Hero's in a Half Shell

TURTLE POWER!

Happy Halloween!

Fall Family Photos

I spent the last few days of of vacation putting the house back together from my cleaning excursion and then doing as little as possible.  I worked on editing our photo shoot pictures.  Here are the final results! 

What a beautiful family I have!

Vacation Day 4 : The Beach

Today was a ME day for vacation.  I didn’t have to take the kids to school or pick them up from school.  There were no soccer practices or games.  The day was 100% all mine.  So, I slept in as long as I could…which wasn’t much past 8 am.  Then I poured some coffee, made some lunch, packed the cooler and headed off for a day at the beach.  Well…Cuivre River.  But the closest thing we have to a beach in Missouri.  The sun was shining and the temperatures were supposed to be in the low 80’s.  I rolled the windows down, cranked the music up and got lost in thought on the back roads. 

The beach was empty when I got there, as I expected.  I exchanged my flip flops for my tennis shoes and decided to hike.  There is a nice trail that loops around the basin of the river.  The views were amazing and the terrain was a little rough in spots which made it an even better work out.  I spent about 2 hours hiking through the woods with the view of the water never far.  The smell of the trees, the crunch of the leaves, the beauty that surrounded me really made me feel like I was in an exotic place.

  

After the hike, I grabbed the cooler, blanket and chair from the car.  I kicked off my shoes, opened a book and enjoyed the afternoon in the sun.  For a while, I just sat there quietly lost in thought and meditation.

By 3pm, I packed it up to head back to the real world because I had actually scheduled a dentist appointment for myself that afternoon.  I am a crazy person.

That evening was spent quietly at home.  I poured myself into my creative pursuits and painted the turtle shells for the kids Halloween costumes.  I turned down a few offers to go out for drinks, mainly because I wanted to spend the night alone.

The shells turned out better than expected. And for the first time in a really long time, I feel completely relaxed.

Oh vacation how I love thee!

Vacation Day 3 : Cleaning

Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I was going to clean my house today!  It’s not that it was filthy per se.  I just had this intense desire to scrub everything down.  I wanted to dust all the baseboards and wood trim.  I wanted to polish the floors.  I wanted to clean out all of the dressers and closets of summer clothes and restock with fall clothes.  I wanted everything to be extremely clean and organized.

I probably have an illness.  But this was the one thing on my "must do" list while on vacation.

The weather could not have been better for some house cleaning.  It was raining this morning and overcast all day, but the temperatures were still warm.  I was able to open up some windows, blast some music and work, work, work. 

I’m happy with the way my body feels after a good scrubbing!  I’m happy with the way my house looks and smells!  I’m happy with being able to open up dresser drawers and closets again without them overflowing!  I’m happy with the selection of clothes the kids have for the fall!  Cleaning makes me happy!

And what makes me even happier is that I got all of this accomplished before 2pm.  I inadvertently scheduled my vacation during the same week I had scheduled the kids dentist appointments, which I guess worked out pretty well for my employer.  I also assume that it takes a special kind of stupid to not only be excited about spending a day of vacation cleaning but to also take four kids to the dentist during vacation. 

Their appointments went well.  Grace and Eva have good teeth but Alex and Layla are much more susceptible to cavities.  Although neither one of them require fillings, they do need to take extra special care of their teeth.  The parenting schedule had them with their dad tonight, so after their appointments, I dropped them off there.

Randomly this afternoon, I got message from a friend that lives in North Carolina.  They happened to be working in St. Louis this week.  So, since this opportunity doesn’t come along that often, I met up with them tonight for a few drinks.  It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed catching up with them!

Another great vacation day in the books!

Vacation Day Two : Work Out and Photo Shoot

Today was supposed to be the nicest day of the week weather wise. So, I decided today would be the best day to spend out at the lake logging some miles!  And when I say some miles, I mean 14!

Also, I decided to keep Layla out of preschool today.  All of the other kids only attended preschool three days a week for half days.  But the class structure has changed in the five years since I’ve had a preschooler and so has my work schedule.  Now Layla goes to school five days a week all day long!  I felt like she was also experiencing some burn out and we needed a day together.  So after taking the other kids to school, Layla and I headed to my sister's so she could spend the day with me and her favorite cousin. 

