texas fam

I'm way behind on life in general right now but it's temporary. It's not a personality thing, it's a circumstance thing. I plan on being very on top of everything this year. But these days my mom is FINALLY in escrow so I've been helping her pack up 65 years of stuff, and then go back home and do the mom thing without a kitchen. We use the bathroom sink to wash dishes and the house has been a little rearranged and not super user friendly. We're managing pretty well I think, but we're all looking forward to having our house back.

My bro's family in Texas (minus my bro) came to visit SoCal last weekend! There were lots of my mom's grandkids in one place so that was super fun for all. And we got to enjoy the pool one last time before the new owners move in. That was happy and sad. The next blog post will be all about how much this house means to me and a few memories that stick out.

Avery's face to the right of Angus is perfection. 

She's just the cutest mom ever.

"I kinda look like a police officer." 

(but not really)

Mya asked for this realistic baby doll for her birthday. People stop her all the time and tell her they thought it was a real baby which makes her super happy. 

The shirt Addie is wearing used to be Mya's. Mya was Addie's age when Angus was born and that's kind of crazy. Addie says she's either going to be a firefighter lady or a ballet teacher. She can't decide. Angus appreciates firefighters but he's dead set on being a police officer. He yells at me all the time for not fully stopping at all the stop signs. I tried to convince him that it's complicated and I stop at the important ones but that just made him mad.

Angus begged me to take him with me to Mya's appointment with the foot doctor. Her plantar wart is coming back ugh. I told him it would be super boring and he would hate it but he really wanted to go and I felt bad that he hasn't been out of the house much lately so I brought him. 

We both very much regretted my decision 5 minutes after we arrived.

I haven't been able to do any school stuff with Angus yet. But he did color all over himself with a marker so that counts right?

I found these at Costco. They got me with the sample. They're really tasty. Just whole wheat pita bread, chicken and cheese. And some sort of delicious sauce. You're supposed to microwave them but we use the toaster oven and they come out a little crunchy on the outside which we like. Two thumbs up.

Happy whatever day it is!

wagenaugust

A few days ago, I was at the bank. The guy in front of me was being a giant jerk because the lady helping him couldn't do what he wanted her to do. So he threw a grown up hissy fit and left. I didn't say anything to him because I'm non-confrontational by nature and I had kids with me and you never know what people are going to do these days. The young lady was so rattled that she had to excuse herself for a minute. I encouraged her by telling her what I thought of the dumb guy, and how sorry I was that she had to deal with that, and that she handled him very well. 

She appreciated my kind words and I thought to myself, man I'm glad I only have to work with 4 children every day. I used to have to go to work and deal with all kinds of crazy rude angry people on a daily basis in the fun land of customer service. Sometimes I would drive home in tears out of frustration with conversations I'd had that day. I don't have to do that anymore. So that's my thankful thing this week. I forget sometimes that I get to stay home with my kids. I don't have to, I get to. My hardworking hubby provides for our family financially and I get to be at home with them. And that's a privilege that not many get.

The girls are back in school and doing great. They'd all rather be home playing of course but they're happy with their teachers and friends. Well except Addie. She misses her TK teacher and doesn't like the fact that she has all these new students she doesn't know in her class. She came home and said, "I want to make lots of friends like I did last year but I forgot how I did that!" She likes her new teacher though. In my opinion, all Kindergarten teachers are wonderful. They have to be. It's a prerequisite.

Kids are such interesting creatures. They have no filters, no embarrassment, no shame. They just do what they do. Especially at home. And it's awesome. They are constantly making me laugh, unintentionally of course.

They say funny things like, "Don't play with that cord Addie! You could get electrokilled!" -Winter

And "Ow mommy my ankle hurts."

Elbow/ankle, same same.

They leave things in your bed that don't make sense, like tongs and barbies.

They watch themselves eating snacks in the mirror.

They say things like "Mom. Take a picture of my throwupping face. Ready?"

They draw tiger stripes on their pants with pen.

They pretty much say and do whatever they want.

This is Lilah the cat. She's winking.

