Totally Random Thursday Post

I have a confession to make.  I am sort of obsessed with British things.  Not crazy obsessed like buying Will and Kate memoirbilia (can't figure out how to spell that word!).  I didn't even watch their wedding.  I probably would have but we didn't have a tv at the time.  But things like tea, and their cool flag, and castles.

I am not sure where the US obsession with princesses and fairy tale endings and all that came from, probably straight from the source when Britain first landed over here on our giant land mass we call home, but I have to admit that I love it.  I know I should probably say that it is such a bad example for our little girls.  That setting them up for the prince to come and save them is ruining a lot of what reality is like.  But I don't care.  (And feminists will probably hate me, but when did it become a crime to find a husband who loves you unconditionally, and has sworn to be faithful and take care of you for the rest of your life?  That's the type of husband I have, and yes, while I can get the door on my own and take care of most of my needs, it sure is sweet when he does it and shows me how much he loves me.  And no, it doesn't lessen who I am as a woman.)

Anyway, back to the subject.  Because it really isn't the prince finding the princess part that I love (although I do like that too), but it's the time period and the clothes and just how society functioned during that part.  I should probably say wealthier society, because I have read a lot about how medieval society kind of sucked if you weren't wealthy.

It just sort of makes me long for a time when their was tradition and formality instead of girls in clothes that aren't appropriate for prostitutes, and wait, their moms are wearing it too.  There I go again off subject.  I am finding it just so hard to focus!

Somewhere I read that Britains average 3 cups of tea a day.  Americans, three cups per week.  This makes me wonder, why drink tea at all if you are only doing it 3 times a week?  I don't even think that's enough to really get any of the health benefits that tea is supposed to have.

In case you live under a rock, and don't feel bad because that's probably where I am most of the time, the summer Olympics are in London.  I imagine all things British will be hot sellers soon.  I am not a huge fan of summer Olympics, my favorite event would be the crazy diving stuff that they do.  Isn't that insane?  I don't think you could pay me to jump off a platform many feet in the air and do tricks.  And I am not even afraid of heights, more of the plunging like crazy to the surface thing and then having to look pretty while doing it.
We'll probably tune in every once in a while.  I like to watch the opening ceremony, and I think it's good for the kids to see all the different things people can do.  Although I have to admit it seems like a giant waste of money.  I read in a magazine about an entire building that was built for some type of indoor bicycle racing.  This humongous first class building not even for regular bike riding.  What are they going to do with it when everything is over?

Anyway, that's all I've got for today, and I am not 100% where it came from.  For the record, I am also obsessed with Czarist Russia.  Not crazy Vladimir Putin Russia.  Also for many of the same reasons as for Britain. I actually took Russian in college.  We spent the first 3 months just learning the Cyrillic alphabet.  My kids think I totally rock that I can read something that looks just bizarre.   Anyone else have these crazy loves of other countries for perfectly silly reasons?

Crap Nuggets

That's the word Owen invented when we were playing the Curious George match game.  Pretty creative, don't you think?

At our house, I say crap a lot.  I know that I probably shouldn't because then the kids pick it up, but I just can't help it.  And considering it's the worst word I say (with very rare exceptions) I don't feel too bad about it.  I do think it's silly though, if I were to get after my kids for saying it when we do.  So we let them say it.  But the nuggets part, he came up with that all on his own.  I am raising geniuses over here.

We had our first beach attempt.  It was interesting.  All Truitt wanted to do was eat sand, Moyz and Kembia liked the water, but then they both ended up losing their balance and falling on their tummies.  They had their life jackets on, and I always give my kids a chance to react to the situation before scooping them up.  Moyz just stayed on his tummy and tried to stand back up but couldn't quite get his feet under him, so I stood him back up and off he went and played again.  Kembia had a little bit more trouble and she didn't like being on her tummy in the water at all.  So after she stood back up she decided to come and hang out on the sand for awhile.  But this a humongous improvement from when she first came home.  Bath time for her was absolutely the end of the world.  I am talking full out screaming and flailing and trying to keep her body out of the water.  She either had some type of terrible experience with it at the orphanage, or never got more than a sponge bath and was terrified.

