ramblings

Peeking back at my calendar and the rundown of events and tasks I had accomplished over the week, it's no wonder I'm feeling so tired right now. It was a great week, though, and I feel good in knowing that we spent a lot of quality time with friends and family and a lot was accomplished around the house and with my side projects.

But I can't have 7 days straight without a little drama in my life. With 4 girls in our family, how can you expect less? My husband once compared the drama levels in our house to that of the Jerry Springer show. Since I've been away from my blog for a while, and I know you've missed my daily ramblings, I feel it only appropriate to document my week and share a little of my daily drama with you.

Monday was an all around good day. I brought my girls to the gym, as I do every Monday, so I could go to my yoga class. Due to my impatient nature, I don't particularly enjoy doing strengthening poses for hour, but I force myself to do it knowing I'll appreciate the workout when I'm done. One of the most irritating things about this class is listening to my instructor talk. She has a tendency, which I think in her mind is a relaxation technique, to drag out every third word of her sentences. If I typed out her sentences, they'd look something like this: "Take a deep bbbbbrrrreeeeaaaatttthhhhh," or "relax your hhhhhheeeeeaaaaddddd" or worse yet, "Hover in crocoddddiiiiillllleeee." To her credit, though, anything would annoy you while hovering in the crocodile. It's like the hardest position ever. Despite the annoying tendency, my instructor is the sweetest, most genuine person and even brought chocolate for us last week. Monday was a good day. Not a lot of drama.

Tuesday was my productive day, meeting with my friend, Erica, to discuss MOPS stuff. I'm spearheading a MOPS ministry at my church, starting in the fall, and Erica has graciously agreed to be the assistant Coordinator. I am thrilled beyond words to have her working with me and feel less stressed about everything. I also sent off numerous emails to church leaders and got myself and my office a little organized, so I felt really good about Tuesday. My husband almost forgot he played softball that night at 8 & 9:00pm, so at last minute, I was ditched at home on the couch. But it wasn't too bad, as it gave me an opportunity to catch up on The Office episodes I've missed. I love that show.

It's Wednesday and you know what that means. I'm off to my 12:00pm F.I.T. class. As always, it was an intense, but great workout. My friend, Erica, joined me as my guest at class and we had fun getting our butts kicked together. I'm always sore after F.I.T, but I must've done something unusual during class that day, because by late afternoon I had the worst cramp in my neck and this cramp has been a literal pain in my neck since. I'm not the type to take medicine lightly, especially while I'm nursing, but I've been popping extra-strength Tylenol everyday as it's the only way I can seem to function. The pain seems to be getting worse and is traveling down my shoulders now. I think I need to seek professional help. Believe me, I'm not being dramatic about this. It HURTS! Blasted F.I.T class!

We packed up the kids Wednesday afternoon and headed 45 minutes south to visit some good friends of ours. We hadn't seen them forever and we had fun hanging out and catching up on life. Chloe enjoyed playing with their son, Logan, who we determined she's going to marry someday.

By the time we left for home, the girls had crossed their thresholds from being a little sleepy to completely exhausted and beyond crabby. We ended our nice night by driving 45 minutes back home with three screaming girls and two massive headaches.

Thursday marked Ella's last day of preschool for the year. They had invited families to come share in their last day by watching a puppet show and having an ice cream social. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time as a family. As we were heading back to our van, Britten, who tends to be the clumsy one of the bunch, happened to fall face first on the concrete parking lot. She stood up screaming with a mouth full of rocks and scrapes all over her hands, elbows and knees. To top it off, Ella bumped her lip getting into the van and gave herself a bloody lip. Once again, we ended our nice morning together with screaming. Why does that always happen?

I was able to get out Thursday afternoon for a nice, long run, but the moment I walked in the door, I started seeing the flashes of light that indicated I was getting a migraine. My second migraine in a week, no less. Ugh! I was rendered useless from that moment on for the rest of the day. I did have a chance to online grocery shop that night, and you'd be happy to know I haven't made the broccoli mistake again.

Friday was an early morning. My husband's parents were coming for a visit and had agreed to watch the girls that night so I could attend my cousin's wedding. Because of my migraine the day before, I never had a chance to clean our house. Between cleaning and picking up groceries, I finished just in time to greet them at the door around 2:00pm. It was a nice afternoon, chit-chatting and hanging out on the deck with the girls. I left for the wedding a little later than I wanted, hit unexpected traffic trying to pick up my brother and ended up missing the wedding ceremony altogether because of it. I felt absolutely terrible and was near tears by the time I got to the church. My brother was laughing, because of course, men don't get it. We were almost late to the reception, too, thanks to Google maps.

Saturday was just as early as Friday, but this time it was thanks to Chloe. It gave me a little time to plan and organize for the baby shower I was attending later that morning. Though my husband was OUT of town for the weekend for work, his brother and wife were IN town from Chicago. They're expecting their first baby in July and we had their family shower this weekend. I offered to do the games, which was a harder task than I anticipated. For as many baby showers as I've hosted, I've never had to plan a game appropriate for ages 2-84. :) I packed up the girls, made a pit-stop at Target on the way to the shower, and arrived almost 20 minutes early. That, in itself, is a miracle. The shower was wonderful and was a reminder of how lucky I am to have married into such an amazing, loving and accepting family. I wish my husband could've been there, but such is life for my traveling man.

I spent Saturday night with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, along with their spouses. They came over once I got the girls to bed, and we enjoyed a night of watching movies and eating homemade caramel popcorn.

And finally, Sunday. Today. I brought the girls to church and headed straight to my husband's grandparents for lunch following the service. It was the last hoorah before everyone headed back home. My husband's flight made it back just in time to spend an hour or two with his brother and wife and his parents. I'm glad he had some time with them, even it was just a couple hours.

I went back to church tonight, while my husband stayed home with the girls, to attend a 3 hour seminar about finding my talents and God-given spiritual gifts. It was a very insightful seminar and a nice, relaxing way to come down from my weekend. They even provided me with dinner at the seminar, so as you can imagine, I felt like I was on a date! 1/2 date, that is, because I was missing my other half.

Which leads me to now. 10:39pm on Sunday. I'm tired and I have a headache from my pinched nerve in my neck, but the house is quiet and I don't hear that very often around here. I'll finish this absurdly long post, that I'm sure you stopped reading about 5 paragraphs ago, and promise to never ramble on and on about such boring happenings.

Good Night!