the wag saga continues part 2 - Orlando baby!

 It all started in January when Dan, Mya and I got Covid. What I never should have said was "Well at least we will be good to go on our trips to Napa and Florida in February now that we’ve had Covid." Famous last words. That stomach flu is a sneaky little devil. 

Several months ago, cousin Wendy and I made a plan to bring both of our families to Orlando to visit my sis and fam and go to Disney World. Dan hates crowds, Disneyland and Florida so that was a hard pass for him. He ended up working 5 out of the 6 days we were there anyway. We purchased tickets back in November for Winter, Mya and me to fly out in February. Mom purchased tickets to come out and stay with us the month of February and watch the littles while we were gone and Dan was at work.

The day before we were supposed to fly out to Orlando, Winter came down with the stomach flu. This may seem like a familiar story. Just like when Aunt Debie got the stomach flu the day before we were supposed to go to Napa in early Florida and we had to cancel our trip. 

And as if Winter getting sick wasn't enough, Angus came down with a fever the same night. So the morning we were supposed to leave, Winter was still not feeling good and developed a fever to seal the deal of her staying home instead of going to Disney World with her cousins. She was crushed. And everyone was crushed for her. 

So about 15 minutes before we needed to leave for the airport, Dan and I decided to swap Addie for Winter since we already bought nonrefundable discounted tickets to 3 Disney parks. I didn't want those to go to waste. We didn't know what the outcome would be but we were hoping we could just do a kid swap with little to no fee. 

I was on hold with the airline the whole way to the airport as the traffic slowed way down and my heart rate sped way up. We were running behind and I was running out of can-do spirit. Long story short, Addie got on the plane with us but it was a very expensive and stressful kid swap. That was one of the most stressful mornings I've had in years. And with the stomach flu exposing my family, I was so scared one of us was going to get it in Florida or on the plane. We didn't, praise Jesus. And I have to mention our flight attendant, we'll call her Shelly. She had my back from the minute we got on the plane. I wasn't sitting with the girls but she told me to sit with them and she'd handle the other passenger when they got there. And she winked at me and snuck me a free drink because she could see that I was rattled. Kind people are out there.

And yes, I did think about just saying Addie was Winter when we checked in but Addie looks like she's 5, not 11. And I would have passed out with the added stress of trying to sneak the wrong kid through security. I was already a basket case.

I don't like to think about how sad Winter was that she couldn’t go and how heartbroken everyone felt for her, including Addie. But I love to think about the sweetest gift my friend and neighbor dropped off for Winter and Angus after she found out what happened. It was a box full of fun activities and thoughtful gifts including balloons. They felt so special. 

I don't like to think about how many hours I spent on the phone on hold with Delta and Priceline trying to get a credit for Winter‘s flight. And I don't like to think about how much money we spent on Addie‘s flight at the same day price versus buying it three months in advance. I will always buy insurance now. 

What I do love to think about is the amazing time that we had once we reached Florida and the nerves settled down, and how amazing my sister is and how much fun we had with our Baker family.

And I love to think about how amazing my mom has been. She sent me off to the airport telling me everything would be fine and not to worry even when I know she was worried. Addie said as we were leaving, "I can't believe you're leaving your mom with two sick kids." Haha what a sweetie that one.

And I love my amazing husband, strong and steady, taking care of all the house stuff, working around the family and added house guests, quietly and efficiently. And working tons of overtime in order to pay for the surprise home remodel. Honey, you amaze me.

Winter is completely fine by the way. She has had the best attitude through the whole thing. And now, Addie and Mya have had their fun and it's her turn to plan a trip to Arkansas to see her Grandma in June. 

Here are 1,000 pics of our Florida trip if you're interested. They're out of order because it's way too much work to order them. But you get the gist. We went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom and Wendy took Mya to Universal to see all that is Harry Potter.

A ginormous thank you to Wendy, tour guide extraordinaire. We were VIPs from the moment we arrived until we left. You are THE BEST 💖 I especially loved the duvet covers 😉 Very luxurious.

Well done staying 'till the end! Happy Thursday.

the wag saga continues - part 1

I wrote this last week and then circumstances got even crazier so I never got a chance to post: 

Well. Life. Amaright? So, last time I posted we were just a couple of days from everything getting back to normal. We recovered from Omiron, the mold guys were wrapping up their demolding work and Dan was going to put our floor back together in time for my mom and aunt to come live with us for a month. 

