saxophone, mariners playoffs, fall parties

 last monday was fairly uneventful, but we did have my mom over for dinner, which was really nice. our weekends have been so busy that a monday night felt like the perfect time to catch up with her. she even picked up azalea from theater after school on her way over. what a dream! 

tuesday felt productive as far as knocking things off the moving 'to do' list. we got our health insurance cards in the mail, so i was able to make a bunch of appointments for the kids and me. woo hoo! ashford had piano on zoom with his teacher in the evening. thatcher and i went on a walk after dinner and it was almost dark when we got to the lake. the harvest moon was so beautiful that night. 

wednesday morning was the chilliest morning of the season so far at 34 degrees. that's about how cold it gets on the coldest mornings in seattle in the winter, so we better buckle up :) my project for the day was getting our tv stand set up for the living room (we've been watching the tv on the floor). i did some of it in the afternoon and then thatcher helped with the rest in the evening. i don't think i've mentioned this, but ashford started band this year and he's chosen the saxophone. he's just getting going and he's feeling a little frustrated about his progress, so thatcher busted out his trumpet for moral support. ha! 

here is the living room update. still need stuff on the walls and another floor lamp to replace the small lamp on the floor. but it's feeling very cozy! 

thursday afternoon i caught up with an old co-worker susan who i hadn't seen for many years. we were supposed to meet at a coffee shop but she didn't make it due to a calendar snafu, so we met at my house instead. it was nice to catch up with her. azalea babysat after school. she's going to have a recurring gig on thursdays picking up my friend jess's daughter from school and hanging out at their house for a couple hours. randomly throwing this in here, but i got these jeans at target for $20 on sale and i looooove them. yes, they need to be documented :) 

friday afternoon we were supposed to have a fireplace tune up. the guy gave me a 1:30-3 window and then never showed. arg. in the evening, my brother came over for thai take out and to watch the mariners in the playoffs against the tigers. it was a big game because they were 2-2 in the series, so whoever wins goes to the next level of the playoffs. my mom stopped over during the game and everyone ended up staying until midnight because the game went fifteen innings. but the mariners won, so it was worth it! 

saturday was buuuuusy. my aunt cindy came over in the morning and she and i walked around part of bde maka ska to go to a new art fair that was happening. it was the most beautiful fall morning for it. 

we got there right when it opened, and it got busy very soon after. 

we also got delicious gyros for lunch from a food truck and ate them on a bench by the lake. 

while i was gone, azalea made some money doing yardwork for our 84-year-old neighbors. i love that we are making these connections with people on our street. we had two parties on the calendar for later in the day. yes, two. i just have to laugh. the first one was a block party for our neighbor carol's 60th birthday party. it was a 'crocktober' theme and a mix of her friends and family and our neighbors in attendance. there was lots of good food, homebrewed beer in a keg, activities for kids, and live music for a short while. 

kid and adult ring toss tables. brilliant.

we thought we'd meet a bunch more neighbors, but there was only one household there we hadn't met yet. 

we left the party at 7pm to head to our next event (just thatcher and me), which was a fall party at our old neighbors pat and brenda's. they used to live two doors down from our old minneapolis house and they host this awesome party every year (we started going to it 17 years ago!). they recently moved into a new house a couple blocks from there, so it was fun to see the house and catch up with them. unfortunately, none of our other old neighbors could make it. oh well. i was pooped by the end of the night! 

sunday morning i was supossed to take my mom to the airport at 5am for her trip to see her sister in georgia/alabama. i set my alarm for 4:40 the night before. imagine my surprise when my mom was calling me at 5:05 because i hadn't picked her up yet. turns out i set my alarm for 4:40pm. thankfully i live so close and was still able to get her there on time. whewwww. i went back to sleep after i got home too :) in the late morning we had our friends becky and jeromy and one of their daughters over for brunch. they had not seen our new house yet and they have been our friends for over 15 years. we are so happy to live near them again. we made a french toast bake, bacon, sausage, and potatoes. they stayed for 4 hours and even helped us move some furniture in anticipation of our floors before re-finished the next day. the rest of the day was spent packing up our stuff to live at my mom's house for the next 6 days. we had dinner at thatcher's parents' and ashford watched the mariners win the first game of their next series before it was off to bed. 

we are settled in at my mom's for the week, which is so nice and convenient. it's the start of MEA break here, so there's no school wednesday-friday this week.