Year 3, July 9th-10th, 2018: Vacation Prep Week

Well, this week is the week to get all the things done that aren't part of the bigger projects.  I was mentally done anyway so I condensed the projects, put some sticky notes on the boxes telling me what my ideas were to do next with them and left them at that.  So the last couple of days I've been working on clearing my desk of paperwork and starting to gather things for vacation like bathing suits and medications, special foods for me, extra pull ups for Abishai, etc.  I've made some great progress, especially today on the paperwork, so I'm already feeling better about that.  It's been a rough day with potty training, but we had some fun being out and about today.  Yesterday we stayed home and rested up from Sunday.  Benaiah also had to work.

Monday

Oh yeah, Bryce stayed over Sunday night.  I knew as soon as I saw him and Justin on Sunday morning on our way into church that they would ask for a playdate/sleepover so I was already prepared to say yes when they asked.  They had a great time as always.

Abishai always likes to get in on the action when the older kids have friends over.  And it's a good thing we have extra bathing suits to share!  I had just bought some more of those easy to fill water balloons, so they had a blast with them.

Bryce's Grandma came a little early, but she let them play on the slip and slide just a little longer since they had just gotten set up.  There's a whole in the big pillow part at the top, but the fun is when you get to the bottom and you're doused in the icy cold water.

Taking the plunge.

They figured out that the best way to get down the slip and slide is to actually roll down it like you were rolling down the side of the hill, on your side.  And it worked!

Man child with his manly candle.  It still cracks me up!  Jared was into candles for a bit in the early days of our married life, maybe because of me, but Benaiah choose this all on his own.  It smells ok, and isn't too powerful.

Four boxes full of paper ready to leave the house.  Three boxes on the left full of books ready to go, too.  I'm getting there.

I love it when he plays on the rug behind me.  That way I know where he is, I can listen to his chatter, and I can get some work done.

I was the first one in line at the railroad crossing on my way home from the chiropractor on Monday night.  Sweet!  It was a pretty long train, too.  It never bothers me to be stopped by a train.  It was maybe 5 minute delay, tops.

The end!

Lots of different cars, too.  As Abishai said, "Cargo cars!" and oil tankers, coal cars, bulk wood platform trucks, and regular boxcars.

Abishai felt the need to comfort the puppy because Jared had left the gate open and Socks had escaped.  Abishai said, "Socks escape.  Socks thinks it's funny. Socks, (to the dog), it's not funny!"

Chillin' with the puppy dog.  I think they have a love/hate relationship now because the toddler bed is too small for both of them plus it gets so hot being next to each other.  I'm just glad he's still concerned with Socks' whereabouts.  He also told us that week that he wanted Miah to stay at Ethan's house, and that he didn't want Miah to get bad guys on his computer.  Miah needed to stay at church.  I forget what the extra context of that was but it's just another funny saying of Abishai's and shows what's going on in his head.

Pretty cloud streaks probably from airplanes in the evening sky!

