I'm That Many Years Old

I saw a post from Bored Panda today that had 50 memes about the Generation X-era and feeling old. I could relate to ALL of it! Having been born in 1982, I was right on the border of Gen X and Millennial. Some call it "Generation Xennial"--when born between 1977 and 1983. I definitely relate more to the Gen X characteristics than I do the Millennials.

Anyway, reading through those memes had me nodding my head, laughing, and saying "YESSSS" out loud more times than I can count. I won't post all the memes here (you can find them on this post at Bored Panda) but I thought I would write a little about a few of them that spoke to me...

• The card catalogue at the library. Not that long ago, I was in the library looking for a book and I asked the librarian if they had it. She pointed toward the back of the library and said I could check the card catalogue. (The library isn't very big and it's all on one floor.) I walked around where she'd told me, but I couldn't, for the life of me, find the card catalogue. I was too embarrassed to ask, because duh--a card catalogue is huge and how could I miss it? I never did find it! And I later learned that the "card catalogue" is now a computer. Why does this intimidate me but I would feel totally comfortable using an actual card catalogue?

• My kids have reminded me on more than one occasion that I was born in the 1900s.

• I used to have probably 20 phone numbers memorized when I was a teenager. (Interestingly--or not--I still remember the phone numbers of several childhood friends... and I don't even know the numbers of my kids' phones!)

• My brain automatically adjusts years to relate to the year 2000--I don't know why. If something was 20 years ago, I think 1980. The 1960s were 40 years ago. The 1990s were only 10 years ago. I absolutely cannot wrap my brain around the fact that 1982 (my birth year) is as far removed from today as the year 1941.

• The year I was born is when eight-tracks were phased out and replaced by cassette tapes. I've seen it go from cassettes to CD's to MP3's. I can still remember using blank cassette tapes to record my favorite songs from the radio. And on not one, but TWO occasions, someone broke into my car and stole the entire collection of my CD's (which I kept in a book).

• One of the memes is an elderly woman who said that the "internet used to come through the phone and it sounded like screaming robots". I can still remember EXACTLY what the dial up modem sounded like. And how frustrating it was when someone picked up the phone and it disconnected the internet! I can't remember when the last time I had to use dial up was, but a quick google search leads me to believe it was right around the time I started college in 2000.

• When my kids' school is canceled for something like a snow day, we get an e-mail, a text message, and a phone call at 5:00 in the morning or so. When I was younger, we had to sit and watch the bottom of the TV screen on the morning news to see if our school was closed. Likewise, we had to watch the TV Guide channel scroll through like 100 channels in order to see what was on. Or we had to look at the printed out TV guide. When you realized you missed the channel you were waiting for, it was the WORST.

• Being a huge Friends fan, my jaw dropped when I read a tweet that said the actors on Friends are now younger than the youngest "Golden Girl" was when that series started. 

• I really love the subreddit r/WhatIsThis. I nearly died when I saw that someone posted a picture of a phone jack on the wall and asked what it was. I feel a million years old after seeing that!

• Watching shows on TV and learning that the character is 30-something years old. It's crazy to me that I'm older than them! When I look at them, I think of them as being at least 15 years older than I. It's the same with sports--Jerry has the Tigers game on right now and the players are SO YOUNG. In my mind, they are still a couple of decades older than I.

• I can remember my sister used to play "travel agent" to plan trips when she was a teenager. She would take out a paper map, a phone book (yes, a book with thousands of phone numbers--they used to exist!), a notepad (actual paper), and the phone (that was connected to the wall, obviously). She would lie on the floor, call Northwest Airlines (now called Delta) and ask about destinations, ticket costs, and schedules. This is HOW IT WAS DONE before the internet! I was too young to plan my own trips, so I only remember booking travel online. But I can't imagine the patience you would need to be a ticket agent for an airline.

• When I was a kid, we used to ride in the back of my dad's pickup truck all the time and nobody batted an eye. I'm pretty sure social services would come knocking if we did that now.

