cry-o-rama

Good lord we had a long sunday. Poor John had a breakdown at the grocery today. We walked in and he just started sobbing. we had no clue what was wrong just sobbing, we tried everything and nothing worked, he was inconsolable. So I carried him and pushed the cart, while josh tried to shop the list. we ended up just leaving. AND we spent way to much at the store because he was power shopping due to the apparent emergency with JOhn so we didn't shop smart. It's just we were in town at the store with the good prices and couldn't afford to do our shopping close to home, a trip to the "Good" Store may cost $85 and at home it's about $140. No joke.

We are switching to Voice over Internet this week, so we have a new number, woo hoO!! Not a big deal I guess.

So we had our 15 month well child check's this past friday, at 16 months, we got behind when they had Chicken Pox so....

Maddie is 31.5 inches
John is 32.5 inches

Maddie - 20 lbs
John is 25 lbs

We got the DTaP and the HEP A, is anyone else doing HEP A?? Our pedi said it's newly recomended by the Pediatricians Association board academy thing, and with all the imported foods coming in that it's a good idea, so we did it, I read about the research and it makes sense to me. Our HIB was delayed, has anyone else had their HIB delayed due to shortage??

They did their "Skill test" and they did AWESOME! We have been working on colors and numbers for the last few months. So our pedi was suprised when I asked Maddie to Bring me the Blue Cup and she did, John brought a red ball!! So far they know Red, Blue Green, yellow, Black and White and Maddie knows pink I think, or she just really likes it! They can also separate colors.

Also, while we get them dressed we always count, and they both can count to five, which I am so happy about.

We are also working on letters. I made Giant 8 by 10 flash cards with a big letter on one side and then I went around taking pictures of things that start with that letter, A, Apple, Arm, Arch, Altoid (a picture of the box and a mint next to it) ant and Aunt are on one page and I found a picture of an ant on the net and a Picture of their favorite aunt . So I put each set of letter cards on a little metal flip card holder ring thing, like from a binder, and every morning when I go get them up I introduce a new letter and then that day we do something with that letter, we are on I rite now, so they had ice cream today after their shots. It's just fun for now! I try to have at least 5 word cards for each letter.

SO all and all they are great, super impressed with their progressed, which makes me so happy because they were getting labeled as "preemies" for so long and now we are Finally past that.

OH OH OH and they aren't orange any more

OK so I am captain frustration....and Hence is my story!

Usually my Dear Darling Husband (Onward we shall call him DDH) works from 4 pm to 2:30 am, but has been switched to working 12-10:30 Which I enjoy because I get to see him a night more and he has regular sleeping hours. Well He only works 4 days a week (10 hour days) Well today, friday he has to work 6-11, no big deal he makes like 30 dollars an hour doing over time so i'm way cool with it!

So we were chatting about what to do this weekend, last evening and he informs me that he doesn't know when he will be home today, and I question why and he say's"I don't know what time I'll be home tomorow" and I ask well why and he says, "well I'm going out to Tinsleys (boss/friend) after work to hang out", yes I said to hang out!!

Ok I should clarify why this bothers me a bit, first of all, in our family we ask things we don't inform, just to be polite, he did infact inform me, ok ok thats fine whatever, BUT and as I always say there is always a BuT!! During the week, monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday, it's like he's not even here with the kids, and I don't really like it, but he works weird hours and just kind of does is thing, we work with it and I stay quiet because we get thee day weekends and have lots of fun, but come friday, I am tired and can really use some help around the house, so when he jsut up and informs me that he's doing his own thing, it just tweaks me the way way way wrong way, so I tried to him about it and he informs me, for the second time in the nigh, that fridays are his day and he does what he wants to do, to relax after a busy week!! This is so not like my DDH!!

I think what bugs me so much is not that he is going there, that doesn't bug me it's how it all came about. And even more that he doesn't realize that Maybe I want a day to do as I please and just go off, I don't get that, and I'm not say that he should not because I do not, I'm saying he should at least realize that maybe I want a break, maybe I want to go to a friends house. I don't know this is my alter ego captain frustration talking here. On the weekend we do everything as a family, and I cherish those times. They are what I have always wanted and I am so thankful for them.

