Richmond, Virginia

I'm in Richmond this week for work and am torn between missing my girls and being slightly relieved that I'm off mom duty for a few days.  :)  I'm hoping to use my quiet nights to get some Christmas shopping done (hello, Cyber Monday!), catch up on blogging and go to bed early!  Lolo and Lola are babysitting so I know the girls are having fun....although, I got word of a crying breakdown tonight because Audrey kept saying she missed me.  Plus, she finally asked for her binky even though the Binky Fairy took it on her birthday (a post on that to come).  It took almost 2 hours but Lola finally got her calmed down.  I'm hoping this isn't going to happen every night.  I've been away from her before so I'm not sure what's causing the anxiety now.  Anyway, here's to a little "me" time knowing that mommy will be back in full force on Friday!

Turkey Day Prep

Today is a great day.

The turkey has been brining since last night.

I picked up my car today (a week and a half after it was promised!).  It needs to go back though because the AC doesn't seem to be working (not that I need it in November) and there is condensation in one of the headlights.  But hey - I'm not driving the rental car anymore.

It's beautiful outside.

Audrey is home with a nasty cold but is napping and has a fantastic spirit.

I love my husband and can't wait to see him later.

The housekeepers were here today and the house is clean.

The grocery shopping is done and now we just wait.

Hope your day is great too.

It Must Be Love

Last weekend, Bill had a 24 hour shift on Saturday so that made Sunday a crazy day full of driving around town to complete a ton of chores.  Bill, Mr. Don't Even Mention Christmas Before Thanksgiving, turned the radio to the Christmas station because he said he knew I was stressed and the music would make me happy!  Love him!

The next night Bill was giving Audrey a bath while I fed Vivian and put her to bed.  When I was done, I went into the bathroom and found the two of them holding hands and dancing like crazy to songs on our Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Pandora station.  Audrey was so happy and had the biggest smile on her face.  I can't stop picturing her hair flying about while she was jumping all around smiling and laughing.  Both of them were so in the moment!  It was really great to witness the love between them and I will cherish this new memory forever.  Love, love, love Bill for being such a great dad.

Crazy Busy

I know I haven't posted anything this week but that's only because we are crazy busy around here.  Work has been insane for me the last few weeks and Bill was studying for an in-service exam that he just took yesterday.  Mix that in with trying to plan for our first Thanksgiving as hosts (yikes!), and we have zero time for anything else.  We've made Thanksgiving dinner many times for friends and small subsets of family members but this year, we'll have 17 people in our house.  We knew that we needed to finally get our basement organized and set up as a game room in order to accommodate that many people.  It went from being a total mess of unpacked boxes and stacks of junk that we didn't know what to do with, to a rec room complete with tables, chairs, futon, TV, game consoles and dart board.  The unfinished side of our basement has four sets of shelves that we completely filled and then some.  We still have work to do but for this week, it will be perfect.  On Friday, Bill's parents are coming in for Audrey's birthday (yay 3 year old!) and then will stay to babysit so I can go on a 4 day business trip to Richmond.  The night after I get home, we have the urology department's holiday party and then the next day, we're having a small birthday party for Audrey.  I'm exhausted just typing this.  I expect that I'll have a lot of posts coming up as long as I survive the next two weeks.  To be honest, I have draft posts that I just haven't even gotten around to....one on Audrey's big girl room that I started back in August!  Life always gets so busy but I wouldn't have it any other way.

It's In the Bag

My parents vacationed in Hilton Head with very close family friends, Elaine and Marc, shortly before Audrey turned one.  Elaine - who the girls call Grandma B - bought Audrey an adorable bag with her name on it when they took a day trip to Charleston, SC.  From what I was told, she and my mom saw the bag at the same time and raced to see who would get to it first!  We began using it as Audrey's daycare bag and continue to this day.  My dad, Elaine and Marc were in Hilton Head again this October and took another trip to Charleston.  I asked Elaine if she wouldn't mind looking for a "Vivian" bag and she told me she was already planning to!  Again, she beat us to it.  :)  They didn't have one but the vendor said she could custom make one and send it.  About a week later we received Viv's bag which now goes with her to daycare.  The bags are so cute and Audrey loves that she and Vivian have matching bags.  Thank you, Grandma B!

