oh and just to brag!

One of my bffs is amazing! Check this out: http://www.gettysburg.edu/global/stories/alumni/dow.dot

She will probably kill me for sharing, but how cool! I meant to post earlier, but with the whole copying and pasting thing, I thought I would add!

nasty people

Exactly what I was just starting to forget about has reared its ugly head again. One of my cousins, I'm not sure which one, sent this lovely text message to me this afternoon:


I don't think its possible for someone as self centered as you are to understand- but the point of family is not to focus on Haley and what she wants. I hope you are happy separating ur mom and bro from their family because lord knows u r too selfish to be there for anyone but yourself. Shame on you, its too bad u blocked ur blogs- its great to see how a narcissistic person thinks. Your lovely dad must be proud. He made himself a monster.

I'm trying not to be upset but its hard not to be. I am certainly not responding. Just thought I would share, more to get it off my chest (sorry if that's self-centered of me).

Now to hurry home and enjoy my little Thing 1 and Thing 2!

music

Isn't it strange how certain songs bring back certain memories or make you think of certain people? Right now, yahoo music is playing Crash by DMB. Crash always makes me remember ring dance, my junior year of high school. I went with Jack Dietrich and Crash was the last song played that evening. Eventhough there were no kisses or great romances beginning that night, Jack and I were the last people on the dance floor, and I always think back to what a wonderful time I was having that evening.
The other day in the car, the Shania song that Travis and I danced to at my wedding was on. It always makes me think of how much I love my brother and how lucky I am to have him, exactly what I was thinking while we were dancing to it then. I had to call him, just to let him know I was thinking of him.
There are a variety of songs that remind me of my girlfriends..."Strawberry Wine" and "We Danced any way" always makes me think of Cirucci (of course everytime I hear it, I NEED to call her, and if she doesn't answer, I sing it to her voicemail). The song reminds me of our friendship and us freshmen year, crazy and innocent all at the same time. I can see ourselves in my head, sitting in our pjs, singing it at the top of our lungs in her old bedroom after she had received the cd from Dennis for christmas that year. When I hear "No no no" and "Woo Ha" I remember all the times we spent in the basement at crow. It's not about the boys anymore, and looking back, I'm not convinced it ever was.
The song Wen and I dubbed the "drawbridge song" always brings me back to that spring break we shared, crying, laughing, driving, and just dealing with all of the twists and turns life was bringing us. Anything by the indigo girls makes me think of Wen as well, especially when we shared our room in Apple.
And then there's my times at theta chi. "The General" always brings me back to those nights in Carl's bed at the house, where we would lay awake talking and listening to the boys next door argue. I remember the smell of the room, and how all of the boys in the house made me feel part of their group, and how in love I was with Carl.
My time in FL can not be defined by one song. There are songs that remind me of Fantasyland people, and fun times. Mindy loved that Greenday song, and everytime I hear that, I remember driving across the MD line, on my way home, crying, because I truly had the time of my life (as cheesy as that sounds). Min and I also re-wrote a Dave song, which always makes me smile, and of course I always remember leaving Jelly-Rolls, dancing down the boardwalk to Livin on a Prayer!
Enough of my walk (or listen) down memory lane...back to work.

working all weekend

Working all weekend sucks! First it was open house, then it was a fair all of Sunday afternoon. I feel like I didn't get anything accomplished...although we did. My house is a mess, which will annoy me until it is cleaned (guess what I'm doing tonight). We did go on a mad search for the new carseats, and finally found them after calling more than a dozen targets. I love them, and my wonderful husband installed them into the jetta. Now, coordinating drop off and pick ups will be much easier since Carl and I have carseats in both of our cars!
I did almost finish the halloween costumes..I just need to add the "1" and "2". The rest is painted and sewn! I finished the made part of Cirucci's birthday present and we discovered that we really enjoy "Cheesy's" pizza!
That's all for now, I'm in a working weekend enduced haze. Looking forward to my day "working from home" on Thursday.

new arthritis commercial

There is a new arthritis commercial, well its actually for a drug company, but either way, I love it. It features a woman listing what she had completed that day. It is evident that she is a mom, and the little things that everyone takes for granted, she lists as her triumphs. That's exactly how I feel (especially with her button and rolling around on a mat comments)! At the end of the commercial, she shares that she has RA. Its weird, and just a commercial, but I can easily identify with the woman!
This is why I give money to the arthritis foundation and run every year in their runs...so that I and many others can do the little things in life, and make them their daily truimphs!