He wanted to double check that the mold didn't go into the living room. He and the mold guys both didn't think it went that far BUT he lifted up some vinal plank and there it was. A little bit of mold here and there all over the living room. So he pulled up all the floors and cleaned all the mold spots. 

I picked Mom and Aunt Debie up from the airport and broke the news to them that they probably couldn't stay with us for a couple of nights since my aunt can't really get upstairs and there wasn't anywhere for her to sit, let alone sleep.

After a couple of nights in a nearby hotel, Dan put the house back together enough to have them stay here. We are still without some floors and a stove. Dan has been busy pouring cement, cleaning mold off of floors, moving furniture, and problem-solving in his sleep when he's not working at his actual job. He amazes me. We go to sleep and he has one plan, and then when he wakes up the following morning he has a new plan. This happens all the time.

We were supposed to drive up to Napa for a family reunion last weekend. Me, Mom, Deb and the kids. (Dan worked that weekend) The night before we were supposed to leave, Deb came down with the stomach flu. We decided not to go and expose the other 20 people at the reunion. Personally, I think the stomach flu is more frightening than Covid. And the thought of my kids getting sick on the way to Napa gave me a shiver. I've dealt with them getting the stomach flu away from home a couple of times and I believe I'm traumatized.

We were super bummed to miss not seeing our Northern CA family. But I wasn't sad to miss the 7 hour road trip up and back down the coast if I'm being honest. There would have been a lot of "are we there yets." I used to make that drive once or twice a month when I went to college up North, and let me tell you, it was way more fun as a college student.

One more unfortunate piece to missing the reunion is that mom and I prepped a bunch of food for 30 people that we now have to figure out what to do with. Dan helped us chop the cilantro and lettuce because he couldn't bear to watch us attempt the chopping any longer. He's fast and efficient and mom and I were slow and tired but also chatty and silly. So we ended up with 6 pounds of grated cheese, 3 giant bags of lettuce, tons of chopped cilantro, cucumber, green onions, 15 tomatoes and 10 avocados. If you're wondering what was for dinner, we were going to have haystacks. Basically tostadas with fritos on the bottom instead of a crispy tortilla. I took the 8 bags of fritos back to Vons. On the up side, we had lunch and dinner ready to go for the next few days. Also, did you know you can freeze cheese? 

Mya lucked out and changed her mind a week prior and chose Winter camp over the family reunion so she chose wisely. 

Here we are sitting around the dinner table last week.

Hanging out outside with Grandma so Dan could finish working on the floor. The neighbors think we just love spending time on our front porch. It is a lovely time of year to be kicked out of the house.

This was our floor situation... My mom and I would sit on these couches like two strangers in a movie theater not making eye contact as we carried on conversation.

I got a new toaster oven that holds everyone's breakfast orders. Waffles, toast, sausages, Jimmy Dean's egg sandwiches, hash brown patties, you name it. It also holds two full size pizzas in case that's what's for dinner. It's huge and my new best friend, especially since our stove is out of commission for the next week or so. Dan's not a huge fan since we already have a very nice new oven with red nobs that are apparently all the rage. But my version of cooking is different than his. I "cook" by warming things up, and that's what this thing does best. Lets not talk about the fact that it blew a small fuse. I had the toaster oven, the instant pot and the coffee maker all going at the same time and everything shut down. It's fine. I just transferred everything to the other side of the kitchen where the outlets were still working. I'm just going to ride this wave as long as I need to. Dan comes home tomorrow morning so he'll fix it.

Jr. High camp sweeties 💖

Besties 💕

Silver lining: 

I remembered to return AND LOCATED all of the 10 DVDs and 17 books I rented from the library for the road trip we didn't take. Angus hid 3 of them in a "safe place" but luckily he remembered where that was.

I have one recommendation. I know I'm a bit behind the times as usual but I'm loving Walker Hayes's album "Country Stuff." I love me some good country. And there are some elements of hip hop (my other great love) in his songs. And it makes me happy that he has a wife and 6 kids who he tours with. IF you like country, check it out.

Happy Saturday! Part 2 coming soon...

riding the wave of life

It has been an eventful January. Dan, Mya and I got covid. The rest of the kids didn't. As soon as we were feeling better and ready to go back to school and work, we discovered mold in our kitchen. So we hired mold removal professionals to come and handle the problem. They taped off our family room, kitchen and downstairs bathroom. So now we are living out of our living room. Our table is in the playroom and our fridge is next to the TV. It has been fun to get creative with how we make breakfast, lunch and dinner. But not super fun. I'm ready to have the kitchen back. I get the sink back on Tuesday so that's exciting. I don't have a stove for a while since the floors need to be redone. The good thing about bad things happening in life is that it makes you appreciate the small things you take for granted, like a sink.

