So...How've ya been?  I'm...I'm good.  You know...hanging in there.  Busy, tired...tired, busy.  Actually, I really feel like I'm on summer vacation because Jerry had a few days off and we were lazy and didn't do much of anything around the house.  The kids even slept in a few days and now we are ALL messed up!  I'm paying for it but trying to get them back on track quickly so it doesn't get any worse.  It was fun, though - staying up too late and sleeping in too long.  

Did you know that we are celebrating some sort of holiday around here?  I mean...not the 4th of July - although, fireworks were awesome!  Apparently, we celebrate some sort of Christmas in July around here and buy new things.  I didn't know we were going to do it...I don't think anyone planned on it but it happened anyway.  Here's how it started...

Monday, July 5th was stinking hot.  My parents wanted to do something.  They wanted to take the kids somewhere.  Anywhere outside was pretty much out of the question because we would melt...so, we headed to the mall.  

Do you watch Sprout?  Do ya?  We do...every day for at least an hour or so.  I hate to admit it, but my kids watch more TV than I would really like them to.  However, it isn't "junk" TV and they NEVER watch adult programs.  My kids watch Sprout, Nick Jr. or an "approved by me" movie.  So, we watch Sprout and there is this commercial...you may have seen it if you are a Sprout watcher.  

My kids stop and watch this commercial EVERY time it is on.  They tell me which Pillow Pet they want and beg me to get it for them.  I knew that Danika wanted the Unicorn and Nate was a toss up between the Penguin and the Bumble Bee.  So, when we headed toward the Merry-Go-Round at the mall and saw the kiosk selling Pillow Pets, I knew I was doomed...unfortunately, the guy is selling them for about $5.00 more than if we would have ordered them on TV.  He knew that there was no way I was walking away without buying them, though - my kids would have been heartbroken...so, we ended up with 2 Pillow Pets. 

Nunnu and Grammie also took us to the toy store - where Danika found Princess Priscilla (she named her) and Nate got his very own "official" movie size Woody doll - which now sports the name "Nate" on the sole of his right boot.  :)  FYI - Nate ended up with the Penguin because there were no Bumble Bees at the kiosk.

So ~ the kids got their toys and were happy.  On the way home from work yesterday, Jerry stopped to get a new DVD player.  Our DVD player had been acting moody - would work one day and then not work at all for a week...would be fine for a month and then just quit all together!  The twins are at that stage where Baby Einstein will give me 28 minutes of laundry/dishes/cleaning time, so the DVD player was something I really missed when it decided it didn't want to work.  Jerry thought he would surprise me and grab a new one so that I would be able to just pop a DVD in and not have to say a decade of the rosary in hopes that the darn thing would actually play.

When he brought the new DVD player home and tried to hook it up, we discovered we had another problem...because that's how these things happen, right?  Here's how it went down...

Him:  I don't know what to do.

Me:  Why?  What's wrong?

Him:  This output/input thingy (that's what I remember hearing...but isn't exactly what he said) on the back of  

         the TV is broken.  That makes it impossible for us to have the Wii, Stereo and DVD player all 

         connected.

Me:  What do you need to fix it?

Him:  A new TV.

Me:  Go buy a new TV.

Him: (with eyes as big as flying saucers) Are you serious?

Now, the TV we had was a wedding present from my Grandmother.  It's not at all a bad TV.  I remember when we bought it we were super excited because it was WAY nicer than the TV we thought we were going to be bringing into the new house with us.  However, that TV now sits in our basement awaiting a new home...hopefully in a new house we buy with a game room!  This is our new TV: