been a long time gone...

So I'm not going to inundate you with all of these excuses as to why I haven't blogged in over a week.

Ok- so maybe I'll give you a few excuses:

1. Busy.
2. Busy.
3. Busy.

As I am sure all of you can relate!!

BUT.....the very, very, very, very, very, very, good news is.......that I managed to pull off working FOUR 12-hour shifts (that somehow take up approximately 15 hours of my day) over the past week.....and I am now DONE with my medical-surgical clinical. That's DONE....as in OVER....NEVER have to go again....as in.....makes me so very, very, very, very, very, very HAPPY!!

The experience wasn't all that bad....I was really blessed with 2 good preceptors to work with....and my patients weren't all that bad either.....but it was the looong hours....and the anxiety....and the being away from my family part that made me dread these clinicals so much.

But they are OVER now.

Did you get that??? They are OVER!! :)

And my husband had these waiting for me when I got home last night...
Aren't they beautiful? Lilies are my favorite. And then the roses are beautiful, too.

They are blooming so large and pretty....


Ok- so on with today.

Today- I was able to spend with Geoff (for part of the day) and Parker (for all of the day). I didn't get her down last night until 9:45 because that's about the time I got home from picking her up at my sister's.....and then she decided to get up at 7:15...which would have been fine except for the fact that she was still exhausted!

Needless to say....she wasn't the happiest of campers today....and had a few meltdowns (I stopped counting after 3). But regardless....I thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with her and taking pictures like these.....

I made blueberry pancakes this morning. I set the syrup and powdered sugar (because that's what I like to eat on my pancakes sometimes...with lots of butter, too) on the table. I told her to get into her chair. She did. I went to our bedroom to get Geoff up so he could join us. I visited the lady's room because I have a baby pushing down on my bladder making me visit this room every time I stand up.....and came back to the kitchen less than one minute later to find this.....


She wanted "sugar." I knew she was being quiet sitting in the kitchen all by herself......but it really never phased me. As I was walking to the study to get my camera I thought to myself, "Auhhhhh!! What a rookie mistake!!! I know better than this!!"



She had managed to make several piles of her "sugar".....




Oh- and by the way.....she put this shirt on herself...NOTE: the right arm going through the neck hole....

And as it turned out......







Parker had only powdered sugar for breakfast....

And refused to even take a bite of her blueberry pancake! (and I say 'refused' because I told her she had to have ONE bite before we went to our play date....and that stinker knows how to take the world's smallest bite that you can't even consider a bite. And she did it twice. Then what do you do? Me?? I gave up.)

So on into our day.....

I had Geoff take my belly photo today....and I wasn't even going to post it because I am sure you all get bored and tired of seeing my belly.....but I couldn't resist because I think it has gotten so much bigger since last week! And apparently....there are a LOT of people out there that think it is pretty big, as well.....as they tell me how big I am to still have 10 weeks left!

Yes- this is a true story.


And these next pictures have no real purpose except that I sat her on the kitchen counter to have a snack and decided to take pictures of her....and she decided to humor me a bit....and I had fun....and I haven't posted pictures of her in a while so I thought I'd plague this blog with them!