Week & Weekend Review

Last week was a trying week. Ben was away for work and Henry, bless his heart, decided to give up sleeping through the night, which he had been doing no problem for 3-4 weeks. I was averaging 3-4 hours a night, sometimes less. I think (know) he is trying to get a tooth and that must have been keeping him up. On top of that, it was KK's first week of school and she was exhausted (aka cranky!) every night. It was one of those weeks that was not really awful, but just trying. Ben got home early and was able to pick KK up from school on Friday. All day at work on friday, I was having some horrific sinus pressure and feeling really crappy. So that evening I gladly stayed home while KK spent the night with Will & Bella and Ben went to listen to some music with a cousin he has not seen in 5 years.
On Saturday, I got up feeling better and went an got KK to run some errands and get some (facial) waxing done. We stopped at a garage sale where I found a brand new high chair for Henry. He has been eating 1st step baby food for a couple of weeks now and feeding him in the bouncy chair on the floor was just not cutting it. This chair also has toys to play with, so after he eats he usually plays in it for 20 minutes. It was a great investment. (No matter what I do, I can't seem to get the pictures to post where I want them, so the pictures is up above!). Then I got a call from my mom to go shopping at Plato's Closet and the mall. I went home and fed lunches and loaded us up. We ended up closing down the mall. I never go out South and only go to Woodland Hills Mall twice a year. But I love Plato's Closet, I love thrift and consignment stores in general. I don't usually buy new clothes any more for a couple of reasons: 1) I am cheap. It started out as necessity but became a way of living. 2) I am really not that trendy. Most of the clothes I like are pretty simple. Even when I do like the current trends, they don't usually look great on me. Most clothes designers are not designing for my body type, so I usually find more of a selection at second hand stores. 3) There always seems to be something better to spend my money on. Although I have recently realized how much I am lacking in my closet (especially dress clothes), so I am going to try to get some more stuff when we have the budget.
While at the mall, shopping in a junior's store that i frequented in high school, a sales clerk (maybe 17-18) stopped me and commented on how cute the baby was and asked how old he and KK were. She then said "And your pregnant again?" I wanted to melt into the wall. I know I don't look like I did 10 years ago, that's okay, I have had 3 pregnancies and 2 children in 4 years. And just to brag a bit, I only gained 10 pounds with Henry and lost 16 after his birth, so what I have left is simply extra skin. When I said, no, I'm not pregnant, she then replied, "Oh, its just the leftover?" Even though it really made me feel bad about my body, I can now find it a bit funny and know that she will probably never again ask someone if they are pregnant, at least until it is completely undeniable.
Sunday was a day spent playing catch up and helping Henry with his teeth. We were supposed to attend my cousin's 10th birthday party, but Henry was simply too fussy to make the trip to Claremore.
Here lately I have felt very behind on a lot of things. Laundry, money, relationships, etc. Feeling behind makes me feel out of control. I know we have had alot of changes in our life, but it is still frustrating. So I am trying very hard to get caught up. One of the things I used to do is couponing and price watching on grocery items. I am working on doing this again regularly, so I am sure you will here more about it. In the meantime, here is a great site that is actually run by my director's daughter in law.
www.tulsacouponqueen.com Check it out!

Blah, Blah, Blah

Yes, it has been forever since I have blogged and I want to do it more often, so instead of excuses, here goes.

KK started Pre-K yesterday. I can't believe I have a child this old! She really likes the program so far and seems to have made friends. Starting school creates alot of changes for all of us. This is the first time Cadence has been in school 5 days a week. No more nights off from the "night before school" routine. Every night of the week is now a school night. My work schedule also changes back to school hours. Since I have the freedom now of working any day of the week, I am experimenting with a m-thurs schedule. Usually if Ben has a day off, it is on Fridays, so I figure this would be a good day. We will see how it goes, as Friday is the one day we don't have any volunteers at the office. Hopefully it will all work. Cadence and I both do better with schedules and monotony and I have already found that I feel more productive at work being her a couple days in a row instead of having a day off in between.

Since it officially the end of summer, here are the events of this summer:

• Amber's hand surgery. This surgery ended up being more painful and debilitating than I originally thought it would be. I still do not have full movement back and will find out this week if I have to have physical therapy.
• KK took gymnastics.
• We found out Ben did not get into the Tulsa Fire academy, but he is still working on getting in next time (getting his EMT) and/or getting on with a smaller department.
• We moved my mom into a new house.
• Henry ventured into the new world of eating baby cereal, step 1 baby foods, rolling over, pushing up from his tummy, sleeping through the night, and giving up breastfeeding.
• I experienced some major changes at my office. It was a stressful time and when all was said and done, I had lost a really good friend. I am still very sad about it, but at this point, I have accepted it. I know God has a plan and I have to let him be in charge.
  

