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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Day 68: I'm Popular Saturday

So when I woke up this morning my original plan was to finish cleaning my house and get it all perfect for the arrival of my best friend in the whole world, Haley. Haley is coming tomorrow, and I cleaned all my bathrooms, folded all my laundry (which is saying something, there was a LOT of laundry), cleaned my kitchen, and sold some old furniture yesterday in preparation. So today was suppose to just be a quick finish up. Well, then I remembered that I had a million things going today that I had completely forgotten about.

At 9am I had a track practice with some girls in my ward. It was about 25% fun, 75% miserable to get out on the track again. We ran 8 200's, a work out that is considered mild, but oh so miserable. After 6 of them I was certain that I was going to leave. Alivia was freaking out and the poor timers kept holding her for me. This was my own fault. She had fallen asleep in the car on the way to the track, but when I pulled her out and headed up the hill to the track I thought it was a good idea to run after a ball a kid had kicked into the street. Turns out running with an infant carrier is so not a good idea, and I dropped her. She was totally fine, I was a bit shaken up and totally embarrassed. But after that incident, no wonder she didn't sleep. Jack meanwhile could not figure out why I kept running away from him. He spent the entire time wandering from one side of the track to the other. I felt so bad, poor kid was so confused. It probably would have helped to have Lucy there. But I am happy to report that I did complete all 8 200's, even if my times got progressively worse.

After the 200's we headed up to the Christiansen's Easter Egg Hunt. We did this last year and the kids loves it. Lucy would be sad if she knew she missed out, but I probably just won't tell her. Jack had a blast, and Alivia slept in the car the entire time. I love the Christiansen's, they are some of the sweetest people in the entire world.

After that I rushed home and took a much needed shower. Shawn got home at about this time. He was aerating lawns all day. We both got ready and ran out the door to Denver where we had a babysitter waiting for us so we could go to a movie with Dave and Adriana. It was so fun to go on a date, even if we didn't get to go the movie we had hoped.

In the end, my house is so not up to par. I need to dust in a way you cannot believe, it's been bothering me for weeks. I also need to mop terribly, for reasons we will not mention. Oh, and vacuum, this is something that I always need to do and it never happens enough. But Haley will love me despite the condition of my home. I can't wait to see her tomorrow. I pick her up at 9! After that, Lucy comes home!!! We are so excited, I miss her so much. But honestly, it has been so good to have a little one on one time with Jack, cute little monster.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Day 67: Friday Friday

Yep, you guessed it, I'm behind again. Still, I'm going to try to catch up as best as my memory will allow. I will write as if it were still Friday, just avoid confusion on my part, I don't know why, it's just easier for me this way.

Today I decided to push with the potty training again. Jack spent most of his day sitting on the pink potty chair (much to Shawn's dislike) in front of the tv watching cartoons. We had a very successful day. After about a half hour or so, I heard Jack yell down to me "Mommy! Guess what!?!" I love when he yells this. Every time I hear it I think to myself, I'll never guess! You guessed it, he had gone potty. We were very excited about this. Jack helped me clean it up, we had potty prizes, and then we put on our big boy pants.

He did really well for the first half of the day. I think by 1:30 he had only had 1 1/2 accidents. How do you have half an accident? As Jack put it with his little eyes squinted and fingers held up to demonstrate he had "a little tiny bit of pee pee" come out. Carpet cleaner to the rescue. Then at 1:30 things started to spiral out of control. I sat down to nurse the baby, Jack peed on the floor by the kitchen table. It was a large puddle, and Jack decided it was important to run across the floor to tell me in the living room. I had JUST sat down to feed Alivia, so she really wasn't happy when I had to set her down to clean the puddle and change the pants.

Nap time was rough. Jack is really loving his big boy bed, which means I am really hating it right now. He won't stay in it. If I really want the kid to take a nap I have to either pin him down and rock him to sleep (something with a 50% success rate), or I have to take him for a drive. Honestly, it's not even the bed that is the problem, it's that he is missing his beloved pacifier. He doesn't know he is missing it, but it was such a soother for him. I miss it. Terribly.

After the nap, the potty training was worse, and by zero hour (4:00), I had called it a day. But seriously, I think today we had a little bit of a break through. Jack was excited about potty training, and he told me when he had accidents and all that jazz. Hopefully this tunnel will stop faking me out and I will someday reach that light at the end in the far off distance.

Aside from potty training, I spent my entire day cleaning. I had oh so many things to clean, but the most important thing to clean was the kids bathroom. I gave it the what for in scrubbing and I was so happy with it that I decided Jack would not use it for the rest of the day. Then I went to rock him to sleep and caught him in the act of starting to dirty his diaper. I told him what he was doing and we ran excitedly to the potty. After about 10 minutes (of which Jack demanded his privacy) I heard my favorite phrase, "Mommy! Guess What!!!??!" I ran in and did my crazy stupidly silly excited happy dance and celebrated the momentous occasion that a bowl movement requires. Jack was so thrilled with himself that he peed too. Unfortunately for me and my newly cleaned bathroom, I was so focused on the other end of business that I neglected to make sure that a very vital component of potty time was pointing in the right direction. As a result, my freshly cleaned floor was mopped again. But Jack was still praised beyond reason because this was a very big deal. Hey, now he even understands why we need to make sure to aim.

