If you haven't met baby William yet, he is pretty great! He is not too fussy (at least, when I've seen him) and is wholly comfortable with strangers. Here he is, peacefully sleeping, swaddled in the blanket that I use when I sleep on the couch. [Oops, I realize that some of you may not know that this is my brother's child.]
I got to play Mysterium with some friends who basically made fun of me the entire night, telling me that I'm the worst at this game. 😒 I'm looking for new friends.
Steph, her sister, and I went on a quick trip to Milwaukee to visit her aunt and uncle and grandma (whom I had never met yet). Her grandma was unable to travel to our wedding for various reasons, one of which was a little something called COVID (maybe you've heard of it?). And so we decided to make the trip up to her instead so that I could meet her. While we were there, we visited the 'Domes,' which, if you've been to Seattle, are like Bezos' balls, but worse, I guess. But they were still cool and we got to see a lot of unique plants that are not native to the U.S.
Speaking of not native to the U.S., my friend Renae (you may remember her from my post-SICM blog for May) was in Tanzania this summer for a cultural exchange program. I had asked her if she could send me a picture of a baobab tree—this tree is significant because in my high school French class, we had to read Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince). I have always wanted to see a real baobab tree, but haven't had the chance. So Renae lovingly snapped this picture for me while in a moving vehicle. ♥
Here is a picture of my visit with Steph's grandma and aunt! Steph's grandma is 93 years old and was a joy to visit. We brought her favorite food, Culver's, and I got to try their frozen custard (I probably had frozen custard every day I was in Wisconsin, sometimes more than once a day).
While in Milwaukee, we stayed with Steph's aunt and uncle. Her uncle recently had a bout with sepsis where he almost didn't make it, but praise God he was able to hold on and is now able to do most of the things he was able to before the incident. You can see him and Serena on their little screens looking at his MyChart to see what notes his doctor left on his medical records.
It was Serena's birthday, so we went over to her place in Tyler to celebrate! If you know me a little, you may know that I've been managing my eczema since kindergarten. I've had ups and had many downs. I stopped using one of my prescriptions recently because it was not intended to be used as a daily lotion, but I had, in fact, used it as such for the last 20 years. I have heard stories of dependence and withdrawal and I definitely felt it when I stopped using my prescription. My eczema flared up and returned with a vengeance over my face and neck and it was hard to do anything for a few weeks. But praise God, I saw a dermatologist and got a new prescription that is less harsh than my old one, but still works decently. My skin is definitely still drier than it used to be, but I am also trying out new skincare routines to see if I can help my skin without having to resort to the hard stuff. (I feel gypped that as a guy, I was never taught skin care maintenance or anything like that.. it's important for us too!) The reason that's relevant is, my skin made it hard for me to be awake, but it made it harder to fall asleep or stay asleep. When we got to Serena's place, I took a nap from exhaustion and when she passed out a slice of cake, I ate it laying down and then went back to sleep.
I know what you're thinking... it's not Halloween?! But me and Steph were invited to a friend's 40th birthday party and the theme was '80s movies, so everyone was invited to dress up like a character from an '80s film. Me and Steph have never seen Beetlejuice the movie, but we did get to watch the musical (see my blog post for February)! I was definitely feeling horrible (see my last photo) still, which is why I didn't try THAT hard to match his look from the movie, but I did want to at least put in some effort.
As you can tell, these photos are not in any particular order. Every 4th (of July), I host a cookout and then invite people to come with me to the city of Richardson's fireworks show. I had a blast (haha) with these people.
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