Prepping for a new adventure

Well, my telecommuting days are coming to an end. Senior staff members are now going to be required to work in-house, which means we'll be moving back to Atlanta. I've loved my days on the Gulf and being close to my parents, brothers and their families, but I do understand the logic. It does make sense. The trick to this entire effort will be trying to sell our house here and then finding day care there. I will have to buy some new clothes - which I dread! I'm so used to being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt to work! Plus being warm and able to control the thermostat! Office buildings are way too cold for my tastes. And I need a hair cut. My hair is fine for a beach community, but kind of sloppy for big city office life!

Duncan will be able to go back to work at his former job in Atlanta. He needs to get a different car, but I know he can find some cheap knock around kind of car. I think he's very happy about the prospect of returning to Atlanta. He has been unhappy down here recently and unable to find something suitable for work. But I think he'll be very surprised to see how Atlanta has changed. Atlantic Station didn't even exist when we were there.

Logan is both sad and excited about the move. Sad that he won't be near Boop and Pop (my parents) or his cousins any more. And his friends, and the Cub Scout troop we're currently in. I really like the troop here. I hope we can find one just as good in the area we move into. He earned his Wolf Badge and 4 belt loops (archery, BB shooting, swimming and fishing) at a camp out this summer. Now my big boy is a Bear Cub! He's excited that he'll have lots of museums to go to and be able to hang out with his "Aunt Michelle" - my best friend. She loves that Mouse (her nickname for him since he was born).

The little guys are getting so big! They're 16 months old now. Andrew has 5 teeth and Malcolm is working on his 4th. He's having a really hard time of it, poor little guy! He had a crying fit tonight because he wanted to take his blankie in the bathtub with him and I wouldn't let him. They're very funny little guys. Malcolm says "e-o-e-o-e-o" all the time. He's the talker of the two. He will repeat some things we say to him particularly words that start with B (bowl, baba, baby, bankie, bow-bow). And he loves "Boos Coos". "Uh Oh" is frequently heard and lately Malcolm has started micromanaging Andrew. He throws a hand up to warn him and says "whoa!" any time Andrew starts to do something Malcolm doesn't think he should! Andrew doesn't talk as much, but he certainly understands everything you tell him. He still loves to hide under his blanket and pulls it off and says "dare-e-iv" (or in English - "there he is"). He just smiles and drools and laughs and laughs.

Anyway, I'm rambling and I have dishes to wash! We're trying to start weeding through junk in the house and prep it for sale. My parents have toiled out in the hot sun for a few days. I had planned on doing some of this stuff after the new year, but now the time line has sped up! I'm hoping to have a big yard sale after Labor Day. I hate that I'll have to move Logan part of the way into the new school year, but I'm sure he'll do fine. he's a smart kid! Now I wish I had been a better housekeeper all these years! Oh well!

*slight change

Per new company directives, I've edited my blog somewhat. So if you've read some of my past posts there's been some content deleted. I've noted where I edited. Future posts will be totally limited to subjects non-political in nature!

Yeah! Ear tubes are in!

After much dread for the procedure - it actually went quite well! I was worried how the little guys would do since they were in a huge growth spurt and Malcolm is a voracious eater in the mornings. I got them up around 11:30pm on Sunday and gave them a bottle. Andrew drank his right up and Malcolm drank half. They were a little confused as to why we were in the car at 5:45am. But they didnt' complain. They didn't even seem very upset that strangers wearing scrubs and masks were taking them away! Andrew was more upset when Malcolm was taken away than he was when someone got him.

Anyway, Andrew had a little infection in his left ear and has meds. Malcolm had none. Malcolm has slept great the past couple of nights. Andrew had a little trouble - but I guess I would too if I had stuff draining out of my ear! Last night was better. I'm really hoping this means they'll be sleeping all night soon.

I was really sad to hear about the tornado hitting the Boy Scout camp. I will review the safety rules with Logan when we go to our campout on the 21st. I'm sure we'll be safe, but going over the rules can't hurt. He's just SO close to getting that Wolf badge! I want to try to get it all done before August. He wants to work on some belt loops too - he picked Math and Fishing as his first two to work on. We'll do the BB Gun and Archery ones at the campout.