• Whenever I would go to the Henry Ford Museum for my kids' field trips (I don't know why every teacher chose to go there once a year--I could probably give tours myself now!), I thought it was so interesting that several things I remembered from my childhood were on display IN A MUSEUM. The computers we used, the phones we had, toys we played with--it was only 20 years ago, you know--1980 can't be museum worthy, right? ;) 

• When I try to sell my kids on a movie, they don't know who the most popular actors are--you know, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Robin Williams, Nicolas Cage, Drew Barrymore, Matt Damon, Cameron Diaz, Kevin Bacon, Leonardo DiCaprio... my kids look lost when I drop names! And I honestly have NO idea who the popular actors--or celebrities in general--are these days. To me, they are still the names I listed above.

And finally... there is a thread on Reddit: "My old person trait is..." and people list things that they wish were like "the olden days". A few of my "old person traits" are:

*Missing the days when you didn't need an app to order food. I tried to get Taco Bell for Noah and Eli one day recently and I couldn't figure out the goddamn app! I finally just gave up and left. I also really don't like that you have to use a kiosk to order food at places like Panera. It takes so much longer than just actually speaking an order to an employee. I don't eat out, so I'm sure I'm further behind than most people.

*I miss the written/typed instructions for things--something like a board game (now you have to visit their YouTube videos to learn how to play). I *really* dislike videos for instructions--I much prefer to read a manual or even a website. I tried to troubleshoot my sewing machine a few days ago and every google search led me to nothing but YouTube videos. (YouTube was very helpful when I was DIY'ing the house renovation, but I still much prefer written instructions.)

*I REALLY miss the internet pre-social media. For a million reasons. And I do realize it's ironic, considering I'm a blogger.

*NO VERTICAL VIDEO. Please. ;) 

*I refuse to use "the cloud" to save anything. I realize that my hard drive could fail at any moment and I could possibly lose 50,000 photos, but I just can't bring myself to save photos to... where? Outer space? (I do have a couple of back-up hard drives just in case one fails. I just hope I don't have to give up the hard drives someday when technology is too far gone for me.

---

I constantly find myself doing or saying things I *never* thought I would. Jerry and I always thought we would be the cool parents who kept up with modern times and never ask our kids for help using technology. But my kids have said that we are "five years ago cool"--hahahaha! And I've certainly asked for help with tech stuff.

But hey--what do I know? I was born in the 1900s. ;)

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(Almost) Wordless

It has been a long, exhausting, COLD day of baseball--from 8:00 until 5:45! We are all freezing cold right now, so I'm going to make some tortilla soup for dinner and get super cozy in my pajamas. So, instead of writing a post, I'll just post a few photos from this day (April 22) in the past...

2010- Donating blood as part of my 30 x 30 list (30 goals to accomplish by 30 years old). 

2012- My lifelong best friend Sarah (who now lives in Arizona) when she was pregnant with her first baby.

2017- When John and I visited Caitlin in Boston; we were FREEZING and I love this picture!

Naturally, I had to get a picture with this cookie truck ;)

2020- Our mama squirrel shortly before she had her babies. We have another pregnant one who comes around for her walnuts every day at the same time. I'm excited to see her babies!

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Friday Night Photos #112

Good grief, it's Friday already? I don't realize just how few pictures I've taken throughout the week until I start my post on Friday nights. I have a few more than last week, but I haven't really been doing things that are worth taking pictures of, other than baseball. And I don't want to post a ton of baseball pictures, because even those look the same after a while.

I still enjoy writing these posts, though--sometimes I'll take a picture of something completely random and forget all about it until Friday night when I look through my camera roll. Anyway, here are this week's photos...

When Noah and I went to the thrift stores earlier this week, we were browsing through the books and Noah pointed out this vegan junk food cookbook. He suggested that we start trying recipes from this book once a week or so, and I thought that was a fun idea. If we find any good ones, I may post about them here.

Just one baseball photo. The games on Saturday actually had quite a bit going on. First, the second batter of the game swung hard at a pitch and actually dislocated his knee. He fell to the ground and the coaches were trying to locate a medic--which they never have at the games. So they called an ambulance while the poor kid was lying on the ground with his leg twisted at the knee. It took about an hour before the ambulance took him and they could restart the game.

At one point during the double header, I actually got hit in the head with a foul softball from the field behind us! It came down directly on top of my head and bounced right into my camera bag. Yes, it hurt--for days.

Finally, in this picture below, there was a very close play at home plate (Eli is catcher). I like this picture because the kid from the other team threw his hands out to indicate that his teammate was safe--and at the same time, you can see the umpire is calling him out. Well, the kid who was tagged out got so mad that he started spouting off at the mouth very loudly and the umpire actually threw him out of the game! And not too long after that, he threw a parent out for yelling not-so-nice things. He wasn't messing around--I liked that!

