Saturday Snapshot: The Zoo!

Nope, not home…the local Zoo

It was such a gorgeous day out, I decided to take the kids to the Zoo while Mike was working. Yep – just me with all 3 kids! I put the Monkey leash on Logan (because I knew he wouldn’t want to stay in his stroller, and there was no way I’d be keeping up with three kids while pushing a(n empty) stroller.)

At the Wolf Exibit

The wolves got really close!

Logan at the Wolf Cave

Maggie at the Wolf Cave

At the Monkey Exibit

"Look at that one!!"

"What's that?!"

"Nice kitty"

"She rolled over!"

Seems a little close to me...

They were *really* good. We even played at the Zoo playground for a while.

Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Go over and have a look at what others are doing on this dreary Saturday.

Fx4: Random Stuff

I have a whole bunch of random, unrelated pictures from the past week.

For some reason, the past few nights have cracked me up when I went in to check on Logan.

Zebra Pillow

Zonked

I talk a lot about Burke’s drawing skills, so I thought I’d post something Maggie did that impressed me. She’s made millions of these over the past week

Maggie's Turkey Hand

Maggie’s Speech class homework this week as to blow a cotton ball across the table with a straw. (It’s supposed to teach her to speak through her mouth rather than through her nose.) All 3 kids had a blast with it.

Speech Homework

We finally figured out that the twins should probably get out of their car seats and into booster seats. The push? I couldn’t snap the belts over their winter coats. . . otherwise, they’d probably still be in the old ones.  (Bad mommy!) I don’t think any of us realized how much more comfortable they would be in these…mostly because none of us (including the kids) really realized that they were uncomfortable in the first place.

Booster Seats!

Candid Carrie sponsors Friday’s Foto Finish Fiesta – head over to her blog and find LOTS of links for bloggers who’ve joined in! (You can join in too!)

Something’s Gotta Give

It’s official. I do too much and it’s starting to feel like plates are crashing down on my head.  Sure…some of it is (hopefully) just a one time thing – like last night’s Fishful Thinking presentation at Burke and Maggie’s school. But some of it – like teaching Sunday School – isn’t. I need to start prioritizing and I need to learn how to say “no, I just can’t do it.”

Obviously, my job isn’t negotiable. And frankly, I actually enjoy doing it – when I have the motivation

My blog is non-negotiable as well. It’s my one outlet to get thoughts down to help work through things…and the only place that I journal about the kids!

My second job is so tiny and infrequent that I think it’s okay to keep that one going. It can get stressful when my boss says “Hey, can you look this over and have it edited by noon tomorrow?” …but he doesn’t do that too often.

I *LOVE* being a part of my twins club, so I highly doubt that will be dropped at any point in the near future. The membership position looks like it might be shifting slightly due to our move from Yahoo Groups to BigTent, so that may lighten that load anyway. (Plus, I’ll be changing positions next year. More about that one later though.) I haven’t been able to go to many of the recent COPE meetings for the club – and I really miss those. It’s fun to go out and chat with other ladies who totally get what you’re going through. Or to give some advice here and there since I’ve already been through a lot of it… The General meetings/Board meetings have stopped being monthly, so there are only 4 months out of the year where I feel like I have at least one thing going on each week.

The Fishful Thinking stuff isn’t really all THAT time-consuming. Since I had the presentation last night, it was consuming things for the past week, but that’s pretty unusual. Plus, I *REALLY* like the message that Fishful Thinking brings to the table. I do most of that “sharing” online, or while waiting for Burke and/or Maggie, so it’s time that would have been “wasted” anyway.

Sunday School? *sigh.* It terrifies me. I’m not a teacher. I don’t know WHAT I was thinking when I said “sure! I’ll help out!” when Pastor L. asked…I think I was thinking “I’m new…might be a good way to meet more people.” And … it has been. But it still terrifies me. Those poor kids are learning about the bible from ME?? Yikes. At least they’re only 4 and most of what we’re doing is coloring pictures to go along with the stories. . .One of the teachers has already backed out (with good reason), so that leaves only 3 of us (we rotate months of being teacher/helper/off). I’ll fulfill my obligation, but I really don’t think I’ll sign up for it again next year. I AM afraid it might be one of those “hey, we’ve already gotcha” things, and it’ll be tough to get out of next year though.

I also committed to a women’s circle at church. It’s just starting up, so I thought perhaps it would be another good way to meet more ladies around town without feeling like I’m crashing an established “club”. They meet monthly – and on a weekend! – so I think that’ll be pretty good. We’ve had one meeting so far and it’s a fun bunch.