So I am just sad and frustrated because I feel under appreciated

SO here is the poop adventure that happened to our sweet Captain Frustration

So this morning after little sleep, much tossing and turning, I wake up and here the babies babbling away, so I get up and go get them only to walk into lullaby land and find maddie pointing at john, I turn and peer into his to find......Poop! Yes ladies and Gent..Ladies......Poop everywhere, John had taken off his pants, off his onsie and off with the diaper and decided to finger paint with poop. all over the bed, the bumpers the wall. the sheets, himself, he through some on the lamp some on the window (he threw it across the room) Their room is a bug poopy mess!! Me being the germaphobe I am am freeking out because of e-coli or something and I need to go and disinfect and clean, but I have no one to watch the babies while I do it, and they can't be in the room because they are terrified of the steam machine, and I am going to use clorox to clean up the walls and what not, and I don't want them around the smell until the room airs out and gets the fumes out. Any other morning and I would have been like oh crap, and now I feel like a mess, just a crying sloppy mess, (I"m still wearing the tshirt I wore to bed and I think I just noticed poop on the sleeve)

I popped the twins in the tub and we got dressed and ready for the day. Just long long day so far.

SUch is LiFe sUcH iS lIfE SuCh Is LiFe


Captain Frustration, over and out......

Books

So I found a post that one of the girls put up on my message board about Blurb.com and the Booksmart software. Yeah, I'm addicted. I am working on the first year for the twins, then a wedding/relationship one for josh and I, also I am doing one for each of the twins of all maddie and all john. I have this need to make sure that they know they are individuals outside of being twins. so many people just group them into "twins" and I love that but I also want them to know they are individuals. So I will be ordering my book's in a week or so, I chose the hardcover ones with the dust jacket. if they turn out well they might make good christmas gifts for the grand parents!!

We are starting to get ready to paint here pretty soon . We kept going back and fourth on ideas, ok I kept doing it, but Josh said I can't paint until I have stayed firm on an idea for at least 15 days lol he's worried about me making multiple trips to the Home Depot

So we were going to go away this weekend but our plans were fouled, no big deal, we have a sitter for the night (family) and we are going on a Hot date!! lol I'm so bad, actually we are going out to dinner, probably to Chilies or maybe pasta pasta, (our first valentines day date)Then we are going to see the new Indiana Jones movie, go to Barnes and Noble's for coffee and then go shopping for kitchen stuff, I need new kitchen stuff and I want new towels to match what I am painting the bathroom.

I feel like I've accomplished something today, Tonight is the season finale of Grey's Anatomy so I had to do something special for myself (yes I'm a dork spare me the lecture) So I made double chocolate peanut butter swirl brownies, not my recipe but I thought i'd give it a try (more on that in a min) and I made enchilada's pablono's with real Mole` YUM!! I can't wait. Babies go down around 7 and then I will take my shower and get the dinner in the oven after that and by that time Ugly Betty will be on, which I like but am kind of "eh" about, so I'll work on my books. Then dinner will be done and Parker and I can relax and watch as they leave us in a cliffhanger. BOOO I hate those, I wish they could just leave it be nicely and then start the next season out all crazy like. OR OR OR I wish they would not do seasons and have it year round.

The twin's are into exploring everything!! John says 'no" now, a lot, a whole lot. No this No that, and NO NO NO NO NO and then the head shaking like a mad man!! He's my little goof ball. Maddie is Growling, yes growling folks, she walks up to us and get in the face and "GRRRAAAA". They both fake cough as well. If I clear my throat they do a fake cough. To funny.

DH has a nice 4 day weekend and only works 2 days this wee anyways, so he will have ANOTHer 4 day next weekend. I love his job!!

So I meant to mention before, I have the new Martha Stewart Cookie Cookbook. I love the recipes BUt something is up, all the baking times seem to be wrong. Obviously I follow recipes very well, and today those brownies were to cook for 45 min, they were liquid at 45 min still, not just the center. It took 1 hour 28 min to get them done, and I just cut them and they could have baked longer ( still good though ) Now my oven is properly calibrated with an additional pyrometer so I know it's rite. All I can think is that those recipes are based on cooking in a convection oven which cooks totally different, but that doesn't make sense to me because how many normal people have 2500 dollar ovens in there house, if you do I am very Jealous and I want your oven!! So far I've had to adjust 11 recipes on the time alone and a few more with other problems, one in particular had nearly 3 cups of wet ingredients too 3/4 of a cup of dry and they wanted you to roll the dough??? that's not dough it's batter!! Something is up!!

Ok time to get jammies on!!

Morning Smiles

So I haven't updated in a while, we've had dog issues, which I hope are getting better.

