And Suddenly, I'm Older

Last Sunday was my birthday.  If I hadn't already reached old lady status, then I'm at least heading there at a lightening pace.  The Over-The-Hill 40 milestone came and went last year.  Now I'm 41!  I've always believed your as old as you feel, or as old as your attitude is. Well, lately I feel pretty damn old.  I know it's my own fault.  I really, REALLY need to take care of myself better.  I think about eating healthier everyday, does that count?  No.  No, it really doesn't.  I WANT to exercise, but wanting to and actually doing it are two totally different things.  My Tuesday/Thursday walks have pretty much gone out the window.  When it comes down to it at night, we always seem to get busy with one thing or another in heading towards bedtime for the kids.  Sigh...

Let me share an embarrassing story.  About a month ago, we went to watch my oldest niece play in her softball game.  There's a playground next to the field and at some point during the game, Tony, my bil, and I were playing with the younger kids.  I was pushing my nephew on the swings and I went to give him an underdog.  Wellllllllll, I pushed him up, ran under him, and totally just kept going and face planted into the bark chips.  I should have been on the field because it would have been the perfect dive into a base.  Arms were reaching over my head, hands scraped against the ground, belly bouncing.  It was awesome.  Let me rephrase that.  It actually hurt like hell and was pretty high on my list of most embarrassing things ever.  I felt incredibly stupid and out of shape.  I felt old.

On my birthday, several of my family members went to Central Oregon to visit the place we had spread my Grandpa's ashes 3 years ago.  It's a beautiful hike to Proxy Falls.  Tony stayed home with Ayden and Rylee that day.  We thought it would be best since he had been gone to Mexico on his mission trip.  That way he got to spend some much needed time with them, and besides that, he's really not a fan of road trips.

Everyone that made the trip, minus my brother and bil because they were taking this picture!

Proxy Falls

We were able to get close enough to reach out and touch it.

From the log that we are sitting on in the picture, is a gorgeous view of the Falls.  At this point, a few in our group chose to stay behind because the trail from there is a little steep. Once you get down to the river, the footing is a little sketchy just because it was necessary to climb on rocks and fallen trees in order to get closer to the falls.  Everyone managed to find a way and only a few came back with wet feet.

On the way back up the trail, I managed to roll my ankle and fall to my knees.  After a few minutes, I was fine and able to keep going.  I made a joke to my sister and bil along the lines of feeling my age, since it was my birthday.  But seriously, a few years ago I would have been jumping from rock to rock and having a grand old time.  I LOVE hiking, exploring, and being adventurous.  Now, I have to be careful or I'm seriously going to hurt myself.

I don't like this new me.  I NEED to make a change so that I can do things like this with my kids as they get older.  We aren't young parents, but that doesn't mean we have to be OLD for crying out loud.  I used to be a trainer.  One of my clients was a 76 year old woman who now competes in several 5k's every month, does mini-triathlons, and just did her first half marathon.  When she came to me, she could hardly get up off the floor.  I remember celebrating with her the first time she discovered she could actually RUN to answer her phone at home.  We celebrated so many milestones together on her journey to being young again.  I now need to do that for myself.  And for my kids.

**********************

Here's a few more pictures from our trip last weekend:

My mom with her kids

Eliana age 10, Nathanial a few days shy of 4,
Urijah (my brother's son) 4.5, Steven 5.5, Adilyn 2

My awesome Aunt D (who always comments on my blog) in the lookout tower made of lava rock.

My siblings.
Behind and all around us, is miles and miles of lava rock.

Wordless Wednesday

Me and my babies.
I love them.

Microblog Monday: Not a Break

A late microblog post is better than not at all, right?  Hey, it's still Monday here.

