Our Week - The One with Summer, Week 7 (Bowling with Friends, One UCC Adjustment, Volunteering at Outreach, Sleepovers, and Lots of Productivity)

I cannot believe we are down to just three weeks of summer break, y’all!  We squeezed in some more fun last week and I’m recapping it now…

Monday, July 7

Monday, I woke at 7:45, I had breakfast, I unloaded the dishwasher, and I watered the outdoor plants – my usual morning activities.  Both kids were still sleeping when I was done, so I headed to my office with a cup of cinnamon tea in hand, and I started working on my blog post for Wednesday.  I also worked on my end of the year blog post since I’m trying to get that caught up, and I cleaned off my computer desktop as it had gotten a little sloppy.

The kids were up and watching TV a little before nine, and while they did that, I photographed a bunch of items to sell, and I listed them on Facebook.  That took the rest of the morning, so by the time I was finished, it was time to eat lunch.

Brian was working from home Monday, so the four of us ate together, and then I decided to tackle the closet in his office.  I knew that I couldn’t do some of it because I’m not allowed to lift heavy things right now with these neck adjustments, so I wanted to do it on a day when he was home. 

With Brian’s help, I ended up getting the entire shelving unit cleaned off in there, and it felt SO GOOD to have that done as it has been a hot mess for years.  We got rid of so.much.stuff. and I finally have a space to house all of the items that I have listed for sale on Poshmark and Facebook.  I also now have a place for items that I still need to list.

Before

After

Brian and I also got all of the donation bags moved from upstairs down to the dining room so I could get them into my trunk later in the week and finally drop them off.  It is so nice to walk out of my office now and not have a mountain of stuff piled up there!

While I worked on the closet, Jacob worked on his science summer homework, and Olivia joined him because it was actually something they both enjoy – he had to watch one of the episodes of Planet Earth and then answer some questions about the episode.  Olivia also cleaned out her email inbox while he worked on the paper.

I got showered after that, and the kids settled in for some (more) screen time.  Monday, we hung around the house all day, and I knew that I needed to tackle quite a bit of stuff since we had some things going on later in the week, so they both got more screen time than usual.  (Although, I suppose some of it was because of the summer homework.)

After my shower, I ordered a couple more things that Jacob needed before going back to school, and then I worked on my blog post for Thursday. 

We had an early dinner Monday evening because we had something fun planned with friends at 6:15, so I made spaghetti and meatballs, steamed broccoli, and garlic cheesy bread.  Then we headed to the bowling alley to meet friends!  We love the kids bowl free program here in town!

We got home a little after 8, so I changed clothes and was able to squeeze in a quick 2-mile walk just before it got dark.  The kids showered while I walked, and then we got them in bed a little early.

Brian and I watched an episode of We Were Liars and we called it a night.

 

Tuesday, July 8

Tuesday morning, I was up again at 7:45, I did my morning routine, and then I settled in to do a little bit of Amazon Prime Day sale browsing.  I worked on my blog post for Thursday for a bit, and then I got showered, and we had a quick lunch before heading to another adjustment. 

Brian had worked from home on Tuesday so he could take me, and we brought the kids along, too, since the appointment was supposed to be short. 

What was supposed to be a 10-minute appointment ended up turning into a 20-minute appointment because the doctor had some new technology, and he wanted me to be the guinea pig for it.

Before we delved into all of that, he took the temperature up and down my neck like he always does, and my lines looked pretty decent, but they were slightly wavy on the bottom right.  He pulled up the older scans and noticed a trend that they are almost always the most wavy on the bottom right, so he said that was a clue to what could be going on in there.

Once that was done, we moved into the big room where he strapped a special headset to the top of my head.  I had to sit by a big computer (the headset was attached to it), and for the first test, he did a “Joint Position Error Test.”  This test required me to close my eyes and then tilt my head back as far as it would go, and then slowly bring it back to normal.  I repeated that motion, and then I did the same thing looking down, turning to the left, and then turning to the right. 

This assessed the joint position sense of the cervical spine.  I stayed within the green targets and scored a 91 which isn’t bad, but having the target in the very center is obviously the best.  Since mine wasn’t within the target, that indicated that my cervical spine still isn’t aligned just right.

