X is for...

Xactly, X-ray, X-chromosome, X marks the spot, eXtremely new, eXtremely short haircut.

Surprisingly, I came up with more than one X thing (plenty more). First off, Travis' company sent him to San Jose all last week for some job training. He is a commissions accountant at Omniture and the program/software they use to calculate commissions is called Xactly. So off he went to San Jose to a $2000 course in how to use that software. Everything was paid for from meals, to the course, to his plane ticket, etc. It was for a much needed break from the craziness of his 3 girls. I have to say I was a little nervous about 4 nights without him home. At the end of the day I am always excited to see him come through the door and help with entertaining and changing diapers. I think that is the longest we have been apart since meeting. Yeah....CRAZY. And I have never spent a night without him since Isabelle was born. Turns out he missed us enough to come home. ha ha. And thank goodness. I guess it can be a little boring all by yourself when you are used to being with your family every night. I survived (obviously) and found it was a lot easier than I thought it would be...so yay for me being able to not lose my sanity and actually found it's even fun to be "just the girls" even though the girls are so young. Anyway, Travis came home with all sorts of Xactly swag. This included a polo shirt, a gold vest, some wooden block puzzles, and a thermos/mug type thing. I am having trouble thinking of the right words for things lately. Please excuse this, it is momnesia. (That is a REAL thing!! I swear! I heard it on Dr. Phil.)

I say X-ray for Riley...
She has recognized the letter X for quite some time now and always said "eks" (X) just perfectly. We got her some flash cards, an alphabet puzzle, and alphabet books and of course all of the pictures for X are x-rays (and occasionally a xylophone) so now...sometimes instead of saying just "X" when she sees an X, she says "x-ray". It is quite funny.

X-chromosome...let's face it, there are plenty of those around here. And even men have them, being XY...they get the "X" from their mothers. And Travis contributed X's instead of Y's and so we have our two beautiful girls instead of boys. And we wouldn't have it any other way :) (Even though I wanted all boys so badly)

I say the phrase "X marks the spot" because Riley's newest obsession is finding paper in almost any form and saying, "Look, it's a treasure map." She will carrying around a "treasure map" and play. It is very sweet. I think this week for FHE we will have a treasure hunt. Hopefully... I just need to get a few ideas for it I guess. I LOVE the way Riley says "it's a treasure map" so I will try to post a video clip soon.

And finally...today was one of those days that I felt depressed about myself. Ugly face, bad hair, not happy with my body....you know, girls...some of us have those sometimes. I think...I hope I'm not the only one! Not much I can do about my face...I have no idea how to do make up for real. Like eye shadow? I NEVER put it on...no idea how to...I just do the basics that I need to get by. (In case you haven't noticed I'm pretty plain-jane, no frills....jeans and t-shirt, etc. kind of a girl) And I can't change my face, so yeah. My body...well, that is in my control and I am hoping to get my butt in gear there. I think it's actually not so bad for having had two kids in two years. But the one thing I could help was my hair. So off to the salon for a little hair therapy. Retail therapy doesn't do anything but depress me (I hate to see large, unnecessary amounts of money disappear in such a short time)...but a little change of the locks and I feel refreshed. It's not totally drastic...but it is different enough (shorter, for sure); and I love that feeling of running my fingers through freshly cut hair. It just feel so great. I am getting used to it but I think I like it. We will see how I feel tomorrow when I have to do it myself. You know how it never looks quite like how the stylist does it? I hate that! But I think this should be pretty low maintenance...which is what I am all about with two kids! I will post pics soon...maybe...