Crawling out of Winter

You never realize how much of that Seasonal Affective Disorder you have until you get a glimpse of Spring. Then, the joy and exhiliaration you get from not wearing full winter accessories and the heaviest coat you can find just to warm up your car 10 minutes before you leave the house really shines through.

First, the groundhog doesn't see his shadow. Way to go, Phil! Then, we get a random 60 degree day. Glory! Now, we have a fresh layer of snow and it's supposed to be 21 degrees for a high today in the Boston area - it's 9 degrees and bitter windy now. Crushed.

I need Spring. So much so that I bought the kids their flip flops and sunglasses for summer. Begging Spring to show a sign...3 months until the pool opens. LBs need to be lost ASAP.

Narrowing Choices

I stumbled onto this picture on my phone when going through pics last weekend. This is the inside of the changing room at Marshalls. So simple, yet it made my day when I was trying on clothes and I could organize my stuff.

Then, I went out and tried on sunglasses only to poke myself in the eyeball with the security tag and render myself almost blind in one eye for a good 15 minutes. Why do they put those tags on the nosepiece?????

Another Bat - Holy Crap

There I am sitting at dinner with a friend on Thursday night, enjoying my first sips of Chardonnay. The phone rings and it's my house/the babysitter. Big sigh. I answer and get "There's a bat in the house". Oh, any Joe is away at a work conference. I actually have to find a way to deal with this. Shelagh is hysterical, Kelly is sleeping in her room, Shelagh and Rory are hiding with the babysitter in the playroom. Thank GOD both of my neighbors were home and I could borrow some men to deal with this for me. Otherwise, I think I would have grabbed Kelly screaming hysterically through the house and driven to a hotel. Seriously.


So, the doors were propped open and we searched for 10-15 minutes to no avail (with my hair piled into a tight bun under a hat!). We settled on "it must have flown out" and I, nervous-on-the-inside-chirpy-on-the-outside, shepherded the kids to my room to sleep with me. Shelagh would not calm down or rest to fall asleep, so I brought them downstairs with me at 830pm so I could shove some food in my mouth. As we came down the stairs I spotted it out of the corner of my eye circling the living room. I hustled the kids outside and ran back to my neighbors house. While I spent the next 10 minutes explaining to Shelagh that I hadn't lied to her before when I said it was gone, my neighbor found it on the floor of the fireplace and calmly picked it up with a towel to bring outside.


I'm pretty sure it came down from the top floor. The door had been otherwise closed other than the one time it was opened that morning, so I stuffed a towel under the door and the 3 of us hid in my room for a night of thrashing, tossing and turning, moaning, and overall completely shitty sleep.


All of yesterday was spent looking over my shoulder and mistakenly looking at testimonials and pictures of bat excavations from the company that is coming today to inspect the roof/top floor for entry point(s). This is top of the list of the things that creep me out the most. So happy Joe is home!!

It's Been Awhile...

For not having anything much planned for Memorial Day weekend, it flew by fast! Summer has officially begun - not according to the calendar, but since the pool is open it might as well be. They finally attached a working heater so even I could get in. We swam Saturday, Sunday, and Monday with a quick march with Shelaghs school for the town parade on Sunday.

Back to work on Wednesday to start the day with an announcement that my group has been sold to our competitor. Nice. So, in the next 30 days I will not know whether my family will have health insurance come July 1. Apparently they are guaranteeing everyones jobs (initially at least), but not necessarily my part time hours. What an unbelievable year...going to choose to focus on the positives!

Unexpected Purchases, Here We Come

In the middle of cooking a pork roast a few weeks ago, I was greeted with this:

What the f&^%? A year and a day or so (just over warranty of course) after I got this piece of crap electric oven the whole rectangular computer piece there fell out and down into the back of the unit. After I tried massive amounts of duck tape to no avail, my Mom and Dad saved the day by packing the back of the stove with styrofoam blocks from Michaels to hold the computer piece in place. Needless to say, it's been downhill since.

A couple of months before Thanksgiving (which I host), I noticed things taking longer than they should baking such as Joe's birthday carrot cake. I completely over cooked it eventually. Then I got an oven thermometer and figured out how to compensate with the computer settings so that I got to the temp I needed. Well, that didn't really work but at least my Thanksgiving turkey was done 2 1/2 hours early rather than being underdone I suppose.

