Today I had a doctor's appointment and since Justin is in Utah, I had to take Liam with me. I dragged myself out of bed this morning and got Alana up and noticed that her diaper had leaked. So I had to give her a quick bath and shove her bedding into the washer before the school bus came. And then when I tried to get Liam up, he refused to move, mostly because his bed was warm, but also the curtains make his room much darker now and he's been confused in the morning because the sun used to wake him up. So I rushed two kids into clothes and through breakfast, left Liam sulking on the stairs while I waited for Alana's bus. The bus was, of course, 10 minutes late, which means I threw Liam into the car and sped into the city. Fortunately with Liam in the car meant that I could take the HOV lanes which turn into the express lanes, unfortunately, this means that I was taking a different route to the doctor's than I had gone before. I was following the GPS which lead me through Capital Hill, an area of Seattle I'm not actually sure I've been to before and I was panicked because driving in Seattle always give me panic attacks. Plus there was construction. Of course there was construction because of some weird habit in Washington in which they don't start road work until rain is due to set it. Grrrrr. The best part was when I had to turn right and I stopped for two idiot girls who walked as slowly as possible and the light turned yellow and red in the time it took them to get off the @##$% crosswalk. And then a guy crossing the road the other direction gave me a really dirty look as he walked around my car. Sorry random idiot, next time I'll TOTALLY run over some pedestrians just so you don't have to walk around my not-moving car. I was also a little freaked out because this was the neighbourhood that my cousin's girlfriend had been hit on her bike by a car the previous week.
I got to the doctor's with plenty of time however and they're actually very good about getting me in as soon as possible. The receptionist even sweetly gave Liam some colouring pages and markers. When I tried to wean off the prednisone a couple of weeks ago, the granuloma that was nearly gone grew back almost to the original size and felt like it might be bringing a friend along as I started to have a pain in a new part of my breast. I called the LPN who had me up my dosage to the previous week's for a couple of weeks to see if there was any change. The new pain stopped, but the original granuloma doesn't seem to have shrunk this time around. I actually missed a dose on Saturday morning and by the time the evening had rolled around, I had that new pain again and it took a couple of days for it to go away. The LPN has now doubled my dose, not quite as much as the original dosage, but more than I've been taking for 3 weeks now, and wants me to try that for two weeks. If the granuloma hasn't shrunk by then, she's weaning me off completely and referring me to a rheumatologist where I will be put on the methotraxate. Yay. She did point out that since the granuloma didn't seem to be causing me that much pain, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to live with a lump in my breast (true, I guess) and chances are it would go away eventually. Apparently there's an expert in Scotland who studies granuloma mastitis and his patients don't take anything for it. They just let it burn itself out (usually takes a year) which results in pain, lesions, and the puss draining fistulas that I mentioned before. Umm, pass the prednisone, please.
This evening I was cooking dinner when Liam ran upstairs from the playroom telling me that Alana had hurt herself. Panicked, I ran downstairs to find that Alana was fine, but had been standing on a rubbermaid container on top of a table to try to get something off the shelf. But by running in, I tripped over all the toys they'd been spreading for the past week, stepped on yet more toys and wrenched my back. My kids nearly killed me because they had too many toys. I made Liam help me clean up the toys after Alana went to bed, and despite the fact it took an hour, he actually did a pretty good job. I also sorted out quick a few toys to donate and managed to (gasp) throw some away. The playroom is now spotless and I'm sitting here nursing a back spasm.
Today:
Went to the doctor's
Picked up books for the library
Cleaned up all the leaves from the back and side yard
Cleaned the kitchen (twice!)
Successfully did not commit homicide today
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Honeydew for Thanksgiving
Last week Justin took the week off at which point I handed him a honey-do list that rivaled some military operations. We spent the week taking care of all the "small" projects that had been bothering me.
Last week Justin:
De-greased and re-greased the garage doors (did you know that you're supposed to grease your doors every year? PSA-go grease your doors!)
Replaced some of the rollers on the door (my door now no longer announces to the neighbourhood when I leave and arrive
Installed new garage door openers (and saved us $700!) which means that my garage door will close all the way instead of having a 2 inch gap at the bottom letting in mice, creepy crawlies and freezing cold air.
Cleaned out the garage bay so he can park in the garage too, yay!
Put up 8 sets of drapery, living room, dining room and the kids's room. Hopefully their rooms will no longer be 15 degrees colder than the rest of the house.