I know it was a crazy/busy summer and more has gone on, but that seems to be all I can think of. Till next time,
a

No time like the present

Well, I have been behind on posting and at this very moment I am sitting at the surgery center waiting to be taken to surgery to remove the ganglian cyst on my hand. Ahh, the wonders of technology. Thanks to Ben's laptop and the wireless internet here, I am able to blog while I am waiting. My surgery is running behind and I am bored while watching everyone else eat, so I figured why not? For those of you out of the loop, I have a hard ganglian cyst on my left wrist that has been there for a few months, but has become incredibly painful and has made it hard to use my wrist. These cysts come from trauma to your wrists, which probably happened through all those years of dance. While it is an outpatient surgery, it does require general anesthesia and it will require me to have a hard fiberglass cast and be on wrist restriction for a while. I am ready to have the surgery done because I have had a constant pain in my wrist and it has been hard to use. Well, I know this is a short post, but I am determined to post more, even if it is just short little ones. Pray that my surgery goes well!

Louisiana

Over the weekend, we made our annual trek down to Shreveport, LA. Ben's Uncle Johnny has a cabin that has been in the family for years on Caddo Lake and we started making the trip with the younger generations about 4 years ago. This year we carpooled with Katie, Bella, and Will for the trip to save money on gas. Driving 6 hours with 4 kids under 4 sounds scary, but it wasn't bad at all. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and were able to spend a couple of hours getting settled before Candace and Josh arrived. We then got to spend the evening with just the two of them. It was very nice because we only see Candace once a year since she lives in LA and Josh about 3x a year since he is currently working in Canada. Ben also caught two catfish that day. The next day three more groups arrived, but all at separate times, so we were able to enjoy everyone before it got too big. Saturday we spent another day of hanging out, fishing, sleeping. The kids played in a small inflatable pool and helped fish. On Sunday, we headed out to the Mudbug festival which we do every year. Before we left, I got stung by a wasp which has never happened to me and by the way hurts like hell! This year it was hotter than ever. We stayed long enough to eat (Ben had crocodile and I had catfish), let KK make one of those sand jars they always have at the fair, the kids played on some inflatible toys and then we were out of there. It was too hot!

One the way home, Katie and I ran into a local Wal-mart and found some really great deals on clothes for the kids. When we got up to check out, we stood in line for 30 minutes (I kid you not!). We then headed home to rinse off and relax for our last evening. We had a fish fry with the fish that had been caught during the trip and just enjoyed everyone. The next morning we packed up to head home and this time the car ride was more eventful. When we were ready to stop for lunch, we pulled up to a DQ and waited in line to order for 10 minutes. When we got to actually order, we were told there would be no food for 20 minutes. The best part was this DQ had a sign that said "Fastest Drive Thru in Town". Seriously? So we opted to find another drive through. Poor Henry was overly tired and cried for a good portion of the car ride. About two hours from home, I checked his pants to discover a poop explosion. KK was in a foul mood for most of the ride because she had had no down time throughout the trip and was cranky to all of us, especially poor Will seated next to her. And Bella is learning how to us her lungs and had a period of time where out of no where she would just yell really loud. We were all ready to get out of the car when we got home!


The next day was thankfully my day off, so I was able to stay home and try to get the laundry done and get the house picked up. Unfortunately, most of that did not happen because poor Henry is not a good day time sleeper (which we are working on). That evening we went to dinner at Rib Crib with some of Ben's family to celebrate his birthday, which was the day before. He is 27!!!

Now the end of the week is here and our weekend consists of:
Going to see Sex and the City tonight with Katie
Cadence's dance rehearsal and recital
Hopefully bathing the dogs
Recovering from the short week
And continuing to get Henry on the 90 minute sleep cycle. I stuck with it yesterday and he actually took 3 45 min naps and went down at 9 pm and slept in his crib till 1:30 am. This may not sound like alot, but it is for him. He never sleeps during the day!

Have a great weekend!

Changes

It has been almost 10 months since I have blogged. That really sucks. I am determined to make this at least a weekly habit and have made some changes to help me do so. I have changed the settings so that the blog is now public not private, so that you do not have to create a google account to read the blog. This means that I will not be posting any private information, especially about anybody else.
I have a few friends who blog and I read theirs' religiously and always enjoy it, so they have gotten me excited again about blogging!

