They see me rollin'

The current scene: I am sitting here in the cruise cabin leaning side to side while this ship just rocks 'n rolls through a pretty strong storm system outside of Cozumel. The curtains in the cabin are swaying back and forth. Greg is feeling pretty seasick and is snoozing by my side.

Today is day 6 of our first grownups-only vacation so I thought it would be fun to jot down some observations:

*Holy shit, we miss our kid so much. This is no shock-whenever he spends 1 night at his grandparents he is missed terribly by us, but still. That is the number 1 thing on my mind.

*I am more mature than I was pre-kid, even when the kid is not with me. For some reason I thought we'd be out at the bars, partaking in drinks, with that carefree feeling that seemed to take up most of our pre-parenting days. Nope. I have been enjoying the beautiful scenery while also thinking about the outcome of today's school eligibility meeting, messaging my mom several times a day for updates on Cooper, checking the bank account and bills, etc. Being responsible and worrying about someone else is just who we are now, and that's a good thing! We enjoyed some time at the piano bar and the pub on the ship, but that was more of a pit stop and not the theme of this trip.

*Exhaustion, we had it. After walking around Miami for a few hours the day we flew in, Greg and I literally spent the rest of the day (starting around 5PM) in bed doing NOTHING productive. We napped on and off, watched a movie, read, and opted to skip dinner because dinner involved climbing out of the bed. We have slept SO much on this trip. I know that most people would view that as wasted time, but it's obviously something we needed. We go to bed at a decent time, sleep until 9 or so, and have taken a nap every single day. I think this has shown me that when we get back I really need to get into a good sleep schedule. Of course that's easier said than done when you have a kid who has tremendous anxiety and rigidity about sleeping.

*It's okay not to "see ALL the things." I usually feel tremendous guilt over not seeing everything I possibly can during a trip, but screw it. Sometimes you need to listen to your body and just slow down for a week.

*Flying is worth the terror. I can't tell you how many times I've driven to Florida. It has to be over a dozen times. Flying down to Miami was...amazing. I was terrified to fly (haven't flown in 6 years) but getting from Richmond to Miami in 2.5 hours instead of 15 hours? Amazing. Amazingamazingamazing. I will be scouring JetBlue for more deals whenever we head back down to Disney.

So, all in all? Amazing trip. I feel so grateful to have experienced it! I absolutely love sitting out on the balcony reading while watching the sunsets over the ocean. That being said, we are so ready to get back to our kid.

Hello!

Hello, 2016! I am so glad to see you. I know that the crossing of a calendar year doesn't automatically stop a string of bad luck, but the feeling of a clean slate is welcome nonetheless. In 2016, I hope to:

*Become involved in the local autism community.
*Incorporate ABA techniques at home and learn more about what triggers Coop's meltdowns.
*Continue paying off debt and becoming credit card debt free by late spring or summer of 2016
*Start researching different career goals. I am 30 and still don't know what I want to do "when I grow up."
*Consistently use my planner to stay more organized and set goals.
*Begin therapy for my anxiety. If it doesn't work (again) I can at least say I tried!
*Travel new places (even if they're not terribly far away) as much as time/money allow.
*Learn not to panic as much when shit hits the fan.

It's an ambitious list. Will I accomplish half, all of it? Maybe. As long as I keep that last one in mind, I think everything will be okay. Happy New Year!

Halfway there!

Greg and I are halfway through paying off our credit card debt!! WOOOOO!! We still have a longgg way to go, but we're getting there! Hooray for progress! Over the last few months we also paid off $1400 worth of IRS (circa 2013) surprises and didn't use any credit cards this Christmas.

Chippin' away, friends. Chippin' away. Please do yourselves a favor and never live beyond your means little by little for years until you find yourself sitting with credit card debt amounts equivalent to the price of a nice, brand new car.

Man, I miss those end of the year work surprises. That would have really sped things along this year. I am still happy with our progress and can't WAIT to be credit card debt free! After that it's the dreaded student loans. 

