2015 - Week 18

Monday…started off pretty typical, depressed over the fact that it was month. Back to reality for everybody. But, the day went quickly. And, the evening was chaotic. After work, I picked the big girls up from daycare, and we stopped at Walmart for a few items…we needed “snack” items for baseball nights, and some quick dinners to make, as this week kicked off the start of baseball/softball, and I was not prepared. After rushing through the store, as quickly as possible, we stopped home to get Amelia changed, pack up some food, and head to her first practice. I had a little heart to heart with Amelia on the way to practice. She was excited, but noticeably anxious. She was worried that she wouldn’t do well, and that she wouldn’t know what to do…I just told her that everybody would be there to learn, so all she had to do what listen and try her best. It must have helped, because she did really well! She listed, she actually participated and tried hard, she even hit the ball! She was really, truly trying, and I was so proud! It helps that her coach was Olivia’s coach last year, and the coach of the team we played with during soccer, so she felt more comfortable than I think she would have otherwise. After practice, we rushed home to meet Christian and Eliza, ate some dinner, and settled in for the night. Eliza was in a great mood – so happy and fun, laughing and playing all night. Like I always say, life is so much easier when baby is happy! But, she fell apart a little bit at bedtime, and wouldn’t fall asleep for anything! She hasn’t really been falling asleep to her bedtime bottle like she used to, so it’s been a bit of a challenge getting her to actually go to sleep. Hopefully that’s just a phase…though, I guess it’s just preparing us for taking the bottle away. Other than that, it was a fairly normal evening…the girls went to bed, I watched a little Sons of Anarchy as I turned in. The usual. We did receive some bad news today. My mom has been battling some health issues for some time now…extreme exhaustion, some stomach and leg pains; she just never seems to feel good, and always run down. They’ve done test after test, scan after scan, and never seem to find anything. Well, her latest scan showed that she has a blood clot in each lung. Pretty scary stuff. She called me, obviously upset, so I tried to calm her down, and just try to relax until we talk to the doctor and find out more information. She asked me to go to her appointment tomorrow where she’ll find out what she needs to do to get rid of them and what the plan is moving forward. I guess they’ll be giving her a lot of information, so she wanted somebody there with her. Talk about stressful!

Let's Play Ball!

Snuggles with my mini-me, while watching Amelia play

This one can't  keep her belly in her shirts!

Tuesday was a fairly standard day. We were all off to work and school, as usual. My mom picked me up mid-morning so that I could go to her appointment with her. The appointment went well, but it was indeed a lot of information. She’ll have to give herself a shot, twice a day for the next week or so, and she’ll be on a daily pill for the next 3-6 months, until they figure out what her long term plan will be. They said the clots aren’t anything you can deal with surgically, but once they get it under control right now, they can run some more tests to try to figure out what caused them in the first place. Hopefully they can, but it sounds like that’s pretty tough. In the meantime, she’ll be going in for regular blood draws to make sure the medication is working, and her levels stay where they need to be, and it sounds like she’s pretty lucky they caught it when they did. A lot of information to take in, a lot of scary, overwhelming information at that! After the appointment, I was back to work to finish out the day. Already feeling exhausted, I stopped home after work to let Chuy out, clean up the house a little bit, and sit down for a few minutes. Nothing like a few minutes off of your feet and life is just go, go, go! Then, I was off to pick the girls up from daycare, and meet Christian at the elementary school for Amelia’s Kindergarten Open House! I still can’t believe it. Kindergarten. My baby. Wow! She was so excited to meet the teachers, and it was so cute watching Olivia show her around…such a proud big sister, showing her sister off to the teachers, and showing her teachers off to Amelia. Amelia is really excited, but I’m still so nervous! She still has A LOT of maturing to do, and I really hope she can control herself come next fall….her sassiness and her attitude. Ay! FINALLY, we grabbed some dinner, and we all settled in for the evening. Eliza went to bed much better tonight, but it’s pretty hit or miss these days. Every night is a mystery.

Ready to meet the teachers at her Open House!

