Tverdy, party of 3...

Well, it's finally happened. The time has come for Peyton to leave for college. In fact, she and Mark drove away about an hour ago.

Even though we have been preparing for weeks, I think the denial is still super strong for all of us.

We walked by this pile so many times that I'm pretty sure we stopped noticing it!

It doesn't seem like too much stuff. I'm sure that dorm room will fill up quickly though.

Here it is in packed form...

I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job of staying chill. Especially since jury duty coincided with moving week. Nothing like having to wait until the last minute to see if you are able to travel. And I am the eternal optimist so I was SURE I would get to go. Finding out at the last minute that I didn't in fact get to go was bit heartbreaking.

I did lose it at Church Sunday. The priest had all of the students headed to college stand in the aisle and the congregation blessed them. That's so far been the only time I cried. I also made my people take photos after Mass to commemorate her last Sunday at home. They were thrilled.

We had a fun going away lunch with Emma's family after church. I hope she and Peyton will be successful roommates! I think they will do well.

Syd is still super terrified to be our sole focus. She's pretty sure swimming will take up a lot of time so she won't constantly be bugged by us. I imagine she'll find a few extra hobbies if we get too obnoxious.

As of now, I'm waiting to hear that they arrived safely. Tomorrow is official move-in and I made Mark promise they would face time me so I can at least see her room!

The tears haven't actually started yet, but I'm definitely on the brink of crying. I'm pretty sure it will be short lived if and when it comes. At least I hope so! Peyton will probably stay fairly tear-free since it's Mark there and not me. Fingers crossed anyway!

And it's ONLY 7 weeks til U of I's Homecoming and I get to see my girl again.

Life skills...

"I can't believe I'm 15 years old and I already have to pay taxes!" - Sydney Tverdy

Dude, you're preaching to the choir. I can't believe I'm 43 and still have to pay taxes!

A year or so ago, Peyton mentioned that she didn't think she was ready for college because she didn't know how to do anything.  Including filing tax returns. Well, as much as I think this would have been a good skill to teach her this year, I ended up just doing them for her...again. Maybe next year. (Yeah, right.) Hopefully we have prepared her for being on her own. Thankfully, she will have her friend Emma as a roommate. Pretty sure they will be a good balance of adulting skills. Peyton knows how to cook, do laundry, manage money. I'm not at all worried about her study skills. What are we missing? I'm sure there is something.





We seem to be screaming through April, which means my first baby will be turning 18 shortly. And then there is graduation. We should probably work on getting those announcements out. Throw in a few swim meets for Syd and another nerd camp and a driving test to obtain her license and she seems even busier than her sister.

I think the next few months are going to be a blur.

It's Official!

This chick is #UIdahoBound!

She's filled out the housing application and sent in her deposit. In 5 short months, she will be on campus.

How is that even possible?

I think we knew all along this is where she would end up. It makes the most sense in all aspects. She was accepted everywhere she applied, and received a crazy amount in scholarship offers. But none could come close to U of I financially.  Even Idaho State would have been more expensive. I'm not sure how that even happened.

We are pretty excited.

Some might say we brainwashed her...I'm not following that logic. ;-)

   

Just because she has always been drawn the the black and gold doesn't mean we had anything to do with it! She makes her own clothing choices. Always has...

What? ;-)

For now, she has her work cut out for her addressing these babies...

Being a grown-up isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes. ;-)

Oh, and watch out Nate and Erin...it will be here before you know it!

The Mountains Are Calling...

Camping - Take 2...

So, we hit our second camping weekend. It was fun going somewhere new. We had been to Lake Cascade several times, but never camped there.

It's pretty tough to beat the scenery...

 

And the sunsets definitely don't suck...

And just because we like to camp, it doesn't mean we are savages. This little gem is one of my favorites as far as "camping gear" goes....

The weather was gorgeous. We took a bike ride Saturday that had us all tired and probably pretty smelly. No showers = stinky Tverdys.  We decided to wait to go to Church until we got home Sunday evening. You're welcome to anyone who would have been in our immediate vicinity.

Macie had a great time running around like crazy. She was pretty tired by Sunday...

Peyton was scheduled to get her wisdom teeth out Monday so since she will have to be popcorn free for several weeks, Mark bought her some Jiffy pop. Remember this stuff? Way more fun to watch cook than it is to eat...

We roasted a few marshmallows...

But mostly just hung out with each other. So glad the girls are still willing to hang out with us...most of the time anyway.

Not sure when or where our next camping adventure will be.  Peyton only has one free weekend this summer since she's starting her job. Maybe this will be the year I'm willing to leave her home alone? Maybe...

Vegas, Baby!

It's Wednesday evening and I've just woken up from a nap.

