A Day in the Life...

So, I have seen some people post what a day in their life is like and I have loved reading them, so I thought this would be fun to record for me too. Read if you would like, if not, come back another day.

A day in the life of Kim:

6:30 am- alarm clock goes off. Hit snooze button no less than four times.

6:50 am- roll out of bed, get dressed, and do a little exercise (note: I do not normally get up and exercise, but Devin and I are attempting to be better. I might even make a chart, since when something is in chart form, it is basically set in stone for me. It makes me uneasy to see things not checked off on the charts. Case in point: We made a chore chart for ourselves about 5 or 6 weeks ago and our house has been much cleaner since. Why? I can't stand to see that day's chore not checked off. Weird, I know.) Oh boy. If my tangents are going to be this long, this post is going to take days. Again, feel free to skip. :)

7:16 am- pant, red-faced around the front room while trying to regain some semblance of normalcy after my exercise attempt.

7:25 am- eat with the kids- pancakes that Devin has lovingly cooked during my absence

7:40-8:15am- put Flor on the potty and get Jace in the tub. Order Jace to sit down. Tell Flor not to eat toilet paper. Ask Hallie to get her pajamas off so that she can get in the tub next. Tell Jace to sit down. Wash and get Jace out of the tub. Get him dressed. Get Hallie into the tub. Wash her. Try to get her out, but she instead insists on staying in to play for a while. Finally persuade Hallie to get out of the tub. Cheer for Flor as she goes potty. Get Flor in the tub. Get Flor washed and out of the tub. Tell both naked girls to sit tight while I run downstairs to get them some clothing. Oops, should have brought that up before. (Devin was not here for this morning. He normally is for this routine, but he had some things he needed to do, which made it that much less smooth for me.) Get Flor dressed. Get Hallie dressed. Work on Flor's hair. Tell Jace to get off the stool. Answer Hallie's questions about death and the resurrection (she is on the topic of death these days. How sad that her little 3 year old mind has to comprehend it on the level she does. She had a lot of questions about Jesus' death and Linda's death.) Continue working on Flor's hair. Tell Jace to stop taking everything out of the bathroom drawers and throwing it in the sink.

8:24am- Finish Flor's hair as I hear the bus pull up. Throw her shoes on as well as her backpack and run her out the door. A few seconds later realize that her teeth were never brushed. Double oops. (Many apologies to Flor's teachers- I know firsthand that her breath is not the best.)

8:26 am- Do Hallie's hair to her exact specifications. Brush Hallie's and Jace's teeth. 2 for 3 aint bad in the teeth brushing department, or so I tell myself.

8:30am- read the newspaper/news online/check facebook. Hallie and Jace are roaming freely around the house.

9:00 am- Put Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on for Hals and put Jace down for a nap.

9:03 am- I strip the beds, gather the rugs, and get the old towels and take them downstairs to be washed (remember the chore chart? This is today's chore for me.)

9:10 am- consider making the beds right away but decide against it. (just for the record- Devin did the beds later. Plus his own chore of deep cleaning the kitchen. Good husband, eh?)

9:15 am- finally bathe my stinking self.

9:59 am- after dilly dallying around, talking to Devin (who has since returned) and reading a little, I decide that I ought to do my hair and get ready to go to work.

10:16 am- show up at work. I know, I can get ready fast.

10:18 am- listen to voicemails and return clients' calls. Enjoy especially talking to one of my former birth moms who placed 2 plus years ago. I haven't heard from her in forever. Love hearing that she is doing so well.

10:40 am- respond to emails/talk to secretary/ check in with boss.

11:00 am- begin a 3 hour Ethics CEU webinar. Snooooooooooooooze. Play games on my phone to occupy my time. Chat with Camille online while listening to said Webinar. Write two sentences on my pad of paper (for the entire three hours-- obviously an insightful webinar). Get up. Walk around. Eat lunch. Make jokes with boss and other boss about how terrible webinar is. Play more games on my phone. Draw a little. Consider getting the crayons out of the cupboard and coloring a picture for Hallie. Become very glazed over. Get really antsy when the webinar runs 3 minutes over.