The twins are doing great!  THey love playing with their new dog.  I try and get them not to feed him from their trays, John does a great job at listening but Miss Maddie, well not so much, she's a silly one!  She has figured out how to slide the treat down by her leg and give it to him.  Parker is SO protective of them!  He is the best guard dog ever!  He's such a loverboy!

So last saturday they went to the farmers market for the first time this season, they had a great time!  We brought the pack and play and they played while Daddy and I worked.  Then on Sunday for mothers day we went to the new Su Casa in Fenville, there was a Mariachi Band and it  was busy busy but they had fun.  Needless to say they LOVE mexican food, but I did NOT love their diapers then  next day.  Ew.  Since they built the new building, they added a grocery store, an gelato shop (they serve Palazollos....so good)  a night club up stairs and something else.  It's really neat, there is this HUGE mural on one whole wall, it's neat, Maddie liked pointing to it a lot.  The Gelato is so so so good.  Pallazollos is this gourmet Gelato and Sorbeto that is made in saugatuk, they have 600 flavors, no joke.  I had two scoops, one of Fresh Coconut and one of Naccilcilo (hazelnut) Josh had the Naccilcilo, mom had Dolce de Leche and Cleve had coffee and triple chocolate.  It was so good, oooh and the babies had mexican vanilla.  

Tomorrow is farmers market, really excited about that, the Babies love to go!

Josh bought a home welder today, he welds alot at work in the design studio and now he has it at home to make the garden art for the farm.  He taught me to weld, I was so rockstar!  he said I did awsome!  It was nice because the babies were in bed, and it was great bonding for the two of us.   He's such a great teacher, which is why he is a great husband and father.  I love him.

These are from our visit to the farm on Sunday

Miss maddie
madaline using a dandalion as a pointer
johns i've done nothing wrong face

t's official now, Parker the Poodle is coming to live with the Fowlers. We are adopting a standard Poodle, He's 2 years old and the sweetest dog I've ever met. He has alot of energy, but doesnt jump or anything, just wants to go go go go a lot which is goo for the twins! He is so smart it's not funny. We went to meet him yesterday, I had given him a treat for going potty outside when I walked him and when I went to play with the ball he started nudging at the treat bag, so I put it in my pocket. Parker sits down and puts his paw on my pocket, Smart boy! When I was comfortable with him meeting the twins, he just gave a sniff and nudged their feet with his head and then came back over to me. He didn't jump bark our nip. He's great! I think he's been so bored at the shelter, thats why he gets so hyper, if poodles are not stimulated they get really really bored. So we signed all the contracts yesterday and we could have brought him home with us last night but we wanted to make sure the house was perfectly welcoming him, ie. i'm steaming the carpets so he can't detect that we had another dog ( we had a puppy two years ago who had severe behavioral problems and after 7 months of obidience school and no change we decided she wasn't safe with the twins) Now I scrubbed and 409ed every inch of the carpet she was on, but I want to steam the front room because we havn't tiled in there yet and I don't want Parker to smell her, it's not fair to him! So Monday is the day~plus i need to go to the pet store to get the whitening shampoo, dog food, bowls, color and leashes and some toys! So we are so exctied, he's a standard poodle so he's a good sized dog, he's white and looks like a Lamb! SOO Sweet! We are so excited, the twins say Dog over and over again and they really enjoy having the K-9 company!

New addition

We are going on friday to meet a possiable new addition to our family.  His name is Parker.  Parker is a 2 year old standard poodle who ran away from home.  He's loving and fun natured and protective.  I am going first to meet him and then we will bring the twins if I get a good feel.  We are making a day out of it since it's about 40 min away.  We will go to the 50's drive in by the lake (michigan) and then go see parker and then go to Palazzolo's for Gelato.....mmmmm so good, they have 500 flavors, no kidding.

The kids do so well with dogs, we have taught them to respect them and they do.  I am going to bring a blanket that they have napped with for a few days with us so I can take it in and have him get a smell for them so he isn't shocked.  I also picked up some treats for Parker and the other dogs at the shelter.  We are so excited! I had two poodles growing up, they were a smaller variety but they all train the same. Poodles are second only to the border collie in intel. and are protective, smart, easily trained, loving, well mannered sweet dogs.  They also have a great sense of humor.

We have been talking with the twins about Parker the puppy all week.  Just so they get used to hearing the name.  They try and say parker, it's so cute.  We are so excited!

We are fencing in our yard in the end of may so he will have about of month of just walking on a leash then he will have our huge double lot yard to run and play in.  So Excited!! He's white and about 50 pounds, he's on the smaller side for a standard, but a standard none the less!

Kind of odd

So this is kind of odd and a little personal, but hey it's my Blog!

I had a Mirena inserted after the twins were born, (an IUD)  I can't have estrogen so most forms of BC are out for me, this just has progestin in it so it's good.  Now I used to assist in putting these into place. I was the person who did the screening and answered all the questions before the procedure, I know way to much about them.  But now I've having issues.  

I've had it in for 11 months now and up until recently I had light bleeding every month for maybe 2 days, like clockwork.  I haven't had anything in 68 days.  At first I thought it was fairly normal because a lot of women don't bleed at all with the Mirena, but now I feel weird. Infact I feel pregnant.  I've been sick the last few days as well, when I had the twins I had Hyperemisis gravidium, which meant i was sick all the time for like the first 16 weeks. I called my OB/GYN last month and asked what to do, she said it was the IUD, well her nurse did, but now I think it's gone on to long. I need to take a pregnancy test.  I'm scared though.  First of all my body can't handle another pregnancy for another 6-8 months, second of all when you do conceive with an IUD as rare as it is (actually it happens a lot) but when you do, the IUD is removed as soon as you find out, 8 out of 10 times the pregnancy is miscarried.  I've dealt with that enough.  I'm just freaking out a bit, I think DH and I will take a test tomorrow.  Which means I'll pee on a stick and he can sit on the edge of the bath tub and wait.  I mean we want another baby, we do, but I can't do it rite now, my body just isn't ready.  With the clotting stuff, my liver is finally back to normal, and I still have the stuff with the bladder Nic they did during my c-section.  It's just not safe, I'd be on bed rest for most of the pregnancy, ha try doing that with twins!

Ok tomorrow it is.

In other news.  The twins woke up super wet this morning, so they went strait to the bathtub!  They had fun!  They have decided they like Pineapple and Banna whip that is frozen, mmm it is good!

I wrote a new recipe today for double dark chocolate brownies, to good.  This was in lieu of the new episode of Greys Anatomy!  WOoHoO  I can't believe Addison is coming back next week!

~jos~

What a day! We have had my mom's terrier here has a house guest.  He's a little guy, about 25 pounds and Maddie tried to ride him!  He's so mellow that he just kind of turned and looked at her, it was cute.  At one point he hopped up on the couch because he didn't want to play anymore, Maddie kept walking past him pointing at him and giving him these very puzzled look and then laughing.  John kept giving hugs to him and saying "dog, dog, dog dog dog dog, dooooggggyyyy....." Just to cute!

Josh and I are really talking about trying to conceive again.  We really want to but we need to wait a bit longer, but it's weird because my Dr. makes me feel so pressed for time.

My little at home business is flying!  I have orders coming in from all over, personal orders which make me so happy because thats why I want to do it, but wholesale orders as well! EEPP!!

The twins go to sleep all on their own now, I just lay them in their cribs tell them I love them and then close the door and they just go down so peacefully. 

I think I might be coming down with a flu bug or something, I have an awful stomach ache and I am hungry but can't eat.  Ick.

Josh is coming home early tonight because they had some meeting this morning so they got out earlier!  YAY~Love him!

My internet is still so messed up. ~ick~

jos

Crazy

Long story short, we were with out internet for a few days and it messed up a bunch of stuff! 

So now I will atempt to catch up. 

Starting off with Friday, Daddy decided to dress John and Maddie.  He got Maddie dressed in her little blue dress and she was just adorable!  He put john in this periwinkle little outfit and about an hour later I realized it had puff sleeves and was his sisters!

Friday we went out and did some shopping at the Little Store on the Prarie, it's a local health food store out in the middle of no where, it's great and they love the twins.  We found an amazing cherry peach salsa!

Saturday was fairly normal, we worked out in the yard and the kids went on a HUGE walk.  We went to the super market in town and got all of the things to make home made pizza.  My family (the Cekolas) started the first pizza restaurant in my hometown of Kalamazoo back in the twenties, so I assume it's in my blood to make good pizza. Good it was, lol it was amzing!  We made a crushed tomato sauce, my pizza had Fresh Basil, Fresh Motzarella, fresh grated parmasean, and goat cheese.  Baked at 500 for 14 min and it was AMAZING! These are truly artisan pizzas! It's a dream of ours to open a pizza shop with a bakery that makes artisan bread and pastires.  And now I want pizza again!

Sunday was relaxing, the babies helped me bake 2 key lime pies which are amazing!  the LOVE whip cream :-)

I'm going to go  make snacks!

Jos