The week

*Started this post Friday afternoon but then got interrupted and didn’t finish it.

This week is kind of a TGIF week. Work has been bonkers. We have this big regulatory audit coming up and it has involved a lot of prep work. To the tune of much/most other work getting ignored, and all hands on deck prepping for this. It has led to some mind-numbing, detailed tasks that leave me cross-eyed by the end. It has also meant many long calls/ work sessions with other team members.

Yesterday my co-worker and I were on a video call sifting through endless documents and file folders, cross checking things on shared screens, etc. – and when I looked up, the timer on the call said 2:31. Two HOURS and 31 minutes we were on there continuously without a single break (or worse, getting up). I finally was like, dude, I need a break.

On top of that, we (Ivan and I) are apparently a couple of gluttons for punishment and continue to fill up our evenings so that we basically have no actual downtime, ever. Ha.

Monday night– Okay, the week started out strong. I made a healthy dinner (yay!) and went to the gym. (yay yay!).

Tuesday- No one had cooked and I was SO busy all day and by evening I just felt like “indulging” a little and sitting and relaxing (yes, on a random Tuesday, judge away), so we went out for a quick dinner.

Wednesday– Ethan was at work, so Ivan got the idea that we should go see the latest Spiderman movie (there’s discount movies on Wednesdays). I was sort of “meh” on the idea (I just needed a night to…chill. And do some stuff at home…), but then again, I do like Spiderman movies usually, and I really like movie theater popcorn. Hmmm, what to do. I hemmed and hawed and almost stayed home, but at the last minute I relented and joined Ivan and Asher. (Ethan had already gone to this movie the week before with a friend.) I did not particularly like this Spiderman movie, though, sadly. I mean it was okay, but just sort of…. weird. Half the time I wasn’t sure what was going on.

(*Later realized this was a part 2 apparently to the Multiverse Spiderman movies, and I guess I never saw the 1st one. That may have been part of the problem.)

Thursday- We had tickets for a 7 p.m. soccer game (Madison’s professional soccer team vs a 2nd division team from Mexico!). I think someone gave them to Ivan for free, and I’d never actually been to one of the local pro soccer games. So we’d been planning this for a while. I also had a 5:45 chiropractor appt, and I didn’t finish up my work until like, 5:30. So the whole night was a busy blur. It was fun, though!

Friday (today)- Well, you know what Fridays are. Nacho night!! And now our revolving door continues to spin, because, no, it’s not my parents…. it’s not my sister…. it’s not Ivan’s uncle…. this time, Ivan’s cousin is here!! She is visiting from California and staying with Ivan’s other cousin (locally), but will be spending the evening/ overnight with us. So, of course, we’ll go out for Mexican food with her. 🙂

But this also meant we needed to sort of do a “mini clean” through the house today, change the sheets, swish some toilet bowl cleaner in the toilets, you know. Haha. Make it look “Clean”. 😉 (The boys did help out today, sort of. So that was a plus.)

Tomorrow morning both boys work- Ethan at 7, Asher at 8 at the seed farm. NO other big plans for the weekend though. For now. lol.

Random Pictures from the Week:

Nature scenes….

A cute little toad on my patio one night

We have SO many toads in our yard!! I have to be so careful whenever I go out to the hot tub in the dark at night. There’s always inevitably one or two just hanging out near the hot tub. Maybe the hot tub heats up the concrete a bit and they like the warmth?? I don’t know. They are so cute though. I always talk to them. (I am like a weird Snow White woman and constantly chat with the animals in my yard…. Oh good morning, little squirrel! How are you today?…Watch out little toad, I almost didn’t see you there, you cute little guy!…Oh bunny bunny, don’t just sit in the middle of the yard, silly! A big bird could come snatch you and you’re just too cute!”) 😂

My front flowers are pretty.

Thursday was my last day driving to the strength class at Ethan’s high school!!

Yes, the summer strength and conditioning is almost coming to an end already. Well, it’s supposed to end at the end of next week, but Ethan has a tennis camp every morning next week that he’ll do instead. So his last day was Thursday.

