Family Update

Also known as a bunch of random stuff that wouldn't be enough on it's own for a post. :P

The most predominant feature of this past week is that we're all sick with colds. I'm certain Hubs brought it home from one of his Dr. appointments for his shoulder, I've since lectured him on the importance of hand washing. We're actually going on week 2 with this stupid cold that never seems to diminish. For the first few days I pretty much camped out on the couch with the girls and soaked in as much Backyardigans and Sesame Street and The Wiggles as we possibly could. I let the house go to crap. Let the dust bunnies collect en mass. Let Hubs run out for fast food or let him warm up meals from our freezer (for some odd reason he didn't seem to get as sick as the rest of us). Let the weeds grow like gang busters all over my yard. But day before yesterday I just couldn't take it anymore. I pulled myself up off the couch, threw dinner in the crock pot, and bustled around picking up used kleenex and vacuumed my dog hair ridden floors. It was disgusting. And I feel a lot better now that I'm not grossed out every time I look down. I just wish my head would catch on and drain or something so that I could actually breathe through my left nostril.

Hubs' shoulder actually seems to show some improvement, Praise GOD! After 2 months of practically no noticeable difference it seems miraculous that he's actually able to help out a little around the house and wean himself off pain meds. Our chiropractor is a miracle worker, that's all I have to say. And Hubs is finally a believer in her. Having never been to a chiropractor in his life he was reluctant to give it a try, and his primary care Dr. just gave him pain meds and said come back in 2 weeks. FINALLY after WEEKS of NOTHING CHANGING his Dr. referred him to Minga my chiropractor. And whaddaya know? After 2 weeks of seeing her 3 times a week he's nearly all better. My guess is that he'll still need to see her for continued treatments for a while, but the good news is... he's going back to work on Tuesday!!! He still has a scheduled appointment with a neurologist to test for nerve damage (which everyone suspects he has) next week so we'll see how that goes.

My Dad is doing great! For those of you who missed my posts about him 2 weeks ago he recently had surgery to remove his prostate. They say 3/4 of men end up with some form of prostate cancer at some point in their lives, and my dad had stage 3 prostate cancer. Last week they got the test results back on his biopsy and it confirmed that they removed all the cancer, so he should be in the clear now. He's recovering really well! He's taking lots of walks with my mom up and down their street and even getting out with her to run some errands. He says he's still having some pain at his incision sites (they make 3 small incisions for the robotic surgery) but that he's feeling better each day.

Dispite their colds the girls are doing all kinds of new and interesting things. Ziva has now on day 5 of her pants strike. Yup, she's refused to wear pants of any kind for 5 days. On day 1 we quickly realized that she would need some duct tape to keep her diaper on, otherwise that would have been a problem. She's showing all kinds of signs of potty training readiness but with us all with colds I'm just not ready to give it a try. In fact, before her pants strike there was one day when after her nap she woke up, took off her pants AND her diaper, pooped, and then proceeded to smear it all over her crib and herself. Yeah, we have some great pictures to prove it but my guess is that none of you want to see a poop covered baby. We all think that she obviously knew she was going to poop before she undressed because her diaper was absolutely clean. So duct tape has become a necessity around here.

Anya has started blowing kisses a lot more recently. She starts from the moment I pick her up in the morning. It's super cute! We also rearranged our living room a couple weeks ago (before we all got sick) and the girls are really enjoying running around the loveseat and playing peek-a-boo with us around each side. They squeal and laugh and throw their arms in the air and say "Yaaaaaay!!!" Super fun times! They've also really started dancing a lot more often. Pretty much anytime a song comes on the TV (even if it's a commercial) they'll get down and boogie!

We haven't met with Julie (their Early Intervention teacher) for the past 2 weeks due to illness. And of course Julie is on vacation next week, so we won't see her again until the first week of June. So that's kind of a bummer. We all really like Julie and look forward to her visits.

So that's about it! I have one more funny story but I think I'll save that till tomorrow. :P

Week In Review!

I've felt very absent from my blog lately, and I think it's been my life getting in the way. Dang life! It's really going good for the most part, but it's been very very busy. More busy than I would like really. I'm starting to get really tired.

Firstly, Hubs had an MRI. His results are a combo of tendinitis and a bruised bone. Obviously the bruised bone is extremely painful. He's also been approved by workman's comp. for additional neurological testing. So far the only recommendation for treatment for his known issue is time. No chiropractic, no physical therapy... nada. It's really hard for me to do nothing, because it feels like no progress is being made. In the meantime I'm pretty much taking care of all the things he can't do, and falling behind on a lot of the things I'd like to do. Such as blogging. Or returning phone calls. Or cooking normal healthy meals. I think we've had take out 4 times this past week... something I really hate doing. Why? Because I hadn't found the time to grocery shop this past week until last night at 8:30pm when I just couldn't take it any more.

