Month: June 2019

Hailey’s Gross Face

I wrote this post over several months time, so if I mess up tenses or something, please let it slide 🙂 I was SO nervous to write it and felt SO disgusting the whole time. Feels vulnerable to share it even now, but here you have it!

*****

Back in mid-January, I started getting this weird dry spot below my right eye. I have quite dry skin as it is, and rely pretty heavily on face products that do some exfoliating, and lots of moisturizing. I figured I had gotten lazy with it, and with the BRUTAL cold snap starting right around there, I figured my skin was taking a hit with it. So I stepped up my game. 

Buuuut it persisted.

As you know if you’ve kicked around this year, I had a facial mole removed in early February. By that point, this little spot was a little bit darker than my skin. It was still dry and crusty. It crossed my mind – an age spot? A sun spot? I almost asked my dermatologist, but I figured she’d say I’d need a fresh referral, which would’ve been true. So I left it alone, but I kept a closes eye on it. That sucker was comfortable where it was. It wasn’t going anywhere. 

I saw Dr. Guselle for some unrelated things at the end of February, and just towards the end, I mentioned how my skin was completely out to lunch, and I had this bizarre dry spot under my eye. She leaned forward and took a look at it. 

“Oh, thats just fungus.”

😳

I’m sorry, what?

“Ya, its just fungus. Like, ringworm, sort of.”

Guys, that shook me. I was immediately crawly in my own skin. EWWW!! Fungus! RingWORM! On my face!! 🤮 

Dr. Guselle saw right away how uncomfortable I was, and she reassured me it wasn’t all that uncommon. “Its very common around farm animals or baby kittens,” she said. Not that I’d been around anything like that in the recent past. She explained to me that ringworm, jock itch, and athletes foot are basically all the same. Just a little fungal infection. The name changes based on where it shows up. While its not as common to present on the face, it wasn’t too shocking either. She advised me to go get a basic athletes foot cream to treat it, and it would clear up within a few weeks. So you’d better believe I got ON that as soon as I could. I took a picture for reference. 

I spent two weeks treating that stupid spot, twice a day, every day. I’m not always diligent with medications or vitamins, but I rode this thing. Two weeks. AND IT HAD GROWN!!! 🤮 I knew there was potential for it to not be completely healed by two weeks, but I was expecting at least some improvement. Not GROWTH! 

I was running errands in the city right around this two week mark, so I asked the pharmacist at Costco if there was a different avenue I could take, or perhaps a stronger cream. She listened to me with a genuinely disgusted look on her face, and when I finished, she simply offered “You should definitely see your doctor…” Super helpful. Didn’t feel like a monster at all!. 😒 On my drive home, I stopped at our local pharmacy and asked our pharmacist the same question. He was considerably more helpful, and suggested a different ointment. He said it was virtually the same thing, but treated a wider range of (gulp) fungi. Ugh. I don’t even like typing that word. Sick. Anyway, I bought that cream and scrapped the last one. 

Just shy of two weeks with the second cream, I observed that things with my big spot were pretty much maintaining. It had, however, spread to a new location. I now had two little spots forming in my eyelid creases and evidence of some starting under my other eye and on the side of my nose.

Seriously, guys, I was SO over it. Cher came over and helped me treat it with tea tree oil, which showed some results. For the first time in a while, I was hopeful! 

Aaaaand then I found a spot on Wavy. That. Was. It. 

I took us to the doctor. We booked in with a student and Dr. Guselle, but somehow, lines got crossed and we ended up seeing a totally different doctor. But she was in Dr. Guselle’s group, and honestly, she was lovely, and SO helpful!! I really liked her!

She listened to my whole spiel, making notes all along the way, nodding when I told her which step I had taken here and there. She had questions about the ointments, and I had brought them all. She asked how it looked at the beginning, and I had pictures. I felt SO well prepared, and she kept saying how helpful it was that I had brought everything along. We did good together. 

