Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Blah Blah

- American Idol update.....well my girl Olivia was gone weeks ago! Dalton is still hanging on, but I don't think he will win. The winner will be La'Porsha. I still think Dalton is super cute, eyeliner and all! And I might cry at the finale, just saying.

- Dear Johnston, your lack of planning on closing two of the major streets south out of Johnston is killing me. There are only 4 main streets out of our little city and you close 2 at the same time? My drive to and from work is now 10-15 minutes longer b/c of the traffic. It should not take me close to an hour to get home at night! Only 8 more months.

- As I have mentioned before, I use the Loreal tanning wipes. I use two a week and the box gets me thru a month....for $8. This is so much cheaper and safer than actually tanning! Sometimes I will have a streak or a bad spot from these wipes, but really, you never had stripes from tanning beds (and I won't mention the cancer from these beds too)? And when you are out in the actual sun, you never get a hand print there or stripe here from the sunscreen you put on? (oh wait, you don't use sunscreen? Shame, shame!!!)

- We lay with our kids at bedtime every night. We read books and lay with them until they fall asleep. This might be a bad habit and might take up time in our night....and we might fall asleep with them more times than not.....but this is time with them I know is limited. Time we won't get back. I'm embracing it (which is easier to do now that it is only 45 minutes with Piper instead of 2 hours)

- Speaking of putting kids to bed, last night I was laying with Piper, we read our two books and it was time to turn out the light. She turned the light off and said "Can we talk or something?". I told her that we could talk, we talked very briefly about her friend Becca and she changed the subject and wanted to talk about her 24 year old cousin Jordan. This girls LOVES her cousin Jordan, they never really talk to each other or bond....but she has an infatuation with his boat, that she remembers from Okoboji last July!

- I threw away the rest of the frosting I had in the fridge. The spoonful of frosting I would have before bed (don't mind the pile of spoons next to my bed!) was just not needed. Now what am going to do with all this Easter candy?

- I'm technically back on Facebook now. Honestly I have very little interest in it now. I haven't posted, haven't commented. I'm sure I will eventually but it's nice to have one less thing to think about doing or checking.

Happy Easter!

The girls came in and got us up about 7:45, they were SO excited (b/c of course they had peeked into the family room and saw random eggs!)
Ignore the bedhead and the mismatched pj's! :)
With their Easter baskets!
We hung out at home and played and ate candy and got ready to head to my parents for Easter lunch/dinner.
Look at that baby face! :)
My parents hid eggs in the backyard for the kids and of course they run around so quickly that we were back inside in no time which was good b/c it was chilly!!!
My mama and my baby!

Happy Easter!

We actually had a fairly busy Easter weekend. Friday night we hung out at home, popped in on the neighbors and played with them a while until Piper was too bossy and mean that we had to leave, plus we needed to dye our Easter eggs anyway so the timing worked out! ;)
 
Saturday morning I got up and headed back into work until about 11:30. Then got home, ate some lunch and headed out to the Johnston egg hunt. It was originally supposed to be on the football field but the moved it indoors due to the cold, rainy weather. They had half the gym for the little kids and the other half for the older kids. 


They grabbed their eggs, faster than lightening and while we were opening them I noticed family walked in late with 2 little boys (ages 1 and 2...maybe) and of course, all the eggs were gone by then! Steve and I told Presley that we were going to give some of their eggs to those little boys, she was ok with it. It wasn't much and I'm sure the boys didn't know one way or another but the parents were VERY grateful! In 15 minutes flat we were back in the car and the egg hunt was over! Then we headed to my parents to dye eggs. We haven't all been to my parents house since the beginning of February, that is a long time for this family!
Miss Mary
She wrote 'mom' on a egg for me! :)

After we were done we headed home for a while and then we headed back out for dinner. We tried a new place for us, The Food Depot in Grimes and it was a success! The food was good and the kids were good! :) That night we just hung out at home, watched a little Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory until then got ready for the Easter bunny the next morning!

Monday, March 28, 2016

Spring!

We are ready for spring! The girls put on their 'spring' dresses last week and were so goofy for the camera! I've been bad at taking pictures this month so I've gone a little overboard this last week trying to make up for my lack of paparazzi skills!
We decorated easter bunny cookies.....something to keep them busy for a hour without fighting!

Random

- Piper started her new class at Generation last week, so far so good. She was nervous at first, but she seems to adjust well to new things. The first day I picked her up she was outside with her class standing at the window by herself looking inside to her old class! It was so sad! She looks so little compared to some of the kids in this class, it's crazy how 6-9 months makes such a difference in kids this young!

