Not in the mood for laundry…but I’ll have another muffin please!

I just barely put Eli down for a nap, and Ati is having quiet time. Malachi is sort of asleep in his swing, but he’s been stirring a bit, I’m sure he’ll be awake soon. I long for the days when ALL my babies will leave me alone, all at the same time.
This week has been exceptionally rough for me, for some reason. I think Malachi’s had a bit of a cold, so he’s been really fussy (since Sunday) and not sleeping well. Sun, Mon, and Tues night he was up til nearly midnight, and then awake every hour or two. During the daytime he wasn’t very happy either. Around Wednesday I found myself being extremely irritable, irrational, emotional, and just plain ornery. I was feeling hopeless and helpless, like I just wanted to scream or run away…I did do a lot of screaming, but I didn’t run away.
In the midst of my “nervous breakdown” I realized that it was all because I was just tired. My brain doesn’t function well when I’m tired and I become extremely irrational; so even though it didn’t change things, it was good for me to realize what was going on. I’m also trying to cope with the fact that I can not get anything accomplished, EVer, and that it’s...uh...ok? My only priorities right now need to be taking care of my kids; and that is really, really hard for me. I have to constantly remind myself to do less (or do nothing), and that it’s ok for the house to be a mess.
I usually try to take some time during “quiet/nap time” and get some things done, but yesterday I was so exhausted that I just took a nap! Yay for me! Even though Ati still came in every 20 min to tell me something, or bring me a “pretend” meal, I did get a little bit of sleep…and, I felt 10 times better, it was great! Today I’m still pretty tired, and just not in the mood to do much; and so we’re having hot dogs for dinner.
I normally do laundry on Monday, and fold it on Tuesday, but here it is already Friday and it’s still in baskets and bags in my room. I really should be folding it, but I don’t think I will, not today at least…I like to call it therapy, for my obsessive compulsive disorder, but maybe it’s just laziness? Nah..

Here's some humor, it's Eli wearing my boots...he really LOVes boots!

Good to be home, and then some.

(A recap of our trip home from PA)

Well, as it turned out, PA was not profitable for us at all, and we made the decision to come home to Utah. We were only in Philly for about 3 weeks, but the kids and I had a great time and I really loved the East Coast. John, of course, was out in the heat and working harder than he ever has in his life, with no profit, so needless to say he didn’t have as good of a time as we did. Another thing that happened was that he broke his tooth just a few days after we got there, so he was in a lot of pain for a while. We had decided that we would stay until he was able to get his tooth fixed, which was supposed to be July 2nd; but, after an extremely hard day of work on Friday, June 20th he made some phone calls and found out he could have the tooth fixed in Utah instead.
So, we did some last minute sight seeing, packed up our stuff, and headed home on Monday, June 23rd. I wasn’t ready to come home “mentally”; I was having a good time and I really, really wanted it to work. But, because of the financial situation as well as some problems with the kids, specifically Ati, we agreed that it was the best decision for our family.
Saturday, June 21st we took the day to relax and enjoy a few things before our long journey. We headed toward New York and stopped in New Jersey to catch a Ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

It was amazing, and a really good day for us. We were really glad we took the day to relax and relieve some of the stress from all the drama we had this summer.
We spent all day Sunday packing and left first thing Monday morning.

We first headed to Virginia to visit with John’s sister Leah, and her family. We couldn’t be all the way on the East coast and not at least stop by. So we visited with them for a few hours and then drove through the night straight from Virginia to Illinois, to stay with my sister Kim. It was about a 24 hour drive that day and we arrived in Illinois sometime before lunch time. We were pretty exhausted and a little delirious from lack of sleep; I get a little more than crazy when I haven’t slept, so it was sure interesting. We were so glad to be able to stop and stay with Kim and her family. It was nice to visit with them, and it was also really nice to rest and regroup for our next stretch of driving. We stayed with them the rest of the day Tuesday and left first thing on Wednesday morning.
From Illinois we drove straight home to Utah and arrived Wednesday afternoon-ish. It was a crazy mad dash home, but it was the only way we could do it, and we were so glad to be back. Even though the drive was really long and crazy it was in some ways kind of exciting and fun (at least I thought so). It was really neat to be driving across the country and to go in and out of the different states and to see the scenery.
A lot of the driving was a night, so it was a little disappointing to not see as much as we would have liked, but with 4 kids it was really nice to have them sleep. The first night of driving was pretty hard because it was a new thing to sleep in the car and so they didn’t sleep too well. But, the second night went really well, and for the most part, they slept a normal night time amount.
As we drove across the country it was fun to see the harbors along the coast, the Washington DC temple, lightning bugs in Virginia, the West Virginia State Capital building, eerie fog through Ohio at night, Indiana-and then I actually splattered a lightning bug across the windshield, and flood damage from the Mississippi River in Illinois. Then through Iowa with the rolling hills and farmhouses, and Nebraska with their horrible gas that gave us only 10 miles to the gallon! Nebraska was pretty boring and Wyoming went on FOREver…then the sun came up so we could actually See Wyoming-it still went on forever, and then we entered into Utah! What a relief it was to be home.
What an adventure it was.