Resurfacing…

…After being buried under tons of other things like laundry and cleaning and Thanksgiving dishes and trying to figure out what to do for Christmas cards and more laundry!
Thank you so much for all your kind wishes and your precious prayers during the rough month of sickies that my little family was going through (Abby got the pukes, Bree got a cold, Matt got the flu, I continued to deal with the joys of hormonal imbalance). I think it’s pretty safe to say we’ve all finally scaled the walls and are now on the way to getting much better.
We had a very low-key but grand time with Matt’s family on Thanksgiving. All the married gals in the family take turns hosting Thanksgiving. This year it was Brad’s Jen’s turn. She did a great job with her first turkey and everyone had a relaxing time visiting while the kids ran amuck. The only thing I don't like about going to someone else's house for Thanksgiving is not getting to eat leftovers at midnight when you think you might starve to death due to your stomach being so stretched out. One would think that the 38,000 calories I consumed would hold me for awhile...

Aubrey especially adored her “play dates” with her cousins. The jury is still out with Abby. She is definitely not our social butterfly.
I did not snap a single picture on Thanksgiving. I just didn’t feel very picture snappy that day I guess. Maybe it’s because I had to stir the gravy. It’s a very important job you know; gravy shouldn’t be too thick and not too thin. The meal is entirely centered on the quality and consistency of the gravy. (I really wouldn’t know since I usually skip the gravy but I like to sound like I know what I’m talking about).
I’m in a bit of a euphoric state (hehe) because I started and finished my Christmas shopping for the girls on Friday. Part of the happiness comes from finally, finally, finally getting to shop for toys I KNOW the kids will love AND I didn’t spend a fortune either. Yay! I can’t wait to see their little faces light up with delight on Christmas morning.

We went to the Light Parade last night with some family and friends. It was so much fun! The girls had a ball seeing all the lights and of course Santa was there too! Abby could hardly contain herself waiting for each entry to pass by. She kept telling Ethan (our friends son) “Efan look, more coming! More coming!” So stinkin’ cute.

Well, that's all for now. Happy Sunday!

"Hoo" are you lookin' at?

We have an owl visitor from time to time. Thursday night the owl was dining on grasshoppers while we were dining on the all American favorite ~ hot dogs. Abby was being very funny while she was looking out the window at the owl and talking to it. She said Hi owl, its me Abby. See sissy and my mommy? Want some katsup? Then she would bust out laughing.

Here are a few pictures of Mr. Owl.

Update…
Thanks for all of your prayers! My visit to the doctor yesterday went better than expected thanks to Matt. He decided to go with me this time and I think the doctor finally believed me when I said I was in pain! I’ve been dealing with some intense pain in my lower right side ever since concluding fertility treatments over three years ago. A laparoscopy was done in February of this year and the doctor removed my left ovary and fallopian tube due to endometriosis and a large ovarian cyst. My right ovary is also entangled in endometriosis and has attached itself to the pelvic wall but the doctor said it didn’t look as bad as the left side so he didn’t remove it. The doctor hoped that by removing the worse of the two ovaries the right ovary wouldn’t be “compensating” for the left. Unfortunately, no such luck. I’ve been dreading the inevitable hysterectomy but I’m also very weary of the pain. After a good talk with the doctor we are trying a last ditch effort of a low dose birth control pill to see if the pain is reduced. If so then I will continue taking the pill but if it doesn’t control the pain then it’s back under the knife. Either way I’m looking at being on hormones the rest of my life. Yuck! Isn’t it funny that the doctor put me on birth control pills when I can’t even conceive in the first place? Kind of a cruel joke but I can take it. Fortunately I have been blessed with mamma-hood through the adoption of the two most beautiful, amazing, smart, funny, fantastic girls in the whole world. For them…it’s all worth it!
In other news…
If you are one of my 4 faithful blog followers you will remember the survey I posted a few weeks back about weather I should potty train first or wean from the pacifier. It was a tie, (I guess I need a 5th faithful follower…tap tap tap… anyone out there?) So I had to be a big girl and make my own decision. Well the Lord definitely has a sense of humor and has kindly forced me into, I mean assisted me with, the weaning of the pacifier. Oliver took off with one of the girl’s binkies on Sunday and tore a tiny little hole in it. This made the binky not so wonderful to Abby. She whined and carried on for a good part of the afternoon. As soon as Bree dropped hers I snuck it into the kitchen and gave it a little snip too, you know, to be fair and all. Now the binkies are “bawoken” (broken) and the girls aren’t real happy with them or Oliver. Yeah, that the best part… it was Oliver’s fault not mine! Nighttime hasn’t been so great for Abby but we are getting there. I suspect that Oliver just might conveniently find the binkies angain and I’ll have him bury them in the back yard. Oh Oli boy, where are you? I’ve got a treat for you!!!
Well, I’m off to make oatmeal cookies with the munchkins. Have a good day all!