Just another picture of Duck cuddling with me in the morning... :)  I probably have at least 20,000 of these in my camera roll.

Jerry asked me if I wanted to play a game one afternoon, so I said sure. When I looked through our games, I don't know why I suggested Guess Who?--neither of us had played that since we were kids--but it was simple and we didn't have to get out a ton of pieces.

For anyone who played Guess Who? as a kid, you know there were certain people you didn't want to end up with because they were minorities in the game (I don't just mean their skin color, but people with hats, facial hair, glasses, etc.). If you ended up being a minority, it was much easier for people to guess who you were.

Jerry and I each chose a person for our character (we don't have the cards that you're supposed to draw to get a random person). I figured Jerry would assume I would want to pick the most inconspicuous person (i.e. a blond white male--this game needs an update!). So, I chose Sarah (you can see my pointer in the top right)--the only Black woman and she was wearing glasses. It wasn't the greatest strategy...

Well, it worked out exactly how it used to when I was a kid. He asked if I was white, and I said no. So he knocked down all but five people. I wanted my question to be a bit different, so I asked if his eyes were pointing toward the left. I was able to eliminate about a third or so of the people. Then Jerry had to copy my great question (haha)--he asked if I was looking straight ahead. Sarah is the only Black woman staring straight ahead, so after just two questions, he knew who I was! I told him he had to wait until his next turn to guess (I don't know if that's an official rule, but it sounded fair.)

I tried to think like Jerry. I assumed he would play with the completely opposite mine--NOT being a minority. So I eliminated all of the people with hats, glasses, facial hair, etc. I started looking at what I had left and eliminating whatever stood out. One was a girl, so I eliminated her. One of the men had black hair, so I eliminated him. I was left with Jake and William, both blond men. Meanwhile, Jerry was watching me with a smug smirk on his face. I wanted to beat him by thinking this through!

At that point, I had to just look at the two and guess which one I thought Jerry would likely pick. I decided on Jake--so I asked him, "Are you Jake?" He was dumbfounded. I was right! In August, we'll have been married 20 years, so I guess we know each other well ;) 

When I was lying in bed, Chick was on the shelf above me and scared me half to death when I looked up. He had his face looking through the hole on the shelf (for the cats to climb through). It looked kind of cool with his shadow on the ceiling!

I started Duolingo (Spanish) again about a week ago. I had done it before but not for long. A friend of mine was on a 500-day streak, and it inspired me to start completely over from the very first lesson, and it's been kind of fun flying through the lessons with all of the stuff I already know (from high school Spanish).

Anyway, it's no secret that I love Wordle, and I learned there is a Spanish Wordle puzzle every day, so I've been doing that along with English. I'm terrible at it! Most of the time, I just make up words that sound Spanish and try them out. I've been terrible about sticking with my New Year's goal of learning a new vocabulary word each week (I just forget to do it) so I thought Duolingo would be a nice alternative.

I was SO FRUSTRATED yesterday. I had been wanting to try an alteration of a pair of jeans and finally decided to work on it yesterday morning. I pushed my sewing machine too hard to get through several layers of denim and I messed up the machine. I spent a couple of hours working on it and finally gave up because I couldn't figure it out.

Today, I decided to try again--Jerry was ready to buy a new one on Amazon and I didn't want him to do that--and I watched some YouTube videos. None of them had the same problem mine did, but it helped me to take apart the machine a bit and try to solve the problem myself. It was actually kind of cool to see how the parts move from underneath the machine. Somehow, I fixed it! 

And then I (very carefully) finished what I was doing with my jeans. I like mid-rise or even high-rise jeans because I have no butt to hold jeans up when they sit around my hips. But I loved this pair of Express jeans--I've actually held onto them (wearing them on and off when they fit me, ha!) since probably 2010. They don't have any stretch to them, which is what I love about them--I don't like wearing jeans that have stretch because they just seem to get bigger throughout the day and I'm always tugging at them.

