Making dinner with twins... not recommended.

The afternoon, especially between 4 and 5 pm are my least favorite times of the day. By that time I'm worn out and the boys are too. They're more cranky, fussy, and beginning to get hungry. Trying to make dinner at the same time is nearly impossible and takes about 3 times as long as it would if I was alone. Today I even had Steve around and they were really putting on a show- clingy, throwing tantrums, crying, teasing & grabbing at each other.

Tonight for dinner was attempting a first time recipe-Giant Empanadas. While Steve finished up the weeding in the front yard I took the already testy boys inside to start dinner. After settling them down by watching a Singing Time video with them on my lap I got everything out and ready to cook. Before I even had the stove on I was having to resort to what is usually a 'no-no'. First was letting them play in the pantry. We installed a latch up high so I have control of when they do and don't go in it. Because when they do I can guarantee you they reorganize the can rotator and pull stuff off of shelves.

Aaron began putting all the cans in the rotator on the empty shelves on the wall.

When either I'd had enough of that, or they were bored and ready to move on to something else, I then put Aaron in the high chair. He was insisting on me holding him which doesn't work well when ingredients need to be chopped. When I accidentally left the measuring drawer open he pulled himself over and got himself busy reorganizing that. He LOVES playing with measuring cups and spoons so he was having a blast.

Andrew is usually a little more mellow and willing to sit in front of the TV, entertain himself, and not cause all my hairs to turn gray within minutes. Notice I said "usually". Tonight was not one of those nights. He wanted to be doing what Aaron was doing. Before I had a chance to get him in a high chair and find a drawer I was willing to let him play in he got himself into mischief. He pulled down the dishwasher, pulled out the rack, and began to set the table- isn't he amazing?! And I've never even taught him how to set the table before! One thing I would have mentioned is we use CLEAN dishes, not dirty ones.

And then he was kind enough to put some of those dishes in the dishwasher. Others only made it to the floor. They are always busy watching what the other one is doing and if they should jump in. Tonight was no exception- Aaron's taking a look at what Andrew's busy with and decided he's having more fun. (I hate when the text turns blue and underlines. I'm no techy and can't figure out how to fix it... help! Got it to turn black. Whew.)

During all this I managed to finish part of the recipe but made a huge mistake when I put the hot hamburger sauce on the pie pastry. It melted the pastry and ruined it. Luckily we live very close to a grocery store so Steve offered to go while I attempted to feed the boys a different dinner- since this one obviously wouldn't be ready when I'd hoped. They reFUSED to eat ( I knew they were both very tired) so up we went to take a bath while Steve got the empanadas ready to bake. After they were in bed we were finally able to sit down and eat around 7 pm. And it actually turned out to be a keeper.

Was this an unusual dinner prep day? Not really. Actually experiences like this are becoming the norm. That's why lately I've been making a lot of crock pot recipes because I can prepare it in the morning when the boys are happy and less needy. And I can enjoy the aromas all day. Cooking dinner at 4:30ish can be a very tiring and not-so-fun experience.

Things I love about my new house

When we first walked through this house last October we both felt this was the house we'd eventually live in. We really liked the floor plan, the location, and the lot size. Other than the carpet it looked as thought it was barely used even though it was built in 2005. It's now been 10 days since we've moved in and there's very few things on the walls, the garage is full of junk, there's a long To Do list, and I feel disorganized. But here are a few of my favorite things about this house. I'll love it even more when the carpets are replaced next week and we have the master & second baths changed to tile from carpet.

Kitchen: I love the granite countertops, the center island, double ovens, LOTS more cabinets, and the huge walk-in pantry. Now I don't mind working in the kitchen. Wonder how long that will lasts?

Family room: we don't much hanging on the walls and the bookshelves are empty but the love the new leather sectional that was delivered the same day this pictures was taken. It's so comfortable that once I sit down it's hard to get me back up.

Butler pantry: often mistakenly called the 'butcher' pantry by myself. Yes, we slaughter hogs here.

Computer hutch: In the upstairs hallway, just across from Aaron's room and next to the laundry room.

