Just One of Those Days

"Why today of all days?" At least that's the thought that keeps spinning through my head.

Today is just one of those days that you wish you could skip over... or erase... or magically change. One of those days that you just end up making it through.

First off, the sun decided to play hooky. I hate it when that happens, and it really doesn't help for my general mood when everything else is going wrong as well. I grew up in Sunny Northern California where we had sun almost every day from May till September. And between October and April, it was either pouring rain, or sunny and freezing cold.
This past week we've had dry days almost every day. And a couple of them were beautifully sunny. It's been a delightful treat for me. But then this morning is just dreary and grey and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it decided to drizzle for the better part of the day. But I should continue... the weather is more or less... a prop or background... or general setting.

I think the main problem is that I'm just really tired today. It's not that the kids were up too much last night. In fact, Sir took care of them for a few hours after I went to bed, so I got pretty much uninterrupted sleep for three or four hours. PC was only up two or three times after 3am, and it wasn't that much time if you add it all up. But I'm fighting a cold that I'm strongly suspicious is trying to turn into a lung infection. I'm good at getting lung infections. I had two of them last year within 6 months of each other. It's just that when it's a chore to breathe, even doing the most mundane tasks seem to wear you out. It takes a lot of energy to breath. Yesterday I called the Dr.'s office and set up an appointment for today... not the greatest time of day (just as the kids' naps are supposed to commence), but at least they were able to get me in before the weekend. Maybe we'll drop in and see Sir after seeing the Dr. He works not too far from the doctor's office.

On top of not having very much energy... there's the kids. PC is either still teething... sick.. or something else. He still has a terrible diaper rash that just won't go away and stay away. I'm guessing that's a lot of his problem, but he's really tired too. And he's not taking his naps very well. Yesterday he barely took either of his naps. Yes, he went through the motions of being in bed for the normal amount of time, but he was fussing and crying about half of the time, and it wasn't just the first half or the last half.. it was ten minutes on... fifteen minutes quiet etc. And then there's Dolly. She's already had one accident today which required a change of clothes. Yesterday we went through five outfits. Sometimes this potty training thing just won't end. There are good days... and then there are bad days. Of course, you never notice that there are three or four perfect days in a row, but boy do you notice when there's two bad days in a row! She's also bored almost out of her skin. I'm no fun to play with right now, PC's not available, and everything she comes up with like: dumping my can of yesterday's leftover pop out on my desk... or emptying the lower shelves in the pantry... or swishing used fabric softener sheets around in the fish tank... or scattering the pieces of the baby swing that I took apart this morning around the house- are just not going over very well.

And then there's all the stuff that likes to haunt me. Like the vacuum sitting at the bottom of the stairs silently reminding me that I need to vacuum the stairs... and the rest of the house for that matter. Or the dishes stacking higher and higher on the counter which call out that it really won't take that much to empty the dishwasher and reload it. Or the bathroom that needs a good scrubbing down, but all of that just sounds like so much work right now. I don't want to do anything... except feel better. Oh well, after all, it's just one of those days that will go away. Eventually.

Eight Months and Standing!

And a day before he hits 9 months I finally get the 8 month picture posted. At least it was taken just a few days after he turned eight months.

As you can see, he was standing without assistance by then. He started doing that just before he turned 8 months. Dolly's picture was taken just a day or two after she turned eight months too, but you can see she needed a prop when standing. It's been pretty amazing to see how close they've kept up with each other development wise.

Spring Clean

I told you that Sir came home early on Thursday. He was feeling even worse on Friday and didn't go to work at all. In fact, he stayed in bed almost all day. Almost.

You see, I have some very wonderful friends who called me up Friday morning. I happened to be buried under sticky waffles that I was feeding to PC when the phone rang, so HisLady kindly left me a message that said: "Hi! Curls and I were feeling bored today and wanted to know if you would like help cleaning and rearranging your house to get ready for conference?!" What a phone call! Of course, the first little trouble-making thought that flitted through my head was, 'I must really look like I can't keep my own house clean!' but then I got to thinking about how much I really wanted to get rearranged before conference. Then compared it to doing alone (or more likely dragging Sir into helping me) to doing it with these girls that were my age. I decided that doing it with the girls would be so much more fun. And was it ever! I called them back and told them to come over for lunch and then we'd get to work.

