Peyton and I have made a third trip to Ohio this year. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be breaking a record this year for the most time spent in Ohio since I've moved to Florida, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and duty called (hopefully just that one last time- but we'll see!) My first day there, we found this sign in the china cabinet, it's one of the most appropriate pictures I took that sums up this adventure.
But before I get to all of that- first up we celebrated Mother's Day before I hopped on a plane and jetted off (and holy geez why is every flight I'm on lately super turbulent?)
Since I was leaving the day after Mother's Day, I really just wanted to spend time at home. Asa did take me out to lunch at Culver's on Saturday though.
And on Saturday night Hayden made me a family game night in the backyard, complete with a mini golf course, and a cornhole tournament.
Oh, and you guys, I'm getting all kinds of traction with the neighborhood toads. Sometimes at night you can hear them out there. (Asa said one night when we were gone he went out there and there were FOUR!)
I always like to soak in home right before I leave, so Sunday we had a lovely day just hanging around the house.
Of course, per Mother's Day tradition, I had everyone play all the games they don't want to play throughout the year. Oh, and I was treated to special coffee with whipped cream and cinnamon!
Including the game that tears families apart (and I can just not get enough of) Lifeboats! For real, nobody
Asa also made me homemade poutine for lunch, complete with cheese curds!
And I've always said don't buy me flowers- plant me flowers. And so Asa planted me sunflowers and they were *this close* to blooming right before I left.
We spent the evening getting caught up on Survivor (did you guys see the finale? It was a tie vote, crazy!) and playing some more games.
And for dinner we had sliders, Palau shrimp, Finish rutabaga, and watermelon. I'm still working on producing a cookbook from all of our favorites for the country project, but we've been repeating some of them recently.
Then Monday morning Peyton and I were headed off to Ohio on the same flight we took two and a half weeks early. Bonus: We knew right where the Five Guys was at the Atlanta airport since we had the same layover.
And this time when we arrived in Detroit we weren't complaining about the weather. It was actually lovely!
My mom picked us up and told Peyton he would be rewarded for all of his work at the end of the week with a trip to Cedar Point on Saturday. He was quite excited about the news.
We headed straight to Fremont that night to load up on Chud Spuds.
And then we knew the drill, it was time to start working our butts off. Each trip has kind of had it's own theme. There was the piano trip where the goal was to empty out all the furniture and everything we were taking, and clear ourselves some paths to get things out. The second trip was all about boxing things up and sorting things out. This trip was about getting everything we could out of the house, and checking whole rooms off of our list.
But as always, we try to be as helpful as we can be to my mom in Fremont. She wanted to take the state quarters my grandma had sorted and put them into books. I was up at like 8 am Tuesday morning hammering in quarters (and on my first hammer I got my finger- ugh!)
There was much less to post for my cousins to look at this time around, but there were a few gems, including grandpa's sportscoats, modeled by both Uncle Emmett and Peyton.
Cleaning out the house wasn't just limited to the house either, there was also the car, and the garage (I'll get to that in a minute!)
And there weren't a lot of gems to be found this time around, as most of the treasures had been sorted through, BUT I did find this book. My grandma was an avid Santa Claus collector and would go around giving talks, and when she did she would have everyone sign this book.
I have no recollection of this, but apparently she came to my 2nd grade class, and everyone signed it! I went to such a small school, I graduated with most of these people, but a few I also have no recollection of. I must be getting old.
Peyton and I often ate our meals in various places away from the noise. I love my aunts, but sometimes I just need quiet. You know, I may live in a house with all these loud boys, but it was quiet a decent amount of the time, and it really starts to stress me out if I don't get that.
And sometimes, Peyton was treated to a trip through the drive-thru at Taco Bell on our way back into Fremont. He was up and down the stairs all day, carrying trash, goodwill boxes and things out to various cars, so he was starving every night.
Wednesday I decided I was going to head out to the garage to conquer the pile of stuff. I should have taken a before and after picture, because it was piled with various boxes, old signs my grandma kept, and Christmas decorations and yard tools and such. I did find this toy that I remember playing with as a kid, but in no way can be safe by today standards!
After a long days work (and some spiders in my hair and a lot of dirt under my finger nails), I had the garage all clean-- you could even open the door to the backyard, which I hadn't seen open since I was a kid! Somehow I never found all the sand tools. My grandma had the best sand tools for castle building, and I thought maybe I'd come across them and be able to snag them for beach trips here in Florida, but no such luck.
