Snowmaggedon

I haven’t worked in 9 days! 9 DAYS!!!!

We got some snow last weekend and then we had some frigid temps, so school was cancelled all week. And it was amazing! We did not leave the house for 5 days and it was glorious.

Here is a glimpse of what we did…

Days 1 and 2 were a bunch of fun. The snow is pretty and we have enough m&ms to last a few days so we love the snow.

 

   

Then it gets old and we get a little stir crazy. We visit across the street and do some home staging. Ha!

I even made Kendall practice writing because she was watching too much TV and missing school all week.

And Friday we HAD to get out of the house! So we did. And we bought a treadmill. Thank you tax refund! 

And this weekend has been fun too!

The girls and I hit up SAMS club solo today and they were so good!

Like our Mommy & Me Frozen scarves? My sister makes them. Message me if you’re interested!

Tomorrow I am prepared to go back to work. I really am over the snow days. I wouldn’t hate having more family time though, they are pretty fabulous!

 

And to justify being a teacher and getting snow days, I did some teacher work too. Lesson planning, report carding, and some optimistic pinteresting… Ha!

Back to Work I go!

School starts for kids on the 13th, but I have been busy at school this week. It’s been exciting, rough, and exhausting all at the same time!

Kendall starts her new school next week, so my mom has graciously watched both of them. I really don’t know how I could ever pay her back! She cleaned my house on Tuesday and it made me want to cry. So sweet! It makes working so much easier when you know your babies are being loved on by one of their favorite people.

Tuesday my grandparents visited my house to check on Adley after her accident.

 

Clearly, she is back up to speed. Haha

I have always been a weekend grocery shopper. It makes me so crazy to not have a stocked kitchen before Monday. So, here we are on Tuesday (without a list!) buying random things to eat.

My mom sends me all kinds of cute pictures of the girls all day. They have so much fun!!!

I will be going to school every day this next week. I will take some good pictures of my atrium hallway classroom prior to school starting. I believe I have done a good job of making it a neat space. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Chris started back to school (he works in a different district) this week so things have been HECTIC!

I’m so nervous about meeting all the kids and being on the cart. I truly feel this is where I am supposed to be, but I already miss my babies and our fun, lazy summer! When do your kids go back to school?

Midpoint

I don’t claim to be a super mom (well, maybe a little) but I like to believe I manage things well. I am a full time wife and mother, a full time employee, and a graduate student. My house is never clean and there is always laundry to fold, but I get S**t done. Excuse my language but if you knew me in real life that is exactly what I would tell you if you asked me how I balance everything?

I firmly believe if you want something bad enough, you will find a way to make it happen. No excuses. I believe life is all about the choices you make or let others make for you. (Shout out to my momma and MK Linda Toupin) We are all given 24 hours a day, use your time wisely. If it’s paying off debt, losing weight, or in my case going back to school; if you want it bad enough, you will find a way to make it happen.

I did not take my decision to go back to school lightly. I cried to my husband nightly about what I should do and prayed to God for direction or a sign that I was making a smart decision. I was so worried I would be sacrificing time with my daughter and it would hurt her. I knew what my end result would be, I would be a teacher and do something I have always wanted to do, but the journey scared me a little.

Looking back, my only thought is I wished I had started school sooner. At the end of April I will be at my halfway point and I am set to graduate my 42 hour MAT program in December of this year. 1.5 years of my life is all it cost. (and $$$ student loans but such is life) That’s not bad at all. My daughter has not been neglected one bit. In fact, on the nights I have class her Aunt Amanda comes over (if daddy is at baseball) or she spends quality one-on-one time with her daddy and he puts her to bed. I am very lucky to have the support of my husband and family.

This picture encouraged me to write this post. I put Dora on in the living room tonight so she could play while I was in class in our office. She came in and pulled out some markers and sat in the office with me and that was fine by me. I want to remember these good memories of the time I went to school when Kendall was two and see how I made it all work.

If I can encourage anyone who is struggling to make a decision in their life, whether it’s school, work, or hobby related, I hope this was of value. There is never a better time to start something than today!

Nail in the Tire

Every once in a while you have one of those days where nothing goes as planned. Obviously, if you’ve lived at all, you know that life cannot be planned. My little type-A heart struggles with this every time a wrench gets thrown in my plans.

Yesterday my intentions were to pick Kendall up from school, make a quick dinner whilst doing the 30 day shred and keeping said toddler happy. Then I would greet my husband with a kiss at the door in my finest house dress (kidding – barf), hand the kiddo over and lock myself in our office for night 1 of my online masters class.