PS. The other great part of the commercial is that the woman is not in her 80s!

Fall

I love fall. I love how the leaves on the trees turn to beautiful shades of reds, oranges and yellows. I love how the weather (slowly) turns cooler, and we can sleep with the windows open under a warm blanket. I like to sit in my red chair, snuggled in a blanket, looking out our large window. I like to go on long walks with the girls, and now that they are older, collect acorns and leaves in our backyard. Right now, I love walking up our front steps filled with pumpkins and mums. Finally, I love that my job allows me to be out of the office, driving about, enjoying all of these fall nuances.
Laney and Alie are really starting to develop the ability to talk, letting me know what they want, or are excited about. I am enjoying watching them communicate with each other. They love to play with the various vehicles (and the alligator turned truck) in the hallway, "beeping" at each other and at Carl and I. They run up and down the hall yelling "here we go" or "come on". They hold hands and gallop around the dining room table. My mornings are filled with little voices yelling"Laney, wake up!" or "Alie, jump!" as I rush to get everyone dressed and ready for the day. Brooke has been working on "please" with the girls. When we get home in the afternoons, Laney marches in the kitchen and demands a cookie. When I tell her that I'm busy making dinner, she retorts with "cookie...please!". I always have to laugh a little, and reward her with a half of a banana or a graham cracker. And as always is the case with food, her sidekick is never far behind her.
Have I mentioned before? I love being a mom, especially a twin mom!

Halloween

This year I am really looking forward to the holidays since last years were more upsetting than anything. Halloween is next week, and I can't wait to dress the girls up. We have been doing Halloween-y things recently, visiting Webers, the Zooboo, and the stand where Carl and I once worked. I wanted to take the girls to the SPSG party this weekend, but sadly, I will be at work. Maybe my mom will go with Carl and the girls...
I do have to complete the costumes. I was good about starting them early, but like all the other things I start early, I figure I have plenty of time to get them done, and find myself waiting until the last minute to finish them up. Oh well.
I am also looking forward to Cirucci's birthday and my birthday. We are doing dinner and drinks for Cirucci's and then wine tasting and dinner for mine...no late nights or super partying in light of our recent realization that we are, in actuality getting too old. I am most looking forward to our trip to Viv! I have been stalking the website, and there are some great new patterns. This time is going to make for a challenging decision and an extended time spent in Philly ;)

Gburg and Webers

This weekend was definitely a busy one. On Friday night Carl and I dropped the girls off at my parents and headed up to the burg. We arrived just after 7 and checked in to the hotel with Cirucci and Brian and then headed out for the evening. We grabbed some dinner at LaBella's and then went over to the Bull to the reunion party. While Carl caught up with some Theta Chi guys, I went to hang out with Cirucci. We had a tour of the bars, and even climbed a chain link fence....ahh you never know what's going to happen when Ciruc and I are around ;) I ended up back with Carl at the end of the night, and yelled "goodbye" to Cirucci as she treked to Bri's house in barefeet. FYI, I have secret ninja powers!!!
Saturday morning was a rough one for Ciruc. We sent Carl to get some shm-iscuits and coffee, and prepared Ciruc for her lavaliering ceremony (which was cute). After the ceremony, we headed to the outlets for some lunch and shopping! We dropped Cirucci off at the house, and Carl and I had a good time walking around campus, taking pictures, and grabbing a few things at the campus store for the girls. We were exhausted from the night before, and had a nap before heading out for a delicious dinner with Russ, Weida, Frohlich, Turk and Erin at the Dobbin House. We drank, ate, reminisced and had a really great time (plus we closed the restaurant at 11:30). I went to the pub for a bit, but called it an earlier night since I wanted to have a blast with my girlies the next day.
Sunday we headed home and then to Weber's Farm with the Ambrose family and their neighbors. The kids loved looking at the animals and going down the big slide. We had lunch, and purchased some pumpkins for our front porch. It was a GREAT day :) Now I think I need a weekend to rest from my weekend, luckily we don't have any plans for next week!

