Constant Chaos

Stationery card

2011-12-15T20:42:00.001-05:00

Charming Dotted Ribbon Christmas Card

Turn your favorite photos into your favorite Christmas cards!

View the entire collection of cards.

My twins turned 6

2011-08-12T00:16:00.000-04:00

On August 4th my twins turned six. It's hard to believe that they are already six years old. It seems like just yesterday I was bringing them home from the hospital wondering how in the world are we going to handle this?

They are actually a few months old in this picture but they slept in the same bed and had to touch each other for about 6 months.

Aunt Glenda wanted to take the boys out for their birthday so we decided on Chuck E. Cheese and Aunt Joy and Conner and Noah met us there. Chuck E. delivered the cake and the boys thought that was awesome.

This year for their birthday we decided it was time for them to have bicycles. They have outgrown their tricycles. Jacob got a bike with Spider Man on it and Tyler got a Mongoose. Daddy told him that his first bike was a Mongoose and Tyler finally decided that he wanted what Daddy had.

The boys look so cute riding their bikes. They have such determined looks on their faces.

We also noticed that Eden has outgrown her bike. She will be getting a new bike soon. :o)

Unwilling models

2011-06-07T19:11:00.000-04:00

After shooting some florals with the new lens last night I wanted to see how it does for portraits. I managed to take a few pictures of the boys but they were not exactly thrilled to be the target of my lens once again. Oh well.

This one wouldn't even look at me. He's such a character sometimes.

And this one gave me this expression after I took the third picture of him because he was only interested in playing games on the iPhone.

I guess I'll have to call up my friend Amy and see if I can take more pictures of baby Max and her little girl Maddie. They are so adorable.

Poor Max looks a little scared in this pictures but Maddie is very good with him.

Then the poor little guy just couldn't take any more excitement for one day and decided that getting his belly full and a nap was in order. I love the blue brown combo on his blanket.

Then there's always flowers. They may not stand perfectly still depending on how breezy it is outside but they are always a good subject. I love how only the center flower is in focus. Bokeh is a beautiful thing!

Long overdue!

2011-06-06T22:32:00.000-04:00

It's been far to long since I've posted an update to my blog. Fair warning. It's gonna be a long one.

It's been 6 months now since my job was given to my bosses step mom because she decided she didn't want to be a teacher anymore. I guess I only have a few things to say about it. 1. It hurt like hell, and 2. I've seen her in that office a few times since she took my job and I'm pretty sure she effing hates it!

I started working at UPS on the 18th of May. So far, I like the job. I had no clue it was so physical but I've lost almost 10 lbs. so I guess that's the first benefit from working there. That and a paycheck, be it ever so small. The biggest reason I decided to apply there is because once you have been there for a year, you get EXCELLENT medical, dental and eye care benefits and they don't cost me a penny. Can't wait for that one year mark!

I have two Pre-Kindergarten graduates. They did such a good job for their spring concert! Ms. Sally and Ms. Tina have been wonderful teachers for the boys. Ms. Sally also taught Eden when she was in preschool and we love both of these ladies dearly. I'm proud to say that with their help all three of my kids love school. I hope that the boys will continue to love school as much as Eden has.

Speaking of Eden, she will be in middle school in the fall. How is it that I am old enough to have a middle schooler? Of course, she's only 10 and they just changed the school structure last year, but still. A MIDDLE SCHOOLER!

Also, in case you missed it, Tyler got new glasses. We took him to a pediatric eye doctor and had his eyes checked. His vision has improved slightly and he has another check up scheduled in October. He has done an excellent job of wearing his glasses all day, everyday. We never have to remind him. How cute is he in these new frames?

And last but not least, we decided to trade in our wide angle lens for a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and HOLY COW do I love this lens. Here are a few of the pictures I took with it tonight.

Not as wide as our wide angle lens would have gotten but it stretched all the way across the river. :o)

Please help if you can.

2011-01-12T22:58:00.000-05:00

I follow the screwed up texan and here is a link to her recent post.

http://screweduptexan.com/2011/01/small-miracle-for-my-nephew.html

Her twin brother and her sister in law just lost their three year old son. This is the least I can do to help.

I can't begin to imagine the pain of losing a child. Please help in any way that you can.

Not much time left.

2011-01-09T17:33:00.000-05:00

I realize that there isn't much time left but I follow Stray Stitches and she is having an awesome giveaway.

Here is the link if you are interested in participating.

http://straystitches1.blogspot.com/2010/12/lets-celebrate-2011-with-giveaway.html

Busy day of not working.

2011-01-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

So today was my first official day of being unemployed. I took down the Christmas tree. Straightened up the living room a bit, did the dishes and should have done some laundry, but never made it to it.

So tomorrow's plans involve starting some laundry, taking the rest of the Christmas decorations down and putting them back in their boxes and continuing to get my house back in order after the holiday parties.

New Years was an absolute blow out here at the house for me. For someone who doesn't drink a lot, I sure did a good job of getting to the point of feeling no pain.

I'm still confused as to what I should do next but hopefully in the next few days, things will begin to clear up and I will be able to make a decision as to what my next steps should be.

Back to school tomorrow, but not back to work.

2011-01-02T23:41:00.001-05:00

All three of the kids are going back to school tomorrow. The boys will be making a small adjustment. I will not be sending them all day, everyday. I will be backing them down to the Monday, Wednesday, Friday class because it's just not in the budget to have them stay all day everyday when for the first time in 4 years, I'm not going back to work after the long weekend of the New Year.

When we talked with the boys tonight about the change, they handled it pretty well. I really expected some unrest because they love going. We'll see how they handle not going to school on Tuesday. That will be the true test.

Tomorrow, I will start my job search full force. As much as I would like to just hang around and be lazy, we are trying to become a debt free family and that will take twice as long if I'm not a working stiff.

My goal over the next week is to keep my camera at the ready and see what I can come up with to start letting everyone know that I'm available to take pictures. I'm also going to figure out some package pricing so that I can try to achieve lift off.

Wish me luck!

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T23:03:00.000-05:00

Hello blog land. I'm sorry I've been away so long.

This past year has been a tough one. I lost my job, then got it back again, then lost it again. It's a long story, and I wasn't fired either time, but lost it all the same. The second time was the hardest, seeing as I was given notice the Friday before Christmas. Hopefully, I held it together as well as I think I did and everyone had a wonderful Holiday despite the potential to have it all fall apart. Tyler got glasses this year. He looks so cute in them. Both boys are going to be finishing preschool this year and Eden will be starting middle school in the fall. She'll be 10 in February. I can't believe I will have one that is in double digits.

I really enjoyed having my family in my house for the holidays. I hope that it's a new tradition that will carry on through the years. Hopefully, Amy and her family can come next time. Mom's house just isn't big enough for all of us anymore. I'm also not opposed to the idea of going to Tennessee for Christmas. I'd love to take turns.

I don't know what my future holds right now. I'm trying to decide if I want to continue working in the legal field for either another attorney or at one of the local courthouses, or if I want to work for a big company doing mundane tasks, or if I want to stop procrastinating and work on becoming a self employed photographer.

I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year and I get it all figured out very soon.

Zoo & Huber's all in one weekend.

2010-10-18T00:41:00.000-04:00

We took the kids to the Louisville Zoo for the halloween party this weekend. This will be the last year that we waste our time on this crappy event. You wait in aweful traffic with rude people who think it's ok to drive to the front and expect to get in, then you pay $5.00 to park (it's free any other time) and if you are not a zoo member it costs $8.00 to get in. It used to be that if you are a zoo member you get in free, now, you have to go on the "zoo member" weekends which are the first two in October. All of this for....wait for it...... 7 pieces of candy. I'm not kidding, I'm not being dramatic, LITERALLY 7 PIECES OF CANDY. Are you kidding me??? This used to be such a cool thing to do with the kids and now it's just a huge waste of time and years of my life shaved off due to the high blood pressure enducing madness.

OK. I'm done with the gripe. On to the positive. Eden is beautiful, even when you use eyeshadow to paint her blue. My good friend Andrea who is an amazing artist and is currently in cosmotology school agreed to do her makeup for me and WOW am I impressed. She did a great job and we had all kinds of people talking about how amazing her makeup was. Google Avatar makeup and you'll see just how awesome Andrea is. It's not an exact match but still looks great!

Tyler wanted to be Darth Vader. Him and Jacob were both so cute! They both called him Dark Vader.

Eden took a friend with her. Nya, vampire queen. Makeup done by Andrea.

Jacob as Indiana Jones. Five o'clock shadow provided by the lovely Andrea and brown eyeshadow. He thought this was the coolest thing ever. Sat right in the chair and let her "paint" him with a makeup brush.

After the nightmare that was the zoo on Saturday night, I took the boys and Eden to Huber's with Keith, Dana, their three, Mom, Erin and Erin's friend Beth. They loved the tractor ride to the pumpkin fields. Personally, I wasn't such a huge fan. It's been really, REALLY dry here and the dust from the tractor tires was pretty bad. At least it was a gorgeous day. Sunny, low 80's and a nice cool breeze.

Eden wasted no time picking her "perfect" pumpkin. She grabbed this one within the first two minutes and it's the one she carted back to the barn.

However, Jacob did not pick his right away. He thought he liked one until he put his finger in a big hole, then he thought he liked this one here. Then, I picked up a pumpkin that is so smooth and perfectly orange I just had to show it to them all and guess what. That's the one he liked.

I thought it was cute. So does he. If you look closely, he's decided to draw on it with a green crayon. It kinda looks like a pancake.

Grandma helped Tyler pick his out. I like it. It's small and kind of pear shaped. Tyler didn't pick up the first thing he saw, but he did have to be told that you can't just drop them if you decide you don't want it.

I think he's happy with his decision. What do you think?

Back on the tractor to head back to the barn and pay for our u-pick pumpkins. All in all a pretty good weekend. Even if I did think I was going to have to cut a b!tch if she let one more line jumper in while waiting in traffic to get into the zoo.

Check this out!

2010-08-31T10:04:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I posted a link to Do Fun Stuff on iTunes because I wanted to help out Ryan Marshall and his beautiful family over at Pacing the Panic Room. http://pacingthepanicroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/look-at-what-we-went-did.html

Apparently the big push landed the album at the top of the Children's music charts. Do Fun Stuff is currently battling it out with Yo Gabba Gabba for the number one spot. When I checked it about 10 min. ago Yo Gabba Gabba had edged us out but I think if we keep pushing, we can take over that top spot again.

So, with that said, if you checked out my post but didn't click on the monster and listen to some of the music on the Do Fun Stuff album, go ahead and do that now. I'm telling you, if you have kids, they are going to like these songs.

My kids like Pass It On. I like Always a Blue Sky, Nothing, Ladybug and Morton the Caterpillar. We have been listening to these songs here since Saturday and the honest to goodness truth is that they are great, kid friendly songs that don't make me want to pull my hair out by the handfuls. Well worth the $9.95 price tag.

Also, if you don't follow Ryan yet. You really should. He's smart, he's funny and he's also not afraid to lay out all of his frustrations and keep it real.

If you haven't seen this video,
So Long I'm Six from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.
please watch it now.

This beautiful little boy is the reason for this album and you can find out more about SMS or "Smith Magenis Syndrome" here.

Please help any way you can.

I'm helping a web friend today.

2010-08-30T09:00:00.041-04:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything new and noteworthy. I'm happy to be making my comeback into the blogging community by helping a web friend and his beautiful family.

I've been following Ryan over at http://www.pacingthepanicroom.com/ since about 25 weeks into Cole's pregnancy with Tessa. I love his blog. I love his insights, his photography and thanks to him, we now have a Canon 7D in our camera bag. (Thanks Ryan!)

Please, click on this monster above and go over to iTunes and buy this album. It's kid songs and fun kid friendly songs for parents. My three kids have already chosen their favorite songs. 100% of the proceeds go to research for SMS. For more information click on the "Our Cause" button above.

If you don't have the $9.95 to download the album or if you feel that $9.95 just isn't enough, please click on the Make a Donation and contribute what you can to a great cause.

Thank you Ryan for allowing me to be a part of your web storm. It's an honor. Squeeze the Littlest Buddy for me and here's my sincerist wish for Do Fun Stuff to chart on iTunes. I've written my review and rated the album.

PS: If you want to help me spread the word about this album you can click on the "share this widget" and add the monster to your own post. I know that Ryan and Cole will be most appreciative if you do.

We do this every night.

2010-06-28T00:35:00.000-04:00

Every night when we put the boys to bed, I arrange Tyler's "stuffedies" the wrong way. When I first started doing it, it made him mad. He's very particular about how he wants them. I guess he knows that the dog and the catapillar are going to fall out of the bed but his bear is the most important thing so he get's to take the inside position so that he's less likely to fall out. Now, it's like a game and he asks us to put them in wrong. I love this little game.

Bedtime routine from Linn Goodman on Vimeo.

I'm also still playing with the T1i and the lighting so, I'm sorry about the dark faces. I'm still working on it, but love playing with it and I love it that we are finally getting some videos of our kids so I can remember their voices, how they act and they way they say certain things like Tyler calling Chrismas Grimace.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T23:29:00.000-04:00

I follow the Pioneer Woman's blog and I love her post of her MM and her punks. So...I thought I would follow suit and post some of my favorite pictures of Michael and our babies.

This little girl started it all. I knew that he would be a great daddy, I didn't know he would be the BEST daddy.

I love this picture. Tootie has always been the baby we couldn't get to stay in bed. He was snuggling with daddy and I couldn't resist taking a picture of two of my favorite guys.

Here he is with all three and three generations of Goodman's. Great Grandpa Titus, Grandpa John and Daddy. Michael's Grandpa will be 100 this fall.

Not a huge fan of my look here. This one was taken so that Eden would have a family portrait for her preschool class the night before she needed it for class. I love her expression and her toes in this one. Also, we all miss those natural curls.

Twenty-two days old in this picture and that chair was pretty much my bed for the first several months of the twins lives.

The level of exhaustion is beyond words. But just look at those faces. So sweet and even though we were so tired all the time you can still see how much he loves those babies. All three of them. So, to the man I love, thank you so much for being the best daddy. You are the best thing that ever happened to me and we make beautiful babies together! I couldn't be happier.

Our new camera does HD video.

2010-06-09T20:17:00.001-04:00

MVI_0003
Originally uploaded by Linn531

Here is a video that I took with the T1i. Please let me know if the video won't play.

What's been going on?

2010-04-25T00:24:00.000-04:00

WOW! I haven't really posted anything since New Years. It's time to change that.

Let's start with the hardest 7 days of my life so far. Last Friday, I took Jacob to the doctor because he was coughing again. He had bronchitis just a few weeks ago and he took some medicine and was feeling better, but while we were at the Dr.'s office for that cold...the doctor asked me if Jacob had been diagnosed with asthma.

You see, we were taking the kids to another doctor and that doctor wouldn't listen to me. I've been telling him for a long time that the kids weren't sleeping through the night and I was concerned, Jacob was very hyper and I was concerned. However, until the preschool teacher sent me an email that I could take with me to the doctor his response to me was that they were just young and hadn't settled into their own sleep pattern yet, and Jacob was just a toddler being a toddler. I don't know if I've posted it here before or not but Jacob is ADHD and he's now on a medication that makes a world of difference for him. That's another thing that wasn't so important to the previous doctor. The first medication worked really good for a little while and then all of a sudden, he started getting VERY emotional after the meds started to work out. When we went to the new doctor he changed the medication immediately, it works like a charm and he's the same Jacob who is better able to control himself and his emotions are under control most of the time.

So... back to the asthma, last Friday, Jacob was diagnosed with asthma. Here he is taking his breathing treatment in daddy's lap. For 7 days he took two different breathing treatments. One three times a day and the other twice a day. That's a lot of time in the chair. Thankfully, as of yesterday afternoon, he's down to one medication, once a day.

I have said before that I love the boys' preschool teachers. I have to say it again here. I got an email from Ms. Sally the other day and it said that she was working with Tyler on his letters and numbers and he kept asking her to hold them closer. She told me that they were so close to his face and she was concerned.

I had noticed him starting to do this but for some reason it just didn't click for me that he could need glasses. So I called and got him an appointment Wednesday afternoon right after he got out of school.

Tyler has astigmatism in both eyes and he's far sighted in both eyes as well. One eye is 20/30 and the other is 20/40 and the eye doctor explained that the muscles in the eye can correct the vision in one eye but not the other because once the first eye focuses on the object it stops, it can't fix the vision for the second eye as well, so for right now he has ALMOST the highest prescription you can get on a pair of glasses.

So, I just wanna know, HOW STINKIN' CUTE IS THIS KID?!? When we picked his glasses up today they had to adjust the frames to fit his face. He is the one of my kids who is the funniest about the things that bother him and let me tell you.... they bothered him. He was complaining about them hurting and the tech who adjusted assured us that the frames themselves were not hurting him. He started crying and that's when daddy and I got upset and took him to the car. (She was finished adjusting the glasses.) The tech told us that the glasses may give him a headache and that it could be straining his eyes a bit because they had already adjusted to what used to be "normal".

So, while I know that both boys will be perfectly fine and both the eye doctor and the pediatrician have told us that with proper treatment the asthma will probably go away and the far sightedness can be corrected by changing the prescription when it's needed and then he could have lasik when he's older. But, getting this kind of news and being stressed at work and home and feeling like the crappiest mom ever because it took the preschool teacher telling me that Jacob was really having trouble and he was wheezing and it seemed a lot like her son when he's having an asthma attack and then telling me that maybe we should have Tyler's vision check before it occurred to me to do it, really made it a rough week.

Also, my beautiful little girl made me cry when she said to me and her daddy, "I just wish I could take the things that are wrong with my brothers. It's not fair that I'm the only one that doesn't have something wrong with them." It's amazing to me how much kids understand and the depth of their feelings.

Sorry this post is so long, I just wanted to update anyone who cares to know how things are going.

I heart Faces Angles

2010-03-22T19:57:00.000-04:00

So this week's focus is on interesting angles. I usually shoot straight on but occasionally I'll take a picture while I'm standing over one of the kids.

I love this picture right down to his messy little mouth!

They are playing in grandma's flower bed and I can tell Tyler is tired. He's got his finger diggin' in his bellybutton.

I Heart Faces - Bundle up!

2010-03-15T23:19:00.000-04:00

I've followed I Heart Faces through the Pioneer Woman and finally joined the online community so that I could post in the weekly photo challenges. I'm glad it's getting warmer and staying darker longer, but we did have fun playing in the snow this winter.