Now I have this. I completely freaked. This happened the day before I went away leaving Joe with all 3 kids for 4 days. His calm demeanor prevailed and after unplugging it and plugging it back in, the pork roast was saved. This is a freak accident waiting to happen.

Also, my dryer takes 2 cycles to dry anything these days on the hottest setting. Or, my washer isn't spinning well enough. I feel new appliances on the horizon.

I am a Mess

Thanksgiving is over, most of my holiday shopping is done, yet I am still a mess. My family celebrates the holidays in NJ early so that is another reason I do my shopping before Thanksgiving. It's more peaceful, I like browsing without the shopping-rage, and I need to organize my family gifts, Hannukkah and Christmas. We don't do full presents for both holidays, but I do tend to do one bigger item for each kid for each holiday and then little stuff otherwise. We exchange gifts on 4 out of 8 of the days of Hannukkah - usually a book, an art something or other, etc. Anyway, I usually have to spread everything out and divide it up, wrap it accordingly and hide it in a way that doesn't have me winging it at midnight each night throughout December!

We are contemplating a last minute get away this month for the family. It would be great to get away. Let's just hope I finish my stuff soon!

Holidays cards...borderline disaster trying to take a picture of the 3 kids over the weekend without one of them crying at any given time. Looks like separate pics of each kid will be the call this year. We seriously mail out about 150 cards or something crazy like that. My husband keeps in touch with ANYONE HE'S EVER MET! It's nice though to cover our dining room with everyone elses pictures. It prompts me to make plans with friends and try to entertain over the winter to catch up with people we haven't seen in awhile.

Annual calendar...last night I went through over 1500 pictures from 2009 narrowing down my favorite 3-8 from each month. I have to actually put the calendar together now and come up with witty captions. Joe will be good for this part.

Gift wrapping...3 kids, 2 holidays, 2 families of swaps...I'm dizzy.

Okay, I'm going to try to work for at least a few minutes today.

the Dollar Store

Block Party is tomorrow so I ran out tonight to the Christmas Tree Shop and the Dollar Store to get some crap for a prize box. At 8-830 on a Saturday night, you should see the psychos hanging out buying carts full of cheap garbage. Seriously. There was a security alert in the Dollar Store when I was trolling for cheap-ass plastic cars and shitty pencils. Ha.

Fingers crossed that the rain finishes early or doesn't happen at all! At least the temp should be good. Originally we were pretty well planned out. Now I feel like we lost some momentum when we postponed and I'm just hoping people eat and are happy enough just meeting and hanging out. Not much else organized. I'm full of ideas and too tired for follow through.

Coming Soon...

1. Pictures - LOTS of fun pics - Kelly pics, Labor Day weekend beach pics, etc
2. Food - I have got to get myself together with meal planning. 3rd kid is throwing me over the edge and I've started making 2 dinners on home days when I can.
3. Lots of TV commentary
4. Lots of general organizing to be done - house projects, parties/hosting things, etc.

One of these days I'll have my head on straight...Hoping to do some catch up this weekend in between 1st day of dance, 1st day of soccer, Joe's 2-day golf tournament, the 1st Kindy friend bday party and my attempt to get Joe and I converted to iPhones.

I'll be back!

TOO Straight???

For all you curly-haired people out there that straighten your hair...Have you ever said that your hair was TOO straight? Never. If I blow it out straight, I want it STRAIGHT. Got my hair cut today and of course took the opportunity to have someone else take 45 minutes to blow out my hair. Poor guy had to end his day with an hour-long appointment at 7pm. Let's see how many days I can hold out before washing...I'm thinking 3-4 days at least. Thank you, dry hair and scalp for giving me the luxury of keeping my straight hair for multiple days.

Lame

This is what I get for letting my cheap side take over. Hello, $15 crap pool. I suppose it would have worked better had I filled it up more than a half inch, but the thought of the volume of mud that would be generated when dumping it out in our half-assed teeny-weeny lawn discouraged me from doing so.

Miscellaneous Notes on Walking Around Like a Loser and Cleaning

The other day I went to DSW to look for comfortable walking shoes for our upcoming trip to Disney. I rolled up my long jeans legs super high while trying on shoes and continued to walk around like that all day. Didn't notice I hadn't released the nerdy rollups until later at home. Nice.

