There's A Fungus Among Us

When we moved into this house it already had all the appliances.
Old appliances.
Original-to-the-house old.
My appliances were new(er) so when we sold our house I took off the appliances on the listing and we brought them with us.
Now the way the kitchen is set here is a little out of the norm and where the refrigerator is, there was not enough room for my larger refrigerator from N.J. and we need our big fridge because we eat a lot.

There was a built in desk in the kitchen that I knew I would never use. So, I asked E to off it and rip that sucker out because I just knew my fridge would look perfect there. Do I need to tell you how right I was about that decision?

So, now we live with a kitchen that has two refrigerators in it. We are going to keep the one that came with the house because it is fairly new, and again, we eat a lot of food, so we were going to eventually move in into the garage once we knew what to do with the hole it would leave in the kitchen.
I don't use this fridge very much except to store some extra frozen meat, but when I opened it today to see what I had in there, I noticed it: mold.
Mold in my freezer!
Who even knew that could happen? Aren't freezer supposed to be cold enough to not let mold grow? I am so disgusted I cannot tell you.
Now added to my to-do-list for today is scrubbing down a freezer.

And yes, you waited for days for this most riveting post.

Favorite Things

Something about the first days of spring mack me melancholy (see my sidebar). I reminisce a lot those first warm days, so today I thought I would share some of my favorite things growing up with you:

Freezy Freaky gloves- you remember the kind that when the temperature was low enough a "surprise" design would show up on them. My sister and I would just cheat and put our gloves in the freezer.

Pop rocks, next to candy cigarettes, best candy ever.

Vidal Sassoon jeans-you were nobody in 5th grade if you didn't have Vidal Sassoon jeans or Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.

Roos sneakers. They rocked because they had a pocket on the side of the shoe. I always put coins in mine for the ice cream lady. You don't want to be the one with no coins when the ice cream lady rolls up on you.

Pink roll on deodorant. I begged my mom for this deodorant way before I needed it because it looked so cool. Everyone should have a pink ball roll on deodorant.

Fruit stripes gum- this gum was delicious for 5 seconds then the taste all went away and it was like chewing rubber cement. Still good times.

Passing notes in class- was it the notes that were fascinating or was it the thrill of getting caught by the teacher? Rate these boys, who would you rather kiss and who is actually wearing a bra to school were popular subjects. Not to be confused with the cheating note, that just had answers on it, tucked under your skirt so all you had to do was look down and flip your skirt hem up a tad.

Saturday morning cartoons- having cartoons on only Saturday mornings and occasionally after school made them special.

Clogs- They were dangerous and made of wood, but I loved mine.

Ditto sheets- hot off the press by your teacher while you were in gym class

Chad Allen- He was my crush. Remember him from Our House with I-pronounce-diabetes-wrong- Wilfred Brimely & Shannon Dougherty?

Wigwam socks- Expensive, thick, bulky socks to be work mostly with keds with NO laces.

Small Wonder- Does anyone remember this show? A man made a robot and had her live with his family & told everyone she was their daughter? Such a strange and fascinating premise.

Big neon colored hair clips with splatter paint on them- preferably worn on the side of your head. Very cool.

I want to hear your favorites from your past and read the comments because I know your comments are going to make me remember some more great things that I loved.


P.S. I have a great review and giveaway going on over here. wink, wink.

Weekly Goals

I am gearing up for having the kids home all week for spring break. This break happens to coincide with baby K having a breakdown which includes being glued to my side for every hour he is awake and even some when he is sleeping. He doesn't want to be apart and I love it, to a point.
That point is pooping. Nobody should have to poop with someone sitting on them.
Not even Fidel Castro. I beleive he deserves to poop alone.
It is distracting and just wrong on many, many levels.

This spring break just makes me more excited to look into a summer camp for them. Something at least 3 hours a day, 3 days a week sounds awesome to me.