I'm brand new to the I heart Faces community but wanted to share one of my favorite photos from this winter season. Meet Tyler, my older twin.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T23:03:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years. I know we did. Every year we have friends over for a do here at the house. We used to go to Jeremy and Ginny's but since the boys were born it's just been easier to do it here. Of course, the boys stayed with Grandma & Grandpa last night and Eden got to spend quality time with Emily and David. No pesky brothers hoggin' her mom and dad and her friends attention.

The kids played games, watched tv, played with Eden's art set and just generally had a good time. The adults played several versions of Rock Band. Just let me say, it's a lot easier to see those "notes" when you are sober. It's a little more difficult once you've lost count of the pudding shots and the buttery nipple shots. Three margaritas might have been a mistake as well. Needless to say, I was feeling just fine! Now, when I woke up this morning... not so much. A glass if water and a few excedrine later and I was all better.

We took the kids to see the Chipmunks movie today. Michael wanted to "do something" since we cleaned the house and usually we come home to a mess, he said he wanted to go out for a while so that we could truly appreciate coming home to a clean house. You know....I'm glad we did. He's right. (did you see that?? I just admitted my husband can be right.) It did feel really good to come home and open the door to a clean house. Granted, there is still some work that needs to be done. Our bedroom is not an inviting place to be right now with clothes stacked as tall as I am, but it's more than a good start and the room is my next big project.

By the way. I wanted to put it out there so that I have blogging friends and family to help hold me accountable, I'm starting a "diet" and workout routine as of today. I spent about 10 minutes on my brand new elliptical machine today and I have had three glasses of water today. I know that these are not major accomplishments, but they are big to me. Especially the water!

I will be adding a few more "workout" songs to my IPod and getting on the elliptical every day for the next 30 days. I don't know how I will feel about continuing that trend once the 30 days are up, but I'm hoping it will be more of a good thing I do for myself than the chore it feels like now. I'll also be starting one of the three workout games we have for the Wii within the next week. Wish me luck and if you're the praying kind, pray for my will power to be strong.

Beth requested "before" pictures. Here are a few of my least favorite pictures of me.

This one was from the other day when we made cookies. I look pregnant.

This picture was taken back in September. I hate EVERYTHING about it!

In 30 days I'll take some more pictures and I hope to see a big difference.

Thank God for grandparents

2009-12-05T22:45:00.000-05:00

We sent the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's for a while today so that we could get some Christmas shopping done today. I'm happy to say that we are almost finished with the kids. It's been a little tough this year. Especially for the boys. They are kind of in that in between stage where they are still little boys, but want to play with big boy toys so badly.

We went to Toys R Us tonight and I did manage to get that "one thing" I wanted to get the most for them. They will each have their very own remote controlled car made just for rough little boys.

Eden is proving to be much harder. She wants the same thing that every one else wants of course. ZuZu Pets have become the bane of my existance. My mom managed to score me one of the actual pets, but so far we haven't had any luck getting any of the accessories that go with it. Wish us luck in finding at least one before time runs out.

It's a short post tonight, and I'll be posting pictures and possibly video from the boys Christmas program tomorrow night.

What's up?

2009-12-04T20:37:00.011-05:00

I'm gonna go ahead and put this out there. I'm just gonna lay it out for everyone to see. Ready for it?? Here it comes.... I'm a comment junky and I'm starvin' here people. So please, drop a few lines and let me know that you're out there watching. M'kay. Thanks. BTW. Love ya!

Now for the goods.

Have I ever mentioned that I really REALLY hate daylight savings time. I mean, I really HATE it!! It's dark when I roll out of bed, the sun is right in my eyes the ENTIRE way to work and I'm to short for the sun visor to be of any help and as if all of this weren't enough, if I leave work late, (and I do most days because I'm not real good at just picking up my things and heading out right at 5) it's already dark enough when I get home that the lights have to be on in the house. I really don't like it. It causes some depression issues for me every year.

So, with all of that said, I had to go pick Eden and the boys up from mom's tonight and this is the spectacular sunset that I caught just before it was to late.

When I shot the picture, I wasn't really paying any attention to anything but the pinks and purples and ever so slightly orange hues of the sky and then I came home and posted this picture to the Serendipity site and it hit me right in the face, just like a sucker punch, that most of the landscape in this picture no longer belongs to a "Smith".

Along with this realization it has occurred to me that Grandma has been gone for four years now. My twins were still growing inside of me when she passed and I remember my mom calling to say that she was slipping away. Sometimes I forget that she's gone and I can't believe it's been four years and that can still happen. Right now, I'm really missing her.

Here's one with some of mom's Christmas decorations and the house in it. I love the lighting and the "skeleton" of the trees.

My kids love this corner of mom's decorations. When we left the house tonight Eden pointed out that it looks like Polar Exp.ress with the small train and the big Christmas tree. I love it that my kids have that bright shining imagination in them, after Eden said that both boys could totally see the same thing. It's so cool to see how their minds work.

I'll try to post some more Gatlinburg pictures tomorrow. For now, here's a few that Louise took while we were at the IHOP.

Boy, you guys weren't kidding about Casey and pictures were you?

In Casey's defense. I kinda love this one of her. She looks so sweet and innocent. I also really love this shot of your mom. It makes me want to be with you guys right now. I've always loved her smile!

Gatlinburg '09

2009-12-03T23:10:00.010-05:00

Sorry it's taken me so long. Unfortunately I'm not overly impressed with most of the pictures that I took while I was with Aunt Sally and the girls. Here's what I've got that turned out "ok".

Here's Momica's peacock.

Here is the one I took during the service. Very blurry. Sorry.

Here's a picture of Linda I took for Amy the stalker. ;o) It's the only one that wasn't so blurry you couldn't even make out who it's supposed to be.

Aunt Becky after the service, talking with a couple of ladies who I think were thanking her for a great weekend. I love her energy. I can tell she's Uncle Mike's sister. :o)

Not sure what happened here but part in focus, part not. I'm hoping I can get a picture like this with all six sisters in just a few weeks, in perfect focus of course. :o) Love you guys! Can't wait for you to get here!!!

A whole couch full of SUPERSTARS! (Including Jess)

Cool light streaks that Michael took from the "front porch" of the hotel we stayed in. I love that he caught the AAA sign in the corner and the lighting on the landscaping.

I'm not sure what Casey is doing here, but she looks like she's dancing.

Oh how I love these little heads! (Well, little boy heads anyway, Tyler's got a big melon.)

and this one's. I love how shiny her hair is.

Every trip to Gatlinburg requires a stop at the Ripley's Aquarium. All of my kids love it. In this picture Eden, Erin, Tyler, Mom, Me, Jennifer, Allen and Nathan.

Here's me and the boys under the puffer fish tank. It's tough for me to get in there, and it's really hot in there, but the pictures are really cute!

I have more, I'll try to post them tomorrow and on face.book when I get the time but it's getting late, I'm tired and I have to get my shower tonight since the boys need a bath before school in the morning and I don't want to get up at 6 when I can shower tonight and get up around 6:45.

Good night.

Whew. Glad this days almost over!

2009-12-02T20:05:00.005-05:00

Today was a crummy day. It was over cast and it rained all day, not the drops of rain, but that nasty sh!t that just makes everything wet and an umbrella is useless against.

We're crazy busy at work right now too. I'm not complaining, because, you know, it pays the bills, but holy cow. I thought things were supposed to slow down a little around the holidays. So...between all the things that I need to get done at work and all the things (including Christmas shopping) I need to get done at home, it's just a wonderfully stressful life. "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

Isn't it amazing that I went my entire childhood without seeing the classic Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life? I just watched it for the very first time last year by looking it up on You.Tube and watching it in 13 "episodes". All because my boss, (who I can't say enough nice things about, He's wonderful and I throw this in here because Thanksgiving was just a few days ago and along with my family he's one of the many things I'm so very thankful for.) walked into the office around this time last year and said "Good morning you wonderful old Building & Loan" and I had no clue what he was talking about and the conversation went a little like this.

Mickey: "Good morning you wonderful old Building & Loan!!!"

Me: "Ummm... Good morning???"

Mickey: (with a HUGE grin on his face) "You know, from It's a Wonderful Life!?!"

Me: (with a confused expression) "Oh...I see."

Mickey: "What? You've never seen that movie?"

Me: "Ummm. No. I guess not. Is that the one that talks about the "For every bell that rings, and angel gets it's wings" one?"

Mickey: "Yeah!!! That's the one!"

Me: "Yeah, I've never seen that one. We always watch A Christmas Story. You know, "You'll shoot your eye out".

Mickey: "Yeah, I know that one. I can't believe you've never seen It's a Wonderful Life. That's your "assignment". Don't come back to work until you've seen that movie. It's a requirement for this job."

Of course at this point I'd only been working for him for 2 1/2 months, and I knew he was kidding about the "assignment" thing, but I like to make the boss happy, so I came home and looked it up on You.Tube and watched it. While I didn't think it was as good as Miracle on 34th Street. I did like it, and it was pretty good.

So, retelling that little story just made my day a little better. I guess I'm just really stressed right now. There is just so much to do to get ready for Christmas and it's a sprint to the finish and I love to see my kids happy on Christmas day and then all that excitement spills out and we're left with the after Christmas blahs until the weather breaks in the spring. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer.

The boys have their Christmas program coming up this weekend. They are having a pitch in dinner at the church where the preschool is located and the children of Promise Academy are going to provide the after dinner entertainment. I really can't wait. I know that they will be so cute! They have been singing little bits and pieces of their songs while we ride in the car or when they are playing in the living room. It's adorable!

Eden's program will be at school next week. She seems to really enjoy choir and singing. I used to love choir too. I hope that once she gets a little older she will want to be in choir as one of her elective corses. She really has a pretty voice and I would love to see her "concerts". She's also quite the performer. A few years ago we did a demo for TKD and she stood in front of no less than 100 people and told them what Tae Kwon Do means. Loud and clear and didn't miss a beat! I always had terrible stage fright. I'd get nervous and sweaty and butterflies in my stomach.

Well. I guess I've rambled long enough. Here's hoping tomorrow will be a better day.

Here's a picture of my monkeys right after their haircut a few weeks ago.

Random thoughts running rampant.

2009-12-01T21:25:00.004-05:00

I was talking with Amy on facebook yesterday and she asked me if I had posted any of the Gatlinburg pictures yet. The answer was no, and unfortunately it remains no. Most of the pictures I took were on the RAW setting in the camera which means I have to convert them to jpgs before they can be posted in my blog. I promise, I'll work on it and try to have them up by the end of the week.

While I was talking with her, I mentioned that I wanted to try to have a post a day for at least a month and so here I am giving it a shot.

Michael and I took the kids to the mall tonight and let them play at the "Kids Stay you Play". It's basically a babysitting service right there in the mall. It was $15.00 for all three kids to stay for 1 hour and play while Mike and I shopped for an elliptical machine. That's right! Exercise equipment. I know...I know. But here's the deal. I'm not happy with myself right now. I'm uncomfortable, I'm always tired, (which could have something to do with 4 year olds that have never slept through the night) I don't like the way I look and I've got 2 pairs of jeans that fit. I refuse to go out and buy more. So we're looking for a good elliptical because I have bad knees and they are supposed to be better for you than tread mills.

I wonder how everyone else is doing with their Christmas shopping as well. I have an idea of what I want to get for Mom and my MIL. I've got a few things for the kids so far. That's about it. Last year was the last year for shopping with the kids with us. They are WAY to observant now and they don't miss a thing.

Congratulations to Amy and Chad!!! I bet you guys are just so pumped to be moving in to your new home. I can't wait to come and visit you guys. I'm going to talk to Michael and see if we can't make it down in the spring when we can do what Mom and Aunt Sally used to do and we can say "Hey guys, why don't you go outside and play for a little while?" Which are possibly the most despised words ever uttered by all moms.

Sorry this post is so random, I'll try to have more organized thoughts over the next few weeks, and pictures.

So you'll know

2009-11-12T21:08:00.003-05:00

My last post has a funny title and short caption. In case anyone wants to know, cares to know or could care less I thought I would explain it rather than delete it from my personal blog.

I am participating in a blog project where you post a picture a day for 365 days. I started in one group and wasn't comfortable there when several of my blogging buddies left so I left that group and started fresh with this new group. The project is a rolling 365 which means that if any of you are interested in participating, you can join up and start at 1 and post your picture a day for 365 days.

Please check us out at serendipity365photos.blogspot.com

Linn 11/12/2009 Picture 12/365

2009-11-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

I went to the ribbon cutting for the twins' preschool today. That lady with the big pair of scissors is Ms. Sally and that lady on the far left is Ms. Tina. I love these women for many reasons, the main one... they love my kids like their own and my kids love them!

It's been over a month since I posted.

2009-10-22T22:21:00.000-04:00

The boys started PreKindergarten at the end of August. They absolutely LOVE it!

Ms. Sally and Ms. Tina are terrific teachers and the boys love them. Most mornings they are just as excited to see them as they are to see me when I get home from work. In some ways, it's very sad, in others, I'm so happy that they love Ms. Sally and Ms. Tina. It definitely makes it easier to leave them with someone besides my mom or Michael's mom and sister. I know that our family loves them as much as we do. I never had to worry about how they would be treated. I don't have to worry about that with these terrific ladies who adore my boys almost as much as we do.

It was a major ordeal getting the boys into the preschool with Sally. Eden was in her preschool class at St. Mary's the first year they offered it at the school. When I contacted Sally about putting the boys in her class she let me know that she was looking for a new place to hold preschool classes because of a contract issue with St. Mary's. I asked her to keep me posted and enrolled the boys in another preschool in case we weren't able to get them in with Sally.

I was terrified. When I went to enroll them, the teacher wasn't available for me to meet her. I didn't know her, never heard of her before, and I'm sure she's a wonderful teacher, but.... these are my babies we're talking about here. I know Sally, Eden loved her, I loved her, she's "family". I've never been so relieved as I was when we worked it out that we could afford the tuition and put the boys in Sally's class.

So..what's pretty cool about the whole deal is this. When Eden started preschool, I had just had the twins and it was the first year that Sally was at St. Mary's. Now, the twins are in preschool and they are with Sally for her first year at Promise Academy.

Here are some pictures of our first day at school and you can see pictures of the boys during the school day on Facebook by looking up Promise Academy. You'll need to know what city we live in. There are a couple of Promise Academy's listed.

Here we are walking to the front door. They actually walked until....

We got to the door. Yeah.... see that blur at the end of the hall? That's Jake!

Here's Tyler with the toys he found when we went to the parents meeting a few days before school started.

And Jake so excited by all the prospects that he can't decide what to do first.

So, there you have it. An update on the boys and preschool.

BTW. Here's a shout out to Weezie. Thanks for pointing out in my last post that I'm a little on the slow side. This post brought to you much quicker because my wonderful cuz pointed out the multiple upload button. But seriously. Thank you! I really had not yet discovered it and I appreciate all the help I can get, even if it means you get a good laugh out of it. Hey. I'm here for ya! ;o)

Busy Weekend.

2009-09-13T21:55:00.004-04:00

Michael worked late Friday night so we didn't do much else but clean house because we had friends over last night and it was a great excuse to do some much needed cleaning around here.

When I picked the kids up from Mom after I got off work we ran through the White Castle to pick up some dinner and there were HUNDREDS of birds in the bushes that line the drive-thru. Check out this picture!

They would fly to the bushes and hide down inside them until they thought the coast was clear and then POP UP from inside like the bush was pushing them out. It was so cute. The kids thought it was so funny. I love it when they all get tickled. They have the sweetest laughs.

We also went out to Lanesville Heritage Weekend on Saturday before everyone came over to play some Beatles Rock Band. Pictures from our trip to Lanesville are posted at http://www.linnsstss.blogspot.com/. I would post them all here as well, but we all know how long it takes to upload pictures one at a time then have to move them into place.

I hope that soon, blogger will find a way to do at least two at a time or figure out a way to upload the picture to where the cursor is waiting. It would make blogging with pictures so much easier.

Michael worked with Bill today so I took the boys and Eden to mom's and we went back out to Lanesville for a little bit then they spent the rest of the day playing in Grandma's front yard.

I can't tell you how much I wish I could pick up my house and set it right next door to my mom's. We have a great house, but need a great yard to go with it.

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Allergic

2009-09-04T22:17:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure how many of you have seen this picture, but I think I'm ready to post the story behind it now.

I know it seems silly to have posted this picture on Friday and just now be getting around to explaining it, but I'm just now able to do so without my heart beating through my chest and putting a choke hold on my lungs.

I have probably mentioned before that on Friday's Michael helps out at the TKD school by helping to teach the "Little Dragons" class. So, Friday afternoon he took the boys to my mom's so that she could watch them until I got there to pick them up and so Mike could do the class.

Well.... it seems that shortly after they got there the boys decided that they wanted to play outside. I have also discovered in the last week that they have a new found passion for swatting at bees. This strikes fear into my heart because I am so allergic that if I get stung, I swell like crazy. I'm lucky enough to not need an EpiPen, but it's been years since I have been stung, and that could have changed by now. Anyway, Jacob got stung, by what we think was a wasp around 4:30 so he went inside and mom and Mike kept an eye on him and he seemed to be fine, then he was around the cat, which Michael is highly allergic to, and his reaction is itchy, watery eyes, and sneezing and he still seemed to be fine, so Michael went ahead to class. (Which is what I would have had him do since it had been 30 mins. since he got stung and there didn't seem to be anything other then a little splotchy red spot around the area of the bee sting.)

So, when I got to mom's Jake was sitting in the chair and I walked past him to the kitchen and he was fine, I checked out the kitchen for a snack (I'm not sure why, but that's what all of my mom's kids do as soon as they come in the door) and when I walked back into the living room, he was rubbing his eyes (with a pop tart still in his hand) stuffy nose, entire face swollen, and he was laboring to breathe. So I grabbed a washcloth and wiped the pop tart off his face and gave him a chewable Benedryl and scooped him up and rushed him to the front seat of my car, (not to worry, I did put him as far back as the seat would go and in his booster seat) I was scared he would stop breathing on me all together and I FLEW down the hill toward the hospital. Mom called Michael and told him what was going on and he pulled in right behind me.

We rushed inside, I filled out the sign in sheet, (with my name instead of Jake's, what can I say, I was a mess) and they took us straight back and checked him over. The whole time we were in triage he was talking and happy. A good sign, but not enough for my anxiety to subside.

Here are a few more pictures of him before we went to a room to wait for the doctor.

