On Halloween Day In The Morning

Neither kidlet was particularly interested in posing for me. #1 is always very fascinated with trying to pull the camera out of my hands and #2 has apparently decided somewhere along the line that she'll allow two - three if you're lucky - shots to be taken and then she vigorously shakes her head "no" until you turn the camera away from her. These are the best that I could do.

This is breakfast when your kids decide to get up three hours earlier than they normally do and your entire morning just pretty much goes to hell. For what it's worth, 3 boxes = 1 serving, so I technically had less than 3 servings...so, you know, I showed restraint. Also, Milk Duds are a toal workout for the jaw, so there's got to be some calorie burning going on.

I Jumped On Board

I decided to take the plunge and try my hand at NaBloPoMo. I have no idea what I'll write about every day, but I'm committing to it so come along for the ride.

I'll start tomorrow with a recap of today, which I've dubbed Helloween, emphasis on hell. It was a super craptastic day. How was yours? Did it involve finding an 8 inch long silver hair on your shoulder that was not part of any costume? Oh, hey, I'll leave it there! Maybe one of my posts for November will be about the newly sprouting grey hairs.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

This morning, #2 climbed up next to J, who was sitting on the couch. She looked over at her father, pulled her feet in close, held her toes and, huge grin on her face, said, "hi, good boy!"

Can I Get A Volunteer?

J's birthday (his 34th) was earlier this month and his parents sent a package last week with a gift for him and "a little something for the twins."* My in-laws, God love 'em, are self-employed organic farmers and my mother-in-law also makes a fair living with her organic baking. My ILs are wonderful, but they are incorrigibly uncomfortable with and skeptical of anything new, and are particularly wary of technology (imagine the conversations between J, who makes his living as a principal software engineer, and his parents who don't even own a microwave...).

J opened his package and his mother had included a lovely "Life is good" sweatshirt, a card and two squash for the kids. Squash? We're used to getting food packages from his parents; usually it's several loaves of my mother-in-law's bread, some cookies and random organic foods that she picks up at one of the Co-ops she bakes for and thinks we might enjoy. But squash? Included with the squash was this note:

J,

Something for #2 and #1 underneath your gift. It's some variety we've never grown before. Thought they'd be great for the two of them.

Much love,
Mom

Ok...

J and I both kind of took it to mean that this particular variety of squash was new to their crop this season. In essence, they were, except, as far as my ILs knew, they hadn't planted these squash. These two little guys just grew alongside the squash that my ILs were sure of planting. Because only two grew, my mother-in-law was struck with the genius idea that the twins would just love them.

Apparently, we have some volunteers on our hands and I've yet to be able to identify what kind of squash they are. While the sentiment is very sweet, I can't help but wonder if my mother-in-law was more weirded out by the fact that something they hadn't planted grew in their garden and she felt the need to get rid of it (and what better way to do so than by deciding that two squash = twin grandchildren, and then shipping the pretty hefty vegetation over 200 miles away).

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with them.

* It rather irks me when people blithely call the Muffins "the twins." I suppose it might be more frustrating if they were identical, but it bothers me that people so easily lump them together as a means of identifying them. As a cicumstance of conception my children are twins, but they are very much individuals and I don't think it's that difficult to refer to them by name or, if you feel the need to identify them as a group, just call them "the Muffins," "the babies," or "the kids." My niece and nephew who are twins share a deep bond and very much feel the "twin connection," but my sister was always very careful to make sure they had a strong sense of self-identity while they were growing up and I'm trying to model the same attitude and behavior for #1 and #2. They absolutely share a special bond because they are twins, but that is not their only defining quality.

Too Many Choices

We're all laid low with a cold, but I've got it the worst right now. The past couple of days have been increasing more difficult to get through and, by the time J gets home from work, I've been downright miserable. Tonight, on our way to score our Diet Coke fix, I decided to run into the drug store to pick something up to hopefully help clear my head somewhat...

