Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Happy Monday. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. We were busy, busy, busy. We worked around the house on Saturday, headed for my mom's house that evening, and had a full Sunday.

Hubby went to visit his grandmother. My brother and his wife, and me, took the twins to see G.I. Joe while Mom watched the Princess.

The movie was okay. Both boys fell asleep at some point during the show, and my brother complained about the two hours of his life he'd never get back. My sister-in-law and I appreciated the sterling quality of the lead actor (translation . . . mega-HOT!), and there were a few funny lines.

Mostly the movie was just a set-up for the sequel. Lots of cheesy lines from the cartoon that only sound believable coming from cartoon characters directed toward an audience of 6 year olds. And anyone who never watched the cartoon would be totally unimpressed.

I enjoyed it for sentimental reasons, but probably won't be desperately trying to get my hands on the DVD.

Anyway, I hope your week goes well.

Later.

Hey folks.

Sorry there was no post on Wednesday. One of the twins was home from school with a fever, and I completely forgot to post that day.

He's feeling fine now, went back to school yesterday, but trying to keep him still while his sister ran around the room trying to get his attention was not easy. The fever broke pretty quickly, and besides a headache, there were no other symptoms.

This post is going to be brief.

It's a sad day.

A very good friend of the family, a girl I went to school with (elementary-high school), lost her husband in a car wreck yesterday. Her mother works with my mom, and her step-dad was a great friend of my father's. They had two small boys together, not even in school yet.

SO, so sad. And my heart breaks for this kind, wonderful family. I've known them all my life, and they are the best people.

I am so sorry for their loss.

Good morning, all.

Got the boys off to school this morning, Hubby's off to work, the Princess and I have had our breakfast, and now we're just doing our thing.

She's playing with her toys and watching a cartoon about bugs, and I'm just getting started with my morning routine . . . which includes writing my blog post.

This weekend was good. Mimi and Papa Max did come for a visit. The boys were a little out of control (I thought they were completely nuts, but others disagreed with me), and beyond excited to have their grandparents hanging out with them. But overall, I think everyone enjoyed the visit.

This week should be filled with the usual stuff; kids, house, and everything in between.

So I hope you all have a great week, and I'll catch you on Wednesday.

Later.

Silence is Golden

Ahhhhhh!

Silence.

Sweet, wonderful, glorious silence.

Hubby took off early with the twins to run a couple of errands, drop them off at school, and head for work. The Princess has not emerged from her slumber cocoon, and I'm sipping a cup of hot tea and working on this post.

Ahhhhhh!

School has been going well, so far as I can tell. The boys have both seemed to enjoy it, and although neither one has provided great detail on their daily activities, they've both insisted, "Everything's fine!" when I pushed for more information.

So today I'll be facing my usual mountain of laundry, picking up around the house, working on some edits for a friend, and trying to get a bit of writing done.

I believe Mimi and Papa Max are coming this weekend so it should be a lot of fun for everyone. And now I am off to switch the clothes.

Hope you all have a safe and fun weekend.

Later.

The First Day of School

TA DA!!!!

It's finally arrived . . . the First Day of School! I just can't describe how happy I am today. There are no words.

We got the twins to school a little early, although the parking lot and street around the building were completely packed.

Twin B was super easy to get into class because he's actually in the same room as last year. New teacher and new grade, but they switched some of the rooms around and he ended up in the same spot.

Twin A was a little more stressed; new grade, new teacher, and new room. He likes to know EXACTLY what he's supposed to be doing, and gets nervous when he's in unfamiliar situations. But Hubby and I got him settled and coloring before we left.

And Mommy and the Princess are hanging out watching Sesame Street.

The morning almost ended up in disaster when I woke up at 5am with a splintering migraine. I thought my skull was cracking wide open. My usual cure for a migraine is take 2-3 Tylenol and then stand under a steaming hot shower for 15-20 minutes. Then I lay in complete darkness and silence to give the medicine a chance to do its thing.

And normally, this works.

