Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Catching Up

So I've totally bombed on the blog this year, like nearly a complete epic fail.  So four months later...  I tried to post about the Hamptons (and separately about their two show houses), but that didn't happen (too many photos and it blew up).  Then we went to Savannah/Hilton Head Island for our tenth anniversary/my 40th, which was hot and amazing.  And I went to Boston for another long weekend, which was cold but great.  The election, and nada... oh well.

My OB/gyne finally managed to talk me into getting my BRCA 1&2 testing done, (since my sister had a young and rare reproductive cancer dx) which I had been putting off, since my other sister was negative.  It ended up only costing me a few hundred bucks, and I'm negative for both, which is obviously fantastic given the prospective treatment plan (double mastectomy-oophorectomy).  Unfortunately for me, they found that I have a different genetic mutation (MUTYH), that triples my risk of developing colon cancer (which is what ultimately killed my grandmother five years ago at 94), which sucks pretty badly.  So in addition to turning 40 and getting another mammogram (which is still awful, but came back fine), I also have to add getting regular colonoscopies (and I already got my first, which thank goodness, was also fine). 

Ironically, much worse than actually turning 40, are the health screeners that will hopefully get me through a few more decades.  Colonoscopies themselves are no biggie, but you have to fast and then slam 32 ounces of what tastes like really bad cough syrup the day before to clean you out, so that's pretty awful.  And how are mammograms still so horrible, like someone somewhere (likely a woman) can't devise something that isn't a torture device?

The kids are doing great and getting huge.  Like I'm going to have two four-foot-tall kindergartners soon enough.  They turn five in five more days. OMG.  So we have... they are in two different schools crazy holidays, parties, birthdays, Christmas, no-break, and up to 40 4-5 year olds for their jumpy house party come January.  And I'm supposed to be starting a new work project, I volunteered and was elected to be VP of his school's PTA, and trying to figure out how we are going to get out of this frozen tundra for a bit.  Thankfully, I put the kibosh on our regular India trip this year.  I just can't deal with being gone for weeks and feeling like death at this time of year on top of everything else.

We finally got around to getting new pics done for holiday cards (better late than never), but we got our first snow storm that day, so we were forced inside his studio.  They are somehow ridiculously more photogenic than either of their parents.



Thankfully, my step father has made it through his chemo, radiation, and now surgery for his cancer as well as can be expected.  Praying for clear scans and as much time as possible for him.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

It's been awhile...

And long enough that I've actually been back to work for a week.

When I left my full time job 4 1/2 year ago, I had no idea what the future held.  We'd lost our first baby and were getting ready to cycle again with our only two frozen embryos.  I'd finished my big project at work and was so done there. And then after my last day, my last grandfather passed away, I went to Vegas for a consulting project (and nearly missed the funeral due to delayed flights), got sick (you'd think it was all the partying, but more likely the flying, stress, and the desert.  It's always the desert, blah) and it was just days before I was pregnant again, this time with the twins.

I never planned to be a SAHM.  That and I didn't know it was possible.  I didn't marry the money, but we'd made decisions that had made it possible, but I didn't know if that's what I wanted and (being perfectly honest) I didn't know if it was/is the best use of my skills.  I still don't know.  I am an accidental homemaker.
 
But this week, I started a six week onsite consulting gig (at my 6-8 yrs ago former employer, holy deja vu, glad I don't work there FT anymore), the kids went to daycare and we all survived to tell the tale.
Mari decided to recycle her Anna costume dress from last year for their preschool party, and she strayed really far in choosing to be Elsa this year.  We are now moving on from Frozen.  Thank goodness.
Our Halloween weather was much better than last year, which was frigid, so the kids got a lot of good trick or treating in.  Up and down and around the block, which was plenty. (that's our elementary school you can see in the background, so yes we may never move).

DH turns the big 40 in two weeks and we'll be going up north for turkey weekend, which will include leaving the twins with my mom (and their cousins) overnight, so we can have our very first solo getaway since before they were born to balmy Minneapolis (my old HS stomping ground and somehow a corner of the world he's never been to).  Baby steps...

Enjoying our gorgeous fall day in the leaves

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Lots of Firsts and Holiday Fun

I took the kids to the movies recently, since I figured it was time (at nearly three) to brave the theater for the first time.  And they did great!  We went to the premiere of Penguins of Madagascar, and totally lucked out that the earliest nearest showing was at a theater (I'd never been to before) with reserved recliner seating.  I'd booked us three seats (obviously), but since two were together and the other next to them, we just popped up the armrest and called the two a love seat.  I think it helped them that we could all sit cozy together.  We're definitely going back there for future movie outings.
 
Watching previews and having their morning snack

We had a fun weekend at my parents' in northern Wisconsin, and have made the revelation that instead of going straight up and back, shortening the extended family portion and spending the second half of the long weekend as a nuclear family getaway is pure brilliance and will be part of our repertoire moving forward.  Much more relaxing...

