Rapunzel, Rumplestiltskin and Romeo

Sigh.....sorry folks, it's been a couple of days I know since you heard from me. I think I must be catching what the bear has or some energy sucking germ, because I have been absolutely EXHAUSTED the past couple of days...today as well actually. Without further ado, let me catch you up on the latest.

Wednesday I worked the early shift which is always a blessing since it means I get out of work at 2:15. Still a full days work, but doesn't feel like it. So after work I went to visit Rachel, aka Rapunzel for the next few weeks. She and Allan have become so close to us that they have also been relegated to that status of family. Only a few more weeks till their little sprout is welcomed into the world and I can't wait. Their close proximity to us will enable me to lavish on the little one all the extra hugs and kisses I have stored up for Beth and Sean's new little sprout since they are so far away, can't let them got to waist. LOL  I am absolutely ecstatic about being asked to be in charge of her baby shower too so Wednesday was our first planning session. We got a lot accomplished, I was concerned she would feel like we hadn't done enough, but to my surprise she said it was more than she had expected, so that was good.  Afterwards I was so tired when I got home that writing a blog entry that night was simply out of the question.

So Thursday was a nice quiet day for the most part. Ben stayed home sick that day, which for him, means he's REALLY sick, which he was, he has been fighting it all week actually. Poor thing was just feeling horrible, to the point that I considered staying home to take care of him, but opted to go in and just let him sleep all day. It was Devon's last day at work. She is going to pursue college and eventually wants to go into a career with helping children. I think she'll be perfect for it. I was able to get out of work a little early and as I drove home I was suddenly overcome with exhaustion, so I had the plan to get home, check on Ben then lay down for a nap till it was time to make dinner. Well, those plans got altered a bit because after I got home I needed to go pick up a prescription for the bear and get a new humidifier since our old one decided to finally give up the ghost. I'll be honest, I was exhausted...I really didn't want to go back out. I quickly reminded myself though of how much Ben does for me when I'm sick and never complains. Well, I ran those errands and grabbed a Chinese soup for myself then came home. After I knew Ben had everything he needed to rest comfortably and the fuzzboy was fed and watered, I ate my soup started to write my blog entry for the night. I still felt a little tired though and it was still early, only 7 or so, so I decided to lay down for a little while and take a quick cat nap. Well, when I was finally woken up from my nap, it was over 4 hours later...it was after 11! I couldn't believe I had slept that long...and I couldn't believe Ben hadn't woken me up. He said he knew I was tired though and needed it so he let me sleep. I considered sitting up and writing my blog entry then, but I was still feeling pretty zonked, so I decided to just go to bed for the night. Sorry all you daily readers.....sleep trumped typing.

Which brings us to Friday, not just any Friday mind you, no I'm happily bringing back MHR Fridays!
(for those of you still unfamiliar with the MHR circle of bloggers please click the title of today's blog entry to be taken to Katy Lin's blog explaining it and feel free to join in the fun.) So this morning Ben woke me up with a kiss on the cheek and whispered in my ear that he had breakfast ready for me. My first response was, "Why are you up? Why aren't you in bed?" Apparently that one prescription and the humidifier were what he needed to get him back on his feet. Thank you God!! I was very thankful to hear that because honestly I worry about him when he's sick. Anyway, a little while later when I finally emerged from the bedroom to come into the kitchen where I heard him rattling around he proudly walked over to me and hugged me. "Look, I made you breakfast! I wanted to take care of you since you took care of me so much this week." (Insert warm fuzzy encrusted AWWWWWWW here) Suddenly I flashed back to yesterday when I was internally grumping about having to go back out because I was so tired and thinking how glad I was that I had kept my mouth shut. He does so much for me all the time in big and small ways, from the basics of working hard to make sure we always have a roof over our heads and food on our table, to doing things like making me a thank you breakfast, it's really a small thing to be able to give back to him when he needs it. So my husband rocks because he never fails to make me feel cherished.
I love you bear, XOXOXOXO
Night all,

The Ikea Virgin

Well....I considered doing my usual (as of late anyway) burning of the midnight oil and writing my daily adventures, but I was tired last night. Actually, I wasn't tired....I was flat out, tail dragging, eyes propped open, barely able to function, EXHAUSTED. So at 11:28 I curled up into bed next to the bear and the boy and went to sleep knowing I would just write Tuesday's entry on Wednesday morning.
So happy repeat Tuesday..LOL.
   So Amber and I decided that we needed to get some supplies for the daycare. The main item being pillows for nap time, no not our nap time although we would LOVE to do that...lol. No, this was a mission with real purpose. As of late we have had an influx of loving parents who have been bringing in pillows for their children to use on their cots during nap time. Very nice gesture and we wish ALL the parents would bring in pillows for their kids to sleep on. The problem however is that some parents are bringing in pillows that are full bed sized pillows. Again, a very nice gesture, HOWEVER....we are working with children under 5, most of which are smaller than the pillows themselves....lol. Not to mention the lack of storage space we have. We have ample storage for their things if they only have what they actually need, but we have no room for giant items and the other parents hate having to cram their child's items into a cubby that is bursting at the seams with another child's bed pillow. So after letters home to the parents and no co-operation we decided we needed to enforce marshal law. We will be sending all over sized pillows home and sending out another note to inform the parents they can either send in a travel size pillow for their child or for a few dollars purchase one from the daycare. Hopefully that will get the point across politely. 

