In the past week I've done so much. But it feels like I haven't done anything at all. Here's what I managed to get done:
My father-in-law has been in town since last Tuesday. He leaves tomorrow. It's been great having him around. However, with that comes a sense of obligation regarding how my time is spent. I know it isn't required of me, but I do so anyway.
A friend/co-worker from NJ was in town for the week. We spent an evening at dinner with him.
There was also a Super-Bowl party at my Dad's house on Sunday.
Made an impromptu trip to Oklahoma for some sunrise photography.
We bought a new car! This took 5 hours of one night, a few hours of phone calls one day, and another 3 hours on another day. But, it's done. We got a 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander. Jess and I were using my pickup truck for 90% of our travel as a family and with Celeste we were just running out of room in it. This vehicle has a lot more room, gets much better gas mileage, and the little thises and thats that I needed out of a truck are mostly still there. But, for those of you in need of a free moving vehicle, I am no longer your friend with the truck.
We found some time to visit with our good friends, their three girls, and their brand new baby boy! Very exciting.
At work I facilitated the development of a new ticketing system and rolled out a trial of that system in one of our centers. I also completed my self-appraisal for 2007 (you'll be happy to know, I did wonderfully. Especially since it was a self-appraisal) and completed my objectives for 2008. Of course there were lots of other smaller work stuffs too, but those are the ones that managed to cut into my non-work time.
Jess and I also partially planned a trip to the Texas Bayou for this weekend. Will finish planning today and tomorrow. We leave Friday morning.
Of course, there were lots of things I didn't get done too.
My mom's birthday present is still late. But it's 99% done and Jess is saying it'll be in the mail today. That's a relief.
The following photographs are in some state of "not edited" from "almost finished" to "I haven't even looked at them": DITL photos from Jan 19th, DITL photos from Jan 23th, photos taken at Zion Cemetery, January family photoshoot, photos taken at sunrise on Lake Ray Roberts, sunset photos from Bear Creek park, hiking photos from Isle Du Bois state park, and the above mentioned photos from Oklahoma. Not to mention all the random photos taken here and there.
I need to do my taxes. My records from last year are in bad shape, so this will be quite time consuming. I've got a thick stack of papers in an envelope on my desk, and a giant virtual stack of bank statements to comb through. Not fun.
I missed the Super-Bowl party at Mike's place, a friend's birthday party on Friday, and a business meeting last Thursday. I would have loved to have attended all three, but I just ran out of time.
I didn't manage to find time to set up an SVN server or work with some sample code for the business either. Thankfully, we're still working on the foundation so actual code is less important than architecture and design decisions at this point.
My father-in-law cleaned the garage, washed Jess' car, and hung shelves in Celeste's room. These are things that I should have done but also didn't have time to do. I'm very grateful for the help.
I've found myself utterly exhausted lately. Yesterday I woke up at 4:30am and went to bed at 9:15pm. While that's only 7 hours of sleep and perfectly acceptable in most people's worlds, that's unlike me. I'm fairly used to making it on 5 or 6 hours at most. Despite the fact that it feels impossible to squeeze any more time or energy out of me, I need to find the time to get a short walk/run in after dinner each day. It'll help a lot with my energy levels.
Despite the fact that I make a point to hold her and spend some quality time with her several times each day, I feel like I haven't really had a chance to just relax and enjoy Celeste. Most of the time I do spend with her is spent changing diapers, trying to keep her from crying, or trying to put her to sleep.
So, if you haven't heard from me in a while and you've been wondering why, this should serve as a small glimpse at that answer. More later… ha ha.
