2 down 2 to go

Jess and Reilly came over Christmas Eve. Aidan signaled it was time for them to go by barfing a little after 9pm. He continued to do so right up to 5am. Exhausted doesn't even cover it. Poor Abby up bright and early to open presents only to find the 3 of us in our bed completely incoherent. We got up and showered and got gifts opened and I went back to sleep until 3pm.
Yesterday Nick and Ash came over and I awoke this morning at 1:42am by the sound of my husband barfing. Awesome. Such a GREAT Christmas thankyouverymuch. So that leaves me and Abby.... just waiting to see who goes down next. And get this- I DIDN'T TAKE ONE SINGLE PICTURE of when the girls' were over. DOH.

Supposed to work today and I ended up driving in because I bought cupcakes for a coworkers birthday, and I have tomorrow off to save on daycare $$ so I didn't want the cupcakes sitting around here until Thursday...PLUS I couldn't remember my password to do payroll. I didn't even shower- just showed up in all my beauty. cough cough.
So... unplanned day off I'm taking down the Christmas tree and trying to CLEAN. This house is a mess and it's so completely overwhelming. I would almost shell out money to hire someone to come and clean and organize. almost.

HO HO HO

I need one of the following a) more time or b) to be able to sleep for approximately 3 days.
Last year Rick and I wrapped everything on Christmas Eve. This year I VOWED never again but by doing so I have been wrapping for two weeks straight.
Had the kids' piano recital Monday night. Tuesday we went to Zoo lights and dinner at Skyline Burgers. We bought some groupon restaurant.com deals so we have a few vouchers to look forward to. Last night I finally started organizing the photos from the last 3 months for their albums and our vacation (as if I have time for that)
Rick is working Christmas Eve and I'm FINALLY going to get around to baking with the kiddos.

Blessed.

Stop the ride I want to get off...

You know that book called "I was a good mom before I had kids?" That is me right now. On the day before our boy's birthday I'm scrambling to wrap his presents. It's chaos I tell you. I have at least 5 or 6 lists going right now- a grocery list, a to-do list, a Christmas list, a school list for the kids, a work list and something else.

Anyhow... I amazed I made it through LAST week. WHEW. Month end at work, 2012 sales planning with my boss, year end, benefits renewal, and from now until March it's our busy season... PLUS cleaning the house, grocery shopping and preparing meals in the evenings and getting things ready for the weekend. My annual girlfriends' brunch/ornament exchange was last Saturday and Aidan's bday party was on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday- when we dropped Abby off at her Sunday School class we were asked if she was home schooled!! How cool is that? Sadly she isn't... but they commented how great she does with her weekly bible verses.

In other random news, girly girl has been sleeping in until 7 when I actually have to go in and wake her up. This is unheard of in the history of Abby. She's had a big few weeks mentally and another growth spurt so it's nice that she is getting the recommended amount of sleep like the rest of the kids her age get. She's counting money, telling time, doing multiplication etc. She just keeps growing up and I keep feeling like it all happens when I blink.

and our little guy is now 5.

Crazy

Last week Rick ran to the store for me and I called him on his cell phone and I said did you FEED the dog? He said no, so I fed the dog. Later on that night I said, did you PEE the dog? And he says, no, not since you did. I replied that I never peed the dog and he said yes, when you called me you asked me if I PEED the dog. So... the dog got fed twice.
Today I fell asleep on the couch and got up to finish dinner and I fed the dog only to hear Rick call out that he already fed the dog. I swear the dog must think we are completely wacko.
We take the kids to Krispy Kreme every Sunday after church. They like to get the Seasonal ones- like Duck/Beavers, Holiday sprinkles etc. So today they had snowman ones. In our house they are called Me-Me's. Aidan got this Snowman when he turned one. When he tried to say snowman it came out as Me-Me. Me-Me has been a part of this household for 4 years now. Needless to say, when we went to order donuts I told Rick that I probably would have said I'll take two Me-Me donuts and he concurred that he had to think about it before he placed the order. Can you imagine!!! I crack up just thinking about it.
Crazy people we are.

