First month is over

Well January is nearing completion and unfortunately I did not do so great with my goals.  I think I set my sights a little bit too high for my first month and then had a few road blocks thrown my way.  First off my flooring installation was delayed until the firs week of February due to some of the trim being out of stock.  Then my oven broke and since it is over 20 years old, we decided to buy a new one which will be delivered the first week of February as my husband already has off for the flooring to be installed.  I then decided to do a 2 week dairy elimination diet with my 3 year old daughter because of ongoing issues that I had begun to believe were food allergy related, even though her allergist did not see eye to eye with me on this one.  This has meant packing her lunch every day because the majority of the daycare served lunches contain MILK!  And since the school is also PEANUT free, selecting a lunch that is both MILK & PEANUT free has been no easy feat.  The good news here is that after 1 week dairy free, I am seeing an improvement.   At the beginning of the month, I had not anticipated any of these things occuring, but the most shocking road block was an ER visit for me this Thursday.  I had been feeling strange for a few days and then late Wednesday night started having a pain in my right side.  Thursday morning it was still present... so off to the ER I went fearing appendicitis.  Thankfully I was wrong and immediate surgery wasn't on the agenda for me that day, however I do have a rather large gallstone.  FABULOUS!  The ER doctors determined that I did not need immediate surgery, but need to meet with a general surgeon to decide upon a plan of action. 

1) Pack up the Living Room & Dining Room and purge/organize as I un-pack them.  - Well the packing was started and then halted since this project was delayed. 

2) Exercise 2-3 times per week (at least!).  - Well this did not happen either :(

3) Start prepping for my mothers of multiples' spring consignment sale. - I did begin this, but did not get too much completed yet.  I'm hoping to pull out my bins and start entering as much as possible into our new electronic tagging system.  I plan to carry this goal into February as well and to hopefully be mostly completed well in advance of our March sale. 

My plan is to make slightly more realistic goals in February and I already have a few in mind!  I'm not giving up just because my first month was not successful...

3 in 30 update

What was I thinking is kind of crossing my mind right now!  2 weeks have gone by and not really much accomplished!  I think I bit off slightly more then I could chew and was much too ambitious for not only my first month of the challenge, but by far my busiest month of the year at work.  The need for re-vamping is here:
1) Pack up the Living Room & Dining Room and purge/organize as I un-pack them.  The flooring project has been delayed to the beginning of February, due to backordered items.  The rooms are getting closer to being emptied, so the new goal is to complete this by the end of the month.  However the purging and organizing will need to be placed on hold until February when the flooring is completed. 

2) Exercise 2-3 times per week (at least!).  Haha!  This has not happened at all, although I have decided where in my schedule this should be able to fit.  My thinking is that once I get home from work with the kids and get them settled with dinner, they can play in the basement playroom while I use the treadmill (once setup in that room).  My goal for this week is to dig out the treadmill and set it up and hopefully walk on it at least once this week.  I have a few nights with plans already, so if I get that done I'll be quite happy. 

3) Start prepping for my mothers of multiples' spring consignment sale.   Although I have not done much in this department either, I have started entering a few things into our new electronic consignment tagging system and plan to pull my bins out this week to start organizing and tagging items.  This will be my major focus for the next 2 weeks. 

I'm hoping to be able to buckle down a bit more now that things are not quite as crazy at work and my husband has gotten over being sick and get much more accomplished in the next 2 weeks then I did in the last 2 weeks... wish me luck!

Same Name...

Inevitably we all have this situation arise. We know 2 people (or more) with the same name. It gets confusing when referring to them or sometimes even addressing them when they are together. I remember when we were planning our wedding and Jim was looking at the seating chart and asked why I had myself seated at a different table then him. I had to gently remind him that I also had a cousin named Jackie Reilly! Wonder why Cole's name isn't Jimmy Jr?? Oh well that's because my husband is already Jimmy Jr, oh and my uncle is also Jimmie Jr and add Jim's dad and my Pop-pop, both Jim Sr and my cousin James on the other side of my family.... and 5 Jim, Jimmy or James in the family already! How to explain all these different people with the same names to 2 very curious three year olds. Little did I know, they would figure out their own explanation! And I have to say that I just LOVE it. Here goes!

