2013 - Week 23

This was a much less stressful week for all of us. Much less chaotic than the last couple, and that was welcomed. This week did bring a big brithday celebrating surprise for me though! Awesome!

Monday was pretty much business as usual. The girls were off to my in-laws, we were off to work. Kicking off a 5-Day work week is never very exciting, but luckily, we're still swamped so the days go pretty fast. As usual (well, fairly usual) I left a tad early to get some shopping done. I did get a few super clearance clothing items for the girls, which was a fun score. Amelia is STILL about 1/2 18-24 month cothes, and 1/2 2T. She definitely won't get into 3T this summer, or probably this year. I got her a couple really cheap dresses. Olivia is in dire need of 5T summer clothes now, so we're starting on that. I met the rest of the family at home for the usual routine - dinner, a little play time and off to bed. Unfortunately, Olivia came home with a big black eye/rug burn. Apparently they were jumping from the couch onto pillows on the floor, and she missed. It looks horrible, but I guess after it happened, she went to look in the mirror, checked it out and said "Oh, well that's not too bad". Good Lord, this girl has had too many black eyes in her short life. What a clutz!

Her lovely rug burn...

The only time Chloe exists, when the girls are sleeping! LOL - the little sneak LOVES cuddling up with Olivia when she's sleeping.

Tuesday was a pretty low key day. Everything was pretty much as usual - Olivia started her LAST week of pre-school, and she's super excited about going up to Pre-K full time next week. Unfortunatley, she had a rough day today. She was apparently very aggressive with Amelia all day long, and wouldn't leave her alone. So, she got a nice talking to on the way home, and spent the night electronic-less, and was not happy about it. I seriously cannot wait until they are in different rooms again - I'm sure the teachers feel the same way. So, that was the biggest news of the day. The gardens still have yet to grow anything, but our pretty much complete lack of sun doesn't help. Hopefully in the next week things should finally change, and that should help. I can't wait to see how everything turns out. I'm so lame - I seriously check all of our plants, all of our flowers and the gardens every day to see how they are looking. God I feel old...Christian was off to a friends house to watch the Mexico soccer game tonight - I think that's the one channel he's dying without. LOL

Ms. Little-Sister-Bully, not happy about her evenings punishment (the black eye really adds to her bad-ass-ness).

She did cheer up a little when she realized it wasn't the end of the world when she couldn't use the iPad. She took Daddy's poncho for a spin! LOL

Wednesday was a bit of a rough day. I officially had my first migraine since the 4-day episode that kicked off all of the medical stuff a couple weeks ago. I started the morning off with a dose of Imitrex and Zofran. The Zofran really helped with the nausea, but the Imitrex didn't really do anything. A couple hours later I took another dose, along with the Naproxen (pain reliever). That did help, but the Naproxen is really hard on my stomach, I spent the night with bad stomach craps, but at least the headache eventually went away. So, I think I'll definitely need to take 2 pills when I use the Imitrex, along with a pain reliever. BUT, they only give you 9 pills, with 1 refill, because it's a little dangerous (they don't want you taking it all of the time). Which is why the doctor debated even giving it to me...she wasn't sure about doing that, or just going the daily preventative route - which is probably next if this keeps up. NO FUN! I did survive the work day, somehow. I picked up the girls and we made our way home. They've become pretty receptive to me not feeling well, which is great. They played by themselves until Christian got home and made dinner, while I relaxed on the couch. Not a fun day.

One thing that IS fun...now that the girls are in the same room, we get double the same art projects from them. It's really fun, and kind of interesting, to see the differences in their projects. Granted, the age difference plays into it, but I feel like you can really see their personalities in their work. Olivia, the perfectionist. Always the last to complete a project, beacuse everything has to be perfect. She takes her time, she's thorough, she has patience, and she has a real love for arts and crafts. I think she'll be our logical thinker, with a love of the arts as she gets older. And, Amelia, the free spirit. She's haphazzard, she's unique. She's busy and rushes through everything. She has a mind of her own and likes to do her own thing. She is definitely going to be our free-spirited wild-child as she grows up. Here are some examples - I bet you can figure out who each picture belongs to!

Amelia did take some time to make me this "Feel Better" picture tonight. What a honey!