Question: Why do people get those walkie talkie phones? Is it just too hard to put the cell phone along thy ear? Are we SO lazy and/or deaf that we need to broadcast the conversation with an echo out loud for all to hear? So annoying.

Today I managed to shower (hooray!), go to the outlets about an hour from me to return a few things from my last trip, pickup more of that awesome Snickerdoodle coffee on the way home, write 2 thank you notes, put names on Shelaghs bday party invitations (not addresses yet - why can't I finish anything I start????), clean the accumulated dirt and dust off of the double stroller and try it out with Kellys car seat, play with and feed Kelly and watch last weeks Greys Anatamy (during which I cried - do they have to kill a kid every week?).

I also vacuumed the filters on 2 of our A/Cs today. It was 80+ degrees yesterday and is supposed to be 90 tomorrow. Rory woke up from nap yesterday with a full wet head of sweat, poor kid. I don't know if I've ever seen such a gross collection of dirt/lint/dust ever as I did on these filters. See for yourself. Obviously, the bottom 2 squares show "before" the big vacuum and the top 2 squares show "after". So gross.

While we're talking about cleaning, I'm LOVING the Biokleen concentrated laundry detergent and dishwashing powder I've been using. It's cheap, goes on for 65+ loads, and smells just enough to be pleasant without overpowering - hard to find that combination. I was loving the Method Dishwasher rock things that you just pop into the powder container, but I can't seem to locate those anywhere. Have also been loving the Method wood cleaning wipes with the mild almond scent. Normally I don't like scents, but this one is okay. They also have an unscented hand soap I've been using that is working well for my sensitive skin and aversion to most scents.

Off to pick up the kids and continue the mad rush to prep for our upcoming Disney vacation. YEAH! More on that later.

Ghost Cries

It was Thursday late morning. The kids were at school, Kelly was sleeping, and it had been 2 days without a shower (normal these days unfortunately). The furnace was definitely working so I would get guaranteed hot water and Kelly was out like a light. Long, hot shower, here I come. In I go...The cold water is almost completely off, the perpetual clog was clearing, no congestion for the first time in about a month. Heaven.

Then, out of nowhere come the ghost cries. Did I hear Kelly crying? Poke my head out and nothing. Settle back into the heat and steam. Wait! I swear I hear hysteria. False alarm. Calm, water beating on my back. Am I going crazy or was that some seriously loud cries? Nothing. Even when all the stars align and the hot water doesn't run out and 2 out of 3 kids aren't even home, I can't just let go. Mom forever.

R.I.P. Squeaky Downes

I'm sad to report that our beloved cat, Squeaky (the brown one on top), was put to sleep on Thursday. With the craziness of a new baby and getting used to 3 kids, I neglected to notice the rapid weight loss and change in disposition of the poor thing. I'm pretty sure she lost about 1/3 to 1/2 of her body weight in about 4 weeks from my best calculations. She was morbidly obese weighing in at about 15-16 pounds for the last few years in contrast to her sister who has held steady at about 9 1/2 pounds. She usually sits with us every night watching TV and squeaks and snuggles. I noticed that the food wasn't disappearing and the litter wasn't as full as usual and then the other day I swear you could see her spine and all the bones and she was so lethargic.

I brought her in to the vet and they also spotted her bright yellow ears (jaundice), lesions on her front legs, and the lack of any visible veins. Nice. They suspected liver cancer and basically said she was at the end of her rope. I bawled my eyes out, hugged her and held her while they gave her the shot. They said it could be as fast as 10-15 seconds, but she was so dehydrated that it happened in 2 seconds. Her eyes opened wide like Puss-in-Boots in Shrek 2 and that was that. I had a few minutes alone to apologize for not noticing and hoping she wasn't in much pain. Poor Lickey, her sister, came right up to me when I came home and I swear she knew...she's been all over us ever since.

We told the kids she was old and sick and went up to heaven. Shelagh had the lip quiver and lump in the throat, but held it together. She wasn't so crazy about the cats and avoids them, but still seemed upset about it. Rory was very sad. He plays with them all the time and keeps telling me that Lickey is looking for her best friend who is in Heaven. He would like the vet to go to Heaven and bring her back to Lickey, but seems to be realizing that that isn't going to happen. They are basically okay, thankfully.

