Our Family Blog

Heard at the Brunch Table

2010-03-15T10:04:00.003-04:00

Took the kids out for lunch/brunch yesterday. It was kind of a long, lazy weekend, and it was pretty rainy, and Jonathan was getting over an ear infection, so we laid low. But by lunchtime yesterday, we were ready to head out, check out the river (there was a flood warning) and grab some lunch. The place we selected had those paper placemats - the kind where local businesses can advertise. One of the ads was for a local gun shop. Jonathan noticed this one immediately. He told me that the ad shouldn't be on there. I tried to explain to him that guns aren't bad - it's the people that misuse them that are bad. Guns, I explained can be used to protect people, and so people can hunt their food, or can be collector's items. Only when guns fall into the wrong hands can they be used for bad things. Well, he said, maybe they should take these guns "up 95 and into Massachusetts, where they have tougher gun laws." I kid you not, that is what came out of the kid's mouth. I said "What?" And he replies "Yes, I heard that on the news....CNN. They have the best news." OHHHHH-Kay. Perhaps Daddy should change the channel in the mornings after he's done his coffee and before he gets Jonathan up for school! Or next Jonathan will be enlightening us on his own healthcare plan....

Jonathan is 6

2010-03-11T14:17:00.004-05:00

Where, oh where did time go? Jonathan turned 6 years old yesterday. I have a 6 year old. Unbelievable. I remember the days when he was a baby - and a difficult one at that - the days that I would say to myself "someday he'll be old enough to go to school..." and now those days are here; HAVE been here. And now he's 6. He's so tall. He's got this quality about him that makes him seem older than his years, but he's still very much a little boy. Because he is so into maps and highways and atlases, I made him a United States cake. I got the pan last year on Ebay and had it hidden until yesterday. I used one of his little maps as a reference and free-handed the state outlines, then marked each state that he has been to so far. I had some leftover batter, so I made a smaller cake and turned that into Alaska and Hawaii. No, he hasn't actually been to Alaska, but was conceived there, so we thought it deserved special recognition!

And although you can't really tell here, the poor little guy had a fever and the beginnings of an ear infection. He's home from school today on antibiotics and playing with all his birthday loot.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Everyday Dilemmas

2010-03-08T08:55:00.003-05:00

I guess once you start having kids, you begin to realize that all the decisions you make don't just affect you anymore. Getting married isn't so much of an issue since presumably there are two like-minded adults involved with all the decisions. But throw in a couple of kids, and watch them grow, and all the sudden, you've got another opinion (or 2 or 3) running around the house. Where to go for dinner? A little voice pipes up from the backseat: McDonalds! Hmmmm, didn't exactly have that in mind for tonight, kiddo. Or you're on your way home from wherever, and another little guy requests we take the "highway". After all, thank you Rascal Flatts, life is a highway, and that song will forever be stuck in my head. (Yes, we own the Cars video.)

And yet these, and the many, many like them seem like trite decisions. We promise McDonald's for lunch the next day if they'll just come to Mommy and Daddy's choice of restaurant for dinner. And we just take the highway - after all, it's only a LITTLE out of the way, and they enjoy it so much. But what about the bigger decisions?

It's Jonathan's birthday week - he'll be 6 (heaven help me) in two days. I pondered over whether to have a party for him. But then the invitations started to arrive. All from his kindergarten friends, first one at the local ice cream parlor, then one at a restaurant, then one at the skating rink. A careful look at his class snack calendar confirmed what I already suspected: 5 birthdays in the month of March, with 4 of them coming within 5 days of each other, Jonathan's being one of those. Now, I'm sure that parents don't want to spend an entire month of Saturdays running their kids to parties. I don't mind taking Jonathan to a few (he missed the ice cream one, but we went to the restaurant one so far), but you've got to draw the line somewhere. So for this year, I opted to not have a party for him, after all, we celebrate at home, and often the grandparents come up.

But oh my. Jonathan comes to me and says: "Mommy, my party will be from noon until 7". Sigh. What to say, what to say? So I said something like, Ummmmmm, well, we're having you a nice party with just us and maybe your grandparents this year. Commence tears. I guess it is a bit much for an almost 6 year old to understand why he wasn't having a party and all his little friends were. Well, almost all of his friends. As a parent, I feel like I'm derpiving my child of something he feels like he should have, but on the other hand, maybe it's teaching him a good lesson; a lesson that says he's not going to have what everybody else has all the time in life. Best get used to it now, right? But tell that to a teary-eyed kindergartner.

So maybe we'll have him a party next year. Maybe. I'd like to have a better reason to give him other than - gee, how many parties can we stand in one month? Or the silent reason - hmmmm, if we invite all 24 of his classmates, does that mean 24 more toys/presents/clutter will enter this house? They have so much stuff already! Guess we'll just take this one year at a time.

Then there's Matthew. His birthday is in June, and we have a pool. How easy it would be to throw him a party.... And then Nicholas, his birthday 5 days before Christmas. Sigh. I guess THEY were all right when they said parenting was never easy....

A Little History

2010-03-03T08:30:00.003-05:00

Maybe it's the recent birth of Nicholas, the scary notion that I'm going to be 40 in a few weeks, or the fact that I'm facing what is probably the end of my reproductive years, but I sort of feel the need, finally, after several years of blogging, to share a story. It happened almost 10 years ago, and we've long since put it behind us in more than one way (actually, 3 ways!), I'm going to put it out there, mostly because it's a big part of our history as a family, but also because there are others facing this every day, and maybe I can be a help if they can find me.

