I caved.

So, some things I want to say about our new purchase.....

- it's a 2007, so this is in no way a 'new' car. It has 60k miles which is good for a 2007 and was in our my budget. It's silver, so it continues our tradition of having silver cars. (I really wanted army green but that just didn't work out)

- it was on my 2016 goal list to get a new car, I had no intentions of doing it so soon though.

- Steve had sent me multiple pictures of Jeeps over the last week. He has been wanting one of these forever and really increased his sales pitch to me recently (maybe he read my 2016 goal list and thought he had a sliver of hope? He can be smart like that!).

- he got our Equinox 'running' Friday night...meaning it started and didn't die like it had been doing over the last 7 months....however, with bald tires and no air conditioning we just needed to get rid of it.

- Friday night he had to take the Traverse to the Father/Daughter dance so I was left with no car. Could I have driven the Equinox? Sure. Was I going to be the first one to drive it after 7 months of just sitting there? No way, I was not comfortable with that. So at 37 years old, I had to have my parents come pick me and Piper up to join them for dinner that night. Awesome huh?

- it does remind me of my old convertible, soft top, summer car (I really hope the new owners appreciate her as much as I did)..........so I'm ready for nice weather.
- Piper cried the first time Steve put her in it...now it's the only car they want to drive in. They don't fully understand that this truly is our 'other' car...the Traverse is our main mode of transportation with the exception of nice, summer days.....sorry girls! :)
- I'm so proud of my husband for getting his fico score up from 614 10 years ago to a whopping 833!(higher than 97% of US Consumers according to the info we got!) (I will pat myself on the back for this accomplishment since I pay the bills!)

7 years old

Oh me, oh my....Presley Pie is 7 years old! In some ways she has changed SO much since starting elementary school last year but in other ways is still the shy, quiet, reserved kid that we are used to. She has stepped out of her comfort zone way more than I expected in the last year and of course, we are the only ones that see most of these changes!

- she acts confident around us but is very self-conscious at school. She is afraid she is going to be wrong or be the last one done so we are trying very hard to remind her that we would rather she get everything right and be the last one done than be the first one done with wrong answers. I think she is slowly getting the picture!

- is getting almost too small for 'small' clothes in the girls department, up to mediums we go! Except in pants, I think she is shorter than most kids her age and she still hasn't lost any teeth!

- she can be such a good big sister, she loves to help Piper and teach her. She still says she wants to be a teacher and I can see that in the way she interacts with Piper sometimes. However, Piper is still the #1 reason that she gets in trouble. Presley CANNOT leave her alone. She has to pick on her, try to take her toys, watch her, touch her....she is like a bug attracted to a light when it comes to Piper.

- she loves girly things! If I take her shopping for clothes, she wants to look at jewelry, shoes, purses and all that little crap that we have a shit ton of already!

- she loves crafts. Coloring, cutting, scissors, glue, making pictures, writing stories with pictures to match, creating different foods out of playdoh, stencils....our house looks like a crayola box exploded!

- she is spoiled. I'm trying to teach her how to be more thankful for what she has, but I still don't think she truely understands (which I'm sure there are 20 year olds who still don't understand.)

- she seems to have transitioned from little kid shows into 'kid' shows, animation doesn't seem to hold her attention anymore. Basically if Piper likes it, she then assumes it is a 'baby show' and doesn't want to watch it.

- she loves reading! Ready Freddy, Junie B Jones, Elephant and Piggie, all Dr. Seuess books.

- Barbies are probably the #1 'toy' she plays with.

- even around family she is quiet, I'm not sure she has said more than a sentence to Scott or Jerry and they have been around for years and she sees them quite often! I think my parents see the same Presley that we do at home, but I think most other people NEVER see her like we do. Funny, loud, talkative, sassy with a little Valley girl thrown in there, she can throw complete fits and fling herself around a room b/c she is so pissed off. She would never do these things in front of other people. I guess we are the special ones! :)

Presley, you strive to be the best and that is not a bad thing! You are determined and completely sure that you are always right about everything. I love your ability to challenge us in EVERYTHING you do, you are amazing and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise! Be polite, be thankful, be a good friend, be helpful and be loving! We love you Presley Grace, you will always be my baby girl!

