Crazy~Beautiful Life

Made it through another crazy patch! I think, anyway!

2009-01-18T16:53:00.003-05:00

Slowly things are returning to calm. Phew! My mom's feeling better, not great, but better. I think we're going to do xmas this weekend! Woo hoo! xmas again! I think I actually like my courses this semester. The house stuff is slow, but I'm feeling better about the entire thing. People seem actually excited that we're going to be close. I think that could be really awesome!

Last week Marc wished for a big storm. I think this one's his fault! I'm giving him a hard time about it but we're both really enjoying it. Who knows, this may be our last big storm here. Uh oh, I don't think there's ANY hill at the new house...hmm, we may need to rethink this!

holy overwhelmed!

2009-01-10T17:12:00.002-05:00

All right, so we made it through Christmas, sort of, because we haven't celebrated with my family yet because my mom was in the hospital for about 3 weeks. But we have mostly taken care of that. Bumpa died Christmas Eve, and I still am not sure how Marc is. My mom has mystery spleen issues, her spleen is actually in Boston now! My brother has kidney disease. Marc blew his knee out about a month ago and is STILL healing. I had my leg fixed. Oh, and let's see, what else? Oh, a friggin house! So, I spent my LAST weekend of vacation fixing this house up so hopefully someone will buy this house, that we love, so we can breath easier! I am a little shocked that my month off went by so quickly, so many plans that never went any further than the planning stage!

And I probably wont get to see my gardens this year. That actually makes me a little sad. BUT, I already have some ideas for the other house. Which, by the way, we haven't even made an offer on because we asked 3 simple questions that no one can seem to answer. I'm starting to wonder if they actually want to sell. Seems like there are so many that are being forced out. It's sad. Anyway, we may find ourselves searching again. Who knows!

Whatever is supposed to happen, will happen...whatever is supposed to happen, will happen...warm fuzzy bunnies

more pics because now I can!

2008-12-28T15:45:00.004-05:00

Nora cut lots of cheese for everyone, lots and lots and lots...we don't have any cheese left.

Avery in her Christmas dress! (her choice, no dress-forcing in this house!)

GB seems to like the race cars Santa brought!

Naptime on the living room floor in new sleeping bags!

new camera! woohoo!

2008-12-25T19:27:00.007-05:00

Avery LOVES the snow this year!

Nora still hates the snow and the cold!

My girls, sharing...I have proof!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T18:42:00.002-05:00

So, last year, my Avery, who was 2, asked if Santa was real. This year, I think she just played along for our sakes! She was totally skeptical but her eye twinkled when the cookies and carrots were gone! Nora, on the other hand, woke right up and remembered it was Christmas and came downstairs looking for Santa. She was displeased when we said he couldn't stay and had lots of kids to bring presents to.

Nora didn't want to open presents until there were only a few left, mostly to other family members. Then she dove right in, there may be some re-wraps! Avery picked out a baby doll for her sister. I probably should have been more worried when she told me about it and said "Nora will share her with me" because they spent most of the day fighting over that one doll. You would have thought that was the only gift for both of them!

Marc got me a new camera! Digital! If I can make it work I'll put some new pictures up.

it's a Charlie Brown Christmas here

2008-12-16T17:03:00.006-05:00

So, because this is more than likely our last Christmas in this house, we got a little sentimental (or crazy, maybe!) and decided to cut down our Christmas tree from our own property! Here is the result!

It was definitely a better idea than reality! We dressed the girls up and trekked out into the woods. Of course, it was after the ice storm, so every tree was covered by about 1/4 inch of ice. Nora finds the woods too difficult to walk in and demands to be carried. Oh, and did you know how not like Christmas trees real trees are? We have a LOT of trees back there and this was the best we could do. Somewhere along the way, Addie disappeared. Once we had the tree cut down, we had to get it back to the house, which was just silly. Nora still didn't want to walk and she's getting a bit large and heavy, and add a snowsuit to that and she's not easy to carry. So, Marc carried Nora AND the tree back to the house!

When we got the tree in, Avery had a blast decorating and Nora didn't seem to notice that there even was a tree in the house! Different in every way! It's going to be a Merry Christmas!

house hunting and stuff

2008-12-15T20:34:00.003-05:00

So, we suddenly decided that we can get more house for our money now than if we wait until we can get what we owe on ours. We just made our third trip of a full day. We got up a little early this time because of the lovely ice storm. The alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. Thankfully, my lovely sister took the girls for a day of fun. We drove all over NH, almost getting stuck on the ice and hit by trees and dodging power lines. That really makes for an interesting, adventuresome day! And on top of it all, most of NH didn't have power and it was COLD, therefore all the houses were also COLD and dark! Overall, there were actually 4 that we like enough to contemplate, 2 that we couldn't get to because of closed roads, one broken lock, and zero cups of coffee (poor Marc!).

