Monday
My good friend had given me an AWESOME idea to help me survive the flight with two little ones alone. Get lots of little presents (like dollar store things, suckers, fruit snacks, etc.) and wrap them up each individually, then as Sarah gets board on the flight, just hand her a present to open. I LOVED this idea so decided to venture off to the Dollar Store. Right before getting ready to go Sarah had stink-o-pants (is it just me, or does this ALWAYS happen, "mom is ready to go... well, better start pushing so she can't!").
While I was changing her on the changing table in Abby's room she fell off the table and whacked her head on the radiator. It immediately turned into a nasty golf ball-sized bump (just like in the cartoons) with a dark purple slit down the middle where the skin almost split! YIKES! I called Ryan and we decided it would be safest if we took her to the ER to make sure it was okay, and that she'd be fine to fly on Wednesday. Three hours later... and everything was fine... accept that I was stressed out the WAZOO! Guess going the Dollar store would have to wait until Tuesday...
Being the insane person that I am, I decided to invite a friend over for dinner, she called the night before and asked if the Lingwall's (a family in our ward) could come too. She thought that we would all get along really well, well my initial friend bailed and it basically felt like Ryan and I had been set up on a blind date (accept for the fact that we'd met the family before... and they weren't blind).
I was a little stressed that the reasoning behind my dinner invitation fell through (I want to get to know this sister more and be there for her), but we had a fun time talking and letting the children run around like mad and trash the place. Too bad so much fun had to come with a pile of dishes (to add to the ones I already had in the sink from the weekend) and scattered toys throughout the house.
To top it all off I procrastinated by working on a sewing project with a friend. It was fun... but I stayed up way to late. And so lets add exhausted to the start of my trip preparations.
Tuesday
My house is a disaster... I am flying out the next day, and there is SOOOO much to do! I continued to work on the laundry through out the day while I did chores like cleaning the bathroom, the girls bedrooms and vacuuming the stairs and upstairs. I was going to be gone for a month, and didn't want a month's worth of dust to settle on top of an already unclean house... what was I THINKING!!!
I had a few things that came up that held up my progress a little, but I kept telling myself it would all work out fine... right? Right? RIGHT?!! It was 11:30 at night and I still hadn't finished packing. I ended up staying up until almost FOUR in the morning to get everything done... well almost everything... I never got to vacuuming the main floor, cleaning the dishes or finish putting away the last minute groceries for Ryan. Sorry Love.
Wednesday
Ryan had to give a presentation in class that morning so he had to drop me and the girls off 2 1/2 hours early at the airport. What was I going to do to keep Sarah entertained in the airport. We took our time getting through security, which was honestly a joke trying to do with one hand, I had to take Abby out of her car seat, and then place both her car seat and the stroller on the conveyor belt to get "scanned." I also had to take off Sarah's coat, shoes, my shoes, and find anything else on my body that might set off the alarm all while holding a BABY... with ONE ARM!!! I was very red cheeked by the time we got through. Oh, and getting Sarah to walk through the metal detector by herself was a REAL treat.
But once that was all done with, we swung by McDonald's for some breakfast and settled in by our gate to wait for our flight. While sitting there I realized that Abby didn't have a plug (aka - pacifier) with her. So I frantically searched the store and found one in a drugstore. I was very grateful that Abby isn't a picky baby and took the plug. I was a bottle of nerves, and being low on sleep didn't help either. Sarah was being her usual bipolar self with more ups than downs. Finally it was ready to bored the overbooked, every seat will be filled, flight. I awkwardly made my way down the tiny aisle of the plane to the 4th to last row and sat by another mother with her toddler. She was very nice and even helped to make sure I wasn't flashing anyone while I fed Abby halfway through the flight.
The 5 hour flight seemed to last forever. Sarah got a little crazy partway in because she had stink-o-pants again, and changing her, while holding Abby in the bathroom of an airplane is something I never wish to do again. I was grateful when both girls crashed and allowed me to drift off a little myself for a while.
We had a layover in Las Vegas and I didn't care what people thought of me when I let Sarah run around like a crazy child. We played a little game where Sarah ran up this hall that had a little bit of a ramp and then I would tell her to stop and say "Ready, Set, GO!" and she would run down and jump into my arms and I would twirl her around. I had to find someway to let her get some wiggles out.
