Random

- Every fall I have new TV shows that I get interested in. Most of them I don't watch more than 1 season just because I don't watch that much TV in general. So here is the update for THIS fall!...….

• I am almost caught up on This Is Us, I am only behind 1 show.
• The Voice. I usually watch this show off and on during the season b/c you don't HAVE to watch all the shows to keep up with what is going on.
• Manifest. The plane that gets 'lost' for 5.5 yrs.....this was intriguing during the previews and it was SO good! I cried in the first 5 minutes. I really liked it and I hope that it does well.
• New Amsterdam. I liked the premise of this show also, it was a little far-fetched but it was still pretty good too. 

I don't look for shows to watch b/c I usually fall behind and then get dis-interested, so we'll see what happens with these shows over the next couple months!

- Candy. I can usually say no to candy that we have around the house. However, if it is fresh, new candy that isn't quite stale yet. I can't say no. Tootsie Rolls, Laffy Taffy's....gone. They don't stand a chance in this house.

- Gnats. OMG.....are we the only ones that have horrible gnats and fruit flies this time of year? I probably should be used to it b/c it seems it gets bad every year at this time. I hate it. It makes me want to close all the screens and doors so they can't get in. Fruit fly traps really do work, so we have invested in a some! 

- Adventureland Oktoberfest, are you going? You should be. This is our 3rd year! Besides it being a great time to ride some rides with shorter lines and listen to awesome music from SO many local bands around the area, and this year Hanson is there! There are so many yard games, you can watch the college football games, drink some beers, eat some food and in general, everyone is in such a good mood! It is just a lot of fun and a good way to officially 'end summer'.....it is highly suggested! 

- I asked the girls if they knew anyone who smoked.....Piper said "Daddy!".....?! Um what?

I looked at her and said "Daddy doesn't smoke?!" Then I realized that she thought about him smoking meat! The innocence!!!!! I dropped the conversation right then b/c I didn't want to ruin her innocent thoughts about 'smoking'! :)

Where did September go??

Basically the last 2 weeks of September have been a lot of the same ole stuff, which we don't mind! Last weekend the weather was awesome! Perfect fall weather so we tried to spend some time outside! Presley is loving trying to play 2 square! Remember, what we used to know as 4 square?

Saturday morning Presley had a soccer game, then the girls had a birthday party for Brynn down the street. Steve and I sat here for about 10 minutes and then decided it was too quiet and boring with the girls gone so we headed out to get some lunch and drinks and watch some football! The party was over about 4:30 and we had a sitter planned for 5 so that we could go watch the Hawkeye game as part of our anniversary night out. We went to Spectators with Jordan, Jake and their girlfriends, the weather was so awesome and it was the perfect night for the patio and watching the game. We did head closer to home at half time and went to 1908 to wrap up the night. The Hawkeyes couldn't pull out the win which sucks.

Sunday we had a pretty lazy day, but we had a lot to get done around the house. Target, Hy-vee, laundry plus Presley had volleyball.

This week was just more of the same. Steve is actually busy at work finishing up a job, I'm dead at my job....sometimes I'm not sure why or how I earn a paycheck, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. Right now I spend most of my day reading or taking walks. NO JOKE.

The girls had gymnastics on Monday, which I actually used this time to get my exercise in and walked around the area! Then we had nothing on Tuesday or Wednesday but hanging around home!

Thursday we had the homecoming parade which the girls love. We sat next to all our neighbors and the girls get so much candy. It is fun to see the city come together to cheer on their school. (and BTW, we all decided we DO NOT like teenage girls! They were SUPER annoying at the parade and I would've been embarrassed if they were my kids!)

This weekend, the weather has been so rainy and cold and sad. It just makes you want to stay inside and cuddle! Friday night my mom joined us for dinner out....my dad, sister and bro in law headed out on their way to Portugal! Then we found Wonder in Redbox and watched that....again. My kids love that movie and it is SO good!

Yesterday we hung out. Presley had a soccer game at noon, which was SO cold! Then we headed to Hy-vee for a quick trip to get some things and then headed home to do nothing. Steve smoked some pork, the girls fought and spent some time in their rooms. I camped out on the couch and got caught up on This Is Us and Steve watched football in the basement. It was a good, lazy day but I'm not ready for a whole season of cold weather where we stay inside for months and be lazy!

