Today I go back to work

Which is kind of a lie...
I worked the last 2 weeks, harder than I have in a very long time.

Rather than going in to work, these past 2 weeks, I worked from home.
Two nights a week I took call from 5-8pm and two nights from 5-11pm..
I was on call Christmas Eve night... and back-up call Christmas morning.
I worked last Sunday, (the day after Christmas), this Saturday, (New Year's day) and I worked yesterday, (Sunday) because they were short-handed and I am kind of a money whore; from 8-noon.

I had big plans while I was off work at home,
but accomplished exactly zero.

Maddox spent 1/2 of my time off with fever, and the other 1/2 fighting the cold that followed.
My allergies have been out of whack for a week, and my body is sore from sneezing!
And I am sick of changing underwear.
(lack of bladder control-- something not shared with me about my 2nd pregnancy)
I kept my 8 year old niece and 6 year old nephew while they were out of school and spent a lot of time playing referee between the 3 kids.
Lance worked New Year's Eve night, so I kept my other niece and nephew for a few hours that day while my brother went and bought a new phone, and then I went home and crashed.
Lance says he got a New Year's kiss... I hope it was from me!
I spent last night at an urgent care center with my sister-in-law because my 2 year old nephew, Gunner, broke out in horrible hives from his antibiotic.  The edema from the rash was so much, that last night he could not stand on his tiny feet.

I, a self proclaimed night owl, have been in bed by 10:00 the last few nights... apparently trying to catch up on much needed rest.
Needless to say, I am ready to go back to my real job.
This, time-off , that I had anticipated for months, was much more tiring, draining, and frankly harder than my real job!!

Some of the things I wanted to do while I was off included...
**Learning my camera.  I downloaded program, a year ago, that broke down parts of the camera for me and ultimately took you out of manual mode.  But it is the type of program that I need to sit, without distractions, to learn, some-what study, and then have time to "test" each step without the help of those shorter than I intruding in on the process.
**I wanted to reverse my un-potty trained boy back to the pro he once was.
But adding 2 kids that he tried his hardest to keep up with, then him becoming sick... I tossed the idea out the window.
He has become so stubborn on the issue that I do believe it is best to avoid it all together at this point.
We have tried telling him, "big boys wear underwear!"
His response, "well, I'm wittle!" (little)
We have tried, "We need to save these diapers for the baby, you can wear underwear"
He replies, "buy him his own.  These are too big for him."
I have tried keeping him naked.  (In which he will not have an accident) but he will literally hold it for hours, cry until I put his diaper on, and then go.
**I wanted to clean out his room, and discard all toys that have multiple pieces.
Probably better I waited anyway... they played hard all week, and there are already broke Christmas toys that need to be discarded as well.
**I wanted to have an alone night with my husband.
And although we did have a few date-days into town to spend gift cards, or Lance's cash, etc...
We always had company, and no time to focus on us.
**I wanted to get the Christmas decorations packed away and the house put back in working order.
That one is partially completed.
The tubs are packed with all of the decorations, but Lance is yet to put them back in the building.
I had begun dismembering the tree but Lance didn't want me to lift the heavy branches, so he asked me to wait and he would do it.
FIVE days that tree sat, undecorated, with the top of the tree in the box, but the other 2/3 still intact in my living room, and the huge box in my living room floor waiting for the rest of the tree.
Finally this morning, after yet another reminder, he took it down the rest of the way.
Although the house is still in shambles, and the boxes, still, have not made it to storage... we have a start.

I have high hopes for 2011.

I hope to accomplish the list above! ;)
We will watch our family of 3 become a family of 4.
We will move back to Haslet at some point, and place our home on the market.
We will be happy.

I think 2010 was a great year...
And I anticipate more for 2011.

 (Anything is better than 2009!)

I have high hopes for Lance to continue to crawl towards his ultimate career goals... go back to school... and continue to be the awesome husband and dad that he is.
I hope that he will be just as good as a team player when we go to man-to-man defense as we were with our 2-on-one!
He turns thirty in 2011!!
(I have hopes that he doesn't become gross and wrinkled with this new milestone!)  ;)

I have high hopes for myself to develop a better schedule for my family, get us back to eating healthier, and start saving more money.
I hope to be able to parent two as well as, I believe, I do one.
I want to give myself in some way.  I feel like I am capable but I need to find my media.
In 2011, I hope to find my more spiritual side, and plan on finding some good books to begin to process.
I plan on continuing to keep Lance and I at the marriage peak that I feel we have found in the past 6 months or so.
I hope to join a "blogging community"... I anonymously follow a couple of mom's that have met a ton of other mom's through blogger and I always want to comment and become their "blogging friends" but it seems so weird?!
I love how encouraging they are to each other... and I get great ideas from just reading theirs...
Although, I can track that I get a lot of hits every day, you are all mostly silent readers...so I imagine my blogging experience is a little different from theirs, and I envy them at times!
I turn 27 this year, and that sounds so much older than 26.
I hope to savor the year.
Each year that passes, is another my babies become older.
2 has been my all-time-favorite stage... I plan to enjoy the 2nd 1/2 of this age and pray 3 brings as much joy.
I am ecstatic to begin another journey of mother-hood in 2011!

My cup runneth over....
I hope a wonderful 2011 to each of you reading, as well!