Embracing Life

I'm linking up today with Julia for Working Mommy Wednesday.  I have always been a working mommy.  I work at a place large enough to get FLMA and took 12 weeks off after the birth of Connor and one week before and 11 weeks after the birth of the twins. I work at a community college.  It started as a part-time job as a secretary while I finished my Masters in History.  I always wanted to work at a college, but I thought that meant I had to teach.  I realized that it doesn't mean that at all.  I finished with my M.A. in 2003, but I'm still here.  Working behind the scenes at a college.  Now I evaluate transcripts, assist with the creation of articulation agreements with four-year schools, and a plethora of other things that fall under "and other duties as assigned" category on the job description.  One of the things that has happened in the past couple of weeks is that we are almost to the completion of a HUGE project 2 other people and...

I'm playing along today with Leigh  and the Happiness Project, because I need some happiness! This is Connor and his new train set.  I had high hopes for Connor to be potty trained shortly after his 3rd birthday, so that he could start preschool last fall.  Um yeah that SO did not happen.  Fast forward six months, we try again.  Connor is a creature of habit.  Connor loves his diapers.  Connor no like pull-ups. The first part of training went rather easily.  He learned quickly that if he wasn't wearing a pull-up and he peed, it was messy and cold.  But that second part, and I quote, "I only poop in pull-ups." Awesomeness. But mommy got smart.  Mommy used bribery, and mommy is NOT ashamed. ;) I told Connor that we could go to the Thomas store and he could pick out any train he wanted.  He wanted Cranky the Crane and Harold the Helicopter.  He knew that once he was fully potty trained, he would get to go to the store. ...

How can we have gone from this... To this??? Happy second birthday Keira and Colin! 

We live in the midwest. Need I say more?

I admit, I am a homebody.  Even more now that I have twins and it takes so much effing effort to get ready to leave the house.  Heck, it takes so much effort to just get 3 kids ready to go outside to play in the sprinkler; leaving the house is a feat in itself! Last night was the monthly MOTS meeting through my local twins club.  As usual, it was held in a location 3 cities away (we have a large club that spans like 9 cities).  Most months, I do not go.  Sometimes it is because I work late, other times it's just because after working all day, coming home, dealing with the kids, house, dinner, husband, prep for the next day - the effort to actually get ready to leave, drive 45 minutes in rush-hour traffic is too overwhelming.  Drive 45 minutes to have a drink and dinner or wait until the kids go to bed, put on comfy clothes, sit on couch, have a drink and watch True Blood... hmmmmm, decisions, decisions... 5 p.m. - Mommy gets home from work with...

What happens when you have this... And just a little time on your hands???

... to the love of my life and the best father in the whole world!

I've been busy lately and haven't been keeping up with my blog reading like I wish I was.  In the past week, there was a blog in my reader that caught my eye, but I didn't have time to look at it.  But the title stuck with me: "My Summer Bucket List".  So that night, I went home and created my own summer bucket list and put it on the fridge so it would be easy to see.  It is a list of all the things I want to do this summer.  To me, summer runs from June to Labor Day (since we always have a picnic), so these are things I want to get done before then.  But before I get into my list, make sure you check out Julia's  bucket list, since she is the one who inspired me to do this just by her blog title.  Plus she is a working mom like me and her blog is pretty cool too! :) My Summer Bucket List Visit the zoo (we have passes - thanks Aunt Diana!) at least 4 times Spend one of those times letting the kids run loose around the Childrens' Z...

My very good mommy friend, Tima , has tagged me!  Wow, my first tag! :) This is how it goes: Step 1 -  Tima was tagged here Step 2 - I was tagged here Step 3 - Now is the fun bit. I'll answer Tima's 5 questions in this post, and then I get to ask 5 new questions to the people that I tag. Step 4 - If you get tagged, please answer my 5 questions on your blog in the form of a post. Then ask 5 questions of your own. Tag some people. There are no minimums. No maximums. Just tag. Come back and use the LinkeyTool below to link your blog once you've tagged someone else so I can see what you wrote. Ok so here goes! These are Tima's questions for me:   1. What is on your current reading list?   Well, I am addicted to my new Kindle and am currently reading:       I'm also ordering this book tonight to hopefully start reading ASAP:     2. What are the 5 places on your must-visit-list? Ireland Hawaii Rome Walt Disney World with m...

