Site In Progress

Along with my changing age, I am currently in the process of changing my site.  So, if you notice things looking a little  bit crazy for the time being, it is because I am trying to get comfy in my new digs.  I am really liking the new layout and am totally excited about it.  It will be a refreshing change from what I am used to.

Today we celebrated my birthday and I went out to lunch with my best friend and it was so nice to just go out minus any kids.   We then did a little window shopping and sort of browsed around and bought a few little things.  We all had dinner at the Japanese steakhouse and the boys loves it!  They had so much fun watching the chef throw things around and they were really good.  So, all in all, it was a great day.

Happy Birthday To Me

Well tomorrow I am yet another year older and I am now heading towards the big 40.  I am sharing my birthday with my wonderful friend Tanya and with my dear husband and my two sweet little boys.   We are planning on going out to dinner and just sharing some time together with friends and family.  It seems like time is moving by so fast, and it was just yesterday that I was turning 16.

I hope that this year brings with happiness and health.  And my wish, is to hopefully add a pending new arrival to make our family complete.  I am hoping for a little girl at some point but I would be absolutely thrilled with a healthy little one.  We will see what 2009 has in store for me.  Anyway, Happy Birthday To Me, and it will be a good one.

Potty Training

Potty training will be our next big hurdle. Both of the bubbas are just now showing some interest in the potty.  Since I have two of them to potty train, I am a little nervous about jumping right in.  It is hard to say if they will sort of watch and learn from each other or if each one will sort of move at their own pace.

It has been fun around the house lately with two boys running around.  Their newest thing is to take off their diapers and run naked as a jaybird through the house.  If you’re lucky and super fast.  you might catch one of them!  This is where being a mommy can get a little hairy.  One afternoon I was going to the bathroom and usually I have one or both in the bathroom with me, because we all know mommy can’t pee alone.  Anyway, I just went in the bathroom for a minute.  I hear the two of them laughing and playing and bubs goes driving by on his trike.  I think nothing of it because he had his shirt on.  I didn’t notice that the diaper was off till he came around the corner.  I’m thinking about grabbing the duct tape next.

I am thinking that they are getting close, but the pediatrician and my sister-in-law told us to look closer to three years of age before they are potty trained.  My husband and I aren’t really pushing the issue, but we have a potty chair in each bathroom.  If they ask to sit on it, we just say ok. and let them sit their with a book.  Sometimes we get lucky with the timing and raise a ruckus and clap and praise them if they do something.  I am praying for it all to be easy. But we shall see!  I will keep you updated as we move along, it is so hard when you have two at one time and you are a first time parent learning as you go.

Wacky Weather

Hi Guys! Tanya here from Mommy Goggles. This weather is definitely wacky, that’s for sure! I live in Iowa and the weather yesterday was around 60 degrees, yet we woke up to snow this morning. 😯 Well, the snow has since melted (or blew away with our massive winds that we had this afternoon) and our winds seemed to have floated to Double Bugs’ area. She is without power this evening and they have no estimated time for it to be restored. Please keep Laurie and her family in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy restoration!

Valentine’s Day My Top 10 Mommy Picks

So the dreaded Valentine’s Day is coming up and you don’t know what to give your sweetheart.  I usually try and do something small for my dear husband.   Usually is is a card and a box of his favorite Dove Chocolates.  In the years past I was a little more creative since I had the time to be but with little ones running around my creativity is limited.   I consider Valentine’s Day more of a girly holiday anyway, and I love that it falls in the same month as my birthday.

So what are some of my top gift giving suggestions (at least on my wish list) for this Holiday centered around love?  And Where did this so called holiday emerge from?

My Top 10 Gifts For Valentine’s

1. Godiva (need I say more?)  Named after Lady Godiva
2. Gift Cards to get my hair done, or new clothes.  One year I received a gift certificate to Curves (this made me cry sorry honey)  Although I was wanting to go to Curves to workout, it doesn’t make a very good gift.  Here honey you’re fat go work out.  Maybe not on any special day might have been better but maybe not!
3. Maid Service to come in and clean my house top to bottom just one time so I could ignore all house chores.  This would be awesome!  But like my husband said, I would probably clean before they got here  LOL!
4. Food, three meals cooked for me so I don’t have to think about it for one day.  I am talking real down home cooked meals and not from the box!  I would be in heaven.
5. Candles, I love candles!   Some of my most favorite are the fruity scents and vanilla and lavender.
6. Sleeping In and Breakfast in Bed,  Although this is hard for me to do since I have grown accustomed to popping out of bed in the morning, sometimes I just want to stay snuggled under the covers.
7. Flowers, they always brighten up the house, but my only thing with flowers is they don’t last long.
8. Massage, I am not one to go to the parlors as I am a little weirded out by that but a nice long 45 min massage from hubby would be perfect!
9. Romantic Set Up, I am a sucker for the rose petals, candles, chocolate dipped strawberries, romantic music.
10. Jewelry or Perfume, I love these surprises from my husband, especially the ones he picks out.  You get to get a fragrance that he loves and usually I love what he pics out, and jewelry just makes you feel pretty and special.  Some of my favorite pieces of jewelry and I only have a few are the ones he gave to me.   I pick them over anything else I have.

