a blended life

This is one of those impossible posts to write, so it'll be short and probably leave everyone in confusion. Brian is leaving for California in the morning to live with his dad. We are not divorced right now (I know that's what you're wondering). He is struggling with a lot of things and could not make it here on his own anymore. He said goodbye to the girls this afternoon. They seemed to take it pretty well--we only told them a few sentences of bare minimum information. Then I took them with me to get my eyebrows waxed. Also, I've been up since 3:30 am with Hannah, who cried for almost 3 hours straight. Little devil. After they went to bed, I helped Brian move a couple things. I'm completely wasted and have a pile of Spanish homework to do for Friday, so goodnight. I've got nothing left in me right now.

We've had the craziest week/weekend, but I wanted to put a little update on her about Leah (yes,I know my posts have been a bit Leah-heavy.) She complained last week of being too cold, which for her is really strange. She's always steamy hot. We went swimming on Friday and she complained that her ear hurt, so I thought she just got water in her ear from the pool. Her birthday party was on Saturday and she just wasn't herself-quiet, not very active, etc. She was also having major panic issues about going to church and having the Primary sing for her birthday. She had a fever that night and a bit Sunday morning, but it went away and she seemed to be doing okay. Sunday night she spiked a pretty beefy fever and had some nasty headaches. I took her into the dr this afternoon, and she has an ear infection (no biggie, we've done lots of those), FLAMING tonsilitis (I had NO IDEA. She never complained about having a sore throat, and I found out later it's because she didn...

Leah's birthday has made me very sentimental about her life and birth-and if you don't know me well, sentimentality is not my tune so this is a little out of the ordinary. I'm sure I share this with most moms in saying that her birth is a very clear memory in my mind. Labor and delivery were not that ideal-I had high blood pressure and was induced incorrectly by the nurses, plus it took two hours to push her out, plus she was covered in that nasty poo stuff and got whisked away for what felt like forever (it was two hours). She had the sweetest little cry (and I can say this with some authority, having had two kids and one of them did NOT have a sweet little cry) and slept well. And ate like a horse. Leah truly was a delightful, enjoyable baby and has grown into a strong, wildly interesting, clever, creative little girl. She makes friends easily, loves her sister fiercely, and is a loyal, too-smart-for-her-own-good monkey. She can be extremely challenging, but it's hard...

So, there are a few posts that I'm behind on. A lot of this has to do with the recent death of my bestest, trusty camera. *weeps* Of a more pressing nature is the current state of my life which is: complete shambles. There it is, in writing, for all the world to see. Now I have nothing to hide and you all know exactly what's going on with me (which is: picking up the pieces of shambled life as gracefully and with as many M&M's as possible). There are huge chunks of unfinished business all over the road. It feels like rushing into traffic to pick up one of the pieces, but I can never get there in time and I watch it being run over with a redneck truck. (sorry if you fall into that category-no harm meant). My dad says, Just wait. Things will falll into place all at once. I hope he's right. I'm very weary of watching the destruction.

So last night I posted about how LONG my day was. Today I'm eating my words. I foolishly put the kids to bed at 9-way later than their usual bedtime-and thought to myself "we'll all sleep well, we'll be so productive tomorrow" etc. I made a to-do list, which by itself goes against everything I stand for, and went to bed myself. All hell broke loose at 1:30 when I woke to an glass shattering screech (Hannah). The short version of the painful experience is: it is now 9:22, and she never fell back asleep. (Part of the drama included passing her off to my mom at 5:45 so I could get a few hours of sleep). Ever since she was born, I've been asking myself, Is this kid ever going to sleep? So, long day, longer night=so much for ambitious to-do list. I'm going to post my to-do list exactly as I wrote it last night and we can all laugh at how foolish I was to think I could get something done today. I'll mention here that we are leaving for Boise tomorrow morning...

*Up at 6 *Kids to summer school at 9 *Workout at gym *Buy birthday present *Eat like a horse after workout *Pick up kids at 12 *Birthday party at neighbor's *Eat lunch at 1:45 *Mom/grandma returns from 3 week trip-2:15 *Surprise visit from Ralph and Norma-4 *Kids to dad's-4:30 *Dinner with friend at Zupa's *Putter around Walmart *Pick up kids and fight with them until bedtime-7-9 pm *Make peanut butter bars for a funeral-9:10 *Collapse-right now

It's been the busiest couple of weeks for us, so I'll have to blog in installments. I'm starting with the most recent because the pictures were the most accecssible. Isn't that a great reason? I'm also deliriously tired, so please excuse my incoherency and bad sense of humor. Last week we drove to Heber City (about 30 min) to ride Thomas the Tank Engine. He does a national tour every year. If you're a four year old boy, or like hanging out with four year old boys, this event is just for you. We had a really great time, actually. Both girls were very excited and loved the whole event. First we had our obligatory cheesy photo op: Riding on the train, Hannah blowing her whistle: There were other activities, too. Blocks, coloring, dancing, movies, storytelling, Sir Topham Hat (who took a big long break while we were there...hmph.) Lots of things to do and see besides riding the train. This week Hannah has her tonsils and adnoids removed. The surgery was on Tuesday,...