Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Life Lately: Hurricane Irma Edition

Whew!  You guys, it has been a week that felt like a month!  Hurricane Irma came through and really put us through the ringer!  Here's what our life lately has looked like:

In preparation for the hurricane, I got my book stash ready.  When I showed Matt, he asked what I was going to read after the first 24 hours - haha.


Despite the grammar and spelling mistakes, I saw this on facebook and it made me laugh so hard.  This is what it has felt like lately!  Did you see the news about the tiger in Atlanta??  You can read it here!

We were tracking the weather pretty hardcore starting about the Wednesday before the hurricane was supposed to hit.

Ya'll - the hurricane memes were cracking me up!



Grammy and Pop took Cooper to lunch at Chick-Fil-A on Friday, and they said there were quite a few people from Florida there.  A family from Florida was sitting next to them, and they had their pet bird with them.  Cooper is usually pretty skeptical about birds, so Matt and I were so surprised when we saw these pictures!



Unintentional twinning at Friday recess!

We were supposed to go to the football game Friday night, but it got cancelled.  They closed all south bound lanes on the interstate and made them all north bound to help the people from Florida get out faster.  This meant that the team we were supposed to play (from more north in Georgia) couldn't get into town for the game!  Instead, we decided to go to The Mill for pizza and games.  Cooper has been earning stickers based on some issues at school (someone has decided that he's too busy playing on the playground to stop and go to the potty), and he had earned his reward.  We knew he wanted The Mill, so we decided to surprise them and go!

He's got his money for tokens!


He scored big on the tickets!

LL enjoyed benefiting from Cooper's earned prize.

Grammy and Pop bought us some donuts -- and Matt and I decided they were considered "perishable" and needed to be eaten first.  :)

Oh - you know.  Just heading right for us.

We spent most of Saturday at home getting some storm prep done.  We cleaned up the yard and put away everything that could possible be damaged or go flying during the storm.  We also picked all of the sweet potatoes from the garden that Matt planted in the spring!

We were supposed to have a big family lunch at Grammy and Pop's house on Sunday.  Since the storm would be hitting late Sunday afternoon, we moved it to Saturday at dinner.  We went over there as soon as Cooper was up from his nap, and we were in for a BIG surprise.  LL finally decided that she wanted to learn how to ride a bike!  LL is definitely one of those kids that has to do things on her own time and when she's ready (I can't imagine who that sounds like).  Matt and I realized a long time ago that we were probably not going to have a bike rider in LL.  We had tried so many different times before, and she was just completely not interested.  Grammy and Pop bought the kids new bikes about a week ago, and they told LL that they were not buying her one with training wheels.  Well, she got it in her head that she was going to learn, and she literally was riding by herself two days later!  Here's a video of her learning to ride!

Look at this girl go!

I may have had to save her life a few times - haha.  But she's doing it!

I felt like this was going to be me after eating all of our hurricane snacks.

Both kids absolutely adore Aunt Roiane!

Cooper has been allllll about putting some puzzles together lately!  It is his favorite thing right now!

Sunday was all about some storm prep.  We were pretty confident that we would lose power late Sunday/early Monday, so we did as much to prepare for that as possible.  Step one: move LL's mattress to our master closet.  It's the only room in the center of the house, so I just felt safer moving the kids in there.  LL's room has a huge window right next to her bed, and I was pretty nervous about something flying through it.

I also tried to cook as much as I could while we still had power.  First up: cookies!  (I ordered these from Amazon after hearing lots of people rave about Swig cookies.  They weren't lying - these were amazing!)

Next: mini muffins!

Last: a ham!  Last year we split a pig with Zach and Emily.  We've had this ham in the freezer for forever and decided to cook it up.  I'm crazy and didn't realize that it wouldn't turn out like a HAM (because - duh - it hadn't been cured and all that).  But I cooked it in the crock-pot, Matt pulled all the fat and bones out, and it made some amazing BBQ!

These Swig cookies did not disappoint!

I saw this on facebook and thought it was so neat/creepy!  Maleficent has showed up to the Magic Kingdom!

I snuggled with the kids for a little while before they went to sleep.  They were excited about their sleepover in the closet!

Ha!  Truth!

I checked on the kids before I went to sleep and they were out!