The story goes like this: after almost a year of marriage, Mark and I decided to go ahead and start a family. We both wanted kids. And our first pregnancy happened really quickly. We were all smiles and wonderment and happy glows, but it wasn't long before things started to go downhill. 6 weeks into my pregnancy, we found out that the fetus wasn't viable, and at 8 weeks I had to have a D&C. And two weeks after that, we found out I had had a condition known as a molar pregnancy.

Without going into too much detail, a molar pregnancy, and in my case, a complete molar pregnancy is one where the chromosomes get all out of whack, and instead of a fetus, you grow a tumor. Fortunately, my tumor stayed confined to my uterus. Some don't. Some grow outside of the uterus, and the nature of a tumor is to metastasize, and these sometimes do, to brain, liver, lungs. I escaped that. But after the D&C, my tumor decided to come back and start growing again, turning my molar pregnancy into something called Gestational Trophoblastic Disease. All the sudden, the word "cancer" was being floated around, even though at this stage, it was only a possibility, an as yet to occur additional complication if the tumor was allowed to get any bigger.

So I had to go on a regiment of chemotherapy. For 6 weeks I got weekly injections and my blood was monitored. The disappointment and sorrow over losing what we thought was our first child was quickly replaced by the fear for my own health, and the nagging thought that we might not ever be able to have children.

But finally, the chemotherapy worked, and I was declared healthy, but only if I didn't go into a relapse, or if the tumor wasn't really gone...just hiding. My doctors prescribed another year of blood tests, all the while we would not be allowed to try to conceive again. After that year, if all was well, we could try again.

The rest, they say, is history. We survived that year, somehow. We traveled a lot. We got a puppy. Seemed like everywhere I looked I saw a pregnant woman, or a little baby. I cried a lot. I lived with more than a shadow of doubt; I lived with a black cloud hanging over my head. Wondering.

But soon the year was over. It was March, and we had already booked a June trip to Alaska. We put off our family for another few months, and in June, set out for our Alaskan adventure. Little did we know that by the time we returned home, our little family was already growing. Jonathan Denali Eanes was born 9 months later. My pregnancy with him wasn't without it's own issues, but none of them were related to my past problems, and none turned out to be a threat to my health or to Jonathan's.

The rest, they say, is history. First Matthew, then Nicholas. And now, facing the closure of a chapter in our lives. Would we have more children by now if we hadn't been set back 2 years? Hard to say. Are we done with the reproductive stage of our lives? Probably. More than likely. I was okay with 2 children, or as I used to say, I was "at peace" with 2 children. Mark says that sounded like I was "settling." I probably was. I always thought I'd have at least 3, but as my 40's approached with only 2, I was more than okay with it.

But now I've got 3. I wouldn't trade Nicholas for the world. And I hope my story reaches those who need it. Over the years I've "met", mostly online, a ton of great women who have gone through a similar ordeal, and I'm proud and honored to call them my true friends. And if there's one huge advantage I have, having gone through this, I think it has made me appreciate my children just a little more. There are days when I could run screaming for the hills. There are days I want to swat their little stubborn backsides and lock them in their rooms until the next morning. But more often than not, I have stopped and reminded myself how much I wanted them, and how sad I was when I was afraid I wouldn't be able to have any, and it helps. And it reminds me over and over again what little treasures they are.

My Three Sons

2010-03-02T16:05:00.003-05:00

Not sure where I heard this, probably a friend of a friend of a friend, but someone had asked this person, who had 4 children, was it more difficult going from 1 to 2, 2 to 3 or 3 to 4 children. After a moment's thought, the person supposedly said that the most difficult transition was from having no children at all to having 1 child! Well, back when I heard that, I only had one child at the time, and it was pretty darn believable. Jonathan was not an easy baby, certainly our most difficult, but not knowing too many other babies, not sure where he fits in the grand spectrum of difficult infants, but I'm willing to bet he wavered along fairly difficult and really difficult. Little did we know that it was a big part of his personality, and it was there to stay...but I digress.

Anyway. Now that I have three kids, I'm starting to see where people fall into the idea that once you have a couple of kids, a few more won't make a difference. Dare I say even, that 3, having seemed to time it better this time around, is a bit easier than just the two? I say this for a few reasons. First of all, there was only 27 months between number 1 and number 2. I had two in diapers at once, no family nearby to help out, and re-read paragraph 1 about what Jonathan was all about. Now that number 3 is here, I've got an almost-6 year old (8 more days!) and a 3 1/2 year old. Huge difference. Huge. Yes, having an infant is always a stress and a strain, but NOT having a small toddler in the mix is making all the difference in the world...at least so far.

A few weeks ago, Nicholas had RSV and had to be hospitalized. Because we don't have family nearby and I was forced to live at the hospital for the duration since I'm breastfeeding, we sent the two older boys down to my mom and dad's house to stay with them for a few days. Nicholas was discharged on a Friday, and Mark went to get the big boys on Sunday. So from Friday until Sunday afternoon, we were back to one kid again. An infant, a SICK infant, no less. And let me tell you how EASY it was. Yes, we were pretty exhausted, and worn out physically and emotionally, but we had one kid between two people. And this infant is nothing like his biggest brother was. This one only cries when he really needs something, and then once you meet that need, he's happy again.

