Amy Scott's Thoughts

Okay, I’ve been MIA most of November. Turns out I’ve been batting various infections in my eyes and head most of the month. After my bout with pink eye, my eyes still didn’t feel right. I went back to the doctor and got some new drops and awaited the results of the culture they did on my eyes. A few days later, I got the call saying that I have strep in my eyes as well another bug the receptionist couldn’t pronounce. So I was given a prescription for another antibiotic. I’ve now taken 4 different kinds of antibiotics in a month span of time to fix whatever is going in my eyes and head. I wish I could say they were working. My eyes still don’t feel right and I came down with a super bad head cold this last week. Didn’t expect to get super sick right after starting antibiotics. I’m living on Dayquil and praying for the day my eyes feel right again.

November has been a hard month for me. I’ve been feeling a bit more emotional lately and I think that the constant infections going on in my head have zapped me. I’m tired. I’m trying to keep up with responsibilities and schedules, but inside I have no energy. My hubby took a couple days off this last week and I was jazzed by the thought of having him around. Then I got the super bad head cold and I spent most of his days off in bed watching movies or sleeping. While my body needed that rest, I had envisioned that time spent together, as a family. It’s hard when expectations turn to disappointments. I’m extremely disappointed and mystified by the condition of my eyes/head. If things don’t improve with this round of antibiotics then I will back at the doctors. I have no clue why I don’t feel better yet.

I love the holidays. I go to Starbucks way too much ordering holiday drinks and goodies. I watch every new Hallmark Christmas movie that comes out. Our family filled Operation Christmas Child boxes so that way kids around the world can have something special for Christmas. I love Christmas. I love listening to Christmas music. I love Christmas shopping and finding presents we think our family members will love. However… My health has left me a bit depleted. When it comes to decorating for Christmas, I just don’t have a ton of desire to do the extra effort. Owen has been begging to decorate for Christmas for the last few weeks. We had been holding off until after Thanksgiving and today he got his wish to get the Christmas tree up. While the others decorated the tree, I hopped into the shower to see if that would help the feeling in my eyes to clear up. I’m not against decorating. The rest of the family wanted to do it and that’s great. I just didn’t have the desire. I’m lacking that spark. I think if I felt better things would be a different story, but right now my Christmas spirit has been taken down a notch. It’s not even December yet, so I have hopes of kicking these bad bugs and getting back to my Christmassy self for the rest of the holiday season.

We stayed in Lewis County for Thanksgiving this year. I wasn’t feeling well enough to travel. Owen and Graham got to play with their cousins, Nolan & Bennett. The adults played games. I laid down for part of the day. The food was good and it was nice to stay in one place even though it meant not seeing my extended family. I missed them and their gathering very much. My parents were sweet and brought me home some leftovers.

My mother-in-law offered to watch the boys yesterday so Jeremy and I could take part in the Black Friday sales. We have a list of items we need for the house and Black Friday seemed like the best day to get good deals. I took my cold meds and I tried to keep up as we compared and researched. It was great to have some one-on-one with my hubby and to pick out things together for our future home. We had a super productive day and come in under budget on some major items we knew we needed. The only downside to shopping now is our new things will have to wait until we move in to get unboxed… Except the Xbox Jeremy got. He couldn’t wait for that one. It feels good to have some new things purchased and ready for the house. It certainly gives me the feeling of being one step closer.

On to the house! We have a complete roof with shingles and everything! It’s beautiful! I love it! Our house got covered in mud and water before the roof could go on, so while the roofers finished things up, Jeremy & I (and then Jeremy & his dad) spent a day getting the mud and water out of the house. Jeremy and I scrapped the mud out and shop vacuumed the water out, but the floors were still pretty grubby. I took the boys home for naps and Jeremy’s dad went up with a pressure washer to get the floors really clean and get the mud out. The floors look so much better now and we are currently in the process of drying the house out. The windows got installed this week and that helps with the drying process. It will improve even more when we get the doors on and can trap the heat a bit better. The doors are up in the garage just waiting to be installed. We also have piles of siding waiting by the house as well. I’m excited for things to turn inside as the outside work starts to wrap up. Each new step forward makes it feel more a like a home. What a labor of love this house has been. I would have never imagined myself shoveling mud out of my house when we started this process. I’m an “indoor” girl and I don’t really do dirt, but when it comes to my house, I’ll do just about anything to get us one step closer to moving in.

