Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Ultrasound and DMV Fun

This morning I had my ultrasound for my gallbladder.  My Dr. ordered an abdominal ultrasound which took a little more than half an hour.  They looked at a surprising number of internal organs during the ultrasound.  It was neat seeing my organs, but definitely not as much fun as having one done when you're pregnant.  I had to be at the hospital really early this morning for it too. 

After my ultrasound I swung by the DMV because we needed to renew the car registration before the end of the month.  I was worried that I would be in line forever since it is the end of the month.  Thankfully they weren't busy yet and well staffed for the inevitable rush.  I walked right up to the counter with no waiting.  Awesome!

The only other big thing on my to do list today is to go to the store to pick up some groceries.  I was hoping to hear from my Dr. this afternoon with my test results.  I'm sure once I decide to go to the store, that's when I'll get the phone call.  Oh well.  Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Toddler Communication

The boys have been trying to communicate to us more and more every day.  Today Oliver kept going over to John then going over to the front door and banging on it, back and forth several times.  So John got out the stroller and took the boys for a walk.  I met up with them right after I got off work and it seemed like everyone was having a good time.  

We spent Sunday at P&W's house playing poker with some of our good friends.  There were two other little kids there about a year older than the boys.  Oliver kept trying to talk to the bigger kids all day.  He was babbling on and on to them in what seemed like full baby sentences.  Oliver knew what he was saying and he was trying to get his point across, just no one else could understand him.  It's pretty darn cute to listen to him talk.  He will just go on babbling about who knows what, but he's pretty insistent about it.  We think that he is going to start saying real words soon.  It's about time, they are 16 & 1/2 months old now.  Right now they mostly only say Dada and Done.  We are working on Cheese.  Owynn only says Mama when he is really tired or upset.  Otherwise I am starting to think that I am just other Dada. 

Owynn has been super adorable lately.  His new thing is he likes to try and sing.  He hums when he is sleepy, and when he gave me a hug today.  He also likes to sing along to music.  I wonder if he will be musically inclined when he gets older.  Owynn loves to dance, drum on everything, and now trying to sing.

I am can't wait until they can talk and I can actually understand what they are trying to say!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

It's been a LONG week

I am so glad it's the weekend!  It's been a long stressful week.  After dealing with some extra super nasty acid reflux problems over the weekend and some not so fun motion sickness, John pretty much told me I had to go see the Dr.  Well that and the fact that I have been having to take way more Phenergan than normal.  Phenergan is awesome, it makes my stomach feel so much better and is great for motion sickness, but it makes me so tired and out of it.  John needed a follow up too because he is still dizzy and it's been about a month now.  So I scheduled us for a Wednesday evening appointment; I love that our Dr has a late day.  I got my shift changed at work, so I worked from 8:30-5 then got home as fast as possible, grabbed John and the kids, then rushed off to Omaha to see the Dr. at 6:15pm.  I was expecting the Dr to give John something to help his dizziness more and tell me that there wasn't much they could do and maybe try a new acid reflux medication.  Well boy was I wrong!  John has labyrinth-itis and has to let it run its course.  As for me, the Dr thinks that most of my problems stem from my gallbladder and maybe I should get it out.  Well angry four letter words...I don't want another surgery, but it would be soooooo nice not to have a stomach that hurts all the time and no more pain in my back.  Our Dr also said that there is a good chance that if I have it out it could help my motion sickness, which would be amazing!    Right now I am getting car sick way too often and I HATE it.  To me being nauseous and vomiting is like the worst thing in the world.  I avoid it at all possible costs.  Now I have to get up way early on Wednesday morning and head to the hospital to have an abdominal ultrasound.  They are checking for gallstones and I guess whatever else they can find or might be wrong in there.  So now I am all stressed, blech.

