May 2005 Archives

Despite the sage advice of author Joyce Maynard, above, we decided to take the easy way out...

...we bought a home today.

This will come as no surprise to some of you, who know we've been going through the necessary steps behind the scenes to find a permanent place to live. But I guarantee this announcement will shock a few people reading this site.

Yes, we closed on a house today. We bought the house we've been renting for the past year and a half. Our landlord approached us about six months ago with an offer to sell, but we were busy making babies at the time. We put him off as long as we could, but he was tenacious.

This wasn't supposed to be the year in which we bought a house. Alecia and I were working on repairing our credit, paying off some bills, and saving some money for a purchase in 2006. But the former owner of our house made us an offer we couldn't refuse (and when we turned that down, he made us an even better offer). We ended up getting the house at almost $15K below appraisal with a great interest rate, all closing costs paid, and some repairs thrown in to top off the deal. When we decide to leave this house (and believe me, it's just a starter home for us--we'll be leaving in 3-5 years), we should be able to make a nice profit off of it, that can then be put into a better house.

Anyway, the deal is done. We now own the house at 2579 Spring Dr., and Alecia and I have already started putting our list of "to-do" projects in order. Over the next six months, we'll be replacing carpet, putting in laminate flooring, painting many of the rooms, and doing a hell of a lot of landscaping. If you've heard us complain about something related to the house, now we're responsible for all of that stuff. Ugh, I think I feel sick.

I hope nobody's disappointed that we didn't let them in on our big plans. We've been working on this for months, but we didn't want to tell too many people until we were sure it was going to happen. And we weren't really sure it would happen until we signed all of the forms this morning.

If you think we weren't telling you about this because we didn't want your unsolicited advice, you may be right. Kidding, of course. The real reason we didn't even inform the people who could've been great resources for us is that Alecia and I really needed to do this on our own. We needed to understand what each slip of paper meant. We needed to know exactly where our finances were and how they'd change. We needed to come up with the money on our own and only have our names on the mortgage. We needed to do the legwork, endure the stress, and make the big decisions on our own. We've been very lucky to have the help of our great families and terrific friends throughout our lives--especially in the last few years. But we have two kids of our own now, and we need to be able to fend for ourselves.

So we did the research, we consulted the experts, we went through every laborious step necessary to ensure that this deal was fair and made sense for us. Now, we feel like we did something big for our family--while reaching some kind of grown-up milestone or something. It's a scary feeling, but it's also a good one.

If you'd like to know more about the house or what the final numbers looked like, feel free to ask. I'm not saying I'll tell you, but you can ask. And all apologies, again, if you feel like you were in the dark on this one. If it's really the thought that counts, we know you're thinking right now that you wish you could've done something to help, and we love you for that.

Yesterday was Todd's birthday, but because of the hectic day we had, and everything else that was going on, we totally forgot to wish him a happy birthday.

We're taking him out tonight to Six Feet Under to celebrate. Post your birthday wishes for him in the comments below.

My brother-in-law, Randy, is in the hospital. If you'd like to say a prayer or think good thoughts for him, I'm sure he'd appreciate it. He's suffering from a serious infection that has him weak and feverish. Apparently, he doctors have figured out the problem, and hopefully the large doses of antibiotics he's receiving will have Randy up and around in no time. (I'd give more details if I had any.)

Get well soon, Randy. We're thinking of you, and hope to see you healthy and happy when we get to Indiana this coming weekend.

We just got back from an amazing weekend together (just Bill and I) celebrating our upcoming 2nd anniversary. As much as I missed the girls who stayed with my mom and sister Michel, I also loved being able to hold hands and talk and spend time with my wonderful husband of 2 years and friend/companion of 7 years.

Bill planned the whole weekend and didn't tell me anything ahead of time, except what the pack. We ended up going to the North Georgia Mountains, staying in Alpine Helen, a faux German/Bavarian town that hosts the Oktoberfest every year. Not only was the town itself cute, but the scenery surrounding the area was gorgeous as well. Here's the layout of our weekend:

Saturday -
Stopping at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia: In case you don't know, it's the birthplace of all Cabbage Patch Kids. Before you think we're nuts, you have to know that my siblings and I all had the dolls as kids (my parents even had to buy them on the doll "black market" the first year they were out because they were so hard to find. think "Tickle Me Elmo" a few years ago and you'll understand). I'd always joked to Bill that we should visit and he surprised me this time. No, we weren't the only adults there without children. And yes, we did get to see a live actual cabbage patch birth. Yes, we are dorks.

