Insanity

That's what I'm claiming right now. SO out of the million things I want to blog about here's a few.

Yeah that about sums up my life about now!

  I wanted to share this really amazing apple cake recipe with you guys. I made it once we all loved it, and I didn't take pics to document the process plus I always test the recipes before sharing them. anyways so One out of Four tries at this cake turned out good the rest it didn't. so yeah needless to say I gave up. If I ever get the courage to try it again I might share.

(what it is supposed to look like)

I didn't end up with fall wreath orders but I do have about 7 Christmas wreath orders for this year. So as soon as I find the spare time to finish those up and take some pictures I surely will post that awesome how to. Super easy!

I'm getting a job. Not because I have to, but because I want something that's mine. and right now I just don't feel like going back to school. I had my 28th birthday and went OK that's it, its time to feel like I've accomplished something with my life other than my children. Yes raising children is an AMAZING journey. And I do not take that for granted. But sometimes you just need a little extra. It looks like I will be taking over my old job at my husbands office. Not a bad gig considering that its pretty much the only job I can get where I work from 9am-2pm, so that I still can get the kids to and from school . Not to mention he could really use the help! (luckily its out of my house this go round ) I have a few applications out there floating but so far no bites. Its really hard to find a job right now because pretty much everyone is looking.

Halloween. Every year we enter our local Halloween fall festival costume contest (and every year we've won our age division) so after a long consideration and debate I decided to relinquish the title for the next family to take our place. It was fun while it lasted and I really enjoyed making their costumes, but Its a lot of work, and its more fun to watch. :) Here's a few of our costumes. I wanted to post how to's on these. but well i never got around to it. If you want to know reply and I'll email you some directions.

Huck Fin and Dennis the menace '09

A mad scientist and his helper Igor '08

Not homemade but too cute... 05

Poptart and Milk Carton 06

Superman and Batman actual Halloween '10 (not homemade)

Disco ball '10

 This was taken Halloween '07 (sorta homemade)

Space Alien and Robot 07

Totem pole'10




Sorry my pictures are all scattered I'll fix them later.
 My mom used to make our halloween costumes a couple of my favorites were the matching dinos my brother and I were, the unicorn costume (I'll try to find you guys a picture sooo cool!) and then the princess costume.
Whats your favorite childhood Halloween costume?

oh my, oh my!

By now I'm sure I've lost a few followers. What can I say sometimes life just happens and you have to choose where you focus your attention. Obviously that was NOT on my blog. SO lets fast forward past all of that and get reacquainted shall we?

Summer ended, school started. Along with school starting we now are involved with boy scouts, and soccer. And that's just to name a few things. We also now have Homework and daily routines that make the week fly by faster and faster.

Fall will officially be here on Friday. It surely doesn't feel like it's that close. We are still seeing somewhere in the upper 90's for our weather and if you had talked to me last week it was still in the triple digits. YEAH SUCKS! We really don't have traditional fall type weather here normally anyways but the HEAT for so long is killing me, just a tiny bit more, everyday! Come on 80's and 70's!!!!!

Anyways with fall comes some of my FAVORITE activities. Traditionally fall is not my favorite season if you'd have asked me a few years ago I'd have said winter. But I'm beginning to see the beauty in Spring and Fall. Fall Is fantastic because well I was born during this season. HAHAHA. JK JK but seriously yes part of fall's appeal years ago before I started rapidly inching my way to 30 was the fact that My birthday is in the fall. But so is my hubby's :) and my moms, and my brother in laws, and my grandmothers, and my cousins, and my baby brothers. (geesh that's a lot of people with birthdays in October and November huh?)

Another thing is this is Fall is considered ultimate CRAFT season. And NOTHING gets me more excited that staying busy doing Crafty things! Fall Wreaths, homecoming mums, Halloween Costumes, Christmas Wreaths, Christmas Decor, food, Food and More FOOOOOOOD. Want to learn how to make one of the above? yeah thought ya might! Stay tuned. no really stay tuned! ;) I'll show ya how!

