Early Morning Ramblings

Here it is 5:30 in the morning and 2/3 of the Simpson family members are wide awake.

Are we going somewhere? NO
Is someone sick? NO, not really
Is there a newborn in the house keeping everyone awake? NO

So you may be asking yourself, why are you awake at this unGodly hour if there is no particular reason?

I DON'T KNOW but I am pretty sure it is Kiera's fault. Tuesdays and Thursdays can be a little rough because Kiera only rests at school, but does not take naps. I have tried to get her to take a nap after school, but 9 times out of 10, it doesn't work. Then around 4 or 5 pm, she loses control of body and a little alien takes over. We trudge through dinner and bathtime and launch her into bed as close to sundown as humanely possible. Sometimes though, she is so tired, she can't settle down to fall asleep. Last night was no exception. Kevin ended up laying on her floor until she fell asleep. I am sure that is something we swore we would never do before we actually had a child. Which I feel compelled to discuss this topic of a minute~
Don't even waste your time deciding what you will and will not do when you have kids because you know what? You will do ANYTHING on this side of the law to get them to sleep.
Anyway, I digress~ So she finally went to sleep around 8 or so, only to wake up screaming at 1:30 am. I went and got her and settled her into our bed. Usually this works fine. She says, "I lay with Mommy!" which means I want to meld my body into yours, have you put your arm tightly around my back while I drape my arm around your neck and then lay my nose against yours so I can suck all available oxygen from you. Sweet, you say? It is for about five minutes, then you can't breathe and her little hairs have tickled your face so much you feel a little insane. So, of course I deal (that's what parents do) and we try to fall asleep. Three hours later, she is still in my bed and still awake. It is not entirely her fault. I kept coughing, the cat paid a visit, Daddy moved, etc. I took her back to her bed and she screamed hysterically. So I politley told Kevin, "YOUR TURN!!!!" So what does he do? He goes and gets her and lays her in our bed. As if she doesn't know how to get to Mommy and try and body meld for a couple more hours. Kevin did try to get her and body meld with her, which responded, "No Daddy, you go lay on your pillow!" At 5:15 am I gave up. I have better things to do than try and pretend to sleep. The good news is that I only have one thing to do today and that is at 4 pm, so I will catch some ZZZZZs at some point.

On a different note, I am recovering quite well. I am day 7 of recovery and am completely off pain meds with the exception of 2 Tylenol here and there. I still have a very sore throat, tongue, neck, etc. I was trying to describe to Kevin that this is more than a sore throat, it is like a sore everything. Even my glands are super sore. But, I do feel better since I kicked the pain meds, ironically. My only real complaint is this little tickle I have in my throat and the dry cough that is accompanying it. I am guessing it just part of the healing process. I am better though, I am even enjoying my first cup of hot coffee as I type this blog. Oh, how I have missed my morning cup of joe!

Also, the constuction of the wall is going smoothly; I am thinking we may hanging the doors today. I am starting to feel compelled to get my scrapbooking stuff organized in preparation for the big move. Yesterday, I organized all my finished pages into correct piles, so they can be put into albums that I hope to purchase today. After much deliberation, I have decided to have the following albums:

Kiera Albums: Birth through one year, First Birthday through first year, and Second Birthday through second year, etc. These will go with her when she gets married.
Family Albums: General Family Albums chronicling our lives & vacations, Christmas Album, 4th of July Album (since that seems to be our Family Reunion holiday) These albums will stay with me until I die. I was excited to see that I actually have pages from every Christmas Kevin and I have spent together since married and every vacation we have been on. Also, I have pages from both 4th of July reunions.
Wedding Album: Kevin and my wedding. Of course, it will stay with us as well.

I really thought a lot about this since I didn't want to just do one album of our life and then give it to Kiera. Then I was thinking, what do you do if you have two kids and only one set of family albums? Who gets the albums? So, I think it is best to seperate the kids albums from the family albums and each child should have their own set of childhood albums. Each Christmas and Fourth of July I will do at least one page for their album and then a few for the family albums. If someone has a suggestion of how else I can organize my albums, please share!

Now comes the paper sorting. I got a good idea from Kevin's aunt. I am going to get a plastic crate and put all of my solid colored card stock in that. Then I am going to go through all of my patterened paper and sort it into different categories such as flowers, Christmas, Halloween, and then various colors. Each of those categories will go into a seperate container or envelope. When I have ribbon or embellishments that go with paper such as Halloween stickers, I will put them in the same container as the paper. Then if I want to work on Halloween pages, I just need that container. Brilliant. I am sure that is more than you ever wanted to know about scrapbooking storage.

So, I believe I have rambled enough for one day!