I drove both ways on Thursday and walked to the coffee shop to work while he was there. It was the MOST GORGEOUS and GLORIOUS day that morning. I felt almost a twinge of sadness that it was ending?!? I know, I am insane. Yes, it’s been highly, highly inconvenient driving him, but I will admit I have enjoyed the times I’ve walked through this downtown neighborhood to a great coffee shop. And I’ve had some nice conversation/ car time with Ethan as a result! Always (trying) to look on the bright side…

And get this- Ethan has exactly THREE weeks only left of summer vacation! His school starts early, August 14.

Random, but check out the warning that pops up in my new van:

When you put it in Park and turn the van off, it flashes a warning on the screen with an image of the back of the van and a warning to “Check Rear Seats”. This is a new safety feature designed to prevent people from forgetting about sleeping babies in a hot car!!! I think this is so great! I know, we all probably feel like, “How can anyone forget their baby in the car….”. But it happens, tragically, so clearly it’s not impossible. In moments of distraction or stress, our brains don’t always work right.

I think this is a cool example of using technology for good!

Soccer game pics- Thursday night

Teaching kids lessons…

As we were leaving the soccer stadium, I told the boys to “grab their trash”. Asher reached down to pick up his empty lemonade bottle and the paper dish from his hot dog. A few inches over was an empty water bottle (not ours). He ignored that one. I said, Well, grab that too! And he replied, That one’s not ours though. And I said, “I know, but who is going to pick that up?? Obviously that person left and didn’t remove their own trash.” Looking around, there was trash everywhere in the bleachers, as is typical at a sporting event.

I realize they have employees that come around and clean up, but there were big trash bins all over the place. I do not see why we should all leave our garbage laying around when we have a place to dispose of it right there??

I told him, “I’ll never forget my Girl Scout leader drilling into our heads all those years ago: “Always leave a place better than how you found it.” Seriously, I think of that message so often. I said, “You are going to the garbage can anyway; you might as well grab that empty water bottle, too.”

The next thing I knew, he ran up the bleachers and came back with a whole armful of other people’s trash. LOL.

There is a good chance he was doing this in a semi-sarcastic way, like, “Ok, how’s THIS, mom??” 😝 But I’m going to pretend that he was just being a Good Samaritan. 😉

---

A freaky story!!

Now coming at you from Saturday morning, since I didn’t finish this post yesterday afternoon. I just have to share quick something that happened last night!!

So we were at dinner, sitting toward the back of the restaurant, and all of a sudden it got very quiet. We kind of looked around to see what was up and we realized an older man was choking at one of the front tables. I stood up quickly to see and saw a man was doing the Heimlich maneuver on him and I heard someone say, “We’ve already called 911.”

I panicked for a second not knowing if I should try to jump in and help???! (Nurse here, you know.) But at the same time, I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t physically touched a patient in 7 years now (unless you count x3 when I’ve been on airplane and have had to assist with medical emergencies!). And I have actually never done the Heimlich maneuver on someone, unless you count the squishy mannequins in the CPR classes. The man (family member) was doing the same thing I would do, only he was bigger and stronger than I am. (If he hadn’t been already doing the Heimlich, I absolutely would have rushed in to assist.)

You guys, this man went unconscious!! He could NOT get his food unstuck.

Fortunately two police cars came screeching up just as the man was going limp (the family member was continuing to try to hold him up and do Heimlich…but once a choking victim goes unconscious you have to start CPR/chest compressions instead!). I was just about to run up and yell, “We need to lay him down and get on his chest now!!” But thankfully just then two police officers RACED inside like bats out of hell, leaving their cars in the middle of the street, and took over.

Then the EMTs and fire department showed up too. It took a little bit, but they eventually got his food unstuck, his airway open and he came to. O.M.G. It was horrible!!

Everyone in the restaurant was frozen in place, silent, and some women were crying. It was quite scary! This poor man! (I asked the waitress later what he choked on and she said a piece of carne asada, or steak.)

When they were finally done and the EMTs took the man out (awake), everyone in the restaurant cheered and applauded all of the amazing first responders. When the first two on the scene (the two police officers, a man and a woman) walked past us to go wash their hands, they were visibly shaken, and the policewoman exhaled hard and said, “Whew. That was a close one.” A few people at tables near us extended their hands to fist bump them on a “job well done”.

So scary! And a friendly reminder for everyone to brush up on CPR/ choking procedures.

Alright, on that note, have a great weekend!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful that that man was okay! And for the immediate, skilled response of those police/first responders.