This Time of Year

In the past 48 hours, I've managed about a total of 8 hours of sleep. And no, that's not 8 hours in a row, that's a few hours here, a few hours there, 20 minutes here, etc. You see, Chase has caught a bit of Braedyn's sickness, so it's really affecting his sleep at night, which in turn affects my sleep. And when Chase does manage to sleep for a few hours in a row, I'm woken up by Braedyn's nagging cough sounds that come through the monitor. And if that's not waking me up, then I'm awoken by Ben's deep breathing (get your mind out of the gutter) which tells me that he is in deep sleep mode and oblivious to all of this. Sometimes I "accidentally elbow" Ben, but the mere fact that he sleeps right through that too just makes me even more envious. But not envious enough to want to go back to work just yet. =)~

I thought Braedyn was getting over his sickness, but unfortunately he started to get worse. He would hold his snot-filled nose and say "nose"... but not as in "this is my nose", but rather "my nose hurts". If that's not the most heartbreaking thing, I don't know what is. So he was home sick all day today, but I did manage to get him into the pediatrician. And thank goodness for that, because his doctor determined that his sickness turned into a bacterial infection, so we got some antibiotics that will hopefully have Braedyn feeling better by the end of the weekend. You have no idea how much this excites me!!

So it is now October and the fall season is upon us. Something about this time of year really appeals to me. Although I never have the pleasure of seeing the leaves change, as shown in this picture, I do get to enjoy the nice change of weather in Florida. The humidity is all but gone, there's a nice breeze in the air, and you can walk outside without feeling like a heatwave slapped you in the face. It's so refreshing!

The cooler temperatures (which is defined as mid to upper 80's here, haha) remind me that the holiday season will be here soon. The holidays are so much more fun now that we have kids. I'm definitely looking forward to Christmas shopping this year, and likewise, I'm sure Ben is not so looking forward to my Christmas shopping. My plan this year is to get all my shopping done within one or two days. This way, Ben won't be able to assess my shopping situation midway through and put a clamp on the budget. By time he gets around to downloading all the charges in Quicken (damn how I hate that Quicken!!), my shopping will be done and over with. It took me awhile to come up with this wonderful plan. Not too shabby, eh?

October also brings a fresh, new start to my weight loss plan. Yes, this is the third time I'm restarting this plan in the last month, but who's really counting? October 1st kicked off my "Lose 15 lbs Before I Lose My Mind" Challenge. I have to admit, this challenge may prove to be pretty difficult, especially since I think I'm just a few steps away from losing my mind any moment now. In fact, between you and I, I think I've already lost my mind, and I'm just pretending that it's still there. However, today is day 3 of my new weight loss plan, and I'm happy to say that I haven't fallen off the wagon... yet. Of course, when you're as severely sleep deprived as I am right now and simultaneously taking care of two sick little ones (when I myself am still sick), the fact that I've only eaten one meal today doesn't phase me at all. Sadly enough, my need for sleep now greatly outweighs my need for food. Hey, wait a minute... could it be that I've finally figured out that the true secret to weight loss is sleep deprivation? Hmmm, I could be on to something here...