#2

Perhaps you find it as sad as I that my orchids are dying. Alas. What went wrong?

Life is steady. We are going out of town this weekend and some padres of some our friends are going to stay in our house. House guests! What fun!

If only I had something worthwhile to post.

Next week I have orientation. 5 days of orientation. FIVE. Incredible. I will be working at night, but orientation is during the day - which of course inspires mother guilt at leaving Z. Ever since Matt took a million jobs I have tried to reign in my mind and reassure myself that each ______ (day, night alone, dinner by myself, bedtime routine gone solo, Saturday morning without him around,etc) does not actually matter that much. If I place too much importance on it - I feel depressed. And so it goes with mothering. 5 days - only one full day - away from Zoe will not mar her for eternity. Besides, I leave her in good hands.

In other news, I ran across this quote and I enjoy it:

"Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus. " - M.T. ♥"

Shall I...

act like I have a blog?

I have been wanting to challenge myself to a 30 day blog-a-thon. One post, every day for 30 days. I haven't committed yet. We'll see.

Lately I have been madly in love with my daily routine. Ever since school let out it has been easier to breathe, making it easier to do everything else in life. School has a funny way of never feeling finished when in session - no matter what you could be doing something - and so to be free of the fetters that bind me to large nursing textbooks makes me want to sing and dance and skip and run.

All of those I have been doing besides skipping. Singing with Zoe, dancing with Zoe (Louis Armstrong pandora station provides a perfect soundtrack for both of those activities) and running with Natalie! 2 girls, 2 babies and a job make for an interesting mix to try and schedule runs around. But the 6am run seems to be working and I love, love, love being on the

road that early. There is something about when the world is sleeping and you are awake.... I love it. Sign me up for the NOC shift.

So, routine. Here it is:

7am: wake up

feed, change, play with Z

9am: Z nap #1

9a-10:45a - sip coffee cup #1 over bible/jounral/prayer.

clean kitchen

sip coffee cup #2 while performing various household chores (cleaning, laundry, organizing, paying bills, etc)

10:45a-1:30p

feed, change, play with Z

meet with girls/women who I love, admire, want to engage in relationship with.

(aka take advantage of summer, no schoolness)

1:30p-2:00p

cat nap. meow.

2:00p-3:30p

more chores

3:30p-4:45p

try to fill in this awkward, boring, no good gap between when Z wakes up and Matt gets home. Usually involves walking Niko, walking anywhere, misc. nothingness.

try to clean kitchen again so Matt comes home to clean house - though sometimes impossible due to 9.5 month old on the move.

4:45p : MATT HOME

4:45p-6:00p

Feed, change, bathe Z

Cook something scumptous (sans meat) for dinner.

6:00p

Bedtime for Z routine: books, nurse, cuddle, tickle, rock, plop.

6:oop-10:00p

Wonderful whatever.

ta-da. A day in the life of Me.

Every day is such.

Truly.

Help my friend!!!

read their journey.

give to their future!!

Leigh and Felipe

our very own

Sir David Taylor...yea, he doesn't really know me, but I served coffee at his wedding - working the wedding of an author, yeah, I'm pretty much famous.

le sigh.

Is nursing school with a baby going to be impossible?

Rough day today...have to make up a skills demonstration on Monday. What a bummer.

In other news, Zoe is adorable and the love of my life!

free stuff!

I personally love free give aways on blogs, so check this one out!

Big Matt!

Week 2 of nursing school! We went to the hospital today to get acquainted and try to learn something. I'm not sure either really happened for me - but I did successfully

1. create a log-in/password for the computer charting system
2. retrace my steps from our floor back to my car

:) I have such a long way to go!

Zoe update: she can turn front to back and now back to front! What a champ!

Nursing school is a ton, ton of work - but I, so far, enjoy it so much more than my undergrad. For one - all of my classes relate to one another so I can focus my brain on one topic and take off. 2nd - I only go to class, or the hospital twice each week. The days are longer - but I get to stay home 5 days out of every week with my little love! This is most important. And then, when it is time to leave - it is sort of nice to get a little break from being home all day and then the 2nd day I get to think, "hey! tomorrow I don't have to leave Zoe!"

She is starting to sleep more at night and I'm already having independence/attachment issues. I am trying hard to check them - but for the past 6 months (actually, 15 months...) I have woken up at night to tend to something related to Zoe. Now she goes down around 7p and will stay asleep until 4a! I still wake up around 12 and 2 - just from habit. Parenting - what a trip!

Peace to you readers!

Nursing School Week 1

I feel full of anxiety. Which I hate. I just can't believe how much information they throw at you in nursing school - and because I take online classes (but have lab and clincial days twice a week) I haven't seen anyone face to face in almost a week!

I'm praying for peace - and an incredible way to memorize loads of information. Our first lab days are tomorrow... we'll see what happens.

Z can sit by herself and officially move from a sitting into a crawling position, although she makes no forward progress.

Last night she slept from 6:30p to 4:45a!!!!!!! No break in between... she probably only woke up because I wanted to check on her and her door is ridiculously loud. Incredible. She has never slept that long.

Off to study a bit while she morning sleeps and then get stuff together to run a few errands. What a boring post!

Beach Reach 2005

2005 folks... weren't even dating!!! (officially...Rusty said we couldn't start that week.)

distraction

I am blogging in an effort to take my mind off Z screaming her head off while I try to get her to take a nap. She cried for 30 minutes after which point I picked her up and rocked with her... she wants to play instead of sleep...even though she NEEDS to sleep. So, since she still knew my intent (that girl is s-m-a-r-t) she continued to fuss while I tried to rock her. Every now and then she would look up at me and smile and see if I was willing to play...when she realized that was not on my agenda she would go back to screaming.

So while screaming, I rocked her squirming, fussy body and tried to reason with her. "Zoe," I said, "you have to take a nap sweetheart. After you sleep, you can get up and we can play. We can have tons of fun when you are done taking your nap. Sleep is important, and you need to rest first. I take naps... everyone takes naps [this may or may not be true...]. Just rest for a little while and then we can play."

So... I'm pretty sure our little talk paid off because she hasn't fussed for 7 whole minutes! Could she (dare I say it?) be asleep?!?

Note to self: never again take a 5 month old on a Christmas family world tour. You will pay-pay-pay for it in the end.