Things we did this weekend.

We headed out to the Flower and Craft Warehouse with Elissa. Oh my goodness. I am not kidding you when I tell you that it could take a full week to see the entire store. It is literally a warehouse and it just keeps going and going and going. Whole rooms of beads, scrapbooking stuff, and candles. Oh my goodness the candles. We sniffed a million different varieties!! The only thing I was disappointed in was their yarn selection. It was barely have an aisle and none of it was soft and squishy. Hrumph.

Then we got silly. Well, Jenn got silly and Elissa and I took pictures of the silliness. First she decided that she wanted to get dressed up:

Isn’t she adorable!??!!

Then she made out with the Easter Bunny:

After our feet were all tired out from all the shopping we headed out to dinner. I am horrible when it comes to deciding what I want to eat. The menu went on and on!! I’m always worried that whatever I do order won’t have been what I actually wanted, so I will be sad. I wasn’t sad here! The had a pasta special and the pasta was YUMMY.

Then we took some pictures since all three of us have new camera phones, we all needed to pictures to store in them.
Stolen from Elissa:



Aren’t we all so fun?!?

Then there was Avery’s gymnastics olympics, and she was just TOO CUTE!
On the uneven bars:

And getting her gold medal:

Then on Sunday afternoon…there was this weather thing. It was a storm, that came out of nowhere. And dropped a tornado just a few miles from our house. In March no less. There was thunder and wind and lightening and hail. And we didn’t see it. And we didn’t get any pictures of it. We being Chris and I. Jenn and Lyz would rather hide in the basement. Chris and I would be the two following it around in the car. Hmmm….why didn’t we follow it around with the car?

Mingo Monday

Saturday evening we had a date with Elissa to head to the Flower and Craft Warehouse. (I have to mention that it is located in Blue Ball, Pennsylvania. I live in the oddest place. Virginville, Intercourse, Blue Ball, Climax…interesting names that the Amish have given the towns around us.) The place is hugegantic!!! We were there for over three hours and still didn’t see all of the stuff they have…but more on that tomorrow.

While browsing around we came across several cute mingos. But I found one that suited me perfectly, and gave me a flamingo to put in my front yard, so that I can be a true flamingo lover.

Isn’t she cute????

She isn’t your normal plastic yard flamingo…she’s extra tackilicious with jewels and she is all sparkly!

And a total steal for only $7.90 plus we had a 20% off coupon!! Yeah for extra cheap flamingos!!

Mingo Monday

Saturday evening we had a date with Elissa to head to the Flower and Craft Warehouse. (I have to mention that it is located in Blue Ball, Pennsylvania. I live in the oddest place. Virginville, Intercourse, Blue Ball, Climax…interesting names that the Amish have given the towns around us.) The place is hugegantic!!! We were there for over three hours and still didn’t see all of the stuff they have…but more on that tomorrow.

While browsing around we came across several cute mingos. But I found one that suited me perfectly, and gave me a flamingo to put in my front yard, so that I can be a true flamingo lover.

Isn’t she cute????

She isn’t your normal plastic yard flamingo…she’s extra tackilicious with jewels and she is all sparkly!

And a total steal for only $7.90 plus we had a 20% off coupon!! Yeah for extra cheap flamingos!!

A question or query or something

Last week Jenn and I both got new cell phones. I am in love with mine in case you needed to know. I have had three cell phones in my entire cell phone career. Jenn, she’s had at least eight. They have landed in toilets, fallen out of pockets into puddles, been run over by cars…she is the queen of killing the cell phone I tell you!! (although Lyz and Jim come in a close 2nd and 3rd)

Anywho. With the purchase of a new cell phone also comes the purchase of new ring tones. Jenn’s ring tone has started a survey of sorts among my friends. Without mentioning the song of Jenn’s new ring tone I ask you all this…

When you pour some sugar on, do you pour white, brown or powdered??

Do you know the answer to this question??

Even more important…do you know what Jenn’s ring tone is??

And JamieD…if you do not know this, I will be disappointed.

Atlantic Coast Patriots, and the scent of babies.

We went to Chris’s first home game for football this past weekend. By we, I mean Jenn went with him really early because she has become the team’s honorary physical trainer. She tapes the players ankles and hands, whatever they need. She even helps them stretch and diagnosis problems:

She has also become the teams videographer:

It makes her really happy and makes her feel needed. It has been rough for her, all this unemployment. The rest of us all love it, she is here when we need anything…she can help out most of the time (except for when she already has made plans), and she has had lots of lunch dates with old friends that she has reconnected with through Facebook. So her feeling needed is a very good thing.

Chris is a very tall guy (6’5″). It can be a little intimidating at times. But when the guy is in uniform, be it his old fireman uniform, his police uniform or his football uniform he just seems SO MUCH BIGGER! Jenn is very short. She is 5’3 1/4″ (she makes me include the 1/4). It looks like that gap is MUCH bigger when Chris is in his football getup:

The game was exciting! Chris played very good, giving his all. His all includes breaking his finger…poor guy. I took lots of pictures and was VERY upset when my very best picture was ruined by a silly man standing on the sidelines.

That is Chris in mid-tackle of the quarterback.

A friend of Lyz’s was looking at all the pictures from Florida and asked a very interesting question. Why did Jenn go to Florida without Heidi? Um, Heidi did go to Florida. Oh, but she wasn’t in any of the pictures? Oh…that is because Heidi is always behind the camera. So it was very sweet of Lyz to steal my camera at the football game and make sure that there was a picture of me!

Look! It’s me! I do exist! Thank you Lyz for joining the “More pictures of Heidi are needed” project!

Chris’s team lost, and Delaney wasn’t very happy about it:

Speaking of Delaney, she is growing up WAY too fast. I love to hold her in my arms and smell her head. That wonderful baby scent is just amazing. I snuff it all up and use it as a reminder of what I want, and how I will someday attain it. It keeps me going. It makes me so happy. It is so inspiring. We babysat the girls (and Joni who had foot surgery and can’t walk right now) on Sunday night while Lyz and Chris went out for their anniversary dinner. I was walking Delaney (she is at that stage where you aren’t allowed to sit down with her…she much prefers you stand with her in your arms) and I started sniffing her head. I stick my nose right onto her scalp and sniff as hard as I can (which right now with my diminished lung capacity sounds rather funny). She is starting to smell less and less. I had mentioned to Lyz last week that the smell is starting to go away. Sigh. I’ll miss that smell. I must get to work soon to start making one of our own so that we can all have another baby to snuff. Now Delaney, don’t go thinking I will love you any less when you no longer have that wonderful baby smell! It won’t change how I feel about you at all. It just means you won’t have to have my nose attached to your head anymore!

Mingo Monday

I don’t like vomit. I think I have mentioned this a few times before?? Yes? Okay, then I won’t review my reasons.

I have had the pleasure this week of getting spit up upon three times in one evening by Delaney. You would think I would have learned the first time that she spewed on me to turn her away from my body. Nope. I just kept letting her do it.

So, my Mingo Monday spotlight item of the week is something to help me clean myself off.

A Mingo Loofah!!

Look at his cute little feets!:

This flamingo was one of my Christmas presents from my family in 2007. No, he has never actually been used…that might like fade him or something and we just can’t have that!!

Baby puke, baby smuke. If you’ve got a Mingo Loofah, all is well. (and it helps that the kid is darn cute too!)

3 months, 3 years, 33 years.

Delaney is 3 months old.

Avery is 3 years old.

Jenn is 33 years old.

I think it is neat.

Taking a break can be good for the soul…and the waistline.

I know, I never actually came out and talked about what is going on in our TTC world. We decided to take a break. My depression hit rock bottom. I wanted to make my head better. Another negative may have honestly put me over the edge. I was afraid of myself. I was afraid to be left alone.

We do plan on starting up here again soon. We had discussed just trying at home for a bit…but with my cranky ovaries, we don’t think that is the best plan. We are saving our pennies for another injectable iui or two. After that point, I think we are done. We are happy as a couple. We love each other more than enough. We have Skyler, Austin, Belle, Avery and Delaney to adopt and spoil. I honestly don’t feel in my heart that we will have our own child, but I don’t want to give up either. Does that make any sense? I don’t want to give up because I didn’t know that the last cycle was going to be the last cycle. I need another shot!

My head is much better now. I don’t feel as lost and alone as I did. I don’t feel as dangerous to myself as I did. I feel like Jenn and I are more ourselves. While we were never in a really bad place, we weren’t really as together as we could be. That was my fault. I pushed her away. I spent so much time hating myself for killing our children that I couldn’t let her look at me. I felt like I let her down. I know that isn’t true. I knew it then too…but couldn’t get my heart to believe it.

The other really nice thing about our break is the lack of hormones pumping through my body. I had lost a little bit of weight when I was first diagnosed with the hypothyroidism…but it halted. When we went to the doctor to be told that I have pneumonia, I was afraid to hop on the scale. There is a scary weight that I never want to reach, and I was convinced that I had finally hit it.

Imagine my surprise when I got on the scale and had not only not gained weight, but had lost it. Lots of it. I was inspired once I felt better to try on an old pair of jeans. You know the ones you through in the back of your closet because you just can’t throw them away? I grabbed a pair on Monday and put them on. Oh my word. They fit!!!!

Last night I did the same thing…I dug a little deeper in the closet for an older pair. They fit too! We went over to Lyz and Chris’s and I bragged to everyone that I was on pair two of jeans that didn’t used to fit. Joni mentioned that this is when you find that pair of pants that you haven’t worn in forever, but haven’t thrown them away either because you love them so much.

I got home and pulled my favorite pair of pants out of the depths of my closet. I love them. They are thick kahki’s with an almost cargo pants type style. I love the buttons and the pockets, and they always made me feel good because I thought they made my butt look totally awesome. You know that pair of pants you own that just make you feel sexy? Even if they don’t look good to everyone else…you feel PERFECT in them!! I hadn’t worn them in four years.

They fit. Not only did they fit, but I have room to spare. I cried, and danced and smiled. Jenn said she hasn’t seen that smile on my face in forever. It felt so good. I kept showing her my butt. I was all “Look at my butt! It is cute!” Then I kept saying “Hey Jenn? Guess what…my favorite pants fit!!”

I’m a little bit happy. It feels good. A pair of pants has totally found me again. I’m really coming out of my dark closet and it feels good. I like having myself back 🙂

Happy 13th Birthday Skyler!!!

I cannot believe that Skyler is 13 years old. A teenager!! Holy crow. He was only 8 months old when I met him. He had the cutest little chubby legs! He was teasing me today that I used to change his diapers…nope sorry! I don’t do diapers. Not his, not Austin’s, not Belle’s, not Avery’s, not Delaney’s (yet…I can’t promise I never will…but it isn’t on my agenda of things to do.)

We went to the batting cages. I wasn’t able to participate because today my lungs are protesting more than they have in over a week. Stinks. But everyone else had fun doing it. Well, not Jim…but I can’t blame him. The last time he was in a batting cage he broke his hand. Don’t ask how, we never did figure that out!

The birthday boy in the batting cage:

Austin in the batting cage:

Belle in the batting cage:

Jenn in the batting cage:

Elissa in the batting cage:

After everyone was tired out we went out to the parking lot and open presents. Jenn was too excited to let him open his presents to wait anymore. We got him golfing gear including this awesome club head cover shaped like a clover! What a perfect gift for the boy born on St. Patrick’s Day!

Then we headed to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. It was quite yummy. Skyler was very excited to be allowed to order Alaskan King Crab Legs for his dinner since it is his birthday!

After that we headed back to their house for ice cream cake and to sing Skyler Happy Birthday:

(someday I will remember to not turn the camera when I take video…sorry!)

Skyler really wanted the part of the cake that had the Phillie’s symbol on it. I fought hard for him and convinced Elissa to cut that part out of the middle of the cake just for him. And this smile made it totally worth it:

Happy Birthday Skyler!!! You are my favorite 13 year old in the world!

Mingo Monday

(sorry I missed you last week…laying in bed trying to breathe was heavier on my mind than the mingo’s…a shame, I know. I’m embarrassed of myself!)

Another Florida 2009 flamingo. Again, as I held it up to show it off in the store I was told by everyone that if I didn’t purchase it myself, it was still going to come home with me.

I think this is my favorite Mingo from Florida this year. Or maybe it was the mosaic mingo…or the mingo pen…or…oh heck, who am I kidding. There is no such thing as a favorite mingo. I love them all equally.

Anywho…a mingo sign that will go on our front porch…


(in case you can’t read the words it says “You might be a redneck if…you didn’t put the pink plastic flamingo in your front yard as a joke.”)

In case you were wondering, no, there is no pink plastic flamingo in my front yard. Jenn banned the idea as part of our wedding contract. I do have my eye on this loverly set for next years Christmas display though…