Happy Father's Day Weekend!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day weekend. We had a super low key weekend per Husband's request. Lot's of outside play, swimming in the back yard pool and fun! C got a hair cut, which ONLY Husband was allowed to accompany him to. Because believe me I tried to get him to go with me a few times this past week since he was about two weeks past when I would have normally taken him.

We love our pool! $25 of fun, we bought a pretty big one so that we could all get in and swim. Totally worth it because we had a great time. Going to the pool here would be $18 a pop or $9 in the evening, and don't get me wrong, we will still do that too, but the backyard pool is awesome for the "cool off in the afternoon" kind of days.

Standing in the sun to warm up. 

I am a bad wife and did not take the requisite "dad with his kids" picture, but our children have been not so cooperative with pictures lately so it probably wouldn't have worked anyway. But even without a picture we love Husband and he is a great dad to our kids. We are very lucky. 

My dad, who by the way is AWESOME is on a fishing trip right now so I didn't see him. But we made him an awesome sign and sent him a picture of his only favorite two grandchildren. And you know, we also sent him two really nice ribeye steaks for when he gets back from his fishing trip. 

In cute things the kids have said lately:

M cannot say "thank you" yet. So she says "No please" instead of "no thank you." It is absolutely darling.

Last week we were watching the Tony Awards and there was a scene from Fiddler on the Roof. (One of my favorites!) So C was watching with us and Husband said right at the beginning, "There's the Fiddler." We watched the whole wedding scene and then as it was ending C said, "Where's the roof?" I died.

Anyway, I hope you had a glorious weekend and celebrated the way the father's in your life wanted.

Good Times are Here Again!

Oh hey. Remember when my internet sucked for most of Lent? Well, my friends yesterday I got to make the phone call I've been dreaming about making and cancel CenturyLink. Well, to be fair, I had to pretend to be Husband which was actually very funny because you know Denise did not believe I was Scott but couldn't actually say anything to the contrary. Especially in today's climate and that I could verify the account because I am not a moron.

But my friends, my fiber internet was installed yesterday afternoon. Everything about this is better. Including but not limited to the fact our appointment was for 1:30 and Brian showed up at 1:15. I can't even comprehend how much better my customer service is going to be based on the people I've met and spoken with, but I am pretty sure I can guarantee them a gold star and a Christmas card.

In case you weren't sure if I was serious, I did a little speed test while I had all my internet options available still.

This is my CenturyLink Internet speed:

 

That is 0.54 Mbps. Dreadful.

When things got really bad, we would switch to the air card on Husband's work computer. It made watching Netflix bearable.



Here we have 8.11 Mbps. Still not super but again, it beat not having internet.

But my new super fancy, no data caps, in the ground fiber cable that will not slow down no matter how many people use it or if it's raining etc.




Well then. Hallelujah! 47.27 Mbps. And it is everything I wanted it to be. Netflix is clear and fast and doesn't stop to load every few minutes. I can be on the computer at the same time we are watching Netflix. We can SKYPE while Netflix is on. Skype isn't a bunch of pixels.

Life with internet is good.

Strawberry Saturday

Saturday morning we were all up bright and early. This is not my preference for a Saturday. but it was going to be HOT and those strawberries weren't going to pick themselves. We had kind of a trek, as the strawberry patch we had been going to the past few years, put an age restriction on picking and made a rule about making picking appointments.

So we went to a patch about an hour away. All they do is strawberries. And they love kids.

And it was great. We beat the heat. We picked almost 23 pounds of strawberries. The kids did great. They stayed in the rows and only picked berries that were red. M was a little champion. She was such a good helper. They had these little baskets and she filled that thing several times. Granted one of the times she ran down the row and they all went everywhere.

But nevertheless, we had a good time. On our way back we stopped at a local food truck we just read about in the newspaper, called Load of Crepe. They have crepes and Liege waffles (made from dough not batter) and I happen to love crepes and waffles. Sticking with our theme we got two strawberry and vanilla cream crepes. They were great.

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Later on Saturday, after everyone had taken a nap we had a lovely dinner. Husband had done a favor for someone at work and they bought him a 10lb prime rib!! Holy shamoly. We cut that thing up into three pieces, and froze two! We enjoyed a delightful prime rib dinner with sweet potatoes and bread. Then followed that up with an Angel Food Cake with fresh strawberries. 

That is the Saturday dreams are made of! Our Sunday was equally low key without much to tell. All in all, a great weekend. 

7QT: When Nothing Is Really Going On

one. So last weekend my mom and I went to see Me Before You. It was fantastic. Until the last 10 minutes in which I cried my eyes out. Morally, I am against the whole thing (go read the spoilers, I'm not going to be the one who drops that for you.) but so were most of the characters in the movie actually so there's that. And for what it's worth, I love a good cry movie.

My mom hated it. I loved it. I want to see it again. I spent this week reading both books. Well, I spent Monday reading Me Before You (making the bad life choice to stay up way too late) and Tuesday/Wednesday reading After You. It makes me love the movie even more.

two. I have one of my book clubs this weekend. We read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I really enjoyed this book. It had a lot of good stuff going on but was a quick read.

