Judecorp.

This is my last weekend of freedom before I return to work on Tuesday. It's nice to have a holiday to ease into the week. It is going to be a challenge to be up and running early in the morning when I am used to having a slow start to the day if I so choose - hanging around, lounging, watching some cartoons with Punk, then eating some breakfast... those days are over.

Things are kind of up in the air at work because of my impending leave. The original plan as I understood it was that everything would be business as usual with my clients/schools, but then last week they decided maybe it was better if I didn't go to the schools and just did intakes in the office. I was concerned about this plan from a productivity standpoint (there's no way I could do the amount of billing I was used to doing office intakes) and from a client standpoint (some of my clients would have no one seeing them until work could find someone else). So we went back and forth about it and some of my clients are transferring to other clinicians now, some will stick with me until a new clinician is hired, and I will also do some office intakes if some office space is available to me. Hopefully it will all work out.

My mother is in town visiting us and will be taking care of Punk while I am at work this week and preschool is in the transition week. We have been doing a lot of fun things like going out to lunch. We also took a trip to Ikea to buy new furniture for Punk's room (so the baby can get the changing table dresser and matching stuff). Last night my mother hung out with Punk so Jen and I could go to a friend's wedding. Today my mother is visiting a friend, so we went to breakfast, then hit the 3 County Fair. I am EXHAUSTED.

I haven't had a pay check since mid June and we are really feeling the crunch right now. We had some extra money stocked up at the beginning of the summer, and we had banked some money to cover the summer also but we are trying not to use all of it in case we need it later. So right now we're really strapped and feeling it. Of course, going to Ikea to buy furniture was probably not the smartest plan and obviously neither was the fair, but sometimes you just have to blow it and take your kid to the fair to eat overpriced snacks, play stupid fair games, ride an overpriced ride, and see all of the cute animals. So whatever.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to take it somewhat easy, although there are groceries to procure (ch-ching again), laundry to do, lunch to pack for work, work clothes to uncover, etc. We're hoping to move the furniture from Punk's room to the baby's room next weekend so we can assemble Punk's new furniture, but that involves finding a local strong person to help Jen move the guest room furniture into the basement so we can get that done. Takers?

We have about 9 weeks of pregnancy left at a maximum and dang, that's not much. Crap!

I just made a meatloaf. Me! A meatloaf. My girls are at the store fetching cat litter and god knows what else (they have been gone a while) which has given me enough time to craft a meatloaf. Not sure if it will be done in time for Punk to eat dinner but I gave it the old college try.

This weekend has been positively gorgeous and I hope the beautiful weather continues. It is a true taste of spring and I know that in typical New England fashion, winter will return with a vengeance before we are done with it, but for now I will enjoy it. This morning we didn't go to church since Jen was sick in bed, so Punk and I went to an elementary school that has a really nice playground and we had a great time for about an hour. That playground gets a lot of sun so it was snow-free (unlike my backyard) and since it is covered in wood chips, it was pretty dry. Ideal conditions, really. Towards the end, Punk befriended a 3.5 year old named Zoe and the two happily made "cakes" together out of mulch and sand. I really really love watching Punk play with other kids. It was adorable when I told her to go ask the girl if she could play with her and she said, "Can I come and make some cakes with you?" I almost died.

I need to do about 347984379843 loads of laundry tonight and at some point I really need to get off my arse and do the taxes so we can get some money back. At least I got some time to pay the bills online this afternoon because Punk actually took an hour nap. I had to practically hold her down while she screamed at me, but by golly, the kid napped!

(I should have napped, too.)

Punk's child care is closed next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so that K can have her lumpectomy and recover and all of that. WTF am I going to do?

Does anyone local know anyone trustworthy and awesome to do some child care?

I have been reluctant to post because I liked keeping the Iran post on top. But I suppose it's time for a little update since Punk /finally/ went down for a nap. Mad nap-fighting day today, yo!

We have had a full house this weekend! carina_s and the girls arrived on Thursday evening and are leaving tomorrow. Today they are out east visiting relatives and I am trying to catch up on tidying and assorted things. I am enjoying the calm quiet of nap time.

