Weekend Update

Besides last weekend it seems we have had a lot of weekends lately of sitting at home and doing nothing. I don't mind but I'm sure the girls get stir crazy after a while....oh well, the weather will eventually be changing and we'll be outside and doing more things. Steve has been on a cleaning rampage lately, I'm sure he is throwing things away that I wouldn't but it is probably better this way!

Friday night we didn't do much. Steve was down in the dumps about Sharps so he enjoyed some time at The Boat House. The girls and I hung out, had some popcorn and watched Jumanji 2 that night. A good girls night with my babies.

Saturday we all slept in, which I think we all needed. Roxanne and Mike brought our car back from getting fixed. The weather was crappy out! So we watched Jumanji again, the girls played, Steve ran to the store, I worked out, and eventually we got out of our pj's and dressed to go to dinner! After dinner, the girls and I went over to Sarah's so the kids could play for a bit and Steve met his sister out to watch a band. 

Today has been another boring day, the girls have been playing really well together, Steve has been smoking a brisket, I worked out and put laundry away and really haven't done much else! At least the sun is shining today!

Busy

This week was just busy, I feel like I was hardly at home....and really, I was hardly at home. Monday after work we met Steve's sister and bro-in-law Mike at Chili's for dinner. They then took our car home with them so that Mike could fix it (from when I hit the deer). We got home about 8 and proceeded with our bedtime routine...I was exhausted from our weekend in Chicago so I was asleep by 9:45.

Tuesday I picked up Presley from her first Girls on The Run practice, it's from 3:45-5 pm right after school. I love this activity already, it is about running but in the end they talk about many other things before running. It's about girls. About being strong, nice, respectful girls. I think this will be so good for her (or at least I hope so).

She has gymnastics on Tuesdays at 6....so Tuesdays are busy for her over the next 8 weeks. We got a quick bite to eat before class and then went on our way. Class is from 6-7:30 so we got home a little before 8 and did the bedtime routine once again....and once again I was asleep before 10.

Wednesday was a little less busy and we only had Piper's gymnastics so her and I were home about 6:30. We ate dinner and then I RAN on the treadmill...... little did I know that she needs an adult running buddy for her 5k run in May...so guess who the lucky winner of that duty is? Me!

Thursday I picked Presley up from Girls on the Run at 5, came home real quick and Sarah picked me up at 6 for our wine making night! This is the 3rd time I've made wine at Vines to Wine and I love it. Eric is super knowledgeable and with a dry sense of humor it's a good half hour of wine making. After that we went to dinner at Aposto (the old Café di Scala) http://www.apostodm.com/ They have no corking fee on Thursdays so we drank 2 of the bottles that we had bought from Eric. The menu was a little fancy and scary....but it was SO good! I would totally go again!

Sarah, Me and Gabby

After we left there Sarah wanted to stop by our friend Jamie and Mike's house. I am sure they were ready for bed about the time we showed up but if you know Sarah, she doesn't care! HA! We got there about 10 pm and didn't leave until almost midnight! Sorry Jamie and Mike!

This night was when we first heard about Kevin and Amy Sharp missing in Mexico. So scary, I don't think Steve slept very well after hearing this.
Friday, that is all we talked about. I couldn't concentrate at work. I was thankful it made the news, that people were sharing it on FB and people were talking and getting the word out....and then we heard that they had found them. Unfortunately they were found dead in the condo they had rented. I cannot imagine. It's hard for me to really think about. At this time we still don't know HOW but that supposedly there was no sign of foul play. Breaks my heart. It really makes you realize that our time here is limited, enjoy every day and be thankful for every day.

St. Paddys!

Back in November we booked a weekend in Chicago with some neighbors over St Patrick's Day weekend. I did this 7 yrs ago with my sister and some girl friends but I was prego with Piper at the time! :) We piled in the minivan and headed out!

Wendy and Jason....Kyle and Sarah....and us!

We stopped for lunch in Leclaire and then we stopped right outside Chicago at Binny's, which is like an alcohol super store! It was pretty amazing!

We got checked into our hotel about 5ish and hung out in the hotel lobby until our dinner reservations at Weber Grill at 7:30. Our friend Kruse was able to meet us out for this trip too! (He met us the last time we were in Chicago and when we went to Nashville!) After we all ate WAY too much at dinner we found a bar and hung out some more. The NCAA games were on so we got into some of those good games and just had a good time!

We agreed to meet at 8:30 to watch the river dying right outside our hotel at 9 am. We were lucky enough to claim some seats inside the hotel so we didn't have to freeze outside! Score!

Jason, Wendy, Steve, Me, Sarah, Kyle and Kruse

It is crazy how green the river gets! So cool!

The gang! I love this picture!

