You Say You Want a Resolution...

Here we go... my resolutions for 2011. I hope that I get most of them done.. I'm trying to be realistic.

Running will be a bigger commitment this year. I am making my goal of 2011 to RUN the Tufts 10K in October 2o11. That's 6.2 miles or 2 5Ks back to back. I can do it.. I know that I can. I need to make the time to do it and make it a priority. I also want to run as many races as I possibly can (financially and timewise). I want to set a few PRs of my own.

Exercise will be a big commitment also.. I'm under doctor's orders on this one. Jillian Michaels will be my new BFF very soon.

Get out of Malden by December 2011. This one depends on us being able to afford to move. I feel that the girls need more room for running around than what a 2 bed apt can give them.

Knitting.. I love to knit and I want to be a better knitter, start working on more complicated patterns and to use up my stash of yarn since I recently inherited my MIL's yarn stash after our trip to California this fall. I need to finish the 2 blankets that I've been working on for a while now. Make my nieces and my girls some sweaters from a pattern that my aunt gave me somewhat recently (within the past year or so).

I will not be vanquished

I've been battling the sock quite a bit lately. Thankfully tonight was knitting night.. and even more thankfully my knitting knight in shining Alpaca wool, Aaron was in attendance tonight and was really really helpful to getting my sock back on track. I owe him BIG.

Everyone that came to knit tonight was really surprised that I am sticking with my sock and that I wouldn't give up (I had brought a blanket to knit just in case).. the thing is.. I was so ready to throw this project into the proverbial closet and give it a timeout but then it wins.. and that is not me. I am stubborn..unyielding...relentless. I try not to give up easily even when I get really frustrated. I am a knitter.. hear me roar (scream, cry and shout). I will not be bested by a ball of yarn. I have knitting needles and I know how to use them.. I also have the best group of knitters in my corner to help me along when I'm starting to limp along with my projects or I am lost in a pattern.

By the way, the pattern for these socks officially suck.. I am far from being able to write a set of knitting instructions at all, yet I think that I could have written the pattern for these socks much better than the company that published the pattern could at this point. My pattern has so many little notes and post-its on it for when I knit the next sock of this pair that hopefully the second sock will go much better than this first one has. I can't believe that it's taken me over 3 months for this one sock to get to the point that it's at currently (working on the gusset and instep).

I might need to buy the group a round of drinks* when they are done.

* Drinks refers to coffee, hot chocolate, lattes since we meet at a Starbucks

ReCalculating

So I got a GPS for Christmas from my nieces (yeah right Steve).. and I love it already. I've taken it to my Mom's and to our sledding adventure today at Mt Hood. It also went to knitting with me tonight. Going home was interesting since I am used to MY way of going home from knitting and I really didn't feel the need to take the highway home. I wanted to go past the Zoo so I could see the lights. I lost count of the times that it (I still need to name her) told me that it was recalculating the route. In a very perverse way it was fun. I actually enjoyed hearing her say it. Yeah I'm weird that way.

Christmas Reflections

So we made it through Christmas... the girls got completely spoiled.. We made our Reindeer Cupcakes yesterday. That turned into a candy/sugar fest since I needed Nilla Wafer cookies, Tootsie Rolls, pretzels and M&M's to make them. Oh and don't forget the cupcakes themselves and the chocolate frosting. The girls had fun helping me make them and eating some of the ingredients here and there.

Here's the link for making them...
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/rudolph-and-friends-953325/

We brought them to Uncle Stephen's house to share and then brought the leftovers home for Santa. We also made Chocolate Chip Cookies for sharing at Uncle Steve's too and left a few at home for Santa. We couldn't forget the reindeer so we left them some carrots. We almost forgot the glass of milk. Thank goodness Lee remembered before Santa made his stop here.

In the morning we found a note from Santa thanking the girls for the Milk, Cookies, Cupcake and the carrots for the reindeer and for them to enjoy the presents that he left. He totally spoiled us and them. They got a great PNP type bed for their baby dolls, new doll strollers, a toy stove and kitchen accessories (from my employers at the toystore), some new puzzles, new baby dolls, coloring books, crayons, a PillowPet each (from their cousins), bath time toys, a stuffed Grinch and a stuffed character from the book A Wocket in my Pocket. Clothing... oh the clothing. I think my family cleaned out a few clothing stores while shopping this year. It's not over yet... my best friend went shopping and got them a few things too.

