Milestones Abound

This has been a huge week here at Casa Monahan.

First, my beautiful bonus daughter, Shayann, turned 18. And with that, she packed up her things at 2AM on the morning of the big day and moved out of her mother's house, into the home of a 21 year old high school drop out guy...who still lives with his mom...and step dad...and 18 year old sister who has ALSO dropped out of high school. I HOPE we've managed to convince her that 4 months longer in school is worth sticking around for. After all, she has been going to school since the tender age of 5. What a time to drop out. But, you know, it'd be cool and all if these two sparkling examples of humans and Shayann got to go PAY for their GED's. I really shouldn't judge the kids...just their parents. I mean, what parent doesn't at least put up a FIGHT to keep their kid in school? You know, if you want to enable your own children and never allow them to suffer the consequences of bad decisions, that's fine by me. Just don't enable my child. I wonder if the mother who is allowing Shayann to live there knows that she has 4 parents who ARE NOT ON BOARD with this at all. She has a big fight waiting for her should I ever meet her, that's all I can say about that. Ridiculous.

So, she wants to be an adult and move out? Fantastic. Her mom asked for their house key back. Brett signed her car over to her and told her she had to go buy her own insurance. Missy doesn't have a job. I have no clue if she's been going to class...but alas, she is going to have to learn from her mistakes...I was just hoping that we would be able to convince her that this wasn't the mistake to make. You win some, you lose some. This was a big FAIL for us.

Another milestone is that as of Saturday the 20th, Miss Abbie will be a full 6 months old! I CAN NOT believe how quickly time has come and gone. She is almost sitting up on her own, cracks herself up all the time, and LOVES her big brother. Sometimes Bryce is the only one who can make her smile. Bryce is a huge helper, has even taken to feeding her oatmeal at dinner time when I'm trying to finish up dinner for all of us with teeth. He makes her giggle constantly. Abbie is eating well, loves all veggies so far (especially squash of all things) and is getting through fruits famously. Once she sprouts a tooth or two, we'll start her on pureed meats. Yargh.

Cute Videos

A couple of videos of the kids. They're too cute!!! I love my babies! :)

Happy-Sad Day

New chapter, new blog template: What do you think?

This is my last day of work. Although, other than turn in all of my equipment, I did no work today. I've talked for months, and YEARS frankly, about how excited I am to be home with my babies. And that hasn't changed. However, it was so hard to say goodbye to my co-workers and friends. Some of them are coming to a little gathering at my house tomorrow...but others I may not see for a long time, if ever. I was truly blessed to work with the folks I worked with. There are some I will miss more than others. That's probably normal. But, it took everything I had to not cry as I left the claims office for the last time.

Though my former boss has said he is starting a pool to see how long it takes for me to bring the kids and come in to visit. He knows me so well. :)

Senioritis

Those of you who have ever been a senior in or at something (high school, college, girl scouts, etc) most likely know about a certain mindset coined "senioritis." It's that mindset that says, "I'm outta here in xx days, so I'm not going to do x-y-z." or, "So and so is taking this project over once I'm gone, so I'm not going to spend as much time on it."

I have senioritis.

In 2 days, I will be unemployed. By choice. Strange to WANT to be unemployed in this economy. BUT, I will be taking on the most rewarding and challenging job of my life, not receiving a dime to do it, and couldn't be more thrilled. Being a stay at home mommy (or SAHM as you will see me abbreviate it from here on out) will definitely NOT be easy. As my auntie has instructed me, I must have my home clean and a hot meal on the table for my fabulous (though lovably frustrating) husband every night. I must learn how to create and realistic budget and then STICK to it. I must create routine for my kiddos, a preschool curriculum for my 4 year old (Kindergarten next year!!!), and find a perfect balance between baby time and big kid time.

I'm very excited but I'm also nervous to say the least. What happens if someone gets sick and we need medicine we can't afford? These are things I haven't had to worry about since I was broke college student, and even then it was only ME I had to worry about. What if the washer breaks and we need to buy a new one?

See, we've sat down with the budget and things for us will be super tight until June or so, when some things begin to get paid off. So, if anything disastrous happens between now and then, we could be screwed.

Even though these things float through my mind more often than I care to admit, I still couldn't be more ecstatic about being able to stay home and see all of Abbie's firsts, take Bryce to Kindergarten on his first day of school, and be home when he gets here so he can tell me ALL about it.

