Home day

Today was a very nice day...cool even, by our recent standards.  We waited for it to warm up to take a walk with Delilah...you know, 63 is cold when you have been waking up to almost 80. We ended up not going swimming, since it was only 88 today. So we stayed home, watched some shows, bought plane tickets, read some books...we did make it to the library to get more books and another prize. And tonight we ended the day watching the sunset with Holly. (Emma had a late nap and an upset tummy. So she was up, too.) It was a good day.

I thought these days were over, but I'm glad they are not. I've missed these walks. (We borrowed a stroller from a friend while they are on vacation.)

Playing in the sprinklers, which came on at 1:30 in the afternoon. Maybe we will have green grass again.

Weekend Fun

I meant to post all of this earlier, but I'm finally getting to it. We have been swimming, reading, watching shark shows, and having lots of summer fun. We went swimming with Holly (Chaplain Tangen's wife and Delilah's mom), several times this week, and Emma is learning and trying new things in the pool. We have bothy enjoyed chatting with her when she comes to check on Delilah. Saturday was cleaning day, and for once, Emma's heart just wasn't in it. I was kind of feeling like we needed to do something fun...but I'm also the mom, and our house needed cleaning. So we cleaned in the morning, and went swimming in the afternoon. She has been begging for ice cream every day at the pool, because she sees the bigger kids with ice cream cones. So we compromised and got ice cream cones and toppings from the commissary, and came home and made our own strawberry ice cream in the vitamix. YUM.

And since we needed something fun to do, today after church we went to the Studio Movie Grill and saw Cars 3. It was her first movie in a theater other than on base. I'm always nervous because she tends to get scared easy, and it was loud of course, but she is getting bigger and she did great! We stopped at Panera to hold off our hunger and eat some healthy food, went to Target for a few things and then got some chips and queso with our movie. (Side note: I resisted the temptation to go to Maurice's...I was trying to make it a fun day for Emma.) When we came home we finally remembered to check our mail, and we got a package from some friends that moved. It was such a nice surprise! I think it is safe to say we have had a good weekend.

Helping Ms. Holly give Delilah a bath

Emma loves to give her treats!

Emma seems to be extra tired this week.

Doing our nails

Giving mom a foot rub 

Ice cream!

Daniel in the lions den

Panera

At the movies!

Dancing to the music

Please meet Tiffany-Claire.

Our care package from the Campbell's! 

Homemade strawberry ice cream in our new ice cream bowls.

Houseguest

Last night our doorbell rang after Emma went to bed, although she did happen to be up since her tummy was bothering her. One of our chaplain's wives was outside asking if we could keep their dog at our house since they are in TLF waiting for their house, and their room is not pet friendly. I of course said yes, so she brought their dog Delilah over. Emma wasn't feeling well, so she just stayed in bed. But when she woke up she was sad because she didn't get to see the doggie. I said, "do you want to? Because she is downstairs." :) so we went down to see her. Delilah is part Great Dane, and is, as Emma says, "bigger than Pepper." But she is very gentle. She is pretty timid, waiting for us to tell her if she can come into another room or outside. Emma has shown her pictures, and had me put on music for her, too. She (Emma) even took herout by herself...without asking. Thankfully Deliah doesn't chase cats like Pepper did, because the neighbor cat came over to get some attention from Emma, too. After breakfast, which was interesting because Deliah can reach our table, we went for a walk to the stream at the bottom of the hill. It was a nice, relaxing morning. We miss having a dog, and I know Emma loves having someone to take care of. I think it works out for everyone.

"Hi Emma"

"I like eggs, too."

Blurry, but Delilah was basically sitting on my lap since she is so tall.

Showing her the family board.

Ready for a walk!

We missed our dog walks!

Comfy and much cooler inside! 

She is using the lemur as a baby carrier...

Little mom

Emma says she wants to be a mom when she grows up...and she is getting a good start. She loves babies and cleaning. She loves to take care of me when I'm sick or tired or 'need' a bandaid, whether I want one or not. She is like a magnet when she sees babies, it's prett funny. Most of the moms don't mind the help either. And, well, we all know how much she loves cleaning. So today was a fun day for her...cleaning day!! And when we went to turn in her summer reading log for a prize, guess what she chose:

A baby doll...with a cat on it. She gets a prize for every 2.5 hours of reading we do. And now it's an even bigger incentive since she has seen what the prizes are...although to be honest, she hasn't connected the dots, she just loves to be read to. :) 

It has been nice to be able to read, go to the pool, and get some things done around the house today. I even got to use my new running shoes for a short run/walk today...inside at the gym since it was 108 today. 

And here is a picture from preschool that they emailed me tonight: 

Weekend fun

Well, we are still trying to relax. But we are having lots of fun. Yesterday we woke up and went out to breakfast with some friends, as requested by Emma. Then we came home, played games/puzzles, named and watched some shark shows. Today we had Dickies cater our Father's Day lunch at chapel, and then went swimming in the afternoon. She finally went right to sleep tonight! 

A friend gave her an Anna dress. She was instructed not to wake me up on Saturday...since she gets up so early. So when I came downstairs this is what I found. 

And this is what happens when you wake up so early! This was on the way home from breakfast.

Playing with mom.

Her treat from grocery shopping...'zucchini ' yogurt. She cracks me up how she gets things mixed up.

We finally went swimming! She had the baby pool to herself for a while. 

But it filled up after a while...it was supposed to be 108 today. She found a baby to push around in her floaty basket thing. She was in heaven. Then we went to the big pool where she burned off a lot of energy kicking while holding on to her pool noodle. 

