The Daily Hailey

My mom came over to play this morning, which was SUCH a treat! We haven’t had her out in our neck of the woods recently, so it was special to have her over, in our home for a couple of hours. We visited and caught up a bit, and the kids demanded every ounce of attention they could possibly squeeze out of her, which I think she enjoyed. An Old Navy parcel that we ordered together came, so we dismantled it together and picked and chose what to keep and send back. I got some great bathing suit bottoms and a rashguard, but weirdly enough, the bathing suit tops didn’t look nice at all, so they went back in the bag.

Mom left, and the kids and I some snacks for lunch, like always. Then I brought them Rowan and they were occupied while I ran around, getting the diaper bag packed and myself made up. I got dressed and brought an armful of clothes downstairs to dress them. And then, I was way too efficient, so I attempted to feed Rowan a bit more. When it was finally time to go, Dekker insisted on holding Laela’s hand, once again, this time helping her to the van. I love watching him help her in. He just gets right under her and pushes her bum as high up as he can 🙂 No shame. I love it. Anyway, we got to the city, where we met Brady and drove together to my wax appointment. As I’ve said, I love my waxing girl. I feel like I have the best of the business in just about everything. Waxing, hair, doctor, chiro, dental, vision, etc. I had a nice relaxing appointment (not even kidding) and was out in record time with fresh legs and arms, and we were onto the next place.

Most of our evening was pretty boring for the kids, I think, because it was a lot of one of us just running in somewhere for one thing while the rest of us sat in the van. However, we made it good with lots of music and toys and then going out to eat. They ate so well, and were SO well behaved. But especially Laela was wearing thin. It got to a point where she would be in mid bite, and her eyes would well up, she would choke back her tears, and keep eating. She was so done. The curse of no naps for these kids.

They slept on the drive home, so I could listen to my latest song on repeat, like I like to do.

It was a bit discouraging to come home to fresh truck tire tracks across our yard again but we’re working so hard to be positive 🙁 We hauled everything into the house, and I had a really nice visit with our neighbour over the fence. Of course, I got all caught up in it, and Brady got the kids diapered and dressed for bed. I thought for sure they’d be down by the time I got in, but they were still up. Apparently Laela had been a bit uncertain and was calling for me over and over. As soon as I entered their room, I sat on the floor, and she came up and sat on my lap with her blanket. I hugged her for a few seconds, and then she was good to go. Just wanted her mommy for a minute 🙂 I loved that.

We’re all tucked in finally, with a bath running to soak my freshly waxed legs in. I’m happy with today. I visited my mom, had some VERY proud moments with my kids, I made a few really fun purchases, and snagged a free playpen off of a buy and sell page! So many pros. So many!

Hopefully the sun keeps shining (literally and figuratively) and the days just get better and better from here on out!

Brady came home in the late afternoon, got cleaned up, and we all spent the evening in the city together. It was so nice to just get out of our house and do something for fun. We were bringing something out for a friend, so we did that first, and then went to Montana’s for supper. Kids eat free on Tuesdays!!!

I won’t waste too much time telling you what we all ate and how it played out, but I like to think we were the best looking table they had tonight.

We couldn’t get Ro to look at the camera but there was obviously a lot going on around him. Seriously, all of the kids got a lot of attention 🙂 For obvious reasons.

Everyone loves a cookie the size of their own head!

Someone over here didn’t need a cookie…

Montana’s was our main spot to hit, but we dropped into Walmart on our way home, just because it seemed too early to go home, even though it was already past their bedtime. But they were still friendly and energetic, so we picked up a small handful of things that we sort of needed sometime down the line, and today was as good as any. I wrote on Facebook a while back that I actually had a dream that all of my laundry baskets matched (how lame am I?!) so we grabbed another one of our laundry baskets off the shelf so we can FINALLY throw away our broken, unmatching blue one. We paid for our stuff, bought some iced coffees, and were on our way.

It was the cutest drive home ever.

I melt. I love these kids.

It was even better when we got home.

The big kids went down to bed pretty smoothly, even though they were sad. Once they were laid down, we went to get Rowan ready for bed, and were greeted with yet one last happy child 🙂

Today was a good day. I love my family and the life we have. Thank you, Lord.

