typical tuesday: Emma Wilson

One of my favorite people in the the whole wide world, Emma Wilson, is sharing a typical tuesday post with us today. Emma helped me be sane in Charlotte, when we were unemployed, or when Chad was working 84 hours/week and I had no car (this is not an exaggeration) or when it was just hard to be a mom some days. We were both going to similar situations, which helped a lot, we could pick each other's brains. We also cooked a lot of food together. We share a passion for good food, and Emma has a gift for cooking, if you ever get an invite from her...drop whatever you have going on, and go. I really could go on and on about Emma, but I'll stop, all you need to know is: everyone needs a friend like Emma. ALSO she was an extra in The Hunger Games movie. Sooooo...basically you know someone famous now. Here she is!

Aloha to all of you friends via Rachel's blog world.  It is I, Emma, reporting from the East Coast of good 'ole Charlotte, North Cakalacky.   Rachel and I used to hang out, play basketball (yes, Rachel played basketball and she was great for a soccer chick who never played basketball before!), and eat....eat a lot...like every time we were together we were eating or talking about eating.  Ahhhh, those good days.  Dang it Rachel, we need to do that again!

Anyway, my Tuesdays usually consist of any of these four things (sometimes a combination of several):
1. Athletic conditioning class at the YMCA (#1 reason why I have gym membership is because I'm doing 2 obstacle races this year and I need some type of training to get ready.  First one is in 3 weeks, second one is next month)
2. Babysitting
3. Cleaning a house
4. Substituting at my daughter's preschool

This particular Tuesday had only part of one, so it was strange.  Oh well.

Rise and shine!

Kainoa (Hawaiian for "free/clear ocean" pronounced kai-no-ah), my 5 year-old daughter, woke me up by climbing into bed with me all dressed for school already.  Wow she's good.  Your eyes doth not deceive you, that says 7:42 baby.  David, my husband, was up at 6:30 and outta here by 7:15'ish.  He's an attorney and does contract work that comes and goes and we never know how long he'll have work.
Kainoa even made my bed when I got out- I should have taken a pic.

Daily ritual of warm milk in the sippy for my 2 1/2 year-old daughter, Iwalani, and warm chocolate milk for Kainoa.

The mustache- a sign of a true addict.

This day wasn't going to allow any gym time so it was situps and pushups while I watched 5 min of the Today show and checked the weather. 

Nice, weather AND what to do if a tornado comes near your house- bonus today on the weather station.

Call me granny- shoot, I take so many pills.  Eh, it's to get me through the day.

Made Kainoa lunch.  Mmmmm, ice cream cone...nothing like a dry, crunchy, treat for lunch (eh, she asked for it so might as well)

Iwalani (Hawaiian for "heavenly bird" pronounced ee-va-lah-knee) is finally awake!  It was about 8:20'ish.   She usually wakes up around 8:00.  Cereal for breakfast.

Kainoa's hair is fixed, sunglasses on, and both girls are staring at Super Why on the tv.
Iwalani's #2 love (first love is her brown bear)- slippers (that's Hawaiian style for saying flip flops).

I see this beautiful sight outside my bathroom window.  I love spring in this rental house because I know these purple flowers will be there against our bamboo "fence."

Ready to meet the world.  I really want to chop my hair off.  Again.  Don't tell David.  Well, I guess he already knows that because I tell him almost every day.

Downtown Charlotte and heading to Kainoa's preschool.

Waiting for the drop-off line to move along.

So long Kainoa! 

Went to the church I attend and met with the president over the women's organization of the church (called the Relief Society) and discussed the needs and ways to help the women I visit that attend the same congregation as us. 
I learned a very important lesson- never leave home without a diaper because your 2 1/2 year old can make a disgusting poopy diaper, in which you'd have to clean the poop out and put the diaper back on because she would refuse to sit on the giant poop mound.  YUCK.  Sorry for that mental picture, but at least it wasn't an actual action you had to perform.  YUCK.

Back home and time for a snack.  Yes, she is still in her pajamas.  Yes, I am too lazy to fight with her to put on normal clothes this day.



A delicious combo- sweet and salty.

Helped out for 1 1/2 hours at Kainoa's preschool while the teachers had a staff meeting. 

A bonus about staff meetings- lunch- and today was particularly spectacular- Indian food.  Woo hooo!!!

Went home after the meeting and darn it, she fell asleep.  One 5 min nap will result in a 2 hour awake fest after her normal bedtime of 7:15.
There's the bum of her #1 love- Snuggles.

Snack time!  (she is onto outfit #2....this drives me and David crazy.  She changes clothes way too much!)

Kainoa wanted to take a picture of this worm. 

I hate doing laundry.  I'd rather mow the lawn, except our awesome landlord does that with his standing mower.  Perhaps I should ask him how to use it....

Laid down for a few seconds to stretch out the back.
I forgot to take pics of the girls playing outside, then inside, then practicing letters/site words, etc.  But you can just imagine that.  That will take that poopy diaper image outta your brain.

David's home early (5:30)! He entertained the girls while I made dinner. 
He's the green thumb in our family.  People compliment me on our flowers that he grows, but I have to give the credit to him.



We had our friends Sabrina and Jason and their 2 1/2 kids come over for dinner as payback for them babysitting my (that is the one plant that I do take care of) plumeria tree.  They kept it in their garage throughout the winter.
Dinner- Pad Thai     Dessert- Mango Sticky Rice
I finally have a recipe that I really like for the Pad Thai...it only took about 7 different tries.  Yikes.

The tree on the left is what the tree looks like now, the one on the right is what it looked like in the summer last year. These are one of my favorite flowers- smells wonderful and looks great tucked behind an ear :).

Sabrina and Jason are having baby #3 soon (a boy).  Our landlords (Pam and Randy) aka our second parents aka lifesavers came by and I forced them to eat dinner with us :).  I like the motto "the more the merrier" and it was fun.  David is an 11 year-old Blazer scout leader and does that every Tuesday night.  He couldn't stay for dinner so I'm glad I had 4 adults to take his place.

The kids played for an hour or so while us adults vegged and talked about work, babies, Doctor Who, and food.

Our friends left, I got the girls ready for bed, and luckily Iwalani did not take forever to drift off to sleep (we have to lay down with her still to get her to go to sleep). 

Onto kitchen cleanup!

20 min later- OooooOOOoooOoo- Shiny!

Stuffed myself silly again with more food and checked email and Facebook.

I too like to watch Once Upon a Time like our previous friend from last Tuesday :).  I save it for Tuesday night while David is at scouts AND he stays for basketball with the menfolk.  He stays and plays until about 11:30.

Did some scripture reading and after that a little bit of book club book reading (Peace Like a River). 
Drift off to sleep around 11:15.  David got home at some point that night....

Thanks for letting me share my somewhat Typical Tuesday Rachel! 


Thank YOU Emma. 
You are awesome. Really.


Wanna share a typical tuesday with us??? You KNOW YOU WANT TO.
Just email me, k?
rachel . meynders @ gmail . com