So much to do!

The holidays are a busy time for everyone and I know we are no exception.  Since Thanksgiving was late this year, it seems like the holidays are even more hectic.  There was one less weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas than in previous years.  It shouldn't make a big difference, but it does.

The push to get Phil's dissertation done and turned in put us into survival mode.  Cleaning was kept at a minimum.  Laundry done as needed, but not folded.  Grocery shopping was limited as well.

I do have my priorities though.  Given a choice between folding laundry during nap time or putting up Christmas decorations, I chose decorations.  All.  The.  Way.

That choice, however, left me with a scene that looks like this:

And there's more where that came from.

To make matters worse, this is what awaits me at work:

To be reviewed.

My to-do list is so long, I pretty much need to take this home to review it.  But who has the time?  I'm trying to find a way to dig down deeps and get everything accomplished.

Laundry folded.
House cleaned.
Food made.
Work done.

And there is one thing that will always be at the top of my list...

Spending time with this guy.

If someone can help me figure out a way to get everything done, find 2 more hours in the day, or perhaps ways to have a little more energy, I would greatly appreciate it.

We are almost to the finish line of graduate school!  I just need to keep my head down and priorities straight until then.

I want to shout it from the rooftops!!!

I want to shout it from the roof tops!

And yesterday felt like a holiday...

Phil's dissertation has been turned in!!!!!!

There are not enough exclamation marks for the above statement.  Seriously.

For those who are not familiar, Phil has been studying to get his doctorate in Environmental and Molecular Toxicology.  That's actually how we met, in graduate school.

Getting a doctorate degree is no small task.  You have to do a research project that makes a significant contribution to your field.  Then you have to write that bad boy up and defend him to a group of committee members and the public to determine if you know you stuff and should be considered a doctor.

Phil's been busting his butt to finish writing his dissertation, which had to be turned in before his defense.  Henry and I have barely seen the guy for the last couple of weeks.  I'm pretty sure Henry and Phil have only spent like 10 minutes together the last week or so.

But after staying up literally ALL NIGHT Wednesday night, IT'S DONE!!!

Next up... his defense in a couple of weeks.

For his defense, Phil will have to give a 45 minute presentation on his work.  Then the visiting public can ask questions about his research and findings.  After about 15 minutes of that, the public is kicked out and the committee can ask Phil him questions about his research and ANY class he has EVER taken.  That should last another hour or so.  And after that, he'll find out if his passed or not.

I'm no Toxicologist, but I can say this... Phil has put in the work.  He knows his $h!t.  He's ready.

There have been so many challenges and setbacks for Phil along his graduate school path.  Changing project scope.  Marriage.  Dad diagnosed with cancer.  Infertility.  Waiting for data.  Wife diagnosed with cancer.  New baby.  Waiting for data.  Dad dying.  Waiting for data.

To name a few.

I have to admit that after the defense got postponed the last time, I was having a hard time believing that the defense would happen in December.  The goal was to get his dissertation turned in before Thanksgiving, but that didn't happen.  Then the goal was Tuesday.  Then Wednesday.

I likened the delay to being pregnant and watching your due date pass.  And each and every day you go past your due date gets harder.  And harder.  And you feel like you will always be pregnant.  You will never have the baby.  And it will never end.

It's irrational.  Pregnancy always has an end.  And grad school had to as well.

But it is in!  The defense is scheduled!

We have a couple hard weeks ahead of us still as Phil prepares for his defense.  But the biggest part has been accomplished.

Henry and I took Phil out to a nice dinner last night to celebrate.

{Everyone's drinks.  Martini for Mama.  Apple juice for Hank.  Beer for Daddy}

Because Phil has basically been working 20 hours a day for the last couple of weeks, Henry and I really haven't seen him much.  It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Henry has seen him for maybe 5 minutes a day for the last week.  And Henry made it known last night that he was NOT happy about it.  He wouldn't look at Phil, didn't want Phil to hold him, wouldn't respond to Phil when he talked to him.  He's a punisher.

