the weekly recap {June 27-July 2}

We have pretty much been continuously on-the-go for the last 2 1/2 weeks.

I'm trying to stay caught up on posting, but it's going to take a bit to get there!

Here is what we were up to since the end of June until this past Thursday.

This is actually from June 18th, but I think it is so funny that B Boy loves math so much that he works on it for fun!

We stayed with Keith, Jessica and Parker on the way back home from the beach. We love spending time with them! And I love that our kids are growing up together!

Keith grilled burgers for us!

I also had one of my favorite treats- baked beans and Ruffles!

The boys played baseball

One of our favorite summer traditions is cutting up a yummy watermelon!

My Sissy Girl really missed me while we were gone- so thankful for my friend, Laurie coming to check on her!

On Monday, Tim was still on vacation so we took the kids to see Inside Out. I just loved it!!!

Afterwards, we stopped for treats. B Boy had his first Peanut Buster Parfait and loved it.

On Tuesday, we ran a bunch of errands and got groceries since we had no food!

They also had swim lessons that night. I'm so proud of how well they are swimming!

Tuesday night, Tim was honored by Celebrate Magazine as one of the 15 to watch in '15 in Northwest Arkansas! Here is a link to the magazine.

On Wednesday, Jessica and Parker came to stay with us for 5 days!!!

I love these silly kiddos!

C Girl had a momentous ortho appointment- she got braces on her bottom teeth!!!

 On Friday, we visited the Bentonville community center for the first time. I am loving this indoor water center. They kids were ecstatic about it!!!

Since this is the first summer that they are both swimming well, they have been enjoying the water so very much!

Since we were already wet, we decided to take the kids to the splash park downtown.

 Playing games!

4 years, 6 months and 2 days later

Before I get to the main point of my post, I wanted to talk about my week.  This is only my second day home in 8 days.  We have been busy traveling.  But, with all of this traveling, I will have seen all 4 (Kelly, Jessica, Amber and April) of my bestest friends in one week!  That is unheard of!  They all live in different places and one even lives out of state, so to see them all in 7 days is awesome!  Friends are good for the soul!  

This last trip I just made was down to Paris for a trip to my orthodontist.  I was scheduled to get my braces off!  Honestly, I was very pessimistic going to this appointment.  Things with me do not always go smoothly, and I was just SURE something would happen and they would not be able to take them off!

But miracles of miracles, my braces did come off!  I got them put on February 6, 2008 and off on August 8, 2012.  It has been a long and frustrating 4 and a half years, but I have to say, I love how my teeth look!

I do have a retainer that I have to wear 24/7 for a year of two, but so far I'm getting used to it!

right before my appointment to get them off-

showing off my braces free teeth!

 Jessica and I at her classroom!

 I still can't believe the braces are off!

Squeeeee!

I got some really great news at the orthodontist today!


They took impressions for my retainer.....


........which means.......


I'm getting these babies off soon!!!


I'm scheduled to get them removed on August 8th, 4 and 1/2 years after getting them on. Wow, so long!


Also-
I have an addiction.


It's pretty bad.


I've fought it for years.


But, I've needed to break the addiction for my health's sake.


I am now on Day 2 of no soda.


And I really, really want one!


BUT, I feel SO GOOD!!!!


I have had such problems with my stomach and bloating and IBS and I have KNOWN that the soda was making it worse, but I couldn't stop.


But, knowing how good I feel gives me more of a drive to keep on keeping on!


I'll keep you posted on how I continue to feel!

How did March get here so quickly?!

How indeed did March get here so quickly?! 


I have been a single parent this week, so life was a little more hectic.  By last night, I was tired. Tired down to my bones.


This was what I was going through last week.  Since then, things have gotten better with my braces, sort of.  I had to go back to Paris and get adjusted and we have a plan in place to hold my teeth for a longer period of time so that they don't move when we release pressure.


Last Thursday night, the kiddos wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese for a spirit night for C girl's school.

Saturday, we took the kiddos to a Dr. Seuss event at Target and then we had tickets to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie at the Arts Center of the Ozarks. This was so fun.  The actors and stage were great and the kids and us adults really enjoyed the show!

I got to see this little man on Monday!

Both the kiddos had spring pictures recently and they turned out great! I can't wait to share them.

Other happenings this week- we cancelled our Directv.  Yes, no TV anymore. We were getting some Refer a friend discounts, but now our bill is back up to normal and we just do not watch enough TV to warrant paying for it.  I saw a new GYN doctor who I'm hoping can help get me to feeling better all around. C girl has been doing great in ballet and both kids are doing awesome in AWANA and learning so much!  We are heading out of town tomorrow. They hubs and I are very excited to be going to see the Zac Brown Band in concert tomorrow night! Sunday is my mom's birthday, so we will be picking up the kiddos and having lunch with her and getting to see baby Parker again!!!

I have to share this with you-- Oh my gosh, the heavens have opened and glory has rained down!!! Thank you Tim for sending me a link to this!!!
THIS is a FREE service that takes your exported blog file and turns it into a PDF Blog Book!!!
I just did this and it was QUICK and EASY!!!!!!
I have been spending HOURS trying to back my blog up!!!! I'm now completely finished with that project. AND this service lets you choose dates so you can start from the last time you made one and created another one without having duplicates!


I also wanted to share two websites that I think will make a good replacement for Picnik- 
PicMonkey (it's not finished being created, but I heard it's going to be GREAT) and iPiccy.

Braces & Breakdowns

I'm almost spent from this week. 

You saw how Monday went. 

Tuesday is my busy day of the week and this Tuesday had two more events added to it, so I was gone most of the day and nothing at home got accomplished. 

Well, I take that back. We were there to eat and sleep and make it messier, so stuff got accomplished, but not cleaning up! 

Wednesday was a big day. It was formal registration for kindergarten for B boy. 

I'm already more emotional about things than I was last year with C girl. 

With her, I knew that I was going to be doing this again. But now with him, I know this will be the last time.

 :::heart constrictions::: 

I also made a big decision yesterday. After 7 years of using a pre-paid cell phone, I got my very own phone again! 

People are always shocked when I say, I don't have a cell. Well, now I do, so I have joined the 21st century :-) haha. 

I'm not out of the loop. I'm always on Tim's iPhone or my iPad, so basically this only makes it easier for me to call people while I'm out and about. That was the reason for the decision. 

I used to ALWAYS be at home. But now, that I am always running here and there, it makes sense to need a mobile phone. 

The phone I ended up choosing was an Android phone. 

This is a big deal because I am an Apple product snob. I LOVE iPhones, iPods, and iPads. I haven't joined the Mac train yet though. 

I literally had a breakdown last night because this phone is SO different from what I know. I so wanted to go take it back today!!! BUT, I have learned a LOT about it today and I'm happy to say that I'm feeling much better today about my new phone :-)

I had to get up at the butt crack this morning and be out the door by 7 to head down south for my appointment with my orthodontist. 

I am NOT a morning person so it was crazy around here trying to get out the door on time. 

We had been on the track of getting my braces off soon. I was *supposed* to get my impressions done for my retainer today. 

However, things did not go as planned. One of my teeth had moved from position. 

SOOO, I am back in full wire and full chain on top. 

WAHHHHHHH!!!! So disappointing! 

It will be at least 3 months before they even think about doing impressions. 

I just passed the 4 year anny of wearing these things, so this was not welcome news.

And now that I have stuff back on my teeth, I am in agony! 

It is so painful, my mouth was really used to not having pressure on it!

I'm also way hormonal and emotional.

I'm hoping for a very happy Friday, Saturday & Sunday!