My routine

My routine is there is no routine. I had grand visions of getting so much done with one in school full time and one in school three mornings a week. Like coming home after preschool drop-off and exercising, then showering, then running errands, then picking up. Yeah, that hasn't happened yet. And when do I get all the other stuff done like cleaning or cooking or folding laundry? I'm not the type to have Monday be laundry day and Tuesday be cleaning and Wednesday by grocery shopping and . . . you get the idea. Somewhere between my grand ideas and the follow-through, life happens.

Like Monday when I had a killer migraine and could barely make it through supper and bedtime. The twenty pots and pans used for making lasagna didn't get washed. And now it is Wednesday and they are still on the counter, dirty. I was going to wash them yesterday after I got home from running to Des Moines, but then a friend needed help watching her son for a little while after school and it was too nice out to be inside doing dishes. And I thought I had supper all figured out last night (grilling hamburgers) until I realized the grill ran out of propane on Sunday. I almost just had Quiznos deliver a couple sandwiches, but decided to make mini-meatloaves. We aren't big meatloaf fans (or at least hubby isn't) but this recipe got rave reviews on allrecipes. So that was all fine and dandy until Emma decided we should practice spelling words while supper was cooking. The timer went off and we were still spelling, so the mini meatloaf got a little done. Hubby was so kind to call them meteorites. It didn't help that he called at 6pm to say he was running late and hoped to be home by 7:30 but it was 8pm by the time he made it home. So where is the routine in all of that?!

Then I woke up around 4am with the beginning of a sore throat, headache, and body chills. Hmm, wonder what that could be?! Great, just great. Some Advil and sleep helped some, but I think after preschool drop-off I'm coming home and going back to bed. And yes, that is me in my pj's in the drop-off line. So all my plans of washing dishes and putting laundry away and picking up the house a bit today are out the window again. To add to my already not routine day, Emma has an early dismissal so she will be home around 1pm.

See, a chaotic life is routine around here.

Homecoming

Four years ago today we were bringing home our baby who had lived the previous six weeks in the NICU. It is funny how that homecoming day becomes just as important as the birthday; I always stop to think about this day.


See how happy she is to bust out of that place?!


Outside in the "real" world for the first time. We had a two hour car ride home.


Elway says, "You brought another one of these things home? Isn't one enough?"


Emma is singing one of her songs to Leah (probably taught to her by Aunt Glenda). This is the first time Emma saw her in person.


Holding her for the first time. Emma still picks Leah up and tries to carry her around.

I'm not as eloquent as Cristin in describing homecoming. When we brought Leah home we had little to no knowledge of CDH and how long stays in the NICU could be. Six weeks seemed plenty long for us. We were running out of free childcare (thanks to Grandmas and Aunts!) and we were ready to have Leah home. Since we didn't know of her condition before birth, to prep Emma for a new sister we kept telling her "Mom and Dad will go to the hospital and come home with a baby". We never imagined that we would go to the hospital and come home with a baby six weeks later. C'mon, no 2.5 year old is patient enough to understand how that works.

It is funny how things work out. Since Leah was due in mid August, I had bought a summer outfit for her to come home in. I didn't think she would ever wear it considering she was coming home in late September. On the day she came home it was unseasonably warm--about 90 degrees. She did get to wear her outfit after all.

We no longer live in the houses that either one of the girls were brought home to as babies. It just goes to show that home is not the house, but the place where your family is together.

Finally Friday

It has been a long with with hacked e-mails and puking kids. I think we have everything sorted out now, the kid is back at school, and I even have a 1/2 way clean house. The other kid goes to preschool this morning which means 2.5 hours of time to myself!! Which also means I had better get my grocery list ready because I have 2.5 hour window to go to the store so I had better prepare and use my time wisely.

Not too much going on this weekend. We have the usual early morning torture soccer game on Saturday morning, which is about 8 sets of parents sitting along the sidelines of the soccer field yelling "Get the BALL!!" to children who don't belong to them. Seriously, it is painful and compounded by the fact that only about 1/4 of the girls sort of know what is going on. The other 3/4 are totally clueless. Once again, Emma shows more athletic ability and promise at six than I ever did, so I'll keep signing her up.