Thursday was a much better day, headache wise. All better and back to normal. It was overall a quiet day. Today was Olivia's final day of Pre-School. YAY! I can't believe how much she's grown and learned in the last year (well, 15 months). She went to Pre-School unable to write, unable to recite the alphabet, not able to identify many letters or numbers, etc. Now, she can most definitely do all of that, and then some. She has come out of her shell and is such a social butterfly. She has learned to show her independence, but still listen and be a part of the group when necessary. She has grown by leaps and bounds, and I couldn't be more proud of her. And, to see her excitement and joy at the thought of moving up to Pre-K just thrills me - she's gaining a love for education, and that is defintiely a mark of success to me!

My Little Love, No Longer a Pre-Schooler!

Friday was a good day. I ended up getting off work around lunch time because my mom had some plans this afternoon with friends. So, I met her and the girls at the park to pick them up. The girls and I went on a little walk around the area, down by the pond, and found a big family of ducks swimming around. We followed those duck all around the pond, the girls were having a blast. They both fell asleep on the way home, so we skipped lunch and they took their naps, while I sat on my butt and did nothing. NICE! After naps, we spent some time playing in the backyard. The weather was actually decent, which is a nice change of pace. Christian was off to the mall on a super secret mission (LOL - which just happens to be a couple days before my birthday), so it was just the girls and I all night. We played, had some dinner, and they were off to bed. I caught up on some shows and relaxed until he got home. We've watched a couple episodes of Breaking Bad, which we did pretty much every night this week...we'll be caught up in no time! But, it wasn't a super late night since Christian has to work in the morning.

One funny story from tonight. When I was rocking Amelia before bed (I still do, but just for a coupe minutes) we realized that they left their blankies at my mom's house. I told her "Well, Pooh is at Grandma's, you'll have to sleep with Elphie tonight" to which she said "No mom, I need Pooh. I don't want Elphie". I told her she's going to hurt Elphie's feelings and make her cry, that she could get Pooh this weekend. She tells me "Mom stop, Elphie doesn't have feelings! It's fine". Wow, she's too smart, and apparently I'm never going to be able to pull one over on her!

Some pics from the pond...

Spending time with my Girlies!

Saturday was a busy, long and very exciting day! Christian was off to work, as usual. The girls and I spent the day together. Olivia started her new swim session today, and we moved up to the 9:00AM session to get it out of the way earlier in the day. Well...it was a lot more work getting up, ready and out the door in time than I expected! LOL, we made it though. I LOVE her new instructors - they are by far the best she's had. There's only 3 kids, and they've all clearly been in classes for a while, so I think they were able to skip a lot of the BASIC basics, which was nice. Olivia had a blast. After class, we had some brunch and played for a while before nap time. Christian got home around 1:30..we did some quick cleaning around the house...dishes, kitchen, entry way, picking up - the usual weekend chores. Then, it was time to get ready. Christian informed me that my mom was taking the girls over night and we were heading out for my birthday. Off to play mini-golf, FUN! So, we got ready, dropped the girls off, and made our way to the course. I was surprised by our friends Nate and Gini, and Lorenzo. FUN! We had a great time, with lots of laughs, and I ended up winning (no, it doesn't have anything to do with it being by birthday!), WOOT WOOT! After the game, we were off to dinner...another surprise, at Khan's, my favorite! My BFF Kari, and our other friends John and Michelle met us all for dinner, so that was another fun surprise. Christian had ordered me a cake, and got me a new charm for my bracelet. LOVE IT! Lorenzo got me a personalized Twins jersey, with my name and my highschool softball number, super cool. After dinner, we made our way back home for a bonfire and a couple of drinks with Lorenzo, Nate and Gini. It was a perfect day....lots of laughs, catching up and tons of fun. Just what I needed! What a way to welcome the big 3-0!

New Session, New Suit. LOVE IT!

Mini-Golfing Fun

Dinner and Cake and Friends!

Sunday was a much more low key day. We got to sleep in and rest for a while with the girls at my mom's. Of course, I woke up with a headache...but, I knew that would happen. I have one drink and I get one, so that was expected. The girls came home around 11:00. My mom brought me a birthday present...a really pretty hummingbird feeder, and I can't wait to get it hung up. We played with the girls for a bit, had some lunch and they were off to take their naps. Christian got ready and was off to work...again. Today was just 3-8 for some training, but he was pretty tired by the end of the night. The girls and I just hung out around the house, played outside for a bit, had some dinner. Nothing too exciting. A nice calm way to end the week.

Olivia trying on my new jersey, and Dad's hat. She thinks she's hilarious, I think she's adorable!

