now.....that's a little more like it! LOL

S	Sloppy
T	Twisted
E	Explosive
P	Patriotic
H	Handy
A	Amazing
N	Naughty
I	Influential
E	Excellent

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

i'm not really sure about this, but it was fun to do! hehe orderly? moi? orderly?

Z	Zippy
O	Outrageous
O	Orderly
K	Keen
E	Entertaining
E	Extreme
P	Peaceful
E	Easy
R	Raw

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

Thanks for the link, Snapper! :)

there is a mental disturbance that has hit the byers household since last weekend. carpet envy. yes, that's right, carpet envy. it's when your neighbor shampoos her carpets so that they look brand new, and you go back home to your carpet that has more grime in it than a mud-wrestling pit! not mentioning the fact that i usually have between five and eight kids running around the house at any given moment on the weekday.

so, to cure my newest mental illness, i borrow the mother-in-law's carpet shampooer and spend the better part of the day shampooing the great room and hallway. unfortunately, that's all that i had time to do! LOL but...boy, do i feel all fly now that my carpets are clean! :D but...since i got the carpets cleaned, i need to fold the mound of laundry that built up as a result! oh, well! LOL it's supposed to rain today, so that will give me plenty of time to do it.

other things on the agenda today are to spend my michael's coupon and buy a sizzix!! i'm stoked. what more could a scrapbooker want? the downside to this? i now have to let aaron go to michigan city next thursday and friday to hang out with the other second grade teachers. (shhh...don't tell him, but i don't mind him going, really, even if he is going on a week-long vaca in july...i just didn't want him to be the only one to NOT go....AND i wanted a sizzix! LOL)

ok...off to clean the scrap-space (it's part of my closet...need to find the pic so that shez knows what i'm talking about! hehehe) to make room for the sizzix!

i'm such a nerd.....i never thought i'd be this domestic! LOL

i met my first person through blog! :) how fun is this? i discovered the profile link (why i didn't do any of this before was crazy on my part) and filled it in and made it public, not knowing that it would post it on my page! LOL i love being a techy stupid! hehe and the best part, which i mentioned a few days back, is that it links you up with other people who've said they like similar things. if you go to your own profile and click on some of the things you like, it will show you bloggers who have put the same thing down....LOVE IT!

anyway, i met Shez , a UK'er and new blogger! thanks for coming my way! we have some things in common, best of which is scrapbooking!!

i'm really liking the blog. at first i didn't put the time and effort into it, but now i really like it and keep wishing i'd had it a year ago....oh, well....as they (*they* being my stepmom...) "hindsight's 20/20". ;)

On Motherhood.........

i know it is our destiny to annoy our children....but i really hope that my children will see me for a good mommy. i'm by no means perfect, but i really hope that i'm doing a good job. i love my children with all my heart. i really hope they want to be around me when they have kiddos of their own.

ho-hum, another wednesday here and nearly half over! LOL

we have been playing on our new swingset. it really is going to be a life-saver this summer!! i'm so happy that aaron relented and let me get it....and also let me spend the extra bucks on the nicer playset and climbing wall. the babies love it, and climb to the top and make their momma scramble up as fast as she can to prevent them falling off the platform on the other side! :) i love that they can do it, tho! it probably doesn't hurt that i'm climbing up with them at break-neck speed, either! a little exercise never hurt anyone! LOL

i'm really going to take the LP plunge.....i am going to start having small classes out of my home. june 10th? eyelets! ;) we'll see. it will be interesting to see if anyone comes to it. crossing my fingers that i can make this thing work.....i just need to dig inside for that motivation and the balls to just do it!

griffin has been trying to sing his abc's. it's very cute. he really does love his music. and the way he says buh-bye is the best! speaking of which, he just said good-bye to joe on blue's clues. it's too sweet!