Our power went out at 4:00 am and it woke both me and Matt up.  With it so quiet in the house (no ac and no fans), I couldn't go back to sleep and just laid there listening to the wind.  Around 4:45 Cooper woke up scared because it was waaay more dark than he's used to.  I crawled in with the kids and laid with Cooper until he went back to sleep.  We spent the rest of the day at home (duh - we weren't going anywhere).  Thankfully, I had a list of things to pull out for the kids to play with during the day - coloring, puzzles, playdough, etc.  LL took over this corner of the living room and made it her own.

The next morning most of the wind and rain was gone, so we decided to get out of the house.  Grammy and Pop didn't have power either, but they had a generator for some of their appliances, lights, and the tv (priorities - haha).  We unloaded our freezer and took everything there so it wouldn't go bad.

After we had been there for a few hours, some neighbors posted to our neighborhood facebook page that the power was back on.  Woohoo!  After 30 hours, I was ready for a SHOWER!  Matt and I left the kids at Grammy and Pop's to go home, shower, and get the house back to normal after the storm.

The boys had previously scheduled haircuts and since the salon had power, we kept the appointment.

So much better!

Even though we had power, lots of people around us didn't.  Matt had to head back to work, but school was cancelled again that day for all of us.  The kids and I stayed home and just hung out for the day.


Still working through my goal of 100 books in 2017!

Cooper's school opened back up on Thursday, but school was cancelled again for me and LL.  We dropped Cooper off at school (a rare treat for us!).

After we dropped Cooper off, LL and I went to the gym and then the library before picking him up again!

Once again, Cooper had school on Friday, but LL and I didn't.  Matt took Cooper to school because they were having Donuts for Dads!

Is this not adorable??


The kids sang two songs for the dads.  Here's a video of the "Tootie Ta" song, and here's a video of a song called "How Big You Are".

I'm in love with the picture that Cooper drew of Matt!

Saturday morning snuggles in bed!
We spent the day around the house again on Saturday.  This picture cracks me up.  Lovie (the cat) was under the chair and Cooper was playing with her - haha.

 I woke up on Sunday feeling pretty crummy, so I spent most of the day in bed.  I did make myself get out of bed for a little while in the afternoon to find that my boys had washed my car!

Hurricane Irma really threw us for a loop and it turned out to be a pretty crazy week!  But we were really blessed that we were safe, we didn't have damage to our property, and our power was out a lot less than some around us.  


Wednesday, September 13, 2017

August Randoms

Now that summer is over (boo!), and I'm not doing weekly recaps anymore, we're back to the end-of-the-month randoms post!  Here is all of the random things we were up to in August:


When your bff's toddler facetimes you and his mom has no idea.  :)

When I was back at school for pre-planning, the kids got to spend time with all of the grandparents.  While LL was at Gigi's, Gigi bought her one of those rubber band bracelet making kits AND learned how to do it so that she and LL could make bracelets.  It was so so so cute and sweet.

Crazy kids!

Rock painting outside at Gigi's!

While LL painted, Cooper swam.


It didn't take long for LL to give up crafts and jump in the pool!

Gigi and Poppy took the kids to one of their favorite lunch places - Waffle House!


Every August also means kids' sales!  And kids' sales means Steak-n-Shake afterwards.  ;)

Cooper got to spend a day alone at Gigi's - and he didn't look like he had a terrible time.  Pool...

...popsicles...

...and a nap! (side note - doesn't he look so long?!)

Even though life is a lot busier now that school is back in, I still fit in a trip to the gym when I can!


Weekends are for cuddles!

This book was a long read, and it took me a little bit to really get into it, but I ended up loving it.

Anybody else have the game "Googly Eyes"?  These glasses on the kids crack me up!


Back to the grind means back to normal clothes - haha.

Ya'll.  2017 has been the year of the house issues for us.  We still have so many "problems" on our list of things to fix and the year isn't over.  Ugh.  We spent a lot of the month dealing with damage to our garage due to termites.  It ended up being a huge issue that is now (thankfully) fixed.

In the middle of the termite junk, we realized we had a leak in the pipes under out tub.  And they didn't put in an access door.  So Matt had to cut into our tub and make one.  Can we say "stressful"??

LL has this cat blanket that I'm sure she wouldn't be happy to know that Cooper is playing with once she leaves for school - haha.


This boy loves to ride his bike (a very big change from his sister)!

Poppy was literally at our house every day helping Matt with the garage.  We literally couldn't have fixed this without him!


Cooper randomly wanted a picture with his library book one morning - haha.



This was actually book #49!  I always love James Patterson -I'm half way through the Michael Bennett series right now.


I love that I've started getting my "happy morning" pictures every day again!


