Worst night ever...

Our house is 8 1/2 years old. So is our AC unit. With day #58 - or what feels like it - of over 100 degree temps Shane & I have been waiting every single day for our AC unit to stop working. Half of the neighbors in our cul-de-sac have replaced their units already so we are definitely next. 

It was a normal evening here at the Taylor household. I got home from work, let the dogs out, fed them, made dinner & then Shane & I settled in for the evening in front of the TV. Around 7pm I notice the bulldogs were starting to pant & it was starting to feel pretty warm in the house. I went up to check the thermostat & it read 84 degrees....which is usually set at 76 degrees. I put my hand over the vent & felt NO cool air. In fact there wasn't any air coming out of the vent.

Son of a biscuit!! The AC had finally gone out :(

We knew this time would come but it never makes it any easier when it does. We quickly made arrangements to leave the house for the evening as there is no way the bulldogs would have been able to be in such a hot house for the night - darn bullies - they run our life :)

We were going to stay at a hotel but luckily for us, my girlfriend Jilly was out of town this week & she offered her home to us until our AC could get fixed. So we packed an overnight bag, loaded the dogs in the SUV & made our way over to Jilly's for the evening. By the time we left our house the thermostat was reading 85 degrees so it felt SO nice to be back in some air conditioning!! 

Unfortunately, the evening was anything but restful for me. We ended up going to bed early & while Neo was all curled up under Jilly's bed asleep, the bulldogs were crazed & panicky being in a new place & would NOT settle down. Shane of course had his ear plugs in, the fan blowing on him & was snoring away so he heard nothing that was going on! Typical...

It was about 10pm by the time the dogs had calmed down a bit & just as I was dozing off to sleep my pager goes off. UGH!!! I quickly get dressed & go to put on my glasses & they weren't in my case. My contacts were in the cleaning solution that takes 6 hours to neutralize so I couldn't put those back in so I was screwed. I have pretty bad vision & everything is blurry without my contacts/glasses so I began to panic. How would I drive 35 miles to the hospital at night without clear eyesight?  By this point I was exhausted, pissed, stressed - I threw my glass case & started crying. Can my night get any worse??

I managed to make my way to the emergency case - very carefully & on the way back home it started to downpour. Not only can I not see well already, throw pouring-down rain at me & make my drive all that much more stressful. Ugh - why me?? I ended up making it back to Jilly's around 1am.

I crawl back into bed - Shane still sleeping away - & the bullies are restless. Panting, pacing, whining.

All. Night. Long.

It's lightening, thundering, raining out & the bullies are not happy. I got absolutely NO sleep. All I kept thinking is that we could have a couple more nights like this & I didn't think I could handle another repeat like this again.

Shane woke up at 6am all rested & ready to go while I laid there desperate to sleep. He put the dogs in the bed with me & they immediately settled down & fell asleep. He left for our house to get ready for work & we all managed to get a couple hours of sleep. Around 8am I got up & then headed home to meet the AC service guy. He arrived right on time, spent 15 minutes working on our unit & came back in to say he was all done. 

What? That quick? Ugh - this can't be good news. I imagined he was going to tell me our AC unit was done & we would need a new unit. But surprisingly he said there was a bad capacitor in the heat pump that he had to replace & everything seems to be in working order. Hallelujah!!!! What we thought was going to cost thousand's of dollars only cost us $175. Unfortunately, I had to burn a day off of work but oh well...at least we didn't have to buy a new AC unit!!

I left shortly after the AC guy left to go get the dogs & already the house was starting to cool off. What a relief. We all got back home & while the dogs got settled in & relaxed, I laid down for a little nap & ended up sleeping for over 3 hours. I was just soooo tired & it felt good to catch up on some sleep...in a cool house....in my own bed!

Unfortunately, this little dilema we had only delay's the inevitable.I almost wish we would have had to get a new AC unit just so we don't have to worry about in the future & according to the weather guy, the month of August is going to be just as hot or even hotter!!