It should be a small little group at the dinner so hopefully a good discussion! 

three. In the life is not always peachy keen side of things, my FIL has completely forgotten C's birthday. He hasn't acknowledged it at all. Not by phone, text, a card, nothing. At first I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. For whatever reason, his family isn't big on the postal service and just likes to give things when they see you. But then Husband saw him. (And got the gift from his brother at the same time.) And nothing. Not even a question about how his party was. There's really nothing I can do about this, because reminding him will make it seem like we're just after presents and I honestly don't want whatever they'd pick out to live in my basement for the next year or so. But that's weird right? To just completely ignore one of your grandchildren's birthdays?

four. It is going to be HOT this weekend, so the inflatable swimming pool I ordered will arrive just in time. Our old one sprung a leak. I have great fears that this new one is actually going to be too big but we'll see. I also got some sidewalk chalk. I actually detest chalk. Just  the feel of it in my hands gives me goosebumps and makes my teeth hurt. But I have every intention of forcing my kids to play outside everyday if it's not raining and giving them some options of stuff to do seems pretty reasonable.

five. In Scentsy news, the scent of the month for June, Blue Raspberry Ice is amazing. It's light and sweet. Usually the sweet scents are overpowering to me but this one hits the nail on the head.

There's also a new shark buddy just in time for shark week. That's pretty cool. 

six. M has hit the dreaded Why? stage. I don't think C ever got that. And I don't even know if she actually is asking Why? for an answer or if it's just her go to response. But all day long that is her response to anything said to her.

seven. How do you get your kids to eat meat? I am totally serious. Any and all advice is welcome at this point!

Linking with Kelly and her band of people who write quick takes. Happy weekend!

Problem = Solution

I keep seeing articles about the "Millennial Mom" and how they want everything RIGHT.NOW! And things like Amazon Prime Now are going to be the downfall of society, or at least small businesses. I can see where they're coming from. But I'm just going to come right out and say it. Amazon Prime Now is meeting a legitimate business need that isn't being met by brick and mortar stores. 

You see, society has created wonderfully safe car seats that take a little effort to get kids loaded in and out of. But society has also deemed parents neglectful if you leave your child in the car for any length of time by themselves. 

So I can't even go inside a gas station to pay. I can only pay-at-the-pump. Unless I want to unbuckle two kids, hold their hands, buy an item or two and then load them back into the car. Or I can order a gallon of milk to come to my house and go through the drive-through for a beverage. There is nothing quick about the quick errand today. There is nothing convenient about the convenience store either.  

And yet, I think this is something that is going to be corrected. Not a return to being able to leave kids in the car for a few minutes, that ship has sailed I am afraid. I do think that soon, Walgreens or someone will hop on board with this trend, and create online ordering and carside-to-go/pharmacy drive-through pickup. For when your kid has the stomach flu and you just need some Pedialite and Clorox Wipes. No one wants that kid in the store anyway. Or when you're out and about and the sometimes inevitable car nap occurs. 

In the mean time, I wish there was a window cling that normal safe moms would have on their cars. Kind of like the Scruff McGruff house designations, you know, the safe house anyone can go to if they need help? I would love to be able to park next to another "safe mom" who could stand next to my car while I run inside to grab the tortillas I forgot, then reciprocate because she needs band-aids. 

I'm just saying, even a Sonic-Like drive-in store would be welcomed. "I'll have a pack of baby wipes, a gallon of 2% and a box of cheerios." Then a slightly disgruntled teenager can roller skate the stuff out to me. 

There is an actual problem with a legitimate business opportunity solution here folks. Now if I could only get someone will deep pockets involved. 

Last Day of School!

Phew. We made it. School is over. (Okay, technically we are having a party on Thursday evening but no one has to plan that we just show up to the restaurant.) 

Here's to summer! We have a park play date tomorrow to kick us off on the right foot! 

It feels like school lasted forever, because it did! We started with our little homeschoool preschool coop last April!! My guy was at the very end of being two and he's at the beginning of being four now! Look how he's grown! I can't handle that. 

But onwards and upwards, we are headed to "big school" in August and he cannot wait. Until then, I am just going to embrace summer!!

It's JUNE!

Oh my goodness everyone. It's June. 2016 is almost HALF over already?! Can you stand it? I feel like this year has gone really fast.

In adulting news, we are getting a new roof. Soonish. We've had lots of estimates and picked a roofer. We've picked a color and all that. We just have to schedule the installation. And pay for it.

I am still waiting to feel like I've got it all figured out. But... I don't. So I just look up what to do. :) 

Some people say "Fake it 'til you make it." I say "Research the heck out of it because even if you're wrong you can back up your opinion and actions with valid arguments." 

School is nearly over, which is awesome and so summer begins. We are making a family list of things to do to celebrate summer! The list isn't complete yet, but I am anticipating a lot of fun to be had. It will include things like berry picking and the new trampoline park.