Another week,
another Monday. Man do those Monday’s come fast! We were back to work, daycare
and school, as appropriate. My work is still INSANE, but I actually got a ton
of stuff done today, which felt good. YAY for productivity! This week we switch
over to July, which means a new year in the government world, so it’s a SUPER
busy time of year for us. Everybody wants their new year contracts up and
running right away, everyone wants their contracts that are ending – but aren’t
done yet – extended, there are money issues as everything moves over. It’s just
chaos! Makes the days goes quickly though. I had a big “craigslist” sale fall
through today too, which was a total bummer. It wasn’t a ton of money, but it was
a good amount, but more importantly they were buying a TON of little stuff, so
it would have cleared up a lot of room. They claimed they would reschedule, but
we’ll see. Our biggest news for the day is…our garage door is completely
DONEZO! It’s been on its last leg for quite a while, but today it completely
refuses to go up, or down, and officially needs to be replaced. Ugh! After the
shed we got a few weeks ago, next up was supposed to be getting Chuy neutered,
then our Duluth vacation next month (which is still questionable right now),
THEN the garage door (we also need to get our driveway done, REAL bad). Now,
the door has to move up on the list. And, now we’re both stuck parking outside,
and using the front door. So weird! That sad reality hit right after
work...but, I had to get over it, get Olivia ready for softball, and head off
to meet Christian. Amelia has the week off for the 4th. Olivia’s
“game” was supposed to just be a fun game against the parents, but they
actually had a “scrimmage” instead, which was basically like a normal game, so
that was fun. My in-laws came to watch her, and she played really great! She
begged to play “pitcher” again, and got a bunch of outs at the plate, so that
was exciting. After the game, the athletic program threw a big celebration
party for all of the players/families, with free food and music, the kids got
their trophies, we took a few pictures and we made our way home. There was a
pretty big storm rolling through, and we ended up getting home just in time.
The kids were off to bed, one by one, shortly after we arrived home. Though,
Eliza has been fighting her sleep pretty bad again, which is completely
exhausting. Her 8th tooth is finally poking through, so hopefully
that helps!
Tuesday was a busy,
busy day! It was officially the last day of the year at work, so we were busy
rushing through all of the last minute rushes that we could. Seriously, sheer chaos!
After work, I one of the girls’ old bedding sets and made a quick Target trip
before picking the girls up from daycare and heading home. The big girls swam
in the pool for a while, we had some dinner, and settled in for the night.
Eliza was actually a pretty happy camper tonight, which was a VERY welcomed
change…until bedtime, of course. So cruel, forcing her to go to bed. Christian
had to work going-away party to attend tonight, so he wasn’t home until pretty
late. Just me and the girls, and we survived…which isn’t always a guarantee! He
tried working on the garage door when he got home, just to see if he could get
it working, but no such luck. Still so sad. I will say though – at least it’s
just the opener that’s broken, and not the whole door/track. Silver lining!
Turn your back for a minute, and this is where you'll find her! Ugh!!
Love my sweet girl!
Wednesday we
welcomed a new month. It’s July, ya’ll! The year is officially halfway over. I
can’t believe it!
It was another
pretty busy day. Christian dropped Eliza off at daycare, while the rest of us
slept in a little bit. Then, we got ready, had a quick breakfast, and I brought
the big girls in for their dental check-ups. Olivia took some updated x-rays-
and has TWO cavities again! One of them is a filling that has to be redone,
which is really annoying. I mean, we’re filling teeth that are going to fall
out anyway, which is annoying on its own, but now I’m paying to replace a
filling done a year ago?! Not cool. And, I don’t understand why she keeps
getting cavities. They don’t drink pop, they get VERY limited juice and
candy…it’s so strange. They have told me that her teeth are very close
together, and the cavities she’s getting are between her teeth, so she really
needs to floss. We need to get better at that. Other than that, she checked out
well. Amelia didn’t really cooperate for her x-rays – the machine is just way
too big for her little mouth. By looking at them, she checked out perfectly.
But, if she’s like Olivia, and has issues between the teeth, then she may have
some cavities that they can’t see. Maybe next time they’ll get a better look.
