Senior Prom

Matt and I found coconut cream Dr Pepper which is my fav version! I sent this pic to the marrieds.

Jeanne sent me this one back.  🩵🥥🩵 

We had our Disney lunch Saturday at 12 sharp. We’ve been each pulled different directions lately, so it was very scheduled this week.. 

We watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and I gotta say, probably my least favorite so far. I think the business of the day contributed to that, but that movie dragged on and on. 

The Brie bites were surprisingly good, but the apple juice mocktail was v meh, and so were the apple hand pies. Some weeks be that way. 

I got my most generous pta donation in all my many years of pta’ing Saturday afternoon. This is over $200! I was so impressed and I’m always so grateful for every donation - small or large. 

Delaney has been complaining of not feeling well. She missed school Friday and tried to miss church today. She is congested, but really? I don’t know. She dances a lot and wakes up early, and I know she stays up reading sometimes. We had a little chat today about better health choices. Anyways, she mostly relaxed all day Saturday. I kind of love finding my kids in cozy little nests reading, but within reason. 

Saturday was Adi’s senior prom. Ahhhh!

So glad the rain held off so we could take pictures. 

Lily found this cute park that we had to ourselves and also had some poses ready. 

We loved that they each had different vibrant dress colors. 

They were such easy models, just went along with all our suggestions. 

Even when I made them prance to look like they were walking. 

I mean, sort of. 🤷‍♀️

This girl. ❤️

Too cool.

They went to Cracker Barrel for dinner and then stayed till prom ended, even though they played a ton of rap. 

They petitioned for a sleepover and really they are such good girls that we let them. 

So this morning we met up at Darrow’s at 10:30 for a brunch. 

She’s making fun of me here because I asked her to be a little more straight and just less… curvy?

Back to brunch - Alecia made waffles and stuffed French toast and i made a sausage egg bake and fruit and it was a nice little gathering. 

I checked in with my nursery friends and primary looked covered, so I went to RS for the first time since I got released in February. Amber was called as the new RSP (called it!) and Brenda was there, so it was a lovely time. 

#crazies 👇🏻 

Matt and Nate left for the airport right after church. Nate invited Matt to a men’s retreat called A Warriors Heart in Arizona and I encouraged him to say yes, so that is his birthday present. Amber and I are so excited for them and I keep teasing him that he’s going to come home with a warriors heart, but for reals I hope this is a learning and bonding and healing experience for them. 

The girls and I played some jackbox and read and had a really good Come Follow Me sesh. We love Matt but also girl time is so fun too. 

Good news for the just minded

Woke up to an email from our credit card insurance that they’ve approved our $2000 car rental claim. Phew, that is such a relief, and also, I wish they’d stand up to the lying liars at the rental company and not pay them. 

To that end, Matt and I spent a few hours making calls. We escalated our complaint with Hopper (after they denied any further action) and they’ll be escalating with Maxx Rentals and we also filed a complaint with Routes. I just don’t understand how you can rent with someone, pay up front, and then have a total bait and switch upon arrival. 

Anyway, Hopper refunded us $115 - 1/2 the cost of our rental, so that’s another win. And I did a little more digging into filing an official Better Business Bureau type complaint within Europe. We love Croatia and it’s such a bummer some people are so dishonest. And I know it’s not only there, it really feels like car rental companies are full of land mines for fraudsters.

It was senior skip day, and Adi asked, but we just missed 4 days around Spring Break. And she’s got so few days left of school. We compromised and they skipped seminary. 🤷‍♀️ They haven’t missed much. 

After all that, Delaney ended up staying home. She dances 4 days a week and she complains frequently about achey knees and back and etc. Today it was a sore throat, which is hopefully just due to allergies. 

I dropped Frankie at drivers ed, picked up Delaney, Matt, and Olivia, dropped the girls at dance, and then Matt and I ran all the errands. We had to hustle to get back to Leonardtown in time to pick Frankie up at 8:30. We got some good deals, some teacher appreciation supplies, and some things matt’ll need for his upcoming trip. 

We also did our Japanese yum box which was no one’s favorite, but I would really still love to go to Japan someday.

Nothing really

Some people talk about not being able to stay home because they’re bored, and for the life of me I don’t understand. Not even that I’m super busy, but I can always always find things to do.

Delaney wore her “I love my grandson” shirt from the thrift store to school today, though I don’t know if she took her sweatshirt off at all.

