Camping Trips and Orientation

So I'm on my own for 3 days… Jim and little one headed off on a Daddy & Daughter camping trip along with my brother and his daughter Ava who is also 8.  I'm hoping this will become a nice tradition for the 4 of them.

We went on our usual "School's Out" cabin camping weekend with friends this past weekend at  local state park.  We stayed for 3 days and 2 nights.  Had gorgeous weather and a great time.  We all rated this 3rd annual trip as our best yet.  Best park, best cabin, best weather!  We got home on Sunday afternoon and then did a quick assessment of what needed to be washed and repacked to send them back out for 2 more nights.  It wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be to have the 2 outings back to back. Everything was already out and semi-packed so it actually worked out nicely.

Now… the 4 of them are in for some rain today and tomorrow morning so we'll see how chipper they are when they return!

Jim finished up his weeklong orientation at the hospital last week, and starting Thursday he's on the SIMCU for 3 shifts a week of precepting.  I think he has 9 weeks of on the floor with a preceptor (a current RN ) before they turn him loose on his own. Last week was nice as we thought about real money finally starting to roll in for the first time in 4 years, but the orientation was… well…. orientation.  Tolerable, not super exciting.  So on the floor precepting should be much more fun and challenging for him.

Once we make it through June we should have some downtime together.
But this coming weekend Jim is working 7am-7pm Saturday & Sunday
Next week I'm in Boston from Wednesday through Sunday for work
Then the following week I'm headed up to Cleveland on Wednesday to help with prep for my parents 50th anniversary part that weekend and won't be back until Monday evening of the following week.

All good stuff, but a busy month for sure!

What's Up?

2 weeks ago my family went on a vacation with some friends. We rented a home in the Adirondack Mountains in NY with 2 of my best friends from high school and their husbands. One of the couples has a little boy that is 1. We've done a group vacation twice before with these friends and it's always a blast. I love vacation with my family but vacationing with friends is a such a different vibe. We did a lot of outdoor activities, hiking, kayaking, lots of fires at night. One of my favorite evenings was when we had a HUGE bonfire going and then decided to pull the big screen tv out onto the covered patio to watch the movie The Great Outdoors. That movie is hys-ter-i-cal. The only thing that vacation was missing was sleep. Because my friend's little boy was out of his normal routine he was not a great sleeper. He is such a rambunctious kid that once he was up for the day pretty much the whole house was up. Next year I'm packing ear plugs.

Unfortunately the week of catching up with old friends means coming home to a boat load of work, a household that's a week behind on chores, and Joe diving full force back into his heavy course load.

This week coming up is a crazy one. Little One's 8th birthday is this Friday. On Wednesday I have my first afternoon volunteering in her classroom. And I'm not going to be just passing out papers or something mindless, I'm taking a group of 8 2nd graders and working on putting together a poetry performance with them to put on for all of the 2nd grade classes. Halloween means making a home-made robot costume per Little One's request. And somehow making a costume always ends up costing me more than just buying one at the store. It is fun to do together but it would be nice to at least save some money with all the work that goes into a homemade costume.

I have a new boss at work. And that's just hard because it's such a change. Nothing in my life is normal or smooth sailing right now. Every day is full of the unexpected and new challenges and I tend to be someone who likes stability and routine so it's pretty mentally taxing for me.

Then why... oh why... am I still hoping so desperately to add baby #2 into this crazy mix. At church this morning a woman in the pew ahead of me was holding the most adorable 3 or 4 month old little girl. She was great for 80% of the mass and then she had just had enough and was fairly fussy. I spent more time makes faces at her to keep her happy than listening to the priest. I want to be the one bouncing a fussy baby at church again. The only thing I really don't look forward to is the sleep deprivation. Anything else I'm ready for!

- oh and how's this for a WTF moment. My oven broke. The stove top still works but no oven. I had made dough for oatmeal/raisin cookies and popped them into what I thought was a preheated oven. No heat. Oven dead. Husband too busy (literally) to even consider fixing it. I have no time to sit around waiting on a repair man. So what was my solution. I went to Goodwill and bought a $7 toaster oven. One big problem... one cannot bake a birthday cake in a toaster oven. And I have ALWAYS baked a cake myself for little one's birthdays. And usually some kind of treat for her to share at school. I casually suggested she might like an ice-cream cake for her birthday and she went for it so that's solved. But the class treat is something I still have to figure out. There's always something!

If I make it through this week unscathed, or without the help of massive doses of caffeine, I'll be REALLY REALLY surprised.