Laminating-Mania, Busy Bags and Customer Service...

A few observations and experiences from this week: 

-It really sucks being sick when you are a mom
You all are very fortunate to be getting this post today. I finally succumbed to the 34897 different sicknesses that all my children have been passing around amongst themselves. Layla had a 24 hour stomach virus in the beginning of the week, Olivia still had a cough from her last cold and then decided to go for round two. I then got a legit call from the school nurse on Friday... Summer had apparently thrown up in the hall. (I felt so utterly bad for her and was slightly worried because those kinds of things can follow you around for years. Fortunately a friend was walking her to the health room so there was only one witness. Phew. Kids can be cruel). I have to say I do enjoy the  "she hit herself in the eye with her zipper" call much better than the puking one. So on Sunday, it got me. Everything at once. I felt like death and barely moved from bed all day. I couldn't have been happier that this happened on a weekend so Matt could take care of the girls. There are few things worse than feeling that miserable and having to be mommy through it all. 

-I have found a passion for laminating
My sister saw this shirt and made a very specific phone call just to tell me about it: 

Story.Of.My.Life. I become obsessed with organization, labels, etc... but then I never keep it that way. I like to, I'm just too scattered... but then that drives me insane. It can be tough living inside my brain. So on my continued quest to provide some independence for the girls around the house, my next mission was to eliminate all excuses for not putting their clean clothes away. Enter: clothing labels. So before I began this project, I had an irresistible urge to buy a laminating machine. I don't know why, I just really really wanted it. Amazon (obvi) brought me to the perfect, amazingly reviewed, budget-friendly beauty that I would receive in two days with my fab prime membership. I mean I don't know about you, but there have been what seems like upteen times that I have thought to myself, "I really need to laminate this." So after the excitement of the laminator delivery, I then scoured the internet in search for the perfect clothing images... far harder than I had anticipated. After saving a trillion to my computer, adjusting them, printing them out, re-outlining them myself, and pasting them onto adorable paper (Layla- green, Summer- purple. I had to switch them after depression ensued)... my laminator went into action. Here are the results: 

Shirt Types

Leggings/Sweatpants or Jeans

Pajamas, Underwear and Socks

I attached them to their drawers with an adhesive velcro coin so I can change location of things when I want or with changing seasons. Good news: Layla and Summer put every last piece of clothing in the proper drawer, easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. HOORAY!! My stupid work paid off, but now if I can just get them to put their DIRTY laundry where it belongs...

-My kids need to learn to PLAY BY THEMSELVES!!!! 
With this recent colder weather, I have come to the unfortunate realization that outside is just not going to be an option for much longer. I know they would be fine, but let's be serious... I don't want to freeze my butt off. We spend A LOT of time outside during the other seasons, so to have them cooped up inside all winter is sort of a nightmare... unless I want them to watch TV all day. My sister had told me about "busy bags" years ago, but the girls usually just played with each other. Now with Livi totally alone three days a week (totes not what she is used to), she epically sucks at playing by herself. Layla isn't great without their fearless leader Summer either. My work commenced. So I started off with a semi-ghetto puff ball situation from a yogurt container with a hole in the top. 

I don't know why pushing those puffs through the hole and dumping them out is entertaining, but it is and that is ALL that matters. 

Next up was a matching picture game. My printer is basically out of ink so I will be redoing these, but I just printed a few animals pics, cut them in half, laminated them (obvi), and voila. 

I then decided to order a few items to make things more interesting. 

Velcro Craft Sticks. Literally just stuck the velcro coins on them.  


















Clip the clothes pin with the number that corresponds to the dots (More laminating! And educational!! Bonus!!): 

Match the upper case top part of the egg to the lower case bottom part: 

And a felt board situation: 

Okay I bought the last one... do you know how annoying it is to cut out all of those shapes?!?! And judging from the dog hair visible in the picture, they have already played with it. 

I have a few more in the works (stringing beads, dry-erase shape/letter tracing, etc), and I have been figuring out different age-appropriate ones for Layla vs Olivia, but the point of these is to bring them out, have them play with them for a period of time, and then put them away. Don't let them get sick of it. Since I have been working on these I feel like they have been watching more TV than normal, but you have to reach your goals somehow... I am just searching for more things to laminate. 

