To-Do List Life and Other Moments

This recap of the last couple weekends is being brought to you by the to-do list on my phone.  I have 24 things in a note on my phone that I wanted to do over the last two weeks, and I checked every single one of them off by Sunday night before Memorial Day.  When I have weekends at home, I need that list to keep me on task.  I've learned a lot about myself in recent years and I've learned that the list gives me something to shoot for and something to reference when I can't remember what needs to be done.  It makes a huge difference for keeping me motivated and on task.

This particular four-day weekend (I took Friday off because it was a beautiful day and I knew it would kill me mentally to work through it), I realized even more clearly that having time to do things is key to my ability to get them done.  When I lost my job nine years ago, I realized that I didn't really hate house work quite like I thought I did--I mean, I do, don't get me wrong--but when I had time to do things, it stressed me out so much less to take the time to do them.  I didn't have to pick and choose what had to wait for the following weekend or the next oddly energetic evening.  It made it easier to just do something when I realized it needed to be done.  But when my time is limited, I get some analysis paralysis on what most needs to be done, what's the best use of my time, and how to do things efficiently.  I've realized I beat myself up constantly if I do something inefficiently or simply don't use my time wisely.  If I realize there was a better order to get things done, or that I should have been doing X while I was waiting for Y, or something like that, I get mad at myself.  I realize that's ridiculous, but I guess that's how it goes when you have perfectionist tendencies and also feel like your to-do list is endless.  However, when I have time and the pressure's off, it makes it so much easier to just do it.  Add in a list and I feel so much better because I can see all the things and decide what works in the moment.  Everything is progress so as long as I'm doing something, that's good.

This weekend in particular felt so much better because of the full four days, but even last weekend it felt key to get a couple things done on Friday evening to get ahead of the game and get myself some breathing room.  That way, if I get tired or feel cruddy or the weather becomes an issue or we end up doing something as a family, at least I know I've made some progress and don't get too down on myself.

Last week the weather started perking up.  I mean, rain has still been a massive issue with baseball, but we've had some warmer weather and I've gotten in a lot of walks.  One walk took me by the garden outside Carter's school that his third grade class worked on in memory of a former student of his teacher.  It was looking a little rough (another class worked on it later that week), but the irises were gorgeous. 

Once the weather perked up, my azalea came to life.  I was sure my azalea wasn't coming back this year because the fungus took over last year and the leaves turned white.  There weren't a lot of green leaves coming out on it, but then I noticed it was full of buds!  Somehow, this very sick bush pushed out flowers like this--so many more than last year!

The green leaves are coming in now.  I'm going to have to try to fertilize it again and keep an eye on it, but I'm impressed with its resilience.  One of my memories told me it's been fighting the fungus for at least four years so for it to still be hanging in there and even putting on a show like this, I'm impressed!

Speaking of flowers, my Mother's Day ones lasted forever.  This was a week ago and they're still not done!  They still looked perfect more than a week after I got them.

Last weekend's to-do list involved putting away the rest of the spring decor in favor of my summer stuff--patriotic stuff and beach glass colors.  I also had to attempt to clear a slow sink, do an overdue toenail painting, put Carter's art pictures in frames (the Pirates logo he did a while back, plus his very cool hawk picture that somehow never made the art show), trim our crazy burning bushes' spring growth (when I also discovered aphids, but the trim seems to have taken care of that for now), and mix up another batch of my custom-made cereal (Special K Chocolately Delight, Premier Protein Chocolate Flakes with Almonds, and Kashi Go Chocolate Crunch--I wish companies would stop discontinuing my favorite cereals but this is what I do to keep myself happy).  We did make time for a Red Wings game on Saturday since the one we wanted to go to Friday got rained out, and Carter's Saturday baseball game and Jacob's practice got canceled due to all the Friday and overnight rain.  It was a perfect day, though, which has been the case with most of the cancellations so far--nice day with a random rainstorm before or during that's just too much for the fields.
  

On Sunday we went to church and then I decided to cram in a trip to Lowe's before lunch.  I got eight bags of mulch and two bags of garden soil.  I ended up spreading a few bags right when I got back.  I was supposed to have my monthly mama coffee date that afternoon but she forgot until I texted her since she was in the midst of a few things herself.  But we just ended up pushing it back an hour, which gave me more time to finish spreading mulch and get my garden started.  I had planted some seeds a couple weeks ago and transplanted what I had.  They were mostly just little sprouts with tiny roots, but by some miracle, they took!  We only had about an hour for coffee before closing at that point--but it was great as usual, and we got to sit outside, too--and then I dashed off to the garden store to get my annuals before they closed, and then came back to the car wash across the street from the coffee shop because I decided it was time to get a car wash and vacuum out my disgusting car.  With Jacob eating breakfast in there regularly, it had gotten gross.  I almost had to drive someone in it and I decided it needed to happen, just in case.  It made such a difference, especially when I came home and wiped it out with car wipes as well.  It was like having a different car!  That night I was also able to plant all my annuals into pots.  I still had to add seeds, but it was a start!  That was 10 things off my list, which wasn't everything but felt pretty good.  I was exhausted so that was really about all I could handle anyway.

The nice weather during the week really seemed to get things going around the yard and I was thrilled to see my columbines blooming.  I planted those seeds maybe a couple or three years ago.  They're perennials, and I think the animals got most of them last year, so I only had a couple flowers.  This year, I got more, one of which was spectacular! 

This one's pretty, but...

...I mean...LOOK at this one!  It was gorgeous!

This was pretty, too, but that red was stunning.

Both boys got in baseball on Monday, and it was funny having them both on adjacent fields at the same time.  It's sort of crazy to see Jacob out there after all these years.  His games start soon, but now it looks like he's switching teams since they were previously combining his level with a younger group but now have enough kids for the older group.  Craig may end up assistant coaching.  We're not confident in the skill level--very few high school players here--but it will be an interesting experience.

Carter is doing pretty well.  After starting off with a couple hits per game the first two games, he had a rough patch of strikeouts in the midst of changing his batting stance and running up against a seriously good pitcher (and one that was inexplicably allowed to pitch from the front of the mound).  He's actually playing really well at first base, which is interesting.  He's hoping to pitch one of these days (even though he's not supposed to since he's playing down a level), but we haven't had a practice to test him out, due to all the rainouts.  Did I mention they extended the season because of the rainouts so now my parents will likely have two kids' games to deal with while we're gone?  Ugh.  

Wednesday the weather was a threat again, and I saw this crazy roll cloud on my way home from work as storms threatened everywhere around us.  

Miraculously it was a nice night after that and we got another game in.  I took this picture as we were walking back to the stand to get Carter a snack after grabbing Jacob from his practice.  Love my boys.

Thursday's perfect weather warranted a walk around the yard at lunch (and a real walk later that night).  The rhododendrons are out in all their glory, and the miniature lilacs and purple salvia also made their appearance this week.

On Thursday I also checked off a couple more leftovers from my to-do list--I booked my return flight and finally took care of the Red Wings ticket request for Carter's anthem game that my parents will be taking them to.  I think I might have also taken care of the dandelions and other weeds under our front tree that day, since they were bugging me every time I looked out my kitchen window.  