Overall the beach was a success, but Chris was there as well as a couple of my girlfriends, so there is absolutely no way that I would do it on my own.  Hubby would run into the water after Ava and Owen and the little ones would follow thinking that they could do it too.  It's just too dangerous to do on my own.  Stuff of my nightmares.

Speaking of nightmares, last night I had a dream where Truitt choked on a bouncy ball.  Today I am thoroughly going through the house and picking up all of the things that remotely could be a choking hazard.

Hiding From My Kids At Home

This week has kind of sucked.  Every single day, whining, plus whining, plus whining.  I am pretty sure I also called Chris everyday at 5 to ask if he was getting off work on time.  A couple of times he said no.  I almost cried.

Today I hit the wall.  Hard.  I told dear hubby, I'm heading out, don't know when I am coming back. (Today, not forever, just want to be clear on that!) Can't take the children anymore.  To which he replied, "Well this is our life now".  Can I say how that did not go over well at all?  After a couple of heated moments of discussion, we both realized we were taking things the wrong way, but I still left to watch the movie Avengers all by myself, my favorite way to watch a movie.  It was pretty good, and I haven't seen any of the others about it.

Hubby called to say that they were headed down to one of my fav. shopping destinations and did I want to meet up with them.  Nope.  I am hiding from my children at home.  Sad, I know.

I walked into the house, and not a sound to be heard.  I cannot seriously remember the last time my house was quiet during the day.  I can't remember the last time I was in my house with NO CHILDREN.  I am hoping that they stay away for a very long time.

Mommy needs a break.

Week 3 Update

Down 8 pounds.  Yeah!  I am very happy with that.  I was sort of hoping that the 8 pounds would come off my hips and thighs which is my numero uno trouble spot, but it appears that it's coming off my arms and the upper part of my stomach.  But I'll take it.

One thing I have noticed is that if I am too lazy to take the time and cook something and then therefore postpone lunch until I am absolutely starving, it is a different type of hungry.  Instead of the sugar crashing hungry, it's just hungry.  This I am super thankful for.  I know that I have talked a little bit about being hypoglycemic, but eating like this has really changed the way my body reacts to sugars.  I love not crashing throughout the day.

Before when I would have crashes the easiest way to deal with it was to quick drink some type of sugary pop.  And since Coke (regular, never diet) was my favorite way to drink calories, it always worked out well for me!  Do I miss Coke?  Yes, sad to say I still do, but I don't have any cravings for it.  But now I no longer have the crazy cycle of sugar crashing, drink something sugary and have it crash again.  It's quite nice.

I have no idea how many calories a day I am eating, I haven't been keeping track at all.  At first I would venture to say not a whole lot given the majority of my diet is veggies and fruit.  But then I always add olive oil when I am cooking, and there are lots of calories in oil, so I am probably getting more than I realize.  Plus I don't restrict myself from eating at all.  If I am hungry, I eat something.

Two days ago for lunch I had an entire avocado that I turned into guacamole and ate that.  And I am pretty sure that avocado has some serious calories, and if not, for sure some serious fat.  It was seriously yummy, and I will definitely be repeating that, probably today.

I am going to try and stick with this until my crazy canoe trip at the end of June, beginning of July.  Because it will not be easy to eat that way on the trip.  Fresh fruit and veggies are a little hard to keep nice and fresh and not smashed on a 100 mile canoe trip.  And even though we will be eating some rationed food, it will be things along the lines of noodles and carb heavy things.  I believe we are even going to go the MRE route for several meals, and you know those aren't all that great for you.

Hope you all have a great Memorial weekend.  It is supposed to rain here the majority of it, and although I would love to go camping one Memorial weekend, that would require planning, something that I seriously lack in my life right now.  Plus I am not sure that the rest of the campground would be excited if we showed up with our tribe and tented next to them.  Actually, now that I am thinking about it, tenting with 3 kids under 2 doesn't really sound all that fun!

