Momversation Monday: Help! I'm Pregnant... with Twins!

Good Monday everyone!!
Momversation Monday's topic is one that is close to my heart. TWINS!!

I'm on the left and my sis is on the right

I'm a twin and I could not see my world without my twin sister. There is something amazing about being connected to someone since birth.
There were plenty of fun times, changing classes and confusing people. And there were times that being a twin wasn't so much fun, especially with birthdays and receiving the same gift was annoying.

I'm in the purple, my twin is in the orange and the little one in the middle is our younger sister

My mother had her hands full with us! We were always getting into EVERYTHING. My mom would put us in a playpen and when she would leave the room we would execute our prison break. My twin would give me a boost and I would climb out of the playpen. Because there was two of us, the messes and chaos we could make was beyond what my kids could come up with!

My mom has stories about how we kept her up for 6 months straight because it wasn't just one baby with colic, it was two. And when one baby stopped crying the other started. I was not allowed to complain to my mom about my kids restless night because my mom said the same thing every time, "why are you complaining?! You only have ONE! Payback baby!". HEHEHE!

My favourite story she told us was a night time feeding gone wrong! She picked me up, feed me, changed me and put me back in the crib and went to get the second bottle ready. She fixed the bottle up and picked up the next baby for her feeding, when she went to changed the second baby's diaper, the baby was dry. While my mom went to the get the second bottle I switched positions and she picked me up instead of my twin!

My parents made it a point to let us express our individuality and not dress us the same or put us in the same activities. My twin and I did have some of the same hobbies but we did have things that we loved doing on our own.

Auntie Mayhem (left) and me (right)
High school graduation

It was great to have my twin cause we were in the same classes and had the same homework (not that we actually DID the homework), we had each other to play with and someone to talk to. We always had someone to back the other up. She is my best friend!

I couldn't live without her!

How Can You Say No To This Face?!

MilitaryWives -- LEAVE EACH OTHER ALONE!

You may have to see this clip on YouTube...

This guy says EVERYTHING I wish I could say! If you are a military wife/ spouse or girlfriend you need to watch this to the end! Think about what he is saying.

I never understood why military spouses are so catty. But I have seen it and have been in the middle of several fights that have made no sense. And I will be completely honest, I have been in catty situations where are the end of the day I look back and thought, "why am I involved in this bull?"

Jovan makes a great point that soldiers of different divisions joke around about which one is better but we as wives wether it be rank or division take it WAY too seriously and use it as a tool to knock the other down. WHY?!

We as military wives/girlfriends should stand together because we are fighting the same fight. We are here supporting our significant others and we shouldn't have to defend what we write to the people who should understand us the most. The one thing I find great about this online community is that no one is annoyed that someone wrote a bunch a statuses about their spouses online.  We are happy when a soldier comes home and we are sad for those who are missing their soldier, in the real world, I can't really say that's true.

What do you think about what Jovan said? Was he right on the money?

Mydogtag.ca Giveaway EXTENDED!!!!

mydogtag.ca Giveaway has been EXTENDED to March 22nd!!!! 

Click here to get your entries in!!!

Four Days of Gross!

I have no idea why the past four days have been crappy.

After picking up my kid from school, he was playing with the neighbour kids and there was an accident and the kids came to me. One of them got a bloody nose, which wasn't the problem. I can handle the blood and all that it's trying to get two 6 year old boys to stop screaming and crying to get the whole story was hard.

The story, as I interpreted, was they were playing with the sled I have and one of them used it on the stairs and he hurt himself. Day one down- injuries sustained, one. On to day two.

A great play date was had by all. Us moms were useless in building their fort and left it to the kids to figure out. After some laughs and lunch, the play date ended and Ducky and Chicky continued to play with their fort. As I was cleaning up kitchen I heard a loud bang and then some screaming. Both kids come running down the stairs, Chicky holding her arm and they were both crying hysterically.

Once again using my superb mom decoding I concluded that they were using the fort structure for what it wasn't meant for, resulting in Chicky getting a bruise the size of a golf ball on her arm. Day two down- injury tally- 2. Bring on day three!

An amazing morning was had by all, mainly because everyone was at school and I helped with Chicky's preschool. Walking the kids home from school, Chicky announces she pooped. We are still potty training so I told her it was OK and we would get cleaned up when we got home.

As I gather everything for cleaning her, and I turn around to a trail of poop leading to the bathroom. Great!
As I finish cleaning up the mess,  my son come in from playing in the snow to use the washroom. Not three minutes later I Ducky was screaming. I run up the stairs to find him freaking out cause he had the runs and missed the toilet. Here we go again! Day three down- injury tally 2, dirty smelly tally 2. Moving on to day 4.

With the weather being kind of crappy lately, I was forced to spend part of my day shovelling out the driveway. And it wasn't that light fluffy snow. No, it was that heavy and really hard to lift. And while I was shovelling it started to rain, making it heavier to get the job done. So you gotta expect that once I'm done clearing the driveway the dumb ass snow plow dumps another 3 feet of snow into my driveway. I have to say there was a lot of colorful language coming out of my mouth.

Let's look at this week's score shall we? Injuries sustained- 2. Dirty messes to clean- 2. Battle with the snow plow and lost- 1.

