Item No. 4- Rocky Point My Darling

Heather and I go to Rocky Point every year for the first week in June. It is heaven. I didn't even have the energy to READ A BOOK. That is how tired and burned out my body and brain were. I just sat right there in that spot for days. Unless we decided to grab ice or tacos. It is probably my best trip every year. 

First stop. Pollo Lucas.

The picture of these makes my mouth water. Oh...my stomach is growling. Maybe because the no carb thing, no sugar thing. Potato tacos on the beach SO SO good. We only caught the potato taco lady once. That made me sad. YUM. YUUUUUUUM. 

Mango on a stick with Tajin. It is such a refreshing treat. 

Here is how the Mexico schedule goes sleep, wake up whenever, eat cereal, lay on the beach, 3-4pm get linner (lunch dinner) come back and lay on the beach and repeat for however many days we are there. It is Heaven and I come back home feeling rested. I love Heather and am so lucky to have her as my friend. It is fun going anywhere with her and I treasure this week because I do not get to see her as often as I want to! 

Item No. 3-The Kids

Tamara and I took the kids to EFY earlier this month. We grabbed lunch at Diablo Burger. They have gourmet burgers and yummy fries. It was so fun to go with T, Belen, her friend Sophie and Aydan. We dropped the kids off and I was fussing over Aydan as a Momma does and he was like....MOM stop. Errrrrrr OK. He has never been embarrassed or annoyed with me around his peers. I might have been a little annoying. You expect that in like fourth or fifth grade so I guess I should be ready for it! HE had a blast! The NAU Flagstaff campus is beautiful.

Cousins! Aydan and Pippa with matching headbands. Can you believe Aydan's curls? Oh I looooove them and I am letting him grow them out because I. JUST. Can't. I love it. 

Ellie spent two weeks in Music Theater Workshop this summer with her Grandma, Cousins, and friends. She had so much fun and it was so fun to watch her perform. She has a gift for drama. I am.......not sure where she gets that from. Kidding. 

Cute Pippa...I love my niece. 

How I didn't get a picture of Graham and his little broken arm I am not sure especially when he was such a great helper when we were making the balloon arch. 

My kids are my best thing. The best thing. I love them so much and it is fun now that they are getting bigger. This is a fun stage of life. 

XOXO- Summatime The Sunny D

Item No. 2- Something is Just Not Right

Item No. 2

Weight gain. Exhaustion. Anxiety. Overwhelm. Depression. Chest Pain. Headache. Vertigo. EXHAUSTION. I know I already said that but the level of tired that I feel is unreal. I will say being off for the summer I do have more energy but I am not expending my energy teaching precious babes right now. So there is that. Plus, this winter I was sick. So so so so sick for at least 9 weeks and I worked, I just kept working taking a day here and there when I literally couldn't get off the bed.  I went to the doctor and they just said checking now wouldn't help since I was sick it would throw the numbers off and I should wait until the summer after I had not had the cold/flu for awhile. They did a blood test, everything they checked looked normal. In the meantime, Laura who I worked with and saw me everyday was like something is wrong! Heather for years has been saying you have to get looked at something is WRONG! Tessie has said why are you so tired all the time SOMETHING IS WRONG! I think everyone is super tired of hearing me whine! I am sorry! 

Well....when you are a single Mom, and taking care of children, and working full time, and tutoring Dyslexic children on the side......plus all of your kids activities...in my mind I just thought NO WONDER I AM TIRED! 

In May we had this super fun girl party at my Aunt's house and that picture right up there that is SO sweet was snapped...and all I could think was DUDE..LOOK...AT....THAT......BOOTAY. When did my bum get so big? Holy Cow. Plus I had been running at least six miles a week and hiking at least ten if not 15 miles a week. It just didn't add up. 

Summer arrived Heather referred me to a Doctor that specializes in women's health.  I went and had eight vials of blood taken. The results are in and it all makes sense. Finally. My hormones are off not just a little but some are dangerously low. I begin hormone therapy on Monday and I am looking forward to that. The doctor said I should notice a difference in three days. I can't wait. In the mean time...with a little help from my Momma I am on a specialized diet to cleanse my body. I am basically eating the same diet as my Guinea Pig Steve. No carbs, No sugar, and limited fats. My soda intake has been reduced to two cans a day and let me tell you....the headaches started last night. The sad thing is I am still drinking soda just such a limited amount. It's like a catch 22 you are so tired...drink caffine...crash..tired..drink caffine. These are positive changes but not easy ones and all I want is a McDonald's vanilla ice cream cone for some reason. In the end though will it help...sugar? No. So, here I go hopefully some positive health changes are on their way and I will feel normal. I just want to feel normal. 

