coin counting

Kindergarten has transformed my little man into a boy.

The things he has learned this past year amaze me.

He's been doing chores and saving his money to purchase "the angry bird mega fling toy."

Not just that, but he google searched (all by himself) where he could go to buy it, and learned about how much money he needed to save up in order to buy it.

Then he went to his money, and counted his change.

He counted his nickels by 5's.  Perfectly.  He was so proud of himself.  "hey mom, I could count the nickels by 5's or else I could just count 20 nickels, because that is how many makes one dollar."

Then he went on to count the dimes by 10's.  Perfectly.

He learned that "there are 4 quarters to make a dollar, but the nickels and quarters are sometimes tricky to tell apart."

Ahalf dollar didn't trick him, as he seamlessly transitions from counting that then back to pennies, then a dime snuck in... "50, 51, 52, 62, 63...ONE DOLLAR"

He looks at me with a cheese ball smile, so proud of his counting skills.  I have that same cheese ball smile right back at him, beaming with pride about how much he is learning.

And so he finally saved enough to spend eighteen dollars.  That is a lot of chores...

He went to the store and told the cashier all about how he saved his money, counted it all up, and then chose to buy this with it.

He is a rad kid.

102

The boys both have a cold.  She has it too, but hers came with a fever.  I don't need the thermometer to tell me that.  Her warmth, and limpness reveal it before the thermometer even reveals the numbers.  102 degrees, 50 minutes of crying, some motrin... and then she was silent.  So I sat there.

These moments of when they are no longer baby, but seem like baby.  Yes, you have to savor them.

and those 30 minutes of rocking my 2 year old, exactly what my stressed out soul needed.

 It is amazing the way a little can soothe you.  When the world seems chaotic, just being there, holding her, soothing her...yes this is what I'm here for.  Everything else, it is just an added extra in life.

Weekend of lame-ness

Emotions are such a tough thing to get a grip on sometimes.  I'm working on getting that grip, but failing right now.

It's been a tough week.

1)getting rear-ended
2)$500 license plate
3)job offer
4)switching jobs
5)sick kids

*****
1 -

I got rear-ended on my drive home from work Thursday.

It was like this...I am exhausted from working all night and being up for 24 hours, I sit waiting at a light for the car in front of me to turn, and get rammed by a 16 year old license-less girl driving a big truck.  Big truck having a full out make-out session with the back of my tuna-can Nissan Sentra is recipe for sore neck syndrome.  Thankfully I'm fine.  I'm stiff, and super sore, but mostly just bummed.  Our car that we finally paid off in December now sits in the garage awaiting an insurance guy to come give us an estimate.  We need two cars to function in our life of chaos, so I'm hoping for a quick resolution to this all.


Because of this accident, I had to get an accident report filed.  This meant dealing with a police officer.  His smug I-rule-the-world-you-must-refer-to-me-as-sir-look, stupid moustache, and crooked badge annoyed me even before I had reason to be annoyed by him.  Perhaps it was the throbbing headache from the head-meets-steering-wheel crisis that had just took place 40 minutes prior.

I end up with a ticket because we still have our OR plates and "ma'am when moving to KY you have 30 days to get new plate upon moving here.  If you get your plates changed we'll drop the ticket but you have 15 days to get it done."

In my mind I wanted to run away from this non-athletic, southern drawl, country cop, but given I'm a semi-law abiding citizen I settled on thinking about all of all the nastiness I'd like to say to his face, but can't say because I'd end up behind bars.

Anway...

I get home to deal with automated phone lines in an attempt to begin the process of dealing with insurance companies...which is always fun, but especially fun when you have little sleep, a throbbing headache, a stiff neck, and stress.


*****
2 -

So P and I bicker all day Friday as we go up to the county clerk to deal with the plate change issue.  Stress + unexpected expenses can do that to the strongest of couples.  Just as we are finally to get this darn license plate issue squared away, the sweet DMV lady says "I hate this for you guys..."

Anything that has to follow a statement like that is just going to suck.

Wouldn't you know that Kentucky charges a 6% sales tax for licensure of the plates.  Since Oregon is a state that doesn't charge sales tax on cars it meant we had to write a huge fat check we weren't expecting to write, right then, to the DMV for one stinking license plate.

I cried as I wrote that damn $500 check to this wretched stated, and even told the poor DMV lady that "I hate KY" when she asked how we liked it here.  P told me I was acting "white trash" because I cried and admitted hatred of this state.  To be honest, walking those 3 long blocks back to our parked car with him was not the highlight of my week...

I still don't think it was white trash behavior.  It was honest, and today with a more clear head, I still feel the same way.

*****

3 -

P had a phone interview on Friday with John Hopkins University.  It was informal, and not anything he went about pursuing - a flattering "we want you, what will it take to get you here" sort of deal.  Long story short - they want him, we don't know what we want, and so that is that for now.

*****

4 -

Saturday I survived my last day of work as a mama/baby RN, walked out of there with tears and a big cake.

Fitting for my mood.  It is so bittersweet.

If you read my previous post about this job change, you know it wasn't an easy one.  At all.

I was so lucky to have such amazing co-workers, who treated me like family.  I've made some great friends on that floor, and those relationships aren't going to stop just because I don't work with them anymore.

I start my new position on Friday.

