Slow weekend

Friday

Not a great day for sleep, but it was a little better. However, while I was working, I got an alert on my phone from my bank about suspicious activity. I checked and someone had hacked my Walmart account and bought several big ticket items. Thank goodness my bank noticed. I was able to get everything canceled.

Then! my new oven showed up. My old oven broke forever ago and I just started using a crockpot. The stove still worked and I just kept putting it off. Finally, the guy came out about a month ago and figured out what needed replacing. Then I found out my oven is so old, they don't make that part anymore. So, AHS paid for a new oven. They came on Friday. But! It turns out the old oven was so old that it was hardwired into the. . . wall (?). Something. Basically it wasn't plugged in and there's no outlet back there. An electrician will have to come unwire the old oven and put in an outlet. I wonder how long that will take? I have an oven in my house that half way works and a brand new one in my garage. Ah, the joys of home ownership. 

Maggie left to go stay the weekend with Nana and Gran. She has missed them and wanted to go. 

Saturday

Ruby slept much better. We had a slow morning, nothing exciting. We ran errands later. We went and got Maggie's new glasses. Ruby was devastated she couldn't wear them. Then we went to the library. We had fun and got a bunch of books.

Ruby has been bad lately about running out into the street and parking lots. I keep grabbing her and getting on to her but she's so stubborn and impulsive. 

Later that night, Ruby told me, you are my best friend forever. Then she had us put our heads together and say it to each other. Oh right, that's why she's the best. 

Sunday

Another good night of sleep and a slow morning. We just kinda hung around. Ruby kept crying over nothing, making me worry she was sick but I don't think so. We played in the backyard and talked to our neighbor for a while. They have a sweet little baby, Zola.

Maggie came home. We watched Disney movies and hung out, pretty much all day. I don't think we did anything else. 

After Ruby went to bed, Maggie and I watched Avengers: Endgame. It was pretty good. 

This is our tree in the front yard. It's so beautiful! Red and orange with a little purple. Little Ruby is in the last two pictures, up against the tree.

Holy sh!t, a talking snake

Monday

The girls got home late last night and I had to put Ruby straight to bed. She told me, I want to stay up with you guys. Oh! Sweet girl. She clearly didn't feel great. Sure enough, I heard her crying around 10:30 pm and went in. She was on the floor with her pants and undies around her ankles. She told me, I don't have any water. So I got her water off her bed and handed it to her. I tried to pull her pants up and get her in bed but she insisted she didn't want her pants up nor to be in her bed. I gave her some ibuprofen because she must have felt bad.

I woke up a few minutes before my alarm buzzed and went and checked on her. She was still asleep so I just kept quiet and let her sleep. Around 8 am I checked again and she had her eyes open. She told me she didn't want to go to school but I wanted her to try. She didn't have a fever and I REALLY need to work.

These are pictures Maggie took.

I was able to get all my stuff done and mostly caught up, but I had to finish early to get Maggie. While reading Maggie some of her old blog posts about her past need for glasses, she told me that she can definitely see better in one eye than the other. Ugh! So, I made an appointment to get her eyes checked. She was thrilled to get out of school early. We went to the eye place and she got a full exam. The doctor determined that there is a discrepancy again (although not as bad as it used to be) and she is far sighted. She said neither were horrible but she is having to work harder to compensate. It doesn't appear to have an affect now, but will probably only get worse. Back to glasses.

After that appointment, we went and got Ruby. Oh she looked sad. Not actually sad, just quiet and still. Very unlike the usual loud, happy girlie. We went to the glasses place and picked out frames. Maggie was not happy it would take two weeks to get them. She must have asked ten times. After that, we went home. Poor Ruby was hot again. I gave her cough medicine and ibuprofen and we finished Captain Marvel.

Tuesday

Ruby is better! When she got up this morning, she was not hot!!! She was happy and sweet. I got her dressed and ready and she laughed and was silly. Hooray for healthy children!

Grandpa was going to get them after school but he got suddenly sick. I have a late appointment on Tuesday but as soon as I finished I grabbed Ruby and went to Maggie's school. It was the book fair and they had set up a Polar Express theme. We went to the library first. Maggie picked out her books. After that, we got hot chocolate and sugar cookies (Ruby wanted a little candy cane). We only stayed a little while because I want to make sure Ruby is getting her sleep.

