Happy Anniversary and back to school

I felt more relaxed this week, even though I still had a ton to do. I think there's less pressure when it's stuff for your immediate family, you know?

We'd been wanting to go raspberry picking since the you-pick places opened, and since Monday was the last day the girls would all be able to go on a weekday morning, we went that morning. We arrived around 9 am, and I was worried a bunch of people would have gotten there before me and that it would get super hot before we could get a ton. But it ended up being the perfect day. Nobody had arrived before us (or they'd left before we got there) and no one else showed up until around 10:15. It started to warm up around 10, but then cooled us off with some warm summer rain. I was ready to go around 11, but the kids begged to stay so they could finish their quest to defeat the evil tyrant, so we stayed another hour. I got about 8.5 lbs out of it! We've eaten them straight out of the containers like candy, on cold oatmeal (because hot oatmeal is super gross), in crepes, on pancakes, and in shakes. I love being able to get cheap fresh raspberries! One of my favorite times of year.

The girls also had their back-to-school open house that day. Everyone was excited to see their classrooms and meet their teachers. I think this is such a great tradition. One I didn't have when I went to school. I mean, I survived, of course, but it's nice as a parent to be able to see the teachers interact with the kids, get schedules, sign waivers, and sign up to help with parties and such. And the kids are less anxious about going on the first day because they know what to expect.

After meeting teachers, I was mean and made the girls help me straighten the whole house. It had gotten out of hand from my dropping the ball the previous week. So we straightened bedrooms, the play room, the family room, the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen. I did dishes, vacuumed, did laundry, and made dinner. The house looked amazing when we were done and it was a good way to start off the new school year (for me), so it was totally worth being exhausted at the end of the day.

Tuesday was the first day of school for Emilia and Mira. Cecily has to wait a week since she's in kindergarten (she's not happy about this). I let them each pick out a first-day-of-school outfit, which I haven't done before because I'm a cheapskate. But I loved seeing what each of them picked. Emilia chose to order a t-shirt off Etsy that had Precure (anime) characters on it. I was surprised she picked jeggings to go with it, because she hates jeans. I'm happy to see her take a baby step this way. And she got slip-on emoji shoes to round out her ensemble. Mira, always the fashionista, bought her own poof-ball hair clips, picked new metallic star sandals and matched her pants to them. Her shirt is a metallic tiger on a grey background. Pink and gray are totally in right now, right? She's so on top of things. I'll talk more about Cecily's choices next week.

Since Ceci didn't get to go to school that day, she made me promise to take her somewhere fun. I thought she'd pick the park, or getting a Sno-Cone. But she really wanted to go to the Discovery Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Normally I would say no, but I remembered that every Tuesday in August is $2 Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point. So it would be really cheap to go. I knew it would also be a madhouse, but since we could afford it, I couldn't say no. I got a little writing done while Cecily played her heart out. It worked out really well.

When the girls got home from school, we made chocolate chip cookies for a snack.

I am taking a class through BYU Independent Study because I have to in order to keep my job. So Wednesday morning, I read through the material for that and then went to get some bloodwork done. I made homemade pizza for dinner that night and Steve had game night.

Thursdays I try to do family history with my mom, so we went over there in the morning and worked for a couple hours. I learned one of my great uncles worked for Boeing and died of asphyxiation. Interesting tidbits that I'm not sure are related, but might be.

I stopped at Joann Fabrics to get some fake fur for making more poof-ball hair clips. I would have just bought them, but I couldn't find them in the colors I wanted. They're surprisingly easy and expensive to make. Fake fur is like $30 a yard. Thankfully it was 30% off and i had a 20% off your purchase coupon, so a half-yard only cost about $10.

Cecily wanted to bring all of these stuffed animals home from Joanns. Guess how many she actually got? (0--the answer is 0)

Cecily had her kindergarten assessment just before school got out, so we headed to that, and then I went home and took a nap. I felt like I was coming down with something and was totally wiped out. With all the things I'd done so far in the week, I wasn't really surprised. I did have to take the girls to gymnastics in the evening, but other than that, I did mostly nothing the rest of the day.

I wasn't hungry until like 10 pm that day. And the only thing that sounded good was a loaded salad. So I made one with what I could find in my fridge/pantry.

Friday, I had to finish my 3 assignments for my class, wash my hair :D, and try making the puff-balls because I had scheduled activity days for after school and I thought about making puff-balls with them since a 1/2 yard of fabric makes like 50 of them. But then I remembered all the girls would have to use a needle and thread and I wasn't sure they'd be up for it. So we ended up make zucchini bread instead.

Found this guy in my kitchen one day. I love that we get a lot of ladybugs and praying mantises here.

Steve and I had our 12th anniversary on Saturday, so Friday night, my parents agreed to take our kids over night. We went to a tasty Italian dinner and then Mission Impossible #73. It was a typical Mission Impossible movie with ridiculous amounts of unbelievable action. But it was fun. What was not so fun? Steve got sick during the night and slept for most of the day on Saturday. I ended up going garage saling by myself (and the findings were horrid) and then making crepes for myself, eating them by myself, and working on my writing. The crepes were really tasty. And I needed to do the writing. So it was fine. Not much of an anniversary celebration though. :\

I looked really cute on our date. Not that you can tell from this one picture I took just before the movie started.

Today we're hanging out at home since the Wattses and the Nelsons are in Olympic National Park. I'm looking forward to loaded nachos. Because we all know--good food makes me happy.

drop everything

I mostly dropped the ball at home this week in order to do the makeover for Chandee Childress's room. I'm sad I forgot to take a before picture. But before, it had all-white walls, a bed with a lime green bedspread, and a short walmart-quality bookshelf in it. There was nothing hanging on the walls, and she had a $5 mirror leaned against her closet. So imagine a before of the room before you look at the after pictures, k? Thanks. :)

I spent a good six hours on Monday cutting wood to the size of her half-wall. I went up Tuesday evening and sewed an oversized duvet to the right size and stained and installed the wood (shiplap-style) on the wall in her room. The next day, I sewed and painted a saying pillow; broke her mirror trying to remove the old frame, shopped for a replacement, and cut/painted wood to reframe the new one. Then for 10 hours on Friday, I moved furniture, made and shopped for last-minute pieces, and decorated her room. I think it turned out well. And she loved it.

I taped of a section of my garage floor to the dimensions of the wall she gave me and cut wood to fit. It was a puzzle using all the old crate wood to find ones that laid flat and were the same size/color.

my list of things to bring with me

I found this globe, already painted over at a garage sale for $1, so I spray painted it white and gray and used acrylics to add the words I wanted and some leaves. It says, "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin" on one side and "Love makes the world go round" on the other.

The final product (I did not choose the wall color, or I would have picked something lighter for a basement room, but I tried to work with it):

I did the math, and I spent about $100 on this makeover. I didn't buy the wall paint, but I bought or made everything else.

I also helped Julia this week, hung out with my friend Gina one night, and most important of all, had my ultrasound! We're having another girl! (Nobody is surprised, right.) ;) I'm a little disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to mother a boy. But a healthy baby girl is a joy and a blessing and I'm excited to shop for clothes for her. Steve made me give away all our old baby clothes, so I get to start from scratch. Woot woot! :D

While I was painting my pillow, the girls all painted pictures of their own. This is Emilia's.

(upside down) Cecily's

(upside down) Mira's (yes, she wrote her name backwards on it). And those red things at the bottom are a row of flowers. I told Cecily that I had to pour her paint so she didn't waste it, so when Mira poured too much yellow paint, she used it up by making the sky "shiny" even though I told her she didn't have to. :) She's a very conscientious girl.

On Monday, I did ask the girls what they wanted to do with the last week of their summer vacation. They only asked for two things--going swimming one more time, and having s'mores one more time. I'd already set up a get together with a widow in our ward to make s'mores at her house Monday evening, so that item was easy to check off. The lady is really sweet and she invites us once every summer, so it was fun that it worked out so well this week. I didn't want to take them swimming by myself, so we waited until yesterday to check that off so Steve could go too. We all enjoyed it and everyone was exhausted by the end of the day. I did also get them Sno Cones one more time, they attended our ward ice cream social, and they had a lot of time to play outside. All-in-all I think was a good way to end their summer, even if I wasn't around for much of the week.

I washed my hair right before s'mores night and didn't want to make it smell like smoke, so I put it in a scarf. Worked like a charm.

Cecily saw me take a selfie and *had to* take a few of her own.

Crazy summer days

Last week, blogger wouldn't work for me. I couldn't get my computer to make it to the website. It just kept trying for like 20 minutes and then I gave up.

Two weeks ago was such a busy week. Steve's grandma's funeral and burial were on Saturday and Steve invited a cousin of his to stay at our house with his family. 

His cousin has 6 kids.

Our house is only 1750 square feet. Which is not big enough to fit an extra bed, let alone eight extra beds. Thankfully, they only brought four of their kids with them and they were all willing to sleep on air mattresses and couches.

extra cousins

I wanted to have them all be able to fit downstairs so we didn't have to have air mattresses filling up our living room for 3 days. So to make that happen, I decluttered and organized and cleaned our entire basement. The girls helped me clean the play room, which we'd already decluttered a few weeks ago. Then the family/TV room, I folded up our treadmill which we never use, moved a table behind the couch, moved all our weights, moved our couch, and cleaned everything. Then I moved to the garage because the cleaning of the family room made for a bunch of extra stuff that had no home. So I cleaned out all of my crafting supplies, sewing supplies, home decorating extras (including the huge number of things I've collected for the Childresses) and party supplies. I got rid of some stuff, rearranged a bunch of stuff and put it all back. And it fit! I was excited about that.

