what i did today

Busy weekend

May 29, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

So we have a pool! It’s not perfect and it’s cold but it holds water and we went swimming in it! So apparently getting the whole thing level is kinda important in the whole process of pool-building. The liner is all wrinkled where we don’t have the liner adjusted just right, we have a “deep-end” about two inches deeper than the other because the sand wasn’t level, the one side of the pool is s-shaped because the beams are aligned right and the pool water is lopsided because one side of the pool is higher on the ground than the other. Oh well. I’m just glad we haven’t had a flood in our back yard yet.

We got in Sunday when it was about a foot full and the girls had a BLAST. Lexi carried the hose around, squirting everyone. She went under a couple times thinking it was like the bath tub where she could lay down in it. She coughed it up and kept on going. Emma had fun as well, running around with me trying to get away from Lexi. Yesterday we had both families over for Memorial Day, mine for lunch and his for dinner. It had 2-3 feet then and Lexi was deliriously happy in the pool and Emma as well. Emma can swim around with her swimmies and Lexi sure tries. Lexi jumps and floats and everything else that says she is not one bit scared of the water. Mom was pretty much shocked at how well she did. I think she is a little fishy made for water. We had to beg her to get out and I think she’d go back in in a heartbeat.

The water has been off and on since Saturday night and we still haven’t gotten it full. But last night it got up to the bottom of the skimmer line where Scott needs to put the skimmer in so it’s on hold for now as he is working today.

Other than that, this past Friday we went out to eat at Longhorn with D&D. Fun as always. I wish we could do more stuff with them. Saturday morning I headed to the gym and cleaned inside a little before heading outside to help with the pool for the rest of the day. Sunday was church and pool. And I already mentioned yesterday. So here we are at Tuesday.

I leave for youth camp on Monday. I need to study the bible study lessons. My printer is out of ink so it has held me back a little. Not sure if the girls are all ready for that. And really I’m starting to remember that although youth camp was fun, it was a lot of work too trying to keep up with everyone and being in the hot sun all the time. They keep you so busy, you barely have time to think. I would like a break from work though. I am SO busy. Which is why I have got to get off here and get started!

feeling better

May 17, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

So not to fret, I’m feeling much better this morning than yesterday morning. I think I was just running downhill from a very stressful week. I am looking forward to my hour talk with the counselor this afternoon. I’m sort of scared to talk about it but I’d like to hear a professional’s viewpoint. I’m also staying an extra hour to sit with one of the youth members while she talks to her. Same one that was going through some counseling last fall.

So Mom and Heather are busy all weekend with the local Italian festival so they can’t watch the kids for our women’s conference. I think I’m just going to take the kids on Friday night. And S volunteered to keep them until Scott got up on Saturday morning. A very interesting concept and we’ll see how that one goes…I am very grateful though, I think it will be very good.

Laid back weekend

May 15, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

This weekend was nice. Friday night we stopped at the local ice cream shop with a few kids from the youth and then spent an hour or so with a blanket on our hammock. Very relaxing. Saturday I cleaned and went to the gym. The four of us went to the cafeteria for a very nice dinner Saturday night. Sunday was spent at church and in between gparent houses for Mother’s Day. I got a hot stone massage from a local spa and I plan to use that very soon.

This weekend is a women’s conference at church. I’m actually going to talk to the speaker on Thursday at one of her open counseling sessions. Still dealing with residuals from last year’s “thing” at work. I expect this weekend to be really great. But Scott is working and hopefully I can figure out childcare. I simply don’t understand why they don’t arrange childcare at our church any better.

It’s Wednesday right?

May 9, 2007 by Amy 1 Comment

Yeah, so I think about posting today and it’s Wednesday. Imagine that.

My weekend/week in a nutshell:

Went to Fest-i-fun Friday night.
Old restaurant that I’ve visited on many occassions burnt down on main street early Saturday. I’m very sad about this.
Stayed in all day Saturday and cleaned
Lexi got sick Saturday night, confirmed strep yesterday
Stayed in all day Sunday
Stayed in all day Monday and worked my butt off
Went to the doctor and gym yesterday and otherwise stayed in and worked my butt off

I’m ready for a break from kids and work. Really teetering on the edge of insanity at times.

