Week of July 24th
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.
News at Home
I’m going to try doing a one sentence summary of each day moving forward… I realize some of you enjoy my lenghty posts but I imagine some of you would like to be able to just get a quick version. Initially I was going to put the quick version first but it feels like a spoiler for those that do want to read the whole thing LOL! So I’m moved it to the end of each day.
Sunday
Today was a good day — Dante woke up a little early but Kiko woke up with him and I slept until almost 9am. It was glorious. And I did grocery pickup yesterday, meaning less to do today. I also have started rotating laundry — I do Dante’s one weekend and mine the next. It means we get tight on clothes at the end of week 2, but not to the point that it’s worth it to do more laundry lol! That really helped. I also kept meal prep ridiculously simple this week. A couple of friends came over and we hit the pool with Dante for about an hour, then we had sandwiches and veggies for lunch (Dante had chicken nuggets and french fries).
Kiko is on call this weekend and — of course! — got a call right at dinner time. He quickly ate dinner and then was gone the rest of the evening. So that did make my evening a little hectic, just because I had planned on him giving Dante bath and getting him ready for bed, as that’s their time usually. But I did manage to get everything done and just as I was getting ready to head to bed Kiko came home. Really frustrating, someone stole his tool belt. Pretty sure it’s the residents of the last apartment he was working at because they have been trouble and hate the staff (ironic since it’s after hours and he’s there fixing their AC). He had to go outside their apartment for a minute to do something on the AC unit outside and he could have sworn he left his tools right where he was working. When he came back, they were gone. He said it’s roughly $300-400 worth of tools that he will have to replace. It’s his word against there’s… he has no proof and they are the sort of people who would be vindictive. So he just is going to replace everything; he feels like it’s not a battle he can win and the danger isn’t worth it. I feel so bad for him, he works so hard and was working hard for them OFF HOURS to fix their AC and they stole his tools?! WTF is wrong with people? Seriously!
The quick version: Fun day of pool, visiting with friends, and some chores. Kiko had a call to take care of AC that went very wrong, with his tools being stolen.
Monday
Today had definite ups and downs. Dante woke up at 4am crying and Kiko went and got him back to sleep… until 4:45 when he started crying again. This time I got up, seeing as I had to be up in 15 minutes anyway. Thankfully he went back to sleep and I got through my morning routine. I’ve made Mondays my goal setting/BUJO setup day and that worked out really well. Dante had to be woken up at 8:20 and he woke up pretty happy… but didn’t eat great and when it was time to get dressed and leave it was next to impossible. I had to carry him out crying. But then work went really well – I was able to take care of two outstanding tasks and make progress with a third. I’m a little anxious because one of the tasks they want me to demo at Thursday’s internal Sprint Demo. The thought makes me want to puke and then on top of that, the meeting is at 9am, which is fine to listen in but to actually demo?! I can’t do that from my phone. I’m trying to decide if I need to invest in a hotspot or ask them if my demo could be at 9:15 — lead with someone else basically. Both alternatives make me nervous for different reasons.
I picked Dante up from center at 3 and he had a great day and was in a good mood, until it was time to leave. He was fine leaving center but he didn’t want to leave the building… I think he wanted to go on the elevator maybe? So I had to pick him up crying to leave… like this morning. Then we had his SST and that went GREAT. He babbled a ton and even said an approximation of “ba ba black sheep” several times. I teared up a little (and am again typing this). He ate a good dinner and when Kiko had to leave for a call, Kiko said “bye Dante” and he said bye! So much progress to just be starting week 3!! He’s now fussy but I wouldn’t be surprised if that is a direct response to the waking up a bit last night, not to mention how hard he’s working at center!
On a huge plus, Kiko’s supervisor went to Home Depot with the company card and fully replaced (and in some cases, upgraded!) his lost/stolen tools. How great is that?
The quick version: I had an up and down day. Work went well but I have a meeting Thursday I’m nervous about. And then Dante is making incredible progress but was moody.
Tuesday
When the alarm went off this morning I literally cussed in my head lol. I had planned to do my cardio dance workout but opted for restorative yoga instead. But at least I did something, right? Dante woke up around 7:15, but he played well while I worked and ate his breakfast well. It was next to impossible to get him ready though – I actually had to carry him out crying with his shoes in my purse. But I put them on him in the car and then when he got to school he was a happy camper and even said “bye” when I left!
