First Ever Power Hour 2022

 We decided not to do candyland at the gym for New Years. It was Brian's thing and we figured we better come up with a new tradition. 

Power hour is born!

1 Hour, 4 WODs, Standing room only!

We did what??

 We bought a gym.  

If you're my mom, then you know how many times we got very close to saying those words, only to back out because something wasn't quite right. 

But Brian was ready to sell and Mark made him promise to let us know if he ever wanted out, we'd be the first to know. 

The next 6 weeks were a flurry of conversations with Dan and Lauren Smith, negotiations, painstaking digging through old bank accounts, coming up with a value for the gym, more conversations with lawyers and financial advisors, drawing up a proposal, adding Ross and Lauren as partners, frustration with the organization mess that the gym has existed in for a decade and coming to a final number and making the offer to Brian. 

Then more negotiations. 

A deal was made and a date was set!

September 26...we would become gym owners. 

It was exciting and not a little scary. 

So we settled into limbo-land while we waited for the day to come. There was a weird sense of ownership that we were already feeling, even though Brian was still in charge and running things. Here and there we started cleaning and making minor improvements. He seemed okay with it all. I know he was sad but also relieved to have the burden off of his shoulders soon. 

We held a goodbye party and invited everyone that he had every known ever. And some of them came!

We survived another week of the in-between blues. It was hard to see him go, and also hard to hold off on the lengthy list of things we wanted to work on. 

And then....BAM! We were small business owners!

It was time to replace the old faded sign that was literally peeling off the front of the building.

We started cleaning and de-cluttering every nook and cranny.

Replace some equipment and probably saved a life in the process.

Started work on building up the wall on west side....no more dusty insulation decor!

We remodeled both bathrooms and the three shower...that was mostly Ross. He's ridiculously handy.

We painted just about everything. All the blue stripes on the walls needed to be "cracked pepper", The walls of the bathrooms and showers, as well as the newly finished (but unpainted) west wall. 

It took us only one wall ball workout to realized that "cracked pepper" is almost exactly the same color as the black...so we knocked out a thin yellow line (that was mostly me).

And even the lines on the floor got an update! It made a huge difference and we discovered that all the old paint drips could be scraped up with a razor blade. 

Yay?

The new kids room took a couple months, but it was so much better and the dog pee smell was totally gone! (Its the little things!)

Vertical storage for all the barbells

And stenciled numbers for all the dumbells.

And, oh my word, that doesn't even scratch the surface! New lights, fresh doors, toys for the kids room, repainting the cubbies, buying and stocking a fridge for drinks and protein bars, a total remodel of the front offices, signing a contract with one of the coaches to rent those offices for his chiropractic practice, establishing a cleaning schedule, hiring 7 new coaches, getting everyone CPR certified and trained on the AED machine, choosing new programming, handling members concerns and getting it all done while our children still need love and attention and need to be born (welcome baby Halle!)

It's been so much. But it's been wonderful. 

And hard,

But mostly wonderful. 

Garden Haven

I know what you're thinking....

What's happening in the garden this year? 

Firstly, I finally realized that if I want to have any blueberries, I'll have to make sure that the birds don't take them all. That's hard to do when your blueberry bush is in a place you hardly ever go....but I did it!

And check out this bountiful harvest! That has to be like 3/4 a cup or something. Well worth the months of anticipation.

The shelling peas are a shining star this year. Look at those beauties! 

And a Maren Hufford first....broccoli!! The sight of those broccoli heads sparks true joy in my heart!

And in my belleh.

Aren't these cabbage actually darling? 

Hello, Mr. Onion! You are killing it.

Corn and sunflower bed on the left, bean bed on the right. This year is my last ditch effort at successful corn. I've made a fatal mistake each year.... picked too late, planted to close, planted two varieties...

If I can make 12 corn stalks produce a few delicious ears of corn this year, I'm moving on to something else...even though I will miss is tall cuteness.

The view from the east side...

If you look carefully, you can see the cucumber trellis leaning over the kale and lettuce bed. I had hoped that the cucumbers would lengthen the season for the spring greens, but I think I will still be too hot to save them by the time the cukes can really vine up and give coverage. 

A better view of the corn and sunflowers...

I planted Scarlet Runner Beans this year....man, can they climb. They are already 10 feet tall and too high for me to pick. But the coolness is totally worth it!

These are the Cape Gooseberry plants I started from some smashed fruit I got at Hyvee. They are doing awesome and I can't wait to see if I get a gooseberry crop! These are my replacement for the tomatillos I've done each year. Turns out, there is only so much you can do with hundreds of tomatillos...for this girl, anyway. At least with the gooseberries, I'll munch them. 

 Stay tuned! I'm bound to take more photos as things ripen and the harvest starts coming in!

Summer Smackdown begins.

3 weeks. 

That's how long it took before the fighting reached a fever pitch and I did, indeed, turn that car around. 

We were on our way to Science City and way too many of my daughters were going to war over loud breathing, water bottle ownership and seating arrangements. 

2 blocks from the house, I pulled a "U-ie" and proclaimed that I no longer wanted to spend any time with "you people".

We pulled into the garage at a frightening speed and I requested that they all kindly "get all their crap out of my van".

Then I went inside and finished off the first season of Severance while I patiently waited for them to knock and apologize one by one. 

It had to be done.

I let them stew for a few hours and then we set out for the Asian Market in search of unfamiliar snacks we could try. 

They were mostly not that great. But those strawberry jalapeno crisps we snagged at Trader Joes were a revelation. Everything else was about as good as one of those pink snowballs...except for the Mango and Cookies and Creme crisps. 

Yuck. 

They also chose some Taro Boba Tea to stew up later, and that was a hit. 

You win some and you lose some....we can suffer through Science City next week. 

Till then, you can find me in my closet with a box of those crisps and some cream cheese making my summer a little tastier.

Operation 50 dollar bunny and Moonlight Market

Thursday was shaping up to be pretty relaxing....

Laundry was getting done and I had intentions of taking of an epic nap. 

Then the boy called and wove the tragic tale of a bunny, siblings passed away of a mystery illness....mama bunny dead in the road. 

Would I come and get it? Would I nurse it back to health? Could it be a Hufford? 

No.

But I will drive it to Eudora with the price of gas at historic highs and pay the folks at Operation Wildlife 20 bucks for the privilege. 

Loath to drive all the way out to....somewhere.... and not make it worth it (yes, I realize we saved a bunny life...but there is a summer bucket list that needs doin), we decided to pop over to Pendletons farm before heading home and check out their shop. 

We spied this fabulous establishment on the way through downtown Eudora...so many questions. 

Pendletons is a working farm and I want to live there....but, my dears, it was hotter than Hades in that shop and even worse in the greenhouses. 

We stayed just long enough to gran a couple big tomatoes, a head of napa cabbage and a jar of salsa (ok, ok....and those terrible honey sticks)

Later, we ventured over to Shawnee's Moonlight Market to look at the different vendors and roam about searching for someone to give our money to. 

It was soooo hot. 

But we had fun and we bought watermelon and beeswax and tumbled rock earrings. I found a welded snail for my garden and we all left completely soaked in sweat and fervently grateful for the air conditioning.