Swiffer Duty...

I guess I'm sick of the messy state my upstairs is in. I'm tripping over toys constantly. Since I can't clean that yet, I decided to give my bathrooms the deep clean, and the floors as well. After scrubbing tubs, toilets, sinks, and mirrors, it was time to tackle the floors. I opened my new swiffer wet-jet and it was pretty easy to put together. It smelled yummy. Some kind of febreeze scent or something. After mopping two bathrooms, the laundry room, the front entry, and the kitchen, I came to a few conclusions. 1) This is sooooo much easier than getting on my hands and knees in my current state. 2) This could get pretty pricey because I used almost one entire bottle just doing today's floors. 3) Tile grout will not come clean without getting down on the floor myself. As for today, I'm happy with the results. It smells fresh and clean, looks pretty good, and I've at least had enough energy to tackle this feat. When I finished with the last floor I realized it was lunch time. No way was I going to let my kids eat in my newly cleaned kitchen. We ate at burger king where someone else cleaned up the mess. How many meals can we eat out so I don't have to clean again until the baby is born? And do kids really need to use my clean bathrooms? I'm thinking of ordering a port-a-potty to put on my front lawn.

Water-logged....

We've been getting enormous amounts of rain lately. It started Wednesday night and poured all day Thursday, and all night that night. Like 36 hours of thunderstorms. We kept ourselves busy all day yesterday cleaning bedrooms and organizing kid stuff. Shawn was home last night so we just kind of hung out as a family. I mentioned to Shawn how grateful I was to be living in a house instead of having to be out in the downpour. I believe I also mentioned how grateful I was we lived on ground that would drain and how nice to have a sum-pump to pump out the rest of the water. Famous last words. Ethan woke me up this morning at 7:45 with "the basement floor is all wet". Nice. I ran downstairs to survey the damage. For some reason the sum-pump wasn't pumping properly and we were covered in at least 2 inches of water. Everywhere. Ethan found one of his Wii remotes on the ground and burst into tears. I then followed suit. Nothing but two crying babies sitting on couches so we wouldn't get our feet wet. I paged Shawn because I didn't know what else to do. One of the docs said he could come home for a little while to help, but they really needed him today. Surgeries were stacked. And, he leaves to moonlight for the weekend tonight at 6. And, our good friends the McManus' were coming into town to stay at our place for the ward reunion tomorrow. How plans change. For the 2 hours Shawn was home he sucked up a lot of water with the shop vac. He even pulled up half the carpet. It was too wet and heavy to move so he left it in a heap on the floor. The kids helped carry all the toys and stuff not on shelves upstairs to dry. Jackson is having a great time scraping the carpet pad up at the end of the stairs. He's loading it into his dump truck then dumping it into a garbage bag. At least he's entertained. Now my basement is covered in wetness, my upstairs is covered with what should be downstairs, and all I want to do is sleep. I'm a bit overwhelmed to say the least. I did talk to a company in town that cleans up messes like this and they can come tomorrow to dispose of the carpet. The insurance adjuster and I keep playing phone tag, but at least I am in the works of talking to him. Hopefully by tomorrow night all the soggy carpet will be out the window (literally) and the cement will start to dry. I'm praying that we can have everything back to normal before this baby is born.

Gadgets....

I'm a clean-floor kind of girl. I know I've mentioned it before, but it's true. If my house is kind of messy, but my floors are freshly mopped, life is good. My floors suffer when I'm pregnant. The 1st trimester I'm too sick. I don't do too badly the 2nd trimester, but then the 3rd hits. My floors rarely get mopped. The only way I like to clean floors is on my hands and knees. This is the only way that I can guarantee every little smudge is wiped free. There is nothing like a hand-mopped-floor. This is why I fail to mop my 3rd trimester. The whole hands-and-knees thing is virtually impossible. Oh, I'm sure I could get down, it's the getting back up part I'm afraid of. So, with every pregnancy, including this one, once I've got about 6 weeks left and I can no longer handle the grunge, I give in and buy a mop. Every time it's been a different kind. I've used the old fashioned with the big bucket, the spongy squeegee type, the swiffer wet mop, and some other kind I don't recall. This time I bought the swiffer wet-jet. I've heard good things. We'll see. Even if it doesn't make my floors sparkle at least I'll feel like I've put forth an effort. If I stay true to my past then a few weeks after the baby is born I'll put the mop deep in a cupboard and get back on my knees. But for now? Don't be afraid to visit. My floor will be swiffered by tomorrow at noon.

Rememberings...