i put erin's hair in a lone pigtail on the top of her head. it's the funniest. i'm rather liking this girlie-girl stuff. i love buying her these fun dresses that she can crawl around in. the cutest thing is to see her butt with little diaper-cover panties on it! :D

i'm really hating this mommy thing! LMAO

the week got off to a pretty good start.....the day was pretty good yesterday. one of the daycare kids was gone, so that always makes for a quiet day. i stripped my bed of everything, including the dust ruffle and mattress pad and tossed everything except the comforter and shams in the wash. my washing machine wondered what the hell happened to it...how do i figure? well....it was found about six inches from where i left it, and i heard it complaining pretty loudly a few times! LOL

i'm also rummaging through the babies' closet, clearing out things that need to be shoved up into the attic...."oh, aaron!!!" ;) i cleared out their dresser drawers of too-small clothing and washed up some hand-me-downs that griffin had received.

i also managed to put together a scrapbooking kit at jan's last night. i really need to get my butt going with my scrapbooking business. i think that i could really teach people if i just got going with it.....yes, i can say and spell P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N. for some reason, i have trouble mustering enough self-confidence to get things going. i think that this is one downfall of the company....there really isn't any guidance from the higher-ups on getting things rolling. sure, i have an upline...in wisconsin.....and there are people who do chat room trainings, but it's not as good as having someone face-to-face...oh, well. it'll happen....i just need to get to work building so they will come! LMAO!

off to do elmo coloring pages and build lady bugs with circles....we're having strawberries for lunch today.....can anyone guess what today's theme is? ;)

this weekend was good. got some rest in, which is always nice.

yesterday we went to visit the NICU where erin and griffin were for nearly three months. it was fun to see the three people that were there that took care of the babies. one of the nurses that took care of them was there and hadn't seen them since they left the hospital. she took care of them when they were first born, but left them to take care of someone else's babies...a woman she had known since the woman was three! so i didn't blame her. but she always says how guilty she feels about it. but she totally helped keep me together those first few weeks in the NICU. she was so sweet and caring, and really loved my babies, which made me love her.

it's really an emotional subject for me. the nurses and respiratory techs became my friends while they took care of my kids. and when we left the hospital, they weren't there anymore, and that left a big void. sounds kind of weird, but it's the way it is. i am so grateful that these people came into my life. without them, my babies might not be here and would definitely not be doing as well as they are today.

today was a pretty good day, allergy hell aside! they say the pollen count is up pretty high this year, and i'm certainly feeling it.

i pretty much wasted the day away, just like most saturdays (when aaron is at school).....i get up and nurse the babies, pour a bowl of cereal, change their diapers and give them breakfast...lock the house down and sleep on the couch for a while until collin comes out....then we read some harry potter (when mom's head isn't bursting with the pollen-laden allergy hell headache! :( ). then we get around to lunch and usually go shopping afterward, mooching around (gotta love british english! LOL) wal-mart or target, spending way too much money! i love being lazy, tho, because it seems i don't have much time to truly be lazy (in MY sense of the word) throughout the week.

today my sis-in-law, andrea, came over to work on a scrapbook for her friend's baby shower. it turned out really cute, and i think she might be a convert to scrapbooking....tho i need to get her married off and having babies so we can really set to work! ;)

the babies are really starting to walk more. they really are making the effort to walk to where they want to go, even if it is only for a few steps before plopping down and doing what comes so naturally to them! they are just getting so darn big! i don't mind, tho...the sooner they are able to get their own little asses everywhere, the better! :) tho, my buff arms might go by the wayside! hehe seriously, i've loved every stage of the kiddo...up to seven, that is! ;) i love watching them at each stage, marveling at how fast they grow up and being so proud of their accomplishments. it's kind of hard to know that erin and griffin are my last babies, but it's so great to know that they're doing so well and that they're relatively healthy, and so am i. so that's worth never having another baby in the house! :D

ok...suppose i shall call it a night. not much happening around here tonight! it's mighty quiet on the weekends when everyone has stuff to do! LOL

today's been a busy but quiet day. i enjoy the bustling of order with toddlers. they are so much fun sometimes....for instance, gage, the two year-old terror, made me nearly wet myself with giggles during our music time today.....i have a bucket o'instruments, purchased at the local wal-mart for ten bucks. i pass out the instruments and try to get the kids to name them. there is a pair of castanets that are shaped like ladybugs. after we have passed the lot around for them to try, i ask them again what the names are for each instrument. getting to the castanets, gage said: 'they're crap!' hooohooo...i sometimes really love that boy!

