Another Day, Another Dollar!

That kind of sums up the week I had.  My busy week of work continued this week.  I logged 30 hours for the week which is almost triple my normal amount. I told Duncan that I almost worked as many hours (32) as he did this week (Monday was a holiday for him) and that was just the job that I was getting PAID to do.  Now, I know many other mothers work and 30 hours is probably no big deal but that's without a baby sitter, nanny, or day care.  And, might I add that I barely worked at all while the kids were around so you can imagine that I had some very late nights.  Indeed, I don't think my head hit the pillow before 12:30 any night and sometimes it was later than that.  I am SO glad I do this crazy schedule only once a year because it stinks!  It sure makes me appreciate that I normally only work a minimal schedule and that I have such an awesome husband who works really, really hard to make that possible for me.  I am blessed.

Despite all the work, the week was not without enjoyment.  I mean, how can you not enjoy yourself when you're surrounded by three enthusiastic kids?  The actual end of the week was Sabbath, of course, and that proved to be an interesting day in that I had to bring out the dressy winter coats that I had already stashed away.  I think the weather was only in the upper 40's when we rolled out the door to church and Calleigh started complaining about being cold.  The downside to the coats is having to carry them all over the church the rest of the day which made me wish for a coat check as if we were at a fancy restaurant or something.  Thankfully the forecast for tomorrow is 79 so there will not be a repeat.

Aubree keeping her baby warm on the walk into church.

Saturday night found us headed to the Isidro's for some football pregame festivities.  Now, with Tangie being from Denver and all, naturally they (with Allen converting through marriage I think) are Denver Broncos fans who were conveniently playing the Patriots in the big playoff game Saturday night.  Ahhh, a Saturday night playoff game.  Brings back such memories!  Anyway, Allen had invited us to watch the game at their place but all I could think about was the kids in bed while I got to sit back on my couch watching in peace.  So unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be to watch it there as much fun as it would be (I can say that now that I know the result of the game).  Nonetheless, we went over for supper along with some other football fans both friend and foe.  It was roll your own sushi (veggie style) and pad thai.  As usual, Allen and Tangie had outdone themselves and I'm starting to feel hungry just thinking about it now.  It was a great time but we hightailed it out of there just before kick off.  David and Megan joined us here and since the result was a blowout at 45 - 10, we had a fantastic time.  I told David the curse was over because it has seemed like for every big game that he's been at our house for over the last few years, our team has lost.

Watching the San Fran/Saints game during our meal.  Love the seating!

Go Pats!  That's THE Lisa (Calleigh's idol) in the Brady jersey.

I have no great recollection of Sunday other than I was working for bits and pieces of it.  Duncan took the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's (who had returned the night before from business in San Francisco/Chicago) for a little while.  Same thing for part of Monday morning.  Monday afternoon Duncan took Calleigh to the ZOOm Air Adventure Park at the Central Florida Zoo.  It's a ropes/zip line course for kids age four and up.  Braelyn and Blake had done it a few months ago but we hadn't and I was waiting for a chance for Calleigh to do it.  I had gotten a Groupon for it awhile back and so Monday afternoon was perfect timing.  She had a few moments when she didn't think she could do some things but overall, it went great.

Calleigh holding court.

Learning how to do the clips.

I did it!

Tuesday morning we met Jennifer, Evan, and Kaleb (the older boys were at school - - they go one day a week to a home school co-op type thing) at the library for story time...or so we thought.  Turned out story time is on hold for the rest of the month due to early voting taking the place at the library.  How these two things are related, I'm really not sure.  Despite that, the kids still had a good time with the blocks and reading books.  At one point they all attempted to chase each other around the library which I quickly put a kaboosh on.  I felt like the old guy at the Sterling church who would always sternly tell us kids, "No running in church."  That's all I remember about him.

