Happy Halloween!

The last few days have been insane. I'm not sure how many hours of sleep I actually got because I can't function well enough to count.

My department at the hospital has 6 people that keep it going 24/7, which right from the start is not enough. One of them is out on maternity leave until December. We've all adjusted our schedules and sucked it up to cover her shifts while she's gone. It never occurred to management to actually get another person to help. But I get it, it's temporary.

Then one of our techs had an emergency appendectomy, two days later another tech went on leave of absence. That leaves 3 of us. Except that Jesse had a planned vacation before all this happened. He covered 36 hours straight before going out of town. I came in on my day off to relieve him and for the next 5 days it was just me and one other girl keeping this department alive every hour. The department survived. The two of us are another story.

Last night my eyes were blurry, my head was foggy, my legs felt completely disconnected from my body. And I was still on call.

Jesse is back from vacation and one of those three techs is back from leave. Still, even with 4 of us we are stretched so thin and working way too hard. I texted Ashley and begged her to come back from maternity early. Next time you have a baby just strap him to your back and keep working. If Sacagawea can do it so can you. And, Amanda, next time you have an infection that requires surgery just take some aspirin. You're tough, you'll be fine.

After my shift tonight I am on call. Then? Sleep.

Sleep. Sleep.

Special Delivery

If you've never met my mom I'm not sure you can fully appreciate the amount of crazy that illuminates the room when she walks in. She lives out of state and I see her once a year for a few hours over dinner but she still makes an effort (more than I do) to stay in touch. One of the ways she does this is with boxes. She mails me shoe boxes full of ridiculous things that make my brain hurt trying to figure out why she would have included those particular items.

Why shoe boxes? For starters they are a practical size for mailing multiple small items. But more importantly she wants me to know what kind of shoes she's wearing. I'm serious. She loves Birkenstocks. Loves them. She wears them with everything year round. I tried to explain to her that when you live in Michigan you can't wear your Birkies outside in the middle of February. "But I wore them with socks so my toes would be warm!" Oh, of course, that makes sense. I gently encouraged her to broaden her shoe wardrobe. Now I get the boxes they come in with the little picture on the side so I know exactly what she's wearing.

The very special thing about my mom's boxes is what she puts in them. There is always ALWAYS a festive dish towel for whatever holiday is closest to the day she shipped it. By festive I mean ugly. There are usually homemade chocolate covered somethings, half melted, and pencils.

Pencils.

Unsharpened No.2 pencils. These are also festive. The best was my birthday box which did not contain actual pencils but instead a framed photograph of pencils. That went on the mantle.

My anniversary box had an open package of paper napkins and a picture of my best friend when she was in middle school. Happy Anniversary?

Despite the crazy I do appreciate the effort. I know she's thinking of me and trying to do something nice. I would probably miss the boxes if she didn't send them. Yesterday I got a Halloween box complete with a neon orange dish towel. I just shook my head and threw away the card that had a picture of someone else's baby dressed as a pumpkin.

Love you, Mom.

Go. To.Bed.

At work our doctors use a thing called SpeechQ to dictate their reports. It's a fancy little contraption equipped with either a head set or a hand held thing that looks like a Wii controller. They don't even have to press a delete button. They just say "scratch that" and the genie inside does whatever they ask. The only problem is that we have a lot of Asian radiologists and their words often get replaced with a word that is similar but doesn't have an 'L' in it.

I wish I had SpeechQ right now. I'd like to blog about something real but I'm just so tired that my fingers are barely working. It would be easy, I can pronounce my Ls and Rs.

The Old Man Is Snoring

It rarely rains in Southern California. We literally have deserts. It’s something that I really miss about living back east, I absolutely love thunderstorms. Even when it does rain here it’s just a little drizzle and it’s over. No thunder, no downpours.

It’s rained twice this week, enough that I had Brian turn off the sprinklers. I love it. I’m home with my boy snuggled on the couch in my jammies drinking my coffee. I opened up the living room blinds so I can see the rain and hear the cars splashing by.

Unfortunately people here don’t know how to drive in the rain. If you’re not involved in the accident you’re stuck in all the traffic caused by it. Good thing I got my errands (most of them) done yesterday. I went to IKEA, Lowe’s, and Costco on a Saturday. I’m either very brave or out of my mind. You decide.

Done and Done!

I think it’s awkward when people update their facebook status with their child’s bowel movements. I get that it’s a big deal the first time and I understand your excitement but I don’t really want to hear about it. I assumed other people felt the same way (especially those without kids) so I never posted about our potty training progress.

Until yesterday…

I may be making a premature announcement but I’m just way too excited! We are done with diapers!!! Gone, thrown away, trash man came. Good bye diapers!!!

We started the three day method on Sunday (http://www.3daypottytraining.com) It’s no joke. Brian and I are both exhausted. Caleb went through 4 pair of underwear by 10am and I’m pretty sure I said “tell me when you have to potty” in my sleep. I don’t even care, though, because by the end of day 1 he was telling me every single time and 80% of the time made it all the way to the bathroom without so much as a dribble.