She washed up good and proper, and then examined my face and Wavy’s little spot by her pit. She totally agreed that they were the same thing, which was both a super bummer, and kind of reassuring that I wasn’t crazy. I had a real fear that she’d brush it off as a dry spot. She asked if I’d be willing to give a sample of skin to test, which I was all for! I’m SO glad she wanted to take action and figure out for sure what was happening. She gathered up some tests kits and was back in the room within seconds. 

***A bit of yucky talk, if you’re super squeamish***

She referred to the test as a skin scraping. Normally, its done with a blade, but since my spot was so close to my eye, and Wavy’s spot was on a baby (obviously,) she didn’t want to use something sharp. Rather, she had an alcohol swab that she kept in its packaging, and used the side of it to just scratch at my spot. It wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t painful, either. Just scratchy. She got a good amount of skin to test from me. Wavy’s turn! The doctor bent down and had a full chat with Wavy about what she was going to do. It was actually pretty sweet. She showed her the paper to catch the skin sample in, and told her she was safe and nothing would hurt. She offered Wavy one of those big square stickers to crunch/chew on, and Wavy happily accepted it to munch on while the doctor scratched at her skin. Her spot wasn’t as dry as mine, so it didn’t produce as much of a sample, but we tried. She was totally cooperative. 

*** Icky talk over! ***

Once the samples were taken, I got the lowdown. Apparently cream #1 didn’t work because, while being the right stuff, it was half the strength of the stuff they’d normally prescribe. There was no way I could know that, so no big loss. I also learned that the kind of fungus 🍄 she suspects I have is not quick to leave. It takes its precious time. She anticipated a FULL four weeks of diligent treatment with the cream that is the correct strength, which is the the second cream I purchased. She said to use it on the little spots in my eyelid creases as well, as she believed they were the same thing. I asked about continuing tea tree oil, and she supported it. NOT on Wavy, though. Its so strong. Wavy was to use the same cream as I use, twice per day, and when I did tea tree on my spots, I’d do coconut oil on hers. Both great anti fungal treatments. 

One week later, there was no exciting progress to speak of. I called the doctors office looking for results of my skin test. I got a call back from the doctor I saw the week before later that evening. And wouldn’t you know it, the test resulted NO FUNGAL CELLS!!! 🤬 So I was pretty ticked. Even less answers than I expected! At this point, I wanted a positive result so I would just be able to be sure I knew what it was. But I didn’t get that. She explained how these tests go, and that the preliminary test is just looking at the skin cells under a scope. Now comes the fun part where they 🤮 grow them and see what they turn into. Everything about that phone call left me so so grossed out and a bit distressed, if I’m being honest. The doctor was super compassionate and said I should come in the next day, along with Waverly, and Dr. Guselle would take a closer look and see if she had any other ideas. Besides that, however, they were going to send in an urgent referral to a dermatologist. “Urgent” still takes time, but it was her best effort. We made an appointment with Dr. Guselle for the next day. 

You guys know how much I love my doctors office, and that day was no different. I chatted with the girl who always brings us back for a bit, and she played with Wavy and took her temperature. It always feels like we’re just among friends there. When she did leave, she ended up ducking back in. I heard her in the hallway saying “You have to see how cute this baby is.” She had legitimately brought a doctor over to show Waverly off! Humorously enough, we had encountered this doctor before, and she lit right up. 

“I know this baby!!! Hi, Wavy!!” she said. Wavy smiled like a fool and flapped in excitement at being the centre of attention, as per usual. She showed off like crazy as the ladies in the hallway swooned over her. I made the joke that if they’re like this with every baby, the “service” is above and beyond. The doctor poked her head into the room a little further and whispered to me that not all babies are cute. Lip service or not, I’ll take it, haha! Was a really sweet moment, seeing people love her that way. 

Before seeing Dr. Guselle, we saw a med student. She had previously been a pharmacist, so she knew her way around the creams I was using, and she and Dr. Guselle agreed I needed to go full bore into the prescription cream. They both know I don’t have coverage for prescriptions, so we were trying to go over the counter to save money. Turns out it didn’t save me money, but I super didn’t care at that point. Just get this thing off my face and off my baby!! 

