Day in the Life - Spring 2015

Julia at My Life in Transition has taken over hosting the quarterly Day in the Life series. I know I could put these together on my own, but it's nice when there is another blogger prompting me to do so. Also, I feel like I just did one of these - time is moving way too fast. And also? My computer is full - I barely was able to get these pictures loaded and saved. Time to do some clean up.

It's also time to document one of my work days again. This is a fairly typical Friday for me...

Friday, 4/10/15
Riley is 5
Jesse is 40 and I'm 43

Thursday night I had good intentions to get to bed by 10:00 pm. I headed upstairs at about a quarter to 10:00, checked in on my kid who was talking in her sleep, and then jumped in bed to read. Silly me to think I would only read for 13 minutes (The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory - it's good), but I did force myself to put down my book at 10:20 and call it a night. When Jesse came up to bed I relayed that Riley was talking in her sleep and he proudly declared "just like her daddy".

I'm still on some medication that I take right before bed and they really knock me out. I still get up a couple times a night, but sleep is heavier than without the pills. The hard part is coming out of my sleep stupor in the morning. I did wake up around 11:30 to go to the bathroom, but I was also really hot so I removed a blanket layer and probably a cat layer. I woke again around 2:30 and stumbled to the bathroom and back to sleep. I was so out of it both times that I didn't take my standard clock picture. I do remember the second time I woke up from a dream where Jesse, Riley and I went to Cleveland. I have no desire to go there (no offense to anyone from there), but I did just watch an episode of Hot in Cleveland so that would explain it (are all the episodes about women who seem to have men issues? I found it a little depressing).

4:38 - I wake again and I'm pretty sure this one was cat provoked since the cat feeder goes off at 5:00 am. Usually, there is a wake up between 3:00 and 5:00 because the cat is hungry, but I go right back to sleep. I did have another dream that was quite horrible. Someone close to me was given a very short time to live. I've been having vivid dreams for weeks - actually it's been over a month - every single night. They eased a little around my uncle's funeral and the only night I don't remember a dream is the night before his funeral. Since a few days after the funeral my dreams have turned really dark. One even included me preparing for my own death. I was in a truck and knew I was about to be killed. I realized that I never told anyone what I wanted to happen after I die. So I picked up a used styrofoam coffee cup and wrote my name, underlined it, and then wrote 'cremate'. I then asked Jesse what he wanted, wrote his name, underlined it, and wrote 'buried whole'. It was at that point I realized that Jesse was driving me away from the killer, but when I woke up I had this feeling that I still wasn't totally safe. So yeah, lots of those type of dreams lately. Fun stuff.

5:51 - Well gosh, not sure why I am up now. Sort of think I hear Riley calling out, but as I come to I realize she's not saying anything (or maybe she was mumbling in her sleep). Oh, I have to pee again, but it's too close to Riley's normal wake up time and I don't want to make any noise to make that earlier than it has to be. Will myself back to sleep.

6:29 - Wake in confusion to the kid yelling "It's siiiii-ix! Gah! At least she let us sleep in a little today. She knows that she can't get up until her clock says 6:00 or later. Usually, she yells out at 6:12. You may think she's sleeping in a little, but we set her clock behind to give us the ability to sleep in a little. I imagine she might actually be up most mornings just waiting for that clock to change.

So hard to wake up today and Jesse and I both struggle to get out of bed. I finally walk across the hall and open her door, but then go back to my room. She comes out of her room and goes downstairs with Jesse. I gather her clothes for the day (we pick them out the night before) and grab my stuff and stumble down stairs.

Riley is playing with some dress up dolls and Jesse already has his oatmeal made. I drink my citrocel, and go to the bathroom. I remind myself that I don't have to make Riley's lunch today as she will be eating school lunch since it's one of the rare items she likes: cheese pizza.