This picture doesn't show how red and swollen he was when I rushed him out the door and you can barely see it, but the bee sting is on his right arm. Like I said, he was still pretty happy and had started to breathe better.

Here he is in his hospital gown. Michael and I couldn't get over how cute he looked in, but let me tell you.... I sincerely hope that I NEVER have to see any of my three kids in a hospital gown again.

He wasn't a big fan of the band aid type thing they put around his finger to monitor his heart rate and blood oxygen level. But.....

He was completely into iCarly while we waited for the doctor to come in and see him. Look at his left eye. It's wrinkled and still a little puffy. Before we gave him the Benedryl at moms both eyes were swollen and watery and the left was almost completely swollen shut. We have given him Benedryl before and instead of slowing him down, he seemed to have more energy, not this time around, this time, he was quiet and sat still, just watching TV and patiently waiting. Totally not Jake like behavior.

Once the doctor come in to check him over, it had been almost an hour and he said it's hard to say what caused the reaction but that he was going to give him another dose of antihistamine and a steroid and they gave him an Epi shot.

I'm a very lucky mom, both boys are really good patients and they let doctors and nurses check them out and don't put up much of a fight when it comes to having their temperatures taken and they are champs at taking medicine. The nurse came in and gave him the two liquid medicines and he took them no problem, then when she went to give him the shot, he wasn't looking and it scared him (and I'm sure it hurt, because all needles do!) and he jerked. The needle came out and scratched his leg. The poor thing was crying and so was the nurse when she left the room after having to stick him again to give him the shot.

We had to wait for a while after they gave him the shot to see how he would react to the Epi. Let me tell you... that was a different experience all together. I guess it's an adrenaline shot and after the whole scratched leg and double stick he was sitting in my lap on the hospital bed and I could SEE his pulse in his jugular vein. I can't even begin to describe what that was like, but I guess, it was kinda like watching a frogs throat when it croaks.

We got to leave about 30 minutes later and Jake has been fine since then. I let him sleep in my bed with me Friday night to be sure that he was ok and he seems to be completely unfazed by the whole experience. Me on the other hand.... not so much. Every now and then I'll start thinking about it again and how severe his reaction was and it scares the shit out of me. That's the only way I can put it. By the way, we think now that what caused this reaction was the Guinea Pig. He had a less severe reaction about a month ago when Michael picked him up from moms and he had been playing with Pig that day too. Apparently, right before I came in the door the boys and Eden had gone in to feed him a few carrots and pet him and when Jake came out he sat down in the chair and rubbed his eyes. I don't know if it was the Pig alone or if it was the bee, cat and pig combo, but something set him off bad enough to make me panic and rush him to the hospital.

Of course, all of this means that we are going to have to do the horrible task of having him allergy tested. If his reaction to the Guinea pig was this severe, how can we be sure, without having him tested, that there isn't something else out there that will set him off again, and possibly be more severe. We came home from the hospital with prescription strength allergy medicine and two EpiPens. Why is the EpiPen a big deal? Because.. my dad is so allergic to bees that he has less than 10 minutes to inject the EpiPen or his airway will swell shut and he won't make it to the hospital...he's a grown man, how am I supposed to NOT be terrified of what could happen to my little boy?

I know that I'm probably totally over reacting but I can't help it. This was a total reality check for me. This little boy seems like an indestructible ball of energy and this one almost knocked him flat and made me realize just how vulnerable he can be.

Wild weekend!!!

2009-08-30T22:50:00.006-04:00

This weekend we planned to take pictures to finish up some senior pictures for Danielle and take Belly pictures for a friend of ours who is 36 weeks pregnant.

It looked like rain on Friday and they were calling for possible storms so we postponed the senior pictures on Friday night. Instead, we went to the Horseshoe for a while and then came home and watched the end of the first season of How I Met Your Mother. (Thanks Ric for getting us hooked on yet another series, like meth addicts.)

I forgot to mention that the in-laws took the kids with them for the weekend. Shout out to the grandparents!!! WOOT!

So Saturday, I worked from 9 until about 2. Then, the plan was to go to the Mount St. Francis picnic to get some of the best dumplings around. The last Saturday of August every year. It's a tradition!

I say the plan, because we actually made it to the Mount, and when we got out of the car, our 36 weeks pregnant friend looked at me with a funny expression and then said, I think I'm wet. What a really cool experience! (Admittedly, maybe not for her.) I have lots of friends with children, and none of them have had their water break without assistance until now. After some conversation and checking, I suggested that maybe she should call her doctor. That was around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, we immediately left and took them to their car after the doctor suggested that she go to the hospital to get checked out. Our friend is Japanese and this was her first pregnancy. She told me today when we went to visit them at the hospital that she was glad I was with her when it happened. I must say, I'm glad I was too and this was probably one of the best compliments of my life!!

I'm glad we didn't wait to leave until after we ate. Takaru was born at 6:45 p.m. Our friend didn't even have time to get an epidural and I think if we had waited, I would have been delivering my first baby in the back seat of my Toyota Sequoia. Needless to say, we didn't get those belly pictures. I think in a week or so, we will be taking some newborn pictures and I will ask permission to put pictures of the baby on my blog.

Heywood on the left with our master instructor from the Tae Kwon Do school that Michael goes to.

So while our friend was having her first baby, we were getting ready to go see Heywood Banks. If you don't know who Heywood is, look him up on you tube and check out some of his family friendly songs. Big Butter Jesus is one of my favorites. :o)

It was great to have a weekend without the kids, but I sure did miss them and am so happy to have them home. I think that every parent needs at least 24 hours away from their kids to recharge their batteries and be ready for the next wonderful, frustrating, heartwarming, moments that come along.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

Gaining Some More Experience

2009-08-17T21:38:00.009-04:00

Well, this past weekend was a really busy one. We had so much packed into it that we missed several things.

Michael and I went to Madison on Saturday with a friend from work, Karen, and her daughter Danielle. Danielle is a senior this year, and Karen and I were talking about it one day and she mentioned how senior pictures are so expensive, so I offered to do the pictures for her for a minimum fee and let her and Danielle decide which pictures they like best. Here are a few of the pictures that I shot for them.

This girl has a 1000 watt smile and she was so much fun to work with. Up for anything including climbing around on itchy hay bales.

It was her idea to take a picture with the horse. This beauty was so sweet and seemed to really love the camera.

We found this old Mack truck tucked away in a barn and I thought this looked like a fun pose!

Shot this one on the move! Thanks to Bill for the ride around the farm on the trailer, attached to the 4 wheeler. That's how we got the wind blown picture here. This one is one of my favorites of the day.

And last, but most certainly not least, here is a picture of Dani and Karen together. Are these two ladies not just GORGEOUS?!? ;o)

I had so much fun working with Danielle. We will be taking some more pictures this weekend on the river front with the wide angle lens and the Louisville skyline in the background. I'm looking so forward to it!

I will be working on the rest of the pictures I took this weekend to get them "finished" up. I didn't realize I was shooting on the RAW setting on the camera so I have to go in and save each image as a jpeg so that it can be printed. The up side is that I can edit out anything that shouldn't be there. For instance, the doggies that had so much fun following us around and popping there heads into a picture at just the right moment. LOL.

BACK TO SCHOOL!!!

2009-08-13T22:47:00.009-04:00

So. Last night, we helped Eden get her shower, (she's still figuring out how much liquid soap and shampoo to use) and we get her hair dried and get her to be at 9, (her school days bed time) and she comes in to see me no less than three times. "Mom, I just can't sleep, I'm way to excited!" I tried to remain patient and I explained to her that I understand that she's excited, but she had to get some sleep. The first day of 3rd grade is going to be GREAT!!

Well... this morning, the alarm clock goes off again (we like the snooze A LOT) at 7:00 and Michael rolls out of the bed, because he gets up better than I do, and he comes right back in and says "You gotta come see this." Well, I'm exhausted, because, have I mentioned that the 4 year olds don't sleep through the night? So I ask him "What's going on?" and he says "Eden is sitting on the couch with her back pack." She had been up for God only knows how long and was dressed and ready to go, had brushed her hair and teeth and had her shoes on, just waiting to go to school. That was at 7 am. We can't drop her off at school until 8:10 so needless to say, she was excited about going back to school.

I'm so glad that she loves school so much. I remember liking school until 4th grade. I had an awful teacher and I got a really terrible assignment to write an essay about a heart transplant. I'm about to reveal my age and say, "Back in those days, there was not an Internet, we had to go to the library and look it up in the card catalog, or read about it in the newspaper." In 1982, heart transplants were BRAND SPANKING NEW and there really wasn't much to go on, so I didn't do well on that paper and it was my first bad grade on anything and it just ruined me for the rest of my school career. I liked Choir and Math until 9th grade when they threw me into an algebra class before I had taken a "pre" algebra class. My teacher was a horrible drunk, who never explained anything so I failed miserably and had to take it in summer school. I'm so SO very glad that my kid takes after her daddy when it comes to school. She's so smart and so is he! I couldn't be more proud of either one of them.

So now the pictures.

Here is what the sky looked like when we got in the car to take her to school this morning. Gorgeous!!!!

Look at those rays of sunlight!!!

Here is the excited student! Come on! Let's go!

Another picture of the sky from the parking lot of the school on the way into the building.

Here she is sitting with her classmates, waiting to meet her new teacher. (Only problem is, here teacher is on maternity leave until Sept. 14th) But she does like the substitute that will be teaching class until Ms. Walsh returns.

Look at her with that scarf. She loves dresses!

And last but not least. Here is a picture of Tyler. He is upset because he has already been told that this is sister's school and he can't stay with sissy.

The upside is that after Labor day the boys will be starting PreK and going to their own school three days a week to start their learning process. They are so excited to get started. So, be looking for the "OH MY GOODNESS, I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABIES ARE GOING TO SCHOOL" post that will be coming in just a few short weeks.

Weekend fun to celebrate the boys' birthday and our anniversary

2009-08-10T20:45:00.008-04:00

This weekend we took the kids and went to French Lick to spend a free night, and a half price night out of town. They send me offers like this almost every month and it was a nice way to take a mini vacation without spending a ton of money.

We left right after work Friday and when we got in to the room, we all changed clothes and headed to the indoor pool. I would like to say it was nice and warm, but it really wasn't it was pretty cool and the boys and Eden loved it. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of our pool adventures, the camera's are just to big and this is one of those times when we realize we could really use a good point and shoot. Maybe we should go ahead and by Eden that Canon she's been asking for and we could use it in these situations. But I digress...

Saturday, we got up and got things packed and ready to head to Patoka Lake Beach. I opted out of wearing a swimsuit for Saturday, Michael took his trunks and we both kept an eye on the boys while our little fish went swimming in the lake. Eden loved it, she wasn't intimidated by the lake at all and wandered a bit to far at one point. Mike and I both lost sight of her for a split second and we both hit panic mode in less than a micro second. Needless to say, we called her in and I had to explain to her that it was important that she not get to far away from us because there is no lifeguard on duty. Here are some of the pictures from our fun day at the beach.

They started out by making a lake out of sand. A lake at the lake if you will. It had to be precise. The water had to be able to get in when a wave came in, but there had to be enough of a rise that the water wouldn't just rush right back out. Eden was the master of this design and the boys took direction really well.

Here's Jake after returning a tool to the beach toy pile. You can see the buckets in the bottom of the picture. They thought it was fun to drop these sand filled toys on me.

A picture of Eden and Jake being nice to each other and just before Eden found a friend to play with that was closer to her age than her brothers are. She also found a random pair of goggles and put them on. I have absolutely no IDEA where they came from.

Here they are looking for shells in the sand. Believe it or not, there are a few shells to be found, mostly tiny, but what can you do??? It's not like it's ocean sand, it's a man made beach. Regardless, they really did enjoy playing. So much so that Eden, my own personal Coppertone baby, ended up getting a little pink, and Mike still looks like a lobster on his back today, which is a first for me. In the 17 years I have known him, he's never STAYED burnt. He is tan within 24 hours of being in the sun. For the first time, his shoulders have blisters. I ended up with my shins and calves being burnt. The boys were well covered in sun screen and got a little pink, but nothing to speak of. I think their color was more from being sweaty than from the sun.

The trip to the beach was the highlight of the weekend. It was wonderful to see the kids playing so well together and not arguing with each other for a change. I hope you all had a good weekend too!

Here is one of my favorite pictures without the family in it from the weekend.

Locks of Love

2009-08-04T23:46:00.014-04:00

School will be starting in just a few short days, and in preparation for the new year, I took Eden to see Carrie to get her hair cut tonight. (which will probably be last night by the time I finish this post, I'm getting a late start) We got there a few minutes early because Eden had decided that she wanted to cut her hair short, but wanted to look at some idea books. We weren't able to find any of the style books, but we waited just a few minutes for Eden's turn and when Carrie came over to get us, she asked what we were going to do. I told her, "She wants it short." and she asked us "How short?" and when I told her at least to her shoulders, Carrie asked if we wanted to donate it. She said she thinks it's long enough. The requirement for donating your hair to locks of love is at least 10 inches.

I'll be honest. It never occurred to me that you could donate a child's hair. My best friend Billie did this several months ago and was so happy with her decision.

When Eden sat down in the chair, Carrie pulled her hair back in the ponytail and explained to her what donating her hair would mean. My sweet little girl (not always so sweet, but what can you do?) looks at me and says, "Mommy, didn't aunt Joy have cancer?" and I said "Yes, sweetie." and she said "I'm so glad that this time I get to donate it to someone who really needs it instead of just watching it hit the floor and get thrown away."

Can you see my pride shining in these words???? If not, you should be able too. Not only am I proud of her, but she's pretty proud too and she's already talking about letting it grow out long enough to be able to donate it again. I think it might be because we called aunt Billie and she says that she's growing hers out again right now, just so she can donate it again.

So, here are some pictures of my baby girl and what she looked like before and after her new hair cut. I'm not sure how good the pictures of her getting it cut turned out. I forgot to take the camera with me to the salon so I had to improvise and I used the camera in my little phone.

Here she is in May at the zoo. I know it's not a great picture of how long her hair was, I just really like this picture of her.

This one is a little better. This was the beginning of June at the river.

This is her with her Kodak camera. She has been lobbying for a Canon for a few months now. We just keep telling her that maybe Santa can bring her a Canon.

This one shows how long it was in the back. If the backpack wasn't in the way, her hair reaches to the bottom of the little blue pocket.

She hopped right up in that chair and didn't even think twice about cutting her hair so short. I want to say that I was kinda scared she's be upset once it was so short, but she wasn't at all. Not even now that it's been cut into a really cute little bob. I guess these didn't turn out half bad considering it's just a little camera phone. I think it's 2 mega pix.

Does this look like a kid who's sorry she cut ALL of her hair off?!? She's ecstatic!

Side view so you can see how short.

and the view from behind. We just let it air dry tonight, I'm sure when we blow dry it, it will curl right under and lay in a perfect little bob.

Is she not one of the most adorable little girls you've ever seen?!

I couldn't be more proud of my smart, funny, precious, loving, caring little girl! She never ceases to amaze me!

Here is a picture of her hair in a ponytail. I will be packaging it up to be mailed out to locks of love in the next few days. To learn more about this incredible charity, you can check out their website at locksoflove.org.

Short Post

2009-07-29T22:03:00.007-04:00

I don't really have much to report. So, I am going to tell you that last year for Halloween we went to Huber's and let the kids ride the wagon to the pumpkin fields and pick their own pumpkins. After the pumpkins started to rot, we threw them (literally) off the side of the steps into the landscaping. We didn't know when to plant seeds so we simply hoped for the best. Here's what we have in our front yard and are barely keeping at bay so that we can actually walk up the front steps.

I took a few pictures and I'm not impressed with any of them. They all turned out blurry but you can see that the sidewalk is covered and that they are growing right outside the door.

This one is the biggest right now.

These two are buddies. Some of the leaves on this plant are monstrous! There are at least four pumpkins on the vine and if you get a pumpkin for every bloom on the vine, we'll have a good 20 to 25 pumpkins. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the blooms in the morning before I head to work and edit it into this post tomorrow. Just thought everyone might enjoy seeing my pumpkin patch in the front yard. ;o)

Picture of the day! I love these big, fluffy clouds. I'm a dreamer at times and these clouds make me wish I could just lay in one and drift away for a while!

I also like the church steeple from across the street in the center of these clouds. Let's me know that God is working in my life and I need to be paying closer attention!

Insulin Resistance

2009-07-28T00:09:00.005-04:00

So...for those of you who are following my blog, I wanted to post an update on a previous post where I let everyone know that I felt like things were getting a little out of hand and life just seemed way more stressful than usual.

I received a call from the Dr.'s office mid week last week telling me that at my follow up appointment, when I had them redo my blood work to test my blood glucose levels, the test has come back that I have a condition called insulin resistance. My body produces higher levels of insulin because it is not properly using the insulin that it produces. Many patients who have it, have a combination of the following: they have a family history of high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, (which I had a mild case of with the twins) family history of type 2 diabetes, and are over weight. I fit into all of these categories. Some of the symptoms are a discoloration in the "creases of skin" such as the arm pit and neck. I haven't noticed any discoloration around my neck, but have in the arm pit and skin tags. I noticed I started getting these several years ago. Just small "tags" of skin that develop and protrude from the surface of the skin.

When I spoke with the nurse, she explained to me that Insulin Resistance can affect many areas of my life, several that you wouldn't think of, and that don't really make a lot of sense. Mood, menstrual cycle, weight gain, stress levels, hormone levels, ...... the list goes on and on. So... the Dr. has prescribed glucophage, it is a medication developed to help the body properly process the insulin that is produced by the body, or converted to insulin from the foods that we eat.

When I picked up the prescription tonight, the pharmacist told me that I should expect "dramatic" weight loss. I'm trying to keep my hopes to a minimum on this little tidbit of information. Also, she asked me to take a "gentle" smell of the bottle. These pills stink to high heaven. I MEAN THEY REEK!!! Michael says they smell like the penguin exhibit at the zoo. Thank you sweetheart for that mental picture. The last time I had to take a pill that smelled this bad, it also tasted like a tin can. So, from previous experience, I have found that Sunny D is the only beverage that I can use to take these gag inducing prescriptions that tastes good and masks the taste so that I can get them down.

I know that this is a lot of personal information, but, I wanted to keep everyone posted and let you guys know that I am not crazy, which was my own self diagnosis a few weeks ago, I am just a little imbalanced right now and the Dr. is staying on top of my condition and is also following up with me on a regular basis to see if an anti-depressant is needed to help me feel more like myself and less like the crazed lunatic that yelled at my boss even when I knew that he was only teasing me and felt like I was constantly yelling at my entire family all of the time, even though I really wasn't.