As I mentioned, I took Friday off as a means to keep myself sane by enjoying the gorgeous day instead of struggling to fill my work day when I really just wanted to be outside.  Since Carter had to be at school bright and early, I came home and pretty quickly got started on the biggest job on this weekend's list: scrubbing down the entire back of our house to get rid of the algae and mildew on the siding.  It was cool out and I was mostly in the shade at that point so it seemed wise to just get it done.  I use a scrub mop--the same one I use on my kitchen with a different head--with a stiff brush on one side and scrubbing sponge mop on the other.  I used dish soap and Oxiclean, and it seemed to work well.  It was exhausting yet satisfying, and it took me at least a couple hours of constant scrubbing and rinsing, but I did it!  It looks SO much better.  It really needed to be done and I was really happy with how it came out.  My arms were jello and my hands were really tight later that day, but I think adrenaline got me through and I was thrilled to have it done by 11am.  While I was at it I sprayed out our central air unit because I just found out that the coils can get really coated in dust and dirt (ours definitely were), and I never knew that needed to be cleaned.  I had seen things about taking the unit apart but then saw you can just hose them off, so while I was rinsing the house I just did that and it seemed to work well.  Two things off the list!

Over the course of the day I made Chex Mix for Jacob, killed weeds on the patio, added more sprouts to the garden, put seeds in my pots, and got my bike ready for use for the first time in a couple years (except I forgot to fill the tires, but I did that Saturday).  I got everything but two things from my whole long list done!  I was so proud of myself.

We also got the pool cover off that day, and our groundhog buddy kept coming out to eat.  For kicks we grabbed a couple carrots and a couple lettuce leaves and tried to feed him.  He didn't eat them at the time, but he did come back later and snatch them up!

While I we were out in the yard I had to look for a couple lost baseballs and decided to grab the clippers and clear out some small trees while I was at it.  While I was doing that I noticed these funky leaves.  They were really pretty.  Too bad I found out that they're unhealthy forsythia leaves...but they looked so cool and hopefully they will heal themselves because I can't imagine what's causing that issue.  

I managed to find one baseball but scared the daylights out of myself AND the groundhog at one point when I was deep in the brush by his back door.  He was a couple feet away and didn't see me until I saw him and screamed!  Sorry, buddy.  But at least I got some trees cleared out, and Sunday I cleared out more to make my pumpkin patch!

My pots are looking so pretty with just basic annuals.  I got impatiens, coleus, vinca, portulaca, and celosia in all different colors.  So far I just love it!

Even my perpetually annoying front flower bed isn't half bad right now, even before the hot pink coneflowers arrive.  It has struggled for years, but diligent weed removal has helped, and many transplants over the years have given it structure, too.  I've added two hostas, an autumn joy sedum, and a bunch of salvia last year.  A spirea bush self-planted a few years ago, and there are a couple baby trees I let grow all summer because they're sort of bush-like.  Along with the plentiful bloody cranesbill that's always been there, and the coneflowers, daisies, and black eyed susans that come along throughout the summer, it's not bad.  There's still a lot of grass growing up through things, and the cranesbill always dies off around June due to fungus, but I'm always trying new ways to manage it and I think I have a plan-- take off the worst of it to stop the spread so it has time to regenerate in parts, and once it's a goner, just take out the whole plant because it will come back healthy within about a month. 
 

I'd still like to reposition all the border rocks from Camp Pioneer because they keep sinking into the dirt, but it's getting there.  Anyway, the rest of Friday was peaceful--a quick Wegmans trip, a nice walk, and then s'mores in the yard at dusk.

Saturday ended up being a rather lazy day.  It wasn't supposed to rain until 2pm, so we figured Carter's baseball around noon would be a go.  I tried to take my first bike ride since August 2022 (I don't know--it was a mental block last year), but as I rode the sky started looking sketchy.  I still didn't think it would rain but sure enough, it did.  I stopped under a big maple (only because there was no thunder and lightning) to ride it out and only got a little damp.  It rained pretty good for about 15 minutes.  The boys left for baseball early to go to the batting cage for a bit, so I could go at the last minute, but after my rain delay, by the time I got home I only had about 10 minutes to get myself ready to leave for the game.  Just as I was walking to the field, it started dripping.  Craig had the covered chair and Jacob and I shared a chair umbrella and my waterproof blanket, which got us through.  We had one round of pretty decent rain, which they played through, a break, and then another hard sprinkle.  We got through one full inning, but then we started hearing frequent thunder.  The horn blew, which meant we needed to stop play, and then everyone had to go wait in their vehicles until 15 minutes after the last lightning strike.  The rain let up a bit but in the end it came back hard and they called the game.  We headed home, had some lunch, and then had a lazy, rainy afternoon.  We grabbed dinner from Salvatore's and had a quiet night.  

Sunday was church, lazy time, lunch, watching the Braves vs. Pirates, and some napping.  Finally around mid-afternoon we went out for ice cream at our favorite place that just re-opened Saturday (odd timing but they close at 5pm on Sundays), and then came home and stayed a bit more active.  The boys went to hit baseballs at a high school field, and I puttered around the house.  I trimmed our tiny evergreens by the garage (I'm waiting for the big ones to finish sprouting), then turned my attention to our pumpkin patch.  I wanted to try it in the way back again, but this time with more effective deer protection.  If you recall I tried it three years ago and the deer ate it a couple times.  This time I'm using the super crappy Amazon garden fencing I ended up with this year--it's so thin and floppy--but using short stakes so I can tent the top half of the fencing to close off the top.  I still had to get the metal pins to keep it on the ground, but I got it staked up and planted with half of the seeds from our last batch of pumpkins.  Last year's seeds molded and the previous year's got scavenged by mice in the garage, so at least we have a better start this year.  I had to clear that whole area of the yard out again--which necessitated long pants despite the heat because my legs and ankles are horribly bitten up by mosquitos and I couldn't risk more.  I'm not convinced they didn't bite me through the leggings, but I came back in and used my Bug Bite Thing again with Benadryl gel and possibly bugged me less.  But I have been miserable since I got super bit up, I think on Friday between my gardening and s'mores.  I can't sleep well because I'm itchy, to the point I took Benadryl at 2am last night in desperation.  I swear I also got bit in my sleep the other night--either a mosquito or a spider--so I've had a giant pink welt (plus a smaller one) on my temple for the last few days.  Jury's out on whether a new bump on my cheekbone is a mosquito bite or zit.  So annoying.  The one downside to my blood type--mosquitos love it.  The last official thing on my list for Sunday was to put out my mosaic glass lights, which I needed to buy batteries for on Friday and then didn't bother to go out in the damp to put out on Saturday.

Monday was pretty uneventful.  We had been talking about going to the drive-in all weekend, but for various reasons we held off.  The compromise was going to a regular movie this afternoon, but I ended up bailing at the last minute.  I felt terrible, but here's the thing: If Carter's baseball game tonight went on as planned, I'd have had to cram some errands into the evening, which didn't sound appealing heading into a busy week.  Spending most of the afternoon at a movie I wasn't super jacked to see felt limiting (and movies aren't cheap either, so why waste the money?).  Instead, I did a quick lunch at home, stopped at Walmart to get my garden fence anchors to tack down the pumpkin fencing, went to Aldi to pick up a few things we needed, and then to Wegmans for a few urgent needs.  I came back home and relaxed while I waited to see if baseball was happening.  It rained a bunch this morning, but it was windy which hastened drying, and the radar seemed to clear up, so it seemed there was a chance.  But then just after I got home it suddenly poured again.  We didn't find out until about an hour later that it was once again canceled--and of course it was another beautiful night after that.  I put in the garden anchors and then went out for a two-mile walk.  And with that, the four-day weekend came to an end.