6:50 - I jump in the shower, and after I get out I do step 1 and 2 of my new daily eye regimen.  First I use some eye lid cleanser to deal with my blepharitis. Then I put in drops of Restasis for my dry eyes. I go upstairs to get dressed and make the bed and then come back down to finish getting ready. By this time Jesse has given Riley food and she's getting herself dressed. I set out her toothbrush and once done with that I do her hair.

7:25 - I start my breakfast of a hard boiled egg (I am the only person in this house who will eat them so I refused to make more than 10 for Easter Egg coloring), some apple, and some rye toast with avocado, feta, and sunflower seeds (so nummy).

7:36 - Riley has picked out her cupcake game to bring for show and tell at school. I warn her that she might lose pieces, but she wants to take it (she ends up leaving the entire game at school, but swears all the pieces are there). She and Jesse are out the door earlier than usual and I finally sit down to eat my breakfast. I clean around the house a little and then I go to the bathroom again and have to kick Lucy the cat out. She's always been fond of hiding behind the shower curtain and then play batting at you when you're trying to do your business, but since our other cat Diablo died she's there all the time. I've probably encouraged it because she doesn't have another cat to play with anymore, but sometimes I just want to go to the bathroom. I finally am at a spot where Riley doesn't barge in on me all the time and now I have the cat...

I then head into part 3 of my eye regimen. I heat up my rice pack and put a warm compress on my eyes for about 10 minutes followed by a lid massage to help loosen up the oils that are needed to keep my eyes moist. I recently found out that my meiobian glands are clogged and not working the way they should. At my last eye appointment the doctor expressed the glands and said the oil that came out was the consistency of toothpaste. It's not supposed to do that. So anyway, this heat and massage should provide some relief. I listen to MPR while letting the warm compress do it's thing.

8:24 - I head downstairs to my office as I start work at 8:30. I quickly throw in some laundry and then log into work. I work at an online University and the quarter starts on Monday so I anticipate a busy day. The moment I am fully logged in my phone starts ringing.

I have a serious light bulb burn out issue going on. I have new bulbs, but can't seem to get the old ones out.

9:00 - Every Friday I send out a 'Grateful Friday' email to the team at work. It started a couple years ago when I was in total burnout and needed to be intentionally grateful. I needed to put it out there for others to hear with the hope that things would turn around, and eventually they did. The tradition has stuck and I think for many of my co-workers they like it as a way to get caught up on my life since I'm not sitting in the cubicle row with them. Anyway, even though it's busy I am able to whip something up, add some pictures and get it sent out. Throughout the day my colleagues respond with their own emails.

9:46 - I run upstairs as I need a water refill and see that it's snowing big, wet snowflakes and it's sticking to the ground. Whoa. I grab my good camera and take some pictures and then get back to work.

10:22 - I'm on my official break where I spend my time doing some laundry before heading upstairs to see that the sun is out and the snow is completely gone. Well, that flipped pretty fast. Back to work 15 minutes later.

My husband works from home on Fridays too, but has a ton of flexibility and it's about this time that he heads out to the gym. For me it's lots of calls and emails all morning. I have to check a team email box and distribute those and I have some time off the phone queue, but it's spent emailing and calling people so it's pretty much the same thing.

12:00 - Lunch time! I go upstairs and find some chicken quesadillas on the counter from the gym. I assume they are for me, but want to check just in case. I run upstairs and totally startle Jesse as he's in the shower. He confirms that he brought me lunch and he even made sure it had extra pico de gallo. Love him. I end up watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother while eating. I used to rarely watch TV during my lunch, but after Diablo died it seemed sooooo quiet in the house that I started watching TV. I don't do it as much, but I can commit 22 minutes to a sitcom. After eating I clean up some dishes in the kitchen, and bring clean clothes upstairs. While I've been upstairs Jesse uses the opportunity to play one of his video games in the basement. He does leave a couple times today for errands and I think he goes on a walk at some time.

