June was when I really hit my stride with my flower arrangements. Every one of these gave me so much joy!
Ireland has struggled with knee pain flaring up for years which has progressively gotten worse. After the dance recital we decided it was time to really have it looked into which meant x-rays, MRI and multiple doctor visits.
How to Get Rid of hiccups
A sweet not from my sweet Ireland. June was a rough month for many reasons and this gave me such a boost.
Liesel applied for a job at the Olive Garden. Actually, she applied for jobs at a lot of places but this was the only interview she was able to land. She didn't get it, but I was proud of her for looking her best and giving it her all.
We are ardent supporters of lemonade stands.
Gita and I went to MOD Pizza for lunch and while they worked on our order, we stocked up on their delicious pebble ice. We found every water bottle we could and methodically filled them to the brim and brought a couple cups of ice to boot. It really is the best kind of ice!
Clearly my girls are heavy sleepers.
Seeing the squabbling over my parents stuff was enough for me to pull out every piece of jewelry and quilt we have. We divided them into piles, all agreed they are equal and everyone is getting something they truly treasure. Oh, and I plan to give this all to them long before I die- I will not cling to it all in my old age when it does me no good.
A little lunch date to Shake Shack. Sydney was thrilled to get 13 for Taylor Swift!
Frustrated with hiccups that wouldn't go away, Ireland asked me for a remedy. I told her to do jumping jacks as fast as she could. I was making it up, of course, but it actually worked!
Brent with the girls on Father's Day. He wanted breakfast for lunch which basically means making eggs and then putting 50 different ingredients out on the table to choose from. Brent usually makes Sunday dinner and I had made a start when he came in the kitchen to offer some advice. He was soundly screamed at by all of us to "JUST GET OUT!" and muttered "Gee, I feel loved" as he walked away.
I got a UTI (again) and told my sisters about how if the Lord had offered me a smoke show like Mr Darcy or a husband who hoards plastic tongs from the office (ahem BRENT) and a life with antibiotics, I'd choose the life with antibiotics. No contest. I have no idea how people lived without them.
Beautiful morning sky
Sydney finally got braces!
And immediately hated them by the next day. Poor girl, she has an expander and her teeth need a lot of correcting. Braces are essentially moving bone and I sympathize with her pain so, so much!
It's always an accomplishment to make it to the temple but June was really a triumph!
Sydney is my little thrifting buddy. She's always game to stop at an estate sale and we happened by one on our way home from church. Among our finds is this painting that I really and truly love! We decided to hang it in the hallway outside her door and since her room is pink, it looks just lovely.
That was all the minor stuff in June. The major stuff was... well... pretty major.
I tried to describe the Mall of America to Ireland and Brigitta but how many different ways can you say it's just a really, really, really big mall with a theme park in the middle? I'd been on the road for hours but wanted to give them a taste so we decided to stop by and just have dinner- no shopping. Their jaws dropped when we walked in the door. Mall of America is really and truly massive.
We tried Cadillac Ranch for dinner. Ireland and Brigitta loved the half/half crayons.
We slept hard, still trying to shake off all the stress in Iowa City.
Time in the pool and hot tub certainly helped. Check out Gita's stunning handstand dive.
It was only when we made it to Mall of America this time that we noticed the lights on the ceiling of the parking structure- green means there is an open space. How brilliant is that?
For lunch we decided to try out Sugar Factory which is a really fun place to experience. We are all about that girly vibe!
Notice I said experience. The food itself was rather meh although the presentation was fabulous.
Where they excel is at the shakes. You know the kind of shakes with a whole slice of cake on top? That's this place. They were getting a break from the Chocolate Challenge so they went for a very chocolaty dessert.
Turns out the best part of it was the side of the mug. There was frosting topped with chocolate sprinkles and it was so dang good!
We were stuffed but luckily we did a lot of shopping to work off all the calories. The Lululemon at this mall is huge and I picked up a little something for everyone.
The next morning we headed to Bemidji and hung out in the downtown area for a bit. It's such a cool, little town with a lot of photo ops around every corner.
I know the creator of Snoopy is from Minnesota so this was a fun find just before the girls headed to camp. Gita dug out her blue blanket she'd packed for Spanish Camp.
With an August birthday, we had to call and get special permission for Brigitta to be in the 12-18 year camp or we never could have pulled it off because Ireland would have to go on different weeks. However, I did not closely look at the location and rather than staying in the actual Spanish Village which looks like this:
They were booked at the "North Site" which is actually a Russian Village they also use as a Spanish Village. Is it nice? Sure. Does it make you want to break into Spanish? Not so much. Turns out the North Site is deeper in the woods where ticks are much more of a problem.
Ireland and Brigitta made the most of it and got through Customs.
Settled into their casas.
And readied for two weeks of intensive Spanish.
I really needed to get back on the road. I'd already driven from Minneapolis and now I needed to make it back to Crystal Lake, IL for work the next day. That drive was hideous- all 13 hours total. I was so tired and to keep myself awake, I blasted Taylor Swift and sang at the top of my lungs until my voice was hoarse. I drank so many cokes from McDonald's and chewed on ice. Nobody falls asleep at the wheel chewing on ice and screaming. I made it, but vowed never to do that drive again.
