CRAP!

I am failing at blogging. My life is so hectic I can't take the time to get on here and rave or gripe about it.

The last I was here I was talking about Halloween, Thing One's birthday and my last test at that time. WOW, a lot has happened since.

Let's start with tree hunting, we went tree hunting Saturday Nov. 22nd. I was quite possibly the windy-est, coldest day we had had so far, but Thing One picked a perfect 7' tree in under 15 minutes! We took it home and began decorating it in all of our valued shatter-proof ornaments! lol. Of course over the next few days they started to disappear off the tree at an alarming rate, but luckly the novelty of that has since worn off! Thing One also got into the tinsel one day, I wish I had taken a picture of the "fine" job she did!

Due to the strain of the times I reluctantly started a job at Kmart on Dec. 2nd as a cashier. I was unable to find a bartending job, so I did what I had to do to help out. It's not so bad, the hardest adjustment has been having to leave my kids with someone. I hate that I am no longer the one taking care of them, and I miss them terribly. I talk with all the kids that are in the store any where near my register I miss them so much, and more than half the time I start crying. I know it's cliche, but there truly is no greater love than the love of a child. With in one week I had the best ring rate at the store, and in my 3rd week (this past week) I began being the key trainer for every new employee that comes into the store to cashier. JOY. I know, it's good to be good at your job. I just feel like at the age of 28 I should be doing more with my life.

Tomorrow is part one of my Finals, it's the lab portion. With the new job I have had one day in the past 3 weeks to study, so as soon as I am done with this blog I am off to hit the books.

We took the kids to see the Festival of Lights in New Haven last weekend. It is supposed to be this fantastic light show. All this place did was find all the big lit displays they could find, meaning giant nutcrackers, etc. and arranged them all over a drive through park in no particular order. All in all we drove 40 minutes each way, and paid $10 to get in, I was NOT impressed. I will add it was for a good cause, Easter Seals.

We also took the kids to see Santa last weekend. It was a disaster. Thing One and Thing Two were terrified of the jolly big man. I think it's the beard, I could be wrong. We did manage to get a picture of all of us with him at the precise moment no one was crying.

Last night we went to see the Silver Lights display at Hubbard Part in Meriden, hands down a great light show, and it's free! We even got to have free hot chocolate and a free picture with Santa. We put Thing Two up first in the sled with Santa, she was terrified and crying, it is a cute picture however. I had to go up with Thing One, when we talked in the car she was all revved up ready to go talk to Santa and sit with him, not so much once she saw him! I managed to get her to stop crying and talk to Santa, she told him she was a good girl this year and that she wanted "presents". No lie, she did not ask for anything specifically, just for presents. What a good kid!

Today we are off to a neighbors party (a little break from the books). I hear Santa will be there, and that he will have a present for the kids, this should be interesting!

In other news Thing Two is standing on her own with out holding on to anything. She is also on the verge of walking, she is just afraid to. I can hold her hands and not support her, and she will walk all over the house, as soon as I let go she plops down. If I were to guess I would say she will be walking her first few steps alone in the next week or two. Definetly by the New Year.

So in a nutshell thats our life at the moment. I hope to be a more active person in this blog in the coming weeks! Happy Holidays everyone!
xoxo

Wow look at the time go!

So it's already been 2 days shy of a month since my last blog, I apologize to anyone actually reading these! So much has happened in the past month, I haven't been able to breathe.

SO let's start with Halloween, Thing One was a bee, and Thing Two was a strawberry in a field. We went to the Firehouse for the annual parade and contest, Thing Two won third for most original costume, I was very happy considering I sewed the stroller cover myself! We were worried that Thing One would be scared by a lot of the costumes, she has become very concerned with things like that, but she was fine and was very enthusiastic to run up to each house to get her "loot".While we are talking about Thing One, she has recently mastered potty training, until you put underwear on her.. for that we are working on getting her to tell us she has to go so we can help. She is very independent and wants to do it all on her own.

Then there was her birthday, we had a small party for her and her kiddy friends at the YMCA. There was all kinds of gym equipment and a Bounce House, pizza, cake and a pinata of course. She had a blast! On her actual birthday we had a nice quiet family day with just the kids, Daddy, and myself. We let her open presents slowly through the day. She received a lot of My Little Pony items, which she was THRILLED about!Thing Two has been becoming much more vocal in the recent weeks, which I hope is leading up to a first word pretty soon. She babbles Momma, and Dadda, we are just waiting for something more substantial. She has time I suppose. She is also climbing everything, pulling up onto everything, and using the couch for balance to scoot along. In no time she will be walking.