Four weeks-ish after that appointment, I got a call from Dr. Guselle’s office. Her assistant was asking if my rash had cleared up. Spoiler alert. It had not. The big spot under my eye was much lighter, but not gone, and the bigger spot in my eyelid crease had grown and become itchy. Wavy’s spot was… gone? I hesitate because the cream dried that spot on her out BADLY and I couldn’t really tell what was dry skin and what was the rash. However, on another part of her chest, another spot had begun growing. So. Frustrating. 

May 28th left us finally at dermatology! It was kind of debacle getting there, but we made it. I filled out some forms for Wavy and successfully kicked another kid over in walking back to the front desk. Like he landed HARD. ALL the way down! It was actually hilarious, and I was momentarily mortified, but I spent the next few minutes trying desperately to keep my composure. He went down with a serious thud, but him mom hauled him back up by his t-shirt and everyone lived. Whew!

Our dermatologist heard me out, looked at my pictures, reviewed everything that we’d been using, and made his diagnosis. 

Eczema. 

Of all ridiculous things. We have small patches of eczema. 

I was both seriously annoyed and completely relieved. We’re not contagious, or infected, or gross, or anything else. We have dry skin, and in some cases, some changes in the pigmentation of our skin, hence the brown spot that started it all. The end. After ALL of that! 

I felt way lighter after that appointment. I can touch my eyelids again. Wavy doesn’t always have to be fully dressed. I can wear makeup again!!!! Guys, I haven’t worn makeup more than twice in 2019. I remember both times well. Once was in January, before I realized something was happening, and another time was for the coffeehouse. And legit, “makeup” consisted of concealer on some zits and a mascara that I then threw out. 

My goodness. Eczema. Of all things. 

I learned shortly thereafter that the prescriptions the dermatologist gave us were going to set us back hundreds of dollars. 😳 So rather than doing that, I jumped back on the skin care wagon! I had been advised along the way not to really wash or moisturize my face more than necessary, and if I did, to do it very carefully, for fear of spreading this infection. Now knowing we weren’t contagious at all, I began being SO nice to my skin, and her skin, and things are clearing up beautifully! I basically exclusively use the galaxal based lotion out of Costco now, even on my face, and our skin is WAY happier. I even fussed with it enough to scooped it into an old lotion bottle because I didn’t like digging it out of the little tub, and was using it less. Now I use it ALL the time, and there has been SUCH improvement!

All of the fear of being contagious and infected is gone ☺️ I haven’t felt much like myself this last year, for one reason or another, and knowing this isn’t a fungal infection has helped quite a bit. 

My plan for this spring had been to finally get contacts again, but when this all kicked up, that plan obviously fell by the wayside. Now that its all over, I’m really looking forward to doing that soon 🙂 Kind of a little reward for all the frustration. 

I’m SO relieved!

A Stressed Out Waverly

Last night was SO WEIRD!

We had SUCH a sweet evening catching up with family we haven’t seen in years ❤️ We ate burgers and hotdogs and veggies and chips and kept things suuuper simple so we could fit in as much visiting as possible! Brady and I chatted with our cousins, the older kids played, and our baby girls played together for the first time ever. Its hard when people you click so well with live so far away, but I’m SO thankful we got some real visiting time in yesterday! We chatted and ate and went for our evening walk all together. It was so wonderful, and the kids went down to bed easily. Nice and wiped out.

As tends to happen, Waverly lulled awake right about when Brady and I were going to pack it in for the night. We’ve been staying up later than usual this week, watching the latest season of Brooklyn Nine Nine, and last night was another one of those evenings. Wavy is such a chill little baby, she usually just kind of chats herself awake. But last night, around 11:30, she started crying. Poor girly hadn’t drank much milk before bed, so we figured she could use some more of that.