Plus fall is the season where my "summer" wardrobe finally can be rested some. I get to mix pants and jackets into my normal monotonous t-shirt and shorts and flip-flops house wife style. Mix that with the fact that we can finally start being outside again and whew yeah Fall just might be my new favorite!

This is from Halloween 2 years ago and yes I made both boys costumes, Dennis the Menaces and Tom Sawyer.

What are some of your favorite fall activities?

Kindergarten Graduation

Here are a few pictures from the kindergarten graduation And the last day of school as I promised.

It wasn't a terribly extravagant event. We all showed up and sat/ stood on the back row so that we'd have better camera angles or so we thought, people kept standing up in front of us and walking in front of us so just when I'd line up a shot it wouldn't focus again on the child. but that's OK we still got some pretty good ones in spite of it. They all received their diplomas. and they sang a couple of songs and then they did a slide show at which it was difficult not to cry. It showed just how much they did throughout the school year and just how much they grew.  They can't wait to be first graders this year. MOM however wishes they'd go back to being babies. You know the kind that just want to be held and loved. *sigh*

(My big guys)

(Last day of school VS. First day of school. Look how much they changed!!!!)

(They wouldn't cooperate much I guess I can't blame them since it was 7 am)

(Chris receiving his diploma. I think this is funny because Josh always picks on him and says I'm older. (by a whopping 2 min. OH MY) and so now Chris can say you may be older but I graduated first!!!)

 (Dad worked the video camera)

(Josh getting his diploma)

 (These were hanging in the hall, so cute to see what all their favorites are!)

Growing up is hard to do... and so is watching it happen! :(

OK so I'm going to bounce around a little and tell you a random story, mkay, stick with me.

 My boys have always, and I do mean ALWAYS, have shared a bed/space to sleep. You might think this is weird. Trust me I've heard the lectures about making sure twins are "INDIVIDUALS"  and you should always give them their own room and own sleeping space and their own clothes etc. etc. HA, LETS GET REAL OK!  They are about as different as 2 kids could be!

When the boys were younger there wasn't a whole lot of options for little boys baby clothes that were cute and DIFFERENT. So I dressed them EXACTLY alike though I swore time and time again I wouldn't do that to them. But really there wasn't much other option.

When they became toddlers and very independent toddlers I might add. They thought they HAD to dress alike because that's what they always knew. So it was a HUGE temper tantrum any time they didn't look exactly like the other. (AWFUL)

As they grew out of that so much they were OK in the store picking out different yet similar items. (For example 2 monster truck shirts of different colors.) lets rephrase that statement. They were OK with that until it came time to actually wear it then they'd pick one shirt and fight over it, So horribly bad I'd take a second trip to the store just to stop the future arguing.

They have now hit the stage of not wanting to look anything alike some days and others they want to match. Sometimes when asked if they are twins they now tell people no that they are just brothers. I know this is normal. It's just so sad to watch them grow up so fast! 

OK back on track, like I said they've always shared a bed.

We've been from this:

to this:

to this:

Isn't their room nifty! It's probably the single most awesome room in my house. I'm a little partial  I admit but that's because I DID 99% of the work on this room MYSELF! :) (practically everything glows in the dark!

To this:

Now sadly we have reached another stage in the sleeping arrangements :( They no longer want to share a bed. They want separate beds. They'd prefer different rooms, but sadly that isn't an option at the moment so they'll just have to stick with my decision on what type of bed. My husband and I were torn about having them a bunk bed because they don't sleep in one place. They tend to helicopter around the bed. So, me being a paranoid mother, was freaking out at the idea. but there really isn't much room for 2 traditional beds in their room either. So this left us with a dilemma, what do we do? One day when browsing the web I found THIS bed:

Of course in the space theme bedding.

So with that said my boys in just a few short weeks will be moving to the next stage of life.

Can we please go back?????????

