our trip went very well....no pukes! will update tomorrow with pics of vaca and costume pics....i'm going to bed, because i'm beat and not feeling so hot....

going to try to make the menu, etc and shop a little in the morning....wish me luck! LOL

here we go, off in the wild blue yonder.......


please pray for no pukes.....and please pray for my sanity! ROFL

Vacation: Day 2

So yesterday was spent lounging around a bit in the morning....It was a PJ day around here! :) That was the fun part....

The afternoon was spent working on Collin's cape for last night's karate Halloween party. This is my first-ever patterned sewing project. And, while fun, it was stressful. Why? Because, as usual, I waited until the last minute to sew it! I was trying to manage a time when the babies were sleeping to do it. Well, that's kind of a challenge in and of itself, so I wound up having to put the baby gate up between the kitchen and the rest of the house and just plug through. So, four Elmo-movies later, I have a cape! hehe (yes, i'm modeling it myself...rofl)

Vacation: Day 1

My first day of vacation was spent up in Ft. Wayne, IN with my friend Jan. I can't begin to tell you how much I miss the fact that she lived next door to me all this time! :( It was great to see her and her new pad, though. It was a 2hr. tour up there, and the babies were a little less than thrilled that they were in the car again, but we did ok all things considered. They slept for a good part of the drive, so that made it easier for me. I listened to Dave Matthews' solo album, Weezer's Maladroit album, Evanescene's Fallen album, and Rhett Miller's solo album (he's with the Old 97's if you don't know him...he's kinda obscure). It was great....it's more music than I've listened to in ages! LOL

We got there and let the kiddos play for a bit, while I took the grand tour of the house. It's a very cute house, with four bedrooms and a finished basement. We went to McDonald's for lunch (really...do you expect me to take children anywhere else? ROFL), and then went to her local scrapbook store and the dollar tree. Then it was back to her house for more playing and chatting. I really miss her a lot!! :(

I left there around 5ish to book it home to see Collin's karate test. He was testing out of his purple belt into his 3rd degree brown belt (the all-brown one). My baby boy is such a big guy! I'm really proud of his determination in keeping up with the karate. I'm hoping that it will help him to be more assertive. He's generally a quiet kind of kiddo, who spends his recess time playing by himself, and who would rather play by himself than to go knock on the neighbor-boy's door...even though I've given him permission. I really worry about him sometimes....cos that's the way I was as a kiddo....and I'm the one on psycho meds, right?

Anyway, as for day two.....I've compiled a short to do list:
1. sew up Collin's costume
2. organize scrapbook shit....again! *sigh* (i really should just never go to Michael's again! ROFL)

Happy Tuesday, all! :)

Why it's a good thing that I am forced to stay home and have kids running around me all the time......

In the last 24 hours, i've managed to spend nearly $150!!! :O

I went to see my baby bro perform in his State band competition....it was so awesome to see them marching in the Hoosier Dome (it will never be the fucking RCA dome to me, folks). they made 7th out of 10 bands. they were disappointed, as they made 4th place last year. it's still hard for them to see that it's just an honor to be there....they are one of the best bands out of 175 or more in the state of indiana.....there were four groups of ten there, so top 40 is a wonderful place to be....congrats to them, even tho they don't feel like it....

ok...so this morning, aaron and the kids head off to good ol' terre haute, indiana, to help celebrate two momentuous birthdays for members of his family. his great aunt donna turned 70, so they had a surprise birthday for her....and his great aunt ann had something like her 90th birthday, so they celebrated that, too.....which leaves the old zookeeper completely free of animals today!! so...i went to barnes and noble....to not get a book that i was looking for, but instead walk out with a book that i wasn't. lol....i then went to michael's to spend my 40% off coupon....walked out with $30.00 worth of stuff! :O i went home and put in an order at www.creativexpress.com for some things....$50....went out to eat at Panera Bread, which i never get to do $10....went to wal-mart to get diapers, etc....$40! LOL

oy! gotta quit spending now....LOL

ok....on the list to do now is to try to cut out collin's cape for halloween...i probably won't get around to sewing it tonight, but if i get the energy and motivation, we'll have my first ever "pattern-necessary" sewing project.....

eat your heart out, martha! ROFL

oh, btw...alaina....we're headed out on thursday.... :)

Oh....we're going to go to Versailles State Park so lovingly called "Ver-Sales".....gotta love us Hoosiers! ;)

and, if i can convince him, we're going to spend the night in our camper....to see what we're going to do about sleeping arrangements....and i say yet again....who thought it was a good idea to have two babies? LOL

i let ya know! :)

t-minus-five hours and counting........yes, folks, the zookeeper will only have to change two kids' worth of shitty diapers for a whole nine days!!! :D :D :D :D

but alas...the only days i will be out of blogging commission are thurs-sat....because those are the only days we're going somewhere....ROFL....so you have to put up with my whining for another six days.... ;)

ok folks...i'm feeling a bit down in the dumps lately....and i don't know why.....but...for your amusements...here are a few possibilities....