Today we had a 40th birthday get together at Beer House, family friendly. So we headed there and then I took Piper to a birthday party in Grimes, she was so excited to see some of her old preschool friends! Went back to the bday party until it was time to pick up Piper and then took Presley to volleyball! She does complain about volleyball, but I really do think she likes it and she does a pretty good job! I don't want her to give it up, quite yet! :)

I am looking forward to my 4 day work week and then my 4 day weekend! 

Random

- We found this really awesome play-dohish, clay stuff on vacation this summer and bought some. It just feels weird, but fun and so fast we have bought it for every birthday the kids have been invited to over the last 2 months! https://www.amazon.com/MAD-MATTR-Super-Soft-Modelling-Compound/dp/B01GWCS3SK

- I am not into politics whatsoever....but Trump is so embarrassing. We should be so embarrassed to ever have him speak in public.

- My kids play house or school ALOT and they always have babies or kids and they are always named Tatum and Oakley?!......I think they are names of youtubers they know, of course.

- My parents are thinking of selling their home. The home I grew up in. The home that my mom did daycare in for my kids and so many others. It is sad to think about but I really can't blame them. Though the amount of purging that needs to be done is a little scary! :)

- Presley. This girl has always been our challenge. There are just times that I don't know what to do with her. She is so negative and mean that it's hard to be around. She can throw tantrums like a 3 year old and for stupid reasons like she has to get up in the morning or she has to go to bed at night. She'll scream and yell that we 'hate her b/c she is stupid'....which of course, we would ever think or say! I just don't see other 9 year olds acting like this! Maybe they do and no one talks about it but it's scary since she is only 9 and the teenage years are only going to be worse.

- The amount of frogs that are out and about right now is gross. They are always climbing up onto our windows, on the siding...it's a lot of fun when we are at the shed and continuously looking for them and running from them! HA!

- I've been doing some Jillian Michaels work out videos...and they are hard. She does try to kill you. However, I have figured out that I have very little upper body, arm and shoulder strength! So I'm working on it! If I can't lose weight before the Dominican in December, I'll at least try to have some muscles and definition! 

More of the same.....

Last week sucked b/c I was in training all week, working 8-4:30, stuck in a dark training room on someone else's schedule and not nearly as much freedom as I'm used to over the last 9 months.

Monday Steve was nice enough to take the girls to gymnastics while I went home and worked out.

Tuesday Presley got invited to go with her friend Leah to the high school girls volleyball game since they are doing the volleyball clinic together. Her mom picked her up after school and she didn't get home until 8:30, they seemed to have a good time and I'm sure it was interesting to watch a REAL volleyball game in action!

Thursday I had a work outing at The Hall, the weather was so nice for the patio!! Steve dropped Presley off at soccer practice and then took Piper on a quick trip to Target for me! :)

Friday night we didn't do much and it was actually pretty nice out. We hung out by the shed to watch some baseball and the girls went to bed fairly early (for a Friday night) since we had a soccer game in the morning. Our neighbor Tim stopped by to hang out and watch some of the Cubs game too.

Saturday Presley had her first soccer game of the season. She was NOT happy when we woke her up at 7:45. She basically cried and screamed that she hated soccer and she wasn't going to play. I think she was more pissed that she had to get up and that we had to take her earrings out, which is a very sore subject for her. Eventually we made it out to Pleasant Hill for her game. They did good! As always she could be more aggressive but overall she does a pretty good job. They ended up losing 3-2 in the last 2 minutes of the game! Bummer!

Steve had to go into work after that so the girls and I headed to the mall b/c I was in desperate need of some new bras. (TMI?) They were actually good for the time that we were there and then we headed home and they went on to play and play. It is so nice when they just play. That evening we had Jason, Wendy and the girls over to watch the Iowa game at the shed and the girls played so good. The weather was perfect, the game was good (even though I am a UNI fan also). At one point we had 9 little girls in our yard playing! Perfect Saturday night!

