Note to self

Before you get your children and children of another family excited about a movie, best to check the listings the day you will see the movie. We went with another family hoping to see WALL-E but found that the last showing was yesterday. We instead opted to see Space Chimps. The boys enjoyed it....I just thought it was ok. It was a good thing that the Mom decided to join us on this venture. Her son who is friends with my boys ended up breakind down during the movie because he was scared. She had to leave the movie about 45 minutes into it. His 3 and 4 year old siblings were ok.

Nobody is home

I have not given much detail to the people in our neighborhood. And believe me these people are not the same that Mr. Rogers encountered on his TV show. Most people are nice, I always try to give the benefit of the doubt. There are specific groups (ok cliques). They are nice to each other in appearance, but the tension doesn't go unnoticed. The bus stop should be interesting this year!

I am finally getting around to posting the story about my nieghbor from the other day. It really isn't that exciting, I hope I didn't get your hopes up for something juicy. It was a little wierd. Here you go.

Our doorbell rang around 1pm on Monday. It was a neighbor from across the street, that in itself is not so bad right? Wrong!


A little back round information on my neighbor. She is from New York, so I will call her NY. I have talked with her maybe 5 times and I know she probably doesn't know my name, but I know hers. It has been witnessed by others that she and her husband yell at each other outside for all to hear(I have only heard one such incidence). And she constantly complains about him, he is cheap, he doesn't tell her anything, he is very laid back etc. She is known to yell at her 4 boys, aged 11, 9 and twins who are 8. A conversation with her no matter how short will always include the words ass and damn especially when my kids are around. Lastly, she also has been known to show her ass to others and also her boobs. Sound lovely?


On the not so funny side, a few weeks ago she had a double mastectomy because of cancerous cells in her milk ducts. All went well with the surgery and she recovered amazinly. I saw her shortly after surgery and asked her if she needed anything, thinking of mainly making them a meal. She said she had more food than she knew what to do with.


Last week, she came out and asked if I would walk with her. Before our walk started, she was baring her chest so that we could see the scars and expanders they put in. Luckily, I am not offended by things like that as I find medical science amazing. She feels better when she gets out a few times a day. Me being the good neighbor, walked with her and listened to her chat non-stop. You guessed it she is one of those people who really likes to talk but not listen so much. Did I mention she is very opinionated? In the course of our conversation, she mentioned her great fertility. I managed to get a few words in and told her she was lucky because it was a struggle for us to get pregnant both times. This did not seem to phaze her at all. Somehow adoption came up and she made a comment that it was not good to adopt because you never know what you are going to get. This seriously came out of her mouth. Ms. NY I have a niece and a nephew who have been adopted and we have no problems. They are loved just like everyone else in the family. I was floored as we were walking and could not wait to step back onto my property and quickly leave her side. This was the longest walk ever.

Ok, down to her visit. She wanted my boys (by the way she didn't even know they were twins) to play with her 9 year old. When I told her my kids are only 6 she then thought about her twins. She is very pushy and said let me take your boys. I sat there for a moment not knowing what to say.....so of course I said well why don't your boys come over here. We would love to have them visit. My boys were just getting ready to play WII. Her twins came over and played for 2 hours. They have speech issues, it has a real name but I can not remember what she said. Basically, their is a breakdown with the brain getting their lips to move. One was not very easy to understand but I managed the best I could. In all honesty, her boys were very well behaved. They kind of did their own thing and then they would play with my boys for a while and then go off and play on their own.

My issues is that I am not sure that I want my kids to go over there. I am not sure what I am going to do if she comes back. I don't think she is a bad person but I don't know her very well other than hearing her opinions on our walk the other day. I better start thinking.

Batter Up

We had a very busy Sunday. In fact, it was non stop from the moment we woke up until the time our heads hit the pillow last night. We were exhausted to begin with because the baby spent a lot of time crying during the night. I happened to look in his mouth the other day and saw very red swollen gums. The fact that he has been drueling was a good clue also.