There are far too many choices when it comes to cough and cold medications. With limitations on the sale of pseudoephedrine, a host of pseudoephedrine-free versions of the original medications has cropped up, but you can still choose from the original medications if you're willing to pull the card and purchase it at the pharmacy. Also, in an attempt to cover every single permutation of symptoms possible, the new! and! improved! formulas! seem to be appearing on the shelves about as quickly as the snot accumulates in my sinuses. All of the choices were nearly too much for me, causing my poor, crud-filled brain to practically seize up with options.

The last time I was remotely sick like this was when I was 5 months pregnant (so, just shy of two years ago) and I was hesitant to take any medication. I eventually ended up in the doctor's office after nearly two weeks of suffering and had to relent to a strong prescription. I knew I needed something strong tonight and I didn't have any qualms about choosing a medication that I'd need to request at the pharmacy, but I wasn't prepared for the tech to tell me to swipe my license. I looked at her, thoroughly confused, thinking she meant that I needed to swipe my bank card. Nope. She needed me to run my driver's license through the machine in order to track my purchase (you know, to make sure that I'm not running all over town buying up all of the Mucinex D or other pseudoephedrine-containing medications). Apparently, they've been doing this for over a year, but it blew what little was left of my mind. I knew the black strip on the back of my license contained all of my information, but I've never had to use it for anything before (in fact, I've often wondered if it was ever used) and it all just seemed...a little too Big Brotherish to me.

That said, I picked some good stuff and, though still rather stuffy, hope to make it through tomorrow better than I did today. Thank God tomorrow's Friday.

Updates

It dawned on me that I never followed up on what happened with my head. Well, the ENT at Dartmouth wasn't all that faboo and, ultimately, I was right and diagnosed myself. He called a few weeks after I had seen him to see how I was doing (I was fine, just like I was when I saw him) and I brought up the issue of labyrinthitis and he declared that that was now "top of his list." My symptoms were still throwing him since "they were so all over the place, but upon further research" he concurred with me that my self-diagnosis was indeed correct. Score 1 for me. Too bad I had to wait over 8 months to get in to see him just to be told that I was right and there's nothing to do since I'm feeling well now. I've cancelled my follow-up appts with the ENT and with p/t. My coping mechanisms seem to be working fine and I just take it easy if my head starts to feel "off." I still have some weakness on my left side, but it predominantly shows itself when I'm marching in place, arms outstretched, eyes closed and counting to 50 and, really, I can't say that I do that all that often or, you know, ever outside of a medical setting.

We've decided that we're going to drop our HBO subscription. Ever since having kids, On Demand has become a major part of our lives, but HBO is rather lacking now I think and now that we've got Netflix (oh, how I love you Netflix) we can get whatever we want, so I'm actually going to start catching up on more Showtime series (Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII, I'm looking at you!). We're keeping the digital cable, just ditching the premium stuff.

I'm waiting until the first of the year to cancel our landline, but we are still definitely cancelling it. Between cancelling HBO and the landline, we'll be pocketing and extra $100 a month. Go us.

Look at me with the two posts in a day.

As Promised...

The first three shots are from this past Sunday's visit to Canterbury Shaker Village. The remaining shots are from our outing to Charmingfare the Sunday before.

Last, but not least!

The Red Sox Are About To Go Back To The World Series

I won't bore you with excuses about how busybusy I've been. While the truth is that I go to bed absolutely exhausted every night and that the weeks are flying by, I haven't been updating because I haven't known what to say.

