Bristol Race

A great race weekend!

Friday afternoon we headed down to Bristol, TN for the NASCAR race. I was very worried about making the trip because of the long drive and because I’m really not a NASCAR fan anymore. I was really worried about being pregnant, even though I went to the Charlotte race at the same point in my pregnancy with my son (I think I’m starting a tradition here). But this is the one race that hubby has been dying to go to since the day I met him, so there was no way I was going to take that away from him or bring him down by telling him I didn’t want to go.

The drive down was gorgeous and went by really quickly! We got to the hotel around 10:30 and then went and got some food because I hadn’t eaten very much that day. Saturday we got up and did a little shopping, ate some lunch by the pool and then took a nap! The weather was absolutely gorgeous down there! It was the perfect temperature with bright sunny skies!

After our naps we headed to the track! We had a parking pass for a lot that was pretty close to the track, and then we actually hopped on a shuttle that took us right there, so there wasn’t too much walking which was really nice. We walked around and visited the vendors and got some freebies before heading into the track. The only bad thing about this track is that it’s up on a hill, so I had to climb this hill to get up into it. My legs were sore, but I survived!

Hubby loved the race! My mother-in-law and I had a countdown of how many laps to go until we got to leave. I at one time even pulled out my phone to play solitaire :) Part of the reason we hated the race so much was because Kyle Bush was leading the whole time, and we DESPISE him. So since Carl Edwards passed him during the last 5 minutes of the race and won, we actually say that we had a good time at the race!

Sunday we got up and headed back home. We stopped at my parents’ house to pick up the kids and hung out for a little while. The weather was hotter and much more miserable there than it was down south!

Once we got home we gave the kids a bath and played for a little bit before putting them and ourselves to bed. We were beat! But it was worth it…hubby had a fantastic time and I liked the trip a ton better than I thought I would. Maybe next time I’ll try it not being 8 months pregnant :)

September 20, 2008...

September 20th is the day that we’re planning on having this little baby. This will most likely be my baby's birthday. Of course it will ultimately depend on the hospital, but the doctor and I are planning on the 20th.

That’s four weeks away. FOUR! I’m panicking a little…I still don’t think it’s really hit me that we’ll have a third child is one month. I’m not ready at all, and for my personality type, that sucks. We don’t have any diapers, I don’t have a diaper bag, clothes aren’t washed (heck, they’re still down in boxes), I haven’t brought out any bottles, or blankets, or the car seat, or the bed the baby will sleep in…we still don’t have a name picked out.

The third child syndrome has started already. With our first we were so ready. We were so ready so early. I’m a planner, and I like to have things planned out as much as I can. And while all of those items seem very miniscule and easy to accomplish (at least that’s what my husband keeps telling me), it bugs me that they’re not done.

Outside of the worry of getting all of these things done, I can’t wait to see this baby! I can’t wait to see if it’s a boy or a girl, and who it looks like, and to see my other kids interact with it. I can’t wait to not be pregnant anymore!!! We’re going to Bristol, TN this weekend for the race, and I’m dreading the heat and walking being this preggo. I’ve done it before…we went to the Charlotte race when I was this far along with my son and I survived; but that was Charlotte, and Charlotte, to me, is a lot more fun than Bristol.

I just want my body back! I want a drink! Wine, wine cooler, margarita…I’m not picky, I have just missed alcohol a lot more this pregnancy than with any of my other ones (I’m guessing it’s because I’m used to having margaritas in the summer).

At my doctor’s appointment yesterday my doctor was quite perplexed by the size of the baby. I have a history of large babies (my daughter was 9 lbs. 2 oz 4 days early and my son was 8 lbs. 15 oz 2 weeks early), but I guess I have never measured big. And this time is no exception. So she’s trying to guess whether I’ll have another big one or not.

Alright, that’s enough of my complaining…good things are coming…my daughter starts school tomorrow!!!

An Interview And Some DRAMA!

First and foremost, please go here to check out a featured interview by moi. Daddy Dan has some really nice things to say about me (even though I don’t feel like I’m happy all the time :) ).

Now for the next batch of craziness in our lives…

Hubby and I both work, we all know that. When you work, and have kids, you obviously need childcare. As my long-time readers know, we haven’t had the best luck with childcare since we moved to our new house. Anyone see where this is going???

