Songs in my head

There are 2 songs that I can't stop listening to. It wouldn't be so bad if they were new songs, but they are older and I think my kids are ready to strangle me. As if they could reach that high. Anyway, "9 Crimes" by Damien Rice and "Soul Meets Body" by Death Cab for Cutie. Seriously. I need to STOP playing them over and over. I'm starting to annoy myself.

Tonight we have Eric's work party. When Ella and the boys get up I gotta get them dressed and out the door. Hopefully the weather doesn't suck too bad. We had storms here last night. Woke me up at 1 am. I'm surprised Ella didn't get up. Usually she does.

My toe still really, really huts. I was making the bed this morning (yes, I do that, hard to believe!) and I somehow kicked something under the bed. Yeeeeoow.

A new day

So ... my headache is winding down, I think. Crossing my fingers on that one. Thanks to Cat for kicking me in the butt and telling me to drink more water. I think that is helping. I hate drinking water, and it really takes a lot of internal yelling for me to sit down and drink a glass. Anyway, thanks Cat. ;)

Tomorrow night Eric is throwing the annual party at his job for his employees. May be fun, I'm not sure yet. Hopefully the weather isn't too hot. It has been raining for quite awhile here today.

Sad news ... the flash on my camera is broken or has burned out. I am so bummed. I am looking online for a replacement part, only found one site that sells them and it is $50. Better than buying a new camera, but I don't know how long it will take to get here. Eric thinks he can replace it himself, I sure hope so.

On to moron news for the day. I am a world-class klutz, most everyone that knows me, knows this. I have bruises on my body that I don't even remember getting. I run into walls, doorways, counters, desks. Well, yesterday I did one for the record books. Ella has this little pink plastic Little Mermaid stool. It was in J&B's bedroom, and I was changing a rather nasty diaper on B. Ella came into their room with a juice box, which is a huge no-no (I don't want to clean juice up off carpet!). So, I kept a hand on B, took a step to tell her to go back to the kitchen, and sorta half-stepped on the stool. I hit the 2nd rung, which has a very sharp plastic edge. I managed to rip a chunk of skin off my 2nd toe. Here is a pic. It hurts like a mother. Yeeeeowww!! It bled all night and is still bleeding a little. The problem is that I can't keep off my feet for very long, and chasing kiddos is not helpful for stopping bleeding on the feet. :)

Busy, busy, busy

I feel like I could sleep for days and days! We had such a busy weekend. Friday I cleaned my butt off. I guess that counts for exercise. ;)

Saturday we had friends come in from Omaha. We just love them. :) They have a daughter that is a month older than Ella, and it is so fun to watch them play. We had some interesting weather that afternoon that livened things up.

Sunday was the party. It was so hot, totally miserable for me.

Today is day 6 of a horrible string of headaches. It is wearing on me in every way. I am doing everything much slower than usual. This doesn't make the kids happy at lunch time. :)

I am going to be starting book #13 in the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series. I am so addicted to these books! It is making me sad that I only have 2 left. I hope she pops out #15 asap!

Anyway, that is an update. I am hoping to nap during the kids' naps. Hopefully soon I will upload some birthday pics. The boys went apeshit on their cakes. :) Totally loved them!

Here is a quick pic of each of them, digging in:

What a day!

We had such a fun day. First we went to the zoo. It was pretty hot today, so we tried to get there early, but for us, leaving the house takes awhile. :) Anyway, we had a great time at the zoo. We got to watch them feed the meerkats, which was really fun. The boys seemed to really love seeing the animals, especially the cows and sheep in the petting zoo section that they could get closer too. And, Ella got to ride a pony for the first time! It was so fun. She was so super excited and did really well. I got some pics and video. Here is a pic:

Here is a photo of the boys:

After the zoo, we had lunch at Chili's. Then we hit Target, my fav store. :) I got a new bikini, hopefully it will motivate me to stick with working out and look really kickass by the end of the summer. A girl can dream. ;) Ella picked out a gift for her brothers, and we got them some new jammies for their bday and I also got them a dinosaur puppet, for some reason they think it's a riot. Then we headed home. Eric took Ella swimming and the boys napped, and I attempted to clean up the house, but actually sat down and started reading the 9th Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum book. :)

Fun day, very busy, and I'm ready for bed!

Big day tomorrow!

