Our Week - The One with Olivia's Ear Piercing, a Concert, the Fall Carnival, and a Georgia Game

This week just about did me in, y’all.  It.  Was.  So.  Busy.  I’m at the point where I’m soooo ready for a slowdown and I’m hoping to get it this week/weekend.  #PraiseHands  It was all great things that kept us busy, but man oh man do I just want to lay around in my PJs!!  Let’s get to the recap!

Monday, November 4

Brian had left for Chicago on Sunday afternoon so Monday morning it was just the kids and me.  We had a very smooth morning and actually got out the door on time despite the fact that B wasn’t there to help, and I’m giving all the credit to the clocks that moved back by an hour on Sunday morning.  I sure do love feeling like I’m sleeping one hour later after the time changes!

I made my way to the gym after drop-off, and I spent the rest of the day working on the blog and getting a few things done around the house.  Olivia had missed dance the previous week since her class fell on Halloween evening, so Monday evening we had to have her at a makeup class at 5:30.  That gave us just enough time to get both kids home, have snacks, and get homework done before turning around and leaving again to get to dance.

Dance ended at 6:30, and then it was back home to have a quick dinner, get showers, and get the kids off to bed.  By the time I had them in the bed, I was exhausted because – time change – so I hung out with Maui and watched a couple of episodes of Friends before crashing a little after 9.  Haha.  So early.

Tuesday, November 5

Tuesday was another work all day at home day, and then after car line pick-up the kids and I headed to a highly recommended tattoo shop to get Olivia’s ears pierced.  She’s been begging to get them done for a couple of years, but every time I would tell her that they had to use a needle to poke a hole in her ear she would chicken out.  Well, a couple of weeks ago she decided that she was brave enough to have holes poked in her ears and she’s begged and begged to go every single day since.

Becca, her BFF from school, also wanted to have her ears pierced, so her mom and I decided that we should take them together so maybe they’d be more likely to do well with it.  Unfortunately when we arrived, there was a sign taped to the door apologizing because they’d had to close early for the day, and that they’d reopen the following day for regular hours.  I thought for sure Olivia would be crushed, but she handled the news really well and we decided that we’d try again on Wednesday.

We ended up having a free evening since ear piercing had been canceled, so I made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner and then the kids and I put up their Christmas trees in their rooms.  EEK!  Yes, yes we did.

Wednesday, November 6

Wednesday was another gym day for me and then I spent the day working and getting stuff done at home.  I made sure to call the tattoo place in the morning to ensure that they’d be open after school so we wouldn’t have another issue.  They assured me they would be, so we headed straight there as planned.

Olivia and Becca were both so excited, and didn’t even really seem all that nervous.  Olivia did tell me that her “tummy was hurting because it was nervous,” though, but she surely didn’t seem nervous! 

They had one ear piercer working that day, so the girls had to take turns.  Becca volunteered to go first and she handled it like a BOSS!  Girlfriend barely flinched for both ears and she didn’t cry not one tear!  She had set such a good example for Olivia that Olivia was ready and smiling when it was her turn!

She climbed up in the big chair and handled it like a champ.  After the first hole, she flinched a little and then a few tears started rolling down her cheek.  I was so worried she was going to go nuts like she did for her flu shot, but she was so brave and she sat perfectly still, following directions and taking her deep breath in and out for the second piercing. 

As soon as her second piercing was done, her tears dried right up, she picked out some candy from their treat bucket, and she and Becca celebrated together jumping around and admiring each other’s earrings.  They both chose pink.  :o)  It was the cutest!

I’ve gotten a ton of DMs with all kinds of questions about the process, so I may end up doing a Q&A post sometime about it in the future.  Until then, I’ll say this – I highly recommend taking your child to a place where they do professional piercings (tattoo shops!) because needles hurt way less than the piercing gun.  Our piercer told us that having your ears pierced with a needle hurts even less than getting a shot.  And you know what?  I agree 100%!  I had my belly button pierced in college (with a needle) and I honestly barely felt it.

