I'm back! And I have photos to prove it!

I looked at the calendar and realized that tomorrow it will have been a full month since I last posted.

I can't let a whole month go by. That's ridic.

But I still don't have time to post! Too much going on at work since I took on as the lead for that client in Maine, and another of my bigger clients has a big event this month that needed lots of promotion and communications help. So much work!!

So instead of really posting, I'll just post photos. I promise to get back into the swing of things when things at work slow-up just a bit.

We went to Scarlet and Gray Day at the boys' school...

Matty came with us! Hiii, Matt-Pat!

... and Clair had her first taste of a Baltimore favorite: a lemon stick.

Cutest little peppermint stick EVER.

Now she's a true Bawlmer girl!

She loved it! But Dean loved it more. He loves all things minty -- peppermints, "candy cans," even toothpaste. Yes. My boy likes the taste of toothpaste.

We went to the creek at Herring Run Park and explored! We threw sticks in the creek and pretended to fish, saved a caterpillar from drowning, saw two baby deer peeking at us and learned what a "clearing" is.

I love living so close to a park with a creek -- even if it is polluted. Clair calls the woods behind us "the wild." As in, "Mommy, we can't go in there. It's the wild!"

We celebrated my Mommy's 60th birthday and our 7th wedding anniversary by having brunch and visiting wineries in the Shenandoah Valley! It was a perfect October Sunday afternoon - and one of the best memories I think we'll have of our shared milestones.

Happy anniversary to my very best friend! Ain't life grand?

 

 It's hard to see that picture of my handsome husband in that montage, so let me zoom in for ya:

Hello handsome!

He's so GQ! See why I've kept him around for 7 years?

We went to a pumpkin farm, went on a hayride and picked apples -- oh so many apples. I still have a bag of apples sitting in the dining room. My co-worker sent me a recipe for an apple crisp that requires two sticks of butter! Ding-ding-ding! Sounds like the right answer to all those apples to me!

Clair's first time apple-picking. She loved it!

Dean, of course, turned the picking into a competition. He might be the reason why I have 1 million apples in my house.

How cute is this happy face?

 

 And the boys had a day off from school, so Lester helped them carve a pumpkin!

Cary: "Dude, where is the CANDY?"

What else? Hmmmm.

Oh -- I went to my girlfriend Shreya's Girls' Dinner -- the one where her husband cooks a four-course meal for 45 women??

That's my gorgeous, brilliant, hilarious, stylish, generous-to-a-fault, kick-ass friend Shreya!

It was awesome. As usual.

I am so honored that I get a seat at this table every year!

 And I looked pretty damn good.

Not as good as my husband, who has lost 46 lbs!!! since May (damn him!) But pretty darn good, thanks to some Spanx and high boots.

And I had my second column run in the Sun, which prompted someone to comment:

I feel we have lived parallel lives! I could completely relate to and empathize with everything. I too am Type-A. I never planned on twins and that totally threw off my Excel spreadsheet of "baby finances." And I certainly didn't plan on numero 3. I have 4 year old twin girls and a 2 year old son. I felt so guilty the day I went to the hospital to give birth to him - I felt I was taking something away from the girls. But I learned I have so much love to give. The only thing I regret is constantly viewing the twins as "older," that I've forgotten to appreciate how young they still are. And as my son is now at the age his sisters were when he was born, I realize that they were still "babies" at that time and I took it for granted. Hang in there mama, you are not alone in this journey!

Positive comments on newspaper stories? This almost never happens!
This woman, whoever she is, seems like someone I'd be friends with -- kinda like many of the women I've met through this blog! See how writing brings people together?

Life is good!

P.S. I have other news to share, but I can't share it just yet. A few more weeks, tops! But I'm JUST BURSTING TO TELL IT!! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Long and full three-day weekend

Just when I think our weekends couldn't get any more packed, we went and had an extra day off. Which should have meant a day of rest, but instead meant a day of more things to do! Hooray!

Here's how the weekend went down.

Saturday, I took Sara to the vet and discovered she still has an upper respiratory thing, so I have to give her medicine twice a day from a dropper. That has not been going well. So I've just been putting it in her food, and hoping that will do the trick, because homegirl was NOT having me putting things in her mouth. No sirree.

Then, we went to visit Lester's Aunt Tootie and then to my Mom's house to bring her cupcakes for her birthday! As usual, the boys had a fabulous time running around with their cousins, eating sweets and being spoiled rotten.

There were so many cousins at Mom's house, the boys had to eat their ice cream and cupcakes on the floor.

Sunday, I took the boys to music class and then later we all went to visit our friends Doug and Denise. Denise is expecting a baby in February -- her third. She was sorta freaking out about it, in the same way I was when I found out I was carrying a third. But I don't feel too bad for her because her oldest is 8 and can do this:

Perry, making her own sandwich! And making one for her 5-year-old brother too!

Perry, her daughter, will be so much help to her. It'll be like having a third parent.

After the boys' nap, we went to our friends Antwyne and Mari's house for dinner. Their son Antony will be 3 in January, so the three boys are close in age and had tons of fun making ridiculous amounts of noise and refusing to eat.

It was impossible to get a picture of all three boys looking at the camera. They were in perpetual motion the entire night. And boy was it loud.

Monday, Columbus Day, Lester and I both had off. Lester decided to go in to work to finish some things, and I had plans to meet my friend Kelly and her daughter Naomi at the pumpkin farm.

The Pumpkin Patch Kids, starring: Naomi, Dean and Cary. Doesn't this look like their album cover?

Note: Kelly is also expecting a baby in February! Hooray for February babies! (Where were all these babies when I was preggo with Clair? She could have a bunch of friends all her same age!)

Unfortunately, the weather was crappy, crappy and I didn't dress myself or the boys properly (this is becoming a theme) so Dean was whiny ("Mommy, I am cooooold!") and the cold I was pretending wasn't actually coming got fueled by the chilly rain, so now I'm a coughing, sniffling, headachey, can barely breathe mess.

BUT...the good news is, unlike at Russy's birthday party, this time the boys actually wanted to go on the hay ride! And so here we are, riding and having a fabulous time. Can't you tell?

"Mommy, I like the tractor," they said over and over and OVER.

After the cold, drizzly day at the farm, and a quick lunch at the mall, I came home, put the boys down for a nap and promptly crawled under the covers myself.

Turns out, I could have stayed in bed all day if I had wanted to, because guess what? I realized after we got home that the boys actually HAD SCHOOL YESTERDAY! (Smacks forehead!)

I'm still getting used to the idea of my 2-year-olds having a schedule different than my own. It never even occurred to me that they'd have school on a day I was off. Whoops!

But we actually had a lot of fun, despite the rain. We fed sheep, rode on the hayride, picked pumpkins (one for Clair, too), hung out with Naomi -- who is so super cute! -- got muddy and ate cookies (not necessarily in that order).

 AND, the best thing is, I can cross "go on a hayride" off the boys' Synapse Checklist!


 Y'all know how I love synapses! Hooray!