That’s my update for now. We’re supposed to go to Zoolights tonight with my MOPS group, but we’re still on the fence. The kids are napping and we’ll see how they wake up from nap time. They both seem like they might be on the verge of getting sick and I, of course, am not well yet myself. I feel that tension of being the coordinator so I should be there… but I also just want to see my friends and have a Christmas outing with my family. It seems like illness is always stopping us from fun, festive outings. So Zoolights may or may not happen. As I said before, it’s still November. There will be other opportunities if today doesn’t pan out. Some seasons are harder than others and this one seems to be a doozy right now. Prayers appreciated!

Love Red Cup Season! I didn’t get a picture with my 1st or 2nd Red Cup, but 3rd times the charm! 

Shopping for Operation Christmas Child

Our “flooded” mucky house before it got cleaned up. 

I got a quick visit with my one of my favorite Californians! I got to show Christa my house and then we gave her a tour of my parent’s home as well. 

PK Life

Cheesy Boys

Drying out the house

Chocolate cake with the cousins

The post holiday haze

A recent picture from the outside

Last night was gingerbread house decorating! 

Tree decorating this morning. 

Owen’s wish came true! The tree is up and ready for Christmas. 

When I last posted, I shared about Graham getting pink eye and me having an awful head cold. Not fun. However, it seems that our family has a dark cloud over us and things just kept getting worse. My mother-in-law got pink eye from Graham and she had a sinus infection as well. We had a week of all being home sick and trying not to spread our germs. My big hope was that Friday was going to be our fun family day. I also thought that the Friday before, but then Graham had pink eye… So anyway, this last Friday, I woke up at 2:30pm with my right eye stuck shut. On Thursday, I had rubbed my eyes and had a moment of panic. Then I thought about how we’re past the contagious stage and let out a sigh of relief. But sadly, I was wrong. So I spent our fun family day at Urgent Care for pink eye. Blah. Saturday was a pink eye recovery day and my mother-in-law started to feel sick again. Come Sunday morning, we found out that Nana had the flu. Sunday was a big day because we were going to start house sitting for my parents. My eye was a bit gooey so we didn’t go to church and when I realized I couldn’t keep my kids quiet for Nana to rest, we took off for my parent’s house to settle in.

I had been looking forward to house sitting for parents. I couldn’t wait to play house in their new home. I was going to treat it like a vacation rental. But… I got there and got settled in and it hit me… I’m in someone’s else house. I’m always in someone’s house. I’ve lived over a year with my in-laws (which I am extremely thankful for) and then when I thought I would “play house” in a new house, it just hit me I was in my parent’s house. I’m always in someone else’s space because I have no house of my own. Actually, I got to to stare out the window at my house that had no workers there. I thought that house sitting was going to fill a void in my heart and instead it hit me that no home, but my home, will fill the void. I had a very weepy 24 hours after that. Thank you to my friends and family who let me emotionally decompress on them – aka cry. A lot. My heart aches to settle into my home. I totally didn’t expect that reaction. It took me completely off guard and left me with a deep ache. Not awesome. Let me tell you.

So on Monday, I’m was deep mourning of my homelessness. I came home from my MOPS steering team meeting and I was emotionally spent. I said good night to the boys and settled in to talk to Jeremy when we heard Owen yelling from the bedroom. Jeremy got into the room and got Owen out before he could throw up EVERYWHERE! Luckily, we got Owen out of the room before he throw up on Graham who was sleeping on the floor beside him. However, Jeremy took the worst blow ever! That was the most amount of puke I’d ever seen on anyone! Jeremy had it puddled in this ear. Gross! From that point on we lived in the flu zone for the next 24 hours. Poor Owen got it bad. Tuesday was a sick day around the house. Jeremy took time off to help us survive. I had been looking forward to a family day and this wasn’t the way I was hoping to get it.  Come Wednesday, Graham had pink eye again, so it was back to the doctor to get him more drops….

