Yet Again, It's Been A While...

My excuse this time... my kids have been sick, my parents have been in town, my house is a mess, and I'm really tired. I think that about covers it.

Since it's been a while since I last updated anything here, I figure I'll just give you a quick "what's been happening" in our lives over the past couple weeks. So here goes.

About two weeks ago Sydney started to get sick. It started just as a simple cold (that she must have picked up from Jeff, who picked it up from her or Noah, who picked it up from most likely Jeff and on and on for the past couple months) but quickly changed into something a lot stronger. She was miserable, and well, she made everyone else miserable. Jeff had gone to see the doctor because he'd been sick too long and wanted a quick fix (okay, so he really had a sinus infection and it wasn't going anywhere without drugs, and yes, the legal kind) and when he came back victorious I figured that maybe Sydney was traveling the same path and had an infection too. And lo and behold she did, an ear infection that is. I'm not a huge fan of antibiotics, and I've read a bunch of articles recently about the majority of ear infections not needing any meds, just time, but well, we didn't really have any of that with my parents trip down fast approaching (actually they were flying in the night that I took Sydney to the doc's) and a two-day jaunt up to Orlando to go to SeaWorld the following day, so I caved and got her a prescription. All this being sick made for a really crazy few days before my parents came down. I had planned on getting the house clean (you know, the white glove inspection kind of clean) in the days before my parents came, but not too early because then it would be pointless with the kids around, but well, Sydney was a full time job and Noah was starting to show some symptoms too (thankfully they disappeared as quickly as they came) so the whole cleaning thing didn't really come to fruition. I was able to get the house tidy, you know, the way it is when you get a call that the bug guys are going to be there to spray in half an hour and you don't want them to see the mess of life and the whole reason why you need them to come spray (food that has been lying out for a day or two and attracting all kinds of creepy crawlies), but that if they looked close enough they would still find the evidence. So that's what my house was like when my parents arrived. I was already a little stressed out about Sydney being sick and then her being sick ruining my plans on making myself look like the perfect house keeper (what a stupid idea anyways, my parents have known how pathetic I am at keeping things clean from the 20 years that I lived with them, who was I trying to fool) but add to that the trying and adamant refusal of getting Sydney to take her medicine, I was a time bomb waiting to explode. And sadly I did, or rather implode. We all woke-up early Friday morning to get an early start to our day and our trip to SeaWorld and everything was going great. The kids did awesome driving up, with only a few hiccups along the way, and nothing more than a frustrated Sydney who couldn't have her blanket wrapped all the way around her while she was sitting in her car seat. Then SeaWorld was great. Sadly naps were almost non-existent so by the time we made it out of SeaWorld, had checked in to our hotel and were waiting for our dinner at the restaurant, Sydney was done. It took all of our patience and even me taking her outside for a few minutes to calm down to make it through the evening. The whole "imploding" thing started just before dinner. I get some really bad headaches from time to time - I think they're migraines, but I've never had the "seal of approval" from the docs to verify this, but well, I don't think I need it by how they feel. Anyways, just before dinner I felt the tingling of one starting but hoped that it would just end up being a nice little headache that wouldn't progress into me thrashing around in bed hoping for it to go away, but no such luck. I'm sure the fights with Sydney over staying still and quiet, or at least one of those, during dinner didn't help, but by the time we finally were heading back to the hotel I was done. Now I have to apologize to Jeff and my parents for my behavior back at the hotel. I was in huge pain, but my attitude was terrible, so sorry for having a bad attitude. Now to continue with my story. After fighting Sydney to take her medicine and having her spit most of it all over Jeff, we finally got her to bed and I was able to feed Noah and go to bed myself. Thankfully I woke-up (I'm not really sure you can call it waking up because I didn't really sleep all that much on the "wonderful" hotel mattress, but it was officially morning time) and was feeling much better. Sadly, my parents clock was set an hour late and they ended up waking up an hour earlier than they meant too and called us an hour earlier than the plan we had made the night before entailed them too, so they woke us up, but yeah, they took Sydney and had breakfast with her at the hotel lobby continental thing and gave us some nice relaxing time to get ready.

After another long and fun day riding Kraken (the best roller coaster I've ridden in a long time, possibly ever) and watching all the awesome animals we headed back home. The drive home wasn't quite as nice as the drive up, but we made it. The drive home was followed by a frenzy of activity trying to make dinner, give the kids a bath and get ourselves ready for church the next morning, all without killing each other and making it to bed before midnight. I think we actually did quite well and all survived to face another day.

Sunday was church, followed by a quick shopping trip to Target to buy Christmas presents from my parents to the kids and us, and then Jeff and my Dad headed off to what ended up being one of the best concerts Jeff had been to in a while, Switchfoot. My parents had wanted to take us shopping for Christmas so that we could get what we wanted and they could see the smiles on our faces when we got it and see how the kids enjoyed what they got. So we picked out a video game thing for Sydney (which she loves) and some Lego Quatro blocks (basically really big Lego) which she has great fun with but also causes great frustration as she can't always line them up straight so that they connect properly. We couldn't figure out right away what to get for Noah (we don't really need any more baby toys), but ended up finding some awesome shelves, a rug, a lamp and this hanging net shelf thing for his room. They're so cute and now his room finally has some decorations. We spent all our time finding stuff for the kids and shoe shopping (no real surprise if you know my mom and here shoe fetish) so Jeff and I didn't get a chance to really find what we wanted, but that worked out okay because it will give us more time to think about what we really want to spend our money on. One super cute moment was when my mom and me were looking through the room decor stuff and Sydney walked over with an awesome pair of high heel shoes. My mom was so proud. Later Sydney came by while mom and me were finding our own shoes and she had on the most impractical, but adorable pair of leather furry boots. They were so cute and Sydney loved them, so the shoe fetish lady (my mom) had to make sure her granddaughter had them, even if she could really only wear them outside for a week without her feet totally sweating in them. She has put them on multiple times each day since, so I guess it was well worth it. Although, just one picture of her in them with her shorts on was worth it.

So that was Sunday. Naps were again cut short, but with so few days with my parents, we took every chance we could get to have the kids awake and playing with Gramma and Grampa. Monday was a quick trip to Lion Country Safari and then home for a last dinner together and then off to the airport. Overall it was an awesome weekend, super tiring, but great. I'm so glad that my parents were able to come down, even for such a short time, but it was definitely too short. I already can't wait till next summer or so when the whole family will be coming down for at least a week, if not two, and I get to see my new niece and nephew.

So since the weekend we have been playing catch up with cleaning, shopping and sleeping, most importantly the sleeping. I think we're finally back on track and so far everyone seems healthy, so lets hope things stay this way. So much for the "quick update". If you're still reading this I'm really impressed, you have quite the stamina. But I think I'm about done, so you can give your eyes a break. Hopefully I'll have some pictures up some time soon from our weekend, but no promises.