Weekend Recap

What a crazy weekend!  The craziness started on Thursday night/Friday morning thanks to Charlie.  Charlie dog sleeps at the foot of our bed.  In retrospect, this was a bad move on our (my) part because he’s gotten bigger and takes up a lot of space.  But now that he’s gotten used to it, I feel bad making him move.  Anyway, around midnight, he hopped off the bed (which he never does) and started pacing, then scratching at the door.  We knew that meant he needed to go out.  A took him out and we tried to fall back asleep.  Around 1:30am, same thing.  4am, same thing.  It was clear that he was having tummy troubles.  I got up for the day at 5am and was completely exhausted.  I was also worried about Charlie and didn’t want my mom to have to take him out every hour (she was watching S that day).  Luckily, I was able to work from home.  We did make it a 4 hour stretch, but it was pretty clear that Charlie ate something that didn’t agree with him and he needed to go out all throughout the day.  Not at all surprising since he still chews up everything.

Fast forward to 5:45pm.  We had to take the boys to their final tennis lesson.  SO glad this class is over because none of us like it.  I was nervous to leave Charlie, but he had been able to make it 2 hours between trips outside and we weren’t supposed to be gone that long.

In the middle of tennis, A received an email forwarded from a former student.  The original message was from A’s current student.  I won’t get into the details, but it was clear his student was very upset and may need help.  I didn’t realize at the time that she hadn’t been in school for the past two days.  I’ll be honest and say that I initially chalked it up to typical teenage emotions and drama.  But A was worried and we started researching suicide prevention sources and A decided to call the police non-emergency line.  I’m so incredibly proud of A for taking action and this was a good reminder that even if the situation ultimately amounted to nothing, it’s so much better to err on the side of caution.  This meant we had to wait for the police officer to arrive so he and A could discuss the situation.  We waited a longish time - about 30 minutes?  The boys and I had walked the facility, visited the vending machine, perused brochures, and were running out of ideas when the police office finally arrived.  We came to find out that the officer had already been reviewing the girl’s file and would check on her.  If one of my boys was ever in this situation and feeling overwhelmed, I hope they’d talk to me.  But if they didn’t, I would hope someone was looking out for them like A did for this girl.

After all this, we arrived home about 3 hours later, and thankfully, Charlie was ok!  I was so darn tired and couldn’t imagine being up through the night again, but Charlie made it without any problems.  Phew!

Saturday was uneventful.  We decorated for Christmas (everything except the tree) and worked on cleaning up the house, which took forever.  W and I took Charlie for a long walk and that’s all I remember.

Sunday, after church, we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  Every November, the museum offers a Corporate Family Day and employees of certain companies can get in free of charge.  The boys love going.  This year, I was really excited to see the Christmas Trees Around the World exhibit.  In all of the previous years, we’ve attended prior to the exhibit opening and the trees haven’t been decorated yet.  They were beautiful and viewing them was definitely a highlight for me!  The boys had a blast and we stayed until the museum closed.  It was such a fun day!

Weekend Recap

We have a few inches of snow on the ground and when I left the house this morning, it was 11 degrees.  We set a record for the coldest November 12.  So basically it’s going to be the longest winter EVER (and it’s not even winter yet).  I'm going to lose my mind.

Luckily, it was a bit warmer over the weekend and we took advantage of that.  Saturday, W was supposed to attend a birthday party, but it was canceled.  So A and I took the boys to a bouncy house place where they jumped around for an hour.  S even made me go in one of the bouncy houses – I tried to explain that a different parent had gone in only because his child was little and needed help.  S wasn’t having that explanation.  So I bounced a bit and promptly exited.  LOL.  Afterwards, we stopped at my mom’s house.  The boys had been begging to go there so they could play with my brother’s old Legos.  We ordered tacos and relaxed until it was bed time for the boys.

Sunday morning – chaos as usual.  I’m at my wit’s end.  I don't understand why it's so difficult to get 2 boys dressed and out the door (which they do every day for school), but it is.  We were late to church.  But after that, things got better.  Once we arrived home, I took Charlie to the dog park so he could run and play.  I really enjoy taking him for long walks on the weekend – the exercise is good for both of us and I appreciate the quiet.  While the dog park isn’t quite the same as a long walk, the park is pretty big and I do get some walking in while Charlie plays.  This park just opened and it’s five minutes from our house.  I absolutely love it (and so does Charlie).