-I use curbside grocery pick-up because I DON'T want to put myself through the hell that is known as shopping with my children
I have previously discussed this fantastical service that Harris Teeter provides. I shop online at home (my specialty in general. Lucky Matt), select a time to pick it up, they load it into my car, and perfection. No tantrums, screaming, sweating, forgetting things, buying extra things, 57 cookies, mania that is shopping with small children. There are few things I hate more. So the night before I pulled up all of my items, chose the pickup time for before I drive carpool for Layla's school, and went to sleep at peace knowing that the next day we would actually have food in this house. Now the customer service at Harris Teeter is beyond exceptional. I actually regret each time I go to Safeway because despite the convenience of beer and wine, someone always does something that is just so irritating that I internally re-avow my allegiance to the Teeter. So prior to this time, I have never had a single issue with an order. My produce is always phenom, meat fresh, and all items accounted for. Now there is one employee at HT who is just a little... shall we say, odd. Very nice, just different. First bad sign: I received four phone calls the morning I was supposed to pickup my order, asking about substituting the things they were out of, giving me bigger cans of this, that, etc. She was rambling on but I did hear her say something about a bigger can of tuna and a bigger can of pumpkin puree. No prob, whatever, I can deal. When I opened my trunk for my groceries to be loaded, I see her and immediately become concerned. I become more concerned when she makes a side comment about how heavy my meat is (pork tenderloin... should be 2 1/2-3lbs). I am increasingly concerned when she has me sign two different receipts, with the main one significantly more  (like over $20) than I had been anticipating (the second one was for items she had added later. I know, I was confused too). Unfortunately I had kids to pick up from school, so dissecting my receipt was not a possibility at that moment. When I got home and started to unload the bags, I am met with the meat... and yes, she had every reason to make a comment about how heavy it was. Instead of giving me the small, normal package of pork tenderloin as I had ordered, she gave me a ginormica of a pork loin that had to have been three feet long. I mean it was as tall as Layla!!! It also weighed in at nearly TEN pounds. Hereeee is the extra $20 on my bill. I still got it half-price, but paid $27 instead of the $8 I was supposed to. So oh well. We have the mammoth meat. Matt looked up how to cut it up and we essentially will get like 10 meals from that one behemoth. The next morning I get up and go to make the girls breakfast and that is when I discovered: no bananas. I requested six bananas and they are nowhere. I checked the car too. Okay so mammoth meat and no bananas. I fish out my receipt to check everything else. I find that I also paid for an extra can of tuna and I was given a large can of pumpkin pie filling instead of 100% puree. Not okay considering I was making a dessert that day with the pumpkin puree that needed to be chilled overnight. 

Due to these fatal errors (and the fact that I was nearly out of deodorant and didn't want to use Matt's for three days again), I did the last thing in the world that I wanted to do (which is why I use this service), and packed up Layla and Livi to go to the store. I kindly explained all of the issues to the home shopping manager person (who was off the day before, natch), and she proceeded to make corrections. She gave me money back for the can of tuna AND another $20 for the difference in meat. I got my pumpkin puree (they were NOT out of it... look with your eyes and not with your mouth, as my mother would say) and my bananas. All the while my kids are snotty, whining, crying, and miserable.... and I am sweating, trying to explain the problems, and chucking cookies at them in hopes of silence. Meltdowns started happening and I was spastically trying to get out of there, so as I was turning to go the woman yelled after me that she would add another $5 credit to my account. While it doesn't erase me having to come into the store, they did try to compensate (and I got my deodorant). I don't blame the odd woman (total lie), but I hope they make sure she stays in a position that she can succeed in (aka not picking out my groceries). Maybe other people have the luxury of not caring, but I am not one of them... I have too much laminating to do. 

-This is my blog so I get to have a proud mommy moment
I had my parent-teacher conference yesterday for Summer and she started out, "Before I get into the specifics can I just tell you that you have the sweetest, cutest little girl." :o) I knew that, but hooray. Nothing but advanced and proficient in absolutely everything. AND she has slept in her OWN bed ALL night for FOUR nights in a row. YESSSSSSSSS!!!! I had Layla's parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago and I will say, it was the first one I have ever been nervous for. Not that Layla is bad, she is just so completely different and one of the youngest in her class. I wasn't sure how she really was in school. My worry was silly because she got 100% raves as well, and it was from the same teacher Summer had last year. So basically, my kids are great for everyone else and total hellions for me. At least it isn't the other way around.

