You think you know, but you have no idea...

I thought I knew what I was getting into with working full time and having a commute that's 1hr 20min each way. The first couple days weren't so bad, but now into week 3 I'm feeling the pain from it all. I'm exhausted beyond comprehension and have no clue why I'm on my computer typing this instead of sleeping. I absolutely cannot wait to move closer to work!

On a good note, I love my job (dealing with families who have adopted children with various special needs, and helping them financially). It's insanely busy, which makes time go by fast. They had told us the volume of what we'd be responsible for within our 3500-4000 caseload (each!), but wow. And of course with any new job, there's so much to learn. I remember around 2:45pm looking at the clock and realizing my brain has turned to complete mush. I got so much done but yet I still had about 35 phone messages sitting on my desk, along with about 30 other case files I received various requests and had to research, and another 20 that are sitting waiting for other people to make certain changes I requested so that I can finish my end of the work. And don't even get me started on how many things still need to be filed away. So yes, crazy busy in my office!

The boys are doing great with my cousin babysitting them. Colin was extra needy with me during the first week, but he's settled into the routine now. It's too bad I'll have to throw yet another new routine at them when we finally move. My poor Cousin sure did get dumped on though. Last week (her 2nd week babysitting them), Jackson came down with hand, foot & mouth disease, except that his sores only appeared in & around his mouth. He was miserable. He couldn't eat, drink, or even suck on his binky (which caused me to only get about 3hrs sleep each night last week). It was heartbreaking to see him in so much pain. And his poor gums swelled so bad that you could barely even see his top teeth - all you could see were white specks :( And to top it off, he was also cutting all 4 of his eye teeth at the same time. But he's all better now and the teeth have cut through, so we should be all set. Of course just as Jackson started getting better, Colin came down with a fever and was complaining his throat hurt - that lasted about 3 days. Fortunately he never had any sores, so no hand, foot & mouth disease for him. I also had him checked for strept throat, but that also came back negative. Thankfully, he's all better now too. I love having healthy, happy kids again :)

Here's a pic of Jackson from last weekend when we made our way to the cider mill. This was day 7 (or 8?) of hand, foot & mouth disease. He seemed to be feeling fine, but the sores were still very much there (they're finally fading now, thank goodness):

And Colin just had fun riding on the tractor:

I'm off to bed now... *yawn*