well friends (and by friends i definitely just mean my sister, my only reader. hi steph), we are officially (and again, by officially i mean since last june.) back in texas. like moved here. back home-ish.

we have found ourselves in spring, texas. we saw A LOT of houses, in several different neighborhoods, and ended up in one we never even glanced at...and we couldn't be happier. we LOVE our home, we love our neighborhood, our culdesac, our neighbors, the kids new school, our new church, etc etc etc. God really said (once again, because i suck at it), "trust me." 

so we are here, and we are happy. i know i already said that, but it's true! randy just got his office all situated like we've been planning and hoping to do since our very first house, with built-ins and all the things... and it's amazing. of course, that wasn't smooth sailing, but i'm trying to forget all the trauma from it and just focus on how awesome it is. 

speaking of RANDY... he turns 39 tomorrow. 39. i swear he just turned 25, like, last week and we were at a crawfish boil at his dad's shop and i bought him a whole cheesecake from the factory and some fossil sunglasses, all on my minimum wage. probably took my whole paycheck. you're welcome, randy.
now he doesn't want me to buy him anything for his birthday...something about he'd rather save the money since it's coming from his own account or something ridiculous like that.

kids are good... they're both living on antibiotics. i wish i was kidding. presley has been on every single different kind available for the past month because ear infections, strep throat, ear infections, strep, and so on and so on. eli is more of the same, except this last round of strep was really bad... fever for four days, vomit, general malaise. so he was out of school for four days last week and finally went back yesterday... only to wake up this morning at 3:45 saying "i threw up on both sides of my bed, where do i sleep now?" so cool. so fun. love doing emergency laundry in the wee hours. i kept them both home from school today and they're fine now. it's back to school tomorrow and i'm putting it out there that they will NOT MISS ANYMORE DAYS THIS SCHOOL YEAR. it's only 4 weeks. we can do it. we must do it. my mental state can't handle anything else.

i'm tired. 

sister, you're welcome for the update of everything you already know. 

bye.

SUMMER

it's officially SUMMER, and i'm officially feeling all the feelings. what is WRONG WITH ME?!

i have been practically begging for school to be over so i could stop fighting presley over homework. she finally went back to school in march, but only for 2 hours and 45 min 4 days a week. so while it was nice to have a taste of normalcy, she still had to do like HOURS of work at home afterwards. and it sucked. really really sucked. for both of us. she hated it, and i really dont blame her. sitting in front of a computer for hours after already sitting in a classroom just sounds terrible. and so she would get frustrated. and i would get frustrated. and it was like this every.single.day. but now that it's over? i'm sad. i miss our talks on the way and way home from school. we had 10 minutes of alone time to just chat with no interruptions. i loved waving to her as her class waited to walk back to their classroom. i loved seeing all her classmates. i loved waiting for her to walk out each day and her little eyes light up when they caught mine. every single day i'd ask how her day went and every single day she'd say, "it was great!" so while i'm glad to not be nagging her over getting her homework done (for a couple months anyway), i'm just a little sad that she's no longer a first grader! it just really flew by so fast.

and i'm just gonna brag a minute, because i can, and because i need to... but she did get straight A's ALL YEAR! she is also reading over her grade level, and her math skills are over grade level as well. this has absolutely ZERO to do with me (except for maybe my nagging on the homework situation), and everything to do with her angel of a teacher and presley's own responsibility as a student and eagerness to learn. we are just really really proud of her for rocking a weird weird year. KIDS ARE RESILIENT YALL.

anyway, now i'm just counting down the days til we FLY TO HOUSTON!!! my parents came and it was so so sweet, but so so short. so we decided to stay for a couple weeks! i just cannot wait to hug everyone and feel safe doing it. thank you, God, for science and vaccines!!

you'll also be happy to hear that my whole house is painted! well, except the master bath and guest bath, and only because the paint in those rooms is semi gloss and easy to clean. so we decided to just keep them as is and i'm TOTALLY ok with it. i ended up painting eli's room, most of the master, and the downstairs hallway by myself. randy and i teamed up to paint his office, and we hired out the rest. it looks so so so sossososososos much better. i also got new rugs and rearranged things...because i can't not rearrange things.