And there you have it! We just had an intense week of illness. Add some out of the blue emotional trauma and there you have my life right now. My hope was that in staying up at my parent’s house we would have a front row seat to watching our trusses go up. When no workers came up Monday or Tuesday, we were told that Wednesday was the day. Turns out Wednesday they did show up. For an hour. Then they disappeared. I was so confused. Their compressor broke… Bummer… Today though, they were back in force and we do have trusses up now! Praise the Lord! Things move slowly and then they move quickly. I really don’t believe anything I’m told until I see it in person. We are super close to having a real roof. Each step is a step closer and despite the vague timeline, I am grateful.

Anyway, life is a roller coaster. We’re doing the best we can. Despite emotional and trying moments, we are still laughing and still smiling. God is still good and we will have our own roof over our heads someday. Praying for positive updates in the future. We’ve been hit hard the last couple of weeks, but I’m going to believe that better and healthier days are right around the corner.

At Urgent Care. Not cool.

Poor TC! She survived us, but she missed my parents immensely!

The view out the window… a house. Sitting there…

The boys settled in quickly!

Watching my parent’s contractor work on their driveway.

A boy with the flu.

Poor kid.

Last day with TC

Waiting for the pink eye drops… Round 2!

Trusses!

Looking more like a house!

A bright spot – Nana’s birthday!

So much has happened since I last posted, one of those things being coming down with a whammy of a head cold. I really have so much to share, but I am lacking the mental capacity to type it all up. I figured I can show you the updates through pictures and fill in the details through captions. Here we go!

The happy face of a woman who has interior walls! I can envision where furniture will go now!

The interiors walls! A thing of beauty!

Jeremy is super talented at carving pumpkins but hates cleaning them out!

This years pumpkins – a train and Daniel Tiger!

Graham got pink eye on Friday and then it spread to his other eye on Saturday.

Graham went with Jeremy on Saturday to help my parents move into their new home and Owen went on a MOPS outing to the pumpkin patch with me.

We love pumpkins!

This what helping the grandparents move looks like for Owen & Graham.

First family meal at my parent’s new house! Praise the Lord!

Baking 4 dozen muffins for MOPS and then 4 dozen cookies! It was a wild Monday morning.

Two of the cutest train engineers you ever did see. Graham hated his costume, but eventually gave up and decided it was fine.

Despite being feverish I hung in there for the MOPS Bake Sale at Fall Fest. It was easier to sit behind that table then watch my kiddos! Notice I am holding Graham’s hand in this picture! I can never truly escape him.

This week has a been a wild one! We had the boys well checks on Monday and MOPS! We’ve had Cousin Colton staying at the house as a guest and we’ve seen some major progress on our house.

All three boys are sleeping right now so I’m going to make this quick. I don’t know how long the peace and quiet will last! Let’s start with well checks. Both boys are healthy and great. Graham was 12% for height now so let’s rejoice in that fact! However, he was 4% for weight so they want to address his eating habits. The odd thing is he eats all the time but he also moves all the time. He is a grazer and not really known for sitting down and eating huge meals in one sitting. Owen got his hearing tested and it’s fine. The doctor looked in his ear and said it looked like his left ear is healing from an ear infection and that is probably the source of his hearing issues. Owen also got shots for the first time since he was super little. He knows what they are and he wasn’t scared. He followed the directions given to him and didn’t even cry. Such a brave kid!

Colton has been our buddy this week. The boys have loved taking care of him. Colton has been adored by his cousins. I was a little concerned about watching another kiddo during the day since I sometimes feel like I barely keep mine alive, but Colton has done well and Aunt Amy has been able to keep up with everyone and everything fairly well. I’ve kept close to the house during the days just because I don’t want to do the loading and unloading of three kids in car seats. None of them are in booster seats and they can’t buckle themselves. So we saved my back and stayed home. It’s all good though because the boys have plenty of toys to share.

The most exciting part of the week is what’s been going on at our house. We got a floor and two walls on Tuesday and then yesterday we had all of our exterior walls up. I’m assuming today was the garage walls and then moving into the interior walls. Jeremy is hoping the interior walls will be done by tomorrow. Wouldn’t that be insane? When I pulled up to the house and saw my floors but also my bedroom wall, I was beside myself with joy! I got the kids  unload quickly so I could go hug my wall. I almost cried. The tears were there! So much joy!!! I am the happiest camper around! All I need is a couple of tarps to keep out the rain and I’m ready to move in! With each step closer, I can see the space better and judge room sizes. My mind is often pondering furniture placement. I’m so excited that things are finally taking shape and that it actually looks like a house. I might totally explode with joy once the roof is on. It will be a real house then!

