Back to work for me

Monday, July 29th was the first day of my 16th year as a Speech Language Pathologist. I'm going to be working Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this year, but for my first week back I worked Monday and Tuesday. 

My new lunch bag.

My same office. 

On Tuesday the 30th they took the entire staff on a four hour tour around the Gila River Indian Reservation. It would have been nice to have done it back when I started there in 2010!

The whole reservation is over 500 square miles.  We went to six of the seven districts.  All pictures taken from the bus! 

I did some organization at work after the tour.  This is all of my billing dating back to the 2011/2012 year.  For whatever reason I didn't keep copies from 2010/2011.  

The July calendar page before I flipped it to August.  

Michael and I were both off on Wednesday the 31st.  We had a million errands to run, but first we had a breakfast date.  

Check out my eggs benedict.  

That afternoon Michael went to the doctor for his tweaked back at the same time I went to the podiatrist for my toenails.  Apparently this is what you do in your 40's.  

Date night with a much needed glass of wine on Aug 1st.  And by, date night, I mean we went to dinner without the kids and that's all. 

A lovely sunset that evening.  

I took the kids for allergy shots on Friday the 2nd.  I stepped outside to take a phone call and sort of absentmindedly reached out and touched this plant.  It snapped off and then leaked on me! 

Then Spencer got hives from his allergy shots, which has never happened before! He had four hives total.  

We got huge donuts for the kids for breakfast on Saturday the 3rd.  The cashier didn't know how to ring them up for the correct price ($3.99 each) so she did it for 68 cents each. Um, OK! 

The 3rd was the one year anniversary of Ginger passing away.  The memorial has grown during the year.  

That afternoon we drove to Maricopa to meet Josh, Laura and their girls.  Michael, Josh, and all of the kids went to go bowling and to the arcade while Laura and I went to the wine bar in the casino. 

Then we met her parents for dinner.  Look at the matching necklaces I bought for us! 

The view from their room.  

Sangria after dinner.  

This is what we texted Michael when he asked where we were.  

I thought about breaking this post up into two, but I'm glad I powered through because now I'm all caught up again.  That's a good way to start the school year. 

The end of my summer break

I have been off of work since June 27th.  I go back to work tomorrow.  I'm going to work for just two days this week, but then I'm back to my regular three days a week next week.  I'm actually going to be working Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this year.  When Monday is a holiday I'll go on Tuesday instead.  I can also always do a half day on Fridays if need be. 

Let's get to my totally thrilling last week of break.

My friend Melissa, who I met when she was my Clinical Fellowship supervisor, gave me this candle at the end of my fellowship.  It was in May 2005.  I only ever burn it in the summer (it was watermelon scent) so it took me 14 years to finish.  That happened last week on Wednesday the 24th. 

Bye bye watermelon candle!

All of the 4th of July stuff ready to be put away.  

On Thursday the 25th I met my friend Heather for brunch.  I took this to send to Michael because I knew he was going to be jealous of the delectable coffee choices.  

Look at this amazing cappuccino! 

Heather insisted on taking more than one picture to get different angles.  I love her! 

My dessert crepe.  

After brunch we went to see a re-release of the original Muppet Movie.  It's the 40th anniversary.  Just like it's almost the 40th anniversary of me!

I mostly stayed home and did stuff around the house on Friday the 26th.  I thought about going to see Rocketman, but the only theaters it's left in were really far.

There was a delightful sunset that night.  

Laura and I spent a few hours together on Saturday the 27th. We went to breakfast and went shopping.  And I didn't take a single picture!

I did get a pic of my delightful glass of wine that night.  

And finally, Michael had been so jealous of my cappuccino from Thursday that we went back to the same place for breakfast this morning.  The kids got hot chocolate, but they refused pictures. 

My dessert crepe once again. 

After breakfast, Michael and Spencer went to see Spiderman, and Elliott and I went to get his hair cut and to frozen yogurt.  

I finally packed away all of the 4th of July stuff this afternoon.  I re-did the Polish Pottery on the hutch after taking everything off.  I just moved a bowl and added a bowl. 

I also moved the t-rex salt and pepper shakers to the dining room table.  

I've still never actually added salt or pepper to them though.  

And finally, we did a "blue" taste test tonight.  Spencer got them correct.  Elliott did not.  

And with that, it's time for me to go back to work. 

A pool party and back to school

Jeremy and Annette came over for an afternoon pool party on Sunday the 22nd.  Spencer's ear hurt so he didn't swim.  He was our photographer though.

The shallow end was too shady, 

so we all swam over to the deep end. 

Spencer's ear still hurt on Monday the 22nd and I couldn't get him in to his pediatrician at all that day so I ended up taking him to his pulmonologist.  Hey!  It's still a doctor.  A pulmonologist can look in ears too. 

We were in a new room where we had never been before.  The kite room.  I loved the cover on the light. 

Spencer was diagnosed with an ear infection, so after the appointment I went to get his prescription medicine and got sidetracked at Maurice's.  I liked this dress, but it was too short.  I couldn't have worn it to work and without it being a work appropriate dress it was too expensive.  Now looking at this picture it doesn't seem too short, but it really was. 

I had to pick Nick and Raquel up at the airport that night.  This was waiting in the cell phone lot.  The sky looked like a storm was probably brewing, and it was because we got our first monsoon that night. 

First monsoon of the summer means it's time for the kids to go back to school!  We bought them new lunch boxes for this year because their old ones had had it after two years of use and abuse.

This is the "before".  We'll see how they fare. 

Their first day of 2nd and 6th grades was Tuesday the 23rd. I'm going to do a separate post with all of the first day pictures, but here's a sneak peek. 

Michael and I went on a day date while they were at school.  We went to breakfast and then to see the movie Stuber. 

We were right down the street from AJ's so after the movie we went for an iced tea and a little treat. 

I decided to get my 40th birthday cake from AJ's. 

That afternoon I decided to take down all of the 4th of July decorations. I took the outside wreath down from the front door and carried it inside.  As I set it down on the floor eggs just started crashing down all around me.  I was HORRIFIED.  I killed these baby birds.  

OH MY GOD 

Once I figured out that eggs weren't just falling from the sky and that a bird must have built a nest on the wreath and left eggs in said nest, I started looking for it. It took me close to a minute to even find it.  I thought the nest would be on the wooden part and made out of wood. 

Nope.  This bird used soft cotton batting and built a nest inside the loop of a ribbon.  

This egg didn't completely crack open, but there was a fracture on it. Look how tiny! 

Our back-to-school tradition is to take the kids out to dinner the first day of school. We went to Cheddars.  

Spencer whispered to Michael to be grumpy right as I took the picture.  I guess this is Spencer's grumpy face.

Spencer thought they were doing it for one picture, but Michael kept it up for the second.  He might even be grumpier here.  

Finally.  Cooperation.  

Elliott and I nailed it in one shot. 

I would like to point out that I just blogged about things that happened on TUESDAY on THURSDAY.  I am a blogging champion.