{Road Trippin | Harley Adventures | Day 1}

I was going to vlog this trip but decided it would be weird to bust out my phone on the bike lol. Especially since I wasn't really familiar with the other couples we were riding with. But I definitely took enough pictures to share the experience with all you lovely readers (there have to be at least a couple of you right?)

Our weekend started off with meeting two other couples at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. After breakfast we hopped on the bikes and we were off on our adventure. What I had originally thought would be a three hour trip, had been made into a five hour trip with D leading our little pack.

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{I Turned 34!}

I seriously can not believe how spoiled I was this weekend. I am so grateful to have such an awesome husband who wanted to make my birthday special.

Friday was pretty normal. I waited for the kids to get home from school and get their chores done before dropping them at my grandma's house for the weekend. I told her all I wanted for my birthday was to be kid free! I honestly don't think I've had a completely empty house in months. Since the two teenagers are old enough to stay home with Owen now we don't have a need for a sitter too often. But sometimes a mom just needs to feel like herself again, ya know?

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{5 Weeks Later & She's Still Grounded}

I would like to say I'm surprised we haven't gotten anywhere with this punishment, but I'm not. I knew it wasn't going to be as easy as grounding her. I knew that by taking away everything we would be in for a fight. I knew that when I told her she had to earn her things back week by week she would determine this to be BS and things would get worse before they got better. I was not wrong. We are still in the thick of it.

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{Prissy Had A Seizure}

The first time Prissy (our pug/chihuahua) had a seizure, it scared the crap out of me. I had no idea what was going on. Of course it happened on a Sunday so the local animal hospital wasn't open (nice right?). I was so afraid that something was wrong with her. I thought for sure that we would find out something was happening and she would end up having to be put down. One of my main fears as a pet parent is that I'm going to have to make the decision to let go of one of my animals. To hold them while someone they don't know or trust takes their life. I know it's coming some day, but she's not old enough for me to be worrying about that with her.

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{I'm Aware He's Not a Baby}

Trust me people, I am well aware of the fact that Owen is no longer a baby. I'm made more aware of this fact every single day. When he makes his own bowl of cereal, when he gets himself up and packs his own lunch, when he's outside playing with the neighborhood kids.

I see it every single time he tells me he doesn't need me to do something for him, or to help him do something.

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{So I Guess We're a Harley Family Now}

You guys. *Sigh* For the fifteen years I have known and been in a relationship with my husband, he has never been a Harley Davidson fan. Not once did I ever hear him say oh I'd really like to have a Harley. In fact, it has always been the opposite. He has always said that he doesn't like them and he had no desire to own one. When we first got together, I thought he was kind of nuts. Pretty much every male in my family has owned a Harley at some point in their life. All one of my uncle rides is Harley's. So to have someone telling me that they're junk, was kind of confusing lol. But he converted me. We had a concours and that was what I liked. I got used to it. We went through two of them.

Goldie and the KLR

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{My Husband Took Me Hiking & I Almost Died!}

You. Guys. Ugh.

When it starts getting nice out, my husband suddenly starts getting these ideas in his head. He wakes up one morning and says today is the day we go on an adventure, and then he drags me along with him...because he hates me (OK...not really but whatever). Friday, my dear friends, was one of those days. One of those days when he looked at me thirty minutes after getting out of bed (me getting out of bed, he woke up at four in the morning because #nightshifter), and says Do you want to take the kids to Starved Rock today? Which of course I say yes to because saying no would mean that I'm the party pooper.

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{Happy Easter!}

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter! Mine was pretty mellow.

I filled the Easter baskets the night before (obviously) and hid a few eggs through the house for Owen to hunt. I know I already made posts about what each kid got, so I won't go down the list again. But everyone was pretty happy with what they got so it doesn't really matter. I know we added a few things after I made that post to Owen's basket. Of course I forgot to put those things in his basket so I had to play it off like the bunny dropped them in my room.

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{Today Was a Good Day}

As some might know, a month or so ago, our furnace took a big ol' crap. It hasn't been insanely cold so we've just been heating the main rooms with space heaters. Not good for the long run but it was working in a pinch. We had been planning on getting a new furnace for a while and upgrading ours to include central air. But it seemed like every time we saved up the money or had extra money, something would come up and that would put it on the back burner. Plus, we had all the window units so to be honest, I wasn't too eager to get central air. I mean, it's nice and all, I grew up with it. But it certainly wasn't a priority for me (clearly or we would have had it by now).

But since the furnace finally just pooped out on us, the house sort of decided for us that it was time to take the leap. So that's what we did today. D's grandma has used the same man/company to do her HVAC for years and so we called him up. He gave us an estimate (and the family discount ;) ) and said he could do it the next day (today). His guys were here by 10am and had it all done around 5pm. We got a digital thermostat (which is pretty common at this point right? Lol) and we instantly felt the temperature in the house change when they tested out the air. I think it's going to do the job just fine this summer. There's also a built in dehumidifier so it's going to cut down on allergies quite a bit (mainly for D because he gets them something awful!). So that was exciting today!

While the guys were here doing all that, I took Owen and Dawn to see Boss Baby.

It was a super cute movie. Owen really liked it, which says something because the kid refuses to like anything that doesn't have a ridiculous amount of fighting in it (boys...am I right?). If you're on the fence about seeing it, go. You won't regret it :).

In the evening we went for ice cream at our favorite local place. Well actually, I was taking  a bath and D took Dawn and Owen to get ice cream. When I got out of the tub, I went to get some too and Owen got more lol.

So in all I think today was a pretty good day. Not stressful at all even though there were people in and out of my house all day.

How was your Thursday? I hope you're having  a great week!

-Kristin

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{What's in My 9 Year Old Son's Easter Basket?}

Oh lordy you guys. If you have a nine year old boy, you know my struggle right now. He is at that age where he doesn't really want toys but he also isn't old enough to just give him cash or a gift card. He still plays with his action figures and TMNT toys but he has so many of them that I don't really want to buy more to just clog up his room with. He is a little gamer in training (thanks for that by the way husband) too so he enjoys things for his PS4 more than anything else.

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