2016 - Week 3

Here we are, kicking off another week. This week’s big “event” is that Christian began picking the big girls up from school in the afternoon!!! Now that he’s settling into his new work schedule, we’re working on saving money wherever we can, which includes dropping the girls’ after school care at daycare. A bonus for me, is that it forces Christian to get up at a reasonable time, and once he has the girls settled in at home, he can do something things around the house…a little picking up, start dinner, shower and get ready for work before Eliza and I get home. Seriously ya’ll, this is bringing some BIG changes to our house, and I really think it’s going to bring me a TON of sanity as well. Woot!!

We started Monday off pretty standard. The girls and I were up, getting ready. Christian doesn’t work Sunday’s, so he’s home and able to help me get them ready and loaded in the van, which is nice. ALMOST makes up for the fact that I have two drop-off’s. Almost. I dropped the big girls off at daycare, Eliza off at my in-laws’ house and I was off to work. It was a really busy day…playing catch-up from my Friday off, and I’ve been working really hard to catch up on my workload. Even though I’m only about 1/3 of the way through my pregnancy, I have got to get control over my workload, and make sure I stay on top of it so that I leave as little of a mess as possible. That’s my goal anyway. The girls were SOOOOO excited that Christian is picking them up now; they think it’s beyond cool. It’s super cute. Of course they had to tell me all about it when Eliza and I got home. We had dinner and hung out for a while, before Christian was off to work for the night. The girls did their reading, we watched a little TV and were all off to bed. Monday, done!

On Tuesday, I was not feeling well at all. My head hurt, my stomach was turning like crazy. I had a terrible night of sleep and a really rough morning. I decided to drop the girls off at daycare, and work from home for the day. Thankfully my supervisor is pretty understanding about stuff like this. Christian arrived home just as I was settling in for the day, and was right off to bed. Working from home ended up being a really good thing, because I got a TOOOOOOON of work done. I felt fairly rested, and very accomplished by the end of the day. I even took a little time off in the afternoon so that I could rest a little bit before the house was full and chaotic for the night. I couldn’t really eat anything all day, but I did start to feel better as the evening went on. Christian picked the big girls up from school, and they watched some videos and played for a while, while I put the little bit of energy I’d developed to work. I put laundry away, I started going through the girls’ closet to pack up some of their small clothes, and I re-arranged the living room (of course, then all I wanted to do was take a nap!). While Christian jumped in the shower to start getting ready for work, I ran to the store quick for a few groceries and picked Eliza up from daycare. Then, the usual….dinner, some TV time, Christian was off to work, reading with the girls, and off to bed. Our mornings have been pretty rough since school started back up after winter break…the girls just do not want to get up and going, and it’s so frustrating trying to drag them all out of bed and get them ready. So, I’ve been trying to get them to bed earlier than usual…hopefully we can keep it up, because them going to bed earlier means I can do my “evening clean-up” around the house and get myself to bed at a decent time!

On Wednesday I was feeling quite a bit better, so off to work I went. Things were looking up, looking successful…until we got ALLLLL the way to daycare, and Amelia informed me that she had left her snow bag at home. UGH!! So, I dropped the other two off, ran back home with Amelia, and then dropped her off. ALWAYS SOMETHING!!!! I finally settled into work, caught up on all of the work I had done at home yesterday, and the day just flew by. I picked up the Eliza, and some dinner on my way home, and we settled in for the night. The girls got into their pajamas as soon as we finished eating, and had a pretty quiet night – a little TV time, reading and early to bed again. Christian was off to work and I watched a few shows before settling into bed. As the night progressed, I started developing a headache…which just kept getting worse and resulted in another terrible night of sleep. These headaches, I swear they will be the death of me one day. Though, I haven’t really had a true migraine in quite some time, so I should be grateful for that. Eliza was up on and off all night, coughing and “whining” herself back to sleep…my poor baby. Seriously, I cannot take another round of illnesses in this house, that’s all I know!

I overslept on Thursday, so the day started off late and chaotic. We rushed around getting ready, we were all late to our designated destinations, and I was beyond exhausted before the day had even started!! Thankfully, with how tired and crappy I’ve been feeling, I’ve somehow hung onto my motivation at work, and I’ve been catching up really fast. I’ve felt like I’ve been drowning in work pretty much since I returned after Eliza was born. Between kid illnesses, a couple vacations, my illnesses, appointments, the pregnancy, losing my “work from home day” and my general workload period – I just couldn’t catch up, no matter how hard I tried. Now, I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I might actually be able to stay on top of things for a change. I can’t even explain what a relieving feeling that is. After work, I picked up a few groceries, picked up Eliza and we settled in at home. We made, and ate, dinner, cleaned up the kitchen and I read with the girls. Christian has a couple of PTO days to use by the end of the month, so he took the night off of work and stayed home with us. He helped me get the girls bathed and off to bed. But, not before I quickly, and suddenly got sick. Like, GOT sick. I felt terrible – the girls don’t usually see (or hear) me when I’m sick, but they were all still up and running around when it happened. Poor Eliza sat outside of the bathroom door waiting for me to come out, Olivia and Amelia were so worried. It breaks my heart. We just explained to them that sometimes the baby in my tummy makes me sick, and everything is just fine. One funny though…Amelia didn’t quite hear our explanation of why I was sick, so she asked us “what”, to repeat ourselves. Before we could, Olivia went over to her and said “They said you’re making her sick because you’re so naughty”. Oh my gosh, I couldn’t stop laughing. Oh, the life of having a sister to pick on you and say such things – the only child in me just can’t even imagine it. LOL. After that excitement, the girls were off to bed – Eliza still isn’t feeling well – she’s so plugged up and miserable – so we got the humidifiers going and loaded her up with Vicks. And, of course, I was right off to bed myself. What a night!

