NOMOTC

Surely you have found your tribe, your people, your place before?  For me it's a mix of comfort zone, new adventures and people who want to be together.  Church camp, backpacking with Cal and playing cards with my family come to mind.   Last weekend during Beckypalooza, Becky and I reminisced for a few minutes about pledging the same club during our freshman year of college.  We felt so clueless and intimidated, we didn't fully understand the process, but all these years later we're were so glad we had each other and did it together.  Small group at Downtown was another experience that Cal and I look back on with great fondness and still miss.  That was our first experience as a couple making friends as opposed to the melting pot of friends we share from when we were single.  The semester I spent in Australia during college-I remember spending hours looking out of the window from our tour bus just soaking in the land, still amazed that I was there.  Most of our group slept on those loooong bus rides and I joined them from time to time, perfecting my bend-at-the-waist-and-hang-over-the-armrest sleeping position that has served me well over the years.  However, to be somewhere that always fascinated me and for it to be everything beautiful, friendly, interesting and delicious as I thought it would be, that is finding your place.  I don't have to go into detail about my peeps, as ellen has an opinion handled that for me earlier this week, but that's a tribe for life.  And tribes are what I'm trying to get to today-I've found a new one.  Tuesday night I went to a meeting of the local chapter of NOMOTC-National Organization of Mothers of Twins Club.  I don't want to make this pregnancy all about there being two babies instead of the usual one, but I also really wanted to meet some people who have been or who are where Cal and I are living these days.  It was an unusual night, I learned, because only the officers were there and they scrapped their business meeting plans and asked if instead I would like to just ask them questions and hear their stories.  It was an online message board come to life and it was fantastic.  These ladies shared the good, the bad and the ugly and I ran out of questions.  They kept it practical, light on the sappiness and at the end I just felt like I had found women who will be friends, the kind of friends who make you better and understand what you're going through.  That's a tribe worth joining.

A Look-See

Saturday we went to a giant baby store for a look-see.  That might have been a mistake.  Here are the reasons:


Why do the products not tell you what they are for?  For example, I keep reading/hearing that we'll need receiving blankets.  I do not know the difference between a blanket and a receiving blanket.  So when I saw some at the giant baby store I picked up the package hoping for an explanation.  Nope, just a blurb on how wonderful they are and what they are made of.  To me, a receiving blanket sounds like something you use one time, as in the baby is here, I will receive him into this blanket and then will never use it again.  I keep forgetting to ask my mother about those.


Why is everything so overstuffed and plush?  I mean, I know the stuffing gives comfort, but there's a list of a million things a baby can suffocate on and yet everything seems to have lots of plushy padding and ruffles and unnecessary fabric doodads .  At one point, Cal looked down at a crib or bassinet and said,  "Doesn't this look like this might cause Sudden Infant Syndrome?"  
Have you heard of Sudden Infant Syndrome?  I think it's when you find out you're pregnant, think you've miscarried, then go in for your annual exam and find out you are actually still pregnant and pregnant with twins.  Yep, that must be it.

Then we sat in the gliders and found one that was wide enough to hold two babies on a Double Blessings pillow (still trying to wrap my mind around that whole deal as well) and have a tall enough back so I don't have to always hold up my head.  It was $500 and the ottoman was another $200.  Really?  Does it also change diapers?


We finished up our look-see on the breast pump aisle, definitely a mistake.   I've seen pictures of nursing bras and pictures of breast pumps, but never a picture of how the two interact on a woman.  Wow-it's kind a of a cross between an alien and a porn star.  We especially liked the picture of the woman pumping with her blazer open on while she typed on her computer. 


In other news whenever Cal says hello to the babies he sounds like the Big Bopper. "Helllooooo Baaaybees!"


Also their ears should be done sliding up from their necks into the expected position.  We have locked onto this bit of baby development trivia and sincerely hope it has gone well.

Firsts

When we woke up this morning I went outside to inspect the garden.  I had to rinse mud off some leaves, but the bad storms last night didn't hurt these beds that were planted just a week ago.  Since it was cool outside but the mugginess was on it's way, Cal and I headed out for a walk and ended up driving home from an estate sale.  Never been to one of those before, at least that I can remember, and it was very interesting.  First, if you go to one in your own neighborhood you get to see the inside of a house you see all the time.  That satisfies idle neighborly curiosity.  Second, it's like going to a museum but you get to shop.  Today everything was half off, so we wondered what the house looked like when the sale started, but at first I just wandered through this person's house looking at their life.  From the decor, I assumed the owner was an older person and I later found out this had been "grandma's house for 48 years." Cal was outside in the garage and I wandered into a bedroom.  Hanging on the door was a yellow and white striped dress.  I went to a wedding a year ago today and one of the many lovely things about it was the blue and yellow theme.  We were encouraged to wear blue and yellow and although it wasn't a common combination in my closet, it has since become a favorite.  Looking at this dress I could see it tied with a bright blue sash or draped with blue beads or an excuse to buy blue shoes.  It also had an empire waist which has never been a good look for me, but since I'm losing my waist I decided to try it on.  Just for kicks I stuffed my sweatshirt underneath and stepped out of the bathroom to show Cal.  The shocked look on his face said it all-this is going to be an interesting few months, full of firsts.

If you eat in Little Rock

-Cheeburger will taste so good while you are eating the burger you created Mongolian bbq style, but you will hurt later.  Don't miss the creamy jalapeno sauce.