Rylee, Ayden, and I spent Saturday night at my in-laws.  They went down for bed close to their normal bedtime and went to sleep fairly easy.  It's been working out that one of the babies sleeps in a pack-n-play (pnp) in my in-laws room and the other sleeps in a pnp in the spare room, or with us depending on how many other people are spending the night.  It worked out great last weekend having Ayden sleep in their room, so that's what we did this time too.  However, this weekend, he woke up crying at 3:30 in the morning.  I waited to see if he would calm down and go back to sleep.  I didn't want to walk in on MIL calming him, only to have me interrupt and have him all upset again.  He cried off and on for about 10 minutes, but then it turned into all out screaming, so I finally went in to save both mil and Ayden.  (Grandpa was in Washington working on their new house)  The poor guy was so upset, he just clung to me.  Once he calmed down I tried taking him to bed with me, but when I turned to leave the room he started screaming again.  We thought maybe he wanted his Grandma so I tried handing him to her, but he clung to me even more.  I ended up just crawling into bed with MIL.

However, Ayden would not go back to sleep.  At. All.  I eventually moved into the living room with him and tried laying down on the couch to go to sleep.  He was not into laying down.  I turned on the Disney channel, hoping to at least distract him that way.  It worked for about 15 minutes, but then he wanted to get down and play.  OMGosh.  I was so tired and just wanted to go to sleep!  And of course their house isn't baby proofed at all, so I was constantly getting up to redirect him out of trouble, all while trying to keep him from also waking up Rylee and MIL.

Anyway, to micro this post and shorten the story, I still had my half day to myself going to watch a few softball games, but it really didn't seem like much of a break when I was dog tired from being up since 3:30am.  If they didn't live 1.5 hours away, I would have driven home and taken a nap.  Now THAT would have been glorious.

And of course, Ayden woke up this morning at 5:00.  It's been between 5:00-5:30 for the last two weeks now (accept for the 3:30 wake up).  That doesn't work very well for this night owl (me).

If you'd like to read more #MicroblogMonday posts from other people, click here.

Day in the Life: Fall 2015

It's time for another DAY IN THE LIFE post!  There is still time to join the link up with My Life in Transition if you'd like to participate as well.  Just click on this link.  But hurry!  The deadline to document your day is October 14th.

I documented yesterday: Thursday, October 8th

Tony: 42  years old
Me: 40 years old (but only for another 8 days!  Can I cry now?)
Rylee: 21.5 months old
Ayden: 21.5 months old

1:10am - I unfortunately wake up because I need to make a trip to the bathroom to go potty.

4:46 - Tony's phone starts ringing.  Can I shoot the person that accidentally butt dialed him?

4:50 - Tony gets up because he's not going to go back to sleep now.  I pray he'll be quiet and not wake the babies!

5:01 - Ayden wakes up.

5:15 - I hear Tony go in and get Ayden.  He also changed his diaper.

5:30 - Rylee cries out.  I race to stop Tony from getting her because she would probably go back to sleep!  Too late.  Now we're all up.  Tony changes her diaper too.  We all cuddle on the couch and watch Leap Frog's Numberland on Netflix.  Ayden and Rylee drink their milk sippys.

6:00 - Tony gives everyone loves before heading out the door, leaving for his mission trip.  I turn on Mickey Mouse.  We're going to Disney on Ice in a few weeks and I want them to know the characters!  Ayden and Rylee fight for cuddling space on me.  No matter how many times I tell them there's enough room for both of them, they still don't like to share their Momma.

7:00 - I go to the bathroom.  They discover the refrigerator doors were left unlocked.

7:10 - I fill snack cups with Cheerios for them to munch on while they alternate between playing and watching cartoons.  We've had a lot of very early wake ups this week, so I leave the t.v. on longer than usual because I'm not very motivated to get moving.

7:45 - I change Ayden's poopy diaper.

7:50 - I get breakfast ready.

8:01 - Ayden and Rylee get put in their high chairs.  It's scrambled eggs, leftover blueberry pancakes, and half a banana for breakfast.  They call bananas "numa."  Sometimes Ayden calls them "manuma."  (I think this is kind of funny considering they both know how to make the "b" sound.  They say baby very clearly!)

