Eight O'Clock Rocks

We have successfully changed Amelia's bedtime to 8:00 (or somewhere very near that). Tonight, Mark went to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and Amelia went to bed at 8:00. That means ME TIME!!! YAY! So I celebrated by cleaning up the supper mess (I am A LOT of fun, can you tell), made Mark's lunch, uploaded pictures for a photo book I am doing and I plan on cleaning the living room. It's been a pretty relaxing night.

Soon I plan to add an exercise routine. My biggest problem is that I don't have a routine. I am not always home, Mark is working long hours and 7 days a week and I am pretty sure I have a teething baby. I have to tell you, I need to fit it in because I am stressed out and feel like I am pulled in a hundred different directions. I am gonna confess but you gotta promise not to say a word about it to me, I have been smoking a little bit again. Not much but I know it's bad and I know I need to stop before it gets out of hand but it is soooo hard. That means I have taken it too far already.

I exercised a little bit tonight. If I told you how long you would laugh. Okay, 8 minutes (see, I knew you'd laugh). In my defense, it was hard so give me a break. I can go way longer on the elliptical. I swear. I CAN, so stop rolling your eyes now.

Time to go to bed. Later!

Bed Time

Amelia has been crabby lately. Not her normal moodiness but like crazy moody. Even her her daycare lady brought it to my attention. That's bad. So now that it is getting dark earlier, I decided to move her bed time up to 8:45 instead of 9:15. Slowly I am going to move it up as much as I can. I have been doing it since Monday and it already seems to have helped. She has been a lot happier. Now 90% of her shenanigans are done with a smile instead of a tantrum.

I guess we are both having a bed time issue. I have been trying to catch up on house work that has been put on the back burner for a month so midnight is a normal bed time. I am not handling it well. Tonight I felt pulled in a hundred different directions. Mark is working 7 days for the next few weeks and it isn't that I am taking on more responsibility but it feels like I am way busier. Do you understand what I am saying? If you don't, lie and say you do. I am way too tired to explain it. Hopefully this weekend I can make a dent in my 10 mile long to-do list. Wish me luck!

Busy, busy, busy

I have been pretty busy lately. I am actually talking on the phone with my sister while I write this.

This past weekend Amelia and I were once again on the road to my hometown and my dad's hometown. Since Mark was working both Saturday and Sunday, it was just us and the rest of my immediate family. First order of business was my hometown to decorate for my aunt's 51st birthday. We rushed to get the decorations hung and the balloons blown up and put in bunches(note: buy balloons made for helium. The balloons included in the tank were a life saver because the other ones exploded whenever we started to fill them). Then we hit the road again.

We went to see my grandparents in my dad's hometown. It is always slightly bittersweet. They are now in a nursing home and my grandpa, who suffered a stroke years ago, is now almost completely lost in the world of Alzheimer's and dimentia. He loves my daughter and this visit, she seemed to realize who he was. She was calling him "papa". She gave him hugs and kisses and even sat with him (with my brother helping my grandpa support her). She loved my grandma, too. Even though we had to cut our visit short I felt it was one of the best.

Back to the party we went (seriously, we were rushing). And it went really well. We had a great turnout and I got to see most of my family including my other grandma. Then we were on our way home again. We got back to town around 2:00 a.m. It was a great but LONG day.

Tonight I am relaxing with a beer, watching Mad Men then afterward, off to bed. Seems like a fitting end to a busy weekend.

Home Sweet Home

We are back home from Minnesota. We had a lot of fun. We took Amelia to the Aquarium at the Mall of America on Saturday and she had a B-L-A-S-T. Then Mark and I took in a Twins game and I was in awe of Target Field. Especially with the bathrooms. I can't help it. I hate waiting in lines and I only had to wait in line once. ONCE!!!! It wasn't even for more than a minute or two...amazing. I don't know how it used to be since this was my very first game but I know how it gets at the civic center here in Bismarck and it isn't fun. One of the bathrooms I used even had a water saving feature. You know, the ones that you flush one way for #1 and the other for #2 (and they actually used those terms) which I paid no attention to until I was leaving. Oops. I wasted water.

On our way home we stopped by Albertville. Let me tell you, Mark was thrilled. Okay, he wasn't but I was. I picked up a Hurley t-shirt and a Calvin Klein outfit for Amelia for $22 total. Like, for both, together. But then Mark taught Amelia to say "Hurry up, Mom". Let's just say, even though it was really cute how she said it, I was not amused, even though it made me laugh every time.

Then we got Burger King in our sites. Amelia has actually been eating chicken nuggets so we stopped for a quick lunch. What ever happened to a kid's menu. They had one sign that advertised a mac and cheese with what looked like apple fries and a bottle of milk. I had to ask what else besides mac and cheese was available. I was told a list and chose the chicken fries. Expecting chicken fries, apple fries and a bottle of milk, you can imagine my surprise when I see that I get a cup and no choice of milk, french fries and chicken nuggets. Not that I was against any of that, it is fast food after all. I was just annoyed that they advertise/tell you one thing but give you another.

The drive home was long and extremely rainy but we made it and now it is housework catch up time. Better get to it.

Enough about that

tonsillectomy. I am almost over it...three weeks later and my throat is still sore, I make snorting noises when I drink stuff and all sorts of other weird stuff. But I am ready to put it behind me. So from now on I will try not to talk about the nasty disgusting stuff or whine about how I still have a sore throat.

We have been pretty busy. Mark has been working a lot and last weekend we had to leave him behind when we went to my sister's house for a party. We had so much fun. Amelia loved it out in the country. She could run and play with the kitties and the puppies. She helped pick green beans, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots and strawberries and even ate part of a carrot, some peas and a bite of the strawberrry. I got lots of great pictures. It was so good to just get away for awhile. It was relaxing. I had to call it an early night because the smoke from the fire was irritating my throat and sinuses. I would say more but I vowed not to discuss it in my previous paragraph.

Unfortunately my early to bed did not last long. I got up to use the bathroom and heard my family in the kitchen cleaning at 2:00 a.m. so I decided to go help them, then when I finally got back to bed at 3:00 a.m. I shut the door and woke Amelia up. Because of my gallbladder removal (ha, didn't vow not to talk about THAT surgery) I was concerned about having to lean over the pack-n-play to put her back in. I ended up recruiting Brandi to put her back to bed. The only problem...Amelia was not having anything to do with going back to sleep. We didn't get her down until 5:00 a.m. and for the next 1/2 hour I had to tell her to lay down because I was right next to her. Needless to say, I was tired. And I still am. I am thinking it is time for bed now, too. Good night everyone.