June Brain Dump

I know I've posted really sporadically the past month. I've been really kind of busy. There is a reason that many of my profile descriptions say "inconsistent blogger". Cause that's the truth, yo. From all of my "how to make millions off your blog" web searches, I've realized that inconsistent blogging is not congruent with any type of money making. Go figure. Guess I'll have to find another way to make that money. Oh well.

I just looked and I ssw that I blogged a whole two times in June! Sporadically is not the word I should have used.

Anyways, I wanted to updated you on where I am in life.

Most of you know that for most of the month of June, I was in Hawaii.

That is not a bad place to have a cup o' joe in the morning, amiright? Man. It was beautiful. 

The trip itself was kind of all over the place and I wasn't able to do a lot of the things that I wanted to do which is a bummer. However, we have some family that was stationed in Japan for the past few years and now they are in Hawaii. We plan to visit them as soon as possible because we've missed them like crazy! Hopefully I'll get to do some of the things we weren't able to when we go back. 

While in Hawaii, I paid for the first half of my schooling! I am so, immensely terrified and really excited. Mostly terrified though. Now comes the hard part - homework! I haven't been in school in almost 10 years. It's really scary to step into that role again. I keep thinking, what if I fail? What if I'm no where near smart enough to do this job? I have to keep reminding myself that the whole point of going through this program is to learn how to be a CBO. They don't expect me to know everything, yet. Duh. 

I received my first homework assignment and that is to read the book by Donald T. Phillips, Lincoln on Leadership. I didn't even need to read the description to get excited! I also have to write a one page paper in the next few weeks and plan for CBO boot camp later this month. Whew. Things are about to get real! 

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On the mommyhood side, Shepherd is in such an amazing phase! He signs all done, more/again and please. He says up, hi, mama, dada, papa, nana (banana), kiss, hat, ball and blows kisses and waves to everyone he meets! He loves people, so much so that he reaches out and grabs them any time he can. Shepherd loves to dance, loves when I dance and/or sing, eats pretty well most of the time and is generally the cutest kid ever.

He has a bit of a cold right now and we were fighting a fever, which was not fun, but yesterday he was laughing, playing and generally just driving us nuts which was great! 

We had taken a bit of a break from cloth diapering, mostly because Bryan is the SAHP and I thought it would be easier on him to keep that off his plate but we are back on the grind. On Sunday, Bryan installed a sprayer on the toilet to easily deal with the "number twos" and I taught him how to wash everything.

I'm excited to get back into it because it is SUCH a money saver. We are working on setting up our office which will include putting together my sewing machine table and finally taking the actual machine out of the box... I've had it for almost two years and the box is still sealed. Bad. I told Bryan the first project I'm doing is some flannel wipes. I am just a strong believer that if you do cloth dipes, you have to do cloth wipes.

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My sister Alison and her family came into town for the weekend and we had a blast together. I always keep my schedule really loose when she's here so that I can get as much time as possible with her. We ended up spending a grip of time together and I was stoked. We get a long so well, it's great.

On Thursday, she invited us over to witness my nieces baptism; it was a very special moment. Bryan was in Bakersfield for work, so it was just me and Shepherd. When it was time to leave, I put Shepherd in his car seat and turned on the remote start. I was having trouble with the strap so I called my brother in law, Adam over. When he fixed it, he shut the door which happened to be locked. The keys also happened to be inside. As well as my purse and my cell phone.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So my sisters and I start touching every door in hopes that we can get in. Alison's sister-in-law's husband tried to call his AAA to get roadside assistance and I asked my sister to call my step mom to see about my insurances roadside assistance. Then, I asked for Alison's father in law to get something heavy to break the window. Alison's sister-in-law called a friend of theirs who is a firefighter. About 5 minutes before he got there to open the car, the remote start shut off. The clock was now ticking as to how long Shepherd could be in there. It was after eight o'clock, so luckily it was cooler in the day, but it was still much too hot for him to be in there long.

The firefighter, Logan got there and tried to use a wedge to unlock the doors, once on the driver side and once on the passenger side, but because of the remote start and the anti-theft system, the buttons wouldn't unlock the doors from the inside. Logan ended up breaking the window (which I did not care about in the least, obviously) and I got Shepherd out of the car.

This is the condensed, less emotional, less f-bomby version of events, but everything ended well. Shepherd is fine. I am fine, although I have some more gray hair, for sure.

My point in relaying my story is not only to remind myself of my own stupidity, but to acknowledge that parents make mistake. This is the second time that I and the remote start function on my car worked together to lock my son in the car. It is my fault, through and through. I got lucky both times that I was surrounded my family to help me. But if I had been somewhere alone, I would have had to run to the nearest place to call the police to get my son out of the car. It could have taken a very, very long time.

Be careful. Be aware. If you don't have pockets, throw your keys into your bra instead of setting them down. Hell, drop the on the floor. Be vigilant. Most importantly, don't be like me. Have a key hidden somewhere on your car. Who cares if your car gets stolen. That is what insurance is for. For me, it's more important for me to be able to get into my car than to keep others out of my car. Also, give a key to a neighbor or friend, someone reliable that can get to you fast more often than not.

If you've locked a child in the car, you know how it feels. You are right there, unable to get in. It's literally the worst thing, being so close and not able to do anything about it. You're not a bad parent. It happens to a lot of people. Just do better the next time. Get your kid out as fast as possible by any means necessary.

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In Hawaii, I took off my Fitbit. I was on vacation and didn't want to worry about ruining it in the ocean. As I type, it's charging and I'll be back on my Fitbit + Jillian Michaels game as of tomorrow. My new goal is to lose 15 pounds by August 30! That means lots of movement, structured meals and thoughtful snacking.

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I went really blonde before Hawaii and I love it! My hair is definitely damaged though so I've been trying to take it really easy this summer. Deep hair conditioning masks, letting it air dry as often as possible, leaving it straight instead of curling it. Bleached hair is delicate hair so you've gotta be really diligent about taking care of it, but overall, I love it. 

That's all folks! It's good to be back. I hope you are having an amazing summer and as always, thanks for sticking around.