Tag! You're it!

Here are the rules:
1-Link to your tagger and list the rules
2-List 5 random facts about yourself
3-Tag 5 people
4-If you're tagged, play along and pass it on!

1. I had hip surgery at the age of 19. I don't think it corrected the problem and I wish I'd never done it.
2. I've had SIX different mailing addresses since 2004. I bet the IRS thinks I'm up to something.
3. I wish I could open my own restaurant.
4. I was an art minor in college.
5. My best friend lives like seven hours away and it's pure torture.

I am tagging:
Kristi
Amy
Sarah
Anna
(I fall one short. Sue me, will ya?)

Pictures.

Top - The girls, in a photo that I did a little "work" on. It's pretty cool, I think.

Middle - Huuuuuge building that Brandon and his crew re-shingled this weekend. Well, they are still working on it as I type. But they're on the last side at least.

Bottom - Brandon (left) and my brother. My brother is terrified of heights. Like, starts clinging to anything he can grab when he gets more than his height off the ground. I'm pretty proud of him for tackling that fear and helping out his brother-in-law.

Sunday update...

It's been a long weekend. Brandon has been working on a side job (putting new shingles on a large building at a fertilizer plant) since Friday morning. It's been a lot of one-on-two time with the girls. And they've done pretty well. But when they get tired, we have some rough patches. We'll be taking the guys lunch today, probably pizza, so we'll at least get out of the house today.

I made some cookies for the guys: Recipe here. I leave out the nuts, and added butterscotch chips. I'm sure they'll be wonderful. I'm going to try and only eat like...one?

I started a SparkTeam (www.sparkpeople.com) with some of the gals on the Omaha Nest board. So far, it seems to be going good. It does keep me somewhat accountable. I say somewhat because the weekends are always hard for me. But I kind of feel if I can MAINTAIN on the weekend, I can leave the real losing for the week. We'll see how far this gets me.

Omaha visit in eleven days. 11 days!

Updates...via Pictures!

You KNOW it's bad when your husband starts telling you how disappointed he is that you haven't updated your blog. So, I'm uploading some of the pictures on my Blackberry and will use the pictures as my post topics. How 'bout that? Jerks.

Here is Lily. Our ham! This is a poster than is displayed in the girls' classroom, in three different places! As you can see in classroom rule 1, Lily wants you to shut the hell up! :) She's so bossy! Wonder where she gets it. If you look at classroom rule 3, Lily is mid-sleeper hold with her buddy Brielle.

Here are the flowers from Brandon for our 4th wedding anniversary. The colors, for some reason, look odd in this photo, but they are soooooo pretty. We're lame and don't own any vases (well, we might, but they're packed away in boxes if we do!) so they are in a plastic 1 gallon pitcher. Klassy! Thanks for the flowers and cards, babe. I love you!

Here is Ava...home sick! Pneumonia is the pits. This is one snapshot of her sleeping, which she did on and off all day. This resulted in her being bright-eyed and bushy tailed that night, and well into the wee hours of the next morning. Thanks, Brandon, for snuggling with her on the couch.

Here is Ava again. This time, Ava fell and bumped her head at my Mom and Dad's house a few weekends ago. It was a nice little gouge and we thought we'd better go to the ER to have it checked out. All was well and good. She loved the attention.

I sound Midwestern (it's true!)

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What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
The West
Philadelphia
North Central
Boston
The Inland North
The Northeast

Sometimes, I feel like this...

No, not in the sense that I wish I could jump off stuff and look completely silly in my underwear and a "My Little Pony" sparkly t-shirt.

Just in the sense that I am carefree, without stress and worry.

I wish I remembered what that was like. I *think* I felt that way in Canada. Day 2. Still not completely overwhelmed with missing my kids. Still oblivious to the big, hairy, terrifyingly scary bear that would soon be gracing our presence. Still not sick of doing my potty business in the woods. I didn't have to worry about work. The kids were well taken care of. I could just read, rest, relax, enjoy the company of my best friend.

Ah, but back to reality.

Things are weird here at work. Weird meaning that people are dropping like flies and leaving the company. Maybe I don't deal well with change and this is making me uneasy.

