July +August 2017

February 1, 2019February 1, 2019Leave a comment

It wouldn’t be July if we didn’t do Coronado! Even when it’s just for a few days, it’s always good.

I absolutely love sitting on the beach and hearing someone shout your name! I love running into friends and having the down time to actually sit and talk.

Cousins being cute in matching jammies.

I love this picture. It’s still the lock screen on my phone. Just watching waves, enjoying a snack in peace and quiet.

Ok the seaweed was a little gross…but the people were cute!

The famous beach lobster boil. It’s still talked about in hushed, reverent tones.

We took a vote, s’mores are better on the beach

Coronado is always the last hurrah of summer. Then there’s the dreaded 10 days before school starts where everyone is bored, tired of swimming and there are no camps. It’s a rough time. But thankfully we get to celebrate the best fur buddy anyone has ever had! Happy 4th birthday Mac!

Ah the first day of school. So much fun, so many nerves! 2nd grade and PreK.

The total solar eclipse was on August 21st. It’s the first time in years that a total solar eclipse was visible in North America. I remember the last one – we went downtown to the science center and looked through all their glasses and instruments to see it. The kid’s school deemed it “unsafe” and vowed to keep everyone indoors for the entire event. I tried to get enough glasses for at least one class at a time to see it, but apparently that was unsafe too…so instead I got doughnuts, sprung the kids from class and we had our own viewing party with friends in the parking lot! It was amazing – totally worth potentially damaging our retinas forever.

It was also August in Phoenix. It was stupid hot, as you can tell by Auggie’s face.

June 2017

January 14, 2019January 14, 20191 Comment

This isn’t *quite* where I left off, but it’s close and there’s always a lot going on so here goes.

June 2017 was a typical for us – nutty. It’s always filled with camp, swim team, birthdays, our anniversary and prepping for vacation. It’s jam packed, flies by and is always a ton of (hot) fun.

This is pretty much where we were if we weren’t in someone else’s pool….Also, you’ve never seen anyone happier than PW when Sylvia the Swan finally flew away in a monsoon.

Case in point:

Also it was clearly the year of enormous floats.

This sweet little lady turned 8. EIGHT! This one really threw me for a loop. The slippery slope to 10. And then she’s driving. And off to college. I tell both of them at night, I squish their head and their feet so they stop growing so fast.

And in true Wand style, you get two parties; one on your actual birthday with family with a cake of your choice; this year she went for my triple yellow cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. What it lacks in beauty, it makes up for in taste! (Also it was like 110 degrees and even in ac, butter melts so)….

…and one insane party with all your friends.

I don’t know why she’s mad, but those eyes kill me.

Someone else celebrated 35 years (😲)

And we had friends celebrate birthdays in June too – including Abby who turned 8 right after B. Her amazing mom channeled her love of Target into a theme. And Target happily hosted it!! It was so much fun.

There was a lot of camp too. I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous following these two in every day. Not pictured; the stupid amount of crap from the snack bar that they ate and I allowed because they must have burned off thousands of calories each day. Or because I’m lazy. Either way, they had a ball.

*Do you see Auggie’s little ankle bracelet? And all 24 of Baylor’s? This was the summer that B really got into making bracelets – like the kind you do with the #4 knot over and over. Needless to say, the nostalgia was awesome and we tied bracelets until our eyes crossed and fingers bled.

And for our annual trip to Montana, we decided that splitting up with me flying with the kids while Peter drove with Mac was really not all that much easier. It was expensive and took almost the same amount of time. So we decided to ALL drive to MT! I have to say, it actually went much better than anticipated. The kids were awesome and we made it in two days. No one puked, we didn’t kill each other or lose anything out of the back of the truck – overall, it was a success! The return trip however…well that’s a post for July.

There is also a 75 pound dog in this picture. He’s laying on the floor with about 2 feet total to his name. And he does it like the saint he is.

Aaaahh. The payoff of 18 hours and 1,100 miles of driving:

I’mmmm Baaaack!

January 7, 20192 Comments

Ooof. It’s hard to look at the last post on The Goon Room. 18 months. E-i-g-h-t-e-e-n months since my last post. How does that even happen??

Well, I kind of know how that happens. It starts out getting busy, then deciding to jump back into posting by making a list of the things you’d want to post about / should post about (i.e. kiddo milestones, holidays, etc). And all of a sudden the list seem reeeeaally long. And then the phone rings and now the list is pushed back. Then the list just seems too daunting to tackle and well, 18 months goes by.

So here we are; January 2019. A perfect time to create a resolution to get back into posting. I spent two full days last week creating a master to do list for several areas of our lives and then compiling due dates and schedules together into one, color coded calendar. It’s so pretty. And organized. And just realistic enough I should be able to stick with it and actually catch up on all the life that has happened in the last 18 months + post about all the stuff happening now too. If all goes as planned, I’ll be caught up by June if not earlier. Keep yo fingers crossed.