She disagreed. She drank a little but was pretty weepy and upset. She would not settle. We figured her poor little body was just overdone, and we tried to lay her back down. She tried to sleep for a bit, in and out, fussy. But not all out crying at that point. She got there, though 😉 Oh yes she did! We tried to lay her back down, give her lots of snuggles, talk to her to help her relax, offered her water bottle, an even fresher diaper than the one we changed an hour prior, etc. We tried EVERYTHING. And EVERYTHING resulted in a piercing scream cry. She was SO MAD. Brady and I took turns passing her back and forth, and no matter our efforts, she would physically shove us away from her. She did not want to be held. But if we set her down, she would LOSE it. This has never happened!!! We were at such a loss!

She wasn’t hot.
She wasn’t hungry or thirsty.
She had no obvious physical body issues.
She wasn’t wet.

We even considered she could be sensing a different issue, like dogs sometimes do! Haha! It sounded crazy, but crazier things have happened. We checked on the other kids and everyone was fine.

So pain was our best guess. It was very clear that this wasn’t simply a bad habit forming. Waverly was hysterical, and completely not herself. So we went against our usual “rules,” and mixed it up. We gave her some Tylenol and brought her into our bed to watch some Netflix. Who watches tv with their baby, in bed, in the middle of the night?? We do! 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ We figured, if she was in pain, it would take some time for the Tylenol to kick in, so we watched an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine with her in our bed. I got her a stuffed toy to play with, and brought her water bottle along, too. She sat contentedly pretty much the entire time, drinking water and chewing on her little bunny. She finally settled after about a half hour. Whether it was the distraction and comfort, or the medicine, I don’t know. It doesn’t even really matter. She did go back to sleep. It was somewhere between 2:30 and 3:00 at that point. And she had been up since 11:30.

Oh. My. Gosh. We are SO tired around here! Brady has work this morning, but rather than his usual disgusting wakeup call at 4:30am, he opted to sleep in and go in after the kids were up. He made the right call.

As for Waverly, she’s been sleeping ever since. She lulled awake at one point maybe around 8:00am, and I listened and waited to hear her confidently wake, and she didn’t. So I’m pretty sure she’d back to sleep.

Wish us luck for an unpredictable day! And the night to come…

Father’s Day in Kindergarten

I’m SO grateful that Brady’s job allowed for him to have a flexible schedule, and attend school events. Today, he spent about an hour at school with Laela for their annual Father’s Day event. Together, they ate a special breakfast of muffins, fruit, yogurt, and juice. Laela was SO excited to serve him, she’s been talking about it for a few days now.

After breakfast, she colored a picture of Brady.

They then had the option to either play soccer, or play on the playground. In TRUE Laela form, she asked to hang on the playground together, so they did. Brady was an excellent specimen of a father and played on the equipment with her, even going down the tube slide! Unfortunately, no pictures of that 😉 But I have these!

I think they really enjoyed each other.

Laela gets SO excited to “host” someone at school, its really fun to be part of it. She’s so grown up these days, having just lost her third tooth last night!!!

I’m so proud of you, Laela! So is your dad. And I know we’re pretty proud of him, too.

Father’s Day 2019: The Details

We kept our Father’s Day celebration pretty casual this year. Casual but really enjoyable 🙂 It suited our family SO well! Brady and I both agreed afterwards that it had been a super lovely evening.

After naptime, we got everyone dressed and left for the city. Of course, we couldn’t just go for recreation, so we stopped for groceries first. Haha! We hit Costco and stocked up on ALL veggies and fruit, ALL milk, a box of diapers, and a whole bunch of other things.

