grab some snacks and drinks, this is gonna be a long one.

first of all, i completely meant to shout this from the computer rooftops one week ago, but here we are. a week late. 

HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY RANDALL!!

if eli had more hair, they would legit be twins. same exact smile!

i had all intentions of making a post dedicated to how wonderful and great this guy is, but i just wrote it all in his birthday card instead. (i was also kinda salty because he left on monday to go to orlando on a work trip for a 5 days!)

so randy got back today. this trip just came out of the blue, and his boss really needed him to go. but you should also know that i HATE being home by myself at night. i get really worried someone is going to break in my house or kidnap us or something equally ridiculous. so i was not looking forward to this week AT ALL. i thought at worst, i would just be dealing with my anxiety when the sun went down, and maybe a little exhaustion from being a single mom all week. oooh no. this week KICKED MY BUTT.

first of all, presley got a stomach bug on saturday morning. lovely, right? she wasn't feeling well all day, but sunday she seemed to be totally fine so we went to church and our home group as usual. she even swam in their pool that night! but monday morning around 10:30 presley's school called to tell me she wasn't feeling well. i went and picked her up and she ended up vomiting ALL AFTERNOON. then it started coming out both ends...she literally told me, "i have throw up coming from my hiney!" i know! i know! gross, tmi. 

ughhhhhhhhhhhhh. oh, also, eli had diarrhea for like four days too. 

so add a sick (really the worst kind of sick, tummy bug!) kid to the mix, and this already anxiety filled week just got even more so.

and then on tuesday morning it got even worse. my sister texted a picture that a neighbor had sent of her street completely flooded.... like water already in their driveways, flooded. i immediately called her to see what was going on. i didn't even know it was raining in houston, let alone, flash flooding. when i talked to her she was trying to get into her neighborhood to go let her dog inside. well, fast forward a couple hours and the water started coming into her house. and she got stuck in there. by herself. with no power. the whole day i'm literally on the phone with either her, or my parents trying to get more information. i was worried SICK (also, literally sick with a bad bad cold.). she ended up with 18 inches in her house and wasn't rescued until like 8pm. they pretty much lost everything. obvious things like furniture...but also things you don't really think about, like all her christmas decorations. 

my sister is the one who is always helping everyone else. (side note, she saved up all her tips after hurricane harvey and donated them to some of her customers that were flooded!) she is constantly thinking about what she can do for other people...she is always giving her time, money, and resources out, but rarely asks for help herself. so even though this wouldn't be even close to easy for anyone to deal with, i know she's struggling under that strong and calm exterior because she is having to rely on others for a change. i love my sister so much, and am so proud and blessed that she is mine. it is really killing me to be so far from her during such a crazy and difficult time. i can't wait to see her next month and squeeze her so tight. (also, when we go to texas we are all going to be in the same house for 2 weeks, and i'm kinda excited that she will be forced to hang out with me, every.single.day.)

anyway, so after that my week just kinda flew by. i was totally in survival mode, but God got me through it. presley finally went back to school today, and then randy got home and now i have a minute to breathe. my kids are both healthy, we are all under the same roof again, and my sister and her family are safe with my parents... and even though i'm still snotty i finally have peace.

easter 2019!

i'm in one of those post-holiday funks again.
and honestly, i should be GLAD that it's over because it was rough.

our easter weekend was supposed to start off with a cookie decorating class for me and presley with some of our friends, and then dying easter eggs at their house afterwards. except when i went to get her dressed for the class she was burning up. i took her temp, it was over 101. so instead of going to the cookie class we went to the doctor to be given a STREP diagnosis. i was heartbroken. i knew immediately she would have to miss both the church, and our neighborhood's easter egg parties the next day.

we've made some pretty great friends here, but we've also made some family.
after bailing on the holmgrens because of strep, they brought us cookies and egg decorating supplies so we didn't have to miss out.

saturday randy took eli to the church to hunt easter eggs, so presley and i dyed eggs.
eli has a posse at church and they are all teenagers. they are obsessed with him and fuss over him every week. "he's my best friend!" "eli give me a hug!" it's hilarious. they were so sweet to help randy out at the easter egg hunt!

dying eggs was fun with presley, and of course, she loved it. she also learned how to roll her tongue, and is really proud of herself! daddy can't even do that!

eli came home and shared his eggs with sister, as if he had a choice! 

