Baby updates!!!

Somehow in my traveling, non-blogging and general awesomeness, I forgot to mention that I have a brand new niece:-) Twin Sister and her Wife had another little baby girl last weekend, right before Munchkin and I left. We got to see her on Sunday night before taking off on Monday:-)

Ten fingers, ten toes and seven pounds of absolute adorableness! Baby, Mommy, other Mommy and big sister are all doing great. She hasn't met her cousins just yet, but I think we will bring them over to meet her sometime early next week...

Big Sis, however, remains stubbornly still pregnant!

Tales from the highway

I'm back...from four days on the road, one day of work, and then a couple more days at the beach:-) All in all, it's not a bad way to live!!!

I can't begin to tell you how much fun Munchkin and I had. We left Monday morning, drove to Providence and then to New Haven (what, you need me to spell out the schools for you? C'mon...you are all better than that...) and spent the night in New York city. We saw two places in New York on Tuesday, stayed there again that night and then headed further south to Northern New Jersey on Wednesday morning, Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon and then stayed in DC that night, saw one school there and drove back on Thursday.

Along the way, we ate an enormous amount of junk food (although we didn't eat at any Chick-fil-A's...honestly, we were afraid of making a political statement and didn't really know which political statement we would be making by eating there. Thankfully, McDonald's has remained silent on all major social issues...) We also listened to a huge amount of terrible music, and sang entirely too much of it out loud. We almost certainly went over on the Demi Lovato allowance...

And we talked a lot, of course, about a million things...some silly and some serious. Frenchie is here for a week now, so she was thinking about that leading up to his visit. Her feelings about him are as deep as they have ever been, but I think they are getting more complicated as they both get a little bit older. It still breaks my heart just a little bit that she sees him as little as she does...she deserves to have a simpler boyfriend situation.

She didn't see anything that changed her mind about her college plans, although she definitely liked some of the schools more than others. I am not sure she really went in with an "open mind" in the normal sense, but she listened and asked questions and looked around with interest. I am glad she did it, and I think she is, too...I will feel better about her decision knowing that she at least sampled some alternatives. Bottom line, she couldn't stand to be that far away from me...and I kinda feel the same way:-)

And now, unfortunately, I am back at work...FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK WITH NO DAYS OFF!!! What the fuck?!?!

Out!

Little mini-vacation for me, starting in...oh, about five hours. My bosses might tell you it started two days ago, since I haven't gotten anything done, but at least I have been here:-) You are all going to have to survive without me for a little bit...quiet crying is acceptable.

Headed to the beach for the weekend, and then Munchkin and I are taking a little road trip next week to visit some colleges. We are leaving Monday morning and will make our way south as far as Washington, DC and then back again. On the way, we are going to visit about a half dozen schools, take the tours and bum around a bit. We may very well buy some T-shirts...

I have a lot of feelings about this. First of all, it makes me nervous...my baby sister is GOING TO COLLEGE. My baby sister that I held on the day she was born (and silently promised to always protect:-)). My baby sister whose first real word was a shortened version of my name, and whose first steps were towards me (is all of that true? It certainly is in my head:-)). And of course, my baby sister who moved in with me as a skinny 10 year old and has blossomed into a brilliant, stunning and remarkable young woman...seemingly in a period of about four minutes.

Second, it makes me feel old...probably should NOT have scheduled this the week after I turned 30.

Third, it makes me incredibly proud. The schools on this list are many of the very best, most selective schools in the world, and she will get into every one of them if she decides to apply. She will get into them because she is brilliant, because she works incredibly hard, because she excels at everything she does, because anyone who interviews her will beg her to come to their school, and because she has a remarkable life story that would have done enormous damage to most kids, but has just made her that much more stronger. And they don't even know the half of it!

She will get into all of these schools because she deserves to get into them. And that, folks, makes me feel better than I can put into words.

And finally, I think this is gonna be really fun. We are gonna be in the car all day and hotels at night and we are gonna eat junk food and listen to terrible music (total time spent with Demi Lovato on the radio? I'd say 4 hours...) and laugh. I am running out of things to do as her Mother, I have to enjoy them while I can!

Surprise!!!

Guess who got completely sideswiped with a massive surprise birthday party? Yup...this girl (imagine me pointing at myself). I mean...TOTALLY surprised...I didn't have the foggiest suspicion until we showed up and there were like 100 people there that I knew. I am almost a little scared by The Boy's ability to keep that from me, and to conveniently schedule an entire weekend when I never quite realized that we were staying home and making other arrangements for the girls in order to leave Saturday and Saturday night totally open.

We dropped the girls at his parents, put them down for a nap, and hung out there for a bit in the early afternoon, then headed back home. The Boy went for a run, and I took a nap, which I think is kind of the same thing, right? And everything seemed so totally normal, right up until we got to the bar and...SURPRISE!!!

The first reaction is confusion...like "wait, why is Munchkin here?"...but then pretty quickly it moves through surprise and then just plain gratitude. It is so incredibly touching to have people come out to be with you like that, and even more touching that others would go through all of the trouble to make you feel so special. Lots of my friends and The Boy's friends, and the pretend family, most of the guys from work, even a couple of the school parents that I am close with...it just all made me feel really special.

Super special thanks to The Boy for knowing just how to make me feel really loved. And also to Smoking Hot Roommate, too, for handling most of the organizing and logistics. I like to think I am pretty perceptive...but I missed the boat on this one big time!!!

O. L. D.

I hope you are all diligently baking my birthday cakes for me...you only have three days left, and they will have to be big enough to fit an awful lot of candles on them...

No major crises about turning over another decade...I am pretty much OK with it. I hate getting older, but whining and crying about it won't help (which won't stop me from whining and crying, but will make me get over it:-P). I guess I am pretty content, and am not going to feel all that much different on Sunday morning than I do on Saturday night...at least I hope not.

It helps that The Boy is older than me, as are all of his friends. Same with Big Sis...and most of my friends are around my age, so many of them are ticking of 30 this year as well. All except for the youngster of the group...Smoking Hot Roommate has plenty of time left.

No beach this weekend for a couple of minor reasons. The girls are headed to The Boy's parents for the night on Saturday, which is quite the birthday gift:-) We don't have any big plans...dinner, hanging with some friends and then enjoying the peace and quiet. I'm giving myself an extraordinarily awesome birthday present, too, because I totally deserve an extraordinarily awesome present, right?

Other than that, pretty low key birthday. SHR and I are going out with some girlfriends tonight, but it won't be a late night...The Boy has a golf tournament to play in on Sunday, so I will have the girls all to myself when they get back from his parents. I think we will undertake one of their favorite new hobbies...walking around looking for geese, or "Hunting Gooses!" as they call it...

And both Big Sis and Twin Sister's wife are on "Baby Any Minute" alert:-) Big Sis especially, but Twin Sister's wife is only a couple weeks behind. Could be any minute!