the saddest summer

This summer has been a downer.  I tried to make it fun for the kids.  I tried to have a schedule and order.  But really, how much fun can it be when you're stuck at home because mom is studying?

We did have swim teams,

 and birthdays,

 

and a little get away,

 and maybe I'm speaking for myself, but this summer was pretty sad.  

I was in a really dark place just before the bar.  I was full of self-doubt, because I knew my studying wasn't what I wanted it to be.  After all, I couldn't go to the library all day like my class-mates, I had to be home with the kids.  And I still had to make meals for them, do the laundry, clean the house, go to the grocery store, plan birthdays, makes cakes, etc.  And even then, I'm sure I would have been fine, but throw pregnancy hormones, tiredness, and not being able to run/ride my bike because of the pregnancy into the mix, and I was a wreck.

I had this dream a couple of times that I was at school doing a bar study course, and the instructor congratulated me for having my baby the day before.  It was then that realized I had my baby, and I didn't even know where it was!  I went to the hospital and my mom was there with my baby, and she was saying "where have you been?!  You haven't even fed her yet!"  Then I'd feed my starving baby, wonder where Gwen and Drake were, and think about how I needed to get back to studying.
Ugh!!  That's been my feeling all summer.

But finally the bar came and went and all I can do is cross my fingers and hope I did well enough.

The second day following the bar, Ryan and I picked up the kids from the McPhie's and headed straight down to Tucson.  He had a conference there, and the kids and I were more than happy to tag along and hang out at the resort.  I needed to unwind.

It was strange how I didn't have immediate relief.  I still didn't sleep the first night (I hadn't had a full nights sleep for who knows how long!).  But the second night, I finally slept for at least 7 hours, and it was awesome.

The kids and I went to the movies, swam, went back to school shopping, and generally just relaxed.

The first night there, we saw this tarantula, and the kids were terrified.  But we looked them up, and learned about them and how they're generally friendly to humans, so after that the kids were on the hunt.  Unfortunately, we only found two more...that were dead.

 But Gwen did find and catch a toad with daddy's help.

 Ryan also put his cheerleading - I mean stunt team - skills to use, and the kids loved it.

 Gwen also finally caught a lizard on our last day.

Unfortunately it was hurt, and only lived a few hours.

Sorry lizard.  Drake cried about it for a good half hour, and couldn't get over how bad he felt for the little guy.

Then we came home, did laundry and met the kids teachers, and like that summer was over.  It's a summer that I'm glad is behind us now.

Top 10 Signs Your Mom is Studying for the Bar

I'll get to posting about Drake's birthday and our trip to Cali.  But that may have to wait for a week.  Then I will be finished with this stupid bar examination!!!!

So here it is, the top 10 signs your mom is studying for the bar:

10.  Laundry sits on the couch for days.

9.  Paper plates are a must.

8.  You eat ice cream for breakfast.

7.  You eat left over birthday cake for lunch.

6.  You've been wearing the same clothes for three days.

5.  Two bathrooms are out of TP.

4.  The people at Papa John's know your mom by her first name.

3.  You haven't brushed your hair in 2 days.

2.  She's always wearing sound muting headphones.

1.  She BEGS you to just "go watch TV!"  

I'm sorry babies.  One more week.  

We can make it!  

I hope!

Thankfully Ryan has been so sweet and supportive.

I mean look at the things he says...

Oh, and the other Ryan too.  ;)

mom, can I have a shaver?

Want to see one of the cutest selfies ever?

Behold-

 Gwen and Austin.  hashtagnofilter

I have put a serious limit on the kids screen time this summer.  No TV/games until chores are done, and the kids have read for at least 20 minutes.  Often this doesn't happen until 4:00 pm if it happens at all!  Sometimes I think it's harder on me than on them.  Like when I'm studying and the kids are driving me crazy and I want to say "just go watch a movie!" but then I remember they can't.  :p

For Drake the hardest part is that I have a lock on my phone, so he can't just pick it up and play Bad Piggies whenever he wants.  But he has learned that if my phone is locked all he can do is make an emergency call, OR go to camera and take pictures!  Seriously?  Doesn't that seem funny that a locked phone will take pictures?  I mean I get the convenience thing, but what about the privacy thing?  Anyway, I plugged my phone in tonight and discovered HUNDREDS of pictures like these:

 Including some not so flattering pictures of me buried in my books and computer with headphones on, tuning the world out.  But you can thank me for sparing you those pictures. 

Did I mention previously that the bar is ruining my summer?

Well it is.

Study all day everyday, and I'm still behind.

Perhaps because I still have to make time for this cuteness.

 This boy is so rad.

And Gwen and I also have been on a baking kick.

I don't know how many loaves of bread I've baked already this summer, I want to find the perfect recipe, so I'm slowly perfecting wheat bread, but also am figuring out the right combos for white, oatmeal, and potato breads too. Gluten-free we are not!

 And I told you last time how Gwen was making tons of cookies, well she's whipped out her first cake ever too.  All by herself!  My little Gwenny Crocker.

In other news:

25 weeks, and the baby is the size of rutabaga.  Yep, a rutabaga.  

Should I be concerned that the garbage bags are in the same spot they've been for months, and the other night Ryan didn't know where that was??

Maybe I should be concerned about the fact that Gwen asked me today for a shaver so she can shave the hair on her legs?!!?!?  Holy smokes, I'm not ready for this.

oh what do you do in the summertime...

