Day in the Life - Winter 14'

I'm going to start off by just saying this is going to be a very weak attempt at Day in the Life.  On Tuesday, this was my scenery...

And Friday, we're back to looking at this...

I don't expect many to feel sorry for us but if it's any consolation, this was the first winter trip we've ever been on (and it was mostly a work trip for Erik) and really my first time really going anywhere since summer of 2011! So yeah, after a super fabulous trip to Hawaii for 10 days, Friday was my first true day of back to reality...I forgot several things while we were away including the mound of clothing/effort required to go outside & the amount of time it takes to accomplish anything. Therefore, major lack of photos but I still want to at least get down some words!

Friday, January 24, 2014
Charlie will be 4 on 2/25
Levi will be 2 on 2/28
(holy cow)

6:30am
I hear Charlie get up and use the bathroom. I somehow think that if I play dead he'll go back to bed. haha. He tries to get Erik up and I know that it is my turn to get up so I do. He isn't super impressed because he likes dad to get up with him in the morning but he goes with it. He immediately starts playing with a magnetic puzzle we got for Levi in Hawaii. After awhile he asks to watch TV so I turn on Martha Speaks. I really don't like that show but it's the only option we have. I contemplate moving but it's just so warm under the blankets.

7:15am
Charlie is ready for breakfast so he gets waffles out of the freezer (we're currently on a waffle kick vs pancakes), gets plates out and then gets pretty ticked off when I put the plate in the microwave instead of letting him climb on the stove and lift the glass plates up there, heaven forbid. We have a lovely little scream cry which is enjoyed by nobody. And now everyone in the house is awake. I get Levi up and dressed while Erik continues with the breakfast drama which eventually resolves itself.

After both boys are eating, Erik works on making eggs and ham for us & I take a shower. At approx. 7:40 I start to panic because we need to get moving!! This panic occurs every single day we need to leave the house yet I haven't been able to resolve it by getting moving earlier/trying to prep a bit the night before so it's my own fault. Erik goes out and shovels the drift of snow away from the garage and brings in the pile of clothing we will need. Charlie finishes his breakfast, gets washed up, goes upstairs and gets dressed, gets his backpack ready, gets the blankets in the diaper bag for daycare & gets his stuff on. I appreciate his ability to do all of these things so much!! I still need to get diapers ready for daycare. They have been sitting in a basket since before we left and even though I had the whole day Thursday to take care of it I of course left it for the last minute.  I stuff enough for the day and throw them in the bag.  I literally shovel in my breakfast, throw on some clothes & head out the door with wet hair.

8:10am
We're on the road and almost close to being on time! Luckily the roads are good. We get to daycare, drop Levi off and then head to preschool. Charlie goes 2 mornings a week and since I started working part time (20ish hours/week) in the preschool/ecfe office in November it works out super great for me to do drop off/pick up and not have to pay for transportation.  We get to school (which is brand new, just moved in before Christmas) and I help him get his stuff put away. I enjoy being able to snoop on him a bit during the day because he rarely will tell me what they did. He does really well at school, but he's pretty shy and I think he spends a lot of time playing by himself during the activities. It kind of makes me sad but he doesn't care. While I'm talking to the teachers I notice that he is helping the others put together a puzzle so that's good.

8:30-11am
I survey the damage from missing almost 2 weeks of work. Lots of emails to go through although 99% of them don't apply to me. Since we share a building we are on different lists...it doesn't matter to me who is being nominated for student of the month, etc. They have a preschool screening going on today so there are lots of extra people around and it's kind of chaotic.  I continue to put things away and organize a bit from our move.

come back to no chair & about 12 post-it notes of messages, lists, etc...

11am
Charlie is done with school so I take him back to daycare. He is pretty excited because they actually got to go outside for a bit today which is the first time in seemingly forever. I prod him about what else he did and he says they did a train painting project. He also got to play on the ipad which was a huge deal for him. All of the kids at daycare call him  "cha-cha" now so it's funny listening to when he gets back to the toy room and they're all yelling "CHA-CHA!!" Levi is very excited he's back. I go back to work and eat my lunch. It's leftover lasagna made with zucchini instead of noodles. Erik & I both liked it but neither of the boys would even touch it. Not sure why, but Charlie was insistent that he does not like green noodles. Erik calls and says he's on his way to the office to pick up his computer. It crashed on him while we were gone & it's already fixed so he takes advantage of  a decent weather day and heads into the cities.

