Daddy's Home!

Good--bye School . . . Hello, Summer!

Porter's Pre-K Graduation Ceremony

Receiving his diploma

Singing "Let It Go"

Saying Good-bye to Ms. Haller : (

Celebrating the start of summer at Red Robin

Look out, we have a Pre-K Graduate on our hands and he's feeling crazy!

After our little party at Red Robin we headed over to the doctor's office to get Quentin some antibiotics for an infected toe.  48 hours and the doctor said he should be feeling better : )  The toe is actually looking much better in these pictures after the doctor drained some of the infection.  I didn't think to take a picture of it when it was really swollen . . . I was too busy freaking out that my child's toe looked like a cartoon character's does after an anvil is dropped on it!

Soaking his toe in an epsom bath.

 Couple other things from this week:

We got to FaceTime with Daddy!  It was fun to actually "see" where he is.

Finally got around to seeing Frozen.  The kids have seen it several times now, but this was the first time I've seen it.  I don't pretend to understand the whole princess thing, but why does everyone love Elsa?  I don't get it . . .  maybe I was just too busy enjoying my pizza and wings : )

The kids made their summer wish lists, and with the exception of a couple of items on Porter's list I think we'll be able to make their dreams come true!  I love it when they are easy to please : )

Porter's Summer Wish List
1.  Go to DisneyWorld (keep dreaming buddy)
2.  Play at the park
3.  Take swim lessons
4.  Go swimming at the big pool
5.  Go camping
6.  Play in the sprinkler
7.  Go for a drive to McDonald's with a play place
8.  Water balloons!
9.  Go fishing
10.  Go someplace on 3 airplanes (don't see this happening . . .)

Gabe's Summer Wish List
1.  Go swimming at a big pool
2.  Go golfing
3.  Go to Tree Pad
4.  Go to the splash park
5.  Go to Bounce Around
6.  Go fishing
7.  Go camping
8.  Go to Utah
9.  Go to the beach
10.  Visit family
Gabe also granted himself a bonus wish:
11.  Play hide and seek  
And then he granted himself a super bonus wish:
12.  Daddy!

Love my kids and I know we'll have a great summer!  Moving will just make it that much more of an adventure!  

Down at the Lock

After another grueling week (I'm so done with this single parenting thing!) the kids and I all needed a break and a change of scenery.  So Saturday morning we grabbed some hot cakes and orange juice (and maybe a Diet Coke) from McDonalds and had a breakfast picnic at Lock #2.  After breakfast we did some exploring around the lock and we worked on a homecoming gift for John, but you'll have to wait until next week to see that ; )  

Heights are so not my thing . . . this cat walk was terrifying!

This bird was right next to us, but he flew across the river before I could get the camera out : (  I couldn't believe how big he was close up!  I think it's a heron . . . ?

 How could I not take my two year old's picture next to this awesome number two?

Cute boys!

I needed this outing to regroup and it seemed to do the trick.  Yesterday and today have been much smoother sailing.  Only one more week to go . . . we can do this!

Who needs a man?

UPDATE!

God must read my blog.  He read it and was like, "Oh, you think you're tough?  Then this is going to be hilarious!" 

Text conversation between John and myself.

(beware it's about poop)

THURSDAY

Me:  We've been in the bathroom for almost 2 hours . . . UGH! 8:19PM

John:  sorry 8:30PM

Me: Going on 2.5 hours.  I just lost my temper with him big time. 8:58PM

John: sorry 9:33PM

Me:  It's 3 hours now.  He's still awake - it's 9:30PM, he's in the tub. I'm hoping the warm water helps him relax. 9:35PM

FRIDAY

John:  My cadets are leaving.  It's a bitter sweet day.  7:04AM

Me: Porter is trying to poop.  It's a stinky bum day. 7:13AM

John:  He still hasn't pooped? 8:43AM

Me:  Nope.  He's been on the pot for at least 2 hours this morning.  He's missing school! 9:05AM

John:  Holy cow!  Get him relaxed. 9:09AM

John:  Everything come out ok? 9:23AM

John:  How are things going? 9:53AM

Me:  Just gave him an enema.  Hopefully that works. 10:29 AM

Me:  Still no poop.  I've given him a suppository now too.  He's sound asleep. 1:22 PM

