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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Don't you just want to gnaw their faces off???

I thought I'd post a few pictures of my sweet boys because ... well, don't you just want to gnaw their faces off???  Ugh.  Seriously, every day I just stare at them in amazement.  I just can't comprehend how something (well, 3 somethings) so cute came out of me (with a little help from Brian of course).  Anyways, prepare your ovaries, ladies....

Flight of ideas.


I'm spinning.

Not the kind where you sweat a lot.  Well, actually, as a chub-a-lub who drinks way too much coffee, I actually sweat quite a bit during the day, so that's not entirely true.  But not the kind of spinning where you are on a bike and going nowhere and sweating your balls off.

I'm just spinning through life.  August has been the busiest not busy month ever.  I'm just in the middle of a million things and haven't made the time to sit down and write and that's making me crazy.  I have a million things that I want to get out of my brain so I'm making time for it in what may be the most random post I've ever written.  But that's just what it's like inside my head lately so maybe by getting out I'll be able to clear up the mess a bit.  Maybe?

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Twin Weight Tuesday {8.21.12}.

Another week, another pound lost.  

The best part?  That's a total of 10 pounds lost.  BOOM.

I'm so excited by this.  It's fuel for my motivation to keep going and it just makes me feel better about myself as a whole.

I busted out the next size down in jeans yesterday to try them on and they fit.  Not incredibly well, but they work.  And when I walked into my therapist's office today she said that I look like I've lost weight and I was so excited I could've covered her in slobbery kisses right then and there.  

My lungs are finally feeling better so I'm gonna get back to my training schedule.  Until now, I've just been dabbling in running intermittently with walking, but I finally feel like I can run without keeling over into a big pile of wheezing flab.  

I can't wait to see how well the weight loss is going to go once I really get back to running.  I'm 2 pounds away from achieving goal #2 and I'd be ecstatic to hit it next week.  Squeeeeeee!

Sorry, that's totally obnoxious.  I can't guarantee I won't be even more obnoxious if I do in fact hit that goal next week....

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Twin Weight Tuesday {8.14.12}.

Wow, is this blog getting boring, or what?

I have about a million post ideas sitting in my queue and life is just a little too chaotic to sit down and work on any of them at the moment.  Some day I'll get an hour to sit and write and you'll get a crapstorm of thoughts from my head.  I'm sure everyone is jumping up and down in anticipation, amiright??

What life hasn't gotten too chaotic for is health and fitness.  I'm really proud of myself for making it a priority.  I haven't been able to get any really good runs in because I'm still a bit sick and my asthma is making it difficult.  But I'll get back on track as soon as I can breathe well.

But I have some pretty good news.  I'm pretty stoked that I've HIT GOAL NUMBER 1!!!!  Woo hoo!!

I can't remember if I've written about my goals yet, so here's a quick rundown.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

July 2012 ... the epic novel.


I probably say this every month, but July was a complete and total blur.  Mostly because we were gone for the majority of the month, but also because it was BUSY.  I was going to write a post about vacation and a post about the rest of July … until I realized that the July post would go something like this: we packed, we left, we came back, we were all sick, we unpacked (kinda), we were all still sick, the end.

So in an effort not to bore anyone to the point of poking themselves in the eyeballs and sleeping on their desk in a pile of drool, I'm just putting them both together.  One nice, long post.  You're welcome.

The first week of July consisted of laundry, packing, laundry, cleaning, packing, laundry … you get the idea.  My uncle passed away fairly unexpectedly, so we decided to leave on Thursday night instead of Friday night as originally planned so that we could make it for the funeral.  Brian went into work for a bit on the 4th so that he could get some work done before leaving.  And I packed. 

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

11 months!




I learned today that monthly pictures now require 2 adults.  These 2 pics were insanely hard to get and I don't really like either one of them.  So when/if I ever get around to attempting to retake them, I'll post them.  If not, at least these reflect the chaos that is life right now!


I'm just not sure where time has gone.  I feel like I blinked and all of the sudden my babies are one month away from their first birthday.  When did that happen?! 

Twin Weight Tuesday {8.7.12}.

I'm sick.  So in the interest of brevity and preserving energy to care for my children, today's post will be a bit choppy.