I found myself tempted to let today be the very first day in the history of The Daily Hailey that I didn’t put up a post. It was that good of a day. However, I’ve decided to blow past it and instead just share a few picture from the day 🙂

Brady got me flowers for Mothers Day and they’re starting to wilt. They’re easily the best looking dead/dying flowers I’ve ever had. The leaves and grass are getting brittle, but are just showing streaks of yellow, which is SO much nicer than the ugly brown alternative. The flowers themselves are just looking BEAUTIFUL, though.

Ok, this one isn’t dying yet, but I thought it was gorgeous. I also like how I have an unbelievable camera now that can take clearer, more detailed shots.

Boom. Thanks, Canon.

I took these pictures first thing this morning before everything else fell apart around here. These last pictures were taken over supper, as things were starting to even out finally. Yes, we gave our kids eggs and toast for supper. No judgement.

Jam face.

I’m so thrilled that Dekker loves my jam so much. I make a mean pineapple jam, and he requests it over the store bought berry jams.

Laela preferred to pick all of the pineapple hunks off of the jam first, and wear the rest of it. But she ate the majority of it, so thats what counts.

There you have them – my two positive points in the day. My happy kids, and the flowers that brighten up my kitchen, even on a lousy day.

There is still good in the world!!!

Rowan slept through the night last weekend while we were away, but since getting back home, he has resumed his routine of his midnight/early morning feeding. I’m not too hellbent on him sleeping through yet, though it would be lovely. But last night, he slept through! It was such a pleasant surprise, yet we have no idea what the difference was. He usually wakes up in the night between 1:00 and 2:00, and we hadn’t done anything different yesterday night. But hey, I won’t question it!! It was SO nice. He had 6oz right before bed, which is bigger than his usual bottle, so maybe *knock on wood* we’ll get another full night?? That would be so great…

Unfortunately, the full nights sleep didn’t seem to have helped the other kids happy, because it wasn’t probably our rockiest Sunday in a while. They were super loud in church, and we had some solid attitude problems during the day. Looking back on it now, it probably wasn’t as bad as it felt it was in the moment. I’m glad our rough days really aren’t too bad in retrospect.

Now that we’re home and everyone is tucked in, I’m feeling invigorated. Our MLS listing goes up tomorrow and, as I think I’ve mentioned, we’ve decided to sell our house by this weekend. So let’s pray for that 😉

Lastly, upon arriving home, Brady and I got to watch a YouTube video that we’ve been anticipating for some time now. I wrote about a family several months back who struggled with infertility who fell pregnant with their second baby on their own. I have felt so joyful for them, and have watched their videos along the way. They had their second baby boy last night, and the video was up maybe twenty minutes after we got home. It was SUCH a beautiful video. I cried. I’ll throw the link up here, just in case someone could use a heartwarming pick me up 🙂

I hope you all have a great start to the week! Opt for optimism.

I want to post mostly about the new ‘dos that Brady and I are rocking, but first, look!!!

Our house looks beautiful! Don’t worry, we have mowed since then 🙂 It’ll be all nice and fresh and clean when the ad is officially up on Monday, and hopefully it’ll still be looking that fresh when it sells! Please keep praying that we sell. Its so our time to move on to our next adventure, and to really find ourselves a forever home.

Now, onto the new hair!! Brady hasn’t even had a trim in years, so this little cleanup did a lot, I’d say. He looks so fresh and ready for Spring!

Before…..

And after!

I’m so thankful he kept it nice and long, but he says it feels so much lighter. I’m happy he’s happy. He said that she barely even cut anything off, but when I told her that, she had a good laugh and said she took off a pretty decent chunk. Its just so beautifully cleaned up 🙂

My turn! Before…..

And after!!!

This is easily the most fun cut and color I’ve come out of there with in a while, and I really like it. I feel a hundred times more ready for the warm weather, way lighter, and frankly, I feel a lot more fun with the color. SO much fun! It will fade out before my next appointment, so I can choose it again and have it all refreshed, or I can opt for pretty much any other color!

After haircuts, the kids were pretty finished so we’re home now, and everyone is fairly hands on. The one pro of no naps is an earlier bedtime for everyone! Can’t wait!!

I reeeaaally don’t like posting anything too controversial on here, so if you’re a fighter, please please keep it to yourself on this one. I know I’m not going to word everything right, and I may mostly just ramble without actually saying anything, but I want to put this out there. I know it probably seems silly to get so worked up about something that doesn’t have a direct effect on me (at least thats usually my rule of thumb for getting worked up) but I’m really sad and I need to get some of it out.

