Weekly Review 85

Overall, this week was great. There were some really busy and hard days at work, but those went by quickly. There were also a couple birthday’s celebrated, a really bad storm, and lots of potty training. Let’s jump into the latest edition of my Weekly Reviews!

On Monday it was Lea’s birthday. Before work, the three of us hung out downstairs, while I mentally prepared for the week ahead and Mr. O played with his toys. Once work started, I overheard a conversation between Lea and Mr. O. The night before, she had told him they were going to bake cupcakes for her birthday, and he did not forget. 

Lea: “Why are you going to the garage?

Mr. O: “To make cupcakes!”

Lea: “We make the cupcakes inside.”

Mr. O, shocked but intrigued: “WHAT?!”

He remembered from his birthday party how we had the store bought cupcakes in the fridge in the garage, Lol. He thought they were in there, so he wanted to go get them himself. An hour or two later the cupcakes were ready, and all my hard work on the treadmill went straight into the trash. When the afternoon arrived, a terrible storm crossed over the region. 60-70 MPH winds blasted through the area, knocking down huge poles and taking out a lot of power. I was in the middle of working when all our power went out. “Oh no”, I thought. This has never happened before (not while I was working, anyways). Thankfully, I had charged my phone fully a little before the storm started, so I used the hotspot on it to continue working. It was tough, though, because I had to work from my laptop only, since my monitors were out. I just barely made it to the end of the day before my computer died.

After work, I walked out of my office to Mr. O frantically pacing the family room, talking non-stop about how the “house ran out of batteries”. He was a little freaked out, but we were able to calm him down. Thankfully, my mom still had power at her house, so we had a sleepover! We packed up all our things for the night and headed that way. When we arrived Mr. O was so excited. My mom ordered dinner and we watched American Idol as Mr. O played in the other room with my mom. 

After dinner I checked my phone. On Sunday evening I posted that video of me kicking and missing that field goal (the one I shared in my last weekly review). When I opened Tiktok, I was not surprised to find a bunch of comments from strangers absolutely roasting me. I haven’t been roasted online in such a long time, it was nice to be humbled in this way again, Lol. Obviously, I knew it was coming when I posted that video, so it was easy to laugh it off. I even laughed at the video, it was such a terrible kick! 

Once the show was over, Lea, Mr. O, and I had to cram into my childhood bedroom. We all squeezed in the bed, and we each took turns reading to Mr. O. Lea read two books, then I read two books. “Move over, Dada”, is what he said when I finished reading and he was ready to sleep. I would have moved over, but I was already on the edge of the bed, and his little feet pushing my back didn’t help!

When I woke up Tuesday, I listened to a voicemail from the energy company telling us the power at our house was restored. Thank God! I did not want to work from my mom’s house, Lol. We rushed to drop Mr. O off at daycare, then rushed home so I could shower before work. I had, maybe, 15 minutes to spare when it was all said and done. The work day was terrible, I’m not going to lie and pretend it was good. It was long and brutal and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. 

When I finally closed my laptop, Lea and Mr. O pulled into the garage. He refused to get out of the car unless I went out there to get him. To tease Lea, I took my time getting my shoes and going out there, Lol. The evening was calm. We ate dinner, played, and then Lea gave our little man a bath and put him to bed, while I continued questing on BG3 with my friends. After the chaos on Monday, Tuesday was a blessing. 

Wednesday didn’t bring much of anything this week. I slept in and then watched Mr. O’s shows before I had to start working. Then in the evening, Lea had a night out with her friends planned, so it was just me and my boy. We watched the Talkville podcast (which is a Smallville rewatch podcast with the two main characters), while we ate and played. Then Mr. O wanted to watch Curious George while we put his wooden train tracks together. It was an easy day. 

Now Thursday…it did not start off well! Thursday was my birthday, I’m now 32 years old, and I hoped to sleep in. However, I should have known the chances of that happening were ZERO, now that Mr. O has his big boy bed. At 1 AM I opened my eyes. What I saw didn’t frighten me, but I was surprised to see it. Sitting up right next to me in my bed was a big, blonde curly haired 3 year old, with big blue eyes. He was staring at me with the biggest smile on his face, and didn’t say a word. “What are you doing?”, I asked. “Lay down, let’s go back to sleep.” After he forced me to go get his blanket from his room, we both fell back asleep and I enjoyed the early morning with my little guy. Later that morning, we went downstairs and I made us breakfast. Then we played with his trains. Eventually, we had to get ready to leave for daycare. 