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day according to Wikipedia is a holiday celebrated on February 14, by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s Cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffry Chaucer in the High Middle Ages when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of “valentines.” Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards. The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was the start of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association estimates that, in the US, men spend on average twice as much money as women.

Chocolate Some of My Favorites

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and even though my hips really don’t need the chocolate, I would really like something fancy from my dear husband.  I’m not sure where I was, when I ran across the Godiva website where I saw these heart shaped chocolates and I was already drooling.

So I started thinking of my absolute favorite chocolates and thought I would share them with you.

Hershey’s chocolate bar with almonds–  This is a childhood favorite and I love just about any kind of nuts and chocolate except walnuts.

Almond Joy–  I never have been a fan of coconut but for some reason this is a favorite of mine.

Dove Raspberry Caramels–  OMG these are to die for, you will have to take the bag away from me.

Ghirardelli Caramel Choc Bar–  I like mine out of the refridgerator

Lindt-Excellence Toffee Crunch Bar (ok this is my ultimate, better not touch it or ill get you)  This is the best tasting chocolate bar and their Double Crisp bar is just as good but I love the Toffee

M&M’s–  I love these things with a glass of milk and almost any chocolate I eat I grab a glass of milk.

Godiva–  Well what girl doesn’t love Godiva?   I don’t have it very often because I can’t afford it, but feel like I am really getting pampered when I get Godiva.

What are your favorites???

FLOR Fun Functional Flooring

I am almost always looking for ways in which I can change things in our house to help update the look.  It isn’t easy to change furniture because these are the big ticket items in your home.   I always love to shop for small things like rugs, or pillows, or a new place mats to help change things in the house.   Let’s face it, if I am spending all my days at home, a change is always nice.
I recently was introduced to carpet tiles from FLOR.  I had watched the show Trading Spaces many times and I remember seeing an episode where they carpeted a room with FLOR carpet tiles.   This is such a cool way to change the look of an area in your home!   Not only that, they are so versatile, in that, you can mix and match colors, cut the tiles to make a cool floor pattern, and it is so incredibly easy to do!

I was extremely excited to get this opportunity because I was dying to give them a try, and so sick of the boring rug choices that you find in the stores.  Since this was my first experience using the tiles, I was primarily interested in how these things work and how they stay stuck once you had your design laid out.  Each tile is held together by a little circle of genius called a Flordot.  The Flordots are so easy to apply and hold the tiles together perfectly making it easy to move your masterpiece around if you need to.  When you want a change the tiles  come apart easily and you can store them, so if get bored you can change it up.  If you run out of Flordots you can just order more!

I was putting together FLOR’s Seagrass Rug which looks absolutely stunning in my entry way.  It is made from their plush collection of tiles and it is so soft and feels great beneath your feet! I cannot tell you how much fun I had putting this rug together, and it makes you want to do even more.  It’s a bit addicting and I was somewhat bummed when I ran out of tiles to stick together, because I was on a roll.  I am already looking for more reasons to go buy  more FLOR tiles to do various areas in the house.  We are looking to move the boys play area to the basement, one of these days, and this would be an ideal place to use them. Another thing I would definitely recommend when getting your FLOR rug is their cleaning kit, so you always have something on hand for the occasional spill or mishap to keep your FLOR tiles looking nice.

Thank you FLOR for such a ingenius product and we love our new FLOR rug! It is now a favorite playing spot for the boys and they love to hang out there where the sun pours through in the morning.  If you are looking for new flooring for your home or just something to spruce things up, this is definitely a really cool option.   There are tons of choices so you can let your creativity run wild and their prices are easy on budget too!

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!!! THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ENTERED!

I have a really awesome announcement for my readers here at DoubleBugs!!! FLOR was kind enough to allow me to give one lucky winner the chance to win a FLOR Seagrass Rug of their very own!

So here’s what you gotta do!

• Visit FLOR and have a look around and come back and leave a comment and let me know what other cool rug you might like and what room in your house you would like to use it in.
• Leave me an email so I have a way to contact you if you win
• Winners are chosen at random via Random.org.

For Additional Entries (please leave as an additional comment):

• Tweet about this post
• Follow me on Twitter
• Blog about my contest and give me the link!
• Put my badge on your sidebar

That’s all you gotta do!
Contest starts February 5, 2009 and Ends February 23rd, 2009
Good Luck to You!

Time Outs For Mom

Ever wonder what you did with your time before you had kids? Since having my two, I often wonder exactly that. It seems that there aren’t enough hours in my day anymore, and I find myself wishing for a spare eight on days like today.

You need a time out:

When you have a safety gate in place at the bottom of the stairs and your toddler has made it up the stairs (in spite of your preventative efforts) and has managed to climb on the outside spindles and is dangling at the top. In turn giving mom a heart attack.

When you are stuck in the bathroom with no toilet paper trying to describe to your toddlers exactly where to find it. They brought me a diaper instead. I suppose if it were my size it would do the trick! I later got a soggy roll, that had been dropped in the other toilet, but it made me smile.

