New York New York

You know those girls who always look perfectly put together? I have a couple of friends that are those sorts of girls. I'm trying to be that sort of girl. The always fashionable, always matching kind of girl (actually my mom is generally that kind of girl). Today, I am not that kind of girl at all. I have some sort of aversion to laundry (well its actually an aversion to carrying my basket down two flights of stairs).

Anyway, my goal for tomorrow (since I took off to prepare for NY) is to bake muffins for easter morning, cake for easter dinner and to sew my new spring-y especially for bringing to NY because it will help cute outfits look cuter purse! AND, if I have time, I want to cut the fabric for my bridal shower dress (which I'm absolutely positive will not be ready in time for the bridal shower considering I will be away from home all next week) and to make the girlies some super cute pj pants for our special easter adventure. I also need to pack everything for the fam...and I guess I should probably do my laundry since I've already indicated that needs to be done.

Yup. This will definitely all be finished tomorrow. I just need to do some intense scheduling. Have I mentioned that its supposed to be 70 tomorrow and I'm sure that my girlies will be anxious to head outdoors to play with the wonderful pirate water table? hmmm...need more hours in the day!

Office Organization

If anyone has ever been to my office, you know its a mess! I "know" where everything is, but it is a mess... Well, it has finally been brought to a head. My new boss put on my annual review that the lack of organization in my office may begin to undermine my authority. Of course, I don't want that to happen, soooo I'm instituting project organization! I am open to ideas. I will spend parts of the spring going through my desk drawers, but the tops of my desk are really what need the most work. The good news is that I should be getting my new laptop for work soon, so that will free up my space (currently my tower is perched on my desk, behind my monitor and next to my printer). I also need to work on my labels. Any ideas for office organization?

I just learned

I just learned that Paula Dean makes furniture, and wouldn't you know, I love it! Her living room furniture (with a title that has something to do with southern tea or sweet tea) is EXACTLY what I have been looking for! It is formal, but not. It is curvy and interesting and just absolutely perfect for our living room.

I often wonder what I will do with all of the time I spend dreaming of new furniture, an updated family room, a new office and a new kitchen when I get all of them.

Exciting!!!

I ordered a new camera. Not the awesome, super fancy (super expensive) camera that I really really wanted. But a new camera. A small one. One that works (since I seem to be the queen of breaking cameras). I'm hoping that it will arrive before we leave for NYC to visit Travis. We have some fun things planned for that weekend and I would REALLY like to be able to take pics! I bought a case along with it, so perhaps that will keep me from breaking it (although probably not since I'm not too sure what it is that I do with my cameras).

Secondly, a new swim club is opening in our area next summer. I am sending our application on Monday morning. We have been looking for a pool to belong to in our area. This one may just be it! I saw the sign on the way to work this morning, looked it up and it looks like we may be able to get in for next summer. Cross your fingers for us please!

These two things (in addition to a girl night last night, watching the Princess and the Frog (apparently it was the girls second time watching it yesterday) are keeping me smiling today, eventhough its my working Saturday).

Little Girls

Have I mentioned I love my little girls? I love them! Eventhough I thought I wanted boys, I have found that I was destined to be a mother to twin girls. I love it! Yesterday evening, after I picked my girlies up from school, we made spur of the moment decision to go out for a "fancy" dinner. We made a quick U-turn and headed for Bahama Breeze, just the three of us. Laney ordered a fancy drink (a strawberry smoothie) and we all shared coconut shrimp as an appetizer. We had great coversation while we ate, and my two little girls just made me smile. It was a wonderful girl date. Afterwards, we ran down to Trader Joes and grabbed a box of strawberry popsicles (strawberries are currently the fruit of choice in our household right now). When we made it home, it had started to rain, and we all held hands as we ran to get inside quickly.

Laney, Alie and I always try to spend a little special girl time together each week. Usually its something small, like a sleepover and a movie. Othertimes its something a little bigger, like last nights special dinner. I'm really looking forward to the girl time we will spend at Cirucci's wedding. They will even be coming with the bridal party to get mani/pedis.

