word of the week:

poop!
I have changed way too many dirty diapers this week and I don't think I should have to change any for a week.
I don't know what was going on with Lance and his digestive system this week or why Lily decided to get in on the action too, but we have gone through way too many diapers and wipes in this house. Monday afternoon Lance wasn't interested in eating, Monday night still no interest. Tuesday morning, not interested in food really, by noon he was running a fever and acting not right. He ate a little dinner and then 5:45 Wednesday morning was diaper explosion. Ahhh, the smell, the volume, it was bad. He seemed better though Wednesday, no fever and he was acting normal, but every time he ate something we had a diaper to deal with. It was strange, he seemed to want to eat, but his digestive system didn't seem to be able to deal with anything. Yesterday he too seemed fine, but every time he ate, he pooped.
Then there is Lily, not that she was ill, but every time she pooped she it went out the back of her diaper and all over her clothes and once on me. The last few days have been rough.
Fortunately I haven't had to deal with any poop diapers from either child today! Hooray! I just hope Jeff and I stay healthy, though I think we would be sick by now, but we shall see.

our weekend away

We are back! I did it, we did it. We survived our first road trip! The kids did great especially since we were in the car a lot and had absolutely no schedule what-so-ever. Here is a snapshot of our weekend away:
The kids all packed up and ready to go!

I was a bit nervous taking both kiddos solo especially since neither one of them are fans of the car, but they did great!

Outside of Charlottesville are some beautiful horse farms. There were quite a few for sale signs around, a lot more than usual. I always say I couldn't live out in the country, but I think I would enjoying living on one of these beautiful farms, the scenery is just amazing.

We made it up to Alexandria Friday late morning and spent the day with little Emilie. Lance had a blast with his new friend.

Lance enjoying Emilie's box fort.

Emilie's daddy is a state trooper and let us use his hat. Lance would not try on the police hat so we had Lily do it.

Lance loves police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, trains, airplanes, etc and he was in awe of the real police car, but a bit timid of the policeman inside. I made sure we had a picture of him by it, he loved the flashing lights, but wasn't a fan of the siren.


Lily was amazing. It was a busy weekend going everywhere, and Lily did great, here she is being very cozy.

Lance and Emilie playing on the piano. This was one of the first times that Lance was actually bigger than a friend, in fact he looks quite large in comparison. Lance and Emilie played together really well and really enjoyed each other's company.

Saturday morning we got up and headed up to Maryland. I dropped Lance off at my friend's house and then headed to Baltimore with Lily for a swim meet. I ended up being late to the meet because I got caught in an intersection that was closed off for a fireman's funeral, it was frustrating sitting in traffic for over 30 minutes. The meet flew by and fortunately we won, just barely and then I headed back to Erica to hang out with her and the boys. Lance really enjoyed playing at Erica's house and he fell in love with one toy in particular:
What does Lance want for his birthday? A powerwheel! He loved this thing and rode on it every chance he got.

Sunday we decided to go on an adventure and headed up to PA to hit Hershey Park, Erica's favorite place on Earth. I wasn't too sold on the idea at first, but it ended up being a really fun day. We took a trolley ride around Hershey and learned the story about Hershey and got to each chocolate along the way.
Lance, Lily, and I on the "train" getting ready for the tour of Hershey. Lance was very excited to ride on a train and did great on the sixty minute tour.

This is not a great picture, but it is a picture of a chandelier in the founders hall in Hershey. I loved the chandeliers, they looked like snowflakes, if I am ever wealthy I want a chandelier like that in my home.

Here is Lance showing off his chocolate bar that he got from the chocolate works, trolley tour of Hershey, he was so excited to have his own chocolate bar.

We had just finished the trolley tour and decided to go on the factory tour ride again and Lance was so excited he was running to the entrance.

The singing cows on the factory ride, they sing to you, Lance loved them. After Hershey we headed back to Erica's and had dinner. The kids were all wired from eating chocolate so we had a dance party, lots of fun was had by all.

