A day in my life.....

Questions often come to a stay at home mom in the form of, "what do you do all day?" Some are offended by that, but I, too wonder what all my other stay at home mom friends do all day. Today was quite a busy day, so I thought I'd try to document this week to show that some days are really busy while other days aren't so much. This might be too lengthy for some, but I see this blog as a journal I'll print someday, so its mostly for me:) My sil did this on her blog, and I thought it would be fun, here we go.....
3:40 a.m. Alyssa walks into my room and tries to climb into bed...I tell her she can sleep on the pillow on the floor or go back to her big girl bed, she chooses the floor.
4:25 a.m. she tries to climb in again. I give her the two options and she now chooses her bed and expects me to walk her back, so I do. When I try to leave I again give her her options and she then decides to go back to our room.
5:15a.m. tries again. I must hold my ground.
5:55 a.m. My alarm clock goes off....in my worry to not wake alyssa sleeping on the floor, I hurry and push snooze and fall back asleep.
6:03 a.m. I wake up worried that I didn't wake up in time and go to the bathroom to get dressed. I hear drawers closing through the wall in the boys room.
6:05 a.m. I tell the boys it is way too early, but Tyler is so excited for the first day of school, he couldn't sleep. I tell them I'm running to the store and to keep quiet.
6:10 a.m Arrive at the HEB grocery store just a few blocks away. Bread. check. Bananas. check. pretzels. check. Needed basics for Tyler's school lunch.
6:45 a.m. Arive back home to boys sitting quietly in the pitch dark of the family room, startled by the brightness of the light I flip on.
6:50 a.m. Begin making Tyler's first day of school special breakfast: French Toast (needed the bread for that, too). Alyssa walztes out.
7:05 a.m. Our family all in the kitchen together getting ready for the day and eating breakfast.
7:25 a.m. Michael leaves for work, I pack the kids in the van to take Tyler to school.
7:33 a.m. Luckily find an open front parking spot in front of the elementary school, so we can walk Tyler to his class.
7:40 a.m. Take a picture of Tyler with his new 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Milburn. He then hands her the electric pencil sharpener that she requested (on the giving tree) on open house night. He has the cutest grin as she gives him a hug and thanks him.
7:45 a.m. My arm feels like its breaking off from carrying Alyssa to and from school and Matthew's hand in my free arm...I am VERY composed for dropping off my child at school.
7:55 a.m. Arrive back home to grab a few things.
8:05 a.m. Arrive at the park to meet up with other ladies from church who also dropped their kids off at school.
8:20 a.m. Matthew is sad for 2 reasons: 1)none of his friends are at the park 2) he slid down the dew dripping slide and literally FLEW off and landed on his bum and got all wet (and probably knocked the wind out of him). He wants to go.
8:30 a.m. We head out...swing by the house to change his pants and on to the next stop
9:03 a.m. I sign in 3 minutes late for my dermatologist appointment. Matthew & Alyssa make themselves cozy in the waiting room.
9:15 a.m. Pin prick of a needle deadens my skin as the P.A. scrapes away flesh from 2 spots on my skin while my children watch while chomping on pretzels. I plan to get my moles checked once a year, and already had 2 done a few months ago...one was "slightly atypical" but nothing to worry about.
9:35 a.m. Already leaving ahead of schedule and I"m SO happy! Matthew, Alyssa, and I run into an HEB grocery store (a different location than my 6am run) to grab some flowers for a friend.
10 a.m. Arrive at my friend Becca's home to present her the flowers and our well wishes (see previous post about Angel Elena).
10: 30 a.m. Arrive at home just before our neighbor, Clair comes over with baby Violet. Matthew loves Violet. Clair watches my kids for a bit while I run over to the school.
10:45 a.m. Check into Tyler's school 10 minutes before his lunch begins...see his old classmates in the hall and smile as they remember me as, "tyler's mom." (i love that). Also gander at the large "25" photograph hanging in the hallway that I took last December.
10:55 a.m. Meet Tyler in the cafeteria with a huge smile on his face. He told me this weekend that I could come on Monday, but that he thinks he'll be okay on Tuesday and I wouldn't need to come. It's not that he NEEDED me to come, but that he WANTED me to come. He was excited to have me meet his new friends, and I LOVED getting to know some of the kids and trying to memorize all their names like I did in the first week of school last year. I sat next to him and hugged him, and he was just all smiles. It was so cute to see all the first graders wave to the friends in the other classes that were in their kindergarten class last year. He was just enjoying his day, and that made me SO happy! Still, no tears shed for me!
11:30 a.m. I head out of school, and catch a phone call from my friend Linda in Florida. She called to tell me of an email she read of another friend of both of ours in Kansas. Our friends husband has a brain tumor and they aren't sure if it is cancerous or not. We both freak out b/c this guy is only 34 or so, and we both know him well. Weird and somber at the thought.
11:35 a.m. Relieve Clair and thank her profusely. She is so generous and helpful.
12 lunch for kids Matthew gets a "just peanut butter" sandwich while alyssa wants jelly. They watch a show while I have a little computer time.
1-2:30 p.m. The phone seems to be ringing off the hook (Michael, Linda, Candida, Emily, Cynthia)...all welcome conversation as I am so tired, I can barely keep my eyes open.
2:35 p.m. Pack the kids in the car, off to pick up Tyler. As I wait, I read my new Self magazine that I just subscribed to.
2:55 p.m. After 20 + minutes waiting in the car pick up line, I am finally at the front. As I wait for Tyler to come out, the boy down the street, (affectionately called "big Tyler" by my kids) comes out and when he shakes his head "no" to the teacher on duty in the car drive up line, she realizes she's got the wrong tyler (they don't even say the last name, I mean, tyler is a fairly common name). I'm a bit annoyed b/c that means I have to wait even longer in this line as another teacher goes in to find the "right" tyler. I see in the rear view mirror, "my" tyler smiling as he walks to me. The 5th grader assigned to my car just stands there with Tyler next to him saying the door is locked when he barely even tried to open it. As I'm saying, "It's not locked" another 5th grader says, "Just wait, it's probably automatic." To which I have to roll down my window and try to say kindly to the virgin car helper, "it isn't automatic and it isn't locked!" After a few yanks, the door opens. Hallelujah, and who can I yell at about these two issues that plagued me in the car pick up line last year???!!!
3:10 p.m. Arrive home in a bit of a haze from the dull headache that I've had the past few hours. Try to excitedly (with smiles on my face) ask tyler about his afternoon as he hands me his folder full of junk I have to go through and figure out what things I need to keep and fill out.
3:30 p.m. Lay on my bed with a little Access Hollywood to get caught up on the "world news" that happened over the weekend.
4 p.m. The kids have joined me in my room and play on the floor and on the tread mill while I continue to lay there. I love them playing around me, even if I don't feel very available to play. Fortunately, they understood I wasn't feeling well and let me rest.
4:15 p.m. Make a cake from a box, per Tyler's request for our Family Home Evening Treat on his first day of school.
4:25 p.m. put the cake in the oven and plop again for a few more minutes.
4:45 p.m. read a few books to the kids and insist that tyler read to me even though he didn't feel like it....I actually fell asleep for a few seconds while I held the book. He had to call my name for me to snap out of it.
5p.m. cook hamburger, boil noodles, heat sauce, make garlic bread, heat peas for tonights spaghetti dinner.
5:35 p.m. Michael comes home and we all sit down to dinner. It is SO nice to have him arrive home at the same time every night so we can have some consistancy.
6 p.m. Family Home Evening begins, and we continue on our 13 week journey to memorize the Articles of Faith. We were on article #5 tonight. The boys continue to impress us with how well they are doing, despite their immediate frustration from learning new concepts and big words. We know that having these memorized will help them throughout their lives, as well as have opportunities to share the gospel by the things they know.
6:30 p.m. We eat the vanilla cake with chocolate frosting decorated with reese's pieces...with a little vanilla ice cream (well, i didn't eat, but thats another story). I realize the egg carton I bought that morning was hiding under another bag of cereal--whoops.
7:10 p.m. I do the dinner dishes while Michael helps the kids get jammies and brush teeth. We read scriptures, and pray. The boys are sent to bed with 10 minutes to play/read then lights off. 8:27 p.m. I start typing this while Michael is on a jog and Alyssa plays with her "babies" next to me. The boys walk out with some excuse to which I start counting and they run back to their rooms.
8:38 p.m. As I walk Alyssa back to her big girl bed, I am happy that the boys are quiet and probably sleeping. I sit on her floor in the dark for 5 minutes and she is sound asleep. Yay, all asleep!
8:46 p.m. Start working on this photography session and finish it up. Organize a different photography order. Chat online with my cousin in law (and fellow photographer) Angela.
9:29 p.m. Go to bed b/c I am completely exhausted (one hour earlier than normal)!