Cycling

I have to admit I'm feeling pretty good about myself today after a 45-mile bike ride. The last time I did this ride, it was painful just to finish and I totally hit "the bonk". But today, I felt good and when I got home, I didn't hit "the bonk" (although I was a little calorie starved and I put away 4 snickerdoodles in about 1 minute or less). It's always nice to have goals and see them getting accomplished. Happy cycling!

Dentist

I have to admit I still hate going to the dentist, whether for me or for my kids. My kids are 5 and 3 and 3. You'd think with good hygiene, no cavities and such that it wouldn't be too bad to just do a checkup for three little ones. Wrong; think again! Somehow with x-rays, a VERY brief look at their teeth from the dentist (we're talking literally about 20 seconds per child), an abbreviated fluoride treatment and polishing and somehow they wanted to charge me $642!!! Really?! Do you really think that you earned that much money from what you did?! How is it that we don't have anything wrong with our teeth and we're shelling out that kind of money? Luckily for me, I had the "new patient" discount and it ended up only being $303 (because we don't have any dental insurance). I was told over the phone that it would be $68 for the visit per child. But because she asked if I wanted the fluoride treatment and failed to tell me that it was going to be another $33 per child for that, I had to pay $101 per child. As evidenced by the numerous exclamation points throughout this post, I am pretty frustrated. I'm all about paying for things and being willing to put out good money for good care, but I must say that I don't feel like I got $642 worth of work done on my little kids' teeth and I certainly didn't appreciate having to pay for something that I wasn't told was going to be extra. Ethically speaking, I just would appreciate everyone to make sure that we all know what we're going to have to pay before they up my bill from a mere $204 to well over $600.

Auto Repairs

I have to admit I am always grateful when I can find a car repair place that not only does a good job on the repairs I go in for, but also is looking out for me. I took my car in for just an oil change and the man doing the job rotated my tires free of charge and helped me out of what could've been a very disasterous situation. He brought me out to look at one of the tires, and even me, who knows nothing about them, could see that it was only a matter of just a few miles before that tire would blow out. The side was completely shredded and looked like it already had been blown out. This sweet man put the spare on for me (it seriously took him 45 minutes because whoever had put it back last hadn't done it properly) and did a really thorough safety inspection--even finding the solution to a problem that we've been having...a problem that I didn't even mention to him. So anyway, I just wanted to give another huge thanks to this man, even though I know he'll never read this. Oh, and did I mention that it only cost me $29? What a deal! I will always give this man my business.

Illness

I have to admit I don't get worked up over much when it comes to illness in my body, but after my scary pregnancy and delivery of my twins and the blood clot that followed, any bruising, bleeding or vein pain has me VERY nervous. Lately, when I play volleyball, I get these terrible bruises that no one else gets when we play. It's been making me nervous because I can see the vein bulge before it actually...burts? and turns into a bruise. My wonderful father in-law has been with me every step of this bizarre journey and with a few blood tests behind me, I now know that my blood is healthy and I'm not at risk for more blood clots at this time. Woo-hoo! So if you see me with strange and enormous bruises on my hands or arms, never fear, it's normal...at least for me.

Frozen Pipes

I have to admit we had our pipes freeze for the first time and it's now 11am and they're still not unfrozen. Like an idiot, when I went to check that our pipes were insulated, I saw that they were...but not all the way. Lesson #1: Make sure that they are ALL the way insulated, otherwise they may as well not be insulated at all. Lesson #2: Make sure that you have more than just bottled water because washing hands and such becomes VERY tedious with little bottle after little bottle. Lesson #3: Your kids are going to be EXTRA thirsty if you tell them that the pipes are frozen and they have to drink the water in the bottles because they can't get water out of the faucets. And lesson #4: Don't ever leave the dishes at night so that they are sitting around waiting to be done in the morning when your water is frozen. It just makes the whole situation much worse. Happy wintering, everyone!

December

I have to admit (as you all could already tell) December was not a great month for blogging time. I was busy and we had some wonderful moments. But probably my favorite one was going to James' preschool concert. How wonderful it is to see your children learning and growing. While at Grandma's house for Christmas, we had a chance to swim in the pool there and James swam across the whole pool. (It's probably 20m long). It's so gratifying to see your children progressing, even when you can't take any credit for it!

Christmas Concert, Preschool Style

I have to admit, I'm having one of those proud parent moments today. My oldest is having his first preschool performance and I am more than excited to go tonight. How fun will it be in 12 years when he brings dates home to show them his cute preschool performances? Just kidding, I'm not the kind of parent to embarrass my kids (too much) but how fun will it be in 12 years when he gets his drivers license to look back and see how little and adorable he was at his first Christmas concert, singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and "Feliz Navidad". These are the moments that are so wonderful as a parent. Looking from the outside in, I'm sure people wonder how scores and scores of parents can ooh and ahh about their little ones singing totally off key and off beat, probably not even singing the right words and be proud as peacocks, but hey, natural instinct kicks in and you find yourself reliving the last 4 1/2 years of that little one's life in those short seconds and realizing your babies are growing up. They are learning and growing and becoming their own person. How can a parent not be absolutely proud of that?