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:

No Tears Here

I was given this cute survival kit when I dropped A off at her first day of preschool today. Inside was a bunch of hugs and kisses (the Hershey kind), a packet of tissues and a photo from our meet the teacher day. I was a little sad when I left without her, but no tears were shed. In fact I was dressed to go workout, but didn't really have the time today. Perhaps Thursday will be better.

As you can see A has no worries about going to preschool without me. B had her heart set on taking A to her classroom. She explained to her that she would be right in the next building. If A needed anything she just had to tell her teacher to, "Go get her big sister in 1st grade." Rather sweet, huh?

I am so glad that this was the reaction I got from A when she saw her teacher this morning. A's big smile and running to her teacher's open arms. I didn't even get a hug good-bye. Hey, she had lots of things to get to.

Why Mii?

Well about 5 minutes after playing the Wii in Philly, my daughter decided that we "had to have one." I said "No way!" Then she got another taste of it at her Uncle John's house. Here she played for at least an hour. When she came home she informed her Daddy that "She loves Wii and we must get one!" Funny, his answer was not like mine. In fact his answer went something like this... really? You liked it? Hey let's go downstairs and order one online! I am not kidding! I came down a few minutes later to let him know I was so NOT on board with this decision. I guess I was a minute too late for a Wii was ordered. I was pissed to say the least. He finally caved to the fact we would save it till Christmas.

I still don't know how I didn't see this one coming. I think I knew it in the back of my mind, but didn't acknowledge it. I came home yesterday to find that the boxes had been opened and the game was charging. Why would this be since we are waiting till December? Oh that would be because "I need to make sure it works" I was told. Right, how dumb do I look?

So for the better part of the night B and Daddy played Wii. I didn't even tell them it was past bedtime. I am really mad and hate the message that B was taught. Guess Christmas came early this year. Wonder how she will act when I wrap the Wii and put it under the tree?

First Day for B? Check!

So we made it! B was soooo excited to get to school this morning. She actually got dressed all by herself! I have been working on that for a year with the constant "I can't button all these buttons!" or "You know I can't brush all my hair!" then the tantrum would begin. But not today! I was so happy. She also went right downstairs to finish making her lunch and to eat breakfast. I could not believe there was not a tv remote in her hand at any time. I didn't think she could function without at least 1 show in the morning. But again, SURPRISE!

We left a little bit early for we knew the parking lot would be a nightmare. It was. I parked a half block away and we walked. She was not holding my hand like last year. In fact I don't even think she was walking near me at all. She walked right into her room and was met with a hug from her new teacher. She found her cubby, and her friends, and I thankfully received one last kiss before I was told I could leave (nicely by B of course).

I waited all day for the moment I could return to pick her all and find out all about her full day of first grade. I made her favorite dinner, and even a fun new snack. I got her at dismissal only to be asked if she could go to her friend's house to play. WHAT? She was with you all day! I wasn't. Don't you want to come home with me and play another day? Nope! Off she went to play and I went home to stare at my special snack sad and waiting again till it was time to get her from the play date.

After her all day excursion she was finally mine. All she wanted to talk about was how excited she was to go back to school tomorrow. Her day was good and it sure is a lot of work now at school. No more play time. Not exactly what I was looking to hear. I was looking for more "I missed you all day", I have more fun at home with you," "I love you mommy!" Well, maybe not all of those things would have been music to my ears, but maybe just a little sadness in her voice would have helped.

I am after all so glad that this year looks good. I love that she is happy for that seems to be rare with this one. I only hope all the days are like the first.

Total Suck Up

Tomorrow is B's first day of school. So I do what any good former teacher does...makes a cake!

Notice that this is not just any cake, but a pencil cake. I found the idea in Family Fun magazine, and so glad that I did. B thought it was for her class, but I figured that any good teacher needs a shot of sugar at lunch time. I mean how can they make it through the rest of the afternoon without it? The real cake does looks better than the photo too, just so you know. No flash=no bright colors.