*****
5 -

and to boot - my kids are coming down with a cold.

*****

It's been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend.  This week has got to get better!

typical day with a 2, 3 and 6year old

She picked the keys off the crap-top (5 year old laptop that only works to to watch DVDs on), then proceeded to tell me "Pip broke the puter" in her squeaky, mousy voice.  Goodness this gal.  It was Pip who also made her undies soggy earlier in the day too.  That poor boy gets the blame for all of her wrong doings.  Though she doesn't get away with it, I find it interesting how quickly she picks up on attempting to escape trouble by telling a lie.  She is 2, she is a diva, and she is learning that despite her adorableness she still needs to act like a little lady.

 Three is my most favorite and dreaded age all rolled into one.  He wants to do EVERYTHING himself, but then screeches in frustration when he can't figure something out, and doesn't want to accept  help.  Today, he worked on opening a box of crackers for 8 minutes...which in 3 year old world, 8 minutes is eternity.  I said "let me help you" so he throws, yes throws, the box of crackers at me.  I understand little dude is frustrated, but goodness.  After what should of been 3, but turned into triple that time, minutes in the corner he composed his little temper and ate those darn crackers.

Later we mixed up brownies, on the kitchen floor - last time I ended up mopping the entire bowl of brownie batter off the kitchen floor when the bowl jumped away from the table because the mixer got wild in the hands of a 3 year old.  I love how he tells me what we need - "free (3) eggs, some water, and some yoyul (oil)."  So we used 5 eggs, because some just had too many shells and needed pitched out.  

 His humor keeps me on my toes.  He made a snowman on Sunday, today it warmed up enough to melt the snow.  He says, "hey mom, look at the giant snow wiener," we busted up in laughter, because it really did look that way.  Later he did some push-ups for me, which really didn't look like push ups at all.  Then he says "hey feel these muscles, way stronger than Daddy's huh?"  I agreed, but insisted he never tell Paul I told him.  He smiled and says "he knows I'm way stronger than he is anyway."

I must of done something later in the evening that ticked him off because he said that his room now has a secret password, and I'm not allowed to ever.ever.ever.ever know it.  Then he proceeded to call P on the phone to tell him the password...You win some, you lose some.  I'm okay being passwordless.

winter and spring in 24 hours

It was spring on Saturday, complete with a picnic lunch in the backyard - with watermelon, R's request.

P the superhero Spiderman was rowdy as can be with the boys

while J and I explored

and as quickly as spring appeared, it left.  In less than 12 hours our 68 degree weather turned into...a Sunday, winter wonderland.

While we are all ready for shorts, and outdoor play most of the day, the kids had fun in hopefully what was the last snow of the season.

One thing is for sure - these sweet kiddos of ours had a blast this weekend.  By 5:30pm both nights, they were exhausted.

Toddlers

Snuggles in dryer warm clothes, and sharing juice. Today, they were best friends.

Job change

8:50am, and I’m home 30 minutes later than usual from work.  A new transition to an electronic charting system at work is the blame.  The overtime and bonus pay will be nice, however no amount of money replaces those 30 minutes that I missed with these kids of mine.

I walk in the door, she grabs my hand, says “lets go find Woohoo”

I’m not sure what or who this “woohoo” she speaks of is.

But she is cute, they way she grasps my thumb with her tiny hand melts me.

My sweet, sweet girl that I am so lucky to have.

He leaves me love notes.

Everywhere.

“I luv you mom”

Written in his perfect 6 year old handwriting.

On the shower wall, or post it note surprises in my lunch box.

Can I just keep him 6 years old forever?

Because I love this age, I do.

Middle little says lets “quay hide-n-seek, and have blankie snuggles”

His cuteness is impossible to resist.

And even though I know I should take advantage of sleep, since I just got home from working 12 hours of night shift and have to return again tonight…

I indulge. 

In them.

Every second with them is worth the lack of sleep.

But I’m also learning that a person needs stability.  I can’t keep flip flopping days and nights so frequently anymore.

Which is exactly why I am choosing to leave my current job. 

The job that I dreamt about while in nursing school.  The one that motivated me to deal with those long hours of studying, stressing and then taking exams while in nursing school.  I always wanted to be a labor and delivery/mother baby nurse.

And I am one.  But just until March 23. 

I have mixed feelings about the job switch.

HUGE mixed feelings.

I’ve loved this past year of work – except for the scheduling issues.  I love my girls at work.  So much.  It is amazing the bonding that occurs between two women when forced to hang out for 12 hour shifts 2-3 times a week.

But my future role as a nurse practitioner, and my family will benefit so much from this job switch I am about to make.

So I’m diving in.  Head first.  Without regrets.

My 48-minute commute time will be cut in half.  Which equals a lot more hours in a week that I will regain to raise my children.  To mother.  To be a wife.  To do what my heart loves.

Which will always trump what my RN heart wants.  Always.

I’m so thankful and blessed that I was an RN who was able to see families born everyday.  But I’m even more thankful that nursing allows for changes to accommodate needs of families all the time. 

Goodbye dream job. 

I’m stepping forward, in hopes that my real “dream job” is still out there.  Having faith that this NP thing is going to work out.

Glimpse of spring

J going for a ride

vinegar+baking soda+ rocket = fun

Bubbles.

Our family of 5