Uff-Dah...

Sigh. It's been a very hectic, busy, stressful time at the RibClan house. Now, I want to preface this entry with a "I know, there are folks out there who have it worse, it could be worse, I know you've got it worse (enter phrase here)". I've got to be honest, one of the easiest ways to get me cranky and/or sad is to discredit my experience like that--trust me, I know in my head that it could be worse, but sometimes that doesn't matter when you feel worn out and there's minimal support.

So, with that said, ribB and I have been working pretty non-stop. ribB has been going to work at 3:30am, 4am, 6am pretty frequently in the past couple of weeks (or going in after the kids are in bed to work until 1am or 2am) and I've been regularly working at home until 11pm or getting to work by 6:30am, only to work later after the kids are in bed. Even with these kinds of schedules, we can't get all of the work done. To say that our jobs are intensely busy right now is an understatement! My brain is overloaded and therefore I swear I can't keep anything straight...don't you hate that feeling?

We practically arm wrestle to see who can work late, early and who takes care of the kids. Last night I won the wrestle to take Kdee to karate practice, because I could work while I waited there. It's important to us to work in as much family time as we can (because, really, 3 hours a day with my kids is NOT enough), and quite frankly, we don't have a choice! So, we're burning our candles at both ends to attend to all of our responsibilities--including the unexpected calls that bring or keep us home with kids: "sick" kids and closed daycare (power outage). Or, the weeks off that care has this summer that we're not sure how we're going to coverThis adds to the demanding work loads, but we manage somehow. I can truly say that ribB and I make a pretty good team, especially after 15 years together.

I'd like to give a huge THANK YOU to my friend, Susan, who helped us out immensely on Friday and Monday with watching Kdee...these breaks in between school and care programs creates some havoc when you don't have a ton of vacation time! (I've used up almost half of my 2-weeks of vacation/sick time, and that's just on kid care...and it's only June! Eek!) We have more breaks coming up, so we're scrambling to find care for the kids. It's hard and tricky, especially when I feel guilty that I can't spend all of that time with them!

I would love to get going on a true exercise regimen (especially when I'm a stress eater--I wish I was the opposite and lost my appetite!), but man is it hard when there really isn't a ton of time to do it in because of our work schedules. (Our kids are also early risers, so if one of us has to leave for work early, you really can't get much in...plus, going to bed late creates a necessity for sleep!). Humpf. Grr. Sigh.

I'm not even going to mention all of the house chores that are just sliding by. I remember my birth class instructor saying that once you have 2 or more children, you might as well kiss a clean house good-bye. She was/is truly right. This isn't always good for me, as I get overwhelmed by piles o' stuff and disarray...I'm trying to take it one dust bunny at a time.

Also, we've all been sick over the past couple of weeks. ribB got it first (and probably the worst), then Kdee (who continues to try to clear her stuffed nose by constant hard sniffling...quite a sound!), then little B (not too bad, just runny nose) and now me (probably the best out of all of them). I'm guessing the illness is just a reflection of the busy-ness that we've been going through (and all of the goldenrod this time of year!).

Ok, pity party aside, we have done some fun outings in the past few weeks since I've last updated our blog. I've been writing a ton for work lately, so I'm going to keep our 3 weekends of activities to a minimal description:

Prior to Memorial Day: I had a super fun surprise one day when my old friend T.B. (my "Swedish Bro", I'm his "lil sis") reconnected with me! We've both tried to find each other over the past couple of years (he is a Swede that I met while he was on exchange to UWEC) and just didn't have any luck until now. Both ribB and I are thrilled to reconnect with him! He is married and he and his wife, Anna, are expecting their first child in November. We know he will make a great dad and are hoping to visit with his sometime this year (as he travels to the US/Canada for work).

