It’s so hard to believe that summer is over. I’ve only written a few posts; time has gone by so quickly. It’s been an emotional summer, for sure, and I think it’s due to a lot of changes at my house recently: Noah moving out, Jerry’s drastically different work schedule, Eli graduating high school, both kids working full-time (with Jerry, no less!), our car situation, and a few other things. I’m still trying to get used to it.
Instead of completely overwhelming myself with trying to “catch up,” I thought I’d just go through my photos from the summer and try to write about a few key things (or just random thoughts). I don’t actually have that many photos! Since I haven’t been blogging, I’ve drastically cut back on the number of photos I’ve been taking. I wish I had taken more, even if just for my own memories.
Anyway, here we go…
*Remember when I wrote about how I was FINALLY growing Asian pears after probably 10+ years of trying? I was so excited! Well, one day I went out to look at them and they were just completely gone. Gone overnight. There was no trace of them left. I’m officially giving up. I hate getting my hopes up every year and then being disappointed, so I’m not even going to think about it anymore. I’ll just keep buying them when I see them somewhere and enjoy them even more.
*I bought a new rug for the living room. Exciting right? Haha. The other one was definitely worn out, but it also attracted pet hair. Joey liked to lay on it and even vacuumed it daily, it was ridiculous how much hair would accumulate. I bought this shag rug and I love it! I was worried it would be hard to clean, but it vacuums easily.
*My friend Sarah came to visit from Arizona and I went over to her mom’s house to see her (and her husband and kids). A friend had told me about a fun, sneaky thing you can do in random places: glue a pair of googly eyes somewhere inconspicuous. I brought some with me to Sarah’s house because I thought her kids might have fun finding a place to put them to “prank” their grandma. They chose to put them on their school pictures…haha! They were SO excited that she noticed that they could barely contain their laughter. When grandma noticed, she thought it was hilarious.
*Luke and Riley came over and wanted to play with the skeletons. I couldn’t think of anything more boring, but they loved them! Riley even danced with one. (By the way, I’d love to do a post with skeleton decorations for Halloween again this year. I’m not sure how many people still read my blog, but if you have pictures of skeleton decorations to share, you can email them to me and if I get enough for a post, I’ll compile them closer to Halloween: Katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com.
*I sewed A LOT this summer. Probably a completely abnormal amount. But it helped me with all the emotional stuff I’ve been having. I love making bags, but one can only have so many bags… so I branched out into other things. I’ll have to do a whole separate post (or series) of those projects, though, there are just too many. The cats love anything to do with my sewing. I even built a little shelf to put on the windowsill in the sewing room and Duck sleeps in his bed there when I sew.
*My brother was having his annual party in July. I asked Luke if he could take me on his little…side-by-side? I don’t know what to call it. It’s smaller than a side-by-side, safer than a four-wheeler. Anyway, he drove me around the property, which was fun. I told him I’d bet that if I drove people from their cars to the backyard, I could make some tips… and he sighed and said, “I’ve been driving people around all day and I just want to enjoy the party!” I thought that was hilarious, he’s seven.
*My dad texted me this (out of the blue) and I thought it was so cute. The top is cut off, but it’s the giant magnet that was on the side of our Ragnar Relay van in 2013 (when the documentary From Fat to Finish Line was filmed). There was a magnet for each person on our team and this one has been on the fridge in my parents’ garage ever since.
*I painted the “craft room” (since Noah moved out, I turned the extra bedroom into my craft room). I used paint I had leftover from Eli’s room and was sure I would have enough… but I ran out of paint and only had a small section of wall left. I didn’t want to buy another gallon if I could avoid it, and then I found a nearly full gallon of the aviary blue paint I used for the pantry. I used that instead, and I love it! It looks so bright in there.
I also removed the carpet (it was seriously SO gross I didn’t even want to share a “before” photo). Jerry installed the plank flooring. It still needs some shelves and stuff on the walls, but I’ll do that eventually. I made do with what I already had, including a makeshift table made by simply placing a wide board over a couple of small nightstands. It’s not pretty, but it works!
*A photo of Jerry and the kids working. They have different jobs within the plant, but they still see each other a lot. I still find it very strange that they all work at the same place! (The kids only plan to stay there for a year while they save up money and decide what they really want to do.)
*I went on my first plane flight since 2019. I used to rely on wine to get me through flights (I hate flying), but since I quit drinking in 2021, I had to hold it in with clenched knuckles during the flight. Luckily, the flight was very short… I flew to the Upper Peninsula to visit Jeanie and Shawn. The airport I flew into was ABSOLUTELY TINY. This photo is of the entire airport!
It rained the whole time I was there, but I only went to visit Jeanie and Shawn, so the rain didn’t bother me. And I actually lost seven pounds, lol. Since I’m vegan, Jeanie very thoughtfully asked me what I wanted from the store. I was only going to be there for five days, so I went with a very minimalist menu: Larabars for breakfast, toast with peanut butter and apples for lunch, vegan “chicken” nuggets and apples for dinner. I didn’t feel deprived at all, and it made me realize how much the late-night snacks were hindering my weight loss. (I gained the weight back when I got home, unfortunately, but I haven’t gained any more.) It was a nice, relaxing visit!
