FUSION!

No pictures this post, for any number of reasons. First, since Christmas our Fuji digital camera has been on the fritz, and I'm starting to feel as though it is a dinosaur. After all, it was given to me as a birthday gift back in the fall of '04, which I know doesn't SOUND like that long ago, but consider that Jason and I, at that point were newly engaged and had very few pictures to take. Truthfully, taking pics has fallen to the bottom of the list not only because of the camera, but also because of the busy lifestyle. I know we live in a digital age, and I know it's easy to throw the camera in my purse and take it along, but really, it's not that easy.

Recently, my purse has become the receptacle of all things Mama. In his novel The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien talks about how buddies in his platoon could all be characterized by what they carried in their rucksacks. Now, I can't claim any extra clean pairs of socks or spare cans of Spam as contents of my purse, but I have some pretty serious contenders. Day old sippy cups, fuzzy pacifiers, travel sized packets of diaper rash ointment, prescriptions, receipts, hair clips, and always a cell phone (SLIGHTLY younger than my digital camera) which is now so out of date that it's weight makes it always fall to the bowels of the bag. So for anyone calling, just know that I DO hear the phone ringing and actually go digging for it whilst on the road. And I will call you back. Years ago I didn't even turn the thing on, so I consider that progress.

But back to the camera... it would be going against every romantic principle I once claimed to ask my husband for a Valentines Day Camera. Actually, the day came and went with so much other stuff on the agenda that neither one of us had much time to consider the holiday. This surprises me in particular because I used to be quite shallow about the whole holiday -- but there are so many better opportunities to celebrate our love for each other now, and all of them are built into the year. Our anniversary, of course, and the boys' birthdays, Christmas, Mothers Day, Fathers Day... I'm sad to say it, but I'm pretty sure that Valentine's Day no longer matters to me at all. It could be the tougher economic times, but I really don't think so. We're rich in love no matter what, and I really believe that seeing what we can live without really shows us who we are.

We recently decided to take the plunge for a mini-van, which required trading in both of our cars (pretty much the last relics of our "single-hood") and going down to one. Being a one-car family is a new phenomena to me, but I think I will grow to like it more. It makes both of our days a bit longer in some ways and shorter in others. Where we used to split drop-offs of the boys in the morning and sometimes pick-ups in the afternoon, I now take care of all the transportation. This means a bit more time in the car for me, but mostly it is more time with both of the boys. Jason gets to leave earlier for work in the morning and often gets home earlier to get dinner started by the time I'm in the door with the troops. There is now no more shifting of the three cars in our one-lane driveway, and the one car we have is pretty darn cool. Owen loves screaming "Open Sesame" to the automatic doors, and the DVD player is a real treat. I made a trip to the public library to check out some new DVD's after The Backyardigans started running through my head at 4am (they are a catchy little crew). I love that I don't have to crouch down to put the boys into their car seats, and I especially love the fact that a trip to the price club no longer requires emptying out the trunk and back seat of my compact. Cases of diapers, etc. got packed in the back of our van in no time flat.

By now, one might be wondering how I have the time to be writing so much. It is a rare occasion, I must admit. All of the men in my life (except the one currently kicking at my bladder) are sleeping. It's been a long three days. Nicholas started out with a stomach bug that kept us going through about one diaper per hour. Then Owen threw up three times in 15 minutes (at day care, and is it terrible of me to say better there than in our new car?), and then last night Jason's hour came. Of course, I am hoping that I will be spared, but in the meanwhile I have a laundry going and I just don't want to haul my pregnant butt up the stairs and back down again, so I am using the time to consolidate my blogs into one. The old ones will remain as they are, but in the spirit of simplifying, I am skinnying down the blogs. This blog is my home base now, and when baby boy #3 comes in late April, this is where all of my postings will go! I can't have one without the others, so his pictures will likely be in the company of his older brothers. And between now and then, I think a new camera will be on my "nesting" to-do list!