First we assessed the two hide-a-beds that were in the living room. I wanted to know which one was the better bed since it was what was going to end up in the office for our conference guests. Once that was decided, we dragged/pushed/lifted the hide-a-bed into the kitchen where it would patiently wait until it's next location was available. Then we moved the sewing machine over so we could move my desk out of the office and into the living room. We vacuumed as we went since there were spots that had been hiding under furniture that needed attention. Then, excepting Sir's desk, we emptied the office of everything and piled it in the living room. Just to be sure, we re-measured the office, the hide-a-bed and the dresser that was going to move out of my room and into the office. The last thing we wanted was to get everything into that tiny little room and then find out that it wouldn't fit after all. Then I had to get Sir out of bed so we could rearrange the bedroom. As soon as he was up and in the shower, the girls and I emptied the nine drawers out of the dresser that was moving to the office and put them in the kitchen with the hide-a-bed. By this time you couldn't walk through the kitchen or the living room very easily. Then we moved the regular dresser and the bed to different spots, vacuumed and took a break while we waited for Sir.

As soon as Sir was able, we enlisted his help in moving his desk out of the office and into our bedroom. Then we had him help us get the hide-a-bed into the office... which was an incredible feat. It had to cross the hallway from the kitchen to the office, going through two doorways.... that didn't line up with each other and were different widths! We actually got it done after quite a bit of puzzling though. The girls and I left Sir to re-set up his desk in the bedroom while we finished vacuuming the office, arranged the hide-a-bed, and moved the dresser into the office. Once Sir's desk was set up (he has all the modems and router at his desk, so until it was set up again, we had no phone or internet etc.) and I got the bed cleared off, Sir went back to bed. He was still feeling pretty sick.

For the next couple of hours, we rearranged all the stuff that suddenly didn't have a place to be stashed, tidied, organized the living room bookshelves and moved all the toys from all over the house into the office. Then HisLady and Curls called their husbands and arranged to have the guys pick up pizza on their way over. I woke Sir up again, and he was feeling a little better- after all, he had slept all day minus an hour and a half where we kicked him out of bed and put him to work.

So, the office is no more. Instead that room is now a Playroom with ALL of the kids' toys happily out of the way. It will easily change into a guest room for the duration of conference, but the toys will have to visit the living room and nursery for the weekend. The living room has a small desk and a two drawer filing cabinet instead of a third couch, a toy box and a cardboard house. And our bedroom is missing a huge dresser and a nightstand in exchange for a computer desk and small bookshelf.

What took HisLady, Curls and myself five hours to do would have taken me, by myself, at least two days (or more if the kids were helping undo things as fast as I could do them) to accomplish. Not only that but, while it was being done, I got to visit with my friends, get a break from my kids (since there were three adults to watch them), and get all of the work done enough so that we could have dinner and visit with friends that evening! And my house is ready for conference!

Runaway Ramblings

I know, I know! You're all in shock. I finally posted again. I don't have anything put together to post that meets my satisfaction although I was doing pretty good on my posting a few weeks ago. After all, it was only... let me see, six days into the month. I wasn't even a week behind in posting PC's 8 month picture - I even had one already taken, but I just had to get around to acquiring, cropping, and resizing it. I still haven't finished that project.

Next, PC took two steps all by himself and I was debating on whether or not to proclaim him 'walking at 8 months' and blog about it. I procrastinated a bit more. Then I had this really brilliant idea for a post... but I told Sir about it and he recomended that I do anything but that post. So I procrastinated because I was trying to come up with something that I was as excited about as the vetoed post. But I got too busy with stuff at home...