Anyway, my house is in good shape, my son is slowly oh so slowly showing improvement, and I'm exhausted and ready for bed. Tomorrow we can concur the world.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Day 66: Potty Training Again

Ok, after a good month and a half off, I've decided to start pushing the potty issue with Jack again. I have to admit, he is doing better this time around. There are at least signs here and there that he is getting it. First thing this morning he told me that he had to go poo poo, so we ran him to the potty. And there we sat for the next hour+. Finally he did go pee, and he was very excited about this. I wasn't even in the room when it happened, but he called to me quickly to inform me that he had gone. It was a big deal.

Then I decided to give it a go with underwear on. Jack didn't have any "big boy pants" so I put him in a pair of Lucy's which were blue. This was good enough for him. He actually did surprisingly well over all. He stayed dry for most of the day. He even brought down Lucy's old potty chair and sat on it while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, all his idea. Then he peed in that potty and told me. This was all very encouraging! I was one excited mama!

Then we hit a wall. About 25 minutes later, I found Jack standing in a corner saying "Oh no mommy!" He was very concerned and I knew he must have had an accident and was trying to figure out what just happened. I went to him and sure enough, he was soggy from the waist down. What was worse was the puddle he was standing in, which I quickly noticed had spread under my coupon binder. Now, if you've heard me talk about my couponing, you know how much time and energy I put into my coupon binder, I don't mess around. So seeing my second career basically laying in a puddle of filth really effected me. You would have been proud of me though, I took care of Jack first and lovingly, he didn't get it trouble at all, I was the idiot who put him in the underwear. Then I cleaned the puddle on the floor, then I proceeded to disinfect my binder. In the end no harm was done, my binder was only touched on the outside, none of the pages.

After the potty puddle, I decided it was nap time for Jack. I put him down. 20 minutes later, I put him down again. 10 minutes later I yelled at him to stay in his bed. Repeat, repeat, repeat. At this point I decided to get the crib ready for Haley and Bennett when they come this weekend. To do that I had to lower the mattress. Why do this now? Because Jack clearly wasn't going to take a nap in his bed, so I was putting him in the crib. I thought for sure this would get him. I was wrong. He was somehow even louder.

When I went in to yell at him again, guess what? He was saying something about monkeys jumping on the bed. I thought it was adorable. Shawn and Jack and Lucy had been singing the Monkey's Jumping on the Bed song a couple of nights ago, and now Jack was acting it out. How cute is that? Well, that's what I thought he was saying, turns out he was actually just throwing around Lucy's sock monkey and threw it out of the bed and wanted me to get it for him. Little monkey.

After 2 and a half hours of battling the nap, I surrendered. I loaded Jack into the car and we headed to Ross to buy some sheets. We didn't make it out of the neighborhood before Jack was asleep. Little terd. But we went to Ross, I got my sheets. Then we went to Target to get Jack his own big boy pants. That is where I found some crystal air fresheners on clearance and got 16 bags of them for free. It was a successful trip I must say. Now, I'd write more, but I'm pretty sure I hear Alivia laughing upstairs, which would be a first, and that means Shawn is playing with her and I have to see this!

Day 65: A Trip Alone

Tonight I drove up to Castle Rock to meet Shawn's dad to drop Lucy off. She is heading to Utah tomorrow morning with Grandma and Grandad. We've sent her on trips before without us, once. It's silly how much we miss her when she is gone. I will say I'm looking forward to a few days with just two kids again, which is silly because Lucy is my easiest one in most ways. Still, to only have two to load into the car instead of 3, and to not have any fighting, Jack and Lucy have gotten really bad at that lately.

Moving on, today was an amazing day! I focused really hard on keeping my head in the game and focused on my priorities. I did my morning scripture study, said my morning prayers, and from there on out made sure that my kids came first. I didn't let myself get annoyed when the kids needed something when I was in the middle of doing something else. It felt amazing. It did take a ton of concentration and I was constantly checking myself. By then end of the day I was still getting worn out, but I was wearing down from the top of my game instead of the bottom quarter of it, which made for a much better night. I hope I can have more days like today than not.

I took the kids to Costco today. We had to get Shawn some pictures of the baby for his desk and pick up our usual Costco supplies. We discovered a lot of healthy snacks that my kids will eat, and when we got home we ate such healthy foods. I love eating healthy, I just feel so good when I do. I can't wait to get running again, which will hopefully happen by then end of the week, I think my toe has recovered enough. I didn't want to mess with it though, I so didn't need that splitting open again. The kids did amazing at Costco which is saying something for my kids. I don't know if they were any better, or if I was just in a better place to handle them. We'll say it was a combination of the two.

