Category: Life

2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 1 husband – life isn’t perfect, but it is what we make it

Sometimes Real Life Takes Up Too Much Time

Published by dee on December 19, 2007

I feel like I haven’t been home since Thursday night. I guess I have been home, but really only long enough to sleep, get up, shower, and head out again. Things have been just a tad bit busy.

Friday night after work, I convinced Hubby to go shopping with me and we completely finished our Christmas shopping. If I left anyone out then they are just going to have to deal with it because I am done. I still have some gifts to make, but I’m hoping I’ll get them done up this weekend. Only one of those has to be shipped and I’m really hoping I can get it finished in the next day or two. It may end up being a little late.

Saturday was spent at my nephew Ryan’s 3rd birthday party. The funniest moment of the day was when Zach tried to help Ryan blow out his candles and his hand managed to land right in the middle of the cake. Fortunately, no one minded too much and the cake was eaten up, hand print and all. After the party, we stuck around for a while and hung out with my family while we watched the snow continue to fall.

Sunday was spent at church, and then a holiday party for our Sunday School class. The party was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed getting to visit with some of our friends that we don’t get to hang out with often.

Monday it was back to work, but we had our office holiday lunch to break the day up and then I got to leave a little early to get Zach ready for his very first school Christmas program. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a bunch of toddlers and preschoolers, but it was really very cute.

Zachary’s class participated in an angel band where they played instruments and sang a few songs. Then they acted out the nativity scene with a little help from a narrator. Zachary got to play the part of a shepherd and was absolutely adorable. Unfortunately, he spent most of his stage time with his back to the crowd because he was fixated on trying to hang his sheep back up on the board behind him. After that, he decided to play with the hay in the manger. The only bad part was that it was too dark to get any good pictures of him. We got a few fuzzy shots of him, along with a very dark video but I guess that will have to do.

Tuesday was another busy night as we trekked up North to see my nephew Dylan’s Christmas play. He was really excited to get to play the part of Santa in the play and couldn’t wait for us to see him. He did an excellent job and the play was very cute. I managed to get a few pictures of him, although again the lighting was an issue.

Tonight I plan to go home and not do much of anything (except maybe some knitting) if I can help it. I’m already exhausted and it is only Wednesday. It’s a good thing I have a long weekend to look forward to.

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All Mommy Wants For Christmas Is A Silent Night

Published by dee on December 13, 2007

It seems like all I can write about lately is how busy and tired I am. It comes along with the season. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to keep up with everything going on around me. Besides the usual hustle and bustle of the holidays, two of my nephews celebrate their birthdays at the end of the year and my whole family is waiting for my brother’s baby to be born any day now. Every time my phone rings I’m hoping it is them saying they are on their way to the hospital.

Add onto that the fact that I’m in my sixth month of pregnancy and I have a two-year-old who still doesn’t want to sleep at night (although there has been some improvement with the sleeping situation). I am just so very tired. Even when I do get to sleep, I’m sleeping restlessly, waking over and over again through the night. It is frustrating to say the least. I just can’t stay comfortable for long enough in one position to get a good night’s sleep. Without sleep, it becomes much more difficult to focus, much less actually complete any tasks. I think the most difficult thing I’ve done all week was baking and decorating cookies with Zach.

I thought I was actually going to get a break tonight when Zachary turned to me and asked if it was bed time at 7:40 tonight. I thought maybe I could get a few extra minutes to myself and maybe even turn in early for the night. Considering that I haven’t been able to get him to bed before 9:00 lately, I was ecstatic that he actually wanted to go to bed. I took him back to his room, read a couple (or five) books to him, sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with him, and tried to get him settled in for the night. By the time I got out of his room it was about 8:30.

I sat down on the couch to eat some dinner, relax, and watch TV for a few minutes. Before I knew it, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet coming down the hallway. Since it’s an almost nightly occurrence, I knew to expect it. The boy can find a million and one reasons to get back out of bed. After three or possibly four trips to the living room with a new excuse each time, I think he is finally settling down…at 9:30, almost two hours after we started the whole process. Now I can finally begin my evening. So much for going to bed early.

The good news is that Zach is actually sleeping better through the night. Instead of waking up over and over again all night long, he is only waking once or twice and settling back down pretty easily. Once he settles back down, he generally sleeps the rest of the night. You would think this would help me get a little more sleep, but I’m still waking up all night long. It is a little frustrating.

All I really want right now is a few nights of good, solid sleep. I’m so tired of waking up with burning eyes, headaches, and just general aches from tossing and turning all night. Even though I’m excited to share Christmas with my family this year, I’m also anxious for it to be over and for things to just slow back down. I need time to do nothing, to relax, and to sleep. I’m really looking forward to January.