The good news is that he seemed to be over that this morning.  He was looking up at Phil with an expression that said, "YAY MY DADDY IS HERE!"  It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Now excuse me while I go take multiple deep breaths because it feels like a HUGE weight has been lifted from our family's shoulders.  You'll find me partially floating on cloud 9.

Oh hey, I have a blog

I've been fairly silent on social media for the last few weeks.

Henry's ear infection turned into another ear infection (with antibiotics that he would only take if you turned on Frozen).

{I don't know what it is about Frozen, but it seriously puts him in a trance.}

Then I got bronchitis.  Now I've had bronchitis before, but this was the worst by far.  I've never gotten it before with a fever.  We are talking fever, body aches, chills, severe sweating for 5 days.  Thankfully on Day 6, the antibiotics were kicking in and I was able to resume normal life.

Day 6 of my sickness was also the day Henry got Croup.

Did I mention that this whole sickness relay also happened while Phil has been working almost around the clock finishing up his dissertation?  I am so thankful for my parents who watched Henry for basically the entire weekend so Phil could work and I could be sick on the couch.

So between sickness, the dissertation, keeping everyone fed, clean, and clothed, blogging has fallen to the wayside.

Don't fret my pets... the end is in sight.

But seriously, Henry and I apparently need to invest in large quantities of vitamin C.  I'm pretty sure the only reason Phil hasn't gotten sick is because of adrenaline.

One thing I have noticed, even when I was healthy, was that without Phil's help I really can't do everything.  Not that this should be a huge surprise.  And it's not like things don't get done.  But they don't get done well all of the time.  Laundry from two weeks ago is sitting folded in the bonus room.  And I haven't done any laundry since.

Sometimes making dinner means chicken nuggets.

 Sometimes it means pizza.  And sometimes cleaning means doing the absolute bare minimum for the house to not be gross.

Henry has been in disposables, partially because antibiotics have been havoc on his poor little digestive system and partially because I haven't wanted to deal with the extra laundry.

Ultimately, none of that crap matters.  We are getting through the end of graduate school.  And as long as we are mostly happy, loving, and supportive of one another, the details don't matter.

Henry's happy, so I must be doing something right.  :)

Stay healthy, people!

Intuition

Last week, Henry was diagnosed with an ear infection.  And while an ear infection is about as normal of a childhood ailment as they come (second maybe to having a cold), I'm finding myself a little anxious about it.

This seems super silly because I had bundles of ear infections when I was little.  And I have friends whose children have had dozens of ear infections in one year.  But Henry's last ear infection took 4 antibiotics to clear up and he ended up in the hospital with pneumonia.

While I know this isn't likely to happen again (his pediatrician told me it would be rare), I find myself anxious about whether or not the ear infection is actually going to be cured.

Today was his last dose of medicine and while he seems to be doing alright, he still digs at his ears.  Is that wax?  Teething pain?  Or is that ear infection lurking still?

It seems like every time he gets sick, I kick myself incessantly.  I know I shouldn't do that, but it is hard.  The weekend before we took him to the doctor (and a few days the week before), I knew there was something wrong with him.  I told myself I should have trusted my mommy intuition and taken him in sooner.

My mommy intuition tells me to take him back to the doctor to check.  I also know I am an anxious person.  Better safe than sorry is my mantra.  Do I wait and see how he acts, knowing where we ended up last time?

Being a mommy is hard.

For now, my plan is to wait and see what happens.  But if my intuition starts telling me something isn't right, I am going to trust it.  I'd rather lose the $30 for the copay than risk him being in pain or getting sicker.

Better safe than sorry.  :)

Order Out

Without being TOTALLY original and talking about daylight savings time, I have to say...

It's totally kicking my butt!

Henry seems to have adjusted to it just fine.  It's me that has a problem with it.  I swear, ever since I lost my thyroid, my system is so sensitive.  Now, I need LOTS of sleep and LOTS of water.  It's a little annoying.

You want to know what else is annoying?  Last night, I tried to make curry for the second time and, once again, it was TASTELESS.  How is that even possible?  It's curry!  My entire house will probably smell like it for the next week, but taste?  Nothing.  I find it very annoying that I bought ingredients, prepped them, made the meal and then we STILL have to go get something else to eat.  Plus I had to do dishes.

