Back to Monday

[mommyatty]

Ugh. I’m tired and not ready to be back from vacation.

[mommyatty]

I need to start exercising and I’m trying to figure out how to make it work/get myself motivated. I know I feel better with a ton less anxiety when I exercise. Last week on vacation I felt great because I was getting good exercise (walking, beach walking, swimming in the ocean) every day. But here I am, the first day back at work, and I already failed to go to the gym when I got up. Why is this so hard?

[twinmomma]

My vacation week was insane. In good ways and not.

SIL and her family arrived and we did an amusement park day which was a big hit. Then we headed to New York to visit FIL's grave with the entire family and spend the night there. Had a ton of fun at a great AirBNB. Went from there to my parents' place with everyone for a few days at the lake to celebrate 4th of July. All super fun and the kids did great with all the travel! Got home and discovered that the cold we were all coming down with is in fact covid. So SIL and her family didn't leave and are here for another week until everyone's illness clears up. Thankfully no one is super sick, it's just some nasty head cold symptoms. My PCP put me on Paxlovid given my history of PE and long covid from last time but no one else needs it. The bad paxlovid mouth taste is real and horrible. I'm crushing cinnamon candies to get rid of it since I found that tip online and it does help. And the pro to being stuck with chef SIL and chef DH here means we're just eating a million delicious things during this quarantine because they're bored.

And in the midst of all this, we got the news that one of our close friends, the dad of DDs BFF, lost his battle to cancer and passed away. He started hospice care about a month ago, so we knew it was only a matter of time. But that's been a real gut punch to deal with. The girls are devastated. Our family and this other family have been inseparable since daycare days so it's a big loss for all of us to deal with.

[librarychica]

twinmomma, I’m so sorry for your loss.

Add me to the tired list. I don’t have any excuses I just got up this morning and am just not feeling it.

It was a good weekend overall. DD2 tried ice hockey and loved it, DD1 went to a park Saturday and swimming at a friend’s house, then had a friend over Sunday afternoon. DD2 also had a friend over Sunday afternoon. Just kids and teens everywhere. H and I went out to dinner and also cleaned out the closet. A good weekend.

I’m hoping for a productive but quiet work week. H’s grandfather is evidently making an unexpected trip to the state so his parents want H and the girls to visit? Idk if that’ll happen since it’s two hours away with zero notice, but we shall see. If he stays through the weekend, sure, but we have work and the kids have day camp this week. Somehow we also don’t know whether he’s going to stay through the weekend? Communication with that side of the family is tricky sometimes.

[librarychica]

DD1 has been at camp all of an hour and she’s already texting that “there’s hardly anyone here and no one’s talking to anyone.” Day camp is a hard sell to middle schoolers.

We reminded her to keep an open mind. Hopefully the day improves.

[rere]

We were on the go from Thursday to Saturday from the lake to the pool to a barbecue cook off to fireworks show. Then ds called last night and we talked till 930, which put me past bedtime.

Dds college roommate came in and she came with us. She's not from our area, so she had fun following us to all the shenanigans.

[waverly]

Wednesday night we went to the professional soccer game and there were fireworks afterwards. Thursday we just recovered from being out late. Friday, I took DD shopping for shorts, bathing suit and toiletries for sleepaway camp. Sunday was another relaxing day. DD decided to organize stuff, and I gave her an extra $20 on top of her allowance for organizing and cleaning the attic. It is a finished attic with regular stairs, heating/ AC, and furnished, so no I didn't stuff her in the overly hot unfinished attic. I don't know I thought about making plans with friends, but we were all so tired from fireworks being shot off until 2 am. Saturday I worked and it was extremely busy. It's tough when I want to make plans but am too tired or talk myself out of it.

[186momx]

I'm having a crappy work Monday. A client that always waits for the last minute had questions about payroll and send 10 emails and multiple phone calls starting at 5pm Wednesday through Thursday. We close at 3 and no we don't work from home, forward emails or phone calls to our personal numbers, and it was the holiday. I kind of lost it this morning and resent what I had sent that they just couldn't find at 8:10 this morning. This is a newer client whose old person work 100% from home.

Weekend was quiet and I enjoyed myself. DH was a pill most of the weekend and our friends noticed. A wildfire broke out about 10 minutes from our friends house but was being driven the opposite direction. I was pretty cool to watch the airplanes dump retarden and fight the fire Saturday afternoon/evening but that couldn't start until they closed the airport next to the fire. It was 10% contained and 458 acres when we left on Sunday but there wasn't visible smoke anymore so we all guessed it is down to mop up. The air support is located at the airport where the fire broke out at.

[twinmomma]

Well, to top things off, DH discovered a dead mouse in the ceiling in my office. Thanks to covid, I cannot smell anything so had no idea what he was complaining about. So I guess that's the bright side?

[polecat8]

On Saturday, we had our annual birthdays celebration for DH, DD, and me since all of our bdays are in July. Our families came over and we had an epic water balloon battle.
Sunday was a lazy day since we have all been running on empty the last week and some of us (DS1, DS2, and me) had some low level virus that caused a minor fever and fatigue. I've been working on and off since 7/4 to finish a work project and finally got it done yesterday. I started training on my new side gig at a local hospital as a biomed tech and it has been awesome. I can't wait to get on the floor to see the heart devices in action. It is going to be a very casual job (1 6-hour shift per week) that I am doing to help people (definitely not for the money).
Today is my birthday and I'm working and then heading to taekwondo (one of my happy places). I kind of wish I took the day off because DH and the kids got me the new Artemis launch system Lego set. I am such a NASA nerd and Lego geek that I desperately want to start building it now!

