Tuesday August 28th

Got up and ready for work and out the door in a good time. Not much happened at work today. When I got to work I opened my purse and what did I find? A block and a pack of crackers, A must have thought I would be bored and hungry while at work. Love that kid! After work, got home to find that the sitter was making us dinner. Ate dinner and then off to TKD for G. No football practice for C tonight. YEAH! After TKD got home and stayed low key, J had a fever and it spiked to 103.1, called my Mom to see if she could pick me up some infant tylenol (found mine to be expired, and figured she could pick it up faster then I could load all 4 kids and go to the store) Got the tylenol in him about 8:30ish and talked with mom for half hour or so, after she left the older 3 went off to watch a movie in bed (A has been sleeping in G's bed all summer, he is going to go through separation anxiety next week!) Hung out with J, because he was a bit clingy. Decided we would snuggle up and sleep on the couch. Dad got home about 11:30 and brought us a pillow and blankie. Got J snuggled up next to me tight in the crook of my arm, and in his sleep he wiggled and nuzzled around and up over the top of me until he was sleeping tummy to tummy up on my chest. I moved him and low and behold he did it again, it was kinda cute to watch. He had a bit of a restless night.

Monday, August 27

Got up later then I wanted, but still in time to get ready. Got to work, nothing special today. My mom called and took me out to lunch. YUM! After work, got home and the sitter said that J had a hard day, that she thought he might be getting ready to start the top teeth coming in, he had been a bit fussy, extra spitty uppy (he is always spitting up, but I guess more so today), and he felt warm, and wouldn't sleep for any duration of time. He looked a bit unhappy and just wanted to be held. I got him happy and he sat in his highchair while I made dinner. At the same time I got the dishes started and laundry going. We had terriyaki Chicken, pasta, and peaches. The boys devoured it! A kept asking for more chicken and saying it was delicious. He is pretty cute when he says it. After dinner it was get ready for football. We took C to practice and then went home. Got the rest of the dishes washed while J napped in the carseat. Got another load of laundry going. J woke and just wanted to be held, he was getting super hot again, so I stipped him down to just a diaper. After awhile I took his temp and it was up to 102.3. But he was in good spirits, he cooled down pretty fast after stripping him down. Told the kids to get ready to go and get C from practice and found that A was asleep on the boys bedroom floor. Got them all loaded up and went and got C from practice, got home about 9:00. J wanted nothing to do with bed, so we snuggled up. He didn't want to sleep just eat and hang out. So that is where we stayed ALL NIGHT! Got about 10 minutes of sleep off and on and was still up when Dad got home from work sometime after 1am. He headed to bed and J and I dozed in and out on the couch.

Sunday August 26

Sunday....Got up with baby, but then he went back down and we slept in until 10am. Got up and vegged. Then got ready to go to nephews birthday pool party at my mom's house. Decided to go to Costco to see if they had a different memory foam pillow, but they didn't. Stopped at an estate sale on the way to the party and ended up being about half hour late, oops. We hung out, the kids swam, opened gifts, had cupcakes and ice cream. Then got home about 6:00. We'd had pizza about 4:00, so we weren't hungry yet for dinner, Dad, Baby, #3, and I all fell asleep and Dad and I woke about 7:30 and realized we needed to get dinner for the boyos, so he got up and made dinner and I got up with Baby. Had dinner after 8:00. Then hung out and watched TV. Did some laundry, and dishes. #3 slept through until the morning. #4 went to bed about 11 and Dad and I stupidly stayed up after 2 watching tv and talking.

Saturday August 25

Woke up kind of late today, well early with the baby, but then he went back to sleep until about 9:00. Got up and had breakfast with the kids, we were sitting in the frontroom about 10:30 and Dad got home (he was supposed to work until 1:30 and meet us at the football field). Today was the football Jamboree. #1 had to be to the field at noon, but his games weren't supposed to start until 2:00. Got everything ready and we decided that Dad was going to go with #1 to the field and I would bring the younger 3 right before the start of the games, last minute #3 decided he didn't want Daddy to go without him, so he went too. It was good for him to be with one of us without the other kids, he needed some one on one time. I tried and tried and tried to get #4 to take a nap, but he wasn't having it, so I enlisted #2's help so I could get in the shower and get things ready. We were running behind and got turned around getting to the Jamboree, had to park a few blocks away, but we were still early. #1's games didn't start until after 2:30 so it worked out good. He had a lot of play time and had a blast out there. Games got over around 5:30. Got home and we all just kind of vegged for a while, then Dad made us dinner. About 8:30 I remembered I hadn't shopped for my nephews gift (Sunday was the party) so #1 and I ran to Kohls (I love that store) and got his memory foam pillow (and I needed a new pair of jeans). Then home and baby duty. He went to bed pretty late again.

Friday August 24

Woke up a little behind schedule this morning, so I had to race around and get things ready. Got out the door and barely to work on time. Had a pretty good day, decided that since I came in early a few days this week, I was going to go home half hour early so we could make it to TKD on time, so we didn't have to go on Saturday morning. Today was the day that C's biological father (who was in jail for criminal non support charges, guess he should have been paying his child support!) was supposed to go before the court for his plea date. And then if he pleaded not-guilty (I don't see how he could) then it would go to trial on 9/20. Anyway, I got an email fromt he Assistant DA saying that biological's lawyer was sick and couldn't make it to court, so they re-scheduled for 9/12 and released bio on a signed document saying that he would show up for court. I was a little nervous all day, not knowing if he was going to show up at the house and want C for the weekend (it was his scheduled every other weekend, and then C wouldn't be able to go to his football jamboree). Later during the day I got an email from the assistant DA that he copied me on and sent to bio's lawyer, offering him a deal that if he pleads guilty on the 12th, that they will drop charges to a class A misdemeaner instead of a felony, that they would not ask for any more jail time and that the time served be enough (32 days in our county, and 11 days up in his state before being extradited here.) and then he has to pay the monthly child support and an extra $93 each month towards the arrears (in excess of $22000.00) So this would be good for C to finally be getting his child support. Got home in plenty of time for TKD, found the sitter was making us a stir fry for dinner. There wasn't time to eat before TKD, so we had it setup to eat when we got home. Went to class and one of the kids that G started TKD with was at the Friday class, so they had fun together, becuase they were the only 2 purple belts. There were 3 yellow belts, and 4 senior purple belts. Today G earned his Basic (Nine Movement) stripe, and his kicking (axe kick) stripes. He was super stoked. No football practice today, so after TKD we went home and had the stir fry dinner it was delicious! After that the kids played WII and I hung out with baby. Dad got home fairly early tonight. Got baby to bed late.

Thursday August 23

Thursday August 23, 2012. Got up at 4:30 and got ready for work and out the door so I could be to work early today. Work was a normal day nothing big happened. After work got home and started dinner. Chatted with the sitter for a while during the making of dinner. Dinner wasn't going to be ready in time for practice, so I got it all prepped and then made a sandwich for C so he could have something in his tummy for fuel to practice on. Got things ready and dropped him off at the field. Then took the younger 3 to the store to pick up Dad's prescription for his migraines and a few things for the girl at work's birthday. After that, went home and finished making dinner. We ate and I did laundry, dishes, etc. I was pretty tired after staying up all the night before. Picked C up from the field and got home and got the 3 older kids to bed and got J some dinner on the menu tonight was Carrots and Brocolli. After that got him to bed and finished my chores then to bed myself.

Wednesday Aug 22

Wednesday - Yikes already!! So started out just a normal day, got up, went to work, It was Wednesday so we got our harvest bags (one of our salesmans family owns a farm and for 18 weeks we get a reusable shopping bag full of fresh picked that day produce, this year I added on the bakery item, so I get a fresh baked that day bakery item as well) This year I've used almost all of my produce to make baby food with my Baby Brezza, I love that machine! All you have to do is fill the hopper with water, chop up the food, toss it in, tell it how long to steam for and when it is done it purees it. LOVE IT! Any way, so I got my bag today, after work went home. My Mom had picked up the older two for chores at her house and swimming and when she brought them home, she put dinner in the oven for me, I am so spoiled lately! I also got home to find that my baby sitter washed my kitchen floor and folded laundry! LOVE HER! Got things ready for football and I was making myself an iced coffee (kinda tired tonight) and C had put his water bottles in the freezer to get cold for practice and one fell out and spilled across the whole kitchen floor, right at that point, J decided to roll down the one step from our kitchen to the next room and didn't get hurt, but got scared (he's done it a million and one times and of course this time when I am swimming across my kitchen he needs help!) So I call for C and then grab J. C had his cleats on and comes running in and of course his feet come out from under him and he goes down, thus soaking his football pants and under armour shirt. So we get the kitchen dried and toss his clothes in the dryer. Crisis averted. Time to dish up dinner and feed the kiddos, A just woke from nap (5:00pm) so he doesn't want to eat yet. J sat in his high chair and was so enthralled with the boys food, that I took some of the noodles and rinsed them and chopped them up, J was so excited to eat something that wasn't mashed up. After that it was shoes on for everyone. And we find that C left his cell at Grandma's, so I drop him off at the field and drive over and get his phone (I don't like leaving him at the field with no phone, but there are plenty of parents there that can call me if needed.) We get home and A eats dinner. Then we pull out all of our Lego Duplos and start building. I decided to spend the next 2 hours playing blocks with A and G (J liked to crawl over them and then took a half hour nap) instead of doing my chores (dishes, laundry, pickup, bottles, playroom, bags for next day, etc) Drove to the field 15 minutes early to get C and stood around and talked to Wendy (another mom) for a while waiting for practice to get out. Then went home, and enlisted C's help in putting all of the lego duplo trains together for me. I fed J and he went to bed (I KNOW!!!! It was only 9:15!!!!) I decided to do some work on the playroom, it was a nightmare! Wasn't sure where to start, so I started with putting away a few things and piling the rest in the middle of the floor, then started sorting that pile and putting my mini piles away. J woke and ate and went right back to sleep. Got the playroom most of the way clean, I have a small pile of things that I don't know what they go to and for C to clarify on what they are, if he can't figure it out, they go in the trash. I am DONE keeping things that I don't know what they are for! Then after that I got dishes going, started laundry, got bottles ready, cleaned up. A was still up (it was midnight) but since he took a long late nap, he wasn't ready to sleep yet. He decided that he needed toast, so I put a piece in and then J woke, so I went to feed him. A came wandering in and wanted his toast, so I told him it would be a few. He got out a step stool and I could hear him in the kitchen and he pushed down the lever on the toast (even though it was already done and popped up) he stood there talking to the toaster for awhile and then it popped up and he says in an excited voice to himself "I DID IT!!" It was cute, I was laughing in the other room. Got J back to bed and then buttered A's toast and he went off to G's bed to watch the movie that C and G fell asleep to, and eat his toast. He then proceeded to crash (HARD) Got everything finished around the house, laundry done, folded, and put away. Then I was hungry (it was almost 1:45) so I decided it was a good time for milk and oreos. (I was out of ice cream!) As I was sitting down to eat them I started a netflix I got (the expendables) and then dad got home from work, he stayed after talking to one of the guys and looked at their car. We started watching movie while we caught up, then he headed for shower and I headed for bed, I had to turn off the movie before I got to engrossed in it, becuase it was already after 2am! Not long after I got into my nice comfy warm bed, J woke up to eat again, but this time I couldn't get him back down, he wanted to snuggle, so into my bed we went. Dad had just got into bed himself and was warm from his shower, my feet were freezing so of course they went on him, I put J inbetween us, and snuggled him up tight next to me, put my arm over and found that J had his hand outstretched to touch Dad's back, it was super cute! The next thing I know, my alarm is going off and it is 4:30 and time to get up. Until tomorrow.........