Logan is having a blast at his day camp. They swim twice a week, go to a movie one day and on a field trip on another day. Friday they have a picnic in the park and reading enrichment. He's just brown as he can be even though I load him up with sunscreen.

Here's hoping we have another good sleeping night tonight!

Things never slow down here

Malcolm's been really clingy since he got sick with strep last week. But now we're all well - just finishing up meds. I took them to Target by myself this weekend and had a horrible time getting Malcolm to ride in the cart seat. He screamed unless it was moving. Andrew stood in the buggy and wouldn't sit down. Stroller is out of the question because there's no place to put the stuff. I usually either take my mom or Brooke, or just go to the store when they're in day care. I currently have to pull right up to the door at day care, set Andrew in the lobby and hope he doesn't run around while I'm getting Malcolm out of his car seat.

We tried setting up the baby pool in the back yard, but Andrew didn’t like it because the water was too cold for him and I think he was confused because he had on a swim diaper and a t-shirt. He’s used to sitting in a nice warm tub, naked. Of course, Malcolm has recently showed Andrew how to take his diaper off by himself, so I now have two naked babies to chase around the house and hope they don’t spray or poop on anything!

Malcolm and Andrew have developed a LOVE of going outside and walking around. So of course, what happens the very first time I try to take them outside by myself? While I was trying to get Andrew out the door and on the side walk, Malcolm decides to try to walk up the brick steps by himself. We have one little 3 inch step and 2 6 inch steps. He got up the 3 inch step and decided to turn around and go back down to the side walk. He lost his balance trying to step off and smash! Down he went and landed on his face. He had a huge knot on his left temple and scraped his face around his eye and down to his bloody nose.

I just felt horrible about it. I won't be doing that again for a while. He cried for about 20 minutes then slept for about 20 minutes. After that he seemed fine, just tired. He woke up this morning - still clingy, but in a good mood and didn't seem to mind the scrape. The knot on his head is only slightly swollen still. After that fall, and the fact that they try to eat rocks or grass all the time, I won't be taking them out alone again for a while.

Logan did something similar when he was 16 months old - jumped off my lap unexpectedly and whacked his head on a table. So I guess I'll be watching Andrew like a hawk to make sure he doesn't do that!

Logan got an all A honors at school on Monday. His lowest score on his report card was a 96 in history. He got the Governor’s award for physical fitness. He’s getting a new computer for his birthday which I've ordered and should be here next week. Duncan got him a Wii, which we can't figure out how to set up yet. If the weather is nice, we’ll go to Sam’s Surf City, which is the water park he likes, if not, we'll go to the movies. We’ll have our joint birthday meal Monday when we have everyone at my parent’s house for Memorial Day. He wants a giant cookie instead of cake, so we’ll do that.

Oh, and both babies are going to be getting tubes in their ears soon. These chronic ear infections have been a pain and I'm sure that's part of the reason they haven't been sleeping all night. I dread withholding food and fluids for them prior to the procedure! That to me will be the hardest part. How do you explain to a 14 month old that you can't have a drink of water or milk?

I think that’s it! We've had a very eventful week so far as you can see!

Winter scenes

Life is way too busy

I never seem to have time to do anything! Duncan is still looking for work. The only offer he's gotten was in Birmingham which is about 6 hours away. We're NOT moving up there. He wants to move to Pensacola or Atlanta. I told him, we definitely need to wait until the babies are 2 before we move. I get way too much help from my parents right now and they really enjoy being able to pop over and see them when they need a baby fix. Plus the real estate market being what it is, there's no way we'd be able to sell our house right now. It needs some fixing up first.

The first thing will be getting the yard fixed up. Pop has a friend who looked at the yard last week and said it was too messed up to fix. We need to completely resod - which is really exactly what I expected. The weeds have taken over. You can see exactly where the tree rubble from Ivan fell or sat waiting for FEMA to pick up the debris. So there goes the tax refund! But it will pay off in the long run.