One last fun factor of this week is that our MOPS group did a fundraiser called Cards for a Cause through my UBAM business. Our group sold 59 boxes of cards and made over $1000 for MOPS!!! I was so jazzed when I did the math on Monday night I could hardly sleep that night. It was way beyond my wildest expectations of the fundraiser!

Well, there you have it. Our week in a nutshell! Until next time!

New Train Boots

Property Life

Graham is jazzed that Colton is here! Colton seems unsure!

This is why Owen loves MOPS

Another special day with a MOPS friend

My buddies this week

Perks of being an auntie

Owen standing in his room by his window!

Hanging by my bedroom window

Owen is a super helper when it comes to taking care of Colton

Exterior Walls

Trying to judge the size of the space!

Yesterday was Graham’s birthday. Our baby is now two years old. Poor kid is called “Baby” by all of us still. That’s going to be a hard habit to break. I’m fairly confident that Owen calls Graham “Baby” like 90% of the time. It doesn’t help that Graham is so little, so it doesn’t seem odd to call him baby. We did measure the boys yesterday on our home growth chart. It seems that Owen has grown about 3 inches in the last year and Graham has grown about 5 inches with most of that growth actually being in the last 6 months. We have well check appointments on Monday, so I’ll be curious to see what the stats are for both boys.

Jeremy took Graham’s birthday off from work so we could spend it together as a family. I really appreciated that. Last year we were up north doing counseling on Graham’s birthday. It was hard for me to not be able to celebrate Graham’s 1st birthday in the way that I envisioned last year. It was also hard to be separated from Owen since he was staying with my parents for the week. This year we got to be all together and that made my heart happy. Graham was such a happy camper and loved the extra attention. Owen was super excited for Graham and kept giving him birthday hugs. It was a sweet and fun time together as a family.

We spent part of the day down in Portland. We went to the mall and got the boys’ some new jeans and their Christmas ornaments for the year. Owen & I discovered that there was going to be a Daniel Tiger ornament at Hallmark, so we had snag that and of course, we added another Thomas ornament to our collection as well. After a little shopping and playing at the mall, we went to PF Chang’s for lunch. We wanted to pick a place that was special and somewhere we don’t get to go very often. Graham loves Chinese food and Owen was super concerned about getting cake wherever we went. PF Chang’s has a dessert called the Great Wall of Chocolate and it definitely met the need of a chocolate cake birthday dessert. We didn’t make it a huge outing in the city. After lunch, we drove home and both boys took car naps. It was nice to do something out of the ordinary and something as a family.

The rest of Graham’s birthday was spent at home. He enjoyed his presents. He got two new books. One is a Busy Book like Owen got for his birthday. Graham is very happy to have his own busy book now. It’s a book with a pull back car that runs along the track on the pages. The kids love them and I love that I got them for free with my Usborne rewards. When it came time to sing Happy Birthday to Graham, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the candle. Owen has been the candle blower outer in our family, so Graham has really never had a chance to practice. We told Owen he couldn’t blow out Graham’s candle, but when Graham clearly wasn’t going to blow out his candle, we let Owen help him out.

Graham continues to be a mama’s boy. He is difficult to get to stay in the nursery at church. He often wants to be carried by me. It helps that he is small, but he is now two. I’m kind of over lugging him around everywhere. Now that I get one-on-one time with Graham in the mornings while Owen is at preschool, I can see how easy Graham is on his own. He happily plays with toys. Without Owen to fight with our mornings are fairly calm and drama free. It’s really nice. This last week I had coffee with a friend and my mom watched Graham on his own. He wasn’t thrilled with me leaving, but he settled in and my mom commented on how quietly and happily he plays on his own. He is an easy kid in some ways. We haven’t started potty training yet. I want to wait until we move into our own home and have a little more space in the bathroom for a potty chair. Graham is also using more and more words and surprising us with that he knows on a regular basis. Even though he isn’t as verbal as Owen was at this age, Graham keeps making improvements. I’m not too concerned. I’ve heard that younger kiddos tend to be less verbal than their older siblings. Graham loves to be a helper. He helps me bake, he helps me do laundry, he helps me clean. He loves to do crafts and color with Owen. He keeps up with Owen – that seems to be his whole goal in life along with keeping tabs on Mom. And that’s the update on our two year old.