Presley Pie

Wednesday after we got home from gymnastics we had our own little birthday celebration for Presley!

Piper doesn't like to be left out!

Piper is excited to turn 4 (not until October) but is even more excited to turn 7 now! I told her that she should just have fun being 3 years old!

She has been very into Play-Doh lately, so she was excited! We also got her a season pass to Adventureland as part of her present so she is ready for them to open!

and money.....she is already looking for things to buy!

A cupcake and our beautiful voices singing happy birthday to her. She still gets nervous when people sing to her, but she didn't cry last year so I'm hoping she doesn't cry at her party this year! 

and Miss-Sassy-Pants was just too jealous of me taking pictures of Presley so she tried and tried to get my attention for some pictures too. 

PTO

I took off 3 days in a row for no reason! Usually when I take that many days off it is b/c we are going somewhere but I just needed to use these days before we actually start having work again in a couple weeks so it was nice to have time at home!

Monday I was up and out of bed by 8. I did some stuff around the house, the basic stuff that needed to get done and that stuff that you talk about doing and never rarely find time to do it! Clean the shower, cleaned the nasty dried toothpaste spit out of the kids sink. Cleaned out my closet and got bags ready to take to Goodwill. Organized Presley school papers, cleaned out my purse, ordered balloons for P to have on the morning of her birthday.

Then I headed out to start my errands, I opened a savings account for Piper (yes, you read that correctly! One thing off my 2016 goals list!), ran to the grocery store, dropped off clothes at Goodwill, went to Target, got gas in the car (knowing it was supposed to snow the next 2 days and that I wouldn't want to do it then), ran to McDonalds and then headed to have lunch with Presley. I love having her walk into the lunch room, looking excited to see me, smiling and running over to me! LOVE IT!

I left lunch and went to pick up her balloons, dropped off some stuff at a friends house, got home, did more laundry, and cleaning, ran outside (in hopes to be able to run that 5k I talked about in my 2016 goal list!), showered, watched a little Dr. Phil while putting away laundry and before I knew it, Steve was home!
We packed the kids bags for them to spend the night at grandma's, went to go pick them up and then headed to Applebees for dinner. Piper hurt her leg at school, so she was ultra sensative about her leg...we couldn't touch it, couldn't look at it and basically she walked with a limp until she forgot about it. Then we headed to grandmas. We got them situated there and left to head home. We had all intentions of going home and trying to go to bed early (knowing we were going to be up at 5:00 Tuesday morning) but drove by the Boat House AND it was only 7:30...so we stopped and had a couple beers while watching the caucus coverage and some basketball game. We were still home and in bed by 10!

I set my alarm for 4:30 Tuesday morning, why? you ask. Duh! Their annual Groundhog's Day celebration! It starts at 6 am! Free High Life beer from 6-8. This is actually a thing, it's like the new, elite St. Patty's day celebration. EVERYONE does St. Patty's day, but only the really cool kids do Goundhogs day! :)
There was a line at 5:45, everyone was excited and full of energy at 6 am (and the snow hadn't started yet!). I got a sash from the 'mayor', they gave away shirts, sweatshirts, hats, koozies. We met alot of people and had a lot of fun!

At sunrise, everyone piles outdoors to see if the groundhog sees his shadow....the blizzard had started at this point. Big, wet, windy snow right into our faces!

There is a beer truck parade...maybe 6-7 beer trucks drive by honking their horns and then the groundhog jumped out of one of them! Too funny!

There was a group of people who go every year and they had made groundhog cookies! So cute and they were so good!