We started by running (no not literally) by the nursery to ok all of our plants that have been picked out for our project starting in 2 weeks. When we got back home it was a rush to get some dinner items made for the company we were having that night. And I had to finish preparing another meal I was taking to a friend who had surgery. Then off to the Orioles baseball game. We took the two older boys. We were sitting really close to the field. I almost felt like I could reach out and touch one of them. I am not a huge fan of baseball but it was fun to be there at the game especially when the boys were having such a good time. The heat ended up getting to EE and we had to leave to find some shade. Once we got a snack we decided to head home. We made it until the bottom of the 4th inning and if you know how baseball works that is almost 2 hours. Once we got home we worked on getting ready for our company. It ended up being a very nice night and a great cookout.

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I think I will be getting a new cell phone soon at least that is what my husband has been telling me for the last month. Yes, you got it an entire month or maybe even longer. At night he usually sits on the couch with his PC and visits the Sprint website (this is almost every night). We decided to stay with Sprint because we have a fairly decent rate and their service is about as good as what we would get with other plans, meaning cell service in my area stinks. I have even picked out the color of my new phone. I will have the capability of texting others. I am not sure why he feels it necessary to continually look at the same phones every night and not make the purchase. I suppose when he gets it all figured out I will finally get a new phone.

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A really weird thing with a neighbor has happened today. I don't have time today to go into it but boy do I have a headache.

An update

Thursday night ended up being a nice night out. We went to Downtown Baltimore and ate at this place called Rory's. It was a little fru fru for me but very nice. What I do I mean? The prices are high and the food is not so plentiful. The food I did have was very good. Instead of a glass of wine I opted for a Pineapple martini. I only had one because I was driving, yummy!

The two ladies I was with each had 3 martinis and had entrees while I got a salad and an appetizer (believe me it wasn't cheep). We also split an appetizer and dessert. When we got the bill ($200) I added up my portion and it was less than $50 and that included the full price for the appetizer and dessert. I told them I would pay $50 for my portion. I really felt that this was more than I owed. When I explained this to my husband he said I should have paid 1/3 of the bill. What? Really? Did I mention that they each had 3 martinis at $11 a pop. I feel like I did the right thing.


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LEMONADE AND BAKE SALE

We started baking on Friday. We made chocolate chip cookies, marscapone cheese cupcakes and toffee bars. The boys had a great time helping with the cookies and cupcakes. We ran out of time and I had to make the bars.






The boys set up around 11am and stayed out there until about 3pm. It was a very quiet day on our street. It just so happened that our neighbor had a paint crew at his house and they visited the boys a few times for drinks and dessert. The boys still managed to make about $25. This does not include the money that the husband's work is contributing for the chocolate pound cake I just made for them. They wanted to support the boys in their cause. As I mentioned the boys will donate the money to St. Judes Cancer Research.




The baby wanted a piece of the action. The boys set up near a tree so that they could have some shade.

Nothing a glass of wine can't cure

The top 5 reasons on why I need a girl's

night out and why it is happening tonight:

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5) I am still trying to figure out the women in the neighborhood. There are definite cliques in the neighborhood and I like women from both.

4) Not being able to find the time to clean the main floor of my house which has been declared a natural disaster. Hm....maybe I should not be blogging right now.

3) Road construction annoyance. I take the same route practically everyday and everyday there is one side of the road closed. This has happened for the last 4 weeks. How much more work on the wires can you do?

2) Getting called out of my workout class because the baby has a dirty diaper and they are not allowed to change them.

1) The constant bickering between EE and Jay is more than one person can handle. I believe my head may explode at some point.

And that is why I am going out tonight with two neighbors. We have no real plan other than leaving our respective families for a night out of friendship and fun, which will more than likely include a glass of wine.

Toothless in Md

Last year when my boys started losing their teeth, I told them the story of how my Dad used to get our loose teeth to come out. I remember vividly that my Dad used to take a string and tie one end to our tooth and the other to the door knob (usually in the bathroom). Then he would SLAM the door shut so that the tooth would be pulled out of the socket. Would it not have been easier just to grab hold of the tooth and pull it out? The boys laughed when I told the story.