1:00 - Back to work. The afternoon is quieter and I have to check a couple times that my phone is available for calls. I do speak with a couple students that I feel like I have been talking with a ton lately and am glad to check them off the list for now. I consult with a co-worker for a bit and am glad my co-workers still reach out to me when they could probably turn around and ask someone sitting near them. I also realize I haven't been doing my eye squeezes every 20 minutes so I start that. Apparently, it's also supposed to help get that oil onto my lids. I also think I use over the counter eye drops once or twice today.

Eye squeezing

3:00 - Afternoon break time! I love that my company now schedules these for me or I would never take them. I go upstairs and grab the mail which is all junk, check the internet on my personal computer, and head downstairs after 15 minutes.

4:30 - Yes, work is over for the week! Except, I need to address this one last email so I'm done at more like 4:36, but it's still close enough. I go upstairs where Jesse and Riley are (he picked her up from preschool at about 3:45). Riley shows me the prize she got for earning George bucks. When kids in her class are good they earn fake money which they can turn in for a prize. She is delighted with her trinket. Jesse is grilling up some meat and started our salads for movie night. I take Riley outside with her new bubble blowing gun she got for Easter and we play with that for awhile.

Buds! Spring! Lilacs!

5:15 - Back inside, I put the pizza in the oven and finish off my salad fixings. Riley and I put our pajamas on and we all head downstairs at about 5:30 to watch Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams. Cheesy, but entertaining. For the first time in forever, Riley eats her food super fast. She and I then cuddle with Lucy while Jesse falls asleep at the other end of the couch.

7:15 - Movie must have been longer than I realize, but then it hits me that we started later too. We are usually upstairs reading before bed at this time. Riley announces that she's still hungry, proceeds to go into the fridge and find herself a cut up apple and a cheese stick. I'm trying to figure out if I like this ability to fend for herself or not. While she eats she sits with me while I try to find an old picture. She sees my Christmas picture folder and we have to go through all of those. Finally, I announce it's time for bed.

7:40 - Upstairs and doing the bedtime stuff: bathroom, tooth brushing, book reading... Riley gets to read 4 books after I go downstairs so we pick those out and she does "eenie, meenie, miney, moe" to decide the order she will read them in. Riley asks for a monkey hug which are my absolute favorite. She wraps her entire body around me and squeezes tightly.

Lucy likes to join us during story time. Also, I think Lucy has lost some weight
now that we can fully control her food portions. She looks smaller to me here. 

Attempt at capturing the monkey hug

8:00 - Downstairs again, I start writing down my day so I don't forget any more than I already have. I type until about 9:10 and realize that I would like a glass of wine tonight and perhaps a little TV while I upload all my pictures.

10:12 - Huh, somehow I get sucked into several episodes of How I Met Your Mother and am still up while Jesse goes upstairs to read. I realize I never did round two of the warm eye compress and I am out of the eye antibiotic I am supposed to put in before bedtime, but I do another round of Restatis. So yeah, I head to the bathroom one more time. I close the door, sit down, and BAM, BAM, BAM... Lucy was waiting - for who knows how long - and now I am trapped. I try to ignore her, but she's determined and ends up partly on my lap (it's a small bathroom). I give in and play with her a little before going up to bed and crashing.

I sleep quite well that night, but I have a terrible dream about work where I send something to another team to look over. It's a draft, but they come back and tell me I've spelled there/their/they're wrong. I'm horrified and try to explain that I totally know when to use each one properly and that I just made a mistake, but they tell me this is a thing I do a lot. I'm so ashamed. Thankfully, it's only a dream. (Although I know that I've also made this mistake in real life too so I can't fully shake off the shame.)

And that was my day...

Day in the Life - Fall 2012

Time for another edition of 'Day in the Life' as hosted by Navigating the Mothership.

Saturday, 10/20/12
Riley is 2 years, 8+ months

3:32 - I wake up, go to the bathroom and hope I fall right back to sleep. I've been having sleep issues a lot lately and have gotten to the point of 'so tired I can't sleep'. It may be time to see a doctor or at least try some over the counter medication. Although lately, part of the bad sleep has to do with Riley getting up and me getting to bed too late.