I think we are probably boring the twins to death with our lame boringness. It's kind of hard with a toddler because the day tends to get broken down into chunks (pre-nap, nap, post-nap, bedtime) so it's hard to make big plans. And, umm, if you live anywhere near New England right now, you know that our weather has pretty much sucked the entire month of June. It has rained pretty much every day. Bleh. So the girls are always asking what we're going to do at any given time, or what we would be doing if they weren't visiting, and I don't think our answers of "chores" or "errands" or "you're looking at it" are quite what they had in mind. ;)

We have done a lot of eating out and a lot of hanging out. The girls enjoyed learning to play Bohnanza, and I took them all to eat wings and play trivia last night which was a good time. We went up to the Book Mill in Montague on Saturday for a little while, too.

It's times like this, with a house full of guests, that I really take notice of and appreciate the little family life I have with My Jennifer. (Even though it is boring to tweens!!) I suppose I don't take notice of it, and take it for granted a bit, until something shakes it up. Things are mostly seamless in our house and that sense of stability feels very nice.

It has been really good to see Carina and the girls. I've really missed them. The kids have grown up so freaking much.

Recently, an apartment building nearby caught fire and displaced more than 20 people. They have lost everything. People all over the area are mobilizing and donating, and our church has also set up a special monetary collection for the families affected by this fire. Our church has a strong local presence, for which I am very grateful.

Today I am going through my closet to find clothing that I can pass on to the families of the Meadowbrook Apartments. Maybe I can convince Jen to do the same thing tonight. Every little bit helps.

In the summer of 2001, I lived in an apartment complex similar to this in Ohio and a fire started when lightning struck my building. We thankfully weren't harmed by the fire and our things were left in tact, but we did have some water damage and had to relocate to another unit. It was terrifying and scary, even knowing we had all of our things to come home to. It was just one of many eye-opening and difficult experiences I had in 2001.

I can imagine the panic felt by the residents as they saw their building engulfed in flames, watching the fire trucks roll in and just waiting, waiting, waiting to see how far it would spread.

1. My grandfather is really declining. He sleeps most of the day and night. As far as I know he isn't in any pain, but everything wipes him out. It's really sad because he has always been so lively. Lots of people have been coming to visit him (friends and relatives), and he recently had a priest visit him for confession and Anointing of the Sick. The fact that he asked for these things pretty much sums it up. I'm going to have Punk make him a picture and bring it to him this weekend.

2. Speaking of Punk pictures, I recently mailed some of Punk's artwork to my mother. It was one of my good deeds and it really made her day, so that's good. I am not terribly close with my mother but heck, we don't have a lot of family. And Punk's her only grandkid so she deserves a little fridge art.

3. The weather this past weekend was positively brilliant and we spent a lot of time outside. I can't wait for actual spring and summer so we can fill Punk's days with lots of outings. On Saturday, I took her to a local cemetery just to walk around and step in puddles. It was her first time and she is definitely hooked. On Sunday, we went for a little walk with some friends over on the Hampshire College campus. We took a nice, long walk and then went to visit the cows on the campus farm and also stopped at the campus sugar shack. Within about 1 minute of our Sunday walk, Punk tripped and totally bit it on the pavement. She has road rash on her cheek and lip. Poor little clumsy thing. :(

4. She knows my name. Tonight, she was hollering through the monitor when she was supposed to be sleeping: Mama! Mama! Mama Jude! Mama Jude! Jude!

( Ridiculous bragging. )

It has snowed pretty much nonstop since Friday afternoon. It is sheer craziness! We got about a foot of snow on Friday and then it was all flurries and small showers through Saturday with very little accumulation. Now it is snowing harder again and seems to be wetter snow - the kind that packs and crunches under your feet. Bleh.

I cleaned off the car and packed Punk in so we could go to church this morning. I have a wicked sore throat but she is going really stir-crazy in the house and I thought the time in the church nursery would be good for her. She loves it there. I guess I should have called or checked or something because... it was closed. I am not used to things closing, I suppose. When I lived in Maine, it snowed all the time and the only thing that ever closed were the schools. *shrug* It never occurred to me that church would close! So we drove past and saw that there were no lights on and no people inside, and just drove back home. Whoops. We took her out to lunch at the diner just to get her out of the house. Mmm, greasy goodness.