I did all that within the space of two days. I was exhausted.

I also worked more on my quilt that week, worked on family history, attended family gatherings, had a pregnancy check-up (everything's going great), helped Julia, got my haircut, 

held a birthday party for Emilia, 

took the girls to gymnastics, attended a funeral, painted the eyes on our My Little Pony custom ponies, 

and found some more stuff for the Childresses.

All the great-grandchildren practicing a musical number for the funeral

There were a few people at the Watts house as evidenced by the sheer number of shoes removed at the front door.

And this week has been almost as busy. This summer has been so crazy busy that I'm reeling from realizing that school starts a week from Tuesday. The term "lazy summer days" definitely does not apply to my family.

I had nothing planned this last Monday, so of course I had to fill it up with something. *eye roll* (sometimes I wonder about my sanity) I grabbed my dad Monday afternoon and had my mom watch my kids while we drove to Salt Lake to pick up a bed, a mirror, and some free lumber for the Childresses. It took us about four hours and we didn't get home until almost 7pm.

On Tuesday, the Nelson cousins were in town, so we went school shopping together and let the kids play at the mall play area after. I had my writing critique group in the afternoon and that night, Steve and I went on a double date with some friends to Good Moves--that restaurant that also has games for you to play. We tried two games we'd never played before--Pandemic and Imhotep. Both were fun. I'd play them again.

I helped Julia on Wednesday since I'd been occupied on our usual Tuesday morning slot, then went to Costco for an easy lunch with the girls and some much-needed grocery shopping. At 4pm, we had a play date at the park with some people in our neighborhood and immediately after, drove up to Pleasant Grove so my kids could play with the youngest Childress at the bounce house place up there. They were up late and exhausted after such a long day.

Thursday, I finally finished the top to my quilt and then we went to dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's since cousins would be there again to play.

Friday, I had two other activity days girls over for an activity that involved cooking our own soft pretzels and learning that they were originally made as a treat to remind children to say their prayers (they're shaped like praying arms). Then we sat in rush-hour traffic for three hours to go to a wedding reception for a good family friend. Steve and I have known her since she was Emilia's age and she's living in Provo now and comes over to play games regularly. It was a LOOOONG drive and none of us got dinner until after the reception at 9pm because we didn't make it to North Ogden until after the reception had started. Plus, it had been a high of almost 100 degrees that day and it was so HOT there. Another late, exhausting day.

My kids loved dancing--with or without Daddy--at the reception.

I did get to read a book on our drive there and back and couldn't stop myself from finishing it once we got home. So I stayed up later than I should have and then got up early to go rummage-saling with my mom Saturday morning. I found a ton of great deals, though. It was so fun. A really nice set of matching silverware to replace our mismatched stuff. 15 full sets of antique silverware for $5. I also found storage bins, a toothless stuffie for Ces, a new pokemon for Mira, a set of headphones for Emilia, a cassette-tape player so I can play the Wonder Woman tape I found to go with the book I've had since I was a kid, a rolling suitcase, a chair mat, some 100% cotton batting, and a few small items for the Childresses. All that for $20. I really love rummage saling/thrift store shopping.

Then I got our oil changed, went to Home Depot and IFA for yard stuff we needed, went to the grocery store and the library. Then I got a dinner ready for my friend Anessa who just had a baby this week and drove up to the Childresses and helped paint Chandee's bedroom so we can start her makeover. Then over to the Watts' for a late steak dinner and a game before bringing the girls home and putting them to bed. After they were in bed, I clear-coated our MLP customs and painted the bookshelf I found for Chandee. I slept well last night. Phew!

Tonight, we're having my parents over for dinner. Which I need to go get started. I hope you've had much more relaxing summers. Though don't get me wrong. I enjoy always having something to do. It's just usually better when I get to rest in-between spurts. :)

*happy sigh*

I feel like we didn't do anything important this week. But we enjoyed each other. So that's important I suppose.

I took very few pictures this week, but the kids took a ton of random photos, which I will give you the pleasure of viewing between my witty monologues. ;)

The girls found a website where they could costume
a "magical girl" (it's an anime thing)

Monday was mostly spent putting away all of the vacation stuff, washing clothes, filling the fridge with perishables, and other such post-vacation catch up stuff.

I made pancakes for breakfast and pasta for lunch for the girls and Mira was fascinated that this bowtie noodle came "untied." Haha! By dinner I had no energy left, so we at cereal.