We hired a nanny back in March who has been great. It’s been so nice to leave the house while the kids are still sleeping and not have to take them anywhere. It’s been nice to come home without having to pick them up from anywhere. I loved the idea of having someone help me while I’m going to be on maternity leave.

But I’m starting to find out that good things don’t last. About 1 ½ months ago our nanny tells me that she’s pregnant. Again. She had her first daughter at the age of 16 or 17. She’s still with the girl’s father, but they are not married. He’s in the army, and just happened to be home for a month a little while back. You would have thought she would have learned her lesson the first time…there are ways to prevent babies.

Anyway, hubby and I have been nothing but supportive of her, even though I’ve had my reservations. She assured me that she had a completely normal pregnancy with her first and would only need about a week off when she had this one. However, this week happens to be at the end of February…during the most stressful part of my year. And then, just in passing in a later conversation, she mentioned that she was on bed rest for two months with her first. WHAT??? That’s not a normal pregnancy!!! Who’s going to watch my kids if you go on bed rest again???

Besides all of these issues, I don’t want two babies in the house. It’s going to be hard enough for someone to spend equal time with my son, my daughter when she's there, and the new baby, let alone if she has her own two kids (including a newborn) with her.

So now we’re on the search for a new nanny. As of right now, unless she finds another job right away, our current one will stay until I have the baby. The during my maternity leave I’ll search for a new one…one who hopefully will not be having her own babies any time soon.

It's Almost Time....

Last night was my daughter’s Open House for school. We also had a meeting for anyone new to the school to get basic info such as attendance policies, when and where to drop your kids off, etc. I love that her school is in our neighborhood because we all just walked right on over!

My daughter got to meet her teacher whom I’ve heard fantastic things about. She’s young and seems full of energy! The classroom is full of things all over the walls and on shelves and book bins…I think she will have plenty to do over the next year :)

Our school district is different from all the others around us in that she will go 2 ½ days per week…full days on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then Friday afternoons. All the other districts around us go 5 half-days with a few schools doing all day Kindergarten. Her first day will be this Friday, and of course hubby and I are taking the day off so we can take her and pick her up.

I love that at our school the Kindergarteners are in their own separate wing…away from all the other kids. I have to admit I’m a little scared of her getting trampled on by a big 5th grader :)

I learned that our next door neighbor will be in her class, so it will be nice for her to know someone the first day. The little girl’s dad has even offered to walk my daughter to and from school everyday if we want, since he’ll be walking his daughter anyway.

I was also able to write a check to load up my daughter’s lunch debit card, so on the days we don’t pack her lunch, she can just swipe it and go!

I have to admit it was adorable seeing my little thing walking the halls of this huge school. Even though she was shy at times, I think she’s really going to love being there, and I can’t wait to hear how her first day goes!

Beautiful Weekend!

What a gorgeous weekend!

I got out of work early again on Friday and spent the whole afternoon outside with the kids. I didn’t even make them go in and take nap…we were having too much fun! One of our neighbors also had the afternoon off so they came over and hung out with us too.

Friday night we put the kids to bed early (since they didn’t have a nap) and watched the movie 21. It was pretty good…I didn’t really like the ending.

Saturday morning we woke up and took the kids to a sibling class at the hospital where I’m going to have the baby. They learned how to change a diaper and how to hold a baby. The best part by far was the tour of the post-partum rooms and the nursery! That’s pretty much the only part my son enjoyed…he doesn’t have that “motherly” instinct and kept bonking his “baby” (aka “teddy bear”) on the head.

Here are some pictures (ignore the fuzziness...I forgot my real camera and had to use the camera on my phone):

After this we went to a pizza party for my daughter’s t-ball team. There she got her first real trophy. I love watching how excited she gets every time she tells someone about her real trophy.

Saturday afternoon we just hung around the house and relaxed. That night I had some friends over for a scrapbooking night. I got a few pages done and thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate fountain :)

Sunday we went to church and then took a 3 hour nap. I have been running around so much lately that my body had just had enough! After that we had a great time outside the rest of the evening.

Tonight we have Open House for my daughter…I can’t believe her first day of school is just 4 days away. I’m so excited and yet so nervous for her at the same time. I’m hoping I feel better after the Open House tonight and after some of my questions are answered (like how and where do we drop her off/pick her up????).

Continuing...

A continuation of my thoughts from yesterday….

