that "certain age" where your body says F-U

I have been in my 30's now for a couple years and it has been a pretty good run thus far. I don't know why people get so bent out of shape when they turn 30. It's pretty much the same as 29 only different in the sense  of how 29 is different from 28, etc...

I have noticed in the past couple years I suffer from PMS like I never had before. I still get confused by it. Why can I be an instant bitch with zero tolerence, and go into full on must-clean-the-entire-house-while consuming-all-the-chinese-food-and-pizza-in-this-town, 6 hours later. I don't get it....and then I get a headache that I suffer through for a few hours before I realize I can take tylenol for that. Also, what's with the acne moving from my face to my neck? wtf ya'll?

The most recent thing I'm trying to figure out is my love/hate relationship with caffeine.

Here's how  it used to be:
I'm 20 and I can drink all the caffeine I want and still fall asleep at a reasonable hour!
I'm 30 and I can't drink caffeine after 3 otherwise I am up half the night!
I'm 32.5 and I can't drink caffeine after noon otherwise I am up half the night!

That's right folks, I have had insomnia for the last 6+ months or so hit or miss, but sometimes running for several weeks at a time. I think figured out that it's related to my caffeine intake. Now let me just clarify and say that I don't drink obscene amounts of caffeine. An "average" day I would drink a normal size cup -16oz in the morning and sometimes some soda for lunch or at dinner time. Rarely did I drink it all three times, and sometimes, I'd only have my morning cup worth, if at all. so in the last several weeks, maybe a month or so now, I have given up ALL but my morning cup of coffee for caffeine. I have also stopped caffeinated soda as part of the "my body has become sensitive to caffeine" testing trial.(with the exception of this past weekend at my sisters b/c my sleeping got all out of whack anyway- I needed the boost)

Since I have given up the other doses of caffeine I have been falling asleep around or atleast tired enough for sleep around 10/11pm which is waaaay better than the 12:30/1am I have been accustomed to for the last year atleast... especially when one's alarm goes off at 6am to get the rugrats and herself to school and work and make lunch and shower all before we try to leave the house at 7:30 to drop the kids at school. It's no easy feat on a good nights sleep, never mind chronically only getting 5-6 hours of sleep. Trying to catch up on missed sleep on the weekend always ended up in insomnia again by monday because it's like I moved to LA and shifted my sleep schedule by three hours.

I digress, cutting back the caffeine has helped significantly in terms of ability to fall asleep. I however still drag during some afternoons and get into a zombie like state, which isn't good when I'm driving and the whole reason why I would have the afternoon boost. This hasn't happened recently or often or while driving so that's okay I guess.

Tonight though, I am tired.. as in it's only 8 'clock and I could fall asleep right now, but instead my kids are going crazy and I'm Skyping with my sister, tired.

It's winter break time ya'll

So I went to hang with the homegirls for a few days with the rugrats... and it snowed.. again... just a few days after they had just gotten their power back on after it being out for 4 days. No snow at home. Such is life in New England.

A good time was had while at our stay. Hotel HoJo was very welcoming!. Breakfast and coffee was provided, as was entertainment and booze should be we need it. (Don't get your hopes up, there were no strippers, unless you count the kids running around in their skivvies.) There was even a party full of yummy gluten free food in hopes of my sister being able to get more stuff for FREE!!! Wheee! free stuff, who doesn't like free stuff AND my company?? That's what I thought.

When I came into town a few weeks back it was a *really* quick trip, as the sole purpose was for work and I babysat in exchange for room and board and was out the door shortly after lunch to head to the Pampered Chef party. It was nice spending time with my nephews in a completely different dynamic than when my kids are there and it's pretty chaotic and loud the whole time, just like it was this past weekend. On Saturday we got to visit with mom for a bit before she had to head off to work. Due to her work schedule we don't get to visit as much as we'd like and not nearly as I would like, but we make do with what we can, when we can.

On Sunday the big party day, we had to shovel the street and driveway so people would have a place to park. Stupid snow. Only a brave couple came to the party, but a good time was had by all! On Monday i went to the store grabbed fixins' for breakfast, grabbed a friend and went back so we could feast on breakfast! and after the brother-in-law got home from doing some work, we went sledding on the bluffs for a quick hour before we left for home. While sledding we rain into my friends son sledding with some friends, how's that for coincidence, eh?

We all had a fun time! Here are some pictures of our time back in the 'ham. Also there was this weird nose and glasses that kept finding it's way onto our faces. You've been warned.

   

Stealth trip to the stomping grounds

I made a stealth trip to my old stomping grounds last weekend to do a Pampered Chef party at one of my oldest friends' parents house in the nearby town of Freetown. I didn't even bring the kids, or tell mom (it wasn't personal- I'll be back in a few weeks!) because the trip was going to be so quick Because it's a long enough drive I didn't want to do there and back in one day I surprised my nephews and watched them for my sis in exchange for free room and board for the night. Her friend stopped by and kept me company and when the sis got home we hung out til 1 or so playing goofy ringtones on our phones and relaxing. The next morning I talked my sis into going for a walk because it looked gorgeous out and I wanted to take pictures before I left just after lunch. Come to find out, the wind chill was brutal, so I took only 2 early in on our trek, and we looped around by my old school onto the main drag and back to the house where we promptly blew our noses because neither of us thought to bring tissues.. Team Blonde FTW! Anyway, here are a few pictures from my stay. They were all taken with my phone.

The view I saw every ding dong day growing up. It's also the view my mom still sees.

Do you see how the ocean has ICE? yeah it was *that* cold. Also when I was a kid I got a rash from swimming here

Showing my nephew a fun feature of my phone! moving photos!

We were practicing his math, and I taught him some old  "pager-talk" like: 07734 flip it upside down and it says "hello" he thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread

BIL and I played a game with the kids.  I think B was thinking here!

This was funny. J had the bright idea to "butt brawl" . You can't tell but they were  hitting each other with their butts

here they are being cute :)