10/24/11 - Nada

Well, it's another one of "those" posts. Today I don't really have much to report. Christian is still lacking in the OT department at work, which kind of sucks. With the Holiday's coming, that should pick up though. Things are still crazy and stressful at my work. There are rumors of a lot of changes coming up, which makes me a little bit nervous. I'm not a big fan of change...I mean, I'll do it, but I won't like it. I'm really hoping that I can make so good progress on my piles of work this week though. My goal is to work from home one day this week to catch up on some "put it off as long as I can" write ups that I really, REALLY need to get done. We'll see...

The evening was pretty normal. I stopped into Target on my way home to pick up a few groceries. They have princess dresses on sale right now, so I picked up a few for Olivia's birthday. I've been slowly collecting birthday and Christmas presents as I find things on sale. I think I'm getting pretty close to being done with the girls' gifts. Yay! After Target, it was home for dinner and the usual routine. Nothing pretty exciting, but a low key day once in a while is more than welcomed!

Here are a few pictures we got of the girls, briefly between getting home and it getting dark.

10/23/11 - Repeat

Today was another busy day around the house. I don't think you realize just how much stuff you have laying all around the house until it's time to put everything away and get ready for the snow to fly!

The girls had us up last night. They were both up screaming and crying, so there's no telling who woke who up, but they were both very upset about it. We got them calmed down and back to sleep, but once you get used to those quiet nights of uninterrupted sleep, it's hard to get up like that.

This morning we had a nice little family breakfast and relaxed for a little while. Then, it was time to work, work, work. Today's long list of tasks included, moving the deck furniture down underneath the deck, along with the two patio furniture sets, the kids' slide, picnic table and sand and water table. Gathering up all of the yard lights, tiki torches, hoses, sprinklers and the remaining yard decorations and packing it all away. Put down the winter fertilizer (so, YAY, officially done with yard work for the year!). And, cleaned up the garage one last time.

In addition to that fun, we moved the car seat from Christian's truck into my car, and installed the new seats in the truck. I'm anxious to see what Amelia things about her new seats. And, I'm kind of hoping that seeing Amelia in her chair, rear-facing, will make Olivia want to rear-face again...then Christian can't fight me on it! LOL. I folded a few loads of laundry and packed up the girls' "daycare" bag for the week, did the dishes and did a little general picking up around the house while the girls napped. Can I just say, I feel incredibly blessed that we have the girls on the same sleep schedule, and we get a nice 3 hour nap from them. More than enough time to get some stuff done and get a little down time in!

Mix in a little football watching, some cooking and a lot of playing and laughs with the girls, and with that, we ended our busy weekend around the house. Another good one for the books!

Here are a couple pictures for today. First, apparently we took too long to get the girls when they woke up this morning...we found Olivia in Amelia's crib, and they were just hanging out like it was play time. Second, Amelia's cute self outside while we were cleaning up.

10/22/11 - Crafts and Cleaning and Movies

Today was quite a mish-mosh of a day for us.

We were up earlier than usual, which I'm never a fan of. But, we did actually have to be somewhere, so I guess it wasn't SO bad. We ate some breakfast and pretty much were up and at em' right away. I took my shower and got ready. Then, we gave the girls a quick bath and got them dressed. Meanwhile, I did a few loads of laundry. As much as I hate doing laundry, it is the one chore you can do while doing everything else you need to do at the same time. So, it's not ALL bad.

Once we were all cleaned up and ready to go, the girls and I were off to my dad's house to do some Halloween Arts and Crafts with my stepmom and some of my nieces and nephews. Olivia was pretty excited to play with her cousins for a bit, and they were both pretty interested in their little art project (they made little Halloween keepsake boxes). After the crafting, some lunch and a little playing in the yard, we were on our way home. It didn't take long before both girls passed out.

We put then down for their naps when I arrived home, and I joined Christian in the yard where he was already hard at work on our weekend winterizing project. Today's jobs included deflating pools and beach balls, and packing them away along with sand box toys and other random outdoor toys, raking the back yard one last time (this ended up being my job, and I have the massive, painful blisters to prove it!), cleaning up the deck, scrubbing down the grill and picking up some of the yard decorations. It doesn't sound like a lot, but man, it sure kept us busy!

The girls joined us for while after their naps. Did some swinging, chased the dog and bounced in their bounce house for a while. Finally, we called it a day on the yard work and headed inside. We grilled some chicken for dinner (so good, it's going to be mighty sad packing the grill away pretty soon...), watched Tangled for the millionth time and just spent a little time playing and goofing around with the girls.

It doesn't matter how down you might be, how ill you may be feeling or what is going on in the world, those girls know exactly how to put a smile on our faces. They are so fun, and so thoroughly entertaining. It's hard to imagine what life was ever like without those goofy smiles, sweet laughs and pure chaos.

