Thumb Guards Are A Go

We have been working on life with thumb guards now for 3 days. Things are great till bedtime. then it breaks my heart to hear A plead for me to take them off. I actually caught her with her pointer finger in her mouth last night. So help me if I take away her thumb and she starts on a finger! B is ok, she found out she could take her thumb out the first night, and I think last night she sucked the thumb with the guard anyway. I don't say much since I know this is hard and we are only on day 3, but come week 2 things will get said if this continues. I am looking forward to the day I can take them off and the thumb stays out. the next challenge will be B and the guard at school. Not really looking forward to this fight. She seem to think sucking her thumb at age 6 is less embarrassing than wearing the clear thumb guard. I don't really understand that one. Come to think of it I really don't understand most of her thought processes.

Art Anyone?

My husband and I went out on a date night Saturday. our first choice babysitter is of course my sister Aunt V. the girls were so excited to see her now that she is home for break. one if the first things A did was to start some art work for her. Whenever Aunt V comes over she always leaves with plenty of new pieces of art work. this time however A took a little different approach to her work.

A: (showing her paper) Here Aunt V. Do you like it?
V: I do, but it needs a little more color. (it only had a few lines of marker on the paper)
A: You know what? I think I am finished with it.
V: What do you mean?
A: Here, you can take it home and finish it.

Yes, my daughter is now handing out half finished art work that you can finish on your own. Any takers?

Baby It's Cold Outside

My husband loves this photo. We seem to take one like it every year when it is super cold. I'm not even sure it got any warmer outside today. I was thinking of hitting the mall figuring that others would be home, but after stepping out for a few seconds, I decided -10 was not the time to Christmas shop. Plus, what do I really need to still buy? Not much, but a sale gets me every time. I spent my day with a surprise visit from out of state friends, and decorating cookies that I have been putting off for a few days. I even busted out the gingerbread house to finally have the girls decorate. I figured with only 3 days left it would be a good time to do it.

Not the best decorating job, but they taste good.

B is the official icicle maker. A's side is the one you see, not too bad for 3.

Quick Comments

At dinner tonight...

A: I'm a chicken.

Me: Great, eat your dinner.

A: I'm a chicken and laying babies out of my bottom.

M: Even better, now eat.

Away In A Manger...

I finished putting up the Nativity scene while the girls were at school. I know there was no snow in Bethlehem, but I needed a little something. B noticed it was up right away. She has a real thing for the manger display. I walked by it after the girls went to bed and noticed that there had been a small adjustment to my original set up.

You might not see it just yet so, let me get you a little closer.

There! B placed a little blanket on the baby Jesus. She is so cute :)

Teacher Gift Finished

I decided this year to make B's teacher an I Spy Jar. I found the general idea online and changed it a little to work for me. I was thinking I would do the I Spy Pillows, but when I found these plastic jars I knew this would be better.

B was so excited about it as well. We hit our local Michael's with coupons in hand to pick up needed supplies.

1. You will need an empty jar. I picked plastic in case of dropping. Any size will do, but you probably don't want it too large if for young kids.
2. Different small items to put in jar.
B and I hit the button section and found lots and lots to pick from. The best part is that many button packs are a theme so they have many different buttons in one pack. I also looked around the house and found beads, coins, paper clips...
3. Poly Pellets or Rice to fill jar.
4. Hot Glue and Ribbon for finished jar.

The jar is super easy to make. Put all items in jar after you write the list. Then fill jar with beads or rice. I filled about 3/4 of the way so the objects would move around nicely. This is geared towards a 1st grade class so I didn't want it too hard to find the items. The more you fill the jar the less room the items have to move around. This makes the SPY part harder.

I then printed a list of things to SPY and laminated it on card stock. Added the ribbon to the card, hot glued the ribbon to the inside of the lid so the tag will hang.

Hot glued the lid on, and added the final ribbon around the outside of the lid. All finished! A different, inexpensive, useful teacher's gift.

Now to make one for B. She picked all the items for her jar. I figure it will be a good thing to take on a car trip. Could keep them busy for a while.

Sticker Fun

What does one do when it is 10 degrees outside and you just found the container of stickers? Well if you are A you will do this...

