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.

Apple Picking

So we went apple picking for the first time ever, WHAT FUN! Madison loved it, running all over the place, picking whatever apples she wanted, biting into almost all of them! Boy were they delicious, now I have to just figure out what to do with all the apples we have. They also had a barn with other farm items for sale, next up 12lb of peaches for $6.95... uh huh, so I made a peach cobbler, now what do I do with the rest of the darned peaches? I can only make so much baby food for Thing Two! John and I also bought some homemade doughnuts and maple candy, gees I knew I loved the fall for some reason!

OH, and there is another reason... On the 10th we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. The day was just as nice as the day we said I do, and I feel stronger today than I did then, if that's even possible. We celebrated with a nice romantic dinner at the same restaurant we went to for our wedding reception. Too bad for us that the restaurant was under new ownership that for lack of better words sucked. That didn't matter as much as why we were there. Honey I love you, and I am so happy I married you, thank you for all your wonderful gifts of being you!

July 2004.

Update

So the hubby and I have returned to school. What a week, I think I blinked, because I missed it!
My teacher will be a rambler, and the course work will be tough, she only schedules 3 tests for lecture and lab for the whole semester, this is A&P 1.. Each test will be roughly 300 questions, including essays, and we have 8 hours, yes 8 yours to complete them! OY!
Thing One and Thing Two got their pictures taken this week, actually we all did. I thought it was a disaster, so imagine my surprise when looking at the proofs there were so many great pictures!
Thing One also started dance class this week, we know the instructor and even though Madison is under the age for the class she agreed to let her try it. I am so glad she did, she was apprehensive going in, I had to hold her hand and lead her to a friend twice, but that was it, no crying, no screaming! I kept peeking in through the window, she was having a great time, it was so nice and so sad, she's getting too big too fast.. If only I had recorded it! There will be other classes I know!

Thing One also has mastered PeePee on the little potty as long as she is naked. If we put underwear on her she acts like it's a diaper. I guess we will be letting her run around au naturale for a bit until she is VERY comfortable and has been trained a bit, then I am sure the underwear won't be an issue.
Thing Two is now sitting up. She doesn't like to sit to much because that means she isn't moving, but she is sitting. She can also get up on her hands and knees and has been doing the tell tale rock.. Crawling will be in no time, I can see it! HOW EXCITING!

Camping

So we went camping for the first time with the kids. I was so scared! It turned into an amazingly great experience!
We arrived on Saturday, and things did not look too good, we got camp all set up and we had to try to get Thing One to take her nap. Thing One sleeps only in her crib, she will not sleep anywhere else, trust me we have tried. We put her in the Pack N Play... she screamed and threw a fit and split open her gums on the side... once she settled down we tried again, she played and talked by herself in the tent for 3 hours before falling asleep! Stubborn? Thankfully the rest of the trip was smooth sailing.

We were only a few hundred feet from the playground, so Thing One had the ability to roam independently, or so she thought. We were watching the whole time, but she was "free".

We played bocci, roasted smores,

swam in the sand bottom pond,

went for walks, looked for frogs, played with dogs and ate pops. It was incredibly relaxing. I am relieved to know that we can take the kids camping and we will all have a great time.

The final days..

So I haven't felt like blogging these days. I am in final preparations for class, and going a little crazy. I want the house in order, I want to accomplish some tasks and I want to just go and do I please for the final time this summer. I haven't been on the computer much at all. I have managed to pry myself away from my Myspace and Facebook accounts long enough to enjoy these final stress free days with my family.
I have also cut back to my one job babysitting, I wasn't available the right amount of hours, so they couldn't keep me on the schedule. I will miss the people, and even the job, it's fun, but the pay is awful and I miss my kids too much while I am there.. What will I do when they finally go to school?! *gasp*
Well I am off to enjoy more me time. I shall be back in another week, once my life is completely hectic again. Toodles!

Time for a time out.

So life has been crazed these past few weeks planning the girls christening, which went amazingly well I might add. Now I find it's time for a breather, I am about to start college again in 3 weeks, then I really won't have time for anything.

We woke up the morning of the christening with Thing One asking for a pop.. Oh no, that means her teeth are bothering her, and that means a day of yelling and crying. Where's the Motrin!? Wouldn't you know it, for the first time ever she sat through church! lol The Motrin did not calm her enough to not try to get away from the Rector trying to christen her, the water went ok, the oil, no dice, he assured her that he got her though.. lol Meanwhile Thing Two was more than happy to comply with everything and never made a peep. There are a few pictures that came out ok from the church, you weren't allowed to use flash, so most pictures came out badly... Here is an ok one:

The Godmother, myself and Thing Two, the Rector, my Husband and Thing One, the Godfather.

