Things are actually going well here

(written over two days...Thurs and Fri)

I'm going to probably regret writing this but oh well...here goes!

For the first time in a looong time (talking years here) I feel like I'm ontop of things or at least almost breaking through the surface. My house is cleanest it's been in a while! I wouldn't mind if someone were to suddenly stop by unannounced. We've been sitting down to eat by 6:30 instead of 9 or 10pm. I actually managed to completely clean my kitchen before bed the other night! (no soaking pots...sink empty, dishwasher going, appliances wiped down, floor swept and spot cleaned). Funny, the areas requiring the attention now are the ones that I used to do first...the bathrooms. Even that though is just a couple quick wipes.

A lot of this is the residual of having done the work for the graduation party. Some of it is that I'm paying more attention to the things I need to. It also helps that Michelle has had some vacation and for some reason has had her 2 days off consecutively (ie...tues&wed) the last couple weeks. While Sean is still needy and wants me whenever he sees me. He's also gotten a bit more independant...finding new things to climb or to stuff into his mouth. It hasn't lessened the amount of attention given to him but it's allowed my hands to be a bit more free.

Having said all that...this next week or so is going to be insanely busy. It's our annual summer conference/fellowship week at church. I'm not camping like I usually do *sniff sniff* but we'll need to be at church by 10:30 every morning and will be gone all day and night. While getting ready to camp is a bit of work, it'll actually be harder to be driving back and forth every day. I'll still have to have everything ready as if I was camping (no time to run to the store...will be too tired and no time to do laundry). I won't have anywhere of my own to go if we get exhausted and need a break. I don't have our own area to fix meals and eat. And if it storms...I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm sure it'll work out though, it always does.

As busy as I'll be, the youth kids will be even busier! I don't know how Liz is going to handle things. I saw her start to fall apart tonight when she mentioned that she has to go shopping to stock up the store. Not sure where we'll fit that trip in...even if it's to drop her off to someone else's house to get a ride to the store. Right now Liz is looking at working at...the store, the coffee bar, the grill and snack bar, cleaning the meeting hall when it's her shift, doing something for the outdoor challenge on Monday...not sure what, helping the finger painting table on Tuesday, going to meetings and having fellowship with as many people as she can! lol

Finishing this up on Fri morning

I ran all afternoon and evening last night. Which I feel pretty guilty for as it was Jake's birthday!! He's now 12yo which is a BIG thing around here as it now makes him an official youth in the church. He's so excited. He can go to youth meetings, hang out in the evenings and do youth activities. He's been waiting for this for almost a year now. lol He wanted steak, mashed potatoes and blooming onions for his birthday dinner. I managed to pick up a huge roast and drop it off at home between errands so that Tom could cut it up and throw it on the grill. Unfortunately, Tom's on call and was called into work just as the steaks were finishing up. So Jake didn't have either one of us at his birthday dinner. :o( On my last errand I stopped at Arby's and bought him his own order of onion petals Everyone else had to share the other 4 orders I bought...pick 5 for $5.95. He originally was going to spend the day running with me but changed his mind after I gave him one of his gifts. It was controllers you wear for fighting games on his x-box. So when you kick, your guy on the game kicks and so forth.

Carrie had a TODAY study appointment which she was DREADING! She knew that they weren't going to be happy. She's been balking at taking her medicines. She only had 16% compliance for the last 3 months. I'll remind her, she'll look at me and then she'll just not do it. I get busy and forget to follow through. I'm pretty sure this all started when they added the medicine for her blood pressure and kidneys (blood pressure is high and she's throwing out protein in her urine). It's so frustrating!!! She feels fine and in her teenager mentality can't see the long term effects of not taking her meds. I've gotten to the point where I'm about to ground her for not taking them. I don't want to go to that but I wasn't sure what to do.

We've come up with a new idea which will probably help out in a month or so. We're going to try to have her test and take her medicine at school before lunch. I'm not sure how the logistics will work out with her medicine being unconventional (not in a prescription bottle but on dated cards for the study) but I'm sure the school nurse will work with me on it. The other dose (and her blood pressure med) will be taken at night. I felt that her night time routine was a better fit then our crazy dinner time nonroutine. (especially when she'll be running out the door after dinner to church activities again). So she has to be seen in a month instead of 3 months to see how her compliance is along with her blood pressure and A1c.

Well wanted to update before I ran out the door for most of the day. I've already dropped Liz off at church so she can clean and organize the store. She'll be going shopping with some girls later today. Michelle is due at work in about 45mins (takes 30mins to get there) then I'm out to do our shopping. I'm running one of Michelle's co-workers to work at 4. Then I'll shop at her store while I wait for her to get out at 4:45....finishing up any other errands, shopping I have to do after she gets out of work. Hopefully it won't be TOO late when we get home as I still have laundry, cooking and packing to do. My goal is be done and heading out the door Saturday by 2, after Tom goes to the dump.