In summmmeeeerrrrrr!

Despite the disgustingly hot & humid Florida weather, I am positively thrilled that summer is here!  Summer brings a lot of fun with plenty of swimming & weekend barbeques with friends.  You'd think we pretty much swim year-round in Florida, but if a pool doesn't have a heater, it's way too cold in the winter even if the weather is warm.  Last week was my first Wednesday of summer vacation since the previous week we were on vacation in Destin.  Since I work full-time (32 hours/week), summer vacation means Cameron being out of school which means a lot more flexibility in our schedules.  No homework, no rushing to get him off the bus, no making lunches every evening or organizing backpacks & paperwork, no permission slips to fill out.  Not to mention, since Cameron & Reese are back together at the same school, drop-off & pick-up is a breeze!

Last Wednesday I ended up watching our friend's four & six year old since their usual sitter/teacher was out of town.  Let's just say that I was pretty distracted & did not get much accomplished.  I love using my Wednesdays to organize & be productive so our weekends can be smoother.

While the kids have a lazy day at home, I'll be tackling Reese's closet & going through her sacks & sacks of hand-me-downs from my friend Jill.  I'm so thankful for all the clothes she has given us since I've basically not had to buy Reese much at all.  Love me some money saving!

 

Reese's room is unfortunately a modge-podge of mismatched furniture; her bed is the convertible crib that Cam used as a baby.  I'm not at all a fan of the dark wood since my tastes have changed a lot over the years, but hopefully soon we'll swap it with something more fitting.  If only money wasn't an object!!!

We painted her room when we moved in 2+ years ago & at that time she was only 10 months old & couldn't voice her tastes.  Now I know that her favorite colors are purple & pink, so I threw her a bone by painting her dilapidated bookshelf her beloved colors. 

I'm not in love with her room by any means, but basically like every room in my house, I have many visions in my head but a pocket book that doesn't support me fulfilling every wish.

 

Reese has a really big closet since it stretches back under the staircase leading up to the bonus room.

This is the perfect spot to toss the many bags of hand-me-downs that she'll one day use.  I have to be careful in keeping up with what sizes are in each bag since I'd hate her to pass a size & have clothes go unworn.  With that being said, my goal today is to weed out all of her 4T clothes & update them with 5T so I'm done with her closet & drawers for the next year.  The nice thing about kids getting older is that they stay in the same size for a long time!

While the kids stay entertained, I'll also be organizing toys today since over the weekend, I got a box of goodies from Melanie (my sis-in-law).

We have a lot of IKEA storage shelves around our house which can be a double edge sword.  They're awesome for concealing toys & make clean-up a cinch when you're doing a quick run through.

But... they're also dump traps that allow things to get mixed up & collect junk like old Happy Meal toys.

 Every few months I run through each bin to dump, donate or relocate toys that might get forgotten.

When you have 20+ bins throughout the house, toys tend to get lost in the mix.  Yay for extra time to relax during the week & organize on Wednesdays off.. yay for summer!

A vacation & a wedding

We had a wonderful time last week, celebrating my BFF Lauren at her beach wedding getaway.  Going to a gorgeous beach for a whole week was so amazing & I'm very thankful that we were able to get away with an awesome group of friends!

Look at the happy faces of these beach bunnies enjoying themselves!

Leah & Sammy

Tay & Reese

We headed up to Destin which is on the Florida panhandle & about six hours from where we are in Tampa.  Even though it's the same body of water from where we live (the Gulf of Mexico), it was completely different!  The color was much more Caribbean like, the waves were a heck of a lot rougher than our Gulf coast & the sand was softer with a lot less seashells. 

We rented a condo with our other BFFs, Matt & Kelly & since they just so happen to have two kids the same age as ours, all were happy!  Our kids have known each other since day one, so we consider them family vs. friends.

We had a lot of fresh fish & gorgeous views!

The guys even went on a fishing excursion & caught a boat load of red snapper... we enjoyed it for dinner later that evening!