Last week we had family pictures. Graham wasn’t into it. Because he had to be held by me the whole time. He cried often if I tried to set him down. I really had wanted to get some pictures of just me and Jeremy and some of the boys together and separately, but that didn’t happen. Graham wouldn’t allow it. I’m grateful that we got the pictures we did given the circumstances. I’ve included a few of the pictures below for you to enjoy!

Starting the birthday adventures off by playing at the mall.

Lunch with the birthday boy at PF Chang’s China Bistro

The Great Wall of Chocolate

Present time!

A busy book for a busy boy

Unsure what to do about the flame

Happy 2nd Birthday, Graham!

Snuggles!

I think he wants me to share!

Daddy & Graham

Owen & Mommy

All the drama for this one picture!

I will go anywhere with these guys!

The beginnings of a floor

Doing the corn maze while the guys work at the property. Auntie and Grandma joined us. Good thing April can read a map! She got us in and out quickly & safely!

A spur of the moment trip to the zoo to enjoy the sunny weather!

Celebrating Papa’s birthday on Monday. We are blessed with so many October birthdays!

I didn’t have all the pictures loaded off my phone yesterday, so I skipped some in hopes of getting my blog done before nap time (which didn’t happen). I figured I would share a few more pictures today. Enjoy!

When I tell them to sit down to put on their shoes, they instead start hugging and saying “cheese”

Craft Day at MOPS

Owen’s preschool was closed on Tuesday, so Grandma came over to do crafts with us.

I think a semi-truck full of lumber might be the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen!

Candy corn blondies for my Wednesday night class

Fall Food! Chili & Cornbread!

Taking Graham through Starbucks in his jammies this morning! I put jeans on for this outing, but that is all the effort I plan to put into today.

After seeing how awesome everyone did with the book wreathes, I decided to make one too. My outer ring and inner ring are two different books, so it’s two toned. I like that. And both books were published by MOPS, so this a book wreath of mothering encouragement!

I’m thinking this wreath will go near my future desk… or maybe my bookshelf & reading chair… I love decorating my future house in my head. Can’t wait for daydreams to turn to reality!

We took the wooden track down to make room for new toys. Everyday we have made a mega track on the floor. A different track is created each day.

We’ve settled into fall here. The boys and I have been cycling the germs… seems like we’ve all taken turns getting a cold. Graham decided to turn his into croup. Poor kid. We made it to Lattin’s Cider Mill for the apple festival with our MOPS group at the end of September. Graham wasn’t too into it (because of the developing croup), but Owen had a great time and we picked up some of Lattin’s well known apple fritters as a snack. Yum. After the trip to Lattin’s, I got the chance to speak for 10 minutes about MOPS at a local Christian women’s conference. It was a great opportunity to share with ladies why MOPS matters and how they can be a part of a MOPS group. The conference also featured worship and a guest speaker. I got to enjoy the second half of the conference and it was was a blessing.

We made our first visit to the pumpkin patch last Thursday. My sister-in-law lets us tag-along with her friends to the best pumpkin patch ever. This was our third time visiting Bi-Zi Farms in Vancouver and we love it every year. It’s more than a pumpkin patch. We get to a hay bale maze, an animal farm and climb all over a straw pyramid before taking a tractor ride out to the field to pick our pumpkins. My mom joined us because she loves pumpkins as well. It was nice to have a second set of hands, especially once we decided to tackle Costco afterwards and pick up supplies for the big birthday party on Saturday. It was a good thing we went to Costco when we did because Owen wasn’t feeling good the next day, so a day around the house worked out better for us so the birthday boy could rest up for the big party weekend.