Talking Babies

Now that the babies have mastered the words and concept of no, mine, and naughty, life has taken on a new twist here at our household.

Instead of previously just screaming at one another if someone took something, now they yell mine, and naughty to the other.  And sometimes if they feel the other one is being exceptionally bad, they will wag their finger as they say no.  I didn't even realize that I did that until I saw the babies doing it.  And they had to learn it from somewhere!

They also will come up to me if one is screaming and acting out and ask me "nigh-nigh?"  Which means that they think the other person should take a nap.  Because at our house, if you keep whining for no reason I will tell you that if you can't stop crying you will have to take a nap.  Well, those babies are smart and they picked up on that real fast.  Mostly I think they say it in the hopes that I will put the other baby down and then they can be all by themselves, free to roam around the house without sibling interruption.

Truitt has also decided to become mobile this week.  He doesn't crawl, but kind of gets into the beginning crawling position and then can't get his other leg around so he pulls himself forward using one leg.  Exactly how Moyz used to do it.  Yesterday he was all over the living room floor.  Now I have to go back and really baby proof things because I came into the living room and he had gotten to a magazine, ripped out a page and was chewing down on that puppy.

Ava's ear has been bothering her for the last several days.  She told me she thought it was because Owen yelled in her ear a couple of times.  And because I am the awesome mother that I am, I said that we needed to wait a while before I would take her in because I wasn't going to spend $175 on a visit because your brother yelled in your ear.  Yesterday we finally went in for an appt. at 7:15 in the morning, I literally threw granola bars at my kids in the car on the way, amazed that we made it on time, and lo and behold she has a raging ear infection.  Awesome.  Only the second one of her life.  And I pretty much ignored it for 3 days.  What doesn't kill you makes your stronger.....

And then tonight, ah, tonight.  Tonight starts soccer for both Ava and Owen.  I am not really looking forward to this as they both play at the same time on the two fields furthest away from each other.  And Moyz is going to be devastated that he can't run out onto the field and play.  That kid has an obsession with balls that is pretty much unparalleled.  There is no way the babies will be able to stay in their stroller for an hour and a half, so every thursday will be spent trying to keep our kids off the field.  I already do this every Tuesday when Chris has softball.  So now I get to do it 2 times a week!  Although Chis will be able to help. If I am lucky, he'll get the babies and I will take Truitt and we will have to split our times at the fields and then swap to see both kids.

Let the summer crazy begin.  Isn't it supposed to be relaxing?!

Plant Based Diet Week 2

I should have posted this last Friday, but we were out of town, so you will probably get two posts like this this week.

Week 2 went okay.  Overall I am down 4 pounds, so I finally lost my "Montana weight".  Not too bad for two weeks!  But I did end up cheating a bit.  At the end of week 1 I was so bloated with gas and in a lot of pain.  Even more pain then when I ate an entire pound of brussel sprouts by myself about a year ago and blogged about that.  I truly looked how I do at about 5 months pregnant, which meant a whole lot of stretchy pants, and since I don't really own stretchy pants I was walking around the house in large t-shirts of my hubby's and sometimes his sweatpants which he doesn't like that I do that because they are too long and I step on the ends of them and make them ratty.

Anyway, so I cheated by eating chicken and some other meat, but I still didn't really have any processed foods, and the majority of my diet was plant based.  It seemed to help a lot to get something else in my system as far as gas and bloat, but then maybe I was starting to get used to it too.  But then I also cheated last weekend where we were staying for the funeral.  It is super hard to eat this diet at someone else's home, especially if they are inclined to not eat veggies.

I did have processed foods twice.  One time for supper I had noodles and I had cereal one morning.  As soon as I started putting that stuff back in my system I could feel it, I swear.  My blood sugar also crashed later that day and that hadn't happened since I had started the diet.