I'm still shocked at how efficient my Friday was, and I know it's because the pressure was off.  I had time to work with and it gave me the confidence to do whatever felt right at the time, without as much concern about whether it was the best choice since I'd likely have time to get to a lot of things.  I just had good energy and the weather was motivating since I knew Saturday wouldn't be as nice.  I could see myself sliding a bit when Saturday was sleepy weather.  Sunday also started off iffy for some reason--I was still tired and despite better weather I was stuck--possibly because I didn't want the mosquitos to get me again and because time was starting to feel like it was running out, even if my list by then was short.  It's so hard to fight against that feeling sometimes.  I also wanted to take a walk or a bike ride, but dinner ended up a bit later after the boys got back from baseball, and then the evening got weirdly cloudy and I didn't want a repeat of Saturday's bike ride.  So, lazy once again won out, but I felt better about it after getting the pumpkin patch moving and crossing the last couple things off my list.  

I'd feel really accomplished except I feel like I still have a lot to do.  The inside of my house is still a bit of a mess and I feel like I have about a million things to think through before this Dominican trip.  All the outside work probably felt like the most doable at this point, so that's probably why I was so eager to do it--because at least I could accomplish something.  I have a lot of thoughts about the trip and the last couple weeks of school right now, which are all likely coming to a post near you soon.  But for now, on to the unofficial start of summer...

News & Notes, Mother's Day Edition

It's funny, I've been thinking through what I want to include in this post, and most of it, like Carter's first game and my Mother's Day gift, already got mentioned in my last post about baseball.  Because, clearly, most of our life does in fact revolve around that sport now.  I couldn't help but laugh when I hopped on the exercise bike after I published that post on Saturday and turned on the "Family Ties" channel on Pluto TV (my exercise viewing preference right now), because the episode that came on was about Jennifer Keaton's softball team.  Seeing her and Alex come in wearing baseball attire felt like an extension of my own house these days!  How appropriate!  That was just after we'd spent much of the day after Carter's game and Jacob's practice following the Pirates' game, where they had a 6-1 lead and saw it evaporate due to some horrific pitching.  They threw something like 15 straight balls at one point, walked in two batters despite pitching changes, and then had a 2-1/2 hour rain delay (during which we went out to dinner with a 40 minute drive each way), only to walk in two more runs before getting the final out of the inning all those hours later.  They ended up getting a couple well-timed home runs to win, but what a ridiculous game.  The pitchers in Carter's game threw more strikes!

Our weekend overall was decent, but for a three-day weekend I did not come out of it as rested as I would have liked.  Craig and I had a lunch date Friday and I spent a chunk of that morning doing a deep clean on parts of our bathroom.  I ran a couple errands and took a two-mile walk in the afternoon.  Not a half bad day but I still feel like I should have been more productive and/or most restful.  I always want both!  Oh well.  Part of the restfulness problem was that on Friday night I was having some extreme FOMO because everyone was posting amazing pictures of the northern lights!  There was a major, massive solar storm happening that made the auroras visible all the way down south, which almost never happens.  It was the biggest one since 2005.  I tried checking in our yard but couldn't see anything, and around when I was getting ready for bed around 11pm, the envy got the best of me.  I changed back into my clothes, hopped in my car, and headed north to the lake.  I didn't really have a plan other than to go north with a couple spots in mind, but I eventually accidentally wound my way to this remote residential street that had houses on one side and the lake on the other.  There were people there watching from blankets and with cameras out, so I figured it had to be a good spot.  But when I got out, I saw nothing.  I mean, the sky was vaguely lighter, and maybe I could see some streaks, but not really any color.  Now, the photos people were posting were CRAZY, so I was pretty confused.  In retrospect, I should have walked down to the people with the cameras for reasons I'll get into in a minute, but I didn't.  The clouds were also rolling in a bit by then so I thought maybe that was affecting it, too.  I gave up, quickly went to a couple other spots just in case I happened to hit a lull, but eventually decided I must have missed it.  It turned out that one of Jacob's old daycare teachers had an almost identical experience as me--maybe even right down to the same street--so I didn't feel like the only one who missed out, but it was a bummer.  I found out later that pretty much every picture people posted reflected what their phone saw, not what the naked eye could see.  There were people who saw color with the naked eye, but for the most part, phones in dark mode caught it infinitely better.  My phone, however, does not have dark mode.  I tried and it picked up nothing.  So, I guess it wasn't just my bad luck--there was a technological barrier to enjoying this spectacle, and that honestly sort of stinks.  Maybe the worst part was that I didn't get to bed until close to 1am by the time I got home and settled, so I was very sleepy on Saturday, which made the day a bit challenging between having energy for the things we had planned and trying to stay awake during the lulls!

Saturday was pretty much baseball and eating, plus my evening workout.  I miraculously had a perfect week on my "rings" on my phone--somehow from last Sunday through this Monday I closed my stand, move, and exercise rings every single day, which never happens unless we're at Disney.  But I'd been taking as many walks as weather would allow and all of a sudden I had quite the streak going.  So I was determined on Saturday to work out, even if I didn't remember until 9pm that I needed to.  I was generally planning on walking after Carter's game, but then it was cooler than expected and the rain came through before I could do it, so I forgot for a bit that it still needed to be done.  I did it again at 10pm on Sunday (just a quick 20 minutes) when we got home from Buffalo just to finish off the perfect week.  It felt like quite an accomplishment.  It's not like I'm losing weight or anything (not that I'm checking) but it's good to stay active at least.  Carter and I had some Taco Bell for a late lunch after his game, and then we went as a family to Livingston County Pizza for dinner--hence why I don't lose weight--haha.

Sunday we went to Buffalo for time with our moms.  We had lunch with my parents, and then my mom and I quickly went to this crafty sale she'd been wanting to go to while the boys went to hit baseballs.  Then we shifted to Craig's family.  Still some family drama there but his three cousins were in town, which was nice, and we got to congratulate our niece in person on her college graduation the day before.  We haven't seen the cousins in probably 10 years since Craig's Nana died.  I'm friends with two of the three on Facebook so there's some awareness of life stuff there, but it was nice to catch up a bit in person.  The household tension flared up a bit throughout the visit, though, and dinner took a long time to get going, so it ended up being a later night than would have been ideal.  Jacob in particular was struggling since there weren't a lot of Celiac-friendly snacks, so he had the trifecta of being hungry, annoyed by the drama, and just wanting to get home.  That led to a rough morning on Monday.

Yes, Jacob is struggling with school again.  It feels a bit like a redo of last year, though not as bad, but we're sort of out of options right now.  He's unhappy with a few things about his school, and once again thinks another school is going to solve all his problems.  The current one in his sights is the high school we're actually zoned for (of course it's NOT the school Carter is going to attend, since we requested to keep him with his friends who were zoned elsewhere), but he's back in the position of missing a basketball season if he transfers, and I don't honestly think it's going to help the way he thinks it will anyway.  Not that I don't agree that his school is not a great fit--I do--but this is just getting ridiculous at this point--four schools in four years sounds insane.  Ironically, on Thursday I connected with a woman on Facebook who reached out on our local Buy Nothing page asking to talk to people with experience with charter schools.  I messaged her, and it turns out that her son goes to the school Jacob would transfer to and is experiencing the same sort of behavior disruption in class at that school that has been bugging Jacob all year.  They were looking for an alternative, but I don't think a city charter school is it for them either.  But that definitely didn't give me hope that Jacob would escape his problems if he transferred.  And moving into a different district is definitely not an option right now either.  I think I mentioned here that there was a house around the corner that was up for sale and intrigued us because it was nicely redone and in another district.  Well, it sold for nearly $100K over the asking price!  It's nice inside but only mediocre outside, and it's actually smaller than our house.  But at that price, not only would that make a mortgage and taxes way out of our realm, but I can't say I can see someone else willing to buy that house for that kind of money down the road, so it seems like these bidding war houses run the risk of ending up underwater.  I have no desire to get into that kind of mess right now.  That kind of money used to buy a big, brand new house not that long ago.  Crazy.  Anyway, it's hard to keep him motivated, but we're trying.  He only has a month left and then obviously we need to regroup a bit.