The madness continues... Wish me well. 

Happy Wednesday! 

NashVegas and an Epic Halloween...

Per usual, my apologies for being MIA. Went to Nashville and had a party. Cleaning took priority. Can I just first take a moment to discuss that while I loved "gaining" an hour of my life this past weekend, Olivia is now up and on the go at around 6:30... this means I get zero alone time to settle, have a cup of coffee, and breathe before the chaos of the day starts. It is 6:30am right now while I am editing this, and she is sitting on my lap attempting to type. Don't expect me to fix grammatical errors and typos in this one... She is barely letting me see the screen. 

First up: Nashville.

So the president of Matt's company (Remmie) and his wife (Carin) are super fun, amazeballs people. We had gone out to sushi one night several months ago and somehow the subject of Nashville came up. The boys had been (for work only) but us ladies hadn't. I am a massive country music fan and love boots... What could be wrong with Nashville?!?! We fleetingly discussed planning a trip for the fall (sidenote... I never really thought it was going to come to fruition). Well it did. I had absolutely ZERO to do with any and all planning and I did NO research. Lucky for us a dear friend of ours went to Vanderbilt for grad school and sent detailed recommendations. So I felt guilty for a nanosecond that we were going away for a second time within one year without the kids...then I got over it. We have been married for nearly seven years and have essentially been away for two nights total until we went to the Derby. We deserve it. 

So another awesome couple from work decided to come as well. Like I said in the last post, I didn't really process it was even happening until pretty much the day before we were leaving (in part due to the fact that part of the planning was when I was still working, aka when I had no clue what was going on in most parts of my life). We had somehow finagled childcare (due to people offering)... Liz and Conor (newlyweds from this post) wanted to take Olivia for the weekend (I was actually really happy about that because she deserves some one-on-one attention sometimes). Summer and Layla were going to be between my mother-in-law and brother-in-law(Ben)/his girlfriend Sofi (aka previous nanny). I frantically ran around like a psychotic person the day before, but somehow got everyone packed with what they need (blankies, noise machine, Mickey/Minnie, etc). We got off to a good start in the morning and actually left before we were planning (miracles do happen). Checked in at the airport, got through security, and settled down at the airport bar for breakfast and Bloody Mary's.... perfection, right? The pit in my stomach from the worry of forgetting things started to slowly melt away with each sip and the excitement for the weekend started creeping in. We finished our food and drinks and mosied on over to our gate... where we were met with this: 

Of course no one was at our gate to let us know what the heck was going on. We were supposed to be boarding at this point, and now we had no flight and no idea how or when we were getting there. Finally we got a woman to pay attention to us (her sluggish demeanor and lack of initiative was slightly troublesome). She informed us that we were rebooked on the next flight, which was at 1:45pm. Okay perfect, we can handle that. Back to the bar we go. After that debacle we arrive in Nashville and shockingly our luggage arrive with us. 

Cab to the hotel was simple. We stayed at The Hermitage Hotel which is an absolutely amazing/five-star everything/I am not classy enough to be here type of place. I mean, I love a place that turns down your bed at night, leaving you chocolate and robes. It had our very own espresso machine!! Heaven!!! 

We only had enough time to unpack and freshen up before we met down at the bar with everyone for drinks and then headed over to the Grand Ole Opry. As I said before, zero research for this trip.... but we found out the day before that Lady Antebellum was going to be there!!! In addition to that, Love and Theft (you would recognize their songs if you like country), Brandy Clark (totally amazing up-and-coming artist), and a lot of honky-tonk people that are apparently very famous but I was clueless about. Connie Smith sang (she is in the Country Music Hall of Fame and she is married to some guy singer who was wearing really strange leather pants). The show was awesome!!! I had no idea it was an actual live radio broadcast!! They even had the actor Eric Close stop in for some guest announcing (he is currently on the show Nashville, has a recurring role in Suits on USA, and was on Without a Trace for forever). 

Seriously an awesome show. 

The next day was Remmie's birthday so his goal in life was to sit at an awesome bar with live music and watch college football games. He succeeded. My favorite quote of the weekend was from Remmie, who stated, "I wouldn't go to an art museum unless there was nuclear warfare, and it was the only place I could go to breathe, AND there is beer there." The ladies walked around and shopped, where we found our boots... buy one, get two free!!! So essentially I got a pair of totally perfect, normally $350 boots for $127. You don't need to talk me into that.

