Caribbean Cruise

Guess where Mark and I will be at the end of February?

 

YAY!! We finally booked our big vacation tonight! I cannot even begin to articulate how excited we are about this trip. Mark and I need this getaway.

For our honeymoon, we took a week long cruise to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Mexico (Cozumel), and we loved it. Some folks love cruises, and others don’t. Mark loves cruises because all of the stuff on the ship, and I like being able to see multiple places and only unpacking once. We truly had such a fabulous time on our honeymoon trip through the western Carribean, that we pretty much started talking about our next cruise before we even got back home.

Five years later, and we are finally going!

We will be departing from Miami (thanks to Mark’s frequent flyer miles) and going to the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarten/St. Martin. Mark has been to Nassau, Bahamas once before, but I think it was on one of his college Spring Breaks which means it was all a hazy, drunken memory. I have always wanted to go to St. Thomas, and Mark insisted on St. Maarten (still not sure why).

We will be gone for a full week. Actually, it will probably be more like 8 days because we would like to spend one day in Miami. Neither of us have been to Miami before, and I have a cousin who lives there who we would like to take out-to-dinner.

A week! As excited as I am, I cringe at being away from Kate and Carson that long. The longest we’ve been apart was two days (last summer when we went to Galveston for the weekend), and I won’t be able to get a hold of them on the ship either. I can’t imagine missing an entire week of their lives.

One of the major reasons we picked February for our trip is because that would be the best time for my mom to watch them. What a job! I am going to have to Miss Jennifer, my mother-in-law, and my Aunt Cindy pitch in and help my mom out.

And…I won’t be here for the birth of my cousin Jil’s baby. She is due right in the middle of our trip.

Ahh, but I can’t think of all of that tonight. Tonight, I just want to be excited about our big vacation…even if it is SEVEN months away! We will be celebrating a lot on this trip…5 years of marriage (actually, our anniversary is 4 months before our trip), Valentine’s Day, surviving 2 years of twin parenthood, and my 32nd birthday is a month after our trip.

I’m off to go drool at more online island photos!

Ahhh…So Worth the Wait!

I realize how completely weird it is to write a blog post on this topic, but I love what the carpet cleaners did! My house looks brand new again (and we’ve only lived here for 15 months, and the house is 3 years old!). And they used a special machine and cleaned all of the tile and grout in the downstairs.

I was stunned at this machine! I have tried everything under the sun…I have been on my hands-and-knees dealing with the aftermath of living with 2 dogs and 2 toddlers (who love to throw food). Nothing worked. The grout on our otherwise beautiful tile had turned black. It was disgusting looking. With his high-powered steam magic machine, it all came up. The tile is back to looking brand spankin’ new!

I’m sure there are several folks reading this silly post and rolling their eyes, but issues with the floor have been a big thing for me. I hate gross floors, and my floors were pretty damn gross.

Not any more though! 🙂

I totally forgot to get before and after photos, but maybe I can talk Mark into taking my photo on the new and improved kitchen floor while acting like Demi Moore rolling in cash in Indecent Proposal (but I won’t be naked, thankfully). Yes, I am that pleased with the stupid floors!

The other item I was waiting on — and just as exciting — was the dryer vent guy. He got up there and told us we had a massive bird’s nest and it had completely blocked off the exhaust. So, he cleaned everything up and I just finished my first load of laundry…and it only took ONE cycle through the dryer! Hot damn!

This has been a good day. A very good day.

Oh, and the twins had a good day too. (Not that they are an after thought in this post…okay, well, today they are.) Miss Jennifer said they were little angels all day. We we got home, Kate practiced her walking a lot. I can see her confidence building in the walking department.

Things I Don’t Want to Forget, Part 1

• Kate is always the first one I take out to the car when we are going out-and-about or to Miss Jennifer’s. As soon as we are in the garage and Kate sees the car, she starts to clap and say, “Yay!” She also claps and says “Yay” when we are returning home and pulling into the garage. I will say, “We’re home,” and Kate starts cheering.
• Kate is the first into the car and the last one out…every time. Carson is less likely to fuss if he sees me leave the room, so Kate always goes first.
• Carson always wakes up from naps and bedtime earlier than Kate — 1 + hours usually. The time we have alone together before Kate wakes up from her nap is my favorite time of the day with Carson. We cuddle on the couch, I carry him around, we play and talk on the floor. When he hears Kate start to wake up on the monitor, he starts to fuss and whine because he knows his time is up.
• They hate traditional sippy cups, but love drinking from straws instead.
• Carson gradually wakes up from sleep. I can hear him chirping, “talking” and softly calling out “dada” over the monitor. Kate wakes up in a full scream every time. So I run up the stairs and I always find her smiling.
• Kate is hot and cold on hair bows. There are some days that she will wear one and not mess with it; other days she instantly pulls it out and refuses to wear it.
• Carson likes to sit at the back of the bath tub and hoard all of the toys back there. Kate likes to sit in front and play with the water coming out of the faucet.
• Carson hates having his teeth brushed, and Kate doesn’t seem to mind at all.
• Both are struggling with the concept of shoes.

