What I Wonder: Is Honesty Truly the BEST Policy? If so, why don't we use it more?

Honesty IS the Best Policy . . . or so "they" say!

Last Friday after we closed on both of our houses and had a delicious lunch, Dom and I took a quick 1.5 hour shopping trip.  We needed to pick up William's box springs from the mattress store and look at some furniture for our master bedroom.  Before we did either of those things, he jumped into a new store called "5 Below" and I ran into Old Navy to look for some post-baby tops.  He found a car charger for his phone (he's lost two or three now) for FIVE bucks!  I found three shirts that I am hoping will fit me after I have the baby.  After I had paid for the shirts and was about to leave, the cashier did the typical smile and "Have a great day" phrase.  In my head, I responded, "I am having a great day!  I didn't simply buy these three cute tops at a discounted price, I just went through two closings and now I own a beautiful home in Perrysburg!"  But instead I just smiled back and said, "Thanks.  You too."

Don't you wonder why people don't share more?  I know the response is to be polite and just say thanks, but why don't we share our good news with complete strangers?  And if we did, what would they say in response?  The opposite is also true.  There are times when I am having a terrible day and a cashier says, "Have a great day!" and I want to respond, "You know what?  I am not sure that's going to happen, because I'm dealing with __________________ today."  Instead, I still try to smile and say thanks.  Such is typical American culture, but it makes me wonder what life would be like if everyone was simply honest about their lives at that exact moment.  Do you ever wonder that?

I think I'll try this out over the course if the next week and let you know how it goes. Feel free to join me on this honest journey!

Sunday Summary - June 11th-17th

What a Week!!!

For the first time since school got out, I finally felt like it I was "sort of" on VACATION!!

Monday, June 11th

• It rained today.  That was the first in a while.  We've had a pretty dry past few weeks.
• William went to his babysitter's house today, while I ran a couple of errands before going to work.  I needed to go to Hobby Lobby and Michaels in order to prepare for a craft project for William's big boy room.  I am going to do some wall art that I was inspired by from a Pinterest picture (below).  I am basically going to use this artwork as inspiration, but my final project will not be like this.  Since I am using a Cricut machine to cut the vehicles out, it will be like the opposite of this.  I probably won't use a map either, but this does look really cool!
• At work I got a good amount accomplished.  I did every single one of my POs for my seven classes (six of which are ones I have never taught before.)  That took a while, since I didn't really have any clear direction.  I hit a wall of exhaustion in the afternoon and actually contemplated lying down and taking a nap in the back corner of my room.  However, one thought of how gross my classroom pillows are really shook that thought out of my head and kept me plugging away.

 

Tuesday, June 12th

• Today I was NOT alone at work - hip, hip, HOORAY!  Two of my friends came to school to craft, so I took a break from my classwork to craft with them.  I worked on William's big boy bedroom project.  (By the way, I am not sure if I have ever told the Blog this but William's room will be done in trucks, trains, planes, and boats.)
• So, what did I accomplish during our craft time?  Well, not TOO much because I am not 100% sure what wall space I will be working with at our new house.  It all depends on where the furniture is going to fit and what furniture he will have in his room... In fact, we aren't even entirely sure which room William will have - although I am fairly certain it will be the pink and orange polka dot one (sans the pink and orange polka dots of course!)  I did, however, decide what size the vehicles I wanted to use in my frames and cut samples out to maneuver.  I went from originally thinking I would do four frames like the one above to just three.  I chose a truck, a plane, and a tractor since there wasn't a sailboat design. Plus I am going to spell his name out with the Choo-Choo train letters.  It was nice to chat with my friends and watch them be super productive making t-shirt quilts, and I feel excited about the project I have for William.  I just wish we could be in our house to get it STARTED!

Wednesday, June 13th

• Today I took William to the lake for the day.  It was VERY nice to have a day away from Toledo and WORK! Cathy had called me a couple of weeks ago to let me know that two of Dominic's cousins were going to be bringing their kids up for the day today.  That's a pretty big deal because we don't get to see them much and therefore William doesn't get to see/know their kids much either.  Unfortunately my sister-in-law could not come and then at the last minute Cathy couldn't come (Dom's Grandpa is having surgery tomorrow so she was busy preparing for helping him with that) but it was fun to see the girls and their kids and to hang out with Dom's Aunt Sharon for the afternoon.  
• When we first got to the lake, William was sad because of course he expected to see Grandma and Grandpa Krupp, but they were not there!  He got over it quickly once he dug out the toys from their shed.  He doesn't forget a thing, so he marched right over there and started pulling them out.  There are new lake toys that I didn't even know about since this was my first trip up there this year, but he remembered them from his trip with Dominic over Memorial Day.
• Later, when the kids starting arriving, William and his cousin Mitchell became instant friends.  It was adorable how quickly they connected.  I have a picture of the two boys holding hands that just makes my heart melt.  I will post it below.
• I will admit that today was a bit challenging being 9 months pregnant, running around chasing a toddler who is all-too-bold about going right into the lake.  I think I over-estimated my strength.  It was much harder to handle him today than it would have been if Dom or Cathy would have been there.  We still had a good time, but I was worried a lot about watching him. 
• William and I decided to come back to Toledo for dinner in hopes that we would see Daddy, but Daddy was out golfing so we had dinner alone.  We decided to get Chipotle (William's favorite) but he had a bit of a meltdown when we got home.  He was PERFECT at the lake, but the lack of nap did him in by dinnertime. All-in-all it was a wonderful day! 

