what in the WORLD. how is it AUGUST????????????????????????

summer is thiiiiiis close to being dunzo, and honestly, i'm glad. i'm OVER the triple digit heat waves and being stuck inside the house all day errrrrryday. i'm excited about getting into a little routine with school starting and dance classes(!!!!!).

randy took a half day last thursday and we took the kids to john's incredible pizza company. now, i'd probably not call it "incredible" but it was admittedly fun. they have a pizza buffet--including salad, chicken, soups, and i even saw mashed potatoes. the food left much to be desired, but the kids ate so i'm gonna call it a win. side note: while we were eating presley said, VERY LOUDLY, "ugh! i just can't stop tooting!" randy was like, "presley! shhhh!!" while i'm dying laughing. after we ate, we headed to the games and rides. they had lots of arcade style games... your classic skeeball, shooting range, whack-a-mole, etc. they also had rides...spinning cups, a little train, and those little riding machines you can find in the mall or outside the grocery store.
eli was hysterical to watch. he couldn't stop looking at all the flashing lights and was happy to just be running around after presley. presley played a few games, but she wasn't really interested in anything for too long. we (by we, i mean i played 2 games of skeeball winning 15 whole tickets, and randy hit a couple jackpots on some random arcade games) finished the day with 500 tickets and the kids brought home some really great prizes.... like kazoos. and plastic unicorn rings. and spiral bracelets that were stretched out before we made it to the car. and a plastic gorilla figurine.

presley picked out her outfit, by the way. she has been a lot more involved in that process lately... and i kinda love it. she still lets me pick out her clothes for church or wherever. but if we are staying home or going to walmart, she is in charge of it all, and i get a kick out of her choices and reasoning. she is really proud, and i love it.

speaking of being proud... did you know that i'm a grandma?

let me just take a second to share my crew... from left to right: charlie, bitty baby, jojo, cuddle baby (she is my other child, actually. not a grandkid), and my newest addition, tiffany.
so, i tried to get presley to name bitty baby an actual name, but she is adamant that her actual name is bitty baby. so i suggested we call her "bitty". NOPE. she gets angry with me when i call her bitty...don't make the same mistake, i'm warning you.

presley also has a couple imaginary friends. holly and jilly--they are sisters from hollywood. sometimes they are at our house, and sometimes they are at home in hollywood.
randy asked me the other night, "did you know presley has an imaginary friend? she told me holly was upstairs, that she had already eaten dinner and she was playing on her o-plaid."

while we are on the subject, i've got a couple more presley-isms.
the other day she took a spill...which is common...she is the clumsiest child i've ever met...that's what i get for naming her presley GRACE. annnyway, she was crying, so i asked her what hurt. she wailed, "i hurt all my pieces!"

ok, so this isn't really a presley-ism, rather a dramatic snippet of her everyday life.
so i put her down for a nap, and went downstairs. probably 20 min later i hear her scream-crying "MOMMMMMMMYYYY I NEED YOU!!! MOMMMMMMMYYYYYY!" over and over. it's not unusual for her to find something wrong during naptime or bedtime, so i give it a few more minutes. she is still crying, so i go upstairs and into her room. she's not in her bed. but the door to her bathroom is open. so i walk in, and there she is. holding a toilet seat and lid in her hands. pants around her ankles. crying. hysterically. and i lost it. i was crying i was laughing so hard.

and i'll finish it up with a few pictures of my perfect babies.

another post, so soon? who even am i?

well, i have some time on my hands... and my unisom hasn't kicked in yet.

last night we went to a fellowship event at church, called tables of 8. it was a dinner where they randomly drew 8 people to sit together, hence tables of 8. it was a fun way to get to know people we hadn't had the chance to even meet yet, and maybe wouldn't have had an opportunity to speak with otherwise. the kids went to the nursery and had pizza... they loved it and were completely worn out.

speaking of the nursery, yesterday morning when we were picking up the kids from after the morning service, a lady working told me that presley wouldn't drink water. she said she offered to fill presley's cup up with more water but presley told her she wanted juice. the lady told presley they didn't have any juice with which presley replied, "i only drink juice." then she told the lady that they should go buy some juice. OF COURSE she did. what a little mess she is! i told the lady that what presley calls juice is simply water with flavoring squirted in. "i only drink juice." brat.

two of the ladies sitting at our table last night work in the nursery, and they both commented on how well behaved our kids were and they really enjoyed having them in class... that made us feel so good! i pray so hard for God to help me be the mom He wants me to be, and little words like that make me feel like i'm getting something right.

