May 2017 Update

We made it another year and school is officially out for summer! Unlike previous years we didn’t limp across the finish line. Instead we coasted easily to the end thanks to our new approach to homeschool.

To celebrate the end of school, us girls went on an epic road trip with my Dad. We visited Plant City, FL where we lived during my 5th and 6th grade years. We realized that Skylar is the exact age now that I was when we moved there. Everyone commented on how much she looks like me because it’s been that long since they’ve seen me. We had fun tracking down all of our favorite spots around town including restaurants, our old house, the church we attended, where we kept our horses, and my school.

Next, Skylar and I dropped Dad off for his work conference and headed for Disney. We had an amazing visit to the brand new Rapunzel breakfast and then a full day at Animal Kingdom. We walked NINE MILES! It’s amazing how much we squeezed in with just the 2 of us. Best of all, the entire day was paid for by the reward points we earned during our remodel. It covered our tickets, character breakfast, lunch, dinner, and souveniers!

While we were in Orlando we stayed 2 nights with an old friend who let us swim and chillax. It was so much fun to catch up. Before leaving, I tracked down Michelle Hyatt and picked up a dozen Nourishing Cupcakes! I have been craving these since she left Nashville.

Back home we hit the ground running! Skylar had her first softball game (a double header). The girls did a great job and won both games. That same night I had an opportunity to speak to a group of authors about my book layout and design services. It was also fun to meet some of the authors I’ve already worked with over the past year.

Mike worked for his company in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby earlier this month, which is always fun for him and I’m glad they keep asking him back each year. Plus, he always comes back with really cool swag. 🙂

We also managed to make it out to the lake a few times this month. At the moment, we can’t seem to get a weekend without rain but I’m hoping that changes soon so we can spend more time on the water.

On the BFF front, we are basically consumed with grass cutting season. It now takes us about 3 days to cut the grass as opposed to 30 minutes at our old house. I’ve ran the zero turn out of gas twice. LOL! We’ve also been working to clear out a ton of brush to open up around some of our trees and help them mature. We’ve been getting quotes for exterior painting, gutters, and garages so it will be fun to move forward with those projects soon! I’m really hoping we can get the brick painted before our Summer Solstice party! I can’t wait to have everyone over and share our new home with those who have followed our journey over the past 6 months.

Unfortunately May ended on a sad note. Today we lost our little Easton. At the ripe old age of 13, he seemed to love it here at the BFF! We saw new life in him and thought he was doing better than ever. Around lunch he began having a grand mall seizure that wouldn’t stop despite several rounds of meds and a transfer from the local vet’s office to the ER. After several hours with no change we made the very difficult decision to say goodbye. It was so unexpected and abrupt and, well, we are all having a hard time with it. We brought him home and buried him in a beautiful spot under one of our trees. Last week, Skylar had carefully crafted a cross on her own not knowing that we would need to use it for this purpose, but it made the perfect addition to his memorial. We have so many good memories with Easton and I’m thankful he hung on long enough to experience the BFF and let this be his final resting place with us forever!