Our Week - The One with Signed Taylor Swift Merch, Packing for Universal Studios, and Settling Back in After Our Trip

We spent a good chunk of last week on vacation at Universal Studios, but I still wanted to recap the rest of the week as I always do, so here we go!  Universal Studios will be recapped in separate posts, coming soon!

Monday, October 6

Monday morning, I dropped the kids off at school and I pulled in the parking lot and waited for my meeting to start.  We had our monthly Home and School Advisory Board meeting to make sure everything was looking good for all our upcoming holiday events.

After that, I headed to Walmart and Publix to grab groceries, and Brian helped me unload them and get them put away since he was working from home. 

I worked on my blog post all morning for Wednesday and I watched for the mail all day because I knew my signed Taylor Swift merch was arriving.  There were loads of reports in my TS Facebook group of people receiving their CD boxes sealed, but with nothing in them.  Everyone was speculating that someone was stealing them out of the boxes, resealing them, and then shipping them empty… and it was especially telling because all of the missing ones went through one particular distribution center.  All of mine had gone through that distribution center, so I was on pins and needles waiting for them to come.

Thankfully, two of mine delivered, but the third one didn’t, so I got nervous.  About an hour later, I received a delivery notification from the third one, but it wasn’t anywhere at our house, so I was officially freaking out thinking it had been delivered to the wrong house for a good couple of hours before I realized that I had it delivered to my parents’ house.  LOLOLOLOL.  Oops.

After a quick call with my parents, they did, indeed, confirm that said CD had been delivered, and thankfully none of mine were empty boxes!  One of them is for Olivia and I cannot WAIT to get it framed and give it to her first Christmas!  She is going to be so thrilled! 

I had Brian film me opening each of them because a kind blog reader had told me to make sure I did that in case I inadvertently received an unsigned CD as it has happened before.  Apparently, if you have proof of yourself opening them and showing that they are not signed, they will send a signed replacement.  Thankfully, all three of mine were signed, and all three of mine were signed with hearts.  EEK!  She doesn’t do that for every signature, so I was excited about that!

After school, the kids and I stopped by my parents’ house to grab the one that delivered there, and then we headed home.  And again – if you know Olivia, pleeeease do not tell her that we have signed merch as it is going to be a surprise for her for Christmas!

When we got home, I posted some Instagram stories for a collab that I did with a small business, I got Olivia’s makeup guitar lesson moved from Monday to Thursday (IDK why I had scheduled that lesson for the Monday after we got back from Universal!), the kids and I planned out all of their HOCO dress-up days and I purchased what we needed for that, I bought Jacob’s homecoming dance ticket, and I RSVPed for all of the HOCO events for myself as I’m an alum and my class is having a very small gathering Saturday for our 25th anniversary.  25 years?!  <Insert cringe face emoji here.>

I made pizza joes for dinner, and I listened to my new TS vinyl to make sure it was good to go with no issues.  I’m always so worried about vinyl since they can have imperfections causing them to skip.

After dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen, and then we went on a family walk.  Jacob had to clean out our neighbor’s pool, and once that was done, Brian and the kids walked back home while I took off on my own for a bit.  It started raining so I had to cut it short, though.  Boooo.

The rest of the evening was spent knocking out as many things as possible since we had a trip coming up.  I got a few things done:

 

-       Watered the outdoor plants

-       Tidied various parts of the house

-       Gave myself a pedicure

-       Showered

-       Watered the indoor plants

-       Made more plant food to replenish my jug

-       Folded the towels

-       Changed the laces in my new shoes for the trip

 

Then, we all watched an episode of Lego Masters Jr. before the kids went to bed.  Brian and I ended the day by finishing the episode of Saturday Night Live that we’d been watching and then some of The Leftovers.

 

Tuesday, October 7

Tuesday morning, I woke up already feeling frazzled because there was so much stuff that I had to do for our trip, and we were leaving Wednesday at lunch.  I hadn’t packed a single thing, nor did I have the blog completely ready to go, so I had my work cut out for me.  Brian was kind enough to take the kids to school for me Tuesday, so I was able to have that extra 40 minutes to get stuff done, and I didn’t waste a single second.  Here’s what I tackled on Tuesday:

 

-       Finished my blog post for Thursday

-       Paid two bills

-       Caught up on all emails

-       Framed my new print and put it up (since it had to be photographed for Friday’s blog post)

-       Photographed said print for blog post on Friday

-       Started blog post for Friday

-       Emailed Olivia’s dance school to let them know she’d be out Wednesday for vacation

-       Browsed online for my niece’s birthday gift

 

I had to pause my productivity for an annual checkup with my primary doctor, and everything went well there.  I finally get to wean off of the meds that I’ve been taking for my vertigo for two years and I’m verrrry excited about that since it’s caused so much brain fog for me these last two years.