This morning I managed to get a lot done before work this afternoon!
- I dragged my butt out of bed early
- Talked to my Dr's office and scheduled my ultrasound
- Showered
- Worked on our budget
- Got the boys up, dressed, fed, and took the sheets off Oliver's bed because he wet through
- Took them to the grocery store to do some shopping including picking up something for dinner (yay me for thinking ahead)

I am pretty worn out now.  Work wasn't too bad though, we got new registers installed and I am excited about that ( I am such a dork!)  But they are so much better than our ancient systems were.  They are all touch screen and can do so much more, and are a lot faster.

This weekend should be lots of fun! Tomorrow is errand day, and I think we are going to take the boys to get haircuts.  It will be Owynn's first and Oliver's second.  I also need to do some grocery shopping and laundry.  Sunday though we are heading over to P&W's for a giant poker tournament.  I am super excited about that, plus we have a friend who is in town for the week from St. Louis!  It's going to be a lot of fun.  Well I suppose I should be off to bed, I have a long couple of days ahead of me.  I don't get the benefit of a long weekend, Monday is my holiday to work.  Which is ok, I volunteered for it, and it means I don't have to work 4th of July or Labor Day.  Oh no, Oliver woke up, night!   

Monday, May 21, 2012

Yay it's the Weekend!

Post from Friday that I just managed to get up:

This week has been super busy at work, but it was nice to only have a 4 day week.  I volunteered to work last Saturday so I got Monday off in exchange.  From the way my co-workers described Monday, I think I got the better end of the deal.  
They are doing a ton of construction at the intersection where my work is located.  They are putting in this ridiculous 4 lane rotary.  There is such a large amount of traffic that goes through the intersection and rotaries here are just not common.  I don't know what the city was thinking, it's a giant accident waiting to happen.  Today they decided to block one entrance to my job entirely and one most of the way.  It is very difficult to get there now.  The easiest way open is back behind the building through a large residential neighborhood.  It's just one giant mess.  

Today was such a long day though.  I stayed up super late last night because I just wasn't sleepy.  It was around 2am and I was just starting to doze on the couch, when I hear Oliver crying.  He was making this awful cry that I had never heard before, so I went rushing in.  He was just fine, but oh man did I have a hard time getting him to go back to sleep.  We finally made it to bed around 5am.  *YAWN*

Friday, May 18, 2012

Our Twins are Too Cute for Their Own Good

The boys have been acting super cute lately.  They do things that are frustrating, but I love them to pieces and can't stay upset for very long.  Case in point; I was changing Oliver's very poopy diaper yesterday and just after I had finished cleaning him up Owynn distracted me.  Oliver quickly rolled over and started to crawl away, but then he just stopped mid-crawl.  Then he started peeing on both himself and the carpet (awesome), but then he looks at me like "what did I just do?"  I really am starting to think we need to think about potty training soon.

The other day the boys got into the package of baby wipes, I couldn't get mad though.  I looked over and Oliver was trying to clean himself and Owynn was trying to clean Oliver.  Apparently they have picked up on my slightly obsessive hand and face washing.  You could say I am somewhat of a germaphobe.   I used some hand sanitizer earlier tonight (5/16) and Owynn started rubbing his hands together while watching me.  They will also try to clean their hands and faces after eating if I give them a baby wipe.  They are still too little to be anything but adorable while trying to do it.

(5/17):  Last night when we put the boys to bed we couldn't find Oliver's little Pooh rattle.  So John went out to the living room to look for it.  When he came back into the boys' room he found me looking under Oliver's crib, Oliver looking under their little set of shelves, and Owynn looking under the changing table.  They are starting to copy what we do quite a bit. 
I had this "conversation" with Oliver yesterday:
Me: mama
Oliver: dada dada dada
Me: mama
Oliver: dada dada dada
Me: mama
Oliver: dada dada dada
Me: cheese
Oliver: cheeee! 
*sigh*

 Owynn called me Mama a little bit later thankfully.  Usually the only time they call me Mama is when they hurt themselves or are really upset. 

They are so good about bed time too.  We tell them that it's bedtime and Owynn wants me to pick him up while Oliver toddles into his room and over to his crib.  Even when Oliver doesn't want to go to bed, he toddles into his room crying all the way.

