Today we payed the deposit on the house we will be moving into soon. Now it seems more real than ever! Oh, and guess what! I got my rug I ordered...and they sent me TWO! I thought maybe one was a smaller one, but no, it's just as big as the other one. How awesome! This will save me the trouble of finding something to put on the floor of the playroom for a while. Now, try and tell me that God didn't have some hand in that, and I'll tell you you're all wrong! Now, if only He would help me find a job, so we can still afford to eat and have power!

Speaking of job, I've been searching madly for one. I've applied everywhere I can think of that has stuff for my hours, and still no luck. I actually just have to finish training for this one job, but the freakin' computer site is messed up, and I can't get to the training courses! I'm about to pop to get there and get a move on! I have to call places tomorrow to tell them that their payments will be late this month, and that's not cool. Fortunately, it's only two payments right now that will have to be put on hold, but still...I MUST get a job soon!

Other than that, we are all sick as dogs. All four of us have colds, and that translates into a house of crabby, snotty, coughy, tired people. Of course, TJ refuses to accept that he's tired, thus making him even more energetic and obnoxious! He wants TONS of attention at all times, while Taryn does, too. At the same time, neither Trey nor I want to pay attention to anyone but ourselves. It's not a pretty picture, and I pray that it ends soon! I tell you, the amount of snot running out of those little crusty noses is driving me nuts!

Finally, I can't believe I almost forgot this! Taryn started crawling! She's done it a few times, for about a foot. Then she gets frustrated, b/c she hasn't quite got it down yet, and starts her military crawl thing again. She's also painfully close to sitting up on her own, too. I think if she wanted to, she could do it now, but she's way too worried about crawling to even think of sitting up yet!


Alright, I guess that's it for now. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

Okay, so Thanksgiving was fun for me! We did something different this year, which I would like to continue doing, even this Christmas. Trey's parents came and watched the children, which I might do differently if I had known they probably could have come, and we went to the Salvation Army to volunteer. We really didn't do much, as there were about three thousand volunteers and not that much work to do. Really, there were more volunteers than people we were serving, I think. Anyway, we helped decorate the building and untangle tree lights. Then we helped serve the food. Well, Trey really just held up the 30-40 ft. tree (Trey and I are in disagreement as to how tall it is) they were putting up, while I helped serve food! What was really cool is that when we were done giving out the food, we got to eat Thanksgiving dinner, too! I was pleasantly surprised, and it tasted great! After we ate, we hung lights on the trees in the building, and some people worked on decorating the extremely tall Christmas tree. All-in-all, it was nice, and a different way to spend Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but we actually did our Thanksgiving the day Taryn got baptized, since we already had a lot of family coming that day. It was quite nice, and I think we might make this a yearly tradition, and maybe even drag a few people along!

Speaking of, they gave us red bracelets made out of rubber, like the ones everyone is wearing these days. Trey has not taken his off yet. He is very proud of himself for volunteering. He said people at work yesterday were very shocked to hear that he had gone. He told me that one chick was all like, "Well, I volunteered before, too!" as if she felt guilty or he was trying to make her feel bad! We decided that we are going to go as many times as possible, so we can collect bracelets and show them off! Okay, maybe not, but...

So my idea is that we give our gifts for the kids to charity instead, as I know that my kids don't need squat. Then, as a family, we go volunteer somewhere for a few hours, then later we can open gifts and eat together, or something like that. I figure each set of parents could buy gifts for their own kids, since they know what they need, and the rest of us could give our gifts for them to more needy kids out there. I like my idea, and so does Trey, but he really doesn't think it will fly with the rest of the family, and I kinda think he's right. So, in this case, what would you do? I'm kinda torn. I want to do it (it really makes you feel good, like you've actually accomplished something), but I don't want to piss off anyone, or go out on a limb and be the lone ranger. So what would you do?

Okay, TJ is begging me to "stop doin' my 'pooter" now. I'll see you later. Have a great day!