Helped me move the living furniture to put the rug pad down, re-roll out the carpet and move the furniture back. Hopefully, the rug will stay in place now and stop trying to trip people up.
Last week, I:
Roasted a turkey (I love turkey for leftovers)
Made duchesse potatoes, mashed potatoes, dressing, rolls, gravy, pumpkin pie, and a raspberry tart
With the above leftovers made 3 turkey lasagnas, turkey stock and then turkey noodle soup, and shepherd's pie, most of which I froze.
Scrubbed down the kids's bathroom including cobwebs (seriously, the spiders are out of control here)and mold
Took all lights off a prelit tree and restrung it with led lights. It took me over 8 hours and I was feeling less than Christmas cheerful when I was done.
So the story behind the tree is this: The 6 ft Christmas tree that I bought at a clearance sale 6 years ago that I planned on doing Festival of Trees with felt small and pathetic. It wasn't a tree I'd intended to keep anyway. I was also worried that the lights I bought at All-a-Dollar 10 years ago were a fire hazard and probably using a ton of energy, so I'd only leave the tree lit for a couple hours a day. I wanted an led 7.5 ft tree so I started to scour craigslist. After missing out on a couple of the ones I wanted, I finally tracked down a woman in West Seattle who claimed that her tree was a GE led tree. We went out and got it last Friday after our binge at Pike Place Market. When we got home, I realized that it was 1) not a led tree and 2) one of the strands was not working. I later found that the strand wasn't working because 1 bulb was missing, so it was actually okay. And to be fair, it looks like the woman in W. Seattle had just looked on the Home Depot website and tried to find the tree she had bought last year and had mistaken it for an led one (both said they had the "constant-on" feature). Since we hadn't spent that much on the tree, I figured even if we bought the led lights, we'd still come out ahead, spending about half the amount of a new led tree, even on sale.
I found some lights that matched the ones I'd bought last year at Fred Meyer and bought them. I then hung on to them to see if they went on sale for Black Friday. They did for about half the price I'd paid for them, so I sent poor Justin back over to the store to buy them and I returned the previous set later in the day. And then I stripped the lights off the tree and started to string on the led ones. And got about 2/3rds of the way up and ran out of lights. Damn. So back to the store I went to get more lights (should have kept the first batch). Several hours later, I emerged victorious. We now have a 7.5 ft led Christmas tree with over 800 lights for the grand total of less than $150. And since it uses 1/10th of the energy of new lights, and probably even less than that of my previous ghetto lights, I can leave the tree on all evening. Yay. And I also have microcuts over my hand. Ow. The added bonus is now all three of the Christmas trees have the same brand of lights on them. The kids were very excited to decorate their own trees this year and I'm hoping that it keeps them out of the big one.
Today I:
Got up at five to take Justin to the airport so he could go to Utah (and probably get away from my never ending list of chores)
Took the kids to speech therapy.
Grocery store
Last week Justin:
De-greased and re-greased the garage doors (did you know that you're supposed to grease your doors every year? PSA-go grease your doors!)
Replaced some of the rollers on the door (my door now no longer announces to the neighbourhood when I leave and arrive
Installed new garage door openers (and saved us $700!) which means that my garage door will close all the way instead of having a 2 inch gap at the bottom letting in mice, creepy crawlies and freezing cold air.
Cleaned out the garage bay so he can park in the garage too, yay!
Put up 8 sets of drapery, living room, dining room and the kids's room. Hopefully their rooms will no longer be 15 degrees colder than the rest of the house.
Helped me move the living furniture to put the rug pad down, re-roll out the carpet and move the furniture back. Hopefully, the rug will stay in place now and stop trying to trip people up.
Last week, I:
Roasted a turkey (I love turkey for leftovers)
Made duchesse potatoes, mashed potatoes, dressing, rolls, gravy, pumpkin pie, and a raspberry tart
With the above leftovers made 3 turkey lasagnas, turkey stock and then turkey noodle soup, and shepherd's pie, most of which I froze.
Scrubbed down the kids's bathroom including cobwebs (seriously, the spiders are out of control here)and mold
Took all lights off a prelit tree and restrung it with led lights. It took me over 8 hours and I was feeling less than Christmas cheerful when I was done.
