Our Week - The One with Summer, Week 2 (Memorial Day, Olivia’s New Hair, and Dinner with Friends)

Last week was a great one spent with family and friends and today I’m sharing the recap!

Monday, May 30

Monday was Memorial Day, so we spent the morning and early afternoon prepping to have people over, and then we spent some time out in the sun.

For dinner, I made burgers and B grilled them, and B had also made his famous guac (seriously the best guac you’ll ever eat!) to go along with them.  We also had fresh watermelon (because it wouldn’t be Memorial Day without that), and B had also made his grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies earlier that morning.  We pretty much owed the entire meal to Brian, and it was all delicious!!

My Momma and Daddy, father-in-law, Mama Cass, and Uncle Billy all came over at 5:30 and we spent the rest of the evening outside eating and drinking and chatting.  My father-in-law and B and the kids played a couple of rounds of Cornhole, and the kids busted out the patriotic hats and glasses.

It was such a great evening with family and friends, and I was grateful for every single second of it.

Tuesday, May 31

Tuesday, the kids slept in later than usual after our late night the night before, and then we had a lazy morning at home.  At 10:30, I rounded them up, and dropped them off at my father-in-law’s house because I had my yearly checkup with my general practitioner, and they’re still not allowing anyone in the building besides the patient.  I had tried to set the appointment before the kids got out of school, but she was booked solid for months and this was the only time I could get in… womp womp.

My appointment was quick, and my doctor said all of my vitals and everything else looked great, and she didn’t even order bloodwork since mine was so good last year.  I was back at my father-in-law’s picking up the kids within the hour, and they were excited to show me the new card game that Grandpa had started teaching them while I was gone.

We headed home after that and had lunch, and then after lunch, the kids played video games while I finished a blog post.  After that, we all went outside together and kicked a ball around for a while.  There were thunderstorms all around our area, but none at our house, so we were able to hang outside while the weather was nice and cool… a rarity this time of year. 

B got home around 5, and then all of us piled in the car together to get haircuts for Brian, Jacob, and Olivia.  Olivia has been begging for nearly a year to get all of her hair chopped off into a bob, and Tuesday was the day! 

Our stylist had somewhere to be right after, so we didn’t get him to wash or style it afterward, but it looked so cute even though it wasn’t styled.  She absolutely loves it, and she is already telling us that she wants to keep it this way, so I guess we’ll keep on getting it cut to stay right below her chin! 

P.S. She also wanted bangs, but I told her NO… one drastic hair change at a time.  Hahahaha.

Once the boys had been chopped, too, we left the salon and swung by Chick-Fil-A for dinner on the way home.  The kids wanted to eat inside, so we obliged, and they got lucky because they were offered free ice cream cones.  Score!  We also saw a rainbow on the way home!

When we got home, the kids got showered and ready for bed, and we were able to start watching the new season of America’s Got Talent (another one to get behind on!  Haha), and then we went them to bed.  B watched a little bit of Better Call Saul after that, and then he and I called it a night.

Wednesday, June 1

Wednesday morning was another slow one at home.  We had breakfast, watered the plants, and then the kids watched cartoons for a few minutes while I got caught up on a few things.  Mid-morning, we went through all of Olivia’s clothes and purged everything that was too small.  Then we went through Jacob’s and did the same.  I also used that time to start pulling out outfits to pack for the kids for our beach trip.

We had an early lunch, and then we ran a couple of errands.  Our first stop was At Home to try to find some baskets and a bulletin board for Olivia’s new desk setup.  We were successful with the baskets, but not the bulletin board… but then we got home and discovered the baskets were just slightly too small to fit.  Boooo.

After At Home, we headed to Publix to grab some milk and a few favorite things for my littlest bro who was sick.  We dropped the stuff at his doorstep and chatted with him for a few minutes before heading home. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent at home hanging out, getting a few things done, and relaxing, and then I cooked dinner and had it on the table when B got home from work.

After dinner, we all went for a walk around the neighborhood and it was HOT.  Whew.  After about a mile, B and the kids ended up in our cul-de-sac so the kids could ride their scooters for a while, and while they did that, I got in another boiling hot two miles.

When I got home, I showered quickly and the kids got ready for bed, and then we worked our way through some more of America’s Got Talent before sending the kiddos to bed so B and I could watch another episode of The Wilds.

