Twins

The girls are starting to become more and more aware of what it means to be a twin. I've always tried very hard to keep from treating them as one unit. I very rarely, if ever, refer to them as 'the twins' or dress them identically (especially now that they pick their own clothes most days). I have been stressing to them the benefits of being a twin - like always having a friend around. They have also been taught that they are expected to stick up for one another if there is any bullying or other unfun stuff like that. But, all of that stuff is basically the same as with any sibling - so not really twin specific except that so far they have been in the same class and go to the same activities.

This Thanksgiving they got a taste of some of the less fun stuff about being a twin. B. didn't really seem to notice/mind. But A. actually came up to me at one point and told me she didn't like being a twin. The main thing that bothered her, I think, was everyones insistence that she and her sister look so alike that it's impossible to tell them apart or at least to remember which one is which. There was a constant stream of 'ok, can you tell us which is which?' or 'oh man you changed clothes now I can't tell again' or just general discussion about different ways to tell them apart. Now, all these comments are pretty normal and the girls are used to it and tend to just grin and ignore it. But this time it seemed constant because of the many visits to different family members. And because they don't see this part of the family very often they were feeling a bit shy and overwhelmed by all the attention. Being the center of attention and being scrutinized closely by a bunch of almost-strangers has got to be scary! I have to admit that I did contribute a bit. I shouldn't have given in to the fun of confusing in-laws. But I did. I dressed the girls the same. Twice. Not a good parenting choice. In my defense, I didn't realize it would bother A. like it did. Both girls spent a lot of the week looking with wide-eyed semi-terror at random relations who were discussing loudly the girls' various ear lumps and face freckles and shapes.

A. has also, recently, been concerned that her teacher sometimes mixes up her name with her sister's. We agreed, though, that it's much better to be confused with a sister who looks a lot like you than with another kid who gets in trouble a lot! (She told me her teacher at school mixes up two boys' names who are constantly needing to be reprimanded :)

Also, even though A. has her moments of wishing away her twin-ness, she did get very upset when I told her that when Lil Jo goes to school she won't be in the same class with A and B. Sometimes she just needs to be reminded of the benefits :) I tell her almost everyone I know has wished they were a twin!

Here's a sample of our home-taken Christmas pictures - in case you're not on the Christmas Card mailing list.

See...it's not because they're twins that they look the same...it's that ALL my children look the same :) We've had people ask us if they are triplets. What would you respond? (There is a 3 and almost a half year difference between them!)

Halloween

Seems I haven't posted in a while. So, here's our Halloween post.
The girls had three (!) opportunities to wear their costumes this year: Wednesday night Small Group at church, Story-book Character Parade at school, and then actual Halloween. For Halloween we, as usual, went to our church for the 'Great Pumpkin Party' (The girls felt very cool being able tell everyone that it was their daddy driving the tractor for the hayride). This year I even caved and took the girls (by myself!) to a few neighbors for trick-or-treating afterward. Talk about an activity that goes against pretty much everything I like/am comfortable with (knocking on people's doors, asking for things, talking to strangers, being in any way scared or surprised, walking around outside after dark etc) - but it was worth it to hear lil Jo saying 'tick-r-teat!' And the girls said trick-or-treating was their favorite part of the evening. Guess we'll have to do it next year too....

Here's the before pic:

And Lil Jo after (:


We even managed to make it to school on time today! :)

1st Week

It's day three and so far things are going pretty well. There have been emotions flying around here as we all learn to deal with our new schedule. The girls are enjoying school - but come home exhausted - mostly just from being around so many more people for some much longer than they are used to. I think the hardest part of their days so far seem to be the drop off time when they have to sit with a billion kids in the cafeteria waiting to go to class. I'm working on getting the drop off timed right so they can go straight to their class (there is a 10 minute window between dismissal from the cafeteria and the tardy bell in which to navigate the car-pool line...so we'll see).

They both came home with smiley faces on their daily report, though, so no major issues!

Here are a few pic's of the first day!

Tomorrow

Kindergarten starts tomorrow. The girls are ready. I am trying to be! Here's a few pictures of their progress! :

Teeny Tiny! (Started at 5lbs 6 oz and 4lbs 12 oz)

Around a year old.

