Oh, hey, it's me, Scottie. Taking Turkish Airlines to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia via Istanbul. I was heading to the Middle East for the first time to photograph a World Heritage Site outside of the Saudi capital. With a lengthy layover I decided to get a room at the airside Hotel at Istanbul's airport. By the time I woke up, I was no longer loopy as hell. Ready for the destination. IST is something of architectural wonder. Not a bad place for a layover. I had hoped to head to Istanbul proper, but due to COVID rules in Saudi Arabia, that was a no go.    Around here I met up with my travel companions Vincent and Simone from Prestige Visions. I usually shoot yachts, boats and the occasional RV for Vincent. This time we had a much bigger project at hand. For the second consecutive flight I had no one sitting next to me. Win! I was crossing over from Europe to Asia for the first time.   I wondered how we'd fly from Turkey to Saudi Arabia with civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Appa

  I was traveling abroad for work, so I tried getting some projects done before I'd be gone for a week. I focused on wet scraping and puttning down a coat of Peel Bond on the window sills. They weren't in great shape, but this would hold us over this year.   Our windows are full of peeling lead paint. Now that it's finally getting warm out I didn't want to open the windows until we knew they paint was encased.     Meadow was prepping for her birthday party. Still a month out, but she was ready.   She is really into the show Lion Guard. A spin off of Lion King. This is what she has decided her birthday theme will be.   Brooke worked on the linen closet/hallway ceiling.   I'm back to working in the office after 2 years of working from home. With Scott gone for the next week we asked my parents if they could watch the kids. I felt embarrassed that we hadn't painted the ceiling after my dad helped us install it last November.   

  A good chunk of our front yard was bare dirt. So, we tried our hand at growing grass from seed. It started out well.   First we put down just seed but the birds kept eating it.    Our house came with three raised garden beds. Me and and the kids each get our own. The kids were responsible for cleaning up and planing their own gardens. They got to pick what they wanted to grow too. 

We had Aaron and the kids over for spaghetti and meatballs. Then he left to go watch the Timberwolves game. Meadow has suddenly started reading big chapter books. She loves the Warriors series.   She usually only reads graphic novels. She also picked up this awesome sweater at the thrift store the other day. I can't believe we are still wearing bulky sweaters.    Since she was already into her Warriors book from school she opted out of coming with Theo and I to the library.  Finally toys are back! Meadow missed out on the large graphic novel section at the Arvonne Fraser Library. Meanwhile, I decided it was time to get rid of the pink dinning room paint.   This room has always grossed me out. The paint is peeling in areas and there's dirt smudges and stains everywhere.   With the dining room in use I took my giant mending pile upstairs.  The kids played in the other room almost the whole day. Since we brought all their toys up here they rarely come up here.  I asked an old fr