Catching Up....May and June 2015

Little sad blog has been neglected the past 2 months. I have not gone that long without posting since finding out I was pregnant with Aubrey and I feel kind of bad about it.

However, there is good reason for my blog neglect. As of May 2015, I am an official college student all over again. I have wanted to go back to school for the past 10 years, but life kind of got in the way. My Master's degree serves me well, but I've known for a long time I am burned out in mental health counseling. I have always wanted to do more direct medical care but wasn't quite sure what I wanted to be when I "grew up." Well, being in physical therapy for the past 5 months showed me that I am still geared for therapy, but really interested in the physical part instead of the mental part. So, I am going back to school to get my doctorate in physical therapy. Just typing that sounded so scary, but I am so excited. I have to go back and retake 9 courses from undergrad that are too old (sigh....) for me to get admitted and I have to take a few new courses that I didn't have in undergrad. I decided to knock out my worst subject first by taking Precalculus over the summer. I am glad I took it by itself because this class was tough. I literally spent 3 hours per night working on coursework. I am taking most of my classes online so that means I spend 100% of my school time attached to a computer. Its nice that it fits in my schedule, but tough because you are really teaching yourself. So the past 8 weeks I spent every free minute doing school work or with general life "stuff" so I had zero time to do anything extra or fun, hence the neglect of this blog. But, I am free from school until August 17 so I plan to get caught up with the blog and the million other tasks I neglected in the mean time.

So, May happened, obviously. We started out the month with a nice rite of passage in our house. Aubrey decided she wanted bangs and didn't want to wait on Mommy's time frame, so she cut them herself at school. With her safety scissors. Fortunately, she didn't do a bad job and cut them a decent length so we just had to do a little fix at the salon and went on with life.

May also meant dance recital month. It never gets old watching your child dance. Aubrey is really enjoying dance and it makes me so happy to share that passion with her.

Mason wrapped us his first year of preschool with their end of year performance. He was such a ham and had zero problems being in front of a crowd.

We made 2 trips to the lake in May and the kids had such a blast. They both have their own fishing rods and would have stayed out for hours fishing if we let them. The water was still too cold to swim in at that point, but they found plenty of ways to entertain themselves.

Before we knew it, June started. Aubrey wrapped up her last of school. I still can't believe she is finished with Kindergarten. She learned so much this year and had such a good report card. She is taking after me by becoming quite the bookworm. She's about half a grade level above where she has to be and that makes me proud. However, she is also quite the math girl and participate in an extra math class over the year. We are so proud of how much she accomplished and can't wait to see what next year brings.

Aubrey and her teacher Mrs. Mims.

Once school was out, we started doing all the fun summer stuff, like going to the pool and the splash pad. My kids definitely enjoy the water and will jump at the chance to play in it.

One of my favorite parts of the month was getting to see my brother and his family for the first time in 2 years. They live in Texas so traveling to NC is quite an ordeal. I was so excited to meet my new niece Jolene and spend time with my nephew. I also enjoyed spending time with my brother and his girlfriend. I am so proud of the brother and the life he has made for himself. He had a lot of struggles in his 20's and it makes me happy that he has settled down and is such a good dad to his kids. 

One of the nights they were in NC, we kept my niece and nephew at our house so the kids could have a big sleepover. It quickly reminded us that we are way past the baby stage in our house, but it was fun to see the kids play and have a good time so we forgot just how much work it really was.

Just as we did for Aubrey at age 3, we started Mason in soccer. He was so excited to participate and seemed to enjoy it, which is a stark contrast to Aubrey. It was so cute to see a bunch of 3-year olds kicking those little soccer balls around and running after them. Mason enjoyed himself so much that we are going to sign him up again in the fall.

The definite low of the month was getting some bad news about our sweet dog Bailey. We took her to the vet in late May because she had a dramatic increase in appetite and thirst, but they could not figure out what was going on. About 2 weeks later, we noticed that she was starting to bump into stuff and acting confused. 3 days later, her vision was completely gone. The vet ran a bunch of tests and still couldn't find anything wrong. They seem to think it could be cancer, but we don't want to spend all the money on a MRI because there is no way we could do treatment at her age so a diagnosis is a moot point for the time being. She seems fine and has adjusted to her new way of life, but it still breaks my heart. We are hoping that it's not really cancer, but only time will tell at this point. We are just going to love on her and appreciate whatever time we are blessed to have her in our lives. 