Loveee them. In addition to my boots, I would have loved to purchase this item but just couldn't bring myself to do it: 

They had a beer belly too. So Nashville is just gorg: 

And we hung out at Honky Tonk Central for most of the day: 

Seriously such amazing live music. And these are the people who aren't making it!!! Craziness. We went to The Southern that evening for a super delicious dinner where Matt actually got to select his specific meat. Vegetarians, turn away now: 

He chose a mere 27.5oz slab. Our waiter snuck in the back of this pic so it pretty much looks like they are BFFs. 

We bar-hopped the rest of the night and the majorly interesting thing was some girl was hitting on Matt and was trying to get him to buy her a drink... you have no idea how close I was to spider-monkeying her up. Those would have been awesome pics. 

On Sunday we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Kenny Rogers was being inducted so they were setting up the red carpet which I obvi snuck onto: 

The flight home was uneventful and I missed my babies SO much. We had such a great weekend... then back to reality on Monday!!! 

Next up: Halloween

Pumpkins were carved (and one was eaten by a deer much to Matt's devastation): 

Orange pancakes were (frantically) made and devoured: 

School parades and parties were attended, costumes were donned and trick or treating occurred: 

Next time I am at my mom's I am determined to find the (many) pics of me wearing that very same pumpkin costume. 

Now. If you are aware of my neighborhood, you will know that we moved onto the "party street." Neighbors select holidays and have ginormous parties to celebrate... complete with catering, a DJ and full bar. One night when we were all just hanging out, we somehow got talked into having a low-key, everyone brings stuff Halloween party. It started out small and then turned into something much bigger. So Sofi (brother-in-law's girlfriend/previous nanny) has a mother (Robyn) who had a previous career/current passion of interior decorating, in addition to a love of halloween and all related decor. Score one for us. Robyn came over and went to TOWN for our party decor. Unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice because what she created was a work of art. The lighting and ambiance was utterly perfect, and everyone seriously couldn't believe what she had turned our house into. 

I really wish these pictures could in any way show the amazeballness that it really was. My house was utterly transformed. Costumes were required and somehow every single person dressed up. So my costume choice was based on the constant, incessant teasing I get from my neighbors for my age. The fact that I was born in the 80's is such a foreign/troubling concept to them. To give them a little nod, I decided to dress up as an 80's workout girl... complete with thong leotard over neon tights, leg warmers. cut-off shirt, Reebok classics, and blue eye shadow. I ordered my costume piece-by-piece to attain the right look. To achieve a proper look for my partner, I didn't have to look far... what exemplifies 80's and exercise more than our namesake, Richard Simmons himself?!? The costume was ordered immediately, which Matt refused to try on until just moments before the party because he "didn't want to dread it any more" than he already was. What occurred, my friends, was epic: 

Now we are just scheming ways to get him in this costume again... perhaps Summer's first date? I don't want to wait that long... 

Happy Wednesday!! 

Endless Pee, a Busy Weekend and a Sharpie...

So I have been having nearly a week of those “you've got to be kidding” days. Ya know, those days where things keep happening and you just think to yourself, "Seriously???? I mean, come on now." Well, that has been occurring nearly every day since last Wednesday. Let me begin.

It all started last week when I was husbandless. The week was long. The week was rough. The week seemed NEVER-ENDING. Wednesday is the day I drive carpool for Layla's preschool. She had her pumpkin patch field trip that day (it was conveniently located at the front of her school/church), so I dropped her off and prepped me and Livi to go back by 10:15. Livi and I arrived on time (huge feat), and Layla sprinted over to greet us. All happiness so far. First up was a hayride around the church which was glorious times. Next was your choice of picking your pumpkin, a baby pool filled with corn kernels (sensory situation), a mini moonbounce, a maze, and face/hand painting. Now normally I would have enjoyed each one to the fullest... but oh wait, I have a psychotic child that decides that 22 months old is the perfect time to practice for those terrible twos. Now I have never dealt with that child with the blood-curdling scream, arched back, straight-up bitterness and anger. Well. I can check that one off the list. I have now. Olivia decided that whatever she wanted to do was exactly what was going to occur, and if that didn't happen... well, watch out. I was that mom. The one that you pity, assess how she handles it, and feel so so SO happy that it is not your child. Yep. That was me at the pumpkin patch. I was so involved in dealing with Olivia that I got one lone picture of Layla the entire time. 

