Monday, March 7, 2011

Close Call

This morning, I decided I needed to run some errands. Usually, I have my days planned out and I can get ready before the girls wake up. This just makes for a smooth morning, before we head out the door. But since I decided this morning that I needed to get out of the house, I was left showering and getting ready while the girls were running around. I had them on the couch watching cartoons and eating cereal while I was in the shower. When I was about finished, they both came in the bathroom and started getting into things. I quickly dried my hair and said "lets go eat breakfast". I walked into the kitchen and started making oatmeal, Ashlyn was close behind. Addison didn't come, but she has this very weird fascination with tooth brushes, so I figured she was still in the bathroom hunting either mine or Ryan's toothbrush! A few minutes later, she comes in the kitchen and I put them both at the table and feed them their breakfast. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. I'm in my pajamas, with no make up...so I'm hiding and peeking around the corner to see who it could be. Its a surveyor or salesman...I didn't bother getting it and I even cussed at him(under my breath) for knocking on someones door so early in the morning. BUT, while I was in the entry way I heard a strange sound off in the distance. It sounded like water running. I listened for a minute and suddenly I realized EXACTLY what it was. My heart skipped a beat and I got sick to my stomach. Addi had turned on the bathtub faucet and left it running. Normally, not a problem except that we keep the drain closed because our dog gets up in the night and always jumps in the tub to get a drink!! We keep it closed so that I don't have to get up and turn the water on for her!! So I run in the bathroom and literally, the water was within a centimeter from overflowing the tub!!!! It was at the very brim of the tub, about to splash down onto the entire bathroom!!! What made it even funnier was that Addi had also emptied out a drawer into the tub before she filled it up! There was teeth whitener packages and some exfoliating cream floating in the water!! It was a very close call. I got lucky and I've learned my lesson about keeping that stupid drain closed! I guess my dog will have to learn how to drink out of a water bowl, just like other dogs! Now, I feel bad for calling the stranger that knocked on our door the name I called him. Thank goodness for him or else I would've had a BIG mess on my hands!! And thank goodness our jacuzzi tub is so big that it takes a full 15 minutes to fill up! Now I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to explain the increased water bill to Ryan!!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Trail Dust

Tonight, Ryan decided that he wanted to take the girls to Trail Dust for the first time. Right now, its rare that we go out because the girls are at that stage where they scream and try to crawl out of their highchair. They don't understand discipline yet, so it just easier to stay home. We weren't brave enough to try it alone, so we took my parents for an extra set of hands. The reason we chose Trail Dust is because of the slide and the live music. We thought there would be enough distractions to keep the girls occupied long enough to let us eat. Well, THEY LOVED IT! We were basically the only people in there. The girls had the slide all to themselves. I'm not going to lie...going down that 2 story slide made my stomach turn a little bit!! Addison was a little scared. She would get stiff and have a scared look on her face when she was going down. Ashlyn, loved it. She couldn't get enough. I bet I went on that thing 25 times! After dinner, the dance floor was empty, so we let them run around a little bit. Ashlyn climbed up on stage and danced. Addison was spinning and twirling when I sang the "hot dog" song, from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!! Here are a couple of pictures.
Going down with both girls. Addi, all tensed up and Ashlyn smiling from ear to ear!


Ashlyn


Addison, scared for her life!





Saturday, February 5, 2011

Our Lives, Since September(2010)

Ok, so a lot has happened since I last blogged. Obviously the girls are growing like weeds, but there has been a lot of changes in our personal lives as well. For those of you who know us very well, you know that our main income as a married couple comes from Ryan. What I made off of the tanning salon was just extra spending money for me. So, what pays all the bills and what goes into savings is all made off of Ryan's income. All of this is leading to a point...let me start from the beginning.
Its hard to justify leaving a company that was as great as the company he was with. But some things came to our attention that we didn't agree with, some changes were made with the company, and we ultimately had to make the decision to leave or stay. **Let me interrupt here and mention that I sold my tanning salon in November, so I am officially a stay at home mom. The income that I made(that was once my "fun money" is now gone.) Going back now, to what I mentioned before about Ryan's income. We are now relying on 100% on what he makes. So, making the decision to leave his company was a scary thought. Because of a non-compete clause he signed, he cannot bring over any of his current clients. So he would be starting from nothing, with no leads, basically he would be as low as you can get. Long story short, we took a trip to Las Vegas in early October. We discussed in great detail the pros and cons of him leaving. Being that we were away from home, we were in a place where our decision couldn't be swayed by anyone or anything. We felt like we could really give it a heartfelt-go with your gut-decision. On October 28th, he put in his letter of resignation. He was officially unemployed. We already had a plan for what we were going to do, and we immediately started working on it. We signed a lease on a little office down the street from our house. It took a long time, but by the end of December, we were officially our own financial firm--Wallace Wealth Management. He does everything from financial planning to all kinds of investments(mutual funds, IRAs, etc). He is currently studying for his series 7 test, which will allow him to sell stocks and bonds and trade within the stock market. He takes that test on Valentines Day. So, things are actually great and I feel 150% that we made the right decision. It makes me laugh now, looking back, at how scared we were...I've always believed that things happen for a reason.

