Its not me, its you...

Yes, I did in fact turn thirty this January. And with little emotional fanfare as I tend to look forward to my birthdays (although I did freak out a bit when I was turning 27 and had no idea how to take care of my soon to arrive 1st born). I attribute my ability to ease gently into my thirties to the fact that I am in just the perfect spot in life. Not too many kids, not to few, good guy at my side, a cozy little house in a great cit - and - unless you look really closely in the right wrong light, no gray hair.

However.

What is really wigging me out is that all of YOU are turning thirty. I can turn thirty. But when my entire peer group, in a single years time is blogging, facebooking and txt msging about the big 3-0 I suddenly realize - I am friends with old people.

So, I'll continue to age gracefully, thank you very much. But if the rest of you could stop, that'd be great.

Happy Birthday to me, from my my raisons d'etre.

Where to begin? (November)

It has been at least two months...no, more...since I really, really REALLY updated. Am I even capable of catching up at this point? I guess I'll only know if I try.

November

Quick trip to New Hampshire with some friends and some outdoor activities (I love "unseasonably warm" and "November" in the same sentence).

Playing like she is an angel.

When in fact these two screamed the entire way up.
Can you say "I'm not kidding - I'm going to turn this car around."

Poor Meggie - I forgot to pack her a coat.

Tessa is multi-tasking on a Nap/Hike.

Oh yes, and Thanksgiving - the last we'll have with our "family" Dusty, Crystal and Avery. We've eaten every Thanksgiving and Easter dinner with them for at least 4 years. Sniff.

What is a post about Fall in New England without the requisite foliage picture?

Halloween

I'm just going to forgo internet anonymity and brag about living in the town that is the 3rd best place in the U.S. to celebrate Halloween (behind San Fransisco and city I've forgotten). You see, while other people (100,000 - I'm serious) are schlepping around in polyester costumes, looking for parking, wondering where to eat, etc. I LIVE HERE. I have a place to park, I have a legitimate right to trick-or-treating on a street with significant architectural history (i.e. the MANSIONS of federal era ship captains!), and I know that hands down "Passage to India" is THE place to eat.

But enough about how cool I am. I know that the real reason you are here is to see pictures of the girls.

Halloween in my town starts off with a Halloween parade on the first Thursday of the month. Tessa's costume was a work in progress the whole month. For the parade she had her fairy skirt to wear.

Meg's costume, a craigslist special, was much easier and oh so snuggly.

AUGH! Slap me. This kid is so cute!

Daddy is a butterfly (and fairy) hunter. He bagged a big one Saturday night.

When it came down to the ACTUAL trick or treat night (as opposed to the downtown retailers trick or treating, or the ward trunk or treating) Tessa was ready and Boo-yah! Look at that load of candy she collected.

A match made in ...

A few months ago: (I don't care to know the exact date, it would just make me sigh louder) Aaron took the bathroom sink off the wall - and it hasn't worked since.

This week: He finally replaced the tiny little piece that needed to be fixed to get it working again.

An hour ago: I slipped into a nice little "baby on your chest after nursing" doze and when I woke up I was informed that Aaron got that gouge on his nose (which luckily for me was not still spilling blood down his face when I saw it) while trying to reconnect the kitchen sink sprayer and that it was broken.

"Your nose?"

"No, the sink."

"That's okay, it hasn't worked in 2 years."

"No, not just the sprayer...the whole sink doesn't work."

All of this happened in twenty minutes and less than 20 feet from where I was sleeping.

"Don't worry though, I cleared a path to the bathroom sink* so use that until I get back from H--- D----.**"

Sigh...

I grumble about the house, wishing we would just order pizza for dinner to save me the hard labor of frying up already formed hamburger patties***. But I bite the frugal bullet and decide to get everything ready to eat the minute the intrepid remodeler and his bubbly little sidekick return from the store.

Eight minutes later: The microwave beeps that the thaw cycle is done...a few reminder beeps go by and I head into the kitchen. I open the door. No hamburger. Did I take it out already? I look again. And again. And finally I find the hamburger, in a bowl, next to the window. And having never made it into the microwave at all they are of course, still frozen.

I'm really just worried about the children.

---***---

*We hadn't been using the long awaited bathroom sink because there was construction debris blocking the way, and because dirty doesn't come near describing its condition.

** I have grown to loath this particular construction supply store and would rather not mention its name in entirety.

***Edited to add: It turns out that having to use the bathroom sink while cooking makes for a pretty inefficient work triangle.

Edited once again with this update: The kitchen sink was fixed within two hours of this post. This means that I am now blessed with TWO working sinks...can you imagine?

