Randall Family Update

I thought I would give you all a little update on what's going on with the Randall family.

We are all exhausted, but we are doing great. Robbie loves his new job at Carlisle Syntec. He already got a raise and he has only been working there for two months! Woo hoo! He has also been getting lots of overtime since they are short staffed at the moment. The extra cash is nice, but I do miss him. He put in almost 60 hours this week!

Speaking of long hours, I am at full capacity in my daycare again. Thank goodness! I tried to get that last spot filled for months. It's really hard to find families that need daycare for just one child in this state. The only downside is I work 55 hours a week now. I love my job so much and I'm so grateful for it, but it is physically and mentally exhausting taking care of 8 children for that many hours a week.

So, Robbie and I don't get much time together during the week when he is working days and none at all when he is working nights. We have weekends off together, so we try to make the most of those days and spend them doing things as a family. We are going to try to make more time for friends and extended family though. Despite our hectic schedules, I am determined! =)

Tristan is doing so great! He had his 18 month check up two weeks ago. I can't believe my baby boy is a year and half old already. Time goes by way too fast. He is putting 2 to 3 word sentences together and is interested in learning his letters and numbers already. He knows a few letters of the alphabet, but he seems to be much more interested in counting. He can almost count to 10. He starts off with 1, 2, 3, skips 4, 5, 6, and 7, then goes straight to 8, 9, 10. Lol! He is still healthy and happy. I love that little guy more than anything. =)

I'm thinking of taking belly dance again. One of my daycare parents takes a class every Saturday in Salt Lake and one of my friends that I used to dance with in high school dances there on occasion as well. I miss dancing so much and one of my new years resolutions was to take some more time for myself. I think that would be a great way to do it. Plus, I would make some new friends in the process, which is always nice.

All I know is I need some balance in my life. All work and no play makes me super irritable and cranky. Lol! ;)

Feelin' Bloggy

So... I haven't blogged in over a month and I thought it was about time. I just don't have much to write about these days. My life is pretty mundane and normal, unfortunately. There is nothing thrilling or exciting to post really, unless I get pregnant again, then I'll probably start posting weekly again.

I decided that I love and hate my life at the moment. I realize that I'm blessed and very lucky to be able to stay home, raise my son, and still bring money into my household. Most new moms only dream of what I'm doing right now and I'm incredibly grateful, but I am slowly starting to lose my mind.

I need some form of human interaction with someone over the age of 8, other than Robbie of course. I'm seriously considering being one of those crazy people that call into radio stations and just talk to the DJs forever so that I can have that connection with the outside world.

I've lost a lot of my friends since I started doing daycare. I want to scream at them and tell them I'm sorry if I can't spend every waking moment with you! I kind of have a husband, a son, and a business to run. I watch kids for 55+ hours a week for Christ's sake. Those hours don't include all of the record keeping, cleaning, and lesson plan preparations either.

I just wish that the people in my life would try to understand. It's not that I don't want to spend time with my friends, or I guess ex friends now. I literally have no time! Although, apparently I need to make time. I am seriously going stir crazy spending most of my time at home. I go out with my family, but I need a break from them once in awhile too. I don't know how to make this work, but somehow it's gotta happen.

I do not want to hear anyone bitching at me about being grateful for what I have. I am very aware of how fortunate and privileged I am to be able to live the life that I live. I'm just posting my feelings at this moment in time and I don't need anybody stomping all over them just because they happen to be more on the negative side today. Thank you, that is all.

Family Update

I haven't updated on what is going on with our little family for awhile, so I thought I would bring everyone up to speed.

Tristan is now 5.5 months old! I can't even believe that much time has gone by since he was born. He loves to roll over, he can sit up on his own, and he tries to crawl, but hasn't quite figured out how yet. He just scoots on his tummy and kicks his legs out. Lol!

He loves to grab onto everything he can; including mommy and daddy's plates when we are trying to eat. He is a little chatter box. He loves to talk, talk, talk. He can say 'mama', but that is his only word so far. His favorite toys are his car and our chihuahua, Roadie. He thinks he is so funny! Every time he sees him he laughs. Lol!