Lily enjoying the boys burning off some energy by dancing!
Monday morning we got an early start since it was snowing and I was concerned the roads would get bad and we made a pit stop at Ikea. It was weird shopping at Ikea by myself, but it was still fun. We had breakfast in the cafe, yummy and got a few things for our home. Then we headed back home. The trip was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again when the weather is a lot warmer, there are so many things I want to do around D.C. and now that I know my kids can handle the trip I am ready for warm weather.

nervous excitement

We are going out-of-town this weekend.
Wait, "we" sounds like all 4 of us, but that would be a misrepresentation, "we" in this case is the kids and I are going out-of-town and I am a bit nervous. Lily isn't the biggest fan of the car so it may be a bit stressful. Also I will be leaving Lance at a friend's house while I am at a swim meet, this will be the first time I leave him with someone other than family, I know, recipe for disaster. Fortunately this week at small group he seemed to do fine downstairs with the baby sitter so hopefully he won't give me too much trouble. Well there isn't too much I can do since I will be 45 minutes away, but he should have fun with my friend's boys and he will have as many trains, blankets, dvds, and juice cups my car can fit so hopefully something will get him through. So tomorrow morning we are packing up and heading up to D.C. to visit a friend and her daughter. Then Saturday morning we ride up to Maryland, drop Lance off, head out to the swim meet, do the swim meet thing then head back to Erica's for a hopefully relaxing evening. Sunday is the free day I don't know what we have planned and then we will head back home either Sunday evening or Monday morning, depending how the kids sleep at night, how Lily handles the car, and how well the boys get along. I am looking forward to getting out-of-town and seeing friends, it should be fun, though packing is a bit nerve racking, trying to remember everything I might need for two little people as well as myself. I hope the weather is not to cold so Lance can get some outside time in, he has way too much energy that he needs to get out. Well I should get started on packing.

why does something that should only take 1 minute

take and hour and 15 minutes instead?
I have been working for an hour and 15 minutes to get online so I can check on my bank account, but after all kinds of problems I was worried this computer might have a virus or something bad so I am a bit afraid to log on. An hour and 15 minutes, too long to do anything that should only take 5 minutes.
I should be folding laundry or resting, but instead I am trying to check up on what's is going on in the cyberworld, my priorities are way off.
Today is the last day of craziness, thank goodness. I have almost survived this week, yeah!
Today has been very busy.
Got up.
Fed Lily.
Took shower, got dressed, dried hair.
Got clothes for Lily.
Got kids bundled up for temperatures in the teens.
Got kids in the car and headed over to the college to pick up a swimmer.
Went to grocery store and got food for swimmer and brunch items for the whole team.
Dropped off swimmer.
Dropped off Lance at my mom's and fed Lily.
Went to college and put away food.
Did some dry land exercises with swimmers.
Made, ate, and cleaned up brunch (eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, pancakes, and oj).
Got Lily and myself bundled up.
Picked up Lance and brought kids home and in to bed for nap.
Was almost asleep when phone rang.
Answered phone and tried to go to sleep.
Couldn't sleep, tried internet, didn't work.
Tried internet dozen times. Restarted computer twice. Tried ghetto computer downstairs. Tried laptop again and again. Finally logged on. Now I need to get work done because in half an hour must:
Go back to college feed swimmers.
Monitor warm up for meet.
Have swim meet.
Go to bed.
Try to focus that all of this time spent at swimming will result in large paycheck.
Can't wait for February 14th, swim will be over with!

mad at myself

If Lance doesn't nap this afternoon, it is all my FAULT. I am so mad at myself. He was asleep on my bed, but in an awkward position so I moved him which of course woke him up and now he seems to be going strong. Why oh why did I try and move him? If he falls asleep on his trains they obviously aren't hurting him enough to keep him from falling asleep.
And onto a totally random topic. Why is it that when I send a check to a company to pay a bill, the check arrives in two to three days, but when a check is coming to me from a company, it takes a week or more? Our insurance company canceled our coverage, but still took our money for a couple of months so we are awaiting a check for seven hundred dollars from them and we still haven't received it, which they supposedly mailed out a week ago. How does a check from a city two hours away take over a week to reach us? We really need that money. I am tired of not having any money. I wish this "economic crisis" would resolve so people would start spending money again so we could have some income. Right now business is slow because people aren't spending a lot of money, Jeff considers getting a job but no one is hiring, if anything, people are getting laid off right now, also because people are spending, there is less tax money which means the government has less money which means there are cuts in jobs that I might be able to get (such as teaching), and so we are stuck right now and sure hope things get better soon because there aren't a lot of options out there.

update:
mail came again, twice in one day, strange, but the check arrived! hooray!!! also lance asleep after several attempts! hooray! this afternoon isn't so bad, just hope lance wakes up from nap early enough so I can get check to bank.

even more drama

but this isn't from lance.
put women together and you get drama, especially women of the college-age.
i am tired of the back-stabbing
two-faced behavior
fickle attitudes
the complaining
the I am better, smarter, stronger, whatever than you are
the I know better than you attitude
the so-and-so did it this way
the lack of team spirit
the cliques
the queen bees and their followers
just the drama!
it upsets me to see others purposely exclude others
i hate having to be around people I know are talking about me behind my back
the whispers, the eye rolling, it is like high school all over again
i can't do this next year.
i don't really want to go back this evening.