It's been so hot here--in the mid- to upper-nineties for weeks and weeks. So on Tuesday when I asked the girls what they wanted to do that day, they said, get snow cones and go to the splash pad. I helped Julie that morning, but in the afternoon, we did just that. It was a fun excursion, except next time I need to remember that I can't lay on my pregnant stomach to keep an eye on the girls, so bringing a camping chair will be in order.

I asked Steve to work from home on Wednesday so I could go to a lunch with the other ladies in Utah who got published in the same anthology I did. The books finally got printed and sent to us, so we had lunch to celebrate and sign each others' copies.

I also took a trip to DI earlier in the day because I could leave the kids at home with Steve. They hate coming to DI with me because I can never make my trips there fast. I needed a couple more summer maternity shirts, which I found, but I also found a TON of other fun stuff. I love thrift shopping. I think its the adrenaline rush when you find a good deal. :)

Steve had game night that night, so the girls and I had an easy dinner and then they played outside with friends until bed time. It was a super easy no-kids sort of day for me!

Thursday morning, I set up a play date with one of Emilia's friends. We ended up taking her to the library with us, and then they played until Emilia had to leave for a day camp with the other Activity Days girls. After I dropped her off, Cecily and Mira left to play at a friend's house down the street. I had the whole house to myself! It was such a treat.  I ended up being really grateful and really torn as I pondered my sanity for getting pregnant and messing that up for another five years.

While they were gone, I plotted out a pattern for a quilt and started cutting the pieces out of old sheets I got for free from my neighbor when she moved and some pillow cases I found at DI a while back. I'm excited about the pattern. I think it will turn out really cute. Of course, this is only the 2nd quilt I've tried to make, and this one is for someone other than my daughters, so it's a little more nerve-wracking, too. I'm making a quilt because I'm helping my friend Camber's daughter redo her bedroom. She's starting college in the fall, but decided to live at home to save money, but her room is a basement room with almost no decoration. She also suffers from severe anxiety, depression, and body image issues and I thought maybe having a space that speaks peace to her soul might help in some small way.  I know it helps me see life from a better place when my space is organized and pretty. I also thought it might give me the opportunity to become better friends with her so she could feel comfortable confiding in me or coming to me if she needs help. She has a great relationship with her mother, but sometimes mom is just not the person you want to go to in a pinch, right?

The girls made these three Duplo figures at the library and told me they were Huey, Duey, and Luey from Ducktales.

I worked on cutting out quilt blocks again on Friday for a couple hours, but still didn't get them finished, unfortunately. I ended up staying up until 1am last night getting the last of them cut out. Part of the problem was I cut out a bunch and then realized that I calculated the number of blocks based on the size of the blocks I was cutting, not the finished size after sewing. So then I had to go back and cut out more blocks from the fabrics I'd already cut--and I didn't have enough fabric for some of them and had to find an alternative fabric and cut out all those squares again.

Since I'm helping her with this, and their family doesn't have much money to contribute to it, I've been scanning the online classified ads for free stuff I could use to decorate with. So far, I've found a nice wood bookshelf that needs some TLC, other scrap wood to build shelves with, some tree stumps I plan on making into a side table, and on Friday, I found a yard sale where they weren't charging for anything, they were just giving it all away. So I dragged the girls in 99 degree weather to Payson to look through piles of free stuff. They were excited to find a bunch of treasure for themselves--except Emilia--all she picked out was a purse. She's becoming such a tween!

That night, Cecily asked me to draw with chalk with her. It was a nice summer night, so I agreed. We sat on the driveway and I drew a monster and a design that reminded me of Anna's dress (from Frozen). She drew an emoji (It's sideways in the second picture), and an octopus (3rd picture). Mira joined us at the very end and drew a girl and some flowers in front of a sunset.

One of the days, the girls found a bird they thought was hurt. I think it might have just been young and not good at flying yet. It let us touch it without flying away, but it clung to that brand really tight when I tried to pick it up and put it in a box so our cat wouldn't eat it before I could figure out how to help it. I read online that young birds often stay near the nest and their parents help them get food for a week or so before they're completely ready to be on their own. So we left it there and I made the kids stop trying to "help" it.  We think it eventually flew away.

Mira and I went to rummage sales right away Saturday morning. I'm still looking for a few things for the room makeover. I didn't find any of them. But I did find a bathrobe for Emilia, some new ties for Steve, some hair bows and headbands for the younger girls, a cherry pitter, and some crafting items all for under $10. It was a good rummage sale day.

After that, I spent a couple hours weeding the front beds, with a little begrudging help from the kids. After lunch, we found some new music on Amazon to download and then listened to it while we cleaned all three of our bathrooms.

After giving Steve a haircut, he drove up to Murray to test drive some used Siennas while I made dinner. The girls got out our facepaint and traded facepainting with the neighbor girl.

The day ended with a pretty sunset. All in all, it was a very good week. *happy sigh*
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