6 hours of cooking 1 day or 1 hour of cooking 6 days...

You know how when you are going to be out of the office, you end up having to work twice as hard to get things prepared?  Like everything that will need to be done while you are gone, must be done before you actually go?  Usually this is because you are going on vacation.  But it can also be the case if you are going to training.

This entire week, I will be at a radon measurement and mitigation course.  Radon has become a bit of a hot topic in the past couple of years.  And even though I am qualified to design radon mitigation systems, I would to get certified and learn what the experts have to say.

It made for a busy last week.  I had to get two weeks worth of work done in one.

In addition to the training this week, I also have an evening meeting one night.  And the training is an hour drive away, so I get to get up SUPER early, pump before I do, and drive in traffic.

It will be awesome.

Since I know I will be super tired when I get home and will only want to spend time with my guys, I decided to spend a little energy this weekend making sure I don't have to cook during the week.

So Saturday afternoon, I got to it.  I spend the first hour putting away dishes and cleaning the kitchen (which is a HUGE pet peeve of mine and Phil is usually the one to put away dishes and clean up but I chose to let it go).  After that, it was down to business.  I got started cooking around 4 and finally finished will all the dishes done and put away by about 10:30.  Those 6.5 hours also included making dinner, eating dinner, nursing Henry twice, putting Henry to bed, and playing with Henry.  So I actually don't think it was that bad, considering.

I made:

- Stuffed peppers
- Shepard's Pie
- Roasted Chicken Thighs with rice and asparagus (dinner that night)
- Turkey Meatballs (this recipe makes like 800 meatballs)
- Hard-boiled eggs (not like that was hard, but it was one more thing to keep track of)
- Broccoli Mac and Cheese
- Prepped fruit for snacks

The fridge is full and I am DONE COOKING for the week!  Now I can focus all my attention this week on learning about gas and my guys.  :)

Henry's 1st Easter

{Personalized Easter basket from Pottery Barn Kids.  Similar HERE}

{Easter basket goodies.  A few bunny themed books, basketball, Tail Spin, plastic eggs and bubbles}

{The ball was a hit}

{Solving the world's energy crisis}

{Henry says, "GIMME EASTER EGGS!"}

We had a great (albeit hectic) Easter.  In an effort to spend as much quality time with everyone, we may have over committed.

We were up at 6 to make sure Brunch would be ready for after church.

Then off to church at 8, home to pick up brunch and over to my parents' house around 10.

Brunch and nap for Henry until 1.

Then down to my aunt's house for dinner while my mom stayed home with my Grandma (who is currently living with my parents and really can't be left alone).

Dinner and Easter egg hunt at my Aunt's house and then back to my parents' house for dessert.

I may have had a small meltdown leaving my parents' house because I was so tired.

Yes, you read that correctly.  I have the meltdown.  Not the baby.

Henry had a great time hunting for eggs (even though he kept looking at us like, "What the heck is going on?" and playing outside in the grass.  He also went to bed at 7:30.  I followed shortly thereafter.

5 Things Friday

1.  It's been about 10 days since I last blogged.  I know you were all keeping track.  The blog silence was necessary.  Last Wednesday was a hard day and every time I sat down to blog it came out like "life sucks" and "woe is me".  A little pity party might have been deserved at that point, but it was turning a little dramatic.   In the scheme of life, last Wednesday was no where near the worst day I have ever had.  It wasn't even the worst day I have had in the last year or six months.  It was just a bad day.  Life has moved on and things are better.

2.  All of this house hunting business has caused me to look around at all of the stuff we have and I have come to one realization... I want to get rid of like half of it.  We have a bunch of CRAP.  Call it spring cleaning.  Perhaps my nesting bug has finally kicked in (like a year too late).  It's almost so much that I don't know where to start.  I hate that feeling.

3.  I'm having a fairly hard time with clothing lately.  It makes sense since in the past year I have gone from being REALLY pregnant to smaller than I have been in probably 5 years (maybe even longer actually).  I was trying to organize my maternity clothes and it is almost like I have three stages of clothes... pre-pregnancy, maternity and then early pregnancy/postnatal.  The maternity clothes are packed, but I am still in the process of figuring out what of my remaining clothes fits.  You know what is really professional?  Wearing clothes that don't fit properly.