The babies are two weeks away from their first birthday! I can't believe it! We're having their party next Sunday - a week early because their birthday is the Saturday of Easter weekend and several potential guests have Easter plans. Logan earns points for Cub Scouts by helping me plan and excute the party. He picked an Elmo theme since the babies love Elmo.

Both babies are sleeping longer - thank goodness! I might actually be able to start working out again soon. I'm only 3 pounds away from my pre-PG weight, but definitely not in shape. Now that it will be light longer and soon will be warmer, we should be able to get out and go for a walk in the evenings. Though I'm not sure about that - Andrew nearly fell asleep while he was eating dinner last night. It was adorable! He was stuffing food in his mouth and nodding off, then jerking himself back awake. Malcolm just shovels food in his mouth and eats more, but is thinner. Must be a higher metabolism!

Logan got his first badge at Cub Scouts a few weeks ago. He's so pround! So am I! He's really working hard to get the next badge. We're working it out so we can go on the Cub Scout campout. My parents, Brooke and Duncan will stay with the babies. And Logan and I will go - hopefully with Frank, Melissa and the girls - to the campout. It'll be my first night away from the little guys! I hope we can all 3 tolerate that!

Striving to share more in 2008!

Logan, Andrew, Santa and Malcolm

I had the best intentions of sharing on a regular basis, but twins, a 7 yr old and work keep me busy! Not to mention the 41 yr old "child" I'm married to! So I'm going to attempt to do better at this.

Malcolm and Andrew are now 9 months old - two sweeter, cuter babies there never were! Malcolm is an expert crawler. Andrew is Commando Carl and pulls himself along with his arms right now. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth before dropping to the ground again. He's taken a few "steps" on all fours, but resorts to his arms to get around. Both guys are trying to stand up constantly. I suspect they'll be walking before they get teeth. I check every day, but not a pearly white in sight. They both blab quite a bit and we can pick out words here and there. Malcolm has said "all gone" a few times and said "An-do" the other day. Andrew has said "ba-ba" a couple of times and both say Mama and Dada. Oh, and Malcolm is trying to say Logan when he says "dodan".

At 7 years old, Logan is now in Cub Scouts. He has completed his Bobcat badge requirements, so he should get that first badge soon. He likes to watch Mythbusters with us and of course, still loves Spongebob. His newest passion is his Nintendo DS. He's very good at video games, but doesn't spend hours and hours on them. He also likes board games and loves his Legos! He's a great helper with the babies and puts on a floor show for them during dinner occassionally. We read every night and have just started the first Harry Potter book. I haven't read them either, so this is just as much fun for me! He got the complete boxed set for Christmas.

Duncan has finished his last full time semester as a college student. He has a few math courses to take, but may or may not take them. Some people just aren't math people. He's great though at history and English! He had a blast being on the college bowl team this past two years and was the captain of the B team. They came in 3rd with the A team coming in first at state competition in December. He toyed with the idea of going another semester, but he really doesn't need anything other than math, so it would all be just extra curricular courses. So he's starting the hunt for employment. He will enjoy it much more now that he has a new car - a Mercedes Benz. I never can remember the model name.

I'm taking a week off next week. I've been covering for people and writing reviews most of the past 6 weeks. So after a few spotty days off for the holidays, I need a week to regroup my work thoughts and a week to clean house. We need to baby proof now that these guys are mobile. I'm setting myself a weight loss goal too. I restarted Nutrisystem on New Year's Day. I've had a few little cheats to ease myself out of the bad stuff. I got into a bad Krispy Kreme cheat this fall. Lack of sleep made me cheat on donuts and I definitely needed the caffeine of my diet cokes! So I'm cutting myself off the KKs, but keeping the DCs. I must say Nutrisystem works! I've been on it 4 days and have already lost 1.5 pounds! As I recall the first time I tried it, I lost 3 pounds the first week and averaged a pound a week after that. And I haven't even restarted exercising yet! I plan on doing that next week while I'm on vacation. Sad though that I have to take a vacation to clean my house! But I do plan on taking a fun trip to hang with my "sista", Melissa for a bit at the end of the week as my reward.

