Blog-aholic?

OK so I'm reallllllllllllly liking how easy this blog thing is! Before, I had to open one program, make an entry, save the file, then flip over to another file on the computer, open the uploading program, find the file I'd just updated, open it & then upload and repeat this process for every page of the site I needed to do. Photos were even more complicated as there are so many stored on our computer and I had to make a thumbnail and then re size again for the larger photo, then transfer them all to the website folder, then insert each thumbnail individually, then assign the matching large photo to each jpg, then upload the file & blah blah blah. Alot of the time I'd think about updating the site, then cringe at all the time consuming steps involved and just go to bed instead.

Whew! what a night last night! Honey made several loud demands through the night, couldn't find her water, just felt like hollering, moaning and groaning, wanted to go pee etc. At 3am she announced "I'm aww done seeping!" Hah! The heck you ARE! Then I discovered that Lovey had peed her bed. All this after spending a couple hours in Sweetie's room with her. I was sooooo exhausted that I talked myself into leaving Lovey in her wet bed since well as long as she's covered up, she's warm in there right??? So I sleepily crawl back into bed only to find my guilty conscience isn't going to let me sleep anyway!! So I go back & change her & put new sheets on the bed & tuck her back in. Then I was able to go back to sleep. Next thing I know it's about 6:20 and Honey's crying. I go back into their room and put on her music thingy, hoping she'll drift back off. Nope, she's all done seeping again! I tell her that I'M not and that she has to go back to her bed or come sleep in ours. She opts for ours but after 20 minutes she's all done seeping THERE too. *%$%^ Then I hear Lovey talking & calling from their room and give up and figure Murray might be able to get a little more sleep if I get them away from that end of the house. Maybe they'll just play or read their books while I snooze on the couch??? Nope, Honey lays down on the floor and cries about I don't know what! Lovey was actually keeping herself entertained quietly with a book but it only takes one to ruin a good nap! Now Sweetie's talking & singing in her room. Lovey goes down to greet her. Wrong move! This sets Sweetie off into a shriekfest of "close da door!!!! close da door!!!" and Lovey's enjoying her powers of perturbance (real word??? dunno!) and stands in the doorway, possibly doing a little happy dance, I'm not sure, I couldn't see her from where I was but I wouldn't put it past her. I drag her out of there & Sweetie comes out on her own and I round them into the kitchen for breakfast. It's after 7:30 now so Murray's up & moving and commiserates with me as they get mad because they don't like the juice I gave them or because there isn't enough milk on the cereal (not entirely flooding over the rim the way they like it) etc etc. Being already overtired we're not in the mood for their ridiculous fits and whines and I'm ready to fly off the handle & stick in the wall! Not even 8am & I'm ready to list some kids on EBay!!! Once they got some food down they were much better so maybe they weren't possessed by demons but just hungry. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes....

The morning went well, they helped me pick up toys, clear the dishes from the table, change the sheets on the beds etc. Mum got here around noon & I took off to visit one of the twin moms from my club. Her DH is away in Afghanistan, badly injured recently in an accident, her twins are 6 months old and she has a 4 yr old and a 6 yr old besides. The babies have been teething all week & fussy with colds so she was looking forward to me coming over to hold down the fort while she crashed for a nap. Since the boys had been fussy & running a fever for several days, she decided to take them to the ER (couldn't get in touch with her doctor). I got to play with her older daughters & get a sneak peak of life a year from now, very interesting & fun! Turned out one of the boys had a chest infection and the other had an ear infection. She brought them home and went back out for their prescriptions. When she got back she looked a little wiped out and was so thankful that I'd brought them meatballs for supper because she didn't have anything planned for supper & no clue what she might make. Last night at 10:30 when I was starting to make the meal I was tired & thinking she probably didn't need it but I was wrong so I'm glad I did do it. Before her DH left for overseas she said alot of her friends & former coworkers all offered to come over and help but that since he'd been gone, none of them had really come through. It was only other Moms of Multiples (MOMs) that she'd received any help from. Takes one to know one I guess! I felt guilty leaving her when she looked so tired but Mum was waiting to get home and I'd already been gone all afternoon. I offered to keep all the kids for her next weekend if she wanted to go home and have a rest so maybe that'll help a bit.

Tonight I'm all tired out again so we're just going to watch a movie and relax. Hopefully I'll be sensible enough to get to bed at a decent hour..... maybe...

March Break's Killing Me!

It's only Thursday and I'm toast! We've had outings almost everyday, trying to participate in as much as we can while there are extra helping hands around. GG's in town so we went in and picked her up on Tuesday so she could come to gymnastics and help me keep an eye on the kids (I have a kidnapping paranoia problem). After all the racing around to get them ready, go pick her up, unload the kids to go inside, we found out it was cancelled this week so the big kids can use the gym. My heart just sank as I read the notice posted on the wall! I was desperate enough to hope that I'd misunderstood and asked at the desk to make sure but it was exactly what it sounded like. We went to DQ for a treat instead and the kids had fun climbing around the booth instead.

Cousin C slept over last night and after the kids went to bed we played a video game and watched some tv. I was explaining how the girls were really excited about her coming to see them and she was surprised that they'd be that interested. I compared it to her looking forward to doing stuff with me like we used to pre-kids. Her eyes widened incredulously as she said "You mean, I'm like a KELLY to them????" How cute is that??? She loves me! She really loves me!!! (if you know C, you know she's not one to gush or give anything away and would never never come right out and say "I'm glad you're here" or anything like that! I dont' think she realized she was giving away her position with that statement but I'll never forget it.

