I recently took a road trip up to East Lansing, MI to get fitted for a tuxedo for a wedding I was in. I went to Michigan State University so I never mind a reason to go up and drive through campus. It really is a beautiful campus. And even though it’s been almost a decade since I graduated, it still feels like it was just last year. Going back to campus feels like going home. And I figured if I timed it right, I could catch a rehearsal and show Ellie the marching band. Yes, I said marching band. I’m a band nerd through and through.  I was in the marching band in high school, and I was in the drumline of the Spartan Marching Band for two years as well. With Ellie loving and reacting to music so much lately, I thought it’d be a great idea for her to see the marching band.
JUST WAIT…
You know that phrase that starts with the dreaded words, “Just wait …”
Just about everybody uses that phrase at some point. It’s that constant reminder from someone older or more experienced than you that life is harder, more difficult than you know it now.
LATE NIGHT EXPECTATIONS
It was a long busy day.  I had Japanese school with Ellie in the morning (which is a whole separate story in itself). And because of this, she didn’t take an official nap. She slept for 20 minutes in the car on the way there, and a half hour on the way back. When this happens, it usually means she’ll go down easy and sleep longer at night. But sometimes things just don’t go as you expect them to.
TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’
The temperature dropped 40 degrees, school has started and college football has begun. I guess that means fall is here, or at least fast approaching. And with fall beginning, that means summer is ending.
It’s ending!? Didn’t it just start? I know it’s the first week of September, but in my mind it’s still the beginning of June. It’s like I’ve been living the same day for the past three months. What happened!? It’s September already!
So before I fully embrace fall, I’m still thinking about summer, and how different this summer has been for me than last year. Having a child change from an infant into a toddler, combined with some added confidence in my stay-at-home role, provides big changes.
GETTIN’ COMFORTABLE
With the summer story time session over, we found that we had a little extra time on our hands for a few weeks. I wanted to try something new, something different, so we found a little place in Ann Arbor called the Hands On Museum. We coordinated with our friends Kelly and Evelyn and made plans to go. Kelly wanted to go early because it’s about an hour away. “Is it too crazy to leave by 8:15 or 8:30am?” she asked. Yes. Yes it is a little crazy, but we were up for the challenge.