I Hate January. (Officially)

Here we are seven days into February and I can already tell that the month is going to be far more kind to our family than January.  I can say for certain that I got a real test of just how hard it is being a working mother.  I had the ability to stay home with my children for seven years, so I have never had to experience just how hard it really is.  I can say right now that I have the utmost respect for those mothers that have known nothing different than being a working mother.  It is NOT easy. Not even a little bit.  I had it pretty easy being a working mom for the first four months on my new career path, but January showed no mercy to me in this area.  With January comes snow, cold, inversions, and above all... ILLNESS!   If its going around, you can bet that my family was hit with it in January.  Poor Sam receiving the brunt of it.  Being a working mom, accompanied by sick kids, and a job that has a lot of responsibility hanging overhead daily made for a very high stress month.  So high stress that I'll admit I had a meltdown.  Not just a minor scream and quickly pull it together meltdown, but rather a sink into a kitchen chair, look around at my house in shambles, glance and my super sick boy, and sob uncontrollably.  A meltdown caused by feeling so helpless and overwhelmed.  The lack of sun didn't make it any easier.  Bill and the kids sat back and watched this meltdown unfold and quickly came to my rescue.  Dishes got done, floor got vacuumed, and I relaxed a little.  Bill shared in the stay at home with sick kids duties, along with help from some awesome family.  I seriously wouldn't have made it through this month had it not been for those so willing to tend to my responsibilities while I was unable to.  My kids come first, Always, but when you have an additional 40+ kids who count on you everyday its really hard to juggle.  The mommy in me just wanted to be home with my boy, but the responsible teacher me knew that I had to make that sacrifice of leaving him with someone else in order to pull through for those students and paying parents.  What hit me the hardest this month was those times that I couldn't be home caring for my boy.  I felt anxious and antsy every second I had to spend away from him and not because I didn't trust those who were doing the tending, but because I know that it's just not the same as when Mom is there offing the snuggles and administering the meds.  I felt guilty with every passing minute.  I knew that these sick kids moments would happen, I just didn't anticipate it to the extent that it hit us in January.  Really, what kid gets Influenza, Strep, and Scarlet Fever in under a two week span?  It just wasn't fair.  All this now past us and everyone in the household on the mend, I have yet to reach the point of "look back and laugh about it."  Not sure I ever will.  January did not treat us well and now that I look back on all the January's I can recall I don't think they have ever treated me well.  I am sure many can agree that January is hands down the hardest month to get through, but I have never until now had that overwhelming hatred for a four week span of time.  I hate January, and I now think I ALWAYS will.  

On another note... It's now February.  Valentines day is creeping up VERY quickly.  What do you have planned for the loves in your life?  I've been pulling together several festive things in my world.  14 days of gifting for the kids and then their valentines for school.  They are coming together well and I CAN'T WAIT to unveil the finished products.  

Utah, The new Alaska....

Okay, some may think that comment is a bit of an exaggeration, but in all seriousness it's SO NOT.

One of my nearest and dearest girlfriends lives in Alaska and their temperatures have been "quite pleasant." For a now acclimated Alaskan pleasant means like mid 40's.  

That's not my definition of pleasant, but right now with what we have been given I'll gladly take mid 40's.

Hell, I'd gladly take mid 30's.  

Without fail, for weeks now, one or more of my car doors have been frozen shut (more often all of the doors too).  And not just frozen shut in the morning... they are frozen shut within minutes of shutting the car off.  So you know that quick 10 minute grocery store stop... Yep, come back out to doors frozen shut.

It's just plain old miserably cold.

I can't handle the cold.

If you have crossed my path in the recent weeks you will know that my entire moods have shifted.  Mind you they have shift to a not so pleasant me, and to those who have been so unfortunate to cross my path... I truly am sorry. HA! You would think I would have smartened up by now and move on to an environment where I don't have to deal with the cold.  In all fairness however, it's not very often that we are dealing with sub-freezing temps for weeks on end here in Utah.  Granted we do get those few days of super cold temps, that quickly turn back around.  Normally we spend the winter in the mid 30's, NOT consistent single digits often turning to the negatives.  

It's just plain cruel.  

All of it.

Including the unwelcome amount of snow that is sitting in my yard.  That foot of snow that fell a couple weeks ago had yet to show signs of melting (okay, maybe it did a little) before we got this added 13-14 inches over the weekend.  What's even more unfortunate is that the kids are all so excited to see all the new white stuff, but it's too dang cold to even enjoy it for more than 5 minutes.  Who can make a decent snowman in 5 minutes?  Oh, and just so you know... My dear friend in Alaska (Anchorage to be exact) has had a WHOPPING total of 9 inches of snow this winter.  

Can you tell I'm just over it? 

Wanna know what sent me over the edge and on this rant about how gosh dang cold it is?

