Short and Whiny

1. I feel very whiny today.  Whiny, whiny whiny.  Don't keep reading this.  Blah.  Anyway.  I'm still sick, Leo's sick, Jubal's sick.  Since the croup hit back in March, we haven't had a week without someone being sick.  I was coughing for about 3 weeks after having strep.  Then I finally got better, then a head cold struck, then a stomach bug and then back to a sore throat and cough, and now it's a head cold and stomach bug again.  My friend's little boy has "pool fever" which is spread through swimming pools among other things, and man, I really hope it doesn't spread to all my kids.  Can I stop going to swim team now?

2. Leo has been working crazy hours for the last four weeks.  He's had an awful project--underfunded, full of problems and errors and HUGE, requiring that he break it up into 7 or so pieces just to run the programs on 7 or more computers and then it takes 5 to 6 days to run, etc--anyway, you get the idea.  He's been working A LOT and that's sad.  Very sad.  And he's been sick almost as much as me--well minus the hacking  cough for 3 weeks. 

3. I did make macaroons for Leo though. First time ever. And he loved them.  Yeah!

4. Our computer is still broken, hence no cute pictures of Jubal or of Nicolas crying because he fell in the flour bucket or Sebastian with his new Viking hat.  Sorry.  We're kind of ignoring that problem right now because we really don't know what to do.  It's going to cost at least $250 in parts (not including labor) to fix and we know there's a major problem with the hardware that will cause it to fail completely eventually,  which may or may not have already occurred.  So we can't decide whether to bag it and just get a new computer or not, which boils down to new computer or trip to Canada this summer.  Right now I'm in denial except that I whine about Leo's work laptop that I steal every evening when I really have to do something on a computer (like this) which is why I'm in a whiny mood right now.  I should buck up, right?  I just miss my Mac.  Really.  Really.

5. I have 5 kids I'm teaching sewing lessons to. And one more that wants to start.  It's nice. And the extra income is extremely welcome, and a huge blessing I might add.  Sorry to get all personal, but I wanted to record this, and this might be the only time I think to do it.  Anyway, our budget has been stretched thin this spring, and I thought it was just me overspending on stuff like usual, but then when I went over our budget and receipts, it's not just that (although that's a part of it), a lot of it was just that we EAT a lot more now.  My kids are getting big.  And we were going over budget in food each month by quite a lot.  Anyway, practically the time I realized this and was getting a bit anxious, all of a sudden I had several people asking for sewing lessons. I never mentioned anything to anyone, they just came to me.  Like I said, such a a huge blessing.

5. Swim team started.  Although I want my kids to learn to swim, I don't think I'm going to do swim team ever again.  Various kids of mine are in practice everyday from 3:30 to 6:15. We don't eat dinner at night till almost 7 pm.  (Leo's been getting home at 6:30 or so too, see above #2). Our house is always messy, because I can't keep up and despite having it clean in the afternoon, everything falls to pieces once the kids get home and literally I just don't have the time (see #5 sewing lessons) or energy (see sick above #1) to keep it picked up and I HATE it.  I'm not a spotless housekeeper but over time, my house being so cluttered and our schedule so hectic makes me feel so stressed out.  Also Jubal is crazy mobile and pulls everything down, out, and over that's within his grasp.  One man destructo machine.  Sigh.  So basically I wouldn't mind swim team or the time involved IF my house was just automatically picked up.

6. It's been raining nonstop for over 3 weeks now.  We've had flood warnings and last week I got caught in one storm and was driving in water up to the bottom of the car. Yuck. I don't like bad weather driving. Our backyard is a swamp and I'm scared to go outside anywhere for fear that the mosquitoes will carry me away.

7. Leo and I did manage to go out on a date, we went to Riojas, a Spanish tapas restaurant. It was delicious.  I had beet gazpacho and perfectly cooked asparagus, and Leo had tomato gazpacho and sauteed mushrooms with Serrano peppers, and then we had heavenly breaded Spanish cheese, and bread with serrano ham, and then the best scallops I've ever tasted and some steak.  YUM!!!  It was really good.

8.  Mother's Day was awesome. The kids made Leo bring me breakfast in bed (cold cereal and milk) which Nicolas then spilled.  Sebastian wrote a little note to me in Primary, and apparently I spend all day sewing dresses, his favorite thing to do with me is cook (he does love to help me cook!) and the best think I cook is Ramen Noodles!  He also drew me a picture of a dead fish, and of a orca attacking a shark.  Awesome.  Elena said her favorite thing that I cook is Christmas chocolates.  Ahhh... And that I spend all day sewing.  Isabel's little note from Primary got lost although she did give me several others.

9. Nicolas goes everywhere skipping lately. It is adorable!  It's kind of like how people do it when they're pretending to ride a horse, with always one leg leading. So cute. Also, he loves to sing and sings more than any of my kids except for Elena. Popcorn Popping being the current favorite. I wish I could just keep him this size for 2 or 3 years.  He's the cutest toddler ever!!!

10.  I went to Ana's Spring Sport's Banquet with her.  She had a good time.  The food was catered from a Mexican restaurant and fantastic.

11. Our van door is broken and won't open.  Apparently that's common in Fords.  There's a lot of youtube videos showing how to fix it anyway.  Leo jimmied it for now and we have to yank a rope on the inside to open it.  Fun.  The side mirror on Leo's car was hit and broken off by someone while I was shopping on that particularly flooded and rainy afternoon.  So he's got that to fix too.

12. I finished the girls' sailor dresses.  They look adorable and Ana took smashing good photos of them on Sunday, which I can't post.  Lo siento.  And then they wore them to school on Monday because they liked them so much.  :)  And last night I mostly started and finished Elena's Sacajawea costume for her living history project at school.  I should have been working on it tonight too, but I just didn't want to.

13.  This has not been short, and hopefully not too whiny, but I saved the best news for last.  Leo flies out for an interview in Colorado on the 25th.  We've basically already planned our whole lives there.  I know, shouldn't get our hopes up, but it was kind of too late for that the minute he had his first interview over the phone.

Well, I need to get off to bed so I recuperate.  Good night.  Just wanted to let you know we were all still alive and haven't washed away into the Gulf of Mexico.