Our piercer was the absolute BEST and he was so wonderful with the girls.  He was patient and kind and attentive and he explained every single step to them along the way so they knew exactly what to expect.  He was also a perfectionist and he made sure to measure the spots for the holes a ton of times to get them just right.  The whole process couldn’t have been any better and I’m just so proud of these sweet girls for finally getting it done!!

Thursday, November 7

Thursday I spent the first half of the day at the kids’ school pulling all of the fall carnival games out of the shed and getting other stuff prepped that we could do in advance.  We had some spray painting to do and you know I’m the spray paint master so I happily volunteered for that.  At lunchtime, I ran home, got a few things done around the house, and then it was time to grab the kids from school and rush back home to get the kids’ homework done and freshen up because B and I were headed to Atlanta for the evening.  So, so busy!

We’d had tickets to see Alejandro Aranda (from American Idol) for months, so when the fall carnival got moved to the next day due to the weather, I knew it was going to be a lot to handle in one week.  I was so tempted to give up our tickets, but B and I just decided to go.  What’s one more thing on the calendar at this point?  Haha. 

My MIL came to stay with the kids and as soon as she arrived, we hit the road.  The weather was rainy and cold, we had a couple of snafus with the GPS taking us the wrong direction (we’d never been to this particular theater before), and I may have been a little irritable on the drive there, but we made it in time to grab pizzas and beer at Your Pie right next to the venue, and we ultimately made it to the concert on time. 

I know it seems random that we went to a concert for an American Idol contestant, but this guy is immensely talented.  Every single performance he did on the show was incredible and every clip he posts on Instagram is wonderful as well.  I was actually glad that he didn’t win Idol because now he’s able to do his own thing musically and not have to let the show dictate his career choices. 

I was pretty excited for the show, but it ended up being not at all like what we expected.  The majority of the music he played on the show and the majority of the music he posts on his Instagram account is slow, soulful, acoustic kind of stuff with very thoughtful lyrics so I expected the concert to be similar.

Well, he ended up only playing for an hour (which was odd, too) and the first 45 minutes of it was this super-loud alternative borderline metal kind of music.  B and I kept looking at each other like what is happening?  Lol.  Most of the crowd was middle aged to older and I think most people were thinking the same thing we were. 

The last 15 minutes he ended up singing the songs that I know and love so much and they were freaking awesome, but the rest of the concert was just strange.  I’m still trying to decide whether or not it was worth the drive and the staying out until 1 AM.  Lol.  Needless to say, I’ll be sampling his new album on Amazon before buying it when it comes out because I’m not sure I’m going to want it if it sounds like the first 3/4 of the concert.  Haha.  Here’s hoping he gets back to his soulful roots eventually!

Friday, November 8

Friday morning we were up bright and early at 6 AM after being up until 1 AM the night before and I got the kids off to school and immediately met up with some of the other moms in the school parking lot to get to work on the fall carnival set-up.  We ended up working from 7:30 AM until almost 1 PM hauling stuff to their respective places, stringing lights, and allocating the literal truckload of candy (seriously, see the picture below) to all of the carnival games.  At 1 PM five of us piled in my friend, Becky’s, minivan and we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  We were all starving at that point and the few pieces of candy we’d eaten from the candy pile were no longer holding us over.  After lunch, I headed home to let Maui out, freshen up a bit, and grab the kids’ costumes (which they didn’t end up using) and then I headed back to the school at 2:30 to finish setting up. 

The carnival was from 5-8 and it was a huge success!  We sold more tickets this year than last, and everyone seemed to have a great time.  We had all of the usual carnival games, five inflatables, a rock wall, food trucks, trunk-or-treat, and a costume contest.  We were supposed to have had a hot air balloon, but they weren’t able to make our rescheduled date, unfortunately.  The night ended up being SUPER cold and windy, so the hot air balloon wouldn’t have been able to go up anyway. 

B and the kids and I walked around all evening doing all of the activities, and our kiddos both surprised us by wanting to try the rock wall.  We had hot dogs from the food truck and the kids hung out with friends and played all evening and then we ended the evening with the costume contest.  I had to be a judge this year, which was unexpected, but everything ended up going great!