This and That.

It's been awhile since a quotes post, so here are a few:

**As we are peering through the blinds at the across-the-street neighbor who is turning on sprinklers (yes, I'm training my kids to be like that noisy neighbor on 'Bewitched'), A. says, "I guess he wants to have clean grass."

**Lil Jo's new favorite phrase, used a lot after she has made a big mess, 'Dat's not mah pahblem.'

She also is absorbing a bit of her sisters' dramatic nature, whenever something hurts it doesn't just hurt it hurts real bad!

**Walking through wal-mart parking lot, "Jeeps are a bad idea, jeeps don't have doors," says B. I didn't spot the doorless Jeep - but this is why I have to keep a constant hold of B. She's always paying more attention to her daydreams and the things around her than to the things in FRONT of her :) She's constantly bruised from walking into things!

**Neighbor boy says to a jealous Sister B. while discussing popsicles given to Sister A. when she came out of quarter removal surgery, "well you just need to swallow your own quarter [to get a popsicle]." I don't think so.

We recently moved Lil Jo into a big girl bed. Daddy made it just for her - it's awesome! But, she refuses to stay in it. I had forgotten the naptime battles then the girls were her age. It all came back the first day we laid her down at naptime and two seconds later we heard the doorknob start to rattle....So, now I have to lay in the hall and watch until she succumbs to sleep. She puts up a good fight and wins one or two days each week. Bedtime has been a different ordeal - same fight but with added fear of 'tunders.' For the first month she would sleep fine after the initial battle. This week, however, she's been waking in the middle of the night and so winds up in bed with us. I'm working on waking up enough to sooth her back to sleep in her own bed!

To wrap up this mostly pointless post - the girls experienced Silly Banz and seem to be over them, for now. Unfortunately, they have been sucked in by the Pillow Pets and Zoo Pals Plates commercials. (I just asked them the name of the plates and A. sang the jingle for me 'when you clean your plate, then you see their face....zoo pals make it fun!'). The people writing those commercials seem to be doing a VERY good job. But, I doubt we will be getting any 'pets' or 'pals' in the near future!

Fall Fashion

We just finished up (I hope!) school shopping for the girls. Not a lot, just a supplement of t-shirts (to replace the ones they've stained/outgrown), a few pairs of shorts, the hard-to-find and total downer tote bags that are required instead of backpacks (there are NO pretty Tinkerbell/Princess/etc totes), and the SHOES. The shoes were the highlight of our (my) preparations. I've been wanting to get the girls these since I first saw their sparkly prettiness. We finally went and picked them out last night and they are just as fun as I had hoped! (I'm still trying to convince myself that Lil Jo and I don't need a pair!). They cost way more than I am usually willing to spend on shoes for feet that are constantly growing, but for a huge milestone like starting school (!!), I thought a little splurge was in order :)

Aren't they pretty!!!

Twice last night I had to catch myself as I was trying to push my likes and dislikes onto the girls' choices. I'm used to shopping for them without their input. But last night they got to pick their shoes and their totes (we found some decently pretty ones at Claire's). I really didn't want B. to pick the 'Princess Monkey' tote or A. to pick the shoes with the ugly (imo) unicorn on them. But, when I saw B. settling for, no, resigning herself to, the tote I was encouraging - just to make me happy - I decided it wasn't worth fighting over. She's a bit of a princess monkey herself anyway! A.'s shoes were a different sort of battle - she said she wanted the unicorns because her friends would love them. She's already SO concerned with what her friends will think. I'm still not sure if she got them because of her friends or because she liked them.

Less than a month to go.....

A Tradition of Torture.

The girls are finally old enough for me to 'play' with their hair. I also have the excuse of needing to keep it tied back for swimming. My husband is shocked by the screams of pain that come from the living room as I plait and/or ponytail three little heads of hair. In my defense, I do try to be gentle, but part of having long hair is having a tough head, right? And they do get the option of having short or long hair. They've been told, though, that if they have long hair they have to let mom 'do' it so it doesn't get all nasty.