But this morning I woke up disoriented from my throbbing skull and skipped the taking-medicine-first step. I hopped straight into the scalding shower and boiled myself for 20 minutes, and felt only slightly better.

Then I remembered the Tylenol, took a couple of pills, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

But the headache wasn't getting any better.

Finally, with help from Dear Hubby massaging my scalp just before 7am, the migraine finally went away. So we are both very tired today. Hopefully the Princess and I can take a nap later, and Hubby can go to bed early tonight.

And that is what's happening with us.

The boys are in school!!! YAY!!!!!!

'Nuff said.

Later.

Whew!

We've already had a busy morning. All three kids were up and tearing through the house much earlier than usual. This is because we've started putting them to bed earlier in the evening in preparation of school starting this week.

Yay!

Wednesday is their first day of school and I am soooo happy. We still have some things to get ready for the first day: papers to fill out and return, a couple of short homework assignments, and then we should be good to go.

Over the weekend we did a lot of work on the twins' room; cleaning out their closet, under the beds, behind the dresser and bookcase. And going through ALL their clothes to see what still fit and what didn't.

There was a lot that didn't.

And we rearranged the room.

Today I am working on folding laundry and attempting to keep the house clean for Hubby's aunt and little cousin visiting. Very excited to have them coming for dinner and staying the night . . . at least, I think they're staying the night. Hope so.

Anyway, glad they're coming.

And now it's time to corral the kids and get busy folding.

Later.

Hey.

I've been ill for the last day or so . . . stomach virus of some kind. Not pleasant at all!!!

But I think I am on the mend, and barring a relapse, I hope I'll be good to go this weekend.

Hubby took the boys to Meet the Teacher night, while the Princess napped and I stayed in bed (when I wasn't rushing for the bathroom, of course). They seemed to be comfortable with the idea of new teachers and new rooms. I asked if any of the students from their Kindergarten classes will be with them, but Hubby wasn't sure.

And other than that, not much has been going on.

I'm going to rest so I can be better by tomorrow. And hopefully the kiddos will stay out of trouble today.

Have a great weekend. Stay cool and safe.

Later.

Hey, everyone.

Wednesday. The middle of the week. Two more days to go until the weekend. Yay.

And that means only one more week until the boys are back in school. WOOHOO!!!

I am really too excited about this. Tomorrow we have meet the teacher night, and we take all their school supplies to the classroom. We'll find out later today who their teachers are, though neither boy has expressed much interest in who it will be.

So that's where we are. Counting down the days, and soon the hours, until school begins, and getting ready for a visit from Mimi and Papa Max.

Catch ya on Friday.

Later.

Trying Something New

Hey, folks.

I hope you're having a good Monday. Things are still same old, same old around our house.

The pet fish are still alive, and we had an interesting time cleaning their bowls yesterday.

The Princess can reach some of the light switches in the house and has had an interesting time flipping them on and off to see what they do.

I discovered Netflix this weekend and wow, I could REALLY get addicted to it. And yes, I know it's been around for a while, but unlike most of my friends and family, I am a tech-no-nothing. I am usually the last to jump on the latest technology in anything. All the new-fangled gadgets and gizmos (and even concepts) have to be out for a LONG, LONG time before I am willing to give it a try.

So there was a new show on TV I wanted to catch the back episodes of. I checked the website, but they didn't have the old episodes going back that far.

So we called around our area to see if any of the video stores had the back seasons out on DVD for rent.

No.

I could have ordered the DVD's from Amazon, but they cost more than I wanted to pay.

Enter Netflix. "Download instantly to your PC or TV." Sounds great.

Then I read the fine print. You must have some sort of converter box to watch instantly on the TV, and it takes a while for those to arrive.

But the PC thing looked promising. I got Hubby to check it out and he said go for it. I downloaded the software and was all set.

Except for one little problem.

The TV show I wanted to download wasn't part of their watch instantly program. I have to wait for the DVD's to come in the mail.

Okay. Not what I wanted but for cheaper than than buying the whole set, the episodes will be mailed to me, and I can send them back for the next season.

Great. I placed the order and checked for my confirmation email.

Tiny snaffoo when I opened the e-mail. The first season of the show is in a 4 disc set. They will be mailing Season 1, Disc 1 today. According to the plan I signed up for (and this is a great lesson to always make sure you understand what you're signing up for), I can only get one disc at a time. Not one season of the show, but one disc out of the set, until I mail that one back, and then I get the next.

Bummer.

But on the plus side, out of all the movies they had in the watch instantly category, I got to watch several that I've been wanting to see for quite a while.

So I'm not entirely disappointed with signing up. They have a free two-week trial, but I doubt I can watch all the episodes on the discs, including mailing time, within the two weeks.

But I don't know that I'll continue the subscription either. I'll talk to Hubby, and see what he thinks about it.

I hope you all have a great week, and I'll catch you on Wednesday.

Later.

Almost Here

Ugh.

I mean . . . hello, everyone. What a glorious morning.

Sort of.

I'm very tired and grumpy today. I'm basically counting down the days until the boys go back to school. Not that they haven't been great this summer. They actually have been very good.

But I'm ready for the alone time. I'm ready to not wonder where they are at any given moment of the day. One minute they are playing video games in the spare bedroom and the next I hear them launching themselves from their dresser to the floor with pillowcases held above their heads like parachutes.

Or they are playing outside on the back patio with dire consequences promised if they move, I switch the laundry, and return to find them gone. They had opened the garage door and were riding their bikes up and down the street in front of the house.

Grrrrr.

But they are excited about school starting, too. They are ready to see their friends again and get back to doing their school work.

So I guess I'm off to clean house and hang out with the kiddos. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Stay cool and have fun.

Later.

Summer Slowing Down

Hey.

Well, I wish I had something fabulous to report, but we're sort of in "Winding Down the Summer" mode.

The boys have been fascinated with their new fish-ies. They love the fish and we're having a hard time keeping the boys from overfeeding them.

They also got piggy banks for their b-day, and they love them. So much so that they are trying to carry the banks around with them everywhere they go. Not easy with a big ceramic pig.

The Princess got a hand on my computer yesterday and managed to rip the "A" button off the keyboard. So I am now typing minus the "A", and it's not easy.

I'm critiquing chapters for a friend, and we've had phone calls today about the boys playing fall t-ball, which they are very excited about. They want to play so they can win more trophies.

And that's pretty much it. I'll be very happy when school starts in a couple of weeks. We are trying to get their routine switched back to school mode, but this year the school decided to change their starting time. They will start school at 8:45am and end at 3:45pm. It's kind of nice for me, since I don't have to freak out about the early hours anymore, but I know it can also lead to being late anyway if we don't take steps early to establish good habits.

And with that final note, I'm off the fold the laundry.

Later.

Yo!

Good morning, everyone. Sorry that yet again I am late with a post. The kids are driving me nuts this morning. Although I would like to say a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sons! They are 6 years old, and I couldn't be happier for them. They are so excited about their birthday. We'll be having cake tonight (Mommy will be making the cake) after supper.

Yesterday we took the children to a water park for their birthday. They had a great time and afterward they got the one thing they have been asking for all summer as a present . . . a fish.

Actually, it's two fish, one for each of them.

My brother and his wife got all the supplies . . . fish bowl, gravel, net, food, plant, etc.

Hubby and I picked up the fish yesterday after the water park.

They love those fish. We have a deep blue betta, and a pale blue, green, and red betta. They got the bowl and all the accessories set up yesterday evening when we got home, and they've been clearing out their room part of the morning to make a special place for the fish.

This is good in one way . . . they're interested in cleaning their room and clearing out their old clothes in the process. But the problem is they would rather just throw all the clothes in a pile on the floor or throw them out in the hall than actually go through the clothing to see what still fits and what needs to go to Good Will.

So on that happy note, I am off to help sort through clothing and make sure they aren't throwing anything important away.

I hope you all have a great week.

Later.