2:12 pm- pack up my junk and hurry out to the car. I was supposed to be at Flor's school to meet with her teacher at 2:10.

2:14 pm- (I drive fast. The school is nearby. Don't judge.) Run up the stairs at the school in my skirt. Arrive panting in front of Flor's classroom door with teacher standing there eying me suspiciously.  Mumble out my lame excuse for being late.

2:19 pm- Meeting with Flor's teacher and the speech therapist to go over all her recent testing results. All tests say that Flor is between 12- 18 months. Laugh with teacher that the state is requiring her to have an IQ test in order to get disability services. (Apparently the psychologist tried to give the test just to meet the requirement and it was a great joke.) Discuss plans for Flor for summer. Discuss Flor's progress (great progress!!)

2:49 pm- Ignore call from Devin. Hurry and end conversation and run out the door.

2:53 pm- Call Devin back and inform him that I am on my way. Yes, I know he has to be at work at 3 pm.

2:58 pm- Pick Devin, Hals, and Jace up. Rush Devin to work.

3:06 pm- Drop by the bank.

3:20 pm- Pick Flor up from school. (usually she rides the bus, but we were out and about doing errands, so I thought I would just pick her up so we didn't have to go home to get her at 4.)

3:34 pm- Call my sister while making our way to Costco. Tell Jace not to stick his sticky hands on things (thank you bank suckers). Tell Hallie no that we are not watching a movie in the car. Discuss Relay for Life ideas with sister. Tell Hallie that we are not watching a movie in the car. Discuss our crazy family with sister. Tell Hallie that NO, we are NOT watching a movie in the car!

3:44 pm- arrive at Costco. End conversation with sister. Park at the very end of the lot as nothing else is available and start making the trek to the front of the store. Adjust arm. Jace is heavy, arm is dead. Order Hallie to hold on to my pants. Hold Flor's hand. Move one inch per minute. Steady progress...

3:47 pm- Still inching along. See friend I haven't seen in years drive up. Start getting giddy with excitement. (This friend went to Ecuador with me and hasn't seen Flor since she has been home...plus she has two boys that she is adopting herself right now.) Wait for friend to park. Talk to friend. Block traffic. Finally decide to keep walking into the store. Some poor lady offers me a cart for my herd of kids. Gladly accept cart. Throw Jace in the front and Hallie and Flor in the back.

3:59 pm- Say goodbye to friend and go about our shopping. Tell Flor not to pull Hallie's hair. Tell Hallie that no we are not getting ice cream. Tell Hallie to sit down. Console Jace with allowing him to hold my costco card.  Find one item that is needed. Tell Hallie that no, we are not getting ice cream.

4:02 pm- Hallie wails that she needs to go to the bathroom. NOW. Of course we are on the opposite end of the store. Rush to the front. Run into friend also going into the bathroom with her kids. Unload all three kids and rush into the bathroom. Attempt to hold on to both Flor and Jace while holding Hallie's door shut. Notice that Flor is missing a shoe. Awesome.

4:05 pm- Help Hallie wash her hands. Adjust Jace. Arm hurts REALLY bad now. (this kid needs to start walking)

4:06 pm- Find Flor's shoe on the way back to our cart. Shove kids all back into the cart and resume shopping. Remind Hallie to sit down.

4:07 pm- Tell Hallie that no, we are not getting ice cream. Speed shop. Throw everything in the cart that we need. Last item- diapers. Shove hallie into a tiny corner of the cart and move Flor up front to fit. Tell Flor not to hit Jace (it's more like love taps but he doesn't interpret them that way). Tell Hallie that no, we are not getting ice cream.

4:35 pm- Find a line and high tail it out of there. Console whining child who is mad that we didn't get to write our names on a balloon (Primary Children's Fundraiser and the lady didn't ask us if we wanted to donate, probably because her bagger man was reading a book and telling me all about it and she couldn't get a word in edge wise.) Tell Hallie that she can be my big helper and carry the receipt instead. She thinks this is a great idea and takes her job very seriously.