The kids have an Aunt Kate (my cousin) and an Aunt Katie (my best friend). When I came back from being away in the fall, I asked Cole where he got a certain toy. He told me it was from "New Katie". When I asked who "New Katie" was. He said "with Sabanah" (my friend Katie's dog is Savannah). He now always refers to my cousin Kate as "Old Katie" (which I must say she's not to fond off, in that she is actually younger) and my friend Katie is "New Katie". Anytime I say we are going to see Aunt Katie, he always asks "New Katie or Old Katie"??

One day Cole decided this needed further clarification. We were heading to a demonstration that my friends Chrissy & Katie were having. He told me that it was not Mom-mom's Chris (Jim's bro) and not Nonna's Kate (my cousin).

Cole's new teacher's name is Miss Michele, not to be confused with who Cole refers to as "Mom-mom's Chele" (Jim's sis, Aunt Chele).

Recently we had dinner with our twin friends, Bella & Joseph and joining us were another set of twins, Bella & Trey. Summer later told me while wearing her Rapunzel tiara that she wanted a light up one. When asked where she saw one she told me that "Other Bella" had one.

So there you have .... same name clarification... 3 year old style!

Joining 3-in-30

Each year since I met Jim, I have watched on January 1st as he writes out his list of about 20 or so goals for the year.  Some are small goals and some large and at the end of the year he evaluates to see how successful his year was.  I have joined him for the past few years in this task as well, however it is hard to remember and attain these goals randomly throughout the year.  Last year, I saw my friend Aurie at Our Good Life accomplish goal after goal while participating in the 3 in 30 challenge and I have been inspired to join her this year.  What is the 3 in 30 challenge you may ask?  Well instead of making my goals for the entire year, I will pick 3 to focus on each month (30 days) and hopefully complete many more of them then in previous years.  And since there are other people in this challenge, I will have them to cheer me on and inspire me!

I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to keep up with weekly updates, but will try to at least touch base.  So here goes nothing with my January goals... wish me luck... as I will surely need it.

1) Pack up the Living Room & Dining Room and purge/organize as I un-pack them.  We are having new floors put in next week so everything in these rooms needs to be packed up and moved out.  However, I would like to go through and purge the unneeded items and organize the rest of the items into appropriate homes once the floors are completed. 

2) Exercise 2-3 times per week (at least!).  Yes this has been a goal of mine in years past and I may start out with good intentions, but that all goes by the wayside before long.  I'm going to leave this a bit vague at the moment as to what type of exercise it will encompase, but will probably be walking on my treadmill at first and then maybe using my Wii or some other exercise video.  My biggest obstacle for meeting this goal is to figure out where in my daily schedule this best fits. Do I get up early before work to do this (yikes)? Do I do this after work while letting the kids play in the playroom with me? Or after they go to bed while waiting for Jim to come home? Etc.

3) Start prepping for my mothers of multiples' spring consignment sale.  Getting ready for this sale is a huge undertaking and I need to start sorting through the tubs of clothing and toys and separating, what will still fit this year, what is in good enough shape to sell, and what needs to be donated or trashed.  I don't have a lot of extra storage space and would really love to get rid of a lot of the extra clutter in my house this year. 

There they are... they are out in the open.  Hopefully the 3 in 30 challenge is just what I need to get myself going towards my goals.  Wish me luck!  Check back and I hope to update here and there as to my progress. 

O Christmas Day...

At 7:15 on Christmas morning, Summer bounded into our bedroom.  She jumped in our bed to watch TV until Cole joined us at 7:45, which is when we called Mom-mom & Pop-pop to head over for Santa's presents.  We headed down as soon as they arrived and sure enough Santa didn't miss our house.  He ate up all the cookies, drank the milk and took the carrots for his reindeer.  He also remembered to take our elf, Pepper Minstix back to the North Pole to start making toys for next year! 

Santa arrived!

And what to our wondering eyes should appear under the tree, but presents from Santa for Summer & Cole! 

Cole got a Toy Story 3 Landfill

Summer got an Abby Cadabby doll

Cole got some new trains

Summer got new clothes for her baby doll

Dr. Cole reporting for duty

A pink doctor kit for Dr. Summie Lou

Cole was very disappointed that
Mickey Spaceship didn't fly by itself!

Princess dress-up dresses & crowns

Miss Summer wanted a Leappad as her #1 gift that she told Santa each time we saw him.  He cleverly hid this gift behind the tree so that it would be the very last thing that she opened.  I'm sure he never anticipated that as she tore through each of the other packages that she would quietly whimper, "this is not a leappad". 

The Leappads!

The kids played with their new toys for the rest of the morning.  We watched the Disney Christmas Parade together and then had some visitors.  It was Nonna, Aunt Juli, Aunt Kate (my cousin, referred to by Cole as old Katie, because he refers to my best friend Katie as new Katie) and Jay!  Next came, Aunt Chele & Uncle Chris (Jim's sister & brother). Then later, my sister Kim, her husband Dave and my nephew & niece, Noah & Hannah came for a visit.  They had tons of fun playing with the twins' toys until Summer & Cole got up from their nap.  And then all the kids played nicely together for a bit. 

Jim's whole family came over later in the afternoon and we enjoyed a great dinner.  I was so excited this year because I decided to a little something different and set up dinner in our finished basement so that we could all sit at one table, instead of a table in my dining room and another in the living room.  It worked out perfectly!  It was a busy day, but actually surprisingly relaxing at times and just AWESOME!  We are so lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives to share these holidays with. 

Playing with the leappads in their sleds

Thank you to everyone for a great Christmas!

My Christmas Wish...

I've been keeping a secret... this year I asked Santa to bring me something for Christmas.  And guess what?  I must have been an extra good girl this year, because he brought me what I asked for.  The present that I asked for did not come in an extra large box.  It did not require any wrapping paper or ribbon.  In fact, it's quite likely that no one else knew that I received my wish but me (unless possibly if you've attended Christmas or seen my Christmas day photos for the past 2 years).  What you may ask was this seriously awesome gift that I was lucky enough to receive? 

2 HEALTHY, happy little 3 year olds! 

2 years ago, Miss Summer was sporadically vomitting and had a high fever and then the next night an extremely low temperature and we wound up in the ER with her.  Which amounted to just be teething apparently.

Last year, Summer had ear infections and what we thought we sinus infections that would not go away despite weeks of antibiotics from the first week in December through the end of February when she had tubes put in her ears and her adenoids removed.  And not to be outdone, Cole spiked a 104 fever 2 days after Christmas during a huge snow storm and didn't eat for almost a WEEK (this kid is usually an eating machine) and wound up having pneumonia (he would have pneumonia 2 more times before winter was over)!  Last winter's illnesses seriously took their toll on me.  Each year since the kids have been born, I have been making a photo book of that year as a gift for our families (and to ensure that I have an album summarizing the year).  In making this year's book, it caught me a little off guard to realize how swollen Summer's face was all of last winter from her constantly being so sick. 

Can you see those fevers last Christmas?

When the pattern of illnesses started again in September & early October, I was seriously crushed.  I had been promised by everyone from the daycare director to my pediatrician that the first winter in daycare would be the worst and that this year would be better.  In the beginning of November, we visited an allergy/asthma specialist (recap here) and I couldn't be happier with the results so far.  We have settled into our medication routine each night before bed.  Summer has taken to her nose sprays like a champ and Cole does his daily nebulizer treatment at school.  We just had a follow up with the doctor and he was happy with the results as well.  I'm hoping down the road to find out what they are in fact allergic to, but for now I'm happy with the fact that both kids were HAPPY on Christmas morning.  And that they were neither white as a ghost or feverishly red in all of my pictures.  They were playful and full of energy and able to make it through all of our planned festivities without any major meltdowns.

An added benefit to this wish that I wasn't expecting, Summer is a beaming, happy, lovably different person.  Not that she wasn't ever happy before, but there is a notable difference in her since starting all of the medications and her actually being able to breath out of her nose and not have what must have been so much pain and pressure in her face.  Her teachers have even commented on how much nicer she is being to her friends.  When I look back at all those swollen faced pictures of last year, I can't imagine the amount of pain she must have been in.  No wonder she had such a short fuse and was constantly snapping at those around her.  Not to say it never happens now, but much less!

Thank you Santa and Dr. Toci for bringing me my Christmas wish!

My Christmas Wish come TRUE!!!

A Holly Jolly Christmas Eve...

What a fabulous month we have had.  The kids have been excited about everything Christmas related.  They get excited to see Christmas lights, Christmas trees, candy canes, etc! This is the first year that they have been so interested in all the details of Christmas.  They've been singing Christmas songs and telling me for 2 weeks that we need to buy carrots for the reindeer and to leave out cookies & milk for Santa. 

Christmas eve began early... since it was a Saturday and we had the whole day off we decided to head over to Jim's parents' to exchange gifts to try not to overwhelm the kids on Christmas day.  Well Cole decided that he would start off the day by sleeping in until almost 8:30 (the time we planned to arrived at Jim's parents')!  I can't even tell you the last time that he has slept that late!  While we waited for him to wake up, Summer helped me put the finishing touches on the french toast casserole... she was so proud of herself.  She then decided that she wanted to get changed instead of wearing her pajamas to Mom-mom's.  I took out pants and a Christmasy top, but she decided that she wanted to wear a "fancy" dress!  And that is what she wore...

Don't you love the ensemble?!

We finally made our way to Mom-mom's when Cole got out of bed.  Under her tree were a pile of presents from Mom-mom, Pop-pop & Aunt Chele.  The kids unwrapped all of their gifts... Cole then wanted to open everything to play, while Summer decided she'd rather open Mommy & Daddy's presents.  While we ate breakfast, Summer served us all tea with her new Tinkerbell china tea set and Cole chased his talking and moving Chuck the Truck around the house. 

Princess Aurora dress

Cole loved his zoo

We told the kids that when we got home that they could exchange the gifts that they got each other.  They were so excited about this that they started ripping into the packages before Jim and I finished unloading the car!  


Cole got a Chuck truck ramp &
Summer got a Cinderella doll

After a nap... we started getting ready to go to Mom-mom's annual Christmas eve dinner.  Summer said to me "I wear my Princess Aurora dress to Mom-mom's Mommy?"  And in the spirit of Christmas, I just couldn't say no to this request.  She was just so excited to wear it. 

Cole, Aunt Chele & Princess Aurora Summer

We had a great time enjoying both of our families' traditions.  First at my mother-in-law's traditional Christmas eve party and then at 7:30, the kids were still fairing pretty well so we decided to all venture over to my aunt's.  We have not all made it to my aunt's in 3 years so I was extremely happy that we made it together as a family.  Christmas eve was always a HUGE night of traditions in my family.  One such tradition is that we all received new Christmas PJs to wear to bed on Christmas eve.  (I have since adapted this to actually break out the pjs early to do our Christmas card pictures).   

Cousins in the Christmas PJs

Once we got home, we set out carrots, cookies & milk for Santa and his reindeer.  Said goodbye to our elf, Pepper Minstix who has been watching our behavior since just before Thanksgiving.  Then we took a quick trip outside to sprinkle the reindeer food that the kids brought home from school on the lawn so the reindeer would find our house.  Once upstairs and all of our bedtime medicine and brushing teeth routine was completed, Jimmy read Twas the Night Before Christmas to the kids.  A pretty jam packed day.... but truly wondeful! 

The loves of my life!