HS brunch and post christmas happenings

Christmas eve eve morning, I hosted a brunch for some of the SPSG crew. Ciara, Kristen, Elizabeth, and Allison joined Delaney, Alie and I for some french toast, cinnamon buns, fruit and brie. Its always fun to catch up with my HS friends especially now that we're all either working or thinking about working on a masters. Its interesting that most of my friends are working towards similar degrees. Its always nice to see everyone home around the holidays!

Post-christmas has been quite relaxing. The girls and I have been spending lots of time together playing with their new toys and catching up on some tv. Its fun to be a short term stay at home mommy! Today we ventured out to return a few things to Target and I finally found a pair of jeans that fit me at Old Navy. Maybe this afternoon we will visit the mall, but that's doubtful. We also need to go to the grocery store at some point. I'm looking forward to some time with Carl and Cirucci tomorrow!! For now, I need to figure out what the girls and I will be having for dinner.

Finding Balance

As a mother...a mother who has already had to leave her two young daughters in the hospital hooked up to wires and machines, how do you decide between your love for your mother and grandmother, and the health of you and your children? Its a tricky decision, especially when this mother watched her own father fight a deadly staph infection just over three yeears ago. Do you listen to the doctors who warn you against bringing your one year old daughters to christmas dinner with your grandmother who has a staph infection? Do you listen to your rheumatologist who warns you against being around anyone with a staph infection due to your weaked immune system? Do you listen to your heart, which would love to do nothing more than give your grandmother a hug and act like nothing is happening? To me, the scenerio is a lose lose situation. This scenerio was a reality for me last night, christmas night. I decided to try to please everyone. I brought my daughters to christmas dinner at my mom's house (with my Aunt who cares for noone but herself and her own feelings and her obnoxious family). Once I saw my grandmother, I freaked. I couldn't bring myself to put my daughters or myself in harms way, even if it would have made my grandmother feel better. Yes, it is a selfish decision, but I feel as though it was the best one for my sanity. In this case, I feel as though a balance cannot be met.

The evening was progressing along fine. My cousins and Aunt were pretending as though Carl, the girls and I were not at dinner, but that was fine. They had a lovely cry fest during the grace as they thanked God for my grandmother. Of course I love my grandmother. She has been at every milestone throughout my life. She is still alive though. In my mind, its degrading to cry about the death of someone who is sitting at the table. Carl and I sat at a separate dinner table with my mother in law, dad, brother and the girls minding our own business. My grandmother requested that I come in to talk to her, and as I stood in the hallway waiting for my cousing Kelsey to finish giving my grandmother her gift, my aunt screams that I need to try harder. That her mother is at her last christmas dinner...then my cousin Kelsey tells me that I'm ignorant. That was my cue to leave. My cousins and aunt love to play the "who loves grandmother more" game, and in their minds, they always win. What they don't realize is that love comes in different ways, and different people express emotions differently.

Evidently, after we left, the evening turned into a giant scream fest. Ironically, my aunt was mad at me for "ruining" my grandmothers christmas, but in reality, she and her dumb daughters ruined it by yelling at me. I am proud that I was able to walk away. I said nothing and called my grandmother later to wish her a merry christmas. I wrote a blog earlier this month about my thoughts on family. It was written with some degree of humor, but I do believe what I wrote. Families don't have all this drama. My immediate family life is quite drama free, but full of passion and fun. I don't want or need crappy drama, I have too much other stuff going on. I have been feeling anxious about last nights dinner for months, and now that its over, I'm glad that I was able to walk away from the nasty situation. I will never have to spend time with my cousins again, and that makes me very happy! I am sad for my mother because she is caught in the middle of this situation, and I am sad for my grandmother first because my Aunt and cousins essentially consider her dead and secondly because the christmas that she was looking forward to didn't work out as she had planned. Grandmother, I do love you! I am sorry that you don't always come at the top of my list anymore. I cherish the memories that we share!

To my O'hana, I love you and I'm glad that our world is contest and drama free!

Vent!

