Whew what a week!

Last week was...shall we say...NOT GOOD!

Here was the break down:

Monday: I had long been awaiting (4 months to be exact) of a acceptance letter of a short story I sent to a magazine. Well, it came. I was shaking with excitement until I opening it. Yep, it was ANOTHER impersonal rejection letter. I was so upset.

Then I went to school and picked up my graded Shakespeare paper (that I felt pretty good about when I turned it it). I got a 72. Sad, sad day. I was so depressed. This is actually only the 2nd C I have ever gotten in my entire college career (undergrad and grad).

I had to give myself a pep-talk: Pull it together girl! It is NOT the end of the world.

Tuesday: Better than Monday as far as severe disappointments go but Aaron I had to deal with an icky problem: FLEAS. Goldie was infested. We moved all the furniture out of the living room (sans 1000 lbs piano) and treated the carpet with flea powder. Then we bathed the living-daylights out of the poor dog with flea shampoo. We felt happy about our accomplishment...but it took a lot of time away from other things...like umm...the thesis chapter I had due in less than a week that I had yet to start on?? PS. this story is not over...this did not get rid of the fleas...:P

Wednesday: I am stressed about my thesis chapter due on Monday. It is raining. Hard. Blech. And to top it all off, I hear a very loud CLUNK outside my right hand car window as I drive to work. Commence racing heart. I have hit a parked car with my side mirror. I drive around the block and realize I have badly broken the parked cars' mirror. It is still raining. Hard. I can't leave a note. I am panicked. And I do NOT want to tell my dear husband what just happened. I decide to tell him in an email when I get to work. He is mad. I start bawling and cry for 20 minutes. To make a long story short though, everything worked out. I went back home (therefore wasting more time that could have been spent on my thesis) and leave a VERY apologetic note in a plastic bag on the windshield. The girl called me and was very nice and we got it all worked out for us to pay for the broken mirror. Thank you God.

That night I emailed my thesis chair and told her I was overwhelmed and that I hadn't even revised my chapter three of my thesis yet. She emailed me back some encouragement and told me to get on the revision right away.

Thursday: Better than all previous days in the week. Got chapter three revised and sent back to Dr. Ayers but no new work done on chapter four....

Friday: Spent the day either at school or preparing for the Cloth Diaper Yard Sale on Saturday

Saturday: This was probably the highlight of my week. I made $268 dollars at the Cloth Diaper Yard Sale and I didn't even sell all my diapers!!! WOW! Plus I started writing on chapter four

Sunday: More writing...but the chapter is due on Monday....by the end of the day I only have 7 (ish?) pages....

The End. Good riddance bad week!

Twin Differences

People ask me a lot "Do the boys have completely different personalities?" The answer is, Um YES! I guess people think that twins will have the same personality (?) or since they are identical that they will be the same (?). Who knows. But Micah and Benji are each their own little person with unique personality quirks.

Take this morning for instance.

I took the boys to school and when they got there, all the kids were playing with small, multi-colored plastic dinosaurs. Of course, the boys couldn't wait to join in the fun.

Micah promptly gathered a  large menagerie of dinos of a variety of colors and lined them up perfectly strait in front of him. "Look, Mommy!" he said.

Benji had a meat eater in one hand and a plant eater in the other. "Rawr!" He roared. "I bite your head!" And then he acted out his commentary with his dinosaurs.

Oh, boys! I love you!

Thesis happiness

I sent my third chapter of my thesis to my chair yesterday and she emailed me this morning:

"Brittany, well done! . . . I am so proud of the quality and timeliness of your writing. Besides that, your work with the novels is simply delightful. You are blessing me a lot! Dr. Ayres"


This just made me smile and sigh a happy sigh. 


Plus her encouragement made me feel a little better about all the revision comments she made on the chapter....  

My boys are THREE!

Happy (well, 2 days late now) Birthday Micah and Benjamin!!!

We had a wonderful day on Saturday celebrating the boys' third birthday. Where did the time go??

I remember when I was pregnant I was watching TV--some appliance commercial where the woman says she wants her fridge to stand up to "three year olds" (you know the one?)--and I suddenly had a revelation: I am going to have TWO three year olds. And the fear of God suddenly struck me.

I occasionally still have these revelations (and am stricken with fear) that yes, I do in fact have twins. And yes, I do NOW have two three year olds. And YES, it is great! (Most days, of course. It seems like the fits are getting more frequent and loud lately....but oh well. It comes with the territory of being three)

Anyways, I have been a mommy for three years. It has been a wild adventure. But every time I feel their smooth skin beneath my hands, kiss their sticky cheeks, ruffle up their frowsy curls, and hear them say, "I wuv you too, mommy" I am once again amazed that these are my children, my babies from my own body, a miraculous product of Aaron's and my love. Yes, amazing.

I have two three year olds. :D :D

Enjoy the pics from their party! We had a blast!

Back to Normal

There have been a lot of changes this semester but one thing I have really enjoyed is having a little time in the morning to myself after I take the boys to school. Every day I drop the boys off and come home for a few hours to walk the dog, eat breakfast, drink coffee, watch a little Food Network, and do a little housework before heading to school for the day.

This week, however, has robbed me of my sweet morning routine. 

I have had student conferences Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week. Each conference is 15 minutes long--not bad, right? Well, if you multiply that by 43+ students (I had two conferences with some students)....let's just say I've been living at school this week. 

Yesterday I had 25 conferences. My stomach cramps up a little bit just remembering. While I love meeting with each student (most of them, anyway...) one on one, I really do not like the all-day-marathon of mental energy expended while helping student after student generate ideas, thesis sentences, organizational patterns, and MLA citations. It is exhausting. 

Plus I missed my date with my french vanilla coffee and Food Network.

Well, today is Thursday. Blessed Thursday!

I dropped the boys off at school and headed home for some me-time. Goldie and I took a beautiful walk on this crisp fall day, and I enjoyed a yummy breakfast and coffee, and yes, I am currently watching Food Network as I write this. 

And I have been looking forward to today for another reason: I am going shopping for the boys' birthday party this morning! I am so excited. 

Party hats, balloons, plates, party bags, here I come! 

How are my babies turning 3? Amazing! 

My dog hates me

It has been raining all week. Rain means no walk for Goldie. She has taken out her frustration by being very bad while I am at work. Very bad meaning eating Aaron's leather Bible  cover and eating a whole plate of homemade cinnamon rolls on Wednesday, knocking over the very full kitchen trash and strewing it all over my freshly vacuumed living room floor on Thursday, and last night (Thurs) she did this:

She ATE Aaron's new golf glove  

I think she is trying to tell us something....