presley seemed to be doing ok. her fever was around 100 most of the day. the doctor said she wasn't contagious after she'd been taking antibiotics for 24 hours, but that also she needed to be fever free for 24 hours. so we had all intentions of going to church the next morning and i was VERY glad about it. i even ironed all our clothes and got them ready. and then during the night she started getting scary high fevers. at one point it was up to 103. i slept ON THE FLOOR in her room (when i say slept, i mean i layed there in constant prayer that she would feel better.)... she was so uncomfortable she would just cry out for me every few minutes.

needless to say, presley and i didn't get to go to church sunday. but these guys did...

presley was still running high fevers all day, so we basically just layed around and cuddled up.

the holmgrens invited us to have easter lunch at their home, so the boys went over there after church.

after they got home, and the latest dose of tylenol had kicked in, we had a little backyard easter egg hunt, and gave the kids their easter baskets! 

i just couldn't let those matching shirts i bought go to waste, alright?

presley finally broke her fever for good last night, and PRAISE GOD, she hasn't had one today! 

she is getting back to her wild and crazy self, and the sparkle is back in those eyes.

so there's really no way to ease into this, so i'm just gonna say it.

presley cut eli's hair.

ugh.

so randy says, "man, did they just forget the guard or what when they cut eli's hair? they just buzzed him good in that spot. were you watching them when they cut it?"

so eli had a haircut like a WEEK BEFORE this conversation. a perfect haircut. from a legit barber. so my mom instinct immediately knew, without even looking at his hair, who did it.

i said, "NO. SOMEONE JUST DID THIS."

and before i could even accuse her, presley said, "i did it!" 

lord help me if she didn't look proud and excited about it too. 😂

so the saddest part is that i'm pretty sure eli has ZERO clue that she cut his hair. so he's just walking around sporting a bald spot, poor guy.

but besides presley playing sassy, nothing too crazy going on.

we had our first "pool" day yesterday! we met our fave neighbors down at the pool for what i thought would be a splash pad date. the kids had other plans and stayed in the pool the whole time! last year eli hated his puddle jumper AND was not a fan of the splashpad. this year, he is a big fan of both! i think he saw his buddy lucas wearing a puddle jumper and decided it was cool after all. 

presley is gonna be my swimmer. her happy place is paddling around in the big middle of the giant pool, regardless of where anyone else is. 

i am so excited for the upcoming easter weekend, we have so many fun things planned! 

but most of all, i can't wait for church on sunday to celebrate our risen savior!! 

there are some things you just can't do alone.
like seesawing. or putting sunscreen on your back.

or taking two small children to see the easter bunny at the mall.

especially when it is a particular type of torture for one of those children.

that's why my sister has gone with me like every year. (i'm not even gonna count that first year, because i only had the one kid way back then and it was like a breeze and vacation to get out of the house by myself with her because she couldn't even walk yet.)

you didn't think moving to bakersfield california would get in the way of this plan, did you?
of course it didn't. is it my luck or hers that she just happened to visit two years in a row while the easter bunny was in town? muuuahahahahhahha.

seriously. i couldn't have done this without her.

there are two types of kids who visit the easter bunny (or santa. or whatever character at disneyland.), and i have one of each. one is going to have nightmares after this interaction, and the other looks like she is getting paid to be the easter bunny's child model.

how sweet are these? i love that they started taking these before you see the easter bunny!

and this is EVERYTHING! right?!

"the reason i breathe"

so yeah, thank heavens for my sissy cause eli was NOT having it...so she saved the day and swooped them up over to the ride on toys so i could finish paying $234234 for 6 terrible quality print outs of my child scream crying.

the stupidest part of this whole ordeal? we don't even pretend like the easter bunny comes to our house... presley knows that mommy and daddy fill the baskets and hide the eggs. i honestly have no good excuses for doing this to myself or my children. 😂

well HI. it's been a minute, right? we've been BUSY.

sacramento turned out to be a pretty great little trip!

we went up on a saturday... the drive is a little long at 4 hours (we took the 5 which is pretty boring, but beautiful), but we made a stop in kettelmen city for lunch at THE CUTEST place ever called bravo farms. it was part gift shop, part restaurant, part petting zoo, part tree house, part playground, part very clean and lovely bathrooms, and part cheese shop. i was mostly there for the bathrooms and the bbq, but we let the kids run around the playground for a bit too. randy got sneezed on by a llama TWICE. like, hay all over his head and face. 