I put Ruby straight to bed when we got home. I'm still giving her cough medicine, especially at night because I hear her coughing. Maggie and I read Harry Potter and then she read her new books.

Wednesday

Stupid Puddles woke me up at 4 am barking, which is very rude. I didn't sleep well last night either so today hasn't felt great. Ruby was still asleep when my watch buzzed. I went and checked on her and she was snoozing. I cannot bring myself to wake her up. I'm not sure I've ever woken her up (that's probably not true, but it feels true). Maggie woke up and wanted to go so she could go back to the library before the bell rang. But I waited until Ruby was up. She was laughing and playful so I think she's better. She doesn't sleep late. It's only 30 minutes or less after the usual time we get up so, maybe, I'll just wake her up. I don't know. Maybe, she's just still getting better, and she'll be up early again soon enough.

Grandpa was feeling better so he grabbed the girls from school and hung out with them for a while. When he brought them home, we were talking and I told him I've been leaving Ruby's door unlocked. I said, I'll just tell her if she comes out before her green light, I'll go back to locking it (CAN YOU TELL THIS IS FORESHADOWING???????).

Grandpa said he called Ruby a monkey and she told him, no, I'm Mommy's baby. Gah! She can be so damn sweet.

Ruby took a bath and we played for a while. She is so silly. I asked her how her day was and she told me, Terrible. And good. I said, oh what was good? She named a few friends. I said, what was terrible? She named one name. I said, was she mean to you? She said, no she's mean to my friends. I asked her if she told her teacher but she said, no I don't like to do that.

After her bath, she got dressed. She put her pants on and then started messing with her knee. She said, it hurts, there's something in there. So I reached my hand in and felt. . . the seam. Oh dear. This is the age this stuff started for Maggie. I didn't notice it at first. She just stopped wearing pants. Pictures from when Maggie was four, she is almost always in a tutu or bathing suit. And then those didn't work anymore and it became finding pants that didn't bother her. She still will only wear socks and underwear when forced (I don't but her Dad does). Pants have gotten easier. Target makes a line that is specifically for kids like her and she likes their stuff. I've bought her pants and shorts and she will wear them. At least I won't be starting from scratch if Ruby has the clothing sensitivity issue.

Maggie watched Lady and the Tramp last night. The old one, not the new one. I was so tired so I just read. I had trouble falling asleep. For whatever awful reason, the less sleep I get, the harder it is for me to sleep. I do that startle awake thing sometimes several times for getting into a deep sleep and each time you have to settle down and get comfortable again.

Thursday

Guess who woke me up at 5:20 am? Not Ruby. Puddles. I thought, what the hell? She sleeps in a cage because she wakes me up in the middle of the night and forget that noise. I jumped up and ran to the living room and every single light on that side of the house was on and there was Ruby playing at her little kitchen. I let Puddles out and put Ruby to bed. She was mad but I told her the rules and she calmed down. I locked her door so she couldn't come back out. Then stupid Puddles wouldn't come in. She was just wandering around. So I went back to bed, but then I woke up around 6:30 and thought I better let her in. Then Ruby woke up at 7:30 and basically, I hate everything.

THEN! Ok, so yesterday I ate candy. Not much but enough to make me feel awful. I was so dizzy and nauseous. Then today I thought ok no candy, but maybe a granola bar and it was even worse. For like two hours I couldn't stand without holding on to something or having to crouch. I was so nauseous I wanted to throw up in the hopes of getting some relief. It was so bad, I thought something must be really wrong. But because the only thing I know to do is to eat something good, I ate a bowl of beans. And was completely fine after a little while. It seems like eating sugar (sugar seems to have the most noticeably awful affect) makes me sicker and sicker the older I get. It seems like such an easy thing but sugar is so addictive. I don't even like it but I crave it. But this is too much.

I got the girls and Ruby was devastated about the fact that Maggie had a balloon and they fought and Ruby cried. Then Maggie agreed to let her play with it and they both completely forgot about it. Kids!

