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!

Random Blogging

Catching up on happenings in the land of Elastic Waistland. Be prepared for random thoughts, scenic detours, and general meanderings. If any of that sort of thing offends your blogger's sense of style feel free to click along to someplace more palatable.

Where to begin.

Well, the school year is off to a good start. I have my handy-dandy planner and we have all settled in with the fall schedule fairly well. I have days where it just seems like I spend all my time in the car shuttling kids between various activities and engagements with barely a moment to catch my breath, but there are also days that are more laid back and I can actually sneak a few pages of my current read before running off to the next pick-up, drop-off or errand. Alas, the house could be cleaner, the dishes sometimes sit in the sink until dinnertime, and there is still a pile of mulch in the driveway that needs to be dealt with at some point (hopefully before the snow flies!) but, all in all, life is chugging along fairly smoothly. And I'm not one to worry my little head over a layer of dust, toys strewn hither and yon, or those aforementioned dishes that sit in the sink for a while. Life is much too short.

R just started her art classes and she is enjoying the subject of "Fairies" that all the projects will be centered around. This past week they worked with real leaves as templates and colored their creations with pastel crayons. I'll post a picture when she brings home that project - she is off to a very nice start. Swim classes are going very well and she is getting much better at her standing dive. After her classes on Saturday mornings I've been trying to get in a workout at the Y. I drop her in the childcare area and head to the gym for a while before we head home in time for lunch. The two younger girls are home that morning with Rick. It's the only time I get to workout at the Y right now because the issue with little Miss Cling-E is still going strong. In fact, the last visit to the Y all I had to do to elicit screams of terror was to walk into the childcare area with her by my side. She wanted NOTHING to do with the place. She also has a screaming fit whenever we approach the showers for some unknown reason. My best guess on that one is that she is afraid she will get wet but this even happens when she is wearing a swimsuit so it might just be the noise and confusion. Good times. (not really)

A is enjoying swim classes and her weekly gymnastics as well. She recently decided she wants to be on the gymnastics team. I told her to keep working hard on her skills and maybe in a few years she'll be invited to join the team. She wasn't too pleased with that answer and we'll see how much longer she actually stays interested in the sport! For a while now she has been angling for horse-back riding lessons but I've explained that they are very expensive and that she needs to be a bit older before she can start. She has also mentioned more than once that she wants to be a horse-back rider when she grows up (although today she added the possibility of being a tie-dye maker/mom...we have a friend in mommy group who has a home-based tie-dye business). So, who knows what her plans will be tomorrow...or the day after that.

I've been spending Tuesday mornings at R's school helping out in any way I can with the classroom teacher or the librarian. This past week I spent time trying to do some copying (but the machine was getting jammed so I took the project with me and decided to get it done at the copy shop and donate the cost of the copies to the classroom) and processing library books that were headed for the shelves. I also spent time there on Friday last week helping with the hearing screenings. I served as hall monitor and kept the noise to a dull roar and ushered kids in and out as necessary. The audiologist in charge of the hearing screenings was my grad school supervisor so we got a chance to catch up on life in general and on goings-on in the department.

On Tuesdays E spends time with my in-laws and although she is otherwise super clingy and in hyper stranger anxiety mode she is more than pleased to go to grandma and grandad's house for the morning. She barely gives me a second glance, let alone a kiss goodbye, on those mornings. So, there is hope! She even allowed our neighbor (who also has a home daycare) to babysit her here at home with her sisters while Rick and I went to the 1.5 hour curriculum night at school last week. Baby steps... Some day I will get to utilize my Y membership to its fullest potential!

In other news, I'm trying to get back on the wagon and reign in my eating and increase my exercise once again. I've done pretty well with the walking regime (3.5 or so miles in the morning) but I've slacked off a lot in the high intensity cardio and the strength training sessions that I was doing last spring. So, the reduction in exercise and the increase in food intake - which seems to happen whenever I don't keep a food diary - has caused a 7# gain since early May. I started using my LifeForm program again to keep myself accountable and I even recently managed a couple of hikes to a beautiful overlook here in the southern part of our little New England town. The view from up there is so beautiful. The leaves are just beginning to turn so it was not quite the colorful spectacle that will appear in a week or two, but it is still a great place for a hike. The first hike was a solo one during the scant couple of hours I had between dropping off and picking up A from a friend's birthday party. It was a good hike for the soul to sweat it out on the way up the mountain and then relax and enjoy the views from the top in solitude. I needed that time to regroup and refresh. Last Friday, Rick and I took advantage of some gorgeous and unseasonably warm October weather and hiked the mountain again. My in-laws babysat for us and we had ourselves a very nice date night - hiking the mountain followed by dinner at a local brewery and then a movie at the small theater in town. Good times! (really!)

