2008 Memory Lane

I thought it would be fun to take a little (cyber) stroll tonight (since Lovey is gone and well, I really don't want to do anything that requites me to leave the couch but I really need some exercise) down memory lane! Here is a list (done in bullets of course) of some of the most important events, moments and thingamajiggers (in my mind anyway) of 2008:

• The Beauties turned 1 and I still can't believe how fast time is flying by!
• Love graduated from medical school.
• I survived the first half of the dreaded "Intern Year". The second half, on the other hand, I may not survive.
• I sent my first born child to Kindergarten and was, admittedly and characteristically, way too dramatic about the whole affair.
• We took our first family vacation and road-trip as a family of 6 (and lived to tell about it!).
• I discovered the most amazing tv show in the history of...tv! And on my Birthday Eve it's coming back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I've become a gym junkie... (more posts about that than you want to revisit!)
• We talked more about my boobs than anyone really wanted to know or hear about.
• My stubborn and very-difficult-to-potty-train child, finally got out of diapers!!
• AND last, but not least, we have had more illness around here than I ever want to have again! (you really don't want to relive those posts, trust me!)

One of the things that I love most about blogging is going back to look at pictures and read my thoughts and feelings, and laugh at how... dramatic ridiculous absurd ..I am. Thanks for taking that stroll with me. Let me know if any of you go for a cyber walk, I'd love to go with you!

Happy New Year!!

Home

The Darlings and I are leaving my parents house this morning (or since I haven't even started packing us up it could be this afternoon!) and I'm sad to leave. Coming home really is such a treat for all of us. And a reprieve from real life. In real life, I definitely do NOT get the red carpet thrown out for me. Unless Lovey is home. In that case he is always trying to make my life easier and make things special for me. Okay, so maybe I do get the red carpet thrown out for me at home, but not like I do when I come home to my parents!!

My mom is the most giving person I have ever met. There have been many, many, many times in life where I have said, "I like that purse" or "I like that shirt" and she has given it to me right then and there. She gets such joy in giving. And as shallow and pathetic as I am, I can admit I get joy in receiving. And thus we have a great relationship.

At my mom's house there is always someone (mom-sister-future bro in law-stepdad) to love on my kids, get a drink for them, change a diaper and hold a baby. My mom is the kind of grandma that plays with, loves on, waits on, and snuggles with her grandkids as long as - THEY ARE AWAKE! She makes up the craziest stories and has the kids in stitches, always has some fun art project up her sleeve, builds the best forts, and is non stop motion with her grandbabies. And they ADORE her.

Coming here is a treat for all of us. How many moms bring their grown daughters breakfast in bed? How many grandma's have multiple closets filled with toys that come out when her babies come for a visit? She is amazing and we are blessed.

And it's not just her. My step-dad, step-mom, dad, siblings - all are so excited to see us, so great with my kids and really enjoy spending time with them. Seriously, they do all the work and I get to eat, rest, surf the net, shop, watch tv, SIT - all in peace. One word...glorious.

Today it is time to go home. And the only reason I'm looking forward to going home is because The Love is there and I miss him. And I miss going to the gym. And my friends. And my house. Okay, and I miss Titan too! Alrighty, so I am excited about going home.

But, I sure do love coming back to my parents house. And feel so blessed to live 3 hours from them. I do think that a 2 hour drive would be better, but am not going to complain since most of my friends live double-digit-hours from their families!!!! Yep, three hours isn't bad at all!

And I'm thankful that we will have at least 2 more years being this close to my family. And I'm already looking forward to our visit in March! And I better get out of bed and start packing. And getting reacquainted with doing work...

