Changes

There has been so many changes going on around the house over the last few weeks that I never know where to start. Brady turned 9 a week ago and here he is on his birthday. The school started a new thing this year where parents can come in and eat breakfast or lunch on their child's birthday so I chose to eat breakfast with Brady that morning. Then went straight into work.Saturday morning, we had a football game. Here are the pictures I promised of Brady and Belle on the previouse Saturday, Belle's first game and Brady's second.Have I mentioned Belle's latest distaste for having her picture taken? I threatened today that if I take one picture of her scowl she was going to be grounded for a month.

Then after the game, I picked up a cake and ice cream so we could go to the local bowling alley for Brady's birthday party. Out of 7 invitations, two kids came, so we invited the neighbor's daughter to join us. Despite the low turnout, Brady had a great time.Dad picked Bryce up from band practice on Tuesday and brought him to me at work. Bryce came inside, said "Pepaw's got a flower for you," and sat down. A flower? That was unexpected. So I walked outside to unlock the van and he had brought me this. I've had three different clippings of that plant and every time I tried to start it, Callie and Zeus has ripped it to shreds so this time? Mom sent me more than a clipping. She practically sent me a plant! Now I need to get me a hanging pot in which to plant it.

Also last week, I had to take the kids in to have their eyes checked. Brady could not sit on the couch to watch tv, he was constantly planted four feet in front of it. We found that Bryce has a slight astigmatism but we could get him glasses or wait. I chose to wait since he really hadn't complained about his eyes. Belle has a slight astigmatism as well but needed reading glasses. According to her dr, wearing the reading glasses will ease the strain on her eyes when she's not reading. We'll see what happens. Poor Brady was near-sighted. There was just no way he could go without glasses. He is to wear them when he's not on the playground or playing football.Tomorrow is their first day of school with their new found eye sight. I just hope that it isn't as stressful as Brady fears it will be.

As for me, work is wearing me out. That and not sleeping. I had every intention on putting in another hour and a half tonight, but I sat down in this chair and decided that I would post a few pictures, put up a new blog, put some football pads in a uniform and go to bed. So here in about 10 minutes, that is where I intend on being. Bed. Doesn't that sound wonderful? So with that I'm going to leave you a self portrait Belle took today after getting her glasses. She'll smile for herself but scowl for me...

Stopping By...

I'm pretty sure that my fears of me working would affect my blogging have come true. I really didn't intend for it to, but I have been determined that working was not going to affect my house. For the most part, it hasn't. I've been washing my dishes as soon as supper is finished, washing a load or two of laundry as soon as it comes ready and then folding the laundry as soon as it's done. I have the kids pick up what various things they have throughout the house as I walk through.

Then there's the running. Football practice on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings until 7, strings rehearsals on Monday and Thursday until 4:15, band practice on Tuesday until 4:20 and cheerleading practice until 3:30. By the time I finish with supper, dishes, baths and bedtimes, it's 8:30. Then a couple of nights last week I brought work home with me so that I could get the new program to the point that we can start relying on it. I love the idea that if you were sitting at my desk at work one evening last week, you would see the mouse moving around on the screen as I worked on it from my home computer. I will probably be doing some more work from this week as well.

Also last week Belle came home from school on Friday and crashed soon after. After Hubby made a quick trip the after hours clinic, we got the news. Influenza A. She's got the flu and cannot return to school before Wednesday. They have drugged her up real well with Tamiflu and some serious antibiotics. Since today was a holiday, she'll only be required to miss one day depending on how she feels. She's still complaining about stomachaches today, but her fever has been gone since yesterday morning. Unfortunately, it required her to miss cheering her first football game of the season and I missed Brady playing his first football game. Ever. I am still struggling with that. So for now, this is what I have of that day:Hubby also took a picture of him in action on the field but it's still on his cell phone so I don't have that one to post yet.