Matt went to pick Cooper up one afternoon and found him doing this...  :)

This is my current favorite sushi (and it's from Publix!)  It's the brown rice shrimp tempura.  So.  Good.

While all of the construction around the house stressed me out, Cooper was in absolute heaven!




Now that we have our own pool, we fit in pool time whenever we can!




Lorelai loves her some Logan!

Cooper wanted LL to pick him up like she did to Logan - haha.

We had to run by Wal-Mart after church one Sunday.  They were having a bake sale out front, and we let both kids pick out a treat.  Cooper got a cupcake in a cone - and I'm happy to say it was mess free in my car!

I put this up on IG stories - we ended up going with #3 (and are still in the process of painting).

The garage is DONE (except for trim).

Cooper has been alllll about some puzzles lately.  He has this huge Ninja Turtles one that he puts together on a daily basis BUT...


...this was the first time he did it 100% on his own!

#theseareafewofhisfavoritethings

On the day that the eclipse happened, LL and I had 1/2 day of school.  We went to Grammy's after school to have an "eclipse party".  The highlight??  Eclipse cookies!











MeeMee came over for the party, too!




Eating our hard work - haha.




Cooper has been loving Lola lately - doesn't she look like she is enjoying the snuggles??  Haha.


My name is a beast for 6th graders every year -- but this was a new one.  It made me laugh!  Mol-A-can . :)

One day the second week of school, Cooper started feeling pretty bad.  We were pretty sure it was strep (he had it a lot last year and the symptoms were the same), so Matt took him to a walk-in one afternoon.  It turned out not to be strep, but to be croup.  Ugh!  He hasn't had it for several years, so I really thought he had grown out of it.  Remember the time we ended up at the ER on Christmas Eve?

Waiting on medicine, feeling terrible, but happy to find a rock!

The whole thing ended up being a fiasco, but the doctor didn't have the meds we needed and he started us on a medicine track that no one else in town could complete (except for the ER).  Long story short, it was pretty scary and there was a high concern for Cooper's breathing during the night.  We did something we've never done in Cooper's 5 years of life - we put him in the bed with me so I could monitor him.  The Momma Bear in me spent most of the night awake and making sure he was breathing.  I may or may not, at one point, but checking his pulse rate.  #anxiousmomma . He ended up doing fine during the night and sleeping a lot better than me!

Cooper's biggest hobby this month?  Catching butterflies!



A is for Alligator hat!

Matt and I had a date night one Friday night.  On our agenda was to find me something to wear to an 80's party the next day.  We went to Goodwill (for the first time in my life) and Matt insisted that I had to try this on before we bought it and left.  It was terrifying for two reasons - one: it was at Goodwill and not washed, and two: I seriously thought I was stuck in this dress and going to have to get Matt to crawl under the door and get me out!  Thankfully, this desperate woman got herself out!

We met Kayla and Andrew out for a double-date!

Kayla had seen me at school, so he knew what I was wearing.  I didn't go home before we went out to dinner (and she did) so she showed up to dinner twinning with me!  Stripes, skinnies, and MK sandals for the win!

It's not date night until you get ice cream!  Even if we did sit in the Sonic drive thru for 20 minutes to get melted ice cream with none of our toppings - haha.

After our date, we picked the kids up and came home to find this tiny snake.  Yuck!

Our town has a new aerial yoga studio, and Kayla and I have been talking about going since we heard about it.  We finally bit the bullet and signed up for a class!  We ended up loving it!  We will both for sure be going back!


It's hard to be zen with all that blood rushing to your head - haha.

This one was my favorite!  You had to do a complete flip to get into it.  It was called "The Vampire"!

The girl in the pink is doing the first part of the flip, and I'm in the back in the grey doing whole flip.

It was such a fun morning!

That night we had an 80's party to celebrate Casey turning 30!

Our 80's squad!


Rocking our 80's shades!

Of course we had to take a million pictures all over the restaurant.  My fav - haha.


...and one with the waiter.

It was a fun night out with my girls!



I found this cookie making kit when I was grocery shopping.  Cooper was so excited.

They ended up being super gross - haha.


These were definitely not gross!


More snuggle time with Lola!





I am so excited for Emily and her family (you can read their good news HERE)!

Shenanigans at school are starting early this year!

Right after Cooper got over the croup, LL came down with the crud.  Cooper told Matt (all on his own) that LL needed a balloon and flowers to make her feel better.  They showed up with flowers for both of us!  We have such sweet boys!



That is a wrap for August!!