FUN!  :) My mom was supposed to watch Connor yesterday, while the twins were at daycare.  However, my niece, who lives with my mom, has the stomach flu.  Yuck.  Don't want it ever again to grace it's presence at my house.  It's bad enough Keira was at my mom's on Monday, playing with my niece.  Fingers crossed, prayers said, wishes made that we don't get the flu too. Anyway, my MIL was able to watch Connor for the morning, but had an appointment in the afternoon.  I wasn't sure what to do.  Tuesday, before I knew about Lexi, I had used up my last personal time of the year (I work at a college - our year runs from July to June), so I nicely asked my boss if I could use vacation time on Wednesday (technically we are supposed to go through the process of requesting it weeks in advance, but being that I had no childcare, I didn't have an other option.) I left work at noon and headed to MIL's to get Connor.  I had told him we were going to do ...

I am playing along today with Leigh and the Happiness Project. Here is our sand and water table filled with dirt.  The kids got busy with shovels and buckets a few weeks ago and took some dirt from the backyard and put it in their table since we had yet to fill it with sand.  I'm thinking the dirt retrivial project happened sometime on Daddy's watch. Sure they are filthy when they are done playing, but that's the point of summer: Having fun! Thankfully though, the table is ready for sand now! ;)

Saturday night, we went out to eat for my sister's birthday.  She is old now, according to the dental assistant's viewpoint, because she turned 30.  We went to Famous Dave's - which is a restaurant that serves awesome ribs.  There were pictures of pigs all over the place, which prompted Connor to call it the "pig place".  Five adults, five children under five.  All the kids were actually pretty good.  Keith and I rarely go out to eat with the kids, mainly because they are so little and we never know how they will act. Surprisingly the twins, who are not yet two, are usually better behaved than their older brother, mainly because he wants to get up and walk around, whereas we keep the twins chained confined in their high chairs. (Plus since the twins LOVE to eat, it gets pretty expensive for us!) But dinner on Saturday night was a breeze.  The kids ate pretty well - except for Connor, who had 3 cobs of corn and an oreo, but that's a u...

At the college where I work, I am not known by my job title.  Rather, I am refered to as "the one who had the twins".  Now my cute little twins will be two later this month - so why can't people learn my name?  Whatever. The reason I bring it up is because yesterday at the dentist (it's a new dentist - only been there once before), the dental assistant and I were chatting while waiting.  She said to me, "So you are the one with the twins, right?"  I'm guessing it was a note in my chart, because she also knew about Connor, and that I worked... Now I didn't know that having twins was that big of a deal anymore.  Celine, Angelina, Jenny from the block - they all have twins, it's kind of the "thing to do" now.  Plus I belong to the local twins' club, and there are more than 250+ members!  So I can't be the only client with twins at this particular dentist office, can I? Anyway, she asked me if it was harder to have two babies...

My husband shaves his head and is covered in tattoos. The mail carrier is bald and is also covered in tattoos. Do you see where this is going? For some reason, our local mail carrier (usually I say mail man, but am trying to be politically correct and stuff), does not wear the typical mail carrier uniform.   Rather, he carries his shirt on his bag, and walks around the neighborhood in a sleeveless shirt.  On Saturday, we had the front door open.  The mail carrier walks up to the house to deposit the mail.  The twins see the man walk up,  RUN to the door and YELL as loudly as possible - "DADDY! DADDA! DADDY!" Mortified, I just walk into another room.  I tried explaining to them that it was not their daddy, as they stand at the door, upset that "Daddy" walked away.  Connor said, "But it sure looked like him." ***************** Upon telling this story at our Memorial Day picnic, my mother-in-law remarked to me (not once, but at l...