a day in the life - amy

See, I told you it was coming eventually.  I've been terrible about sending reminder e-mails for this series.  TERRIBLE!  I apologize.  That is generally why the posts either aren't happening or are late.  But no matter, today you can peek at a crazy day in Amy's life!  I had the pleasure of meeting Amy this past weekend when Ryann and I tagged along with Sarah and her family for a little Santa fun.  I hope you enjoy reading about a day in her life, it definitely seems exhausting!

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Hi I am Amy, you can find me over here at The Perfectly Imperfect Parent. I am Mom to Paxton (4) and Harper (almost 2….like on Friday.... crazy). I am married to Josh, and we own 4 Sports Bars in Kansas (which makes for INSANE hours for the hubs). I work part-time as the Youth & Family Coordinator at a gym. I can't say the name of the company I work for because then I would have to be SUPER careful about making my blog "appropriate" and blogging with "the best interest of the company in mind" YUCK, no way! I am pretty honest over at my blog and I think the head honchos would disapprove of some of it's content. Therefore I must be discreet with my companies name. This made it tough while taking pictures for this post because I was wearing my work t-shirt with the logo right on it.  DUH.

Literally every day of the week is a different schedule for us. Josh only has off Tuesday all day, and
Sunday and Thursday nights. All other days he works 9 am- 10pm with about an hour break in the afternoon. So basically I run this show. Wednesdays are our craziest days so OF COURSE I choose
to document our day on THAT day and OF COURSE I choose to write it the day it's supposed to be mailed to Ashley (which is why this won't be posted till Thursday, sorry Ashley!!!)  Here it goes, buckle up.

6:00 am-My alarm goes off, time for the gym except............I turn over to turn the alarm off my phone and notice the weather app on it says that it is a balmy 24 degrees out. I dismiss the alarm and go back to sleep. Unfortunately THIS is the only time of day that I can go to the gym, and by dismissing that alarm, that means no gym for me today. Crap.

8:00 am- I hear Harper talking in her room, roll over in bed to look at the clock and yelp. 8:00!!! What the heck! Harper NEVER sleeps that late anymore thanks to daylight savings (can we PLEASE start a petition to get rid of that?) I jump out of bed and yell at Josh to get up, he has to have Pax to school in 20 minutes!!!!! I run in Paxton's room yelling at him to get up, then I finally go and get Harper out of her bed. The next 20 minutes are a blur of getting kids dressed, shoving poptarts down their throats (Mom of the year for that healthy breakfast!) and getting Pax and Josh out the door. Due to the extreme rush of the morning, no pictures were taken to document that time period.

8:30-9:30 am- I shower and get dressed while Harper watches cartoons and plays with puzzles. Usually she won't sit and watch tv for long, she has to be up in my bizness while I am getting ready. Today she must have sensed my stressfulness at being so late and left me alone. Thanks girlfriend. Luckily my job doesn't have any "set hours" and I can come and go as I please (unless I have a scheduled meeting or appointment). As long as I get my work done, then my boss is super cool about me coming in whenever. ALSO Harper gets to go in the kid center there for up to 2 1/2 hours a day FREE! Major perk of working there!!

9:30 am- We are all ready and about to head out to work when one of our contractors shows up. We are in the middle of finishing the basement so we have people in and out of our house daily. He had to do a couple things in the basement real fast so I waited around so that I could lock up behind him.

9:45 am- FINALLY on our way towork.

9:50-10:50 am- Answer e-mails, make a few calls, work on my staffs yearly reviews, chat with my BF Brandi before it's time to pick up Pax from school. Yes that's right I worked a WHOPPING hour this morning.

11:00 am- Pick up Pax. Today is also my day to drive the "bus" for the preschool. I am Vice-President of his school board and I also volunteer to drive the noon route on Wednesdays cause I am nice like that.

11:00-11:35 am- Take the kids from the morning class home then rush home to feed MY kids before we have to go pick up kids for the afternoon class.

11:35-12:00 pm- Feed the kids PB&J, apples, and yogurt smoothies. Unload and load the dishwasher, clean up lunch, put shoes and coats back on, back out the door and onto the bus.

12:00-12:40 pm- Pick up the afternoon kids and take them to school. Talk with the teacher for a
little bit about our board meeting the next week. Harper LOVES visiting the preschool and she has already found a spot on the circle rug and is happily playing with what else?.........a puzzle (the girl freakin loves puzzles!!!)

1:00 pm- Back home. Kids take off shoes and coat in front of the door and LEAVE shoes and coats in front of the door. Grrrrrrr. They take off running for Paxton's room because Harper knows that it is naptime and she is not happy about it. I find them hiding in a tent in Pax's room. Harper finally comes out of hiding, gives Pax a big hug and a kiss, I take her to potty and then put her to bed. She has been potty trained for a few weeks now and is wearing underwear during naps and bedtime too. She was waking up dry so I decided she must be ready! No sense wasting diapers if she won't even go in them anymore. That shiznipp is expensive!!

1:00-2:45pm- FINALLY eat for the first time all day (I am not a breakfast person, just a coffee person, and I usually do dishes or clean up while the kids eat and wait until naptime to eat). I start writing this post (told you I procrastinated), check Facebook, upload pictures, and fight with Paxton about staying in his room during naptime. I don't care if he doesn't sleep, but he has to stay in his room and play quietly, mmmmmmmk?