The girls aren't really adjusting to their new room at Daycare very well. Today was actually the best day since the big switch. But they still get so upset when I leave. Clinging to me and screaming "MOMMY!" as I walk out of the room. It breaks my heart. And I feel like shit. I hate that they are upset. I know that within five minutes, they are fine and dandy. But I don't see that. I just seeing the sad faces, eyes welled up with tears, little pudgy arms reaching for me as I slip out the door.

:(

It will get better. IT WILL GET BETTER.

I can't wait until the end of October. I'm flying to Omaha to re-connect with some of my best friends in the whole world. I have a feeling I'm really not going to want to leave. Luckily my kids and husband are staying behind, which will...without a doubt...be reason enough to flee Omaha.

That's about all for today. I hereby promise, to my Bef, that I will TRY and be better at updating if she TRIES to get me an updated picture.

xoxo.

Oh, and P.S. RIP JagJag. :(

Mountain Dew Chapstick and cranky kids...

I never, ever imagined that having the girls' pictures taken would be such a freaking disaster.

Yes. Disaster.

Oh, I know...they look so precious, adorable, smiley, perfect, etc, etc, etc in the picture displayed so proudly to the left of this conflicting text.

Well, it's true. Under that dirty blond colored hair are horns, bright red in color.

Can you see what they are holding? That is Mountain Dew bottle shaped (and tasting) chap stick. Who even knew they made the stuff...but that is what my kids picked out. More of that story to follow...

We started by getting their hair trimmed. Lily did okay, but Ava threw a huge fit. My poor Mom was holding her and it was just tragic. I had to laugh a few times, but I really did feel bad for my Mom.

Then, we had time to kill so we hung out in the little play area in the mall. That ended with us dragging them away, kicking and screaming. I told them we'd find something for them along the way if they would just behave. Bribes always work.

So we stopped into Claire's. Found these Disney Princess purses that they fell in love with. Oh, and the chapstick. Woooonderful.

Fast-forward to outfit changing time and at one point my Mom said, "Why don't we just cancel the appointment, Jeana. There is no way they are going to have their pictures taken today." Kicking. Check. Screaming. Check. Begging for the chapstick which they had spent the previous 15 minutes smearing all over their faces. Check.

But, eventually they calmed down. And we got some okay pictures...but they had to keep that damn chapstick in their hands.

So, after pictures, Mom and I rallied the troops (read: Ava and Lily) and we headed to meet Brandon. He decided that TGIFriday's sounded good, and off we went.

Mac & Cheese makes the twinnies very, very happy. We made 14 million trips to "go potty" even through they only went potty once...or farted. Because they (mainly Lily) are learning "that" feeling. Oh yes. POOPING!

I'm beginning to notice that Ava is going to be the difficult one. God bless her little heart, she just doesn't deal with stuff as well as Lily. Lily is a real "roll with the punches" kind of kid. I love that they have such different personalities.

Oh, and I "accidentally" left it in the restaurant after dinner. Oops.

Starting TurboJam tonight. Will report about my findings tomorrow, if I don't die first.

What have you done?

What have I done? Bolded lines indicate what I have done.

