It's my party!

And it was a blast. Sat night we had a little gathering at my parents' house (since all my friends live much closer to them than to me) and had 5 good friends and my brother's family over to celebrate my birthday. Really, the birthday is just an excuse. I really do it because I want to see my friends. And I've decided that we're going to have more parties over the course of the year.

While I love them all, I think the best part was the fact that I actually picked up the phone and called one of my best friends from high school, whom I don't think I've seen since high school, and she came! She and I are so much alike, and I can't believe that we lost each other for all of those years. But, I'm not going to lose her again. She told me that things were rough for her for several years, and mentioned being abused by her stepfather, and I had no idea. I feel so horrible, like we should have noticed or something and stopped it. But, she seems to be dealing with it in whatever ways one deals with these things. Bless her.

All of us spent the evening catching up, eating too much, and drinking too much. And then my mother pulled out the pictures and we had a walk down memory lane. Much fun was had by all.

These are the people who mean the most in the world to me, minus one couple who couldn't come. Seeing them once a year is just not enough. So, there will definitely be more parties over the course of the year. And I swear I will pick up the phone and call my friend, since the bitch doesn't have a computer. lol

The only down note to the weekend was that the boychild developed a sinus infection. He was starting a fever on Sat and he slept through the party. Sun morning he woke up feverish and was gagging on mucus. He puked up green chunky mucus a couple of times. But, my wonderful pediatrician was willing to call in some zithromax for us and today he is so much better after just one dose.

Also, my manwhore managed to totally shock the shit out of me by giving me a GC to a local day spa in the amount of, are you ready for this?...........$500!!!!! I about fell out of the damned chair. I mean, good hell, $500! I know part of that had to be our tax return. lmao What a way to spend it. But, I'm sure I will enjoy it over the next year as I get massaged or pedicured. What a good manwhore he is. lol



BTW, I really need to learn how to put pictures and shit on this thing.

Spring!

A little taste of spring has arrived. This is what I love about the South. It's the middle of Feb, which is the middle of winter in many parts of the country. But in the South, the first breezes of spring are blowing. Wed it was 72 degrees. The last two days have been in the upper 60s. My buttercups are up. My neighbor's are blooming, and there is a hint of yellow on the forsythia. We're visiting my parents and the buttercups here are actually past their prime. I love it.

It makes for a nice time to have a birthday, too. After the freezing temps of winter, spring zephyrs blow in just in time for it to be warm on my birthday. It makes me feel special. lol

In other news, the girls had their evals for kindy today at The School. Who knows how they did. We'll find out in March, sometime. But, we aren't expecting them to get in and are planning to
send them to a kindy readiness program instead and try The School next year.

It's done!

The trim work is done! I rock! And my hands are so tired. They were starting to shake a little bit at the end. I'm just tired all over. We still have to put the kitchen back together, though.

And of course, the nice, pretty fresh paint in the kitchen just points out how badly other rooms need painting. The foyer is really bad. I think that is going to have to be a project for this spring, too.

I'm finally styling up my house.

Well, maybe. Slowly anyway. lol

I spent the entire weekend painting my kitchen. The house was built in '94, we've been in it since '01 and it still had the white contractor paint in the kitchen. It was pretty nasty. I mean, between the chocolate milk splashed on the wall (that was the last straw, btw) to the time the cat had a head wound and rubbed blood on the wall (barf! and it wouldn't wash off) and just general dirt, it was bad. So, one coat of Kilz as a primer, a coat of Capri Cream on top and a coat of Butter on the bottom and it's loverly. I still have to do the trim work, which I will try to work on today, but that should go pretty fast.

Now, I just have to put everything back where it goes. But I love the yellow. It makes it so bright and cheery. I hope if we ever sell this house that the buyers like yellow, though. 2 of the 3 bedrooms are yellow, the den is yellow, and now the kitchen is yellow. And I'll probably paint the downstairs bath yellow, as I have a shitload of paint left over. I totally overestimated how much paint I would need. I could have done a half gallon in each color, but bought gallons. So now I have half a gallon of Capri Cream and 3/4 of a gallon of Butter.