As I encounter new situations with my children, I'm reminded of similar situations occurring when I was young. One's that I vowed I would handle differently than they were handled way back when. Such a memory came to mind a few minutes ago. When I was in 5th grade I had a little clique of friends. 5 of us to be exact. I especially enjoyed this group of girls. There was a girl not involved in this clique that I also enjoyed hanging out with. We had a lot in common, and also took dance together. One afternoon this girls parents invited me to go to a nearby lake with them. I was excited to go. When we arrived I noticed there were a lot of familiar faces around. If I remember correctly there was a Young Single Adult activity or something like that taking place so a lot of people from our ward happened to be in the vicinity. One of those people was one of the girls in my little clique. I remember thinking how great it was to have 2 really good friends in one place at the same time coincidentally. Both girls knew each other so I figured it was a non-issue for all 3 of us to hang out. After a little while the girl I came with kind of disappeared. I figured she went to the bathroom or something. Pretty soon I heard her mom calling me over. She kind of put me in a weird spot with the conversation that took place. She told me she realized I was really good friends with this other girl, but I had come with her daughter. Therefore I needed to pay attention only to her daughter and enjoy my time with just her. I obviously did as I was asked. I had never intended to leave this girl out. I remember thinking how I would never call out a child like that just to avoid my child's feelings being hurt. It seemed odd to me that she did that. My mom would probably just have found a way for all 3 of us to enjoy the day. Hmmmm. Today I re-learned to never say never. Kennedy has a friend over. Jack wanted to have his very best friend over, so we invited her too. I'm on the computer trying to do some stuff for Shawn and I hear this conversation taking place:
Jack (to his friend): "Do you want to play house with me?"
Friend: "No, I'm playing with the girls right now."
Jack: "But I like girl stuff! Do you want to play house?"
This went on for like 5 minutes. I just listened and hoped it would work itself out. Maybe all 4 could just play together? I was trying not to be my friends mom by intervening. Then they all went upstairs. Pretty soon I heard tears. Jack was being mean to his friend, Kennedy was yelling at Jack, so both were crying. I went up and explained to them all that Jack was only angry because he was so excited to play with his friend and Kennedy kind of took her over. I said what I once vowed never to say. "Kennedy why don't you go play something with your friend, and Jack, you and your friend can go downstairs and play house. Let's all play with the friend we were meant to play with today, okay?" Everyone seemed fine with that proposal. So, here I sit now listening to Jack say "Honey, did you remember to change the baby?" And his friend answering "I can't find the baby." Lovely. Peace at last. I guess when it's your own child with hurt feelings you do whatever you can to make it right. My 5th grade mentality didn't fully understand that. Now it does. Now it does.

The 3 AM Wake-Up....

It's 4:30 AM. I've been awake for 1 hour. I'm at the stage of my pregnancy where I need to make 3 point turns to roll over. I also get up every few hours to use the bathroom. This happens to me with every child I carry. I call it the 3 AM wake-up. For some reason at around 3 AM I find myself wide awake. I'm usually up until around 6 where I'm able to sleep a little bit more until my other kids wake and start their demands. Thank goodness some of my kids can take care of their own needs. And thank goodness it's summer so I can usually feed the 2 little ones breakfast, get them dressed, and send them outside while I try to catch a few more Z's. Is this supposed to prepare me for night feedings with a new baby? I've always wondered this. Well, if that's what it is, I would like to forgo the practice this time thank you.

Not So Nice....

Seven years ago today we moved to this town. I can't believe it's actually been that many years. 4 years of medical school, 1 year internship, and 2 years of residency down. 1 more year of residency to go. Crazy. I have learned to really love this little place. It's oh so safe to raise my kids. And the people I've met couldn't be any better. Almost everyone I've encountered in these 7 years are so nice. Even the one's in Walmart that are missing most of their teeth. Especially those teeth less people in Walmart. Really nice. I've never been treated badly. Until today. I found an entire other side to this town that kind of bothers me. It's like an alternate city within a town. I was treated like I was unimportant. That I wasn't worth the time I took. That I didn't matter. I was sad. I was also angry, but because of hormones it came out as mostly sad. I re-remembered a few things today that I've always felt strongly about after being treated not so nice by some "elite" people. 1) It doesn't matter how much money you make, you have no right to treat others like they don't exist. 2) Regardless of your profession--Doctor, Lawyer, Brick Layer, Hotel Maid---you deserve to be treated with respect. Because you are a person, not because of your occupation.
I'm sad that I discovered this other realm. It's kind of tainted this area for me a little bit. I'm glad I can surround myself with those people that lift me up. I'm grateful for people that respect everybody. I hope to never treat anyone like they are beneath me. It's not fair. For now I'm just going to try to avoid that other realm and focus on the good of this place. I would hate for this one experience to taint all the positive influences I've encountered while living here.

Windy Roads + Kennedy = Nothing Good...

This past weekend Shawn was moonlighting in an ER in small-town USA. He wasn't too busy Saturday, so Sunday we figured it might also be slow. After church the kids & I packed a picnic dinner and headed in his direction. It is an hour drive, and the main road to access the town is under construction. We were forced to take the back way. Unfortunately, the back way is nothing but curves and hills. For 45 minutes we swayed, dipped, and turned. After 30 minutes Kennedy started to look a little pale. I tried to coax her up front without my having to stop the vehicle when she lost it. Her lunch I mean. Luckily she hadn't eaten anything in a few hours so it wasn't something a few baby wipes couldn't clean up. And she's old enough she didn't get any on herself. I had her ride up front with the air on her full force until we reached our destination. Wouldn't you know that the minute we pull into town 3 people happen to pull into the ER looking for care. The kids and I went to a local park to consume our food. I was sitting there at this small park that I had driven 1 hour to get to, and I was kind of irritated. It would have been easier to sit outside on our deck. Or even go to a local park. Luckily the patients that needed care were pretty cut and dry and he was able to join us after 45 minutes. We played around for awhile and then went to see "where Daddy worked". The boys love to see everything Shawn does. We were all sitting in the lobby waiting for Jack to finish his business in the bathroom when Kennedy started to get a little queasy again. I attribute it to the heat of the room we were waiting in. Before she could get to the nearby garbage can her dinner hit the floor. Poor girl. Poor hospital worker that had to clean it up. Sad, but I was so extremely grateful that this is where this happened. Better the hospital floor than the floor of my van. Selfish? Maybe. But truthful. We finished the little tour and headed for home. I made Kennedy sit up front with a walmart sack on her lap just in case. No incidents. She was completely fine. I, however, was having Braxton Hicks and was worn out. After I unloaded the van I climbed into bed. Kennedy changed Landon's diaper, got him in his pajamas, read him a book, and tucked him into bed. The others took care of themselves. Nice. I now know to give Kennedy anti-nausea medicine before we travel on windy roads. I also know never to count on Shawn not being busy in an ER, even if it is a small town. And, I know that my kids will help me out when they can see I've spent my last drop of energy.