So busy that I didn't feed the cats for over a day and when we got home from prayer meeting a week ago, the cats ran outside. That would have been fine if I had remembered that they were outside... or if I had done my nightly check everything routein, but we were exhausted, I was rushing to put the kids to bed and to find something to eat for dinner. We had been rushing too much before we left for meeting for Sir and I to eat. That was Wednesday the 14th. The next morning, I had to cross the border for gas and dairy, so I took Sir to work which meant we had a really early start (well, early for the kids and me to be out of the house already). The kids and I did our errands and then came home. As we were getting out of the car one of the cats showed up meowing like crazy as she rushed up the stairs to get inside the house. I put food out and started looking for the other one. I couldn't find her. She wasn't answering to my calls (and I knew that since she would be starving that she would normally come immediately). Then I started to panic. I looked and looked, called and called.. and then I looked out the front window. And wished I hadn't. We live right on a major- very busy street in our city. There was a smudge on the road across the median. The kids were fussy, but I coudln't fix it just then. I just parked them in the living room with some toys, hopped over the gate at the inside stairs and rushed outside. The closer I got didn't help. I was hoping I'd see something that would set my fears aside. Like a raccoon tail or something white, but no, you could hardly tell that the roadkill had been anything in particular before it was hit. My stomache sank. It was raining, and everything was wet, but the hide was still there and it still had ears. I peeled it off the road and looked inside the ears.. Sure enough there was a tatoo in one of them. I knew then that it was my cat, but I needed to be sure. Really sure. When we moved to this house I had both of the cats spayed. And while they were sedated, I had the vet put an I.D. tatoo in their ears. Of course I had no idea where I had my paperwork that had the information from the vet in it, so I consulted my phone/address book. Thankfully I was smart enough when I entered the information to put a 'see Clinic Name' comment under the V's since I'd probably look under 'Vet' if I couldn't remember the clinic's name. Anyway, I called the vet, asked them to look up our cat I.D. numbers, and waited in a horrible suspense and dread until the receptionist came back. She read off the number. It matched. I thanked her and hung up. Then I went to the office, closed the door behind me (much to my children's astonishment) and called Sir. That was when I fell apart. He offered to come home from work, but I told him not to. Instead he told me to take a few mintues to put myself back together before going back out to the kids. I did, but the tears would just come back every time I thought about what had happened or when I'd remember little things that I should have paid attention to that might have prevented it all. Dolly was very concerned about me she'd ask 'Are you sad?' I'd tell her yes, I was. Then she'd check on me five minutes later, 'Are you happy Mommy?' I'd smile and start crying again. Then she'd state matter of factly, 'You dripping.' Just so you know, it's really hard to be sad when your two year old is so observant. I had to laugh. Both kids were exceptionally good all day long that day, and I was really thankful. I kept myself busy and tried to do everything we normally do so I wouldn't upset them. That evening I dropped them off at Sir's parent's house on my way to pick him up from work. Then we went out for dinner which was a nice break. I needed some time away from the kids and with Sir so it really helped.

On with my ramblings... PC continued to test out 'little steps' I didn't want to say he was walking yet, because I don't think he knows it himself. He's done anything from two to ten steps in a row. I think I'll still wait a bit. He's taking steps a lot more often now, but he hasn't thrown out his transportation by 'fours' just yet.

Then the kids got sick. PC started teething over the same weekend (he would!) and both Dolly and PC were beside themselves. We went home early on Sunday and everyone took naps for the rest of the afternoon. Then PC got the worst diaper rash that he's ever had. I think it had a lot to do with him being sick to start with... but the doctors say that they can get rashes when they're teething too, so it could have been that... or maybe it could have been both.

I came down with a bug Monday and it still hasn't gone away, but I don't feel half dead anymore. Tuesday I took PC in to the doctor because I was getting a little worried about the diaper rash. I called them just to find out if there was anything else I could put on him to help it clear up, and they told me to come in. Dolly was feeling better Wednesday, so I let her go to meeting with Sir that evening much to her excitement. She absolutely loves to go to meeting. I'm glad.

And that brings me to today. Sir came home early from work because he was feeling sick as well. At least we all got it before conference. Of course speaking of conference... we have less than three weeks left to get everything ready. I'm in charge of setting up the nursery, which is fine, but I still need to rearrange our house so we'll have a guest room for our guests! Hey! we still have a little more than two weeks left... we can do it... yes, we can... really! I'm sure of it.. mostly.

And now, I've rambled enough that I should be back into 'blogging mode' It's so easy to get into a rut... or in my case, a canyon, and then it's even easier to just procrastinate on posting for forever. Here's a couple shots of PC playing the piano for me. I have some of Dolly doing the same thing at about the same age, but I was too lazy to look them up tonight. Oh well.. if I got stuck looking for pictures, I might have just procrastinated a bit more. So, now I'll congratulate you on making it to the end of this post, and take myself off to bed. G'nite!

Our Two-Year-Old Little Girl!

"We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters... unto the LORD."
Exodus 10:9

This picture was the free one that we got to choose aside from the main package picture (below). It's too bad I didn't think of having her posed like this before I settled for the package picture. That just means that I have one copy of this picture to post here, and I can mail one of the many package pictures to friends and family!
It's hard to believe that we've had this little girl as part of our lives for two years now! So much is still fresh in my memory and often it seems like it was just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital. She's been one of the best gifts ever given to us!