Squeaky would have been 12 in May and is shown in the pic above in a typical snuggle with Lickey. R.I.P., dear cat. I'm sorry I wished you ill when I thought you were peeing all over the house and SO glad I didn't do anything about it when I was furiously trying to scrub the carpet (thank you Joe for making me cancel the appointment).

Slacker

That's me. Everyday I have ideas for blog entries and everday I don't write them. I used to at least start them in draft to remind myself of the thoughts I'm having, but I haven't even managed to do that. It's not that I mind listening to the children scream or cry, nor does it phase me to burn dinner. Being late is no problem and watching TV or reading magazines is perfectly acceptable. It's that I'm on maternity leave and I've completely checked out mentally. My biggest goal each day is to accomplish something on my long list of small accomplishments around the house or related to the family along the lines of 1) cleaning out a single (amongst many) junk drawer; 2) spring cleaning; 3) changing out pictures in frames; 4) organizing for spring clothes; etc...I've actually accomplished lots of little things, but for being half-way through my leave, there's lots more I hope to finish such as

• clean out the garage
• clean out our top floor extra room (donate books, file paperwork, organize packed away clothes, etc), although I thought I heard squeaks up there the other day so b/c there is a chance that maybe I could have possibly might have heard the beginnings of mice could negate this item
• clean out our inside furnace room/junk accumulator/gift bag heap/"sports" room/tool pile
• wedding album (yes, almost 7 years later despite the fact that I have the album and the photos I have not finished this - this is the third maternity leave appearance for this particular item)
• clean out closets for me and Joe and make a huge Salvation Army drop off. I'd like to minimize and really get aggressive on this one (I say that every time)
• start to plan out Disney vacation itinerary
• re-do budget
• find a beach house for august maybe? i always wait until the last minute on this one...we'll end up in some skanky clam shack 3 miles from the beach i'm sure. yes, i will bring my own sheets.
• start a compost that doesn't cost a million dollars

Some things I have accomplished

• our taxes and mother in laws taxes
• scheduled all dr appts (skin, ob, chix pox vaccine, dentist for kids, urologist for kelly (nothing serious just proactively testing for urinary reflux which shelagh had)
• trip to the outlets to get spring/summer clothes in order (sales weren't good enough so rinse and repeat on this one)
• started going back to the gym (yeah!)
• announcements out
• thank yous up-to-date
• garden cleaned out in preparation for spring planting

Hmmm...I thought this list would be longer.

Catching Up

So, I've been home mostly these last few weeks and not doing much other than trying to keep up with my house and kids, getting acclimated to having an infant in the house, and feeling guilty that I haven't posted anything on my blog. I haven't been cooking too much as my mom thoroughly stocked my frig and freezer. I haven't even broken into the freezer food yet...still digging out of the frig. Here's what we've been doing...

• Registered Shelagh for Kindergarten (wow)
• Birthday parties and play dates for the big kids (thank you, friends)
• Dr appts for Kelly (she weighs over her birth weight now and no jaundice despite a painful beginning of nursing for me. yeah!)
• Family visits to meet Kelly and play with Shelagh and Rory (thank you, nieces, for being my mothers helpers yesterday during school vaca week)
• Working on all the pictures I've been taking (a million) & birth announcements
• Cleaning the house (yes, I've done it once)
• Dance & Swim classes for Shelagh. Registering Rory for swim and a mixed sports class he'll do on Saturdays with Joe.
• Catching up on the massive amounts of TV we taped that we got behind on when my mom was here and I was passing out at 8pm. I think we're only 1-3 episodes behind as of last night. (In case you are wondering...we are taping a ton right now - Big Love which is AWESOME this season; Flight of the Conchordes which is also great this year; Top Chef; Lost; The Office; 30 Rock; ER where I'm counting days to the return of Clooney; Damages; and Fringe. I think that's it for shows we watch together. I'm also watching Greys and have been taping How I Met Your Mother on Lifetime where they are showing the whole series starting at Season 1. What a great show!). I'll post separately on my TV thoughts. I have lots of them right now. Trying my hardest not to watch too much daytime TV since I'm home now with Kelly and it makes me feel like a person with less than normal intelligence.