BIG DAY! Somebody can officially tie their shows. WOOT!

On Friday, I was seriously looking like death, but actually feeling OK, so off I went. The big girls were off to daycare, Eliza to my mom’s, and I settled into work. During lunch, I found a little motivation to get all of our upcoming appointments scheduled, and I was feeling quite accomplished. I made Amelia’s audiology appointment, along with two cavity filling appointments. I made my next midwife check-up, my cardiology appointment and a dental cleaning appointment for myself. And, I was pro-active and made Eliza’s 2-year check-up appointment while I was at it. I was going to get Olivia in for her annual check-up as well, but the clinic informed me that she only needs to be seen every other year now – so one less thing to worry about. On top of all of these appointments, Christian has a follow-up appointment coming up, for the surgery he had on his chest a few months ago, along with an MRI to make sure things are still looking clear. Fingers crossed nothing has started growing back and he gets the all clear! After finishing out the rest of the day, I picked Eliza up from my mom’s, and made my way home. We relaxed for a while, the girls ate some dinner, and we were all off to gymnastics. It was their last class of the session, and Christian won’t be able to go to their classes at all once they move to Monday’s in a couple weeks, so he and Eliza came with tonight to watch. Once home, their little BFF, Bella, and her dad stopped over so the kids could exchange some Christmas gifts and play for a while. As soon as they left, the girls were off to bed, I settled in the Hulu for the night, and Christian’s friend, Lorenzo, stopped over to hang out for a little while. Christian tends to sleep too much on Friday’s, and then can’t fall asleep at night – so he’s definitely going to have to get that under control pretty soon!

My girls, huddled around the computer, watching a movie. LOVE!

Saturday was a pretty busy day. We were up pretty early…the girls had some breakfast, I showered, we all got ready and Olivia, Amelia and I were off for the day. First up, we met my cousin and her little girl, Nattie, at an indoor playground for a little playdate. We hadn’t seen each other for quite some time, so we chatted the day away, while the girls ran and jumped and climed and spun their little hearts out. Once the girls were sweaty and completely worn out, we met back up at McDonald’s for lunch. After eating, we parted ways…and the girls and I were off to our next adventure. My friend at work, Brad, is a choreographer at a local dance studio, and every January they put on their big show of the year. It changes every year, and some years he does a lot of the planning and choreography, while other years he just kind of helps out. This year was one of “his” years, and they were putting on “The Little Mermaid”, so of course I had to take the girls to see it! We met up with my other friend from work, Kelly, and her family to watch the show. Amelia got a little antsy as the show went on, but Olivia LOOOOOOVED it. She was so mad when it was over, I think she’d sit there all day and watch something like that. After the show, we made our way home. The girls fell asleep as soon as we hit the road, they were seriously exhausted. When we arrived home, Eliza was just waking up from her nap, and Christian decided to take the big girls with him over to his parents’ house for a while. Busy day for them, that’s for sure!! They had dinner and played and hung out there for a while, while Eliza and I hung out at home. I did some cleaning, we played the night away, and I caught up on some shows. The girls were pretty much right off to bed as soon as they got home, and Christian and I settled in to watch some football. Unfortunately, I was way too exhausted and, of course, passed out on the couch. So old!!

Lunch Date.

Our attempt at a selfie during intermission.

Sunday was overall a pretty lazy day. It’s absolutely freezing outside right now, so there just isn’t much to do. The girls played in the basement for a while, watched some videos…I started some laundry and usual chores around the house (but, tomorrow is a Holiday, so I wasn’t too worried about getting it done), we had breakfast and overall took it easy all morning. We started watching some football, and I got a text from my friend Gini inviting me out for a coffee date. Since I don’t drink coffee, and I was actually feeling hungry for a change, I asked her to meet me for lunch instead, and she agreed! I hopped in the shower, got ready, and ended up taking Olivia with me…so, we were off to Khan’s to meet up with Gini. YUMMMMM!!!! I hadn’t been there for way too long, and felt SUPER miserable after, but it was totally worth it. Eliza was in the midst of a nice long nap when we arrived back home, and Christian was off to have dinner with his friend Lorenzo (even though he sees is friends CONSTANTLY, the second I get out of the house with one of mine, he right away thinks it’s a pass for him to do the same…this seriously drives me insane. Men!!). The girls were actually playing really well most of the day, which made for a pretty calm day at home. They were all off to bed shortly after Christian arrived home, and, since tomorrow is a Holiday, I stayed up and did a little binge watching. Hulu is having a free-Showtime preview weekend (which, I unfortunately didn’t learn about until Sunday evening), and I’d been wanting to watch “The Affair” for a long time. So, I watched a few episodes before bed. Now I’ll have to hurry and finish tomorrow!

It was an Elsa extravaganza in the house today!

Lunch Date Selfie with my Twin

I realized that I did take my camera out once during the Steveson's visit...and caught a picture of the little Rubies. Had to do a comparison throwback to their first visit.

Until Next Week! XOXO