Where oh where has the bloggy mom gone??

I've felt really puny the last week or so...
So no new blogs. Sorry. I've got several rolling around in my head. I just need to have some energy and time to put them in cyberspace. I hope to do that this week. Right now my main goal is to get well (I'm ingesting LOTS of echinacea, throat coat tea, Vitamin D, and today garlic and green drink) 'cuz in one week from today, I'm running the half marathon! I'm a little nervous b/c I've not been able to run much this week. Oh, well. We'll see how it goes!!

So, thanks for checking the blog. And I hope to have some new pics and posts really soon!!

Um....that doesn't look like "settling down" to me!

The other night, we were closing out the day trying to get everyone ready for bed and in bed when I heard the boys starting to horse around in my bed room. From my computer, I hollered "Guys, stop goofing off...settle down and get ready for bed!" After a minute or two of hearing the laughing continue, I walked...ok, ok, it was more of a stomp!...toward my room ready round some boys up and head them in the right direction, lovingly and gently, of course. But when I rounded the corner to the room...here's what I saw! Michael smack dab in the middle of arms, legs, bodies flying everywhere and giggles and belly laughs all around...now WHO can get mad at that??!! Just go get the camera, mom!

They DID eventually go to bed, but not until some heartstrings were tied with lots of laughs and sweet memories! Gotta love it! I LOVE my guys!!!!!!

And NO (!) I did NOT get in the middle of all of that....are you kidding??!! Those guys are all big and strong!

Oh, so sweet!

Every now and then, believe it or not, I get a chance to "eat my words"! I was just talking to another mom a couple of days ago about how Michael and I don't do much for Valentines Day. Mostly because restaurants are so crowded (so no dinner out), I'm usually on a diet (so no chocolates) and we really don't need another stuffed anything (so no teddy bears). Plus, I really know how tenderly Michael cares for me and how much he loves me because of the way he treats me the OTHER 364 days of the year. So, I was explaining how it would probably be just cards exchanged and that would be it. And that's REALLY not a big deal to me!! And then guess what....

Look at these beauties!! Michael brought them home for me on Friday....he knows I'm a sucker for fresh flowers! The lilies just started opening up today and ohhh the smell! Lovely!
And then on Saturday a gift bag shows up on the bar while I'm out running and when I get in, he casually asks "What's in that bag?"...so I look and

It's this super cute red scarf. Love it! And also there was a "coupon" for a free foot massage, (which I took him up on last night after running 9 1/2 miles earlier in the day!! 1/2 marathon here I come!!)

I so love Michael. I love how he does little things for me when I least expect it!

And then we got a BONUS surprise for Valentine's Day. On Saturday morning while we were getting breakfast ready, someone rang our doorbell. NOBODY EVER comes to our front door!! We thought at first that it was Josiah, but spotting Josiah in the dining room and taking a quick head count, we knew it had to be an outsider! Turns out it was the Fed Ex guy. That's a first...really! No one has EVER left a pkg at our front door. UPS and Fed Ex just usually leave it at the gate. So we were really wondering what it was all about. Must be special!!

Then I saw the box....Shari's Berries! Being a good conservative listening to Fox Radio, I've naturally heard about Shari's Berries. If you've ever listened to Sean Hannity, you've heard him rave about SB. Now we were getting a chance to taste them first hand.

And look at those lovelies!!! Man, they were so pretty and even though we hadn't even had breakfast, we ate them! They were delicious...way beyond delicious!! And the card inside read "To our favorite Valentines" Love, Tony and Gin-Gin.

Funny thing was Michael had JUST been cleaning some strawberries for breakfast and commenting about how much he loves chocolate covered strawberries when the doorbell rang! Thanks soooooo much Tony and Gin-Gin for a wonderful super special Valentine's Day treat!

So, in case you're ever wondering about Shari's Berries....they are as good as Hannity makes them out to be!!