After that was done, he did a “Butterfly Test.”  The Butterfly Test is a test that looks at the vestibular system.  It required me to continue wearing the same headpiece and then I had to move my head all around to follow a green dot that moved erratically on the screen.  There was a cross that indicated where my movements were, and the goal was to align the cross (my head movements) with the green dot as it moved.

We did an easy level, a medium level, and a hard level, and while I did pretty good with easy and medium, the hard one was nearly impossible.  I ended up scoring an 84 / 100 overall, which he said is actually not bad, all things considered.

He told me that he really wishes that he’d had this test at my first appointment, because that would have given him a better idea of just how bad my vestibular system was before we started the adjustment process.  And he said it also would have given him a good baseline to measure all future tests against.  He did say that he believed my numbers would have been way worse if we’d done these tests before my adjustments.

After those tests were done, we did the standard leg check, and it showed that I was slightly out of adjustment.  He lay me down on my stomach and then felt each of the vertebrae all the way up my spine, and as soon as he got to the axis (C2), he could tell that my axis was out of alignment.  My axis had stayed in for so long (the only adjustment he ever did to it was on 6/16/2025, so it stayed in place for three full weeks!), but I was bummed that it had moved a bit. 

He ended up doing three taps to my right SI joint, and then three taps to the back left side of my neck for the axis, and then he sent me on my way.

Since that was my last scheduled appointment, he told me he wanted to see me back on Monday and that we would do a whole new set of scans to see how the bones have moved.  After that we’ll re-evaluate and see what needs to be done going forward.  The good news is that I should only have to go once a week or less from now on!

After we left the office, we swung by Popeye’s right down the road because Olivia wanted a biscuit.  My little girlfriend looooves a biscuit, and we’ve been telling her for a while how good Popeye’s biscuits are (they’re the best!).  Every time we pass by that Popeye’s she asks to stop, so we finally got her (and Jacob) biscuits for a snack.  They did not disappoint.

We drove home after that, I shopped around a little online for Jacob’s birthday, and then Brian made mini pizzas for dinner since I couldn’t do much.  Per usual, after my adjustment, I had body pain from the mid-back and up, I felt a little unsteady, and I had a mild headache.

It poured down rain all evening, so we got to see a rainbow, and it was a cozy evening at home.  I read some of my book – I’m reading Nora Goes Off Script and I’m loving it.  And then we watched Lego Masters + the beginning of America’s Got Talent. 

We got the kids in bed after that, and Brian made Manhattans for us.  Then we settled in to watch We Were Liars.

 

Wednesday, July 9

Wednesday morning, I was up at 7:45 and then I had breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher, and watered the outdoor plants, my usual morning routine.

I spent the next little while reading blogs, finishing my blog post for Thursday, and ordering a couple of items in the Prime Day sale.

Jacob finished his science summer homework, and Olivia cleaned her room for a sleepover on Thursday, and then Jacob and I sat down together to work out all of the details for his birthday.

After that, I tidied my closet, watered the indoor plants, and I got a load of towels in the wash before sitting down to have lunch with the kids.

After lunch, Olivia and I shopped for junior bridesmaid dresses for our niece’s wedding that she and Jacob are going to be in this fall.  My niece selected Olivia’s color for the wedding, but told us that she can purchase any style of dress as long as it’s in that color, so Olivia was able to look through, probably, a hundred dresses.  She ended up narrowing it down to five, and then eventually to one.  I told her to think about it and sleep on it to make sure she’s 100% happy with that choice, and that we’d order it later in the week.  Her dress – SOOOO beautiful. 

Olivia also wanted me to come to her room to see her latest project – she made paper candles and hung them with clear string under her canopy just like the ones in Harry Potter.  :o)

After that, I was feeling a little dizzy, so I lay down to rest for a bit.  Usually a 10-20 minute rest (laying flat on my back on my bed with my orthopedic pillow) really does help my neck and any issues I’m having for the day, so I’ve been doing it often this summer since I have more time.

