At the marina

abby & george at the marina! 

We took the boat to the shore this weekend. We had fairly nice weather, and Abby had a great time on the ride! Annie and Sean came for the ride on the boat too, so Abby was overly excited, to say the least! I wasn't sure how Georgie would be for the length of the boat trip, so he and I stayed home, and I drove the car down later in the day on Saturday. First thing Sunday morning, we broke out Abby's swimmies and floatie, and headed for the pool. Annie and Sean were Abby's tugboats, as she had them pull her all over the pool! We threw a ball around for a while, and then Georgie took a dip. He sat in his floatie, and after the initial shock of the cold water, had a blast!

The whole weekend was an adventure, being this was the first that Abby spent any time away from home since being potty trained. She did really well! I'm so proud of her! She even did her first poopy on the potty this weekend at the boat! (sorry Abby, I have to document this for all the world to see...)

Girl's night out.

Abby and I went out for "girls night" tonight. We headed over to the mall, on a mission. We found two dresses for her almost instantly, and just as easily found a pair of shoes, and a new purse for her for the wedding tomorrow. Afterwards, we wandered around from dress to dress, until I finally settled on one I like OK. I ran down to the shoe department and found a pair of heels that work well with the dress, and I got myself a purse too. I figured if Abby got a new one, why not? We were both hungry... shopping will do that to you, so we got dinner and ice cream! Abby didn't care what flavor of ice cream she had, as long as it was pink (her new favorite color)! So, she wound up with rasberry sherbert. She was as happy as a lark. On our way home, we decided to drive by Al and Dot's (just because), and it so happened that Al was just pulling up to the house at the same time we were driving by. We stopped in to say hello, because Abby, of course, wanted to show off her new purse and dresses. We stayed for about an hour or so, but by then Abby and I were worn out (shopping will do that to you too)! We said goodbye, and headed the four blocks home. We showed George what we had bought, and then I quickly put curlers in Abby's hair, before she put up too much of a protest. She looks so cute with her hair all rolled up in the curlers!! It will look really cute for the wedding tomorrow too (when I take the rollers out, of course)! Anyway, I'll report back about the whole wedding on Sunday, I suppose.

Remembrance of things past.

Class again last night... I noticed on my way up to the second floor that all school stairwells smell exactly the same. I cannot describe the smell, but whatever it is, it took me back to my junior year of high school again. I do not know why it took me back as specifically as to my junior year. Maybe I spent a lot of time going back and forth from floor to floor that year. Have you ever had this experience? Where your nose gets ahold of a scent and suddenly you you're transported back in time to a person, place or thing that you had forgotten for years? It happens to me all the time. A whiff of pipe tobacco, the aroma of bread being baked in a bakery, or any long-forgotten scent can instantly conjure up scenes and emotions from the past. Certain perfumes and colognes always remind me of certain people, past or present, in my life. Even tastes. Certain foods will do it too, and rightly so, because most of the flavor of food comes from its aroma.

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In The Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust described what happened to him after drinking a spoonful of tea in which he had soaked a piece of madeleine, a type of cake: "No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me," he wrote. "An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses...with no suggestion of its origin... "Suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was of a little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings...my Aunt Leonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea....Immediately the old gray house on the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set...and the entire town, with its people and houses, gardens, church, and surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being from my cup of tea." Just seeing the madeleine had not brought back these memories, Proust noted. He needed to taste and smell it. "When nothing else subsists from the past," he wrote, "after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered...the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls...bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory."

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Between the stairwells, and the tiny little desks, with hardly room for one opened textbook, I felt like a teenager again. Class went well, but I'm still a little bored. I remember everything so far from my Algebra classes in HS... but I'm sure I won't be saying that for too much longer. I looked ahead in the book, and in about 2 or 3 more chapters, which is equivalent to about one-half of the next classes, it should be getting a little harder. The weather outside is lovely, beautiful, gorgeous. 75 and sunny. And the lumps that Abby and I decided to be, stayed in all day. It's a Jeremy Piven marathon day. I think he would probably fall under the category "People I Fancy, But Feel I Shouldn't." I think he's kinda cute, and an awesome actor too. It sucks that he always seems to be cast as the sidekick/best friend. Hey Cusack! Why don't you play the best friend for once? Why don't you sit Piven down and explain to him why he can't let this fantastic girl walk out of his life? George is going to "the" Korean restaurant with the Koreans and the other guys from work again tonight... The last time he went, he ate live octopus (still moving on the plate), and drank some Korean whiskey all night... he smelled like death when he walked in the door. As a precaution, I asked him, very nicely, to sleep downstairs tonight. No way am I having my sheets smell that bad again! Ugh! Nothing much else to report... it's been a fairly uneventful week. Sometimes no news is good news, right?