She is starting to become a demanding little sprite and always wants "dip" or "chup" with everything. I guess she is becoming a real kid. She will also say "juice" if she doesn't want milk, and today just kept asking for "coffee." (Heck no, kid, that's mine!) I am embarrassed to say that she also has been asking for "tee-bee? tee-bee?" (TV) a lot lately, too. Whoops. At least she doesn't know that the "music choice" stations are not real television. ;)

Maybe my boss will cancel work tomorrow! She seems a lot more cautious about weather than I am. Then again, I think pretty much everyone is more cautious about weather driving than I am.

I wanted to take Punk down to one of the other towns in the area (Longmeadow) because I'd heard that there's a street that goes Halloween Crazy and I wanted to check it out. But I had also bought a bunch of candy and really wanted to hand out candy. Oh, the dilemma!

In the end, I left a big bowl of candy on our front steps next to our jack-o'-bamas with a sign that said, "Happy Halloween! Please help yourselves!" and left our front light on.

We came back at 8pm and the pumpkins were untouched and most of the candy was gone.

And this is why I love living in the boonies. :)

hope_persists FTW! I just had a nice chat with a day care provider who comes with rave reviews and will be meeting her on Friday. Jen is also seeing a day care tomorrow that had a nice little blurb with the referral people (specifically said no TV).

GOOD.

Man, it was hot this weekend. I'm sure everyone is saying that. :)

Our hot weekend was full of parties. It was a good time, I must say. Yesterday we all went as a fam to a party held by one of my coworkers. It was a sort of combo housewarming and graduation party for her son. It was a little, shall we say, more urban than most of the parties we attend. But we had a good time, and Punk loved dancing to all of the reggaeton blasting, and she loved loved loved watching the other kids play ball. Some of them (age 4 and 5) were incredibly sweet and kept offering her the (very dirty) ball so she could play with it, and when Coworker Iris gave Punk a balloon she was pretty much in heaven.

It was sticky hot, and my crazy baby was rocking out and getting sweaty. She started out in this froo-froo all matching Gymboree outfit (matching hat, shirt, shorts, and socks) and by the end of it she was wearing her shirt and a diaper. Heh. And she was covered in yellow rice and peas, which was all she would eat. And one of the guys there kept really pushing us to give her some "juice" (you know what I'm talking about, like Hawaiian Punch stuff) and we kept telling him that she already had some juice (she had a sippy of water) and he kept going on and on until finally I gave her a sip from my cup of "juice" and she spit it out. Smart baby! But she spit it out on her shirt and it was bright orange and we had to use stain stuff to get it out. Ha ha ha.

They didn't really know what to do with the whitey-white queers at the party but everyone was very nice (overly nice) and Punk is always a big hit wherever we go so it was fine. She loves to dance and hey, who doesn't like to see a baby dance? I mean, really. And then we left, while semi-intoxicated "juice" pusher dude kept shaking our hands and saying, "If you ever need anything, you call me," over and over. So I told him that he could call me if he needed something, too.

Aside from my coworker telling her grandson (age 4) that he couldn't wear the bandana on his head because it "made him look like a faggot," I'd say we successfully integrated. Heh!

~//~

Today was Punk's first party that she was invited to. It was with the gang of moms and babies I used to hang with at the support group at the hospital, and was because one of the families is moving to Michigan. (SAD!) I hadn't really been able to hang with the gang for a long while because of work and looking for work and all of that, so I was excited to see all of the big babies and get to see the moms and dads. They are all super nice and everyone was excited to see Punk and talk about how big she is (true) and how cute she is (of course true) and were asking about work and everything. Maybe they even missed me! I think we will have to have a weekend cook-out/baby pool party or something soon.

I really like this gang because there isn't really a lot of Mommy Competition in our group. Kids were doing all different things and everyone was just excited for everyone's kids, and it's nice. One of the moms commented on how happy Punk is now and asked if it was from crawling/being mobile, and I said probably that and losing the reflux all at the same time. But it was like a huge flashback about how miserable my kid used to be and how stressful it was to go anywhere because she was always crying or puking or freaking out. I seriously don't even remember those days unless I put in the effort to think about it, which is nice.

I guess they're right about how you get New Baby Amnesia after a while. Otherwise no one would ever have more than one kid.