Converting to a healthier lifestyle

I am reading this book about making changes to live a healthier lifestyle. Of course I had never really considered what that really really meant. I mean everyone "wants" to live a healthier lifestyle. In true "Haley-fashion", I bought a book to read up on healthy lifestyles, hoping to learn exactly how to incorporate more veggies and exercise into my familylife. However, the book presents more issues than I was really prepared to deal with, but after reading about them and ready to challenge head on. For example, Carl and I are notorious for feeding Laney and Alie fruit snacks for snack at home. After reading more about preservatives, coloring, etc. we are moving more towards more natural foods. The book suggests (and rightly so, I'm guessing) that natural foods or whole foods are really one of the biggests keys to healthly living. It also talks about seasonal eating. To be honest, I had never really thought much about eating seasonally. Of course I get excited when my favorite summer fruits are "in season", but that excitement stems from my longtime work at the farm stand. The book really opened my eyes to the beauty of adjusting your diet to suit the season and the health (as well as monetary) advantages that can have. Of course this idea excites me since I'm always excited as the seasons change. Changing to more season appropriate foods will just make those seasonal changes more pronounced in our life.

The book also focuses on lifestyle changes that go way beyond your diet. It offers tips for getting a better nights sleep as well as suggestions for improving both personal and family life. Carl and I live a healthier lifestyle than I really gave us credit for. The book talks about spending family time away from the tv (our girls are not big tv watchers at all, and we've never really had to restrict it). However, there are some things that I pulled from the book that we would like to work on...first and foremost, creating a more structured bedtime routine. The book talks about the need to wind down for bed. I've certainly heard that a million times, but never really thought much about what that meant and of course never really thought that applied to adults. It evidentally applies to everyone. My bedtime bath fits really nicely into this wind down period. While we bathe the girls in the evening and read them stories, I would NOT characterize their bedtime as a time of peace in our home.

Finally, it talks about giving more time to the morning routine so that it is not a rushed time. I have been thinking about this for a while, but never really pulling it off. This week, i have been able to begin my day with a half hour of morning yoga followed by a sit down breakfast with the kiddos. Our morning routine has really been much more relaxed and that really has a direct impact on how I feel for the rest of the day.

I'm really happy with this book because it is NOT a diet book. Carl and I were looking to make a lifestyle change. We aren't looking to lose weight (although that would certainly be a bonus). We are looking for ways to be healthier and ways to teach our girls about taking care of themselves.

Family pjs

Have I shared that my little miss Alie has requested that I make matching family pjs? Not just any family pjs, but family pjs with Olivia (the pig) fabric. Well, i'm getting there. Laney's have been finished for a few weeks, sans the one button needed in the back. I just finished Alie's top (of course she didn't want a nightgown, but a top and pants instead) again without the button and I'm almost finished her pants...although they look a little silly. I finished my pants last night, so I just need to figure out how the button maker on my fancy pants sewing machine actually works and work on Carl's pants (which isn't too hard...pants are super easy to make) and we will have the Olivia pjs of Alie's dreams! I have to admit, they are actually quite cute.

I did have to spend some time outdoors this weekend. I was soo excited that the weather was wonderful! I bought the girls a grill (pretend of course) so that they could work on grilling me all of the hotdogs and hamburgers I desired while lounging in the backyard. They also spent a considerable amount of time playing with Strawberry Shortcake and her pretty sweet swimming pool. The weather was so great that Carl was highly motivated to grill outside on Saturday night (which allowed Cirucci and I to have a pretty sweet gig, relaxing, drinking beer and hanging with the girlies and the dog while Carl worked on the brats and asparagus).

I am so stoked for the summer season that I spent the morning calling various Toys 'r' us stores looking for the toy that is sold out everywhere, the pirateship shaped water table. Finally, I found one...in New York. Luckily, uncle Travis is headed out this evening to pick it up. Of course I had to put it on hold because they only had one left. The guy must have thought I was crazy...but Alie is obsessed, well actually past obsessed with pirates. The girls love their old, broken water table..so I felt like this was definitely needed. I actually mentioned that the Easter bunny was bringing it (when they spotted it in a magazine a few weeks ago). So, I have, in essence, turned into my Gam, calling all stores, going to all lengths to get the "popular" toy. Hopefully all goes well with the pick up tonight. (I just wanted to note that this all seems to be working out ok since the original plan was to spend Easter weekend in NYC with Travis).

My backyard will be the place to be this summer!!!

beautiful bags

I have been waiting/ working on other projects for quite a while, but this weekend I finally got to sewing my first purse, and I LOVE it!

I bought the fabric on sale a few months ago because I thought it was beautiful but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. I decided to use it for a small purse and it turned out really well. The fabrics work really well together and I only made 2 small mistakes. It was a great learning project to make before the girls dresses (actually, I think I'm going to try to make my own dress first and then work on theirs, just because I want to wear mine to the shower).

Agghhh!

Somehow my house is a mess...AGAIN! The girls have been doing much better with their cleaning up, but somehow the house just keeps ending up messy.