While they were busy eating, I slipped out of the room to go to the bathroom.  When I came back a few minutes later, all sippys, forks, plates, bibs, and what was left of breakfast was thrown on the floor.

8:30 - I get them cleaned up (and the floor) and out of the high chairs.  Rylee tries undressing herself.

They play dump ALL toys everywhere, and then play for awhile.

8:50 - I attempt to go get their clothes set out for the day.  As soon as I leave the room they get into the entertainment center, so I go back and bring them into their room with me, shutting the door.

I change Rylee's poopy diaper and battle it out at the same time with Ayden because he keeps trying to take her fresh diaper (better than the poopy one) and the wipes from me, all while I'm holding Rylee's poopy bottom in the air.  He finally gives up and goes to the other end of the changing table and pulls Rylee's hair instead.  I am eventually able to get them both dressed.  It's a challenge getting their clothes out while they are also trying to pull ALL the clothes out of the drawers.

9:15 - I put a load of laundry in.

My "helpers"

9:17 - While they are distracted with the laundry basket, I grab the clean clothes out of the dryer (from yesterday) and throw them on my bed.  I quickly get dressed, brush my teeth, and pull my hair into a ponytail.  I'm not quick enough though, because when I come back into the living room, I find them in the entertainment center again.  Rylee runs when she sees me.  Ayden proudly holds up his finds.  They get put into time out.

Not a fan of time out

9:35 - We all have a quick snack and then start getting ready to leave the house.  I get their water bottles filled, and pack a set of diapers and wipes into the stroller.  I then help Ayden and Rylee get their jackets and shoes on.

9:50 - They get loaded up into the stroller and we make the short walk to Community Playgroup.

10:03 - We arrive.  Ayden and Rylee have a great time playing and all three of us enjoy getting out of the house.

He loves all things that can be pushed!

Arts and Crafts

11:30 - Ayden starts to meltdown and is pretty much mad about everything at this point, and not afraid to let everyone know.  His early mornings are starting to get to him.  We help pick up toys.

11:50 - We sneak out a little early and start our walk home, stopping to talk to a neighbor on the way home.  He asks if we are going to Roseburg to see the President (because of the shooting).  We then agree on our political views.  (Of course I'm not dragging the babies to the madness in Roseburg)

12:03pm - We are back home.  On our way back into the house through the laundry room, I stop and throw the clothes into the dryer.

12:13 - Ayden and Rylee are back in their high chairs for lunch.  It's a simple lunch of turkey slices, green beans, cottage cheese, and veggie straws.  I unload the dishwasher while they eat, stopping to help them spoon the cottage cheese every once in awhile.

12:40 - Clean up lunch and get them out of their high chairs.  They decide to give each other hugs and kisses.  Although, Ayden's hug is more like a choke hold.  lol

So much better than the fighting!

12:50 - Both diapers get changed and their teeth brushed.

12:58 - I change Ayden's diaper again because, of course, he had to poopy in the clean fresh one.

1:07 - They give each other hugs and kisses, and say "nigh-nigh."

1:09 - Both are finally down for naps!  I'm able to sit down for lunch myself, left over lasagna from last night.  I scroll Facebook while I'm eating.

1:45 - Get the next load of laundry ready to go for when they wake up.  I also go through a bin of clothing passed down from a friend for Ayden.  Then I fold the clean clothes that are on my bed from this morning.

2:00 - Sit down to eat a popsicle (or two) and take my turns playing Dice Buddies and Words with Friends.  I have time to read a couple blog posts.  I get a text from my twin mom friend here in town.  We make arrangements for a park play date once all the kids wake up from naps.

2:45 - Ayden wakes up.  I give him a bit to see if he will go back to sleep.

2:55 - Ayden hits full on crying so I go in to get him.  We cuddle on the couch and watch Kipper on Netflix, his favorite show.

3:17 - Rylee is up from her nap.

3:20 - Get a text from my friend saying one of her girls woke up from nap with a high fever. Park date cancelled.

