A Survey

Totally stole this off my friend Amy's blog. Thought it was cute:

Just copy and paste this to your blog and bold the ones that you HAVE done.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland ... and Disneyworld!
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Made a prank phone call.

New Layout -- Sick Kids

Finally a new,non boring layout. Enjoy, it's in honor of the fast approaching Valentines Day. The most commercialized holiday on the planet. It's not a fave of mine. I love my sweetie every day, not on one specific day of the year. I have warned him for many years that if he buys me $200.00 roses I will kill him with my bare hands. Happy Valentines Day...nothing says I love ya like the threat of death.

Germs -- GO AWAY! Morgan started coming down with a cough Sunday night. By Monday she was miserable. Feverish, coughing, snotty, whining, clingy, overall just sad. By Wednesday, she was better, still coughing and having a runny nose, but better. Wednesday night Kamryn started coughing a bit. By Thursday night she was clingy, fevering, aching, had a runny nose. She was super pathetic.

Today I awoke to Alexis feverish and moaning. She spent the majority of the day on the sofa, a rare thing in my house.

Kori and I have made a pact to stay healthy. Here's to hoping it works!

The weather has been brutal lately. Cold, windy, cold, freezing, cold, miserable, cold, awful. Did I mention cold? Jason and I agree we need a warmer climate. I never used to mind it, now it's just awful.

Snow this morning. Not much but enough to make the dolts on the road drive even worse than usual. The freeway I usually hop on to take Kori to school was a parking lot so we diverted and snuck in the back way. I personally didn't have any trouble, but there were TONS of wrecks everywhere else. I don't know why people can't just slow down and exercise a bit of common sense and good judgement. It really can go a long way.

Jason was off the past 3 days and it was nice. The house got super cleaned. Laundry was caught up (notice I said WAS -- when the weather gets warmer I'm having the 1st Annual Naked Day. I want to know what it's like to have an empty hamper for 24 hours. Never fear I will give advance warning on when this will take place so everyone can stay clear. I speak only for myself when I say IT WON'T BE PRETTY!)

He returned to work tonight and had off-duty before so it was a girls evening. I made a casserole which did not turn out so the girls and I got some drive-thru take-out. A 54th Street salad for me and KFC for the girls. At least the kitchen clean up was easy.

Alexis is floppy and restless tonight. I hope she's feeling better tomorrow.

I'm ready for warmer, germ free weather!

Boring

I apologize for the boring layout but the site I currently use is down so I have to use one of this pre-made ones that are provided. Kind of boring, but the Christmas one needed to come down.

Not Easy

If someone asked me to explain my life in two words, these are the two that I would use most often, NOT EASY.

Let me start off by saying that I love my kids with all my heart. However, my life is not easy. I have insomnia. I haven't slept great since the girls turned one. I have continued to go down hill in this area over the past several months. It is not uncommon for me to still be awake at 5am. It is for the birds! I can outlast sleeping pills, 1, 2, it doesn't matter. It is so frustrating! During the day I am dragging, at night when I should be sleeping...WIDE AWAKE! I am sure that adds to my level of frustration at times.

So I have decided that potty training needs to get going. We did a few hours of panties after Christmas when the girls wanted to wear the new Dora, Elmo, Cinderella etc. panties that they got in their stockings, as gifts, etc. (Apparently I'm not the only one that can't resist the cute little things!) These times usually ended up with pee running down someones legs. This freaked Jason out a bit because, and I quote, "I don't want the house smelling like pee". Great neither do I. So anyway with travel for the funeral etc. we put it off.

Today I decided we would hit it hard. Now I should preface this with the fact that the girls woke up grouchy today. Kamryn greeted me with a "don't look at me mommy" instead of her usual kiss and a smile. Uh, good morning to you too. I should have taken that as a sign. Not easy.

