Coming Soon....

My bestie Glenna and I have done it again - managed to get pregnant at the same time!  Mara's little sibling, due December 2, 2017.

(This is why I feel like I've been hit by a bus all the time.)

More on this later. 

Sleep Regressions (Or Something)

I am literally at my wits end right now.  I was tired when Mara was a newborn.  I was tired when she was an infant.  But I was really hoping that by now, when she's 2.5, that I'd be somewhat less tired.  

Apparently not.

She has been waking up a zillion times per night for the last several weeks.  Last night was probably the worst.  By the time Corky and I finally went to bed (at around 10:30), she had already been up three times.  By the end of the night, she'd been up SEVEN times.  

And then... Frank, my boxer, started.  He's been waking me up earlier and earlier every day for a while now.  But this morning he decided 5:28am was a good time for a wake-up call.  I  literally slept MAYBE a total of an hour and a half last night.  And for the maybe three weeks preceding this, the most I've slept in a night is maybe 4 hours.

This cannot go on!   What the hell is happening?? They say there's a 2 year sleep regression but she's way past that.  I don't understand and I don't know how to fix it!

Busy Month

I think it's about time I overhaul my blog.. what do you think?  I've had this same background and everything for years!  Kind of ready for a change.

The month of May has landed upon us and I couldn't be happier about that.  Spring is, as you may remember from previous discussions of this, my least favorite season.  Winter can be sucky too but at least for some of it you've got holidays to look forward to.  Spring.. not so much.  Just rain, rain and more rain for eternity.  Although as I type this, it's actually sunny outside. Lol.

It's already May 7th and I've had several things on the calendar already.  Appointments and such.  I've got more appointments, little things (like babysitting my friend's kids, taking Mara to some playdates, etc.) and trips occupying the rest of the month.  The weekend of the 19th we are going to Astoria, Oregon for the weekend.  The following weekend I go to Canada for four days BY MYSELF!!!!! I've got a "spa day" planned for the 31st with a friend of mine and then of course there's Mother's Day earlier in the month.  Busy busy busy.  Helps time fly.

We are all doing fine over here.  Mara is still in preschool 4 mornings per week and absolutely loves it.  It really was the best decision I could've made regarding that.  

Corky is doing well, loving his new job.  He is up to his eyeballs in work.  He's got a house he's currently flipping by himself, as well as doing some general contractor work for our neighbor AND half a dozen half-finished home improvement projects at our house.  Breathe in, breathe out, Kate, it'll get done.  I'm not a fan of chaos, as you can probably guess.

I'm doing pretty well, too.  Working, momming, cleaning, you know.. the usual.  Looking forward to some actual warm, sunny weather so I can get outside with Mara and the dogs.  Today is sunny but not warm.  I think it won't get over like 65 F for the foreseeable future.  Kinda mean since we had two 80 degree days last week.  Sigh.  Oregon, stop teasing us, would you please?

So Done With Winter!

We have had the second wettest winter in 75 years.  It's been raining (or snowing) pretty much nonstop since mid-October with no end in sight!  It's no wonder that Oregonians are commonly deficient in vitamin D - we hardly ever see the sun for eight months of the year!  Last Friday we hit 70 degrees F.  The last time we had a 70 degree day was October 8th (175 days prior) and weather.com was unable to predict when we'd have another one (although it looks like Wednesday May 3 is a contender according to the weather app on my phone).

In an attempt to break the monotony of springtime in Oregon and give myself something else to look forward to, we booked a trip to Astoria, Oregon for May 19-21.  I leave for Canada the following weekend so it's safe to say that the last few weeks of May are going to be very interesting and exciting!

We need this.  We are having a LOT of behavior challenges with Mara.  To be honest with you, it's downright awful many days.  There are times when I just want to get in my car and drive away maybe not come back for a few hours.  Or a few days.  Or ever.  Unfortunately, I know that's not an option.  Anyway, having Astoria and Canada so close together will give me something to look forward to and get me through the challenging days.

I don't want to go into much more detail on stuff, but do be aware that there'll be more info on that coming soon. :)

So Many Things!

There are quite a lot of things happening around here.  I'm not exactly in a place to say much about it yet, but if you just hang on, there'll be some clarity. :) ;) 

Flu

This past weekend, my friend C came into town to hang out with us and do a Zumba Jam session here.  Actually she had one up in Seattle area on Saturday and then one here on Sunday.  I was supposed to drive her up to Seattle and back on Saturday, but that didn't happen because I have the flu.

I am SO MISERABLE.  I went to urgent care on Saturday and got a prescription for Tamiflu and phenergan with codeine (for the cough).  So achy.  High fever.  Coughing.  Chills.  Sweating.  YUCK!  This is the first time I've ever seen (or experienced) the flu shot failing.  I get a flu shot every year because my dad is immune suppressed from his kidney transplant.  

Thankfully Corky was off Saturday and Sunday and could mind Mara and help C with stuff because I literally couldn't get out of bed. 

