Word from on high is that my tenure finally came through. I am now an official 'Associate Professor'. They can't fire me now, i can go home and putter in the garden! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....
I just have to say, i have been SO SO SO lucky in the past year, it boggles my mind. Truly. And yeah, i know it, and am extremely thankful.
Ms. D at daycare reports that M can also say 'Allgone' when his lunch is, well, all gone. I have not heard this yet myself....but hopefully soon.
I forgot to answer rosepetal's question about telling them apart. Some days they look more identical, other days they look somewhat less identical. They always look pretty identical on the photos. T has a longer face, which is harder to see as they grow fatter. My neighbor can tell them apart because one has an ear with a little curl, but this method is lost on me. Actually there is one sure way to tell -- if you look at the bridge of M's nose the skin is thinner there & you can see the little blue vein through it. T does not have this. But IRL i keep that difference to myself ;)
Michael finished the columns a few weeks ago. It's finally done!
[photos removed]
Now the lawn looks really like crap, so i hope we will manage to fix the lawn/walk/flower beds for the front.
i must've just taken all my plants outside. Because there is a frost warning tonight, so i will have to bring them all back in again.
My laptop has refused to connect to the internet for the past week. I am at the office now, but i don't have any pictures here (though i do have a rather large pile of calculus tests to grade. Oh they are beckoning....)
My husband has been asked repeatedly to please fix the laptop. He informs me that he is very busy but some sexual favors may expedite the process.
I am SO not amused.
and if i write it here i can copy it to the baby book later.
Finals week, kinda swamped, pretty pictures coming.
Usually i mix baby food fruits with plain yogurt to feed it to the babies, but the larder is fairly bare today. So i put some raspberry preserves in the yogurt instead. Yeah, i know it's extra sugar, but i don't have much else on hand. They are a bit sour, so i would be lying if i said the yogurt was a big hit. I looked at the fairly full bowl & started to eat it myself.
"You really don't like this, do you?" I said.
"Eyelaket" said M.
"Oh, you like it?" I said, feeding him another spoonful. "Is it good?"
"Guuuu" said M.
"It's good!" I said.
"Ya" said M.
"Okay then!", i said.
"Eyeyayayayayayayalalalalalalala" said M.
"Ohwowowo na nanana la ladadadada" said T.
The babies are really cute nowadays, but not yet mobile...so i thought it would be a good time to get pictures done. Like, professionally, i mean. I have never had professional pictures taken of my kids, but, well, twins makes you do crazy things. So i found the lady i wanted (it is someone who volunteers with NILMDTS)...but was stopped short by the phrase "Session fees start at $400".
Four hundred dollars? I know they are professionals but geez, that's a lot of money...and you still have to buy the photos! For that, i can try it myself first...if i don't like what i get, then i can pay.
So, on a day when the light was decent & we had just gotten up from nap, i put up a sheet for a backdrop & started. What i wanted was just the standard kind of baby pictures -- babies in diapers, babies without diapers, etc.
[photos removed, so sorry!]
Well, we will try again, another day, with an ironed sheet. And possibly after reading some instructions for the camera, because i had some issues with the focus (or lack thereof). Very few of these are really acceptably sharp, though you probably can't tell that given the size on the blog. Dh says i can't really get them that sharp unless i use a SLR...'okay, buy me one', i said, 'Julia just got a really nice one, i want one too! After all, i am saving a $400 session fee, right?' An amusing attempt at a justification, but not even i believe it!
Lori posted about reading other's blogs -- especially those new in grief -- and the dangers inherent therein. Well, she didn't put it that way...but at some point it is true that offering support can pull us back into our own grief in a bad way. I left a comment about the importance of pulling away from it for awhile....but didn't mention that i have been needing to do that myself for several weeks. But i have been unable to, in fact i find myself reading new blogs, searching out more. It is affecting me badly, i am not functioning very well these days. The shit is piling up.
So i am going to stop reading for a few weeks at least. I will still post here -- there should be more garden pictures soon and i have a bunch of pictures of the lamps dh just put up. Also, assuming it doesn't rain he should finish the porch columns this weekend & so i would love to show y'all a picture of a finished front porch. What a concept.
We are pushing to clean/further finish the house/garden because i have a visitor coming -- my colleague from France will be here in little more than a week, to visit & give a talk, and i will have a party for the department etc. So one wants it to look vaguely presentable, to do all those 'little things' (you know, like put up light fixtures and throw away the junk pile in the backyard and mulch and move those damned boxwood bushes and buy new towels to replace the ones which are 15 years old, ha ha). Plus it is the last 2 weeks of the semester so i have alot of teaching crap to take care of....it is a good time for a blog break, anyway. Now i just have to have the discipline to do it. It is harder than dieting, and we saw how that went. Well, i can't be expected to give up both blogs and junk food. So bring out the Hostess cupcakes, yum!
C: "Mommy, i don't like this house."
Me: "No? Why not?"
C: "I just don't like it. I want a different one."
Me: "Oh? And what kind of house would you like?"
C: "One that is pink. With lots of pink stuff, and purple. And paper, lots of paper all over the place. And....lamps, and pillows. Lots of pillows."
BOTH of them! They went to bed at 7, as usual -- M screamed because he wasn't ready (catnap in the stroller at 5) so he didn't really fall asleep until nearly 8. Then T was up around 9:30
but i settled him again without nursing. Then noone woke up until 5 am! Well, except me, because i had to check if they were OK.
For the last week i swear i have been up every hour. Some nights i missed seeing one of the hours on the clock, but that was seldom. So last night was a blessed event!
I am sure that tonight, it will be every hour again.
T's showed up yesterday, M's showed up on Sunday. It's the same tooth, the lower left one...i mean, it is on the left as you look at them. (I hate right and left, i always get it wrong. Never ask me for driving directions.)
I decided that the boys are eating enough solid foods and i should go on a diet because i can't fit into any of my damned clothes still and they are nearly 10 months old. And it is one thing to just put on some big sweaters and wear the same pair of black slacks every day in the winter, but i will have some real issues in the spring/summer. I will have to either invest in some more fat clothes (the horror!) or lose weight. So i went on a diet, on monday.
Basically i am just trying to eat no junk food & not snack. This sounds like a good idea, right? But apparently i was getting all my calories from junk food & snacks because i am completely starving all the time now even though i am not eating appreciably less meals. And my babies are up screaming hungry all night and my milk production has fallen to like half of what it was. Yes, in two days of dieting.
Maybe this is not such a good idea. I am thinking it over. Maybe i should go get a hamburger.