Speaking of Roadie, he is doing great. He misses Chili though and I didn't think he would. Oh, I haven't told you yet... We found a family for Chili. It was really hard to let him go, but not as hard as I thought it would be. I think I would have had a much more difficult time if I had to take him to a shelter.

The family that has him is really great. They came over, met with us, played with Chili. Chili chose them more than they chose him. When it came time to leave, he left with that family and didn't even look back. I knew at that moment that's who he was supposed to be with. They will give him the love and attention he deserves. I will always miss him though.

Now that Chili has a home I can finally start my day care! I have everything done but my building inspection (to make sure our house is structurally sound and up to code) and my policies and procedures. I'm putting the final touches on those today and my building inspection is this week! Once those two things are done I can send everything into the bureau of child care licensing!

What is even better is I can watch four kids including Tristan while I am waiting for everything to process at the bureau. So I can start taking kids any day now! I'm so excited. I have worked so hard for this. I started this process in October and everything I have done is finally paying off. I am so happy.

That is my little update on what is going on in the Randall family's world. Talk to you soon!

An Update of Sorts...

Well, it's been a month since I've posted so I thought I would update. I just never have time anymore.

Chili is fine. Our neighbors were assholes and said that Chili bit their dog when he didn't. He passed all of his aggression tests and was very well behaved while in quarentine. So we got him back after two days instead of ten. I'm so thankful I got my dog back.

The newest thing that I'm going through is postpartum depression. I didn't really understand how anyone could be so depressed after giving birth to a beautiful baby. What is there to be sad about? Now I have PPD.

It is awful! I cry everyday. It's mostly when I'm at work. I think about Tristan and I bawl my eyes out because I'm not with him. Sometimes I cry for no reason. I haven't been sleeping well, I never want to eat. I know that my hormones and brain chemicals are out of whack, but I hate feeling like this all of the time.

My doctor prescribed me Zoloft. It's been taking the edge off, but it's making me sick. Apparently my body needs to adjust to it for a couple of weeks though. I have an appt on the 15th to talk about it with my doc.

I think that me being home with Tristan will help so much though. I got my CPR and First Aid Certification today so I'm one step closer to getting my day care business. I'm going to be able to turn in my two weeks after Christmas and that keeps me sane every day I sit behind that desk. Getting state licensed is a lot of work, but it will be so worth it. I'm very grateful to my dad for helping me get started. I couldn't do it without him. At least not this soon.

That's the jist of what's happening now. I'll post again when I can.

Much Needed Update

Wow! I don't think I've ever gone this long without updating my blog. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Between bringing a new baby home, my bedroom ceiling starting to cave in, and my basement flooding, I haven't had time to update. I'll write about part of what has happened now.

Let's start with my favorite, Tristan. =) He is doing so well! When I took him to his two week appointment, he weighed 8 lbs 9 oz, was 22 inches long, and his head circumferance is 37.5 cm. He has a normal sized head and is long and skinny like his daddy. Lol!

He is going through a growth spurt now so all he wants to do is eat. He has been sleeping a lot today, so hopefully he'll be back to his normal schedule soon. He was sleeping in four hour stretches before.

I love my little man so much. I had the baby blues bad for the first two weeks. I cried everyday. I was so overwhelmed with being a mom and having my life change so much. It's hard caring for a newborn 24/7. I'm starting to adjust now though and I love being a mother. It's going to be so hard going back to work in October. =(

Okay, now to my house problems. Our bedroom ceiling started caving in. At first we thought it was water damage from the swamp cooler, but no. The contractor that built this house got lazy and didn't seam two pieces of the dry wall so the ceiling started to sag. Luckily my hubbie took construction trade classes and can fix just about anything. So that wasn't bad.

Now to my basement. My mom stayed with me for a week to help around the house while I adjusted to being a mom. Her intentions were good, but she ended up costing us $1,400! She put a shitload of potato peels, peach skins, cherry tomatoes, and God knows what else down our disposal and clogged that drain. So much pressure built up in it that when the drain couldn't hold anymore it burst and all of that water leaked into our basement. I was furious to say the least.

We got it taken care of, but it took a huge chunk out of our pocket that we needed for Robbie's car. Just a lot of un-needed stress.

There is much more going on, but I will write another blog later. I'll try to be better about my weekly posts. =)