Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A Day In My Life - June 26, 2007 - My Birthday

In advance, thank you for all the birthday wishes! You are all so kind. Many have asked how my birthday is and I had to reply: "perfectly normal." And I was thinking about what a "normal" day really meant in my current life. What makes me so busy? Why am I so tired? So I decided to record my day.

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GINORMOUS DISCLAIMER
In no way am I complaining. I am blessed with good friends and family - my parents came in town last weekend to wish me well and my friends hosted a lovely dinner where we all kept eating the smoked salmon spread, the prosciutto-wrapped figs and goat cheese, the grilled pork tenderloin, the fresh tomato/grilled veggies/pesto/mozzarella on grilled ciabatta bread, the white wine sangria and only stopped because there was chocolate cake. And a bunch of you sweet people bought our t-shirts. THANK YOU! It was a perfect get together. A bottler. (I wish I could have opened some of that bottle today.)
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My day technically began at 12:05am with Smith's phone chiming. He is out of town and by an unfortunate accident left his cell phone behind. The calendar of his uber fancy phone will chime a reminder of appointments and events. This chime? Was to remind him that today was my birthday.

12:45am. Another phone is ringing? chiming? I totally don't recognize the tones. Did my parent's leave a cell phone behind? Is some stranger in my house and his phone is ringing? Where is that sound coming from?!? Turns out it is my phone. My phone is a hand-me-down from Smith, and he supposedly deleted all of his files/contacts/etc. Apparently this phone also has a calendar reminder. Reminding me of my birthday.

1:30am. Jmonkey wakes up crying. Snuggles into bed with me.

4:20am. Jmonkey wakes up crying and demanding to nurse. This is where my weaning streak fails me. I want to sleep, he wants to nurse. I give in and we are both happy.

6:15am. A construction truck decides to swap out dumpsters at our construction site across the street. Complete with banging metal, scraping, grinding and the obligatory beep-beep-beep as it backs up. It is this beep that wakes the children and they are glued to the window while I email my neighbors an apology and call our contractor and make sure that HE is awake too.

6:55am. Kids first argument.

7:05-8:15am. Nbear does yoga: "downward cat."
Giant tinkertoy percussion experiment.
Giant tinkertoy hockey tournament.
I pretend to sleep.

8:20am. Sigh. Discover the dishwasher totally didn't clean the dishes (make mental note to call for plumbing quotes.) Start it again. Make smoothies. Offer cereal. Discover two bowls of cheerios are dumped on the kitchen floor. Run vacuum. (just ran it last night.) Hand wash some dishes.

8:40am. First birthday phone call greetings from Sinda. Then my mom called. Then Smith called. Then Nbear demanded that his fingernail and toenail polish be changed. From orange on fingers and purple on toes to red with silver sparkles on both.

9:40am.
Got in the shower. got out of the shower. Turned on the TV for the kids. Got back in the shower.

9:50am. Jmonkey slips in his puddle of pee on the floor. Start laundry.

10-10:35am. Krisalis business call with Lisa.

10:45am. Read 3 stories while watching the rain.

10:50am. Decide to weenie out from swim lessons today because of the rain. Then the exact minute class probably started, the sun comes out.

11am. Snack.

11:30-1pm.
Target. 2 bank deposits. Drop off/pick up something at Lisa's self-imposed quarantined house. She waved through the window. [we are all glad that it is NOT MUMPS as previously thought.]

1-1:30pm.
J naps. Nbear and I have lunch (cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, his favorite) then began a science experiment with a magnetized floating needle. I leave N and his sitter to sort out the final details of finding magnetic north as I bolt to my yoga therapy session. This is an attempt to prevent another back going out episode.

2-5:15pm. Yoga therapy. Grocery store. Put away groceries. Check mail. Check emails. Sitter leaves.

5:15-5:45pm.
Nbear beats me at Yahtzee. J shoves random game pieces under his mattress.

5:45-6:15pm.
Prepare dinner. Make dinner plans for Saturday night.

6:15pm.
Eat dinner. Eat dessert on the porch (it IS my birthday. I chose ice cream.) A large box is delivered that is my present from Smith. The box is covered with ice cream handprints. Hose the ice cream off the porch. Start a bath for the kids. Large quantities of water are dumped on the floor. I cut the bath short and start a load of wet towels.

7:30pm. I read the newspaper with fingers in my ears as the two in pajamas chase each other around the house screaming. I'm counting to ten. again. and again.

8:00pm. Lights out for the kids. Early (for summer) and totally without stories because of the water and the screaming. I start washing dishes, which are still not clean so I have 2 + dishwasher loads of dirty dishes taking up space in the kitchen.

8:50pm. Kids are finally asleep after lord knows how many sips of water and nose blowing. J likes to blow his nose at bedtime. He'll do it, oh, 5 times?

I thank my lucky stars neither wakes up at 9:10 with the fireworks at the Dell Children's Hospital opening. or at 9:35 when I smash a glass bowl all over the clean dishes.

10:10pm. Finally to a stopping point with the dishes, I begin the yoga routine I got today.

10:45pm. I begin my post.

what else do I want for my birthday? Sleep and an umbrella.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love, A hard day and I am sorry I could not be there to help. I am stuck in transit between the two worlds without the ability to transfer the hugs needed.

peevish said...

Oh, Kris. What a day. I hope your gift was nice! And those fireworks? I thought we were under attack, it was the blitz all over again. My. God! Could they not have warned us?

Anyway, I sure hope you got some well-deserved sleep after all that.

xo!

Vetmommy said...

What a chock-a-block full day! If only washing dishes were more fun...

Sinda said...

Sorry I haven't been able to talk to you since then, I'm in product launch hell.

So, did you open it, did you open it? Give already!! Do you LOVE it?

Amy Cameron Evans said...

Happy belated birthday! And congrats on the biz. Love the pie one, as you might have guessed. Think of you lots. Sorry not more in touch. Big love from Mississippi!