But you can't rubber-stamp everything...the timing of the children makes all the difference in the world - I have a friend who had 3 in less than 3 years. Oy. And their personalities make a big difference. And simply the fact that we have one full-time in school makes a difference, I think. On school days, the needs and schedule of the school child come first, and the others must adhere.

So far, since Nicholas was born, I've had Mark home or Jonathan in school most days. We've had a LOT of snow days with everyone here, and when Mark does work, it's a short day, at least for a few more weeks (FMLA leave, thank you!). But yesterday and today, I've had all three at home all day and Mark at work all day...and I've survived. Guess it's giving me a little taste of what summer's going to be like around here. Jonathan has a bad cold, so he's home from school. It's not the best situation; today it took me about 2 hours to finish my lunch, and most of the time we're not all dressed until 9 or 10 am. Not a whole lot gets done around the house. And by the time Mark gets home I'm ready for the spa. But I think all this crappy weather we've been having, all the snow on the ground and the fact that we've hardly seen the sun for 2 months contributes a bit, too. Once I can throw the windows open, hang my laundry outside, and grab the boys and go for a walk on the trail or to the farmer's market, I think things will improve. At least that's what I'm hoping. I have a lot of hesitancy about how I'm going to handle 3 boys all by myself this summer while Mark works! But I'm a mom, I'll adjust. I hope.

Can We Put Winter Behind Us Yet?

2010-03-01T11:25:00.002-05:00

March 1st. Been looking forward to this day for a few months, lemme tell ya. And although it's spitting snow, cold, gray and damp again, there's a promise. The other day, I went outside to shake something out while I was doing a bit of cleaning, and the sun was out, it was in the 40's, (which felt balmy), the birds were singing and the slant of the sun suggested that winter was behind us. Let's hope. It can still snow something awful in the month of March, so we may not be out of the woods yet. But by April, which is just 4 short weeks and a few days away, things should definitely be looking warmer and brighter!

In all honesty, I haven't minded this weather too much this year, mostly because I've been pretty much house-bound anyway, with the new baby, the other kids being sick off and on, and most recently Nicholas with a bout of RSV that landed him in the hospital. I guess if I had to go out every day to do the school run (Mark's been doing that!) and bundling everyone up in coats and hats and mittens, myself included, I'd be minding the weather more. So now all I have is a very bad case of cabin fever, which will hopefully be cured as soon as the sun comes out for good, and the temperature hits the 60's!!

Nicholas' Birth Story

2010-02-24T13:06:00.003-05:00

When I first learned I was pregnant with Nicholas, I was actually fairly surprised at how laid back I was. I mean, yes, it was a shock and I wasn't sure I was ready for a third...ever...but at that point, there was no going back. One thing I wasn't really truly concerned about was the actual birth - after all, I'd already done that twice with no real problems, so other than having to go to yet another OB (I had a different one for every child), I didn't give it too much thought.

My official due date was 12/31/09. Everyone who knew this told me how exciting a due date that was - I could have the year's first baby! Well, they were excited about it...but I wasn't. And as November rolled into December, I got less and less excited as my belly got more and more bigger! Getting ready for Christmas was kind of tough, and the unknown was killing me - would I have the baby early? Would my water break on Christmas morning?

Time was growing short, and I had most of my Christmas preparations ready about a week early. Around that same time, Mark had a Christmas office party and I had my weekly appointment the same day. I was up very early that day, preparing our contribution to the party, getting Jonathan off to school, getting Matthew dressed for a big morning, and getting all of it out of the house. By the time I arrived at my doctor's office, my blood pressure was a bit elevated, and it wouldn't come down. I tried to tell the doctor it was all the melee of the day, and all the Christmas excitement, but he didn't like it. This was a Thursday - the Thursday before Christmas. He told me to come to the hospital early Saturday morning to get my blood pressure checked again and to get a non-stress test on the baby.

Well, Saturday morning arrived along with a blizzard. Snow was piling up faster than an inch an hour, and it wasn't going to stop all day. I called the hospital, and asked if I still needed to come in - and my doctor was there! He'd been there all night as well, and he said I did indeed have to come in, if I could make it. So Mark, me and my mom piled into the 4 wheel drive and took off.

When we got there, my blood pressure was a bit elevated, but the baby looked okay. They kept me on the monitors for about 2 hours, all the while snow still coming down outside, and it was getting toward 4pm. I had also started to have some irregular contractions. Finally, the doctor came in and decided to check and see where my cervix was and where the baby was. I was dilated to 3cm, almost completely effaced, and the baby was down low and engaged. He quickly decided to go ahead and induce labor - after all, if I were to head back home in that weather, I may have had to turn around several hours later and come back in even worse weather.

So at 5pm, they got my IV and the pitocin started. It took over an hour to start really feeling the contractions, but once they started it was pretty intense. By around 6:30, I was in a lot of pain, and asked for an epidural...but I couldn't get one until the whole bag of IV fluid had drained in! Wait another 10 minutes. Then go find the anesthesiologists. Wait another 15-20 minutes. Contractions still coming, and now coming hard. Cervix to 5. FINALLY, they located the anesthesiologists and they finally got the epidural set around 8pm. Lovely. Except it really didn't work all that well. I had some numbness, but I could still feel much of the contractions.

