I am ready to throw my computer out the window

I'm having computer problems. It seems the more I try to clean it, the worse it gets. So until I can clear it up, I won't be able to post. I can get on email much easier than I can get online so I'm still here and we're still hanging in!!

Numbers

How many things are on my to-do list: 48
How many things did I do from my to-do list today: 3
How many things did I add to my to-do list today: 6
How many doctor/therapy appointments did we have last month: 19
How many doctor appointments am I putting off for myself: 3
How many times did Frankie ask me what day it was today: 9
How many times did I see Frankie kiss one of the babies today, just because: 4
How many hair cuts did I give this past weekend: 3
How many months has it been since I had a haircut: 16
How many loads of clothes did I do today: 4
How many loads of clothes are there still left to do: 7
How many times did I find myself forcing myself to look at the bright side today: many
How many times did I count my blessings today: a lot
How many blessings did I count: 20
How many times did Chase or Summer giggle so hard today that it made me giggle: countless

Giving the kids a good time makes for a tired Mama

So after a hectic week of voting, doctor and therapy appointments out the wazoo, soccer playoffs, consigning baby equipment, and the typical running around to the grocery store, drug store, filling prescriptions, etc. I was kind of hoping for rain this weekend. It seems it rains more weekends than not and normally I hate it. I hate the kids being stuck inside, I hate having to drive anywhere in the rain and I hate that it takes days to dry out and Summer and Chase can't play in the yard. But of course, it's been the most beautiful weekend ever. Which I guess has turned out well, but it hasn't allowed me to wind down. Which is exactly what I plan on doing once I finish this post!

The babies are asleep, the girls are so tired they are going to be ready for bed in another 2 hours, Brad came home from work and after having me look over a math assignment he's working on, he went out for the night; Frankie and Uncle Buck spent the afternoon watching football at a bar and grill that just opened 1/2 mile down the street, so he's almost ready for bed. And then darnit, I'm not doing laundry, I'm not picking up, I'm not even doing the darn dishes. I'm going to bed!!

Yesterday I picked Lexi, Skye and their friends Courtney and Kayla up from school and we went to the Coastal Carolina Fair. This fair has been here in Charleston since long before we lived here 17 years ago, but this is going to be the last year, because the fairgrounds have been sold. So as a treat for exceptional report cards and all the extra help they've been doing at home, I told them weeks ago I would take them to the fair.

We got there about 4:00. We got home at 12:30. AM. As the lady who was sitting on the bench next to me while I waited on them to ride their last ride said "Girl, you must be crazy!". She'd been there 1 hour and was ready to go home. *lol.

But the girls had a WONDERFUL time, so it was worth it. Lexi rode every ride there. I was surprised by how extreme alot of the rides were! But Lexi's always been a dare devil. Skye, not so much. She opted out of 6 or 7 of them and was happy when she met up with 2 other friends, who were also a little more timid, and they rode some of the tamer rides together.

The highlight for me was the agricultural center. I love seeing all the farm animals, the cattle, ponies, rabbits, ducks, turkeys, and especially the horses. The 1000 lb. sow nursing her 8 piglets was also a sight to behold!

So the girls got to sleep about 3 am. I was up at 7:30 with Summer and Chase and at 9:40 Lexi and Courtney had a revelation that today was the day they had to go to the Hanahan Rec. Center to sing with their chorus! As a part of their grade. In other words, nope, sorry, you can't skip it!! So that gave me 20 minutes to get us all ready and on the road. That was fun!!

But we made it and they sang, and we spent the next couple of hours taking hay rides, getting faces painted, bouncing in the bounce house, and chasing Summer and Chase all over God's creation. Man, they just love to run at that age don't they?! Several of Summer and Chase's neighborhood friends were also there, so they played together, ate kettle corn and had a good time.

So it's nap and lunch time when I finally am able to tear the girls away, and by now we've picked up another of their friends Julia, but instead of going home, since we're already 1/2 way there, I decided to save the gas of a full trip and head to Harris Teeter for a triple coupon weekend. I had a list of items I could get for nearly free that I didn't want to miss out on and they have the greatest samples in the fruit, deli, bakery section so I also figured the babies could get a free lunch out of it! *lol. They ate oranges, strawberries, french bread with hummus, swiss cheese and apple pastry and were in heaven!!

So as we head home the plan is to just get in the house, get the groceries unloaded, and get Summer and Chase changed and put down for a nap since it's already 3:00. Well, all of us pile in the house, Uncle Buck and Frankie are in the living room, we're talking to them about the morning and somehow the last person in didn't shut the baby gate to the living room or the front door. So all of a sudden I hear Chase cry and he's face down on the cement outside the front door! He had tried to walk outside but was so darn tired he probably just slipped off the step and it looks like he didn't even put his hands down to catch himself... he apparently landed face first. :-(

So there's blood gushing everywhere and Skye is freaking out (she's not good in a panic) and I'm trying to console Chase, get the blood to stop and get the girls calmed down and boy oh boy. Is there ever a dull moment!?!? Chase was easily consoled, and stopped crying after just a minute. He has a fat lip though and is scratched between his nose and his lip.

I was a little miffed tonight when he was riding the exercise ball and went over the top, didn't clear the couch and banged his lip on the hard edge of it. And bled ... again. Poor baby. Again, he was easily consoled and hardly cried. But his lip, it's even fatter now. I hope he looks ok when he wakes up in the morning! This is Chase's first day of boo boos so I'm pretty happy that he made it this long!

Though they are few and far between, I'm hoping tomorrow is a nice relaxing day!

Happy Halloween!

Here are Summer and Chase's trick or treat pictures and pictures of them earlier in the day with their blinking Halloween shirts - Thanks Aunt Maudie! I couldn't narrow the pictures down enough so I put them in a slideshow.

Summer and Chase made it to about 8 neighbors for Trick or Treating. We only went to friends so it was hard for them to understand where we were and were not going. But once they got the hang of it I think they really had a great time! Summer got "twick o tweet" out to a few and "twick" to the rest. Chase tried to get two handfuls of candy at each house and walked into two, I guess for a break.

I'm glad I did the dress rehearsal and worked on getting Chase used to his froggy costume. It definitely helped!!

Two toddlers are always alot of work and this was no exception and it was also a bit sad without Frankie, who was with his Mom for the week. But overall we all had a lot of fun!

When we finished with S&C, Lexi and Skye went out with 8 or so of their friends.

This will more than likely be Lexi's last year. She didn't dress as she had in the past and really didn't want to dress at all. She eventually went in her soccer uniform because I said she had to dress as something! (Mean Mommy!) Skye was excited about being Darth, and I think she'll still want to go next year.

Have you tried to take 1 picture of 2 toddlers lately?!

Mom and I were talking the other day about how I don't have pictures of Summer and Chase together. She was hoping I might be able to do something with Photoshop so she could have a more current pic of them both for her cel phone screensaver. I've just been using 1 pic of a girl and a baby as my screensaver and the other girl and baby as my wallpaper (the girls check and make sure they get equal time!). So I decided I should try and get a picture of them both ... in 1 picture ... at the same time ... facing the same direction ... with no one crying ... are you kidding? What was I thinking! Oh well, I got some pics of them separately that turned out ok. *LOL

My amazing little girl

So today Summer did a couple of cute things. As I went upstairs to get their cribs ready for bed, I turned Barney on the TV for them, to keep them entertained (aka quiet) for a few minutes. I put Barney on because Summer and Chase were both screaming "Buyee, Buyee" (aka "Barney") at the top of their lungs when I asked them what they wanted to watch.

So I'm upstairs and the theme song comes on and I hear Summer quietly singing "I wub you, you wub me" then she hums to the end and says "say you wub me too". Oh my gosh, my heart just about melted!!!

Then today she and I went out for a little bit. On the ride home "Stairway to Heaven" was on the radio so I'm singing and swaying a little bit and I notice her staring at me in the rear view mirror and imitating my swaying, so I move right and she moves right, I shrug my shoulders and she shrugs, I move left, she moves left, I clap, she claps and I clap a few more times to different beats and she does the same. Then I threw my hand out and snapped and brought it back. And she throws her hand out, clicks with her tongue and brings her hand back. She immediately compensated for not being able to snap and I thought "Wow! That was pretty darn smart!!"