Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Timer magic

I don't know if I've written about this before or not, but when my girls don't want to do something, if I say, "I'll set the timer and when it goes off it's time do to _______," then they just do it! No complaining. It works magically. If twoK and Three-a are fighting over the computer I say, "Okay, Three-a gets two more minutes and when the timer goes off it's twoK's turn." The fighting ends and Three-a doesn't complain when the timer goes off, she just gets off the computer. It's crazy and wonderful.

In other news, it looks like I have to take that trip that I didn't want to take. I am not doing the one on Saturday, but I have to do the one next M-Th. Ugh. Not thinking abut it... lalalalalalalalalala

Friday, April 23, 2010

Things I shouldn't be stressing about

but of course, I am.

1. I have to go to BIG CITY far away for work. I don't want to go. I dislike traveling. It's in a week (I'll leave 5/3 and be back 5/6, so it's not that big of a trip... I'll get to see some family too. I should make the best of it, but every time I think about it I get a sick feeling in my stomach.) One trip is bad, but it worked out that I actually have two trips in the same week for work... I go on 5/1-5/2 for one and then leave again on 5/3. Bleh, bleh, bleh.

2. twoK's birthday party is scheduled and the invitations have been sent. I invited WAY more children than the place allows and I'm a little concerned about everyone saying they'll come, and that the place won't let people in, and that it will be awful. I shouldn't worry about this until it becomes an issue, eh?

3. Another work project. I just can't get my head around it. Every week, at the Friday meeting, I feel completely stupid. I don't feel like I'm contributing in any positive ways. I know I have in the past, but right now, I'm overwhelmed. It's only been two meetings that I've felt this way, so in the big scheme, it's okay, but I really dislike this feeling. I need to spend time with it this weekend so I can really think about what we're doing. Ugh.

4. As the girls get bigger, I want to be around more. I don't know how I can keep working and spend as much time as I want to spend with them. It seems I'm always having to either miss out on their stuff or that I'm feeling behind and overwhelmed at work. I don't like this. Again, in the grand scheme of things, I am lucky and really shouldn't be complaining. I only work half-time. I think, that as Three-a gets into school, specifically in first grade, things will be a little better, e.g., more organized, but that's still 1.5 years away. Yikes. And then, I'll still want to be around a lot. Maybe I should work very, very part-time so I can not feel so guilty about everything, but even if I only worked very, very part-time, I'm sure things would still conflict and things would end up crazy and I'd feel torn in two directions.

Okay... ending this pity party post.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Sick Day

Today, twoK learned the (hard) lesson that if you tell your Mom you are sick and need to leave school that you are STILL sick until the next morning. twoK is smart and knew she had to be sick until school ended. Then, suddenly, at 3:05, she felt better. Nope, I tell her, you're sick until tomorrow morning.

She screamed, yelled, banged on her door and threw all kinds of fits. I remained calm until I had explained everything for the 5th time. Then I yelled. It was a "stage yell" though. Sometimes, my kids won't listen until I yell. I yelled and then shut her door and left her there to work it out.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Just because

I forgot to write this down sometime in the past....

I started taking C0-Q10 sometime in (between January and March) 2009 to help with migraine auras. I do think it helps. In addition, I stopped drinking coffee and consume a lot less caffeine and I'm pretty sure it's related to taking CO-Q10. (I did write about giving up coffee here and I'm sure other places on the blog too.)

At some point, I'll write about supplements more.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Chillaxin'

It's Friday afternoon. The older two girls (twoK and oNe) had spring break this week. Three-a had it last week. I wish they'd all had been on break the same week, but, if that's my biggest problem, I'm doing pretty well. Next year, they'll all be at the same school and they will be on break at the same time! (Ask me how excited I am about this!)

It's been a really long time since I've blogged. Embarrassingly long. I have a great deal I have wanted to write about, but I literally have had NO time. I'm going to make a list of topics to start and then figure out what I want to tackle first.

1. Weird antibodies and a visit to the doctor
2. New project at work and travel, UGH.
3. twoK the AMAZING reader
4. 3 pesky little pounds
5. Pilates versus Zumba (Zumba wins, but Pilates is necessary)
6. Eating vegan and making homemade food
7. Upgrading my computer's bibliography program (okay, this one might be a bit of a snoozer)
8. My famous friend
9. the iPad!
10. Planting the garden
11. Cleaning and organizing
12. Wonderful, wonderful MWH
13. Our new couch
14. More work related stuff... (E. o an E.)
15. Ning starting to charge for their online community spaces

Whew, I'm tired just thinking about all I want to blog! I think I'll start with a little Mommy-bragging (#3 from the list).

twoK is an amazing reader! She's in kindergarten and she's reading chapter books. She's been reading them since fall she said. She started with the fairy chapter books, but now she's moved on to Magic Treehouse ones. I'm really proud of her.

oNe is no slouch either. Whereas twoK is challenging herself with reading difficult books, oNe is reading a book a night (in one-half hour before going to sleep). oNe should move on to more challenging books, but she is reading all the time, and she's reading right at or slightly above her grade level, and she's working on reading in a VERY quick manner. She has an excellent understanding of the stories, good retention, and is reading about new topcis.

It'll be super exciting to see Three-a start to read books on her own next year.... MY BABY!!!! Three-a is reading words and can sound out all the sounds and blend them. Not to compare the girls, but Three-a at age 4.5 is better than oNe was at sounding words out. I'm not sure if she's as good as twoK was at 4.5, but she's not bad! (twoK was off the charts!) I love watching them figure out how to read.

