Vegas, Baby!

I'm in Vegas. 

I'm here primarily for work - attending the NACS trade show which is being held at the Convention Center. I'm going with my client, who will have a booth there.

And of course, since my dad lives here, I am visiting with him while I'm there. I'm staying at his house, except for one night. I'm staying at the Bellagio for one night, after my very first massage!

I'm excited! 

I'm also going to take my client out to dinner at Michael Mina's. Because why not?

Not only is my client cool as shit - thank GOD - I get to visit my dad! 

I'll be gone just under a week and Steve is going to be managing the kiddos with my mom while I'm gone.

His schedule sucks depending on what we are doing or planning, so he'll need to adjust it slightly in order to get the kids to school, pick them up and then bring them to my mom's so he can go back to work until closing.

But, it's only for like 1 day, really, since his other day of work is Saturday, the kids can stay at my mom's from Friday after-school to Sunday morning.

Now, him taking care of the Ween is a whole 'nother story, lol. I mean, she's just not going to like the fact that I'm gone. I feel terrible. I'm much more worried about her, than anyone else. Because she just doesn't understand.

I guarantee she'll shit and piss on the floor because Steve will be unable to catch her to get her outside. I'm also assuming she won't run out there on her own because it's cold. 

So we'll see how he manages. I mean, he's gonna have to. 

Luckily, I think she will do OK with Mila as long as Mila is patient with her. Steve has no patience and will try to hold her, but it scares her. Steve says so far, Mila's taking good care of her. 

Working Out - 120 Weeks Into My Fitness Journey

Holy Bananas, people!

I've successfully completed ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY WEEKS of fitness training! 

I'm in the best shape of my life and feeling stronger than ever.

I'm desperately trying to focus on my physical well-being knowing that it will help my emotional well-being. 

Without going into too many details, there's been a lot going on and my mental/emotional state has taken a severe beating. 

I have to decide what I want for my future, what I expect out of it and who I expect to be there. 

I know that I have to be a strong person both inside and out, in order to deal with what I'm dealing with now, and what will likely be, an uncertain future for the time-being. 

I don't want to say too much more. I know, I know, I hate all that cryptic bullshit too. I'm not attention seeking, I promise. This is just something that isn't...sharable. At least not yet.

I am, however, continuing to focus on me and making sure to stay consistent with my workouts.

September 5. 115lbs.

I've been incorporating a lot more core into my routine

Update on The Ween!

Welp, we've had The Ween now for 4 months and I can't imagine life without her.

She's my shadow.

She follows me everywhere.

She is afraid of everyone else.

We're working on it.

She's warming up to the girls.

She's still weary of Steve.

But she's seriously the cutest. 

This was the first time she snuggled up on top of Hermphy. So cute.

💕

Every work day as I get ready to go up to my office, I gather up all my stuff. Computer, coffee, granola bar. Notebook. Laptop. I always have my hands full. She knows to get on her blanket so I can take her up. So cute. 

We have our routine down now. 

She's a great little office-mate. After the morning hub-bub with getting the girls to school and whatnot, she knows it's time to go up to the office and get to work. 

She literally sleeps on a blanket on the bed right next to my desk. 

All day.

I mean, we take breaks.

I bring her down around 11 for a potty break...

Then we have lunch and go for a walk weather-permitting.

Then we go back up to my office for a few more hours of work. 

She literally sleeps the entire time.

Then we are back downstairs to do after school stuff with the girls.

She fits right into our little family.

And bonus? 4 months in and she still doesn't really bark! 

Something we're still working on is potty-training. She is still figuring that outside = potty. I will legit walk her around for a while, only she won't go. So we go back in, assuming she doesn't need to go. Only to come back in the house and she shits on the floor. Like come ON.

I've caught her a few times pissing on the area rugs and grabber her and ran her outside. 

She also still poops on the floor every once in while. 

Luckily it's all happening on cheap area rugs that have survived our kids and previous dogs. 

SO, we will likely just toss the rugs when this one figures out the whole shitting and pissing thing.

We're coming up on winter and I cannot even imagine what she'll do. 

She's already cold.

My mom is going to make her a jacket. 

Her underside has no fur. 

She's so low to the ground that her underside grazes the ground (grass) as she walks. When it's wet just from morning dew, she's soaked. Like, all the way through.

I cannot.

BUT. 

My personal life is kinda of shattering all around me at the moment and I'm freaking grateful I have this tiny dog. Even though I probably shouldn't have gotten her to begin with, I'm so glad I did. 

She's been a key source of me not losing my shit these past 3 weeks.

I'm so obsessed that I'm getting Picasso's wiener dog "Lump" tattooed on my arm. 

Anyway.

Stay tuned for ridiculous pictures of my Wiener wearing a sweater. 

The Purge 2022.

Ok, so not exactly like the movie.

But close.

Kidding!

Both of the girls' rooms and closets are just straight horrifying.

It's so bad that my anxiety simply skyrockets and I close the doors and walk away. 

The floors of their bedrooms...

Underneath their beds...

Clothes.

Clothes.

CLOTHES.