 

We made our way to Billy Goats, which is a popular Chicago place to hang out. It's like an old school burger/bar....reminded me of The High Life here in Des Moines. http://www.billygoattavern.com/

It was busy but after about 30 minutes we scored a table! and we didn't leave that table for close to 4 hours! It was perfect! Then we figured we needed to venture out and see something else and regroup......ALL the bars had huge lines to get in so we decided to head back to the hotel and freshen up and drink some of our alcohol (for free!)

 The view from our hotel room!

 The hotel lobby bar was very busy too but once again we were able to score a table! 

 We hung out here for a couple hours while trying to figure out what we wanted to do for dinner. We finally decided to walk to Sweetwater. Steve and I had ate there our last time in Chicago so we knew what to expect and they said it was an hour wait (which was about the shortest wait time). However we got there and not even 5 minutes later we were seated! Wendy and Jason had wanted to go get pizza so they did their own thing and were going to meet us out later. The food and drinks were great, it wasn't that busy so we didn't feel rushed to get out of there so overall it was the perfect stop!  

 After dinner we wandered on and found another bar, with no line and we were able to get a nice bar area to stand by....and we stayed there for the rest of the night (well until we decided we were old and needed to get back to bed....about 11 pm)

There was dancing.....with Sarah and Steve...the rest of us laughed and watched!

 

Sunday we had brunch reservations at Brunch http://www.brunchit.com/menu/ It was so cute and so good! I totally recommend it!

 

Then we headed home! We made the drive back in about 5 hours and were back by 4:30 so we had time to wind down and such.

Overall a super successful (and expensive) weekend with my neighbors/friends! So glad we had the chance to do this! Not every often do the 6 of us do anything together without kids involved!

Spring Break

We are boring spring break people. I feel bad for Presley b/c I know a lot of her friends are probably doing fun things and she doesn't LOVE going to KTC during these breaks. We just don't ever make plans....maybe someday we will do something fun with them.

On Monday I really didn't want to be at work so I asked to leave a little early. I figured I would pick them up a little early and go see a movie. Piper told me I was 'the best mom ever'! HA!

I was going to take them to see A Wrinkle in Time but it didn't get very good reviews so we went and saw Jumanji 2.....they have been watching the original one lately and I had heard good things about this one and it was REALLY funny! We all enjoyed it a lot! So this was the one fun spring break thing we did! 

We didn't have gymnastics this week so that was nice and the weather was nice on Wednesday for them to play outside with the neighbors. Piper and I got a walk in, around the neighborhood and we just hung out and got ready for the 2 half of our week.

Thursday night Brittany came to babysit while we went to the Miranda Lambert concert. We saw alot of people we knew there! We had general admission tickets for the standing room in the front, which we loved! It's not that busy, the tickets aren't that much more to buy and we don't mind standing.

Jon Pardi opened the show.

 I just love Miranda, I'm sure Steve was tired of me singing along to every song! 

Friday morning we dropped the kids off at my parents house for the weekend....well that night daycare had a special event for her class at school for St Paddy's day. A leprechaun hunt! They had make leprechaun traps and they got to take flashlights and search around daycare for leprechauns!

So cute and what a fun idea!

Random

- From last Saturday to this morning, I have read 4 books....not being on FB (and not being busy at work) has given me some extra time! I'm loving it though! In case you are interested in psychological thrillers, here they are...

• The Social Affair
• Best Day Ever
• Trespassing
• The Perfect Roommate

- Also with my extra time (away from FB) I have been able to delete a lot of emails from my personal yahoo account. I have SO many trash emails and I rarely check that account and my emails have really gotten out of control....I was over 12000. Now each day I delete a couple hundred emails and I'm down to 8700! :)

- I really don't watch THAT much TV. But what I do watch I DVR and watch whenever I get a chance. The two shows I watch right now are This Is Us and Catfish. And there are two more shows that I'm getting excited about too! American Idol and Rise!

- I love when my kids go in their rooms and play....but sometimes it is too quiet and I worry about what they are really doing. However, I know I can't open that door b/c the minute I do, I will ruin it all! :)

Presley - 9 year stats

Friday was Presley's 9 year well check appointment. She is normal! :)

60 lbs which is 34%.....This girls eats and eats and eats!
4'3" which is 30%....I feel like she is finally starting to get taller and her 7/8 pants are getting a little shorter.
She basically gained about 3 lbs and 2 inches in the last year.

Week in Review

This past week was pretty low key....which I will take! Tuesday Steve took the girls to gymnastics while I went and bottled the wine I made with Sarah back in January. Wednesday I took Piper to gymnastics. Thursday we didn't do much.

Friday Steve had plans to go out with some guys who were in town. The girls and I ate at home, got Dairy Queen, they took showers and then we watched Wonder and had a slumber party in the basement. Presley and I saw Wonder in the theaters and it still made me cry and cry, over and over again!