Protecting his head while playing trucks at the lake

"Mommy, I got binoculars!"

Mitch and Will - My Favorite Picture of the Day!

 Big Day in the Sun + No Nap = Meltdown!!!

Thursday, June 14th

Playing in the river at the Zoo.

•  Today William went to the ZOO with his babysitter, her husband, her kids, and one of her son's girlfriends! He had two exciting days in a ROW!  Plus he was just at the Zoo last Saturday. He loved the Polar Bear again. The first picture below is a picture of him eating a "graham snack" on the way to the sitter's.  He said he was a camper and campers eat graham snacks.  I told him this yesterday and he remembered. LOL!

William is saying, "No pictures!"

• I had a good day as well.  First thing this morning I attended the first of our weekly staff brunches that we are holding over summer vacation for anyone interested in creating a more positive learning environment for our school.  I felt as though the meeting was incredibly upbeat and people brought a lot of great ideas to the breakfast table.  (There was also really good food.)  I am hoping that all of this work we will be doing over the summer will truly pay off.  I'm keeping an open mind and a positive attitude.  Perhaps we will even DOUBLE the size of this committee by the end of the summer!!!
• After brunch I had to run home because the couple buying our house was getting it inspected.  After that, I went to the Waterville garage sales.  I didn't buy nearly as much as I did last year, but then again I bought most of my stuff in Perrysburg last year.  This year I was mainly looking for stuff for William's big boy room since I don't know if this baby is a boy or a girl.  I did find him a Radio Flyer tricycle, which was another one of my main goals, and I was able to talk them down from $10 to $8.  I am going to save this for when we move so William will have something exciting at our new house.  Plus the driveway there is paved smoothly, which will provide a much better surface to practice riding around on.  I also found him a bookshelf for his room.  I got that for $8 as well, even though it was marked $10.  
• I headed over to my cousin Dawn's house toward the end of my time in Waterville and got to catch up with her for a while, so that was very nice!  She is always so generous in what she gives us for William.  Whenever he is wearing something nice, odds are it came from her.  Will gets all of his finest hand-me-downs from his cousin Zachary (Dawn's son).
• I ended the day at my 36 Week check.  You probably read all about that in Thursday's blog though!
• In the evening, Dom was able to get home early enough for us to check out some furniture for William's new room.  We grabbed Wendy's for dinner (and made the mistake of feeding a toddler some Frosty) before went to Value City Furniture to search for twin mattresses.  My favorite part of the trip was when I had William lie down on the mattress and he sprawled out his arms and legs, reaching way up high over his head, and exclaimed, "Mommy, I don't fit in here!"  Precious!  After that William's sugar-buzz kicked in and he was sprinting all over the furniture store.  It was time for us to leave.  We weren't planning on buying anything that night, just getting ideas.  So we left.

Friday, June 15th

• Well, since I hadn't been as productive at work this week as I had planned on being I went to work this day.  I did get a good amount done, but it seems as though these projects I am working on are never-ending!  I am just glad that this baby is providing me with a relatively clear finish-date.  Usually I spend the entire summer working at couple days a week.  This year I am going to be going in until the end of this month and then possibly a couple of days during the first week of July if baby is not here yet.  Then I am going to be FINISHED until October 1st when I come back from my maternity leave!
• This evening we went to a pool-party at our friend's house in Perrysburg.  I brought a tomato/avocado/corn dip that my friend made for our Home Group session a week ago.  I think it was a hit!  A picture is attached.
• William always LOVES going to this house and he had SO MUCH FUN tonight!  It was great to see him be so bold in the water.  I think part of this goes back to our trip to the lake this week and part is just him still being fearless.  He was leaning into the water on his tip-toes and then sort of falling into our arms.  He kept calling it "jumping" into the pool.  The only time he jumped was toward the very end.  His feet actually left the ground!  I am so proud of how good of a swimmer he is.  I really need to enroll him in some swim classes.  Once we move to Perrysburg and things calm down a bit, Dom and I want to get a Y membership.  Then we can do some classes with William.
• The evening ended with William's first S'more ever.  It was a hit!  The other day I told him that campers eat graham snacks, so he was alllllll over graham snacks again.