I always save jeans that I don't want anymore--for parts, basically. I reuse whatever I can from them to alter other jeans. So I grabbed a pair of jeans that had been mid-rise (the waist was smaller than the Express ones), and I used the waistband of them. I sewed it just inside the Express pair, making the jeans taller (to a mid-rise height). I don't *love* the way it looks, but I never wear shirts that are short enough to show my waistband anyway. They are super comfy and they stay up over my hip bones now!

I recently learned something that was completely mind-blowing to me. I've been sewing since I was a kid, and I *never knew* there was a reason for the little ball on the end of a seam ripper. I just assumed it was there so you don't poke your fingers. When watching a YouTube video, I learned that you can rip seams in jeans SO FAST when you have the pointed side on the top of the fabric and the ball side underneath. (I cannot remember the video or I would link it--but I'm sure if I had ever bothered to google it, I would have learned this ages ago.)

The ball keeps the end from poking into the fabric, so you just slide the seam ripper straight up like you're zipping up a jacket. It literally took me all of 15 seconds to take apart this whole seam up the leg of a pair of jeans without ripping the fabric.

Well, I'm off to Eli's baseball game--have a great weekend! xo

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Three Things Thursday: Food!

It seems like over the last few weeks, I've said on multiple occasions, "This is the best thing I've ever eaten!"  I'm not sure if it was just because I was very hungry when I ate them or what, but I figured I would write about three of them before I discover even more recipes that are "the best" thing I've ever eaten.

None of the three that I'm going to write about were actually never-before-tried recipes--I've made them before. But for some reason, they were just so good recently that I called them the best. It's hard to narrow it down to three favorite recipes! So these will be three of the recent things I've made that I consider the best...

1) Sweet Korean Lentils

I never, ever would have guessed that I would love these lentils so much! I found this recipe in a cookbook I have from Sam Turnbull at It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken. Her recipes are usually hit or miss for me--not much middle ground. But these lentils are SO good and perfect when I need to come up with something quick and easy to make--without a bunch of ingredients I don't happen to have on hand. When I have green onions, I add those as well.

I'm glad this recipe is also online, so that I can share the link here. I probably never would have tried this recipe if a reader hadn't suggested it (I cannot, for the life of me, remember who it was--but thank you!). This is made with red lentils which are softer and cook faster than brown lentils. I like the texture of them better, too. We eat this over brown basmati rice; if I have rice already cooked in the fridge, dinner can be ready in 15 minutes!

2) Tofu (or Chickpea) Tikka Masala

I don't have a picture of the tofu version I made, but it's the same as this chickpea version--only with tofu instead of chickpeas.

I had never heard of Tikka Masala until about five years ago when I tried this Chickpea Tikka Masala recipe from The Iron You--and I was immediately in love. I had never tried Indian food and when I made it, I was skeptical--I had never even tried garam masala before. (When I was growing up, we never really ate ethnic food.)

I really loved the chickpea version but a couple of weeks ago, I saw that we only had one can of chickpeas (it calls for three) and I decided to try to swap tofu instead. I pressed the tofu well so that it would soak up a lot of the sauce. I used one and a half blocks of tofu, but I think using just one would work out well, too. When you add the coconut milk, it looks VERY thin, but after adding the small amount of cornstarch slurry it's the perfect texture.

To make it with tofu, I followed the recipe as written, but instead of adding the chickpeas, I skipped over them. I cut the tofu into bite size pieces and added them to the sauce, stirring in gently so they didn't break apart, then let them cook over low heat in the sauce for about 15 minutes before adding the cornstarch. (I added about 1/4 cup of water with the tofu because the tofu made the mixture thicker than when using chickpeas.) I cannot even describe how good this is! It makes a very large amount (probably six servings) and the leftovers are just as good. We ate this with brown basmati rice.

3) Firecracker Tofu

I am absolutely sure this is one of the highest-calorie recipes I've ever made, but it's kind of a pain to make--so I won't be making it often. It is absolutely 100% worth making once in a while, though! If you like the fast food-type takeout (like Panda Express), you will love this. It definitely hits that craving for junk food takeout.

I actually posted a review of this on my blog, which you can find here. Reading it over just now, I saw that I didn't love it the first time as much as I currently do--I'm not sure if that was because I had only recently started eating tofu at the time or what, but in the recipe that I typed out, I wrote "adapted from" Vegan Travel Eats--so I probably made a few small changes to reflect what I wanted after trying it as-written. Unfortunately, the site that I got this recipe from is no longer online, so I will share the one I typed out here.