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon sending out info to Jacob’s friends from school about his party, I caught up on emails, I printed Jacob’s school supply list (this will be the first year ever that we’ve had to shop for school supplies… our school has the option to pre-purchase them from a company who ships them straight to the school, so we’ve done that every year, but they don’t offer it for high school), I paid a couple of bills, I planned out Thursday since we had several things on the agenda, and then I started my blog post for Friday.  As you can see, it was a very productive day!

For dinner, I made parmesan chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and cinnamon muffins, and we all ate dinner together.

After dinner, I got out for a two-mile walk.  I was veering off to the right pretty hard, but I made it through.  I was also very short of breath since my nervous system goes into “fight or flight” response after every adjustment. 

When I got home, I showered, and then we watched some more of America’s Got Talent followed by We Were Liars after the kids went to bed.

 

Thursday, July 10

Thursday morning, I got up at 7:30, showered, grabbed a quick breakfast, and unloaded the dishwasher, and we were out the door by 8:40 to head to our church’s outreach center to volunteer.  I’ve been wanting to get involved there for years and had actually just started getting ready to in 2020 when everything shut down for Covid.  The next two years were Covid crazy, then I started having vertigo the summer after that, and ever since then I’ve been barely able to stay afloat managing that plus all of the stuff that I do for the school, so I was thrilled to finally make some time to go.

Our outreach center serves families in need all over our city – not just families affiliated with our church – and they serve loads and loads of them.  They have been a HUGE blessing to our city for decades and they do such amazing things there.  

We arrived a little before nine and got straight to work.  Thursdays are pickup days for those who need groceries, so they are usually crazy busy.  However, they’d done a rare evening pickup just the evening before, so most of the people had come then, and so it wasn’t as busy as it usually is.  That was actually a good thing because it gave the head volunteers some extra time to explain to us how everything works.  Jacob already knew a little bit about what goes on over there as he has served there with his class during school hours several times… another thing I love about our school… they allow time during the school day (during religion class) every now and then for the kids to serve others.

After we learned the process of loading the grocery carts and preparing them for pickup, the kids got to work bagging corn and onions to be included in the deliveries.  They did that for about 45 minutes, and then we helped stock the grocery carts – as one cart went out for delivery, an empty one would come back in, and the kids would get it loaded. 

Again, the day wasn’t very busy, so there wasn’t as much to do as usual.  Mondays and Wednesdays are packing days… they get a massive food delivery on Monday, and that’s when they sort, shelve, and bag everything, so I think we may volunteer on one of those days the next time to see how that goes. 

The whole morning was very rewarding – I give a lot of my time to the kids’ school, but I haven’t ever made as much time to give back to our church and community – and I’m looking forward to continue to serve there with the kids this summer and after they go back to school as well.

The hours typically end around noon there, and we’d fully anticipated staying the whole time, but one of the volunteers told us that we could head out around 10:30 if we wanted to as business had really slowed and there wasn’t much to do.  My entire trunk was FULL of donations, so we wanted to head to our church’s thrift shop to drop those anyway, so we accepted their offer to leave a little early so we could make the trek there since it’s on the opposite side of town from our house.

The thrift shop is another endeavor that our church recently started – they accept donations of clothes, shoes, toys, baby gear, household décor, and pretty much everything else besides old mattresses and pillows – and they sell them at thrift store prices.  All of the money they make is then funneled right back into our church’s outreach center to help those in need around town, so it’s truly a win-win for the community. 

This was the first time we had been to the thrift shop since it opened, and they had some really great stuff!  We got to see my (and Jacob’s!!) old PE teacher as she was volunteering that day.  I was one of her very first classes ever and Jacob was one of her last, so she is so special to us.  Olivia never got to have her since she retired before Olivia moved over to the school.

After that, we chatted with another lady from church, and then we headed towards home.  On the way home, we swung by the library to pick up a few books, and then we stopped by Publix to grab a few necessities (and by necessities I mean chocolate chip muffins for Olivia’s sleepover – LOL), and then we finally made it home.

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating lunch, watering outdoor plants, and finishing my blog post for Friday while the kids had some screentime.  A little rain shower rolled through, so it was a cozy afternoon.

Both kids had music lessons late Thursday afternoon, and this was their first week being synced with their lesson times.  It’s so nice because now, instead of spending an hour there, we just spend 30 minutes and knock them both out at once.