now is some peace and quiet, and it's really odd to have it. isn't there ANY adult out there willing to talk to me?! hehehehe quiet, schmiet!

how did the boy manage that??

i'm procrastinating horribly today.....i should be doing anything but sitting here on the damn puter! LOL did you know that you could visit a profile and click on interests and find someone with like interests...then read their blog? LOL how fun is that? i found other people who like better than ezra! LOL
who knew?

k...that confirms that i need a life! ;)

things on the agenda that i'm currently not doing by sitting here on my fat tushy:
--writing an advertisement for getting new kids to watch
--writing a newsletter for Leaving Prints
--folding the mounds of laundry on the floor and putting them away
--putting coupons into the four dollar coupon organizer i bought.
--sending out coupons promised to friends
--calling people to have Leaving Prints parties
--anything of any importance whatsoever

at least i'm not complaining about life all that much. it amazes me the amount of time people spend complaining, myself included. life is pretty much ok right now. i don't have a fever anymore. the sore throat is still around, but not impeding my diet coke intake anymore.....life is ok. it's the ever-present rollercoaster of being a mommy of toddler twins, and babysitter to nine others at varying times. it's going to have its ups and downs, and that's just the way it is.

we went out to play on our new playset today...which was a bit of a mistake, as the lawn dudes came to aerate (sp?? LOL) the lawn and we have little turd-shaped bits of mud on the grass...that, and it must have rained more than i thought as i lay in slumber yesterday, because the ground has more mud than i had anticipated...and so does my floor! :) it's ok, tho, because erin and griffin got the chance to climb up the rock wall and prove their stuff. :) that makes it all worthwhile! :)

k...off to see about making some cookies or doing something else with these rotton boys! LOL they're being good....but how good can you expect a four year-old and two two year-olds to be?? thank god for blue and dora! :)

thursday morning already. amazing how quickly the weeks go by. it just seems like yesterday when i was starting this whole babysitting thing. now the whole school year is almost gone, which means that i've been doing this for nearly nine months! when i started this, the babies were still on monitors! and that seems like forever ago!

thus far, i've only taken one sick day! i've had some times where i didn't feel so well, but hadn't taken a single sick day....

elizabeth's mom told me the other day that she's going to stay home next year and not teach. looks like i have another full-time spot to fill. i need to email aaron and tell him with an advertisement.....the scary thing is that he just emailed me with some news about a fellow mom-of-twins! LOL scary.

must leave the blog for now as two of the five are screaming! :(

I'm working on re-doing my blog, if you havent' noticed. I figured it's time I learned a little about html.....tho i'm not very good at it thus far! LOL

feeling a bit better since i took the whole day off (yes, me...the one who's always working) to sleep, while aaron took care of his children. he actually let me sleep in and not really have to get up and nurse them. i had griffin come nurse and he fell asleep with me, as is the case on so many saturday and sunday mornings when he's the last to nurse. it's good bonding time! :)

my good girlfriend, rebecca won two tickets to norah jones....man, am i jealous!! i saw norah jones when she was not as well-known....she opened up for the indigo girls. stephenie and i talked through most of her concert (says this steph, blushing! LOL). i really do like her, and have bought both her cd's. :D

collin and i are up to chapter 13 of prisoner of azkaban. we're hoping to finish it soon so that we can see the movie. he's way excited about it, and bursts into tears every time we can't read it. he had to be made understood that i didn't feel well enough to read last night. i told him that it wasn't fun that i didn't feel well and that if i had the choice i would definitely read to him!! oh, well....i suppose that i had to be told that, too as a youngster!