The only change I made most recently (which is reflected in the one I typed) was that I used maple syrup instead of brown sugar (my attempt at making it *slightly* healthier). I also tossed all of the tofu at once in the cornstarch, then added the soy milk + vegan mayo mixture and gently stirred (to batter the tofu pieces) before frying. The original recipe said to do one piece at a time, but that wasn't necessary.

I absolutely recommend using parchment paper when baking this because the sauce gets VERY sticky (which is part of what makes it so good!). It's not ridiculously spicy, so if you like things to be on the spicy side, you may want to add more red pepper flakes. Serve it over rice--I've been loving brown basmati for everything lately.

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 99

Usually I feel like the weeks go by so fast, but it seems like forever ago that I did last week's weigh-in. I've been getting used to the change in schedules for spring and being a "baseball mom" again, and this week was definitely less stressful. Like I wrote about in my "Problems and Solutions" post, I used the crockpot this week when I knew the evenings would be hectic. I haven't batch-cooked yet, but I did make extra sauce for a couple of tofu/rice meals that will be easy to throw together, as well as some extra homemade pizza crusts and cashew cheese for quickly assembling mini pizzas.

I can always tell when things are calming down around here because it's much easier to maintain a routine. And I definitely thrive on routine! I think writing out the "Problems and Solutions" was helpful for that. Aside from the crockpot to help with the cooking issue, I finished the cat shelves in the bedroom in one (long) evening and I am SO glad that the room no longer feels "under construction". I was able to move the tools and things lying around into the garage--it's nice to get rid of that clutter!

I still haven't gone for a run. It's tempting to blame the weather, because we've had some really crappy days, but--that would be an excuse ;)  We've also had some really gorgeous days!

Anyway, last week my weight was at 140.6, and I said that I was hoping to see the 130's today...

I barely made it, but I was at 139.8 this morning--I'm happy with that!

My weight has definitely been moving downward more slowly this time. I had a really great week with my eating habits--rather than eating what I could whenever I could, I made it a point to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and usually a little peanut butter for a snack before bed).

I really like the fact that I haven't counted calories in at least a year and I'm able eat what I know to be the "normal" portions. After having pretty much no appetite in the fall to doubling down in the winter, I feel good that I was able to regulate it without having to measure out my food. I'm willing to do it if needed, but in a perfect world, of course, I wouldn't have to. As long as I continue to see progress (even maintaining my weight will feel like progress) I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing.

One thing that I'd like to focus on this week is getting in more vegetables. I'm good with fruits, but I'm not a fan of raw vegetables so I usually have them with dinner (in a stir-fry, soup, pasta, or something like that). Ideally, I'd make a big batch of roasted veggies and keep it on hand to eat with whatever we have for dinner (I used to do this a couple of times a week). Now that I'm finding a routine again, I'd like to do that--I *love* roasted broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and peppers.

If all goes well, I'll get a little deeper in to the 130's next Wednesday. The top of my "happy range" is 135, so I'm approaching--slowly but surely :)

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Deep Thoughts With Jerry #12

I just realized it's been a while since Jerry last wrote for his "dad bod" series (which was on Tuesdays). He said unless he makes progress worth writing about, he'll just do a "deep thoughts" post or something like that. This morning, he mentioned possibly training for and running the Detroit Half-Marathon this fall.

We did it together in 2015 and we had so much fun! I kind of wish I had the desire to do it again, but I'm not going to pretend that I have the discipline right now to do the training. Anyway, I only mentioned that because if he does train, maybe he'll write updates about how that's going. Today, he answered some ice breaker questions (he loves answering these)...

Did you have a stuffed animal as a kid? What was its name?

Who didn't?! He was a beaver and his name was Bucky. I was probably about five years old and went everywhere with him. He was my "bestest friend". My dad was in the military and part of the job was moving locations once in a while. We started off in Marquette, Michigan for four years, then moved to Sacramento for four years, then back to Marquette.

On our first move, we were heading out to California and it took us a couple of days. Motel 6 was apparently our lodging of choice, probably because they "always leave the light on for you".  Anyways, my parents had gotten up early to drive another day across the country and put me in the car while I was still asleep. When I woke up I was without my friend and I was so upset.

