After easing
back into the school year with not much on the agenda the first week, this past
second week was BUSY, and it was exhausting.
The good thing? We had a very low-key
weekend at home after the week was over, so I hit the ground this week feeling
recharged and ready to go! Here’s how last
week went…
Monday, August 11
Monday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed to my
first Home and School Advisory Board meeting of the school year. We went over the calendar for the whole
school year to make sure everything was in place as far as chairs and
committees went, and then we discussed upcoming events.
After we were done there, I stopped at Publix to grab groceries, and then
I unloaded them and got everything put away at home. The rest of my time at home was spent
finishing my blog post for Tuesday, having lunch with Brian, and starting my
blog post for Wednesday.
In the car line, I got some emails knocked out, and then the kids and I
headed home. I hung out with them for a
bit, and then I did my Bible study. I
started deep cleaning the house after that, but I only got as far as the
toilets, and then it was time to stop and make dinner.
We had sausage, peppers, and onions tacos, and then I headed out for a
walk. I lucked out because it started
POURING right when I got home. I was so
happy I had the chance to get through the whole walk before that started!
While the kids showered, I folded and put away the towels, and then I got
my shower. We watched some more of Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, and then after that, we started Interstellar. Jacob and I don’t love Harry Potter at all,
and Jacob was getting really tired of watching that every night, so we decided
to split TV time to let Olivia watch a little bit of her movie and then let
Jacob watch a little bit of something, too.
Brian and I had already seen Interstellar way back in the movie
theater, and we loved it, so I was excited to show it to the kids. Jacob loves outer space, so I knew he’d love
it. We only got about 30 minutes into
it, and then the kids needed to get in the bed.
After they went to bed, Brian and I watched another episode of A Man
on the Inside. Speaking of which, I
realized last weekend that I have been calling the show Man on the Inside
this whole time, when it’s really A Man on the Inside. Sorry ‘bout that! It’s such a great show, though, y’all!
As Brian and I were heading to bed, I popped onto Taylor Swift’s website
because there had been so much speculation all day that some things were
happening, and I was shocked to see that her whole website was empty except for
a countdown. It was counting us down to
12:12 AM, and I told Brian I was convinced she was finally releasing TS12 (her
twelfth album)!!!!
There was no way that I was going to stay up that late on a school night,
but yes, yes I did set an alarm for 12:11 AM to wake myself up to see what the
announcement was.
Sure enough, at 12:11 AM, my alarm went off, and I opened my phone – I
went to bed with Taylor’s website up so it would be the first thing on my
screen when I opened it. The website
appeared to be crashing, so I went to Instagram to see what everyone was
posting, and sure enough, it was an announcement for her twelfth album.
Within about two minutes, the website was back up and running, and I was
able to pre-pre-order my vinyl!!!! At
that point, the album cover and the name were blurred out, so I had no clue
what I was buying, but I didn’t care… it’s Taylor Swift! Lol.
Unfortunately, when I went to check out, there was a queue because there
were so many people on there at the same time, so I had to wait in line… and my
estimated wait time to check out was… 68 minutes. OMG.
I debated what to do for a couple of minutes (hence that the screen shot I took
says 66 minutes), and then I decided to do what any other sleepy girl TS fan
would do. I set an alarm for 64 minutes
later, I left the checkout window up, I closed my phone, and I went back to
sleep.
When my alarm went off 64 minutes later, I opened my phone, and
thankfully, my spot in line had been saved, and I only had two minutes left
until I could check out. I waited my two
minutes, checked out, and then went straight back to sleep. Hahahaha.
Tuesday, August 12
Tuesday morning, I couldn’t get to Olivia’s room fast enough to tell her
the news… I knew she’d be just as excited as I was.
After I got the kids to school, I spent half the morning on social media just
reveling in the happiness about the new album… it was nice to have a happy
space on social media again. Soooo many
friends reached out to me to make sure I knew about it, and that made me so
happy, too.
