Monday, September 15, 2008

Hurricane Season

Not to be light about people suffering from Ike right now (how come they dang didn't evacuate!?) . . . . but if I had to describe the last two weeks of my life that would probably be it. I don't even know where to start. Usually I just get out my camera and see what I took snapshots of but I was too busy to even take pics -- and for me that's unheard of! Other than the baby blessing I've been trying to line up Christian's PSR/Partial-Care/Counseling (which takes a surprising amount of meetings and forms). As well as this month I've been baking and baking zucchini bread in an effort to fine tune a recipe to how I like it (healthier with applesauce and wheat flour). I think I may be the first person to die of overdose to Zucchini Bread - the thing that saved me was the nice lady I met somewhere that told me she baked like crazy in September and then just froze all of her ZB in freezer bags and pulled them out once a month over the next year. So yeah. Lots of frozen ZB too.

The biggest event in our lives is Darik's season starting. And not just starting, STARTING. This weekend is when it hit -- a 14 & 18 hour day back to back. It's a bummer that he's gone on the weekends, it used to be a nice break for me to have him around on Saturdays. Now I know I complain about this every year . . . . so just live with it :-) but I don't talk about the good things about his work (I don't want to be all braggy! but if you're looking for my optimism, yes I am grateful for our awesome insurance, 401k, and vacation package. They may work him to the bone on salary without OT but fringe benefits help make it ok). This year the thing that's making it hard is his MBA Accounting class. Try to find 10 extra hours for homework when working 60 hrs a week & a big calling is daunting. I've got to give props to the guy. I just hope we all survive :-) Anyways this coming weekend is the category 3 storm; he has 13 events to manage and oversee in 4 days. Oh and one more thing, in the past people in his position have hired their wives PT to sell tickets in the booth at the Holt Arena . . . we thought we might try it out and bring in some extra cash. HA HA HA. We both neglected the fact how hard it would be to find and secure trusted babysitting that would put three kids under the age of 6 to bed during that time. I have a flippin hard time with that - why would I hire a babysitter? Stupid us not thinking, lucky for us my friend April was able to just fill the rest of my spots for me. So yeah.

What else have we been doing? Oh yeah, I've been canning peaches and pears with my mom this week. We both have about 20 jars of peaches & 20 jars of pears. (and I finally discovered a cobbler recipe I like! and that I can turn out well - as much as I love cobblers I have a hard time baking them as well as everyone else for some reason)

I can't wait for apples -- last year I made plenty of applesauce and 12 jars of apple pie filling. The APF was gone in 6 weeks. I seriously want to bulk up on that this year - around 40 jars! So I'll keep ya updated on how that goes. Also this week I added in the cooking and managing of my frozen dinner club . . . takes up a little bit o' time.

Oh and the kids? What have they been up to, may you ask?? For a week my kids were just angelic . . . but I think my raised anxiety level with the busyness of the past week and Darik's first weekend being gone was the straw that broke the camel's back. They were just crazy in the way that only toddlers can be. To just name two things that come to mind . . . I left James&Rach to watch the girls in my mom's toyroom for 20 minutes while I ran and transported Christian from school to partial care. I get back and Stina looks like she'd been tarred & feathered and Ellie had glued her pants to her legs. Yep you read that right.

Stina has a radar for "things I shouldn't touch" and climbs up to heights unthinkable for a two-year-old. A little Elmer's glue mixed with trying to clean it off herself with toilet paper = a feathery Stina. We have no idea how Ellie's happened but I guess she decided to slather the Elmers all up and down her shins. James didn't know anything was wrong with her til she asked if he could make her pants stop hurting her legs. Now my little Ellie Belly has some good fuzzy legs - and if any of you have waxed your shins . . . imagine putting a 3-year-old through that pain. The first leg wasn't very much so James took it off slow. The second leg I just told him to rip it like a bandaid--woulda taken over an hour going slow. The poor girl. I took pics of her glue-ridden pants on mom's camera so I'll try to get that picture up.

The other funny moment was last night when the girls were taking a bath. I filled it up a little higher than normal so Ellie could pretend like she was swimming and sing her Wiggles "Pool" song. Well I come back in after 5-10 mins and she had retrieved her Dora Potty seat from the toilet, shimmied it on around her tummy, and was using it as a floaty! Oh the mixture of emotions!!! It was like, "DISGUST, HORROR, AMUSEMENT, CONCERN, ANGER, DISGUST, GAG, LAUGH, LAUGH . . . ok I better go get the camera."


One last thing - D & I have been donating blood at our Stake every few months. I have an aversion for needles but I know I have Type O something blood that they like to have so I usually tough it out. Well, for the past YEAR I've gone in there every few months and the last time I was able to donate was before Christmas. My iron levels have been too low for that long. And it's not like I didn't do what they recommended: eliminate extra stresses (Taysh moved out) and eat more high iron foods (oatmeal, veg, fruit, grain, etc.). Check and check. So I think this might be another reason I've been so exhausted (I'm exhausted all the time -- still exhausted after a full night's sleep . . . I swear I'm not lazy . . . . . ) My next thing to try is the Iron supplement, I've been trying to just hack it by eating better foods and obviously thant aint workin'.

Thanks for hanging around until the end of this novel -- you've been privileged with a glimpse into my life -- not that it's worth much or that it was wanted :-) I'll try to slow down and keep in touch ~ :-)

5 comments:

  1. WOW! you have been busy! I would love to see your zucchini bread recipie! Yummy!

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  2. I love your blogs and I'm amazed at your Superwoman-ness! Life has been crazy for you. I will definitely be gathering strength from you now that Glenn is gone all the time. I LOVE the picture of Ellie in the tub, so funny.

    I'm jealous of all the "fooding" you've been doing, I wish I was there to experience it with you! But, I'll do the best I can and make zucchini bread here!

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  3. The pictures of the food are making me so hungry. I miss canned fruit. My mom always canned and it was so good. Plus, being pregnant...for some reason I love fruit. I will have to come to Poky so I can have some. But, it sounds like maybe it won't last long.:) I know you will make it through the crazy season. Good luck. I wish I was closer so I could help out, and of course can with you!!

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  4. Holy beef, lady! I'm tired after just reading all that you've done! I too, have lots and lots of ZB to make- I'm hoping for some time tomorrow- good luck finding that magic recipe! ;)

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  5. W-O-W!!!!! Slow down, girl! Well, as much as you can under the circumstances, I guess. Wow. Yes, that is very comparable to a hurricane. I absolutely love your description of the Dora potty seat in the bath tub! I can totally envision it. Hilarious!!!

    Oh, and hang in there! It'll get better soon!

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