4.  Henry has decided he doesn't want to take naps at daycare.  He will take one nap that is usually between an hour and ten minutes and 2 hours.  Judging by his behavior in the evening, that's not enough.  At least twice this week, he has fallen asleep nursing before 8.  He does try to make up for the lack of naps on the weekends though.  The 3 hour nap I am anticipating for tomorrow should help me get a head start on my spring cleaning.

5.  Speaking of daycare, here's how they put Henry's diaper on the other day:

I'm pretty confused how someone thought this was how it went on.  I mean, it didn't leak so technically it worked.  Just a little different.  Like wearing your underwear sideways.

I wore new pants

It is only Wednesday and already I feel like I have had a week and a half.

It hasn't necessarily been bad, just... entertaining?

House hunting stuff is still going on.  I don't want to get into at the moment (partially because the process is giving me PTSD), but I still find it shocking how emotionally taxing the process is.  I mean, we've been through a lot.  In comparison, this should be nothing.

Moving on... (get it?!  A little humor for you)

In other funny news, I wore some different pants to work yesterday.  You know your life is getting exciting when different pants makes the week's highlights.  These weren't just any pants.  A couple of months ago, I decided to take the plunge and finally purchase some "liquid leggings".  In case you are curious, they look like THIS.

I was going to take a picture of me wearing them, but you couldn't really see the shiny-ness that well which kind of defeated the purpose.

Yesterday, I finally mustered up the courage to wear them and it did NOT go unnoticed.  Pretty much everyone I came across that day made a comment about my pants.  One of my coworkers wanted to touch them.  My dad asked me if I was joining a motorcycle gang.

But the BEST comment came when I picked Henry up from daycare.  I walked over to Henry and squatted down to talk to him when a little boy (a little under 2 years old) came up to me and said, "WOOOW!!!" as he reached out and touched my knee.

And then he did it again.  It was cute.  I think he approved.

Then I came home and make chicken pot pie from scratch (kind-of).  I used THIS recipe and followed some of the suggestions.  It was SO GOOD!!!  Definitely a keeper.

Henry has been so tired in the evenings, it has been a challenge to get him to bed before he freaks out.  So last night, he was fed, bathed, nursed and asleep before we even ate dinner.  Here's what Henry's tired face looks like:

But add in a lot of eye rubbing.

New pants, Chicken Pot Pie, and a tired baby... what in the world will today hold?  :)

Roller Coaster

This past week and weekend have been down right exhausting.

And it really doesn't seem like they should be.

It's this house-hunting stuff.  It's a gosh-darn emotional roller coaster.

And the thing is... it really shouldn't be.  Not only because I feel like these things should be cut and dry (maybe it's because I'm an engineer and we specialize in land development, so value is value is value and that should be the end of the story.  I don't like the real estate mind games), but because I realize in the grand scheme of things, these really aren't problems.

After everything we have been through in the past few years, house hunting should be the least stressful thing.

We aren't waiting for test results.  No puppies are dying.  We have a baby.  We are healthy.  We don't have any terminally ill parents.

See where we set the bar?  Real high up in here.

Perspective is really good to have in a lot of ways.  But sometimes, all the stuff we have been through kind of throws off my judgement a little.

I have struggled with anxiety for so long that I no longer know what a healthy level of worry is.

Maybe it is because grief makes you so up and down but it almost seems like all of the challenges we have faced only exaggerate when things don't go our way.  Little, understandable things become EXTREMELY disappointing.  I find myself battling between feeling like the sky is falling and wanting to slap myself because it's not like I am battling cancer here, everything will be ok.

Here's what the rational side of me knows:
-  Buying a house is most likely the biggest purchase Phil and I will ever make.
-  I know enough about the housing market to know that I don't want to make a bad decision.
-  It's the beginning of the real estate season, so there will be more homes available.
-  There will be more homes.
-  It's ok to get a little emotionally attached to a house.  After all, if we are putting an offer on something, that means we can see our family living there.
-  And it is also ok to be disappointed a little if the house doesn't work out.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons they don't recommend making major life decisions within 6 months of losing a loved one.

All for Show

Cotton's show was Saturday.  That meant a little Friday night beauty ritual after Henry went to sleep.