I love this time of year, when we are out and about Aidan is quick see all the snowmen decor and gets excited and says "Look!!! Me-Me's!!!" Some guy at the Garden store we went to this weekend was trying to figure out what we were looking at. Maybe he'll try to Google Me-Me's. Or call someone and ask what a Me-Me is.

I'm sad to see the four-day weekend end but it will be nice to be back in our 'routine' plus I feel like I've gained 10 lbs.

I managed to get our tree done in record time I think. I need to convince Rick to put the thing on wheels so we can just wheel it in and out and it's ready to go. It takes me two ladders, a bar stool, a step stool, the couch arm and the table. We might be retiring the tree after this year...

Anyway it's up and ready. The next two weekends are full so I'm glad it's done.

Give Thanks

Gratitude: Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling, emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.

I'm thankful for this little family, for running water, a roof over our head, food to eat, jobs to go to, health insurance... We are abundantly blessed, often non-deserving, but nonetheless extremely grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Week

I know I know it's only Tuesday but I've made such great progress getting caught up at work from missing last week, got the house clean, and my to do list whittled down so I'm hoping the rest of the week will just float on by especially because I have sore throat and think I caught Aidan's cooties. Not feeling good at all. It would help if I actually went to bed at a decent hour!!
Abby lost tooth #7 tonight. Her perfect little baby toothed mouth is now a MESS. WHOA. Some orthodontist is going to have a field day with this child.

Kids brought home GREAT report cards yesterday and today

When we arrived back home from vacation there was a letter from Nzembi waiting for us!




Hello Julie
Nzembi says she was very much excited to get your letter and nice drawing from Abby. She says she wish that she could know to draw well as Abby. Nzembi tells you to tell Abby that she often thinks of her and she wish that one day will meet her.
Nzembi informs you here in Kenya they don't go to school all year long. She says within the year they break for school vacation in the month of April, August and December. She says August Holiday was one of the best for she had enough time to play with her friends. Nzembi says she enjoy playing rope skipping, hide and seek game, pretending to be teaching in class and pretending to be Mom. She says she attends Saturday program at the Compassion Projects and they are now learning about the story of Joseph who was sold as a slave by his brothers. She then ends by saying lots of love to you all!

San Diego!

We had last week off! Monday was Rick's birthday- we took Abby to school and then had breakfast. I sent him to a surprise massage appt after his volunteer duty at the kid's school. Tuesday we got up at 3:10am to get ready for our flight to San Diego. We took a quick trip to Sea World, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park and the Scripps Aquarium. Abby has wanted to be a dolphin trainer for awhile now and I think this trip just sealed the deal. Loved seeing the animals at the zoo that we don't have at ours- Camels, Koalas and Pandas.

All was well until Aidan got sick with a constant cough- the poor kid coughed his head off for 18 hours straight. We had NO SLEEP for two nights. To top it off, I left his albuterol inhaler at home thinking ohhhh he won't need it. Needless to say I worried myself sick- I was up all night using the bathroom! Thankfully I had packed children's benedryl in our little travel first aid kit and that helped some. I know right??? Benedryl vs. Inhaler. We made it home yesterday evening- got unpacked, the kids fed and I started cleaning house. It's all about utilizing and managing my time right now. I need every minute. Today we took the kids to urgent care- Abby has had plugged ears for awhile now so they flushed out her impacted ear wax. Gross but the girl can hear now. Granted ear wax isn't urgent but she missed last week of school and I didn't want to pull her out this week for a dr appt and since Aidan was being checked over for his breathing...the dr did hear some reatraction on the end of his exhale so he's on predinose for a few days along with his inhaler. I really hope he outgrows this. The rest of day I spent getting fruits and veggies, his invites ready for his birthday party, more laundry, more cleaning, and getting my Turkey Day list ready. The key to getting back from vacation is to have your meals planned and non perishable groceries bought before you leave. TIME SAVER. Rick got out the Christmas decorations. Yep... we decorate over Thanksgiving. Not looking forward to the piles and piles of work that is waiting for me so I'm anxious to just get tomorrow done and over with.

