Last Post

This is my last post in my old house. I will not have internet access until midweek next week in the new house. Be assured, the computers will be set up and ready when the technicians finally get around to connecting us.

There is a huge Penske truck in front of my house. I drove it here. It felt weird. Li'l ol me in a monstrosity. The seat is hydraulic to make up for the absence of shocks. Dips in the road made me bounce so high it was hard to keep my feet on the gas/brake pedal.

I have only packed three boxes, and it doesn't look like I will need too many more. I am pleased with how NOT overwhelmed I am--except for the time. I can see what needs to be done though instead of just standing bewildered as I walk into each room. I need to get to it, though.

Just Silly--But Fun

I really should go to bed now, but for those outside the Lay Family loop, my sister, Kim posted this sentence making activity. Please post what you come up with.

Pick the month you were born:
January-------I kicked
February------I loved
March--------I karate chopped
April----------I licked
May----------I jumped on
June----------I smelled
July-----------I did the Macarena With
August--------I had lunch with
September----I danced with
October-------I sang to
November-----I yelled at
December-----I ran over
Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a snowman
6-------a gangster
7-------my mobile phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19------ - a smurf
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an ipod
29-------a surfer
30-------a llama
31-------A homeless guy
Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
White---------because I'm cool like that
Black---------because that's how I roll.
Pink -----------because I'm crazy.
Red-----------because the voices told me to.
Blue-----------because I'm sexy and I do what I want
Green---------because I think I need some serious help.
Purple---------because I'm AWESOME!
Gray----------because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow--------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange--------because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown---------because I can..
Other----------because I'm a Ninja!
None----------because I can't control myself!

My sentence today is: I did the Macarena with a football player because I'm crazy. Tomorrow I will wear a gray shirt so I can do the macarena with a football player because Big Bird is my leader. Have fun!

Overnighter

Last night I spent the first night in my new house. I had to take Mikey and Lexi back to their mom., which puts me most of the way to the house and we had to finish up the floor covering before we move in on Saturday So I took the babies with me and we slept on blankets and sleeping bags on the floor. They actually slept for a seven hour stretch together. One has been doing that lately, but the other has often been up around 1 or 2. Don't ask me if it is the same one, or which one. I am asleep when I take care of them.

So today I finished the flooring in the living room and shampooed the carpet in the other rooms. The babies played in their room, my room, and the big girls room (which is where I slept). They were great all day. I think they liked having a different place to play and new things to explore.

I also scrubbed walls and doors since we don't have time to paint, repaired nail, screw, and golf ball holes, and had a little fun with electricity. I turned off the breaker that said master bed/bath, but I still got a tingle like when we played with the electric fence when installing the two outlets that were left in my bathroom. That was precisely when I decided that there was nothing else I needed power for and cut the main breaker. I started on the vanity light, but got distracted and didn't come back to it. The electric box for it is centered on the wall, but the mirror is not, so it is not centered on the mirror.

I missed the closing ceremonies of the Olympics for all that. It is good that they are over. Maybe I can make some actual progress on packing/cleaning before we get a moving truck this Saturday.

No Words

Still Here

I spent all day yesterday cleaning and working on my new house. Mike and the babies were there with me. He mostly did electrical work. We made a ridiculous number of trips to Lowe's because it is 5 minutes down the road. This week we have painting, flooring, and packing to do. We have a target date of Saturday for the big furniture move.

The babies are scooting all over the place. It is amazing how much they have advanced in their skills in the past two weeks. Things they could barely do are now perfected. They don't like being in the empty new house all day very much, though. It is hard to get stuff done with them. They are very good, but they need attention. The interruptions minimize my efficiency.

They are so fun right now, though--laughing, singing, kissing. There's just a lot of love around here.

I missed Phelp's final Gold medal because of being at the house yesterday, and who knows what else. Watching the news this afternoon they said, "If Michael Phelps was a country, he would be tied for fifth for gold medals." That really puts it into perspective. Guess I'll read now and see what I've missed from the rest of you.

Fanatic

There are very few things in my life--outside of family and church that I really get into. Apparently, the Twilight series, though that has not stood the test of time, as yet. I make every effort to watch American Idol. But before all that, and for decades of devotion, I love, love, the Olympics--winter, summer, it doesn't matter the event. I make every effort to watch all of the network coverage of it--despite my disdain for NBC. I am so glad they decided to stagger years so I don't have to wait a full four years before I get my Olympic fix. Every two years, two weeks of my life is dedicated to wrapping myself in the drama of human achievement and tragedy.