This past weekend was A's 5th birthday party. I plan to post some pictures of that soon. She had a dog party with a slight emphasis on pink poodles and she and her preschool friends had a very nice time together on Saturday afternoon. Next weekend we are heading to the Cape and spending some time with my family (both immediate and extended) for a big celebration and the following weekend is Miss E's 2nd birthday which will be a much smaller and more relaxed event.

That about wraps up the events of late in the E.W. and the busy life of yours truly.

Happy Valentine's Day.... A Few Days Early!

Wednesdays are particularly busy days around here so we know that a romantic dinner for just the two of us is not going to happen ON Valentine's Day. I asked my sweet MIL if she would be willing to babysit on Sunday night so Rick and I could have a date night. She agreed and we arranged to drop the kids off around 3:30 or 4:00 so we could hit an early movie. After looking at local listings we decided to head to a new (well, newly renovated), small movie theater downtown that plays a lot of indie and foreign films. We went to see Pan's Labyrinth - a dark and disturbing fairy tale (aren't all the good ones really dark and disturbing if you really think about it? Cinderella? Snow White? Sleeping Beauty? If you read them they are not the light-hearted and happy-go-lucky stories that Disney wants to make them) about a girl who is supposed to be the reincarnated soul of the daughter of the king of the Underworld. She must pass three tests to be allowed to return to her rightful position as Princess of the Underworld. Anyway - the film, which was in Spanish with English subtitles, was excellent. It was a bit intense in places and I literally had to cover my eyes because I did not want to watch some of the more violent scenes (her step-father is a masochistic Captain of the Spanish Army and he is fighting some insurgents who are hiding out in the hills). Just go see it - and cover your eyes at the gory parts like I did if you must - it's a great film!

After the movie (which, by the way, was interrupted for a few minutes right at very end by a young college-aged woman who was having some kind of attack in the back - diabetic attack? panic attack? it was hard to be certain - and had to be taken out on a stretcher!), Rick and I went out to dinner at a brewery down the street from the theater. I allowed myself a little splurge and ordered a beer. How could I not order a local brew?! I must say that I've really been missing my wine and beer since I cut that out of my diet...so it was a splurge that I thoroughly enjoyed. For dinner I had the Tequila-Lime Chicken and Shrimp with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. All very yummy. And I can tell that my stomach has "shrunk" of late - I'm used to eating so much less food that I could not finish that meal. I left more than half the potatoes and the roll and focused on the grilled chicken and shrimp (the best part!) and the vegetables. Rick ordered the Southwestern Chicken Cordon Bleu and rice pilaf. He liked it but thought it was a bit too salty.

Date night was great and the whole "early Valentine's" treat included an early Valentine's gift from Rick to me! He decided not to wait until Wednesday to give it to me since he had it finished early and since we were celebrating early anyway. I did not know that he had been busy working on a gift for me in his basement workshop while I've been doing my evening workouts. He can be so sneaky! I took a picture so you can see it in all it's glory...

I had told him not long ago that I would love to have a way to organize my jewelry so I can see what I actually have. I have two small jewelry boxes on my dresser and the jewelry was just sort of thrown into them willy-nilly so it always took a while to find a matched pair of earrings and my necklaces were getting all snarled and knotted together. Now I have everything all organized on a jewelry holder that Rick made and that he stained to match the bedroom set. How cool is that? I am THRILLED! Isn't he the best? And so clever?

Happy Valentine's Day to ME! And thank you, Rick, for making my (early) Valentine's Day so very special. I love you more than words can say!

Kickin' Ass

It is nearly time to get my ass to bed, but I thought I'd give a brief update.

I've been doing my workout program faithfully all week. Just finished my fifth consecutive day of "phase 2" in this workout program that I'm using. I am finding that it is a little easier each time and tonight I actually did not work up as much of a sweat as I did when I first hit that "play" button earlier this week. I am building endurance and muscle! And the scale is indicating that I'm doing something right! Tomorrow is my last workout day of the week before my schedule "rest day" and I think next week I might try out the "phase 3" video since I'm doing fairly well on "phase 2". There are still a couple of spots that burn my butt a bit, but overall I'm finding it much more do-able.

Today was an "off" day as far as food was concerned. I went to church for a "crafty ladies" luncheon and of course the lunch that was provided was homemade, super yummy, and not at all diet-friendly. Gotta love the little old church ladies and their delicious recipes! But, it meant that my calorie count was a bit on the high side for today. Nothing too disasterous, though, and I'm glad I still got in my workout to counteract some of the calories. I also learned that my body is adjusting to a diet without much refined sugar. I have not had much in the way of sweets since I started tracking my food and I definitely notice that I am not craving them quite as much. Today, however, I had a cookie mid-morning (had to try one - warm from the oven, no less - while baking some oatmeal raisin cookies for a memorial service at church tomorrow...you know - just to be sure they tasted all right), and about an hour later I was literally falling asleep on the couch! But, I couldn't understand why. Then, later at church I had some dessert and again I was feeling logy and out of sorts this afternoon. It was not until much later that I put two and two together and realized that I was likely experiencing a sugar crash. Doh. Amazing how quickly the body adapts and equally amazing how crappy refined sugar can make me feel now that I've decreased my exposure to it over the course of a few weeks.