Sunday we slept in, got ready and headed to my parents for my dad's 66th birthday get together and the Packer game! As always the kids played and played, we talked and ate. The game was good but then we had to leave for Presley's volleyball....and then the game went downhill. And I was that parent at practice on my phone watching the play by play of the game, which ended up in a tie! WTH?

Labor Day/Week

Labor Day was a rainy, dreary day. Steve got up b/c he was supposed to play in a golf tournament for The Boat House. He drove there and then the golf course was closed. So they ended up at the bar playing poker instead. They had food catered in and he was there most of the day, too bad he didn't win any money!
The girls and I did very little. I read my book and watched TV on the couch. The girls played SO good! They were playing house/school/restaurant in the basement for a long time and then they wanted to play in the rain. They were out there for over an hour! Just playing, finding worms and having fun! It was awesome to watch them just be kids like that!

Later that afternoon Presley friend Madison wanted to play, the rain had quit so she rode her bike over and they played for bit and then rode back over to Madison's to play some more. Steve got home and we decided to hit up Texas Roadhouse for dinner! It was POURING down rain on our way there! We picked up Presley from Madison's and left her bike, to pick up later! By the time we came home it was done raining. Presley rode her bike home, Piper ran behind her and Steve and I followed them in the car! :)

Tuesday night was Parent Night for Piper. I headed up to the school to get some more information on Piper's kindergarten year. Her teacher is so nice and the perfect kindergarten teacher! So far Piper is the ideal student!

Thursday Presley had soccer practice. Of course, the soccer fields were closed b/c of all the rain so they had it at some school in Urbandale. I put on my work out clothes and running shoes and walked/rain during her long practice.

Friday we had a babysitter. Originally we were going to drive to Lakeside Casino to watch Tesla play but then we decided that we didn't really want to drive that far, so we just stayed closer to home. We had one at The Boat House of course. Then headed to the new Wasabi Chi in Johnston. I love sushi but don't have it often b/c Steve doesn't always like it but he is getting to like it more and more! The place was really nice, busy and the food was SO good!
We had heard there was a pub called Wisco, that is a Wisconsin bar...Badgers and Packers, so I wanted to check it out. It was NOT busy for a Friday night but I think it could be a good place to watch a Packer game at some point!

Then we headed to Saints b/c some of my high school people were going to be there, we stopped by for a beer, to make an appearance and say hi and then headed closer to home and went to The Boat House again. (can you tell that Steve's obsession with The Boat House is worse then my obsession with El Mariachi?!) :)

Some how we didn't end up going to bed until 1 am (we are TOO old for this!). Steve had to get up and work for a bit on Saturday morning and we were both so tired. I laid on the couch and did nothing until about 1, Steve took a nap once he got home and then we got ready to watch the Iowa game. We decided to not really do anything for this game. He made some food, we kicked the kids outside so they didn't interrupt our watching (really they were playing outside with neighbors and running from the neighbor boys) and just enjoyed the game! :)

The weather was so nice this weekend, we ended up at the shed watching some of the Cubs game while the girls played with the neighbors and eventually we were all tired so we headed inside.

Sunday we did laundry, Steve worked in the garage, we played games, they played outside while I read my book. Basically a nice, relaxing day. Presley had volleyball at 3, she says she doesn't want to play but she doesn't complain about it and she knows 3 other girls on her team. We ran to Walmart on our way home then had dinner, picked up the house, took baths and got ready for our week ahead!

And we watched the Packer game. OMG. The stress from that game. I cannot deal with that anxiety at all but we pulled off the win! #xanaxneeded

Sorry, I feel like I did a lot of babbling in this post but I guess I was due.

Glow Wild

Last Sunday, Labor Day Sunday was Glow Wild at Jester Park. I had thought about taking the girls but just wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money and the weather didn't look promising. Turned out that I won tickets on the radio Thursday morning! So we chanced it and went even though the weather was still iffy! Samantha, Boston and Jordan joined us too! They had a little bit of every thing there! It was pretty cool. We couldn't talk any of them to do the bounce house or rock wall (which lit up when the sun went down!). They had air brush tattoos that the girls loved!