Oh Wednesday. Wednesday was a morning from hell. STRAIGHT FROM HELL. Everybody in the house was beyond exhausted. I overslept, the girls refused to get up for anything. I was so frustrated and the day literally had not even started yet. I finally got everybody up and ready, and loaded into the van. We were already late; even more than usual. UGH! Finally, we were off. We got to daycare, and things just kept unraveling. Olivia forgot her backpack at home, and didn’t realize until we were walking in the door at daycare. Knowing that she didn’t REALLY need it, I refused to go back home to get it, which threw her into a tailspin (more because I think she thinks she’ll get in trouble if she doesn’t have it, which isn’t the case). Meanwhile, Amelia was crying, randomly, and when I asked her what was wrong she claimed that I had yelled at her (which, is somewhat true…to put her damn seatbelt on for the 15^th time). Then, I brought Eliza into the baby room…she was crabby and tired, and as soon as I sat her down she threw herself face down on the floor and started bawling. So, leaving all 3 kids at daycare, crying and upset for varying reasons, while running incredibly late, was NOT a good start to the day. At all. I finally settled into work, where I then got to proceed with holding consultant interviews and a selection committee meeting at work. People…all day long…meetings, talking, meeting new people. NOT MY THING. So, basically icing on the cake today. As things started to calm down this afternoon, my supervisor called me into her office. The department is working on developing a new database, to track everything contract related…which will replace several other databases currently used by different offices. They have developed several pieces to the database so far, but they’re now moving into the meat of the contracting stuff. My supervisor has asked that I now start sitting on the committee for the database, as the “senior contract administrator” – boy did I suddenly feel super old! While it’s interesting, and it is a bit of a pat on the back to be offered the role, it’s going to be a major headache. The committee meetings EVERY morning, for at least a 15-20 minute check with the developers to get updates on where they’re at. Then, every other week or so, they have user training, “next steps” planning and review meetings. Again, meetings…constantly. I can’t stand it. This is why I could never go far in the department…I can’t stand the thought of spending that much time in meetings. So, we’ll see how that goes! Finally, after what had already been the longest day ever, it was time to kick off a chaotic evening. I stopped home to let the dog out, pack up snacks for the girls and grab Amelia’s baseball stuff. I picked the girls up from daycare, got Amelia changed, and we were off to meeting Christian at her practice. Tonight she didn’t have practice until 7:00! So late!! We let Olivia play at the park for a while. The park was a little bit of a hike from the field, so we were pretty nervous about letting her run over there on her own, but we were able to keep a pretty close eye on her. And, one of the other parents from the team was there, so that helped. Eliza has been doing really good watching Amelia play so far…no meltdowns or having her fall apart on the sidelines…yet. Amelia did really well again, but wasn’t paying attention quite as well. So, I went out on the field and helped her for a while. That seemed to help. I don’t want to be that crazy mom that hovers over her, but I want her to actually learn and try, and NOT drive the coaches crazy by spending the entire practice twirling around. So, whatever, I’ll be that mom. After practice, we rushed home, got the girls changed and ready for bed, and spent a little time hanging out, winding down for bed. One by one, the girls were off, and I wasn’t far behind. Meanwhile, Christian vacuumed the stairs and the bedrooms downstairs, where the carpet has already been pulled up, and sealed them. What a week it’s been already!

Hanging at the Ball Field Again

Thursday was a little less chaotic. Work was work, I’ve started attending the database meetings as of this morning, yippie! I picked the girls up and we made our way home. STRAIGHT HOME, with nowhere to go. So awesome! However, our night was not quiet. Christian was home earlier than usual, with his friend Lorenzo, to rip up the last of the carpet we’re replacing. So, while the big girls played in the backyard, we had to clear out the living room…moving all of the stuff into the kitchen and dining room. It was hard to keep Eliza under control and away from the mess! Once all of the carpet was pulled up, removed from the house and the floor was vacuumed up, things got a little bit better. We had dinner, Christian and Lorenzo went out to grab a beer, and then we all called it a night. Christian and I are both off tomorrow, and it’s carpet installation day! Can’t wait. Seriously, I never thought I’d see the day when home improvement crap would be so exciting!

This week's Throwback, what a difference a year makes!