So, we’ll be back in a few weeks for Olivia’s fillings. Another day, another
unexpected expense! *sad face* After the appointments, I dropped them off at
daycare, and I was off to work. Things should calm down over the next week or
so, and hopefully I’ll finally get a handle on my workload (not likely). After
work I actually made my first sale site purchase….and bought a “buggy board”.
It attaches to your regular stroller, like a little step-stool, so basically a
make-shift double stroller. This way, we can sell our actual double-stroller,
and just use our smaller one when we take the girls out. We saw one at the zoo
last weekend and I became obsessed…and somebody just happened to be selling a
brand new one. Now, hopefully it actually works! After picking up my sale, I
grabbed the girls and we met Christian at home. He cleaned out the sand and
water table and the chest freezer so we can sell those (the people we bought
our house from left the freezer, and since we don’t really stock-pile food, we
really don’t need it) – between these two items, and the double stroller, I
should be able to sell those quickly and that will be a good chunk of money to
put towards our expenses. Fingers crossed!!! Finally, we had dinner and hung
out for a while, before sending the girls to bed. Eliza is still refusing bed
at night, and had a REALLY rough night tonight. I could just tell, there would
be little sleep for this mama tonight!
Just love snuggling my baby to sleep. It never gets old!
Thursday was a
pretty typical day. We were off to work and daycare, the usual. I was pretty ecstatic
that it was my Friday at work thanks to the 4th of July this weekend!
Woot!! Throughout the day I set up sales for some more of our extra bedding
sets (if these go through, we just have the old baby./crib sets to sell, YES!)
and the freezer…I SOOOOOO hope they go through! We should have enough for the
garage door opener, and hopefully for our Duluth vacation, fingers crossed!
After a pretty quiet, but productive day at work, I picked the girls up and we
made our way home. The big girls did some swimming, I cleaned up a bit around
the house and we had a pretty quiet night at home. Christian is off work
tomorrow as well, and daycare is closed, so we’ll all be able to “sleep in” and
have 3 days together! We were all pretty excited for a fun-filled weekend, but
I was already kind of exhausted thinking about it.
July 2nd - This beauty is officially 6.5!
Friday started off
great. It was a Holiday for all of us, so we all had the day off, and were off
to a slow start. We hung out, had some breakfast, and did a little more
cleaning around the house. The day started out rough, when Eliza decided she was grown, and tried to walk down the stairs after Olivia. Yeah, it didn't end well. In fact, it ended with a giant bruise on little Eliza's head. Heart Attack!! As we recovered from that, Christian and Olivia went to reserve our spot for
tomorrow’s 4th of July parade. Yes, you read that right….you have to
go out and reserve your spot, the day before. I hate doing it, I think it’s so
lame, but if you don’t do it, you (well, more importantly, your kids) will not
be able to actually see the parade, or get a spot to sit down. Luckily, we
usually get “our” spot, which was the case this year. Whew! Once he was home,
he settled in with Eliza for the day, while the big girls and I were off for
some fun. We stopped to sell one of the bedding sets, then we met up with some
friends at Cascade Bay (a waterpark) for the day. The weather was beautiful,
and the girls had such a blast. It was so crazy busy there, but worth it. Both
of the girls were able to go on a couple of the big waterslides this year, and
they were OBSESSED! They even talked me into going down one. Amelia forgot to
swim away from the slide the first time she went down (to get away from the current
and to the shallower water), which was a little scary, but she caught on
quickly. The group we were there with couldn’t believe they went down those big
slides – my girls, no fear! We spent about three hours there, before heading
back home and getting ready for our next adventure. While we were away,
Christian mowed the lawn, hung out with Eliza and got himself ready. We all
changed, and were off to our next adventure…the 4th of July carnival
in our city. Olivia’s little BFF Bella came with us, and my mom met us there.