We bought an extremely overpriced hot dog and slice of pizza and waited for our final leg to SLC.
The flight from Las Vegas to SLC was bliss! The flight had 30 open seats and so I was able to bring Abby's car seat on the flight. She fussed the first 5 minutes of the flight, I fed her and she fell asleep and slept in her carseat the ENTIRE flight! Sarah was darling as well. She happily chatted with the "Grandparents" sitting in front of us and then quietly watched a movie on the portable DVD player. There had to be some serious help from the big guy on that flight... THANK YOU!
When we got down to the baggage claim G'ma & G'pa Newey were there and it was so cute to watch Sarah run and jump into my mom's arms. I could have broken down into tears. I don't remember much else of that night... kind of a daze, but I think we ate some dinner and then the girls and I crashed hard in our beds.
Thursday
The big Haircut ... before and after shots seen HERE.
In the middle of the afternoon Sarah's eye got all goopey... yup... PINK EYE! Yuck... luckily my mom had some drops from when my little brother had it just a few months earlier... dang flights... *sigh*
Unfortunately, I had planned a Grandma night with Ryan's mom and we were going to my girls and their Cousin Hallie all play at Grandma Lisa's house while Ryan's Brother Jordan and his wife, Emily went out on a date before their little Carter was born. I was bummed that I couldn't hangout... due to the pink eye, but luckily Grandma Lisa still watched Hallie so Jord & Em could have a night out before Baby #2 (Thanks Lisa, sorry about arranging a night of Babysitting for you...)
Friday
I planned a Fun Friday at my friend Val Packer's house in Tooele. What? Never heard of it? Well that is probably because it is clear out in the middle of no where!!! Way to go Val, moving so stinking far away... anyway, she lives in a cute neighborhood in a house that is perfect for her growing little family (bytheway Val... shouldn't you be announcing something about now, according to your pattern it should be about now. j/k).
We let the kids do a little gift exchange and then did the most important thing... TALK! Yes, we got some adult conversation in while all the kiddos trashed Val's playroom (sorry Val... thanks again for hosting). Here are some pictures of the day...
I normally do a much better job at getting pictures... but I still hadn't really slept since Sunday... Sorry ladies, I am a slacker...
I came home from Tooele to have a girl's night with the Stephenson's... well, sort of. We just ordered pizza and hung out at Jordan and Emily's house... which I found out that night Emily had spent ALL DAY cleaning for us to come over... what a lame SIL I am, making her feel like she had to clean her house while 2 days away from delivering a baby! Sheesh! We did have fun talking and enjoying each others company. I wish I would have planned something more fun, but just getting us together was a miracle. My original plan was to come over and finish helping Em get set up for #2, but that didn't happen... Sorry Em... I love you!!!
Saturday
Blizzard, White Out Conditions, Hell Froze over, all statements that would say, don't go out and drive... right? Well, I decided to go to watch my Ryan's little sisters performance at the Festival of the Trees in Salt Lake. YIKES! The roads were horrible... I am glad that I didn't drive, my Mother in Law did. We got there and enjoyed walking through and seeing all of the beautiful trees, we even saw a Star Wars set up that was worth over $13,000 that was being donated. It was very cool, and geeky...
That evening I had planned a Girls Night with some of my lady friends. We had a Gingerbread making contest. It was lots of fun, except I was a major party pooper. I was so deprived on sleep, and was starting to get a cold and had a MAJOR headache. The ones that hurts to breathe... no fun. I hope that my girlies still had fun at my lame get together. Here are a few photos.
Team Wend, Deb & Annie
Team Kara & Mel
Team Ash & Liz
The finished product!
We made the 9 month pregnant one do clean up, aren't we nice friends...
Because we're cool like that!
It was a CRAZY first week of December! Fun, but I think I wore myself completely out. Too much planned in too short of a time and on NO SLEEP... bad combo. Its no wonder I caught a cold and ended up being forced to stay home from church on Sunday (thanks Mom & Dad for taking Sarah to church with you so I could take a nap, you're the best!).