I sat in with Olivia last week, and she worked more on Hedwig’s Theme.  She can play the whole beginning now, but she’s trying to get her tempo correct.  She plays it really slowly, so she’s practicing getting faster. 

After music, we headed home, Jacob packed for his sleepover, and I tidied the kitchen.  Just as it was nearing time to get Jacob over to his friend’s house, we had a MASSIVE storm blow through, so Brian held off for a few minutes on getting out the door.  Once the worst of the storm was done, Brian went to drop Jacob off at WJ’s house and then pick up dinner from Jack’s – Olivia’s request because she was having a sleepover at our house with her friend, Aubrey.

While Brian was out and the girls played, I caught up on blog comments, and then all of us ate together when Brian got home. 

After dinner, the girls headed upstairs to write songs and sing and have a “spa evening” and I headed out for a walk.  I got in 3.41 miles which is the longest walk I’ve done in a while.  I love my evening walks, but I am really ready to be able to start doing some strength training again… I am quickly losing the muscle definition in my legs and the definition in my arms is totally gone since I can’t do anything for upper body at all right now with these neck treatments.

When I got home, I showered, and then I spent a few minutes in my office.  Brian and I watched the last episode of We Were Liars after that, and I cried for the entire 60 minutes, y’all.  Oh my goodness, it was so good.  And shocking.

B and I said goodnight to the girls after that, and headed to bed, and the girls said that they went to sleep around 12:30 which wasn’t too terrible.  I was glad that they didn’t stay up as late as they normally do because we had to get up early in the morning to get Aubrey to camp.

Friday, July 11

The girls had asked me to get them up at 7:30 AM Friday since we had to leave around 8:30 AM to get Aubrey to camp, so when I went in Olivia’s room at 7:30, I was surprised to see them already up and getting ready.

I got showered and had breakfast, and then the girls had chocolate chip muffins for breakfast that Olivia had picked out at Publix the previous morning.  I asked if either of them wanted eggs or bacon or anything to go with them, but they were happy with just the muffins.

Olivia and I headed out to drop Aubrey at camp, and then we went straight back home.  Olivia was tired from getting less sleep, so she had stayed in her PJs for drop off and when we got home, she settled in to watch Feel the Beat, a movie about dance on Netflix that she’s been wanting to watch forever.  Since Jacob was gone, she saw an opportunity and she took it.  Haha.

Meanwhile, Jacob was at a summer luau for Velocity having the best time with his best friend!

I spent the time during the movie reading blogs and browsing the last day of the Amazon Prime Day sale, and then when the movie was over, we placed the order for Olivia’s bridesmaid dress.  She had been thinking about it for a couple of days, and she still wanted to go with the option that she had picked out a couple of days before, so we bought it. 

We ate lunch early because we had a guy coming to do a quality control check for our pest control, and then I had to pick up Jacob and WJ from their pool party.  Midway through the quality control check, Jacob texted me and asked me to pick them up a few minutes early because it was storming there.  They were just right down the road from us, only about ten minutes, and it was perfectly sunny at our house.  I stepped outside, and it was PITCH BLACK to the west. 

Thankfully, Brian was working from home, so I was able to leave Olivia with him, and he was able to handle the rest of the pest control checkup, and I jumped in the car immediately and headed into the storm to pick up the boys.

The drive was rough.  About halfway there, the worst of it hit, and it was awful – torrential rain, thunder, and lightning, and crazy winds.  I had to drive through a very rural area so there were tons of trees, and they were all swaying so much I was worried one of them may fall. 

When I arrived at the house where the luau was, the driveway was super long, hilly, and twisty, and a little scary to be driving on during the storm since so much rain had fallen in such a short amount of time, so I was relieved to pull up to the house.  I texted Jacob to tell him I was there, but the cell service had gone out.  I tried calling, and it took forever, but the call finally went through, and they came running out to the car. 

We drove WJ to meet his mom, and then we made it home just as round two was hitting at our house. 

The kids settled in to play video games, and I lay down for a while to rest my neck while I texted with a friend.  Then I got up and worked on my end of the year blog post for a bit.