Also in a month is supposed to be our trip to the Dominican Republic.  I had some panic over the past few weeks because we don't have a will and God forbid something happened to us.  It also felt like we had a lot of things happening and I just felt uncomfortable dumping it all on my parents.  But then Craig talked to the person organizing it and it sounds like it would be tough to bail now.  Also, he found out that an off-site celebration was planned for the night of the 19th, which is actually the day we wanted to leave, and they were expecting him to emcee it.  So...as of now I would still leave on that day, he would have to stay until the next day, and only make it back for the very end of Jacob's birthday.  It's sort of a mess, admittedly, but we now have committed to going to Pittsburgh for Jacob's birthday weekend, so he really does still need to come back early.  It's a bit of a costly thing for us to do, but the rest of the trip is pretty much free, so I guess it's a small price to pay for some tropical time alone.  My dad is actually mad that we're not staying the whole time, but between the amount of food and drink, how much work I will be missing, and the general burden with the kids' stuff, I think coming back early is the only thing that makes it all doable.  I'm still sort of terrified (although my mom thinks the will thing is doable quickly--she has a connection), but I think we'd also kick ourselves if we didn't give it a shot.  It's just one of those things that ends up being a battle against my anxiety - what is really a risk vs. all of my brain's worst case scenarios?  We haven't gone anywhere alone together for more than a weekend since I was newly pregnant with Jacob.  This isn't much more than that either, but the destination is definitely more exotic, so I think it counts.  But we still need to book return flights, which I think we just need to do now before they disappear or jump in price, and buckle in for a crazy week-plus to finish off the school year.

We already have a lot going on before that between baseball and a bunch of year-end things for Carter.  He has a couple field trips, plus his field day and his chorus/orchestra concert.  I really want to chaperone the field trips, especially the Seabreeze one, but with the time I'm taking off already, it's going to be challenging.  I'm still in disbelief that he's almost done with elementary school (seems like we were just here with Jacob, but no, it was five years and a whole pandemic ago), and every time I walk through his school grounds (it's a central hub for a lot of my walk routes), I can't believe I'll soon be walking past a school that both my kids have come and gone from.  I will miss the one minute drive, that's for sure!  The kids barely have a full week of school left, even though we're still a month away from the end of the year.  Jacob has today off, then has a half day and a day off at the end of next week, both kids have the following Monday off, Carter has events and field trips over the following two weeks, and Jacob wraps up that week with exams on Friday.  The end of the year is going to be here before we know it, but I also feel a little stuck in limbo waiting for it all to get here.  There's a lot to juggle this time of year--I feel like there's a new permission slip or info sheet coming home with Carter daily right now.  I don't want to forget anything or worry about illness or whatever getting in the way, so it's constantly on my mind.  I can feel my anxiety ramping up just thinking about it.  Oh, and I don't have camps planned for Carter yet so I'm worrying about that--but don't exactly have the mental capacity to do anything about it at the moment.  

Once again, just one day at a time...

In Our Baseball Era

Baseball has officially taken over our family.  Lately it seems to infiltrate everything we do.  That's not a bad thing, it's just sort of unexpected.  If you'd have told me three months ago that this would be our life now, I'd have definitely looked at you a little funny.  But here we are.

Years ago, baseball was a pretty big thing for us.  We'd go to games as much as we could.  We would specifically travel to them, especially with Craig's family.  We would go to games wherever we happened to go on vacation.  We'd go to Red Wings games locally (taking advantage of Amerks' office season tickets), or we'd visit some of the smaller single A stadiums nearby, just for something to do on a summer evening.  We went to games almost everywhere, and it didn't matter if it was major league or minor league--we loved both in different ways.  It was just what we did in the summer, to the point that our basement bathroom features pictures from every stadium we've been to.  It was Craig's Father's Day gift years ago that I've continued to add to, and I love the memories I see every time I use that bathroom.

Last weekend I was looking through old pictures trying to find something, and I found pictures of our trip to Pittsburgh when Jacob was two, the infamous trip where he got a super cute catcher's chest protector backpack (and wore it on his front) and tried to run to the pitcher's mound during the postgame kids run the bases.  Scrolling through that folder, I realized how much baseball we did that summer.  We went to a ton of games.  It was definitely a favorite activity for us back then.

Jacob himself played little league for four years, starting when he was five until he decided to go do travel lacrosse instead, after which he did one season of fall ball.  We had one coach that whole time (aside from fall ball), and had a lot of fun with a core group of families...until we hit the kid-pitch stage and games were eternally long and boring.  Kids can't pitch well at 8 (or apparently 9 and 10, either), so there were a lot of walks and games would stretch from 6pm to near darkness, even at the peak of summer.  We weren't too sad when he quit as a result, but it was definitely the end of an era.

We spent a lot of time after that focused on lacrosse.  It's not that we didn't like baseball, but lacrosse tended to take precedence.  We did games from time to time, like minor league games in Hartford and Maryland on lacrosse trips, or the Blue Jays game in Buffalo during COVID.  But as a whole, we took a bit of a baseball break in recent years.  COVID didn't do us any favors, of course, but for the past handful of years, both kids seemed to find baseball a little boring.  We went to a Red Wings game or two and the kids were mostly wanting to go to the speed pitch and then were ready to leave early, so we didn't push it much. 

But then last summer we went to the Pirates game and I swear a switch flipped.  All of a sudden Jacob was super into the Pirates.  He was playing MLB The Show on Xbox all the time.  And most importantly, both boys were wanting to go out and play in the yard.  Carter got just good enough that he played the sandlot session for the town Little League last August, and Jacob began asking us why we let him quit baseball all those years earlier.  He was really good when he was a kid.  He could switch hit and got on base for all but maybe a handful of at-bats in his career.  He'd been hitting balls off a tee since he was about two, so I guess it made sense.  But last summer he realized he probably could have been a pretty good player long term.  And more recently he realized that baseball would probably take a lot less of a toll on his body, so maybe that's not a bad backup plan if basketball doesn't work out due to his ongoing run of injuries. 

As a side note, he went to the doctor Monday and Tuesday and it appears the most recent pain in his shin may just be soft tissue irritation around his plate.  They don't think the plate is loose or rubbing, but that it's just causing some general irritation.  So we're going to have him work with his trainer who will supposedly be able to do some work on it.  We'll start there and see if it helps, with the hope of avoiding having it removed.  It felt better after a couple days away from school (where he says carrying his backpack irritates it), so we'll see.  I guess he was feeling good enough to do a late sign-up for his own round of Little League baseball.  This is really his last year to do it, so I guess we're giving it a shot.  He could play for school next year but they don't have a team so he'd have to see where the school could link up with.  Of course, the school's athletic director just got arrested for a hit-and-run murder (!) that happened last summer so we may have to see where that lands and who could help with that when the time comes.  Never a dull moment.  There have also been talks about whether a longer-term basketball break, if needed due to surgery, would provide the opportunity to change schools (yes, again, I know).  Nothing's even vaguely in the planning stage, but it's opened up some conversations, for sure.  But baseball is definitely solidly on Jacob's radar, and is maybe even more of a focus when it comes to college since it feels more doable.  But as I said the other day in regard to both kids, can we please just get one season in before we start talking about other stuff?

Jacob probably talks about going to baseball games (particularly Pittsburgh) as much as he talks about going back to Disney.  We are planning on doing a baseball weekend in Pittsburgh for his birthday, mostly because there's a bobblehead giveaway of his favorite player, but there's always talk of more.  Craig and I would like to go back to Atlanta.  We'd talked about going back to Indiana this summer, and that would likely involve at least a stop in Cincinnati and maybe Cleveland.  We'll see where we actually land, but it's sort of fun to have that back on the radar when we travel.

