Work Picnic

Last night we went to Chesapeake Crab Connection for Rod's work picnic. It turned out to be a nice evening after an afternoon of heavy showers. Shelling crabs takes some practice, we were there for 2 1/2 hours! Rod has 3 very good employees and wanted to thank them for their work. We don't do work picnics every year, 2006 was the last time we did something. So he thought it was time again. The guys brought their wives/girlfriends along. It was fun eating outside, in the sand. Even though it's along a main highway, they did their best to make it feel like your at the beach!

Rainbow

The boys are looking at the first rainbow of the season...

Challenge

I had a tough week with the kids this week. Brad wasn't feeling well so he was extra whiney, which made ben extra whiney (twin thing) and Adam was extra rammy, if that's a word, and asked waaaaaaaaaay too many questions, it was driving me nuts. Plus i was being treated for a bladder infection and running a low grade fever. I wasn't very patient with them, and really wasn't enjoying them much. Fridays the boys and i have a tradition of eating out at Mcdonalds, since Rod gets pizza in at the shop on fridays and doesn't come home for lunch. Whenever i take the boys anywhere we always get looks and comments, mostly about the twins. So as we were setting up camp at "our table", people were commenting to them and about them, and i remember thinking if they think they're so cute and cool then maybe i could get them to take them home! i was still in frustration mode from the week. After a bit, out of the blue, an older man walks over and says "you do a really good job with your crew." i said thank you, but i immediately felt guilty for receiving such a compliment with the thoughts i've had about them and my impatience throughout the week...his comment made me think and realize at a bigger level, that even if things aren't going great with the boys i still have a job to do and need to do the best job i can and honor God in the way i handle them. but it sure isn't easy in the midst of things, is it? but God is good and helps us in all things. So this was my challenge, thanks for reading :)

Grandpa's Windmill

This was my Grandpa and Grandma's windmill, we bought it at their auction back in 2005. I finally got around to painting it and we have it sitting outside now. My Grandpa died a few months before the sale. I saw him a lot growing up, since we were neighbors. I have a lot of good memories of my grandpa. Other items we got at the auction were mostly household things, that remind me of grandma. This windmill is special because when i see it, it reminds me of grandpa. He's my only grandparent that i lost. My other 3 are still living (ages 87, 87, and 82).

Here's the before and after pics. I wasn't quite into the John Deere green and yellow.

I told Rod last night that it would be nice if i would get out of bed earlier in the morning so i can get a few things done before getting the boys up. So after i was asleep last night he so graciously moved my clock ahead one hour! ( i fall for that every time!) So here i am with a little extra time this morning. I know, i should be doing other things but i'll get to that :)
This weekend was pretty quiet. We did some yard saling Saturday morning and went to a local Carnival saturday night. Sunday included a lot of laying on the couch! We watched the Phillies finish up a 4 game sweep of the Nationals.
The twins are learning so much from Adam. Scary i know. Here's a video of the "mystery twin" singing the ABC's. Do you know which twin it is? I'll tell you in the next post. I missed A-D, so i think the video starts at E or so. And he gets a little distracted at the end. But you'll get the point. Take a look.

Lemonade

Rod's mom found lemons on sale yesterday, and she bought me a bunch. So of course I made lemonade out of them. I've used this recipe for years and people seem to like it. It's a Pampered Chef recipe. I bought a juicer from Pampered Chef and this recipe came with it. This isn't the lemonade Adam sold at the yard sale, we went to the grocery store for that :)

Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade
9 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon zest
3/4 c. juice from lemons (about 4-5 lemons*)

Combine water and sugar in pitcher. Mix well until sugar is dissolved. Zest lemons for 1 1/2 T of zest. Juice lemons for 3/4 c. juice. Add juice and zest to pitcher. Mix well. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy! (makes a little over 2 quarts)

* you get a little extra juice out of lemons if you microwave them first for about 30 seconds.

Yard Sale

My mom and i had a yard sale at her place on Saturday. It did not do very well! there weren't many people traveling the road, apparently everyone was using a rain-free day to do their outdoor work, instead of yard sale! we had a fun time though, luckily we had adam to entertain us. He sold 12 lemonades. (4 of those were from his great uncle dale). He got pretty bored between customers!

He drank SO much lemonade that day! So he watered Grandma's flower beds quite often :)

Toward the end we were getting so desperate for customers, we used Adam to hold up a sign while the cars passed by.

Uncle Mikey took the kids down to the farm on the wheeler for a bit.

In the evening, i was able to take my mom out to eat for mother's day while Grandpa took Adam to an ice cream shop nearby. Rod kept the twins the whole time i was gone, everything was still intact when i got home, except the twins have a tad less hair now!

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!!

Boys will be boys

Lately our evenings have consisted of watching the boys wrestle. Very entertaining, brings me back to when i was growing up, my brothers would wrestle all the time. It would drive my mom nuts. The boys are still young enough that they don't destroy the house or each other....yet.

It usually starts off with a brave twin and Adam...

Then it starts to get hairy over the next several minutes...

Then the other twin joins in..Adam is actually laughing here...
And it always ends with one or more crying. That picture was blurry :) Then they repeat as necessary :)

2 years ago...

Saturday was 2 years since we've brought the twins home from the hospital. A week or so ago we ran into one of their NICU nurses at the Post Office. It was good to see her and she loved seeing the twins 2 years later. One thing that stood out to me over my hospitalization & birth of the twins was the NICU nurses and how good they were. After being in several different "departments" in the hospital, (triage, labor & delivery, "bed rest" dept, operating room, recovery, and the nicu) I can say the NICU staff was the best, hands-down. They literally took me off guard with how helpful & sweet they were. I'm still so thankful for them & all they did. It would be a tough job, they don't receive enough recognition. The day after we brought them home. Brad was still under 4 pounds. Ben about 4 1/2.