Parenting is such a hard balance (we all obviously know this), and if you don’t find the right balance in a lot of things, there can be a lifelong impact.

Socialization is a huge thing for kids. Having friends helps determine where you stand. I have been watching this phenomenon with the older girls in the neighborhood and it hasn’t changed since I was young. And honestly? At the age of my daughter, it isn’t so much how cool you might be (I mean they’re 5…there’s not much to be cool about yet) but how cool it is to go to your house to play.

Hubby and I have always vowed that we would try our best to have our house be the one that kids want to come to. We figure that would be the easiest way to keep an eye on the kids without seeming too overprotective (that last part being geared towards high school years). Thankfully, so far, all the little girls want to come over to our house to play with our daughter, so we’re doing something right, and that’s good, because with the exception of a few parents I know really well, I’m not ready to send her down the street to play yet.

As the girls were playing the other night, I thought back to what made me want to go to certain houses over others. Of course toys and what we had to play with played an important role, but so much of it was the parents. Were my friend’s parents ones that yelled at us a lot? Did they have a ton of rules? Did they get me a drink if I was thirsty? Were they generally nice? Were they there if I needed to talk?

My daughter has one friend in particular who has very odd parents that don’t let her do a whole lot. They are constantly monitoring her and telling her she can’t do what all the other kids are doing. Surprisingly, she’s not the oldest.

Now, I’m definitely not one that will let my kid do something just because everyone else is doing it. BUT…I will relook at my position to make sure I’m not being a tad overprotective. My goal is to be liked by my kids and their friends (definitely not at the expense of compromising my morals or beliefs and I am the mom first and foremost)…whereas some parents seem to think it’s fun to embarrass their kids or make them miserable (our old babysitter was like this), and they could care less what others thought of them. I can already tell how this little girl (with the super strict parents) is getting left out of things. As much as I tell my daughter to try to include her, it’s hard, because everything they want to do, she’s not allowed to participate.

I had very strict parents. And while there are tons of things they did right, there are also some areas they really could have loosened up on. My sisters and I were made fun of a lot as kids because of our “rules,” which, looking back, some of them I still can’t understand. Were we scarred for life because of it? Of course not, but to this day it still affects us a little. And I’m still keeping the vow I made as a child when going through all of that…I would never tell my kids “no” without giving them a reason. It keeps me in check. There are many times my kids will ask me something and my first response is “no.” They ask "why?" and I think about it and realize I’m just being lazy and don’t want to do it, or I didn’t understand them, or something like that. Other times I stick to my original "no" because I have reasons and I tell them what they are. This makes parenting that much harder for us because we constantly have to be on our toes. But that’s good…I hope to raise better kids because of it.

And through all of this, I know that I will be much stricter during the teenage years than most parents. I will have no problem telling my kids they can’t go to a party that I’m not sure about, or that they have to be home by a certain time. But to me those are the things that have lasting consequences.

Obviously a lot has been on my mind with my daughter starting school a week from today. She will be with her friends all day. Without me. And even though I know this is just Kindergarten, it’s the beginning of a whole new world for her, and I really hope I’ve prepared her for it. She will encounter new influences and new situations, and above all, I want her to know that she can talk to me about all of it...and I hope she does.

Are We Raising Strong Kids or Wimps?

I have to admit I’m worried about how today’s kids are going to be as adults. It seems as though the majority of parents these days are so overprotective of their kids.

When our neighbors and good friends moved last month they took with them their trampoline. My daughter was very disappointed because she LOVED jumping on it. Our next door neighbor…not so much (he has two kids – an 11 or 12 year-old boy and a 5 year-old girl). He actually told our friends “I’m so glad that thing is going to be gone now.”

So a few weeks ago I mentioned a big purchase we made…guess what it was?!?! We now have our very own trampoline. I’ve been wanting one for a while…as a former gymnast I grew up on them…both at the gym and in our backyard. But it had always seemed silly to buy one since our good friends had one that we could use any time we wanted. So once theirs was gone, I decided it was time. I got a nice big square one with lots of room to tumble!

Our city has a code that says a trampoline must either be fenced in or have the netting around it (to keep stray kids off). Most people go with the safety netting.