When I got home, it was time to eat lunch, and then it was back to the grind:

 

-       Finished blog post for Friday

-       Started blog post for Monday

-       Caught up on some blog reading

-       Ordered contacts for my right eye

-       Called my eye doctor for a prescription refill for my allergy eye drops

-       Went to the library to pick up my holds for the trip

 

In the car line, I took a few moments to relax, and I read my book, and then we headed home.  When we got home, it was back to the grind yet again:

 

-       Ordered a shirt Jacob needed for HOCO week

-       Ordered my niece’s birthday gift

-       Got organized for Jacob’s new extracurricular activity – E-Sports

-       Helped Olivia pack

-       Did one load of laundry

-       Packed myself

I dropped Olivia at dance, and then Jacob and I walked over to our neighbor’s house to check the pool again.  While we were there, a rabbit hopped right over to us, and we were so close to it!  Well, then it got super scared by us, and much to my horror, it hopped off and jumped right in the pool.  I started panicking thinking it was going to drown (and I wasn’t about to get in that freezing pool and try to pull a wild rabbit out with my bare hands – LOL) so I got the skimmer and started frantically trying to get it out. 

Well, those little jokers are FAST, and they can swim as fast as they can hop, and I could not for the life of me get him to get in the skimmer.  Thankfully, I was able to chase him with the skimmer down to the shallow end, and he was able to climb the stairs and get out, and I don’t think I have ever been so relieved.  Haha.

Never a dull moment!!

After that, I walked Jacob home, and I went back out for one more mile by myself.  While I was walking, my neighbor who has cancer came out to tell me that he’d had his preop earlier that day and now he was just keeping busy until his surgery.  It’s today, so if you are the praying kind, please keep him in your prayers.  He’s super nervous as you can probably imagine, and he won’t be able to drive for two months, so it’s going to be a long recovery.  I told him to let me know if he needs me to drive him to any appointments, but he said he thinks he’s covered.  Hopefully he’ll reach out if he needs me, though!

When I got home, Brian had already left to pick Olivia up from dance, so I got showered quickly and then started making breakfast for dinner.  While I was cooking, I was also texting my friend about our Universal trip, I was texting with my girls’ group to plan our Friendsgiving in November, I was looking at all my to-do lists, and I was just feeling generally scattered. 

When Brian got home, he helped finish up with dinner, and then we all ate together.  We cleaned the kitchen, and then I opened a package that had arrived only to find that four items were missing, so I had to deal with that.

I followed up with Jacob about packing after that (he packs himself now, but I always doublecheck with him for now to make sure he doesn’t forget anything), and then I packed some more for myself before getting the kids in bed. 

Jacob had to take the PSAT Wednesday morning, so he needed a good night’s sleep. 

After the kids were in bed, I finished up a couple of things for the blog, and then Brian made us Manhattans before watching an episode of The Leftovers.

 

Wednesday, October 8

Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school, and I headed home.  I finished my blog post for Monday, I started my blog post for Wednesday, I responded to all blog comments, and I caught up on a little more blog reading.  After that, it was time to finish packing, tidy the house, and finish aaaallll the things to get ready for our trip.

But first, a beauuuutiful picture of the sunrise!

Brian and I packed the car up and then headed to pick up the kids from school at noon since they had early dismissal, and then we hit the road for our trip.  I’ll be recapping all of that in separate posts!

 

Thursday, October 9

Thursday was spent in Universal Studios… check back soon for posts about that.

 

Friday, October 10

Friday was another day in Universal Studios!

 

Saturday, October 11

Saturday was another day in Universal Studios!

 

Sunday, October 12

Sunday, we got home from our trip around 3:45 and it was back to life, back to reality.  I hit the ground running:

 

-       Unpacked everything

-       Did two loads of laundry

-       Put everything away

-       Tidied the whole house

-       Caught up on emails

-       Caught up on planner stuff

-       Planned the week ahead

-       Transferred pictures from my phone to my computer

-       Paid a bill

-       Opened all the mail

Brian headed to CVS and Walmart to pick up a few things, and then when he got back, I stepped out for a few minutes to visit a friend.  While I was gone, Brian and the kids ate sandwiches for dinner, and then when I got back, I made a turkey and cheese plate and a green protein smoothie for dinner while we watched Hocus Pocus.  I was SO READY TO RELAX.  While we’d been on vacation for four days, it was not a relaxing vacation, so we were all exhausted!

The kids were out on Monday, too, so we didn’t have to rush off to bed, which was nice!  Brian whipped up some Manhattans for us, and then we watched the newest episode of Saturday Night Live before heading to bed!

And that was our week!

Happy Tuesday, y’all!