Jump start

Let's see if I can jump start this thing...... It died so long ago that I'm not sure if I can but I will sure give it my all.

See what seems to happen with me (in almost every aspect of my life) is I find something that I totally love, I get so excited about it and I RUN WITH IT (good thing I don't LOVE scissors, I'd be in major trouble.) Then I tend to burn out and just drop it like a hot potato. I did it with:

• scrapbooking. My best friend and I scrapbooked every week for a year (at least I think it was a year) and I did 4 scrapbooks of Ben's first year. Yea 4! Then she moved and I haven't picked up a sticker, a page, a scissor, a pen or anything. Ask me how many scrapbooks I have for the twins? NONE (and there are two of them I should have twice as many books for them.) I guess I just need Alisha to move back so I can get theirs done.. (HINT, HINT)
• My organization binder. Remember this get-it-together binder? Yea, hasn't been TOUCHED in months. Ok I lied I touch it all the time. I have to so I can move it off my printer/scanner, then I move it back. The last to do list was dated July 29th and only 2 things are crossed off. Guess how much stuff I still have "to do"? Way to much!
• Weight Watchers. I did AMAZING for six months. In fact I lost 50 lbs! I'd tell you to come follow my blog http://chunkymonkeymommy.blogspot.com/ and read all about it but I haven't blogged over there since Sept either. Speaking of which I should probably go update that one too. (Don't worry I'll finish this post first then update that one.... so you probably shouldn't hold your breath on an update over there. But I'll try)
• Preschool for Ben. We did it for quite a while and he LOVED it. Then I'm not sure what happened but we stopped. We still did it once or twice but it not regularly. I think the twins got older and it just got hard to schedule it in. Thank goodness for First Baptist Preschool where he now goes three days a week and loves every minute of it. It's awesome.
• My online message boards. I was very active on them for awhile. I even kept a journal over there. Then Facebook came along and I started posting over there and I couldn't keep up.
• Sewing. Remember all these http://tiggrrl72077.blogspot.com/search/label/Sewing? Haven't touched the sewing machine in MONTHS. I want to. In fact I would love it. There just doesn't seem to be any time.
• Hairbows
• Jewelry
• Baby Bracelets

See it's a horrible trend with me. I don't know how to fix it. I wish I could find something I love and stay with it. But I can't. Maybe that will be my New Year's Resolution. We'll see.

I've been wanting to update this blog for a while now. We've had a really busy and there is so much to talk about. Unfortunately I know me and if I try to go back and update everything I will get overwhelmed and not ever finish this post (Which is why I haven't updated in so long. I wanted to post about everything and the pile was just too high) So instead of sorting through all of it and trying to post about everything I think I will just start over.

Well not really start over, I'm not going to reintroduce myself or anything like that. But I think today will be our new starting point. So here goes....

My spreadsheet

I got an email from Lisa today asking for a copy of my spreadsheet. I realize I've mentioned my spreadsheets before but I don't think I've ever really described it. So here goes :) (Thanks Lisa for an idea on something to blog about too! I've been in kind of a blogging slump lately)

 I keep track of everything that goes into and comes out of the twins. Its another obsession of mine. It really messes me up if I don't have the data for that day.

Here's how the spreadsheet works.
It starts at 6:00am and ends at 5:00am the next morning.


Column B and C are the start and end times for nursing.

Column D is which side Right or Left (I just put R or L)

Column E is if they were really fussing (I didn't always use that column. I started putting y/n for fussy then switched to a color code red was inconsolible, orange was fussy, yellow was mildly fussy, green was happy. Then I quit tracking it all together. I was trying to see if there was a pattern for awhile)

Column F is for if they took a bottle and how many ounces it was. ( I supplemented at first. And now they get one if I'm gone)

Column G is if the bottle was (e) expressed (Breastmilk) or (f) formula

Column H is what time they woke up

Column I is what time they went down

Column J is if they have a wet diaper (I just use y/n)

Column K is if they have a poopy diaper (I use (L)arge, (M)edium, and (S)mall or (N)one)

Column L is the number of diapers in that hour (If they had two poopy diapers in that hour I would put L2 or whatever in column K or Y2 in Column J if they had two wet diapers)

Column M is any other comments - if they got shots or tylenol or what solids they eat (I use it still) It helps to keep track of medicine too.

Row 28 adds up the total amount they had supplemented and Row 31 is the total number of diapers they each had that day.
The twins have been alive for 245 days and I have data for at least 230 days of it. One of these days I will stop keeping track but for now it's really helpful. I really do feel out of sorts if I don't track what they did that day. It's also really helpful when I have to take them to the doctor because I don't have to actually remember anything. I have it all right there.
 
I know I'm crazy aren't I?

(If you want a copy of my spreadsheet please feel free to email me. I have daily ones and one that is for the whole month. - it is the same spreadsheet but has a new tab for each day. It is on Excel so you will have to have Excel to use it)

Shoes

It's a sickness I tell you.

(granted these are all the shoes they've ever had. Some don't fit them anymore and Ellie does have one more pair. Actually thinking about it, Ellie hasn't grown out of any of them yet lol. One pair is still too big for her )

Ben told me he had to wear his "crazy shoes"  I love this picture of him. He looks so big to me.

My Obsession

This is what happens when I have a girl.

Yep, Those are all hairbows. The band is flat elastic with a piece of velcro on it. All of the bows have velcro on the back so I can just change them out to match whatever Ellie is wearing. So far she has 28 bows. She can almost wear a different one for every day of the month. The saddest thing is I make at least 2 or 3 a week depending on what she is wearing. The nice thing about the velcro is as her head grows she can still wear the bows so they don't go to waste. Since her head is so tiny right now she wouldn't be able to wear them for much longer if I didn't do them this way.

I am constantly on the lookout for cute ribbon. Now I have to find outfits that match all of them lol.

Ellie showing off her hairbows.

My other obsession is becoming this blog. I really am enjoying it. I use it as a chance to wind down at the end of the day. I update it when all of the kids are in bed (The last few nights we've been able to get everyone down by 9:30. I'm working on pushing the babies bedtime back to 9:00 and then hopefully 8:30 with Ben. That would be heaven) But this is my time to reflect on the day and remind myself how wonderful my children and husband are.

I love all of the comments!! Please feel free to comment often! Even if it's just to say hi :)