We discovered our first full nest of the year. We usually get three by the end of fall. I can't wait to see the babies!

2013 - Week 22

Here we are. Another week - a week that brought us another change in month. I can't believe it's June - where in the world is this year going?!?

Monday was Memorial Day. Christian and I were both off work, so we spent the day with the girls. We really just relaxed around the house most of the day - did a little cleaning, finished laundry, played with the girls. It was kind of rainy and crappy outside all day, so we were limited on entertainment options. I started Week 3 of my program and I'm feeling pretty good. I haven't "officially" weight in yet, but I do check from time to time. I had a really great first week, but I kind of stalled out this week. I do see some visible changes though, so that's still a success. My mother in law watched the girls for a while so we could go to a movie with our friends Sara and Mariano - we went to see Fast & Furious 6. It was actually really good - probably my favorite of the series so far. And, yes, I say "so far", because they clearly left it open at the end for another movie. Fine by me, that series comes with some great eye candy! It was nice to get out for a little adult time - even though I HATE paying for movies, it was worth it.

Amelia, making her own picnic...

Tuesday it was back to reality. I woke up already begging for the weekend to hurry up and get here - so it's a good thing I only work 3 days this week! Some days I just REALLY wish I didn't have to get up and go to work (well, many days lately). The only saving grace has been how ridiculously busy we've been. I feel like I'm staying pretty on top of my work, but it's just constant busy - zero down time. Better than the alternative, but it just gets too stressful some days. Outside of work, it was a pretty low key day and evening - tomorrow is my CT scan, so I was pretty consumed by that all night.

Silly Daddy thought he was going to play on the iPad tonight - Olivia felt differently. He was quickly sent back to his phone.

On Wednesday I was off to work, as usual. I took some time off in the late morning to go in for my CT scan. It was a much quicker process, which was nice. I was in and out and back to work before I knew it. Then came the dreaded waiting period - waiting for test results is seriously the worst. I was a basket case ALL day long. After work I was off to a little party at the girls' school, so that was a nice distraction. Our City has three KinderCare center's (pretty excessive), and they have decided to close one of them (thankfully, not ours). So, the teachers and families from that center will be moved to the other centers. Because of this, they are remolding our center to make it more appropriate for larger classes. It kind of makes me sad - the center had a great open floor plan, one room just flowed into the next and it was really nice and welcoming. Now, they are putting up walls and doors and splitting the rooms, which I don't care for as much. But, I understand why they're doing it. SO, the little party tonight was to invite some of the new families to get a tour and mingle with the other parents, and to check out some of the remodeling that's been done. It was really fun though - they had "walking tacos" for dinner, which the girls LOVED, and the Teddy Bear Band was there so all of the kids were dancing and having a blast with that. Christian ended up working really late tonight, so he wasn't able to make it, but I was happy to get out of dinner duty! After the party, we made our way home, and it was pretty much time for baths, relaxing and bedtime. I had a really hard time getting to sleep, my mind was definitely racing all night long.

Party Time!

Thursday we were up and at em'. Luckily, my test results came in pretty early, so I didn't have to stress about it ALL day. And, thank God, the results were good. (you can see my separate post about the whole process HERE). The girls had a good week at school. Olivia spent a lot of time in the Pre-K room, and Amelia is getting to know the other kids better and better every day. At first, Olivia was a little overprotective of Amelia and felt like she had to baby her and help her all day long - it sound like she's let up a bit on all of that, which is good. Christian had some long days this week - they didn't work last Saturday, and had Monday off for the Holiday, so lots of catching up to do there. After work, Christian was off with a few other employees and the managers to tour the Surly brewery (they distribute for them now) and didn't get home until late. The girls and I stopped at Walmart to grab a couple things and made our way home. We had a pretty quiet night - I was just happy to finally breath easy again!

I snapped this picture of a storm rolling in on my way home tonight.