Well, the day has come. Jacob and Boden will be a year old tomorrow. :) I can't believe my sweet little dudes are a year old already.

We are taking them to the zoo in the morning, hopefully we will all wake up early and get there before it gets too hot.

We are also going out to eat, I'm thinking Chili's because I like their kids' menu. (and I love the adult menu!)

Then we are hitting Target and maybe Toys R Us. Ella is picking out a gift to give them from her, and I need to get a few things. I need new flip flops! We also need to pick up a few last minute things for the party: cups, tablecloths and silverware.

Also - tomorrow is the first day of the Spa Escape at O Scraps! www.oscraps.com Please stop in! I am so excited, I have no idea what is going on exactly but it's sure to be a lot of fun, challenges and prizes!

A year later ... we made it.

Coming up on the boys' first birthday has been pretty emotional for me. I don't remember feeling this way when Ella turned one. Maybe it is because I know we won't be having any more babies, and our last babies aren't going to be babies much longer. Maybe it is because I have been thinking about what the last year and a half dealt us, and some of those memories are still scary and sad and frustrating. I think about laying alone in the hospital, wishing Eric was there with me, wishing I could make Ella breakfast and wishing things were normal. I think about my c-section, about seeing those boys for the first time, and being so scared but so happy when we heard them cry, thinking that those cries meant that they were ok. Not being able to hold them until the next night because I was so sick, and because of that stupid hematoma. Of the blood tranfusion, all the pain, falling asleep in the middle of chewing my food. Driving to Sioux Falls every single day, feeling horrible for leaving Ella in daycare to go see the boys, and feeling awful for leaving the boys in the hospital at the end of each day. Being so proud, so happy, and wanting to show off ou babies to everyone. But, no one comes to visit you when your babies are in the NICU. No one visits a new mom when they can't hold her babies. Our families were there, absolutely. Grandmas and grandpas held the boys. But our friends didn't come. We desperately wanted to say, "See, look at our precious boys! Look how well they are doing! Look how cute they are!" But, people are scared of wires and tubes and beeping machines. And they don't visit. They don't ooh and aah over babies hooked up to machines.

A year has passed. Jacob and Boden are big and strong and happy and perfect. Adorable. And we made it. We made it through all that stuff. But ... it is still on my mind. A year isn't enough to erase the feelings.

A few more pics

Boden waiting 'patiently' for lunch:

Jacob attacking the table:

Ella jumping on the trampoline:

Pics

Here are some recent photos of the kids ( I mess with the first 3 with Photoshop Elements)

Jacob at Lake Lakota:













Boden at Lake Lakota:

Ella at lunch after the sculpture walk, downtown Sioux Falls.

Ella sitting on one of the sculptures:

Sculpture Walk and visiting with family

Today was a very busy day. I just have to laugh at Eric and I. Originally, he had the weekend off and said, hey, let's just stay home and chill. We did the exact opposite.

Saturday night we went to Newton Hills, Mark and Judy were camping, so we had supper with them. Then this morning we drove to Sioux Falls and met up with mom and Sara to walk downton Sioux Falls and see the awesome sculptures. It was so beautiful this morning, perfect weather. Ella loved seeing the sculptures, especially the Great Dane and the elephant, which she sat on. Also the pigs. :) We had a yummy lunch outside at the diner.

Then, Judy called and told us that Eric's cousin Matt and his wife and their 2 girls were back in Sioux Center from California, and we decided to go and see them, since they don't get back very often and we obviously don't travel. So, when Ella woke up from her nap, we packed everyone back up and headed out. Had supper at Eric's uncle Ken's house, visited for quite awhile. Ella jumped on a trampoline for the first time, TOTALLY loved it! I got some cute pics. She also went down a slip and slide for the first time. So cute.

Exercise today = walking around downtown Sioux Falls, and general chasing after children. :)

Exercised today! YAY!

Yes, I did! I hopped on that stupid elliptical for 20 minutes today. SO proud of myself. I wanted to scrapbook instead. I wanted to nap instead. (hee hee). But, I exercised.

More than that ... I watched Jon & Kate Plus 8, where they took the kids to make cupcakes. So, as I exercised, I watched people eat cupcakes. TORTURE!

Weekend plans

Tonight, we are going to Newton Hills. Mark and Judy are camping there again this weekend, and we are going to go after the kids' nap and have supper. Eric can't stay home, so a full day in the house may have killed him.

