another weekend in the life of... us

I love this picture. I can't guarantee I can do it again... but I'll definitely try.

Hi! First off - have any of you ever eaten a yoplait yogurt that tasted like dirt? Literally, like dirt? I have. Yesterday. It was nasty. And I LOVE raspberry yoplait yogurt. It's one of my staples. I was highly disappointed. It hurts when you're looking forward to something so sweet and familiar and then you're so miserably let down. I know, it's just yogurt. Just read on...

My taste of dirt seemed to be the capstone on what turned out to be a rather crummy day. My last post was all peppy and fun, detailing the great day I had last week.... (which was followed by a day with some girl friends at the Gilroy outlets... with no kids! What a week! Thanks, Love!). Well, yesterday was pretty much the complete opposite of my days of goodness last week. Let me just spell it out for you:

1. Toddler with a fever - a 103 fever - for two+ days. (And do you remember this incident? And since his second seizure posted little to no warning signs, any sort of fever freaks me out... like sitting on pins and needles all weekend. And forget about sleeping!)

2. No husband. (It's all Clark's fault. I blame him for my misery.... just kidding. Well, sort of. Todd's longtime best bud Clark got hitched this weekend. Yay! Congrats, guys! Wish we all could have been there.)

3. A newly mobile baby who gets into EVERYTHING and finds any and every way to get stuck or hurt.... how am I suppose to mummy wrap Ryder in two thick blankets (in addition to sleeper jammies) so I can get him to stop shaking/whimpering and give him his medicine if Cannon is in the other room throwing toys on his own head?

You may actually wonder how I did it - well, I took Cannon over to the neighbor's house until I could get Ryder settled down. Luckily, those same neighbors are making the move to the Seattle area with us! The differences in our situations are the pay stub and rank. Essentially, she's going to be Todd's boss. :)

4. With a less than 760 square foot two bedroom apartment (with no garage), it doesn't take much for things to get out of control. I don't think my house had ever seen such a disaster. Toys and books everywhere; evidence of a recent Costco trip in the entryway; sewing machine and fabric scraps all over the table and floor; dishes in the sink from before Todd left two days ago; piles of dirty and clean laundry on any available floor space (and wow, that dirty laundry was really dirty. What a stench!.... am I painting a good picture for you here?); boxes piled up just waiting to be filled; and a sheet-less bed (oh how I hate not having a bed to curl up on with the kids/book/computer/etc!).

5. My bathroom clearly exhibited evidence of a two-year-old "potty trained" boy living in the house. Gross. So gross this deserved its own bullet.

6. I officially won the worst mother of the year award and somehow allowed Cannon to crawl all over outside and get splinters up and down his legs. Please don't ever remind me of this incident. I may just cry. Again. I even tried a bunch of home remedies on his little legs to try and lure those mean little things out. Poor kid.

Luckily he didn't seem to mind a day later.

Or the day of, for that matter.

7. Then I ate the "dirt" mentioned previously. So sad.

8. The night rounded out with Ryder waking up off and on and me sitting in front of "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"... I really didn't want to clean my house at 10pm and that movie brings back a lot of fun university memories. Wow, we watched that flick way too much. (Did I just say 'university'? - My Canadian influencers are rubbing off on me.)

There were good things that came from the day.... I can recognize them now. But they were hiding yesterday.

1. I made great progress on a wall hanging for the kid's playroom in the new house. I'll post pictures when it's done... or maybe when it's up and hanging.

2. Ryder had two "normal" hours after the medicine kicked in, and we had fun enjoying the sun with tricycle riding, bug searching, and flower picking.

He's getting pretty good at this tricycle thing...

Cannon didn't like me very much. I'm such a mean mom - not only do I allow him to get slivers in his legs, I also won't let him eat the nasty, dried up leaves.

Ben. Marcus. Todd. You're all in trouble. My two year old is now trying to make fire with his magnifying glass. You three are responsible if he burns our house down!

3. I've been blessed with two great, helpful friends - our neighbor who stopped and got us milk on her way home from the hospital (and checked Ryder to make sure he wasn't suffering from something too serious) and Diana who so graciously came and sat and read books with feverish Ryder while I ran to get him more Children's Tylenol (.... and even came back later to our crazy household to figure out this whole sewing project with me).

4. Our hour or so outside allowed me to break out the camera and take some fun outdoor shots. I love taking pictures! There's something so relaxing, challenging and peaceful about it. You really do get to see life in a different way. You appreciate the details more. At least that's what I've noticed.

Our day today has gone much better - still not the greatest ever, but it's been better. Ryder still has his high fever, but we had a bit more time of happiness today compared to yesterday. And the weather is still sunny and gorgeous. That's gotta make anyone feel a bit happier. What am I going to do with all of that northwest rain!?!

Ta ta for now.

P.S. We move four weeks from tomorrow, and I haven't started packing yet. Yes, I am feeling overwhelmed.

What a cute face! Wouldn't you agree?