Tuesday Monday?

[mae0111]

How is everyone?  How were the holidays? What's up this week?

[mae0111]

My kids are still on vacation, so I'm doing a little work this morning before I take DD2 to meet her friends at a trampoline place. DD1 is going shopping with her friends so I'll have to race to pick them up later before both kids have zoom therapy, then DD2 goes to basketball practice.

Back to school tomorrow. We have all of the regular school/after school things this week. My main client's holiday party is Thursday evening, and I just... can't do it. It starts at 4, which means leaving at 330 to get there - right in the middle of picking up the kids/dog and getting everyone where they need to go. DH is stressed that December was a lower revenue month and has packed himself with meetings this week. My heart is... not broken. I'm kind of holiday'ed out.

DH started with our "healthy new year" yesterday. Dry January, moving more, eating better. I made some small homemade calzones for dinner yesterday - only 450 calories and pretty filling. My goal is to just eat better, get stronger, hopefully lose some inches, and focus a bit less on the scale. Last time we did this together, I was eating like 1000 calories a day and working out 1.5-2hrs a day. It was obviously not sustainable. I mostly just feel like a slug and I want to feel better. So over the weekend we took the dog for some long walks, and we both hit our home gym this morning. I hope we can stick to it!

[mommyatty]

We were sick pretty much the entire holiday. But hear me out… I think that actually made it much better. We all just relaxed and felt zero need to go anywhere or do anything. And that felt like exactly what we all needed.

I have travel later this week for work. It’s only one night, but oof. Not great timing. DS goes back to school tomorrow and DD goes back Thursday. So on the first morning everyone goes back, I’ll be at an airport. Then next week I’ll be gone most of the week. I think. I need to check this morning so I can book flights.

[twinmomma]

I am ready to get back into the normal routine. I didn't take any official time off last week, but it was painfully slow working from home. I'm ready to have colleagues back so I can actually move a bunch of projects forward. And I'm ready to get the kids back tomorrow. Even though we had them for Christmas itself, then they all left for the rest of the break, so it's felt like an exceptionally long stretch without them. We got the front-loaded holiday craziness part of break, their other parents got the chill and relax with no school part of break.

The no kid time did allow us to do a lot of clean up and recovery around the house. All the decorations are put away so that when the cleaners come on Thursday they can work with a fresh slate. We have new dressers being delivered for everyone on Friday, so I tackled the girls' room and DH tackled DS's to purge and clean and make sure it's ready for the new furniture. I'm so excited! It's going to feel like such a good fresh start to have real furniture that matches in everyone's rooms! I'm hoping it will help us all feel more in control and organized. Our stuff is so piece-mealed and not functional right now.

[librarychica]

I am at my desk trying to remember what exactly it is that they pay me to do here.

The holidays were a mix. I took the week off, our old cat died (sad), we went to the beach for 2 days (fun), but because H’s family all lives there it became more of a grandparent visit than the family of 4 time I’d hoped for (meh). Overall, it was fine. I am not as rested as I had hoped. Now it is somehow January.

[xctsclrx]

I need a vacation from my vacation. December was a hard month for us.

Started out the first week visiting DH in TX. Then the next week I was in DC. And then my kids got the flu and then my grandfather passed away so I spent the week with my family in TN, then Christmas then the day after Christmas we went on vacation with DHs family but no DH. And then finally home yesterday

Oh and I got the flu in there somewhere too.

And DD threw up last night

[waverly]

I am so glad Christmas is over with! I was ready to take down the decorations but DD wanted to keep them up, so I will take them down later this week.

We are out of town for 1 more night. Just a little getaway. Last night was fun- we went to a basketball game.

After we get back, I’m off for a few more days and I stacked a bunch of appointments. Not very fun or exciting but ticking off more stuff on the never ending to do list.

[186momx]

This week is going to be rough. I tried working yesterday and it didn't go well. My payroll software upgraded to a new version and I'm having major issues updating the current year tax rates for Oregon. I'm also pretty sure they were closed 12/29-1/2 as they haven't answered the phone the dozen times I've called and the voicemail box is full. I've also put in 3 email requests for tech support. At this point I can't process any payroll for 2024 and I'm freaking out.

DD goes back to school tomorrow. She came to work today and is planning to clean our office and help with tax organizers. Practices go back to normal today. DH got the day off but only told me on Sunday after I had everything planned out so I left the unhappy dog home.

NYE was firework central and none of us slept great. Somehow DD is the last person standing on the sick front. Remember how I was pissed that my mom didn't disclose until after we had been over for a couple hours that she was puking on x-mas eve. Well both my sibs have contracted her sickness and are pissed and my dad looked like crap last Thursday when I saw him.

[rere]

Dh thankfully got bored Sunday and took down the decorations as soon as Dd left for her trip, and avoided her wrath of taking down decorations. So my house is back to normal and mostly clean.

I had a great break of being somewhat lazy. It's very rare that I get a day in sweats and watching movies or reading books and I had several days over the break.

Now I am back in the office and it's a shitshow. The painters got sick over the holidays, so they are behind schedule. So my stuff is in boxes in the conference room. My computer stuff is in my old office, but not hooked up. My new office was occupied by a hoarder and there is a huge stain where her chair is. I'm going to have to get cleaning to shampoo it and probably still buy a rug. So I'm going home to work until this is sorted out.

