Life Is Unofficially Official

Do you ever have those moments when you just think, "How in the heck did I get here??" Some days I swear I was just in high school yesterday. I'm sure I've said that before, but the feeling is still there once in a while. Time goes by so quickly that I have to snap myself back to reality and remind myself that I'm growing up. Whether I like it or not. It just keeps happening... It's official.

Today I had one of those snap-back moments. Every now and then at my externship I actually do feel like I'm in high school again doing clinical rotations. I don't have my kids around, I stand there watching procedures and what not... Most of the time I'm actually doing stuff, so it's not the same feeling, but every now and again, I'm 18 again just watching professionals work wondering what I will be doing ten years down the road. Well, guess what. I'm halfway there. Five years later, I'm actually in the medical field. I'm not in med school, I'm not in nursing school - not yet - but I'm in the field. And it becomes more real each time I give a patient an injection or assist with a procedure. Sometimes it seems like it took me forever to get here - 5 years after high school to become a CMA is not ideal, but whatever - most of the time, though, time has just flown by. And all of a sudden I'm responsible for getting up, getting kids up, taking them to daycare, and going to an "almost" job (then of course there is the coming home part, making dinner, bathing kids, getting them to bed, etc.).

An "almost" job. Yep. This was my snap-back moment: Yesterday while waiting for the patient to arrive for her tubal, I was chatting my the Dr. (my personal doctor, Dr. Jacobs). He was asking me when I finish and if I am looking for a job. I told him "no, not really." He sounded surprised. I told him the story... We aren't exactly settled, Levi is still looking for jobs anywhere (not as much as before, but still applying when one comes up), so we aren't sure exactly how long we will be here. I'm hoping we are here for a few years at least (I'm so sick of moving). I told this to the head administrator of the clinic as well, and I know that is his reservation on hiring me for a CMA position that is open in the clinic. Apparently it's a not a problem for Dr. Jacobs. While I was working with him today he asked me if I would consider working part-time. He explained that he may be needing a CMA in his office part-time if he decides to take on more patient/clinic work. (The clinic wants him to become a partner, actually, and he said the only way he would is if he could hire another part-time assistant.) I said I would absolutely be happy to work for him! I could get some experience but not have to be away from the kids all the time. It can be hard to get a job if you take a bunch of time off after school, so I figure it would be a good opportunity :) Then it hit me. I could have an actual job soon. A job with actual responsibilities and benefits and all that (maybe not benefits for part-time, but you get the idea?). A job that you get only after you have trained and gone to school to learn how to do. I'm growing up again. And it's weird and scary and exciting and surreal.

Side note: I told Jason, the hiring/admin guy, that I would be happy to work fill-in for the other position if they hadn't found anyone by the end of my externship. That would give me some experience, but it's not a super committed position, so it wouldn't be so bad if we were to just up and leave on short notice.

Anyway, so Dr. Jacobs said he would talk to so-and-so and figure things out, so I took this as an Unofficially Official job offer :) The way the conversation went made it sound like I would be his hiring choice if he does decide to go ahead with this partner thing. (I don't know how all of it works exactly.) I can totally see Jason shooting down the idea of hiring me, but just knowing that Dr. Jacobs would want to hire me is great news to me!

I think it was my last post - the one about me being a working mom and how I think I would suck at it - that still applies. If I were to even work part-time I would need to get super organized and manage my time a lot better if the dishes are going to get done more than twice a week and if the laundry is to get done at all. Seriously. And that just requires more growing up. When did this all happen so quickly?? We're just getting started, too. Soon I'm sure I will be looking at pictures of us with older kids and more wrinkles. I look at the pictures now and think, "That's me. I'm married. I have two kids. Wow." It's official: This is my life. Some times, though, it feels very unofficial still. Weird.

Working Mom??

So you remember those posts about me being afraid of being a bored, awful stay-at-home mom (SAHM)?? Yeah. Now that I'm working-ish, I don't think I would be a very good working mom. I would much rather be a SAHM. I'm so exhausted when I get home hat I don't feel like doing anything. I stayed up late last night folding laundry and watching Grey's Anatomy (to prepare for season 9 this week!) because there was tons of unfolded laundry, of course. And I would have been up either way since Lucas woke up screaming and breathing funny 4 times last night :( Poor guy.

Anyway, this means that we are eating out tonight :/ Mmmm... Five Guys! We found out they have online ordering, so after a few little clicks, I sent Levi out to pick up dinner :) Ah, technology.