It is my own dumb fault for participating on chat boards, especially mommy boards, but some people have started to seriously piss me off. I just read this post about this father who fell asleep while feeding his baby at 2am and ended up dropping the baby on the floor. Another woman is complaining about not having time to work out since she's gone back to work. Are these people actually serious? To the man that falls asleep: your children are your priority!!! I have twins, meaning they were both newborns at the same time, and my husband and I worked it out so noone was so overtired that we would put our girls in that position. Non-worker outer...come on now. Your child goes to bed at 7:30 or 8:00 pm at the latest? Work out then, or get your butt out of bed early and work out. Its all about making priorities. I don't miss any time with my girls because of my workout schedule or my schoolwork. On weekends, I take the girls running with me and on weekdays, I workout before they get up. Schoolwork always gets done after they've gone to bed for the night.
I know that my parenting skills are not perfect, noones are, but some people get under my skin. Some of these issues are not that hard!!!!

What month is it?

So yesterday it was in the 70s outside. Gu, Michael and I went to Ridgely's for lunch at ate outside, in December! This morning, after lifting, I went running through my neighborhood in shorts. Shorts! Again, it is December. Granted today is cooling off, with a high of 50, but are we skipping winter and headed right for spring?? Its not feeling a lot like Christmas with temps like this.

Semester 1...check!

Well I am officially finished with my first grad school class, and even with some trying times, I still received an "A" in the class (woohoo). Right now I'm relaxing during the "winter break" and using my extra time to do some of the cleaning that gets put off when other things come up (like baseboards). Instead of reading, researching, and paperwriting at 7:30 pm, I will be cleaning. I need to rest up for the spring semester when I will be taking 2 classes (eek!!).
This weekend was spent relaxing. The girls and I played a lot, they took a nap and I cleaned the bathroom, and we did some grocery shopping. The best part was visiting Uncle Danny and Aunt Mindy. We had a girls brunch at the Double T. We had pancakes all around! Salem the cat met Laney and Alie, Uncle Danny taught Alie to play playstation and Laney to play the drums. The girls and I had a very relaxing weekend, we look forward to spending next weekend with Carl!!!

2006

A quiz stolen from Bethany

1.) Where did you ring in 2006? home with Laney, Alie and Carl
2.) What was your status by Valentine's Day? married
3.) Were you in school (anytime this year)? yup, working on the masters
4.) How did you earn your keep? working in admissions, being mom to the girls
5.) Did you have to go to the hospital? nope, I think we've had a hospital free year!
6.) Did you have any encounters with the police? No
7.) Where did you go on vacation? North Carolina twice and Ocean City MD
8.) What did you purchase that was over $500? a laptop for schoolwork
9.) Did you know anybody who got married? yes, Andy and Pam and Casey and Erin
10.) Did you know anybody who passed away? yes, April
11.) Have you run into anybody you graduated high school with? Yup, hang out with HS friends on occasion
12.) Did you move anywhere? Nope!
13.) What sporting events did you go to? Os games
14.) What concerts/shows did you go to? none
15.) Are you registered to vote? yes
16.) If so, did you do your patriotic duty on Nov. 7? yes
17.) Where do you live now? Baltimore
18.) Describe your birthday. I worked, we went out with my parents to Rainforest cafe.
19.) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2006? nothing
20.) What is one thing you regretted this year? nothing that i can think of
21.) What's something you learned about yourself? I absolutely love being a mom and that I rock at multi tasking
22.) Any new additions to your family? Nope
23.) What was your best month? June maybe
24.) What from pop culture will you remember 2006 by? I'm not really sure
25.) How do you plan to ring in 2007? home with the fam watching movies and eating a great dinner!!

