Monday started off a little slow, but I made the decision to take Friday off, giving me a 4-day weekend, so knowing I only had 3 days of work got me moving. Also, I did have to take a couple hours off this afternoon for my eye appointment. FINALLY, I was off for a check up and in hopes that I'd soon be able to see again. My appointment started off pretty normal...the nurse had me cover one eye and read the board. My left eye wasn't great, but I got through it. My right eye, which is my worst eye, was not nearly as successful. I literally couldn't read a thing...the nurse couldn't believe I even had my contacts in it was so bad. I told the doctor right off the bat that things aren't good...everything is blurry, I can't read street signs, I have constant headaches. The appointment definitely took longer than past appointments...he was very quiet, and being very thorough. Now, I'm not blind (yet) by any means, but up until about 10 years ago, I had PERFECT 20/20 vision...no glasses, no contacts, no blurriness. Nothing. My current contact prescriptions are -2.00 & -2.50. My NEW prescriptions are -3.25 & -3.75! He was pretty shocked by the drastic change in the last 18 months. He actually suggested that I have some diabetes testing done at my next check up. Now, I don't really think that I'm diabetic, but it's still a little crazy. My glasses prescription is even worse! I still haven't ordered some new glasses, but I ordered my contacts and I cannot wait for them to come in. The rest of the night was a little rough. Getting my eyes dilated always makes my head hurt and exhausts me. So, I picked the girls up and we took it pretty easy the rest of the night. Christian and his friend Lorenzo took a trip over to Wisconsin after work to pick up some fireworks for the 4th and didn't get home until pretty late. Here are some updated photos of our plants and gardens...
Our Lilies FINALLY Bloomed. I LOVE them!
The Mini Rose Bush Christian Gave me for Valentines Day is Blooming Again!
The Giant Bush in the Backyard Is Blooming
The Jalepenos are Officially Dropping!
We Have our First Tomato Growing!
We're Getting Strawberries!
The Pumpkins are Popping Up
Tuesday was pretty low-key. My co-workers daughter stopped into work today with her brand new little baby boy. He was so cute and so cuddly and I was pretty close to stealing him. You forget how small and tiny and perfect little babies are. That was pretty much the highlight of my day. Today was also a pretty big day...Olivia's Half Birthday! She is officially 4.5. Seriously, where does the time go?!? I played it up this morning and let her know it was her half birthday. She was pretty annoyed after school because none of her friends knew what she was talking about and didn't believe her. LOL. Per the new usual, they hopped into their swimsuits as soon as we got home. We watered the plants and gardens, made some dinner and hung out for the night. Christian mowed the lawn when he got home from work and I got a little cleaning done in the house. For some reason, it JUST dawned on me that we're having people over in TWO days for the 4th celebrations...oops!
Olivia's 4.5 Photo!
1-4.5
Wednesday was a busy day. Work went by pretty fast, getting everything done that I could before the weekend. I rushed to pick up the girls after work, stopped home quick to change and then we were off for some carnival fun. We stopped at the local carnival quick to check out the petting zoo. They have the best little petting zoo, and Olivia loves all the animals, so I knew she'd like that. Amelia just clung to me the whole time and wouldn't touch ANYTHING....not even the cute little bunnies. I wish she wasn't so afraid of animals...hopefully she'll grow out of that. Next up, we were off to the carnival in Eagan to hang out with my mom for a while. We ate some food, went on a few rides and listened to the music for a while. The girls had a blast. While we were partying it up, Christian was home cleaning up the yard and he and Lorenzo cleared of the deck. This weekend we'll be power-washing and stripping the deck, so we decided to get a head-start on emptying the deck. We finally made our way home as it started getting dark. The girls were off to bed while Christian and I watched a little TV and relaxed for a while. We're both off of work tomorrow and Friday and REALLY looking forward to our long weekend!
