Would you like some cheese with your whine ma'am?

I am in a whiny mood, so please pardon my rantings and ravings today.

Would you like to know how many times I have had to wipe a snotty nose today? What do you mean no? Come on, join in the fun. I have three children with runny, snotty noses. I have spent the majority of my day trying to wipe up the snot. Annie runs from me as soon as she sees the tissue. Izzie actually tries to blow her nose, but not into the tissue. Drew just fusses at me about not wanting to blow his nose. And when he does, we go thru 5 tissues. It's all truly disgusting. I have been wiping snotty noses for what seems like five months now. Every time they get better, it starts all over again.

The decibel level is my house at this very moment is much too high. I have had to remind Megan from the moment she got up this morning that we "don't yell in the house". Bet you can't guess what she's doing now? Come, guess. Yes, yelling. She has NO concept of a quiet inside voice, unless she is at school. I can verify that, as I volunteer in her classroom every other week. When she is there, she is polite, quiet, pays attention, respectful even. She is NOT that child at home. (Sidebar~I put the kids to work setting the table, and then banished them upstairs to play in their playroom. It's now eerily quiet up there. Wonder what they're plotting).

Oh, did I mention that it SNOWED AGAIN today? For crying out loud, I've had enough. I know I live in Maine, but the calendar reads Spring, and I am ready for Spring, damn it.

Ok, I've ranted enough. Thanks for reading. Send me love, will you?

I should be doing other things, but I'm blogging instead.

I should really be doing something productive. Like tidying up the living room, or folding laundry (since Doug did all the rest of it this weekend, I should be able to manage at least one load, don't you think?). But, instead I'm blogging. It feels productive, even if it's not making my house cleaner. I just spent some time visiting some blogs and now I feel like blogging. So here goes.

We had an odd weekend. Odd because we were a man (ok, child) down. My mother-in-law picked up Meg from hockey yesterday and took her for the weekend for a visit. So it was only 5 of us, and it was strange. Strange because it was relatively quiet, strange because Drew didn't have too many meltdowns, and strange because I wasn't even here when she got home today! No, I was off teaching a scrapbooking class when she arrived home. I guess she was so happy to be home she cried. It's been awhile since she had a sleepover with either of her grandparents, and the last few have included Drew, so while she was happy for some quiet time with her Mimi and Bumpa (her names for them), I think she was so relieved to be home. And she came home with new toys for everyone (except her parents, I just realized). For a 7 year old, she can be extremely empathetic. She got the twins a pink Fisher Price school bus to play with, because Drew still plays with the other one we have (and quite frankly refuses to share). She got Drew a Curious George stuffed animal and Matchbox car, because he loves monkeys and cars. She got some things for herself too, but nothing outrageous. She was so excited to show me everything she got; it was really sweet to watch. And tonight she finally lost a tooth that has been loose for about a hundred years. It was so bad that she refused to CHEW on that side of her mouth for fear it might fall out (her irrational fear of loose teeth comes from me unfortunately. Eww).

The twins became completely unspooled when I got home today. They're perfectly content when I'm not here, but as soon as I walk thru the door they go berserk. They start crying almost instantaneously and since they're talking a bit, all I hear is "mamamamamamamamama" until I pick one of them up. They are crying tears of joy that I'm home. I think I need to get out more!

The other funny thing about the twins is their reactions to things. For instance, we get deer in our backyard. Our backyard is 12 acres of woods. It's been a harsh winter here, and the fact that we still have 4 feet of snow in places means that the deer are coming for food. They've found that food source in our bird feeder. So, if the girls see deer, they let us know in this fashion~point wildly and yell "deeeahdeeahdeeahdeeah". They also do that when there aren't any deer there as well, just to remind us that out back is where the deer are. It's so cute to watch and listen to. I am pretty sure that now that they are talking more, they aren't going to stop. And honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about that. I already carry on more conversations than I can handle. Maybe I'll have to start drawing straws, or ooh, even numbers like at the deli. Then, when I call someone's number or pick a straw, we can have a conversation together. Hmm, I'll have to give that one some thought and let you all know what I come up with.

Oooh, I've been Tagged!

