School Pictures are In!

Just got the girls school portraits today and had to share! :-) I think they both came out great (as their mother I can, of course, give an unbiased opinion on such matters...ahem).


My third grader



















My kindergartener




















OK, now that you have seen my cute kids you can get to bed so that tomorrow you can get up bright and early and GO VOTE! Polls open at 7am around here and I'm sure they are open early at a polling station near you. Just do it!

Project: Rocker

When I was pregnant with Youngest girl we found a glider rocker very cheap at a tag sale. It was missing the original cushions and someone had thrown on some ugly throw pillows in their place . But, the price was right and I am handy with a sewing machine and a big bag of fiberfill so we bought it and put it in the nursery. I bought some fabric to match the nursery quilt and sewed up some cushions. That rocker served us very well through Youngest girl's babyhood. We spent many cozy hours rocking and nursing in that chair.



Once we put Youngest girl's toddler bed into the room there was not quite enough room to leave the rocker in there. So, we moved it to our living room and there it sat - for more time than I care to admit - clashing quite nicely with our living room furniture. In fact, we had not intended to just leave it there but it became a comfortable addition to the room. So, then I decided I would find time to recover the cushions and it could stay there. But, somehow I never made it to the fabric store for that purpose or if I did go there I forgot about buying fabric for that project.

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to JoAnn's fabrics on a Halloween-related errand and while I was there I remembered to actually buy some fabric! Yay! And this past week I finally made the time to get the project started. It took until today to finish it, but now it is done and looking quite lovely! (I'm so modest...but seriously...doesn't it look nice? And way more living room-ish? And I'm really liking the fabric which is such a buttery soft sueded something or other.)




So, there you have it. My latest sewing project. I have also been working on knitting a few pairs of baby socks to donate to the church craft fair which is coming up in November. I need to take some photos so I can share them here. They are so cute! (There I go again, being all modest and crap.)

October 12 of 12 (and Date Night!)

This month we had a great day for the 12 of 12 (see Chad's site for the 411 on 12 of 12). The weather was absolutely beautiful, the fall colors are at their peak, and it was a Sunday so we could spend the day (mostly) as we pleased.

Church - 10:30am

Some friends who had moved away were back visiting this weekend and we got to see them all at church. Middle girl is standing with her friend C who was born two days before her. Yes, they both turned 6 this month - even though Middle girl is nearly a head taller. LOL

Church - noon

Leaving church - isn't it a gorgeous day?

After lunch we decided that we would take the girls apple-picking in a local orchard.
Cold Spring Apple Orchard - 1:45pm

How do you like them apples?


So big that Middle girl can barely carry more than two.


Look, ma! It's as big as my face!


The apples of my eye.

There was a geocache (go to http://www.geocaching.org for the 411 on that!) not far from the orchard so we figured we try to find it.

On the trail - 1:50pm

Rebeca took this picture of me and Rick (and if you look between Rick's legs you can see Middle girl hiding behind him)

Off the beaten path - 2:00pm

Rick on the hunt for the cache.

Trailside - 2:10pm

Success! The girls got to choose a trinket and we left a few behind. And on the way out of the cache we met some fellow geocachers...a dad and daughter team who were out for their fourth find. It was the first time in all the years we've been caching that we actually met someone on the trail who was also out geocaching! We've been out before and suspected that another group or person on the trail was a geocacher but it seems verboten to yell out "hey, are you a geocacher"?

Date Night! To end the day off on a wonderful note Rick and I had managed to arrange for a date night. We were long overdue - or at least it felt that way. We dropped the girls off at Rick's parents' house and headed out for a late afternoon hike to enjoy the foliage and the views on the top of a nearby mountain. The weather was absolutely perfect, but the mosquitoes were a bit insane for this time of year. And the mountain itself was swarming with other like-minded individuals who wanted to enjoy the day to the fullest. I think we passed at least 30 other groups of hikers on our way up the mountain.
Mt. Norwottuck - 5:00pm

We made it to the top!


This picture does not do justice to the great colors we saw.

On the way down - 5:20pm

Artsy fartsy fall foliage snapshot. A nice way to end this 12 of 12.

After our hike we did get out to dinner and had a delicious meal with wine, dessert and even a Bailey's coffee for me. Yum. It was relaxing to just sit and chat with no interruptions and eat some really great food that we didn't have to prepare, serve or clean up after (and no need to cut someone else's food into bite sized pieces). The end of our date night was a romantic trip to Target. We had to get some essentials like TP and paper towels and we also got a few gifts for Youngest girl who will turn three on Sunday! (Seriously!) We resisted the urge to buy a fire pit even though that would have been a romantic thing to buy on date night. But, we just don't need it and we are trying to be more mindful of the stuff we buy.

