(This was so not) A Typical Day

When I did my typical day post in July we were pretty close to establishing a daily routine.  I figured that by the time the girls were one we would have a routine down.  Instead Brandon quit his job, I found out I was pregnant, and the girls stopped sleeping as much.  Combine all that with the fact that between building my parent's fence and visiting with my sisters we have hardly been home.  A daily routine is something we haven't even considered.  Even the only predicable thing, the girl's bed time, recently changed from 9:00 to 8:00.  So in light of all that here is 24 hours in my life on Monday, November 14th.  The pictures are from the past week or so.  


9:00 I wake up. It had been a rough night. Uncharacteristically Lydia had woken up at 2:00 am, 4:00 am, 6:00 am and then 7:30. Brandon and I had taken turns getting up with her. Charlotte had participated in the last two wake ups. After the 7:30 wake up Brandon stayed up with the girls and let me go back to bed. They played on the floor while he worked on a very detailed application for a job that he really really wants. As soon as I get up Lydia comes crawling toward me whining as if to say, “Why did you leave me with Dad?” She's become a little bit of a Mommy's girl lately and wants to be with me all the time.

9:25 The girls each are acting tired so we put them back to bed. Brandon says that he has a headache from the tediousness of the application so he goes to lay down for a little bit to take a break.

9:30 I have some breakfast and go over my to do list. The only thing on the list is to call Medicaid and figure out why the girls cards didn't get sent to me this month. Mine showed up, but theirs didn't. I call the number, but am told that there are 88 callers ahead of me and a wait time of 44 minutes. I'm not interested in that so I hang up and get online to see if I can chat with a rep.

10:15 The online chat wait time was supposed to be only 15 minutes. Instead it's 45 minutes. I fill the time by catching up with facebook and blogger and watching The Hunger Games Trailer. I finally get a rep chatting me.

10:30 The chat rep can't really help me :(. They say the girls account was closed. Which makes no sense because mine is open. They say that they will alert my case worker and I will get a call sometime. Or I can call in and get someone to help me. I need the account open so the girls can go to the Doctor on Wednesday. I really don't want to reschedule that appointment. So I call the number again. I'm told the wait time will be less than 40 minutes. The girls wake up so I put the phone on speaker phone and we all listen to poor sound quality hold music while I spoon feed the girls their breakfast.  

10:40 Still on hold. The girls are done eating their carrots and squash. I give them cheerios so they will stay in their chairs while I pick out their clothes for the day.

10:50 Still on hold. Change the girls' diapers and get them dressed.

11:00 Still on hold. Brandon gets up. He goes back to work on his application. I play on the floor with the girls.

11:18 Finally get through to a rep (It was a 50 minute wait) She looks over the account, but can't do anything. She says she will transfer me to someone on the team in charge of my case. They should be able to open the account since there doesn't seem to be any reason it was closed.

11:20 Transferred and back on hold with crappy music. The girls are whining and so Brandon pours them bottles.

11:25 Still on hold. Lydia is still pretty ornery. Brandon puts her to bed, and she is quiet.  

11:40 Still on hold. I put the phone back on speaker phone and play with Charlotte.

12:05 Get through to someone. He is very helpful and goes over everything in my account. Apparently it was too much for the government to handle to keep the girls account open, while adding my pregnancy info, and adding the fact that Brandon left Frontier.

12:15 After an hour and 45 minutes on the phone the account is open again. It's a small price to pay for the girls to have insurance for the next year, but I'm still mad about it. The account never should have been closed. I grumble about how if I worked there I would put in controls to make sure mistakes like this never happen. Where is EWOK when I need it, dang it!

12:20 Oh well I'm off the phone and Charlotte is ready for a nap. Once she goes down I go take a shower.  

12:40 I get done with my shower and hear Lydia. I get dressed, then get her up, and make her a bottle.

12:45 Brandon is done with his application so he holds and feeds Lydia while I proof read the application. It's incredibly detailed and boring, but that's what they want. I'm convinced they will select interviewees based on the weight of the application. Who would want to read more than two of these?

1:35 Finally done proof reading. Brandon made lunch while I read. I take Lydia into the bathroom with me while I blow dry my hair and do my make up.

1:45 I wash bottles out. Lydia hangs out right next to me.

2:00 Lydia and I take out the trash and get the mail. Then we play on the couch.

2:20 Lydia is done with hanging out with me. And gets down on the floor to play with her toys by herself. I take a little nap.

2:45 Charlotte wakes up, I give her a bottle and get ready to go on a walk.

3:00 Brandon helps me get the stroller set up and the girls in it. He stays home to work on formatting the application and writing a cover letter. Me and the girls head to the library to pick up some books.

3:30 We get the books and start heading home. Lydia decides this is a perfect time to discover that she can stand up in her seat and turn around to see what is behind the stroller. I decide that the girls need to get their wiggles out. It's a really nice warm day so I stop at a grassy spot by the library and put the girls on the ground. They start playing with the grass, the cement, and the leaves.

3:50 The girls seem to be ready to go so I get them back in the stroller, cinch up Lydia's lap belt, and get going. For some reason Charlotte becomes fascinated with a little piece of the stroller that sticks off the frame about 3 inches above the wheel. She reaches down to play with it. She looks like she is going to fall out. I try to make her sit normally so she doesn't alarm anybody, but she keeps leaning over. Lydia starts poking Charlotte. I cross to the other side of the road so we aren't facing oncoming traffic and so hopefully my crazy babies will be less noticeable.

4:15 Somehow we make it home without being stopped by any concerned motorists. Brandon helps bring in the girls and the stroller.

4:30 Brandon is done with his cover letter and other parts of the application. I proof read those.

5:00 The girls are getting hungry so I put them in their chairs and give them cheerios to keep them happy while I make dinner. The only thing that sounds good to eat is waffles so I make those.

5:35 Dinner is ready and so is Brandon's application. He clears his stuff off of the table so we can eat there.  We drag the girls in their chairs over to the table and give them little waffle squares to eat.

5:50 I get a phone call from a Mary Kay lady. I won her drawing for some free stuff. Yay! Brandon overheard parts of my conversation and to him it seemed that Medicaid was calling me with free stuff. He teased me that I won their “on hold the longest” contest.

6:00 Dinner is over. Brandon leaves to go print off his application to proof read it on paper. I clean up and change the girls diapers.

6:10 I've made a new to do list and of all the things on it the only thing I want to do is clean the girls room. So we all go in there. Their room has been a disaster ever since we switched rooms. Part of the problem is the way the furniture is arranged. I can't fix just a symptom I have to fix the problem so I start moving Lydia's bed and a little bookcase (don't worry none of it was heavy.) The girls play around me while I do that.

6:27 The house is just too quite so I turn on the radio. No Doubt's “It's My Life” has just started playing. This is one of my favorite songs – some days I am just so lucky. I start cleaning the room and putting things away. Already I love the new arrangement.

7:00 The girls have crawled out of their room and are now playing in mine. They start playing with a basket of laundry I need to fold so I take that as hint that I need to get folding. I fold all that laundry.

7:30 The girls are a little whiny. I give them each a bottle and they are happier. I start a load of whites.  

8:00 Bed time has been moved to 8:00 and it is so obvious that the girls are ready for bed. I get Charlotte in her pajamas first. Then while I get Lydia in hers I hear Charlotte fall over in the living room. It wasn't bad and she comes over to me and falls again. Yep it's bed time. The bed time routine is Sing a Hymn, Read a Chapter in the Book of Mormon, Write in a little journal about cute things the girls do each day, and pray. Lydia is fast asleep before I'm done reading the Book of Mormon. Charlotte is still awake, but fading fast. I remember that we need to start reading the latest Conference Edition of the Ensign so I grab that and read it. Charlotte is just barely awake when I say a prayer and turn off the light.

8:30 Brandon is still not home and I need a break so I lay on the couch and read. I'm reading the series of books about Laura Ingalls Wilder's Ma, Caroline, life as a child. They aren't as well written as Laura's Little House books, but they are fun to read. I'm looking forward to when I finish this series and can go back another generation to the series about Laura's Grandma. Her Grandma's name is Charlotte and she had a sister named Lydia. If the series is good I plan to read it to my Charlotte and Lydia when they are a little older.

9:00 Brandon comes home. He has his application printed and ready to fax, just in time for tomorrows deadline. His brain is fried and all he wants to do is sit on the couch. We read the autobiography of Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. He was NASA's first flight director. I've read this book before and it is one of my favorite books EVER. Chris tells about the very very very beginning of NASA, before they even had the work astronaut. He talks about how they hardly new the questions to ask in regard to putting a man in space, to say nothing of the answers. It's a great book to read and it makes my little operations management heart very happy.

10:05 We are done with two chapters and are ready to do something. Brandon starts going through his Flight stuff to find things for when he teaches the aviation merit badge to our scout troop. I start making some example ornaments to take to a RS presidency meeting. I want to make the ornaments at our next weekday meeting.

11:00 We're done with our respective projects and start cleaning up. Then we have hot chocolate and talk and joke.

11:15 We decide we better go to bed so we do that.

6:00 The girls wake up. I'm a little annoyed that it's 6:00, but I'm glad Lydia didn't put us through another night of waking up every two hours.

6:15 The girls are done with their bottles. We have a rule that if they wake up before 7:00 they have to go back to bed. So we put them back and they go without complaint. We go back to bed too. I have a little bit of an upset stomach so I take a tums. It make me feel better.

7:45 The girls are awake and making happy noises so I just lay in bed.

8:00 The happy noises have turned into “get us out of here” noises so I get up and change the girls diapers. I put them in their high chairs and give them cheerios.

8:15 The girls are done with their chairs and so I get them out. Then they start eating all the cheerios they dropped on the floor. I lay on the floor and watch them.

8:45 Brandon gets up. I'm still not feeling really well so I go back to bed until 9:15. I feel much better after that little bit of extra sleep.