So, my dad turned the car around to go back and get him. Usually he only threatened to turn the car around when I was being a little jerk, this time he just did it because he cared. I don't have Bucky any more but I wish I did. With that said, my nephew's first birthday is this weekend and I bought him a stuffed beaver so he can enjoy making some memories of his own.

What is one thing you can't cook?

Katie tells me it's pasta. I couldn't agree more. I under-salt the water and I cook it for way too long. I have a tendency to be cooking something else with it at the same time, trying to get everything else prepared for the meal, when the timer goes off. Instead of removing the pasta from the heat and draining it, I do one of two things: turn off the timer and forget about it for a couple more minutes or turn off the burner and let the pasta just sit in the water until I'm ready to drain it. Both of those equal pasta death.

Katie doesn't have any pictures of me cooking, but here is a picture of me baking. She leaves the baking to me.

What is your favorite sport?

Baseball has always been and always will be my favorite sport. It's one of my favorite things about the summer. I can sit and watch games all day long without even thinking about it. Most people say things like 'it's so boring' or 'I just like going to the park to watch'. I find that a lot of people who I see at the games are just there for the atmosphere or the entertainment of being at a ballpark.

In Detroit, we have Comerica Park which is a really nice field. But, everything surrounding the field is just distracting and totally takes away from the game. Bars everywhere in the park and rides for the kids. Everyone wants to go to a baseball game but they don't even watch it and do everything they can to avoid it. There... that's my soapbox moment. LOL

Have you ever met a celebrity?

Ha! I'll one up this question...  'Have you ever been married to a celebrity?'. LOL

I've met a few. I went to Star Wars Celebration in Chicago in 2019 and met John Boyega, Oscar Issac, Kathleen Kennedy (President of Lucasfilm), and Cameron Monaghan. I only took selfies with them in passing because they were being swarmed by fans.

The only one that wasn't surrounded by people was Cameron Monaghan. He just got off stage talking about a character he portrayed in the games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. He was just walking casually though the area and I just had to take a picture with him. At this time he was also playing Ian Gallagher on Shameless, which was Katie's favorite show at the time. He was super down to earth and really easy to talk to. Needless to say, she was super jelly and it made her happy. 

Have you ever won a contest?

I've won a couple. I won a scooter when I was a kid when my name was pulled in a drawing at a convenience store. Then I won concert tickets by being caller 89 on 89x radio. The last was a trivia contest, which was the best. I won Detroit Tigers tickets for it.

There was a talk radio station that had a show with a duo of guys named Dominski and Doyle. They liked playing the game 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon'. I'm a master of this game, totally love it. The premise is you would name an actor and through movies you would have to link that actor to Kevin Bacon in six moves or less.

So, in this game you would have to give them the name of an actor and if they couldn't link the actor to Kevin Bacon in six moves, you would win tickets to the game. They would just eviscerate people who tried to stump them and it was funny just listen to their banter. I would play along with them in my head and I decided to call in one day, give it a shot.

Blew them away with Richard Belzer. Richard Belzer was in Scarface with Al Pacino who was in Heat with Robert De Niro who was in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon. I love trivia, anyone who knows me will tell you that.

What show on Netflix did you binge watch embarrassingly fast?

Katie and I recently watched Love is Blind pretty quickly. Oh wait, the embarrassing part is supposed to be how fast we watched it, not the show itself? I'm not invested in the show, but it's just fun to see the drama unfold and to make fun of the situations on the show. Katie and I get a real kick out of it. Sometimes watching shows like this starts some interesting conversations and lighthearted 'if I was single' or 'when you die I don't think I want to date' jokes.

It's always easier to watch shows after the season or the series is complete. Long gone are the days of truly episodic television with 24 episodes a season and 3-6 months before the start of the new season. Nowadays shows will have 10 episodes and then you have to wait 10 months to start the next season and you've completely forgotten everything about the show.

---

Katie here. If any of you want to try to stump Jerry at the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, he would probably love that! (And he won't cheat by looking anything up. He's just really good at that stuff.)

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Special Days

I had such an unexpectedly great day today! When Noah woke up this morning, he said that his class was canceled because his teacher had something going on and he wasn't on the schedule to work today, so he had the whole day free. I asked him if he would want to do something together and he said sure.