So, it was a CRAZY day. But what made up for any moments of suckiness was how incredibly beautiful the storm left everything. We saw the ice glistening in the moonlight as we left our house. We saw the sun rise above the frozen trees. All day we saw the sun sparkling through. Ah, what a day!

couple good sites

2008-10-08T18:41:00.003-04:00

http://www.wecansolveit.org
another green site

http://www.novica.com/
really cool shopping site associated with national geographic. they bring together 'crafters' from all over the world. i just bought 2 cool...different rings. the prices were great. the shipping was a little slow on one but i also got a hand-written note from one of the makers. pretty cool!

http://www.arborday.org/
I joined for $15 and am getting 10 trees for free...they're only going to be 6-12" tall, but still neat! ANd you can have them sent to your school or church if you want. And they send me more info and more "free gift if you pledge___". The 'gifts' are nice if you like plants and who doesn't like trees?

www.aveda.com
High quality natural (or mostly natural) products. They work great and they seem to actually be trying to save the environment too. They're a little expensive compared to drugstore but work better, so...

aaahhhhhhh Acadia

2008-10-06T20:48:00.011-04:00

I just love it there. We just went up last week. The weather wasn't great but certainly could have been worse. We stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the water. I think we did most of those things we hadn't gotten to in our other trips. We even brought our bikes and found a nice trail (a little too much hill for these thighs, but beautiful).

My parents came too. They've been talking about Acadia since we moved to Maine! I think they liked it, even though they were constantly hearing "Up please". They got a better workout than us I think! And it was SO nice to have a distraction for the girls from how tired they were. What a week!

Here are some pics. There are a lot, sorry, I had 5 rolls so, really, I've spared you!

All of us

Marc & Avery checking out Cadillac Mt

Memere Pepere & Nora on top of Cadillac Mt

holy windy!

Just pretty!

Sand Beach, pretty

Marc & Avery exploring

Bike ride around Eagle Lake

Aren't they cute?!

Jordan Pond trail

nora and her colds

2008-09-21T12:55:00.002-04:00

So, Nora came down with her first cold since spring. It had been about two weeks of a crazy runny nose and a slightly over-grouchy little girl. And it's probably my fault because I actually said a couple of times that Nora made it through her first cold that was just a cold, but yesterday she started wheezing. I put her to bed and hoped it wouldn't be worse when she woke up. We called the dr and they the lovely weekend clinic said they could see her today at 2. We dislike the dr that was on-call and she had gotten so much worse through the course of the day we decided to go to the emergency room.

We got there around 5:30, yes, all 4 of us...woops. We were called in about 5 mins before we gave-in for sleep. They gave her a nebulizer treatment while we were there, then a steroid and an antibiotic. We got home around 9:30. Bedtime is 7ish so they were crazy tired. Litterally actually, Nora couldn't stop talking even though we couldn't understand her half the time!

So we were at the emergency room but it wasn't really an emergency. We just didn't want it to get worse. She's better today, still a but wheezy and has a harsh cough, but...we've made it through another. They've diagnosed her with RSV which is common in babies born early. She may grow out of it but until then, we just need to try to catch it earlier, I think. I'm going to take her to see our dr this week and will hopefully have some kind of treatment to avoid this extreme next time.

But, she is good. She's still silly. She's still running, even though she's not supposed to. She's ok. Phew

family update

2008-09-20T11:07:00.004-04:00

So, we've made it through Avery's third week at school. She seems happy. One of her new friends is having a birthday party today...her 5th! That's my girl!

Last week, Avery decided she wanted to cut her hair like Dora. Today was the day!

AND, the pony tail is long enough to donate to Locks of Love! Pretty cool. And adorable!

Nora's still adjusting to missing her sister. While she's playing with both babies and anything else she wants, she says "I miss Avery". Then we get her sister and she wants a baby too and Nora hasn't had to share and freaks out. It's very interesting!

Marc's work is going well. He just completed one state project and has tentatively heard that the next will take him into 2010. His rootbeer is also progressing nicely after a brief set-back!

As for me, school is interesting...I'm still not sure what to expect and I'm more disappointed that it's not landscaping, but what can you do? My vein surgery went well and my checkup is Monday. Hopefully I can schedule the other leg then!

Acadia's coming! We're going the first week of Oct for 3 nights! I just hope the weather is decent. We've already had our first frost and my plants are not particulary happy about it but are hanging in.

i don't like it mom

2008-09-05T19:11:00.007-04:00

Nora wasn't so excited

Uh oh.

So, we got Avery up Thusday morning. She was SO excited she was ready to leave when her feet hit the floor! Nora however, was not so excited that her sister was going somewhere without her. "I come with you?" followed by tears and a horribly sad "why?" She recovered nicely though!

So, we ran some errands and went to pick Avery up. She was playing outside and looked like she was having fun. On the way home, she was saying it was fun but had no details for me. When she got home she called her dad and told him about her day.

