A Birthday Tribute & other rantings

Today is my husband's birthday! He is 4 years younger than me, but a lot of people think he's older than me just because of his appearance. This is really irrelevant, because he acts like a kid- in a good way & I love him just the way he is! So Happy Birthday to my husband & may you have many, many more wonderful years & may they be filled with joy & happiness. May you also have a wonderful day today. :)
This has been a bit of a tough year for both of us. My mom passed away the beginning of April & then he lost his job the end of April. We've had a lot of adjustments to make, but the amazing part of it all is that God has been incredibly faithful. (Well, it isn't really so amazing, more just awesome.)
God has been teaching me what a wonderful gift I have in my husband, even though he doesn't always do things the way I would or do. So I guess I could say God has been teaching me alot of things also; like how to be a little bit less anal.
I've noticed that about myself lately- the older I get the more anal I get about things. Now, I am clearly not a germ-o-phobe, but there are certain times I really just don't want my children to get dirty; for no other reason than I just don't feel like dealing with that particular type of dirt. i.e. SAND!
Well enough ranting for now. Happy Birthday, my love!

Blog addictions & other stuff

Well, a friend of mine recently posted she thinks she's a book-a-holic. I think I'm a blog-o-holic. I love to read other people's blogs. I can spend hours doing it. (and forsake the rest of my household) I don't think this is necessarily a good thing & must learn how to control it & not let it consume my life.
In fact I can think of a lot better things to be addicted to; the 1st one being Jesus Christ.
Speaking of this, I just started reading a book that looks to be promising. In fact I found it by reading another blog. Hmmm. Well, the book is titled "Jim & Casper go to church" & was written by Jim Henderson & Matt Casper. One a professing Christian, the other a professing atheist.
However, in being a blog-o-holic, I've found a group of people from S.C. who all know each other & are all Christians. They have some pretty interesting things to say. Especially this one. perrynoble.com -he is a pastor & in reading his blog, I haven't found anything I disagree with as yet. He has some pretty good & right on stuff to say. You should check him out.
I also found a blog that had me about wetting myself. She is a mom to 6 children & quite an interesting writer. Her blog is mom2my6pack.blogspot.com
My husband has turned me into a Red Sox fan. Although having previously lived in Cincinnati I was also a Reds fan. He gets aggravated with me when I slip & accidentally call the Red Sox, the Reds. I'm close, I don't understand why he gets his undies in such a bunch about this??? I would never confuse the Patriots with say the Dallas Cowboys. Or for that matter any other team.(in case you couldn't tell I'm a Cowboys fan.)
Well, enough ramblings for now, I need to go clean up the house & get to bed.

Thankful

Well, it has been 3 1/2 years of marriage, along with a set of twins. Can I just tell you how thankful I am to my Lord Jesus Christ? He is wonderfully awesome! He gave me this man to be my husband and we have been learning to dance the marriage/family dance. We are still learning all the steps, but of late it has been good. All I can say is thank you God, for being an awesome God & working in both of our lives.
Both of us came from broken families. We both brought our share of baggage into the marriage(of course, who doesn't?), and we are still dealing with that.
But he has been wonderful as of late. In the past we have had our moments. Tonite after dinner he cleaned up the kitchen & loaded the dishwasher for me as I got the girls ready for bed. I didn't realize quite how much he'd done until we came home from our bible study group. Which btw has been good too. We are currently doing the Truth project from Focus on the Family. One of the things the video talked about tonite was submission. God the Son, a.k.a Jesus Christ, submitted to God the Father. So why does society make marriage/submission seem like such a dirty & bad word? i.e. wives submit to your husbands.
So on the way home I asked one of those tough questions that you don't always want to hear the answer to, but sometimes you just need to find out. It was good, he sees improvement in our relationship as well. And no it wasn't on submission.
Thank you, Bill for being an awesome father to our girls & being willing to work on you & us & our relationship.
Thank you Lord for giving me Bill, & two beautiful daughters. Help me to always treasure each one of them for the unique, individual, beautiful creations you made them to be.

Pet peeve #2

JAY WALKING. Yes, this is a pet peeve of mine, however it needs elaboration. Let me just start out saying that I have jaywalked in my life time, & yes, I'm sure I'll do it again. I think it is a respect issue. It really irritates me when people, especially teenagers think they can walk directly in front of traffic. Now I'm not just talking about there's a cross walk & you step out into it. Then you have every right to cross the street & I'd better be stopping for you. I'm talking about my light is green & I'm moving & you decide to cross the street the way the red light is going. I think this is absolutely rude & have already told my 2 year olds that if I ever catch them doing that they'll be in trouble.
For anyone who's ever been to NYC you've probably learned that jaywalking is quite acceptable. Again, I do agree when done properly. Don't just saunter across the street & certainly don't do it if you don't have enough time to cross before the vehicle coming down the road is on top of you.
Here in RI I've seen people who have a green light STOP to let some one cross against the flow of traffic. Why??? Last time I checked the traffic laws if I have a green light it is my turn to go & you need to wait for your green light!
When I stated that I thought it was a respect issue, I believe it is people who don't have any respect for others around them. The world is all about them.
Okay enough venting for now.

By the way did you know 2 year olds can have the best time just running back & forth, giggling? They never cease to amaze me!

Duly chastised & other things

Well, I wasn't really "chastised" only reminded that it had been several weeks since I posted anything new. Yes, I've been slacking. I started a post a couple weeks ago, tried to save it as a draft & lost it. So I will now try to recap what I wrote & add more. Needless to say this may be a lengthy post/ramble.

July 14th. Here in RI we have a thing in downtown Providence called "waterfire." What this is are pods in the water & volunteers go along load them up with wood & then go back & light them on fire. All the while there is music playing in the background. This apparently started in 1994, but I don't think it gained popularity until probably 2000. Well, having been in RI for 11 years now, I had never seen it, nor had my husband who is a RI native. So we decided to check it out(obviously on 7/14). Loaded up the bicycles & downtown Providence we went. The bikes were a mistake & we got there a little later than we had planned on. It was definitely interesting, but I don't think it is all the hype they have made it out to be. Would I do it again? Yeah, probably on foot. But it isn't like it is going to become a regular outing with us.

The girls have been doing pretty well with the potty & have even started pooping in it. We did have a week or so where it seemed we were in a bit of rebellion, though. We had more accidents than mommy liked & this is when one can truly appreciate hardwood & linoleum floors.

There is a "house contest" going on in RI. For a mere $100.00, 100 word essay & several other "guidelines," you have the chance to win a 4 bed, 1 bath house. Having thrown away $100.00 probably many times over; my husband & I decided to enter. So hopefully, if it is God's will, we will be the proud new owners of a home by the end of the month! My prayer is that God would put exactly the family that needs to be in this home, in it.

The weekend of the 27th of July was a busy weekend for me! Being the birthday & all, as my good friend Dawn (a.k.a. Martha, jr. or Raven)often reminds me it was holy week. Even today, I'm still celebrating!
I went to the Women of Faith conference in Boston on Fri & Sat. & I laughed & I cried. It was a great time. Then Sunday afternoon after church a few of the ladies got together & went up to the Charles river in Boston & went for a "moonlit" canoe ride. Yes, the 29th was a full moon, however due to cloud cover we didn't get to see it until our drive home. We still had a blast though! Thanks Joyce, Jojo & Chris!
Still celebrating in grand fashion the husband has been absolutely awesome this past week! He & the girls got me a spa package for my b-day, so I went & pampered myself on Tue.
Let me just pause here a minute & ask all the parents a question. Do you ever have those days when your children are just being children but they are totally working your last nerve??? Well, Fri. was one of those days for me! The dh came home from helping at sports camp at church, we put the girls down for a nap & I went to pick blueberries in about a bazillion degrees - BY MYSELF! Just me, God & the bushes! It was actually enjoyable & amazing how quickly I was able to pick a good amount!
Then on Sat. some ladies & I went to super suppers, came home, the dh went out, came home, we ate dinner & I went & played cards with some ladies from church. But it's better than that- when I came home from super suppers, dh had fed the girls lunch, ran the dishwasher, emptied it, reloaded the remaining dishes that didn't fit the 1st load, washed the ones that don't fit at all & well, lets just say my kitchen looked pretty nice.

I think I need to go pamper the dh now so will close this post. I will try to be more diligent in posting. Thanks Sandy for the encouragement! :)

Friday the 13th

Well, here it is Friday the 13th. Although many people are superstitious about today, it is actually one of my favorite days. I'm envious of my friends whose birthdays are on the 13th because that means they get to have a Friday the 13th b-day. And no I don't like Friday the 13th movies. In fact if you know me you know that I thought the movie "Sixth Sense" was too scary.

So I was looking & noticed that it has been a week since I blogged, so I thought I'd start with the really fun things the family has been doing this week.
I just started meeting with some friends of mine on Tuesday mornings for a Bible study. They've been meeting for probably close to a year now, so you say why did you just join them? I'll tell you. We are doing an awesome read for anyone who has children; "To Train Up a Child" by Michael & Debi Pearl. It is a bit ouchy, because it is very biblically based. So as you're reading the book & they suggest you should discipline your child this way or that way it is sometimes a bit hard to swallow. Actually the whole premise of the book is in the title. Training your children as opposed to disciplining them.
Thursday we went with our friend Viv to a house on Wallum lake, had some wonderful Christian fellowship & played in the water. The girls absolutely love being in the water. And mom felt like a horrible mom as I forgot to put sunscreen on their faces so they had pink cheeks & noses.
Today, Dad & I packed up the girls, our bicycles & a picnic lunch & went to the East Bay bike path. We had a wonderful time, went to Haines Park for our lunch & then back to the carousel. We rode the carousel a couple of times & then went down the street for some ice cream. Between yesterday & today I've never seen two little girls sooo tired.

Tomorrow promises to be just as exciting. Grammy promised the girls that when mom said they were potty trained we'd all go shopping for new outfits from head to toe. So it has been 5 weeks & we have only had a handful of accidents. All in all they're doing quite well.

Well, enough rambling for now.

the continued saga of potty training......

Let me back up a bit before we get to the potty training part of this post. As many of my friends know somewhere about a year our girls decided to start undressing themselves at bedtime. After a few minor accidents of naked babies & wet cribs & then talking to other moms; we quickly remedied this situation by safety pinning their pajamas. It even got to the point where they thought the pin was part of the outfit. If we didn't put it on, they'd quickly remind us by saying, "pin, pin, PIN, PIN." (crescendo here)- & unfortunately our daughters have their mother's high pitched voice. (Now I know why my grandfather used to turn his hearing aid off/down all the time when I was around.)
So, fast forward to the potty training, our girls have been able to undress themselves for awhile now. This is a good thing when getting them ready for bed or to potty train. Not a good thing if your child is prone to taking clothes off in the middle of anywhere! Fortunately, so far our girls are "relatively" modest.
We are now in week 4 of training & we've only had 1 accident in the last 2 weeks. To me that is pretty good, especially since I'm training 2 of them. But they do still wear diapers for naps & bedtime.
The last 2 days 1 of the girls has pooped in her diaper & then promptly pulled it off & made a mess in her crib. Fortunately she doesn't seem to be artistic & is not smearing it everywhere. However, it is frustrating as I still have to change the sheets & clean her up. I usually find out about this mess as the other one starts screaming something about a mess or poop! Thank goodness they are still young enough to bag each other!
Ahhh, the joys of potty training & parenting.