Bought everyone in the bar a drink
Swam with wild dolphin
Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
Been inside the Great Pyramid
Held a tarantula
Taken a candle lit bath
Said I love you and meant it
Hugged a Tree
Bungee jumped
Visited Paris
Watched a lightning storm at sea
Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
Seen the Northern Lights
Gone to a huge sports game
Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Grown and eaten your own vegetables
Touched an iceberg
Slept under the stars
Changed a baby’s diaper
Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
Watched a meteor shower
Gotten drunk on champagne
Given more than you can afford to charity
Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
Had a food fight
Bet on a winning horse
Asked out a stranger
Had a snowball fight
Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
Held a lamb
Seen a total eclipse
Ridden a rollercoaster
Hit a home run
Danced like a fool, not caring who watched
Adopted an accent for an entire day
Actually felt happy about your life, even for a moment
Had two hard drives for your computer
Visited all 50 states
Taken care of someone who was too drunk
Had amazing Friends
Danced with a Stranger in a foreign country
Watched wild whales
Stolen a sign
Hitchhiked in Europe
Taken a road-trip
Gone rock climbing
Midnight walk on the beach
Gone sky diving
Visited Ireland
Been heartbroken longer than you were in love
In a restaurant sat at a stranger’s table and ate with them
Visited Japan
Milked a cow
Alphabetized your CDs
Pretended to be a superhero
Sung karaoke
Lounged around in bed all day
Posed nude in front of strangers
Gone scuba diving
Kissed in the rain
Played in the mud
Played in the rain
Gone to a drive-in theater
Visited the Great Wall of China
Started a business
Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
Toured ancient sites
Taken a martial arts class
Played a computer game for more than 6 hours straight
Gotten married
Been in a movie
Crashed a party
Gotten divorced
Gone without food for 5 days
Made cookies from scratch
Won first prize in a costume contest
Ridden a gondola in Venice
Gotten a tattoo
Rafted the Snake River
Been on television news program as an “expert”
Got flowers for no reason
Performed on a stage
Been to Las Vegas
Recorded Music
Eaten shark
Had a one-night stand
Gone to Thailand
Bought a house
Been in a combat zone
Buried one/both of your parents
Been on a cruise ship
Spoken more than one language fluently
Performed in Rocky Horror
Raised Children (well, raising...)
Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
Picked up and moved to another city
Walked on the Golden Gate Bridge
Sang loudly in the car and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
Had plastic surgery
Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have
Wrote articles for a large publication
Lost over 100 lbs
Held someone while they were having a flashback
Piloted an airplane
Petted a stingray
Broken someone’s heart
Helped an animal give birth
Won money on a TV game show
Broken a bone
Gone on an African safari
Had a body part below the neck pierced
Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol
Eaten mushrooms gathered in the wild
Ridden a horse
Had major surgery
Had a snake as a pet
Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
Slept for more than 30 hours over 48 consecutive hours
Visited more foreign countries than US States
Visited all 7 continents
Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
Eaten Kangaroo meat
Eaten sushi
Had your picture in the paper
Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
Gone back to school
Parasailed
Petted a cockroach
Eaten fried green tomatoes
Read the Illiad
Killed and prepared an animal for eating
Skipped all of your school reunions
Communicated with someone without sharing a common language
Been elected to public office
Written your own computer language
Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
Had to put someone you love in hospice care
Build your own PC from parts
Sold your own artwork to someone that didn’t know it was yours
Had a booth in a street fair
Dyed your hair
Been a DJ
Shaved your head
Caused a car accident
Saved someone’s life

Prepsters

My kids can rock the private school kid look like nobody's business. Some notables:

- Ava 's socks are PINK striped. Trust me. They are pink. The lighting must suck or something. Also, it's unfortunate that you can't see the same color of pink on the sweater.

- I agree that the stripes with the Argyle is a bit busy, but damn you Baby Gap for allowing this combo to be sold at all. I trust you and your stylistic outfit options. Curse you all to hell.

- I proceeded to buy 1 pair of pink knee socks, 1 pair of green knee socks, and 2 pair of navy knee socks. The stripes are a no go with the sweater. But solids I think should be okay.

- Did anyone take a second to notice the adorable freaking shoes they have on?!

- Head bands. This is the first time they've worn them. And they love them. But they call them "band heads".

In other news, Brandon and I started P90X. I passed the pre-test which is a big win for me. But, as I was reading through all the material, I came to realize that this program probably isn't for me at all. It states that if you have more than 20 pounds to lose, then you probably want to start with another one of their programs. P90X is more for shaping and definition. That will be perfect for Brandon. Not for me. So I have TurboJam on it's way and will start it as soon as it gets here. Wish me luck.

This weekend, we're going "home" for a local fair. Antique Days. Basically...old people gathering on the town square talking about yesteryear and bitching about how "kids act these days". BUT...I can put all that lame crap aside for BINGO. $5 blackout anybody? Who's kicking some Senior Citizen ass this weekend? This gal!

Google searches that led to my blog:

1) I am frustrated with my job (oops!)
2) all cool snickers (which led to my Snickers Apple Salad recipe)
3) KIDS BLANKIE
4) picture of cheesecake
5) snickers and granny smith apples (another shout-out for the salad!)
6) vanilla instant pudding (this makes me LOL)

I get a lot of hits from Sarah's site. So thanks for the traffic, hooker!

New video of the girls. Lily singing her ABC's...Ava just gabbing!