There is so much going on and yet I don't feel as though I've found my voice here yet and I'm not sure of the direction I want to take this blog. I don't want it to be "another" Mommy blog, and I don't want it to be merely a chronicle of the minutiae of my life, because I'm sure that's not entirely interesting to anyone other than me, and maybe J. I've been getting out with the kids more during the week and experimenting with some new recipes (made a great crock pot beef stew the other night). At night, after we put the kids down, J and I tidy the living room and then we shower and watch something (lately it's been season 1 of Dexter...we joined Netflix and we're more than a little bit in love). I really enjoy the "us" time at night and have been hesitant to disrupt our cozy routine. Some days, the kids totally kick my ass, but everyday I fall more in love with them and with motherhood and I'm just so damn happy and content with my life that I guess I just don't feel compelled to update more often. That said, I am gathering my thoughts on faith and religion and on politics (living in NH means you only get about a year's respite between presidential elections). Also, I'm trying to plan a 75th birthday party for my mother for next summer, and we're trying to get pregnant again...but, this is not a blog about trying to get pregnant, so I don't anticipate writing much about that until I (hopefully!) have good news and I'm far enough along to feel comfortable sharing. So...I do have material to blog about, I just need to dedicate the time to doing so.

That said, I will fill you on in the goings-on of the last few weeks...

My niece, Nurse, came to visit a couple of weekends ago and we had a very full weekend of visiting and reconnecting. She's only 10 months younger than I am, and we were very close growing up, but our lives have taken us in different directions over the last few years and we haven't been able to maintain our relationship the way we'd like. Nurse's visit was just what we needed to catch up.

That same weekend, C's boyfriend, Jeeps, came home for a visit and we all met up with P and his youngest son for the last dinner of the season at my favorite summer eatery (the irony of this place is that it's nowhere near the coast...but it's got great chicken tenders!). It was good to see Jeeps (he's in the Army and has been away training for most of the year) and he and C had a great weekend, too.

Last weekend, J and I went away for our anniversary. The place I chose was nice enough, but our room was street-side, which I somehow managed to miss when reviewing my choices before I made our reservation. Our bed at home is more comfortable than the one in our room was, but we had a sitting area and a nice fireplace and the innkeepers accommodated my request for a special breakfast to celebrate our anniversary (the selling point of the inn for me was that they offered creme brule french toast and J adores creme brule so I asked for it to be made on one of the mornings that we were going to be there...apparently french toast is a Sunday specialty and we were staying Thursday-Saturday, but they happily accommodated the request and it was delicious) . The innkeepers are relatively new to the B&B scene (at least, as far as innkeeping goes - I don't know how often they've stayed in B&Bs over the years) and you could tell, but it was a nice enough experience and the breakfasts were really good (bonus: they left a bottle of champagne in our room, nice touch). Mom, C and A came in to take care of the kids, but next time, we'll just have C do it. #2 gave A a hard time and Little Dog barked his head off to let A know that he was the boss...so it was a stressful time towards the end. We also missed the kids like mad and the weather sucked on Friday (our anniversary and the only "full" day were had up in North Conway). Last Sunday, though, we went on an adventure to someplace new (new to us, at least) and it was a great, great day. It was our first time visiting the farm and the kids loved all of the animals. There's a camel in New Hampshire! Who knew? Next year I think we plan to go for the special pass that allows you unlimited admission for the season.

We went to Shaker Village again today and had a lovely time. #2 threw a fit and insisted on walking everywhere by herself (she won't hold hands and is the squirmiest worm you've ever seen if picked up and carried). It was cute, though, and #1 was content in the stroller for a while. When we got closer to being ready to leave, we took him out and let them both run around. Quite by surprise, P and his wife ended up at the Village, too, and it was more than a bit awkward. They've been separated since May, but she's recently moved back in and they're supposedly trying to make a go of it. I've never been a fan of hers and I don't honestly believe that her motivation for returning is sincere, so I wasn't too pleased to have to try and interact with her after not seeing her in nearly a year. When we left, we took a drive and saw some beautiful foliage (I joked that having kids turns you into a Sunday driver - I used to hate the Sunday drives that my mother would drag me along on when I was a kid...now I look forward to them). Autumn this year has been absolutely spectacular.

So there's a not so quick overview of my life as of late.

I'll post pictures soon (again, there's a camel in NH!)...

One last thing...I'm definitely not an avid fan, but watching the Red Sox lately has been pretty exciting. Dustin Pedroia is having a fabulous night and it looks like the Sox'll be hosting the Rockies Wednesday night when the World Series begins.