Busy, busy and lots of changes

So much has happened in the last several weeks! 



The three older kids started school in early August, S and I flew to Texas for a few days to visit family. My mom flew back home with us and ended up staying almost 3 weeks. 






All the kids' fall activities have started up. C turned 9 in mid August and I had a birthday in late August. Then the day after my birthday.. the day my mom was supposed to fly home... my husband had a heart attack! He is okay for now (more on all this later) but our lives were turned upside down during the week he spent in the hospital and things are just starting to get back to normal (new normal) around here. My mom ended up staying an extra week.. I don't know how I would have managed without her. We also decided to move back to Texas to be closer to family... although we probably won't move back until May. 



So, things have been crazy!! Our weeks are busy, busy, busy with three kids in two different elementary schools across town from each other, Girls On The Run, baseball, choir, soccer, American Heritage Girls, working at church and much more!! We had to cut out dance this year with everything else we have going on and may cut out Trail Life. 



Our first Disney trip is coming up in about 6 weeks! The kids are super excited and I'm having fun planning everything! Any and all Disney tips are welcome! 



I've gotten so far behind... I'll try to catch up on everything in the next few posts.

a day in the life

I thought it would be interesting to recap our busy day Tuesday.

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We all had to wake up pretty early since we had a busy day ahead. By 8 a.m. I think everyone was up and awake except for L and I. I drug myself out of bed, stumbled downstairs to mix up my Revital U coffee and headed back upstairs to straighten my hair.



I woke L up around 8:15, got her dressed, made sure someone gave her a chocolate chip granola bar and quickly got myself dressed.



My husband's grandmother passed away suddenly over the weekend so he left for Texas on Tuesday with the two older girls. 



My husband finished loading his car for the trip then left and took C to school around 8:25



I try to double check to make sure the girls had packed everything they needed but figured out later they left a few things behind... including nice dresses for the service and all their bath/shower stuff. Oops.



The girls and I left the house right after 8:30 and drove to Wal-Mart to meet my husband. We left his car and we all went together in the van to get his car registered before going back to Texas. We may have been a bit overdue on the whole registration thing..

We stood in a long line at the registration place but thankfully didn't have to wait too long. That place had to be 50 years old and smelled like old, stagnant cigarette smoke.



After getting the car registered we went back to Wal-Mart around 10:00-10:15. I dropped my husband off at Wal-Mart so he could get his prescription and a few other items before leaving town. The girls and I drove over to the Dollar Tree in the next parking lot. I let the two older girls pick out several things to keep them busy on the road. They got crayons, notebooks, coloring books, a few crafts and more. Plus Play-Doh to play with at my mother-in-law's house.



My husband met us in the Dollar Tree parking lot with donuts around 10:45. We were all starving! We said our good-byes and he and the older girls left and headed out of town from there.

L and I went straight to therapy after telling the others goodbye. She had a great session! She crawled through a big, long tunnel for the first time (she was terrified of it previously) then crawled through it several more times throughout her session. She also wanted to get on the "horse" swing and actually swung on it for the first time! She loved it! Last week she sat on it for a minute but wouldn't swing on it. You can see she has my old "My Child" doll from the 80s that she played with all day Tuesday. I begged for that doll for my 8th birthday and named here "Emily" when I was a kid. L tries to say Emily but it sounds more like "Em-na-lee"... it's really cute how she says it! 


Excuse the awful pictures! The camera on this new (cheap) phone drives me crazy. I'm practically counting down the days until I can get a new phone but it will be a few months. I finally found the charger to my big camera and really want to start taking that around with me. I need the practice and really miss decent pictures!

On the way home from therapy we met a girl from a buy/sell/trade group to buy a pair of snow bibs for the winter. L was sooo excited to get them and had to put them on as soon as we got home ha! They're a little too big for her but she looked so cute in them! I'm hoping we get as much snow this year as we got last year. (What we got last year seemed like a lot to us since we hardly got a thing in Texas).



L and I came home for lunch around 12:45, took the dog out a couple times then left to pick up C for an orthodontist appointment. His appointment was at 2:10 but of course we were 10 minutes late. This was a follow up to his evaluation back in February. They still want to wait a while to start treatment and don't need to see him again until May.



After the orthodontist we came home for a late nap and quiet time. Yesterday was cold, overcast and rainy... perfect napping weather! L went right to sleep and slept until I had to wake her up to leave the house again at 5:30.



Around five I made grill cheese sandwiches for C and I and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for L to eat in the car. Trail Life starts at 7 but I told a girl from another buy/sell/trade group that I would meet her at 6:15 so we left the house around 5:30-5:40.

After we met the girl we browsed around the dollar $3-$5 bins at Target for a while.

The kids tried on a few hats. Both kids wanted that toy that L is holding in the last picture. L got the snowman and C got a penguin but as soon as we opened them we realized they were junk. L and I went right back to Target after dropping C off at Trail Life and returned the toys. We walked around Target again for over an hour. I could spend my life in there ha!