After that, we met up with A’s brother and his 4 kids at a local theme park.  All the kids had a great time (I think!) and my nephew even went on his first real roller coaster with his dad and A.  The boys love spending time with their cousins and I’m so glad we could all go.  It helped that the park was relatively empty and we hardly had to wait in line.  Also, rides scare me.  I didn't go on a roller coaster until I was in 8th grade and I loved them for awhile.  But now?  Nope.  Oh, one more thing!  A suggested that we sit in the last row of one of the rides (which happened to be the spot where you felt the ride the most).  Our stomachs were dropping with each swing of the ride.  Poor S and his cousin were nearly in tears and begging to get off.  They'd been totally fine the first time they were on the ride, but sitting in the last row scared them.  It was equal parts sad and hysterical.

Weekend Recap

I know I’m getting behind with weekend recaps, but I love looking back at years past and reading about what we were up to so I’m going to try to keep up with them (no matter how late they are).

The boys were really challenging this past weekend.  I’m not sure why.  Lately, Sunday mornings in particular have been tough.  Mostly because I’m trying to get ready for church and the boys are acting out – trying to get them under control while getting ready is particularly stressful to me.  I don't do well multitasking.  Maybe I need to get up earlier, but after waking up at 5am every day during the week, staying in bed until 6:15am on Sunday feels like a luxury.  So Sundays usually result in timeouts where S is especially challenging and I end up having to sit next to him during the time out or I have to drag him to his bed (because he refuses to walk and he’s too heavy to carry).  And then he’ll loudly tell me in the middle of church that I need to apologize for “sitting on him” or “pushing him over”.  Neither of which actually happened, but oddly enough, I’ve gotten a couple dirty looks from church goers who don’t know any better.  Ugh.  What was the point of this?  Oh yeah… Sunday mornings are not my favorite.

We did have fun Saturday night as we celebrated our niece and nephew’s birthday and a local hibachi restaurant.  There were about 8 drinks spilled and 27 trips to the bathroom, but we had fun nonetheless.

Earlier in the day, A took W and S to Home Dept where there was a little class than involved assembling a wooden eagle and painting it.  I think the boys really enjoyed it and I appreciated a little break.  The weather was decent and I also got to take Charlie on a couple long walks.

In other news, I’ve started Christmas shopping and planning W’s 7^th!! Birthday party.  He really wants a party at home, though, I’ve tried to talk him out of it.

Friday Thoughts

Holy moly, we’re into November and we already had our first snow.  WHAT IS HAPPENING?!  Usually, I’m really excited about the first snow – there’s just something magical about it – maybe a little reminder that Christmas is around the corner.  But I just can’t get on board with snow in October.  Nope.  The boys were in shorts a month ago.  And fall weather lasted all of 3 weeks.  Boo hoo.  Also, someone reminded me that there are only 2 months left in the year… again, WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?

On the bright side, I’m so happy our town’s trick or treating was Sunday because trick or treating in the snow just does not sound fun.  I did forget to mention something that still has me giggling.  I realize that trick or treating prior to Halloween is a bit unique.  Well, the kids knocked on one door in the neighborhood and a very confused guy answered.  The kids all said trick or treat and the poor guy looked baffled, “Trick or treating is today?  We just moved in a few days ago.”  Bahahaha.  Welcome to the neighborhood and by the way, we DON’T trick or treat on Halloween.

W had to dress up as Saint Paul at school in preparation for All Saints Day today.  We all attended a little show where each student recited a line about the saint they were assigned.  It was the cutest.

A attended S’s conference on Monday.  Conferences still give me anxiety so I stayed home and made dinner with the boys.  I’m happy to report that S is doing wonderfully.  Sadly, one of his teachers is leaving and I’m so disappointed.  He had two teachers leave mid year last year and it’s hard on the students.

Happy Friday!!  Let it snow, let it snow…