BACK!!!!!!!

Our laptop is finally fixed. SO glad. I don't even know where to begin. Life has been pretty crazy. I didn't even get to finish posting all of our vacation pictures. I am going to have to sit down and get organized and decide on my next topic.
SMALL update:
I have started on my decluttering and reorganization. We had a very slow garage sale. Another one will take place in the fall so I can hopefully get rid of more stuff. The hardest is kids clothes. I have friends that want the girls stuff, but they are a ways off from the sizes I have to sell. We have officially sold ALL of our tiny baby stuff except the cribs and pack and play. I am trying to motivate myself to sell my Pottery Barn Kids baby bedding Yes, I am pretty sure the baby factory is closed....more on that in another post.
We finally got our carpets cleaned. For our 5 year wedding anniversary we bought grown up bedroom furniture and we are in the process of getting rid of our College furniture. This was a good thing because it forced me to downsize and get rid of clothing I do not wear. I just have to do my closet next.. UGH.
My money makeover is in the baby steps... or maybe the womb steps?... I have started making very small changes. No eating out during the work week unless I am invited by my awesome ex-coworkers that I miss OH SO VERY MUCH! :'''( (more on this during another post). I have really tried to account for where my money is going and tried to tell myself "no" when it comes to the girls clothing...it is really hard for me ... I LOVE and I am ADDICTED to shopping for the girls. Its just fun for me :) (again... this is another post). The next step is to pay off my one and only credit card which will hopefully happen by the end of the month. EXCITING! Then after that I will be focused on the only debt I have, student loans...YUUUUUCCCKKKK! When I lost my job I deferred them for 6 months and I must say... it has been nice not having that extra worry... and having summer fun money. But all fun comes to an end RIGHT?
I have a list of summer goals... I will share that in another post... Right now I need to find my second summer read. I am hoping for something inspirational but I need suggestions. Otherwise, I may read the Jaycee Dugard story... which... is more like reading the social history of a patient/ or individual I have on my case load... sad...but I have probably read similar stories to hers...minus the kidnapping.... Anyyy way.... I will be back again soon. .....

Vacation 2011 part 2

Here it is... the black eye!... its on my right or your left when you look at it... you can barely
see it but its there!
The first night away... the girls loved the chair in the hotel!

Flooded Sioux City Iowa.

Sand baggers in Sioux City Iowa

Lillian at the Hotel.

Joelle.

Sioux Falls had these awesome statues all over down town. I LOVED them!

my favorite the dancing lady.

We ate a a fancy grilled cheese place called " Chedds" all they served was different kinds of grilled cheese and I stepped outside of my box and ate something new and LOVED it :)

The girls and I at "Chedds" ... I was really tired. The girls were excited about the blow up cow hanging from the ceiling.

Husband

The Hubs/travel agent/ dadddddyyyy/pain in the buns/ patient man.

See the little Dog Lillian is holding?... We left with 2 and came back with 1 :( I also taught the girls how to jump on the bed during our trip... they would get really hyper and bounce and giggle and then I would bounce with them... and that would really get them rolling :)

LOL this makes me laugh so hard. Their diapers were so full of water from being in the pool that it looked like they had little "ghetto booties" oh I laughed so hard... it was great!

on our way to the pool....
Joelle

I bought us all matching sunglasses because I'm "one of those moms" and I thought it would be cute, but the girls wouldn't wear theirs.. bummer!the twirly birds sun bathing....
JoelleMe and Joelle.

Cutie Patooties!

LOOK at those Lashes! They are so lucky. (Lillian)

See the lovely lavender wrist bands we are all wearing? It was a struggle to get those on! The hotel had an indoor water park and to get into it we had to have the bands...well the girls freaked... my guess was because the last time they had to have those put on was when we were in the accident and sitting in the ER. Poor girls are traumatized! They wear bracelets and anything else but no wrist bands :(


I love them.

*LOVE*

3 of my most favorite People.

Sometimes I just looked at them in the back seat and thought about how blessed I am!

pretty waterfall on a trail.

The last picture at the park before my camera died. I didn't take my camera charger with me because I am a little gun shy. I am paranoid that people are going to steal from me!

I hope to post more later this week.

Vacation 2011 part 1

Instead of doing one big post I am going to have to break it down . So there will be several parts, covering vacation and a few things that have been on my mind.

The twirly birds before we left on Monday night. All set to go.

A DVD player= blessing in disguise.

We thought we were detouring around the flood but ended up going through it...

one lane was closed because it was under water, scared me because we were so close!

This made us Laugh

They were prepared .

This covers day 1. Day 2-3 will be my next post. Followed by my self revelations and things I have learned. (HA!)

Out of the office...

after tomorrow We will be on vacation! YAY!
Once we return...(and when I have time) I have a BIG blog post coming up....
I finally bought a new camera, I have been inspired a little... you will hear more about that then..
My ten year high school reunion is also next weekend and just a lot of little thoughts... and updates on the twirly birds... until then....
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Flower Girls for hire...