I enjoy figure skating far more than gymnastics, mostly because there is so little dance to gymnastics, even in the ladies floor routine. I would like to see a brilliant choreographer make it a floor exercise look more like a series of disjointed set-ups for strings of tumbling passes. It bugs me, too, how their pirouettes more often than not fall off to the side instead of remaining center--meaning their focus is on power more than control. Still what they do is amazing and I love to watch it. I wish synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics got more air time.

One thing I have done to minimize my obsession is not subscribe to the pay per view coverage or look for streaming video on the website. Afterall, I have a house to clean up and move out of in two weeks. The closing process has met with a lot of bumps, but we are signing on Wednesday and moving out the 23rd. The kids start school on the 27th. I have a couple of things to do. Don't expect a lot of blog participation this month--unless I get so stressed out that I want to withdraw from my responsibilities.

Belly Racing

Anastasia is on all fours rocking back and forth.














On your mark....














Anastasia in the lead!











Amelia trying to close the distance! But it's Anastasia by a head!

The Smart Twin

A few months back, I was a little concerned at how much more Amelia was picking up and how quickly she was progressing. I was afraid that Anastasia was the "slow one" Now, though, Anastasia has leaped ahead. She is crawling, sitting up unassisted indefinitely, playing the piano, and generally more observant and active. She is even getting ready to crawl on her hands and knees, though at this point she just lunges forward from that position.

I had a flashback when I saw her rocking back and forth on her hands and knees. When I see a baby doing that (which I don't remember any of my other ones doing much) I think of my twin sisters when they were babies. They would do that rocking for long periods of time, either on their hands and knees, or sitting up and bouncing themselves off the back of the couch.

Amelia is still tipping over and until yesterday was still doing the airplane kick (you know, where they lift their arms and legs off the ground, kicking and waving like their belly will propel them). I think she is going to skip the low crawl altogether and go straight to the knees. I guess the thing with twins is that they just have different rates of progress, that ultimately even out over time. Amelia will probably end up walking first.

Breaking Dawn

Okay, bear with me and my fanaticism. If you haven't read the Twilight series, you probably won't get it, so this is for those of you who care.

I am looking at a sticker by my desk that says "I was bitten by Breaking Dawn" that I got at the Lewisville Barnes & Noble midnight book release party. I had never gone to one before. We did not pre-order, but my friend that I went with picked a place for us to sit and read books for the last hour. The aisle we sat in was where they decided to start the first-come-first-served line, so after all the pre-orders bought, we were the first to get it. We had a blast with that. People would come by and ask where the end of the line was.

"I don't know, way back there somewhere."

"Is this the end of the line?"
"No this is the beginning the end is in another aisle."

"This is the beginning of the line? That sucks!"
"For you," under my breath.

Man, that was fun! Lexi was with us, so she came along too. Her friend Shannon and a few girls she had met from girls camp were there. I was really glad for her sake that she didn't have to hang out with us.

It will be her birthday (Aug 8) before we see her again, so I took her shopping and gave her some stuff I had been hiding away. I started reading the book to Mike on Saturday morning. We had a lot of interruptions (obligations, whatever you want to call them) throughout the weekend. Mike had to go to work before 7am for a few days and was very tired by Saturday night, so we didn't get very far before he started snoring. But I read to him while he was driving and working until his phone died.

Lexi was occupied reading the third book "Eclipse." over the weekend. We took them back last night. Because it was her birthday, I was committed to buying a second copy of the book so that she could take one to her mom's house with her. We didn't get a chance to before it was time to separate, so I just gave her the copy I had, with only three chapters remaining for me to read. (I say me because Mike "worked from home" while I took Lexi shopping and finished the book--Jerk.) We stopped at our first Wal Mart on the way home.

I saw the other three books in the series and knew I had a problem. I just wandered around, stunned, thinking it would appear, with a sense of hollowness like Bella wandering in the forest before Sam Uley found her. I walked out empty-handed.

We drove the access road scanning shopping centers for another place that might have another copy for me. When we found a B&N Mike went in this time to a similar scene. He asked a cashier, if there were any copies left. She thought there might be one. There were only three. *Whew* I didn't have to steal Arren's copy and prevent her husband from reading.

