Whoa.....judging from the length of this post, I must not have used all my words today....

• I think my legs are going to fall off due to exhaustion. Really.
• My ankle is way better today, but I recently banged my arm really hard into a pillar in our house. Now there's a big knot there and it's really sensitive. Makes nursing and carrying babies around a wonderful treat. And no, I don't know how I ran into a pillar. I also burned my finger cooking dinner. I guess I need to officially change my name to Shannon Vondell. hehehehe (did I spell it right?)
  
• I didn't have time until today to try to put together clothes for all of us for our picture session we had tonight. It's no easy task to try to coordinate 6 people for portraits. I was trying to do something a little different than the normal black and jeans or white and khakis. But after hurriedly running to several different stores with 2 children in tow this afternoon, I realized that I better just go for white and khaki. By the time I came to that conclusion, it was too late to find a pretty white shirt for myself. I grabbed one without even trying it on from Old Navy. Uhmmmm, let's just say there's a reason I have my denim jacket on in every one of our pictures. =) Which brings me to my next point -
  
• I always have trouble when it comes to having pictures done. I can get everyone else looking just right, but I always have a bad hair day or an eye infection which requires an eye patch or a big pimple or some clothing dilemma. No matter how I plan or prepare it always happens. Have I ever mentioned the hair dryer story on this blog?

When John David was 6 weeks old, we had pictures done at The Photo Studio in SA. Not a cheap place. (I think that's what it's called. I'm kind of drawing a blank.) Anyway, I didn't have the hang of baby stuff down and it was really difficult for me to get myself ready while taking care of a newborn. (That makes me laugh that I couldn't handle ONE child.) I stumbled onto the hair dryer trick though. I nursed him to sleep and found that as long as I left my hair dryer on, John David stayed asleep. Brilliant. Until John came in the room.

"La, why is this hair dryer on? You're not even using it."
"It's keeping John David asleep. Please leave it alone."
"It's wasting electricity. Turn it off."
"No, it's keeping him asleep so I can get ready. Leave it alone."
"That's really wasteful. We need to turn it off."

He reached down and turned it off. The course of my entire life changed in that moment. I was cursed with a huge framed portrait of our then family of 3 in which I look like I just rolled out of bed - all because I wasn't able to finish getting ready. John still says I look great in that picture, a "natural beauty" I think is what he says. Whatever. I'd rather look like a beauty who actually spent at least a few minutes in front of a mirror. Oh well.

Today it was on the windy side. I tried to style my hair in an appropriate manner, but I have side bangs. They are barely long enough to tuck and a bobby pin wouldn't hold them either. So I can only hope that our pictures weren't sabotaged by my windblown hair. Sigh.

• I cooked chicken spaghetti tonight. I found a much quicker way to do it that was still really good. Quick+Easy+Yummy=Woohoo!
  
• As of tomorrow my tiny baby boy will be EIGHT weeks old. Good grief. Didn't I just have him? =(
• I bought a dress for my best friend's wedding. It fits great although, as of this moment, I have a "pooch" when I wear it. It's not huge, but it's there. The thought of having that pooch in front of hundreds of people (this is going to be a big wedding at my home church) has been some incredible motivation. I've been eating right and even exercising. (Don't pass out from shock.) Yes, La has been doing Yoga Booty Ballet. Don't laugh. I never claimed to be good at it. Julia did it with me yesterday and she did the whole workout, even when I had to go take care of Joshua for a while. Too cute.
  
• I love March because it's my birthday month and when spring really starts.
• I hate March because of March Madness.
  
• Some kind of "critter" has apparently died in the attic of this house. We have to patiently wait for it to decay because of where its little body is resting in peace. For days I thought there was a dirty diaper somewhere on our landing. I searched and searched. Nothing. We finally realized what it was. I like the candle my brother got me for my birthday. =)
• When it was time to put the kids in bed tonight John lost Aulora. We couldn't find her anywhere even though she had just been with us in the bedroom. Even though my closet was closed and the light was off I decided to check in there anyway. I could only open the door a few inches because she was on the other side of it, sitting there playing with my necklaces (the thing they hang on in the closet fell off the wall and I haven't put it back up yet) by the light of a cell phone. She wasn't scared at all and she was being completely quiet because she knew she wasn't supposed to be in there. Since she was sitting in front of the door I couldn't get it open to get to her. I closed the door and figured she wouldn't like the dark. Wrong. She was quite happy to be in there on her own. I was finally able to nudge her out of the way with the door enough to grab her. She is developing quite an amusing personality, even though at this point in her teething career it is sprinkled with quite a bit of shrieking and crying. It shall pass. (Lord Jesus, please let it pass.)
• Okay, I think I finally used all my words for the day. If you are still reading this you deserve a trophy.