In other interesting news, Heather and Mom saw Justin Guarini and Candace Olson at LAX on their way back from their cruise where 950 swingers were in attendance.

***Update – Justin and Candace were not together…Mom and Heather just saw them both there at different times.

Catch-up

May 2, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

What is with posting only on Wednesdays?

What’s been going on? Uhh…Saturday did a photo shoot at M’s house for a comp card. Not sure I’m totally happy with them. Have 2 shots out of 400 that I think I’m going to use.

Been working my butt off on youth group stuff. DVDs are being printed now to be handed out this weekend. Got embedded video on the web site now.

Nothing really new with the girls. Lexi talks up a storm lately. Copies everything Emma does and says. Emma is learning to add thanks to Playhouse Disney Playschool software. I gave her a set of spoons and forks and she groups them into what they ask for and adds them altogether. She does it all by herself. Lots of time doing that and she’ll be rattling off 4+6 pretty soon. Lexi is all about little princesses (Belle, Belle White, Cissarella), Peter Pan movie, and basically running around talking being silly with Emma. Can’t believe we’re halfway to 3 and 5 now. Yikes!

Catch-up

April 25, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

Hm, this might be a long post. Haven’t posted in a week now.

So this past weekend is a blur. I remember working A LOT last weekend and then finally heading to Longhorn at almsot 9pm on Friday night and then sleeping in Saturday. OH! Then I went to dinner with a bunch of kids going to prom on Saturday night! Um, yeah, I said prom. Two of the girls in the youth group I’m close to invited Scott and I and the youth pastor and his wife to dinner with them. Two couples dropped and they had room on their reservation. Last minute, they dropped out because they had no babysitter and then Scott wouldn’t go without him so it was just me. I tried to back out too but they begged me to go so I did. I felt SO lame at the house taking pictures with the others and then waving bye to all the parents when we left for dinner. But I took the role of sexy chaperone and went with it. Dinner was at Villa Antonio’s in Charlotte. And it was SO good. Definitely have to go back there with some adult couples. The dinner was actually a ton of fun. I drove back with them to the high school and D and I watched the rest of the people going in, as is our annual ritual.

Sunday was normal stuff and then the same ‘ol, same ‘ol came back this week. Nothing extravagent going on.

I’ve attempted a new tactic with Emma and the potty, creating a potty chart with new stickers. It worked once. She has one sticker on there. She has since acted like she wants to go to use it but has had at least one accident I can think of. Ugh. One day she will get this all right.

This weekend I’m going to do a mini photo shoot at M’s house with J, her husband who took the pictures from the magazine. I’m going to attempt to get 4 good pictures and make a comp card and possibly look into modeling. No lingerie or swimsuits for me, just something like I did last time in a catalog or such. I’m not getting my hopes up but it would be an extra-fun part-time job.

As for Bachelor…LOVED his picks for this week. Bevin is definitely on the top of my list of who I think he really likes although I really like Amber.

American Idol…I liked Chris and Jordin this week. I can’t believe how much better Jordin has gotten. She sort of reminds me of Kelly from the first season even though she came on stronger a little earlier. My guess is Lakisha or Chris will go though. With 6 left, I’m getting to the point where I will really miss whoever goes and Simon was right when he said the competition started last night.

Also in the works is a DVD for our youth group to hand out at our spring festival next weekend. Lots of work to do between now and then.

Day 9 complete – he’s home!

April 17, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

Yay, Daddy’s home! S and I ended up taking our two vans up to the airport to get them. We had a hard time finding it as the screen was not very descriptive of where to find arriving international flights. So Scott was headed from the opposite of baggage claim when the girls saw him. So they did the whole running to and hugging him thing. It was sweet. Lexi didn’t let him go for a good 10 minutes. Then it was back to mommy. Such a mommy’s girl.

So the trip went well. No “big stories” to tell. They were able to give about 30 packages away and go into some places no missionary has been before but I believe that was about it. Scott is horrid on details so maybe when I hear the story from someone else, it will be more dramatic. lol. He couldn’t quit talking about how beautiful the country was and how friendly everyone was.