Angus discovered something life-changing today. His headphones plug into the Roku remote. He can hear his TV shows and we don't have to listen anymore. I cannot tell you how happy that makes me.

This was back when I could sit in the family room before we knew we had mold. Addie's face is so tiny, it's the size of my hand.

 

Winter went to winter camp with a group from church. She had a blast and made some awesome camp memories. I love how independent she is. She didn't have any second thoughts about being a couple of hours from home up in the local mountains. That was the first time she'd been away from home like that and I don't even think she was the least bit homesick. I sent her away with no pillow and bedding and she still was fine. She borrowed another little girl's extra sleeping bag and made her jacket into a pillow. In my defense, I grabbed her suitcase and told her to grab the rest of her stuff and she didn't grab her pillow out of the trunk that contained her bedding as well as the pillow. BUT I am her mom and should have double-checked to make sure she had all of her stuff. I accept 50% of the blame.

Another Daddy dogpile.

Otter got her cone off and visited the groomer. 💖

That's it! Go Rams.

it's january again

 Happy New Year! Wow. 2022. I'm not going to go on about how fast the years are going and how hard the last two have been. There has been a lot of good in all the mess too. I'm just going to make this post like any other post I think. So I'll share what's going on with us these days like I always do. 

I'm on a health kick. Obviously, covid and all its variants aren't going anywhere. The best way to fight it is to stay healthy. Also, the end of the year brought higher blood pressure for me for the first time in my life. So I decided to address the 3 areas that directly affect blood pressure. Diet, exercise, and stress. I can't really do much about stress. But I am making a point to get to the yoga class at the gym 3 times a week. I know that helps in several areas. I'm also walking 5 or 6 times a week. And as for my diet, these days I'm cutting out as much processed foods, sodium, meat and dairy as possible and trying to eat mostly plant-based foods. It's been two weeks since I started these changes and I've seen a huge difference in the way I feel. I have more energy and my blood pressure is back to normal. And my puffy tummy is gone. I thought that just came with age but turns out, not so much. I'm actually adding another blog to 2022 because I'm learning so much about healthy foods and would love to share some recipes and info. My mom has a bunch of good recipes too. More on that later.

The kids are still physically going to school, knock on wood, so that's good. Things are status quo for now. 

Funny story. I was at Sprouts the other day because of the health kick. Side note. I don't go to Sprouts very often so I'm not really familiar with the inner workings of the place. As I was looking through the spices, I noticed a guy a few feet away emptying some of the spices out from a spice container into a little baggy. I did a double-take because I wasn't sure if I was really seeing what I was seeing. He was stealing spices from Sprouts. Who does that? I know times are tough but spices? I'm pretty non-confrontational so I didn't say anything. I just raised my eyebrows and gave him a look. My look said, I see you stealing that cumin. He gave me a look back that said, I see you looking at me. And then he put the container back on the shelf and walked away with his shoplifted spices. I shook my head and couldn't believe I witnessed such a blatant crime. He didn't even try to hide what he was doing, like it was no big deal. WELL. That's because he wasn't actually stealing. Upon further inspection, Sprouts has a separate little section in their spices where you can grab a little baggy and empty out a little bit of what you need from larger spice containers. So smart! I often buy a spice and use it once and it just sits in the cupboard until it expires. I'm just going to chalk that up as a learning experience. I was glad I didn't see that guy again in the store. 

Dan worked Christmas. He had to leave at 7am so we woke the kids up at 5am to open presents. We had a lovely dinner on Christmas Eve that Dan made of course. Here he is planning it with Angus.

I'm proud of myself for setting a low standard for gift wrapping and gift tags or the lack thereof. Christmas has enough pressure. Why add fancy bows? Maybe when my kids get bigger, I'll teach them the value of a nicely wrapped gift. For now, this is how it's gonna be.

Christmas went well. I think the kids got everything they wanted. Well, not everything because that's impossible. Angus kindly reminded me that I forgot to get him a toy he asked for a few months ago. I told him that it would be impossible to get all the toys he asked for since he literally asks me for a new thing multiple times a day. And we just can't afford 10,000 presents and there probably wouldn't be enough room under the tree. He was fine with that. Mya acknowledged that even if she got everything she wanted it would never be enough because there are always more things to want. But she was very happy with her gifts. I love her 12-year-old perspective.