Math 118

I got home from class a little while ago, and I hope it doesn't sound too insane, but I had so much fun! I really love my teacher (Deb)... she is very cool. I decided not to pick up my Algebra book before the class. I wanted to wait until I knew what book the teacher wanted us to use. I was glad I waited, because I definitely would have picked up the wrong book... Most of the people in the class that got their book ahead of time didn't get the right one. Anyway, once we were shown the correct book to buy, we were allowed to go down to the store and pick one up before we started our first class. The air conditioner was broken in our classroom, so I thought I was going to hate my first night... It was so hot in that room!!! But we were told we could move our class down to the Study Lab, and we did. We did alot of work tonight! Deb said she moves fast, and boy, she wasn't kidding! I guess we kind of have to, being that it's only a 7 week course! By the time everyone had gotten back to the room from getting their books, and we moved down to the Study Lab, we only had about 2 hours left (out of a 3 hour night), and we blew right through that book. I have about 8 pages in my notebook, just full of all the algebra equations we did in class tonight... Not to mention the 5 workbook pages of homework... That's alot of math for one night!! :) I can't imagine how much more work we're going to do when we have the full 3 hours! Like I said at the top, I may sound like a complete dork, but I think it's fun!

On the way home, I stopped for a sandwich and did my homework at the restaurant. It's good to get it out of the way. I might do that every week, just so the everything is still fresh in my head, and there are no kids vying for my attention while I'm trying to do my work!

Back to school.

I start my first day of classes tomorrow night! I'm very excited, a little curious, and just slightly nervous to see what my instructor is like. According to the schedule, she's a woman. I haven't bought my algebra book for class yet, so I might try to head to the school a little early tomorrow and browse around the store before class.

I got a lot more work done in the yard today.

George went to the Preakness yesterday with Al. Smarty Jones won! Woo-hoo! They had great seats, about the best seats in the house. Something like $250 tickets right behind the finish. I think George took a video on his digital camera of the end of the race, right when Smarty pulls in front, and wins by maybe a bazillion lengths.

That's about it...

I see dead people.

I went to the movies with Mom tonight. We saw Godsend The movie was really good, but the couple behind us made the movie even better (funny, even). At every semi-scary or intense scene, they would both jump and scream which, of course, made everyone in the theater jump and scream. They kept scaring us more than the actual movie! I still have yet to understand the ending. It's probably one of those movies you have to see again and again to get more out of it. Anyway, after the movie, I introduced my mom to the wonderful world of sushi. It was her first real time with the whole experience. I think she liked it OK, maybe not. I could tell she was definitely turned off by some things on the menu, and I know she was worried about a few things that we ordered, but she was not squeamish by any means when it came to trying things. She tasted just about everything on the plate, and hardly made any faces. I don't think anyone can love sushi as much as I do, with the exception of maybe George. The restaurant we go to is phenominal!! The entire place is immaculate, the food is so fresh, and the people are so hospitable.

Well, I am fresh out of things to write about... too tired!!

This week.

Mother's Day was very nice. I spent the morning just hanging out with Abby and Georgie, and then later in the day my mom and dad, and George's mom and dad came over for a barbecue. George made lobster and lamb chops. It was such a beautiful, beautiful day to be outside. Dottie and I wound up polishing off a "few" bottles of wine, and a couple martinis for our finale, and, to say the least, did not enjoy our Monday morning after. But, all in all, it was a great day!

To my throbbing head's surprise, Denise called around 11 the next morning, asking if Abby, Georgie and I would like to join her and Annie for lunch at the diner. I picked Dottie up at 1 o'clock, and off we went to lunch. It was so much fun to all get together in the afternoon, and we hope to try to make a habit of doing it more often. I know Abby loves spending time with Annie! When we got home on Monday, we never made it in the door. It was such a gorgeous day, Abby and I decided to hang out front. We pulled her baby pool out of the garage, and tried on her bathing suit from last year... the pool and bathing suit proved to be too small, but Abby didn't seem to mind it just for the day. Sydnee and Nick took their pool out, which is much bigger, and Abby, and even Georgie enjoyed swimming in it too!