Off to the Club we went for the after party. How beautiful it was. Remember that behind the scenes person I was talking about in my earlier blog. Well she did an amazing job running around for us getting everything together, and setting it up. How nice that I had someone to count on to miss the christening so that I did not have to worry about setting up the party. If you are reading this I LOVE YOU!

Ah, what fun, the food was excellent, the weather was beautiful and everyone was having a good time, as the host what more could I ask for?

My girlfriend and I at the party.

Thing Two, all partied out.

Thing One on the move!

Well in the coming weeks I need to finish some projects around the house, and prepare for school, something I am dreading and looking forward to all at once. Let's hope I juggle all well and it is the beginning to a new chapter in my beautiful life.

Taking on the World.

So this weekend we are having a Christening for Thing One and Thing Two. Who knew that planning the party would be such a process? Food, decorations, renting a hall, finding someone willing to miss the christening itself to be the behind the scenes person.. Seriously, I never thought there would be such a process, I figured it would all be relatively simple, and while it is relatively simple, it is a bit tedious.
I tend to lack much organization these days with two kids to raise, and I love to have busy hectic days, but a midst planning this party I have become particularly dumb. I am forgetting everything, I find myself making lists for everything, list for my lists, all in an effort to juggle many tasks at once.
I get allergy shots, once a week, I am working on getting back into school and seem to have something to do weekly with regards to that, working two jobs, one that the schedule keeps changing on a daily basis, and one where it always stays the same. Then there are the kids activities, and of course mine, such as Yoga, and weight lifting.. I don't have the luxury of doing the same things day in and day out, nor would I really want to, I just like the idea of the structure.. but lately my life has been driving even me crazy!
My girlfriend decided to step up and be that behind the scenes person for me. This is the same girlfriend who I completely admire, and watch in awe. She is amazing. She has 4 kids, she is going to nursing school full time and is in her last year, her home is always spotless, her gardens always beautiful, and she is constantly running one kid her there and everywhere. How the heck does she do it all? I am mindless with two, and she takes on the world with 4!
Maybe I need to watch her more! After all if I ever plan to have 4 or even 3 kids, I need to get it together! Or maybe I need to sacrifice my need for spontaneity, and submit to the life of routine.

What a great day.

So we took Thing One to the track today to drive her Barbie car, and ride her tricycle. She was more interested in just running around free than anything else, and that's ok. We came home to a lunch of homemade crab cakes, they were great, everyone loved them! Later on in the day we went walking, we walked for 6 miles! What fun it was, Thing Two was in the front pack and Thing One was in the stroller, we picked flowers, saw birds, and bugs and water. The simple things in life, and it was a great time. Maybe we will go for more nightly walks. On the way home we even pulled over to just watch some cows roam, and yell Moo at them. How nice it was to just slow down for once and relax for a minute, that's not something I do nearly enough. Then for the rest of the ride home I was told what animals make what noises. Thing One is getting so big so fast, the stuff she knows surprises the heck outta me!

What a Day

There was so much to do today I feel overwhelmed and drained, mentally and physically. I am not sure what happened, but I reached a point today where I just shut down, I was done, all I wanted was to sit and be left alone.
My day started with needles and long unnecessary car rides, then I came home to an overtired Thing One who decided today was a day where she was going to either be really great, or really trying! Thing Two just hung around and was quiet until Thing One started acting up before bed, then they went into co-hoots and ganged up on me! The nerve! Both kids screaming, both not wanting to be comforted, and both not wanting to go to bed. UGH!
All I wanted at that point was a silence, and I was the farthest thing from it. But here I am, I made it out alive, an hour or so later with homemade cookies and silence in which to devour them! Another day survived.

Potty Training 101

What an adventure. Thing One is 20 months old, and semi-potty training. By semi, I mean we haven't bought pull ups, or training pants, and we only train half the day because the other half we are running all over town. Our method- let her run around naked.. What a chore, don't get me wrong, I am so very proud of her, but it's like training a puppy, following her around with paper towel in hand. For the most part she does very well, when she has to go she runs for the potty, but other times she has little leaks we will call them. I am in search of the cotton training pants that are like really thick underwear. I am sure I will clean up less messes, she won't want to be in wet underwear and will get a better grasp on when to head over to the potty, and I won't spend a small fortune on Pull Ups or some other disposable option. Maybe one of these weeks our life will slow down, and we can devote some serious time to training. Imagine that, life slow down... Not likely.

My first official blog. Well a lot of questions come to mind. Why did I feel the need to "blog"? What do I want to blog about? What do I wish to accomplish in my blogging? Hmm.. I guess I will find out the answers over time, in the mean time let me give it a go!