Whoa...it's March...

Wow. I cannot believe how long it's been since I last posted! I would love to say that my life has just been filled to the brim with new and exciting events and activities, but the only thing new is whatever the kids are up to these days. I just do my best to keep up with them! :)

The kids turned two back in December, and two weeks later they promptly began identifying the letters of the alphabet. They don't know the alphabet in order from A to Z, but ask them what any specific letter is (seriously, it's like a game to them now) and they race to see who can yell it out first. It actually freaked me out a little, and then I got used to it. They have really picked it up from Sesame Street and Word World on PBS, so I can't even take credit for it. I guess I'm just amazed and thankful at the same time, since twins tend to be a little delayed on certain aspects of development...at least I know they shouldn't have much trouble with learning to read later on. It's funny though...Megan and I went to the doctor to check on a minor issue, and while we were waiting for the doc to come into the exam room, Megan was reading me the letters in a book (not the words, just the letters). The doc walks in and just gapes, mouth hanging. Very calmly, she turns and says, "How long has she been doing that?" She was even more shocked when I told her they were both doing it, and very clearly. Like I said...can't take the credit, but I sure am proud of them.

Megan has gotten very sure of herself, and sometimes the confidence she has borders on snottiness. She woke up from her nap yesterday and informed me, "Mommy, I would like Word World." I told her I was watching the news, and that we would watch it later (I record it on my DVR to keep it close at hand) and she smartly replied, "But MOMMY, I would LIKE Word World!" Sheesh. Jeremy does pretty well holding his own with her now, so I no longer worry that she is going to boss him around the house as much. He's a dancing fool...we took the kids to Sea World for Steve's birthday at the end of February, and in the lobby of our hotel there was a one-man music presentation, and Jeremy boogied in front of the stage, all by himself, for two whole songs before we dragged him away to give the poor musician his spotlight back. :)

Time for me to try to get to sleep. Take care and keep in touch!!!

Long Overdue...Time To Catch Up!

Wow, so it's been a while since I blogged...just checked and I haven't done this since right around Thanksgiving! Much has happened since then, but then again, would I expect different? The kids turned TWO, and I'm still in denial about that on some level. I'm grateful to see them growing and thriving and learning, but it's difficult because while they'll always be my "babies," they really aren't BABIES anymore.

I didn't realize that kids could learn letters and numbers so early...for the last two months, Megan and Jeremy have been counting to ten, pointing out numbers in the most random places, and identifying letters, too. We're still working on memorizing the alphabet song, but they can both pick up any block in their collection and tell me exactly what is on it. Jeremy has a partiality for "J", "U" and "8", while Megan changes her favorites on a daily basis. :) They also love it when you wear t-shirts or sweaters with letters and/or numbers on them, so that they can carry on a vibrant discussion with you...repeatedly...even when you really don't feel like talking about the subject. I wish I could take credit for a lot of it, but the truth is that I have Sesame Street to thank for most of it!

Getting ready for Christmas was a LOT of fun. They aren't scared of Santa at all, so I got my now-traditional annual photo of them with Santa at the Regency Mall in Jacksonville. It also turned out to be one of the few good photos I got of them in their pretty Christmas outfits, so it's definitely a keeper for memories ahead. :) The photo is posted above.

The weekend after their birthday (Dec. 13) we took the kids to see Sesame Street Live at the Times-Union Performing Arts Center. It was a great experience, and the seats we had were amazing...way down front, almost close enough for Megan to climb onstage and join the fun (thank goodness she didn't try).

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent with family and that was great...even better when I can wake up on Christmas morning at a late time, since they aren't old enough yet to understand the thrills that wait for them. We even had breakfast before the unwrapping of gifts began, so that was amazing in itself. 2008 will be completely different, I'm sure!