While we were in line, I saw a woman looked very flustered, standing with her two kids and their cart. She was trying to flag down an employee, and her son was wailing. The moment an employee arrived at her cart, she said something quickly to her and took off with her son. When they were closer to me, I could tell her son had thrown up. Once she was just about ready to turn down the little hallway to the bathrooms, she seemed to have a realization and hesitated. Didn’t know whether to go to the bathroom or go back. And guys, I just felt for her. She seemed so frustrated, and so distraught. So I took a risk and ran over to her. I offered to take her son to the bathroom and wash him off. She said she didn’t know where her daughter was, and I know that fear of not having an eye on all of your kids! I told her I have five kids, and she can trust me. She hesitated hard, but did end up letting me take him. My heart was SO happy that she trusted me enough to let me help!! I walked him to the bathroom and tried to reassure him that I was going to help him. He was probably two years old and didn’t say much back. He was obviously upset, too, and feeling sick. The bathroom paper towel was out, so I found a loose roll of toilet paper and just went to down, wetting a ball and wiping him off a bit, over and over again. His mom was very close behind, and met us in the bathroom, but she was on the phone, relaying the events of her sons sickness to someone, and was still just SO flustered. I helped finish him up, and by the end of it all, he was giggling and playing with the hand dryer. Crisis averted!! It felt good to have another mom trust me and accept my help! Whew!

On our way out of the parking lot, we saw a man pushing a big orange flatbed cart lose, and a bunch of his groceries got away on him. Several flats of drinks and chips were on the ground, and he was in a bit of a high pressure area to be holding up vehicles. Brady quickly whipped our van to the side and rushed out to help him. Meanwhile, another vehicle pulled up in a way to shield them both from oncoming traffic while they reloaded his cart. Again, crisis averted.

I’ve got to say, it felt great to help people, and to have people willingly accept our help. Not telling these stories to toot my own horn, but to remember 🙂 Nice stories.

We were at Costco for longer than usual that shop, because I had decided, for our Father’s Day supper, we should have a picnic! A picnic with Costco hotdogs! If you’ve gotten a hotdog at Costco before, you know its a really yummy hotdog for super duper cheap, and its really easy. All the condiments are there and ready, you get a drink, and its just a simple process. I’ll tell you now, it is less simple when you’re a family of seven.

Hahahaha! My goodness… Brady took on the task of dressing the hotdogs, though to be fair, I thought he was just going to get some little cups of ketchup and mustard. He got the way harder job by opening up each hot dog and putting stuff on them. I filled the cups – pop for Brady and I, and water for the kids. It was a bit of an undertaking, but two boxes of supper later, we were set! (Spoiler alert: We ran out of food before we were all full. Ten hot dogs next time.)

My goal had been to take the kids to the bandshell by the river for supper. Not super picnicky, but contained and in a way that I could see them all the whole time. (Yes, I’m a tad overprotective since our shakedown at the lake. Please don’t judge me!) There were people on the stairs of the bandshell when we drove by, but once we had parked and headed in that direction, it was no longer occupied.

It was virtually impossible to get a good picture of everyone, lol! I tried individuals, rather.

Solly didn’t want his picture taken…

But he rallied 🙂

Marginally better, lol!

Everyone ate super happily, and drank a TON of water. What is it about a new cup that makes it more fun?? Lol! Seriously though, they enjoyed themselves SO much. After they finished eating, they raced around in circles, played tag, and made games around which section of the concrete was lava and where you could and couldn’t be tagged. They could’ve stayed out there forever, but it eventually had to end. Bedtime was drawing near, and since it hadn’t been a smooth day for napping, we knew the risk of everyone sleeping on the drive home was pretty real. But NO ONE DID!! Thanks to that, bedtime was pretty smooth and everyone went to bed happy, and slept easily. It was awesome.

Seriously, what a cute little picnic with a cute little family. We had a great evening, just hanging out together. We kept it low pressure, and very much our style. We loved it. We’ll have to make this a bit more of a common occurrence. It was WAY more fun than usual fast food, and cheaper, too, which never hurts.

I hope you all had lovely weekends!

Father’s Day 2019

Brady and I were young and dumb when we got married. Now, don’t get me wrong. I have NO regret! Not one. We made a great choice to be together 🙂 But that doesn’t mean we were well prepared! Being that its Father’s Day, I figured it would be worth sharing the story about how we “prepared” for starting our family.

