What a Week

The week started off well and somewhere around Wednesday it took a left turn towards a bad week.  I woke up Wednesday morning to a gray, rainy day and a large amount of errands before me that needed to be taken care of.  In spite of the weather, they didn't seem too daunting and I was challenged to get them done.  That is until I turned our computer on.  It turned on, but wouldn't load.  It got stuck on a black screen with white letters claiming a system file has been deleted and I would need to insert the program disk to repair the problem.  That would be fine and dandy if I actually had the Windows disk to insert.  After a long talk with Ryan, a lot of whining (by me) about where to take the computer and how it would affect my day, we decided that I should take it in to Best Buy, buy Windows 7 and have them install that and reload the missing system file.  Did I forget to mention that Aric is the deleter of the missing system file?  Apparently if you smack the keyboard enough times you can actually hit a combination of things to do damage to a computer. 

I took the kids to town, dropped off the computer, almost handed over my first-born to pay for the repairs and continued on with our errands.  Errands that were completed in the pouring rain causing my jeans to wick up 6 inches of water from the hem.  I hate wearing wet clothes especially jeans.  We went home and not long after I received a call from Best Buy advising that they could not do a simple upgrade and would need to completely restore the computer to the manufacturer's settings thus wiping out every file, picture and home movie on that computer.  Panic set in and I forked over an additional $100, another trip into town and my external hard drive to save every digitally captured moment in our children's lives.  By the end of Wednesday I realized I had no patience, an extreme amount of stress, no energy and felt like a failure since I hadn't been the best mom to my kids.  I wanted a do-over.  No such luck.

Wednesday night into Thursday morning I decided I would allow Kellyn to cry it out overnight.  There is no need for a 7-1/2 month old to wake up multiple times overnight.  In theory it sounded great, in practice it didn't work out so well.  That girl can cry.  And cry.  And cry.  And cry.  An hour into her crying after checking on her multiple times I decided it would be easier to feed her to sleep.  It worked.  I forgot to mention that I had tried this same thing on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning but had to cave when I realized she was overdressed and somehow breaking out of her pajamas.  After two failed attempts and not much sleep it just seems easier to get up and feed her when she wakes up.  At least I'll get more sleep that way.  Thursday evening I figured out some of Kellyn's issues. She is now the proud owner of two bottom front teeth.

Thursday I was brain dead due to lack of sleep.  It affected my ability to multi-task and I was given a stern talking to at the end of the day.  Honestly right now I struggle with having a negative work attitude since my brother died.  I just don't care.  Work is not important to me.  In the grand scheme of life it won't matter.  I work because I have to not because I want to.  Family and loved ones matter so much more.  That is a balance that I truly need to find, since I don't really want to carry a lackadaisical attitude around with me.  I digress, though. 

I did get to pick up my computer on Thursday afternoon completely restored and not missing any of my data.  I have made a mental note to back things up more frequently to avoid any future crises and Aric has been served a restraining order to not touch the computer with a ten foot pole.  My only problem with the computer is needing to find time to learn to navigate Windows 7 and to install all of the missing programs and drivers needed to run the printer, photo editing software, mp3 player, etc.  I don't quite realize what is missing until I want to use it. 

Friday was fine until Ryan came home from work late Friday evening.  I got Aric, who was still awake, out of bed and brought him down to say hi to daddy.  Aric fell out of a chair, cut his cheek open and gave himself a black eye all within five minutes of Ryan walking through the door.  After lots of tears, Aric's very first band aid, ice cream and some quality time with daddy and mommy watching Shrek, Aric finally went back to bed.

On Saturday Aric fell outside while playing, skinned his knee and earned his second bandaid.  He also scraped his forehead somehow in a separate incident.  He's looking a little rough.

Today.  Today is Sunday and the start of a new week.  It's sunny and warm and looking better already.