chalk it up to being tired....chalk it up to the fact that it's friday, but dag.....i'm tired.....and i have sooooo much shit to do before tonight!!  the good new is that i will likely be off work by 3:30 or so, so that will be good for getting on the road and into st. louis before it's all too late....

wish me luck...the babies don't really travel well....i'm thinking that we're looking at some sleepless nights....they were AWFUL last weekend, so i'll settle for just bad this weekend!  LOL  thank goodness i have aaron to help this time....

i will be back on monday with a full report of hotwire.com and their set-up with hotels....i got a room at the sheraton in downtown st. louis for 68.00...when it would normally cost 129.00......wish me luck on that, too!  ;)

have a good weekend!!  :)

it is currently 12:25, and i've recently gotten back from a night of scrapbooking with the girls!  i'm way excited!!  :)  it is not often that i get out of the house, so this was a real treat!

for those of you who read this thing who scrapbook, i'm doing a class on fibers next week, so i'm getting things in gear for that....i've made a card, a tag, and a memo board page that i'm going to use.....i still want to do one more layout using fiber, and then i think that i'll be good to go!  i'm really excited about trying to get the LP thing going.  i think i have a lot to offer as far as enthusiasm and shared techniques, so i hope that this catches on!  :)

ok...off to bed...still need to fold clothes and pack for st. louis....the ship leaves at 5:30ish tomorrow night!  :)

the past few days have been extremely busy.  we went out for our anniversary, but i felt sick after i ate, so i couldn't get any groove on... :(  how tragic!    but i ate the toblerone cheesecake the next day for lunch, and it was yummy!  :)

my friend jan has been in the hospital again.  i really get scared for her when she gets sick.  it's not just like the sniffles....she could bleed to death at any given moment when she gets sick... :(  it's really one thing having her move two hours away, but it's something entirely different to think that she could pass away!

collin earned his purple belt in karate!  he really makes me proud with the way he's so into doing well.  i'm really happy that he's one step closer to getting a black belt.  he really has come into his own since the babies were born and since he's started karate....he still cries at the drop of a hat, and still whines a bit when things don't go his way, but he's really getting more mature.

i'm really starting to put myself into my leaving prints business.  i just emailed out a schedule of classes that i'm going to hold, and people are responding!  cross your fingers for me, as i really would love to do more of this type of work, and less babysitting....no offense to the families i watch......  ;)

we're going to st. louis this weekend!!  i'm really excited...i booked the sheraton downtown, and we're going to be doing things like going to the zoo (it's free!), the science center (also free!), and grant's farm (also free!!  LOL).  there is just so much you can do in st. louis, and it's very family-oriented.  loooove it.

alright everyone, now go update your blogs!!  ;)  indigoblog.tk is the ONLY one of you who's updated lately!!!  ;)  i take it back...nainsworld.blogspot.com has also updated!  sorry nain!  ;)

today is my 7th wedding anniversary!  :)  it's amazing to think that it really has been that long!  so we'll have a date tonight.  dunno what we'll do, but we'll have fun!

aaron's back from his vacation....he's complaining that he's tired.....i feel SO SORRY him!  LOL  it must be so difficult to not have to do anything but watch ball games every night. 

i went to my hometown this weekend for a family reunion.  it was a lot of fun, but very tiring.  it's so much fun to show off my little family, but my little trio of kids doesn't really like to spend the night out of their own bed....the babies were up constantly on saturday night, making it a very tiring night for me.  i don't blame them, though, it must be weird to have their daddy gone and then spend the night at someone else's house!

aaron brought me back a hoochie-mama t-shirt from wrigley field.  it's very cute.

i'm honestly glad that he was able to get a vacation in....but he knows that i'm now due a vacation!  ;)

 

 

 

i have no motivation to do anything today!!!  :(  my mom is coming here today, and the house is an absolute pit....and i need to clean it today, because aaron will be home on sunday, and will not be happy if it's a mess...and who could blame him?  LOL

well....today's the start of it....aaron's five day vacation...four ball parks in five days....see?  i do let aaron do whatever he wants.....*winks*

so...i must admit that i'm envious....i really can't wait until i can do something similar....

call me awful, but i would love to have five days away from the fam....somehow going on a vaca with the whole fam damily just doesn't sound all too appealing...it sounds like work!  hehe

so, i'm getting the sheets all washed and collin's going to be sleeping in my bed for the next five nights or so!  LOL

 

ok, kids....i've finally done it...i've listed my first thing EVER on ebay.....i'm not sure what to do next!!  LOL  it's  a train themed scrapbooking set.  we shall see if i get anywhere with it!  i'm feeling very nervous about it, so wish me luck, please!!!  :)

this weekend was a good one....i did little but be a big bum and scrapbook a little.  aaron runs circles around me...like always!
 
i'm doing a late mother's day gift for my step-mom, who's more like a mom to me than my biological mom is.  i'm hoping to get it done by friday so that i can give it to her!  i think she'll like it....it's not as 'perfect' as i'd like for it to be, but i'm hoping she'll like it all the same.  we'll see!
 
erin had a fever this weekend...my poor girlie-girl....we think that she's got an ear infection, but we'll see what it is.  mr. dante turned up with a low-grade fever today, too....but i felt a tooth trying to pop through, so i'm sure that's what his problem is.  another day in zookeeper paradise.  LOL
 
it's not bad, really.  i'm used to the crying!  i just hate that the babies don't feel well.  it's so hard to feel a feverish baby who can't tell you what exactly is hurting him/her. 
 

