July

I can't believe July is over already. It was a busy month. I'm going to try and add some more editorial to my blogs. Recently they've become just reporting what happened. No thoughts, opinions, etc. So we'll see how that goes.

The big event of the month was my trip to Idaho with JJ for a week. We left Sunday the 3rd and came back the 10th. I was really nervous about the flight because it's a long time to hold him on my lap in a tiny space.

In typical Allegiant style the flight was delayed going up. It worked okay because we were in an area with a large carpet area where he could just run around and play and get some energy out

 He did really well on the flight. Even after sitting on the tarmac for an additional 30 minutes after boarding. Of course he fell asleep AFTER we landed while we taxied to the gate. So I was trying to get him off, with a giant backpack and purse. I thought I was going to die. It was hot and he was heavy and then he woke up probably 15 minutes later.

We got to my mom's and were able to visit and play with cousins.

 JJ did pretty good that first night. I did have to lay on the bed with him but he slept all night and got up about his normal time.

Nick and I decided to go for a run that morning. It had been a while since I'd been and there's no way to run at my mom's without running hills. We ran down to the new park right down from my mom's and it was a nice run! 

 When we got back to the house everyone had gone up to the church for breakfast. So Nick and I hurried and got ready and went up there. They had given JJ this flag to help keep him happy and boy did that flag make him happy. He LOVES that flag. We took that flag everywhere. We slept with that flag. That flag is still here at my house today.

One of JJ's favorite things about Grandpa's house was riding the 4-wheeler. He likes anything where he can be outside and we were lucky to have such nice weather when we were there.

We got everyone out back to play monkey bar golf in a bit of a tournament. Or as much of one as we could. I know people got pulled this way or that for whatever reason.

We were teasing JJ with a bottle that he was trying to reach in the pool. He is such a drama queen when he couldn't reach it.

Then per the usual people showed up for dinner and fireworks. I wasn't sure how JJ would do with them. It also fell way past his bed time. I had decided that I was just going to let him go and see if he would just pass out asleep. We were sitting outside watching some of the fireworks on the street when a bottle rocket went a bit awry and almost landed on us. Well... that scared him enough that he didn't want anything to do with that any more.

So we went inside to watch the show. He still wasn't a fan from the couch... or we couldn't see. Either way we ended up in my old room with the blinds open.

He really like the fireworks from there! It's quite the view too.

So after the fireworks he's now.... 2 hours past his bed time and this kid thinks it is party time. Finally at 11:15 I got him to sleep. Pretty sure my mom said 'well he'll sleep in tomorrow'. Ha!! Nope. He was up at his usual 5:30 am. Which made that day hell. He was such a grouch.

I figured out how he gets such awesome volume in his hair.

So after a horrible night the night before with JJ sleeping with me and kicking me and being all over the place I was determined he was going to sleep in the crib that night. Oh we fought it out to get him to sleep. I think it was at least 90 minutes to get him to sleep. Jump forward about 3 hours and he woke up and I could tell he was having a hard time breathing. Of course I didn't have his nebulizer because we hadn't used it since January! I took him into the bathroom and filled it with steam but I didn't have the patience to sit there and listen to him struggle. I asked my mom about an urgent care and there's none open that late in Pocatello.... So off to the ER we went.

I think we ended up being there about 2 hours. They gave him an oral steroid and a cool mist breathing treatment. It was a long night, but I felt better once I knew he could breath better.

Wednesday we didn't do much. I think that was the day we tried to go to the movies. We'd never taken JJ to the movies before and I wasn't sure how he would do. We went to Finding Dory. He made it about 90 minutes total. So needless to say, I don't know how the movie ends. We spent the last 45 minutes or so in the lobby.

After the issue Tuesday night I didn't want to put JJ in a room where I couldn't hear him as easily but I didn't want to sleep with him either. So I tried to make him a little bed on the floor. I would have to get him to sleep on the bed then move him to the floor and he usually lasted there about 3 hours and then he'd wake up and be on the bed with me. And this is what would happen:

I don't remember what day I got to go see Sabrina. I think it was Friday, but I dropped JJ off with John's mom and went to see Sabrina and this sweet little guy. I know Beans wanted to see JJ and Linden would have had fun playing but since he was sick I didn't want him around the baby. Such a cute, snuggly little guy! I love him and his mama. She is so special to me.