Beside figuring out what to do for dinners, we were busy on Saturday making shelves for Levi's mom's new shed out back. She has been wanting a since she moved in about 6 years ago. A crew came down and built it in one day on Friday, and then we spent most of Saturday putting the inside together. It was a fun project. The kids liked being outside :) Via even started standing up on her own for a bit! Like 10 seconds, but still!

Via helping Daddy

Lucas "painting" the shed floor

Via standing!! This was the best shot I could get. I had to be fast!!

Lucas arranging his wood pieces :)

Helping Daddy measure stuff

We also signed a lease agreement for an apartment last Saturday! It is a basement apt with no one above us! If you've ever had screaming kids at night and lived around other people, you will understand how excited I am about this!! I'm excited to have our own little space once again, and this time I will even decorate! Aaaand all of our stuff will be out of storage :) Yay!!!! Pictures of our new little (very little) place to come :)

**Just a little blurb: I'm not in any way trying to say I think being a working mom is bad, I just think I would be bad at it. I salute you moms who can do it all!! I'm pretty sure I couldn't haha!

New Jobs All Around... But Only One Pays

I have been meaning to post since I started my externship two weeks ago, but things have been kind of busy lately (yay!!). It's a much nicer change from the sit-around-with-not-much-to-do phase. I started "working" Mon-Thurs from about 8-5ish - I put working in quotes because I can't be paid for the externship - and two days later Levi started working from about 4 or 5 am until either 10:30 am or 1:30 pm. On the days we both work, I drop the kids off at daycare - which they love, thank goodness! - and Levi picks them up. We have to coordinate cars with his mom and switch off carseats, but it's working out!

I'm still getting used to being up on my feet and walking around most of the day. At least at school I was still just sitting in class, but all this activity is making my legs hate me! Thank goodness I have an awesome husband who rubs them for me :) By the time I get home and make dinner, help bathe the kids and get them ready for bed, Levi and I are also ready for bed! It has definitely been a change going from a midnight or one am bedtime to a ten o'clock bedtime! I was so exhausted last night that I went to bed at 9:30! Unheard of for me! The exhaustion isn't helped by Via waking up lately and wanting to sleep in our bed. She won't take her bottle usually; she just wants to sleep with us. Good time. I love that she wants to cuddle with me, but I'd prefer she want to cuddle around 4 pm instead of 4 am. Oh, well. I'll take it either way. They're only young once, right? And I much prefer her waking up to cuddle as opposed to Lucas waking up screaming. Those nights are not fun at all :(

Levi is actually really liking his job at Costco. I don't think he was super excited when he got the job, because it's obviously not what he was aiming for, but he says he likes it. And he got to set up Christmas trees yesterday! I was so jealous. He also ran into a friend of mine with her new little baby. I was even more jealous of that! He likes the hours, though, and the pay is good. Not great, but better than nothing! And much better than minimum wage ;) Today was his first pay day, which also makes it better haha! He's still looking for something in his field, but at least he's not stressed while doing it. In all honesty, I would be totally fine just staying here in Pocatello with him working at Costco for a year or two, but I know he needs more than that. I love my Costco card!! They also have a fast track to management for employees with degrees, which he does now! So this may also be an option in the future. We will just have to see...

Well, if you made it through all that rambling... good job! Now for some fun pictures :) (Sorry there haven't been many lately.)

Here is Lucas trying to feed Via

And this is what happens when he feeds her :)

So, I actually bribed him with a football to get this pic. Before this, he leaned over and gave her such a cute little kiss on the lips, but of course he didn't want to kiss her again just so I could get a pic, so I bribed him, and it worked :)

Lucas was trying to "cook" the pancakes...that were already cooked. Don't worry, the griddle wasn't hot anymore. 

Lucas also got food in Via's hair, so after I got it out she ended up with a mohawk :)

Bountiful Baskets

I had previously heard of Bountiful Baskets - a food co-op where you pay $15 and get... well, a bountiful basket of fruits and veggies! We had never tried it until last weekend, but when my sister-in-law suggested we try it, we did! And we have loved it so far! Lucas has especially loved it! I ordered another one tonight for us to pick up this Saturday again :)

Here is Lucas eating some of the broccoli we got - raw. With ranch, of course. Sometimes it seems like if he can dip it, he will eat it. And boy, did he eat that broccoli!! Seriously. He pooped like 3 times last night. Once in the tub. Once on the bathroom floor. And once in the hallway. Yes, he was that quick. Other than that, I'm happy he's getting more fiber! 