Friday was my day off. And it was a long, LONG day. The girls were fighting non-stop, ALL day long. About everything. Olivia's temper just really gets the best of her some days, and today was definitely one of those days. She was on Amelia's case about EVERYTHING, and wouldn't let her do anything. To make things even better, they wouldn't listen to a work I said, so I was pretty much about to lose it by naptime. I did manage to get the bills paid and do some cleaning throughout the morning a midst breakfast, breaking up fights, sending kids to timeout and lunch. One of the BEST parts of having Friday off - actually getting to do some housework during the week, so that we actually have the weekend to do what we want to do! So nice. While the girls napped, I got my workout in, kicked up my feet and relaxed for a while, catching up on some shows. When the girls woke up from their naps, we got dressed and took off on a walk around the neighborhood. Olivia rode her bike, I pushed Amelia in her little car...we picked some lilacs and went on a nice, long walk. We got caught in a couple sun showers along the way, but nothing too terrible. We stopped at the park on our way home and the girls ran off some energy. It started getting really dark and cloudy, and we could hear thunder in the distance, so we started making our way home....getting caught in a downpour just a few houses away from home. We were soaked - oops! The rain didn't last long though. Our friend Sara stopped by...she and Christian were off with the truck to pick up a bed she'd bought for Bella, so Bella and the girls played for a while. After the finished up, Christian cut the grass in the front yard while we girls hung out for a while. Sara and Bella made their way home, we had some dinner and took it easy. Like usual, Christian works in the morning, so it was an early night for us.

Saturday was a good day, well, for the most part. I did wake up feeling pretty crappy - my throat was sore, my voice was really course and my chest felt super congested. Nothing like a cold in June! Hopefully it passes quickly! Christian was off to work - he ended up working later than he usually does on Saturday, so he was pretty exhausted by the time he got home. I feel so bad that he has to work so much - such LONG days. I know it's good for him - it's just making him more valuable to the company, and he's learning so much more putting in all of this extra time, and it's definitely nice being able to save up some extra money (maybe I really will be able to get a new car next year!), but I know he's just exhausted. Poor guy. The girls were not as bad as they were yesterday, but they were still fighting quite a bit. We were off to swim class for Olivia - her last of this session. She's doing well, but will definitely need another session or two at this level. She loves it, which is great, but I hope she starts really grasping the swimming concept soon and advancing. We had some lunch and they went down for their naps when we got home. I got my workout in and caught up on some shows. Christian was right back at it when he got home from work - got the backyard grass cut. It started raining a little, so we took to the garage and planted the vegetable pots and got them set up on the deck. Yes, finally done with our planting for the year. Now we just anxiously wait to see if anything grows! Once the girls were up, we had some dinner and hung out for the night. Christian and I started watching "Breaking Bad" tonight and we're pretty excited about that. I've heard great things about it, so I'm interested to see what it's all about. It was time for a new obsession!

Watching Sissy at Swim Class

Swim Class, Session #2 done!

Imaginations at Work

The Last of our Garden

Sunday ended up being a pretty busy day. I woke up feeling worse than yesterday - very stuffed, still really congested and my voice was basically gone at this point (I'm sure the girls love that!). Christian spent the morning keeping the girls entertained and fed, and vacuumed the upstairs while I got some final cleaning done. I cleaned the stairs, set up the cats' new litter box (we had an enclosed one, but one cat has become afraid of it...the other one still has issues pee'ing on the stairs, so we got a large square box, hoping they'll like it better), mopped and cleaned the entry and got a couple loads of laundry done. One we were done, we took to the outside and spent the rest of the morning doing yardwork. It was finally a pretty nice day - sunny, with a nice cool breeze. Perfect. We got the last of our "lawn ornaments" set up around the yard, emptied the sand box and sand/water table so we could start using the swing set sand box, watered the gardens, cleaned the patio up and did some yard waste cleanup. The girls were nice and dirty by the time we got done, so I got them bathed, re-clothed and made them some lunch. Christian took over so I could shower and get ready, and then we were on to our next adventures. The girls and I were off to the farm for my cousin's graduation party (it's about a 90-minute drive)...the girls slept most of the way, thankfully, but they were exhausted when we got there and just wanted to keep sleeping (backfire). The eventually perked up a bit though and started playing. I got to catch up with my family a little bit and it was just nice to be out for a while. Meanwhile, Christian was doing some more yardwork. He got some grass seed planted, FINALLY hung our hanging baskets and cleaned up the garage a little bit. When the girls and I got home, we helped daddy burn some brush and called it a night. The girls were off to bed, we watched a little Breaking Bad, and sadly ended our weekend. Back to work tomorrow. Ugh.

Checking out the Tractors

Cleaning up the Backyard

So, there goes another week. Welcome to June, as hard as it is to believe. But, June does kick off "summer" and we have so many fun things to look forward to, which is pretty exciting. Here we go!