Playing candy land. We played 4 games of Uno, which I won. Then we played alphabet go fish, which no one really wins. So then she got out candy land, and after 3 games, she finally won the 4th so we stopped. We had lots of opportunities to talk about how to be a good loser. Hard for a 4 year old. There were tears, but she did good.

And yes, she did tattoo her leg. 

VBS...is over!

The VBS day4: Thurdsay went much better, although no nap afterwards made bedtime, well, not great. My energy just plummeted about the time Emma decided she didn't want me to leave after I put her to bed. But somehow it ended up well...Emma put me to bed...tucked me in, turned on the 'rain,' and then went and put herself to bed. I also got to talk to Steven which helped me relax enough to go to sleep. 

VBS Day 5: although I woke up not so great...part of the adrenal fatigue...the day ended up being good. I had a very energetic helper in my group who Emma knows and loves. And we really had a great group of kids. I'm so glad I got the group I did...I know most of their moms, the big kids were great with the little ones, and everyone seemed to have fun. Overall, VBS went well...no incidents with any of the kids all week, and cleaning up today went super fast. Our chapel staff really did a great job getting ready for it, helping out (they were all there the whole week) and being flexible. It is nice to be part of their team, I couldn't ask for better people to work with. 

Tomorrow I promised Emma we would spend the whole day together, just us. We are going out for breakfast, and we can play Uno, do puzzles, watch more shark shows. I finally put her blackout curtains back up, so maybe we will even get some extra sleep...we definitely need it. I am looking forward to having the next few weeks to relax, go to the pool, and just enjoy the summer. 

Eileen has a loud, teacher voice. She always got the kids to yell out their "wow God!" Too loud for the rest of us. Emma usually covered her ears.

These 3 usually sat out the games. Sometimes that meant I had to play, but it was fun. Thankfully today my helper played, as I am on the verge of getting sick/losing my voice.

Emma was ready to go yesterday. She carried my stuff to the car. We brought my work stuff and lunch and stuff for her to do so I could work afterwards, but the computer wasn't cooperating, so we just left and ran errands.

Playing at home before going to dance class. For all we did yesterday we really had a good day...but we crashed and burned at the end.

Healthy snacks! I was not impressed with most of the snacks, but today they had healthy food! 

Ms. Elieen got them yelling again...so Emma covered her ears.

Last day, singing for the parents.

Side note: Yesterday we were talking about sin, and they asked the kids what sin was. Emma's answer: candy. (I think she also said 'something you aren't supposed to do,' but candy is what she told them.) And when they asked her if she knew what God's plan for her was, she said, "love." ❤️ 

VBS day 3

Only 2 more days to go! Woohoo! We are more or less surviving this week of VBS. Normally I love VBS, I love getting to be silly with all the kids, sing songs, teach them about God. This year I still love it, but I am wearing thin. We basically come home and crash every day. I knew this week would be exhausting, but having other issues is complicating things. I'm pretty sure I have adrenal fatigue, and despite the fact that I want to do certain things, I just can't. With Steven gone we are just in survival mode. If I push too hard, I can't do a good job of taking care of Emma, so lots of other things may have to wait. 

Emma was pretty tired today, so she just wanted to stay with me and go with my group, so I let her. She has been napping every day, but I think pretty soon we need a down day...just staying home doing nothing, not even cleaning. (Gasp!)

She took a picture of me blow-drying her hair. 

Waving the torches around like Gideon's army!

Part of this game was pouring cups of water into a Baggie that I held over my head. Emma loved this game, as you can see...so did the other kids. Yes, I got wet. But then I got to chase them around and sprinkle them with water.

Emma and Ada playing with their toy things. Emma is 4 1/2, as she will tell you. She is really too big for the preschool class, but since she is not 5 yet, was not put in with the kindergarteners/big kids. We keeping having this problem...at school she is with the bigger kids, but everywhere else puts her with the younger ones. Oh well...she does adjust well, as she knows lots of kids in both classes.

Post VBS nap, day 3...she made it to her bed!

This is a good, long, thorough article for those who have time and want to read about it. https://www.hormonesbalance.com/articles/how-adrenal-fatigue-causes-weight-gain-fluid-retention-and-exhaustion/

VBS Day 2

Today went much better, and our weather was gorgeous. We even had an extra kid in our group because one of the girls went and told how much fun our group was. 😂 I was glad they had fun, because we were still working out lots of kinks yesterday. Everyone helping out does a great job, and we enjoyed getting to watch some silly things. 

Virginia and Emma

Making a human table

We had some of the game staff help us out.

Rahab hid us under stalks of flax to hide from the soldiers. I just studied this last week!

Post VBS nap, day 2. 

Tomorrow will be a long day since we have staff meeting after lunch. But I think we are going to try to do lots of resting this week in the afternoons. We seem to be needing it.

VBS, Day 1

Well, we made it to VBS. It was a normal, chaotic day...chillier than usual, though. We had planned on going for a run before VBS every day, but at this point, that may have been wishful thinking. This morning we had to sign someone on base at 7:30, and I didn't sleep great (and wasn't thrilled with Emma waking me up before her green light to play Uno).   Also my allergies are really bothering me again, so I think my new shoes may have to wait. :( After VBS we stopped by GNC to get some pre-workout for Daddy, and then realized the post office on base had just closed for lunch. So we hung out at the library, reading books, and just being quiet. :) We finally mailed his package and came home...at 3 in the afternoon. I'm hoping everyday won't be like this, but Emma did a great job, and she really enjoyed VBS.

VBS is exhausting.