Hiking to Anna Ruby Falls: Gorgeous. Romantic. Great cool weather.

Checking into our hotel on the river and visiting the shops and restaurants of Alpine Helen: We had an authentic German lunch which consisted of the wurst sampler for Bill and the remoroulade(sp?) for me (basically rolled beef wrapped in bacon and served with spaetzle). The food was good but I've never eaten a lunch that heavy in my life. If it's any indication, we were barely able to share a steak for dinner 8 hours later at 10pm. We were still full!

Dancing and dinner at Paul's on the river: After our half-hearted attempts at eating dinner, we walked around a little and returned to go dancing (and a little drinking) to the live band in Paul's bar. We were going to the nightclub down the street at Scooters, which promised a booty-shaking contest, but the place was empty and we reasoned that we would have a better time at the more crowded Paul's. We were right.

Sunday-
Sleep: Let it be said that I can't even remember the last time I slept 8 straight hours in a row. It felt good, but also so unfamiliar. In fact, both Bill and I took a good couple of hours in the morning just trying to snap out of it. We were so groggy.

Black Forest Bear Park: We visited this "park" which was actually just a little building that housed what seemed to be retired circus bears. Seriously, though, the area is known for being home to wild Grizzly bears so I'm guessing some of them had been captured locally. The place was pretty sad, but it was also interesting to see the bears up so close. We got a chance to feed them apples and bread and watch them do various things that made everyone watching say, "Awwww."

Horseback Riding at Sunburst Stables: Although Bill went last summer for a work retreat, I hadn't been on a horse since Girl Scouts in 3rd grade. We drove out to Sautee/Nacoochee, Georgia, though to go riding. Our guide was a very sweet older woman who led us on trails through the nearby National Forest for about an hour. Bill rode a horse named Roy, while I got Twister (luckily, that name didn't indicate his temperment--he'd been born during a tornado). However, my horse did have an affinity for getting up very close behind the guide's horse in front of me, or "tailgating". This was something we'd been warned to avoid for fear of spooking the other horse so I constantly had to get my horse to stop and back off the the other horse. Bill spent the entire time riding behind me on his horse laughing at my attempts. It was so much fun and the weather was perfect, but I'd completely forgotten how many muscles it actually takes to ride a horse. You think you can just sit back and let the horse do all the work but not so. Bill and I were both a little worn out after our ride.

After a few more stops in Alpine Helen at one of the candy shops and a stop at Babyland for gifts for the girls, we headed home to Atlanta. Luckily we got home to find the house (and my mom and sister!) still in one piece. The girls were great and Maddie was so excited to see us. Josie too seemed to smile really big when I picked her up. I couldn't believe how much I had missed them in just two days.

In all it was an absolutely wonderful weekend. Rather than just passing in the night, Bill and I got a chance to talk, laugh and reconnect with one another. We both made the promise to have more frequent date nights as well. Thank you, Bill, for a wonderful weekend and two wonderful years of marriage. And what a two years it's been, huh? I look forward to many more.

Toddler rescued from toy vending machine

The sad thing is, this isn't the first time it has happened:

7-Year-Old Gets Stuck In Stuffed Animal Game Machine

The weirdest thing is that neither of these kids is that small. Does this mean Maddie could fit in there? It would be nice to be able to leave her in a safe place while we're shopping at Wal-Mart. It's not as if someone will be able to get her out--it's nearly impossible to pick things up with the claw.

In yet another outage on this site, the message boards are down. I'm not sure how long they'll be out. Until they come back up, feel free to praise your favorite American Idol in the comments of this post. Um, I mean that in the complimentary way, not the "worship false idols" sense.

Some new pics are up. Since Alecia took most of them, I'll let her add the captions.

