Sheep Guarding Llama

The whole family slept in this morning.  Luciana came and hung out in bed with Dominica and I around eight thirty and just snuggled and talked for a bit before I got paged from the office at nine.  The weekend team wasn’t responding and work that was supposed to have started hours before had not started so I had to get up, get dressed and go to work on what was supposed to be my only day off all week.

I ended up working what was nearly a full day putting in around six hour.  Ridiculous.

I ran out this morning and picked up donuts for the family because Dominica was begging for them.  So I grabbed the largest box of books that was left and took it with me, dropping it off at the post office on the way.  That leaves just two small boxes left from the entire support and hopefully I can take them to work on Monday and be done with that part of our lives.  So many books!

This afternoon Dominica took Liesl out shopping.  They went grocery shopping and video game shopping.  The Nintendo Wii in Liesl’s room is proving to be really perfect for her.  She is challenged by attempting to use it but she is learning how to do so quickly and is really excited to have access to it.  And it makes us happy that we are finally getting use out of that old thing too.  This is the most that it has ever been used.  We are definitely now wondering  if Liesl might need a large screen in her bedroom.  We will see how she does this year with the Wii.  Maybe for Christmas it will be time for her to get a screen so that she doesn’t have to stand so close and look so hard to see what is on the screen.  If she keeps using it all year, I am sure that we will be going that route.  I suspect that Dominica will be thinking WiiU at that point too.  They bought three new video games for the Wii.  One is a Disney dancing game, one is the Nickelodeon Fit exercise game and one is a Dora the Explorer Snow Princess game.  A lot of the Wii games are designed around getting you active so we are really thrilled that Liesl will be getting exercise and doing something interactive as well.  It’s perfect.  And she can do it in her room which is making it easier to have strict “keeping her room clean” rules as well as letting her do things away from her sister (they need time apart and it is hard to do) as well as keeping the noise levels down for Dominica and I.

On their way back, Dominica and Liesl got Subway for dinner.  It’s funny how we never really used to like Subway and now we love it.

If you have ever wondered how the date of Easter is calculated, here you go: http://www.jimloy.com/math/easter.htm

Liesl spent the afternoon playing games in her room.  She probably played her Fit game for two hours almost.  And then she played her Dora Snow Princess game for a while too.  That one, while not officially a physical game, still works out well as Liesl likes to stand while playing it since she has to rock the controller around.

Liesl’s flowers are continuing to grow really well too.  They are over an inch tall already!

It’s Friday.  Last day of work, but another long one.  I have another migration this evening of a cluster like I did last Friday night.  I am hoping that that doesn’t mean that I am in the office as late as I was last time.  That was a really late night.

It is a little bit cooler out today, jacket weather again.  Dominica’s back is still bothering her.  My left ankle is really bothering me.  The tendon is having all kinds of problems.

I ended up having another really long day. I worked for thirteen hours in the office today and was pretty busy all day long.  It was an exhausting day.  I had to work through lunch too.  I ran out at three thirty and grabbed Subway quickly to bring back to the office and eat quickly at my desk while doing the evening deployments.

I had been thinking that we would get out early tonight but it was after nine when I finally left.

I got home and we put on Community for a bit.  Luciana was already asleep in bed when I got home for a full hour.  Liesl stayed up with us until way too late.

I am scheduled to have to work a bit on Sunday.  But as we are going away next week, not such a big deal.

Dominica was up early today as she is working.  I got up and started working at seven.  Lots to be done, no sleeping in for me.

I had a productive morning and I am feeling good about getting on top of work stuff.  Still way behind but making really excellent progress.  Next week is going to be crazy with all of the travel.

I had a really good day with the girls today.  I hadn’t realized that Dominica was going to be working a full day today so had only planned to be home for the morning.

Liesl and Luciana were so good today.  They were quiet and played together much of the day.  They entertain each other far more than they used to.  Luciana has taken to opening the back door and going outside to play in the sandbox all by herself.  It is pretty funny.  Liesl would never have done that.  She would have always gotten us to let her out and make sure that it was okay first.

At one point Luciana got stuck up on Liesl’s bunk bed and Liesl called me across the house to come help get her down (she is great at going up the ladder but not so good at going down it.)  I asked Liesl why Luciana was stuck up there and Liesl explained: “She went up there to get me my blankets.  I asked her to.  That’s what friends do, they help each other.”

Dominica’s back is still hurting but not as bad today.  She was able to get through work okay and it was a long day.  She did not get home until nearly six.

We watched more of Community tonight and the girls decided to spend the evening together in our room doing their own thing.  They are so funny.  Sometimes they are all over us and need constant attention.  Other times they just want to be on their own and not even know that we are around.  Today was a super quiet day for Liesl.  Once in a while she will just have a “spend time alone watching television” day.  I don’t know what triggers it but instead of her normal crazy self she will just do something quiet all day.  I barely knew that she was even around.  And that was after she started the day by running into my office and telling me how much energy she had.

Luciana was in a weird mood and took two showers today.

Liesl went and checked on her little princess greenhouse and was so excited to report that several of the plants had already begun to grow today!  I am surprised as I was not expecting to see anything until Monday at the earliest.  This was really fast.  Liesl thinks that this is very, very cool.  This is a good educational experience for her too.

Liesl played her Wii some today too.  She is loving having that in her room and she is slowly learning how to operate it so that she does not need us to do it for her.  It won’t be long and she will be needing a bigger screen in there and a WiiU with the latest games.  It will be neat when she and Luciana are old enough to play things like Mario Kart racing against each other.

Got up at six thirty and got moving pretty early.  Worked for a few hours before going into the office.  I remembered to take four boxes of books with me today!  Hooray.  That is so much less stuff being stored in the living room now.  That was $71 to ship all of those books, but it is awesome not having to worry about them.  I have three more boxes to go and all of the books will be out of here.  Dominica is really excited about that.  Those things have been in the way for months.  I can’t believe that $150 will have shipped them all.

I worked through lunch and ran to the post office just after lunch to make sure that the four huge boxes of books made it away.

I managed to leave work a little early and beat rush hour by minutes.  It is amazing how making it onto 635 by 4:55 PM is one experience driving home and ten minutes later is completely different.  Dallas is definitely a “follow the rules, and do everything by the clock” kind of town.  The start and stop times of businesses must be nearly all identical and strictly adhered to to have traffic be so dramatic.

I got home quickly and surprised Dominica who had been planning on asking me to pick up dinner on the way home.  It is best that I didn’t, though, as that would have been a horrible disruption to our diets and this way we are forced to eat healthy food at home instead which is both cheaper and healthier.  I had wanted to go out to Brookhaven tonight but Dominica hurt her back yesterday and is just resting.  She spent the day reading the first book in “The Lord of the Rings” series.

On the way home I stopped by at Game Stop and grabbed the Wii cable that Liesl has been needing so that she can use the Wii that is set up in her bedroom.  She has a 16″ LCD television in there and the Wii and the old AppleTV.  She was so excited to get it finally set up.  She has been asking for months for us to get it working.  So I hooked it up shortly after getting home and Liesl spent much of the evening playing a Sesame Street counting game and a little bit trying to figure out Mario Kart.  She is very happy.

We watched Community much of the evening.  That is a really good show that we recently discovered.  We are about halfway through the first season now.  I find that it is a lot more like community college is that people may realize.  It kind of takes me back to my late ’90s college years at Monroe Community College.

Luciana got us up at five this morning but we managed to change her and get her a new bottle and she fell back asleep – and slept until quite late, maybe even after nine.  A rare parenting win.

Dominica went back to sleep but I decided that it was late enough and that I had enough work to do that I just got up, showered and went into my home office to work for several hours.  That was important as it allowed me to do a ton of catching up on all sorts of things.  This week is my big time catch-up week.  I am so far behind, it is really stressing me out.   I am so anxious for this semester to be over.  The scheduling overhead of taking classes is devastating for me.  There is just so much to be done and no time in which to do it.  But this is it, home stretch.  I am twenty-five percent through my final semester with classes.  I can do it.

Work was so busy that I ended up just working from home.  That was good, I needed the down time.  Dominica took the day off and spent it reading “The Hobbit” from cover to cover.

I ended up working on homework and stuff until nearly two in the morning but I am getting significantly caught up.  Still a lot to go but I am in no way behind on my class stuff at this point and even maybe a little bit ahead.

The weather has been gorgeous.  We have all the windows open and the girls are spending half of their days outside.  They are old enough now that they just go outside together and play.  In the sandbox, under the tree, running around the yard.  They are so cute.