So the story behind the tree is this: The 6 ft Christmas tree that I bought at a clearance sale 6 years ago that I planned on doing Festival of Trees with felt small and pathetic. It wasn't a tree I'd intended to keep anyway. I was also worried that the lights I bought at All-a-Dollar 10 years ago were a fire hazard and probably using a ton of energy, so I'd only leave the tree lit for a couple hours a day. I wanted an led 7.5 ft tree so I started to scour craigslist. After missing out on a couple of the ones I wanted, I finally tracked down a woman in West Seattle who claimed that her tree was a GE led tree. We went out and got it last Friday after our binge at Pike Place Market. When we got home, I realized that it was 1) not a led tree and 2) one of the strands was not working. I later found that the strand wasn't working because 1 bulb was missing, so it was actually okay. And to be fair, it looks like the woman in W. Seattle had just looked on the Home Depot website and tried to find the tree she had bought last year and had mistaken it for an led one (both said they had the "constant-on" feature). Since we hadn't spent that much on the tree, I figured even if we bought the led lights, we'd still come out ahead, spending about half the amount of a new led tree, even on sale.
I found some lights that matched the ones I'd bought last year at Fred Meyer and bought them. I then hung on to them to see if they went on sale for Black Friday. They did for about half the price I'd paid for them, so I sent poor Justin back over to the store to buy them and I returned the previous set later in the day. And then I stripped the lights off the tree and started to string on the led ones. And got about 2/3rds of the way up and ran out of lights. Damn. So back to the store I went to get more lights (should have kept the first batch). Several hours later, I emerged victorious. We now have a 7.5 ft led Christmas tree with over 800 lights for the grand total of less than $150. And since it uses 1/10th of the energy of new lights, and probably even less than that of my previous ghetto lights, I can leave the tree on all evening. Yay. And I also have microcuts over my hand. Ow. The added bonus is now all three of the Christmas trees have the same brand of lights on them. The kids were very excited to decorate their own trees this year and I'm hoping that it keeps them out of the big one.
Today I:
Got up at five to take Justin to the airport so he could go to Utah (and probably get away from my never ending list of chores)
Took the kids to speech therapy.
Grocery store
 |
| Alana deciding she was done for the afternoon. She fell asleep in the 1 mile journey to the speech therapist's office where I dumped her in a butterfly chair, thinking she'd wake up. She slept through all of Liam's appointment, then I carried her back to the car, drove home and laid her on the couch where she continued to nap for another hour and a half. |
 |
| Christmas decorations and Christmas trees and drapery! The big tree will remain un-decorated until I can get to Ikea and buy more ornaments-more trees plus larger tree means I ran out of ornaments. Ignore my sewing machine and serger. |
Monday, November 19, 2012
Playing hooky
On Friday, Justin and I pulled the kids out of school, dumped them on my sister-in-law, and went into the city to play. We drove to Pike Place Market, gave myself a slight panic attack trying to park (I hate driving downtown), and did all the fun stuff we always planned on doing but would be hard with the kids. First we stopped by Beecher Cheese to pick up Christmas presents for family, then visited this weird store called Quintessential Gourmet, which is a place that specializes in flavoured olive oils and balsamic vinegars. We bought some for my sister's-in-law birthday and me. We then walked about a half mile down the road and did the Underground Tour of Seattle which was actually pretty interesting. I learned a lot about the history of Seattle, and it was cool to see a little bit of the old buildings's original store fronts. We were the only locals there that didn't have out of town guests, so I guess we're still acting like tourists.
After we finished the tour, we walked back to Pike Place Market, stopped the gum wall (ewwww, by the way) and got lunch at the Michou Deli on the recommendation of my brother. Unfortunately, the didn't have the sandwiches that Justin and I wanted, so we got the crispy chicken sandwiches which were still pretty good. The deli also had approximately four chairs, so we walked down the block to eat. Then we walked back into the market and stopped by a French bakery that was next to Michou called Le Panier. I think I've discovered heaven. We spent waaaaaay too much money getting pain au chocolat, tartelette, and macarons. We bought 8 macarons, and I ate 7 of them by myself. Oops. We also stopped at this amazing spice shop, World Merchants, where I bought a half lb of madras curry. They mix it up and grind it there for you and don't add any fillers and it ends up being cheaper than the store. Win.
We then drove into West Seattle to pick up a Christmas tree that I found on craigslist that ended up being disappointing, but that's a different story. Back to my brother's to pick up the kids and home where we collapsed. It was fun, we spent way too money, and I want to do it again.