The new nature center had so much to do in it. They had information and so many bugs and spiders to learn about.  Many different educational, fun activities for kids to do. They had info about bald eagles and owls, with a real owl there to see. Different craft ideas and the puppets that Piper loved!

And of course, face painting. The only two choices of a cat or dog, which made the line go fast! :)

It was a little muddy, so we passed on trying to walk down and canoe! But the girls sat on the saddles and touched the ponies they had!

We got some dinner from the Hy-vee food truck they had and then of course, we had to have smores. They had a good set up so it was quick and easy!

The Water Rocks truck was there, teaching about different pollution things, littering and things you could do to help keep our communities clean.

Then they got to throw baggies of 'dog poop, into cans, mainly to teach people to clean up after their dogs! :)

The kids played with the big bean bag boards (the bags were wet and heavy from the rain) and you can see the BIG ball (beer) pong game in the background! Such good ideas for yard games!

They had horse drawn wagon rides, which the kids liked and when that was over, was the start of the HUGE bonfire!

This is the biggest bonfire I have ever seen. The fire department is who actually lit it and controlled it. It was so cool to see the progression of flames especially as the sun went down

There was a hot air balloon that you could take your picture in. It didn't actually go up, but they are going to have tethered balloon rides next year!

They had a concert, Drake White. I had never heard of him, but he was really good!

On our way out, we saw an ambulance. Since Piper loves police officers so much I thought maybe she would want to check this out! She did! She got to sit in the drivers seat and they opened up the back for the kids to get in and check out! By the time we were done, a line had formed!

My babies and me in front of the bonfire. Piper took her face paint off b/c it was itchy! :)

Saturday Funday

Last week we had our first full week of school. It went well and neither girl has started complaining about it yet! The only thing Presley will mention is that Piper hangs around with her and her friends at KTC after school. 

Tuesday Holly and I went to dinner and then made wine, I have done with this Sarah but she couldn't go so Holly was my substitute! I think she really enjoyed it too!

Thursday Presley had her first soccer practice of the season, she isn't thrilled that I signed her up but she really hasn't complained too much about it. She doesn't know anyone on her team and their 'home' field is Urbandale since Johnston and Urbandale have now combined soccer clubs (don't get me started on this!). 

Friday Steve left for Iowa City for Brandon's bachelor party! So it was girls weekend for us! Friday we went to El Mariachi and they actually ate really good! Then we headed home, I think we were all tired so we didn't do much.

Saturday I got up and worked out and then we had Mary come over and hang out for the day/night! We headed to Kids Warrior gym for an hour since it was rainy and dreary outside. The kids loved it and were worn out! 

They have 6 warped walls....Presley was able to make it up the 3rd wall with no problems, she was too short for the 4th. Piper could get up the 1st one with no problem and tried the 2nd one about 30 times and was able to do it about 1 out of 10 times. I loved her determination!!

Mary was able to reach up on the 4th wall, but couldn't quite pull herself up all the way!

They have so many different things there to try! Rock wall, different balance things, monkey bars and balance beam things! It's really cool!

The floating steps.

After we left there, we headed out to lunch at Applebees and all 3 of the girls ate really good! Then we headed to the Old School Arcade place in Grimes. It was a little expensive and we totally didn't get our monies worth. None of these girls are really into video games and a lot of the game I had never heard of so even I didn't know how to play but I'm glad we went to see what it was all about!

We headed home after that. Presley and Mary played in the basement and Piper and I had some snapchat fun while watching the Iowa game! She eventually went and started playing with the girls also and I might have fallen asleep during part of the game! Oops.

Once the game was over, I forced the girls to get outside before the rain started again! It was humid and they really didn't want to. I finally walked with them to the end of the block just to get a little time outside!

Then it started to rain....and hail. They briefly played in the rain but the hail stung a little when it hit them!

A while later Samantha and the boys came over for dinner. We just ordered Casey's pizza and had fruit. The kids played and played and played! They were so good and we just talked and hung out! They didn't leave until 11 pm! It was nice to have them over, it had been too long!

Jordan LOVES Presley and she is SO good with him!