July 2018

Here's a quick fly-by of the month of July at Casa de Melton


We had some people over on the 4th, we ate lots of food and had lots of fun catching the fireworks over the trees and lighting a few ourselves. Kids got wet, bellies got filled, and lots of words and laughs were loosed.


We had a rather exciting weekend where our landlord had new flooring installed. Of course nothing went according to plan, and so we had to be flexible. Initially it was only supposed to take 5 hours, and the flooring company was going to show up between 10-11. So that gave Jeff and I time to get up and about and have coffee then start moving as much furniture out of carpeted areas as possible. Well the flooring company showed up at 9, so we scurried about to try and get a few more things done before getting out of the way. To pass some time we decided to visit Lake Atalanta and Jeff went for a walk around the lake while I hung out with the Monkey while she played. She had a blast until she encountered a bee, which she managed to swat onto her belly and get stung. From there we got smoothies for lunch and killed some time. Then we had some cats who we were cat sitting for so we decided to head over there and give some attention to the felines. After that we headed back to the house since we were past the 5 hour mark. We came back to a lot of work still needing to be done and we were seriously doubting whether we would be able to sleep in our own beds that night. I messaged with the friend whose cats we were watching and asked if we could be weird and take showers at their house so we could go to church that evening and hope hope hope that when we came home from church they would be done with floors. Thankfully, they were done when we got home, and we were able to sleep in our own beds and the new floors look great.


We decided to check out the new Skylight theater downtown (food served at your seat in the theater!) and we watched The Incredibles 2. Great follow up to the original. And yay for boozy-milkshakes! 

Aylin and I went through my hopechest while it was temporarily not in use as the TV stand, and got out my wedding dress, along with a dress I wore to a friend's wedding, and my prom dress. Aylin had a blast trying on all the pretty dresses!


For the month of July we had both usually hot weather - and then at the end of the month had unusually cool weather. When it was hot, it was melt-yo-face hot. It's not my favorite thing. I loved the unseasonably cool weather we got briefly.


Jeff got brave and let Aylin and I style his beard. Aylin dubbed him Pippy Beard-stalkings. That one'll go down in the history books.


Aylin and I spent the day with a neighbor friend down at The Beyond exhibit at Crystal Bridges (Georgia O'Keeffe, and artists inspired by her works), it was pretty amazing although there were some interesting nudes that I had to steer the Ginger Girl away from. The few that she did catch she was rather incredulous that anyone would want to paint someone naked. It was a bit comical, actually. Aylin was drawn to the skull with antlers and decided that Papa Joe and Grandma Linda needed to see it, so we bought them a postcard of it. We also enjoyed this other one, and abstract by Kim Keever. I dubbed it The Emotional Storm. Because we've had a few of those at our house this month... 


Lastly a quick update on my weightloss journey - I ended the month at 29 pounds lost in total since January, as well as a few other fun stats. The inches lost stats are just since April, because like a goofball I didn't start with measurements like I should have. But I'll take these wins, regardless! It was also pretty fun that when we did go to the museum it was one of those cooler days I'd mentioned so I decided to go with jeans for the day. I put on a pair of skinny jeans I hadn't been able to wear all last year and ended up with skinny jeans that were a bit saggy and falling down on me some. It was a fun problem to have!


And that’s a wrap! 


March 2018

A quick recap of the Melton Casa happenings for the month of March:


Jeff and I celebrated 13 years of married bliss (and by bliss I mean hard work, laughter, tears, highs and lows). We celebrated with an actual date night out and a babysitter. We did lovely things - like had a nice dinner out (we went to Copelands, which we reminisced that once upon a time Copeland's was one of the few nice restaurants in the area), then we went for dessert at Bentonville Baking Company followed by coffee at Onyx. 


We also got to see a bunch of brand new lambs out on Papa Joe's farm. Let me tell you, they are just as precious as you can imagine. They really do jump and hop around, and watching them frolic is just the cutest thing, and they are SO FLUFFY.

There were a couple of Ewes that had actually had triplets, which is problematic because we learned that sheep only have 2 nipples. So this cute little black dude with the white diamond was the smaller of the triplets and he got to come back to Papa's clinic to get bottle fed so that everyone gets a fighting chance to survive. Little Lambs On The Farm Video


I spent a good portion of the first half of the month pre-occupied by my (Teena) upcoming surgery. I poured my nervous energy into deep cleaning the house; getting everything as ready as possible for me to be out of commission for a bit. I had a hard time settling my brain because I didn't know what to expect, and the not knowing had me struggling. Jeff and Aylin were rock stars, though, and helped, and loved me through the chaos in my brain. We were thrown for a bit of a loop when we went in for my pre-op appointments and found out that the nurse who had told me the procedure would be outpatient and I would be home the same day - well she was wrong. Turns out all patients actually have to stay overnight after the procedure, which makes sense, and ultimately was a good thing. But it meant that we had to once again change plans for Aylin. But rock-star Grama Linda came to the rescue and even though it was her anniversary she met up with us to take Aylin for a few nights.


Spring Break: In spite of my surgery taking up a lot of brain space, Aylin got to have some fun. On Monday while I had my pre-op appointments Aylin got to go have a fun day with one of my sweet Taxi Ladies; she took Aylin to Chick-Fil-A, then they went and painted ceramics, and then they went out to lunch at The Crumpet. Topping all that off with a few nights with the grandparents (Shopping with Grama, lunch at Freddy's, and more baby lambs!) and it turned out to be a decent Spring Break after all for The Ginger Girl. 


Jeff and Aylin took (and still are!) such great care of me after surgery. Aylin waited on me hand and foot on Friday after coming back from her time with her grandparents. She stepped up her game big time by helping with laundry and dishes. We have been so proud of her and her willingness to help out around the house. She's a pretty great kiddo; we're lucky to have her. In some of my down time I did a little painting. I will likely do some more over the next few weeks since I'm not allowed to lift much, or do any strenuous exercise. It's been hard to _not do_ things because I've been feeling so good after surgery that it seems like I should be able to just pick up where I left off. But I get easily tired, and that reminds me that my body is still healing. So for now I have to find a happy medium between doing things I do have the energy for, and letting Jeff and Aylin pick up where I can't. They've been pretty amazing. Now I just need to find enough things to keep me occupied over the next few weeks until I'm fully healed. Aside from Netflix (which has gotten a lot of airtime the last couple of weeks) suggestions as to how to fill my time are welcome! And so are visits, and coffee meet-ups! 



A big THANK YOU to all those who helped out in so many ways last month, either with Aylin or with meals, or your checking in and spending time with me/us. It's all been such a huge blessing, and we have felt very loved on and cared for.