I have found that the easiest way to stick to this diet is to have some type of meal that you really love to fall back on.  Lunch is the hardest meal of the day for me even when I am not restricting what I eat.  For some reason I just can't seem to get it together for this meal.  My fall back for lunch is tabouli.  I continue to make this a lot.  I didn't eat it much last week, but have started up again.  It's fairly quick and super yummy.  And then I don't have to stare in my fridge wondering what will magically materialize that I didn't see before.  Also, I eat a lot of strawberries because they are in season right now, and therefore cheap.

Some people say that they notice their fingernails and hair stop growing as quickly because of the lack of meat.  I haven't noticed anything in this department because my nails take forever to grow, and although my hair typically grows fast, I haven't had time to take notice of it.

That's it for week 2!

Seeing Color

Now that the babies have been  home for 10 months, we normally don't notice all the people staring when we are out in public.  Things are just too crazy to see, and we are used to it.

At the funeral for our friend's little girl, a family sat next to us who had 3 adorable little white girls and their equally adorable black brother.  We didn't have our kids with and we obviously noticed this family right away.  Okay, so they sat right next to us and it would be hard not to notice them, but we would have noticed them anyway.  Partly because we have black kids too, but partly because you notice families that are "different".

It is still unusual to see a family with black and white kids.  It drives me crazy when people say that they don't see color.  Yes you do.  Everyone sees color, everyone looks at our family and goes hey, they have different colored kids.  I wonder how that happened.  When I look at my kids I obviously see different colors, half are black and half are white, but it doesn't affect my parenting them.  It really doesn't ever come in to play unless someone comments about it.

What I think people mean when they say that they don't see color is that they are trying to stress that they don't feel prejudice/racist.  Of course, we seem to get a lot of people that feel the need to tell us that they don't see color, and for the most part I think they are trying to make us feel good and let us know that it doesn't bother them that we have black kids.  But the saying kind of bugs me because it is something silly to say in general, and also because I think sometimes people use it to deny the prejudice feelings they do have.  I know that because I am guilty of prejudice thoughts as well even with my black kids.

I think we all have and continue to have prejudice thoughts based on how society has dealt with and formed opinions in the public at large as well as our own personal experience which we then generalize onto an entire population.  Think of some that you may have- asians are super smart, blacks are really athletic, native americans drink a lot, white people think they are better than everyone else etc. you get the picture.

Having black kids has really helped me catch myself if something not appropriate comes into my head.  And lets face it, we are all human, and need to work on sin in our life.  I will make snap generalizations about people initially based on my previous experience with someone like them.  But that's the catch isn't it?  "Someone like them" isn't them, and I need to remember that.

Anyway, didn't mean to get all serious on my first post back, but there you have it.

On a funnier side note, we saw what to expect when your're expecting, and when I saw Chris Rock pushing a double stroller with a kid in a front carrier, I realized just a little bit how ridiculous I look sometimes!!

In Memory of Nora

Yesterday we found out that our good friends' unborn daughter had died.  Our friend was due May 3rd, and had yet to have their little girl.  Last Friday they felt her while watching a movie but during the night she passed away.  Nora was born Saturday appearing to be a healthy baby.  The doctor could not find any reason for the death.  Her older sisters are taking it very hard, and her mom and dad are only just beginning to grieve.

I would love it so much if you would pray for this family.  Pray for healing and pray for peace.  I pray that all the family members turn towards God instead of away.

I cannot even imagine the devastation, going home to a beautiful nursery filled with beautiful little pink girly things, but the little girl who was to wear them won't ever be able to.  It just breaks my heart thinking about all of it.

Hug your kids extra tight because life is so short and we don't ever know when our last day is.

Kembia's First Braids

I did Kembia's hair in braids for the first time on Friday.  It took a looong time.  Almost 4 hours to be exact. We did one movie in the morning, coupled with a ginormous sucker, and then after lunch and nap we did a second movie, as well as 20 minutes at supper.  She did really great for the most part.  A few yells here and there.  A friend swears that I will be doing it faster in the future.  I am so happy with how it turned out.  She looks much older now.  Two weeks ago we had a woman at McDonalds ask how old she was because "she doesn't look old enough to walk".  I don't think she would say that anymore!  