The kids and I welcomed the New Year together at home, as Steve was working. I felt bad, but turned down several offers from friends who wanted to come hang out with us...I just didn't want to risk them having to drive back home after midnight, when goodness knows how many inebriated people are running the roads at the same time. I wasn't at all alone, and that is what mattered. The kids didn't understand why they were up so late, but it was fun nonetheless. :)

I keep busy these days chasing after the little munchkins, writing occasionally for the local newspaper, and taking care of my still-new Pampered Chef business. It's going pretty well...I really enjoy the products and especially the recipes, since they make my life a little easier. I made a barbeque chicken pizza for dinner tonight, and it was yummy...but not as yummy as the fruit pizza I prepared for dessert! My friend Alyssa's birthday was last week, and so this was her celebration belatedly. We also had homemade strawberry lemonade, one of my personal favorites. I could drink a gallon of that stuff easily, all by myself. I think it's funny that part of my "business" is going to other people's houses and showing them how to prepare meals for their family, when in reality it's all I can do to get myself together in my own kitchen at home...but I will say that I have been a lot more creative and comfortable in the last couple of months since I started with Pampered Chef. It's not necessarily the tools that I get to use, either (although those do help)...it's more the fact that everything is simplified to prove to myself that I really CAN make nice meals without too much back-breaking effort. The greatest thing about the company is that I can have my own business, with my own hours and my own goals, and it gives me the flexibility to be at home with my family, where I'm happiest.

I will do my best to get back here and post again soon...take care!

Tired...but thankful

Wow, so it's 2:30 in the morning, and I have yet to get to bed. It's officially Thanksgiving day and I'll be even more thankful after some shut-eye! I just finished making my father-in-law his now traditional pumpkin roll, and I'm beat. I should have started it much earlier in the evening, but I had other things to take care of.
Pumpkin rolls are actually not too difficult to make, but it's the flipping it off the pan and onto a towel and then rolling it and keeping it in one piece that makes it just a bit challenging. I make this for the first time LAST Thanksgiving, and now I remember why I didn't offer to make it again for Christmas...it's an interestingly time-consuming process!
I love spending time in the kitchen, honestly I do. I love it even more when I get to sample whatever it is that I've made as the official taste-tester, but I did not sample this pumpkin roll. It's sitting in the fridge, chilling until tomorrow...er, today. Whatever!
Really quick, I just wanted to say that I am VERY thankful for my family, my friends, and for life in general. It seems like I've been so busy lately that I don't often take the chance to sit and think about just how lucky I am...I have a fantastic husband who understands me more than I understand myself half the time, two FABULOUS kids who are my world, and lots of family and friends who make life so very much worth living.
Must sleep now...take care and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

My Two Elmo's

So another Halloween has come and gone. Steve and I are very much worried that if we don't find a way to get rid of the bag of candy the kids collected on Wednesday evening, we just might eat it ALL ourselves. I am going to have a nice collection of cavities on my next dental visit, that's for sure. :)
The kids were SO cute in their costumes. They wore identical Elmo costumes, and I've already had someone mistake one for the other (despite the girl/boy difference!), so I'll warn you now...in the photos, Megan is holding her Ernie doll and smiling, and Jeremy is standing in front of the window in our living room grinning his head off. Hopefully that will help lower the confusion level...

Where Has October Gone?

It's amazing to me...before I had children, time moved relatively slow. But I guess time now moves at the same rate of speed that my children do these days...very, very quickly!!! I can't believe we're almost at the end of October already, but sure enough, November is less than a week away.
I found Halloween costumes for the kids, and half price to boot! I had to amend my plans...they're both going to be Elmo, but I think that this might be the only year that duplicate costumes will be "acceptable," so Steve and I decided we'd just do it. My friend Alyssa gave the kids trick-or-treat pails in the shape of Elmo's head, so they'll be matching top to bottom. :) I will make sure to post some photos once I have some. They're going to look so cute!
For anyone who hasn't already heard, I'm now an independent consultant for an international direct sales company that markets wonderful kitchen products (initials are PC). I've been a big fan of their products for years now, so it was basically inevitable. Through online training and demonstrations, I'm learning everything I can so that I'll be able to put together a very fun and educational presentation. And I've already got two shows booked...yikes! I'm a little nervous, but I think that's normal anytime someone starts a new business. So, if anyone wants to host a party, I'd be happy to help you out...and I would love to show you what the company has to offer! The host benefits are great, and the pricing is actually pretty reasonable.
OK, that's enough of a plug. :) Take care and talk to you soon.

