Our Week - The One with Valentine’s Day and a Party

Happy Wednesday, y’all.  We’re rolling right along this week and it’s just crazy that we’re halfway through already.

Monday, February 10

Last Monday started out as, well, a Monday, when my SUV wouldn’t crank.  Sigh.  I knew it wasn’t the battery because the car made the cranking sound, but just wouldn’t turn over and actually start.  Since the kids and my nephew (who we take to school each morning) had to be at school, we didn’t have time right then to investigate, so we all just piled in B’s vehicle instead.  He and I dropped the kids and then I dropped him at work, and then I took over his SUV for the day since I had to get groceries and pick up the kids from school.

Once I arrived back home Monday morning, I immediately called my dad and he and my mom (who was off for the day) were kind enough to come over and investigate for me.  With a lot of persistence and a lot of feeding via the gas pedal, Daddy was able to get it to crank, so I was able to drive it straight to our mechanic.  Momma and Daddy followed me down there and then took me back home so I wouldn’t have to sit there all day.  The mechanic called me back mid-afternoon to let me know that they had fixed it, and fortunately, it was a very easy (and cheap) fix.  Whew.

Our mechanic happens to be just a couple of blocks from Brian’s office, and one of his coworkers was kind enough to drop him off to pick it up after work so the kids and I didn’t have to make the trek downtown to get him and the car.  I was able to cook dinner and go about our regular routine, and for that, I was immensely thankful since it was our only night with no extracurricular activities.  Car trouble is always a pain, but this time it went about as smoothly as it could have possibly gone thanks to the kindness of others who were willing to help us out.

Monday evening I came across the broom challenge on Facebook and immediately had to try it.  I was shocked and amazed to see that a broom will, indeed, stand up all by itself with very little effort.  I know it has to do with the fact that the center of gravity is down at the base of the handle and that’s why it works, but it still just seems like it should fall over to one of the sides since the handle is so darn tall.  So weird.

Tuesday, February 11

Tuesday morning I headed to the gym for a treadmill workout and I ended up having one of my best workouts ever.  Just look at all of those calories burned in 35 minutes!

The rest of the day was spent running to Fresh Market, blogging, doing a little bit of online birthday shopping for Olivia’s birthday, and then baseball-ing in the evening. 

Wednesday, February 12

Wednesday was another gym day and I enjoyed the stair climber so much the last time that I decided to start alternating between it and the treadmill each week.  Since I haven’t yet built up my stamina for stair-climbing, I can only do around 15 minutes before I feel like I’m going to die, so I decided to try out some of the weight training equipment for the other half of my workout. 

I tried the hip adduction and hip abduction machines and they straight up kicked my hiney.  I did 100 reps on each machine and when I hopped off of the second one, my legs felt like straight Jello.  I’m typing this four full days later, and my inner thighs still feel a little tender.  Lol.  Guess I’ll be adding those two to the regular rotation… they’ll help get my thighs and booty in shape for swimsuit season!

Wednesday for lunch I made some avocado toast (I’ve been on a major kick lately again) and I decided to poll everyone to find out what the best healthy-ish bread is.  The overwhelming majority said Dave’s Killer Bread so I added it to my shopping list. 

Wednesday evening Jacob had baseball practice again and B ended up unexpectedly working suuuuper late, so the kids and I were on our own for practice and dinner.  I whipped up some eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, and toast for dinner since it’s easy peasy when I’m on my own.

B ended up getting home around 7:30 and then we turned on Gossip Girl after getting the kids in the bed.  We had expected to watch another regular episode, but we were not aware that the last season was a short one, and the episode turned out to be the series finale!  I hadn’t mentally prepared myself for the end and I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye so I was devastated when I realized it was the last episode ever.  That said, the ending was SO good and I was totally shocked who Gossip Girl ended up being… I truly never saw that coming.  I’m already ready to start watching it over again in my office while I work... I’m having serious withdrawals.  Gosh, I really loved that show.

Thursday, February 13

Thursday was Grandparent’s Day at the kids’ school and I had to be there bright and early to help set up and also to drop off Valentines party supplies for Friday.  It was yet another yucky, rainy, cold day, so I had to run errands and drag everything inside in the pouring rain. Waaaahhhh. 