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The Big Ice Storm That Wasn't

Published by dee on December 11, 2007

I don’t really want to downplay the ice storm that landed in Kansas City because it was much worse in other areas and we may still be getting more. However, the weather forecasters had everyone a little freaked out for no reason in this area. Sure we have ice, but the streets are fairly clear and definitely drivable.

Schools, churches, and businesses all over the metro area announced that they were closing last night before the worst of the ice even hit. Boss man instructed my mom and I to take some work home “just in case” we couldn’t get in today. Zach’s day care closed. Hubby’s boss told him to stay home. There were still quite a few accidents on the roads this morning so I elected to stay home and do my work here even though I probably could have gone in.

The nice part of all of this is that Zach has been really good today. Hubby kept him entertained this morning while I got some work done. Then I took a break so we could have lunch and Zach is now napping. I still have quite a bit of work to do, but considering I seem to be working much faster than I do in the office I figured a quick blogging break couldn’t hurt.

The only bad part about being home today is that I keep thinking about all of the things I could be doing if I didn’t have all this work to do. I’ve got Christmas cards to address and mail, two gifts to finish making, two more gifts to start making, lots of gift wrapping to do, a ton of laundry to be washed, and a house that is in desperate need of a good cleaning.

But, I guess the work won’t do itself so I better get back to it. Only a few more hours to go before I can stop working, have a big bowl of chili, and relax for the evening.

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A Visit With Santa

Published by dee on December 9, 2007

It took a couple of minutes for him to warm up to the idea, but once I told him Santa was going to bring him presents on Christmas he was more than happy to sit with him and take a picture. I felt a little guilty about that at first, but it is a great picture so maybe it was worth it.

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Why Do I Still Feel The Need To Post Every Day?

Published by dee on December 5, 2007

Busy, busy, busy. It seems like things will never slow down at this time of year. We start gearing up for year end at work. At home I have so many things I need to do and so many more I want to do and there is never enough time to get them all done. Right now I would love nothing more than a week at home alone without a toddler to distract me. My house is suffering from months of neglect. I have so many little projects that I want to complete. I have gifts that I wanted to actually make this year instead of buying and I’m not sure I’ll be able to get them done. I have a few more items left to shop for before Christmas. Oh, and a little sleep here and there would be nice too. I’m already looking forward to my maternity leave just because I know I’ll finally get some sleep – even if it is in two hour spurts!

Instead of going home and snuggling with the boy on the couch tonight, I have to attend a meeting that I really don’t want to go to. It isn’t something I have to go to, but something that I’ll feel guilty about later if I don’t attend. I would much rather spend the evening with my family, then snuggle in for some TV time and a little knitting.

I had my 24 week check-up today with my doctor. Everything is still looking great with this pregnancy. My belly is measuring perfectly and Baby G’s heart rate is still at 147. Next time I go in I have the dreaded Glucose test to look forward to. Then a few days after that we are going to have a 3D scan done and hopefully get a glimpse of her little face and confirm the sex again. Hubby is a little paranoid that our girl will come out a boy and wants to double check.

For a short time this morning I thought I just might be greeting a new niece by this evening, but it looks like that isn’t going to happen. It is actually a good thing because I think my Sister-in-law is only 36 weeks along and I would rather she let that little girl cook for a couple more weeks before popping her out. I think it scared my brother a bit though when he realized just how unprepared they actually are. I have a feeling they will be hurriedly getting baby things ready over the next couple of days. I was excited thinking that she may be here tonight, but it really is for the best that she waits.

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Trying To Find Some Christmas Spirit

Published by dee on December 4, 2007

No matter how much I want to slow it down, Christmas seems to be coming up very quickly. I always enjoy the shopping, but I’m not exactly finding myself in the Christmas spirit yet. We’ve decorated the tree, pulled out the Christmas music, and have been reading all of Zach’s Christmas books, but I’m just not feeling it yet.

I really want Zach to get excited about Christmas this year because for some reason I think that if he gets excited it will help me get more excited. I’m not sure he really understands the whole concept yet, but I’m trying to teach him little by little what to expect on Christmas morning. I also would like to find a book written on a toddler level that tells the biblical Christmas story so he can learn that as well.

In my effort to get us both a little more excited, I decided to pull out the construction paper and have a little craft time with Zach. He wasn’t too sure about it at first, but once he found out he got to use glue he got a little more excited.

He worked really hard for a while, picking out the right colors and gluing each strip.

He got pretty excited when he started seeing results and figured out that we were actually making something with all of that paper and glue.

Zach got a little bored before we were finished. What can I say? He has the attention span of a two-year-old for some reason. While he watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I finished up the chain. He came back to help a couple of times. I was pretty tired of it myself by the time I finally glued the last strip.

When all was said and done, we hung our Christmas paper chain up along the doorway next to the Christmas tree. Zach was very excited to see the finished product. I was just glad that it was finally done. I have to say that it was kind of fun while Zach and I were working together on it though. I can’t wait until he gets just a little bit older and we can do more things like this together.

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