Our Week - The One with All the Appointments, a New Taylor Swift Album, and a Teddy Swims Concert

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:

1. Not Your Man
2. Hammer to the Heart
3. Apple Juice
4. She Loves the Rain
5. Are You Even Real
6. Devil in a Dress
7. Bad Dreams
8. Free Drugs
9. Funeral
10. What More Can I Say
11. 911
12. Need You More
13. Black & White
14. Small Hands
15. All That Really Matters
16. Some Things I’ll Never Know
17. Northern Lights
18. Guilty
19. God Went Crazy
20. What’s Going On
21. Your Kind of Crazy
22. Lose Control
23. Bed on Fire
24. Goodbye’s Been Good to You
25. 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!