Then, out of the blue, at dinner, she said "I don't really like my school that much". And we were silent for just a moment, trying to figure out the correct response. That went on for a bit but by bedtime, she didn't understand why she could only go 2 days and not 5.

We had no idea what to expect today. Marc dropped her off. He said she seemed ok when he left. Nora and I picked her up. She was hanging out with her teacher. She was grinning. She had a great day! WHEW!

She was much happier. She made another new 'friend' but she can't remember her name. She's already feeling more comfortable. And when the other kids went in to eat she asked why she didn't get to stay with them. Whew whew whew.

And the teachers said she had a great day. So, I guess, fingers crossed for next week.

my baby's going to school!

2008-09-02T18:11:00.002-04:00

Holy crap.

My sweet little thing is going out into the big mean world without me. I've barely spent a day without her. I've been there for most of her experiences. Now, she'll talk about things that I know nothing about. (which is really difficult because you only get bits of the necessary info!)

Marc went to Parent's Night last week and came home pretty excited. I think we found the right place, at least for preschool. We'll see what happens next. And yes, I know she's only 3 and doesn't NEED to go to school. AND I totally agree, BUT she's ready. And she needs more opportunities than I can give her right now. (Nora takes a lot of attention) And it's only 2 half days.

She's been excited since we went to the open house in Feb! Now that we're down to days, she's beside herself. Thursday will be interesting when Marc leaves her. I hope she'll be fine. Nora will be traumatized watching her Avery go somewhere without her. I'll have to come up with something special to distract her. : )

xrays back~all normal

2008-04-01T20:34:00.002-04:00

So, we still don't know why she keeps getting pnuemonia but that test was normal. My doctor will be back next week so I'll find out more then; if they do more tests or wait and see. Whew (for now anyway)

sorry to be dramatic

2008-03-28T15:06:00.002-04:00

Nora was just diagnosed with her 3rd pneumonia of the year. I caught this one early and got her her drugs before it got bad but, man. She's now on the way to get a chest x-ray. I'm actually a little scared and just needed to get it out somehow. Please please just let everything be ok

bike bike bike

2008-03-21T15:40:00.003-04:00

I am SO excited! I've been wanting one since we moved here, where it's mostly safe to ride but of course we couldn't agree on what kind of bike...I wanted cheap, just in case it doesn't actually get used as much as it should and my last bike was purple and the kind where back-pedaling was your brake! And Marc wanted to get REAL bikes because you apparently just can't ride a cheap one. So we had yet another DISCUSSION because someday, spring might actually come. We wound up in the same place we always do

When Marc came home, he had a BIKE! It's so pretty! It has lots of things on it that I don't actually know how to use and I can't reach the floor (which I have been told is correct) so I'm a little scared but I can't wait! COME ON SNOW, IT'S TIME TO MELT!

web cam fun!

2008-03-21T15:28:00.002-04:00

Amy's been talking about it since she was leaving and talked Marc into getting one, which, of course didn't require many words. He decided to have it ready for Avery's birthday and managed to set it up without her really noticing. When he called her in the room and Amy was there on the screen, her whole face just lit up! It was just fantastic!

Then we discovered that Uncle Scott, Aunt Loni and Jackson also have one. Well, now we call them all every day (sorry guys!) and stare at them because really, there just isn't that much happening! And the girls sort of freeze, maybe just amazed by the whole thing?

Last night, Marc got the computer out. Before he even had the camera out Nora started yelling at it "Jackson! Are you?" She was very upset when they didn't answer. So they called several times, just to make sure...sorry Loni! (you should see how angry Nora gets when the moon isn't out) And then, Amy wasn't there either! Oh, it was tough!

It's just so incredible that even though we don't see these people often enough, the girls are really getting to know them! It's pretty fantastic in a sappy sort of way! Maybe someday soon Avery will even talk to Scott or Adam! Sorry guys, she just doesn't trust men...what can I say, she's very smart!

so long

2008-03-19T19:07:00.002-04:00

I don't know if anyone's still even looking at this it's been so long since I've written anything. See, I've discovered power napping and whenever the girls sleep, which is my only real down time, I've been trying to catch a little extra energy.

It snowed here again today. I don't think I can take much more. I'm so sick of being excited when it hits 40. I miss sandals and grass and being able to go outside without 10 minutes of preparation. And only to begin the unlayering process in 5. And our routine has become so set that I want to jump out of my skin

We've been invited to several 'play dates' lately. Man, that is SO not my thing. I want to do what I want, when I want. I don't want to have stupid, meaningless small-talk with people who will probably talk trash about me later. I like having my own thing. I don't mind going to all the stupid classes so the kids can play with other kids but really, that's more than enough for me! I need to get better at lying or even just saying no!