If any of you are having trouble accessing this site, we're working on the problem. Apparently, someone has been trying to hack the server this site is hosted on. It's causing outages on a bunch of sites. Hopefully, we'll get it fixed soon. Until then, if you can't get on, just come back in an hour and it should be fine.

Finally, for those of you who liked the Mr. T video I posted a few days ago, here's my favorite from that set. Once on the page, you'll have to click on "watch now" to see it. Wacky stuff.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For the sake of comparison, I just added a pic of Maddie from back when she was the exact age Josie is now. They don't look anything alike!

In honor of my mom, and my wife (who is also a mom):

Treat Her Right

I'm too bogged down at the moment to do Part Two of our enthralling weekend story, but I'll try to get to it soon.

In the meantime, here's a very funny bit of standup that seems to have been written, for the most part, about Maddie.

Right click here and choose "save as", then watch it from your desktop once it's downloaded. It's a big-ass clip (69mb), so don't even bother clicking if you're on dial-up. If you're on broadband, it'll only take four or five minutes to download.

On an unrelated note, last night was one of those fun, little "nights from hell." Maddie woke up around 3am, for no real reason, and took over TWO HOURS to get back to sleep. She spent those two hours alternating between crying (actually, SCREAMING) or repeatedly (and I mean REPEATEDLY) asking for things, as if we live to serve her. "Down? Up? Watch Wiggles? Watch Barney? Say-me-Street? Milk? Water? Binkie? Night-night? Water? Barney?" Et-frickin'-cetera. When we finally met all of the random needs of this demanding toddler and Alecia got her back to sleep in her "big-girl bed", Josie decided HER needs weren't being met adequately. She began screaming--and man, can she scream. This woke Maddie back up, and the cycle repeated. We eventually got them both to sleep at the same time, but by this time, the sun was up and it was time for Alecia to get ready for a mom's club meeting and for me to get ready for work. Gotta love nights like that.

The best part of all of this, by the way, is that we don't expect much of a reprieve tonight. When we lose sleep, it stays lost. The munchkins don't ever really allow us to catch back up. They're clever that way.

Oh, and if you're gonna comment on this little anecdote, I challenge you to say something more creative than "Don't worry, this too shall pass," or "My little niece/granddaughter/princess did all of that?" ;) If you can make us laugh with a story of your own, this day may go a little faster. :) Thanks!

I was going to make Alecia post this, because it was really her weekend. But I just noticed that she's done two posts in a row now, so I figured I may as well give her a reprieve.

Here's what we did on this sunny Mother's Day weekend, because I know you're dying to hear all about it:

Saturday:
An attempt to let Alecia sleep in while I watched the kids was interrupted by an impromptu visit from Alecia's friend Caroline. This isn't a bad thing--Alecia loves Caroline--but it did send me scrambling for clothes when she came to the door. Also, it made us look like lazy slobs since it was 11am and Alecia was in bed, I was in pajama pants, and the house was a wreck. Hey, the kids may get us out of bed early, but they can't make us wake up!

After Caroline jetted, we got ready for Alecia's hair appointment. She had a 1pm at Tony and Guy's (about a half hour away from our house), so I figured we'd drop her off and run a few, quick errands. Of course, I didn't find out until we got there that Alecia actually had two appointments: a 1pm coloring and a 3pm cut. So much for the afternoon. I still tried to run some errands, but they never got off the ground. After dropping mommy off, I attempted to take the kids across town. Both girls started exploding at EXACTLY the same time that we ran into an accident-induced traffic jam. Faced with the prospect of sitting in traffic with two screaming kids, I pulled off the highway and into a "French Fries" (Maddie's name for McDonalds, which should tell you all you need to know about our bad parenting habits).

Maddie had fun playing with a bunch of random kids at Mickey D's, and I got a few good pics. She even went down the big slide a few times by herself. She came down on her butt the first time (which she's never done by herself before), but I missed the pic. The second time, she slid on her tummy, but a slow camera sort of ruined that one, too.