Saturday was my niece's birthday party at the Seattle Children's Museum. It was hard to try to convince Liam to go and I gave myself a slight panic attack trying to park (again). But once we got there and Liam got over his crippling shyness around the other kids, the kids had a ball. Alana literally ran from exhibit to exhibit and Liam spent half his time in the art room. So, success even if Liam didn't talk to another kid.
Over the weekend I got nothing done. So it goes.
After we finished the tour, we walked back to Pike Place Market, stopped the gum wall (ewwww, by the way) and got lunch at the Michou Deli on the recommendation of my brother. Unfortunately, the didn't have the sandwiches that Justin and I wanted, so we got the crispy chicken sandwiches which were still pretty good. The deli also had approximately four chairs, so we walked down the block to eat. Then we walked back into the market and stopped by a French bakery that was next to Michou called Le Panier. I think I've discovered heaven. We spent waaaaaay too much money getting pain au chocolat, tartelette, and macarons. We bought 8 macarons, and I ate 7 of them by myself. Oops. We also stopped at this amazing spice shop, World Merchants, where I bought a half lb of madras curry. They mix it up and grind it there for you and don't add any fillers and it ends up being cheaper than the store. Win.
We then drove into West Seattle to pick up a Christmas tree that I found on craigslist that ended up being disappointing, but that's a different story. Back to my brother's to pick up the kids and home where we collapsed. It was fun, we spent way too money, and I want to do it again.
Saturday was my niece's birthday party at the Seattle Children's Museum. It was hard to try to convince Liam to go and I gave myself a slight panic attack trying to park (again). But once we got there and Liam got over his crippling shyness around the other kids, the kids had a ball. Alana literally ran from exhibit to exhibit and Liam spent half his time in the art room. So, success even if Liam didn't talk to another kid.
Over the weekend I got nothing done. So it goes.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
He totally gets me
Driving into the city yesterday:
Me: "I hate the orange on the Space Needle."
Justin: "Why?"
Me: "It's ugly. No one knows thinks of the Space Needle being orange. No one had heard of "Galaxy Gold" anyway."
Justin: Exactly. "Ugly, original, no one had heard of it. It's a biggest hipster in Seattle."
Me: "I hate the orange on the Space Needle."
Justin: "Why?"
Me: "It's ugly. No one knows thinks of the Space Needle being orange. No one had heard of "Galaxy Gold" anyway."
Justin: Exactly. "Ugly, original, no one had heard of it. It's a biggest hipster in Seattle."
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Faking it
The first thing Justin said when he looked out the window was "Apparently we've moved to London." It was very foggy and wet this morning, and more than anything I wanted to just crawl back into bed. But I got Alana ready for school and attempted to eat breakfast to go to my dance class this morning. Unfortunately, I ate some cold cereal and my body decided to revolt at because of the milk, and by the time I stopped feeling like I was going to throw up, it was too late to leave for my class. So as a punishment I paid medical bills (I have never been so grateful for insurance after this whole granuloma thing), registered Justin's car, dropped off snacks at the kids's school, and got the car oil changed. Then I wasted the entire day poking around my house, ignoring the laundry and the tutu I'm supposed to be working on, and filling and emptying my shopping cart on amazon. I've bought a lot of things this week: curtains for the living and kids rooms, garage door openers, and paying medical bills. But this is Christmas shopping, and usually I'm done by now. ARGH.
I also remembered that we needed that stuff called food, so I went to the grocery store. Unfortunately, right in the middle of trying to find a turkey, I had a panic attack and had to call Justin to come help me get out of the store. What is it with grocery stores? I have more panic attacks there than nearly any other place. Church is a close second. And then I got home and remembered three more things I forgot at the store so I have to go back. ARGH.
So right now I'm trying to fake being a normal human being right now. I don't think it's working. ARGH.
I also remembered that we needed that stuff called food, so I went to the grocery store. Unfortunately, right in the middle of trying to find a turkey, I had a panic attack and had to call Justin to come help me get out of the store. What is it with grocery stores? I have more panic attacks there than nearly any other place. Church is a close second. And then I got home and remembered three more things I forgot at the store so I have to go back. ARGH.
So right now I'm trying to fake being a normal human being right now. I don't think it's working. ARGH.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
It's all relative
So yesterday I decided what I needed more than anything was a day that I could stay home. So I did. I ran tons of laundry and ironed my sheets and worked on a baby blanket that I started 6 months ago for a baby that was born two months ago (sorry Brooke!) while watching lots and lots of bad tv.
