This past weekend just flew by. Ben is still working nights and sleeping most of the day, so I did my best to keep busy -- whether it was getting together with family or friends, working on my licensing application, scoring scholarship applications, or just getting things done around the house.
On Saturday afternoon, I met my mom, Holly, G, and Aunt Brenda for lunch at El Patio.
Aunt Brenda wanted to get together for a belated birthday celebration for my mom, and El Patio is the perfect place to meet. The food is delicious, it's centrally located, and we've been going there for years.
I still remember going there when I was just a little girl with Aldeen (my mom's great aunt) who lived just around the corner. After lunch, we'd go back to Aldeen's house, and Holly and I would rake the leaves in her front yard that had fallen from the huge Magnolia tree while Aldeen, my mom, and G talked inside. She would pay us each $1, and we loved it.
After my mom's birthday party, I picked up Ben and then went to the Messerli house to celebrate Will's 2nd birthday.
Will absolutely loved his Mickey Mouse ice cream cake, and although Stephanie had to help him blow out his candle, he ate his piece with a spoon all by himself. Nevermind the fact that he picked each piece up with his hand, put it on the spoon, and then ate it. Haha -- he's such a big boy!
Unfortunately, his eye is still a little black from when he fell and hit his face on the window sill, but being the rough little boy that he is, I'm sure it's just his first of many.
Ben and I bought him a remote-control car, and he LOVED it. The headlights light up, and the steering wheel has a button to go forward and a button to go reverse and to the right. During the party, he would push whichever button was on the bottom, so the car was either doing donuts in reverse or going forward at full speed, but I'm sure he'll get the hang of it soon.
My mom also sent me with the balloon that Aunt Brenda had given her earlier that day to give to Will, and it was seriously one of his favorite gifts. Had I known how much a 2-year-old would love a balloon, I wouldn't have spent so much time walking up and down the toy aisles at Target, feeling overwhelmed and completely out of my element.
After the party, Ben and I met Jason, Cheryl, and Miles at Jason's Deli for dinner. When we got home, Ben left for work, and I got a few things done around the house before falling asleep to My Girl 2.
On Sunday morning, I picked up Molly's parents from the airport and took them to Round Rock to meet their new grandson. When their plane landed, Kevin and Molly were still at the hospital waiting for Charlie to be released. We ended up beating them to the house, and when they called to say that they were finally on their way, we stood out on the driveway to meet them. I guess you could say that we were a little excited!
Charlie was dressed in such a sweet coming home outfit, and after Grandma and Grandpa Reed got a chance to hold him and love on him, I took my turn. He's so tiny and precious. I can't really tell exactly who he looks like yet, but I'm pretty sure he's the perfect combination.
While I was hanging out with Charlie, Ben was competing in the 3.2-mile Warrior Dash with Scott and Clint in Cedar Creek.
He had told me that it wasn't really the kind of race that people come to watch, but luckily, Holly and Nelson had competed earlier that morning and took a few pictures for me. They ran over fire, climbed over hay bales, crawled through mud, and had a great time doing all of it.
When Ben got home, he passed out and slept till he had to go into work that evening. I cleaned house and did a little bit of laundry, and later that evening, I scored scholarship applications before falling asleep to Hope Floats.
It really was a fun and productive weekend, but I'm definitely ready for Ben's night-work to be over with. I know it's
just 11 nights, but life is not nearly as much fun without him around. I know it's corny, but it's the truth.
I'm sorry that your birthday post is technically a day late, but I didn't want the world to miss out on seeing a picture of you with your beautiful cake, which looks about as big as you are in this picture. We enjoyed celebrating with you yesterday and hope you know how much we love you.
My total without coupons or sales would have been $46.94, but using coupons, I got everything shown above for only $16.96 out-of-pocket and received $21.88 in RRs. In a way, it's as if CVS paid me $4.92 to take everything shown above off their hands. I should point out that I made 2 separate transactions in order to minimize both the amount that I would spend out of pocket and the amount that I would leave with in ECBs, and although I was a little nervous since this was my first time to do separate transactions, I just divided all of my stuff in half (price-wise), and it went really well.
My total without coupons or sales would have been $69.55, but using coupons, I got everything shown above for only $21.66. I saved $47.89 or 69% off of the original total. I also received $5.24 in RRs when I checked out. I again asked the cashier if I could separate my items into multiple transactions, and this time, I chose 3 in order to lower my out-of pocket cost and the amount of RRs that I would leave with.
Aunt Brenda wanted to get together for a belated birthday celebration for my mom, and El Patio is the perfect place to meet. The food is delicious, it's centrally located, and we've been going there for years.
