A Journal Week | Mommy and Me Monday | 636th ed
When you get to the end of the week and realize that so much happened, you aren’t even sure what to focus on, a journaled week seems only the best.
Monday, the first day back after Spring Break N had a race an hour away. All season she had hoped to run in a relay and was on the 4x800m team as the third leg. Her team got 2nd place!
Monday (I think it was Monday), one of our door handles broke. Oh, and B had a trip to the orthopedic doctor to check her wrist and hand to see about a fracture. Based on x-rays and evaluation, the thought is it’s just a sprain, but we are still in a holding pattern.
Tuesday, the oldest had a race. She was running in the 800m preliminary and we all thought it was her last race of the track season. Mr. Serious and I went to watch her race. The amount of anxiety I had watching this race was nothing I had felt before. I had to keep looking away!
She then proceeded to show us just how wrong that thought was with a 12 second HUGE PR. She finished her 800m in 2:40.14! After all of the heats were completed and things were looked at, we learned she qualified for the 800m finals the next day.
Wednesday, N had to get her TSA precheck completed. Who let this kid turn 13 already?
We were pretty sure that it really was going to be the oldests’ last race of the season. N hadn’t been to one of her older sister’s races, so she asked to come.
She’s good race company except she prefers to sit. I can’t sit. I need to stand and move and walk around. And when it came time for the oldest to race, I might have done some cheering at yelling.
N asked if I did the same at her races. Yeah, I kind of do. So, I guess that goes to show we are only cheering for ourselves. She said she only hears me sometimes.
The oldest didn’t have her best race, but she was running with the fastest of the fastest in junior varsity county. On tired legs and sore body, she ran her 800m in 2:44.32. Not quite as fast as the day before, but faster than all of her previous 800m races.
Then, we found out her season is continuing with regional races for at least another week of racing.
Thursday the older two girls had their typical practice and E and B and I went up during practice to get some more of their training in to be able to run for 20-30 minutes. They did pretty good and honestly it was the best I’ve felt on a run in a while.
Thursday evening, a part I ordered had come in to make a repair on our dishwasher. It was either a bad error on my part or timed really well, but once we replaced the part, the dishwasher would no longer turn on. So, we swapped the new part back out for the old. Still no luck. Checked to make sure it had power, yep, it did. And did so many other things.
I’m usually really good at these things. This one? Defeated me.
First, Friday, we tried having an acquaintance come look at it. He didn’t have the equipment to test it beyond power. And I had exhausted anything else he might try.
With family arriving later that day, being without a dishwasher wasn’t an option I cared to entertain. Thankfully, there is an emergency fund, right?
After trying a couple appliance repair places, I found one that could come look within the hour. He arrived and told us the board had been fried. We were quoted $600 for parts and labor. The part wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday with the holiday weekend. (Of course after searching and a friend helping we found a replacement part in the city available).
However, after learning that they typically aren’t lasting more than 5-6 years (yes, even the impeccable Bosch I had bought), and the fact that the dispenser still needed replacing, and a rack had rusted, and that it wouldn’t be working until after the weekend, I decided to try to explore more options.
Most stores didn’t have anything in stock for same day pickup. If I did find something I could pick up, it was over an hour away and there was still the matter of installation.
On a wing and a prayer, I called a local appliance store. The man walked me through the options of what they had in-stock right now. He offered to call their delivery and installation people to see if anybody could help out the same day. And eventually, he offered to let me pay over the phone instead of making a drive to the store.
By about 6:30pm Friday night, we had a new dishwasher delivered, installed and running.
While my repair was a complete fail, I can say that when I’m on a mission, I can make things happen. Hopefully, this GE dishwasher does what’s promised. And hopefully, it lasts for more than 6 years!
Saturday we were invited to a screening of The Bad Guys. Since we had family in town, we were lucky to be able to include them, too.
I think some cousins were super excited to see the movie!
We all enjoyed some good laughs and bought ourselves lunch, too.
Thoughts on The Bad Guys:
E (10 year old): I like the animation style. It’s like a graphic novel, a book and a movie.
I (15 year old): I enjoyed the development of the friendships and relationships. It was a nice cliche movie to watch. And I laughed at all of the butt jokes. (She laughed at all of the jokes!!)
N (13 year old): It was really cute and funny. And the piranha farts were funny.
Mr. Serious: It was Oceans 11 meets Zootopia meets Big Bad Wolf.
Me: It had cute plot twists the kids could easily follow. The relationships that form and change teach good lessons for kids and adults alike. It kept me entertained. It did have me asking myself some questions. For example, how do they decide which animals talk and are more like humans and which stay more like animals?
M (6 year old niece who has been reading all of the books): It was like all of the books combined and I really liked it. (Then she proceeded to tell me which things were different or changed from the books but I won’t spoil it for you.)
Saturday evening, Mr. Serious and I had an early birthday date celebration. Of course, we took no pictures.
Sunday was both Easter and my birthday, which was the first time in my lifetime they have overlapped.
N brought me breakfast in bed and then I came downstairs to some gifts and cards and artwork.
We planned to grab a lunch to go but the weather was making the rest of the plan wishy-washy. When we realized the weather would hold, we decided to pick it up and head to a park to eat and play.
Food + playground + big empty grass area made for a fun couple of hours. After Mr. Serious wore them all out playing freeze tag, we were able to get all of the cousins together in one picture.
Then we came back and had some group games, some cousin sas, some boiled egg decorating attempted and hang out time.
N offered to make us fajitas for dinner and we were all game. Oh, and she had made my birthday cake Saturday, too!
After our dinner, we had some “happy birthday” singing and got to eat cake and cupcakes.
Of course, homemade birthday cake and family visiting certainly makes all of the other not so fun things so much better. Like, in a year, I hopefully will forget my dishwasher fun right before family coming in, right? So many other good things to be happy about!
What did you do this week?
GET IN THE PICTURE WITH YOUR KIDS! Who cares what you look like? Who cares how you appear? Who cares what you are wearing? JUST DO IT! Come share your picture on the Facebook thread or use #MommyAndMeMonday!
It’s time again for Mommy and Me Monday. Pop out from behind that camera and capture yourself in action with your kids. Check out the inaugural Mommy and Me Monday for more information. Need another reason to participate in Mommy and Me Monday? Read my post about why I blog with words from a friend’s husband.