Now, a huge shout out to Aunt Patti and Uncle Emmett who were conquering the basement. That was an equally, if not more, impressive job (with probably more spiders!)
Also, a huge shout out to my cousin (or second cousin? or whatever you call your cousin's kid... who coincidentally is like two weeks older than you...), Nikki who came from Pittsburgh to help out.
I put her on sorting through and donating all the books, and she totally nailed that project. The shelves in the den were spotless once she was done with them (also shout-out to Peyton who brought all the books from around the house and garage, to the den to be sorted through).
Nikki also brought her van with the seats all taken out- and she made three trips to goodwill with the van totally full, and then took a van full herself back home. It was such a huge help, and fun to hang out with Nikki since we always seem to miss each other.
We had to leave Toledo by 4 on Wednesday (which was the earliest we left BY FAR), and even then I drove so my poor-over worked mom so she could do a meeting on Facetime between Toledo and Fremont (that's how busy she is!) She isn't, however, too busy to work at the garden at the Fairgrounds as the sole member of her garden club who could make it. Luckily she had the help of another garden club, and Peyton, myself, and even Nikki who stopped by to shovel much.
And can I just say, Peyton had been up since 7 AM here, working non-stop, and didn't even complain. Sometimes when my mom talks about how awesome my kids are, I think she's totally exaggerating. But not this week. Peyton deserved every ounce of praise he got. I've never seen him work so hard.
And by the time we were done, there were flowers planted and mulch laid.
The next morning we were back up in Toledo. Nikki headed home, but Aunt Judy and Uncle Warren were headed to Toledo to help do some more sorting. The realtor came and gave us some tips on what to do for showing the house, and Peyton and I got tasked with pulling up the carpet in the bathroom. (I know, carpet in the bathroom!) But, look at how cute and retro the floor is!
The mural in the kitchen had to go too, which was a little sad. And sadly for Uncle Emmett, it meant fixing the wall behind the curtains.
I cleaned off what I thought was just a table and unhooked all the audio and stereo equipment to get it to my cousin Zach, and discovered it wasn't just a table!
Since I had cleaned out the garage we could get the picnic table my grandpa built out to eat on. Plus, getting out of the house with all the dust and such was a nice change of pace for meal time.
There was a lot of heavy lifting for Peyton and I, but none more heavy than the organ. It had been non-functional for years, but someone walking by saw it out on the curb and it was gone half an hour later, which I thought was a total success.
Mom and I then headed to the kitchen to do some more sorting and wrapping and cleaning and giving away. I must admit, it got a little frustrating for me. I had gotten a pretty good handle on what was something everyone needed to sort through, what could go straight to goodwill, and what needed to be tossed. But, I was in a whole new world in the kitchen, and after like 5 bad decisions in a row, I was like "I can't do this anymore."
And then Allison walked in, because this girl was impeccable timing. She talked me down by just being there (and telling me how baby Nallison is doing! You guys, I've never been so excited for anyone to have a baby before!), and gave Peyton and I a nice break, and then freaked Peyton out with her love for bugs.
Then it was more box moving. At one point there was a bowl of keys for four different cars we had to run things to. As soon as Aunt Judy and Uncle Warren showed up we loaded their car, we made some trips over to Aunt Bonnie's garage, and to a storage unit for Aunt Dawn (we even managed to get a cedar chest down the stairs, in my moms backseat and over to the storage unit just the two of us). This pretty much summed up Thursday.
Eric and Kelley stopped by to collect some items we had put aside for them. They're also the proud new owners of the little wheelie thing, and the iconic lamp from the living room.
After all of that, I let mom finish up the cabinets and just hand me things and tell me what to do with them. We wrapped up a lot of the stemwear and that headed off to goodwill, and then we displayed all the things in the dining room that the sisters needed to see before we sent those off.
We did grab some Tony Packo's take-out for dinner that night, and my mom bought Asa another case of chili sauce. Good thing I was flying Southwest. I had plenty of room for all my books and chili sauce I was bringing home.
We finished up that day by pulling weeds in the backyard.
Friday morning Peyton got up early so he could scrub the side of grandma's house and spray for weeds. Like, this kid was up at 8:30 AM to do chores for grandma before another full day.
And then we were back in Toledo, with more loading cars. We started labeling them 'Recycling Car' and 'Goodwill' car to avoid any confusion. We packed those expertly and to the brim a couple of times, and made more trips to the storage unit, and to throw the recyclables in the bins at Krogers.