Tuesday morning, I knew Kelly and James were coming over, so I headed out early to run a few errands. I made a deal with Abby the night before to give up her binkies and bottles for good, but as a reward for doing so, I would buy her two new bathing suits and a big pool just like Sydnee and Nick's. She agreed after some discussion, and so we headed out first thing in the morning. She decided on two bathing suits she liked, and picked the pool. We grabbed a suit for Georgie and headed home.

Kelly and James showed up a few minutes after we pulled up, and the kids played outside almost the entire day. We inflated Abby's pool and even Georgie took a dip. He "swam" around in his infant tube for a while, and couldn't be happier.

Yesterday, the kids stayed out all day, yet again... I got a lot of yard work done (finally). I spent the day pulling weeds, digging out and transplanting bushes, shrubs and flowers. It looks 110% better, and now all I have left to do is turn the soil and plant grass seed in some areas.

I got a letter in the mail yesterday about my placement test. My placement was for English 101 and Math 118. So I signed up for the math, which is basically an Algebra-II class... I'm happy I can skip Algebra-I. I start class on Monday! I can't believe how excited I am to be starting school again!

Today was the same as all the other days this week: swimming, running, playing and gardening!

Sorry this is very choppy, but I'm typing this very quickly. I have alot to get finished tonight since we haven't been in the house all week!

I had a pretty great day, compared to yesterday. I got alot of cleaning done, so I can feel good about relaxing tomorrow (Mother's Day). George is cooking tomorrow for dinner, and I think the only people coming are his parents and my mom. Dad will hopefully make it, but he works every Sunday now. He said he's going to go in very early, around 3 a.m., to try to make sure he is done in enough time to stop by. I hope he definitely makes it!

Not a long entry tonight... gonna go relax, as soon as I finish putting new sheets on the bed.

A holy mess.

It's almost Saturday... Thank God, because that means George will be home all day tomorrow, and it also means today is just about over... it was a horrible day! It started out with Abby waking up with a fever, and she was so cranky (justifiably!). Georgie is still very grouchy and clingy, so he cried pretty much all day if I wasn't holding him, which made Abby upset because she wanted the extra attention today, being sick as sick as she was.

I was trying to put a load of wash in this morning, when I heard Abby calling for me and screaming the at baby at the same time. When I came out of the laundry room to see what was going on, I saw Georgie sitting in a puddle, splashing around and laughing. He was soaked. When I asked Abby why the floor was wet, she said, "Della peed." Sure enough, with just a sniff, I fully confirmed Abby's accusations: dog pee. So, I threw Georgie in the tub, scrubbed him with globs of antibacterial soap and brushed his teeth, just in case. Once he was sanitized and dressed, I put Della in the garage and mopped up her mess on the family room floor.

Within minutes of completing this task, Abby stated that she was hungry. I went upstairs, poured her a bowl of cereal, and as I was pulling the milk out, I noticed the food in the fridge was all very warm... After messing around with the temperature controls for a while, I came to the conclusion that the refrigerator was definitely broken, and everything in it was for the garbage. I just went food shopping yesterday. I rummaged through the garage until I found the contractor garbage bags, walked back into the kitchen, and I filled the bags with my rotten groceries.

The next catastrophe came about an hour later when Abby was using the potty, which she is doing very well with, I might add. Anyway, I was parked on the bathroom floor, waiting for her to do her business, and she suddenly got very quiet and turned a palish-green. Before I got the chance to ask her if she was OK, she proceeded to projectile vomit all over me and the entire bathroom. I pulled her off the toilet, stripped her down, washed her up, and got her into a change of clothes. I set her up on the couch, with blankets, pillows, a movie, a bucket, and some more Tylenol for her fever. She wound up falling asleep for about an hour, which gave me just enough time to clean the bathroom, get a shower, and wash the clothes I was wearing and the towels I used to clean up Abby and the bathroom. I thought my luck just had to turn around at this point, but the wood I knocked on must have been Formica after all. I don't know what inspired me, but I decided that while I had the mop out, I would clean all the floors downstairs. While doing this, I heard the washer start to spin and empty. As I was continuing to mop I noticed the washer sounds were much, much louder than usual, so I ran to the laundry room to find that the entire washer had emptied onto the floor. Apparently the rag I had been using to clean some of the kids toys a few minutes back had fallen into the wash tub, clogging the drain. Thus all of the water had flowed over to the floor! At this point, my third set of clothes for the day were soaked, and I was beyond the point of breaking. I sunk to the floor and began to cry.