*********

I can't believe how much junk we have moved with us to NH. We have junk everywhere. We have a four car garage with 1 car in it, because the rest of the space is taken up by junk.
My kids have as much "stuff" as we do despite my throwing away, donating and selling some of it. It is amazing to me how many toys they really have and how they never play with them.
Never.
There are toy boxes filled with toys that are never opened.
Don't get me started on the clothes.
Bins and bins of clothes old and new (to us) are stacked in my garage and closets.
My goal this week besides trying to stay sane, is bringing various toys and clothing to Goodwill. Someone will love it.

Tell me your goals for this week. If it involves sending me alcohol and/or Chick-fil-a sandwiches, bonus points for you!

What Happens In The Tub, Stays In The Tub

This is the scene I awoke to in my bathroom this morning. So many questions:

When did it become acceptable to swim without bathing suits?
where is the silver surfer's surf board? Shouldn't he be needing it, being that he was in the water and all.
Where does hello Kitty fit into this partay?
Why do my parties never end up looking like this much fun?
Why are all the superheroes face down but the Belle and Pocahontas face up? Is this some sort of signal?
Lastly and most importantly, who the hell is going to clean up this mess?

From E

Hi Everyone,

This is the Infamous E guest posting on Tuesday's blog. You're probably familiar with me and hopefully most of what you know is positive. Anyway, let me start by wishing Tuesday a Happy Birthday again from yesterday. We went out last night an had a great dinner with the kids at a nice seafood place. Tuesday was in great spirits and she looked beautiful, especially with her new scarf adorned around her awesome hair.

Tuesday has been adapting to life here in New Hampshire amazingly well and I am so proud of all the strides she has made in just two short months. As you are probably aware, she did not want to move here, but even with all of her reservations, she took a leap of faith with me... again and came here to have a better life. New Jersey kind of beat the crap out of us over the last few years and once I lost my job, it became impossible for us to stay. Thank you Tuesday for believing in me.

Tuesday is the best wife and mother a guy could ask for and I am grateful to have her in my life. I don't know how she takes care of our three kids everyday and I don't know how she did it for the six months I was commuting here every week, but somehow she did it... as I knew she would. She has made my kids the best behaved, well mannered, caring, funny and sweetest kids ever. Thank you Tuesday.

Tuesday really pours a lot of herself into this blog and allows you to see many things about her that I don't even know about. Thank you for following her and giving her good advice when she needs it. I look forward to guest posting again someday and maybe I'll let you in on some real dirt about Tuesday, but today I just wanted to say... I love you Tuesday.

A Girl and Her Roosters

My boys have the rooster gene and worse then that, they are terrible sleepers in general including E.

While I was taking care of three kids alone in NJ whilst E was off doing something far less superior, like starting a new career so we wouldn't be homeless, I had the pleasure of putting baby K to sleep for every nap, and bedtime 5-6 days a week.
He was terrible.
Dudes, there were nights when I would just sit in the rocking chair holding him and cry because he wouldn't let me put him down.
There were nights that I spent 3 hours putting him to bed only to have him wake up 4 hours later and want to hang out.
I would let him "cry himself to sleep" for 40 minutes before I couldn't take one more second of it.
I have never been so stressed out in all of my life.
There was no one to hand him off to, nobody else to try their hand at it and nobody to bring me a goblet of wine so I could cry into it. Then drink it in one big gulp.

I would do the worst thing that any parent could do: I would give up and let him sleep with me. I know that is just what he wanted and he just played me like a fiddle to get what he wanted.
I know he didn't need to sleep with me to sleep. I know all of this but I had to get some sleep, I was the only one taking care of these 3 little ones during the day, I needed to get some sleep. It is bad enough my BOYS get up no later than 6:30am 95% of the time.
No matter what time they go to bed, they are roosters.

I remember my father telling me a story once of a pediatrician whose sister had trouble with getting her baby to sleep. She told her she had to let her baby cry it out and in 3 magical days all her problems will be solved. On the second day the baby cried so long the mother wanted to go get her but her sister, the pediatrician, blocked the door.
So, she got a knife and told her to get out of the way.
The End.