So, that was May and June. For the most part, we have had an excellent start to our summer and are no where near ready for it to end. 

April 2015

Yay for making a post 9 days into the month. That's pretty good for me recently.

April was a quiet, but nice month for us. Easter was the beginning of the month this year and it was a beautiful day. The Easter bunny overdid himself with the kid's baskets, but made sure to bring them plenty of fun toys for spring break and the summer. The afternoon was spent at my in-laws' house in our 6th annual Easter egg hunt. The kids had so much fun hunting for eggs. Afterwards was our yummy Easter dinner. It was nice to spend a quiet relaxing day with family after the craziness of the past few weekends of home improvement.

Seeing their baskets for the first time

The kids enjoyed their Spring break a lot this year. I think it helped that they spent 4 days with people other than just me so they got to break up the monotony. I wish I could have spent more time with them, but I think I enjoyed having a break from the routine almost as equally as they did.

One of my favorite parts of April was the warmer weather, which meant it was time for grilling. I really miss this during the colder months because we grill so often during the summer (AKA, I don't have to cook). Todd was more than happy to get back to his grill and get the spring started.

We finally got to do our Easter/Spring pictures a few weeks later than usual. I love doing these pictures every year. Its so neat to compare them to the past years' pictures to compare how much the kids have grown since the past year.

And after multiple weekends of hard work, the floors were finally finished downstairs. It is amazing how much nicer it looks and feels. I am so grateful for Todd, his dad, and my dad for the hours they put into this project. The final room to complete was the playroom and it went really fast. Afterwards, I was so excited to finally be able to put our house and garage back together after 6 weeks of chaos and even happier to be able to park in the garage.

There are lots of happenings going on in May for our little family and I can't wait to share some big changes that are coming!

March 2015

Like I said earlier, February's quietness prepared us for a bit of craziness in March.

I forgot to mention in February's post that Aubrey went to see a pediatric ophthalmologist. She had been complaining about her close up vision for a while and said when she was reading up close, letters looked blurry. We asked for a referral from her pediatrician, but that doctor was booked out 2 months and I didn't want to wait. I did some more research and found a doctor near our house that could see her sooner. He said it was pretty uncommon for kids her age to have poor close up vision, but getting reading glasses for her wouldn't hurt. He said hopefully she'll outgrow them as she gets older. Unfortunately, we couldn't go to the drug store and buy OTC glasses because they would be too big, so we had to order glasses from the doctor's office. She picked out some cute glasses, but I almost had a stroke when I had to pay for them. But, it was worth it because she said they are helping her and that's what's important. They came in at the beginning of March and instantly, she looked so much older.

Aubrey surprised me again this month and announced she wanted a hair cut. I told her I wasn't going to spend the money at the salon to have .25 inch cut off, but she insisted she wanted more than that taken off. I've been on her for the past few months to get a hair cut because the ends were getting scraggly and knotty and a general pain to brush, but she wasn't having it until then. So, I took her to the salon while I was getting Mason's hair cut and let her make the decisions in the chair. I was pretty shocked when I saw she let the stylist take about 4" off her hair. It looks so much healthier, even though she thinks its "too short."

Another milestone for Aubrey this month was letting us take her training wheels off her bike. The first day didn't go well, but we praised her a lot for taking such a big step. She still isn't able to ride very long without them yet, but we hopefully as she gets more confident, she'll be able to ride longer.

