Summer is flying by!

Okay...when I started doing this I thought I would post at least a little something everyday. Where did the 8 days since my last post go?!?

Summer, and time in general, seems to be flying by. Luckily we've done quite a few things as a family over the past 2 months so I don't think I'll feel like we wasted great weather days by doing nothing.

This morning we went to the zoo (our zoo membership has been terrific and we visit about 3 times a month) and had fun watching the giraffes, rhinoceroses, sea lions, reindeer, lorikeets, swans and water fowl, gorillas, lions, merry-go-round, and riding on the train. We also spent time hovering over man hole covers and looking down drain grates (not sure of their real name!) on the ground. The girls walked quite a bit so I suspect they will take a long nap this afternoon!

Yesterday we went to a local beach so A & O could play in the sand and walk along the water. We arrived before the beach officially opened so there weren't many people which was good. The girls walked back and forth from our towels to the water filling up sand buckets with water and dumping them on the sand so Mommy could build a sand castle ("same like Olivia the pig!"). We watched as the lifeguards got out their gear and set up for the day. It was an early morning for both girls, so everyone was ready to head back home after about an hour. Short trip, but fun.

The past 3 weeks the girls and I were attending toddler/parent camp at the local Waldorf school. It was the first exposure A & O had to a structured group situation (well, as structured as Waldorf philosophy allows!) and we enjoyed it. We also learned a lot. Who knew A & O could drink from a glass? And they were glass glasses! Goodbye sippy cups, hello more cupboard space! We have several new songs we sing, a great, easy everyday bread recipe, and a new play dough recipe that is easier than our old one. It was such a good experience we'll be signing up for the Fall program!

We've also visited the Art Gallery, the local Naval & Military Park, an amusement park and one of the Marinas. Mixed in there have been play dates, birthday parties, playground time, long walks with Daddy and lots of time playing in our own backyard.

I didn't intend for this to be a recap of the summer, or to sound like summer is over. I guess with the end of July comes all of the back-to-school sales and it just feels like the end of summer is near. I still plan on packing in all the outdoor fun we can manage before the first snowflakes fly! Hopefully I'll look into how to post photos for my next entry.

And even before that...

My sister Nancy is a teacher in a nearby school and had a conference to attend in a small resort town about 5 hours away. The group coordinating the conference distibuted a list of other locals attending in case people wanted to arrange a car pool. As a result, my sister received a call from a woman she didn't know named Jodi and they drove the 5 hours to and the 5 hours back from the conference. Along the way they happened to get on the topic of family and found common ground in the fact that they both had a single relative, in their thirties, who (they felt) needed to be fixed up with someone. By the time they returned home telephone numbers (mine and his!) were exchanged and a plan for a Fix Up was made.
After having been on 2 other blind dates that did NOT go well, I was not very receptive to the idea. Beside the whole dreaded Blind Date thing, this guy had a 5 year old child and that, in my book, qualified as way too much 'luggage' to get involved with.
Fast forward a year. I still had not met anyone, but I did meet Jodi (1/2 of the Fix Up team) when I was at her school for my work. Apparently before I had even made it out of the school she was on the phone calling my sister to say "they would be perfect together". Within a week I received my first call from Kevin and we made plans to get together.
A little over 8 years later, I remember almost every minute of that day including shopping for something to wear, getting ready, not liking what I was wearing (silk shirt that smelled like fish after I washed it!), borrowing a shirt from a neighbor (thanks Mary Claire), and waiting for the buzzer to buzz to finally meet the man I would eventually marry. The date was GREAT. We went to dinner at a super little restaurant called Mother's (does the name of my blog make more sense now?!?) and talked from 8 til midnight. After he dropped me off I could hardly sleep. I REALLY liked him and hoped more than I had ever hoped for anything that I would see him again. The next day he called and we have been together ever since.
Funny thing too... that "luggage" I wanted to avoid helped me see a very important side of Kevin only minutes after meeting him: getting into his very clean car I noticed there were little princess toys sitting on the back seat where his daughter usually sat. Most guys I know would have tucked those toys away in the trunk in a situation like that, but not Kevin.
Thank you Nancy and Jodi (my sister-in-law)!

PS: I got tears in my eyes remembering/writing this and thinking how lucky I am to have my Kevin. I think I'm really going to enjoy this whole blogging thing!

The Beginning

I've been wanting to start a blog for some time but kept putting it off because I didn't know what to write my first post about. Should it be funny, personal, opinionated, educational, or what? After I write it, should I tell my family and friends about it so they can read it, or will it just be my little online diary that blog browsing strangers might find and read occasionally?
After putting way too much thought into starting, but not actually thinking of anything to start with, I decided that today, July 17, would be the day to begin. July 17 holds special significance to me because it was 3 years ago today that I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. It was on that day that My World seemed to change. I am now the happiest and proudest Mommy to 2.5 year old twin girls and life couldn't be fuller.
I hope to blog often so I have something to look back on to help me remember these days, since they seem to fly by faster and faster. We'll see how and where it goes!
If you're reading this, Welcome to My Life!