Today is the first day I've left the house since Saturday morning.  I drove C to the airport, and I'm utterly exhausted.  Haven't been able to leave the couch since I got home.  I'm so tired, my head is all foggy (not sure if that's flu or codeine or the fact that I got my period on top of all else).  Can this week just be over now?

It's Been A Year

For some reason, writing really helps me deal with shit.  You'd think, given the kind of month I've had, that my blog would be blowing up but sometimes there's just too much shit to process enough to write.

This, however, is something manageable.

It's been a year since Jax's last day on Earth with us.  I miss him terribly!  I don't cry for him every day anymore but I'd be lying if I said my heart doesn't ache when I think about him for more than ten seconds at a time.  

So, in honor of his life, which was far too short, I am going to tell some Jax stories to keep his memory alive.  I love him so much and I miss him even more.

"Gotcha Day"
Jax came home on May 17, 2013.  It was a Friday.  He came from Michigan and he was exactly 8 weeks and 1 day old.  He was tiny!  Only weighed 4 pounds!  Like when Abigail came, my mom and I went to the airport to collect him since Corky was at work.  But the similarities stopped there.

When we went to pick up Abby, we walked into the cargo office and it was quiet.  I actually had to ask where she was because I couldn't see her.  With Jax, however, we walked in and it was extremely apparent where he was.  He was in his kennel screaming.  Poor little guy!  He was so scared!  The woman behind the counter was at her wits end, apparently, and rushed me through the paperwork.  When all was signed and done, she looked at me and said, "please take him now!"

I hoisted his travel kennel and we went out to the car.  I immediately opened the door and scooped him out, this little tiny, beige ball of wrinkles.  He clawed at my shirt and chewed on my necklace.  He licked my face and pushed his little wet nose into my chin.  His little arms and paws scrabbled at my chest, trying to climb into me.  After a few minutes, he fell sound asleep on me and slept all the way home.

I named him Jax McGee and he was my love.  My second baby.  My buddy.  My son-shine.

Moving Day

In August of 2015, we moved.  I titled this memory "Moving Day" although actually this took place before the actual moving day.  Nevertheless it's one of my favorite memories of Jaxxie.

The house we moved out of had 3 stories.  One evening, Corky and I were up on the 3rd floor (it was this big bonus room) watching TV with the dogs after Mara was in bed for the night.  Abby was laying on the big couch, like the princess she is, and Jax was sprawled on the floor.  Corky and I were packing up boxes.  Finally, when we'd packed up most everything we could, we starting taking boxes down to the garage where we were keeping them until moving day.  

So this is how it went for the next half hour:  Up and down and up and down the flights of stairs, from the 3rd floor to the garage and back and back, went Corky first, carrying a box, then me, carrying a box, and then Jax, running along behind.  He loved us so much that he couldn't stand to be away from us.  Abby, on the other hand, was fine to lounge around on the couch while we all caravanned up and down the stairs.  But Jax wanted to be right there.  He was always on my six, always my shadow.  Our two-person-one-frenchie parade went up and down and up and down until all the boxes were in the garage.  

Getting a Drink

Another one from that same house.  Our TV and couch were up in the 3rd floor bonus room and after Mara would go to bed at night, Corky and I would sometimes hang out up there and watch a TV show.  The dogs would typically hang out with us.

One evening, we were watching something, and Abby and Jaxxie were curled up on the couch with us.  All of a sudden, Jax roused himself, shook, stretched and disappeared down the stairs.  We looked at each other, bewildered, but let him go.  After all, it's not like he was a puppy anymore so we decided to trust him.

A few minutes later, he came back upstairs, licking water off his chops.  I started laughing.  It was so unbelievably cute to me to imagine that Jax had been asleep on the couch, woken up and realized he was thirsty, gotten up off the couch, went all the way downstairs to the first floor to get a drink, and came all the way back up.  It was such a human thing to do that I couldn't stop laughing.  

When I finally stopped laughing and told Corky what was so funny, his comment was, "all that for a dog getting a drink!"

I miss my buddy boy.  I miss him terribly!  Even though now I have Frankie to help heal the wound, it's still there.  I still miss him.  I'll always miss him.  The fact that he was so young when he died just adds to the tragic nature of it.  Losing a pet at any age, for any reason, is hard.  To have them taken so suddenly, with almost no warning, just makes reconciling it even harder.  I'll never forget him.  I'll never stop loving him.  I have him tattooed on my leg because he was that important to me.  I love Frank but he's not Jax.  I never got him to replace Jax, I know that's not possible.  Frank does help, though.  The similarities between him and Jaxxie are sometimes freaky.  Different breed, of course, but if they were the same I'd believe they were brothers.  Currently, as I type this, Frank is trying to dig into the couch cushions, which I'd better stop him from doing before he's successful because I really don't have the money to replace a couch, LOL!  Thank you, everyone, for loving Jaxxie too.  His memory won't fade because so many people remember him.  He was a gem. xoxo