She decided she didn't want to wear panties. I should clarify that she let me know this while screaming at the top of her lungs and running away from me...fast. Morgan and Alexis were more accomodating. They were all about the panties. I have put away the cute, thin and incredibly unabsorbent character panties and have replaced them with the not as cute, much thicker and more absorbent training panties. They aren't as thrilled with the selection of patterns, but oh well. About every 20-minutes or so we'd head to the potty or I'd at least ask. We did some sitting here and there and I got a few "I don't have to go's". Well lets just say Alexis went through 3 pairs of panties and Morgan 2 before naptime. Not easy.

In the middle of all of this the little girls were fighting, hitting, shrieking, yelling, screaming, bickering, grabbing, taking, arguing, crying, sobbing, smacking (and many other things that end in I-N-G that I have probably repressed). It was a rough day! They stayed up a bit later last night and woke up a bit earlier than I think they needed to so that didn't help. Finally at about 1:30 I had reached the limit and off we went for naps. They fell asleep quiety and quickly, which is always a good sign. After a two hour nap we started more potty training. Daddy was awake now and could help with the bathroom runs.

Alexis opted out of the panties this time and decided she would wear a diaper. Whatever. I prefer to do one at a time anyway so no worries from me. Morgan woke up dry from her nap. Took off her diaper put her on the potty and got nothing. Oh well. We'll try again soon was my thinking. Imagine a mere less than 5 minutes later when she comes walking in the kitchen looking as if she'd just gotten off of a very long horseback ride. **Sigh** She informed me "I need dry panties". Not easy.

So Kamryn is doing good anyway. She kind of takes it to the other extreme. Every 5 minutes she's giving a big "I gotta go" as she's blasting down the hall toward the bathroom. She goes about 3 dribbles and proclaims "I done, I get jelly bean now". This goes on about every 5 minutes, sometimes even less, but we don't want to discourage her.

Kori was less than thrilled when Morgan let loose in her room today. Thankfully it didn't get on anything (those are some mighty absorbent panties!) but she wasn't happy that Morgan chose her room to do it in. Not easy.

So the count today was:

Alexis - 3 pairs of panties
Morgan- 5 pairs of panties
Kamryn - 1 pair of panties.

All panties have been laundered and are ready for service again tomorrow. Oh goody!

The crabbies were still around even after their nap. Hopefully a good nights sleep will help and everyone will be back to normal tomorrow.

For now I don't heart potty training so much, but I am hoping it catches on soon!

Law and Order

I should be sleeping, but I can't and that's nothing new, so here I am.

Today I met Jason at the car dealership after I picked Kori up from school. The paperwork was pretty much ready and just needed my signature. Didn't want to have to chase the girls all over again so he went before me and got everything else taken care of.

As we pulled up Kori said, Mommy two policemen just went into the building. I look and sure enough, a van and a police cruiser. Hmmmmm. So I go in and meet up with Jason. I asked him if he knew what was up and he said no. No disturbance or anything obvious.

So a well dressed, middle aged female walks up and the officers ask her, "Are you Mrs. So and So? (I wasn't close enough to hear her name). She nods yes and they ask her to step out into the entryway to talk for a minute. Now, since Jason is an officer, I know from past stories etc. this usually doesn't turn out well. Well another of the dealers came over and we were talking about how freaked out we would be etc. I looked up again, just as they were putting the pretty silver bracelets AKA handcuffs on her. Holy cow! Right there at her job! Oh man, how embarassing! They plop her into the wagon and away it goes. The officer in the car comes in and gets her jacket and purse and leaves. I'm assuming she had warrants or something but it sure was weird. I'd be soooooo embarassed.

So that was the excitement for the day there. Everyone was a buzz about it.

I got my new van. I'm the proud owner of a silver 2009 Honda Odyssey with gray interior. Mind you I just turned in a silver 2006 Honda Odyssey with gray interior. Besides white it was the only van they had on the lot. They could have gotten me a light blue one, but it would have taken several days and with Jason's crazy schedule this week it would have been more hassle than it was worth. I like the silver color. It doesn't show dirt much. It's pretty much the same car, only with the new car smell. And it only had 9 miles on it. So I'm set with a new lease until 2012. At that time I hope to get a Honda Pilot.