Here we are at twelve months and he still doesn't sleep through the night every night. He still has troubles with us putting him to sleep no matter how tired he is.
Truthfully? As I am writing this post I am pushing him in his stroller with my foot.
Talk about multi-tasking.


I hesitated writing about this at all and haven't because please I parented twins and survived, this should be cake, how does a mother of 3 not know how to get her kid to sleep?
At this point I am at my wits end. I know separation anxiety has something to do with it and I know some of it is just habit.
I just don't know where to go from here.
And no, yelling "your stupid, F-ing rooster sperms!" at E does not help at all either.
I tried.
Repeatedly.

To Be Saved

When we went back to New Jersey last weekend we were in our driveway putting our boxes of junk into the trailer. I noticed my old friends passed by on the sidewalk in front of our house.
They were my LDS friends that visited me every so often on a Saturday so they could save my soul.

I was always nice to them, I can imagine people's reactions to them on their doorstep. People probably slammed their door in their faces every day.
Pamphlets with Jesus' face on the cover scattered in the streets sometimes, leftovers from when people didn't open their doors to them.
I was fascinated. Mormons/LDS is intriguing to me, I assume because there are few Mormon churches in NJ coupled with my adoration for the show Big Love (how great is Big Love?).

Truth is, I don't think I believe in religion anymore. What little faith I did have was lost when my father died.
I don't want to go to church, I don't want to pray to someone only when my times are tough and I don't want to be a hypocrite to my children.


The last time I saw my visitors I explained that I was moving in a couple of weeks. They wished me well and went on their way. In some way I wished I had more time with them. I do not want to become a Mormon, or a Buddhist or a baptist for that matter, I just wanted to understand how they could be so devoted.
How they could wrap their minds around the tragedies all around us, every single day and still believe.
I want to know why they care enough to walk around the streets in the winter to knock on people's doors to try and save a perfect strangers soul.
I want to ask them just what is so great about religion anyway? Religion is the cause of wars!

I will miss my weekend visits with my Mormon friends.
Or maybe, just maybe, I just wanted to be saved.

Can't Wait For The Spring

It has been one of those weeks.
The baby is whiny and clingy. His molar will not break through and it hurts him so much I just want to kiss his little red, swollen gums.

The twins were both a little sick and now L has that cough that will never end. I feel bad for him but sometimes you just want to yell "Stop that blasted coughing!"
I doubt that would make him feel better but it would make me feel better.

We had to go back to NJ and pick up the rest of our stuff and say goodbye to the house and neighborhood that we love. It was hard (made a little easier by a quick stop with the trailer to Wegmans!)

E is working and working and working away. He has been so busy with his new career and it is paying off. The business will even be featured on a TV show to air soon! More details to follow, I promise.
The work is good and in this economy to have any work is a blessing but I am still finding my footing here and sometimes without him all day and night, I get lonely and feel a little lost.
I am sure this will only get better now that spring is coming. I need some tulips to lighten my mood!

I have lots of plans for this spring. I am planing a huge garden, I want to plant flowers, I want to get some chickens (chickens! how fun is that?!).

Tell me what plans do you have for spring or what makes you feel better today?

I am Just Not That Into Her

I am new all over again.
Like a new baby but taller. And with thicker hair.
I have reinvented myself here in NH, because I can.

So, now the new Tuesday Girl goes to playgroups and gets outside her comfort zone with attendance at playgroups and even (gasp) hosts playgroups.
I am proud of myself.
You should be too.
You can say so in your comments.

In my playgroup there is a new-to-me mom. She has a child in between my children's ages. She seems very nice and we chatted a bit. When the playgroups was almost over and I was saying my goodbyes, another woman tried to set this lady and I on a mom date.
A hit and run set up!
She lives close to me and it would be convenient and nice to have a close friend, but I hesitated when she told us to exchange numbers. I was being set up and the worst part is: she just isn't my type.