*Sigh*

I knew it was going to happen one day. Luckily they aren't teenagers yet. Come see me next week  and they probably will be. (that seems to be how fast they change anyways!)

I guess the saying is true "Time Flys When You're Having Fun!"

A few things we've been doing this summer Part 1

Mostly this summer has been all about relaxing and enjoying simple little things. I'll list what all we have done but it won't be in chronological order.

I've done a whole lot of cleaning up the back yard and house trying to get it livable and "mine" so to speak. Its finally done and all I can say is WOW why didn't this happen sooner. I'm so much more at peace in my house! After practically having to Strangle, I mean cry (oops did I say that out loud) I finally convinced my hubby to remove the HUGE burn pile from the backyard, because we haven't had any rain since January and its above 100 and so a "bonfire" isn't in the cards.

The boys have had a blast in our back yard hanging out and playing on their pool slide thingy. and just being boys in general. We also bought them a slip-n-slide! This was/has been the GO TO activity this summer! :)

We went horseback riding with pawpaw.

Joshua got his first ever bee sting. OUCH!

We've been fishing numerous times!

We've watched a few Mega blockbusters at the theater. (Sadly of the last 4 Movies I've seen in the theater 3 were superhero related and the other was a cartoon.) I personally thought both movies were oddly pretty good, though I liked Green Lantern just a bit more (maybe its because there was more of a love-ish story or maybe the fact that Ryan Reynolds is in it I'm not really sure. Oh no don't go there I'm married, but hes not bad eye candy, and FUNNY!!! The latter of which is why I said his name to begin with. )

Movie posters and previews can be found here Greenlantern and here Transformers Dark of the moon

We did Fourth of July with my Family on my dads side. It was nice to see everyone, it had been a while since we were all able to get together.

 

Sadly this is the closest we've gotten to fireworks since January. Thanks to the Drought. :(

The boys had their first sleepover and we have plans for more before the summer is out! :)

We baked daddy and paw- paw cupcakes for Fathers day. And have baked a few things since. (one of my boys favorite past times)

The boys are having their birthday party in a few weeks and we've been having a blast together planning that.

(I'll give you a hint)

My husband and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary! We didn't do anything extravagant, Just had a date night and hung out together, something we rarely get to do anymore. and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! :)

(This picture was taken on our honeymoon! 10 years ago!!!)

(This was taken last year, I think its the newest one of both of us together sadly I'm not a fan of pictures with me in them! )

That's pretty much the extent so far (that I remember) I still owe you guys a post on their graduation, and then I already have one typed for their birthday party planning. and I have one halfway finished on how much the boys have grown just over this summer! So I wasn't lying when I said I was going to post, I just haven't been around as much as I'd like to have been. We do have plans for more summer activities and I'm quite sure I've missed some somewhere. lol :)

Closet Therapy

6 years ago my husband and I purchased our first home. At the time the sale went through I was days (literally) away from giving birth to my twin boys. We at the time didn’t know their arrival was that close and planned our move so that we would officially be moved into our home by the time they arrived. 

Well God has his own set of plans and I ended up having the boys on Sunday August 28^th, 2005 our move was planned for Thursday September 7^th, 2005.  1 week after having a C-section we moved into the house.  I of course was supposed to be resting and not doing any kind of lifting or extreme exercises (ha) well I moved anyways. We had help from family and friends. But I never had a chance to go through my things and get rid of what I didn’t want.  

Over the next 6 years, I’d go through spurts of let’s get rid of this or let’s get rid of that and heavily cleaning up and out for company or parties. But in the end I’d always get to a certain point and just go ok I can’t take it anymore and call it quits. (I hate having my house a wreck!)  

About a month ago, I’d had enough of not finding things and holding on to things that I didn’t particularly want and started with the office. For 2 of the past 6 years I lived in my living room when I needed to use the computer because it was such a wreck in the office literally it was our junk room. So I cleaned out the office, and went ooh its summer lets go through the boys clothes, from there I said I’m tired of things falling on me when I open my cabinets and cleaned out and up the kitchen, then went to the pantry for my 6 month clean out, from there I cleaned up the living room, the linen closets, my craft closet, and finally moved to my bedroom.  

