This job is kicking my butt!!!!

I'm still alive!!!! I just have not had time to post. I have been keeping up with my email and 2 forums that I frequent, but I keep forgetting to post here. I just got off of a 12 hour shift (really ended up being 13 hours). It's my 3rd day working in a row (not all 12 hours though). I am pooped! I can't wait till I'm done with this training program so I can set my own hours. I don't know why I'm posting - I think I"m falling asleep right now. I was apparently nominated for a blog award from a sweet fellow blogger but for the life of me I can't follow up with the rules of 'accepting the award'. Sorry Shea-you understand, I hope :) We had a nanny for 2 days but then she quit (no my kids aren't that bad!!!). She got engaged and was moving to be closer to her fiance. It's a shame cause the kids really liked her. Grandma's watching the kids tomorrow (yeah, I have to work tmr too :( Then we have until Wednesday to find another babysitter. The kiddies are doing great but I can't think of any cute things they've done lately. Oh, I did take pictures of some of their cute artwork from school but I don't have an example of each kid's work yet so I can't post them yet. Next time I post I"m going to show you all funny smiley faces Samantha draws and other cute stuff from the kids. Good night for now.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Never underestimate Samantha :)

Sorry I haven't posted much. This new job is messing up my routine. Can't wait till I'm working my normal night shift and not 5 days a week.

Today I had to laugh. Gerry and Abera are video game gurus. They know what they're doing and they take it seriously. Samantha rarely plays but sometimes gets into the Wii. Today Sam was playing a game against Abera and I don't know how she figured it out but she kicked his butt!!! Just the other day, I was kind of bummed that she still needed a lot of help with the controler and figuring out the game. All of sudden she just got it -she figured out how to do the Hammer Throw and the Long Jump and kept winning. The boys were dying. She was getting tough too. She started talking trash to them. Saying 'nah, nah, nah ' in a real teasing way and then (I shouldn't be writing this ..but) sticking her booty out and making a farting noise in there direction. (No I don't tolerate that , I told her to stop) But it was funny. Then she played another game and lost and she started yelling at the TV and saying 'stupid Wii!'. We are trying so hard to stop that word (stupid) in our house - it seems to be a losing battle but we're trying.

Never underestimate Samantha.

I have a new job!

Well, I started my new job on Monday. So far it's all been orientation and such. I"m actually getting more excited about this new job. If anyone doesn't know, I"m going back into nursing after a 7yr break. After nursing school 10yrs ago, I worked 3 yrs at a county Health Dept. I loved that job but had an opportunity to work from home after Samantha was born. Unfortunately that opportunity was gone as of last July and since we need the money, I have been forced to return to nursing. I would have loved to go back the the Health Dept but seeing as I have 4 kiddies at home and the health dept pay stinks, I would have lost money due to daycare. So now I am getting trained at a hospital to work on an oncology floor. It is a far stretch from the health dep. A big learning curve, but I am part of a long-term training program, so I'll be in good hands. I will be working 3 nights a week and my mom and sister will be helping to watch Brandon and Abera so I can nap a little during the days after I work. I"m going to try and work mostly weekends.

Bad news is I have to train on days. I wasn't given any concrete info on how long the day training would be. I was thinking it would be 4 weeks of days but I found out this week that I will be working days for 9 whole weeks. We are in the process of finding temporary daycare for the kids until I go on my night shifts. We mostly need someone to watch the kids from 6:30am until they get dropped of at school at 9:15 am. This daycare stuff can get confusing.

Abera's first day of school

Sorry, no pictures...I"m such a bad mommy. I forgot to take pics of Brandon's first day also. It was a long, tiring day today. 9:15 drop Sam, Gerry and Brandon off at their school. Home till 12 noon to pick up Brandon. Had to be at Abera's school by 12:15 to help set up (it's a co-op and it was my turn to set up/clean up). Then back at Abera's school by 2:30. By 3:15 we were done cleaning up at Abera's school. Then off to pick up Sam and Gerry at 3:50. We would have been too early if we had driven strait to pick them up, but it didn't seem worth it to go home with Abera and Brandon just to get back in the car like 20 minutes later. So we parked at the bottom of the big school hill and walked to school. OMG it was hot this afternoon. Everyone was exhausted by the time we got home.

So anyway, Abera had a great day. He went in to school fine. The teachers said he had a great day. Since I had to come early to help clean up, I got to see him at story time. He seemed to be sitting still and listening and answering questions. I asked him if he wanted to go to school tomorrow and he smiled and said "Yes!".

Brandon's teacher said he had an excellent day!!! Boy she's a miracle worker :) I told Brandon how I heard he had a great day and he said, ' yup mom, I didn't make a big mess with the water today"

Tomorrow, will hopefully be a little calmer as I don't have to work at Abera's school, but I'll still have a lot of driving around to do. It may be a pain to have the 2 little ones in preschool at different times but already I can see it's good for both of them to have some one on one time with me.