busy, busy

Want a rundown of our week without a dad around?
Yesterday was our down day. My main objectives were house stuff... finish putting together Savannah's room, do some laundry, unpack a few more boxes, etc. Just hanging out and playing both inside and out.

The rest of our week I'm trying to keep the kids busy and occupied...
Today our new friends, Heather and her girls Norah and Lucy, invited my kids over to play for a bit and let me get out and get a break. Run some errands and get some stuff done without the kids. Heather kept saying she knows what it's like to not have family around or babysitters (or money to pay babysitters LOL!) and she wanted to give me a chance to do some running around without the two kids in tow. So, so nice of her! Especially this week since I'm a single parent! Thanks so much Heather!!
Unfortunately I didn't get as much done as I wanted because my car decided to blow up on me. Okay, not really, but it is definitely not okay. Something is suddenly majorly leaking under the hood because about three blocks away from the post office this morning, all of a sudden there was steam coming out from everywhere. I made it into the parking lot (getting a million looks with my smoking vehicle) and popped the hood and the whole engine was basically dripping and steaming covered in some sort of fluid. The guy next to me in the parking lot came over to take a look (he said he wanted to make sure I didn't burn myself) and he said since the temp gage was okay and there were no dashboard warning lights on, I should be able to make it directly to a mechanic. I thanked him and went in to do my postal business and let the car cool off for a few minutes (more like 30 minutes... the wait in there was horrendous!) before attempting to drive. What I didn't tell him was that there was no way I was heading to a mechanic... I had two kids to get back to and no way was I going to stick Heather with them for who knows how long (she would have no way to get me without carseats for my kids), and there was no way I was going to get them and then go to the mechanic and be stuck there with them. I'm just thankful the car was actually (somewhat) drivable and I wasn't completely stranded. One of the drawbacks of not knowing anyone in a new town... not much choice when it comes to stuff like this. So I opted to brave a drive back to Heather's, and then home from there where luckily with Ryan being out of town, I have a second car to use. And the 4Runner can just sit and rest until Ryan gets back to deal with it. It has a Dr. appointment scheduled for Friday. If it can make it there. Just on the way to Heather's from the post office I stopped twice to try and alleviate some of the steam. And just as I was pulling into their subdivision the engine light came on and the temp gauge soared up. So before leaving her house, I filled the radiator up with water and raced home. It's just two miles or so, and the temp stayed okay, but steam was billowing in through the vents and out from under my hood and I couldn't see out my back window there was so much steam coming out behind us. It was rather embarrassing!! When I got home I couldn't even pull into the garage because the steam coming out from under my hood at the crawling pace of pulling in was so dense I couldn't see a thing. Did I mention this was all in the middle of a downpouring thunderstorm?? Yeah... fun morning!

Anyway.
Tomorrow, I'm going to try and brave a movie with the kids. A few theaters around here offer free summer movies for the kids, so I thought what the heck- we'll give it a try. I can't imagine Sawyer sitting thru more than previews, but it's something to do and it's free, so if Sawyer can't cut it, no big deal if we leave. After the movie we might go out to lunch. I'd like to picnic it, but I think it'll be too warm.

Then on Thursday Heather, Norah and Lucy may come over for a playdate with a little pool action mixed in there. I'm trying to fit the pool in wherever we can, unfortunately while it is hot and humid, it has been and is supposed to be rainy and stormy. Not exactly good weather for a swim.

So that's our week's line-up. Ryan should be home Thursday evening and this weekend we're going to head out to Columbia to see the Laughlins. Mike's brother and family will be visiting from Indianapolis so they all invited us out to hang out and let the kids play. They have a four(?) year old and a two year old.

Other than that, I'm just trying really hard to get things in some real order around here. Including pictures framed and things up on the walls. It's coming along. It's such a process with these little people running around! I cannot leave anything out or undone when Sawyer's around... he honestly seeks out trouble to get into, I swear! And trouble is not too hard to find with the state our house has been in the past couple of weeks. So I'm trying to crack down and get this place DONE!