I know. She still looks adorable. But ONE picture? I am semi-heartbroken. So to deal with Olivia's wrath I just had to remove her from the situation and take her home. I just couldn't. 

Wednesday evening arrived and a wonderful girlfriend came over to drink wine and catch up. My focus was that it was the last night I would be alone. I let Summer and Layla fall asleep in my bed, thinking it would be an easier process. Sidenote... I just need to remind myself that it is NEVER easier and just do it the normal way every night. After a schmillion times of hearing "Mom, I have something to tell you." Or "Mom, Layla is kicking me." Or "Mom, we are telling each other just one more story." (okay that one is cute), those two FINALLY fell asleep in my bed. I go up to bed, SO excited this will be the last night I am alone, and transfer Summer to her bed and Layla to hers. I go back to my room ready to dive into my nice comfy bed when I lie down in fully soaked sheets. Obviously Layla peed through her pull-up. So not only are my sheets peed through, but now hers are dirty because I didn't realize it until now. Awesome. I have to awkwardly wake her up to not only strip her sheets but change and clean her as well. Ehh whatever, all she really needs is blankie to sleep so I put a random blanket down over her mattress and she is out. I strip my sheets, but decide to wait until morning to wash everything. I am far too tired. I put a random top sheet down on top of the mattress, grab an extra blanket, and fall dead asleep.  

At last it was Thursday, finally the day Matt would be home. He was driving home from North Carolina so I knew he wouldn't be around until the evening. The morning was the usual chaos of breakfast, brushing teeth, getting dressed, doing hair, making lunch, packing Summer’s backpack, getting her to the bus stop (with the other two still in pajamas of course). I finally was able to wash both my sheets and Layla’s sheets and remake the beds. So Matt's aunt and cousin were visiting from out of town so they brought over his grandma (and his cousin's new baby son) for lunch. We had a great afternoon of catching up and enjoying each other's company. Summer was taking her first Spanish class after school (she can roll her r's like a true native speaker, I swear) so instead of her coming home on the bus I had to pick her up at 4:15. Everyone left around 4 (after bringing us lunch, cleaning my kitchen and folding my laundry… Can they come over more often?), and I went and got Summer. Her big words from the day that she learned were “no” (what am I paying for???) and “grey” in Spanish. Hmm. Anyways, I finally addressed my gas light (which had essentially been screaming at me) and decided that the seven miles I had left just wasn't going to cut it. I went to get gas, and finally got home around 4:30. 

Now last week a dear, wonderful friend passed away suddenly, and the viewing was Thursday evening. She was the mother of friends who are basically family and “Grandma Pat” was truly one of the best. This is something we would never dream of missing. I was going to get a sitter, but my mother-in-law and brother-in-law were going to come with me so I figured that would be enough help. It actually worked out that Matt was going to meet us there. Of course my plan for the day just was not thought through. I didn't shower in the morning or even think about outfits for me or the girls. I am in theory supposed to have us all ready by around 5:15... and it is currently 4:30. I frantically jump in the shower while racking my brain about what to wear. I am a mom or a nurse, so viewing-appropriate clothing is just not something I have. I find a pair of black pants that must be from college that I throw on with a random top. Of course the belt that would bring the outfit into this decade was absolutely nowhere to be found, due to my stupid reorganization projects. A different one that is supposed to go around the waist (not hips) is the only one I can find. I can make it work but I need another hole in it. Not to worry, Ben (brother-in-law) can do that. I grab random outfits for the girls, start getting them dressed, allow my mother-in-law to take over that job. I grab a few snacks, thank Ben for the new hole in the belt, and voila, we are on our way. Traffic, of course. Now in my rush and not thinking properly, I hadn't really processed how long this ride would be. Ben drove my car (yay), but it took no less than an hour. If you remember previous blogs, you will have learned something about one of my dear, adorable daughters. I did a mommy fail in a major way. I forgot dramamine. Just MINUTES before we were to arrive, Layla got carsick and threw up everywhere. Here is my text to/from Matt, when I was sort of in awe of what just happened.