Thursday, June 2

Thursday morning, the kids and I hung out at home doing laundry and packing for the beach.  I made lunch for us at home, and then the kids squeezed in a few minutes of video games while I squeezed in a few minutes of work. 

We headed to the library at 3 to make slime with friends.  There ended up being loads of kids there and Olivia was able to see one of her friends from her dance class, too. 

After making slime, we spent a few more minutes in the library hanging with friends and picking out some books, and then we headed to run some errands.  First up, was CVS to grab a couple of things for the beach, and then Hobby Lobby to find accessories for Olivia’s desk. 

We finally found some baskets that were the perfect size to fit in her desk, but we still didn’t have any luck finding a bulletin board that will work.

We headed home after that, and Brian arrived home from work just after we did… just in time to make breakfast for dinner.  The kids went out on the back porch to play while B and I made dinner, and just shortly after they got out there, a crack of lightning and an enormous BOOM happened simultaneously… the lightning struck pretty much right in our back yard.  It was totally unexpected, and it scared Olivia so bad she screamed bloody murder – I mean, some of the loudest screams I’ve ever heard – over and over and she came tearing into the house with Jacob following right behind her.

Her screams sounded so anguished that it immediately brought me back to her broken elbow from last summer, and my stomach dropped because I thought for sure she’d been struck by lightning.  Thankfully, she was just terrified, so I comforted her and then she seemed okay, although she was jumpy for the rest of the evening.

We weren’t expecting any rain whatsoever Thursday, but we ended up having a MASSIVE storm tear through as we were eating dinner, and I truly don’t think I’ve ever seen wind blow so hard as I did that evening.  We’ve had many a hurricane blow through our area since I was little, but the wind from this storm was way, way stronger than any of the hurricanes we’ve had in recent years.  It was nuts.

Sure enough, once the storm blew through, we all went for a walk around our neighborhood, and there was damage everywhere – fences and trees down, trampolines, trash cans, gutters, trash, solar panels, and other debris lying in the middle of the streets and people’s front yards.  One of our neighbors posted the picture below on our neighborhood Facebook page warning that the main road just outside our neighborhood was completely inaccessible because a massive tree had uprooted and fallen across the whole road.  And several other neighbors were commenting about seeing full-size trampolines blowing through the air during the storm. 

The craziest part was that my parents, who only live a couple of miles down the road, just had a regular thunderstorm with no wind at all.  Our neighborhood must’ve been in right in the path for some straight-line winds or something.

It started to rain once again while our family of four was walking, so we all headed home, but then I decided to head back outside by myself to do a couple more miles in the rain.  Towards the end of my walk, the sun finally started to come out again, and I was treated to the most beautiful full-size rainbow shining brightly over our neighborhood.  It was gorgeous.  And if you look really closely, you can also see that it was a double rainbow.

After my walk, I headed inside and finished putting away laundry while the kids got ready for bed, and then we watched a Walk the Prank before they hit the hay.  B and I then watched another episode of The Wilds, and then we went to bed, too.

Friday, June 3

Friday morning, I got up and went for a run, and then it was beach trip packing day.  I spent the whole morning packing and washing clothes while the kids played outside.  B had a state tennis tournament, and he had a match in the morning and then another one in the afternoon, so he popped in and out all day.

Friday evening, I dropped the kids at my Momma and Daddy’s house and my Momma and I headed downtown to meet Father Manny, one of our friars, for dinner.  We ate at a new Mexican place and chatted for hours over margs.  I had their blackberry margarita, and oh my word was it so fresh and delicious.  They had muddled real blackberries into it, and it was just the best… definitely in my top three of best margaritas of all time.

Meanwhile, Olivia was doing this:

My parents are keeping my brother and sister-in-law’s dog this weekend, so she was in heaven hanging out with Toby.

After dinner, the three of us walked down the block to get frozen yogurt, and then we sat outside and listened to a street musician while we chatted some more.  It was a wonderful evening with both of them, and Father Manny is going to be missed dearly when he leaves at the end of this month.  And I’m SO sad because we forgot to take a picture of the three of us.  Boooo.

I dropped Momma back at home after that, and then I made it home just before 10.  The kids were still up waiting on me, so we got them into bed, and then B and I watched one episode of Better Call Saul before getting into bed ourselves. 

Our beach trip started on Saturday, so I’ll be recapping the weekend in my beach recaps, so that’s all for this post!

Happy Wednesday, y’all!  Be sure to follow along with us on Instagram this week while we're at our happy place!