The McGarys : Jazzy July

As soon as Brad left for scout camp Kallie got sick. I thought we might not go to church the next day but she ended up being okay. I had already asked the music leader to take up sharing time for the 5th Sunday of the month but then the pianist wasn't able to make it so I ended up playing piano for the whole two hours. I think Kallie was blessed to be okay so we could be there to fill in.

But of course I caught Kallie's sickness and I was reminded that pregnancy makes it last three times longer. I got an ear infection, but I'm used to those. I think I'm prone to them. So that was fun being sick the whole time Brad was gone. We didn't do much during the day on July 4th cuz I was still feeling miserable but my antibiotics kicked in later and we went to the beach with my brother's family. My sister-in-law and I talked about how the beach seems to be healing because I felt fine the whole time we were there. As soon as we got home I started feeling the pain in my ears again.

Kallie loves playing pretend with dolls or little dinosaurs or anything that could be living. It's so funny to hear the conversations she narrates for them.

I love how Jayda is sticking out her tongue. Just like her daddy!

We started looking for a crib on Craigslist because we had the old school kind with a drop side, which is all unsafe and illegal now. And rightly so. Our drop side majorly cracked and one time it came completely off while the kids were playing in it.

One day we ended up looking at two cribs for sale. Both were fairly far away and on complete opposite sides of Jacksonville. The first ended up having a crack in the bottom (which the owner apparently didn't notice until he moved it into the garage). He said, "Well if you don't take it I'm just gonna drop it off at Goodwill so..." yet he didn't lower the price at all. Then we ended up in this trailer park; the trashiest one on earth. As soon as we walked in the door we saw a bunch of exposed pipes next to a litter box completely packed with poo and there were bugs crawling on it. Of course the place smelled horrible and we walked into an un-decorated, messy living room with nasty carpet that hadn't been vacuumed in weeks and their baby was playing on the floor. Their Craigslist post didn't have a great picture of the crib, which should have been my first red flag but they had some excuse for that. The crib was described as "Like new" condition and their baby had never even used it because she ended up sleeping with the parents.

The crib was covered with scratches and dings and there were also bugs crawling on it. The mom was like, "All you hafta do is rub it down with some [stain or varnish or something] and it'll be just like new!". I was SO mad and disgusted. I wanted to chew them out for describing it as "Like new" because it barely qualified as "Good" and we drove all that way to see it for nothing! Ugh, Craigslist.

We've had our van for a couple years now but it wasn't until recently that I decided to start using the blue tooth feature with my phone. I wasn't even really aware we had it but Brad loves using it in his car so I tried to set up the connection in the van and realized the previous owners set a pass code to get into the system. Since we didn't buy our van from a Honda dealership it would cost over $150 to reset the system so we can access it. We took in our van to the shop for some maintenance and I was hoping they would reset the pass code free because we were getting so much stuff done and it takes less than five minutes. But of course they wouldn't. They did offer a lower price but we're still too cheap for that. So lame that we can't use that feature in our vehicle just because of a stupid pass code.

I can't believe both my kids are old enough to sit at the big kids table! So weird that neither of them need a high chair anymore.

Well, apparently I had a bunch of bad experiences this month and this one will probably bore you but I want it for our journal. My kids got to try a free gymnastics class but obviously they're in different age groups so one day we just went for Kallie's class. Not surprisingly, as class started Kallie was too scared to participate but Jayda was DYING to get through the divider door and play (of course she was too young). An employee finally said, "The next class combines a couple of the age groups and Jayda is just barely too young but if we let them both participate maybe Kallie will decide to when she sees her little sister go in." I said, "Great!" and I started reassuring Jayda that she would get to play if we just waited a bit. Obviously she doesn't understand the concept of waiting so that didn't help her whining and begging.

Halfway through this first class Kallie finally decided to join and ended up loving it. I continued to tell Jayda she'd be able to play soon. When the class ended and I started preparing Jayda to join but the employee was like, "Since Kallie ended up participating, we can schedule a time to come back for Jayda's correct age group." and I responded, "Well since you already said they could go to the next class I've been telling Jayda this whole time she'll be able to play soon and I don't want her to be disappointed and throw a tantrum so can we just continue with that plan so I don't have to come all the way back to see if Jayda likes it?" and she said no. So I raised my eyebrows, got my kids and walked out. Alright My Gym. Not in this lifetime.

My sister Hayley had a baby this month! After three beautiful girls they got a handsome boy named Avi. I got to fly to Texas with Jayda to spend a week with her family. Kallie stayed home with Daddy and while he was at work she hung out with different friends everyday. A million thank you's to Carmen, Jen, Jill and Robin! We have so many awesome friends here.

Baby Avi!

My niece Asia made herself some "Elsa" shoes with tissue paper

Asia, Eden, Jessa, Jadya

Library storytime

Jayda thought this bookshelf was a chair

Jayda and Jessa

My beautiful sister using her Baby K'tan carrier

Sponge bath!

Man, watching these kids is hard work

The Muir girls know how to tan! I'm a sucker for cute butts.

My brother-in-law not only drove us to the airport but he stood with us in line to check our bags and then again to get through security. So thoughtful to keep us company. Our flight was wonderful since the plane had a few empty seats and therefore Jayda didn't have to sit on my lap the whole time! It really made for a breezy ride.

It felt so good to finish flying and see our two other loves. I came home to flowers, candy, a "Welcome Home Mommy" sign and a clean house. It was perfect.

And something strange has been happening to me since I got home. I have been a deep cleaning machine. As soon as we put the kids to bed, on the SAME day I came home I started washing out the fridge drawers, spot cleaned the floor, organized the spices, and then Brad found me sitting on the floor scrubbing all the cupboard doors. He didn't know what to think. I don't know if I'm simply in the nesting phase of my pregnancy or if I got in the habit of trying to keep the house clean at all times when I as at my sister's, or what.