When the kids were younger, I used to have what I called a "Special Day" with them each school year (individually, not both of them together). I let them play hooky from school and they could choose what we would do together--lunch and a movie or bowling or things like that. They mostly enjoyed going to lunch and/or getting frozen yogurt ;)

Dairy Queen with Noah--we both loved the Reese's Cup flurries!

They loved having the Special Day because it made them feel--well, special. They thought it was cool that they were allowed to skip school when they weren't sick or had an appointment.

The movies with Eli

When Noah started at the middle college (ninth grade), he stopped wanting to do the Special Days because he was so worried about missing school. He's always been the super responsible one between the two. And then the pandemic happened and the Special Days just stopped being a thing altogether--they were home from school for nearly the entire school year anyway.

Bowling with Noah

Mini golf with Eli

(Going through pictures was fun--I forgot about some of these days!)

I didn't say anything to Noah about it being a Special Day today, but as a mom, I was thinking of it that way. Noah bought a car in December and I hadn't ridden in it yet. He is *really* into cars and it was like he was speaking a foreign language to me when he talked about it. He's very proud of it, so I asked him if we could ride in his car and I think he was excited to show me that he can drive a manual transmission (and all the features he loves about his car).

We decided to go to Salvation Army. First, though, we stopped at my parents' house because their internet wasn't working and Noah had told my dad that he would fix it. My dad was working on a puzzle when we got there and it took Noah all of three minutes to fix the internet issue, so we stayed and worked on the puzzle for a little while with my dad.

Noah knows I like podcasts, so he asked me to pick one for us to listen to. The 'Stuff You Should Know' podcast is a good one for casual listening (and it's fascinating!) and we listened to an episode about skydiving. (Just thinking about skydiving is terrifying--even if someone offered me a million dollars to go skydiving, I would decline.)

Salvation Army was a huge disappointment today; usually I can spend a couple of hours there browsing through clothes, but we were there for all of ten minutes because their racks were so empty. There was a Goodwill just a couple of miles away so we tried that out as well. Their clothes have gotten so expensive that it would probably be cheaper to shop a clearance section of stores like Kohl's!

They had a TON of clothes and I definitely could have spent a long time browsing--but I wasn't about to spend $10 on a shirt that I couldn't even try on (the fitting rooms have been closed since the pandemic). I ended up getting a pair of jeans (thankfully, they fit) and a vegan cookbook, and Noah picked out a pair of pants and a sweatshirt.

We were driving right past our favorite Chinese restaurant (I say "favorite", but the last time we went there was probably six years ago) and I knew how much Noah loved their fried rice, so I asked if he wanted to get some to bring home. From there, we stopped at Kroger to grab a few things we needed, and then headed home. The day went by so fast!

Eli was supposed to have a double header baseball game today, but it was canceled and I couldn't be happier about that. Saturday, the temp was in the 80's and it was super sunny; today, we had sleet, then rain, then snow, and finally hail. The wind is ridiculous, too. The "real feel" for Eli's game would be in the 20's! I would have died sitting in that for five hours. Eli was relieved, too.

It has turned into a lazy family evening with Jerry off work and no baseball, work, or school for the kids. It feels so odd because it's rare that all of us are home at the same time. We're going to make homemade pizzas for dinner and maybe I can talk the kids into playing a game or watching a movie or something tonight.

It was so nice to be able to spend some one-on-one time with Noah today; he's grown up so much!

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Nostalgic Excitement

I honestly can't remember the last time I went to the movie theater. Okay, wait--I just looked back in my blog (one of the things that is helpful about writing daily) and it was in October 2019 when Jerry and I went to see Friends. They were showing four episodes of the TV show Friends on the big screen, and being huge Friends fans, of course we went!

Then the pandemic happened and the next thing I know, it's been almost four years since the last time I went to the movies. (Feel free to correct me if I'm remembering wrong.)

Anyway, I saw something on Facebook yesterday that made me so excited! I don't know why I was targeted for a particular sponsored post (maybe because I mentioned this book a couple of times 100 years ago on my blog) but I am so glad I happened to see it yesterday... one of my very very favorite childhood books is a movie that will be released in theaters this month!

Does anyone remember the book "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." by Judy Blume? I probably read that book at least 50 times between the ages of 11 and 13. 

It was published in 1970; I was born in 1982 and it was still a well-known, well-received book. I'm actually very surprised that the book wasn't made into a movie already.