Anyway, our next door neighbor was not too happy with us (can you tell I do not care whatsoever?) and the kids have a blast on it. But it does worry me that they’re learning to use a trampoline with so much protection around them. When hubby and I were little there was no such thing as those nets. We learned how to not fall off of it, and if we did, we knew how to fall. Now don’t get me wrong, I do love the piece of mind I have with that enclosure knowing I can let my son jump back there without constantly watching him, and that he can jump with the big girls without fear that he’ll fall off. But I still hate the idea of the “safety net.”

We talk to various neighbors about this trampoline, and so many of them have such a fear of it and don’t like their kids on it. I understand there’s a chance they can get hurt. There’s also a chance that they can fall off their bike and hurt themselves too! But for some reason these people don’t think like that.

Another thought...what if my kids go to a friend's house that has a trampoline without a net? Now I know some of you might say that your kids know not to get on it. But let's be realistic here...I have fantastic kids who follow my rules very well, but I was also a kid, and I know that there were things I did even though my parents told me not to (we all did). So would I want them getting on there not knowing what to do or would I want them to be able to protect themselves?

Now of course this is just one tiny example, and I obviously want to protect my kids as much as I can. But I also don’t want them growing up to be wimpy people. I want strong kids that will be good athletes and employees someday and that won’t whine because something might be a little scary. I want them to learn how to tackle their fears. I want them to know how to pick themselves back up when they fall.

I don’t think that a lot of today’s kids will be able to do that…their parents are trying to protect them from too much when they are little. If they don’t experience falling and pain and failure when they’re little and the parents can help them, how are they going to react when their parents aren’t around?

Continued tomorrow….

Happy Anniversary!

Eight years ago today I married my best friend. He was in my Jr. Algebra class, and our junior year we had even hung out together as a bunch of friends. Who would have thought that the boy I thought was cute and had a great smile would be a part of my life forever?

We started dating at the end of our senior year and even got to go to prom together. From then on we were inseparable and happy! We went to college together and got married the summer before our senior year. Having dated since high school, we have gone through so many life-stage transitions together, and I think it has made us so strong. To read more about how we met and started dating go here.

I could in no way ask for a better husband. He has always put me on a pedestal and done what he can to make me happy. He is the guy that everyone drifts towards. People know that if you need help with anything, hubby will be there. If you need anything done with your computer? Hubby will take care of it right away for you…even if he’s sat in front of them all day and never wants to see another one again…he will fix your computer with a smile on his face. And of course he’s the best father to our little ones...I love knowing that no matter what he can take care of them just as well as I can (sometimes even better). I know there are a lot of women out there that can’t say that about their husbands.

There are times I feel like we just got married and then others when I feel like I’ve known him my whole life. We are still learning new things about each other and also relishing in the comfort of things we’ve always known. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

We have friends that joked about each kid they had being a guaranteed 18 year extension on their marriage. It was like a new contract had to be signed each time a baby was born. For hubby and I it’s a 30 year marriage. For some reason during pre-marital counseling, our pastor made some type of comment about having to deal with each other for the next 30 years. We were a little confused by that, but it has become our little joke with each other.

8 years down Hottie, only 22 more to go!!!

:)

Great Weekend!

What a fantastic weekend!

I got off work around 12:00 on Friday and went and met my mom and kiddos for lunch. After lunch I decided this was a good time to start shopping for my daughter’s school supplies. She had so much fun with me walking through the store trying to find what she needed. The hard thing is that she doesn’t understand (nor do I really) that these won’t be her supplies. In our school system, you all buy the exact same things and throw them all together on the first day. So when picked up the ugly green binder, she was almost in tears saying that the kids were going to make fun of her for having such an ugly binder. I reminded her that all the kids would be bringing this ugly binder and she felt a little better. It does make me a little mad though…why on earth can she not have a pretty pink or purple one? I remember school supplies making the whole school thing a lot more fun because they were what I picked out and the colors I liked. Anyway…

After shopping we went home and the kids and I went down for a nap :) Afterwards we went to Cheesecake Factory for my late birthday dinner. We sat outside and had a great time in the gorgeous weather.

Saturday we went to a neighborhood bike rodeo and met some of the new neighbors which was nice. Then we did some work around the house, and then while the kids were napping hubby helped me with the software that goes with the fantastic birthday present that my parents got me: A Cricut machine!!! I love this thing so much! While hubby was working on the software I made a couple cards for some people using my Cricut.