Got this from Gina

You're a punk rock mommy! DIY is probably your
motto, because you're a punk mama at heart.
Your kids are getting your independent spirit
and guts, and learning to solve problems
themselves. You love it when they show their
independence, even when it's breaking your
heart.


What kind of a freaky mother are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Oh, and I stole this from MonkeyMama. You go to this site, download a pic of yourself, and they compare it to thousands of famous people and tell you who you resemble the most. I put in my pic:

and this is what I got:
64%

62%


61%

I also had Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kate Winslet. Now, do I agree with these? Oh, not so much. However, I'm truly flattered, and will be sure to visit the site again when I need a little pick-me-up. (Oh, and there were some guys I resemble, too, but I didn't know who any of them were, so...)

Wanna try? Go here.

Okay, well, not all green stuff sucks, but the stuff I had to deal with today did. There was a lot of green going around in my parts, and it wasn't even St. Patrick's Day!

As I told you yesterday, Taryn is sick. She has a runny nose and a little tiny cough, that just makes you wish she'd do it more b/c it's so cute, even though you know it's wrong to hope for that! My mom always told me to watch out for green snot, and hers is not. However, she never said what to do if she spits up tons of green stuff that kinda looks like snot, but it's not coming from her nose! First she did it to Trey at Eckerd today...and he's not even down with her drooling! Then, later she showed me what she had done for Daddy, so as not to leave me out. Fun stuff! You know, it wouldn't even be so bad if she at least pretended to feel bad about it. Like, she spits this nasty stuff all over you, and doesn't even flinch. She just keeps looking off into space as if nothing happened. A simple, "Oh geesh! I'm so sorry Mom!" would do...or at least a look...something!

I also learned a lot about potty training today. For the most part, TJ is potty trained, except for an accident here and there, which I'm usually cool with. Today, I discovered that it is now his duty in life to make sure he uses the bathroom at EVERY place we EVER go at least twice. First, we went to a carpet store to look at remnants. As soon as we got in the store, not five minutes from home where he didn't have to pee, "Mommy, I have to go pee-pee." Fine, we go. All of five minutes later, "Mommy, I have to go pee-pee." We go again! We weren't even there five more minutes, and he was telling me again. I told him to hold it. So we get to the next store ten minutes down the road, where I only want to be there maybe ten minutes. "Mommy, I have to go pee-pee." "You just used the bathroom twice not fifteen minutes ago! You haven't even had a drink since 10 this morning! There's no way! Can you hold it for a few minutes?" "Okay." Five minutes later..."Mommy, I just went poo-poo." Now, he went poo-poo right before we left the house, and I was sure that after that he wouldn't be able to go again for the rest of the week! Of course I left his spare bag at home, so I have nothing to change him into. Thank goodness we were at a store that sells kids' clothing. I grabbed a pack of underwear, and headed off to the bathroom. I didn't smell anything, and his pants looked fine from behind, so I didn't think it could possibly be much, especially after earlier. Man, was I wrong! There was green poop caked all the way down his legs and the inside of his jeans! Oh, and it was atrocious! I didn't have Taryn in a basket, so I had to prop her against the door and wall on the floor of the stall, and then figure out how to clean off my son with some cheap public restroom toilet paper. It was not fun. I had to take off his jeans, and throw away his underwear and socks (yes, even his socks!). Poor TJ, thank goodness he has no shame. Since I didn't know how bad it was, I had to take him out in his shirt, underwear, and shoes so I could get him some new pants! I found some, and on sale even, but I have to say I would prefer never to go through that again. What sucks is that I know I will!

You know, now that I think of it, I should probably go and get those nasty jeans out of my car right now, eh?

Okay, since I was told that I could keep posting pics of my kids, I'm going to again. TJ wore a little sweater jacket today, and it looked SO cool on him. When we left the house this afternoon, he insisted on having a "light jacket", and keeping it zipped up, so it didn't fall off. I swear it made him look so old, like a college intellectual at some private school in England or something. Or maybe not, but...well, just see for yourself:
It took me FOREVER to take the serious look picture. He insisted on doing his fake smile everytime I aimed the camera at him, and within minutes, both of us were rolling on the floor laughing. That kid is so NUTS!