Brady and I had barely discussed having children when we got married. I know. Its kind of a big, important topic. But we just kind of never went there! I remember one conversation that went something like this.

Hailey: How many kids do you want?
Brady: Two.
Hailey: I want three or four, at least.
Brady: …..
Hailey: We’ll probably start with two then and see where we end up.
Brady: Maybe.

🤷 That was that! We could’ve been headed for some serious heartache, wanting our families to look so different. Thankfully, God knew! Phew!

We were still in the delivery room with our firstborn finally delivered, and Brady and I both said the same thing. “We’re going to do this SO many more times!” Thank you, Lord, for putting he and I on the same page.

Brady dove into dad mode in the hospital. He changed most of the hospital diapers, helped me in every way he could to try and breastfeed, did all the burping and rocking, and got up any time he could do something instead of me. He. Dove. In. And I knew we were going to be fine. I had a partner.

Its hard for me to picture the other side of the coin, where men are less hands-on with their kids, because this is ALL I’ve seen from Brady. He chose us above himself. I’ve definitely witnessed less involved parenting, but never in my own home, from my own husband. For that, I am SO grateful! We couldn’t have the family we have, and do life the way we do, without Brady’s selfless nature, his tireless work ethic, and his loving heart.

This man somehow manages to juggle everything. He is an amazing father, but alongside that, he is a follower of Christ, a husband, a man, a good friend, a carpenter, a musician, and a hottie with a body. 👌 I’m a fan of this man.

Photo co Cher, as per aaaaalmost always

Bowchickawowow, honey. Bowchickawow.

Bit By the Tidying Bug

Really, a cleaning bug is the BEST kind of bug to be bit by, right?

For one reason or another, I finally kicked into gear yesterday and got some serious tidying done around my house! Our room has been driving me crazy, and the ensuite, too.

Maybe some of you can relate, but stuff just gets dumped in our room if it doesn’t have somewhere else to go. Or if someone is coming over, we just hide whatever is a mess in our bedroom and close the door. Or, mostly the issue, we just clean up less in there because we don’t have to, because no one else really goes up there.

However, going upstairs to a mess of a room every single day isn’t so relaxing, and its been starting to get to me. And then the ensuite is SUCH a mess, it doesn’t really feel like one can adequately clean themselves when the whole place is covered in products and gunge.

I’ve been saying for a while now, one of these days, its just going to hit me. And folks, that was yesterday.

I tidied the ensuite pretty seamlessly. Everything in there has a home, for the most part. My yummy lotion that I keep at the sink was at that frustrating point where there’s about half an inch left in the bottom but it just won’t pump anymore. I took the time to empty it out and actually washed out the bottle and filled it from a new lotion that I like more but that didn’t come in a pump. Win! I emptied my overflowing garbage, and even threw away some stupid little bathmats that we got to use at the sink but just make a mess. It looks SO much better in there!!

The bedroom was a bigger job. I went on a craft retreat last fall, and one earlier this year, and ALL of my craft stuff is still up in our room! Yup. Big lime green rubbermaid tubs, just hanging out in what is supposed to be our little haven. I also have little white plastic basins floating around with half finished projects inside, some confiscated toys, pictures the kids have drawn that they insist live upstairs, etc. Just stuff, everywhere. Balls of yarn, everywhere! ALL my fault, obviously. So I went to work, and cleared up the stuff that was easy first. Laundry where it belonged, garbage where it belonged, etc. All pens, pencils and notebooks went into my desk drawers. I made some executive decisions and threw some stuff out. Made our bed. The big part was my crafty stuff. I decided – three tubs. Two for yarn (that is WAY less than I used to have, by the way!) and one for projects I’m not currently working on but actually will eventually complete. I dug through the tubs and sorted them in a way that made sense. I rolled up balls of yarn that were tangled and messy, and combined a few that were the exact same color and brand, but were separate for some reason. The big goal here was to fit the tubs into a storage closet. And they did!! Woot! Meanwhile, the few craft projects I’m finished and am hanging onto live in a pretty little basket on my desk. The floor is WAY clearer, and it just feels brighter.