The girls (Lily especially) are enraptured with the doll bed. Lily has been carrying it around the apartment quite a bit today. She finally settled on having it near her crib while she is sleeping tonight. They also tried out the new bath toys tonight. The Painting in the tub set wasn't as big a hit as I thought it might be but they adored the Fashion in theTub Dolls that they got. They stick to the wall in the tub area and have clothing that you can stick on them. It was a huge hit.. they barely wanted to get out of the tub. They also loved the new Duckys that were in their stockings and had a ball telling me that they were Baby Anna Ducky and Baby Lily Ducky and that the Ducky that we have to protect them from the faucet is the Mommy Ducky. Apparently these new additions have made Bath Time the best time... or as Anna said it, "I love bath time".

The only really bad thing that happened this Christmas is that my digital camera fell and broke right before we left to go to Uncle Steve's house. Thankfully I had my cell phone on me and was able to get some pictures with that over the holiday. Guess I'll be checking out the ads tomorrow for a new one.

He's Here He's Here

No not Santa... that would be nice the girls are getting impatient for him to arrive.. My brother is here... He missed Christmas last year. So I am so happy to have him home and here so that he can see the girls.. The last time he was here was when they were 7 months old for their first Christmas. They had no clue what was going on or why they were getting things to try to open. They enjoyed the toys that they got that year but they didn't get it... This time though it's different. They totally get it and understand that Santa will be visiting us and leaving presents. We will be making some Reindeer Cupcakes tomorrow and some Chocolate Chip Cookies for the family gathering that will happen at my oldest brother's house. We will leave a few cookies for Santa to consume and maybe even a cupcake along with the glass of milk. I can't wait to see their reaction to him and Dave's reaction to them. I will have my video camera hopefully going to capture it.

On a More Positive Note....

Christmas is coming "and it's beginning to SNOW" (still my favorite line from RENT).

I can't wait to see the girls faces when they see what Santa brought them. We finally went and saw the big guy today at the mall (Square One). It went rather well. The line was small and they did rather well with the wait. The actual event??? I think the picture sums it up rather well... Anna is reaching out to Lee and I, Lily just wants down and Santa just looks shell-shocked. They took 2 other pictures but they were not that great. In one Lily has her Baby Doll in Santa's face. But it's done and is crossed off the list till next year.

They actually did better with the Santa that our Ward's Councillor brought down our street earlier in the month.

The Santa even looked great. Mommy not so much. Next year I'll get Daddy to join us.

For Comparison... here's last year's Santa picture. Santa is happy, kids are happy. No tears at all like today. Then again last year they didn't know better plus they got Candy Canes for the effort. This year.. no candy canes.. maybe we waited too long to go see Santa. Next year we'll try Pine Banks or go back to the Burlington Mall.

To our credit, we took them right after we entered the mall. It might have been too soon (the decorations were so big and impressive to a 2.5 year old) and they might have been hungry and tired. After seeing Santa we headed to the food court where we got them some Chicken Nuggets, Apple Fries and Milk. On our way back downstairs we stopped to see the Giant Tree and they spotted Santa and started blowing kisses, waving to him and saying "Hi Santa".

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night.

Nagging Negatives

I get it... I have twins and I will hear all sorts of comments about them because of this fact. I truly do wish though that more of the comments would be more on the positive side and not the negative.. I understand that not all twins and other multiples are well behaved in public. I also understand that having multiples is hard work. I realize that many people are glad that they aren't me (a mother/parent of multiples).

I do realize that even having 1 baby is hard work (and secretly I sometimes wish that I had 1 kid at a time too). Must I hear this almost every time I go out (even when I'm out with only one kiddo or by myself) ? Do they think that I am not sick of it? So I've started to retaliate..