Reading a book with Kaleb

Wednesday was uneventful.  I think we may have gone to Publix for our one bit of "excitement...." although their tagline is "shopping is a pleasure."  Thursday, however, was much more exciting with the girls getting picked up by Grandma at 11:00 for an adventure.  She took them to Toys 'R Us, her house, and then eventually the playground for a fun filled day.  It worked out very well for me since I needed to go into the hospital to take some paperwork in for audit.  Much easier with one than three!  Aubree clearly had a good time as she asked me that evening, "When are we going to go on another adventurer with Grandma?"  Apparently she had Adventurers on her mind as well.  The day almost took a bad turn though.  When Elaine had arrived, I was upstairs changing Brady so I yelled downstairs for the girls to let her in.  The three of them left a few minutes later, I nursed Brady, got all my stuff together for the hospital, and went to go put Dewey in his crate only to find that there was no Dewey.  I could only surmise that had run out the door when Elaine had come in.  This is one of his favorite antics and normally we'll just call him back in although there have been a couple of times that we'll hear him scratch at the door and we let him in.  Oops.  Anyway, this time, it had been a good forty five minutes since he had gotten out and I hadn't heard any scratches.  I was a little worried.  I yelled a bunch of times ("TREAT" usually does the trick) to no avail. I threw Brady in the van and started driving slowly around the neighborhood.  Granted, Dewey isn't the easiest thing to spot since he blends in with the landscape.  I finally pulled into where the mailboxes are and there I spotted him standing there gazing out over the pond as if deep in thought.  If I could read his mind he was probably thinking "If I give it a few more minutes, they'll probably have to up the ante on the treats."  Or, more likely "You just had to go and have three kids.  Well, take that, suckahs, I'm free!!"  But, being the good dog that he is, he dutifully got into the van.  On second thought, maybe he was thinking about Marlee since the one year anniversary of her death was on Tuesday.  Either way, crisis averted.

This morning we went to three yard sales as the number of sales is still pretty small this time of year.  We did have success in finding four nice shirts for Duncan for $0.50/each.  I should have bought more, even if I didn't like them, because if you donate them to Goodwill and take a tax deduction, you're making money.  They're probably worth at least $6 on Turbo Tax and if you're in the 25% tax bracket, for example, you would get a $1.50 credit on your taxes making a net pickup of $1.00.  I'm not saying your going to become a millionaire or anything with this methodology but it's something.  Anyway, the sales didn't take long so we also hit up Walgreens and CVS to do some couponing.  CVS was a total bust - - they didn't have a single thing that I wanted but that's what happens with good deals that start on a Sunday and you don't go until Friday.

In Brady news, my last post I talked about putting Brady to bed earlier in the hopes that he would sleep later.  Well, that totally backfired on Friday night.  He woke up at 5:40 instead of 6:15.  When you're up until 1:00, this is not a welcome thing.  Fortunately, that early time has not been repeated but other than a 6:45 one morning, we're still on the 6:05 - 6:15 thing.  On a positive note, at least he is going to bed earlier which gives me a little more free time (albeit work time this week) in the evenings.  I really don't know if it there's anything I can do to make his sleep later so I'm just going to go with it.  Although..maybe when the clocks spring forward that will help.  The really good thing that I can't complain about it that he doesn't wake up at all through the night. The bigger problem, for me, is that he has not been taking his afternoon nap.  The only day he slept well was Wednesday when he slept for about two hours (after 25 minutes of crying).  Typically he'll fall asleep when he's nursing at about 2:00 pm and I'll put him directly in his crib still asleep.  For the first 6 months and 1 week of his life, he would sleep for a good 2.5 to 3.0 hours after that. At 6 months and 2 weeks, he decided to reduce it to 30 minutes.  Why?  Who's to say.  I let him cry for awhile but I eventually give in (although it worked Wednesday).   I really hope and pray this doesn't become a pattern.  Aubree also went about three days this week without a nap but I can deal with that because she just plays with Calleigh upstairs (although the grouchiness come about 6:00 is a real drag).

Sucking on a strawberry through his little mesh baggy thingy.

"I just don't get it.  How does the water come out of there?  Boobies are so much simpler."

A funny line from Calleigh this week...over the last few months, it has come up now and then about how it's different times of the day in other countries. For example, when it's day here, it's night elsewhere and vice versa.  We were watching the Pats game last Saturday night and Calleigh stuck out her head to look down the stairs:

Calleigh:  "What are you doing down there?"
Me: "Watching the football game.  Now go to bed."
Calleigh: "What??  But it's dark out.  Are they playing in China or something??"

It's also funny how kids take things so literally.  We were headed out the door to go somewhere and the girls were lagging behind so Duncan threatened that we would indeed, leave them home.

Duncan: "So, I guess Mom and I are just going to run out to the store."
Calleigh: "No, you guys go too fast.  We won't be able to catch up."

Gotta love those kids.

A few random pictures..

First time in a swing.

The girls love to make "sets" as they call them which is just a bunch of items put together to make like a bedroom, a playhouse, or what have you.  

I haven't cut it open yet to see the answer but this cracked me up!

Have a very Happy Sabbath.  I know I will be!