Now we just have to replace the blinds, because they were all kinds of nasty and I'm not into washing blinds.

Projects left to do:
strip wallpaper and paint my bathroom
strip a border and paint the downstairs bath
strip paper and border and paint the dining room and living room (huge, horrible pink roses)
paint the hall, the foyer (18 ft ceilings :crybaby) and what will be Sam's room
finish the painted border in the den that I started 5 yrs ago and the manwhore made me stop working on when I was pg
put up crown moulding

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! The joys of home ownership. The projects never end.

More snow.

Honestly now, I am really sick of winter. We woke up to about 1/4 inch of snow this morning, and I wasn't the least bit excited. I just want it to go away. I want to be warm. And being the planet loving, penny pinching whore that I am, I refuse to turn the heat up any, so my feet are cold. And I hate to wear socks, so my feet are cold. I know, I know, its all my fault.

The manwhore bought me a vase of flowers for V'day and they just got delivered today. He ordered them on Mon and they called on Wed and said they couldn't get them delivered. So, they were supposed to deliver them yesterday, but they didn't show up. But they are here now. And they are lovely. They are red carnations, which I actually love more than roses. Carnations smell nice, and most commercial roses have no smell these days.

El and Em have their kindy evaluations on Fri. I truly do not expect them to make it in The School, since we have been told through the grapevine that The School pretty much doesn't take any kids with summer birthdays unless they are little geniuses or something. But, we have learned about the kindy readyness program at our local school, and we are totally fine with them doing that and applying to The School next year.


Oh, we went and had a play date/ lunch with some of the women and kids from our multiples group. I am totally perplexed as to why we were out of the loop with them for so long, as obviously most of them are all still friends. This would be why I thought they didn't like me/us. But, they were all very happy to see us and we're invited to next month's playdate. And we had a nice time with them. It is always nice to see kids that are practically the same age as ours (one set of twins share dds birthday and the other two sets are only a week older) and see that dds are right on par with them. So, we'll see how it plays out.

And, I was surprised that no one has plans to enroll their kids in kindy next year. Well, the family with triplets is going to homeschool and they are starting that next year. But no one doing public school plans to send their kids to kindy. I wonder if we hadn't run into S if we would have just sent dds to kindy next year, of if the public school would have pointed us to the kindy readiness program.

Oh well, fate has a hand in things, I suppose.

Ok, that's it, I am sick of winter.

It is time for winter to be over. Done. Finished. Warm the fuck up even. I am tired of being cold. See, there is a reason that I live in the south. Winter is supposed to last about 2 weeks here. Less if you live further south. But it has been below average cold for weeks and weeks. The temps haven't gotten out of the 30s in about a month. Average for this time of year is 50.

My birthday is coming up, and in years past I have been able to go and sit in the sun in a pair of shorts on my birthday. Not gonna happen this year, I don't think.

I also think I am turning into a wuss. I used to walk almost everyday with the girls in the stoller, all winter long. I thought walking in 25 degree temps was invigorating. Yesterday, I was desperate for some fresh air and sunshine, so I threw the Samster in the stroller and went for a walk. I had to cut it short. I was freezing and he was freezing. I took my coat off and added it to his layers of blankets because he was so cold. And it was 35 degrees. So, I have become a wuss. Maybe losing weight has taken away a layer of insulation or something.

I'm getting sick of the clouds, too. It's sunny again today and supposed to be n the 40s. Actually, the weather bug tells me it is supposed to make 52 today, but that isn't what the talking head on tv says. At any rate, I think I will attempt another walk today. Gotta get that Vit D.


El is sick again. Poor bug. She had a fever of 103 yesterday. She's fine with a dose of motrin in her, though. Hopefully it won't hit the rest of us, too.

Warm weather usually brings an end to colds, too, and we've had one going around and around for about 3 weeks now. And that's gotten old, too.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE!

Remember that movie where you conjured the guy by saying his name three times? I feel like I have done that to someone. Not that I think she is a scary half dead guy or anything. lol But, I was at the Y yesterday and I hear someone say my name. Now, I don't have many casual friends or even not so casual friends around here, and none that were members of the Y, so I thought. So I look around with a WTF look on my face and before I have time to register who it is, I am being hugged. Turns out, it was one of the women from the multiples class we took when I was pregnant with the girls.