After months of talking about it and planning for it, we began our biggest home improvement project to date. We've hated the carpet in our house since, well, we moved in, but have never really been able to do much about it. We considered replacing the carpet when we moved out or even giving a carpet allowance when we sell it, but since moving has been placed on the back burner for now, we knew we had to do something soon. So, after a lot of research, we decided to put down laminate flooring in the majority of the downstairs. We would really have preferred hardwood, but our house just won't support that value in this neighborhood, so laminate made more sense. We considered hiring a friend to install it, but Todd was actually pretty excited to learn how to do it so we decided to DIY it instead. We ripped up the nasty old carpet, but left the linoleum in the kitchen to serve as another barrier. We started demo on the old floor on a Thursday, fully expecting to have the entire floor done by the end of the weekend. Hahahahahahahaha. Completely wishful thinking. Todd, my dad, and his dad busted their butts for 3 solid days and only made it to the kitchen, leaving us with no flooring in the hall, entryway, and dining room for a week. It wasn't hard work, it was just time consuming with all the cutting that had to be done. Unfortunately, I was out of commission since so much of the work required being on your knees and I started physical therapy for my knee in February. So, I was the gopher and assistant for the weekend instead. The guys were able to get the rest of the flooring in the main areas finished the next weekend and finished the quarter round after that. We still have the playroom left to do, but that is a simple (hopefully mostly square) room so we should be able to knock that out next weekend. I am so happy with how it all turned it. I'll post a few more pictures next month of the final project once everything is all together.

60 boxes of pretty new floor

Todd starting the demo work

This before photo of the carpet makes me sick because of all the dirt.

Update photo after day 1 of work

End of day 3


End of weekend 2

End of weekend 2

During the middle of weekend 2 of floor work, I took the kids to our neighborhood's Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful day, but freaking cold for the end of March. That didn't stop the kids from having a blast, though.

So, March passed by quickly because of the big project, but I am so happy with the results of the month.

February 2015

Yeah, I'm a few months behind now. Better late than never.

February was a breeze compared to January. It was nice to get a break once the birthday chaos settled down. The only big activity for the month was Aubrey's school spirit week. We had a blast planning her daily outfits and as much as I love that she wears uniforms, it was nice to have some variety in her outfits.

PJ Day

Wacky Tacky Day

Throwback Thursdays (And I am pretty sure I wore an outfit very similar to this in the 80's. Sigh....)

As part of Spirit Week, the Varsity MICS cheerleaders had a cheer camp for the lower school girls and surprisingly, Aubrey decided she wanted to participate. She's never big on being in front of a crowd, so I figured she wouldn't want to do it. But, that's what I get for assuming because she was actually really excited about it. After 2 days at cheer camp, the girls got to perform at the Varsity boys 'basketball game at MICS. She was so excited and seemed to have such a great time. Now, she's convinced she wants to cheer more, which I'm pretty excited about since I cheered until 10th grade.

Another school event for Aubrey was the Kindergarten-First grade music show. They performed a little skit/musical for the parents and it was so cute to watch. I give major props to the music director for getting 160-ish kids to cooperate for the show. The only thing that made me sad was that I forgot my big camera and we sat too far back to take decent pictures with my phone. But, it actually made me pay attention more to the show and that was a good thing.

February's exciting event for us was the "big" snow. We had a day with just a dusting of snow, so it was hardly worth even writing about. But for the second round, were so excited that they were forecasting around 8" of snow for us. I've lived here my entire life and should have known better to trust a forecast because we only ended up with around 3". That didn't matter to the kids, though. They had a blast.

My favorite picture of the day


(Click for the video)

Eating snow cream after lunch

We did get a bit of cabin fever, but nothing homemade cookies couldn't fix.

The fun did take a yucky turn, though. Todd was trying to be nice and help me cut some cucumbers with the mandolin for cucumber water and ended up slicing a huge chunk off his finger. We couldn't get the bleeding under control and thought he might need stitches, so at 9:00 pm, we trudged off in the sleet and snow to the ER. They didn't think stitches would hold the way he cut it, so they sent us home with a bandage. That freaking bandage and a tetanus shot cost us over $1000 so I was not happy. But, I would've felt terrible if we hadn't gone to have it checked out so we just paid our bill and moved on.

So, that was February. It turned out to be a quiet month, which we were glad for because March more than made up for February's quietness with craziness.

January 2015

January is always a happy but super busy month for us and this January was no exception. Between New Year's and Mason's birthday, we had about a 2 week quiet period and then it was on full steam ahead for the rest of the month.