It was so fun I decided to do the same today. Until I realized that I was almost out of my pills, so when Justin got home, I forced him to go to Costco with us to get string cheese and pills. Yummmm, string cheese and pills.
So my days have been less than productive. I miss the mania. Never thought I would say that.
It was so fun I decided to do the same today. Until I realized that I was almost out of my pills, so when Justin got home, I forced him to go to Costco with us to get string cheese and pills. Yummmm, string cheese and pills.
So my days have been less than productive. I miss the mania. Never thought I would say that.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Self pity
I was totally going to be productive this weekend. I was going to clean the kids's playroom (a room I don't think that I've stepped into for a couple of weeks, instead just closing the door so I didn't have to look at the mess), I was going to get laundry done, I was going to get shopping and cooking done, I was going to go to my dance class, damn it. Instead, I mostly laid in bed if I didn't have to move and napped a lot.A few months ago, I got cornered at a baby shower by the RS secretary (literally) and started to ask me what crafts I did because I mentioned that I sewed. I started listing off random crafts, babbling nervously, mostly because I couldn't remember this woman's name or even who the heck she was and if I kept talking maybe she wouldn't notice. When I mentioned origami, she brightened and asked me if I'd be willing to do a demonstration/lesson for the RS. Ummmm, why not, random lady I'm not sure that I've ever met before, I'll get right on that. I figured that this was was one of those polite conversation things that would probably be forgotten, and in a desperate attempt to get extricate myself from this lady, I said sure. Fast forward to last month, when lo, and behold, she sends me an email telling me that not only has she not forgotten about it, can I please do it for Super Saturday? If you don't know what Super Saturday is, it's a Saturday morning in which the ladies of the RS come together and learn to do a bunch of insipid Christmas crafts that they can't probably actually use in their real lives.
So yeah, I know I have a bad attitude about this whole thing, but truth be told, I feel like I've been commandeered into this situation. Not only that, I have no idea about the who, what, or when about this whole thing. Okay. So I buy enough paper at Joann for what I estimate the population of the RS (I actually have no idea how many people I'm supposed to be teaching but I guessed maybe about 30?), and start searching the internet for Christmas themed origami. If you don't know anything about origami, it's a SHINTO WEDDING TRADITION. Not really a whole lot of Christmas potential there. I finally decide to just teach them paper cranes because 1) it looks cool, 2) they can be "ornaments", and 3) it's really easy.
Fast forward to Friday night when I'm panicking quite badly because I'm faced with a huge unknown and my printer is out of toner to print the instructions. I also dig through my Christmas stuff trying to find the fabric cranes I made a few years ago (which I never did find), get out a table cloth and see if I can find anything that would make a suitable centerpiece (because you can't ever do a RS thing without a centerpiece-that would be MADNESS.) Justin and I take the kids to Costco to get toner, throw some hot dogs at them, and rush over to Home Depot to see if they have any of those $5 table top trees that I could use. Nope. Seriously, Home Depot? I was there two days before and they had them then. Run over to Dollar Tree. Nope. Run over to the church, throw the table cloth on a table, lay out the paper, display the 8 paper cranes I'd made before hand, decide it looks absolutely pathetic, run back over to Home Depot to buy one of their 3 ft Christmas trees (that fortunately I'd been thinking of buying for the kids anyway), and then home where I spent the next hour manufacturing paper cranes with a raging migraine.
Saturday morning, I go over to the church a little early where mercifully I'd been scheduled to be one of the first classes so I didn't have to participate or be social any more than I had to be. I set up the tree, put some lights on it, and started to shove paper cranes on the light bulbs. Then I noticed a complete lack of table clothes, centerpieces, or really, any decorations on the other tables. Seriously. Ummmm, I felt a little foolish. I got through teaching the class (an hour with really only about 15 minutes of material), took everything down and shoved it into my car, noticed it was too late for me to get to my ballet class, drove to the Korean store and bought some kimchi, and got Justin's tire pressure checked. And then home where I napped for the rest of the day. I even made Justin go to the grocery store so I didn't have to leave the house again.