I don't even know where to begin, or more important, when this ends.

Getting back my curves.

I have to get my butt in gear. I'm trying to get back into shape, so I'm going to join Curves gym. It looks pretty cool. I've heard nothing but good things about it from people who go there. Between going there 3x a week, and school 2 nights, I'm going to be very busy! Not in a bad way, because it'll make me happy to be doing something just for me again. It seems I'm always busy doing everything for everyone else, and I never get a chance to do my thing. Well, now it's time. I figure with going to the gym a few times every week, and eating better, I should be back in my old jeans in no time. I should be able to burn it pretty quickly, being that I'm still young. Sounds like a plan to me! Anyway, speaking of eating better, time to call for some takeout. George said he definitely won't be home for dinner, so we're on our own tonight. Georgie is in his playpen, and not happy about it. Abby won't get out of the tub... they just finished their bath together... they love being in the tub together and it definitely makes it easier and faster for me to get them both washed. OK, I'm gonna go make my appointment to visit the gym... then it's dinner time!

Potty talk, baseball games, and hitting the books.

Georgie is still sick today. Only symptoms are still just a fever and very cranky! Abby is still making progress on the potty! She woke up dry again this morning, and has been using the potty all day so far. George just called, and apparently he was offered tickets to go to the baseball game today. Conveniently, he called me to tell me this five minutes before he was leaving work to go to the game and he says he won't be home until late. I don't know why he's still going to be late, if the game is an early afternoon game. He should still get home at normal time, wouldn't you think? God forbid we ever go anywhere together. He always has plans that coincidentally don't include me. Guys night out, work related "meetings" after hours... blah, blah, blah... It might also help if we could ever get a babysitter. We can never seem to get one over here to watch the kids for the night so we can go out. I'm in the process of trying to find a teenager in the neighborhood so that I always have one on hand. It would be good to have one around for the summer too, so if I need help during the day, she (or he, I shouldn't be sexist) could always pop over for a few hours and help me out. There's a girl down the street, she's about 16 or so. I think she is Bill English's granddaughter (Dot's neighbor). So, anyway, I guess it's not really G's fault that we always have to go out separately. But, anyway... I'm trying to get alot done around here today, and I'll be so happy when it's done! The hard work always pays off in the end, when you can go to bed knowing how much you've done, and then wake up to a clean house!

I tried calling the counselor today for school, and they won't give you your admissions test results over the phone. I'm going to try to go tomorrow night (I have to be there before 6:30) and then I can get my class scheduled and underway! I'm looking forward to going back to school. It's going to be a little weird to sit back in a classroom again, I think. I felt like a teenager again while I was taking the ad. test last week. The pressure to do well came flooding right back, like I had never left a desk! I changed my mind after talking to Mom about taking English over the summer. She's probably right that English is alot of homework and essays to worry about, especially if I'm going on vacations. Math would probably be a better choice. I can always get the assignments ahead and do them while I'm away.

It's a beautiful day today! It's about 74 ° and so sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. A good day for a baseball game... a shame I'm not going...

Naptime for Georgie is over before it ever started... he refuses to go to sleep! Gotta run for now. Be back tonight...

Mean girls

I am so tired! I never feel like I can catch up around here. I work my butt off all day, straightening and cleaning, feeding, bathing and changing.... and then at the end of the day, the house is just as bad, if not worse then when I started. I have so much to do, and I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day to do it. I have to call about my admissions test for college in the morning... I wonder how I did. Classes start May 17th, so I have to get a move on signing up for a class. If given much choice, I'll start with English... get that out of the way! I think I did pretty poorly on the essay part of the test, due to lack of time... or maybe there was plenty of time and I'm just not used to writing on demand... I went to the movies on Friday with Natalie... girls night out... it was great to get out for a few hours. I haven't done it enough lately, and I have no idea why... Anyway, we wanted to see "13 Going on 30" on Friday (chick flick night). We were trying to get into the 8:00 show, but it was sold out! The entire movie complex was full of teenagers wanting to see "Mean Girls!" That movie was sold out for all of that night and half of the next day! So, anyway, we got tickets for the 10 o'clock show for "13 Going on 30", and decided while we were waiting to walk across the street to Ruby Tuesday for dinner. After we ate, we headed back to the theater and got our popcorn and drinks and stuff... and on the way to our movie, we saw a line of teens, mostly girls, waiting to get their pictures taken with the cardboard cutouts of the stars from "Mean Girls.." When they would go up for their picture, they would pose exactly like the "mean girl" they were standing closest to. Anywho, the movie we saw was really good. I want to see it again... I'm probably waiting for the video, though. Tickets for the movie theater are just getting way out of hand, and I heard they are going to raise the prices yet again! Poor Georgie has a fever tonight... No other symptoms except for the fever (running at about 102 °)... I'll see how he is in the morning, and if it doesn't get any better, I guess we're off to the doctor's! :( Alrighty... I'm going to soak in the tub and read my People magazine, and then I'm off to bed!

Just thinking of stuff I didn't add before... Friday when I was upstairs washing some dishes, Abby and Georgie came up with a new game... Indians. Abby "decorates" herself and Georgie with markers, drawing tribal lines and shapes all over their bodies... When I came downstairs, much to my surprise, Georgie's hair was completely green, he had blue lines all over his face. Abby had colored all of her fingers, both legs and her face. It was cute, but a big mess... the floor was the hardest to clean.

Saturday we went to Sean's First Holy Communion... well, we missed the church ceremony due to a migraine (mine), but afterwards we met the family at Villa Barone for dinner. Good food! Abby had a great time with her cousins as usual. Georgie had his first taste of real Italian food, fresh mozzarella cheese, great homemade bread, still hot from the oven, and of course, pasta. I think he may have even eaten olives. He loved it! His stomach was so full, it was actually rock solid to the touch. After gorging ourselves at the restaurant, we all went back to Denise's for dessert, as if we didn't have enough food at dinner! Abby met Annie and Sean's new hamster. The hamster's name is Kiki, though Abby insists on calling her "Pinky..." They still have their first hamster, Buffy, too. If you can imagine, Abby was in her glory! Two hamsters! She wants her own now, but I keep telling her we can visit Annie and Sean's any time she wants!

She put on a "Hat Show" with Sean and Alyssa towards the end of the night, where the three of them would try on different hats they found around the house, and then come outside and model them for everyone! The funny part is that Abby, the usually shy and reserved little girl, was walking down the back steps and through the yard like it was a runway, and she was a very confident, assured model! She kept walking up to Al and telling him, "Look at me, Pop-Pop! I'm Beautiful!" She has continued the 'show' at home, where she has managed to pull out (and try on) every hat, scarf, glove, and mitten, along with all my jewelry and makeup... We turned the hallway into a runway, and she models for me and Georgie!

General update :)

Well, I haven't been writing in this thing for quite some time, to say the least.... I haven't had a computer for a while... my desktop was all messed up and out of service. I was using George's laptop for a bit, and then he surprised me with a laptop of my own! It has taken me quite some time to get this new computer set up to my liking and personalized! It's getting there, but my old desktop is holding my old files for ransom! Waiting patiently to find some way of retrieving them! Anyway, I love my laptop.. so much better than the dinosaur I was using before! Georgie is getting so big! Within the last 2 months, he has been crawling like crazy (so fast!) and walking along the furniture, getting into everything!!! He's broken many things. He can hardly sit still for 2 seconds, which is the total opposite of how Abby was... she was so quiet! I hardly had to worry about baby-proofing with her! She's still that way!
This week has been the big Potty-training week for her! She is doing really well. She slept 2 nights without a diaper or Pull-up, just underwear... and woke up dry! She runs to the potty first thing after she wakes up, and pees! She has been going for 3 days with just underwear on when she plays! So far she is "accident free" for 2 days (with the exception of going #2, which I know will take some time to master!) She is so funny! She has been watching "Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmaron" which is a movie about a horse, and has become horse obssessed! She has a toy horse she likes to ride, but recently I guess she wanted something a little more "live" than the stuffed horse... so she decided to ride Georgie!! The poor kid... I heard him crying downstairs, a very jolted cry, and when I went down to see what was happening, he was on all fours with Abby straddled on his back, jumping up and down, yelling "giddee-up Georgie!"
Georgie is on most solid foods now, his favorite being sliced bananas! Between him and Abby, we can't keep a bunch of bananas in the house for more than a day!
Other than that, I can't think of anything else (atleast for the moment). I'll get back here tonight and try to give a more interesting update!!