Two adorable girls...Love flowers, great at throwing petals. And they look darling in poofy dresses ;)

We could even run down the aisle if you want to speed things up a bit....

lets not forget the "awwww's" you will hear when they walk down the aisle....

Great with direction....

and did I mention GREAT at throwing petals??...see......

Eventhough it was overcast pretty much all day, we spent the afternoon on the sunporch. ... We love it, it's what sold me on our house and it is what I will miss the day we sell it. We have TONS of peony bushes in our yard so I cut some of the flowers to put out on the sun porch and the girls wanted to play with them so I gave them their own. Miss Cupcake didn't want much to do with it..but Lilly pop LOVED them. She carried the flower around by the petals and it was a struggle to put them in the glass jar of water I set out for them. she would pull petals off and toss them. We had a lot of fun. Definitely a great weekend.

TTMT and a little update..

This weeks TTMT from Hickstionary is " Whats it like to live with your man?"
Whats it like to live with Brian?.....
Generally... when he is home the tv is on the History channel or sports. He is the only person I know that really believes in Ghosts, Bigfoot, sea monsters..etc.
He gets animated while telling stories about his day... and even does voice impressions..funny..esp when he impersonates me! hA!
He likes to sleep in unless we are on vacation or has something he wants to do.
This is a bad thing because I also like to sleep in... which is now 8:30...because of kiddos.
He cooks. I do not. He will clean...however...he will remind you (several times) that he cleaned something ...
He usually gets home after 10pm ... and stays up late to wear down...however... I usually see him snoozing on the couch by 11....
He does his best, he works hard, makes our two sweet girls laugh...and does a great job in a house where everyone...even the dog and cat... are female.
He is one of a kind and I wouldn't trade him in... most of the time... ;)
The wine:
Note to self... when purchasing alcohol be sure that you have all the tools you need to open things like a bottle opener for a wine bottle... so you don't have to ask your husband to pick up a crappy one at the local Walgreen's...only to have it not work and.... your hubby has to break the top of the bottle off so you can get a sip of the wine you bought so that you can go to sleep...only to not go to sleep ... as you were hoping...though... the wine was tasty... it didn't work ...
I am exhausted, falling behind on household duties... overwhelmed in my new job....anxious... trying to cut back on caffeine so I CAN SLEEP.
THE TWIRLY BIRDS:
diaper rashes...learning new words... trying to talk a lot. Will pretend they are choking so that the other one will run up and pat her on the back...(they have seen mommy do this a lot)
They have really been watching me.... for instance ..When they are done eating I let Daisy up from the basement and point at food on the floor so she will eat it...and "mop" for me.... and well Lillian has started to do this... its funny..
Joelle my sweet cupcake... she has very serious conversations with you...though you have no idea what she is saying.
Hoping to get a new camera soon... I am trying to decide between Nikon and Canon....
I have lots to share about my new job... it is very interesting! But I will share at another time when I am more awake... Have a great week!

I must really be showing my age....

because they didn't ask for this ............


When I was buying this.......

because I can't do this....

(PRECIOUS, I know :)

was it because I truly look older...... than 21?

don't you have to look over 40 for them not to card you?

When people usually guess my age they usually say 18.....once 22.

Or maybe its because they were in the cart??????

I would just like to clear the record. I don't drink. I haven't had a drink in... years. I don't even like to drink... not even socially...because I turn really...really red and its embarrassing to me and drinking is just not for me... once upon a time I did drink but not anymore.

I 've been having trouble sleeping. I have tried lots of things but nothing works... don't really want to get hooked on sleeping pills so... I decided to buy wine... a few sips will make me sleepy...right?

People always think that I am younger than I look... I have a baby face...which is good and bad.... good for when I look 60 at 80 and bad when I am 27 and a hospice patient tells me I look 12 :-/

While shopping in the alcohol department at Hy-Vee ... I didn't know what I was looking for...because I don't drink, I don't buy alcohol.....ever. So a Man that just so happened to have a taste testing boothe set up asked me what "type" I was looking for... I said " just something that will help me sleep.".... he said " ahh , twins...no wonder." my thought... "Oh buddy... actually..no, its because of other life issues.." but I just smiled and said "something sweet"... the man showed me something... let me take a tiny tiny sip and I grabbed a bottle thanked him and headed out to do the rest of my shopping.

When I get to the check out the clerk and bagger are oohing and ahhing over the girls.I have my ID out...because I figure I would need it. And I like to show it... my picture is good its when I was young, well rested, newlywed, tan, with long brown hair and nice bleached teeth... I look good... and if you were to see me now... its a far cry from what I looked like then...but I like to show my ID because I want people to see that once... I did have time to look decent. But to my shock and surprise... the clerk didn't ask for my ID! I couldn't believe it... walking out to the car I was laughing...trying to figure out if I should be offended or happy...

Does having children really age you that much??? Or is it the lack of sleep, poor diet and stress? Its a toss up, don't ya think?

I will let ya know if the wine works...wish me luck:)