Chris came home and was shocked to see how old she looks.  Half my girlfriends admit that they missed her little fro because she looked younger.  I think it was a tad bit of a shock to some on Sunday at church when she came in with a full head of braids.

I should probably also mention that they are yarn braids.  Her hair only goes to about 1/3 the length of the braids.  That fooled everyone as well.  They couldn't believe that her little fro stretched out into braids this long and then I had to tell them they didn't!  

We picked black yarn with little flecks of color, but I picked up a hot pink skein to use with the black next time.  I have a friend who does color in her girls' braids and it looks so awesome, but I didn't want to do that her first go round.  This mama has to go slow with the changes.  I went from a baby to a toddler in 4 hours.  

She likes to shake her head so the braids go across her face, as well as stick the ends in her mouth.  Why do little girls have to do that?

Gas, Again

Usually I don't post a lot on weekends, but I wanted to get this one in there in case any of you happen to make significant changes (diet, exercising, whatever) on a weekend.  I almost always start something on a weekend.  Why is that?

Anyway, just wanted to give another gas warning if you follow the plant-based diet rules.  Yesterday my stomach was so bloated and painful, Chris came home and said I honestly looked like I was about 5 months pregnant.  It hurt so bad.  Does anyone know if this is going to go away?  Because I'm gonna be real honest here, if it doesn't, there is zero chance I am going to stick with this long term.  It's just too painful.

I am going to look into things like Beano, but I have to say I am pretty sad at the level I am experiencing this.

Okay, all done with the gas talk.  I just felt like I had to warn you!

Have a great weekend!

Plant Based Diet Week 1

I am going to post hopefully every friday a wrap-up of my week on the whole plant based diet thing.  I'll apologize right now to those of you who couldn't care less.  But it's a good way to keep myself accountable if I put things out there that other people can see.  9*9**9*9--------*999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999*

Okay- see all those 9s?  I went to the bathroom and came back to Moyz blogging for me!

Anyway, on to week 1 summary.

Week one was better than I thought it was going to be in terms of me not feeling hungry all the time.  I really thought I was going to feel like I was starving, but not so much.  I ran out of items to make tabouli 2 days ago, and this diet is a lot harder to figure out what to eat if I don't have that around.  But my kids thought it was time for me to move on anyway.  They repeatedly asked me how many times could I eat tabouli, and I have to admit that while I completely love it, even I was getting a little tired of it, not sick of it, but tired.

I have not had one episode where I could feel my blood sugar crashing so I am excited about that.  But I have had quite a few moments where I wished I could have eaten something.  I miss eggs like crazy.  I usually eat some form of eggs for breakfast, and hard-boiled were often snacks.  I also was craving a yogurt smoothie with plain yogurt and fruit, but no go.  It will be interesting to see if I still want these foods after an entire month.

Last night I went to the Hunger Games again, and two girlfriends of mine just happened to be there.  And they had a humongous vat of movie popcorn with them.  I was so sad.  The smell was so wonderful, but I resisted!

One of the biggest issues I have had, and it's not a very delicate one, eating all these vegetables has given me gas like I have never had before.  I am not kidding.  I fart all of the time.  I am hoping that this issue will resolve itself, because I don't want to be known as the lady that farts all the time!  Owen thinks it rocks that I can fart a lot.  And poor Chris, let's just say I feel bad for him!

This is what I am making tonight:

Lentil Soup


Ingredients:

• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot sliced
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• dash salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation:

In a large pot, sautee the onions and carrot in the vegetable oil for 3-5 minutes until onions turn clear.

Add the vegetable broth, lentils, pepper, thyme, bay leaves and salt.

Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until lentils are soft, about 45 minutes. Remove bay leaves and stir in lemon juice before serving. Makes 4 servings of lentil soup.

I will probably have something meat related for the rest of my family and a salad as well.  I haven't really missed desserts, but I have sort of compensated by eating a lot of strawberries, still I would love a piece of chocolate.  