I did get some work done, too, and I caught up on blog reading. I also had an appointment with my therapist
Tuesday morning, and then I finished my blog post for Wednesday. I was super behind on responding to blog
comments, so I got caught up on those as well.
I had just enough time to put away the towels, water the indoor plants,
and start dusting, and then it was time to pick up the kids from school.
In the car line, I chatted with our new resource officer for a bit, and
then when the kids and I got home, I hung out with them. My favorite time of day is the car ride home
from school and the first few minutes when we get home, because they are always
so chatty and I love to hear about all the details of their days.
Once they were all talked out, they got started on snacks and homework,
and I did my Bible study.
Olivia started her eighth year of dance Tuesday afternoon, so I got her
over there, and I went in with her so we could grab a picture. They always have a cute photo spot during the
first week back. This year, she’ll be
taking the same classes as last year – ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, musical
theatre, hip hop, and pre-pointe – this is the first year she hasn’t added a
class, and the only reason she didn’t is because she is literally taking all of
them. Hahahaha.
Her show USBs from her end-of-year performance were in the office, so I
grabbed those on the way out, and then I headed home.
Jacob and I got out for a walk together when I got home. In high school, they don’t do a fall golf
season, and he’s not interested in doing any of the other sports, so I’m going
to be getting him out of the house this fall to burn energy with me, and Brian is
going to start taking him to play golf once a week, too.
When we got home from our walk, I decided to start working out my
arms. My upper cervical chiropractor had
me cease all workouts except for walking/running since June, but he gave me the
all-clear to start doing some light arm weights at my last appointment. He told me to stick to small weights and no
more than 12 reps for each arm, so I took it really easy, following his exact
instructions. I only did about 10
minutes total, but even so, my arms felt like Jello on Wednesday because they
are so weak from not working them out at all for so long.
I took some “before” pictures of them and I got Brian to measure them so
I can see my progress as I strengthen them again. I’m so ready to feel stronger again in my
upper body!
After that, I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen, and then I got
showered and in my PJs. Now that Olivia
is back at dance, we’ll be eating dinner late on Tuesdays, so I have to do my
workouts before.
Brian headed out to pick up Olivia, and I made meatballs, mashed
potatoes, broccoli, and Cheesecake Factory bread for dinner. Olivia had a fabulous first day at dance, and
she was really excited to be back.
After dinner, Olivia got showered and ready for bed, and then we had a
few minutes to watch something.
Shockingly, Olivia said she wanted to watch Interstellar rather
than Harry Potter, and Jacob wasn’t going to disagree with that. Haha.
We ended up watching about 30 more minutes, and then after the kids went
to bed, Brian and I watched another episode of A Man on the Inside.
Wednesday, August 13
Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school, I filled the car with
gas because I was on eeeempty… I rarely let my tank get below 100 miles, and I
was down to nearly 50 miles, so it was overdue.
After that, I ran some Amazon returns to UPS, and then I headed back to
the school for a meeting with administration about Grandparent’s Day. It’s coming up in early September, and I’m
chairing the event again, so we had to make sure we had everything in order.
I headed home to work for the rest of the day. I knocked out my entire blog post for Friday
from start to finish, I caught up on blog reading, and then I started getting
everything ready for the Teddy Swims concert Wednesday evening. I had to make sure all my daily tasks were
checked off the list early, and I had to switch to a clear bag, change clothes,
etc.
I got in the car line a little earlier than usual to ensure we could get
home as quickly as possible, and I spent the extra time catching up with our
old resource officer on the phone… he’d called to say hello and check on the
kids to see how the school year was going for them, and I wanted to hear all
about his new job.
When the kids and I got home from school, Brian was already home and
getting ready to go. The kids packed
their bags for my parents’ house since they were staying the night, and they
had to bring all of their school stuff as well as Olivia’s dance stuff + dinner
for Olivia to eat in the car on the way to dance since she’s there all night…
needless to say, they were not traveling lightly. Lol.
