A week with Jon? Sort of?

Jon's life is still at the fitness ranch, but we have seen him this week.  It's really nice to have him around.  He got in Monday night and I with all the noise and excitement he was probably wondering what he was returning home to.  He handled it quite well though.  It was very loud but he smiled through it all.

We still don't see him much, spending from 6:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night at the ranch exercising, but at least we see him.  It will be strange having him around more full time.  He'll probably be begging to go back when we're done with him.

8 Weeks: I'd have never guessed that number on my own

So, time flies and yet it's been a long year.  Today was pretty quiet. Not much to say. I had to run something over to Jon's place and picked up some of his stuff so he didn't have so much to shuttle home when the time comes.  It's almost weird to think that before I know it he'll be back here. At the beginning it seems so far away, but now it's doesn't seem like it's been near as long as it seemed at the beginning.  The day will come when he's home full time and he'll probably be thinking, "Holy cow, I need to go back!"  I'll just smile and say, "Welcome to reality."

7 Weeks and 6 Days: Down to the wire

That's about how I feel, down to the wire, or is it thin as a wire. Pretty drained anyway. As the week has progressed I've found less and less energy.

Had high hopes for a productive weekend, but...:

• First I got up early to decorate for Dani's bday and found the kids had gotten into and used up all the balloons, so,
• I went into my office to make some banners or something for her to find my computer infected with some spy ware. After spending over a good hour and HOPEFULLY removing it, I decided that I needed to get away.
• Later I walked past the kids bathroom and the toilet was clogged and running at a constant overflow. The floor was in about 2 inches of water (overflow was running to the downstairs), 
• Right after that I ran to the store. When I came back and opened the garage, and the dogs ran out and took off down the street. This week they've managed to create a big enough hole in their kennel fence to escape if they try hard enough. Guess they made it.  And with the help of someone leaving the back garage door open, they made their way into the garage. After chasing them down and finally getting them into the backyard, I found garage remnants scattered about.  I fixed the hole in the fence, picked up the garage fragments, shut the garage door, and 
• I escaped to the world of witches and vampires for maybe an hour, where I found even make believe people have even worse days than me. Too bad mine wasn't make believe.
• I then decided I had to face reality one more time and went to take the garbage out and the door knob broke and I couldn't get out. Nice. So, I took the front door knob, attempted to fix it, and decided to swap the door knob with the downstairs ones, because I'd much rather get locked in the house to the backyard than the front door. Jacob and Jillian kindly offer to help me screw the door knobs back in place (enough said).
• The carpet was coming untacked so Deanna helped me try to fix that but all the nails I had were bent, so we settled with the temporary fix until Jon gets back.

So, that was my morning, all by about 11:00. This was enough to take the wind out of my sails and I no longer felt as ambitious to get get much more done around the house. And I must have been correct in my thinking because I decided to refill the ice trays and when trying to put them back in the freezer, the 5 trays bumped the door and spilled down the front of me.  Now, if this day is trying to send me a sign, then I think I got it-- 

I'd fallen victim to one of the classic blunders, the first being, never get involved in a housecleaning war in my house, but only slightly less well known is this. Never go up against Murphy, when sanity is on the line...

Oh, PS- I took hid the plugs to the computer and TV.  It's driving everyone crazy.

7 Weeks and 5 Days: Am I done yet?

Well, my guide is out the door and now I don't know what to do....reclaim my house? discipline my kids? read a book? collapse?

Unfortunately or fortunately I'm going to be doing a little or lot of all of it.

I feel like I'm venturing into unfamiliar territory. Wow.

We've had too many distractions around here lately.  Time to refocus after a couple crazy months. Would I do it again? I'd prefer to pick bettering timing, but as of now, I've survived and I still think A LOT of good is going to come out of this to offset the negative.

7 Weeks and 4 Days (3/4): March 4th and Marching Forth

Same old, same old. More work, more chaos, more reminding the kids over and over to stay focused on their work. However, we did get the kitchen looking pretty good after dinner last night, and the girls helped Jacob with his homework. After school I took the girls to the secondhand store to get some pants without holes in the knees. I need to find a secondhand store like by my sister's where things were $1. Oh well. These pants looked like there were in good shape and probably cost a lot more if I'd bought them from a retail store.

Hard to believe this time with Jon away is coming to a close. And, my project at work is due Friday so that's another stressor off my plate.  I think I'll take some time off after this and try to do some things around the house.  Or just relax.  I haven't decided. Maybe both.

