We are having a really intense
thunderstorm right now! Keep your fingers crossed we don’t
loose power.

As most of you know, we have come to the end of
my lovely SAHM lifestyle and I now need to star earning some
money. I’m pretty bummed about this, but I’m more bummed about
our current financial situation, so additional earnings will be
good. Anyway, for the last bunch of weeks I’ve been pursuing
different ideas and trying to figure out what would be the best
plan for me, the family, and the bank account. None of the
options are thrilling (mostly because I’m pretty happy with
life as it is, finances aside) and I’ve mostly narrowed it down
to childcare or a possible web developer position at a local
company. All last week I was saying, “I wish someone would just
give me a sign! Tell me what to do!” All last week I was
waiting on the hiring lady for the web dev position to get back
from vacation. She got back on Wednesday and I didn’t hear from
her, so I called her on Friday. She called me back later in the
day and said they just hired a new Director of IT and that
person would be starting next week (wow!!! the
thunder is scary!!!) and that person would be in
charge of filling the web dev position. She then said they
would be in touch in a week to 10 days. (the sky just
opened up with a huge burst of lightening and now it’s
downpouring. hope Alan gets home soon!) So, knowing
what I know about the corporate world, there is no way someone
is going to be making hiring decisions a week or two after
starting. Highly unlikely anyway. ARG!! So now I’m torn. Should
I wait a few more weeks (the indecision is killing me!) for an
offer I may or may not get for a job that probably will pay
well, but will result in my babies in someone else’s care
full-time? Or should I just go the childcare route with ok pay
and the potential to go insane from all the kids (including
mine, of course) and minimal grownup interactions?? I’m
probably going to go the childcare route because we need $$
sooner rather than later and because I’m just tired of thinking
about it. I’m ready to move on. Wish me luck and saneness! :)

Still have power, though I’ve
lost my Internet connection so you’ll see this message when I’m
back online :)

Eve
was laughing. Wish I had the video camera.

They
do love the swingset.

Check out three new videos down the side. I put
the jumper thing in our bathroom door frame last night so Eve
could hang out while Lex took a bath. The jumper is such a
great thing, but we always have trouble finding suitable door
frames. The 2nd and 3rd videos down the side there are of Lex
helping Eve jump. In the 3rd one down (the first one filmed
though) you can even hear him say “Love Eve.” He’s such a sweet
big brother and she adores him :) The top video is his first
home movie. I was running the bath and didn’t even know that he
was recording. I posted it because the very end cracks me up.

Life is busy around here. My house is a horrible
mess and instead of cleaning we went to the Airport Awareness
day yesterday (local airport had lots of planes, helicopters
and emergency vehicles on display for the kiddes to play
in/on/around) and a county fair today. I got lost on the way to
the fair (terrible directions!) so we got there pretty close to
naptime, but I had the double stroller so I mostly just pushed
the kids around. We went on the merry-go-round (Lex hated it)
and then we went through the kiddie fun house (3 times, Lex
loved it!) and ate fried dough and looked a the tractors. Both
kids fell asleep on the way home and had good naps. All in all
a good time.

Messy, messy house and a
thoroughly worn out family :) Maybe I’ll clean tomorrow. Maybe
not.

From this weekend…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGLKd3ME5xA]

This is from a few days ago (the 8th), but
I just got things working with YouTube again. She has mastered
the raspberry by now and likes to practice frequently :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWpI4VGIjBo]

Alan is playing poker tonight and
everything is askew at home. In a good way. Lex had no nap
today, but did ok all afternoon. Eve didn’t sleep much all day
because we were out and she doesn’t sleep well out and about
since we stopped using the infant carrier. Dinner is shown
below. And now it’s 6:45 and both babies are asleep. Lex picked
out his pyjamas by himself, so he’s sleeping in a too-small pj
top and blue jeans :) PJs to the grocery store and jeans to
bed. Toddlers are great!

The Beginning: Yogurt, granola and
wheat germ (snuck in) with two pieces of cheddar cheese that he
decide to put on top.

The Middle: He chose not to sit,
instead to jump up and down in the box. Needless to say he
started to get messy.

The End: Very messy, but notice that
the food is gone? He was even scraping yogurt and granola off
the sides and bottom of the box. A little cardboard never hurt
anyone, right? I think we are going to have to retire the box
now :)

Went grocery shopping this afternoon. It
was EXHAUSTING! First time with Eve not in her infant carrier.
I had her in the hip carrier and Lex walking along beside. He
doesn’t normally like to ride in the cart (unless he’s tired
and I’m able to bribe him with a snack). So at BJs I had her on
my hip, him holding my hand (sometimes) and a giant BJs cart
that pulled to the right. I was beat by the time we got done
there! Luckily he was too and happily sat in the cart eating a
biscuit at the grocery store. Eve just hung out, looking
around, head sort of hanging precariously (I tried to keep her
head tucked in the crook of my arm most of the time), then she
fell asleep at the grocery store. The kids (I have kids!!) are
so sweet :) Luckily my husband is also sweet! We picked him up
from work on the way home (it was 6:30 by then!) and he
unloaded and put away the groceries and took care of dinner
while I nursed Eve.

It’s been awhile so my last update. I think of
good blog stuff everyday, but just haven’t gotten around to
posting. Then I started wondering who was going to bug me about
it first. Thanks Joyce!! ;) Just kidding. Life has been busy
and I’ve been cranky and highly unmotivated to do anything
useful (I did make a fabulous blueberry pie though!!) At the
moment Eve is happy and Lex is sleeping, so let’s see if I can
get something posted!

Eve is doing great
these days. She’s at a really fun age where she’s alert and
social and doing lots of typical baby things, like playing with
her toes, blowing raspberries, and scooching around on her back
and belly. Can’t crawl, but definitely starting to get mobile.

Lex is equally fun, but a little more
challenging. This morning he came over, gave me a big hug, and
said “love you mommy.” Soo sweet! He still has trouble with
naps, and I’ve started getting him up after an hour or so if he
doesn’t fall asleep. Makes for interesting afternoons, but
early bedtimes. :) We got him a new car seat this weekend
because Eve outgrew her infant carrier. We got Lex a seat that
converts from a car seat to a booster seat and then put Eve in
his old seat. He was very happy to help me pick it out and “try
it on” at the store. Then he sat in it all weekend in our
living room. We put it in the car last night and took our first
trip today. He was happy and said, “Lex has a new car seat and
Eve has the old car seat.” The new arrangement presents some
challenges though, since her carrier was very convenient for
shopping, transporting her while asleep, and putting her down
to chase Lex when necessary. Without the carrier I have to wake
her up to get her in and out of the car and carry her in my
arms or in the hip carrier. A little more difficult, but she’ll
be walking and running before I know it, so I’ll treasure these
moments while I can. :)

On the parental
front, I have been cranky lately because I have to find some
form on income and I’m always tired and now I have a canker
sore on the tip of my tongue!! It hurts so bad. I’m going to
buy some Baby Orajel at the grocery store today. I’ve come up
with several income ideas (to be fair my mom came up with most
of them ;) ), but none seem to be “the” job. I was all set to
do daycare with three interested parties, then they all backed
out for one reason or another and I’m kind of back to square
one. I feel like I’m stuck in indecision mode and just waiting
for some sort of sign or something to tell me what is the best
way to proceed. I told Alan last night to just tell me what to
do so I can move on. :) He didn’t. Alan is actually over-busy
himself, working full-time for his salary job and full-time for
his own company. He reached a major push with datdec to switch
locations for his servers, and about that same time one of his
key guys took off for an undetermined period of time. So now
Alan is working serious hours trying to get this server move
done in a timely fashion. Someday life will settle down again.

Eve is no longer happy…. back in a
bit…

She’s so sweet and mellow. Give
her a plug and some snuggles and out she goes. Of course, now
Lex will be waking up in a few minutes. It’s like they have
some sort of connection, when one falls asleep the other wakes
up. So I’m going to add in some pictures and wrap this up. I’ve
been trying to upload a few cute videos, but YouTube doesn’t
seem to be cooperating. Or maybe it’s my new operating system.
Or maybe our new Internet connection. Or maybe just user
deficiency. We’ll see. I’ll get them up someday anyway. And
I’ll try to post a little more often for you folks out there
living vicariously through me ;)

And
there he is… my little ones have this asleep/awake thing down
to a science!