Heptadecagon

I met a woman the other day at a lovely book party. She said she loves order and silence. She only has one child, and that might be it for them, partly due to her penchant for order and silence. I guess when you have twins first, you never get order and silence, but I could use a bit right now. Then again, I shouldn't complain, as the only thing I hear right this instant are the keys I am tapping and the whir of the washing machine. Yum. Yesterday morning -- after having to say to the kids multiple times to "sit down, finish breakfast, get shoes on, get moving!" -- I told them that I wanted to take a break from mornings. Me: I am going to let Daddy do mornings from now on. I will just sit with my cup of coffee in peace. Talia: What are you going to do? Just sit there? Me: Yes, sit and drink my coffee. Talia: And watch TV, right? Me: [chuckling] No. I'll just sit and enjoy the silence. Talia: What silence? At that point, I realized she was right. Even if

This past weekend, I ran a half-marathon. It wasn't my first, but it was the first race I've done since having children. In fact, part of the reason I signed up for the race was to get back into shape. That, and MaryAnne made me (just kidding). So, I asked Tara if she wanted to join us in the pursuit of the 13.1 mile trek. She said yes. Did we have goals? Yes, we all did, I'd say. MaryAnne, Tara, and I all run at different paces, and actually ran our long runs at different times. We figured we might not actually "run" the race together. But in the end, we'd feel like we accomplished something with each other. And hopefully, we'd fulfill some goals. I am happy to report that we all surpassed our goals. I finally feel as though I might actually be able to run at the pace I did pre-children. Yippee! Now, if I can just find the time to stay in the running game. I don't have a picture of MaryAnne, but Tim was lucky enough to have to be up when

Whoever said being a stay-at-home-mom and working part-time is the best of both worlds never lived my world. Don't get me wrong, my world is GREAT. I do appreciate being able to be here for the girls when they get home from school, as well as stay home with Aaron and Melina during the day. But working part-time, in the EVENING, is like going from one full-time job to a part-time job, when all I really want to do is go to bed. Furthermore, because I am not at home two evenings a week, on those nights, life at home is different. Just ask Tim. Last week, I walked in the door at 8:45 pm to find 3 out of 4 kids in bed (but not all of them asleep), 1 baby on the floor of the family room (wide awake), some dishes in the sink (the babysitter usually puts most of the dishes in the dishwasher, to her credit), and the dining room table a mess. I threw my sweater and bag on the table, washed my hands, grabbed the baby and headed upstairs. After changing, nursing, and putting the baby to

Just a sampling of the pictures that were taken in August. Looks like we had some fun, and I wanted to make sure to share some of these with family and friends. Okay, here we go. We attended the butterfly festival, and Melina had fun hanging out in the stroller while we were there. Still cute with curly brown hair, both of them. The kids played on Elbel Field, in Ann Arbor, during our quick visit. Tim and I met there. While it is hard to see the children, I love this picture because I love Elbel Field and Ann Arbor (you can pretend you didn't know that!). Kids sure know how to be cute, don't they? This was the first day of second grade for the girls. They were wearing the tie-dye shirts they made. No glasses yet. Aaron on the girls' first day...being, well...Aaron.