I love you all, and I thank you all for being so supportive. Especially Michael who has put up with my crazy behaviour through thick and thin and still loves me anyway, and Billie who lets me call her every single day and vent about the crazy clients at work and the general everyday nonsense of life and never judges me and always makes me feel better just for hearing her voice.

I follow this blog.

2009-07-19T22:54:00.012-04:00

It's called On the Front Porch, because Wendy has two little boys, like I do. They aren't twins but they are both boys and plus, I think Wendy's hilarious. Anyway, on Sundays, Wendy posts Small Town Snapshot Sunday pictures and I have linked a post from the Clark Co. 4-H fair on her post. Here is the link to my STSS. http://www.linnsstss.blogspot.com/. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Here are a few more pictures from this weekend spent at the Zoo, Falls of the Ohio and the fair.

Is this not one of the cutest things? He's called a cotton top tamarin and He's in the monkey house for the woolly monkeys. I haven't seen them before yesterdays visit, but I'm sure he's been there for a while. There are two of them, but the other one was kinda camera shy.

These pictures on the carousel at the zoo are from several trips around. Apparently, for zoo members, in the summer they have free rides on Saturday evenings, starting at 6 p.m. You might be able to see the green stickers on our shirts that say, "Get Wild at the Zoo". For the last ride, Tyler finally decided that he wanted to ride a horse that goes up and down. He loved it and we laughed through the biggest part of the ride. He's so sweet when he wants to be.

Me, Tyler, Jake, Eden and David at the Falls of the Ohio, it wasn't an easy trek to get down to the fossil beds, but it was worth it, they all had a good time, poor David slid on a slippery rock and got a little wet and the boys had to be told repeatedly not to run since there isn't an inch of level terrain but all in all it was fun. I love the picture of Jake playing in the sand. He loves to get dirty.

Date night

2009-07-15T21:17:00.012-04:00

Michael and I don't ever "plan" a date night. On very rare occasions, someone will offer to take all three kids off our hands for a little Mike and me time, and trust me, I know they are a handful. On Friday, my father in law took the kids with him and they spent the night with grandma and grandpa.

I know it won't seem overly exciting to anyone else, but I truly enjoyed every minute of our time together. Here's a recap of what we did. First we went to Hooter's to eat. We could have gone anywhere I wanted and we were planning to go to Mark's Feed Store and then we started listing all the places we hadn't been in a while and Hooter's was one of them. They have the best fried pickles and I was also wanting some buffalo tenders. It was pretty good!

After we left Hooter's we decided to take the cameras and walk across the 2nd Street Bridge, also known as the Clark Memorial Bridge, along with the tripod. I didn't think to factor in the the bridge would have movement due to the traffic on it, but we still got some really nice shots. I love it that we have found something that we can do together! I miss Tae Kwon Do and I'm glad that since I can't do that anymore, we have a common interest again in photography. I think I would like to eventually set up a spot in our basement where we could take family photos for our friends and family and possibly anyone else that wants a good deal on some great shots.

Michael took these.

The Belle of Louisville returning from its Friday night cruise.

Setting up my shot. This is one of the rare occasions of me actually looking through the view finder instead of using the "live view" on the camera while it is on the tripod. The tripod is not fully extended in this picture because if it were, I wouldn't be able to see through the viewfinder. I'm to short, when this tripod is completely set up, it's about 5'6" tall. I'm a whopping 5'2"!

I took these.

I didn't realize I was shooting in black and white for the first few pictures I took. I like this one because you can see what I call "heaven's rays" shooting out the top of the cloud that is covering the sun.

I seriously could not possibly love this man anymore than I already do. I honestly don't know what he sees in me or why he puts up with my bullshit, but I love him for it and thank God every night that he loves me too.

These last two pictures I have been wanting to take since I saw a picture of light streaks on someone's Flickr page. I took the tripod and put the legs down so that all I was using was about three feet off the ground, maybe four and the feet of the tripod are sitting right on the black line that you can see on the side walk. Then, I opened up the shutter for approximately 20 seconds and waited for passing cars. I think the first one is my favorite. It looks kinda like the bridge is on fire. The first is pointing across the bridge heading into Jeffersonville, Indiana and the other is pointing into downtown Louisville, Kentucky.

Michael and I actually walked farther across the bridge than we thought and so we walked back to the truck and were trying to decided what to do next, go home or go to a movie. We opted to go see Transformers 2. The reviews have not been kind and while there are a few parts of the movie that are not necessary, I did enjoy it. Of course, part of the reason is I love the sound of the robots transforming and HELLO.... Shia LaBeouf. The down side to see a movie.... HOLY CRAP it's expensive. For two tickets, a large coke, a small coke and a box of sweettarts it was $40. No, that's not a typo! $40.00.

So that was my date night, followed by a nice evening without having two little boys enter our bed sometime in the middle of the night and sleeping in past 7:30. I think it was around 8:15 when Mike got up and I finally got up around 8:45. I still consider this early. If I'm up before Target is open, it's still early. Right?

Long weekend fun.

2009-07-05T20:36:00.018-04:00

Have I mentioned just how much I love my BFF Billie??? I'm pretty sure that I have, but just in case.... I LOVE BILLIE FLENER (and her hubby too!!!) Don't think I forgot you Jay! ;o)

A few weeks ago Billie called to say, "Hey, it's a long weekend comin' up and Emily (that's my niece, and her oldest) wants to see the Panda's. Wanna go to Memphis Zoo with us?" and I said, "I'm sure Mickey won't mind if I leave early but let me run it past him, just in case." Plus, it's really close to Tunica, Mississippi which is where the casinos are so we stayed for free because the rooms were comps that Billie and Jay earned. You can't beat a free stay in a hotel!

Here is a picture of Michael and the boys while we were waiting for Billie and Jason to get there with Eden, Emily and David. The parking lot fills up quickly.

Here are the kids enjoying the tiger exhibit. They had a male, female and white tiger. Their "habitat" was beautifully designed. There was a waterfall and shade trees. All amazing. Can you see the male laying in the shade behind the kids?

Look how close it looks to the camera. This isn't even zoomed in all the way. It's amazing that it feels like you can just hop in with them and take their pictures. The whole zoo is laid out this way.

Apparently, there are only 4 or 5 zoos in the United States that actually have panda's and not just any old panda but the really for real, china pandas. The black and white ones, not the red ones.

Their names are YaYa and LeLe. One male and one female panda bear. They were both just kinda lounging around. Of course, it could be because it was 97 degrees out.

I know this isn't a great picture, but this one didn't move the whole time we were in the panda exhibit.

I must say, Memphis Zoo is a terrific zoo. The exhibits are well thought out, there is shade at almost every exhibit, the ones that don't have shade have those misting poles that put out the fine mist to help cool you off and for every two or three outdoor exhibits there is an indoor, air conditioned exhibit. I won't say that I didn't get hot, because we all did, but it was still a wonderful trip to the zoo. Even when we had to fight with the boys and make them ride in the rented zoo stroller. By the way, I would love to have one of those things. You couldn't even tell they were in it, it was so easy to push! Also, the Memphis Zoo didn't have any of the ridiculous hills like the Louisville Zoo does and no wide open, empty fields full of nothing either. If it didn't take 6 hours to drive there, I'd go to the Memphis Zoo every weekend. Did I mention the Memphis Zoo is GREAT?!!

Here is another picture that isn't really great, but it does show just how close you can get to the animals. If this glass weren't here you could reach out and touch this beautiful mountain lion. She was laying in the top of her area and they have a look out spot so that you can go in and see her laying on top of her "perch". Like I said, simply amazing!

Here's another exhibit where you could almost reach out and touch. Not to worry.
The thought didn't cross my mind, especially after these two started growling at each other over this particular patch of shade. The snow leopard on the right was there first and had no intention of sharing her shade with the one on the left. (I don't know if it was a female or not, but it seems appropriate to assume it was.)

After the zoo we headed over to Mud Island in downtown Memphis and let the kids walk along the scale model of the Ohio and Mississippi river that covers are very large area and follows the river from the northern most points all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and into the ocean. If I had to guess, I'd say that it's probably about three city blocks long. You can wade in the water that flows along the path and I really wish that I had done that with the kids. It would have helped cool me down. Like I mentioned, it was really hot! In case you couldn't tell from the picture above.

The boys really liked riding in the "upside down train car" better known as the monorail to get over to the Mud Island park. Eden however, was not impressed. She's not a big fan of heights and the monorail travels across the Mississippi river a good distance above it. I would say at least 6 stories.

This is just a small portion of the model I was talking about. A big thank you goes to Michael for taking us all down there. His brother went to school in Memphis and he remembered going to Mud Island as a kid, so we went to follow in his childhood footsteps with our boys and Eden.

Trips like these are so trying with twin 3 year old boys, but it's so worth it to me that our kids will remember taking trips like these when they are older and for as much of a pain as it is to ride for long hours on a trip with them all in the car, the rewards are so worth it. They really had fun and Tyler is still talking about the trip and asking us questions. I think he just really likes to say the word "Mississippi". :o) Eden keeps talking about where we can stay the next time we go. I don't know that we'll go back to Memphis but I did enjoy the trip and the famous Rendezvous ribs. They were delicious! They didn't even bring me a knife and fork because these ribs literally fall of the bone they are so tender and juicy!

PS: To Billie and Jason, thank you both so much for taking trips like this with us and inviting us along. I know that we are not always the easiest people to travel with, but you guys always make us feel like you wouldn't rather be with anyone else. Billie, thank you so much for being my "knight in shining armor" when we came over to swim with you guys while Michael and Jay went out for a while. I honestly felt like hell had reached out and touched me and I thank you for being the angel that took care of my kids while I was in the restroom contemplating the best way to evacuate the demons that had apparently possessed my soul and were trying their best to kill me right there on the thrown! I love you girl! I couldn't possibly ask for a better friend. Well, I guess I could but they would just be like, "No, sorry, you can't have another, that's the best one we got!"

Who you gonna call?

2009-06-26T21:07:00.003-04:00

Ghostbusters!

My twins have recently discovered what their sister already knew. Ghostbusters is a fun movie to watch. Tyler was completely mesmerized the first time he saw this movie. He sat in front of the boob tube watching every scene and soaking it all in. Jacob is more like his daddy and watched but also had some important playing to do. (Michael is always doing something, he's not really one to sit still for very long.) Little did I know, that even though he didn't watch every scene like Tyler did, Jake was still taking it all in as well. They have watched it several times since we bought it last week and they ask to watch it every day. Tyler got up this morning and said "I need some chocolate milk, can we watch Ghostbusters today?" At least he's got his priorities straight. ;o)

Last night when I got home from work both boys were running around the house in the fire helmets that came with their Halloween costumes from last year pretending to be the ghostbusters. Eden would come down the hall pretending to be a ghost and the boys would chase after her until she would turn on them and chase them back to the kitchen. I wish I had gotten the camera out. I was working on the pictures of the family that I talked about a few posts back, so I didn't stop to take pictures of my own kids. (Kinda makes me feel like a sucky mom now that I think about it.) They would come and hide by my leg and plan what they were going to do. "The marshmallow ghost is going to come and get us and we are going to blast him with our croc guns (they had their shoes on their hands as "guns") and then we are going to run to safety." "Be careful, he could be anywhere" and then Eden would jump out again and the squeals that normally make me want to scream myself were so joyful that I had to laugh along with them. It's not very often that all three of my kids are getting along well enough to play together so it was a nice reprieve from the norm. Of course, it didn't take long before they figured out it I thought it was cute and then it turned into a squeal and run and be really loud and run into things kind of deal where they were trying to hard to make it cute and I had to make them all settle down. But it sure was fun while it lasted!

Here is a picture of another time that all three were playing well together. They are all growing so fast!

"GO BACK!!!!"

2009-06-19T00:44:00.004-04:00

I have three beautiful kids. If you want to see pictures of them there will be a couple in this post and there are several in previous posts. I love my children beyond words, but sometimes, they really REALLY stress me out.

I worry about my kids all the time. None of them eat very well and unfortunately, that's kind of my fault. I don't eat very well either. They are a chicken nuggets crew. That's pretty much all they like, chicken nuggets, sugary cereal, and cereal bars are about all they want to eat.

Tonight, I fixed tacos. Tyler loves tacos. He calls them taco tico's. Any place that sells them is also referred to as taco tico's. It's pretty adorable to hear him say it too! Anyway, sorry, I got a little off the point here. Tonight, I fixed tacos and Eden and Tyler ate them (Eden without to much fuss) and so that leaves Jake. Jake sat at the table and played with his food for quite some time, then he decided to dump the hamburger out of the taco and just eat the shell, then decided that he didn't like the shell and so he threw it away. Before he threw the thing away, we discussed getting ice cream at the Zesto's. Who doesn't like ice cream right? Occasionally it's worth it to bribe them if they will eat.

Well, here's the thing, we went to Kohl's so I could get a new swimsuit. (We're going to Holiday World for Father's Day) and I told them when we got in the car to start home, if you are good and you don't yell and fight you can have ice cream. Do you see where I'm headed with this??? LOL You would have thought that I asked the earth to stop spinning, my boys absolutely cannot keep their mouths shut or their hands to themselves. So, when we got to the Zesto, I ordered for Me, Michael and Eden and here are a few pictures of Jake's reaction to be denied ice cream for breaking the rules!

Tyler just kind of sat in the seat and whined about not getting any, but Jacob was totally ticked off and informed both me and Michael that he hated us, we were both stupid and that we had to go back. It went a little like this.

Michael: Here you go Eden.

Jake and Tyler: Where's mine?

Michael: You didn't get any, you didn't eat Jake and you didn't listen Tyler.

Jake: (as we pull out of Zesto's) I WANT ICE CREAM!!! at the highest possible screech he can muster.

Tyler: I want ice creeeaaammmmmm! in the saddest voice almost at yelling level (I actually felt pretty bad for him because, well, he did eat.)

Jake: STUPID DADDY!!!STUPID DADDY!!! STUPID DADDY!!! GO BACK!!! GO BACK!!!! YOU HAVE TO GO BACK!!! (at this point, I know I'm a terrible mom for doing it, but I start laughing)

Me: You guys have to learn, Mommy and Daddy are the boss and we have to hear what's going on around us when we're driving, and also, if you don't eat, you don't get a treat.

Michael: (giggling)

Me: (giggling)

Jake: STUPID MOMMY!!! STUPID MOMMY!!!

Me: Babe, take some pictures of him so I can post them on the blog.

Michael: Ok. (laughing at this point) *click* *click*

Jake: (starts kicking at the seat) DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE DADDY!

At this point I start laughing hysterically. He threw such a fit and all I could do was laugh. I guess if I hadn't laughed about it, it would have made me cry. It's about a 5 min. drive from Zesto to home when there is traffic and by the time we got home, I was still laughing and my stomach had started hurting.

Tyler did get a few drinks of Daddy's milkshake once we got home and he sincerely apologized to Michael by saying "I'm sorry I didn't listen daddy. I'm sorry. I love you too." He always says I love you too, even if he says it first. If he doesn't say the word "too" he substitutes the words mommy, daddy and sister or Eden. It's completely adorable. Just like it melts my heart every day when I leave and Jake says, in his sweet little voice, bye mommy. I love you. Have a good day. Tyler says all of this too and then tells me to drive careful.

I guess the moral of the story is, that for every outburst that makes you think you'll lose your mind, there is a sweetness that keeps you sane.

I've decided it's time!

2009-06-15T21:27:00.006-04:00

Today I called the doctor's office to schedule the dreaded "yearly exam" that all women love to hate. Yup! That one girls! Cold @ss Duckbills and all.

I have been meaning to make this appointment for some time now but keep putting it off because I hate ALL doctor's appointments. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way but I can tell you that my first "female" visit was with an old man and conducted during "that time". Pretty traumatizing for a 16 year old. Ever since then, I have hated going to the doctor and while I was pregnant, you get used to the monthly, then bi-weekly, then weekly onslaught of uncomfortable visits to the point where it's no longer a big deal. I've heard from most women that once you go through child birth, the rest of these visits are nothing and all modesty is lost. I beg to differ. I did get used to the visits as I said before, but now that my kids are 8 and almost 4, I am right back to hating these visits.

It's actually been almost two years since this visit and part of the reason for that is because at the last visit, we found a lump in my left breast and I had to have it checked out. It was staying sore, (the fact that two little boys love to run and head butt me on a regular basis only made this worse) so we decided to go ahead and remove the "mass". It was biopsied and as it turns out, not cancerous, THANK YOU GOD! :o)

Now, almost two years later, that same breast is staying sore and is more tender during "that time" so I want to get it checked out.

I also scheduled this visit because I believe that my hormones are out of whack again. I say again because, before I got pregnant with the twins, I had a hormone imbalance and had to take medicine to return my progesterone to a normal level. The reasons I believe that I am out of whack again are as follows:

1. I am tired all of the time.
2. I am easy to anger.
3. If I'm not angry, I'm on the verge of tears.
3.5 I go from really happy to really sad in a millisecond.
4. Normally, I am not overly sensitive. My feelings get hurt, I deal with it, I get over it quickly.
5. Recently, I have had several episodes where I have had my feelings hurt when it was PERFECTLY CLEAR that I was being teased and should not be taking offense. I believe myself to have a pretty good sense of humor and can normally laugh at myself. I knew I was being teased and could not stop being "bitchy". I had to walk away before I could let it go and when I did, I had to cry about it and call my best friend. Thank you again Billie. I don't know what I would do without a friend who's been through some of this $hit too and is my voice of reason!
6. I am having a really hard time keeping my patience with the kids. I know that they are just kids, being kids, but it doesn't seem to matter.
7. I am easily distracted and I'm having a difficult time staying on task.
8. I am constantly worried that someone is mad at me. I worry that I haven't had as many comments on my blogs, I worry that my boss is on the verge of telling me to stick it even though he tells me almost daily he doesn't know what he would do without me. I worry that I'm driving Mike crazy and he will finally get fed up and leave me even though I know beyond a doubt that he loves me madly. I worry that I am ruining my kids and they will need therapy for the rest of their life once they reach adulthood.

My appointment is scheduled for next Monday at 10 a.m. I will post again and let everyone know if the tenderness is another lump forming, whether or not the Dr. thinks I'm out of whack again and any other findings of interest after my appointment.

Sunday with the kids.

