Weekend Recap

Last week was really productive, but also exhausting.  I had 3 nearly full days of meetings as it was my new department’s annual all team meeting.  With that, I also had 2 work dinners.  For an introvert like myself, having to actively engage with people all day and into the evening was exhausting – haha.  It was announced that I will be taking on a new dual role and will have several added responsibilities.  I’m really excited.  It will be a huge learning experience and will set me up well for future opportunities.  I was told that my group saw me as a valuable contributor and they wanted to continue to challenge me.  They appreciated what I brought to the group and saw so much potential in me.  I would appreciate those words any time, but they are so much more fulfilling after experiencing a challenging work environment for the past couple years.  I’m so thankful to be on a really great team, doing meaningful work that I enjoy!

Anyway, all that to say that by the time Friday rolled around, I was mentally and physically spent.

The boys had tennis on Friday and A and I spent most of the class laughing.  I love watching the boys play – W seems to be a natural.  And I love listening to S mispronounce words.  S is the youngest and he definitely holds his own.  For the most part all the parents are really supportive and cheer on all the kids, which is awesome to witness.   I may need to find another session when this ends because I enjoy it so much (and the boys seem to like it too 😉).  Afterwards, we went to a local pizza restaurant and waited nearly an hour for our pizza… boo.

Most of the weekend was rainy and we were stuck inside, which is never good for the boys.  It started on a high note with A taking W, S, AND Charlie to Starbucks.  Bless that man.  I enjoyed a good 30 minutes of peace AND I got coffee. #winning  A and I attempted to clean out some of the crawl space, but I had to stop every 5 minutes to help one of the boys, or break up an argument, or tell Charlie to stop eating all the freaking crayons!  UGH  Some days (most days) it seems like EVERYTHING takes longer than it should.  At some point, the boys won’t need attention every few seconds and the dog will stop chasing the cats and eating all the things, right???  We did manage to drop 2 loads of stuff off for the church rummage sale, A built the cat mansion (it was supposed to be a “cat tree”, but I kind of messed up and ordered the world’s largest cat perch aka the cat mansion and now we have to figure out where to store this monstrosity).

On Sunday, A had to escort S to the lobby during church because he would not be quiet.  We went grocery shopping and W complained the majority of the time because he didn’t want to be at the grocery store.  The boys and I did science experiments in the afternoon, which was lots of fun.  W read to S, which was one of the sweetest things I’ve seen.  Annnd the past two nights, the boys have basically lost their minds and proceeded to jump off beds, write on the wall with crayon, throw things down the stairs, kick the walls.  A and I sent them to bed soon after 7 last night because they were acting a fool.  I’m not sure what’s going on with them.  Maybe the rainy weekend really took a toll?  So here’s hoping tonight is better because I cannot handle the chaos.

Weekend Recap

This weekend had its share of ups and downs, but Friday was definitely on the up end of the spectrum.  I hurried home from work because the boys were supposed to start tennis lessons.  W has taken a few different tennis lessons and they’ve all been completely different.  This one was advertised through the park district for ages 4-6 and it was indoors.  That meant I could also sign S up and the boys would be in the same class.  Traffic was bad and we’ve had lots of rain, which has led to some streets being closed.  We arrived a few minutes late and W did not want to participate.  He really doesn’t like attention and hates being late (just like his mommy).  But with S playing too, we convinced him to participate.  It turns out that there were a couple 7 year olds in the class too and S was definitely the youngest and least experienced.  He couldn’t get the hang of hitting the ball, but I was so proud of him for sticking with it and trying.  On the other hand, S was really great at serving the ball - who'd have thunk this little 4 year old could rock a serve?!? W did really great and had some awesome hits – he ended up winning some game and told me he was surprised he'd won.  I told him I wasn't surprised at all and knew he could do it. :)  I think tennis may be his sport.  At one point, I looked over and W had his arm around S.  Melt my heart!!