And of course, the last piece: weight loss.  I have lost 2 pounds this week.  I was kind of hoping for more, seeing as I am only eating vegetables and fruit for the most part, but I am not going to be upset at any loss.  For those who may be wondering how the whole going to Peru thing is going, I have been feeling really bad at a trip that would literally cost thousands of dollars that definitely can be spent more wisely somewhere else (like finishing the basement to get more bedrooms!) but we will be doing something big if I can lose that much weight.  My little trip to Montana set me back big time.  I gained 4 pounds in 4 days.  I don't even want to talk about it!

PS. I know at least one of you is doing this as well, and I would love to hear recipes and how it is going for you!  I checked out happyherbivore.com that one of you suggested and it is a great website for anyone who might be interested in it.

The Green Inchworm

I tried hard to upload a picture for you, but for whatever reason it just wouldn't let me.  So picture a cute little green inchworm.  You know the kind, the ones that hoist their entire middle section into the air to inch along, all that effort and barely any surface covered.

Last night we are all eating supper at the picnic table.  Moyz was on top of the table to help prevent his food from falling into the grass.  When all of a sudden I look over and he has a teeny little green inchworm on the tip of his finger.  He noticed it pretty much the same time I did.  He picked his finger up, looked at it closely, and popped it into his mouth and ate it.

I only had time to say "Moyz, no!"  And down the hatch it went.  Kind of reminds me of the time he tried to eat a live frog.  I don't know what it is with that kid and eating things that are alive and moving.

Plant Based Diet

I have seen a couple of people blog about eating a plant-based diet only and feeling fantastic.  (This would be separate from vegetarian because you can't have any processed foods)  No blood sugar spikes, no tiredness throughout the day (once their body adjusted to eating that way) and no cravings for sugar.  Kind of like what Adam and Eve ate before the fall and meat entered the picture.

So I decided to bite the bullet.  

I originally picked last Saturday as my start date, and I did awesome for breakfast and lunch, and then remembered that some girlfriends and I were going to a Vietnamese restaurant for supper, and I totally ate like a heathen, and it was heaven, and I am already dreaming about going again!

But I pulled myself back together on Sunday and ever since then I have been going on strong.  The main blog that I have followed this is Biblical Homemaking, and while she hasn't updated a lot about it, I think she is going to give people recipes and what they eat and all that stuff.  Her blog is awesome regardless of that, so I would check it out if I were you.  (She might make you a little envious, just a warning.  I think I might want to be her when I grow up!)

Basically the rules are you eat only plants, or food directly from a plant ex. oatmeal.  No sugar, dairy, meat, flour, eggs, processed foods of any kind, no artificial sweetners, etc.  At first I thought, crap, what am I going to eat?  Because when you take away all of that, there isn't a whole lot left.  

Here's what a typical day looks like for me:

Breakfast:  oatmeal with agave nectar and strawberries.  I am going to have to mix this up because after 5 days of this, it's getting kind of old.  

Lunch:  homemade tabouli.  This contains bulgur wheat, onions, tomatoes, lemon juice and olive oil, plus salt and pepper.  I think I am probably cheating with salt and pepper, but I don't care!  They can make a lot of things taste good, and possibly I am cheating with the bulgur wheat, but on the package the only ingredient is whole grain wheat, so I am going to make an exception here.  Plus, it's supposed to be very good for you.  Although I suppose I could try the recipe with wheat berries just to see what it tastes like.

Supper:  potato of some type, either sweet or regular, and veggies roasted.

Snacks: fresh fruit or veggies.

Of course you can toss in salads of any type, just make your dressing with olive oil and lemon juice.  There are a lot of good vegetarian soups out there that I haven't tried yet.  I have actually been felling really good so far, I know for a lot of people that first week is really tough, but I am wondering if the tabouli is helping me with that?  

I am going to do this until June, just a little over 30 days.  I am excited to see how it will make me feel different, if at all.  My kids are not doing it.  Somehow I think they would freak if I made them eat salads or tabouli everyday for lunch!  But I am sure we will implement some things, like beans and brown or wild rice for supper instead of meat, which we kind of do already.  The biggest emphasis will be avoiding all those processed foods, and they will naturally get that trickle down because I am not buying those items anymore.  

