My Ordinary Miracles

   This summer seems to be going so fast! I feel like I haven’t done that much…just surviving a couple of day trips to the beach and home duties of laundry…but it is MUCH more than I did last summer when I was bound to the house on bed-rest!

  But in a couple of days, we will be having our very first vacation as a family of 5! My in-laws rented a nice house for all of us at Big Bass Lake! I am very excited to go since I REALLY need to get away even if it’s nothing extravagant! It is hard to go anywhere with 10 month old twins so we were forced to keep it low-key which I’m totally fine with. I am very much looking forward to future summer family vacations like Dis.ney but for now…this will do nicely! I will post pictures when I get back. Now, I have to tackle more of that laundry mentioned above!!

If you’re here from ICLW! Thanks for stopping by!

  Well, it’s that time again for International Comment Leaving Week that Stirrup Queen sponsors each month! If you stumbled here from the ICLW list, welcome!! I will tell you a bit about myself.

Mother's Day 2010

I am a mom of 3 ordinary miracles! I call them that because while it may be ordinary for most of the world to have children, for me it was an absolute miracle 3 times over. I have a 3 year old daughter and 10 month old boy/girl twins. I did 6 IVF cycles (3 fresh and 3 frozen) in order to have them and I couldn’t be happier! And now, even though I am far removed from doing any more treatments, I have not unplugged from the IF world. I blog to help others get through the stress at Stress Free Infertility. (Right now, I’m having a giveaway there from Fertile Garden, so do check it out to enter to win a beautiful necklace!)

  Besides blogging, I’m also writing a memoir of my infertility experience. It is a work in progress but it is nearly finished and I am really excited about it! I am quite busy with 3 kids 3 and under and this blog is a little about our hectic life! Right now I have to work on invitations to my twins’ first birthday (which I’m combining with my cousin’s twins’ 1st birthday. She did IUI to have hers. Our twins are 3 weeks apart!) If you missed that that’ll be a quadruple birthday celebration! I am so excited and proud to get to this milestone!! To learn a bit more about me…here are the ABC’s!

A ~ Ambitious would be the word here…I have a lot on my plate & I’m always thinkin’ up BIG ideas!

B ~ Blog Lover!

C ~ Creative Capricorn

D ~ Determined…once I have an idea, usually I’m quite determined to make it work!

E ~ Ella. The name of my late Mom and my 1st daughter.

F ~ Fertility challenged…and what a challenge it was to overcome!

G ~ Grateful for my life, my experiences, my opportunities…

H ~ Hours. I wish there were way more of these in a day to get everything done.

I ~ IVF. Did 6 cycles.

J ~ Juggling multiple tasks at once! (*Pun intended!)

K ~ Kisses! Love getting them from my daughter!

L ~ Logan. My growing baby boy!

M ~ Mia. My little baby girl!

N ~ Naps…there are few of them that coordinate but when they do, they’re heavenly!

O ~ Ostentatious, something I’m not.

P ~ Perfection. Something I don’t strive for because I know it’s an impossibility.

Q ~ Quiet time…what there is very little of in this house!

R ~ Really glad I’m off for the summer!!

S ~ Sun worshiper!

T ~ Twin and Mom of twins…there is irony and karma somewhere mixed into that twist of fate!

U ~ Unique. A  quality I look for in many avenues of my life.

V ~ Very proud of my life, my family, my community–they all make me smile!

W ~ Wine, Oh how I heart thee!

X ~ X-rays of my broken foot were wicked! (*That’s the one I broke a month after having my twins!)

Y ~ Yearning for something more…

Z ~ Zoom Zoom! That’s my life (in the carpool lane), non-stop!

   So, I thought I’d bring back my post-its inspired by Supah Mommy!

  So on the 5th, my husband and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary! It’s hard to believe it’s been 7 years already! What’s even harder to believe is that we’ve been married more years just us than the years we’ve had kids! It seems that I can’t remember much about our life before the chaos!

  This year, we were excited about both having the day off together (which doesn’t happen unless the 4th is wrapped up in the weekend). And we had big plans of going out on a vineyard tour to do some wine tasting but unfortunately, our kids had other plans! Ella came down with a virus earlier in the week and of course, the twins got it by the weekend and have been extremely cranky, waking up through the night for the past few nights. So, we caught up on sleep (thanks to the amazing woman that is my mother-in-law) and went out to dinner later on.

   We were especially nostalgic this year. I’m not sure if it was because I was able to celebrate it more (since last year I was hugely pregnant) or it it’s because our family is now complete and we are so proud of the life we’ve made. Maybe it was a little of both…anyway, here are some pics from our night out!

This was my entree. These were the biggest shrimp I have EVER seen! They were the size of my palm!

   Well I made it! My summer vacation officially started last Friday afternoon and I couldn’t be happier! I now have more time to dedicate to this blog and I hope to attract more readers too!

   This trimester was difficult to juggle the full time job, my 3 kids 3 and under, the household and the various other factors (like teething, middle of the night awakenings, early risers, etc.)! And of course, I have to send my utter gratitude to my mother-in-law who made it all happen smoothly. She allowed me to leave home without too much guilt because I knew my children were in excellent hands; hands that fed them, changed them, but also nurtured them, laughed with them and loved them. And there’s no day care provider that could have provided all of that!  

   Now the twins are both on the move, crawling all over! Logan has even started pulling himself up to stand and is almost cruising! They are getting so big and changing all the time. I am so looking forward to being home now.

   And speaking of being home, I have applied to a few freelance writing gigs! I am so excited about the possibilities that are out there and I hope they can allow me to be able to stay home permanently. Also, I have been dabbling on my memoir, researching literary agents, and reading about writing a great query letter (which I’ve started drafting in my head already)!

I am feeling like this is going to be a wonderful summer!!

 OK…so out of total guilt that I’ve been neglecting this tiny corner of the blogosphere that is my very own…here’s an update and a few pics.

  This past month, the twins are now sitting on their own (and quite well I might add). They are starting to rock and getting ready to crawl! They both recently cut a third tooth. The fussiness hasn’t been too bad! (Thank God!!)

   Ella is about 95% potty trained. We have not bought any more pull-ups and she is in underwear all the time, even in bed. She has some accidents but lately, they are usually minor and I am soooo proud of her!

   Next week is the twin’s Christening. I decided to make their invitations (which came out super cute)! And I am very much looking forward to the day!

  I have started to re-read my memoir to revise and move forward. My goal is to finish it this month!! That means I won’t be on here all that much…but before I go…here are a few promised pictures from this past weekend…Enjoy!

   Well, I am sad to admit that this blog has taken a back seat. Yet, still I haven’t written more of my memoir (or other book ideas). And I haven’t pursued other projects. I’m just trying to stay a float, keeping up with my ever-changing kids, my tireless job, my other growing blog AND all the events going on in my family & friend’s lives we have been apart of & invited too lately…

   I suppose I have lost most of my readers since the ONLY comments I’ve been getting lately are spam! (Which is highly annoying and slightly expected…) But I would at least like to catch up with Project 365 one of these days and perhaps make a weekly update of the happenings in our life…if you’re still here, let me know and I promise to catch up & organize some time for this blog. It still is important to me. Thanks!

I LOVE this tree…wordless! Wacky that we may cut it down if we’re going to add a pool in the future! Beauty for a couple weeks in the spring or many wonderful memories for our kids all summer long? Hmmm….

One day last week, we went to the zoo. Here’s some pics…