We're nearing the end of April, which means it's time to catch you up on all things Waterstraut for the month. The title here refers to less the weather (which in fact has been gorgeous lately- we're getting the warm air without the humidity!), and more to the ups and downs around here. Let me tell you, April just has not been our month the last couple of years.
First of all, we were days away from the end of March when Asa was informed another class had been added to his degree plan, because of losing one certification exam in the screwy test, they had to add another one. So, he wasn't in fact done with school as we had previously though. Which was a big deal, since the end of his six month term was three days away when we were informed of this news. Luckily after some tears and sleepless nights they extended him a month, since this wasn't his fault at all. He crammed and crammed for three weeks and passed the exam. So, back to Chuey's we went to celebrate yet again.
Also, we've had literally three car break downs this month, and it's not been quick fixes, which has meant days and weekends without any car. Once we got the car back on Friday and were stranded in the library parking lot by Saturday afternoon. (Thank goodness for very awesome neighbors who came to our rescue!) It's been frustrating, but I think we finally have a handle on it. We tried to make do the best we could with our weekends with pool trips and bike rides and such (you know, in between the studying), and there's been a lot of bike trips to Publix.
And then last night someone left the front door open, and Dipper was MIA for three hours, into the wee hours of the morning no less. Luckily, he was found under the neighbors car at about 2 AM, and he's home and safe and the kid (who shall remain nameless) who left the door open can breath a sigh of relief.
So, there's been a lot of traumatic experiences this month. But, we're also powering through. You know us- try to look on the bright side of things- name your favorite part of the day- people.
So, I have some fun to report.
There was Easter this month. We hid plastic eggs with change in them- along with the usual $20 eggs for each of the boys. Hayden's included a ticket to CEO this year instead of money, and Peyton was the finder of the golden egg containing the bonus $5 (I hid it in the jellybean jar!)
Then, of course there was their baskets. We switched to leaving out their baskets and instead hiding the $20 eggs a couple of years ago. It was too hard to hid the baskets with all the stuff in them anywhere good, and the eggs you can be much more terrible about!
(Pictured is Calib's green basket- Peyton's Dill Pickle Chips basket-- and Hayden's yellow basket)
Then Asa and I hid the eggs. There's always the easy ones, and some really hard ones. This year some of the easy ones turned into hard ones, and I could not stop laughing. (Fun fact: Easter more than any other holiday reminds me of my dad because he would laugh at us all looking for things until he cried. Now I'm the same way!)
And Calib and Peyton just spent the whole morning screaming about it. I have video. It's amazing. The best was probably hiding Peyton's $20 bill egg in the washer inside a sock.
Of course for brunch we had our bunny pancakes.
And then we hung around. We all played some Mario Party, Asa and I took a long bike ride, we ate chicken wings and buffalo chips with cheddar outside for Easter dinner and relaxed in the hammock. Overall, it was a lovely day in a month of chaos.
We did manage to hit Earth Fare in between car break downs, so that was fun.
Not only is there good food to eat there, or to take home, there's plenty of awesomeness in the deli and seafood department too. And it's right next to the new Five Below, which you guys has a whole book of Highlights Hidden Pictures! It's like my new fun thing to do when my anxiety gets really bad.
I've been taking advantage of the nice weather and taking Ellie and Porkchop on the whole loop every morning. They're going to be so sad when it's too hot to go. And I'm going to miss all the fun animals I see on my walks.
Even with all the craziness, you have to eat, so we had a few fun dinners. We did celebrate Wrestlemania here with themed food.
Speaking of sports, yours truely won our March Madness Bracket Challenge! I picked Virginia as the winner!
And of course there was the NFL Draft where I made the NFL inspired pizzas for the first four picks in the 2019 NFL Draft.
#1 Arizona Cardinals Fiesta Pizza
#2 San Francisco 49ers Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Pizza
#3 Oakland Raiders Asian Chicken Pizza
#4 New York Jets Italian Sub Pizza.
I'd describe them better- but I have five minutes to finish this blog and head to dinner.
Which we're doing because it's my mom's last night here! She's been visiting for the last week (I'll get back to that).
The pizza's were so good, I made naan bread pizzas for lunch the next day.
Of course I made the draft boards for Asa and Calib as usual to see how correct mock drafts were (spoiler alert: not very) But, here they are in case they're ever looking for them again. Just page down a bit if you're uninterested.
Speaking of pizza, Calib got a job, so that's fun. Basically I told him with the car situation as of late he needed to get something close to home, and there's nothing much closer.
And back to why mom is here- both Calib and Peyton are taking the SAT on Saturday so she is here to do Math prep!
Asa and I did finally make to it Disney on Sunday while they were busy studying at home- and the car made it there too- so I think we might have finally gotten it really fixed this time! But, it's dinner time- so I'll blog about our Epcot trip another day.
I leave you with cute Waterstraut pet pictures-including my morning pile of puppies!
Next Up: May has to be better, right?!?