Saturday came and my mom said we needed to do something fun. We had talked about driving to Utah before but I didn't really want a long car ride, etc. but then she said that Tara had gotten in from Washington. So to have the chance to see Chad, Tara, Jena, Mark and Patty, and families I was in. See my mom's family did something when we were kids. Poisoned the water or the birdseed or something but my cousins and aunts and uncles are some of my favorite people on the whole planet.

So we headed down to Centerville. JJ did great in the car. Slept most the way; as did I. Then we stopped at McDonalds for some food and then went to visit everyone.

This pretty much sums up what we did. We were either sitting out front or downstairs or in the living room. The kids would migrate on way or the other and we sort of followed them. We crashed their dinner and then went up to Chad's so I could check out the new house. I have a picture of his amazing view from his back porch but I guess I didn't get it on here. It's beautiful.

The Mark Wallace family was headed to Bear Lake and I wish we'd been there for that. I think it would have been fun. Lots of kids his age to play with.

When we were down there Chad asked me if we were spending the night and I said no, we were flying out of Idaho Falls at noon. So we headed home Saturday night. JJ did good on the ride again. He slept most the way and woke up right when we were getting off the interstate.

I got a text from Allegiant saying that the flight was delayed 3 hours. No big deal. Glad to find out that early so we didn't rush anywhere. Even better because at 230 am that brat was still awake!! I thought I was going to lose it. I think I finally laid him flat on his back and told him NO! It is time to sleep!

So we had a lazy morning getting ready to leave and about 30 minutes before we were going to head to Idaho Falls my mom says 'your flight is cancelled'. I said, 'you're kidding me'. So began the mad dash to try and figure out what was going on. I called Allegiant to find out what they said was going on and after 45 min on hold they didn't even have info that the flight was cancelled. Finally when I got upset the lady said 'what do you want' to which I answered "I want to know what is going on with my flight so I can figure out how to get to Phoenix TODAY". She went back and finally confirmed the flight was cancelled with nothing else scheduled until Tuesday. So now it's 130 pm on Sunday and I need to get home that night.

We started looking at other flights and most of the last minute tickets were $400-$500. We were able to get a ticket on Frontier for less than $200 out of Salt Lake at 6pm. So began the rush to Salt Lake. Just what we wanted to drive to Salt Lake again. I am not thrilled with Allegiant and really wish I didn't have to fly them ever again.

But we made it to Salt Lake and I made it through security. Let me tell you that is the most stressful time trying to hold your kid plus ALL the stuff by yourself. And you just feel like everyone is staring at you and judging you and you aren't moving fast enough no matter what you do.

So JJ and I made it on the plane and I was a little worried that we were traveling during his dinner time and it was all messed up schedule wise, but again JJ did really well. Thank goodness for dum dum suckers. 

So we made it back to Phoenix. Unfortunately we had to wait almost an hour for the dumb carseat that I'd checked. I think John was glad to see JJ.

We knew we were going to pay for the bad sleeping habits of the week and we did! We really did. There were several nights of having to rock him to sleep and stand there and rub his back. Then on top of that he was getting up in the night. One night was so bad that I had to sleep on his bedroom floor with him and I was not allowed to have a blanket. It was horrible. When JJ doesn't sleep and we don't sleep no one in this house is happy.However, here is a picture of him fast asleep with him little bum up in the air!

Since a box of our stuff was being shipped from Idaho I didn't have my running shoes for about a week. I was due for a new pair anyways so one night we ran over to get some new shoes and grabbed dinner at Chik-fil-a. I still find it amusing when he 'does big kid' things like eat his nuggets. I don't know why I guess because my mind doesn't accept him as a big kid yet.

Just my new shoes and new rubik's cube. It's a speed cube. I've been learning F2L, but it's slow learning. Right now I could probably solve it in 3-4 minutes but I want to get that down by at least half.

JJ invited his cousins down to play in the yard one Saturday. I think the kids all had fun but JJ kept slipping on this corner of the tarp. It was kind of funny. Drama queen.