Once the girls were down to bed, Christian and I settled in for a movie night. I had grand plans of watching two movies....even though I'd already watched it, I wanted him to see Bridesmaids (which, he loved), and then I really wanted to watch Scream 4...but, I after barely making it through the first movie, I gave up and went to bed. I long for the day I can actually stay up late!

Here are some pics of the girls doing their crafts.

10/21/11 - Oops

Well, I'm way, WAY behind in updating my blog. I've been writing when I can, but haven't had time to upload pictures. I'm seriously a good 3-4 weeks behind. Oops. I just realized that somehow in the midst of writing my posts, I completely missed today. There is NO way I can actually remember what we did today, other than I took the girls out to play in the leaves for a while. I only remember that, because I have pictures to prove it....

10/20/11 - Welcome, Weekend

Today was another pretty crappy day for me. I woke up late. I got to work and realized that I left my phone (dead) and my work badge in Christian's truck. Great. Work was one issue after another, e-mail after e-mail, phone call after phone call. I seriously don't know how I'm ever going to get everything under control, let alone keep it that way. I thought I was finally feeling better today, but nope. On my drive home this mystery illness took over me out of nowhere, and just got worse throughout the night. I ended up going to bed pretty early, and by that time my stomach was actually hurting pretty bad. WHEN WILL THIS STOP?!?

Olivia didn't take a nap today, so she was mighty crabby all night. That really didn't help things. We ate a fancy dinner of pizza and wings, gave the girls an early bath and send them off to bed. Unfortunately, they had other ideas. They were in their room, talking, yelling and acting crazy for what seemed like forever. After we each made an unsuccessful trip into their room in an attempt to lay down the law and get them to go down, we gave up and let them ware themselves out. So, I think they finally fell asleep about the same time I did!

That was about it for us today. Hoping for a semi-relaxing day tomorrow, and REALLY hoping that I finally start feeling better!

Tonight was a little deja vu - yee-haws. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon so I can help entertain the girls, and give daddy's back a break! Olivia attempted giving Amelia a yee-haw, it didn't go over well though...

10/19/11 - Hectic Days, Hectic Nights

Today ended up being a pretty hectic day. Christian has been pretty busy at work these days, but he hasn't really been working any OT lately. It's nice not having to guess what his hours are, but that little extra on the paycheck is usually pretty nice.

Of course, like usual, things are still pretty crazy at work for me. I really don't understand it. Why I can't ever remotely catch up is beyond me. Maybe I've just lost my mojo or something. It's frustrating!

I was pretty excited when I received an e-mail halfway through the day letting me know that the car seats were in! YES, finally my baby girl can get out of her infant carrier. I think she's going to be pretty annoyed by it though. When we tell her we're going bye-bye, she walks over to her chair and sits down in it, ready to go. She's a pretty big diva, so she'll probably be upset that she doesn't get to be carried around everywhere now. LOL

So, after work I was right away off to pick up the carseats, Christian was off to pick up the girls, when we were meeting my mom at our house to load up the computer desk and bring it over to her new place (also very excited to be getting rid of that, but slightly sad that we didn't get to sell it for some extra money...). I thought I had it all planned out perfectly, but, of course, that was not the case. First, it took me FOREVER to pick up the carseats. I used site to store pickup at Walmart, and it was like total chaos there. They finally brought the seats up to me, and just left them there for me to deal with on my own. Awesome, thanks. I finally got them loaded into a cart (barely) and out to my car, only to realize there was no way I could fit them both in my car. Turns out the stroller was in the trunk...who knew?! Luckily my mom was already at our house (right across the street), so she came over and picked up the second one.

Finally, we were home and they were unloaded. Then, we got the desk up and loaded into the truck, dropped it off at my mom's, picked up some dinner, ate, and the girls were off to bed. The night just flew by. And, of course, I was feeling pretty rundown and sick by the end of the night. I don't know what's going on, but I am pretty sick of it!

Olivia demanded some "yee-haw's" (aka, pony rides) from dad tonight, so they all had some fun while I was laid up on the couch!

10/18/11 - Random Thoughts

Things have turned cold here, like REALLY cold. Like, changes of snow, frosted over windows and frozen grounds kind of cold. It's supposed to be this way for the next few days, but it's supposed to warm up again this weekend. Hopefully that's true, I think we need a little more outdoor play time before the snow flies! We definitely need decent weather for Halloween (please)!

I've recently realized that I'm definitely getting old. I've always listened to KDWB (a Top 40's kind of station) on the radio, especially at work. I LOVE their morning show, but I now find myself turning the channel to a KS95, "90's, 2K and today" station, for the rest of the day once the morning show ends. I just can't take a lot of the music on KDWB, and the fact that they play the same songs over and over again all day long doesn't help. I swear, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd make that switch!

