Daniel's New Job

Daniel's place at KKAJ ended on September 4th. It was more sad for me than for him, I think. And it was all very exciting that he was unemployed for a few days. :) We had a nice weekend together, a 3-day weekend, due to Labor Day, before he started his new job. We did some shopping, went to the pool, hung out .... On Labor Day, our neighbors, the Antwis, invited us to go to the aquatic center with them. It was so awesome, and I wondered why we had never been before. There was this big shallow pool with this water playground in it, and all kinds of things shooting and dumping water all over people, and a big old water slide. We had such a fun time, and it was a hot day, perfect for water play.

The day after Labor Day, the 8th, Daniel started his new job. He had a 2-day training in Irvine; so he got up and left ridiculously early in the morning and stayed in Irvine that night (he was trying to avoid all that awful driving). He said his training was nice. And he stayed at some random place he found on airbnb.com, which he said was way more expensive than it should have been; not a super-ideal place to stay.

Our air conditioning went out that day that he left, which was terrible, because this week there has been a really bad heat wave. Unfortunately for me and my foolishness, it was just the breaker. I tried flipping the switch, the inside one and the outside one, and apparently didn't do it right. So then, when the air conditioning guy came to look at it, he just flipped it and it started working again. Not only did we suffer needlessly for 2 days, we spent $188 for him to come flip a switch. Pretty expensive mistake! I am still mad at myself for it.

Anyway, during the afternoon of the 8th, after naps and such, we girls escaped the heat. We went to the library and to sprouts, and then had a long dinner at Chick-fil-A, where I let the girls play on their playground for a while after eating, putting off the time when we would have to go home to our hot house. Brooke had a grand old time, though, playing on that playground with the kids there. I'm glad she enjoyed herself.

That next hot day, after the HVAC guy came to "fix" the A/C, there was this awesome thunderstorm. It was raining so hard and thundering so loud that it woke the girls up from their naps. It was really cool! I love summer thunderstorms like that! And, unfortunately, we don't get them much here.

The last few weeks, aside from keeping the girls happy and well, and taking care of my house, I've been really hooked on Once Upon A Time. Netflix uploaded the 4th season, and it was just ever so exciting! I really love that show! It's pretty clean, and it's just so fun and intense. I keep trying to get Daniel to start from the beginning and watch. I think he'd really like it and get into it. But ... he refuses, of course.

For 2 weeks, I've also been doing the Fast Metabolism Diet. Diane and Houston have done it a few times, and it was really good for them. They lost weight quickly on it. I've been plateaued at the same weight for months, and I was hoping that this diet would help me lose the last 10 quickly so that I can go back to maintaining. Mom brought the book with her when she came to visit, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm almost done with the 2nd week of the 4-week program. But ... I hate it. It's really hard, and apparently, I've never dieted before. It's split into 3 phases, all of which, you go through in one week, and then start over at the beginning of each week. And for each phase, there's a list of items that you can eat, and it's different for each phase. The first week almost killed me. I hated it so much! This week has been better. But I haven't really lost that much weight on it so far, and it's been interfering too much with my marathon training, that after I'm finished with my 2nd week tomorrow, I'm done with it. At least until I've done my half marathon. That is my main goal and priority, when it comes to my health and fitness.

*Brooke and Camille spilled some cheerios, and Brooke pulled out the broom to help clean it all up. She's the cutest!*

August Pictures

*This little bad one started standing at the beginning of August. She sure is becoming more mobile!*

*My beautiful little girls love each other! And they love to read books.*
 

*One time while we were out shopping, I put Camille in the car, and then Brooke in the car, and I turned to put the cart away, and when I got back, she was sleeping. She must've been all tired out!*

*Playing with Dolly!*

*These are the best pictures I could get of Camille doing her "Monster Face". I think it's so cute and funny! She wrinkles her nose, squints her eyes, pushes out her upper lip, and starts breathing in and out of her nose really fast. It's so funny!*

*On the 29th, our ward had a Temple Activity, where the whole family could go. We had a picnic dinner on the fields behind the temple. The kids played games and on the playground there, and then afterwards we went to the Temple Visitors' Center to explore. It was a nice day as a family!*

Brooke's 3rd Birthday!

The last couple of weeks of August were pretty fun for us. Except, not so much for Daniel, I suppose. He caught whatever Brooke and I had, and he got the worst of it. His cough got really bad, and it lingered for weeks. He spent an entire week working from home because he was coughing so much. It also wasn't all fun for him, because he was working extra, getting the firm ready for when he would be leaving. They wanted him to work as much as possible, and he felt obligated to get as much done for them as he could. He's awesome like that.

Anywho, Brooke's 3rd birthday was Saturday, the 22nd. We had a birthday party with her friends on the Friday before. It was pretty easy and low-key. Simple. Just how I like it. We sent out some invitations that I made about a week before to everyone we could think of. I didn't want to leave anyone out. That's no fun, for anyone. I made some cute Frozen cupcakes for the party, and brought some chips and drinks. Ty and Tad, Lucy, Jonesy (he's new in the ward, and quite a bit younger than Brooke), Turner Hebdon, the Delhoyo kids, and Calvin Haslam came to celebrate, all bringing fun presents for her (which I kind of looked at as just more ... stuff). We had a fun time with everyone! Brooke was in heaven, playing with all those kids.

Mom drove down that day, getting in later at night. She wanted to come celebrate Brooke's birthday with us, and we all had a wonderful time with her. We went to the mall so that Brooke could have a few rides on the Merry-Go-Round there, we picked up some lunch from Chick-fil-A, and went home to eat and put the girls down for naps. When they woke up, we had cake and opened presents, and then Mom took us all out to Red Robin for dinner, which was just too fun. And, of course, I took Brooke on the Merry-Go-Round one more time while we were there at the mall. All in all, we had a good day. And Brooke loved all the attention and having Gram there with us.

*All she asked for was an Elsa cake. I delivered!*

*We may have gone a little frozen crazy for her birthday. What with the cake, a new Frozen book, an Elsa Doll from Gram, and all sorts of other Frozen and Elsa paraphernalia from Gram, it was completely out of control! I'm sure the birthday girl didn't mind!*

*Little sister having her first taste of birthday cake (courtesy of Gram, thank you very much). I think she really liked it.*

Mom stayed to play with us for a few days after Brooke's birthday. We didn't do too much. Mostly just played with the babies, I set mom up with an exercise routine, and we sat and talked. We loved having her with us, though. And at one point, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if mom could come live with us?" I'm such a mamma's girl! Haha!