Thank you for visiting my blog. I'm located in south Gilbert, Arizona. I have twin daughters and one little boy...between the three of them, they keep my days busy between gymnastics and soccer. My children and husband are my biggest support each day.
As far as where I've been....here's my totally exhausted, emotional breakdown rambling.
Allergies this year has been out of control. For almost a week straight, my Camryn has had severely swollen, red eyes with the left side of her face completely inflamed. After thinking there must be something in our new yard that is blooming causing this reaction, I kept all kids inside for three days in which the symptoms subsided. But before I kept her in, I wanted to be sure that she didn't have a horrible case of pink eye. So, I loaded all three kids in the car and took a trip to the doctor where all four of us rolled into the office resembled a train wreck of a family. While meeting with the doctor, I was reassured that it was just allergies after the doctor ran a few tests, which included eye drops that caused her eyes to glow. She ended up prescribing us some allergy drops. I then buckled my three back in the car with a completely exhausted 1 year old who's skipping his afternoon nap to pick up the prescription at Target. After waiting 30 minutes for the prescription they tell me it's ready and ask if I'm okay with the $75 copay for the eye drops. To which I reply, "Um NO!" The pharmacist than says she'll check with the doctor but we won't have an answer until the following day. Great...that's just what we need. At that time, all I can do is be patient.
Now, while we were also at the doctor she had listened to Easton's chest as he's had a horrible cough and again tells me it's from allergies. Um, okay...the cough sounds bad but the allergy season is horrible.
All three of my kids have been incredibly fussy and clingy as I know they're reacting to me being gone continuously as I've had a crazy busy shooting schedule due to weather reschedules.
As I've been gone, I have been blessed with an incredible mother in law who has come in and taken charge while I've been gone. I was then blown away when I crawled into bed and realized my bed had been neatly made and all my laundry had been washed and put away. Say what....yep, my mother in law is amazing!
From my crazy shooting schedule and my kids being fussy, the hours and days are starting to just melt into another and I begin to forget what day it is and with a scattered mind think of all the emails that aren't getting answered...while I'm trying to soak up each late hour editing sessions and placing orders.
Insert exhaustion...red, blood shot eye exhaustion while walking through each day looking like a zombie with dark circles under my eyes.
What also hasn't helped is my son hasn't been taking naps for almost a week. Well, let me put it this way...I lay him down for his nap and he falls asleep and within 20 minutes he's waking up screaming. I then go and pick him up, snuggle with him and remember those dang molars that REFUSE to come in are all four bulging through his gums. I feel inside his mouth and I just want to cry for him. What makes it even harder is I can't give him Motrin as he's scheduled for a small procedure to have tubes put in his ears....whole different side story. So, I take each painful moment with him as I hold him and give him as much numbing gel as I can.
In the meantime, Cashlyn is starting to feel miserable and is getting a bad cough that hurts me just listening to. I again, take her into the doctor to have her chest listened to and then told it's also allergies...yep, I paid another $20 to hear it's allergies.
The hours and days continue to melt into one another and I'm finding myself spending each late night just trying to catch up on what hasn't been done in my house and spending what little energy I have left to work. Then poof, it's 1 am and I'm crawling into bed to then wake up at 6 am to my son crying...{insert heart breaking for my baby}.
{Slight subject change}
We had invited our friends over for dinner as my friend is in desparate need of some relief. The day of having them over, she calls me to say she's bringing her signature recipe over. I then tell her absolutely no that we had invited them over so that she could have a night off. After she reassures me that she isn't doing anything out of her way, that she simply had a double recipe that needed to be eaten. I then think, okay that could be true and I'm not about to argue with her. But then after she brings it over, I truly believe she just lied to me as I think she was worried about putting me out. Yep....my friends and I can be that way.
The day I have our friends over, I reached a breaking point where I thought the only thing I needed at that time was a big, fat margarita. So, I ended up sitting on my back porch enjoying the afternoon watching my kids play and husband working in the yard...and me just sipping on a margarita while eating guacamole and chips. It was a good afternoon.
It was that evening that I began thinking that Easton's misery could possibly be from another ear infection...my girlfriend and I go down the ear infection check list which my son has never typically followed. The next morning, Easton wakes up with a 102 temperature, I schedule his appointment and we begin our day. All four of us head out to Cashlyn's dance class, with each of them coughing, Easton completely cranky and me reassuring everyone we don't have the plague. After dance, we head over to the doctor...pay our copay (truly believe my copays cover their electricity bill) and discover a yucky ear infection in his right ear. Great...good times. Then while I'm there, I beg the doctor to check everyone's chest one more time as their coughs are just plain bad. I then, once again, hear the diagnosis of allergies. Great...those dang allergies. So again, I load all three kids in the car...head to Target for his prescription because the generics only cost $4. The pharmicist assures me that his prescription is on the list so we wait. We eat lunch, play in the toys isle(me included and loved each minute of it), walked up and down each isle and wait...wait...wait...wait. Almost two hours later, our prescription is finally ready. I then pay to only find out that the medicine actually wasn't on the $4 list. Say what...I just waited for almost 2 hours to pay my full prescription copay. Great...good times.
Then, after my husband comes home from his exhausting week, he goes straight to the backyard to set gopher traps...yep, we have gophers in our beautifully landscaped backyard. Aw, the joys of living on an acre. As I'm watching him work, I can't help but think and get jealous on how nice it must be to be able to work without juggling three kids. Now, I'm not complaining about my husband because he is incredible. That man works his tushy off during the day and comes home to work even longer on settling into our new house. He is a hard worker and incredible in providing for all of us. But, I was jealous.
He then comes in to finding me on the verge of crying from complete exhaustion and becomes my calvary. He takes over my mom duties....while I get a few minutes of peace cooking dinner without three kids crying at my legs and begging to be held. We then put Easton to bed and he asks what I'm needing help with. I give him the long list of the house chores I'm behind in and what's left that needing unpacking and putting together. And....he does it, he does it all while I sit with my girls and read to them. That was more relief than I could've ever dreamed up.
So here I am now, completely exhausted....
kids that are miserable with allergies, a son who is now counting down the days until he gets tubes in his ears, me counting down the days until I take him and Camryn to the allergist to pay twice the specialist copays (not cheap), 3 galleries released to very sweet clients, thankful for clients that are incredible in waiting for their galleries yet to be released, a list of pictures that have to be blogged as they are too cute to not share, sneak peeks that need to be posted and a weekend full of things to be done.
To each of you....thank you for being patient with me. I'm praying my reputation of staying on top of things is preceeding me.
And I know...this too shall pass.
These twins are adorable. I'll be definitely back with more of these sweet girls.