Luckily I fall back asleep pretty fast. I have a dream about a whale that I think becomes friends with my kid. The whale swims around after my kid and everyone thinks it is so cute. We all sit down to eat at a restaurant and I see that my options are mashed potatoes and pork chops or tater tots and whale. I wonder if this is the same whale that is friends with my daughter. I'm not all that hungry, but I feel like everyone expects me to make a decision.

5:34 - I wake again. I think it's because I have to go to the bathroom again, but that's not it. I am really hot so that might be it, but perhaps my mind didn't want to make a decision in my dream about what to eat so I woke up. Who knows? Typically when I wake up at this time I almost never fall back to sleep no matter how tired I am. I want sleep so bad and know that I don't have to get up at 6 am for work. Please let me fall back to sleep.

I do! I do fall back to sleep! And I have more dreams which is pretty common for me to dream in these early hours and remember them. It tells me that I am sleeping, but probably not very hard. In my dream I was at some event with work folks or bloggers. I'm not sure, but I know Erin from It's All Happening was there (we work together and she's a blogger). After the event we go back to work and find our computers right next to each other where we have to stand at our desks. She turns to me and gives me a hug. (This is even weird to me since this is the second dream she's been in of mine where a hug is involved). At any rate, she's drunk and keeps talking about I don't know what. She walks off to the bathroom and I don't see her for the remainder of the dream. I turn towards her desk and find 6 full shot glasses of booze next to her computer. I then realize I am at a restaurant. (Ugh, I hate restaurant dreams - they are always so stressful.) This one turns out to be less stressful, but I am trying to clean all the dirty tables off really fast. There are a lot of crayons on each table and on one table in particular. I find a large Ziploc bag that already has crayons and markers in it and start stuffing if full with the crayons from the table. The bag has a name written on the front in black permanent marker. I can't recall what it is now, but I know it meant something to me in the dream. I see that Jesse and Riley are waiting for me outside so I try to wrap up my cleaning. Riley is playing in a structure that looks just like our new playhouse.

Then I have another dream or perhaps it's part of the same dream and I am missing transition details. In this dream I wake up and realize my friend Angela has stayed overnight and is in bed with me. It's the 'Day in the Life' day so I take a picture of her. I look up and there are a bunch of other women getting ready for the day next to the bed. I think we must have gone out the night before. I go downstairs in my pajamas and find my friends, Dan, Joanna, and Pete - all of whom I went to high school with. There is another guy there ready to take our picture. Pete has the good sense to turn us so that the TV isn't on behind us in the picture. I am glad someone is paying attention to these details. Oh, and somewhere in one of these dreams I discover that my DSLR camera won't work. At all. So sad (I hope it's not an omen of things to come).

Phew! All this and I am not even officially awake for the day yet.

6:30ish - I hear things, but I'm not quite with it. I wonder if I forgot to turn of my alarm or if Riley is awake across the hall. Jesse has been sleeping downstairs all week because he has a nasty cough he doesn't want to wake us with. I hear a couple thunks, but somehow go back to sleep.

6:57 - Riley cries out and Jesse comes upstairs to get her. After he changes her diaper she runs across the hall yelling "mommy, mommy". I pick her up and hug her. As I let her down she yells to her dad "Daddy, I found mommy! I found mommy!". Too cute.

Jesse takes Riley downstairs and I think about whether I am going to try and get more sleep. I lay there for awhile, but decide that I don't want to be frustrated by not sleeping.

7:25 - I get out of bed and make the bed. Now that we have a new duvet cover I actually want to make the bed every day. We just need a new throw and a couple blue pillows and it will be perfect.

I head to the basement where Jesse took Riley in the hopes that I would be able to go back to sleep. They are watching the Backyardigans on Netflix. It's fun listening to her try and say "backyardigans".

We go upstairs to the main floor to eat breakfast. Riley eats french toast and I eat scrambled eggs and toast.

I notice it's quite foggy out, but know that later in the day it is suppose to be quite nice. I kinda of hope it stays foggy for awhile because it looks kind of cool.