so when my parents and sister come next month, we have plans to go to yosemite for a couple days. now, this probably isn't shocking to anyone else in the united states of america, but apparently california is on fire. yes, i live in california, but no, i didn't know it was on fire until my mom told me last week. look, we don't get local channels (i've covered this before... minus one bakersfield), and i don't read the news. and i'm not on any kind of social media, so current events aren't even on my radar unless randy tells me something, which rarely happens, because we just don't talk much. (it's probably weird to you, but we are both introverted and we need our time alone to recharge after our long days spent with two wild children ((one who never ever ever stops talking)), or working). annnnyway, my dad just texted and it looks like our yosemite trip may be a no-go. apparently the air quality is worse than beijing. bakersfield's air quality is terrible, like, #3 worst air pollution in US...but just for context, our air quality index score is 67 today while yosemite is at 165. YIKES.

i felt really stupid for not knowing that california was on fire when my mom told me, and so i randomly read some news articles that popped up on my phone. ok, depressing. they made me almost physically ill to read. first it was the houston heart doctor that was shot riding his bike. then it was a dad to a 9 month old baby who was shot while waiting for his uber in atlanta. WHAT IS THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN??? it's scary. it's scary that we aren't safe ANYWHERE. it's scary that people have automatic weapons. it's scary that pretty much anyone can get their hands on guns. it's scary that people don't/won't/can't get help and treatment for mental illnesses that are just as deadly as so many other diseases. we need help NOW... and there's only one way to get it. PRAY.

after looking at the depressing news, i immediately googled, "good news articles". well, guess what? there are a bajillion websites dedicated to heart-warming news articles and did you know THAT A BABY WAS BORN IN CHICKFILA?! bless my soul. i cried.

can't believe it's already saturday, again.
this week felt extra long, as does every week that randy isn't off on fridays. but it also flew by somehow.... probably because i had to get out of the house 4 days in a row. i literally went to walmart FOUR DAYS IN A ROW. look, normally walmart is my jam. i love walmart like most people love their significant other... ok, maybe a tad less than that. i love walmart like most young moms love target. (yes, i am considering myself a young mom...as in i have young kids. not young in that golden girls is my favorite sitcom) annnyway, walmart is fun. it's got fun finds. i can browse the aisles of walmart for hours. i love that you can buy groceries, clothes, laundry detergent, ant killer, and maybe even a yard of material, in one swoop. but going 4 days in a row... with two kids... one who begs for everything she sees ("i really need that mom, can i have that? for my birthday? for christmas? can i mom?")... and one who poops his pants every 23 minutes... NOT FUN. not even kinda fun. throw in a return (without a receipt, because i somehow lost it in between my checkout and the car), and it's just plain terrible. but we keep running out of necessities, or i forget to put something on my list. or something i(my kids) need (PEELED sliced apples, they INHALE these things.) aren't on the walmart grocery pickup app, even though they are available in the store. ok, rant over. oh, also i do love target too. what can i say, sister loves to shop.

speaking of shopping, poor randy is probably ready to take my wallet away. but in my defense, our sweet baby girl turns FOUR in less than a month, and there is just so much she needs! you only turn four once, dad!
also, prime day happened. it was mostly a fail, but i did get a 23 and me kit... it'll take like 6 weeks for my reports to come in, and i'm waiting on pins and needles! i know NOTHING about where i come from except my grandpa's grandparents (i think? maybe?) were born in poland and migrated, and that my dad was born in the great state of pennsylvania. so this should be fun.

so what else is happening in the teel home?
well, hallmark christmas movies are still in full force(shocking.) until next weekend. and then i only have to wait 3 months before i can watch them for 2.5 solid months. presley will come in and ask "are you watching hallmark channel?" ha. in time she will appreciate them too... even if she's forced into doing so.

randy and i are planning our busy september.... two days at disneyland, two days in napa, and two days in san fran. plus my parents coming to watch my kids for the napa/san fran part, and my aunt cathy coming at the end of september to spend a week with my mom while randy is out of town for a conference! i'd ask for san fran recs, but i can guarantee my readers (mom and sister) have never been.

