Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Here we go again...

Our nanny has been out on maternity leave since the end of April, scheduled to come back August 2nd. On Monday I get an e-mail from her telling me that she's decided to stay home with her baby permanently. I can't describe the numbness I felt...

She has been the best nanny the kids have ever had. She told us at her interview that she would be wanting kids soon, and would we mind if she brought a child with her to work. We told her it would be fine because since she wasn't pregnant yet, she and the kids would have at least 9 months to get to know each other before adding another one.

About 6 or 7 months later she told me she was pregnant. I was so happy for her and she again confirmed that it would be OK if she brought the baby with her. As her pregnancy went along, we were so happy, and we shared in her joy when she found out she was having a little girl. The kids already talked about what the days would be like when she was there.

In the middle of April she said that she had to stop working a week earlier than planned and left for maternity leave. We were so sad, but we knew it would only be 3 months and she would be back.

Things started going weird from there. She was going to call us when she had the baby, but after hearing nothing and worrying something was wrong, I texted her and she texted me back saying baby was here and fine and they were leaving the hospital. She never called or texted or anything on Kylie's birthday, and I had sent her a card for her birthday and never heard from her. I finally called her one day and she sounded like everything was fine, although she had said that she hadn't taken the baby anywhere yet (and she was over a month old at this point). John said that was his first clue she wouldn't be back. She thought she could bring the baby by on Josh's birthday since I was off that day, but the day rolled around and I only got a text saying she wouldn't be able to make and to tell Josh happy birthday.

Each of these things seemed a little off to me from her normal personality...but every time I would think that maybe she wasn't coming back, I would push it out of my mind because I truly thought she would tell us as soon as she started to think she wasn't coming back.

But instead, she waits until the two busiest weeks of the summer for me at work (which she knows). Two weeks before she's supposed to come back. Two weeks before we have no one to watch the kids. I like to understand the reasons behind things, and I can't stop my mine from desperately trying to figure out why in the world she waited so long to tell us.

Seriously, the last year has been such a wonderful year with her...she was so perfect for us, and now, we're back to square 1. I told her in my e-mail back to her (I can't believe she didn't even call me) that I respected her decision to stay home...I was just so hurt by the fact that she waited so long to tell us.

I know we'll get through this...we always do.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

4th of July, 2010 Recap...

I can’t believe I have not yet posted our 4th of July weekend recap! I guess better late than never!

So the Friday before the 4th John and I took off work. We got to sleep in and spend the morning in the sun cleaning out the toy bins in the garage. John was planning on taking Joshie golfing, but Joshie had lost his golf glove, which he had to have or else he gets blisters. So after not finding it in the garage, we headed to the sporting goods store to get him another one. Kylie was actually being a good sport through this because she had been saying that she was going to save her money to buy a set of golf clubs, and that if she saved every week she would have enough money in November.

While we were walking around the store, I noticed a set of pink golf clubs that were Kylie’s size. I pulled John aside and told him I thought we should ask her if she wanted to spend all of the money in her piggy bank right now to buy them, and we would pay the rest. John agreed and when we asked Kylie she was super excited! So we bought everything and headed out so that we could get golfing!

My dad watched Ryan for us, and the four of us headed to a really cute little par 3 close to our house. I hadn’t been golfing since I was pregnant with Kylie, and it felt so good to get back into it. The kids were having a blast! We ended up playing 7 holes, which seemed to be the perfect amount for the kids.

That evening we headed over to some local fountains with some house church people and had a picnic dinner. The kids played in the fountains and ran around in the grass while the adults got to relax.

After that we came home and our neighbors had a fire, so we all joined them over there and roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. The kids were so tired from the long day, so my dad took them over to his house and they all went to bed. We stayed for a long time! We even sent the boys to get us Taco Bell because it was about midnight and we were so hungry! We ended up coming in around 1:30 AM, which is the latest I’ve stayed out in a long time :)

The next morning Kylie had gymnastics practice and Joshie had football practice at 9:00 AM, so getting up was a little difficult :) But we got through those and then headed to Joshie’s t-ball game at lunch time. After the game we came home and I tried to get the kids down for naps, but gave up because there were just not going to sleep. We spent the rest of the afternoon over at our neighbor’s house and the kids played in the baby-pool and the slip n’slide. The boys ran out and got us City Barbque for dinner and the day was coming to a nice end. Kylie was not feeling well in the heat, so she walked home and just after she went inside Josh came out and told us she had gotten sick. We packed everything up and headed inside. Thankfully she was fine…I think she was just really affected by the heat.

The next morning we went to church and then out to lunch with my dad. When we got home everyone took a nap :) After that we went outside and just took it easy…grilled hot dogs for dinner and just relaxed.

On Monday we got up and went to the grocery store and then came home and John and the kids washed my car and I chased after Ryan all afternoon :) That was pretty much all we did all afternoon, and then we grilled out a great dinner. John and I were absolutely exhausted by Monday night…we couldn’t even really gather up the energy for Front Porch Monday!

The weather was gorgeous (very different from the previous years) and we had a perfect balance of events and relaxing on this 4th of July. I was so nice to have such a long break from the normal routine!