• When I get asked "Are they twins?", I've started to say... "No..they're triplets...oh no I left one home alone".
• When they say "Double Trouble", I reply with "Twice as Nice" or "Double the Love".
• When they ask how I wound up with them... I so want to say 'I had infertility problems and after many years of trying we finally tried IVF and got lucky..do you need my doctor's number?' but I do usually just say "I guess I got lucky".

I've also been much more aware of people who are out with their own multiples and making sure that I comment positively or commend them on how great a job they are doing (even if the reality is far from that for them).

So you might be wondering why I am blogging about this tonight. Well something happened tonight while I was out getting groceries with Lily. We had scored a Car Shopping Cart (I've only seen 2 at our Stop n Shop and they are usually being used by kids that really don't need them) and Lily was having a great time sitting in the car section and turning the steering wheel and beeping the horn. She was also leaning out every so often and I was having to remind her to "Please sit up Lillian Grace" when she would do it. She only threw her hat out of the cart once (and luckily someone retrieved it for me). As we were leaving though someone commented about her (I can't even remember what they said) and I commented that we were heading home to Daddy and her twin and they were basically floored and commented about them being Double Trouble. People who don't even know us or have met Anna just figured that if Lily was acting up (she was at that moment) that her twin must be just as bad or didn't deserve the opportunity to go out with Mommy too. In truth, Lily was having a not so good day and it was easier to bring her with me than to leave her at home to have a fit with Daddy since I had taken the opportunity to do some last minute shopping for the holidays with my mom and was gone for a few hours today. These comments just aren't fair. So if you've made it this far into my rambling on this posting, please be kind to parents of multiple children. We need to hear it.

Christmas is coming

Ummm have you noticed the calendar lately? It's the 15th of December which means 10 more days till Christmas Day and seven more days till my brother is home for the holidays. I can barely wait.. I still have some shopping to do and a tree to decorate... and presents to wrap... and our Christmas cards are going into the mail tomorrow.. Hooray.

I can't wait to see the girls excited faces when they get their presents. There are some really great presents heading their way..

My Sock almost has a heel

So after too many months of trying to get the Lace Sock going... I am so proud to announce that I got the sock to be 10" long... I posted on Facebook about it... I then realized that I needed to start the heel.. but that I had no clue how to proceed since I've never knit using the Magic Loop method before.. not a huge problem and probably one that I could have figured out on my own and probably did since I researched it to death.. but I did my usual thing.. I brought it to Knitting Group... someone there would know or should know.. right.. well out of the 5 knitters there tonight noone had done Magic Loop... so they told me to pick a side and follow my instructions... well once again the instructions are Wrong... I'd already known that there was a correction to the second row instructions that was needed. Tonight I found that the 3rd row instructions were wrong too.. Thank goodness for my friend Christine.. who helped me figure it out and gave me better instructions.

I am currently an inch or an inch and a half into making the heel flap... I'm thinking of bringing it to work over the next couple of days to work on.. better than sitting around waiting for people to want to come in and shop for toys... maybe I'll be ready to start picking up stitches by next week..

Hey Good Looking...

So here is the lace sock that has been giving me fits beyond belief as of late. In this picture it is 5.5" long and I was about to start shaping the leg.. since the picture was taken I've already done another 1.5" or so of knitting.

I really like this sock... and the pattern.. It's fun doing a lace pattern.. and I like using the circular needle and using the Magic Loop method... I'm nervous though about what I will need to do when I get to the heel and need to start working on that. I've only made heels when I was knitting on douple pointed needles (dpns). My knitting group friends though have promised that they will help me figure it out..

In other news... Christmas is getting closer and I am so not prepared at all. Presents still need to be bought... at least our cards are all set now.. I just need to print off the letters and pick up the photo cards. Print the labels and mail them out... oh wait.. I need to buy stamps too..

I just found out that my brother is coming home this year for Christmas... I can't wait to see him.. He didn't come home last year and he was truly missed. At least by me... since I can't speak for anyone else in the family. I can't wait to see the reactions that Anna and Lily have when they meet Uncle Dave again. The last time that they saw him they were 7 months old and that was almost 2 years ago. They might be a little hesitant at first but I'm sure that they will warm up quickly to him. Everyone loves Uncle David.