This posting once a week thing has to stop

It makes it hard for me to blog because I know that its going to take forever and a day!

I will work backwards through our last week. Friday we left for Spokane and the trip went fairly well. The kids were in quite a mood and fought most the way though. Elsa didn't help by crying the last hour or so either. The weather was fine, but very foggy in spots.

On our way in, we stopped by Josh & Amber's house (Holly was there too!) to visit and drop off clothes for Lindy. We'd never been to their house before and I'd never been to Fairchild AFB. We really enjoyed it and I was impressed with all the amenities that are on base. It was good seeing everyone and how much the babies have grown. And I got to meet Brooke too, the newest addition to the family at only 8 weeks old! Good times.

After that we headed over for a quick visit with Grandma, Aunt Angela and cousins Jamie and Matthew. The kids were so excited about seeing their cousins! After running around and playing, our very weary crew headed for our hotel and crashed for the night.

Saturday we ran a few errands around town and then had our (delayed) Christmas celebration at Grandma's house. I do have pictures, but my camera is in the car and I'm too lazy to go out and get it. Later today I'll try to put up the pictures.

We had such a good time visiting with our Spokane area family and seeing how much all the kids have grown. Our kids really love their cousins, even though they don't get to see them that often and everyone plays so well together.

After the festivities, we headed back to the hotel and had a pretty dreadful night. Elsa didn't sleep, Ethan fell out of the bed and banged his face on the nightstand, etc. etc. Its never good to get almost no sleep when you have a long drive the next day. Unfortunately, the kids were really naughty on the way home and by the time we arrived I was feeling quite rage-y and irritated with everyone! I hate that.

Monday, my Mom and Jenni, bless their hearts, came over to watch the kids while I grocery shopped. Oh, the pleasures of a fully stocked fridge and pantry. Love it!

The kids all came down with a cold though. Elsa has it the worst. The kids were mostly healed up after a day, but their noses are still a bit runny. Everyone had a fever the first day, along with cough and congestion, then the fever eases and so does the cough and the nose seems the last to go. Elsa is past the fever stage but the cough hasn't gone away and her nose is constantly running. She's right on the border of needing to see a doctor, but I'm not sure what they would do for her if we did bring her in. Most of the time it doesn't bother her (she breathes without issue), but like last night, she gets into a coughing fit for like 30 min and gets very upset (who wouldn't?). As you might imagine, her sleeping has been exceedingly poor.

Tuesday I made a recipe from the Top Chef cookbook (Top Chef is a GREAT competitive cooking show, way better than say Hells Kitchen which is barely about cooking at all). Most of the recipes are complicated and overly fussy for a home cook, but this one, Moroccan Cubanos, sounded good. The recipe I linked to has the stone fruit chutney which is NOT in the cookbook and I didn't make it, but I did make the pickled veggies, which are really very tasty. While everything tasted good, it wasn't exceedingly good and likely won't be repeated. I did like the instructions on doing a quick pickle though and may use that again. Tonight I'm making Red Curry Chicken from the same cookbook, with a few substitutions because its hard to find kaffir lime leaves and galangal in my suburban grocery stores :)

Wednesday the kids had their first soccer practice (yep, I have pics, but they're in the car....). There are only 4 kids in the class and the kids were all over the place, but I think they'll have fun. Ethan is the oldest of the 4 and he was cracking us up the whole time. He had the answer to everything. Coach asks, "What is the first rule of soccer?". Ethan says, "I know! Don't step on people". Coach says, "Well that is true too, but the first rule is not to use your hands". Ethan, "Ok, but don't step on people too". Later, he ripped his hangnail a bit and interrupted Coach to show him. Coach says, "Do you want to show your Mommy?". Ethan replied, "Oh, she already saw it and said it was ok". Then all the other kids had to come up to the Coach and tell him that they had a cold or an owie or whatever. Oh man, it was hilarious. I'm sure further weeks will bring more actual playing and less of these conversations, or maybe not. Either way, its good exercise and experience for them. We've noticed that Ethan is not terribly coordinated. Poor little guy was tripping all over the place, while Gwen could almost stand on her ball without falling. I sense that in a year or two we'll need to start separating them for sporting events (that'll happen naturally anyway I guess) because Ethan will be intimidated by Gwen's natural ability. Ethan is much better than Gwen at a lot of things, but physical grace and ability is full in Gwen's court.

Wee baby Elsa did NOT sleep well last night and so once again we are sleep deprived. She also does not want to be out of my arms. Yesterday I had to hold her for two hours while she napped because me even making a movement that could be construed by her as laying her down caused her to wake up crying. I'm not handling it well to be honest. I'm hard pressed to describe my feelings. Its frustration, irritation, even some anger. Because of no napping, my hobbies, things that bring me a lot of satisfaction, haven't been touched since Thanksgiving. I resent that. I resent that every day I'm unable to enjoy things but just want to lock myself in a dark room for some peace and quiet and alone time. These things shall pass, I know. But I'm really having a hard time with it right now. I did not expect that my youngest child would never sleep during the day.