Part of the reason I've been kind of in a funk lately is that despite the prednisone and all its fun side effects, as soon as I started to wean off it, I'd notice a pain in my left breast again. That won't go away. And the lump from the previous granuloma that had all but disappeared completely seemed to be getting bigger again. So chances are the steroids didn't work and that I'm probably going to have to try the methotraxiate. And because it's not going away, it may to be an autoimmune disorder. So when I said it's not lupus? Totally could be. But not really. I don't think lupus causes granuloma mastitis. But there is a good chance that this is a sign of something much worse that will probably affect the rest of my life. Crap.
The weekly recap of crap I did this week from Wednesday onward:
Got the gym Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Panicked myself into a frenzy about Super Saturday on Friday night resulting in 2 trips to Home Depot and 1 to Costco
Did some laundry
Made some banana muffins because Liam was begging for them
Cleaned my kitchen too many times to count (nor did it make a difference apparently)
Taught about 10 women (yup, that was it) to make paper cranes
Successfully restrained myself from killing anyone this weekend (yes, this is an accomplishment.)
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Dragging
So I was going to post a political post today, but I'm not really in the mood. But go Obama!
I've been dragging for the past couple of days, which I think is just leftover from the sleep deprivation. I think I'm getting every side effect from the prednisone, but just one at a time. First I had the nausea, then I tried to eat everything in sight, then the insomnia/crazies set in, and now I have crazy acne. I didn't even have acne as a teenager (humble brag) so this is a little disconcerting when I'm closer to 30 than my teens.
So yesterday I went back to my original doctor to see what my endocrinology panel said. It's been confirmed that I have poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. Mostly this is not a big deal. She wants to keep me on the metformin to see if it helps regulate my cycle out. It also will help cut my chances of developing diabetes, something that is higher now because of the PCOS and also the high blood sugar I had when pregnant with Liam. Oh and apparently, this might have been a problem for a long time and the reason that it was so hard for me to get pregnant in the first place. Hooray for long term health problems. Fortunately as far as diseases go, this is definitely not a bad one to have. I will have to get yearly hemoglobin A1Cs for the diabetes, and if the metformin doesn't work, then I will have to get an IUD to stave off endometriosis. Yay?
I'm a little bored and unmotivated right now. Maybe I need a project. Or I should get a job. Or go back to school. Or something. Maybe this is why Mormon women have so many kids. At least something keeps you busy when kids hit school age.
Yesterday I:
Went to a doctor (didn't freak out this time)
Cleaned my kitchen
Today I:
Went to the gym (yay!)
Laundry
Napped
I've been dragging for the past couple of days, which I think is just leftover from the sleep deprivation. I think I'm getting every side effect from the prednisone, but just one at a time. First I had the nausea, then I tried to eat everything in sight, then the insomnia/crazies set in, and now I have crazy acne. I didn't even have acne as a teenager (humble brag) so this is a little disconcerting when I'm closer to 30 than my teens.
So yesterday I went back to my original doctor to see what my endocrinology panel said. It's been confirmed that I have poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. Mostly this is not a big deal. She wants to keep me on the metformin to see if it helps regulate my cycle out. It also will help cut my chances of developing diabetes, something that is higher now because of the PCOS and also the high blood sugar I had when pregnant with Liam. Oh and apparently, this might have been a problem for a long time and the reason that it was so hard for me to get pregnant in the first place. Hooray for long term health problems. Fortunately as far as diseases go, this is definitely not a bad one to have. I will have to get yearly hemoglobin A1Cs for the diabetes, and if the metformin doesn't work, then I will have to get an IUD to stave off endometriosis. Yay?
I'm a little bored and unmotivated right now. Maybe I need a project. Or I should get a job. Or go back to school. Or something. Maybe this is why Mormon women have so many kids. At least something keeps you busy when kids hit school age.
Yesterday I:
Went to a doctor (didn't freak out this time)
Cleaned my kitchen
Today I:
Went to the gym (yay!)
Laundry
Napped
Monday, November 5, 2012
Sleep
So on the last couple of days of last week and over the week end, I guess the only 3 hours of sleep I was getting at nights caught up with me and I crashed. Friday I laid in bed when I didn't have to move and just dozed. Oh well, the mania was fun while it lasted and I actually got some stuff done.
However, this was Alana after we got done with Home Depot today (you can hear me sniggering in the background):
Over the weekend I:
Started to steam clean my downstairs hallway when the belt on my steamer snapped.
Went to target to pick up nighttime diapers and see if they had a belt for my steamer. They didn't, so I ordered it online. So the 3' x 4' patch of carpet I managed to clean looks good, but the rest will have to wait.