can we get some snow here, please?

it is cold enough
but unfortunately it is not snowing and I am starting to think it never will.
what happened to that cold weather and snow we got back in December? okay, cold weather yes, snow, dusting, but for the beginning of December it was pretty exciting!
can it please snow here and i mean SNOW, like inches not centimeters.
everyone around here kept saying this winter was going to be bad, lots of snow, really cold temperatures, a winter like when we were kids, so far it hasn't panned out that way, bummer.
I know winter still has time, but once March hits I am ready for spring, heck, halfway through February I am ready for spring.
A good snow day would be a lot of fun, especially this week with my crazy two practices a day swimming. I feel like I am living at the pool. Don't let me agree to do swim team again next year, the money isn't worth the trouble, well the drama. In two weeks when I get a large paycheck I might change my waver on my no more swimming, then again I might not.
I do have to say Lily has been awesome so far these last four days of living at the pool. She is content walking all around PER (physical education and recreation building) especially at 8 pm when all she wants to do is go to sleep in her bed. Lance too has been a trooper being shuttled here and there between the school, grandma's, the store, and home. I am thankful that so far the week is running smoothly and hopefully it will be over soon. Three and half days down, 3 days to go!

can i just get a break?

and i am not talking about a break from lance, though I wish he would nap today.
a break at life, you know, things work out easily and not always so complicated.
for christmas we got lance a little tikes kitchen because i was tired of lance dragging out all of my pots, pans, utensils, etc. out of the kitchen, I can never find what I need.
well the kitchen is nice, but the oven door will not shut, the fridge door is cracked and the butter dish is broken, three things busted right out of the box. I called the number to request parts, faxed in receipt and waited for replacement parts. they came in today and guess what-
you got it
the parts we received are for a different kitchen set not the one we have and as luck would have it, I can't find the UPC code for the kitchen set we do have so calling little tikes might not be very productive. grrr, give me a break, please!

oh my thighs

My body hurts.
I am so sore.
I am trying to avoid stairs, reaching down to pick things up, standing up, well all around moving.
Actually I am trying to rid my poor muscles of the lactic acid that was built up from this weekend when a few exercises literally kicked my butt.
Part of my job as assistant swim coach is to plan and coordinate dry land exercises to increase strength and balance focusing on the core muscles to help the swimmers in the water. (doesn't that sound fancy?)
Anyways, swim started on Saturday and I had researched and found some new exercises to try out and get the swimmers back in shape after their long winter break. And two exercises in particular really killed me, okay kill is the wrong descriptive word, more like opened my eyes as to how out of shape I am. The one exercise that has caused me to rethink how many trips upstairs I will go today is a reverse squat (without weights) and boy, my thighs hurt, it was simple, we only did 10 reps, but it was quite effective. We also did "plank up" which was difficult, but much better than a regular push-up. Despite feeling sore today I hope that I will continue to get into shape because I know in the long run it is better for me. I am no couch potato, but I don't exercise as much as I should.

glutton for punishment

I am a glutton for punishment. I have swim practice today at two and after practice, dinner with the swimmers, a trip to the grocery store with them it will be probably 8-9 pm so once two comes my day is done. So I have tons to do today, the list is long so what am I doing- playing on facebook, checking e-mail, blogging, when I should be cleaning, organizing, getting my to do list done. Ahhhh, when am I going to learn?

total randomness

alternate title: the weird things lily does with her hands and feet

The other morning I came into our wee little kitchen and saw that Lily was "helping" daddy butter a bagel.

And that is when I noticed her foot.

It was resting on his back pocket, she had her foot there as though she it was a place to stand up on.

I then wondered what the front foot was doing. It too had found a small ridge to rest itself.

Look at those long toes! As you can see she is very into bagel buttering.


Then one day this week I went to check on Lily while she was napping and I noticed this:


The view from above:


She had squirmed her way up to the top of the mattress and poked her fingers out between the mattress and the bumper pad. She seemed to be holding onto something, not quite sure what though.



