Another week of summer behind us! It hasn’t really been the greatest of weeks. Still too busy with a lot of crummy things thrown in. But we did have some fun too! I’ll try to recap the best and worst of the week.
Sunday
Sunday afternoon we went to the Mallard’s game with my parents. It was Greg’s annual work outing where we sit in the special section that gets all you can eat food from the booth that sells hamburgers, brats, hot dogs, etc. It’s always a fun time. Though this year even though the temperature wasn’t that high, the sun really felt brutal. We were also sitting way at the end of the section and to me it felt pretty removed from the game. Greg spent more than half the game standing in line with the boys to do some of the extra activities. The whole experience just felt a little too hot and boring this year.
Monday
Work day! I finished up another small batch of dolls and got those listed right away in the morning. I don’t remember the rest of the day, so it must have been pretty lazy and uneventful.
Tuesday
I really needed to get the boys and Annie out of the house for awhile, so we went to the big park in Fall River. The humidity was really low that day, so it ended up being the perfect day for a few hours of walking around. The three of them were having a blast playing in the river! We spent a lot of time at the playgrounds too. THAT is the kind of summertime activity I’ve been missing the last month and a half. We need more of those days.
Annie and I survived our second obedience class on Tuesday night. There were 16 dogs this time. 16! That really feels like way too many to me for a proper class. There are two instructors, but still. Annie did a lot better this time around. Only two individual barks. She sat or laid down quietly when she was supposed to and did pretty good at our practice walking, sitting, and heeling. I just wish the class size wasn’t so big. It feels very chaotic and crazy when one dog sets off a huge barking chain of half the dogs in the class.
Wednesday
Wednesday I desperately needed polyfil. So we went to Beaver Dam under the rouse of going on a donut picnic. We picked up some donuts at Recheck’s and had a picnic at Waterworks Park. We used to go on donut picnics all the time, but it’s been hard in recent years because the boys are always STARVING the second they wake up and don’t want to wait even an hour to go somewhere. We made it to the grocery store by 8:30, but they were so hungry they insisted on getting lunchables too. And ate all of it right away. They had fun at the park, though! I never know if Caden is going to enjoy playgrounds or think he’s too old for stuff these days. We ran a few quick errands (polyfil!) after and had a quiet afternoon. I also finished up another batch of dolls.
Thursday
Everything went downhill on Thursday. It started with Greg coming back to our room when I thought he had left for work to tell me, “You better get downstairs.” Annie managed to pull a cast iron skillet cookie off the counter during the night and ate every last crumb. There was vomit and diarrhea EVERYWHERE. There was a whole lot of chocolate in that cookie. So I was freaking out. It was too early to call the vet and I kept going back and forth on if I needed to call the emergency line. I was googling like crazy and it seemed most likely going to the vet would just mean making her vomit more. She seemed pretty good at doing that on her own! We had so many things on the agenda Thursday and I didn’t know what to do. She just kept throwing up all over the place. My friend Keli offered to check in on Annie during the afternoon if I wanted to still do what I needed to do, so I took her up on it. I don’t think she realized quite how much poop she was going to have to clean up in those few hours!!
First stop was the peach truck. There was a big peach shortage this year, so I just assumed they’d be out like they have at so many stops this summer. We missed the first truck when we were in New Jersey, so I was really looking forward to just getting the blueberries. They’re so good! Anyway, we got there and peaches were available so we ended up getting a 25 lb box of peaches and three 5 lb boxes of blueberries. One for us, one for Keli, one to split between our families. It was a lot of fruit!
Second stop was my eye exam at Stanton Optical in Madison. But the truck line was shorter than expected, so we got there 40 minutes early. I had packed us lunches, so we had another picnic at a little park. Then my eye exam. I haven’t had one since my allergies developed out of nowhere six years ago. Lately my eyes, particularly my right eye, has felt super strained and tired. I wanted to know if my vision had changed and actually do something about it. But after a confusing and annoying exam and visit, it turns out that my vision is still just fine. I have a very, very, very slight astigmatism in my right eye and the doctor said that that getting glasses would probably only help my nighttime driving. I told him that I feel it the worst when I’m reading or at my computer. He said, “Take more breaks.” So. Helpful. 😛 I’m guessing I’m just overly tired. Not getting enough sleep. Maybe reading too much? (Impossible!) At any rate, the exam was $30 or free with the price of glasses, so when I said I didn’t want any, the guy suggested I pick a pair of $30 sunglasses. So I’m getting prescription sunglasses. If I feel like they actually help I assume I can always go back and pick out some real glasses.