Somehow, Mason turned 3 on the 14th. It was so surreal to know he was turning 3. I keep thinking back to when Aubrey turned 3 right after he was born and it just doesn't seem like its been that long ago. I know there are so many parts of Aubrey's 3rd year I don't remember because I was in the newborn foggy stage so its almost like we are experiencing a 3-year old for the 1st time. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much of Mason's actual birthday with him because he had school and Aubrey had her usual busy Wednesday afternoon. I sent donuts to his preschool for their snack time after hearing him request them for the 2 weeks prior to the actual day. That evening, I convinced Aubrey to skip gymnastics that day so we could go out to eat as a family. The restaurant was having kids' night so they had a balloon artist there and it made dinner even more fun. After dinner we came home for cupcakes and presents. He seemed to enjoy both of them a lot and asked for 2 weeks after when it was going to be his birthday again.

We held Mason's birthday party at the Little Gym this year and it was so much fun. We had a range of ages from just-turned 2 to 7 and they all appeared to have a blast. This was the first year Mason has had a party outside the house and I think he enjoyed it so much. He really likes being the center of attention and the staff did a good job at making sure he felt loved. He was pretty sad when the party was over and has asked me a few times since if he can have another birthday party. 

Next was Aubrey's birthday. If I was a little mushy about my youngest baby turning 3, I was a sappy mess about my first baby turning 6. I'm not sure why, but 6 seems soooo much older than 5. Aubrey was so excited to celebrate her birthday, though. She planned for weeks what she wanted for lunch and dinner on the actual day and then what treats she wanted me to bring in for the class. Luckily, I was able to take the day off from work so I did get to go to her school and eat lunch with her. I tried to soak in every moment of her hugging and kissing me in front of her friends because I know that will come to an end much too soon. The 2 of us got to sit at the "special" table which made me a little sad. I had hoped to sit with her friends and watch that interaction, but it was also sweet to spend time with just her. Todd surprised her by taking the afternoon off and coming with me to pick her up at school. We planned a trip to Concord Mills for her birthday so she could build Anna and Elsa bears at Build-A-Bear and then have pizza as she requested. After dinner we came home for cupcakes and presents from Mason. The day went by so fast but it was a good distraction from the fact inside I was a sappy mess.

Of course, Aubrey's birthday party was next on our list. This year's party was so dramatic to plan. She has gotten so particular in planning and wanted to make sure it went down just the way she wanted it. After throwing around several ideas and 4 or 5 different guest lists, we finally settled on a party at the Sports Connection. She chose to do miniature bowling and the bouncy houses, which were both great choices for her age. It was interesting to see her interactions with her school friends vs. her preschool friends. I had to keep reminding her to play with everyone because she is so wrapped up in school drama, but was insistent on inviting preschool friends. Everyone seemed to have a good time, though, which is all I needed to be happy.

In other non-birthday related events, Aubrey got her 2nd report card and made us so proud. She received achieving or above grade level marks for all of her work. It is amazing to hear her reading and doing math problems in her head. She hates reading, but mostly because she really has to work at it, but she is getting good at sounding things out. And she made improvements in listening and following directions. It is amazing how much she has grown academically in the first part of the school year and I can't wait to see how the 2nd half goes. 

We also added a new member to our family this month. After months of looking and interviewing, we finally hired a nanny for the kids. There have been so many ups and downs through the whole process and we were glad to finally have a candidate that we liked accept the job. I did have to increase the number of hours we were willing to pay to get someone to take the job. But, the whole process led us to hiring a great young girl and so far we are pretty happy with her. She's only been working with us for a few weeks, but Mason loves her and is sad on the days she is not here at home with him. She has been so good with him and it makes me happy. I won't lie, though. Leaving her alone with him that first day was so nerve wracking, but I knew I had to do it so I could keep my job, so I pushed the worries to the back of my mind and told myself it would be ok. And it was. I can only hope things continue to work out with her because I honestly never want to go through this whole stressful process again.

So now that January is finally over, we feel like we can take a breath. I dread the exhaustion that comes with the months of December and January and am glad we have a little less excitement coming in February.