A new age

One year older today!! I really like having Chloe's Birthday the week before mine. Totally takes the emphasis off of mine. It just passes right on by!! 31 years down...who knows how many to come.

Stereotypical Monday AKA the making of Princess Rene

So just a background. I'm in the middle of 9 days straight at work. I had one day off last Thursday, but otherwise I'll be there from last Tuesday through this Thursday. That set up the scenario that happened yesterday. Rene had worked 3p-3a the night before so typically I get up and get Isabella to school so he doesn't have to get up, but that's not how things worked yesterday...

7:45am - Chloe wakes up. She needs to nurse. Thinking she would go back to sleep and Rene could get more continuous sleep than if he had to wake up and give her a bottle in a little while I ask him to just get up and get Bella dressed and pour her some cereal.

8:35am (5 minutes late for school) - After much fussing and gnashing of teeth we finally head out the door. I notice that Isabella has something on her pants so we have to head back in and change pants. In the meantime the dog runs away.

8:45 - Finally get out the door. . . again

9:10am - Hop in the shower, I have to leave by 10:00am

9:30am - The phone rings. Somehow Isabella has left her glasses behind. So now I have an added stop before getting to my appointment. The phone wakes Chloe up. Bring her with me and try to get ready. If any of you know my 10 month old that is like trying to put on makeup while wrestling a greased hog.

9: 40am - Hear a truck pull up. Check out the window and it looks like roofing supplies. We weren't expecting them today, but it dawns on me that we haven't put back up our house number since painting the house and the guy looks like he is looking for something so I go out to talk to him. Have to move the cars.

9:45am - get back inside and break the news to Rene that he may not be able to sleep in today. The roofers are here, Chloe is awake, and I need help. Rene says the roofers won't bother him, rolls over and goes back to sleep. Meanwhile Chloe proceeds to pull everything off the bottom shelf of the bathroom closet and is sucking on anti-bacterial hand wash bottle. Nice

9:50am - Now I hear the dog barking in the front yard at the roofers. Tell Rene again that I need help, but my pleas are met by snores.

9:55am - Come back in and look for my clothes that I had laid out on the hamper. Start to panic because I can't find them. Rene gets up, but stumbles around aimlessly. In hindsight I now realize he was looking for his crown.

10:00am - Finally find clothes, but they've been stuffed down into a hamper and now smell like feet. Get really irritated and start ranting. Manage to get dressed and rant to Rene as I get my things together. At this point he finds his crown lying around somewhere and manages to get it on. He stamps his feet and says "What the heck happened this morning?" What I hear is "Good Lord Woman. Don't you know that I am Princess Rene and you usually do everything for me? If things fall apart one day I'm going to throw a fit." Stunned I leave the house without saying anything

10:10am - Get to the school and drop off the glasses

10:25am - Get to my appointment 10 minutes late and text Rene that his new nickname is Princess Rene. He later tells me that it doesn't bother him. In fact he rather likes the ring of that....

Ahhh, The simple life

Well more simple anyway. That's how it feels. I'm down a husband and a daughter. Rene and Isabella are enjoying themselves in Germany visiting friends and relatives. Chloe and I are enjoying a staycation while the house gets painted. Running errands and meeting friends for lunch occasionally are about the only things on our agenda. Oh and I have picked a room a day while they are gone to be the focus of my attention. It was my intention to scrapbook everyday as well, but that one I have not accomplished. I did however print some pictures, so I'm getting closer. It's amazing how simple it seems with just one kiddo and no work worries. I did make a vow to not check my work e-mail or voicemail while I'm off and so far I've upheld that. I guess I'm not living controlled Chaos this week. I think everybody needs one of these. I reccomend it for everyone!

Renewed interest

I love blogging about what goes on in my life. I just need to get back into it. It seems I just wander around the internet aimlessly! Here is my center. I need to build it into my routine.

We are back from Disney. We had an absolute blast. I feel so fortunate that my mom and dad could come with us. I loved being able to share my girls first time at Disney with them. I remember how much our family loved our trips to Disney growing up. One of the most special trips is when we took my grandmother with us. I hope that Isabella will remember it fondly too. We even got to see Grandpa Don and his wife Mary while we were there. 3 generations of Rennell's. It was neat and Isabella becaming fast friends with them. I miss it already and want to go back.

Rene and Isabella are headed to Germany Next Saturday already. I'll miss them, but Chloe and I will try to have some fun here. I'm excited for this opportunity for Isabella and her dad. It's important to have some of special things with just him, and this is a big one.

Work is keeping me super busy as always. I've had ENPC, a triage class, and LVN class this month. Competency day is next month. In between I've been revising the RN orientation manual and creating a web page for the department. It's no wonder my brain is always spinning. Combine that with the increasingly busy schedule with the girls and it's definatley chaos. I just hope to control it most days!!

DISNEY 24/7

So as some of you know we are headed to Disney World in 3 weeks. This is the first time for the girls and Rene & I haven't been since 2002. Let me just tell you that the anticipation is palpable. We are living and breathing Disney. Here's just some of the things we have done in the last few weeks to get ready...

1.) Have customized keepsake maps printed of all the places we want to go

2.) Make reservations for Two different Character meals

3.) Make reservations at the Bibbity Bobbity Botique for a princess makeover the first day we get there. (shhhh this one is a suprise for princess Isabella)

4.) Decorate visors and bookmarks with all things Disney

5.) By pin lanyards and pins on ebay for pin trading when we get there

6.) By Autograph book with pen on ebay for Autographs when we get there.

7.) Spend countless hours pouring over tips and advice on lots of different panels (there is some great stuff out there)

8.) Finding a grocer in Central Florida who will deliver grocery's to our hotel (baby stuff mostly) and making a favorites list so all I have to do before we go is hit add to cart and pay for it.

9.) Color the Luggage tags that Disney sent us to make them "special"

10.) Give Isabella a letter each day that she is good in her "suprise" (see number 3)

11.) Download all sorts of Disney songs to Isabella's MP3. Wayne Brady's remix of Tikki room is awesome!!

12.) Got Isabella new luggage that is already packed with her toiletries and ready to go!

Needless to say we may explode before we get to go, but it's only 3 weeks away now!!

Here's the Girls with the Visor's we made! Both of them have their names on the front and thier nicknames on the side. Ton's of fun.

2009 Another year of Chaos?

How many times have you muttered the words "When things slow down I'll...." ? Do things ever slow down? I've found myself muttering those words for the past 2 or 3 years! It's craziness! 2009 is showing no signs of being any different. That's why I've dedicated the month of January to getting things organized and cleaning out the mess. Even that is challenging. My hope is to make it so that we aren't spending all of our time off from work picking up the mess from the time that we did work. So far 8 large (39 gallon size) trash bags left out closet on their way to goodwill. Man did that feel good. On the slate for this weekend? Our master bathroom. I'm eating this elephant room by room. The game room is better, but I have a feeling it's not done yet. There's more to do here. Some of the big ones still to come are Isabella's room and our bedroom. I don't think there are enough days in January. We'll see.

Phew

Wow, The month of December absolutley FLEW by! It's amazing just how Chaotic it can get, but in the end we pulled everything out, had a nice holiday and are ready for the new year.
We began the month with the typical fare. Christmas Parties, Christmas programs, and Winter break from school kept us busy. Not to mention Rene and I work schedules around eachother to minimize the ammount of time the girls have to go to a sitter.

The week of the 15th, Chloe and I left Isabella and daddy and went to Colorado in hopes to meet our new niece and cousin Molly York Steele. We got to spend some great time with Cousin Amina, Grandmomom, Grandpa Steve, Sarah and Ben, but Molly proved stubborn and wasn't born until 7:59pm on Wednesday December 17th. Chloe and I hopped on a plane back to Texas the next morning. We did get to meet her though and it meant the World to me that I got to spend the day that Molly was born with Amina, hopefully making it a wonderful day for her. We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and had a awesome time. They have a huge herd of Giraffes that we got to feed rye crisps too. Chloe wanted the craker, but the Giraffe thought otherwise. By about the 3rd cracker she wouldn't even hold it anymore!

I came home and worked for 2 days and then we were full on into Christmas. We did Christmas baking with Oma on Tuesday. After 12 hours of baking we had all of our Christmas goodies. I love baking the things for my girls that I had as a girl growing up. Russian tea cakes, Sugar Cookies, thumbprint cookies, Date nut pinwheels, and Even two apricot "Christams trees" were made that day. Along with some excellent Chicken and dumplings for dinner.
Needless to say we were more than ready for Christmas! We spent Christmas eve at Oma and Papo's house having traditional german fare for dinner and opening presents that Santa had dropped off since it was already Christmas day in Germany. Christmas day was spent with an absolutley rediculous ammount of toys and goodies. Dinner at our house was Prime Rib with horseradish cream sauce,Ham, potatoes, asparagus, and bread. For dessert we had some of the goodies we had baked earlier in the week. Everything about Christmas this year was amazing! Whirlwind, crazy, Chaotic, but in the end AMAZING!

I'm looking forward to 2009. My gut tells me this is going to be an awesome year for me and my family. I'm very optomistic. We have some really exciting traveling to do early this year and then some big projects for the house, so the rest of the year will be spent at home. We are headed to Disney world at the end of February with Grandmomom and Grandpa Steve and then Rene and Isabella are headed to Germany with Oma at the beginning of April. Both are going to be amazing trips.

Wow, I feel caught up now. And well I should. We are well into 2009. Isabella is back at school and our life has regained normal Controlled Chaotic levels compared to the super charged chaos we expirience around Christmas. So from our house to yours...

