Cow Appreciation Day!

We have had a HOT 2 days.... The hottest of the season so far.  It's the kind of heat that just makes you feel yucky and you can't breathe.  It's when you just walk out to the car and you're already dripping buckets.  So yesterday, with a heat index of 109° (🥵) it was too hot even for swimming.  Therefore, I was extra glad for Chik-Fil-A’s Cow Appreciation day and their indoor playground! #EatMorChikn #Moo

TODAY'S  heat was even WORSE. Ugh.  It was just disgusting.  I HATE our weather mid-July through mid-August.  It's unbearable!  That's why we always plan our trips to Idaho at the end of July/beginning of August so that we get a tiny break from the inferno temps we have in late Summer!  However, just when I had served all my kids ice-cold water to keep them from overheating, the sky suddenly opened up and we had a flash flood! Seriously, I was loading the dishwasher and suddenly I heard what sounded like hail. It's like the bottom just dropped. It took our temperatures from the hundreds to the high SEVENTIES within a matter of minutes.  The storm was NOT on our radar and we had a cloudless sky all morning!  Not sure the last time this has happened smack-dab in the middle of Summer, but it was like God heard my heart pleading for a break from the heat and delivered!  It was a hot rain so the kids ran out and played in it for a good 30 minutes.  Just thick sheets pounding down so hard and that's what we thought was hail at first.  I absolutely LOVE our pop-up storms.  We get a lot of them, but in the Summer they don't usually drop our heat index that much, so this one was just awesome.  

We went from 114 to 78 (which I didn't get a screen shot of) probably within 5 minutes.  It was awesomely insane!

And our lilies that we planted LAST year are finally opening up.  They're so pretty!

Next Week we go to IDAHO!!!!!!!!! WOOOOO- HOOO!!!!!!

Independence Day

So, I know I'm a week late, but HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, from The Gilleys!  Our day was probably a lot like everyone's 4th of July.  Kinda low key, but still just fun!

We went to "Jenks, America" and spent the day at Jenks' downtown Freedom Fest, where the Fire Trucks were there spraying water on all the kids for a giant make-shift splash pad.  There were bounce houses, live music, free watermelon and chips and salsa for all! Everyone was happy and it was not too crazy to feel overwhelming in the least bit!  It was a perfect afternoon.

We came home, watched The Sandlot (we've kept that tradition alive since our first year of marriage and now the kids love that movie too!), made red and blue jell-o (with lots of white whipped cream), and grilled yummy food.  We watched the awesome Salute to America, which was perfect in every way.  Love him or hate him, President Trump did a GREAT job honoring America and reminicising about all the incredible, positive things that have happened throughout our country's history. 

We stayed in our front yard this year for the girl's 1st time since we moved here.  All the neighbors came out, we played traditional USA anthems on loud speakers and lit up the sky with some fun, awesome fireworks.  

I just LOVE the 4th of July.  It makes my heart soar when I think of my freedoms and swell with pride when I reflect on where I live- in the USA.  Happy Birthday America!

Then, 2 days later I made a big change!

"So.... I went in to get the same thing done on my hair that I’ve been doing for almost 3 years, and since my hair takes 3 hours to do (it was all the way down to my belly button!!!) I changed my mind a million times on whether or not to really cut it while she worked. I finally gave in because having such thick, long hair is so dang hot and I needed a break 🥵 The wind kinda ruined the pics but here I am- 9 inches later! Can’t decide if I’m happy or depressed because I did love my long hair. But for better or for worse, I finally took the plunge."💇🏻‍♀️ #SnipSnip #AttachmentIssues #SoLongLongHair

Speaking of hair..... I did a temporary purple hair dye on the girls.  It looked AWESOME on Piper's hair.  It said it would last 2-3 weeks..... Um.  It COMPLETELY washed out right after the very first time they went swimming!!! What the heck! I was so bummed for them!  Next time we do it, we're gonna wait until Idaho because we won't be swimming in chlorine out there.  We will be in the River and then in the Ocean when we drive over to Oregon :)

And, speaking of hair reminds me of spas which leads me to this post from 3 days ago:

"Monday’s are the pits. Especially when Daddy leaves us for a week in San Diego🏝So we decided a home-spa-night might help cure the Monday blues😉💅🏼💆🏻‍♀️. {And bonus- the cucumbers are fresh from Piper’s section of the garden!🥒 }"

I'll end this post with a few more pool pictures, you know, 'cause that's where we basically live :)

Just appreciate Piper's buns please :D

THE END

Just Me and My Baby

And by baby, I mean, Shawn <3

Bruce and Mary took my kids for 5 whole days! Shawn and Bruce met halfway between here and Louisiana (about 3 hours each) and did a kid swap. I stayed home and deep cleaned our house so that we could just relax and enjoy the days we had without kids.