Most of our day-to-day entertainment revolves around baseball too.  Sometimes it's watching a game, more often it's watching YouTube videos about everything from video game baseball to real baseball highlights to historical documentaries.  All three boys play MLB The Show on Xbox.  And when they're not doing that stuff, they are outside throwing the ball around or hitting into a new net we got to spare everyone's houses and windows and prevent lost balls in the foliage.  It's the first time Carter's been excited to practice a sport, but I have a distinct feeling it has more to do with Jacob's eager participation than anything else.

Yes, the boys have bonded over baseball.  That's not to say they don't still have their fair share of differences, but they are actually decent to one another a reasonable portion of the time now.  They are OK watching the same things and can play nicely together for longer than they ever used to.  It boggles my mind it took us 11 years to get to this point, but I'm grateful for whatever bonding they are doing now because it's proof that they can do it.  For a long time I wasn't sure it was possible.  They're still polar opposite humans and Jacob still has a lot of critiques on Carter's skill and personality, but it's progress.

But it just boggles my mind how baseball has infiltrated everything we do these days.  Between the two boys it will likely mean we're at the field almost every night of the week for the next couple months.  That will throw all of my dinner plans into chaos and make me hate even more the already-obnoxious weather patterns we have this time of year.  Carter was supposed to have his first game Monday and his second Wednesday, but despite both nights being pleasant and sunny, he played neither night because there had been rain either overnight or in the afternoon that drenched the fields.  It doesn't look like the rain is going to let up, either, for any reasonable period of time.  It's so frustrating.  I know the early season is like this, but it's been exceptionally annoying so far.  And now we have it times two.  There's a reason I like basketball, folks.  Not weather-dependent, climate-controlled, and a timed duration that's usually pretty reliable.  We have none of the above here.  It's fine, I like baseball, but this will challenge me a bit more than basketball or soccer have, or even t-ball did back in the day.  But I'm excited for the kids so hopefully that will win out.

Carter did manage to get in game #1 on Saturday.  He and his team did really well.  He got hits on his first two at-bats, and got walked other times.  He had an RBI and some stolen bases and overall played well.  He even got one of two game balls from the coach!  They won 11-1, which was pretty impressive itself considering the iffy play I saw at practice last week.

Here's his first hit:

Jacob got in his first practice as well, although the rain hit in the midst of it.  I guess he did really well, too, so we're excited to see him play games in a couple weeks.  

And, finally, as one last piece of evidence for baseball's domination, the boys gave me a "baseball mom" shirt for Mother's Day.  Case closed--we are definitely in our baseball era.

Calm Before the Storm

I knew going into last week that it was going to be a crazy one.  It was the week of my big giving day at work, and the days before and after are always nuts, with one super long day in between.  Add that into normal life, especially in any sports season, and it can get overwhelming.  I was hoping that the fun of the previous weekend eased the crazy a little bit and that some slightly better weather might help as well.

After a busy and very productive day of work on Monday, I got home a little early and tried to get dinner ready on time for the boys to leave for baseball practice at 6pm.  I cut it a little closer than I wanted to, but just managed.  I wanted to spend some time that night working to get a head start on Tuesday's work, but I also wanted to take a walk and I knew I had to go to Wegmans that night, so once the boys left and I cleaned up from dinner, I got ready to go.  But it was such a nice night and I suddenly realized that the tulips were gorgeous and fresh at Highland Park and this might be my only chance to go, so why not do my walk there?  I had a solid 2-1/2 hours before the boys were home, so I made the last second decision to go.  I figured I'd do my usual loop around the lilacs, flowering trees, and tulips, and probably still have time to go to Wegmans and beat the boys home.  And with the week I had on tap (work alone--I had no idea what other things would pop up later), I figured a little moment of zen beforehand would serve me well.  It did.

I looked for parking spots near the tulips but ended up in my usual spot on Highland near the lilacs.  My first stop was the pansy bed, and it was lovely as usual.  It was getting closer to golden hour, as well, so the light was really pretty.  I just loved the soft colors of this part of the bed.

Most of the lilacs were still trying to bloom, but some were making good progress.  Despite the lack of blooming ones, I did manage to find just a couple blooms on my favorite variety.

The purple with the white outline is so cool.  It doesn't even look real sometimes.

I wandered through the Poet's Garden and saw this trillium.  I've learned how special and rare these flowers are from the Western New York hiking group on Facebook.  Their blooming is rarer than most flowers and picking them can damage the plant so they always say not to.  They're so delicate and pretty, though.

I fell in love with these chocolate lilies a couple years ago and desperately tried to get an underside picture (the flower faces down).  The light was shining so perfectly to capture the cool pattern in the petals, so I was even more determined this time.  I realized, however, that my forward-facing camera couldn't focus on something so close, so I had to go back to the normal camera, face my phone down, and take a completely blind picture (both with what the picture looked like and pressing the button).  Somehow I did this:
 

I almost looked like a crazy person as people passed by me crouched down with my camera, but they were struck by the flower too, and I'm not sure they fully caught what I was doing anyway.  Then I saw this sweet yellow one and couldn't resist it either.  My plant ID app says it's a short lily, but I'm not entirely sure it matches because their pictures had a fringe-like edge on a couple petals.  But this just looked so perfect.

The magnolias were all spent, so I wound my way up and around to the area outside the Lamberton Conservatory and headed toward the tulip garden.  It's funny how seasons work--usually when I go to see the tulips I catch all the magnolias and flowering trees.  But this year, because it was warm early and then got cold again, the magnolias jumped the gun the second we had a day or two of warm weather again.  Some of the other trees were nearly spent, too.  However, the trees on the road to the tulips were amazing.  This pale pink one was so fluffy and stunning.

The tulips were perfectly fresh and perky.  Aside from maybe one variety they were all mostly open but very early in their life cycle and still picture-perfect, so I really did time it perfectly.  

These colors were so beautiful.

These were so gorgeous.  I have this as my phone lock screen and marvel at it every time.

They were all really pretty as usual, but I was actually a tiny bit disappointed by the variety.  They didn't have any differently shaped ones or the ones that look like fringe on the edges.  I have to admit I got spoiled by the ones in Oklahoma City last year because they had so many different varieties in one spot.  This garden usually has a bit more variation, but not this year.  Still gorgeous, though.  I walked around to the conservatory, dodging photo shoots in the process.  This time of year Highland Park is crawling with pro and amateur photographers taking family pictures and engagement pictures and whatever else.  I must have seen a dozen while I was there, and also passed by what appeared to be a tiny picnic-style baby shower (on a Monday?!) with a ground-level table set with food and a photographer taking pictures of the mother-to-be with friends.  It makes me feel guilty we never did that stuff as a family, but would my boys have actually cooperated as we spent hundreds of bucks?  Probably not.  Anyway, I strategically avoided one group to get this gorgeous picture.

At least this one was a little different!

I headed up the road toward the reservoir, and I was interested to see how it looked.  About six weeks ago they found a dead body in it.  It necessitated a boil water notice in the city and closed down schools (including Jacob's due to the buses), and they've been emptying and cleaning it ever since, even though they insisted it was testing fine at the time.  It was pretty bizarre at first, and then obviously really sad since the body was identified as a man who went missing a month earlier.  It seems he got there on his own and climbed the fence, so who knows what happened after that.  It was weird to see it so low.  Compare it to the picture in this post.

There were still some daffodils hanging in there.  