eli has started saying "thank you, mommy" anytime i do something for him. it's pretty much the sweetest thing ever. it's funny that he already calls me mommy, but that's what presley calls me, so he just picked up on it. he also sometimes yells "MOM!" which he thinks is pretty funny. he also learned how to say walmart, and i make him say it at least 49 times a day. randy keeps putting ghostbusters and ghostbusters 2 on for him. he gets in that gumby-trance and says "WHOA" a lot. i can't wait to see what he will be into! i'm up to my ears in babydolls and dress up, so i'm looking forward to trucks, tractors, trains, monsters, dinosaurs, or whatever he picks!

snuggling with his favorite person ever.

presley is still bossing us all around. she will think of the strangest things to get out of going to bed at night. i recently had to hide her "piggy pink" (piggy bank), because "it was looking at her". she also called to me last night to tell me her bathroom was out of toilet paper... which she just randomly remembered and made me go put in a new roll right that instant... even though she didn't even have to use the potty. oh, and then a few days ago it was "my nails are too shark! mommy i need you to cut my nails they are too shark and they are scratching me!" sister HATES for me to cut her nails, so this one was extremely hilarious to me. a lot of nights it's that she has a bo-bo that needs doctoring... which she then has to find, because there is literally NO bo-bo.

she dressed herself in all black--definitely her mother's daughter!

safe to say, eli has perfected the cheese face!

long time, no blog.

we've just been busy getting back into our normal routines over here after being gone for so long.
not gonna lie, the transition was hard (mostly for me). but, i have LOTS of good things on the horizon that keep me truckin.

so, lets see...what have we been doing?

well our neighborhood had a 4th of july get together at the clubhouse...they had ice cream, apple pie, lemonade, and the grandest (ok, maybe not grandest... but DEF the cutest) parade around town.

we took a lap around the clubhouse/pool and the kids loved every sweltering second. since then, presley has been telling me that she is having a parade for her birthday and that aunt sassy is dressing up as a unicorn... she is gonna be a little disappointed. haha!😂

we had THE most boring ACTUAL 4th of july (parade was the saturday before!) in the history of life. it is just entirely too hot here to do anything outside unless you are up to your neck in the middle of a swimming pool. so we just hung out at home, like a typical day.

just in case you thought i might be exaggerating.

i went ahead and deleted instagram... i just had enough, and i haven't looked back. i feel so free! don't laugh, but i honestly think it was God telling me to do it. it wasn't fulfilling, and it's just a big pile of making me feel bad about myself. and then at church the next week, our women's bible study just happens to be about rachel and leah and combating comparison. coincidence? thanks big guy, always looking out for me. 🙏🏼 

speaking of church, we joined the church we have been attending this week! it's smaller than our last few churches, but everyone is so welcoming and friendly. we really feel good there, and i'm looking forward to getting more involved.

hallmark christmas movies have officially taken over the televisions in my house for 2 weeks! pure bliss. randy would beg to differ. he literally just said, "oh, this is the one where the guy's eyes are too close together". i was like HOW IS THAT WHAT YOU REMEMBER FROM THIS MOVIE?, and he said, "how do you forget it?". 🙄 ugh. let me watch my movies in peace. christmas (movies) only come but twice a year!

my children are still crazy and silly and perfect. 

yesterday randy was watching ghostbusters while the kids were playing downstairs, and near the end where marshmallow man comes through downtown, eli yells "woooooahhhhhhhhhhhh!" for like 10 whole seconds. we were laughing so hard! i didn't even realize he was paying attention to the movie.

presley is still three-nager in full force. she'll say stuff like, "i just don't even know about that!", and "i'm so frustrated!". the other night i was talking to her about God's love, and how He will love her no matter what...and also that i will love her no matter what...even if i'm mad or she makes bad choices, there's nothing she could do to make me stop loving her. and she snaps back, "even when you say i'm driving you nuts?". she's like a sponge, man. i don't even realize how much she picks up until she says stuff like that! definitely made a mental note to pray for patience after that.

back to cali

well after almost a month in houston, we are back to bakersfield!

i am in that really down-and-out phase i get in when i get back from vacations or after holidays or when we have house guests that leave to go back home.
it’s really terrible, and i hope i can snap out of it quickly. i know randy prob hopes so too... he gets the majority of my bad attitude. sorry, love. 😩

it was a fun trip, though! that’s what makes it so hard to be back.
our first event was to see randy’s little sister, mallory, graduate from high school! she is SO smart and beautiful and we are so proud of her! she is going to A&M in the fall.

we also celebrated stephs 37th birthday with a pool day and crawfish! it was fun finally having the whole family together. i got her third day concert tickets, so we had a sister date night to see them! we were both so exhausted, but it was a fun and they were awesome!

