February 12 of 12

I remembered this month!...and actually managed to take enough pictures!

If you don't know what the 12 of 12 deal is go check out Chad's site. OK, you get it? Good. Moving on.

Jeanne's Feburary 2009 12 of 12

7:15 am - Off to work with my cuppa joe



7:15 am Starting odometer for the day (149.0)...and a balmy 38 degrees at home.



7:17 am Foggy morning - can't see the golf course across the street.



7:18 - The corn fields near our house.
Make note of this picture...there will be one later for comparison.


7:45 am - For the second time this month I ran out of windshield washer fluid. The roads are so nasty these days.




8:00am - Arriving at my first school destination for the day.



8:01 am - Odometer reading upon arrival (178.7) and a fair bit warmer when you get further south (46)!




11:45 am Arriving at my second school destination for the day.



11:45 am I obviously travel quite a bit for work some days. Odometer reading now at 214.2. And I have traveled back north to slightly cool temps at midday (44 degrees).



3:00 pm - Making a quick stop at the craft store for a birthday present for my soon-to-be 9-year-old!



3:20 pm - OK, remember the photo from the morning commute? Here is the comparison photo showing that it really was foggy this morning! (What? There are actually mountains over there?)



3:24 pm - The bus that my children are on is in the distance. It came a bit on the early side that day and I was not home to "catch" it! They do not let my kindergartner off the bus unless someone is standing right there. I ended up pulling up behind the bus and beeping but his engine is so loud he could not hear me and he was beeping his horn to let the non-existent person in the house know he was there. He finally realized what was going on and let my kids off the bus, thankfully! Drives me nuts when they get to my house early because I have a hard enough time as it is to get home by 3:30 on the days that I work!



Not a very exciting 12 of 12 - I know. I don't feel comfortable taking pictures while I'm at work (confidentiality for the kiddos and all that) so my work day 12 of 12 entries end up being not very compelling. Unfortunately, next month will also be a work day... Oh well, at least April 12th falls on a Sunday so maybe we'll be doing something more interesting that day!

The 12 of 12 that wasn't....

I only managed to take a total of 7 pictures on Monday. Not nearly enough to attempt to throw in one or two last boring end of day pictures to post and actually participate. Sigh...

Maybe next month. (And maybe someone other than Rick will actually read the blog again if I post a link on Chad's 12 of 12 site!)

I guess I was silent for so long that even my few "regulars" stopped checking in! Not that I blame them. It's been a very long draught around here.

Today is normally a "no-work" day for me but once a month I have a Wendesday meeting to attend. Today is that Wednesday. Blah. Youngest girl normally goes to daycare two days a week but on my meeting week she goes three days in a row. Although she is finally getting better about going to daycare she still has a tough time when she has her three day week. Her dropoff routine is to snuggle on the couch with me or Rick and then we let Lauri take over with the snuggling and she is fine. Today I sat with her for a few minutes and then, when she was seeming sullen, I asked "How are ya doing?" Her response: "I'm still not happy." And then she broke down in tears. Sigh.... She was not likely to 'be happy' unless I suddenly decided it was not a Lauri day and she could come home and hang with mom. I finally encouraged her bribed her to be good by promising to buy more M&M's today so she could have some this evening IF Lauri reports that she had a good day at daycare. Naughty mommy...I just have a hard time saying goodbye to tears.

This coming weekend we are headed down to my hometown to visit my family. We are also invited to a party at my good friend S's house. She was my next door neighbor growing up and she was a year behind me in school. I think that many of the invitees are alumni from our high school -- many of whom I may not know (or recognize!) because they were in her graduating class. But, I should know a few of them and I'm really looking forward to hanging out with everyone this weekend! Something that I find neat and kind of funny about the party - most of the invitations were sent out via Facebook! I have become a regular user of Facebook Fanatic. I check in with my Facebook 'gang' whenever I'm at home checking email or just wasting time on the computer. Facebook can be such a HUGE time waster! I had to laugh when I read this post over on Notes to Self about the FB experience. Although I don't have any pothead ex-boyfriend's, my mom is actually on FB and I find myself second-guessing myself before I post anything because I start to remember that not only can my MOM read it, but a former professor of mine, co-workers past and present, and even my nieces and nephews are my FB friends. I do love it though. I feel that my relationship with said nieces and nephews has been strengthened by FB because we can have these little inconsequential but fun conversations that would not have been possible, or likely to ever happen, otherwise! I'm also chatting with certain other people that I would not have made the time to call or to email. I notice they are online and I send a quick "hello" which is sometimes not much more than that and sometimes it turns into a lenghty catch-up conversation. I am proud to be a Facebook Addict. No need to send me information on a 12-step program. I'm good.

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!

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?