After tennis, we headed out of the gym and the annual Touch-a-Truck event was being held in the parking lot.  The boys were disappointed there was no garbage truck, but they did enjoy climbing aboard a school bus, huge Fed Ex truck, and a snow plow.  I love that they can sit in the trucks and pretend to drive, but OMG my ears… I cannot take the constant honking.  By 7, we figured we’d better head out and find dinner.  We ended up at MOD and finally headed home.

Saturday morning, A headed out to get a haircut.  S wanted to go with him – I love that S is always up for errands and he’s great company.  While A was out, I planned on getting ready for the day and thought W would enjoy being home without S.  He’d have all his toys to himself and wouldn’t have any interruptions.  Nope.  He drove me bonkers.  I couldn’t get ready because W let the cats out of the basement and the dog wouldn’t leave the cats alone.  I was constantly having to separate kid and pets.  W, Charlie, and I ended up going for a walk and that was great at least.  It was such a beautiful morning and I told myself I’d just get ready when A arrived home.  

A arrived with coffee and bagels and we were preparing to go to the apple orchard, but W was just being whiny and stubborn and didn’t want to go.  So much to my disappointment, I gave in.  I wasn’t in the mood for a long car ride with a complaining W.  I look forward to fall activities all year.  Orchards, corn mazes, farms are my jam so I was really sad.  I should’ve spent the afternoon doing something productive – cleaning and organizing, but I kept hoping W would change his mind.  No such luck. 

Later, I was perusing Facebook and W’s school had shared a flier for the town pig roast.  There would be a band and hay rides.  It wasn’t the orchard, but it was something.  And it was only 5 minutes from our house.  I insisted we go and if it wasn’t fun, we’d just return home.  It was a blast!  We listened to music, bought hotdogs, hamburgers, and popcorn, and went on a hay ride.  The boys were finally in a decent mood.  My only complaint is the bugs were bad!  We had spray on, but I ended up with 3 mosquito bites on my face.  Thankful our frustrating day ended on a high note.

Saturday night (early Sunday morning), for some unknown reason, S woke up at 2:30am and came into our room.  I let him hop into our bed, hoping he’d fall back to sleep.  He would not stop talking and wiggling.  Then Charlie starting getting antsy and scratched on the door (he sleeps in our room).  A few minutes later, I smelled something and tapped A (since I was sandwiched between A and S).  As I suspected, Charlie had pooped and peed all over.  UGH.  And I should’ve realized he was scratching on the door because he needed to go out.  Potty training this guy is a story for another day, but long story short, at 3am, I was trying to get S to sleep in his own bed while A was cleaning up poop.  Not sure who had it worse.

Sunday was our usual morning routine.  A and I tried to watch football and did get to see quite a bit of the Bears game.  It meant that the boys watched too much YouTube, but so be it.  Here’s hoping that we can squeeze in some fall activities next weekend (though the forecast is already calling for rain).

Weekend Recap

I’m really late on my weekend recap.  We had such a busy weekend, I almost feel like we didn’t have one!  On the bright side, it was full of fun events.  Here we go…

We’ve been heading to my mom’s house on Friday evenings for a long time, but lately, everyone is just tired.  Friday was no exception.  We stayed home and ordered pizza and tried to get everyone to bed on time.

Saturday morning, bright and early (8:30am), we headed to a local forest preserve where W’s school was holding a “fun run” fundraiser.  It was the first time the event took place and we had a great time.  When we checked in, we were given little backpacks which held our race number (really humorous as we were exceptionally slow), t-shirt, water bottle, and sticker.  The only problem was W’s was missing.  I should’ve mentioned that he was in a particularly bad mood because I’d let S wear his shoes.  They can both wear the same size, which is both a curse and a blessing.  So W had been in tears during the drive to the forest preserve and when his bag was missing, he definitely looked extremely sad.  One of the volunteers told him not to worry, that she’d hook him up with extra goodies.  Meanwhile, I discovered his shirt and race number in S’s bag, which made no sense since S’s name was on the bag.  The volunteer showed up with W’s special bag and it had a little stuffed owl in it.  Of course now S was upset because he did not get an owl.  I CAN’T WIN.  Aside from the pre-race woes, once the actual race started, everyone was fine and happy and we had a great time.  Except.  We were slow.  Like really, really slow.  The boys kept stopping because they had gravel in their shoe or we’d begin an impromptu game of tag or we’d stop and take a picture.  We soon realized that we were the very last family in the race and everyone was waiting on us to finish.  When we crossed the finish line, everyone else started cheering.  So embarrassing.  I’m pretty sure A thinks this is hysterical and claims we are record holders for the slowest race time.