here's hoping for a good tomorrow...need to pick my sorry as up off the chair and resume flylady lifestyle! ;)

feeling like shit today....going to the docs at 1:30. i've been running a low-grade temp and almost feel flu-like! :( i just hope it's something that they can give me some meds for and let me get on my way...instead of telling me it's viral and tell me i have to suffer it out! LOL not that i'm a fan of taking meds all the time, but i'm an even bigger fan of not feeling like shit all the time! LOL

had a busy ol' weekend....collin and i read about 150 pgs in prisoner of azkaban (Harry Potter 3)....aaron put up our new playset...woohoo! :) the daycare kids sat this morning with their poor little faces plastered to the window, asking me when it would be finished.....stupid rain came in and now they won't be able to play today! :(

at least i'm down to just the four year old girl, and the inferno child for the rest of the day. it should make it a bit easier!

i went to bed at 9:30 last night...LOL. i feel pretty good today. erin had occupational therapy this morning, and the therapist said that she would probably be released in another month! woohoo!! :) i'm pretty excited about it....one step closer to having "normal" children (as normal as the kids from me can get! ;) )

i fell completely off my cleaning wagon yesterday, but am determined to get back on today. yesterday was an OK day, tho, because i finished a few scrapbook pages from the crop in march. i'm pretty proud of them. i feel as though my scrapbooking style gets better and better with time. most of my pages are pretty simple, but just have some oomph that you don't get without some eyelets and brads! :) loooove scrapbooking!!!

going to take the kids out in the pretty weather....my two are sleeping, but we'll take the monior out so that i can hear them!

on tap for today:
--fold laundry...urgh...they still won't just fold themselves like i tell them to! if only i could be mrs. weasley and bewitch them into folding themselves! LOL
--make chicken nuggets, green beans, and fruit cocktail for lunch
--figure out what to have the rest of the week and all next week
--make spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and italian mixed veggies for supper
--clean bathrooms...
--give some baby stuff to a friend having twins soon.

i think that's pretty much about it....i might throw in a batch of some sort of bread...banana perhaps? or some cookies...sugar!!! :)

i'm tired today, but other than that, life is pretty good.....the baby stayed with his grandmother today, which is OK...the little persnickety man!

my mother-in-law loved her album. she cried when she opened it, hugged me, and told me she loved me. it was very sweet of her. sometimes, however (here comes the negative side of me...LOL), i wonder if that's just because she was taken off her estrogen! LOL....nah..she's very sweet, and i'm lucky to have her on my side. neither of us is perfect, so we don't get along ALL the time, but for the most part, we do pretty well. i got a pretty pair of pajamas from her for mother's day. this is a tradition of sorts.

i've really got the scrapbook bug right now. after the 20 pages i did this past weekend, i really want to get going again on it. i just haven't had extra energy to do it.....we'll see...hopefully i can fit it into my fly-style schedule! ;)

i do have one itty-bitty grump...ok...make it two....one's fairly bittersweet....the friend's in the house, if you know what i mean....which is bittersweet, because i think i'm really good with having survived two pregnancies, so i'm not wanting to tempt fate with another....but boy-oh-boy, i'm not really enjoying myself after a three or so month hiatus on that homefront! LOL my second grump is that i just wrote out all the invitations for a leaving prints show i was supposed to be doing on the 19th...and she gave me an email to day, asking to re-schedule....oh, well....at least she wants to reschedule, but i've got writer's cramp now! LOL oh, well...things could be a lot worse, couldn't they?