4:40 pm- Get kids buckled in car and get in the mega long line to get gas.

4:54 pm- Tell Hallie that no we are not going to watch a movie in the car. Ask her to look for the Temple instead. She misses it. She pouts. Ask her to look for mom's work instead. She misses it. She pouts. Ask her to look for the place where she goes to computer class instead. She sees that one and is happy again. (Seriously the moods of this child???)

5:00 pm- Haul the groceries inside. Put Flor on the potty. Rescue Jace from almost falling off the concrete landing. Ask Hallie to get the mail. Put groceries away. Stick soup on the stove to heat up. (We have a bunch of frozen meals again-- my sanity-- since Che', Landon, and I re-stocked a few weeks ago. See picture for evidence...I never did post this. It's only a portion of the final amount. WAHOO for frozen meals!!)

5:06 pm- Cut up some bread and some cheese to go with dinner. Check on Flor. She has gone potty-- yay Flor! Remind Flor not to eat toilet paper. Clean up everything that Jace has pulled out of bathroom drawers and thrown in the sink.

5:17 pm- Get kids up to the table to eat dinner. Kids all actually eat...feed themselves and don't whine, so I get a minute to decompress.

5:50 pm- Put Flor on potty. Clean up dinner dishes. Unload dishwasher. Load dirty dishes. Wipe counters. Sweep floor (this is a nearly every meal occurrence...we have really dirty eaters.)

6:05 pm- Tell hallie to get pajamas for herself and Flor. Change Jace's diaper and get him into pajamas. Ask Hallie to get pajamas. Ask Hallie to get pajamas.

6:10 pm- Brush everyone's teeth. Flor's get an extra good scrubbing because of our oversight this morning. She is none to happy about this. Console Flor. Dress girls.

6:17 pm- Read stories/scriptures. Remind Hallie to sit down so everyone can see.  Flor acts disinterested but sits still. Jace is who knows where. Remind Hallie to sit down so that Flor can see.

6:40 pm- Clean up items that Jace has emptied out of his drawer. Change Jace's diaper again as he stinks. Wasted diaper...ugh.

6:45 pm- Loves and kisses from everyone for Jace and then Jace is in bed.

6:47 pm- rock Hallie in the rocking chair and sing hymns/Primary Songs to her very off key (we have started rocking Flor at night for bonding purposes/helping her be comfortable with physical touch for longer periods of time, so of course Hallie insists upon a turn too.)

6:53 pm- rock Flor in the rocking chair while repeating off key singing. (Poor girls.)

7:00 pm- get Hallie and Flor into their beds and tuck them in. Loves and kisses for all.

7:01 pm- answer Hallie's five questions as I am walking out her door. Tell her no, she doesn't need a bowl to throw up in (she is not sick, she just asks for a bowl every night "just in case.") Tell Hallie she will have to save her next five questions for tomorrow. Tell Flor not to suck her fingers. Make my exit.

7:04 pm- eat a large brownie. I deserve it.

7:08 pm- turn on the TV for some mindless viewing while I finish the rest of our thank you cards (thank for your patience everyone). Feel overwhelmed with gratitude again as I think of the over 150 people who helped us in our adoption process.

8:15 pm- done with thank you cards. Catch up on facebook, blogs, and news while continuing to watch mindless TV (Chopped is on. My favorite.)

9:00 pm- begin this post on the blog.

9:02 pm- Answer Devin's call as he is on his break at work.  Talk to him for a minute then resume blogging.

9:43 pm- remember that I never watered the pots today as I intended. Water pots.

10:04 pm- Devin is home for work. Get pajamas on, brush teeth, catch up on our days, then get in bed.

10:15 pm- read a conference talk with Devin.

10:30 pm- prayers and lights out.

10:34 pm- I'm in a deep sleep. (okay, I don't know this for fact because I haven't been able to figure out yet how to check the time while sleeping, but it's probably a good guess.)


Aaaaaaand, there it is-- a day in my life. Fairly boring, but I think it will be fun to look back on some years down the road and see what life was like with three young kids....it goes by too fast, right?