I would live in a cardboard box and eat top ramen daily in order to witness these moments first hand.

Major Developments

Alas, it has been quite awhile since I've posted on here. So much going on, yet very little time to update my legions of fans....hehehe...legions...right...

Anyway, here are the big developments:

* After being in my position at work for 2+ years, I was brought into my manager's office and told that I would be moving back to my old position...which I couldn't stand...and was then told it wasn't a demotion...which is crap. It was at that point that, though I had been struggling to find ways since having Abbie, I was now more determined than ever to find a way to...

*...stay home with my babies. Which, I'm proud to say, Brett and I worked out some kinks, and as of February 1, I will be entering my toughest job yet: Stay at home mommy. Or Home Executive...however you want to "french it up," I've got regular cleaning, cooking, and child-rearing activities on my plate from here until Abbie is at least in Kindergarten. I am SO excited to be able to do this. I've wanted to do this since I was a little girl!!!

And that's pretty much the biggest developments to date. All is well with the kids...Abbie is now 5 months old, rolling from back to front/front to back, and trying very hard to sit up on her own. She is a very content and happy baby, though if she wants something, she wants it now, and she'll tell you so!

Bryce is still a fantastic helper and now makes Abbie laugh all the time. He can count to 100 all by himself and is learning (on his own) basic addition. He can't wait to go to Kindergarten and ride the school bus. He LOVES playing the Wii and can kick his dad's rear end in numerous games, most recently Mario-Kart. It's very funny to watch Brett actually TRY and lose to his 4 year old. Talk about swallowing your pride! LOL

So, now on to our next chapter...

TGIF

I'm sure in the coming weeks I won't have much time to blog while I'm at work, so I'm taking advantage of the light workload now...

It's FRIDAY of my first work week back from leave! Overall it was a good week...my body is very SLOWLY adjusting to this new wake up/sleep schedule...though last night I got stuck watching the Green Mile on TV and I didn't end up closing my eyes until almost midnight. Still, I feel more rested today than I have all week, which indicates to me that my body clock is beginning to reset.

My brother got a job! He is logging out in the woods with an old friend from high school. So needless to say, he has been spending much more time away from our house. I think once he got a taste of babysitting both of the kiddos at once, he was quick to find ANYTHING to get out of here. Too funny! :)

The kids adjusted well to our babysitter. She is a wonderful stay at home mom who takes fantastic care of them. Bryce usually talks all the way home about everything he did at Summer's house. Abbie is all smiles or sound asleep when we get there. We've definitely found a keeper!!!

My housework seems to be falling apart, though...I expected it to happen. I just keep reminding myself that once my body clock resets and I'm more rested, I'll have more energy in the evenings to keep on top of everything.

At least my sink is shiny and my toilets are clean! Thanks to the FlyLady!!! (http://www.flylady.com)

Back to the Old Grind

Well kids, I'm back at work. My maternity leave is up, we ran out of money, so it was time to start collecting a paycheck again. I fought long and hard, but alas, being a stay at home mom at this juncture is just not in the proverbial cards. Boo.

It took 2 days to regain full functionality of my work laptop. It was a rather boring 2 days. Today I was able to get my work done, but since I'm not up to a full inventory yet (which I am NOT complaining about, mind you) I've been done since about 10:30AM. My hours are until 4:30PM. Needless to say, I am aware of every news story going on in the WORLD. Nicole Richie is hospitalized for pneumonia, Michael Jackson's sisters believe he was in denial about his addiction even though they all tried to intervene, and Barack Obama is apparently the worst president ever for bowing to a Japanese leader. Shame shame Mr. President.

Getting my body used to this new schedule is an entirely different beast. My kids generally didn't wake up before 8 AM, so I could go to bed at midnight and, besides the possibility of a brief interruption in sleep to tend to Abbie, I could get close to 8 hours of sleep. I am a night owl by nature, not a morning person at all...so making myself go to sleep by 10PM and get up at 6:30AM has been killing me. Mostly because I can lay down at 10, but it'll still be midnight before I finally pass out. 6:30 comes around much too quickly when 12:00 is the last thing you see on your alarm clock.

Here's to many more sleepless nights!