i've got diet coke (LOOOVE that husband of mine!) to get me through it.....for some women it's chocolate, and while i'm not against using chocolate for the days when you need it...my solice is diet coke! :)

whew....i'm nearly through with my mother-in-law's mother's day album, and i'm TIRED!! my sister-in-law and i were up until 2 this morning working on it....and...guess who never sleeps in past oh....6:30?! LOL i know, i know.....it's self-imposed torture to still be nursing them this late in the game.......it's very hard to stop when you know they're your last.....and THEY don't want to stop right now, so i don't see many reasons to bother making them...............unless i win a trip outta here! :P

i can't believe that i've completed nearly 40 6X6 pages in a week's time.....actually, it's about 43, because i did get a whopping three pages done on the baby boy album i'm tending to hawk off on some willing soul......i'm getting the scrapbook bug back....along with that comes the shopping bug, too........shhhh...don't tell aaron! :)

i also read 60 pages of harry potter to collin....our new reading goal is to finish the third book before the movie comes out in the theater so we can go on a date......collin would really rather watch the movie before reading the book, but i don't! LOL...mean, mean mommy! hehe

it's been a busy, but fruitful day, tho i feel off the flylady wagon again.....oh, well....my mother-in-law will hopefully like her gift, so i don't think flylady would object to that! hehe

i got my mother's day present a week early.....it's a very pretty bracelet with austrian crystals on it that are similar to the kids' birthstone colors (amethyst and citrine)...it also has some sterling silver charms that spell "mom"....very pretty....got it last saturday at the craft fair......but it broke saturday night after the ben folds concert, so i had to get it repaired already.... :( BUT...the woman who made it was just as sweet as she could be and fixed it for nothing!

i'm still working on trying to be happier in life....the bad thing is that last night, aaron and i fought again about housework stuff and the fact that he gets a break when i don't.....i know, i know...he used to do all the housework, but i still feel as though if we get it all done in the early afternoon right after he gets off work, that we could spend some couple time together later....oh, well....maybe we'll get around to that, too, eventually....

i'm really hoping to keep up with things as well if not better than i have for the last few weeks. i really needed the motivation to get things in order around here.....sounds weird, but i think if i worked harder at that, i would actually not feel so stressed out and tired. working harder usually equates getting more tired, but we'll see! hehe

happy mother's day to all the mom's out there! :)

OMG....i think the smell of the almond poppyseed bread had me high or something!!

HOW on EARTH could any SELF-RESPECTING MOTHER forget that her FIRST-BORN SON has a GIRLFRIEND????????

my boy!! my baby boy!!! LOL






he's seven. LMAO.....and the girl doesn't know that she's his girlfriend! how cute is that?!

almond poppyseed bread is in the oven and all the kids are napping......at last some reprieve....

i know a lot of you sahm's really love the idea of an earlier bedtime.....for me that happens, but i'm too tired by then to enjoy it! LOL for me, the best time of day is right here and right now.....the noon hour is when i finally get some peace and quiet....the only time of day where i can do anything for myself, so long as it is in the master suite! LOL sad but true, the majority of any of my free time is wasted sitting right here! ......mostly because i have no energy to enjoy this time, either.....at least i'm by myself!

i'm really going to try my hand at ebay this time...i really need to figure out how to do it, tho...i can sign up to do propay through Leaving Prints, but don't know whether that's acceptable in the ebay world....hmmmm....i've things to sell! hehehe

you know...i have no ponderances on world peace, or real grumps to lay out....my only ponderance right now is why people don't enjoy their lives more.....we have them to live, why can't we be happy with what we have? take me, for instance......here is a list of the wonderful things i have.....
........a loving husband, who wants me to be happy
..........three wonderful children, who...all except for a biter as of late (collin never did that! LMAO), are great and seem to be much easier to deal with than most other children i know....
..........a house, that, while might have a mold problem (holy shit, i hope not!! please let it just be a rogue thing that grew on collin's wall!! ), is very comfortable and suits our needs.
...........a job that, while rough at times (none of my t-shirts are without baby food stains, but then again....they're just t-shirts....), allows me to see my beautiful wonderful children much more than i ever would were i still working downtown at a job where i was contentedly discontent.
...........TONS of scrapbooking supplies that i can use.
...........nap time with which to scrap
...........girls to talk on the phone with
..........a figure that's forgiving of the mounds of chocolate i've been giving it for the past few months.
..........good hair, tho i'm not sure why everyone keeps saying that, but i thought i'd chuck that in.
........a mother-in-law whom i can actually get along with on most occasions.
.........family that loves me for who i am, and doesn't rag me for not calling for a few weeks at a go.