7 Weeks and 3 Days: Wild Wednesday

As usual Wednesdays are my busy days. Play practice, activity days, scouts, mutual, being a mom, being an employee, midweek chaos...

But we survived.  We're losing a little steam here, but Sammy's been a big help this week. I've had a few whiners and those that just can't seem to listen. Seriously. Like it just doesn't registerl.

Our family goal is to finish Mosiah this week and it looks like we should make it. We've also set personal goals. Deanna's was to finish 2 Nephi.  She came in last night to say she was on chapter 32, so I'm pretty sure she'll make her goal.  Not sure about the others, but we'll see.

7 Weeks and 2 Days: Livin' life

Not sure what to say about today. Kept Jillian home and she stayed pretty content coloring next to me most of the day. Of course she still wanted to sit on my lap at times, and also wanted to play computer games.  She keeps me hopping, but she wasn't too bad.

I picked up the kids from school, dropped some off at home, then hit Walmart to do some shopping.  I picked up about a dozen and 1/2 yogurts and jokingly said to Dani, "Well, that ought to last about 3 days, right?" After tonight I'm not too certain we'll make it through tomorrow.  Glad my kids at least like good for you stuff too instead of just junk.  Let's see how long the fruit lasts.  I imagine the veggies will last a little longer than the other two...haha.

The kids are still doing pretty good with their chores and music this week.  It's been nice.  There is still room for improvement, but I appreciate their effort.

7 Weeks and 1 Day: Another Day, Another boatload of stuff to do

It sure was nice that I didn't have the pressures of work like I didn't the last few weeks because I found I had plenty of other things I needed to get done that have been ignored lately.  One of those things was realizing that the car registration was due 2/28. Um, don't tell anyone that it's passed that date.  So, remembering this about 11:30, I finished up what I was doing and made a dash to the the nearest Jiffy Lube for and inspection and oil change.  I managed to leave my coupon for $5 off, but managed to pull in when no one was in line, so I got a $10 empty port discount. Sweet.  So now I'm driving my car legally again.

Very sleepy today.  I was itching like mad this morning and ended up taking a couple allergy pills. Don't know if that's it, but I can hardly keep my eyes open today.

Yesterday we had a family meeting and made sure everyone knew their chores for the week.  It was amazing.  The kids have been so great today. Some didn't do everything they were suppose to, but some did everything. Probably the cleanest some rooms have been in a while.  Boy, I sure hope they can keep this up this week.  Organization does have it's advantages.

7 Weeks: I can't believe I'm on the final stretch

Oh, I know Jon has 2 more official weeks of fitness camp, but between him gone, these projects at work, my house, kid's school work, winter upon us, and so forth, I've felt a bit buried.  However, I can now see a beaming light at the end of this tunnel. I see that my work deadline to release the guide is this coming Friday, it's starting to show signs of spring, Jon will be home before I know it, and hopefully with Jon home we can make a better offensive and defensive team on getting kid's chores and projects done.  It's so refreshing to see the pressure lightening up.

So, what have I learned from this experience?
Well, I have many more people behind me than I thought.  Family has called to check on me not to mention help me out with the kids and house.  Even people at church check in on us.  There probably hasn't been a week at church where at least 2 to 3 people haven't asked about Jon and those of us at home.  I'm stronger than I think, and yet not as strong as I thought (figure that one out).  I learned I couldn't do it all without anyone's help.  I've been humbled and left grateful that I didn't have to.  I've continued to learned that some things just don't matter, no matter how embarrassing they might be.  I've gained a strong belief that taking some time off is valuable to sanity, even if it's a walk around the block.  I've also realized that I can still eat and live healthy BUT I have to schedule it.  Letting each day take me on unprepared was never good.  But if I took a few minutes to decide what I was going to eat and when I was going to exercise, I did pretty good.

I'd like to say that I've learned it can't get much worse, but I won't tempt fate by saying so, because I'm sure it could.  I look at my visiting teacher and this last year she's had to do her daughter's wedding, send her son on a mission, get her son through his final eagle scout requirements, found out her 15 year old son has cancer and get through that, and then her husband lost his job of 20 years.  That's a lot coming at ya in just a year.  Talked to her today and she said it's made her a grateful person and she wouldn't trade it for anything. She was blessed through each step of it and each challenge/trial prepared her for the next one ahead.  She said she never had to say, "why me?"