Totally random pictures of the quirky things Lily has been doing lately.

dreading this weekend

I usually look forward to the weekend, but not this weekend though.
This weekend I have to start back with swimming and we are starting it off with a bang. I have a three hour practice on Saturday then we are heading to dinner and the grocery store with the swimmers. Then there is a 3 hour practice on Sunday as well as dinner afterwards. Monday through Thursday of next week I have practice from 10am-12pm then 5:45 to 8:30pm, it is going to be rough. Then on Friday there is morning practice and then a swim meet that night. Since the swimmers are coming back a week early we have to provide dinner for the women because the dining hall isn't open yet, so I will be cooking or fetching dinner for the next week, as well as dealing with paperwork and trying to balance life at home, ahhh, it is going to be rough. I pray that everyone in my family stays healthy because I could not deal with any additional stress. I keep telling myself the money will be worth all the time, I only have 5 weeks left (which is good and bad), and the crazy schedule is only for a week, and then it is back to just evening practices, though we have 3 away swim meets which are going to be rough, but we are on the home stretch. I just pray I can survive the next 11 days.

one of THOSE days

Lily is on her 3rd outfit of the day. Outfit number 1 got spit up on it and I hated the smell so when we got home from our morning outings we changed into a new clean onesie and outfit. Within 5 minutes she pooped and of course because she was in clean clothes it went up the back through her onesie and outfit. Lily is currently in outfit #3, but I have yet to fasten all the snaps because this outfit seems to have shrunken and I just don't have the energy to wrestle her into the outfit quite yet and knowing the way things are going today it will be soiled shortly. It is also a rainy, yucky day which has kind of put me in a funk and the house currently is a disaster, toys and clothes are scattered everywhere, I am not motivated to clean today. There is so much to be done and not enough time, I really hope lance will nap today; so I can be semi-productive today, at least get some laundry done so lily will have something to wear when #4 is needed. I am also frustrated at the lack of progress Lance is making in speech, he wasn't very cooperative today. It has only been 4 months, but I was hoping for more progress, we are still working on vowel sounds. He won't try to say words or sounds, I guess he is stubborn like me. Then there is the whole health insurance fiasco, we got cancelled, and now we have a huge bill from the pediatrician and no money to pay for anything. It could be worse, I know, but the little things are just getting to me. I finally broke it down and snapped up the outfit and guess what, she pooped, out the back, go figure.

she can see!

Lily can see and won't be going blind in one eye! she is normal, at least for now, hopefully she won't inherit my lack of vision.

Huge Praise!

last month I took lily to the doctor for her 4 month check-up and I asked the doctor about her right eye because we noticed sometimes it looks turned in and not even with the other eye. In a picture we had taken for Christmas the eye was extremely noticeably turned in and the light reflected from the flash didn't seem to be lined up in both eyes. The doctor examined her and thought everything was okay, but then when he saw the photograph he was concerned that it may be intermittent esotrophia and wanted us to go see a specialist. He said it might be an optical allusion since babies have extra skin between their eyes and their noses are really wide, but if was and we didn't try and resolve the problem her brain might turn off her right eye and she would be blind in one eye. This was scary news to me especially since I have horrible eyesight and had my first pair of glasses at age 4, I was terrified that my child would be worse off than me and I am pretty bad! I hope and pray that my children will have jeff's eyesight and not mine. So in the last few weeks I was thinking of all sorts of worst case scenarios because my imagination is a bit much sometimes. I was worried that she would be blind in one eye, have my horrible eyesight, have astigmatism like me then lack depth perception and not be able to function normally, extreme and irrational, I know, but worrying is my thorn in my flesh I battle with. So in hopes of catching any problems early we scheduled an appointment with a pediatric eye doctor (didn't know they had such things!) and today was our appointment. Lily did great despite spending over an hour in various waiting rooms and having to get her eyes dilated. The doctor moved around a toy light and watched her eyes and said everything looked fine and then dilated her eyes and checked to make sure everything was normal which is turned out to be so I am happy to report Lily can see just fine, her eyes are aligned perfectly and I am out $170, money not so sure well spent. The doctor thinks that the turning in of the right eye is more of an optical illusion that occurs when Lily's head is turned due to extra skin around the eyes/nose. I am glad to hear that Lily is going to be fine, so I worried for nothing, one more example of why worrying just doesn't do any good.

