Oh yes it's Fri-YAY

It's Friday and I have the day off!! Which gives me a 5 day weekend with my loves!  After the week we have had I would say that this is perfect!  Getting up and moving on...

::ONE::

We have had a pretty emotional week.  I went into more detail on Thursday, but we found out on Monday that my pregnancy was no longer viable - actually it was another ectopic, which makes that our third ectopic and fifth miscarriage over our 6 year Infertility Journey.  While we are completely devastated with this news we have received some great clarity from God that a natural intrauterine pregnancy is never going to happen and I can finally move past this exhausting journey we have been on and begin the adoption process again.  I have been asking God for direction for a long time and I am now finally ready to accept His answer.  I imagine that it will be quite freeing to not be constantly evaluating my "symptoms" as I have been doing for the past 65 cycles and to just focus on my family.

::TWO::

One of my best friends is getting married in less than a month.  I feel so lucky to get to be a part of her special day as a bridesmaid (and my dreams for Ellie came true as she will be the flower girl!) and support her throughout the whole day.  This weekend we are celebrating her last few weeks of singlehood with a Bachelorette weekend.  I am so looking forward to focusing on her and to be in the presence of her very best friends - because lets be honest, she is pretty spectacular so that means the girls she hangs out with are awesome too!

::THREE::

I posted this picture on my IG (@lifeonthefarm) you should follow me! and on my Facebook Page (you should like it too!).  I wanted to thank everyone for their input and we have chosen a color!!  I am not going to tell you which one we chose because I like to keep an air of mystery about me...or something...but I am so excited for our home to finally get a make over and to be rid of the flesh color once and for all!!  If you wouldn't mind praying for the weather to cool down just a little bit here so that we can paint in relative "coolness" that would be greatly appreciated.

::FOUR::

We had a super relaxing 4th of July just hanging out on the farm.  We had planned on having Bison burgers for dinner, so we took the meat out of the freezer to thaw the night before but forgot to put it in the fridge so when we woke up in the morning the meat was bad and we had to throw it out.  So a trip to the store to pick up some Grass Fed Beef and other fixin's we went.  I love going to the store as a family and I am grateful that my husband obliges and goes with me.  Then we stopped at a fireworks stand and dropped a whopping $3 on Sparklers and Morning Glory's (which is $3 more than we have ever spent on fireworks brw)  When we got back home we put away the groceries and then hunkered down and just tried to stay cool and relax for the rest of the day.

  Oh yeah, about an hour after we got back home we realized that we left the meat out in the car and almost thought that maybe we just weren't supposed to have burgers...luckily the meat was still cold and we could continue on with our dreams of burgers for dinner.  Since Thomas' parents were coming over we cleaned up the house a little bit and I planted some flowers we got on sale on Thursday.  We started the 90 minute process of watering our farm (oh how I dream of a sprinkler system....) and I harvested some peas from the vegetable garden for a snack.  While Ellie was taking her nap we got her pool inflated and realized it had a tennis ball sized hole in it so we mended it with some duct tape and that seemed to hold it pretty well.  Once Thomas' parents arrived we went outside and let Ellie play in her pool, swing on her swingset and run around like a little maniac.  

Then around 5 we started grilling our burgers on bbq and got all the fixin's ready.  After dinner we let Ellie hold some fireworks and she LOVED it asking fore "more fire more fire!!" then we went inside to dry Ellie off and to cool down in our beloved A/C (which we very rarely use) and to let Ellie play with her inside toys.  I made us some Strawberry Shortcake for dessert with hand whipped whipped cream - just like my mom used to make - and it totally hit the spot and was so good!  I will share the recipe next week, its so easy and really doesn't take much more time than cutting a pound cake.  

Around 8:00 is when our neighbors get crazy and start letting off the damn fireworks so out I go to stand with my horse to try and keep her calm for the next 10 hours or so. Okay that might be a little bit of an exaggeration as it probably is only about 3 1/2 hours, but when the mosquitoes are biting even 3 minutes feels like forever!  At about 9:00 the real show starts at our neighbor two houses down where they drop over $5K on fireworks (now that is a shit ton of money) and we seriously get a front row seat of a nearly professional show.  It last about 30 minutes and is pretty spectacular if you are into the fireworks scene - which I am not.  Partly because of my horses and partly because I got hit with a Roman Candle on the leg that then exploded on my foot when I was 15.  Sparklers are still pretty scary to me....Finally by about 10:30 most of the fireworks were done so we were able to call it a night.

::FIVE::

Speaking of some home improvements, not only are we going to finally paint our home's exterior but its time to make some changes to Ellie's room.  This past weekend I found the best bed frame on craigslist for a steal of a deal, we made a trip to IKEA to pick up this (which was on major sale) for her closet makeover which is a work in progress and will hopefully be done this weekend, and then I just need to choose a paint color for her walls and get painting on that!  And we kinda need to do it quickly because a certain little Miss has learned how to climb out of not only her pack'n'play but also her crib.  So a transition to a big girl bed is happening a little earlier than I had planned...Oh how these little grow up so fast.  If only she would decide that its time to potty train....

oh and in case you didn't notice...apparently I am really into circles right now.

♥ Ashley

linking up here