Gwen is back at it in synchro.  It's really fun to watch her and how much she's improved over the last year.

First place!

 She's been working really hard to get her splits.

 Drake is killing it on swim team this year.  He's been put in the fast heat, and his relay team took second!  I love how proud he was of that.  I love that he doesn't complain about having to go to swim this year.  It's great what confidence does.

Second place freestyle relay!

We attacked Camelback with cousin Cloe.

I've been studying for the bar everywhere possible.  My best block of time is when the kids are in the pool each day.  Then Drake steals my phone and takes random pictures (like below) and plays Bad Piggies.  He's an addict.

Gwen made cookies almost everyday the first week of summer.

I had to tell her no more cookie making since it usually leads to a mess, and many calories consumed.  But I love that she can read a recipe, and do it all by herself!

I'm back!

So I took a six month hiatus.  NBD.  Life has been cra-zy!  But some exciting things have happened.  Maybe some of these will get their own posts, but let's be honest.  Probably not.  So some fun things that have happened since I last posted:  

I did finish Ironman!  One of the most incredible days of my life, and if you like to read, you can read more about it here.  

 Ryan started a new job.  He is now a prosecutor for Maricopa County.  When he gets home from work, Drake likes to ask him "how many bad guys did you get today?"  It's pretty cute.

We found out a new McPhie is joining our family!  This has been a great surprise, and we couldn't be happier.  Baby McPhie is coming some time around October 4, and Gwen and Drake are so excited to have a baby brother or sister!

We bought a house!  We had been renting ever since Ryan started law school, and most recently we spent a few months living with my parents while we were house hunting.  While we loved being there, Ryan was anxious for a place of our own, so we sadly left Mesa, and moved to Gilbert.  We love the area, and love the house, and someday will furnish it.  ;)

Gwen and Drake have been killing it in school!

They're sad to be leaving the school they've been attending the past few years in Mesa, but are excited to maybe get to ride bikes to school next school year.

And I GRADUATED!!!!!

   This I can't take all the credit for, because I would not have made it without the support of my family and friends.  This last year has been especially hard since so much time was spent doing my schooling, I felt it was keeping me from being the kind of mother I wanted to be for my kids.  Often they'd ask me why I have to go to school, and if I could just quit.  Ugh!!!  I wish I could have.  I'd tell them McPhies don't quit, and it'd be over soon.  Mostly I was convincing myself.  But it turned out to be true.  It's over!!  Now on to bar prep.  :p

Ryan threw me a lovely graduation party.

 The kids helped decorate.

Love these signs Drake made!

And now, perhaps life will slow down a little.

Besides preparing for the bar, I'll be running the babes to swim, and eating watermelon all summer, so hopefully I might be able to resume blogging as well.  

Meh-he-co (Mexico for the lay people)

Summer is the greatest time of year!  Because I get to have a life other than school.

So to maximize the fun we spent some time in the sun.

And to make it even better, we brought our besties, the Wevers!

I'm not going to pretend that we weren't a little scared to go to Rocky Point.  We had never been and had heard a mix of scary and awesome stories.  We crossed our fingers and hoped for an awesome one for us, and we got it!

This was the view from our room.  Not bad, eh?

Drake got to channel his inner monkey.

I think I heard him say "I can't go any deeper!"

The Wevers chillaxing in one of the many pools.

The kids and their killer Nascar boogie board.

They loved the ocean, until it got in their mouths.

But we were still able to convince them to try the banana boat, and they loved it!

Yea!  Ocean lovers after all.

And they will still mention in their prayers, "thank you Heavenly Father for helping us to overcome our fear of the banana boat", and keep asking when they'll get to ride one again.

No pictures to prove it though.

We did do a lot of shell collecting.  I might have even put some of said shells down my swimsuit so I could use my hands to catch a fish with my bare hands.  I did catch that fish because I'm awesome like that, but then FREAKED out when I realized those shells I put down my swimsuit had crabs in them!!!

Ryan who WAS NOT a cheerleader in high school, but a member of the stunt team (they totally only through girls around) had fun with the kids in the pool.

Gwen:

Drake who always thought he was being the Statue of Liberty:

Lennon:

Gwenny getting her hair braided by a darling little lady

And also super exciting was Gwen losing her first upper tooth!  Her third tooth lost.

While that was exciting, we were panicked about whether or not the tooth fairy would come to her in Mexico.  You see her tooth fairy brings her a Sacagawea dollar coin for her teeth, and the tooth fairy couldn't find any in Mexico.  So she got stuck with a regular $ bill.  Gwen didn't mind.

This is what Gwen left for her tooth fairy.  She was worried the tooth would fall in the crack between the mattress and the back of the couch since she was sleeping on a couch bed.  Luckily when Gwen goes to Mexico, she brings a little fancy box, so she put her tooth in that.  She also left a note asking the tooth fairy what her name is. 

When the tooth fairy woke up at 3am to watch the women's Olympic marathon she made the exchange and left a note telling Gwen her name is Samantha.

Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of the inside of our condo, or the sweet meal we BBQ'd up with the Wevers.

But we did get a picture of Ryan's injured toe that we thought was broken until it healed two days later.

We also ventured into town for some shopping.

Mexican vanilla?  Check!

Drake, Gwen, Lennon, and Larry

I wish she lived closer!

And finally one last lunch before the Wevers continued their drive home.

Thanks for the best summer vacay yet!