Winter can't stick around forever

The sun is shinning!!!! I feel the need to shout that fact from the roof tops. We have been going on walks and playing at the park the past few sunny wonderful days. No more being trapped indoors by bad weather!!
My tulips are coming up through the dirt. They just keep getting bigger. It is so wonderful. I feel like they are laughing in the face of a winter that just won't go away. Can you believe that we woke up to an inch of snow yesterday. It was very depressing. After a week of sunshine and playing at the park, snow was the absolute last thing i wanted to see. Thank goodness that it rained most of the afternoon and by dinnertime all evidence of that terrible snow was gone. Today it is wonderful sunshine again. It's not very warm but the sun is shinning. As long as the sun is shining i don't care how warm it is. We will put on our coats and play outdoors anyway. Anything to feel the sun on our faces. This long dark gloomy winter must come to an end.
I would visit a bit more but this lady has some terrible arthritis in her hand, that is bothered by drastically swinging temperatures. Typing one handed with my left hand is an awkward and time consuming task. Good bye all, we are going to go out and play.

party recovery

I am very tired. We just got home from an awesome double three year old party at none other than Chuck E Cheese. We unloaded all of Samantha's presents. Boy oh boy do allot of people love that child an awful lot. Put both Kaitlyn and Samantha down for a much needed nap. Then Eric and i sat on the couch and didn't move for at least 30 min's.
Sometime tonight, maybe tomorrow morning I will be uploading all of the pixie dust covered, Tinkerbell themed birthday photos onto flickr. So please look there for some new photos soon. Right now i need to do some unpacking of gifts. When two girls wake up from their nap I want the gifts to be ready for playing. There is a certain art to opening, untying, unscrewing, adding batteries if needed, and then putting it back in the box. Taking a new toy from the package is almost as much fun as unwrapping it. Waiting for 20 mins while mom unfastened it from the package is not.
Thanks to all who came. We missed all of you who couldn't make it.

Happy Birthday Jack

Well baby Jack Danger made his appearance today and he is cute as a button!!!
8 pounds 3.5 oz.
Way to go Laura and Garth!

March 20th

Well I can't quite believe it, but my baby is three years old today.
I am not sure how this could have happened, it surely hasn't been three years since we first met.
Then again she has already pulled "but momma it's my birthday" while batting her eyelashes at me and smiling oh so sweetly, at least twice this morning. Yeah now that i think of it, no doubt at all the little miss is three.
It just seems like yesterday that my sister was complaining that it wasn't fair that i was having a c-section in the morning and she also 9 months prego had no idea when she would be having her baby. I just smiled and said "I'll see you at the hospital tomorrow. As soon as i can get down the hall I will." She had gone off about, "well of course you will see me at the hospital, like i would miss that" and on and on she went for a few mins then she said, "oh, when you get down the hall, do you really think so, really" I smiled, we hugged the best we could both being nine months along and i kicked her out the door. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Both our doctor and my self had no doubt that Dani would go into labor while i was at the hospital. It's the way our whole pregnancy had gone. Got pregnant same weekend, told mom same day two hours apart that we were pregnant, both ended up in the hospital two hours apart with contractions three times, and we had the same due date. Our babies had been so in tuned with each other the whole time i really didn't think that one would show up with out the other. That's why when my phone rang as we were kissing Kaitlyn good bye to go to the hospital, i didn't look at who it was and asked "when did your water break?" "Just now i was awake and i was going to wish you luck and as i was reaching for the phone and my water broke....... Oh my god, my water broke" "See you there Dan"
Dani was moving fast and it looked like she would have her baby before i went in for my surgery. But then the anesthesiologist didn't like my blood pressure at all and my c-section was delayed while several more bags of fluid was pumped into me. My blood pressure was to low. As i sat on pins and needles all hooked up to monitors hoping all was going well with Dani, our doctor came in. He got my chart and said what's going on in here. It turns out that Danica's contractions that had been about one min apart had abruptly stopped. She was at 9 3/4 almost ready to push and her contractions just stopped.
As i was being wheeled into the surgery suite for prep a loud scream erupted down the hall. I didn't know at the time but it was my sister. Her contractions had started again in full force. Our Doctor who had planned to assist in my surgery came in, "those babies have every intention of being born together, I'm sorry but I won't be able to assist." I just started crying and my doctor who has been my doctor for almost 16 years now, squeezed my hand and said "I'll take good care of her and I'll be back to check on Samantha as soon as McKenna gets her out"
Four hours later only moving with the help of buttons on my bed, Dani brought Mya down the hall so I could meet her. We both cried and held each other's babies. It was a good day.