Within 25 minutes, I was at 10 cm and ready to push, but the epidural still wasn't working! But at that point, there wasn't much they could do. So I pushed. All I can say is OUCH. It took 14 minutes of pushing, and probably only would've been half that much if it hadn't hurt so much! I felt everything, including the doctor sewing me up afterward.

But Nicholas was here. 6lbs, 13oz, 21 inches long with lots of dark hair. It's funny how once you have a healthy little baby in your arms after nine months of waiting and wondering, you kind of forget all else that's going on, and the fact that the epidural was crap, and the fact that there was a blizzard raging just outside the window, and the fact that Christmas was a few days away, and the fact that life as we know it will never be the same.

Nicholas was here. All the other stuff didn't matter anymore, not at that moment, anyway.

Back in the Blogging Game

2010-02-22T12:20:00.002-05:00

Wow - it has been awhile. Too long. And although I really feel like I don't have time for this, I am going to make an attempt to resurrect my blog and post to it with some regularity. After all, I started this blog as a journal of sorts to remember things we've done, places we've been, cute things the kids do or say and in the absence of all that, just to record everyday occurrences. Not sure if it'll work out, but I'll never know unless I try.

I'll begin by doing the bi-annual update I started 3 years ago. For the record, I used to do a "family status" entry every six months to update milestones, what we're up to, how old the boys are and what's going on at that moment in our lives. Used to be November and April, but looks now like I'll be switching to February, and let's see.....ummm....August? Sounds about right.

So where are we? Well, let's start with Jonathan. He's two weeks or so shy of his 6th birthday. He's in kindergarten and does stuff like read on a third grade level, reads atlases, takes pictures with our digital camera, plays computer games and sometimes gets a higher score than me, and loves to mess around with Google maps and Mapquest and loves to watch Dr. G, Medical Examiner (much to our horror). Sound like a kindergartner to you? Yeah, not to me, either. On the other hand, he fights with his brother, doesn't like to share his toys and gets out of bed 16 times after we've tucked him in and before he finally falls asleep. Oh yeah, and he sleeps in on school days, and is up at the crack of dawn (or usually well before) on the weekends. NOW we're sounding more like a kindergartner! Seriously, though, he's a bright little guy who loves to hang out with us wherever we are, often getting in the middle of things that are definitely not his business (like adult conversations), but overall, is a true joy to be around, and a huge help around the house, if you can stand the non-stop commentary.

Then there's Matthew. Matthew was exactly 3 1/2 around Christmas, and is finally, finally, finally potty-trained. At first, we were pretty sure he'd graduate high school in Depends. But somehow, and fairly quickly, we went from extremely frustrated to "don't breathe, but he's sitting on the potty!" He's even dry overnight, all at once. The only thing we can't get him to do yet is wear his big boy underwear, so for now, we're letting him go commando until he decides that it is time. If there's one thing we've learned, sometimes these little guys like to do things on their own pace and without any suggestions from us. So when he chooses to give them a try, we'll be right there to help him. Matthew is a robust little guy, strong and sturdy. He loves cars and trucks and balls and animals and loves to play outside. He will be starting pre-k this fall, going to school with Jonathan. He's got a bit of a stubborn streak, but we're working on that!

And we welcome Nicholas. Full name is Nicholas Gabriel, born on December 19th. Nicholas was a bit of a surprise, not exactly planned. When we realized a third baby was on the way, and subsequently a third boy, we took a deep breath, moved Jonathan and Matthew in the same room, brought the crib up from storage and hoped for the best. And what we got was the sweetest little angel ever. Perhaps it's because we're third-time parents, or maybe because we're a bit older, and a bit more seasoned, but Nicholas is just a true joy. Yes, we're back on the diaper train, after JUST getting off, and then there's the sleepless nights, the endless interruptions of meals by WAAHHHHHHH, and the fact that our children now outnumber us, but we wouldn't trade him back in for the world. Not too much more to say about Nicholas at the moment. He smiles, he gurgles, he steals our hearts. He's starting to sleep slightly better at night. And, he just got out of the hospital after a nasty bout with RSV. But I'm sure we'll have a lot more to say about him in the months and years to come!

Mark and me? In a holding pattern for the moment. Life with a newborn is tough enough, but throw in several feet of snow...twice...along with a particularly cold winter, we're just hanging on, waiting for Spring. Of course, we realize with spring comes the extra work of lawn, gardens, pool, etc..., but at least we can open up the windows, let the sunshine in and start enjoying the great outdoors again. But until then, we'll just wait out this weather, count the days as they go by and maybe fill up some time doing blog entries!

Neat Freak Central

2009-09-17T09:00:00.002-04:00

Call in hormones, nesting instinct, anything you want, but here lately, I have been on an ever-increasing cleaning streak. I've been doing closets, one by one. Tossing. Airing out. Giving away. Wiping down shelving and walls, organizing. Yesterday, I cleaned the car. Wow - what a humbling experience that was. I mean, I vacuum the car out with a bit of regularity, but I usually don't pull up the stow-and-go seating panels or go over all the carpets and upholstery with my upholstery attachment on my vacuum, and wipe down all the plastics with cleanser. Despite about 2 or 3 years worth of crumb accumulation, I managed to get the thing looking pretty good - but paid for it with a stiff back for the rest of the day.