After breakfast I let Riley watch Toy Story 3 which Jesse just got for her. I jump in the shower while she watches Woody and Buzz and when I come out she's attacking Jesse.

9:07 - Riley attempts to get in a puzzle game, but we need to head upstairs and get dressed as we are meeting a friend at 10:30. Jesse, Riley and I were going to meet our friends, Adriana and Dan, over at Minnehaha Falls and then get lunch together afterward. Unfortunately, Dan had to go into work and the main road to the Falls was closed so we came up with a new plan to hang out with Adriana in a different area.

10:08 - We leave the house and meet Adriana over at the Stone Arch Bridge at about 10:20. She shows up moments after we park.

We put Riley in the stroller and she is ready to go. She demonstrates this by repeatedly saying "let's go!" while we are trying to pay for our parking. No pressure, kid.

As we walk by the old Pillsbury A Building, Riley points out the A on the side of the building and then says "where's B?" Luckily, a building a couple down has a 'B' on it so she is satisfied.

We have a nice walk and, as expected, Riley loves looking at the river and the falls. The water was quite low so I would love to bring her back when the falls have more oomph to them.

View towards the 35W bridge

View towards the falls and the 3rd Avenue bridge

The Guthrie Theater

The Guthrie had these cool, spooky images on the outside. If you are ever in Minneapolis I'd recommend checking out this building and the surrounding area. There was a farmer's market going on next to it and the Mill City Museum is right down the road. We were going to go in, but decided to skip it this time. Those kids in the window got a kick when Jesse waved at them. 

Oddly, Riley stayed in the stroller much of the time. Usually, she is begging to get out and run around. Above, Jesse and Riley are headed back over the Stone Arch Bridge - the best picture I got of it sadly. The Stone Arch Bridge was once a railroad bridge that was converted into a walking/biking bridge. It's a hot spot for wedding, family, and high school pictures. In fact, the bridge and surrounding area was peppered with photographers. I've never seen so many around there before.

After our walk we stopped at the Aster Cafe for lunch. Turns out our waitress was an old friend of a friend that I haven't seen in years.

Adriana and myself

12:37 - We head home, Riley eats lunch (because she won't eat any food at the restaurant besides the banana we brought with), we read some books and she is down for a nap around 1:30.

Scrambled eggs and orange slices

1:40 - I write some of this post, surf the web, and sort of have plans to tackle other things, but get distracted by some online things. I make a picture for fun and then make a new header for the blog. While I'm at it I post a new profile and header picture on FaceBook. I'm tired and think of napping, but am still frustrated by the other day when I left work early to nap and ended up just lying in bed for two hours. Instead, I print out a couple more refinance papers I need to sign, and do a little cleaning up around the house.

3:35. I hear Riley awake upstairs and I hear voices outside. I look out the window and see my dad and his buddy, Denny, in my backyard. I run upstairs and grab Riley. We come back downstairs and are about to get our shoes on to go outside when my dad brings Denny inside to see our kitchen. Denny lives one block over in a similar styled house and he's impressed with how we've really opened up our house. Eventually we head back outside.

My dad and Denny went to my dad's farm and hauled back a bunch of scrap metal that my dad plans to take to the junkyard. My dad is retired, but has become a little bit of a scrapper. All his neighbors drop off their empty cans, and my dad has been known to strip down old cords to get to the copper. It keeps him busy and even though he probably doesn't need the money he loves that he can make cash out of stuff that many people throw away.

Mattress and recliner guts

Riley makes sure to give papa a hug before he and Denny take off. Before my dad leaves he asks Riley if he can take her playhouse home with him. She does not like this idea at all and tells him "my playhouse stays here!"

Playhouse all painted. Can't wait to plant flowers in the window box in the spring.

As they are leaving Denny gives Riley a dried corn on the cob and she repeatedly asks to go cook the 'pop corn' in the house. She doesn't understand that this isn't the type of corn you can eat. I try to get her to cook it in her play kitchen in the playhouse, but she seems offended by this suggestion.