Ripping up the Carpet

Supervising is Hard Work

Friday was the big day! As mentioned, Christian and I were both off work (my normal day to be off, he took it off). I dropped the big girls off at daycare while Eliza was still asleep, and Christian started preparing for the carpet guys to show up. They were over bright and early, around 8:30. There were two installers, but it was clear only one of them actually knew what he was doing. Christian later told me the other guys had literally just started this week. I was a little annoyed with the process. We were getting a lot done, including stairs, which I know are a lot of work, but they were there doing the carpet for about 5 hours, which seems pretty extreme. The one guys was working his butt off, as fast as he could, but for the most part, the other guy was just standing around, “fetching” things for him. Now, I know everybody has to start somewhere, but come one! If you’re going to send a two-man crew, and one of them really can’t do anything, you really should be sending another person until the new guy is up to speed! Luckily (for them), Eliza still took two pretty good naps, amidst all of the noise and chaos. I had to keep her trapped in our bedroom for most of the morning though, when she was awake, and that was a bit of a pain. As soon as they left, we got to work, starting to get the living room back together. This will take a bit, since we’ll be cleaning and organizing as everything goes back. Lorenzo stopped over again after work, to help get the big stuff back in place, and get all of toy room/spare room stuff back in its place. I still have to actually clean and organize those rooms, but at least it’s a little bit of a head start. We ended up setting up the living room a little different, to give the girls more room to play, and I really like it. The carpet looks SO GREAT too, I just love it! I picked the big girls up from daycare right around closing time and we grabbed some dinner on our way home. I also FINALLY got Olivia’s softball information…and, sure enough, she plays the same nights as Amelia. GOOD LORD, now we have to figure out how that’s going to go. What a headache. Next year, they’ll be playing on the same team, which will be a huge relief! Once all of us girls were all settled in for the night, Christian and Lorenzo were out to grab dinner for themselves. This week has been one heck of a busy week, full of all kinds of stuff! Life can sure get crazy sometimes. Our weekend will be full of birthday party planning stuff – but not nearly as busy!

Snuggles for Kitty

Baby Approves of the new Carpet

My Playmate Passed Out!

Saturday kicked off a fairly low key weekend. Christian didn’t have to work, which is always nice. It sounds like his Saturday shifts will be pretty rare for a while. I’ll miss the OT, but it will be nice to have him around. So, we started to day with a snack, and we were off to swim class. Swim class is about a million times easier when Christian is there to handle Eliza, while I get the other girls in and out of the pool, that’s for sure! After swimming, getting cleaned up and dressed, we stopped at Walmart…the big girls needed new shoes and new sandals – oh my gosh do they go through shoes like crazy! Then, we grabbed some breakfast and we were off to my mom’s house. She asked to take them overnight, and they certainly never argue with that, so we dropped them off for the day/night. Before heading home, we stopped to get Christian’s haircut and stopped at Party City so that I could order balloons for Eliza’s birthday party and get the last of the party decorations. Eliza was getting cranky and tired, so I dropped them off at home, and I was off to Walmart to pick up a few weekend groceries and order sandwiches for the party. Finally, we were settled in at home for a while. Eliza was sleeping, we ate lunch… I did some picking up and cleaning around the house, still getting ready for the party, while Christian hung up the sound bar in the living room (it’s like surround sound). That ended up taking way longer than we expected! After dinner, Christian was off to his friend’s house to watch the big boxing match…on one hand I wanted to see it too, but I didn’t really want to deal with Eliza there all night, so she and I stayed home. Once she was in bed, I finished Sons of Anarchy (sad!) and folded some laundry. A nice quiet end to the day.

Baby had her first sucker while we waited for Daddy to get his haircut. Mommy made the unfortunate choice of a blue sucker...oops!

On Sunday, we actually got to sleep in a little. Without those other two there to wake her up, Eliza got to catch up on some beauty sleep! Once we were up and functioning, we got to work. I got the kitchen cleaned up and got some more laundry going, then watched some TV and hung out with Eliza while Christian worked in the yard. It’s been so nice, there was no more putting off the yard work! He trimmed, raked and mowed, and did a little cleaning up around the yard. My mom brought the girls home around 3:00…right away, we were off to order Eliza’s birthday cake – which was the final task for the party (other than the rest of the food next weekend), WOOT!! As we were at the store, a HUGE storm rolled in…crazy rain, hail, wind…thunder and lightning. It was an interesting drive home, that’s for sure! At home, we watched a movie with the girls, had dinner and enjoyed a little peace and quiet. Eliza was back to fighting her sleep…so frustrating! Just when everything starts to settle and get easier, she reverts! Baby’s…they definitely keep you on your toes!

The big girls kept bringing out more and more toys, eventually surrounding her. Then proclaimed she was bored and needed more things to play with. Yup, looks pretty bored to me!

Until Next Week! XOXO