Saturday, August 29, 2009

I finished week 1! In week 1!

This is mostly just for me and my record keeping because I am a dork who likes keeping records (should have worked in archives I guess):


I just finished Week 1 of the Couch to 5K IN week 1. How momentous. Anyway, stats for my own purposes:

Day 2:
total time: 29:05
calories: 160.7
miles: 1.65
laps: 6
1 mile: 17 mins
highest speed: 4.5 (don't laugh Felice!)

Day 3:
total time: 28:41 (I must have hit the start on the treadmill too soon last time)
calories: 175.3
miles: 1.78
laps: 7
1 mile: 16:08
highest speed: 5

I didn't write anything down for day 1. Oh well. 

Because I am a DORK and surrounded by positive reinforcement for children, I'm totally making myself a sticker chart. 

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Monday, August 24, 2009

A fine Monday

I should be folding towels or doing something productive. But I'm not. It's Monday. As far as Mondays go, this one was actually okay. Chewie went to bed at 8 last night and I didn't feed her until 4:30. It was miraculous. And for most of today she was right on cue--feeding every 3 hours, napping when she should, and smiling instead of screaming. We all went outside and she took her first wagon ride. SkyWalker was not nearly as crazy as he has been. He's definitely still testing me, but he actually listened a lot better today. There was no big drama. Both girls took naps at the same time, just long enough for me to use the treadmill. So all in all, not a bad Monday. 


I did the first run of the first Week of the Couch to 5k program. It's meant to slowly work you into being able to run a 5k so you don't do too much too fast and then burn out and give up. I have no intentions of actually running a 5k anywhere, but I like the structure the program has instead of me just walking on the treadmill for an indeterminate length of time. I downloaded the free podcasts for my iPod (which plugs into the treadmill) so it's easier for me to know when to walk and when to run. I managed to do a mile and a half in less than half an hour. I'm sure it will take me longer than the 9 weeks to complete it since I may not be able to do it as often as I'm supposed to. But that's okay. My goal isn't actually running a 5k. It's getting off the damn couch. 

I'm pretty sure if I go to bed now Vader will get home from shopping and the dogs will go nuts and wake me/Chewie up. And while he will put away all the fridge & freezer stuff, I will get up tomorrow morning to find all the pantry stuff still has to be put away. I'd rather just do it tonight. 

But. Yawn.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Home sweet home

We're all done traveling and I am glad to be sleeping in my own bed again. I will be even more glad when Chewie is sleeping in her own bed (her crib upstairs instead of the co-sleeper in our room). She had a couple of really good nights on LI and I think they were both because she was outside in the heat for the majority of the day! We have yet to replicate it. I'm getting really tired of, well, being tired. Being up twice a night is wearing on me. Particularly since I know the Princess was sleeping all night long by now... it's not fair to compare but that's what's in the back of my mind. 


We were on LI for our anniversary so we were able to go out by ourselves and have dinner and walk around Port Jeff. I had an Italian Ice. I don't know if any place up here has Italian Ices... in any event it was nice. Much better than last year when the kids and I went to dinner by ourselves. 

We're still not done with the cleanup from the Yellow Jacket Invasion of '09. My husband is going a little cooky with it. At this rate we will never be done. 

SkyWalker starts kindergarten in 3 weeks. I can't quite believe it. We're going to start getting him up earlier. His bus will come at 6:52. Isn't that crazy? He should be home by 2:45 though. I'm not sure if I want to try getting the Princess down for earlier naps or keep her on her current napping schedule. It might be nice for SkyWalker to have some alone time with me when he gets home. This is assuming the Princess naps. Actually she does okay as long as no one else wakes her up. 

The sun is still not up yet. I haven't gotten up this early in a week and I feel it... I think it was good to get a bit more sleep, but I definitely prefer getting up before everyone else and starting my day in peace. And then going to bed early. 

Shinesalot had her baby Tuesday morning and I realize once again how lucky we were that she was here when Chewie was born... I have been going crazy being so far away. 

On a related note there is a Clutch concert in NYC the day my SIL is due. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could be down there and see the concert and the baby in the same weekend? Would it be even more lovely if Chewie is sleeping the night by then?? Cross your fingers for me.