During football season John and my MIL were trying to teach the boys to raise their arms for touchdowns.  Well we were watching baseball the other day, with Owynn in my lap all of a sudden he lifts his arms up for a touchdown.  I giggled, I said it was the wrong sport, but good job anyways.

I don't think they'll have any problem providing us with an endless supply of cute.  =) 

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Our House is Falling Apart

Early early Wednesday morning as we were getting ready for bed our toilet decided to EPICLLY overflow.  At least it was clean water, well you know, as clean as water can get coming from the toilet.  I was in the other room when I realized it was happening; and then it took a couple minutes for my brain to start working again.  We finally managed to get the water turned off, but not before it completely flooded our bathroom and absolutely soaked the carpet outside the bathroom.  John had to make a quick trip to the store for a plunger at 2am; I had thrown ours out when we moved cities.  We finally got it fixed though.  After that I was so wound up I decided to throw in a load of dishes because sleep wasn't going to happen any time soon.  Well then the dishwasher decided to break too.  It made these horrible horrible noises and sounded like it was trying to eat our dishes.  The plastic part at the bottom that moves and sprays the water just broke in two.  *ugh*

John's parents were so awesome in helping us deal with the clean up here.  They brought over our carpet cleaner so John could suction up all the water.  And John's mom took to boys for the afternoon so John could do clean up while I was working.  I have guilt sometimes about working so much and being away from home.  But I know John has a tough job too, staying home and taking care of the boys, he also gets the brunt of the housework. On days like these I feel bad for John with all he has to deal with at home and it seems like I have the easy job at work.  Although I'd be lying if I didn't say I have plenty of bad days at work too.  Parenting in general isn't an easy job whether working or staying at home.  Especially with two, but as I heard it put, having twins is like winning the lottery.  I wouldn't change it for the world.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Pageviews, Surveys, Epic Poop

I'm at almost 500 page views, woohoo!  For currently being a blog I'm writing for myself, family, and close friends, I am pretty happy about this.  Also this is post #31,  here's to hoping for more page views and many more posts more often!

My work has been really pushing for everyone to fill out our optional employee satisfaction survey.  Apparently the powers that be have been pushing management quite a bit to get as many employees to fill out the survey as possible.  The front page of the survey makes it clear that it is both optional and you will not be subject to any negative consequences for not filling out the optional survey.  Ugh!  Anyways, I filled out my survey because I am hopeful that maybe my opinion will actually mean something.  In general I think they asked us some pretty good questions, but at the end they let you leave your own comments.  I guess they only want to hear so much from you though, because they limit how much you can write.  I had 4 main points I wanted to get across.

1-We need more budget hours.  We offer lots of great services for our patients, but our hours have been slashed a shocking amount.  The majority of the time we just don't have the time to take to offer and explain services, etc. to the patients.  We are too busy doing our normal work, and we fall behind on that daily
2- Our dress code.  About a year and a half ago our company decided to change our attire from business casual to scrubs.  I think they are trying to make us look more medical than we actually are.  I think it just looks sloppy.  I feel like I am wearing pajamas to work every day and not in a good way.
3-Advancement within the company.  I wish there were more opportunities, well any, for advancement.  There is if I want to go back to school for several years, but I don't want to do what I would have to go to school for.  (Nicely vague huh?)  I have been working at my current job for just over 8 years.  I hit as far as I could go 5 years ago.  Back then there were higher positions I could strive for, but they eliminated that a few years ago in another one of their many budget cuts.  (Which makes me even angrier about our large amount of Super Bowl Ads in 2011).
4-Pay Increase.  I understand that I didn't go to school to do my job (some states do require this though).  In my department there are 2 levels of workers.  Those "professionals" who went to school to learn this.  They are considered in charge, they are much more medically knowledgeable, and are legally allowed to counsel patients, and review everything that the people on my level do.  We do A LOT though.  We handle the majority of patient interactions, fill hundreds of orders a day, do a lot of inventory work, etc...  But there is an enormous pay gap.  So much so, that I honestly don't think my pay will cover my long term goals of being able to buy a bigger car when we decide to expand our family and eventually buy a house.