After Denny and my dad leave, Riley and I help Jesse pick up leaves in the yard. Usually Riley loves helping with this task, but she doesn't last long because she's still thinking about that corn cob. She has just enough fun throwing leaves around for me to capture it on camera.

She's soon talking about going inside again. What the heck? This kid loves the outdoors, but can't get her mind off cooking that corn up inside. We distract her with sidewalk chalk and she seems to forget about the corn for the moment.

Later she finds the corn and throws it in her playhouse. A number of the kernels come out and she becomes determined to get them back on the cob. I sense an impending freak out because I know that without glue or magic the kernels will not stay. Thankfully, I am able to distract her enough to go inside to get a snack.

4:30 - We head inside and grab a quick snack and head out to Target. We need a few food items, but both Riley and I need socks. Mine are just worn, but her need is because her feet have grown 3 sizes over the summer. While at Target Jesse goes to tackle the food list while Riley and I get distracted in other areas after getting socks. She helps me carry a sports bra I find on clearance.

I have no idea what happened to the hanger it was on, but when I turned around I found she had attempted to put it on. So yeah, we walked around Target like this.

5:30 - We're home and making dinner. Riley recently discovered pop corn so we picked some up for her since she was so obsessed with the corn cob earlier (which she often calls popcorn). She has to eat her dinner first and does a pretty good job of eating her brown rice, green beans, and blueberries and then eating some of my lettuce from my chicken lettuce wraps.

As you can see I also picked up a sleep aid at Target. Hopefully, it works. 

6:10 - Riley sits down to watch some more Toy Story 3. She's watched quite a bit of it today, but we let her because it's new for her. Plus, Jesse is still battling a cold and I'm sleep deprived so our parenting skills are likely lacking today.

I have a lot of digestive issues so I can't eat popcorn. I haven't touched the stuff in years, but I grew up with either having popcorn or a bowl of vanilla ice cream before bed every night. I decide to have a couple pieces of popcorn which turns into a couple handfuls. So good! Oh popcorn, I miss you so, but I know I need to watch myself (and have no issues with it this night which leads me to eat a little more the next night - this could be a slippery slope).

6:40 - I start Riley's bath, and start to put away the new items bought at Target. I bring clothes down to laundry room and sort. I usually start laundry on Saturday, but just never got to it. Oh well, there's always Sunday. I clean the cat litter and start the dishwasher.

7:05 - I realize what time it is. We are usually up in Riley's room by now reading books. I give her a quick bath and as usual procedure Jesse carries Riley upstairs while I hide around corners.

We read two books and she's in bed by 7:40, just slightly past her bedtime.

One of our favorite books to read: There's No Place Like Space.

7:41 - I head downstairs and write down a few things for this post, lest I forget. I decide that I really want wine tonight as Jesse and I are going to chill and watch a movie. We haven't been finding as much time to do this so I am really looking forward to it. I debate about the wine momentarily as I won't be able to take the sleep aid if I drink it and alcohol can go either way with me in the sleep department. I decide to take the risk. Recently, I asked Jesse to pick up a couple bottles of wine for me to have on hand. I'm not a huge drinker, but he informed me that I've been going through my wine faster lately so he just bought me a box. So thoughtful. At least it wasn't a jug.

8:10 - Jesse and I settle in to watch Safe with Jason Statham. Gee, that guy isn't typecast or anything. As expected it was a high action movie with a scene or two with him driving fast behind the wheel of a car. I rather liked it, but it's probably because I am a sucker for Statham. My husband sort of acts like he gets these movies for me, but I think he might be a sucker for Statham too.

9:37 - Movie is over. Wow, that was kind of a short one. Why can't more movies be this length. I usually don't watch them because I think they'll keep me up past my bedtime. Jesse and I watch a little bit of network TV, but the wine has done me good and I am tired. I shuffle upstairs and crash in bed by 10:08 (and sleep fairly well!).