I bought a couple clearance palm stems (and want to go back for more!) and a Barbie baby for L but this candle smelled sooo good! I may go back and get it.



L felt warm to me off and on all evening. The last thing we want is a seizure so I kept feeling her forehead to figure out if she was feverish. I walked over to the Target pharmacy and asked if they could take her temp. I think the pharmacist thought I was crazy at first ha! Then he seemed to agree it would probably be a good idea to keep a thermometer behind the counter. In the end I just bought Tylenol and gave L a dose to be on the safe side. I'm going to try to remember to keep a bottle of Tylenol or Ibuprofen in my diaper bag/purse from now along with a thermometer. I always have about fifty thousand things in there that I don't need. I wish I could remember to carry along the stuff we do need!



We picked up C from Trail Life at 8:15, stopped by McDonald's drive-thru for a snack. The kids had fries and chocolate chip cookies and I had a hot apple pie! It's crazy how much calmer it is with just 2 kids. It's almost like a vacation!



Despite a busy day we came home, played with the dog, had snacks and went to bed late.. around 11:15. I watched a few episodes of "Friends", then fell asleep with my contacts still in! This happens way too often. The kids love sleeping in my bed when my husband is gone so after C got the dog to sleep in his room he came and slept in bed with L and I. Then he ended up going back to his room in the middle of the night after the dog started whining. The dog is so funny.. just like a toddler... he doesn't like to go to sleep in a room by himself so you have to sneak out after he's asleep.. then if he wakes up and realizes you're gone he whines until you come back haha!! Such a spoiled puppy!



I kept an eye on my husband and the girls' route as they were traveling yesterday and into the night. I'm always a little nervous when my husband drives straight through! I have no idea how he does it. They did stop to rest for a while and arrived safely at his mother's house early Wednesday morning. I'm so thankful they had a safe and uneventful trip out there!

Friday Favorites

I'm linking up to Friday Favorites today! 

First off, I adore the font on the Friday Favorites graphic! Anyone know which font that is? 

I'm re-reading another book from my own collection right now by one of my all time favorite authors. Mary Higgins Clark is a favorite and I love to re read her books from time to time. After a year or two I honestly forget who did what in most of her books and definitely forget most of the details so they're fun to read again!  

 The guys spent a few days in Texas, visiting friends and family, this week! This was Bleu's first time to fly! They had a great time and a well deserved break from all of us girls ha! 

 The girls and I had a lot of fun here at home! After we dropped the boys off we went to Build A Bear to use the vouchers we got on pay-your-age day. 

Mar and Sol went to VBS several days this week. On Wednesday they wanted to wear their overalls. I found Sol's Gap overalls at Goodwill last weekend! I love my Goodwill finds! Mar's overalls are from Wal-Mart. 

It was nice just having Indie with me for 3 hours a day, several days this week. It's amazing how relaxing it can be with a two-year-old when she's the only one around. I was really proud of her Sunday evening. She sat in the bottom of this shopping cart (something she's never done before) without hesitation! Good milestone for a 2 yr old who freaks out all the time over new or different things! Then she ran down an empty church pew a few times while we waited to pick up the big girls from VBS. Another good milestone as she tends to be afraid of heights/ledges and feels like she's about to fall pretty often. I was also pleased to see her running in a straight line since she tends to be off balance and clumsy pretty often due to hip dysplasia and sensory issues. She was really pleased with herself! 

 All three girls wanted to sleep in my bed while the guys were out of town. I woke up during the night one night and found them like this (notice Indie's foot on Sol's chest!) and had to get a pic! 

 We went to a friend's birthday party Wednesday afternoon. Indie loved the little chalkboard/magnet board. I think something like this will be a great birthday gift for her in October! 

I've gotten in the habit of driving around the neighborhood on trash day looking for treasures. (#noshame) This crib spring was one of my best finds yet! I've been wanting one to hang up for a while. This one looks perfectly new (maybe too new!) but I can rough it up a bit to give it a shabby look. I'm tickled pink with it and just trying to decide where to hang it now. Of course Pinterest has the cutest ideas!

Indie asked me to get her snow boots down the other day then insisted on wearing them to drop the big girls off at VBS and run errands. I asked her if she was 'sure she wanted to wear them because they're a little ridiculous in July'. She replied: "They not rick-less! I wuv dem!" Haha!

She was excited to get her own water from Starbucks while running errands! I think it was too cold for her but she seemed really pleased to have her own cup from Starbucks. :) 

This was just part of our fun, busy week!! The guys had a great trip and got home last night! We're glad to have them home! J is home today and running errands with all 4 kids at the moment. Meanwhile I need to tackle my mile long to do list including cleaning, organizing (I still have tons of organizing to do from our move in June) and I need to finish painting the patio table I got for free. I'll post about that project soon! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!