The cover has chess pieces on it. Not until the las five chapters do you understand--it is perfect.

It is the final book of the series, but there is certainly wiggle room for some stories from other people's perspective--a different series. The most obvious is Jacob. There are plenty of other characters that could have their own story, if not their own series.

Anyway if you made it this far and you haven't read the books, you have enough time on your hands that you should. Stephanie Meyer, Twilight. Get with it.

Magic

I forced myself to stop reading so I could go to sleep, only to turn on my blogger. I had a though I wanted to record while I remembered it.

Last night, I hung out at Barnes & Noble until well after midnight waiting for my copy of Stephanie Meyers new release Breaking Dawn. To minimize my fanaticism, I want to say it was for Arren's benefit, but I don't know if that's true. Anyway, I'm thinking about books like Twilight, Harry Potter, Narnia, etc. and I'm musing about their potency. Why do people get so involved in these imaginary worlds? Are we just a bunch of escapists? Do we unconsciously want to believe in myths and legends and magic? Why?

No, there are no such things as vampires and witches, magic wardrobes and werewolves. The socially functional of us readily recognize that. So why do we get so hooked on these books whose plots are intricately connected with our reality, and take us so far from it.

But that was my thought. Is it so far from our reality? Isn't this thirst for magic just a longing of the soul for its true origin? The reality is, there is a power beyond humanity. The magic is Diety. Just like Bella, and Harry, and Lucy that magic is part of our destiny, because we are more than ordinary humans. We have a powerful and infinite potential. The only thing that makes them different from their ordinary human peers is that their eyes are opened through the story to their potential destiny. They are willing to see outside of the ordinary world.

Our faith in our potential as literal Children of God sets us apart from our peers. It gives us real power--maybe even enough to call down miracles. But at the very least to see the miracle that our lives are--being without beginning, and without end. The only difference with us and the characters is that we don't have to keep a secret, because we know that our peers are just as entitled to the heritage, destiny, and magic that is ours--and we want it for them. We know that our Divine Father is the giver of all these things, and that he wants to give it to all of his children. Because we love him and he loves them, we love them. In loving them and sharing with them, our power actually grows. In truth, the power and the magic is very simply, but very profoundly, Love. Every heart knows it. Every beloved story ever told shows it.

Love is the question, and love is the answer. But mostly, love is the magic.

Well Babies

It has been a long couple of days for me and the babies. Yesterday I went to get the appliances for our new house paid for because Mike got his quarterly bonus. Then I shopped around for flooring to kill time before Anastasia's physical therapy appointment. She did great for her first full workout. She hardly fussed and she tolerated it for a full 40 minutes. Two other PT techs were hovering over the session and playing with Amelia. They were all ga-ga--and the babies too.

When I was done, Mike invited me to bring the babies to his work which wasn't too far away to show off his little girls. They caused so much commotion in that office! I valet parked at the front of the hotel and they told me there would be no charge if it was less than 15 minutes. I was in there for as much, maybe as 45 minutes. Everybody had to hold them and poke them and make faces at them. Mike was the funniest one of all. He was so goofy proud of them. He was polite enough to introduce me as well. When you have twins you just have to expect that you are nothing more than a background.

After that I went to the mall with the babies to double check on appliance prices at the Sears outlet. I killed time there until Mike was able to meet me for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe because I got a gift card to go there for my birthday from the Quigleys. We didn't get home until 10pm and the babies had not had more than 1/2 hr of sleep at a time.

This morning Mike had to be up at 5am, so I am still running on nothing. The babies did not get their morning nap again today because they had a Well Baby appt at 9am. I did some more shopping this morning too. We finally got home after noon. They are both sleeping , and I think I will too, because I am going with Arren tonight to the Barns & Noble midnight book release party for Breaking Dawn. Between now and then I have to pick up Lexi and Mikey, and make dinner in addition to getting some rest.

Anyway, Dr. McColm says the babies are beautiful and strong (as if I didn't know). Amelia, I think was 26 1/2 inches, just a little bigger than Anastasia, which they did not tell me her numbers. Amelia was just over 18 lbs, Anastasia was just under. They are right on target for growth.

If you don't hear from me this weekend, it is because I am reading a book to my husband.