since i bragged on presley, i'll also give you an eli update. he's the silliest, sweetest, most sensitive little thing. he has a killer attitude that makes me wanna pull my hair out sometimes, but then he just cuddles up to me and is my little sour patch kid. he loves to be anywhere presley is, always has to hug and kiss me before i walk out the door, and isn't afraid to chat with strangers. he starts TK in the fall, and he and presley will be at the new elementary school in our neighborhood. we are really excited, because we've been watching it being built for the last year and it's so close! 

both the kids have been in private swim lessons since the beginning of may, and they are doing so well! it's no surprise to me that presley was able to take her safety test (jumping in with her clothes and shoes on and being able to turn over and float on her back and call for help, then get to the side safely) after like 5 lessons. she's like a little fish. eli isn't quite as far along, but he has come A LONG way. his first couple lessons were full of tears and fear. but he was able to float on his back all by himself today and really looks forward to going to the lessons!

randy is STILL working from home, and will be until august. i am really gonna miss him when he's back in the office... and then the kids will be in school... and then i'm gonna be all alone. i don't know what i'm gonna do with myself and all that free time. maybe my house will finally look clean for more than a day? maybe i'll cook dinner 5 nights a week? maybe i'll go to the gym? maybe i'll take a nap.

Painting perils

Long time, no blog... and honestly no good reason. except, this.

Hi, it’s me.

Annnyway. I actually did do something productive today. At around 3:30 I decided we should paint the kid’s bathroom. See, we’ve decided to paint our house (well, we plan to paint most of it ourselves and hire painters for the hard parts). The paint they chose when they built this house is literally the worst paint in the history of paint. First, it’s flat. flatter than flat, actually. I’m not sure why they thought painting an entire house in flat, flesh colored paint was a good idea is beyond me. I’m not kidding when I say that if you even look at it wrong, it gets marks on it. So between my kids who, (despite the fact that i tell them 100 billion times a day NOT to do it) color/paint/draw/etc. on the walls, and the fact that a mark will appear if you cough too hard near the ugly flat paint, we NEEDED this. We decided to do start back in December, and it was mostly because our neighbors just finished painting their whole house on their own and it looked SO NICE...and a little because Presley had made Vaseline handprints on her walls not long before. So here we are, we have successfully finished painting ONE WHOLE ROOM!!! We painted Presleys room back in December and have sat on 5 gallons of paint since then, with big hopes and dreams of painting all the other bedrooms and bathrooms since. And here’s the best part...I HATE painting. Loathe it. I immediately regret doing it as soon as i start. So is the kid’s bathroom done? Nope. Of course not. did randy get his part done? Yep. Do i have way more work to do tomorrow. Also yep.

I mostly just want to get all the paint knocked out before my parents come in April....that’s right, MY PARENTS ARE COMING IN APRIL!!! I am just beside myself, I’m so excited! I last got to see and hug my parents last March, when they were here visiting and left early to get home because the pandemic was just starting. I never in my life imagined a time where a year would go by without seeing my family, but here we are... and I’m so thankful that it wasn’t longer. I am really hoping Randy and I can get vaccinated before summer so that we can make a trip to texas and see everyone else... I really really really miss my sister (and not just because i am desperate for a haircut, because i am, but because she’s my bff and i just miss being near her!)

So that’s my update. I mean, yes, a lot has happened since last summer when I last opened this blog, and maybe I’ll get to that next time.