From there, we stopped for coffee and then I went to get a much needed haircut.

Once I arrived home, A finished making mac and cheese and we headed to S’s preschool picnic.  It was really cute watching the boys play together at the preschool – W hadn’t been there in a year and I think S was excited to show W his school playground.  We had a yummy dinner and A and I stayed to help with clean up.  At this point, I was really tired and ready for some peace and quiet.

Sunday was our usual morning routine.  After Starbucks, we headed to the grocery store.  While we were checking out, the lady who was bagging our groceries looked around and spotted S.  She said something like, “There he is!  I knew there were two of them.”  To which S responded. “See… everyone likes me!”  Hahaha!  After that, we took Charlie for a walk and then headed to my mom’s house to celebrate her birthday.  We enjoyed Chinese food and cake and the boys had fun playing with Legos.  When we arrived home some time around 6?, I just wanted my pjs and a comfy couch.

I also need to share a proud mom moment that happened last week.  Last Tuesday, W arrived home with a note card from his teacher.  It basically said that W had worked really hard and been a great listener all day and his teacher was very proud of him.  I wasn’t sure if the notecards were typical, but it was really sweet.  The following Thursday, A volunteered to attend the Open House at W’s school while I stayed home with the boys.  W’s teacher mentioned that she really appreciated W’s sweet demeanor and on the day she’d sent the note home, he had raised his hand and proceeded to ask if they were supposed to quiet and ready to listen (because the rest of his classmates were a bit loud and things were chaotic at that moment).  Haha.  Then, at the race, another mom asked if one of the boys was in Mrs. C’s class.  I said yes, W is.  She responded, “Oh, W!  I’ve heard about you!  N told me that Mrs. C was wearing your name clip because you were so great in class.  Now N wants to be good so that Mrs. C will wear her name clip too!”  It was the first time I’d heard about this little incident and I’m so proud of my little man.  It’s incredibly important to A and I that we instill a sense of kindness, acceptance, and generosity in our boys.  We don’t always see these values displayed, but it definitely makes me feel good when we do!

Weekend Recap

Another long weekend come and gone – boohoo.  I joked with A last night that all the children behaved really well – both human and furry.  Haha.  But they really did and I was wishing for one more day off.

Our Saturday started slowly with A going on a coffee run.  I enjoyed a pedicure and then we took Charlie out for a long walk.  Initially, it was supposed to rain, but that never happened so we decided to visit our local theme park.  We only stayed for a short time, but it was long enough to enjoy a few rides, pretzels and popcorn for the boys, and a funnel cake sundae for A and me.

Sunday started with church and a Starbucks run.  My mom was having car trouble so we stopped by her house for a short time while she waited for a car service to jump her car and then ran out to purchase a new battery.  Unfortunately, it seems that that wasn’t the issue and she’ll need a new alternator.  From there, we headed home and took Charlie on another long walk.  W joined me and the two of us had a great time.  I’m amazed that W doesn’t get tired – we must’ve walked a mile and he would’ve kept going.  We discovered that my most favorite house in the neighborhood is for sale and the boys are trying to convince me to move.  Not happening, but it is dreamy.  I really enjoyed W’s company.  After the walk, we headed to Nani and Papa’s for a Fantasy Football draft party.  I had no intentions of participating, but throw in pizza and snacks and I’m there – ha!  The boys had fun (loudly) playing with cousins.  I’m pretty sure I drafted a stellar team (not really) and we called it a night.