This is a story Maggie wrote. She has a whole packet from the planning to the outlining and the early drafts. This is the final draft.

I sent this to Laurie and she didn't get it and didn't think it was funny. I think it's hilarious. Because that's what you would say, holy shit! a talking snake! Funny.

Bad week

Monday

I woke up and immediately knew my back was done. Dammit! It used to go out all the time and it's gotten so much better. It started going out about the time I turned 30 or so. And I would just go to the chiropractor anytime it went out.

Then eventually I went regularly and my back stopped going out. THEN, one time I saw a new guy and he told me there is a long muscle (I think it's called the IT band) that runs from your lower back to your hip around to the front of your thigh. If it gets tight, it will pull your spine out of alignment. So basically I could go as often as I wanted for adjustments but the real problem was that muscle. I started stretching it every single day and stopped needing to go to the chiropractor at all.

But it started hurting around the time of the second stomach bug. I'm not sure if it was all the throwing up or the fact that I didn't stretch almost at all during that time, but my back kept hurting worse and worse even though I was stretching. But! I'm going to go the chiropractor and hopefully, that will be that.

Well, everything sucked. It's now Monday again and it was a hard week. My back was ridiculous. I got a bit of cold. Then Ruby got a cold. Then I thought Maggie was getting sick but she didn't. The End.

Awesome weekend!

Friday

Puddles started barking at 6:20 am and then Ruby started crying from her room. She kept crying and yelling for me so I finally went and checked on her. The emergency? She broke her stupid, plastic wand.

Puddles gets so sad when I leave. She sticks her fat head out of the cat door and cries.

I let Ruby stay up and we watched a Sesame Street. She kept telling me she didn't want to go to school today. I told her she had to go today and we have a super fun weekend planned.

I got the girls at 4 pm because Gran was coming over. I'd invited Gran and Nana but Nana went out of town. We went to Pancho's for dinner and then came back home for a movie. We watched Nanny McPhee Returns. I didn't pay much attention. We had a great time.

Saturday

Ruby didn't knock until after her green light came on, which was great. We got up and let the dogs out. Then I made coffee and turned on Sesame Street. Around 9 am we left to go to the stadium so I could run stairs. We got over there and the gates were locked! But there were tons of people inside. Mostly drummer practicing but I couldn't find any open gates. I was not happy.

We came home and I lost all motivation. So after a few minutes I made myself get up and go outside. Ruby insisted on coming with me and I just ran sprints on the big hill in our neighborhood. She got bored and wanted to go home so I took her home and came back and finished. When I was done, Ruby and I took the dogs on a walk. Maggie was awake but she didn't want to go.

After that, we all took a bath and got ready. Ruby and I had some soup. Then we left for Six Flags.

We've become friends with Angie and she invited us to go to Six Flags with them. Her company rented out the entire park for their people and it was great. No lines anywhere. It was busy but not insane. We had a great time.

Ruby loved the rides. We went on every single ride she was able to go on. Maggie was more afraid of the rides and she took a while to enjoy them. Eventually I had to pry her off the swings. We got funnel cake and it was fantastic. Sweets tend to disappoint me these days but not the funnel cake. It was perfect.

After that we got dinner. I felt like we needed a meal but then I barely wanted to eat. The girls ate well though. Ruby was so sleepy. She asked if she could sleep in the restaurant.

Sunday

Ruby slept well and didn't yell until her clock turned green. We got up and had a slow morning: coffee and Sesame Street. Then we walked the dogs and exercised and took a bath.

We went to church. Maggie has decided she likes the baby room because she likes animal crackers. Hmmmm. . . .

After church, Gran met up with us. We were going to go to a Greek festival. We got out there and it was all at one church and there must have been 900 million people, give or take. So instead we went to look for somewhere to eat at the Montgomery Plaza. We went to Gloria's and it was pretty good.

Afterward, Maggie begged to get frozen yogurt. Bleh. Of course they ate less than half of what they got.

Ha! I just noticed all three of us are doing side eye. A trifecta!

We had so much fun. It's been a great weekend. Absolutely perfect, beautiful weather. Fun times with great people.