2009-06-14T23:45:00.014-04:00

Today turned out to be a better day than it started out to be. First off, I didn't sleep well at all last night. We had a doggie friend stay the night and basically we were trying to see if the little dog would get along with Lita, our dog. Let's just say they were not best of friends. Lita was very jealous and any time that the little dog would get close to one of us, Lita would butt in and growl. We even had a few "snapping" matches where they show their teeth and use that Yipping bark.

On top of this excitement, the boys didn't sleep well last night, I went to bed late and ended up falling asleep in their bed. The boys share a full size mattress and they sleep in it like this.

Now add me in between the two and it becomes a not so comfortable situation. Needless to say, I got very little sleep.

Also, when the kids got up this morning they both wanted milk as usual. Tyler likes chocolate, Jake likes strawberry, and normally I don't mind getting it for them. Guess what. This morning, we were out of milk. The kids got up before 7:30 this morning and Michael definitely handles getting up early better than I do, and well, He got to sleep through the night, no boys in the bed because I was with them. When the kids got up, I went to my bed and tried my very hardest to ignore them, and get some sleep. They were loud, whiny and would not listen for ANYTHING! After an hour and forty-five minutes, I finally gave up, went and got my shower, and took the kids with me to return the dog to my sister-in-law who is trying to find it a good home. Michael helped his nephew remove a tree in his yard today and that's why I took the kids with me. On our way home, we picked up two gallons of milk (which will be gone in less than four full days) and stopped at the MickeyD's to pick up some breakfast.

After breakfast, I put the boys down for their nap,(it was around 11) ended up laying between them again, and they might have slept for an hour. A good nap for the boys to be refreshed and in a good mood requires at least a two hour stretch. They got up grumpy as ever and still whining.

After Michael got home, this is what we did.

Michael loves kids and anytime he sees pictures on a job, our kids tend to come up. Michael is the reason that Krista at one of the company's he works at got a Digital SLR. He told her how great the pictures turn out and she has a little girl. They even took a class together last fall that was supposed to teach them the basics on settings and f/stops and how to take a really good picture. Notice I said supposed to. I know Michael wasn't overly impressed when the instructor suggested that any flaws in a picture can be fixed with Photoshop and proceeded to evaluate the pictures taken and tell you how to fix them with the program, instead of what to change in the camera settings.

But I digress, we went to Krista's home today to take some pictures of her family, which has just been expanded with a new baby boy. Here are a few of my favorite shots today. I would love some feedback.

I've left the pictures exactly like they were taken. I want to crop a few of them to fix them up and edit out the cars in the one, but I think that these turned out really good along with so many others. These are just a few of my favorites. The one on the stack of towels is so sweet in black and white.

Valuable time spent together.

2009-06-11T21:02:00.012-04:00

Michael and I started Tae Kwon Do together three years ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long. The boys were 9 months old when we put Eden in what used to be called Tiny Tots at the school where my Best Friend Billie's youngest, David, was taking the class. I was sitting there with Billie one night shortly after Eden started taking classes and I don't remember if it was me or Billie but one of us said to the other, I would totally do this if you want to try it out.

Here is a picture of me and Michael when we were just starting. You start with a plain white belt, we are wearing the first earned belt and testing for a yellow belt. Billie is at this test as well but in the line of students in front of us for this test. Every test after this one, Master Bertrand would line the three of us up so that you could see the form in perfect sync with each other. We practiced together and would come home after each test and look up the moves for the next form, so excited to learn the form before the following Tuesday's class. Bill Thomas affectionately referred to us as the "Over Achievers".

This is Eden testing for her "Green Stripe" in Tiny Tots. After the students graduate from the Tiny Tots class they are allowed to study to earn color belts. In Tiny Tots, they add a stripe to the White Belt. Eden is currently a Red Belt. This means that she is three belts away from becoming a Black Belt. Michael and Billie earned their Black Belts earlier this year. I made it to a green belt and was having a lot of trouble doing the stances for the forms because of my knees hurting so bad. I went to see the orthopedic surgeon who replaced mom's knee and she told me that I have early onset osteo arthritis and a grade 3 condromalaysia in my left knee. (In layman's terms it basically means that I have little to no cartilage left in my knee, aka my knees are totally screwed!) She told me that most exercise helps conditions like mine, however the constant twisting of the knee required in a tae kwon do stance was causing more damage and therefore I had to quit. However, I'm extremely proud of Mike and Billie for their accomplishment!!! and I'm pretty proud of myself as well. I have a pretty great round house kick!
I am also proud of Eden. I'm not sure that she is still so excited about taking the classes but she is very good at the forms and can break a 1" thick board with both a kick or a "hammer fist". This translates into being able to break a rib in self defense. I hope that she will always practice enough that she will always be able to protect herself.

Check out this picture of Billie breaking two 1" boards with a punch. (FYI, this is a very VERY difficult break, a black belt tested just a few weeks before this test and could not accomplish this break, I mention this because black belts are more advanced in their training and even after several tries, she still did not manage this. Billie broke these boards on the first try like she was simply punching through paper!) Shout out to my girl! I LOVE YOU SISTA!!

Here is Michael breaking a board with a back kick. This is also a difficult break. You have to spin around fast enough to site the boards then place the kick just right so that they break. Billie and Mike both did this break as a requirement to earn the black belt after kicking into the air across the floor 100 times. Billie almost passed out from the exhaustion. Luckily she had her best bud there with her big mouth screaming at her "come on girl. YOU GOT THIS!!!"

Bill Thomas and Joel Evans are the black belts standing with Mike and Billie. They were instrumental in helping them achieve their black belts. We love you guys!

Since I couldn't do Tae Kwon Do anymore, Michael and I have tried to find something that we both enjoy doing together. It took us quite some time, but in the last year, we have both discovered a love of taking pictures with a DSLR camera. We went to Las Vegas two years in a row for spring break with Billie and Jason, and Michael isn't a gambler so we took the digital Kodak Easy Share camera that we had. Michael got a pretty good picture of the strip at night, but it was just a "snapshot" quality picture and he just wasn't happy with it.

Here is the picture. I actually thought it was really good and I had Jennifer, (my brother's wife) help me turn this into a background for my MySpace page that I used when we were counting down the days on the second trip out. When we came back from the second trip Mike was so frustrated that he couldn't get the picture that he wanted, he took the money that he didn't gamble, and bought our first DSLR. We bought the Canon Rebel with a 18mm - 125mm kit lens. Michael likes taking landscapes and interesting scenes. He has a wonderful eye for what is "unique" and takes really great pictures. I love Macro shots. You guys have already seen several of the shots that we have both taken. Our ultimate goal is to capture a really great, tack sharp picture of the Louisville skyline at night. We are still trying. You wouldn't think that it would be that difficult of a job, but, the conditions have to be just right and there is definitely a "sweet time" and the river has to be almost perfectly calm. It's not very often that the river is calm enough to capture the reflection of the skyline like we are wanting. So, all three of our kids ask us on a regular basis if we can go to the river.

This picture was taken with the Canon Rebel XT sitting on a tripod the night of the "hurricane" when all of the power was out on the Jeffersonville side but Louisville still had power.

Glenda has a picture of the skyline when the river looks like a perfect mirror reflection of the skyline.

Now we try to think of the best places to go to get really cool pictures. Eden and the twins have their own little hand me down cameras that each likes to use and we are starting them out young!

I saved the best picture for last. This awesome picture that we got from the Belvedere in downtown Louisville last night when Mike and I took the kids over and let them play while we shot pictures and played with shutter speeds.

I really hope that this will be one of those pictures you can click on and zoom in. There are so many cool things in this shot. The Belle of Louisville is reflected perfectly in the river, the headlights and tail lights making the light streams, the interstate signs are in pretty good focus, the arch of the 2nd Street bridge, and I love how the street lamps look like twinkling stars!

One busy weekend

2009-06-01T19:54:00.014-04:00

So... my baby sister graduated from high school on Sunday. Saturday, we had the graduation party. Saturday, I discovered that I could never enjoy being a caterer. We had taco dip, hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and macaroni & cheese. Of all the things listed here the potato salad was the only item I did not prepare. I was grill master and oven/stove top master. It was exhausting! But, it was also delicious. Even if I do say so myself! :o)

It's hard to tell it, but for the "Smith family" I post this picture so that you will know, when you guys come up for Christmas this year and it's at my mom's again, there will be considerably more room for the family to move around in. Michael is pretty much standing where a wall used to be, if you look above his head you can see the beam across the ceiling where the wall used to be. I can't begin to tell you how much fun I had tearing it down and mom is still in the process of getting it finished out. It is an awesome space and will allow us all to be in the same room without requiring us to sit in each others laps. Here are a few more pictures from the party.

The "gift" table. Gifts were mostly cards. Here's a pretty cool picture from the party. This is Allen, Jennifer and Nathan. Nathan is 2 now and this picture for the Smith's probably feels very much like a picture of Neal feels to me. It's nice to see a picture so you know they really are still alive and happy somewhere. It was really nice to have my whole family in the same place at the same time. I said Nathan is 2. I forgot to mention that he is as tall as my twins, who will be 4 in August.

Look at her face carefully and you'll see the red soda mustache. This is a picture of a child who has had one hot dog, God knows how many soft drinks and at least one slice of cake. Happy to be on a sugar high so that she can stay up late and PARTY!!! LOL :op

Sunday, at the graduation ceremony, the high school band preformed "Pomp and Circumstance" for the seniors. Our school mascot is a "Highlander". In my own school years we affectionately called the mascot a "fag in a plaid skirt". Not until Erin's graduation did I discover that it's actually pretty cool to have a bag piping highlander as a mascot, because it means you can have a bagpiper in your high school band. In this picture, they are playing "Amazing Grace" I don't know of any more beautiful sound than a bagpipe playing this song. The only thing is, I tend to associate it with a death, not a graduation. It was really cool nonetheless.

Here she is entering the gymnasium. If you look closely, you can see colored tassels around her neck. They were to recognize her achievements in Art. Erin is a very talented artist. She uses several different mediums and has won several awards for her paintings. She also has an amazing eye for photographs. Her and Louise would make a perfect team! Not that me, Amy and Michael don't take really great pictures too. :o)

And last but not least, here she is walking across the stage taking her final steps into adulthood.

OK. So I was wrong. I had to post this picture too. This is approximately 440 caps tossed into the air to celebrate breaking free of the jail that is high school. Congratulations Erin! I couldn't be more proud! Also, I don't know if you'll be able to zoom on this picture or not, but in the upper half almost in the middle there is a banner on the wall depicting a gorgeous Nordic type man. This is a much more attractive Highlander than the life size statue that we had back in my day who was indeed wearing that horrible, green and gold (school colors) kilt and toting around a bagpipe.

Eden Nicole

2009-05-27T21:06:00.016-04:00

A bit ago I posted a blog with pictures of the twins. I distinctly remember saying I would need to do a blog about Eden. So, here it is!

I don't have any really good pictures of my baby belly with Eden. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to make sure that I had some. I see a lot of studios doing "maternity" shots these days and really wish that I had done that in the last trimester of both pregnancies, but... you can't turn back time and as much as I LOVE being pregnant,(yes, I really did say LOVE in big capitol letters) I don't think Mike is ready for another baby and truthfully, I don't think I am either. Three is good. (Not that I would be devastated by another pregnancy. I would love that baby just as much as the other three.) Here is about the best picture I have of the "Eden" belly. This is about 5 weeks before Eden was born.

On February 6, 2001 I went to the OB's office for my weekly check and while I was there mom and I asked her how big she thought the baby would be, she measured my belly and asked me what size shoe I wear. I know this seems like a totally irrelevant question, but I want all you mommies to think about this one. I told her I wear between a 7 and 7 1/2 and she told me the baby would be within a pound of that, plus or minus. She then sent me to the hospital (which is just across the street from her office) and had them monitor me. That was around 11 am on the 6th. They started me on pitocin at about 5:30 p.m. and I told Dr. Borden that I would see her later. She was going to be able to get some sleep after the baby was born. She just gave me that "you're going to be disappointed, but I hope you're right" look and told me that if I delivered before noon on Wednesday that she would be there to deliver the baby. (During the ultrasound, I only had one with Eden, she sat with her legs crossed the whole time and when we started recording, she decided to take a nap so we didn't know the sex for sure until she was born. I did have the feeling that it was a girl from about 20 weeks on though) They called Dr. Borden around 11:30 p.m. and Eden was born at 12:03 a.m. at 21 1/2 inches long and 8 lbs, 3 oz. (Remember what I said about my shoe size? Weird huh?) She was so beautiful from the very beginning. Perfect complexion, all ten fingers and toes and a great set of pipes for letting us know that she was hungry. I nursed her almost immediately and she latched right on, so it was a huge disappointment the next day when I couldn't get her to do it for anything. Thank God for lactation consultants. She came right in, grabbed Eden's little head and my breast and popped it right in, from that point on we had very little trouble getting the job done! I love this picture of us. It's our first family picture and Michael was in awe of that tiny bundle, he refused to look away from her for this picture, even when my mom begged. I love it even if I do look like a swollen whale!

Eden Nicole. I guess I should go on and mention that Eden's name did not come from the bible even if it seems like it. When I was a teen, mom loved her soaps and Days of Our Lives was her favorite. I developed a love for Santa Barbara. It didn't run for very long, but I remember it well and the most beautiful people on that show were Eden and Cruz Castille. That is where Eden's name came from and I told my two best friends in high school, "When I have my kids, my little girl's name will be Eden Nicole and my little boys name will be Tyler" I didn't have a middle name picked out yet. As everyone who knows me knows, I got both and a little surprise with the boys which turned out to be called Jacob.

This was her first Derby hat!

Eden had colic for about 6 weeks, however, we discovered that if we got her to sleep before 9:30 she slept right through the "colic hours". Every night for 4 weeks she would cry incessantly for 3 hours from Midnight to 3 a.m. Nothing helped, not rocking, walking, bouncing, swinging, not white noise, NOTHING would soothe her. I know now that her having colic was preparing me for life with twin boys. After the colic stage, she was the best baby. Always smiling and giggling and loved to play. The only complaint would be that she wanted to be constantly entertained, and really, what kind of complaint is that? I miss those days where I was her entire world and her happiness in life revolved around me and her daddy, and boy does her daddy adore her!

This is Christmas of 02 which makes her almost 3. Look how curly her hair is. It was so cute! Her hair has a few small curls left at her temple and the base of her neck when it's humid and about to rain, but that's all that's left of all this curl.
This is one of my favorite pictures of me and Eden together.

Before we washed her hair and after we washed it. It was so long and you couldn't even tell.

I just like this one. She looks so sweet. Her pillow is in our bed because, until the "twin belly" got to big to manage while laying down, Eden slept between us. That was a huge transition for all of us, but I couldn't handle that bony little butt floppin' over in the middle of the night and hitting my belly. It hurt like crazy!
All decked out in Tinkerbell. Waiting for daddy to get home so we can trick or treat.

Christmas the year before the twins came. Look how beautiful her hair is. It's still shiny and think and pretty, but I miss the curls and so does she.

Her fourth birthday, the last before her whole world changed. She was the center of our universe. We revolved around her and I'm sorry to say that once the twins came, she couldn't be that center anymore and it was a hard adjustment for her and for us. I spent a lot of time feeling so guilty. I remember having her come in and sit next to me, just so that I could see her and spend a little time with her. The twins still require a huge amount of my attention because they both have to be watched constantly but I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel and I do try to take time to just have a Eden and Mom day when we can carve out the time. It's been a while and we are definitely due, but the boys are getting older and they are playing better and getting into things less often so it's becoming easier to divide my time more equally between all three kids. We're not completely there yet, but I'm hoping that once the boys start pre-school in the fall, we will be ready to handle a more even balance.

I took this last picture of Eden today. She's still the prettiest little girl I know, and I know that I am biased because I'm her mom, but we still have perfect strangers come up to us all the time to tell us how pretty she is. I couldn't agree more!

To my beautiful baby girl. I love you so much. I wouldn't trade you for the world, you are sweet and sassy and sometimes a pain in the butt but I love you and I love who you are and the young lady you are becoming. You are a great big sister and I know that your brothers are a huge pain in your behind, but they love you and everyday I see you becoming the best big sister two little boys could have! :o* (kisses)

Editor's note: I noticed this morning that soon, my little girl won't be a little girl for much longer. The shirt she had on was a little to tight and mom's notice things. :o)

I'm not dead!

2009-05-19T20:46:00.010-04:00

The title is a nod to Monty Python movies and I felt it appropriate for someone who used to blog every night and hasn't since last Thursday. I've been a little busy and I haven't felt all that great either.

I'm better now and ready to start blogging again.

Mom is much better now. She up and around and feeling good enough to watch my boys again, which is a really great thing. I appreciate that my mother in law is willing to help out at a moments notice, but when the kids are with her, they tend to get away with more than they do when they are with my mom. They railroad the MIL and get away with it because they use those cute little puppy dog eyes and those super cute smiles.

He was being a complete little turd in this picture and look at that smile. I know at least two of you are going, "Ahhh, he's so cute." Yes, he's cute, but it's so that I don't kill him! LOL

And then we have Tyler, who is double trouble, because he has the golden brown eyes perfect for giving puppy dog eyes and the sweet little smile. Thankfully, he is the more well behaved of the two. They have flopped on me several times since they were babies as to who was the easier of the two and who was more laid back. I have a feeling that the personalities are pretty much here to stay at this point. It's probably a good thing, because, for as sweet as Tyler can be, he has a filthy temper and can be down right hateful at times. Luckily he seems to be pretty sweet natured most of the time, because when he's being mean, he's really REALLY mean.

We took the kiddos to the zoo on Saturday. We were going to go with Louise when she was in town, but didn't get to make it because of the nasty weather that was forecast. I'm glad that they went on Thursday and were able to enjoy the nice weather, our outing to the Huber Orchard and a planned visit to the waterfront park was cut short by a nasty storm on Friday. So of course, because we didn't go to the zoo, my kids don't see it as, "we did something fun, we shouldn't beg to go somewhere else too" they have been asking to go ever since and we finally made it over there. Admission to the zoo is astronomical! $11.95 per adult and $8.95 for kids 3 and over. It was going to be $50 to take them in. Instead of paying $50, we paid $75 and go a membership to the zoo. $25. more to go back as many times as we want for the next 365 days starting on Saturday! It was a no brainer!

For the first time since they opened the exhibit, we were able to take the boys into the Lorikeet landing and let them feed the birds some nectar. We took the train down, and right back up after the lorikeets, the big hills in the zoo. I was able to completely avoid them! Yeah me!!!