I continue plugging away my to do list. One of my favorite afternoon activities is going to the grocery store! Yes, I get PAID to go to the grocery store and buy supplies for school readiness & ECFE classes. Even better, I get to go alone! I always laugh a little because when I was teaching I had to do all of my own shopping for supplies. It would have been amazing to have someone else do all of my errands for me. But, I do enjoy going to the grocery store (alone). It also allows me to pick up a few things if I need for home. Today I pick up some clementines for the boys. They love them and they can both peel them by themselves so it's win-win.

I was hoping to spend time organizing the library in the afternoon but the screening takes the whole day and they're using that room but I have no problem staying busy. I get an email from the athletic director with the worker schedules for February & she has signed me up to do the clock at JV and varsity basketball games every Friday night in February (plus tonight & next Friday). I don't mind and it's a liiiiiitttle bit of extra money but Fridays are the only days I will commit to with Erik's mostly unpredictable winter travel schedule. 

4:00pm
I was hoping to go home before my evening engagement but Erik stops by and says he'll just pick the boys up so I don't have to come back into town.  This is nice but it also means I won't get to see them for the rest of the day :( We switch vehicles since we haven't put the car seats back in the car yet.

6pm
It's a big rival game tonight. UGH, I don't mind doing the clock but I hate, hate, hate when the games are close or when it's a big rival game (Spoiler alert: this turns out to be both of these things) - just don't like all of that pressure and there's always those parents who are obnoxious and freaking out about something. I started offering to do the clock when I was teaching more as a fill in but have taken a little hiatus with having kids and quitting teaching.  This is my first year doing it in a couple of years and it's been fun. It's fun to watch some of my former students play. Also, it is a paid gig (and free popcorn), which by the time they take out taxes is not the most lucrative job but I have nothing else going on so it's fine. I got called to do it last night too and although I really didn't want to, I did, so this makes it 2 nights in a row. I also realize that I forgot to bring my bleacher chair. Hate sitting on bleachers and even was going to take it right out to the car last night so I wouldn't forget. Obviously, that didn't happen.

The JV game goes fine. We didn't win and I didn't screw up at all. Between games I grab a piece of pizza from  the concession stand. One thing that made me laugh was that right before they announced starting line up for the varsity game the coach said a player need the mic because he was going to ask a girl to prom. Prom asking is very hard core these days...anyways he was so nervous I'm not sure anyone actually heard what he sputtered out. But I suppose it was quite sweet. And she said yes.  So as I mentioned I don't like when games are close. We were down by 16 at halftime but somehow they managed to crawl back. I snapped this during a time out and was thinking this is my worst nightmare...

But it got worse from there...

At this point I was so nervous. I know that the refs would be watching the clock in case somebody called a time out or whatever but I just don't like it & the refs were missing plenty of calls during the game so I didn't want to rely on them! I decided I would rather go to OT & have it be more of a decisive game than a last second shot (like the last boys game I did). Come on boys, get it together! So the game goes in OT. We end up losing by 5 and it is all fine. But whew, hopefully the next few games won't be so intense.

 

Despite going into OT, we're still done by 8:50. Boys games go so much faster than girls, especially tonight when the refs really let them play and didn't call much for fouls. I'm able to be home by shortly after 9. As soon as I walk in the door I smell cleaning product. Erik gives me the recap. When they got home they had pizza soup & grilled cheese. Well Erik eats the soup and really likes it, Charlie tries it and Levi just says "NO SOUP" and refuses. Shocking. They didn't take baths tonight so they just played for awhile and then got ready for bed. Soon after getting them read to and in their beds, Erik heard Charlie rustling around. He found him at the top of the stairs saying his belly hurt & then threw up all over the carpet, thus the cleaning product smell.  He went right back to bed & seemed fine after that.

 

We discuss our day & I take a minute to take care of the diapers from daycare. I also get this lovely blizzard watch notification on my phone. We decide we should probably go out for any errands on Saturday since it's looking like we'll be stuck here on Sunday.

 

 

We  head to bed around 10 and decide to watch an episode of Breaking Bad. We watched season 1 on the plane to Hawaii so we are just a couple of episodes into season 2 but so far we both really like it. Since it's not on amazon prime we actually bought the season & downloaded it so it works really well being that we don't have to rely on the internet speed. 

 

And here's a pic of Levi since I didn't even manage to get a picture of him for the day. He's playing in his barn tent that he just loves!

The first time I documented a Day in the Life was when Levi was just a wee baby. You can read previous days here. So many things have changed since we first started this project!