Final Week in Sidney

Whelp, it's finally here. The last days before we make the big move down to Phoenix. Seems like most of this week was pretty normal. I worked on editing the last batches of photos, taking on a couple more sessions and editing those. Lots of ordering, finishing galleries, and getting them delivered. As of today I can say all those sessions are finally done. Glad I could earn a bit of money to help with all our moving expenses.

Saturday our air conditioning unit decided to die a tragic death. Come Monday morning we got the bad news that the unit was kaput and needed complete replacement. That is not news you want to hear a week before you move to a different state, leaving your home vacant and owned. I called our real estate agent for advice the next morning. Within a few hours she had her HVAC guys on the issue and an estimate $1000 less than the first bid. Over the next two days the team removed the old unit and coil one day then installed the new system on Thursday. Luck be on our side, the weather cooled down quite a bit the end of the week. By the end of the evening those first few days of the week the inside temp was hovering near 89 degrees. I am grateful Nebraska enjoys cool nights. I am grateful this home has a whole house fan to draw breezes through the top floor. Now we can advertise a new air conditioning system. I decided that God was just getting me ready for Arizona temps, sort of makes me want to stay here.

Jen took all the kids swimming Tuesday afternoon. I drove to Sterling and back in less than two hours to pick up a Frozen power wheels car. For the past year I've printed and colored various sheets of paper with a printed Frozen power wheels on the paper. Evelyn has been so certain she is getting an Elsa car for her birthday, waiting patiently for a year. I finally explained we did not have the extra money for such a large gift. Next day I found a used car for an affordable price, within her birthday money budget. She will be so excited. I am quite excited to see what she thinks. That is one stubborn child. After dinner Jen took Amelia and Evelyn for pedicures at the salon. The girls were in heaven! I spent a lovely hour with the boys in the yard. I weeded while the boys played with Josie.

Phillip has a girl friend. They whispered to me that (giggle) they are boyfriends. His cute (and annoying) little friend a couple blocks down comes over most mornings between 7 and 8 am to play house with Phillip. We had a chat about not coming over until after 9:30. Lyrah was also in Phillip's class last year. Phillip kindly made Evelyn a healthy snack one evening. A pint of yogurt with a carrot, apple, orange, and bunch of grapes. He also made a plate for himself, Everett, and Josie. The healthy snack went ignored until I threw it all away the next day. Food waste...it kills me.

I moved the rest of my photo props to the garage on Thursday. The kids were gone playing Pokemon at Jakob's house most of the day. Evelyn, Josie, and I moved the items over and cleaned up the garage area. The kids came home raving about Jakob's tacos. Ah-mazing! My tacos are just not up to par after those morsels of delight. Jakob must be a culinary wizard. I also worked on deep cleaning the van. It was at critical level red. Several hours, rags, buckets of cleaning water, vacuuming stints, and carpet cleanings later the van seemed a few shades lighter. The hardest part to clean was Evelyn's cup holder. She used it as a parking space for all her left over gum, ABC candy, and such. I spent a good 20 minutes scraping off layer after layer of gunk.

Friday morning we cleaned up the house before we left to pick up Justin from the airport!! All the kids were very excited. I get behind the van wheel for more than  20 minutes and my need to sleep kicks in hard. I had to pull over 4 times in just an hour to rest my eyes and nap. Honestly, it scares me that I need to sleep that badly! We made it to the airport in time to pick up Justin from the curb. He had to wait a bit because the rerouted non-toll route was pretty clogged at 5 pm. It felt right to finally get Justin home. He was a bit grumpy and not too happy once we finally got home. His nerves are frayed and it shows. After the little kids were mostly asleep Amelia and I escaped to a movie night out at Alison's home. We got there mid-movie just in time to get rained out. A little rain did not stop all the fun conversations we had inside. The little girls all fled downstairs for their own party. We got home shortly before midnight.

Saturday I celebrated my 40th birthday!!! A crew of folks came over to help us disassemble the bunk beds and empty water storage. Within a few hours our friends made quick work with the beds and many other items that needed taking apart. Amelia and Everett spent the day over at the Austad's I got a frantic phone call from Amelia after lunch. She said some guy approached them on a long board asking if they wanted free fidget spinners, if so to follow him to his house. The kids were freaked out as the guy would not leave them alone and followed them for a ways. Last week a silver van was in town following kids around handing out cotton candy and fidget spinners. I hear the police chased them out of town, I think the kid from Saturday was some teenager bored, making fun of a potentially serious situation. Amelia, Kat, and Everett made me cute birthday cards and got some candy with money from Jakob (who got money from me for babysitting). I loved the irony and their thoughtfulness. We had some dinner at Sam and Louie's pizzeria. Amelia got an order of spaghetti instead of an order of mac n'cheese. The world almost stopped at that moment. Justin brought home a bar of white chocolate. Guess he also bought me a house! Pretty momentous.

Sunday Josie turned 18 months old. She hated nursery. By the time I rescued her she was purple and close to passing out. Welcome to nursery! She is such a fun little sprite. Her favorite words are: stop, stop it, jojo, thank you, stinky, meow, and mommy. Josie loves books. She loves when her older siblings play with her, especially Amelia. She is turning into a picky little eater. Hates most fruits and vegetables in any chunky or natural form, loves purees still. Her main diet is yogurt, cheese, fruit packets, and lunch meat. She is nursing 2-4 times each day, napping once from 12:30 til 2 pm.

Phillip is about to drive Justin mad. That boy does not like to work, he will do anything to shirk duty. He peed in a pull up right before bed just because he was lazy. Little stinker got to clean the toilet for that act of laziness. It takes a fair amount of coaxing and procrastinating before he will even try to complete a task. Once he starts and finishes it in minutes he wonders why it took him so long. If any kid of ours needs to work on a farm it would be Phillip. Everett is our go-to guy when it comes to doing chores. Amelia does a good job, after whining and rolling her eyes until my head hurts. Josie just goes around undoing all that we do. The CIRCLE OF LIFE...ha ha ha