I'm Barely Keeping Up with My Life

I absolutely, positively, without a doubt, more than I can even express in words….. CANNOT KEEP UP WITH MY OWN LIFE!!  I lay down every night and just go “phhheeewww”, audibly expressing what my brain is doing!  J  It’s just crazy how I let myself get so busy, but I have, again, and it’s about to come to an end.  I have officially stopped working my second job on the weekends because of all this madness.  Now I will at least have those two days to try and catch up.  You guys don’t even want to see my to do list… it’s several pages long! 

So, for now let’s just catch up a little on the most recent events that have happened.  Since my last post, I have traveled about 1,500 miles all the way to Lakeside, Michigan and back for a week long vacation.  This was an awesome time!  For the very first time I packed up my Lil Man and myself and we just took off.  Twelve hours in the car was a little difficult his first time but with the help of modern technology, an iPod and a DVD player, we survived just fine with multiple stops to get out and stretch our legs.  I grew up for the first eleven years of my life in Maine, which I think I’ve mentioned on here before, so going north was so exciting for me and I was definitely not disappointed.  Simple things like the beach and the trees around our cabin reminded me soooo much of Maine.  Then when you add that our first night and day there the temperatures never got above 65 and we were on the beach bundled in towels and hoodies…. That REALLY reminded me of Maine.  It was beautiful and something new; that’s always exciting.  As for my son, I’m not quite sure what he was experiencing but at some points throughout the days I wondered if it didn’t border on some sort of out of body experience.  He literally was so happy and having so much fun being 100% loose and free outside, in the sand, close to water, with toys that he would just run and face dive right into the sand and then run and fall in the water and then run out screaming and dive back into the sand!  (LOL, I’m getting a little tickled thinking about it!)  It was like for the very first time he could just cut loose and do whatever he wanted and get as dirty as he wanted and Momma wasn’t saying anything about it.  Because of the low temperatures every night the water was extremely cold the whole time we were there but before I could allow him back inside I would have to rinse him off and,let me say, that was a chore.  He’s screeching and howling because the water is so cold and I’m laughing because sand is EVERYWHERE.  In his ears, up his nose, caked in his eyebrows, down his swim trunks… EVERYWHERE!  But, it was definitely an experience that I plan on having every year from here on out.  My Lil Man just absolutely loved the beach and I’m looking forward to many more memories made there in our future. 

We arrived around 6:30 this evening and it was still a little warm before the cool front moved in so we immediately took the kids and went straight down to the beach.  We didn't even change their clothes we just turned them loose and they had a blast, fully dressed in the sand and water.

He's throwing handfuls of wet sand and it was slinging all the way back up to us!

We finally stripped them down halfway because they were covered in so much wet sand.

The next morning was beautiful, but only about 60 degrees with 25 mph wind.  I was very cold taking this picture!

But he's not!  Having too much fun to be cold.

Of course I dressed Lil Man up one evening and tried to get a few nice shots with the beautiful beach behind him, but he wanted to run and dive in so bad most of my shots turned out with funny expressions on his face. :)

I was able to get a few good ones, especially with the help of my friend. 

Nothing like a sunset, beach fire with weenies and s'mores!

Lil Man has told my friend's daughter a funny story in this one.  I was so glad I captured their expressions. 

These two pictures were taken by my friend's Aunt who was there letting her boys fish and swim with us.

Our fishing day!  This was about the biggest of all our catch, but he didn't care.  Catching them and reeling them in was all he needed to be thrilled.

This evening there was a little rain storm trying to stir up over to the side of us.  It blocked half of the sunset for a moment. 

It then cleared away and got a little hazy out on the horizon.  The kids found another little girl to play with.

This picture was taken by my friend on her iPhone and it was four individual shots originally that she combined to create this one panoramic picture of a sunset we watched one night down on the beach.  Because of the cloud cover, we were seeing this really beautiful, bold streak of bright light in the sky and it was breathtaking. 

 

Returning from vacation is never fun, but it must be done.  Getting back to work is always good to me because I’m a better person when I’m on schedule and organized in my routine, but work is still a little hectic due to our temporary change in schedule and then dealing with the crossover of all our records.  Going 100% electronic is so exciting to me because that’s just how the world is going right now, and ultimately it will make my job a lot easier and simple.  Doing everything by hand while we are seeing patients and then spending the off days entering it into the computer in order to submit it electronically is way more time consuming than it will be once we eliminate that middle step.  Wooo hoooo!!!

My family has almost gotten settled back in with all of their prospective jobs and responsibilities.  Considering that all of my immediate relatives travel for their careers, except my sister, I constantly feel like I'm mentally keeping tabs on everyone.  Until, of course, it's time to move again!  My boyfriend’s new job has moved him out to Bozeman, Montana right now and I’m insanely jealous that I can’t be there to see the scenery with him, but it is just too far.  Hopefully this job won’t last more than 5-7 weeks and he’ll be home again for a short visit before the next job kicks off. 

Other than all that, my little sister’s wedding is the next biggest, pressing issue right now that has been on the back-burner for the past 7 months, but we are only 2 months and 28 days from the BIG DAY so it's time to focus full force on it!  I can’t believe how fast it’s gotten here and we still have so much to accomplish that all my spare weekends are going to be planned around what still needs to be done.  There are so many tedious things to do we are all going to have our work cut out for us... working from all over the U.S. 

I hate that my blog has turned into a once-a-month update instead of a continuous rolling sequence of events that happen in my daily life and I fully intend on changing this very soon.  I’ve got to find more time for myself and continue a few small things that I need because as happy as I am, and as comfortable as my life is right now, I still have my moments where I feel as though my sanity may be slipping and all I want to do is pile up with a book, or work on my pictures, or write.… I think everyone has their little private, “alone time” things that sort of keep our minds and souls in balance.  We must put those things in a priority slot at least once in awhile so we don’t lose them. 

P.S.

Pics of my house are coming, I've just been soooo busy.  It's next on my list for my next post.