Several years ago, I looked it up on Amazon and saw that it had been revised and updated, which bummed me out because I wanted to read the same edition I read as a pre-teen. And then it was like God *was* there, because at a garage sale, I happened to find the 1978 copy I knew and loved.

When I bought a Kindle Paperwhite in 2017(?) I got rid of almost all of the actual physical books I owned--it freed up so much space. However, I saved the ones that were special to me--books that had been signed, were gifted to me in a meaningful way, or good reference books for things like running--and, of course, "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." That is how much I love this book.

Considering most of the people that read my blog are middle-aged women, I wouldn't be surprised if many have read it and loved it as well. It's a coming-of-age book (very much targeted to preteen girls) about all of the things that were going on my own life at the time--bras and periods and boys and general self-awkwardness.

I am super excited to see the movie, even though I'm guessing it's the "revised and updated" version of the copy I love. I really hope that it sticks to the original, taking place in the 1960s, but regardless--I want to see it. Jerry even said he would go with me, hahaha. (That is true love right there.)

I haven't read anything about the movie and I didn't watch the trailer or even look at the cast. I just read that it's being released in theaters on April 28th. I'm choosing not to learn anything about it because I want to stay hopeful that I will love it--if I do, it'll be a nice surprise.

I pulled out my 1978 copy of the book last night so that I can read it again before going to see the movie. The price listed on the book made me laugh--$1.25! (That is the original price, not what I paid at a garage sale--which was probably a quarter.)

Now, it's a rainy, windy Sunday evening, and it's the perfect weather to get cozy in my pajamas and curl up with some tea and read "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." I never expected that this would be my idea of a fun Saturday night, but there honestly isn't anything I'd rather be doing. I didn't read this copy after buying it at a garage sale, so I can't remember the last time I read the book. I'm sure once I start, the nostalgia will hit me ;) 

Anyone else excited about this movie? Or just love the book in general?

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Reader Mail

I received this email from a reader named Linda, and I thought it was amazing--I just had to share it! (With permission, of course.)

Katie, I am a long time reader of your blog, since about 2011. Had to show you this pic of my husband, Kirby, who just completed his 40,000th mile of running/walking today.

He began running in 1976. He's run four marathons, race-walked in one marathon and one half-marathon. He doesn't compete anymore, but at age 75 he does still walk 6-8 miles three days a week, then a longer walk of 8-10 miles on Saturdays. We live in Louisiana where it gets miserably hot in the summer & he still walks!

This makes me so happy--it reminds me of Floyd, the man that I've seen walking while I'm out running once in a while; he walks every single day, and he always has a kind greeting for me! A HUGE congrats to Kirby--that's such an amazing accomplishment and that smile says it all :)

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Friday Night Photos #111

It has been a crazy-busy week, and I wasn't even sure if I should do this post because all but one of the photos I took were at Eli's baseball games! I had a lot of fun taking pictures, though. Jerry's mom has a nice DSLR camera that she wants to learn how to use, and Noah borrowed it to learn and show her. Just for the heck of it, I brought it to one of Eli's games and did my best to get the hang of it.

I took literally 300 photos! (I deleted about 200--the ones that didn't turn out very good.) I played with different settings and went around the field for different angles and stuff like that--and I managed to get some really good pictures (for my lack of photography skills and knowledge, anyway). Eli said his teammates really liked them (I tried to get pictures of everybody) and he asked if I would take more pictures this season.

I won't bombard this post with those photos, but like I do every year, I have to share a few side-by-side comparison photos of Eli from when he was younger to now (he's been playing since he started t-ball at age three). I can't believe how grown-up he looks now.

I had to zoom in close to make sure that was Eli in all that big catchers' gear!

This is my favorite picture that I took at his game (it's not Eli, but I love the pic itself of this tag at home plate). I can't remember if he was safe or out! But it's crazy to me that it looks so close even though I was sitting on the ground waaaaay out in left field. 

This is going to be a short post, because the only other picture I have was from this morning when Duck woke me up. He's gotten in the habit of waking me up by plopping himself down on the right side of my face. Then he purrs and sleeps pressed up against me. The most comforting feeling ever is when Duck's warm belly is pressed against my cheek and I can hear him purring.

Hopefully I'll have a bigger variety to write about next week!

Have a great weekend. xo

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