Random

- I have 4 WHOLE televisions shows that I want to watch these days! For me, that is 4 hours of TV a week....that is a lot! All four are totally different shows...comedy, drama, cop/crime and reality.

• The Good Place - kind of dumb, but actually really funny.
• This Is Us - the new Parenthood, watch it, cry, love it! If you didn't get the surprise twist at the end of the first episode....rewatch please.
• Blindspot - love it, but it might be hard to get into if you haven't watched since day 1.
• Catfish - oh how I love this show! This is the one show that I DVR and actually watch later!

- Alexa, my anniversary present from last month is pretty cool! We normally listen to alot of music and this has helped to increase that also. The girls love asking for songs they like too, we haven't fully used her to the fullest extent but we are working on it!

- I normally love the 80 degree weather, but I am LOVING the 70's! Jeans, boots, long sleeve shirts, I'm ready! and we won't talk about the 3 pairs of boots I've had delivered to the house in the last 2 weeks!

- We have a fruit fly/gnat problem! Is this normal for this time of year and having the windows open or such? I hate them and the fruit fly traps we have are doing an great job but they are just insane and I do not like it.

- My kids recently told us that they like fish more than chicken and steak! Perfect! Tilapia and salmon are our favorites!

Weekend Update

So last Thursday was our 9 year anniversary, which we didn't do much that night except go to the Johnston homecoming parade with the kids. He did get me flowers and 2 bottles of wine and pumpkin beer, so that was a nice surprise. I didn't get him anything, well I guess I did get him a leaf blower last month so HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

We got all packed for my parents to pick up the kids on Friday and for us to leave Friday afternoon for Kansas City. We've been meaning to get down there for years to meet up with our friends Eric and Kylie and finally we were able to make it work out! Their anniversary just happened to be Sunday!

We got down there about 7 and walked around and found a place to eat at Gordon Biersch Brewery, it was REALLY good! We sat on the patio and got to listen some live music nearby and hung out for a while.

Then we found the Chesterfield. I believe it is a hotel but the bar area had a swing band and everyone was swing dancing. It was awesome! A lot of the people dancing were dressed for the part, the girls all stood on the stairs on the right waiting for guys to come ask them to dance. This whole atmosphere made me smile! I loved it! *disclaimer...we did not dance, just watched.

We found one other bar to it on the way back to the hotel and then took our picture down the street from Steve Martin's and Martin Short's motor homes! They were performing and people were lined up waiting for them to come out so they could see them!

The next day we got ready and headed out to The Longest Yard to watch the Iowa game and Eric and Kylie met us there. We ate and drank and talked while watching the game and then headed over to the KC Arts Festival. It was hot out! But the art was SO amazing, so many cool things! I wish I had money and enough time to really look at everything!

After walking around we found a shady patio and hung out! We did more drinking and talking and enjoying some music. Then somehow it was 8 pm and we needed to eat dinner! We walked around and found The Peanut! The perfect hole-in-the-wall dumpy bar that was perfect for some wings and fries! It was the perfect way to end our night!

Eric so badly wanted a kiss from Kylie, she wasn't having it! :)

We found our Uber rides home and called it a night. The nice thing, I was exhausted and in bed by 11 pm! Sunday we got up and headed home! At least the girls were good for my parents this time, of course, Presley got sick.....like she did when we were in Mexico only this time it was just a fever. So I'm sure her being sick helped out her attitude! :) We watched the Packer game at my parents house (a win for the Pack!) and then headed home and hung out in the basement!

Overall, fun good weekend way with friends that we hope to see even more often! and thank you to my parents for watching our kids, you will never know how much we appreciate it!

Weekend Update

Saturday morning we got up for another soccer game. She went on the field for the 1st five minutes, wandering around, watching birds fly in the sky, walking over to me and telling me she was done....fun times.

After soccer we went home and got ready for the Hawkeye game. We had a couple friends come over to watch the loss with us :( I took the girls to a Cinderella birthday party down the street and Piper freaked out when she saw her get out of the car! She didn't want to be in the same room with her, she actually left and Presley and I stayed (thankfully she was able to walk down the block home by herself! HA!) Presley didn't really want to participate but enjoyed it.

Brynn, the birthday girl and Cinderella

 Brynn's sister Bara stole all her beads!

Steve and Piper ended up coming back down to the party (once Cinderella had left the party!) and we hung out for a while. We headed home and I got ready to head out for a highschool reunion of sorts. Erica Stoll, whose husband Matt died in a motorcycle accident back in July is still in critical condition and making small strides every day. Some of the girls in our graduating class decided to get shirts made and get together to take a group picture for Erica to have a copy of in her room at her rehab facility. There was a good group there, I wish more girls would've come out to support Erica but we understand people have busy lives going on. Thanks to the girls who came and participated!



