July 9-22:
We started out this week still at Innsbrook, where Nolan suddenly caught a summer cold. He was so miserable after coughing so much that Saturday night I took him to urgent care on Sunday morning. He has a history with croup, which we thought he would have outgrown by age 9, but the poor guy needed a steroid to clear up some of the inflammation on his vocal cords. He was able to come back to Innsbrook to enjoy our last few hours of vacation at the beach. The next day though he was back to feeling crummy so I took him to his pediatrician! Apparently there's a small portion of the population who need more than one dose of steroid when dealing with this kind of illness. So he took a 3 day course of it and was doing soooo much better... just in time for August to catch his cold and start feeling yuck as well! We had to cancel one camp but overall we spent the week at home and watched a ton of movies while recovering.
The boys did get to go to a few more camps after they were feeling better: one gymnastics camp and one Lego camp. We also went to the Humane Society one day and got to do their Shelter Buddies reading program. The kids actually get to sit outside the pet cages and read books with them. If you've never been in this kind of shelter it's... hard. It's sad. The shelters do the best they can to keep the animals comfortable and clean and fed and loved, but there are just. so. many. pets. I wish I could adopt them all!
Spent most of my work hours drawing more birds! I am also working on changing my workflow a bit in hopes that I can utilize my ipad as much as possible for the whole process versus what I currently do now, which is finish my designs on my laptop in Illustrator.
I started getting my tattoo removed! That design in the sketchbook is exactly what it is and just about the same size. It's a drawing I did in college when I was 18 or 19 that I had tattooed on my hip. I've thought about having it removed for a very long time! I've just grown tired of it. The first session took about 20 seconds and was no more painful than the tattoo itself. I'll go back for at least 4 more sessions over the next year; the laser they use gradually breaks up the ink to assist your body in disposing of it.
Books I read include:
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. This was an audiobook actually and it was read by Tom Hanks... I go back and forth whether I recommend listening vs reading as I love him but I don't know if I loved the way he read it! The actual book though was a really interesting concept and I liked it.
Happy Place ... You can always count on Emily Henry for a a good short, light read and this was no exception. I'd recommend!
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. I'm a big Kristin Hannah fan. Her stories always include women as the main character, even in plot lines you wouldn't normally expect to hear a woman's experience. Firefly Lane is an older one, but I did watch the Netflix show and wanted to compare. The book is VERY different from the show! I can't really say I like one better than the other... I can honestly see them as two separate things. In general though I usually think the book is better and try to read the book before I see the show/movie for that reason.
I breezed through the show Your Honor on Showtime... It was great! It has two seasons and I'm wondering now if there might be a third because there were definitely some unfinished story lines but also that might just be how they intended it to end! I think it was only supposed to be one season to begin with.
Nolan got to go to his very first friend sleepover! It went well. He says they stayed up til midnight playing video games and had a great time so... sounds exactly like what you'd expect a pair of 9 year old boys to do at a sleepover! While Nolan was out August and I painted some rocks and had our own sleepover in his room. It's hard to explain to a 6 year old why he doesn't also get to go to the friend's house to sleepover, so we tried to make it special for him as well.
We were introduced to a new to us arcade fairly close to home called Cactus Pete's. We met up with some Scout friends and it was really fun! They also had laser tag and the moms got to join in on the game. We also attended a pool party for a school friend of August. I took the boys to see Elemental one day, which was really cute, and then I met up for girls night to see Barbie on opening night with my friends. It was funny and clever, and I'd definitely recommend seeing it, especially if you're a female around my age!