Done with school!

I realized I needed to post an update on school! I AM DONE! My survived my first semester of full time grad school. YEA! And I got a 4.0. SUPER YEA! It was a lot of hard work but I learned a LOT and had a great time. Grad school is a lot more challenging than undergrad. I was really stretched.

I relished the time I spent in class each week. I felt like a woman, an intelligent human being, whose only objective was to learn and better herself. It was very nice to think about myself for a few hours every week instead of taking care of everyone else.

I told Aaron I still wanted to go out for a couple of hours every week by myself, to get away, be by myself, and read or write. School has been out for 3+ weeks and I've gone out once. Sigh....it is hard to carve out time when you are a busy mom. 

Looking forward to a break this summer but I am excited about next semester too. I am taking Seminar in Jane Austin, Victorian Lit, and Christian Poetics. :) :) :) 

WICKED!!!!!

We finally did it! Aaron and I went to see Wicked this weekend. We have been wanting to see the musical since we were dating. We promised each other that we would go see it in NYC for our first anniversary. Well, number 1 came around and I was 5 months preggo with twins. Then last year we were moving into our house our anniversary weekend. So, when I saw that Wicked was coming to Norfolk VA (about 4 hours from our house, at the coast) I jumped at the chance to get tickets. So, we did!

We left yesterday (Saturday) afternoon and drove 4 hours to Norfolk. We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel right on the bay. It was really nice. After we checked in we walked to Outback Steakhouse. We both had steak, potatoes, and ceacer salad. I also had some scallops. YUM! Then we walked to the theater, about a mile a way. The weather was perfect. 

The play started at 8pm. We were in the second to last row in the balcony. We needed some tissues for our nosebleeds. Just kidding, they weren't that bad. The set was really cool, the lighting was amazing, and the voices were phenomenal. The girl who played Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) was mesmerizing. I was on the edge of my seat for all her solos. Wow. It was wonderful!!!

They had lots of "Wicked" paraphernalia to buy so Aaron let me buy a shirt (even though it was $35!!! EEK!) It is really cute: pink, short sleeves, that says "Popular" on the front in really whimsical lettering. For those of you who have seen the musical, it is the title of one of the songs that Glinda sings. It was too cute to pass up. 

The play got over at 11pm and we walked back to the hotel and then walked along the waterfront for a while. So romantic!

The next morning, we got breakfast at Micky D's and drove home. The boys and dog were very glad to see us. My best friend Candace stayed over with them and said they were very good. The didn't cry at all. Heh. They saved up all their crying for me when they got up from their nap and while Aaron was at youth group tonight. Oh well. Such is being a mother. It was nice to just think about being a wife for one night though. It was unforgettable! Happy 3rd Anniversary Aaron! 

Richmond Adventure

We had a really good past weekend. Aaron took off on Friday to get some school work done and work on our deck that we are building. It was nice to have him home for the day.

On Saturday, we got up at 6:30 and left at 7:45 to head to Richmond VA. (We were supposed to leave at 7am. But with two babies, what can you do?) It is about 2 hours to Richmond. We were going to visit Aaron's sister Angela for the day. Angela's husband, Pat's sister was graduating from college and his whole family was up to celebrate. (I hope you can follow that). We spend Christmas with Pat's family as well and we really enjoyed our time with them. They are a really easy family to hang out with and fun too. 

We met them at Golden Corral and fed the boys some breakfast. First I had to change Micah's clothes because he had shook his entire sippy cup of water out on his lap. He was soaked. The boys really enjoyed running around after being in the car for 2 hours. 