Today I'm cleaning out our bathroom storage cabinetry. Everything from medications, hair stuff, lotions, sunscreen, cottonballs, extra toothbrushes, you name it. And already, I've got three bags of stuff to throw away. Not sure if I'm going to regret this about a year from now, but the way I see it, if I haven't used it in over a year, sometimes 2, 3 or even 5, then I probably won't use it now, right? At least that's my rationale for the moment, and seeing all the nice SPACE I have now, it makes it that much easier. No more fumbling around, knocking down bottles and jars trying to reach a Q-tip.

So without further ado, it's back to the bathroom to finish up this little task this morning.

What Is It About Fall?

2009-09-11T09:43:00.002-04:00

I say 'Fall', but I guess really, I mean late summer since it's not QUITE Fall yet. But I'm talking about the way the whole earth seems to start to slow down all the sudden. The sun is lazy, not quite making it up as high in the sky. The animals seem quieter, all except the crickets which seem to chirp all day, rather than just at night. The nights get crisp and cool, and it gets dark so early, and stays dark later and later every day.

I don't know why it is, but I get this crazy desire this time of year to cook and bake. Maybe it's the warmth of the oven and stove, or the good smells from the baking, or the fact that the kids are back in school and making homemade snacks and cookies for lunches and classroom activities is such a joy. But it goes beyond all that, even. I bought a chicken last night, and I can't wait to roast it tomorrow. I haven't thought of that all summer, but bring me one cool night, and I'm off to the market! I made an apple cake yesterday and filled the house with that apple-cinnamony smell. And I'm thinking, tonight might be a good time to do my first batch of overnight crock-pot oatmeal so we can wake up to hot, steaming bowls of oatmeal first thing in the morning - who needs an alarm when the odor of cinnamon and nutmeg waft into the bedroom?

I really love the change of season - we live in an area that sees a lot of change seasonally, so it stands to reason I associate different cooking ideas with different times of year - all summer long it's all about fresh produce - corn and beans and melons, tomatoes, summer squash, salads. Dinners focus on that, with whatever summery thing I can throw on the grill as the main dish - hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages, grilled chicken. But as soon as Fall gets near, I find myself a little tired out with all the shelling and peeling and paring and preparing, and just want to stick a chicken in the over, boil up some potatoes to mash, turn on the kitchen light that hasn't been on all summer, and sit down to a cozy meal. It won't last, I know myself. Usually by around March, I'm dying for some fresh stuff, bright greens and yellows and reds on my table again. And summer brings it's own kind of baking - pies and cobblers and fruit muffins, you name it. But for now, I'm ready to move into Fall. Looking forward to that first apple pie I'll make soon, and the smell of homemade bread wafting through at least once a week!

Call me crazy - but I tend to follow my natural urges. Not sure what it's all about, but as long as I'm pulling the fleeces out of the back of the closet, I'll start pulling out the baking dishes as well, and look forward to the season I love best!

Progress...

2009-09-10T07:26:00.002-04:00

With the new babe coming in 3 1/2 months (EEK!), we've been doing some rearranging around here. Lately, I've been tearing apart closets, cleaning, tossing, straightening, sorting. So far three are done, and two (or maybe 3) remain. But they are the biggies. Jonathan's closet has a curious mixture of his clothes, Matthew's clothes, the new baby's clothes, OUR clothes, toys, clothes he's grown out of, blankets, old shoes, new shoes....well, you get the picture. Today, I may tackle some of that. Believe it or not, I have sorted bins downstairs with age-appropriate clothing for little boys, and there's a bin in Jonathan's room that needs to be sorted and dealt with. That's my plan for this morning, along with the usual laundry and household chores. If I get past that in a reasonable amount of time, I may start on another section of it.

What's my plan here? Well, by the end of the month, I hope to have Matthew's room re-done, and Jonathan moved in. We've ordered the carpet and a new bed for Matthew, so when they're ready, I'll move everything out of the room, clean it good, paint one wall that needs re-doing, and let the pros do their thing, then put all the new stuff in and have a grand "boys room" re-opening.

Yesterday, I spent a good part of the day getting Matthew's closet ready for all the new stuff - we bought and hung new shelving, bought and BUILT a different type of shelving and last night put together a new IKEA dresser for inside the closet to hold the overflow of clothes we don't think will fit in the one large dresser we've got that will go in the room itself. I think I'm about ready to move stuff into Matthew's closet, which, thank goodness, is huge and a walk-in.

So, without further ado, time to get dressed, feed the little sleepy 3 year old that just emerged from his bedroom, and get started!

Not To Be Forgotten

2009-09-09T09:45:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Matthew and I picked up Jonathan from school, and it was a little tough getting them in the car. Matthew was running up and down the hills by the football field, and Jonathan and his little friend Andy were playing tag and chase while I chatted with Andy's dad. Eventually, we got them all reigned in, but then Jonathan and Matthew started picking "flowers", or in this case, tasseled grass. When we finally got to the car and I was buckling everyone in, Jonathan hands me his little tasseled grass and says:

"Here Mommy, this if for you to remind you of the baby that's coming".

Now how sweet is that? Half the time I don't know if he even remembers that he'll have (another) little brother come Christmastime, but obviously, it stays very much on his mind!

Surprised? Not Really....