It was a great 12th of the month and I'm so glad I remembered it was 12 of 12 so I could make a record of our day. Now I'm off to post this to Chad's site and to check out what other folks did on their 12 of 12!

Cel-ah-brate good times...

I hope I'm not dating myself with that song for my title.

Middle girl celebrated her birthday in style on Sunday and Monday. Sunday was the friend party at the local gymnastics school where she has been taking classes for about 3 years. She had nine friends along with her two sisters as guests and they all had a ball with the "party people" Ann-Marie and her husband Bobbie.

Here are a few choice photos from the party:


A gaggle of girls ganging up on Bobbie.


The birthday girl waiting for instructions (along with friend M).


Eldest girl enjoying Ann-Marie's antics.


Youngest girl stuck close to me for the entire party with the exception of this short
stint on the trampoline - which she obviously enjoyed thoroughly!


Cake time! And for the record, I can no longer be called 'Martha on Crack' (right, K?). I forked over big bucks to let someone else run the party AND I bought the cake from the local bakery!


Present time - with help from mom and friend N.

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On Monday she woke up at 6:30 and I was able to wish her a happy birthday on the exact moment of her birth - 6:53am. Hard to believe that this baby is now six!


(....and equally hard to believe that the other "baby" in the photo - who seemed soooo big at the time - is going to be 9 this winter).

At school she celebrated with all her classmates. Her sisters and I ate lunch with her in the classroom and then we handed out cupcakes (homemade but with canned frosting - see, K? No Martha living here no mo'). This teacher does such a nice job of making the child feel special on their birthday (and even the summer birthday kids get to celebrate before the end of the year). During circle time they do a special little birthday 'ceremony' and sing a special song. One child sits in a chair holding a small candle - this child is the "sun". The birthday child carries a globe and walks around the sun as many times as they are old to signify how many times the earth has been around the sun since they were born. The teacher also reads the A.A. Milne poem "When I am Six" to the child and the class then sings a second 'birthday song' which is not the traditional birthday song. I don't know the words to the songs but they are both very sweet. :-) Oh yeah, and a birthday story is also read to the class and the birthday child gets to take home a special book bag of birthday stories to read at home. I can't say enough how much I love Ms. W!!!

Here are a few pics from the school celebration:



Putting on her special crown.


Circling the 'sun'!



A special birthday poem.


Lunch with mom and sisters.


Happy Birthday!


Time for cupcakes!

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And last but not least we celebrated with my in-laws by having them over for dinner that night! Middle girl requested chicken with spaghetti sauce over pasta and green beans. Nothing fancy so it was an easy relaxed dinner...and of course...more cake for dessert! :-)

All in all, a wonderful couple of days to celebrate the day we first met our very special Middle girl!

Expecting a Fair(l)y Small Visitor

Updated!

The big news today in E.W. is that Middle girl lost her first tooth! And "lost" is a good way to put it because she literally lost it. She was eating an apple and accidentally swallowed it. I think we were all very surprised because she had not been complaining of a loose tooth and then bam! it was gone. She was upset at first but luckily Eldest girl had something similar happen not that long ago and a note explaining the situation sufficed in getting her due from the tooth fairy. So, she figured we could just write another note and hopefully she'd get a visit too. Eldest girl helped her write the note and they left it along with a 'form' for the tooth fairy to fill out! I'll scan it and post it once the fairy has gotten a chance to fill it out. I'm curious to know if she'll actually have time to do that while she is here. I guess it depends on how many houses she needs to get to before morning...

Without further ado - here's Middle girl with her adorable gap-toothed smile.



Monday she turns 6! Which is pretty hard to believe.
And it's picture day at school so I'm hoping she will show off her new smile. :-D

10/5/08
The Tooth Fairy did, indeed, make her visit last night. Middle girl was up very early this morning to check and found four quarters and a note in a little envelope from the tooth fairy. The note gave Congrats on losing her first tooth and condolences for swallowing it. She also wished Middle girl a happy birthday! She signed the note "Your Tooth Fairy, Starr". The girls assumed that the tooth fairy did not have time to fill in the little form they left for her but mom's sharp eyes noticed the teeny, tiny handwriting on the form! Not sure it will show up here - but you should be able to click on the picture to see it larger on Flickr. She wrote her name, the date she found it and her comment was "Sorry you swallowed it!"

I'm Emailing Matt Damon!

Or in reality he is emailing me! I had to call a software company on behalf of one of my students today. The tech support guy was very kind and after our brief conversation he sent met an email with some instructions to download.

If I knew how to take a 'screen shot' I'd do that but since I don't I just grabbed my camera and took this grainy shot...




