Cookie monsters

 

Yesterday morning Matt and I went to the high school for Frankie’s 504 meeting. She’s doing so well this year, I’m so proud of her. We got her all set up with accommodations for her SATs and other college standardized tests too. 

Kathy Finch and I drove to Prince Fredrick to visit one of the sisters we minister to and we had a lovely time chatting during the drive time and with Beth while we were there. It’s so rare to be welcomed in for a ministering visit with a companion, it was just so nice to be together. I really liked getting to know Kathy better, she’s a cool lady. 

But the biggest news of today was free Crumbl cookie day wherein we all scored free cookies, including ballet carpool buddy Olivia. 

Mimi days - 9/9

The next day was eventful in the worst of ways.

They live in a cute modest neighborhood with mostly one car garages. Every time I've come, there have been tons of cars parked along the street. Right around the corner from their house is a large park with basketball courts and a green area, so I've always parked there to try to stay out of peoples way. I even was careful to park between driveways to try to be courteous. 

Now that I've set the stage... I encouraged Damian and Alexis to go on a date. Damian was working afternoons/evenings, so they left for brekkie and Henners and I headed out for a walk. Every time I pass the park I check on my car. And this morning it wasn't there. I called Alexis and she said they'd come right home, and then called the non-emergency line to report that my car had been stolen. But it hadn't, it had been towed. Just 24 hours after I'd parked there. There are no signs and I have parked there for my last 3 visits.

So come to find out the new HOA is cracking down on street parking, which I had even noticed, but Lex and Damian hadn't. So, many calls and $250 later, I had my car back. They said they'd run my license plate and tried to call the owner, and that they'd put a note on my car, none of which I saw or received. It's just such a waste and I was so sad.

Nevertheless, she persisted and we still managed to have a good day. 

We took the boys to piano and Carter got silly during snack time.

I had seen some cute drawing tutorials, so while Lexi made dinner, and after homework, we drew.

They loved their cute creations! 

Meanwhile back home, I was missing Frankie's first football game. So many people to love means picking and choosing what I can make it to. They had a team bonding lunch at Olive Garden.

And Matt reported that the cheer team did well even though the football team lost. Story of rooting for Leonardtown.😂

Lexi's family had also been busy because they'd spent the several days before I came at the beach in NC with the McCombs.

I love to see all our grands playing together! Or looking at David's phone together as the case may be.

It was also reported to me that Carter, who is a tough shy cookie who plays hard to get, loved Josh! They were best buddies!

We're planning a beach trip with them next year and I can't wait!

Breakfast with grandparents

From late night drives from Maryland to early morning breakfast at school! We got up bright and early and were all excited !

It's funny to see how differently schools do things. Our grandparents event at Duke was donuts and coffee that the pta provided, the boys school was more of a fundraiser. Grandparents were invited to come and buy school brekkie to eat with the grands.

But it was cute to walk through the line with the boys and see how big they are picking out their brekkie.

These goofballs!

They were excited to point out their teachers and friends.

I didn't know how things would go and hadn't brought any money, so I just sat with them.

Always good eaters, they both ate everything and drank both their juice and milk. Double fisting!

I just love how grown up little pre-k'ers are as they take care of all their food and trash. These boys are getting so big!

The school put together a slideshow with all the grandparent visitors and it was fun to watch with the boys.

And then, because nobody told me not to, and it wasn't clear either way, I walked them to their classes. I am very much in my 'I'm an older lady, what are you gonna tell me era.' Not in like a Karen way, but like, does it matter?

Look what we found on our way! This pic courtesy of Emmie-Bob.

We dropped Carter off first, and he doesn't love his class so he was sad. And then after I walked Emmett and I was leaving, I saw his class going to a specials classroom and he was fine and also completely oblivious and didn't see me. I did very covertly snap this.

And since it was breakfast with grandparents day, and Lu needed groceries, I took the last grandbaby (and their mom) to brekkie too.

Everyone was excited because everyone knows Burger King has the best brekkie.

Yasss, short king.

Damian loves facebook marketplace and finds the best free and cheap gear. He got the boys this car for pennies, but Henners wasn't too sure.

