Hopefully I will become inspired to write more interesting entries, but for now.... :0)
MONDAY was the day Wyatt completed the summer trifecta! He successfully learned how to ride his bike without training wheels! :0)
This was a very proud moment! With anything in life where hard work is involved, finally reaching the goal at hand is oh so rewarding!
This Monday was the start to our 2nd (and final) week of swimming lessons. I'm astounded by their progress...but more about that later. :0)
Monday was also the 2nd week of school for us. School continues to go really well. However, school has put a kink in my plans for the morning run. If we have an activity in the morning after school, which is most days, then my morning run is what gets forfeited in order to make the rest of the day happen. It's not a BIG deal, becuase I still go to the gym in the evenings, but getting the heart pumping first thing in the morning after reading my Bible and eating my breakfast had made for a great start to the day. But, I have a feeling, now that other kids are starting to go back to school, I think our morning plans will settle down with our friends, and that should make for a greater chance of getting my run in in the morning.
TUESDAY was the day we played hooky from swimming lessons and took my cousin to Soak City water park instead. I didn't get a picture of him, but I did get some pictures of these other 2 monkeys...
Beatrice loves her little water slides...
And Trenton (my 15 year old cousin) took Wyatt down his first big water slide...
My highlight of the day was lounging in the lazy river with Beatrice for over an hour while the boys were at the wave pool. :0)
WEDNESDAY after school, we went to Fanuel Park in PB for a playdate with our MOPS friends. This is a great location becuase it offers a large play structure AND the bay very close to each other...so close in fact that one of my kids could be playing in the water and I could still be watching the other kiddo on the playground...that's my kind of fun! :0)
We then headed to swimming lessons, and then to Souplantation with our friends for lunch. It was a great day...that ended with spin class. ;0)
THURSDAY was Rick's day off. After school we did some shopping and then had lunch at Costco...
We then hit up swimming lessons...
and then went miniature golfing...
Thursday was also the day I returned to Zumba class at the YMCA after not going for over a month...maybe even 2 months? Usually you have to arrive at the gym long in advance to get a reservation/pass to get in to the class. But I arrived at my normal time, and took a chance and asked the receptionist if there were any more passes for Zumba...sure enough, I was only #15! I was shocked! I had a GREAT time that night! There were so few of us working out that there was plenty of room for me to be comfortably uncoordinated! :0) The instructor said that August is the slowest month in the gym becuase of last minute summer vacations, and people just focused on getting back to school, etc.
FRIDAY was the day I made coconut cupcakes...
Oh my word, these babies were INCREDIBLE! I have been told they are the best cupcakes I have ever made. I'm not sure if that is a true statement (I have a lot of favorite cupcakes of mine) but they were right up there with the best of them! This was the first week in MONTHS that I didn't have a paid order for the Sugar Shack. These were for a family that I was bringing dinner to, and I brought the 2nd dozen to my dad's house the next day.
Friday was also the final day of swimming lessons. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about this experience. As I have mentioned, I have always been reluctant to spend the money on swimming lessons in the past, but I am so glad we did it this time! Wyatt had just learned how to swim on his own right before he took the classes, but these lessons propelled him so much further in his swimming abilities! This kid is a swimming fool, and we now love diving for objects together in our own pool. Beatrice is nowhere close to knowing how to swim yet, but her confidence in the water has greatly improved! She will crab walk around the entire perimeter of the pool, she will jump off the side of the pool and go completely under the water, she will let me float her on her back, and she will go under water to get diving toys off of the steps of the pool...HUGE milestones for the girl that would only want to be held (TIGHT) in the water! :0) And, as an added bonus for myself, the entire 2 weeks of lessons afforded me the opportunity to have uninterrupted conversation with 2-B for 30 minutes every day while all of our kiddos were in class together. :0)
SATURDAY Beatrice and I had a breakfast date at Panera...
And then in the afternoon we headed to my dad & stepmom's new house in Rancho Penasquitos. This gathering was special for a couple of reasons...
1. This was the first time we were going to be seeing their new house.
2. We were celebrating my dad's birthday.
3. I was finally seeing my sister Jenni and her family!!! They have been on vacation and I have missed all of them SOOOOO much while they were away.
I knew to be looking forward to all of THAT, but I was totally unprepared for the other exciting aspect of the event! As soon as I got off of the exit to go to my dad's house, I was overcome with emotion. The freeway exit you take to get to their house is the same exit that took me back to all of my Jr. High and High School days. I immediatly told the kids, "This is where mom grew up!"...to which Wyatt replied, "COOL! We are in Pennsylvania!!!" Seriously!? Sigh. The kids were beyond excited for us to arrive at their grandparents house, but I had a new agenda...our first stop was to drive by the condo I used to live in with my mom and my sisters during high school. Our next stop was to drive by the house we lived in when I was in Jr. High, and our next stop was to drive by my actual high school. I was so not expecting to take this trip down memory lane, but the kids had to endure story after story about THAT 7-11, and THAT IHOP, and THAT loooooong walk to school, and THAT Taco Bell... Finally (for the kids at least) we made it to Grandpa & Grandma Piton's house...
Jenni made some amazing food...
And memories were made with our best friends...
SUNDAY was the day we got to go back to church after having to miss it 2 weeks in a row for being sick. It was so good to be spiritually fed! We are a Christian family that reads our Bibles daily, but to be worshiping the Lord with other believers on Sunday is an experience like none other. I love my church home. :0) After church we took a dip in the pool, and then I set out to make my hunny's favorite food...Pork Fried Rice. I've never made it before...it's his favorite take-out meal. Rachel Ray has a recipe for it, and I thought I would give it a whirl. Since it's Rick's fave, I doubled the recipe so we could have it for dinner the next night also. This whole thing was nightmare. Because I had doubled the recipe I had to keep switching out pans as the meal (rice) literally grew bigger and bigger. It's as if I had never cooked a day in my life. Stuff was boiling over...it was taking forever to prep/chop the ingredients...I have crazy oil splatter burns up my entire left forearm...and after 2 hours, a HUGE mess, and an entire stock-pot full of Pork Fried Rice later, my peeps didn't like it! :0( Rick said it tasted like Pine Trees. It definitely wasn't my favorite recipe either...it called for way too much fresh ginger...which I LOVE fresh ginger, but even this was too much. I ate my plate full...and I ate it again today for lunch. I know how much work went in to this stupid meal, it.will.not.be.thrown.out.
So that's about it for the week. Minus the Pork Fried Rice incident (lol) the morale in the house has been great. :0) Even with not getting my run in EVERY morning, my attention to exercise has been on-point. I have to get my diet on target though. I spend most of the week losing weight, and then I always seem to blow it on the weekend, so I end up at the same weight I was at when I started the previous week. I had big weight-loss goals for the summer, and I haven't come close to achieving those goals. That kinda sucks. But every day brings with it a fresh start, and one of these days I will jump up on the weight loss horse and not look back for a while. I'm hoping it's tomorrow. :0)
You live the BEST life!!!!
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Veronica