Saturday was the boys’ big birthday party. I’ve done two parties in the past, but this year I decided to combine the parties to save time and money. I wasn’t really sure who all was going to come, but it turned out to be a pretty good showing of family and friends. For a while, I was nervous that I had ordered too big of a birthday cake, but that was not the case. Not that leftover birthday cake is ever an issue, am I right? We reserved a covered area a local park. It’s located right next to train tracks and by a pedestrian bridge so you can walk over the tracks and stand over the trains as they go by. This is the biggest selling feature of the park. The boys had a lovely Paw Patrol themed party. I got them new Paw Patrol shirts to wear the day of the party. We had all the Paw Patrol decorations out with party blowers and tattoos. Of course, there was a Paw Patrol cake. For the first time ever, we did a pinata. I picked one where you pulled a string and if you picked the right string it would open the pinata and spill out all the goodies. I got made fun of because this was the “non-violent” way of doing a pinata. No bashing it until it breaks. I enjoyed it and the kids didn’t complain about the missing bat. Overall, it was an awesome party and the boys had a blast. They are super blessed and spoiled. When celebrating two kids at the same time, you end up with double the stuff. Our mini van was full to the brim as we traveled home and the kiddos spent a happy afternoon/evening getting to know their new toys. I spent the afternoon trying to find homes for the items and sorting through older toys to take to our storage unit. Let me tell you, I am super excited for our future playroom. Toys need space.

Sunday was Owen’s 4th birthday. The days started out rough. Owen just wanted to lay on the couch with his blanket. Graham didn’t want to get ready for church because he wanted to play with all the new toys. Getting them out the door for church was challenging. Once I got there, Owen just wanted to curl up on my lap and Graham wouldn’t stay in class. Owen didn’t want to go to his class either. At 9:40am, I called it. I tried. Church just wasn’t happening… I had promised Owen a birthday meal of fries and chocolate milk so my mom helped me take the kids over to BK so we could make good on that promise before heading home. Of course, Owen perked up and played happily with Graham on the BK play toy… I looked across the street at the church and felt like an awesome pastor’s wife because here we were in the middle of church playing on the BK play toy. Oh well. It was a special treat for the birthday boy. This is not normal. After nap time, we went to the park and played as a family and then went to dinner with my parents. Owen had requested Chinese food so he had a yummy meal of fried rice. Then it was home for presents and brownie cake. While Owen wasn’t 100% on his birthday, we sure did try to make it the best day possible for him. He is one loved kiddo.

After a big weekend of birthday celebrating, I had MOPS on Monday night. It was our most well attended meeting yet. Our room was full to the brim with moms crafting together. This was our first craft meeting and we made book wreathes made out of paper pages.  I was super nervous that the foam wreathes I order wouldn’t arrive on time, but I got the notification that they were available on Sunday. So grateful! It seemed like the room was a buzz with happy crafters and the wreathes turned out awesome. It’s seriously one of the best crafts we’ve ever done. I didn’t make on because I wasn’t sure about supplies, but I know now that we had some leftover supplies, so I might make one at home this week. We’ll see. Crafting and I have an iffy relationship. We don’t always get along. I’m so grateful that MOPS is flourishing and that ladies are connecting and investing in themselves and others. I think I’m finding my flow as the coordinator. It’s getting a bit easier, but this last meeting had me nervous wondering if we had enough supplies for the craft. Now that our first craft meeting is out the way, I’m sure it will get easier the next time around.

OH and the house! We have lumber! It was delivered yesterday! I have no clue when we will have people come and assemble the lumber, but having wood on site is a huge, big deal. This is what I’ve been waiting for. Let’s make a structure! Let’s make something look like a house and not just a piece of land! I’ll keep you posted as things move forward!

Running errands with Owen

Watching the tree crew take care of a few trees at Nana & Papa’s house.

Lattin’s Cider Mill

Lattin’s Cider Mill

At the doctor’s office to take care of Graham’s croup.

Pumpkins!!!

Tractor Ride

Exploring the straw pyramid!

Paw Patrol party for our two October birthday boys.

Pinata time

Present time

Proof we made it to church… for a little while.

A birthday visit to the train park for Owen.

Make a wish!

Okay, I’m having one of those weeks where everything happens. Each day is full on it own and then added “surprises”… It’s been a week. A crazy week. Let’s start with Monday.

