i love (my) fall

you've probably already read a million 'i love fall' blog posts featuring sweaters, tall boots, pumpkin spice lattes and apple orchards, so i have a different sort of post today called 'i love my fall.' don't get me wrong, i'm excited about all those things just like the next girl, but i wanted to write about some exciting things our family has coming up in the next few months: 

- our basement project is almost almost finished after about 15 months! our carpet installation is scheduled for 9/24 and we will hopefully be moving our living room furniture down there around that time as well. we are currently looking for a new love seat, 2 accent chairs, and a rug for our living room. we've got some good leads, but nothing purchased yet. it's hard to visualize everything together. does anyone else have that problem? i cannot wait to have the extra space the basement will provide (a play room/tv room). it's been a glorified storage room down there for the last few years, so it hasn't been used to it's full potential. i'll post pics once everything gets situated. 

- my aunt (my dad's sister) and uncle are coming to visit from new jersey at the end of september. i haven't seen them in a over 2 years and i can't wait! they are so much fun and i'm really looking forward to introducing them to ashford. (azalea was 14 months last time they saw her, so she's just a bit different now too!)

- on september 25th, i'm going to see brett dennen at the fine line with becky and sarah. i love his music. thatcher and i saw him live last fall and he was great! should be a fun (mom's) night out! ;) 


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- we didn't go to any weddings this summer, but we have two weddings this fall! one in october and one in november. both brides are friends from high school. i'm really looking forward to celebrating their special days! and the kids are coming to one of the weddings (their first), so that should be fun!

- my neighbor and i were chatting at our summer block party about how it would be fun to start a book club for the ladies who live on our street. i got the ball rolling by choosing "the paris wife" as our first read, and offering to host the first one. we're planning to meet every 1-2 months at someone's house. i'm looking forward to an evening of drinking wine, eating yummy food, and chatting. the women are ages 30's - 60's, so it should be a fun group!  

- thatcher and i booked an impromptu family trip to grand marais in october! our friends becky and jeromy were over recently and were telling us about the place where they stay (and love) up in grand marais each year. we've been itching to get out of town for a while, so we looked it up online that night and booked a 3 day trip! we got a one bedroom, so we don't have to all sleep in one room - because i know that would not work well! it might be chilly up there (snow? haha) by october, but we'll still have fun! 

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- finally, just keepin' it real: there are a couple things that i am not so much looking forward to this fall. my dad is having another pet scan at the end of september. he's still feeling really good on his current treatment, so we're hoping for good news. especially since his treatment options are dwindling. scanxiety is not fun! :( the other thing that makes my heart sad is that my parents will be heading down to florida for 6 months at the end of october. this is actually a happy and a sad thing - happy because it will mean my dad is healthy enough to go and they will get plenty of sun therapy, sad because we will miss them so much! 

now excuse me while i go grab a pumpkin spice latte ;)