Do you see what I saw when I opened my email. A message from Matt Damon to me! Me!

Ok, so his name is Damon Matt (poor guy) but it still gave me a little jolt to see his name at the top of my inbox. ;-)

It put a smile on my face today - and I needed that.
Thanks Matt, Damon.

Project: Bath

People say that time flies. I think it's actually on supersonic mode right now.

I'm sitting here wondering how it got to be Monday again. Didn't I just post my Monday to-do list? (Have no fear, I won't bore you with the details of that list this week although it's nearly as long once again.)

Since I last posted I've worked three days, gone to a "back to school picnic", made it to knitting night, honed my techie skills by playing around with some software (Classroom Suite, for those educational types who might know what that is), bought a new tub, and watched Rick demolish half our bathroom.

This bathroom project is like any other home project in that its scope started out in the 'doable' range and has spread to the point that we need to bring in a plumber to deal with some issues that are impeding progress.

Initially, the plan was to rip out and replace the tiles around the tub. We were having some not insignificant leakage during showers and could not completely pinpoint or fix the issue. The tiles are nearly 40 years old and the grout was dry and crumbling so it really was time to just deal with it. Before we got started we had a number of discussions about how far we wanted to go. Did we want to replace the tub? Or not. If we pulled the tub, what about the floor? And if we have to replace the floor does it make sense to do the vanity and sink over at the same time... Project sprawl was threatening to overtake our best intentions. At one point we decided to just deal with the tiles and make a quick job of it. After the tiles were removed Rick noticed a few nicks in the porcelain tub and in the end we decided to just deal with the tub now rather than later. So, Rick got to work hammering out the tub.

And before we knew it we were at Home Depot picking out a new tub. We had looked into various options and initially I wanted to just get the same kind of tub. However, it turns out the tub I wanted was over 300 lbs and would be nearly impossible to maneuver into our tiny bathroom. It was obvious that the house had been built up around the tub. So, after a fair bit of debate we opted for a much lighter weight and relatively more portable acrylic tub (no more harsh abrasive cleaners!). One issue we knew about when purchasing the tub was that it was a bit deeper than our old tub and would thus require some 'simple' plumbing (is it ever truly simple?) to move the tub spout higher up. However, once Rick got into the nitty gritty of "how to install" the tub we realized that the drain was also going to be in the wrong spot. And of course moving the drain and the spout means it would no longer line up with the rest of the plumbing. Oh dear. What was that I said about project sprawl?

On the list for today is to call a plumber (or three) for estimates on dealing with our plumbing-related project woes. Rick is loathe to hire out for household projects because he can deal with 99 out of 100 home repair or remodel issues. It's true. He is the ultimate Mr. Handyman which has saved us boatloads of cash over the years. But, this is just one of those times that my gut tells me that professional assistance is warranted. I think Rick agrees (mostly). What can I say? He's a Taurus and they are known for their stubbornness...

So, between work and the bathroom remodeling I've been rather occupied. Not that I've been doing any of the remodel work myself, but the fretting about it has been keeping me busy enough. Since I'm a Virgo I'm prone to worrying...(and a bit of perfectionism to boot which is why the thought of installing a tub/shower with misaligned plumbing was making me cringe just a wee bit a fair bit).

Off to take a shower in the downstairs bathroom (luckily we have two bathrooms!) and get dressed for the day!

Not bad...

I think I did pretty well in checking off a lot of my to-do list for today!

TJ's shopping

make appointment with my hairdresser


pick out tile at home improvement store

*clean/organize for the week ahead
well - sort of. I did get some cleaning done and things are too bad around here but this is one of those to-do items that I never feel like I fully accomplish!

*laundry (get the piles folded and put away)
Another item that gets a "sort of" rating. I processed more laundry but still have my mountain to fold and put away. Key word when it comes to Jeanne vs. the laundry - procrastination.

*start another pair of baby socks
Nope. Didn't get started on this one. I had hoped to start it at the meeting tonight (see below) but I ended up chatting with the moms I knew there instead.

*find out the mailing addresses for the kids in Middle girl's classroom who will be invited to her party
One down - three more to go on this list!

attend the meeting at school this evening for Eldest girl's violin lessons
However, now Eldest girl has decided she is not at all excited about violin now that she has learned that there will be at home practicing going on and she also said it was "too hard to learn." Sigh... I told her she can't say that until she tried. She has to at least go to a few lessons but that I won't force her or argue with her about it if she doesn't want to do it. I just don't have it in me to force her to do something that is supposed to be 'fun'!

exercise
Took Youngest girl on a walk - we had intended to go to the farm to visit the sheep, llamas, and cows but she fell asleep within 10 minutes so I just walked the neighborhood for 45 minutes while she slept.

make into banana bread
delish!