As for the Beetlejuice comment, I haven't seen her in over 2 years and the last contact I had from her was an email about 18 months ago. But, oddly enough, I had a dream that I had run into her just last week. And then, for some reason, I was talking about her to my mother this week. So, it feels a bit like I conjured her. lol

I was even more surprised by the hug, then the 30 min conversation we had, plus 20 more minutes in the locker room after we were both done working out. She even went in the nursery to peep at Sam. And she said she would email me because her and some of the other moms from the group were planning to get together soon. Why was I surprised you ask? Well, I would have bet you a dollar that she and the rest of them didn't much like me. Hell, I would have bet you two dollars. lol Apparently I was mistaken. Either that, or she's a very good actor.

What's even odder is that they've been members of the Y for about as long as we have, I think, and we've never bumped into each other before.

So, we'll see. The manwhore and I would like to see them all again, if for no other reason than it is fun to see everyone's kids. I don't know that we'll ever be bosom buddies with them as we are in different places both religiously and in parenting techniques. But, it's mostly the religion thing. Still one of my bestest friends is fairly religious and we get along well enough. Of course, I don't see her very often, either. Living 2 hrs away isn't conducive to frequent visits.

Still, it would be nice to have at least a few friends around here.

Things, things and more things.

First thing, we had a blast playing in the snow last Friday. The kids loved it. Too bad it doesn't snow often enough for us to have snow pants and such, though, because they were freezing by the time we came in.

Oddly enough, we met more neighbors that morning than we have in the time we've lived here. lol Everyone was outside at the same time playing in the snow.

Thing 2. The manwhore got his b'day sex, but not in a hotel like he had planned. I think he felt bad about leaving the kids with mother, so we didn't. lol Instead we took advantage of my German brother not being at home and used his bed. He showed up Sunday morning before we got to wash the sheets, though. Whoops. lol

The third thing. Em's pediatrician called this morning. Her physical therapist has recommended that she have an MRI, so they have set one up. It won't be until April, since we have to go to Children's Hospital, but I'm already nervous. Honestly, I think it is more about what they might find than about the sedation. It's scary knowing your child has some kind of brain damage. And I keep wondering if it's not because she was a preemie. What if there is something else going on? I seriously just want to throw up right now, I'm so worried about it.

Another thing. I have been eating like crap the last week or so, and I can sure as fuck tell it with the scales. Dammit it all. We're planning a trip to the beach this summer, so hopefully that will add some motivation.

I think that's all the things. lol

It's the manwhore's birthday!

Happy 41st birthday to the manwhore. I used to think 41 was old, but he is anything but old. This will be the 7th year that we have celebrated birthdays together, and I hope we get at least 50 more. He is the love of my life, and I thank the forces that be for the odd set of circumstances that brought us together. It pays to have friends who join a dating service, apparently. lol I love you, my dear, and hope that it is a wonderful birthday for you!

And, mother nature has a present for him, as well. We have SNOW! You know, the white stuff that happens when it tries to rain but its really cold? I know, I know, its been so long since we've had any, its hard to remember what it looks like. It was supposed to snow yesterday, too, but it didn't. It all went south of us, when the weather guys were calling for most of it to go north. Pesky weather. lol I'm glad I'm not a meteorologist. lol Still, they closed all the schools around here, and looked mighty foolish, I might add. They are closed again, today, too. I think it is sympathy on the part of the schools. Its been years since we've had enough snow for the kids to play in, so I think they are jumping at the chance to let the kids out.

The boychild is being a cranky one this morning. He had to get some shots yesterday and apparently one of them made his legs hurt, and now he has a slight little fever. I hate hate hate having to get vaccines, but at the same time, I know they are important and I don't think they are a plot by THE MAN or anything. Still, its never fun to know your child doesn't feel well because of something you did.

Everyone else is still sleeping, and I'm having to restrain myself to keep from waking them up yelling "LOOK AT THE SNOW!!!"