Family Game Night

I love board games a lot. I have since I was a kid. We have a lot of board games but a lot of them just aren't very fun with just two people. So I've been waiting for Emily to be able to read well enough to play with us.

After asking on Facebook, I had a realization. Settlers of Catan doesn't involve a lot of reading and she could probably play that. So yesterday we had family game night.

We started with Chutes and Ladders at Emily's request. I hate Chutes and Ladders because it's boring and it can go on forever. But Emily likes it so I endured two games while Todd was off getting supper.

Once Todd got home, we had some food and then set up the game board for Settlers of Catan. It has been a couple of years since either Todd or I have played it so we had to re-read the rules. For this game, we did also forget some rules, but that was ok.

Emily did great! She had a lot of fun building her settlements and she really liked getting development cards. In the end, Todd won because he's great at strategy, but it was a fun time for all.

Emily wanted to play again but it was getting late at that point. But we will play again in the future!

Palm Sunday and Family Time

 After our busy day on Saturday, it would have been nice just to relax on Sunday. But that didn't happen since I was up early on Sunday to get ready for church.

We are Lutheran and Holy Week is a big deal in our church. Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter. This past Sunday was Palm Sunday and my choir was singing at the early service.

Everyone got to process in with their palms at the beginning of the service - Emily was very excited to wave her palm. Because Todd came to church, I got to sit with the choir which was nice.

After church, we left right away. Todd's Aunt Denise lives outside of Charlotte. Todd's cousin Mandy, her husband and daughter were down visiting. Since it's only a couple of hours drive, we wanted to make sure to see them while they were in NC.

It was great to spend time with family and to meet Kenzie who is now a toddler. Living in NC is great but we don't see a lot of our family because we haven't been able to get to Michigan for a couple of years now.

Emily and Kenzie played great together despite the age difference. While Kenzie was napping, I took Emily to the neighborhood park was only a few blocks away. They have the standard playground equipment including a merry go round, which none of the parks we frequent have. So Emily loves the merry go round.

I made the mistake of letting Emily push me on the merry go round. I hadn't bee on one in years and once I got off I had a migraine. Beyond that, we had a great time.

I ended up in bed as soon as we got home. With as full as our weekend was, I really over did it. But it was worth it to see family and have family time with just me, Todd and Emily.

The New Normal

Since the time we started dating, until about a month ago, Todd always worked 2^nd shift. He prefers it because he’s a night owl and doesn't like getting up early. I've nearly always worked some variation of 1^st shift, which has made a unique dynamic in our relationship.

When we first started dating, we were on separate shifts and we were five hours apart. We’d talk once a week and then usually see each other once a month. We would email back and forth several times a day.

Once we moved in together, we were still on separate shifts. Both in Michigan and once we moved down to North Carolina, we didn't see a lot of each other during the week. But we’d call, text and still email back and forth.

When Emily was born and I got laid off, we had a lot of time together. It was 2008 and the economy was so bad that Todd kept having extra days off of work. It was nice to have him home, especially with a newborn. That only lasted about a year. I didn’t go back to work, but instead went back to school to get my 2^nd degree. We were back on our old schedule for the most part.

But about a month ago, things got really bad at Todd’s job. He had hated it for years and they didn’t treat him very well at all. He had applied to a few jobs here and there, but nothing panned out because he wasn’t very serious about looking for a new job since as much as he hated his old job it paid well.

It got to a point that he had to look for a new job. One company replied back less than 24 hours after he sent his resume. He had an interview a few days later on Monday. By Wednesday he was hired and by Friday he was working.

His new shift is a little weird. He works Friday through Sunday – 7 pm to 7 am. He’s dead during the weekends but then he has four days off. It’s been awesome having him home more.

There has been some adjustment. I haven’t been sleeping well on the weekends so far because of him being gone all night. Beyond that, it’s been awesome to have him home more. He has more time for me and Emily, plus I have to cook a whole lot less.