And, speaking of the morning show, it was announced today that the female co-host on the morning show I listen to is leaving the station next week. I'm SOOOO devastated. Since I started working and listening full time this is the 3rd female co-host to leave, and all 3 have been so great. I feel like such a loser for getting so upset about it, but it feels like you really know these people when you listen to them every day. It's hard to imagine never hearing them again. It's just sad...that may be slightly pathetic, but still...

Finally, a few days ago, even before I left for Chicago, I started feeling pretty crappy. A little dizzy on and off throughout the day, bouts of nausea, headaches...it has not been fun, and I just can't kick it. I'm semi worried that it's the flu or something. I did get my shot, and you think after a few days I would ACTUALLY have the flu if that were the case. I'm wondering if maybe it's still dealing with stress and anxiety of the trip, and all of the eating out on top of it. Hopefully that's the case. I don't think I can handle anything more than that right now!

There is one member of the household that is happy about the cold snap...Rico. He's very excited because the cold means the heat is on (at least for part of the day), and his favorite thing to do is lay right in front of the vent. I don't know how he can do it, or, how he doesn't start on fire or something. Crazy cat.

10/17/11 - Welcome to Reality

Well, it did NOT take long for life's reality to kick in. Back to work, of course more swamped than ever after being out Friday and 1/2 of Thursday. Back to arguing with Christian about the same stupid things, over and over again. Back to the crazy toddler's, yelling, screaming, not listening, telling us no and running around like crazy. I was all set to make lasagna for dinner, and really excited about it. Pre-heated the oven, put the lasagna in, good to go. When the timer went off I opened up the door only to find it cold, and the lasagna still pretty much frozen. I have no idea what happened, but it was pretty much my last straw on this very stressful day and I pretty much threw in the towel.

We did get a little bit of fun, family time in before the dinner fiasco. We took the girls outside and filled some of those pumpkin bags with leaves. They had a blast and thought it was pretty fun. It's been fun actually decorating for Halloween this year...it's been a long time since we've done that.

Here are some pics of our momentary fun...

10/16/11 - Home Sweet Home

Well, mommy weekend has officially come to an end. It was a strange mix of not wanting to leave the life of a tourist, and excitement to get home to my girls. You just never know how much those little beings consume you until you are away from them, and all you can think about is getting back to them!

Our morning started off pretty early. Emily and Kristy had to be to the airport by 8:30 or so, and Michie was anxious to pick up her girls, so we hit the road. I successfully made my way through the airport again, dropped them off for their flights, filled up the gas tank and I was officially on my way home. I was able to drive straight through this time, but the drive home seemed much longer than the drive there. Different kind of excitement I suppose. I made it home by 3:00, filled up the tank again (I'm such a nice wife), and was greeted at the door by two VERY happy girls. They were so excited to see me, that felt so good! After lots of hugs and kisses, I gave them their snowglobes from Chicago (and, of course Amelia broke hers 5 minutes later) and real life was back into full swing...

Soon after I arrived home, I was off to Target to pick up diapers and a few necessities and I grabbed some dinner. We ate, hung out for a bit, did a little raking and hanging out outside and just relaxed the rest of the night. Vacation is officially over, reality has definitely set in!

Here are some pics of the girls opening their gifts...

10/15/11 - Wandering the Big City

Well, it was definitely vacation today! After we took in a nice breakfast, and got ready, we were off to take in all of the sights today. We took the bug and the L-Train all over the city. Walked around taking it all in. We were going to attempt the Willis Tower, until we were told it was a 1.5 hour wait. So, instead we took a water taxi out to Navy Pier and spent the afternoon out there. The boat ride was slightly cold, but it was very cool. We got to see so much of the city, from a very unique perspective. I really loved it. We ate some lunch, had a drink, took in the shops, rode the Ferris Wheel. Yup, we were tourists all the way (I'm sure being from there, Michie was REALLY enjoying it. LOL).

Finally, we were on our way back to the apartment. We took the bus back, hung out at the apartment for a few minutes, then were on the road again, off to dinner. We ate dinner at a pretty fun diner, where the wait staff is rude and makes fun of you on purpose. It was pretty funny. We were all pretty exhausted by the end of dinner, so we made our way "home" for the night. We got into our jammies, ate some cookies and watched "Bridesmaids" (SO funny!). Now, that is quite the slumber party if I don't say so myself!

It was sad to think that vacation was officially coming to an end. But, I sure did miss my crazy toddlers, so I was pretty excited to be heading home in the morning. It was quite a refreshing vacation though, and it was SO nice to meet some of my mommy friends and spend some time with them. Even better that they were all normal, fun and very much NOT serial killers.

So, our busy day of tourism and girl time came to an end. Definitely worth the trip! Here are some pics of our big day!