Laundry room: I love that it's upstairs. No more dragging the numerous laundry baskets up and down the stairs.
Backyard: Even though it has nothing but small rock, dead plants, a TON of weeds, and some water fountain thing that was left, I'm glad we have the chance to do what WE want to do with it. And more than that, it's HUGE!! It's the biggest lot in the subdivision and is huge compared to most LV homes. We have many options when it comes to landscaping. Oh, and I love that it's located at the end of a cul-de-sac. Much less traffic and a lot quieter since we don't back up to a busy street like we did at our last house.

Saying goodbye to Tribiani

Even though I love our new house I will miss our house on Tribiani. This is the house we lived in after we were married (Steve had bought it 2 yrs before that) and the house we brought the boys home to. One of the best things about this home were the awesome neighbors. All the neighbors on either side and across from us are original owners and many had young children. Many afternoons you could find us sitting in front of my next door neighbor's talking while the little ones played together. Those who were in town even spent Christmas Eve together. And if I was in the middle of cooking and discovered I was missing an ingredient my next door neighbor could almost always be counted on to have just what I needed. I have to remind myself that I didn't move cross country- I'm only about 3 miles away! But still, these were the best neighbors.

We feel very blessed that our home sold as easily and quickly as it did- & that we'll even make a small profit. Certainly not as much as we could've a couple of years ago but at least we won't be taking a loss. We're VERY fortunate. The very first day it was on the market we got an offer from the very first person who came to look at it. But they wanted it to close Dec 18, exactly 30 days later, and we were not prepared to do that since we had no idea when we'd be able to move to our new house. Only a week later we got two more offers and we accepted one of those. When they came to do the home inspection it was discovered we had the dreaded Kitec plumbing and fittings, a brand of poly tubing. Our hard water here causes the zinc to leach out of the brass. Basically it corrodes the pipes and turns it to swiss cheese over a matter of time.

Back when homes were going up like crazy here many builders put Kitec in, unaware of the potential damage it causes. Every home in our development among hundreds of other subdivisions, had Kitec installed. It has turned into the biggest class action law suit ever. Our builder, KB, only settled on their case last week. If they follow suit of the other builders who have already settled, we will be reimbursed the cost. The total cost we must pay: $6,000. Ouch. That's expensive! But when we saw what they have to do we almost thought that was cheap.

Our home most likely wouldn't have sold unless we had the Kitec replaced beforehand. Our buyer didn't want to close on the house until after it was done and we agreed to do it and pay for it but told him we wouldn't do it until after we moved out. It takes 4 days, the water is shut off while they work, and there's probably about 60 holes in the walls all throughout the house. When we stopped by Saturday afternoon there were pipes hanging down ceiling holes and through the walls but I didn't have my camera with me. These pictures are from the 2nd day. Here are some pictures of the mess:

Kitec tubing- they use orange for hot water, blue for cold. All other pipings use red for hot.

Some of the holes in the family room

Laundry room

Downstairs bathroom- some of the holes

Only a few of the holes in the ceiling downstairs

It's amazing how quickly they do the job. The repiping company we used said they're busy EVERY day, there's such a demand for replacing the Kitec. Days 1 & 2 they cut the holes and replace the pipes. Day 3 a dry wall team comes and patches the holes up. Finally, on Day 4 they paint it and the holes are hardly noticeable. The work should be done tomorrow (Tues) and we could close on the house as early as Wednesday, but most likely not until Friday.

It was a great home to start our marriage in and our family but we have been very blessed to now own this home. Stay tuned for pictures and details about it.

Moving sucks

Our new house

I don't even know where to begin telling about the fiasco that happened this last weekend with our move. It feels like we moved twice and the three days (Sat,Sun, Mon) felt more like six days. The previous owner was never easy to work with from the very beginning but we didn't realize she is this psycho.

When we learned the closing day would be Friday Jan 15th we were excited because that meant we could move on Saturday and Steve would have Monday off for MLK. We have scheduled the repiping on our old house for the 23rd so we HAD to move MLK weekend. In order to see that it closed on the 15th we had to drive the cashier's check to the title company (rather than wire it) and drive the documents from the title company to the mortgage office ourselves in order for them to meet the deadline to ensure it recorded. We received a call in the afternoon that it was funded and we could go forward with the move.

