The Most Relaxing Weekend EVER

Last week, I was sure my weekend was going to suck. Hubby was going to Hollister Bike Rally on Saturday and Sunday was going to be spent cleaning and grocery shopping. Meh.

Then Friday night rolled around and Hubby decided to go to Hollister on Sunday, which left Saturday free for family stuff, and so we went to Ardenwood for the afternoon! I love this place. Seriously, I want to move to Ardenwood. You can just barely hear the hum of the freeway but it's negligable because of the surrounding trees. There's a beautiful old Victorian house, acres upon acres of grounds, floral gardens, a blacksmith, a working well-water pump, all sorts of stuff. The best part - especially if you have kids - is the animals. There are horses, sheep, goats, rabbits and peacocks. Yes, peacocks. There's one male and a few hens.

Is a female peacock called a hen? ***runs off to check*** They do! They're hens.

Anyway, kids ADORE looking at the animals! That is, until the sheep start bleating. then you have two kids terrified out of their minds and both crying at the tops of their lungs. Fun. Now we look like the bad parents who scared their kids.

The day actually went really well aside from that little hiccup. I was concerned about Robby for a bit; about an hour into our visit, I discovered a rash on his eye.

Exhibit A:



You can't really see it that well, and it's not the most flattering picture of him, but you can see how it's red and kinda puffy. I'm at a loss as to what it's from. It could be from the sunscreen, but he's worn this sunscreen plenty of times and it's never bothered him before. It could also be the eggs I fed him for breakfast.

Now I know I'm going to hear some boohisses over this, but I when I scrambled his eggs, I used the whole egg, I did not separate the whites. I'm one of those parents who takes recommendations with a grain of salt. Not every rule applies to every kid, some kids advance faster than others, yadda yadda yadda. So I fed him whole eggs. He's had them before with no problems. There are absolutely NO food allergies in either of our families so we figure we have little to worry about. Anyway, it could have been the sunscreen, the eggs, or maybe even the hay at the farm. He could have allergies like me: grass, trees, pollen, molds, etc. So who knows? By the time we got home, it was gone. Yay!

Here are a few more pictures of our farm adventure:

Exhibits B, C & D:





Sunday we did next to nothing and it was fantastic! We laid around in our pajamas until 3:30ish, napping off and on, watching movies. Then we went to the store, came home and cooked dinner and went about relaxing again. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

How were your weekends?

Some days, you have to wonder if it even pays to get out of bed.

Yesterday, my day ended...well, at 1:00 a.m. this morning. Today started at 5:00 a.m. Then I dozed with Robby on the couch until 6:00 a.m. when Beth marched out demanding milk and waffles. Hrmph. That little troll needs to learn the fine, time-tested art of sleeping in!

I had an in-house appointment at 9:00 a.m. with a company who shall remain nameless as I signed a form stating I would not disclose any information from our meeting to any third parties. So for two hours, I let Rob sleep in. He agreed to stay home today and watch the kids so I could focus on the appointment. So we did the chickens-with-our-heads-cut-off cleaning of the downstairs...that was fun, let me tell you. I definitely didn't get a shower this morning - I definitely needed one.

Anyway, they came, we interviewed, I got my incentive (those free groceries I mentioned a while back) and I came home. I then had precisely an hour to go to Safeway, buy lunch for us, get back and eat before Boy showed up.

He shows up at 12:30 p.m., when his mom informs me he's coming down with some sort of cold. Great. WONDERFUL. He fell asleep about 45 minutes into his stay here today, and didn't wake up until I woke him for dinner. Then I spent the next four hours trying to keep him a safe distance from my children to hopefully avoid them getting sick.

Somewhere in there, I had to go back to Safeway to finish our grocery shopping, so I Snuglied Robby up and away we went for one of the most stressful shopping trips I've had with him to date. I put him in the carrier facing forward so he could look around...nice mommy, right? That's what I thought. Then I got to the produce section. Every time I tried to get a plastic bag out to put my bananas/pears/mangoes in, he was after it. With every piece of fruit, he lunged forward. This little boy's a go-getter, and I can certainly appreciate that, but for Pete's sake!!! Let me bag some fruit, man! Finally, he started to get tired. And bored. And hungry. I had no food for him and I forgot the binky at home. I was in for a real treat! I spent ten minutes in the freezer section, rocking back and forth, letting him use my thumb as a binky, humming Brahm's Lullaby. I'm pretty sure I memorized the prices of frozen vegetables this afternoon. You can get a 16 oz. bag of broccoli florets for $3.19.

Then Beth was being an ornery pain in the rear tonight. Just babbling constantly, whining, fake crying, asking for stuff she knows she can't have at night (cereal, milk, snacks in general). Between her and trying to make Boy understand that he has to keep away from the other kids until he gets better, I had a couple of confused and annoyed kids on my hands!

Couple that with the migraine that's been building all day and I ended up giving myself a time out on our front step. I had to get out. Thank heavens my husband was home with me to sort of grant me that little reprieve! I swear, some days I don't think I'd make it through, mentally speaking, if it weren't for him.

Tell me I'm not alone...that you all have days like this too!

The Wonder That Is Grocery Outlet

So it's kind of a dive as far as grocery stores go, especially sitting less than a block away from Lucky. And you can't do ALL of your shopping there. BUT...the prices will leave you speechless! I got about $100 worth of groceries for less than $50! I was astounded! Oscar Mayer lunch meat for $1.50. Packages of Libby's frozen broccoli for $.99. And much much more. I'm just so tickled because it's right across the road from our parking lot!

In other news, Beth is doing really well with potty training! She wears underwear all day and always goes pee-pee in the potty. We're still working on the poop, but I'm totally optimistic! I thought we'd be at this for months and it's only taken about 10 days! There's something to be said for waiting until you're sure they're truly ready.

I'm having issues with Baby Boy, though. Now that he's so good at rolling from back to tummy, he's doing it in his crib and waking himself up every time. I've tried a sleep positioner, but he just flips over inside of it! Aye. I don't know what to do! No sleep for this mama.