For those of you who are local, we used Air-Pro out of Olathe to service our unit. My friend Jilly actually dated the owner for a couple of years so he treats us & anyone I refer to them pretty good! Just click on "Air Pro" & it will take you to their website.

Hoping you never have to use them but if so, tell them we referred you :)

Auntie Day

That's right. It's National Auntie Day!!! WHOOT!!! 

No lie - just last week, I looked at one of my girlfriends & said, "I wonder why there isn't an Auntie Day?" They seem to celebrate all kinds of other "Day's" like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Day so why not a day to celebrate these special women in nieces & nephews lives? 

Well guess what?? There is.

I need to send an email to my sister, husband & my mom telling them that one of them can go ahead & buy me the Savvy Auntie book for my Auntie Day present. I'm sure they will all be running out the door to get it for me ASAP. There is even a website for cool, savvy Aunt's like myself. Who knew??

(crickets)

But in all honesty, I'm so excited to find this site. I LOVE being an aunt. I constantly show people pictures of my nieces & nephews. My friends hear all about them. My bosses & coworkers hear all about them. I find myself wanting to buy them stuff when it isn't even their birthday or Christmas. Even though I don't get to see them very often, they are often on my mind. A ran into a girlfriend I hadn't seen or talked with for several months & one of the first things she asked about were how my nieces/nephews were doing. She get's it....

So I admit it. I may or may not brag a little about my sweet punkin's. I know I'm "just an auntie", but that phrase has taken on a much greater meaning since my very first nephew was born over 4 years ago. That is the day I became a Debut-Aunt (the Savvy Auntie term for a first-time auntie)!

To all of you who are mommies, think about the special women in your life who serve as aunties & tell them they are loved. 

According to the Savvy Auntie site, aunties can be:"Aunties by Relation; Aunties by Choice; Great-Aunties; Godmothers; Cousin Aunties; Long-Distance Aunties; Step-Aunties; Single Aunties; Married Aunties; Par-Aunts (aunts who become the parent when one or both parents are no longer able); Straight Aunts, Lesbi-Aunts; Teen Aunties; Child Aunties; Special-Needs Aunties; Teacher or Coach Aunties; Nanny Aunties; & Fairy God Aunties."

Damn, we are everywhere!! What a diverse group of positive influences for America's children!

Please give the Auntie in your life a little love today. Unfortunately I will be all alone so I guess I will just have to treat myself on this awesome day. Maybe I can get a special Skype date with my little punkin's?

From one savvy Aunt to another.....we rock!

Dinner & a movie

Tonight the game-night girls met for our usual monthly gathering but instead of staying in we decided to take "game-night" out on the town. We all met up at Houlihan's for drinks, appetizers & some catching up & then the majority of us made our way to the much anticipated viewing of the movie Magic Mike - a movie that is supposedly based on Channing Tatum's experiences as a stripper in Tampa, FL when he was 19 years old.

I was looking very forward to an evening being surrounded by good girlfriends, movie popcorn & Channing Tatum & Matthew McConaughey without their shirts on. The first three items definitely didn't disappoint but unfortunately the actual movie did :( I would have liked to have seen more dancing/stripping & less cheesy story-line but that just wasn't the case. At least the popcorn & company was good!!


A suggestion to anyone who hasn't seen this movie yet - wait for it to come out on DVD!! That way you you can sit & watch it in the privacy of your own home, with the remote in your hand & using the "pause" & "slow-motion" buttons at your own leisure ;)

SD Wedding - country style

Today I packed my bags & headed north with my little brother for a road-trip to South Dakota to attend a good ol' country wedding. Unfortunately Shane couldn't get out of work & Steve's wife had a bachelorette party weekend at the lake to go to so it was just him & I which ended up being a lot of fun! 

One of Steve's childhood friends, Jordan (aka: "Red") was finally getting married after dating his wife-to-be (Katie) for almost 10 years so it was definitely time for these two to make it official!!

The wedding was being held on Jordan's mom's farm outside of Sioux Falls so my brother & I got a hotel & made a quick little weekend of it. We got up there around supper time & headed over to my other brother Chris' house to visit him, his wife & my adorable nieces & nephew. We all ended up going out to eat to Buffalo Wild Wings & then called it an early night.

The next morning my brother & I did a little shopping at the mall located right next to the hotel & then met up with my parents for lunch. Afterwards, we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

It was a 4pm wedding & when we pulled up to the farm it was thee cutest country wedding that I ever did see. All the little details were so adorable & perfectly done for a "country wedding" theme & I have TONS of pics to share. Jordan's sister Jade was their photographer so some of these pics are from her collection & the rest are the ones I took. I'm sure you will be able to tell the difference between hers & mine :)

Above was the sign at the beginning of the driveway & the beautiful farm house where the bride was getting ready.

As we parked & walked up to the grassy area where the wedding was being held we saw hay bales made into seats:

A Jenga game on the gift table which served as their guestbook:

 

Where the wedding was to take place:

The drink station - mason jars with chalkboard paint on them so you could write your name on the glass:

The tent where we will gather to eat, drink & dance:

Next best thing to wedding cake? Wedding cupcakes - in 5 different flavors:

And no country wedding is complete without serving a roasted pig for pulled pork sandwiches:

And the much anticipated ceremony:

Releasing of the balloons as the bride walked down the aisle:

It was a beautiful day & an even more beautiful wedding! I was so amazed by all the little details that I didn't capture any pics of me & my family other than this cute pic of my nephew Lane & his orange mustache!

My brother & I ended up leaving super early Sunday morning & was back in KC by noon. Even though it was a really quick trip, I SO enjoyed the time spent with my brother & my family.

Game Night

Tonight was the June gathering of the girls for game night over at Jilly's house. Unfortunately it ended up being a smaller group than usual due to an email "snafu" but was still fun & an enjoyable evening none the less. 

 

As always there was a great selection of snacks, drinks, conversation & many stories & laughs shared by all. 

Thanks Jilly for a fun & relaxing evening :)

Headed North

On Thursday, I headed north to South Dakota to spend the weekend with the family on the farm. My brother Chris & his family along with my sister Jen & her family were there for the weekend so I was able to get in lots of "Aunt Hedder" time :) 

Unfortunately, my little brother Steve wasn't able to join us as he had started CRNA school & also had to work over the weekend. He, Meghan & Caleb were definitely missed.

The majority of the weekend was spent playing outside with the kiddos, watching them feed & pet the sheep, watching the horses, running through the sprinkler, playing in the kiddie pool...

...cooking, eating, visiting with extended family, watching sunrises/sunsets on the deck & snuggling with my niece Jensen - it was definitely a good time.

The main reason we were all gathering for the long weekend was to witness my niece Jensen's baptism at church Sunday morning. On Saturday evening, my sister & her husband hosted a BBQ for our enitire family as well as Ben's extended family.

There was about 26 people gathered at the farm & it was a beautiful night for hanging out on the deck & catching up with everyone.

On Sunday, we all met at the church for 9:30am service & the baptism of my niece Jensen. There was also one other little girl being baptized so our family stood on the right while her family stood on the left. 

My mom had just recently returned from a trip to the Holy Land in Israel & while there she managed to collect some water from the Sea of Galilee (where Jesus had "walked on water" according to the bible). The water was used to baptize Jensen which made the service all that much more special. Jensen also was able to wear the baptism dress & booties that my sister wore 34 years ago.

I was very proud to be chosen to sponsor Jensen & be her "Godmother" :)

After an awesome weekend spent with family, everyone headed back on Monday morning to return to their normal routines. It was definitely nice to get to see everyone & spend some R-n-R on the farm.

Fish Fry

Tonight we made our way over to our neighbor's Nick & Melissa's house for their annual Fish Fry & Weird Beer Party.

When we arrived, our host Nick was heating up the oil & ready to drop the many fish he & his buddies have caught these past couple of months.

There was a huge spread of yummy side dishes & desserts for everyone to eat along with a huge selection of "weird" beer for everyone to try. The fried fish was dee-lish & so were the fried potatoes Nick had treated us to.

After we were done eating, our hostess Melissa asked some of the girls to be "judges" for the beer tasting contest so Jill, Michelle & I were happy to oblige along with a few others.

There were around 10 entrants & we tasted Chocolate Ale, Arogant Bastard Ale & Sweaty Betty beer just to name a few. The Wild Blue blueberry lager was the winner for best tasting & the Cave Creek Chili beer won the most unique as it was peppery hot & even had a chili pepper inside it.

All the neighborhood girls were in attendance & a good time was had by all!

It was nice to hang with the hubby for the evening along with the rest of the crew & we are looking forward to next year's gathering!

Thanks Nick & Melissa for another great get-together & thanks to Melissa for sharing her photos with me!!!

Jersey Boys

This evening I met up with some of the neighborhood girls for dinner & a night out at the Music Hall for the Broadway musical Jersey Boys.

We had purchased these tickets late last year & we were all looking very forward to seeing the show that got rave reviews. Melissa was the organizer & managed to pull a group of 10 together so that we could get the discounted price for tickets. We had a great mix of ladies as three of the girls brought their mom's & the other girls made it a "girls night out".

We all met at Hickok's Grill for dinner & enjoyed meeting the other girls & their mom's. The food was decent, the atmosphere fun & the conversation was great as always. 

After dinner, we made our way to the Music Hall in downtown KC & settled into our seats for the story of how Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons came to be. It is a rags to riches story of how four blue-collar kids worked their way from the streets of Newark, NJ to the heights of stardom. They sang songs like: Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Oh What a Night & so many more. I think we were all surprised by how much of their music we recognized & found ourselves singing along & dancing in our seats.

 Jill, HT & Michelle

It was a really fun evening & I think we are all thankful to Melissa for putting the evening together!

Bully-Sitting

This evening my girlfriend Samantha dropped the baby bullies off for the week as her & her fiance Jason were heading to Memphis for the Mother's Day weekend.

I can't tell you enough how much Shane & I enjoy having these 2 bullies come stay with us. They are so sweet & so well behaved. They love playing with all our bullies toys & running laps in the backyard.

Our dogs get along with them pretty well & after the first day, they could care less that they are here....unless Millie sees them with her Cuz ball & then of course it is on :)

WI - Day 9

We woke up this morning to a thunderstorm & pouring down rain. I was to leave for KC this afternoon & was worried my flight would be delayed so I kept checking on the radar all morning. From the looks of it, the rain wouldn't be letting up until at least noon!

So for something to do that morning, we decided to go check out the International Food Fair put on by one of the local high schools. It was a little crazy trying to get out of the house & into the car but after switching out car seats in the pouring rain, getting the boys shoes & rain-gear on, strapping all the children into the backseat, trying to remain somewhat dry ourselves & 35 min later we were on our way. I had questioned my sister a couple of times if she really wanted to go through all this to go & as calm as can be said "yeah, why not?" I swear, she has the patience of a saint!

As we were driving through a torrential downpour, Jensen starts crying & she isn't much of a cryer unless she is hungry. Jen asked me to try & find her paci so I unbuckle myself, bend over my seat, dig around underneath her for the paci & soon discovered she felt wet under her back. When I told my sister she got a horrific look on her face.

Imagine if you will, 3 kids in car seats in the back of a Toyota Camry & 2 adults in front in the pouring down rain. My sister wiggles her little butt in the back seat, puts the driver seat down as far as she can, gets Jensen out of her car seat while I am pulling out the changing pad, wipes, diaper, change of clothes...you name it I was grabbing it. 

She laid her down on the changing pad in the driver's seat & with her butt in poor little Tanner's face, proceeds to strip that little punkin' down to nothing. I was horrified to see a) poo from her bottom all the way up to her neck & b) that much poo come from such a small child. Poor thing - no wonder she was screaming! I was surprised to see that my sister remained so calm through it all & the boys acted as if this was an everyday occurrence. I guess there really was nothing we could do other than change her & get through it the best you can.

