Weekend Update

I had a great weekend and the weather was perfect here. I had a relaxing fun weekend and those are few and far between. I am rejuvenate for the week.

I am sure though, that I will be cranky by 4pm.

On the way to a graduation party on Saturday, we passed the weinermobile on the NJ turnpike. I had never seen it in person and actually I blogged about it last June. I showed Baby B the oversized hot dog truck and she was fascinated. Couldn't take her eyes off of it. Poor Baby A was sleeping so he missed the excitement.
Baby B fell asleep shortly after seeing the weinermobile, but as we pulled up to my Aunt's house she slowly woke up. Her first words?
"Big Hog Gog? I saw a big hog gog!!

Funny what they remember and how cute they can be.

I Missed It!

May 18th was my blog-aversary and I missed it! Damn.
Hot damn.
Well I have been here for one whole year and I am not going anywhere anytime soon, so you are stuck with me.
I hope this year brings new! exciting! and more cheese! stories for you.

TGIF!

I am glad it is Friday, this week seemed to go on forever.
Today I am getting my hair done, and hanging out in the yard with the babies.
Tomorrow is a big party for my cousin's graduation which I am sure will be fun. I asked the babies who they are going to see at the party. We had been talking about all of their Aunt's and cousins that will be there and looking at pictures of said relatives in a photo album. When asked who they were excited to see baby B replied "cake".
She ain't no dummy and her Momma raised her right.
Cake will be in attendance and we are ALL happy to see her.

Does anyone else think there is a Verizon wireless conspiracy? This is my second phone to "conveniently" have the battery die every hot second, the minute the phone turns two years old. Also conveniently just in time to sign up for a new contract and perhaps buy a new phone anyone?
I will not stand for this! I love my phone, but hate Verizon. Sadly they are the best of the worst.
After I get my hair done, I will slink over to the Verizon store armed with my determination and my ample cleavage and demand a cure for my ailing phone.

Wish us luck.

Cry Me A River

Before I even knew I was pregnant I started crying over everything. I couldn't find anything to wear on Mother's Day, and I cried. E was a little short with me and I swore he hated me and I cried. E asked me one night if I "wanted chicken for dinner" and I cried because chicken repulsed me and he was told NUMEROUS times to only refer to it as "C".
I cried once because E said "this chicken is SO juicy" because the phrase disgusted me. I wasn't even pregnant when I cried over that one, but I still think it was a reasonable response.

My sister is now 36 weeks pregnant and amusing me with her tales of crying. Crying over Extreme Home Makeover (which is a given), crying because she can't play on the floor with her son now that she is so big.

So, tell me the funniest story that you have about crying. Preggo or not, we all know our hormones work overtime sometimes and you just gotta cry!

Is the Week Over Yet?

E has dinners for work all week so I am alone in meals and bedtime rituals.
It is hard to feed two kids, then clean the floor where they have thrown stuff then, clean their hands and face and THEN clean their high chairs off the food that is stuck there before it gets too stuck.
There are things nobody tells you when you are pregnant. Sure they tell you that labor hurts, to sleep when the baby sleeps (which is a crock because then when will I ever shower, eat or do laundry?) or that you can not spoil a newborn.
Nobody told me how much cleaning was involved or how much laundry I had to do! Sheeeeesh.
Fine, I am a neat freak and I am anal about cleaning, but really it is a lot to do.
I do have help now, we have a cleaning lady and she comes every other week, this way I can feel like the house is still mostly cleaned by me but gets a really good cleaning I do not have the time for twice a month.
Praise Esther for she is coming today!

Tonight I will be watching the finale of Lost by myself whilst my husband enjoys a nice steak dinner at Morton's.
Anyone want to join me?

9 to 5 was Easier

I am A stay at home Mom, or a SAHM for you condensers out there. Up until I was 8 months pregnant I worked full time, and I really loved my job and my company. I thought I may introduce job sharing at my company and see if it would fly, or even ask if I could work part time after I had the babies. That all changed because E was transferred to Philadelphia and since a 1.5 hour commute every day was not feasible, we had to move so I had to leave my job.

I would have liked to work though and lord knows we could have (and still do) need the money. That leads me to my next rant: Why the fuck is America so behind other countries when it comes to maternity/paternity leave and women's wants and needs to work when they are a Mother?
It came down to the fact that I was happy I was getting a C-Section because it meant that I could get an extra 2 weeks for maternity leave and short term disability. If I could have stayed at my company there was no place for me to pump if I was breastfeeding. In NJ the cost of a daycare was about $1000 per child a month, which severely would have depleted my take home salary anyway. Sweden has a 18 month maternity leave and it doesn't even need to be in consecutive months. E had one week paternity leave and I was so happy about that measily amount of time. We shouldn't settle for that, we should demand that!

I know 50 people that NEED two incomes and wouldn't have that if they didn't have retired parents to watch their children for them. What about the people that are not able to do this?
We need to band together and demand job sharing and on site child care for us and our children. We need to demand that EVERY company have a safe clean place for us to pump. We have to link with other women and share our jobs. We need to do what is best for ourselves AND our families and it is time these companies get on board. Women are a vital part of the work force in this country and it is time we were taken seriously.

The day will come when I will go back to work, partly because I want to and partly because I have to. By then I will not need those "services" that I think every company should have but I will still fight for my sisters who do need them. We need to stick together.

Then we will all fight for "nap time" at work.

Epidemic

Like many other bloggers I myself had a bout of constipation over the weekend. It took me two days to finally figure out what my problem was, but finally I figured it out & tensed up.
Just so you know, tensing up is not good for constipation. Not good at all.
Two aloe pills, one acidophilus pill and 15 minutes later everything was ok with the world.

We are going to Miami in three weeks. Baby B does NOT want to go on the airplane. I am sure she will be fine once we get on, but talking to her about it does not go well. She says "Don't want airplane!".
They have flown twice before but they do not remember. I hope it goes well because two kids on a small metal object hurdling through the air for 2 hours and 45 minutes is not good.
Not good at all.
We will go in with a portable DVD player, toys, books, food and prayer.
That is all you can do, man, all you can do.

Walmart II

Wow, people really hate Walmart huh?
It is only about my fifth time shopping there, I am a Target girl, but I really don't see myself going back too soon. I didn't grow up in a town with Walmart, North Jersey actually only got a Walmart about 3 years ago.
What is it that makes people hate it so much? Is it growing up in a small town with nothing but a Walmart to hang out in? Is it that they run small Mom & Pop stores out of towns? Is it the illegal immigrants they employ?



Or is it just the dumb people they have working there?

Oh and the colored sand I bought? It was purple, my favorite color.

WalMart

Now I know why people hate this place. First off, why is it so dark & gloomy inside of Walmarts? Very depressing.
I called my local Walmart to ask if they had play sand, I was told yes, it was in the lawn & garden department. So the kids & I headed out to Walmart to buy some sand for their new sandbox.
Forty minutes later, six employees questioned later and countless trips back and forth between the toy & garden department, I finally find out that the play sand it outside. Oh and yeah, they have no more regular sand just colored sand.
I say fine I will take the colored sand, expecting it to be a little more. Well, it was a LOT more but I took it anyway even when the cashier stopped in the middle of ringing me up to bring some lady to the bulb isle. Yeah she just walked away in the middle of my order, no excuse me, nothing.

Then I was told I have to go out to my car & drive it around the building & put the 40lb bags of sand in my car. I was pissed at this point. So I did what any other pissed consumer with twins that just wanted to play with sand would do.
I stole an extra bag of sand.
Yup. I am not proud.
Well, yes I am, I am writing about it on the internet.

Take that Walmart, consider us even now.

Oops, I Did It Again

I watched Britney & Kevin's show last night. I couldn't help myself. All I can say is : WOW.

I thought Britney's whole *thing* was that she was a virgin & planned to continue that until she was married? Not that we didn't know that was a lie but she really came out last night talking about how many times she did it in one day and such. Especially since she only hung out with him for 2 days before she was doing it. That little slut.
I love it.
Kevin is so gross I can't take it. So greasy. Is her body guard the only one with his head on straight, knowing that he was just coming out there to get a free ride. Right on Big 'Mo!

Ok enough with these media whores.

Tonight is the second to last Lost! I can't wait. It is the best show on TV, hands down.
Next week is the two hour finale and E & I will go all out with pausing the first 25 minutes or so on TiVo so we can watch it with out commercial interruptions and lots of good snacks.
Can't wait.

I Like Different Positions

I was watching late night TV and was bombarded with old commercials for the craftmatic adjustable bed. They still are selling those things?
My question is: does anyone have one of these beds?
I have been in many houses and in many bedrooms and I have never come across the owner of a adjustable bed. Really it is just a glorified hospital bed and nobody I know wants to be reminded of being in the hospital.
Strange no?

On another note I am thinking of getting E a satellite radio for his car. He spends most of his day in his car traveling so it would be nice for him to have extra channels, and no commercials. I think I will buy it for Father's Day.
Does anyone have one of these and do you like them? I am thinking of Sirius and getting the one that goes from the car to the house.

I am from..

I borrowed this from Fragments from Floyd.


I am from books,
from Windex and Tide.
I am from the two story brick front property with the sloping yard.
I am from the lilies of the valley, the huge, enveloping maple tree
I am from Christmas Eve parties with tons of family and blue eyes,
from Kevin and Bernice and John.
I am from the curly, thick hair and quick wit.
From eating bread crust that will make your hair curl and Mommy and Daddy will always love you.
I am from Catholicism. Pulling myself away trying to find my beliefs on my own.
I'm from Irish and New Jersey, iced tea and pasta salads.
From the painful accident of my uncle, the porch I would cry on when I was too brave to cry, and the sadness of a fatherless mother.
I am from an old wine case on the top shelf of my closet spilling out old cards, notes passed to boys and all the memories of love.

Stop, Potty Time

So I bought the book, potty training in one day and I have the pottys, I even have the kids that are in the potty training age range. But nobody is going to the potty. Well, E & I are but that is a uncelebrated victory.
The twins watched a potty movie, loved it but still no potty. Now when I talk about the potty, you know really hyping it up and making it sound like a whirlwind trip to Disney, Baby B says "no potty, don't wanna poopoo in potty".
There goes that. I don't want to force the issue and make then traumatized. So now we will wait until it is continually warm out and then I can keep them naked outside. With pottys. And encouragement treats.
We better get a fence up soon so the neighbors do not have to witness this scene.

Yesterday we went to the Philadelphia zoo. We had a great time and the kids loved it. They got to pet and feed goats and sheep and Baby B even brushed the goats.
A good time was had by all.

Old Mac Donald

I need someone to pimp my blog. That should be a MTV show, you hear that MTV?
This template sucks.

Bad news, Chico II and Dora have perished. Now we are done with fish until the kids are older. If asked where they are we will tell them they had to go to the ocean with Nemo. I think they will buy it. If not maybe we will tell them they had to go to a farm. Everyone buys that story.
About 2 years ago I was asking E about his family dog, seen in very few pictures. I questions the whereabouts of the dog and was told by E that he bit a neighbor & had to go to a farm.
Now E was like 32 when he told me this story & he was still buying the "farm" alibi. Please.
I was hysterically laughing for about 5 hours when he finally realized his parents scammed him.
Seriously he bought it all these years.

Then I told him there was no Easter Bunny.
You should have seen the look on his face.

Another Reason

Yet another reason why most of the time I like animals more then people.

I had a great Mother's Day. It was a nice day out the babies had fun with all of their cousins. All in all a great day.
Now back to the grind of a boring old week.

I am in need of a spring cleaning. I have to clean out all the cabinets in the mud room and organize my desk, it looks like a bomb went off. I have to start packing up some of my winter clothes to make room for my summer clothes, what a pain in the neck that is.
Then it is on to the outside of our house. For some reason the previous owners tore up all of the shrubs around the house, so we have a lot of planting to do. It looks so boring & plain right now. I need a landscapers touch, but do not have the budget for that right now. I will have to do it on my own, I hope I don't screw it up.

Did you hear about Bennifer II? That is a good move.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms everywhere.

To the ones who stay up all night with a sick baby
who cook what seems like a million meals a week,
who pick their kids up when they fall, physically and spiritually,
are single and have to be both Mommy & Daddy
pack love along with school lunches,
who work hard at their marriage every day,
who love their children unconditionally,
who after countless hours of painful labor declare they would do it again in a second,
who drive their kids to school every morning because the bus "isn't cool"
who strive for their children to be better people then they are
and who just love all they love they have.

Without Mom's where would we be?

Consider this a PSA

For women that are pregnant or trying you may or may not be aware of banking your child's umbilical stem cells. These cells are life in every sense of the word.
The scientific studies that are out there are amazing, just this past November a woman in Korea who had been paralyzed for 19 years got up and WALKED after receiving donated stem cells. They say they will be able to cure deafness in 2006.
This is life changing stuff. Please look into saving your children's umbilical stem cells, it could save your child's life or maybe even your own.
You have insurance on your car, your house, your life maybe even your pet, so why not your child's life?
If I had banked my twin's and my sister banked her first child maybe my Father could have been saved from his cancer, maybe I could have saved his life.
I really hate maybes.

Check out these websites for more info. It is really a small price to pay for good health.

Shopping Hell

A Lot of things happen when you get older. You become forgetful, you are not as nimble anymore and you stink at driving. But something else happens, something that many people don't speak of.
You become the deli police.
I was at my supermarket yesterday and there were no less then 7 senior citizens at the deli. I took my number and waited. These seniors are fanatical about their meats. One orders 8 different things each 1/4 lb. Another wants to inspect every slice the people make. Still another wants everything taken out of the case, inspected, deliberate, act like you are doing the deli worker a favor by asking for meats all the while yelling "I said thin!".
So freakin annoying. See me here waiting for you? Any respect?

In other news......I wish I didn't watch American Idol. I really do, and the whole time I am watching it I complain about how bad it is, how dorky Randy is, how gay Seacrest is, how crazy Paula is, but I still watch.
I like Bo, although he looks like he just stepped out of Lynard Skynard or Kansas circa 1976.
I just can't wait for the whole thing to be over, because they are draggggggggging this show so out. Just like the old ladies at the deli counter.

Mother's Day

ANY ideas for Mother's Day gifts? I am so lost. I need help. Any suggestions?

Party

Yesterday we went to my friend's son's 1st birthday party. It was a very nice party at her parents house and thankfully the weather held out because there were a lot of people there. Baby A & B had a great time running around with the older kids and playing with their faux Aunts ( my best friends). The theme of the part was Elmo and the favors were goldfish in a bowl just like Elmo's goldfish Dorothy. The babies were very excited and this morning woke up ready to name them. Baby A's is Chico and Baby B's was Dora. Very cute.
After I put them down for a nap I checked on the fish and Chico has perished. Poor guy, I hope he had a good life. Now E has to go buy a new Chico while I tell Baby A that right now Chico is sleeping. Horizontally. On the bottom. About to float. Gross.

Wish us luck with Dora and Chico II. I hope they live at least a week.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Chico and the 12 great hours we spent together.
R.I.P. Chico, we hardly knew ye.