I am going to change that this weekend. ALL toys will be moving to the family room. The family room provides many more options for organized storage with the built in cabinetry. The kiddos are not the only ones to blame. Carl and I need to be better about getting the paper out the the recycling and putting things in their designated spaces.

AND I need to get my desk out of my bedroom. Even though I am planning to go back to school, I think that the older writing desk in our room needs to go into Alie's room. That will make our bedroom feel much more spacious, and way less cluttered.

I'm planning to complete all of this over the weekend...wish me luck!

Healthful Eating

I had this great blog written about my weekend and my healthful eating yesterday, and then blogger erased it somehow:( oh well. Now i'm excited about something new!

Well a few things new. I have been dreaming and dreaming about my new office and I still can't wait. So that's not so new, but I'm excited to have a spot to store/organize my fabric stash. I have some of the most exciting patterns and fabric to work on, but it seems my small space, next to our furnace, in front of our washer/dryer needs some TLC. I have dreams about it.

My other exciting news....I applied for a phd program. I know, I know. I need another thing to be committing to like I need a hole in my head, but I am totaly psyched about this. I'm psyched about the program. I'm psyched about the possibilities and opportunities it might bring.

So, for now...I'm loving the way my new healthy lifestyle is making me feel (minus my recent bout with arthritis pain of course). and i'm excited about how things are...and the possibilities of the future.

AND...we're all set for our Disney vacation this fall....Pirate themed rooms (and resort) here we come!

It's my Friday...

Well not really, but I do generally work from home on Fridays, so Thursdays feel like Fridays at work to me. It has been super busy here in the admissions office. Financial aid is getting ready to process their offers, so we have been in a mad dash to get all of the apps read. Athletics is getting busy too...probably for the same reason. In addition, spring programming is coming up, not to mention spring travel, so things are getting pretty hectic around here.

I have decided again that I need an update to my morning routine. Hopefully (cross your fingers), the girls will be doing camp 5 days a week this summer, which will greatly reduce stress over all, but that means that everyday, I will be getting all three of us out the door. It will be great practice for the fall, when they will definitely be 5 dayers.

In other news, I found this great website about living with RA and I'm loving it. I have been looking for some resources recently (well ever since I fell down the stairs carrying the laundry, which of course, I shouldn't have been doing in the first place) to help with pain management and every day living.

This morning was my turn again to be morning mom at preschool. I monitored the coloring station (a great job for me at 7:30 am since I don't feel like doing much else). There was a little girl who was limiting the other children to only one piece of paper...period. Even if you had drawn pics on the front and the back already. I'm not sure if this is a school rule, but man was she ever persistant. She also informed me that coffee is gross. Other than her, all of the kids were super cute because they were wearing their pjs! Since the school surpassed their 12,000 dollar auction goal, the kiddos get a pj, movie, pizza party...my girlies were totally psyched.

Finally, its Cirucci's bachlorette party this weekend. Since she sometimes reads my blog, I won't share too many details before the actual event, just that we're headed to Philly tomorrow night. Wen is arriving mid-day tomorrow and I can't wait! More on the party later :)

and I almost forgot...

I made the cutest pjs for Laney this weekend. I used the new Olivia fabric (the girls decided that the entire family...including the dog, need matching pjs..so I'm working on that) to make Laney the cutest nightgown ever. I knew I loved the pattern, but I was a little nervous. I had never done pleats before, but the ruffles and pleats turned out really really well. She of courese, is obsessed with them.

I also bought this absolutely beautiful Peter Pan fabric that I will be making the girls next pjs out of.

February is over?

I can't believe that February is already over! I'm not quite sure where it went (well i think a lot of it went to snow and Presidents day weekend....).

We have been busy busy these past few weeks, visiting with friends, spending time together and of course watching the Olympics!

This past weekend we went to a silent auction at Laney and Alie's school, and that was DEFINITELY something to blog about! It was an 80s party (right up my alley...and Carl's). Carl and I went completely decked out in 80s attire (think french rolled jeans, cut off sweatshirts, bright colors, spandex and short skirts). There was 80s music, cute music videos made by the kiddos (Laney and Alie starred in the lucky star video), food, drinks and of course the auction (which was quite spirited). We came home with 2 tickets to a wine fest of our choice at linganore (a nice evening away for Carl and I..woohoo) AND a florescent Miller lite/orioles sign for Carl to hang up downstairs in the family room (who doesn't need one of those). We really enjoyed meeting new parents from Laney and Alie's school and spending time with the ones we already knew.

I will be spending time this week resting up for Cirucci's bachlorette party this weekend!