Dr. Jen, Medicine Woman-again

So, I never really thought I'd find myself listing "poultry rehab" as one of my jobs on a semi-regular basis....but life with the farmily has certainly expanded my repetoire of skills! Sunday, Jeffrey brought in Pigeon (one of my favories, I must say, but don't tell the other "girls") because she had an eyelid that wouldn't open. It seemed like it was stuck closed like eyes sometimes get with sleepers. So, I found some eyedrops and put them on her eye and was able to pry her eyelid open and send her on her way. Yesterday morning, Jeffrey brought her in again...same problem. But we didn't have time on our way to Classical Conversations to take care of it, so she got to look out of only one eye all day yesterday, I guess. That's tricky when you have eyes on the side of your head! Talk about a "blind side"!! Well, this morning, he brought her in again....same deal.

You can see here that she's got both eyelids closed. Helping her reminded me so much of when we were trying to help Cheetah...only Cheetah never really opened her eyes at all.

In this shot, you can see she can open the eye, just a little.

So we took some more eye drops....she loved that...NOT!!

It took several set of hands working together to keep her head relatively still...but we eventually got it to open with LOTS of drops.

Here she is telling Josiah "Hello"! and "Get me outta here!!"

But here she is with her eye open again! Isn't she pretty!! We gave her a little apple cider vinegar-also not an easy job!-in case she has some kind of infection going that it causing her eye to keep gluing shut.

We'll see how it goes.

The Birthday boys

Ok, so let me just begin by saying that I truly CAN NOT believe it's been **15** years since this...
It honestly feels to me like just yesterday that we were navigating through life with sweet baby twins and now....

It's their 15th birthday! Last year, I didn't do the table up like this because I figured at age 14, maybe the standard table decor for Dagerath birthdays was a little too "young" for 14 year olds. Boy was I wrong! I was quickly informed that "No, in fact it is NOT too young!" so I didn't make the same mistake this year!

As always, we opened family gifts first thing in the morning. Michael was able to go into work a little late (yeah!) so about 7:30 we dragged the boys out of bed to open presents. It actually is one of my favorite parts of the day, mostly because of this....

I just love watching the smiles and excitement on the eyes of both the givers AND receivers! And hugs all around! Love it love it love it!!!

After the morning birthday love, we spent the whole morning at the dentist office getting cleanings for everyone! Momma KNOWS how to throw a party don't you know! About three and a half hours lots of really clean teeth and two small fillings later, we headed downtown to have lunch with Michael.

Snapshots while stopping at a traffic light on our way downtown.

Here were some shots Michael took on the River Walk while we were there. Gotta love the Riverwalk!!

Love this one!! BTW, Jonathan's slumping a little and Jeremy's sitting up very straight. They are in real life just about the same height.

We had lunch at Fuddrucker's. I forgot my camera in the car, so I had to use my cell phone. Hence, the not so quality photos. But those burgers....quality for sure! YUM! Worth throwing out the "no wheat" mantra I've been quite faithfully living by for the last few months. Nothing like those Fuddrucker hamburger buns!!

Then after winning the last regular season basketball game, we headed out to Carrabba's for dinner.

J&J even got a "pass" on the sweets fast (C'mon, I may schedule dental appts. on a birthday, but I'm not going to say "NO WAY, JOSE" when they ask with pleading eyes if they get a pass on their birthday!!)

They really enjoyed the free birthday dessert at Carrabbas...who doesn't love Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla w/ Hershey's syrup!!

And then on Wednesday, they got to eat their birthday cake. It was too late when we got home on Tuesday night, so they got to extend their birthday by another day.

This year's choice was again an ice cream sandwich cake, but with Resse's PB cups this year. They loved it!


We are so very proud of the young men that Jonathan and Jeremy have become. When they were born (and even before) we prayed things for them that we are seeing come to pass. It's such a joy! Jonathan and Jeremy, you are both such blessings to our family!!! I love yoU!!!!