Be Still My Heart

I let the girls open a valentine present early on Sunday since they would have more time that morning to use it. It's a beach wave curling iron that rotates two directions making it easier to curl your hair. Lila immediately wanted to try it. She came up saying she couldn't get it to work in the bathroom downstairs and that's when I found out that the GFI down there has been broken for almost a year. I was like so no wonder they are using their electric toothbrushes or the waterpik and why hasn't anyone told me this. Steve ordered the part and will be fixing it soon. Anyway, the curling iron worked really well. I got another bigger one they can use too along with a few hair products.

 

The boys got a switch game and bakugans they've been wanting. Unfortunately they are currently grounded from the switch for two weeks so it will be a while before they get to try it out. Good times!

 

We did our traditional heart pancakes for breakfast. To be honest I was really tired. My talk had emotionally and physically exhausted me and I had a few extra things on my plate Monday that made things a little chaotic so Tuesday I was beat and fighting a migraine it was rough. So I was a little less than patient in the morning just trying to get kids out the door. I managed to pull myself together to go help out with Andrew's class party (I almost did both boys because they were both short on volunteers but they happened to be at the same time so I couldn't). We had fun trying to stack conversational hearts with chopsticks and heart attacking the teachers desk.

 

The boys took whoopi cushions to pass with a note that said, I hope you have a Stinkin good Valentine's. Apparently they were the hit of the party and everyone in Marcus's class opened them and started playing with them and the Chinese teacher finally had to tell them in Chinese to stop making them "pllllpl" [whoopi cushion noise😂]. After school I started our traditional dinner of fondue. The kids were so excited and everyone proclaimed their love for it and asked why we don't do it more often (do you think they would really love it as much if I did it more often? I don't know). Steve stopped and picked up donuts I had ordered from Cross E Ranch and they were yummy! They do an apple cider donut that is yummy but for Valentine's they also do a cherry almond that was good. Poor Steve has been having to go into the office every day this week as they prepare to move buildings, no fun for any of us. After dinner, Andrew had violin group lessons so I ran a few errands after dropping him off. Then we tucked the boys in bed. The girls wanted to watch a show but we had just established a no TV during the week rule because they are both behind a little. I gave in saying they could watch something with us but that lead to a little sassing from both of them so I just laid down the no TV rule and went to bed. I'm sure they were super happy with me. I tried to explain to them that Dad and I are doing our best and right now we are staying up to help them and getting up early with the boys and it takes it tolls. We need them to patient and understanding and do their part. It was a tough day for me but I hope my kids know I love them and I love celebrating and spending time with them.

Marcus Transforms to 7

Ever since our trip to the Wizarding World, Marcus has been planning his birthday. After the transformer ride like all of their rides put us out in the gift shop, he has been planning a transformer birthday. I noticed this on his calendar a few days before his birthday:

!Birthday Mine! (the punctuation is upside down on his calendar 😂😍)

 

I managed to have a ski date with Marcus the week before his birthday just the two of us went up on a Wednesday. I was hoping to get him to explore more terrain on a slower day but he knows what runs he likes and I told him I'd do whatever he wanted as long as when we went with the whole family he would ski other stuff and he agreed to it. I get him to go up the gondola even with the promise of lunch at the top. Silly kid. But the next time we went skiing and were talking about riding the gondola he said, "remember you said we could get lunch if we did that." I explained that was an offer for when it was just the two of us. We also saw them scultping and coloring this snow monster which was fun.

He loved the decorations he woke up to on his birthday and we let him open one present before school while we were on the phone with Steve, who happened to be in Sun Valley on a guys ski trip.

He took a treat to school to share with his class and we printed pictures and chose a few of his favorite toys to take and show everyone (he had a hard time choosing a few favorites, he had a whole pile he wanted to take). After school he had a friend over to play which was a lot of fun for him and we had been trying to get a hold of the Mom for a while to set something up. For dinner, I smoked pizzas and made rainbow confetti mini bundt cakes for dessert. Marcus loves sprinkles and everything rainbow so he thought it was great.

 

Happy happy birthday Marcus! You are a little off the wall some times but we love you and are grateful for your tender spirit and your desire to do your best. You keep things lively and definitely entertaining.

It was a low key evening as I was single parenting it and we had regular life activities like dance and homework to do. It was a crazy week too. I had been coordinating with my sister and parents in Florida trying to arrange for them to see a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral and changing flights for them and then picking them up at the airport. I also was speaking the following Sunday so there was a talk looming over me. And Lila had precomp on Saturday so we were trying to make sure we had everything gathered for that. Steve got back just as I was sending the boys to bed (a little later than usual) so he went up and tucked them into bed. The boys once again were not too happy he went skiing without them. 😂 Here are some pics from his adventure.

 

And a picture from Lila's precomp. I did not sleep well the night before because she was up practicing a move she was worried she could not do. I guess the teacher noticed her and one other girl and called them out but as we watched the video from precomp there are several who cannot do it and we'll work with her to get it, now that we know about it but I was worried and stressed for her all night, but really this was the best precomp Lila has ever had and I was so proud of her.

House Projects

Steve has been spending a lot more time down at the office in Draper due to the company preparing to move offices. Andrew has also started Newsies rehearsals at the school and things are the usual crazy. One Friday evening Steve sent me a coupon for pizzasticks at Little Ceasars so after picking Lila up from school and realizing Andrew had another 30 minutes of rehearsal (I thought they got done at the same time) we went and picked up pizza and ice cream to make frozen butterbeer (I promised Marcus weeks ago I would make it). I also made a deal with Lila if she has no missing assignments on Monday and no missing assignments on Friday then we would go get a Fiiz Friday afternoon. That got her excited and motivated to get things done (if only I knew it was that simple before Christmas). Her shark time teacher gave us that idea and I like it because it gives her some flexibility with turning things in and we aren't riding her everyday but just checking in at the beginning and end of the week. If she keeps that up then she should fall behind. She worked so hard the first week to get caught up but didn't get her shark time assignment turned in so instead of Fiiz I picked up a pack of The Most Oreo Oreos while in the store. She loves oreos and it was a fun treat (she managed to earn a Fizz the next Friday). Then we grabbed Andrew and headed home. 

 

Instead of pouring the cream soda into ice trays to freeze, I put it outside to freeze. It's been so cold. I didn't shake the bottle to break it up but I did squeeze the bottle and hit the ice chunks a bit to get them to come out. As soon as I started unscrewing the lid you could see the ice start to rise and I knew I was in trouble. So I let it sit for a bit. Then I opened it and it started running down the sides. Then I thought I'll hold it over the blender I want to put it in and have Ellie slowly open it so it will go into the blender. She started slowly then just decided to unscrew it all the way and a solid cream soda ice snake shot almost the way to the ceiling and all over the counter and me and Ellie. It was hilarious. The kids and I were laughing and wishing we had it on video for AFV.

My dishwasher soap dispenser has not closed for months and then we noticed the jet dry was leaking out. So I got online and found a replacement soap dispenser part, we ordered it and Steve spent an hour fixing the dishwasher and now it is as good as new. We also noticed the electronic box was hanging funny so Steve fixed that too. The ironic thing is that it was almost exactly 10 years from when we bought and installed it. Hope we get another 10 years out of it. 

There is always a project isn't there. Now to fix the GFI and Steve ordered me a new sink baffle because ours is deteriorating. Don't tell him but I really want to recarpet the whole house. . .