Off to read Facebook make my weekly menu and grocery list, shower, and take Leah to preschool!

First time--iheartfaces entry

My sister has posted her entries to ihearfaces before, but I never felt I had anything that was too good. She is the better photographer in the family--I just point, shoot and pray. This week's competition is "Contemplative" As soon as I saw that, this photo came to mind:

We were on a preschool field trip to a pumpkin patch/farm, and I caught her from across the way. I love the texture of the fence combined with the colors and the look on her face. This was one of my first attempts at any type of photoshop editing: I think it helps draw attention to her expresion and takes emphasis away from the other child in the photo. I also have it as just a simple black and white on my photo collage wall. She must have been thinking about something else because here they were learning about sheep, and I don't think there is too much to contemplate about sheep. ;)

A bad case of the Mondays

Nothing ruins your day like finding out your e-mail has been hacked. It started this morning when hubby was frustrated that he couldn't log onto any accounts. Here I thought we would be without internet (gasp!) but when I checked it out, it was fine. Meaning I could log into Facebook--whew! But then came the phone call from my college friend/maid-of-honor asking me if John was in London and needed her to send money. I knew right there we had been hacked.

There is a hoax on Facebook where a chat box will come up (one of your friends, so someone you know) and they will tell you how they were robbed at gunpoint in London and need money ASAP. Well this time instead of my FB account being hacked, it was our e-mail. And hubby's hotmail account. And our e-bay account. And who knows what else. Thankfully my hotmail account has been okay so far, so I've been able to e-mail MSN about the problem. Thanks for the super-speedy response and wonderful help. . . NOT.

It is possible that all this can be traced back to the evil FB. I may have to re-evaluate my obsession and think about spending my time on there.

I just hope that no one the message went out to was gullible enough to fall for the hoax. I did get a couple phone calls to confirm it really wasn't us. But that e-mail account is about 10 years old and has many, many contacts including school, friends, and relatives. I guess it is time for a new e-mail.

So instead of enjoying my first day with 2.5 hrs of free time (ha--I sat in a Dr's office for almost that entire time as well as fielding phone calls) I've been dealing with this. Fun times.

Cyclone Born, Cyclone Bred

I think you all know where our loyalties lie. Go Cyclones!

Beat Cancer

This weekend is the big Iowa State vs. Iowa rivarly football game. Iowa has no professional sports teams, so this is "THE" football game of the year. Although there are many people in the state who cheer for other state schools, the majority cheer for either Iowa State or Iowa. Period. If you know me, you know which one we cheer for. ;)

For many years now the mantra for this weekend (and anytime the two schools meet together in sporting activities) is:

The students on campus get on board and even do things like this in the dorms:

But there is another reason why this weekend is significant. Saturday is National Childhood Cancer Awareness day. Families in Iowa have teamed together to do some fundraising at the game this weekend. You could get a shirt that looks like this:

(They do come in that "other" school's colors, but my blog and I won't post those colors here) ;) The whole month of September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. You can see some of the families in Iowa who are battling cancer here. The athletic director at our university also has a son going through cancer treatments right now; the boy is in the same grade as Emma at school and she will often say hi and talk to him at sporting events.

Even on the vast world wide web, I'm finding more and more connections that bring people far away closer. After Emma was born I used to frequent a bulletin board site on Baby Center (and still do, I will admit). About 5 years ago there was a story that was "famous" on the bulletin boards about a family dealing with their infant daughter, Allie, who had leukemia. It seemed that everyone followed her story and every mother on there was heartbroken when Allie lost her fight to cancer. Since then, her mom has founded a non-profit in Texas to help families going through childhood cancer. I still follow her personal blog and come to find out one of my favorite CDH families know the family in real life.

On Saturday while you cheer on the Cyclones, take a minute to learn more about childhood cancer and maybe do something to support awareness and fundraising.