A little background

So to tell you a little about me and make my posts a little less confusing: There is me a 31 year old full time day shift (7am-4pm) working mom, my name for blog posts = Mom. There is my husband, a 38 year old full time swing shift (2pm-whenever, usually after midnight) working dad, name for blog posts = Dad. We have 4 children, ages 10, 6 (almost 7), 2, and 7 months. For time sake their names will just be the first letter of their name, so C is 10 and plays football, going into the 5th grade this year. G is 6, does Tae Kwon Do, and is going into the 1st grade this year, A is 2.5 and is a handful, and lastly there is J who is 7 months old and cute as can be! All boys! Yes, I have 4 boys and no I wouldn't have it any other way! I was relieved to find out that my 4th (and final??) was a boy! I am a pack rat and I saved EVERYTHING from all of the kids, so for J, we didn't have to buy anything! When I went back to work after my maternity leave, my husband switched to the night shift, so that he can watch the kids in the morning to save on daycare. We found a lady who comes to our house and watches the boys from 1:15 until I get home about 4:30-5:00. She also has 4 kids (2 are step kids and are with her every other week) so during the summer she brings over all the kids and has a house full of 8 kids (more if the neighbor kids come over). She is amazing, she was destined to be a kindergarten teacher or something! She is the best thing that could have happened to us! This kids love her as well! Also, a little back story, I never did any cooking, none of my sisters or I learned how growing up, my husband is a fantastic cook and took care of us! So when I went back to work after my maternity leave my husband switched from day shift to night shift. So that leaves me Monday - Friday as basically a single parent! I now have to cook, clean, and do all the driving around. My oldest is in football and now that official practices started (we started conditioning back in June 5 nights a week 2 hours a night) we practice from 6:00-8:30 5 nights a week! YIKES! Once games start, we take one night a week off from practices. My 2nd son is in Tae Kwon Do (the discipline and focus that he has already learned is amazing, night and day difference with him!) class is any 2 days that we choose, but for our schedules we have been going Tuesdays from 6:00-6:45 and Saturdays from 10:15-11:00. But you have to be 10 minutes early, otherwise you are late! During class, I sit on the bench and watch along with the 2 younger kids, the baby likes to stand on my lap (with support) and dances and jumps up and down and claps and laughs, becuase of the music and the yelling, and general upbeat atmosphere. G usually plays on my phone or with hotwheels cars. I have never been very good at keeping my house clean, there have been times where it is downright disgusting. But now that we have the baby sitter come to our house (and she has an 18 month old) we have to keep it at least somewhat presentable, so that is a plus. But that also means that I have to clean house each night, I did so much housework growing up that I HATE to do it now! :) So my day consists of getting up, getting ready for work, passing off the baby (or baby monitor if I can get him asleep) to my husband, working a full day, coming home and relieving the baby sitter, making dinner, getting bottles ready for Dad and babysitter for the following day, doing all the dishes from breakfast, lunch and dinner, washing, drying, folding and putting away laundry, cleaning up the messes from the kids, taxiing kids to football and tae kwon do, homework during the school year, religeous ed during the school year, etc, etc, etc. There are nights when I litteraly drop. And with the baby there ahve been many nights where I go to work on 45 minutes of sleep, because if i get him down early enough to get my "chores" done, he wakes in the middle of the night. So these are my ramblings of my day. On a daily basis my kids do something or say something that crack me up. And I have trouble keeping track of it all, so basically this is my daily diary that I am going to share with all of you, (well since I have no followers yet, I am sharing with empty space, but its all just the same!) ENJOY! I have a tendancy to ramble on and on and on and on!