 

Sunday morning Piper and I got up and headed to my parents house to ride with them and Holly to West Branch, Iowa for my Uncle Ron and Aunt Cathy's 50th wedding anniversary! It was nice to see everyone and nice to meet so many new family members! This is the family that we just really met about 2 years ago so we are still getting to know one another! The weather was perfect, the people were nice and it was a good get together for their anniversary! We got home about 5 and got to see Presley and Steve's masterpieces of the day.....Presley is obsessed with American Girl doll stuff and has been making food, TV's and toys for them out of paper, so Steve took her to Wal-Mart and got real craft stuff. They spent the day making ice cream sandwiches, oreos, poptarts, juice boxes and apple sauce for her 'American Girl' dolls.....how cool is this??? I love that they are crafty since I'm not!



Drama Update

So we have two daughters. Girls = DRAMA. Drama = mama drinking wine.

Wednesday they had gymnastics, as usual Piper is the class clown. The teacher is constantly laughing at her, Piper is always talking, being loud...and then class was over and she didn't get any stamps. Miss Ashley came out and I apologized for having the class clown to which she responded that there were listening problems today in class....ALOT of listening problems and that Piper told her she wasn't the boss. OH GOD. I might have briefly turned bright red, crawl in a hole and whimpered like a lost puppy. Instead, I apologized multiple times, got a whiny Piper into the car and then broke the news to her that we were not going out to dinner and she is NOT to speak to ANYONE like that! She cried and cried! She was actually sorry and I think she was just being funny and really didn't know that she was NOT being appropriate. So we have had multiple talks about how she is to behave this week in gymnastics and we'll see how it goes!

Thursday we met at Texas Roadhouse after work. Steve warned me that something was going on with Presley's tooth and wasn't talking. We got seating and Piper started acting up right away. Steve had to take her out of the restaurant and I started questioning Presley. She sometimes will open up to me about 'secret's' more than she does with Steve. Eventually I asked about her tooth, basically came down to the fact it was really loose and she wasn't going to eat or talk. Awesome. So here we are at Texas Roadhouse with a 3 year old who is being a brat and Presley who wasn't going to eat. Needless to say, we ordered our food to go and got the hell out of there to maintain our sanity.

At 8 pm it was time for Presley to go to bed. She hadn't eaten anything and wanted her tooth to come out. She wouldn't even let me see it. I spent an hour with her, first convincing her to let me see the tooth to see how close it was to really coming out, then in the bathroom with her while she looked at herself in the mirror and made me look the other way while she 'wiggled' it to come out. She complained she was hungry, but refused to eat or drink! She said she was tired and I'm sure she was, heck, I was tired from watching her.
At 9 pm she still had no luck...the crying, whining, screaming....I was over it. We warned her that it had to come out and we were going to pull it. We didn't want to! We didn't want to do it! But one of two things were going to happen, 1) she was going to lose it in her sleep and probably swallow it, the front of the tooth wasn't even attached at all! or 2) the tooth was going to stay in and she was going to spend another day NOT eating!
So at 9:15, we did something that I hate. We pinned her down, I pryed open her mouth and pulled it. She actually didn't cry much and was glad to have it over with...she still didn't eat anything b/c she was instantly worried about her top tooth that is loose! My poor baby. I did apologize to her on Friday for having to do that and told her that I would never purposely hurt her. I did feel bad.

She did eat cereal Friday morning and then nothing the rest of the day. And you saw the pictures of her cheerleading Friday night....with her mouth closed. The tooth is still in and hanging on!

Cheer Camp

I might as well fast-forward thru our crazy week that included Piper NOT listening and telling her gymnastics teacher that she wasn't the boss and dealing with Presley's 2nd loose tooth that we ultimately had to hold her down, pry her mouth open and yank her tooth out. Emotionally exhausting week.

 

I had signed Presley up for cheer camp this week thru school. She was hesitant when I signed her up but then once she realized that she had friends doing it, she seemed excited about it. So tonight was the half time 'performance' during the Johnston JV football game.

Piper killing time with Pa

 Then halftime.....she was able to stand next to her friends Leah and Amelia!

 She found us and waved.

 She did pretty good, did all the movements......

 and didn't open her mouth once.....b/c of her tooth, teeth, whatever.

 Love this picture of her BFF Leah.

