It's been a good week

I have had a really great week this week! It started off good because Sunday (which is actually my Monday at work) I was scheduled for a vacation day at work because I was signed up to sell tickets for the playhouse (which I still need to post pictures of) at the Springdale Wal-Mart. Well, when I woke up that morning it was snowing and about 29 degrees outside (windchill 19 degrees!!) so needless to say I was NOT looking forward to sitting OUTSIDE for 2 1/2 hours. I started working to re-arrange Grace's room and lost track of time. I checked my phone and had a missed call from Teresa that said they'd cancelled selling tickets due to inclement weather! Yay! Super good news for me because I was off all day and was able to finish my housework. Ok, now that I've just told you all this I'm thinking I already said all of this in the last post but oh well! Now you've heard it twice! Ha!

Anways, then Monday was a pretty good day at work. Pretty uneventful really, which is sometimes good! Tuesday was good as well. Wednesday we had another Christmas committee meeting and it went surprisingly smooth! It lasted about 2 hours, and they usually only last 1 but we got a lot of stuff accomplished and everyone got along great! Anways, so it was good. I ended up staying an hour late because Teresa is in the process of teaching me and Crystal how to use the Racal, which is our recorder. All of our radio channels and phone lines are recorded and there are several occasions when traffic has to be taped off either for court cases or for supervisors to review stuff. Well, Wednesday night we had to tape off a pursuit which was pretty easy compared to what we had to tape off Thursday night! The Benton County Prosecutor's office was requesting some phone calls and radio traffic be taped off for a hearing so Teresa and I worked on it. It took us 3 hours to find everything we needed and to get it sent! I didn't leave work until midnight and I was exhausted by the time I got home. I was ready to close my eyes! We got it done though and now I don't think I'll have any problems taping stuff off from now on!

Now, two weeks ago, there is no way I would have stayed at work so late because of Grace's sleeping habits and the fact that she would have 1) still been awake when I got home or 2) been asleep on Gene and I would have had to try and lay her down or end up putting her in bed with me. However, since last Saturday night when she first started sleeping in her "big girl bed" she has slept wonderfully!!!! Her bed time is 10 pm and I told Gene that she has to be settled down and laying down by 10 every night unless there were extenuating circumstances. Obviously Monday nights that doesn't work because she's at Mom and Dad's and we usually aren't home till close to 11 and then I give her a bath, then put her to bed, but every other night it's 10 oclock. Gene has torn a muscle or something in his back so he's been in a lot of pain and pretty miserable this week so Tuesday night when I got home I could see that Grace's closet light was on when I pulled in the driveway so I knew he was working on putting her to bed. I was very quiet when I came in and went straight to the bedroom to start getting ready for bed. I got my face washed and pj's on and snuck upstairs to check on them because it was quiet but Gene was still up there. Well....when I peeked my head in he was asleep laying in her bed but she was laying there awake! Oh my word. I must say this didn't really surprise me, but it was kinda funny. So I kicked his hiney out of her bed and turned the light off and she laid down. It actually took her a while to go to sleep for whatever reason and I had a POUNDING headached when I got home so I was ready for her to pass out. Finally she did and I went to bed.

On Wednesday night Gene was still awake when I got home a little after 11, but he had successfully put Grace to bed! I was so excited because I didn't have to stress about getting her down! I changed into my pj's and laid down to read. Last night was the same thing, he was actually still somewhat awake when I got home around 12:20 and Grace had gone to bed fine he said. So, we went to bed. Tonight, just before 10 she started getting really sleepy and looking for her paci. She's so funny too because she now says "big gerl bed!!" It's the cutest thing, so I asked her if she was ready to go night night and she just said "big gerl bed!" So we brushed her teeth and she gave Daddy night night hugs and kisses and up the stairs she went. She crawled right up in her bed and laid down with Frosty (her new night time companion) and Nemo. I went and got a book out of her closet and I read A Merry Little Christmas to her. She just laid there playing with her hair and after the book I turned her closet light off, bent down to give her night night kisses and she played with my hair for about 5 seconds then grabbed her own and fell asleep. Can you believe that?! I mean really. Last week she was sleeping with me because we could NOT get her to lay down in her crib and she wouldn't go to sleep without being rocked and now she'll just lay down like a big girl and go to sleep. It has honestly relieved so much stress from my life! I don't stress out now when it gets close to bed time and worrying about being able to lay her down without waking her up.

I was texting Mom earlier and telling her about our night night success and I told her that just in a week's time since she started sleeping in the "big gerl bed" she has even acted older and not so babyish. It's weird how smart they are, and they just know things. It really is like she knows she's not really a baby anymore. It's exciting and fun to watch, but it also makes me so sad because she's growing up so fast. I don't want to sound cocky by any means, but I'm so proud of my husband and myself and how good of parents we are. Of course I already knew Gene was because I had watched him father the boys for the 2 years we were together before Grace, but it's amazing to watch how you change as a couple after you have kids together. I love it, it's a whole new side of our marriage and I love that he's my baby's daddy!!

Today was a lot of fun too because all the girls from the committee met at Sam's this morning to do some shopping for the Christmas party. We hit Sam's, Party City, and Deals, then we ate lunch at TGI Friday's. It was sooo good, and we had so much fun together! We laughed and laughed at each other and it was neat to have some "girl time" and become better accquainted with girls that I work with all the time but never really knew until working on this committee with them. Gene had his third chiropractic appointment of the week today so his dad kept Grace for the morning while he was gone to that. They beat me home by a little bit, and then the boys got home from school about an hour after I did. I got some cleaning done and laundry is about caught up!!

I was really struggling with what to do for dinner though. I just wasn't really in the mood to cook and nothing really sounded good. I finally decided on cracker crumb pork steaks so I set them out of the freezer to thaw. I was going to have to run in to the grocery store to get some other things to make, and we ended up all going together! It was some good family time, and Gene had a major attack of the sweet tooth. We got not only stuff for dinner, but also stuff for brownie fudge sundaes! We got home and I got started on dinner. It was sooo yummy and I enjoyed cooking it!! Once I got started I got in the mood for it! Grace ate her WHOLE plate of food and wanted seconds! She was so messy and had mashed potatoes ALL over her. I had to strip all of her clothes off of her and then pull the cover of her high chair off to clean everything up. She made a big mess. I then made the brownies for the sundaes and cleaned our bedroom. Gene made us sundaes and I cleaned up the kitchen. Grace got a bath, and the boys went next door to stay with their Mimi and Papa because they're taking them to Silver Dollar City tomorrow, so Grace played for just a little bit after her bath then it was time for bed.

I'm worn out and my husband is snoring on the couch! I'm about to call it a night!! I hope everyone had a great week!!!