Kate was so exhausted on Sunday night after returning from Dallas, that she passed out (with our dog Maggie) at 6 PM.

Weekend in Dallas, Part 3

 

SUNDAY

Again, the twins slept like rocks and woke up “late” (i.e., 7 AM) this morning.

Amanda had bought the twins their favorite breakfast — Eggos and bananas — and we had a somewhat leisurely morning. We quickly packed-up and headed over to Chalna’s house for a planned morning playdate.

This was the twins very first playdate, and I think they loved having a new house and toys to explore. For the most part, the three of them (Colin, Kate, and Carson) played separately, but it was fun seeing them all together. I was surprised that Colin (and any 1-year old for that matter) was so gracious having these unknown twins come into his domain to play with his stuff, but he didn’t mind a bit.

Colin has WAY cooler toys than the twins, and I need to get more age-appropriate toys for them soon. They still have rattles and other true baby toys still in their toy bin. I feel bad about it. No wonder they get bored.

While the kiddos played, us grown-ups (me, Mark, Chalna & Jeremy) got to visit. It was nice to be in a child-proof house and not have to worry about the twins finding something dangerous. I REALLY want Chalna, Jeremy and Colin to come down to Austin for a weekend soon. Jeremy (a non-Texan) has never been to Austin, and that’s just simply sinful. My secret fantasy is that they come down for a visit and Jeremy falls in love with Austin and decides he just can’t take Dallas anymore and he moves the family down here. HaHa…okay, not very likely, but I can still hope. 🙂

We got on the road at 11 AM, and the twins were sleeping in the car before we even got out of their neighborhood. Once again, they slept halfway home and then woke up unhappy. Kate — who had been a doll baby all weekend — was a bear on the ride home. I spent a good chunk of the time on sitting on my knees facing backwards in the front seat trying to do anything to keep her from fussing and cursing under my breath how badly I want a car with a built-in DVD player. The Wiggles or Bunnytown really would have come in handy for that final 150 miles.

The kiddos were thrilled to be back home. They were so happy, wild and hyper. They just had to inspect all of their toys, and they went room-to-room just looking round. Carson was especially glad to be home. He was practically bursting with joy and happiness.

What a great weekend. We must do it again soon!

 Kate helping herself to Colin’s wagon of toys.

Weekend in Dallas, Part 2

SATURDAY

We hung out at my friend Amanda’s house for about 3 hours before heading out to Colin’s birthday party.

Amanda and I have been very good friends since our days as little hell raisers in junior high Catholic School. I wish I would have had more time to hang out with her, but it was a hectic weekend. I hope she didn’t feel like she was just ‘Hotel de Amanda.’ I keep begging her to come down to Austin, and I know she is coming in early November to go to a Kathy Griffin show with me.

Colin’s 1st birthday party was awesome. It was held at Colin’s grandmother’s beautiful house…that had a patio and view I would kill for! It was so nice. I must say that Chalna planned everything perfectly. Usually there is always a major mishap at kiddie parties, but not at this one. Every thing looked wonderful, everything tasted wonderful, and everyone had a good time.

And she timed it right. We made the mistake of having the twins’ 1st birthday party at 1 PM (i.e., nap time). So Kate slept through half of her own party, and then woke up a groggy head who wasn’t too pleased to wake up to find a bunch of people in her house taking her photo. Lesson learned. Colin’s party was at 4 PM…brilliant.

One of the highlights for me was getting to see Chalna’s mom. Her mom was my senior AP Honors English teacher in high school, and I absolutely loved her. She was the one and only teacher that truly made a lasting impact on my life. She was supportive, she encouraged my writing, she was a mentor. I’ve often thought of her through the years, and it was awesome getting to see her again.

Carson was…well…a bit of a nightmare at the party. He was painfully shy and held onto Mark for dear life. At times (when other people weren’t around), he warmed up a little and played with some of Colin’s gifts. In this regard, Kate and Carson are polar opposites. Kate was a social butterfly, and I’m not totally convinced that she understood the party wasn’t for her. The girl never meets a stranger.

 

The birthday boy, Colin, chowing down on his birthday cake.

 Mark and Kate at the party. I love this photo of them.

 When the birthday boy wasn’t looking, Kate took his cool new car out for a “spin.”

Kate & Carson checking out all of Colin’s new toys.

 The kiddie dining section. Kate, Hunter, and birthday boy Colin festing on some hot dog and chips. Carson was sitting on Mark’s lap and didn’t want to join the group.