An Extra-Long Weekend & An Extra-Long Post.

What a weekend ladies. I've been running non-stop and to be quite honest, I'm actually looking forward to heading back to work tomorrow just so I can get a break. Sad, I know but it's true. To have been a long weekend, I feel drained instead of well rested but at the same time, I'm pretty excited with all that I got accomplished.

Friday

Instead of leaving at 3:30 like I usually try to do on Fridays, I decided to work until 5 so that I could go home work-free and enjoy my extra long weekend. With that extra hour and a half, I was able to finish my lesson plans, grade and file a huge stack of papers, complete my weekly newsletter, make copies for the week, and clean and straighten up my classroom. I hadn't felt that accomplished at the end of the week in a long time... maybe even since before Harper was born? haha 

After work I headed to our church to pick up Harper doodle from daycare. We got home around 5:45. Since it was later than usual, I had to get our tails in gear since we were meeting up with the family for our usual Friday night dinner at 7. Before leaving, I fed Harper her bottle and changed her clothes. Then the scariest thing happened. As I was carrying Harper downstairs to put her in her car seat, I noticed she was turning colors and I could tell she was choking. I immediately dropped to the floor and was fixing to throw her over my knee when she started puking and I mean literally throwing up. She's never done that before and it scared the bejesus out of me. I have no idea what caused it but I hope it never happens again. But the craziest thing was that after she puked the whole contents of her stomach up, she was back to smiling and was her usual happy self. Any ideas mamas on what might have happened?!

After the biggest scare of my life since Harper was born, I couldn't bare to put her in her crib when we got home from dinner. I was terrified that she'd choke again so I put her in her rock and play for the night. Unfortunately, it was a long night. Harper woke up around 2am and refused to go back to bed until 4:30 and then she was back up at 6am! 

Saturday

Since we had an early morning due to Harper's lack of sleep, we spent the early hours of morning having a family cuddle session. Watching Harper laugh and giggle and seeing her interact with our precious furbaby made the frustration of our lack of sleep disappear.

After our cuddle session, we showered and got ready and headed off to breakfast with my parents. We met up at Farmer's Table, a local family owned restaurant. A couple from our church opened it years ago and members of our church work there part-time so it's nice to catch up with our church family while we eat breakfast out. Following breakfast, we headed off to the in-laws to drop off Harper doodle. She spent the afternoon with Papa Mike & Grandma while Mommy and Daddy headed off to Greensboro to do some Christmas shopping. 

Our first stop was Target where I scored an adorable tan sweater and some new winter placemats. Have I mentioned before that I'm addicted to Target's Threshold collection placemats? Because I am. Every season I purchase new placemats and they are always, always, always from the Target Threshold collection. But hey for just $3.99 a pop, plus an additional 15% off thanks to the Cartwheel app, you can't beat that! 

Following our trip to Target, we swung by Ross to get Harper a few fleece sleepers since they're calling for snow this week here in NC. I doubt it'll happen but we wanted to be prepared just in case. 

Next we headed to Hobby Lobby to pick up some more Christmas decorations. My plan is to go with an all neutral theme this year and Hobby Lobby had a whole aisle to choose from. I ended up purchasing these three trees to sit on our kitchen island with our new placemats and I'm in love! Is it too early to leave these sitting out?!

After Hobby Lobby, we swung by Garden Ridge. I left Kevin sitting in the car while I ran inside to see if they had a quatrafoil mirror. I've been on the hunt for one for a few weeks now to put above our dresser in our guest room. They had one that I fell in love with but it was $69 and I just couldn't make myself pay that considering it's going in our guest room and it's rarely used. However, all I've done is think about that mirror all weekend and I'm debating going back. Is it worth it ladies?

After Garden Ridge, I swung by David's Bridal and ordered my bridesmaid dress for my best friend's wedding. Then we headed to Toys R Us. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've been working on Harper's Christmas wish list for a while now. Back in July I started buying her things here and there at consignment sales. I wasn't planning on buying her many more items but after our trip to Toys R Us it appears Harper's going to get a few more items that I hadn't initially planned on. Here's her previous list....

- Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Fun with Friends Table (purchased at a consignment for less than $10)

- Playskool Poppin' Park Elefun Busy Ball Popper  (purchased at a consignment for less than $10)

- Plush Rainbow Stackers (purchased at a consignment for less than $10)

- Zany B. Wooden Activity Cube

- Fisher- Price Laugh & Learn Puppy 

- Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Apptivity Case

- Graco Headwise 70 Convertible Car Seat 

Added to it over the weekend...
- Little Tikes Discover Sounds Sports Center While in Toys R Us I picked this item up and joked with Kevin that if we ever had a boy he'd want him to have it. Of course, Kevin fell in love with it and decided he wanted Harper to have it even though it's meant for boys! But I guess it isn't that bad... hopefully she'll be a basketball player like her mama one day!
- Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Stride to Ride puppy  I've been looking at walkers for Harper and just couldn't find any that I like. After talking with a friend of ours who has a three year old and seven month old, she suggested purchasing a stride-to-ride toy that would get multiple uses. After her suggestion and seeing this adorable little lady, I knew it was perfect for Harper doodle. The only thing is I feel so bad that she's already getting two other Fisher-Price laugh & learn puppy items. Let's hope she likes them.