I've also learned that we need to make good choices from the beginning to avoid some of the harder challenges and choices later on.  Sometimes the best and smartest path to take isn't nearly as easy or fun.  The path of least resistance is paved with pleasure and indulgences that always require a large toll at the end.  You can't back out easily without paying that toll, and how far you do down that path increases that toll.  I just hope I can be smart enough and wise enough to recognize the right path each day when it's presented to me, and strong enough to choose that path.  I know better, but the other path seems so much easier and fun....at least at the time it does, never at the end  Regrets are heavy to carry. It's time to stop being stupid.

So, am I in the final stretch? Oh, probably not.  But, I know I get to make a pit stop here soon, refuel and start back out for another adventure. But hopefully I've gained a greater respect for obstacles life sends me and don't shrug them off.

6 Week and 6 days (2/27): Saturday is a special day

I know Saturday isn't Sunday, and usually Saturday is "the day you get ready for Sunday" but after the weeks I've been having, it almost felt like a day of rest.  First off, I got to sleep in.  I didn't have to get up until 7:00, and that only because Ben had a merit badge clinic he was suppose to be at at 7:30.  That gave me 3 more hours of sleep. Sweet.

After he left, I  went back to my room and leasurely read for a while.  I then got Jacob and tried to tackle the boy's room.  Ben supposedly cleaned his half the other day, but it still needed some work, and I knew if I wasn't there nothing more was going to happen. We got the closet cleaned out and got stuff out from under Ben's dresser. Found a book that I've been looking for.  The bar in their closed came down the other day, so Jacob and I hung that back up and hung up all their church clothes that had been so neatly spilled in a wad on the floor.  We then fixed their hamper, which had a bar come unscrewed.  Thank goodness grandma B gave Jacob a tool box for his birthday.

I then tried to get the kids to straighten up before Shawn and Nichole came for over for piano lessons.  They got the main floor presentable at best, still needing work to be realistic.  I called mom while I was waiting and found out the neighbors (the Weiders) lost their house.  John, who lives there now, got it from his mom probably close to 15 years ago after she lost it, and his parent had been there since my preteen years.  Sad to think that someone could still lose a house that probably only originally cost $30,000 to 40,000 to begin with.  Apparently mom is letting them stay there for a while until the kids get out of school in June. Yikes.  I hope she doesn't go crazy(ier) in the mean time.

Nichole showed up with one of her school counselor tests (the one's school psychologists and counselors adminiter to kids to see their intellegence or learning abilities compared to kids their age.) This is part of her masters program.  She started testing Dani and they're not quite down, but I learned that Dani is running on a Sr in high school/college freshman level. The lowest she scored was at a 13 year old level.  Good, now maybe I can put her in charge and get some rest.  It will be fun to see how the others score and in which areas.

I worked in my room for a while, but didn't make much progress. My goal is to actually have all the laundry put away this week and have more than a walking path through the room.  Still have the Christmas wrapping box in my room and 2 baskets of laundry that only got half folded, not to mention the laundry I did today.  I'll get there.  It's amazing how getting one monkey off your back is just so freeing, even though you still have like 6 more there.

6 Weeks and 5 Days: I made it!!!

Holy shmollies.  I finally got the last of my final draft out for review.  The guide goes to production next week and even though I could probably nit pick it for another month, it's at a point that if I died over the weekend, the guide is pretty much ready to go.  YEAH!!!!!!!!!  It makes me so happy.  It's like a load has been taken off my shoulders (although it's not really officially over.  Still lots to do to get it ready for production).

My poor kids probably think I don't exist anymore.  I'm going to go spend some time with them.  Jillian was in with me a good part of the day, talking my ear off.  Whew, that girl can talk. and talk. and talk.  How can someone bring you so much joy and so much headache at the same time.

Well, I just got off the phone with Jon. I'm nagging him to start posting again. Hopefully he will tonight.
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So funny story.  I didn't post it because I thought Jon would but he stopped posting about this time.

Last week Jon called to say that he's finally starting to notice a difference for himself.  He said he was at the pool, working out, when his thumb caught the side of his suit and it split down the side, top to bottom. Fortunately the seams held it on him until he could get out (carefully).  He then tried on a suit he didn't like because it was hard to put on but realized it wasn't hard to put on anymore. 