3:25 - Put a load of laundry in.  Ayden confiscates the basket.

I get snacks and water bottles ready so we can have snacks outside.

3:33 - Ayden's diaper gets changed first, then Rylee.  I fail to shut the bedroom door while changing her, so Ayden escapes to the living room and gets into the entertainment center again.  I put Rylee's shoes and socks on while Ayden sits in time out.  Then I get his shoes and socks on.

3:50 - We're finally outside.

They hold up their food all the time, asking me to tell them what it is.
Today's snack is Annie's graham bunnies and raisins.

They decided to move to their chairs instead of the table

Just lounging

Annnnddd, snack now gets dumped at the top of the slide

Being silly

Taking a selfie while Ayden is busy going down the slide over and over.
Note: I get these random strands of curly hair that like to stick straight out from my head!

She loves to play in the dirt!

4:45 - We get the toys picked up and come inside.  Change Rylee's poopy diaper and then get all of our hands washed in the bathroom sink, which they think is pretty cool.

5:00 - Start dinner, just a Boboli pizza for something easy, with pepperoni and green pepper as toppings.  And cheese of course.  Ayden and Rylee stay occupied launching themselves from the laundry basket to the couch over and over again for a good 5 minutes.

They end up in the kitchen with Ayden climbing on top of Rylee and trying to get a horsey ride.  She can't decide if it's fun or not.  She alternates from giggles to crying and back to giggles again.

5:14 - I herd them out of the kitchen so I can put the pizza in the oven.  Rylee has been shouting singing Let It Go over and over, so I turn the song on for her and play it on repeat a couple times through.

I take a few minutes to dust buster the crumbs off the kitchen/dining room floor.  Ayden and Rylee go back to laundry-basket-couch-launching.  While they are distracted doing that, I get the clean clothes out of the dryer and throw them on my bed.  Then I transfer the load in the washer to the dryer.

5:30 - Take the pizza out of the oven.  Have to wait for it to cool off and Ayden is getting impatient.  I turn on Disney radio for something other than Let It Go, but Rylee continues singing it anyway.  Ayden gets distracted by a bug on the floor.

Inspecting the bug.

5:40 - Dinner is dished up and they go into their high chairs.  Pizza with mixed veggies on the side, along with a sippy cup of milk.  I sit down with them for dinner.

6:00 - I load the dishwasher while they finish dinner.  They get a graham cracker when they are ready.

6:13 - Start cleaning them up and get them out of the high chairs.  They play while I finish cleaning up.

6:34 - Bath time!  They L.O.V.E getting baths.  Ayden has discovered laying on his back and "floating."  He's extremely proud of this new skill.  Rylee has become a master bubble blower.  I also have to remind her that Ayden's penis is not for her to play with.

After the bath, they sit on the potty for a bit and we sing the ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Then they get their pj's on.

7:02 - I let them play for a few minutes because they are having fun giggling and laughing together.

7:06 - Time to brush teeth.  It has become an all out war to brush Rylee's teeth in the last week.  Sigh.

She is happy as soon as I leave her alone and stop trying to brush her teeth.

Being silly

7:10 - Story time.  Rylee picks out Grover's Guessing Game About Animals.  We also read Little Blue Truck, Good Night I Love You, and Llama Llama Nighty-Night.  Then Rylee insists we also read Furry Friends.  I can't turn her down.

7:25 - Good night prayers, hugs and kisses.

7:30 - Both are in bed.  It's 15 minutes past their normal bedtime, but hey, I was doing it solo.  I grab the vacuum cleaner from the garage and closed myself in the master bathroom to quickly give it a good sweep, hoping it won't disturb them from going to sleep.  It's just not something I can get done during the day except on a weekend when Tony is home.

7:40 - Turn the vacuum off and listen for babies.  Awww, it's quiet!  Yay!  Go back to the kitchen to finish loading the dishwasher with water bottles, sippy cups, and a few plastic toys that could stand a good washing.  Turn the dishwasher on.

