Everyday Moments

Life...unedited. 

These random iPhone photos are dark, blurry, and untouched,

but they capture everyday moments from this week.

 Hadley's Painting

Last week had some challenging moments. On Tuesday afternoon, the girls had an appointment at the post office, so they could get their passport photos taken, pay the fees, and turn in their passport paperwork. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. First, Hadley started crying and having a meltdown because she didn't want to have her picture taken. Then, after Hadley settled down and had her picture taken, I noticed that Hadley had blue lips and blue teeth in her passport picture...thanks to the blue lollipop that she had eaten on our way to the post office. Then, I was frustrated when I discovered that I couldn't turn in the girls' paperwork because Tal wasn't present to give his permission for the girls to leave the country. As a result, I had to go to our credit union, get a notarized affidavit, and make copies of our drivers licences. Thankfully, on Friday, Tal took the girls to the post office and turned in their paperwork, so hopefully they'll get their passports in a few weeks.

On Wednesday night, we had a plumbing emergency in our master bathroom. Hadley put too much paper in the toilet, and it overflowed. There was so much water on our bathroom floor that I had to use every towel in our linen closet to soak up the water. Tal and I spent an hour cleaning up the mess, disinfecting the bathroom floor, and washing towels:

On Thursday, Savannah got a 4 for effort in social studies!  She showed responsibility when she completed some make-up work.

On Thursday, I weighed in for Biggest Loser at my school. 30 teachers have joined the competition to see who can lose the highest percentage of their body weight from now until April 19. Each teacher paid $25 to participate, and the top 3 winners will receive cash prizes. (I didn't win last year, but I lost 15 lbs.) Biggest Loser is great motivation for me to reset my eating habits, increase my physical activity, and lose some weight. I struggle with eating healthy, but I'm trying to make some healthy changes to my diet over the next few months. For example, for my lunches this week, I will be eating a chicken caesar salad and some boiled shrimp that I seasoned with lemon pepper:

On Friday, I had a workday, which meant a sub taught my 6 classes, while I processed new library books. During my lunch/planning, I picked up Chick-fil-a for me and Savannah and ate lunch with her and her friends in the cafeteria. I eat lunch with Savannah once a week, but it's extra special when I bring take-out for lunch:

Thanks to Tal's mom for taking care of Savannah and Hadley at her house this weekend. If I remember correctly, it's been about 9 months since Tal and I have had a weekend alone without the girls. On Friday night, we enjoyed having a dinner date at Olive Garden. It was such a luxury to eat a leisurely meal, enjoy some adult conversation, and have some couple time:

For one of our meals this week, Tal and I used this recipe to make breakfast casserole: