Just a warning…if you’re looking for any kind of good content here, you’ve come to the wrong blog. I’m so exhausted I could seriously cry. Kelvin is killing me, slowly but surely. The boy doesn’t sleep. He only takes one nap a day (1.5-2 hours) and then he is in bed for 10-12 hours a night, but wakes up every hour or two and is just so restless even when he’s sleeping. It’s just torture.

This stupid swine flu thing isn’t helping my exhaustion situation either. I didn’t sleep well last night because I’d been reading about it right before I went to bed and it was like my brain didn’t shut off all night long. I’m kind of freaked out because the government is saying we should take measures to be prepared (have a 2 week supply of food and water) and usually they’re the ones saying not to worry, that everything is fine (because they don’t want a panic).

Anyway, with my stockpiling, we have at least a 2-week supply of food, but no water stored. I’d been saving for big 7-gallon water storage containers, but decided to buy some gallons of water at Walmart just in case. I must have looked like such a freak with my 20 gallons of water, 4 bottles of Pedialyte (I had good coupons and figured it would be a good thing to have if we caught the swine flu) and Lysol wipes! Oh well….

And that’s it for tonight. It’s been such a rough day…Kelvin insisted on being held ALL.DAY.LONG and didn’t go to bed until 10:30 and Ava had about 8 temper tantrums. I just want to go to bed and have it all be better in the morning. Unfortunately, it will probably be even worse because I’m assuming I’ll have another short night like all the rest of them have been lately….

Posted: April 30th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 5

There’s really not much to write about tonight.

It poured outside pretty much all day today, so I didn’t take the kids out at all. We did have fun watching the rain out the front door, though!

My mei tai baby carrier came today! I didn’t want to write about that yet, since I want to get some pictures first, but I just couldn’t resist. I’m so excited!

I tried a new recipe for homemade chicken strips tonight and they turned out so good! I’ll have to post the recipe.

I actually managed to reschedule my doctor appointment for today! I was shocked, but glad to get it over with. I dread my yearly physical appointments, especially at the place I’m going to now. I don’t mind it much with my OB who I know and see every time I go in, but at this place it’s a different person every time and I hate it.

Anyway, that about sums it up. I told you there wasn’t anything blog-worthy today!

Posted: April 29th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 2

Yesterday Chad surprised me by buying me an ipod shuffle! It wasn’t for any special occasion, but that’s OK with me! I’d been thinking about buying one for awhile, but hadn’t ever gotten around to it. I love it…when we went to the gym today, it made the time on the treadmill go so much faster! It’s nice to have when the kids are sleeping and I’m working on the computer or around the house, too. I’m always afraid to turn on the radio because I don’t want to wake them up, but this solves that problem!

Speaking of going to the gym, I should *NOT* have been at the gym today. After we got home I remembered that I had a doctor appointment this afternoon that I totally forgot about. It takes FOREVER to get in there, too…I’ll probably end up waiting another couple weeks now. Grrr. Mommy brain strikes again, I guess. Oh well….

Posted: April 28th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 3

On Friday evening, we participated in our first March of Dimes, March for Babies in memory of Maddie. I’ve been a loyal reader of Maddie’s mom’s blog for quite awhile and really wanted to do something to show our love and support for her family. And that’s how “March for Maddie – Topeka” was born.

Our team consisted of 4 members and their families and together we raised $420 for March of Dimes in Maddie’s name.

It was an amazing experience and Chad and I both agreed that we want to do it again next year!

Posted: April 26th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 5

I’m not sure I understood the meaning of tired until this week. I don’t think I’ve gotten two uninterrupted hours of sleep in the last month, but this week has been even worse. Last night Ava woke up at 4:30 and it took three hours to get her back to sleep. Luckily, Chad took over for me at about 6, so I was able to sleep for a few hours this morning before Kelvin woke everyone up at 8:30 (which is really sleeping in for him!!). I feel like every day I have less and less energy and pretty soon, it’s just all going to be gone. *sigh*

This morning the kids and I went to do a little clothes shopping for Mommy….something we don’t do too often. I haven’t bought shorts since before Ava was born (other than maternity ones for last summer…and those aren’t going to work this summer!) and my pre-baby shorts are a little tight around the hips. So I got a few pairs of shorts and a few tank tops. I have to exchange the shorts though…I thought a size 4 would be OK, but they’re really loose so I’ll have to go down to a size 2. Oh, and by the way, Ava SCREAMED the entire time we were there because I wouldn’t let her get out of the cart and tear around the store. How unreasonable of me, right?

I guess it was “big spending day” for me because I also bought this mei tai baby carrier today. I’ve been looking at mei tai’s for awhile because Kelvin’s getting uncomfortable to wear in the Peanut Shell (except in the Hip Hold) and I needed something that I can put on quicker than the Moby Wrap. I’m so excited to try this out when it comes!

Tomorrow we’re having an insanely busy day. We’re going to the library in the morning to get some new books and movies for the weekend. Then hopefully Ava will go down for her nap easy and early because we have to leave for her dentist appointment before her nap usually ends. And then we have the March for Babies in the evening. Luckily, I already have supper made for tomorrow….I don’t know how I’d ever get it made with all that running around!

Posted: April 23rd, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

Whew! The last couple nights around here have been rough. We’d been kind of discussing moving Ava into a big girl bed, and all of a sudden yesterday afternoon, Chad decided to take the crib rail off of the crib and put on the “toddler bed railing”. I wasn’t exactly prepared for that, but I was hoping for the best.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get it! Last night was horrible. She would not stay in her bed…she just kept getting up and I had to put her back in bed at least 50 times, literally. Not fun. Then this morning, she was up and in our room at 6. Normally, if she’d woken up that early in her crib, she would have just gone back to sleep, but since she was able to get up, she was completely awake. Sigh. It was a long day.

Tonight, we tried something different. One of my friends recommended putting up a baby gate. We thought that was a great idea because it would gradually get her used to more freedom…she would learn to handle more freedom than her crib gave her, but she wouldn’t think she was able to run all over the house. It worked so well! There was still some fussing and getting out of bed, but it only lasted an hour (versus the 4 hours we had to deal with last night).

This will also help her know when she can and can’t get out of bed. Even though we told her she could get up and leave her room in the morning, she was still a little hesitant this morning. Now I’ll take down the baby gate before I go to bed at night and when she wakes up and it’s down, she’ll know that she can get up. I think I may put it at the top of the stairs when I go to bed, though. She handles stairs just fine, but I don’t want her falling down them if she’s half asleep.

P.S. Need good Mesothelioma lawyers? Look no farther!

Posted: April 22nd, 2009 under Ava.
Comments: 6

I threw my mop out today.

Growing up, from about the age of 10 on, it was always my job to scrub the kitchen floor every week. You can’t even imagine how much I hated that job. I usually grumbled and whined and asked my mom why we couldn’t just use a mop. She always answered that the floors get cleaner when you scrub them because you can see the dirt and spots easier.

When Chad and I got married, I bought a mop and vowed to only scrub the floors once in awhile. The majority of the time, though, I would MOP!

And I have. I think I’ve scrubbed the floors maybe 5 times in our 3+ year marriage.

Then today I looked at my dirty kitchen floor and my even dirtier mop (not the same one I bought 3 years ago, thank you very much). And I got out the bucket, the Pine Sol, a pair of rubber gloves and…..a rag.

It didn’t even take me that much longer than mopping, but the floor looks so much nicer now! I will probably buy another mop for those days when the floor is a mess and there’s no way I can find time to scrub it.

But my new vow is to only mop the floor once in awhile. The majority of the time, I will SCRUB it! Are you happy, Mom?

Posted: April 22nd, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 4

I should seriously not be allowed to touch knives, potato peelers, kitchen shears, or any other sharp utensil…ever! I have chopped off my fingertip more times than I care to count and I just did it again with the potato peeler on Friday!

You’re probably wondering how on earth someone can knick their finger with a potato peeler. I have no idea how I managed to do it, but I did and it was deep and it bled…a lot!!!

On Saturday I had to trim off the piece of skin that was still hanging there with a nail clipper because it was really irritating to just have it flapping around there. I think it’s starting to heal now, but it’s still hurting like CRAZY!

Every time Ava sees it, she starts talking about my “knee”. Since her knees are the part of her body that she hurts the most (by falling down), she thinks that all owies are called “knees”. LOL She also thinks that Chad is the one who caused my “knee” because she saw him put the Bandaid on it and she’s really freaked out by Bandaids.

I can’t believe I just wrote an entire post about chopping off part of my fingertip…Welcome to my life!

Posted: April 21st, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 1

On my bedside table:
Multiple Bles8ings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets

On my TV:
Castle
Georgia Rule

On the menu for tonight:
Sloppy Joes and Baby Carrots with Dip

On my To Do List:
Parents as Teachers Home Visit
Kelvin’s Doctor appointment to recheck his ears
Bank & post office
Scrub kitchen floor
Laundry

New Recipe I tried last week:
No new recipes last week…I was still just trying to keep my head above water and was relying on old standby’s!

In the craft basket:
Nothing right now!

Looking forward to:
The March for Babies on Friday!

Homemaking Tip for this week:
It’s OK to let the regular housekeeping chores go for a week or two in order to maintain sanity. Doing a daily pick-up through the whole house keeps it from getting out of control during this time!

Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
The. Hardest. Job. EVER. This is seriously a must-read for all moms.

Favorite photo from last week:
Can I have TWO? LOL

Lesson learned the past few days:
I like myself a lot more when I’m not stressed out all the time. I really, really, really need to find a way to reduce the stress in my life!

On my Prayer List:
Maddie’s family

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
Nothing specific is coming to mind right now.

Now it’s your turn! Hop over to Diary of A Stay at Home Mom to participate and see everyone else’s!

Posted: April 20th, 2009 under Happy Homemaker Monday.
Comments: 1

I’m always surprised at how observant Ava is and how much she picks up. Every morning when Chad leaves for work, I go and lock the door (I’m weird like that…our doors are ALWAYS locked, day or night, whether Chad is home or not). I never realized that Ava was always watching me do that until she started going and locking the doorknob after he leaves! It’s kind of scary that she can already lock and unlock door knobs, but she’s not even close to tall enough to touch the bolt locks (and I’m hoping she won’t be until she can be trusted not to run into the street and stuff).

Posted: April 18th, 2009 under Random Thoughts.
Comments: 6