It could get a little nutty trying to keep track of old information (i.e. birthdays) and new stuff, so I’m working on a system of titles. Hopefully it will make sense, if not, comment and I’ll clarify!

In the mean time, if you want to see what I’m up to work wise, click on over to my business IG page; @bw_concepts1 or my new business blog; www.bw-concepts.com. I’ve got some lofty business goals for both BW Concepts and the water company – and my color coded calendar is going to keep me on track to reaching those goals. So like and follow and comment and tell your friends who need my skills – please!

Thanks for reading – sorry it’s been so long and I promise to make it up to you!

A Conversation with Auggie

June 23, 2017June 23, 2017Leave a comment

Me: Auggs, could you please get your shoes on? (Auggie runs out of room).

Auggie: (returns)

97E94530-05DC-463E-BCD4-017EE4D024E2

Me: Right. So about those shoes? And did you put jammies back on?!

Auggie: I’m Boots and Bonner!

Me: So I’m thinking we’re going to be late.

Auggie: Do you want a hat too??

Happy New Year 2017!

January 3, 2017Leave a comment

Wowza. It feels like it was yesterday I was sitting here typing away and thinking about the past year. And yet there’s been a whole 365 days since I wrote this post about my resolutions for 2016. What a year it’s been!

My goals for 2016 were simply written, but given what we did this year, were not always easy to tackle! I wanted to 1. Have No Negative, 2. Have Less Noise and 3. I’ll Do Me. I think focusing on those things allowed me the time and space I needed to do the things I really wanted to do. Well, except one…

I failed miserably at the Less Noise part. It was supposed to include no long term volunteer commitments for this school year which should have allowed me to just jump in where and when I wanted to. Instead I am Auggie’s class room mom, his soccer coach, was a committee member of the school auction and now the co-chair of the St.Mary’s Centennial Gala. So, yeah. I probably should have written “take on too much” and then when I did the opposite, it would have been helpful. But I have to say, it is all really good. I worked with and am working with people I love and while I was in no way qualified to be a soccer coach, we had an amazing time!

Given all those commitments, we were neck deep in remodeling our house. Which is one of the reasons my posts here have been sporadic at best. More on the other reason to come. But for the house, here’s what we did in a nutshell:

We boxed up 3/4ths of our house

Moved out with the other 1/4 of crap

Gutted our house

Put it back together

Moved it all back in 6.5 months later

We are still finishing the final touches… for now. They say when you’re house is done, you die. So I guess the upside is that we’re going to live forever because the list of “phases” keeps growing. I think we’re on phase 15. With about 25 more to go…

from this…

To this in just 6ish months and many many dollars

Despite all the house craziness, we were able to get away a few times. We traveled separately and together and it was all awesome.

Mexico

Disneyland

Montana

San Diego

Oceanside

One of my main goals for 2016 that I didn’t really write down was to start my writing business. It’s funny, I’m not where I thought I would be, but where I landed is so much better. I finally returned the email I wrote about last year. I negotiated a deal and started the freelance writing “course”. I worked through the exercises and geared up for my first call with the woman who wrote the course. I was so excited to hear her expertise and get her insight….and then she blew me off. And then rescheduled our call. And when we finally did get to talk, she yawned at my work. Like for real. It made me so mad that she was so dismissive of me and my goals – I never finished the course or contacted her for our next meeting. No Negative. See? I got one of them right.

And I’m so glad I did. Instead of moving forward with the course, I contacted friends. Friends who write, friends with small businesses, friends who are just damn good at being cheerleaders. I asked for their opinions, I made a few deals and I got busy writing. And it is awesome. I’ve made contacts and work seems to keep finding me (www.bethwand.com!) It’s a huge and exciting challenge, and it makes my soul happy.

What’s in store for 2017? I think I’m going to keep working on that Less Noise part. And also:

Balance – How do you get it all done?? I have no idea, but I’m going to keep working on finding balance, maintaining balance, and most importantly and most difficult for me is letting a few things go in the name of balance.
Reconnect – It’s so easy to fall away from old friends when your lives take different paths. Even when your lives take the same path, there’s always something to distract us. This year will be a good year to reconnect with some friends and keep the momentum of contact going.
Keep thinking about and working towards Less Noise, No Negative and I’ll Do Me. I think those things got us pretty far in 2016. Here’s hoping 2017 is juuust a little quieter.

The Goon Room 2011

January 2, 2012Leave a comment

WordPress put out a Year In Review for The Goon Room. It’s so fun to see all the stats and memories from the past year! Thank you for reading TGR and I hope to keep you entertained for another year. Just 8 posts to go until I hit 300 – yikes!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 16,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Goon Room

A little of everything and nothing, all in one blog

Tag: wordpress