We are also in the process of recovering. Weekend before last, Hubby was mowing the yard when he shot a rock across the front. We both thought it hit the siding on the house and went on about our business. He came in a short time later and informed me he had indeed broke something. The back window on my van was shattered. A week and a half later, I had a new, darker window in the back of my van. But our feelings were definitely hurt. Or at least mine were. Not because he broke it, things happen, but because it happened on the second week I went to work. Then this past Thursday, I managed to do some damage to my little toe after I kicked it on the foot of my rocking chair. I hobbled around for two days before it finally scabbed up enough that it didn't hurt every time I took a step. I assume it's not broken since I kicked it a second time not two hours after hurting it and didn't melt into a pool of sobs. That's always a plus.

Now is time for me to crash so that I will be willing to get up in the morning. How was your labor day?

Wow

Last week was my first week as a full time employee in a very. long. time. Technically, when I went to work for Wal-Mart, I was a part time employee pulling full time hours. Seems to be a norm for that place. Anyhoo, when I left, I was down to working part time hours because of school. So it's been almost five years since I worked a full time job and that was only for a few months. And I survived. Actually I did more than survive. I thrived! I picked up on quite a bit of stuff and got my first paycheck on Friday. I'm actually excited! Friday evening, I was gonna cook hot dogs, and have a picnic in the living room with the kids. We went out instead. I was tired, didn't feel too swift and felt that they had earned a night out. We went out for chicken, picked up Race to Witch Mountain and came home to settle down. They enjoyed the movie, and didn't really argue when I said time for bed.

Saturday was a totally different day. Saturday, I felt horrible. I would've love to have spent the entire day sitting in a hot bath, I hurt that bad. Wouldn't you know, that's just not possible. So we went shopping. Mom and Dad had gotten me a gift card for Christmas and I had used it once to buy a pair of jeans. So I figured it was time to buy a couple of new tops that I could wear to work. So we headed north, stopped by Books-A-Million, Petsmart, Lifeway and the mall. Then we headed over to Wal-mart and out to dinner. By the time we were finished, I was spent. We came home, gave the kids baths and I settled down for one. Then Hubby and I both crashed.

This morning, I felt somewhat better. Not 100%, but much better than yesterday. Hubby got up this morning asking me what was the wise idea I had about knocking him around during the night. I had wondered if I had stirred him enough for him to remember it. Hubby had slipped onto his back during the night, and his breathing wasn't exactly a snore but wasn't breathing either. I finally started pushing on him, trying to get him to roll over so that he would sleep better. It took a lot of effort to stir him enough to roll him over but I succeeded! I was also up a while after that, too. He spent the day fussing at me because I interrupted his wonderful sleep that he was having. Of course the fact that he wasn't awake more than 60 seconds was irrelevant!

When we finally got moving this morning, I went to work on the kitchen that I had neglected and Hubby started mowing the yard. I stepped outside to talk to him and he small piece of concrete flying through the air. We both thought it had hit the house because of the sound, but a short time later, Hubby came in and let me know he did indeed break something. The back window on my van was shattered. So for the moment, I have a nice piece of black plastic covering the backside of my van until we get everything situated so that I can get a new window. Fun! I finished mowing the backyard before supper while Hubby took the time to delicately cover the window. This evening, I finished the kitchen, can't count the amount of laundry I've washed, and gave the dogs baths. Now I'm ready to crash and I'd better do it soon, because I've got to work tomorrow!

Decisions, Decisions

This weekend left me with a decision. Friday, I returned home from work and found a message on my answering machine, a message from the doctor's office that I had applied for and interviewed with last week. They had called to offer me the position in their office. That position was part-time and since I had already landed a full time position, I couldn't see taking their part time offer. So I returned the call to let them know what I had found. They called back, not five minutes later, offering me full time. I was floored. After a year of searching, I had two offers on the table. Two good offers that I had to choose from. I am to call the doctors office tomorrow and let them know. Honestly, it's a tough decision. In a doctor's office, I can apply at any other medical office and have an edge because I've done it. At the pest control place, I am setting up their database for their clients. But the pest control place is a family run place. One that I can leave if the kids need me and it's ok. A medical office would be so much harder to do that. So I have decided to stay where I am.

Allow me to tell you about my morning. Hubby is still home because his load will not be ready until morning, so I climbed out of bed trying not to wake him. I failed miserably. I tripped over something at the end of the bed, almost fell backwards and grabbed the closet door to keep from getting hurt. As I reached for the door, I slammed it shut. Yeah. I was graceful this morning. So I mumbled my apologies and headed for the bathroom so that I could shower before work. I flushed the toilet and it went SNAP! Then the handle would jiggle but would not flush. So I got into the shower. After I got out, I figured I'd best reach into the tank and at least flush it. I checked the chain to find that it had ripped out of the valve, lifted the valve and pulled out my hand with this black gunk all over my fingers. I washed my hands and the stuff wasn't coming off! Finally, I made my way to the kitchen for an old toothbrush to scrub the stuff from my hands. The kids were up by this point, eating breakfast and brushing teeth, so I started a load of blue jeans thinking that maybe I'd have a minute to put them in the dryer before I left. For some reason, my brain was thinking that I was bleaching a shower curtain instead of washing the jeans that were clearly sitting in the washer and poured bleach into the dispenser. Crap! So I had to pull out the jeans, run the rinse cycle, and put them back in again sans bleach. I was steady fussing at the kids to come on, you're late, come on you're late, only to open the door and hear the bus coming down the street. So I yelled, "BUS!!!!" Three kids came running and high-tailed it for the end of the driveway. I left the house a short time later and stopped for a drink to take to work at the busiest place in town. I got to work, went to grab my purse to put my keys in it, only to realize that my purse was here, on the desk where I left it last night.

Things improved greatly after that but let me tell ya, when I got to work I was ready to go home, go back to bed and try again tomorrow. Let's hope tomorrow starts better than it did today!

It's Official!

I have a job! A full time job! A friend of a friend works in an office at a local pest control place and told her boss she needed help. Then told them I know computers, have a degree and next thing I know they're saying, "Can you start tomorrow?" How cool is that???

This week I have signed Belle back up for strings and cheerleading, signed Brady up for football, and signed Bryce up to play the drums in the band. Tomorrow, I sign Brady up for violin. This needs to stop already! Why do kids think they need to do everything thrown at them?

Not much else left to mention except that it's been a long day, I've still got dishes to put in the dishwasher and two kids left to shower before I can call it a day. Any exciting news in your neighborhood?

It's Starting Again

It's the time of year that brings us to this:School officially started last Wednesday. So far they like their teachers, have enjoyed their first three days and are looking forward to tomorrow. Also starting is the running. Brady is playing football and his first practice is tomorrow evening. Belle has decided to continue playing the viola and her first after-school practice is tomorrow as well. Bryce has decided he wants to be in band instead of orchestra so Thursday we will be back up to the middle school as he tries out various instruments to decide what it is he wants to do. So the running is officially beginning.

Last weekend Belle started laughing while she was sitting at the table eating. I was standing at the sink washing dishes, again, when she told me to look up. Here's what I saw.Zeus had climbed his way onto the top of my cabinets for a nap. Hubby got the full picture for me since he's a tad bit taller. About a week and a half ago, I had to take Bryce in for a check-up and tetanus shot in order for him to be able to start school. His height is in the 90th percentile compared with other kids his age. Um, duh! Like I already didn't realize that my 11 year old was tall. Over all he is healthy and she helped us with one other task. She told him that he might sleep better if he took his night light out of his room. So we are now on two whole weeks without a night light and the bags under his eyes have lightened up greatly. One less thing to worry about!

One other thing that had me ecstatic last week was that I had a job interview! A real job interview! I went in Thursday afternoon and sat down with the lady that is over the hiring. We discussed what she was looking for, I typed for her and she showed me the software they were using. They are supposed to discuss the candidates this weekend (they had another interview Friday) and then pick a couple that they think are promising to come in and work for a few hours in a working interview. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow about that.

I have been working over the last couple of weeks, too. Not working outside of the home but doing things around the house. We let our flower bed get out of hand this summer, mainly because we've been busy with everything else, so the last two weeks I have been pulling weeds. And grass. And clover. Now the flower beds in front of the house are cleaned out and I like a six foot section at the end of the house. Then it will be all nice and neat. Yesterday, I prepped some serious squash for freezing. When I finished, I had 9 quart bags of squash ready to store in my freezer. This evening, I mowed our yard while Hubby trimmed. Now I have a nice neat yard as well. If only I could do that to the inside of the house.