It was a fun and busy day with littles again. I got to help with homework while Lu made dinner.

And then Bob had football practice. It's fun to see all the good things they are up to.

I had to send this one to pappy and the aunties. We love our babies!

September 6th-7th

I spent that weekend prepping for my next trip. Because being mom to teens at home and Mimi to babies far away is busy. 

I went to church with my crew that Sunday, had an early dinner, and off to South Carolina I drove.

I had told Alexis that if the boys school had any kind of grandparents day event that I would drive down, and the next day she told me they did! It was my second grandparent event because I was able to go to one in Great Falls. It was a beautiful and easy drive, though I wouldn't be sad if it wasn't 6 full hours.

To yesterday

To keep things spicy I’ll weave current time into my catchup. I’m actually gonna try to keep track of it this time though, very unlike other times. 

It was a good day. The first day in so long that I got to everything I wanted to do. Trying to shift my brain from “had to do” to “wanted to do.” I feel like I’m catching back up to just doing the everyday things and not all the catchup things. And trying to be prepared for Christmas so I can focus on what’s really important. 

I hosted Inklings this morning and I am loving meeting with the women each week. I wish it was a little longer but I know some of the women need it to be just an hour, and it’s all good. 

I love a crowded table. And also, hosting is stressful. I’m trying to get my groove back, but it’s tricky tricky. 

I had a presidency meeting and chatted with Adi and Delaney when they got home. I made dinner and ran the Frankie cheer carpool and took her to piano. 

Came home, ate dinner, and then to the church for a presidency meeting with LP ward RS. 

And home again for family night. Very structured and simple, no downtime, but  good. Just a normal day treasure. 

Travel day

It sounded like some kind of wildlife had gotten into the pipes in our room and they were fighting with each other. It was so loud and woke us up several times, but other than that, we slept well and woke up before our alarm at 5:15. 

We shuttled to the airport at 6 and easily got through security and customs with our *tiny* bottle of sand and *tiny* pieces of coral. We try really hard to be good stewards of the earths resources, but black Costa Rican sand?! Come on. 

Our first flight to Orlando was completely full but somehow we got B4 and 5, so we boarded super early. 

I took one picture and I'm not even sure why. And I didn't write anything else about it, and travel days are boring, so that's all she wrote.

Last day with our friends

We met up for brekkie again, taking care to avoid the overnight oats like the plague. The boys decided to rent surfboards again and Chelsea and I chatted while she go pro video’d them. They were tired and chaffed, but they  did pretty well. 

We went back to the hotel to clean up and check out of our rooms. Matt and I swam until it was time to say goodbye. It was fun vacationing together! Chelsea and I haven’t hung out in months, no talking, nothing. We’ve never traveled together, but our styles match pretty well. We like off the beaten path, authentic but safe and comfortable. We’d do this again! But not Costa Rica because there’s too big of a world to go the same place twice. 

After they left we headed back to the beach and played in the waves until my head hurt from the pounding. We just could not get out past the furthest breakers, the current was too strong. And we were pretty much the only ones out there so I stopped trying. It was fun though. It rained off and on and it’s so fun swimming in the rain. I love the beach. 

We walked on the beach till we got tired of the rocks and worried about chafing. We went back to the pool to wait out another round of rain. Spoiler alert, it rained all day. Off and on sprinkling to heavy. 

We showered in their outdoor shower and dried off with their little washcloths and put on clothes while still wet, not my favorite. 

And then it was on our way with our 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks. We stopped at Super Taco for lunch and it was delicious. We each got a super taco which was a long flauta, fries with ketchup and mayo, and shredded cabbage also with ketchup and mayo. Weird but good. 

We got onto the main drag and tried to do some souvie shopping. They definitely could do better with their souvenirs. Lots of penises, which I do not understand. Not the cutest shirts or sweatshirts. Also, mostly American prices. $60 for a hoodie is more than I want to pay. 😒 

We got treats and people watched and waited out the rain. 

The bus situation was weird because there were no addresses for any of the stops, so we had no idea even which side of the street we should be on. We asked several people and thankfully got good information. 