Interesting week. I hope we have a better March Break this week!

Later days!

Momversation Monday: Do You Let Television Educate Your Children?

Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!!

We are going jump right into the Momversation topic of the day!
Do you let television educate your children?

At first I have to say yes I did. My son learned to count from watching Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer.
Now I'm pickier with the shows they watch and the how long they watch it for.

Spending time with my parents changed our habit of having the TV on from the time they woke up till the time they went to bed. Now they get about an hour or two depending on homework and what the weather is like outside.

But the shows they are watching are educational. The kids love watching Electric Company, a show that teaches kids vocabulary and reading. Ducky loves this show because he can apply it to the reading he is doing in school. And Chicky likes it because it has everything she loves, singing, dancing and animation!

I learned late in my life (college to be exact) that my learning is visual and hands on. I can watch a documentary and get more information from that than reading a history textbook. I need to work with my hands to understand how something works. If my teachers back in high school had taken the time to see that, I'm sure my grades would have been better, and I might have rebelled a lot less.
So for me as a parent,  I want to explore every learning style for my kids wether it be auditory, visual or kinesthetic (learning my hearing, seeing or doing).

What do you think? Do you let your television educate your children?

Honesty May Not Always Be The Best Policy

Ducky and I have been doing a point system to tally up the chores and following the rules. Once he has tallied a certain amount of points he has the option to get an extra 30 minutes of computer time or he could wait and earn more points and get a new toy.

One trip to Wal-Mart before Cpl. Mayhem went away on a course (yet again! Because 6 months wasn’t enough!) Ducky wanted to go straight to the toy section to pick out his toy.

He was short on his points by a lot, and we told him he didn’t earn enough points for the toy yet, but to be patient and we would get to the toy section to look around.

After getting the things we were there for we reluctantly went to the toy section knowing a fight was going to happen.

Ducky finds the toy he wants, looks at me and then at the toy. Looks at Cpl. Mayhem and then at toy again. We remind him that he doesn’t have enough points to get the toy.

Now that he has found the toy, let games begin!

“Here’s what I was thinking!”, Ducky yells trying to drive a bargain out of the point system. Cpl. Mayhem turned around and cracked up quietly to himself while I’m left to listen to the half thought out plan Ducky was trying to haggle. 

While he bargained he tried to add a second to the mix!
Smart kid!

After what felt like forever, I convinced Ducky to put the toy down and that we would be back later when he earned all this points. And this is when we walked into the “Sulking Phase”, the “Life is not fair and I’m going to a far away place” phase. 

Next time Ducky! I promise!

After Ducky’s announcement to leave, I tell him I would miss him if he was gone and he mumbles something about dad going away and starts to cry. I look at my poor boy who is completely heartbroken and I realize something.

“Ducky, you are not sad about the toy are you? You sad that dad is leaving for a couple of days right?”

Ducky looks at me with his big crocodile tears,

“No, I’m sad because of the toy!!!”.

I would have felt better if he was crying about dad, but hey, I had to ask!

Mydogtag.ca Review and GIVEAWAY!!

I love anything military! Not just because I'm proud of my army man, I was always drawn to it. I had dog tags made up my first year of college with "KAVERS" on it. That was everyone in my family's first initial of their first name (also the name of the sewing company my mom ran).

Did you know?
Before the Service Number was introduced in the 1990s, military personnel were identified on the discs by their Social Insurance Numbers. Now you learned something new!

Cpl. Mayhem and I had talked about getting dog tags for the kids with their vitals on it, I hesitated. Because the Canadian dog tags (actually they are called ID discs) are harder for me to make for the kids.

Here's why:

When Cpl. Mayhem joined the military, he showed me his dog tags. I was surprised to see that they were not like the US dog tags you see in the movies instead they are like the ones on my blog header.  They are meant to be broken in half in case of a fatality, the top half is left on the soldier while the other is brought back to the National Defense Headquarters. Looking at him in his uniform, with his tags made me proud to be his wife.

Funny enough when Cpl. Mayhem was overseas, I was getting my new blog design set up and the design initially showed the header with only half the tag on it. I was freaking out about the bad juju not having the other tag there. Me and my superstitions.

But I still LOVE dog tags! And so does Chicky!

I got these great tags from mydogtag.ca, and I have yet to put them on! She had them the second I got them out of the bag!

I was going to get a photo of me with them on but she just wouldn't let me have them! So before she went to bed she gave two seconds to take a photo of what I had inscribed on them.

Mydogtag.ca can pick from the American dog tags and the Canadian ID discs. Customize them however you want them! They also have accessories, tees and an idea section if you are feeling overwhelmed by all the choices!

And Mydogtag.ca is giving away 5 dog tags to A Military Wife's Mayhem readers!!! Yeah dog tags!

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You must leave 1 comment per entry.  Extra entries will not be counted unless you leave a comment for each one.  Contest has been EXTENDED to March 22nd!!!.  Winner will chosen with random.org and notified by email on or before March 23rd.  If no response, a different winner will chosen.  Must be 18 or older to enter.  Contest open to USA or APO/AE and Canada.  Prize will be shipped directly by Mydogtag.com

GOOD LUCK!!!