 

John: Wow, wow, wow. 1:38PM

John: How's it going? 6:41PM

Me: Called the doctor and they said to take him to the ER.  The ER took an x-ray to make sure there was no blockage.  Said to keep doing enemas and Miralax.  3.5 hrs with 3 kids in the ER by myself and they didn't do anything for him!  We're home now, gave him another enema, and he is asleep on the bathroom floor, still hasn't pooped.  Gabe took like 500 pictures at the hospital.  8:17PM

SATURDAY

John: Anything changed?  11:04AM

Me: He was up about every hour last night.  Still no progress, except there's now lots of dirty laundry, Gabe is coughing and was awake at 3AM, my throat is on fire, my foot still hurts (although the puss is finally clear, not yellow), and Quentin drank one of Porter's cups of Miralax so now he can't stop pooping!  Porter is sound asleep in the bathtub.

John: Hi! Hope Porter has been fixed.  5:04PM

It's 8:30PM on Saturday and my little guy is making some very slow progress and a whole lot of laundry.  I am humbled and shall never, ever, ever toot my own horn again.  All I've wanted the last 48 hours is my husband!  (and for the poop to stop!)

Original Post

These pictures pretty much sum up this last week of my life as a single mom.  CRAZY!  

Here's What's Been Going On Since I've Been On My Own:

1)  We got two offers on our house!  I thought I could sell our house FSBO and be unemotional, but boy was I wrong.  When the first offer came in at $22,000 below our asking price my emotions hit the fan!  Thankfully, I was able to negotiate with two buyers and reach a price I am happy with and our house is now under contract.  Now we are just praying that the deal goes through smoothly : )  

2)  I murdered a chipmunk.  I knew we had a chipmunk living in our garage and I thought it was probably best to get it out before it turned into an infestation.  I have never killed anything intentionally before.  John's always been the one to take care of our animal issues.  I didn't think I could deal with the blood and guts of a mouse/rat trap.  So I read about a homemade trap online called the Chipper Dipper.  Well, it worked.  All it took was a bag of sunflower seeds, a bucket of water, and a few hours later I had a dead chipmunk.  RIP Alvin.  And hey, if times ever get tough I now know I can at least provide chipmunk meat for my family : )

3)  I've been on the phone every day with TMO trying to get our move scheduled.  My military friends will appreciate what a chore this is!  I'm making progress, but it's not done yet.  And to complicate things we are of course doing a partial DITY.  Heaven forbid we ever make this easy on ourselves!  

4)  Since our house has been on the market I've been keeping it super clean, ready to show anytime.  I am SO glad the house if finally under contract and I can ease up on the OCD cleaning!  And now the packing can begin, ugh!

  5)  I picked out a house in Oklahoma and signed a lease.  I sure hope John likes it!  It's close to his work and super close to the kid's school.  

5)  Finally got my New York pistol permit!

6)  Fixed my brand new iPad.  What happened to it is still a mystery.  I'm pretty sure it had a run in with the Quentin monster, but I guess we'll never know.  It was fine when I got in the shower and when I got out it looked like this : (

 

So I thought to myself, "What would John do?"  Immediately, I knew he'd get on YouTube and figure out how to fix it.  So that's what I did.  $30 in parts from Amazon and a few YouTube videos later and thankfully it's good as new!  I must admit I'm pretty darn impressed with myself.

7)  (FYI - This one's gross.)  Found out why you should never mow the lawn in flip flops.  And all my life I thought it was because I might cut off my toes or something.  This happened four weeks ago.  It's been slow to heal and yesterday, it was throbbing so bad I couldn't sleep.  I ended up poking it with a needle a bunch of times and draining about a gallon of puss from it.  It feels much better now and hopefully it's finally on the mend! 

8)  And when I've just had it and can't face being the woman/mommy in charge any more.  I just sit down in front of the TV (or with my new iPad) and eat my feelings.  Unfortunately, this happens quite often. . . I'm on Season 3 of Royal Pains and Level 29 of Hay Day.

Do I need a man?  No, I can obviously get along just fine without one.  It's important to be independent and able to do things on my own, but I am so thankful I don't have to all the time.  I love having a husband that helps with so much and I can't wait until he comes home!