steph's stuff

Then and now

Emily and I are on our way down to the Children's Hospital for her endocrinology check-up, so I thought I'd give you an old blog entry from my "work" blog. Cross your fingers that all goes well for us and that we make it all the way back home for trick-or-treating.

 

Then and Now

 

Then (before kids): Greeting spouse at the door after work involved a long hug, a lingering kiss and an "I missed you so much, sweetie."

Now (after kids): Hear the door open, start throwing dirty kids at your spouse for baths, yell out to remind him it's his turn to help the oldest with her math, and then send him right back out the door to pick up milk, eggs, and juice at the store before he can even change his clothes.

***

Then: Spend the evenings eating out, re-connecting with spouse, reading a book or lounging on the couch watching TV together.

Now: Spend the evenings frantically trying to help with homework, clean up spills, find something half-way nutritious for dinner (does frozen pizza count?), give 3 baths, clean up the bathroom 3 times, soothe upset tummies, deal with trauma over the pink dress not fitting any more, put the preschooler back to bed 4 times, and throw yourself on the couch by 9 p.m. only to realize that you still have to clean the house before you can go to bed.

***

Then: Sleep in until 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning and leisurely read the paper in bed with a steaming cup of coffee.

Now : Wake up at 2 a.m. and put preschooler back in his own bed and try to go back to sleep. Wake up at 4:30 a.m. and put preschooler back in his own bed and try to go back to sleep. Wake up again at 6 a.m. with all 3 kids in our bed clambering for pancakes. The day feels half over by 9 a.m.

melting

 

I have green grass again, so the snow has melted. Thank goodness!

But, now suddenly, I feel as though I am melting, too. I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning in a panic about how much I have to get done in the next two days. Besides having to take poor Em to her checkup at the Children's Hospital that is 3 hours away on Halloween of all days, I have to miss both Libby's and Andrew's Halloween parades and school parties, and we're hosting Halloween trick-or-treating for local family that night, as well.

And then this just hit me at 4 a.m. this morning - OMG, I have to clean my house before 7 a.m. on Friday morning when Em and I leave. ACK! Why, oh why, didn't it occur to me before now that I would have to clean my house?!

And then it also occurred to me - OMG, we haven't carved pumpkins yet! What kind of mother am I that our pumpkins are sitting on our porch uncarved? Um, honey, guess what we're doing tonight after dinner?!

And now we also have company coming unexpectedly for the weekend. While I'm also co-hosting an end-of-the-season volleyball party that I'm supposed to cook a lot of food for.

And, I still have assignments due this week. A lot of them.

My husband wonders why I don't sleep well. Next time I'll just direct him to my blog.

Do they still make Calgon?

It's too light outside today

I woke up before the alarm went off this morning and my first thought was that it's too light outside today. I worried that we'd overslept but a glance at the alarm clock told me that it was the usual time - 5:45 a.m. But it was too light outside to be 5:45 a.m. Until daylight savings time starts, sunrise doesn't hit us until about 7:45 a.m.

So, what the heck?

I got out of bed, stumbled around finding my glasses and a t-shirt to throw on. Have I ever mentioned how blind I am??? Those of you that know prescriptions will get this - my Rx is -13 or so in both eyes. Yep - blind as a bat. Anyway, got the glasses on and the t-shirt on and then noticed how dang cold it was. It still didn't register with me, though.

Until I glanced out of the window on my way to the bathroom and saw ALL THAT WHITE STUFF ON THE GROUND. All of that light was the lovely reflection of the snow. In October. Argh.

Have a great day. I'll be praying for sunshine and warmth today. :p

Monday's list

Ah, nothing like starting off a Monday morning with a nice, long list. Unfortunately, I'm sitting at home with a sick kid beside me on the couch, so the odds of me getting anything done are pretty slim.

First, a DesignerDigitals layout about my now-sick little man:

 

This was done for Scraplift Saturday and was inspired by donitab's layout. All credits and links can be found here.

So, now the list:

• new winter coat and snowpants for Andrew (the high is only 42 today. brrr...)
• new boots for both girls
• new gloves for Em
• get layouts ready to mail
• return emails about layouts
• work on some naked layouts (tee hee - this one will keep you guessing!!!)
• work on some ScrapSupply assignments for Torm's article
• fold and put away 3 loads of laundry
• get stuff for kindergarten Halloween party
• vacuum the living room
• make lists about all of these to-do items
• email family re: trick-or-treating
• get costumes ready
• make plans to take Em to Children's Hospital for her check-up
• email Em's teachers
• catch up with Cathy Z's class

• call about estimates for windows

overheard

"Mommy, wow, boobs are 'posed to be up here." (pointing to my upper chest)

"And yours are down here." (pointing to where mine actually are under my jammies)

*insert muffled laughter and gasps from the husband*

Gotta love 5-year-olds, huh?

If I didn't love him, I'd ship his cute little butt to Siberia this morning. :p

Have a happy Saturday. This is how mine started out. Ugh.

coming soon to a layout near you

 

I am crazy busy right now. Still dealing with health issues with Libby, still trying to figure out what's the best thing to do for her, getting Emily ready for her annual trip to the Children's Hospital (on Halloween - ugh), lots of volleyball games (and wins!!!) for Em, a kindergartener who suddenly is reading (OMG - it's so cool to see him learn more every single day), and lots and lots of work coming my way (which I am LOVING - best decision ever to go back to working for myself).