Here I am feeding the lorikeets. The boys wouldn't hold the nectar cups because they were a little afraid of the birds actually landing on them. They did however, want to pet the pretty little birdies and of course, the trainer had to keep telling them, "Don't touch them, I don't want them to bite you, they don't know that you are nice and don't want to hurt them. They don't like to be petted."
OK, whether you call these guys Zaboo from Zaboombafu or King Julian from Madagascar, these little guys are pretty cute. They had all been taking a nap and the two in the back were just finishing up a big yawn. The one in front was sitting there like that and I just kept waiting for him to do something obscene that I would have to cover eyes up over. Thankfully, it didn't happen and they decided it was time to get up and play.

The newest zoo baby. I don't know if you can zoom in on this picture or not, but if you can, you can see the lioness' in the background sunning on the rock.

For the first time that I can remember, the male lion was out and about in their "pride" and this was taken on the tail end of a big yawn. I guess all the animals were just waking up from nap time when we got there. Here are a few more picture of him that I just love. They are such beautiful and majestic creatures.

I LOVE this shot. I think this is why they call a lion's territory a "Pride"! It's a shame he's a predator, because I really just wanted to climb in there and pet him.

Well, that's all for now. I have more pictures from the trip that I want to post but they will have to wait. Michael is waiting for me so that we can watch American Idol. I want to see if Kris can out sing Adam for the third week in a row! ;o)

My vehicle

2009-05-14T22:26:00.010-04:00

My sister in law has been driving a Toyota 4 Runner for a long time. Mike and I have borrowed it on several occasions and I really loved it from the very beginning. I've wanted one since the first time that we took it.

Now, I have a Toyota Sequoia. I LOVE THIS CAR!!! It's a 4 Runner, monster sized! Of course, I have three little monsters I have to haul around in it. It's also nice for times when we want to go out with friends, it seats 8 comfortably! Did I mention I love this car???

Since we bought it, we have discovered a few minor problems, but nothing that I can't live with. For instance, the speedometer says that I am only going 40 when I'm in fact moving 10 miles an hour faster, this is true at all speeds. When I'm going 5 miles an hour, (like this happens anytime other than pulling out of the drive) it doesn't even register that I am moving.

Just last week. I discovered that the drivers side mirror was broken. How could I miss something like a broken mirror you ask? Well. I took it to the car wash on Saturday and Sunday, after it was sunny and warm, I found the mirror broken on the ground, the mirror that was covering the broken mirror. Guess how I fixed this problem. I found a web site that sells pre-cut mirrors, the perfect size, and I did the same exact thing. Here are a few before and after shots.

Not conducive to the "mirror picture method" that Louise came up with. Props to Louise, because, I got this really cute picture of Tyler I'll be sharing in just a sec.

Here's one of me in the newly repaired mirror. My reflection through the open door.

Here's that really cute picture of Tyler. This was the look on his face when he first saw daddy when Mike got back from Bowling Green and the Diesel Drag Races.

And after he found out I was taking pics of him in the mirror.

Stealing from Louise's book again. Here is a picture for today. This is from the rose bush on the corner of my house. We have several folks that drive by our house, just to see if this rose bush is blooming. I gave it to my mother in law for Mother's day a long time ago and it's still blooming like crazy every year.

I know it's late

2009-05-13T23:48:00.002-04:00

I know it's late, and I'm tired but I wanted to let everyone know that mom is doing good. She's home and she's still sore and not feeling great but she's doing OK.

I just got home from work. I went back in around 9 so that I could do some catching up. I was way behind and being in that position is a little scary for me. I don't like not knowing if there is something coming up that I'm about to miss and I try really hard to keep up so that things don't fall through the cracks and cause the dreaded call from the Courthouse. I'm so excited to finally have some company in the office and I'm really looking forward to having a receptionist to handle the calls, calendaring appointments and answering the door when clients come in. I think this is going to be so helpful. I will be able to concentrate on work and if I'm to busy I'll be able to have them sent to my voice mail so that I can return calls when I'm not right in the middle of a project. So happy about that new addition too! :o) Thanks Mickey!

Soon, I'll get completely caught up and I won't be in a mad rush to get things done and I'll be able to get back to posting pictures in my blog and enjoying the fact that spring has officially sprung and it's been beautiful weather, even if we do have to pay two days of rain for every time we get a pretty one. I'm so over the "occasional storms"!

By the time I publish this blog it will be Thursday, so happy Thursday to everyone and weekend, here we come, thank goodness!

Family Update

2009-05-12T20:16:00.003-04:00

Because I know that my family follows this blog, I'm am posting here about my mom.

Mom watches my twins for me while I'm at work and yesterday afternoon she took them to the White Castle to get them some lunch, she had two hamburgers and a handful of fries. A few weeks ago she had to have a scan done for a routine check up and they told her that she had gall stones. Boy did she ever.

At 4:30 yesterday she called me at work to tell me that she was going to the ER because she was doubled over in pain. She had several doses of "high octane" pain meds and nothing was helping to relieve the pain. They decided to admit her to the hospital at 10 last night. It was near 12 am before they got her to a room. The did a scan on her this morning and decided to remove her gall bladder.

Around 2:15 this afternoon they took her to surgery to determine whether they could do surgery with the scope or if they needed to actually cut her open and remove it because it was "shredded". Luckily they were able to remove it with the scope and she should be coming home tomorrow around lunch time.

I just wanted to let everyone know that she came through like a champ and when I left the hospital at 8 she was sitting up in the bed and eating a few graham crackers. She should be up and around by the weekend.

Family Fun

2009-05-09T00:49:00.016-04:00

I'm so excited I got to spend some time with my cousin who's in from Tennessee and her kiddos. Louise, they were all so well behaved and they are absolutly adorable!

I'm pretty impressed with myself too! I actually kept the twins straight all day! I loved it when Natalie came over and started checking my pockets for tokens to ride the tractors. That was so cute!

I can't believe they only had three of these tractors, but they actually did pretty good taking turns. We only had one major meltdown and it was pretty short lived.

He's not real good at sharing, but then again, my boys aren't much on sharing either.

I think the kids really liked feeding the goats. Poor May May was the only one who had a goose mishap. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from that area.

Sweet little Conner, thinking about kissing the goat, since that's what his mommy suggested. Then he decided to just pet his ear.
Natalie and Conner getting corn to feed the animals. I think they are feeding the deer in this one.
Tyler petting the baby goat. This one was just his size and stood at the fence and let him pet him for a long time.
Jacob, just like his daddy, always in a hurry to get somewhere. Isn't he precious? Looks just like his daddy!

I love this picture of Regan, she was watching the other kids on the tractors and when I said her name, she turned to me and smiled right before I shot this picture. She knows when there is a camera on her! I also noticed that she is a big helper! She rode with Conner, because he couldn't quite reach the pedal to make it go and she was happy to let him steer while she pushed the button. Such a big girl!

Sweet little Madyson, I don't think she felt very good, but she was so good. I took her to the pedal cars and helped her and Regan go around the track once. The pedal cars are a little to big for the smaller kids, but her and Regan had so much fun, and she didn't even get upset when Regan started saying "I'm winning!" Mady was so sweet, she was happy for her sister.
Eden, the oldest on the trip today, she did so good with the younger kids, here she is waiting patiently for her turn. I know that I am biased because she's mine, but I still think that she is so beautiful. Sometimes, I forget just how pretty she is, and I love days like today, because they bring out the little bit of natural curl left in her hair. Couldn't you just drown in those deep brown eyes?

Here's Louise helping Dalton over the little tractor bridge. This was before the meltdown, when he was still being really good.

And little Mady who was just content to sit in the stroller. I think she actually fell asleep in it not to long after this picture.

Aren't these some of the most precious kids you've ever seen!?! We "Smith" girls sure do make pretty babies! This includes yours Amy, you just weren't here for me to take pictures of them too! I hope you can make it up, or I can make it down there soon and I'll get pictures of your kiddos too! Louise, I have a ton more pictures that turned out so good. I'll send them to you if you want. Just let me know. Here's the last one I want to post. I love the look on Conner's face. Michael took this picture and the look on his face is just so precious!

No particular reason was the original title to this post.

2009-05-05T20:20:00.011-04:00

After writing this post, I now need to change the title to:

Fair Warning! If you are at all an emotional person, you might need a Kleenex. The end of this blog got a little more mushy than I originally intended. I saw this picture again and the thoughts and feelings just started pouring out and I had to tell them.

So, I'm sitting here tonight trying to decide what I should blog about and I've looked back on the previous posts and discovered a few things.

1. That Amy posted some really great pictures of Aunt Sally's yard. I do love the color palette with the bird bath and the flowers. It's absolutely stunning! Also, I love lady bugs. They are the prettiest little bugs. That bright, shiny red shell and the black spots. I don't care so much for the little beetles that look like lady bugs but aren't though. I'm pretty sure those little boogers bite! Anyway, Amy, I was telling you about focusing on something big and then removing the big thing and taking the shot to get a focused lady bug. Here's the shot I took last year, when we first got the big camera. I really love this picture and remember thinking it was a professional grade shot when I took it. Even though it at this point I know it could be even more focused.

Here are a few more shots that were taken shortly after we bought the camera. I loved the color of these clover. I had no idea that clover came in red. I thought they were either white or purple, and the locust shell is just so cool. I can't wrap my head around how they manage to emerge from this shell and it remain intact. If you look close you can see the tiny hairs stuck in the shell.

and 2. That I posted about Hidden Hill Nursery the other day and only posted a few pictures and didn't really go into a lot of detail about the place.

I can't begin to tell you how many acres it is. A land surveyor I'm not. But, it is a rather large property in Utica that is just a truly great spot. As I said before, Bob Hill was a Courier Journal columnist, so basically he's a local celebrity, and he has opened his home, at least the outdoor areas of it, to the public. I could honestly go up to this place every weekend and just relax under the shade trees and listen to this small, man made pond.

It's such a peaceful spot and listening to the water trickle is just so soothing. I could use a little soothing place of my own right now. Of course, the boys are already asleep and Eden is getting ready for bed and will be asleep with in just a few min. of her head hitting the pillow. She hasn't always been so quick to fall asleep, but she has always been a good sleeper. I wish I could say the same for my boys. Almost 4 years without a full nights sleep and some days I wonder if I'll make it to the next. They are a blessing and I love them all. I just wish they would learn to sleep better and stay in their beds.

For Louise, I think that the tree you posted not to long ago, that you want to plant in the back yard once you get clearance, was a pink dogwood. I could be mistaken, but, I am posting a picture of this dogwood because I thought it was so pretty. The petals of the flowers are doubled in the blooms.

I stood under this tree forever with the camera pointed into the sun, trying so hard to get the perfect shot. It never came, but it was a valiant effort! ;o)

The picture above was taken on the grounds of the church that we shot the wedding at. I've started experimenting with reflection shots. Again, I send a shout out to Louise, I was inspired by your April Showers submission to the photo contest.

This little bird is perched on the corner of a large grave stone outside the church, I thought that it was precious.

The story behind this picture is this. When we arrived at the church/cemetery to take some test shots of the area so that we could prepare for the wedding the next day, I got out of my car and was instantly drawn by the beauty of these two brilliant red roses and the stark contrast between their color and the cool gray of the grave stone. We all went into the church, walked the grounds, I took the picture above, several in the church, but continued to be drawn back to this stone. It was just off the access road where the "chapel parking" was marked. The more I walked the grounds, the more I wanted to go back. The name Lenz is not significant to my family that I am aware of. However, once I went back and took this, and a few other pictures of this grave, I finally took note of the inscription on the stone. Mr. and Mr. Lenz were married in 1940 and both of them passed, within just a few months of each other, in 1998. I am emotional looking at this picture and telling you the story behind it. The reason for this emotion is that I truly believe that Michael and I share the love that it requires to be married to one another for 58 years and it is my sincere hope, that should we both make it to our 60's, 70's, or 80's like this couple, that if he goes before me, that I follow shortly, because, I just can't see my life without him and, to me, the fact that this couple died so closely together, says that they shared a deep and profound love that is very rare in these times when divorce is such an easy thing to do. I know that occasionally, Michael makes it in here to read some of my blogs. I hope that he sees this one and knows that he is the love of my life, and I know that we have had our ups and downs and that more are sure to be just around the corner, but I can't see my life without him and really don't care to.

I love you baby!

Long weekend with little accomplished.

2009-05-04T20:56:00.011-04:00

This weekend was a good one. We were pretty busy, but did nothing that needed to be done at the house. Go figure. Saturday, when it was actually kinda nice out, instead of planting my flowers and putting down the weed blocking material and mulch, we went to Hidden Hill nursery. It is a beautiful spot in Utica, Indiana owned by Courier Journal columnist, Bob Hill. I don't know if he still does the column or not. I don't think so. Anyway, it's just an indescribably beautiful place and you can get some really spectacular pictures up there because it is a truly magnificent spot!

This is just one of the hundreds of Iris' planted on the grounds up there. So pretty. Look at the droplets of water! Here is a picture of one of the ENORMOUS hostas. The water droplets on this leaf look like diamonds shining in the sun!

And check out this beautiful old door that opens up to a small stretch of heaven on earth.

We also went with my sister-in-law, Glenda, and shot a Sunday wedding. It was my first time shooting a wedding and man is it way more stressful that I ever thought it could be. To top off the fact that it was stressful, we had "the best friend" who did the brides hair and makeup, there with her camera and we (the hired photographer) had to wait our turn each time to take a picture because "the one" was in the way. How very frustrating! If it had been me that was actually hired to take the pictures little Ms. Thing would have gotten an earful! Glenda is way nicer than I am! Anyway, it was a beautiful little church in Kentucky and we got some really cool shots. I can't wait to see the ones Glenda took. Here are a few that Michael and I took and at the very end, a macro that Michael shot of the bible that is literally padlocked shut on one of the podiums at the church.

I have a picture like this one of mine and Michael's rings and it's one of my favorites.

And last, but far from the least, (we shot over 200 pics) here is a macro I shot of the cake. I think it looks delicious!

Dear Lord, I'm fat!

2009-05-01T23:09:00.007-04:00

I know that weight is a touchy subject and I know that hearing someone say they are fat, even if you too think they are, kinda puts a little discomfort into any conversation. With all of that said, the reason I didn't post a blog yesterday (Beth, where was my email? Do you not care what I have to say? j/k) is because at the time I usually sit down to do my blog, I was in my basement playing a video game.

Now... what does being fat and playing a video game have in common. >:o/ <~~ supposed to look like he's concentrating on the answer. The answer is, we have a Nintendo Wii and a friend of ours has lost 13 lbs in a week by playing Wii Fit. Here is where weight and video games come into play.

I am a HUGE fan of Celebrity Fit Club on VH1 and of the Biggest Loser on ABC. I love the Biggest Loser. I watch it every week and dread when the "season" comes to an end because I know it will be at least a month before it's back on again. I mention CFC because they had the girl that played Alex Keaton's little sister on Family Ties on there, I think her name is Tina Yothers. The season that she was on there, they introduced the Wii Fit game and I remember thinking to myself "that looks so cool!" Of course, when the game came out it was kind of expensive so we just held off buying it. Well, tax time is a rough time around here. Michael owns his own business and usually we pay in, but this year we got a little back and we used some of it to buy this game.

This game has a board that you set on the floor and stand on. It measures your balance, weight asks for your height and birthday and then determines your BMI and your "Wii Fit age". I have lost almost two pounds in just 3 days. 1.8 to be exact and I have lost a few percentage points on the BMI. I started out at 37.83. In case you didn't know, and ideal BMI is 22.00% so, I'm not just overweight, I'm considered obese. Let me tell you. That was a punch in the gut!

I'm loving this game, I like doing the workouts on it, it feels like more of a game than it feels like a workout, but let me tell you. It kicks my butt!!! I really for real sweat during the workouts and for the most part all of the activities are low impact, which is good for me because my knees are a mess and the past three nights I have put in at least 45 min. a night. You have so much fun, you lose track of the time, thankfully, they provide you with a "time bank" and it keeps track of the length of your workout for you and even suggests when to take a break.

Here are a few screen shots from the game.

Step aerobics. I'm pretty good at this one, but, I tend to want to go faster than the game does and to get a better score you have to be perfectly in rhythm with the game.
Here is a perfect step, while playing the game and snapping photos for the blog tonight.

This isn't a great picture, but for the strength training and yoga moves, you have a personal trainer. I'm doing lunges here. They hurt my knees like crazy, but I'm hoping that in the long run, after I have dropped some weight and done these lunges that it will have improved the muscle around my knee enough that they won't hurt so much.

And last, but not least (there are a ton of exercises that you can open) this is one of the "balance" games, for this one, it's a long ski jump. You squat down on the board and you fly down this slope and at the right min. you extend your legs, as if you are jumping, and you fly up into the air and the idea is to keep your red dot in the blue circle and see how far you can stay airborne and on the track. I tried to get a picture of the Mii, that's what the Icons are called, in the air, but unfortunately wasn't skilled enough to make the jump and take a picture at the same time. Maybe tomorrow night I'll have Michael take pictures of me doing the workouts.

So, sorry I missed posting my blog last night, but you see, I was just a little busy working up a good sweat and trying to drop some of this weight that I have let hang around for FAR TO LONG! Wish me luck and continued success!

The Great "Steamboat" Race

2009-04-29T22:06:00.009-04:00

Every year, for as long as I can remember, as part of the Kentucky Derby Festival, they have held a Steamboat race between the Belle of Louisville and the Delta Queen. Last year, the Delta Queen was retired for good and is no longer taking part in this long tradition. This year, Michael and I decided to take the kids to the river to see the racing "steamboats" come back from their trip up river. Last year, for the 4th of July the entire Goodman family had tickets for a cruise on the Belle and we had a really good time. The boys and Eden really enjoyed watching the river go by from the top deck of the boat. Tyler and Jacob couldn't stop telling us about how we all went on this boat last year.

Here is another picture of the two boats, the replacement for the Delta Queen was the Belle of Cincinnati, not a steam driven boat, but it does have a paddle wheel like the Belle of Louisville does. It was clearly no contest. I don't know if the race was closer going up the river than it was coming back but the Belle of Louisville was way ahead of the Belle of Cinci. as it passed under the bridges in Jeffersonville. To be fair, I have to mention that because the Cinci Belle has a diesel engine, it had to start behind the Belle of Lou. as a "handicap". Maybe next year the "handicap" won't be such a wide gap between the two.