[erbear]

I really don't want to go back to work tomorrow. It's an easy day (3 classes -- one of my own and 2 team-taught so I'm just support) but my schedule changed bc a teacher left and I have a bunch of 1st period classes, which I haven't had this year. I'm rarely ready to jump right in when I get to school.

[supertrooper1]

We had a decent holiday weekend. Saturday, Beau woke up not feeling well with a fever and headache, so I thought our NYE plans were doomed. We relaxed most of the day and I went to the gym by myself and then grocery shopping. But then he woke up Sunday feeling better, so we watched football and then rang in the new year at the casino's party. Yesterday was another lazy day and we watched UW win a nail biter game at the Sugar Bowl. I couldn't sleep last night after being up late the previous 3 nights and sleeping in, so I'm dragging at work today, plus covering for my coworker while she recovers from the 4th round of chemo.

[sdlaura]

We had fun on our new years trip to the desert. The kids did a lot of swimming, we hiked, and went roller skating. DH the introverted homebody was even happy to "host" the NYE party in our hotel room. Our room backed up to a pool, so I hung out with the 8 kids while they did night swimming, then everyone came in for the 9 pm ball drop. Everyone stayed till probably 10 pm and then we wrapped up. There were of course some hiccups like there always are with group travel - not agreeing on where we wanted to eat, kids running ahead and us all getting separated while hiking, etc., but overall we travel really well with these two other families. It helps to all have our own hotel rooms. We all go on our annual ski trip for Presidents Day weekend together and share a house, so that's where we end up dealing with different sleep schedules and kids fighting over who gets which room.

My kids are all still off this week. The older two are doing a YMCA camp that takes them to different fun places everyday - today they're ice skating and tomorrow is laser tag. The two little boys are at a farm camp that is a first time camp for us, but they're there because the camp will take 3-year-olds. I hope they have fun. I'm in the office today and tomorrow and then really hoping everyone stays healthy and in camp on Thursday and Friday so I can WFH and catch up on some house stuff. We have friends from Boulder visiting this weekend with their 2 kids - they'll stay at my parents' condo and we'll spend some time together. Next week I have work travel and then we get our puppy! So the year is starting off busy as usual

[dglvrk2]

librarychica, I'm so sorry about your cat. Even when they're old, the leave us too soon.

We returned from our trip to the Pacific Northwest on Sunday, in time for NYE. Our trip was, in general, really good! We had a nice, relaxing Christmas. We spent time in Portland and Seattle. We also took the Ds night skiing outside of Seattle with some of their second cousins (amazing kids!), which they loved.

I think I've mentioned this before....I feel like I have to be the middle woman between the Ds and their paternal grandparents sometimes. On this trip, the friction between DD1 and my MIL was clear DD1 can be a sulky preteen. I'd like her to make an effort to be more congenial around her grandparents. That being said, my in-laws are not, by nature, sweet, nurturing people. They're very good people, but don't have much charisma. They're also quite critical and have overstepped their boundaries in the past, being quite vocal when the Ds have misbehaved. I think the combination of DD1's age and years of a sometimes tricky relationship is coming to a head. FIL tries as well as he can, but relating to the Ds does not come naturally to him. I love them, but this is tough

The D's have this week off. DD1 has music to practice and other ways to occupy herself. DD2 wants to be entertained. I'm working from home, just finishing up a few things. We are having a late Christmas celebration with my sister and her family tomorrow night. I think we will have a good balance of enjoying our downtime but having enough that the Ds will be ready to return to school and activities next week.

[twinmomma]

DS traveled with his mom as usual last week. They got back yesterday and she's positive for RSV and we're 90% sure that DS has it too. His cough and symptoms have gotten progressively worse overnight. They're taking him to an appointment to get tested this afternoon and confirm what to do.

I know it's irrational, but I just get so mad that he comes home from all her travel sick so often. In addition to all the extra germs and exposure, he gets run ragged with late night flights and tons of plans while he's with her. I'm sure his body is just exhausted and more susceptible.

[k3am]

I think I had the flu. And then the flu became a sinus infection. And my provider doesn't believe in antibiotics in the first 10 days. I spent FOUR days in bed. DH told me it's the worst man cold he's ever seen.

I was out last week for vacation. But still had to work, despite not having a laptop with me (purposely left behind). I had a few days that I let people know I was going to be totally incommunicado (at an amusement park) - where I literally watched someone who had no idea what he was doing do something completely wrong, not rely on any of the resources I provided him to reach out to, and totally do something wrong, but thanks to sheer luck, it turned out okay. The rest of my work sat on a backburner. "But take more vacation time!" is the message we get from HR. I am struggling to get through, but man, this is the pits. I would love to have at least one more sick day to try to recover and get my house back in order. I haven't done ANYTHING since before Christmas and my family are slobs.

[186momx]

Well I've yelled at my computer numerous times so far this morning. I finally got through to my payroll software and am on the call back list for tech support. The lady said the list was long and hopefully someone would be back to me in 48hrs. My head is pounding and I still have 5 more hours of work.