We had another time gap. I purposely scheduled the eye exam early because I wasn’t sure if they would dilate my eyes. I didn’t want to be sitting blind at our 3:00 therapy appointment for Caden. But, the dilating didn’t happen, so we had time to kill. We went to Half Priced Books. I was hoping to find some specific YA novels I want to add to my slowly growing collection. They didn’t have the ones I wanted. The boys each found a new Minecraft book, though. We also went to Penzey’s Spices, where they had to sniff every single spice in the store. Literally. I had a gift card, so we bought a bag of spices. Still had extra time, so got gas, found yet another park, then went back to a gas station because Shepard had to pee. It was so hot and humid that day and I had just had enough. So much running around.
Finally, Caden’s therapy appointment at 3. Greg met us there from work and suggested I go back home with Shepard. I’d been getting texts all afternoon from Keli about Annie’s continued pooping, and I was getting pretty worried. So it was nice to get back home an hour earlier than planned.
We had an at home date night on Thursday, but got into a big fight right at the start. So it was a rough night. I was upset about how badly my eyes hurt and yet there’s “nothing wrong.” I was upset about getting into another stupid fight. I was worried about Annie. It wasn’t a fun night.
Friday
Friday was busy too. All day Thursday I kept thinking that at least I wouldn’t have to worry about Annie on Friday because Greg would be working from home. Well, Greg failed to tell me he was going in that day! So Annie had to be in her kennel again. She only had one poop overnight from the time I got home the day before, so I figured she was probably going to be okay.
Anyway, I had my annual exam in Fitchburg. My mom always comes with so she can watch the boys while I’m there and then we do something fun after. I told the doctor that as ALWAYS, I’m a little concerned about how tired I am. Particularly in the afternoons when I pretty much drop dead and can’t survive without a nap. I tell this to every doctor I’ve gone to in the last six years. They basically all write it off as being a mom. And they do some standard blood tests that always come back fine. This time she was definitely more interested in what I had to say and decided to take blood to test a few things I’ve never had checked before. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but we shall see.
I picked everyone up at the park and we went over to the splash pad. The boys played for an hour and a half! I didn’t have time to research any fun restaurant options ahead of time, so we ended up just having lunch at Taco John’s. My mom and I were both super tired. I had a really bad headache. I was antsy to just get home and sleep a bit. Got home and Annie was good with no accidents. She survived! I will never leave anything on the counters overnight again.
Saturday
Saturday morning was off to another bad start. One of my children (guess which one!) has been very cranky with a huge attitude lately. I just needed a break from everything. It’s hard going from the school year where I’m home alone 7 hours a day, five days a week, to suddenly being surrounded by my family 24/7. My introverted self desperately needed some space and a few hours where I didn’t have to listen to anyone whine or yell at me.
I ended up going to Madison and browsing around some of my favorite stores. I bought a couple things and just enjoyed looking around. I had a late lunch at Mod Pizza (again!) to end my time away. Went back home, took a short nap, and took Annie to the dog park. I spent the night boiling and peeling peaches to make peach crumble. Another busy day, but the kind of day I needed to regain my sanity.
Sunday
And today! The only thing on the agenda was seeing my family at my parent’s house. I was super excited to see Hudson now that he’s almost 2.5 weeks old! It was a fun and relaxing few hours of just baby holding and watching. 🙂 He’s just the sweetest! Being an aunt is pretty awesome!
The Week Ahead
This upcoming week looks a lot quieter. THANK GOODNESS. We don’t have a single thing scheduled during the days. Tuesday night I have obedience class. Wednesday night there’s a dog parade we might participate in. Other than that – clear week! Which is awesome. I’d definitely like to get a lot of work done. I’m feeling the pressure to start fall and Halloween dolls, but I really don’t want to yet! I think I’ll give myself one more week to make fun themed dolls. There are so few times during the year when I don’t NEED to make for a season or holiday. Must take advantage!
I also just want to have a “regular summer” week. Take the boys to the pool. Greg takes them a lot at night, but I think I’ve taken them during the day once. ONE TIME. The first week of summer. So I need to make up for lost time. The pool is probably one of my least favorite places to be, but I know it’s important to them and I want to make it a higher priority if we don’t have much else going on that day. I’m also in the middle of at least six books right now. I should finish some of them. 🙂 I’m always counting down the days for my favorite end of the month book/tv/movie/podcast post and the more I have to write about the better!
Have a happy week!
