Just another week

I really have to start getting myself out of bed earlier in the morning.  Once both kids are awake, I literally have NO time for myself until Shiphrah goes down for her nap.  That means it's incredibly hard to get anything done: eating, getting dressed, everything is a challenge with Shiph following my every move.  The only reason she lets me [sometimes] get on the computer is because I'm sitting in one place.  All that to say, I'm hungry!

A few nights ago I thought Kirk was making progress towards sleeping through the night.  He was sleeping between 4 and 6 hour stretches at least once each night and twice he didn't wake up between the time we went to bed (11ish) and when Avery's alarm went off the next morning (4ish).  But then he decided the change directions and the last two nights he has woken up every 2 to 3 hours.  So by the time 7 or 8-o-clock rolls around, I really don't feel like getting up.

This week is a short workweek for Avery.  He starts his second phase of field training this weekend, so he starts a new shift with new days off.  This week he had Monday and Tuesday off and with his next FTO he will get Fridays and Saturdays off.  So, since the work week starts on Saturdays, he only has to work Wednesday through Friday this week and then he'll start again at 10 pm on Sunday night.  (He'll be on dogwatch or "C" shift, which is 10 pm-6 am.)

We had a nice long "weekend."  Sunday was full of surprises too: my mom called me that morning to let me know she and my dad were coming down to SA to go to church with me and then hang out for a few hours.  Then, Avery came into church twenty minutes into the service!  A couple of weeks back he and his FTO had apprehended a burglary suspect and each received a half day off as a reward (proactive police work is highly encouraged and rewarded).  So he decided to take it on Sunday and show up to surprise me.  Yay!  So I had my hubby and my parents all surprise me that day...so fun!!

Monday we went out boating with friends from church and Avery had a blast wakeboarding.  (The weather wasn't quite warm enough for me to try...since I'd be spending most of the time in the water, it at least had to be comfortable to make it worth it. ) Tuesday was full of errands...Shiphrah spent the first half of the day with her Uncle Chris while Avery, Kirk, and I went to the eye doctor for checkups (my eyes are finally getting to the point where I need glasses some of the time) and then to our second financial planning meeting.  We thought we'd have time for lunch in between appointments, but the eye doctor took so long that we had to go straight from one to the other.  So we were STARVING by the time we finally got to eat (2:30ish).

Other than that it's been a pretty typical week.  Oh, I did start running/walking on my new treadmill (mostly walking)!  Avery says I need to go at it for at least 20 minutes to really burn fat, so that's what I've been doing.  Yesterday I went for 20 minutes/1.2 miles.  It felt really good while I was doing it, but afterwards I had a nasty headache (I think I was dehydrated).  Hopefully today I can drink enough water before I start.

Well, Shiphrah is getting sleepy so I need to try and get some lunch into her before she crashes.  Yesterday I tried putting her down for her nap around noon but she wouldn't fall asleep for a while so I figured today I'd try waiting until after lunch.  Of course, now she's acting like she could fall asleep standing up.  Oh well, maybe someday I'll figure her out!

Some bullets

• It's far too early in the morning to be awake, but such is life.  I popped awake when Avery's alarm went off this morning and Kirk needed to eat not long after that.  And then I couldn't doze back off so I decided to stay awake.  Hopefully I won't regret that decision later today.
  
• I just realized (about 10 minutes ago) that my mother's birthday was yesterday.  I am such a bad daughter.
  
• Last night Avery told me that a lot of police officers don't wear seat belts in their squad cars.  Oh the irony.
  
• This morning a lady from an early childhood intervention center is coming to test my kiddos.  Supposedly it's "required" since we were investigated by CPS.  I don't see how they could require it, since the case is already closed, but whatever, I'm not paying for it.
  
• I desperately needed to get out of the house yesterday so we loaded up the kids and went to Lowe's.  (Fun, right?)  Avery bought fertilizer for the yard and a spreader.  Then we ate dinner at Taco Cabana.  Shiph was being bratty and wouldn't stay sitting in her high chair.  Then we "window shopped" at the Academy Sporting Goods store across the parking lot from the TC.  Shiph quickly became intolerable (she had taken only one short nap that day) and threw about a bazillion fits (including one where she knocked a lens out of Avery's glasses) before we went home.
  
• The "window shopping" turned into real shopping when Avery decided to spend his graduation money on a cheap weight bench for him and a treadmill for me!!!!  I love that man.  I think he secretly wants to see me all fit and in shape, but he said that wasn't the reason.  But now I have no excuse not to work out plus I'll feel super-guilty if I don't since he spent his fun money on me.
  
• I also got my cool new phone via UPS last night!  It's a purple LG Lotus from Sprint.  My contract was up so I got it for $50 after a 2-year contract renewal and a mail-in rebate.  It's really way too fancy and has too many gadgets (I'll never use the music or web functions) but it was so pretty I couldn't resist!  I'll get it activated tonight.
  
• We're changing gears with Shiphrah's discipline.  I realized yesterday that spanking her just wasn't working at this point.  (I was having to spank her so hard it left a red mark for several minutes and she still wasn't really reacting.)  Distraction doesn't work with her either (unless I have something super-cool to wave in front of her), so we're going to resort to just removing her from things she shouldn't be getting into.  I figure no matter how stubborn she is, if I pull her away from the stove twenty times in a row eventually she'll get tired of trying to turn it on, right?  I hope so.  I'm really at my wit's end with her.  She's an angel as long as she's being actively entertained every second of the day.  But obviously, since I have another baby and a house to keep up with, that's not physically possible.  So she gets into anything and everything.  Her toys don't interest her anymore (unless I'm playing with her) and movies only occupy her for 20 minutes at a time.
  
• I saved a good amount of money at HEB the other day.  I'll blog about it tonight or tomorrow after I've made my Target run.  I'm skipping CVS this week because they weren't running any amazing deals that I was excited about.  But Target should be productive.  They're running a deal where if you buy five Special K products (on sale for $2.69 each) you get a $5 gift card.  So I printed out five $1/1 coupons and should be able to get them for 69 cents each after the gift card.  They've also got good deals running on apples, waffles, and a few other things.
  
• I need a bigger pantry.  The whole point of this couponing thing is to keep your pantry stocked with items when you find good deals on them.  But I really only have two pantry shelves to work with.  The bottom half is the laundry hamper and I can't reach the top shelf (darn short genes!).  Avery says he can install shelves in the bottom section if I want, but then where would we put the dirty laundry?
  
• Okay, enough dawdling.  On to breakfast before the little man needs to eat again.