Thank you to Steve and Samantha for braving the early morning and snow storm to hang out with me! We left about noon, had some lunch and then headed home. We picked up Presley from my parents house since school was cancelled and then her and Steve went home and played in the snow while I took a nap! :)

Wednesday I got up and helped the kids get ready for Steve to take them to school. Since it was Presley's birthday I put the balloons in her room for her to wake up to and she picked powdered donuts to have for breadfast! Once they left I layed back down and got up about 9 and shoveled the driveway. Steve didn't believe that I had done it, I had to take a picture and send it to him. He still doesn't think it was me. I get no credit!! :)
I got Presley's presents ready, washed the inside of the washing machine (doesn't anyone ever do this? I never have), I did a lot of vegging out and watching some of my DVR'd shows, I organized our shoe closet, did dishes and more laundry, paid bills....so I wasn't completely useless!

I picked up my birthday girl after school and we headed to Dairy Queen before gymnastics! A nice treat for mommy and Presley! :) And her ice cream was so big that I ended up eating most of the ice cream for her (oh darn!) b/c she likes the cone!

Sapphire has been so crowded after the holidays! I don't know if more people have signed up or they opened more classes but by the time class is over the watching/waiting room is packed full of people and kids all over the place! They had all the February birthdays listed on the wall, so we took a picture! :)

I tried to take a picture of her doing cartwheels and roundoffs...that is her, right in the middle with her feet in the air! Next time I'm taking my good camera and being that mom!

Goodbye January

I can't believe we are this far into 2016 already! Last week was pretty normal until Wednesday night, Steve and P got home from gynastics and he did not feel good at all. He started throwing up and I knew he just needed to stay away from all of us. Wednesdays are usually our one 'hectic' night b/c Presley doesn't get home until almost 7, she needs to eat, usually do homework and she really still wants time to play and hang out before bed, which is normally 8!
Thursday morning I took the girls to school, Steve still wasn't feeling good and didn't eat until about 8 pm that night. You know, once the Iowa basketball game was over and the kids were in bed, did he feel good enough to come out! ;)

Friday we decided to go out to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner after work. That started off with a lady laying in the grass outside of BWW, drunk, yelling at the guy she was with....that is awesome to try to ignore with your kids who are more than curious! Then Presley had a break down, for no apparent reason! So her and I had a time out off away from Piper and daddy to calm her down and figure out what was going on, b/c she is not normally the one we have to worry about in public. Finally, we had our girl chat and all was normal again!

Saturday we just hung out, did our normal weekend stuff. I took Piper to Target with me to get groceries and pick out presents for Presley's birthday (which of course the first thing she did when we got home was go and tell Presley what we bought her!). She is always the entertainer at Target when I take her. If I tell her to be quiet and use her inside voice, she'll said "I can't be quiet! I don't have an inside voice" as LOUD as she can. The poor cashier a couple weeks ago had to deal with her talking about farting and how it smelled like poop. Yeah that was classy. This time she gave the cashier the 'rock on' sign as we left. Too funny!

We had Brittney come over to babysit that night so we could go out for my birthday! We headed over to Climb Iowa http://www.climbiowa.com/. It was awesome and very tiring! We are not strong but I think we both enjoyed the experience to see what we could do and I definitely want to go back and take the girls!

Then we headed out to dinner at Irina's http://irinasrestaurantandbar.com/ So good! I love the atmosphere and the food is good and they have their own infused vodka's. Worth it! After that we went to meet Steve's brother Matt at Down Under to watch the band Toaster play. They were really good and a lot of fun! It was a good night full of lots of different things! Happy Birthday to me! :)

 

Sunday we all slept in! We got ready to head out, went to the mall to find Presley shoes for the father/daughter dance this weekend and then went to my parents for dinner, to celebrate both her and my birthdays! We hung out with the family, the kids played, I ate SO much good food and then just wanted to sleep! Thank you mom for the wonderful meal and fantastic jello cake!

Answers by Presley

I'm going to try to start to ask Presley these same questions every year on her birthday to see how they change over the years. I had printed off some different questions online and then FB had questions also so I'm combining them!