After almost two hours at McDonald's, I figured it was probably safe to start heading back to mommy. I was wrong. We got back to the mall to find out that mommy was still in the chair and out of sight. We wandered around as much as possible, stopping to ride the train and to fix Maddie's shoe. Maddie insisted on walking, not riding in the stroller, but the velcro strap came off of her shoe and it kept falling off. I must have replaced it a hundred times. Finally, she got sick of it herself. She took her shoe off, threw it in the stroller, and went on pushing the stroller (she'd rather push than ride). Like the bad parent I am, I let her. Heck, she was happy, we were almost back to mommy, and I was watching out for broken glass, so it didn't seem so bad. Of course, I must have heard from two dozen mothers about it. I love the way moms think they can tell dads what to do, even if they don't know the person. Whenever I'm alone with the kids, whether I'm struggling or succeeding, I get TONS of unsolicited advice from moms. I would NEVER dream of giving advice to another parent--male or female--unless they asked for it (or were family). But random females came up to me constantly on Saturday, stating the obvious and offering their observations on my parenting skills. Thanks, ladies.

Anyway, I'm dragging this story out like nobody's business, aren't I? But I haven't even reached the punchline. Around 4:45pm (almost two hours after Alecia's second appointment was supposed to have begun), I was sitting by the mall fountain with the kids, trying to keep Maddie from jumping in. All of a sudden, Alecia's stylist walks up and introduces herself. "Alecia's just sitting down for her cut," she told me. "You can come see her now if you want." What the...? Just sitting down now? See, that's the funny part: the salon was two hours behind! HAHAHAHAHA Oh, it's still the funniest #@$@% I've ever heard! So, after spending two hours at the McDonald's playland and walking the girls around the mall for two hours, now I had another hour or more to wait. By now, we were past Maddie's naptime and both kids were going nuts.

The first thing I did after hearing the good news is go to The Children's Place and buy Maddie a working pair of shoes. Then, we walked the mall again. By the time Alecia got out of the salon, it was pretty much Sunday, and I was pretty damn mad. Of course, the delay wasn't Alecia's fault. But she did tip the stylists, which is like rewarding them for overbooking and making her wait. Of course, Alecia atoned for letting them off the hook by making a stand on another matter on Sunday, but I'll write about that in part two, coming soon...

We visited Alabama this weekend to see my mom get married to Ralph. They've been dating almost 6 years and I think Ralph has asked her to marry him each year. This is the year she finally said yes.

The wedding was gorgeous despite the constant drizzle. My mom was beautiful and smiled the happiest smile I've seen on her in ages. Everyone has asked me, and I can honestly say that I absolutely adore Ralph and am so happy to have him as a stepdad, and Poppa to Maddie and Josie.

Huge thank yous to everyone who helped with the wedding this weekend. Heath, you are a saint and we are never allowed to ask you to do anything EVER again. :) Marlene and Kale, I seriously think you guys should consider a career in event planning. You guys rock. Also thanks to everyone else who helped that morning. I don't know all of your names (help here, Mic?) but you were a blessing.

The grandkids all got a chance to play with one another and even Maddie enjoyed herself in between freaking out about all the people there. Josie even rode down the aisle in the little red wagon.

Congratulations again, Mom and Ralph!

Not many people know this, but I dealt with some postpartum depression after I had Maddie. It didn't hit right away, but took a little while. At first I didn't know what was going on, but eventually I went to talk to someone and was able to get things straightened out with the help of some medication.

That being said, my doctor and I have been extra careful to monitor me since I've had Josie. I met her once before Josie was born, and again today.

Since Maddie and Josie both have serious colds, I couldn't leave them with any of my mom friends for fear of their kids getting sick. Also, the babysitters I've been recommended only work on the evenings and weekends. Thus, I visited the psychiatrist with two screaming, sick children in hand. If people didn't know I was crazy just by walking into the office, they definitely did once they saw me.

To be honest, things went rather okay except for the fact that Josie would not stop screaming and Maddie ran around the waiting room yelling with her naked Barbie doll, Theresa, in hand. As I got ready to leave, a woman waiting nearby asked how far apart in age the girls were. When I told her, she rolled her eyes and replied, "No wonder you're here!"

I just smiled and nodded.