Brian left to get a haircut later in the afternoon and then pick up pizza for dinner.  While he was gone, I read for a bit, and then another massive storm blew through. 

As Brian was on his way home, I headed downstairs to set the table and make cocktails for us – a Moscow Mule for him, and a Manhattan for me since we only had one ginger beer left.  Whiskey is my favorite liquor now, and I still can’t believe that.  Haha.  If you had told me 10 years ago that I would enjoy anything with whiskey in it, I would have told you you are crazy.

After dinner, the kids showered, and I read some more.  Brian and Jacob looked through all of Brian’s old video game consoles and games and Jacob was intrigued.  We have all of them in a drawer in our media chest in our bedroom and I guess Jacob had never seen them before, and he thought it was so cool to see all of them.  Brian has an original Nintendo, a Nintendo 64, a Nintendo Game Cube, and a Nintendo Wii, and Jacob thought it was so cool to see what video games used to look like since he’s been raised on a Nintendo Switch.

We watched some more of the third Harry Potter movie before the kids went to bed (and I’m still not into it), and then the kids went to bed early since they’d both stayed up so late and were exhausted after their sleepovers, and pool party for Jacob.

After they were in bed, Brian and I started The Four Seasons (the new sitcom with Tina Fey), and we both enjoyed it from the get go.

 

Saturday, July 12

Saturday morning, we slept in until 8:30, I made homemade waffles, and then I hung out in my office for a bit, not really accomplishing much at all.  I did finally get my blog post started for Monday just before it was time to get showered and ready for the day, though.

We had lunch with my father-in-law at noon to celebrate Jacob’s, my sister-in-law’s, and my brother-in-law’s birthdays.  After we were done eating, we spent some time at my FIL’s house eating key lime pie (Jacob’s choice for birthday dessert) and cookie cake (my SIL’s and BIL’s choice) and opening gifts.

When we got home, the kids had just enough time to do their laundry and play video games for a bit while I finished my blog post for Monday. 

Then it was time to head to 5:30 Mass.  Afterward, we went to the local pub that we love with my parents, Mama Cass, my Aunt Joy and Uncle Greg, and my Uncle Chris joined us as well.

When we got home, we discovered that some large animal had somehow gotten into our back yard and ripped our lounge cushions to shreds (you can see the paw prints) and I’m soooo mad because they were still in excellent shape otherwise. 

I got in my PJs, I folded the towels, we got the kids in bed, and then Brian and I watched more of The Four Seasons.

 

Sunday, July 13

Sunday morning was for cinnamon rolls, yoga, a sermon, and planning the week ahead, and then we headed to my mother-in-law's and step-father-in-law's to celebrate Jacob’s and my SIL’s birthdays (we’d already celebrated my BIL’s birthday over there).  Jacob opened his gifts, and we had cookie cake, and it was a great afternoon.  He was excited because he received the remaining Mega Pokemon building sets that he’d wanted to hang on his wall in his bedroom.

Olivia also brought some of her Rainbow Loom animal creations to share with everyone, and I just cannot get over this cute little poodle she made! 

When we got home, I did my weekly photo transfer from my phone to my computer, I unpacked a couple of packages that had arrived for back-to-school, and I organized all of the photos. 

We headed to my parents’ house for Sunday dinner, and Momma made a salsa verde chicken enchilada bake that was so delicious. 

When we got home, I still had some daylight left, so I went for a two-mile walk – Sundays always make me feel a little overstuffed since we sometimes eat two big meals, and it was nice to be able to get out and walk it off. 

Jacob showered, and Brian and Olivia finished the third Harry Potter movie since Olivia had showered before we went to my parents’ house.  They started the fourth movie, and I half paid attention, spending the other half of my attention cleaning out my List Master app.  Jacob put together his new Mega sets.  He and I are just not interested in Harry Potter, y’all.  I wanted to love it, but it does absolutely nothing for me.  And apparently it does nothing for Jacob either.  Haha.

After the kids went to bed, Brian and I finished The Four Seasons (it was a quick watch) and we were both shocked by the twist at the end!  We both loved it, though, and we’re looking forward to season two!

Happy Wednesday, y’all!