We got them over to my parents, and they took it from there – the
homework, dance drop off and pick up, dinner, shower, and bedtime routine – so
Brian and I could go to Atlanta.
It had rained aaaallll afternoon at home, and it had rained all day in
Atlanta, too… trust me, I know, because I had checked a million times. Haha.
The venue where we were seeing Teddy Swims was Chastain Park, and there
is zero cover whatsoever. The only thing
that’s covered is the stage. We go to a
lot of concerts, and it is very rare for there to be ZERO seats with a
cover overhead, so I was really worried about the weather. I wasn’t worried about rain because there are
ponchos for that, but I was very worried about lightning because I knew that
would mean they’d have to postpone or cancel.
I’d also started having some random dizziness Wednesday morning, and I
didn’t know if it was from my arms workout or it if was hormone related or
what, but I was grateful that it wasn’t extreme, and I was grateful that it
wasn’t making me unsteady. My UCC told
me that I will likely have setbacks here and there as it’s part of the process,
but it was unfortunate to have a setback on concert day.
Brian and I had hoped to try to eat at Superica before the show, but we
weren’t able to get a reservation online, and when we arrived, they told us the
wait was already 50-55 minutes, which we didn’t have time for. So, we drove on down to the nearest
Chick-Fil-A (which wasn’t far since they’re on every corner in Georgia), and we
had that for dinner.
Taylor Swift was going to be on the New Heights podcast Wednesday evening
at 7 PM EST – because of course she announced something huge the one night
that I was going to be out doing something.
Haha. I turned it on right at 7
and I watched it all the way to the venue (which was just right down the
street), but it took us some time to get to a lot and park since it was so
packed.
I ended up being able to watch 30 minutes in the car and on the walk into
the venue, but shortly after we sat down in our seats, the internet started
bogging down from all of the people in there, so I had to turn it off. This is a true music fan right here, y’all –
watching one of my favorite artists break the internet while waiting for
another one of my favorite artists to come on stage! ;o)
The show started at 8 PM with an opener named Cian Ducrot. I’d never heard any of his music, but he was
great, and I downloaded two of his albums later that weekend. I love finding new artists to love!
After his set was done, Brian pulled up the radar… so far we’d gotten
lucky and it hadn’t rained, but there was rain all around us and I thought for
sure we were going to get drenched. Sure
enough, there was a massive wall of rain just west of us and it was heading
straight for us. Miraculously, though,
30 minutes into the concert I realized that it wasn’t raining, and the radar
showed that it was miraculously shrinking and disappearing right as it got to
us.
We did get some sprinkles a few songs in, but it didn’t even require a
poncho, so it was no big deal. We got
really lucky with the weather!!
And the show – the show – was incredible!
I found Teddy a couple of years ago before Lose Control took off,
and I’ve been dying to see him ever since.
He’s been around for a while, so he has several albums, and I had hoped
to hear a few of the songs from his old albums, and he delivered. I was so excited.
His voice is incredible, his backup singers’ voices are incredible, and
the show was just fantastic from start to finish. I screamed along to the songs (not while B was videoing, though LOL... if you watched my IG stories, the girl next to B sang along the whole time, and she sang so off-key... I promise that was not me, LOL), I danced, I
cried when he got choked up singing Small Hands, and for the first
time in two whole years, I didn’t have to hold onto the seat in front of me
during the concert because my UCC is healing me. Amen.
(Thankfully my dizziness went away before the show, too.)
And we were in the tenth row, so I was able to get some awesome pictures!
Setlist:
- Not Your Man
- Hammer to the Heart
- Apple Juice
- She Loves the Rain
- Are You Even Real
- Devil in a Dress
- Bad Dreams
- Free Drugs
- Funeral
- What More Can I Say
- 911
- Need You More
- Black & White
- Small Hands
- All That Really Matters
- Some Things I’ll Never Know
- Northern Lights
- Guilty
- God Went Crazy
- What’s Going On
- Your Kind of Crazy
- Lose Control
- Bed on Fire
- Goodbye’s Been Good to You
- The Door
When we got back to the car, I immediately jumped on Taylor’s website to
see the album cover and release date, because I knew at that point that it
would be out since she had been on the podcast, and I saw that she had also
released four deluxe CD variants of the new albums and that all were already
sold out (including the one I loved the most) except for one. NOOOO.