And he brought back lots of goodies. I got 3 or 4 shirts, a dress, a skirt, a bracelet, ring and pillow covers. I was incredibly impressed he clothing shopped for me with a bunch of guys. Go Scott! I love getting stuff I can use though from trips. No random trinkets for me, thanks. He brought the girls handmade necklaces and purses. They loved their “real” necklaces.

So his parents ended up coming over here to fix dinner which worked out much better. Scott’s eyes were drooping around 7 which was 2am his time and he had been up since 4:30 am his time. Needless to say he’s been in bed. The girls kept wanting to sit with him and even wanted to lay in bed with him after he went to sleep. Lexi moreso than Emma. Sweet girls missed their daddy, that’s for sure.

Tomorrow he’s already back to work having to do the prom talk at the high school. He doesn’t actually go back on shift until Friday. So we have a little bit of time to get back in the groove of things. It’s good to have him home.

Day 7

April 15, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

So yesterday I ended up doing lots of stuff. Went to the gym, cleaned out my fridge, including above the fridge. Did lots of laundry. The kids came home around 3 and then we stayed around the house. I cooked here (again-wow). This morning of course was church and then we spent the afternoon and evening here. Easter is over and there’s no choir practice for awhile. And with S gone to Turkey, they played games at church tonight so I didn’t worry about going. I let the kids eat Dora Soup here and Heather brought me some crab alfredo from Red Lobster. Yum. my. This afternoon I also completely cleaned out our kitchen pantry. It now looks like a small grocery store it’s so organized. And also completely cleaned off that messy kitchen counter. Yay me. Scott is going to have a duck when he sees all I’ve done around here this week. I even had the cable company come fix channel 11 finally.

To be honest, this has been one of the best weeks I’ve had in quite some time. I’ve been less irritable, more patient, more productive and just peaceful. I would hate to say it is because Scott is not here. I know I’ve worked really hard to keep the house really clean. And it shows. Even A came over and said hey, this house is really clean without Scott here. Which if anyone knows us, Scott is the ultimate straighten-upper and I am not. But I have worked hard this week to pick up the slack. I’m a very neat, organized person when I try to be. But most of the time I just like to LIVE in my house. But this week, I don’t think I’ve had a dirty dish in the sink or counter for more than an hour. Every laundry basket is empty right now. I even washed some of Emma’s dress up gowns. And I mentioned how much I have cleaned out. And the girls and I have not eaten out once. Sure the family has cooked a meal or two for us but even lunches I have fixed them. And this is all without them in school…which I’ve always thought made life easier. And barebones honestly, Scott and I haven’t been around each other to fight. We don’t fight like throw things at each other fight but we’ve always called them “discussions” but really all of our “discussions” have been quite exhausting lately and not having to “discuss” every thing we do this week has been quite nice. Which I think accounts for the lack of irritability on my part. And people keep asking me if I miss Scott and I do really miss him but at the same time, I’ve had a great week and I can’t really knock that. I know the girls are starting to really miss him. I think Lexi has given up asking Where’s Daddy she’s asked so much. Today I had to give her a spanking and she called once for Daddy and then immediately called for Heather (who has been around quite a bit this week). And Emma, the first thing she asked when she woke up this morning is ask if Daddy was here. It breaks my heart to say no. Only 2 days left though and it surprises me. Heather tonight on the phone says wow, you did good this week. And I thought about that and Scott is really gone a lot. With his schedule, he’s either working or there are so many people that count on him for different things that he’s usually gone a lot on his days off. I guess I’m used to running the house without much help. I sort of picked up the “straighten up” helpfulness he usually provides and it all worked like normal. But the girls don’t have their Daddy to play with in the living room floor and I don’t have my husband to cuddle up with at night. It’s not the same but I guess part of me is pleased that I could at least run this thing by myself with two kids by myself. A 9 day trip certainly isn’t the measurement of single motherhood by any stretch of the imagination but I think if forced to do it I could. I certainly would never, ever ask for that. His time in police academy for 5 months was enough glimpse of that. And little girls need their daddy. I’m just sayin I’m proud of myself for this week. Or I’m happy someone prayed for me this week. Because if that’s it, all I’m seeing is answered prayers around here.