my house is a little cleaner

Well i woke up today and my house was actually cleaner than it was when i woke up the day before. You may scoff at this, but it's an improvement. For the past many weeks I have been preoccupied with dentist fears, endless form filling out, multiple appointments, never ending phone message leaving, insurance authorization, fee determination, birthday party planning, and trying to get my self and children over this never ending head cold (it's been 3 weeks now).
I have managed to just barely stay afloat with the laundry. Mostly because i can sit while i fold. But the dishes, floor, and overall house tidiness has taken a big hit. Killing myself to clean up the house one day; Only to lay on the couch the whole next day and have it be even worse is not a solution. So i have focused on one thing each day. Laundry, dishes, errands, floors, picking up.
Only a few problems with this, you can do laundry twice a week and still stay mostly caught up. Only picking up the house twice a week with my two preschoolers and my niece two days a week, is a really messy idea. Same with the dishes. Well the dishes thing is really smelly and messy. Yet somehow I got the dishes done, whole house picked up, floors all swept, and laundry washed yesterday. So I ran the errands and otherwise i am trying to rest while i fold laundry.
We are going to a pre-season Shock game tonight. I must be rested to cheer loudly.

waiting for news and Happy St.Patrick's Day

We are waiting and waiting here in Spokane for some news from Pensacola. My wonderful sister Laura is one week past due to have her first baby.
The girls made an awesome craft project for their auntie. OK well Eric mostly made it but they helped allot. They are hand print flowers. They made a bouquet of a dozen for Laura. The pink and red ones are Samantha's hand prints. While the yellow and purple ones are Kaitlyn's hand prints. I am going to post some pictures in case when they arrived in Pensacola the flowers got a bit smashed. They were just darling here. I used allot of shopping bags to pack them with to try and keep them from getting smashed. I mean lots and lots and lots of shopping bags.
Well while we wait it is St.Patrick's Day. Hmmmm.... Maybe Jack is just waiting for a holiday to make his entrance into the world. Well Jack, St. Patrick's Day is a fun day of green and Irish things. Today would be a good day, a very good day Jack, a good day indeed.
In honor of St.Patrick's Day I have corned beef, with red potatoes, garlic, and onion in the crock pot right now. We have green bread and green cake or cookies still to make and green juice to drink. It should be a lovely green evening. My family loves corned beef & cabbage. I really should make it more often than once a year. Then again if i did what fun would St.Patrick's Day be.

party at the castle

Kaitlyn was getting the ladies ready for the party.

Mya was in charge of transportation to the party. Here she is with the carriage.

Preperations at the castle before the guests arrive.

Oh no, Malificent has arrived. It's ok, she just wanted to know where she should put the flowers she brought. She was invited so she wanted to be a good guest.

What a grand party at the castle.

i need more girly knowledge

I knew that with two daughters some day i would regret not reading Vogue, Vanity Fair, and not understanding much of what goes on in Sex & the City.
I have never really been a girly girl. That's not to say that i don't like dresses, know how to apply my make up, pluck my eyebrows to a shape that's good for my face, and know what colors i look best in. I just honestly don't usually pay that much attention. I pick out clothes based on comfort, don't generally ware much make up, and only pluck my eye brows when one of my sisters mentions buying me some tweezers.
So to the crux of my problem. Samantha and Kaitlyn both need haircuts. I am pretty good at trimming bangs and little things like that, but both girls are in need of a full fledged haircut. Now Samantha has had a couple of haircuts. The second to last one was absolutely darling, the last one not so much. The thing is when i go into a hair salon i have no idea what to ask for. I don't know what anything is called nor do i really understand 1/2 the questions that hairstylist ask me. This works out OK for me, because i have learned the appropriate lingo for my own hair. To learn that lingo i suffered through many a bad haircut. I don't want such a fate for my girls.
I have spent a fair amount of time this morning looking for little girl hairstyles online. I don't believe i am any better informed on what to do for the girls. Wish me luck as i try and get good hair styles for my two girls. I want them to look their best at Samantha's birthday party.

on demand tv

Who would have guessed that a larger cable package would be good for my weight loss goals. Well i certainly didn't. While running many errends yesterday i picked up a digital starter package from the cable folks. As i listened to the wonderful lady at the counter tell me all the wonderful new channels i would be getting and how wonderful all the on demand movies are, i think i actually felt my butt get bigger in antispiation of much couch time.
So here i am at home palying with all my new cable features and i stumble apoun the heading "sports & fitness" in the on demand menu. So i clicked on it and checked it out. Wouldn't you know it they have several different shows from fitness TV on demand and they are all free. I found this very exciting, because we are not paying for all those fancy channels like fitness TV. In fact we only picked up this digital starter package because the cable folks said we could have it for the same price as the basic cable we already had. (they are getting rid of basic cable, digital starter is now basic cable) Then since i was there in person and i had these two darling girls with me the lady pulled a few more specials out of her bag of tricks. I left the cable office with a nifty new tote bag filled with digital starter package, two digital converter boxes, 8 coupons for free on demand movies, and a cable bill including Internet that for the next six months will be 1/2 what it usually is. I would say that was a good trip to the cable store.
OK back to my point, i am typing this as i guzzle water. I have done three very fun aerobic work outs, three very different styles, and as soon as catch my breath and wipe my brow i am going to look for another one to do. This is exactly what my workouts needed. I needed some aerobic activities to get me off this darn plateau that I'm on. well i'm off to watch some more tv. Have a great day all.