Nora's art project

2008-03-19T19:03:00.002-04:00

At dinner Nora had an apple. She also had ketchup and blue cheese dressing. She discovered how to stamp with an apple all by herself! Then she told us she was drawing. She drew an owl and a Kobe. It was lovely!

my 3 year old baby

2008-03-19T17:37:00.003-04:00

Today was Avery's 3rd birthday. Holy crap. I think that's really all I can say :)

possible career??

2008-01-15T18:14:00.000-05:00

Adam gave me a landscape design book for Christmas. I've been thinking about it for awhile now, this is actually my longest sticking career possibility since I left school with no idea of what to do! This book made me so excited I bought a bunch more and decided to give it a try this spring with my own yard. If I HATE it...I'll know not to spend time, energy and money on school for it! If not, maybe I'll finally have found something I can enjoy doing for at least a few years! RIGHT??!!!

Marc helped me measure the entire house and yard so I can make a (sort of) real plan! I'm just so excited! I'm a little worried about going too crazy though, and since Marc knows how excited I am, I don't think he'll be keeping me down to earth. That'll be a bummer to our savings! You know, we really need a pond in our garden!

I just love the idea of it. It's creative. I can help save the world...green and natual. I can help make people's houses homes. All right. That's a little too cheesy and optimistic, I know. I'm pretty sure my head will come back down as soon as my feet hit the mud! I'm too much of a pessimist anyway. It feels good right now to be silly-naive! Now, start thinking of melting snow!

a silly Nora day

2008-01-15T17:55:00.001-05:00

Nora's personality has been coming out more every day. It's so fantastic to be there to watch it! Sorry, that wasn't what I meant to write about! Anyway, we had another snowy day here (another 10 inches!) so Marc was home when the girls got up from nap. Usually, when Dad pulls into the driveway we start jumping around singing "dad's home! dad's home!" So, I brought Nora downstairs and her face lit up when she saw her dad and she said "hi Dad's Home!" And over the last few days she's called him Dad's Home several times. Hmm, maybe that's not so much funny as sad! Not really, anyone who knows anything about us knows Marc's at least as busy with the kids as he is with work.

Another one...girls getting out of bath and having some run-around-crazy-naked time. Who doesn't need some of that?! Avery had created a new game and Nora was trying to follow. All of a sudden she peed. And that was sort of expected even though she had just been on the toilet, that's really just another way to be like her sister...there's still no control. Then she said, "uh oh, drop...drop pee" as she went to get a towel to wipe it up! I cried I laughed so hard.

Hope these make you laugh too!

happy new year!

2008-01-09T12:02:00.000-05:00

fulfilling a destiny

2007-12-05T19:56:00.000-05:00

Izzie

Sophie

well, on my way to becoming the Crazy Cat Lady! So, we went to the shelter because I've been wanting a kitten. And I don't have any reason, I just wanted a kitten. So, I suppose I felt guilty just walking in the building and past all the grown-up cats...like one of the adoptive parents that only wants a baby! So, to ease my guilt, I SAVED TWO! Yes, I know. I have no good excuse! But aren't they cute?!

why can't we just have a regular cold?

2007-11-19T14:03:00.000-05:00

Avery had an ear infection with every little sniffle. I suppose Nora didn't want her to win. Nora started with a cold Friday. Sunday she woke up weazing. By the time we got to the dr it was worse. Luckily, our dr was the On-Call dr and she knows we don't call for nothing. Well, hoping we were there for no reason, we discovered Little Miss Nora had a small pneumonia. Happy Thanksgiving! Maybe I should have breastfed longer. oops. Good news is, she got some drugs and is much better today!

our confused pets

2007-11-15T15:14:00.000-05:00

Avery keeps re-naming all our pets. Addie is either Molly, Cassidy or Kobe, but very rarely Addie. Our cats are Sammy and Cappi.

Oh, and now she likes to make her stuffed dog Kobe and she becomes Amy. Don't worry Loni and Jackson, you're still one of her favorite games. And believe me, she doesn't forget "NO MOM I'M LONI, REMEMBER?"

And yesterday we went to GB's house but we had to stop at Walmart on the way to buy 2 big TVs (thanks for the tv idea dad!). Oh, and we started a fire...we piled up the sticksand then blew on them (also thanks to dad for the blowing...how else do you start a fire?!)

I love that imagination!

old friends

2007-11-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

I haven't been missing many people even though I haven't stayed in touch with anyone over the years. My niece (is only 4 yrs younger) worked with one of my greatest friends. She got us back in contact (finally I suppose!) and she just came up to visit Monday. It was so weird and so nice. We literally spent most of our lives together for several years and haven't really talked since we lived in NC. It was strangely comforting to see she was really the same person. And actually disappointing that I wasn't around for so many things. Not that she needed me but just to be around.

Even though that was great I find myself having a hard time convincing myself that I want to move closer to all those people I knew once. I don't want anything to do with most of them. And it's not like I look very different and could not even be recognized. Darn it.