But, through it all, I'm starting to feel content. I haven't felt content in a long, long time - like years. I'm no longer questioning what's the right thing for me. I'm no longer in tears getting ready for work every morning. I don't spend half my day worrying about whether my kids will be okay. I don't spend Sundays in tears anymore dreading the week ahead of me. I'm waking up every day happy to be where I am right now. And incredibly grateful for what we have and the life we lead and that Tom has been so wonderful about all of this over the past year. And very happy that my honey is home from a business trip all safe and sound. :)

So, lots of layouts (and a giveaway) to come! Lots of emails to reply to (yep, I'm getting them, but life and health issues have taken over this week, but I'll catch up this weekend!!), and lots of hugs and kisses to go dispense today. :)

Kindergarten follies

One of the best things about watching your children go through kindergarten is seeing that lightbulb go off in their little heads. That lightbulb that tells them that learning really is fun.

We've been having so much fun watching Andrew experience that lightbulb this past month. And many of the conversations involve talking about the sounds that letters make and did we know that sounds make up words?! And did we know that if you listened a little bit better, you would learn more?!

He's really getting excited about all of it.

And some of it is just downright funny. A few things we've heard from our little kindergartner recently include:

When cleaning out his backpack and handing me a bunch of papers, he said, "Mom, I'll give you all the good stuff - the important stuff of life."

When discussing how his day went, he commented, "Well, it's weird how life works sometimes."

When talking about a classmate's recent vacation, he told us that his friend "had gone to Antarctica to go see Mt. Rushmore with all the presidents' heads."

And finally, his version of The Pledge of Allegiance had me in hysterics.

"I pwedge of the legance to the flag of the United States of Amewica. And to the repubwic. One nation under God. Indiwisible and justice for all."

i'm not a lawyer, but i used to play one on tv

Okay, so I have this law degree just sitting here. Well, I guess it's not sitting here. It's basically in my head. Okay, well, and it's also probably not even in my head. It's all still sitting in the enormous loans that we pay every month. But, theoretically, I have a law degree. But, I don't use it anymore. Still with me? Good. 'Cause this is not even the point.

The point is that I went into our lovely cell phone company's store today to renew our contracts. We've been with the same company for over 3 years now and have really enjoyed the coverage and the service. If you can enjoy those sorts of things. Basically, we've just never had any problems, so with cell phones, no problems = good. Right. So, I also had these two $50 renewal gift certificates. So, with 2 phones that would be a $100 credit on our bill if we renewed with our current company versus starting over with a new company. And we were going to upgrade our phones and they would cost a bit over $100, so it sounded like a no-brainer to me.

Unfortunately, you have to have a brain cell for you to be able to realize that something is that simple. And this cell phone company apparently doesn't have a brain cell among the 1 rep and 3 managers that I spoke to today.

First, I found a screw-up in our bill. A screw-up that's been going on for 9 MONTHS. Hello???? (get it - this is about phones? never mind.) So, they offer to credit me for 2 months of the screw-up. Um, no. So, we table that discussion while I decide to call a manager and we then move onto the gift certificates. But, it seems that our cell phone contract has expired. Which means we don't currently have a 2-year contract in effect. We simply are on a month-to-month contract. The 30-day renewal period at the end of our 2-year contract is over. So, the gift certificates are not usable. Hello??????????

At that point, I walked out.

And walked over to another company and plopped down money and a 2-year contract for two of these gorgeous babies.

 

No, it's not an iPhone. It's an Instinct. Well, two of them. And they're real darn purty.

And, after getting home and while fondling the new phone, I put in a phone call to not one, but three, managers at the old cell phone company. And finally had to pull out that old law degree out of my head and point out that I would be filing suit if they didn't find a way to play nice. And, wouldn't you know it? Suddenly, she had the authority to settle the dispute. Imagine that! So, we will be receiving a nice check that will pay for the 2 very purty Instincts and our last phone bill with the old company.

I guess that law degree was actually put to use today.

designing my life

Thanks so much for all the well wishes about Libby. We're slowing making progress and my fingers are crossed that we've found the issue with her meds and have found a way to fix it. Medicating my kids just bothers me so much. :(  In her case, I realize that we don't have much of a choice, though. She's such an amazing little kid and I can only hope that she continues to adapt as well as she has so far.

So, onto designing my life! Along with 1700+ other students, I am really, really enjoying Cathy Z's Design Your Life class. She's funny, surprising, and an incredibly talented graphic designer. I'm a bit behind in her class, but hope to catch up today. Either way, one of the best things about the class is that I can keep all my print-outs and catch up whenever I have a chance. And that works for my life. :) And, honestly, I'm really enjoying scrapping just for me. About 99% of what I scrap is for assignments these days, so this is nice to just do what I want, without worry about using the right product or having to have really great pics. (And a hint: I'm working on some really cool digital and paper projects right now that I'll tell you more about in the coming weeks. So cool and so honored to be working on these projects.)

I thought I'd show you a few photos from my album. I haven't photographed everything, but here's the album and the first couple of pages.  

And stay tuned for a give-away coming soon! ;)

 

 

 

Still here

Thanks for all the thoughts and well wishes you've sent our way this week!!!

We're still working on getting Elizabeth strong again and back to our precious little smiley girl. :)

She's doing okay, but there's still a ways to go. Epilepsy is a very strange thing and the medications that control it are very scary and dangerous at times. But, as you can tell from this picture (she's trying to show how brave and strong she is), she's hanging in there. And we're going to try and get her ears pierced this weekend to show her how proud we are of her.

I'll be back before too long!