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I've MOVED to Wordpress..or rather moved BACK to Wordpress...

Here' s my new link http://twin-transfusion.com/

Thanks for your patience while I take care of crap here and crap there.

Love Ms. Crabass

He rubs the lotion on his skin...

I have dryish skin. I have a weird thing about my feet. They need to be soft and never ever dry. I can't use the word most people use to say "not dry" because it's on my list of words I don't like. (I have a running list I will post soon). So everyday before I leave the house I apply a non-scented light lotion to my feet. Then before I go to bed I wash them in the sink, if you want to visualize that.


So Henry sees me applying lotion often. He always wants some too. Yesterday, while I had Carlos The Puppy outside, Henry helped himself to my Vaseline Intensive Care, most of the bottle. Then last night he managed to reach the twins' nurses' bottle of Keri Lotion. He was moisturized to the max.





Yesterday, we went to the boardwalk with my brother and his kids. Lije had the most awesome hairdo in a 100 mile radius. The rides were closed because of the 47 raindrops that landed within an hour. So we went into two arcades. The first one was excessively over-crowded. Milo was having all kinds of sensory overload issues. We left. My brother wanted a beer at the boardwalk's saloon. So we wandered around their accompanying arcade for another full hour of premier merrymaking.


Mamie spent about $5 on Skee Ball and won one miniature eraser shaped like a cake, the ones the kids are collecting these days.





Mamie and her big cousin rejoicing...





I ordered my nephews a magnificent waffle sandwich, the deluxe because I'm an incredible aunt. My niece and I split one with coffee ice cream, and Mamie got a giant bag of cotton candy in pink. Yuck. One of our nurses ordered a slice of pizza that was the size of a large beaver. I regret not getting a pic of that.
So in just two hours we had a great day. Mamie got to stay at the boardwalk with her cousins while I returned home with the boys for our nurse's shift end.





Have a great day!


Love Ms. Crabass

I ate two plates of linguini with clam sauce and a photo from 2005's Halloween...

So I said I took a series of these Halloween theme pics? Here's the first one taken in 2005, the twins' first Halloween not spent in a hospital. And Mamie's first Halloween ever. They were little Caesars. It's been my favorite costume so far.



I ate two bowls of my father's awesome linguini with clam sauce, scallops and squid. We had dinner there tonight because my brother and his kids came down from Vermont today. They'll stay until Friday and my niece will stay behind here for a week. I'm sure I've have some stories about this. Tonight my brother was insisting that any adult riding a bicycle without any gear has a DUI.

Well I'm kind of dog-tired. haha that's a pun. I'm tired of this dog. He's damned cute but it's really just an extra chore, and I knew to expect this. But still it doesn't change the fact that it's still another thing to do...take him out, bring him in, feed him, rub his belly. Plus I am not used to this dog smell so I'm adding at least 16 more hand-washings to my day. That's like 32 minutes if I was singing the Happy Birthday song. Carlos is really unusually calm and obedient, I'm impressed.

Goodnight.

Love Ms. Crabass

I have 2 minutes to introduce you to Carlos, and then some talk about Halloween costumes......

I wanted to wait a couple more years to get the kids a dog. But seeing how much Lije loves my aunt's Jack Russells and my brother's mutt, I got the idea that it might be cool to get a dog now. Right now, as in before the cold weather hits. I certainly wouldn't want to train a puppy in the winter.
So here's Senor Carlos. He's half Wire-haired Fox Terrier, half Puggle. And a Puggle is half Beagle, half Pug. I think he looks exactly like such a mix.
He's very sweet and super calm. I love a calm dog. My last dog, Murphy- the best dog ever- was a Brittany, but unlike a Brittany he was super chilled and indifferent towards most people and other animals. I loved, loved that about him.
Today we're going to find one of our local dog parks after a stop at Petco- where the pets go (I have to say that every time) - where we're going to look at the chewy, squeaky toys. I'm really hoping the novelty of a puppy doesn't wear off too fast. I'll try and get pictures with my real camera.





Also, today is the twinkies last day of school for the summer. That signals the end of summer and time to consider Halloween costumes. (I have been so gung-ho on portraying Gilligan's Island for years now. Milo must be Gilligan and Lije, the Skipper.   We'll see. I know at this age they love being their own thing.
Here is one photo of the series of the years I had a theme pre-Henry. I think this was the second year, they were, obviously, cave kids. I'll get around to posting the other classics.





This year has gone way too fast and I dig that in a way. Because of the years between babies I spent in the house, depressed and anxiety-ridden, I feel like this is the first day of the rest of my life.


Love Ms. Crabass

I just gave my toddler a giant marshmallow to eat so I can write this post about nothing...

I don't remember what we did Friday. Oh yes, I dropped my MIL off at the train for her trip back home to Tallahassee. Mamie (not really quite her name) cried for 20 minutes straight, I felt sorry for her because she knows she won't see her paternal grandma for maybe another year or two.


Then we took a trip to Wegman's, our favorite supermarket. When I say "we" I will usually mean my mother (Grammy), Mamie and myself...and if we absolutely have to, baby Henry. In this case Henry was included in our trip to "Weggie's" for lunch (sushi) which followed with a short trip to the park before heading home to meet the short bus.





This park is good for pleasing me in the sense that we're usually alone, if not, almost alone. It's on the water with a spectacular view which makes it often windy in the summer. The bad part about the park is it's on the water. No physical barrier between the jungle-gym and the beach. Except the 100 yard head start Henry has before I can catch him, which seems to be good enough notice for me to start chasing him before he reaches the other side of the river. And the sand. The sand is dirty. Not like the sand on the other side of the inlet where the ocean is. Just disgusting dark brown, clumpy sand with miscellaneous man-made debris.  





Friday was uneventful, but not Saturday. We took the kids to Clark's to get shoes for the new school year. Turns out, my 8 year-old twins' feet are smaller than their 5 year-old sister's. She's a US12, Milo's an 11 while Lige is just a 9.5. I am assuming that must be because he doesn't walk...? Lige's feet are the best, they're always kissable and soft- never rough from walking on the ground, or smelly like my other kids' feet. There're certainly advantages to having a child with moderately-severe cerebral palsy. Another is, he can't always escape so fast when I'm kissing and squeezing him.


Oh, about the shoe shopping, it didn't go well at all. Henry hadn't had his nap and he was crazed. He was getting the twins all worked up and there was no chance of us *not* being that family. I had my mom and our nurse with us, as well as the 4 kids. You'd think with the twins strapped in their wheelchairs and Mamie being her typically well-behaved self, that the 3 of us adults could keep a handle on Henry. Not so. Somehow he left the store without any of us seeing.  
A woman, who'd been watching us this entire time, with empathy and kindness, even trying to crack some exhausted-parent-jokes, had witnessed Henry split. The next thing I saw was her announcing he'd left as she ran out the door and caught him running towards the parking lot. O.m.g. I was embarrassed, all eyes were on me, but more so annoyed that my two adult helpers were not being reliable as I was trying to fit and choose shoes for my four kids.  
Of course, it really is ultimately my responsibility, and certainly not the twins' nurse's job...but my mom...well, she's older now and gets distracted easily. I don't know. It's basically just frustrating to go out with all these guys at one time.  I admit it, I don't have a comfortable grip at this stage.


Oh cool, Henry didn't even eat the marshmallow...they're Mamie's thing. I don't do marshmallows either, Henry.





Love Ms. Crabass

Wholesale shopping and stopping to feed the birds in the city-by-the-sea......

Paternal grandma was visiting from Florida this week. Yesterday was her last full day here. So after my spoiled trip to Costco- spoiled because I don't care for "shopping" with Mr. Crabass at all - he takes the long ass way through the aisles to get only what he needs but won't stop to look at anything the rest of us find interesting - we took Grandma over to the boardwalk in Asbury Park. Not being from New Jersey, I don't think she's ever been to Asbury before this but was able to appreciate the fallen beach resort for it's fascinating, bittersweet history and current struggle for it's rebirth.



Had I been told previously that our trip there was mainly to the boardwalk candy store for salt water taffy I would have warned her the price per pound is 8 times the amount one can get the same box of taffy 6 blocks in from shore at the Foodtown. (which I knew for certain she'd be interested in knowing!) But that's one of the oddball traits of that side of the family. Plans are whispered and a sudden trip takes place with a vague announcement of destination, usually leaving it's victims unprepared- in this particular case I didn't know to bring my camera as I thought we were just going to Costco. So hence the 2 megapixel cell phone quality photos.



We walked past the murals and went into a few shops but really only had about 30 minutes before heading home to meet the Twinkies' school bus. But I must say, one of my favorite things is being at the beach on a cloudy, storm-dangling kind of day.



Then my parents gave Grandma a farewell dinner last night, of scallop and shrimp scampi on top of linguini with my famous (I made it twice) Frozen Margarita Pie. Lige tore apart the magazines, Milo perpetually signed his current movie obsession, Paulie...which we don't own, it happens to come on HBO whenever we're at the 'rents house. But he settled on Sleeping Beauty in the end.

The inspiration for my recipe came off the lid of the Oikos greek yogurt, but this is what I've done:

Margarita Pie

1 graham cracker pie crust
8 oz light cream cheese
1 cup vanilla greek yogurt
4 tbs sugar
a little less than 1/4 cup liquid margarita mixer
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (the 2nd time I used Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Juice which was extra tart, which I like)

I mixed the last 5 ingredients in my Vitamix on Var 6. Poured into pie crust and froze for a few hours. Topped with whipped cream shortly before serving.

Everyone claims they love it, I'm still not sure if they're just being supportive.

Love Ms. Crabass