Well, thank you Sarah for the reunite! I needed that. Now, how do you deal with the rest? Just pretend you don't know them? Punch them? Hide under the racks? Hash out the old crap, fists included? Never enter Concord? Hope we don't buy a house in Concord!

what is wrong with my child?

2007-11-09T14:26:00.000-05:00

Sunday night Avery went to bed absolutely fine. Monday morning Marc woke her up and when she stood up, she fell over. She started crying that her knee hurt. Marc brought her downstairs and we decided it was actually her ankle. We gave her motrin and still she cried every time we looked at it. We thought she was making it up but that kid likes to move way to much to do this so long. And she had a small fever.

So, I wheeled her to the doc's. Of course ours wasn't there. Random dr was obviously worried that maybe the joint was infected. So, we headed down to have an x-ray taken, rather than bloodwork, just to rule that out. (Avery gets very anxious at dr, I think that's why we were waiting on bloodwork)

So, after we about traumatized her, we came home, had lunch, went up for nap. I went to get her around 3. She got up. Walked downstairs. She limped a little for like an hour but that was it. She went to gymnastics. She's absolutely fine. I called dr for answer. They actually said, it's a mystery. WHAT THE HELL KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT?? At least give me growing pains or some stock answer like that.

So, what can I even do? I trust my dr and I'm sure she looked at it but...mystery??? What if she's missing something? How could she go from not being able to walk to fine in hours? Have you heard of anything like this?

nostalgia attack

2007-11-07T15:08:00.000-05:00

It just hit me this weekend and about 10 photo albums later, I realized I'm pretty darn happy! I've been getting completely overwhelmed by the routine of every moment. It's been getting me a bit down. But looking at us BK (before kids) was such a great reminder of all that we've done together. It's sort of crazy to think that we've been together for about 1/3 of our lives. Even that seems overwhelming at times (Marc still hasn't learned how to get those clothes in the laundry basket...i'll never give up) but to actually look at our memories, wow, it's been a really good ten years.

Not that this is very interesting to anyone else but, too bad, it's my blog! Marc, wow. Pretty great.

Acadia Pictures!

2007-11-03T19:35:00.000-04:00

Sand Beach was the best way to begin and end our trip

The top of Cadillac Mountain

Sand Beach, first stop after long car ride, just as gorgeous through the clouds

Nora's super-fun game

2007-11-01T14:54:00.000-04:00

It starts each and every time you open the fridge. She comes running and stands so you can't close the door. Then she pulls out as many things as she can and runs away. Last night, she got the grey poupon. she brought it to her dad and said "bite bite bite" as she did her little 'i'm so excited dance'. So, of course, Dad opened it, dipped in a finger and ler her lick it. She made the worst face! She came to me for water, a lot of water. Then she went back and asked for more! Aaaaaaahhhhhh, crazy!

Avery's new favorite game

2007-10-30T15:11:00.000-04:00

Both my girls like to play with their baby dolls. Well, Avery now likes to pretend (ALL THE TIME!) that she is Loni and her doll is Jackson. And then it gets a little weird, then Marc becomes Uncle Scott. Maybe I shouldn't have actually written that!

I suppose this is another sign that we should be closer. Damnit!

it's been awhile, let's see...

2007-10-29T14:55:00.000-04:00

Marc took a vacation, I know it is SHOCKING! We went to Acadia Saturday through Monday. Wow, what a trip. It was tough but so so great. We hit GREAT weather. The girls did a great job and it was SO so beautiful. If I can make it work I'll put some pictures up later. And if you can make it, GO.

The rest of the week, we were here doing tons of silly things. Halloween is tough when you don't trick-or-treat (and the kid is exctied about Halloween) so we had to go to the library thing and the museum thing and a pumpkin patch. It was fun but naps didn't so much happen so then we were dragging 2 GROUCHY girls to all over. It was great.

Happy Halloween!

new tunes

2007-10-11T18:28:00.000-04:00

I'm looking at 5 hours in the car this weekend without any kids. Pretty excited about no 'I Feel Crazy so I Jump in the Soup'! I'm a little bored with the same songs, any ideas on some worthwhile downloads?

ahh nature

2007-10-05T15:09:00.000-04:00

i know that I thought I wanted to live in the woods BUT that was because I like quiet. Well we've been letting the cats out since we live in the woods and they probably wont get run over by a car. Cassie really enjoys the birdfeeder so she pretty much camps out waiting for her first catch! Well, apparently red squirrels are scared of big fat cats so instead of emptying the feeder every day they sit in the closest trees and on the roof and just squak at Cassie for 30 mins at a time. Have they forgotten how to find food in the forest? Wouldn't their time be better spent forraging?