New Car Shopping

I hate it! Let me just say that right now. It's my least favorite thing to do. That and buy/sell a house. Yuck!

My lease on my van is up so it's just a must. I am torn between leasing another van (I have a Honda Odyssey and I love it!) and getting the newly redesigned Honda Pilot. I currently have one in my garage. It's sooooo pretty, and sporty and not very great for getting the kiddos in and out of easily. So as much as I love how it drives like a car and makes me feel less frumpy, I will be getting a new van tomorrow. I'm going with light blue this time. The Pilot is black and I really like it, but they don't have any black vans in stock and since Jason has a black car, I'm mixing it up a bit. Woo hoo! Look at me living dangerously! Jason is going to handle as much of it as he can. When I have to sign some paperwork I'll show up. I had to go today for a bit and chased the girls out of everywhere they weren't supposed to be.

On a funny note we were in the play area with the girls waiting for our sales man to "crunch some numbers". There was an Asian man in there with his young daughter as well. A lady that worked at the dealership walks in and says, "Mr. and Mrs. Ming?", and she's looking directly at Jason and I. Not the man who is less than a foot away from Jason, who clearly looks more like a Mr. Ming than the clearly nearly albino, red headed couple standing in front of her. (No offense to you Mr. Ming whatsoever!) It was so funny, I had a hard time controlling my giggles until they left the room.

Oh, right, I almost forgot my other high point of the day. I had my yearly OB/GYN appointment today. Right on schedule, only 5 months late. (Insert eye rolling here!) I tried to get in a little earlier (making me only about 3 months late) but my doctor is super busy and always booked up.

I haven't seen him since Aug. of 2007 when the girls were just over a year old. He was tickled to see new pictures and wanted to hear all about them. I just love him! He is soooo awesome! However before our stroll down memory line I had to wait to see him for 2 1/2 hours! This isn't uncommon. Once when I was pregnant with the girls my appointment was at 12:30 and I didn't get seen until 4:45. (He was at the hospital on an emergency). Due to my high risk nature I couldn't leave so I had to stick it out. Today he was delivering twins. I know that there's the chance I might have to wait so I came prepared with a book and a bottle of water. If I had thought twice I would have brought a granola bar since my appointment was a lunch time. Oh well, next time.

Let's see, what else has been happening. I've been a bit lax in my posts. Sorry about that.

The girls are great! Kori is back to school as of yesterday. Monday was "staff development" so she didn't return until Tuesday. She was fine with going back which was good. The little girls missed her a lot!

We journied to Iowa Friday for Grandpa Marvin's funeral. The service went well and the little girls cooperated. (That could have something to do with the box of bribery, uh, I mean fruit snacks I had in my purse. I was happy they did well. I was a bit stressed they would be disruptive.

The weather on Saturday turned a bit yucky (it is northern Iowa after all!) There was some sleet/freezing rain during the cemetary portion and that continued on our drive back to Jason's dads house. What normally would have been about 45 minutes took about an hour and 45 minutes. Jason's stepbrother and his wife headed back to Des Moines afterwards and said there were lots of cars off the road, in ditches and overturned. We gave the salt/sand trucks a bit to get out and then headed out. It was slow going at first but we did okay. There were lots of cars all over and upside down. Scary! The girls traveled well and Kori had a good time with my folks. It was nice to be back home and in my own bed though. I sure miss my bed when I'm gone.

Well I guess that's about it for me.

I shall post more soon!

Heading To Iowa

We are leaving tomorrow for Iowa to go to Jason's Grandpa Marvin's funeral. I hope the weather cooperates. We are taking Jason's car for a change since Kori has boycotted the boring road trip to Iowa and instead is staying with my parents.

We'll be back late Saturday!