October Side Note - Major Clue #4

Here is a picture of the whole family in costume, under the glare of the always flattering fluorescent lights.

Just in case you don't get it Aaron is a baker and I am an oven.

Get it...Get it...?

Cause a lot of people at the party didn't.
"Oh I get it, he's a chef and you're a microwave..."

Of course you all have the benefit of 3 previous clues...and above average intelligence.

I was afraid that this costume/announcement would be bordering on tacky (and who knows, perhaps it was), but so many people didn't get it that it ended up being rather clever*.


*Since I'm now addicted to using asterisks you should check out this funny post about Halloween costumes on the blog "Stuff White People Like" ...

October Fun - Part 1

"Have you been to the Fair?" In how many towns across the country do you hear that question? I guess despite our incredible sophistication there is something inherent in our make-up that draws us the the wholesome goodness of the fair.

Well, goodness, except for the occasional shyster that tries to steal $10 from an innocent passerby/patron by using the ol' "Oh no, you only gave me a $10" trick. Luckily for this innocent passerby (you know of whom I speak) his wife was there to, in her sweetest, nicest voice demand the correct change back. Close one...that almost obliterated all possible enjoyment our day at the fair.

Other than fair food (you know in all actuality the "going rate" for fair food itself is a bit of a con act) our main goal in going to the fair was to show Tessa the animals in the petting zoo.

She was completely put off but the rooster who pecked at daddy's hand. But the bigger animals were okay by her and she tried to pat each one.



We forgot to go back and get a picture of Tessa next to the giant pumpkin. Obese veggies are apparently a fair favorite. But we did get to ride on a school bus which billed itself as a "shuttle" from an "economy" parking lot at the highschool. This picture, and the one with Tessa pushing the stroller show exactly how thrilled she was by the time we ended up leaving. We are lucky that when she gets overwhelmed it exhibits itself in out of control silliness instead of a more standard grumpiness.





Here are two pictures of the garden exhibit. The "greener" one is for my dad...this tree is really cool and the layout was very peace inspiring. I think would look great in an indoor pond (I have more pics if you are interested)...



And here is my attempt to copy a photo layout that Alicia did when we were in Palmyra...Alicia, how come you never posted the original pic on your blog?



And now moving a little into random territory:

We went to the Fair on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend. On Monday Aaron went to work but invited us into the City to go to lunch with him and some co-workers. I was pretty much in heaven after getting to play all day Saturday and THEN have a lunch date on Monday. That afternoon Tessa and I played in the backyard - I took pics because her coat is sooo cute!







Tessa is such a good example - one day a few weeks ago she spend most of the morning reading an Ensign magazine.



And finally - we feel it is our duty as good parents and design professionals to teach our daughter that sometimes you have to pay good money for good art. Here she is handing over the plastic in exchange for "Tower of Learning" by A. Udy.

Niagara Falls

Third in our series of "The Udy Family takes a long weekend."
(I mean really, you'd think we took a two-week African safari with how long it is taking me to finish posting about it!)

In front of Tessa's namesake
(no, not really)

Trash bag family

Where we were, from above.

Cute little Leshy.

In Canada

We decided to forgo watching the falls at night, with lights and fireworks. As Laura said "The falls are really neat, but I've seen enough." And as Alicia said "Lets get some ice cream."

So we headed to Fort Niagara on our way back to camp. But we got distracted by the cutest ice cream shop in the cutest town and spent the rest of the evening there.

Contemplating.




Tessa learned to crawl on the grass that evening, and now she realizes she can go anywhere she wants to!

Phobic

I do tend to be frightened of spiders. They give me this vague panicky feeling that I think subliminally I knew could be uncontrollable if I were really threatened by a spider, however since I always stay far away from them it just existed as a hovering heart racing feeling.

And then one day I was sitting in a car with my husband and child and a daddy long legs crawled up my side. That was horrible enough, but then - it dropped down onto my seat and I lost track of it.

And I freaked out.

Yes - I was told as a child that daddy long legs have fangs (fangs for heavens sake) that are too small to bite humans, and I was in a moving car, and I am an adult and should be able to handle something like that.

BUT I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE IT WAS, and it could have easily been crawling ON ME.

So I commenced crying and hyperventilating and basically making a bit of a fool of myself.

Aaron pulled over as quickly as he could and I lept out of the car, and yes, the thought of stripping my clothes off briefly crossed my mind. luckily the spider was on the seat, was quickly brushed to the asphalt, and stepped on. I'm ashamed that the stepping on had more to do with my need to dominate it than with its actual threat to me at that point.

