a to z - Troy's turn

a: age - 36

b: bedsize - queen, but I really want a king

c: chore I hate - folding laundry, which is why it sits out for 4 days after it's washed

d: dog - little Bella, best thing out of Deckerville

e: essential start to the day - bowl of cereal and a glass of OJ

f: favorite color - brown or dark blue

g: gold or silver - silver

h: height - 5'11"

i: instrument you play - Alvarez Guitar

j: job title - Case Manager, LLC

k: kids - Lo Lo and Ellis mania (aka Logan and Ellis)

l: live - The Hills, baby - Rochester Hills, that is

m: mother's name - Rosa

n: nicknames - Polamalu (after Troy Polamalu), cute boy

o: overnight hospital stay - when the kids were born, age 7 or 8 after being attacked by a cat

p: pet peeves - people that drive lower than the speed limit

q: quote from a movie - from the movie Apocalypse Now "I love the smell of napalm in the morning, you know one time we had a hill bomb, 12 hours. When it was all over I walked up, we didn't find one of them, not one stinking dink body. Smell, that gasoline smell, smells like...victory."

r: right or left-handed - right

s: siblings - 2 brothers (Sky and Shaun), 1 sister (April), and 2 step-brothers (Scott and Brian)

t: time you wake up - 6:20am, to get the kids ready to go to granny's

u: underwear - boxer briefs

v: vegetable you hate - sweet potatoes, squash

w: what makes you run late - my procrastination

x: x-rays you've had - teeth

y: yummy food you make - lemon poppyseed chicken and no-bake pumpkin cheesecake

z: zoo animal - snakes

Just me: a to z

Nicole always has fun blog posts! Today, I'm copying her idea for a little "about me" post:

a. age: 31

b. bed size: queen, but if it was up to Troy, we'd have a king

c. chore that you hate: weeding -- maybe it's because I didn't spend a lot of time outside this summer so when I did go to weed, it was totally overgrown. That damn trumpet vine has gotten the best of me.

d. dog: our little girl, black lab, Bella

e. essential start to your day: lately it has been cherry coke (in a Starbucks mug so my students don't know I'm drinking pop already in the morning)

f. favorite color: pink, duh! =)

g. gold or silver: silver

h. height: 5'7"

i. instruments you play: I played oboe for 8 years and mellophone for 4 years in Marching Band. If you count Rock Band and Guitar Hero, then I play guitar too!

j. job title: teacher, wife, mommy, CFO

k. kids: twin boys - 6.5 months old - Ellis and Logan

l. live: Metro Detroit Michigan

m. mother's name: DeLynn

n. nicknames: Beauty, cute girl

o. overnight hospital stays: just once -- after my c-section in March

p. pet peeves: oh dear, I could be here all day with this one. Lazy people, people who want something for nothing, people who lie and continue lying when you confront them about it, bad drivers (and yes, I'll admit that they are frequently women), STUPID people that work at Staples...yes Nicole and mom, I am still dwelling on that, people who don't know how to drive when it's raining...

q. quote from a movie: I have to admit, I memorize NO quotes from movies..don't ask me what movie this or that quote was from. I will have no idea!

r. right or left handed: right

s. siblings: my sister Nicole -- 2 years wiser

t. time you wake up: 5am if its a work day -- 7-ish on the weekends

u. underwear: most definitely yes

v. vegetable you hate: mushrooms

w. what makes you run late: I'm not usually late, but the past few times I've been late, it has been to work (so not like me...I'm usually 20 minutes early), but it was because of traffic when Southfield Fwy was closed and everyone was taking 75, so it was a hot mess.

x. x-rays you've had: teeth, and most recently my toe that I broke.

y. yummy food that you make: my latest addiction has been homemade granola bars. Thanks to Caryn for that recipe

z. zoo animal: I've gotta say that during my last trip to the zoo, the "show" that the chimpanzees gave us was pretty entertaining!