R&R

Part of the problem, for me anyway, when there are days that lapse between blogging is that I have so much to say and no cohesive r organized way of saying it. So today I am blogging in bullet point. In real life I think, talk, and live in bullet points,

• Seriously.
• I am in Sugar Land, TX right now at my mama's house and for the first time in 4 days - all is quiet. The boys have been staying up until 9p - 10p every night because...
• my mom throws the, "Let me enjoy being a grandma and my grandkids. I don't get to see them very much..." blah, blah, blah. So my kids are wild and...
• since Joseph had to fly home last night to go to work today, I am on my own here. It's me against Caleb, Luke, Lily Kate and Ella and the worst culprit, MY MOM!
• I have been running while here and am breaking all my records because there are no hills. This place is as flat as a pancake. It's a nice break from San Antonio. While SA isn't the hills of San Francisco, San Antonian's call themselves the Hill Country of Texas. Needless to say, I am really enjoying running on flat land outside for the first time.
• And it is a good thing that I am running because I am eating like there is no tomorrow. The food here is delish and I always seem to fall into an eating spell when I come here for a visit. Gumbo, hams, homemade candy... Yes, it is a good thing I am running.
• I found out this morning that the USATF is allowing the use of headphones at races. The inability to use my IPOD while running was freaking me out, but now that is no problem!! Words cannot express how thankful I am about that!!
• We all had some sort of stomach thing over the past couple of weeks and I got it on Christmas Day. It reminded me why I am done having kids. Being nauseous and sick like that, for 5+ months, with 4 kids to take care of and a hubby who isn't home... Yep, it's time to end this child bearing business. There is always adoption...
• I have to tell you that Santa was very good to me this year. I got everything that I asked for. And my favorite thing is this little jewel. Isn't she a beauty?
• I love being back home at my mama's. It really is the place where I get rest and reprieve. Joseph and I get to go on lots of dates and even went to the movies to see this little flick. It was excellent!

Alrighty, that is all I have time for. My mom lives next to some great parks, so I'm off to take the kids out...

Merry Christmas

Kids say the darndest things!

We have a busy day ahead and I am so excited about Christmas that I can't sleep. Not a good thing! So instead of tossing, turning and waking up Lovey I decided to stop the inner dialogue and...blog!

My kids have been saying some of the funniest things lately and I want to write some of them down to remember them.

Luke:

The other day I was ranting and raving calmly discussing how it irritates me that the boys put clean clothes in their laundry baskets (this seriously drives me crazy and could be a whole blog post in itself!). I was telling Joseph that it is all my fault for not being tougher on them when they did this in the past. I just kept repeating, "It's all my fault."

Out of no where (because I didn't even know he was listening or in the room) Luke says, "It's not your fault mommy."

So laughing I said, "Well, whose fault is it?"

Thinking for a moment he says,"Daddy's!"

Daddy starts laughing and says, "It's always my fault. How does that always happen?"

Luke was quiet for another minute and then said, "No, it's Titan's fault!"

If all else fails, blame it on the dog!

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Luke also has said (a couple of times) the most amazing thing I have ever heard a child, definitely my child, say. I was changing one of the girls when he came up to me and said, "Mommy, when you get a chance, will you turn on the TV for me please?" Did you catch that? When you get a chance!! This is music to a mama who is always reminding her kids that I only have 2 hands and 4 kids, so they need to please be patient. I love that this sweet boy noticed I was doing something important, had a requests, but was willing to wait patiently for help. LOVE IT! Hopefully this is a sign of things to come...

Caleb:

For the past couple of weeks Caleb has really started to notice that the world does not revolve around him. We have really been trying to drive this home to him because I want children who have empathy and are not selfish. So lately he has been telling me, "Mommy, you seem a little stressed out right now. Is there something I can do to help you?" Love it!

I just love when my kids show me that they are listening and growing into people who want to put others before themselves - true servants!

*************************
And then Caleb said one of the funniest things I've heard him say in a while. Luke was throwing up the other night and Joseph was tending to him while Caleb was sweeping the kitchen floor and I was cleaning up talking to my mom. Mama was asking what was wrong with Luke and I told her, "I don't know what's wrong with him, but he probably has the same thing that the girls had."

Out of no where Caleb goes, "Maybe he has the rhinovirus and I hear zicam is good for that. You should take it at the first sign of symptoms and don't cover it up like they did that rhino." I just stared at him for a second and then busted into laughter!

"Where did you hear that?" I asked.

He very simply replied, "On TV." Then he told my mom all about this commercial in great detail. Perhaps we have another doctor in our future?!

The Beauties

Siblings

This is a common sight around this house. When the girls want someone to hold them and I am in the middle of something (which is almost always!) the boys will sit on the floor and the girls will go and sit in their laps to be held. Is that the most delicious thing you have heard in the last hour?! The girls love the attention and the boys love being the heros! And I love being mama to these four Darlings!!

Catch-up

Alrighty peeps, I have lots to report so consider yourself warned...

My girlie's have some sort of weird stomach bug. Ella woke up from nap last Thursday from nap covered in puke. And continued to get sick for the next couple of hours. Poor thing. It was the night of Caleb's big debut, but since Sister was sick Daddy stayed home with all the kids while Caleb and I had a "date night"! At 10:30 that night, both girls were throwing up. SO, not fun! Lily was over it by the next morning, but Ella has thrown up during nap time for the past 3 days. Not too sure what is going on there...

Caleb's Christmas pageant was wonderful. He was a very handsome Joseph. You will have to take my word for it for the time being because my camera is dead. Died right in the middle of Caleb's performance. I did, however, video tape it for the Daddy, but my video skills are pretty poor. You need to take Dramamine prior to viewing the tape.

Joseph also took one for the team when he stayed home with the Sickies while I went to our Progressive Dinner on Saturday night. I was so sad that he couldn't come with, but thankful that he let me go. I had put a lot of time into planning it and would have been really bummed to miss it. Plus, my BFF's hubby is out of town, so I had a date for the night. It was super fun and I am very sad to report that I didn't take one picture. I know, highly unusual for me....

Last Saturday marked the beginning of 9 days off for The Love! Whooo-hooo! And the man has already painted the bathroom! He's getting right to work on my list of projects. Love it! We are also getting to spend some time together too. Today we got a babysitter and went out on a shopping/lunch date. We were able to get all the kids presents. They each got 3 gifts and then a couple of shared gifts. I think they will really like what they got.

We got paint for the playroom and are planning on re-doing it too. I will try to get some "before" and "after" pictures.

I did two long-er runs over the weekend and I am super sore. I even impressed The Love when I went running yesterday in freezing cold weather and yes, to this Texan, it was freezing cold. And windy. Very windy. But I had a run to run, so I went. The Love thinks I'm hardcore. I don't think he's ever said that before. And I love it! I've recently learned to spit while running and yesterday blew my nose in my shirt. Yep, hardcore...

Well, I think I've got you caught up! I gotta run, the girls are in nap time and I think I just heard a cough...not good!!

I'm always learning something new!

(exhale)

As I blog, all is quiet. It wasn't that way a couple of hours ago. We had a Happy Birthday Jesus party and there were 16 kids, 4 and under, at my casa. That, my friends, is a lot of kids under my roof. Only a few things got broken, spilled or lost. Not too bad, not too bad. While I had other things planned, with kids that small all you can really do is sing Happy Birthday. No deep theological dissertation needed.

We have a busy rest of the week. Caleb is making his acting debut as Joseph tomorrow night at his schools Christmas pageant. He wanted to be Jesus, but lost out that role to a plastic baby doll. So, Joseph is the next best thing. We are all going to the pageant as a family and I'm praying that the Twinkies don't distract us from this Oscar winning performance.

Then on Friday we have a party and Saturday a progressive dinner with our favorite 9 other couples. That will be SO fun! We have some hilarious friends!

On another note, I started my marathon training this week. Yesterday was my first run and it was terrible. Hopefully yesterday was not a glimpse into my future...

Well, I'm off to mop my floors. The cleaners came before my party and I don't think I'll make that mistake again! Lesson of the day: cleaners come after party with 16 small children!

H-E-L-P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in total panic mode! And in desperate need of help!!!!!!!

Does anyone have any ideas for useful, inexpensive gifts for our bus drivers, teachers, and I'd love to even get something for the girls at the gym who love on my babies day after day! Any ideas? Anyone? Pretty please help a overwhelmed, overworked, unorganized, procrastinating mama out!