Saturday night we ran a couple of errands, one of which was to get my daughter a backpack. There were two places she wanted to go…Toys R Us had the character backpacks, and then Justice had a green and pink one that she really liked. She looked at the character ones and decided that she liked the Justice one better, so we headed over there to buy it.

Sunday we went to church and then went to get a paper shredder. While we were in the store we checked the price of the new cell phone I want. Hubby was going to get it for me for my birthday, but his rep told him that the price would go down in about 3 months, so we decided to wait. However, Best Buy had the phone for $100 cheaper than even his rep could get, so we decided to get it. This is my new phone, and I LOVE it! I have been carrying around a phone and a PDA with my contacts and calendar, so now that I have one thing it is so much easier!

Sunday afternoon we played outside and did some work while the kids were napping. Our friend that had moved was in town for the weekend, so we finished it off with dinner with her and some other neighbors, which was really nice.

Of course we had to watch some of the Olympics last night (especially men’s swimming…go USA!!!), so I’m extremely tired only getting 6 hours of sleep :)

This week my son is down with my parents, so our daughter is an only child this week. She was crying when my mom and son left, saying that she was really going to miss her brother…but I think she’ll bounce back quite easily when all of the attention is on her :)

Movin' On Up....

My daughter goes to a fantastic gym for gymnastics (Buckeye Gymnastics). It’s a large building that has two sides…what my daughter calls “the big gym” which is for the big kids and has the larger equipment, and then the preschool side, which is just for kids up to six years old.

My daughter loves gymnastics. She loves it more than any other sport she’s attempted or thought about. I don’t think she’s missed a single weekly class the entire year we’ve had her at this gym…she would be too mad!

She had gymnastics last night. She normally goes on Wednesday nights, but since she was down with my parents, she took a make-up class last night. Along with her normal teacher there was another teacher. This teacher would periodically ask my daughter to do some things that weren’t in the normal rotation (i.e. she’d ask her to go to the mat on the side and do a backward roll, or a cartwheel, or a handstand. She’d also make my daughter do more difficult things during the rotation since the normal stuff was too easy for her (as her regular teacher normally does). My daughter was a little thrown by this, and even started crying at one point because she didn’t understand why she had to do harder stuff.

At the end of the class, her regular teacher came up to us and told me that the other teacher wanted my daughter to move up to the “big gym” for her next class. The smile on my daughter’s face was priceless! The warned us that she would be by far the smallest girl over there, but she would be fine skill wise.

I went to sign her up as she only has one more week left in her summer classes. I realized as I was signing her up that she had moved up three levels!!! So not only were they moving her up after having just moved her up last spring, but she was skipping two whole classes in between!

I’m so excited and proud of her! I had always told her she had to be seven before she could go to the “big gym” and here she is as a new-five-year-old going over there! She’ll be dealing with a lot as her new gymnastics class will start right after she starts school, but I think she’s strong enough to handle it!

Golfing Time

My daughter has been down visiting with all the grandparents this week. My mom wanted to have one last long spell with her before she starts school. So she went down to get some one-on-one attention, which right now, she so desperately needs.

And we’ve been able to give my son some great one-on-one attention too. He’s honestly getting very spoiled :) Anything he wants I pretty much get…it’s so much easier with one child! Getting him a drink or a snack or whatever is much easier because he is so much more laid-back than my daughter. He wants some type of juice warmed up with warm water (we still heavily dilute his juice, and he’s not a fan of cold things, so it’s always warm). My daughter, on the other hand, has to take 5 minutes to decide what type of juice she wants, what cup she wants, and then she’ll change her mind completely once you open the refrigerator.

Monday night he and hubby stayed up really late watching Cars. Then Tuesday night we played outside all evening…baseball, golf, bocce ball and riding his jeep. Last night we headed to the driving range.

Now he loves to golf. And seeing him carrying his real club set is absolutely adorable. Hubby has taken him to the driving range a couple of times, but us girls have always stayed home because my daughter would be bored out of her mind. So I was very excited that I got to go and watch him. He was the hit of the place! All the old men thought it was great that he was starting so young, and all the girls just thought he was the most adorable thing ever.

He had so much fun taking turns with daddy (when he got tired hubby hit some balls, and then after he was rested it was his turn). I thought he did well, although hubby said he normally does even better.

Afterwards we headed over to Dairy Queen for some ice cream, which of course ended up all over my little man :)

My daughter comes home today. I think the hardest part of her being gone is the fact that every night when we get home my son asks us when sissy is coming home. He really misses her. He’s had to sleep by himself the last few nights and play by himself during the day. I know he will be super excited to see her today!

A Wedding Weekend

Two weeks ago we had two weddings in two days. I had one cousin get married about 2 hours away, and then another one get married the next day close by. One was on Friday night and one was on Saturday. One cousin was on my mom’s side of the family and the other cousin was on my dad’s side of the family.

Friday after work we headed out for the drive with a full car (my sister and her boyfriend rode with us). After numerous times asking “are we there yet” and filling up on fruit chews, we finally got there. We didn’t make it in time for the ceremony, but pulled in just in time for the reception.

I had a lot of fun seeing cousins that I hadn’t seen since my wedding! These little girls that were my flower girls are now 15 and 11!!! My daughter loved talking to the bride and playing with my cousins. Hubby and my sisters loved the open bar. I loved the two diet cokes I had :) We drove home afterwards and got home around 2:00 in the morning.

The next day we woke up and ran some errands and then got ready for the next wedding. This wedding was cool because the reception was going to be very laid back and down in the hills at my uncle’s cabin. He got us a cabin for the night as well, so we packed up our stuff and headed to the ceremony. It was beautiful!

Afterwards we headed down to the hills and checked into our cabin. It was so cute! We changed because this was going to be a casual reception, and then headed over. They had a huge tent and it was decorated so beautifully! The wedding party all stayed dressed up, but everyone else was wearing anything from sundresses to shorts. The food was delicious and I had a great time talking to cousins I hadn’t seen in a while, as well as my sisters.

Once it got dark it was time to dance! My aunt took my kids out on the floor and got them started. This little boy (who was absolutely adorable) kept trying to dance with my daughter and she would run away! Hubby kept cheering her on and I tried to get her to dance with him. Meanwhile, my son was putting the moves on a little girl himself :)

Sunday we woke up and took the kids to the pond that was by the cabin for some fishing. We had bought them polls a while ago, but had never taken them. My son had fun for about 2 minutes, but my daughter enjoyed it the whole time! Hubby really had a lot of fun teaching her how to do everything…but since we didn’t have any real worms they didn’t catch anything.

We headed home after that in time for church and to regroup before another week started.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

My sister teaching my daughter a dance:

My son picking up girls at the young age of three:

Hubby, my cousin's wife (not the one that got married), me and my daughter:

My sister's boyfriend, hubby and me (I'm getting so freaking huge!)

A Great Weekend in Michigan!

We filed on Friday!!! Yippeee!!!!

So I got to have a fantastic weekend up with my sister…no worrying about work whatsoever!

We filed shortly after lunch on Friday and I headed home early. We were taking a couch that our friends who moved didn’t want anymore up to my sister, so we got the U-Haul trailer and loaded it up. We got the rest of our stuff packed up at a nice, leisurely pace and left for Michigan around 5:30. With stops and because we were pulling the trailer, we finally rolled into my sister’s place around 9:30.

Her new house is adorable!! It is in a beautiful city, and a beautiful neighborhood, and the inside (minus the painting that desperately needs done) is gorgeous!!

We started right in cleaning up the couch. It was a disgusting mess! But with the three of us working on it we were able to make it look fabulous! We worked until about 2:30 in the morning on it, and then some more the next day.

On Saturday we helped her with stuff around the house and then around 3:30 we headed out for lunch/dinner. After that we went to a park and enjoyed the gorgeous weather! Then my sister was so nice and watched the kids while hubby and I went out. We walked around the beautiful city just enjoying the weather and all the VERY nice cars we were seeing.

Sunday we woke up and did a little more work and then headed out for a fantastic pancake breakfast. After that it was time to pack up and head home. The drive back was much faster as we didn’t have the trailer and the kids slept a lot of the time so we only stopped once. We got back around 7:30 Sunday night.

So now it’s back to work, only at a much less-intensive pace. So hopefully I won’t be as stressed out as I have been the last couple of weeks. One night last week my son asked me if I was angry when I was helping him with something. Before I could answer, my daughter casually said “mommy’s not angry, she’s just really stressed out.” Definitely time to relax, both for my sake and for theirs!

These are the only pictures I took the whole weekend…my sister playing “Go Fish” with the kids: