It's AUGUST Already?!

It's been so long since I've blogged, I don't even know where to start! Well, first of all, I guess I could start with the fact that it's AUGUST! Where did the summer go? I'll be 31, and teaching for my second year in Forest Lake...in LESS THAN A MONTH! Seriously...Time needs to slow down. Anyway, I've had a lot going on lately, so I'll try to be concise. No promises of that, however. Ha!

I suppose I should start off this blog with a little update about my car situation. As I posted on FB a couple of weeks ago, the driver who hit my car did not have insurance. Fortunately for me, her son, who owned the car, did. Phew. It was a huge relief. However, a few days after getting the news that he had insurance, I also learned that my car was totaled. That simply meant, that I was left with no money (all of the money from the insurance company went to pay off the lease), and no car. Awesome. So the next day, I decided to go into work, to earn a little bit of extra cash. They say bad luck comes in threes, right? I figured mine had been taken care of with the whole car incident. Ha! No such luck. As I was getting the car loaded up to head to work, I turned around, and saw Oscar standing in the driveway. "Where did he come from?!" I thought to myself. It turns out Charley had opened the front door, while I was loading up the car. Nice. Oscar was just standing there, and I called to him, but of course he didn't come to me on command. So, I walked toward him, and he decided to take off running. I also took off running. And after about 3 steps, I tripped over my flip flop and totally wiped out on my driveway. It's almost unfortunate my neighbors weren't out, because I certainly would've given them a laugh to start off the day. It was pretty comical to watch, I'm sure...unfortunately, however, in my tripping incident, I also managed to take a large chunk of skin off of my toe. So there I was, bleeding everywhere, limp-running in my flip-flops (damn flip-flops), chasing after my geriatric dog who'd successfully outrun me. It's a good thing he stopped to pee, because it gave me a chance to grab his collar. "I'm going to kill you," I mumbled under my breath. Of course, Charley heard that empty threat, and wailed, "Don't kill my BROTHER!!!" Which lead to an explanation on my part that I was not actually going to kill Oscar, I was just mad at him. When Charley retold the story at the gym, she made sure to say, "My brother ran away this morning!" Of course that got everybody's ears perked up until I explained that Oscar was, in fact, my dog, NOT Charley's brother. Ha! So, I think I finally had my 3rd bad thing, and I'm due for some good karma right about how.

When I learned that my car was totaled,  I filled my calendar with private lessons, in an attempt to come up with a down payment, and set off in search of my new car. Car shopping with a toddler is an experience. Not a good one. But an experience, for sure! Charley was pretty well-behaved (until our last stop at the Mazda dealership...she was NOT amused to be there). The most difficult and frustrating part of the day was trying to test drive cars. I was moving her carseat from one car to the next, at 4 different dealerships. Needless to say, it was a long day. After coming to the conclusion that the most affordable car for me would be a new Mazda 3, and resigning myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to get a small SUV, I got a text from my mom. It said, "How about this. I'll go get a new car, and you can buy my car." Ummm....okay! It basically meant that I wouldn't be responsible for a down payment, and honestly...it made my life a lot easier. So after a very long day, things turned out for the best, and the car situation was remedied fairly quickly.

Once my car dilemma was taken care of, I was able to focus a little bit more on work. My original plan for the summer was to work two days at the gym, and spend the rest of my time getting acclimated to my new community. Well...things haven't exactly worked that way. Last week, for example, I was in St. Louis Park five out of seven days. When I got home from work last night, I was just exhausted. The thing is, I absolutely adore my coaching job, and I'm happy to do it, in spite of the long drive. Anyway, this week I'm determined to stick to two days in St. Louis Park.

In terms of getting acclimated to my new home, I think I've been doing a pretty good job. Charley and I have made some friends in our neighborhood, and started to explore surrounding communities, in search of things to do. We found a free nature center a few miles away, which is great. Charley loves it, it's outdoors, so she gets a little bit of nature exposure, and it's a nice place to go to socialize with other parents of young kids. It's great. We've been spending time at the pool and park, which is really convenient. In fact, we had friends up to the pool on Friday and Saturday! There's nothing better than having friends with children Charley's age, who can join us at the pool. The parents can sit in chairs, get some sun, and chat, while the kids entertain each other for hours. I really don't know how that scenario could get any better! Another perk to all of the outdoor time, is that Charley generally sleeps like a rock at night.

Speaking of sleep, it seems that Charley has become a really solid sleeper. There was a time when I first moved back to MN, when I could count on her waking up multiple times in the night, and generally sleeping in my bed before morning rolled around. Now that we're in our new house and settled in, that really hasn't been an issue. Except, of course, when I WANT her to be asleep. Last Saturday was a long day. We were busy from beginning to end (surprise, surprise), and when she went to bed at 7, I was certain I'd have a whole night to just relax on the couch, without the company of my toddler. Ha! Who was I kidding? Around 10:00, she woke up from a bad dream, and it took her forever to get back to sleep. It's like she knew I wanted her to be asleep...and she was refusing to sleep just to spite me! Typical. She's such a piece of work...good thing she's cute!

Speaking of this week, my Aunt Naomi is coming in town tomorrow. She is just the most wonderful person. She's coming in town simply to give me a break. She knows that I work hard, and I've always got Charley around, so she just wanted to take care of some of the Charley load for a few days. It's so appreciated, and Charley is really looking forward to her visit. It gives me a free couple of evenings, too! Anybody up for dinner or drinks Wednesday or Friday? Let me know!

On that note, I should get back to my day. I'm trying to take advantage of the last few weeks of summer. Have a great week!