the never ending day...

on wednesday we met up with mindy and izzy at mcdonalds for some playtime and mommy/mindy time. it was so nice to visit with her as she's getting ready to move. ): we got home with just enough time to get girls down to nap, chris got home, i got more paperworky things done (never ending!), matt got home early, and then mindy showed up. i had forgotten that we were going walking while her boys were at piano. matt kept the girls (nice surprise to have him home early!) and made dinner while mindy and i power walked our neighborhood. i had been crampy since tuesday's power walk with lex. crampy, crampy, crampy, but nothing else.

then the big kids (including addie) and matt were off to church and frankie and i hung out just the two of us. 

yesterday was a long day.

i went grocery shopping for the last time, again.

this is actually probably the 5th or 6th "last time to grocery shop before baby" we've done.

the good news is that we're building up our food storage!

i also didn't sleep well the night before. i was up from 3-5, up with kids/matt at 6, back to bed and up at 7:30 with addie. doesn't make for a restful night.

we dropped addie off at preschool and franks and i headed out. she's been my little buddy lately, for some reason i've had several opportunities to spend time alone with her and it has been so fun! i got a little teary yesterday, walking up to the store holding only her hand and thinking i wouldn't be able to do this again. at least not for awhile and not very often. i love being able to focus on one child at a time, even if it's while running errands.

i had asked sarah if addie could stay after preschool and play for awhile and she said yes, so we made a real errand running trip out of it. we stopped by marshalls (love that store but it can be super dangerous!) to use a gift card. we got a super soft baby blanket amd new rain coat and socks for addie. now frankie can inherit her old one and boots, and addie just needs boots. i don't know why, but i love rain gear!

next we stopped by kohls to make a return. i had gotten a $10 coupon, but it wasn't supposed to be good till sunday. kohls is very customer oriented, so i decided to play the pregnancy card and see if i could use it early and they let me. (: i got matt his christmas slippers (i had gotten them from marshalls for christmas but wrong size, hence the marshalls gift card), a "big sis" shirt and "i love daddy" shirt for franks.

kohls has a cute "family bathroom" with a mini potty. i love those cute mini potties! frankie asked to go, sat for awhile and pushed like she was trying, but still nothing. that's okay, we'll keep trying.
(she also wore her crown, mostly upside down, the whole day. i love that girl!!!)

then we walked over to dicks to straighten out a dicks points discrepancy. at that point i was already pooped. and we still had to hit the commissary, the real reason we were shopping at all. a quick stop at mcdonalds for some sustenance before the comm, and we were off.
and yes, for those counting, that's 3 days in a row of mcdonalds food.
don't judge, i'm a million months pregnant and it's so convenient!

anyhow, the commissary always takes forever. i tried to hurry, because by that point preschool was over and i felt bad leaving addie for too long. but i use coupons and... i'm just slow lately. we had been walking for hours and i was crampy again. frankie was so, so good the whole trip though.

we picked up addie and visited with sarah and abby for awhile. got him with just enough time to get girls down before chris got home. then i still had to put groceries away.

fiasco time, i opened the trunk and my huge jar of pickles fell and broke. in a genius move, i opened the garage door, which then got stuck on the trunk of the truck and was still trying to go up. i called frantically for chris and i don't think there was any damage (or at least not much). chris helped with a bucket of water so our garage doesn't smell sour and we got all the groceries unloaded.

i so wanted to have dinner ready for lex before she had to go cheer for wrestling at 6, but i was soooo tired! she snacked and seemed fine, matt took the girls for a walk, i took her to the school and then stopped by food lion for some veggies i had forgotten. at that point i felt like this day would never end. i was tired, uncomfortable, and grumpy because i hadn't slept well. that's one of my least favorite attributes, my crabbiness when i'm tired. i can just feel it, it's just a general black cloud over my mood. i do try not to be, it's just more difficult.

and, just for the record, i try really hard not to complain too much about being pregnant. there were a lot of years that i didn't know if i'd ever have another baby because i didn't know if i'dis exhausting.

back to the never ending day.

i got home (630 by this point and dinner was nowhere near being ready), and asked the boys for some help. we all pitched in and finally sat down for dinner at 7. we made 2 shepard's pies (one for dinner, one to freeze) and a delish 7-layer salad (my fav salad right now). then the kitchen looked like a tornado had hit, but matt offered for me to take girls up for baths and he would clean. i love that guy. just as the girls were getting in the tub, lex texted that she was ready. sigh. christian watched the girls in the bath, i picked up lex, and matt worked, worked, worked.

back home just in time to wash girls, jammy them up, and get them to bed. so i missed the whole easy part of the bath, but oh well. i had to remind alexis to finish her chores (which she loved!) and then there was still a floor full or peas, cereal, and other related garbage after sweeping. i hate to knit pick, but at the same time, i feel i should be training the kids to do a good job. and sweeping, for both big kids, is just not working lately. i don't mean to complain about the big kids, they are good kids and they always do their chores, (mostly:) they just cut corners sometimes (like we all did at their age, i'm sure). but i love those kids.

after prayers i vented to matt for a few minutes and went up to bed.

finally.

that sweet man stayed up to finish the kitchen till almost 11. if you know my hubs, he like to be in bed by 9, so i really, really appreciate all of his help.

and that was the super informative, super long version of a 41 week pregnant crabby patty.

today is supposed to be rainy and i don't plan on leaving the house until my chauffeuring duties start up after school.

it's gonna be a good day, i can feel it!