Busy summer... in 2017

…And not doing fun things. It’s been almost all working. I took June off of drinking. It was FAR more difficult than when I typically do it in October. LOL. But I got through it and THAT is why I do it. I do like to drink. When I do my sober month, I constantly get asked WHY I do it. And when I tell them it’s to keep myself in check. I work in a bar. My husband drinks a lot. (Part of me thinks alcoholic, but he can go a day or two without having a beer.) Anyway. The one thing I did enjoy was not having a hangover. LOL.

Sunday night at 5:15, I just finished working 80 hours from Sunday-Sunday. I pulled 4 open-close shifts, 1 close shift, 1 double, and 1 day shift. I had 2 people on vacation and one person who took the whole month off (this is a whole other topic and I’m just fucking frustrated with her).

James took yesterday off work and we spent the day as a family. I had already had my day planned, so that I didn’t have to leave the house today. LOL. I told him that I wasn’t changing my plans and if he was going to deal with that, then fine. So, we took off yesterday morning at 10:30 for Albertville. My stone fell out of my ring AGAIN (3rd time in 8.5 years and the 5th or 6th time I’ve had to send it away for something…), so I had to go to Zales to raise some hell. They’re going to make thicker prongs and it “should” fix the problem. So, we’ll see when I get it back. We went to lunch and then hit up the outlet mall stores for kids school clothes. The we went to the most amazing Mills Fleet Farm that I’ve ever seen. (I’m so redneck.) Then once we got back to St. Cloud, we hit up Dick’s and James found golf shoes. After that, it was onto MATTRESS SHOPPING!

When my parents, niece, & nephew were here last week to “nanny” my kids while I was working…I slept in Maddie’s bed. I woke up - despite working long hours - without back & hip pain. When I slept in my own bed on Saturday night, I woke up sore as fuck on Sunday. It was then I realized I needed to replace my 13 year old bed. We went to Mattress Firm and I got a Hampton & Rhodes bed set. It will be delivered on August 23. They have a great 120 night comfort guarantee…so, we’ll see!

Then we hit up Walmart for some necessities and headed home. When we got home, the shop called and said that my van was ready (my check engine light came on and it’s an Evap code, so he swapped out my gas cap and we’ll see if that works), so we went to get that and got ice cream!

We went camping towards the end of July with James’ family (20 of us). We went to a campground about 45 minutes from us. James’ parents took the kids Thursday afternoon and we got down there Friday about 5:30. Late Friday night (about 3:30 a.m.), Maddie crawled into bed with me crying that her tummy hurt. I told her to snuggle and go back to sleep, but she kept whimpering and crying…her breath was very labored. I googled it and all signs pointed to Appendicitis. So, at 7:30 a.m., we took her to the ER. I have never seen either of my children acting like this…in so much pain. It was scary:( After chest xrays, blood draws, and a lot of waiting, it turns out, she was REALLY backed up. We got some Mirilax and pumped her full of that. She was hesitant at first, but after she finished her first dose, she was pooping by the afternoon. I felt AWFUL. All she wanted to do was sleep, which is not like her AT ALL.

She seems to be back on track, but between that and his dad having to get his tooth emergency extracted…it sorta put a downer on things. Yeah…great weekend! LOL. James and I have decided that we are NOT a camping family. Our schedules do not really allow for it and it’s not really something we enjoy.

So, we’re planning our 2018 vacation (this past March, we went to Nashville). We’re kinda set on Phoenix. BUT we used VRBO for Nashville and had a TON of options and our place was great. Well, Phoenix doesn’t seem to offer much in either VRBO or Airbnb. I’m not sure what to do! We had a lot of resources for Nashville, but are lacking for Phoenix (in our price range anyway for lodging). If anything, we’ll choose somewhere in Florida. I know there’s a lot of options in FL. Any hints for Phoenix?

I’ve spent the morning paying bills (UGH, Adulting!), getting the dishwasher going, laundry is in the dryer, I’ve updated all of you on my summer. (Yes, this has been my summer…work and one camping trip.)

Oh, two of my friends had babies. My one friend, C, had a boy. She has 2 girls and a boy now. She went from September to June without smoking. I went to visit her 5 days after she had her baby and she’s back to smoking again. I do NOT understand (being a non-smoker and all) how you can go your entire pregnancy without smoking and then back at it within 5 days. She’s having a milk production problem…which she did not have with her girls (but being almost 5 years older can have an affect), but I know that smoking can affect milk production. I wish I had the balls to say something, but I don’t. It’s not really any of my business how she decides to raise her kids. It just makes me incredibly sad.

My other friend had her baby and she “tried” breastfeeding for 2 days and then when she asked for a pump in the hospital (she didn’t have one of her own for some reason even though she knew she’d need one when she went back to work), they apparently said no. So, she said that she just wanted to go with formula. She’s a little young (24), but idk…seems lazy to me. Breastfeeding didn’t work for me, so I pumped. I was a goddamn milk factory. I could pump 20 oz at a time (2 10 oz bottles full). If I’d go too long, James would have to get me more bottles and I’d pump 30 oz or more. Nobody would believe me that I pumped that much and I don’t care. WHY would I lie about that? Not really something people lie about. I had enough milk saved up at 4.5 months to last until she was almost a year. I did supplement a little, but would do half BM and half formula and would take formula if we were going somewhere and she’d get hungry. I guess I don’t understand WHY people give up so early and WHY pumping is not an option. I only pumped for a month with Brady because of my work situation. But James was off work and I needed to work a lot. The restaurant biz isn’t ideal for pumping (although it would have been allowed). “Hey, table…I’m leaking…I need to be missing for 15 minutes to pump.” Eh. But we also qualified for WIC back then since James had broken his ankle and was off work for a year. I don’t MEAN to be judgmental because I’ve done both routes, but only “trying” to breastfeed for 2 days and then not even try pumping? IDK.

Okay. I need to shower and get some lunch on the table. I’m thinking quesadillas…

Chicken Alfredo for dinner! :)

And OMG. Brady will be a FIRST grader in a few weeks!!! I can’t believe some kids start school SO early! One of my friend’s kids in Nashville started August 1 already!