Petting Zoo Cuteness
Rides, Food and Music Fun
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! Like most Holiday's, we love the 4th of July. Every year we have friends and family over for the big Apple Valley parade, a BBQ, some play time and fireworks. The last few years have been DREADFULLY, pretty much unbearingly hot. This year was perfect. We did some final cleaning and get-together preparations throughout the morning. My mom, Bella and her mom Sara showed up and we made our way down to our parade spot (which, PS, you MUST reserve the day before the parade, or you will not have a place to sit). Kari, Jay and Andrew showed up a short time later, along with Bella's dad Mariano. The parade is about 2 hours long and it was just the perfect weather to sit and watch a parade in. Afterwards, we packed everything up and made our way home...except Sara was off to work. My mother and father in law met us at the house. The kids went swimming, played with water balloons and drove eachother crazy. Christian fired up the grill while my mom and I did the last of the preparations. We all ate, had some drinks, chatted, laughed, played with some of the smaller fireworks and just had a blast. Kari has been getting some wicked pregnancy induced headaches, and today was no exception, so she spent most of the evening relaxing in the air conditioning. As it started getting darker, we started shooting off the REAL fireworks and that was a blast. They found some good stuff in Wisconsin, that's for sure. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I should've because I was too nervous about getting caught with our contraband. It was a great time though. Everybody started making their way home. We lit up a small fire to make a couple of s'mores quick and called it a night. Such a great day!
Friday was another busy day. The girls actually slept in for a change...they woke us up around 8:30...I couldn't even believe that I slept that late! I got them dressed quick, gave them some breakfast and they were off to my mom's for the day. It's her usual day to watch them, and we needed a little time without them to get started on the deck work, so that worked out well. My dad came over to help us power wash the deck and get everything started. We ran to Menard's to get some supplies and they got to work. I pretty much just supervised , watered and plants and gardens and played with the dogs. Our plan was to wash and strip the paint off the deck so that we could stain it. Unfortunately, there were too many layers and we couldn't get them all off. So, we'll be sanding and re-painting it instead. We'll be painting it darker though, so hopefully it gives the house a little different look. My mom brought the girls home just as they were finishing up their washing for the day. We played in the yard for a while and then my dad headed home. It was a pretty long, hot day outside for all of us, so we just had some dinner and hung out inside for the night. Nothing too exciting. I did discover that the robin's have started their nest. Robin eggs are just so beautiful, I love them! The robins don't play games though...they do NOT like you messing around their nest, that's for sure.
The start of our Robin's Nest
Puppy Fun!
Hard at Work
Saturday was take two of the deck work. The girls played in the water pretty much ALL day. Olivia didn't have swim class today because of the holiday, so we didn't have to go anywhere. Christian and Lorenzo spent a good part of the day sanding the deck. I spent they supervising, and tanning, and playing. I'm not much help in this deck project. I got the house cleaned up from the 4th though, and kept the girls occupied, so that was my job! Bella's family stopped by for a short visit so we could see the dog they adopted. A big ol' pit bull! He seemed very well mannered though, especially for just being adopted. He was super friendly, and even tolerated Chuy's annoying self. They finished up the deck work in the late afternoon. Once the girls were up from their nap, we all showered and got cleaned up and went out for dinner. Our friend Mariano is a cook at a Mexican restaurant a town over, which we'd never been to before, so we tried it out. The food was really good, and we got a free dessert out of the deal! The girls were off to bed when we got home, and Christian and I watched a movie. Good way to end a busy day.
Working Hard...
Water Time
Sunday seemed to come so fast. Our long weekend was coming to an end, and we were NOT happy about it. We spent the morning being lazy around the house. I got our laundry done, we ate some breakfast, the girls played and we relaxed for a while. Finally, we got off our lazy butts and we were off to spend the afternoon at the beach. We found out there was a beach not far from the house that we'd never heard of before, and it was actually really nice. We played in the water, played in the sand and it felt so nice to just relax and do nothing. We had a picnic, played for a while longer and made our way home. We debated having the girls take a late nap, but Amelia ended up falling asleep on the short ride home sealed the deal on that. I did a little cleaning up, and then took a little nap myself. Christian was off to have dinner with a friend so I had a nice quiet house to nap in. Perfect! Once the girls were up, we had some dinner and hung out for a while. It was bedtime before we knew it, and we were saying goodbye to another weekend.
There's another week. I feel like summer is just flying by already. County fairs are going to be starting up in the next week, they'e already started playing commercials for the State Fair - you pretty much blink and summer is over before you know it. Lame!
