3 years

Yesterday was my three year wedding anniversary. I had to work a lot, so we didn't do anything special. Every year on my wedding anniversary, I think back to the day that we were married. I woke up with Wendy and Mindy on my parents living room floor and I immediately rolled over and woke them up. They rolled over to go back to sleep, but I put in father of the bride. Eventually we got up and showered. The rest of the bridesmaids arrived and we started to get our hair done and paint our nails. The flowers arrived, then the photographers. We had our pictures taken, got in the limo and we were off to the church. I remember being so calm and excited. The chapel was beautiful, and when I started walking down the isle, Carl was very handsome. After communion, Cirucci played the flute. The reception was one of the most fun events I've ever been to (I may be biased). All of our friends were there and we drank and danced and had a wonderful time. I often wish we could do the whole thing again! Here we are three years later, with two kids, and probably more in love.
This morning, while looking at a friends myspace page, I heard an old Pat McGee song. Pat Mcgee has been a favorite band of Carl and I for a very long time. I remember laying in Carls loft when we first started dating, listening to Pat. We used to go to the Wolftrap concert over the summer and then back to Carl's bedroom at his parents house. "Haven't Seen For a While" had a different meaning to me back then. It described my summers, summers where Carl and I worked long hours and lived far apart. Then I did wish my summers away so that we could go back to school and live across the street from one another. Life has changed quite a bit since then and I have definitely loved the journey!

Williamsburg weekend

Carl and I spent the weekend in Williamsburg VA celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary. On Saturday, we spent the afternoon touring the Williamsburg winery and sampling their wonderful wines. We brought 6 bottles home with us; one of the bottles being my absolute favorite raspberry dessert wine! I will have to make some chocolate cake sometime soon. After the winery, we checked into our bed and breakfast. There was a wedding taking place there and we were the only non-wedding guests at the bed and breakfast, oh well! I took a much needed afternoon nap and then we went to Merchant's Square for our ghost tour. I loved the ghost tour. It was interesting hearing all of the stories. The tour was affiliated with an author of a specific set of books, and it was interesting to hear how researched some of his information. The tour finished up around 9:45ish so Carl and I headed to a tavern for dinner. We had the sampler platter and shared ham sandwiches, pulled pork, buffalo wings, ribs, slaw, and a cheese dip. Our waitress taught us how to play a "colonial" dice game. I beat Carl by one point...hahahaha....By the time we returned to our room it was almost midnight (I think that's the latest I've stayed up in a very long time). The next morning, the B&B had an awesome breakfast. My favorite part by far was the pineapple french toast! Carl and I packed up our room and packed the car. We spent the morning checking out colonial williamsburg and having some gingerbread cakes and rootbeer. I really wanted to check out the governor's palace, but evidently you cannot buy a ticket to just see that. We plan to return in two years with Laney and Alie and we will check out the governors palace and the carriage rides with the girls. We may even stay at the Williamsburg Inn, we'll have to see though.

"under the table and dreaming"

Last evening I spent a considerable time underneath my dining room table. My daughters have a fascination with the dining room, and particularly with the dining room table and chairs. Generally, I try to have them steer clear of the dining room when I can't see them, but last night they were having so much fun around and through all the chairs and under the table. I decided to join them. Delaney crawls around making a clicking sound at her sister. If you click at her, she clicks back at you. I often wonder if it her own secret language. Laying on my stomach under the dining room table I had a baby eye view on the world, and they though having mom join them is this game was hysterical. I enjoy having the time to spend moments like these with my daughters.

Baby Clothes

I have decided that baby clothes sizing is worse than grown up clothes sizing. I started buying fall/winter clothes for them back in August (when my favorite consignment shops started getting them in). I bought both 6-12 mo. and 12-18 mo. sizes since the girls turned 9 mo. earlier this month. One would assume that they would be the perfect size for the 6-12 mo. pants, but that assumption would be entirely incorrect. The pants fall right off as soon as they begin crawling or pulling themselves up. I tried the 3-6 mo. pants from last winter, but those pants are entirely too short. I might as well have them wear their shorts from the summertime. Are my daughters so strangely built or do others have troubles like these. This morning I went out and bought the girls a few pairs of overalls, figuring that overalls cannot fall down like pants do. Its becoming more and more chilly out, and they need to be wearing pants. Then the question arises, when might my daughters be able to wear these 6-12 mo. pants? Hopefully before June!

Patrick Dempsy

This morning Patrick Dempsy was on GMA. All of these women were screaming at him and giving him kisses when he walked out. Don't they realize that he is the guy from "Can't Buy Me Love", the classic 80s flick? I put him in the same category as Matthew Broderick. Sure, Matthew did some great work after Ferris Bueller, but in my heart, he will always be Ferris. It is difficult for me to take him seriously in other movies because of that one role. Same holds true of Patrick Dempsy. Although I don't remember his characters name, he will always be that kid that buys the slutty, unattractive, white outfit for the popular girl in exchange for a week of "dating"....gotta love the 80s.

Babies r us and Gymboree

My plan yesterday was to head out to gymboree to exchange some sweaters that my mom's friend gave to the girls. The sweaters are too large and since my daughters are petite, I thought they wouldn't be worn very much. Sue (mom's friend) told my mom twice yesterday that she had purchased these sweaters at the outlet in arundel mills and per gymboree policy, you must return outlet merchandise to an outlet. I was a bit bummed, seeing as though we don't really live close to arundel mills, but Carl and I decided to check it out on Saturday since we would be in Anne Arundel county for a party. Then, later last night I took a look at the sweaters and the receipt. Sue had bought them at Owings Mills (a non outlet location), so good news! Carl and I will just have to go to the mall to exchange.
Last night the girls and I headed to the new Babies r us. I needed to pick up baby gates since the girls are now getting into everything and I'm sure that Alison will begin scaling walls soon. While we were there we checked out all the aisles, checking if there was anything else we needed...as we walked through, I kept hearing comments..."oh my goodness that mom has twins and she's out on her own!" or "aren't those little girls cute, I can't believe that mom can bring them out like this!" I know that these hushed comments are complimentary, but I am tired of being somewhat of a spectacle wherever we go. Twins are not that hard to take out as babies...we'll see when they can start talking.

first paper

I have finally completed the first paper for my class. I had a minor set back last night, a major migraine that made it impossible for me to do anything but lay in my bed somewhere between asleep and awake.
I really just wanted to share something that my friend Katie said today at lunch that made me laugh. She and her fam are having a minor facebook tragedy and she says that she's "so over facebook". She goes on to talk about how she doesn't like it. We all challenge her new dislike, since she used to be its biggest supporter, and she states "Guys, I only check it like once a day". Sure Katie, you're so over facebook, but you know I love you!
Other than that not much to share. Just as quickly as I got on the weight watchers bandwagon, I fell off. I suck at this whole points thing, but I will still strive to do my best with them, even if I rarely stay under the assigned 20 points a day (good thing i'm not paying to do this).
I just finished the paper and its past my bedtime, so I'm off.

online classes

On Saturday I sat down to write the first official paper for my online class. My paper is not finished. Online classes do not offer the ability to ask questions and discuss the readings that discussion courses do. This makes it more difficult to write papers explaining two different topics that were not clearly defined in the assigned readings. I used the library resources to try to find out more information to more clearly define the two. That helped...sorta. Now I will need to spend my time tonight, after the girls have gone to bed writing this paper. I have learned my lesson and will start these papers a bit earlier in the future, making sure that I at least have something to say about the topic.
I am also finding it difficult to fulfill all of my usual functions, bookclub being one of them. This is the first time I have had to cancel. I'm not sure that it was a necessity to cancel, but more of a security blanket. Its also yucky outside today. I'm looking forward to going home, making a baked potato with chili and cheese and snuggling up with the girls until its time for them to go to bed....
Wish me luck on paper #1!

the here and now

I have noticed that recently many of my blogs have been about the past. I love to reminsce but one of my goals it to focus more on the here and now, less on the future and the past. This week has been busy for me. I had a bad day at work on Wednesday due to one member of my office who is immature beyond his years. The day ended with a ray of sunshine when a program that I have been working hard on got many of the volunteers that it needed. I am in week 2 of my grad school class and so far so good. My teacher is a bit intimidating and one of our assignments is to have a phone conversation with him. I'm not really looking forward to this since last we spoke on the phone, he laughed at my anxiousness to be accepted into the program. Our first "real" writing assignment is due on Wednesday, so I have to really work on that this weekend. I'm already stressing about the big project, some type of super strange annotated bibliography. Being a full-time working mom now starting grad school is making me super busy. All of this is especially true now that recruitment season is starting again.
On a social note, book club is on Monday. I am most excited, I feel as though book club is one of my few zero effort social times. Plus, usually Barb and I are able to get the kids together (and sometimes Turner even comes too) so that's a definite plus. I need to really put a rush on finishing this months book. Its quite good and I have found lots of points to talk about.
Ok. Well speaking of it being the busy fall, I should get to work!

time flies

So, this afternoon I decided to waste some time by looking at my friend Barb's son's picture page (not that I didn't have work that I could have been doing). I looked at pics of her and Kieran from his first month of life and I began to think back to that time. When Barb went into labor I was on bedrest. Since bedrest had started, I had called Barb quite frequently to find out whether she was a mom yet or not. I remember talking to her the first couple of weeks lying in my hospital bed, awaiting the arrival of my own children. I can't believe that before the year is out, all of our children will be one! I remember the day she told me she was pregnant, I even went to one of her drs appointments with her when she still lived here.
I loved being pregnant with Barb, even at the end. I loved being able to share pregnancy worries, stories and issues with her. I love that she and I have kids that are the same age. We can have conversations that many of my other friends don't quite get because they're not going through it too (which is fine, I love how everyone listens to my laney and alie stories). I love to hear all of the new things that Kieran does each day, and I like to tell Barb about my girls. I feel quite lucky to have her friendship and to be able to share the joys of motherhood with her. I hope that our children might be able to share a precious friendship (especially since we have pictures of them together when they were still in the womb!). I love Barb!

stolen from Michelle

teenager can write a survey about their favorite class or their secret crush or how nice their car is that their parents paid for. This is a survey for the older crowd.
1. Do you have a college degree?yes
2. What was the amount of your last electric bill? $140
3. Do you have term life insurance?no, but it's on my list of things to do
4. How many hours per week do you have to work?usually 40 sometimes more
5. Have you ever attended a Toastmasters event?not sure what that is
6. Favorite place to attend Happy Hour?Green Turtle in Towson
7. How many miles is your commute to work each day round trip?6
8. What time do you get up every morning?5:45 am to work out
9. What is your definition of sleeping in late? now that I have kids, 8 am
10. Have you found any gray hairs? a couple
11. Do you check your cholesterol on a yearly basis? not my cholesterol but some other medical things
12. How large was your first cellular phone? it wasn't that large...I was a late cell phone getter
13. Does your employer provide good health insurance?excellent! one of the benefits for working for the state
14. Did you use the internet to write a research paper back in high school? nope
16. Have you attended a high school reunion?yes, almost 2 years ago
17. How many jobs have you held in your professional career?2, but both in the same profession
8. Have you ever been fired or laid off from a job?no
19. What is your favorite alcoholic drink? Beer
20. What is the most expensive bottle of wine that you have in your residence? we have a nice bottle from the Williamsburg Winery
21. Have you been divorced?no
22. How old were you when you stopped getting IDed for alcohol/tobacco etc.? Still getting ided for alcohol
23. Favorite casino?not sure, never been
24. Are you happier now than you were in high school?yes, although my responsibilities in hs were much less
25. Did you ever have Hypercolor shirts? yes, mine started out purple
26. Do you remember when Michael Jackson was black and attracted to older people? yes
27. What music was in your cd / casette player when you were 16?I have no idea, I really liked Sublime
28. Favorite fancy / upscale restaurant? I loved Victor's, I'm sad that its gone now
27. How long has it been since you attended a kegger? well, we attempted to have a kegger a few months ago. I guess the official last kegger I attended was at Becky's last Halloween
30. How many major wars have you lived through? Desert Storm and then the current one
31. Where were you when you found out about 9-11? working in the admissions office at g-burg
32. When's the last time you were at a 7-11 and bought something? I love Sevs! I went with Katie and Gu last week but didn't buy anything. I think Carl and I got sodas there last week though.