Heptadecagon

Today marks the first game of Tim's baseball season. It will be a long season -- a lesson I learned the first year he played. He will have games on Wednesday nights and Sundays. Sometimes he will have double headers. Will we see much of him on those days? Probably not. And the only person not complaining around here about it is Tim himself. Actually, I was the one that suggested Tim take up baseball again. I asked my neighbor if her husband knew of a league, and he did. I thought it would be good for Tim to get out and play some ball, meet some people, expend some energy and burn some calories. I didn't know at the time that the baseball season took up almost 6 months of our lives, or that Tim could potentially ingest more calories in the parking lot of the baseball diamonds than he burns playing catcher. The year Melina was born, I think Tim missed only one game. And it wasn't because of me or Melina. Actually, I managed to deliver her in the wees hours of a Thur

Zoe came home today with some special mail for me, in honor of Mother's Day. Inside a nice card she made, were two special sheets of paper. The first one was a fill-in-the-blank sheet of paper, while the second one was a poem, partially written by Zoe (her teacher had them fill in some blanks but then printed it out nicely from the computer in poem format). Both of them were very sweet, so I thought I'd share them here. #1: My Mom is Special! My Mom's Name is: Christina She is special because: She is nice. I like it when my Mom: takes me to McDonald's. My Mom can do many things! I think she's best at... teaching. My Mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by... helping her. My Mom is as pretty as a... princess. My Mom is smart! She even knows multiplication (So funny, no?). I'd like to tell my Mom... She is the BEST cook EVER! (Her capitals, not mine) Signed Zoe (followed by 3 hearts) The following poem made me realize how important it is to wat

The girls started piano lessons in January. They love playing the piano and participated in their first recital at the end of April. As luck would have it, we made it to the recital on time, but forgot our camera. Luckily, a friend of the girls also takes lessons from the same teacher, so her mother took photos for us (thanks, Sandra!). Due to seating arrangements, photos were taken from the back. Unfortunately, I do not remember who was wearing pink and who was wearing blue. So take your pick as to which twin is shown below! Neither one seemed very nervous, and each played their piece without the use of the piano book. Great job, girls! The girls also do some singing with their teacher. The teacher gave Zoe and Talia vests and hats and lollipops so that they could sing "On the Good Ship Lollipop" together. The girls have great voices, but because they were so quiet, it was hard to hear. They still looked cute though, if I might say so! P.S. In the photos above, Zoe

You know those people that try to help you out but really just bungle things? I know you know someone like that. The person that tries to help you clean up ends up making things dirtier. The person that puts away your dishes ends up putting everything in the wrong place so that you have to spend double the time finding the dishes AND putting them away again...in the right place this time. The person at work that wants to help you with your project, but in the end, makes it such that the project takes twice as long and isn't anything like the outcome you envisioned. Don't ask what prompted this, but nod your head in solidarity with me. Chuckle, smirk, and take a sip of your coffee; thank the good Lord that you haven't had that happen to you in a while. Sit back and say thank you for little blessings. But in the end, even though you'd rather say "No thanks!" the next time a person offers help to you, I bet you'll still say "Thanks" and accept