From there, we loaded everyone up and went out to the lake.  I had packed lunch and snacks for Layla and her and Charlie enjoyed her each others company while Laura and I got a serious work out in!

After the walk, we promised the girls a picnic lunch at the park. And we held true to our promise.  They had so much fun at the playground.  There was a pretty cool zip-line that they loved!  And just maybe Laura and I tried it out too!  Don’t judge!

We wrapped up in enough time for me to pick up all of the kids from school.  We rushed home and changed into our new clothes.  I originally planned to take our family pictures on Saturday, but the forecast for the rest of the week did not look too promising.  So, I made the executive decision to take pictures today.  The only problem was, we had to be dressed and pretty and at the park no later than 4:30 or we’d lose the sunlight needed for outdoor pictures.  And Layla had soccer practice at 6:30 so we were working within a short time frame.

But we did it!  And I think I got some great pictures of each of the kids and well as group and family shots (thanks, Austin)!

After the photo shoot, no one was in the mood for Layla’s soccer practice, including Layla.  So I made another executive decision to skip her practice.  And we went to Syberg’s for dinner instead.  Everyone was pretty happy with this decision.  I did not intend for or budget for an extra $60 for a dinner out, but we’ll make it work.  We really needed this family outing!

So, again it’s another late night of getting home, but it’s vacation!  I just uploaded the pictures to the computer and am looking forward to doing some editing.  I have a coupon for Shutterfly that expires on Sunday, so I want to get my prints ordered by then!

I love being on vacation!

Vacation Day One : Shopping

Since my department at work has been under staffed all year either by co-workers out on maternity leave or leaving the company altogether, I hadn’t had the opportunity to take much time off.  With over 2 weeks of paid time off left and less than three months left in the year, I decided I was long overdue for a break.  Like seriously, I need a break!  I was experiencing burn out and stress levels that I didn’t even realize until I got away for a little bit.  So, I decided to take this week off.  I am not going anywhere.  The kids are in school all week.  But I have 10 consecutive days in which I do not have to think about work at all.  Ahhh….I’m ready for this!

Today, was my shopping day.  I wasn’t feeling very well over the weekend.  I thought it might have been a stomach bug, but in reality I think it was just stress.  A long time friend of Chris’ family lost her son to a heroin overdose last week.  The wake was being held on Sunday evening.  I knew that I needed to attend, but the stress of dealing with or being pulled into the drama of my ex-family, did a number on my nerves and stomach.  I finally made the decision to ask if Chris wanted to attend the wake together, which he did.  He actually wasn’t planning on going at all to the wake or funeral, so I’m glad I reached out to him.  It was good for him to be there.  We weren’t there for longer than 15 minutes, but we paid our respects and at least had each other to lean on if drama were to ensue.  Fortunately, there wasn’t any drama.  And miraculously, my stomach was 100% better after the wake was over.  So, since I felt pretty bad all weekend, I didn’t get any of my grocery shopping done.

After taking the kids to school today, I headed to the store.  I got all the groceries that we needed, took them home and unloaded and put away.  Then I met my sister at her house.  We were going out to our favorite thrift store.  I needed to start looking for things for the Halloween costumes.  Plus, I wanted to take some fall family pictures and wanted to get everyone some coordinating outfits.  We were quite successful with the thrifting and I am happy with our new clothes.  We spent much more time at the store than I expected!  Our plan was to shop then go walk at the lake then have some lunch.  But we didn’t finish shopping until after 1pm.  So we skipped the lake and went to Applebee’s for lunch.  Of course, lunch took longer than expected too, so I wasn’t going to make it to school to pick up the little kids.  Instead, I let my mom bring them home like she does pretty much every day.  However, my sister and I did go and pick up Grace.  She babysits for my sister for a few hours on Monday afternoons so that Laura can go to class before Josh gets home from work.  After getting them where they needed to be, I went home to start dinner and enjoy our typical Monday night of quietness.

Except this Monday night I decided I needed to do more shopping.  I hadn’t found anything for the Halloween costumes that day.  So Eva and I headed to the dollar store and Wal-Mart.  I was able to get everything I needed to make their costumes and by nine o’clock my debit card was screaming at me to stop shopping! 

So, now at home, all of the kids are asleep and I’m enjoying the quiet.  Along with some trash TV.  I’m so happy to be on vacation!