While filling this out, I thought about how busy my life has become in 2006. I remember back to last Jan when Carl went back to work after his paternity leave. He started working until 9:30 everynight but Fridays. I took on the majority of the housework and childcare. Then I went back to work, keeping all the responsibilities that I held while on maternity leave. Finally, as if I wasn't busy enough, I added grad school and prioritized my morning workouts. I can't believe how much I absolutely love every minute of spending time with the girls and keeping our family moving along. This month, since Carl has been selling trees for 15 hours on both Saturdays and Sundays to earn $$ for the house we are saving for, I have been in charge of grocery shopping and christmas shopping with both girls all by myself. Bring it on spring semester of grad school with two classes!!!! Looking back to 2005, I'm not sure what I did with all of my time :)

Ohana

Birthday weekend has come and gone and I am sad. The girls had a VERY fun birthday party. The Sesame Street theme worked out wonderfully and the cake sort of worked out, but all in all it was very cute. We had buffalo chicken bites, tuna salad, pasta salad, soda, chips, dip, cake and cupcakes. Dan, Mindy, Wendy, Greg, Chrissy, Brian, Pam, Andy, Grandmom, Pop-pop, Gram, Grandpop, Carl and I were all in attendance. Delaney and Alison got some great presents! They also seemed to have a wonderful time visiting with everyone. It was so much fun to spend time with everyone, and the party lasted almost 3 hours past the time on the invitation. After the party, Greg, Wen, Ciruc and Brian stayed and we all went out for pizza at italian gardens. The pizza was great and we were all starving. Laney and Alie enjoyed being out of the house too. They boys went back to the house and the girls checked out the mall for a bit. We returned home to give the girls a bath (with their new bath toys compliments of Aunt Mindy and Uncle Dan) and put them to bed.

After cleaning the dishes from the party, we started to drink some wine. We got into some deep wine conversations, like the meaning of "family" and how sometimes people that are not blood relatives can be more understanding and loving than actual relatives...thanks to Wen for the term of the night "ohana". As we continued to drink wine, Cirucci modeled the "hello mommy" toy and she and i set the stage for a clue beating!!! As we moved onto bottle number 5, Carl came home and we decided to open our christmas presents. Carl's ornaments were of course a huge hit (lucky we were drunk). With wrapping paper everywhere and the time nearing 1 we headed upstairs to bed. Ciruc and I took over the master bedroom, so Brian got the floor and Carl slept on the couch...my how things seem to never change.

Sunday morning, Greg and Wen departed after breakfast. Ciruc, Brian, the girls and I lounged around in our pjs and ordered food from the delivery place around the corner. Brian and I discovered our mutual love for "How I Met Your Mother" and in the course of an hour furthered our obsession with "Barney-isms". We scared Ciruc by watching a few episodes and laughing hysterically. We all played with the girls and their new toys before Circ and Brian headed out in the early afternoon.

The best thing about this 1st birhtday party? The amount of love that was shared. Sure it sounds cheesy, but everyone was so excited and fun at the party. We are so lucky to have so many great friends (that are soooo fun!!!). What a wonderful time!!!

onward and upward

My girls are acting more like little girls everyday, and less like babies. Their newest conquests: sippy cups and spoons. Delaney seems to be mastering the sippy cup quite well, with Alison its debatable. Last night was the first night we tried the "spoons". They are not real spoons, but baby-styled spoons to help children who are feeding themselves to learn how to use utensils. This spoon has a handle for gripping and then a flat grooved piece that sticks out that is supposed to help children pick up the food (mac n cheese, pasta, cereal, etc). Not my daughters. Alison felt as though the best way to use the spoon would be to hold it in her right hand, pick food up with her left hand, and place it on the spoon before putting the spoon in her mouth. At least she understands the "idea" of the spoon. Then there is Delaney. Delaney held the spoon in her right hand, waving it around while eating with her left. Oh well, I guess practice makes perfect. This sort of practice is proving itself to be quite messy....and bath worthy!

Friendships

Right now I feel as though I am working too hard to preserve a friendship and I am growing tired of it. For the most part, friends do take some priority in my life. If a close friend is having a special event or an event that is speical to them, I make every effort to be there. I have gone out of my way to attend a few events for this person recently and I am somewhat annoyed with blow-offs. I have felt disappointed by this friendship for a while, and I am going to ease my efforts to maintain it.