Growing up

So starting solids is no big deal right? For some reason, With Miss Chloe it was a decision I agonized over for a very long time. Then, realizing that her 6 month mark was just a week away we dove right in and started with rice cereal the other night. Not a big deal right? It was for us. And while it didn't turn out as entertaining as Rene had hoped, Chloe thoroughly enjoyed herself. She wanted to hold the spoon herself which made things a little difficult at first, but once I figured out loading up one spoon and handing it to her she would feed herself when she stuck it in her mouth to chew on it. One of my favorite things that I did for Isabella was make her own baby food. We started on Gerber, but I felt like I was missing out. So I bought a big ol' butternut squash to make for Chloe this weekend after we've done our proverbial time with the rice cereal. I can hardly wait!

Tis the season!

Christmas is by far my favorite time of year. I love everything about it. The music, the decorations, family. I think the biggest thing is I never grew up when it came to Christmas. I still love the magic and wonder of all the festivities. It's even more exciting to share it with my girls. I love the fact that Isabella is just as excited this year about every aspect as I am. She couldn't wait to get the tree up and start decorating. In fact she hung most of the decorations herself. She couldn't wait to get out the advent calendars. She's dying to go see Santa at the mall. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season and lose the joy. It goes by so quickly and in our Controlled chaos we rarely have time to just sit down and enjoy it. Having her makes me come back to what I love most about the season. Just that overwhelming excitment. I love the fact that my kids can make me not be such a grown up all of the time!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I'm just winding down from our Holiday. Not your typical Thanksgiving by many standards, but it is pretty much the norm at our house. Rene and I both worked today. This Holiday is about being thankful for what you have. I have an awesome family at work. I got to celebrate today with them. We had so much food that we are apparently known throughout the institution for how much we bring. There are close to 130 employees and while not all of them were there today I swear we bring enough food to feed that many!
When I got home I got to spend some quality time with my girls and bake Cranberry orange oat scones (that is what we had for dinner) with Isabella. Now that really is something to be Thankful for. Before you feel too sorry for us, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving as a family Tomorrow. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy...The whole nine yards. We'll get the Christmas Tree out and decorate. I don't like to think about it as missing a holiday, but rather prolonging the festivities!
Hope everyone had a Wonderful and blessed Holiday. May you have a excellent tryptophan induced sleep!

Bathing Babies and Butterflies

Is there anything more wonderful than bathing small babies? I'm not sure there is. Chloe is at such a fun age. She absolutley LOVES her baths. And talk about a HAM when the camera is on!! I took these pictures this weekend while visiting my Aunt Marie and Uncle Mikes home in Houston.

I am so greatful that we have family here in Texas that we can spend time with . It was such a joy to watch Isabella play with "The kids" (My cousins) She had such a blast! I had to remind her that those "Kids" were the same age as me! Talk about Young at heart. You all made a lasting impression on her and she will never forget you. Trust me! We are very thankful for your hospitality!

One of the highlights of this weekend was visiting the Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural History. What an amazing place! We were all in awe of this collection of one of god's most beautiful creations. Even Rene was Butified! Notice his lovely new scalp accesory!

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

In the spirit of the upcoming Holiday, I've decided to post something I'm Thankful for everyday. Today I'm thankful for having Fall weather at Thanksgiving, something that doesn't always happen in Texas. Also, for Long afternoon naps with my Chloe on my days off. (Thanks for giving me that time Honey)

Controlled Chaos

Controlled Chaos... Oxymoron? Not really. It pretty much defines my life. It's a concept all to familiar to those of us in Emergency Medicine. After all, that's what Emergency departments are almost everyday. You move from one Chaotic situation to the next with continually changing factors making each move affect the next. It's almost like the Butterfly theory. Every action affects another. Then I got to thinking the other day. My entire life is much like every day in the ER. After adding my second daughter earlier this year, our lives were thrust in to chaos that is methodically controlled by myself on a daily basis. I've been a charge nurse in a Level One Trauma center for nearly all of my 8 1/2 year career, but nothing has thrown me as off base as my new life. I've always enjoyed the challenges of the ER and the puzzle it represents. If I do this then this can happen. Uh oh, it's full and this is coming we have to do this and this and this. I've always excelled at this. It's a challenge and I love it. This is how I finally had to re-frame my new role as working mom to two. Trying to plan and move and do on a daily basis. Every action having an effect on the rest of my day. I would be lying if I said that I don't occasionally miss the days where I could mindlessly drift through my days off with no thoughts of what needed to happen and when. We were so established with our nice little of family of three. Daddy working EMS every third day without fail. Me working One week on, One week off. Now we are on the roller coaster of a new system. Thrust over the past year into life change after life change we have not always had the most control over our lives. Little by little I can happily say we are beginning once again to ...Control the Chaos.