I'm still learning how to use my new digital SLR camera and my new HD camcorder. I'm thrilled that the camcorder is so light and fits in my pocket. It will make capturing video much easier to transfer it immediately to my computer.

Wow - I suck at blogging!

I thought I could find time to at least blog once a week. But I started blogging while PG with twins and now have 3 1/2 month old baby boys. So time and energy were two things I was pretty short on for a while! But things are starting to settle down more. Malcolm and Andrew - my baby boys - are starting to sleep longer at night. As soon as they start sleeping 7-8 hours, I know I'll have time to be more organized and actually answer e-mail or read the magazines I had come in this past year that I didn't read. I did at least have the sense to cancel all my magazines! I KNOW I won't have time to read them from now on!

So updating - Duncan has one more full semester at college for his Criminal Justice degree. He's lucked out that he'll have classes only on Tuesdays and Thursdays this fall, but they'll be long days - especially Thursday when he has a night class. He joined College Bowl and they were kind enough to give him a scholarship because of that and his good grades. I'll be happy when he's finished and I can breathe a sigh of relief from being the only breadwinner for two years!

Logan finished up the First Grade with flying colors. He was on the all A honor roll the entire year. His lowest grade was a 98 on his report cards. He is reading very well now and reads to me sometimes. He's going to summer day camp right now. They go on field trips to museums, movies, the park, indoor amusement arcades, swim, etc. He comes home exhausted, but happy.

Malcolm and Andrew are growing like weeds! Andrew had an ear infection and they both had colds recently. When Andrew had a follow up appointment with the doc and weighed 14 pounds 4 ounces! I just can't believe that! Malcolm is probably a pound and a half behind him. Andrew was 5 pounds 15 ounces at birth and Malcolm was 5 pounds 5 oz - but Malcolm was born first. They both suffered from terrible colic during May. There was one week there where I got maybe 3 hours of sleep a night and my parents had to come over and help out several times at 2am. But they're happy guys these days. They wake up smiling and sucking on an invisible bottle if they're hungry. They've developed some patience in waiting on bottles. I'm looking forward to their four month appointment with the doc. I'm hopeful they'll be given the go ahead to eat rice cereal at that point! They started day care three weeks ago and doing great.

As for me, I'm trying to keep up with everything. Work, billpaying, housework, all those things that are necessary in life, but not quite as much fun as playing with my boys! I have been trying to find time to exercise again. I'll have to start back slow and build up again. I can probably start carving out about 20 minutes every morning to do it. And again, once those babies start sleeping longer, I'll have a little more time for it. I want to get back to doing my 60 minute Firm workouts! I felt so great last summer when I was doing that workout every day. I can't stand not being in shape! Not for vanity's sake - for energy's sake! I feel so much better and have so much more energy when I'm not overweight. And goodness knows, I'm going to need energy to keep up with these babies when they start moving around!

Oh, and we lost two of our furry babies since last fall. Shadow died last October after having a respiratory infection. He stopped eating and lost over half of his body weight. It screwed up his liver and he died when the vet was trying to put a feeding tube in him. Our Junior Miss had a kidney infection and passed away in January. She had Feline AIDS, so it was a wonder she lived as long as she did. When we first found her in 1997, they told us she wouldn't live more than two years and she made it to 2007! But they were years filled with love and good food for her. We still have our Radar Love though! She's very good with the babies and sleeps with me in the nursery every night. (I'm sleeping in there until I don't have to get up every single night two or three times!)

I think that catches me up to where we stand now. I want to try to at least post once a week from now on. I want to share kid stories and rants with everyone! It would be a great way for those I care about to be able to keep up with me and mine and keep up with issues that are important to me should they care to. And I hope my friends and family will share comments with me and maybe start a blog of their own - or even e-mail me occasionally! So TTFN!

Wow - it's been a month since I posted!