P.s. I am writing this from my new iPad that my sweet loving husband bought me! I have been learning new fun things in Procreate, and also got this nifty case with a built in keyboard/trackpad that makes me want to write more. I didn’t deserve this expensive and fancy machine, and I don’t deserve my husband, but I am so thankful for both! So maybe expect more blogging, fingers crossed I don’t get too busy 😂

the month after the last day of kindergarten.

well. a lot has happened since the night before kindergarten... that includes the actual first day of kindergarten, and the last day of kindergarten, and all those days in between. oh, and a GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

what a crazy few months this has been. my mind and my emotions have been all over the place, from one extreme to the next.
i've been really sad-- presley's kindergarten year is OVER. she missed fun things like field trips, easter egg hunts, class parties, and all the excitement of the last day of school. she has no idea all the stuff she missed, but i know. and i hurt for her. also, dance classes, and therefore dance recital, were cancelled. we got to pick up the precious costume, with no dance to show for it. another ache in my heart.
and to top it all off, my parents were supposed to be here for a couple weeks at the end of may. now who knows if we will even be able to see them until next year, or worse? all the unknowns scare me.
i worry about our families back in texas. i worry for friends who are going through hard times, and we can't physically do anything. and i worry about all the political and racial divides our country is facing. we need unity more than ever.
i've also been really happy-- we've spent more time together as a family than ever. randy has been working from home every single day, and to be honest, i love having him here. i love knowing that we are all under the same roof, safe and sound. we have gotten into a routine, a new normal for the time being. i've always been a homebody, and being forced to stay home really doesn't bother me at all.
even though they've missed fun things they would have been able to do if things were normal, the kids seem to be really happy and unphased through it all. they are troopers. they are so resilient and flexible, and i'm so thankful they are the ages they are...i think that has a lot to do with it. we have also been able to spend time with our neighbors. we have had biweekly dinners, and even a trip to santa barbara.

i'm anxious to see what happens next. i know God has a plan, and none of this is a surprise to him. i just pray that it ends soon and we can take the lessons we've learned and move forward to be better and do better and love each other more.

twas the night before kindergarten

and i am NOT the pinterest mom i thought i'd be.

no books were read about the first day of school. no special "jitter glitter" was placed under her pillow. (but like, who thought of this? you'll be finding glitter in their hair or in their bed for the next 23 years. no thanks.) we just hugged really tight and gave extra kisses.
i reminded her of how special she was and how proud i was of her. i told her that even though mommy and daddy wouldn't be with her at school, she had someone in her heart, ALWAYS--she will never be alone. and she said, "JESUS!" i hope she always remembers that, forever and ever.
when i was leaving her room i hugged her and the tears were flowing(for me, not her!). she sweetly said, "i don't want to let go! i need to give you love for tomorrow!" and my heart broke completely and i let her daddy swoop in so i could go sob in my room.

i'm just struggling with all the feelings. so so so many emotions. happy and excited mixed with sad and scared. tomorrow is going to be hard, like, really hard. but we will all do great and God has great plans for both of us.

i haven't been sleeping well for the last week, because of all of this on my mind... so i took some unisom...two hours ago...and i'm still awake, sooooo....

here's a pic of my girl today at meet the teacher!

ok, wow. sorry. 2 months is a long time to go with no life updates, my bad.

it's 7pm, the kids are already asleep, i'm in my jammies, in bed. it kinda feels like vacation!

first thing's first....we are 1 MONTH AND 1 DAY away from the first day of kindergarten. yall just pray for me. i am not ready. 😭

yesterday we visited our second beach in california, santa barbara! (we visited our very first beach, cambria, when my mom was in town in may! it was BEAUTIFUL and the town itself was the cutest!)
anyway, santa barbara did NOT disappoint. how lucky are we that we live 2.5 hours from these beautiful places?! besides the fact that we all got extra crispy, it was the best day. we met our neighbors there and the kids played on the beach for HOURS. it was windy and cool (hence why i forgot about sunscreen for the first half of the day), but so beautiful. presley loved the waves and running around in the water. eli loved playing in the sand. and i loved watching them! we unintentionally brough 18lbs of sand home...and once you see the pics you will understand how. 😂

i think randy would want you to know that he doesn't typically wear cardigans, but he was very cold at lunch and i thought i'd be a gentleman and ask if he wanted to borrow my cardigan and he surprisingly said yes 😂😂


the kids finished up swim lessons on thursday. we took them at CSUB, and the sweetest little college swim team girls taught them. eli hated it the first week and would cry the whole time. by the second week he was fine and happy but didn't learn a thing. ha! he isn't really into swimming.... he's happy to just sit on the steps and play with toys. presley, on the other hand, did great! she got a lot of one on one attention and was able to learn a lot! she is still going to be using her puddle jumper this summer, but i think after another round of lessons next year she will be a pro!