2009-09-03T07:44:00.002-04:00

Well, Jonathan has his first cold of the school year. Big surprise, noting that the weather has been in the upper 40's/low 50's every morning when he leaves, and almost 80 when I pick him up. How in the world am I supposed to dress the kid? But I think it's more than that - last year he did the same thing - went to school one day and picked something up. Rite of passage, I guess. Last year he did well - after the first round, he was healthy for most of the rest of the year, even when we took him to Mexico for a week in February. I expected to come back to raging illness for weeks, but was pleasantly surprised.

So I sent him to school today - just sniffling a little, no fever, no other complaints, plus, he really wanted to go! Now to try and make sure nobody else gets it. Luckily, all 4 of us have a nice 4 day weekend coming up - Jonathan and Mark both have off on Friday and Monday, so we hope to get a lot of stuff done around here - cover the pool for one, and maybe going to pick out carpet for what I'm now calling the "boys" room - Matthew's room will be transformed and Matthew and Jonathan will share for a few years until Baby Boy 3 is big enough to share with Matthew....then Jonathan will get his room back as the oldest, if he wants it. Right now both of them are delighted at the prospect of sharing a room, so we're going with it!

And it seems that Fall is officially here - even though the days are quite sunny and warm, the nights have been very, very cool and the changes in nature are so evident now - trees starting to turn, migrant wildlife moving through. When I sit and realize I don't have THAT much time before Christmas and this baby coming, and all I have to do, I get kind of jittery. So right now, I'm trying to take one day at a time, get as much done as I can when I'm up to it, and not sweating the rest. If there's one thing I've learned in the last 5 years of being a mom, is that the kids come first. That's not something I knew, rather, something I've really had to learn the hard way. And for those who know my standards of housekeeping, or at least attempting to houseclean, you must know that this didn't come easy for me. But it's a process - and one I'd best to get more used too soon!

How Is School Going, You Ask?

2009-09-01T07:48:00.003-04:00

Well, let me tell you...so far, so good! Jonathan started last week with 2 half days, and started yesterday with full days. And it looks like all systems are GO!

I had a few pauses - first of all we found out a week before school began that because there were so many kids to be in the kindergarten class, they decided to make two classes - and by some luck of the draw, Jonathan wound up in the class that didn't have the superstar teacher - the one that everyone loves, the one that he met in June, the one with 20+ years of experience and the one who gives out her home phone number so parents can call her anytime, day or night. Bummer. And as an added bonus, MOST of the kids he was in pre-k with were placed with Superstar Teacher! What's with that? But happily, after meeting his teacher, I am delighted to say that she is a true gem as well, and he loves her, and that's what matters. The second day I went to pick him up, he comes marching outside with his class, and he was holding her hand as they all walked toward the pick-up area. And I recall last year, when the solid-as-a-rock pre-k teacher left unexpectedly a week before school started, and the last-minute replacement turned out to be one of the nicest, most patient and kind people I've ever met. So, never judge a book, they say? They're right. Go with the flow, and you might be unexpectedly pleased. Very pleased.

So anyhow, although pick-ups are a bit hectic, and the parking lot is difficult to navigate with 100's of parents doing the same thing at the same time, and standing outside waiting for the kids gives me some fear about "what happens when it's 30 degrees with 40mph gusts" and I have Matthew and an infant, and oh, did I mention it was freezing rain as well? I know it will happen. Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, I guess.

For now, I'm relishing my quiet mornings after Jonathan leaves with Daddy, and Matthew isn't awake yet, and I get my morning cup and some computer time (like right now!) or throw a load of laundry or two in, and plan my dinner and my day and don't have to worry about picking him up until 2:40. It's a good feeling, let's hope it lasts! Definitely good enough to get me up and get me moving at 6:30 am EVERY morning.

A few quotes heard recently:

"Mommy, I just LOVE that school!"

"Kindergarten was so GREAT today!"

"Mommy, I'm going to school today!"

Let's just hope THAT lasts!

Sigh.

2009-08-26T10:10:00.002-04:00

I'm not even going to say it. Okay, just once. I neglect my blog. There it is, now I'm going to leave it alone.

I pick up this blog on a momentous day: the last day of summer vacation for Jonathan, who starts full-time kindergarten tomorrow morning, bright and early. We've already had the meeting, met the teacher, taken his supplies in. We've bought the clothes, we've colored the name tag. The letter to the teacher "Getting to Know Jonathan" has been written and printed and all the forms are filled out and ready to go. So all that's left, all that remains, is one sad Mommy watching her little boy go to school all day, every day.

I'll miss him. I'll never let HIM know that - he's too sensitive. He'd feel bad about it. He'd find a way to turn it into his fault. He'd cry. So, I tell him how wonderful it will be and how much fun he will have, which is the truth. He loves school - he loved his pre-k last year and I know he'll thrive in kindergarten. If they only do half the stuff they say they'll be doing, they'll be doing a LOT. And he tells me he can't wait. He dances around the kitchen, sticking the LAST sticker on the "countdown to school" calendar. He giggles and wiggles and he probably won't sleep much tonight. And that makes me happy, and that makes me proud. I guess if I had to watch my baby go off sad, it would be 1,000 times worse for both him and me - but if I can watch him go off happy, then that's all a mommy can ask for.