 Piper wanted her picture with the dragon...and once again Presley refused :(

Overall, she did good! She is now worried about her next tooth coming out and didn't eat anything again. Seriously, I'll give you the full story once all this is behind us and she'll start eating and talking like a normal kid. DRAMA OVERLOAD!

Random

- Presley had pajama day last Tuesday and Piper told me she wanted pj day. I told her that she'll have pj day at some point, so she just had to wait until it was her turn. Presley is standing in the bathrorom with us IN HER PAJAMAS and hears this and whines 'UGH! Why would she get a pajama day?'. UM REALLY? YOU ARE STANDING IN YOUR PAJAMAS COMPLAINING ABOUT A POSSIBLE PAJAMA DAY THAT YOUR SISTER MIGHT GET???  She is so self-centered sometimes.

- Piper will practice soccer. She won't play in a soccer game or scrimmage. I've given her permission to take the ball away from other kids, to hold her coachs hand while playing, we've taken away her game treats but we can't get her out on the field with other kids. Only 6 games left.

- Facebook. I know I go thru phases of hating it...and right now I just find most of it SO annoying. I've decided there are 5 types of people on Facebook. I know I'm going to sound like a complete bitch after this, but I just have to get it out.

1. The Facebook Wanderers - They don't comment. They rarely post. They just check things out. I don't mind these people.

2. The My-Life-Is-Perfect people - They are liars. No one has the perfect life. Let's be real people, the pictures of your kid, dog, house, your selfies all look nice, but what are you really hiding?? I can understand wanting to be positive and all that but let's tell it like it is. I put all my crappy kid stuff on FB, people know I don't have perfect kids....some people probably think I have problem children but you know what.....welcome to real life!

3. The My-Life-Sucks people - The rest of us can only feel sorry for you so much!  The constant posts of blah. 'This day sucks'....'Jessica is feeling annoyed'.....'I wish I could start this day over again'. And usually these people are on FB all day long! Find a friend, suck it up.

4. Debate or Not-to-Debate - Oh you have something political or racist to say? You have an opinion that you KNOW will piss people off? So they post it and then get mad when people debate, fight or argue with them. Don't post if you aren't willing to deal with the feedback you get. I get the freedom of speech aspect, I do....but sometimes you just have to let the douchebag attitude rest and shut up.

5. The Rest of the World - You are the reason I log onto Facebook. To read funny stories, funny pictures, your engagement annoucement, wedding picture, what you named your baby. Thank you for giving me something worthwhile to read...I wish there were more of you out there!


END RANT.

Another week gone by

Seriously I don't even know where time goes anymore. I think reading is what I end up doing if I have a free hour in the evenings. Last week we had gymnastics on Wednesday and I'm getting frustrated with Presley's class.....there are 8 kids in her group and it just seems like they have expanded and added classes so her time on each event is shortened....it's hard to learn when you get limited time and tries on certain events and I just want to see her continue to learn new things. We'll see what happens as the months go on. Piper, on the other hand.....is THE class clown of her group. She is MORE than willing to participate, ask questions and act goofy as hell in that class! It's SO funny to watch and I almost feel sorry for her teacher! :)

After gymnastics the girls decided they wanted Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, so we headed there. I'm trying to watch my calories and walk as much as I can so I got the BBQ turkey burger....don't look at the calories of things AFTER you eat it! DON'T DO IT!

Friday night we might have gone to mexican again....and then headed out to the campground to hang out with Sam, Scott and Boston for a couple hours. It was rainy and chilly but really a good night to just chill under the awning and hangout. The kids did good and played, I think they were all tired.

Saturday we got up and Piper and I got ready to head to her soccer game at 9:45....now if you know me and my family at all, you know that we don't really like to leave the house before 11 am on the weekends so this soccer thing is interrupting our weekend chill mornings! :) We got there and she hesitantly practiced with the other kids. The game started and she refused to go on the field. She sat next to me and sat. During half time she raced her coach across the field, she ran around the field....she still refused to play. After the game she was the first one in line to give the other teams 5's and say good game and when the coach asked if they had fun...she jumped up and down and yelled 'YES'?! Are you kidding me? Needless to say....she did not get her treat after the game.


We got home and the kids hung out and fought played and Steve cleaned out some of the kitchen cabinets (expired foods and reorganizing stuff) and I cleaned out Piper's closet, got rid of the 3T stuff and moved in 4T/5T stuff from the basement. Basically I can now move clothes from Presley's room into Piper's room! :( I have SO many clothes for Piper I'm not even sure where some of it came from! I need to go buy about 30 hangers to finish getting everything hung up. She is super excited about all her 'new' clothes!