The pictures are out of order and I don't feel like messing with them.

We landed at 9am on Tuesday and dumped our stuff at the hotel and headed straight to Sea World. This whale was so social looked at Abby right in the eye and kept 'touching' the glass where she was. It was an amazing moment.

Hotel Del

Safari Park

Scripps Aquarium



This was one of my top favorite parts of the trip. LOVED mama with her baby








This is the funniest- they wanted to use our photo for their display so they had us sign a model release and we got photos for free. Free is a very good price at these places.

Spinning in Circles...

I feel like everything I am accomplishing lately is completely LAST MINUTE. I've never been one to live like that so it bothers me! I've been going going going so much that I ended up feeling like crud for about 5 days this week... no matter what I wasn't able to ever get myself to bed early :-( I've been getting caffeine headaches lately. I gave up caffeine about 9 years ago and the process was painstakingly brutal, so much that I vowed to never experience that again. I started drinking decaf lattes. Well... when I kicked my latte habit recently I went to green tea, only the green tea I like is this "super green tea" which has caffeine. I get those headaches again!! Combine that with the week-long sinus headache, I felt like I had a "man cold."

Busy week!! Food boxes at church, we carved pumpkins last minute, took the kids to see Dolphin Tale...that same day I decided on a whim to make dinner and bring it to my neighbor who had surgery. Hot lunch duty, month end at work, Wednesday I ditched work for a few hours and had breakfast with my Mom and went shopping- even that was a whirlwind. Had to get Nzembi's Birthday letter and card mailed- her birthday isn't until January but they tell me it takes 2-3 months to get to her and there was a deadline. Friday Abby didn't have school so I took her to work with me, and it was also my evening to bring a meal to the other family I'm helping out. Rick had two days of interviews for a new position at work.

Boy am I ever thankful for an extra hour cause I can sure use it! Abby is memorizing all the books of the Old Testament and if parent(s) do it as well she gets some sort of prize. I'm up to Ezekiel.

Next up is Rick's birthday and a little vacation.

Best news of the week: Jessica and Reilly are having a girl!!!

ER and Other Fun Things...

Yep! Same exact spot Aidan had stitches only they were able to glue her shut!

Sunday night he was playing around in our office and smacked his nose on our treadmill. I thought for sure it was going to be black and blue and swollen but absolutely nothing. Monday night she was playing "puppy" in the office and then she smacks the treadmill. Off to the ER we go. That treadmill has been there for SIX years and just now they both get injured on it.

Abby came down with a horrible cold over the weekend with one those bronchitis sounding coughs. We didn't get much sleep for 2 nights and then the ER visit on top of it made for some pretty wiped out parents this week.
And look what hubby finished after 2+ years!! The playroom!! We painted and did the border in 2009 and he finally got the moudling up, painted and hung the bulletin board for their art and hung up their school photo frames. You know those old school shoe organizer pocket things? That works perfect for barbies. I have it on the back of the door.

I hosted a midweek evening playdate with the kiddos friends from school. We had pizza and decorated Halloween cookies.

Birthday Week

Her party was a blast. Fashion show/photo shoot. All the girls got to 'model' and go home with a CD of the photos. Her teacher called me at 7am on her birthday saying she had to get a sub and that Abby's class party would have to be postponed. I dreaded telling Abby because she was so excited for having her birthday at school that she hardly slept. Thankfully I put a good spin on it indicating she get's AN EXTRA day to celebrate.

Rick and I both took today off and had a date- we went to breakfast and then saw the movie Courageous. I don't know who cried more. Great movie. Great Christian movie and message for Fathers. We took Abby to Red Robin along with Grandma and then just did presents and cake. My baby girl is SEVEN!!