Whoa. Between life, work (notice the separation there), and everything else, journaling sure took a backseat there, didn’t it… What all happened? Too much to remember would be the easiest answer. To make it a little longer… *sigh*… a lot longer… Life has been crazy. So far the only things that could throw us into such a tumble was the birth of a child, we thought, but obviously we must have been mistaken as it feels like a tornado hit us and is still not gone yet…
To start on a good note, the children have been absolutely amazing. Gillian, who really is acting like she’s 6 going on 16, has shown she can be such a sweetheart, and such a good helper. And when she wants to, she can be a complete angel. Of course, sometimes she doesn’t want to… But she still knows how to get me to her side; most of the time… Today Ruth asked if she was just like a smaller version of her. I said “Yes but less bossy”, to which she replied “no wonder you love her so much”… 
And Liam is now almost 100% potty trained. he still has some #1 accidents when he is having too much fun to break away and go take care of business. But other than that, he’s got it down. And… he’s making sentences! And he’s using the magic word!!! (“please”) Something that his bigger sister is still forgetting at times! A few days ago, he took me so completely by surprise when he said “Can you help me with my chair, please?”. You try to say no to that! I sure couldn’t…
Finally, there’s Cora, growing like a weed, ever being such a little bunch of happiness. She smiles, she giggles, she laughs, she cuddles… she eats EVERYTHING! Erasers, marbles, coins, paper, clothes, wipes, keys, screwdrivers… but not bread. Oh no. She wont touch it… In other words, she’s an adorable little bundle of mischief. In that way, she’s a nice mix of her siblings. She’s as strong-headed as Liam, as sweet as Gillian, as cuddle as both of them…
We truly have been blessed with those three…
Then there’s work. Blah… Work, if I may say so, sucks. More than ever I feel like the stepchild of whom everything is expected but nothing is given to. They expect me to carry more than half of the support load (I can say that because the one who is supposed to carry the other half has shown to be completely reluctant to pick up on the more complex issues), and complete projects. Hello? When would I have time to do that? I already work 13 hours a day with no breaks. To top it off, this whole reorganization of the the team is still a mess, 45 days later. I suspect it is for us more than the “automation-people” as they are the majority and have no clue about what we’re doing. Plus we did lose headcount. And when one looks at the project queue, it is noticeable. Some of our formerly fierce leaders actually admit to it too…
As much as I’d like to say that it all is temporary, it’s hard to believe it sometimes. They don’t know what to do with me and I don’t know what I can do. And when something wonderful happens something goes terribly wrong. The sad part is, everything that went wrong so far can be blamed on the lack of thought and perspective that some people allow themselves to have. And they should know better. Be it something relatively trivial, like some dumbo deciding to move 4,200 servers in one weekend and have them be down for 1-2 weeks, including ours or an entire organization forgetting what made them big in the first place…
And no, I wont add links to the events above. Neither deserves any more credit than that.
In the end, things have been challenging. More so than we thought. More so than before. But it’s all for the better. We’ll all change and grow and conquer new territories once the next hill is overcome.
I guess I should include some pictures, shouldn’t I…
Cora boxed up.
Liam passed out.
Gillian passed out.
Mommy and silly Cora.
I can’t believe I’m posting this one…
Gillian and Liam playing in the water jets.