For some reason, with an office job, I’m more disciplined about writing my entries at night to publish during the day. I think it’s because I always think I’ll have time to write an entry during the day when I’m home with the kids, but I know I won’t when I have to work. So, the entry below this one is the one I had set to publish this morning. Normally - I wouldn’t have another one so soon - but my morning started off SO AWESOME…I just had to hurry and tell you about it.

I woke up at 5am this morning. Which is late for my new Working Mom schedule because I have to get the kids up at 5:45am. I need more than 45 minutes to get everything else (including myself) ready. When I realized it was 5am, I thought Oh, well. No shower this morning. Hair goes in a bun.

I exited my bedroom to let the dogs out and was greeted with the most awesome discovery! One of the dogs had diarrhea all over the dining room carpet. And when I say “all over” - I’m not exaggerating. I mean, they didn’t actually move the furniture and poop in those spots too. But - any spot without furniture? Was pooped on.

It’s funny. Well - not the dog poop on the carpet - that’s not funny. But it’s funny that I didn’t even miss a beat. I just let the dogs out, pushed the “brew” button on the coffee maker, and grabbed the Resolve and paper towels. After 20 minutes and a bag full of poop-soaked paper towels, I went and got the carpet cleaner and steam-cleaned the dining room to make sure it got really clean. After I was done with Poop Patrol, I then finally made my first cup of coffee! This is progress for me. Normally I would have needed that coffee FIRST. I think having two kids under three has made me a more durable mother. I seem to tolerate a lot more with a lot less.

So…I started my day shampooing dog shit out of my dining room carpet. If that doesn’t say, “Welcome back to being a Working Mom!” - I don’t know what does.

I’d like to say I haven’t written because I’ve been busying partying or traveling or creating. Unfortunately, I’ve simply not had much to say other than, “I’m tired.”

I told MrZ yesterday that I’ve never been this tired in my entire life. I think he just blew it off because I talk about my exhaustion level 30 times a day, but I meant it. I’m so tired. I’ve not been able to take naps with NikkiZ for about 3 weeks now because AndyZ likes that time to be his awake time. Even before that, however, my naps were barely an hour if I was lucky. She only sleeps for about an hour-and-a-half, and it would take me at least 30 minutes to fall asleep.

Regardless of how short the naps were - I totally miss them. Terribly.

I’m up most nights watching TV trying to wind down until about 10pm. On average. Some nights I’m able to crash earlier, but most nights I’m up. It’s weird because I’m totally beat, but I’m still having a tough time falling asleep. And then, most mornings I’m up by 6am. AndyZ is still waking up every two hours to eat and for the last week he’s been waking up between feedings just to cry and fuss. Today I’m going to try eliminating all dairy (but my morning yogurt, I’ve eaten that for breakfast every day of his life so I don’t think that bothers him) to see if he sleeps better tonight.

I figure - on a good night - I’m getting 6 hours sleep. But most nights? Between 4 and 5. The most I ever get straight is about 2.5. Which, for one or two nights is not a big deal. But - I’ve been on this schedule for 8 weeks now and I’m losing my mind. Hence - not blogging. Every entry would look like this one: Oh Look! I’m Tired And Crazy! Still!

My Mom is coming in town today. She has offered to give me opportunities to sleep, but I’m not sure how easy it will be to sleep when I could be visiting with her. I’m not sure if I’d be able to go to sleep knowing she was out in the living room hanging out with the kids. But, I might at least try. Either that or spend the whole week crying in the fetal position in the corner.

Since I was in for a long day on Saturday, I decided we’d break up the day with a trip out to Bridge Street for a nice lunch and a ride on the carousel. Unfortunately, we don’t know a lot of restaurants out there and settled on the first one we saw since we were all starving. We had seen the billboards describing it as Gourmet Mexican food.

Now, in our defense, this did strike a red flag for all of us. Now, don’t get me wrong, we love Mexican food. I spent the entire last trimester of my pregnancy with LilZ eating nothing but Bean Dip from a Mexican dive in the town I lived in. We have about 5 places we eat out regularly at in town now. Three of them serve Mexican food. And we’ll discuss the pros and cons of each of the three places like we’re analyzing global politics.

And we never describe ANY of it as “gourmet.”

But, we were hungry and at least it was a type of food we all like. Which is hard to find with a family of four.

First off? The prices were pretty high. $13 dollars minimum for most entrees. Some were priced as high as $25. Considering the entire family eats at my favorite Mexican place for under $20, that’s pretty drastic. We all ordered different items and I settled for just some Tortilla Soup. (A bowl of that cost $8.) Everyone ordered something different but we all walked out with the same opinion. NOT THAT GREAT. And also? WAAAAY over priced. My soup was bland, LilZ’s chicken was dry, and MrZ’s plate was just not at all worth the $13 it cost. Overall? Total disappointment.

And then? Where did I find myself an hour later? Puking it all up at home.

AWESOME.

I spent about 2 hours sick in ways I’d be happy to never repeat. Severe stomach cramping and vomiting. It was the ideal way to spend a Saturday, in my opinion. Especially considering I was lucky enough to have paid for the illness. That’s always the best. When food that tasted crappy and cost too much ends up poisoning you. BAH.

Like with most mild food-poisoning episodes, once the food was out of my system where it belongs, I felt fine. And was able to make it to the airport that night for the Welcome Home celebration for the vets. I felt a bit shaky at times, but overall I was fine.

But that will teach me. I need to stick to the Mexican food places that have rubber tablecloths and plastic deck furniture.

Man, I feel like today has plowed me over, chewed me up, shat on me and called me a snotty bitch. I just put NikkiZ to sleep and was contemplating bed myself. At 8:30pm. Because I’m tired, achy and bitchy. I’m in a kicking puppies and yelling at babies kind of mood. Do you get those moods? Where you just want to do a bit of ass kicking before calling it a day? You don’t? Just me? Hmmm. Maybe 9 months without a beer is tougher on me than I originally thought it would be.

Luckily, I checked my Google Reader before drop kicking small furry animals across the street. I found a link from The Bloggess to this most terribly addictive image generator. After venting my irritation and general bad-moodiness on this little paper clip, I’m feeling much better. Thank you.

My car is solid yellow with pollen right now. Actually - 9 out of 10 cars on the road are yellow with pollen. It is thick around here: In the air, on our cars, and stuck to our windows. All of this is an obvious message to those of us who suffer from allergies to stay inside!

Unfortunately, I’m an outdoorsy kinda gal and much prefer to be outside when it’s a nice warm Spring day. So, NikkiZ and I went to a shopping center this morning to run some errands. We probably ended up walking about 2 miles around the complex (a few times) and finally had to cut our adventure short when I started sneezing and couldn’t stop.

Between sneezes (and my poor daughter trying to keep up with the “Bless You!”s) I finally got her in the carseat and we headed home. I sneezed the entire drive home, worrying if I was going to sneeze at that exact moment where I held our lives in my hands. Luckily, it was a safe ride. As we walked in the house, I was still sneezing and headed straight for the Benadryl.

The fit has finally stopped. Twenty Minutes Later. I sneezed for 20 minutes non-stop. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before in my entire life. My whole body aches from the flailing and flinging as I sneeze because if there’s one thing I’m not - It’s a dainty sneezer. When I sneeze it’s loud (LOUD!) and violent. Every muscle in my body participates in my sneezes and all of those muscles are now throbbing as my whole body is thinking, “What in the HELL was THAT about?”

I’m thinking maybe we won’t be heading to the Botanical Gardens today. If for no other reason but pregnant women sneezing = pregnant women peeing and I don’t want to have to bring 12 changes of clothes with me…just in case.