I still remember going there when I was just a little girl with Aldeen (my mom's great aunt) who lived just around the corner. After lunch, we'd go back to Aldeen's house, and Holly and I would rake the leaves in her front yard that had fallen from the huge Magnolia tree while Aldeen, my mom, and G talked inside. She would pay us each $1, and we loved it.
After my mom's birthday party, I picked up Ben and then went to the Messerli house to celebrate Will's 2nd birthday.
Will absolutely loved his Mickey Mouse ice cream cake, and although Stephanie had to help him blow out his candle, he ate his piece with a spoon all by himself. Nevermind the fact that he picked each piece up with his hand, put it on the spoon, and then ate it. Haha -- he's such a big boy!
Unfortunately, his eye is still a little black from when he fell and hit his face on the window sill, but being the rough little boy that he is, I'm sure it's just his first of many.
Ben and I bought him a remote-control car, and he LOVED it. The headlights light up, and the steering wheel has a button to go forward and a button to go reverse and to the right. During the party, he would push whichever button was on the bottom, so the car was either doing donuts in reverse or going forward at full speed, but I'm sure he'll get the hang of it soon.
My mom also sent me with the balloon that Aunt Brenda had given her earlier that day to give to Will, and it was seriously one of his favorite gifts. Had I known how much a 2-year-old would love a balloon, I wouldn't have spent so much time walking up and down the toy aisles at Target, feeling overwhelmed and completely out of my element.
After the party, Ben and I met Jason, Cheryl, and Miles at Jason's Deli for dinner. When we got home, Ben left for work, and I got a few things done around the house before falling asleep to My Girl 2.
Charlie was dressed in such a sweet coming home outfit, and after Grandma and Grandpa Reed got a chance to hold him and love on him, I took my turn. He's so tiny and precious. I can't really tell exactly who he looks like yet, but I'm pretty sure he's the perfect combination.
While I was hanging out with Charlie, Ben was competing in the 3.2-mile Warrior Dash with Scott and Clint in Cedar Creek.
He had told me that it wasn't really the kind of race that people come to watch, but luckily, Holly and Nelson had competed earlier that morning and took a few pictures for me. They ran over fire, climbed over hay bales, crawled through mud, and had a great time doing all of it.
When Ben got home, he passed out and slept till he had to go into work that evening. I cleaned house and did a little bit of laundry, and later that evening, I scored scholarship applications before falling asleep to Hope Floats.
At one point, we had all closed our eyes for a minute (except for Kyle who was pacing the entire time...), when Kyle spotted Kevin down the hall going into the nursery. We all jumped up and ran down there. We crowded around the nursery window and just stared at the newest member of our family. Charlie was born a little after 3:00 a.m., and he is absolutely precious. He weighs 7 pounds 13 ounces, is 20 inches long, and has lots of strawberry blond hair.
Unfortunately, this is the best picture that I was able to get. Charlie was so cold that his bottom lip was quivering, so the nurses had him laying under the heat lamp, which was turned away from us. It also didn't help that I started feeling faint after just a few minutes of standing at the nursery window, almost blacked out, and had to have Ben help me walk down the hall to get some fresh air. I'm not really sure what happened, but I think that I just got up too fast. When we left the hospital, Kevin was still in nursery with Charlie -- letting Charlie hold on to his finger, texting pictures to all of the family in Ohio, and taking it all in.
We finally got home at about 4:30 a.m. and crashed. Needless to say, it had been a very exciting and very tiring night. Congratulations again, Kevin and Molly. We are so proud of both of you, and I can't wait to see Baby Charlie again.
Overall, I'd the say the vet trip was a success. Annie is now on her way to getting skinny, and instead of paying $515 for our appointment, which is what our old vet would have charged and doesn't even include the thyroid test or medicine, we only paid $159, which includes the test and the medicine. Pretty good if you ask me.
Like always, G went all out -- roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, garlic bread, and her delicious coconut cream pie. It was all amazing, and we had such a fun time hanging out, catching up, and celebrating my mom's 53rd birthday.
When we got home that night, I loaded a couple of our suitcases into my car so that Holly could borrow them for a work trip....but not before Annie inspected them first.
Holly, I think she might have wanted you to take her to LA with you. She misses you already!
To say that it was entertaining would be an understatement -- but once you got past the purple unitard and the facial hair, he was actually pretty talented. His vocal range was impressive, and his band was pretty good, too.
After the competition, we ate Bill Miller's BBQ with the Sotos, Ben left for work (unfortunately, he has to work nights almost everyday this week), and I helped get Miles ready for bed. While Cheryl and Jason finished putting down the wood floors in their front room, I gave Miles a bath, which was so fun. He absolutely loves the water and kicks the entire time that he's in the tub.