If you are in your forties and do not feel normal...and feel like something is off with your health I highly recommend Kelly Roy or Kristina. I saw Kristina she is awesome. 

azgyn.com

No one but you will take care of you...take care of yourself XOXO-The Sunny D

Item No. 1-Summertime House Projects Underway

Here I am just believing in myself.

Item No. 1

The tile has been ordered! I am so excited and it has lit a fire under me to get other things done in the house that I have just let go. Honestly, because it costs money and takes time to decorate.  Who has any of that?!? It adds up! I mean just the other day I bought some spackle $5, new curtain rods $100, and a rug $145. Not cheap! However, I had forgotten the joy that creating a comfortable space makes me. I had started to feel a little sad like my house wasn't so cute anymore. I have been pouring over Pinterest and Instagram looking at new ideas. I like the new style it's so clean and not like 1999 USA/Americana decor on twenty nine shelves and every crevice of your home. I had that AND a Van Gogh Starry Night bathroom, AND a bathroom painted in the corners with sponges to look like moss and teeny tiny little tendrils of vines that I had carefully painted on the walls. That was my first house.

In this home...home number four where I have settled I had the glorious decor of 2005. Rusts and Olive greens,  Browns, Earth tones.....you know the heavy French/Italian look. A lot of my decorations are from my house when I was married. I have painted and re-purposed a lot of stuff to blues and grays, but still as I looked around at my heavy black curtains with the jacquard lining and my big heavy curtain rods I felt....well...heavy.  I made those curtains from scratch back when I had more time and when my sewing machine and serger worked. Maybe that is why I have kept them for so long. I know what painstaking work it took to make them, just right, the perfect curtain for my once perfect house. You know though here's the thing, I purchased white curtains at IKEA like three years ago so finally I bit the bullet and went to Target to get new rods. It was actually really exciting. What was also exciting that I just soaked up and loved every second of was wandering around Target aimlessly through the departments that I wanted to look at. I wasn't on a time crunch I was luxuriously shopping at Target!  Anywho, I have been in this home for over ten years. It is time to update a few more things.

But also, on the flip side, I like my stuff and I like blues and grays. I thought I would get rid of my kitchen table but the truth is I like the lines of my kitchen table. They are simple and clean. Plus a lot of memories of just the kids and I have been made around that table. So I will keep that...maybe eventually new chairs but for now there are still things I like. My old window that I bought on an antiquing trip to Miami/Globe with my Aunt Margie and cousin Vanessa. My hutch that was gifted to me from my Grandma when she passed away. I love the art that I have purchased to hang in my home, mostly religious art but that is who WE are in this home. I guess the conclusion I have come to with this whole redecorating thing is it is ok that I am not getting everything new, but to update a few key pieces to help my home feel fresh is really exciting to me!

I found a bottle of touch up paint and I spackled the walls where all the nail holes were and I am going to touch those up tomorrow. I like to tape my Christmas cards to my pantry door however, when I take them off it peels off the paint. So, I am going to repaint the front of that door and think of a better method for the cards. I also have a chalkboard which was painted on the back of the door that leads to the garage that could use a fresh coat or two. I don't think chalkboards are in style anymore but I love it because I can make grocery lists, to-do lists, menus out of the ingredients I have in the house and then write down meals for the week. Currently, it has a list of things I am grateful for. So, it might not be cool but it serves an amazing function for me.

I think the fact that my BFF is buying a home for the first time in years has kind of helped me to feel excited too. I can't wait to see what she does! She is so creative and always has a beautiful home. I am really, really, happy for her. Just like it's time for me to do a little updating it is OVERDUE time for her to get to decorate and design a new home. It's so fun looking at ideas and honestly...I stole some of hers.

Here is the tile going in...the blonde brown closest to my foot. You know tile is funny...colors are funny. I don't have any plans to re-do my kitchen any time soon so the tile that I liked in the store looked too pink because of the cherry cabinetry, or made the granite look too yellow. This one was just right. 

Old curtain on backwards...we just threw them up there since there are no blinds on the window. BUT NEW curtain rods! Thanks to my awesome helper Matthew, who put them all up he was like the curtain rod doctor and I was the curtain rod nurse. 

I sold my couches, a dresser, and my coffee table and with the money from those I bought....THIS. Which I will show when the house is done. 