Night Owl

No special reason for this blog, other than to document the fact that I am the ONLY one in the house awake at the moment. I have been trying to get caught up on some work, and I just looked around and noticed that the dog is sleeping next to me on the couch, and one of our two cats is sleeping soundly on the glider chair to my right. I'm willing to bet that the other cat is in my bedroom, sleeping on the cedar chest next to the window like she always does. I'm also willing to bet that if I were to get up and check, even the FISH would probably be sleeping at this point. I really need to get to bed, but I'll sleep better if I wait just a while longer to make sure Meg's not going to wake up crying again like she did last night.
My daughter has come down with some sort of viral thing. Nothing tragic, but it's caused some inflammation in her throat similar to strep that makes things really uncomfortable for her. She started running a temp last night, right around 101, and after being up with her half of last night I ended up taking her to the doctor this morning. Megan is VERY serious about getting her "beauty" sleep, so I knew that something wasn't right when she woke up screaming and sniffling not once, but twice in the middle of the night. There's no medication that will make it better, and no way to speed it along. The not-so-beautiful truth about viral ailments is that they have to run their course...I just hope that in the process, this doesn't run its course through Jeremy and then me and Steve as well! The good news is that her temp is back down, so the chances of her still being contagious are very low.
On another note, I'm hunting down Halloween costumes for the kids and I don't have a whole lot of time left! I promised myself I would do this weeks ago, but here I am, just over a week before it's time to dress up the kiddos, and no costumes to speak of. I was going to dress Meg as Elmo (her favorite creature of all time!) and Jeremy as Cookie Monster, but I might have to abandon those plans for something more economically sound. I'll keep you all posted on how that works out...until then, take care and talk to you soon!

Anyone have an extra laundry basket?

So I have a confession to make. Well, not so much a confession, because that would imply that it's something I have tried to hide. And I haven't tried to hide this, ever. But I am in the process of trying to tidy up my house and I despise it. I don't mean that in a "I don't like liver and onions" kind of sense. I mean it in a "what the heck was I thinking when I bought a house?" kind of sense. My husband is going to be spending all day Saturday with the kids because I have a scrapbook thing to attend, and he has invited his family down from Jacksonville to watch football at our house while I'm gone. That means, company.
Now, we aren't complete slobs. We have a place for everything, but everything is just not in its place. So it's my job today to work on getting everything moved around so that tomorrow I can work on the "stash and dash." Oh, come on, everyone does it once in a while. Company's coming, they'll be here in 30 minutes, and you take whatever is left lying around the living room and stuff it in a laundry basket to hide in the office or den or your bedroom closet. I've perfected this art...I just can't disclose how many laundry baskets I've stashed and not unstashed. Steve actually has put a stop to this by telling me I'm not allowed to buy any more laundry baskets, so every now and then I actually clean one out in order to use it for actual LAUNDRY (yet another thing I also despise, by the way). He laughs because whenever I sort out the junk that is in one and come out with a clean, empty basket, he takes a guess at how long it will be before it's "out of service" again.
I told a friend recently about this problem I seem to have, and she said (in that kind, loving way a friend has), "Oh, it can't be that bad. And you have two toddlers, so no one can blame you if your house isn't spotless." Ha! If I could blame the kids for some of the junk that I find lying around, I would. Unfortunately I suffer from packrat-itis, and I'm terribly paranoid of identity theft (since it happened to us earlier this year), so I don't throw much away. We have junk mail that I have every intention of shredding, I just need about a week of uninterrupted time to sit on the couch and feed it to the shredder. I just can't bring myself to throw it in the garbage, for fear that someone will find it and all of a sudden I get a bill for a Mastercard I don't own.
When we had new carpet installed in July, we had to move all of the furniture out of our living room. That also included the entertainment center, which is usually full of knick-knacks and dust collectors. My parents gave me the bright idea of taking them all and putting them up on the plant shelf in our living room, way up high so they couldn't get lost or broken. That was in JULY. I'm very ashamed to say that they're still up there. Come on people, it's October already. What is wrong with me? Hey, at least my folks gave me a good suggestion on where to store them...otherwise they would have ended up crammed into an unsuspecting laundry basket.