So my mother-in-law was sitting in the way back with Summer so she was frantically trying to clean her up with the wipes I was frantically throwing at her. In order to keep the smell down, I put down my window which was directly in front of Olivia who was laughing HYSTERICALLY at the wind whipping her hair everywhere. I hadn't realized that she took her pigtails out (which are tiny clear elastics and could never be found again). Awesome. So we get to the funeral home with one covered in puke and the other with hair literally sticking straight out on both sides. AKA, a totally hot mess. I had an extra t-shirt and leggings in the diaper bag so we cleaned Layla up and put that on her, then put her coat over buttoned up so it didn't look like she was completely underdressed for the occasion. I then thought to myself, if these little girls can make at least one person smile here tonight, it will be worth it. And it was. They can make people smile despite smelling like vomit or having psychotic hair. We supported our friends, I was FINALLY reunited with my hubby, and we paid our respects to Grandma Pat. Now of course I hadn't fed them dinner so we all went to a restaurant nearby, which happened to be Mexican/Italian. I know, I have never been to a place like that either. Thankfully we were the only ones in the place (shocker) and had a reasonably uneventful meal. Drove home, put the girls to bed, and collapsed ourselves.

Friday was some teacher planning day or something, so Summer was off school. Layla was up all night long and woke up with a fever and some respiratory thing so I kept her home from school. Olivia peed through her diaper and woke up totally soaked. Ahhh pee. Stripped her bed, washed her sheets. Feels like my daily routine. So I thought it would be easier with Summer home. Yeahhhh not so much. Now that she is in school and occupied all day long, she required constant attention from me... while I was attempting to work on my friend’s baby shower gift, bake a pumpkin-related dessert for the baby shower, hold Layla essentially the entire day because she felt so miserable and that was all she wanted, find time to go to the store for the other ingredients, go to the toy store for birthday presents for Summer’s birthday parties that weekend, wrap both, etc. They occupied themselves for approximately 3.7 minutes. 

That night we put the girls to bed very early and I finally got to sit down for more than 13 seconds and be with my hubby. We talked, caught up on our TV shows, and stayed up later than we should have. I will not apologize for that one. I had missed him and we needed it.

So Saturday morning I slept later than I intended and I had to kick it into gear. The baby shower in DC was adorable. My gift was a “hospital essentials kit” that included socks, shower shoes, a mini toiletry kit, vending machine money, hair ties, lip balm, my fav comfy nursing bra, a mini bottle of wine, gel pads for breastfeeding, and then the most adorable little sparkly Toms for her daughter. Miniature Toms are just stupid cute. 

I wrote why each item was necessary (first I hand wrote each, cut them out and glued to cute paper. Then I kept getting annoying with my handwriting and typed them up, had to cut them out with a paper cutter, then glued each onto super adorable paper and wrapped each individually with tissue paper and twine... do you see what that was taking me so long on Friday??) The pumpkin cheesecake chocolate bars were delish. Summer got to her birthday parties successfully. Layla appeared to be feeling better. We had made plans FOREVER ago to go to a Caps game with some good friends. It was a great game and good company. While we were at the game I got a text from our babysitter that Layla had peed our bed. Of course she did. So when we got home, I stripped our bed for what felt like the bagillionth time this week. This time she went above and beyond though, because she was able to pee not only all over our sheets (and obviously mattress pad), but on the comforter (which is actually a duvet and duvet cover), AND multiple pillows (mine, of course). So I was far too exhausted to do anything about it so I just stripped the bed (again), and repeated the same thing I did just nights before. Now I do have another set of sheets but I just don't like them as much. I am going to wash the other ones immediately anyways, so it just seems like a wasted step to put the other ones on. Anyways, we dropped dead from exhaustion that night.

Sunday mornings when we are trying to get to a Redskins 1pm game are always hectic. I am always running around getting ready, packing stuff up, etc. Matt is cooking and prepping food. Summer had slept at my mom’s house the previous night after her birthday party but we decided/she begged to come to the game with us, so I was running around attempting to find her clothes (which was more difficult than I anticipated both due to my stupid closet reorganization and the fact that I am behind on laundry). The game was fun and intense but in all honesty I was just exhausted. Summer was a total champ and had a great time. 

On our way home I pretty much looked just like Summer did. 