After we washed Cotton with whitening/brightening shampoo (yes, they make that), I blow dried Cotton, making sure to straighten out his leg feathers as much as possible.  He was a very good boy, actually sitting down on the floor willingly next to me while I blow dried his ears.  Then, we cut off his whiskers and used the drimmel to round off his nails.

He was beautiful and ready to go!

{He's so ridiculously good looking}

We also spent Friday night purchasing a cart to roll Cotton and his crate into the dog show.

{I think Taylor was in the background laughing at him}

I seriously can't believe we did that.  But the idea of wrangling Cotton, his crate and Henry on a rainy day around a bunch of other dogs drove us to spend a gift certificate and $20 on a cart.  In case you are wondering, it was amazing and worth every. single. penny.

It was his first show in over a year.  And there were at least 30 other dogs there.  Between everything that has happened in the last year, Cotton's show training has been VERY lax.  Understandably, it has been one of the furthest things on our mind.  We worked on it when we could.

Our tiny attempts at training left us with very low expectations.  That coupled with my inexperience and we figured Cotton would get his once over from the judge and be promptly beaten by a more seasoned dog (and handler).

I was more nervous than I should have been when Cotton and I entered the ring.  Cotton, however, was as cool as a cucumber.  He was just eager for the macaroni noodles he had seen me shove in my pocket.  There were 4 or 5 other dogs in his class and we were 3rd or 4th in line.  As we waited for our turn to stack for the judge (show dog speak for stand pretty and still), I did my best to keep Cotton from sniffing absolutely EVERYTHING.  We did our stack.  We ran out and back and then around in a circle.  And I was very shocked when the judge moved us to the front (meaning we were in first place).

And I was totally shocked when they announced that Cotton was first in his class!

We stayed in the ring for best dog, but got beat.  According to the people who were watching, the handler for the dog that beat Cotton was a nationally known handler, so in reality we lost to the handler (damn my inexperience!).

Cotton didn't get any points, but it was really good experience.  And our breeders made sure we knew that it was a VERY big win for Cotton.

After watching the other dogs and handlers, I can see that we need to work with Cotton more.  There's an ease about how professional handlers work with the dogs and how the other dogs responded.  Cotton is just too excited at the moment.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that my competitive spirit came alive at the dog show.  I thought "I can handle Cotton as well as those handlers!"  I just need the practice.

For the record, Cotton has won 1st in his class for every show he has entered.  The other shows may have only had one or two dogs in his class, but whatever.  We take what we can get.

This is the weirdest post I have written in a while.

One day I'll learn...

Holy moly house hunting is exhausting.  And emotional.  And stressful.

It was exciting at first.  So many options and things to think about.  What was important to us?  What could we live without?  And then anxiety-provoking.  Where do we want to live?  What do we feel we can afford?  Will we get a good price?

We went to 4 open houses on Sunday and by the time we got home, all three of us were totally spent. Henry was quite the champ.  In and out, in and out, in and out, in and out of the carseat.  He ate his lunch in the car.  We changed diapers in the car.  He took naps in the car.

Champion baby.

He's making us pay for it now.  Or he's teething.  His daycare teacher suggested he might be getting hand, foot, and mouth disease (oh please no).  No matter how you slice it, my sweet little baby has been currently replaced with a screaming hyena and I am not a big fan.  I know my sweet little Hank is still in there.

This happens every time.  I get all nervous because Henry gets really grumpy and then three days later, he ends up being sick and I feel like a total idiot for not recognizing it right away.  It's been 10 months (not 10 days) and he is a super happy baby, so obviously I am REALLY slow learner.

As exciting as I am sure it is to read about us being stressed looking at homes or with a sick baby, I will go ahead and stop.  I supposed I really could have heated things up and also mentioned that we filed our taxes (last minute, you say?) but we will try to keep things rated G.

Sunday evening, we went to Target to pick up some pillowcases for Henry's daycare pillow and some plastic Easter eggs for his Easter basket (I will really miss being able to buy gifts in front of him).

{Try not to look too closely at me.  This was the end of the day on Sunday}

We ran across the Bunny ears on the way in and couldn't resist.  He tolerated them quite well and had a death grip on the eggs.  Seriously, he carried them through the entire store and then pitched a fit when the checker went to scan them.  Somebody has a new favorite holiday!