Tuesday August 21

Tuesday - I got home from work today and the babysitter made dinner for me and the kids, filled the dishwasher, and started a load of laundry! What a huge relief! So we eat, get the dishes started, and head out. Tuesday is our crazy night where we have both Football and Tae Kwon Do, both starting at 6:00. So we drop C off at the field 20 minutes early, and to my relief there was already 5 of his teammates, an assistant coach, and a mom who stays for practice there. So I felt better about dropping him off early. Then we headed to TKD for G, todays class was awesome! There were only 5 kids there for class, he is currently a purple belt, which is level 2, inside of level 2 there is yellow belt, purple belt, and senior purple belt. Normally on Tuesdays there is 3 purple belts and 4 senior purple belts, but this time he was the only purple with the 4 senior purples, so he got a lot of one on one training and really nailed class! He learned his Poomse Nine movement for level 2 purple belt and also how to do an axe kick, man that kid can kick high! I was so proud of him! After class Me, G, A, and J went home to get some stuff done before picking C up from practice. We got dishes done, made some squash baby food, got the mess picked up (I am not the best house keeper, I get the main stuff picked up and put away, but I don't know when the last time I dusted or did any deep cleaning, I have 4 kids and a husband that works nights, so during the week I am a single mom.) J fell asleep about 7:45 and I was worried that I was going to have to wake him up to go and pick up C from practice, but thankfully (I guess) he woke about 8:10, we then loaded up again and went to the field. We like to get there a little before practice is over, so I can see some of it at least (in between chasing the other kids around!) So we got parked and they were on the turf this time, so we went down to the grandstands and watched the last of the practice. They got their game jerseys today and C picked #42 (the same number from last year, so Yeah I can keep my car decals that I bought last year, I should find those and actually put them on the car!! OOPS!) After practice we go home and the kids had wanted to get ice cream, but we have a ton of popsicles in the freezer, so we opted for those. C called Mimi and it was decided that she was going to pick the older 2 up the following day to do some chores and then swimming (as long as they are back home by the time I get home from work). After that it was on to unloading the dishwasher, doing more laundry, folding and putting away laundry, and finishing making the squash baby food. Then it was time for J to have some baby food dinner, so instead of thawing out one of the 8 million cubes from the freezer, I gave him some of the squash I was preparing to freeze, it was a bit runny (OK a lot runny), so I mixed it with baby rice cereal, being so runny, I poured waaaaay too much into his bowl, but just figured oh well (probably the equivalent to 3 ice cubes) and lo and behold he ate all of it! And I didn't have to coerce him into any of it! At this time C and G were in bed watching a Pokemon movie and A was in his highchair eating a yogurt. After dinner round 2 it was cleaning up the kids, and by this time it was about 10:00, I was HOPING that J was going to nurse and then go to bed, but of course he had different ideas about how the evening was going to go! We finished getting bottles for the next day ready for Dad and babysitter, and got my clothes laid out (so I won't have to turn on the light and wake up Dad!) and all my bags ready to go. A went into G's bed to watch a movie and sleep (most of this summer they have been sharing a bed falling asleep watching movies, not looking forward to the school year starting in 2 weeks when its no tv and to bed early! A is not going to take too well to that, and it will be a fight to get him to sleep again!) After that, hung out with J in the front room and tried everything to get him to sleep, I even gave him a bottle to see if I could get his tummy full so he would go to sleep, but NOOOOO of course not. Dad got home a little after midnight and I had just gotten J to sleep in my arms and was getting up from the couch to go and put him in his crib and the door woke him up and then Dad saying (rather loudly for midnight!) that he was going to go and take a shower. SOB! So I keep trying and finally give up with a blanket and pillow on the floor and a baby gate up so J can't escape! HA. I was hoping to get J to snuggle up with me and then I could put him to bed and Dad said when he got out of the shower he would help out, well that was the last thing I remember!