Here he is multi-tasking and helping me make strawberry fruit roll ups with the older strawberries so we could make room for the new ones from BB.

Via. Eating an orange. Like a boss.

Lucas. Devouring an orange. Like a bigger boss ;)

Lately I have been on a big homemade, lower grocery bill kick. I've made three loaves of bread - that actually turned out well - in the past week or so. I've decided I l.o.v.e. homemade bread!! It seems like if we buy it, at least half of it goes to waste. I'm not a huge bread or sandwich fan, but after making my own, it seems like more incentive to eat it! And it actually tasted good! I was surprised, because I'm really not that great of a baker. Truth. But I assume if Levi is asking me to not stop making bread, it must be better than store-bought ;)

I'm trying to get this little family of ours to eat a bit healthier. I do take responsibility as the culprit :S I love soda. That has been especially hard to cut out, but beside the occasional cherry limeade at Sonic during happy hour, I'm doing pretty well! And I have to admit I have never been a big fan of either fruits or veggies; hence the Bountiful Basket plan: if I have it, I will probably eat it!

Bee Stings, Doorknobs and Jam

Well, I was going to post last night about our day yesterday, but that didn't get done. V woke me up at 4:30 this morning, and I haven't been able to get back to sleep, so 6 am post it is :)

Levi was doing some yard work/outside house work for his mom yesterday, so I took the kids out to play while he worked. Lucas played with chalk and his trucks, and once Levi turned the hose on they decided playing in the water was fun, too. And the dirt. Which became mud. On their faces.

Now, you see one of those black dots by Lucas's feet in this last one?? One of them is a bee. One that I thought was dead. It laid in the water unmoving for like 20 minutes. I don't like to touch a whole lot of dead things, so I didn't move it. A while later I heard Via just screaming one of those heart-wrenching screams that she only does when she's really hurt - like when Lucas hits her in the head with something... something like a toy gun. Well, I rush over to her (I was holding the ladder for Levi - and left him - sorry, Baby) and she had that bee in her hand! So I freak out because I hate bees. I shook it from her hand, which actually wasn't the hand that she had been stung and bitten on :( We noticed a bite mark or something on her other hand and her index finger swelled up a bit. At least we know she's not allergic! She calmed down after a little while and she was perfectly normal again. Poor girl.

Onto the next eventful part of our day... Lucas locked himself in our room. Yay! He likes to turn the lock button thing from the inside, which we found out when I shut the door last week and locked ourselves out. However, last week we realized the window was open, and we got in through there. He did this a second time before I finally started checking to make sure the knob was unlocked before actually shutting it. (Dense much?) Anyway, I'm cooking dinner upstairs and Levi tells me that Lucas locked himself in. I think, "No problem; just go through the window." False. I accidentally locked the window from shutting it all the way after climbing through with the second occurrence - if that made sense. Yeah. So Lucas is getting frantic. He doesn't know how to unlock the knob, he only knows how to lock it. Wonderful. We try picking it. We try random keys. I try unscrewing the dry wall next to the door to maybe reach through (unfinished basement). No luck. So we end up sawing through the doorknob. That did it!

Here is Dad to the rescue with the hack saw 

He only had to go about halfway before it unlocked - woo hoo...?

It is still a fully-functioning doorknob, actually haha! 

Aaaand onto the next part of the day: I have this weird obsession with peaches lately, so we bought a whole box so I could make some jam in an attempt to start eating healthier - aka 3 meals a day. So many peaches! Yum! Well, after the doorknob occurrence and dinner, I started on some jam. Strawberry-Peach and Blueberry-Peach jams :) Late at night (after bathing the kids and putting the to bed) I figured I needed some homemade bread to go with the jam. I realized I needed an egg. Remember the egg incident? Yeah, I didn't have any eggs. So I took late night trip - like 9:30 which really isn't that late to me - to the store for some eggs and more jars and pectin. I think I finished with everything around 11:30 pm (quick, dense bread).

And then the children wake up. They both woke up around midnight, so we all stayed up until 1 am - until the kids would both go lay back down, without crying, surprisingly! Lucas must be getting the rest of his molars in because he was grabbing his jaw and was still exhausted. We gave him some Benadryl (yes, I am that mom) and he went back to sleep wonderfully ;) Neither of them have been sleeping well at all. Lucas and I were up at 3:30 am the other day, too. With Elmo, of course. Good times.

All in all, at least the days are getting a bit more eventful!!