Our whirlwind summer continues with our 9th wedding anniversary! We spent the day walking around Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. We had lunch at a “health food” sort of place – they had mushroom tamales and a hummus & veggie wrap. We then wandered the strip in Lake Geneva – going into a few shops – but were generally unimpressed. Lake Geneva is a bunch of higher-end boutique clothing shops. We’re not high-end, boutique clothing people – but enjoyed the assortment of antique & art stores. On the way back, we had a pizza at MOD Pizza – they had vegan cheese and we loaded it with veggies. It was a really fun day!
We also got a visit from my grandma, the kids’ great grandma! She was going to visit for just a day or two and wound up staying a whole week! We haven’t seen her since late December of 2020 and hadn’t had a “real” visit since before the pandemic.
We’ve continued to tackle some of the deferred maintenance projects at my parents house. One example is their basement bathroom. The exhaust fan had stopped working and the ceiling tile had become moldy. I replaced the fan motor for $22 and found some “high moisture” ceiling tiles. It took a half day to replace the absorbent, moldy ceiling tiles with the new mold-free tiles. They look great and won’t absorb water like the old ones!
Karissa’s brother’s time in Wisconsin had come to and end – so we spent his last day or so with him and the family. We did some antiquing – Adelaide LOVED looking for treasures. I found a vintage 1960-ish Gillette “slim” safety razor. It was a good few days!
The time then came for Karissa and me to fly to Florida to see the progress on our house and meet with the builder before drywall goes up. It’s one of the 3-5 scheduled meetings in the construction process and we thought it was worth flying to attend.
We had an early morning flight, 6:00am takeoff, but that meant we had a whole day to spend in Florida. We had lunch at the outlet mall and spent the afternoon watching tv and sleeping. The next day, we had our meeting. It was great to see the house and its progress, even if it’s not moving as fast as we’d like. The builder wrote the kids names on the floor of their rooms, which was a cute touch. We spent the next day taking care of a few tasks, working remotely, and flying home for the final week or so of summer.
It’s a little bittersweet to have just a short time left up “home”. This upcoming trip back south is very “real” and feels different from the trip in January. It’s permanent. However, we are excited for the kids to start school and to move into our house in something like 60-80 days. We’re excited for visitors and to truly be living our “new life”.