February Begins - Keeping Busy!

Well, we've been home for a couple of weeks now and things are getting back to OUR normal. I am finding that my mood is much more affected by the weather than I previously thought. It is just depressing that the temperature does not even get above freezing for days at a time. I think I have shoveled snow more times in the past 2 weeks than I did all last winter, and I need to get out there again today as we received at least 3 more inches of snow overnight. I do like seeing the snow, just not the extra freezing temps that come with it.

The kids are back in school and all is well there. Thankfully they have not picked up any sickness in their time back. We'll keep our fingers crossed and continue to encourage frequent use of hand sanitizer throughout the day.

The four older kids had dentist checkups this week. Since our new dentist is not as far, I was able to split them up. The boys went Monday morning and we made it out just as the blizzard started. We made it home before too much snow had accumulated, but not before there was snow-related car accident in the intersection nearest our house. We passed it just as the fire truck pulled up. Nothing too bad, mostly just a fender bender. The girls had their cleaning appointments on Wednesday afternoon and the weather was much more accommodating. However, apparently everyone is running behind in the afternoon and we were there much longer than necessary. Luckily, after all that, Austyn was the only one with a cavity. Ryan is scheduled for the end of February, so we'll have to see how that goes.

It has been a pretty busy week, with the dentist, snow storms, Andrew's swimming, Girls' dance and my helping with a funeral luncheon. It seems I have lost at least 2 hours of possible work time every day this week, which is really frustrating! The work is still slowly available, so I hate to miss any opportunity to get what I can.

Adalyn must realize she is almost 2, as she has become highly mischievous lately. Besides her quiet mess making, she finds humor in the reaction she gets from her sisters when she pulls their hair. She has also started waking up in the night on a regular basis since we've been home. For some reason, she does better when I put her to bed. I think she knows Ryan will usually let her stay up longer if she throws a big fit when he tries to put her to bed. So, it looks like I will be moving my office upstairs, so Addie can occupy my current office space on the other end of the house. When she wakes up, she will eventually go back to sleep on her own if left alone. The main problem is that sometimes we can't just ignore her making noise for that long. Ryan is also hopeful that I will get more work done if my office is closer to my room. I don't think it will really make much difference for me. It will, however, be helpful for me to get up to work early, if I am not woken up by Addie at 2:00 in the morning. :-)

With the temperatures lately not rising above 30 degrees outside, our dog Oakley has been spending much more time in the house. Adalyn was a little intimidated at first, but she has now grown quite accustomed to his presence and likes to have him around. He is getting pretty old, about 12 human-years old, but he is very friendly and well trained. He will just stay in the kitchen and not wander around the house, even if left alone. He is house trained and will let us know if he needs to go outside. He does not even bark when he is in the house.

This past Sunday, Ryan's aunt Beverly and her family were in town from San Diego. After church we had a full house with Bev, Rob, their kids and many other cousins, grandparents and siblings who had come to visit. I don't think we've had so many people over since Adalyn's baby blessing, so it was a little overwhelming. It probably didn't help that I was extremely tired, probably extra worn out from working so hard the day before. The good point, however, was that we got a lot cleaned up and cleaned out on Saturday in preparation. We finally finished cleaning out the van from our trip, getting all the coolers back into the garage for storage, getting all the extra "junk" out of Adalyn's room, and putting the other seat back into the van. So, all in all, it was good to have some real motivation there. :-)

I did manage to get my taxes done, in the midst of all things going on, so YAY for me!! We have agreed to put most of our tax return towards paying of debts, but will be using a little of it for a few small things we've been wanting. In our continued effort to improve our main bathroom, a little at a time, we will be replacing the tub surround walls. We've decided to go with a 1-piece surround this time, to avoid the constant troubles we have with having to caulk and re-caulk the tub walls. We will also be replacing our microwave, as it has been having trouble for several months now. As a bonus, Ryan is going to build a special shelf, just for the microwave, above the dishwasher, which will free up quite a bit of counter space in our little kitchen!! So, just a little here and there, but eventually a lot will get done.

We had a fun visit with Mary & Frank and Jenny & Brent at the birthday party for Anna & Rob two weeks ago. The weather was quite cooperative and the roads were clear for our little trip down to their place. (I guess it's only about 50 miles to their place, but anything out of the "Valley" seems like a trip to me.)

Just this past week, my sister Mary had her ultrasound and they found out she is having a girl. We are really excited for our two new girl cousins we will be getting this year! My sister-in-law, Kelly, is due in April and Mary is due in June.

Ryan and I finally had a much-needed evening out last night. We were able to go to dinner and then did a little window shopping. We went to Home Depot to look into our options for our tub surround, and there we found some nice little end-table lamps that were on clearance for only $9. We also found a ceiling fan/light that we liked and will probably return to get that for our bedroom when we can. We did bring Adalyn with us, so we were home before 9:00 p.m. so we could get her to bed on time. Amazingly, we received only one call from the kids while we were away. I guess things just must run smoother at home when Adalyn is not there.

I am quite relieved I have no appointments or "extras" on the schedule for this week. So, besides the whole "rearranging of rooms" we have planned, I should have a little more time to get some work done this week. At least we can always hope!