Taryn, at first, was like, "What in tarnation are you weirdos doing?" Then, she eventually broke down and joined in the fun!


Oh man, what a long, green day! Let's pray for less green tomorrow, unless it comes in paper form, and is accepted as a form of payment. You guys have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

That's all I heard today. Taryn has a little head cold, and she was needy and lethargic today. Meanwhile, TJ was his normal self, too full of energy and talking up a storm. It would have been okay if I didn't feel so blah, but I do, and thus it sucked.

So, my poor little baby is sick for the first time. I feel like I should be more worried, but until it gets bad enough that she actually acts sick aside from wanting to be held, I'm not going to worry about it. I'll be sure to watch out for green snot! As bad as I feel for her, she's so adorable with her little red nose and cheeks (I checked numerous times, and she doesn't have a fever). She took a long nap this morning, which is highly uncommon, and I couldn't resist taking a pic of her.
Now tell me your heart's not melting right now!

I have to show you my favorite parts of my children, while I'm stuck on them.
Oh my goodness! Do they not have the cutest little hands and feet! I just love Taryn's little tummy! I like TJ's, too, but I don't have a pic right offhand of his. His tummy is starting to look a little manly lately, anyway. Oh, and I love Taryn's little chubby legs, too. I tried to take a pic of them today, but none of them came out too well b/c she wouldn't stop wiggling! Oh, my chubby little babies, SOOOOOO cute! Okay, well, TJ's not so chubby anymore, but...you get the picture!

I need some new material. I wish I was creative like Kurt, who, might I add, was quoted and featured in some article that he sent me a link to-http://www.bayareaistalking.com/. Or, I wish I was a good writer like Kristen, or Karla, or MonkeyMama, where I could write goo, goo, goo, and people would find it interesting. Or, I wish I were like Karla, who actually has interesting stories to tell, and has a fun and read-worthy life. I'd even like to be like Julia, who just tells about her day, yet is still interesting. Her life is so different from mine, even though we grew up together, and I love to read all about it. I wish I was gutsy enough to do something like Go Fug Yourself, and talk about other people. Alas, I'm not. So what is a girl to do? Why any of you are reading is beyond me. I'm especially boring when I've done nothing for a few days, yet still feel obligated to write. I need a theme. Once, while I had a rent all the movies you can get card at Blockbuster, I was trying to talk about movies I'd rented. However, I was not so good at that, and soon quit. If I had any deep thoughts, I'd talk about them. I barely have time to have any thoughts as it is, though, and they only go as deep as my ingrown toenail (which is actually deeper than it should be!). Any thoughts? I'm actually a pretty funny person in real life, or so I'd like to think. I'm quite obnoxious, and very much the smartass. I make people want to punch me and hug me at the same time. Of course, I can't seem to convey that in my writing. All I can convey is grammatical clarity in my writing, and sometimes I even lack that! Okay, so you let me know where you want this to go, and I'll see what I can do....

Talk to you later. Have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

having the cutest children in the whole wide world! It's hard to let them out of my sight, for fear that I might miss one single second of wonderful time spent with them, watching their adorable moments pass. It's so hard to believe that Taryn turned five months old this week, and that TJ will be three in January. Where has the time gone?

I'm kinda wondering what's wrong with me. I'm not doing so well at making friends that want to hang out with me here. I've made a couple of acquaintances, but no one that wants to hang out with me on a weekly basis. It kinda sucks. I'm beginning to wonder what it is in my personality that runs everyone off. I realize that talking to most of you about it won't help, as you don't really know me aside from what I write on here, which is so very little of the whole me. Oh well, maybe one day I'll figure it out.