Following our shopping adventures, Kevin and I had a dinner date at Olive Garden. We had originally planned to go to a sports bar for dinner but changed our minds when we got to talking about Olive Garden's buy one get one special going on right now. In the end, I'm glad we changed our minds because their salad and bread sticks hit the spot. I barely had room for my five cheese ziti when it arrived.

After dinner we headed back to the in-laws to pick up our precious baby and head back to the house. We had intentions of sitting down and watching the Hallmark movie that was on but Kevin ended up going to see Thor with his brother. I couldn't say no when he asked because I knew he was anxious to get out of the house. Poor thing has gone stir crazy laying around all week recuperating from his surgery.

Unfortunately, while he was at the movies, I was at home dealing with a fussy baby. With Harper's ear infection, she's become very clingy and I can't put her down for anything. She'll fall asleep in my arms and just as soon as I put her down for the night, she wakes up screaming bloody murder. Finally after the fifth time, she finally fell asleep close to 9pm only to wake up again at 11pm and then again at 2am. And when her 2am wake up time rolled around, she decided she'd had enough sleep. Can't you tell?!

But on the bright side, I was able to get our monogram painted & hung in the dining room while Harper was fighting her sleep! & yes, I had to paint it while holding Harper. It was very interesting to say the least lol

Sunday
Needless to say, we didn't make it to church Sunday morning since Harper decided to not go back to bed until close to 11am. I was just too exhausted to put forth the effort to get ready. On top of that, Harper was whiny from her own lack of sleep and I was worried about how she'd act in church. So I spent the morning straightening up the house while Kevin rested up.

At noon I headed to Mom and Dad's for our Sunday lunch. She made spaghetti but I couldn't tell you what it tasted like. I was so tired I couldn't enjoy it. As soon as the dishes were cleared I headed home in hopes of getting a nap. Thankfully Harper fell asleep on the way home so I just brought her into the house and left her in her car seat. About the time I got comfy in bed and was beginning to fall asleep, I heard her crying. Since Kevin can't lift her, I had to get up and get her.

Around 6 I started fixing dinner and my mother-in-law came over to eat with us. When we finished up I was so grateful that she offered to wash dishes and take Harper so I could get some sleep. At 8, my head hit the pillow and I don't remember anything else. The next thing I knew it was midnight and Harper was in her bed crying. I tried letting her lay there and cry it out but by 1, she was still going strong. I got her up and fixed her a bottle. Apparently that did the trick because after she finished her bottle, she was out and slept till 6 this morning!

Monday
One of the perks of being a teacher is that we're pretty much off every single holiday so that left me with a day off today. When Harper woke up this morning I decided to go on and take her to daycare. My intention was to go back home and go back to bed. But by the time I got Harper's things loaded up, swung by the bank to get money to pay for daycare, and got her unloaded and dropped off, I was wide awake. Since I was already out, I made a trip to the grocery store and Lowes.

Feeling good that I'd already tackled grocery shopping by 8am, I decided to tackle some other home projects. I cleaned out our refrigerator and freezer, organized our kitchen cabinets,  packed up some household items to send to Goodwill, and put away Harper's baby swing and bouncer (this part made me sad!) and replaced them with her exersaucer. By the time I finished Kevin was awake and ready for breakfast. I fixed a quick meal of eggs, bacon, toast, and grits. I was proud of myself considering I couldn't tell you the last time I fixed breakfast! ha

After I cleaned up the dishes, I got to work on tackling the clutter in the garage. Remember how I mentioned that I was going to do that a few weeks ago? Well it never happened and I was determined to get it done today. I went through box after box weeding out things we've had sitting around in our garage for three years. After multiple bags of trash and a whole truck load of things to be taken to Goodwill, it's finally looking better. I just wish I would have taken a picture of what it looked like before! Thanks to my Dad and nephew, we moved out the shelves that were in our garage and put them out in our storage building; along with organized all of the stuff  into appropriate containers and boxes. Our garage now looks like a garage and not a storage unit. I couldn't be happier. We still have a few things lying around but by tomorrow it should all be organized and put away thanks to my dad. He's going to install us some shelves in the garage closet so we can keep items in there that we use on a regular basis.

I'm so happy to have tackled that project today. As exhausted as I am and as sore as my back is, I couldn't be happier. I feel like a burden has been lifted off of my shoulders. When I pulled into the garage after picking up Harper from daycare this afternoon, I couldn't help but get giddy after seeing only garage walls and not a mound of chaos on shelves lining it! Woot woot!

Anyways, I've taken up enough of your time ladies. Thanks for sticking with me and listening to me ramble. I hope you ladies had an amazing weekend and pray that you have an equally amazing week ahead of you! Until next time...