This past week has been awesome of course. Because school started! Woot! Everyone has a good friend in class with them. Mya started school thinking she wouldn't have any friends, and then a neighbor friend who moved away recently switched schools and ended up sitting next to her. They were both ecstatic. She had a birthday which I'm sure you saw on FB. This is my fave Mya pic of all time. Back then I worried that she would have a life long struggle with her weight. I didn't fully appreciate the rolls and I so wish I would have. She's 10 and skinny now. And I can't really squeeze her chubby thighs anymore. That would probably be weird for her.

It's just me and this guy now. And he couldn't be happier. I've decided to keep him home instead of sending him to preschool a few days a week for just a few hundred bucks a month. No thanks. I think I can teach him his letters. Or YouTube can. 

We went to see The Lion King which happens to be my favorite Disney Movie. I know the soundtrack pretty well and I like to amaze the kids with my ability to sing all the songs word for word. They aren't super impressed. More like confused.

Anyway, I've been really wanting to take the girls to see it since Winter and Addie play lions and tigers all the time and they're kind of obsessed with jungle cats. Mya is always up for anything. So we went. One of them may have been grounded but I conveniently un-grounded her for two hours. We all loved it. I kept having to remind Addie that Simba doesn't die. She's seen the original but she got really into it. We stopped at Target first to pick one drink and one snack each for the movie. I'm sure I saved like $100 not buying at the concession stand. Is it still called that?

On Sunday, our church prayed for the new school year for the kids and teachers in August. I love that they do this every year.

Mya had a homework assignment the first day of school from her language arts teacher. It seemed soon to be assigning homework, but I loved it so I had to share it of course. Her assignment was to write 3 paragraphs about her, her family, her hobbies and strengths and weaknesses, in a nutshell. 

I took pics but they're hard to read so here you go:

Hi Mr. Gomez, My name is Mya Wagenbrenner. You pronounce it as my-a. My uncle calls me my a favorite niece. If you want you can call me mya favorite student, but you don't need to call me that because there is about 30 students in our homeroom and I don't want them to be jealous. It was nice meeting you yesterday. 

I am the oldest in my family out of the kids. My mom has 4 kids and a husband and we are a family of 6, actually 8 including our dogs. Winter is 8, I'm 10, my youngest sister Addie/Adelyn is 5, and my brother Angus is 4. We call Adelyn Addie for short. We have two black labs Otter and Twitch. Twitch is Otters dad. Twitch is 15 in human years and 100 something in dog years. Otter is 11. PS. When they fart it stinks sooo bad!

Today is my birthday!

I'm looking forward to doing alot of projects and crafts this year. I love projects like art and painting and crafts that include glue and alot of pieces that you have to put together. I'm also looking forward to going on a lot of field trips. I want to get a book or series that I'm really interested in.

I'm really good at science and social studies because I enjoy it and I like doing experiments and explore nature. My weakest subject is language arts. I'm sorry if I upset you but I don't like writing or vocabulary or spelling. I do enjoy writing my own stories. It's really hard for me to structure my paragraphs. That's why I would prefer writing my own stories. 

Now you get to know a little bit about me and what I'm looking forward to in 5th grade.

-Mya Wagenbrenner

(Then she drew a picture of Otter to illustrate her paragraph)

P.S. Twitch looks the same.

I hope she gets a good grade.

A couple weeks ago, one of the kids was on my phone and turned this alarm on. Every morning at 7:20, my cowgirl alarm goes off. I'm not really sure what it means. I think someone needed a cowgirl costume at some point and I set an alarm at night because I didn't want to forget in the morning? But just seeing my cowgirl alarm at 7:20 tells me that it's time to cowgirl. Like it's time to really kick it into high gear and get going. Cuz cowgirls don't mess around y'all. I like it so I leave it on. I would actually make a horrible cowgirl because horses scare me.

I haven't done a whole lot of grocery shopping because we don't have a working stove or sink right now so we can't really use any dishes. I bought a few of these for my lunches. I love them. They're like grown up lunchables. They sell them at any grocery store or Target. That's all I got this week.

Happy Wednesday!!

bs...before school

Before we enter the world of structure and bedtimes, I thought I'd do one last post. We went to the beach over a week ago to visit our Higerd friends. It was a few days before we went camping. 

We were missing three big girls so we definitely felt like we were traveling light. 