Lauren & Reese

Monday was Lauren & Marc's wedding day!!!

Lauren (and Tay!) looked absolutely amazing!

So happy for the Smith family!!!

It's not very often that the Pernecky family cleans up & looks presentable for a fancy occasion so it was a treat to head to the reception on a gorgeous dinner cruise.

Pretty soon this boy will be taller than me!

Ever since my friend Lesli posted pictures of her vacation to Seaside, Florida, I've been dying to go & I finally got to check it out last Tuesday!

It was such an adorably quaint beach town full of shops, food stops & picturesque cottages.

Fun fact, the Truman Show (Jim Carey movie) was filmed in Seaside... here's a picture of the Truman house!

 

It really doesn't get much cuter than this town.  I have to say though, with a quaint seaside town comes big prices!  I was sticker shocked by each gift store we browsed around!

The adults & children alike had an amazing vacation celebrating friends & new families!  It's always good to get home, but I have to say, work could have waited... no matter how much time I have off, I'm NEVER ready to get back to it!  But as Dr. Suess says, Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened!

Lots to celebrate!

May is a very busy month for my family; there are three birthdays, three anniversarys & Mother's Day.  Mike & I celebrated our 13th anniversary & my 36th birthday on May 24th.

 

My sister was nice enough to come up & watch the kids so we could head over to Orlando for a relaxing pool day & a night out at Downtown Disney.  It's so blissful having uninterrupted conversation!

Downtown Disney

I truly am married to my best & most loyal friend in the world.  I am blessed.

The weekend before our anniversary, I had a girl's night out to celebrate my BFF Lauren & her very quickly approaching wedding.

Me, Lauren & Kelly

If you look closely at the picture above, you'll see that I'm not actually wearing heels in this picture, but standing on my tip-toes instead.  Lauren insisted that I shorten our 8" height difference with her in heels & myself in flats!  A short gal with stubby legs like me could really benefit from some extra length, but I'm a complete moron in heels & they hurt like hell.  I choose comfort over beauty!

We felt like the Real Housewives of wherever when the limo picked us up to head for dinner & drinks... we were so fancy!

The night was an absolute blast & it was so fun celebrating such a happy event!  In five short days Lauren & Marc will be married!!!

Earlier this week my friend came over to cut/color my hair & she was sweet enough to cut the kids' hair while my color processed.  It just so happened that it was Reese's very first haircut!  I had no intention of cutting her hair, but it's gotten a little uneven in length so Talia kept the length but just evened it out.

 My little bud also got spiffed up so that he looks handsome & dapper for his Auntie LoLo's wedding. 

We celebrated the end of the school year with a picnic at Cam's school on Monday.  At the last minute I decided to swing by Reese's school to bring her along & I'm so happy I did.  I ended up needing to get to work at 5am in order to make the picnic... being a working mom is not always an easy thing!





TODAY is Cameron's last day of kindergarten!  Boy did this school year go by in a hurry.  I cannot say that I'm too sad about the year being over since it'll calm the evenings a lot, but it's just another indicator that time is going by too quickly.

Cameron on his FIRST day of kindergarten

 We're ready to relax (ha, yeah right!) this summer & have some fun.

We had our sweet little nieces & my parents up last weekend since my brother & sis-in-law were away for a beach weekend. Shortly after this picture was taken, Mikayla slipped into the lake from the boat ramp & got soaked.  Shortly after that, she came down with a stomach bug & threw up all over Cameron's bed... see, we're already having fun this summer!  ;o)  BUT, the good news is that the Blackhawks are headed to the Stanley Cup finals against the Lightning!!! 

Woo hoo!!  People ask me which team I'm rooting for since I've lived in Tampa for the last ten years, but my loyalty lies with SWEET HOME CHICAGO!

A mother & her quirks

I had a very nice Mother's Day this past weekend.  I started the weekend with enjoying some rare one-on-one time with Cameron in his classroom for Muffins with Mom on Friday afternoon.  I'm so accustomed to my time with Reese, but individual time with Cam has been very sparse these days so I treasure any opportunity with my guy.

