There are weeks where I only take one or two pictures and then there are weeks where I take what seems like six week’s worth in a seven-day period. Today, I happen to have a lot of pictures! So I’ll get right to it…

Joey sheds REALLY badly about twice a year, and this is one of those times. This was after using the FURminator brush. The pile of fur is almost as big as he is!

This is just when I was working on the puzzle in the garage. I have a lot more of it done now. I really like going out there and putting the puzzle together, so I may do another when this one is done. 

These next two pictures were taken on two separate occasions–Chick LOVES Joey and he does his best to hang out with Joey all the time. Chick likes to cuddle with him and lick his face. It’s so sweet!

When I got back from my most recent run, I found this on the front stoop waiting for me. I miss this! Jerry used to do it all the time when I was running regularly, particularly in the summer.

I was putting away laundry in my bedroom when I glanced up and happened to see this deer directly across the street on the dike. We see a lot of wildlife, and it’s not a first to see a deer in front of the house, but it’s very rare!

On Mondays, Jerry has started playing softball (he’s SO excited). His team needed one more player on Monday, so Jerry asked Eli. I was surprised Eli wanted to, because he didn’t know anyone, but he agreed. He had NEVER thrown or hit a softball in his life, hahaha. He’s a fantastic baseball player, but I was a little worried about how he’d feel playing softball. Thankfully, the guys Jerry plays with are super fun and aren’t the slightest bit competitive.

Jerry wanted Eli to practice hitting for a few minutes before the game, so Jerry pitched to him (it’s slow-pitch softball). Eli missed the first 10 or so pitches! I explained to him that softball is different–you have to time the arch in the pitch and he’s not used to that. Once he hit it a couple of times, though, he didn’t miss any of them. He’d gotten the hang of it, thankfully!

Eli did great at the game and the guys wanted to make him a regular player–so they ordered him a shirt and now he’ll be playing on Mondays, too!

Some of the guys Jerry works with (not the “cool” ones) argue with him that mental illness doesn’t exist. They tell him that if you feel depressed, you just have to “be happy”. He knows how passionate I am about mental health, and he’s told them I’m bipolar, but they just don’t really believe it’s a thing. So, I wore my Bipolar AF shirt–which I guess would be passive-aggressive, haha. It just really bothers when people say that mental illness doesn’t exist. 

I’m still on a sewing kick. I just made a pair of bell bottoms with several denim patches and I LOVE how they turned out! I like the color of the jeans, especially with the contrast of the gussets (there is a gusset in the front and in the back to make the “bell” bigger at the bottom. I think I like them with the gusset in the front of the leg more than when I’ve done it in the side.

My patchy jeans–hand sewing the patches is perfect to do before bed while watching mindless TV.

I didn’t buy this, but it caught my eye at Goodwill–I couldn’t figure out what the pattern on the shirt was. It was a handmade shirt (made really well, actually). Once I took the close-up photo, I finally could see that they are cyclists! I think so, anyway.

We’re celebrating Noah’s graduation tomorrow at my parents’ house and I planned to put together a picture board or two. I had no idea how many pictures I would need, so I started going through photos of Noah on my computer and favoriting several per calendar year since he was born 18 years ago. Those several added up to MANY more than I thought–305 to be exact.

I narrowed them down, cropped the “for sures”, then started narrowing THOSE down. I asked Noah to go through them and take out any he didn’t want and to add any from my “reject” pile. Then, I Tetris’ed the pictures the best I could in order to fit the most “yes” pictures on each board. I don’t know how many I wound up with, but you can see there are quite a few. 

Jerry and I played a couple of new games recently. I absolutely love this one called Decipher (I found it at a garage sale). For anyone that enjoys the Wordle, you will probably like this game. (It’s old, though–released in 1972!) It’s kind of like a combination of Wordle and Battleship… which sounds weird, but you have to guess the other persons word by process of elimination while they are trying to guess yours. I wanted to link to the game on Amazon, but it’s not there–bummer. I don’t know where you can you buy it now.

This is Jerry making fun of me when I try to get a picture of our game. I lean back in my seat as far as I can, and push my head back as far as possible to try to get more in the picture. And apparently, my face looks like this, haha. We were playing a card version of Life, here. (It was okay, but not as fun as Decipher.)

And finally, here is one more sewing project. I liked the shirt on the left, but wasn’t crazy about the bottom–I like shirts that have some sort of elastic or band on the bottom. As for the hoodie, I loved the fabric but I didn’t like that it said ALOHA on the front. Sooooo…

I decided to combine the two! I removed the hood and the bottom band from the hoodie, and then sewed them onto the other shirt. I really love “new” shirt and it fits great!

Okay, and that’s all I’ve got. Have a great weekend! xo