*This scared the hell out of me one morning. I was going to put some peanuts in the squirrel’s lunchbox and to my surprise, there was a raccoon right next to the door! Raccoons are the primary carrier of rabies in the United States and seeing them outside during the day is extremely rare. Every time I started to open the door to scare him, he would start coming at me. However, when I picked up my phone to call the DNR, he was already gone. I never saw him again.
[This reminds of a comment I got one time. I was out for a run and I saw a raccoon acting very oddly (again, during the day). I decided to call the DNR when I got back from my run (I didn’t have my phone with me). It was gone on my way back. I wrote about it on my blog, and someone who had always been super nice left a comment saying that I should have taken off my shirt and wrapped the raccoon in it and take it to get help. She was so angry that she said she was done reading my blog. Haha! First, I am not taking off my shirt in public unless someone is bleeding out and in dire need of a tourniquet and my shirt is the ONLY option to save their life; second, I don’t want rabies? Anyway, she followed through–I never heard from her again.]
*Last month Jerry and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. The night before, we both said we wish we could have bought each other gifts (we had agreed not to). At the time, we decided to order each other something off of Amazon, but we had rules: 1) It had to be delivered the next day 2) It had to be under $25. So we sat there staring at our phones (it was actually pretty funny!) and at one point, one of us suggested we get each other a Squishmallow. I picked out this Toy Story alien for Jerry (we sometimes like to say the line from the movie, “You saved our lives. We are forever grateful.”) Jerry picked out this little girl from Monsters, Inc. because her name is Boo (she calls me Boo. It was perfect). It was a fun gift exchange!
*A few weeks ago, Jerry and I went to the Eastern Market in Detroit. I always love going there! We bought a bunch of produce and made a point of using it all up before it went bad. The cats were thrilled that I brought them some cat grass. I’ve tried growing my own, but it never turns out that well.
*Since Noah moved out and Eli will likely be moving out in a couple of years, I wanted to start a tradition where we plan to have them come over every other Sunday for a super casual dinner and something small but fun to do. They liked the idea and came over (and their friends). We made individual pizzas and then had a bonfire outside. The wheelbarrow was right next to the bonfire and we ended up having a wheelbarrow race and timing each other. It was so much fun!
So Noah sat on Rose’s lap and I thought it would be funny if she were his arms to eat his plum and drink his soda. She basically put her arms under his and went through the motions of eating and drinking while Noah couldn’t use his. They actually did pretty well!
*My uncle Ron (my dad’s brother) and his partner, Renee, came to visit from Florida. I rarely see them, but he’s so much fun to talk to (he’s had a very special life; I’d love to write a memoir about him!). He and Jerry went to a Tigers game, and we met up with him and Renee afterwards. I wish I’d thought to take a picture with him; I don’t know if I even have one. He loves to tell everyone he meets, “Hi, I’m Ron from Florida.” And he’s so personable that people love to chat with him.
*I don’t have a photo to share of this one, considering privacy circumstances, but remember I said I discovered a first cousin through 23&Me? They were given up for adoption and no one in the family knew they existed until I took this test. We had been talking since January and last week they came to visit and meet us in person. It was so much fun getting to know them and we plan to stay in touch.
*Brian took Luke, Riley, and my parents to Alaska. They had a blast! Becky sent me some pictures and I was sure Brian had probably photoshopped this bear into the photo… but no, it was real.
*I know I said I would do a separate post for my sewing projects, but I’m really proud of this one so I’ll share it here. I made a quilt! I was never really interested in learning how to quilt (and still am not, actually), but when I saw This pattern I couldn’t resist. And it was a simple pattern for beginners: an appliqué technique that is done on the fly.
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| I think my favorite cat is the one in the seventh row, fourth from the left. I don’t know why, but I felt drawn to him. |
I learned that 1) quilting gets REALLY expensive really quickly, even for a thrifty person like me, and 2) it’s a lot harder to do the actual quilting part (sewing the wrong side to the quilt top) than I thought. I was surprised at how long the binding (the orange edge) took – it’s actually done by hand so the stitches aren’t visible. It took me 11 hours! I’m sure for an experienced quilter, it wouldn’t even take half that long. But I actually enjoyed that part more than the entire project. It was relaxing and I was able to watch like 15 episodes of Evil Lives Here while working on it, lol.
Here’s the binding. I just have to show it because I feel like I did a good job and where else can I pat myself on the back?
This was a great first quilt – it doesn’t have any intricate stitching and I chose to make the outlines of each cat a bit “scribbled” looking. It’s supposed to look odd and a bit messy, so my mistakes (and there are several) don’t show as much. It has personality 😉
Before I finished it, I swore that it would be the only quilt I would ever make. And by the time I finished it, I was already searching Pinterest for other quilt ideas! It’s like a race… as you train for a marathon, you swear it’s a one-and-done race. And then as soon as you cross the finish line, you’re already planning the next one. Anyway, I love how this quilt turned out – it’s not a “heritage” quilt by any means, but it’s fun and definitely fits my personality!