Josh Duggar. I’m sure a lot of you have seen bits and pieces of whats going on. It was recently discovered, through the illegal release of information, that the oldest brother from the show “19 Kids and Counting” was charged with molestation twelve years ago.

Let’s pick that apart before going any further, shall we?

It was discovered through the illegal release of information. Somehow (I can’t even keep it all straight) the Springdale Police Department leaked information relating back to Josh (age 15) and the victims, who were younger than him. ALL of them were minors. That alone covered their privacy. On top of that, the statute of limitations, three years, had passed. Like I said, this was twelve years ago. His record was expunged. Whoever released this information was obviously looking for money and to stir the pot. Well, consider it stirred.

Since this info came out, Josh has stepped down from his job, and their show has been pulled off the air. Talk about their “normal” being turned upside down! Yes, they’re “just people on tv,” but they’re a very real family, and these kind of things coming out of the woodwork must be brutally difficult on them.

Before anyone gets riled up, let me just say this. I AM IN NO WAY SUGGESTING THAT HE IS INNOCENT! He really, really screwed up. Best of all, he knows it! People need to pay for their crappy decisions. Best of all, HE DID. But say what you will about him.

Or rather, don’t. Because everyone else is.

The main reason I wanted to write this post is not so we could all bash him, or go the other way and be for him, or really have much of an opinion at al, I suppose. I found myself feeling incredibly emotional after reading these news reports and the awful, awful comments below them. People want his blood for this! They are using awful names, telling his family to bail on him, and even making very inappropriate comments about how his sister should be careful in their skirts around him. MY GOSH! One of the haters favorites runs along the lines of “Believing in God doesn’t make it ok!” I won’t delve into that one too deep because, as a Christian, I see red. What a STUPID statement. No one is saying that!!!! Yes, in the statement, the family talks about praying for forgiveness, and repenting, and the fact that we are covered with Gods grace. Whether you believe that or not, that is not the only road to recovery he travelled. It is a part that was important to their family. Leave their faith alone!!

Basically, whether you support the family or want them to be burned for their mistakes, I guess I’d just challenge you to look at it a different way. Take your very worst mistake – the reeeaaally awful and embarrassing one you try not to even think about – and imagine it splashed out into the world for everyone to see. A mistake that you have paid for, learned from, and probably will continue to repair all of your life, and have it public all across the world. All of a sudden, everyone hates you. We have all made huge mistakes, and I find it hard to believe that all of the haters out there have pearly white pasts. We have no right to judge each other.

On one last level, consider the girls he hurt. Of course, they are victims in this. While that makes many people even thirstier for blood, I can’t help but think that having to relive this now, day after day, would be horrific for them. I don’t want to speak too much on this, because I get worked up either way. I feel like this media storm is pouring down on both parties.

I love a lot of things about the Duggar family, and still do. I’m very very sad they’ve been pulled off the air.

#teamduggar

Its been over a week since I pulled the pictures off of our camera! I was doing so good at doing it every evening, but I feel behind, and THAT calls for a photo post! As has happened before, this post will contain a ton of pictures that maaaaaybe include captions. Behold! Our life in the last nine days 🙂

The kids waited SO patiently while we signed some forms with our realtor…

Just jokes 🙂 They’re content kids!

My goodness! Do you think thats enough pictures for one day?! I don’t 🙂 I could look at these all day long. They bring me so much joy <3

Speaking of the kids bringing me joy, I’m off to go play with them and eat hot dogs. Because its spring.

After such a fun long weekend with family, and being away from our place, its kind of hard to be back. I flip flop with that, though, because its always nice to come home after being away, right? I love coming home to my comfy bed, and my soaker tub, and its always nice to be in our house and our routine. But this time, coming home felt considerably more like a step backwards.

And I know!! The grass is always greener, right? What makes that stereotype crappy is that sometimes the grass is WAY greener over there, and somehow, saying that phrase is supposed to make us be happy with our dead, brown grass. It doesn’t seem fair!

I understand that we have to accept where we are and try to be happy with it, and I am very happy we bought this house 6.5 years ago. I really am! It was the perfect move for us! But it is our time to move on, and I’m having a lot of trouble with the waiting game. Let’s be honest with ourselves. The waiting game has barely even begun.