The bus was comfortable, nice seats that lean back, clean, and air conditioned. And $6 each for a 2 hour ride is not too shabby!

We did get stopped at the crocodile bridge traffic for an hour and 15 minutes, during which time the bus was starting and stopping and the AC was waning. All of that made me feel pretty yuck, but I ended up going to sleep and when Matt woke me up and told me we were almost to the airport I was very pleasantly surprised. 

Also, we stopped drinking around 3:00 because there were no bathrooms on the bus and I know myself, so I was also thirsty. Poor me. 

The whole ride ended up taking 2 hours and 45 minutes. If it wasn’t for the dumb bridge, it would have been A+. 

We got to the airport and Matt had been what’s apping our hotel so they came and picked us up, easy squeezie. 

Matt had a sad tummy, maybe a case of Montezuma’s revenge, but he wanted to get some steps in, so we walked around by the temple and got a chicken sandwich from a little hole in the wall that we ate on the steps of the temple. 

We popped into the grocery store for some brekkie muffins and back to our room for showers and bed, all ready for our 5:30 wake up call. 

As Surfer Julian would say “pura vida!" 

And a few more random shots. The open air hotel lobby. Feels like I've shared this before, but you get what you get.

I looooove the beach soooo much.

Cute hotel. Cute, cute, cute.

Veni, vidi, amavi! - 8/31/25

We had a busy day planned. We met up for breakfast which was included at our hotel. 

Fresh fruit and orange juice, then Matt and I shared overnight oats and an empanada. 

The empanadas were good and the overnight oats were not. The tasted like sour milk to me and I couldn’t handle it. Thankfully we still had some yogurt back in our room and we were fine. 

After breakfast - surf lessons for the boys! 

Chelsea and I talked about doing them too, but - a few things. Firstly, almost positive I’d have just as much fun bobbing in the waves.

Secondly, we didn’t want to take anything away from the boys and have them paying attention to us. 

Thirdly, $$$. 

So Chelsea and I swam and cheered and laughed at the guys. They did great, I was impressed. And also they wiped out a lot. Chelsea took pics of the lessons, but maybe I’ll figure that out later. 

This old guy was tired, a little sea sick, and chaffed. 

After the surfing we got cleaned up and headed to our zip line adventure. I was scared. I’m always scared. What made it a little better was that we had 2 guides and 1 of them always went first. So if they were doing it, it had to be safe, right?

It was scary but fun. We saw another poisonous dart frog, a toucan, and capuchin monkeys - including a mommy and baby monkey and a whole tree of them jumping around. No sloth, and we really, really wanted to see one, so that was a bummer. I also don’t have pictures of zip lining either. Maybe to come? Maybe not? We'll see how the 2 month catch up goes.

There were 12 lines and we would intermittently see the ocean. The guides were great and filmed and took tons of pictures and then shared them all for free. Just need to find them.

After our zip line adventure we headed out to the country for our chocolate tour.

It was at a home farm where our guides grandpa had planted the first cacao tree 50 years ago. We got to meet her mom, dad, and sister. She was great! 

She showed us cinnamon, turmeric, vanilla, ginger, and pepper, and then the boys got to pick bananas from the tree and we shared them. 

The freshest banana ever. 

She walked us through all the steps, we tasted it fresh from the pod, dried beans, and ground. 

We got to chat and open bowlfuls of pods, then grind them with a rolling pin then a wheat grinder looking thing. 

Then she made us bitter hot chocolate and then sweetened hot chocolate. It was cool to see. Then we shopped and got goodies for the girls to sample. 

We wanted to hike a waterfall but it gets dark at like 6, so the guide said it was too late. 

We talked about dinner, but ended up going back to the hotel where we swam and Matt and I ate our leftovers. Not sure if this is the right day or if I shared this before. But we pooled it.

Our hotel was very cute. Veni, vidi, amavi!

Out of order pictures because. The cute cacao farm kitchen.

One more of Cacao Santo.

We pretty much played all day and then went to bed early and that’s worked for us and our travel buddies too.