1. What is something I always say to you? P: Stop singing...
Me: when do I say that to you?
P: mmm...Every Tuesday?
(Sure. Ok. Never) 2. What makes me happy? When you see your favorite animal. (Wtf?)
3. What makes me sad? I don't know.
4. How do I make you laugh? tickling
5. What was I like as a child? Happy
6. How old am I? How old are you? 36, 6
7. How tall am I? 6 feet?
8. What is my favorite thing to do? Coloring (one picture, one time!)
9. What do I do when you're not around? Clean
10. What am I really good at? cleaning
11. What is something I'm not good at? Making stuff
12. What do I do for a job? Work on a computer
13. What is my favorite food? Chicken
14. What do you enjoy doing with me? coloring (one picture, one time!)

1. Who is your best friend? Leah, Quinnlyn and Quinn
2. What do you want to be when you grow up? Teacher
3. What football team do you support? Hawkeyes and Packers
4. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? To make fire, so when people are being mean I could hurt them (should we worry about this?)
5. How would describe me to your friends? Silly, smart, funny, big and tall
6. What does heaven look like? Sunny!
7. What is the most disgusting thing you can think of? Dog poop
8. What's the hardest thing about being a kid? Going to school
9. If you could time-travel, where and when would you go? A vacation to New York (guess this is in the future?)
10. What 5 words describe you best? I'm a girl. I'm 6 years old. I have brown hair. I have brown eyes. I'm in 1st grade. (I was hoping for words to describe her personality, nope)
11.  What are the best things about your mom and dad? Mom - does laundry. Dad - cooks
12. If you could be anyone in the world for a day, who would it be and why? Elsa for magical powers.
13. If you could change one rule that your family has, what would you change? We wouldn't have to do laundry.
14. If you could grow up and be famous, what would you want to be famous for? Gymnastics

Weekend Update

I just love these guys! :)

Friday night we hung out at home. Presley and I watched Pitch Perfect 2. These movies are PG-13, mostly due to language which she knows if she repeats any of it that she won't be watching the movies again. And of course, sexual references which she doesn't understand yet. Actually she was pretty bored during this movie which surprised me since we watch the original Pitch Perfect ALL the time. Oh well!

 

Saturday morning we got up and I took Presley to get her hair fixed. They were much nicer and apologetic this time, still not sure we'll go back. We shall see. When we got home Steve and Piper ran to the grocery store and then we really just hung out all day! Very lazy, lots of reading time for me and lots of ipad time for the girls!

That night I met mom, dad, Holly and Mary at Fuzzy's Tacos for dinner before we went to see Jerry in Caucus! The Musical. I really didn't know what to expect and it was SO funny! So good and I HIGHLY recommend it, whether you like politics or not!

http://www.desmoinesperformingarts.org/events/other/489-caucus-the-musical/

 

Sunday Piper was up at 7:30....too early for this household! She laid in bed with us for about an hour and then I finally forced myself out of bed. We hung out in the basement and when Steve got up, I laid back down for a quick nap!

We watched the Iowa basketball game, did laundry, the girls played and then we headed out to Brenton Skating Plaza to use the 2 free passes we had (since it was a 'warm' 40 degrees!). Piper is too young so her and I watched Steve and Presley.



We weren't sure Presley would agree to go out there! It's something new and it was busy. She was nervous but she went out there and tried and I think she actually enjoyed it! They hung on to the railing at the beginning but eventually got better and braver to let go! :)

I'm so proud of her for trying something new! This is a big deal for this girl!.....and Piper danced on the bench until it we were too cold then we went back to the car and hung out! She is a goofball!

Afterwards we decided to try dinner out (the last time, almost 2 weeks ago was a complete failure and I had to carry Piper out of the restaurant screaming and crying. And the whole way home she screamed, kicked the back of my seat and tried to open the car door....while I was driving of course!) ANYWAY.......we headed to Buzzard Billy's and surprisingly they were pretty good. They ate and got their free kids meal ice cream and we watched the end of the football game and headed home! It was nice to have a weekend with minimal obligations so we could do whatever we wanted!