Packed Weekend

Packed Weekend

It seems as though life has picked up yet again!  I am running around non-stop!  From appointments to paperwork, I don’t think there’s a single moment in the day where I’m not doing something on my To Do List!  Maybe I should write “Get some rest” on that list!

Mike and I took all the kids to the Fair this last weekend!  They all behaved and had a great time!  Rhonin was even daring enough to drag Mike on his first roller coaster!  That’s “first roller coaster” for Mike and for Rhonin!  Jaren was a little more reserved and sat with me and the babies while they went.  They had fun on the Carousel, the racecars, and even the little canoe ride.  I have pictures from all the rides!  They rode some rides for a bit and even played a couple carnival games.  Jaren was really excited about the ballon and dart game so we had to give it a try.  The carnival guy gave us three darts, so a good compromise was for each of us to throw a dart.  Jaren concentrated so very hard, but ended up missing.  I popped a balloon with mine, and tried to give Rhonin some instructions on how to hold the dart.  He totally ignored me and just tossed it haphazardly at the wall of balloons.  It hit the bottom board and bounced up, popping a balloon as it went.  Jaren was rather surprised at his luck!  The carnival guy was very nice and gave us two small prizes instead of the one medium prize.  So both boys walked away with green fuzzy dice!  After that, the boys had a blast at the Pirate Play Area for the younger kids.  They even stuck around for the ventriloquist’s show, where Jaren was able to get up on stage and help out!

After that fun-filled part of the day, we somehow wrangled the two bags of energy into the car for a trip to Nana’s house.  Auntie Ali was quite happy about this!  We quasi-celebrated Jaren’s birthday all over again since Auntie Ali was away in Florida for the first celebration!  She made him a blue cake!  (Very tasty!)

My father even came out and mets the twins!  He said they were quite cute, and really, I have to agree!  (They turned 8 months old on Sunday, too.)  It was great to see him again.  I don’t get to see him very often, unfortunately.

Anyway, seeing all the cross stitch exhibits at the Fair really motivated me to get mine done.  My mother and I calculated that if I work on it at the pace I have been, it’ll take me about 4 years to finish.  If I manage to work on it daily, it’ll take me 2 years.  I am really hoping I can keep my motivation up!  My piece would blow the judges away for the Fair!  I think mine would be nicer than all of the other projects that were submitted this year.  The winners this year were nice, but mine is going to be much better!  It’ll be incredible… when it’s finished.  Now I just have to finish it…  I’ll keep you all posted on it’s progress!  Til next time… Cheers!

Motivation

Motivation

With the upcoming advertisements for the Fair coming back to town, I am painfully aware of my incredibly slow progress on my cross stitch project.  (Lovingly termed the “Monster Cross Stitch Project” or “MCSP” for short!)  I am hoping to eventually finish it someday and enter it into the Fair’s exhibits.  But unfortunately, I cannot enter it into any Fair when it’s not even close to being done!  I know that it wouldn’t be close to being done as I anticipated it taking at least a year.  But at this rate, it’ll take me 10 years!  I need to get a move on with it!

I am dying to work on it, but every night I go home, I end up being too tired to do much of anything.  Even tonight, I have things to do, so I won’t be able to work on it tonight either.  However, I am hoping I will get time this weekend.  I am really excited for it and I really want to see it finished.  I also want to prove all the doubters wrong!  It is possible for me to finish a project.  I swear!

In other news, I finally got my van.  I had been hoping to get one for at least the last year.  With the twins, it wasn’t possible to fit the whole family in the car at once!  We had to take two cars everywhere.  It was a pain the bum!  I have never been so excited before over getting a van!  It’s quite nice, though.  I even have a backup camera!  And tinted windows!  (All standard!)  And of course, I got red.  A Dark Cherry Red.  It’s beautiful!  Maybe with the next update, I’ll include a picture or something.  Maybe.

Anyway, back to my rather large To-Do List.  Wish me luck in finding time to finish more of my cross stitch project!

Settling In and Growing Up

Settling In and Growing Up

I know it has been so long since I’ve updated.  I’ll blame that on the twins!  I’ve been really busy since the last update.  Since I don’t want to keep you stuck here forever, I’ll keep it a bit short.