The Basement -- Before, during, and after

Before:

Part 1: Frame in the walls and put in insulation

Part 2: Drywall is hung

Part 3: Drywall is mudded, sanded, mudded, sanded, mudded, and sanded

Part 4: Paint on the ceiling (black) and the walls (grayish blue)

Part 5: The final product -- Carpet was installed and furniture was put back down there. We plan on getting a couple recliners down there and not everything is organized yet either, but it works for now...

(This is their little play area for now. Their real play area is on the opposite side of the basement, but they won't use that for a while)

(My soon-to-be craft area)

The rest of the basement is pretty much empty right now until we figure out what to put there. I thought I'd spare some empty room pictures (and pardon my crooked pictures -- I had Ellis in my hand at the time).

We took it like champs

Logan -- 17 lbs 1 oz. -- 25 inches long

Ellis -- 15 lbs. 8 oz. -- 24.75 inches long

Our appointment didn't exactly go as planned, but we all made it through. I left work about an hour early to get to the appointment and Troy was going to meet us there. Unfortunately, the carpet guy wasn't done because he forgot something and had to go back and get it and also got here about an hour later than planned. So...it was just me and the boys at the doctor. I'm a bit shocked that Ellis is more than a pound lighter than Logan, but I'm wondering if she even weighed him correctly. I saw with Logan that she was off a bit and fixed it before finding out his actual weight, but I didn't really watch her move the weights on the scale for Ellis, so who knows. I also don't think their method of measuring length is very accurate either because if it was, it means that Logan didn't grow in length at all in the past 2 months (even though he gained over 3 pounds!). Huh. Of course I didn't remember their measurements from 4 months, while at the doctor or else I would have asked then, but neither the doctor or nurse mentioned anything, so I guess it isn't a big deal. The doctor said both are doing well and commented on their strength as well how laid-back they are. Not bad comments if you ask me! I gotta say I was a little nervous about the fact of giving shots to both of them with only one of me to help calm them down, but it all worked out. Ellis was first (primarily because he'll feed his bottle to himself a bit better than Logan and we always bring a little bottle to comfort them afterwards) and although he did cry when the shots were given, the second I picked him up, he stopped. I gave him his bottle and he was content. Logan was a little harder to calm down, but it definitely helped that Ellis was calmly eating in his car seat, so I could comfort him a bit more. All in all, we all left happy and by the time we got home, the boys were chatting in the backseat. Even now, 2 hours later, they are still awake and playing as if nothing happened. It's almost as if their shots were really a 5 hour energy drink!

On a side note, the basement looks awesome. Tonight we will be moving the big stuff back down there and throughout the weekend we'll be organizing everything and putting it where it belongs. I AM SO HAPPY this project is done and has turned out as well as it has. Thanks a ton to those of you who had a hand in this project. Your help and expertise are greatly appreciated. Once I get the okay from Troy, I will post before-during-after pictures...hopefully this weekend sometime!

Our weekend

We had a really good (busy!) weekend. Here are some of the details:

• The boys woke up WAY too early (6am) on Saturday. They must have thought it was time to go to Grandma's and forgot it was the weekend. So, needless to say, our nap schedule was a bit off. At one point, Logan was so tired he fell asleep in the jumper!
  
  
• Ellis and Dad jammed to some techno on tv -

• We caught up with Nicole, Mark, Morgan, and Parker. Nicole ordered some books from Scholastic, which I just gave to her, so she even snuck away from the action in the living room to read Morgan and Ellis a few stories.