I met up with the other ladies in our visitation hall and we started prepping for the grandparents – making coffee and setting out donuts, other drinks, and napkins.  They had a Grandparent’s Day mass at 9:30 and then once mass let out, everyone came in to enjoy coffee and donuts.  My momma, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and step father-in-law were all in attendance and the kids got to spend some good time with them.  Unfortunately my daddy was sick so he wasn’t able to come.  I was so sad about that, too, because someone at the school snapped the picture below of the kids with all of their grandparents and I hate that my dad isn’t there.  :o(

I had grabbed some of that Dave's Killer Bread at the store that morning, so made some more avocado toast for lunch, and y'all, where has this bread been all my life?!  Y'all were SO right.

Thursday evening Olivia worked on a special valentine that she wanted to give to a boy at school.  Face palm.  She showed me her masterpiece when she finished and I cracked up.  “You are so handsome,” she said.  I mean, what is she, 15?!  Hahahaha.  We’re gonna have to watch out for that one when she’s a teenager.  She’s boy crazy already.  SMH.

We were supposed to have had baseball that evening, but it ended up being canceled due to the rain and that was probably a good thing as this is how the kids spent the rest of the evening after we got home from ballet.  Haha.  School is exhausting. 

Jacob did finish a drawing he'd been working on and he wanted me to take a picture of it to send to Pop.

My girls ended up having bible study that evening and I had initially declined thinking we’d be at baseball, so after baseball was canceled I considered going.  However, I ended up being so exhausted by the time it was time to go that I just ended up skipping and resting at home instead.  I’m so ready for this cold, rainy weather to go!  I think it’s making me feel more exhausted that I actually am.  I’m ready for spring and more daylight in the evening.  I’m also tired of being cold all the time.  Ha! 

I was also thankful to have stayed home to capture this sweet moment, too.  <3

Friday, February 14

Friday was Valentine’s Day and the kids’ excitement was tangible.  They were pumped!  Both of them had small parties but neither of them were parent events which made me a little sad.  But I did get a few texts from Olivia’s teaching assistant throughout the day.

Olivia was the class helper on Friday so she got to read a book to the class.  The teaching assistant in her class sent this picture to me and I just died at her little crossed legs.  I swear, she’s a 15 year old living in a 5-year-old’s body. 

I’ve mentioned before that my momma works at the church office right there on the school campus, so Jacob and Olivia have always loved that because they get to go visit her every now and then.  For a while Olivia was asking her teacher to go see her all the time (LOL) so her teaching assistant told her that they couldn’t go see her every day, but that they could go see her on special days.  Well, her teaching assistant told me that first thing Friday morning Olivia went running into class saying, “It’s Valentine’s Day so it’s a special day!  We get to go see Cokie today!”  Hahahaha.  She’s not going to let them forget!

So after lunch, she and her best friend got to walk over and see my mom at her office.  Every time Jacob and Olivia visit my mom they always ask to copy their hands on the copy machine (I used to do the same thing when I was little, too!!) so my mom copied the girls hands while they were holding hands.  OMG, so sweet.  Olivia’s teaching assistant sent these pictures to me and it just made my day! 

The rest of the day was spent working from home while diffusing this new candy hearts diffuser blend that I came across - 6 drops Orange, 4 drops Wintergreen.  Smells soooo yummy!

When I picked the kids up from school they were both bouncing off of the walls and they were all a chatter about their days.  When we got home they both dumped their valentines and candy on the table to see what all they had received, and then we did a little impromptu photo shoot to commemorate the day.

Afterward, the kids played while I set the table for Valentine’s Day and then B brought home Five Guys on his way home from work.  We weren’t about to try to go out to eat!  B and I had some drinks and we ate dinner and we let the kids open their little gifts from us.  My parents stopped by after dinner to drop off a little treat for our whole family, and then the four of us all settled in on the couch in our PJs for a family movie night.  The kids wanted to watch Honey We Shrunk Ourselves to finish the trilogy and we all loved it.  I had never seen that one before, but I thought it was cute!  