2:45 pm- Harper wakes up (OF COURSE she only sleeps an hour and 45 minutes on my busiest day!!) she is yelling "Mommy!! I go Papa's house?" She has been asking to go to Papa's house for 2 days now! I go in and get her, check to make sure she is dry (she is!! High-fivin' myself!) and take her to potty.

3:15 pm- Josh is home!! I pass the kids off to him, grab my keys and purse and am out the door again. I am the leader of a Teen Club at my job and we meet Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, so I head back to work.

3:15-5:15 pm- Teen Club! A lady from our local newspaper came and interviewed us today because she is doing an article about the community service projects the teens have done. Holla!! Free publicity for our club! Josh brings Harper to my work at 5 because he has to go back to work. Pax is at Christmas recital practice at church. Unfortunately due to my companies "policies" I couldn't take pictures of the teen club so there is a bit of a gap in pictures here.

5:30- Meet my in-laws at Willies (the restaurant we own) to eat. They take Pax to recital practice on Wednesdays and then we meet up at Willies after I get off for dinner. One of the perks of owning a restaraunt? FREE FOOD!! It would be super easy to eat there all the time and NEVER have to cook, however that is super un-healthy, so I limit our Willies visits to twice a week. It is nice to have that option, though, especially because we also get to see Daddy when we go.

6:00-7:00pm- The in-laws take the kids to their house so I can run to Walmart. I have to bake 6 dozen
cookies for a cookie bake I have the next day and GO FIGURE I am out of all basic baking needs. I take my time since I have no kids!!

7:00-8:00 pm- Charities Auxiliary meeting. This is my first year volunteering for Charities so I don't say much during the meeting. We basically just discuss auction items for our annual celebration that is held in February.

8:00- 9:00 pm- Go pick up kids at in-laws house and head home. Get them in their pj's and put Harper to bed. I let Pax stay up a little longer and we watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (always a classic!!!). He finally gets in bed at 9, and by bed I mean his tent with blankets and about a bajillion stuffed animals. He said that's where he wanted to sleep so I just went with it! Looked like a fun time to me, I kind of want to sleep in there too!!

10:15 pm- Josh gets home. This is the first time we have had a real conversation all day!!

10:45 pm- Callin it a night. Fall asleep with 6 dozen cookies I need to bake dancing in my
head.

What is the most surprising thing about being a Mom?

That I have kept them alive this long? Ha, I am kidding!! I would say the amount of love I feel for them. Like, literally, makes your heart skip a beat takes your breath away kind of love. But along with all that love comes so much fear and anxiety!! This world is a scary place!! I had no idea how scary it was until I had kids. NOW I watch the news and am all like "Gah! Kids, go hide in the basement, there are crazy people out there!" I am constantly wondering if I am doing the right thing; am I feeding them enough fruits and veggies, will the plates they use give them cancer, is Harper's biting a phase or is she destined to be a bully her whole life? You get my drift.

What advice would you give to new or soon to be Moms?

None. I am sure they get enough, like on a daily basis, probably a hourly basis right? Advice overload!!! I remember that, it stressed me out! I learned, though, that there is no right way or wrong way, there is just the way that works best for you. Before I had kids I was all "OMG I will NEVER let my kids do this, and they will only do this, they will be perfect" and then I got a nice helping of humble pie when I actually did have my own. Paxton was a horrible sleeper that first year so we would take turns sleeping on the couch with him. Say wha-at! Yeah we did. Harper had a binky until she was 18 months. Yadda yadda yadda. It is what it is, trust your instinct, do what feels right for you. And buy wine.....lots of wine.

What are your top 3 baby products?

Wow I feel like I can't remember the last baby product we used. Harper is almost 2, long gone are the baby things (sad face).

SWING- Both my kids loved it. Life saver! I originally didn't buy one, we lived in a small apt when we had Pax and I didn't want it taking up the space. We had a horrible ice storm when he was 5 weeks old and had to go stay with friends because we had lost power. They had a swing so I put him in it and BAM the kid was in heaven!! That swing made its way home with us that week and Harper got one when she was born too.

Aveeno bath products for babies- My kids both had super sensitive skin (thanks Josh!) so this was the only stuff that really worked and still had a little bit of a smell. I was so sad when I couldn't use all the Johnson & Johnson products that smelled like babies (ya know what I mean by that right? like powdery baby smell? love that smell). All the natural products didn't have a smell or it smelled like grass clippings so when I found the Aveeno and it didn't break them out I was sold, plus it smelled really good. Yeah!! My kids could stop smelling like the front yard!!

Baby gowns- Saved my life when they were newborns!! Um seriously who invented those stupid pajamas with a bajillion buttons? I could barely remember my name most nights when I was up every 2 hours with a newborn, let alone button all those buttons!!! With the gowns, you pull them up, change the diaper, pull them down, and TRY to sleep for about 10 minutes before it is time to nurse again. Funny thing is, at the time, it is HELL, but now I think about it and miss those nights and those tiny newborn legs............ but not enough to have another one...........yet.

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Thank you for sharing your day with us Amy!  And really, no worries about it being late, I think I speak for all of blog world when I say we survived :o).  But I'm glad I got to read about your day!