What all has happened in the last 10 months? We had baby Henry in February. Ben took a new job in January and travels almost every other week if not more. Cadence finished her 3 year old year at Kirk of the Hills and we are moving on from that school and will be attending a new one next year. I have a hard time believing that she will be in Pre-K next year. I am once again working on the same fundraiser that I was the last time I posted, we decided to move it to a different time of year to see how that works. This year our Mystery dinner will be June 19 & 20 in Catoosa. Email me for specific details. Cadence has finished her first year of dance class and will be having her first recital this Saturday (email for details!). Liv made HS cheerleading as a soon to be freshman. My mom has FINALLY given up smoking for good! My in laws moved into a new house with a fabulous backyard. I know lots more has happened, but those are the big things. I hope all of you will check in with this blog and keep me determined to keep it up. I really love blogging, but the past year has been so busy. I am sure you will all forgive me. Till next time....

Update

Wow! It has been a month since I have posted. I am very sorry for that. I usually post at work, due to not having internet at home anymore, but work has been incredibly busy. For the few of you that read this, I am sorry, I will be better! As I said before, work has been really busy. I finished training a new set of volunteers and am working on another training. I am also planning a fundraiser, our Mystery Dinner. This fundraiser was our big one with LNGC and Pregnancy HopeLine and since I am the only one who has done it before, I am the head of the fundraiser. It is alot of work and pretty stressful. I have also been keeping up with the regular weekly duties on top of those extra jobs.

When pregnant, you usually hit a point in your second trimester when you suddenly feel 100% better. You are no longer tired, you have energy, usually sickenss goes away, etc. My second trimester has so far been worse than the first. I have all of the same symptoms, but they are all much worse and now I have dry heaves. Nope, I don't get sick, I just heave. It is awful. I am also dead tired 90% of the time and can't seem to do much besides go to work and pick Cadence up from school and then I am in bed the rest of the day. I am ready to feel better. I was really thinking this baby was a girl, but I am starting to think boy, because I had none of these symptoms on this level with Cadence. Plus, a girl would never torture her Mama like this!!!

Ben has taken and passed the first of 4 tests to get into the Fire Academy. I am so proud of him. He has also been taking the practice physical tests and is doing so well! The first round of interviews should be in the next week or so. I will keep you updated.

Mom and I are getting ready for a garage sale next weekend and are making leaps and bounds at getting everything cleaned out. We are for sure selling a chair, bakers rack, and Fooseball table on top of all the clothes. If you know any girls who are in middle school, junior high or really tiny women, my sister is selling tons of Abercrombie, Holister, & Aeropostle clothes! Please come by.

So that is how life has been going right now. I will work at updating at least weekly. That sounds like a do-able goal!

7 things that make me happy

I have been tagged by another blog I read to post 7 things that make me happy. Here goes:

1. My daughter. Every day she lights up my life and adds more to my life than anyone. She makes me laugh, cry, and loves me unconditionally.

2. The pool. Right now, our pool is about the only reason we go outside anymore and after a long day of work and errands, it is perfect.

3. Old Navy flip flops. The most comfortable and most affordable flip flops make my whole summer great.

4. My job. I am finally where I wanted to be in my organization and I am getting to grow it and make such a difference. Everything is coming together.

5. Pregnancy. Although the first trimester of pregnancy is never fun, I am just so thankful to be pregnant that most of the time I can overcome the general feelings of sickness. Between the heat and a still undiagnosed sickness that causes joint aches, my pregnancy symptoms are stronger than previously, but there is still not alot than can bring me down about this pregnancy.

6. Thrift & Discount stores. I am very thankful for two stores especially: Value Thrift & Ross. Ross has allowed me to purchase a couple of cheap maternity shirts, a pair of shorts and a pair of khakis to get me through the rest of the summer. For those who don't know, maternity clothes are expensive. And since most of my time being pregnant will be in cooler and cold months, it is not smart to spend alot of money of clothing items I will only wear for a month or two. Cadence starts school next week and I knew that she would be needing some fall clothes before I knew it. While it is fun to by your kids cute clothes, it can also be really really expensive! At two thrift stores this weekend, I found a gymboree top, Children's place jeans, a gap wrap sweater, gap jeans, two pairs of gap pink cords, and a motherhood maternity shirt for me. Along with 4 books. Between how expensive kids clothes are and how hard they are on them, there is little reason to spend so much money on cute clothes, especially when you can find them just as cute for really cheap. Another favorite of mine is the JBF sale, which starts this Sunday here in Tulsa. I hope to finish up KK's school clothes shopping next week at this sale, as well as stocking up on maternity clothes.

7. My husband and family. I have an incredible family who loves me and supports me. I am so thankful for all of them and have so much fun with everyone.

Okay, for anyone who reads this, Tag, you're it!