Our listing will go live with our realtor on Monday, I believe. On a humorous and ironic note, we had to refinance our mortgage today. Good work, timing! To be completely honest, I’m scared the thing won’t sell. Not because its not a beautiful house and property, but just because I’m feeling grumpy. Before we even list it, though, we have to get it super cleaned and tidied up again, so its appropriately beautiful for showings. And I have NO motivation to do that! Some could say I have the best motivation, but I can’t imagine working myself up to the point of optimism I was at a month or so ago, only to have nothing happen.

I’m sure some of you can relate to me on this. I’m not trying to whine, but just put it out there, that its yucky and vulnerable, and I feel like I’m in one of those situations where I should just give up before we even start trying. I know that obviously isn’t the answer, but I’m feeling like a bit of a bum right now.

On top of that, Brady has had three tires wreck on him in the last few weeks. THREE! He’s been replacing them with older second hand tires until he needs a new set, but that obviously isn’t working for him. He actually had to pull his tires off yesterday and brought them into the city today in our family van. He’ll get new tires put on the rims today, and tomorrow, when he can drive his van again, he’ll get an alignment. Even getting a good deal, its a lot at once.

Goodbye, all of our money. Please come back to us soon in the form of equity off of our house sale.

Goodbye one day, house. Please find a new owner soon. Preferably before the end of the month. I’d so love to wash my hands of you and move on to that lush grassy knoll just a half hour down the highway.

Today was Fake Monday for two reasons.

1. Its Tuesday. In that way, I suppose the majority of days could be considered Fake Mondays, but its nice to start the week off with work and routine, and have it not be Monday! Which leads me into reason #2…

2. Mondays carry a stigma of being crappy days. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life being negative, and while I try much harder to be positive these days, I understand the stigma. Its just the first day back to life after a break. For those Mon-Fri-9-5-ers, anyway. I am not one of those, and rarely know what day of the week it is. Today was Fake Monday because it was actually really lovely. Rowan didn’t sleep through the night but gave me nice long stretches anyway. All of the kids were in great moods and played well together with minimal arguments. Naps were seamless, I got some downtime, and I chatted on the phone with my mom. Brady ran a few errands after work, including picking up an iPhone case that a friend so generously offered to me. I keep thinking I should take a screenshot to show you guys, but I’m pretty sure thats not how that works. Not the brightest bulb, obviously.

All things considered, I really enjoyed Fake Fake Monday. I hope there are many more of these in the future.

Reality struck today when Caity and Stefan left for home this morning. Rowan gave us our third night in a row, which truly feels unbelievable. We are so thrilled, and hopeful that it will continue. However, for whatever reason, Dekker was up quite early and when we asked him through the monitor to please quiet down so as to not wake Laela, he blatantly disobeyed. It was fine to a degree, as we were getting up to see Caity and Stef off anyway, but we know our kids. They were trashed until nap time and pretty difficult through the evening. But thats another story, and a pretty unimportant one.

Once the company had gone, we doddled around my parents place for a bit. We grabbed breakfast and Brady packed us all up and loaded the van. We had a really nice drive home and put the kids to bed almost immediately. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the house in order before we left for the weekend, so the kitchen was full of dishes, our room had some laundry to put away, and a few other things are waiting to be done. We opted out of tidying up and instead chose to lay in bed, have some lunch, and watch a bit of Netflix.

It was SO great to have Jerilee come over for the evening!! In case you’re not all terrible people like us, The Bachelorette premiered tonight 😀 We had so much fun getting together weekly with the last season that we had to relive that this time around. So we ordered some food in (because we didn’t feel like getting organized today) and watched downstairs after the kids were in bed. They had so much fun getting some time in with Auntie Jerry before bed.

Tomorrow will likely be an interesting day. The kids will begin readjusting to normal life where we don’t have company every day. Less exceptions to the general rules, things like that. Also, for me, I’ll have to begin the task of trying to get things back in order around here. I’m not going to push it too hard, but I want to at least get a good start on the dishes. Laundry isn’t emergent just yet, but I have two of my laundry basket FILLED with clothes that don’t fit the kids anymore that need to be put away in tubs. So that all needs to be folded and organized by size, and packed up. Once thats done, I can do our current laundry, but not tomorrow. I think I caught up on that mid last week, so we’re still in good shape for a while.

I’m thinking no one really cares about my list of chores to do for the next day or so, so I’m done writing for the day 🙂 I hope you all had great weekends!! Make this Monday a good one!