Memorial Day weekend: we went up north to the cabin! Little B didn't have daycare on Friday, so since we already had to take the day off, we took the opportunity to leave a bit early. We enjoyed lots of fishing, a campfire (finally! The burning ban was lifted!), boat rides (especially with Uncle Bart/Donna & the Mundths), cribbage with B&D, garage sale-ing, ribB getting lost garage sale-ing (a rarity), ribB getting pulled over (during garage sale-ing) and so on! Little B got his first pair of "crocs" shoes this weekend. It was a very good and necessary thing, as his wide/thick feet don't fit into most shoes, and almost didn't in these as well. He's loves them! We enjoyed a phone call from TB on our way home, which was a perfect way to end a good weekend.

June 1-3: Ahhh, a weekend at home finally! As much fun as it is to get away, man did we have a lot to do at home! We did lots of outside projects (often as a tag team--"I'll do this project, you watch the kids"). We re-mulched our playset area (50 bags!), washed our house's siding (the backside gets some funky green growth on it because it's so shaded), potted plants, mowed the lawn, cleaned the house (a bit) and fenced in our small, scraggly apple tree so the deer won't eat it. We also enjoyed some social moments of going to ribB's co-worker's baby shower and had a slumber party at our house with Kdee's best pal, Ally. (They stayed up until 1am! Maybe the tent we put in Kdee's room just added to the fun. Fortunately, Kdee did well Saturday with the lack of sleep.) I went to see the movie "Knocked Up" late on Saturday night (we tried for a spontaneous date night, but it didn't work...we don't know a lot of babysitters!). It was hilarious--I don't think I've ever laughed so hard!

June 4: After an appointment with my chiropractor, who's been so helpful with tracking some new twists to my migraines, I find our that I am allergic/sensitive to the following foods: banana, pineapple, green beans, kidney & pinto beans, sesame seeds, egg whites & yolks. Weird, huh? I found this out doing a blood serum test, so it'd be interesting to do a bigger panel with my physician, too. Anyway, these food allergies aren't ones that cause instant reactions (so, no, you won't see me puff up and keel over!), this panel is more of the "hidden allergies" that just make it harder on my body in general (and therefore could be contributing to the migraines). My chiropractor wants me to avoid these foods as much as possible for 3 months to see how I'm doing. Obviously, it's pretty hard to avoid eggs (so I just do the best I can), but I've done pretty well avoiding the other items. We'll see what happens!

June 6: Date night out! Ann came to our rescue and gave us a night out. She just graduated from college, and has accepted her first job offer, so we're a bit nervous at how long she'll really want to keep on babysitting. She assured us to keep calling her--whew! She is awesome, and the kids really love her.

June 7: Ahhh, nothing better than a night at soccer (keeping little B entertained, of course) than to go out for dinner afterward (to celebrate the last day of school) and have your child (little B) throw up on you at the restaurant. Ewww.....
Fortunately, it seemed to be a one time thing--something mostly likely related to over-stuffing food into his mouth or heat related. We were very grateful that the restaurant staff were so kind as we cleaned up and didn't get tense about it at all.

June 8-10 Trip to La Crosse to see ribB's parents and sister/family. This was probably the most one-to-one time that we've had with ribB's parents in a very long time, and that meant a lot to us. We enjoyed boat rides, jet ski rides, awesome garage sale-ing on Saturday morning, picnic meals, hot tub time (mostly the kids, who loved that it was like their own mini-pool),
feeding the ducks and a trip to a nearby city to watch ribB's sister, Christina, participate in a triathlon. She did so well, and boy was it inspiring to see so many people achieve their goals.

This week: On Tuesday, Kdee started her summer care program through the school district...lots of fun, but hard to get used to the breakfast/packing lunch routine again! But really, it's a nice program and it's less expensive than other full-time care, so we're grateful. Last night Kdee started the summer karate program, through the same instructor. She was happy to be back at it. Last night Kdee had her second to last soccer game and "grandma honey and grandpa Paul" came to watch her, which she loved. This weekend we're looking forward to some time at home with plenty of "Father's Day" fun!

(and, hey, thanks for appeasing me with the pity party time!)

Pictures: little B coaching Kdee on the sidelines of her soccer game, little B's croc shoes, TB & his wife, the four of us in the hot tub at Grandma/Grandpa's, Christina & ribB's parents pose after the triathlon.