* return bottles at the grocery store
nope.

Tally for the day:

6 full check marks
3 partial/sort of check marks
2 unchecked items

oh, and I can check an additional item off my list:

bore everyone to tears with my blog posts!

Monday Monday

Yep - it's Monday again. And the to-do list is getting longer by the minute.

*grocery shopping at Trader Joe's (what would I ever do without TJ's?)

*call to make an appointment with my hairdresser for Wednesday (I've been wanting a haircut for weeks now and just haven't had time!)

*take a trip down to the home improvement outlet store to pick out tile (our shower tiles are nearly 40 years old and we are having leakage into the basement - time for a re-do on the tub surround and we've decided to just rip out and replace the wallboard and tiles)

*clean/organize for the week ahead

*laundry (get the piles folded and put away)

*start another pair of baby socks (I've been using my leftover sock yarns to make itty bitty baby socks for the November craft fair at church - they knit up fairly quickly which is great!)

*find out the mailing addresses for the kids in Middle girl's classroom who will be invited to her party (the class list came home on Friday with only names and phone numbers!)

*attend the meeting at school this evening for Eldest girl's violin lessons (The school has a grant that gives 3rd through 6th graders a chance to try out instruments for next to nothing. We will pay a $50 maintenance fee for the year and she decided to try out violin...she could only choose from stringed instruments in 3rd grade...next year she will have the option to try a wind instrument).

*exercise? I am not sure this will fit in the schedule today but I missed my walk this morning (sorry, Lauri!) because my alarm malfunctioned!! So, I am thinking it might be possible to put Youngest girl in the stroller and walk the neighborhood. Time is looking a bit tight today so we'll see.

And now I feel like I've killed two birds with one stone - I posted on my blog AND created my to-do list for the day. I feel like there is something I wanted/needed to do that I am forgetting though. Hmmmm...time to get dressed and if I think of it I'll post an update.

Because I know that reading about my Monday to-do list has you on the edge of your seat.


Now I remember! I walked into the kitchen and saw the brown spotty bananas I want to make into banana bread! Off to put that in the oven so it can bake before we leave to run our errands. And I better hope I get some exercise in today if I am going to be eating banana bread...

Oh yeah, and I wanted to return bottles at the grocery store (not TJ's...)! Hmmm....fitting a whole week's worth of to-do list items in one day is challenging!

September 12 of 12

12 of 12 time again, folks! For the uninitiated, check out the details with Chad. Basically, it's 12 pictures taken on the 12th day of each month. Check out Chad's blog for links to others' 12 of 12 entries - its a fun, cheap way to take a trip around the world!

12 of 12
September 2008

Home
o'dark hundred (nearly)
Up early this morning to get in my morning walk with Lauri




7:00am
Arrived home to find all three kiddos up for the day.



7:15am
Cup of caffiene compliments of two birthday gifts. The girls gave me the french press and my awesome friend Tux sent me the huge mug. I'm a Speech-Language Pathologist - aka SLP - and the mug says "SLP - We have ways of making you talk!" LOL


7:35
Lunch prep for my two grade-schoolers - Eldest girl's lunch is on the right, middle girl's on the left.


8:30am
Showing off my new camera. This month I am taking my 12 of 12 pics with my brand spanking new camera (another awesome birthday gift! Thank you, Rick!) and since it can't easily take a picture of itself I opted to take a picture of the website showing the model I got. Mine is silver.


Stop & Shop Plaza
10:40am
Youngest girl went on errands with me this morning. Stop & Shop for groceries and the Dollar Store for goody bag items for Middle girl's birthday party.


A 'tea and eatery' place
12:45pm
I dropped Youngest girl off with my mother-in-law and joined a friend for a belated birthday lunch. This was the dessert we shared.


The Common
2:00pm
'Trash to Treasures' sale on the Common. Every year there is a used furniture sale to benefit the local survival center here in town. Since we live an area flush with college-aged kids it's held at the start of the fall semester and there are lots of cast-off plaid couches to be had!


Home again
4:45pm
Looking at the front hall closet with Rick and taking some measurements. We want to install some shelves on one side where the girls backpacks can be stored when they get home from school.


6:15pm
Dinner has been eaten and enjoyed. Rick is putting away the leftovers. Bowtie pasta, chicken and broccoli with a cheese sauce on the side (since a certain 5 year old prefers to eat her food unadorned).


8:20pm
Kids are in bed and now it's time for some knitting and a movie.


10:05pm
Movie has ended and I managed to finish my second sock!



Bonus picture with a bonus question: What movie did we watch last night?