I had to laugh because what he was telling me is that something fits now that didn't used to, but what I was hearing was "yeah, I had to split my pants out to realize I was losing weight".

Okay, maybe you had to be there, but I thought it was funny.

6 Weeks and 4 Days: Really?

I can't believe it's been almost 7 weeks now.  Before we know it Jon will be home and hopefully there will be less of him.

Quiet today. Jillian was at grandma's, the others at school, Kristin had work. My visiting teachers stopped by briefly this morning, but other than that, I've been up to work.

My work deadline is approaching and I have very mixed emotions about that.  I still have 3 more lessons to go, and I'm behind the schedule I had set for myself, but I feel pretty good that it will get done, and that excites me.

Had to pick up Sam at 3:00 for an orthodontist appointment.  She was there longer than usual. Guess she's lopsided. One side was doing really well, the other developed a crossbite.  Then we picked up Jillian and headed home. So I didn't get home until 5:00.  Then it was back to work. I really need to get my last three lessons out tomorrow, early would be best, so the instructors have time to review the lessons.

Getting the kids to do some cleaning. Ben has a good motivator so he can play his new games.

By the way, I have heard from Jon, so he is alive. Maybe barely.

6 Weeks and 3 Days: The day after

So Ben's birthday ended up covering 2 days.  Jon was able to get the evening off to take Ben out for his birthday and Ben ended up staying the night there. He got back at 6:00 this morning.  I must say, he came back a motivated individual. He got home, got all the kids up, took out all the garbage, and was ready to go before 7:00.  That gave us time to open the presents he didnt' get to open last night.  So I don't know if he was motivated by the stack of gifts, from Jon's talking to, or from his parent/teacher conference results from yesterday (which could use some improvement).

The rest of the day was work, work, work.  Grandma B invited Jillian over but I didn't want to take the time to run over there, so she stayed here. I actually put her on Nickjr.com and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with how well she navigates the computer. I was noticing that "hand/eye coordination" is different than when I was a kid.  It used to be you'd go out to throw or hit a ball around to get that, now it's move the mouse to click the button.

6 Weeks and 2 Days: Happy Birthday Ben and International Pancake Day

Back to early days. Sammy had temple this morning at 4:00 so I just stayed up and started working.  Probably a good thing too because it seems like I've had to cut off early lately and I really need to get this project done for work.  I'm on the home stretch now, so I'm seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel.  Still way behind, but I'm feeling better that I'll get there.

Did a little decorating for Ben's birthday and wrapped up a candy bar for him so he had something to open this morning.  If I'd thought this threw, I should have let him open all his presents this morning because it's been crazy and I don't know if we'll get to do it tonight.  He and Sam have play practice stuff after school, then I had to run to the bank, Sam had to take some books to the library, and I still hadn't done a cake.  By the time I got home we had parent/teacher conferences for Ben and Sam at 4:30 until almost 6:00.  Jon got the evening off to take Ben out for his birthday and he picked him up from the school.  So, here we sit with a cake, cheese cake (cause that's what he asked for), and presents, but no birthday boy.  The home teacher also dropped off a tub of ice cream and brownies for him.  Fat galore.

It's free pancake day at IHOP, so I took those that wanted to go: Dani, Jacob, and Jillian (Ben was gone and Sam and Deanna didn't want pancakes).  Plus, we took one of the neighbor girls.  Jillian apparently loves strawberry syrup.

6 Weeks and 1 Day: Much better

I had a tough weekend.  I was getting really frustrated with work come Friday and I think I let the stress boil over into the weekend.  I was really dreading working this week, but after finally dragging myself out of bed, I'me feeling pretty good.  Still lots to do, but my mind feels a lot clearer today that it has in days.

It will be busy this afternoon.  Tomorrow is Ben's birthday so I still need to do shopping. Plus, I promised the kids something like a movie for family night tonight.  And, I haven't been shopping in a while, so I guess it's time to replenish the TP, eggs, and who knows what other staples.  How does one fit it all in to one day.

6 Weeks: Hum Drum

Wow, it's almost hard to believe Jon's been gone 6 weeks. Of course I talk to him fairly often and I've seen him occassionally, so I guess it's not as big of an absence as it is for the kids or others.

Sunday was a slow quiet day.  Suggested we do some family movie, but it didn't happen.  I feel like I'm ignoring my kids these days.  It's just nice to truely have quiet day and not have to do anything, but I find myself hybernating in my room reading when I get those few moments.  I'll try and be better this week.