nothing much new to report...same stuff, different day....life is quiet without the old gage running around! LOL

i might have another newborn starting soon....we shall see how it all goes! i might be checking myself into the stress center soon! LMAO

we had a picnic outside yesterday. it was a lot of fun. jan brought over some KFC as a payment for watching her boys in the morning. it was very nice of her. erin was an absolute trip! she was mowing down on the chicken like nobody's business. and then, she stepped on the styrofoam plate that we had put her foot on and slipped. i laughed so hard and accidentally rolled over onto collin's food! LOL it was too funny. oh, well...everything's washable!! hehe

collin and i started reading the Order of the Phoenix a few days ago. we had just finally finished the Goblet of Fire. collin really likes harry potter, and stalks me with his book in tow! it's so funny!

this whole DSL thing ROCKS!!! things are so much more zippy with DSL than dial-up! :)

wish me well today, as i have seven seven and under at the zoo today!! :)

i'm not sure what it is....but i sit here at quarter to midnight, unable to really sleep, tho i am a bit tired....gage is gone all week, so a little reprieve is under way.....

you know...sometimes i wonder why my life is the way it is...how i let some relationships go and hold onto others....and for me, sometimes i tend to let the relationships go that meant a great deal at one time, but have become very unhealthy. i usually get to a place where the other person makes me feel less of myself...for a while i think it's them...and then i realize it's ME. i've LET this person make me feel bad about myself, and haven't spoken up until it was way too late to save the relationship. everyone has things to say....sometimes they're exactly what you need to hear, and other times, they cut to the quick. and what's funny, is that sometimes neither party realizes the potential of what they're saying. sometimes it's like a tiny scratch...you put up with it, because it's not so painful...and it goes away. other times, you get scratched again and again, and then get to the point where you no longer can take it....and wind up wounding the paw of the cat who scratched you so deeply that they never come back for you to pat them again. it's kind of like the words of two people with whom i was so very close, but by whom i got hurt so many times. i don't hate these two people....and sometimes parts of me wishes that i could get these two back in my life...but things would never be what they once were. nor would i want them to be. for me, i think sometimes it would be enough to let them know that i'm thinking of you. when i buy a movie that i've heard them talk endlessly about, or finish a scrapbooking page that i know they'd be proud of. but never would i want things to be the way they were toward the end, for i wouldn't want to feel that way about myself again.

it's funny, the twists and turns that life takes. every day i'm learning to depend more and more upon myself...and to like who i am.

it's been a fairly rough week in zookeeperland....the children's biting is at an all-time high, and i'm just down in the dumps in general....i'm beginning to feel the need for a break, but don't know how to achieve it.....a nursing mother with a daycare doesn't get breaks, even with a supportive husband at home! there are too many poopy diapers to change, too many kids to feed, too many kids who want harry potter read to them at night....and that leaves steph with very little energy left over.... :( i know i must sound like a whiney-baby to some, but everything i say is the damn truth!! dammit!! LOL

i seriously love the kids i watch, and i certainly love my own kids...i'm totally wrapped up in being a mommy right now, but breaks are very good for the soul....

so...that being said....if i had a vacation right now, and could go anywhere.....where would i go?? hmmmm.....

i think i would love to go away to someplace like south haven, michigan, where it's not too cold, not too hot....and sit on the beach with a lighthearted, easy-reading novel....drink copious amounts of diet coke....sleep in as long as i wanted.....aaaaahhhh...

or....i might hop a flight somewhere....

'get out the map, get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down...we'll give the finger to those that we pass on the way out of town....' gotta love the indigo girls! ;)

back to the old grind today....sometimes holiday weekends aren't all that they're cracked up to be....especially when said holiday weekend includes the almight butwin family reunion....yes..they're real name is butwin! LOL

formerly a three-day event, comprised of beer, the great race (which we thankfully do not participate in, as my father-in-law fell and broke his shoulder during one ill-fated fourth of july), a slide-show, and over-priced, IMAT (it'll make a turd) status food....don't forget more beer, they're slovakian, you know, this year it was mercifully condensed to a one-day event. the only thing that makes it more fun for me is to watch people with my kids and answering questions about my kids (yes, i've decided that there's not much more to my life than my kids right now...). OH, but don't forget the perpetual rain and humidity...no great butwin family event would be without it!

can you tell i love this thing? LOL it's neat that they want to do this, but i would really love it if they condensed it further to perhaps a fun-filled evening of food and alcohol....just a suggestion....

that way, i probably would only have to deal with the lovely grumpy babies who are so off schedule and over-stimulated that they throw themselves down on the ground with a screaming fit every time we turn around. i really do love my kiddos, but every good mommy needs a break! LOL

anyway, yesterday was our true break...we went to cookie cutter's to get griffin's first hair cut....sniff, sniff...he's such a big boy! his little cheeks look a little bigger now that his face is framed with a bit of hair....it's very fun to watch them grow up, but it's kind of sad all the same...definitely more sweet in the bittersweet.

we also went to kohl's, where we got some things that we'd been needing...aaron got some shorts (he was down to two pair that he could wear in public!) and i got myself a new bathing suit...whew!! even tho my stomach isn't wash-board flat, i still don't feel as bad about walking around in this suit...

anyway, that's my holiday weekend in a nutshell! hope everyone else had a good one, too!

you know...naptime is never long enough, is it? i wish my little ploy to get everyone to nap at the same time would work! LOL

other than that, it's just another day in paradise...LOL

the babies were discharged from PT today....now we need to get griffin going with his OT skills and we'll be theraptst-free. it's kind of sad to see the PT go...she's been with us since before the babies could roll over! and now they're toddling about the house like they own the place!! i'm very proud of my kiddos, and extremely grateful that they've had such terrific people to help them along the way!

.......now....if only i could get griffin to stop biting others, i would be in daycare utopia! ;)