The Saturday 7

1. Remember last week when I said I was considering refinancing our mortgage? I did some basic google searches about current rates, so then of course I started getting facebook ads about it. And I did something very stupid and clicked on one. Even stupider . . . I entered my phone number. 🤦🤦🤦 What was I thinking?? That was Monday. Since then, I have blocked 22 spam calls - most from almost exactly the same number - just one or two digits are different. These people really want my money. The worst part is I decided not to refinance anyway, so it was a futile mistake. Haha.

2. Are you guys excited about March Madness?? I couldn't care less about sports most of the time, but I was sad to miss out on the bracket fun last year. We're back at it this year, and I'm pulling for Villanova even though they're a 5 seed. I'm in 2nd place in the bracket as of now (stinkin' Tennessee really derailed me). We'll see how long that lasts! 😂

3. Yesterday we had another cousins outing - minus my oldest two who had to go to school. (#meanmom) Esther's staying home full-time now, Libby's on maternity leave (and will only go back 1-2 days when she's done), and Niki only works 2 days a week, so we're excited to spend so much time together and let our kids forge lasting relationships! Anyway, we went to the gardens on Friday for the butterfly exhibit. We got there half an hour after they opened, but still had to wait in line for at least half an hour to get to the butterflies. The kids did surprisingly well. I mean, we had to remind them constantly to stay close to us/give the people in line around us 6 feet of space, but there weren't any meltdowns, so I'll call it a win!

Sorry Nash, this was the best of the bunch. Getting a pic of these 5 is no easy feat! Lol

This cutie is Miss Photogenic, actually. And looking so old! 😭

"Waterfall!"

Silly faces!

Saylor was there too. 💓

Our token blondies (and baldy 😂)

Levi walked around with his finger in the air the whole time, hoping a butterfly would land on him. Haha. No such luck.

After the butterflies, we went out to the children's garden. It was right around 40 degrees, which is practically summer to these silly Michigan kids.

Sidenote: Justin just saw Levi's sweatshirt and said, "I didn't know he was an Auburn fan." I said, "No, it's UA for Under Armour." He disagreed, and pointed out that orange and navy are Auburn's colors. And the more I look at it, I think he might be right. Lol. (It does say Under Armour on the tag, but I don't think that's what the AU is for. Haha.)

It was noon by the time we left, so we decided to go out for lunch, but none of our local fast food restaurants are open for indoor dining, so we ended up at Panera. There are no pictures because it was chaos. Lol. But it was delicious chaos. And I love those kids even when they're crazy.

4. College update: I took two classes this semester. For one of them, there's no final exam so my grade has already been posted.

I'm currently getting a 100% in my other class, so we'll see how the final exam affects that. (It's an open book exam, so hopefully I can keep my perfect score!)

I also got some information about my transfer credits this week. Fortunately, many of my old credits have transferred. Unfortunately, I still have quite a few non-library classes to take - like math.

I also have to take a science class. My choices are Astronomy, Environmental Biology, Dinosaur Paleontology, Insects and People, or Genetics. Genetics would probably interest me the most, but it's a 200 level class and I think I need to take the easiest classes I can when it comes to science and math. Haha. I'm honestly considering the dinosaur class just so I can talk dinos with Levi. 😂😂

It looks like I'm going to have to take one "writing intensive" English course (think they have anything about blogging??), a health course (gag), an anthropology class, and a diversity class - they didn't have those when I was in college 14 years ago.

If I can power through at full time for a while, I should be able to finish in 1.5-2 years. Levi will still only be in school part time next year, so I'm not in a terrible hurry. And as long as Biden keeps giving me free college and stimulus money, I can afford to be a full time student!

5. Today, my sisters and I threw a baby shower for my niece Rieley (Tyler's wife). Our family baby boom continues, as she's due with a baby girl in a month! (#greatauntx2) We had a blast today eating delicious food, playing silly games, oohing and ahhing over adorable baby clothes and blankets, and chatting for hours.

Apparently I never took a pic with the food, but this counter was heavily laden with deliciousness!

6. We've had an amazing response to the new mom's group that I wrote about last week. I made these flyers to hand out at church, but so many people have already responded via facebook/my blog that I'm wondering if I shouldn't hold off and make sure my house can hold that many people first! Haha.