The Saturday 7

Guess what, guys . . . today is the last day of February! We did it! 

1. February actually seemed to go really quickly this year, because I had a big event to plan for school. This was the event that held me back from taking the Development job for as long as I did . . . because it involved me getting up in front of 100 people to give a speech about our spring fundraiser. But it was more than just a speech, and I spent many hours preparing this week. One of the main things I've been working on for a couple of weeks is creating raffle baskets as prizes. The idea is that for each $100 a family raises, they get a ticket to put in the raffle basket of their choice. So I tried to create some variety, and I'm pretty proud of the end results!

Thank you, Pinterest! I made this myself, and it was actually pretty easy!

2. Thursday afternoon was the school-wide pep rally. Every year we play a life sized matching game which requires me to squat down and place the cards, then squat up and down multiple times helping the little kids. It has now been 2 full days and my thighs are still so sore I can hardly function! 🤦 Other than that, I think the pep rally went well. 

3. Finally, Thursday night was the big event. We serve dinner and provide childcare for as many school families as show up. This year, 172 people RSVPed (that includes about 60 kids). I had a killer team that handled the set-up, food prep, and kitchen work. They even ran to the store when we realized I didn't buy nearly enough salad. Lol. Don't worry. I took meticulous notes this year, so hopefully I'll be better prepared for next year. After dinner, I marched up front, took the mic and began my presentation. I had 28 slides to go through, and printed each one on its own page with color coded notes that I put in a binder and placed on a stand in front of me. I personally made each slide, then read over them countless times, so I knew I was as prepared as possible. And logically, I wasn't that nervous about speaking in front of people. But my body was like, "Anxiety now!" Mostly I was worried about blurting out something that wasn't in my notes, because that's what I do when I'm nervous - put my foot in my mouth. Lol. But as I talked, I started to get more comfortable. I only made one mistake with the giveaways, but other than that, I think it went really smoothly and I got a lot of positive feedback. Whew! Hopefully now that I have one under my belt, the next one will be easier. 

4. Lena's last two games were this week. She actually had an away game while I was doing that event, so none of my family was there to support me. And then her last home game was on Friday. A bunch of my family came out to watch, and her biggest fans even made signs.

Not pictured: my parents and Levi who were also there

She's heartbroken to be done with basketball season . . . but soccer is just around the corner! And, as if having our own kids in sports isn't enough, Justin signed on as the girls' varsity soccer coach this year. So that'll be fun!

5. Today was Levi's birthday, and it kind of fell to the wayside thanks to my week of craziness. On Friday morning I realized we hadn't gotten a birthday treat for his class, so we dropped the girls off at school, then he and I ran to Dollar General to grab some zebra cakes and got to school 15 minutes late. I worked a half day and fully intended to go home and take a nap, but then I remembered I hadn't gotten him the last gift I planned on, so I drove down to Alpine instead. I wrapped the presents at 8:30 last night and went to bed because I was so exhausted. Lol. Unfortunately, due to the timing of our fundraiser kickoff, I'm going to have this problem every year. But now I know that I need to be better prepared in advance! 

6. We still managed to have a fun day today. He had a basketball game at 8:00 in the stinkin' morning, but then we came home and opened presents. 

Justin bought him a pocket knife . . . so I fully anticipate an ER visit in our future.

He chose Raising Canes for his birthday dinner, then we went to the "recliner theater" to watch Goat. 

Justin and Lucy were there, too - they just didn't lean forward enough to get in the light. Haha.

I don't have any kids in single digits anymore and I'm not ok, so let's not talk about it . . .

7. Sadly I only have one meme this week. I was screen fasting for most of the week, and then too busy and exhausted to scroll the rest of the week. Haha.

I'm not gonna lie . . . we've been on Medicaid for most of our marriage so I never really had to pay medical bills. But now that we're sufficiently middle class, Justin and I don't qualify anymore. I've been shocked by all the bills that keep coming at me from that dumb UTI debacle. I paid one big one, then got another email about owing more money, so I paid that one. And I just got another bill a couple days ago! Why on earth does a doctor's appointment and lab fee cost so much??