Moving on

 I sold my family's house and it was so anticlimactic that I'm having a hard time processing it. I have so many feelings wrapped up in this pile of bricks and sticks and yet I'm not finding myself grieving it at all. My parents bought it when they moved to the mountains and were bright-eyed and optimistic and while it held so, so many great memories, it feels symbolic that it always tended to make life harder than was absolutely necessary. The people who bought it are going to flip it and I hope the next people who live there are able to appreciate it for all of it's magic (and that they don't find too many of the animals that we buried over nearly 50 years of country life). 

Barbie Movie

Not only did I buy tickets for the movie theater, but I bought them for opening night. THAT'S how excited I was for the Barbie movie! (Almost) everyone themed out with me and it was so fun to see the sea of pink milling around the shopping center before the show started. 

I thought I was going to love it because it was fun and pink and targeted towards me and my girls. I wasn't prepared to love it so much for the messaging. I nearly cheered out loud during America Ferrara's speech. 

You can't tell, but even the boys loved it

I bought these from a little girl who was selling them at the Farmer's Market, which felt very on-brand. 

 

Cats and carpets

 Lots of bits and pieces. Eli hit a breaking point with trying to keep his kittens in his room (sleep deprivation with kittens is legit) and so now they're out in the house. We're all together and no one has gotten eaten!

And just look at this beautiful, beautiful flooring! The blue carpet is GONE and I knew it was going to make a difference, but I didn't really appreciate just how big of a difference it was going to be. I just love it so much

It was even worth putting everything we own into one room, which did actually make my eye twitch for a few days

Anniversary Trip photo dump

C and I celebrated our TWENTIETH wedding anniversary this year. TWENTY. I was 19 when we started dating. I was 21 when we got engaged. In two more years I'll have had his last name longer than I had my dad's. We have outlasted most marriages I know, and because we got married when we were literal babies, we've managed to witness several friends' second and even third marriages. I think the secret, if I'm honest, is that we got married young and stupid. We figured it out together and now I can't imagine anyone else I'd rather muck through life with. This guy makes me absolutely crazy, but he also 100%, on a cellular level, gets me. Which is how we came to celebrate our anniversary at a wood carving camp in the actual middle of nowhere. It was beautiful and crunchy and exactly how I would design the most perfect weekend away with my person. We learned how to carve spreaders (or shanks, depending on who you asked), he fished, I read and carved some more. We stumbled on the weirdest, most delightful Fourth of July festival, and we had a lovely, lovely low key weekend. The kids are big enough that we stocked the house with frozen food, named explicitly the acceptable house guests (so as not to recreate the shenanigans spearheaded by my mother last time we left them home alone) and didn't check in for two days. We came back to a clean house and happy babies. 

Yup. That's a goat. On a leash. At a concert. 

Future Tinder profile pic, should he choose not to stick around for 21

 

Our cute little lodge in the town with a population of 75