But seriously, you need to take some “me” moments when you are at home with your children all day. It will make you a much better mom in the long run. I am slowly beginning to understand that it doesn’t make me a bad person for wanting or taking a moment for myself. I have also come to the conclusion that going to the grocery store, is not a time out for me. It is a chore to go to the store, but for some, that may be a good thing to do.

Tonight, when my dear husband got home, I let him play with the boys, and I went into our bedroom, locked the door, and watched 30 min of a tv show in the dark on my laptop, then I took a hot shower. That 45 min to myself made a huge difference in how I handled the rest of the evening. I was much less crabby, the boys weren’t crabby and both my husband and I got to enjoy their bath and bedtime because, I wasn’t running around to get a million things done plus my shower. Everything was done, and I got to enjoy our family time.

Sometimes I just close the door and sit in the dark and cry, but even crying has its benefits. The best time out I have ever had was in a dark room where I cried because I loved my boys so much and couldn’t imagine life without them, and how truly thankful I was for all the stress, all the laughs and how much they have changed my life. Hormonal I guess lol.

This is why time outs are so important. And what you do for a tim eout is strictly up to you. They make you a better mommy, they make you more thankful for your life and your family, and give you a chance to reconnect with yourself and motivate you to get through the next day. Take a deep breath and take a moment for you!

NetSmartz Teaching Your Teens to Stay Safe

In this day and age, everything is becoming so mainstreamed and it seems that our children are being introduced to the computer even sooner.   Being a mother to two very young children, it makes me a little nervous about introducing my kids to the internet.  Although, my boys are toddlers, I still hear about all the horror stories about how teenagers go missing after talking to and meeting with strangers they have talked to online.  I think computers and kids are basically inevitable with how fast technology changes, but  I also think it is very important that your children know what these dangers and are aware of the tactics a perpetrator  can use and how to be safe while being online.  It is such a scary scary thought, and I believe education is so important and as a parent you should use as many resources that are available to you and your children

NetSmartz, a leading online resource of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, used their expertise to develop NSTeens to educate, engage, and empower kids as Internet users, The website, NSTeens includes bios, comics, and videos of seven teen characters. Their comic How Much Is Too Much illustrates the consequences of improper Internet use and shows the impact teens can have when they use their network to empower people. Videos cover important topics such as social networking, cyberbullying, and offline consequences. Each cartoon video also portrays interviews with teens talking about their Internet use.

I think this is a terrific way to tell your teenagers about being safe on the internet.  It teaches then in a very non intimidating fun way so they might actually pay attention!  We know how powerful just hearing one sentence can be, because those are the things kids remember if they are in trouble or in a bad situation.   NSTeens is a wonderful resource and can help your teen to make smart decisions and avoid potentially harmful scenarios.

Green Works Natural Biodegradable Cleaning Wipes

I am a huge fan of some of the recent introductions of natural cleaning products on the market.  When you walk the cleaning isle of the supermarket you are overwhelmed by the magnitude of choices.  It wasn’t until I had the boys that I became more aware of the products that I use in my home.   So, when I had the opportunity  to try Green Works Biodegradable Cleaning wipes, I was more than thrilled.

I must tell you that I love these wipes, because not only are they natural and minus all the harsh chemicals that come in cleaning supplies today, but they are easy and convenient.   If you are a mom, you know that you are almost always wiping something down.  I am a huge fan of the pop up wipes because I can just sort of grab and go.  Green Works Cleaning Wipes, also smell so fresh and clean, and I will sheepishly admit I used the whole container the first day I used them.

Green Works Natural Cleaning Wipes

• 99% Natural and Biodegradable which is healthy for the environment
• You can use them on most non wood surfaces including acrylic, fiberglass and vinyl. Let air dry. Rinse if surface comes in contact with food.
• They are made from essential oils, no phosphorous or bleach, silicon anti-foaming agent, coconut based cleaning agent, filtered water, corn based ethanol, biodegradable preservative, glycerine, and %100 wood based fibers (wipes)

New Green Works Natural Biodegradable Cleaning Wipes feature the Sierra Club logo on their package, marking the brand’s financial commitment to support the organization’s conservation efforts, and are recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for using environmentally preferred chemistry.

Also, as if  their fabulous eco-friendly products weren’t enough, the Green Works team  through its new “Green Heroes Grant Program,” the brand team will award five grants of $10,000 each to eco-friendly community projects across the country.

Between January 15 and February 28, 2009, individuals can nominate eco-friendly community projects for a Green Heroes grant by submitting a photo and short essay about the project for consideration online at www.greenworkscleaners.com/greenhero. Each winner – or “Green Hero” – will receive a $10,000 grant to help their eco-friendly community projects grow and flourish!

Then, beginning on March 16 through April 10, 2009, you will have the opportunity to vote online for your favorite eco-friendly community project. The final five Green Heroes will be announced on April 22 – just in time for Earth Day.

For more information about the Green Heroes Grant Program, including official contest rules and entry guidelines, log on to www.greenworkscleaners.com/greenhero.

Thank you to Mom Central for this wonderful opportunity to do this review!

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