Work went pretty well – making good progress on my tasks and had my first 1:1 with the new manager. He is really nice and I felt like we had a pretty good rapport already. I was able to discuss my schedule (working 6-8 and then 9 -3, with limited availability after 3) and he was good with it. It felt good to talk to a manager directly about it, since I really never asked if it was okay, I just felt like it SHOULD be. But it feels good to know that it’s got a manager’s seal of approval. And he said that someone who has my drive and communication skills will do well – which was also reassuring.
The ONE problem is this demo on Thursday. I purchased a Hot Spot and then when I picked up Dante from school we went to Phil and Zach’s to hang out. I’m on Zach’s wireless plan through Verizon and the Hot Spot I purchased is also through Verizon. So why after more than an hour on the phone could they not get it setup? Ugh I don’t know what to do. I think I’m going to try using my phone again tomorrow — do a test call with Phil and Zach actually screen sharing my demo — and see if it works. If it does, that’s the plan. If it doesn’t, well then I’m going to have to either go to a Verizon store and see if they can get it setup there or IDK… If this were a one time thing I’d just have Kiko take Dante. But he’s working at 8am and this is every two weeks so I need a sustainable plan, not a one off.
The quick version: Things went well today overall, just really struggling to figure out my wifi situation for Thursday!
Wednesday – Friday
Late Tuesday Zach had an idea — what if I just switched the SIM card from my phone to the hotspot? It worked! Best possible solution because it didn’t cost me ANYTHING (beyond the cost of the hotspot, that is). So Wednesday morning I tried it for my 9am meeting as a trial and it was smooth. So that’s one relief! However my simulator was broken and it took almost all day to fix it. Which made me pretty nervous to get things ready for Thursday’s demo – I had one thing still to fix that should be minor but I wasn’t sure. I did manage to fix it and then tested out my demo on my brother Wednesday night.
Thursday morning I discovered another glitch, but I fixed it and managed to get out the door early and in good shape for the demo. Dante’s drop off went smooth and then I went back to the car and moved it to a really shaded spot for the demo meeting (so I could sit with the car off). Well for the first time since I started the demo was so long and I actually didn’t get my turn until almost 1 hour in… meaning I could have driven home and had plenty of time. That said, I’m glad I didn’t try that because I think I would have been very stressed and, knowing my luck, I would have been asked to present while driving home. The demo went perfectly, no errors at all.
The rest of Thursday went well and I actually have either completed or submitted a pull request for all the work I had assigned for this sprint. I had another parent education meeting with Dante’s BCBA today and he’s continuing to make great progress. Speech said he’s doing really great as well 🙂
I had off on Friday because Dante’s center had in-service in the morning and I didn’t want to try and balance work and taking care of him. It worked out really perfectly – I slept until 7:30 when Dante woke up, getting myself a full 8 hours of sleep (I hadn’t even hit 6.5 hours all week at that point, so a treat!) and we had a relaxing morning playing and I watched some MAFS. I dropped Dante at center at 12:30 and the drop off was the most difficult one we’ve ever had. He was crying and clinging to me — I guess he really doesn’t like having his schedule all wonky, huh?
After drop off I met a friend for lunch and a drink, about 5 minutes from his center. We finished up about 45 minutes before his pickup so rather than going home I just parked in the shade and listened to an audiobook for a bit. When I picked him up from Speech, they said he seemed to really be messing with his ear — something I had wondered if I saw that morning — so I decided to call the pediatrician and just see if we could get in real quick before the weekend. They had an appointment just 20 minutes later and we were about 12 minutes away so that worked out perfectly. And I’m glad I took him, because yep! Ear infection. It’s mild but the doctor said she’s observed ear infections seem to bother autistic kids a bit more — they are more aware of the pressure. She brought up possibly going to the ENT – something we could think about and evaluate at his 3 year old check up in September. I know she’s thinking tubes and I KNOW Kiko will be so against it because it’s surgery. I’m going to be really consistent about giving him zyrtec and hopefully that will keep him from getting any more infections and we can skip the tubes!
When Kiko got home, I ran out to pick up Dante’s prescription and also got dinner. After bedtime for Dante I ended up lying in bed watching more MAFS until almost midnight and drinking some wine. It was nice to really just relax and veg out a bit.