Emo.

Angus: Look mommy I'm a princess!

James: No Angus.

Secure in his manhood.

Back at home, Angus's Mickey Mouse squishy broke in half.

Addie: (watching Angus melt down) If I was his mommy, I would go to the store and buy him another one.

Winter's drawing of Addie. It's pretty accurate. She's pretty much just in her undies day and night. I make her change them of course.

"Mommy look! I have my privacy!"

Addie and Angus love Paw Patrol. So I picked up some new shoes at Target for her. I thought she would be super excited.

Addie: I do NOT like these. The faces are SO bad.

Angus: I want them!!

The next day she decided to keep them because they light up. 

Dan's almost done remodeling our kitchen! It's looking pretty amazing and I'm super proud of his handy work. It's going to look awesome. Here's how our sidewalk looks at the moment... slightly whiskey tango. Is that PC?

When no one is upstairs Angus sneaks into Winter and Addie's room to play with their barbies. He's not allowed to touch them. For the record, he likes tools and trucks and being manly too. He's just well rounded.

As a kid, when my sister wasn't around, I got to sit up front with mom. Any time she'd stop fast she'd hold out her right arm in front of me just in case I flew out of my seat toward the windshield or something. I always thought she was crazy since I wore a seat belt and it's sole purpose was to hold me in the seat and prevent me from flying toward the windshield. And it wasn't like she ever slammed on her breaks. She just stopped a little bit harder than usual. 

Now that Mya sits up front every once in a while when it's just us two driving around town, what do I do when I stop fast? I hold out my arm to protect her. And she thinks I'm a little crazy.

Mya has been waking up about once a week looking like this. I was thinking she was allergic to something in her bed like detergent or sunscreen from the day, or a dirty blanket that she carries around the house with her, or maybe dog hair. I took her to the doctor and she gathered that she has seasonal allergies that have caused a sinus infection. So she is on antibiotics and allergy meds until it clears up. 

The same day we went to the doctor, Mya celebrated her birthday with her church besties. I am so very thankful for these sweethearts. She hasn't had much luck with friends at school. It was kind of a rough year last year. But these girls have been like sisters and are always excited to see her and hug her and always make her feel loved.

Mya wanted a fancy girly party with make-up and nail painting. I told her we could do a small party if that was on the itinerary. I could just see the madness of nail polish and eye shadow flying all over the place. So she agreed. We went to the 99 cent store and went nuts.

They loved it. Nobody knew what they were doing at all. It started off by one young lady yelling, OW MY EYE! She quickly recovered. And I didn't help them unless they asked. It was very amusing. 

We used about 1000 make-up remover wipes and spilled the nail polish remover about 10 times.

And Mya decided to go for a very unique look.

She doesn't like cake so we did chocolate covered strawberries and ice cream sandwiches.

Pool time...

And Jacuzzi time.

Happiest birthday my sweet delightfully odd Mya! 🧡

The day after Mya's party Winter let me know that the little plastic backing of her earring somehow made it's way inside of her earlobe through her little earring hole. We couldn't get it out.  It seriously never ends with these kids. I knew it wasn't going to be a good experience but we needed professional help. I assumed a doctor would have to numb the area and go in with some sort of tool. Winter HATES needles and avoids them at all costs. She would rather have a little piece of plastic in her ear for the rest of her life and wear one earring than have a needle enter any part of her body. 

I bribed her with a trip to the Habit and she agreed to go. I knew it wouldn't be easy when we actually got to Urgent Care. I sent out a text to everyone in my small group at church and requested prayer. I knew I'd need extra help. 

Every time that doctor walked over to her she backed away and said, "Wait wait wait, stop!" After about 10 tries the patient doc said he was going to have to call a nurse in to help hold her down. After the large not so friendly looking nurse came in, she agreed to cooperate. Then she yelled, "WHY CAN'T THIS BE MYAAAA?!" 

 Through tears and pain, she let the doctor numb her earlobe. Then it was pretty easy to get the little trouble making plastic piece out. This is her post trauma smile. The habit tasted better than ever because it was well earned.

School starts tomorrow! Bless you teachers. 

I love and appreciate you more than you'll ever know. ❤️