures of Ellie and me, and found this…gah!

One last cute thing…Ziggy now has his https://www.instagram.com/ziggymcziggerson/ so you don’t have to look at boring pictures of my kids to see what you really want – DOG.

Catching up

I’ve been a terrible blogger. I get my awesome new .blog domain and then I just fall apart.

To be fair, life has been awfully busy. I went to Los Angeles for work, then Thanksgiving week was mostly spent in Baton Rouge with my family, and this week Linus was sick one day and I’m getting ready for their birthday and school stuff and gah.

So let’s get this out of the way.

Los Angeles:

Hot butterbeer!

Automattic-versary cupcakes!

Working hard

Hardly working

I got to see Ellie there!

From my pictures, it may look like we spent most of our time at Universal, not working. But I assure you, lots of work got done, it’s just not as picturesque.

And then the day after I got home, the boys and I headed to Baton Rouge to spend the week at Grandee’s, since my brother and sister and everyone was there. We also celebrated my mom’s 70th birthday a bit early.

And oh also last week we had our annual holiday party for the New Orleans Moms Blog and I got lots of fun swag and that was awesome. And I made a lemon cake from lemons picked from my tree! And also lemonade that was crazy delicious.

I suppose that brings us about up to date. I am getting ready now for the boys’ slumber party tomorrow night. The problem with a slumber party for triplets is the guest list is exponential. At first I said “one guest each” but that seemed stingy, and what about their mutual friends? So it ended up being two guests each on average and now I will have nine little boys running around the house and ACK! But I’m sure it’ll be fun. RIGHT?

California wrap up

I have let so much time pass, and I haven’t finished blogging about our trip to Los Angeles, so I’m just going to drop a bunch of pics in here and consider it done.

Flying there, In n Out, visit to Uncle Evan and Aunt Jennifer’s office, monthly pic (with Ellie.)

Train to the beach! Santa Monica Pier, Ferris Wheel, playing in the water.

Dave & Busters, Oliver hits the jackpot, everyone gets stuffed animals, I got a Pikachu! Trip to the park Evan and Jennifer designed.

Only one kid wanted their picture taken. Guess who?

UNIVERSAL! HARRY POTTER WORLD! SO FUN! Even with a 2 hour wait in line for the HP ride. Butterbeer. Minions. Simpsons. Donuts. Good times.

Last day, boo! Lunch at Pink’s with my friend Robyn. Trip to the Grove for ice cream and a trolley ride. More cousin time, then back on the plane to go home on the redeye.