being responsible

So, I may have mentioned that I am terribly eager to redo my kitchen. In case I haven't mentioned it, I have ants in my pants and a tax return burning a whole in my pocket to redo my kitchen.
One little hitch. I am a fiscally responsible person. Heck that's why I feel confident in accomplishing a completely new kitchen with a $2290 tax return. You see I am also a good mom. My darling little girl needs over $2000 in dental work. I am still waiting to hear how much the hospital is going to cost for the dental work to be done in. We are going to have Kaitlyn completely knocked out in a hospital and the dentist is going to do all the work in one shot. It is this best solution to save her teeth. The dentist was worried that if we tried to do it in several appointments, that Kaitlyn would only last for one maybe two appointments. If she were to get too upset after that we would have to completely knock her out to finish. Not to mention that she would then have a fear of the dentist and hate to go the rest of her life.
My dreams of a kitchen with cabinets instead of metal racks, actual counter space to cook on, counter tops that are not fake wood, and a hood over the stove to vent grease....... will just have to wait. I have waited seven years for a new kitchen, one more won't kill me.

Thomas & Friends Live!

Well the girls and I had a wonderful time at Thomas & Friends Live. We sang, we danced, we watched with rapt attention. It was great!!! I am not to sure that Eric liked it as much as we did. The girls were fascinated to see a TV show come to life like that. Just adorable to watch their expressions. I can't help myself really. If the girls are excited and having fun I will be cheering and giddy right along with them. Just ask any of my family members or friends. I really am quite silly. You should see me at the girl's birthdays, Easter egg hunt, Christmas, a picnic, even the dentist. If the girls are jazzed so am i, I really can't help myself.
The girls think my excitement is awesome right now, but I would like to get it under control before we hit the "mom you are embarrassing" stage. My mom is so sweet, when i tell her these little worries of mine she says "you are their mom sweetheart, they are going to think you are embarrassing" then gives me a big hug, "they will feel loved and valued because their excitement gets you excited, because their happiness brings you happiness and that's the stuff that matters". Then she turns and shouts "Check Him Josh" giant crash into the glass in front of us "Way to get it done! Go Chiefs!" Yep, that's my mom. A good heart to heart and she still didn't lose track of when Josh came on the ice. Oh and did I mention she was also handing out snacks to my girls at the same time. I don't know how she does it all. I think that's just the magic of being a mom, your kids never know how the heck you do it.

What a great day.

It has been a great day so far, and tonight is only going to get better.
The girls and i woke up early, which was great. We got to have our morning snuggles and TV time. It was one of our lazy take it nice and slow kind of mornings. When we were ready to start our day it was only 8:30, very nice indeed. So we got ready and called Robert and Madison to come over. After they arrived, all three girls played happily in the playroom. Then we went up to the library for story time. Story time was wonderful. All the stories were about feelings today and we sang lots of songs. By the time we left the library everyone had grumbles in their tummy's. So we went to McDonald's for lunch. After a good round of playing on the big toy we decided it was time to head home. Three very tired girls were sent up to bed for a much needed nap. I read them some stories that we picked up at the library and everyone was asleep very quickly. We must have tuckered out Robert too because when i came downstairs he was fast asleep on the couch. What a wonderful day and it's not even two yet. Tonight we have tickets to see "Thomas and Friends Live". I am so excited to go. I can't wait to tell you about it tomorrow. Well I had better get some chores done while everyone is napping.
Bye all.

monday and all that goes with it

I always have a happy euphoric feeling after i finish cleaning. A job well done always feels good. I also feel more peaceful when my surrounding are in order and tidy. Mostly though when it comes to cleaning the bathroom i think i get that light headed feeling from breathing in to many chemicals. I am currently a little light headed and taking a break while bathroom airs out.
My house is tidy on all fronts. The bedrooms, living room, playroom, dining room, kitchen and basement all picked up. I have even made major headway with the laundry. If it's clean it's folded and put away. If it's dirty, it's downstairs waiting to be washed. I am almost back to normal after not doing much for a week. A little elbow grease goes a long way.
We made good progress on our kitchen this weekend. We worked out the time frame on many things, priced out a few things at home depot, we are ready to paint window wall, checked to see if the cabinets we priced out last Aug were still available, and cleaned & organized shop area of basement. So much prep still to be done before we gut the kitchen to refinish the floors then put it back together in a different order with new cabinets, sink, and counter tops.

Ahhh..... the power of Vicks.

My two girls and me all woke up with stuffy noses today. We all took our mucinex and i rubbed both girls down with Vick's vapor rub. I did not put any Vick's on me because i find that two Vick's covered girls snuggled on my lap is more than enough Vick's to clear my sinuses too. Less than 15Min's after Vick's application, my two girls who had previously barely been able to breath and were laying around like over cooked limp noodles, were now jumping and bouncing around like the spunky little girls that they are. Ahhhh........... the power of Vick's.