Brickyard Battle

William and I got to spend a lot of quality time together leading up to and including Thanksgiving break!   The weekend immediately prior to the break, his team played in Indianapolis in a three-day tournament, so we drove up after school on Friday night.   As we were driving I was thinking how this particular road trip could be in my future a lot more in the years to come since both Purdue and Indiana University are along this same corridor and are likely on our college campus visit lists for next year....

But as for volleyball, this was a nice setup.  John was in Dubai for work, so it was just the two of us. We stayed at the JW connected to the convention center so parked the car and didn't move it for three days.  The boys played well and had a decent draw such that we had time for some team and individual relaxation.   The best part was William's cousins came to cheer him on Saturday morning!   He was so excited and played really well in front of them.   The boy ended up medaling for the weekend and we made it home on Monday afternoon in time to do laundry and pack for our Tuesday flight.

We enjoyed a team dinner at Social Cantina:  the moms and dad at one table and the boys at another.  Our waitress was fantastic and kept track of separate tickets by asking which jersey went with each adult.  She said she had teenage siblings and seemed to genuinely enjoy having us, which made the whole experience lovely for all.  So often when teams go out it's a perceived negative. 

Food & Wine

With a year of packed work and volleyball travel meaning we had very little time home together - much less a chance at a date night - we decided to tack a quick trip to Disney World's Food and Wine Festival in front of one of John's work trips in October.   The first afternoon/evening we enjoyed the Boardwalk area and Epcot, tasting and drinking our way through the festival.   That purple drink is Kansas City Boulevard Brewing Co. Ginger Grape Fizz Selzer and it was tasty.  However, I thought I had ordered a sampler size and since my first drink was a full size fizzy drink, I ended up ordering very little else the rest of the day!

We stayed one night at the Dolphin Hotel and ended up with a view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks.  I didn't realize that was possible from the Crescent Lake area and was very pleasantly surprised.   On the second day we hit up Magic Kingdom for a bit to see the Halloween decorations and ride Tiana's Bayou Adventure via Virtual Queue (our first time) and then over to our favorite park, Animal Kingdom, to wrap the day, before I had to head home for a weekend of volleyball!

I absolutely hated the beignets!  They were floating in a pool of honey.  I've had beignets before and never had honey so didn't realize that was a traditional presentation.   It was so messy and overly sweet.

A bit of a giraffic jam on our safari!  When we got off the safari, we made our traditional stop to see the gorillas and I was laughing at the long-legged bird perched on top of the under water hippo!

October

A lot of my posts are vacation fun but our fall was really hard. School was hard.  Work was hard.  Life was hard.   John and I were traveling a lot.  William's classes and extracurriculars schedule combined with a growth spurt were draining him.  John's extended travel included him receiving the news of his mother's passing while en route to Budapest.  

We found joy in watching William and his teammates enjoy their time on the court.   

We found joy in Lucy, who never loses her loving spirit.

We found joy in early morning sunrises.

We found joy in the beautiful leaves in our neighborhood, a former nursery.

We found joy in an extended pool season swimming through the last weekend in October.

We found joy seeking out the Northern Lights from our front yard and sort of almost seeing them through the camera (of which I can't seem to find a photo).

We found joy in flipping on the Christmas lights.

Bathroom Renovation

Our 2024 renovation project (after an emergency basement fix thanks to a sump pump failure) was our master bathroom.   Its major problem - besides being yellow - was a tiny shower.   We more than doubled the size of the shower, enclosed the toilet area and bumped out a niche from inside the closet to add a stackable washer/dryer.  The kitchen is still my favorite but this is a very close second.   The same team who did the kitchen and the pool bathroom/laundry room did this, as well, so they've now completely updated our house.  We'll have them back eventually to fancy up the basement but it's nice to be construction free for the time being.

Before and after:  Vanity and toilet.   We did have to backfill the window but we get a lot of natural light from the large window above the tub.  My goal was natural and spa-like.   I love the natural walnut floating vanity.   The board and batten in the water closet is also a very soothing color called Illusive Green which is a greenish gray.   The hardest material to pic may have been the tile for the floor. I finally found a large profile (24x48) and had it installed with nominal grout lines so it looks more solid.  It was very heavy and the tile guy was not impressed hauling them from the garage one at a time.

Before and after:  Shower and tub.  Apparently I'm the only person who still wants a drop in tub with tub deck instead of a freestanding tub, because that was confusing to my designer and to my general contractor.   I sit on the ledge of the tub to put on my socks every day and am very happy that I kept it.  Because I wanted the same solid surface as my countertop for the top deck and the shower bench (versus tile), it was a bit of a project to coordinate the order of installation, but they figured it out.  The built it bookshelf was my idea and also took a lot of conversations with my cabinet guy and multiple reframing with the subcontractors but I love the final product.  Behind it is the washer/dryer which has been a real treat to have immediately next to my dresser to put things away!

We had a closet system and wood flooring added and bright light fixtures.   It's such a treat to be able to see our clothes after the dingy fluorescent lights that took so long to turn on that you'd usually be in and out before it was fully lit.   I love the wood floors, too, but with the dryer and wood floors do get the opportunity to sweep a lot of dust!