After decades of insisting he would only leave his house "feet first" my Dad suddenly decided to sell. I'm sure we will never completely know the true reasons but the siblings rallied to get it cleaned out and on the market. The siblings sprung into action on the herculean feat. Dad was never good at cleaning his things out and he was big on accumulating- there were always deliveries from Amazon. Mom was the cleaner of the two but with Alzheimer's setting in she began hoarding in her own way- probably because she just didn't know what else to do with stuff. The yard had minimal maintenance- just a mowing now and again. Our childhood home was in a sorry state and we needed to turn it around fast. Logan put a realtor and movers into place while Whitney (with Madeleine) and Katrina (with Benjamin) flew out and rolled up their sleeves.
Things didn't always go smoothly. Like when Whitney listed the old patio chairs. They aren't nice, they aren't worth anything. Moving them where they will likely not be used just didn't make any sense. But Dad is a possessive man and those crappy patio chairs were his. Sigh and a face palm.
Not that there wasn't a lot of humor mixed in the mess. If ever there is a hallmark of my siblings, it is how we can find a way to laugh even in incredibly sad, tense situations. As a baby, Whitney fell down the stairs- often. Someone would forget to shut the door to the downstairs and then everyone would hear the sickening thud, thud, thud of her little body falling and then the worse sound of all- silence. The house would hold it's breath and wonder if she had been knocked unconscious or broken her neck. Then gratefully there would be a wailing cry and we could all breathe a sigh of relief. To this day I have no idea how Whitney turned out so brilliant because man, she fell down those stairs a lot.
The big pack up and move was the same weekend as the girl's dance recital. Even Brent is in that recital and there's no way I could miss it. I offered to come after the fact and help tie up loose ends. In the meantime, I had the best contacts with Mom and Dad's ward so I communicated with the RS president who offered some help. I asked if they could tackle the yardwork. WOW did they come through!
Let's get a closer look at the before and after. The bushes were grossly overgrown and had to be ripped out. New, modest plants took their place. They weeded and cleared and mowed and planted flowers until it didn't look so sad and neglected. The strength of the ward also helped the flagging spirits of my siblings who were in the thick of wading through so much garbage. And I mean literally, piles of garbage.
It's common and perhaps healthy for the elderly to develop a little paranoia. They are a vulnerable demographic after all. The longer my dad was able to take in what was going on around him, the stronger his opinions were on all his "stuff." Far away, an unhelpful voice was giving him more reason to put up a fight as Dad was told the siblings were secretly dividing his assets among them. "But you didn't hear it from me." Well, Dad is mostly deaf and has to listen to everything on full blast to catch even a fraction of what people were saying and others heard who said it. This threw Dad into a tizzy which needless to say was the last thing we needed. We were all drowning and someone just turned a hose on full-blast.
I made it to the house a couple of weeks later with Ireland and Brigitta. Per Dad's request, we cleaned out the safe deposit box and then headed to the house. Some touch up work was needed and we were happy to help with that. Really, it was the least we could do.
Before
After
Walking around the house one last time, I wasn't full of nostalgia, I was full of sadness. It didn't have to be like this. Different choices could have been made. Either to keep it up or just sell it before it was too cumbersome to keep it. Everyone had worked so hard and the house did look incredible compared to what it looked like before. It still looked like an old, worn house though. We hung out with Logan that night and talked and cried and maybe healed a little bit over it all. We made sure to treat members of the ward who helped with the landscaping- either taking them to lunch or dropping a little something off at their houses.
Moving on! While we made it through Ireland's appointment, her specialist was really concerned. She was right in the middle of an asthma attack and her pulse-ox was a low 90's. He didn't want her going to camp. Luckily there's a pharmacy on site and we got her started on a course of corticosteroids right away. In a way I hate that she was sick. In another, it's good for her specialist to see this is an active concern for her health. It's not a little, annoying flare up now and again.
We planned to go to the highest floor possible and take in the view of the stadium but we were pulled to the top floor, which is usually off limits. A group of people were getting on and I swiftly stepped off like it's where we were scheduled to appear. Ireland and Gita were worried we'd get in trouble and I gave them some advice my mother gave me, "Just act like you belong there." No one bothered us and we saw that amazing view of Hawkeye stadium.
We had to stop by Scheels which is the best place for Hawkeye gear.
Grabbed some goodies at Stringtown Grocer
We tried out new treats which made for lovely snacks on the drive to Minnesota. I've never seen chocolate-covered animal crackers before!
As we headed north, I realized we were nearing Clear Lake, Iowa. Since Iowa isn't famous for a lot, it sticks in my brain when there actually is something notable (ha-PUN!). This is where a plane carrying Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens went down. It became known as the day the music died and was further memorialized in Don MacLean's song Bye Bye Miss American Pie. We blasted that along with La Bamba, Chantilly Lace and That'll Be the Day. Now there are these huge Buddy Holly glasses on the edge of the field. Apparently his wife was pregnant and she found out through the media her husband had died, which led to a miscarriage. Nowadays there is a policy of making every attempt to notify family first in a tragedy- and it stemmed from this accident in Clear Lake, Iowa.
On the ground were lots of sunglasses. I'm not sure about the clock- their plane went down around 1 AM and it's not set to that time.
The street signs are covered in stickers and it has a very cool rock and roll vibe to it.
You can get a courtesy guitar pick near the parking lot.
We were right between summer storms and it was literally helter skelter in a summer swelter. Gita was done and headed back to the car but Ireland paused for a selfie.
We crossed the border into Minnesota, ready for new adventures!