Birthday treat!  Actually, my parents used to get me a pint of Haagen-Daas Strawberry ice cream for my birthday, which of course is made of purer ingredients than a lot of the fake "ice milk" (at least that's what they called it in Canada, which I thought it was hilarious).  Here's what one ingredient list is for heavenly hash ice cream:  FROZEN DESSERT: MODIFIED MILK INGREDIENTS, SUGAR, GLUCOSE, WATER, COCONUT OIL, ALMONDS, COCOA, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOUR, CORN MALTODEXTRIN, MODIFIED TAPIOCA STARCH, SOYBEAN OIL, SOY LECITHIN, UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE, GLUCOSE-FRUCTOSE, SALT, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, CELLULOSE GUM, GUAR GUM, CAROB BEAN GUM, CARRAGEENAN, POLYSORBATE 80, LACTIC ACID, POTASSIUM SORBATE, POLYGLYCEROL POLYRICINOLEATE, COLOUR. CHOCOLATEY CHUNKS: SUGAR, COCONUT OIL, COCOA, MILK INGREDIENTS, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL FLAVOUR. CONTAINS MILK, SOY, ALMONDS.And then for Haagen-Dazs ice cream: (in Canada) CREAM, CONCENTRATED SKIM MILK, SUGAR, PEANUT BUTTER (PEANUTS, PEANUT OIL, SUGAR, SALT), LIQUID EGG YOLK, UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE, COCOA.  Yeah, big difference.  Anyway, I can't believe I found almond milk based Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia (close to Cherry Cordial) ice cream!  B & J is from Vermont, so of course everybody talks about it in New Hampshire.  And yes, it's like 2 or 3 times the price of the cheap stuff.  But it's so much better! ALMOND MILK (WATER, ALMONDS), LIQUID SUGAR (SUGAR, WATER), CHERRIES, COCONUT OIL, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, DRIED CANE SYRUP, SUGAR, COCOA, PEA PROTEIN, SUNFLOWER LECITHIN, FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CONCENTRATES (COLOR), GUAR GUM, NATURAL FLAVOR (COCONUT), LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE, SOY LECITHIN, VANILLA EXTRACT, LOCUST BEAN GUM.  Ok, it's not AS pure as Haagen-Dasz, but at least I can eat it!  It was so yummy!

Tuesday

Vintage ICCC VBS t-shirt right here.  It would have been Justin's t-shirt.  He probably didn't attend this one, but we always got t-shirts for both boys when the VBS came around.

It does have signatures on it, so it makes me wonder if it was Benaiah's or if Justin actually participated in VBS.  I think you had to be potty trained and I know that Justin was just turning 3 in 2008, and therefore not potty trained yet.  But, it's fun to see that 10 years later, we still have Sam I Am around and I think the Ben is either Benjamin Henry or possibly Benaiah.  The Ea probably wasn't Ethan, but I'm not sure.  Kit, Tyler and Uncle Buck are stage names.  Oh how I miss the people that did skits for church and for the kids' programs!  And our VBS' were rocking! We had 100's of kids, too.  Sweet memories!

Finally catching up with their reading for the summer.  There was just too many great library books I wanted Justin to read.  And he's been plowing through 1-2 books a day!  I hope he's actually remembering what they are about!

I didn't read the Hannibal one, but I know that Benaiah and I read through this one together and it was recommended by our curriculum.

Both Justin and Keturah read this one.

Cute!  Abishai used the nautical rope design as a road!  And he got upset when Keturah knocked into it.

Cow Appreciation Day!  It was the last Taco Tuesday Justin could attend and no one else was available, so I took all 4 kids with me and told them that we would not be buying the store.  But as we were about to leave, Benaiah told us that it was Cow Appreciation Day and if you wear something cowish on it, you can get a free entree or free full kids' meal!  Score!  So I left Justin and Benaiah at Taco Bell with some cash to do their thing.  I wouldn't have liked Justin to be there alone because the youth sponsors aren't really in charge of them in a public place like that, and Justin is just a tad too young in my opinion to be alone.  But I'm not a huge fan of Taco Bell and the younger two aren't either, so we skipped over next door to CFA! I was only going to let them get one thing, but we ended up only spending $6 on 2 kids' meal (fries, drink, 6 piece nuggets), a grilled sandwhich for me, a drink for me, fries for me, and two ice cream cones (one was free because Keturah traded in her toy for it.  That's a HUGE amount of food!  Plus playtime in the playground to tucker little man out.  Plus free wifi.  They girls and guys up front did a great job keeping up with the crush of people, too.  I tried to keep a smile on my face and reassured them that they were doing great.  I know I wouldn't last long in a fast paced environment like that.  Yeah for CFA!

Lots of decorations for Cow Appreciation Day!  We saw several friends there, too!  I know Benaiah was glad he wasn't working today!  Although he did talk to a few people when he and Justin joined us.  It was chaos but it was fun.  We were ready to come home and be quiet after that trip!  We also went to Aldi's for a few things because boy do these kids eat!  I thought that the 1 gallon of milk we had on Sunday, which was mostly full, would last the week but it didn't last two days.  Sheesh!