A. is getting better about tolerating it - she gets angry at the pain while B. just sobs because she's so mistreated.

Regular french braids on A.

The entire process is very reminiscent of the hairdo torment I received from my mother. The french braid that went around my head like a crown (SO. MUCH. PAIN.)...and the public (equally painful) demonstrations that happened whenever random strangers asked her 'how'd you DO that??' Sometimes I can calm the girls as I pull with these stories of my own experiences with mother-inflicted pain :)

This experiment turned out a bit goofy. (Can you tell she's been crying??)

Back view of 'goofy-do'. Later on the back fell out so I turned the side braid into a bun - super- silly :)

I'm just now starting inverted french braids (my mom called them 'fishtails'). I am really enjoying having so much hair to practice with!!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Dear Daddy,

We love you so much!!! We are so grateful for a Daddy that loves us so much and teaches us so many things! Our favorite time of day is when you come home, or maybe when we get to wrastle with you before bed, or when we get to 'help' you work in the garage or....I guess we love ALL times we get to be around you!

It's so cool to have a Daddy that will work hard for LOTS of evenings and weekends and even ON Father's Day building amazing things for our children's church. We will always remember the cool stages and awesome decorations. We're so proud that OUR Daddy is the one that made all that!!!

We couldn't ask for a better Daddy than you! Happy Father's Day!! Love, A. B. and Lil Jo!

Garden

During my childhood, my mom planted a garden any time she could find a patch dirt. We also had several summers of huge gardens out at my grandparents farm. So many happy memories are from sitting in the garden with either my grandma or my mom while they watered and weeded and listening to stories or playing pictionary in the dirt. As we grew older, my sister and I took over the farm garden (with help from my Dad), and we took our produce to town to sell. I'm sure we were hot and bored and cranky some (or a lot) of the time. But, I only remember it as fun.

Anyway, since being a 'grown-up', I've been wanting to start gardening again. I'd never had much success growing things on my own, but the cost of produce, my desire to find some productive hobbies, and my husband's amazing ability to build pretty much anything, brought about our family's first garden :) (The green been trellis has been expanded quite a bit since this picture):

We have herbs (basil, mint, chamomile, and the now-dead cilantro), strawberries, cucumbers, string beans, peppers, tomatoes, onions, squash and zucchini. I feel very attached to all my little plants and get very agitated when they are not thriving. The onions and cilantro seem to be a failed attempt, and we've had some very strange results from our squash and zucchini experiment. We planted them in last summer's plastic pool...and as you can see in the picture - one plant took over. Who knew squash plants were territorial??

We've been enjoying lots of tomatoes and eagerly awaiting enough string beans to cook more than a bowl full (although the one bowl we did have was totally yummy!). I have no idea what all to do with the basil - so I've been just tossing it into to stuff randomly. I'm sure that there are a lot of great ways to use the mint, too, and I have a LOT of it, but I just look at it mostly.

Here's B with her sunflower plants. We planted them in with the banana plants we thought (incorrectly) we had killed this winter.

Yay garden!

Cuddle Buddies

In order to go to sleep at bedtime or naptime Lil Jo needs:
1)Baby Cinderella
2)Pink Doggie
3)Duck
4)Elephant ('elfant')
5)Frosty
6)Other baby
7)Seahorse

She will check to make sure all are accounted for and holler for whatever is missing.

She also has to have a drink, a kiss, her 'water' on (noisemaker), and 'blanket on me'.

Except for the seahorse and duck - this is an entirely new list of cuddle buddies than she had 6 months ago when they were all 'babies' (dolls).

I now have to go convince the girls to move their myriads of stuffed animals out of my exercise space :)

Worth It.

This weekend my world traveling sister visited with her kids. We all had a great time and I already miss my niece and nephew so much it hurts....but with all that comes the realization that I have a comparatively 'boring' life. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel bored....I just have not much to talk about that's not kid related. I definitely don't provide stimulating conversation. But, I have been questioning my chosen 'profession' less and less over the past year...feeling more confident in the decision....recognizing that what I do all day, while totally unglamorous, is still important.

