Missing You!

The kids haven’t seen Justin all week and there have been numerous days over the past 2 months that I haven’t seen him either, yet I know he’s come home and caught a few hours of sleep because when I wake up in the morning his side of the bed has been slept in. We miss him a lot. He’s so busy at work that we often don’t even get to talk all day. Occasionally I’ll receive a brief text, “Dow down 650”, “Maui less than 400 round trip”, “Need deodorant”, etc… I received a text last night around 10pm from Justin that he was leaving work cause he was “mentally exhausted”… working the equivalent of two full time jobs would definitely do that to a person. When he got home he gave me a hard time about not posting lately and said that the blog is the way he keeps in touch with us these days. So here’s a post for my hard-working husband.

Dear Justin,

I’m glad you made it home early last night (10:30pm) so we could talk for a little while. I’m sorry I haven’t blogged lately. We’ve been a little busy.

Abigail is really enjoying school. Yesterday was the first time I volunteered in her classroom. I really like her teacher (you’ll like her too). I think the first/second grade split class is perfect for Abigail. Her teacher gives her opportunities to be challenged and I love that. Everything in the classroom refers to Abigail as Abby. That’s what she has chosen to go by. I know that you didn’t want that to happen. She’s still “Abigail” to me too… I think it will take me a long time to get used to her new name. On Monday Abigail will be the first in her class (including the second graders) to turn in the last word wave (a list of words they can pass off when they can read them all correctly). She’s excited because she will earn an opportunity to eat lunch with a friend from another class.

Abigail is learning a part for the Christmas play at school. None of the kids have lines by themselves; they say everything in small groups. Abigail’s group is the “narrator deer.” She’s really excited about it. I sent you an email with the date of the performance; did you put it on your calendar?

Last night soccer was cancelled. I was so relieved. I was really dreading taking all the kids out in the rain to watch Abigail practice for an hour in the wet and cold. Thank you thunder and lightening. She has a game tomorrow at 10:15am… I really hope you can make it.

Right after we heard the thunder and lightening last night I was heading outside to get the mail and dump all the old tomatos in the yard waste. The girls were concerned about my going out in the “storm.” I reassured them that I would be fine… unless I got hit by lightening. I then had to explain the consequences of being struck by lightening and added that it rarely happens. As I walked out the door Carly passionately told me to “hurry” and “be careful.” I was gone for less than two minutes, but I’m sure it seemed much longer for Carly. When I came back in she was waiting for me and asked “did the lightening hit you!?!” It was so funny. I only hope I didn’t instill a great fear of lightening in her.

Carly asks everyday if she gets to go to preschool today. Her teacher told me that Carly is really smart and that she’s having a hard time challenging her. She got out some more difficult things for Carly to work on. I guess we don’t see how smart she is because we compare her to her big sister who was already reading chapter books and writing stories at this age. It was nice to hear that Carly is doing fantastic. She’s a bright girl.

Jason has been grumpy the past month… maybe it’s cause he misses you. He’s making the move to taking only one nap a day. That may be more my doing though cause one nap makes it easier for me to get things done outside of the house. He slept in this morning til 9:30am. Too bad I had to get up earlier to be ready in case the wood guy showed up… which he didn’t until after 10am …. bummer.

I think it’s so cute when Jason crawls. He’s so proud of himself. I’m grateful that even with our third child I still find all these milestones exciting. He’s gone up the stairs (under the watchful eyes of his two big sisters), but he’s completely clueless on how to get down the stairs. We’ll need to work on that. Thank heavens he hasn’t even tried.

Jason got his first hair cut today. I decided to take him to the Kid’s Cut at the mall. He sat in an airplane and did amazingly well, especially since it was naptime. I kept telling the lady to cut the top shorter and shorter. She only trimmed off a quarter inch at a time so it took a long time to make it look okay. I can’t say I’m completely satisfied, but it was fun for him and the haircut was long overdue.

Check out how long his hair is on top!

I was so suprised to see him smile and enjoy his first haircut.

He enjoyed holding a sucker and playing with the wheel too.

The "after" picture

The wood guy started working on Wednesday. I’m back to being surrounded in dust and power tools. It’s frustrating to never know what time he will show up and what state the house will be in when I get home. I am so grateful the kids haven’t even once been tempted to get into all the construction mess. He has finished replacing the dining room floor and tore out the rest of the damaged wood in the kitchen and family room, but he’s already left for the weekend. This is what I have to deal with over the weekend.

Not fun. It’s almost over though, right?

I went to the gym twice this week and I’m considering going tomorrow after Abigail’s game. I still HATE, HATE, HATE exercising. It’s been almost a year since we joined. Will I ever enjoy it? The good news is that Jason no longer cries when I drop him off in the childcare area. Yesterday he actually walked in willingly… yeah!

I was really hoping to bring the kids up and eat lunch with you this afternoon since Abigail didn’t have school today. I wish we could have found a way to make it work with your schedule and meetings. Instead we went to the newly remodeled Southcenter Mall. It looks great. We went into a “kid’s lounge” to use the restroom. It was so cool I had to take a picture.

On the left are private little nursing areas with comfy leather chairs and your own TV. They even had a tiny toilet for toddlers… so cute. There are lots of new stores and restaurants. If I didn’t have three kids with me I would have loved to do a little shopping… I guess I’ll just have to wait til New York City. Speaking of which, my Mom will be in NYC this weekend. I am so jealous. Let’s arrange our flights ASAP. I can’t wait!!

I’m so hungry. Can you believe it’s been over two months since we’ve been to a sit down restaurant when we typically went weekly? I’m so jealous you get to eat yummy food for lunch and dinner every day… and for free. Actually if it takes working 15-20 hours a day to get “free” food then it’s really not “free”, is it?

We ate lunch at the food court today. I had Panda Express. The lady only charged me $2.18 (w/tax) for my large side. I was honest and tried to tell her it was wrong, but she didn’t care. I thought my fortune cookie was kind of funny.

I guess the cookie makers aren’t aware of the current state of our economy, or our 401K.

We miss you! Have a good day and get lots done. Only 5 days left, then its family time! In the meantime I’ll try to keep you posted.