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Jeff and I have contributed a story to Etsy with instructions and advice on both listening to podcasts and creating podcasts.
- You can view the first part, "Podcasting, Anyone?" by clicking here
- You can view the second part, "How to Produce a Podcast " by clicking here
>>photo by Valerie Dryden.
I have mentioned this before, but the girls love trees. They love to say, "Hello, tree. How you doing?" They love to go outside and hug their tree friends. This makes me happy. The girls also like to argue about Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton. This makes me laugh. It usually ends with one calling Hillary Clinton a butt hole. This makes me laugh even harder. I am glad that I have kids who can appreciate the beauty of nature as well as the complex political landscape of our country.
I think that Barack Obama likely enjoys trees more than Hillary Clinton. Gonna go ask the girls what they think.
I tried to avoid the zombie Easter/spring card, but Zombie Guy Eric talked me into it. And I have to say this one was the most fun to design:
The Crap Bunny is made by and provided by my friend Spidercamp. Isn't he rad?
The cards come in packs of 5, 10 or just one alone. You can get them at my Etsy shop.
I also made some felt easter basket buddies, which are completely useless, but cute:
Easter is early this year, so order soon!
Some photos of us looking at our photos at the Corcoran last night. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us.
Here, Anya points to one of our photos. When she saw this one, she said, "There's Mommy all alone." This was so smart because it was actually the point of the photo! See below, in this one, I am on the phone with Jeff while away at the Bust Craftacular in New York in December.
The girls thought the gallery had a good dance floor.
Rachel and I:
All of us with Valerie:
The girls dresses are by courtneycourtney. They are made from recycled t-shirts.
Another of the photos taken by Valerie Dryden.
We do this every morning. We paint paper until it gets boring, then we paint our arms and faces. Rachel likes to paint her Little People most of all, though.
There is an article on the Etsy Storque today about our opening Gallery 31 at the Corcoran tonight. Check it out.
I think it is really really important that as parents we try to push away the tired tired and try to be creative and productive and show our children how important doing is.
One of the 1,000 photos that Valerie Dryden took of us, here is Anya being funny. She calls this being, "in the clown".
Yesterday, in the elevator with a neighbor, Anya looked up and said, "I am Anya and this is Rachel," pointing to her sister. This was the first time she introduced herself to anyone and I thought it was really nice that she introduced Rachel, too.
Television Zombies, Episode 29: "Can't Get Enough of LaBeouf"
The strike is over and now that the dust has settled, the TVZ team looks at what remains of the season. Plus discussions of Lost, Torchwood and Sarah Connor, listener mail, and a phone call to Oceanic Airlines.
Click here to download the episode.
And this one, too!
The show has gotten more fun now that Chris is live in the studio with us.
Television Zombies, Episode 28: "Hobos on Fire"
This week, the world rejoices at the end of the Writer's Strike! Also, a disappointing cast change for Knight Rider, Doctor Who series four news, Arrested Development movie rumblings, and a discussion of new episodes of Lost, Sarah Connor and Torchwood.
Click here to download the episode.
I totally forgot this again!
Television Zombies, Episode 27: "Return of the King"
Lost is back, and the TVZ crew discusses the premiere and speculates on what is to come! Plus more than 30 minutes of news, a new quiz from Chris, and an update on Jake's Buffy journey.
Click here to download the episode.
we make yellow playdoh bunnies all morning long. and then a pink cake and then some plates and forks. i am better than i thought at making forks, but the spoons, the spoons are the most lovely. then we cut the playdoh cake and feed it to all the babies. and save a plate of fake cake for daddy.
If you are lucky in your lifetime, you will not ever have to see your two year old drugged and unable to stand. If you are lucky in your lifetime, you WILL get to see how modern medicine is rad. There are some things in the world that I do not believe in, like god and the moon landing, but I do believe in outpatient surgery.
I know I am being overly dramatic, but today was really stressful. As a mom of twins, I have to say that there is this small portion deep inside of me that is always waiting for the universe to take one away. I am always worried that the powers-that-be will correct itself. That I was only meant one quirky little girl in my life and that this was all a fluke. I have many times met women who say things like, "My son is a twin. But his brother died." And this touches that tiny worry deep inside of me and I am looking at someone who has lived my worst fear.
When I first found out I was having twins, I worried that I couldn't love/care for/afford two children at once. I remember mourning the loss of the idea of that one special child. The further you get into twin parenthood, the more you realize how dumb and selfish that is.
When I gave birth, I almost died. And for ten days, we waited in the hospital to see if I could go home. And I didn't fully understand the situation until it was over. I kept a good attitude and didn't worry because in the modern world, women like me don't die in childbirth. But yesterday in the Operating Room, watching the anesthesiologist put the mask on my 27 pound two year old, I thought, "oh my, I could become one of those women today." I could be walking down the street with Anya one day when she is 12 and see a woman with twins and say, "Anya was a twin. Her sister died." I don't know what the numbers are on how many kids die from being put under for surgery every day, but I still worried.
