random brain weirdness and how we survived the week M was out of town

hi!!!

i'm back!

did you miss me?

i don't know if you did.

who are you, anyway?

sometimes i wonder if anyone even reads this ole thing any more. like, i know that blogs aren't really the super cool trendy thing that they used to be. a blog is kind of like an old puke-green colored chunky phone with 20 ft of cord attached to the wall- it was super cool when it came out, but once the cordless phone came out...(not even to mention the cell phone/smart phone technology) that poor 20 ft corded phone could be found at any DI or landfill. facebook and instagram are like the cordless phone/smart phone technology- and have replaced blogs for a lot of people, and i see why. they're so much easier.... but i just cant' seem to give this lil ole blog up, even if i am just sending a bunch of random HTML into cyberspace. i guess i just like the complicated 20 ft of cord thing in my life.

sorry.

my brain is weird.

but if you've been reading this for any amount of time, you knew that already. bless you for putting up with my weirdness.

so our summer has been weird/fun/flying by. one thing i was totally dreading was when M was going to be gone for High Adventure (a scout-type camp) the end of last month. he had been gone the previous week for a few days on a special golfing trip up in Lake Tahoe, then left Monday morning at 2 am for High Adventure to the Channel Islands (where there was NO cell signal) and didn't get back till the following Saturday. it's weird how when you have a traveling husband, you get used to that. but now that M hasn't been traveling as much, that week and a half seemed like FOREVER. i think not being able to talk to him made a big difference, too.

but when M is gone, i make it a point to stay extremely busy. and busy we were.

first thing we did was to go to the library to get TONS of new books. the girls absolutely love the library, and that makes me happy. oh, and did you know that the library checks out piano music? i don't know why i had never thought of that before, but i totally took advantage of that and checked out some new music to play. i love playing the piano and wish i had more time to do so.

then we definitely got together with some of our friends - some of whom had been on trips that we had been missing. we swam and played at the park. the girls love these little people so much and i love that. (side note: on our walk one day with the girls, we let them out of their strollers to walk/run for a bit. Alice kept getting left behind because all she wanted to do was throw rocks in the creek. i could not get her away from those rocks. let me tell you what, she's turned into such a feisty lil thing. could it be that she's almost 2?).

Ellie did another week of swim lessons. i felt like she totally regressed that week and was really bummed about it. in her defense, it was a cooler week, and her swim lessons were at 9:00 am. yeah, she would be shivering her butt off before she even got wet. luckily for her, Alice, her number 1 fan, was there to cheer her on. "go Ya Ya, go!" she'd say. such a cute lil twerp. and finally by Friday, Ellie jumped off the diving board (well, i basically pushed her off) and that was that.

our big fun thing was that we went with a group of friends into San Francisco to Mission Dolores Park- a huge park that has been recently rennovated and refurbished. it was an awesome park, probably the coolest i've ever been to- especially since it had the most incredible vistas of the City Scape. the girls absolutely loved it and we can't wait to go back.

after the park we went to Bi-Rite ice cream, a SF institution. it definitely lived up to all the hype. we loved it- and it was worth the stomach ache.

Ellie also started a few new activities through our city- gymnastics and Taekwondo. both things were AWESOME. Ellie was hilarious dressed up in her white robe/pants/belt garb for Taekwondo. i could not stop cracking up. she was the only girl in her class (and seemed to be the youngest) but really held her own- i was proud of her.

and she was seriously made to do gymnastics (it's in her blood). she is in the class with a couple of little girls from her Sunbeams class- it makes me happy to see her getting to know her little friends from church. she really was so sad when it was over. all in all, it makes me so happy to see her trying new things and enjoying doing so.

and poor little Alice, she just watched and cheered on Ellie in all of these things- wanting so desperately to be a part and join in. she feels like a big kid, you know? and you know what, she's kind of turning into a big kid. (enter sad-face emoticon here).

(side note: this picture was taken after my favorite thing we did while M was gone- which was going on a run...to the donut shop. i love being able to peer pressure my friends into doing ridiculously oxy-moronish things like running to a donut shop. and Alice obviously supports any and all delicious eating endeavors- so it was a pretty successful trip.)

when M is gone, one thing we definitely do a lot of is watching movies + eating popcorn in my bed. the girls love it, and i love the snuggles/company. i haven't loved finding so many popcorn kernels, though...even AFTER washing sheets. what the heck?

we also had a couple of girls' nights at my house while M was gone. one night we did a big dance revolution party. it was hilarious and i couldn't stop laughing. another night we just hung out, talked, and got fat eating too much delciousness- it was equally fun. it makes such a difference to get good adult interaction in your day/week, you know?

then the totally creepy thing happened. it was Thursday night, a night that some friends had been here. it was somewhere between 4 am and 5 am that my house alarm started going off- a really high pitched screeching beeping. i wasn't really awake when i jumped out of my bed to come and disarm the alarm- and had the thought that someone must've accidentally set it off. well, when i was at the panel, i realized that no one was there but me, and that someone had to have tampered with the alarm- and so i immediately ran back to my bed, put my covers over my head, and checked my email. my alarm company always sends an email right away to let you know what happened/which door was affected- and it said that my dining room doors had been tampered with. i was FREAKED out, because those are some heavy french doors- and knew immediately that someone had tried to break in. isn't that so creepy? ewwwwwwww. i'm still heebie-jeebie'd just thinking about it. the next day, i went and got better curtains, put up more signs telling of our alarm even in the back, set up a lamp to keep on all night, and got some wasp spray to put by my bed (which i then slept with- did you know that stuff has a range of 10 feet? it could go straight in an attacker's eyes without me even having to be close to the sneaky freak).

let's just say i didn't sleep a wink- started watching Grey's Anatomy instead (yes, for the first time...and can i say, oh my, McDreamy is so smokin hot darling and Meredith is so adorably adorable), and was totally relieved to see my Knight in Shining Armor on Saturday (and get a nap).

so yes, we survived. but i'm glad M is not leaving again any time soon.

 

i really love that guy.

more updates to come soon on our 4th, our trip to SoCal, and other random happenings!

xoxo