Moving Bella Back to College

When we brought Bella home from college in May, three months felt like such a long time that we'd get to have her home with us. But three months in the summer feels so different than even one month in the winter. It just goes so fast! The day before move-out/move-in, we spent some time together at a favorite coffee shop.

In the days leading up to her departure, the front hallway started to fill.

Not gonna lie, I got a little teary each time I walked by.

Sam came up with us to help move her in. She's in the exact same dorm and room with the exact same roommate. Things went so well last year, why change up a good thing? 

After we got her unpacked, we took a walk and got something to eat at a restaurant near campus. 

The restaurant we ate at was called "Brothers". There was also a "Brothers" in La Crosse where Andy and I met and went to college. Turns out, the flags hanging from the ceiling each listed a location of one of their restaurants and we were sitting right in front of the one that said "La Crosse, WI". 

We took some photos together, because why not?

And eventually we had to say our goodbyes.

I was still sad like last year, but also feel like I did a lot better. 

It also helped that we still had Sam with us. We chatted with him throughout the car ride home and it felt comforting still having him with us. 

I'm praying that Bella, Sam, and all their friends have an amazing sophomore year!

First Day of School & New Job!

School started on Wednesday, August 6th. Graydon is a junior, Curtis is a sophomore, and I'm back in junior high for the first time in over 30 years! A couple weeks before the school year started, the junior high school counselor position opened up and I took it. I wasn't looking for a new job, but when the opportunity was presented to me, I felt like I wanted to give it a try. 

Even thought school started on 8/6, I went back on July 28th. One day that week, I showed up in the morning and found this wooden box on my desk.

When I turned it over, it had Bella's name and the year 2014 written on the bottom.

On the front, it said "10 reasons I love you" and inside contained strips of paper written by an 8 or 9-year-old Bella about why she loves me. I started reading a few and had to stop because the tears began falling and I had work to get to. When I asked around about the box, I found out that it was discovered at church when closets were getting cleaned out. I think it must have been a Mother's Day gift Bella made during Sunday School, but then she forgot to bring it home and give to me. Or maybe she did give it to me and I left it there and forgot. Who knows? The person who found it gave it to her daughter who works with me at the school and that's how it came to show up on my desk that morning. It was such a sweet surprise. 

Church Camp

While I was in Wisconsin, the kids went to church camp. I don't fully know the context of these photos, I just downloaded them from Facebook. 

Looks like they had a great time!

Wisconsin

At the end of July, I went back up to Wisconsin for one bonus visit. My sister, Kristen, was turning 40! We had a backyard party for her. I enjoyed more snuggles with Michael. 

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Kristen. She just LOVES (said sarcastically) being the center of attention.

Bennett and I played a lot of hockey and baseball in the living room together.

We also took Kristen out to celebrate her birthday. This was taken at the restaurant. 

We had Indian food and it was delicious!

More attention for the birthday girl from the serving staff! We didn't even tell them about her birthday, but one of them heard us say it to her, so they brought her a piece of cake and sang! 

July Randoms

Just a few randoms from July. . . 

Hanging out at the pool with the kids. Time with all of them together is always my favorite.

Graydon bought some poker chips and we played a few rounds one night. 

I've never really played before, so I needed this cheat sheet. 

Somehow, this is comfortable.

Bella bonding with Salty.

New Kitchen Backsplash

Our kitchen was definitely lacking something - a backsplash! After tons of Instagram reels and You Tube videos, I felt ready (sort of) to tackle this project. Here is the before. Not bad, but nothing special.

This was the tile we picked out. I love the herringbone pattern, but that felt too advanced for me. But we did like the slight variation in tile color and it coordinated nicely with our countertops. 

The first step was removing the countertop trim because we wanted to tile all the way down to the counter.

Next, I patched up the drywall.

I rented a wet tile saw. I've never used one of these before, so I felt a little intimidated. 

Tile is up, but no grout yet. I opted for white grout since this was my first time tiling and white felt more forgiving if I made any mistakes. The angle makes it hard to tell, but the tile stops where the cabinet stops. I debated on going all the way to the edge of where the countertop ended (on the left), but then there would be backsplash with no cabinet above it, and that didn't seem right. I think this was the right decision.  

After! (Mostly, I still needed to paint over the drywall I patched; but you get the idea).

It's a subtle change, but adds character to the space.

The next thing we need to do here is add hardware to the cabinets and drawers. We'll get to it eventually.