It is a lot of fun! I am enjoying the creative outlet it gives me.

XOXO- TheSunnyD

There Are Many Great Deeds Done in the Small Struggles of Life. - Victor Hugo

Peonies....my favorite 

Summer is a such a gift. I have been loving every second of it. My children have been home and we have been cleaning like crazy, organizing our home, and bedrooms. Every Summer we go through all of their clothes and shoes to see what fits and what doesn't. I have taken so many trips to Goodwill this week. If I measured my week as successful by Goodwill trips this week would have topped the charts. 

We have been pulling up tile and preparing to put in new floors downstairs. This winter we heard loud popping sounds early one morning. It frightened me I thought someone was breaking in the house but it turned out that my tile was just popping up off of the floor. It was so odd. Then we came home one day to see eight tiles had buckled, they looked like a little tile tent all in a row. Our poor doggie was scared out of his wits! I'm sure it made some loud noises. 

As any blissfully ignorant town resident I began to put the tile in my garbage can and pile it on the corner of my lot for bulk pick up. It started to become quite a sizable pile and I was kind of proud of all the progress we had been making. It's hard work pulling up those tiles. We had settled into a nice routine each day of me driving Ellie to swim team practice while I walked the canal. We would come home have breakfast and then get started on one of our projects. It was still quite early by the time we arrived home since swim team ends at 7am. 

On Wednesday, we pulled into our garage just as the Town of Gilbert truck pulled up next to my house. I was searching my brain...did I forget to pay the Town of Gilbert bill? May had been an especially stressful and busy month. The town employee walked up and informed me that this tile pile had to be moved within 24 hours or I would receive a fine of $250.00. Just then the Garbage Man showed up he got out of his truck to look at the tile pile and THENNNNN he peeked in my trash can and told me he absolutely could not pick up my trash can full of tile and two weeks worth of Arizona sun rotting garbage. As I was talking to the very nice town employee who informed me that a neighbor had reported my tile pile which honestly, kind of made me sad. All of these things raced through my head like: I am a nice person, I am not piling my tile here to be annoying. I didn't know, I thought you could for bulk trash pick up! Plus, to top it all off my son who is the muscle of the house was gone for the week to church camp. I was thinking out loud all of the ways I could get rid of the trash or who I could call and I said well, I could just pile it in the back of my Altima and take several loads to the transfer station. To which he replied..no, you can't do that it isn't safe. I felt stuck. Completely stuck and kind of helpless and pretty much super alone and like I had been snitched on and was in trouble. It was a pretty crummy feeling. 

I knew what we could do first. We could unload the yucky tile in the garbage can and add it to the tile pile. Except, I had been doing all of this work with out gloves. In fact, the only pair I had was sun rotted and had been thrown out earlier in the weeks purging process. At 7:15am Ellie and I headed to Home Depot. I purchased two pairs of gloves so we could at least get to work and do what we could with this problem. We came home and to our dismay...began to separate the tile from the stinky, hot, garbage. It was disgusting, but we can do hard things in this house. 

Then I actually said a prayer. I knew that when you had done all you can do and you are faced with a problem you don't know how to solve...pray. I felt that I should put a plea for help on Facebook one on my church's Facebook page and one on my neighborhood's Facebook page. I felt that if I was bothering my neighbors maybe one of them would come and help me.

You should know something about me, I am fiercely independent. If I ask for help it is because I am really up a creek. I HATE asking for help, maybe that's why I've been single for so long. I have to learn to ask sometimes. Just..... the whole damsel in distress thing makes me want to gag.  

I felt quite anxious about the whole situation. I felt anxious about asking, I felt anxious that this tile pile had been bothersome to one of my neighbors, I felt anxious as I had a lot on my plate that day and another friend really needed my help. But as soon as I put that plea on social media I felt a sense of calm and a feeling that said, you won't have to worry about the tile. Help will come. All of my anxiety melted away and I trusted in that assurance. 

The response was astounding. So many people came out of the woodwork and offered to help me in so many ways. There was so much kindness and love that my eyes leaked tears. I was so grateful. I felt bolstered and like I lived in the best neighborhood ever! I felt the goodness of so many people. So many. 

Here is my heartfelt thank you. You were a direct answer to prayer. Whether you believe in that or not, I do. Thank you. 

I came home around four pm to see this. 

Every last scrap, gone. Someone had come to help me when I didn't know how to go about solving the problem myself. It was what we call the Tile Miracle. 

Thank you. XOXO The Sunny D