A lot of this adds up to a nice realization that this isn't the type of job you can consider a career.  Unless a lot of things change, eventually I am going to have to find something better or go back to school, or both.  (Although the outlook for current college grads seems pretty bleak.  Huge student loan debt and small job prospects.)

Last Thursday I was having a pretty stressful day at work.  At least I thought I was until I called John while on my lunch break.  Our a/c had been out for several days and it was wicked hot in our apartment.  We had been putting the boys to bed in just t-shirts because of the heat.  Well when John went in to get the boys out of bed he discovered that Oliver had managed to take his diaper off.  When he walked in Oliver was in the process of peeing on his bed.  Apparently there was also poop everywhere.  We had to strip his bed, wash his favorite teddy bear, sanitize his crib, and give him a bath.  Poor John got the brunt of it, and I guess it was pretty awful.  I can only imagine, oh man.  It made my bad day at work seem not so bad.  To make matters worse Oliver did this on the morning the landlord came over to fix the a/c!  

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Oh A/C How I Miss You!

Our a/c has been acting up again.  It is way too hot in here, way too hot!  The a/c went out just before our vacation, but the landlord came and fixed it.  Now it's out again.  Up until this week it hasn't been too bad, but we've been in the 80's this week and we are looking at hitting the 90's the next couple of days.  It is going to be absolutely miserable if we don't get our a/c back before then.  The landlord's son came by Tuesday to look at it, then they came by today (Wednesday)  to try and fix it.  There is something wrong with the motor and are coming back tomorrow to see if they can get it running right. 

I don't know how much longer I can handle this.  How do people without a/c deal?  I wonder how people lived before a/c was invented.  Ugh!  At least I can escape the heat for awhile during work.  Poor John and the boy's, they are stuck at home all day dealing with the heat. 

Here's to hoping we get our a/c back tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Back to Life, Back to Reality

We got back to Lincoln Thursday April 19 from our wonderful trip to NY.  Things here have been crazy since we got back, and are finally starting to settle down a little.  John got some sort of vertigo a couple days after we got back and has been super dizzy ever since.  After a trip to the ER and a visit to our awesome Dr., John is finally starting to feel a little better.  I only ended up working 3 days last week, so this is my first full week back at work.  Well hopefully.  

The boys are doing great.  They just had their check-up; Oliver is 22lbs and Owynn is 20lbs!  They are getting so big!  Owynn started walking while we were away and now my little babies are officially toddlers.  Toddlers!  They are pretty cute walking around though.  =)  They caught a little cold at the end of our trip, and still have a bit of a runny nose.  

We are finally starting to catch up from our trip.  I actually managed to do some decent grocery shopping yesterday.  All of our laundry is done, although some still needs to be put away.  I really need to find the time to pack up more clothes the boys have outgrown.  They had a huge growth spurt recently and now don't fit into a whole lot.  Our a/c is broken and it's been pretty yucky.  It broke before we left and thought our landlord fixed it.  But it didn't solve the problem.  When we got back we had some nice cooler weather, but we hit almost 90 today and it's been pretty hot in here.  I really hope he can fix it tomorrow, it's supposed to be really hot the rest of the week.  None of us have been sleeping as well as normal since it's been so super hot.  

I finally feel like I'm back in the swing of things, but we still have plenty to do around the house.  Today was a super fun day at work.  I "opened" this morning and pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  One of our main computers and printers went down, with the printer being down all day.  Our maintenance people will be out eventually to fix them, you know, whenever that will be.  And we were so crazy busy, it was gross.  But I guess at least it made the day go by fast.  I am ready for the weekend already, and tomorrow is only Wednesday.  Last week I was strongly encouraged to take an "optional" employee satisfaction survey, so I did.  At the end they give you a place where you can express your opinions, but apparently they only want to hear so much from you.  I was expressing myself quite nicely when I abruptly came to the end of what they would let me type.  

Well it's late, I suppose I should be off to bed.  Happy May!