COVID-19 Kid Q&A

I've seen this kid survey a few places on the interwebs, and I thought it would be fun to see what the kids said.  Paige's answers are pretty hilarious, ha.

1. What is coronavirus?

Trent: It's a highly contagious lung infection, right?
Drew: A sickness
Paige: I don't know

2. Who is the President?

Trent: Donald Trump
Drew: Um...what's his name...Donald Trump
Paige: I don't know

3. How many days have we been on lockdown?

Trent: 60-ish days
Drew: I don't know
Paige: I don't know

4. Do you want to go back to school?

Trent: Learning is fine and friends are fun, but it's a lot better at home.
Drew: Kind of
Paige: No

5. Who is the first person you want to hug when the virus is over?

Trent: Nana
Drew: Phoebe and Esther [these are friends of ours, kind of random]
Paige: Babs

6. Where is the first place you want to go?

Trent: A friend's house
Drew: A carnival
Paige: Nana and Papa's house

7. What do you think we can do to get rid of coronavirus?

Trent: Stay away from people, masks are kind of bogus
Drew: I don't know
Paige: I don't know

8. Is mom a good teacher?

Trent: She's pretty good.
Drew: Yeah
Paige: I don't know

9. How did coronavirus start? [I like how Trent and Drew combined have the right answer...as far as we know ha]

Trent: Some guy in Wuhan, China got sick.
Drew: When someone ate a dead bat.
Paige: I don't know

10. If you had to wear protective clothing to help you what would you choose?

Trent: The stuff doctors are wearing.
Drew: I don't know
Paige: Unicorn stuffies

11. Are you enjoying lockdown?

Trent: Yes, it's fine.
Drew: Kind of
Paige: Yes

Bathing Suit Bonanza

I haven't bought a new bathing suit in 4 summers. I kept saying I'd spend money on new suits when I lost weight...and not to be a broken record...but that kept not happening. Ha! This summer, however, it IS happening plus the bathing suit I've had for so long has lost its elasticity and really NEEDS to be replaced.

Well, Target was having a BOGO sale, plus I saw some other suits I liked online, and somehow I ended up buying 6 bathing suits last weekend. I do not intend to keep all 6 and am honestly hoping to keep 2 or 3. If I could try bathing suits on in person, I'm sure I would try on 20 or more before I found any I wanted to keep, but that's not the world we live in today. 

I have some criteria that must be met for a suit to even be considered:
1) Support - I have a lot on top and do not want it drooping excessively!
2) Coverage - the lower portion of my stomach is basically a blob of saggy skin and stretch marks - there will be no teeny bikinis.
3) Ruching - I also have a nice little 'I've had 3 kids' pudge - as I've lost weight it's of course gotten smaller, but it's still there and quite honestly might never go away.

And of course I want it to be cute and flattering ha!

So here are the suits I've ordered - I should get some of them Friday and the rest next week.

First up, my 4 Target BOGO suits!

This one of course comes with a strap - 

no way could I let my girls be without a strap.

This one ties behind the neck so I should be able to CINCH it tight for support.

If not, this will most definitely go back - we'll see how this plunge looks...

I'm not sure how the horizontal stripes will look,

but I loved the macrame straps and ruching.

See how cute the straps are?

My concern with this one is not enough support up top.

This suit is from Athleta...and guys I'm trying out a 2-piece!

This is bra-sized so I'm hoping the support will be there, 

but how cute is this???

And this covers up my troublesome lower abdomen, 

and the tie is hopefully a distraction ha.

My belly button is pretty stretched out too,

but I decided to go for it and see how this looks!

Lastly, I got this suit from Summersalt - I've seen it advertised a ton of places.

It has compression, diagonal seaming, great backside coverage,

and 85% of the reviews online give it 5 stars!

And I thought the back was super cute too!

So what do you think? Will I find any winners here?

Currently: School's {Almost} Out For Summer!

Current Book

I just finished 2 books over the weekend, so I'm starting this one.

Current Song

I LOVE this song from Schitt's Creek so much!

Current TV Show

Brent and I started this over Memorial Day weekend - 

and I am LOVING IT so much.

My grandfather was actually in the Army in the Guadalcanal during WW2,

so that has added an extra element while watching it - so crazy.

Current Podcast

I'm still listening to The Office Ladies and loving it!

For anyone who enjoyed The Office, this is so great.

Current Drink

I've been playing around with my coffee this month - 

I'm trying to ALWAYS break up with sugar - 

so I've been working to reduce how much honey or maple syrup I put in it.

Current Food

Well, I'm in a 24-hour fast...so nothing ha.

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

Guys, I have been buying shoes like crazy.

My summer shoe collection was very sad,

so these were needed...but it's a lot.

I also bought 6 bathing suits last week...

Current Outfit

Workout clothes while on a conference call - 

is anyone surprised?

Current Celebrity Crush

I don't think I could love these guys more than I do!!!!

Current Mood

So happy school is out TOMORROW!

No more online learning!

No more also being a teacher!

Current Anticipation

I'm excited/anxious for joining society again.

Things are opening up in Texas, 

and Brent goes back into his office next week at 50%.

We've talked about slowly venturing out after that,

and I'm basically ALL THE FEELS about it.

Scared? Yes

Excited? Yes

Ready? Yes

Not Ready? Also Yes

Current Wishlist

Gosh, with everything I have just bought, I better not have anything on my wishlist!

Current Film

I don't even know if movie theaters are open?

I don't know premiere dates for anything?

Are things coming online instead of in theaters?

NO CLUE!

Current Picture

Curly hair...day 1

The Curly Girl Method

Something that often surprises people who haven't known me very long is that my hair isn't straight. I wear it straight 99% of the time, but my hair is naturally wavy/curly. My dad has extremely curly hair {he and his brother both had Afros in the 70s}, and my sister and I both inherited his curls - although my sister's hair is curlier than mine.

My uncle and me - look at how tight his curls are!

I don't often wear it curly because I don't really feel like I know how to style it where it looks good, but I am often frustrated with the time and effort it takes for it to look good straight...only to go outside and the humidity to cause it to frizz or go wavy.

I don't have many pictures with curly hair...not a great picture to see it.

But you can see how it looks more frizzy than anything else.

Well, the other night I was on IG and saw a story from a friend's sister and her curls looked BEAUTIFUL. She mentioned she was using the 'curly girl method', but I had no clue what that was. Fast forward an hour, and I have watched several YouTube videos, added numerous products to my Amazon cart, have heard words I've never heard before {co-washing? low 'poo?}, and am very overwhelmed.

BUT I'm also really intrigued and interested to see what my curls can do.

There's a book you can buy, but so far, I'm not going to get it because the internet has a million resources!

Here's what I know so far:
1) For 30 days: no brushing and no heat tools - easy enough since I already do that when I wear my hair curly
2) I need to alter my hair-washing a little - so most people use shampoos/conditioners with alcohols, sulfates, etc. but I don't. BUT this can lead to build-up, so I actually need to use a shampoo with sulfates to strip off the build-up first and then go back to my natural shampoo. I have felt like my hair can sometimes still feel greasy even after washing it so this makes sense!
3) Leave-in conditioner and product - I need to get leave-in conditioner and a new curl cream. The one I currently have {that I don't love} is chock full of crap ha. I also need to use way more than I have been!
4) Styling - I also learned why my hair often looks 'crunchy' and how to fix that, so I will make some updates to the styling step!

Another thing I had to do was figure out my curl type - 

there are lots of charts out there!

I think I am a 2B/2C, but we'll see what happens to my curls in 30 days.

So I'm embarking on this journey and will report back in 30 days!

Five on Friday

ONE

Hair Wand

I really want a hair wand to make 'beachy' waves.

After a lot of practice, I figured out how to use my CHI to curl my hair.

BUT I want to be able to do the wavy look.

I know it's a subtle difference ha but I want one.

Anyone have one or know of a good one?

*Took this picture when I was experimenting with my CHI*

*See how it looks more like traditional spiral curls vs waves?*

TWO

Comedian warns her 'past self' about COVID

This is a few weeks old but if you haven't seen it, it's hilarious.

One of my favorite COVID videos.

THREE

Hamilton

Also old-ish news, but I am BEYOND excited that Hamilton is coming to Disney+!

Also, if you love Hamilton you need to watch this episode of 

John Krasinski's 'Some Good News'

Fast forward to about the 8:30 mark - we have watched this 10 times easily.

FOUR

Tie-Dye

I've lost my mind, and we're going to tie-dye shirts for the whole family.

Even Brent said yes if you can believe it!

I'll report back once we do it but after seeing it all over the internet,

we're going for it!

FIVE

Bike Rides

Another win for extra family time and a silver lining!

Not only did we get Drew riding her bike during quarantine,

but we have taken numerous family bike rides,

 and 2 of them have been over 5 miles!

It's been really funny because Paige starts out on her balance bike,

and Trent, Drew, and I are on our bikes.

Brent follows us in the golf cart to grab Paige when she gets tired,

so she can ride on the cart with him.

Celebrating a Milestone Birthday for Brent While Quarantined

We had such a great time celebrating Brent's birthday! I really wanted to try and make it a special day for him given we were 'stuck' at home. Brent is a simple guy, and he really just likes to be able to enjoy a few beers with his friends, and even that is hard to accomplish these days!

It's crazy that I've been blogging for over a decade because I copied what I did for Brent's 30th birthday. When he turned 30, I got him 30 presents, so this year I got him 40 presents! It was a bit of a challenge to coordinate this year given we are all home together 24/7. I was able to buy a lot from Amazon using his mother's account so that he wouldn't see the gifts in our orders and then everything shipped to her - and she's amazing so she wrapped everything too! For the stuff I bought other places, I had it shipped to a neighbor. Then I lucked out and he went with his uncle to his uncle's deer lease to do some prep-work for deer season, so I was able to get all the gifts, make my first trip into a store {Walgreen's} to get some gift cards and candy, and get everything wrapped and set-up.

40 presents for my favorite 40-year-old!

I was also able to borrow a yard sign from a neighbor, so Brent saw this when he got back home Monday at lunchtime. The kids were BESIDE themselves with excitement for him to get home - it was so cute!

Drew made him a banner.

SO READY FOR DAD TO GET HOME!!!!

Happy birthday, honey!

The kids opened all his presents and made a giant mess ha!

And I love Trent wearing the Longhorn mask Brent's mom made - 

who would have ever thought?

It's tradition that Gurley men get Great American Cookie cakes for their birthdays.

Well I wasn't going to the mall to get one, so we had cookies delivered.

I had also arranged for a little parade of family and friends for the evening at 6:00 pm. From about 5:00 onward, the kids were nuts with checking the time, plotting how to get Brent outside, and just giggling. It was too cute. We got him outside to take a picture with his birthday sign, knock down a dirt dobber nest, anything we could think of to keep him outside. It was 94 degrees, so he wasn't super happy at first. He could tell something was up and later said he thought maybe his parents were going to come by. Little did he know!!!

Must document I put on make-up!

The parade got organized at our friends' house who live around the corner.

When they made the turn and started honking, it was so awesome!

Everyone circled and came back around to visit.

Our families and a couple of friends got out for a beer, and we all stayed out in the yard to try and social distance.

We ended the night with some cookies made by my friend Heather, yum!

I think we did all we could to treat Brent to a special 40th birthday. We might not be leaving for Costa Rica next week, but he is certainly loved!

PS - I might have to revise my weight loss goals for May to be to break even haha!

Who's 40? This Guy!

Happy birthday to this cutie who is FORTY today!!!

I can't wait to share all the ways we made his day special.

 

Three Things

Stealing another survey from Natasha? Yup! Anyone surprised? Nope!

3 Places I Never Want to Go:
1. Jail
2. The dentist
3. Antarctica

3 Places I Always Want to Go:
1. London/Highclere Castle
2. Mexican food restaurants
3. A movie theater with Allison

3 Appetizers I Will Eat at Any Time:
*I love A LOT of appetizers, so this is by no means the only ones I enjoy. These were just the first 3 that popped into my mind. I felt this was necessary to explain. {grin}*
1. Chips & queso/salsa
2. Fried pickle chips
3. Sausage balls

Wall Colors in My House:
1. Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams in every single room except 1 wall in Trent's room {from Paige's nursery}

I absolutely hate this color and I picked it for the WHOLE house when we were building. It's too light and blends too much with the door color - which I also picked and also hate.

2. Trent's wall is Windwood Spring by Behr

3. Lots of wall samples as we do plan to repaint several rooms...but some of these samples have been up for 15 months...eek.

1 will be the living room/kitchen/entry way and 4 will be our bedroom...

whenever I get around to painting...

Things I'm Looking Forward to This Month:
1. Brent's birthday is next week!
2. Time off of work on Memorial Day - yes the days are repetitive with everyone home, but it's A LOT less stressful to not have to work while also managing children
3. The end of virtual school!!!

Places I Enjoyed in My Youth:
1. My grandparents' houses - we went to both sets of grandparents' houses a lot as kids {they lived in the same town} and had such a blast!

2. Sleepovers at friends' houses - that was my Friday night highlight for many a year
3. Our family reunion in Salado every summer - it was THE highlight of my summer

My first reunion at 11 months old

Things 10 Year Old Me Never Expected to Spend So Much Money On:
1. Food! Who knew food was SO expensive! Our grocery bill is just shocking to me.
2. Our mortgage - our house is a lot bigger than my parents' house so I just was clueless about what homes could cost
3. Starbucks - can you believe I spend $5 on a single drink there??? Totally worth it! {grin}

Quarantine Mother's Day 2020

Like all holidays...and really all of life...things are different this year. And Mother's Day was no different. There was no church, no spa gift card {it's currently closed and who knows if/when my mother-in-law and I would be able to go, SOB}, BUT like every other day...there was family time! I had just a few requests for 'my' day - I want Starbucks, I wanted to go on a nature walk/hike, and I wanted Brent to grill. I'm happy to report I got all 3 PLUS my kiddos and hubby washed and vacuumed my car, yay!

I can't with this little nugget

We didn't make it very far into the hike before this one wanted the Ergo.

And then refused to smile for ANY pictures when she was on my back.

Selfie with my babies...you can sorta see Paige's forehead ha!

BEAUTIFUL view!

Beautiful babies!

Texas being gross

Nature is so ugly

And she STILL won't look up!

Monday I took the kids to my parents' house and my sister did the same with her kids. We stayed outside 99% of the time, took a walk down to the creek by their house, celebrated our mom and Blair's birthday {which was in April}. The cousins were ecstatic to be together after not seeing each other for 3 months! We practiced as much social distancing as we could with 6 kids ages 3-11.

Creek adventures in this creek since 1981

We got our mom these really cute birthstone bracelets.

Too bad Patty {November} and me {August} have the ugliest birthstones.

The babies playing together

So fun to have a Babs who was a PE teacher for 100 years!

Happy birthday, Blair! We love you!

The big boys - weren't they just the little babies?

SEESTERS!

The girl cousins - everyone was a bit loopy to be together again!

And sadly I got no pictures with our parents, ha!

Another Quarantine Adventure in the books!