Mussings and Memories

This morning while driving Hubby to work, I noticed the field across from his office had a layer of frost on it. I was instantly transported back to grade school, on those cold mornings when we'd look for any way to get warm. We'd see a frost covered field and it became an ice skating rink. We had a very large field, so there'd be 20-30 kids running and sliding on the grass.

As the weekend approaches, we're all in different stages of winter crud. Girl is, hopefully, on the downswing, while Hubby, Boy, and I are all just starting to get sick. I had hoped Boy and I could get away without catching it, but he's all stuffed up and coughing, and I've got a nasty sore throat, I'm stuffy, and, if I still had tonsils, they'd be swollen.

We had plans this weekend, hopefully we'll all feel well enough to continue them.

Holiday Madness

Well, we've survived Christmas. I know New Years is still coming up, but that's not a big holiday for our family. Hubby and I may grab a bottle of champagne, or a foreign beer, or a 6 pack of hard cider, don't know. We've got a friend who's got something going on, a party/auction of sorts, but I REALLY hate being out on the roads on New Years Eve, so I'm not sure if we'll go.

Anyway, so this Christmas was actually a bit tamer than previous years. We had Christmas with my grandparents last week because that's when my dad was in town. He's very rarely ever in town and it's been about 4 years since he's been here near Christmas, so Grandma made sure we celebrated Christmas with him. He and my step-mom may be horrible parents to me (that's a whole 'nother post), but the one thing I can say about them, is they are pretty good grandparents.

My ex and I share Christmas with my daughter every year, he'll get her in the morning one year, and the afternoon the following year. This year he got morning, so we didn't really do anything until she was coming our way. We packed everything up, grabbed her, and headed to my mom's house. My mom, my step-mom (my mom's wife), and my sister were all there. I'll admit it, I'm very much about the traditions I grew up with, and it's very hard for me not to see my mom on Christmas, so I always try to spend some of the day with her.

Our day over there was fairly uneventful, with the exception that a cold/fever my daughter had been fighting the day before decided to come roaring back. We did stockings and presents, had our traditional taco dinner, then just kinda hung out, talking, watching the kids play with their new toys, and watching the new movie my daughter got. She wound up falling asleep curled in my lap, which was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Heartwarming because it's been quite a while since she's fallen asleep on me, and heartbreaking because I could tell she didn't feel well.

We got home and started opening all the packages. I think it's time for me to go through all the toys in the kids room and clean out the toys they don't really play with any more. We'll donate the good ones and get rid of the broken ones or ones that are missing lots of parts.

Hope your holidays were just what you wanted them to be.

And that's a wrap

Got the phone call today, the one letting me know my assignment with Amazon had ended and I was no longer needed at work. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get converted (hired to be a direct Amazon employee), but I'll definitely try again next year.

I'm going to start job hunting again, seeing if my temp agency has anything, or, if now that I have recent work experience, I'll be able to get a permanent job somewhere. I won't be starting anything new until the kids are back in school, that would just kill me with exhaustion.

Obviously, the extra paycheck will be missed, which is why I'll be continuing the search. I'll also miss a few of my coworkers, I'm kinda sad I  didn't get anyone's number while I had the chance.

The two positive I see, for the moment, both have to do with sleep. The first is, I can actually get some good sleep and help limit this overwhelming exhaustion I feel. The more sleep I get, the less caffeine I need to consume, which means some things will go back to not hurting. Ladies, you should know what I mean.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the fact that the world didn't end, spend some extra time with my family, and maybe even sleep in!

A sleepy update

It's been a bit since I posted anything, but that's because the last 3 weeks or so have been very crazy and very exhausting. I started a new job working in an Amazon warehouse during a graveyard shift. This means my day is very long, with very little sleep, and waaaay too much caffeine. Here's an example of a typical work weekday...
6:30 am-Get everyone up, dressed, and ready for school/work. Make breakfast for all, and pack Hubby's lunch.
7:30 am-Out the door to the bus stop
8:00 am- Boy is on bus, time for me to go to bed.
10:30 am-Wake up, get ready to go pick up Boy from bus. Get him lunch, and get him ready for a nap
Between 11:30 am and 12 pm- Get Boy down for nap, spend a few minutes on the internet to make sure he's actually laying down and not playing.
12:00 pm-Back to sleep
Somewhere between 1:30 and 3:30 pm- Boy wakes up from nap (if he actually slept), so I wake up. Mess around online, spend time with Boy, get dinner ready, if I'm up early then take shower for work.
6:15 pm-Head out the door, swing by QT for large fountain energy drink (Rooster Booster), drive to work
7:00 pm-Sit in break room, drinking energy drink.
7:30 pm- Shift starts
6:00 am- Shift ends, hurry to car and hurry home so I can get everyone ready.

On weeks I'm working overtime, I don't get out of work until 7:00 am, which means I'm hurrying home to meet Hubby and Boy at the bus stop so Hubby can get to work on time.

On a normal 40 hour week, I have three days off, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. For a 50 hour week, I work Sunday, too. For a 55 hour week I'm working until 7 am, plus my Sunday shift. For a 60 hour week I go in from 2 am-7 am on Sunday, go home, then come back at 7:30 pm, in addition to my regular days working until 7 am.

Since I'm married and have kids, on my days off I do try to get a little extra sleep, but refuse to sleep the day away so I can actually spend some time with my awesome family.

Hubby has been amazing during this time. Usually, the majority of housework and child rearing fell to me since I was staying home and he was the one working. Since I'm now working, too, and an odd schedule at that, he's taken to getting things done and taking care of the kids more. He makes sure I get that extra sleep when I can and, even though I can barely hear them when I'm sleeping, he's really good about trying to keep the kids quiet when I'm sleeping, even taking them to the playground in our complex.

The only guarantee I have is that I'll have this job up until Christmas, after that I could wind up being let go or wind up being asked to stay. On one hand, I'm really glad to be working again and I've met some truly great people, not to mention the money is really nice. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I could keep up this schedule for a long time. The best hope is, eventually, we could get Boy in to a daycare/preschool for a couple of hours after he gets out of school. Our major hope is that someday I can have a more normal day time job, but I'm thinking that probably won't be a possibility until Boy enters kindergarten.

Anyway, spending some time today catching up on housework and the like (it'll be a BIG caffeine day for me) so this weekend we can spend some time with the family. Going to my grandparents house on Sunday for an early Christmas since my dad will be in town.