You know that line, you have heard it from guys mouths a million times (not about you, about other girls I am sure. Now I know what they are talking about.
We just didn't have chemistry. I wouldn't put on my new pair of jeans for her, I would show up for coffee in yoga pants. I would clean the bathroom but not mop the floors for her, you know what I mean.
It's not her.....it's me.

Now, I do not want to fall back into my bad habits of not having friends in my town, but if I meet with her again and we don't hit it off, can I then just make her a auxiliary friend?
I have found great friend material out there and lets face it, there is so much territory left untouched, do I waste my time or do we move on after the first date?

I want to hear from moms who are used to making other mom friends like this, I want to hear what you men have to say. Tell me what to do because, honestly?
I am just not that into her.

Hello, Goodbye

Have I even told you guys that we have an idiot, dufus realtor? Because if I didn't tell you guys about him, I am sorry that is A LOT of blog fodder you missed out on, because he is such a douche, it is almost laughable.
Almost.

He was stupid fromt he start but (my fault) I didn't know when I signed with him I was locked in selling with him for 6 months. Of course our house sold 10 days shy of when his 6 months were up and I was just about to kick him to the curb and oh! how I wanted to kick him to the curb.
Curiously he just started showing interest in selling our goddamn house 2 weeks before the 6 months were up. Hmmm.
He was lazy, incompetent, didn't do the simple things we asked him to do to get this house sold and it was a wonder he stayed in business at all.

Now he tells us TODAY, our closing is April 2. We still have freaking boxes in NJ. Now we have to haul ass to NJ this weekend to get it before the closing.
He also asked us for our alarm code for the buyers.
WHY would I give you my alarm code for a house you don't own yet that has all of my stuff in it?
Activate the alarm in your own damn name and get your own code.

I can't wait until this house is sold and we don't have to deal with him ever again.
Then I will let his boss know how much he suckssssss*.

Now I have to go and say goodbye to our house all over again.
I just hope there is less crying this time around.



*The day we were moving he came to take the For Sale sign off of our lawn and I did tell him to shove it up his ass, but I said it from the front door and he was in the road so I am not sure he heard me, so just for good measure I will tell him again.

One

My dearest baby boy,
Today you are one year old. Actually as I type this, one year ago exactly they had taken you out from inside my body. You were stubborn, you didn't want to be born when we thought you should be born, you had to be yanked out.
I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by.
You are walking now, running even! You have the bluest eyes I have ever seen and a dimple when you smile so big. You love your father so much, I guess that is what happens when for six months of your life you only see him for 1 1/2 days a week. You love your big brother and sister and your favorite time of the day is waiting to see them get off the bus.

You have nine teeth now, with three more molars trying to break through your swollen little gums. I just want to kiss those gums and make you feel better but I can't. It is a good lesson to learn at one, everything that is worth something takes time and sometimes you have to go through a lot of pain to get them, but when it comes, it is glorious.

We moved you to a new house last month and this will be the only "home" memory you will have. That both makes me sad and happy at once.
I will share the memories of the house I brought you home to, paced the floors at all hours of the night when you didn't want to sleep, the carpet you crawled on the first time.
I will share how you brought your father and me closer than ever before. How the whole family is closer, and you are our glue. We love you so very much.
You are our boy with the blueberry eyes.

Love forever,
Mommy

What A Difference A New State Can Make

There are a few differences in living in New Jersey and living in New Hampshire.
Let me outline a few for you:

- 75% of the men over 40 look like they have just returned from the sea.
They all resemble the Gordon's fisherman and look and smell like salt water and a hard days night.

-70% of the women over 40 look like men.
Perhaps it is all the clothes they have to wear just to keep warm. Perhaps warmth trumps fashion everyday and they have just given up and decided to wear their husband's clothing. Hey look at me, I have no boons at all and you cannot tell I am a woman without a DNA test!
It is very recessionista of them!