Seeing as they are still babies, I feel it is important to make sure they get what they need to help them grow, and they will drink milk for calcium a lot easier than broccoli, and meat still wins over a diet only of beans hands down with my kids.  They take after their dad!

Wish me luck!  

The 300th Post

Wow.  I can't believe that I have made it to 300 posts.   It's a long time when I think that I started it before my kids came home.  And I suppose it's not really just an adoption blog, and hasn't been for awhile.  More like a mind dump for Jess.

I thought I would make post 300 a personal reflection.

So this past week I was reading Catching Fire (again, can't wait for the movie which is probably still a long ways out) and I came to the part in the book where Peeta is doing everything in the arena to keep Katniss alive (again, and really isn't that mostly how it goes the first and second books?) and just the way he is so selfless made me think of my hubby, Chris.  It also made me feel like crap.

This happened the first time I read the book, but then I proceeded to forget about it.  And then it happened the second time I read the book, and then I remembered the first time it happened, and then I felt even worse. The reason I felt so bad is that Chris is a very selfless person, and I AM NOT.  I feel like I need to all-caps that for myself to let it sink in.

He doesn't read my blog, but if he did, I can almost guarantee that he would say he's not selfless and such and is very-self centered.  And he's not saying or doing it for more attention or accolades.  It's really just the way he is.  I definitely married up.

Normally, I don' think twice about how he sacrifices and lets me have more "me" time than him.  I think the babies had been home 5 months before he went on a Saturday and did something fun with friends.  5 whole months.  I know for sure that I had gone on several Saturdays either by myself or with a friend to get away from the madness in those first 5 months. And instead of being happy for him when he left, I was irritated and bummed because it wasn't me getting away.

I have done a lot of thinking this past week about how I act as a person.  Sure, I sacrifice for my kids and am fairly selfless when it comes to them.  But am I that way to adults and others?  Some, but not enough.  Especially when it comes to my husband.

This summer will be our 11th wedding anniversary.  During this time we have had ups and downs and neutral zones.  I call those "roommate" times.  Where you're married but you kind of feel like you are just roommates, living together but separate lives.  I wonder if I had been more selfless and more focused on us, if those moments would have been less.  That's where I wonder if a lot of divorces happen- the roommate times.  Because it seems that if you hadn't made a commitment for life, then it would be easy to bail out when things are neutral.  But marriage is a commitment, and love is a choice.  And you know what?  Every single roommate time has ended and our marriage is great.  Not without flaws, but great.

I  love Chris so much, and he deserves so much more than I can possibly give him, but I can make a conscious decision to focus less on myself and more on him and on our marriage.  I want to be one of those couples who have been married for 50 years and honestly say that each year is better than the one before.

I have a long ways to go, but I am hoping that recognizing it and "taking the bull by the horns" is a good step in the right direction.

Mason Jars

I am not super graceful, a trait which appears to have been passed on to Ava.  When Chris and I first got married, and for several more years, I managed to break a multitude of glass cups.  lots and lots of cups.  Then our first child got old enough to use regular cups, and broke lots and lots of cups.  So I drew the line in the sand.

One day while walking the aisles at Walmart, I came across a set of wide mouth mason jars, and I was hit with a light bulb moment.  Those things are practically indestructable (blogger doesn't like that word, I tried undestructable too, but it doesn't like that either.  Maybe it's not a word?).  So I brought a set home, and had 12 new drinking glasses for $9.  That's the problem with regular old glass glasses.  They break easy and they are expensive.

We have been using the same 12 glasses for about the last 7 years or so.  I have broken two.  Once when I dropped one onto something hard, and once that was kind of a freak thing where part of the bottom broke off when I was washing them.

Moyz has even grabbed one and launched it a fair distance across our kitchen.  To be fair, it's not like he's this whirling dervish of a kid who breaks/throws anything in sight.  Mostly he follows people around and snatches their glasses if they put them down and sucks the last of whatever happened to be in the glass at the time.  But those jars keep on keeping on.  Which is good because we have lots of kids and I am cheap.  Moral of the story is if your family has this same problem with glasses, and I am willing to bet a few of you do, switch to mason jars.  You will never, ever go back.  Just make sure it's the wide mouth ones.