Saturday
Today was a good day. I slept until Dante woke around 7:45am and then we had a pretty relaxing morning. I made a few updates to the grocery order and did a bit more work setting up my BUJO for August. At 1:30 I had a dentist appointment at a new dentist (thanks to insurance changing) and it went well, though they were a little behind schedule so it took until after 3pm. Thankfully I had scheduled my grocery pickup for 3-4, so that worked out well. When I came home, spent some time getting blogging done for next week. It was mostly a relaxing day, so I’ll probably be really busy tomorrow. Super tired though, so we’ll see. I think the lack of sleep earlier in the week
Blog News
Last week on Because Reading
- [26 Jul] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Movies or TV?
- [28 Jul] Secrets by Aleatha Romig ★★★★
- [28 Jul] Lies by Aleatha Romig ★★★★
- [28 Jul] Promises by Aleatha Romig ★★★★½
- [30 Jul] Rachel, Out of Office by Christina Hovland ★★★★
- [31 Jul] Sunday Post with Berls | Week of July 24th
Challenge update
This week I finished (plus a beta read):
I’m participating in 7 Challenges, plus the Goodreads Challenge, this year. Here’s how I’m doing.
- COYER Seasons & COYER Community 2022 –
- Bookish Resolutions – This was a challenge that Michelle used to do without me and she took last year off. This year we’re bringing it back together. Details on post, but basically I’m setting 5 “bookish” goals for the year: Here are my goals:
- Blog ahead at least 1 week. Yes!
- Keep a blogging planner. Nope.
- Visit & comment on 7 posts a week. sorry, no 🙁
- Reply to comments each week. no 🙁
- Review books before starting a new book/on the same day – I’ve had to adapt this goal to writing the reviews over the weekend from books I read that week. And I did that this week. I’m actually finally caught up!
- The Backlist Reader Challenge – 35/50 books
- 2022 Audiobook Challenge – 62/75 books
- 2022 Library Love Challenge – 26/24 books
- 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge – My goal is 5 series.
- In Progress:
- Mine by Cynthia Eden- read book 4 & 5 this year, still need to read 6.
- Completed:
- The Ivy Chronicles by Sophie Jordan – read books 2 and 3 this year, finishing the series.
- Amos Decker by David Bald Baldacci – read books 2-6 (#7 expected later this year)
- Witchless in Seattle by Dakota Cassidy – read books 8-13 this year
- Georgina Kincaid by Richelle Mead – read books 3-6 this year (thanks to Anne for realizing I could coutn this one!)
- In Progress:
FitReaders (hosted by Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About & Felicia The Geeky Blogger)
My big goal for 2022 is to lose weight every month. I’m not setting a specific number goal; I just need to make sure I’m going the right direction (down) every month. I will weigh in on the last (or first) day of each month only (so I don’t get too attached to the scale).
My goals for this week were…. non-existent really. I’m just a mess 🙁 I did make an appointment to see a weight loss doctor that my brother started seeing in February (and has lost 85 pounds since). I have my appointment with her Monday 8/1 (tomorrow). We’ll see how it goes, it’s so hard because I feel like such a failure (I mean I had gastric bypass in 2017!) and I know it’s all the stress but I’m not the first person to have stress! Hoping she can – and is willing – to help me.
Weight gain/loss for the year so far:
- +3.9 pounds Feb 1.
- -3.0 pounds March 1 (for the year, so total loss for Feb was 6.9 lbs!)
- -3.0 pounds April 1 (for the year, so no new loss in March, but no gain)
- -7.0 pounds April 30 (for the year, down 4 pounds in April)
- -3.4 pounds July 1 (for the year, up 3.6 pounds in June)
That’s terrible about the tools being stolen. I mean, he’s there after hours to help them, and they’re going to rip him off? Kudos to his boss for replacing them! That’s awesome. Congrats on your demo going well! That had to be a great feeling. Glad you caught the ear infection early. Hopefully that will clear up quickly. Hope you had a relaxing weekend and that this week has gone smoothly for you!
Yay for Dante’s progress!!
That is awesome that Kiko’s boss bought replacement tools. My husband is a mechanic and tools are expensive!!! Yay for Dante’s progress. I am listening to The It Girl as well.
While you had challenges this week, you worked through them amazingly well. I’m so glad Kiko got his tools replaced, that was such a bummer. If they were in that people’s apartment, how could they claim someone else took them? The guys who did my kitchen install stole all my screwdriver’s from my work table in the garage. I’m mad not only because those were the ones I had but also because some came from my dad. So glad to be reading with you again! I hope this week goes more smoothly. Dante certainly seems to be making great progress.