I don't know why I always think summer is going to be a lot of laying around and finding ways to fill up our days. Because it NEVER is. This week was madness.
Megan and her family were still here on Monday, so we went over to my parents' house and did a couple of art projects and put together another puzzle and played some games. That morning, after we'd eaten breakfast, the kids wanted to start working on the custom My Little Pony's we'd planned to do this summer. Making a custom MLP involves getting a MLP you don't mind destroying, pulling their head off and cutting all their hair off, then pulling it out by the roots. Then you paint it with either fingernail polish or regular paint that you spray over with a clear coat. Then you buy this special tool that allows you to re-hair the pony with the hair you buy online. We already bought the hair and the tool and the ponies from DI, so the kids wanted to start with the pulling off their heads part. I thought we should do a few before and after photos, so I took the two ponies outside to take the picture because the cement wall over the cement patio makes for a nice non-distracting background. But all the kids were so excited, they followed me out and shut the door. And we were locked out. In our pajamas. Steve was already at work 30-40 minutes away and he is the only other person with a key. I used to have a key hidden outside for just this sort of circumstance, but of course it was lost months ago and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one made. As I sat fuming on the back steps, Emilia and Mira decided they needed to make sure the front door wasn't somehow magically not locked. I knew I had locked it the night before and no one had gone outside that morning yet, so I knew it would be locked. But by some miracle, the door opened when they tried it. (Sometimes, since our door handles still turn on the inside, even when they're locked, it's hard to tell whether they've latched all the way, or sometimes, the lock only engages after the outside handle is turned to a certain point.) So the girls come running back yelling, "We're saved! We're saved! The door opened!" And I was so relieved that I wouldn't have to make Steve drive all the way home to let us into the house. But the little geniuses were so excited that the door opened, that they
shut it again before coming to tell me it opened. That was enough to latch it or to engage the lock, and once again, we were locked out. *palm to face* I ended up calling Steve to come let us in. He was in a meeting and wouldn't be out for a while. So then I called Megan and made her come pick us up so we could at least sit around inside a house while still in our pajamas. Thank goodness my parents only live 10 minutes away now instead of an hour away.
Tuesday, I had a week's worth of housework to catch up on. We needed to go help Julia, do laundry, clean the house, do dishes, etc. I also joined a new writing group and we discussed our submissions via Voxer throughout the day. It took up way more mental energy than I thought it would and made my day feel like it was smashed full of things to do, even though it was really the equivalent of talking on the phone all day. That night, I met up with my friend Gina for dinner and a movie. We saw Ocean's 8 and I was as underwhelmed as I expected to be. Dinner was a tasty GF pizza at Village Baker. Mmmm.
Wednesday we did a TON of running around. I had to get my fingerprinting/background check done for renewing my teaching license. I went to Costco and Macey's (and then Reams later because I forgot two things that I needed for dinner). Then after an early dinner, we went to the library and then to DI where I found a bunch of cute clothes that I needed for summer. My mom also had hip replacement surgery that day and everything went smoothly.
Of course, we had to visit her the next day. But first, I hosted the Activity Days girls. It's my new calling at church. Activity Days are activities for girls aged 8-11 to help them complete the requirements for an award they can receive before they start the youth program (it's a little like cub scouts, but more focused on faith-based activities than all-around life skills). I am only the leader over 10 and 11 year-old girls and there are only 4 of them right now. We made gifts for their fathers (shrinky dink keychains decorated by each girl), and they each wrote a letter telling their fathers what they respect and admire about them (that fulfilled one of the requirements for the award). Then after lunch, I had a dentist appointment. No cavities. Hooray! Then we finally drove down to visit my mom. She was doing well, in very little pain and getting over the itching from the spinal tap. The nurse was nice enough to give the kids double popsicles which kept them entertained for long enough to have a nice chat with my mom. Then as we were leaving, another nurse wheeled a cart by covered in patriotic Flag Day cupcakes and asked if we wanted one. Each of the kids happily accepted, but I made them take them outside so they wouldn't get crumbs all over the clean hospital floors. It was 95 degrees outside, so we sat in the shade of a tree as they ate. All of a sudden, Mira screamed. When I looked over, there was a big splotch of black on her arm. A bird had pooped on her! Of course, it had picked my germaphobe. After rushing inside to wash up in a bathroom, we found the culprit and photographed it. I thought this was all quite hilarious, but Mira was quite a bit less amused.
My dad asked us to stop by DI on our way home to see if they had a walker mom could use. They didn't, but I found some more clothes to buy. I might like shopping a bit too much. Then I had to make dinner and I was pooped after that. Steve ended up taking the girls to feed the ducks while I fell asleep on the couch.
Steve had a flight to catch to Denver Friday morning. He's been there all weekend, and the girls are very sad that he's not here for Father's Day. We'll celebrate tomorrow evening. His nephew, Xander, is leaving on a 2-year mission for our church and he went to celebrate and send him off with the rest of his siblings and parents. The girls and I had a pretty lazy day Friday, though the younger two did have gymnastics and we had fast food for dinner.
Yesterday, we ended up having to take Great Grandma Watts to instacare. Since the rest of the family is in Colorado, I was the only one around to do it. She ended up having both shingles and a staff infection from scratching them, so I'm glad I was able to get her a prescription before Nick came home on Monday. After we dropped her off back at the nursing home, the girls and I went to the bean museum. We were there at the right time to attend a live animal show where they taught the kids about the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates. The young lady doing the show let a tarantula climb on her arm (yech!), then showed us a frog from the amazon rainforest. We couldn't touch either of those. At the end, she brought out a lizard that looked like a baby monitor lizard (I can't remember what she said it actually was), which the kids could touch if they wanted to. Cecily decided that she wanted tons of pictures at the museum, like she sees in movies. The second-to-last picture is Emilia posing like the elk behind her. The last one is Cecily trying not to laugh as she takes a picture with an elk's butt. She's so funny. :D After the Bean Museum, we had ice cream at the BYU Creamery. I heated up leftovers for dinner and the kids played while I cleaned up the house. It was good day.
We are all looking forward to seeing Steve tomorrow. Happy Father's Day everyone!