a bad influence on each other

I decided yesterday after I got home that Cirucci and I are bad influences on each other. We tend to do things together...like yesterday we went shopping because Cirucci wanted a new shirt for this weekend. Somehow I ended up buying pjs (super cute on sale at Old Navy) and a jacket (also super cute and on sale). Then I bought a cute shirt...and I'm thinking Ciruc didn't find quite what she was looking for. Anyway, I'm looking forward to modeling the new pjs to Wen and Greg when we share a hotel room this weekend (I'm sure Greg will be thrilled)!

I heart Pat

I love the Pat McGee Band. I love them! I just bought their new cd (well last weekend) and it is AWESOME! I can't stop listening to it. It's not very long, only 9 songs or so, but I Love about 7 of them and then the remaining 2 are pretty good. It's cool that they're not with a major label anymore, because I liked their music pre-major label best...and now I'm loving the post music as well. The last cd was good, but it was such a long time coming, etc. Pat seems to be back to the band i knew and loved in college.

Saturday we listened to it in the jetta on the way to the grocery store and Delaney was rocking out to it. Delaney is great at rocking out to things in general though. I'm looking forward to my fair tonight to have some time to sit in the car and listen again! I'm also looking forward to G-burg on Fri, hanging out with Wen and Greg and Cirucci and Bri. It's supposed to be colder :) We may be arriving in the Baywatch-mobile, ha!

accepted

Its Sunday afternoon and Carl and I have spent most of the weekend lying around. Well, yesterday we left the house at 3:45 (just having gotten out of our pjs) to go grocery shopping. I didn't even get fully dressed when Cirucci came over for dinner! Today, we woke up and went to my mom's, but really just to snag some party food and wine leftover from the night before.



Anyway, today we watched this movie "Accepted" on HBO. Basically a kid who has not been admitted to any of the colleges he applied to starts his own college. The movie itself is pretty dumb, but quite funny. It tries to address the feelings of those students who are not admitted to college...but i'm not entirely convinced that my decision makes such an impact.

I guess I should get back to doing nothing.

the weather

What the heck is going on with the weather? 2 weeks ago, in mid September, I was wearing jeans and long sleeves, and at night, even sweaters! Now, we're in for round 2 of this unseasonably warm almost 90 degree weather. I am not a fan. I want to wear jeans and long sleeves...I want fall!!!! I'm sitting here in my pjs deciding what would be appropriate to wear to work today. Since I'm travelling, I don't want to be completely uncomfortable and covered in sweat. Oh well, I guess its inevitable.
On to the shower, but before I go, today is the last day for the nanny and I feel kind of weird about that. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm excited to not hear her criticisms, etc. but she's sad to leave the girls, and I'm sure the girls will miss her too.

getting old

Friday night, as Carl and I enjoyed a wonderful evening out celebrating our 4th anniversary, we realized, we are getting old. As Pat was playing, and we had long stopped drinking (pre-baseball game partying), we realized much to our dismay...we were tired. 12:15 on a Friday night is late and we went home to bed. 4 years ago, 12:15 with no work the next day meant staying out until all hours of the night (like when we were in Key West and stayed out until 4, or when visiting G-burg when college students don't even head out until 10 or 11). Carl and I officially live like old people. The next time I try to convince a student that I am still "young" and can still "go out with the best of them", please remind me that I can't. I enjoy my existence, getting up early in the morning, working out, hanging with the girls, etc, etc. By 8 or 9 pm, I love to be snuggled under my favorite blanket in my red chair reading or catching up on my tv watching. I like spending a quiet (or not so quiet) afternoon or evening at home with some close friends, chatting and drinking wine. I love to spend my afternoons sipping coffee and chatting with Carl or a friend as my toddlers "nap". Finally, most recently, I love the normalcy of the family dinner, the four of us, sitting down and enjoying a meal together. I love being "old"!