The first woman I ever loved

In celebration of my mom's birthday today, here are some pics (all from last year, alone).

G-pa

DIY V-Day

What it takes to get an 11-year-old boy actually interested in Valentine's Day...

In addition to reprising these anatomically correct Valentine's Day cards, we stepped it up a notch this morning and created a matching wardrobe component, too!

Gettin' our fall on

School pics

Kindergarten

Fifth grade

Big Blue

Spotted this statuesque blue heron out the window at work.

I'm a little surprised it was that far above the ground/water. Plus, it stayed in that same exact spot for more than an hour!

First day of school

And away we go!

At dinner tonight, when I asked the boys specifically how the bus ride was, Jack said it was “sucky.” Because he had very much been looking forward to sitting with Landon and walking into school together, but the bus driver said kindergarteners — and only kindergarteners — had to sit in the front of the bus.

Jack was genuinely disappointed ... and we were extremely proud.

For the record

Driving to work on Aug. 12th — in the Midwest — and it's only 55 degrees out!

Back-to-School Night

We've been gearing up for this for quite a while: the only year that Jack and Landon will go to school in the same building.

Compare this to Jack's first photo with the school sign.

And Landon's turn.

Inside, he sat right down and got to work. Later, when I asked Landon what his favorite part of Back-to-School Night was, he said, "The beginning — getting to meet my teacher."

Meanwhile, Jack stopped by to see his former teacher, from last year.

Kindergarten, here we come!

Landon’s first-ever attempt at a backflip

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

Peonies from heaven

Throwback Thursday

My dad — 1938

Me — 1985

Jack — 2009

Landon — 2014

Double date

We went out with our friends Lisa & DJ to The Bristol last night.

Both the company and the food were great!

While you were out — Landon’s cowboy bedroom

While Leslie took the boys back to her hometown for the weekend, I gave Landon's room a little makeover. It's hard to tell from these pictures, but I painted three of the walls a soft brown color (Sherwin Williams "Hopsack" — SW6109) and painted one accent wall, opposite his bedroom door, with a denim faux finish (Sherwin Williams "Needlepoint Navy" — SW 0032).

North wall, before:

North wall, after:

Northeast corner, before:

Northeast corner, after:

Southwest corner, before:

Southwest corner, after:

We bought the furniture — the headboard, footboard and rails; nightstand; vanity with mirror; and chest of drawers — a year or two ago off Craigslist, all for $180. It's old and has lots of character. So the mirror's clean, those spots are just imperfections. And I replaced the hardware with rope.

Other than the furniture, virtually everything else is something we already had or is a family heirloom/hand-me-down. Besides the paint, the only things I bought new were 99-cent bandanas for the lampshades and one 4x6 picture frame.

In this picture, the piece on the nightstand is part of the livestock "tie-out" from the old Ak-Sar-Ben (if you're from Nebraska, you'll know what that means) cattle barn, the guitar is from Leslie's family with the words "Singing Cowboys" on it and my grandpa picked up the cattle skull in western Nebraska decades ago.

After seeing these before-and-after pictures, I decided to paint the white candlestick lamp. I spray painted it a brushed bronze color, but it looks nearly black.

The framed horses is a pencil drawing by my uncle when he was in elementary school (the same school my dad, siblings and I all went to) in the 1930s. On the back is the original tag showing it won "First Premium" at the Douglas County Fair.

The "Broken Diamond N" on the wall-hanging above the desk is our family's brand.

The chair is from the old library at Northwest Missouri State University.

The horseshoes are from Leslie's family.

The makeshift shelf is reclaimed wood from Habitat ReStore on top of bricks from my grandpa.

And the book was a gift my great-grandmother gave in 1951.

I hope Landon likes it!