- I signed Piper up for gymnastics this summer, it's the same night Presley's class is so that will be nice.

- I had my biometrics test for work and my health insurance yesterday. My weight and BMI is 'normal', my blood pressure was a little high 129/89 (and I'm blaming work for this) and even my total cholesterol was high! Thankfully my good cholesterol was high also so my actual calculated 'risk' of heart disease was low.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

March Madness

Friday I took off work a little early to meet Steve and the neighbors Sarah and Kyle, to watch the Iowa basketball game....even though work wants me to work overtime, I just couldn't bring myself to do any last week. We watched the game, ate some food and then Steve headed to work at 4:30 and I went to pick up the girls!
Steve got home about 8:30, showered and headed back out to watch more bball about 9. Then he had to work Saturday morning for a couple hours too.

Saturday the girls and I got ready and headed to the mall to walk around, see the easter bunny from afar and ride the train. They saw some animals the ARL had there, they played in the play area, and then they ran crazy doing very little listening to me. So instead of going to Target like I wanted to on the way out, I carried Piper screaming and kicking all the way to the car. Fun times.
Basically our kids CANNOT get along for the majority of the time they are together. Everything is a contest, everything they do is to purposely bother the other one, everything is an argument or fight. EVERYTHING.
So Steve had some friends in town watching bball at Jethro's that afternoon and took Piper with him (the more time the girls are apart, the better). Presley and I hung out and I enjoyed the quiet and we might have made a quick trip to Dairy Queen too.
That night we kinda hung out at home, trying to keep the kids from killing each other and us from killing them (kidding people, kidding, no sense in calling CPS on us).

Sunday morning I got up and went to work....I got to work at 6:20 am! For the record that means I was up and out of the house by 5:55 on a Sunday morning!!! I worked until 11 and then headed over to Sarah and Kyles house to watch the Iowa game, bad loss but oh well. I snuck out after the game and headed to Target (by myself!!) and did some shopping and got home a little before 3. Then I worked out and showered and started a quick clean up since Sarah and Kyle were now coming to our house for dinner and to watch more bball (do you see a theme to our weekend?) Steve made his wonderful pizzas again and we hung out while the kiddos played. UNI had a fantastic game but did end up losing. Bummer.

Since my NCAA bracket is looking pretty sad right now I'm ready for bball season to be over. I have Kansas winning it all so I'll just hope that no one else does and I'll win the pool we are in! :)

Friday, March 18, 2016

Spring Break


Monday I left work early and ran home to get Steve for us to head back downtown for a concert! We had purchased the pre-concert package with food and drink with Holly and Jerry for the Awolnation/Fall Out Boy concert! It was  good time, even though the sound was terrible for the first act and the 1st half of Awolnation.
 
Awolnation, one of Steve's favs!
 Fall Out Boy

Selfie they took with the crowd

It was  good time and good show and we were out too late! Thanks to my mom for watching the girls  since our sitter had to cancel!
 
Wednesday I decided to take a PTO day and stay home with Presley since she was on spring break. She slept in and then we slowly got ready and headed out to Barnes and Noble to spend a gift card that she rec'd for her birthday....and you know what she bought with it, after walking around looking at everything in that store.....clothes for her not-so-American-girl doll!
Then we stopped by Kohl's to get her some spring/summer clothes and then met Holly, Mary and Boston for lunch in Ankeny. They were going to the movie Zootopia after that and I was hoping that Presley and I could do something more fun then sit in a theater, plus she had seen the movie on Tuesday with KTC. But Presley refused to do anything else, I suggested roller skating, rock climbing, skyzone, bowling.....anything but the movie, she didn't want to. So b/c this day was supposed to be about spending time with her doing something she wanted we saw the movie. It was a cute movie! But next time I'll remember that if we have Piper with us, then Presley will be more willing to do things that she isn't comfortable with!
 
I'm still struggling with my job. It's been so long since I have been this frustrated at work and I'm sure poor Steve just hates calling me at work b/c I'm just not a nice person during the day right now. It will get better, it has to.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Weekend Update

Garth Brooks tickets went on sale last Friday morning....we knew there would be 6 show announcements and we knew we didn't want the Friday night that he was in town (b/c we get back from Mexico late that Thursday so getting a sitter for Friday night just seemed a little inappropriate!). So like the rest of the Des Moines metro area, at 9:30 we all logged on (me, Steve, Holly, and Sam) to get into a virtual waiting room for tickets. Samantha got 4 for Saturday night and I got 4 for Sunday night, so it all worked out!!!

