Busy

I have been so busy lately that some days I don't even check my email (which I used to do every day). I've been working overtime since the middle of May (trying to get our department caught up) and have been working an average of 10 - 15 hours overtime per week (one time was closer to 20).  During this time I was also planning my step son's surprise 11th birthday party.

The surprise birthday party was on Friday (July 11th) at our Stake's Recreation Center (which was basically a gym, kitchen, bathrooms inside the building and a covered pavilion outside with a shed and fenced in "yard" with plenty of space for kids to run around. We had the party indoors and just brought some of the tables inside. We had the 6 guest show up and I let Steve know so he could bring Hunter. When they showed up we shouted "Surprise!" and Hunter was surprised/shocked/scared. When I explained to him that it was his birthday party he looked less shocked. It was only 2 months after his birthday so I can understand his confusion.

We started on the first activity while Steve went to get pizza (Little Caesars - the best for the price) and the first thing was painting their own chalkboards. Steve and I picked pieces of wood from The Wood Connection and made our own chalkboard paint (thanks Pintrest!). The reason we made our own chalkboard paint was so that they could pick their own color. We had red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, and lavendar (I tried to get the kids favorite colors but I was only given the colors of my niece, Violet, and so I got the green (Shamrock) and turquoise for her and the lavendar for Hunter and the rest were just rainbow colors.

After painting their chalkboards we ate lunch and had cup cakes and ice cream, let Hunter open his gifts and let the kids run around the gym until we were ready for the next craft.

The next (and last) craft was to design their own t-shirts. We bought different colored t-shirts from Michaels (on sale for $3.33 when you bought 3 - so basically 3 for $9.99) and Clorox Bleach Pens. We put plastic bags inside the shirts (so the bleach wouldn't go to the back of the shirt too) and let them use the bleach pens to design/decorate their own shirts. The darker the color of shirt the better the outcome, the lighter the shirt the less you noticed the design. We let the shirts sit for at least 10 minutes then I rinsed them out in the sink (and there was no issue with the bleach smearing and ruining the design) and then put the shirts in plastic bags with instructions to the parent's (or kids) that the shirts needed to be washed immediately when they got home.

The party turned out great! The kids had fun, the adults had fun, I had my sister and niece help me set up and my husband and sister cleaned up while I was rinsing the bleach off of the shirts. We were there (Missee, Violet and I who got there first) for a little over 3 hours and it was fun.

That night I felt physically, emotionally, and mentally drained. Partly because the party I had been planning since April (before Hunter's actual birthday) was done and partially because I had worked 47 hours that week from Monday through Thursday. When we went home I crashed and have been relaxing the rest of the weekend.

It's so nice to finally have a three day weekend that I am not working through!

Long week, even though I only worked four days

This has been a crazy week at work. One of my co-workers was out Tuesday through Thursday and another had today off and all next week too. With only 4 people in our department having one of us gone is a huge thing. So much stuff going on at work, we are sooo busy. I still love my job and my co-workers.
Tonight my sister is coming over for a girls night. We haven't had a girls night with just the two of us for soo long (if we ever have had one - I can't remember). I love my family (including my in-laws).

Hooray!

Steve is finally home! He was discharged from the Residential Unit on Monday. This has been a hard time for both of us but I know that our marriage will just get stronger from this experience.

Before Steve went into the hospital in December we both decided to pray about if we needed to move closer to my work (South Jordan) or stay were we are. Steve said that his answer was to stay in Ogden. I was torn, I love our place and our neighborhood but didn't like being away from my husband for 15 hours a day Monday through Friday. I had been praying about it but no answer. When Steve was admitted to the hospital I realized that I had gotten my answer. Because of my long commute everyday I wasn't home long enough after work before I had to go to bed. Because of the little amount of time that Steve and I spent together during the week I didn't notice the signs. If I would have been home longer every night I could have possibly figured out what was going on and stopped it before it went as far as hospitalization. It is one of my greatest regrets. I feel that I am a horrible wife for not noticing what was going on with him (lack of sleep, aggitation, oneriness) .

I have an appointment with a counselor on Monday after work. Hopefully it will help with my guilt and depression.

Family to Family class

Tonight's Family-to-Family class was awesome, even though the class was really small. I really enjoy the class. It's a nice place to vent and talk about my feelings with Steve's mental illness and at the same time learn more about mental illness in general. It was a lot of fun.

I'm actually getting caught up at work. It has been almost 2 years since I felt like I was caught up at work. With so many people appealing lately, we have been bogged down with appeal cases. I am really enjoying work right now since I am feeling accomplished when I leave. I used to feel that I was just shuffling work around and not really getting anything done.

Missee and I started watching Charmed together. I have all 8 seasons on DVD and so far we have watched all of the first season and only have a few episodes left in the second season. It's so much fun to watch the show with Prue and to see how much Piper and Phoebe have changed since the beginning of the series. Phoebe had changed so much since the first season. She was always dressing frumpy and not cute. Luckily she changed her style and started wearing much cuter outfits later on. I LOVE CHARMED!!!!! That is still my favorite tv show of all time. I think I started liking the show much better after Prue left. I'm not a big fan of Shannen Doherty so Prue was my least favorite character. If you live near me and haven't seen Charmed, or you also love the show Charmed I can always bring my DVD's of the show over.........I love watching the episodes, even if I've seen them multiple times.

Can't think of a title right now

I've been working way too much lately. I miss being home with my husband and our two kitties. I've been working all the overtime I can handle, which some weeks has been more than 10 hours. The money's really nice and there is plenty of work to do. I hate feeling so behind in my work so that helps me handle a lot of overtime sometimes.

Steve and I are trying to have a baby but I've realized that if I get pregnant in August we will have our baby in May, and that's just a bad month for my family. First you have my birthday on the 5th, my step-son's birthday on the 9th, Mother's Day, my brother, Dustin' birthday on the 18th, his son Jaxon's on the 21st, my sister-in-law Carrie's on the 24th. Then poor Mindi (Dustin's wife) has her mom's birthday on the 11th. May is too full, so if I'm not pregnant by the end of July, hopefully I won't get pregnant until September. I realized that if I hadn't miscarried I would be about 6 months pregnant right now. There are 3 girls from my work that are all pregnant and due around the time I was. Sometimes it's sad to see these girls and their expanding bellies and remember that it could have been me. Most of the time I am just really happy for them and excited to hear about their pregnancies.

I have been so tired lately, I'm not sure my CPAP has been working that well. I have my routine exam coming up and I may mention to my doctor about that. I also think I may have diabetes, like my dad. I was diagnosed with pre-metabolic syndrome, which is basically pre-diabetes. I really need to get in shape, and eat healthier so I can lose some weight. It will make it easier on my body, when I get pregnant, to lose a lot of weight.