Weekend Warriors

On Saturday night, I was sitting on the couch with a traumatized Stella in my lap (we shaved her – it wasn’t fun) and I got to thinking: this blog used to be all about our daily life, with much (most?) of it in photos, but over the past several months it really hasn’t been. I think it’s because with Sarah Kate’s surgery and Nathan’s potty training I have felt stifled and wound uber-tight. I feel like I should be writing Important Things but I don’t feel like writing Important Things because life is messy right now and I just want Ordinary.

So today, you get pictures, and you get Ordinary. Welcome to our weekend.

On Saturday morning, we walked in the first-ever Walk to End Alzheimer’s held in Mayberry (actually, “participated” is probably a better word – I was the only who actually did any of the walking part, and even that was cut short because wheelchair+steep uphill made me very nervous, although Nathan did do a little pushing of Sissy before the walk started).

We were on the team for the Sigma Kappa chapter at Spring Hill College (Top 5 Team! Woot!), so we spent time with some of the women, including our friend Abbey of #BadgerBall fame. It was a great event – much bigger than I was expecting.

One of the highlights of the walk was the “memory garden” planted with pinwheel flowers. Each color represented a walker’s link to Alzheimer’s disease: patient, caregiver, lost loved one, or “just” committed to research and a cure. We chose orange flowers, because our connection is neither past nor present, but future: studies show that by age 40, the brains of almost all people with Down syndrome have significant levels of plaques and tangles, considered Alzheimer’s hallmarks.

This weekend was the first in eons it wasn’t incredibly hot and humid, so we took advantage of it. Sarah Kate rode her bike to a friend’s house down the street (sorry, no pics…), while Nathan and I hung out in the back yard. He became reacquainted with his bubble-lawn-blower, which drew the interest of both dogs, but mostly Daisy.

On Sunday morning, Mr. Andi decided it was time to tackle The Project. I was all like I’d really like to do this thing but I’m kinda scared and really what’s the hurry while Mr. Andi was all like I’ve got the plans right here and I can buy the stuff at Home Depot so let’s do this thing this weekend.

With a bit of trepidation, I gave him the green light.

He didn’t start working on it until well into the day on Sunday, but when I saw that first wall propped up in the garage, I wanted to do a little happy dance. He finished the front and ends on Sunday afternoon; the stairs and back wall he hopes to finish this week.