IT WAS GLORIOUS!!!  We definitely had a lot of fun (my credit card company probably loved me last week, but it was worth a few splurges because this is the first time we've ever had this opportunity sooo..... yeah...).  The days were relaxing and quiet.  We'd look at each other in the silence of our house and just say "close your eyes and listen to the silence" and we'd bask in it a bit.... You might think we are weird, but that silence was actually MUSIC to my ears!  The house stayed clean, their weren't 9,000 cups out at the end of each day, I got some 'kid-free' errands run, we slept in, we went out to eat, we smoked ribs, and we came and went as we pleased.  It was honestly just as relaxing as a far away vacation on the beach!  A vacation that we didn't even have to pack for!  AND we went to TWO movies that week!  I haven't been to see a "grown-up" movie in theaters with Shawn in over 3 years!  Since I was pregnant with Sully!  When I say it was much needed, I really mean it.

Here are some snippets of our week together.

Wednesday:
"Kids have been gone 24 hours and we’ve already gone to a movie, played golf (well, I just went to drive around in the cart and hang out since I’m literally the world’s worst golfer, hence the reason I’m not in golf clothes. I’ll always hit a couple balls just for laughs but it’s safe to say it will NEVER be a hobby of mine 🤣), found and rescued an injured baby bunny in our yard, and then went and explored some of our city on our bikes this morning for a couple hours. This is the first time we’ve ever been in our house without our kids *ever* so we are taking full advantage! We FINALLY get to go out and play where we live!"

 

Thursday:
"Today we flew! So. Much. Fun.
 #ifly #SkydivingButWithoutTheChanceOfDeath @ iFLY"

See the people behind us in the air? We went that high at first, but then the second round we went REALLY high. It was soooooo much fun! We couldn't take pictures inside the wind-tunnel (obviously) so we didn't get any of us in the air, but it was something I'll never forget!

 Friday:
"Last night was our 3 year anniversary of moving here. I love Oklahoma so, SO much. I didn’t know I could love anywhere as much as I love my other home (Boise), but I truly do. The state might have the strangest city names in all of the U.S. with weird spelling (even my city of Jenks is pronounced Jinx but that’s better than Tahlequah or Etowah, etc😆), the mountains are not right outside my door, and it might be hot as heck in the Summer (and oh-so-humid)🔥, but this place is a place I love with my whole heart for far too many reasons to name. We went out to celebrate this being our 4th Summer here last night and found some cool things we hadn’t seen before (street art/murals are my favorite). I didn’t take many pics cause those scooters go way too fast to stop easily 😂 But Tulsa is a neat place. However, Jenks/Bixby is even better!🥰 This community is my home-sweet-home and I’m so glad God placed us here." #oklaHOMEa #LandThatILove

No pictures on Saturday, but I think we found a great "go-to" place!:
"Matinees are my favorite (since I’m always so tired at night 😆). Just saw Yesterday (which was SO good) at Cinergy. We haven’t been there yet so imagine my surprise when I found out that the seats are heated! Movie theaters are always so cold! That was GENIUS of them to add seat heaters. Lunch on heated reclining seats while listening to my favorite music (The Beatles) was 👌🏼."
That place is also an arcade, a restaurant, a bowling alley and an Escape Room building, all in one!

Also Saturday.... :( 

"Silly little me put my phone on the top of my car while loading stuff up today and forgot to take it off of the car before we drove away....🤦🏻‍♀️ It was when I backed up over it that I remembered it was on my car and not IN my car (oops). When my sweet husband picked it up (it was facedown on the asphalt) and saw the shattered screen he didn’t say a mean word to me because he knew how bad I already felt. All he said was “well, you’ll need a new phone because your screen is shattered.” I said “hold on! Let’s see how well my $5 tempered glass screen protector actually worked!” I totally thought I’d peel it off and it would still be cracked because, HELLO- a heavy minivan drove over it! I carefully peeled off the tempered glass, and lo and behold- my screen looks untouched! My “military grade” Speck case protected the back of it, and the tempered glass protected the front of it! That is INSANE! So, I better write some good reviews on Amazon tonight because I’m currently instagramming on my phone that was RUN OVER today and it’s all perfectly fine!!😱🙌🏼 "

So all of that was what was going on last week.  It was one of the best weeks ever.  My kids had fun, we had fun, and when Lucy got home she hugged me so hard and started to cry because she missed me SO much.  It was a very sweet moment.  I'll end on that happy note :)

Up Next.... FOURTH OF JULY! :)