Long time, no post

So some of you may have noticed I've been MIA.

I have been utterly swamped at work. We're moving 4000 shelves worth of stuff and swapping 3 floors worth of stacks and that involves a LOT of me planning. I think today is the first time I've actually taken a lunch break in over a month.

On the home front, we've been busy. I don't know how it happened but we've had something going on every weekend since Thanksgiving and we're already booked half way through February. Yikes!

I do, however, have a couple of long weekends coming up and I promise I will post some new pictures of the family from Christmas. They were so cute for St. Nick. Ryker went "OOO" when stuff "magically" appeared out of his stocking. He also really loves the Christmas trees and snowmen that we have all over the house.

We've also been gearing Xander up for the big potty training push that is coming next weekend (when we have some time). Here's praying that we can be successful!

So that's where I've been. I think my new year's resolution should probably be to take more time for myself (like lunch maybe?).

Recent Events

Ok, so I've been offline for a while as my whole world turned topsy-turvy. Jason spent much of the last month in New York but part of the topsy-turviness is that he started a new job today. Yay! A new job with almost no travel and at least no travel for the foreseeable future. So our life should start looking a little less stressful.

In other arenas:

• we did massive Christmas decorating this weekend. It was fun. It is really starting to get me in the Holiday spirit.
• Ryker is chatting up a storm. He's learning new words everyday and merrily stringing them together
• Xander has started to tell us when he needs his diaper changed. There is hope that he'll be potty trained someday.

I in the mean time have been utterly swamped at work. I'm looking forward to Val getting back in January. To add to my things to do at work list, I'm leading a massive three floor rearrangement over Winter Break. (I think I'm just crazy).

See you all in the loony bin!

Halloween Pic's

The blank stares were the best we could get.
But they were still pretty cute, don't you think?

We also carved pumpkins which turned out beautiful... All in all a pretty successful Halloween.

The highlights of the week.

We had a fabulous Halloween. The boys went trick or treating and had a jolly good time (even though it was really cold).
Yesterday Ryker was sick, today I wasn't feeling great and stayed home. Which was apparently a good thing since my hubby called at 10am to let me know that he's leaving for New York today. That's right folks, no one could make a decision about whether or not he was going until 3 hours before he actually left. GRR. Not been a good week.

Pray for me, because this weekend is not going to be pleasant.

I'm lucky I love my job

Because I hate my husband's. Ok, you may be thinking that I'm exaggerating but Jason got home last night and we had the following conversation:
J- how was work?
A- Good. Why? How was your day? (I'm suspicious because he doesn't usually start off with this unless something bad is coming)
J- Ok, but you're going to be mad...
A- So when do you have to leave?
J- Probably Thursday.

OK. It's that answer that drives me batty. The fact that no one at his job is capable of planning ahead. So I have literally two days to rearrange our entire life because he's going to be gone...again. I know I should be happy that he has a job but I really don't like it when he's gone and the boys don't like it either. When J got back last week Ryker snubbed him for a day and a half. ARG. Plus Ryker is getting a cold and I'm swamped at work and when he's gone over the weekend it just makes it so much worse.

But I'm going to try to be cheery today because it is my FAVORITE holiday and I am the BatGirl!

Why I live in WI

One of the major reasons we live in WI is because that's where our extended family is and they come in really handy sometimes. Like when Jason's gone. Mom came last night and it was good. She helped distract the boys and give them a bath and helped me regain the sanity that's been eroding ever since Jason left. If all goes well, he'll be home tomorrow and my sanity can come back.
Ryker "talked" to Jason on the phone the last two nights. This was very funny. It involved a lot of Jason talking and Ryker pulling the phone away to look at it like "how did Daddy get into the phone?" He knew it was him though because he got a big smile and said "DA!"
Xander on the other hand understands that he gets to talk to Daddy and uses it to tell him things like "I'm playing with my blue car" and "I eat the yellow, mm-hmmm." (Yellow being banana taffy).

But I definitely appreciate the fact that our moms help out when one of us is gone for a while. It really helps relieve the pressure on the parent that's left (I went to bed exhausted on Tuesday). I wouldn't trade that for better weather or beautiful vistas. Wisconsin's just fine by me (even if I do have to bundle the boys in winter coats half way through October!)

One down, four to go

So Jason is in New York this week for work. Which means that I am flying solo with the boys. This is fine with Xander. He's a "big boy" now and understands things like "Daddy went to work on a plane" and "Daddy will be home Friday" and "Do you want to say night night to Daddy on the phone?"
Ryker, on the other hand, is convinced that I made Daddy disappear. (Because I have super powers, I really do). He makes me go through the house to prove Daddy is not home with pathetic little "da?'s" along the way. These are usually accompanied by dirty looks because obviously I would want to use my super powers to make Daddy disappear. Because having Ryker mad at me is really enjoyable. Plus he seems to be cutting some more new teeth which really makes him pleasant.
I am not cut out for single parenthood. I admit it. That second parent keeps me sane. But I made it through night one and morning one.