And there were more but they fell off around the house. Nothing like peeling stickers off a hard wood floor :)

Jingle Bells

Today was A's first Christmas show. I am not sure if B was more excited than A or not. We had a number of people there for A. She was super excited to perform on the stage for all the Mommies and Daddies. Even B got to miss some of school to come watch the show. It was just perfect. Cute, funny, and super FAST. They sang 4 songs and then time to go. If we blinked we would miss it completely. I was all set in the first row with my camera and flip video. All was great till the middle of the first song and I noticed that my batteries were low on the video. So needless to say I was only able to get just a bit of this song since it was their second one. No gold star for me today. I'm sure this will be enough for most of you. Enjoy!

Tea Time

For those of you who do not know I am not a coffee drinker. I love the smell, but hate the taste. I never drank it to stay up in college, nor do I start my day with a cup. I tend to drink water. However a good cup of tea every now and then works well too. I do have to have my lemon tea with honey when I am sick. I find nothing works better to make me well again.

I recently came across a blog that mentioned a new holiday tea by Celestial Seasonings called Sugar Cookie something. The blogger stated that it tasted like a sugar cookie and one should buy some. Well I have been looking in many stores with no luck. I am all game for a hot liquid cookie right? The other day at Whole Foods I came across an entire display of holiday teas by Celestial Seasonings. I quickly grabbed the Sugar Cookie box and continued to look at the different varieties. My eyes fell on this one. Candy Cane Lane. Sounds yummy. I love a touch of mint in my hot chocolate and I do like other teas with mint. I guess I will try it.

I LOVE it! I have been drinking a cup each morning. In fact I have one here now as I type this. It is the perfect amount of mint. Not so much as I sip, but as it travels down my throat the mint pops up. Plus it is green tea and decaf! What more could I ask for? I even gave my mom a few tea bags to try. Perhaps this is what coffee drinkers feel when they sip their perfect cup. I don't know but I do think I will be getting a bunch before the holiday line leaves the stores.

The Sugar Cookie is not bad either. The smell is better than the taste, but still a nice cup of tea.

Catch -Up

So much is going on that I just can't seem to find the time or energy to blog. The girls have been exchanging germs constantly. Makes it a little scary with B's cold induced asthma. I am trying to keep outings down to a few so that my thumb suckers are not putting germs right into their mouth. This means I stay home more. YUCK! I did get their thumbguards by the way. Hope to start theses over break.

Winter has caught me be surprise this year. I have not done most of my pre-winter list. So now I am playing catch up. I finally got around to putting plastic on the windows. Yes, old house=plastic to keep out the wind. I hate doing this. I have been doing it for the past 8 years and even Tom noticed that I am getting really good at it. It is not that it is hard work, just a pain in the butt, plus I have to cover about 9 windows. I actually ran out of the plastic so I didn't even finish. More fun tomorrow I guess.

On the plus side I am just about finished with Christmas shopping. I have not wrapped, but I have gone through all the loot and even found things to return. Some out of town gifts have been shipped too. This is really just to prevent me from buying more stuff. Once I am finished I just stop looking at adds and thinking about it all.

As for decorating the house... not there yet. I tried to do it today but, not so much. I just kept finding other things to do (like the windows). I did move furniture around to make room for the tree. I still might tackle the mantel tonight since I am tired of looking at the fake fall leaves that are on it now.

I have also been working on teacher gifts. As soon as I finish I will post.

Funny moment:
Driving yesterday past a strip mall and A asked me if we could eat lunch at Bellybuttons. What is bellybuttons? I looked around to see that I drove past a Potbellys. Bellybuttons, Potbellys totally get it now. I laughed and told her it was Potbellys.

So Clean!

My husband over bid on a full car detailing at his last silent auction a while ago. Since no one was crazy enough to out bid him, the detail was all ours. He has been hounding me for months and months to set it up and take my car in. Well an entire weekday without my car is not easy to get. I have lots to do in a day with my car. I knew I could have his car, but that just adds dropping him off at work, bringing him lunch (he usually comes home to eat) and picking him back up.

I thought over the Thanksgiving break would work since the girls didn't have school and he did not have work. Well we all know what happens to the best plans, right? They never work!

We finally took the car in yesterday. Yes, the day it snowed 3 inches was the perfect day for me to bring my car in for a full inside and outside detailing. (Yes, I am being sarcastic here) Well the day went on and this morning I picked up my very clean car.

