What MOMMY did this summer

Ezra isn’t the only one who stayed busy this summer. And even though our lives intersect so much that the lines of reality blur (like yesterday, when I went to the store, and almost put the cart back because the child safety belt was messed up…only to realize I was shopping alone and the strap didn’t matter…true story!), I did have some fun of my own this summer.

The days were very long and exhausting because my husband was working 60 hours a week from the beginning of June until the middle of August. But, I tried to make the best of it.

I took lots of walks, most of them with Ezra, but a few of them on my own.

I made grain-free black-bean brownies, which are surprisingly good I might add.

I played around with a cute beach dress that I have, but don’t really feel comfortable wearing anywhere but the beach. Figured out that I could make it into a skirt!

As a dress… (don’t mind the tummy…there was a BABY in there!)

As a skirt…
>

I got allergy shots twice a week…had some adverse reactions, like this:

I did some art therapy (aka coloring for grownups):

I went on a four-mile hike with my family, which was exhausting but really helped us reconnect when we weren’t spending much time together.

I put my husband’s helmet back together, in preparation for a 12 mile road march. One of my proudest moments as an Army wife because this not an easy feat!

I got some chocolate covered strawberries and a new favorite coffee mug from my sweet husband. Ate all the strawberries before the night was over.

Did I mention this is my new favorite coffee mug?

I bought a TV antenna so I could watch the Olympics. Watched the US Women’s Gymnastics team win gold “with” my mom, just like we did in 1996, when I was nine. I loved the gymnastics so much that my parents splurged and got my mom and I tickets to the John Hancock Tour of World Gymnastics where we got to see the Magnificent Seven in person. We were talking on Facebook that night and I joked that if they won gold again we were going to have to get tickets for the tour (is there a tour?) this time. I had already seen the daggone spoilers and knew that they won. So just like we did then, we are going to go see Fab Five at the Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions next month! It’s not every day that history repeats itself.

I gave my baby lots of cuddles:

I did a lot of blogging and Facebooking, with “help” from Ezra:

I went to our fall PWOC kickoff, where I ate chocolate and got a reminder about thankfulness:

I also got to hang out with my friend, B. I joke that B is my stalker, but she’s really a fabulous girl and mommy. Her husband is deployed and she has THREE boys. And she’s still SANE! I met B at a La Leche League meeting last July. Then she showed up at my MOPS group. Now she’s at PWOC. And we joined the same Bible study. And then, when we drew names for Battle Buddies, we drew each other. (Like I said…stalker…I’ve even run into her at Kroger! lol)

I ate lots of salads that looked like this…lettuce, spinach, cucumber, tomato, tuna, fresh onion, and Italian dressing with aged romano. Don’t mind the tennis shoes…just got home from the gym.

I got my hair trimmed:

I got sweet and silly text messages from Russ:

I downloaded Instagram and started using it occasionally, like when I see pretty flowers on our walks.

I read the amazing book, Mindset for Moms:

I fell even more in love with my goofy husband:

I got bored one day and took a bunch of photos of Ezra and me:

I overdosed on allergy medicine and suffered from vertigo for two days:

I got extra-spoiled by my husband who has started making me coffee and leaving me love notes in the morning…not every morning, but every once in a while.

He even got out a mug for me, themed “Woman of God” because I was going to PWOC that morning. Double AWWW.

I bought a new dress…at Walmart. It was sitting all alone on a rack by itself. Clearance tags ($12), and in my size. It’s a little bit busier than what I would normally wear but I thought it was cute. Russ didn’t think so…until I put it on. Then he made me take this picture because he thought I looked cute.

We went to Starbucks to meet Daddy for playtime after PWOC.

And I got one of these since I had already had 2 cups of coffee that morning. Gotta admit I wasn’t that impressed. But it matched my dress… so it made me happy anyway.

So there you have it, my very random summer. If you want to see what else kept me busy, check out my posts about what Ezra did in June, July, and August.