Getting Out More and Reading Books

Sunday evening we went over to my in laws to visit them since we heard that they didn't do anything with anyone for the 4th of July (sad we didn't know sooner!). They introduced us to a new card game called Five Crowns. It was a little confusing at first but fun after I got the hang of it. Garrett and Jack played with us while Nikki did some drawing and the little girls played with toys. Then we went out back to look at my mother in law's fairy garden. She had some new figurines and she wanted Nikki to help her decide where she should put them and other ideas for future fairy garden decor. Nikki seemed happy to help and took some pictures. The little girls also discovered a new little red rocking chair that grandma bought for them to sit in when they come visit.

On Monday I was so tired from the weekend activities that I decided to do a lot of reading from my book, "The Choice". I ended up staying up late that night reading and woke up the next morning and finished reading my book. It was a good one! I even cried a little.

The past couple months we have been trying to do better at how we eat so that we can lose weight. We're not doing any certain type of diet and haven't changed things dramatically. The biggest things we've been doing is trying to eat an earlier dinner, not go back for seconds and not eat anything else after (that doesn't always happen though) but we've also been going on lots of walks, usually in the evening after we've eaten dinner. Tuesday night we walked out around the golf course by our house again.

I am happy to announce that Curtis finally broke the 200 lb mark! He had weighed up to as much as 220 and just yesterday he weighed in at 199.5! I'm so happy and so proud of him!  I have been trying to lose a little weight as well but I'm nearly there with only wanting to lose about 5 more lbs. It's been great working on our goals together!

There was one point on Wednesday that I had to send Alice to time out. Well, I kind of forgot about her and she fell asleep in time out. I left her there to take a nap, which was not the best idea since she did not want to go to sleep later at bed time, even though we stayed up late.

Wednesday evening Jack borrowed a Wii game from his friend called Wii Sports Resort and I typically don't play video games anymore but I decided to play this time. Charlotte and I did some sword fighting, wake boarding, and bowling on the game while the boys watched. It was fun to play and especially fun to watch Charlotte when she did sword fighting with Garrett. I took a video but was unable to upload it here since the file size is too big.

I really wanted to go on a walk or bike ride after dinner that night but Curtis wasn't feeling up to it. So I asked the kids if anyone wanted to do a bike ride. Charlotte's bike was still flat and so she asked if we could go on a scooter ride. She had her scooter and I borrowed Nikki's (since we're pretty much the same size) and I have to say it was a lot of fun! I would definitely do it again. One thing I want my kids to remember about me is that I would do things with them. After I got back from taking Charlotte on a scooter ride I took Alice on a bike ride. Nobody else wanted to come by then because Curtis had started watching a movie.

We stopped at the church on the corner to rest and then Charlotte started rolling down the hill. She had so much fun!

She even started doing somersault rolls down!

I didn't get a picture of Alice and I on the bike but we just did a quick ride around our neighborhood. After we got back both the girls played with their next door neighbor friend, Brooklyn. Brooklyn recently got a new pink power car/RV and I watched the girls all play together and take turns driving.

Yesterday Nikki had the day off of work and so after I finished making a grocery list, she wanted me to help her bake a pumpkin roll. We had previously bought the ingredients for it a couple weeks ago but got so busy that we didn't make it yet. After we got it made and into the fridge we both went shopping, first to Walmart, then to JoAnn's, and then to Winco. I had to get a couple of things at Walmart and she wanted to look at sewing patterns. Out of no where Nikki decided that she wanted to make her own dress for prom (which would not happen until next spring). I told her now was not the best time to try and sew something with the shortage of fabric, etc. from Covid-19 and I also said she would need to practice on something simpler than a dress first. So she picked out a dress and shirt pattern. I haven't sewn any clothing items in a long time and even then I didn't do very many things. We went to JoAnn's to try and find fabric for the shirt and neither of us knew which type of fabric we needed for this shirt pattern and there weren't any available employees to help. So I called my mother in law and we will hopefully go in together tomorrow (Saturday) to see if she can help us. If we have to use stretchy material for the shirt then I may have to get help from my big sister, Melissa, who has a lot more experience with sewing clothes and stretchy fabrics.

Anyway, after JoAnn's we went grocery shopping at WinCo and that back home. I made Nikki do all of the driving today so that she can get more practice. I even made her back the van into the garage to unload groceries. That was a little challenging but she did it! We ate homemade sub sandwiches, chips and fresh fruit for dinner and then our pumpkin roll for dessert. It was delicious! I really enjoyed spending so much time with Nikki yesterday and was glad that she wanted my help. After eating that pumpkin roll for dessert I knew we had to go on a walk but it was going to have to wait until both Curtis and I took a short nap because we were both really tired. After our naps we did our walk and this time we walked on a path that goes between Fall River subdivision over to Lake Lowell Ave. When we came up Lake Lowell Ave we wanted to go look down a certain street and we happened to see a man we knew outside mowing his lawn. After all, we used to be in the same ward before it split many years ago. We had a nice little visit with him and then continued on. On our walk on Tuesday I got two mosquito bites so from now on I have to spray myself with repellent if we're going to walk at dusk. No bites yesterday!

Nikki wants to make the dress like the blue and white one. She likes the longer sleeves.

The last couple of days I had been trying to decide what new book I should read. I had many to choose from in our office but ultimately last night I decided that I was going to read the Little House on the Prairie books. I have had a nearly new set of all of the books sitting on our bookshelf for the past 15 years and I still hadn't read them so I decided it was time!

It was nice to able to have something to read this afternoon since my neighbor needed a ride to the DMV and I waited in the car while she went in. I recently saw a dvd set of all the seasons of the Little House on the Prairie TV series and I really want it! I currently have all the seasons on dvd except for season 3 and 5 but this new set would have the entire series and it's a lot thinner so it would save room! I told Curtis that I really wanted it but I don't think he'll take the hint and buy it for me. I have a hard time buying stuff for myself, lol, especially if it's not a need, only a want. Well for now, I guess I'll just be content with reading the books.