End of November

I am a terrible blogger. I don't know why, I have no good excuse. I wish I could keep a better record of our life!

Thanksgiving was a stressful week. I was doing a major portion of Thanksgiving dinner and my cousin and her two kids were coming up for dinner. The only bad part is that I worked smack-dab in the middle of the day (11-5) so it made it hard to manage dinner from work. Needless to say, the turkey was burnt, the stuff didn't get seasoned, and the potatoes were... well not creamy. I stressed about it all week and when it was over I felt exhausted. I worked all weekend. I am glad that I have a few days off.

Thanksgiving is always a time to reflect on what things in my life I am thankful for. I am thankful mostly for my work "family." Lately I have felt overwhelmed, overworked, and very underappreciated. I hope I can get out of this rut because I really do love my job and love the unit I work on. My other nurses take such good care of me and are such good listeners. I love the demographic and type of patients I care for. Nursing can be really rewarding.

I am thankful for my sweet husband and beautiful daughter. How great is family and the fact that we'll be together forever!? I don't know how some people go through life wondering about that. I am thankful for the gospel. I am also grateful for the tangible things in my life: car, house, food storage, and a comfy bed!

Sophie is a crawling machine. She acts like it was no big deal she didn't crawl until 13 months. She has some severe stranger danger too. I don't even know what to do with her! I can't leave her with anyone it seems like, especially lately she just clings to me. Poor girl. I don't know how to help her get past that. We've been doing a toddler formula in place of milk since she had so many problems. She's had a month long diaper rash though from it. I want to transition off it. We've been doing just one measly ounce A DAY for almost a week and she's already borderline constipated. I'm just trying to balance her out with lots of fruit and water. We haven't had any major problems, and since her stools are more formed, her diaper rash has gotten so much better. We stopped using cloth diapers when it got really bad thinking it may have something to do with it... it didn't. We were using disposables with tons of diaper cream and it never got better. I'm SO glad to be back to cloth! I don't know why but disposables just seem so... icky. Paper underwear (no thanks)! I tried one off ebay (Sunbaby). They are very cheap (5.50) but I was actually really impressed.

We love our new house. It's so nice having a garage vs. carport! We painted our living room and I love it. I am going to try to paint Sophie's room this week. I have OCD so painting can prove difficult because I am such a perfectionist! The snow lately has been crazy! We have these two random cats that have shown up the last week. They are definitely not someone's pet. I've seen them slinkin around before. I made the mistake of throwing out some leftovers a couple days ago so now they come and sit by my back sliding door... all night and most of the day. They just look at me. They try to get in if I open the door so it's kinda buggin me, but I have a soft spot in my heart for animals so it's hard! I don't know what to do about them. They could never be inside cats, I'll tell ya that much, but I don't want to be mean to them and I also feel bad they looks so skinny. I worry about calling the pound because I know they euthanize a TON of cats... I remember hearing a statistic when I volunteered at the Humane Society about that.

We went to visit my sweet Grandpa this last week. He's really gone downhill since my Grandma past away. I wish I visited with him more. It's super funny that Sophie LOVES him... she's probably been around him less than 10 times but she never is scared of him! In fact she let him hold her and pretty soon I look over and she was laying back on him eating his popcorn watching America's Funniest Home Videoes. I couldn't believe it! My cousin had her baby over. Sophie didn't want ANYTHING to do with him. She kept poking her finger at him. At one point, for a 'picture moment' we had her hold him while my Grandpa held them. She started fussing and pushing him off her, haha! She's such a little stinker, I just love her!