365 Days of Duran

This is the Duran life. This blog, which started in 2010, as part of the "365 Project", aiming to document a year of life through photo has morphed through the years. First into a "52 Weeks of Duran" format, and now into (pretty much) photographic documentation of our lives now. While life has caught up to me as our family has grown, photography means the world to me, and often speaks volumes beyond word, and I cherish the chance to look back on our memories, so I continue on...

Sunday, February 14, 2016

2016 - Week 7

Week 7 – this week brought continued sickness for me, I swear, it’s never going to end, otherwise a pretty quiet week. Oh yeah, and Valentine’s Day. Oh boy!!

Monday kicked the week off, pretty busy, like usual it seems. I was up, showered and ready for the day. Got the big girls up and ready, and we were off. Christian FINALLY has his follow-up and MRI from his surgery last fall this morning, she he dropped Eliza off at his parents’ for me. It’s so nice getting that little break every once in a while! Christian’s MRI went pretty well, and since he’s not having any pain or discomfort, everything seems to be healing well and the doctor wasn’t concerned. We later got the results back from the MRI, and it didn’t show any regrowth or look like the tumor is coming back, which is a huge relief. He’ll be going back in about a year for another check, I’m guessing they’ll just keep an eye on him for at least quite a few years just to make sure everything stays clear. Work was rough today – I felt so completely unmotivated and not interested in working AT ALL, not to mention it seems like all I do lately is deal with one issue after another. Nothing ever seems the least bit clear cut, and it drives me nuts. I picked Eliza up after work, and she has seriously been a Chatty Cathy lately! She’s been pacifier free for just under a week, and I think it’s seriously already making a huge difference. She’s talking and talking and talking non-stop. She had so much to tell me when I picked her up tonight. We stopped at Target quick to pick up a few things, and finally arrived home just to get the big girls ready for gymnastics and hit the road again, while Christian got ready for work and was off for the night. The girls took pictures after class tonight, and Eliza was SOOOO hilarious. While we were in the hallway, getting ready to take pictures, she was a mad woman, running all over, driving me crazy. As soon as the girls went up to get their pictures done, she stood there and watched intently. Olivia went, Amelia went, and as soon as Amelia was done, Eliza threw down her hat and coat, and marched over to the bar like it was her turn. The photographers just laughed and thought it was just about the cutest thing ever. They ended up obliging her, held her up to the bar and snapped a quick picture of her. It was so funny – that girl, she is seriously something. We were finally on our way…picked up some dinner, ate, read and the girls were off to bed. I finally ate once they were down, cleaned out their backpacks and did some cleaning up around the house, finished up their Valentine’s Cards (added suckers to them), all while continuing to binge “Z Nation”. Finally around 11:00 I settled into bed, finishing up an episode, and I was so exhausted. Never enough hours in the day!

On Tuesday I could tell that I was coming down with a serious head cold. I wanted to cry. On top of everything else, the last thing I needed was a cold. Ugh!! I pushed through, got everybody ready and out the door, and settled into work. Mid-day, some pretty big news came out. Our Governor has proposed adding paid parental leave to the budget for state employees. OMG, I was dying with excitement! Our house and senate is split, Republican/Democrat, so the budget may be quite a battle, BUT, some experts on the news were saying it’s likely a slam dunk for most democrats, and while a lot of republicans might not agree, they also don’t want to be the one to come out against family rights issues. So, there’s actually a fairly decent chance this might pass. Other than short term disability, my leave this time around will be unpaid – which has been the most terrifying thing for me. If this somehow gets passed into this years’ budget, it should be in place before this baby is born. OMG, fingers crossed!!!!! The day flew by pretty fast, and I left work a tad early to get home and pick everybody up for the big girls’ conferences at school. First up, we met with Amelia’s teacher and speech therapist. And, because of the speech discussion, the principal was there as well. She has just about mastered recognition of all of her letters, and she’s starting to lose her stubborn streak, which is a relief. She’s listening better and working really hard. She’ll start her small group speech therapy next week , starting with 2 20-minute sessions a week. They’ll mainly be working with her on articulation issues, specifically with “g”, “k/c” and the “ing” sounds. Her teacher said she’s been much more social and involved in class, and she’s really starting to catch up to the rest of her class (from being so young). So she’s doing really well! The principal told us a pretty cute story. She monitors the hall every morning as the kids arrive, and she said she loves watching them every morning. That they come in every day, holding hands, walking down the hallway together. They stop at the bathroom together, and then when they get to the hallway where they part ways, they give each other a BIIIIIG hug, and then head off to class. I mean, so sweet. They fight like cats and dogs, but they seriously love each other. Melts my heart. Next up, we were off to meet with Olivia’s teacher. She’s doing so great in class. She’s very social, gets along with everybody, and is doing better with listening as well. She’s above grade-level in reading and writing, and at grade level in math, doing really well. She scored above average on a standardized test they did a few weeks ago, so I’m really impressed of how well she’s thriving in school. I just can’t believe how fast they are growing up. So proud!! We stopped to pick Eliza up after conferences, who threw a MASSIVE fit about having to leave daycare. DRAMA, all the time!! Once home, we had dinner, and then Olivia was a loner in her room all night long. Teenager, already. Eliza was pretty crabby most of the evening, but once Christian left for work and things calmed down, she did much better. We watched some videos, did our reading and the girls were off to bed. Eliza has officially been pacifier free for an entire week now – HIGH FIVE!

Look at my sweet girls. I love how they love each other!

