Long Technology-Filled Weekend

My brain is completely fried after this weekend, y’all.  It was a good one, but man, was it filled with major technology changes! 

Let’s start from the beginning.  Friday evening was great!  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we just couldn’t let it go to waste, so we headed downtown to scout out a place to eat outside.  It just so happens that we have a new upscale barbecue restaurant that just opened, and they are on a corner downtown, so they have these large garage-like doors that open on the side of the building, basically making the whole restaurant open-air.  We decided to give it a whirl, and boy was I glad that we did! 

Like I mentioned before, the food is barbecue, but it’s not yo momma’s barbecue… it’s more like frou-frou upscale barbecue as the chef is really into the whole unique culinary experience thing.  We were seated right away thankfully, and B and I kicked our meals off with some drinks – a Blue Moon for me and a local craft beer for him.  We had heard amazing things about one of the appetizers there so we knew we had to try it, and sure enough, it did not disappoint.  Picture this – Pimento Cheese Wontons with Jalapeno and Bacon Dipping Sauce.  They were ridiculous!!!!  Definitely one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth.

B and I ordered the same thing for the main course because they just sounded so darn good – Brisket over Sweet Potato Waffles and Mac N Cheese.  Everything was amazing, but so very rich that after eating about a quarter of it, I couldn’t possibly eat another bite. 

We finished the evening with a stroll downtown – the kids, of course, had to see the fountain – and then we stopped by our favorite frozen yogurt place for dessert. 

Saturday was spent fighting ants (again), doing mounds of laundry, and fighting with technology.  B and I finally got new iPhones.  We went from the 6 to the 7, and changing over from phone to phone is always a major hassle.  I won’t bore you with too many details as you probably already know the trials, but it involved a ton of syncing, updating operating systems, more syncing, and then getting all of my settings back the way I like them on the new phone.  It was a total success, but it took several (frustrating) hours to get there.  By the time it was time to go to church, I was very thankful because I needed a little bit of Jesus by then.  #TheStruggleIsReal

The kiddos were angels in church, and then we headed to one of our favorite local pubs with my parents for dinner.  A camel rider and some southern potato salad hit the spot!  That evening we put the kids to bed, and then B and I made some Moscow Mules and curled up on the couch with our beloved Netflix.  We started a new show called The OA (it’s a Netflix original) and it was very intriguing, but also very strange.  Jury’s still out on whether or not I’m going to like it… I have a feeling that it might make me feel a little uneasy because I don’t like weird things.  Haha.  Have any of you watched it?

Sunday morning we had breakfast at home, did some laundry, and lazed around.  My little diva got into my closet and walked around in my four-inch heels while I got ready.  We went on a quick Walmart run, and then we headed to B’s moms and step-dad’s for lunch.  It was another gorgeous day so we soaked up the sunshine all afternoon until it was time to go home for naps.

Naptime on Sunday was my time to finally get my blog domain switched over and it was a success, but not without some bumps along the way.  I had studied a tutorial long before I decided to go through with this, and it looked pretty simple, but unfortunately once the time came to implement I realized that the tutorial was slightly out of date, so I ended up having to navigate my way through a lot of the process on my own.  Therefore, it was a bit time consuming, but about five minutes after I finished, I checked direct links, back links, Pinterest links, mobile links and everything had appeared to have gone off without a hitch.

Aaaand then five minutes later, I tried a direct link again and got some crazy error message and the blog wouldn’t load.  Sigh.

I ended up having to call the domain company, but the wait to speak with a representative was going to be 35 minutes, so I had to wait for them to call me back.  The guy who helped me seemed to kind of know what he was doing, but a little part of him seemed unsure, and of course, that scared me.  He ended up having me delete one of the default A-names that was associated with my new domain when it was created, and ever since then, my blog has been up and running.  Let’s hope it stays that way.  Ha!

Sunday evening we had dinner at my parents’ house, and Elsa joined us. ;o)  And it was so wonderful being over there and knowing that we didn’t have to rush home to get ready for school and work the next day.  I heart three-day weekends.

Monday morning we had someone come out to give us an estimate for pest control as well as lawn care, and we went ahead and signed up for both!  Bye bye, ants and weeds!!!!

We followed that up with lunch at one of our favorite pizza spots, and then we took the kiddos to the playground to soak up some more of this crazily warm weather… we’re talking 78 degrees, people!  78 degrees!!  It’s been crazy!

We spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, baking cookies (new blog post coming soon!), and enjoying each other’s company before having to all go our separate ways on Tuesday.  I made Emily's Chicken Poliverde for dinner and it was de-lish!!

And before I go, an update on Olivia’s sleep situation.  As you may remember Olivia was throwing massive tantrums at bedtime and she was running out of her bed the second that we tried to leave her room every night ever since we moved her into a big girl bed last weekend.  We tried many, many things to make her comfortable with the new situation – loads of stuffed animals, new pillows, more blankets, books, music, keeping her door open, putting up a baby gate (she kicked it down, y’all, I kid you not), etc. and nothing worked. 

Well, our OK to Wake clock arrived Saturday so we put it to use promptly that afternoon for naptime.  Y’all, she doesn’t even pay attention to the thing.  It’s like it’s not even in the room.  #MajorFail and I think I’m going to send it back.  However, I seem to have found something else that has worked for the last three nights and two naptimes… I simply tuck her in with her babies, turn on her music, leave her door wide open, and then I tell her every single thing that I’m about to do followed by telling her that I’m going to check on her after all of that is done.  For example, “Ok, Olivia, I’m going to leave your door open, then I’m going to go in my bedroom and get your monitor so I can listen out for you, then I’m going to go tuck Jacob in, then I’m going to go back to my room to put on my pajamas, then I’m going to go downstairs for a few minutes, and then I’m going to come check on you.”  And then I do all those things in the order in which I tell her, and then I simply wait for her to fall asleep before checking on her and then I close her door. 

While she has still been coming in our room in the middle of the night each night (the least of my worries), at least she’s not going crazy at bedtime and requiring us to sit with her for an hour while she falls asleep.  I think the fact that she knows exactly where I’m going to be and the fact that she knows I’m going to come back and check on her is enough for her to feel safe to stay in the bed.  However, I have a feeling that before long, she’s going to be onto us and she’s going to start wondering why I never come back to check on her while she’s still awake.  The process is working for now, though, so that’s what we’re going to stick with. 

Even though it does make me feel a little bit guilty.

Happy Tuesday! 

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending and Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk.