Living with a pilot

Means lights out at 8pm...throughout most of the house, as Matt prefers to sleep in his sleeper chair/recliner d/t heartburn and snoring issues [that leave him with an a.m. dry/sore throat] when he lies flat.  I have been eyeing a used hospital-style adjustable bed at the local thrift shop to encourage him to move his sleep to the bedroom, but something about a used bed just feels too gross/bed buggy.  It seems like every couple of months he develops a new problem.  Right now he has also eliminated gluten and soy from his diet (with the exception of miso soup) and is in the process of completely eliminating dairy, relying on the calcium fortification in Xagave (his fave brand of agave nectar) for his dietary needs.

This is what I have to clean and watch reality TV around every evening:

And another thing; to streamline personal hygiene needs, he insists on keeping his facial astringent on the spice rack.  I have been petitioning for him to move it to his gluten free cabinet by the microwave, which, at least once a month, he promises he will do.  For now, I will just get used to sharing the shelf space.  :o)

Weekends

Being employed once again REALLY has me appreciating the weekend.  The were times not too long ago (such as last week) where part of me entered each weekend with anxiety because it seemed like the competing expectations of all that "time" turned into crankiness/stress, but this weekend it was so nice to relax.  I did "movie night sleepovers" with the kids in the master bed on Friday and Saturday (never did it back-to-back before) so we could all sleep in and Matt could hit the sack early to recover from the week.  We still crammed a lot of activity in: a birthday party, pumpkin carving, decorating, unpacking (yes, still from our August move-in), and baking for the kids' school holiday parties (the girls will be wearing costumes to school tomorrow and walking to a local nursing home to sing holiday songs and put on a parade, before returning to their classrooms for a Halloween pizza party); plus Matt got in an afternoon of football/studying at the O'Club (Officer's Club--and the Giants won [yay/phew]) and still spent plenty of time with us.  :o)

Feeling very well rested and ready for the week ahead!!  This will be my first week at work without my predecessor, and I am very excited to get more of a handle on things.  Hopefully my base access card will be activated soon so I can actually log into the insurance and billing systems (otherwise I will be spending a *lot* of time collecting forms at the pharmacy).  :o)

Semi-homemade (as in, I used munchkins) Halloween cake pops for my youngest's class party.  Unfortunately, by the time I signed up for my oldest's, all that was left was the far less climatic vegetable tray.  Oh well, at least we are using a Mickey Mouse sectional serving plate and it includes whipped cream cheese for a dip (Big Sis' FAVORITE).  :o)

This was my first time making cake pops...and I am VERY glad I used munchkins because I messed up SO many times just with the decorating.  I can't imagine if I actually tried to make the balls, which are apparently even harder to get right on your first go-through.  There was actually a point where I had to wash off the iced-on faces with a paint brush because they started running, and another point where I had to redo the entire batch because a domino-effect ended up happening causing all the still-runny candy coatings to splotch together.  This is definitely a dessert I would like to get good at, though.  It is one of the girls' favorite treats and there are so many options in terms of just about everything (flavors, themes, etc.).

Pet lover?

I need to give some *MAJOR* props to the hubby.  While he didn't seem to know what to do with himself as we headed out on our roadtrip to Louisiana last Thursday (although I suspected XBox, followed by studies), but it seems to have been filled with studies, followed by pet time, instead!  :o)

Petunia did not have any wetting accidents in the house when we were gone, only one BM in each bedroom, plus one in the bathroom--which is expected as that is her main MO in terms of expressing anxiety related to change.  The most impressive examples of his deepened relationship with the critters are:

1) Normally, Kumi's nocturnal activities (noisy spinning...hedgehogs apparently can cover 5-8mi/night) drive Matt insane--to the point where we had to move the Kumster to the laundry room and keep the light on all night/off all day (hedgehogs are very sensitive to light and their prey instincts cause them to hide and only wheel-run/eat under the cover of darkness) to get him on a more sleep-friendly schedule.  Our first night back, after Kumi was already ready-to-roll for a night of sleep, Matt mentioned, blushing a little (underscoring his affection), that it would be alright for Kumi to move back to his normal schedule so he could enjoy himself more!  :o)  xo

2) Normally, it is like pulling teeth to get Matt to take Tunia out to potty (although he is also normally the most grouchy if she accidents).  When he lets me "sleep in" on the weekends, my time is always cut short when I hear Tunia's pitter-pattering feet across the floor, because I know he will not walk her.  However, I was out for a walk with the girls this evening, when--lo and behold--strolling our way was a very handsome young man with a very trim middle-aged dachshund.  I was beside myself with pleasure when Matt nonchalantly stated, "Taking Petunia out is part of my afternoon routine now.  It's just what I do.  Petunia even slept with me last night."

So happy to see him bonding with the pets, and I know they must have helped a lot with stress relief when we were not around for distraction this weekend!  :o)