The Ramos Family

It didn't take long after Christmas break for our lives to return to the same old craziness as before break! Back to homework, piano, early bedtimes and too much to do and too little time in the day! I feel that is my constant battle, trying to find the balance between work, school, me time and family fun - I'm sure I'm not alone. I love my job, love the fact that I get to work from home everyday and have the flexibility to schedule my day - I don't know how I used to do it when I was in the office everyday! But along with that comes working day AND night - whether that's because I have scheduled my day that way or because I just have that much work to do, it's so easily accessible! I know what it comes down to is being more proactive and scheduling my days more efficiently and I'm hoping that things will settle down in the next few weeks to come. I know, poor me :o( I know this sounds like complaining but really - I love my life and I'm very grateful to have it so filled to the top. I'm just working towards a little more downtime, not just for me but for my family - I think we'd all benefit from that!

Last Friday night, Paul & I took the girls bowling - it was more for us to practice with our new balls (yes, we have our own balls now......hehehehe) since we both bowled in league on Saturday night. We were next to another family - actually a dad, a little boy and another older boy, and we had fun cheering each other on! On Saturday, I took down most of the Christmas decorations, including the tree and Paul steam cleaned all of the carpets in the house. Man were they dirty! We wanted to get them cleaned up now that Mr. Man is on the verge of crawling all over the place. Saturday afternoon, we headed to Uncle Matt & Auntie Missy's house, they were going to watch the kids for us while we bowled. I had to warn them about Lorenzo, he's been a total crank bomb for about two weeks (for proof, see The Pelletier Family blog - post from last week, you'll see evidence by way of actual tears rolling down his face) - his top two teeth are coming in so it's made our normally high maintenance boy into an ULTRA high maintenance child! I'm sure he just doesn't feel well but it doesn't seem there is ANYTHING that makes him feel better!

Sunday morning, Auntie Missy dropped Gen off at our house while she & Matt helped out/watched Noah's jamboree hockey tourney. Gen came with us to church - we were a little late in getting there and mass had already started, we had to sit outside of the church in the lobby because it was so packed (now that's a good thing!)! After church, we got some donuts then we had to drop Gen & Lorenzo off back at home and the girls and I headed to swimming lessons. This session, Maria & Jon are in the same swimming class and Bella & Nick are too! Their teachers said they did really well - after Myra and I let them know they were all cousins, hopefully they won't goof around too much! After swimming, the girls and I went home so they could have a quick bite to eat then we packed up Lorenzo and went to Auntie Juli & Uncle Dan's house. They watched Lorenzo for us so the girls & I could go to Grandma Kay's concert/performance at the St. Paul Seminary/School of Divinity. Grandma has been singing in the Chorale for 20+ years now and last year, Bella used to go with her to practices on Wednesday afternoons. The service was very nice and the music was beautiful - there was a reception afterwards so the girls ate some chicken wings, crackers and cheese and of course, cake! We then had to head back to Auntie Juli's to pick up Lorenzo and get back home for Maria's piano lessons with Tito Joey! It was a busy, tiring day!

This weekend is much more laid back. Grandma Kay ended up getting the stomach flu so stayed home to rest on Friday so I took the day off from work - but I did have some conference calls scheduled that I needed to attend so Paul worked from home as well so, between the two of us we took care of the boy. I got a lot of my cleaning done while Lorenzo was napping - it's very nice to start the weekend off with a clean house and most of the laundry done! Today is scrapbooking day so there are some people coming over later in the afternoon to scrapbook - or just hang out, whatever they choose to do! Tomorrow is church and swimming lessons. The girls don't have school on Monday, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. day so Paul took the day off as well. Lorenzo has his nine month checkup in the morning, then I think we might head to the Mall to use up the free wristbands at Nickelodeon Universe. It should be a fun-filled day!