10 minutes & 24 baby wipes later, a fresh diaper & a new set of clothes Miss Jensen was in her car seat as happy as could be & we were once again on our way to the food fair. If I never have to witness another "blow out" like that again I will be just fine.

We finally arrived to the fair & made our way to the gymnasium where they had all kinds of things for the kids to do!

There was miniature golf:

Face painting:

Inflatables for the kids:

Cookie walk:

As well as a few other booths we didn't get to. After all the fun & games we made our way into the food court area where they had food booths set up of all nationalities. There was Asian, Mexican, Polish, Italian, American, Hawaiian...just to name a few. The boys enjoyed hot dogs from the American booth, I sampled the Mexican booth & my sister ate the boys' leftovers & also enjoyed some Tiramisu from the Italian booth.

After we ate, we made our way home & I got ready to leave for the airport. The rain had finally stopped, the sun was coming out & my flight seemed to be on time. All was good.

As much as I hated saying goodbye to everyone I was looking forward to getting back home to my hubby & furries. 9 days was enough time to be away & I was ready to get back to my normal & crazy life in Kansas.

The boys were sad Aunt Hedder was leaving but perked right up when I told them I would be seeing them in a few weeks at "Grandma & Grandpa Farm's" house in SD for Jensen's baptism.

I made it to Milwaukee, my flight was on time & in less than 2 hours I was back on the ground in Kansas City & making my way home. It was great to be on vacation but it was even better being back home!

WI - Day 8

This morning we gathered up all the troops & headed out into the balmy 54 degree temps to watch Tanner's flag football game. Quite the change in weather from my 80 degree days on the beach this past week!

Tanner's dad Ben is one of the coach's on the team so them two went on ahead of us so they could "practice" with the team before the game & soon after my sister, me, Cael & Jensen set up shop on the sidelines.

Tanner is on the "Cardinal's" team & they were playing the "Packers" at this morning's game. He looked so cute hiking the ball & even yelled HIKE loud enough for everyone to hear :) 

Above Tanner is in the middle running with the football

I got a kick out of watching him run after the little guys carrying the ball & was even a good sport when the Packers ended up losing the game. It will be interesting to see if Tanner or Cael follow in their dad's footsteps & end up playing college football in the future!?

Cael & I chilled in the lawn chair for the majority of the game trying to keep warm, snacking on pretzals & enjoying my hot coffee while my sister & Jensen were cozied up next to us. 

I was so glad to have been able to be a part of this fun morning....even if it was chilly outside!

The rest of the day was spent working on the "project" & just hanging out around the house.

WI - Day 7

Today was kind of a lazy, relaxing day. My sister hadn't been feeling well & was diagnosed with strep throat the day before so we all just kind of laid low, hung out & took it easy.

So, basically I ended up doing a lot of this:

And this:

We also started a project in the basement that involved laminating, maps, collages & lots of sticky tags. My sister & her husband just recently had there basement finished & there is an area that is going to be the designated "play room" for the kids. She was inspired by this picture on Pinterest:

& thought it would be fun to recreate something similiar on her wall.

So for the last couple of days she has had me running to OfficeMax to laminate maps, several trips to Walmart to get sticky tabs & more maps, using her own laminator to make small maps & helping her hang them on the wall.

While we were hanging the maps, Tanner was very interested in locating where on the map everyone in the family lived so I suggested to Jen to put a star on the US map of each family member's town or tag it with a label so Tanner could see where we all lived.

Here is a pic before we got started & a pic of how far we got before I had to leave:

My brother-in-law is an avid fisherman & suggested we put some maps up of lakes that he had fished in on the wall as well so the empty spots will be filled with maps of lakes per Ben's request.

I'm hoping my sister sends me a finalized picture so I can admire all our hard work & see how nice it turned out with the addition of the lake maps.

Such a cute idea!