And if you decide that drinking all liquids from a jar makes you too podunk (also not a word according to blogger), you can always do the following:



Here's the how to at the following:  http://karapaslaydesigns.blogspot.com/2010/03/diy-mason-jar-chandelier.html

Looks totally awesome, but the instructions seemed really long, and I am impatient.  However, I just may make an exception for this craft.  Someday.  When I have time.  Which, now that I think about it, will probably be in like 18 years.  Hmmm.

Gross But True

I can tell which one of my kids pooped based on the smell of it alone.  Isn't that disgusting?  Almost every morning when I go to get the babies up one of them inevitably has gone #2, and I pretty much can point to which one it is.

Apparently some gifts just lie dormant until the need arises.

It's too bad I couldn't have manifested the mind-reading gift, or super human strength gift.  Instead I get the who-dun-it crapper gift.

On the plus side, I have taught Kembia to hold her nose and say P-U.  And that's got to be worth something!

Part of Federal Tax Refund

So we got part of our refund back from the Feds.  The part that doesn't have to do with the adoption.  I was quite surprised that they sent that to us, but happy nonetheless.  I did panic though wondering if they were denying us the rest of it since no letter came with it, just a check.  So I gave the IRS a call.

In hindsight, calling on a Monday probably wasn't the best day.  I spent 32 minutes on hold waiting to talk to someone even after their computer system said that I would most likely wait for less time if I called back on Wednesday!  They said that essentially almost all adoptions were being audited this way, that most of them were being resolved in the 45 days that they requested.  She was able to tell me that they started looking at our adoption info. on April 26th.  And for those of you who either haven't sent in your info. or will be, she said that they do not look at any information sent with your original return because it is not stuff they specifically requested.  So I probably wouldn't waste the time to send it with your original stuff.  They will send you a letter anyways asking for all of it again because they won't look at it the first time.  It took 3 months for us to get our non-adoption part of our refund back.  Don't know if that's the norm or not, but now maybe some of you have an idea what to expect.

Can I just say that the money is burning a hole in my pocket!!  Not that we'll do anything what I would consider fun with it.  We need to build a bedroom downstairs and get another set of bunkbeds, things of that nature.  Plus there is always our insurance deductible to save for..... Practical things.  Still, a pretty big part of me wants to run out and by something just for the fun of it, or go to a fancy place for dinner.  Sometimes I just don't want to be practical.

On other news, Kembia and Moyz are starting to talk up a storm.  Not so much sentences, but lots and lots of words.  I was singing Hallelujah, and both of them repeated it out of the blue.  It was stinkin' adorable, and I was quite impressed that they were able to say a word with so many syllables.  Two days ago they both learned the word "no".  I can see that this is going to cause some problems in our family.  Kembia also uses "me" a lot.  Maybe just a tad bit selfish!  She also understands the difference of off vs. on.  She came up to me and said off, while trying to get her shirt off, and then brought me her shoes and said on.  I am so proud of her.  It is so amazing how well they are doing language wise considering that at one year they had to relearn what they had been spoken.  I can remember how I would say something to them and they would just cry and cry because they didn't understand.  Now pretty much whatever we tell them to do or ask them to get they do it.  I know that all my other kids did this, but it still never ceases to amaze me that these tiny little people understand what we are saying.  I mean, they are still babies!

Having two together is really good for them.  It seems that neither one wants to be left behind and that they both help each other to pick things up quickly.  It used to be that Kembia was a lot further ahead of Moyz and we sort of always said it was because she is a girl and older.  I still think that's true for some things, she seems to naturally get things much quicker on her own, but Moyz definitely picks things up by  watching and learning from her.  Probably just two different learning styles.

I am going to try and get a picture of the 3 babies in the cloth diapers, even though we don't cloth diaper Moyz.  Their little bubble butts are so adorable!