Ten on Tuesday

1. This week we celebrated Brendan's ninth birthday. He is a big cool kid now who told me that it felt bad to be nine, while holding back a big smile. I love him dearly and occasionally he has conversations with me now, against his better judgement I'm sure, but maybe Aunt Audra is cooler than previously thought! Happy Bday B! 

 Aunt Audra and Uncle Able love to party. 

2. My sweet little Ro baby is doing great with his potty training. He made it through a day at school in underwear, including nap time, then had one little accident the next day.**These two sentences were written yesterday. Today has been a disaster and I am hoping/praying he has whatever GI issue Zane had yesterday but things went off the rails this morning including poop in his bed. He has pooped more today than he usually does in a month, not an exaggeration, so I gave up and he finished the day out in pull ups.  But we power onward and he is very motivated to not wear diapers again because, "he's big like Bobo." So hopefully figures it out.

 Too big!

3. So my fun, randomly getting cancelled last weekend has turned into a slight career crisis since I only worked eight hours last week. I hear that this is always the slow season for Flex Pool, what with all the travel nurses, winter bonuses, and drop in NICU census. None of that makes it easier to sit around and stress out about whether or not I'm going to get to work/get paid. I'll stick it out awhile long, maybe go back to Flex II, which is a five dollar an hour pay cut, but less frequently cancelled. Who knows, but very stressful and a terrible reminder that I have no backup plan and do not actually enjoy my career path. Tomorrow I'm training in MRI, so who knows what that holds. Prayers are welcome!

4. I tried to pick up on Saturday, but of course they didn't need me, so I tried to hide my boarder line mental breakdown with a deep interest in Australia. Zane wanted to learn about his new Koala bear, which he got after his cardiology appointment, so I jumped in and turned our house into the Australian Outback. We have a Eucalyptus tree in the living room, koalas, kangaroos, wombats, and all sorts of other Outback creatures. I found masks for all these animals online, so we had all sorts of Outback animals roaming around. I didn't even plan our interest in Australia around today being Australia Day, but it is so we were ready to celebrate!

My little koala boys, Rowan is a baby, of course, so needed to ride around on the daddy's back. Did I mention we checked out four books on koalas at the library. We know everything about them and wombats, next week's library trip I'm sure will be all about Australia as well.

 Kangaroo Zane, Rocking his scar!

 

 Today's addition were two little platypuses to go in the pond which we made for under the Eucalyptis tree. We also brought all of Rowan's stuffed dogs out to be Dingoes, hopefully all the animals can get along, it's quite the habitat. 

 

 5. Oklahoma's earthquakes continue and our two little boys are used to them at this point. So much so that they use them as excuses for lots of things. This week Zane told me there had to be have been an earthquake because all the stuff on the shelf, above his bed, had fallen down. Right, I'm sure he didn't take it all down and play with it when he was supposed to be sleeping.

 6. In related news we had family Lincoln Log night and built an entire village, using every piece, of all four Lincoln Log sets Zane got for Christmas. Of course the next morning, when multiple house were knocked down Zane claimed it was an earthquake. What else would cause them to be knocked over, definitely not Zane running around crazy!

I made this watch tower, complete with a ladder, which I am very proud of. 

7. Yesterday Rowan took Verny for a ride on his tricycle. No real story beyond that and the fact that it was the cutest thing ever. He talked to him the whole time, and checked to make sure he hadn't fallen out. Then Rowan pretended that the front yard was a park he was taking Verny too. 

Verny and I at the "park", taken by Ro!

8. Rowan is also very into dressing up and changes costumes multiple times a day. His favorite costumer remains Snoopy, which has had to be mended a few times now from lots of use, but he also is often Batman, Iron Man, Yoda, Pirate, and yesterday's addition a pumpkin. 

 Little pumpkin head!

9. Zach is officially prepared for his certification dive in once we get to beautiful Puerto Rico. He and Able will be scuba diving while Kari and I try to figure out what very expensive hobby we are going to take up to to even out the scuba diving investment. You only live once I guess, right?? Yes, I have done my research on the Zita virus. I am not pregnant, nor plan to be pregnant in the near future, and will bring plenty of bug spray so think I should be fine. However, with me recent luck I wouldn't be surprised if I came down with a rare tropical disease right about now. 

10. Speaking of my terrible luck, I think I might have passed it onto my son. Today we were informed that even though we played on The Lake Monster during the last season that was available for t-ball there is not a spot for us on that time for Spring ball. Apparently we were not informed during the fall season that we were just filling an empty spot The Lake Monsters had in the fall and that come spring time they would go back to their "spring roaster," whatever that means. None of it sounds fair or by the rules we were informed of when signing up, but I did spend a large part of the evening trying to explain just how unfair life can be to my crying five year old. I personally want to not do it again because our little one season switch was at least $100 investment, but Zane really wants to play t-ball so who knows where we will end up or what we will do. A t-ball battle did not need to be added to my ever growing list of struggles, but apparently it is now firmly on my long list as well.

Next week has to be better... right?