Kids say the darndest things!

Friday 11-7-08

I went grocery shopping at our local Safeway on Friday. There is a payday loan place right next door to the market. They had one of those inflatable characters set up outside. You know the kind with the wiggly man that dance around as the wind tosses him too and fro. Well, the girls were, of course, scared of him and wanted to go in another direction. Unfortunately the wiggly man was set up practically at the entrance to Safeway. I tried to calm the girls by telling them it was just a funny man dancing in the wind. Bree replied very seriously by saying…. Are you ready for this?

“Mamma, that man is doing the pee-pee dance!”

Oh my stinkin’ heck they are so funny!

Celebrating the chaos

Ever tried keeping up with twins AND a puppy while you’re not feeling too good? I think the past week has made me tougher or just plain crazy (it's a hung jury)
But I like to call it celebrating the chaos. It sounds so much nicer than freaking out does, doesn’t it?
It’s been a very demanding 4-5 days, what with maintaining some sense of order in our home, endless puppy messes, futile attempts to get the girls to eat anything healthy …(yep, I totally SuperNanny to come live at our house)
So I’m so sorry, my friends, if I’ve been missing in action lately. I’ve been missing you too! But you know what happens when real life takes you by the collar, right? You stop whatever it is you’re playing with and you come running. (When did I start using puppy analagies for everything?)
But I’m back! Tonight anyway, and I’ll be visiting the doctor on Wednesday so I’ll post more on that later. But for now I could use a little prayer.
A friend of mine told me something the other day I think is totally beautiful. She said, God’s weakness is in prayer and our strength is in prayer.
Isn’t that so true? God grows all soft when we pray to Him, and we on the other hand gather strength from Him when we pray.
Awesome.
So. I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of things and organize my thoughts and priorities. I do have so much to share with you just not the energy to put the words together. It’s hard to think the seasons are quickly changing and Christmas lights are starting to blink all around! I’m just not ready well…maybe for some turkey and pumpkin pie!
I’ll post again soon my friends!

Welcome Oliver

The chinobilly barn grew another 4 feet…4 very big, adorable, black feet. Our little lab pup is 11 weeks old and completely full of spunk yet very gentle. The girls are crazy about him ~ most of the time anyway.
Oliver joined our family on Sunday after our niece, Nettie, called us from Safeway. She told me that someone was selling lab puppies for $10.00 so I rushed down to Safeway as fast as legally possible to find the seller. Funny thing is that I sort of know the gal because she takes her kiddos to toddler story time at the library too. AND she has twins that are 8 months older than our twins! Since we sort of know each other she let me have one of the pups for free. *yay
Oli is going to the vet today for a complete physical and anything else the vet can dream up to suck what little money we have from our wallets. So I guess that $25 a week we were “saving” from no more weekly diaper trips will now be redistributed to pet care. Oh and for those of you breathing a sigh of relief about the lack of potty talk, think again, you might need to find a rock to crawl under for a while. *grin