Friday Steve was able to stay home from work with Presley on her first day of spring break. After trying for Garth tickets they went to Bass Pro Shop, walked around and then went bowling! She loved it! Then they went out to lunch and got ice cream....I was happy they were able to have a daddy/daughter day together!

Friday night I got home and the weather was SO nice and EVERYONE in the neighborhood was out and about in the cul-de-sac. At one point there were 13 kids ages 12 years-7 months....and only 3 of them were boys! :)
Slowly as the sun went down some people wandered home but some how we ended up with a couple neighbors and their kids hanging out until almost 10. Jason and Wendy moved in a block over last summer and they have 2 little girls, Becca who is Piper's age and Rachel who I think is almost 2...and Kyle brought Collins and Carver over. It was a good night even with unexpected company!

Saturday I took Presley to Target to get some spring/summer clothes, we got some dresses and a couple shorts but struck out on shoes, which she really needs! We came home and hung out, did some cleaning and playing and got ready for the people that we had invited over for dinner that night! Brent and Shannon came over with their boys Aiden and Blake and then Sarah brought over Collins and Carver to join the fun too. The food was awesome, it was so nice to visit and hang out and talk while the kids actually went and played!

Sunday morning we slept in and then Steve took Piper to Wal-mart and then to visit his nephew who just had a baby! So Steve is now a great uncle, makes him sound old huh? :)
Presley and I hung out, watched a movie, she played barbies while I read. It was nice to hang out with just her at home for a couple hours!

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Random

- The 'Jeep' wave....it's a thing. If you drive a Jeep, you wave at other Jeep drivers! I've heard about this with Harley riders and such but haven't witnessed or experienced it. Until today. It's an actual thing! It's like you are part of this Jeep gang with total strangers! There is no secret wave with Traverse owners, just saying.

- I was changing into my workout clothes tonight and threw my bra on the bed....where was Piper was sitting waiting for me. She took it, put it up to her face and said "Look at my sunglasses mom!" Awesome. Dork.

- Presley had a huge meltdown tonight. We are just done with her attitude and lack of respect and so tonight she got sent to her room at 7:40 for the rest of the night. She didn't get her fruit, she didn't get her time to unwind on the couch....instead she screamed at us for 20 minutes. She hated us, we are the worst family ever, we are stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid (she thinks that is a naughty word so she tried to use it as many times as possible thinking that would make me change my mind?!), she wanted to throw up, she was scared, we weren't smart and didn't even know what 10 + 10 equals...(wow, low blow kid). Finally I got her to calm down, and then laid with her once she realized that she wasn't coming back out and she was alseep by 8:10.....fun times.

- Frosting. I love frosting. I should not be around frosting. Why did I buy it? Well, I bought it b/c we are going to decorate easter bunny cookies...in 2 weeks?! So it is sitting there, on the counter mocking me.
Frosting can be used on the 2 different kinds of animal crackers we have.
Frosting can be spread on graham crackers.
Frosting can probably have fruit dunked into it, but why bother with something healthy in frosting?
Frosting is probably best spoonful by spoonful...GET IN MY BELLY!

Monday, March 7, 2016

Random

- Presley has gone through phases of movies...we did Annie, High School Musical, mix in a little Full House, Pitch Perfect and now she is really into Descendents (the kids of the villians in the Disney movies). I love it, gives me a good excuse to watch these movies. :)

- Sunday morning P came into our room about 9 am....I was laying there reading. I asked if Piper was up, she said that Piper wasn't with her and wasn't in her room?! Um ok. So we came out to the family room and she was laying in the chair on the ipad watching Odd Squad! I couldn't believe it! I'm thankful that she keeps herself quiet and busy without waking us up (which isn't really typical).....but we need to make sure things are safe if she is just going to wonder the house by herself!

- Bedtime has been getting better...it seems that either Piper's decrease to 1 hour naps has finally caught up with her or the it's the melatonin. She actually seems and acts tired before she has the melatonin but that seems to help calm her down so she can relax and fall asleep. It is so nice to have both kids asleep before 9 (most nights)! Now if only I could stay up past then! :)

- I do love having the windows/doors open this time of year...however when the kids are screaming/fighting/crying the first thing I do is close all of them so our neighbors don't hear everything that's going on!

-   Steve said "Your hair looks..........nice?"
    I asked "What is that supposed to mean?
    "Nothing. It's just a little big in the back.".....Thanks honey!

- My dad got a wild hair up his butt and made the decision to head down to Houston on Thursday. My aunt and uncle are semi-retiring, they bought and RV and are going to travel the U.S. How awesome is that? I hope that is on my retirement plan when I'm 50! Anyways...my dad went down to surprise them at their 'going away' party! And it's awesome that now that he is retired he can pack up and head across the country whenever he wants too!