Despite this I've made a lot of progress in my yard/garden. Until this spring our yard was completely bare. We had the essencial land scaping done 3 years ago, but at the time cash was short and we decided not to do any plantings. Well, then I got prego with the girls and was sick for the first 17 weeks, and by the time spring came along I was rushing around trying to get ready for new babies... planting plants in my yard sort of fell to the wayside... and I'm just now getting to it. I must say, I'm HOOKED!!! I never ever thought I would get so excited about gardening! Remember... I was the kid who would BEG her parents to clean toilets rather than do yard work. But now? I'm going to plant sales with my parents and the girls, and while dad wheels the girls around in their stroller mom and I look at plants. And frankly, I'm going a little crazy with the purchases. But I have good reason... I have 1/3 of an acre with NO plants! This situation has to be fixed NOW! So yes, I'm creating a lot of work for myself... but I'm having a lot of fun getting creative and coming up with ideas, and then finding the plants and putting them in the ground and imagining what they will look like when they mature. In essence, I'm having a blast!

Yesterday we went to just such a plant sale, we only covered maybe 1/3 of the things they had there. I came home with my 4th and final tomato plant, a yellow pear shaped variety, a dwarf clematis which is a ground cover rather than a vine... how cool!, 2 mid-season blueberry bushes, a lilac tree for $2, and several other types of ground covers and perennials. Plus once we got back to my parent's house me and dad went up to the nursery at the end of their road and I bought 2 Japanese maples and 5 coral bark maples! Which completed my tree purchases! Now we just have to figure out how to get them from point A to point B. We have a truck, but with Hubs and his injured shoulder we're not sure how we're going to load and unload...

The girls are doin' great! They had their first Early Intervention teaching session on Tuesday. Their teacher plus the education coordinator was there and they both were very charmed by the girls and afterwords said that it was a VERY productive first visit! The teacher will come once a week, and the coordinator and speech therapist will come once a month. I really like the teacher a lot! She's super sweet and accommodating. She told me that if I ever needed to cancel, even if she was on my doorstep, that it was OK! Plus she was very encouraging. She said that she's currently working with another set of twins who are 6 months older than the girls. She started working with them when they were about the same age as Anya & Ziva, had no words, and now they're talking in 3 word sentences. So I'm very encouraged and I'm looking forward to our next "class".

Oh, and I DID get around to baking cookies for the SITS auction, I'm planning to send them out tomorrow. Just in case you were one of the winners... they are on the way! And they turned out AWESOME this time! I'm really having a lot of fun with this little cookie ministry of mine! And I hope you are too. :)))

And I have a pretty serious prayer request. My dad is going in for surgery on Thursday to have his prostate removed. He was diagnosed several months ago with stage 3 prostate cancer. The good news is that this type of cancer is VERY survivable. Once this surgery is done that should pretty much be the end of it. The main concern really is my dad's mental state. When I saw him yesterday he was very quiet and contemplative, and my mom said that he's been really stressed out this past week and anxious... except keeping it all to himself in normal dad fashion. So pray for him! And for my mom too. And really, for all of us who know and love my dad. He's an awesome guy, great dad, and fantastic grandpa. :)

This coming week doesn't look like it's slowing down at all for me. My plan is to share a new recipe for Mystery Spice Monday PLUS pick a new cookie winner, do a little Way Back fun on Wednesday, share my new necklace for Things I Love Thursday, and... that may be it for me this week. Perhaps more if the weather is as bad as they say it's going to be. :)

Random Things That Happened This Week

If you're looking for the Blog Party, see yesterday's post. It's still going on at 5 Minutes for Mom and they're giving away lots of fabulous prizes! Plus it's a great way to get to know a lot of other great bloggers!

Today is the last day to enter my little cookie giveaway! Info is up top. :)

Just thought I'd take a few minutes to share a few random things that happened in our family this past week, just in case my brain was too befuddled to include them in other posts.

1: This past weekend our dog Rocky proved that he really isn't as stupid and psycho as he looks. My parents were visiting, and my dad offered to let the dogs out. They both ran out the door, Rocky with the infamous ball in his mouth. Long ago we had a rule where the dogs weren't allowed to take their toys outside. So my dad turns to me and asks quietly, "Is it ok for him to take that ball outside?" And without another word Rocky turns around, jerks his head upwards, and spits the ball back into the house!



2: We went to a St. Patrick's Day party at the home of a lady from my local Mom's group. Not 10 minutes after we walked in the door and Ziva threw up! It's amazing how such an event and wreck havoc on your thought processes. I had no clue what to do besides clean up the mess. "Should I stay, should I go? Does she have that flu bug? How could she have gotten it since we seriously never go anywhere? Maybe she's car sick. Yup, that must be it. Man, I bet all these other mom's think I brought the plague to the party! How embarrassing! They probably all think I brought my sick kid to a party just so I would contaminate the rest of the group. Like toddler terrorism or something."

And on and on it went... Thank goodness most of these moms have more experience than I do in the puke department. I even learned something new! White vinegar cuts throw up smell! Who knew? Not me, because I've been fortunate enough to miss out on all stomach viruses so far *knock on wood*. Anyway, I know some of you ladies in the group read my blog, so THANK YOU so much for not treating me like an outcast at the party and for helping me out even though that meant risking getting your own family sick. Fortunately Ziva hasn't been sick at ALL since, so looking back I know for sure that she was just car sick. But none of us knew that at the time, so thank you for being so nice and helpful without that knowledge. I really do appreciate it!

3: Hubs has been at a week-long self defense training this past week for work. This has meant that he's had to adjust his sleeping schedule to be awake during the day for training. So it's been a tough week for him. He's come home tired and sore from the physical exertion and flat out sleep deprivation. It hasn't been fun. But he's hung in there and now it's over and he's spending the weekend recuperating.

4: I transplanted my seedlings into paper cups. Hopefully soon we'll be able to put together my new garden beds and the weather will allow for them to be planted outside!

5: COMPUTER VIRUS ALERT! Don't worry, I won't give it to you. But thought I'd let you know that there's a pretty nasty one going around. It's not nasty in a hostile sense though, just in a "I can't get rid of this damn thing!" sense. Basically, once you have it you'll get these random pop-up ads no matter what site your visiting online. The goal is advertising, not stealing your identity or anything horrible like that... it's just super annoying and slows down your computer. You catch the virus via pop-up ad on some sites, I have no idea where I picked it up... but I got it when a little box that says "Spyware Scanner" popped up on my screen and I stupidly clicked the X in the upper right hand corner thinking that I'd be able to close it. When I did that, it infected my computer. So I thought I'd warn everyone, DO NOT CLICK ANYWHERE ON A BANNER AD!!! Instead when it pops up, right click down on the bottom of your screen and select close.

This darn virus is pretty prolific! Even my parents ended up with it. They took their computer in to a shop to get it fixed, and the guys at the shop have been totally inundated with computers with the same exact problem all week. It's a small shop with only a few guys working there, and they've had to dedicate one of their employees to just answering the phone because they're getting so many calls about it. So be careful out there in Internet land! And don't click on any pop-ups! Not even to close it!

The Week In Review

Yup, I couldn't come up with anything exciting to write about today, so I thought I'd feature some of my favorite blogs this week.

I promise I'll have something more exciting and personal tomorrow!

Keep in mind! We're doing another Mystery Spice Monday this week! I'll post up Mr. Linky tomorrow night, so stay tuned and get cookin'!

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I said it yesterday, and I'll say it again, you should run out and buy the ingredients for these cookies right away! Thank you Bakerella for sharing them with the world, I certainly appreciate a delicious AND easy cookie recipe any day of the week! If you're feeling more ambitious, you could try her beautiful heart shaped cake, but if you're anything like me it won't turn out as pretty as hers.

Wanna good laugh? Click here. It involves a dog, you'll love it.

Looking for a GREAT love story? Then you've gotta check this out at 4 u God. I think it's a 4 part story, but it starts Here.

Got Twins? You'll love this video over at Baby Squared, so cute! Her girls are about 6 months older than mine, so I love to read her blog about all the things I have to look forward to.

There's been some pretty hilarious Cake Wrecks this week. Here you'll find a bunch of feet cakes... I kid you not!

I know absolutely nothing about cycling or endurance races of any sort. I know a couple of people who are really into that sort of thing, and ... I just don't get it. At all. BUT, I'm nontheless fascinated with the idea, so this post by Fat Cyclist really intrigued me.

Kristina over at Pulsifer Predilictions cracks me up. I just discovered her a few weeks ago (heck, I just discovered everyone a few weeks ago!). Have you seen that ShamWow infomercial? Then you'll love This.

Ever have a bunch of leftover eggs that you don't really know what to do with? Then check out Julie's Cream Puff recipe! You'll be glad you did!

In my search for gardening info this past week I came across Annie's Kitchen Garden, and I'm so glad I did! She did an amazing entry this week about her gardening plans, and I am SO IMPRESSED!!! If you're into gardening, you really need to check her out.

I've really been into soup lately, the cold weather just calls for it. So last, but absolutely not least, I thought I'd point you towards Pioneer Woman's French Onion Soup recipe. Oh me oh my oh... it looks GOOD! I'm thinkin' it would be a great thing to make when company comes over.

So those are my favorite blogs this week! Thanks to all of you for enlightening me, humoring me, and staving away my boredom. :)