I also managed to find a second two-color tree!  My pictures didn't turn out great so you'll have to trust me, but I always love seeing the one two-color tree (the post I linked to above has some pics), but I found a second one maybe 20 yards away!  While I was wandering, I saw a groundhog running around enjoying the massive buffet.

I saw these flowers that I'm not sure I've noticed before.  My phone says it's common pearlbrush.  Based on those buds I can see why, but the flowers were so sweet and dainty.

I went up along the azalea and rhododendron path and saw this wacky one.  It's called Japanese pieris.  Between the bright red leaves and the tiny flower clusters I was a little obsessed!

On my way back to the car I kept an eye out for pretty lilacs and thought these were such a nice purple.

I think having a lilac bush at our first house desensitized me a bit.  I like them (although obviously I can't smell them), but the bushes can be a major pain with a lot of shoots.  They can get really straggly and are tough to trim sometimes because you don't want to screw up next year's growth.  We have a couple miniature ones at this house, too.  They don't have quite as many shoots but they seem to be a bit fungus-ridden because the underneath branches break off really easily and one is pretty thin in spots.  They get crazy shoots on them in late spring and they are a monster to trim, but they are pretty.  I don't get overly excited about the lilacs (and the lilac festival is a madhouse so I rarely see them then), but I do enjoy them and love seeing the dark pink ones especially in passing.  I actually noticed a house around the corner from us today that has their own mini-garden of them, full of different varieties.  They had maybe eight different ones and even half open I could tell they were all different colors.  That was actually cool to see and something I will have to revisit later this week or next spring.

Before I got going, I decided to stop in a different part of the park I rarely go to, just to see if there were any pretty views there.  This section has the war memorials and is closer to some of the core festival areas, but I hadn't ever stopped there on one these annual walks.  There wasn't a lot to see, but the light was pretty.

This veterans walk is long but very moving if you have the time.  If I recall, each post has the name of a soldier who died in action in Vietnam, in the order they died.

The War on Terror memorial was pretty in the fading light.

After that I wrapped things up and headed out.  The walk only took me about an hour, but it was well worth the extra time to drive there and back.  I did a quick Wegmans run and headed home to work for a bit.  Shortly after I got home, the boys got home, too.  Practice is going well, but the jury's out on how Carter's team will compare to others!

I worked at home on Tuesday and had a productive day for a change.  I think the stress of prepping for the big day forced my brain fog/lack of focus I swear I've had since my bout of COVID to lay off for a bit.  I had no choice, so I guess my brain chemistry must have gone up a notch just to survive.  I really wanted to go for a walk that day, but the timing just didn't work out.  I can't even remember how I filled the evening but before I knew it, it was off to bed to face an exhausting Wednesday head-on.

Wednesday was a very long day.  I got to work around 7:45.  I had a quick breakfast (so I didn't overeat the donuts I knew were coming) and then headed up to my spot in the "war room".  Other than grabbing food across or down the hall, taking one short walk down to my office to see my intern, and taking a quick parking lot walk (it was such a gorgeous day) with my boss to calmly talk through some data issues, I didn't leave that room until nearly 10pm that night.  It was a very tiring day and my body was being a bit uncooperative for part of the week, to the point I thought I might have developed Celiac disease.  I ate a lot of carbs over a couple of days and I just felt bloated and like I was going to the bathroom after every meal, which concerned me.  I think it must have just been a mild stomach issue, thankfully, but it took a very low-key food day Thursday for it to settle.  But on the Day of Giving I need the carb fuel to keep moving and keep the day exciting, so it was tough.  Donuts in the morning, Dinosaur BBQ for lunch, Crumbl cookies for dessert, a fun iced mocha for an afternoon pick-me-up, and Detroit-style pizza for dinner.  It kept me going through a long day of putting gifts into templates, dealing with massive website issues, and doing some last-minute evening data (which I always try to avoid but seemingly always do).  We finally wrapped up around 10pm and noticed a bunch of leftover food in the hallway.  I grabbed a couple donuts, four chocolate chip cookies (out of a few platters of them), and a couple pieces of Crumbl cookies.  I also got to take home a full bag of rolls from the Dinosaur leftovers.  I packed up all of my stuff and couldn't wait to get home.  I still had to make my gift online from my bed and it took me a while to unwind, so despite being exhausted I didn't fall asleep as early as I'd have liked.

The next morning's alarm was painful.  We had to get both kids up and out early, and I woke up feeling drunk, or at least like I usually feel when I have to go to the airport early and only get a few hours of sleep (minus the "Yay, I'm going somewhere" adrenaline rush).  It basically felt like I had a glorified nap.  I could barely function enough to get the boys up and make lunches.  After drop-off, I sat down at my desk before 8am and groggily tried to figure out what to do first--review emails I didn't have time for the previous day, look at calling comments from two days, review 1200 gift notifications, or work on more data.  And that was only the beginning of what I was behind on.  

I hadn't been sitting there very long when I heard a ton of sirens nearby.  They just kept coming and sounded close so I looked up the 911 incident website for our county.  Much to my surprise, the address listed was right down our street, and it was for a structure fire.  I looked it up but was a little confused because the Google maps picture showed the lovely recently redone house at the end of the street, but that didn't seem to be the actual address because the angle was from further down the street looking back that way, like it was simply the closest address.  So, I got up from my desk and walked outside.  I hadn't put on shoes because I was just planning on peeking down the street, but as I walked out I could immediately see smoke on the next street over.  It seemed odd if it was coming from our street because our street seemed fine.  The end of the street where Google maps had showed was fine, too.  Without thinking I walked down the driveway and over a few houses to see if I could see the source.  My feet got wet but I just kept going.  I could see flashing lights and pretty quickly I realized it was a house on the next street, one that backed up to the houses across the street from us, about three houses down.  I could see smoke swirling off the roof on the one side, not as black as I expected, so I hoped maybe that meant it wasn't that bad.  But then I saw a firefighter pulling up roof shingles near the peak.  I couldn't see flames, but in retrospect I think that if I could have gotten a better view of the sliding doors in the back (they must have been blocked where I was standing), I might have.  It appears that the bulk of the fire was in the ground floor of the split level.  Per the news story, the owner couldn't get out so he had to jump off the small roof on the front of the garage from one of the bedrooms.  He did have to be admitted for smoke inhalation but was mostly okay.  Sadly, his dog did not survive.  It was pretty distressing to watch something like that happen, especially since house fires are one of my biggest fears.  I felt horrible for whoever lived there.  I felt weird gawking at that point so I went back to my desk, but I kept getting up to check for smoke for the next hour or so, now completely distracted from everything I needed to be doing.  It just added to that surreal, extra tired fog I was in that morning.

It was a gorgeous day outside again and I was really wanting to walk since I missed the previous two nice days and hadn't moved much the previous day.  I decided to just rip off the bandaid of my fire-related anxiety and take a lunch walk past the house to see how bad it was.  I knew if I didn't do it then it would eat away at me until I could.  It's just a weird thing for me to just know.  When I walked out of the house I could hear pounding, and I correctly assumed they were already boarding it up.  The damage on the front was pretty clear--pretty much a giant, black gaping hole where the front door used to be, where all you could make out was the light at the back of the house where I think the sliders were.  I haven't been back past it since but it now makes me rethink my walk routes because I use that street a lot and it just makes me sad.  Thankfully I pretty much have to be in one certain position to see even a small part of the house from our house, which is better for my mental health.  It's so sad, though.