Gosh, they grow up so fast!As for myself, school is 2/3 over and I have been doing extremely well. I am amazing myself at what I can accomplish with almost no time to study. It just goes to show if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish it... now if I could just do that with the lottery!

A pumpkin picking we went

This year we wanted to go to a do all, see all place for our pumpkin picking needs. We wanted a hay ride, pumpkins on the vine, a corn maze, and an actual farm would be nice too! Well we found it all and then some!

The farm we visited, Logue Farms, had all that and pony rides.

Thing One was afraid of the pony, so she did not go for a ride, she wasn't too sure of the hayride either, that is until the tractor started moving. Needless to say she loved the ride, and the free running around in the pumpkin patch, it was toddler heaven to her!

We suddenly decided we wanted 2 huge pumpkins, and let me tell you, 2 huge pumpkins were found. One was 29lbs, the other was over 30lbs (they stop weighing at 30lbs)!

It was a great time. I can't wait until their are two toddlers running around the patch!

Fall Hiking

It's that time of year, when the mornings are cool and the days are warm, not hot, just warm and sunny. The leaves start their changes, the colors, the textures, and they descend down to earth from above. It's like spring, with all the beautiful colors.

This is the time of year when we tend to do a little more hiking, more so than any other time of year. The temperature is perfect for it, and there are so many towers to explore and peaks right here in CT that you would be depriving yourself not to go for a hike and take a look at the art mother nature has provided us.

Our recent hike was up Mt. Tom. It's relatively steep in spots, not too long, and very rocky.

The Observation Tower at Mt. Tom

The tower itself has "rickety" stairs as we were told by a sweet boy whom I will guess was seven. Rickety or not, what a view!

I highly recommend this hike to anyone in decent shape!

The kids first wedding.

We were honored enough to be invited to a wedding this weekend. What a beautiful occasion! From the bubbles at the church to the lovely favors at the tables it was beautiful. There was great food, and a great DJ, and an awesome band. This weeding was the works, and it couldn't have been for a better couple.

This was our first wedding with the kids. I was a tad bit worried. Thing One doesn't sit still and Thing Two is finding her voice in attempts at speaking.. SO Thing One was taken outside at the church, and Thing Two almost was too!

HOWEVER, Thing One shook her grove thing at the reception from the time it started at 7:30 until we called it quits at 11:00! She sure loves to dance, and run, and roam the halls too! Thing One was more about curling up in her stroller and catching some Zzzz's.

Either way it was a nice night.

Feeling humbled and overwhelmed.

School so far for me has been very challenging. I don't know how many of you have taken a college level A&P course, but it's a lot like learning a foreign language. So as one would imagine I have to spend a lot of time reading, making flash cards, filling out outlines, and studying. Or at least I am supposed to be. I made myself a very unrealistic schedule of study time to be done in the evenings that isn't working out so well for a few reasons.
1. ABC - I am addicted to their programing, Grey's, Dancing with the Stars, Samantha Who.. just to name a few.
2. Idiopathic-hypersomnia - it basically is a condition I have, meaning I am excessively tired even though I get plenty of sleep. It makes me feel horrible unless I have had at least 10 hours of sleep a night, in case you are wondering in order to keep the house clean, take care of an infant and a toddler, do all my errands, and have time for family this rarely happens. It also means that anytime I sit down to read I usually end up dozing before I am done with 2 paragraphs.. When a chapter is 40 pages long it gets kind of tedious.
So my first test is looming, it''s on Wednesday, 300 questions. 100 will be lab, and 200 will be lecture. We have 8 hours to complete it. Yippie. I am quickly realizing that hey, I can't just sit down read a book, and listen in class to get an A anymore. This class is too advanced for that, and I am studying far too little. OOPS.
So let's hope this serves as my wake up call to FIND more time to study, someway, somehow, and let's hope that I pass this test because there will only be 2 more after it!

A new world through little eyes.

So Thing Two has mastered crawling, she has even realized that she can go from room to room with Mommy all day long, how wonderful! Although she does fuss at me to slow down or stay in one room for more than five minutes some times!

If you are unfamiliar with our home we have a few different levels, all only one step up or down from the one before it. While she hasn't figured out how to get down a level, she has mastered going up a level, along with that, she has also mastered kneeling, and then pulling up to a standing position. She walks all over the house as long as you are holding her hands, all on her own.

So she is seeing the world through new eyes so to speak, and as I follow her around and watch what she gets into I am also sort of seeing the world from new eyes, and the change is kind of nice.