1. i've not been getting enough sleep
2. it is now dark at almost 6 pm
3. i've been getting a good visit from AF lately....two weeks out of every month! (anyone got any clues? feel free to provide SOLICITED advice, aside from going to the doc, which i've already done...and so help me god if it involves giving up diet coke i will hunt you down)
4. i'm 24 hours away from having my first *real* week's vacation in over two years.
5. i'm just a fucking nut job who needs a real life

take your pick, but i'm feeling pretty fucked up.......

i know....i'm a bright ray of sunshine, aren't i? oh....forgot to include that the weather's been shit for the past week..... don't worry....i'm not going to top myself off, but i am feeling grumpy right now... :(

ok...for as much as i'm lamenting the fact that hammer had tix to the first game of the world series...i'm really happy that the sox beat their umpteenmillion year drought and made baseball history tonight....

sweet dreams, boston! :)

OK....just to be a turd and make fun of Hammer .......................


GO SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hehehe...i don't even really follow baseball....LMFAO

doc feeney called....that i can cross off the list....

today's been one of those days....i'm absolutely exhausted, but have no real reason to be.... :( i think it's the weather....i just want to curl up in bed and sleep the day away..... :) sounds heavenly! :)

Not that he reads this, but CONGRATULATIONS to my baby brother, Joshua. He is in his Senior year and in marching band....and his band has made it to the state competitions two years in a row! :) and i was there to see it happen! i sat my ass down in the bleachers under the comforter i used in college and froze my ass off between my mom and dad! LOL it was fun, though.

did i ever mention what a nice hubby i have? even though i get completely jealous of the breaks he gets (read back to august and see that he got to go away for a whole week without me?? LOL), he does some really nice things for me....like let me sleep in until 10:30 yesterday.....gotta love him! :)

other than that...seriously, nothing else going on.....sometimes a blessing (most of the time a blessing)...sometimes a curse....LOL

ok....i'm sitting here on a friday night, about ready to go to bed....why? because there's nothing to do....and aunt flo won't leave the fucking house so i can get my damn groove on!

i'm going to go back to doc. feeney and tell him that he's gotta do something.....breastfeeding or not...this is a bit extreme! :(

sorry...tmi...i know....but it's my blog and i'll say what i want...thankyouverymuch! LOL

i recently told one of my good preemie mom friends that she needed to write down all the funny things that her kiddo does and says....

.....and i am so guilty of not doing this...so i'm writing this down so i don't forget it....

.....being a preemie mom makes parenting a chore always....what should be good fun is something that you feel you HAVE to do because the child's development depends on it....it kind of takes the fun out being a parent sometimes....because, if you DON'T do all these things, you feel like you've failed your child somehow. and we ALL know the guilt of a parent! :)

....so.....we are working these days on body parts. the babies have liked doing this, because they find it hilarious to point out features on MY face as well. so...one of the first parts we talked about was nose. so we do all the nice little games of pointing to the nose and repeating it over and over.....then they point to mommy's nose. well, i'm still nursing, (different stories for a different day, and i don't want to hear about it, ok?) and they have taken to pointing at my nose when they're latched on. well...one of them...i can't remember who, but they both do it now, decided it was fun to put their little finger IN my nose....i find that this is gross, but they find it funny....especially when i say "pick your own nose!" it's ever so cute to see a baby interact with you like that. it's our own little joke, and we all get it, and laugh over it.

.....so...to make up for the work and worry of their development, i do get to catch the fun bits that make being a parent all the worthwhile...even if the membranes on my nose are scarred from the little fingernails! LOL

ok....this is the most fun i've had in a while.... :D

ty......please inform your wife that this is what we get to look forward to when the girls get older... :D

the best part of my little beauty salon sessions with the nearly four year-old animal at the zoo is that she tells me "you look so beautiful...you need to take mr. byron (supposed to be mr. byers, but that's how she says it) and go out to dinner"

this is when being the zookeeper is so much fun, and when i really love that i have a little girl....get down, right now, on your knees and pray with me that she remains her girly-girl self and will do my hair, too when she's three! :)

i can't believe that it's the middle of the month already....time really just slips away from me, you know? it's very strange....when you're little, the time d-r-a-g-s by....but when you're older, time just flies right by you and you wind up not getting half the things on your to-do list done.....or...in my case....one of the things? :O

anyway, life is treating me ok right now. nothing much to complain about for this very second in time...... ;)

tomorrow i have the day off...so am looking into something to do with the twins and our friend jessica and her man clayton. hopefully we can do something fun, even if it's going to burger king and eating and letting the babies play in their mini-playland. it's PERFECT for toddlers who are just learning to walk and climb. PT without the hassle and payment! LOL

ok, folks, it's my blog and i can whine if i want to! LOL

while i really really love being with my babies, i really really wish i could have a day off without them.....and i will have to admit that i'm really fucking jealous that aaron gets a day off without us (and has taken a whole vacation, in fact!), and i don't get one without everyone else......it just isn't really a good deal for me....i can't really say that it isn't fair, because that's not really true, either...everyone deserves a day off without their family.....EVERYONE! LOL

aaron goes to golf with curt tomorrow..... :(

can someone bring me lunch?? LOL

my latest scrapbook page....it's amazing how much collin's changed....note to self: get ass on ball..... ;)

Aaron asked me today...."how many scrapbook pages do you think you've done?"...so...i had to count them....i counted 356 pages in albums that i have or can remember doing.... so i've probably done around 400!!

holy shit, batman! i have a problem!

urgh....we've been exposed to RSV.....one of my part-time kiddo's mom called me last night to let me in on it.... :( i think one of the babies might have it, too....she's been wheezing a lot. she's got a family history of asthma, though, so it might just be that, too. it's rough stuff, i tell you. i just worry so much about my little people.... especially the little monkeys i gave birth to! LOL

other than that, not much else about my life to report.... there are many, many worries around me, though, as usual. one of my NICU friend's daughter has RSV, too. we were just discussing how scared of it we were, and whammo...she went into respiratory distress in the middle of Wal-Mart! :( this same friend was just recently diagnosed with MS. even though this is something people can live with, it's defnitely no fun, and she's definitely used to being the caregiver, not the care receiver....her husband has Crohn's disease and has been in and out of the hospital for a while now, too.....so this is EXACTLY what they needed! :( please keep them in your thoughts, as there definitely is a breaking point for people, and i feel like they're nearly there. :(

my other friend jan's platelet counts are going down again. this is the first time that this has happened in their new hometown, so keep her in your thoughts, too. i just hope that ft. wayne's hospitals and doctors are as with it as indy's so that she can get good care.

i'm hoping for a relaxing weekend this week. there is always so much to do....laundry for one....i am beginning to think that living in a nudist colony is a right fine idea. who doesn't like being naked? it's comfortable! and it would be so nice not have to buy, wash, dry, fold, and put away clothes....oh...don't forget the occasional ironing and patching, too!

(ok...off to diet and exercise to lose the thirty pounds that it would take for me to feel comfortable living in a nudist colony!)

here's a tag i made for a swap....please let me know, gently, whether it looks like a piece of poo or not.... :)

You are Woodstock!


Don't you just love these online quizzes? ;)
Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by

well....now i have tons of people asking me whether i'm a nurse or if i am married to a doc! ROFL.....i took griffin to the docs yesterday to see what to do about griffin, and surprisingly always amaze people with what i tell them! hehe...how can you go through the NICU and NOT know about things like respiratory rates and drawing up meds?

anyway, we're putting griffin on the precautionary antibiotic, and are keeping an eye out for tightness and labored breathing. if he starts really wheezing badly, i'm to give him some Orapred. we shall see. so far, no Orapred, but i have the script and am not afraid to use it! ROFL

one of my little baby animals came to the zoo wheezing really badly this morning, so is getting to spend some good quality time with her daddy in the ER this morning, as their doc's office doesn't open until 1:00 pm today....yikes! here's hoping that the wheezing stops soon. i hate it when one of my charges doesn't feel good!

two things of note......

.....griffin has a doc's appt. this afternoon at 1:15....we'll see what he says about further treatment for this coughing/wheezing stuff.....i see another steroid in our midst! LOL

..... i talked this morning with the new girl's mom, who's friends with gage's mom. she said that whatever jill says about me, that they aren't going to hold it against me and that they've been happy with me. that did my heart a lot of good. i thanked her for giving me a chance.

off to call the mother-in-law to see about her coming to watch the kids while i take mr. griffin into dr. jarvis....gotta love that man....if i were able to have another kiddo (which i can, i just won't...), i would have to name the baby paul or paula after him!! LOL

ok...griffin is now tucked safely into his bed, breathing 36 times per minute......still on the high side, but i think we'll stay home tonight.....i think the home albuterol festival will cure it.... hopefully.....

.........i'm going to be a nervous wreck this winter...i can just feel it.........

.........someone tell me again why it is that i got the 26 weekers?? is it because i'm supposedly strong enough to handle? they seriously have the wrong girl, if they do think that!

oy! i'm very nervous....i've just put a call into the doc for griffin....his wheezing has gotten worse, and his breaths/min are 60...not sure if that's good or not, but it sounds awfully high to me! :(

here's hoping that i've not broken the boy.......cross your fingers, send good vibes, pray if that's your persuasion.....

k.....the letter went something like this.....

jill...here are the clothes. i can't remember which are yours, so i gave you everything from 6/9 mos to 18 mos. just keep whatever is yours and sell or give the rest away.......

...as for the pull-ups, i did what i said in my first email and put them by my mailbox. they were there for a day or two and then were gone. i will not be held responsible for them.

again, please do not contact me any further.
regards, stephanie....


she sent me back a blank email...not sure what that was about, but she's got all griffin's clothes now...ROFL.

wanna take bets on whether she contacts me about the pull-ups?? i'll let you know! ROFL

we've been puke-free for 24 hours!!! :) i'm a forgetful-type mom, though, and have forgotten to give erin her antibiotics and griffin his breathing treatment......oy!