hello from (still) sunny and wayyyy too hot for october, california!

seriously, i'm getting heat stroke just thinking about going outside.
we are taking family pictures on sunday...in long sleeves. and it's going to be like 88 degrees. so basically we are going to melt. help me.

so a few weeks ago, when randy was out of town and my mom was in town, i was taking some trash and recycling out into the garage and I SAW A MOUSE. it was alive. and it was running.
WHAT IN THE WHAT.
i don't do bugs, snakes, or rodents. nope nope nope. i was this close to setting the house on fire and starting over.... but instead i bought bait stations. because RANDY told me to buy bait stations.
"but won't they die in our garage?"
"no, the eat the bait and get dehydrated and then go outside to look for water, they won't die in our garage."
but, SPOILER ALERT. i have FOUND TWO DEAD MICE IN MY GARAGE since then. and there are probably more that i haven't seen, you know, dead. behind boxes... like my christmas decorations that will be coming into the house in a few days....RANDY.

speaking of christmas decorations. jk. i don't really have anything to say about christmas decorations. just a gentle reminder that HALLMARK CHRISTMAS MOVIES START THIS WEEKEND.
and if you are on my level of excitement, then you already know the first new movie is called, "christmas at pemberley manor." PEMBERLEY MANOR. what?! do you know that i live on PEMBERLEY passage avenue? so basically, i have renamed my house "pemberley manor" because i can, and shall be calling it that henceforth and forevermore.

i have a really hard time thinking of gifts i might want for christmas... or my birthday that falls 5 days before christmas. usually because i don't want extravagant things, and for the small things i want, i usually just pick up at walmart on one of my multiple trips a week.
BUT, the other day i saw a commercial for a roomba vacuum that not only vacuums your house, but EMPTIES IT'S OWN CANNISTER. so basically when it docks, the dock just sucks up the cannister and you don't have to worry about a full cannister all the time. first of all, i have dreamed of having a robot vacuum for a LONG time. but honestly i really wanted to wait until they were at the top of their game, and wouldn't get stuck in the rug under the kitchen table or lost under the couch. and folks, i think we are THERE. so i got excited, thinking this might be THE birthday/christmas present i could actually ask for this year. and then all my hopes and dreams were murdered... by the $1k price tag. ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. for a vacuum. can i just say, that really...sucks. get it? because a vacuum...sucks. ok so thanks, but no thanks roomba. hard pass on the thousand dollar robot vacuum. call me when it'll do my dishes. i'd pay $1k for that.

anyway. that's about all i've got today.
signing off, from pemberley manor.

not too much new to report here! it's still blazing in bakersfield. ugh. i checked the forecast yesterday morning and saw there was a rain cloud NEXT TUESDAY!! the last time there was a rain cloud on the forecast was when my mom was in town, and it NEVER HAPPENED. so i was trying not to get my hopes up... and then i checked again yesterday afternoon and the rain cloud was already gone. WHAT?! how does that even happen? my little rain cloud turned into a sun, and that is the saddest thing ever. 

sunday after church we went to lunch with our small group to celebrate someone's birthday. we ended up sitting across the table from some friends, and presley started talking about holly. "she's my sister and she's two..." our friend looked at randy really confused, like what am i missing here? is there another child? randy had to let him know that holly wasn't REAL. he kept asking presley questions about holly, and she answered them with zero hesitation. 

does holly like waffles?- "no she likes pancakes. with no syrup."

does holly like strawberries?- "no. she likes apples."

where is holly from?- "like, all the places."

i learn something new about holly everyday, it seems. the other day when we were driving to school, i asked where holly was, and presley let me know she was sitting on my lap while i was driving. uhhh, ok. should i be worried that holly is into breaking laws? 