All told there were 5 daddy long legs riding with us in the car that day, one which I found on my head rest after getting out of the car after a 10 minute drive. Gulp.

Note: The spiders came from the wood we bought at one camp site and drove to another...don't ever, ever do that.

Note #2: Lest those readers familiar with the delicate daddy long legs of the southwest think I am a total wuss, this is what Daddy-Long-Leg spiders look like in upstate NY.

Get the Jordan barbie doll out of storage!

New Kids at Rockefeller Plaza

Click it - you know you want to!

Luv Bug Birthday

Here is a sample of an activity we did today for Tessa's Luv Bug Birthday...

I'm IT!

Four Jobs that I've had:

Two bad:
1. I drew gold lines on fancy picture frames for two months. Worked from 6am - 3pm. Nearly went insane.
2. I worked in a tile showroom where we maybe got 1 person to walk in per week...and that is pushing it...I'm not sure how the owner made any money.

Two good:
3. Worked selling concessions and tickets and the $1.50 movie theater (yes, I did say one dollar and fifty cents!) - I worked with 12 people who were 16 and 17, even the (really cute) manager was 17, and we had an hour of down time between movies...what could be more fun!
4. MHOC - You have to like your first "real" job, and my bosses and co-workers were great.

Four Places I have been:
1. Rome (brag brag brag)
2. London (see above)
3. New York
4. Bermuda

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Chocolate Chip Cookie (Dough)
2. Lasagna, Aaron's specialty & Butternut Squash
3. Taco Soup
4. Treasure's (by Hershey I think)

Four Concerts I'd like to go to:
1. Garth Brooks
2. NKOTB reunion
3. Bon Jovi
4. Dixie Chicks

Four reasons why I love being me:
1. I have well formed feet.
2. I can walk to accomplish a lot of my errands.
3. I have good ideas (implementation, well, not so much)
4. I can make a delicious dessert.

Four Classes that I wish were offered to and that I could participate in right now.
1. Bewitched 101: The art of the nose wiggle.
2. Don't Waste time: 1 class, 1/2 hour
3. Remember me: Focus - faces and names.
4. What Not to Wear

Four friends or relatives that I am tagging:
1. Jamie
2. Tracie
3. Christin
4. Maria (if only she had a blog to respond on...hint, hint, hint)

4 Layer Cake

Yesterday was my birthday (note the new background in honor of said event).

Yada...yada... frankly I didn't really care. I mean this in a good way, I just felt like, big deal. I would have been fine with just knowing myself it was my birthday. But, since other people cared (for which I am grateful, I mean, that DOES make you feel good) I used it to get some things that I wanted (in addition to presents, which were also very nice)...those things were:

Going out to eat at Passage to India. If you live in the area you MUST eat there. MUST.

Sleeping in.

Baking a 4 layer cake. And thus we come to the reason I posted at all. I had to show off my pictures of this delight.

(This is what it looked like under the frosting (I doubled the frosting recipe and still barely had enough to cover the cake)

O have always wanted to bake a 4 layer cake and now that I've finally done it I think I'll make this a regular birthday tradition. If any of you want to invite me to your birthday feel free to ask me to bring the cake, and I'll bring YOU a 4 layer cake.

Hair and Toes

This is a little bit about me and a little bit about Tessa.

First of all - Tessa finally found her toes. Despite the fact that I've been showing her toes to her everyday for the past two months, last Friday she suddenly looked at them, looked at me and said "Hey Mom, have you seen these things!! Why haven't you told me about them!?"

Well, that should have been the second of all because if we are thinking chronologically I got my hair cut 4 days before Tessa discovered her toes (the two are not related in any way, but these are the milestones that I live my life by). Here is a before and after. It will probably never look like that again but miraculously it looks even better when I do it myself.

The Making Of

In June 2006 I was just to the point that I was considering ending treatment to investigate adoption. However, our doctor recommended IVF, saying it was the fastest way for me to be a mom. We waited briefly for the insurance approval and then off we went. We found out we were officially pregnant on Sept. 11, 2006.

Overall the pregnancy was easy. In the beginning I got queasy from 11a-4p everyday. This was while I was at work so Aaron didn't have to deal with much whining (according to me), so according to him the pregnancy was a piece of cake.

I really loved my belly as it got rounder.


Though it sounds odd, one of the things I loved about pregnancy was the extremes: the extreme hunger, the extreme fatigue, the extreme anger, the extreme laughter.

I guess you can say, I never knew what to expect next.