Weekend Update

Saturday we got up about 8:30 and the 3 of us girls got ready to head to my Aunt Ann's house for a girls craft day with the women/girls on my dad's side of the family. There were SO many awesome crafts and good ideas of things to do (and I am NOT crafty!), even the girls were able to paint picture frames and ate some snacks and talked. Many of these people I have only met one or twice so it was nice to have some time getting to know them a little better! Thank you for having us Ann!

On our way home we picked up the neighbor girl Collins to come and play for a couple hours. Her mom had been sick for days and her husband was working so we thought we'd help out by taking one of her kids for a bit. Collins was perfect....Piper was ok...Presley was a complete selfish, snotty brat 75% of the time Collins was at our house. She spent most of the 3 hours crying, screaming or in her room. It was almost embarrassing!
Saturday night Steve made AMAZING flatbread pizzas...on the grill. OMG. He needs to stop cooking so many good things so that I can lose a few pounds before Mexico! ;) He made a shrimp scampi pizza, steak with blue cheese and chicken, bacon ranch. So good!

Sunday morning I got up and met my friend Colleen for brunch! It has been too long since we had seen each other and needed to catch up. We went to 1908, knowing it wouldn't be busy and we would have as much time as we needed....2.5 hours later! We lost track of time but it was worth it!

I headed home and Steve and Piper left to our friend Brent's house to watch the UNI basketball game. I took Presley to a birthday party for her friend Leah. This was her first party at a friend's house and without us staying. She was excited and had no problem with me leaving her there! The party was a canvas painting party, such a good idea and it seems they had a good time!
While she was at the party I ran to Hy-Vee, then came home and did some laundry, went on a 2 mile walk, and then still had about 20 minutes to chill out and read! :)

The weather was so nice....a little windy, but nice so we spent from 4-6 pm outside before doing dinner, baths and getting ready for the week ahead. I love the nice weather, it wears those girls OUT! Hopefully we have more nice weather ahead!

Friday, March 4, 2016

TGIF

I'm so happy it's Friday. It has been a ROUGH week at work. We went from not working most of the day and spending most of my day reading to now I spend most of my day trying to fix problems on our system that no one seems to be able to help with. It is more than frustrating and I haven't been the only one in tears at some point during this week.
Tuesday I sent Steve an email that said "I hate my job"....I rarely hate my job. I actually normally love my job. I like the people I work with, I like my managers, I like what I do...it makes me think and decide and can be a challenge. Now I have no control, I don't know what I'm doing and it sucks. So Steve offered to pick up the girls so I could go have margaritas and read my book by myself after work to unwind. I was so thankful that he offered and it was totally needed and worth it. Thank you my wonderful husband!

Thursday night my mom came over to watch the girls while Steve and I went to winter conferences. Honestly I was a little nervous. The papers she has been bringing home haven't been that good, she doesn't seem that interested and you just never know how they 'rank' against others.
Conferences actually went better than I thought. She has grown in some areas, is getting more comfortable in sharing and speaking outloud (which is a BIG deal for this girl!)
Their reading assessment score is supposed to be at least 453 by this time in the year and she is a 477, which means she is reading at the end of 1st grade/beginning of 2nd grade level. I was happy with that considering she seems to have problems retelling or comprehending stories but obviously she is on the right track.

The main things she (we) need to work on...subtraction and listening(following directions). She lacks confidence an oftens times tries to 'copy' her neighbors b/c she isn't sure she is doing the right thing.
Her teacher does want to recommend that she does NOT get placed in the same class as her BFF Leah next year b/c she wants her to grown socially and get more comfortable without Leah around. We are actually ok with this. They weren't in the same class last year (though they were together at Generation Next before kindergarten) and would still see each other at KTC and it would be good for Presley to make some new friends and step outside her comfort zone. :)

So I was pleasantly surprised at how well these conferences went! I was a little shocked and thankful that her teacher acknowledged us for the effort and time we put in at home (which we really don't do THAT much) but I do email her if I'm concerned about things and she is always receptive and gives good advice on things we can do at home to help Presley learn and grow!

Now with Miss Piper...I guess she might get moved up in rooms at Generation Next, she is currently the 2nd oldest in her class. They feel she is bored and ready (aka...she is disruptive and causing trouble and thinks she is the queen of the room). So she would be with kids turning 4 from Jan-Aug of this year (she won't be 4 until October). We'll see if it happens and if it does how it goes! :)