Basement

 Our basement is finally DONE!!!!!  What started off as a "3 month project" in mid-January has turned into a 7.5 month nuisance.  COVID hitting 1.5 months in didn't help, but that wasn't what held it up the last few months.  Our project manager just wasn't great about planning ahead, and the weeks would drag out.

We are SO glad to be done with the basement.  And with the project manager. ;P Seriously, though, he did a fantastic job and, though we did have to alter some of the original plans, we are very pleased with the result.  We added a bedroom, a bathroom, a TV room, a kitchenette, a craft room, a game room, a workshop, a big storage closet, and 2 unfinished storage areas.

Since I'm a sucker for before-during-after pictures, I'm going to break down the basement by area and post pics.  Otherwise it'll be hard to really know what's what.  Keep checking back in the next few weeks!

Here's a look-see of what it was...

Back to School!

 The kiddos started back to school, face-to-face, on August 3rd.  Our county offered a choice to do face-to-face or digital learning, and I have to admit that I waffled back and forth a bit.  We took the kids' opinions (back to school for the girls, digital learning for Parker so he could sleep in!) but ultimately made the decision to send them back, feeling good with the plan they had in place.  We assume there will be periods of quarantining/digital learning, but we think that as much in-person time as they can get, the better it will be for them.

Parker started the 2nd grade!  

Taylor started the 4th grade!

Sydney started 6th grade... and middle school! 

Nothing like starting middle school on crutches...

Starting a whole new world!

My Dad

I lost my dad just after midnight on Sunday, August 2nd.  It wasn't a total surprise.  He had been kicking cancer's a$$ for 3.5 years, and we found out in March that treatments were no longer working... so we knew he had just a few months.  

Thankfully, we had so much family time in the last few months.  Between selling their house and spending lots of time there packing up; to moving them to our town, where we were able to just pop over really quickly and easily; we had a lot of sibling and cousin and family time together.   I wish we could have had more time living close to him, but I'm thankful for the few weeks we did have.  And now my mom is nearby, all the time (which was something my dad was very at-peace with; that she'd be in a perfect house for her near family). 

I'm utterly heartbroken, so I won't write much more... I don't think I have the words.  My dad has always been such a constant in my life: a constant supporter, a constant cheerleader, a constant comedian, a constant helper, a constant advice giver... the fact that this void our family has now will never be whole again is devastating.  But I'm thankful for the almost-40 years I did have, and I have the memories that I will cherish forever.  

I'll end this post with some pictures of my Dad. 💙

Furman gymnastics team- sometime in the mid-1960s

My favorite picture of him

First grandchild panic ;P