Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Home Improvements

We've been touched by Spring Fever and we've been making additions and changing things up around the house. Here are some pics...

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New tables, lamps, and framed print in living room

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New chair in living room

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New lamp and art in family room

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New swingset

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New fence

We've done some landscaping and got more furniture...but my camera battery pooped out on me. I'll get the battery recharged and load some more pictures.

I had a garage sale this past Saturday and made $346.00!! WOO HOO!! Quite exciting considering the last garage sale I had only four people showed up. Not kidding! I'm putting it towards some new furniture for our bonus room. We have this huge entertainment center that I can't stand, so we're replacing it with a small t.v. stand, and our huge, ugly desk is falling apart, so we'll be getting a new desk as well. I'm going to Garden Ridge this afternoon to see if I can find some art to put above the couch. Once I've started...I can't stop!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Easter Recap

This is a little late, but who cares, right? We had a great - and VERY busy - Easter. We had RD's family over Sunday morning for brunch, and everything turned out wonderful. The preparations were a bit chaotic to say the least because RD had to work late the night before, but I somehow managed to get everything done.

Saturday night, I was pretty miserable. I had a buttload of cleaning to do, a casserole to make (Sausage and Egg Casserole...had to sit overnight....YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was downright amazing. Let me know if you want the recipe!), and eggs to color. All this had to be done while I limped around with fat-old-man's disease. Gout. I had gout on my left big toe. It's still sore, but has healed up quite a bit. The pain was excruciating. By the time I got everything finished, it was past midnight. I was beginning to question why I get so excited at hosting parties, but in the end, it's all worth it.

I got up at 7:00 a.m. and ran to Walgreen's to pick up a bag of shredded cheddar cheese. I ALWAYS, ALWAYS forget SOMETHING. Thank heavens for Walgreen's being open on holidays! Whew! I got home, took a shower, then ran downstairs and popped the casserole in the oven. Then 8:30-ish, I got RD and the kids up and dressed. I dressed the kids, RD dressed himself. ;) Then while RD made the kids breakfast, I made company potatoes and monkey bread (Whoa! Another YUMMY YUMMY recipe! I could've eaten the whole thing!).

Everyone got there around 10 a.m. and we chowed down right away. Everything was wonderful. I got a Honeybaked Ham, Petit-Fours from Susie G's Bakery, RD's sister brought fruit salad and his mom brought croissants. We were stuffed silly.

Then it was time for the egg hunt. It was so much fun. The kids had a great time. We really didn't think the kids would get the whole egg-hunting thing, but they picked up on it immediately. They would get so excited with each egg. They'd gently put it in their basket and run off for the next one. So sweet.

So even thought it was a lot of work, I'm glad we did it. It's always a plus having it at your own house, because as soon as naptime hits, we just take them upstairs. There's not the usual rushing home to beat clock.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter...or weekend if you don't celebrate Easter. Off to break up a fight! These toddlers can be vicious!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

What's the rush?

What is it about being ''the mommy'' that always has us in a hurry? It seems everything I do is rushed. Gone are the days when I can do whatever the hell I want at my leisure.

I rush through grocery shopping so that I can make it home and get all the groceries put away before the kids get up from their naps. I do this when RD is home, so you think I could take my time, but I can always count on two to three calls at a minimum while I'm out, "Are you almost done? The kids will be up soon." The same goes for any other errands to Target or wherever.

Let's not even get started on trips out with the kids. Just getting out the door is a big production. There's diaper checks, loading of the diaper bag, socks, shoes, sippies, snacks, and depending on the weather, jackets. During this entire process there is usually one, if not two, of them forcing me to play a game of hide and seek. As soon as we get in the van, the requests for Elmo start. I usually *treat* them with a video on the way home if they've been good, but that doesn't stop them from chanting for it the second they get in the van. Then the ERRAND. Running errands with the kids...HELL. What happened to my well-behaved children? They used to be so great when we went out. I would see moms with screaming kids and think how lucky I was to have these awesome kids that never fussed...HA! Those days are long gone.

Even cleaning is rushed. If the kids are up, I'm rushing so that I can get back to them, or at least sneak peeks at them to make sure they're not starting fires. If they're sleeping, I'm rushing through so that I can get to the "me time." Thoughts of, "I WANT TO SIT DOWN. I WANT TO SIT DOWN. I WANT TO SIT DOWN." are rushing through my head, urging me to get through the task at hand as fast as humanly possible.

Want to hear something really awful? I tell RD if he has any hopes of getting some action, he better move fast, because any hesitation on his part and he can forget it - I'm out. Give me too much time in bed to unwind, and it's snooze-time for me, baby.

And things are just getting started. I can't even imagine what it will be like with three kids in school...all the sports, projects......and so on...and so on.

*Deep breath*

Hey...isn't Mother's Day coming up? Hmmm....a day to put my feet up! Oh wait...no. That's not right. We get to get together with the family and wait on "OUR" mothers. Aw geez.

Okay, I'll stop bitching now.

I am such a dork

I have been trying UNSUCCESSFULLY to post for days now. I've been searching the "help" articles with no luck whatsoever. Why? Because they don't have any articles titled, "Click here if you are a dumbass and are entering an invalid username and password."

I thought I was having technical difficulties, but no, I was just totally clueless to my own stupidity.

Anyway...here's the post I was trying to enter.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Don't Feed the Animals

We've had quite the day so far. Our plan was to go to Grant's Farm to let the kids pet the animals, but once there we discovered they don't start their season until TOMORROW. ugh. Oh well. We got back on the road and headed for the zoo.

Due to our re-routing and already-late start, we didn't have much time, so we headed right to the Children's area of the zoo and let the kids pet the animals. THEY LOVED IT!!!!! SJ went from goat to goat, making sure he pet each one; AR went from goat to goat shouting, "GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAT-ah!"; and SA jumped up and down squealing with delight, and even took time to kiss one surprised goat right on his rump! I got a lot of fun pictures. It was a great time. I love that the kids are getting older and we're getting to go out and do a lot more activities. They're finally able to participate, as opposed to sitting in their strollers watching from a distance.

Maybe we'll try to hit Grant's Farm next week. SA's got a lot of kisses left!

Friday, April 07, 2006

Absentee Blogger

I know I've been a bad blogger lately. We've just been so busy - and I imagine it's going to stay busy for awhile. I don't even know where to start.

Things are going well. I'm...dare I say...happy right now. The weather has been wonderful, so we've been spending a lot of time outside with the kids. I've made such wonderful friends in the neighborhood, so I'm keeping busy. It seems someone's always here or I'm there. Though the kids are included, having a social life in any way outside of the kids had been missing for awhile. On the downside, now RD's feeling left out. He likes my new friends...but has yet to meet the husband's. He's going through a bit of what I was going through before - yearning for a life outside of (work and) the kids. I keep urging him to call some of his friends to get together, but guys are just wired different than we are. It seems he'd rather just sit around and mope, waiting for the phone to ring. Men.

On a not-so-happy note, the kids Ped and Parents as Teacher lady have both recommended the kids make an appointment with a speech therapist. Not totally unexpected - speech delays are fairly common in multiples. Now we're going through the endless paperwork, trying to figure out what all is covered by our insurance and figuring out how far we want to go. They're only mildly behind. They're not at the point of being eligible for any of the state-funded programs. They know an endless number of words, but almost all are not understandable to anyone but me, and they're not putting words together to make sentences. They make some progress almost every day, so who knows, maybe by the time we get all the logistics worked out they'll be talking.

As many of my blogs end...I smell poop, so I'm off to change a diaper. Hope all is well and I'll try not to be such a stranger!