I have accepted defeat.

If I want curry, we'll order out.

But you know what is wonderful?  It is Wednesday.

{image found HERE}

And my Thursday is busy enough that it will likely FLY by.  Which means it is basically Friday.  :)  Don't you love my logic?

I don't even own A spice...

One of my brother's favorite Wayne's World quotes is:

"A gun rack.  A GUN RACK.  I didn't even own a gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack.  What am I going to do with a gun rack."

So naturally anytime you say something with the word "rack" in it, he says the quote.

Yesterday, Phil installed the spice rack he made for me.

{Isn't it beautiful?!  We have plans to paint it white, 

but I didn't want to wait for the rain to stop to paint it.}

It's almost like Phil wrote me a poem.  But it is made of wood and holds spices.

When we found out we were getting this house, I told Phil I wanted him to make me a spice rack, using THIS tutorial.  I have WAY more spices than a person should have (I think when we moved, I had like 4 bottles of cinnamon) and they take up A LOT of room in the pantry.

I didn't want Phil to take any breaks from working on his dissertation to build it for me, so we bought the supplies and I told him to get to it when he had the chance (probably not until he finished grad school).  But slowly, during much needed breaks from the computer, he worked on it.

AND IT IS DONE!

Seriously, I love it.

It inspired me to go through everything else in the pantry and throw away expired food.  Turns out I had cans with a "BEST BY" date of 2009.  That means I moved it from our apartment, to the duplex, to the house.  Efficient is my middle name.

Next up, Phil is going to make me THIS foil holder.

When Phil asked what I would be blogging about today and I told him, "The spice rack" he replied with, "Oh I thought it would be about trick or treating with Henry."  Mother of the Year.

5 Things Friday

With a sick kid on Monday, night meeting on Tuesday, and still a sick baby on Wednesday, I could have sworn yesterday was Friday.

It was not.

But today is!  And Halloween at that!  Here's this week's dose of randomness.  And because it is the 5th Friday of the month, my boss is bringing in doughnuts (I'm trying to get myself pumped up for today).


1.  Even though I didn't really decorate much... And I was never really into dressing up, I am excited for Halloween.  I am excited to see the Halloween display our neighbors have put together and find out how many kids we will get at our new house.  But most of all, I am excited to take my little man Trick-or-Treating.  We might get a better response to it this year than last year.

{My cute little lion}

Last year, when I took him to the door, people almost seemed offended when I held out the bag for candy.  No, my 5 month old would not be eating the candy.  But his mother, who hiked him up to your door might.  Not to mention that I was still exclusively breastfeeding, so he was getting it by proxy.


2.  Along the lines of trick-or-treating, I asked Henry if he could say "Trick or Treat" this morning and he shook his head no.  That answers that.


3.  I had to stop by Walgreens the other day to pick up some Pedialyte, Parmesean and Italian Herb Chex Mix, and to yell at the Pharmacist (ok I didn't yell.  I asked a question) and while I was there, I picked up a pair of fleece lined textured leggings.  And this proved 2 things: 1) I will buy almost anything fleece lined and 2) $5.99 is the perfect price.

It may have also proved that I am a classy lady.  Whatever.  They are SO COMFY! I should have capitalized on their 2 for $10 offer.


4.  Even though Henry didn't feel super great, we took him to his daycare pumpkin patch this week.  They had pumpkins, ghost the kids would punch, pumpkin guts to squish, a pool full of jello, and hay to throw.  But Henry was mostly drawn to the pool filled with shaving cream.

He was doing fine, rubbing his hands in it.  And then a little girl fell and got some shaving cream in his hair.  He went to wipe the shaving cream off his hair with his shaving cream filled hands.  One thing led to another and...

It got a little out of hand.


5.  We are nearing the end of graduate school which means Phil is working his tail off pretty much around the clock.  Yesterday morning, I woke up at 6 and he wasn't in bed.  So I came downstairs and found him laying on the floor in the office.  Apparently he had laid down to take a short nap and slept all night.

Poor guy.

I have instituted a bedtime for him.  He still needs some sleep.



Happy weekend!!!