Mark and I got home from our Vegas trip around 3 and let me just say that I am officially too old to survive for long on so few hours of sleep!

We spent a lot of time buying this...

Mama needs her coffee!

This is a shot of our new found freedom:

Because everyone needs to see us on the plane, right? LOL

It's funny that I didn't actually take a ton of photos. I'm usually whipping my phone out on the regular, but there are SO MANY PEOPLE on the streets and such. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of too many people being around me.

So, what did we do while we were there? Well, I gambled...a lot. Mark doesn't love it quite as much as I do, but he played along. We also walked...and walked...and walked.

Check out these stats from our first full day:

We did see a show our last night. I cannot recommend this enough!

So impressive! We kept thinking how much the girls would love it! But, I'm sure they were having a ton more fun without us. Ha!

This show was at our hotel. Which was why we chose to see this version of Cirque de Soleil. Because, lazy. And our hotel was amazing. I'd show you, but no pictures. 

Speaking of the girls, they went to Disneyland with the Bishop Kelly choir. Which was the catalyst for us going to Vegas. Win/win for sure! My friend Jennifer sent this of the girls:

Clearly they miss us.

And clearly, I was eating responsibly on our way home...

Airport Cinnabon? Yes, please!  (Poor Mark had to be my photo assistant)

I will say that our journey home was delightful with all this leg room. So nice for those of us who normally are squished up on airplanes!

And now, it's back to work. I can say that I'm actually happy to be home. And I'm also actually looking forward to the normalcy of life. Exactly what you would hope to achieve with vacation!

Now I just need my chicks to get home...

Surprise! Surprise that we finally got something done, that is...

So Syd had a birthday...7 months ago. One of her gifts was a re-do of her room. Mark and I finally got around to the paint update this weekend. The girls were gone the whole weekend so we definitely walked on the wild side. Ha to the ha ha.

Here is the before picture:

As you can probably tell, Syd got to pick her room color when we moved to the new house. It really is as obnoxious as it looks. In fact, more than once, I've walked by thinking she left the light on when in fact, it's just the loud paint.

Sydney has had trouble sleeping for the last few years. It finally dawned on me that maybe her wall color had something to do with it? So, we researched the best wall color to help sleep. And we came up with blue.

Unfortunately, we had a little bit too much "BSU" coloring around the house for a couple hours. Thankfully, we survived the embarrassment...

Here are a few "action" shots:

Impressive, huh?

Macie was really curious what we were doing too.

Mark and I are not the cleanest painters...

This doesn't even show when I bumped the wall with my entire arm. Oops.

Here is a "final" picture. We are still trying to decide what she wants on the sign I'm going to make for above her bed.

It's difficult to tell the color from my awesome photography. But here is the swatch:

She was pretty surprised when she got home. I imagine that is mainly due to the fact that her parents are totally unreliable dolts. I also think that if she wasn't so completely exhausted, she would have been really excited. She did thank us several times. So, there is that. Parenting win? Probably...if we weren't closer to her next birthday than the last.

Responsibility

This morning, in my usual Saturday fashion, I was unable to sleep past 6 AM. Which totally makes sense since on weekdays, I'm having to drag myself out of bed at 6:45 so I'm not late for work.

As I was sitting there drinking my coffee, I heard Peyton's shower go on. I was thinking she forgot it was Saturday and was going to be super annoyed. About the time I realized what was going on, Mark came out and said "I completely forgot Peyton was taking the ACT today." Oops.

Peyton was not excited about being up early on a Saturday. She was not excited about taking the ACT. She was stressed, nervous, irritated, and completely annoyed with us. Yet, in the back of my mind I could only think "She is becoming responsible!!"

All through her breakfast, she was complaining. As she was getting ready, she was complaining. Before she left, she was complaining. But, still, I was happy. She's becoming responsible!

We tried to talk to her, but that only seemed to make it worse. And then I started to get annoyed with her bad attitude. Which also made it worse. Shocking, I know. But, at the end of the day, I'm elated. She's becoming responsible.

And I couldn't be prouder.

Sales 101

What have you been up to? Oh, not much. A little of this, a little of that.

 

The girls and I spent our weekend at the St. Mark's Christmas bazaar. It was fun getting to hang out with them. It was also fun to watch their sales pitches. I am terrible at marketing my own products so they were in charge of selling. :-) Syd was sure to tell everyone that the wood for the signs was at least 40 years old and from our property. And she would always tell them that everything was handmade...including the flowers. She told anyone, even if they weren't interested. But, it's good practice.

We ended up having some things left over, which is actually a good thing in my mind. I want them to know that things aren't always easy. I get the feeling they thought we would sell out all our merchandise right away. It's a good lesson that things don't always go according to plan.

And now, they are super excited to list things online. Works for me!