Monday started off pretty exciting, because I purchased our pre-sale, discount fair tickets. YES, it just made it that much more real that it's REALLY State Fair time. God, I can't wait. I mean, it's kind of sad because it marks the "end of summer", which was so incredibly, ridiculously short this year. BUT, it's worth it for Fair food, and I am pretty excited about Fall. It's definitely my favorite, and I can't wait for all of the fun fall activities coming in the next couple of months. Christian was off to North Dakota bright and early this morning. Poor guy. He's hoping to finish setting up their warehouse Wednesday so he can come home. After work, I picked up the girls, and we rushed home for Monday soccer chaos...let the dog out, have a snack, get Olivia changed and rush off to the field. The girls were at each other's throats all night long, which didn't help with the chaos. Olivia had her first practice with her actual team...her coach is a guy, about our age...he seems fairly uncomfortable with the kids, but he warmed up by the end of practice. Bella is on the same team as Olivia, so that worked out well. They were a little distracted tonight, but they did pretty good. After soccer, we rushed home for some dinner, a quick bath, and bed. Hoping a good nights rest gets those unruly girls in check!
Tuesday was a very, very, very bad day. Work was pretty standard. I got the girls up and off to school with little issue. I get to drive Christian's truck while he's gone (he didn't want to leave it at work), and that's quite a luxury. It's so nice being able to see everything around me, nobody messes with me, people get out of my way. It's super awesome. AND, bonus, working A/C during this gruesome stretch is a very nice bonus. Ahhh, living the life right now. Work went well, and then, everything fell apart. I got to school to pick the girls up, and they were both out of control. First, I got bad reports on both of them...Amelia had been SCREAMING at the teachers all day long, and refusing to do anything she was told. Olivia was picking fights with her all day long. Olivia picked some berries off a bush and was furious that I made her throw them away, and threw the biggest fit. Meanwhile, Amelia threw some building magnets and threw a fit when I made her pick them up...which she refused to do, so I took away her drawings. Needless to say, I had to drag both of them out of school, to the car, kicking and screaming...literally. The screamed, bloody murder, all the way home, all the way into the house, and continuing on once we were settled in. They wouldn't listen to a word I said, and just got progressively worse. I finally followed through with a threat, put them both in their pajamas, and put them to bed. At 5:45PM. They SCREAMED at me, telling me they hate me, they don't love me anymore, they weren't going to bed, they weren't going to listen to me and a barrage of other horrible things. I ignored it, and kept ignoring it, and cried a little, while my blood was boiling in anger. Finally, bu 6:30, they had both passed out from exhaustion. And, there they stayed for the rest of the night. I was emotionally and mentally drained. I felt like the worlds worst mom. I didn't know if what I had done was right. Do people really send their 3/4 year olds to bed without dinner. Do people really do such horrible things to their kids? Am I the only one? In the end, I retained a small amount of sanity, and the girls slept peacefully through the night. I think they were overly exhausted and it caught up to them. But, the horrible things they were saying and doing, just were NOT OK, and they needed to know that. When I went in to tuck them in and give them hugs and kisses before I went to bed, I was overcome with feelings of guilt and sadness. Just hoping I had done the right thing.
Wednesday was a much better day. I was still feeling pretty overwhelmed and guilty this morning, but turned to my mom groups for some support. Thank God for them! The girls did much better at school today, and were in better spirits all around. Work went well, it's still pretty busy so the days go quickly. Christian has been putting in some long hours in North Dakota, and was able to come home tonight (again, Thank God). He got home just in time for Olivia's soccer practice. Turns out, he went there alone. I had no idea, and I felt so bad for him. Driving all that way, staying there all by himself, and driving all the way home. That's so sad, I would hate it. He seemed pretty exhausted too. Olivia's soccer wasn't as successful as the last few practices. They decided to do a little mini scrimmage against another team at the end of practice, and Olivia REFUSED to play. She just kept saying "Well, I don't want to do that". I kept explaining to her that THAT is soccer, that's what we're here to do...run around, kick the ball and try to kick it in the goal. But, she refused. On or way home, she confessed to me that she didn't want to play with "THAT" ball. LOL - I explained that when they play games, they use the game ball, not her ball and told her there better not be a repeat of that next week. So, we'll see. We had a quick dinner once home, gave the girls a bath and settled in for the night. So exhausting!