7:48 - Sit down with a popsicle and catch up on social media.

9:44 - I've been lazy long enough.  I had planned on scrubbing the toilet and our bathroom floor tonight, but couldn't bring myself to get up and do it.  I check on the babies and go take a shower.

I couldn't get one that wasn't blurry, and the flash was starting to bother her
so I stopped trying before I woke her up.

10:15 - Take sippys out of the dishwasher to cool off so I can put milk in them for tomorrow morning.  Then I pick up all the scattered toys.

10:23 - Poor milk into the sippy cups.

10:26 - Head to my room to go to bed, only to discover I hadn't folded the laundry on my bed yet.  I decide I'll fold them tomorrow and throw the basket of clean clothes on the floor. I do take the time to fill the other basket with a load to put in the washer in the morning though.

10:35 - Brush my teeth and go to bed.  While in bed, I upload all these pictures to google+ so they are ready to go when I sit down to write this post.  I think I went a little crazy with the pictures today.  There's a lot of them!

11:13 - Put my phone down and go to sleep.

Just A Little Bitter

We had arranged for Tony's parents to come stay overnight with the babies this weekend so we could have a belated date night to celebrate our anniversary.  This would have been our first time leaving the kids overnight with someone else.  Our plan was to stop at Babies R Us to do some Christmas shopping on our way to Portland for the evening.  Then we were going to go to a comedy club, something we'd never done before.  What I was most looking forward to was our hotel stay and being able to sleep in as loooonnnnggggg as I wanted in the morning.  I think we also really could have used that husband and wife adult time, by ourselves.

Instead, Tony will be leaving early tomorrow morning and catching a plane to Mexico for a mission trip with his work company.  The purpose of the trip is to help fit hearing aids to those in need, that are living in poverty.  This is something that his company does at least once/year in different areas around the world, but it's the first time that Tony has been invited to go.  He was asked only two weeks ago, which means we've had to scramble to get everything lined up so he can go.  The scramble: getting a passport expedited. 

Tony tried to contact the post office in Eugene, which issues passports, but they NEVER returned his phone call.  He actually went into the post office directly, but they told him he had to call to schedule an appointment.  Of course it's only an automated answering system when he calls.  Dead end.  We went to the post office here in town, but they couldn't do an 8-10 day expedite.  They would have needed 4 weeks.

So Tony's only option was to make a 5 hour drive to Seattle to have one issued. He left after work last Monday and stayed overnight at a friend's house so that he only another 3 hours to drive Tuesday morning.  His appointment was at 10:30am in Seattle.  He was then given the option of coming back on Thursday to pick up his passport, or hang around in Seattle to pick it up that afternoon.  Taking another day off work and driving back and forth to pick up his passport wasn't an option, so it turned into another night of me solo parenting because he got home so late that night.  But, passport was in hand!

He would have chosen not to go on this trip if I'd asked him to, but that's just not something I would have done.  This is an amazing opportunity that he gets to be a part of and who knows when and if he will ever be given the opportunity again.  If I were him, I would have wanted to go, so I wasn't about to hold him back from it.

While I'm definitely not mad about it, I can't help but feel a little bitter disappointment.  Instead of our overnight anniversary date, I will be solo parenting for another 5 days.  The babies and I will be spending Saturday night at Tony's parents (which I am not looking forward to), and they will then babysit Sunday for a few hours so that I can go watch a few softball games without the kids in tow (which I AM looking forward to).  I appreciate the chance to spend a few hours by myself watching some of the players we once coached now play in their college softball games, it is very small potatoes in comparison to actually having an overnight anniversary date and a chance to ADULT.

On top of that, it's not even something we can reschedule.  The money we had set aside for our night in Portland has been spent on expediting his passport, paying airport parking and luggage fees, and any other incidentals that come up.  Sigh.

Weekend Family Fun

Normally I would try to do a #MicroblogMonday post today, but this post isn't what I would consider micro.