So, I recorded every moment with Rachel to save in case something happened. From the way her little hospital dress hung off her tiny frame, to how she joked with the nurses about their hospital masks, from the way she scrambled from her little bed onto the operating table. Walking out of the OR to go and wait, I thought, "Ok. This can be enough. I will be happy with this if something happens." But of course, it never would be. We never have enough time with our children. Never ever. This is the secret of parenthood. No matter how many minutes or hours or decades, it can never be enough.
The waiting took forever. But a few hours later, they wheeled her down to us. She looked horrible. I didn't react very well to her state, IV in her hand, tired mad face, white as a ghost, crying and nauseous. My whole body felt hot, like the blood in my veins was lava, threatening to burn me from the inside out. And I felt like I was going to pass out or vomit or both. No matter how much I told myself, "She is ok," I still felt this way. I didn't expect to react this way. It was really strange. Jeff kept telling me it was just that I was worried, but I think I might have had a little bit of a flash back to my 10 days in the hospital after the girls were born.
For the rest of the day, Rachel couldn't walk because she had an epidural for the surgery. It was so sad, she was like a new baby horse, trying to stand and crumpling to the ground. At one point, she was like the legless terminator dragging herself across the living room floor to reach a toy.
Today, she is still sore and on pain meds, but I am so happy this is all done. I know it was just a hernia and that I am lucky to not have a chronically ill child. I am very lucky. Lucky to have health insurance. Lucky to have good doctors. Lucky to have twins.
Just a note that Jeff, the girls and I will be making our big art debut at the Corcoran Gallery of Art next week. Photographer, Valerie Dryden's Senior Thesis Exhibition, Tina's Seamonsters will be on display from February 20-24th in CORRECTION! Gallery 31 (in the school entrance on the New York Ave. side of the gallery).
Valerie has been taking pictures of the twins and I on our daily adventures for 6 months now. Her show tells the story of how I manage twins as a work at home mom, plus a successful online business. It also shows, I am sure, just how tired and messy we really are. :)
Opening Reception for the show is February 21, 6-8pm in the North Atrium of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. We are hoping to be there.
Here's the info, in case you are around the Gallery sometime soon and want to check it out:
Valerie Dryden: Tina's Seamonsters
Senior Thesis Exhibition
February 20-24, 2008
Open 10 am-5pm
Gallery 31 on the New York Ave side of the Gallery, school entrance
Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
I will be posting the photos to the blog over the next few weeks, so you can also see them here!
I haven't written about this much because it has just been too stressful around here, but Rachel will be having hernia surgery on Thursday. She has been in a lot of pain this past week, awaiting the surgery and this has made her and I extra tired and cranky. The crap thing about this whole ordeal is that, 1. She was born with the hernia and likely it just started to hurt OR she just started to be able to tell us it hurts. and 2. She has been telling us it hurts since Xmas and it took 3 doctor's appointments and my Google skills to diagnosis it. All of this makes me very very upset and sad that she could have possibly been in pain for a long time. It also makes me mad that our first appointment for this problem happened the day after Xmas and they were so under-staffed that they didn't even stop to think it might be a hernia. They just said she had a rash and gave us some cream. Three appointments, a sonogram and a half day in the Hematology department later and we are finally almost done with this.
All of this makes me understand how it must feel to be a parent who doesn't have health insurance for their children. How horrible it is to see your child in pain and worse to have to rely on others to fix it. We have pretty good health insurance and care, but this has still been less than easy to get fixed.
Anyway, we are finally getting the surgery on Thursday, so please send us positive thoughts.
Even with Valerie here taking our picture for the past 6 months, I find that it is rare to have a photo of both girl's faces together. But here, I caught one! On Saturday, we had lunch with my parents and my mom was like... "ok, who is who?" I am continually floored by this. How on earth can she not know who is who? They are so so different. I think you can see the differences in this photo. Rachel has a thinner, pointer face. Anya, bigger eyes. Personally, I often think they are so different that they are not at all identical. I know this is crazy to other people. Perhaps all parents of twins think this. You can't tell in this photo, but Anya has a small gap in her teeth that Rachel does not. Their eyes seem to be the same color, though. We are thinking about getting different haircuts to see if this makes them seem more different to the outside world.
Episode 27 is almost done and welcome's back Lost! For now, here is episode 26 of the best podcast on the internets.
Television Zombies, Episode 26: “Captain Jack and the Monster that ate Manhattan”
This week, Chris joins Tina and Jeff in the studio to discuss the news of the week, the new and very much improved second series of Torchwood, Sarah Connor and Matt Reeves’ monster hit, Cloverfield. All this, plus the battle of the geek showrunners: Joss Whedon vs. J.J. Abrams.
Click here to download the episode.
I totally keep forgetting to post these!
Television Zombies, Episode 25: Live with Vincent Price
This week, the TVZ crew makes history by assembling together live in the studio as a group for the first time. The news of the week is read, Dexter and Sarah Connor are discussed, and the spirit of Vincent Price is conjured from the great beyond to read the listener mail. All this, plus Chris’s stunning rendition of an 80’s classic.
Click here to download the episode.
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