That was all yesterday, and today I’m feeling a bit itchy and twitchy to keep going. I’ve got the dishes all caught up, and I’m about halfway through laundry. I’m doing a bit of research online, and while I’m not swimming in money, I’m excited to have found a few affordable pieces that will help me get my kitchen and pantry and bit more organized! Maybe it sounds a bit silly to be excited about things like that, but you’d have to know me a few years ago to fully grasp why. We used to live SUCH a cluttered life. I think we had WAY more stuff before we had kids! Our house in Radisson was always a mess, dining table stacked with junk – dry goods groceries, jackets, bags, books, etc. Our floors and countertops were covered, and our furnace room was overflowing! Do you know, when I went to gut that room in preparation for listing the house, I found upwards of 75 EMPTY BOXES???? Just MESS! So yes, I get excited about cute little storage solutions that help things run a bit smoother around here. I want everything here to have a home, and if it doesn’t, maybe it doesn’t belong here.

I guess this whole post is basically a brag that I did things that normal people do everyday?? Hahaha! I don’t know. I think its important for me to write it out because I don’t always have that satisfying, rewarding feeling after I work hard. But sometimes I do! And for whatever reason, this has felt really good 🙂

Now to find my way to Ikea to snag a few lifesaving storage accessories…

Storytime: The Time I Caught a Thief

First of all, huuuugely misleading title, haha! Very clickbaity. I witnessed a thing once, though, so I figured I’d milk it hard for a blog post. Basically, I am the police. 😎 You’re welcome.

*****

Back in the day of confed mall having its own Walmart, my mom and I stopped in for a shop. We rarely went to that location, and I have no idea why we did that day. But, we did. I was in my teens, but I choose to believe I was in my young teens because this story is based on how annoying I was.

We were leaving Walmart, and like the mature human being I was, I pressed the button that opened the door. The door opened sooooooo slooooowly. I stood like a statue until the door had opened completely. I thought this was hilarious, but people were trying to leave and I had held them up with my own fun. So being the considerate woman I was raised to be, I walked through the little holding cell area (ironic foreshadowing) and hit the next button to open the next door. And again, I stood there like a statue, blocking everyone’s way. Could I have been a bigger turd?? There was a man behind my mom and I who was laughing good-naturedly at me, but there were now a handful of other people behind him. I was officially affecting/annoying a decent group now.

It was when we FINALLY left Walmart that we learned the friendly man behind us must have been screaming on the inside the entire time he was blocked by me and my idiotic game. The moment his foot hit the sidewalk, he was tackled by the plain-clothed security guards that were following him out of the building. It appeared he had stolen merchandise tucked inside his jacket.

🤷

I know. I’m amazing. The bravery I exhibited is astounding. I deserve a medal, really. All these things I know.

A medal for immaturity at least. 😉 We all know I was winning at that! Jokes on that guy for getting stuck behind me that day…

Woop woop! Thats the sound of da police!

Wavy is Ready for Summer

While I was preparing supper yesterday, Waverly was already ready to eat. She fussed and whined on the floor like a puppy. Brady picked her up, and she just reached for the food I was chopping. So I took a risk and handed her a whole yellow pepper. Her eyes widened as she took it from me. Wavy loves peppers. I pulled out my phone, anticipating her taking a whole bite out of the thing, but instead, she went for the stem.

And aaaaall I could see was this:

A beach bum with a bevy!

It probably doesn’t help that we’ve dug through her clothes recently and pulled out some seasonally appropriate clothing in her current size. That includes little shorts, tank tops, and swimwear!! 🤩

Goodness, she is SO sweet!! The palm tree pony doesn’t hurt, either.

