Temporary Sanity

Our awesome webmaster is doing some updates!  So in honor of website updates and the fact that I haven’t updated the old site in ooooh.. six months or so, here’s some update from us:

The twins are four and a half.
They are in school.
They LOVE school.
They got their first report cards recently (tear) and both did very well.
Nick is still anal retentive
Alex is still very “busy.”  (Which is a nice way of saying hyper-active.)
The boys now have a ton of new friends.

The husband and I are coming up on our 2 year wedding anniversary.  Oh honey… it seems like only yesterday we met..
We also have made lots of new friends.
I’m doing well in school and should graduate *eventually.*
Joe’s sister got married and we were in the wedding, it was quite awesome.
There were some other weddings over the summer too.
Now a lot of my friends are pregnant.
I am NOT pregnant.
Joe and I went to the Marine’s birthday ball and had a great time.
None of those other guys looked as good in their uniforms as Joe does in his.  Yum.
We adopted a new kitty, Mona, who is about 6 months old now.  When we adopted her, she was 4 months old and tiny.
FlapJack celebrated her 2nd birthday on November 16th.

And on a completely different update:

Joe and I are going to have a real wedding next year.  So it’s entirely possible that this could go from a twins blog to a wedding-with-twins blog.  I’ll apologize in advance.  Sorry.

So far my idea is to have a small ceremony and an awesome reception.  I’m thinking a late night ceremony, probably starting around 7, with the reception to follow.  The reception will be hors d’oeuvres, finger foods and desserts only.  I doubt we will serve a full meal.  Mainly this is just to keep costs down.  I’m trying to plan a romantic theme with lacey and classic details, candlelight and darker colors.  The colors I am looking at are navy blue and champagne; I think this will go well with red and green decorations for the season.  The idea right now is to have the ceremony on next December 17^th.    I tried for December 31^st, but it has proven to be difficult for our budget.

The twins’ fourth birthday has come and gone, along with their party and a seemingly never ending rainstorm.  We were lucky enough to have excellent weather the day of their party, but then it rained for 6 days straight.  The weather finally broke yesterday and seems to be sunny once again today.

The weather did not stop my babies from turning four, however.  I’m not entirely sure how rain could stop a birthday, but I was kinda hoping it would.  Maybe the government could pass an amendment that rainy days don’t count against the calendar, and then the boys wouldn’t have their birthday for a few more days from now.  But, alas, the government has adopted no such amendment and my babies are now 4.

As a birthday present, I took them for a check-up and they got 3 shots a piece.  While the whole experience sucked for all three of us (well, two of us anyway), it served to once again illustrate the huge differences in the twins’ personalities.  Alex went first.  He seemed uncertain about the lady with the needle and once he was stuck, went on to say “Please don’t do that again” before the second and third shots.  He also added “Ow, that really hurt” after the shots.  But there was no crying and no tears.  And then, the “piece de resistance” came in the form of Garfield Band-Aids.  Alex was thrilled beyond words that he got not one, not two, but THREE band-aids (and a lollipop).
Nick’s turn was not so pleasant.  He had spent the whole time watching Alex get his shots and when I looked to Nick and said “Now it’s your turn” he said “But I don’t want to get stuck like Al did.”   The first stick brought out monumental screams of terror.  The second and third were obviously meant to kill if you went by the sounds of Nick screaming.  He could not be comforted by band-aids or a lollipop, not even the pinkest one in the jar.

I then had to take my still screaming and crying child, along with his happy-to-have-three-band-aids-brother out of the shot clinic, through the “waiting area” (I use that term loosely as they just had several chairs in a pretty busy hallway) and past several children who were there waiting for their shots.  I have to admit, the looks of pure horror on their faces was priceless.  While Nick laid his head on my shoulder and sobbed, Alex told everyone he saw that he got 3 band-aids.

On the way through the maze that is the base clinic, Nick turned his face towards mine and said “Mommy, that was not a good idea.”

I think I’ve posted once or twice about the wonderfulness that is my husband, but really those incidences are just the tip of the iceberg.  I think this is going to require bullet points.

• When he comes to bed, he brings up my slippers and lays them on my side of the bed.
• If he uses the last towel in our bathroom, he always grabs another from the linen closet for me to have when I get up.
• He empties the dishwasher.
• He cleans up after himself.
• He thanks me for random, silly things like folding his socks, watching Dexter with him, parking in the driveway so he can better organize stuff in the garage, and washing his uniforms.
• He goes to the grocery store for me, even before he knew that it’s the chore I completely loathe the most.
• He’ll flip the laundry around and hang my bras up to dry.
• He calls the cat his princess.
• He lets me sleep in, even schedules it ahead of time if something goes awry on my usual day of sleeping in goodness.
• He Armor-All’ed my dashboard after drawing penis’ in the dust.
• He never questions the phrase “I just need some quiet/time alone.”
• He scheduled his TDY so that he’ll be home for the twins’ birthday, even though it means he’ll be gone for his birthday and forced to work.  (He has a thing about always taking his birthday off from work.)
• And for pictures like this:

“Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I promise next year,
I’ll hand these to you.”

All together now:  aaaaaaaaaaaaawww.