Then, tomorrow morning we are heading to Sioux Falls, meeting Sara and Mom, and doing the sculpture walk and lunch. I'm excited for that!

I also hope to do some scrapbooking. Liz's new Ecologie kit has me thinking of designs in my sleep!

I found it!

Stupid camera! I found it, hidden in a corner of my nice, huge double diaper bag. :) Relief!!

Not happy.

I can't find my camera. I am addicted to taking pics of my kids. I am ready to crawl in a hole and die. I haven't seen it since Wednesday when we finished our hike. I took so many good pics of camping and hiking, all on that memory card.

Of course, I lose it just days before the boys' first birthday. How awful. :( I'm panicking.

Hot here today

It is supposed to be pretty hot and humid here today, so I think I'll keep the kiddos indoors for most of it. The boys just get the rosiest cheeks when they get warm! I will hop on the elliptical during naptime.

Got the boys' cakes ordered just now!!! YAY!!! I am getting a 1/2 sheet cake as well as 2 smash cakes. I am dropping off one of th eplates I ordered for the party to the cake maker so that they can see the colors and design I want on the cake. It's pretty basic, just bold stripes, but I dig it. :)

I'm going grocery shopping tonight, after supper maybe. We have no food left in this house! Yeesh.

What day is it?

Goodness. The last few days have been wild! I had my fun, fun class reunion on Saturday. We had a blast. I had a great time with my kiddos visiting my ma, stepdad and great grama. And the kids had even more fun. ;) I have lots of pics to share.

Then, Monday Eric decided that we should go camping. Yeeeeesh. I had just finished unpacking from the weekend! Monday it was rainy so we decided on Tuesday. Packed up and left. It was fun, but really tiring. Camping with 11 1/2 month old twinksters is not relaxing!! They prefer to eat sand and stay up all night. Not my kind of fun. I have so much to unpack and wash.

But, I got home today, checked my blog updates, and see I won a gift card from Miss Sally!!!! YAY!!!!! Totally made my day.

I tell ya what, I am still on this habit, too. I did some bike riding and walking yesterday. Plus 10 trips to the beach and back to the car. Hee hee! Plus today we went on a hike, and after Ella bit it on the path, I had to give her a piggy back ride uphill the rest of the way back!!

Day 4

Well, I spent awhile on the road today with all 3 kids and my sister. So, I didn't get much exercise in. But, we did run around in the yard awhile, with Ella spraying all of us with the hose. ;) Hopefully tomorrow will be better for exercise.

Day 3

So, today is a busy day, and I only got 10 minutes on the elliptical in. I am trying to pack all 3 kids plus myself to go to Platte for the weekend, to see my family and attend my 10 year high school reunion. When the kids wake up I'm gonna try to get them out for a walk.

Day 2!

So far today I have taken the kids for a walk. Ella rode her bike and I pushed the boys in their stroller. Heavy damn thing. Anyway, I am hoping to go for a solo bike ride later today when Eric gets home. But, I think taking a walk with them is a good start.

Ella did have a small wipeout. She started really cruising on her bike and as we went down a tiny hill, she went into the grass and took a tumble. She was more scared than hurt. She got mad and said she was never riding her bike again. Roughly 2 seconds later she got back on it and we went home. :) My little trooper!

Day One -- Check!

So, I just did 20 minutes on the elliptical. I'm proud of myself ... I set a goal of 15 minutes. Now I am drinking actual WATER! (whoa!) and going to do a scrapbook layout for Jodie's Designer Spotlight Challenge this week. :)

How long will my motivation continue? For 21 days? 2 days? 2 years?

Creating a Habit

My lovely friend Sally is challenging us to make a new habit - in 21 days.

http://sallysangelworks.typepad.com/sallys_ponderings/2008/07/day-one.html

I'm going to make a habit of exercising. I need to, I want to. It's summer time, vacation is coming up, and I want to feel better and look better. So ... today I am going to jump on the elliptical for 15 minutes. It's not long, but I need to start off slowly or I will tire myself out and quit.

I'm also going to try to go on some solo bike rides, maybe at night when Eric gets home. Just be by myself and my MP3 player. :)

Come join!

Biopsy results

My internist called yesterday - the results of my biopsy are good! It came back all clear!!!