5 Weeks and 5 and 6 Days:

I feel like it's more of the same day after day.  I should have worked today, but I'm burnt out.  That means more long days this upcoming week. Hope I can rest well this weekend.

Friday night Dani and Sammy had friends over to stay the night, Ben went on a campout.  So plus 2 (3?), minus 1, it was fairly quiet. Couldn't get the kids to bed, although I tried several times.  I'm just not destine for sleep. The night before some neighbor dogs were barking all night long, waking me up.  Usually I don't wake up to that stuff, and usually I can't hear our dogs at all, so I think it must have been other dogs where the sound just carried to my room.  I got up several times to see if it were our dogs, but I didn't see them out, or they came out of the house when I came out. Last night it was humans.  I'd start to node and then I'd hear the kids or the phone would ring or something would happen that brought me awake.  Oh well.

Saturday was a lazy day. I got breakfast in bed at 8:00. Ben got home early from the campout and main me an omlette.  It was pretty good too.  I'd gather the kids together throughout the day to work on small projects, like the frontroom, dining room, and car.  The frontroom is clean and the car is clean.  That's about it.  Working on the dinner mess now, but we'll see if they finish or stop just shy of done.  As for the car, gross.  There was so much garbage in there from our trip and other times things didn't get completely cleaned out.  I hope it stays clean for a while but I won't make any wagers on it.  Plus bonus, found one of the missing library books in the car, so that worked out well.

5 Weeks and 4 days (2/18): Are we getting anywhere?

Kids were at school today and grandma B picked up Jillian around 10:30 or so to spend the day with her. I wish this meant I could take it easy, relax, read all day, but work still calls.  Although I finished my draft deadline, my final guide is due in less than a week, and the guide goes to publish the first week in March.  So it will be continuing my March Madness well before March hits the scene and I'm hoping March will actually bring me a reprieve.

I actually managed to get most of the kids to stick around and finish their dinner chores.  Some came up with homework excuses and such to try and get out of it, but those who didn't completely finish will be getting up nice and early to get that done.  Most everyone finished fortunately. 

I'm having a hard time with the eating healthy and exercising stuff this week.  I'm still trying to get better, but I'm still not doing great. I'd better get back on track before the whole week gets away from me.

5 Weeks and 3 Days (2/17): Time to rethink this

It's become apparent to me that my kids are very aware that with everything I've got going on,  I can't be there to follow through with everything. So I ask the kids to do something and rarely does it get done.  Looks like there will be some changes here because it's getting really frustrating being ignored.  So over the next day or so I will be coming up with a plan to try and get the kids on task, be responsible, and maybe get some things done around here.

Wednesdays are always crazy days: play practice, Activity days, Mutual, life.  Jon's mom offer to take Jillian for the day but wanted me to drop her off.  I decided to just keep her here for the day rather than spend more time chasing in the car.  She wasn't too bad, although she must be having a hungry day because she ate 2 lunches and had thirds for dinner.  My little hobbit.

5 Weeks 2 Days (2/16): Happy Anniversary to Me and Jon

Today seemed so short in compared to some days. Maybe it was because I didn't work a 14 hour day.

I was up at 4:00 to make sure Ben was up for the temple, but I must admit, I went back to bed and slept until 6:00.  Some of the kids had Valentine parties today so they were taping pencils to their cards before they left for school.  Kristin called to see if I had gas at home because she ran out of gas up the street, but the neighbor happened by while she was talking to me and so I can only assume she helped her, because I didn't see her out there after I dropped the kids off at school.  Plus I drive on Tuesdays and the neighbor girls said their mom was helping her.

Got a call around noon from the school saying Jacob and another boy ran into eachother during recess and he got a nice shiner from it.  They didn't know if I wanted to pick him up and let him come home or now.  I took some Motrin over, cause I thought they said he hit is head, but apparently it was just the eye.  He kept asking me if it really got black or just stayed purple.  I'll have to get a picture up soon.

I left for Jon's place about 3:30 so I could be there for dinner and the evening workout.  We had baked salmon, broccoli, and grapes.  We then headed over to the gym to do water aerobics.  They have two new guys (actually 3 but one stay because he was too tired).   The guys said they'd never joke about water aerobics being sissy again.  It was pretty fun but it sure is a challenge to keep it up and keep your balance.