Work has been absolutely crazy lately, and I've compensated by feeding my children PB&Js every day for lunch last week. I think they even had it Sunday night, too. Last week from Sunday to Friday evening, I had a total of 16 hours of sleep. None on Sunday night because I had a spreadsheet due first thing Monday morning. I got a few hours Monday thru Thursday and then practically none again on Thursday night, redoing the same spreadsheet over and over to test possible rates for a managed care contract negotiation. Friday night I finally got a little more sleep, but still went to bed late because I had to do 3 loads of laundry in order for us to leave early enough Saturday morning to get to the zoo in Columbia. We were meeting some other Guatemalan adoptive families, and I certainly didn't want to miss it! We had a great time, until my girls were starting to crash from not having had their nap by 2:30. So I had to leave the rest of the group, pack up my girls and head to mom's (Omi's) house where we would be spending the night.
Omi's house is not exactly restful, as her house is definitely not baby-proof, plus I have to watch everything my mother gives the girls to eat or drink. I try not to be too strict about what they eat, but mom is a little over-the-top. She doesn't see anything wrong with letting them have sips of her Mountain Dew, fully loaded with caffiene and sugar! Then cookies and candy on top of it, and whatever else they want to eat. She asks us every single hour what we want to eat. Nothing, mom, NOTHiNG .... we just ate 1/2 hour ago... but she really does mean well. She just wants everyone to eat and be happy.
This week is better, but still hectic. Still working on the same project at work, in addition to another project that was due by COB Tuesday afternoon. So again, little to no sleep on Sunday night. I see a pattern here that I really don't care for. But yay!! I have a new employee starting in a couple of weeks and he seems to be extremely bright AND a database guru. I can't wait! Best of all, he's internal and is transferring to my department, so he won't need nearly as much training! Double YAY!
I rambled on about how busy I have been to say this ... I want to apologize to my girls for letting work come first. But when I have things due, they are due, and I have to get them done. I seem to have to complete every task on time AND I have to do it well or I just can't stand it. But then I let things slide at home that I should not let slide. I have not been home before 6:00 in quite a while now. So it's been 7:00 some nights before we have supper, and then I don't want to rush from supper to baths, so we get baths late around 8:00, so now the girls are going to bed a little later. They seem to handle it just fine, so I hope I'm not scarring them for life. I am going to go in to work late on Friday so that I can take them to school, as it is picture day and I want to be the one to make sure their hair is still fixed correctly after we get there (some little GuatAmericans I know like to remove hair accessories in transit to school each day, not to mention shoes and socks). And I'm also going to get off work an hour or so early so I can go pick them up after school to see how the picture session went. And to check Maya's cubby for myself to see how many clothes are gathered there, and to make sure I get her napmat to bring home to wash this weekend. If the weather is nice when we leave, I hope to take them somewhere fun, like the park, or maybe to Converse to see daddy's office since they will (hopefully) still have their nice picture outfits on. I can't wait! My boss did say I could just take the whole day off, but I still do not have a lot of leave saved up and want to wait and use my leave time during the holidays instead.
My guilty conscious led me to Target after the girls were in bed, and I bought a new crock pot to try to feed everyone real meals on weeknights. Then I went to the grocery store and got pork ribs to make bbq pork tomorrow (which E picked as the dish he wanted first), and also got a pot roast and veggies to make Friday. Tomorrow at lunch I hope to have time to stop by the halloween store near the office and check out possible costumes for the kids.
Anyone else love the Gosselins (Jon and Kate plus 8)? I love that show. Mainly because they are real people and not perfect. Mom gripes too much, dad yelled at the kids ... you know ... real life. Right up there with Nanny 911.
Ok, I'm rambling now, so I think it's time to go to bed (another midnight bedtime) to hopefully get a whole 5 1/2 hours of sleep tonight!! woohoo!
We met another group of semi-local Guatemalan adoptive familes at the zoo in C. We have met once before at a Latino-themed mall across the street from Carowinds, and we had a great time. We had to leave the zoo early, due to having two exhausted girls who had not had a nap by 2:30. But it was soooo much fun to meet / see these other families. I hope we can do it again soon! And these shots would be Maria's attempts to copy everything Maya does. So stinking cute!
Oh, I managed to solve part of my supper dilemma. I bought a new crock pot that is programmable, so I can set it on low for 8 or 9 hours and then it automatically switches to "warm". LOVIN' IT! So far our favorite meals have been pot roast with carrots and potatoes, and BBQ pork (boneless pork ribs in some sort of sauce ... either beef broth or lipton onion soup mix or even better vinegar and chicken broth!) yum. I don't use it every day of course, but I try to use it at least twice a week. Now if I could just find a meal that both of my girls would eat! They are complete opposites still, and Maria is just not fond of any sort of meat other than ham. Maya likes meat but is not much of a fan of vegetables, which Maria loves, of course. Maria's current favorite is green beans. Maya likes candy instead. bwahaha! She asks for candy at least 5 times a day. Gee ... wonder where she gets that from?!?!?! 