The Columbia River divides Oregon and Washington, and Tony's brother and his family live up the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington side.  Tony's parents just recently finished having a house (a second home) built up there and this past weekend was the first sleepover in the new house.

We had arranged our travel plans so that we would leave on Friday right after lunch, timing it so that Ayden and Rylee could sleep for most of the drive because it would be during their nap time. (It's about a 4 hour drive)  The plan was for Tony to take the afternoon off work, and we would swing by his office and pick him up on our way out of town.  We were supposed to pick him up at Noon, but I had to send him a text at 11:40 to let him know we were running late. I spent the morning trying to get everything packed, while also making sure that two toddlers were entertained.  While they ate lunch, I got most everything loaded in the car.  When they were done, I quickly got them cleaned up and got one of the high chairs loaded as well.  (There's already one booster seat at the new house)  I put them in fresh diapers for the road and got their shoes on.  Right as I was rushing them out the door (is that possible with toddlers?), I discovered that Ayden had poopy britches.  Of course.  So I took his shoes back off and got his diaper changed.  Again.  Shoes back on, out the door, and both of them in their car seats.  Phew!

But then...When I got to the end of our road, I found it completely blocked off!  They had just repaved the road.  What the...!!!?!???  So I sat at the end of the road (fuming) and called the City Public Works.  I was told that notices were put on everyone's doors a few days prior and that the road wouldn't be opened until about 5:00pm.  I gave them an earful about how we hadn't gotten a notice.

I turned around and went back home.  Then I tried putting Ayden and Rylee down for their naps, but they really wanted nothing to do with that.  They weren't too pleased with our short car ride and then being ushered back into the house and immediately put down for naps.  I called Tony to tell him that we couldn't get out.  He didn't believe me that they could completely block us in, so he called the City as well.  He ended up driving home, parking up the road, and walking the rest of the way to our house.  We waited it out till we could leave. During that wait, we found Ayden playing with a bright orange piece of paper.  We have absolutely no idea where he found it, but apparently we DID in fact get a notice.  Oops.

We eventually made it to Washington for our weekend of family fun.  Ayden and Rylee absolutely LOVE spending time with their grandparents.  Ayden's favorite word is "Gampa."

Saturday morning was spent hanging out at the new house.  Ayden discovered he was finally tall enough to step on the gas pedal in their jeep, so he and Rylee rode up and down the street for at least a good hour.  Grandma wrapped a "hat"(a dish towel) around Rylee's head because it was a very chilly morning.

 That afternoon we went to the BIL's house for our niece's 8th birthday party.  Ayden proved to be a handful at the party, throwing lots of little temper tantrums because we kept deterring him from all the things he wanted to do (like climb under the house, go down the raging river that sits below their house, get in the way of the other kids swinging a stick at the pinata...).  Rylee enjoyed running all over as well, but without the temper tantrums.

She enjoyed learning how to be a sidewalk chalk artist from the older girls.

After the party, bil took us to see their property and the new house they are building.  Ayden and Rylee got to see the horses and get a ride on the tractor.  They both love animals, but especially Rylee.  Ayden tends to be a little more tentative.

Rylee walking with the birthday girl

Getting to sit on a horse for the very first time.

Ayden's uncle introducing him to Wally.

Ayden wasn't so sure about the headphones covering his ears!

Rylee got to ride the tractor too.

On Sunday, we all went on a trip down the Columbia River on a sternwheeler to celebrate MIL's 60th birthday.  We went on a morning cruise down the river that was over about Noon.  Afterward, we let the kids play at the park that was nearby before we all headed home.  The road trip home was uneventful, but perfect timing for Ayden and Rylee to nap!

Cousins

Ayden got to sit in the Captain's seat and "drive" the boat.

The weekend got off to a rocky start and it was very busy, but it was a great family weekend.  The older cousins really enjoy playing with Ayden and Rylee, and it was great fun for the adults getting to watch them all play and giggle together.