Only four more to go....

My Ryker

So by popular request here is a cute picture of my Ryker. You have two options: agree or agree.

The Fall TV season

So I am completely and totally addicted to television. I know, I'm a bad librarian but have you seen some of the new shows? For example, Studio 60 is great. You should check it out. It combines smart, witty writing with Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford (two of my faves). You just can't go wrong with that. The new episodes of Gilmore Girls, Lost, How I Met Your Mother and Survivor continue to suck me in. I can't help it, I am hopelessly addicted and the best part is that I can crochet or play with the kids at the same time.

So judge me if you will but I'm kicking back tonight to watch some Gilmore Girls.

Our weekend

So we had a busy little weekend. I helped my sister-in-law register for her baby shower, which was both fun and made me glad that it's not me. We then bowled in our league with said in-law's and had a great time kicking the other teams butt. We then played this: http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-J3719-UNO-Spin/dp/B000BTEC8Q/sr=8-1/qid=1159984009/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9814110-6653511?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games
Which was huge amounts of fun.

Since my folks were silly enough to take the boys Saturday night we actually managed to get some repainting done around the house. Overall a successful weekend but very busy.

I've been upgraded...

To (drumroll please) low heeled dress shoes. Now this may not be a big deal to some but to someone like me who is completely and totally addicted to shoes...well let's just say I'm happy about this development. I am one step closer to getting back into my cute work shoes (read 3 inch leather boots). But for now I'm excited to move to the 1.5 inch clogs. Hooray for physical therapy working it's magic. I still have a ways to go but I can see the end in sight and it looks good.

Well THAT was an interesting weekend

Highlights from my weekend:

1. Went to brother-in-law's housewarming, helped his wife clean up after he passed out in the bathroom. VERY funny =)

2. Stayed up half of Saturday night with Ryker because he has yet another ear infection. According to the doctor, the tubes ARE working or it would be much worse. Yippee =(

3. Took Ryker to the doctor and Walgreens on Sunday. Drove around for an hour afterwards trying to find a way home since the Fox Cities Marathon had everything blocked. Swore heavily under my breath and chewed out traffic cop.

So that was my weekend. I could do with a little less excitement!

Birthdays and therapy

September is an awful month in Carriveau-land. I'm stressed out with a hundred classes to teach to college students who "already know EVERYTHING," and nearly every member of the family has either a birthday or an anniversary (Xander, Ryan, Jason, Kelly and BOTH of our parents!) Today is Jason's 29th. Which he's fine with because he still has a year before he's 30 (and I do not). So happy birthday to my evil little husband =)

In other news, I had my second physical therapy appointment for my post-bunion removal healing and I'm doing really very well at, literally, getting back on my feet again. Which makes me very happy. With any luck I'll have to go again late next week and then I'll be done. I probably won't be back in my cute shoes but I know that day will come. After all, it's therapy not magic. =0

Happy Birthday Xander

As you can see, this year we braved the candles on the cake. He actually did really well with them. He picked the color of his dinosaur. He insisted on it being orange.

The evening before his party, Daddy decided to teach the boys to duel:

That's what I get for marrying a Star Wars fan. And yes, those are the light sabers that light up!

My Cookie Helper

Can you say: "I like my mama's cooking?"

I thought this one was adorable. He's such a good helper. He dumped all the ingredients in and helped crack the eggs.

He'll make a gourmet baker some day =)

Well, it looks like one of the tubes is working great and the other one...not so much. Ryker's got a big bad ear infection in his poor little ear on top of those nasty molars. Not a good couple of days at the Carriveau house. Jason had him in bed when Xander and I got home at 6. He got up just long enough to drink some milk and went back to bed. Amazingly he slept through until we got him up this morning. Thank you, Ryker!

My Xander, however, fell out of bed at 3am and was not to happy about it. So here's to almost getting a good night's sleep. There's always tonight =)

Ears and teething...

do not mix. Ryker was awake for a very good chunk of last night with ears that were obviously hurting him. Poor little guy. While I think the tubes helped, he has continuous drainage out of one of them and it seems to be aggravated right now by him cutting his molars (finally). Right now we're hoping that the drops will clear it up and we won't have to take him back to the doctor for antibiotics.
The sooner he outgrows this ear stuff the better.

On a happier note, Xander and I made cookies last night. I'll have to post a picture of him licking the beater later. Very cute and VERY messy.

Random Thoughts by Ane

Ok, so my little boy is going to be three years old in days. My baby is 16 months. Where has all of that time gone? It hit me as I was talking to Xander about his party this weekend that he actually understands what I'm talking about. He understands that his family is coming to give him presents, eat cake and that it's all about him.
Ryker's going to be doing that too soon. I already see it in his eyes. Copying Xander and trying to do things like a big boy does. I love that they're getting older and I have to say that it's breaking my heart at the same time.