John and I went and looked at model homes. It's a favorite past time of ours. We got a kick in this house that had a little boys room. JJ thought the bed was the shiz!

Ok, so I made a joke at work the other day about stealing someone's lunch. What actually happened was that I didn't want my lunch and Dawn offered me some of her food. I asked her about this dish I knew she'd made and she said it was in the fridge. So I went and ate it. So it wasn't mine and I only barely stole it. Well about 2 days later I went to get my lunch and it was gone. I found it so funny because if I posted on Facebook about my lunch being stolen it would just look like karma so it was really just funny. I got a call on my way home from a friend at work confessing they had accidentally eaten my lunch. I explained it was perfectly fine and that I just found it funny, but the next day I came into this. Totally unnecessary but I loved it all the same. In fact I still have the daisies. They have been the most beautiful flowers.

So the next big news of the month is that I am officially a LuLaRoe consultant. I got my call on 7/12. This was all of my initial inventory. It's about 300 pieces of clothing and it is a lot to sort and organize.

So began the mad dash to try and put on a quick in home party. I spent a whole day hanging and going through it all. I will admit I didn't have high expectations for the party. To my surprise it went better than I had hoped. I mean I'm not a millionaire but I exceeded the sales goal I set for myself. It was also a lot more fun than I expected! I expect that most of my sales will be online since with a full time job I don't have a lot of time to go do in home parties, but it definitely helped to build my confidence that I can do it.

Here is the kitchen all set up for the party. I was going to get cookies and some fruit and it turned into meat and cheese and cookies and fruit and chips and salsa. LOL.

Here is my sponsor Kristy. She stopped by which was super nice of her. We were able to talk through a few questions and I had one of her unicorns!

So for those that don't know a unicorn with LuLaRoe is a print that you love. Because of the limited availability of each print finding the print you love in the style you want or your size can be like finding a unicorn.

I also scored a pool key from my amazing friend Heather. So we took JJ over to the pool several evenings. It was so fun to see how he went from being unsure and scared to fearless. One night I literally grabbed him when he was about nose deep and he just trucked out to deeper water.

With the monsoon season we had a few days of cooler temps. I mean it was humid as could be but it wasn't 110 plus. So I let JJ go outside and play when we got home from work. In true boy fashion he go straight for the dirt. And he gets so sweaty so fast but he wants to be outside so bad.

We've been trying to get him to ride his stryder bike but so far he just wants to spin the tires.

Ok, my newest obsession is Bahama Bucks. John and I had been trying to get shaved ice for a while and our favorite place closed and Lars said we should go here. He told me to get the one with the ice cream which I thought was weird but tried it. It's call the Bahama Rama Mama or something like that. Oh my gosh. it is soooooo good. I crave it.

Then the last Friday I got a call from Laura that JJ had thrown up at school. So I had to leave work to go get him. John went and picked him up and then I picked him up from John. He didn't throw up although I think he had a slight fever.

Last for the month we dug these out and started playing with them. They really don't interest JJ at all but he'll like them someday.

So hopefully I won't take a week to post every month, but hopefully LuLaRoe gets busier and keeps me going. It's a roller coaster ride of emotions doing something like this. I love it and get excited by it but then I stress that I won't make our money back or won't sell anything, etc. I want to go crazy ordering inventory but have to restrain myself and say be patient. I was on a conference call with the home office and they said to write down everything you do in a day and start crossing off the things you do that don't make you money and that is where you fit LuLaRoe into your life. Well... I don't have a lot of areas I can cross off, but we've made it work so far and yes that 1 hour of time a night to watch a tv show and relax is now used photographing inventory or editing the photos or pulling orders and packaging them. But no joke, I am loving doing it. I pray every night for guidance on if I'm doing the right thing and to help me 'not be a failure' at this. So far for every concern there seems to an answer at least in the sense of how not to lose all our money. Like if I stopped tomorrow I could recoup our investment plus some. It might take some time but I don't think I would lose anything. So I am trying to be patient and let the business grow and really commit. John has been really supportive and helps me photograph, etc. I definitely couldn't do this without his support. Here's hoping August is a good month!!