-People stare at me all the time. I think it is really unusual and chose to believe they have never seen someone so beautiful before. It is probably because I have baby snot on me, but I chose to believe I am just H O T.

-No diversity. White people as far as the eye can see.
Boring.

-Even the Dunkin Donuts suck. The donuts are super soft and doughy. Blech.

- Water smells like metal. One day you are just taking a shower and wonder why your hands smell like metal, then you wonder why you are imagining yourself showering in blood, the whole bathroom smells like iron! Finally someone tells you (4 weeks too late) that you have to put salt pellets in your water system thingy, to get the minerals out of the water.
Super gross. Don't even get me started on the hard water stains on the shower floors and toilets!
Water here stinks, see dunkin donuts above.

I will end this post on a positive, the sky here is amazingly blue every single day and the night sky is also amazing. I cannot remember ever seeing so many stars.
Does it make up for never having a bagel again? Nope, but it will have to do.

Waxing

So there you are, a vlog of me showing the various teeth we have hidden in our drawers. Yes, I do have a stuffy nose as I have had every day since moving in this house. The previous owners had two big dogs and I am just keeping Kleenex and Claritan in business until we can get the vents cleaned.

I also am aware of the work needed on my eyebrows, there is no threading in NH so I have to go an alternate route which is okay. I would rather have threading but I kinda like the pain of hot wax with hair being ripped from my body.
It's the good pain, ya know? With the exception of the bikini area, that is really not good pain.
It is terrible pain, take it from me, but completely necessary.
I would rather 15 minutes of pain staring at a ceiling and doing poses that previously have only been done in my yoga class and some which E may or may not have begged to try out late night, with a older, round woman who barks orders and has her hands in the most intimate of areas and have to tip her after she just violated me 8 ways to Sunday, then have to worry about hair removal for the next 5-6 weeks.

Pretty much the best run on sentence eva.

So. Shall I do more Vlogs?

Just so you know, I will not ever vlog a waxing.

Finally I Tell You Just What Is In My Bedside Table

Happy

I cannot live without freinds anymore and yes, we are lucky because E's great family lives here in NH and happen to be super close by and that means free babysitters for the first time in like ever and maybe we will be able to see a movie or go out to eat sometime without wondering if the kids will like anything on the menu.
So I sucked it up and took one for the team and went to a playgroup yesterday without knowing a soul.
I was prepared to find something to blog about the playgroup and have something to laugh about with E when I got home, but then I rememebred I am trying to reinvent myself here and I am being super kind and non judgemental.
Bummer.

The ladies were so nice and helpful telling me about just what there is do around here once all the snow melts and I can actually see the grass.
So now I am one of those ladies who attend playgroups with her large brood and talk about where the best playgrounds are and what restaurants are good and complain about the lack of baby gyms in this entire state. (How dare you close the one Gymboree!)

I attend another meeting tomorrow where I will pay my annual fee and be an "active member" and feel just like an everyday mom. This is where I am in my life and I couldn't be happier and you know what? I so fucking deserve to be happy.

Picture Tour

The view from my living room window, which happens to be where my desk is right now. Swanky!


Obligatory "where the magic happens" picture


Baby K's room. Only the kid's rooms are decorated and done so far.




What my daughter thought was appropriate attire for a 20-something degree snow day



Photos are being unwrapped and put inot their rightful place



Snow, snow and more snow!


Little by little things are all coming together

The Spot

It is what gets you there.
It's the vavavoom.
It is your no-nonsense-no-backing-out-now-weak-in-the-knees "thing".
You know what it is but you never let a new partner know.
"He will figure it out on his own, and if he doesn't maybe he isn't right for me" you tell yourself.

And when he finds it on his own, it is fantastic. But, if he visits often, it is not good. "Less is more" you remind him.

It gets you hot, it keeps you hot, it is oh-so-very-hot.
Once E hits my spot, I want more, he can get me to say yes to anything, well almost anything.

I know you want to know, but don't make me share alone. My spot is the neck, slightly up from the nape and it is good.