Sweetie is C's biggest fan & C slept with her last night. C said that at one point Sweetie woke up calling for me but then just snuggled over and slept on C's back. She tried to sound annoyed but I think she felt very special to have comforted her little friend!

This morning the girls all played with Little People while I cleaned up the kitchen a bit and got our gear ready to go to the pool. I think the novelty of the girls had started to wear off for C because she wasn't really interested in playing with them in the water & wanted to go off on her own, which made it tricky for me! Luckily all 3 mostly just wanted to stand on the side & jump in so they weren't all over the place all the time. Lovey got really brave and would just leap in whenever she felt like it, whether I was ready & watching her or not. She got really good at bobbing back up and keeping the water out of her nose. C came over once & showed them her cannonball move and then they all wanted to make big splashes like her, of course! Honey was slightly more cautious than the other 2 and mostly just wanted to stay on the side so that helped alot as the other two were getting braver than they should have been! they'd let go of the side and float around on their backs and start to drift away from me & I kept having to grab a foot as it started to slide out of reach to keep them all handy. Those two could do with a little dose of fear I think! The worst part about the whole thing was that they kept wanting to switch from the main big pool to the small heated pool. Now going from cool to warm is easy & quite nice. The reverse... not so much.

The swim ended at 1:00 & my 3 still weren't ready to leave but I managed to convince them to get out. By that time C had dressed & decided to go wait out front while we got changed. This took quite awhile and they got cold and fussy and were also hungry since they hadn't eaten since 10am. 45 minutes later we were out of there so that's not too bad for washing everyone's hair, drying them off, blow drying their hair & getting us all dressed. Luckily we didn't have far to go to AC's where GG had made us a lunch. We ate as soon as we walked through the door.

All this "get in as many activities as possible" plan of mine has been very draining! I've got a cold and so do they so we're all a little run down. Tonight there's some bad coughing going on upstairs and now I'm thinking that taking them to a pool wasn't such a hot idea.... hopefully we can rest up & get a little better over the weekend!

Movie Date!!!

The theatre has a special on some of the matinees this week, $2/ticket. I decided to take the kids and see a movie. Knowing this was foolhardy at best, I decided to bring along some backup, Cousin Clara was on the job!


First we went to playgroup this morning, then skipped out early to pick up Clara. Then we all went to McD's at the mall for lunch (picking up movie tickets on our way down the hall). Clara was awesome! She herded them along ("Hey this is sorta like SHEEP!" she said) and kept tabs on them, their mittens, hats & sippy cups. I don't know what I'd have done without her! Lunch went well & then we went back down to the theatres & heard that our movie was sold out. Good thing we'd already gotten our tickets! However that meant the theatre would be very full & we still had to make a pit stop at the bathroom before going in. By the time we got in there, the previews were on & we had to sit in the very front row. This turned out to be a good thing though as halfway through, Lovey lost interest and started climbing down from her seat & back up and then flipping around in the chair etc so it was good we weren't in the middle of an aisle bothering anyone in front of us. Honey lasted all the way through, sometimes climbing into my lap. And it looks like Sweetie takes after her mum and wanted to talk all the way through about what was going on. (who's dat mumma? why's he sad mumma? dat's a whale mumma!)

GG had sent some popcorn bags with C for us so I pulled those out once everyone was getting antsy and that bought us a little more quiet time and they managed to get through the rest of the movie without causing a disturbance. It went well but I think the novelty of the experience helped so we might wait awhile before attempting that one again.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

On the weekend we went on a sleigh ride & had a great time. I was surprised when Murray said he'd never been on one before. The weather was great, a little overcast but not cold so we didn't have to worry about blankets or anything. Our only challenge was keeping Sweetie in the sleigh! She kept wanting to stand up on the bench, lean out to see, throw one leg over the side etc. We figured since it was a multiples club event, we should leave with all the kids we came with! After the ride was over we went into the lodge for hot chocolate and cookies so that was a big hit. or at least the marshmallows were!

The horses made a big impression on Sweetie. She asked what their names were once while we were there & we found out and told her. Then later that day, Mum, Dad & Uncle D were over for supper and she tells them about the sleigh ride and could still name the horses. Smartie pants!

I made Grammie's doughnuts on Saturday and made some adjustments to my procedure and to the temperature for frying. They turned out much better! When Grammie brings these doughnuts to family gatherings, it's a bit of a race to get them before they're all gone. I remember making these with her when I was little. It was my job to sift the flour (the sifting pan is being left to me in the will) and to sugar the dougnuts after they were done. I was very happy with those tasks and paid no attention whatsoever to the actual making of the doughnuts and never really learned anything about the technique involved!

When I was pregnant, I decided I'd better figure it out while I could still get tips from the original doughnut guru. I got her recipe followed the instructions and they turned out ok but weren't quite the same as hers. I figured out why she always needed my assistance though, those little buggers fry up FAST! I had a hard time keeping up with the cutting out, frying, flipping, removing & sugaring. I sure saved her alot of work back then let me tell ya! ; ) This last batch, I decided to lower the temp so they wouldn't cook quite so quickly and I think I've almost got it! The real test was getting Dad to try one & he gave his approval. Yay! I'm on my way to being a doughnut guru myself!!!

Uncle D was telling us about his job at the call centre. Doesn't seem he's enjoying the role of scam artist that's required to excel in sales there. He can't stand liars (me neither actually!) and he hates misleading the customers that phone in. All the ads claim this low monthly price for cell or internet etc but of course in the fine print there's all the surcharges. He always tells the people phoning in what the actual total will be in the end but no one else does so he gets all these calls from grumpy people who are mad about their bill! He cracks us up with his stories so as long as he keeps working there, dinner conversation will never be dull!