valentine’s day 2018

another valentine’s day has come and gone.
not a holiday that’s terribly important in our house, but i like that it’s an occasion for randy to spoil his princess presley. he has gotten her a disney princess movie each year since she was 1 and that’s a fun little tradition. i hope this will eventually turn into a daddy/daughter date night as she gets older. i pray she will see how her dad treats and respects her and ME, and will find a godly husband one day that treats her like the angel she is! and i pray that her brother will emulate his daddy’s behavior and become a godly, loving, and loyal husband.

we started the day with pink pancakes... eli ate at least 12 (silver dollar sized). presley wasn’t far behind. girl LOVES her some syrup. after that we had an incident which you probably don’t want to hear about, but for the sake of preserving memories, here is the shortened version. presley had to potty (#2) and eli follows her wherever she goes. next thing i know presley is calling out to me “eli got poopoo on the toilet.” sparing lots of details here, i’ll let your imagination lead you... but baths immediately followed.

after baths we took a trip to target and took daddy a treat to work. side note-the kids and i got randy socks with our faces on them for valentine’s! he’s known for his loud socks, so this was the perfect gift, in my humble opinion.

we ended the night with daddy bringing home balloons for the kids and hamburgers for mom. win!
we also facetimed gigi & pepaw, and grammy & papal.

the quest to find the perfect grocery store continues.
i tried another store last week, “foods co”, which is a kroger brand. i got a little too excited because kroger is FAMILIAR and i NEED familiar.
well, upon walking in and wondering around, foods co is NOT a winner. it’s not even a competitor. it was like a discount Kroger type store? maybe? i’m not sure? not that i have any qualms with discount stores, but i NEED a deli counter. i like freshly shaved deli meat and that may be my grandma coming out in me, but it just tastes better. and “foods co” had no deli counter, no meat counter, and it was also kinda dark. and, of course, i forgot my reusable bags. and, of course, they were $.15 at the “discount store”. something just isn’t adding up here. good thing i only needed two, or i woulda gone broke.

at this point i’m doing the majority of my shopping at trader joe’s and walmart neighborhood market.
i love tj’s because i can pick up fresh flowers and vanilla joe-joe’s and the produce is usually the best. but can we talk about their miniature buggy’s? no, not the kid sized ones. the actual buggy’s they have for adults. they are not enough for a mother with two kids that needs ALL THE THINGS. presley has to sit in the basket part, and she is always complaining because the milk is touching her or  she’s kicking the bejesus out of the kettle corn. or she’s standing up saying “i’m so stuck in here!” 🙄
i also have major issues with the fact that there is ONE SINGLE BUGGY RETURN in the whole parking lot. and it’s in the very back. literally next to the street. i am very very passionate about returning my buggies to the return and i will give some major side eyes to all the lazy people who don’t use them. you just walked for 30 whole minutes around the grocery store with your sweet little buggy, but suddenly when you get to the parking lot it’s like you’re disgusted by its capabilities and you must dump it as quickly as possible. propping it’s wheels onto a nearby curb??? people! it takes like 20 seconds at most. unless you’re at the trader joe’s in bakersfield. then it takes 500 minutes to walk to the back of the parking lot or back up to the front of the store with a baby on your hip and a death grip on your running toddlers arm/shirt collar (“mom! i’m choking”!) to return it, BUT I DO IT because i have a soul.
whew. that went in a direction i wasn’t anticipating.

there is an empty lot across the street from our neighborhood and i’m really hoping it becomes an acceptable grocery store. it’ll never be an heb, which is disheartening, but i’m hoping for a legit kroger at least. but, just in case, if anyone happens to see scott mcclelland, tell him to call me, ok?
and if anyone is wants to mail me some heb staples including, but not limited to, the bare bread (it’s crustless and it has like a six month shelf life and it makes the perfect pbj’s and grilled cheeses for my kids), and the heb brand jalapeño chips... well, i’d be really really happy.

moving on from grocery store business, a lot of people have asked literally not one person has asked, but my bottom is still bruised. i haven’t fallen again, so that’s a step (get it) in the right direction.

and just for fun, here’s a list i’ve been keeping mentally.

bakersfield cons.

• no local channels on directvnow. except cbs. but i’m not my parents and don’t watch any of those terrible crime shows. so this does me no good. i just want to watch the olympics with the rest of the world. 
• it’s not texas.
• grocery stores suck.
• where is an ikea?
• i miss my family.
• the air quality is terrible.
• i need TEXmex. 

bakersfield pros. 

• the weather is amazing. for now. 
• the sunsets are the most beautiful.
• i can see mountains from my kitchen window when the air quality is good, so like once a month.
• target is like, 6 minutes away, door to door.

so i’ll keep this list running. can’t believe it’s almost been a month since we moved here!

also, i’m going to get this out, because i haven’t told anyone yet and i need to let my secret breathe....
i cried watching kylie jenner’s baby video. not just teary-eyed... like, full on crying. i don’t even keep up with the kardashians or follow them on instagram, but i got sucked into the video somehow and i cried like she was my sister. i am going to blame this on “being a mom”. and if you’re judging me right now, i don’t even blame you, just please don’t tell me 🙈

super bowl sunday and regular monday.

over here in the pacific time zone, the game started at 3:30 (stupid!)... so, surprise! i didn’t watch it. i was too busy cooking, feeding the kids, and cleaning up the aftermath in my kitchen. i did, however, lean my head in that direction to see JT perform. i was really hoping for an *nsync reunion, so imagine my disappointment. 

forget what i said about the super bowl starting at 3. i changed my mind(and i’ll give bakersfield it’s point back). because i was in bed at 8! i know who won, for the record i was pulling for the eagles, and i was IN BED, face washed, and tylenol pm’d at EIGHT. i would have watched This Is Us with the rest of the world, but Directv Now doesn’t have local channels in bakersfield ( MINUS 1, bakersfield). 

randy had to go to houston for a short 1 night trip today. cue me freaking OUT. i hate hate hate hate staying in the house without him. i have freaked myself out so bad by watching neighborhood activity in my ring doorbell app. i’m so glad the only person who reads this blog is my sister, so no one here locally knows i’m in the house alone (with my kids!). 😂

so here i am, watching This Is Us in bed, with a box of vanilla joe-joe’s to console me. because somehow i forgot to eat dinner and this was all that i could find in the panch (what presley calls the pantry). i really love this show, even though it shatters my heart every. single. episode. it’s like the creators are sadists or something. idk. but besides the obvious that jack is everyone’s favorite character, my runner up is definitely randall’s wife, beth. i think i can relate because we are both married to a randall, but i also love her witty comebacks and side-eyes. same, girl. same. 

oh, also. mom of the year, over here. i put eli down for bed tonight and left the light on in his room. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME. i felt terrible when i looked at the monitor... an hour later. 🤦🏼‍♀️ but he was so tired that he passed out somehow. i did get to see his sweet sleeping face, which might be my favorite thing. 

true story... i sometimes sneak in and take pictures of them when they’re sleeping. it’s like, no matter how crazy they made me during the day, seeing them calm and peaceful just makes all those crazy moments disappear. i forget ‘em all.