Friday Night Photos #127

It's been a long time since I wrote a Friday Night Photos post! I went back to August 11 on my camera roll, and there are so many pictures that I feel like I already wrote about, but looking through my recent posts, I guess I didn't. Or maybe I did, I don't know--but I have several pictures, so I'll get right to it...

Luke and Riley were at Brian's for a couple of weeks last month, so Jerry and I took them out for Riley's birthday. We did our usual trip to Barnes & Noble and let them each pick something out. Riley had SUCH a hard time deciding--finally she said I could pick out three things and she would choose from those. So I picked up a few things she'd liked and she ended up choosing a diary with a lock (that came with all the glittery pens and unicorn stickers and things like that).

For Luke, I saw a set of practical jokes that I remembered doing when I was a kid and I thought he would like it. Brian used to practice all of his practical jokes on me, being six years younger than him; Luke loved the idea of the jokes, so that's what he chose.

Instead of going out to eat somewhere, I decided to pack a picnic lunch and go to a park. We all enjoyed that more than a restaurant--there was a playground right there, so Luke and Riley played on that until it was time to go.

I went on the swings with Riley; I *love* swings! They make me feel like a kid again for sure.

Riley is starting kindergarten and Luke first grade this week. They grow SO FAST.

Noah and his girlfriend, Claire, drove up to Jeanie and Shawn's cabin in the upper peninsula for a long weekend. Claire sent me a bunch of pictures, and I loved seeing how much fun they had. Noah was really excited to bring Jerry's mom's DSLR camera to take pictures on their hikes--and out of all of the things to forget at home, he left the camera!

Eli and his girlfriend, Ava, planned a fun date. They have some notecards that have different date night ideas on them, so they blindly choose one from the deck each month. For this one, they bought the stuff to make homemade pizza, and then took turns blindfolding each other and directing the blindfolded person to put together the pizza. You can't see Eli very well here, but he's next to Ava, telling her where to reach for the cheese and pepperoni and all that. It was cute! I only stayed for a moment and left them alone after that ;)

I love it when Joey sleeps with his tongue sticking out! 

On Jerry's and my 20-year wedding anniversary, we went through our "memory box" of stuff from the last 24 years (when we started dating). We have stuff like movie ticket stubs, little notes and cards, receipts from places we went, etc. Going through them, we noticed that we had unknowingly given identical greeting cards to each other--not just once, but TWICE. We really do think alike, I guess!

We always like to have one of the kids take a quick picture of us on our anniversary, but we totally forgot. It was 11:57 PM when I realized we hadn't taken a picture, so we did a couple of selfies.

Even though he's 19 years old and in college, Noah humored me by letting me take his "first day of school" picture. He was clearly thrilled ;)

I had a big knot in my shoulder after a long busy day, and I pulled out my TENS unit. (If you're unfamiliar, it uses electrodes to send impulses to your muscles to help with tightness, soreness, etc. It was prescribed to me when I was dealing with chronic pain.) I turned it up as high as I could stand it and I had put the pad on exactly the right spot--it was super painful but in a good way. The next morning, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck--the knot was gone, but wow.

I was putting away laundry a couple of days ago and it was driving me crazy that socks always wind up missing. They have to go *somewhere*, but where? I figured they had to be under the washer and/or dryer, so I cleaned the laundry room and had no luck looking underneath the appliances. Next, I decided I was going to open up the panel that covers the lint trap. I want to make it clear that I clean out the lint trap before *every* load of laundry--so I was stunned to see so much lint underneath!

And even more surprising was the amount of change I found. Most of the coins were dimes and pennies. There were a few nickels and NO quarters. When I counted it later, there was $10.75!

I didn't find a single sock, however. Not one! Today, I took the back off of the washer and found four socks, but none of them were mine--they were all Eli's. I have to know where my socks have gone. How do they disappear?!

I wrote all about this on Wednesday, but it's my most recent clothing alteration. I LOVE how it turned out! I took a hoodie and a pair of pajama pants, put them together, and got this adorable hoodie.

This was so funny. Chick was minding his own business, grooming himself, and then Estelle just started glaring at him. He stopped what he was doing to stare right back at her, with his leg sticking straight up in the air the whole time.

Duck was lying on my lap one morning and SO comfortable. I love it when cats flip their heads upside down when you pet them. He sprawled out, flipped his head over and slept like that for a little while.

I bought this game called Tapple at a thrift store a while ago and Jerry and I played it yesterday. It's so much fun! And you really don't even need instructions. There is a round plastic board with letters on it--the letters are buttons that you can push down. 

To start, you draw a card that has a category on it. Then the first person starts the timer by pushing the button in the center of the board; the timer is nerve-racking because it continuously beeps while you have 10 seconds to come up with a word that fits the category.

In the category "Emotions", for example, the first person might say "Happy" and push down the H button. Then they press the timer button to reset the 10 seconds and it goes to the next person who might say, "Anxious" and press down the A button. The letters can only be used once. 

Play goes on like this until the person whose turn it is can't come up with a word within the 10-second period. You would think that I, of all people, could win the "Emotions" category in my sleep, but as soon as the timer starts, it's like your brain just forgets everything you've ever known, haha.

Jerry's softball team has this big pink shirt with a K on it, and if someone strikes out, they have to wear "the shirt" (the "K" is a symbol for strike out in baseball). Jerry struck out, and Eli took this picture of Jerry wearing the K shirt. The guys all love to give each other a hard time about it! Jerry wore it proudly ;)

And that's all I've got. Well, I have probably a hundred more, but nothing significant; I already shared the flood photos. This past month felt like the longest month in history. I'm hoping for an uneventful September!

Have a great weekend. XO