Feather Duster, Anyone?

Another shot from the newborn twin session. Can you believe today is the last day of June, and I don’t have a single photo from this month online yet? We’ve taken a whole bunch, but none of them have made it out of Aperture. Maybe tonight I will buckle down and do it. But, I still have to watch Sunday’s episode of Army Wives, so maybe tomorrow.

No one has ever been able to describe me as ‘neat’. Even before Three came rumbling into our lives. I just don’t have it in me to put my clothes away immediately after I take them off. Sometimes, the dishes don’t get done the second dinner is over, or even that night. Sometimes, the house gets swept only when a tumbleweed of cat hair blew across the room reminding me it hasn’t been done in a week or so.

The weekend Three was born, we had grand plans of cleaning the house. I think in one of the baby books it recommended cleaning the house just before baby was born so that you would come home and everything would be sparkling clean and one less thing to worry about. Well, Three had other plans and the house has never recovered.

We’ve cleaned many multiples of times since Three was born. Its not like we are living in squalor or anything, but man, I feel like I can’t get ahead. Three’s favorite toys are currently whatever is not age appropriate (HELLO, Scissors!) and is in reach if he goes on his (newly discovered) tippy toes or climbing of the entertainment center. This results in piles of random crap accumulating on the back of the couch (oh, the sadness when he figure out how to climb the couch) as I need a quick place to put the latest not-a-toy while directing him to the toys we spent good money on, play with them damn it! I kid you not, the couch was occupied with the following things yesterday when I sorta cleaned it off - the bowl to my kitchen aid mixer, my computer, bills, check book, tissues, the book I am reading, and the husband’s wedding ring which he threw up there for good measure and to be a sarcastic pain in the ass (hrm, maybe it was me that threw it up there? I forget). Add this to and the husband’s coming and going and just dumping whatever it is he doesn’t need on the floor (in reach of Three, see previous statement) the house is a disaster. The point being, as soon as I get one small square foot of the house clean, 10 more square feet have been destroyed by life.

I know I am fighting a mostly loosing battle. There is no way the apartment is going to ever be the way it was, not with the Fisher Price invasion that is occurring. And some days, like when the Real Housewives of NJ are on Bravo, I am totally okay with that. But lately, I can’t help but look around and see defeat everywhere.

I think I’ll go watch Oprah.

The Sands of Time

5 years ago tomorrow, the husband and I got married. This was taken by our photographer moments after our exit from the Wedding Pavilion in WDW. It was all part of our staged exit. The car took us for a loop around the parking lot before we went in and took more photos with the bridal party.

Maybe its because the husband ended up on a last minute gig this week (as in the phone call came around 2 on Sunday afternoon and he was on a 9:45 PM flight that night headed to Vegas) and won’t be home tomorrow, maybe I have no heart, maybe its the sleeping baby boy in the other room who is going to officially be a toddler in a month and a half, or maybe I am just old and married, but tomorrow is not making all that sentimental over my relationship with the husband. It is what it is. That sounds negative, but its not. We are just old and married. Sometimes we don’t get along. Sometimes, I want to smack him up side the head. But most of the time, things are good. We’ve survived a lot including 7 months of never sleeping through the night (thanks for that, Three) and we are still together, which is more than a few couples I know can say, so I think we are doing pretty well. I am not getting that long wanted trip to Italy this year, but hey, there is always our 10th anniversary.

Last night I found myself looking at the wedding photo of our bridal party that hangs in the collection of wedding photographs we have in the living room. I look at those people, the people that we chose to stand with us as we got married. The girls I leaned on when the family drama that surrounded me during our 10 month engagement was consuming me, the guys that had always been there, so why wouldn’t they be standing there the day we got married, and I wondered a little what happened to all of them.

There are some we still talk too. The husband’s best man we see a couple times a year and is always a good time. My brother is off living the life of a young 20 something in Boston and we see him occasionally as he not so patiently waits for Three to be old enough to be his little buddy. My college friend we chat with online occasionally (thanks, Facebook!) and see him not nearly often enough (and never locally!), but when we do its fabulous. The husband’s college buddy and the husband keep in touch some. I talk to his wife now (again, Facebook rocks) and we’ve managed to get together once since they moved back up our way last November. They are expecting a playmate for Three later this year, and I expect to see more of them in the coming months. But the rest of the party….

How do people you value so much fall away so quickly?

Then I think of our current circle of close friends. Some of them are people I met while working, either at my current job or old ones. Some are friends from college. Some are friends from high school. Some of them are spouses of our friends from one of those times. Many of them were around at the time of our wedding, but none of them were THE friends. Some attended our wedding as guests, others couldn’t make the trip but eagerly awaited our return home to see pictures and hear the stories. I can’t imagine life without any of them now. My friends bring me joy I cannot begin to describe.

So how do I keep it that way? I’m not entirely sure. But I do know that tomorrow to ‘celebrate’ until the husband gets home, Three and I are going to lunch with one them.

Let’s Get This Party Started, Shall We?

Above is one of the shots from my very first newborn session. You may notice that there are not two feet in that photo, but FOUR. Talk about trial by fire. My first newborn session, and I had not one but two babies. It was possibly the most exhausting two hours I have experienced since Three started sleeping through the night. But now that the edits are complete, and the photos are off to the proud parents I feel like a can breath a little sigh of relief. I’m still waiting to hear how the parents liked them, but I am pretty happy with how the session ended up. Now its on to the next one, but that’s a topic for another blog post. All will be revealed. Soon.

The husband has been gone pretty much non stop since January. The couple weekends that he has been home he’s either been traveling on Sunday to the next gig or one of the three of us has been sick so we haven’t been able to enjoy it. This past weekend, he was home with nothing pressing to get done. It was quite the novelty. And quite exhausting. Who knew doing nothing could be so tiring? Also, we had conflicting opinions on what him being home meant. I was stoked to have him home because that I could get a bunch of stuff done around the house that had been being put off for a while because I can’t seem to get anything substantial done while home by myself with Three. The husband was stoked to be home because that meant he could just hang out and do nothing. These two ideas - they are not exactly compatible.

I have found the solution though. I have the ice cream maker attachment to my KitchenAid Mixer. It hasn’t been used yet. The husband wants me to make him ice cream. I am not above a little bribery! When we discussed this yesterday suddenly he was a lot more interested in getting the house clean. Sadly, it was dinner time when I came up with this stroke of brilliance so we’ll have to wait until next weekend to see if it works.