Oh, Benaiah finally got a cell phone, aka Jared's old phone and Jared got a new phone, so Jared was going through some older pictures and look what he found!  A babushka Keturah!

She loved these blue glasses!  I think she was maybe 5 or 6 at the most.

Back to present day, Abishai was using the benches in the playground as parkour, aka, like American Ninja Warrior, training course.

Getting my "moo" on.  Yeah for shirts from Cows Creamery making it easy to sport our "cowness" for the day.  A lot of people just take a white t-shirt and put black spots all over it or even use construction paper and safety pin spots to their shirt or wear the sign "eat mor chickin' " that you see in CFA signage.  PEI represent!

It still fits!

Go, PEI!  Which reminds me of the Abbott family and how they usually do Cow Appreciation Day every year since being back in the states and sure enough, I saw pictures of them doing it today, too!

I had a CFA bandana that I showed the cashier that represented Abishai's contribution.  I knew he wouldn't go for me changing his clothes or putting something else on him.  Here he's hiding under the slide.

Abishai actually ate the ice cream this time!  Well, some of it, and he ate the whole cone!  We eventually put it in a bowl and Benaiah finished it/

I knew it would get messy and I remembered that we still had a big in the diaper bag!  We haven't used it for probably a year but it came in handy today.  Look at how small it is on him!  I used to have to roll those sleeves up like 6 times when he was around 8 months old!  This is the smaller version of this brand of bib though.  I believe I have a bigger version I bought by mistake that's in the crafting supplies.  I'm going to make sure it's thoroughly dry again after thoroughly washing it before putting it back in the bag because if it's another year before we use it, a) it will be too small and b) I don't want it to mold.

We dumped the cone into the bowl and then Abishai pulled off the cone itself.  And this is what the ice cream looks like from the bottom!

This fan was spinning when we came out to the parking lot, but Benaiah stopped it.  It's a cute propeller covering the jeep's hitch.

More books read in the last two days.  Simplified version of Shakespeare.  We hope to get to the longer version in high school.

Short biographies, but really, I hope they are taking the time to look at the pictures, too.  Visually seeing a person and events surrounding them can make a powerful impact.

Playing see saw on Daddy's legs while others play the new video games that were bought today.

Justin wanted to get "Rocket League," which we had rented a long time ago, with his money he got from mowing.  Well, Big Brother just decided to go ahead and buy it for him instead, and he bought another game to share.  Big Brother dropped $40 on the family, how about that?! And it is a multi player game that they do enjoy, so have at it! Also, we got a new foldable blue stool because Abishai likes the one at the office so much AND it will fit perfectly between Jared's nightstand and the closet so I can use it to put his t-shirts away AND it's a great potty training incentive.  I.e., in order to play with, Abishai has to go to the potty.  That's how we roll!

Benaiah received his first bank statement today!  Woot! Woot!  I did tell him that he should sign up for paperless statements so that we don't have physical papers to shove around and loose. He's supposed to go for his permit again tomorrow, too.  He got his first paycheck late last week and was shocked at how much taxes were taken out.  We also found out that we will be getting a discount on Benaiah's school because Jared will be teaching a class all year at the end of the school day.  That way it will interrupt his work day less and he can be the afternoon transporter.  Yeah!  God really knows how to stretch every dollar we have.  And he's given me the brains to figure out how to chase down those deals, too.  For example, because the kids are on medicaid and it was finally renewed this month, we can get an access pass to the Children's Museum and several other museums where the entrance fee is vastly reduced by like 90%! Score!  For less than the price of one ticket, we can all go the Children's Museum!  We just have to take the paperwork in and get the pass.  Yeah!  I can't wait!  God is faithful and good! Yes, even when the deals aren't coming our way, but it "feels" better when they are.  Onward to a busy tomorrow!