I think it may be time to buy a pellet gun!

blue cheese chips=drool and Homer Simpson uuohh

2007-10-03T15:36:00.000-04:00

if you like blue cheese and don't mind not having a waist, you NEED to try these. Go to Ruby Tuesdays and don't get them with the bacon, not really crispy and can you really make them with more calories?! uuuuuuoooohhhhhh

oooohhh fire

2007-10-03T14:09:00.000-04:00

we have been stacking wood for at least a month! We bought 4 cords (I shouldn't admit that's all we got since it's taken so long!). It's been sitting on the edge of the driveway as close to the bulkhead as possible. We picked at it but you can't dump a load into the basement while the kids are sleeping if you want them to sleep. And it's not like we need it tomorrow...we don't want to waste the rest of this nice weather...hiking and fairs are much more fun!

Anyway, the pile is finally gone. So to celebrate we lit the wood stove! It was still like 60 degrees and we have monitor heaters too but we needed to enjoy the fruits of our labor! It was lovely! And I made stuffing, a nice mini-Thanksgiving!

so...confrontation help...

2007-10-03T13:54:00.000-04:00

there's this woman in our music class who keeps trying to encourage Avery to do more. And I'm pretty sure she means well in her own 'aren't i great, let me help this woman who clearly can't take care of 2 kids' way. BUT every time she looks at Avery, Avery tweeks and tries to hide in me, never mind when she talks to her. Avery's just a little intimidated by people right now. She likes to watch everyone and get ideas and then she does what she wants. And this is a new group so she's a little extra shy. And this woman is constantly talking to her. She finally starts DANCING in front of everyone and she says "nice spin Avery". And so, Avery stopped. Why is she not understanding that she should leave her alone? Is there anything I can say that says "just back off" without actually saying that?

By the way, same woman's child took an instrument out of Nora's hand. Kid got no discouragement even though mom was right there watching. Avery said "but Nora wants that". This woman needs some putting in her place or she will pass this arrogance on to that kid! She just doesn't know that the world does not revolve around her. People like that drive me insane. I kind of want to teach her! I think that makes me a bad person...I think I'm ok with that!

a crazy walking child!

2007-09-26T19:23:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Nora decided she's ready to walk! She's been crawling and cruising and taking more little juants between furniture for so long and driving us crazy not really trying to walk. Smarty Pants has just been happy just getting around on her own! These last two days she's barely taken a break. It's exciting to see my stubborn little thing growing up!

?????????

2007-09-25T14:43:00.000-04:00

I knew that the never-ending questions were coming and she's always asked questions but it's like a switch flipped in that Avery. She has not stopped asking questions since last week. She's even asking silly questions that she absolutely knows the answers too. Every little thing, what's that mom? to the porch off her room. What mom, what did you say? to the little curse that just slipped...like I'm really gonna repeat that one. That child is never quiet, at least so long as no one else is around!

And that's another thing, she tucks herself into me and can't even look at people, nevermind have a conversation. It's strange. I hope it doesn't last much longer because she's missing out on a lot. Strange.....

Cumberland Fair

2007-09-25T14:30:00.000-04:00

I have always loved the fair. I'm not sure if it's because the Deerfield fair fell almost on my birthday and so it became a special event every year. I have gone a few times since I was a kid but it had lost something. I found it again this weekend! Going to the fair with 2 amazed little kids is the BEST!

Avery was bored to death sitting in the car and wasn't looking too excited while we waited in traffic to get in. Then we parked in a big field and she was still like, why did you make me drive all this way. Then we walked up to the gate and you could see a couple rides spinning up high and she just couldn't even figure out what to ask!

Nora, however, was harder to impress. She played it cool until she saw the bunnies! Both of them spent the next 3 HOURS in awe of all the animals! We mooed and neighed and oinked our way around the fair. It was fantastic!

The girls were EXHAUSTED on their way out. I didn't think Nora was going to make it awake to the car. But the crazies were so excited they never slept the whole hour drive home! I think sharing these things with them is the greatest feeling!

another strange weekend

2007-09-17T15:06:00.000-04:00

Saturday was raining. We decided to get some of those boring errands taken care of. Nora didn't sleep well and so we were off to a rough start. We wound up getting nothing accomplished, grouchy, tired, and with rumbly tummies. We went home early so everyone could rest and oh, the kids who couldn't keep their eyes open didn't stop talking. blah blah blah

Sunday though, what a great day. We went for a hike. The weather was perfect. We had a picnic. We played at the playground. We went over to the outlets and wound up with icecream cones. Nora slept in the car and we spent only 20 mins in the grocery store (we'll see how excited we are about that later in the week!). The girls had cereal for dinner (fantastic! I think we'll add this to our regular week!). And after they went to bed I almost got to have dinner alone with my husband! (Nora needed one more tuck-in.) It was really just a great day.

2007-09-10T16:04:00.000-04:00

anyone know anything about landscape architecture? it's just my latest interest. i'm trying to get real info without spending tons on books

i'm not sure what i was thinking

2007-09-10T15:11:00.000-04:00

so, not to compare children, but Avery painted her first picture just before her first birthday. I thought that moment was scary...how do you clean up that much paint? And Jackson gave his grandma one of his paintings for her birthday. So, it was raining this morning and I was trying to keep them busy inside. I thought, this is a great time to take out that paint.

I got them each an ugly shirt that we didn't care about painting. I got everything out while Nora begged to play with the rice table. (I had decided we were painting!) And it was time to create! I blobbed some paint on a paper plate. Nora dove right in, not afraid to get dirty. I was excited. Her little purple finger went right into her mouth. Damn. Not a good start. You can't blame her, we were sitting at the table! So I told her and we tried again. I got out more and more paint because Avery just needs some of every color! I think Nora tried a little of each color. It wasn't really that bad I suppose but it hurt my stomach just watching it.

Nora did wind up with a beautiful painting. And Avery made a lovely gray!

Then it was clean-up time. While Nora was tasting, Avery was rubbing her hands through the paint and it was actually dripping off her. I had Nora in the bathroom, leaning over the sink washing her hands and crying and Avery at the table repeating "i'm all done, momma, clean me up". I actually had to check the paint to be SURE that it was nontoxic the way Nora was crying. Clean-up lasted about 30 minutes. We have lost 2 shirts and one pair of sweatpants to the paint pile! Whew, that was tough. It was sort of fun but man, it was A LOT of work! They batter have enjoyed it!!!!

cute little kid moment

2007-09-06T10:11:00.001-04:00

Avery's dancing around in her tutu singing and spinning to her own music. Marc's getting ready to leave for work. Avery says "but Dad, you can't take my tutu to the office with you". I like that picture, Marc walking into the office wearing a tutu.

great weekend!

2007-09-04T15:34:00.001-04:00

I got to spend money! I spent time both with and WITHOUT the kids! The weather was FANTASTIC! I stacked wood (which makes me and the grass underneath the huge pile happy)! My dad cut a hole in my wall! It just doesn't get much better! (I'm 'remodeling' my bathroom and that darn plug was in the way of my plans, therefore, Electrician Dad made it all better! Thanks again Dad!)

i'm getting sucked in! HELP!

2007-08-31T19:06:00.000-04:00

All right, so I still don't really get it but I seem to be enjoying it! Like the new template? Sorry, I don't have time for a lot of hobbies right now and this doesn't take a ton of time! And I like pretty colors!

when I grow up

2007-08-31T15:34:00.000-04:00

I just cannot figure out what to be when the girls leave me for school. There are so many things that I enjoy but I also want something that will still let me raise the girls and give me a career. I'm not crazy about going back to school to endure the extra junk that goes with. I suppose it's prabably different when you go at my age (damnit!) and to go when you have a clear, direct goal must be at least slightly easier, right?! But for now, there's still the task of figuring out what to do. Where to start? I have to admit, I took an online career apptitude test and it was kind of exciting to look at some of the possibilites and to know I still have hope to not just be home all the time. Wish me luck!

Marc's Pesto Pizza

2007-08-30T15:01:00.000-04:00

This was better the first time...i hate that...but here t is...Amy~this is that pesto pizza from Railway, but better!

pizza crust~i found one in the natural food section that is whole grain and a little thicker
pesto sauce~don't go cheap
fresh mozzarella
tomato
green pepper
mushrooms
red onion

lookin for a good book

2007-08-30T14:57:00.000-04:00

Not that I have much time for reading books longer than Moo Who? (great one!) but I'm looking for some nonfiction books to read. Any recommendations?

new england summer

2007-08-29T16:36:00.000-04:00

They aren't perfect, but that's one of the things I love about them. We get it all and one day you'll be dying for the ac and the next you'll be fighting turning the heater on!

These last few days have been SO perfectly beautiful. The temperature, just right. Bright blue clear skies. Warm but not baking sun. And that breeze that threatens to bring fall with it!

Thankfully my car's broken and no one seems to know why so it's been in the shop all week. Otherwise, we would have left and wound up at a store or a library (ew!). We would have missed this that I've been waiting for all year. We have just played outside all week. We've been running and climbing and, of course, swinging (which really isn't much fun if all you do is stand behind and push). I've just loved it.

I know this doesn't sound like me but I was starting to sound a little too whiny and I'm trying to teach Avery NOT to whine! Dinner time...time to cook dinner!

ooooohhhhhhh aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

2007-08-27T19:37:00.000-04:00

I put a picture up! I put some links on! I'm very excited!

Sunday

2007-08-27T15:31:00.000-04:00

I know, you must be thinking, 'no way' but yes, the fun continued through Sunday.

Avery's fever was GONE! Hooray! She was feeling much better and that meant we didn't have to watch Bob the Builder, AGAIN. So, we thought the day was going well! We left to get groceries, Sunday is grocery shopping day. We stopped at Dunks to get some yummy breakfast. We got stuck in construction traffic but no big deal, soon enough we were through and on our way. Then, Nora puked. And puked. (i use this word because Marc hates it, especially when Avery says it! that's a fun game!)

The worst part of this was that it was MY car! Not really, but I didn't mind that Avery's happened in Marc's car! Don't feel bad for him, he has leather seats, it came right off!

Poor Nora, we didn't have anything to clean her up with so we grabbed the few napkins Dunks gave us and just headed home, back through the construction. Avery was upset we weren't going and had to sit there next to it. Nora fell right to sleep, thankfully. And, after a good nap, she seemed fine. Hmmm. I think she just really dislikes grocery shopping.

the fun continues! ~Friday and Saturday

2007-08-27T15:14:00.000-04:00

so, where did I leave off...last week, Marc took Friday off to 'enjoy summer'. The day turned gray and oh so humid. We decided to go to the beach anyway. We found one close by and just went. The place was a little sketchy. But we certainly couldn't change our minds after Avery knew the plan, so in we went. They were setting up for their bluegrass festival and there were some campers but other than that, the place was empty. We were fine with that, we don't like people all that much anyway! So, we hiked over to the beach. The wind wouldn't stop and it was COLD! The sand wasn't that nice beach sand, it was sandbox dirt. We were disapointed but whatever, it was 30 mins away. Then we saw lots of sea life washed up. Strange. Then Avery broke out in the worst hives I've ever seen. That poor kid's arms, legs and EARS were red and blotchy.

We packed up after maybe half an hour. We hiked back to the car and threw everything and everyone in the car. Avery was so sad. And the swelling was starting to hurt. Nora was just shocked and wondering what this game was. We went straight to Walmart to get benedryl. And by the time we were home, they were almost gone. Few. (nurse thought it was from a virus, she'd had hives off and on all week)

Anyway, we spent the day home and it was fine. Friday night she had a fever 102 which lasted through Saturday night. Of course Saturday turned out to be one of the hottest, most humid days. Poor thing.

Thanks Marc for taking the day. Sorry it didn't turn out to be much fun but it was a little advernture, I suppose!

considering kids?

2007-08-21T20:27:00.000-04:00

let me just share the last couple weeks of my kid life. The first week of THIS month, Avery got bit near her eye, it swelled almost closed and then turned a lovely shade of purple. That same week, she spilled boiling water on herself while falling off her stool. She had red splotches all over and her hand started to swell. We almost went to the doctor red and puple and swollen. I'm not sure they would have let her come home with me.

Then there was the zoo day this weekend. See Marc's blog if this doesn't make sense. Long story short, vomit everywhere, tiwce.

Today, Avery had hives all over. Nora had a fever and cried more than not. All that crying really gets those mucous membranes going and what do you do with all that when you're one? You swallow it. What happens next? You spit it back up, all over your mom.

I've been peed on. I've had to clean up after leaky diapers. Nora's fallen off the bottom stairs too many times to count. Avery falls every few seconds and cries for most of them (that happens when you have a little sister and need more attention). And there's whining. And there's screaming. And there's throwing.

I'm absolutely sure there are SO many more events that I don't even consider out of the ordinary now. And remember, this is just this month. This month is not over yet! So, just a little warning if you are considering. The good stuff is so great but the rest really really sucks!

death and violence

2007-08-20T19:36:00.000-04:00

So, I came downstairs from putting Avery to bed and I heard a strange sound. I went to the window to check things out and I saw this bird on the ground by the lovely birdfeeder we have. At first it looked like he was just enjoying a nice Nut and Berry snack from the gound. Then I realized he was actually holding a smaller bird down under him and pecking at it. Feathers were flying. The sound I heard was the poor little victim bird. I went out to scare him to stop and he thought about it for a second and then FLEW AWAY WITH THE BIRD. I was a little traumatized. I am now re-thinking this nature/woods thing. I'm thinking maybe I'm lucky he didn't attack me. I've never seen a bird attack before. Maybe the birdfeeders needs to go. It seems like a trap. Thank goodness Avery was in bed...

i don't get it

2007-08-15T16:50:00.000-04:00

Nothing new for me though! I don't quite understand the point of blogs but I figured I might as well give it a try. If I ever figure out how, I might even put some pictures up! Wow, exciting!

Anyway, Marc's blog is Marc's. I expect that this will be 'the Rowes' site! My point is that if you aren't interested in family junk (potty training and such) you probably don't want to bother reading this...ever! About that potty training thing...'they' all say, just be patient, no one graduates highschool in diapers. Well, screw all of you! I'm damn sick of changing those damn smelly things!

Not that I think anyone who would ever read this wouldn't already know but I called this crazy-beautiful life because I have two kids under 2 1/2. I think that's enough said!