I bought an area rug today on Overstock. It's so cool, and it was so cheap. Plus, there is $1 shipping this weekend, so it was even cheaper! The best part is that I had some money in Paypal that I couldn't get out, so I kinda had it waiting there for me to use. I think it was a sign. I'm getting so excited about moving, I feel like I'm going to pop. My mom keeps telling me to keep looking, and that maybe I'll find something better. I started thinking maybe she was right today, but I went over to measure the sunroom anyway (I want to put a carpet remnant in there so it will be better to play in). Once I was there, and saw the house again, it was settled. I realize there are some points about the house that are not the best, like the fact that the laundry room is outside, and the master bedroom closet isn't even big enough to hold Trey's shirts, much less anything else. However, I am totally willing to overlook that, b/c I just think that house is so great. Perhaps God doesn't want me to have it (which is not what I'm hoping for), and if that's the case, then I'll find something else. However, I'm not willing to keep looking, b/c I'm hooked. All I can think about is where I'm going to put things and what fun we'll have there playing in the yard and playroom. I can't wait!

Okay, I guess that's enough for now. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon.

And I say that in the nicest way possible. Really, I do.

Okay, see, we just got back from going camping in the mountains overnight. It was fun, albeit quite dirty (I'm not down with the dirt, might I add), and my heart raced the whole time. Trey and I went, as well as TJ, and our friends Mike and Julia came along. Julia also brought her two kids Alison and Andrew, who are 4 and 6. We had the van quite full. We were not in a dangerous place as far as mountains go, and Julia had the best place for camping picked out. It was a little flat spot off to the side and down a little hill. It was right next to the river, and there was a wonderful and soothing water rushing sound at all times.

We had a lot of fun setting up camp and hanging out. TJ had so much fun climbing around and trying to kill me. I really thought he would not be too big on the idea of getting dirty, but before we even got the stuff to camp, he'd already stepped in mud twice, and wasn't at all bothered!

After we finally got the kids to go to sleep last night, we got all inebriated and talked around the fire. Yeah, the normal camping with friends stuff. Then, we attempted to go to bed, and wrestling ensued. That was fun! What was really fun was when I told Julia to, "Watch it, Beeitch!" At that point, TJ started yelling out "Beeeech!" over and over and over and over and over and over....(you get it) again! Everytime he did it we all laughed hysterically, so he kept going and going. He loves it when people laugh (eh, eh!) "with" him! All day today, even, it was "Beeech!" just out of the blue! That is one strange and funny kid...wonder where he gets it from?

So, the fun really started today. It rained last night, and that kinda sucked to wake up to. After we managed to get the mess all cleaned up and camp put back into the car, we decided it was too rainy to hike for a while. We went to Taco Bell to eat, and figure out a plan. The plan became to go to Sliding Rock. Ummm, okay. Can I point out right now that it was about 60 degrees outside, which isn't too bad. However, the water would probably have been about 40 or so degrees...which leads me to the plan for the day. Trey, Mike, and Julia decided it would be fun to go to Sliding Rock and slide down the rock. I agreed, thinking for sure that they would chicken out, and I'd get to prod and pick on them for the rest of the day. It came to the point where they had taken their clothes off and actually walked through the COLD water to the rock, and I was still telling all of the children that they weren't going to do it. Man, was I ever wrong! Some old people came to watch my friends, the idiots, and asked me if I was going to go. "Ha!" I laughed, "Someone has to be alive to drive these poor little children home!" So, they went three or four times, and froze their little patooties and other appendages off (or at least much, MUCH smaller!), and had a blast. I can say that I was happy, though, b/c on the way Trey was saying he was so tired, and that I was going to have to drive home. I wasn't looking too forward to that, so when he told me he was totally invigorated and was wide awake, I didn't complain! I have pictures to show what idiots they are. Julia would like for me to point out that she went first, and that Trey and Mike were dangerously close to chickening out after she'd already gone.

They did some solo swims, too, but I just can't bear to look anymore! Those guys are IDIOTS!

Well, that about sums it up. Oh, Trey used TJ to parrot lots of little Mommy-disses to me. Julia's favorite: "Get in the kitchen and make me a pie, woman." Yes, TJ enjoyed saying that one.
I swear! Those kids can't ever just leave work at work! Even bring it on vacation!

I'm tired. I'm going to bed now. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

PS-Ten bucks goes to whomever can figure out what made this (Trey begged me to put this on my blog!):

Okay, we're going camping for the next few days. So, I've left you with some pics from Taryn's baptism and the house we want to rent, for your viewing pleasure.

Have a great day! See you soon!

Click on here:

Last name J. Today we went over to my Uncle Harold's house. TJ instantly fell in love with him, which is understandable, b/c he's the coolest old guy I know! They were goofing off at the table while I talked to Aunt Martha Sue and fed Taryn. Harold asked me what TJ stood for, and I told him. Then he turned to TJ and asked him what his last name is. (We just went over it a thousand times last week, but undoubtedly he doesn't quite get it yet.) He said, "J." Oh, I died laughing! TJ is so cute! I mean, I guess that was a good answer if you think about it. I love it!

Taryn is quite the energetic young soul, much like her older brother (Lord, please help me!). She is so determined to crawl that she's just getting mad about it lately. However, I'd prefer her to keep doing what she's doing now forever, due to the absolute cuteness of it all. She gets in her hands and knees, and starts rocking her body back and forth really fast. Then, once she's going super fast, she lets go and shoots forward on her tummy! I kid you not! Then, when she's worn herself down, she does a little military scoot on her tummy by pulling herself forward with her arms. I tell you, it is the most entertaining and adorable thing in the world to watch! TJ never did that. He rolled, then went straight to crawling. This is much better if you ask me! Too cute!

Oh, and I have to tell you this: God spoke to me today. He did. I swear it. Okay, see, I know I told you about the house we found, and how bad I wanted it. It just isn't going to work out, though, and I was pretty bummed about it this afternoon. I kept asking God if He was sure it wasn't meant to be as I drove down the road. I said, "Are you sure you don't just want to make it a bit challenging for me?" I knew, though, that it wasn't worth the trouble I was willing to go through to get it.

So, I took TJ to the playground this afternoon, and ran into a woman I had just seen at Wendy's shortly before. We started talking, and I was telling her how we were looking for a house to rent. She said, "I have a house for rent." I swear, God spoke to me at that moment. She told me all about it, and before I had even gone to look at it, I was sold. I drove over this evening and looked at it from the outside, and I'm in love. It's a stone house with a huge back yard, and beautiful wood floors and doors. Get this, it's $75 less per month than the one we were looking at, and it's just a few miles from Trey's work! Plus, they are willing to wait a little bit for our lease to end. Man, I'm not sure what the lesson in all of this was, but God is awesome, and he totally hooked me up! The people are super cool, and I can't wait to have them for landlords. I can't wait for Trey to get home so I can tell him all about it! They gave me keys to it, and I'm going to take him to look at it before he goes to work tomorrow. Yippee! I just know this is going to work out!

Well, I guess that's it for now. Maybe I'll take a pic of the house when I look at it tomorrow and see what you think of it. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

Oh well. I haven't given up complete hope yet, but I'm pretty sure we won't be moving into that house. That's life, I suppose. God decided that it wasn't for us, and I'm fine with that. I just don't think it's going to work on getting that money. Such is life.

I hope you all realize that I was joking about giving me money the other day...unless you really want to! (Sure, I'm still secretly waiting for that independently wealthy reader to email me for my mailing address!)

So, let's shift my focus back to the baptism. I'm so excited. Tonight I'm going to try to make a bread cornucopia for the centerpiece, and fudge. I made one a couple of Thanksgivings ago, and it was fun, and looked really cool. I love to make fudge, and from what I hear, I'm pretty good at it. Perhaps I found a niche? Nah, just like to make it. Anyway, Saturday night I'm going to make the pumpkin pie and macaroni and cheese. Friday I'm going to dye my hair, in case you were wondering! I guess I'll have to figure out how to cook a turkey, too, since Trey was supposed to do that, and he has to work Saturday night. He won't exactly have time to do it before church Sunday! I can't wait to see my little girl get baptized and spend time with my family!

Well, I have nothing new to talk about really. I hope everything on your end of the world is going well. Do have a great day, and I'll see you later!

Okay, here's the deal. Our lease is ending in December, and we will be in the process of moving at that time. Yesterday, we were driving around and saw a house very close to our apt. that was for rent. As it was, the owner drove up right after we drove up to peek at it. She let us look around in it and we fell in love, and now all I can think about is how much I want that house. We are not doing well in this two bedroom, and TJ really, really, really needs a yard to play in.

So, we had planned on borrowing the money from Trey's 401K for the deposit, and paying it back when we get our tax money. No big deal, right? Wrong. Undoubtedly, you can borrow the money to pay for a down payment on a house, but not to pay a deposit for a rental. Okay, whatever! So now we are stuck. We don't have any extra money laying around to pay for a deposit, on this house or any house. We can't stay here after next month. So, what do we do? I'm so bummed right now, and I really want to rent that house. We could find another one, but all of the ones we've looked at in our price range are pretty crappy, and this one is just SOOOO perfect, and the people who own it are really nice.

So, here's the plan: Everyone mail me money, and then I'll have enough to pay the deposit. I'll be glad to pay you back when I get my tax money in February. If you've got $1000 laying around that you won't need till Feb., feel free to go ahead and send it to me. I'll pay interest, too, if you need.

Okay, there's my cyber-begging for today. I'm waiting for your responses. You can email me for my address. Don't all try to email me at once...could be an email overload, you know. Just look at these precious faces, don't they deserve a home with room to move?

Taryn is getting baptized next Sunday, and it can't come soon enough! I wasn't going to get her a special dress, b/c I'm not really into that kind of thing, and we don't have a lot of money to spend. However, I was talking to Julia on the computer one night, and she mentioned that she saw them at Wal-Mart one time. I thought, "Wow, if you can buy them at Wal-Mart, then I have no excuse for not having one for her." I looked online and they were only $27 or so. All of the ones I had looked at before were over $100, which was the main reason I wasn't even worrying about it. So that night I went on eBay and found one. What luck that it was in Lexington, just down the road from here, and I went yesterday and picked it up. Look at it, it's so beautiful, and I can't wait to put her in it and let everyone see her in her beauty!

Rest assured that pictures will be posted of her in the dress!

So, yesterday my Sunday School class had a bonfire. It was so much fun! We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows, and made smores. We ate, hung out, played with babies (there were five tiny ones, and two toddlers), and had a generally good time. TJ played very well with his g/f, MacKenzie, and only wrestled her to the ground one time that I know of! Taryn was miserable b/c she's teething and hadn't had a nap, and had to be held most of the time. She fell asleep on someone else, and it was so cute. I'm glad to have gotten out and been around adults for a while.
TJ mackin' on his 'girlfriend' MacKenzie. She's an older woman!

Which leads me to my next thought...I think I have ADHD. I'm noticing more and more that when I get in a group of people I get really hyper. I start talking louder, and cutting people off, and I'm sure I'm just as obnoxious as all get-out. I'm aware of this fact, yet I can't do anything to stop it. I try desperately to calm down and be quiet, and sometimes I'm successful, as long as I don't talk at all, but usually I just pop. I end up playing with the kids b/c I feel more comfortable with them, and they like my loudness and hyperactivity. Today at church I noticed that when we have to stand for more than ten seconds, I start dancing and fidgeting and moving all over the place. I realized during a ceremony thing we were doing that I was the only one moving back and forth in the sanctuary. I'm sure I was driving the people around me crazy. I've also noticed that I can't focus hardly at all anymore, not that I was ever really that good at it. I can get lost in tv, but that's about it. When I try to do something that requires planning, I will think about it for a minute or two, then start thinking about ten other things, and within minutes totally forget what I was even thinking about originally. I wanted to help clean up last night, and I went in the kitchen to start, and just stood there staring at all of the stuff, wondering what in the world I could do. There was a big after-party mess, and plenty for me to do, but I couldn't focus long enough to even pick something up. Finally, I went for what felt natural, and just washed a sippy cup and a bottle! It's really making functioning normally even harder now that I've got two kids and need to get with it. What do you think? I think I'm going to try to go get checked out. I'd love to be able to have a full thought again one day!

Alright, I've rambled on enough for now. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon. I leave you with this vision of beauty:

It's my yoga phase! I don't know how long it will last, b/c the first day I ever even tried it half-ass, it almost killed me! Let me tell you the story:

Okay, so I got some wild hair in my ass the other day that I wanted TJ and I to do yoga together. Where it came from, I don't know. So I got online and looked up kid yoga videos, b/c I figured he certainly wouldn't want to do adult yoga with me. I found a few, but one, called Animal Yoga or something, was everywhere I looked. I went to the library the other day, and whaddya know, there it was! So, I figured I'd check it out first and see if TJ would even play along.

So, I pull out the DVD yesterday and pop it in. We needed something active to do together, and I was in no mood to play cars again for the three-thousandth time this week. The first, and not possible to ignore, thing I noticed was just how very trippy the chicks on the video were. Their names were Wasabi (spicy green goo?) and Lil' Chi, and they were wearing little jewels all along their foreheads and crazy outfits. Yeah. Then, a couple of minutes into it, a flying curly-haired hippy guy comes on the screen. If he wasn't high, then he definitely was so much in his life that he's just permanently high now! The background was a cartoon, and every once in a while they turned into cartoons. They both talked like valley girls, that were high.

Once I got over the initial shock of the strangeness of it all, I started trying the poses. I wasn't really focusing and doing the best job, b/c TJ was freaking out and running all over the place b/c he seemed to think I was going to force him to do it. I discovered that I am less flexible than I thought, and that I don't have the balance I'd hoped I had. Nevertheless, it was fun, and I felt better after having done it. It wasn't too hard, and it was slow, which I like. I'm not too big on breaking a sweat. TJ even ended up doing one pose with me at the very end, how nice.

So, about an hour before Trey got home last night, suddenly I felt the effects of my early afternoon workout. The back of my legs introduced me to muscles that I had no idea existed before then! "Well, that's cool, I suppose. I guess that means it's working," I thought. So, like an idiot, when Trey got home, I felt the urge to do it again, and so I did.

I awoke from my sleep about three hundred times last night. I felt like I was having a heart attack each time, and there was no position that I could stay comfortable in. When I awoke this morning, it was the same. Every movement induced a heart attack-like feeling in the middle of my chest (which I'm sure is not where I'd feel a heart attack). It felt like my sternum had broken in two, and the sharp edges were sticking into major organs. Undoubtedly, while doing my lax impression of kid yoga last night, I pulled something in my chest. Not fun. I repeat, NOT FUN. The whole day I have been in extreme pain, and every turn has made me want to cry. I feel much better now, but it still hurts a little.

So, where does that leave me in my new stage? Right now, all I can think about is how much I want to go and do it all again! I've opted to wait until tomorrow to try again, for my chest's sake, but I'm sure as soon as I get a free moment I will be right there in front of the tv ready to try again!

You have a great day, and I'll talk to you soon!

That you can use two tablespoons of cornstarch to substitute for an egg when you're baking? I had no idea, but had to find out today when making pumpkin pie. I also found out that you can make your own evaporated milk. Yeah, you ask, why on earth was she even bothering to try to make it if she didn't have any of the ingredients? Well, I'd told TJ we could, but I didn't realize that I have nothing in the house as far as pie ingredients go! Sure, I was at the store just yesterday, and could have picked up the stuff, but really, who is expecting me, ME, to think ahead!?

Anyway, we made pumpkin pies today. I made one big one, and six little ones. Just in case you don't know this, pumpkin pie tastes really good on graham cracker crust. I learned this when I was teaching, and wanted to make pumpkin pies for a lesson. I needed something that was small so we could make lots of them, and found little tiny Keebler pie crusts. I almost prefer it to the regular pie crust, and it's lots tastier to eat than the regular kind, too. TJ helped me mix and scoop the mix into the crusts, and we popped them into the toaster oven to cook. They turned out pretty good, considering. However, the color was a little darker, and the consistency was a little tiny bit grainier b/c of the cornstarch. The taste, overall, was good, though. However, I will be using the correct ingredients for my Thanksgiving pies!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we are having ours on November 13th at church. Taryn is getting baptized that day, and we were in a quandry as to what to do afterwards. Since we are hoping to have family and friends travel from above and below, we wanted to make the trip worth their while. At first we were going to go to a buffet restaurant afterwards to eat. However, with hopefully 30+ people, getting sat in a timely manner (especially with a bunch of kids) right after church would pretty much be impossible. Plus, everyone would have to pay for themselves (since we're broke), and that just didn't seem right. So, I reserved the Fellowship Hall at church for afterwards, and Trey and I decided we would just cook up some food for people to eat. The other day I was thinking, and realized that we have no plans to either go home or to Trey's parents' house for Thanksgiving this year, so why not just do it that day? I mean, hopefully a lot of family and friends will be their already, and the room's big enough, and what could be better! I think it will be better than Thanksgiving! Of course, we still have to ask people to bring a dish if possible, but it's still cheaper than paying $10/person at a buffet, and waiting forever to eat!

Which leads me to my next idea. I want to work somewhere on Thanksgiving. I want to volunteer somewhere, giving out food or something. I think it would be so great. Trey doesn't think it will work, since we will still have the kids. However, I'm hoping we can work it out. Wouldn't that be so cool!? I hope I can find somewhere we can go.

Anyway, must go watch The OC now. Trey's waiting, and I've been waiting for hours for him to get home to watch it. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

Man, what a LONG weekend! We went to Mommy's house Friday and Saturday, and we went non-stop there. Then, Sunday and Monday were the same. Therefore, I didn't feel too bad that we didn't leave the house today, and very little was accomplished. I finally unpacked from the other day, and I washed some clothes and put them away. We watched a lot of tv and just kinda hung out all day, and even TJ didn't seem to mind. Taryn is sick or something, b/c she cried pretty much all day, and only stopped long enough to take catnaps throughout the day. I feel kinda bad for Trey, b/c he had four non-stop days off, then had to go back to work today and work his butt off, I'm sure. Poor guy.

Man, Halloween was fun! You already saw what happened Sunday night. Last night was just as great. We went to Wes and Gina's house first and had some awesome chili that Gina made. It was perfect. I'm not a big fan of hot stuff, and it had just the right amount to highlight the wonderful flavor, as opposed to burning the crap out of my mouth! After that we went trick-or-treating with their family. We didn't cover as much ground as last year, since we already had a ton of candy from the night before. Taryn fell asleep after about twenty minutes of t-o-ting, and proceeded to sleep until we were about to go home for the night, when she woke up hungry. That freaked me out a little bit, since she doesn't usually sleep at that time of the day, or for that long.

After we finished t-o-ting, we went to a little party in someone's yard as part of a "Light up the Night" thing that Gina's church was doing. It was pretty cool. They had a cake walk, hotdogs, some games, popcorn and cotton candy, glowsticks that didn't glow, and balloons that you could make into animals (but no one who could do it). Oh, and they had a jump castle. TJ had so much fun in it, and screamed and cried when we finally had to go home. I've decided that one day I'm going to get a really big one to put in my yard (when I get a yard!). They're really good exercise. I played the cake walk. Blake, Wesley, and then Gina all won at it. I decided that it must be b/c of the last name. Soooo, I went back to my maiden name last night for a bit, so I could win, too. I'm not kidding you, once I did, and told the guy calling the numbers, I won! It was a little bit freaky! I also found out that Trey can make balloon animals (well, he hasn't quite figured out how to give the animals proper heads yet, but...), and now I'm trying to convince him to get a side job as a clown. We'll make millions!

Anyway, a good time was had by all. I hope your Halloween was a great one as well. I already put pics on here of my adorable little ones in costume, but yes, I'm gonna do it again! You have a great day, and I'll see you soon!



PS-I put the babies to sleep tonight at 8:30 on the dot, and by 8:45, both of them were sound asleep! There is a God!