Friday was another day back in the office, even though I was wiped and half of our team took off.  I had too much to catch up on, and Friday is also the day where my intern spends the most time in the office.  We had a battle with Jacob that morning because his leg has been bothering him again.  We thought it was the return of the shin splints when he started complaining about it hurting when he carries his heavy school bag around (he refuses to use a locker--he never really has and insists he doesn't have time to go there in this school).  However, it hurts in a different spot now, down where his plate is in his leg from his bone cyst when he was seven.  We're wondering if something is loose there.  He said he got kicked in the shin in one of his tournament games, so maybe it started dislodging something?  It doesn't hurt all the time like an infection might--just when he walks on it--so it could be possible something is moving in there that's rubbing weird.  He managed to convince us he had to stay home because the pain was too bad, and now he's scheduled to go in Monday to get it checked.  Just what he needed, another problem.

I had really hoped to work in the office through lunch on Friday and then come home and enjoy the nicer weather on my porch while I watched videos from some work sessions I had to miss this week in my role of helping with our new database setup.  Of course they scheduled six hours worth of training on two of my busiest days.  Unfortunately all of my catch-up work took until nearly the end of the day, so I just stayed to get as much done as I could.  Oh well.  It had been quite the work week, and I have definitely earned my bonus day off...now to just figure out when I can be comfortable enough to take it. 

I tried to make it a relaxing weekend, but I did three loads of laundry, grocery shopping, a Kohl's run, and Carter's baseball practice.  He also had his buddy Ben's birthday party so Friday night was spent shopping for a gift and confirming his best art project did not in fact make it into the district art show, even though he never got it back.  Boo.  I think his middle school arts electives will be spent doing viola and maybe chorus, so this might have been his last shot.  It was a bummer for sure.  It wasn't a bad weekend--there were some baseball bright spots, like the Pirates winning twice--once on a walk-off hit---which is a big thing around here these days with three teams on our family radar.  The Toronto Rock was pretty easily dispatched by the Buffalo Bandits in their next playoff round, so Buffalo is off to the finals.  Hard to believe considering how badly they dominated us.  The Amerks came back from three goals down to win their game in overtime and force a deciding game 5.  So, as another week begins, I'm bracing myself for Jacob's leg, looking forward to the start of Carter's baseball season, and hoping I can catch up on work.  Spring always goes so quickly and I know the end of the school year will be here before we know it, especially with baseball on our schedule three times a week for the next six weeks.  It never really does slow down, does it?  

Do-Over Weekend

It turned out that last weekend ended up feeling like a bit of a do-over of two weeks ago--back to Hamilton for another Knighthawks game, and another baseball game, but in a different city.  Some of the do-over worked out better, some didn't.

Carter had off on Friday, and we were originally supposed to do something fun.  But my work was pretty overwhelming leading up to our big giving day this week, so my planned vacation day turned into a half day of on and off work.  Not ideal, but at least it still left me some time to pack without stress.  We left around dinner time, later than would have been ideal.  Jacob stayed at school to shoot and didn't come out on time, which meant that we were just getting home by the time we were supposed to be leaving, and he still had to finish showering and packing.  On the bright side, we were a lot more systematic about packing so we made sure Carter's bag was packed this time--although he suggested we should leave it again so he could get more new clothes!  Craig was worried about being late for the team dinner he planned, and en route we figured out that the highway from the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge to the QEW was closed for construction, which rerouted us to the Rainbow Bridge and made everything take even longer.  That meant we couldn't stop for food on the way.  We got to the restaurant where the team dinner was happening just on time, and then the boys and I had to go find dinner ourselves.  Luckily there was a Pizza Pizza just across the way, so we went there (yup, again).

The team had barely gotten their dinner by the time we were done so we goofily waved through the window as we walked by and just sat in the van for a while.  Jacob and I mostly pointlessly argued about random stuff while Carter watched a movie.  Par for the course with Jacob sometimes--I think when he's bored he just decides a debate will fill the time.  Finally Craig came back and came bearing a gift--he had one of the coaches that lives in Canada buy the Toronto Blue Jays monkey we saw at Sport Chek last time.  We probably would have just gone and got him ourselves this weekend, but we didn't know that we would be back there so soon so Craig asked someone to get him.  It's one of those long-armed, long-legged monkeys with velcro on the hands so it can hug you.  It has a Jays jersey and hat and is super soft.  Carter was thrilled!

We headed to the hotel, and once again the parking ramp gave us issues.  It was SO small.  It had awkward dead ends and the few spots that were left were really awkward to get into.  We were already thinking ahead to the morning and how I was supposed to navigate the van out of there.  Thank goodness we figured out timing to have Craig do it, because the slope getting out was so severe that it took a couple tries.  The garage door is motion activated so it wasn't totally open yet as we were driving up to it.  Stopping halfway up to let the door open didn't give us enough momentum to actually go forward because the slope was so steep that we'd roll back the second he took his foot off the brake!  Craig had to back up the van to the bottom of the ramp to fully gun it to get out.  Awful.  I totally would have panicked mid-ramp.  No incidents with pillars this time, but because of the walls, fire hose boxes, and pipes, it still felt a bit miraculous to make it out of there unscathed.

Our room was a suite with a kitchen, a king bed, a pull-out couch, and a chair.  We thought maybe Carter would sleep on the chair since Jacob claimed the pull-out, but he opted to sleep in the king with us.  Unsurprisingly, Jacob's bed was super uncomfortable.  I felt bad because I had thought about bringing the foam topper I bought to sleep on a pull-out in the fall of 2022 when Jacob and I went to Albany, but I forgot.  We all managed--our bed was a bit cozy, especially with Carter's animals, but it was fine.  And it was comfortable, at least!

In daylight, we could see the views out our windows, rain included--we were on a corner so we had two!  This was in one direction, and we could see the arena!

Look close near the orange and you can see the bottom slope of the upper bowl from the outside of the arena.

From the other window, you could see our last hotel!

We were just above the outside deck.

Craig had to be up and out early, and Jacob went with him to eat the team breakfast.  Carter and I had a lazy morning but eventually had to get ready so we could get the free hotel breakfast.  It was really good--waffles, egg omelettes, sausages, stuff to toast, muffins, cereal, yogurt, etc.  It was all really good.

After that Carter and I were going to IKEA and lunch.  We had to wait for Craig once he was back from the shootaround to drive the van out, but then he hopped out and we were off.  We packed up most of the luggage then so we didn't have to do it later.  It was a rainy day, but the temperature wasn't half bad at least.  It was nice to get to IKEA since I meant to go on the previous trip but it didn't work out when we had to get Carter clothes instead.  I didn't have a lot in mind, but it's always nice to look and see what's new.  Always food for thought, at least.  I ended up just getting a pair of tongs (with the air fryer I seem to use them a lot and needed another set), new flexible cutting boards since one of my old IKEA ones cracked recently, and a spare light bulb for our bedside lights.  I considered a couple other things, like picture frames to coordinate with ones I have, or a new light to replace the crooked one in our living room, but ultimately passed.  We did discover they now have a large stuffed moose!  We totally would have owned this during our moose prime, and I might have still considered it were it not $25!

They also had this fun chocolate moose in the market.  We were a bit tempted by some of the snacks, but we were heading right to lunch so we passed.  Carter was just about done by that point anyway, but he'd been a good trooper through the store.
 

We decided to go to A&W, since Carter had never been, and the closest one was in the mall down the road from IKEA.  Apparently Canada never got the memo that malls are dying, because this one was jammed!  It was like Christmas season in the old days.  It was so hard to find a parking spot!  We finally did, and braved the rain to go in.  Carter liked his food, and we liked what was on the cups, too!