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Saturday, August 8, 2009

Buzzier

As promised (click on the pic and it will show you the rest):


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Buzz

A week or so ago we noticed a lot of yellow jackets flying around outside our front kitchen window. Vader investigated and saw that they were all going down underneath the siding at the house's floor level. He sprayed and sprayed and then I started finding them IN the kitchen. I went downstairs to the basement. The basement is in two sections--one is our finished office and kids' playroom directly below the kitchen. The other is the "basement-basement" that is unfinished. I went to the office and in the area that the we thought the yellow jackets were in I saw a tiny hole in the ceiling. I showed Vader who told me that it had always been there. I never look up. Anyway, it had always been there but it looked a little tampered with. So he went to the adjacent basement and was able to look in between the beams of the house, between the ceiling of the office and the floor of the kitchen. And way down at the front of the house he saw mud and yellow jackets. Knowing there was no way he could get down there to really spray he accepted the fact that we had to call an exterminator. 


On Tuesday we had an exterminator come out who guessed it was a pretty large nest and set up an appt. for Friday. They were supposed to come between 1 & 4 on Friday and they would have to cut out the sheet rock in the office ceiling in order to get the nest and remove it.

Yesterday morning while at Chewie's checkup, just as she was about to get her shots, my cell rings. Vader tells me that the yellow jackets broke through the sheet rock in the ceiling and had now infiltrated the office in large numbers instead of the few that had managed to find their way through the vent to get to the kitchen over the last week. He was going to go to home depot and didn't want us to go to the office. We got home around 12 and Vader was on his way home from the depot. I was just getting everybody settled in the house and was going to make a quick lunch when the exterminators showed up early. I went out to meet them and explained the different situation now. They came inside and I showed them the office door. One of them opened it and there was a yellow jacket right there. He told me to go in the kitchen with the kids and he went down to see. He didn't get far when he came back up and said there were LOTS of them. We had to leave the house for 2-4 hours. So as soon as Vader got back the kids and I left, again, and he went out on the deck with the dogs.

We went to Burger King and planned to eat at the park when I realized I left my cell phone at home in the rush to get out. Joy. I wanted to be near a phone. So we decided to go to my MIL's house because she was in North Carolina. My new key for her house didn't work. We ate BK on her front steps while I nursed Chewie who was irritated at the shots and life in general. The Princess tells me she has to pee. I get out the travel potty that I luckily had in the car and she sat on it and proceeded to do a huge dump. I'm sure the neighbor's were watching through their windows--I would have been--but I didn't care at that point. My MIL's outside garbage now has burger king bags and a bag of pee and poop. I took the kids to the library and had an awful feeling of deja vu--being stuck there and counting the minutes until 5 pm. ;-)

The Princess asked to go home, everyone was cranky, aside for the brief 30 mins we were home we had been gone since 8:30 am. I called for a pizza and we went to pick it up. The Princess fell asleep in the car. Chewie was sleeping/crying. I considered leaving them in the car while I went inside to get the pizza but SkyWalker refused and said someone would take them all. Not bloody likely with the way they were behaving that day! So I picked up the sleeping Princess and Chewie in the carrier and SkyWalker held the door open for me and we went and got our pizza and the guy brought it out to the car without being asked. We got home shortly after 5 and ate on the deck since the guys said we shouldn't go inside until 7. They had to spray so much.

It took them 4 or 5 times to spray before they could even get close to where the nest was in the office ceiling. The nest didn't fall through, the yellow jackets themselves just ate a hole or whatever through the damn sheet rock. They cut out a huge section of the sheet rock because the nest was HUGE. They showed Vader the larva in the nest and we would have had even more! There were at least 1000 yellow jackets there. Vader spent last night with the shop vac and the steam mop vacuuming up the dead yellow jackets. We now have to clean all the kids toys and anything we can. He took pictures but I can only upload them on the desktop in the office and I'm not going there until the smell is completely gone. 

We were very lucky that A) Vader was home and not in Rochester. B) We were  home and not on LI like we will be next week and were just 2 weeks ago. C) Even though the exterminators were scheduled at 1 Vader left work at 10 and was home to wait for them--instead of us getting home from the doc at noon and SkyWalker and the Princess going to the office like they normally do. So many things could have been so much worse. None of us, dogs included, got stung at all. It was a long irritating day but much better than being in the ER because the kids had gotten swarmed. 

Pictures will follow as soon as I can. 

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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Princess and the pee, part 2

The Princess had her ultrasound yesterday and her ureter looks a lot less swollen than it did, her kidney looks fine, and everything is working. We're on the right "track" but we'll be continuing the meds for at least another 6 months. I'm disappointed about that but the last thing we need right now is another UTI. And potty training girls tend to get UTIs. While it's a nuisance for them, it's really bad for the Princess. Because she is potty training she was able to pee in the "hat" in the toilet and give them a sample. The doc was happy about that. Her urine is clear and that's great.   