But we also hit some milestones as the house is really starting to empty out. The back bedroom was a huge undertaking. Both beds had been covered in stuff, and it had been labeled as Santa Clause headquarters. When you live 96 years and you collect anything, and everyone gives you santas for every holiday, you amass a whole lot of them. We decided to make a box for all the great- grandkids, and then some. A hope chest of decorations if you will. We filled something like 24 boxes. When we pulled the very last of the Santa items off of the bed, it was a monumental moment.
The back bedroom was the first room with nothing in it (there was a pile of empty boxes and that was it), and I could just hear my grandma telling me what a great job we did. She'd give one big clap of her hands together and say 'You are just one of a kind!' She was pretty good at stroking my ego, that one.
But everyone did an awesome job. It was an all hands on deck situation. Most of the time everyone was off working on their own projects, so I don't have a lot of pictures of everyone else. But, Uncle Emmett took down the corkboard wall in the computer room.
And in an effort to get those corkboards to fit in the trash bags, they had to be cut down.
For the most part though, rooms are empty. I even refrained from posting too many things for my cousins that last day, because items I posted would sit on these shelves after they were photographed and before they were either claimed or off to goodwill, and these shelves needed emptied.
There were a few things that just 'can't go to goodwill'. I took some of these items, but I also guilted my cousin Joanne into taking some too.
After a full days work, Peyton dried the dinner dishes. I told, he's an impressive kid.
Saturday we were only going to be there a half day. Cort was coming up with his family, and the plan was to go to Cedar Point despite a 90 percent chance of rain. Peyton had been looking forward to it ALL week (it's seriously his favorite place in the whole wide world), and I was so upset for him that we were maybe getting rained out.
But, despite that, he came up to Toledo, and worked a little more- this time moving furniture.
I told him when Cort arrived he was all done, so he was rather excited to see them (truth be told, I was too! That week was taxing!) We ordered pizza and had lunch one more time at grandmas.
Likely, this is it for me and Peyton. We won't be at grandma's house. But you know, that's ok. There's a lot of good memories we made in that house. But the house isn't the memories, we'll have those even without the house. (Admittedly, I did get a little teary eyed leaving).
But you guys, we did make it to Cedar Point- and do you see those skies? It's like grandma was rewarding us for our hard work and holding off the rain for us. We got heavy sprinkles twice and that was it!
No kid has ever deserved a Cedar Point trip more!
Cort, Holly and Garrett went off with Peyton to ride some bigger rides, while grandma, Gwen and I went on things like the Windseeker and the Ferris Wheel.
We did convince Gwen to go on the Iron Dragon too. We told her it was Hayden's favorite.
Of course for dinner there were mini corn dogs and cheese fries to be had.
And then I took Peyton off to Top Thrill Dragster. Nobody wanted to go on it with him, but he swore he didn't mind going alone, as long as he got to ride it.
While he was in line, I decided to go for a little walk. Cedar Point at night is like my favorite, and reminds me of so many good memories.
I also walked up to Sneak Peeks to take a picture of the very place Asa and I met almost 15 years ago.
When he was done on Top Thrill we went over to Millenium, and it was closed, but they were running test trains, so he lined up outside of the cue to see if it would open before the park closed. He got lucky at about 20 till 10, and they opened the line. Then, it was so short, they let people go on it a second time without having to get back in line. He was super excited about it. The first time he said he had the front seat all by himself, which was awesome because it felt like you were on the ride all alone. He said it was his favorite ride he'd ever gone on.
And while Toft's apparently closes at 10 pm, and we thought we weren't going to get ice cream, apparently there's a Tofts at Cedar Point that they leave open a little past closing.
Sunday morning, Peyton and I were headed back to Tampa. Asa greeted us at the airport and then we had a late lunch at PDQ.
So some huge milestones were crossed while I was gone. Calib has been driving a whole lot, and can make it just about anywhere.
But also, the dogs all magically started getting along! Some sort of barrier has been up since we got Etta in December, either for her, or for Porkchop. Since January our room had a board you had to step over to get in our room, and Porkchop spent his days in there. But, he had been getting along better with everyone while being held, so Asa decided to just put him down and see what happened... and nothing did! So when I got home, there were no more barriers!
And all four of my puppies roam the house and live in (pretty much) harmony. I cannot tell you how great that is!!
Also, I had quite the flowers waiting for me!
That is it from here. Looks like we're going to have a soggy weekend ahead, but Asa does get a three day weekend, so that's fun! And we're not too sad we left my mom, because she'll be here on Wednesday.
Next Up: Don't know if you've heard, but a week from today we have a pretty big birthday coming up.