[sdlaura]

I'm in your boat of not ready to be back from vacation mommyatty . Happy birthday polecat8!

twinmomma , I'm so sorry for your and your daughters' and your friends' loss. My friend I was with last Saturday-Wednesday also has COVID now after the second part of their trip.

We had a really nice time in Washington state, in the San Juan Islands and Olympic National Park. We had my favorite July 4th since having kids. We went to one of the park visitor centers and got the junior ranger books, then drove 30 minutes into the park (more with a traffic slowdown, but it's funny how it was annoying at the time but now I've basically forgotten about that bad part). We did a hike to a waterfall, then had lunch at a really charming national park lodge, then the kids wanted to swim in the lake we were on (Lake Crescent). We didn't bring swimsuits so stripped them down to what made sense (like DS3 in his underwear, DD in her shorts and sports bra), and grabbed loaner lifejackets from the sign by the lake, and then the kids had the best time jumping off a pier into the lake. Then we went back to our rental house, went to the town parade, back to the house for dinner and smores, and then went back down the street to watch the town fireworks. 

This week is my last full week in town and last couple days in the office in person for a long time. Next week I go to a conference in Park City and then the following week we go to the east coast for my parent's 50th anniversary trip. 

[186momx]

sdlaura, do your kids find it hard to be up so late for the 4th of July fireworks when you come to the PNW?
polecat8, Happy Birthday!
twinmomma, I'm sorry for your and the girls loss. I can't imagine what their friends are feeling.


We were all tired last night and crashed before 8:30. The only downside to this was the dog was up at 1am needing to pee. All weekend we were up close to 11pm and the dog slept until 6ish because the dogs got kicked out at 10:30ish to bedtime potty.

[sdlaura]

186momx I find it annoying that it doesn't get dark enough for fireworks until after 10 pm in the PNW, but the kids are fine with it

We did go to Seattle on July 4th 5 years ago and got a room on Lake Union specifically to watch the fireworks from our room and then didn't make it that late. But our kids were younger then and it was a long travel day.

I really like to watch fireworks and go to parades but DH hates traffic and parking stuff. So that's a big reason we try to go stay somewhere every July 4th where we can see fireworks from or very close to our rental or hotel. It makes it nice to be able to go to bed right after vs. walking far to a car and driving home.

[campermom]

librarychica I feel that. My 8th grader hates her summer day camps. She has an AM and a PM (sketching and drawing and babysitting cert) that she picked out from a list but she only wants to do things I can’t give her. Like even when we go to the pool she’s moody bc the right people aren’t there.

Big kid is a camp counselor, I thought the am only would be best and he is appreciative of that. This will be his last year.

Little one has a 1:1 teenager volunteer and had a slight issue w someone known at school today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Back to work for 2 weeks then off again till we return. Actually just 1.5 weeks bc I’m having PRK on one eye next week.

[campermom]

Happy bday polecat8!

twinmomma, I’m sorry for your loss.

mommyatty, I am right there with you on this. I’m blaming the heat on a lot of it-it’s really zapping my energy.

[mae0111]

We are on vacation this week! We are at our beach house, and it just so happened that 2 of Dd2’s closest friends from town/soccer are here vacationing with their families as well! I love their families, so we all got together today for a beach day. We had a blast - paddle boarding, crabbing, all kinds of games like spike ball, corn hole, and Kan Jam. I’m wiped!

We’ve been here since before the 4th and I think DD2 was getting sick of us. I’m glad she saw her friends.

Tomorrow evening we got a permit to have a fire on the beach, so much of the same group we hung out with today will come over for that. It should be a lot of fun! The rest of the week is up in the air. A school friend of DD2 is also vacationing nearby, so hoping to meet up with them. I also have a friend visiting his parents about 45 mins away, so I’d like to work out a plan with him as well. And my parents might come for a day. We will see!

twinmomma - I’m sorry for your loss, and I hope you’re on the mend soon!!

And I agree on the summer camps. DD1’s does well catering to the teens, but I can see that DD2 is already rolling her eyes at camps.

[k3am]

Starting to feel unemployed. A little. Last week my first week home, but it was a holiday week and DH worked from home, so it didn't feel much different. Not to mention that the kids are still going to camp (they were already paid for), so it just feels like vacation.

I can not explain how nice it feels. I've been deep cleaning and purging like I never have because I haven't had the time. I literally found size 3T clothes still hanging in DS's closet because I just didn't have time to get to it.

I'm sure the feel good aspect of it won't last forever. I'm a creature of habit and routine, so I've still been getting up at 5:30 so I have time to workout and go for a walk before I need to get the kids to camp since I know it will be too hot to do it later. I've made all the to do lists.

I'm giving myself another week or two before I start making plans for the future. DD keeps telling me to take a day and do something fun just for me, which doesn't really work with camp and skating schedules. But I do have a weekend with my sister scheduled coming up, which I am *SO* looking forward to.

On a work note, old boss texted that the likelihood of him hitting an obscene goal they gave him for the next 6 months is actually looking pretty good. (Somehow they said he needed to do 6x what the subsidiary's top performer did in the prior 6 months) I'm happy for him, but still think that's absurd.

[campermom]

k3am Im glad you have some peace in this in-between time. Productivity feels like such a good reset. Have fun on your sisters weekend.