Saturday we woke up and the girls wanted to watch Wonder again, so we did. Then we just hung out, the girls played really well, Steve ran to the grocery store, we played some games and we decided to do an early dinner out. We were hoping for Texas Roadhouse, but at 4:30 the wait was outside already so we headed out to Barntown Brewing. Then we hung out at home the rest of the night! Super boring, I can't even say that I did that much cleaning or laundry!

Today, Sunday....I want to do something but I don't. I was going to take the girls to see a movie but I think I want to see A Wrinkle in Time more than they do. I did work out and shower, I did put in a load of laundry....but I have 3 loads of laundry that I NEED to put away and I just don't want to. The house is a mess, there is more laundry that needs to be done and I'm sitting here. I must find energy. I think the sun needs to come out to help with my recent mood and lack of energy.

?

Monday was just another tiring day....I'm just on edge a lot of time these days.
I find almost everyone super annoying, I try so hard to not lose it on my kids when everyone wants to talk to me at the same time. I want to hear what they have to say but I feel like it's almost a chore to dedicate each person their 'time'.
And of course if Presley knows that Piper is waiting to talk, she stretches out her story as long as possible.

I'm trying to get used to this job and my new manager and just the whole concept of going from being one of the top underwriters in my department to being a NOBODY in this department.
We are the lowest people on the totem pole right now and that is taking some getting used to.
One of my passwords at work (I won't tell you for what b/c that would be privacy violation!) is FUCKIT (plus a # and symbol)....and yes, that word is NOT blocked as inappropriate language at work when it comes to passwords! HAHA!


As much as I like our time at home doing nothing, I just feel like there are so many people that we need to make time to see also. How do you balance this?

I haven't been to the eye doctor in 2 yrs.
I've been meaning to get an appointment to have a will made up for us.
We need to look at investing money into some sort of 'grown up' investment account instead of the basic saving account we have.
It's just a constant spinning of thoughts in my head and little motivation to actually do anything.....if I ignore it all will it all resolve itself?!

And I know most of this is just my own problem. I just need to get over it and accept things.
See the positive side of things....I do try, sometimes
.....I mean, I get a paycheck. Every other week. For 80 hours, when I actually work about 40. :)

We have a nice house, we have steady income, we are able to travel, we have close family and friends, we have healthy, happy children....see! There are so many other things I need to focus on....someone slap me the next time I complain like this.

Week in Review

This has been a very up and down week. Tuesday I was able to take Presley to gymnastics and then drop by my friend Lyndsi's house for a bit! They moved in not that long ago and I was anxious to check it out and chat with her for a while before picking Presley up. Thanks Lyndsi!

Wednesday at work we got the news that they were rearranging teams and our manager was being moved to another area. She has been my manager for almost 5 year and she is so flexible, doesn't like to micromanage and I hate change. We were all a little shocked and very sad. UGH. Thankfully I had a hair appointment that night, something to cheer me up a little bit.

Thursday I had a short day which I was more than happy about. I had my biometrics test that morning for our health insurance. It went really good, the lady said that my numbers are perfect and I need to keep doing what I'm doing! ..... So I went and picked up my lunch at Panera! ha!

We had both girls' conferences that afternoon and both went really well. Piper's teacher is going to move her onto more challenging things and she was a little nervous that she'll be bored in kindergarten next year. I'm not worried, they seem to do a good job of grouping up kids at the same learning levels and such. Her teacher said if there was one negative thing to say about Piper it was that she can tend to be a little bossy. SHOCKING! :)

We had Presley's conference with her teacher after that. She said Presley is so nice and sweet (I wish she was that way at home too) Presley is right on track with all of her learning, needs to keep practicing subtraction (she seems to really like multiplication though) and scored well on her Iowa Assessments! So we are happy!

After that we did dinner out and then I met Sarah out for a couple drinks and some girl talk!

Friday was Coffee with a Cop at Generation Next and Piper was excited. She said she was going to wear her police officer costume but I figured she would chicken out. She didn't.

 So freaking cute!!

Friday night we didn't do much actually....rented Coco to watch and tried to have a slumber party in the basement that didn't work but the movie was good and it was a nice, relaxing night at home.

Saturday we drove to Earlham. They had an get together at their new 'event' center and Steve had entered their mac and cheese contest. Steve won out of the 4 entries and my sister in law Christie tied for 1st in their chili contest! It was fun and we are happy Steve got the win! :)
Then Piper and I dropped Presley off at Climb Iowa for a birthday and ran to Target!
Last night Holly, Jerry and Mary come over for dinner and to hang out, we haven't seen them in a long time so it was night to talk and have the girls play!

Today has been a cleaning, laundry, laid back kind of day. Steve ran to Walmart, I worked out and finished my book, the girls played in P's room for hours and she is now at a friends house in the neighborhood. I'm just glad the sun is actually shining!