Monday, we had no plans.  I suggested we take Charlie to the dog park.  He loves meeting all the dogs in the neighborhood and plays with a few of them.  Well, the goof was more interested in greeting people at the dog park than the other dogs.  He also jumped in the water and came out wet and stinky.  😝  Of course, the boys thought that was hysterical.  So after his first dog park adventure, Charlie also experienced his first bath.  And then he was completely tuckered out.

All in all, it was a great weekend with lots of time spent outdoors.  And thanks to back to school germs, now I'm battling a cold.  Ugh.

Friday Thoughts

Whew… it’s been a week!  For the most part, the boys have been waking up and getting off to school without issue.  But, by the time they get home, it’s meltdown city.  Last night, W cried because Charlie was in the room, because he missed his baby teeth and they were gone forever, because he didn’t pay attention to the book I was reading and missed the story (since he was crying), and the list goes on.  By the time bed time rolls around, the boys are overtired and losing their minds.

On top of the crankiness, A and I both had really busy weeks.  A had Open House at his school on Monday night.  I had a work dinner Tuesday followed by a School Board Meeting on Wednesday night.  Suffices to say, we’re all looking forward to a long weekend.

I’ve mentioned it before, but S lately is either as sweet as can be or wreaking havoc.  Either way, he keeps me laughing.  Lately, he’s been telling us he’s “frizzering” – a combination of freezing and shivering (clever!).  The other night I was tucking him in and gave him a hug and a kiss.  He told me I give way better hugs than W.  The other day, A was explaining the premise of the Wizard of Oz – which the boys have never seen or even heard of.  A explained that a tornado lifts up the house.  S responded, “Well, good Lord!” (in what I swear was a southern accent).  Haha!

I forgot to mention that A had CF clinic a couple weeks ago.  We were disappointed to learn that his FEV1 % dropped.  It wasn’t a significant drop, but after the hospital admission and IV antibiotics, we were both really hoping for better results.  After A’s last admission, his lung function improved by 10% so to see a drop this time around was really really disappointing.  Hoping cooler weather and a bit more time will help his FEV1 results move upwards.  He returns to CF clinic in a month – think positive thoughts for us!

We don’t have too much planned for the weekend, but we will definitely continue to work on potty training Charlie and preventing him from chewing all the things.  Aside from these two challenges, he been great and I really enjoy having him in our family. 😊

Weekend Recap

We survived the first few days of school!!  Between adding a pup to the family and trying to get back on track, I will admit I was completely overwhelmed.  I’m not sure why – I think it was just getting back into a routine and on a schedule.  The start time for A’s school changed and he actually leaves for work nearly an hour later.  This means he’s around longer in the morning and even takes W to school a few times a week – it’s been a huge help and a big relief.  On the downside, he gets home an hour later.

Charlie is great and we’re really enjoying getting to know him.  He’s still a puppy and we frequently find things around the house that he’s decided to chew up – decorations, toys, board books, pencils.  On Friday, I came home from work and my mom had to let me know that he chewed one of my favorite pairs of shoes.  Not going to lie, I was a bit devastated.  I’m very attached to my shoes and clothes.  This has been an adjustment – Addie never chewed anything.  We’ve been closing doors and trying to crate Charlie when we’re not home, but he’s figured out how to open his crate.  I know most puppies chew things and we’ll work through it – I think I’ve spent my entire pay check on chew toys. 😉

We’re also working on potty training – another challenge.  Again, Addie was super easy in this department and picked up on going potty outside right away.  This guy goes outside BUT also goes inside.  He doesn’t tell us when he has to go and doesn’t hold his potty during the day.  Thankfully, he usually makes it to the potty pads.  He’s a smart boy so hopefully he gets it soon.

