2024: week 34.

monday, august 19.

i worked this day, so it was pretty casual except for the fact that i made my last student loan payment, which means i am 100% DEBT FREE. here is T and olive with a victory (ribbon) dance performance.

after i finished working, i went to my parents’ house to have dinner with them.

tuesday, august 20.

i worked again this day, and then H and her fam and my parents came over to T’s house (“new house,” as olive calls it) for taco tuesday.

wednesday, august 21.

i was off this day. my parents, H, T, their kids, and i went to a new park, walked along their cute little main street, and ate ice cream. such a fun day. lots of hand holding.

thursday, august 22.

pool day. T and i matched (shocker). and i learned that when olive sees a photo being taken, she immediately makes moves to be in it — which i don’t mind one bit.

after the pool, H and her kids and i met up with abby and evie at the park, and then we went to see J when he got home from work.

friday, august 23.

while lee worked and T and the boys went to their home school group, olive and i hung out. we played barbies, had a tea party, and read books.

olive does this thing where she raises her shoulders, tucks her arms into her chest, and gets a giddy smile like she just cannot contain her excitement. the live photo of the middle photo is her doing that. i feel exactly the same way about getting to hang out with her too.

the third photo is after she re-found her barbie sunglasses that she needed to wear (inside — it was “so sunny”). whenever you go anywhere, including the bathroom, she says, “can i come?” and acts like a little assistant, handing you toilet paper and offering to flush for you. she kills me.

my mom came over a couple hours later and we went to the pool, just the three of us.

my mom usually watches olive while T and the boys go to their homeschool group and i’ve been a nanny to toddlers before — but both of us were pretty out of practice. we remembered her swim diapers, hat, and sunscreen. but we forgot regular diapers (for the ride home), and her entire diaper bag in general. mom and i had a good laugh about it, and nothing disastrous happened.

for weeks, i’ve been seeing dragonflies everywhere. at SJ’s pool, in the parking lots of my pilates studio and church. i stopped paying attention to all the places i’d see them because it happened all the time. on this day, i got out of the car when we got to the pool and somehow shut a dragonfly right in the door when i closed it. ??

i knew seeing a lot of dragonflies meant something, but i hadn’t looked it up until i shut one in the door. my pastor wrote a book called “tailor made” that had a dragonfly on the cover. in one of the chapters, she explains it by quoting dr. don eisenhauer’s explanation of a dragonfly’s transformation journey. it’s pretty long so i won’t share the whole thing here, but the last paragraph says this:

“the symbolism of the dragonfly’s story gives us hope in the midst of ...change. it gives us hope that in spite of our fears; in spite of our lack of understanding; there is something far better to come.”

which, if you know anything about my life right now, is like word-for-word on point.

saturday, august 24.

i drove home this day. i didn’t take any photos. but i did unpack, do laundry, wash my hair, and go to bed early.

sunday, august 25.

when my roommates and i were all home at the same time, we were catching up on how our weeks were, since we were all apart last week. i told them i paid off my student loans, and they immediately popped champagne and had a dance party to celebrate.

what a way to begin and end the week!