Go, Go, Goers!

Ava survived her first year of band camp! Due to the pandemic, band camp didn't happen in the traditional form since 2019. That meant that they just put in a lot of hours at the school (12 hour days), and then went home to sleep at night. No extra bonding time. No independence on a college campus. No ICE CREAM (apparently the ice cream at band camp was always a big hit.) But this year...they started up again! I dropped Ava off at RHS at 8am on Monday morning, all packed up, and ready to head 100 miles northwest of the Twin Cities. This group of 200+ kids and all of the amazing staff and chaperones had a very hot, very productive, and pretty dang fun time on the St John's University campus. And yes, the ice cream was very, very good. :) My aunt Steph is in town, visiting from Brooklyn, so she accompanied me on the drive up to SJU on Friday afternoon. It gave us some time to catch up, and we then got a sneak peek of the 2023 RHSMB field show. The kids worked so hard this week, an...

Last weekend was a blast...G and I went over to a friend's house on Saturday afternoon. They used to be our neighbors but built a house in a new neighborhood several months ago. It was really neat seeing their new house, and giving G and Abby a chance to play together. And then later that night, we hung out with the neighbors and enjoyed a late night bonfire and s'mores. We were so busy this week with all the activities: swimming, taekwondo, RHSMB rehearsal. brass sectionals, RHSMB family picnic, carpools, work, sleep, LIFE! Throw in a dentist appointment, and a brand new (to G) field trip camp, and wow, the week flew by. G went to Skateville on Monday, Nickelodeon Universe at the MoA on Tuesday, Skyzone on Wednesday, and Grand Slam on Thursday. FUN!  I took Friday off so G and I could have our third annual "Mom & G Day". We started with a trip to Caribou for some beverages to kick the day off, and then we headed to the Bell Museum on the U of M St Paul campus. We...

This past week was a bit different for me at work. Patterson hosted our 2nd annual Tech Days, which was 3 full days of keynote speakers, conference tracks, and hands-on activities. On Monday afternoon, I spoke (virtually) to several hundred people when I debuted the new Patterson Technology career portal. There was a small technical glitch, but I tried my best to push past it, and think it went ok! I was super happy once that was done, and could attend the rest of Tech Days as a regular employee. My favorite tracks were one given by the FBI on cyber crime, and another one on empathy (both at work, and in our personal lives.) It was a great week, focusing on something other than my job! (Which, I still love, but it was neat to learn some new things.) On Friday, I was in the office for several hours, taking part in a discussion about how our products team can work best together. It was nice seeing team members that I hadn't seen in person in a while. Pria snuggled into bed one mornin...

My dad and Scott worked really hard last weekend, and the front porch is almost complete. There are just finishing touches that need to be done, as well as some cleaning, but already, it makes such a difference in the curb appeal of the home. The color of the Trex looks great with the house/columns, and I love the fact that we will no longer need to maintain it. Before (well, imagine that there was cedar wood as the porch): After: Scott and I also went out for a nice dinner on Saturday night. I was reminded that when we were younger, we used to leave the house around 9 or 10, and get home at 1 or 2am. Now, though, we left around 6 and were home by 8pm. And had no interest in going anywhere else. But, regardless of the timeframe, it was nice to get out for a dinner and enjoy each other's company for a bit. G had fun making some new things around the house over the last week. We signed him up for a monthly Tinker Crate (STEM based), and he made an electric paint spinner on Tuesday, a...

Turns out that Ava doesn't do well with blood draws. I took her in for her annual exam this past week, and we were advised that she didn't have a baseline cholesterol test on file, and she should have one. I tried to distract her during the blood draw, and she was mostly fine then, but afterwards, she almost passed out. With some rest and apple juice, she was cleared to leave after an extra 10 minutes in the office. I'm worried that she's going to be nervous the next time she has to have a blood draw (for whatever reason.) :( On the plus side, her cholesterol levels are good! Hooray! We had a pretty standard week around here...swimming, taekwondo (Ava's last class until this fall!), Summer Power, trumpet sectionals, and work. Nothing too exciting, which is a-ok. We're getting ready to put Scott and my dad to work by replacing our cedar front porch with Trex. Scott already ripped out the main boards, and is currently performing some clean-up. The Trex have been p...