I did just say “I just can’t do it” to another women’s group at church…it’s one that meets in the middle of the week and my heart sped up just thinking about trying to attend it each month. I felt terrible saying “no” … and it was hard!! But I did it.

It’s a start…and I KNOW I have a hard time saying “no, thanks” when people ask me to do things…and apparently, knowing is half the battle

Way Back When-esday

Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Go on over to see who else is playing – and join in too!

This one was taken in November of 2005. Burke and Maggie were about 2 months shy of turning one. This is one of the first times we were able to capture Burke on film standing on his own!

"Look, Ma! No Hands!"

A Twin Story

My friend Debi let me know that Nov. 17th is the day assigned to raising national awareness for the preemie crisis (through the March of Dimes). Join lots of other bloggers sharing their stories here: http://www.bloggersunite.org/event/fight-for-preemies

Debi also hosts Two for Tuesdays. I’m supporting both by posting a new page!

Read the story of how Burke and Maggie arrived. It’ll also be housed up at the top for a while before I tuck it up under “The Story of Us”

Enjoy!

Makes My Monday: Pleasant Surprises

When I logged into my Fishful Thinking Ambassador’s portal this morning, I saw two things that made me smile.

The first was my name on the list of winners for the week. (Who can’t use an extra $50 around the holidays??)

(Please excuse the black-outs…personal information that’s not mine to share.)

And second was a Top Idea mark for my post on Saturday!

Not only does receiving accolades Make My Monday, but being a part of such a wonderful community does as well (probably even more so…)

Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Head on over to see what else makes people’s Mondays (there are always some really good ones!)

Baby Picture Sundays

This week’s theme is Sepia Tones. Cool

Burke

Logan

Maggie

Logan, Maggie, and Burke

Debi hosts the Baby Picture Sundays. Hop on over there to see who’s playing, and join in too!

Saturday Snapshot: Treasures

I realized that my kids are starting to understand a lot more than they did when I first started with Fishful Thinking, so I browsed through the website looking for some older activities that we could do on this rainy Saturday …and found the Treasures Box one!

We ended up with treasures like “The sun shining” and “A full moon” and “Getting a card in the mail” and “Ballet Class” and “Drawing class”   I can’t wait to see what else they come up with! (My contribution so far is “All 3 kids helping to clean up!”)

As an added bonus, this is also helping me to prepare for a presentation on Fishful Thinking I’ll be giving to the parents and teachers at Burke and Maggie’s preschool this week.

Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Go over and have a look at what others are doing on this dreary Saturday.

Fx4: Hair

I just love Maggie’s hair. If only she’d let me … you know, BRUSH it. I also wish I was a bit better with that whole “doing” of hair, but I’m not. Not mine, not her’s. Maybe she’ll let me practice more as she gets older…

Luckily – Maggie lets Jessica touch her hair!

Candid Carrie sponsors Friday’s Foto Finish Fiesta – head over to her blog and find LOTS of links for bloggers who’ve joined in! (You can join in too!)

Gorgeous

Just the other day I was thinking, “Hm. I haven’t seen many blog award posts in a while…were those just a fad? Has everyone been through them all?” And then…BAM! Debi from Who Says Eight is Enough gave me this cute award! Thanks Debi – it really means a lot to me

Have you “met” Debi yet? She has about a million different blogs and has about a million different projects going on. She also has 9 kids! I’m not sure how she does it, except for that I’m pretty sure she doesn’t ever sleep…
The Gorgeous Blogger Award

By accepting this award I am required to tell you six things about myself that you don’t know and then award it to six other gorgeous bloggers.

1. I’m actually pretty shy, and never really feel like I belong when I go to new-ish places – even though I know I have every right to be there … like PTO meetings and church.
2. I fell off my diet and have gained 5 pounds back. *sigh* And have zero motivation to get back into the swing of things.
3. I’m constantly worried that I don’t pay enough attention to my kids…or that one of them gets more attention than the others…
4. I can eat an entire bag of potato chips in one sitting.
5. I’m torn between my love for our house and town and wanting to move closer to where I grew up.
6. I’m a complete  “home body”, but I miss the days of game nights out with friends.

And the 6 gorgeous bloggers:

1. What a Card
2. Cheryl at Twinfatuation
3. Heather at Want What You Have
4. Nicole at Sotoriffic Twins
5. Nancy at Southern Blessings
6. Laura at Catholic Teacher Musings