We stopped in the petting zoo first…I didn’t know what Eliza would think, but
she LOOOOOVED it, and it was so adorable. She kept giving the animals hugs and
following them around. So dang cute. Amelia is still not a big animal lover,
but she went in for a little while. Olivia was in heaven. We checked out the
fire truck, police car, ambulance and city bus, had some dinner, and then
bought the girls some ride wristbands. The rides are…..something else. They are
old and rickety and a little terrifying as a parent, but the kids just love
them. On this night, the wristbands are $10 for unlimited rides, which is a
pretty great deal, and they were definitely put to good use. Bella’s mom met us
there mid-rides and hung out for a while. Luckily, Eliza fell asleep (somehow –
man was it noisy!), which helped give the girls plenty of time to play and ride.
It started getting dark, and everyone was getting pretty tired, so we made our
way back home, lit off a few fireworks, and finally settled into bed. Talk about
a busy day!!
There it is. Heartbreaking!
Ready for some waterparking!
Festival fun!
On Saturday, we actually got a pretty late start. Eliza hasn’t been sleeping too well, which is exhausting, but after a middle of the night wake up, I got her back to sleep in our bed, and everybody ended up sleeping until 9:30!! Whoa, I mean seriously, isn’t that amazing?! One by one we showered, ate breakfast, and got ready for the day. Christian went out to our parade spot to drop off chairs and set up the canopy before they closed the streets, while we packed up, did some final cleaning for our 4th of July BBQ (which I was SO happy to NOT have to throw last year, and then so bummed to be roped into throwing this year). Christian’s parents came over to go to the parade with us, and Bella and her dad met us there. It was pretty hot out, but not nearly as hot as past years, and there was a nice breeze, so it was actually pretty relaxing watching the parade this year. It was a little shorter than usual, and there was a disappointing amount of candy for the kids, but I guess quite a few floats didn’t show up – which is weird. Our city has one of the biggest parades in the state for the 4th of July, so it’s really strange. Hopefully it’s back to normal next year. After the parade was over, we packed up and made our way back home. My sister in law and her family and our friends Lorenzo, Misty and her son Rio came over to BBQ and hang out with us. So, while nearly completely unplanned, we had a full house. Every year I swear I’m not doing this anymore…and every year (except last year) I get strong-armed into doing it. However, I will say, I do always end up having fun and it’s always a great time…and, this year, we made everybody bring food and stuff with, so that definitely helps. I need to just give in and accept that we will be doing this, every year, until the end of time. We ate a TON of food, the kids swam and played, the adults chatted and laughed. Pretty good day! As soon as the sun started going down, the big kids started letting off the fireworks, and the kids were in heaven. I refuse to spend the money on them, but our friends go to Wisconsin every year and get some REAL fireworks. It was so late, the kids were so dirty and tired and crabby and worn out…well, to be honest, I was too. Christian hung out with his friends a little while longer, while the girls and I made our way inside, and off to bed.
This is the most logical way to get something stuck in the tree. Men!
Sunday was a much
calmer day, but we were still pretty busy around the house. And it was hot,
hot, HOT! Eliza slept MUCH better tonight, actually all night long. She woke up
fairly early in the morning, especially for being up so late, but I brought her
into our bed to snuggle, and she ended up falling back asleep. So, I did too!!
The whole house ended up sleeping until almost 10:30! I thought yesterday was a
dream. Maybe we need to start staying up all night more often! We spent the day
cleaning up the house and yard from yesterday’s BBQ, and I did a little laundry
and some Target shopping. We sold the last of our bedding sets AND the chest
freezer. All of our sales actually came through this week, and man was I
excited! Then, while Eliza napped, I got conned into helping Christian weed the
garden. I was so hot and sweaty and dirty, so gross. My back was killing me by
the time we were done. I did NOT sign up for hard labor! It is most definitely
not my forte. I’m a dishes and laundry kind of gal, LOL. The big girls swam and
played outside pretty much all day, and other than my weeding and shopping, I
spent most of the day inside with Eliza. Before we knew it, especially after
sleeping so late, it was dinner time…we ate, gave the girls their baths and
settled in for the evening. This long weekend went WAY too fast. Thankfully, I
was heading into another short week, my saving grace!
Checking the gardens today, they picked some strawberries. YUM!
She "helped" weed the garden.
Until Next Week! XOXO