I’m so excited to see what summer will hold for this little nugget. We’ll definitely have our hands full on the beach, as she is very eager to join her siblings in whatever they’re doing. She’ll be crawling all over the place, destroying our beach blankets and eating sand. I wonder when she’ll start walking. With the way she pulls up with only one hand, I can’t imagine its too far off. But as I’ve said before, she’s our earliest mover by far, so I don’t want to count my chickens.

Either way, I’ll take it! I’m ready for it, and so is she! And so is the rest of the family, really. We’re halfway through June! Summer is aaaaalmost here!

We Were SO CLOSE!

😩

Guys. We made it to June 12th – almost the entire school year – without a flu. Until today.

Sigh.

Wavy woke up for milk around 5:30am and Brady got up to make a bottle. He lulled me awake and said Laela was sitting on the bottom of our stairs, and that she said she had thrown up. I took over with Wavy and he helped Laela. He changed her bedding and held her while she heaved and lost some more. Then he tucked her back in and she went back to sleep.

She’s spent the morning on the loveseat.

She insists she doesn’t want or need anything. She’s taking tiny sips of water here and there, and is gagging most of it up after a while. I’ve told her I wish I could help her, and she assures me she’s fine.

Pssst! Hey Laela!

How does she manage to look so soft and beautiful when she’s been barfing all morning??? Whats your trick, Laela? We ALL want to know!

So please say a prayer for my Laela Hazel today, if you think of it. She has a field trip on Friday that she would be completely devastated to miss!

I’ve set a few books beside my little sickie pants and she propped herself up to read them almost immediately. Hopefully that adds some enjoyment to her day 🙂 Wish us luck!

How Yesterday Ended and Today Began

I walked to meet the big kids on their way home from school yesterday. I was a bit nervous, with Dekker being SO upset after his last event, that he wouldn’t be the most fun walking buddy, and wanted to join he and Laela in an effort to boost morale, basically. But they were both SO happy to see me, and spirits seemed high. Dekker even pointed out that he had been mad before, but being out of the sun seemed to have helped him feel better. Yay!

The big kids surprised me by being in much better shape for the remainder of the day than I had anticipated. They read books and played and lasted pretty easily to supper time. We fed them fries and chicken for supper, which was super easy and made them really happy. A very dip-heavy meal, lol, but it was a good day for food that no one had to argue about.

I was feeling a little heatstrokey myself so Brady offered to take the kids for a quick even walk around the pond. After such an active, outdoor day, they didn’t need it, but they always love it. The sky was CRAZY!!!

But no one got rained on 🙂

A rainbow and everything 🌈❤️

The kids went to be happy and exhausted. Once they were down, Carrie came over for band practice! Another gig next weeeeek!!

This morning, Brady went to work in a house that is already lived in. Since he obviously couldn’t start at 6:00am like usual, he woke me up gently at my normal wakeup time, and he even set the table with breakfast for the kids ❤️ He had to leave before they got up, though.

Everyone was ready and eager to get up, except for – you guessed it – Dekker. The poor boy was still completely cashed out. He didn’t even flinch when I went into his room to retrieve Rowan for breakfast. I got the morning moving anyway, and just left Dekker to sleep. It was about fifteen or twenty minutes later that he stumbled into the dining room, half dressed and bleary-eyed, and just started eating without saying anything. A little peek into what teenaged Dekker might be like, haha!

Something else notable from this morning – I am a lobster. Like I buuuuurned yesterday, ho boy! My shoulders are tender, and my nose and forehead hurt if I touch my face. But my legs and feet take the cake.

I know, its sooooo good looking.
Its definitely a look.
And suntans tend to continue developing the next day, so we’ll look forward to that.

So the sleepy big kids are off to school. The sleepy little kids are playing duplo at the island. The sleepy baby is sleeping. The sleepy mom is reclined in her chair, trying to ignore her sore shoulders against the fabric. Hopefully the sleepy dad has a short workday and is home before too long.

Much love from our sleepy family to your sleepy family! You track families earned an extra coffee today!