Day two was even better. Day three he made it every single time and went hours staying dry. That night he slept all night and woke up dry.

Today is day 5 and the first time we tried leaving the house, also the first time he’s worn pants since Sunday. We had an appointment to tour a new day care and I needed to go grocery shopping. The day care I wasn’t so worried about. I knew it would be a quick trip and they have little kid toilets. But the commissary? Long trip, only one bathroom at the back of the store, battles with the cart, pants, shoes, adult toilets… I was one nervous mamma. But I packed two extra pair of underwear and two more pair of pants and prepared for the worst.

Complete success!! He stayed dry the whole trip and waited until we got home to go to the potty and made it!

I’m officially calling it done. Caleb is potty trained!! And in less than a week!!!

Hi, I'm Kelly

When I started this blog I did not use anyone’s real name or post photos. I intentionally tried to keep it unidentifiable other than our location in Southern California. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about having my son’s photo all over the internet. It’s all over Facebook but that’s private, I actually know all the people I'm friends with. I didn’t ever use my husband’s real name because I didn’t want people to know who he was when I wrote 16 pages about what an idiot he is for not folding the towels correctly. Typical wife stuff.

But it occurred to me recently that, first of all, I’m not the kind of wife that goes around publicly bashing my husband and griping about him to strangers. He is a loving, wonderful man who takes care of our family. I’ll bash him in private. On Facebook.

It also occurred to me that the reason I love reading the blogs that I do is because they feel personal. I feel like I know the people writing them because they share details about their family. I know their kids names and I’ve seen their picture from the 4th grade talent show. And the truth is, I want you to like me too. So enough of this nickname nonsense.

My husband’s name is Brian. We met in middle school in Mr Qualls science class. He was a brainiac. We started dating during our sophomore year of high school 15 years ago and we’ve been married for 6 years. In 2010 our precious son is Caleb was born and he is the best and most challenging thing about my life. Our dog is a shepherd mix named Remington but we mostly call him Remi. Are we friends now?

Timeline of Events

I’m. Exhausted.

I’ve said this a million times and I meant it a million times. A million and one, though, is the back breaker. Lets start with Tuesday night. (I honestly had to stop and think about what day it was.)

Tuesday started at 3am when my alarm clock went off. I started my regular 10 hour shift at 5am and came home to make dinner really quick so The Captain could eat and get to class. Then I chased a 2 year old around for the rest of the night before giving him a bath and putting him to bed.

Wednesday I would have loved to have slept in a little but my lovely son has an internal clock that goes off at 5am, if not before. So we were up. Wednesday is my late day at work so I get to spend the morning with my family but also means that I am at work until 12:30am.

I checked in with the ER doctors and they assured me there was nothing pending so I decided to go home. Now I am on call until 4:00am. I got home last night at 1:00am and tried to wind down a little while praying I didn’t get called in. I did not get called in. I might as well have because I got just as little sleep as if I had been working all night. The rest of the night (morning) went like this:

1:45am Finally fell asleep

2:05am Mister came into my room wanting in our bed.

2:06am Fight with Mister about sleeping in his own bed

2:20am Mister is asleep in his own bed and I am tip toeing back to mine.

2:21am Head joyfully hits pillow.

2:24am Mister is in my room again.

2:25am Fight with Mister

Repeat the last 3 steps innumerable times until

5:10 Mister is in my room AGAIN and I give up.

I need SOME sleep and so does he. We both slept wonderfully until 7:00am when he decided he was up for the day. Really? He wanted to watch a movie. Perfect, you watch a movie and I will fall asleep on the couch.

7:10 Mister is completely fixated on The Fox and the Hound and I am asleep on the couch.

7:16 “Mamma!! Hungry!!!”

7:17 Make gun shape with hand and shoot self in face.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

I recently got back from a quick trip to New Hampshire for a friend’s wedding. It was great for a lot of reasons.

1. I went by myself. No kid. No husband. Which meant less responsibility and whatever I want on tv and sleeping in the middle of the bed with ALL the pillows. Ah.

2. New Hampshire has a legitimate Autumn. The colors were beautiful and the air was perfect. I also saw a sign that said “Moose Crossing.”

3. I got to see one of my oldest and dearest friends for the first time in years. I’ve been friends with her for something like 23 years since 2nd grade when her mom was my girl scout leader. We went on each other’s family vacations because, well, we were family. There’s a very long history to our friendship. It’s been too long since I’ve seen her and she was beautiful.

Her grandmother didn’t recognize me at first. “What’s your name?” She stared at me for a moment and then burst with excited and her eyes got wide, “Oh! I was at your wedding!!” Yes, Grandma Zach, you were at my wedding. I love her.

The ceremony started and I cried before I even saw her. I cried when I saw her. I cried when she danced with her dad. I cried on the way back to the airport. We both have our own lives on opposite coasts and we don’t keep in touch nearly enough. Being there made me realize how much I really do miss her and leaving was terribly sad.

I’m so thankful I was able to go (time off from work approved at the last minute thanks to an amazing co-worker who covered for me). It meant the world to me to be there with her on the first day of the rest of her life.