Friday!

It's been a long week. Nils got home on Sunday at noon. He caught an earlier flight and got home 12 hours earlier than anticipated. What a good husband I have. He quit his second job again, but gave them two weeks notice this time. He's worked every night this week and is working a couple of nights next week, but then he's done after that. Halleluja! He doesn't have to work tomorrow, and it will be the first Saturday we've had together in a couple of months.

I've been going to physical therapy for a couple of weeks now. I'm skeptical that it's working, but the experience itself isn't all that bad. Everyone there is pretty chipper and jokey, so it's really just a barrel of laughs. I'm banned from running until my knee "calms down". I like running because I feel like I'm shaking the fat off faster. So this is a bummer.

The Day My Tire Fell Off

One of my back tires has been low the last few days. I've been filling it up with air, and I thought I'd let Nils take care of getting it fixed since he's the man and everything. He's gone until Monday, but I didn't think the thing would actually FALL OFF. Yesterday I drove to Sandy, filled up the tire on the way back, and went to Target. On my way home from Target, I heard a really loud noise and thought, "Wow, whoever's making that noise is screwed". Then I saw smoke billowing around me, and I realized that I was the one making all the noise. Oh, this was all happening on the freeway, by the way. So I managed to make it to the University Parkway exit, pulled to the side, and watched as my tire rolled away. I didn't panic or freak out or anything, but I didn't really know what to do. I realize that we could have died, so I'm immensely grateful that nothing happened. Anyway, I called my mom to see if she could look up a number for me, and she was acting all freaked out like she didn't know what to do so that got me frustrated. Nils being gone, my tire falling off on the freeway, my mother acting incompetent; it was all too much for me at that moment, so I started bawling my head off. A man stopped to help me, and this is what he saw: A stupid girl talking on her pink cell phone, crying, two kids in tow, no back right tire. Classy. He put the spare on, gave me lecture on tires, and that was that. Thank goodness this guy stopped. I hope he knew I was thankful.

I went to Big O this morning and got new tires, and they gave me a package deal for a trip to Disneyland. Nice.

Good News, Bad News

I'll start with the bad news. Nils has to go on another trip tomorrow. This one is particularly bad. He leaves tomorrow (Tuesday), and his flight gets back Sunday night at 11:00 pm. That's pretty much a whole week, and I'm a little bitter about it. It's his third trip in a month. This time he's going to Louisville for a woodturning convention. He found out about this one on Friday. Another guy was supposed to go, but his wife is having premature labor. Geez, nice excuse. Just kidding. He'll probably get a few extra vacation days out of it, so I guess it's fine. So that's the bad news. The good news is that Nils got a raise. Being the beast wife I am, I made him ask for a significant raise about a month ago. He talked to his superiors a couple of times, and they seemed to drag their feet forever about it. So Friday when they broke the news to him that he had to go on another trip, they softened the blow with the news of a raise. This will help us a lot. We're not rich by any means, but now we can afford to live, and we might even be able to save a little. What a novel concept! Nils is still going to work his second job a few nights a week so we can save money for a trip to Disneyland in November. My whole family is going to attempt to caravan to Disneyland before the holidays. I smell a Griswald Family Vacation in the making! Nils and I haven't had a real trip/vacation in a long time, so I'm looking forward to it.

Other exciting news: I have patellar tendonitis. I don't even know what that means, but it hurts and I'm annoyed. The dr. said I need physical therapy. I think I need mental therapy as well.

Mysterious Future

So it's been quite a week. Nils was gone all of last week. He was home Saturday night and Sunday, but back to it all on Monday. He didn't see the kids at all on Monday, which I think is sad and must be weird for him. On Tuesday, I was having a bad day. The kids seemed to be on one, and I was getting frustrated and feeling quite overwhelmed. I called Nils bawling and he came home, even though he was on his way to his second job. Good husband. He came home and quit the job. We decided to be poor and happy instead of less poor and on the verge of insanity all the time. Got an e-mail from second job boss, saying he'd be willing to have Nils work a couple nights a week instead of every night AND Saturdays. That I think I can handle. 3 nights a week is like school. We've always done that, so I think I can handle it. We'll see what happens. Nils is supposed to be discussing his future with the superiors at job #1, and if the discussion goes well, he might not need a second job at all. That would be super swell.

I went to Lagoon yesterday with the kids, my brother & family, and my mom. It was pretty fun. Going with the kids made it all about them, so I spent most of the time on the kiddie rides. I did manage to sneak in a few good ones. I got stung by a bee in the process. I was getting off the Wild Mouse, and felt a stinging on my leg. I lifted up my pant leg to see what it was, and a bee flew out. I felt so violated. I've never been stung by anything. I had a life goal of never getting stung, and this sneaky little piece of crap bee ruined it for me. Anders did really well on the rides. I thought he might freak out a little, but once he got going he had a blast. He and I rode on the skyride, and he wanted to ride on the ferris wheel. I hate that ferris wheel, so I told him when he gets a little older, he can ride it with Dad. It was a fun day for him, so I'm glad we went. Addie ate licorice all day, and thought it was funny to run away from me. Yes, that's hilarious at an amusement park. I couldn't believe that they were conscious the whole ride home. We left the park at 8:30, and when we got home at almost 10, they were still awake. WHAT?

New Phone

Nils got home from Chicago last night around 9:30. He works today, tonight, tomorrow day, tomorrow night, and Saturday day. I told him I'd see him Sunday.

On Tuesday the kids and I were outside playing with the neighbors. Anders was playing with my phone. The kids went over to a drain in our common area, and the rest is history. I don't think he dropped it in there on purpose, but the phone was submerged in sludge. The neighbors and I were able to construct a fishnet/pole and get it out, but there was no saving the poor little guy. I took it apart, but nothing could be done. So I bought a new phone yesterday. I had no idea that it would cost $170, but what choice do I have? I thought I'd make lemonade out of lemons, and I bought myself a pink one. So I'm now the owner of a $170 pink cell phone. I could do a lot with $170- but there it is. A stupid phone. I've said it before, and I'll say it again...stupid technology.

Update

Saturday I ran the Nestle/Art City Days 5k. It was quite fun, actually. There were about 1800 runners/walkers, so it was crazy to see the streets of Springville literally clogged with people. I ran with two of my friends. My time was 28:34. It would have been better, except I started dry heaving at the end, so I couldn't sprint to finish. I was pretty angry about that, but I feel good about the race overall. All of my miles were under 10 minutes, and it was fun running with friends. There was a huge raffle at the end, and they had tons of food for everyone. Nils and the kids came at the end, so that was cool. It was a really fun event. I want to do more of them, so I'm thinking about the Freedom Festival 5k on July 4. It's $20 to enter, though. Geez. I'd like to not dry heave. It's so stupid. I've always dry heaved at the end of races. Whatupwitdat?

My mom took Anders for the afternoon yesterday. They went to the mall, played at her house for awhile, went to see some cousins, and came home. He was SO excited all day for her to come get him. Addie and I went shopping while they were gone. She was really good the whole time. She just sat in her stroller and behaved, which was a little unexpected at this age. My mom bought Anders at new "Cars" t-shirt, and it's 3 sizes too big for him. He's completely in love with it, though and wants to wear it today, even though he wore it the second she bought it for him yesterday. The neck hole is so big it hangs off his shoulders and the bottom of it goes to his mid-thigh. Ahh, to be 3.