The only deluxe version that wasn’t sold out was the one that had the
original cover art, but I went ahead and ordered one anyway because I knew
Olivia wanted a CD.
Brian and I made it home sometime after 1 AM and we headed straight to
bed.
Thursday, August 14
Brian slept in later than usual on Thursday and headed for work, and I
ended up waking up at 8:45 because I’d forgotten to set an alarm for
myself. Whoops.
I got dressed, grabbed breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher, made a cup of
tea, and I headed to my office to get some things done. And by get things done, I mean, I had to go
check social media to see all of the TS info, Easter eggs, and theories. Hahahaha.
I also logged onto my Amazon Associates account to check on commissions,
etc. as I do every morning, and I saw that someone had purchased enough
commercial grade items through my links to furnish what appears to be an entire
professional kitchen. That was the
largest commission I have received from a single order, so to whoever that was,
thank you! It looks like maybe you are
opening a coffee shop? Or something
similar? If you’re reading this, best of
luck to you!! <3
The guy who does my hair came over at 10:30, and it felt so good to
finally get fresh highlights… I hadn’t gotten mine done since the end of May,
and my hair grows really fast, so my roots were, like, three inches long. Whoops.
After he left, I vacuumed since he’d trimmed my hair, and then I turned
the hairdryer on my foils to keep them warm.
After 30 minutes, I got showered and ready for the day with my fresh
hair, and then I made my lunch. While I
ate, I started watching the New Heights podcast from the beginning, and then I
stopped about halfway through so I could actually get some things done.
I caught up on emails, and then it was time to pick up the kids from
school. We had music lessons after
school, and now that both kids are taking lessons at the same time, I’m going
to start alternating between the two of them since they both want me to sit in
on their lessons. I sat in with Olivia
per her request on Thursday, and she started learning the main theme from Interstellar
on the guitar. She picked it up pretty
quickly, too.
Jacob had worked on Tears of the Kingdom (Zelda video game) music
some more, and then we headed to my parents’ house to pick up Jacob’s and
Olivia’s stuff since they’d spent the night over there.
We hung out with them for a few minutes, and then it was home to do
homework and prep for Friday. I was BEAT
by the end of the day, so I was ready to relax.
I did my Bible study, we had breakfast for dinner, I watered all of the
outdoor plants, and then I made myself go for a walk, even though I was
exhausted and I’d had a headache all day.
I get hormone headaches twice a month now that last about 48 hours each,
and nothing – I mean NOTHING – will help with them. Not Ibuprofen, not Tylenol, not caffeine, not
massage, not rest, not drinking ton of water, not a warm neck wrap, not my acupressure
mat. Nothing. And it is not fun. If anyone has experienced this before and you
have any suggestions for how to alleviate these (or what the root cause could
be), please do let me know!
I was grateful to have gotten in my walk, though! Afterwards, I got showered, and we watched 30
more minutes of Interstellar with the kids. I think it took us four hours to get through
this 2.5 hour movie because the ads were out of control on Pluto TV. The movie was free to watch, but the ads on
there are RIDICULOUS. Do not
recommend. Haha.
After the kids went to bed, Brian and I started the new episode of The
Summer I Turned Pretty that we’d missed the night before while we were at
the concert, but I was so exhausted that we turned it off halfway through and
went to bed.
Friday, August 15
Friday morning, we had to take pictures of the kids in their Mass attire
since it was their first Mass of the school year. Now that Jacob is in high school, he has to
wear a blazer, and now that Olivia is in middle school, she has to wear knee
socks and dress shoes. They look so
nice, but I felt so bad for Jacob because it was a million degrees on Friday.