Went to ballet (yay!)
Grocery stores
Home Depot
Weather stripped the door between the garage and house. I feel like an idiot because we didn't do this last year and had HUGE energy bills
Laundry
Cleaned out a bunch of boxes in the garage and discovered we have MICE. Ugh. Fortunately it didn't look they had gotten into any of the boxes, and I quickly packed things into plastic boxes so they should be safe.
Separated out a bunch of baby stuff to donate
Today I:
Kids's speech therapy
Dropped off baby stuff at D.I.
Back to Home Depot for more weathering supplies
Grocery store
Put weather stripping and door sweeps on the front door
Folded the laundry from over the weekend
Put pictures in the frames that came today
However, this was Alana after we got done with Home Depot today (you can hear me sniggering in the background):
And from about a month ago at the grocery store. I couldn't figure out why everyone going the other direction was laughing at us until I saw this:
Over the weekend I:
Started to steam clean my downstairs hallway when the belt on my steamer snapped.
Went to target to pick up nighttime diapers and see if they had a belt for my steamer. They didn't, so I ordered it online. So the 3' x 4' patch of carpet I managed to clean looks good, but the rest will have to wait.
Went to ballet (yay!)
Grocery stores
Home Depot
Weather stripped the door between the garage and house. I feel like an idiot because we didn't do this last year and had HUGE energy bills
Laundry
Cleaned out a bunch of boxes in the garage and discovered we have MICE. Ugh. Fortunately it didn't look they had gotten into any of the boxes, and I quickly packed things into plastic boxes so they should be safe.
Separated out a bunch of baby stuff to donate
Today I:
Kids's speech therapy
Dropped off baby stuff at D.I.
Back to Home Depot for more weathering supplies
Grocery store
Put weather stripping and door sweeps on the front door
Folded the laundry from over the weekend
Put pictures in the frames that came today
Thursday, November 1, 2012
I survived Halloween
I'll get a picture of the kids up. It's on the camera and I'm too tired/lazy to get them off right now.
So I was determined that this year the kids would have an easier time trick or treating. Last year, most of the people on our street either didn't have candy (seriously?), were gone, or in one case, a very confused new immigrant who graciously gave the kids some granola bars. I heard that Edmonds, the city north of us and where my parents are actually from originally, hosts some big bash downtown with all the stores. I looked into driving, but we actually hadn't gone up there since we've moved here and I realized it's been 20 years since I've been in that area. I decided that since I didn't know the parking situation, maybe this was a good time to try out the bus system. We packed the kids into the car, drove to Costco where the major bus transfer station is, and walked up the street to the bus station. I started to have a panic attack because 1) I didn't know if the bus was going to be on time, plus it was apparently on a different schedule and route because of this Halloween festival, 2) if we were at the right bus stop or if we were supposed to be at the transfer station, 3) it was POURING, and 4) Liam LICKED the bus stop bench. But the bus arrived on time, and we got off at the stop we were supposed to and realized we should have gotten off at the previous one, walked back and finally found a burger joint to have dinner. This place looked like a dive, but it had the BEST BURGERS (yes, I had a burger; I don't do pescetarian all the time). They were messy and delicious and I'm so going back and trying the salmon sandwich. We then walked back to the downtown area were it was starting to get a little crowded.
I was totally impressed by this Halloween bash though. The police actually set up barriers so there were no cars and all the merchants for about 5 city blocks really got into it. Nearly every single store was handing out candy. Last year apparently there were over 5000 people there, but it wasn't until after about an hour that it started to even really feel like it was getting crowded. It was well lit, people were mostly polite (though there were a couple of teenagers that I wanted to smack because they kept getting in front of the kids, and this was obviously meant for younger children), music was playing and it was very, very easy. My favourite was two guys at a real estate agency with Obama and Romney masks handing out candy together. However when we passed on the way back, only Obama remained, making me feel like it might have been cosmic foreshadowing. We're definitely going back next year but I think I'll forego the bus (which still worked out really well) and just drive since there was plenty of parking if you get there early enough and are willing to walk a little bit.
Today I was decided to get some housekeeping stuff done. Mostly because our landlord finally decided that the flooding the water heater was causing was bad and got around to replacing it. So I kind of alternated between watching Sherlock episodes and poking around my house doing little things. I feel like I actually accomplished some stuff even if it doesn't really look like it. Oh well.