i've been working on starting to plan eli's birthday party for when we are in houston. it's car/truck/tractor theme, surprise surprise. we cannot even walk into a parking lot without eli pointing out every single car he sees. "car! truck! car! car! car! truck!". he tries to say excavator, but it sounds like rootbeer. idk. we went to the park a couple days ago and they were clearing some land nearby to build more homes, so there was some equipment parked in the lots. he spent half the time we were at the park pointing and shouting "tractor!" over and over and over. safe to say we are going to be visiting pawpaw's office to see all the big toys when we get to houston.

eli is really starting to get chatty. a lady working the nursery at work told me his vocabulary is really good, and that he was talking to her in sentences. i feel like presley was putting words together at like 6 weeks old (ok, maybe not that early, ha!), but i really try not to compare them. he told me a couple days ago while he was eating, "this is good mommy!" he is also picking up songs from the radio, and i'd say he's definitely a toby mac fan (or maybe he doesn't have a choice!).

well it still doesn't feel like fall, but i've decorated outside anyway. i just want to stop seeing 85+ degree days on my forecast. pleeeease.🙏🏼

i don't decorate the inside of my house for fall, because as soon as i put it up, i'd be taking it down. christmas decorations start going up as soon as hallmark christmas movies start which is OCTOBER 26!!! so the outside might be looking like fall, but inside will be christmastown in t-minus 15 days!!!!

i can't believe i haven't posted about presley starting dance! she started at the beginning of september, and she is absolutely the cutest ballerina i have EVER seen. 😍

speaking of presley, i've got a couple presley-isms to brighten your week.

"since i'm four, can i call you BB now? or how about beeb? i call my teachers 'teach'!"
she def doesn't call her teachers "teach", in case you were wondering. 🙄

"in california it's presley's world. everyone is in presley's world, right? say right."
i guess she's heard me mutter "i guess it's presleys world and we all just live in it" under my breath a few times. 😂

eli doesn't really have any "eli-isms" yet, per say. but here's what he's been spouting off lately...
"BOP!" - stop. he tells me this 800 times a day, usually when i'm wiping his face or trying to change his diaper.
"ENOUGH!" - goes hand-in-hand with "bop".
he is very very VERY into cars, trucks, tractors, dump trucks....basically anything with wheels, and is never without a car in one hand. even at the dinner table.

i've got one more "ism" for you... and it's brought to you by my dad.
 "WHY SHOULD CATS HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN A TAXPAYER?!" - bryan wise
if you're curious, you can ask him about it... unless you're the harris county commissioner of precinct 1-rodney ellis , then you've already gotten the message(s) and you know why he's so mad.😂😂

i figured i'd hop on and give a little recap of the last 3 weeks of our crazy life.

i actually turned on my computer so i could google how to get a 4 year old to stop saying the word poop every 3.5 seconds. yes, real life. a pretty little girl should not be talking about poop as much as this particular little one who happens to live in my house. ugh. is that normal? i'd expect a 4 year old eli to think poop was funny.... but my prissy girly girl? not cute.

my parents graciously came to bakersfield 3 weeks ago to watch the babies so that randy and i could go to a work thing he had in napa. we loved every minute of our trip (side note-we haven't had alone time in MONTHS.... to say this mommy/daddy only trip was MUCH NEEDED would be a tremendous understatement). we also spent some time in san francisco, so fun! 

when we got back from our trip, my parents took a few days and went to napa and san francisco as well. when they got back my dad had to go back to houston (he needed to mow, haha!), and randy had to fly off to north carolina for a different work thing for a WEEK. so my mom stayed with me and the kids, and it was basically the best week ever. she got some special time with the babies and i got some special time with her. i will never NOT need my parents... idk what they ever did to make me so obsessed with them, but i hope my kids love me this much one day. 

mom left last saturday morning and a few hours later, my sister and her kids arrived just about the same time randy got home! it was a GOOD day! 

we had so much fun with them the past few days... going back to the farm, just hanging out on the couch, and, of course, a full day of hair cuts (me, pres, and eli!) and color (for me!). her kids are just growing up so fast, so the fact that they still want to play with my babies and love on ME just makes me so happy.

anyway, i'm gonna go cry for a day or two.... i'm sure you're all used to this by now.