Mixed Emotions....

I am going on little to no sleep... for no good reason. Scott came home around 10 pm last night, sick, sick, sick. Some sort of stomach bug.... with body aches and the chills. This is AFTER he has worked from morning to night for the past entire week and weekend. It's the busiest time of the year for him... right now, being the worst. Things are pretty crazy the next two months as they are closing the books on the year's end. Oh the world of finance, accounting and taxes! A world I don't understand..... but have an appreciation for.

So, Scott is sick. I assume he is still home, on the couch. I am certain he is stressing. He cannot be sick right now. He has to go to work. The stress of that thought is going to do him no good....

PLUS... he is taking a class for the next seven weeks that meets TWO nights a week in Grand Rapids. Whew. It's going to be absolutely insane for us until the end of February. I have been alone with the kids each night last week and ALL weekend long. I will say though (hence the title of this post)... the kids have really been great all-in-all. At least this past weekend, when they had to spend every moment with Mommy.... not always easy to do, especially for Ally who much prefers her Daddy - most of the time. ;-)

The weekend was great. Saturday, I took down the tree and all the Christmas decorations, by myself, with the two kids. It was comical because we hadn't watered our tree in a couple weeks... so it was as brittle and dry as can be. The branches just broke off as we took the ornaments off it. I was able to carry it out myself.... it was so light! It just made the BIGGEST mess in the world. The kids made a game out of picking up branches and needles... for a while anyway. Then, that got boring. Once I got the tree out and the decorations down... I went into full on "organzing and cleaning mode." I had to get our living space all organized... and I worked my ass off to have it all done by the time Scott got home that night.

I was focused... and I was the "mom of the year" and planted the kids in front of lots of DVDs and Ally spent far too much time on her DS.... but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do to accomplish something! The great room looks great. It is TOY free. I told Ally NO MORE toys stored in that room. There are two baskets with a few toys under the sofa table, in the foyer.... and those toys can be brought out... but then, put back under there. When I am sitting on my couch, in our "living space" I want to see a toy free landscape!

I really don't think this is too much to ask seeing that the kids have the nicest playroom in the basement! Toys can stay down there for the most part. Come up from time to time... but go back down. I need my living area as clutter free as possible. It makes SUCH a difference.

The house just feels so much better now. I love that feeling of putting Christmas away and having everything so neat and clean! A new start to the new year! I really, really want to get rid of more stuff. We did a HUGE drop off to Goodwill in December. Lots of toys and clothes... but in the process of my most recent organizing frenzy... I realized we have a lot of other stuff we don't need in the house!!!! We have an old 19 inch tube TV. Still works, we just don't use it. Needs to go. We have a stereo reciever, for back in the days of stereo components... we just have speakers for our iPods and iPhones now all over the house. We have the speakers for that stereo set. An entire set of dishes that I have been holding onto for god knows what. And lots of Christmas decor I do not put out anymore. I need another big trip to Goodwill. Have considered a garage sale, but they are so much work for so little actual money!

So... after a good day around the house Saturday... I felt I needed to get the kids out of the house on Sunday. I thought we could hit the mall and run a few errands and then, the grocery store. We got to Westwood and it was just so disappointing. The kids wanted to play and they attempted playing on the hippo and these ride on toys they have there. It was sad and pathetic... so I said "let's go" and off to Ann Arbor we went. I was either going to got to the Treehouse in Chelsea or Briarwood and made the decision to go to Briarwood so I could do some shopping for Scott (bday this weekend) and they have a play area there, a merry-go-round and great food options.

We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and the kids were so good! Ally thanked me over and over for taking her to Ann Arbor. :-) It was adorable. We got some food, some cookies, some shopping done and played for a good long time in the play area. Then, we hit Whole Foods on our way home and it was a day of great accomplishment!

A weekend of great accomplishment. My house is clean and organized. My fridge full of good food. It's a good thing those couple things are in good order cuz NOTHING else is!!!!! ;-)

It's just hard with Scott so busy and gone every night. It's hard because I have a new boss too that is not going to be as flexible with my time as my previous boss was. I can't get in late. I can't leave early. I am going to have to work around this somehow and not having Scott's help at all does not help. I have always been so lucky and blessed to have flexibility in my job. If that goes away, I don't know how we will cope.

Scott is just going to get busier and busier... as the years go by and he gets more and more responsibility... gotta continue to balance it all... and some days it certainly feels like it's all gonna topple over! :-))))))

But... all that said.... we're hangin' in and doing just fine!

We were hot and heavy thinking of the possibility of a move and a new house... and now, we have let that go. For now. We will see how things pan out. There are no houses out there we like and it makes it doubly hard when you come home to your current house and you LIKE IT! :-) We'll see where that goes in time...

Now, we are trying to plan a WARM getaway in March. When Scott can actually come out from under work and class and breathe. Might be nice for him and I to get away and remind one another what the other looks like. ;-) "Hi - I'm Nicole. Wife. Mother of your children. Remember me?" HA!

So... maybe Mexico.. but then we thought we wanted to try someplace new. Maybe Arizona. Maybe the Dominican. I don't know. Anywhere but Michigan!

The kids are doing great. Luke came out of about three weeks of the shits... and has gone back to his much happier self. Thank god, cuz I was gonna lose it there for a while! Scott and I went to Windsor the last weekend of our "break" and saw David Gray in concert and had a weekend for ourselves. Great way to end our Christmas break... especially now that we're in the midst of such insanity.

Ally is happy to be back to school and anxiously awaiting her birthday which is in a couple weeks. She will be SEVEN! Holy crap!!! SEVEN! She is going to have her first "friends" birthday party the Saturday before her birthday. We are inviting all the girls in her class, plus a couple others. This should be interesting! We will still do a family dinner for her on her actual birthday day!

Lots going on. And we're all doing just fine!