Speaking of potty training, we almost had an accident free day yesterday. Her only accident was when we were coming in from outside. She had wanted to pee in the grass since Daddy had her do that but it just wasn't working with Mommy. By the time we got inside and negotiated sitting on the potty she told me she was going in her underwear. 

The exterminator came yesterday for our yellow jacket problem. They're coming back on Friday and will take out some sheet rock to get rid of the HUGE nest in the wall and then patch it up. It is not cheap. But it is cheaper than what they quoted us because my husband refused to do it otherwise. I just want them out of my house. 

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday, just like Monday. They went outside a little bit with Daddy. I'm sure the days that we do not have doc visits will rain. We've used the pool twice? Three times maybe? It's rained so much or we're out when it's nice. The sun really needs to coordinate with our schedule.

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Monday, August 3, 2009

Blither blather

People who read this blog, and there are some, must think I am completely bipolar. It's either how great everything is... or how sucky everything is. The fact is most days are neither. Most of our days are made up of tiny happy moments and tiny stressed out moments. These days I feel no strong compulsion to blog. I don't find it necessary to say we had an okay day or to update on the minutia of my life ... that's what twitter is for. Do you really need to know that at this moment I am finger combing my hair and don't know for sure what this sticky stuff is but could guess that somebody spit up on me? Yuck. 


We all went to the dentist today and for the first time SkyWalker opened up and let the hygenist clean his teeth and let the dentist look at them. I was so relieved. He needed a form for kindergarten and this was the 3rd or 4th time we were trying the dentist! The first few times he cried and screamed. The Princess also let the hygenist count her teeth and look at them. 

Tomorrow morning we have an exterminator coming to hopefully get rid of our yellow jacket problem. They've made themselves an entrance to our house and have done a bit of damage to the wall. Good times. We also go to the Princess's ultrasound tomorrow where we will hopefully hear that her insides are all fixed and she will not need antibiotics again. Because it's getting a bit old and she's getting a bit too used to having medication every day. 

I have a sinkful of dishes and baskets of laundry and I would like to just sit on the couch with a bowl of cheese doodles and watch some mindless TV. Dog barking and baby screaming can take a toll on me. I can deal with baby crying... but baby screaming is different. Chewie goes from fine to SCREAM in about 2 seconds. I actually started watching her eyes today to make sure she was looking at things... I thought maybe she couldn't see. But she looks at us and smiles at us and I think she is just very vocal  and has very little tolerance for whatever she doesn't like. Maybe she thinks she's got to scream the loudest to be heard. In any event it is irritating. She doesn't cry all day, she doesn't cry for hours, she's not colicky, but when she screams, even for a moment, it pierces my soul. She has her 2 month check up on Friday so we'll make sure that everything is A-Okay.

Vader is on vacation in a couple of weeks and I can't wait. I'm sure he's got some type of project in the back of his head but instead he'll be taking us to a semi-local animal preserve and maybe mini-golfing or bowling or whatever his children want to do to have fun. Although Daddy's idea of fun is sitting home and watching Wipeout (admittedly that is funny), his children like to go places. And do things. And in a strange turn of events their mama is starting to like it as well.

I've put the dishes off as long as I can... Vader will be home... some time... and I'd rather he not see me sitting on my butt in front of the computer when I have dishes and laundry and things to do. Which is silly since he always sits on his butt in front of the computer with dishes in the sink. When I've been feeding a baby for what seems like hours. Ah well...

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Nutshell

I know. It's been a while. Been very busy. Have 3 kids ya know. Potty training is time consuming. Behavior training. Sleep training. Lots of training going on. And I can't blog on my iPod touch which is what I'm usually on in the middle of the night when I'm feeding Chewie. Much easier to facebook and twitter with that... 


Been doing really well getting up early. Chewie's sleeping a bit better and now I'm just trying to adjust her big stretch to be when I want it to be. The good behavior jar seems to be working. SkyWalker has filled his once so far and was so proud. The Princess is not as easy to potty train as I thought she would be. Even though she can hold it in for hours and is dry after her nap every day, she will just as easily pee her underwear. If I bring her to the potty all day and she cooperates we're okay, but if she doesn't want to sit we're in trouble. Yesterday was the first day she stopped herself and told me she had to pee and we made it there. So that's progress. 

And that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

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