Soooooooo we decided to go to Ikea to pick up some inexpensive yet nice travel size pillows. Well I have never been to Ikea before. I've seen the catalogs obviously and I have seen lots of things other people have purchased from there, but I've never been to the store. Partly because they are almost an hour from our house and really.....there just aren't that many stores I'm willing to go out of my way for. Christmas Tree Shops...well, that's another story. LOL So after driving a half hour and getting lost in downtown New Haven we finally found the store. I have to say, I saw a lot of stuff I really liked.....the furniture however, not so much. I would rather save up and spend a lot of money on a quality piece of furniture I can pass down to my children, than spend a little on a crappy version of the same piece of furniture that will fall apart and I have to replace every two to three years. So the furniture I wouldn't waste my time or money on, plus it just isn't really that attractive unless you're into the ultra modern Euro look.....which I'm not. They do however have a lot of nice accent pieces and home accessories that aren't that bad and a pretty good price. I saw a few decorative items I would consider.
It was fun though and I'll probably go back at some point for some small accent pieces, but I definitely don't feel as excited about it like other people I know.
Anyway, talk to you in a few hours when I blog about today's activities. :)

A weekend in the Life

Well I decided that for the sake of my own sanity and to prevent burnout, I will take the weekends off from blogging. My original intention had been to blog every day, but I think wisdom is to refrain from it.
So, a quick weekend in review...

     You may have noticed a new link in the left column of this blog titled "One Year Bible Online". I put it there in case any of you are interested in joining me and my entire church in reading through the Bible in a year. It's broken down into very user friendly 15 minute daily readings and if you follow the link you will also see it's from the New Living Translation which is in the language of today. Much more user friendly for those of you that aren't frequent Bible readers or for those of you that may have tried reading it years ago, but got a bit frustrated with the old English. So if you've ever wanted to do this and just haven't gotten around to it, or felt a bit overwhelmed then join me and we can do this together. Feel free to contact me with questions or if you want support.
      So Saturday I joined Ann and a few other ladies from church in taking all of the Christmas decorations down at both campuses. I thought it was going to take much longer than it did, but we were done in record time. Afterward I came home and still had the energy to take down and put away all of our own Christmas decorations.  Now we have a tiny house, more of a bungalow really...so even though I love Christmas and love decorating for it, I'm pretty frugal with my decor otherwise it would be far too cramped. So we have FAR less than the church does, you would think it would take me not time at all to pack it all away. LOL....NOT! Since I've been in my de-cluttering and cleaning mode lately, there was no reason why it shouldn't extend to the extra Christmas decor before I have to drag it back to the attic. I began my decor D-day at 4 in the afternoon.......I finished at around 1 am. After giving away 6 large bags and boxes of excess decor and then condensing about 8 remaining tubs, bins, baskets, bags and boxes of various sizes I got it down to only 2 large tubs, 1 small tub and 2 boxes.....along with the giant storage bag the tree and wreaths go in. Not bad....thank God it's a year before I need to drag them back out. LOL

   Sunday was nice, Lori has been in town visiting and we got to spend a few precious hours with her last night before she had to leave for SC this morning. She moved down there a few months ago and quite honestly I'm praying she comes back soon. ;) There are precious few people in my innermost circle of what I consider to be the true definition of an intimate friend, those that are considered close enough to be family, she is one of them. Having her move so far away and then come to visit I realize just how much I am thankful for her. She's crazy (in a good way) and irreverent, but also honest and transparent and would give you her last dollar if she felt you needed it more than her. She is the kind of friend I hope and try to be. She doesn't care if you're rich or poor, have a little or a lot, are refined or not...you're God's child and that's good enough for her. She's sort of a modern day Melanie Wilkes from Gone With the Wind. Being judgmental isn't in her blood.  She accepts people the way they are and offers loving friendship that is completely unconditional...in short, she reflects the same love and kindness that Christ does. That sets the bar pretty high....and I'm glad for it, I need that kind of standard to reach for. Love ya and miss ya Lor....come home soon!

Today was the first day back at sprout central after Christmas vacation. Amazing how 8 days away from total toddler anarchy can make you miss the little rugrats. Yeah there were some I didn't miss....mmmm.......well, truthfully just one I didn't miss....but I'll be good and not go there. LOL
The rest however I missed greatly. It was nice to be back with them and with the girls I work with. Nothing really tremendously eventful happened with them today...honestly they were all very quiet. It was kind of amusing because they had been away from us for a little over a week they had to readjust to being back with us. So it was a nice, quiet day...nobody got duct taped to the wall...lol.
Well, that's enough for today........hope all of you had a great weekend and a pleasant Monday.