i have all these wonderful things.....why am i not bursting at the seems with happiness? and i'm not alone....many people are just like me.....they have good lives, but never seem to enjoy what they've got. and many of these said people fool themselves into believing their life is really hunky-dory, but are always complaining about it! i don't try to kid myself all that much...i always seem to deal with nasty shit....a firstborn only child who won't let me put him down without a fight, who decides to spit his lunch all over me.....a few family members who always hyercritical of others while all the while doing the same things.....a mother who says she wants to spend time with me, but then ignores me for friends on easter......

no...life's not always grand, but there are many things that i don't have to deal with......and i'm damn lucky that i don't.......here's a list...........
..........i've only known one person my entire life that was murdered.
........i've only known one person my entire life who committed suicide
..........i've only known two people with AIDS
.........i've never been molested
.........i've a roof over my head.
..........i've not had cancer.
...........we've not had to foreclose on anything
..........we've not been without a few good friends
..........i've never had to watch my baby die
..........i've never had a miscarriage
..........i've never been in a freaking car wreck!
...........i'm never really alone

i'm really very very lucky...........i need to find a way to realize this every day. i need a way to make it a point to find something good in each day. every day life generally sucks for most people. we all carry the same amount of weight on our shoulders, it just takes on a different shape or has a different name. but i think that there is a lot of good in everyone's lives, too. and there must be a way to concentrate on that good so we don't feel miserable all the time!

and now, if you'll excuse me.....there just might be some almond poppyseed bread that's done baking! :)

hard to believe it's been a week since my last entry.....online diaries are so much easier than paper ones...i would have ditched the paper one a long time ago! LOL

not much new happening in the life of the byers clan.....aaron's still teaching second grade and taking master's classes. i will be so happy when those are done.....so will he! LOL but i'll be happy when i have my husband back to torture on saturday mornings with a to-do list! ;)

collin is now a green belt in karate, but next wednesday he will be taking his test to become a blue belt.......we started talking about whether we should continue this, because he is starting to need some really expensive stuff for karate (like $75 a mo isn't expensive!! LOL), and we don't want to pay the money out if he's just going to drop it. so.....he and aaron had the 'if you're going to drop it, say it now...' talk last night, and he's told aaron he wants to be a black belt. so....roll on karate!! :)

the babies are crawling up on everything they can manage....it's getting quite scary....they're getting so big. it's hard to believe that they're my last babies (speaking of which...i really need to call dr. tim for that tube-tying appointment so god doesn't sneak another one in on us! LOL). they're still going strong on the nursing...much to the chagrin of my family and friends. more of them keep telling me to stop rather than applauding me for keeping it up.....i just LOVE unsolicited comments!! :)

as for me......nothing of much to report here, either. i did a craft fair with my leaving prints stuff this weekend, and it didn't really sell all that well. i got my name out there a bit, tho, so i'm hoping that i'll drum up some business that way. i need to write a newsletter still, but otherwise, it's just a matter of calling people....which i don't feel very strong at! :S you would think a born talker would have less trouble, but i feel like i'm asking people for a favor, which i don't really like doing......and i am asking them for a favor, so i don't really like doing it! LMAO!! i made a really cute album that i plan on selling somehow....someone introduced me to photobucket.com, so we'll see if i can get that rolling.....just another thing to add to the to-do list......