anyway, we got to sacramento in time for check in, dinner, and bed. i was the lucky winner who got to share a bed with presley. a DOUBLE bed. which, is like, one inch wider than a twin. and it was miserable. she was all over me. meanwhile, randy is sprawled out in the bed next to us snoring. eli is in the other room in his pack n play, just peaceful as can be. i'm hot. i'm sweating. i've got a 4 year old kicking my kidneys. new year, same story.

sunday we woke up and hit up the free breakfast downstairs (parent hack #9329... always stay at embassy suites. free breakfast(GOOD breakfast). free happy hour (i don't even drink, but they have SNACKS. goldfish, chips and salsa, chex mix!) and they are all suites so you basically get two rooms for the price of one.). then we packed up the stroller and walked over to the old town sacramento. idk if it's called old town sacramento but that's what it is, so go with it. 

we had dole whip, we hit up the candy shops, we got a caramel apple for later, we even had the mini donuts i'd been thinking about since last year. basically we ate our way through the streets. 

but the best part was the california state railroad museum! it showed the history of the railroad in california, and had all different types of trains you could actually go into. it was amazing. eli was in HEAVEN.

i wish i'd have taken more pics! btw, we are all wearing UH gear because they were playing in the NCAA tournament that night (they won that game!).

after walking for a few hours around there, we decided to walk to the state capitol building.

it was so beautiful! the sculptures are so intricate and interesting.

the kids were worn out after all that walking. it must be rough riding around in a stroller all day. 😐

that night i suggested to presley that she might like sleeping on the couch that pulls out to make a bed in the room where eli was sleeping. wouldn't you know she was SO HAPPY to sleep there. it was like a dream come true. i slept so good that night.

the next day we drove to fairfield to go to the jelly belly factory! this time randy got to come with us. i'm pretty sure i'm still the only one who had fun, yet again. but whatev.

sorry for the watermarks. it cost like four hundred dollars to buy the stupid pic so i just settled for a screen shot.

eli loved the hat and kept it on forever.

the next day randy had to go to meetings and stuff so the kids and i had a day!

we went to CRACKER BARREL. and it was everything. bako needs a dang cracker barrel. and an heb... but for real. cracker barrel is realistic, right?

i also took the kids back to fairytale land! they had soooo much fun playing and sliding.

when we got back to the hotel, the kids were so tired but it was too late for a nap. presley begged me to take a nap (literally the first time in her life she has ever even asked to take a nap), but i told her no. she tricked me by saying she was going in the other room to watch her tablet. eli just lounged like a grown man.

the next day we headed home... we had to be mindful of the time because randy had to be at church by 5:45. we were making decent time, even after stopping at chickfila on the way home during lunch rush. then presley started screaming that her belly hurt and she really needed to poop. well guess what? once we got out of the sacramento area there is NOTHING and NO WHERE to stop on the 5. so randy's like, "we can stop at this rest stop." and i'm like, "MY CHILD IS NOT POOPING AT A REST STOP." but then she was screaming, like painful screams. so we stopped and i was shocked at how clean the restrooms actually were. presley, however, walked in, took one look at the metal toilet and said, "nope!" but i finally got her sitting down and she just couldn't poop. i told her there was no where else to stop and she said she was feeling better. "i just needed to get out of my carseat."

welllllll then about 20 minutes later she starts screaming again. and then she starts coughing. and then VOMIT. literal vomit. all over her. all over her carseat. all over the back of my chair. and remember, THERE IS NO WHERE TO STOP. so finally 10 miles later theres a gas station. i cleaned her and the car up the best i could with baby wipes. she rode home mostly naked. and i rode home in a constant state of prayer that she was ok and that it wasn't a bug the rest of us were going to catch.

luckily, she was completely fine that night. she even ate dinner. and the rest of us were fine too.

idk if it was car sickness or something she ate, but seriously, PRAISE GOD that it wasn't worse.

my sister got in a couple days after we got back! i LOVED LOVED LOVED having her all to myself for the shortest 4 nights ever. it was another "boring" trip, full of running my errands, getting haircuts, watching tv, and just being together. my kids loved her up and vice versa. i miss her so much, but i am so thankful she chooses to spend her time and hard earned money coming to visit us. she really is the best sissy EVER EVER EVER.

today she sent me a surprise in the mail...

GOLDEN GIRLS SOCKS. is there a more perfect gift for me?( i mean, besides my sofia chia pet, or my golden girls adult coloring book, of course.)😂

i've got more to share, like EASTER BUNNY PICS!, but that'll have to wait.