 I love to see where Cameron spends his days, meet the kids he calls his friends & get to know his teacher better.  Granted, it's less than a month away till the end of the school year, but I hold teachers very near to my heart.

Friday evening we headed down to Sarasota to spend to the weekend with my family & also celebrate my niece Madelyn's 12th birthday (on the 7th) as well as my mom's (the 15th).  My birthday is coming up too (the 24th) so they threw my name in there too when singing over ice cream sundaes & presents for Maddy.

After the weekend, I also recognized that I have many quirks (which many people do) & started to think about all the things that make me strange odd me!

Nothing like a cash present in a wine box from Auntie Lauren

I thought about my quirks after I opened Mike's present to me for Mother's Day.  His present just so happened to be a gift certificate for a massage.  I've never had a massage & unfortunately my reaction to the present was to either a) have a panic attack or b) start crying.  Who does that?!  All I could think about was getting naked & having a stranger touch me.  It just feels way too intimate to me.  I kind of lump it in the same ballpark as having a skin check with the dermatologist or a doctor's exam in general.  My brother was amazed by my reaction & kept saying, "Gosh, you are so weird.  You're messed up."  Brothers are so supportive, eh?

This got me thinking about the other things I'm hung up about...

1) My sheer terror of bugs.  We're not talking a swat, a gasp or even a shriek.  We're talking pure, freak-out, lose your sh!t type of behavior.  I completely lose control.  Remember the time I flipped our canoe because a horsefly attacked me?

2) I loathe slow, stupid drivers.  How can these people have so much free time that they're driving ten miles per hour under the speed limit at 5:30am?!?!?!?!  Don't they have some place to be???!!!  Although this bugs the crap out of me anytime of day, not just before sunrise.

3) I both love & hate technology.  Mostly it's a loving relationship.  I'm a Pinterest addict & love keeping all of my recipes & ideas in one handy space.  I couldn't live without my GPS, my Cozi family calendar, the Kindle Paperwhite that puts me to sleep every single night, texting or email.  But, the old fashioned part of me believes that a lot of things were probably easier for my parents as they raised me thirty years ago.  There was so much less distraction, pressure & comparison.  For some, the smart phone has become superglued to the eyeballs (not mentioning any names... Mike, my husband).  And as much as I adore Pinterest, it probably causes some anxiety & unrealistic standards.  Why shouldn't my house look like it stepped out of Better Homes & Gardens??

The sea monster!  Can you see the attitude in that look?

4) I hate talking on the phone.  I run from work to the gym to getting the kids & all the things that follow, so the idea of having an extensive conversation on the phone sends me into a tizzy.  Not to mention that my kids don't exactly give me peace & quiet as I spend my rare moments on the phone.  This is where my love of technology & text messages come in.

5) I cannot handle disorganization or clutter.  I will never ever be okay with a messy, cluttered house.  I've been told many times to just relax & worry about the mess later, but this will never happen & I've come to accept this.  I will never kick back when my house is in disarray.

These best buds don't stand still long enough for a non-blurry picture

 6) I'm nuts about laundry.  No, I do not enjoy doing laundry, nor would I be sad if someone did it for me every day of my life.  What I mean is that I can't handle knowing I have anything more than a load or two waiting for me.  I'm in awe of people who allow themselves to do laundry once or twice a week.  This would give me eye twitches & keep me up at night.

7) I love sleep but also see it as a waste of time.  Ideally I would never sleep less than eight hours per night & I function very poorly on little sleep.  With this being said, I also hate naps & sleeping late.  I consider both a massive waste of the day & I can't do it since I always feel like I'm missing out on something.

So, these are the few of many, many things that bug me.  I could write a book about my pet peeves, but I won't subject anyone to that!  Anyway, I hope all of you mothers, caregivers, pet owners, teachers & nurturers had a wonderful Mother's Day!