EE’s front tooth (the one that came out of the socket a few years ago after his brother threw a Hot Wheels car at him) got really loose over the last week. He had joked, or at least I thought, about getting the ribbon from the balloon and tying it to his tooth. Yesterday, when I was sitting in my office I hear the boys coming down the stairs talking loudly about something. I look and EE has his tooth in his hand and a bloody mouth. He went on to tell me that Jay tied the ribbon to the door knob and that EE put the other side in his mouth right underneath the loose tooth. Jay shut the door and voila the tooth came out.

I am happy to report that the tooth fairy did stop by to pick up EE's tooth and leave a dollar bill. For EE’s last tooth, the tooth fairy forgot to make the stop at our house. Imagine me at 6:30am trying to come up with a good enough reason on why the tooth fairy would have missed him.

EE right after his tooth came out on the phone telling his

Dad what just happened

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We spent the morning today getting school supplies. They are very specific in what they would like you to buy but they don’t always make it easy to find the supplies. I still have a few items to purchase but at least we purchased most of the them. My pockets feel very empty at this time.

Lemonade anyone

Last night I attended a Mothers of Multiples meeting with a friend. As I suspected, it was very cliquey. I joined the group when we moved here mainly for the resources the group provides. I have sold many things to members and the members have provided me a lot of references. I am not sure that I will go to another meeting but you never know.

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The boys have been begging asking me to do a Lemonade and bake sale with them. I asked the boys what they wanted to do with the money they made. Of course, they both said they wanted to go spend it on “things” at the store. I told them that the only way I would do the stand with them was if they donated the money to a specific cause. I got to thinking more and gave them the option of donating the money in honor of the boy next door who is battling Cancer. We will let you know how it works out.

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On Sunday, as I was leisurely going through the mail, I came upon a letter from our Homeowners Association. They have asked us to pressure wash the front of our home. The front of our home is mainly brick with a little bit of surface at the top. I was fuming when I read it and really wanted to let them know what they could do with the letter. We do all we can to keep our house looking nice. I think we will just borrow the neighbor’s pressure washer and see if it will come clean….otherwise it will just have to wait.

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The next project on the husband's list is to build the boys a sandbox. He is to start sometime this weekend.

Vacation photos

Here we are in front of the villa we rented.


At the park. One of the few pictures where the baby is actually smiling and not running away.


At the park.


At the beach.

We had a great beach trip even with the baby's sleep issues. He had an ok night last night, woke up once but he went back to sleep on his own in a relatively short period of time. We hope by our next trip (I can tell you I am not ready to travel anywhere for the time being) he will be a little older and a better sleeper.

I have asked the boys to tell me their favorite part of the vacation and I have gotten the same response each time. "I liked everything!" They really did enjoy the beach and the many activities they did: tennis, hitting golf balls, fishing, swimming in the pool, playing at the park, going out for ice cream and riding bikes everywhere.

My favorite part was that we are together as a family for a straight week. Unfortunately for me, vacation doesn't mean no cooking, cleaning, laundry and other day to day activities. But vacation does mean that the husband helps in all of the chores. It is nice that the kids get extra special time with Dad.

We were intrigued by the games people play on the beach. One game is called beach golf bowl, click on the link to check it out. We saw a few version of that game. We also saw ladder golf, which the husband would like to get for our backyard. I think we will be a little more prepared for games next year as the boys will probably need a little more to keep them busy.

The drive home was very long as I implied in my post yesterday. We caught traffic in Virginia and it stayed congested just about the rest of the way home. I saw some real idiots on the road yesterday. One man was done with his soda can so he threw it out his window. We were on a highway going 65 miles per hour and he really thinks it is a good idea to toss his beverage. I so wanted to roll down my window and let him know how I felt but couldn't’t because I had kids in the car. The second person I saw was driving down the road, flying no less, talking on the phone, drinking a soda and driving with her legs. That is what I call talent.

You can view all our pictures by clicking on the picture over on the right under the Hilton Head title.

Home sweet home

We made it home, albeit a very long drive, safe and sound. We left HHI at 5:40 this morning and didn't arrive in Maryland until about 5pm due to traffic delays as we approached the DC area. I will update tomorrow with more details and pictures from our trip.

We had a great vacation but it is good to be home!