Jeffersonville has a really nice lawn set up at the riverfront that isn't really a park per say, but it is a nice looking area to enjoy the comings and goings on the river. The kids really enjoyed being able to run in the grass and watch the ducks and geese float along on the river and the driftwood that Tyler was convinced was a fish. Here are a few shots of the kiddos having a good time.

We tried really hard to keep them all three, especially Jacob, behind this little fence. The river is right on the other side of this fence and Jacob would be the one to "fall" in and I'm just not up for a swim in the mighty Ohio.

Michael asked Eden if she wanted to take some pictures. She forgot to bring along her own camera so daddy let her use his. Just let me say, Honey, I'm so proud that you are the father of my children, you are a wonderful dad and I couldn't have picked a better man for the job. Also, I'm so proud of Eden. I remember Glenda offering to let Michael and I use her Nikon before we got our own camera and both of us were so intimidated by it. Eden took this camera from her daddy, put the strap around her neck and figured out how to find her subject in the viewfinder and click away! How smart is this little girl!?! And fearless to boot!

And one of my favorite shots from our visit to the river. Is there anything sweeter than a picture of a child's hand protected by a man? Another good reason for this to be my favorite shot is that thigh!!!!!! That awesome thigh reaches right up his leg and turns itself into a really great butt! :o)

So much for a light work week.

2009-04-28T18:59:00.003-04:00

So, at this point everyone knows that I work as a legal secretary for a wonderful attorney in Jeffersonville. This week is "Derby Week" in Kentuckiana, so we have a pretty light schedule according to Mickey's calendar, and the truth is, as I'm the one who schedules the appointments, I kind of designed it to be a light week for several reasons.

1. We have a new attorney moving into the building with us this week and we need to rearrange furniture and file away all of the files that we aren't using and the documents that go into the files. (This is a huge job and it will take several hours.)

2. It's Derby Week, and while the Derby does not excite me, it does excite a large group of people in this area and scheduled appointments tend to become missed appointments.

3. I was hoping to get to the bottom of my "to do" pile this week.

As I'm sure you have deduced on your own, the first two days of this week were not the nice, laid back, get a ton of work done days that I intended for them to be. So please, cross your fingers, say a little prayer, do what ever luck bringing thing you do, and hope along with me that the next three days, that only have three scheduled appointments total, stay slow days and we manage to get the office in order and ready for the new tenants and that I can clear my desk, because my new desk is half the size! If I had smileys I could add to this post it would be a smiley with great big, wide open, surprised eyes and a tongue hanging out. Or one that is yanking it's hair out! LOL

Random Pictures of Weekend Activities

2009-04-27T20:23:00.011-04:00

First is the honey bee that was playing in the dandelions in the front yard on Saturday morning. Let me remind everyone again that I am allergic to all bees. I actually sat down on the ground so that I could get these shots. It's totally silly of me to be so fascinated by these little poisonous beasts but click on this picture to make it bigger and you will see that this little guy is completely covered in pollen.

Also, I never really took a close up picture of a dandelion before. When you take a close up look... they are actually pretty interesting flowers. Look how the leaves protect the pollen holders. That little bee had to bury it's head in the center of the flower to get the pollen he needed. It was pretty cool to watch him work. I'm pretty sure that I won't have a shortage of these weeds in my yard this summer. All three of my kids are completely fascinated with the little white ones that you blow and the little seeds go everywhere. As a matter of fact. Eden loves to pull several of them up at a time and then she holds them in the palm of her hand and likes to watch

them blow in the breeze.

This picture was taken at Sounds of Water. They are a lawn pond specialty place just outside of New Albany as you head towards Sellersburg. This fountain is actually made out of stone pillars. Tyler and Jacob loved this thing because the water comes out of it so fast and so hard that it was splashing their legs. Big time fun for little guys. The also loved this place because the path ways are covered in small gravel. The fun kind that is so dusty that it makes your shoes white. They love to put their hands in it and scoop it up and let the dust fly and then proceed to walk over and put those dusty little hands on your dark colored pants. Doesn't that sound like fun? :o)

This is a picture of one of the Koi fish in one of the ponds at the sounds of water place. This fish is probably everybit of a foot long, and obviously, the picture just doesn't do the vibrant colors justice. It's taken through water and there is a glare but he was so pretty I had to try. Mom used to have a garden pond in her front yard. Seeing these fish made her want to put another one in.

Next are the pictures of Erin in her prom dress. Two years in a row she picked out really pretty prom dresses and two years in a row she picked out dresses that had some kind of bead work or embellishment that was sure to irritate that delicate skin that is between the underarm and the elbow on the underside of your arm. The dress was beautiful but she had a rash before she ever pulled out of the drive way. Michael and I were both taking pictures so Erin is looking at me and mom is looking at Michael. Go figure!

This is my favorite picture. I love the look on her face in this one. She is imitating Jacob and doing a really excellent job of it I might add! I think Mom and Steve were both ready to be done with all the picture taking but I would like to say... you know how we are. Give us a camera and something pretty to take pictures of and we become part Japanese. (Like Amy, I know that is not very PC to say, but, I feel like it's fairly true. Any trip I've ever taken and seen someone of Asian decent, they have a really great camera taking pictures of everything!) It's not like they don't already know this.

Last but not least. Sunday morning we went to the Wal-Mart in Clarksville and drove past the Clarksville Town hall again. There were baby ducks there this time and I couldn't resist the urge to try to capture a picture of these adorable little creatures. It amazes me that something so tiny can swim around on top of the water just like the big ducks do. It seems totally effortless.

I tried my best to give this momma all the room that she needed. I know how I am about strangers and my babies but I had to get just a little bit closer so that I could see the babies. As you can see, she noticed me and is in the process of turning around to stand over her babies and honk at me to get the he!! out of her personal space. I didn't get any closer because I didn't want her to leave their side and I left right after I took this shot so that she could go right back to protecting them. There are several other ducks and some really big geese that hang out in this pond and I didn't want to leave them vulnerable. If you click on the picture you can see at least three tiny little heads.

Yard work SUCKS!!!!

2009-04-26T21:33:00.003-04:00

I know that I am a big ol' sissy when it comes to being outside and how hot it is and working in the yard. I'm a air conditioning lovin' fool!

The funny thing is that I actually like to mow the grass. I like the way grass smells and I like the way the yard looks once the grass is mowed. I also think I'm pretty good at it. The truth is I'm GREAT at it because I'm anal about how it looks. You won't often find a long patch of tall pieces of grass that got missed because the mower tires were just a little to far over from the last pass. I always go back and get those stragglers because I can't stand to see them. They are like my own personal arch nemesis. I must cut them down! Isn't that totally ridiculous? Why should it matter so long as the grass is getting mowed and we aren't the only a$$holes on the block who hasn't mowed bringing the whole neighborhood down?

We worked outside most of the afternoon. Eden had a birthday party to go to out at Community Park so we took her and the boys out there and man, was it windy. Almost to windy if that's really possible. I say that because one of my favorite things to do on a sunny and breezy day is stand in the middle of a field with my face turned up to the sun, close my eyes and just let the wind blow through my hair. It used to make me feel like a princess, now I just wonder which one of my kids is trying to figure out the most dangerous thing to do while I have my eyes closed.

When we got home from the park we started on the yard. Michael worked on the new weed eater. (It had to be adjusted so that it would run while it idles and continue to run while you're shredding the weeds, and then stay running once you let go of the throttle and return to an idle.) We won't discuss the colorful language that chores like this seem to elicit even from those of us who try really hard not to use those potty words. I love you honey and you did an awesome job! I wouldn't know where to begin with a weed eater so Michael did that part while I mowed the grass. After those chores were done we pulled out several bushes in the front landscaping. They are simply evergreen bushes and they were overgrown and not very attractive to the overall look of the house. The first few bushes weren't to awful hard to get out but the last two like to killed us. Those roots were huge and they were deep but we are persistent and they are officially out of here! They are the bushes that in between the yellow looking ones. This picture is from the yard sale from last spring. I still have tons of baby and toddler clothes! I will post pictures of the way it is right now, and then after we get the flowers in. We are still deciding what all to put in the landscaping. I know I want more flowers, it's just hard to find pretty perennials. Tulips are my favorite and we will put some in somewhere, possibly under the Japanese Maple, and I really like the different shades of lily's so I might get some more of those to put in but we'll see. I just know I want more color!

The "little" sister.

2009-04-24T22:46:00.005-04:00

I can still remember finding out my mom was pregnant with Erin. I was so excited! I am 15 years older than she is, and it was so cool to have a baby around the house when I was actually old enough to help my mom with her. At least I hope that I was a big help with her. I do know that I used to pretend that she was mine and I loved snuggling with her from the time that mom brought her home from the hospital until the time that I figured out that Michael was the love of my life and I started spending more time with him, and less at home and Erin decided she was too big to be cuddled anymore. I can still remember how sweet she smelled and I laying with her just so I could smell her blankets. Who doesn't love the way babies smell?

When I had Eden, Erin was 11. I remember watching her play with Eden and knowing that she was going to be such a great aunt. All three of my kids just adore her and they love to have her mess with them. Just so you know Erin, I know they can be a pain in the butt, but they love you and I'm pretty sure you love them too!

At this point you're probably asking yourself, "Why is this blog title The "little" sister?" Well, the little part is in quotes because I think Erin was officially taller than me around the time this picture was taken and she's only 10 or 11 here. Of course, being 5'2" myself, it's not a big surprise. Yup, I'm the oldest and the shortest. The reason for this post is that I am amazed at the beautiful, talented young woman that she is becoming. It's hard for me to believe that she is getting ready to graduate from high school. Tomorrow is her Senior Prom and I will be going to mom's to take pictures, so I will add them to this post or start a new one about our day tomorrow. It's going to be jam packed with activity! In anticipation of tomorrows dress, here is a picture from last year's prom.

I know I'm just your boring older sister, but I do love you, and I'm proud of you and remember this... I took you to your first concert and we loved it!

One last thing! Thanks for reminding me I'm getting OLD!

As the weather warms up, lets reflect.

2009-04-23T20:19:00.010-04:00

ILOVE the spring and fall. They are my favorite seasons because of the few precious weeks of what I consider a decent temperature range. That range being between 65 and 85 degrees. The closer you get to that 85, the more I like a nice breeze.

The past year in the Ohio valley has been an interesting weather year. Mild temperatures into November, and Septembers wind storm. In September, we had a "hurricane force" wind storm in a large part of Southern Indiana and Northern Kentucky. This is a picture of my in-laws back yard. They lost several small trees and had countless branches ripped from the larger trees. I don't know how far reaching the wind storm was but it was definitely an interesting experience. We were one of the lucky few who were only without power for a few hours. I think it was maybe 18 hours. Not to bad. But alot of areas were out for almost two weeks. The clean up was several months worth of long shifts for Duke Energy workers getting power restored and tree removal crews working long hours.

Then, at the end of January, we had a winter storm. First, the sky dumped anywhere from 3 inches to 6 inches depending on your location and to top off all of that beautiful snow, we got a layer of ice to go on top of it. It was beautiful to see on the trees. Dangerous, and damaging, but absolutely beautiful. Let me say, if it is going to be cold, I want something to show for it and let me tell you. This storm didn't disappoint. The boys and Eden loved playing in the snow. This is in our front yard. The boys figured out that if they stomped on the ice, they could get to the snow and thought it was great fun to throw snow at mommy. Notice daddy is behind the camera and away from the snow throwing fun. ;o) This was another one of those storms where the weather knocked out power all over town and we out in some areas for two weeks and we never lost power, not even for a minute. We were without power at the office though so I made it to work late the first morning, and I called Mickey at home to tell him that we didn't have power at the office but I would hang around and do some filing and see if it would come back on after a few hours. I was there for about three hours and the power didn't come back on and the office got progressively colder. When I got in it was about 70 degrees and when I left the thermostat said 64 degrees. That's pretty cold in an office that size! Mom lost power as well. Her power was out from for almost a full week. So, Mom, Erin, Dana, Keith, Wyatt, Dalton and Mady all came in to our house and stayed with us for the duration. I think maybe, we might have gotten a feel for what it must be like to live in the Ferree house when all of the kids were still at home. Thirteen people were in this house with

three bedrooms and on a blow up mattress in the living room. It was an experience! We did play alot of SkipBo. Me, Mom, Erin and Dana did anyway.

Here is a picture of the Japanese Maple in the front yard with the blue LED Christmas lights still on it. It was so pretty. It lit up the whole front yard with the ice on it. Not that it didn't when there was no snow or ice. The picture below was taken out at the in-laws again. The kids absolutely love to go to Grandma and Grandpa's. There are so many fun things to do. Not to mention, 4 wheelers, tractor, and a golf cart to ride on. They love it all and I love it because it's safe for them to run all over the country side and wear themselves out!

Look at the ice on these trees. When the sun hits them they just light up and it's so breathtakingly beautiful! With all of that reflection. It's time to get back to the Spring weather at hand and say that I welcome spring and love to see the flowers blooming and the trees starting to sprout leaves.

For Louise

2009-04-22T20:59:00.016-04:00

I love to talk about the twins and the experience of being pregnant with them. This picture was taken on February 27, 2005. Almost exactly 13 weeks into my pregnancy with the twins. I look like I'm 6 months instead of three!

We had been trying to get pregnant for a long time so we knew almost immediately when I got pregnant and Eden heard us talking about having another baby. At this point, she had just turned 4. She started telling anyone who would listen, "My mommy's having two babies." I told her every time she said it. "Eden, honey, don't tell people that. Mommy is only having one baby." At which point we would go into the battle (Yes, I actually stood and argued with this child.) This picture was taken about two weeks after we found out that Eden was right. When I went to visit the doctor for the 11th week visit, I told her that I knew I would show earlier with the second pregnancy but I was already wearing maternity pants. She informed me that she was having a hard time keeping track of the baby's heartbeat and asked if I would let her do an ultrasound. She moved me over to the room where they do the ultrasounds (I forgot to mention that Michael and Eden were waiting in the waiting area so that after the doctor found the heartbeat she could bring them back so that they could hear it too.) and they helped me up on the table and I pulled my shirt up to my bra to expose this belly and the second that paddle hit my belly, there they were! Two heads! So the doctor went to get Michael and Eden and she didn't warn either of them that they were going to see an ultrasound. I remember the look on Michael's face. I swear I thought we were going to have to pick him up off the floor. He was so surprised. He left shortly after that to go back to work and he called his dad on the way home from the doctors office. I was still finishing up the check up. By the time I made it out of the Dr's office they had called Uncle Randy and I was getting a call about how excited he was that I was having twins. From that point on it was a free for all inside my belly. I'm one of the lucky few who didn't have to be put on bed rest and I carried the twins to 37 1/2 weeks. 38 is considered full term with twins.

Just look at the size of this thing!!! I was in the Payless shoes about 2 months before I had them, and I had my back turned to the clerk and she came up behind me and asked if she could help me find anything. When I turned to the side and she saw my belly, her jaw dropped. "Oh honey, please tell me that you are not here walking the mall so that you will go into labor. I would just die if you had that baby right here in the store." I had to explain to her that I still had a good two months left and that I would not be having my twins in her store. As you can probably tell by the beautiful hospital bracelet on my wrist, this was taken seconds before I went into the door you see behind me and changed into a hospital gown to be wheeled upstairs and deliver my precious bundles of joy.

In the picture, Jacob on the left, Tyler on the right. I thought they were easy to tell apart. So, no Amy, I never worried that I had them mixed up. I did however, worry all the time that I would love one more than I did the other, or think that one was cuter than the other and would have moments of guilt over it and then I would hold the other twin and feel the same way all over again and I finally discovered that they all three hold a special place in my heart and I truly do not think that one of my children is more beautiful and precious to me than the other, which I'm sure is a feeling that we all relate too.

My room was a zoo! I had my OB/GYN, an intern that was following her for the day, Michael, Mom, Dana, my nurse, Baby A nurse x2, Baby B nurse x2, the epidural guy, (in case you lost count that's 11 already) and by the time I started pushing, I had every nurse on the ward in my room. I think that at last count there were 23 people in my room. None of the nurses, (and the one with the most seniority had been there for 8 years) had ever seen both twins born without one being delivered by c-section.

Tyler was baby A, I pushed him out at 1:15 p.m., that's right, I'll say it again, I pushed him out. No c-section! I remember Michael saying "Oh my God! Look how big he is." He was so cute, he just kept saying it and I finally looked at him and said "I know how big he is, I just pushed him out of me!" The whole room burst out laughing!

Jacob spent the last month and a half of my pregnancy in the breech position, so after delivering Tyler, the Dr. told me I could take a small break and they were going to use the ultrasound to check on baby B. Yup! Still in the breech position. So, while using the ultrasound, they used all that extra belly that was Tyler, and they pushed Jacob around to the head down position. Not to bad, didn't hurt at all because I had the epidural and then.......Jacob decided that his arm should come first. Since this cannot happen because it would break his arm or collar bone,or worse, or break something in me, they had to put the arm back in. I'M POSITIVE THAT NO AMOUNT OF EPIDURAL MEDICATION CAN MASK THE PAIN OF A BABY ARM AND A DOCTORS ARM GOING INTO SOMETHING THAT IS THE SIZE OF LEMON! Jacob was born at 1:33 p.m. 18 min. after his brother. Tyler weighed in at 7lbs 11oz and Jacob was 7lbs 2 oz. 15 lbs of baby in that belly. I still have horizontal stretch marks! Oh yeah. Did I mention I PUSHED THEM BOTH OUT!

We were the talk of the hospital until we went home.

In this picture, Eden, Jacob and Tyler, and mommy of course!

At this point I have to say that I totally agree with Louise, the first year was hell! I love them and they were worth every second of lost sleep but it's not an exaggeration when I say that for the first 6 or 8 weeks we slept in 15 min. intervals. I nursed them, and we tried everything, including nursing them both at the same time and it didn't matter. One would get up and nurse and the other would wake up and cry until the first one was done nursing and then I would put the first one down because he was back to sleep and then nurse baby no. 2 and by the time I got baby 2 nursed and back to sleep I would get 15 min. of sleep and then baby 1 was up again wanting to be nursed. It was a nightmare! I never even considered NOT nursing them because just the thought of the cost of formula for two babies scared the hell out of me. I'll say again. It was worth it, but there for a while I felt like a diaper changing cow! No, I am not pretending to be asleep in this picture. I am passed out in this chair. God bless my father-in-law who bought me a comfortable chair to pass out in. Not to worry. Michael came to the rescue after he took this picture and put them in their crib.

They are just a few weeks old in this picture (Jacob left Tyler right) and they slept like this for about 6 months. I finally separated them when they started waking each other up by the one that woke up first crawling over the other one and waking him in the process.