America Girl Doll clothes.

Barbie clothes.

L.O.L. clothes.

Just shoot me.

It was so incredibly overwhelming.

But I vowed to get it done. 

I found these closet organizers and got two. One for each girl.

It took tremendous effort on all our parts to get this all done on Sunday.

I was either super optimistic, or just plain stupid, lol. I said "oh, it shouldn't take THAT long, maybe Sunday morning and then we can watch football and relax the rest of the day."

Ha.

Haha.

Hahahahaa.

The pile of clothes on the bed here is what we're keeping that's clean.

Ermergerd

Cleaned out and on to shelf building

We LOVED how it turned out! It made it so much easier to see what she had. She had an entire laundry basket filled with dirty clothes that still need to get washed and hung up.

We also put her beds back as bunkbeds and her room doubled in size.

Mila's closet was just miserable. Not a ton of clothes to get rid of like Ava (3 bags to donate and a ton to just trash!) Mila's closet looks great now.

Everything feels better. We got rid of 4 huge contractor bags of garbage and 2 stuffed garbage bags full of clothes for a friend of mine who has a daughter a few years younger than Ava. Mila also has a huge load of laundry that is yet to be put away.

But! It feels GOOD! Good lord it feels good.

The kids and Steve continued on while I took a break at 5pm to start dinner.

Yep, we started at 10:30am and ended after dinner time. While the kids and Steve ate, I helped Mila out by putting all of her shirts on hangers so she could color coordinate. I had already eaten a snack and wasn't al that hungry. 

You guys, an enormous weight has been lifted! 

Nothing feels better than a good purge. 

DYE-ing To Get Her Hair Done

We allowed Mila to get her hair highlighted a little more than a year ago (I think).

I've never been one to care much about what my kids did with their hair. I grew up doing all sorts of crazy things with my hair. Dying, shaving, cutting, curling, whatever.

As long as my kids are good people, I don't really care if they want to dye their hair.

So Mila got some blonde highlights.

Ava was dying to get her hair done too, but c'mon. Girlfriend was like a just-turned 6 year old.

However, we did say that she could do it...at some point.

She remembers everything and asked before school. 

So we decided it was fine. She's a great kid and hair is just hair, right?

She loved the entire experience. 

Before

Foils!

Under the warmer!

Rinse!

Quick car pic. She loves it! I think it turned out super cute! 

She loves it and that's all that really matters! She was excited to show her friends and teacher at school.

It's not a cheap treat by any means, but it's also something that's not SUPER expensive and something that makes my kiddos super happy. And it's just a fun experience.

Here's to many more of years of destroying your hair, kid. lol

It's Been THIRTY Years!?

I do not come from a close knit family. 

While I have quite a large extended family on both my mom and dad's sides, we've never been close with any of them.

We are spread out, you see. 

My dad's family being in Australia and sprinkled throughout Asia. 

My mom's family is even more scattered. Eastern US and Taiwan mostly.

So we've just never really been around each other to get close enough to have any true relationships.

But we do have memories from when we were kids. 

Not a ton, but some.

My mom has 1 full sibling (my Aunt Lili), 2 half-sisters and a half-brother.

My Aunt and her two kids came to visit over Labor Day weekend.

It seriously has been like 30 years since we've seen our cousins. 

Mom, Aunt Lili and Patricia

We promised not to wait another 30 years and to try to do a get together once a year. 

5th and 2nd, Here We Come!

It's simply crazy to me how time flies.

Before we know it, it's time to pack things up and get ready for school, winter, routine and structure.

Summer was amazingly fun, but it's time to get back to business. 

With school comes so many forms and things to sign. Because of the girls' allergies, I need to be prepared with Epi-Pens (we use the Auvi-Q brand), Benadryls and Emergency Health Plans.

The girls had meet and greets today, so I juggled some things around at work so I could bring them there.

Mila found her cubby and deposited her stuff.

Next up, Ava's room. 

This is her first "normal" year after COVID. No masks! 

It was great to be able to see their classrooms and meet their teachers. 

They both know where to go and both seem excited to start the new school year off. 

Oh, in case anyone noticed, we also got the girls' haircut on Sunday.

Ava goes back next week for highlights. 

I'm so ready to get back into routine. 

First day! Mila was not very impressed. She was pissed at me because I wouldn't let her wear dirty pants to school. 

5th and 2nd! Here we go! 

Looking old these days

This little face. 😭

Canceled! I Guess It's For The Best

Everything happens for a reason, right?

Our mini-vacation in the camper got canceled.

Not only were we exhausted from 3 days of go, go, go, and driving and all that, we found out that the beach was closed due to harmful blue-green algae blooms.

Like, we would've parked on the beach...and not been able to get in the water.

WTF.

That's so disappointing. 

But, since we have so much going on before school starts, I guess it just makes sense.

My aunt and two cousins are coming into town for Labor Day. 

I haven't seen these cousins in 30 years? Maybe? 

Crazy, right?

They are my mom's sister's kids.

We may try for a RV trip next year.

We have a week left until school starts. 

Summer flew by, once again.

It was a good one, that's for sure.