And then this morning Daughter A came running into my room, jumped on the bed, snuggled up for a hug, and said, "Mama, do you know why I love you? Cause you're home all the time." :)

Here's a few pics from cousin time:

Survey Thingy

I was just thinking this morning that I haven't done one of those fun-to-me email/facebook type surveys in a long time. Then I re-ran across this post by a friend and decided to steal it :) (I'm distracting my mind from this afternoon's kindergarten sign-up!)

What time did you get up this morning?
6:35. Shocking, for a habitual post-8am riser, but I found some walking buddies and had to get a few loops done before Jer left for work. All that extra awake time is part of the reason for this survey - ha.

Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds - but I prefer colored stones like emerald, garnet, sapphire etc. Pearls are probably my LEAST favorite.

Last film you saw in the theatre?
'Alice in Wonderland'. I was so excited (Jer fell asleep), but it was not as good as it could have been...I like 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' a LOT better

Favorite TV Show?
I have a hard time picking so I'll give my top 5: 1)Glee, 2)The Office, 3)Parenthood, 4) The Good Wife, 5)Modern Family...and I'm very sad about the cancellation of 'Better Off Ted' and 'Scrubs'. I used to feel guilty about enjoying TV...but everyone needs ways to relax and that's mine, so there!

What do you usually have for breakfast?
I don't like breakfast and have just recently made an effort to eat some every day. Before it was just a highly-sugared cup of coffee or Earl Grey Tea. This week it's been one hard-boiled egg, a few slices of pepper jack cheese, and a hand-full of pretzels. I like to have a few tomatoes with that combo, too.

Favorite Clothing?
Jeans that fit well and are comfy (ie don't feel like they are squeezing me or about to bare my rear) with a t-shirt that hugs the right curves and hides the strange pattern that my children left on my stomach.

Anywhere in the world on vacation where would you pick?
For a relaxing vacation I would pick a tropical and uncrowded beach - the whole white sand/clear water thing. For a site-seeing sort of vacation I would LOVE to go to China...someday!

Where would you like to retire?
Jer and I have discussed two options: 1) Buy a really fancy RV and travel the country in style, 2) By a house in the north and one in the south and avoid extreme temperatures :) But, I imagine I will attempt to live as close to my children as they will let me!

What was your most recent memorable birthday?
The memorable in a bad way b-day was two years ago when I was stuck home with an infant and two-three year olds and then one of the three year olds wound up throwing-up all day. A good recent one was three years ago, my sis took me to a comedy club in town and then we hung out at her house afterwards. I like it when people will hang out with me :)

What are you going to do when you finish this?
Clean the kitchen/counters, then feed the kids, then go register two of the kids...

Are you a morning or a night person?
100% night owl. Although, I'm always a bit surprised how pleasant it is to be outdoors in the early morning....

What did you want to be when you were little?
First off a mom, then an accountant for Hershey in Hershey, PA in a purple house.

What was the last thing you ate?
see breakfast question above

Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Lady from church who is watching the girls for me this afternoon

Favorite soft drink?
Cherry coke. mmmm

Hair color?
Dark blondish

Summer or Winter?
Fall and spring! But I actually prefer the cold to the hot.

Chocolate or vanilla?
Chocolate...preferably dark.

Coffee or tea?
Either - so long as it's nice and sweet and has some creaminess added.

When was the last time you cried?
Don't know...

What did you do last night?
Watched kids at children's small group, watched Biggest Loser catchup with Jer, watched ANTM, showered and went to bed.

Positive or Negative?
I try to be positive and can usually see the positive in most situations...but will often fall into negativity without realizing it and have to pull myself back out!

A Few Firsts/New Accomplishments

A. conquered the monkey bars a week ago. All the way across all by herself - several times. They were some pretty hard ones, too! They were set up in a curve so some were farther apart than others. She was SO excited :) She then got to experience the beginnings of monkey bar blisters!

B. read a book all by herself!! She needed a bit of help on some of the sight words - but that's because the English language is totally dumb and almost none of the words follow the rules. They are all 'funny' or 'silly' words, as our reading book calls them. She was so excited to read that princesses love singing...she loves singing, too! (She sings almost non-stop).

Lil Jo's firsts have all been vocabulary expansions lately. She said her first 4 word sentence ('Mama, kiss you me.') and she has been stringing together more and more sentences since. I think there was even a 5 word-er, but I can't recall what it was.

The girls also got to play Mario Cart for the first time on Saturday. We were babysitting some for some friends at their house and they have the four player game. It was VERY entertaining watching two 5-year olds, a 6-year old, and a 3-year old race :) Daddy had a hard time watching instead of 'helping.'

We had our first Easter egg hunt at our new church. 20,000 eggs....needless to say all the kids filled their baskets with lots left over. Daddy said he saw A. going slowly through the field, picking up an egg in each hand, weighing the two against each other, then tossing the lighter egg over her shoulder. Fortunetly for me (and unfortunetly for Daddy and Jo) most of the eggs seem to have been filled with mini-pb cups, yum!

Of course, I forgot my camera for Easter/ Egg Hunt/Trip to the Beach, but we are very lucky to have friends who remember cameras and offer to take family pictures of us:Can you tell we don't take family pictures often? :)

Waiting.

That's what I feel like I am doing right now.

The girls start kindergarten in 5 months......

I can't even fathom what our lives will be like.

They didn't do mom's-day-out or preschool. Our longest recurrent separation was Sunday mornings for church.

We've never had much of a set schedule. Naptimes, yes, but we wake up when they're ready and have breakfast when we're all awake enough to eat it. Lunch is at noon....ish. Supper when Daddy gets home which can be anytime from 5:30 to 7:00.

I'm not really worrying. I just feel like I can't commit to anything until I know how this new 'lifestyle' will affect us.

I feel like I need to hang on to every second...but they are SO ready to go.

Why all this melancholy out of the blue?? This morning a friend whose first born is also entering kindergarten next year informed me that there is early registration happening the first week of April. In three weeks my babies could be in the school's system....

What am I going to do all day at home with just ONE lil girl???

On a more upbeat note - here are the girls and Daddy planting our garden -yay!:

'Girls'

*Taking a moment to blog while my hideously bright pink nail polish dries :) *

We have recently confirmed that Lil Jo does, in fact, think her sister A's name is 'Girls'. This may be because both sisters have similar sounding names to her, because I refer to the twins as the 'girls' and she transferred that to just A., or because whenever I holler 'GIRLS' only A. comes running. It may be a combination of all of those. Regardless, she is adamant that A's name is 'Girls' and will not even attempt to pronounce A's real name. Weird, mostly funny, but starting to be a bit frustrating. I guess it's not hurting anything. I had to wonder today how long this idea has been in her brain. I've tested her a lot to see if she can tell the girls apart. She has said 'Girls' to A for quite awhile, but I assumed she was just telling me that A was one of the girls. It never occurred to me that she would get their names confused like this :)

This past weekend I went to our church's women's retreat (great as always :) All the girls went to stay with my dad and step-mom. My husband and I had Saturday and Sunday evening alone to celebrate our anniversary - it was very nice :) But, the girls came home Monday morning and started asking lots of hard questions (I'm not sure if it was out of the blue or if I'm just paying more attention after some of the topics discussed at the retreat). We have discussed: fat vs skinny, why a boy with autism acts differently than other kids, the devil (as they saw him on some friend's animated bible story dvd), what will happen if they can't have a baby, how babies come out of mamas' tummies, why grown-up ladies wear bras, what those diaper things for grown-up ladies in wal-mart are for (Mom, do you peepee in them??) etc, etc. My brain is tired!

One other development that has me really feeling the transformation of my babies into big girls - we have officially graduated from toddler clothing. 5T is just too small. The move across the isle in wal-mart is a sad one (and expensive!).

Well, I think the polish is set- should be able to blind many tonight at small group :)

Butterflies

Disclaimer: This may not be interesting to anyone else but me.

Yesterday the girls were given the task of making b-day cards. A. decided to draw a butterfly (so B, of course, followed suit). As she finished drawing the outline, I noticed that she had not really put a space for the body and was curious to see how she'd proceed (we rarely draw so I'm always interested to see how their skills have progressed). It was only when she started drawing what I thought was a second butterfly that I realized that she had actually been drawing each individual wing. Then after the wings were completed she added the body in the space between. Now, as a very poor artist who never aspires beyond basic doodles, I was very impressed by the detail in her butterfly. The body actually looked a bit like the worms/caterpillars from 'Herbie and Friends'. It was such a cute little butterfly with personality and detail so beyond what I have EVER come up with on my butterflies! I do enjoy doodling butterflies so I have attempted quite a few - but mine never have more than a playdough snake like body with antennae and maybe a smiley face if I'm feeling creative.

B started her butterfly a bit later (I was distracted from helping her write the b-day message by an annoying phone call from the insurance adjuster). Again I was perplexed by her picture. She only drew one butterfly wing and a body. I was thinking that surely she, at five, wouldn't think to draw a side view of the butterfly. But, turns out that's exactly what she was doing. The creativity in my five-years olds amazes me! I understand that they are probably totally normal in this area...but I have always been very unimaginative in my art -so seeing them draw from different angles etc just delights me :) I love watching their minds working.

Later, when I was describing to my husband how the girls had both created such different butterflies, B even informed me that she could have made another line on top of the wing so you could see the other wing behind it!! (She was also quite upset that she had forgotten to give her butterfly eyes) I do find it interesting, as well, that while they had butterflies from different angles and with different colors, they both put one spot on the top half and one on the bottom half of each wing. Is that the accepted butterfly wing design for most kids??

I'll close with some pictures from the last few weeks - most of them are from the indoor activities we've been forced to - because even here in the south, it's been cold and icky out. Then there are a few from our new church building (yay!). Our grand opening was two weeks ago and it has been great!

This is our front entryway:

Luckily she didn't try to stand up:

There is actually order to this chaos:

Part of Church Children's Hallway:
My husband built the stage and the puppet theatre:

Mama loves it when they get along:):

Just a lil cold

We've all been sniffly this week. The girls have a bit of a cough going, too. Nothing serious. But, I've found it interesting watching Lil Jo-its her first cold since she was about 10 months old: she is not lethargic, she is not sleeping longer (like I would like to do), no...instead she acts CAFFEINATED! She's goes through spurts of zinging through the house laughing and being goofy. You would never guess she's sick...until you notice the green goo oozing out of her lil nose. Or hear the raspy sound of her voice. The only behavioral indication of sickness is grumpiness. She isn't into tv so my usual set-em-in-front-of-the-tv-to-keep-them-still-so-their-bodies-can-rest remedy doesn't work. How do you speed the healing process in a little girly who is too young to be medicated and won't rest??

A lot of our friends have had kids with much more serious winter-time illnesses, though, so I'm feeling pretty ok with the colds! Do other kids become hyperactive when they get sick??

Here's my wild child at her recent b-day party:

A Minute of Peace

The girls are playing nicely together (!) in their room so I thought I'd do a quick post before I start the Monday clean-up (blah).

We have established our family motto. Last night in the car Daughter B. was gearing up for a full fledged fit when Daughter A. hollered out "B. DON'T FREAK OUT." Hilarious...but also almost exactly what I was going to say. See, our family is pretty much a freakin' out sort of family. Mama with her high-anxiety is constantly 'freaking out' about something and generally uses those words several times when describing her day to Daddy. Daughters A and B are also very prone to 'freaking out' because all issues from teeny tiny to giant require loud vocals, stomping, writhing on the floor etc etc. Lil Jo and Daddy are probably the least likely to freak out so they will be the designated keepers of the family motto who will be frequently called upon to shout above the din 'DON'T FREAK OUT'. And perhaps this established motto will help lighten the mood during the 'freak outs'...it's hard not to laugh when little girls holler and stick out their 'stop hands' :) And really one of our main goals since becoming parents of high drama (since birth) girlies has been to teach them how to resist the urge to freak.

So now I am off to clean the house with out 'freaking out' at how impossible it is to keep it tidy with three little girls, their Daddy, and a piddly dog :)

This pic should be with my previous post under weird games my girls play:

Birthday Girl

My youngest is now two. Amazing how time flies with the 3rd (or 2nd depending on how you look at it) child. The first two years of her sisters' lives seem MUCH longer!

Sister A celebrated by decorating the Birthday Girl's face with a fun ink-pen mask complete with matching neck and hand decor. I would have had a picture of it if Sister A hadn't decided to actually obey and wash the pen off. I was impressed at her prompt response to my order until I realized that she was thoroughly enjoying holding her sister down so she could scrub her face :) This marks the 5th (or maybe 20th) time A. has been banned from pen/marker/crayon use.

Every day I marvel at how fast the girls are all growing. It seems impossible that they were once so tiny (4 lbs 12 and 5 lbs 6 to be exact on the tininess).

Yesterday, we went to the zoo. It was an amazing day for it. The weather was perfect. There were very few people there and those that were there were well behaved and/or kept to themselves. The animals were active and easy to view (the tiger was sitting RIGHT next to the window - so cool). We had nowhere to be so we just took our time -it was great.

I know I should have a plethora of fun quotes from the girls...but I haven't been keeping track of them very well. My Dad asked if I was getting bored with my blog...but it's more laziness then boredom. That and it's a lot easier to check facebook and read other blogs while holding a kid than it is to type a blog post while holding one. And 'Lil Miss Likes-to-be-held-all-the-time' makes sure I have a long list of things to do during her nap time!

So, here's to more posts! yay.

Oh and here's Lil Jo's b-day present from Col. and Sugar:

Earrings! (and the piercing to get them in there)

And how about, instead of fun quotes, we do fun pictures of the girls' weird games:

No idea what the ball game was about. I believe the barbies were all on the piano 'stage.' And the last pic's not really a weird game - they were just all 'journaling' together and I thought it was cute :)

Goals Update

Back at the beginning of August I posted a few goals I had set for myself. I accomplished my number one today so I thought I'd update.

Ever since I posted those goals I have been praying for a piano. I've been looking on craigslist and keeping my ears open for anyone wanting to get rid of one. At one point I had found one that I really, really liked that was in my price range. But, then it was the wrong time of the month and we just couldn't come up with the money in time, so the lady sold it to someone else. I was very sad. Then our heater had to be replaced so I figured the piano was something that would have to wait. (People post free pianos from time to time but it has been my experience that it's almost impossible to call before they are gone....I must not be the only one searching for a cheap one!).

Yesterday I found a free piano listed. It was in the same suburb; it was the right size. I emailed them right away ( they didn't list a phone number). I gave them my number and said I could show up right away to get it. When I didn't hear back from them by bedtime, I figured I had missed it. But there was no picture, so I didn't really know what I had missed and I accepted it as not meant to be.

After church I checked my phone and had a voice mail from an unfamiliar number, the lady said they had received several responses about the piano but wanted to let me have first shot at it(I didn't give them a sob story email or anything...so I was either first...or...who knows...). SO...my husband and a few of his big burly friends went and picked up my mystery piano. I've been piano shopping on craigslist for a long time so I didn't have high expectations for the piano's looks - I was just happy that it was supposedly functional (and since free pianos go like hotcakes on craigslist I could always just turn around and relist it).

Well, God's timing is obviously best! This piano is so much nicer than the one I was going to BUY. Yay!!!!!!

So here's a run-down on the goals list:

1)Find a piano - check! (whoohoo!!!)

2)Find/buy a sewing machine - almost check....we got a sewing machine - and Jer got it to work long enough to make a pillow case and a pair of pants for the girls -both out of some cast off army uniforms (amazing, I know) but then it broke beyond his ability to fix it...so not sure what comes next.

3)Find a productive hobby - check. Mom taught me basic crochet so I'm working away on a scarf and then the sky's the limit, right?

4)Start to learn Spanish - still working on it. bought a second hand text book - but it has no pronunciation guides...may have a chance to buy in with some friends who might be getting Rosetta stone

5)Find inexpensive ways to improve our house - still working on this one...home improvement is expensive.

6)Set a consistent schedule that allows for quiet times, exercise, quality time with each family member - I think I found bible study time ...next is the exercise...bleh.

7)Become reacquainted with my Horn and look into local groups that might need an extra. - not check...maybe later...