Saturday, February 15

Saturday morning I made some canned cinnamon rolls and then topped them with some pink sprinkles… such a festive Valentine’s Day breakfast without any fuss! 

In the week leading up to Valentine’s Day I posted hearts on the kids’ doors each night stating one thing that I love about them.  They loved it so much and I loved the excuse to let them know just how loved they are.  I snapped pictures of their finished doors Saturday morning to have as a memento.

We had no plans Saturday with the exception of afternoon baseball practice for Jacob and a 40^th birthday party for one of our friends, so we spent most of the day hanging around the house and getting some things done.  I had no particular agenda or list of things I wanted to accomplish, but I did know that I wanted to have a productive day after lots of recent lazy-ish weekends.  I ended up getting a few things crossed off of my master to do list and I also backed up all of our pictures and videos to the current month.  I got the house tidied up and got my Valentines gifts put away (see the Baby Yoda tee that B got me for Hollywood Studios!!!!) and I also did my meditation and quiet time.  Super productive without even really trying!

Brian took Jacob to baseball at 2:30 and Olivia tagged along (even though I’d hoped she’d stay with me) and I used the time to go through and clean out some very old computer files.  When they got home, we all got ready and then it was time to head to Donnie’s party.

The party was at their house, and it was quite a huge shindig!  They live out in the country on a decent piece of land, so they are able to have loud parties without having to worry about disturbing anyone.  Brian and I have been friends with Randi and Donnie since B and I started dating (B has known Randi since they were little as she’s his best friend’s sister) and they used to throw huge, crazy adult Halloween parties every year before any of us had kids.  They have a full-size basement that they turned into their very own bar and I’ll just say that some crazy good times were had down there back before we all had kids.  We’ll just leave it at that.  ;o) 

They hadn’t been entertaining in the bar area for a few years as it had turned into more of a storage area since they’d had their two girls, so we were excited when they decided to “reopen” the bar for Donnie’s party.  We grabbed a six-pack of Donnie’s favorite beer and headed over around 6.  There were tons of people there… maybe 60-70??  Maybe more??  And things definitely looked a bit different this time since there were 20+ kids running around, but we had the best time.  They had barbecue, drinks, and even some live music for entertainment.  The kids ran wild, playing, eating snacks, and just living their best lives.  We stayed out way past their bedtimes and they were sad to leave.  I was sad to leave, too.  It was such a fun night.

Sunday, February 16

Sunday morning we decided to skip church.  I just couldn’t bring myself to wake the kids at 6:30 after keeping them out so late, so we had a lazy morning at home watching cartoons, reading, and lounging around.

I had seen a hair tutorial in one of my favorite blogger’s IG stories that I wanted to try on Olivia, and it turned out SO cute.  It looks like it would be really complicated, but it’s honestly pretty easy!  Olivia was thrilled and she looked darling so I gave myself a big pat on the back for that one.  ;o)

As we were getting ready to go to my MIL and step-FIL’s for lunch, B somehow managed to throw his back out just doing routine things and it has been really bad.  He’s thrown his back out a couple of times in the past, and while it was painful for him, it was never anything like this.  This time he can barely walk, he can’t sit for long periods of time, and he’s only somewhat comfortable when lying down.  Every time he moves he yells out in pain and it’s just been awful to watch him.  He’s being stubborn and doesn’t want to see a doctor yet, so I’m just praying he heals quickly and that it’s nothing that requires any kind of medical assistance.  I’m typing this on Monday, one full day after it happened, and he’s not doing any better.  He had to stay home from work today because he can barely move, and I’ve been taking care of my little patient since he can’t do much for himself.

Anyhoo, he was able to finish getting ready and get to his mom’s for lunch, although I had to help him put on his socks and shoes and such.  We had a nice lunch over there and baseball practice ended up getting canceled again because of, you guessed it, more rain.  Ugh.  The cousins got to spend some good quality time playing games at Nana and Poppie's, though!

B spent the rest of the afternoon popping ibuprofen like candy, icing himself, and laying flat, and I did some work and prepped for the week ahead while the kids played video games. 

We went to my parents’ house for dinner and my mom decorated cookies with the kids for dessert.  They love to decorate cookies so it was a real treat for them! 

Happy Wednesday, y'all!  

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