Cats are the worst

Monday

Ruby went to bed a little early on Sunday but, unfortunately, she also woke up early. Super early. Luckily, she was pretty good. I could tell she was confused by the light and thinking something was wrong. Once she got up, I explained it will be brighter in the mornings but she still has to wait for her clock.

We're no longer on a no-TV thing but I'm trying to greatly restrict so it's not just on ALL THE TIME. I told Maggie she can have one hour of screen time on weekdays. TV and computer count so only one hour total. Ruby doesn't care about screen time so she doesn't have any time.

Maggie decided to do her screen time while Ruby was awake so Ruby and I played games. Well, played is a strong word. I would say we played with games but not so much play the game. We put the pegs in various places on Battleship but she doesn't understand the whole concept of the game. She just likes to play, which is fine.

Ruby told me today that she gets in trouble a lot at school. She said, you get checkmarks after your name and if you get checkmarks you don't get a treat. I asked her what she gets checkmarks for and it was usually an inability to be quiet. Poor kid! She's four. Of course she can't be quiet. She said she got lots of checkmarks and didn't get a treat. She also did an impression of someone at her school saying, get over here right now! Ugh. I should say she tells me these things in the happiest way. She laughs and smiles. I'm not sure if it bothers her or not.

After Ruby went to bed, Maggie decided to organize/clean out her binder again. She also drew a cover for the yearbook to enter in a contest. We read a chapter in Harry Potter and Maggie was desperate to keep reading but I was done. I was so tired.

Tuesday

Ruby seems like she doesn't feel good or she's having trouble adjusting to the time change. Just a lot of crying and fighting and seeming so tired.

I had to work late so I didn't get the girls until after 6 pm. Then home to do dinner and all that jazz. Ruby had a hard time going to sleep. She just seems so overtired. But she already goes to bed so early. Why can't she sleep in a little and stay up a little later?

Maggie and I continued reading Harry Potter. She was desperate to read more but it's one chapter a night. The chapters are so long, I'm practically horse after one.

We discovered a dead baby bird in the garage. Cats are the worst.

Wednesday

Grandpa got the girls from school today. I work late Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Bummer.
They went to McDonald's for dinner and play.

I put Ruby to bed and it was time for Maggie to get off the computer. She immediately started reading her book. She told me all about it and then just read. I offered to read Harry Potter, but she never stopped reading. Guess she likes that one.

Thursday

Ruby was so hungry tonight. She kept asking for more and more food.

Maggie and I talked to Nana tonight. She is going out of town for a week so it was nice to be able to talk for a while.

Maggie and I read a chapter in Harry Potter tonight. She read the rest of the evening from her own book.

Absolute silence

Friday

Ruby did not sleep in. In point of fact, she was up BEFORE the green light. But since it was only a few minutes early, I didn't beat her.

I knew the plan was to have an easy, calm evening. This week has been bananas. I picked up the girls after school and we came home. Oh my goodness, Maggie and I just sat here for 15 minutes trying to remember what we did last night. It's Saturday!

Anyway, we watched Ice Age and ate dinner and talked to Nana on Facetime. Ruby went to bed a few minutes early. Maggie played her computer game and I read. Then we went to bed early.

Saturday

Ruby woke up a few minutes early. I ignored her until her light turned green. When I went in, she told me a wolf was in her window. Maybe one of the cats was outside her window? I don't know. We came out and played for a while. Then I drank coffee while she watched Rio. I put together a soup to cook in the crockpot all day. I had to work for a little over an hour and Miss Arlene came.

They went to their Dad's house for the night. God, sometimes I feel guilty how good it feels to be in absolute silence once they leave. I usually only read because I love the quiet.

Sunday

Maggie keeps stealing my clothes. I'll take something off (usually a top or a coat) and it's gone. Then suddenly she's wearing it all the time and refusing to give it back.

The girls got back a little after 3 pm. Maggie had a birthday party at 4 pm. I had her make a card for the little girl.

The party was at a pizza/game place. We ate and then played every game and then had the machine count up our tickets and then picked out a prize. I was sure all of this had taken roughly three hours, but, upon checking my watch, it was less than 45 minutes.

It was fun. Maggie's teacher from last year, Mrs. Hicks, was there with her daughter. A good time was had by all.