The end of January already?

I seriously can't believe it's the last day of January.

The month has flown by.

How am I spending the end of the month?

I'm actually watching a movie that I never figured I would ever watch.

EVER.

Counting on those you love

In my mind, I can count on my family.

But I found out recently that there is one person who I can't count on.

I hate to say it, but my youngest sister is kind of unreliable.

My youngest sister is my kids' emergency call list.

My youngest sister lives about a block away from me.

This means she's the person I'd call if something happens with the kids.

A couple weeks ago, the Princess got a fever at school.

I called my sister.

Getting in and out in a jiffy

I dropped of the kids a little later than normal this morning.

I actually have to be here at home for a couple hours to be available for a fire alarm test. ARGH!

I drove up to the school.

There was a black extended cab truck that pulled into the school driveway ahead of me.

The driver parked along the curb.

I parked along the curb a little in front of that truck.

The kids and I got out and I signed them into the before school care classroom.

I walked out back to the car.

The black truck?

The driver was standing on the curb looking into the truck.

Come on bud. Dad's got to go.

There was a boy in the cab who hadn't even gotten out of the truck yet.

Seriously.

The kid was holding his Dad up.

And I'd already walked to the classroom, signed my kids in, and ready to drive on out.

Ay-yay-yay!

Kids totally have their own schedules, don't they?

We're up and then we're down

It's not what any parent wants to hear.

Let alone when you're at work.

When your cell phone is on mute from the previous night.

I got a call from my sister at 1pm that the kids' school called her & told her that my daughter had a fever.

I called the school and found out that my daughter was indeed in the nurse's office with a 101.5* fever. And she'd been in there since 11am.

Yes.

One gnarly day leading into another one

Before I left on Christmas vacation, it was super busy at work.

Well...I hate to say it but I'm still trying to catch up.

We've had a heavier workload since that initial onslaught in December. It's let up just a smidge. But I'm still super busy every day.

The last two days I've come in a little early, basically had lunch at my desk, and haven't left until an hour after my normal end-time.

What sucks is that my email still has 60+ unread/unresolved emails in it. Even though I'm getting stuff done, more emails keep coming in. ARGH!

My goal tomorrow is to go over ALL the work that my co-worker did for me while I was gone. Yes. I have to review 3 days of work. I've gotta do it while I'm doing my regular (now heavier) workload. It's gonna suck.

What's crazy is that I seem to be the only one "stuck" at my desk. I tend to stick close to my desk and just try to plow through things when it's busy. Other people still seem to be able to chit-chat aplenty even when we're super busy. Chit-chat here. Chit-chat there. It totally BUGS me!

Now do you have people you work with that chit-chat too much at work?

Weird sighting

While the kids were on vacation, we ventured out to the park for a couple of hours.

At the park, I saw what I thought was weird.

There was a lady with 4 kids.

The lady was wearing some jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.

A baby about 6 months old wearing a footie sleeper.

A 10-year old girl wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, and some fake Uggs.

An 8-year-old girl wearing pajamas with no shoes.

A toddler about 18 months wearing a stocking cap with those little dangling puffs around his ears, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a diaper, and no shoes.

Yes. The last two kids were out at the park with no shoes.

NO.SHOES.

Don't you think it was a strange combination?

I'm fine with kids running around with no shoes in the sand, but it was kind of cool outside. Around 55 degrees, which is on the cool side for SoCal. And we'd just had another storm roll through the night before so the ground was still damp.

But that's how they roll in their family, I guess. I'm just hoping those kids stay healthy for the rest of the winter. [sigh]

Ugly day in store

My kids have been on Winter Break for TWO weeks.

Tomorrow will be their first day back at school.

For the last two weeks, my kids have been going to sleep later than normal and sleeping in later than normal.

They are totally off their normal schedule.

Last night we spent the night at my sister's house after spending the day with the rest of our extended family.

All the kids went to sleep around midnight.

First day of 2011

In past years, January 1st was basically a relaxing day at home.

This year? It was a day where we were once again surrounded by family.

As you all remember, we spend Christmas with the Hubby's family.

So it was high time to spend a day with my side of the family.

We headed to my sister's house Saturday around noon for a potluck lunch.

Since my BIL was making a huge vat of chili, we were asked to bring complementary items.