I was not all for the detail thing. I mean the car is just going to get all dirty again, and I'm not so sure it was all that dirty. I mean besides the occasional spill of milk in the back, or the dirty shoe prints on the seats. But holy cow! I am so loving my clean car. The carpets were even cleaned!!! I really had a hard time letting A get in the car today after school with her boots on. I'm not even sure I want them to bring food in there let alone eat in it ever again. I have to give props to my husband for giving me this special treat. Perhaps he is not so bad after all :)

So Thankful

That about covers it! I am also thankful for my family not pictured here as well as my friends who are like my family. Hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Disney Done

Lots of pictures, princesses, money spent and good times. That about sums up our trip. I will say I am not one of the millions that love Disney. I am also not one of the millions who want to go back. I don't want to trash Disney or those who love it. I just don't get it I guess. I looked for the magic but really didn't see it much. I did catch a glimpse in the girl's eyes however.

Time To Go

After months and months of planning, talking with the travel agent, reading books, making lists, sending emails, making phone calls... it is really time to go to DISNEY. The car will be here at 4:45 AM to take us to the airport to catch a 7:00AM flight. Notice the very early departure? I did not plan this part, but I'm sure the girls will be so excited that they will sleep like babies for the entire flight. I know, no way! A mom can dream right?

I am about finished with all packing. Just a few last minute battery items charging, then we are done. I still need to jump in the shower so I can have plenty of time to complete the shaving process. Didn't really think about all that till today. With the winter in full swing my legs have seen no sunlight nor a razor for some time. Guess that needs to end before the pool tomorrow or I might be taken for the BEAST and not BEAUTY. Plus I don't want to try shaving at 4:00 in the morning, so tonight it is.

I don't think I will be blogging while we are away, but I'm sure I will have lots to chat about when we get back. See you all then!

Stalking?

So I have come to find that I like Facebook for the simple pleasure of stalking. Well not really stalking, but finding people who don't know I'm looking at them. I was finding past students last night just to see what they are up to. You know as a teacher I want to know if they made something of them self. Some did and some still to be seen. it was hard not to "friend request" them. I figured that would be way to weird.

I have also come across other people that I have not talked to in 15 years. They are now my "friend". Really? Why now? Will I ever talk to them off this page? Was my life not good enough before they found me? It is not like I can deny a friend request either. But I do wonder why they looked me up.

I think one's goal on Facebook is to have the most possible friends listed.

I will say I have liked getting in touch with some high school or college friends, but other than that? Yup, main use is stalking. Kind of makes me wonder who is looking at me that I don't know about and why.

Need Thumb Help

So it has been about a week of operation "No Thumbs". I have to say the girls started really strong. I actually thought we might be able to kick this habit. Well, now not so much. It seems to be a lot harder than I thought it would be (and I thought it would be REALLY hard). B seems ok at school if I remember to put on the tape. At night even with tape, no chance. A pretty much asks for tape, only to pull it off to suck her thumbs. I am now finding strips of tape all over the house and car. I just don't know what to do about this. I figure lay off A and keep supporting B for any accomplishment no matter how small. I thought by Thanksgiving they might be finished, but now I am hoping Christmas.

I will say it is not all their fault. I am not super good at remembering the tape each morning. Today, for example, I had to hit up the travel first aid kit on the way to school for a band aid to use on B. I am not even sure of the last time A had tape on her. Guess I need to try harder too.

Can't Find Me!

A wanted to play hide and seek today. As you can see she still needs a little help on the "hide" concept. I will say she emptied the toy box and climbed in all on her own. If she bent down a little more than it might have worked. She does actually fit in the box. I was sitting right on the couch as she did all this and so I never really got up to "find" her. It was a great game :)

She loved this spot and hid here about 5 times. As long as she had her back to me so she couldn't see me, than I could not see her. Each time she hid in the box I laughed. Perhaps if I did not pretend that I couldn't see her it would have helped the learning process. No way! This was so fun for her I was not going to pop that bubble. Next time I will work on the hide concept...promise.

From The Backseat...

I took the girls to see High School Musical 3 today. I have to say I liked the first 2 much more than this one. There were a lot of scenes that I swear didn't really fit in the movie, or real life. A seemed to be out of her seat often dancing on the steps. She is so funny. B seemed to really like it. She was really happy to go, but of course not so happy to go without a friend. One day I swear I will win and make her happy. Hey, I can dream right?

On the way home I heard this from my sweet girls.

B: I have your doll.

A: Give it back or I will smack your face.

B: Like you can hit me.

A: If you don't give it back I will poke you in the eyeball.

Bye-Bye Thumbs

We, or should I say I, decided that it was now time to begin the "no thumb" transition. B still sucks most of the day and A is even worse. I figured that if I am working on B I might as well work on A too.