notice in the picture her eyes don't look quite right, but according to the doctor everything is good and it is just because she has a wide nose right now

my dirty little secret

To try and save:
my hair color,
money spent on water,
money on hair products,
electricity,
time in the morning,
my skin from getting too dry,
the environment,
I have been only showering every other day and it has been a hard. I am currently on week 3 of the every other shower experiment and I don't know whether it has made much of difference yet, but I hope so.
There is nothing like a nice hot shower in the morning, but with two kids I don't always have time or the energy. I also would like to save my hair color since I did get low lights with more red in them then usual and I don't want them turning brassy by washing them too frequently especially since I bought inexpensive shampoo this time around, though it is for color treated hair ( I am also trying to figure out whether there really is a difference between the expensive and inexpensive shampoos and conditioners).
So my dirty little secret is out, I never would have thought years ago I would be able to make the transition, but so far I have survived, I don't know if I can keep it up in the summer, but in the winter it isn't a problem. I read somewhere that your hair will adjust to being only washed every other day, but so far it really hasn't. By the end of the non-shower day it is a bit greasier then I would like which is bothersome because I can't really pull it back right now, it is too short.
So not showering every day is one step I am taking to cut back on spending and going green, more like greasy, but every little bit helps, especially when you are like me and love long, hot showers. I must say, I now relish my morning showers now that they are half as often.

the drama king

Life has been difficult with Lance, he has become quite the drama king, especially when it relates to the cut he has on the bottom of his foot. He walks tip-toe around the house if he is bare foot, and will only walk normally if he has shoes or slippers on, a few times he has wanted to be carried. He is constantly making "ouch" sounds and seems to be in pain whenever his foot comes in contact with any surface or object. He insists on having a band-aid on and doesn't like to have it removed. Funny thing is, 50% of the time, he is holding up/protecting/complaining about the wrong foot, the foot that doesn't have the cut on it.

a little bit of money

Sometimes I am neurotic.
I have been complaining about wanting a nice fleece for days like today when it isn't freezing cold, but you need a light jacket. A nice fleece that would be windproof is quite expensive.
Jeff has started buying bikes from the Goodwill and fixing them up and reselling them. He recently sold one for 300 dollars. He said I could use the money to buy a nice fleece, but the gears in my head started to turn.
With $300 I could:
-save a little more and buy a dyson vacuum (I am on my 3rd vacuum, though my vacuums are hand-me-downs)
-buy Flor for our living room, our rug has seen better days (and carpet squares would be awesome to clean up messes)
-buy a new replacement window (one window at a time)
-put it in savings for a rainy day
-pay off two credit cards
-pay bills so the store won't have to pay us as much
and the list of things could go on and on.
Despite the fleece being the first idea, it would only benefit me, whereas the other items on my list would benefit the whole family. Jeff gets kind of frustrated with me because I will never buy anything for myself, but yet I will complain about not having anything nice, but I can't rationalize spending anything over $20 for myself when I can use the money in so many other ways.
What will probably happen to the extra money is what happens to all extra money, get spent on bills, not exciting, but maybe one day we won't be treading water.

2-for-1

Right now I am into 2 meals with basically one set of ingredients. I love being able to buy one main ingredient and making two meals from it, it is my new favorite thing. It saves money and waste. Also, with swimming taking up a lot of my time I have needed to have easy meals and 2-for1 meals have come in handy. Some examples:
Sunday night: rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables then I took the leftover chicken and made Chicken tetrazzini with it which is now in my freezer waiting for a night when I don't feel like cooking
Christmas Day: ham with typical holiday casseroles then a few days later cut up the ham and made a quiche
Baked Ziti and Stuffed Shells, I make a whole batch, but put half in the freezer.
I need to find some more recipes to broaden my frozen food selection, but I am so happy that we aren't being as wasteful because we are not always the best at eating leftovers.

2009 here we come

So today is the first day of the new year, a fresh start.
I am always a little sad to let go of the previous year, I guess because every year is farther away from memories and people. 2008 was the year of Lily and though I don't know what the future holds, she may be my last baby and that is kind of sad. Also, it will be 7 years this February when we lost my grandfather, Pop, and every year is more distance away from him, I miss him so much and wish he was hear to celebrate all of life's moments, he loved to celebrate. Also, every year we are getting older and time just seems to fly by so quickly.
Okay, my new year's resolutions:
1- make it more of a priority to spend some time alone, a quiet time every day, it may mean getting up earlier
2- save more money, starting a retirement account and having emergency money in a savings account
3- get out of debt, we made progress in 2007, but we still have a ways to go
4- be less busy and be more intentional about spending special time with lance and lily individually
5- give more away, time, things, money, whatever, but give more
6- learn to let go, if the house isn't perfect it is okay, life is about relationships and I need to let go
on that note, I am off to play with lance

update:
as I am trying to organize the playroom/guest room/office/extra bedroom I realized another resolution:
7- I will update Lance and Lily's baby books, get photos into albums, make photo books and get organized, I am so way behind