I got the kids to school and then I headed home for 30 minutes to have a
cup of tea and knock out a couple of things before I had to pick up my mom and
Mama Cass. Friday was a Holy Day in the
Catholic church, so we went to the 9:30 AM school Mass. We picked up Mama Cass on the way there, and
we met my Aunt Joy and Aunt Becky, too.
Since Olivia is in middle school this year, she now attends the high
school / middle school Mass, and I was so sad that after 10 whole years I
officially have zero kids in the lower school Mass. Our school is so large that they have to
split the school into two separate Masses, and the middle school / high school
Mass is PACKED (so many kids!!), so there’s just no room for anyone who is not
a student or teacher to go to that Mass.
So, I will continue going to the lower school Masses on Holy Days, but
with no kids in there. Waaaahhhh. I may or may not have teared up when they
started playing one of Olivia’s very favorite Mass songs, Let It Be Done. I do love this phase of life because the kids
are SO MUCH FUN, but sometimes, I really do miss the little kid stage.
After Mass let out, the school’s Communications Director asked if she
could snap our picture for the school’s social media pages since we are a
third-generation family. Aunt Joy
(left), Aunt Becky (second from left), and Momma (next to me) all graduated
from there, I graduated from there, and now my kids are attending the
school. My Aunt Becky’s class was one of
the first graduating classes at our school, so Mama Cass (and my late
grandfather AKA Big Daddy) were one of the founding families, making Mama Cass
one of the OG school moms.
After that, my mom and Mama Cass were riding with my Aunt Joy to go visit
my uncle, so I didn’t have to take anyone home.
While I happened to be driving Mama Cass to church, I got the alert that
more merch (including the CD variant that I wanted) for Taylor Swift had been
restocked, but it literally went out of stock about 30 seconds after it was
restocked so I missed it. One of my blog
readers (heyyyy Kristin!) told me about an app called Alerts for Merch. You can sign up for any artist in their
database, and you can customize your parameters for the type of alerts you want
for each artist, so I was able to set that up while I was drinking my tea, and
now I get alerts for Taylor merch in real-time.
I was so sad that I’d missed the restock, but thankfully, it was
restocked a couple more times throughout the day, even though I failed to get
one of those, too. More on that later.
When I got home, I caught up on a few random things and Brian and I ate
lunch together. I watched some more of
the podcast, and then at 1:35 I tried to get my CD again as it was restocked. It let me add it to my cart and then when I
went to check out it told me it was unavailable. Boooo.
When the kids and I got home from school, I immediately got into my PJs
(yes ma’am!) and then I spent some time being lazy and uploading my Teddy Swims
videos to Instagram stories.
Brian picked up pizza for dinner, and I made Moscow Mules, and we all sat
down to eat together. More merch dropped
right as we were finishing up, and I literally got on there within seconds of
getting the notification. I was able to
add the CD to my cart, and I got through checkout, but then it kicked me out
when I checked the “Captcha” box to prove that I wasn’t a robot. Sigh.
Thankfully, one of my sweet Instagram friends knew which one I was
wanting, and she was able to snag one for me!!
I thought that was SO sweet and I was so grateful that she was able to
grab it. EEK! The Swiftie community is truly the best!
After dinner, the kids got showered, and then Olivia and I started
watching the New Heights podcast with Taylor from the beginning since she
wanted to see it, too. That was my third
time watching the beginning, and at that point, I still hadn’t even seen the
end other than all the clips I’d seen on social media. Haha.
Once both kids were showered, we made some popcorn, and then we finished Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, and then we finished Interstellar. Jacob declared Interstellar his
favorite movie of all time, and I have to agree that it is really great. Bring the tissues!!
After the kids were in bed, Brian and I finished the episode of The
Summer I Turned Pretty that we’d started, and that scene with Conrad while
Belly is cleaning the cut on his leg – SWOON.