I got tagged by Mommy Brain with a meme.

Rules are:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Well alrighty then! Here goes:

1. Remember standardized testing? Well, the ONLY things I remember from that are the following: a "baloo" is a bear and "wuzzle" means to mix. WHY I remember those things is totally beyond me.

2. I cannot reconcile the fact that I used to be so neat and tidy with the person I am now (that person being the one who cannot find the top of her gorgeous kitchen island). I see piles of stuff and immediately shut down. It's just awful.

3. When I graduated from high school and left for college in New York, I swore to my parents that I was "never coming back to Maine". Hmm. My father constantly reminds me of that. It gets on my nerves.

4. I'm related to Lizzie Borden on my mother's side. So look out! Whack, whack, whack (37 more times).

5. I passed the Maine Bar Exam on the second try. I missed passing the first time by 3 points. And I don't practice law anymore.

6. I went to Ground Zero with Auntie Nettie in 2003. Doug couldn't understand why I wanted to go, but it was something I had to see for myself. It's something I'll never forget.

7. I am not a funny person, per se. So, when I make a funny, I feel like someone should throw a parade in my honor, or at least laugh with me. Laughing at me makes me cry.

So, there you have it. Now you join in:

Auntie Nettie at Auntie Nettie's Attic
Jane at Flax Hill Garden
Sam at The Way Life Is
Thia at Untangled Web
Amy at Tulip and Turnip
Creative Kerfuffle
Di at Motherhood is Painless

Hope you'll play along!

'Tis the Season!

So, I am a member of THAT Nation. Know what I'm talking about? No? Bet this will help:

Yes, we are RED SOX fans. No, this is not a recent picture (I WISH!). And no, I don't have anything for the twins.....yet. We were indeed up at 6 am the last two days to watch the Sox in Tokyo. With the kids. You know, before breakfast. Ok, so I "listened" to the game (HA. Actually I slept thru the first two innings both days). We are going to attend (sans children of course) 1 game this season. And it's our first Sox vs The Evil Empire (uh, I mean Yankees) game. In September. Which means it could be a really great game, or meaningless. Doesn't matter. We're going with friends and we actually got tickets. Now that the Sox rule the baseball world, getting tickets requires some finagling. First, you have to sign up for the chance to have your name drawn to perhaps, maybe, if you're lucky, purchase tickets. Then, you either get the "you're a loser" email (which I got 3 of, lucky me), or the "hey, you lucky bum, you get this once in a lifetime chance to maybe purchase tickets". Then, on the appropriate day and time, you log on via secret, special links and wait. Yep, you wait in a "lobby" FOREVER, hoping that you'll get in to purchase tickets. There are several games to choose from, but you can only pick one. And then there might not be any tickets left for the game you choose. I'd have better luck in Vegas. But anyway, on the appropriate day at the appropriate time, we logged on and waited. And on that day, we were to be attending Disney on Ice~Princesses. And as the time ticked, ticked, ticked away and we were still in the baseball lobby from hell, we got a bit panicky. How will we get tickets? We can't let this opportunity pass us by. We have to leave to take the twins to grandparents so we can take Meg and Drew to the Disney on Ice show (for which we had front row seats thank you very much). Thank goodness our friends were home when we called, and we gave them all the secret handshakes, etc. and they waited in the baseball lobby from hell for awhile, and acquired the tickets (kind of a letdown, now wasn't it?). And those tickets are now worth $500 each if we choose to sell them. Which of course we won't. Because maybe Beckett will be on the mound (I love him!) like last year when we went (courtesy of one of Doug's clients!!!) and maybe it will be a game that means something. But who cares!?!? Baseball season is here and we're ready! Go Sox!

The weekend roundup~yeehaw!

We had a pretty decent weekend. It all started, for me at least, with a nice arrival in the mail from my old friend Jane. She had read about the sock incident and sent along a lovely striped pair for me. I was having a very cranky Friday and that cheered me up. Thank you Jane!


Saturday was a good day. It started off early, watching Megan play goalie for the first time. She was so excited to be a goalie, but so nervous that we had to practically force her onto the ice. Once she got out there though, she was AWESOME! We were so proud of her!