The previous owner told us that she couldn't move into her new place until Monday 18th but the owner said she could store her stuff in the garage. We were told she had a place to stay Saturday and Sunday nights and we were kind enough to let her stay Friday night because we wouldn't be able to do any moving in anyway. The plan was this: She was to empty the house and have EVERYTHING in the garage. We would unload our stuff into the house and Steve was kind enough to offer to load her stuff into the truck (since we were renting it anyway) and move it to her new place, which happened to be clear across town. She understood (we thought) and agreed to the plan and knew fully well that we'd be at the house around 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

Imagine our surprise when we showed up Saturday morning with a fully loaded UHaul truck and about 12 friends and there was no answer at the door. We hadn't received a key because it hadn't closed until later in the afternoon and we'd be getting it directly from her in Saturday. My first thought was that she had done what she was supposed to do but had left before we got there to be out of our way. So I called our agent and she looked into it. Come to find out she was inside all in a frenzie beause "there were all these guys outside my house who were going to hurt me." Yeah, we probably would've hurt you when we'd learned she hadn't lifted a finger to start packing. Her agent calmed her down and was able to get her to agree to us storing our stuff in the garage and we'd give her the check for $800 for the refrigerator we had agreed to buy from her.

There was no way we could move in now until at least Monday. At the time (Saturday morning) there was some question whether it had recorded on Friday or not. She now claimed she thought she had until Monday to move. BUT she had the utilities cancelled Thursday. We had it switched to our name on Friday. So we had to return the truck, put up our bed again and live out of boxes all weekend. The boys had to sleep in their portable cribs for about 4 days and to top it all off Andrew came down with full blows croup Saturday afternoon. We were more than upset about what happened and were only able to get about 3 hrs of sleep that night. Sunday night Andrew was so sick I slept for only 15 minutes, if even that.

We learned midday Saturday that it actually DID record on Saturday so she's living now in OUR house and using OUR power. We think that her agent led her to believe that it hadn't closed on Friday and had told her she had until Monday. However, there was NO reason to even believe it HADN'T recorded on Friday. She wasn't ready for us Saturday morning and she knew it. This was all made up so she could get her own way.

Saturday afternoon we had to go to the new house and get our toiletries since it had been unloaded into her garage. While we were there we gave her a check for $800 for the fridge because we felt that was a separate issue than her not being ready. But as we thought about things Saturday night and Sunday it started to sink in just what she had done. This meant we would have to rent a moving truck AGAIN when we were prepared enough to make it a very smooth move that could've only taken a couple of hours. So we decided to put a hold on the check to ensure we'd get payment for the rental truck, staying in the house past recording time, and half the cleaning cost (since she left it trashed). This added up to $550 so we'd send her a new check for $250. This made complete sense to us.

Monday morning we rented the truck again, had about 8 friends help load it and show up at her house at 9 a.m. again. The rest of our stuff was unloaded in the garage w/our other things, they loaded her things and even delivered her junk to her new location across town-FOR FREE!!! She had even called Sunday and asked if we could come at 11:00 instead of 9:00. No way, of course not. By the time Steve returned the truck and came back to the new house it was about 1:00. He then set up the cribs, our bed, and loaded his car with a few things from the old house. I had hung out at a friend's house all day with the boys because Andrew required 100% attention due to his croup and had even taken him to the doctor in the morning. A huge thank you to Shauna for helping so much. So it wasn't until Tuesday that we could REALLY start moving in.

Last night we learned that she was more than a little ticked off when she was told we put a stop to the check. She felt we had moved her out of the kindness of our hearts, that she would've gotten her own moving truck if she thought we'd charge her for it, that I had told her not to worry about the condition of the house, and that she was planning to move out on Saturday anyway. Really? Then why weren't you ready when we got there? She threatened to sue us for writing a 'bad' check and felt we stabbed her in the back.

We decided to drop the entire thing and just release the check and told her we'd appreciate payment for the truck ($200) but have little hope she'll do that. It's just not worth going to court over something so silly and petty. We'd rather just be done with her for good and not have to deal with her anymore. She's one of those people whose world revolves around her and has no comprehension of the inconvenience she caused us.