Oh my gosh. That scene brought
back aaaallll the memories of Leonardo DiCaprio in the fish tank scene in Romeo
+ Juliet and the scene where he paints Rose in Titanic. I was head over heels for that boy when I was
a teenager and Christopher Briney could be his doppelganger. It’s insane how much they look alike.
After that, Brian and I watched part of an episode of Friends that
was on Nick at Night, and then we went to bed.
Saturday, August 16
Saturday, Brian had to be at work at 4:30 AM for a project that he’s
wrapping up at work. The kids and I all
slept in, and then Olivia helped me make homemade waffles for the three of
us.
The rest of the day was pretty darn lazy other than getting some
housework done. I tackled my email inbox
because it was stuffed with emails that required attention and action, so that
took most of my morning, but I got my main inbox down to ZERO emails which is
rare. It also didn’t last long, but it
was nice while it lasted. Haha.
Jacob spent the morning drawing and playing piano while Olivia watched K-Pop
Demon Hunters for the second time… it’s crazy how wildly popular that movie
is right now! I’ve heard such good
things about it from adults now that I’m a little curious, and I’m wondering if
I need to sit down and watch it with Olivia even though it doesn’t look
remotely like anything I would enjoy.
After that, the kids did their laundry, and Olivia tried on her new
uniform skirts that finally arrived… only took them two months to get here. Sheesh.
We all ate lunch together and then the kids deep cleaned their bathrooms,
put their laundry away, tidied anything that was needed, and then they played
video games for a little while.
Meanwhile, I washed towels, I downloaded some new music, I organized all
of the tons of new information I’d been given in the previous week (events,
appointments, meetings, etc.), I cleaned off my desk, and I got my quiet time
and Bible study done for the day.
By the time all that was done, it was time to get ready for church. Brian got home shortly after I started
getting ready, and he fell asleep right after getting home since he’d been up
so early.
Olivia asked me to do her hair, and then she and Jacob and I snuck out of
the house to not wake Brian. We met Mama
Cass and my Aunt Joy, Uncle Greg, and Aunt Becky at Mass, and then after Mass
all of us (minus Aunt Becky) went to our usual Mexican restaurant to eat
dinner. My parents had gone on a day
trip, and they didn’t get home until much later, so they weren’t around Saturday. But Brian was able to meet us there since he’d
finished up with work and finished his nap.
Brian and the kids stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home for Blizzards,
and then when we got home, we all got in our PJs and we started Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. I fell
straight to sleep. We’ve reached
Lindsay-falling-asleep-on-the-couch-season AKA the entire 10 months that the
kids are in school because waking up at 6 AM five days a week is too much for
me. Hahahaha.
After the kids went to bed, Brian and I finished season one of A Man
on the Inside, and then we started My Oxford Year, but we didn’t get
too far into it before we were both tired.
Sunday, August 17
Sunday morning, we all slept in, and Brian got donuts for breakfast… it
was a nice treat since we hadn’t had them in so long. Brian had hoped to mow the lawn and get some
other things done, but he got dragged into work again because of that project
he was working on… he was on call Sunday but expected not to have much to do, and
then he ended up working the entire day.
The kids and I had another lazy day at home. I watched my sermon and planned the week
ahead, I did my blog post from start to finish for Monday, I got in a mixed
cardio workout along with an arms workout, and then we all had lunch.
After that, I got ready for the day, I transferred photos from my phone
to my computer, we all prepped for the week ahead, and I watched How to Lose
a Guy in 10 Days while I worked.
The kids were pretty lazy all day, too, as it was a million degrees
outside. Nobody wanted to set foot out
there, and I didn’t blame them. Plus,
this was our last weekend with nothing to do other than church and family time,
so we were all perfectly okay with staying home all weekend.
Brian was still working when it was time to leave for Sunday dinner at my
parents’ house, so the kids and I headed over there, and then he joined us
around 7:30 when he was finally done with his project.
When we got home, the kids went to bed pretty early, Brian and I watched
30 more minutes of My Oxford Year, and then he and I went to bed early,
too.
Happy Wednesday, y’all!