Yes, a calendar and dry erase markers were on her Christmas wish list. It's Mya.

Otter got a new bed for Christmas. Yep, she's still in the cone of shame. That's what happens when you're a disobedient doggy and you chew off your bandage every time we take pity and remove the cone. She looks guilty, doesn't she.

Christmas day, we went to see Encanto. The kids said it was the best movie ever. They always say that. I thought it was cute. We now listen to the soundtrack all day every day.

PJ's from Auntie Wendy...

December in SoCal is always lovely. I've been enjoying my daily walks.

These two 💗

I had to get a pic of Mya looking so cute and grown up. And there's 

Otter in her cone of shame.

Took a rare pic of them sitting at breakfast, not fighting and having a lovely conversation.

Angus: Okay, time to be a hero, Addie.

If you're a mom and you feel underappreciated, you go ahead and feel that way. It's a totally valid thought. A peek into the mom life: 

Winter: Did you get more parmesan at the store today? (They won't eat noodles without it)

Me: No, it wasn't on the list. I'll get it next time. 

Angus: Did you go to Vons? 

Me: Yes.

Addie: Did they have Parmesan there?

Me: Yeah... but I didn't get it.

Angus: Wait, you didn't see it or something? 

Me: IT WASN'T ON THE LIST!!

Just a few days ago, I went to Costco, Vons, and then spent the afternoon doing laundry in my bedroom. Costco is a lot. I filled the cart. Vons is also a lot. I pretty much filled the cart there too. Then there's unloading and putting it all away. And laundry for 6 people is an event. (My hubby and kids help out with groceries and laundry to their credit. Even the littles put their clean clothes away) Around 5pm, I plopped down on the couch and opened my computer. Addie walked up and asked me to play a game with her. I told her, Not right now sweetie. I'm tired. I just want to relax. And you know what her reply was? 

Why are you tired mom? All you do is sit on the couch all day. 

And there you have it. 

My recommendations this time are the vitamins Zinc and NAC and "Box breathing." Zinc is toxic to Covid according to my mom. She's researched this stuff big time. And NAC is also really good for fighting Covid symptoms. You find NAC at Walmart or Walmart.com and zinc is everywhere. 

Box breathing has been known to calm you down and destress quickly. Basically, you breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, breath out for 4 seconds, hold your breath again for 4 seconds, rinse and repeat. It has the same effects as taking anxiety medication. Give it a whirl the next time you feel anxiety gripping you.

Happy New Year to you all! Here we go again right? 

repost march spring break 2018

 (Disregard this one. Just reposting so I don't lose it. I had to delete the original post I wrote back in Mar 2018.)

Status quo around here these days which is great. We are on spring break and so far I'm doing okay. I'm actually reading a really helpful book that has totally changed my parenting in such a good way. More on that later.

I took the kids to get ice cream to celebrate spring. Angus still refuses to smile for the camera unless tricked or bribed.

We love our neighbors, even though many of them deserted us this week. Boo. 

I was telling Mya how Dan and I met and fell in love and dated for a while and got married and had kids. In a nutshell. When I finished my little story, she responded. "Awe, like Beauty and the Beast!" 

I assume she means after the Beast becomes human and he's a handsome prince? =)

Dan and I went out to dinner and left the children with a babysitter. The next morning I found little doodles on the wall in my bedroom made with a sharpie. Addie tried to tell me that Angus was the one who did all of it, including the very impressive happy face. Angus is good at many things but art is not one of them. She finally admitted to drawing the happy face and they were lectured and punished. While I was scrubbing the walls with a magic eraser (highly recommended if you have a toddler) I thought to myself, where was the babysitter when they were doodling in my bedroom? My judgy attitude quickly faded a few minutes later when I went back downstairs to find Angus's arms marked up with another marker. Maybe he'll be a famous artist one day. 

Addie being Addie.

For years now, I have been praying for patience, less anger and nicer words in those times when everyone is losing it. I noticed that I totally set the tone in our home. Me. 

I love self-help books, especially parenting ones. I totally believe that in order to change anything in your life you have to start with you. And that's pretty much what this book is about. Basically you have a responsibility to your kids to remain calm, set boundaries and provide consequences. As a parent, you are not responsible for your kids' decisions, they are. Anyway, if you are uber frustrated in this crazy parenting journey, I highly recommend this book. Screamfree Parenting by Hal Runkel.

A friend took a picture of us at church Sunday. One of my favorite things about having a bunch of kids is the pictures of all 6 of us. I love us as a group and I love us as individuals.