I have to say that twins is definitely a lesson patience, whether you want it or not. And I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes, I really miss this stage.

Well, I feel like I've just written the Great American Novel, so I'll wrap it up with these pictures.

Louise, I think that in the picture of us it is, you, Jacob, Natalie, Regan, me and Tyler and in the picture of just the twins it's Natalie, Jacob, Regan and Tyler. How did I do with getting the girls right?

In the top picture is Michael, (who I haven't mentioned is a ROCK STAR daddy! He was a HUGE help to me when the boys were so little and still does a terrific job with all three of our kids! He was always right there to help me, he would bring me the baby that wasn't currently nursing and take the one that was finished so that I wouldn't have to get up and he was always asking if he could get me anything. I am not a water drinker but when I was nursing them I would drink two HUGE plastic cups of water and chomp on the ice. I couldn't get enough!) with Jake on the left and Tyler on the right. The next picture is of Jacob, I sat him up on the couch next to Eden and went to get the camera off the table and before I could take his picture he fell asleep like this. I love this picture of him. He looks like a toy doll instead of a real live infant! Following that is Tyler. I gave him a bath and greased him up with lotion and put a diaper on him and sat him in the corner of the crib, I went to help Michael get Jacob out of the tub and when I came back in the room Tyler had fallen asleep in the corner. Isn't he precious?! In the last picture, the boys are about 18 months old. This was right before I did the unthinkable, not to mention regrettable, and got them their first "big boy" hair cuts. Look at those curls. :o(

While I have so much more to say, because I could go on for days, I feel like at this point, I should say "And that's all I have to say about thaaaT."

Comment Crazed!

2009-04-21T22:17:00.006-04:00

I'm getting a little bit of a late start on today's blog. It's been one of those days. It started out like every other morning. "Michael, hit the button" or "Babe, hit the botton" which translates to "Crap... it's early, I'm tired, hit the snooze I need my 9 more min." We got up at 7:10 and I got Eden's clothes together, "Here Eden, put this on." Then I proceed to get myself ready, which basically means digging through numerous baskets to throw together a pair of pants and a decent top. I then head to the bathroom to fix my hair and apply what passes for my makeup. Simply put, foundation, eyeshadow, and mascarea. I come out of the bathroom, dressed and ready to go then proceed to have the morning fight with Eden about where her shoes are. I call it the morning fight because, well, we fight about it every morning. Every morning it is an all out search from her bedroom at the end of the hallway to the living room all the way at the front of the house, to the basement and back again until the case of the mysterious disappearing shoes is solved and we can finally get her shoes on. I know that this picture has nothing to do with school, or shoes for that matter, but it's one of my favorites of her. Wow, that was a side trip, getting back to the story, we go over the spelling words because the "practice test" is tomorrow and then I tell her to pack up her backpack and lets go. Here's where things get a little strange. I haven't made it out of this house before 8:10 in the last three months, we're constantly running late, (I drive Eden to school) however, this morning, we are in the car, that had to be started before hand because it was frigid this morning, and the clock in the car is just turning over to 8:00 a.m. WTF? I think to myself. So I drop Eden off and tell her to have a good day and head to work. I stop at the Hardees for breakfast and actually make it to work early for the first time in at least a month. (Mickey, if you're reading this, I'm sorry, I really am trying to do better.) The day starts like every other, I eat my cinnamon raisin biscuit and check my email, and fire up the calendar so that I will know what is coming my way for the day.

So I'm working my way through the duties of a legal secretary and I think to myself, man it seems like the day is going so fast, so I look up and check the wall clock only to find that it is merely 10:20 a.m. when I was thinking to myself, it must be at least 11:30. So imagine my surprise to find it so early still. At this point I call my best friend and here is our conversation.

Billie: Hey Girl!!!

Linn: Is it really only 10:20 (normally my answer would be "Hey girl! How's it goin'?!?

Billie: (laughs a little) Yeah. Why you askin' me that?

Linn: I'm just feel like someone is playing an aweful joke on me. It can't really be this early still can it?

Billie: It really is just 10:20 but I know what you're saying. It's been a crazy slow morning.

Linn: OK. My phone is ringing so I'll let you go. I just thought I'd make sure I haven't lost my mind.

Now, I know she's too nice to say so but I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm about half nuts at this point. I'm telling you, today almost seems like an out of body experience where I kinda hovered above myself watching the days activities. Not to mention it was a busy calendar day with several snags to be ironed out.

Doesn't she look like she's so much fun? That's cuz she is!

With all of this said, now I can get to the title of my blog. I have become obsessed with checking to see if I have comments on my blog. I find myself checking it all of the time. At the last check Louise still hasn't commented on last nights blog. Why is this a big deal? It's not. I just know that she hasn't because, I just keep checking it. It's like the early days of being on MySpace when I had to check as soon as I walked in from work (I didn't have access to a computer at the job I was working when I joined MySpace) and before I left to go to work, and when I got up in the morning and before bed at night. At this point I have discovered, as if I didn't know it before, that I have a slight case of OCD and possibly AADD. (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder) Or is it just that I really love blogging and I want to know that someone cares what I have to say?

Side note to Louise, I am well aware that you are a very busy mom and want you to know that I do not expect you to post a comment on every blog I post. It's just been one of those days. I really can't wait for everyone to get here so that we can spend some face to face time together.

The Macro lens

2009-04-20T20:53:00.015-04:00

To Louise and Amy, I'm really sorry to keep posting about the camera and lenses but I have to put these pictures on here! I say I'm sorry because I know that once you decide that you have to have one of these cameras it becomes an urgency that you just have to have it right now. So I guess I should be apologizing to Tim and Chad. Anyway, Michael has been jonesing for a new lens and he knows how much I LOVE macro shots so when he went to Murphy's today, he discussed the lenses that we currently have and asked the sales clerk which one she would recommend. She said hands down, you need to have this lens. It is L series quality and we can't figure out why they don't just put the L on it.

So, we went to test it out. The Clarksville Town Hall has these really nice ponds out in front and several ducks and swans have made it their home. I love ducks, especially the mallards with the curly tail feathers. I just think they are so cute. I tried to get a good picture and this one is the best I could come up with. These ducks aren't like the ones in Myrtle Beach that are used to all the attention and will just set still and let you take their picture all day long. This one is actually in the process of cussing me out because I have disturbed his peace. But see his cute little curly tail feathers?!? I also love the shiny emerald color of their heads and the beautiful shade of blue on (or is it under) the wing.

We also made another trip to the Lowe's for more macro pictures of the flowers. By the way, here is the other shot of the orange bloom in the yellow lily's. I don't know if it was a potted orange lily that was just sitting in the middle of all the yellow or if it was a yellow lily that had a orange lily sharing it's pot but I thought that it was wonderful to see that shot of color in all of that sunny yellow.

Here is another picture with the macro lens. It is amazing the shots that you can get with this thing. These are the lollipop gerbera that I took some shots of when we were up there on Saturday. In the two days that have passed these blooms that were white (take a look at my post about the yard) have started turning this awesome variegated pink. It looks like a gradual saturation of color. Flowers are amazing!

Another one of my favorite things to take photos of is clouds. Michael actually took this picture for me because I was driving and we were sitting in the Sonic drive-thru getting a cherry coke. I love these particular clouds. They are just my kind of "dreamy" clouds. I like to dream that I am lounging in these clouds. They look so nice and fluffy and solid. I could lay on the ground all day and gaze up at these clouds, imagining myself laying in one where it is nice and peaceful with no kids talking incessantly about nothing in particular, just talking because they like the sound of their own voice. Speaking of the little devils, here is a picture that we took of them. I would have to say that this is probably the all time, best picture that we have taken of them so far, and by some miracle of God, they are actually being nice to each other, both are looking at the camera and Jacob isn't squeezing Tyler so tight that his eyes are popping out of his head. (Did I mention he's my mischief maker? ;o), cuz he's totally the one who gets it started.)

Is this not totally adorable?? I know it seems that Eden hasn't been getting much face time. Part of that is because she has spent the entire weekend with family members. She got to spend the night with Grandma Ruth on Friday and then spent the night with her Aunt Glenda (Mike's sister) both Saturday night and last night. I will have to dedicate a whole post to her in the very near future so that she doesn't feel neglected. Or should I say, so that I don't feel like I have neglected her. The poor thing. She's so self sufficient, I don't have to worry about her and her brothers truly are the "parent hogs". I try to make sure that I do something special just with her, but sometimes, the time just slips away from us.

Here are a few more pictures from today's trip to the Lowe's. Enjoy, and I will blog again tomorrow.

Michael felt sorry for this little guy and said that I should take it's picture to show the depth of field. He was right. He has a good eye for amazing shots! I love you honey. Thank you for finding something that we love to do together!

This picture is of the light fixture in our dining room. I was standing under it and probably 3 feet from it with camera pointing up at the ceiling. Does it not look like I am resting the camera on the light bulb? Like I said, AMAZING shots with this lens. Amy, don't zoom in on this one. I can already see the dust from here. In my defense, when you dust this particular light fixture, it zaps you. It's an old house, and old wiring, I'm positive that has something to do with it.

Holy Crow

2009-04-20T00:31:00.002-04:00

I just got my adsense on my blog like an hour ago and I have already earned .94. Thank you "Smith" girls. :o)

Also, since you are both having an issue looking at the yellow lilly's I'll try to remember (this post will help me to do just that) to post another picture I took of the orange bloom in the middle of all that yellow.

Kentucky Derby Festival

2009-04-19T22:24:00.008-04:00

Let me start this post by saying that this is just a small portion of the view from my boss' living room. He invited Mike and I, along with several of his other friends to come up to his apartment on the riverfront to view the "opening ceremonies" of the Kentucky Derby Festival that is called Thunder over Louisville. Just let me say, if I lived here, I would do nothing but sit and watch the river roll on by all the time!

They start the day at 3 p.m. with an airshow, which over the years has gotten a bit sparse due to military deployment and financial reasons. However, every year they have the B-1B's and F-somethings, which are my favorites. Very fast and very loud!!! If anyone knows how I can get a ride in one of these planes, let me know. I love these planes because you not only hear them, albeit after they have passed you, but you also feel them, right down to the soles of your feet.

Amy, check out this picture below, if you click on it and zoom in you can actually see the pilot's head in the cockpit!!! These guys are awesome and I am an IDIOT!!!. Why are you an idiot Linn??? Oh, because, my husband wanted to go into the air force and I whined and cried because I couldn't imagine staying behind without him so that he could go learn to fly some of the coolest air craft in the WORLD! I'm literally kicking myself right now! ;o)

Below is a picture of Michael's newest desire of a lens. Remember that post about DSLR cameras and what an addiction they are??? Well, this is exactly what I was talking about and this lens costs more than the camera!

We didn't actually get any pictures of the fireworks display that is "Thunder over Louisville". Fireworks pictures are pretty hard to capture and near impossible when you forget to take along the tripod. I can't possibly describe the spectacle of this fireworks display, but I'll at least give it a try.

Think of your all time favorite fireworks show. Now, take that memory and pull out the "finale". Take that finale and imagine that it is LITERALLY 20 minutes long. Then once that is over, there is a small break in the action and then they put on their version of a finale. It lasts approximately 10 min. and the whole time the fireworks explode with so much percussion bouncing off of the Louisville skyline that you can feel it in your chest and it actually takes your breath away.

I have seen almost every year of this display by going to the riverfront and watching it. Several years were from the top of a building at Colgate Palmolive in Jeffersonville, IN. It is an awesome experience. You are up as high as the fireworks and it looks like you can reach out and hold them in your hand.

I would have to say that the best place to watch, before they built up the riverfront with restaurants, was on the lawn between the second street bridge (I forgot to mention that they shoot canons off that bridge during the day and turn the entire length of the bridge into a waterfall of fireworks) and the Kennedy Bridge, aka I-65. That is where you get the most impact and the breathless feeling. If you want to get a seat there these days you have to "win" them in a contest or pay a pretty penny for them at one of the tree restaurants that now occupy that space.

This is the one time of year that I tolerate the big crowd and go see what there is to see. I know that if there are strangers reading this post they will say I can't possibly be a Southern Indiana/Northern Kentucky native with the next sentence, but I'm OK with that because I know the truth. I don't really care about the Kentucky Derby. I love the horses. I think they are beautiful creatures, but I have seen to many years where a horse gets wounded on the track and the poor thing has to be put down. I know that it doesn't happen that often in the actual derby race, but it has happened, and one time is to many.

The front yard.

2009-04-19T21:47:00.011-04:00

We welcomed the weekend with a trip to the Lowe's and took the camera along.

I have this unreasonable dislike of the Japanese Maple in my front yard. Here is a picture of it.

We have trimmed it up and it's starting to look a little better but it definately ranks as the worst Japanese Maple on the block. As evidence of that statement, here is a picture of one of the other three or four on the block.

A very nice, large tree that is full and not puny and not the pathetic little "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" that I have in my front yard. So, we are looking for some pretty flowers to put in to "dress up" the front yard so that we will love taking care of it instead of neglecting it like we tend to do.

I would love to plant tulips under the tree and may do that in the fall so that we will have beautiful blooms in the spring next year.

Until then, we are going to pull out several bushes that are beyond reshaping and saving. In their place I will be planting these Lilly's that are such a beautiful shade of peach that the picture doesn't even do them justice.

They are so pretty, I can't wait to get them put in. They look pink above and peach in the cart with the boys. I don't know. It was over cast and rainy today in the pic. above and sunny and warm with the boys.

Here are a few more pictures of flowers that I didn't buy any of, mainly because they are annuals and they won't come back next year but that I still loved because they are such beautiful colors.

A shout out goes to Amy who discoverd that if you click on the pictures in the blog you can zoom in on them. Amy, zoom in on the yellow lillys and check out the one orange bloom. It was georgeous!

To Amy and Louise, I need help dressing this thing up a bit and I want to know if there is a way to add the pictures in where you left the cursor instead of having to move them from the top of the page to where you want them. Thanks for all your help! Love ya girls.

DSLR Cameras

2009-04-17T23:56:00.006-04:00

I am following a couple of family members blogs now, as well as dooce.com. (Thanks Louise) and since I am I know that Weezie is savin' up for a DSLR camera.

Louise, I will be completely honest. Some of the recent pictures that you have posted in your blog look like DSLR quality photos, so when you do get one, to everyone else, look out, because she has an incredible eye for what is beautiful. I honestly thought you already had one. (This goes for you to Amy ;o), I love the pic of your crossed feet among so many others)

Michael and I both have a DSLR camera and we both absolutely love them. Both are Canon and Michael could tell you which models they are. I don't pay that much attention. I just know that we have some really awesome shots that I never thought I would be able to say, "hey, I took that picture" like this one that I took of a hosta at French Lick. I don't know if it will show up on the blog but in real life I took this picture of the flower and the buds that are getting ready to bloom because I love that beautiful shade of purple. What I got was a really cool picture of a perfectly formed spider web. Totally unintentional but also so awesome. The picture that I hope I have successfully added to the top of my blog is a picture I took of a bee at Grandpa's place. I'm allergic to bees and never should have been close enough for it to sting me if it were to choose to do so but I had to take it's picture. Can you see the hairs on it's back??? How cool is that!?!

So to anyone who loves taking photos and doesn't have a DSLR I highly recommend them. However, I feel like I should also post a warning so here it comes.

WARNING: DSLR camera's are highly addictive. You will carry it with you everywhere you go simply because you never know when something truly extraordinary will require you to take it's picture. You will find yourself looking for places to go so that you can take pictures of life's simple pleasures. i.e. your kids playing in a field of wildflowers (beautiful pics Louise), places with gardens, again a shout out to Louise, I never thought to take the camera to the Home Depot or Lowes in the gardening section. And in closing it's very important to note that you will find yourself saving for your next lens or accessory to add to the collection and before you know it you will be carrying around a camera bag that is twice as heavy as any diaper bag ever was. (Including the one you carried with the twins that had to have double of EVERYTHING packed into it.) Mark my words. This is NOT an exaggeration.

So when you are ready to go buy, let me know and I will tell you what my favorite lenses are so that you will be equipped with the basics and you can build your collection from there.

Ahhhhh!

2009-04-16T13:47:00.007-04:00

Finally, things are starting to get back in order at the Goodman house. Michael woke up this morning feeling better. He is still getting back into the swing but for the most part is back to work and taking it easy when necessary.

Tyler and Jacob are growing like weeds and in the last two days I have been totally impressed with Tyler's eating. He ate salisbury steak last night and chicken fingers today at lunch, which is pretty impressive since he's a Wendy's chicken nuggets kinda kid.

Eden is also getting so big. Her second front tooth is FINALLY starting to come in. When it's all the way in we will be making a trip to the dentist to discuss when she should have braces. Ahhh. I remember those days and am so glad to be done with them.

Quickly running out of patience

2009-04-14T20:11:00.000-04:00

So. Here's the deal. I'm really tired of having sick kids and a sick husband and the stress is really starting to get to me. I am in desperate need of some ME time! I know that my husband is sick when he won't go to work. I know that Jacob is sick when all he wants to do is lay around and cuddle. He is definitely my more rambunctious twin. Always in to something and nearly always in trouble. I guess my main complaint is that I'm tired of being tired all the time, I'm tired of a messy house all the time, I'm tired of kids that don't listen, I'm just tired. I want spring to be here for real, instead of 70 one day and 34 the next, I want my family to be healthy again and I want to get my house in order so that I want to walk in the door when I get home from work. Is that to much to ask for?

Does this look like a kid who ever sits still?? Didn't think so.

This is pretty cool to me.

2009-04-14T18:02:00.000-04:00

I have a cousin in Tennesee who is "the other twin mom" in our family. I find myself checking in on her myspace and her blogspot all the time just to see what is going on. Todays post about bossy Beth and the kids and the catapiller and gally nipper cracked me up. Thank you Louise for letting me (and everyone else for that matter) into your inner circle and showing me that my kids aren't the only ones who love high drama and lots of noise.

Just a little bit about me.

2009-04-13T23:28:00.000-04:00

I'm the mother of an 8 year old daughter and 3 1/2 year old twin boys. Happily married for 10 years to the man of my dreams (most of the time anyway). I am a legal assistant working in Jeffersonville, IN.

I'm still figuring out how to blog. Apparently I pressed the publish button by accident with my silly thumbs on the laptop "mousepad" and had to come back in to edit.

I'm not sure anyone will care to follow my blog but it might be fun to give my insights in having twins and an 8 year old on the brink of maturity.