I am not even 20% through my Christmas shopping and suddenly I realized that Christmas is NEXT WEEK! Seriously, I haven't gotten the kids 1 thing. And this week we have Jesus birthday parties, Christmas parties, Santa parties, school parties, Christmas plays, progressive dinners, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

I need to go to bed. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the world. While I'm sleeping, please be thinking for me! Please... Thanks, y'all are good friends!

WW Friday

Not a good report this week. I gained 2.2 pounds! And don't really care. I weighed myself way later in the day than normal and after I went to my brunch and had the yummiest food ever. So, I'm taking this weeks weigh in with a grain of salt. Next week on the other hand...

I'm kinda over the scale. I got some new clothes and am down a size. Not to mention that I have more muscle and am stronger than I have ever been.

Next Monday I start my half marathon training schedule. My running coach at the gym has already started training me, but officially I start next Monday. I'm nervous, excited, full of doubt and ready to prove something to myself.

Very ready to prove something to myself.

After spell checking this I learned that "shwack" is not a word.

The condition of my purse is always a good indicator of how crazy my life is. My purse is a disaster.

My little twinkies have pneumonia. They had been running fever on and off for 4 days when I finally told The Love to get his stethoscope and listen to their lungs. He confirmed that there was lots of noise in there. One of the many perks to having a hubby that is a doc. Since being on antibiotics, they are getting better and much less clingy!! I've said it before and I''ll say it again...the hardest part about having twins comes when they get sick at the same time! That, and getting in and out of the car!

Things have been especially nutty around here because I am putting together a brunch for 60 women tomorrow. The RSVP deadline was Tuesday and I had a lady email me last night to let me know that she will be coming. Ummm, you missed the deadline... And then another one called today. Ummm, seriously, you missed the deadline. Why is RSVP so difficult? So annoying!

My running coach at the gym kicked my (getting smaller) booty on Tuesday. I could barely walk yesterday and was very sore today. And then she did it again today. She is really trying to get me ready for my marathon. She's nuts. She ran a marathon last November, 4 months after giving birth, in 1:39. She's a machine. She wore a shirt today that said, "Yeah, I run like a girl. Try and keep up!" She is determined to see me reach all my goals. It's awesome having someone like that in your corner. Even if I do want to hurt her during my workout!

Caleb had a very exciting week - he's, Student of the Week! We went yesterday to chapel with him while he got his award.



Here he is waiting for me to get my act together and take his picture. Isn't he cute? He got the award, "because of his love". I'm not exactly sure if that is because he was showing love to others or because he is loving or ??? But I am proud of him nonetheless.

My Christmas cards should be arriving any day now. They will be different than any that we have done in the last 7 years of writing Christmas cards. Kinda exciting! I went through my Christmas list and shwacked (is that a word?) a bunch of people off. The list was getting too big and I'm not sure most of the people on it will notice if they don't get a card. I don't know, in reality I go back and forth with the whole Christmas card thing. The Christmas letter is so hard for me because I want it to be real. I don't want it to be a list of how fabulous we are because we have our issues just like everyone else. But at the same time, I am proud of my little family. I don't walk fine lines very well. And then I often wonder, "Does anyone really want a card from the Mads?" Really. So, I took liberty with the ever growing list. With that said, if you want a card let me know. Otherwise I may assume you don't and shwack you off!

I'm not even remotely done Christmas shopping. I did, however, get my hubby something and the man already opened it today!!! It was supposed to be a surprise, but because he is a super sleuth (or he just happened to look at our bank statement when he wasn't supposed to!) he found out what it was! Here he is putting it together:

Can you figure out what it is? How about this:

Yup, the poor man (and I say poor with thick sarcasm) was having a difficult time playing his XBOX on our old "little" tv. And because I adore the ground he walks on and am sick of seeing him sit right in from of the tv while playing XBOX (so that he can see) - he got a new tv. I'm happy because he is so happy. We had our old tv since we got married and it really was time for a new tv. We have had a magnetic spot on it for years that was growing and growing. And then I think the kids put magnets on it again because there were some new spots. Anyway, the only thing I am sad about is that I wasn't able to keep it a surprise until Christmas! And I'm thrilled that while he would have liked a bigger tv, he settled because he knew it would make me so happy to have a tv that fit in the armoire. That was my only requirement. I wasn't going to have some gargantuan tv be the centerpiece to our living room - no sirree, that's not for me!

