The Last Day

Ah, the last day of NaBloPoMo! And really, I have nothing to say. But, I couldn't leave this space blank. It's been a long month, and I'm quasi looking forward to December. Only quasi as the stress of the holiday seasons, and the stress added in to my life by other people should prove to be interesting! On top of it all, we pack up and board a plane again (only one this time) a mere three weeks from today. As of now, our Christmas tree and decorations are up. Snow has fallen in the last few days (although it will be gone tomorrow). My house is a study in disaster, and I am tired. Ready for bed. Goodnight!

Random Blogginess

It's only the middle of November, and I'm running out of steam on NaBloPoMo. Here are a few highlights of today:

Brian came home last night after a week of being gone. Always a good thing.

I got to sleep in this morning. Woo hoo! I've been so tired and still fighting off a cold that has lingered on from last week. Again, always a good thing.

I think we have all the outfit stuff we need for Elizabeth's wedding. We got Caitlin some little white shoes and tights for her flower girl outfit. Brandon's all fitted for his tux, and I have dress. I think Brian's got what he needs, but don't know. He's a grown man and can do it for himself, so I'm not interfering.

Caitlin has reached her terrible almost threes. That's a whole other post. It's pushing me to a few limits I don't want to go to. Luckily it's not all the time. But yesterday was probably the worst day Caitlin has ever had, and it wasn't fun. Today is better, but I'm still recovering from yesterday's tantrums.

I sent my child off to school yesterday in his PJ's with his stuffed pooh-bear. His class had another pajama link party (they have chain that gets a link added to it when they do good things for others and show respect, and they get to do something fun when the chain reaches the ground). He left pooh-bear at school on accident, and is still sad about it.

Just a few more days and we're off to California again. Trip two of three. I'm not looking forward to the flight (Colorado to Texas, then off to California), but I'm happy to be attending my sisters wedding.

I wish they'd open up the play area for the kids at the mall soon. It's taking forever. Time at the mall has been greatly reduced. However, I really want it open soon since winter's approaching. And you don't go outside during winter here, so you have to find something else to do with your cooped-up kids! Mall, here we come!

I was sad when all the snow melted yesterday. I'm not ready for a full-on winter, but this warm weather seems wrong for November. Of course, I need to remember that last year it was really warm before getting cold on the 21st. And after that it never got warm again until spring.

I think that's about it from the P-4 household. How's life with you?

Finally! Time to Vote!

The amount of political papers and political trash I have just tossed into the recycle bin is enormous. Finally, today, we all get to vote. We'll have an outcome, and all the mail I never asked for and ads that I don't wish to see will come to an end. Yeah!

I managed to get me and the kids out the door by 10:00. No small feat since I am sick, went to bed at 9:00 last night, and didn't feel like getting up this morning. The kids wanted a lazy morning, so getting them dressed was a hassle. Thanks to the promise of snacks, and the actuality of Skittles at the voting precinct, all went well. My assumption about voting here (from friends, news, and other media) is that the lines have been long. We've been able to vote early for weeks now, which is not sometime I remember being an option in California. I guess it was suppose to cut down on long lines. The closest early-voting precinct was 10 miles away, so I didn't make it there. I was all set to brave the lines today. The news was reporting waits of up to an hour in Denver, so I even charged up the portable DVD player for the kids. And snacks. And even put Brandon's school backpack in the car just in case...... And...........there was no line. At least no line of any note. I did figure out why the lines can be so long here, though. Everything is manual! Manual in a way that is slower than the manual California process, back in the day. You have to color in your square of choice with a black pen, making sure it's completely filled in. Kind of like a scantron, but the square is bigger. It was the smallest amount of line items, and took the longest time to fill out! I was a little stressed about the kids running around and bugging other voters, but they were good.

So, now I'm home again. Brandon's at school and Caitlin is watching an Elmo DVD (one she discovered in my bag, and wondered why I had it with me). It's almost nap time for her, and I may join her. I have MOPS work to do today, but it might have to wait until the next round of cold medicine. I don't think I have the capacity to deal with it right now!

NaBloPoMo? Oh No!!

Blog every day in the month of November? I've done it before, but this year is different. This is the year my sister is getting married, and the year we are traveling back out to California to be in that wedding on the 22nd. In the interest of finances (ours), we used our American Airline miles to get our tickets. There are no direct flights on AA from here to there, so we always have to connect. Usually we connect at LAX, but we couldn't get that this time, so we are connecting in Dallas. This doubles our flight time. We'll see if I can blog that day! Then there's the day before, the rehearsal dinner , the wedding day! Then there is the whole computer thing. It's a challenge to get to the computer in a house full of people. Brian will have his laptop, but without my parent's router password, we might be out of luck getting on the internet while at their house. I'm got enough to worry about on the flight, so I'm not bringing our laptop. Silly me, I know. But still...no.

So, we'll see. I'm sure I'll be able to blog daily while at home, in my element, for most of the month. But 30 days? This might just be the year I have to be vague and say.........maybe.

Happy Anni--, or is it Blogi--(?) versary

Today marks the date that I quit working. My boss didn't know that I didn't plan on coming back. My plan was to stay out at least 4 months (maternity leave plus 12 weeks of FMLA), but to quit as long as my husband was still working . Brandon was born on September 16th. Layoffs at Brian's company started in January, and he weathered those until the bitter end. So, happy anniversary to me.


Today also marks 2 years in the blogosphere. My first blog, on August 31st, 2006, was just the beginning of many. I'd lurked on various blogs over the years, but not nearly as many as I do these days. It's a very strange thing to me that I can read a person's blog, sometimes written over several years, and feel like I know that person very well, but yet not know them at all. I can become fascinated with the passions and wonderful writings of people that I know in real life would drive me bonkers! It's those passions, though, that make their blogs so much fun!

So, to you 3 readers out there, thanks for joining me on this adventure. I've been officially unemployed now for 5 years now, and busier than I've ever been in my life!

Oh Yeah, I Have a Blog.....

No, I didn't really forget that I had a blog. Well, maybe. I'm still reading ones out there, in my few minutes of free time, but even that's been random.


Brandon started kindergarten on August 20th. Since then, we've been tweaking our lives to learn to live with this new schedule. He goes to school from 11:45 to 2:30 every day. The school is close by, maybe half a mile away. But this new schedule is just so odd - and I'm trying to fit our lives around it. We have had to rework most areas of daily life just to figure this out. Seriously, kindergarten shouldn't be this hard!

Food has been one of the hardest things. Due to the start of school, I've been trying to keep things low key this week, which means we aren't going out much (not that we have anywhere to go....). Brandon has been waking up around 7:30 and has a big cup of milk. He then eats breakfast around 8:00 or 8:30, and is only mildly hungry around 11:15, which is when he needs to eat something . We need to start our leaving process around 11:30 (shoes, bags, any schoolwork, etc), so we can be at the school around 11:40. Trying to figure out what to feed him at 11:15 has been hard. He doesn't want lunch, but the snack has to be healthy and enough to keep him full until school's out at 2:30. Right now he's all into organic whole-milk vanilla yogurt, along with the blueberry and flaxseed granola, from Whole Foods (it's one of the few places I can find flavored whole-milk yogurt!). We might get more into bananas soon, and other filling snacks. He has another filling snack when he gets home, too. And, I'm trying to incorporate more protein into his breakfasts so he won't be hungry. I need to hit Sunflower Farmer's Market again to get some good, healthy ideas.

We had our first foray out into the real word the other day. I went to the opening brunch for my Bible study on Wednesdays. The morning was interesting. I got up at 6:00 am to walk. I return home around 7:00, and need to leave around 8:40 to get to Boulder between 9:00 and 9:15. Back in my PK (pre-kid) days, that would have been completely doable. These days.... forget it. I'm not sure how walking is going to fit into Wednesdays anymore! Really - I couldn't do anything right! I did manage to get us all fed, dressed, and out of the house before 9:00 am, though. I got to pick my study early, since I was helping run a cashier's table. I picked out a Beth Moore study on the Psalms. I've only done one Beth Moore study years ago, but I've seen her at a conference, heard her on the radio, and really like her work. And, if I hate it, it's only one semester. I'll do a different study starting in late January. It can't be worse than last year! Although I felt convicted to stay, I also felt like I wasted several months in a study I hated. On the bright side, Brandon ate 3/4 of a sandwich and some dried banana chips on the way home. At least feeding him on days that we have morning activities should be so bad! Our mornings have to start earlier on those days, and will eat quite a bit on the way to school.

I'm really hoping to get this new schedule down soon. It's quite a bit different than anything we've done for the last couple of years. I can already see that I won't have much, if any, time to myself, which might make me a bit batty. We'll see how it goes!

My First Blog

I'm not really sure why I am attempting to keep a blog. Something in me feels the need to keep friends, family, and random other people updated on our everyday life, mundane as it is. I'm not a great writer (talking and thinking are more my specialties), so I'll try to keep things as entertaining and real as possible. Welcome to my blog! More to come later. It's almost 9:00, and I'm exhausted. I also can't stop sneezing. My contacts need to come out, make up needs to come off, and it's time to change in to some comfy sweatpants. See you soon.