Back to the tanning salon. Many of you know that we had been trying to sell it for a long time. After I had the twins, I just didn't have the time to dedicate to it anymore. Business had gone down over that first year, because I was never there, and I think that effected business. Ultimately, I had to make the decision to let it go. It was a sad day, but a happy day, all wrapped up in one. It was a relief, to not have that extra stress of a bed breaking or the computer crashing or an employee calling in sick. I could just stay home and focus on the girls. We sold it to a great guy, that we have known for years. He actually owned a salon in Burleson, years ago. One scary thing is that I had just resigned the lease a year before it sold. My lease isn't up until November 2012. So, if for some reason the new owner should default on the lease, I become responsible for it again. So there still is the stress of thinking that COULD come back on me. But I feel like the new owner will grow it back to what it was, since he can devote the time into it that I couldn't anymore. All in all, I feel comfortable with the sale.

Ok! On to the girls! They are 19 months old, today! They are running all over the place and learning new words everyday! It is so much fun watching them play and dance and play dressup. They keep me busy...without a doubt! Addison is slowly but surely getting some hair! Ashlyn's hair is growing really long, but I just cut it shorter so that there wouldn't be such a huge hairstyle difference between the two. I'm trying to give Addi a chance to catch up!
Their latest stats from the doctor(this was over a month ago):
Addison- 23.3 pounds and 32 1/4 height...thats 40% and 70%(maybe she will be tall and skinny?!?)
Ashlyn- 18.9 pounds and 30 1/2 height...thats < 3% and 20%. Yes, she is still tiny. She isn't even on the chart for the normal growth curve, but she is on her own curve, so the doctor says we are doing ok.

There are so many pictures I could upload, so I will just do several from over the last couple of weeks.....well once again after trying 3 times to upload pictures, it won't let me. Hence the reason I stopped blogging! So, if you want to see the pictures, you can go to www.paigepo816.photoshop.com and look at a slideshow of the different things we have done over the last couple of weeks. Once you are at the page, click on the album and then click slideshow.

REALLY, September?!?

I just checked my blog for the first time in months. I decided to look at my latest post and I realized it was in September!! I know that all the pictures I post on my blog are also on my facebook page, but GEEZ, the girls don't even look like that anymore!! SO, I think tonight after the girls go to bed I am going to upload some pictures from our snow adventures this week. I just haven't had the time to blog lately. And I take so many pictures that it takes forever to upload them to my page....so it makes me not want to do it. But, I think I have a (late) new year's resolution--to keep up with my blog! So, check back later!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A surprise bath

Today Ryan and I have been laying low. Its a Sunday and its the 1st cowboys game of the season. I have been working on some stuff on the computer and baking cupcakes. He has been laying on the couch doing absolutely nothing!! We had the girls in the playroom, playing and taking care of themselves for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Ryan realized it was unusually quiet in there so he got up to go see what was going on. Over the monitor, I hear him say "OH MY GOSH!!!!" I knew to grab my video camera and come running!! Somehow the girls climbed into the bathtub and turned on the water. Luckily the drain was open, so the water wasn't high enough to drown them! They were just in there(pajamas and all) playing with their bath toys and splashing in the water! It was cute and funny, but it left for a mess to clean up!! I guess we weren't as baby proofed as we thought around our house!! I didn't take any photos, but I did get some video....its on my facebook page.

On another note, I need some motivation. We had a trip planned to San Diego at the end of August that ended up falling through. But I had been working out really hard with my goal of looking good in San Diego. But now that I don't have a goal in sight, I've lost all motivation for working out. I have gained 2 pounds back(I know that isn't much but on a 5'1'' person its noticeable). All I do now is sit around and eat cupcakes and bean burritos! We had talked about going to the Breeders Cup in November...its in Kentucky. But that's not really worth busting my tail to get into really good shape. I considered doing a figure competition in October, but then this cupcake stuff came into play(long story, I will tell it in a sec) and I have little events here and there that will force me to eat bad in October...so I knew that would blow any chance of my placing. So again, whats the point? I'm in a rut and can't dig myself out!

