Still Alive

Life's been crazy...and that's pretty much an understatement.

The house is done and it looks amazing! J needs to do some finishing touches to some small paint jobs and I'll post before and after pictures.

Liam and Ella are amazing escape artists. Those extra tall baby gates? Pretty much useless. Liam scales them in no time flat and then opens whichever gate he's escaped over to let Ella out and they run all over the place and, therefore, get into everything. I'm learning not to stress about it all, but they're wreaking havoc for sure. We now have locks on the fridge, the stove and a new garbage can that also locks. I gave life to monkeys, I tell you.

After a very, very rocky start, I believe that the kids are back into a pattern of napping. We still have some issues with bed moving (yep, Liam moves their beds across the room) and robot touching (he likes to play with the air conditioner), but they go down relatively easily most days. Bedtime isn't a problem anymore, since the installation of a light switch cover which has the kids convinced that their bedroom light is broken (except for that one morning where Mom got the kids and turned the light on and Ella exclaimed that "Nana, how you do that? The light is broken! You fixed it, Nana!").

Good God, these furballs are the Muffins' latest obsession. I like Max, but Ruby bugs the hell out of me.

I honestly didn't think I'd be into the Olympics this year, but we've been sucked in every night. Staying up way too late.

In my most recent meeting with the trainer, I was down 22 lbs. and 13 inches since I started working with her in May. Since then, I've lost another 6 pounds and am down 43 lbs. total since joining the gym in January. Not too bad, eh? I'm rapidly entering a place where I haven't been in a long, long time and it's not as scary as I thought it would be. More on that at another time.

Life is going to continue being nuts for a bit. The weekend of the 23rd, we're heading up to Vermont for Nurse and I's civil union celebration and the weekend after that we're having J's family in to celebrate his mother's 60th birthday. I have a lot to say, though, and have plans to post more often. I know, I know...I've said it before, but I mean it this time.

Here. Gratuitous kids pics.


Would you like some flower soup?


Why wear one hat when you can wear two?

Playing the piano at Nana's is a favorite activity.