And then, as soon as he's gone for most of the day, it's mommy and Matthew time, at least until #3 arrives around Christmas! Mommy and Matthew have lots to do - potty training for one. Scouring the house down to the bare woodwork - a Fall-long project because I think I'll be extremely busy come 2010. Setting up the bedroom, buying new furniture, getting carpet installed, setting up the nursery...again. Going through baby clothes, cleaning out closets. It's a big list, so Matthew and I will be very, very busy, and I tell myself, time will go by so fast, I won't even notice my big boy isn't there. But I don't believe it. I'll notice. I'll miss him like crazy, and maybe it's a funny twist of fate that I wound up pregnant again - a distraction from the process of saying "don't grow up too fast" while actually watching them shoot up like little weeds, and disperse themselves to all corners of the world.

Yes, Jonathan, one day you'll read this, and find out how Mommy REALLY felt.

Algae Blooms and Bruschetta

2009-07-08T13:03:00.002-04:00

The last few days around here? A little hectic. Monday afternoon, I was expecting my friend and her 5 boys to come over and swim with my little guys, so after lunch I went outside to take off the solar cover and give it a good vacuuming. Holy algae bloom, batman! Wow - that never happened before! Blame the combination of lots of rain so far this summer and a bit of lackadaisical pool management, but nevertheless, there it was. 2 hours later, I had the whole thing brushed down and shocked, but it was still very cloudy. The kids came over, everyone swam anyway. Not a horrible day.

Then yesterday, water was still cloudy, so we put in some chemical to help that - it helped a bit, but was still cloudy this morning. More kids over to swim yesterday afternoon. By the way, did I mention that Match Box cars sink VERY quickly to the bottom of the pool and are very difficult to fish out with a skimmer net?

ANYWAY, this morning, we still weren't happy with the water clarity, so I was going to re-treat with the clarifier, but when I went out there, I noticed that the dead algae had settled on the walls. I vacuumed again, then brushed down the sides, and immediately, the whole pool started to clear out. Good, good sign. Back in business, almost. I added a maintenance dose of the clarifier instead of the heavy-duty dose, and was putting away my hoses and equipment, when I notice a small child submerged in the shallow end....ummm....that would've been Matthew! Fully clothed and with no flotation, he somehow fell in - and I never heard a sound - splash or anything. Thank God he was bobbing himself to the surface and never even seemed to swallow any water...I fished out the poor little guy and thanked my lucky stars it wasn't any worse.

But enough about pool mishaps - and onto the bruschetta I'm about to make! We have some fresh tomatoes in, and it's way too many for salad - so I'm giving bruschetta a try. Crushed tomatoes, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Smeared over some nice bread brushed with olive oil and toasted. And if I have enough leftover, might heat it a little and put it over angel hair for dinner with some grated cheese on top. Yum - is it dinnertime yet?

Breaking the News to the 5 Year Old

2009-07-07T08:11:00.002-04:00

So with all the talk about "#3", and all the doctors appointments, and all the discussion about baby items, etc..., you'd think Jonathan would've caught on by now. But he hadn't said anything, so we weren't sure. The other night at the dinner table, Mark and I were going to say something, but he got distracted and ran off. We tried to call him back and told him we had something to tell him, but no dice. We gave up. Save it for another day, we said.

Well, that other day came last night. Mark and I happened to both be tucking him into bed last night, and I was still wearing my swimsuit from the day's activities, and my sarong tied like a skirt had dipped below my growing belly. Jonathan was rubbing my belly for whatever reason, and then started patting it. Mark, ever the eloquent, says something like - "isn't Mommy's belly getting big?" To which Jonathan responded by patting it more. Then I said "Careful, you don't want to beat on the baby...." He stopped. He paused. He looked up slowly and shyly, and with wonderment in his little eyes and a huge smile on his face, he says "Mommy, are you going to have a baby?" Despite me wondering how on earth this got by him the last few months, I almost melted with the charm of the whole thing - he was so intrigued, so delighted.

A few minutes later, Mark had kissed him and left, and I turned out his light and said prayers with him, then snuggled a bit and asked him if there was anything he wanted to talk to me about. Yes, he says. "What is the name of that fishing boat on Deadliest Catch?" I'm serious - that's the question he had for me. So we talked about names of fishing boats for awhile - and for those of you not initiated - Deadliest Catch is the cable show on Discovery about the Alaskan King Crab fishermen. Jonathan loves the show, is addicted to it. It can be a little rough around the edges, but we let him watch it anyway. So we continue to discuss fishing and crabbing for a bit, when he reaches out a tentative little hand and pats my belly again and says "I can't wait to see it." I told him it would be awhile, but he would eventually have a new little brother or sister. Then he reaches down, pulls up his pajama shirt and pats his own belly and says "Someday, I'll have a baby in my belly, too."

Oh my. Well, I hope not! I'll spare you the rest of the details of THAT conversation, but all in all, I think the news breakage went well. Now lets hope he responds even half as well when we tell him he'll have to share a room with Matthew to make room for whatever's in Mommy's growing belly!

Summer of Freedom

2009-07-06T07:48:00.002-04:00

Okay, so the 4th of July is over, which usually means to me that summer is half over. Yes, I know, technically it's only a 1/3 over, but after the 4th, summer seems to fly by. And with Jonathan starting full-time kindergarten on Aug. 27th (!), there's not that much time left to enjoy all the things we thought we'd enjoy.

First of all, the weather has been pure crap so far! One week of hot weather where we've been able to swim. Then it went back to cool-ish days and downright chilly nights, making the pool water colder, making it not even worth it to pull off the solar cover and go for a swim. It's finally looking like we'll be getting some warmer weather now, so we're counting on that!