Today was Closet day. Since I started the major clean out of the house. (Which at the time I started the office, I hadn’t planned to do the entire house it, just kind of snowballed and I was tired of it all at the same time lol) I haven’t particularly been eating well or exercised like I had been doing. And was feeling pretty guilty because where I had nicer muscle tone is jiggly again and the weight I had lost I’ve quickly gained back, and my summer stuff was starting to get snug again. I was just feeling blah about it all.

Well going through my closet was one thing I was dreading. It was a huge mess, and I didn’t want to see all the clothes I was wearing in literal comparison to what I have worn in the past, Basically I didn’t want to see just what kind of mess I let myself become.  Just to give you a good example I have every size pant from a size 6 through a size 12 in my closet Because Over the last 6 years I’ve bounced that much between sizes! I am by no means a skinny girl. Even at 110 lbs I wasn’t bone thin.  It just really isn’t easy for me to lose weight. I gain until I reach a certain weight and that’s it I sit at that weight, and no matter what kind of exercising I do it takes Months before the scale tips in my favor, and by that point I’ve all but given up hope.

After I had the boys I dropped a ton of weight.  I weighed 170lbs (and wore a size 6)  before getting pregnant with them, and 205 the day I gave birth, but just 4 months after having the boys I weighed 135lbs. I didn’t do anything in particular. I had 2 newborn infants and a house to put away, my eating was sporadic, and I just didn’t take great care of myself. And that’s the trend I’ve stuck to since. By the time the boys first birthday rolled around I was back to the normal 180lbs (a size 12) my eating hadn’t changed, matter of fact the only thing that changed was the numbers on the scale.   When the boys 3^rd birthday rolled around I was absolutely horrified at pictures of myself.  No I hadn’t gained weight but yes I did appear to have. So I saw a weight loss doctor. I lost a total of 35lbs (weighing in somewhere around 145-150 lbs) and was down from a size 12 to a size 6. But as soon as I stopped exercising and eating correctly I ballooned back up. Not all the way thank goodness but far enough that it’s pathetic.  I set out to make a change in myself yet again. But this time I didn’t have as far to go.

Anyways before I had stopped working out I made it back down to a size 10.  THE RIGHT AND HEALTHY WAY I might add.  So there was a huge fear when I went into the closet to try on clothes and get rid of what I didn’t want or what didn’t fit. I hit the section of size 8’s and started trying them on (I guess maybe hoping for motivation or maybe to torture myself, at this moment I’m not really sure) and low and behold I actually can wear some of them (and they really fit, not tight!)!

 Needless to say I nearly had a meltdown. I was really harping on myself about how poorly I’ve treated myself over the past 6 years and of course as someone who struggles with weight constantly when the scale jumps you freak out.  I’m not one that just panics so bad I won’t eat but I do get conscious of the food choices I make.  

That’s where the therapy comes in to play. I’ve gotten a very poor body image over the last 6 years.  Before I had my boys I was an extremely Active 20 years old who had time to put into her. And to top it off, I exercised when I could. After having the kids of course they take priority but just by the end of the day I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, pair that with the little to no eating of breakfast and practically skipping lunch all together then scarfing down a large (late) dinner.  And the fact that I have imbalanced hormones (PCOS) it just made me balloon quickly.

Over time I got so insecure and discussed with my appearance I quit looking in the mirror other than at my face and hair, because anytime I did I’d just get depressed.  I didn’t feel pretty or attractive anymore, much less myself. I felt that if I could look in the mirror and see flaws then so can everyone else that looks at me. When I was younger and thin, I was very self conscious, and insecure.  I even thought I was fat because I wasn’t as thin as the other girls were. And I was put down about it from people I thought had my best interest in mind. (Some of that still remains today.)

I’ve come to learn a lot in the last 6 years, but this lesson I’ve had coming my entire life.  I think today just seals the deal.

1.) You will always be harder on yourself than others are on you.  I’m not one to hold on to grudges or things that hurt because I feel like when you dwell on them that gives power back to those people or hurtful things and takes away from yourself. I’m not one that EVER gives in to what people want from me.

2.) You’re not as fat as you think you are. Ok that one maybe an obvious but I couldn’t leave it out!

3.) Self worth isn’t what you see in the mirror, it’s how you view yourself.  There have been times in the past 6 years that I’ve looked at someone else with envy or jealousy, and thought, wow I wish I looked like her! I should have more self respect than that.  I’m beautiful too!

I think I’m finally ready to get back to being me, at whatever size I’m going to be, as long as I’m doing the right things, eating healthy and exercising.  The mirror will no longer control how I feel about myself!

So now you guys know what I have been up to lately, Cleaning house, both literally and metaphorically! J  And I am almost finished! So I shall return I promise! 

It's fun and games until the dog pops the kiddie pool!

So, first yes, I have been missing on here for most of this month. But its summer and school is out and kids don't entertain themselves (or at least mine won't). Second, well I always have to be busy with something (it's a fatal flaw ask my husband! If I sit still and not do anything for too many days in a row I end up feeling like I'm wasting my life away.) So before I post all the crazy stuff we've been up to lately, I thought I'd share a little story.

My husband works LONG (Emphasis on the long) hours, most of the time taking him well past dark. I REFUSE to learn how to shoot a gun properly, so we brainstormed and had this brilliant idea. Lets get a dog that can help protect the family and send him to training school and start him as a puppy growing up with the boys so that the boys can grow with him and we can enjoy him being part of the family.

My husband says oh I know lets get a Rottweiler they are great dogs. My mom had one when we were younger and really loved having one. She'd probably enjoy having one now (which is true because she said she wanted to steal him when she saw Titan for the first time) I personally think its due to the fact that we have a Boston Terrier and well Bandit was supposed to be a family pet. But quickly became my dog because he prefers me and my squishy lap and behaves more cat like than dog, and so he's not keen on the men in my household. My thoughts are that my husband wanted a dog that would love him but that didn't exactly work out either because Titan is also a mommy's dog! (MMMUUUUHHHHAAAAAHHHAAA! yes I'm evil laughing out loud!)

So fast forward six months later, Titan loves to run, and well my house (especially in its current condition) is not big enough for Titan and the 2 boys to run. It just isn't. (maybe because he's nearly as big is they are I dunno) So his temporary living is in our back yard dog run area. It's a large enough area that he has enough room to do whatever his little doggy heart wants, and he gets daily walks around the block, and we are nearly always outside in the evening because it takes me an hour and a half to water all the plants in the back yard (which is a necessity due to the fact we haven't had a drop of significant enough rain since January) any who, I guess over the last 2 weeks he's learned he can climb/jump the gate and has been doing it regularly. He's not normally the kind of pup that tears things up so we were not really worried. We'd just let him do it and keep putting him back inside when we'd see him out. UH WRONG! Titan got out last night and well you see for yourself. (I think its time for obedient school and command training don't you?)

Thank goodness my dad had the foresight to purchase a warranty for the pool that covers EVERY kind of damage. Needless to say hopefully the pool is only temporarily out of order. But goodness what am I to do with these two now? Its been my go to activity for this HOT (105 degree) summer that has no rain!

(Yep he's only 6 months old! He doesn't look very remorseful does he?)

Paw-paw is coming with a new taller fence today. And we have plans to warranty the pool before the week is out. List of other things Titan decided looked fun : a Large frisbee, my outside flip flops, my squash plants, he ate some tomatoes and bell peppers, one of our toad abodes, and the boys pool slide toys.

How is everyone's summer so far?

I'll be back with some of the fun things we've already done this summer! :)