We went to my mom's for Thanksgiving.  I may be one of the only people my age who has never hosted a proper Turkey Day as she is old school and does everything herself.  This will likely never change in her lifetime.  The kids had a blast with their cousins...


Here playing with the girls...

At my dad's farm, we went out to the barn and pasture to visit the animals and the kids made their first snowman! (maybe ever? at least of this year, since we have no snow yet)

We spent a night in Madison and ended up on State Street as the WI/MN football game let out...

We went on to the Grand Geneva from there, our first time there during the holidays.  They have lots of great activities (we're headed back to ski later) and fancy light and gingerbread displays that the kids loved.
Marielle wasn't having any of this sleigh...
 
The kids loved the Thomas show.  It was relatively short and interactive (their first live show) and gave me some serious showchoir flashbacks.  I wonder how much these performers have to take before each show... ;)
Dancing!

Snow!

 
The huge lobby tree

We just missed sitting with Santa there, but we did get to go to the waterpark (their first trip!) 

Next up Santa visit and (their first) tree cutting!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

35 months old

We are rounding the final month to three, which is crazy...  Even though it has felt like winter for weeks, it's been a busy fall around here. 
Playing in the leaves at the rose garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden

It was 30 degrees (with 50 mph winds) and snowing, but the twins went trick or treating to a few of our neighbors for the first time this year.  They had three Halloween parties in one week, so of course we all came down with some sort of plague, that took a good two weeks to get everyone over and done with. 

We kind of glossed over Halloween prep last year (one of several fall slights due to our India trip prep), so this year we started planning early.  When I asked them over the summer what they wanted to be, they both answered, "ELSA!".  So yeah, that didn't happen (mean mommy), but we settled on Anna and Olaf (after some searching) instead.  But then Halloween week came and Alistair didn't want anything to do with his (admittedly cumbersome) costume.  So I went back to Party City the Tuesday before Halloween and exchanged it for Thomas.  Crisis almost averted...

As the doors to the preschool party open...
Somehow there were no other Frozen characters at any of our parties.  Yay for non-conformity!

Since the kids started school in January, they missed out on school pictures last fall.  Well, now they are in two preschools, so they had two sets of pictures done.  One was decidedly better (and correspondingly more expensive) than the other, but I'm just amazed they were able to get them to cooperate. 
Just a proof, but this pic is like seeing a unicorn...
 Yes, they look like an ad for Old Navy
At least one is smiling...

On that note, we had our very first parent/teacher conference recently and of course (as is typical) they are a dream at school.  Great at listening, helping, sharing...(ha ha!)  Still trying to figure out how to make that the norm at home...  It was interesting to see them interact at their one preschool Halloween party that was mom led/run.  They don't really interact with each other that much at school, which the teacher confirmed is kind of their norm.  They are all over each other at home, so I guess another of the many benefits of school is it gives them a well earned break from each other.

Somehow Thanksgiving is next week, so we're headed north to spend a few days with the family and another few lounging (and seeing Thomas) at the Grand Geneva.  DH is turning 39 (for the first time), and I'd hoped to squeeze in a birthday/Christmas beach trip this year, but right now we're just staying over in Chicago for a few nights and trying to plan something for spring. 

I'm trying to get our kitchen done by the end of the year (new buffet and FR built-ins are nearly done, kitchen is part way there).  When I couldn't find a new house I liked, I figured we might as well keep making this one what we want.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, January 20, 2014

25 months old

It's been a busy month since the kids' 2nd birthday, with Christmas, New Year's, starting school, restarting speech and their classes, converting to toddler beds, and generally trying to get through what is hopefully the worst of this already long winter.

The kids are worse than me when it comes to getting their picture taken.  They usually either run for the hills or act goofy.  Case in point, I have dozens of pics of them both with their entire hands in their mouths in front of the tree laughing, which I've never seen them do before.  What the heck? ;)

They love to play with my cameras and especially my phone (why is it that it takes pictures when it's locked?), taking selfies and other randoms, but they don't hold still when I try to get posed or even spontaneous pictures.  And it's not just because Mari got her first bad haircut.  Oh well, what are you going to do...


We had an especially pretty tree this year, which made me happy since it was the first one I looked at at the KOC, since we skipped the tree farm (again, for the third time) this year because of the cold.
The kids' first day of preschool was cancelled due to the extreme cold we had at the beginning of the month, but this is from their real first day (she somehow found a nuk just in time for pics, SMH...) 
 My chivalrous boy insisting on carrying both his and his sister's lunch bags.  Love them and they love school.

The kids are at the stage where she wants to do everything I am doing and he wants to do everything that she does (we're a great team at emptying the dishwasher), so taking them outside on a snowy day to play while I shoveled the walk results in all three of us shoveling.


Getting ready for Sochi, zoning out to PBS...

Back at class, thank goodness for indoor playgrounds



 One of Mari's more stylized pics, she's getting good... ;)
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