I bought fabric tape, the kind for band aids, and put a piece on each thumb that might be sucked. For B this means the left one. For A this means both! They both took to the tape rather well. I told them after 2 days they would earn a treat. I was so surprised with their job. B told me right away after school yesterday that she did not suck it at all. I was with A all day and she too did really well. She did not keep the tape on her thumbs, but still remembered not to suck them.

Day 2 was still pretty good. B was ready for the tape this morning and A was proud to show her teacher at school her taped thumbs. They both reported to me after school that they did great. A still took tape off at home, but did a good job not sucking.

The night now was the only thing in our way. I put tape on both girls tonight. B was a little unsure, but A told me she was taking the tape off. And she did. I managed to get one thumb covered, but the other got away. Oh well they don't suck much once they fall asleep anyways. I was surprised with the fact that B did not cry about it. In fact neither of them did. I will go in to check on the thumbs tonight, for I'm not sure B's tape will still be on.

I am in no way thinking we are done, but it has at least started out well. My goal is by the end of November to be off for good. This is when we go back to the dentist and I'd like to be able to tell him the girls no longer suck their thumbs. Wish us luck!

How Much is Too Much?

I continue to find myself going to the Trick or Treat bowl and eating. I am beginning to wonder how many pieces/pounds of candy is too much? I am not getting a tummy ache, so that to me means I have yet to eat too much, right? I am just dreading the day when the girls look in the bowl and yell out,"Where is all of our candy!" How will I get out of that one? I did go and work out yesterday, so I figure that gave me some room to eat. Plus I seem to only eat it during the day. I don't want it at night, so that is also a plus. Eating at night is really bad, right? The worst part is that I have resorted to eating the yucky stuff. The babyruths, the crunch bars... Not that they are "bad" just not the ones I really like. I will have to stop soon for all the real candy will be gone and all that will be left are the suckers and gummy body parts. I swear if I eat those I really will need help!

Anyone else in this position, or am I the only one gaining lots of Halloween pounds?

70 Degrees!?

I decided that today was way too nice to be cooped up in the house moving things back into the basement. I am not feeling well, but figured 70 degree days won't be here again for a long time, so I better use this one well. I checked in with the husband to make sure there was no reason I had to stay home. No stay at home mom for me today was the decision!

I took A to the zoo with a friend. They 2 of them had so much fun. All they did was run, run , and run some more. It was funny at times for A would be way ahead of me and Colin would be way behind. I was constantly saying, "A slow down." and "Come on Colin!" It was funny.

I am still amazed at how much energy A has. She was up at 5:30 AM (thanks to the time change) and has been going strong all day. I on the other had took a power nap while Dora was on before we had to pick up B from school.

It was super funny too listening to the 2 3 year olds talk all the way to the zoo. They sounded so grown up. Being that they are both the younger ones in their family their vocabulary is great. They would say things like, "Amazing!" and "Can you believe it?" I wish I could have taped it. They totally had full conversations with no interruptions from me.

It was a great day and the I'm so very glad that I did it. I might not think so tomorrow when I have lots more to do, but oh well.

Halloween

I know I am SOOOOO behind. Lots going on here, so I will do a few photos now. The girls had a great time this year. A really got into running from house to house getting more candy. We had a fun time going with friends around the neighborhood for over an hour. Don't really know what to do with all the extra candy yet.

B went as an Illini Cheerleader and A was Sleeping Beauty

Since I was going out with the girls this year I thought I'd dress up too. What to wear? Oh the football jersey Uncle Danny leaves here for northwestern games was a perfect pick.

The candy the girls brought home.

The pile now all sorted into like piles. I also went through and tossed all the "yucky" ones.

Carving Time

This is the night that the girls look forward to all year. Or so it seems. We picked our pumpkins last weekend with Aunt Vic. Each and every night the girls asked if it was the night that we could carve them. I hate to do something so messy on a school night, so I just kept putting it off. Well enough waiting was had and the girls wanted to carve NOW. I relented and said we could do it.

They were so happy. A couldn't get enough of the gushy insides while B just wanted to draw the face. I of course had them pull out as many seeds as they could so I could roast them later. I took a video of A saying "disgusting" that i will post tomorrow. It is rather funny. She was so grossed out by the insides yet kept going back for more.

A found a seed stuck to her thumb and even after shaking her hand it did not come off.