Work got pretty hectic the week after I started my blog, then I caught a horrible cold. Of course, being PG, I can't take Nyquil like I normally do. So it took nearly 2 weeks to get rid of the cold. And being the last few weeks of my first trimester, I was SO incredibly sleepy. So I took lots of naps during September.

But now I'm back and ready to blog! I had a good OB appointment the other day and the babies are doing well. The ultrasound technician wrote "Hi Logan" on the picture she gave me. When Logan saw it, he said, "Mama! How did the babies know my name?!" He was just amazed! I love that boy so much! I go back to the OB on October 31st.

*Post edited per company policy*

I bit the bullet!

Okay - everyone keeps talking about blogging. I've been toying with the idea for about a year now. So here I am giving it a go finally!

So who am I? Well, as the title says, I'm Claudia. I'm in my 40s, but I certainly don't feel like it. I still feel like I'm 28. I just hit that age and quit feeling older. Oh, I have days here and there where I feel it, but most of the time not. I'm aspiring to be like my grandmother who just turned 95. Keep active and interested and don't let age slow you down!

I live in South Alabama with my husband, Duncan, and my son, Logan. We moved down here from Atlanta 4 years ago so we could be closer to my parents and my two brothers and their families. Once Logan had been born, we knew we wanted to get out of the big city and be closer to family so he could grow up knowing his family rather than seeing them only a couple of times a year. We also have some fur-babies, Junior Miss (our grey and white feline AIDS cat), Shadow (fat, black and a big ol' chicken) and Radar Love (a pretty little grey bundle of love).

Duncan just turned 40 last month and is going to college full time to get a Criminal Justice AA degree and with a few extra hours added in, he can get a General Studies AA as well. He's doing great in school - mostly A's and a few B's. Logan is 6 and in first grade. He's making all A's so far. He's the love of our lives. Such a funny, sweet, loving, smart, beautiful boy! He's earning the nickname "Mr. Manners" because he always says all the polite things: excuse me, bless you, thank you, yes, ma'am, etc. And he corrects us if we don't say them and we should. He likes to give hugs for no reason, which we gladly accept!

What am I like? I love movies of all kinds - well, except the really gory ones. I keep Netflix busy and have been going through the old Universal horror movies from the 30s and 40s. I love baseball movies in particular. Atlanta Braves baseball and Auburn football are about the only actual sporting events I watch - though I like the Olympics when that comes around. I watch probably WAY too much TV - mostly channels like Discovery, A&E, TLC, news, and cartoons that Logan likes. I still love reruns of MASH, Friends or Roseanne.

I was going to culinary school part time for fun, but that's been put on hold for a while. I like to cook, but don't have much time to do it these days. I love to read - also something I don't have time much for. I'm a terrible housekeeper! I'd love to do better at that, but I'd rather spend my time with Logan, Duncan or famly. I'm totally unorganized as well. I used to be more organized - but that was when I was single! I like to do needle work too, but I haven't found the box that it's all in since we moved in 2002!

I telecommute full time for a company I've worked with for 21 years now and hope to never have to look for another job.*edited per company blogging policy* I love being able to work at home and not have to wear office clothes or sit in a freezing cold cubicle!

Of course, the big news in our lives is that we're expecting twins next year! We went the advanced fertility route and were just hoping for one, but got a bonus baby. We actually haven't spread the word yet. Technically, I'm waiting until October to tell my friends and more family. I'll be past the first trimester and feel safer about it. We lost our angel boy in 2003 to Trisomy 18. And dealing with telling people was not an experience I want to re-live. But since the odds of any of them just happening across this blog without me telling them about it are pretty low, I feel like I can go ahead and put it out there! They'll know soon enough and there's really not much to tell about it all right now. I don't feel sick (knock on wood) just sleepy. And since I lost 26 pounds since January, most people won't even notice that my baggy clothes are filling back in a little. And the fact that the majority of my friends live in other locations makes it easier to keep it a secret!

So that's it for my first entry. Stop back by again and listen to me ramble!