The Denial Mullet

I'm sure most folks are familiar with the mullet and its various forms. Business in the front, party in the back. Billy Ray Cyrus. Who doesn't know the mullet?
Well last week I was in Conover unexpectedly and got the pleasure of spending some time with my brother Michael who don't get to see but once a month at best. And was quite surprised to notice he, too, was {unadmittedly} rocking a mullet. Not a super-duper mullet but a true mullet nonetheless.




In his defense, he needed an overall haircut and the rattail just tends to grow faster than the rest of his head. Plus, he's managing a large hotel construction site in Raleigh currently, so this also gives him street cred with his subs. At least thats what he's been telling himself :) I'm sure it looks super rad poking out from under his hard hat.


After a day of mullet joking and general heckling, he finally got it cut:






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Mrs. Fix-It

So after 2 years of having an office-slash-playroom in what used to be our sunroom, we finally decided to un-merge the two and move our office upstairs. This means that our guest room is now an guest room-slash-office but it just makes more sense since that room is used much less frequently than our playroom.

I've spent the better part of the last week rearranging, moving, unhooking & re-hooking up electronics. Only to realize that the cable (aka internet) line is not hooked up to that bedroom. The line is there, it was just not connected & configured to the cable line outside of the house.

After call to Charter, who tried to scam us out of $50 for them to come "assess" the problem, Ben convinced me that it was something he could easily remedy, especially since he already had the tools and parts needed. However, it gets dark at 5pm now, so by the time he gets home, its too dark for him to go tinker with it and I'm not exactly patient on things like this.



So I decided to be my resourceful self and figure out how to tie in the cable line so we could get our modem & wireless router back up and running. In about 20 minutes, I had disconnected the old cable, found out which new cable was the correct line, crimped a new end to that line & had it all up and running. I even rigged up the baby monitor so I could see which line got cable to the TV I had temporarily hooked up to save myself 15 trips up and down the stairs:



Its so empowering to figure things out that seem intimidating at first. I just this doesn't encourage Ben to move any of his "honey-dos" from his list to mine!!

The finished product:


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October Catch-Up

October was super busy...we've been busy juggling two vacant rental properties in addition to trying to fit every bit of fall fun into our days as we can.

Gigi & Poppy surprised us with a last minute visit in mid-November. We were so excited to see them and they brought Parker with them. We played outside, had lunch at the Runway Cafe and hit up Costco & Target so Gigi could spoil them with new jammies & toys.












Jackson has his first ever field trip. His class walked from the church over to the Greer Fire Department and got a tour of the firetrucks, the living quarters and a little lesson on fire safety.












We headed to Conover to spend a few days with Bebe & PopPaw. We got to ride the golf cart, play outside and read lots of books.









We saw Mawmaw who loved holding the boys and still has her spunk.









We hit up Dillard Farms for the for-real last time of the year. They officially closed for the season on October 23 and we were there the day before as one last hurrah. Followed by Waffle House the next morning for breakfast. And then Dunkin Donuts for breakfast before preschool the following week. {Michelle Obama would not be happy for our family's recent eating habits.}






We had a painting playdate with Julie & Slade and the boys had a ball creating giant masterpieces.







And my new favorite indulgence is a slushi from the QT. For those unfamiliar with this new chain of convenience stores, QT features an "slushi bar" with dozens of self-serve flavors to choose from. They also have iced coffee, soft drinks and hot drinks. Weston high-jacked my black cherry slushi and boy, I have never seen him slurp up something so fast!!




We also frequent Trader Joe's & Target...and my helpers prefer to run around than ride in the cart.







And at Petsmart, Jackson saw this advertisement for dog beds and immediately pointed out the "baby man". "He's the same size as me."



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BFF + Farm = Fun

My BFF Alisha and her family were in town last weekend for a Clemson game, so we had been so excited about getting together on Sunday to see each other & let the boys play. After lunch at Outback, we headed to Denver Downs for an afternoon of farm-fun.
{Having grown up on a farm and currently living in Ohio surrounded by acres & acres of farmland, we enjoyed the irony of them coming all the way down to SC to go to a farm}




Its so much fun watching Jackson & Ethan get reacquainted and have so much fun together. There's no doubt -- if Alisha still lived here, these two would be best friends for sure.








The farm was chock full of activities for the kids...
The Cow Train:








And sweet Ethan so willingly let Weston ride with him.




The pony swing:








Jumbo Lincoln Logs (aka playpen for Westie):




Petting Zoo:




Bouncy Bubble:




Hayride (where Jackson insisted on covering himself in hay...and little copy-cat Weston did the same):












And the highlight of the afternoon was playing on the rows and rows of haybales. Ben was the designated supervisor and the boys had the best time running, jumping and falling into the holes between the dozens and dozens of haybales.










We had so much fun with Alisha, Ethan & Alex and we wish we got to see them more often!!



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Boo in the Zoo

On Saturday afternoon, we went to the zoo's annual Halloween event with a group of neighborhood friends.

In typical fashion, the weather was unseasonably warm so the boys' costumes of Captain America and hand-me-down monkey would induce heat stoke. At the last minute, we decided they could both go as football players, wearing second-hand baseball pants and knee socks along with jerseys. Jackson got to sport Jay Brown's old Pather's jersey and poor Weston wore Bella's old NC State jersey.









{Yes, back prior to having children, we had actually purchased our dog a mesh Wolfpack jersey. And yes, the armholes are positioned to fit a dog, but that didn't seem to bother Weston.}

Westie was a good sport about letting me put electric tape under his eyes to enhance the authenticity of his costume, but Jackson has had too many bandaids ripped off that he knows better :)



We are spoiled by going to the zoo mainly on weekday mornings when there is never a crowd. Boo in the Zoo brought out the masses so we were thankful we had pre-bought our tickets and got to zip to the front of the line like VIPs.

The kids had fun collecting candy throughout the zoo. The highlight was the monkeys who were posted up at the front of their cage, yipping & yelling at the costumed kids like I've never seen them before:



We are all looking for to next Wednesday when we get to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Perhaps it'll be cool enough to wear the real costumes this time :)




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