Joe and I are coming up on our second Valentine’s Day together.  And by “together” I, of course, mean apart.  I suppose there’s always next year, right?  If all goes as planned, there will be about 50 more V-Day’s, the Marine Corps can’t possibly take ALL of them.  And no, USMC, that is not a challenge!

Other than Joe missing yet another holiday, things are going fairly well.  I spent last weekend having awesome times with my awesome friends.  My bestest friend Rachel always plans a huge birthday party at Dave & Buster’s in Philly and this year was no exception.  I told Rachel for weeks before hand that I wasn’t going to make her party because of Joe being gone, the drive, not having a sitter, I threw out every excuse in the book.  But I found a sitter, I made the drive, and surprised her on her birthday!  She was so happy to see me she jumped me.  Twice!  I also did a little Odyssey of the Mind training while I was up there.

I’m starting to put together some ideas for the twins’ birthday.  With the drive, I don’t know how many we’ll end up having here.  I also keep forgetting to ask Joe if he has any idea of what his schedule will be like in May.  There has been talk of him going to sergeant school and possibly back to Texas during that time frame.  I really hope he doesn’t end up missing their birthday.  Again.

Miss Flapjack (or Flappie, as Nick calls her) has settled in quite nicely over the past month.  She is quite the lap whore and never turns down a free lap.  Or a lap you wouldn’t think a cat could get on.  Just when I thought my lap was big enough for twins, the cat jumps up there too.  She tolerates the boys fairly well and she lets them pet her occasionally.  The boys both have to say goodnight to her before they will go to bed.  Another stalling tactic.    We had a little stumble when she wanted to play huntress in the middle of the night once, and my arm was her pray.  But after a swift throw off the bed, she seems to realize her mistake.  Or it’s possible she’s still attacking my arm in the middle of the night and I just don’t wake up.  Since Joe has been gone, she’s also taken to snuggling under the blankets with me at night.

I think that’s about it for us.  Hopefully something funny will happen soon and I’ll remember to blog about it.

So my favorite other twin mom has asked us womenz to blog about the upcoming superbowl for another blog she writes for.  Or something.  Whatever, I do what she says.

I don’t blog about sports, obviously, but the truth is, I am a couch jumping, screaming at the TV football fan.  Not many people see this, but it’s true.  When I was married before I was an Eagles fan by marriage.  But after that went south, it was decided by my Eagle hating brother that I should find my own team.  So I picked the Ravens because they are close by, still a local team, and their uniforms are purple.  A lovely shade, too.   Then the Ravens drafted Joe Flacco from the University of Delaware.  My school.  A kid from Delaware!  (Actually, I think he’s from NJ but whatever, the school is in Delaware.)  And man did that kid play his ass off.  Enough to make history, anyway.

But the Steelers..  the Steelers are an excellent team.  They have a seemingly unstoppable defense.  The Cardinals are also another good defensive team with a seasoned quarterback.  An excellent seasoned quarterback.  The Steelers’ Roethlisberger (which I had to look up how to spell) is younger, has less experience than Warner, the NFL acclaimed “Comeback Kid.”  All though he did have enough experience to beat Flacco! But let’s face it, the Cardinals are the underdogs here.  They got into the playoffs on a wild card.  They are up against a team that won the Super Bowl just 3 (it was 3, right..?) years ago.  They are up against a monster of a defensive line.
Now, as a rule I like to cheer for the underdog.  I love to see the team nobody expected to win actually win.  So my heart wants the Cardinals to win, truly it does.  The heart of an underdog can be stronger and more powerful (and less cocky) than its counterparts.  But if I were going to bet any of Joe’s hard earned (HAHAHAHAHHAHAAAHAHAHA!!!  Oh I crack myself up.) money on a team, it would be the Steelers.

I do think it’s going to be a close, low-scoring game.  I’m going with the Steelers by a field goal.

But if you peek in my windows on Sunday, I will be cheering for the Cardinals.

Roll Call:

Han Solo:  The guy with the blue pants/Han Solo
Obi Wan Kenobi:  Superman/Obi Wan Kenovi
Luke Skywalker:  Luke Skywalker
Princess Leia:  Princess Leia
Darth Vader:  Luke Skywalker’s daddy
Jabba the hut:  Frog
Jar Jar Binks:  Llama
C3PO:  The yellow guy
R2D2:  The robot

Places of Interest:

The Mos Eisley Cantina:  Arby’s  (Nick has suggested that they go to Applebee’s instead.)
Tatooine:  The beach

Theme Music:

Link to Flickr.

Nick’s 3 3/4 year old brain seems to think it can control his level of hunger.  As in “Even though I refuse to eat my dinner, I won’t be hungry later.”  Joe, in his infinite wisdom, tried to explain to Nick that getting hungry is kinda like going to the bathroom, you can’t control the urge, it just happens.  Nick, in his infinite wisdom, destroyed this theory quickly.

“Jooee (they always elongate his name), you can’t eat your dinner in the bathroom!”

Duh, Joe.  Duh.

I turned on the inauguration coverage yesterday to watch history.  To finally watch a man I voted for take the oath of office.  Finally.  As the chills swept over me, I excitedly said to Nick “we’re getting a new president today!”

“Can I open the present?”

“No no, not present.  Pres-ah-dent.”

“ooooh.  Can I open his presents?”