Our finished pumpkin.

I placed a flashlight inside instead of a candle. I think B did a pretty good job on the face too. I did do the cutting, but it was her drawing. It was a good time and even Daddy took a turn scooping out the insides.

Broke Her Heart

The sisters in my house have been at each other's necks non stop. They seem to fight about anything. It has come down to me trying to stay out of it as well as teaching each girl how to deal with the other. I have taught A to tell B "I am not listening to you" when B calls her a name or is being mean. I told B last night that if she did not stop picking on her sister than I would treat her the same way. For now that is holding . But this morning was the worst!

A's highlight is to have big sister walk her to her classroom. Now remember A only goes to school twice a week and her room is about 10 feet from B's. So no major sacrifice has to be made. Well B told A she was not going to walk her today. A was not happy, so I did step in and "kindly" told B that she was going to walk her little sister to the room. FINE! I got back. Just as A had a smile on her face one of B's friends came over to her. They continued to walk to class together. UMMMM wait. I thought B was walking A to class you might be saying. Yes, I thought the same thing as did A. B actually let go of A's hand and never looked back as she went off with her buddy. A stood there screaming B's name and crying! It broke my heart. It took all my strength to not grab B by her ponytail and make her walk her little sister to class. I decided I would wait till she gets home instead. :)

A was upset for a few more minutes until we got to her class. Than all was forgotten and the smile reappeared.

It is so hard to see my girls fight and it is even harder to see B become a "mean girl". I want my sweet little girl back!

Our Fun At U of I

I took the girls down to U of I for a weekend of bonding with Aunt Vic. We all had a great time minus the fact that we all stayed in 1 room(double beds) each night. This meant that the girls went to bed late and we went to bed early. I am up for early nights, but cool, hip, young college student Aunt Vic not so much. The girls LOVED being on a college campus and totally enjoyed walking around. We even went down to Eastern Illinois University (where I went) for a bit of time too. B seemed to love it all. It was nice to have her only whine about being hungry. Instead of, tired, bored, AND hungry. We really had a good time and I'm glad we went.

Aunt Vic and her lovebugs.
The only way I saw my girls for the entire weekend. They had so much fun taking photos. I loved the fact that they weren't wasting any film.

So her father, A went right for the remote and the bed. Quite the yawn on her don't you think.
A fun day of pumpkin finding was had. The girls really liked going in the field in search for the "perfect" pumpkin.

Did You Hear Me?

Since Tom is out of town there is no real reason to make dinner, nor go home right away after gymnastics. Like I want to be alone with my girls for this period of time with no hope of daddy walking through the door to relieve me. No, it is better to keep them out and about running small errands with the promise of dinner out at the end.

Where do my girls love to eat? That would be at Potbelly. I too do not mind the place. Plus with no Tom I am so getting a shake! The girls also thought a shake sounded great. I did make them agree that the shake also counted as dessert for the night. After all I am not a totally bad mom.

As I placed the sandwich order I put in my banana shake request and B's Oreo one. I then asked A which kind she wanted. Her reply was "none." I restated the question for I was sure she did not hear me correctly, and again was told that she did not want a shake. I tried to ask her again using different words, but her answer was the same. So I did not order her one. Yet somewhere in the back of my mind I was already playing the next scene out. You know the one. You get to the table and 2 out of the 3 people have shakes. It then dawns on the one without that she is missing something, and she really wants one NOW. But I told myself that since I asked her many times if she wanted one and she replied each and every time "NO" that I would be fine.

As I am standing at the register to pay I overhear the shake maker say that he made a banana AND Oreo shake. To this I quickly stated that I would still take the mistake one and he would just have to make a plain Oreo one. I mean I hate to waste a good shake. You would do the same right? I even joked about having to pay for it since it was "trash". I totally got it for FREE. SCORE!!! It was really good too by the way.

So I have sandwiches in hand, shakes in the other and my cash gone. It is then that A notices 2 shakes and 3 people. She does what you are thinking. "I want a shake too!" I told her that I asked her lots of times and she said no. That goes somewhere right between don't care and not listening. So needless to say I broke down and ordered her a shake. The worst part was that since I had no more cash I actually had to charge a $2.90 shake. So now with 3 shakes we set out for home. Good thing I got that free one.

Trip Complete

Well for as much complaining as I did on Friday, the actual wedding was good. I did rip up my toes with my shoes, but other than that all was good. I had a good time and was able to chat with many family members that I like. The food was good, but most importantly the bar was open all night!