Wednesday started off pretty rough. I was so exhausted, and I just could not get moving at all. I was feeling pretty sick, this cold is knocking me down. I knew it was coming! I called in late so that I could rest a little and take my time. I finally got the girls up and ready, dropped them off, and arrived at work. I was so drained, all day long, and had to leave early to take Amelia to the dentist. Appointment 1 of 2 for her fillings. I was SOOOOOO nervous about how things would go, but she did AMAZING! Thankfully the cavities she has are fairly small, they just want to fill them to avoid having them get worse, so they didn’t have to numb her up. They just used a little gas, and pretty much just shaved them down a little, filled them up, and we were gone. 5 fillings in about 20 minutes, literally in and out, I couldn’t believe it! So nervous, for nothing! Amelia, the rockstar! We stopped at Target to pick up a few groceries, and then stopped to pick up a facebook sale item…I’m going for the Ergo carrier this time around, and tonight I picked up an infant insert for it. Now I just need the actual carrier, LOL. We finally picked Eliza up, and settled in at home for the night. We had dinner and Christian was off to work, the girls watched some videos and compared Valentines from their school parties, and we had a pretty quiet night. Once the girls were in bed, I finished “Z Nation”…what a seriously crazy show! And I’m so bummed, I have no idea when the next season comes out!

On Thursday, I woke up feeling really sick. My head just keeps getting worse, so plugged up, and I’ve been coughing SO bad that my voice is really hoarse now. Seriously – ZERO immune system! But, no rest for the weary…we g ready, I dropped the girls off and was off to work. It was a pretty busy day, and I’m getting quite caught up again. I guess one bright side to being sick is that everybody leaves you alone, and I can just focus on my work, LOL. I originally had a dentist appointment scheduled for this afternoon…but between my massive cold, and the fact that brushing my teeth makes me gag and throw up half the time, I didn’t think that I would survive. I did leave work a little early for a Valentine’s “Tea Party” at daycare, with Eliza’s class. She was SOOOO excited to show me around and have a snack with me. She kept “introducing” me to everybody, which was so funny, and it was really cute to see her in “her element”, with all of her friends and her little surroundings. Everybody just loves her so much, it really warms my heart. My little love bug, such a sweetie. After some snacks and hanging out, we picked the big girls up from their room (they don’t have school today, or tomorrow) and made our way home. Christian was already getting ready for work, he had to start early, and I was just completely drained. We had a pretty lazy night of TV watching, and hanging out, and just a quick dinner. I did send the girls to bed a tad early because I was just so exhausted, I had to get to be myself. I cannot wait for the weekend to get here, so tired!!

My sweet girl, I love spending time with her!

I was feeling down, and then found this perfect little note in Olivia's backpack tonight. Amazing.

On Friday, I woke up actually feeling a little better. I slept pretty well, so of course I didn’t want to get up and was running late. I got ready, got the girls up, and as I started talking to them I noticed that my voice was almost completely gone. Oh joy. I was still coughing a bit, but not nearly as bad as the last couple of days. At this point, I think I definitely sounded worse than I felt, which I guess is better than the alternative. I would’ve called into work, but I had a meeting to run (which was super easy with no voice) and couldn’t miss. So, I dropped the big girls off at daycare, Eliza off at my mom’s, and struggled through the day at work. I did get the last of our tax return this morning, which was exciting. I paid off the little bit of credit card debt we had, and the rest will sit there to basically pay for some upcoming medical bills and stuff for the baby…along with my unpaid maternity leave, of course. After work, I picked the girls up and we had a lazy night at home. We watched some TV, the girls played downstairs for a while, we had some dinner, and once the girls were in bed, Christian and I watched “Straight Outta Compton” before passing out.

Olivia's latest family photo. LOOOOOOVE!

Saturday was overall a really lazy day! Trying to kick the last of this cold, I didn’t want to be running around or doing anything too crazy. Christian had his “on-call” Saturday this morning (he’ll have to do it once a quarter or so), so he had to go into work for a few hours. Meanwhile, the girls and I had some breakfast and were off to swim class. We stopped and had some lunch on the way home, and Eliza went down for a nice long nap. The big girls watched some videos and played on their tablets pretty much all day, so I caught up on some shows and did a little cleaning up around the house. We needed a quiet, laid back day, that’s for sure! I still haven’t had much of an appetite lately, and the only thing that has sounded appealing is Chorizo…so, I made Christian go out to buy some, and potatoes, to make some tacos for a late dinner. YUM!!! We tried watching “Sisters”, and made it through most of it, before falling asleep. So tired, all the time.

Sunday was a bit of a busier day. We were up and at it, ready to start the day. I worked on laundry throughout the day, made the girls some Valentines pancakes, and we watched some movies. Christian showered and got ready for the day, while I got the big girls dressed and packed up. My mom stopped over for a visit, with some Valentines gifts for the girls, so we chatted and hung out for a while. After she left, Christian was off to drop the big girls off at his parents’ house for an overnight, and to help them fix their TV, while Eliza took a bath and a nap. I watched TV and relaxed for a while, before finally showering myself and getting ready. We decided to try our luck at Olive Garden for a little Valentine’s dinner, and after a pretty decent wait, finally sat down to eat. Luckily Eliza was pretty well behaved the whole time. After dinner, we settled in back at home, watched the mid-season premiere of “The Walking Dead”, and Eliza was off to bed. We both started dozing off on the couch, and finally decided to call it a night. Pretty exiting Valentine’s Day – that’s for sure!

Christian surprised me with a necklace, so pretty!