Things

*I tried to write about a couple specific things that happened on Christmas and no matter how I try to jot it down, it just doesn't work. It's a lot of feels and they just don't translate well to the blogosphere. It's safe to say that Christmas was difficult this year. There were just so many things that went wrong. At no point did it actually feel like Christmas. 2016 will be better.

*I have been persistently sick over the last 2 months. In November I had a 3 week long respiratory illness that just wouldn't stop. The one I'm currently dealing with has lingered over the last 8 days.  I completed the z-pack yesterday and really hope the symptoms wrap up soon. It's a little worrying to me that I went 3 years without major respiratory illnesses and have had 2 major, long episodes over the last 2 months. Several years passed without antibiotics and now I have had to take them twice within a really short period of time. Hopefully it's a fluke and not an indication of anything more serious.

*Greg and I are going on our first solo trip since I was pregnant with Cooper and I am a nervous wreck about it. The closer it gets the more I convince myself that a major catastrophe will happen and Cooper will end up an orphan. I know that sounds ridiculous, but anxiety will tell you ridiculous things. I honestly almost canceled the trip last weekend but Greg talked me out of it. We really need a break after the last year. Cooper will be in the company of his favorite people while we're gone and I know he'll have a ton of fun. Part of me still wants to cancel everything and just go back to Disney because Cooper would at least be with us on that trip. 

There is more, but I am so tired. Clearly I don't need that vacation. ;)

Accomplishments!

Things I accomplished after work today:






It was great.

Zzzzzz

This week has been insane. Monday night I was up until 2AM waiting for the results of my mom's CT scan. She was with my sister on the way to NY to be with her family after my uncle passed away. She had a health emergency requiring an unexpected hospital visit and blood pressure numbers over 200.

I had no debit card due to the stolen phone last week, so Greg had to run out and sell his PS4 to Gamestop for emergency funds in case I had to hop in a car and drive to the hospital (in PA). It was an incredibly tense, stressful 5 hours of waiting. Doctors were throwing around phrases like "bleeding behind the eyes, risk of stroke." My dad had a stroke 4 years ago, so strokes are already on the radar for my family. Thankfully she was released from the hospital around 2 and she is okay now. It's amazing what extreme stress can do to your body.

On top of that, Cooper had 2 in-home evaluations this week. The ABA one was the most laid-back evaluation he has had to-date. I have a really good feeling about his therapy and feel a lot less worried about it now.

His school evaluation was today and when they say comprehensive evaluation, they mean it. 5 people from the school came to the house for the evaluation. The speech pathologist, school psychologist, and special ed instructor evaluated him while he played with toys. An audiologist ran a hearing screening on him. The social worker asked us hundreds of questions while the other people evaluated him during playtime. We won't know what he will qualify for through the school district until the eligibility meeting in mid-January. I really hope he will qualify for speech therapy and occupational therapy so we don't have 3 therapies to pay for out of pocket, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

I'm too tired to come up with a witty way to wrap this up.

Weekend revisited

Aww, look at how optimistic I was last weekend! This weekend looked more like:
-Stolen phone on Friday
-Shut down bank accounts Friday night due to stolen phone
-$20 in cash to last 3 people Friday-> Tuesday. No alternate source of income. We shut our credit cards down to avoid ending up back in the credit card debt situation we're currently clawing our way out of.
-Zero naps for the kid yesterday or today.
-Writing out a list of the people we need to call to tell them I am now unreachable and they need to reach Greg to confirm appointments.
-Husband in DC yesterday with his band while I handle no-nap situation.
-Husband working today while I handle no-nap situation.
-Canceled plans x2 due to no-funds fun.
-A clusterfuck of a messy house as we dragged out the remaining Christmas decorations.
Note: Why is the messy clusterfuck so stressful? Because Cooper has 2 in-home evaluations this week. On Tuesday he has the ABA evaluation and Wednesday the school evaluation.

Bring it on, week. Come to our messy house, school and ABA. I would offer you something to eat or drink, but that shit costs money.