We got home and unpacked the car. I felt a raging headache coming on, then my body began to ache and my skin hurt. I started to think… if both Matt and I are getting sick at the same time, this will not be good. We put everything away, put on a movie for the girls and went up to bed to lie down. It was 5:30ish. I have a vague memory of hearing Matt feed them dinner and put the girls to bed. Another random moment of Layla coming into bed with me. All I know is that I was still wearing my jersey at 4am but I just wasn't able to move. It was like my body was saying, “Just lie here. Sleep. I am not allowing you to get up so don't even try.” And I didn’t.

The next morning (Monday) I woke up in a panicked haze. I had forgotten to set an alarm, not really thinking I was going to bed for the night. I have Layla in bed with me and she still feels warm/feverish. Crap. I suddenly remember we never did Summer’s homework that is always due on Mondays. The poem book! Her reading! I leapt out of bed, and ran to wake her up. I frantically ran downstairs where I am met with dog poop on the rug. Awesome. I'm not even mad at Emmie because we went to bed so ridiculously early. I go start making Summer breakfast and packing her lunch while she starts on her poem book homework. Of course it is more time-consuming and detailed than it is every other week. She finally finishes it while I am stuffing breakfast down her face and she reads her book in record speed. During all of this mania, Layla comes downstairs. She took a turn for the worse, so no school again for her. I always think to myself when making those decisions, “If someone else sent their kid to school like this, would I be irritated?” The answer was a definite yes, so sobby, clingy, sick Layla was home all day again. I waited for Matt to come downstairs to clean up the poop (Yes, I did. Sue me). We get Summer off to school while Olivia is making her way down the stairs. Oh, she peed through her diaper again. And she seems like she is getting whatever sickness Layla has. Fantastic. I mean, this is getting ridiculous. So I start on the daunting task of our mattress pad, sheets, duvet, duvet cover, pillows, Olivia’s sheets, blanket, pillow. While I am doing all of this, I still just feel like I still smell urine. But it is like nasty smelling urine. Oh wait, it is stronger over in the breakfast area. Oh wait, Emmie PEED IN A GIANT CIRCLE ALL AROUND THE TABLE. Oh wait, it is really awesome we are out of paper towels. And I have cramps. So I am holding two sobbing, sick children, smell urine at every turn, and now I have to somehow clean up dog pee without paper towels. Par for the course. At one point Layla fell asleep on the couch and I had a minute to try to clean up the dog pee a little more thorough. The next thing I know, Layla is standing there sobbing because her pull-up had pulled apart and she had peed while she was sleeping and it was streaming down her legs. Of course it was. I cleaned her up, and barely make it through the rest of the day, but I did finally get everyone’s sheets back on their bed. And I showered and scoured myself from pee smell. I let Layla play some totally random makeup game on my iPad that played R & B music while she 'assisted' this girl into looking better. I mean, this person needed some help. Definite skin issues. 

My wonderful sister made us dinner after she heard of my lovely day. I really don't know what I would do without her. So Monday night we snuggle into our fresh sheets. Around 1:30am, I start hearing little cries of “Mommy!” Layla still feels like crap. I bring her into bed with us but her coughing is out of control. In attempt to help me get ANY sleep, Matt took her downstairs on the couch (I love him)... But I could still hear her hacking up a lung all night.

Tuesday morning arrives and guess who peed through her diaper again? Yup. Olivia. Now I am betting you are thinking like I am thinking. Their diapers/pull-ups suck and I clearly need to limit their evening beverage intake BECAUSE I AM SICK OF WASHING SHEETS!!!! Layla is still not feeling great. She just wants to be held all.day.long. So I set them up with a TV show (literally it is all they have been doing lately) and attempt to clean up and wash more sheets. During that very short window of opportunity, Olivia somehow found herself a PERMANENT marker. Yeap.

Yes, she attempted to keep it on her paper... but most definitely got it on the rug. At that point, I didn't even look elsewhere. I didn't want to know. I didn't even bathe her. I took a deep breath, told myself that it would all be okay, and put her down for a nap. It was the best I could do... and ya know what? It sucked. I sucked. I have pretty much sucked for the past week. But they know I love them. And that is as good as it gets right now. 

Nashville for the weekend with my hubby in T-minus two days. I know I haven't mentioned it... I have been a little busy washing sheets. 

Happy Wednesday!