I drove a full 2 hours split into 30’ish minute increments from the high school to drivers ed to dance. 40% done with drivers ed. 🙌🏼 

Coming home, again

Sweet Henners had his ear tag removal Monday morning, so I was on Mimi duty to get the boys to school. We had some time to color before we left and Carter was being weird with pictures again. 

See, everyone’s happy. 

Carter got dropped off first. We listened to Disney songs on YouTube and had fun seeing which song would come up next. These boys are so smart and loving, I’m so happy we get to see them again next month for Adi’s graduation. 

As soon as we dropped Carter off Emmett said “so sometimes when we drop Carter off, mommy and I get hashbrowns at McDonald’s. So what do you think?” 🤣 So then I asked him how many he usually gets and he said “ usually 1, but I could probably eat 2,” amd I said “could you?” and he very seriously answered “I am almost seven years old.” 🤣 And he was right, he ate those two right up. 

They brought home a very happy very sleepy baby boy right around 10. I had big plans for the morning, but ended up only making dinner (and brownies) and not going for a run or showering. I gave kisses when they got home and headed out when Henry went down for his 4 hour nap. Sweet baby. First stop, buccees, but only for gas and not goodies.

I hit traffic once and it happened to be while I was chatting with chris, so he looked it up for me and saw that it would only last 10 minutes. So it was a very easy drive. I’m just over driving for awhile. 28 hours solo driving spread over 8 days. I love road trips, I just need a lil break. 

I got home, got my shower, and got in bed. At like, 7. 🤣 It all caught up to me. I had planned to go to inklings Tuesday, but then Matt headed into work and I got busy with my teacher appreciation signup genius and unpacking so I stayed home. I resumed my driving duties both yesterday and today. Frankie has a friend that lives with her sister so we’ve been helping get her to drivers ed, which is such a pain. Drivers ed, not helping Frankie’s friend. 30% done today. 

I’ve been wanting to take apart my can organizer and clean it and reorganize the cans and today was the day. It’s been over 10 years, so I think it was time. 

Other tasks done today. Closer to ordering Adi’s grad announcements, Damian’s birthday present, and being prepared for teacher appreciation week. Bought airline tickets for Frankie and I to go to Portland for Educators Rising. Made crunchwraps for dinner. Dropped ballet carpool, picked up Airabella, and dropped the drivers ed girlies. Listened to some church communications calling stuff. General housework. And a nap because I’m still feeling pretty travel tired. The graduation announcement picture 👇🏻 

May is gonna start with a bang and I’m trying hard to be ready for it.

Zootopia

 I found these cool compartment containers for Mimi snack surprise and brought them with me to SC for the boys. I made them up to take to church and the boys were stoked!

Emmett initially was like for sure I’m going to church with Mimi, and then on Sunday morning Carter decided to come, and Emmett started getting cold feet. In the end they flipped a coin and came with me. They were so good during sacrament meeting and then so excited to see friends in their classes! Carter saw Parker while we walked down the hall and they hugged and Carter was like - peace out, mimi! Parker told their teacher “His name is Carter that starts with “car,” and my name is Parker that starts with “park,” so Park Car.”

We also ran into the kids of their piano teacher and they gave big hugs and loves and everyone was happy so I went to my own class. 

Then after church a million kids ran around the green outside the church. So many pregnant women, so many littles. It’s a military ward. And then they were connected to tell me about Moses and plagues and to talk about Jesus and the sacrament. 

I made our Disney dinner for lunch.

It was a delicious one! My pawsicles were more creamy than in the movie, but they were tasty!

I couldn’t fit “The Big Donut” on each one, so some said “The Donut,” and some said “Big Donut.” 🤣 Emmett’s a little perfectionistic, so I always point up when I do something dumb, like write “the donut,” and I ask if he’s mad at me because it’s not perfect and he always says no. Someday he’ll remember and be softer with himself. 

I had a lot of fun finding all the mini crackers for the Little Rodentia charcuterie board. 

I marinated the chicken and shrimp and Damian grilled them and everything was so good!

Savanna Skewers. 

Each skewer represents part of Zootopia. 

They loved the dinner. Emmett tried shrimp and loved it too, so yay!

We watched the movie, then Lu and Damian cleaned up while I bathed the boys. Then they read stories to me and headed to bed. 

And Ruby had fun with the cup at their hotel. They stayed a night at our house in Maryland and everyone was so happy to see her.