Monday was the “BIG” day. The kick off of MOPS, but that wasn’t until the evening, so of course, I treated Monday like a normal day. Monday will be the only day that I’m home with both boys, so I made hair cut appointments. My mom came along because hair cuts for Graham mean that I have to bear hug him and that doesn’t allow me to watch Owen while I’m taking care of Graham. As I was leaving on Monday morning, my tire light came on. I had to turn around and have Jeremy look at the tires which look fine to both Jeremy and I (it’s still on, along with the change oil light – should probably take it in – gotta love car maintenance). That small delay made me feel like I was late and already behind my schedule. My Monday morning ended up being super productive. I took care of some errands, got the boys’ hair cuts, had an early lunch at Panda Express and was able to keep Graham awake on the ride home from Olympia so he would still take his afternoon nap. Kids take strategy and Graham is prone to falling asleep in the car if it’s after 11am and even if it’s 10 minutes of sleep that seems to derail nap time. I was rocking Monday. Jeremy got home from work and I took off for church to get ready for MOPS. The whole night went so well. I am grateful and blessed by the awesome start we had. However, everything was the “first” time so it took a lot of mental energy to make sure everything was set up right, the classrooms were ready for kids, the ladies were greeted and connecting at tables. Then the speaking in front of people and just being “on” – the weight of this thing resting on my shoulders… Oh my. It almost took me out. I gave 150% of my heart and soul and strength to MOPS that night and it left me totally spent! I came home feeling happy, tired and on the verge of being sick. At the beginning of the year there is a lot of paperwork and money being collected and explaining and answering questions. MOPS will find it’s flow and I’m sure it will be less taxing in the future, but this first meeting got of all me and it was crazy how exhausted I was at the end of it all. But it was an AWESOME meeting. I couldn’t be happier with how the night went.

On to Tuesday… the MOPS hangover day. Jeremy left early to go hunting. I felt awful. I was on preschool drop off since Jeremy was in the woods. Luckily for me, my mother-in-law met me at the front door and took Owen in for me so I didn’t have unload and reload Graham. I worked hard and fast all morning on MOPS paperwork and then took off to pick up Owen. I was in my Tillamook cow sweatshirt and oldest (most comfy pair) of jeggings. I didn’t look glamorous at all. And then I got to stand in a hallway for 10 minutes with a bunch of cute, blonde moms who all got dressed in proper outfits that day. I just looked at the floor and hoped no one noticed that I was a Mombie in the corner (mom + zombie = mombie). With my self-esteem considerable lower, I picked up Owen and took off for home. I had a book party on Tuesday night and instead of it being an online party, it was a home party where I had to be presentable, social and not able to hide behind a screen. The party went well and was fun, but man, I was tired when I got home…

Now on to Wednesday… I got myself all ready and cute for preschool drop off because Jeremy was again out hunting. I fed Graham an oatmeal, raisin, walnut Cliff Bar and went to get Owen ready. Then Graham proceed to break out in hives all over. By the time we got Owen to school, Graham was covered all over in red spots. My mom met me at the church with Benedryl and we called the doctor to get the correct dose.  My mom followed me home and we kept a close eye on Graham. Even though he is super spotted, he doesn’t have any swelling and no breathing issues. I called the doctor again today to make sure he didn’t need to come in, because he is still spotted and apparently this reaction can last up to a week. If the spots don’t go away in 7 days, we need to come in. We are also now getting a referral for an allergist. Oh goodie. I’m fairly confident the walnuts are what caused the reaction. It was the only out of the normal thing he ate. I guess we’ll know 100% after we do allergy testing.

Today. Today I am thankful I don’t have to add a doctor appointment to my to-do list. I’ve been able to work on cleaning the house and having a quieter morning. I have a book party tonight, but it’s online, so it’s simple. I’ll finalize all the details for that during nap time.  This week has exhausted me. Too much going on. Surprises that threw me for a loop. But we’re all making it. It’s busy with preschool and MOPS and book parties and Jeremy out hunting and then regular church commitments with a few family events coming up too. It’s amazing how much we pack into the days. However, after this week,  I’m learning my lesson about how much I can handle with our new school schedule. I’ll do a better job of pairing things down in October. Or so I hope. I am constantly reminded that I can’t do it all and that I’m not super human. I run out of energy. I’m grateful for all the blessings of this week and I’ve learned a few lessons the hard way – like to look cute for preschool pick up and drop off and not to feed my kid walnuts!

