A day in the life of me...

So I just have the urge to journal what we did today. Nothing earth shattering, but I just wanted to record a "Day in the life of" type thing.

This morning it was way too hard to wake up. With Rich out of town I've been staying up till around 1am, just having some quiet time after all the kids are in bed and just needing to actually be that exhausted to really go to sleep when he is out of town. Just last night when Rich and I were talking on the phone. He was mentioning that it was late and I should go to sleep soon... I told him that amazingly I've been waking up easily in the mornings- dispite the fact that I've been staying up late. Well I forgot to knock on wood or something, because this morning it was a lot harder to get myself up out of bed than it had been the previous mornings.

Alex and Ashley were up around 7am and to my surprise and pleasure were both dressed, and ready for school by 7:30am... that left them almost an hour to play and watch tv before the bus came- something that really is very very rare for them to both be completely ready that early in the morning.

Alyssa and Angela slept in a little later and didn't wake up until a little after 8am. Alyssa tends to be like me in the mornings... grumpy. I know I complain at times to Rich that she is absolutely fine, until she spots me- and then she needs to be right on me... So this morning was not unusual that she wanted me to hold her and sit with her. The unusual part was that Alex and Ashley were all ready for school, so I actually could just sit down with her on the couch and give her that attention that she craves.

Once Alex and Ashley got off on the bus, Alyssa and Angela had some breakfast, and I got myself dressed for the day. Somedays I have "feel good" days where I feel like I look nice, and I'm pulled together... today was one of my "feel bad" days where I feel like no matter what I do with my hair and makeup, and what clothes I put on, I just feel frumpy and blah... I had the worst back ache today and I think that contributed to the blad feeling about my appearance. By the time the girls ate, I got ready and then got the girls dressed and we loaded into the car- we were late for Institute.

I actually would have stayed home today, except this was the last class of the semester and the senior missionary couple that is teaching institute right now, will be going home from their mission next month. So I went... I'm glad I went. Although when I got there I was feeling fuzzy brained, and felt like I was reading passages in the scriptures and it wasn't penetrating any further than my eyeballs... after a while I was able to start focusing on the lesson, and feel the spirit. We were studying the last few chapters in Moroni and we each had the opportunity to "teach" a different part of the chapters. I'm so grateful that the institute opened up this class for us mom's to come and learn at. Sometimes it can be a little crazy with our little ones running in and out of the rooms, but I've enjoyed the time each week to go and dive into the scriptures more deeply than I find myself diving in at home when I just read at more of a surface level.

After Institute we all went out to eat at Jason's Deli... I'd never been there before, but it was really good! http://www.jasonsdeli.com/files/pdf/menu/dmi.pdf Since Rich is out of town we've been having corn dogs, frozen pizza, mac and cheese, and plain pasta with alfredo sauce... so I enjoyed haveing some food that had more interesting flavors than those kid favorites do... the girls were able to have their favorite mac and cheese and they have a little self serve ice cream machine and ice cream cones (at no additional charge) so they each had a little vanilla ice cream cone afterward.

We then had to hurry and drop off Alyssa at school, and Angela and I came home for a little while. I posted earlier about Angela's little escapades this afternoon with the dvd's and the tomato's... then Angela and I played a few games, I shuffled around some laundry, and then it was time to go drive to Alyssa's school and sit in the pick up line. My back was still bothering me, so I stopped by Sonic and got a root beer for 1/2 price so the caffeine could help boost the ibuprofen I had been taking. I don't know if it helps back aches, but I know with headaches the caffeine helps... so I thought I would give it a try...I usually stay away from caffeine and soda, so when I do have some it usually does affect me.

Angela and I sat and I read a book while she watched a movie while we waited to pick up Allyssa... Then we headed over to pick up Ashley and Alex at their school. I'm so excited that next year they will all be at the same school, and the year after that when Angela goes to Pre-K, they will have the Pre-K program up and running at the kids elementary school so we won't have to do two schools like we are doing this year! Also next year Alyssa can ride the bus home with Ashley and Alex, so I'll only have to drop her off mid day instead of dropping off and then picking up 2 1/2 hours later... :)

We came home and Alyssa wanted to play Lego Starwars... neither Alex or Ashley wanted to play, so I tried my hand at it. My 4 year old definitly can play the game better than I can! I had trouble just figuring out how to aim my character in the right direction to shoot the storm troopers! lol! I did get a little better after a little while, but I'll stick to playing with Alyssa... I don't think Alex or Ashley would enjoy me trying to play with them... I'd just hold them back. :)

Then I happened to take a really good look at Angela and realize that she was just amazingly filthy... she had had a fun day and it showed! So we gave her a quick bath, while I had the other kids change into some clean clothes. We then went to sonic and got something for dinner, and then ate it in the car and went to a family friends new Dental office that he is opening up. He had his open house tonight and I thought it would be good to let the kids see what the office looked like. Alex and Ashley are fine going to the dentist, but Alyssa is very very hesitant and shy- she hasn't ever had a successful appointment so I asked her if she wanted to go and she did... By the end of the time we were there she was playing with the dental chair. She still didn't want to sit in it, but she was actually speaking and said she wanted to sit in the dentists chair at least. I think we'll make some appointments for Alex and Ashley and have her go and watch how they sit still in the chairs and let the dentist look in their mouths... hopefully then she'll open up a little more (literally and figureatively) to the Dentist (and the fact that we know him might help too, we can only hope!). They were giving out cups of coldstone creamery ice cream as "refreshments" at the office, so the kids and I all got our cups and drove home to eat them. Of course ice cream wound up on the kids clothes as well as hands and faces, so we had a round of baths for the girls.

During this time the tornado watch weather radio went off, so I had to turn the tv on and check out where that was for. It was south east of us so we weren't in any danger of anything.

Pj's, brushing teeth, prayer, and stories... and the kids actually went to sleep rather quickly... Angela fell asleep before 9pm!! Well, only by a minute or two, but still that's much earlier than she's been falling asleep all week long... it was a happy moment for me... :)

And now maybe possibly I'll have a few hours of quiet time and be tired enough to go to sleep before midnight??? We'll see...

Oh... I wanted to note that today I did eat out a lot... this is NOT typical or normal... When Rich is out of town I always promise myself one night of that week that I will take the kids out for dinner and not have to make anything, or clean up anything at home... tonight was that night... and lunch... we'll that's an institute thing... every few weeks we get together afterward and have lunch together.

So that's my "Day in the life of..." nothing incredibly glamourous, but it was overall good and fun. :)