The most amazing part of all of this--he never complained about any of it. He just did it because it was what needed to be done to pay the bills. Even when he was heading out of the house in the middle of the night in freezing cold temperatures--he never complained. To thank Jeff for these six years of hard work, Mia and I have presented him with a new pair of Acorn slippers (the poor guy has been needing new slippers for about 2 years now). Somehow this just doesn't seem to do justice to his years of sacrifice, does it? So let me just say one more time--thank you for all you have done for us for all of these years--every day and every night. You are truly our hero! Now--let me talk to you about the list of household projects that you can get started on tomorrow...
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Ode to my husband...
I just have to write a celebratory post in honor of my amazing husband. Last night was officially his last overnight shift in the ER! I was recently thinking about just how wonderful Jeff has been for working two jobs for the past few years when I realized that Jeff has been working two or more jobs for the past SIX years--count 'em--SIX! More amazingly, all of those second jobs have involved working overnight and most of them have included insane people or criminals. There was his job as a Psych tech on the psych unit. This job mostly entailed responding to "codes"--which actually meant a group of people running to another floor in the hospital and simultaneously jumping on some poor soul who would then be tied down for the next few hours. Once we moved to England Jeff continued his overnight adventures when he took a job as an advocate for people who had been arrested--which actually meant rushing to the police station at 3am to defend the rights of drunken Englishmen. Then we moved back here and he took the job as a Social Worker in the ER. From Jeff's accounts this job often seemed to entail frequent restraining of people, but with more drama and bodily fluids involved. And these jobs aren't the end of it. Jeff also did graphic design work and tended bar for quite a while--another job filled with undesirable bodily fluids.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Catching up
Ok--I know it has been more than a month since I last updated the blog. I seriously do not have a very good excuse except that we really have been busy! In the past month we have had to manage 8 nights of Hanukkah at our house, 2 Hanukkah/Christmas parties with family, 2 weeks of Mia and Jonah out of school and daycare, 2 cases of strep throat, 2 job interviews, 1 new sleep training book, and 1 major career change--all on an average of 5 hours of sleep per night. Can you really blame me for not finding the time to reflect on all of this madness? Even tonight, as I write this, I am practically falling over in my seat from sheer exhaustion. So, I will make this brief as my bean bag bed is calling my name.
Here is the low down. Hanukkah was great. I will let the pictures below speak for themselves. Jonah took a 2 week vacation from daycare while Mia was an break. I stayed home for most of that time. It was great to be a stay at home mom for a while and catch up with my little ones. While we were home Mia and I suffered yet another mother/daughter illness--strep throat. I'm actually glad it was strep throat and not another cold/flu. Strep is so much easier to get over once medication is started and we both got better quickly. Jeff and I both had job interviews this past month. I am interviewing for a different position at the U. I'm not sure if I will be called back for a second interview, but I should know soon. Jeff's interview wasn't exactly for a new job, but an opportunity to join a co-op of private therapists. After a lot of reserach and number crunching, Jeff has decided to enter private practice. So, he has quit his overnight job at United (Yeh!!), cut down to 1/2 time at his day job, and will be starting in private therapy on February 1st (Yikes!!). So we have had to spend a lot of time getting organized around this decision and are still quite busy with this task. There is so much to think about when you strike out on your own, but all is going well so far. Lastly, and most important, I am reading a new sleep training book--Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. We have finally hit the point of such extreme exhaustion that we are going hard core. Basically we made Jonah cry it out. I'm quite pleased to say that it has worked quite well so far. We had one tough night where he cried for a while when we didn't rush in to pick him up, but he finally put himself back to sleep and has been sleeping much better ever since then. Some nights he is even sleeping 8 hours before waking up for the first time. That is pretty unprecedented for Jonah. We are still dealing with him waking up way too early in the morning (4am), but we are tackling that as well. If we can just stay strong and power through this transition time, I think we will all feel a lot better.
So, that is life in a nutshell. Pretty much all else has gone to the wayside, but so be it. At least I can say I have posted a blog entry...
Basking in the glory of all his presents
Yes, the wrapping paper is the best part of presents
Lighting the menorah
Mia and Grampy getting goofy
Sharing presents
Mia seemed to enjoy Jonah's presents as much as he did
Having fun at the toy store
"Hmm...which one should I suck on first?"
Nothing but love going on here
Pure cuteness
Here is the low down. Hanukkah was great. I will let the pictures below speak for themselves. Jonah took a 2 week vacation from daycare while Mia was an break. I stayed home for most of that time. It was great to be a stay at home mom for a while and catch up with my little ones. While we were home Mia and I suffered yet another mother/daughter illness--strep throat. I'm actually glad it was strep throat and not another cold/flu. Strep is so much easier to get over once medication is started and we both got better quickly. Jeff and I both had job interviews this past month. I am interviewing for a different position at the U. I'm not sure if I will be called back for a second interview, but I should know soon. Jeff's interview wasn't exactly for a new job, but an opportunity to join a co-op of private therapists. After a lot of reserach and number crunching, Jeff has decided to enter private practice. So, he has quit his overnight job at United (Yeh!!), cut down to 1/2 time at his day job, and will be starting in private therapy on February 1st (Yikes!!). So we have had to spend a lot of time getting organized around this decision and are still quite busy with this task. There is so much to think about when you strike out on your own, but all is going well so far. Lastly, and most important, I am reading a new sleep training book--Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. We have finally hit the point of such extreme exhaustion that we are going hard core. Basically we made Jonah cry it out. I'm quite pleased to say that it has worked quite well so far. We had one tough night where he cried for a while when we didn't rush in to pick him up, but he finally put himself back to sleep and has been sleeping much better ever since then. Some nights he is even sleeping 8 hours before waking up for the first time. That is pretty unprecedented for Jonah. We are still dealing with him waking up way too early in the morning (4am), but we are tackling that as well. If we can just stay strong and power through this transition time, I think we will all feel a lot better.
So, that is life in a nutshell. Pretty much all else has gone to the wayside, but so be it. At least I can say I have posted a blog entry...
Mr Jonah with his Uncle Joe
Basking in the glory of all his presents
Yes, the wrapping paper is the best part of presents
Lighting the menorah
Mia and Grampy getting goofy
Sharing presents
Mia seemed to enjoy Jonah's presents as much as he did
Having fun at the toy store
"Hmm...which one should I suck on first?"
Nothing but love going on here
Pure cuteness
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