This morning we were frozen IN our house.  Yes, no lie.  Our doors were frozen shut.  Not just one of them... ALL of them.  Thankfully I have a strong husband that was able to strong arm those doors open.

Wanna know what else?  

Oh yeah, you know what else... I didn't get my garbage out to the road this morning either...

Why you ask?

My gate is frozen shut too!

I swear to you all, mark my word, if I hear the word drought spoken this summer here in Utah I WILL spit nails.  In NO WAY should those words be thought let alone spoken this year.  

I'm seriously considering a vacation to some place warmer...

Maybe Alaska?

Or maybe even to Western New York to see my family?

It is after all in the 60's there.  

Okay, rant over.

Until next time anyway...

Tomlin's Go Ice Skating...

New years eve we had passes for the SLCeve event downtown.  This event is basically a huge party with a variety of activities for all ages at various locations downtown.  All within a few blocks of one another.  Tracks runs free downtown that night (may even be every weekend night actually) so you basically hop on and ride from location to location to check it all out.  We stayed close to the Gateway mall the majority of the time as this is where all the kid friendly stuff was taking place.  Unfortunately for us, we weren't really aware that the kid new years countdown ended at 7pm and that the insane amount of people would really limit what the kids could participate in.  Face painting line was a minimum of an hour long... just for some amateurs to paint a firework on their face?  Crazy.  The room with the light bright and glowing mega blocks was so small that the kids (and adults) were feeling very crowded and anxious to get out of there. We did spend a fair amount of time at Discovery Gateway, but even that place was a crazy disaster.  What it boils down to is that by the time 7pm rolled around and the kid stuff fizzled out we were left with two very antsy kids who had yet had their fill of fun for the night.  We decided to check out the movies playing at Clark Planetarium as they were playing about every half hour to 45 min, and they went late into the night.  These movies just so happened to be included in our passes.  Unfortunately for us again, it wasn't made known at the time of purchase that these tickets were limited and that you had to reserve your movie ahead of time. This meant we didn't get to see a movie either.  My mom purchased the tickets and at this point she was very frustrated at the waste of money they were.  All they did for us really was get us into discovery gateway for the kids to drop one plastic ball into the air lifting thing, play in the water with some broken boats, color on a color wheel with some already used paper, and make a party hat with minimal supplies.  Eventually we did venture down to temple square.  We enjoyed an exciting first time ride on the trax train and wandered around enjoying the Christmas light display.  We even were able to catch a little mini-concert as we were warming our toes in one of the buildings there at temple square.  New Years eve really wasn't a total bust.  We enjoyed one another's company very much and in the end it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable experience.  Wasted money aside.  

That night though, what my kids really wanted to do was to go to the Galivan Center and ice skate out on their outdoor rink.  I knew after already having been allowed to do very little with our tickets due to crowd that if we were to attempt the ice skating the kids would just be let down again.  It wasn't worth it to fight the cold (15 degrees mind you) any longer to show up and the rink be at full capacity as I knew it would be.  So instead we wrapped up the night early, headed back to our car on trax, and arrived home just before 11pm with two kids that were already zonked out for the night.  

Because they had to miss out on the ice skating that night I decided that this weekend I would take them to an indoor rink not to far from our house.  I unfortunately woke that morning feeling under the weather, but pushed through and took them anyway.  They didn't know what we were doing, I only informed them I had a surprise.  They spent the morning Saturday trying to guess what their surprise was.  At different points in the morning both kids expressed that they hoped we were going ice skating.  Little did they know they guessed right, but they didn't really think that a mom with a cough would take them to the cold.

We headed out to the ice skating rink, where Grammy and Uncle Bronson were going to meet us.  The kids didn't know they were coming either.  

Upon arriving we were greeted by a huge billboard of a speed skater.  Immediately they knew that we were indeed going ice skating.  While Brenna was jumping up and down in the back seat screaming "THANK YOU MOMMY!" over and over agian, Sam thanked me with a big kiss!

It's good to know your kids appreciate your efforts and there is no better way to express that than with some loves for Mommy.

The kids had so much fun.  Brenna just hopped right on that ice and took off on her own, circling that rink over and over and over again.  Sam remained a bit timid and just couldn't get his balance so I rented him a little walker to assist him and after that he took off just like his sissy.  Eventually he got brave enough, with a little boosted confidence, and ventured out without the walker and did remarkably well.  They both thought that their pre-fall twist, turns, and tumbles were real ice skating tricks and that it was pretty cool they could do tricks without even trying. HA! We spent a good couple hours skating.  Neither of the kids wanted to leave and both suggested that we come back again the next day.  This is definitely a repeat activity for our family, only next time I will insist that Dad join us.

Who else wants to join us?

It was a great weekend.  Today Bill took the kids to the gun show with his Dad (Grandpa T.), while I am stuck in bed with a miserable cough, headache, and itching ears.  The invisible heavyweight that is sitting on my chest is welcome to leave anytime (preferably NOW!)