Five Things for Friday

1. This week I ate almost an entire 8x8 pan of Betty Crocker Turtle brownies all by myself in about a day. They were so delicious. #gluttony 

2. We've had a number of things break around the house in the last month, which is (fortunately) unusual.  

• The coat rack in our mudroom got accidentally ripped off the wall by a certain boy who shall remain nameless. 
• The garbage disposal suddenly stopped working, but luckily Peter used his latent handyman skills and was able to fix it. It's probably not a coincidence that this happened at Easter--I didn't know that you're not supposed to throw egg shells down the garbage disposal! Years of doing that finally caught up to me.
• Our kitchen sink faucet handle somehow broke, I think from age. It's still awaiting repair, or more likely, replacement. Need to call a plumber.
• I started getting an error code on our washing machine when I was doing laundry when the washer would just stop mid-load. I've never had a problem with the washing machine or dryer before, but I guess it decided to jump in on the exciting break-down action going on in our house. A repairman came over yesterday and replaced a pump and now it's fixed and probably good for another five years. 
• This giant human hamster ball that I bought for the kids at Costco last month popped a hole in it and won't stay inflated anymore. Now they're using it as a giant rocking chair. 

I hope that's the end of the broken list. I've got my eye on my SUV, which is about 1,000 miles overdue for a maintenance appointment. I have one scheduled for a week from today. Just hold on another week for me please, my trusty Highlander!

3. I've had a long-time daily habit of thinking about what I was doing on that day a month ago and a year ago. A year ago today, the boys and I flew home from New York City where my sister had gotten married the previous day. I was suffering the after-effects of a terrible bout of food-poisoning that I'd gotten the night before, so it was a tough travel day from New York to Chicago to Cedar Rapids for me, but we made it!

A month ago today, on March 17th, we were on our Disney cruise. We had our first stop on the island of St. Maarten, where we took a tour of the Dutch and French sides of the island, went on a semi-submarine ride under the sea, explored the French capital city of Marigot a bit, and saw some beautiful beaches and scenery. It was a great day. Pictures and blog posts of the cruise are forthcoming, probably not until next fall or winter given my usual pattern.

Here are a few pictures from St. Maarten to tide you over:

And today, a month later, we're not doing anything nearly as exciting or fun. But it's family Movie Night tonight! Yeah! #thatslife

4. We've been enjoying beautiful spring weather this week! Last week the buds on this tree in our yard looked like this:

This week, they bloomed!

I love this tree. (I used to know what kind of flowers these were but now I can't think of it. Anyone know?) It's in bloom like this for literally two weeks a year. It's a fleeting but perennial beauty. 

5. Yesterday was easily the best day so far of 2015 in our area weather-wise. It was sunny and mild, in the low 70s. (I like it even better about 10 degrees warmer, but I'm not complaining!) Between activities the boys and I had a picnic dinner at the park (courtesy of Wendy's and Costco) and then they had fun on the playground before it was time to drop John off at gymnastics. It was so nice!

It's going to be another nice day out today (upper 70s!), and then rain and colder temps are moving in this weekend and for next week. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. And it will be back soon enough!