 On the bright side, he’s so good outside!  We’ve had lots of fun going on walks and meeting neighbors.  We went on two long walks over the weekend.  I really needed the exercise and Charlie was completely worn out so two things accomplished.  Our weather has been beautiful.  It already feels like fall is in the air and we loved getting lots of fresh air.  I would not recommend getting a pup and starting school the same week, but that’s just how things worked out.

 Other fun activities this weekend:  We stopped by my mom’s house on Friday and ordered Chinese food.  S painted a bird house outside and the boys visited the park.  We ran lots of errands and also spent lots of time outside.  Although things are hectic, I really love this time of the year!

A Busy Week, A New Addition, and the Weekend Recap

Things sure have been busy around here.  Last week started with me helping at the Open House at S’s preschool.  I enjoyed meeting new parents and discussing what I loved about the school, but it meant that I was gone for over 12 hours.  I got home just in time to tuck the boys into bed. 

Wednesday was so much fun.  The boys met me for lunch after their check up and then A took them to Nani and Papa’s house for the double sleepover they’d been requesting.  After work, A and I met up with friends for trivia night.  I love trivia night and it was great catching up with friends - both things we don't get to do often.  We all have little kids so it’s really difficult to get out – this was a rare treat!  We ended up finishing in fifth place and taking home a cheap bottle of vodka.  I was so sad when it was over because with the start of school, I know we won’t be able to return any time soon.  Thankful for a fun night with friends.

Thursday, after work, A and I headed to The Melting Pot restaurant.  Hands down, my very favorite restaurant.  We never go because it’s about an hour away and meals take about 2 hours – it turns into a very long dinner date.  But with the boys at Nani and Papa’s, we were able to indulge.  It was so yummy and I was so uncomfortably full afterwards.

Speaking of the boys, they ended up taking the train to Chicago with Nani and Papa and riding a boat to Navy Pier.  They even played at the children’s museum for awhile while they were at Navy Pier.  It sounds like they had a really great time.

Friday, I had a work event in Chicago.  I went to Navy Pier and had lunch on a boat cruise.  The Chicago Air and Water Show was taking place over the weekend and the airplanes were practicing their stunts and formations.  It was neat to see, but also very loud.  I had lots of fun, enjoyed spending time with my new colleagues, but it was a long day.

Saturday requires some back story.  It’s been over a year since we had to say goodbye to our Addie dog.  I miss her incredibly.  Like I still can’t talk about her without tears.  She was such a loyal dog.  She was a rescue and came to us with issues, but in our house, in our care, she was perfect.  Out of the house and any time people came over was another story.  But in the house, when it was A and I, she was always by our side, always knew when we were sad, always there to lick tears or just sit close when we needed her most, and she behaved so well.  It took a really long time to get over losing her.  Maybe I’m still not completely over it.  While in Maryland, A and I discussed adding a dog to our family.  We were both finally feeling ready.  I had been following local rescue groups on social media and found a sweet pup who was supposed to be good with kids and cats – not so easy to find.  On Saturday, we went to meet him.  He instantly hopped up and licked my cheek.  It was something Addie would have done (and did all the time).  He was gentle with boys, super friendly, and overall, just a mellow, happy guy.  So we decided to adopt him.  So far, he’s been such a good boy.  He’s met neighbors and neighbor dogs – something we were never able to do with Addie.  We’re working on potty training and the cats are not really fans of him (well, mainly Franklin isn’t a fan), but all in all, he’s done really, really well in our house.  After much debate, we decided to name him Charlie.  Charlie Sheffield to be exact. 😊  I know it can take awhile for dogs and cats to adjust to one another so we’re hoping Franklin comes around.  In the meantime, the basement has been a safe haven for the cats and we keep a close eye on all the animals.

Sunday, storms rolled through and we actually lost power in the morning.  It was interesting getting ready for church in the dark.  The afternoon was spent going for a walk, playing outside, and decorating for fall.  I know it’s super early, but it’s my favorite time of the year and I was ready.  Bring on ALL the pumpkin spice!!!  Both boys start school this week.  I can’t believe our summer is over – it went so fast!