-Flying Burrito-I've only had the nachos, only with carnitas and only dined there with Ellen.  I recommend all three for a good lunch.   

-Sonic on Cantrell is a sit down with phones at the table to call your order in.  Why comment on Sonic?  Because not all Sonics can make a Fresh Fruit Lime Slush with the right amount of ice and fruit.  This one can and so can the one on Broadway. 

-Baked Potato Salad at Capitol Smokehouse and Grill is the best potato salad I've ever had.  Note, I don't care for a sweet p-salad.  They also have something called smoked corn that has to be good-didn't get to try that.

-Get the quiche and salad combo at Capitol Bistro and then come visit me.   

-Big Whiskey's, go for the TVs, not the food.

-Red Door will be just so so until you order the cobbler for dessert.  


-ZaZa's is good pizza and really good gelato.

-Taziki's is good for an introduction to Greek food if you're not familiar.

But then you should just go to Layla's. Yum!  

Tour of Indiana

Our new-to-us car was in Indiana.*  Two weekends ago Arkansas was iced over. No trip to Indiana.  Last weekend Indiana was expecting several inches of snow. We waffled until the night before and didn't book the rental car** until Friday morning.  It helps to have a friend from Indiana to assure us that her home state does a great job on the roads.  Thanks Kelly!  Also, the women in my family have a very hard time not having wheels at their disposal-it's genetics! It was time to go get that car! 

Now Cal and I don't mind a car trip.  We were prepared with music, books on cd and good road trip food, but driving 20 hours in one weekend is a business trip, not a social call.  We stopped at Chick-Fil-A on our way out of town and for some reason we were tripping and fumbling as we walked inside and tried to order.  Cal was inspired by our clumsiness and told the sweet little gal at the cash register that we were on our first date.  Her response was a big smile and a gushing, "Oh really!"  Then I ruined Cal's fun by cracking up and telling her that we've been married for almost 7 years.  She looked disappointed.  

Back on the road, now full of fried food and lemonade just sour enough, we put in the first book on cd.  I love a Tony Hillerman mystery set in the Four Corners area, but this one was a very slow start.  We ditched it and Cal chose a Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care. So we had a story of family heartbreak with a complex issue capable of dividing traveling companions. String that across 29 discs and you have a Jodi Picoult story.  Within 10 minutes we had to turn it off because we were so depressed.  Staring out into the dark nothingness of the I-40 delta was a joy compared with listening to another word about the sick little girl and her family.

We got to my aunt and uncle's near Nashville around midnight and had made it through maybe one disc.  After visiting with them we headed to bed with a 6 am wake up call ahead of us.  

The next morning was made much more bearable with BLTs and coffee (thank you AA&UG), but not the weather reports.  We pulled up the Indiana weather and roads website and as it loaded the map, every road was was highlighted purple or red.  Neither color is good.

However the trip from Nashville to Indy was not a problem.  It is very flat and the the good plow people of Indiana had been up all night clearing the roads.  Occasionally I changed lanes to avoid a slushy patch, but that was it.  

When we turned onto the road where the dealership was located we started looking for the sign and as soon as we saw it we turned.  But we turned too early and ended up driving around the back to see if we could get to the entrance.  Nope.  We got back out on the road, turned in again, parked, got out of the car, asked the approaching salesman where we could find the salesman we had been working with.  "Who?" he said.  He'd never heard of the salesman that we bought our car from on the internet.  Then we learned that this dealership owns every other lot on this road and whatever kind of car we wanted, we could buy from the same dealership.  We drove another mile down the road, found the right salesman and our car.  Yeah!  And Kelly and her fiancee, who live 2 hours from us, happened to be in Indy that weekend for Superbowl/wedding planning so we met them for coffee.  No, we met them for coffee and cream.  The cream was this frozen KoolWhip/ice cream stuff that was delicious.  

It was time to return to Nashville, but Cal's uncle is working in Indiana for a few months.  We didn't know where in Indiana, but we called and it turned out he was right off I-65 about an hour away and right on our way, so we had dinner with him.

By this time we had grown used to the suffering going on in our book on cd and were maybe a third of the way through.  We only had to turn it off and talk about happy things every now and then.

Another night in Nashville and then we headed to the flat parking lot of a high school for my first driving lesson the next morning.  I am not a natural at these kinds of things, but I managed to get to first, accelerate and get into second while driving around in circles for thirty minutes.  Then we met my aunt and uncle for lunch and headed home.  

We thought this would be a hard weekend of driving in bad weather, but the only troubles anyone had was the family in this book we're listening to. On top of their daughter's devastating health problems, they added martial discord, shoplifting, bulimia and destroyed friendships.  And while we avoided snowy roads in Indiana, we woke up to snowfall in Arkansas on Monday that topped out at 5 inches in our area.  This morning it has stayed pretty, but turned icy in the special way the South does winter weather. 

*Yes, we were hesitant to buy a car sight unseen, despite numerous pictures, two videos (one voiced over by a rugged man's voice and the other by a sultry female voice), their certified dealer status by our insurance and our hours of research.

**Frau, we love you, but we don't trust you.  Cal found a great deal on a one-way rental car and we ended up driving a 2010 Chevy HHR that still had the new car smell and less than 1,000 miles on it.  We recommend it as the perfect small SUV for a short person because the front windshield is so tiny we kept leaning forward to see what else we were missing, like traffic lights and interstate signs.