Random acts of kindness

Today we were the recipient of some good old grace and kindness! After a giant grocery shopping trip, mark decided to have a major meltdown at the checkout for reasons still unknown to me.

As I was attempting to wrangle and hold mark, watch zach, and push a VERY loaded cart... A random woman shopper stepped in and got my cart and asked where my car was. She told me she was a grandma to 13 kiddos...And she was happy to help.

I was doing my best to remain calm amidst the looks in the store and trying to just check out and GET out that her kindness almost brought me to tears.

She parked my cart and wished me a good day. So nice to have little moments like that... I was touched and made the trip end on a very happy note. I will be sure to repay that favor to another mom one day! Thank you grocery store lady!

Mediterranean crockpot chicken

Made a little creation tonight for dinner and it was a success! I love all the Mediterranean ingredients and just threw all in that I had on hand!
Chicken breasts
Italian stewed tomatoes
Sundried tomatoes
Kalamata olives
Garlic
Artichoke hearts
Mushrooms
Onion
Mix all the ingredients up, then placed the chicken on top and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Cooked on high for 4 hours. When it was ready to serve, I topped with some feta! Yummy!! Matt loved it and said next time it would be great on some pasta. Will have to try that next time! :) love it when a creation works out!

Potty Training Time

It is probably PAST time...but with the due date of yet to be named #3 looming very soon....I am determined to get Markey potty trained and out of diapers before the baby comes in a month.  Fingers crossed!!

We have been talking a lot about it and he seems to comprehend, so starting tomorrow, we will be homebound for 3 days and giving it a go!

I went to target today at lunch and stocked up on M&Ms and Skittles for little rewards, stickers, new super hero undies, and a few small toys to give as bribes, i mean, ENCOURAGEMENT! ;-)

Wish us luck!  We are using the 3 day potty training method that we used with Zachary.  It was stressful at the time (from what I remember) but he actually did pretty well so we are going to give it a go with Mark too! :)

Hopefully I still have my sanity by Monday...

Babymoon

The last time Matt and I went on a real vacation on our own...was when I was about 16 weeks pregnant with Zachary.  you do the math...that was almost 5 years ago!! Holy moly!

Matt's dad was being installed as the President of the National Society of Professional Engineers in San Diego and we were invited to come along and celebrate.  We debated awhile back when we decided to go about bringing the boys with us...but as my mom pointed out, it may be awhile before we get to go anywhere alone again soon!  So off we went, just me and my Mattie.  It.was.devine! :)

We used some of the points we have stored up from forever and got first class seats to fly.  It was both of our first times to fly First Class and my, was it nice. How will we ever sit in the back of the plane again? Ha!

We had a couple of obligations to attend, but all and all, we were on our own.  We did the San Diego zoo, got spa treatments, and just a lot of driving up and down the coast.   It is BEAUTIFUL!!

We had a really great time together and were thankful for the opportunity to go.  And I highly recommend San Diego if you have a chance.  You won't be disappointed!!

Here are couple of pics from trip!

4th of July fun

We had a great 4th of July this year!  Celebrated in the morning at my parents' house.  We spent the night and decorated the boys' bike and wagon.  It was nice because we were able to spend it with dad who was finally out of the hospital! Yippee!  The parade hasn't changed much since I participated in it 30 years ago....and that's what makes it so much fun.  Just the neighborhood kids...decked out bikes, trikes, scooters, and cars and lots of old fashioned fun!  Zach did so good riding his bike the whole way and Mark got lots of laughs for his chill pose in the wagon! :)  They had fun and games at the park to follow and of course swimming.  We throughly wore the boys out!  Later that afternoon we went to a friend's house from church for dinner and more playing and fireworks.  It was a great 4th and we were so lucky to spend it with both friends and family! :)