Rick and I have a date night planned for Sunday - a little pre-Valentine's dinner and a movie date. I need to plan ahead that day to try to keep the calories at a decent level. I know they are going to be high - I just hope I can keep them from being SUPER high. Plus, it's my 'rest day' so I won't be working off those extra calories. Maybe I won't want to step on that scale on Monday morning...

As for the girls - a quick update: E never puked again and so far I've only taken her for brief 10-minute or less car rides. So far, so good. We can hope that she is slowly acclimating to her new perspective and that the lower, more reclined car seat is aiding in her comfort level. R just brought home her mid-year report card and she received glowing reviews! She is above grade level in reading and her math and writing skills are comparable to a 1st grader at the end of the year - so she's a good 6 months ahead in those skills as well. Her teacher noted that she has made excellent progress so far this year and indicated that we would receive more detailed notes on her progress soon (her teacher was out of school for a short while because of a death in her family so she's trying to play some catch up on some of the administrative tasks). As for little Miss A - she is continuing to love her preschool program and today she came with me to the luncheon at church. She was not thrilled about going but once we got there she settled in and was so excited that one of the women at the luncheon is a teacher who often substitutes at her preschool. She sat next to "Ann" at lunch and enjoyed chatting it up with all the ladies who asked her about preschool and about the things she likes to do.

Alright - time to go to bed! I need my beauty sleep...you know...it is not easy being this beautiful and glamorous. It really takes a lot of work...and plenty of sleep. Trust me.

First date night of the new year!

We had a great night out. Relaxing, fun, delicious.

In the end we decided to see "The Good Shepard" since Rick seemed most interested in that one. I would go see just about anything (ok, so I once went to see a movie without knowing what the heck it was about and I'll never do that again - I ended up covering my eyes and ears for more than half the showing of "Seven"....ugh...I can't do those nasty horror flicks that are more gore and shock value than suspense and plot twists....ya know?). The movie was good - although a bit on the long side- and I, personally, got confused and could not easily keep up with the plot. It is not hard to confuse me, however, so that's not saying much. There were too many agents to keep track of and too much jumping between the 1960s and earlier times between the 1930s and the 1950s. If you like spy/espionage and are not easily confused I'd say go ahead and watch it - otherwise you might want to pass.

Before we headed to dinner I called to check in with the grands and make sure things were relatively peaceful at home. We had a rough departure with A having screaming fits and tantrums about doing some cleaning up so I just had to be sure things were going ok. As it turns out the girls had been having a great evening were acting like "model children" according to my MIL (phew! guess we provided enough incentives through blatant threats to ensure cooperative children for the evening). We headed off to our dinner with an easy conscience and plans to enjoy ourselves. We picked a place downtown that we rarely go to because it's a bit on the pricey side. But, we decided we were worth a little spoiling! Rick ordered a dish called Linguine fra Diavlo which was shrimp, sausage and chicken in a spicy red sauce over pasta. I ordered the Bistro Medallions which was beef wrapped in bacon and served with a mushroom demi-glaze. Sooooooo good. The caramel apple pie was also quite delicious and I'm sure none of this was on my self-proclaimed "diet plan" but it's not often that we get out for date night so I decided to enjoy it without guilt!

It was great to be out and about with Rick and enjoy having uninterrupted conversations. No need to cut up anyone else's food. No need to cook or wash dishes. Just him and me snuggling at the movies and eating a delicious dinner. No distractions, no time constraints, no stress. Ahhhhh....

One completely unrelated side note: there was a group seated next to us at the restaurant - looked like mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and a toddler of perhaps 18 months - and the entire time they were seated at the restaurant they had the toddler perched in her highchair facing a portable dvd player that was sitting on the bench next to dad! And dad was feeding her some dinner to ensure that she actually ate something (I assume that if he did not feed her she would not have eaten much of anything because she was so transfixed on the video screen). I know we tend to be on the ultra-conservative side when it comes to TV viewing, but I thought that was a bit over the top. Does anyone else agree? I guess they figured it would keep her quiet and entertained so they could enjoy their dinner but I would tend to disagree with that tactic. I guess because I'm also not one to take small children to swank restaurants at what would have been past my 18-month-old child's bedtime (we got there at 7:30ish and they were there until at least 8:30). Feel free to weigh in on this topic. I'm curious whether I'm being too judgemental because of my own biases about TV or if others think sitting an 18-month-old in front of screen for a few hours of quiet at a restaurant is "ok" in their own personal book of parenting tricks.