I managed to somehow get a 4.0 for Spring semester.  I’m not quite sure how I did that, but it feels nice.  I feel quite accomplished!  Three more semesters to go and I’ll be done.  I can’t wait for the day I get to graduate.  My family will be so proud of me for finally finishing my degree!  There were lots of problems with getting into classes for Fall due to Sonoma State’s registration system.  I almost didn’t get them!  I had to email teachers and get Add Codes to be added.  Since I’m a Super Super senior with over 180 units, they let me in the classes I need to graduate since they probably want me out of there!  I don’t blame them.  In Fall, I am taking Environmental Physio, Evolution, and Molecular Genetics.  Genetics is supposed to be the most difficult class and teacher of the three, but I am excited for it.  I just have to remember to study and stay on top of the material.  I certainly don’t want to fall behind now!

Jaren is doing wonderful.  He recently just finished up second grade and will be headed to third in Fall.  Naturally, he got high marks in class.  Such a smarty!  He’s really taken to the Harry Potter books and is blowing through them!  I couldn’t be more proud of that kid.  He also just got his beginning orange belt in his American Kenpo class.  He’s so much fun to watch.  About two weeks ago, he celebrated his 8th birthday.  We got some cute pictures with him and his birthday dinner.  Adorable smiles with his missing front tooth!

Rhonin is getting so big, too.  He has really grown with his vocabulary and will just tell you like it is.  When his Nana got a stomach ache, he went right up to her and told her, “Nana, you need to drink tea.  It makes your tummy feel better.”  How darling!  He’s been a great helper with the twins so far.  He just loves giving them their pacifier when they drop them, and fetching bottles when our hands are full.  He was recently caught just singing to Ren to entertain her.  It was darling!  He’s going to be celebrating his 4th birthday really soon, too!

Kerensa is growing by leaps and bounds daily.  She’s got great head control and is sleeping mostly through the night, waking only briefly one time.  At her last doctor’s appointment, she weighed in at over 13 pounds already!  She’s starting to get her hair in, too.  And surprise, it’s strawberry blonde!  I think she’s going to look quite a bit like Auntie Ali.  (No, Ali, she’s still MY daughter!)  She’s already learned to roll over, so I think crawling is next for her.  We’re just waiting for her to get a couple teeth now!  Should be any day now.  She’s also been eating solids daily, too!  She loves her veggies!

Merrick is growing up so fast already!  He is rolling over, and can mostly sit up on his own.  (I’m always there just in case he topples over.)  He’s been sleeping well like his sister, and weighed in at over 15 pounds at his last doctor’s visit.  We just discovered two teeth this morning, too!  He’s very proud of them.  You can tell because he’s always smiling!  He’s getting more hair, too and it’s dark like Mommy’s!  He is in love with his sold foods and goes to town with his oatmeal, applesauce, veggies, and fruits!  And boy, he loves to eat!  He could go through an entire big jar of baby food in one sitting now!

So I’m hoping that I’ll be able to update a bit more frequently now that our schedule has settled down a bit.  Father’s Day is coming up and we’re seeing a good Australian friend in San Francisco this weekend.  Maybe I’ll try to get a good picture and update next week.

And last, but not least, I’ve been working on getting the kids their photo gallery pages.  You can find the links at the top menu bar on this page.  Each of the them have their own domain and photo gallery.  I found a way to resize and upload the pictures of the kids that I take on my phone, so it should be pretty easy to get new pictures up there now.  I am a bit backlogged trying to get the older pictures up first, but I’m working on it!  I started with Jaren’s page first, but then I’ll be moving on to Rhonin, then Ren, then Merrick.  Stay tuned!  :)

Growing Up So Fast

Growing Up So Fast

Another week down, and I’m still alive!  I’m not quite sure how I’ve survived, either!  It’s been a tiring week!

Of course, I’ve been keeping up in school.  I’m taking Intro Biology classes so I can change my major from Biochemistry to Biology.  I’m not going to say these classes are ‘easy’, but they are a nice pace.  Especially since I have the twins at home now!

I’ve met some pretty awesome people in my classes so far.  They make attending class and lab a bit more fun.  :)  Of course, I still miss my classmates from other classes, too.  I may be in their classes again next semester.

We got the news that SSU is not going to offer the Intro Biology series anymore after this semester.  Biol 121, 122, and 123 are leaving us!  They are going to be introducing a new class in it’s place so that the General Chemistry class won’t be a bottleneck anymore.  (121, 122, and 123 require Gen Chem and people can’t get into that class easily!)  I feel bad for those that will be stuck in the middle of that class swap.  How confusing!  Luckily for me, I am taking 121 and 122 together this semester, so I will be done with the series when they stop offering it.

Anyway, the twins are doing great here at home.  I’d give you guys new weights for them, but I had to reschedule their appointment due to class times.  They’ll get in to get weighed again next week.  I believe they get their 2 month shots then, too… so let’s hope that goes okay!  They are getting so big, too.  It’s noticeable!  It’s crazy to think I’ll never have a ‘newborn’ ever again.. but I’m okay with that.  :)  My family is complete!

Rhonin is doing well.  He’s been such an awesome big brother and is really taking his new role seriously.  He will always ask to “kiss the babies” when we are holding them, and put his stuffed animals next to them so they can play with them, too.  It’s rather cute!  He also has recently just said “goodnight” and climbed into bed when it was bedtime.  On his own!  He’s getting so big!  I am so proud of the lil dude!

And Jaren was recently promoted from a white belt to a yellow belt in karate!  I am so proud.  When attending his class recently, the teachers were caught up in something and were going to be rather late.  So this group of 7 and 8 year old kids organized the class on their own and started practicing their karate before the teachers arrived.  However they are teaching discipline to those children, it’s working.  I was very impressed!

At this point, the babies are asleep, so I really should be taking this small window of opportunity to get some rest, too.  But I couldn’t leave you guys without a quick update!

Oh, and I’m getting the kids’ photo galleries going soon.  I need to add the pictures, but at least they are designed now.  I am hoping to get them updated with some recent pictures within the next week or two.  So don’t forget to check back!  :)

Finally!  An Update!

Finally! An Update!

Wow, I have been awful at updating this blog!  I’ve had it open for months, trying to remind myself!  I have so much to update with, it seems!

Well, one thing since my last update: I finished out my semester at SSU!  This was a big accomplishment for me since I was so busy and had so much on my plate.  I finished my classes and got a 3.0 as well!  I was just very impressed with myself that I was able to finish, let alone do well!  Organic Chemistry, Biology, etc… It was a decently difficult semester!  Add on top of that a full time job, and being pregnant with twins!  I figured the next semester I take at SSU will be easy since I’ll have twins at home.  I am currently taking Intro Biology.  Having taken the thirs Bio class in the series last semester, these two Intro Bio classes will be much simpler!

Next, I had the twins!  They were born November 28th at 9:07am and 9:08am.  Kerensa is older by a minute!  She will probably never let Merrick live that down, too.  The C-section wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be.  My doctor is pretty awesome and calmed my nerves.  The recovery is definitely longer than a vaginal birth, but it wasn’t too bad as long as I stayed current on my pain medications!  I made the mistake of missing a couple doses one day and I spent that evening on the bed, writhing in pain.  I never made that mistake again!  We stayed an extra night in the hospital because Ren and Merrick were having trouble maintaining their weight.  They lost too much, so we had to force feed them high calorie formula for a bit.

They have been doing well so far.  We are trying to get them on a good sleep schedule.  Unfortunately, they have their good and their bad days.  Today was one of the latter.  The twins didn’t think naps were necessary and they only napped for about 10 minutes at a time.  We did get one stretch of 17 minutes, but that was it.  They’ve been tag-teaming us all day!  One will settle down and the other will get riled up!  By the time you’ve changed, fed, and burped the upset one… the calm one has woken up!  It’s been a long day for us today.

We had professional pictures of the family taken, too!  They are gorgeous!  I need to pick out the ones I love and get them ordered!  They are online at: http://michellefphoto.zenfolio.com/p249478559

I am also working on the children’s web photo galleries.  There’s a link up at the top there.  I’m hoping to add a lot more pictures and get their sites working as soon as I can!

So I’m hoping I’ll be able to update here a bit more often.  The first 7.5 weeks of the twins has robbed me of my time!  But we’re getting a little extra time here and there, so I’ll make a better effort!  :)