Before soccer, we were all friends again...
It's was my Friday! YES! The week was chaotic, but went by fast. I spent the day getting through as much work as I could before heading home. I was excited for my very first Friday at home, all by myself. I still had Christian's truck for the day because he had a work vehicle from his trip, so I got to spent the whole week in luxury...lucky me! Christian had a long day getting back into the swing of things at work. The girls appear to be back to normal, at school and at home, so hopefully they just needed a nice LOOOONG night of sleep to catch up. Tonight I made one of our weekly staples for dinner...tacos, rice and beans. I used a tomato from our garden for the tacos, I made some homemade taco seasoning again, and we used some jalapenos from the garden to make some salsa. YUM! I'm seriously loving this gardening thing! After dinner, we hung out for a bit, and called it a night.
The pumpkins are looking great! We have 3 right now...the two on the left are getting BIG, especially the bottom one. So exciting!
Friday was awesome! Christian took Olivia to school. Amelia and I spent the morning together...getting ready, eating a little breakfast, and then we were off to her 3-year check up. I didn't want to drive her all the way up to St. Paul for her check up, so we say a new pediatrician by our house (she didn't need any shots or anything, so I wasn't worried about it). She weighed in at 29lbs (29%, and up 4lbs from last year) and she was 36.75" tall (34% and up 3" from last year). She's still a little peanut, that's for sure, but she's growing away. Everything else went well, and she checked out perfectly developmentally wise. And, she got herself the flu mist...luckily, she took it well. After her check up, she was off to school, and I had the rest of the day to myself. I caught up on some shows, did a little cleaning. Nothing too heaving, I was looking forward to a day of relaxation! I picked the girls up from school and we hung out at home for the night. They spent some time in the pool and on the slip & slide. I watered the plants, as usual, and discovered that we appear to have cucumbers coming in. WHAT?!? I totally thought they were a lost cause. They are flowering and everything, so hopefully something comes of them. AWESOME! We had a pretty low key night once Christian was home....dinner, a little play time. Nothing too exciting. Amelia officially will not let me rock her before bed anymore, which completely breaks my heart. For a long time now, I've just rocked her for a minute or two, for some extra snuggles, so nothing extensive...but, she won't even give me that anymore. She tells me "No mom, I'll just go to bed. You're still my best friend though". LOL, what a suck up!
She was excited to have control over the iPad this morning, and got to watch was SHE wanted to watch for a change. Super cool!
Saturday was the big day, STATE FAIR DAY! Yes! We were a little slow going this morning...I finished up some laundry and did some picking up while we all got ready for the day. We packed up a bag and made our way to the fair. The lots were full, full, full. It took forever to find a spot, but we finally found a spot and made our way into the fairgrounds. We spent the day eating, eating, and eating some more. The girls went on some rides, we went in the butterfly house, we checked out some of the barns and we walked for miles and miles. It was an awesome day, and we all had such a blast. It was pretty warm, but not horrible, and starting tomorrow it's going to be REALLY hot and humid, so we picked the perfect day to go. It's hard to believe the fair has come and gone (for us) already though, summer is officially coming to an end, that's for sure. The girls passed out on the way home, and pretty much just went to bed for the night. Christian mowed the grass and did some work in the yard, while I showered and relaxed on the couch for the night. My feet were EXHAUSTED!
Our Fair Food. YUM!
On Sunday, the heat definitely started setting in. It was hot, and HUMID, and it's not going away any time soon. There's going to be a lot of air conditioning, and a lot of swimming going on at our house, that's for sure. We were all pretty tired and run down after the fair yesterday, and Olivia didn't seem to be feeling too well. So, we just took it easy at home for the day. I did a few chores this morning, we set up the pools and slip & slides and the girls spent most of the day playing in the water. My in-laws stopped over to hang out for a while...my mother in law is leaving for Canada tomorrow, to visit Christian's brother, for almost 2 weeks, so she wanted to spend some time with the girls. Mariano and Bella stopped over to play with us for a while. We played, had some dinner and hung out for a bit. Sara stopped over after work to chat and hang out for a bit, Then, the girls were off to bed, and the weekend was over. They always go WAY too fast.
With that, another week came to an end. Some high stress, and some fun. There were definitely some highs and lows this week.
Until next week!
