Summer is coming to an end...

Oh my gosh - didn't August just start?!  Seriously, I feel like we just went camping yesterday to kick off August.  It's probably since August was completely insane for us that it flew by so fast.  But, all considering, it was a pretty fun month with a few setbacks.

The first setback happened after a friend's wedding back in July, I noticed my right outer ankle was hurting.  I tried to run on it and it became very swollen.  After two and a half weeks of non-stop swelling and pain, I went in to a foot doctor to have it checked out.  X-rays were normal and the ultrasound was normal too.  He chalked it up as peroneal tendinitis pain and ordered me to wear an aircast for several weeks followed by several weeks of PT.  The aircast came off yesterday, but man, I just want to run!  Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be running out in the cool fall weather.

Sorry for the gross foot picture, but the swelling was pretty noticeable.

I'm not the only one injured right now.  Poor Bailey hurt her back left paw sometime a week ago.  She won't walk on the leg at all and just hops around.  A trip to the vet on Saturday proved that she tore her ACL, maybe all the way, and will likely require surgery.  For now she's on pain meds to help with the pain and swelling.  Poor thing.  Scott left me a friendly reminder this week one morning to give her pills.

On a positive note, we've done some fun things around the house.  From homemade playdoh and cardboard boxes to color on to home grown cantaloupe and a surprise package from the new dentist, the boys have enjoyed just being home since we were gone for most of the month.

The solar eclipse was pretty exciting on the 21st!  The library had given us glasses way back at the beginning of the summer.  I didn't realize how lucky we were to get those so easily after seeing the struggles people had finding them.  A few neighbors stood outside with us for about an hour as we took peaks at the eclipse!  Sean was really in to it.  Evan was more in to the neighbor's outdoor cat roaming around.  So, we shared his glasses with other neighbors who didn't have any.  What a cool experience for the boys!

Other exciting news was that Evan learned how to ride a bike without training wheels this past weekend!  It kind of came out of nowhere.  He asked to have his training wheels off (we tried this at the beginning of the summer and he was nowhere near ready) and within two minutes he was off and down the street doing turns and all!  To say we were shocked would be putting it lightly.

We took a family trip to the Howell Nature Center last week as our last big outing before summer ends.  It was somewhere new for us so everyone was pretty pumped.  It was about a 40 minute drive, but it was pretty cool.  There was a trail to walk around and see permanently injured animals that they are taking care of, a bird section, a really cool play area with a little stream, a giant tree house, and a spider web to climb, and a hands on section inside to play with.

Scott and I are both back to work this week and the boys have been spending time with Grandpa, Nana, and Tutor Time so far.  They were excited to find out their teachers yesterday and we had open house tonight.  I can't believe they'll both be at the same school tomorrow.  So exciting to see little Ev off to school!  He'll have the same teacher Sean had for Young 5's, Mrs. Korstjens.  Sean will have Mrs. Bence for first grade this year.  First grade!!!

Evan's birthday is this weekend and we'll be trying to enjoy our long weekend before the school year really starts for all of us.  It's been another great summer!  The boys have grown so much and we're pretty proud of all we were able to see and do this summer.  Welcome fall...

Refinishing our hard-wood floors...a journey.

It's the first week of school for Scott and I and I'm actually rolling into a new school year feeling ready to be back to work this year.  I honestly feel like I had a fulfilling summer home with my family and am ready to see all my students and get back into what I love doing.  Don't get me wrong; we had a great summer!  But, it had some challenges too.  I guess home projects will do that to you.

New roof and gutters.  Yup, that was painful to the bank account.

And now freshly re-finished hard wood floors for the first floor, thanks to my handy hubby.  This project was no joke and about three times the amount of work it took for him to do that to our floors in Clawson years ago.  Knowing we'd need to be out of the way, I took the boys and Bailey to my parents' house in Troy for the week.

My least favorite part?  Moving every single thing out of the first floor, including all the closets and the china cabinet.  I don't think we'll ever do that again unless we're moving.  It was quite the project!  As can be seen above, the floors were in pretty bad shape when we moved in.  But, with our growing family and dog, we knew we didn't want to put the work in initially.  And we're glad we waited.  The kids and Bailey have both been rough on the floor.

Scott and his dad worked hard on Monday and most of Tuesday sanding the floors and then cleaning them up so Scott could stain on Wednesday morning.  Tuesday night Evan had his last t-ball game, so we came back home and checked out the floors before going back to Troy.

Wednesday morning the stain was applied.  And then it got interesting.

The stain did not dry in the time it said it would.  Thursday morning Scott was hoping to put the first layer of polyurethane on, but they were nowhere near ready.  He had some spots to touch up where it looked like it streaked.  Scott was freaking out on Thursday morning when they still weren't ready.  Luckily, his mom came out to help him do more touch ups and to check them out.  Finally, Friday he was able to poly the floors.  Woo!

We opted to use a satin finish so it wouldn't be shiny and I'm glad we went that route.  He applied the second coat on Saturday and the final coat Sunday morning.  He cleaned up the house, packed a few things, and drove up north to meet up with me, the boys, and Bailey as we started week 2 away from home.  We were lucky to have his parents' cottage to go to while we let the floors cure.

And then it was finally time to come home the following Sunday and it was my first time seeing the floors!  They're not perfect, but they are pretty darn awesome and a huge change from what they were before!  We're waiting a few more weeks before the rugs come back in and we have been very cautious with moving everything back in and letting the kids play on them.  But, I'm so proud of Scott and all his hard work!  Aren't they something?!

My parents helped us move everything back in and a few days later his parents came back to put the shoe moldings back up and do paint touch ups to the white moldings.  This place looks great!  And I'm excited to add back in the rugs to make it more like home.  I think after everything we accomplished this summer at this house, we'll go easy on ourselves next summer.  Maybe paint the upstairs hallway?  Maybe do nothing?  I'm good for a while.