we also celebrated father’s day, and gigi’s birthday and i’m hating myself for not taking any pics.

we definitely got LOTS of family time in, which was much needed. and i’m already wishing for more. and for any of my friends reading this... i’m so sorry  we weren’t able to see you! we really needed to focus all our time with family, and i hope you’ll understand!

my most favorite part of the trip was celebrating presleys birthday early with a trip to....

it was the BEST DAY EVER!!! presley got her very first (legit) AG doll, and was able to pick out tons of “accessories” to go along with it! she was spoiled by grammy, gigi, aunt cathy, sassy, and aunt brooke! the AG store is madness, but watching her little face light up was worth every single penny.... and let me tell you, there were more pennies spent than i can even count. 😂 after shopping her heart out, we had birthday lunch at cheesecake factory. it was the perfect way to end our trip.

sunday morning... and i’m awake before anyone else in my house.
this never happens. usually randy wakes up earliest on sundays and gets in the shower while playing his podcasts at max volume until the rest of us are awake. i’m halfway kidding. but usually i’m the last out of bed on sundays, while he keeps the kids occupied i get ready for church in peace!

on weekdays, he always brings me a coke zero around 6:30 before he leaves for work. don’t get me wrong, i asked him to do this little favor, but i secretly think he likes it. when i was a little girl, my mom and grandma got in the bad (and by bad, i mean really awesome and made me feel like a spoiled princess!) habit of waking me up with a warm washcloth for my tired little eyes. even into high school, my mom was always gentle to wake me, talking in her sweet soft voice (after i told her i couldn’t handle her scolding me that early in the morning for my never-not-messy room), and asking me what i wanted for breakfast. my dad always just yelled from the bottom of the stairs, “you better wake up right now, don’t make me come up there!”. after randy heard these stories he always gave me a hard time and swore he would never baby me with a warm washcloth... but here he is, bringing me an ice cold coke zero every morning 😉
presley is a lot like me in the mornings or after sleeping... a little grumpy if woken up on someone else’s terms, and it takes a little while to come alive if we’ve woken up on our own. eli wakes up happy and smiling every. single. time. randy thinks he’s like that too 🙄 😂

anyway, so here i sit. had to go get my own coke zero this morning, but that’s ok.

yesterday the weather was AMAZING for being almost june, so we decided to take the kids to a little roadside attraction called murray family farms. it’s about 30 min away, and halfway there i spilled my drink all over myself and we had to turn around and let me change pants. fun! and then it was actually 10 degrees cooler when we got there (almost to the mountains), and everyone else there was wearing sweatshirts and jeans. my kids were in shorts. of course. when the sun came out, it warmed up a tad so we were fine.
this place was SO FUN. to be honest, i wasn’t thrilled about going. it just didn’t sound fun, and i figured it would be crowded since the weather was nice and it was a saturday.... but i was pleasantly surprised! they had so much to do, and we all had the best time.

the kids played, and then we picked TONS of blueberries and strawberries! they have every fruit you can think of, but it was berryfest, so that’s what we picked. eli was in blueberry heaven. he ate more than all of us. at one point i looked over and he was eating blueberries straight from the branch... like mouth to branch instead of picking them off first. 😂 randy and i agreed that was the most fun we’ve had in awhile and also the best strawberries we have EVER had in our lives. walking through the different orchards was so neat, and we can’t wait to come back every season for different fruit! i’m pumped for fall... apples! pumpkins! corn maze! also, if any of our out of town guests want to come there, we won’t say no! 

our harvest!

royal wedding

the royal wedding today has me feeling all sorts of ways...
i seriously thought about waking up early to watch it live, but we are like the farthest time zone away and waking up at 4am to watch just wasn't gonna happen. also, randy would have killed me if i turned the tv on at 4am in our bedroom. also, i took tylenol pm last night and ended up sleeping in til like 10. oops.
so here i am watching the replay of the live coverage on bbc america.

i would give anything to re-live my wedding day. there is only ONE thing i would do different. everything was so perfect and so US, but if i could go back, i would have a videographer. it was the most fun and biggest day in our lives and i would have loved to watch it year after year on our anniversary. oh well. we have lots of pictures!

but randy in a tux...i meannnn. can someone please invite us somewhere black tie so i can get him in a tux and bowtie like prince harry wore at his reception? randy looks good in everything, his work clothes, his sweats, but dressed to the nines?...i might die.

anyway. i love my husband. keepin' those vows foreva and eva.