we also had a very fun 4th of july! the night before we drove over to shafter to watch the big fireworks show with our neighbors. (can you tell how much we love our neighbors?!) the next day we went over to our pastors house for bbq and a little bit smaller firework show!

 

and i'll leave you with this... we got presley's recital pic back and I'M OBSESSED!!

grab some snacks and drinks, this is gonna be a long one.

first of all, i completely meant to shout this from the computer rooftops one week ago, but here we are. a week late. 

HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY RANDALL!!

if eli had more hair, they would legit be twins. same exact smile!

i had all intentions of making a post dedicated to how wonderful and great this guy is, but i just wrote it all in his birthday card instead. (i was also kinda salty because he left on monday to go to orlando on a work trip for a 5 days!)

so randy got back today. this trip just came out of the blue, and his boss really needed him to go. but you should also know that i HATE being home by myself at night. i get really worried someone is going to break in my house or kidnap us or something equally ridiculous. so i was not looking forward to this week AT ALL. i thought at worst, i would just be dealing with my anxiety when the sun went down, and maybe a little exhaustion from being a single mom all week. oooh no. this week KICKED MY BUTT.

first of all, presley got a stomach bug on saturday morning. lovely, right? she wasn't feeling well all day, but sunday she seemed to be totally fine so we went to church and our home group as usual. she even swam in their pool that night! but monday morning around 10:30 presley's school called to tell me she wasn't feeling well. i went and picked her up and she ended up vomiting ALL AFTERNOON. then it started coming out both ends...she literally told me, "i have throw up coming from my hiney!" i know! i know! gross, tmi. 

ughhhhhhhhhhhhh. oh, also, eli had diarrhea for like four days too. 

so add a sick (really the worst kind of sick, tummy bug!) kid to the mix, and this already anxiety filled week just got even more so.

and then on tuesday morning it got even worse. my sister texted a picture that a neighbor had sent of her street completely flooded.... like water already in their driveways, flooded. i immediately called her to see what was going on. i didn't even know it was raining in houston, let alone, flash flooding. when i talked to her she was trying to get into her neighborhood to go let her dog inside. well, fast forward a couple hours and the water started coming into her house. and she got stuck in there. by herself. with no power. the whole day i'm literally on the phone with either her, or my parents trying to get more information. i was worried SICK (also, literally sick with a bad bad cold.). she ended up with 18 inches in her house and wasn't rescued until like 8pm. they pretty much lost everything. obvious things like furniture...but also things you don't really think about, like all her christmas decorations. 

my sister is the one who is always helping everyone else. (side note, she saved up all her tips after hurricane harvey and donated them to some of her customers that were flooded!) she is constantly thinking about what she can do for other people...she is always giving her time, money, and resources out, but rarely asks for help herself. so even though this wouldn't be even close to easy for anyone to deal with, i know she's struggling under that strong and calm exterior because she is having to rely on others for a change. i love my sister so much, and am so proud and blessed that she is mine. it is really killing me to be so far from her during such a crazy and difficult time. i can't wait to see her next month and squeeze her so tight. (also, when we go to texas we are all going to be in the same house for 2 weeks, and i'm kinda excited that she will be forced to hang out with me, every.single.day.)

anyway, so after that my week just kinda flew by. i was totally in survival mode, but God got me through it. presley finally went back to school today, and then randy got home and now i have a minute to breathe. my kids are both healthy, we are all under the same roof again, and my sister and her family are safe with my parents... and even though i'm still snotty i finally have peace.