Hanging with my youngest while older brother is at school.

Baking with the bros

Waiting for a cake to bake is hard work!

Jeremy led a work party on Friday morning and they built this lovely new play toy for the learning center.

Little swing lover!

Loving the new play toy.

The finishing touches on the baking project.

Hair cut day!

Hair cut day!

Loving the connections being made at MOPS!

What a beautiful sight! A room full of ladies ready to invest in themselves and their mothering!

Hard to see – but can you say spots? They are even more red now… Apparently they can fade and reappear for 7-14 days.

I love getting to see little snap shots of Owen’s preschool life. I miss him while he is at school, but I love that he is getting this opportunity!

The first day of preschool has come and gone. Milestone achieved. Owen and Graham enjoyed the preschool orientation on Tuesday. Our classrooms have been updated and transformed. They are full of all sorts of awesome toys, books and activity centers.  Both kiddos were sad to leave. We took off to get Jeremy his first pumpkin spice latte of the season and then off to Staples for MOPS supplies. I was holding on to summer until the last moment but it seems Fall moved in on Tuesday. MOPS, pumpkin spice lattes and preschool orientation all point to a new season. 

I was nervous about Wednesday morning. I didn’t know what Owen’s mood would be. Would he be excited to go? Would he fight the first day of preschool photo? Well, let me tell you, it was the perfect first day of school get ready morning. We might never be able to achieve such perfection again. Owen willingly got dressed, let me fix his hair and eagerly went out to take his picture by the front door with his backpack. The get ready process and picture took max 20 minutes. Maybe 15. He was good to go. He spent a good portion of the morning skipping around the living room as he waited to leave.  Owen waved good-bye to Graham and I from the van and he was off.

The first day of school went well. Jeremy texted me that he went into the classroom no problem. When they got home, I got the full update about cubbies, snacks, activities, toys. No names of kids in the class though. So who knows if he made friends – he loved the school bus toy.  Jeremy told me that Owen’s class did a tour of the church. My father-in-law mentioned that Owen was at the front of the line for the tour. Since Owen has been attending Bethel longer than his preschool teacher, it seems fitting he should be leading the tour. I’m grateful that Owen’s church classroom and preschool classroom are different rooms. He spends a lot of time at Bethel and I don’t want him to get bored being in the same space all the time. It’s a blessing because he loves going to Bethel and adding preschool just seems to intensify that love. 

This morning he did mention he was too tired to go to school today and he didn’t want to get ready. He is often “too tired” to do something these days. It’s his go-to excuse. I think with Wednesday nights being such a late night at church, we will find Thursday mornings to be a bit slower for him. He wasn’t asleep until close to 10pm last so it’s understandable that he is tired this morning. I am too, kid. 

Graham took the transition probably the hardest. He has been getting over a tummy bug, so he was clingy yesterday. He didn’t want to play by himself. Today he is doing better at entertaining himself. When Owen came home yesterday, Graham ran for him and gave him a HUGE hug. Owen kind of pushed him away like any big brother would do to an annoying younger brother. Graham was so happy to see him! Then in about 15 minutes of time, the boys proceeded to collide and fight and battle over toys. It seems like in 15 minutes they made up for the 4 hours they were apart. It was crazy! Lunch and nap time followed quickly after that. And then we had church last night so Wednesday will be a day I now see Owen considerably less. It’s not bad, but it does feel weird. 

I’m just waiting for things to feel normal. Right now I’m full of jittery energy with MOPS starting next week and Owen starting preschool this week. I’m not used to these things yet even though I am prepared for them. It will take a while for me to develop a since of normal and familiarity with this schedule and my commitments. Until then, I just keep moving forward, planing, preparing, praying. I’m taking each season as it comes and doing my best to make the most of what’s been given to me. 

There you go! The official preschool update! 

Preschool Orientation

First PSL of the season

The official 1st Day of Preschool picture

Lamby went to preschool too. He stayed in Owen’s backpack.

Waving good-bye

Life according to Owen