I lost a pound this week.  Woo to the Hoo.

As you may have read here, I ran 2 miles straight.  And it felt amazing.  Since then, my runs have been less than stellar, but I think that's because I was coming down with this flu-ish thing.

I've been eating well, but it could be better.  When I'm sick, I don't feel like eating much, but what I do want what sounds good, and that's not always healthy (read: milk shakes).  Whatever.  I don't have much more to say about it than that.

I'm hoping to start running again soon, but in order to avoid an asthma attack, I'm holding off.  Until I can run sans-wheezing, I'm going to continue with some strength training (as suggested by my hubby and my friend Monica ... thanks Monica!).  But I'll be honest, I barely have the strength to lift my children right now, so that won't be happening in the next day or two.

That's all I have to say.  I'll be on the couch tossing my children goldfish crackers to keep them busy if anyone needs me.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Happy Birthday, Mother Dearest.




Today is my Mom's birthday.

There's a big joke in my family about how much my Mom loves to share with people that it's her birthday.  And that it's actually her birth MONTH.  Not day, not week, not week before and after, but all month long is HERS.  When I was preggo with the twins and was likely to deliver in August, my Dad razzed her for months about preparing herself to have to share her birth month with not one, but two people.  Hilarious.

But truly, this woman should be celebrated.  She raised 3 little girls into very strong, capable women.  She is a constant support behind my Dad's professional, educational, and theological ventures.  She loves her grandsons more than anything in this world.


As I've grown, my Mom has become one of my closest friends and confidants.  I hate being so far from her, but love knowing that I can always talk to her at a moment's notice.

Happy Birthday Mom.  I'd say that I love you more than you know, but I think you know.  Because, like you taught me, Moms know everything.





Favorite Posts Friday {8.3.12}.

Well, it's been a week or three since I've gotten an FPF post up, so this one is a bit long.  But it's a smattering of everything I've enjoyed the most over the past few weeks!


sKIDmarks - Some things you may need to know before you become a stay-at-home Mom - This is my new favorite blog.  My friend Ericka (can you still call someone your friend when you haven't seen them for, oh I don't know, maybe 4 years?  Thanks to Facebook, I say yes!), who is flippin' HILARIOUS herself and needs to start her own blog, told me to check it out and I'm so thankful I could kiss her (you know, if I ever see her in person again).  And when I saw this post, I fell even more in love with this blog.  Every ounce of this post could not be more true.  I adore it.


Bower PowerSoaking -- These are simply some beautiful words about a mother's love.  If you're a Mom (or just a softy), it's guaranteed to make your eyes leak, especially if you have a little boy.

Harper's HappeningsRewind - 3 year olds are terrorists -- This weekend is the big Blogher conference in NYC, so lots of ladies are bringing back their favorite posts while their having all kinds of lady-blogger fun in the Big Apple.  I'm fairly new to Harper's Happenings, so I haven't seen this one before.  And I'm very glad I did.  Brennan isn't 3 yet, but holy bananas his attitude sure is changing a lot lately.  I just read this whole post and nodded in agreement blurted out "Oh my God, YES!" to pretty much every part.  I felt like I was at one of those fun churches where they yell out "Amen!" and such while the preacher is preachin'.

Bower PowerIt's a little... -- This is one of the cutest, most creative gender reveals ever.  Not that I'm surprised at all, because Katie is one of the cutest, most creative people ever.

Brittany Herself Jeggings Weather -- I legitimately spit out the water I was drinking when I got to the part about pulling up your Spanx in front of your husband.  I'll do A LOT of stuff in front of Brian, but if he's in the bedroom when I want to put on my fat-sucker-inner, I will walk into the bathroom (naked), close and lock the door, and then walk out with just the girdle and a bra on.  I mean, we get pretty up close and personal in life, but that is just something that no one should ever see.  I accidentally caught a glimpse of the process in the mirror one time.  Once I regained feeling in my retinas (and vowed not to eat for 2 months) I promised myself I'd never make that mistake again.  Moral of the story?  Read this.  It's spit-out-your-drink-funny.  I promise.

Blue-Eyed Bride The Differences That Unite Us -- I wish more people would think this way.  It's true, I may be skeptical of the way some of my friends choose to parent.  I often think that things might just "work better" if they tried a different way of doing things.  And in the same regard, I often think things might work better if I tried a different way of doing things.  I just hate it when people get all judgmental or "my way or the highway".

Baby Rabies Pre-Kid Problems -- This is just so funny to me.  I hate to compare problems in life - whether it be my problems vs. someone else's problems or my problems now vs. my problems in my past lives.  Because really, it's all relative.  I will freely admit that my life now is so.fucking.much.harder than ever before.  It's harder than when I was a working mom of one.  And that was harder than working without kids, which was harder than working without a mortgage, which was harder than college, which was harder than high school...  But the thing is, I really, truly, legitimately thought that my life was so hard at each of those points.  And people would say, "Oh you just wait til ::insert various life stages here::" and I would get super annoyed because THEY JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH.  The point is, maybe 'harder' is a bad term to use.  Maybe it's just a different kind of hard.  I say this because I can see people getting all huffy about this if they don't have a sense of humor kids.  (And I can say that because I was totally one of them at one point in time).

Baby RabiesA Horror Story about Reptiles in Toilets -- You guys.  I'm not afraid of the lizards we have here.  They're harmless and pretty much like chipmunks or squirrels back in MI.  But finding one in the toilet after I pee is downright terrifying to me.  It has been one of my biggest fears since moving to Florida.  That and finding a cockroach in the toilet.  And a baby alligator.  What???

** No one asked me to feature their blog. I'm just passing along my favorites with hopes that you might find something you like too. And if you find a blog you like, I hope that you'll do like I did and follow their blog, whether by RSS, Friend Connect, or email. And do the same for mine if you like!


Thursday, August 2, 2012

BOOM.

You guys.

You GUYS.

YOU GUYS!!!!

I just ran 2 miles.

Like, straight, without stopping.

I haven't done that in probably 8 or 9 years.

I'd tell you the story but I'm too tired.  And excited.  And I can't stand my own stench so I need to go shower.

Yep.  2 miles.

Boom.

Rashy update.

Well, after spending an hour in the waiting room, 20 minutes in an exam room waiting to be seen, and about 2 minutes talking to the nurse practitioner, she declared that she agrees with the ER PA's diagnosis of a viral rash.  And that Kiernan's throat is indeed red.  And that she agrees that they look like petechiae, but that they don't fit the typical pattern.  And that she agrees with my assumption that it is the same virus that Brian and Brennan have been battling and that it just happened to manifest with a rash for Kiernan.

Well, that was 1 hour 22 minutes and a $10 copay NOT well spent.

Actually, it's fine.  I'm always willing to spend time and money to make sure that my boys are OK.  Much better to be safe, I'm just a little bitter that medical offices can't solve through-put problems.  It's really not that difficult and there's tons of research out there to show which systems work and which don't.  We aren't talking ER here people, it's the doctor's office.  Where people always LEAVE.  But that's just a little pet peeve of mine after working in several medical offices and you know, getting my Master's degree in this sort of thing.

The point is, Kiernan is just fine.  He's a little crankier than normal, has a slight fever, and is lacking a bit in the appetite department, but he'll survive.  And if nothing else, the past few days we've been able to spend a little one-on-one time together, which is always a nice treat.


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Twin Weight Tuesday ... on Wednesday {8.1.12}.

Well hey, look at me!  Two posts in one day!  Spectacular.

I have good news, and I have bad news.

You may remember that I opted not to weigh in for a few weeks because I didn't have my scale.  And you also may remember that while I rocked it at running the first week and a half of vacation, I also sucked balls at eating.  Actually, I ate very well, just not healthy AT ALL.  And then the second week I had practically no physical activity, but we were so busy that I didn't eat much at all.  I also opted out of weighing in last Tuesday because of the sheer terror of what the amount of fast food that was consumed on our road trip home would have done to the number on the scale.  So I decided to wait til this week.

Mystery rash.


I had grand plans of sitting down to write a Twin Weight Tuesday post last night after the boys went to bed. 
It was shaping up nicely to work out well as I had for once actually taken advantage of the boys' synchronized afternoon nap for once and accomplished something other than running or napping.  Dishes were done, bottles washed, toys picked up, and I even got myself dressed.  That, my friends, is a big afternoon.