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| Helmer and Valerie |
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| The girls with Isabella |
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| Brady was QUITE taken with Addison Zbaraschuk. Future girlfriend?? |
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| "Hey, if your brother kissed my sister than I should get to kiss his sister." |
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| Rad and my winnings. |
Monday was a stay at home day for us which I kind of like to do once a week now to just get the house in order and do various things around the house. We worked on Calleigh's sight words as she gets closer and closer to reading. She's very excited about learning and I hope this is a sign that she will take after me who I must say was a very good and independent home schooler. Starting home school in September just took on a more challenging twist! Anyway, the real excitement, at least for me, on Monday was that my parents got back from their nearly month long trip. They first went to Palau and Guam where my dad held some meetings. From there, they went to Australia and New Zealand where they took a 14-day cruise to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary coming up in June. I was majorly jealous to say the least. I would settle for a mere three nights! We got a few sporadic emails here and there but there wasn't a whole lot of communication which led me to comment "So this is what being an orphan feels like." It's strange when you're used to calling your mother to chat whenever and then you can't do that any more. Anyway, I was very happy for their return which happened on Monday evening after a very LONG trip back. You're basically flying for a whole day.
Tuesday morning we headed to the Altamonte Mall since I had been alerted to a great sale at Gap. Unfortunately the great sale seemed to only be in a particular store in Maine but I still got a couple of things. We stopped and got a couple of pairs of shoes at Payless for Aubree but I must say, I'm completely befuddled every time we measure her feet. The measurement showed she should be wearing 9.5 but yet she wears 8. So bizarre! When we came out of the mall to our van, I saw something hanging on the side mirror. It turned out to be a diaper bag filled with...diapers and a few other things. Apparently someone found it and thought it was ours and left it there. I looked through it and there was no wallet or anything but I did find a Kay Jewelers receipt in a pocket which had a phone number in it. I called it and sure enough, it was their lost diaper bag. We were headed over to Toys 'R Us from there so the couple said they would meet us there to pick up their bag which they did. So that ended well.
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| The mall playground. |
Uncle Ricky and Aunt Ana had given the kids a gift certificate to Toys 'R Us for Christmas and I had been saving it up for the right time. Well, it finally seemed like the right time. Do you know how hard is to go through a toy store and try to have two girls pick out something they want? Of course, they see many things they like but to try and narrow it down, man, that is a HUGE endeavor. I'm quite sure we could have been there for the rest of the day. The girls couldn't decide if they would put their money together and get one big thing or if they would each get their own thing. In the end, and I believe they made the right decision, they each got their own Squinkies wand which amazingly enough, turned out to be something they were still playing with by the end of the week. You know kids. They are so fickle. An exciting toy of today is the dud of tomorrow. In case you aren't familiar with Squinkies, they are tiny little rubbery toys that are a perfect choking hazard for 20-month olds.
Wednesday we skipped story time and went to Publix and Big Lots instead. While at Big Lots, Calleigh discovered she had lost two of her Squinkies in the store. I figured that wasn't going to end well but amazingly, we found both of them. Crisis averted! Wednesday evening we had Adventurers and I took her once again while Daddy stayed home with the other two. One of the honors was a scavenger hunt for certain items like an apple, basket, lion puppet, etc. Then afterwards, the kids had to tell a story from the Bible that contained that item. One of the kids started telling the story of Moses in the basket boat and it went like this "So his mom put him in the basket and put the basket in the river. Then the alligators came and tried to eat the basket." I looked over at Calleigh and she looked over at me and she gave me this secret litle look like "Is this girl crazy? That didn't happen!" I love moments like that where I know what she's thinking just by the look on her face. On the way, I decided to stop and get us a little treat and to be honest, because my stomach was not feeling good as usual. We got a couple of milkshakes at Burger King. And then I was really tortured. I was listening to the Bruins and Montreal Canadians hockey game on the radio (we were in the truck which gets XM). It was the Montreal feed and on comes a commercial that starts like this "Have you heard of our new and delicious cheesy grilled cheese panini sandwich? Pair that with our new sun dried tomato soup. It can't be beat! Just come on in to Tim Horton's!!" Oh, they torture me. It sounded heavenly. Alas, if only Tim Horton's wasn't in...Canada. Thanks a lot! Nice way to mess with a pregnant lady.
Thursday morning was time for Costco. As we got into the van, I noticed that the warning light for one of the tires was on. This wasn't overly alarming because they often come on when the air gets a little low. I figured I would have Duncan check it over the weekend. We do our Costco thing where we run into Allen and the kids. They were there later than they usually were because Braelyn had been home from school sick the past few days and they weren't constrained by her pick up schedule. We kept our distance but it was good to see them. We left and I stopped outside the store to get a slice of pizza for my upset stomach which I tried to eat unobtrusively so the kids wouldn't want one. Sometimes I feel really sneaky. Anyway, we then pull out and I immediately knew we had a flat tire. Yup, sure did. Now, let me just state that I took auto class in high school and I firmly believe I know how to change a flat tire but come on, what lady is actually going to be able to get those lug nuts off? Seriously. Thank goodness Allen was there and after a quick call to confirm that he hadn't left yet, he came to our rescue. It was quite an operation because those lug nuts are really hard to get off. He had to jump on the little tool to get them all off and then one stubborn one would not loosen. I had to flag a large Costco employee down in the parking lot to try and help us and he couldn't get it loosened either. I figured at that point I would have to call AAA (which I didn't want to do because I thought they would take a long time to get there) but finally Allen got it loosened. But the fun didn't end there. It turned out that the spare (which we had never used before), was just about completely flat itself. Thanks a lot Kia! But maybe that just happens naturally over the years. Anyway, thankfully I was able to just drive, very gingerly, over to the tire area of Costco and they filled it for me. So all ended well. It did stink having to drive under 50 MPH though on the doughnut.
Friday morning we did our yard sale thing. Things went pretty well although we ended a little earlier than usual so I could take the tire in to get fixed. On the way there my stomach was acting up again and we needed gas. I spotted a Wawa and decided it was time to try it. Wawa is basically a glorified gas station. It's very popular in Pennsylvania and over the last year they have been popping up on every other corner around here. People love them. They sell a bunch of fresh food which includes a made-to-order sandwich bar. Time to give it a go. We got our gas and then went inside where we were greeted at the door by someone who said "Welcome to Wawa." Okay, we've established they are very friendly. I found the sandwich bar and noted that to order, you go to a little kiosk where you select everything on the screen. The girls loved this and so did I. I made my selections and then two minutes a later, a lady called my number. Very impressive! But not only that, it was delicious. The sub roll reminded me of D'Angelo's which is a personal favorite sandwich chain up in Massachusetts. So that is my review of Wawa in case anyone is interested. By the way, I just looked up the meaning of the name and it says that Wawa is a Native American word for the Canada Goose. So there you go. I like it even more.
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| Calleigh taking a writing break at a yard sale. |
Friday afternoon we picked up our repaired tire and then headed over to Ron and Elaine's for supper. Elaine has been making some really good vegetarian meals lately and this time she made some paella (a rice dish) and tabouleh. Both were fantastic. The funny thing was that she was discussing how she was having a hard time at first finding the stuff for the tabouleh because she had never cooked with bulger wheat before. That set an alarm off in my head because that was the main ingredient of the dish I ate when I had the severe allergic reaction. I had not been convinced that was it (since I had eaten it several times before) though. I think Duncan was a little leery of my eating it again but I didn't want to be held hostage for the rest of life. I did eat it and I was fine so I think we can mark that off the list.
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| Working on crafts at Grandma and Grandpa's |
We had a nice time at church day and then afterwards we were off to Megan's house who had invited us for lunch along with Tiffany and Anthony. Her Uncle John (who is married to my mom's cousin) was also in town...conveniently missing the giant storm. Incidentally, we did check in with my parents this morning and despite the fact that they had gotten several feet of snow, had not lost their power so that was good (they have well water so when the power goes out, so does the water. A double whammy). Megan has a giant, although very friendly, dog named Sushi and I was wondering how it would all play out with Aubree. And then Tiffany and Anthony brought their dog Rue with them and all that combined didn't work out to well for Aubs. She was freaking out and made me hold her. It took Brady a few minutes but then eventually he was walking around and calling the dogs, "SUSHI, SUSHI. RUE, RUE." He loved them. Eventually Aubree got used to them and although she wasn't petting them, she would at least let them sniff her without going crazy. We are making some progress. All this from a stinking dream she had! Meanwhile, Calleigh was petting them up and down and having a great time chasing them all over. And she's the one who actually was nipped by a dog a few years ago.
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| Riding Sushi |
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| Taking refuge with Anthony |
The day ended with us going to the church for an outdoor movie night and hot dog roasting. A number of friends were there and it was nice to chit chat. One such family (the mother was the one who did my epidural for Calleigh and when she was born said "It's a boy!" by accident) had their fourth girl a few months ago. We told them that we were trying to keep pace with them and I told Rob how neat it was to have four girls. He said that so many people, when they heard it was another girl, would come up to him and say how sorry they were that he didn't get his boy, etc and he would get so annoyed because he actually wanted another girl. I think I mentioned on here how truly annoyed I would get that everyone assumed I wanted a boy after the two girls. At least I'm not the only one! The movie was a good one called "The Solomon Bunch" and even Brady stayed pretty entertained. Color me surprised.
Oh, I forgot to mention that they finally came and switched out our smoke detector on Thursday. I made pizza Thursday night and it didn't go off so I'm hoping the problem has FINALLY been rectified. It was funny though because as I took the pizza out and nothing happened I said "Phew. Thank goodness it didn't go off." Calleigh started looking at my very quizzically and said "Don't you mean, it didn't go on?" So then I had to figure out why we say it goes off when in reality, it IS going on. A real mind bender, it is. I told her I wasn't really sure why we say it that way. Her suggestion was to just ask Siri.
I would say that's a wrap. Oh, just one Brady thing before we end. I totally get how sometimes you'll hear kids say a bad word because they hear their parents say it. One thing I've always said, not sure where I got it from, is "Whoa Bessie." Like, if we driving in the car and we took a corner too fast or something I would say "Whoa Bessie." A couple of days ago Brady was playing with this toy that has some play eggs in it. He was shaking it too hard and eggs started coming out and the next things I hear is "Oh Bessie!" Cute.
A few parting pictures...
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| After lunch at the Isidro's last Sabbath, we enjoyed their great lawn and the great weather. I could have stayed like that for hours. |
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| We found out last week that our water for our lawn had been turned off, probably for weeks. No wonder our yard is turning brown! We ran the water for hours last Saturday (the only day we're allowed to water) and the girls were thrilled to run in it. |
Have a great rest of the weekend.