About this cupcake stuff. I've gotten addicted to Cupcake Wars on Food Network and Cupcake Girls on another channel. It seems like lately all I can think about are stupid cupcakes! I stay up at night thinking about different flavors...its consuming my life! So, I got the wild idea to start a cupcake business...which is silly because I know nothing about making cupcakes!! I researched tons of recipes, frostings, flavors, etc. I've got 20 flavors on my list and I am in the process of testing them all. So far I've only made 4 flavors**that goes back to the 2 pounds I've gained. So I figure at this rate I will gain 8 more pounds before this is all said and done!!! EEEEEEEK. Honestly, I probably won't ever do anything with my cupcake business...I'm just blowing hot air!! And where would I even find the time?!? I'm just dreaming! Therefore, I should stop wasting my time and money...right?

Our first visit to a park

Since the girls have been able to walk, its been too hot to go outside. I never realized they have never been to a public park! We went to our friend Brennon's 4th birthday party(which was at Kimmel Park in Midlothian) and had the best time EVER!! I brought along our wagon and a ball to keep the girls entertained because I didn't figure they would have a "baby" play area. But when we got there I saw an entire jungle gym designated for toddlers...and it was completely on the other side of the park from the big kid jungle gym!! Ashlyn especially had a good time. Addison, ms. careful, was very hesitant to do the stuff her sister was doing but she had a good time in her own way! We ate pizza, had cake and played until we were sweaty and dirty! The best thing about it was that they took a 3 hour nap afterwards!!
Looking through the glass window(which had gang writing on it)with Ashlyn.
Erin and Ashlyn went swinging.
Helping her climb the block steps
Daddy with his 2 girls, a wagon, a pink ball strolling through the park!!!
Ashlyn was on a mission to get to that playground and she wouldn't have it any other way!
About to have a slide race
Addi getting the guts up to go down the tunnel slide
she loved it and tried to climb back up!!
Ashlyn probably ate some dirt. I'm not sure WHAT she is doing!
Addison's turn to look through the glass window!
Asher going down the twirly slide by herself
Brennon and his new T-Rex
Ashlyn crawling through the tunnel
Getting a sip of apple juice through the tunnel!!
Ashlyn getting some help from her mommy while climbing UP the slide!
My dad supervising Ashlyn climbing up the curved ladder.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

UH OH...could this be the start of something?

Almost every time I run into an old friend or someone that I talk about the twins to, the first question out of their mouths are "do you plan on having more kids"? I usually respond as nice as I possibly can by saying (politely)NO....when in my mind I'm thinking, "are you insane?!? Do you have any idea what it was like carrying two babies? Staying up all night? Dealing with them while my husband works 24/7?"

For selfish reasons, I don't want anymore kids. I am finally getting my body back. I have been busting my butt to get to my goal weight(115) and I am finally there after 3 months of working out 2 to 3 times a day and dieting like crazy. My body fat is less than 9% and I've worked SO hard for that! What if I had another baby and my boobs got even saggier or my belly got even more extra skin?!? Its just a risk I'm not sure I am willing to take. On the other hand, IF....IF we did have another baby, I almost wish it could be another multiple pregnancy. I figure, its so rare that twins happen, so why not have 2 sets...or triplets? Yes, it would be very hard but to me its the rarity of it. BUT AGAIN, I DON'T WANT TO BE THE MOM THAT HAS TO CARRY THOSE TWINS OR TRIPLETS!!!!

Ok, the point to my story is...as long as I've been saying there is no chance that I will ever have another baby, something happened today. I found out a friend of mine is pregnant with her second baby(Hayley, I'm talking about you) and I suddenly got that kind of jealous, sad feeling that I used to get BEFORE I got pregnant and I found out other friends were pregnant. I have not felt that feeling ever since I've had the girls. Even when I held a sweet little newborn, I can remember thinking I am so glad we were past that point and NEVER AGAIN will I be there! SO, could this be the start of baby fever? Oh, geez I hope not....I'm going to fight this with everything in my power. I'm hoping by writing about this, some of my mom friends will persuade me to NOT get the dreaded fever and cheer me on in my fight against it!!! Until we know whether or not the battle has been won, I will continue taking my birth control pills as if my life depended on it(it kind of does!!). If I lose this battle, I will still wait at least another year before I get pregnant again though...so nobody get your hopes up!