Okay, enough for now, I'll come back and cover #1 in a little while. (Just to have full disclosure, the only way I had time to blog this post was by having oNe watch a movie, twoK play on the computer and Three-a watch a different video (on my iPhone.) I LOVE technology. Heh.)

Saturday, April 03, 2010

rare (2)

Friday: Why the same title? Because it's really rare I take a day off, let alone two in a row. It was kind of crazy today and I ended up making five trips to school.... We had several things going on, 1) Dropped of twoK, 2) oNe had a show, 3) Dropped off Three-a, 4) Three-a had an easter egg hunt and spring break party 5) picked up twoK and oNe. If MWH hadn't have dropped oNe off this morning I would have done 6 trips. Ay-yi-yi!

After all that, we decided to eat pizza out with some friends. We know a couple who has three boys all about the same ages as the girls. All 6 kids get along really well. We nanny share with them sometimes and then our n3nny turns into n6nny. Sidebar: oNe really likes the boy who is her age and he has a major crush on her. Both the other Mom and I will be happy when they get married, but we know that's many years away. Heh.

We do foresee a potential problem though...oNe and the little boy, we'll call him "A" (since he's the first), are both really spacey children. They are also a little clueless. We don't think it'll be good for them to be with each other because, um, they may never be able to find their car keys or anything else. We'll see what happens, maybe one of them will grow out of their spacey-ness. (Again, I say heh.)

Back to the dinner report: We went to dinner at R**nd T*bl* Pizza and they have a kids play area. The kids played and the adults actually got to have conversation. It was excellent!




Saturday: Just so you know, the girls now wear S, M and L clothes from Target. Soon, we'll have a 4, 6 and 8 year old. (twoK is a month away from 6!) Oh, I've planned twoK's party already. It'll be at the big jumpy place aka (P*mp it *p!). I love that place because I don't have to do anything but send invitations. If I feel like it, I can get goody bag stuff, but if I don't, they have the bags there. I guess I have to get a cake too.... (okay, only two preparation things, and three if I feel like it!)

twoK wants to have a Peanut Butter Pie for her birthday cake, but I don't think that will work well at the place. I can make her one for home, but not for the place. I should probably break the news to her tonight so she can work through it. She does love her sweets. I guess it's good that I'm starting to think about her birthday party now so that I can actually get invites out in the next couple of weeks. At the quick rate that time is passing, it'll be here before I know it!

Back to little girl duty, it's time to get them in the bath. It's Easter tomorrow, and we'll be dyeing our eggs tomorrow. We were going to do it today, but then oNe dropped the egg carton and we (MWH) had to go back to buy more and it got too late--I still need to boil the eggs. Fortunately, the girls know the Easter Bunny hides plastic eggs so we can dye eggs tomorrow.

Happy Easter!

Thursday, April 01, 2010

rare

This morning, MWH and I got up and he offered to take oNe to school. Super! It wasn't even an April Fool's joke that he was offering. (I didn't think it was, but since it's the day, I thought I should mention the possibility.) N3nny was gone today (and tomorrow), so I got to spend more time with the girls. twoK, Three-a, and I hung out and had a lazy breakfast and then took twoK to kindergarten. Three-a and I went to Target.

I almost didn't have to work today, but then, we had to do an important phone call with a potential NEW client. The call went well, and I think we're going to end up with them as a new client. (Sidebar: For the record, I did the phone call on my iPhone in my car with Three-a in the back and she was playing with a new toy I bought her at Target.... PS, could you hear her? I think she was pretty quiet and I kept putting my phone on mute!) If we don't get them as a client, I'm going to be really depressed. If we get them, I'm going to be really busy. Busy is probably better than depressed, but I'll be crazy again and it'll be my own fault (story of my life). The other good thing, if we get them as a client, my bestest colleague (aka my supervisor) and I will get to work together.

I love working with best colleague! There's a set of three women at work that I really like to work with on projects. They are: Bestest Colleague (aka supervisor), New Colleague who works really hard (M), and Colleague with a new baby (J). (I should probably come up with better nicknames but not tonight.) Anyway, I am working with them on one new project right now, and they are all on the team for the potential new client. If we get the new client, we'll have 2 projects that involve the four of us--that would be fun. There's another potential project that would involve the four of us too, but I'm not even going to think about it 'cause I don't want to jinx its possibilities.

I'm trying to figure out how to balance family, work, and Zumba and I'm struggling. I hope it gets better as I get projects that are stable for longer than a couple of months. If we get all the potential projects, I'm going to be way busier than I want to be, but it'll be good for where we work to have all the projects, and there are plenty of people to do the work, and if we need more people, we'll hire more. In this economy, being busy and needing more help is kind of rare. Regardless of what happens, I'm going to be learning a LOT in the next year or so.

There was a lot more I was going to write, but it's now about 3 hours since I started this post and I've forgotten what all I wanted to say.

On another note: This week has been a very sad one as MWH's kitty of 17 years passed away. He was such a good kitty. He had been diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure more than two years ago. He did really well with his failing kidneys, all things considered. He was hanging pretty strong until the middle of last week. It was then that he started having difficulty in jumping up on the bed. By Saturday night, he didn't want to eat any more. He passed early Tuesday morning. We were happy that "the end" was quick, and that he wasn't in pain, but we are very sad. We will miss our sweet, gentle boy. He was the best mannered kitty I've ever met.

The last few years, he just slept a lot on our bed, but he was always there. Now, I come home and find myself going in to check on him, and he's not there. I miss him and I miss his snoring. (He started snoring very loud a couple of years ago... heh.)