On a lighter note, I really want a new rug for the "man room". I feel as though a nicer rug would give the room a warmer feeling to it. Less of a basement atmosphere and more of a comfortable space to spend time in. Last night, in preparation for our guests this weekend and in light of Carls new "I want to be completely unpacked by January" goal, I cleaned the entire man room. I too am ready to feel completely "moved in". The man room will be home to our christmas tree this year, a lovely wine and christmas movie gathering on Saturday night, and then an "Auntie Christmas breakfast" on Sunday morning. We will also be hosting our annual christmas breakfast for the family there as well. In addition, Carl is hoping to host a playoff party in honor of the Ravens (cross your fingers), so it seems as though this once somewhat ignored room, will be getting some more use. When I spoke to Carl about this rug he said "maybe in a couple of months".....grrrr.

In addition to cleaning the man room last night, I also cleaned the Eloise room. It too will be hosting visitors this Friday evening, but more than that, I think Laney and Alie may be ready to use it. With their birthday party coming up this weekend and Christmas just around the corner, they will most definitely have even more stuff, which will need to be stored somewhere. Soon we will begin to transition the clothing closet into a toy closet for the girls. I worked at cleaning out the older clothes last night, and I will be sending them with my mom today to give to the church.

Pre-Christmas happenings

So December is typically the month of Christmas shopping and christmas anticipation. This year though, December has an added perk, we have Laney and Alie and their bday is in December. Although I am thankful to have my two beautiful girls, adding another event to the pre-Christmas time period is proving to be somewhat of an additional stressor.

This past weekend, while Carl sold Christmas trees, the girls and I headed out to complete the auntie christmas morning present shopping (which is taking place this weekend) and birthday party grocery shopping. We planned a trip to Target and then onto Superfresh, with a stop off in the middle to see Daddy selling trees (and to visit with Santa) at the tree stand. Target went fairly well. We had our list. Laney sat like a big girl in the shopping cart and Alie was strapped to my front with the snuggli. We purchased our presents, formula, etc. and headed for the check-out line no problem.

Onto the tree stand. Everyone, including Santa thought the girls were beautiful (which they are, but I feel as though I'm a bit biased). The girls loved Santa, and I have a few cute pics with him. It was good to see Travis as well since I feel as though the girls don't get to see him enough.

Superfresh is where the problems started. The store was packed. We had the same shopping arrangements as in Target, and again Laney was such a good girl for the most part. We were armed with our list and knew just what aisles we needed to visit. However, people were just so rude. I know that I get overly annoyed when people stop me to make the girls a spectacle, but it was more than that. People were cutting us off in the aisles, or leaving their carts in the middle of the aisles and standing next to them, so noone could get through. Tis the season I guess. So finally we complete our list (or so I thought, I forgot two items) and 20 minutes later we get to the front of a check out line...the check out person says "what a difference it makes when the weatherman is calling for flurries". Calling for flurries?? Is that seriously what the madness in the grocery store was all about?? Eeek. Remind me next time, before taking the girls to the store by myself to check the snow report.

December!!!

After working out this morning, I headed into the locker room for a shower. As I was turning on the shower, I noticed that it was super hot in the locker room. As I thought about it for a few minutes I realized, it is always super hot in the locker room. Why? Most people that use the locker room have just finished a workout and are all sweaty. They don't need the heat on. I'm not saying that I necessarily need the AC on, but when I leave the shower, I would not like to still be covered in sweat (gross image isn't it??). I wonder if there is someone at the gym that I can address this issue with.

On a different note, yesterday afternoon I went shopping for Santa Clause. Delaney and Alison will be receiving the weebles castle, weebles cinderella's carriage and weebles ogre and the knight from santa (for a start). They are growing out of or have grown out of many of the toys we have at our house now, so i'm looking forward to them having some toys that they will enjoy a bit more! I'm gearing up for a Wen, Greg, Ciruc, and Brian visit next weekend, but more importantly, Laney and Alie's first birthday party. This weekend I need to decide on the menu, and purchase the food.