I would not stay at this hotel again either. It was a "club" which had a dress code and all. I was not informed of the dress code when packing so I was not able to eat breakfast or go through the main lobby. I was wearing jeans and they are not allowed. I did however eat in the dining room on Sunday and when I walked in they sat us way in the corner. I got many looks too. But then again I was hungry and was breakfast was almost over.

I have flown to Philly many times with the kids and I swear this flight without them was WAY shorter than with them. I have no idea how the time could be different, but alone with just my husband it was quick. It was nice to close my eyes and not have to open them till we landed. There was no "I need..., I want..." I did kinda miss the DVD player, but I survived. Even the babies on our flights were placed far away from me. Just the way I like it.

The girls were happy to have us home. Their weekend with Grandma and Grandpa was fun filled. They sure have the magic, for A took naps! She has not napped for me in months, but all weekend slept for them. I am totally trying naps today.

Good to be home.

It's A Wedding

My husband's nephew is getting married this weekend for the second time. The wedding is in Philly. This means a weekend trip/get away. We decided to leave the girls at home with my parents for a weekend of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. They were super excited. I have to say I was not. Not because I didn't want to leave my girls, but because I have a feeling that this weekend away will not be so great. In the past I have had my girls with me at these events and I end up mommy-ing the entire time. This time I'm pretty sure I will be all alone.

It is currently 4:00 and I am alone in the hotel room. Why? Oh that would be because I was not invited to the bridal tea and my husband is out at the near by pub with the boys watching the Philly game. He will be drinking till the rehearsal (he is in the wedding party) then perhaps he will swing by the room to pick me up for the rehearsal dinner. I am not holding my breath. He could very well forget. I do not plan to be ready when he gets here either. I know totally passive aggressive, but it will make me feel better. Tomorrow he has plans too before the wedding photos at 12:00. Yeah...lots of alone time for me.

I do not mind the alone time per say, but it kinda sucks. We could have saved the money and left me at home, like I wanted. My husband swore that he would not leave me alone, since he has done it the last 2 weddings, but again let me say I am alone.

On the positive side I have been able to browse ebay for the girl's presents and am blogging without interruptions. I only wish the hotel had a bath. It is an old hotel so only stand up shower. Can this trip get any worse? I sure hope not.

Apple Picking 2008

I had it all planned out. We would wait to go apple picking on a day that B did not have school. Last year it was easier with her 1/2 days for Kindergarten. Not so much in first grade. Lucky for us school was out Monday due to the teacher institute day. I knew this was the perfect day. Most schools would be in session so the orchard would be empty. Plus it is a little late in the season so not so many people once again.

Oh my plan totally worked! The place was empty and we even had our own private hay ride out to the orchard. We were the only ones amongst the trees. It was so fun. The girls really got into picking apples this year. I too had a hard time walking past an apple and not picking it. I also had a hard time not eating tons of these fresh yummy apples. I think I managed to eat 4. They were so good! b was all over using her backpack to carry apples. In fact she had a pretty full bag.

Daddy and his girls

I know there is an apple in here somewhere.

A little higher, Daddy!

Look at all my apples!

Oh! This is soooo good

We ended up grabbing a few more than our bag allowed, but since we didn't know that, nor did they check, we are heavy in the apples now. I guess it is time for me to bring out the "what to do with apples" list again. Any suggestions?

Botanic Garden Fun

On Saturday we went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens to check out their HUGE (200-400lbs)pumpkins. A and I noticed these pumpkins last week when we went for our class. I could not believe how big they were. In fact it was hard to talk about them without swearing. I managed however. :)

We had some time to kill (before B had a party to attend) and it was a nice sunny day, so out we went. We all had a pretty fun time. We only stayed for about 2 hours (if that long), but it was good. The girls loved running through the little hay maze, and using their free magnifying glasses to explore. I liked going to a place that I am a member of that I really don't frequent. I will have to say that I will be back with the girls soon. It was good for A to have open run time.

Uncle Marty came along too.

I also love the fact that due to the changing season, the gardens all change too. It was fun to find different veggies in the garden and to see the fall colors beginning to appear. I know next time it will be different too. The Botanic Garden is really a hidden gem in my mind.

Who Knew? Dangers With Tagless

I recently found out about this while reading a blog that I don't read daily. I was so shocked. I had no idea. What bothers me the most is that most of my girl's clothes come from Carter's or Oshgosh. I thought I was all for the tagless shirts, but now not so much. Why was this not in the news or the paper? Even Goodyblog didn't post anything yet. I am sure glad I came across it.

Apparently, the tagless tags can be made from two materials - one, a phthalate-containing PVC, and the other, a “solventborne polyurethane that is post cured via a catalyst,” and may include formaldehyde. If the labels are not sealed properly, the chemicals can leach and harm children’s skin. After their initial investigation, Z Recs believes the tags are not limited to Carter’s, but Circo (from Target) and Gerber as well. The Carter’s clothing seems to come from their Fall 2007 line, but now the investigation is broadening into 2008 clothing.
“If your child gets a rash or lesion, call Carter’s at 888-782-9548. Then call the CPSC to report the problem at their hotline number: 800-638-2772. Then email us photos and some information so that we can reference it when dealing with Carter’s and the CPSC and reporting accurately on this issue.”

I know there are many of us moms who would try anything and everything if our little one came down with a weird rash or worse. I think a tagless tag would be one of the last things I would think about. Now it will be one of the first!

Time Off

I know I have not been very good at blogging as of late. I am sorry, but think that I need to take a little time off. I seem to have a lot of things that need to get done and I am just not doing them.

Oh, and A no longer naps! That alone cuts my day right down. To make things even worse she doesn't seem to even need a nap. That is right. She goes strong till 7:30. Not moody in the least. In fact is full of spunk and energy. She has so much energy that tonight she was running laps for 15 minutes. I have no idea where her energy comes from 'cause I sure don't have it.

My top item on the "Must Get Done" list is finishing plans for our trip to Walt Disney World. we will be going in November and I have not done much.

Off to put A back in bed for the 4th time and to make a grocery list. I hope to shop while both girls are at school tomorrow.
Hope to be back soon...Sorry for the break.

Public Service

A good friend of mine assumed that lots of local people read my blog. (I'm not so sure if lots of anywhere people read my blog) She asked me to post this just in case any of you that read this blog can attend this weekend. You do not have to have twins or more babies to attend. Any mommy can go and find great deals. I know there are good deals for I have sold lots of my baby stuff at this sale. They have one in the fall and one in the spring. The items are mostly fall/winter at this one. So if you are looking for a cute sundress, you won't find it now. Make sure you bring a laundry basket to carry all of your great finds AND that you go early! Happy Shopping!

I Hate Saturdays!

As a mom I have said this same comment to myself a few times, but never did I think I would hear it from the lips of my oldest. She was born to snuggle and watch tv for as long as possible. This weekend I heard her say (more than once) that she hates Saturdays. Why? That would be because she LOVES school and there is no school on Saturday or Sunday . She would rather be at school than at home with us. Not that I blame her, but come on. Some Saturdays are fun. I'm sure of it. Maybe not now since it is still a day to get basement work done, but that can't go on forever, right? Guess I need to raise the fun up a notch. On second thought I kinda like the idea that my girl loves to go to school. It does make getting up on Monday a whole lot easier.

A Cleaning Day

Today Tom and I spent all day cleaning out the basement. My dad and brother also helped for many hours. I am so lucky to have such great family! My friend Alison took A all day and even took B after school. The best part is that she took them out to dinner with her kids so I didn't have to cook. I am so blessed! We got a ton done on the basement. All the items are out and at the curb, the carpet and padding are out, the new hot water heater is in and the new furnace is coming tomorrow. I now get to start looking for a new washer and dryer. My brother did a bang-up job on the mopping and disinfecting the entire basement. I might add that it was REALLY gross too.

I am still amazed with the amount of garbage we have at the end of the driveway. I can't believe we had all this stuff in the basement. Remember, we saved most of our stuff. I can't imagine what the pile would look like if we hadn't. It is sort of nice to think that I got rid of all this stuff and now I will go through all the rest to see what I really want to keep. I am not happy about the thought of storing it all somewhere, but perhaps a rental facility for a short time while the basement gets all new and pretty. maybe the flood was not so bad after all? Just kidding! It was still really bad. I probably would have saved more if it was just rain water. the thought of sewer water on all this stuff totally grosses me out. Nothing is worth saving after it has touched sewer water.

Thanks again for all of your concerns and dry thoughts. Things are getting better each day.

A New Day

We survived of first major flood (day 1). The basement ended up getting 23 inches of sewer water in one day. When I woke up this morning the water was gone. In place was a lot of gross,muddy,stinky residue. Each part of the basement seems worse than the last. The bathroom is the hardest hit. I have inches of water just standing in my dryer. I thought of putting a rubber ducky in the water for laughs, but didn't get to it yet. I did find that 23 inches is a lot higher than I thought, so I have lost lots of teaching materials that I have acquired over the last 10 teaching years. That hurt! I did cry over this one. I can't even just dry the books out due to the fact they were soaked with poop water. I will write the ISBN# down and hope for the best. I was able to take pictures today and move more things upstairs. My main living area is just one huge mess. I can't even think about starting to organize it. Where will I put all this stuff?

We are still getting rain, so unfortunately we are again getting water in the basement. Like I care now. The damage is done. We now have to begin the clean up process and move on.

Thanks to all of you who called (phone was down) I got your messages this morning. Many good thoughts have come our way and keep them coming. We are in pretty good spirits mainly knowing that we saved most of the items from the basement. The hard part will be the clean up and redo now. The new way of living together with one tv and stuff all over the place will be a switch too. I know we will be fine.

I Wonder...

What will my new basement will look like?

I went downstairs to grab more hot coco mix this morning only to find that we had gotten a little water in the basement. No big deal I thought, we always get some on the unfinished side. Well then I went to the finished side just to check. OH MY GOD!!! I yelled upstairs,"We have WATER!" We all worked together as quickly as we could to remove everything we could from the basement as the water continued to flow in. I am so thankful for the amount of stuff we got upstairs before they got wet. We saved most of the stuff in just about one hour. I was pretty upset at moments, but then again it is quite a shock. Plus I spent a lot of time making the basement special for the girls and now it was filling with water. Not just rain water either, We get nasty sewer water. Oh, and I fell on my back in this nasty water too. That would make anyone upset.


At this time (4pm) we have over 2 feet of sewer water in the basement. It is up to the 3rd stair, over the outlets, in the dryer, and I don't want to think of where else. The photo was taken in the morning as we finished the removal. See, the couch is floating around. All sorts of stuff is floating around. It is really gross!



On the positive side... We luckly got almost everything upstairs, and I will get a new clean basement in the future. Driving around I have seen families with a lot more water worries than us. So as sad as I am about our water I am thankful that at this moment it is not all that bad. It makes me sick to think about the fact that if I had not gone down there when I did everything would have been lost. I'm sure if the water does not stop coming in soon I will be upset when I find all the thing I thought would have been safe that were not due to the height of the water. Plus now I have basement furniture and toys ALL over the house. No play dates at our house for for a while. :)

Doing It Old School

I decided that tonight would be family night. Fridays are usually movie night, but not tonight. This fact was not liked by B, but I told her it would still be a fun night. We went bowling! The girls have never been, and I thought it would be a blast. I mean I always liked going with friends when I was in high school and stuff. Plus I figured bowling alley pizza and beer for dinner? What could be better?

Well this alley was NOT old school. In fact it was total new school. It cost us $45 for 2 games. That does not include the food or beer. Good thing we only managed to play 1 game, so we did get some money back. The pizza, not too bad, and the beer just right. The only other problem was the computer scoring. It never seemed to be right. It was cool that the computer put the bumpers up and down depending on the bowler.


Even with a few minor issues, the girls had a total BLAST. They were dancing around, singing, and could not wait till it was their turn to bowl.

Daddy helping A. I just love her little velcro bowling shoes.

Not bad for A's first time,huh?

B was top scorer for many frames

Mommy's turn to bowl with A.

We will definitely go again. Maybe not to the same alley, but bowling again for sure. It was just enough fun and excitement for the rough hours before dinner and before bed. the girls came home happy and tired. A dream come true for me.

Photo Shoot '08

I finally finished the tutus I planned to make for the girls last year. So it took a little longer than I first thought. Now that they were finished I had to quickly get the photos done before the start of school and the flowers dying at the gardens. Grandpa and I took the girls to the Botanic Gardens, as we do every year, to take their pictures. A told me as we were getting out of the car that she,"Did not bring her smile with." In fact all she had was a sad face and "that all her pictures would have to be with thumbie." That means that her thumb would be in her mouth at all times. Not exactly the words I wanted to hear. Lucky for me as soon as I put B's tutu on A's mood changed. She found her smile and my Dad took some AMAZING photos. I am now having a hard time figuring which ones I want, nothing new there.

Here is a taste for you: