House Rearranging

We've been busy "redecorating/rearranging" to make better use of our space.

We've been promising Mason and Evan for quite some time that we would upgrade to a plasma/HD/Flat screen thingy TV. Normally not my cup of tea, a TV is a TV and something I rarely watch. But this time, with a wall mount, I would gain mucho space-o.

So, a week or so ago, I mentioned that we could go ahead and proceed. I asked Mason and Evan to go do the research at several stores and come back with two or three options between "said price range."

Long story short - the men went out and hunted and slayed the biggest dragon they could fine. They literally came home beating their chests with the thrill of victory for their kill. Not only was the size about 4 times what I had in mine, but it had far more bells and whistles than I had known possible. The clarity was so great, they told me, you would actually be able to see the mint date on the quarter tossed at a football game. Which is the whole reason your watch football in the first place, right? I could see the drool on all three of their beast slaying faces. And I made a mental note to change the Christmas budget to $25 per each idiot for the next 9 years to make up the cost difference for this latest addition to our family (that they assure me will last for the next 20 years).

New TV: $(insert ridiculous amount here)
Wall mount: $225
New Cables: $90

Extended Warranty: $295

Guaranteed (not to fall off the wall) Installation: $400
Total Price of TV: $Thousands

Grey Leather sectional Couch in mint condition found on craigslist.com (by the real Huntress in the family!): $500

Two minutes into first TV viewing session and Logan hurling a hard ball within two inches of the stuffed and mounted animal on the wall and hearing the collective gasp from the cavemen as for one brief moment they thought their victory celebration would be oh so short lived:

Priceless!

Some fun in the midst of rearranging. Mason and Evan dressed the boys up in their "muscle" shirts.





And for those of you who need help telling the twins apart, Austin is the one currently showcasing a new-do compliments of having a mini-shaving session with dad's razor!

You've at least got to appreciate a nice, clean line!

(...and if you look very closely off in the distance, you'll notice the beast sitting quietly atop it's new permanent perch...)

Reintegrating Daddy - Chaos ensues

Daddy finally had a day off. The whole day off, not the kind where he still works 4 to 5 hours.

I had visions of grandeur, bells ringing, the heavens opening up for a day of rest and peace for Mom.

But Daddy and I were not in-sync.

My day started off in bed. Gary had just woken up and gone downstairs (hmm, maybe he'll make a pot of coffee, yea!). And I heard a baby wake-up, go to the top of the stairs and cry: "Mommy, mommy, mommy!!"

I waited. And waited for Gary to come get the baby. He. never. did.

I got out of bed. ugh. And got the baby. I went downstairs.

"Gary, um - did you hear the baby?"

"Yeah. Uh, but he was calling for you."

Oh.

My.

God.

Are you serious?

The rest of the day just followed suit. We were like two un-well oiled machines that hadn't worked together all summer long. lol

I escaped to run a few errands because I was yelling at the kids, yelling at Gary, and I think yelling at the dog, too.

When I came home, everybody was upstairs. I went up and collapsed on my bed. The twins came in and out. I was on the phone with a friend. After I finished chatting, I lay in the empty, quiet room. I could hear Austin and Logan downstairs. "Hmm, let me make sure Gary is with them." From the house phone, I called his cell phone which was on the kitchen counter. He doesn't answer. I dial it several times. Then, from my cell phone, I dial the house phone. Three times. He never picks up. So, I. get. up. - ugh.

And I find Gary in the nursery rearranging their pajamas. (Why? I don't know?)

"Gary - the kids are downstairs. I'm not with them."

"Well, they were with you."

"Yeah, but they left. You're in charge today, honey." (you know that tone, right? lol)

"Well, but they were with you....why would I think or know they've left."

Ugh!

I go downstairs. And. Oh. It's so bad.

They have brought down the ginormous jar of Vaseline and emptied it!!! All over their table. All over their face, their body, their arms. They're TV. Our TV. The ottoman. The chair. Apparently, a clean-up was attempted - because a full box of wipes lay in disarray - also covered in Vaseline.

I got nailed before I could access the situation, so my shirt, my pants all got slimed in Vaseline.

And yes, my brain thought - capture this in pictures for the blog. But I was way too angry to even attempt. And would Vaseline even show up?

I threw the two of them out the back door and shut it - they were sliming everything in sight! Gary knew from my yells to get downstairs and started cleaning up (how the frick do you clean-up Vaseline!!!) right away.

I grabbed paper towels and headed out back to clean-up the boys......who had jumped in the swimming pool!!

Super - what could be better than wet vaseline!

So...I left the house again. lol. I went to Nonnie's for a girl's movie night.

But, God help us - Gary's off again tomorrow!

Bin full of Bargains!

I love a good bargain and nothing says "bargain" better than End of the Year Clearance. Earlier this year, I hit the motherload of all sales! Macy's was having a Buy One, Get One Free (A Twin Momma's DREAM!) sale on their already marked down items. $32 sweaters were marked down to $16 - so I got some fantastic sweaters for $8 each!! I think I bought out the table.

Then, later I went back and their clearance rack marked 75% off was an additional 35% - I bought all the way up to 4T. I think I came home with 8 Macy's bags filled to the rim for only $150.

So, Nonnie and I pulled out our 2T and 3T bin to see what we had ready for this fall. And I got excited all over again looking at my purchases!!




And I may not have girls - but these guys know fashion and they love new clothes!
Logan modeling black cotton long sleeve sport themed shirt paired with fashionable casual/dressy black shoes.


Austin modeling one of 1,000 new sweaters with classic zipper pull paired with his all time favorite, new tennis shoes.

Check us out!

Maybe this view is better, Mom?

Clothes tested and approved for jumping, flying and rough housing!

Mom - we may know good clothes when we see them, and we don't mind playing dress-up and modeling for you, but we just want to remind you that we are ALL boy - Okay? Got it?

That age old question...

Boxers?

Or

Briefs?

Baseball with Daddy and a solo trip to Nonnie's

Gary was able to make it to the last game of his team's summer playoffs and we all went to cheer him on! Austin and Logan are great shouters of "Hit the ball, Daddy!" and "Run!"

Eatin' at the "table." Austin's the only one looking at the camera and smiling. Good boy, Austin!

Nonnie and I had a special girl's "afternoon" out and went and saw Mama Mia - my first movie in like, 7 years I think! It was a great time out and a fun movie. I'm still singing the songs. When we came home, Austin wanted to go "bye-bye" with Nonnie. So, we let him go home with her And we played "only child" with Logan.

This is Austin all by himself with Nonnie (He LOVES her new car and didn't want to get out).
Having a ball, loving the solo attention at Nonnie's. I think he would have spent the night there and been just fine. Logan missed him like crazy, but we took him out to dinner and he eventually did "alright" without his bro.

We try and do separate things with them, but I'm the first to admit we need to do it more. I think everbody enjoys it!

For your viewing pleasure..

Videos!!

Don't feel the need to watch ALL the videos ALL the way through unless of course, you're "jone-zen" so badly because you realized that you haven't actually "seen" my babies since Mid-May when the Computer gods started attacking me.

When we went to the beach in May, the kids swam in the water sans any floaty device-thingy. They loved it, but it wore (lol - I just got busted here by spell check for trying to use the word "weared" - too southern, eh? lol) us out (my mom and I). And in July we went to the lake with friends and I knew the boys would be all over the place so I made Gary buy the big-ole-honking lifesaving device. It was awesome, but kept flipping the boys over like turtles. They were frustrated but still somehow found the way to distribute their weight and swim!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

That day with floaties at the lake was so nice, I started making the boys wear them when we went swimming. They know no fear. I'll have to capture another video of them swimming sans life vests - they have completely graduated to "fish." I don't know where this ability in water comes from, but we'll probably get them some lessons over the winter just to keep their love of water alive.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And this is them blowing bubbles, spotting their neighbor buds and a little bounce time on the trampoline with my brother.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I have angered the Sleep gods...

And apparently the Technology/Communication gods are not ready to release their curse on me either.

No lying - I've spent the entire day trying to get my Internet back up and running. Obviously with success. But it seems I just can't let my guard down for one minute! And I'm waiting on yet another new camera cord to be able to download from my new-to-me camera.

During my blogging hiatus, I wasn't able to mention how well sleep had been going. Austin has been sleeping through the night (10PMish to 8:30AMish) every day. Logan will still go down like a champ but at anytime during the night, he will wake up, trot on into our room and plop into bed with us. If you remember, it took a full 2weeks to get them to go from co-sleeping to their own room/beds. I had a rougher/longer stretch with Logan and we had a lot of "cry it out" nights. Well - that sort of backfired on me: Logan became a completely different child, angry, hitting, biting. You could see it in his eyes and face muscles. Once I put two and two together, I started comforting/soothing him again when he cried out at night. Even if it was just to rock him for a few minutes. Within two days, he returned to the fun, happy go lucky little Logan he was before. Ever since, life has been great. Austin sleeping through (3 hours naps and 10 hours at night). Logan doing the same except maybe one cry out at nap and joining us randomly throughout the night.

Last night Logan spiked a fever for some unknown reason (milk allergy? Daddy took the boys out for ice cream. New Calcium multi-vitamin? It certainly has, uh, clotted up the poo in a good way. Molars coming in?) . He didn't appear to be in pain, he answered all my questions clearly (Tummy hurt? nope. Head hurt? nope. Want some water? okay. ) He woke up screaming, wanting to come downstairs. We hung out for a bit then I took him back upstairs. And he just tossed and turned forever. I had given him Tylenol when he first woke-up and then I remembered that that never seems to help us with fevers. So, an hour later he got Motrin and another hour later he finally went to sleep. The last time I looked at the clock it was 4:30am - and I had not been to sleep at all.

So, Logan's fever went down. He went to sleep. I went to sleep. And Little Mr. Sir-Sleeps-A-Lot Austin decided today of all days to wake up at 6:30AM!! And was ready for the day. WTF!?! Did you do the math? I barely got two hours, if that, of sleep. AiyiYIyiYee!

Nap time was not much better. Keeping my fingers crossed for tonight.

I didn't realize how much I had been sleeping until I didn't get my sleep last night. I am very, very thankful for how well we have been sleeping all summer long. Even more so than the technology gods, I would like to make an offering to the sleep gods. I love me some sleep!!