Saturday night we had a little date to go see our niece and nephew in their high school performance of Guys and Dolls. They were incredible, as always. We can only hope that our kids grow up to be as talented, smart, wonderful and caring as their cousins.

We had a nice Easter as well. Ok, so you can't tell from this photo (Izzie was mad because we wanted her to stop playing for the photo op) but the Easter candy hunt was fun, the kids got loads of stuff from everyone, and we got to visit both families over the course of the day. It's so nice that our parents only live 10 minutes apart.

So, that's it. Now we're back to Monday. And the girls are back to a barely 45 minute nap. And still no one has invented the coffee IV.

Hooked on a feeling

I met Doug back in high school. Back when he was a football player and I was a band geek. Back when teenagers are too stupid to realize that just because he's a football player and she's a band geek doesn't mean that they can't be friends. That was the social nature of our high school though, so even though we had calculus class together, we only ever said hi to each other, every day for an entire school year. It was not love at first sight.


Even when we started spending time together, the summer after we graduated, it wasn't love at first sight (not for me, I mean). He was nice to me and he carried on conversations with my parents, and we had fun together. But I was going to New York for college and he was staying in Maine, so of course nothing was going to happen between us.


Well, time went on during my freshman year of college and I had a couple of boyfriends, but Doug and I chatted on the phone (that was before email and all that jazz, can you believe it?). I distinctly remember the moment I knew that I felt something for him, even if it was unnamed at the time. He called me to tell me he had been in a car accident. He was fine, but I remember asking him if I should come home. Things changed for us then; we spent all the time I was in Maine together. That summer, between freshman and sophomore year of college, we became an "item". We've really never looked back.

We didn't have an easy romance. We spent 7 years apart, seeing each other only on school vacations, the random long weekend, or weekends once I moved to Boston for law school. Oh, I could have attended UMaine Law, but who knows how our story would have ended. When we finally married, everyone commented on how relaxed we seemed at our wedding. For us, it was a "well it's about time we got married" feeling at our wedding.

This year we'll celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, and our 17th anniversary of being an "item". We were just talking last night about how we're almost to the point of having spent half our lives together. It's that feeling from way back when that we have that keeps us together I think. We're comfortable, but not so comfortable that we don't make an effort to work on our marriage. We're each other's best friend. I can't imagine not having him in my life. He knows when to make me laugh, when to give me a hug and when to shut up and listen (even if he doesn't always hear me, he IS listening). Love you baby.

The "Pick your Battles" Battle

I hate the phrase "pick your battles". It is a truly annoying three-word sentence. The reason I hate that phrase is because I am SO LOUSY at picking my battles with the kids. And hence I have large amounts of gray hair that I cannot attribute to my husband. And that infuriates me. Because really, I've been with him for 17 years, so all those grays really are his doing.


Ugh, I digress, again. The reason I am so lousy at picking my battles is that I am a Type AAAA personality, so of course what I say, should go. HA. HA. HA. If I say "Drew, lunch is bologna and cheese" then of course that is what lunch should be. Right? No. Not. So. Much. What inevitably happens is Drew (sorry buddy, but you're my target today) will hoot and holler about wanting yogurt for lunch and I will hoot and holler right back about me being the boss, and lunch is what I give him. Please tell me why I fight with a 3 year old about lunch (or some other silly sundry). I sound completely insane (now, no comments please). So if I KNOW that I sound insane and I KNOW that fighting with my kids over silly little sundries is dumb, then why don't I stop? That is my battle. My "pick your battles" battle. (I sound like Dr. Seuss). I don't know where to draw the line. If I give in every day with the bologna vs. yogurt argument, then do I give in with 3 hours of tv vs. 1 hour of tv? Do you see my problem?

Of course, not every battle is one that should even require a discussion. NO, they will NOT run with scissor, knives or other sharp instruments. NO, they will NOT hit/kick/knock over their baby sisters/me/their father. NO, they will NOT go out of my sight in our woods. Too bad I'm the only one that believes those rules are not arguable. In my pretty mind I make the rules and everyone follows them.

So, if you have a solution to my "pick your battles" battle, drop me a comment! I'm all ears.