Here we are again. Laura took the kids to Tulsa, Woolaroc, and Kiddy Park this weekend to give me a break for all the upcoming breaks the kids are going to have.
So, this always happens. I plan on doing some productive things when Laura and the kids are gone and this weekend I was going to start researching/setting up an online shop or something to make some money on the side, perhaps FINALLY order the cranes for making crane trees, but here I am, getting absolutely nothing done. Yesterday, I had to do a media meeting for the church and it turned out awful, in my eyes. Everyone else thought it was helpful and stuff, but I barely got through, maybe, like 10% of what I was originally was going to cover. Then time ran out and everyone started to leave. I know there are going to be all these questions later on that I WOULD have covered, but I guess it's partly my fault for underestimating how much hand-holding these people needed. I thought it would be a good idea for them to bring their laptops and follow along, but man, some, actually, most of them couldn't even log on to the editing page. Severely underestimated. I began to think that much smaller groups or even one-on-one training will probably be the way to go and, ironically, the least effort. Then I was thinking to myself, man, this is like a job for a full-time staff at the church, not a handful of people do this on their spare time.
Anyway, because of that, I didn't do anything else last night. I woke up this morning and just watched YouTube videos most of the day. I cut the bottom section of the fence gate a little more because it keeps leaning down for some reason and scraping the path, but I sort of free-handed it, so it's sort of jagged. Then Kip pooped again while I was out getting lunch, then I gave him a peanut butter jar and he threw that up a little while after. Then the kitchen faucet started pouring water out really slowly, so I cleaned out the nozzle, but now I'm wondering why it was covered in small rubber pieces like last time. Sigh.
The best thing we did in the last month was our trip to Nova Scotia. Lauren planned out a great trip for us and it turned out really well. We were expecting rainy weather, but aside from one day that was really windy and rainy, the rest were actually pretty good that it was overcast so we weren't too hot from all the hikes we did. The first couple of days it was really sunny, then it started to cloud up. Of course, I didn't like the fact that 2 entire days were devoted to travelling in the airports and customs and all that stupid stuff, but what can you do. It was literally leaving OKC 5am in the morning to getting in to our destination airport at 6pm at night. It was crazy. And the weird thing is that we didn't have much layover time at each of the 2 other airports either. Our checked in luggage didn't make to Nova Scotia, but it was delivered the next morning. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a small hassle for sure. But, like I said, it was a great trip and I was thinking today, actually, that it was a great time with just Laura without the kids, hiking along the coast and the forests, etc. We don't do that often enough, I think. It really puts everything in perspective that the kids are ALWAYS with us usually whenever we try to do anything, so it's hard to imagine life without them. At one point, we stopped in the middle of the forest hike and just listened to COMPLETE silence, minus the rustle of the leaves every once and a while. It was also great that we didn't really see any other people on most of our hikes and stuff. I dunno if we hit it at the right time or there were other things going on in the big city, Halifax, but, I guess it could have just been that there aren't that many people living there, either. I dunno. It was a good break for us and we had a lot of laughs. The stressful thing, coincidentally, was that during the entire week we were going, literally a couple of days after we left, Connor got a fever and a weird rash/hives all over him the entire week. We think that because of us leaving, I think he was bringing it up on himself, somehow. I mean, nothing like this has happened ever before. And then, magically, the day or two after we came back, he's all better...come on! Whatever.
So, we're now back in our grind. Laura is super busy at work because of some certification coming up in a couple of weeks. We sort of also talked with Chris and Alicia about a trip we're going to do next spring break to Moab. We'll see how that goes. I really think before that trip at least, we will finally need to get a van. We just need more room and some more features in the car. That'll be a pretty big purchase. The price range for what we're sort of looking at is like $25,000, and that's for a used, 50k-ish mile, 2015-2016 Honda Odyssey. We actually drove a Toyota Highlander during our Nova Scotia trip and they were way too small. The 3rd row was like, basically not a row and unless you folded that down, the cargo area was like 1/2 the space we have now in our Santa Fe. That was one of the cars that Laura originally like when we got the Santa Fe, but I don't think that would have worked for us. I still think the Honda Pilot is in the running, but it's probably going to be an Odyssey. It's roomy, has the stuff we need and doesn't look *totally* like a van...sort of. It's kind of a cross between a van and an SUV.
Well, I'm tired for some reason even though I did nothing. It feels like a Saturday, so I'm a little thrown off that it's Friday because the kids had fall break this week, sort of. Emmeline did anyway. Connor just had 1 day off. So, tomorrow I will try and do something productive. Maybe...
