Summer Shenanigans

I feel like a broken record every time I write a post on this blog - "it's been a hot minute"! Based on the last post being in September of 2023, you'd think there was absolutely nothing going on at Casa de Guthrie. Won't you join me on a recap of the last year then?

Let's see...Emma and Penny successfully finished another school year and Emma straight aced TCAPs this time. It wasn't a year that she was in danger of being held back like the previous year, but it's still good to see the she's learning what she should. Penny had an amazing teacher and made the sweetest little friends and is so excited to go back to school in a few weeks. It's breaking my brain that I'm about to have a 5th grader and 2nd grader, but here we are.

Both girls started gymnastics in the spring and have been LOVING it. They started out in tumbling but decided that those bars and the beam looked super fun. The swap over wasn't too bad since they already had some skills in tumbling. They both have been moving up at warp speed but loving every minute of it. I really wish I could do half the stuff they do out there, but then I'd be in traction for the next six months.

Emma got braces again in January, but this should be the last phase. She has to wear them for 18-24 months, but that still means they'll be gone shortly after she starts middle school. That's when everyone else's used to get them when I was growing up, so she can just skip right over awkward brace face phase! She looks adorbs with hers though, so no awkward here!

Rory's been tearing up the pistol competitions this year. He got a new gun that's more of a "race" gun and has been really liking it. He made the level he wanted in that category so now he's moving on to a new category, with - you guessed it - a new gun. I have a phrase that continuously replays in my head "Boys don't outgrow hobbies. They just get more expensive ones." I don't really have room to talk because if I had the chance to get a "race" gun, I'd be all over that. I've shot Rory's a few times and it's probably one of my favorite ones, other than my double action pistol. I'm planning to go shoot a local match next weekend with him, but I don't practice near the amount that he does so I'm not expecting anything. I just don't want to be last place ;)

I've been to a couple of major competitions with Rory, including one in Alabama and one in Kentucky. The girls spent the weekend at their grandparents in Kentucky for that one, so that was a nice "vacation" in June. This month is pretty quiet with just a few local matches. It's the calm before the storm though. He's got three competitions in August (Tennessee, Ohio, and South Carolina), then two more in September, including a National major for the new category that he's shooting, then two more in October with another National in the "race" gun category. Throw in a week-long family road trip the second week of October, and our fall is shaping up to be a fun one. I'm only going to about half the competitions because we have these small humans that need someone here (I mean, they can make their own cereal and air fry some chicken nugs and school is less than a mile away, so do they really NEED me?!). I'm looking forward to some of the further away competitions because it really will feel like a mini-getaway, but I'm most looking forward to our road trip. If this one works out well, the sky will be the limit!

We had another successful 4th of July bash, and this time my parents came down to see what all the fuss was about. As my dad put it, he had never seen anything like that anywhere they've lived! We do it up big, yo. So much so that my children thought that all fireworks are shot off via electronic switches lol! We celebrated the 4th on Saturday with Rory's family and they shot off some really good fireworks but it was the "old fashion" way of individually lighting them. Emma didn't understand why they had to do that lol! I blame our friends with all the high tech gizmos and gadgets ;) 

Not much going on in my world other than work, some bible studies, book clubs, you know...the usual "mom" stuff. I took a work trip to Orlando in October that was amazing - I mean the work stuff wasn't, but going to Disney wasn't too bad. Got to ride some roller coasters, which I haven't done in a LONG time. I changed my hair color from blonde to red, just cuz. My philosophy on hair is that it can always be changed and will always grow back. I've also officially made it to middle age and so has my body. I got the scolding from my doc about eating better and moving more, so I'm enlisting Rory to be my slave driver...I mean, my workout partner. I need to shed some lbs and really need to start moving more since apparently sitting is the new smoking, but without looking cool. My goal is to get back down to the weight I was when we moved here by mid-September. Our annual Heiress Banquet for teen girls is then and I would love to be able to feel better in my body then. Plus I really want to pig out on some baked potatoes and smoked BBQ (no pun intended). That's one thing I didn't realize I would miss so much from Birmingham, but guys, NOBODY up here knows how to make good BBQ. And you can forget that "Alabama White Sauce" up here. It ain't real. But they try, bless their hearts. 

So with that, the recap is done. We're a little over three weeks from the start of school, our fall is looking cray-cray, and I'm just waiting to see what wild shenanigans the politicians and media throw out next. This world is not my home...this world is not my home...

God bless!