Thursday!!

So.. Arnold totally surprised me earlier in the week and told me it was an "easy" workweek, and he still had a lot of vacation hours saved up, so he was going to take Thursday and Friday off!!! I was so happy.. he hardly ever gets to take off weekdays, so that was nice. He also got his bonus last week so we were able to pay off a lot of bills and start shopping for some things we needed, which was a huge blessing!!!

Thursday morning I went to the mall with the kids and let them play in the playarea.. i met a friend and her daughter there, too. Arnold stayed at home and worked on his "Honey-do" list ;) He installed us a new toilet seat (Im telling you... its a glamourous life around here! ;) worked on our bathroom door that had broken (long long story), mowed the yard, and other miscellaneous things. He also went to Lowes to buy some pine needles.. and bought what he thought was pine NEEDLES.. but came home with pine STRAW on accident! I came outside to him vaccuuming the van out, and I thought he was just being extra sweet and vaccuuming for me, but no.. he was trying to get up loose pine straw that was EVERYWHERE. Now we have several stacks just sitting in our carport.. he says he will find a use for it.. we will see. Meanwhile Brooke finds it and I see her throwing it in the air, weeeee and getting it stuck all in her hair.. not fun to clean out!!


Anyway, after that crazy morning we went to school to have lunch with Brooke. Arnold never gets to go so Brooke was thrilled! She didnt know Me, Caleb and Rach were coming too (last min decision) so she was beside herself when she saw us come in.. she shakes a little when she is excited.. she must get that from me, because we all know I get WAY too excited over most things ;) I also had little kids yelling out HEY! to me when we came in.. found out it was the older brother of one of Brooke's friends. I feel really old now.. because these kids like to call me MRS DEAL!!! Ahhh, when did the times change so?? Anyway, they had hotdogs for lunch, and greenbeans and peaches. Sometimes school lunch can be pretty good! Rachel could have cared less about the hotdogs but she was really cramming those peaches in.. at least my kids eat their fruits! Its also a tradition that when you eat at school w/ your kids you buy them an icecream, so all the kids got them a strawberry icecream bar. Then it was time for Brooke to go back to class, so she lined up with her class..and we watched her leave. Arnold waved to her from the window, then she turned around and walked away.. seeing her leave into school still breaks my heart!!! Will i ever get used to it?!

The rest of the day was pretty low-key.. we played outside, took a long walk with the kids around the block, and other various things. It was SO nice to have Arnold at home with us.. for the company... and yeah, I guess for the help, too ;)

Playing at the Mall

Lunch at Brookes School

I went to Gymbo after we got the bonus check, and they were having an awesome sale, and somehow these 2 adorable shirts for Rachel rang up 2.99 each!!! I was like score!! And I had a coupon too.. cant beat that!

I also found this purse for Brooke.. she doesnt really need anything but I couldnt resist it, it was too cute.. she will LOVE it!!!

She wanted some little braids in her hair.. wanted to be like her Friend, Daisy. Mommy is not the best with hair, but she tried!!!