Well, I'm off to take a nap. I'd love to hear if you are sending out Christmas cards this year and if your writing a letter. Oh and do let me know if you are including your blog address in your letter. That's another one I always waffle on.

A diva after my own heart!

"If I don't make eye contact, perhaps she will go away..."
"I'm not going to look at her. All a girl wants to do is have her breakfast in peace. But, noooo, that woman has to go and get her camera and make ridiculous noises, so happy and cheerful... Is she blind? Does she not see that I'm sooo not in the mood for this?! Yada, yada, yada...bad hair day -so cute... Go away..."
"MOM! Get that camera out of my face! Seriously, leave me alone and let me eat my breakfast."
"I give in - get your little picture of my bad hair day. Get it? Got it? Good. Now leave me alone! Don't you have something to go clean?"

Thanksgiving with the Fam

My dad, sisters (Carami, Amy & Lara), brother Mark and stepmom - with my brood. It's always nice having them all! So many arms to hold babies and playmates for the boys!

My Dad playing his Martin for the twins. Ella is our dancer and started dancing almost as soon as my dad started playing. Little Kate on the other hand just stared in fascination. It was fun, because my dad played some of the songs that he used to play to put me to sleep when I was younger. It's one of my most fond childhood memories...drifting to sleep while my dad played guitar.

My sister Carami, my dad and the twinkies.

WW Friday

Last Friday I didn't post the weeks weight drama because I was spending money, losing Caleb, and didn't really want to think about all of the food I ate at Thanksgiving. I didn't work out from Tuesday to Monday - so you know I was sick!

So you can imagine my surprise this morning when I went to weigh in and lost another pound! I have passed 10 pounds now!!! Whoo-hooo! And it has been a great week at the gym.

The bad news is that we are all sick...again! I think it's a combination of having 2 kids, in 2 different schools and they gym that is keeping any of us from getting well. I have been sick more in the past month than I've been in a very long time, if ever. We've all been sick a lot.

I figure that at the rate we are going we should have caught all the major colds and viruses that are plaguing the southern part of the US by January 15th. Lets hope it will be over by then.

There are no excuses now!

I jokingly tell my man the other day to go and do something with his daughter's hair because it is getting stuck in her bugars.

Gross, I agree.

Anyway, it was only said in jest because for months he has been telling me that he, "doesn't do girl hair".

SO, you can imagine my surprise when Little Kate came out looking this cute:

Seriously.Cute.

Now, in order to achieve this look he must first douse their heads with a fire hose wet their hair. Then he works meticulously to create the perfect part. I kid you not, the surgeons he works with would be proud. After he creates his masterpiece part, he proceeds to give the girls any and everything they want in order to keep them still so that he can keep his part straight while gathering his little ponytails.

Viola! 20 minutes later ONE girl has piggypails...just one more to go!

It really is the cutest thing. Especially for a Daddy who, "doesn't do girl hair"! I heart my man!!

WFM - Treasure Tree

Growing up I loved decorating the Christmas tree and I couldn't wait until I grew up to have a tree of my own to decorate. I have loved decorating my tree each year, loved it! But then my kids started making ornaments (very cute, cherished ornaments!), getting ornaments, and wanting to take ornaments on and off the tree - repeatedly. So a friend of mine gave me a great idea, give the boys a tree of their own. Their Treasure Tree is a perfect place for them to put all their special ornaments!

This year the boys got a new tree because their old one got too small to hold their treasures. They picked out a 3 foot, prelit tree with colored lights and love it! I let them unpack their box of ornaments and they decorated their tree with such pride! It was so cute. Caleb put all his ornaments on one side and Luke put his on the other. They were so excited:

Aren't they cute?

Works for me! Check out Rocks In My Dryer for other great ideas...