I let Mr. O “drive” my car, then when I took him out of the car to take him to his car seat, he ran away from me down the sidewalk yelling, “You’ll never catch me, Dada!”. It’s too early for this, I thought to myself. He eventually came back (he just ran next door), and we made our way over to one of his favorite places. In the evening, we ordered Aurelio’s for my birthday dinner and finished season 9 of Smallville. What a great show. After Mr. O went to sleep, Lea and I watched an episode of Psych. Another great show!

When Friday came around, Lea and Mr. O slept in. I relaxed downstairs, enjoying the peace and quiet of the house. When Mr. O woke up, he played a train simulator game on my iPad while I got ready for work. The work day was alright. It had greatly slowed down compared to the rest of the week. Around lunch time, the fence company was finally able to find time to come and fix our fence. It’s been raining constantly, so it’s been tough getting them out here. It looks good! We’re happy to have it fixed. 

In the evening, my aunt and cousin were flying back from London. My mom and I drove to Greektown in Chicago, where my aunt met us for dinner. We went to Greek Islands. It’s delicious! We ordered grilled octopus and saganaki for our appetizer (my go-to always!), and then for dinner I ordered a combo plate of lamb, dolmades, meatballs, potatoes, and veggies. It was SO GOOD. I think I set a new PR for how fast I ate it, Lol. Then for my birthday dessert, I ordered a Greek tiramisu. It was also delicious! My aunt and I split it. 

When I came home around 10 PM, Lea was downstairs hanging out. I assume she was waiting for me, which is nice. My assumption is probably wrong and she just didn’t want to go upstairs yet, Lol, but that’s okay. On Saturday I thought I slept in. When I woke up it was so sunny outside. I was like, Oh wow, I actually slept in. Then I checked my phone and it said 5:45 AM! I did not believe it. I thought my phone was messed up, especially because it kicked me out of all my social media apps for some reason. Turns out, it was not wrong, and I don’t know what happened with my apps, Lol. 

Since I was up so early and everyone else was sleeping, I wrote a Bulls Talk post and ate breakfast. When Mr. O woke up, we started potty training again. He’s getting used to it as the days go on. He’ll have it down in no time! A couple of hours later, I went outside to cut the grass. It was surprisingly chilly, so I layered up with a hoodie and sweats. It took forever. I might need a new lawnmower, I don’t know. Our grass is too thick and fluffy for the one I use. It keeps clogging up and I even have it on the highest level it can go. I’ll figure something out, I really don’t want to drop a couple hundred bucks on a new mower, Lol. 

In the evening, I grilled kabobs outside while Mr. O “cut the grass” and dug in his bucket of rocks. After dinner, we played with his trains and he even let me be Gordon, from Thomas the Tank Engine, so that’s exciting. He loves Gordon, that’s why I was surprised he let me play with him. Then, he put the Cars soundtrack on his music box and we danced around the family room. It was cute and fun. Mr. O loved it!

When I took him upstairs to read before bedtime, he passed out before I was even half way through The Cat in the Hat. Our boy was TIRED. His thumb fell out of his mouth and everything. I slowly snuck out of there and went downstairs. Lea couldn’t believe how fast I was out of there, Lol. 

Now, here we are, on Sunday. The day I’m writing this blog. It’s been a good and quiet day at our house. Mr. O slept in, then woke up in a panic looking for his Krypto dog stuffed animal. “Dada! Dada! You see Krypto anywhere?” We found him a few minutes later buried in his mountain of stuffed animals on the side of his bed. He was thrilled! We continued potty training as we watched a church service on Tv. Then we played with his trains. Now, Mr. O is napping with his Mama, and I am writing this and mentally preparing to go clean the litter box and take out the trash. 

It’s been a great week.

A Moment I’m Still Thinking About

Well, I’m still thinking about my birthday. I’m not fishing for “happy birthday’s”. I genuinely can’t believe I’m 32 already. I don’t feel any different, but at the same time I do. I don’t know how to explain it. Time goes by so fast and it’s just crazy for me to think about the last decade of my life. It’s had its ups and downs, but after every single down, there’s been a big UP. 

This section is typically short, but I’m going to ramble for a bit. Ten years ago I was 22 years old. I just graduated college. My grandfather died, then two weeks later my brother died. Those were huge losses. Big “downs” in my life. Then, at 24 years old, Lea and I were married (there’s that big “up”). At 29, my dad died, then a year or two later, his dad died. Then, a really big “UP” happened: Mr. O was born! It’s crazy the patterns that happen in life. Each “up” that came our way was another blessing from God, and I’m so grateful. 

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Peter