the weekly 'what's up.'

 this week's biggest news was starting back into the routine of the school year.  the kids did so great.  the big kids settled right in without issue.  the little kids are still adjusting to their 45-minute blanket/pack and play time in the morning, but it went better this week than it has the past couple of weeks.  school took much less time in the mornings than i had planned, so they all still have a lot of free time to roam/get in fights, which seem to be their favorite pastimes, so we all win.  kind of.

 please ignore the 9 a.m. photos on the east side of the house.  i swear my kids really do have eyeballs in there behind their squinty looks.  my bad.

laurelai is still the biggest potty time champ of all time.  she's doing really, really well.

the girls helped me get ready for our popcorn party/family movie night.

and finneas continued his warrior training.  how big is he getting?!

and how big am i getting?!  well, not that big yet, as far as pregnancies go - i still have an entire trimester to go, after all - but i am feeling big.  and tired.  and pretty incapable of most simple physical activities that don't involve laying on the couch.  what a nice way to bookend the pregnancy - i'm right back where i started on this journey. 

aaaaaand... our water heater stopped working.  don't they say bad things happen in groups of threes (or, in our case, one millions) or something?  that really has seemed to be true for us lately.  i mean, in the last two months, it's been everything from our toilet, to our kitchen faucet, to our mower, to our living room window, to our leaking water main, to our van doors, to our laptop, and now to our water heater.  today i did a mental inventory of all the high-cost items in our house that haven't broken down yet that probably will here pretty soon:  our air conditioner, our kitchen appliances, etc.  i'm not jinxing anything, i'm just being a realist.

in all seriousness, though, this latest issue broke me for a bit.  i'm just getting a bit beaten down by the constant repairs and constant expenses.  luckily, the water heater issue appears to have been fixed (although the plumber said there's a possibility that, if yesterday's efforts didn't entirely fix the problem, it should become apparent in the next week or so and he might have to come back, so i'm still on high alert).  just, ugh, you guys.  it's hard being a grown up sometimes.

but anyway.  enough bellyaching.  god truly has been really awesome to provide everything we've needed to handle each problem/issue/cost that's come our way lately, sometimes in miraculous and mindblowing ways, so i have no reason to complain.  not on rex manning day!  i mean, friday.

and on that note, here is this classic ridiculousness.  happy friday!

Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon - Friday by RofV