Craig had texted me in the meantime to let me know that the parking lots around the arena might be $30 cash.  I panicked because I had none, but thankfully there was a currency exchange place in the mall.  Luckily I had grabbed $25 out of my wallet before we left (I only bring a small purse since big ones can't go to games) and I exchanged that for $33 and change.  Whew.

Back out into the rain and back to the city we went.  For simplicity and to avoid that awful ramp, we just went right to the arena.  I wanted to get the lay of the land with the area parking lots, but that turned into a large detour/city tour before I could get myself turned back around and go back to the lot right across from the arena.  I figured Craig would appreciate that with his equipment and whatever else he brings to games.  We did end up at the far end of the lot, technically in an A&W parking lot (ironically), but it all seemed legit enough, and had we come out early we wouldn't have been blocked in.  I did a quick change to get into my Knighthawk gear (Carter opted to go without), and off we went.

I should have mentioned that my parents were meeting us for the game.  Since they didn't get to go to the 400th game, and my mom expressed some slight disappointment that they weren't invited, I thought it might be nice to offer them this game.  I figured they'd never been to a game there and it was a pretty easy drive, and a playoff game nonetheless, so why not?  Carter and I waited for them outside the arena and saw them just as we were wrapping up talking to the same Knighthawk fans we saw at the last game.

I only took one picture during the game which shows where our seats were (much better than last time!) and where Craig was again.  Jacob sat up there with him for the first half.  

 

This game, unfortunately, was not much better as a do-over from the last one.  Toronto went out to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter, which was more goals than the Knighthawks gave up for their entire last home game.  Then it was 5-1 at the end of the first, mercifully closer by halftime but still down 6-3, then 8-3 at the end of the third, and a 9-6 final.  It seemed like a comeback might be in the works a couple times, but no luck.  It was a tough game--their goalie was so strong.  Early on when we were down, Carter teared up, partly because I think it was depressing that we were losing like that, and partly because he was mad Jacob was in the press box.  Jacob sat with Craig last year for the Bandits game in the playoffs and the result was equally painful, if not worse.  Carter thought he was jinxing us.  Not sure what spawned that sudden burst of emotion, but he felt a little better once we scored.  But it was pretty rough as a whole, even if I wasn't expecting a lot given the previous game.  My parents obviously wished for a better game, but were intrigued by the arena and were appreciative of the chance to go.  We had a nice time regardless.

My parents took off at the end of the game, and the three of us headed down to the friends and family area.  We waited forever!  We were getting so impatient.  Craig finally came out with some chicken for Jacob and then disappeared again for a bit, and then it was finally time to go.  We stopped at the A&W we were parked at to get something for the road.  Craig just wanted a root beer but ended up getting a small burger too.  They no longer have root beer floats (what?!), but we got frozen root beers instead.  Not the same, but not bad.  I'd get it with sweet cream or cold brew next time.  We headed out of town with this gorgeous sunset.

We were just driving back to my parents' house for the night since we had opted to go to a Buffalo Bisons game the next day.  The trip back was pretty uneventful.  We did have a customs agent who started talking lacrosse once he got through the official stuff.  He lives in Rochester and goes to Knighthawk games, so he was interested to hear how the game went.  He got pretty chatty and I felt bad for the people behind us, but that was pretty funny.  Then we almost ran into both a fox and a possum in the 20 minute drive to my parents' house!  Oh, and we found out Mighty Taco's nacho cheese is no longer listed as gluten-free (boo), though based on emails with them it seems to be a formality because of the facility it's made in.  We grabbed some Mighty as a late dinner, got to my parents, ate, and generally pretty quickly shifted toward bed--once I inflated and made mine!

We tried to get up for church the next morning, but Craig and Carter weren't waking up any too easily and Jacob said he forgot church clothes, so we scrapped that idea.  The boys did make it up at a reasonable time because Carter and Jacob were both desperate to get out and play some baseball, especially since Carter had to miss practice the prior day.  They did that while I got ready and heavily debated my outfit for the day.  The weather forecast wasn't good.  Despite being in the mid-60s at my parents' house, Buffalo was only supposed to be in the low-50s, and rain was coming.  I opted for capris and a long sleeve shirt under my Buffalo Blue Jays shirt, figuring I'd wear my raincoat over.  I also didn't bother curling my hair (for the second day in a row) since it was going to be wet.

The boys came back, we packed up, and we were off to the game.  The second we opened the van doors, we were shocked.  It was cold and windy!  Everyone changed pants since the boys all had shorts on and I didn't want cold ankles, either.  Good thing, because it ended up being really cold!

Once we got into the stadium, we immediately ran into Buster and Chip, as well as the chicken wing racers.

As you may recall, I interned there 25 years ago (!) and it felt funny to be back with the mascots.  Chip used to be a lot shorter--when I worked there, his human was a short guy gymnast who went on to be the Pirate Parrot.  When Buster was teasing me behind my back, I let him know I had worked there long ago and know how it goes!  So, I got a picture!

Sadly we didn't get to see the wing racers actually race, but it was fun to see them in person.  There's also an atomic wing, carrot, blue cheese, and beef on weck (who we didn't see), in addition to the celery and regular wing below.

Despite the chill we made the best of it.  We did some browsing in the store, and then Jacob and I grabbed food before heading out to the outfield because players were warming up.  The ball quest was back on! 

Thankfully, this one went better!  Not only did Carter get one ball from a groundskeeper, but he also got one from the other team's starting pitcher--and that one was an amazing catch!

 

 
He was a much happier kid than he was a couple weeks ago!  We headed back to the concourse and met up with Craig's parents.  We went to our seats, just behind home plate.  We were in the row in front of Craig's parents' season tickets.

Unfortunately, we barely got through the first inning before the rain got to be a bit more than sprinkles.  On the bright side, the game wasn't too heavily attended so there was room under the overhang for pretty much everyone to move up.  The game continued on despite the rain, until about the 5th inning when it started to come down harder.  The game was stopped but no announcement was made and the tarp didn't come out so we were a bit confused for a few minutes.  But sure enough, finally the interns and staff assembled (oh, I remember those days) and pulled the tarp, and the announcement came shortly after.

The rain delay went on for maybe 20-30 minutes.  About halfway through we noticed the umps come out and talk to the managers, and then the managers met on the field, shared a bro-hug, and chatted for a couple minutes.  We were pretty sure that meant the game had been called, but it probably took another 10-15 minutes for the ump to come out and do the "called game" sign of waving his arms.  Then they announced it and that was it.  Of course, the guys had just gotten free burgers from a concession stand since they were closing up shop, so we hung out a few minutes while those got eaten.  The good news was that the Bisons had scored a couple runs right before that and it was a complete game, so they won!  But it was a bummer that we wouldn't get a rain check and that we missed half the game.  Ironically, it wasn't really raining by the time we left--there was a break in the rain but more was coming, hence the cancellation.  

We headed out and stopped at an Anderson's to get Jacob some food.  He got a roast beef meal, but Carter ate the fries and Craig wanted the drink.  I was still full from my fried bologna, and it was too cold for an ice cream snack.  We had a minor "incident" when we got there because a bird had massively pooped on the van in Hamilton, and the rain had sort of loosened it up, and when I went to close my door, I accidentally touched it and it was so gross and slimy.  And honestly, with bird flu going around, that was even more icky, so I ran in and immediately washed my hand, but of course the boys found it endlessly hilarious...and it was not.

We got home at a reasonable time, which was good because both boys forgot their homework (again).  I needed to get prepped for a challenging week of work, and Craig settled in for a couple days off to mark the end of his season.  But our do-over weekend was still a good one--even if the Knighthawks lost again and the rain ruined our baseball game, we got the monkey, got to IKEA, got my parents to a game, saw the Bisons mascots and got two balls.  Not too shabby.