• Since the boy's nap schedule was so off, they ended up taking a small nap before bed, so Troy and I raced downstairs to see how much painting we could get done in the basement before they woke up for their last bottle. Between the 1.5 hours we had then, and a couple hours after we put them to bed, we got the entire basement painted with the first coat. It looks SO good! I'm so happy with the color we chose and I love how close we are to being done! Troy spent about 4-5 hours down there today putting on the second coat, so we'll see how it looks tomorrow, in case there are any little touch-ups to do. The last thing that needs to be done is to pull up the nasty flooring on the steps to prep for the carpeting that is being installed on Friday. Then, on Saturday we will be moving everything back downstairs, and at this time next week we will finally be done with that project. I am SO excited. I just realized that I don't know what it's like to just be able to chill on the weekends now that I'm back to work. Since we started this project the weekend before I went back to work, we have always had something to do over the weekend related to the basement. It will be nice to finally enjoy the space once it's completed. And yes, I will definitely post pictures of the "before-during-after" soon.

• Logan has been doing more rocking and trying to move on his knees. Lately he's been getting his butt in the air so much he topples over =)

That's about it for now. I'm hoping for a decent week at work. Last week was pretty hectic, especially towards the end of the week, so hopefully it will be a little more calm this week! Plus, it looks like we are going to have beautiful weather, so I am going to soak up as much as I can. Good night and have a great week!

Happy 0.5!

OMG, the boys are 6 months old! This month has flown by, yet again, but here are some highlights of the month...

• Food -- The boys have added sweet potatoes and banana to their repertoire of foods and they love both. We also tried oatmeal, but Logan threw up later than night (although maybe it was because oatmeal is more filling than rice?!?) and had a sort of rash on his body the next day, so we are holding off on trying that again any time soon. This weekend we are trying pears. They are also feeding themselves their own bottle. We just put it in front of them and they grab it and hold it the entire time. We thought it was crazy the other day when Ellis even pulled his bottle away from his mouth briefly to let the suction of the nipple out and then continue drinking! They are also VERY interested in us eating. When we are eating dinner and they are on the floor playing, they just lay there and stare at us while we eat. It's actually kind of funny. Looks like it's time to put together their high chairs too!

• Sleeping -- Their naps have become shorter and less frequent. They lost their "before bed" nap, and their "before dinner" nap is about an hour, instead of 2 hours. That's okay though -- they are sleeping from 8pm til about 7am on weekends (I wake them earlier during the week), so I'm not going to complain. Now if only I could get that much sleep at night...

• Sitting -- They are getting better with sitting up on their own. Still just a few seconds at a time, but definitely holding their balance upright better than before.

• Playtime -- They LOVE their jumper. In fact, I bought a jumper for them and then we got one from our neighbor. While trying to figure out which one to keep, we decided to keep both of them. They like them enough, so why not?!? Plus, once the basement is done, we can keep one downstairs and one upstairs.

• Teeth -- They are still drooling like crazy and sucking on everything in sight (including my toe!), but no signs of teeth popping yet. Maybe in another month..

• Crawling -- Logan is SO close to wanting to crawl. This week he has been getting one knee bent under him, but he had been keeping his other leg straight, which would cause his butt to go in the air and eventually he would topple over. Well, just as of yesterday, he has gotten both knees underneath him and he is rocking back and forth already. He did it first at my mom's house and just yesterday did it at home. Next time I'll try to catch it on video. Looks like it might be time to get baby gates!
• They are both close to responding to their names. We are trying to say their names more often while making eye contact and sometimes they do look when we call their name, but not all the time, so it might just be luck. It would probably help to make sure I'm calling them by the right name too...right mom?

Our 6 month check up is next Friday. It was actually supposed to be yesterday, but found out that since it is technically 1 day before they would be exactly 6 months, they wouldn't have been able to get their immunizations. Darn Health Department! So thank you Nicole for mentioning it to me or else I would have been a little unhappy having to go back a second time to get their shots.

Mommy loves you boys and can't wait to see what the next month (or 6) brings! xoxoxoxox

Happy Birthday little girl

My one and only little girl turns 2 today. Happy Birthday Bella! May your day be filled with many naps, treats (tonight's treat is a big donut cookie!), playtime, and belly rubs.

The day we got her (8 weeks old)

Last year (1 year old)

Today