After Costco, we came home, ate, and packed for Lucy. As I drove her up to Castle Rock, I discoved a great game to play with the kids in the car. Jack would unlock his door, so I would lock it from the drivers seat. Lucy and Jack thought this was the funniest thing in the entire world. Jack would be laughing and through his laughter he would say "Mom, guess what?" It was the cutest thing ever! Jack is going to miss his sister so much. They have become quite the little buddies, just like I always pictured them being. They may fight, but they are without question best friends.

Day 64: Feeling Guilty

So today I was scheduled to have two different appointments. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. I felt so bad having to call around and find someone to watch my kids. I hate doing that. I hate asking people for favors, and it seems like I always have too. If Shawn wants to do a date, or he decides something last minute, I have to find the sitter. This gives me extreme anxiety, whether we are paying them or not, it stresses me out.

My good friend Jessica not only gladly agreed to watch my kids, she told me she would come to our house! What an amazing girl! I so wasn't asking her to do that. So, at 8:30 this morning she showed up with her little Penny and sat with my kids for over an hour while I went to what I hope to be my last doctor's appointment for a year. So she is a saint in my eyes. She didn't even mind that it took my doctor FOREVER to see me today. I think it took so long because I was suppose to go in on Friday, but she had an emergency c-section or something come up, so they rescheduled me for today. That'll put her behind.

Thank goodness my second appointment was pushed back. I had a sitter lined up, but it was a huge relief to tell her "Thanks anyway!" So now I get to stress about finding a sitter for Thursday. Oh my life, I hate what I stress about.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Day 63: Projects

So my intention to finish all my projects is seriously cutting into my intention to write daily. But here is my list of projects I have completed since I publicly announced that I am not going to be such an underachiever in my productivity.

1- Planted my herb garden (which are all sprouting nicely I might add)
2- Made Jack's name
3- Made Alivia's Growth Chart
4- Painted a wall
5-Build a blog for my sister-in-law (a never ending work in progress)
6- Organized 2 closets (never mind that was an accident in a desperate attempt to find my sheets)
7- Gave Jack a hair cut (trust me, that is a project, and it turned out adorable)
8- Made Lucy and Alivia's hair flowers into clippies
9-Made the kids Jimmer shirts
10- Created my Growth Chart Pattern
11- Opened my Esty Shop
12- Couponing, Coupoing, Couponing
13- Had interior designer help me with my house and began rearranging furniture according to her suggestions
14- Hacked down a couple of bushes in our back yard

So I just had to get those all put down so I would feel a little better about my progress. Some days my kids simply will not let me work on my projects, but it does feel good to see that I have checked off 13 of my half done projects. It should be 14 except my stupid shirt is still only half done and seems to always take 3 hours longer than I think it will. I'd type more, but Alivia just woke up and I have to go feed her. I'll type two posts tomorrow to catch up.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Day 62: Why Do Sunday's Hate Me?

Sunday's and I do not get along lately. I don't know if Sunday's hate me or if my kids do, but Sunday's never go smoothly around here.

Today was General Conference day two, and I was excited and hoping to get a little more out of it than yesterdays. I did get a lot from the second session today, but the rest of the entire day was extremely frustrating. We had a HUGE wind storm blowing through the area last night, so Lucy came into our room terrified last night and slept with us. When we woke up Shawn and I decided to get ready for our new bed that was coming today. It was suppose to come of Friday, but apparently it was broken when it arrived at the store, so they had to order another one.

I got to work making Monkey Bread first thing this morning, and then we headed up to our room to get the old bed out. As we pulled the pillows and bedding off the truck pulled up. So we took the old one out as quickly as possible and the delivery guys set our new one up. After they left we started Conference. That's when it got a little crazy. Lucy and Jack were just not going to cooperate with us. There was a lot of screaming and fighting and inbetween that Alivia would get woken up and cry. Then the best part, our TV decided it is done working for us. It's been acting up for about a week now, but the picture would just give out right in the middle of the talks (it just did it again right now as I'm typing). I got a little overwhelmed by it because we so can't buy a new TV right now. So if it goes, I guess we'll just go without, which is fine. I guess looking on the bright side we wouldn't have to pay for cable anymore.

The other thing, and possibly the most frustrating thing of the day is that when we bought our bed I was so excited because I knew that we wouldn't have to buy new sheets for it because I bought a set of King sheets 3 years ago when we almost bought a new bed. Well, after TEARING through everything in my entire house today, I've decided those sheets do not exist anymore. I don't know what on earth happened to them, but they are gone. I'm so frustrated. So if I gave them to you, please tell me so I will stop looking. I went through every box in our house, I cleaned out my linen closet, I cleaned out my bedroom closet, I've cleaned out everything that comes to mind. I even looked through my Christmas and Halloween boxes. I looked in drawers just in case. I looked in my kid's closets and under every sink in the house. You name it, I've looked. They just disappeared. I'm going crazy.

Anyway, even though my day didn't have any major catastrophes like some of my days do, today was just one of those days to get through. I'm glad I'm through it now. Now I'm ready for bed and hoping tomorrow is a little smoother. Life is good, even if I can't find my dang sheets.