Just after 8, B took the kids home as they were exhausted, and I stuck around for another hour cleaning up.  Fortunately this year we had loads of volunteers for the clean-up portion, including several burly men, and we had everything cleaned up in no time at all!  By the time I got home every single inch of my body hurt, my feet were killing me, and I was cold and exhausted.  Thirteen hours of manual labor will do that to you, I guess! 

I immediately put on my fuzzy PJ’s, made some hot cinnamon tea, snuggled under a blanket, and let B rub my feet as we caught up on the TV we’d missed while he was in Chicago.  Bliss.

Saturday, November 9

Saturday morning we slept in until 8 and then we were up and running to hit the road for Athens.  The game was a night game, so we had booked a hotel because we didn’t want to try to make the drive home at 11 PM with the kids.  Therefore, I had to get ready and pack for three of us for the overnight trip, so we didn’t get out the door until 10:30 AM.

Fortunately the drive was smooth and there wasn’t much traffic in the city and we made it in record time.  We checked into our hotel first so we could dump our stuff, and then we made our way over to my aunt and uncle’s tailgate.  They’d bought a parking spot for us, so we were able to park right near them which was super convenient.

It was another crazy cold day, so we were all super bundled up.  The kids have been to several Georgia games now, but they’d never tailgated, so that was a new experience for them.  They loved it the most because they got to snack all day.  Haha.  We all watched the end of the Penn State/Minnesota game (crazy) and then we watched the first half of the Bama/LSU game (even crazier!).  We’d brought the kids’ Leap Pads to keep them entertained for some of the time since there wasn’t much room for them to run around, and they ended up being content all day long.

Some of our school friends were there with their kids for the game, and they dropped by our tailgate towards the end.  The kids thought it was neat to see their friends in a different city!

Around 5:30 we packed up the tailgate and headed for the stadium.  By then it was in the 30’s and it was just freezing.  Fortunately we’d come prepared, and the kids seemed to be comfortable all night.  I don’t recall either of them complaining about being cold at all.

We ended up shutting out Missouri 27-0 and the kids had a lot of fun at the game.  Since it was a night game, we got to see our new stadium lights in action again.  It was the first time the kids have gotten to see them – as a matter of fact, it was their first night game ever – and they loved it. 

We ended up leaving a few minutes into the fourth quarter as we knew we had the game sealed, and the kids were both little troopers walking all the way back to the car despite the fact that it was 37 degrees and despite the fact that it was almost 11 PM.  They both travel so well and we love taking them on our adventures!!

Olivia was a little cranky when we got to the hotel, but once she was snuggled up in her PJs she was out like a light.  I barely slept because the bed at that hotel was awful and the pillows were even worse, and there was some noise from some other people in the hotel who stayed up super late, but that’s another story for another day.  I’m just glad the kids slept well… and I was a little jealous (okay, a lot) that B somehow slept so well, too.  Haha.

Sunday, November 10

Sunday morning we were up by 8 to get ready and check out of the hotel, and then we made our way to Zombie Coffee and Donuts in downtown Athens.  Y’all know we always try to find unique donut shops when we travel and for some reason we’ve never tried any of the donut shops in Athens.  This particular shop allows you to completely customize every donut you order (donut base, frosting, toppings), so it was very interesting.

Both of the kids opted for the gummy worm donuts and the chocolate donuts with chocolate drizzle, and B and I both had cinnamon sugar and pumpkin spice.  They were so yummy, but SO RICH (as you probably already knew) and we were all in sugar comas by the time we left. 

Once we were done eating, I grabbed my coffee and we hit the road for home.  The drive was smooth and uneventful and we spent the rest of the day unpacking, doing laundry, unloading backpacks, and prepping for the week ahead.  I had my happy little helper to assist with sorting the laundry!  <3

That evening, we headed over to my momma and daddy’s for Sunday dinner, and my momma had made one of my favorite meals ever – White Chicken Chili.  Oh my gosh, it’s so good, and just perfect when it’s cold outside.  She had also picked up some restaurant style white cheese dip, so it was a gooood night for eating. 

I was positively exhausted at the end of the day, so B and I ended up turning the lights out by 9:45… super early for us!  And just like that, our insanely busy week was over.  And we made it through.  Whew!!

Happy Tuesday, y’all!  Here’s to things slowing down a bit this week!