Our busy lives

04 Aug 2008 Leave a Comment

by mipennsn in Boyne, cleaning, enjoying your children, Flylady, housework

I know I haven’t posted in a while, between going out of town, working, and really working on cleaning my house and decluttering (a lot more of that to go) I haven’t spent much time on the computer.

Last weekend we went up to my dad’s condo at Boyne Mountain for a very short trip – I worked Friday night shift and Monday night shift, but we made the most of the time.  I wasn’t sure where I had put the camera so I didn’t get any pictures of the boys playing with their aunts. Kelly (16), who usually doesn’t get much time because she is not as fun as Aunt Brittany, was the only one of my sisters there when we arrived Saturday morning.  Tyler and William both had fun playing with her and her friend, Kacey, who also has younger nephews that she is used to playing with.

Brittany (13), (yes my sisters are that much younger than me!) arrived later in the afternoon with Grandpa Sandy (really Grandma Sandy, Tyler started calling her Grandpa Sandy since we refer to her and my dad as Grandpa and Grandma Sandy).  After that pair arrived Kelly was no longer interesting and she could go back to what “she” wanted to do — chase boys or look for boys.  Brittany got almost tortured.  Brittany and Tyler ended up making a “leash” so they could play doggie.  Brit even ended up crawling down the stairs facing forward at one point.  They spent a good part of the time playing doggie, but they also read books and did a fair amount of TV watching.

We did go to Avalanche Bay at Boyne.  I doubt we as a family will go again until after the baby is born.  I was so thankful that my dad paid for our tickets to get in, because in my eyes it was expensive.  The boys did well, they both loved going on the one water side that the whole family could go on.  I couldn’t do the “big” slides because of the pregnancy and Russ wasn’t feeling well so he didn’t feel up to taking Tyler down the slides.  We went down the one slide we could several times.  William and Tyler both loved it.  Tyler even learned to go running when the “Avalanche” comes to go get dumped on by the water.

Monday before we left we went to Deer Lake and let the boys play in the sand.  Tyler even walked out to one of the buoys with Brittany.  When we go up in the summer we will definitely hit the lake since it is one of the few “free” activities we have found at Boyne along with ridding the ski lift up and down the mountain which both boys loved.

The house has been driving me nuts, it is so messy and dirty.  Since we got back from Boyne we have really been working on cleaning the house.  I was working at it before we left, but have really been working at it since we got home.  I got off tract with being gone and not having enough sleep over the weekend.  I have gotten some areas started well, but there is a lot more work to do.  Alot of decluttering to do.

How long do you have to work to fill your tank?

21 Jun 2008 Leave a Comment

by mipennsn in money woes, traveling

I was reading my email this morning and in one of the email’s I read was a link to calculate how many hours you need to work to fill your vehicle.  Since I generally need to fill up after 3-4 trips to work and I have to work 3 hours to fill my vehicle, essentially I need to work 1 hour for just gas.  It is about what I thought my commute cost in terms of gas.  What about those who work outside the home?  (I know many of you who read this are stay at home parents.)

It’s Friday

25 Apr 2008 Leave a Comment

by mipennsn in elder care, family, traveling

This week hasn’t been as bad as I thought. The stress level was almost as much as I thought it was going to be, but a few things got changed around.

I did work my 3 days in a row. Day 2 when I was exhausted at midnight (I get off at 2 am) I was wondering how I was going to make it through my last 2 hours, the the person who was taking over my rooms/patients arrived at 1 am. So I had this little conversation with the charge nurse –

me – “Dennis got here an hour early.”

charge nurse – “You want to go home?”

me – “Yes.” So I left shortly after 1. I was glad that I had some snacks and a pop to drink on the way home, I was so tired, but I made it home safely.

Monday before I left for work, I got a call from my dad that the visiting nurse and social worker thought that my Grandma was not safe to be living at home alone anymore. They got her admitted to the hospital on Monday to get her placed in a nursing home. Though the course of the week it has been determined that she has had a stroke at some point, which makes sense with everything that has been going on with her over the last several months. She still hasn’t been discharged from the hospital as every day they have done more tests. Hopefully today she will be discharged to the nursing home. She seems to be in great spirits, almost the best she has been in months. My dad credits it to the fact that she is eating regularly decent meals and taking her meds consistently. I am sure that the human contact is helping as well since she would sometimes go a couple of days without seeing anyone other than her cat.

I just hung up from my first interview with MidMichigan to get a job closer to home. It would save us so much money not driving 60 miles round trip for work. It is more like 10 miles and I could possibly ride my bike. I would like to work in the ER there, but wouldn’t mind an office job as well and I have applied for both. I have the second interview on Thursday.

The boys doctor appointment went well. They are growing normally. Tyler loved watching the doctor help the delivery man uncrate new furniture that was delivered about the same time as our appointment.

In a couple of hours I am off to ladies retreat for some relaxation. First time I will be away from William for more than 14 hours. Tyler gets to go to Grandpa & Grandma Sandy’s house when my dad comes up to take Grandma to the nursing home. Dad is planning on coming back up here again on Sunday to see Grandma and bring Tyler home.

Busy Weekend

17 Mar 2008 Leave a Comment

by mipennsn in faith, family, traveling

We finally made a long overdue trip down to the Lansing area (though we didn’t make it to Lansing proper, stayed about 10 miles east at all times). We hadn’t been down since Christmas, though my dad has been up multiple times. We hadn’t seen my in-laws since Christmas and they had Christmas presents (after Christmas extended family Christmas party) for both boys and birthday presents for Tyler whose birthday was over a month ago. We came back with so much more than we left with.

I think the boys are enjoying playing with their new toys. They both got Mr. Potato-heads. They also got this awesome collection of Illustrated Classics.  We started reading Peter Pan last night. There are some books in this collection that I have never read. I am looking forward to reading them to the boys. Tyler also got a case for his matchbox cars, since he loves playing with them.

Our main reason for going down was Miriam’s (our niece) birthday party. It was held at Russ’ parents house. The kids all had fun playing together. The all remember the weekend they spent up here last fall and keep asking to get together again. It was a Dora theme and my sister-in-law, Michelle, decorated the cake. She did an awesome job. Both the girls and all our family spent the night at my in-laws. Quite a full household, 4 kids and 4 adults

We were going to try to go to our old church, South Church, but by the time we got up and ready to leave we would have been very late. When it came down to it, I would have had 15 minutes to shower and be ready to leave with all our stuff, which was mostly packed, but not entirely packed at that moment. So we ended up going to my in-laws church. I really enjoyed the sermon. He first read from Mark 11 about Jesus entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, then the main message was on the prophesy in Zechariah 9:9. I always knew that Jesus’ entry was prophesied, but I had never realized where the passage was.

After church we went to my dad’s for the afternoon, picked my mom (who rode down and back with us) up from friends from friends on our way back, then went to small group on our way home. (Mom got picked up from small group, before we went inside.)

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