But at least we're in the home- which we love!! There is so much more room, the location is great, and I love the floor plan. Other than the carpets the home is in very good condition, especially for a a short sale. We are SO grateful for the many people who helped me pack the kitchen, load the truck (twice!), move her!, and unpack our new kitchen, and even bring dinner for a few days. Thank you so much!!! Andrew is finally starting to feel better but I had never seen him so sick. Today was the first day he's smiled and gotten into things for 5 days. Poor guy was miserable.

So sorry for all the details but now I can forget the whole thing and just enjoy our new house!

Big shoes to fill

Andrew loves to put on a pair of my shoes and clunk around in them. Aaron is usually too busy walking around with his very own set of measuring spoons or stacking blocks to bother with big people shoes.

Christmas & New Year

The last month (not to mention year) has flown by so fast. It's hard to believe that it's not only a new year but a new decade. This last decade had one of major changes in my life, for the good. In the last decade I bought a house (while single) and sold it, married the man of my dreams, and had 3 beautiful children. I've been allowed to have two of them here with me and they have brought me more happiness and joy than I can possibly put in words. Yes, there have been some rough times but by pulling together we've learned a lot and grown closer in the process. Although I know the next year and decade will have its challenges I have much to be grateful for and many things to look forward to. We had a wonderful Christmas as we celebrated the birth of Christ. Here are some pictures and memories-

The Sunday before Christmas a friend took these pictures for us. We almost didn't even put up a tree for fear the boys would destroy it or push it over and the fact that we're moving soon. Except for the first day or two they pretty much ignored it. They did enjoy throwing little toys into the tree so I guess those can be the ornaments.

The nice thing about little ones this age is they'd be perfectly happy with small and simple gifts. One of their favorites were measuring spoons and a neon spinning light. The cost: $5.

They also love their new legos and tricycles, even though they have a little growing to do before they can ride them well.

By the end of the day Aaron and Andrew were pretty tired! Aaron voluntarily laid on the couch and so Andrew had to do it too. Monkey see, monkey do.

Steve's family came over in the afternoon for a Christmas dinner and gift exchange but we took no picture. A couple of day before the big day one of the twins attempted to be a photographer and dropped the camera which damaged the lens permanently. Now we must pay about $100 and wait 7-10 weeks for it to arrive from Korea. We can still take pictures with our much bigger lens but in order to get a decent image we have to stand back what seems a mile away.

Christmas with the boys was a lot of fun as they became fascinated with new things around them. This year we put up very few decorations but they loved our single nativity set that was child proof. After breaking up several fights over who got to play with it I finally put it up higher. And they loved the lights outside the house. And the Santa decorations. I have a feeling next year they'll gave a much greater understanding of what Christmas is all about.

Haircut, finally

A & A looking at the rain through the sliding door. Notice how shaggy it is.

A & A 'organizing' my pantry. Again, it's rather shaggy (to us anyway).

For the last 2 months or so Aaron and Andrew were in sore need of a haircut. It was beginning to get long and shaggy (by our standard) and would always knot up in the back. So finally today we gave them a haircut. Yes, WE cut their hair. It takes two- one to hold & distract them and the other to do the job. Whenever we've done a trimming before I always let Steve do it because I was afraid it would turn out horrible and cause me great embarrassment. But today I overcame that fear and did Andrew's hair while Steve did Aaron's.

Even though I knew they needed a haircut I still had a hard time watching them being butchered- and I let Steve know it with comments like, "That's too much!! He's going to be bald! But now it's not as red! Way too short!" So when it was my turn to do Andrew's we used a a longer clipper to leave it slightly longer. Of course, I thought his haircut was handsome! Aaron's? I wasn't so sure.

It didn't dawn on me why I was having such a hard time with their haircut until we were at my neighbor's tonight. They thought their haircuts were great and said, "Now they look like little boys instead of babies." And then I realized that my babies are gone. Each day they are becoming more and more like little boys.

Andrew's new haircut

Aaron's tongue and his new haircut