I have a few cooking things to post and some pics of Kelly and the kids coming soon...

No, I've Not Gone into Labor...

Just been hustling to get stuff done before baby arrives...Here's what has been going on:

1. I'm 1-2 cm dilated and baby is low, but she has a little further to go. Dr doesn't think I'll go early, and I haven't gone early before, but he thinks I'm on target for around due date, which is 2/2. I'm SO ready to meet her, start my maternity leave, and welcome this change into our family!!
2. Work is wrapping up and while I was going to work all 3 days this coming week, I think I'll bag Thursday and try to finish Monday and Tuesday.
3. Rory has been in preschool for 2 weeks now and is doing great! He loves that Shelaghs school is his school now too. Despite having some weepy drop offs, he has adjusted so well and his teachers are happy he came into the room before the other new kids from the younger class move up next week. He is the only one new to the school so he was able to get some special attention.
4. I'm hoping his friends in class using the potty will rub off on him and his teachers will really help him. I'm being VERY lazy on potty training since baby is about to arrive and he is just 3 anyway. I know boys and girls are very different about this but I have much less drive to get him trained. While it would be nice to stop diapers for him, I just don't have it in me right now to have him try every 1/2 hour like we did with Shelagh. Besides, he stands there for like 20 mins b/c he thinks now he'll get new cars when he pees REGARDLESS of whether he has to go or not. My fault :)
5. Shelagh is so hooked on drawing and art right now. It's great on several fronts...mostly b/c she really focuses on it and spends time thinking about colors and designs and also b/c it lets her work independently on something and frees up some time for me to do stuff while Rory naps.

I have some cooking stuff to post too...

Pampering Day

Yesterday was a total "me" day. With Joe having some stuff going on over several weekends in December and January, I realized I needed to schedule a day for myself before it's too late! I started the day with a nice prenatal massage and then a pedicure. I left the house a little early and sat at the bagel shop with my book for awhile first (The Secret Life of Bees per a referral from my friend at work who says it's her favorite book. I'm split right now at about 1/2-way through).

Then I did some shopping and pretty much reversed the physical benefit of the massage by being on my feet too long. You could argue that that's not the way to spend a day to myself, but doing errands without the kids and actually being able to browse is so nice sometimes. I got some crafts for Rorys 3rd birthday party next weekend (I'm not crafty...this took some time); a new outfit for myself for the hospital; and 2 outfits for the baby (I have no business buying her anything really since I have a ton of stuff from Shelagh, but I had no dresses for 0-3 and they were on sale at Old Navy).

1st Snow!!

A Sad, but Unbelievably Inspirational, Story

Every day for the last couple of months I've been following the story of Christian and Stephanie Nielson. They were in a plane crash in AZ and survived, although they were both badly injured with burns over part of his body and almost all of hers. They were both in medically induced comas from the accident until recently for him and hopefully this weekend for her. They have 4 children and both come from big families who have jumped in, taken over the care of the kids and have worked constantly to do fundraisers and all that to help with bills and recovery. It is the saddest and most inspiring story. Stephanie has a blog that she wrote in about her family and one of her sisters, who is caring for 3 of her 4 children, is using her blog now to tell their story.

Here is an article about what happened and where they are now. Courtneys blog about the recovery and how the family is coping is here. I found this story on some blog I was reading and haven't stopped following it since.

I well up and actually cry almost every day reading this story. It is so touching how their families have come together to bring this couple back and hold the families close. Having small children myself, I can't help but think about the selflessness and love that is present in their lives every day. I can't stop thinking about these 4 children who are living loved, but without their parents right now - they are ages 7 down to 2. I can't stop thinking how horrifying it would be to wake up from an accident like this and have that fear about how your children are and where you are and what is going on be so enormous.

So, although this is a sad and terrifying story, it is inspirational every day. The family is Mormon and they talk about praying and faith and God a lot. Where normally, formal religion unsettles me a bit - just out of lack of experience with it really and a lot of questions about my own beliefs - within the context of this story it is comforting and lovely.

Closets in NYC

The author that wrote this article from New York Magazine has a blog and that's how I found it. What an awesome collection of peoples closets...Random, but cool.