School Pictures

I was a little bummed that the photographer didn't even try to get Vivian to smile at all but she's still my cutie.

Trick or Treat!

We finally got to go Trick or Treating!  And it was about time because Audrey was more than ready.  I have to say though, that I don't think the city took daylight savings into consideration when rescheduling....when it started at 6pm it was pitch black outside.  Aside from not being able to see where we were going (our neighborhood has terrible street lighting), it was very fun and Audrey had a blast.  All night she kept saying, "Trick or treating is fun!"

Introducing Dora the Explorer and her best friend Boots the monkey!

Baby Boots

Dora! (I won't lie, the wig was a little freaky.)

Complete with the Map:

and Backpack!

Someone was hungry and not so happy.  Check out this face!

Happy Halloween! (sort of)

Even though Trick or Treating wasn't in our future thanks to Hurricane Sandy, Halloween started off as a great day and I was able to get some pics of the girls in their Halloween cuteness.

Here comes trouble! In her super cute shirt from Aunt Dawn:

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one!

Black cat socks also from Aunt Dawn which happened to match her black cat shirt:

Skulls and crossbones:

At school in her witch bib:

Where's Audrey??

Pumpkin deely boppers from her Ninang Ay Ay!

Then the scary part of Halloween kicked in.  I was heading home from daycare, going about 35mph and changed lanes to avoid a big truck that was stopped in the right hand lane.  An SUV pulled out of an apartment complex right in front of the stopped truck - so they couldn’t see me coming - to make a left hand turn and I just t-boned them.  I hit the brakes, but it was raining so I had no chance to stop, and hit them about 3 seconds later, if that.  My passenger side airbag deployed (but oddly not mine - I think because my car slid slightly to the left) and my glasses went flying off (a fireman found them for me under the gas pedal).  The other car spun off to the right and they landed up on the curb.  It was weird to have to look around for them once the powder from the airbag dissipated.  I was so disoriented that it took me a few minutes to even realize my glasses were missing and I'm blind without them.  I knew right away that something wasn't right with my neck because I couldn't look to the right and my knees hurt from hitting the steering column.  A cop, multiple ambulances (there were 3 people in the other car) and some firetrucks showed up right away and I was put in a neck brace and onto a board without even getting out of my car.  It was awkward but they managed it somehow.  I just mainly remember the fact that it was raining on my face and there was nothing I could do about it.  Bill met me at the hospital where they took CT scans and x-rays and thankfully just diagnosed me with knee contusions and neck and back sprains.  I left in a soft neck brace and with good meds! 

The rest of the day, however, didn't get much better.  Neither of us had eaten anything all day, the cop still had my driver's license, my car was impounded somewhere with the Audrey's car seat still inside, we needed a rental car but I wasn't supposed to be driving and we had to get this all figured out before daycare closed at 6:00.  Bill had just come off of a 28 hour shift and just wanted to go home and go to sleep and I could barely walk and just wanted to go home and go to sleep!  But, we managed to get it all done. 

You have to hand it to Nissan.  I thought the damage would be much worse.

Today was pretty rough because I had to keep the girls home since the rental car didn't show up until late morning, not that I can drive anyway, and I am so unbelievably sore.  Even picking up Vivian was hard and she was extra needy today.  Audrey was so sweet though because Bill had told her I got hurt so she was a great helper and listener today.  I did get word that my car is not totaled and we'll get it back next Friday.  I'm just thanking God that I didn't get hurt any worse than I was and that the girls weren't in the car with me when it happened.  Everything could have been so much worse.  I'm very happy to be home now with my little family all safe and sound.