After breakfast/brunch we went to the hotel  and went swimming. They had an indoor pool and it was so warm. Benji was a little hesitant at first but he starting having fun after a few minutes in the water. Micah LOVED it! He didn't want to be held and was so squirmy. He wanted to "swim" away. He loved it when we dunked him under the water (if you blow in a toddlers' face RIGHT before you dunk them, they will hold their breath for the moment you dunk them under). Both boys loved to "jump" off the side. We sat them on the edge and said "jump!" and they would lean forward and scoot their butt off. My arms were so sore the next day from lifting them up and down so many times. We had a blast. Poor Aunt Angela got peed on twice. Once by Micah while she was holding him on her lap by the pool and once by Benji when he was running around the hotel room naked and sprayed a stream 4 feet across the room. :) 

After swimming and showering we ate lunch with Pat, Angela and their boys at Five Guys at about 2:00. Poor babies were so tired! The slept just about the whole way home. Micah kept waking up and crying because he was hot but he didn't want to let go of his blankie. 

We rushed home and got Goldie (who had been in our bedroom all day) and then rushed to Aaron's first softball game of the season. He has played with a church league with some of the guys from his work for the past 3 years. He got the first run of the game (a HOMERUN!) and they won both of their games. YEA! The boys had SO much fun. Micah ran around the whole time and wanted to sit on the bench with all the other players. He played with the extra bats and balls and rubbed his hands in the dirt. Benji cheered the entire game. He said YEA YEA YEA!!! every time anyone hit the ball, on either team. Both boys said YEA DA DA! It was so cute. We had a blast. 

Ummm...no.

Benji is staring to talk a lot these days. He understands even more than he can say and when we ask the "right" question, he responds in a very enthusiastic and high pitched, "YEAH!"

He has also learned to say "no." More precisely he often says "umm....no." It is so cute. He really draws out the "ummm..." like he is thinking about it. 

The other day Aaron was watching the boys while I was at class and he was asking Benji all kinds of questions, all to which Benji was answering "ummm...no." Finally, Aaron asked him, "Can you say anything else?" Benji answered very matter-of-factly, "Yeah!"

Aaron: "Well, what else can you say?"

Benji: "Ummm....no." 

:) :) :) 

Stupid Dog!

We have had a very bad week with the dog. She had discovered that she has a taste for disposable diapers and likes to shred them on the living room floor. And she also likes to use the living room carpet as her personal potty. So frustrating! When I got out of the shower on Wednesday I found a disaster- she had shredded 5 poopy diapers all over the carpet (the smell was overwhelming) and peed and pooped herself. I was SO mad! It took me 45 minutes to clean it up. GRRR! Stupid dog. We are trying to be proactive about taking her out but she just won't go the bathroom when we take her out. The exception is while we are on a walk- she always goes to the bathroom when we walk her every day. But I can't walk her every time she needs to do her business.

To add to my bad luck for the day, my flip flop broke while I was out at play group. Sigh.

Update: she has done a LOT better today. No accidents in the house and she went in the yard TWICE, as well a on her walk. Thank GOD! I hope she is on the road to recovering from her pottying-in-the-house addiction. 

Teething Woes

I officially HATE teething.

Benjamin has been a bear this week. He now has 5 teeth but each one has come in with fever, crying, temper tantrums and over all distress for mommy and baby. SIGH. He had a fever for 3 days last week and was very sensitive to any little disruption to his life. 

Finally, that darn tooth popped through. It was a rough week with the teething, colds for Aaron and me, and my eye problems. PLUS, Goldie's  incision from her spaying (right before we got her) got infected and we had to take her to the vet. And we had a friend come and stay with us for three days in there too. It was great to see Anna (we hadn't seen her for a year as she was teaching in Thailand) and she helped me out with some of the driving I couldn't do. But I'm afraid she saw the worst side of Benji during the time she was here...

Easter hello?

This morning, Easter morning, while I was getting ready for church Micah found my phone and pressed the speed dial buttons just right to call my sister Chelsea in KS. She thought it was me and answered "Happy Easter!!"

Micah breathed heavily into the phone. 

Chelsea: Hello?

Micah: HI!!!!!!

Chelsea: Hi Micah!!

Micah: Hey! Hey! Hiiiiiii!!!!!

Then he hung up. 

I came in the room just then and quickly called her back. I bet she didn't expect an Easter hello from her 18 month old nephew this morning. :) 

I once was blind but now I see

I have had a very hard past week with my eyes. Almost two weeks ago, on Tuesday night my left eye started to get irritated. I thought it was pink eye again--for the third time since January! I was so mad. The other two times it cleared up so I kept wearing my contacts. It seemed to get better but by Friday morning, it was even worse than before. I went to the eye doctor that morning and he told me that I have an inflamed cornea and white blood cell deposits on my cornea. So, I had to stop wearing my contacts immediately and got a tiny $35 bottle of steroid drops to put in my eye 4 times a day.  We made another appointment for Monday. My glasses were not up to prescription so I knew I was in for a very long weekend and a really awful headache. I ordered new lenses for my glasses since I have had the same prescription since high school (!).

Fast forward to Monday. Now my right eye is infected and even worse than the left one! AHH! The drops had helped the left eye though so now the doctor told me to put drops in both eyes and to come back on Friday. I was so frustrated! Because I couldn't see, I couldn't drive so Aaron has had to drive me everywhere--doctors appointments, vet, grocery shopping, airport to pick up our friend on Wednesday etc. Plus the headache was awful. In the middle of all this I got a cold and completely lost my voice. 

But, my new glasses came in on Thursday so I can now see!! YEA! By Friday, both my eyes had cleared up but I can't wear my contacts for a month. That's right, a MONTH! Apparently if you get white blood cells flooding your cornea it is a bad thing. All of this "pink eye" happened because at the end of the month, my contacts were getting old and clogged and my eye was getting irritated with not enough oxygen. So, to prevent permanent damage, I am regulated to wearing my glasses until May 11th. So far, so good but it is really strange to wear glasses again full time. I am still getting used to them. 

Dog?

The boys' new favorite word is...can you guess? DOG! They say "dog" all day long, especially when they haven't seen Goldie in a while, like after their naps. Micah says, "Dog, dog, dog, dog, dog?" And Benji will say, "Hi! Hi! Hi! Hey dog!" It is so cute. They also recognize dogs on tv, movies, books, and toys. Sometimes they call animals "dogs" that aren't dogs, at all, like cats, or our stuffed toy opossum (a wonderful birthday present from their Aunt Candace....)

Well, last night, apparently, animals aren't the only thing the boys are calling "dog." Micah was sitting snuggled in Aaron's lap. Aaron had his arms around Micah and they were sitting contentedly. All of a sudden, Micah pointed to Aaron's arm, his rather hairy arm, and said "Dog?" We couldn't stop laughing. 

Goldie!

We have a DOG!!!! Yes, a dog! We got her this weekend, Saturday March 21 at 9:30pm.

In my last post, I mentioned that we were looking into getting a dog. We looked at petfinder.com and saw her picture online. I fell in love and knew that I had to e-mail the rescue to find out about her. Debra, one of the rescue owners, told us that she thought Goldie would be  perfect fit for our family--and she is! Goldie is a 2 year old yellow lab, about 70 lbs and has short legs! She is gentle, sweet, laid back and is completely non-aggressive. We think she may have been abused before she came to the rescue because she seems fearful at times and cowers down a lot when we want to do things like put on her leash. She just wants attention and to be loved. She loves to have her belly rubbed and go for walks. 

The boys love her! We introduced them to her Sunday morning. They just gasped and said, "Dog? Dog?" Micah said "Woof! Woof!" The kissed/licked her on the nose and loved to pet her. They also liked to poke her eyes and grab her mouth. We kept saying, "Gentle! Gentle!" but she didn't do anything. She just let them mess with her. She is going to be great with them.

She was kind of sad yesterday and just laid on her bed. We think that she is lonely for the other dogs at the shelter. She always had a buddy with her. She perked up when Aaron took her for walks. We also gave her a bath yesterday. She was STINKY! I hoped she would love the bath since labs are supposed to like water but she was terrified. Poor girl. I actually need to get some flea wash today because we spotted some little buggers on her. Great....

We are excited to be dog owners but nervous too! We think she is going to be a great addition to our family.  (I am still trying to figure out this picture thing....I really didn't want them all at the top...any advice, bloggers?)