Then the girls had quiet time in their rooms with the ipads (don't judge, they are in their rooms and quiet and not fighting for an hour and this is amazing!) I showered and actually dried and straightened my hair (which never happens any more!) and watched a dvr'd episode of one of my favorite shows Catfish (this is another big feat for me b/c I have HOURS of shows dvr'd that I never watch!) SOOOO.....as you can see we had a awesome productive afternoon! :)

Once we got closer to game time we headed over the neighbor Wendy and Jason's house to watch the game and then Sarah came over with her kids too. These 6 kids are loud and crazy, that is for sure. Overall a good night and good game (minus the 1/2 hour breakdown by Piper that relocated her and I back at our house for some time!)


Again the kids were up too late but we managed to make it thru Packer Sunday at my parents house with minimal issues! Packer win! Good food and thanks to my parents for having us all over for the kickoff of Sunday football. We got home about 4:15 and decided that it was definitely a night for everyone to go to bed early! We did baths at 6:30, had our calm down time and then started putting them to bed about 7:15! Piper was asleep by 7:30 and Presley by 8....So nice!
She learned her posing from Presley and now Presley won't pose for me....is she getting too old and too cool?!....but really, most importantly, we got her in a Packer jersey! :)

Labor Day

 

Nine years ago we got a tent for my wedding shower and guess how many times that tent has been used? 0, zilch, nada, none. Now we do have a 7 1/2 yr old child, so we will use kids as the excuse for the last almost 8 years, but really I'm sure my list of excuses could also include flooding, heat and life in general!

 

With perfect weather predicted for the weekend we decided we were going to have family movie night by the shed and try to camp out in the backyard. Both items were on our summer fun list that we make every year and post on the fridge......So.....we got the fire pit out, covered ourselves in bug spray, made some popcorn and popped in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and just chilled out! Afterwards we climbed in the tent and crossed our fingers that it would last all night. They did great and still slept in past 8! I slept like CRAP, the air mattress had deflated and sleeping on the ground was just uncomfortable!! Overall a successful family night!

Sunday we hung out, cleaned, laundry, grocery store and of course watched the Iowa football game! Since we were around the house all day we decided to head out and burn off some energy at a nearby park for a while.

We ate dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings (perfect timing since we got there before the crowd for the IA State/ UNI game (GO PANTHERS!). But we ate, grabbed some ice cream on the way home and then just chilled at home and went to bed early! Wild Saturday night for us, huh?

 

Sunday Steve got up early to start the smoker for our neighborhood party that we decided to have. We love our neighborhood and just wanted to get some people together so that everyone can meet everyone! We feel like we do a good job of trying to socialize and we just wanted to bring Sunset Ridge together! :) So the weather looked perfect, we picked up the house, cleaned some more and got ready for the neighbors!

A quick pic of me and my baby enjoying the weather on the deck.



Finally Presley was willing to take a picture with me....but Piper wouldn't.

We had a good turn out of neighbors and so many kids! We did get rained out for about 1/2 hour but that brought everyone inside to eat so it worked out! Finally when the rain stopped, we were able to go back outside!

 

 

 

 Two of our 'south side' neighbors drove their offroad ATV's over....why not? The kids thought they were so cool! Piper said she wants one for Christmas. Sure.

 

As people started leaving we were able to get some college football on at the shed and about 10 of us sat around talking, drinking, watching TV. It was perfect out. Everyone left about 11 and we headed in for the night.

 

 I was SO tired with a headache Sunday morning, so Steve was nice enough to clean up! :) We hung out, watched TV, the girls played with Play-Doh and after lunch we decided to enjoy another nice family day so we headed to Adventureland! It was hot but the crowd really wasn't too bad which is always a bonus!

After a couple rides, Piper's belly hurt and she just wanted Tums.....b/c that is readily available at Adventureland?! So I took her for a walk, I figured if she would stop thinking about it she would feel better. I think she had too many spinny rides for a 3 year old and just needed a drink and candy. Replace Tums with candy seemed to work to make her feel better. 

Steve and Presley were off riding the spinny rides and we found Piper's favorite ride, the Frog Hopper. She rode this over and over again without having to get off b/c there was no one waiting in line!

She insisted on having her picture taken with the pig again!

My sweet, funny, cheesy Piper!

We headed home about 4:30 and we were ALL tired. We just ate crap around the house for dinner, did early baths, watched Frozen and they were both asleep by 8 pm! Steve had a fantasy football draft at 9 and I headed to bed and passed out quickly, with my Kindle in hand....as usual!