Unpacking

When you move to a new place, it is hard the first couple of weeks, or in our case months, to live out of boxes. Trying to find what you are looking for.
Trying to remember where you packed what. Let's face it, it sucks

Our situation may prove to be more difficult.
Case in point, this was in a single box I had the pleasure of openeing yesterday that was generically labeled "kitchen":

5 different baby soaps

1 pink kitchen towel which is assumed to be clean because I can't add one more thing to my wash pile

various pieces of silverware

1 cordless phone base

4 tupperware lids, their mates are unknown

A precious moments statue I received for my high school graduation from my high school boyfriend

1 wine goblet

1 disposable spoon and 3 disposable knives

1 watch given to my husband by his girlfriend who is now his wife


So you can see, unpacking is going along swell.

Hey, remember when we talked about this? Well, go on over to my other site and enter to win a copy of a really great book I just reviewed.

A Life Given And One Restored

Having a baby again has awakened a part of me that sat dormant for years. Yes, I have two children who are now six and they have taken me to a whole new level of motherhood and parenting and just who are these people with their own thoughts and ideas?

The baby though, is so wonderful. He wants to touch everything. He wants to experience everything. It is so basic and raw I marvel at it.
I pick him up from his crib and although his eyes are barely open, he reaches for the bird on his wall. When I carry him around the house he stretches to touch the the sconces, the light switches, the loaf of bread on top of the refrigerator.
He wants to push the buttons on the phone, to sip from the cup I use.

He no longer wants to be a spectator at life, he wants to be a participant. He does not want to be in the walker, he wants to get out and push the walker, "look, he says, I am moving things with my own will, I can go places alone, I can put things where I want them! I am climbing the stairs like I have done in a hundred times, en though I have only been alive for 331 days, I am forging my own trail and the sky is the limit."

"Let me touch this mom" he says "I want to experience the sounds, the feeling, some things are soft and some things are cold, others are warm, I love to feel it all."
Everything is met with a serous look and then a smile. He is learning with every minute that passes, with everything he comes in contact with.

"I want to let you touch everything, little one." "I want to be the one to see your face when you see the snow for the first time, when you feel the bright green grass under your toes, when you experience what it is like to have sand slipping through your chubby fingers.
I want to life you high over my head just like in The Lion King and declare to the world This is my son and he is an amazing human being, he will change this world in so many ways and he will make it a better place. Then, I will whisper to you: this is your world, be kind to it and kindness will return to you, learn from it and never take it for granted, my love."

"I will be here when you feel the joy and sadness of your first love, I will be cheering for you when you hit your first home run, I will be loving you from a distance where ever this amazing life takes you."
"For now, little one, take my hand so I can steady you as you and I explore this wondrous world, it will not be long now when you don't need a steady hand any longer, but if you look behind you I will always be there to catch you."

Always.

I Am Going To Make It Through This Year If It Kills Me

I am sure many of you who have been reading this blog for the past few months are sick of my whining. I may have come off like I hate my life. I do not.
It has been a hard six months- the hardest thing I have ever done actually. Couple that with financial worries, selling our house (we finally had an offer but had to short sale the house because we had to lower the price so much we didn't want to owe money on a house we didn't own) having NO health insurance now that we moved to a new house in a new state and I think I am entitled to a bad month. Or two. Or four.

February is the worst month of the year for me. I get into my winter blues and can't seem to shake them. It would make a great time of year to go on vacation, if I had the means and this year I do not.

I see the light at the end of the tunnel though. E and I are living under one roof and shared parenting is such a treat. I seriously do not know how single parents do it. Do. Not. Know.
We can start to fix our credit that took a huge hit with E losing his job, and having to do the short sale of our house. We can make more money with E's new job but it will just take a year or two to see the financial rewards. My kids seem happy here.
We have gone down the dark roads, and now the sun has started to creep up on our horizon.

It will be good.

This has been my mantra for the past six months and will continue to be. I hope it can help you get through a hard day, month or year when you need it too: