couple good sites

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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)