Yesterday I:
Dropped off treats at the kids's classes and then went to the bank
Cleaned the kitchen (becoming a bit obsessive about this)
Tried to donate blood but was rejected because my pulse was too high. I'll try again next week.
Did some mechanical turks because I was bored (mechanical turks though amazon is a great way to earn a couple of extra bucks every month if you need to. I made $250 last summer)
Survived Halloween
Today I:
Paid bills
Grocery store
Cleaned out the kid's extra shoes and vacuumed the inside of the shoe cabinet and cleaned the foyer
Repacked the kid's clothes into a plastic container, getting rid of 4 cardboard boxes and freeing up a lot of space on my garage shelves, rearraigned the shelves and put stuff in the shed. I expect the extra space to last about 2 seconds.
Climbed up on my car to put new light bulbs in the garage door opener
Got out the portraits we had done 18 months ago and ordered picture frames
I've dumped the laundry on my bed so before I can go to sleep I HAVE to fold it, which I am now off to do with a couple of loads of laundry washing.
So I was determined that this year the kids would have an easier time trick or treating. Last year, most of the people on our street either didn't have candy (seriously?), were gone, or in one case, a very confused new immigrant who graciously gave the kids some granola bars. I heard that Edmonds, the city north of us and where my parents are actually from originally, hosts some big bash downtown with all the stores. I looked into driving, but we actually hadn't gone up there since we've moved here and I realized it's been 20 years since I've been in that area. I decided that since I didn't know the parking situation, maybe this was a good time to try out the bus system. We packed the kids into the car, drove to Costco where the major bus transfer station is, and walked up the street to the bus station. I started to have a panic attack because 1) I didn't know if the bus was going to be on time, plus it was apparently on a different schedule and route because of this Halloween festival, 2) if we were at the right bus stop or if we were supposed to be at the transfer station, 3) it was POURING, and 4) Liam LICKED the bus stop bench. But the bus arrived on time, and we got off at the stop we were supposed to and realized we should have gotten off at the previous one, walked back and finally found a burger joint to have dinner. This place looked like a dive, but it had the BEST BURGERS (yes, I had a burger; I don't do pescetarian all the time). They were messy and delicious and I'm so going back and trying the salmon sandwich. We then walked back to the downtown area were it was starting to get a little crowded.
I was totally impressed by this Halloween bash though. The police actually set up barriers so there were no cars and all the merchants for about 5 city blocks really got into it. Nearly every single store was handing out candy. Last year apparently there were over 5000 people there, but it wasn't until after about an hour that it started to even really feel like it was getting crowded. It was well lit, people were mostly polite (though there were a couple of teenagers that I wanted to smack because they kept getting in front of the kids, and this was obviously meant for younger children), music was playing and it was very, very easy. My favourite was two guys at a real estate agency with Obama and Romney masks handing out candy together. However when we passed on the way back, only Obama remained, making me feel like it might have been cosmic foreshadowing. We're definitely going back next year but I think I'll forego the bus (which still worked out really well) and just drive since there was plenty of parking if you get there early enough and are willing to walk a little bit.
Today I was decided to get some housekeeping stuff done. Mostly because our landlord finally decided that the flooding the water heater was causing was bad and got around to replacing it. So I kind of alternated between watching Sherlock episodes and poking around my house doing little things. I feel like I actually accomplished some stuff even if it doesn't really look like it. Oh well.
Yesterday I:
Dropped off treats at the kids's classes and then went to the bank
Cleaned the kitchen (becoming a bit obsessive about this)
Tried to donate blood but was rejected because my pulse was too high. I'll try again next week.
Did some mechanical turks because I was bored (mechanical turks though amazon is a great way to earn a couple of extra bucks every month if you need to. I made $250 last summer)
Survived Halloween
Today I:
Paid bills
Grocery store
Cleaned out the kid's extra shoes and vacuumed the inside of the shoe cabinet and cleaned the foyer
Repacked the kid's clothes into a plastic container, getting rid of 4 cardboard boxes and freeing up a lot of space on my garage shelves, rearraigned the shelves and put stuff in the shed. I expect the extra space to last about 2 seconds.
Climbed up on my car to put new light bulbs in the garage door opener
Got out the portraits we had done 18 months ago and ordered picture frames
I've dumped the laundry on my bed so before I can go to sleep I HAVE to fold it, which I am now off to do with a couple of loads of laundry washing.
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