Here’s how things went down differently, not bad, just not planned…

I drive in the rain towards daycare and I’m being super productive talking on the phone to the cable company. (I had to cancel HBO for the year since True Blood is over.) So I pull into daycare and I hear something break under my tire and my tire pressure visual comes up showing me which tire has NO air. CRAP.

I cannot tell you how much I don’t like dealing with cars. In fact, when the husband and I said our vows, I’m almost positive it was understood that this wife does not like doing outside work or handling car maintenance issues.

So I call the husband who is about to leave baseball practice and he’s all like I can be there in an hour. Thanks for the help! NOT! Chris, when your damsel is in distress you’re supposed to whip out your cape and come rescue me!

Luckily, my grandparents live in view of the church/Kendall’s school. I drove us very slowly to their house so we could wait for Chris. Well this is where things turn up! It was like a mini family reunion at their house! My grandma’s brother and wife were visiting and my aunt and uncle came over too. My grandparents had cookies for Kendall and we all visited until Chris got there. The men folk were able to conclude that a nail was in my tire and fill it up so Chris could fix it when we got home.

Long story short, we picked up a pizza on the way home, my handy hunk of a husband fixed my tire, I didn’t work out and Chris was able to occupy/put Kendall to bed while I had my first online class. Winning! (Do people still say that?)

Life never goes as planned, but in my case, my life is better than I ever could have dreamed.

Kendall taunting Wilson with a biscuit yesterday morning before school and our unplanned afternoon.

We flooded our hotel…

Ok so we booked a hotel room where everyone else was staying for the wedding. I will not disclose the hotel name or location but if you want to know where NOT to stay when you go to a wedding in Cincinnati leave me a comment and I will tell you.

We checked in Friday evening and the toilet would make funny noises for like 10 minutes after you flushed. It was nothing more than annoyance so we didn’t see the point in complaining or asking to switch rooms. I mean… this wasn’t a Ritz Carlton.

On Saturday while I was away doing wedding party things Chris was getting Kendall ready in our room. He used the restroom, flushed the toilet and it started making the noises so he ignored it.

He then spent about 15-20 minutes getting Kendall changed and dressed for the wedding and packing her diaper bag. As he walked out the door holding Kendall he was stepping in water from the bathroom.

The water was rushing out into the hotel hallway and to the other side of our room at this point. He got help and called my mom to take Kendall. A manager came to our room with a wet vac and Chris frantically tried to save our luggage and belongings from the flood.

**** Please note that we were on the 5th floor and the toilet overflowed to the lobby of the hotel****

Here is the video provided from my cousin Becca.

I received a text at this point and called to hear the news. They got Chris and our WET things to a new room and Chris rushed to make it in time for the wedding… with WET SOCKS and SHOES. :(

My mom and Kendall in front of the water leak. :)

When we got back to the hotel we asked to speak to a manager and not only did they NOT apologize for our inconvenience they asked WHAT WE DID????

They did not care that all of our clothes were soaked and were not helpful at all. I sent them a letter.

So that's our hotel story! We laugh about it now. Haha I just can’t help but feel sorry if anyone was staying in a room below us.

Prayer Request & Going Green... or flippin' crazy?

Happy Hump Day! I have a prayer request this morning. My cousins Liz, Adam and Aaron's father had a heart attack last week while out of town. He was released Saturday to go home and is back in the hospital again at home. Please join me in lifting up their family in prayer as they go through this tough time. I pray that Steve is healed soon and able to recover and go home soon! Steve has served our country for years and is a great father/grandfather. Get well soon!

Going Green... or flippin' crazy???

Okay I'm all for going green with some things... like using my own reusable grocery bags, recycling, paying my bills online etc... I even think it's great when people stop using paper towels and use cloth dish rags or those that dare use cloth diapers. Way to go on reducing waste...

However this is where I draw the line. A friend of mine who I will not name is a very big GREEN person (kudos for her efforts) - in fact she shares all her green efforts through her facebook statuses. Just the other day she shared how she is going to start using REUSABLE TOILET PAPER!!!!! OMG! That is waaaay too much information and quite frankly way unsanitary.

I had never heard about this before but apparently it's nothing new in the green blogging world.

Check this one out.

If you go to the link (which was copyrighted so I could not drag it on this post) you can see the stack of reusable cloth toilet paper sitting on the back of the toilet and the "wet" bag hanging where normal paper toilet paper hangs for your convenience to dispose your used cloth toilet paper. Gross.

Am I just weirdly clean or is this insane???