And of course, there's vacations (upcoming) and long, long weekends at Grandma and Poppy's house (already did one, still more to come) and day trips and hikes and visits to the zoo and maybe even a baseball game or two. We still have lots of stuff planned for the summer!

But then what? Jonathan starts full-time school. Is that the end of our freedom, our autonomy? Whereas before, we were used to just picking ourselves up and heading anywhere we wanted at anytime. Cancun in February? No problem, just find a cheap flight! Long weekend in Pittsburgh for some shopping, some micro-brews and a visit to the Carnegie museums? Go for it. An overnight at Grandma's, just...because? Just pack an overnight bag and get in the car. Vacations anytime we want, and not when the rest of the world takes vacations? You betcha.

Eek. So now what? 5 days a week. Get up early, pack lunch, get him off to school, pick him up sometime in the afternoon, do it all over again the next day. Sure, we did it last year - for pre-k, but for one, it was only 3 days a week and 1/2 days at that, and he missed quite a few days because we had things to do and places to be! And it really didn't matter much. But kindergarten is mandated. And I believe the school's policy on kids missing days is "strongly discouraged." Meaning, you might get away with it once a year or so, but anything more than that could be troublesome. He may not be allowed to make work up or make up tests (in later years). And although I could certainly write a note saying "Jonathan was 'under the weather'", well, that's like, lying, right? And besides, once we have Matthew in school (the same school) and perhaps #3 in later years...well, they all can't be sick at once, now can they? :-)

Now, granted, being in private school has some advantages - long breaks for the religious holidays for one, and even for Thanksgiving they get a longer break than most. So I guess we'll have to take advantage of these when we can, and if something comes up we just can't say no to, he'll just have to miss a day or two. I'm of the mindset that family excursions and life experience is just as important, if not moreso, than classroom learning anyway, so we'll go with that.

In the meantime, we're going to milk the summer, or at least what's left of it and hope we can get a lot squeezed in over the next few weeks. School is looming - I have a feeling the stores are going to be putting all those picnic supplies on clearance and dragging out the crayons and pencils very shortly.

A Little Announcement

2009-07-01T09:13:00.002-04:00

Well, we had a nice visit with the in-laws - they left yesterday afternoon, and I think our whirlwind of houseguests has settled down for a bit! Not that I mind - I love having people come to visit, but with being pregnant and all...oh, wait, didn't I blog about that yet? NO? Snort. Well, yeah, #3 is on board, so to speak.

I hesitate to call it Baby OOPS in print. After all, blogs will exist in all posterity, right? But technically, it was a little...let's just say...unplanned. After all, I'm 39 years old, and this baby is due on December 31st!! Do you actually think that if it WAS planned, we would've worked out even the POSSIBILITY of having that for a due date?

So anyhow - these things happen, and it will be fine. That's the way life works sometimes. There's a lot of uncertainty - how will Christmas be? How in the world will the boys share a room? THREE kids in private school? What about Mommy's nice job? Can we handle three?

All to be answered at a later date. For now, one day at a time. I just started the second trimester, so I have more time to anguish over everything, oh, did I say anguish? I MEANT "consider", yeah, that's it!

A Sunday in June

2009-06-28T10:41:00.003-04:00

Well, it doesn't FEEL like June, being cloudy and only about 70 degrees - this summer has been very cool so far. But at least we did get some warm days in this past week. Jonathan had soccer camp and seemed to enjoy it and do well, and we finally managed to get in the pool. I took the boys out swimming 4 days in a row! Makes an un-airconditioned house bearable, when you can spend half the afternoon in the pool, come in, get everyone into dry clothes and then start preparing dinner - even if the house is 85 degrees inside, your body temp is lower from the swimming and the cool water, and I manage to stay cool throughout dinner, same with the kids.

Today? We're waiting for Grammy and Grandpa to arrive for a couple of days. Not sure what time they're planning on arriving, but in the meantime, I think I'll mop a floor or two and maybe go out for a little brunch and hit the market for a few last minute things.

Then, I'm going to make a chocolate angel food cake with a raspberry topping - we got some fresh raspberries at the Farmer's Market yesterday.

And MAYBE, we'll get a little sunshine in the next few days so we can enjoy the pool with the grandparents!

Too Long of an Absence

2009-06-26T12:39:00.002-04:00

Wow - almost a whole month gone by with no blog entries. Which is really disappointing to me because I really want to keep up with it for no other reason than to have it as a record of our lives, a journal of sorts to view our lives over the years.

But life gets in the way, and when I only have a few minutes and can't think of anything earth-shattering to blog about, I don't bother. But then it occurs to me, must all my blog entries be earth shattering?

I'm thinking not. I'm thinking that I need to be a little less anxious about my blog, about it's content and continuity, and just write what's in my head from day to day, even if it's only a sentence here or a thought there.

In a way, Facebook has kind of taken over my blog time, but I think I'm going to try to pay a little more attention to my blog.

So I'm going to give it a try. The entries may be briefer and less concise and with less information, but at least I'll be keeping up with it, and at least I'll feel better about what I've been perceiving as our family journal, and what I've been seriously neglecting lately.

May, Schmay

2009-05-29T07:53:00.002-04:00

So the month of May kinda stunk around here. The weather hasn't been great - lots of cool, rainy weather with a few nice breaks. We did get some nice warm sunshine for 3 or 4 days in a row at some point, but for the most part, we've been dodging showers, covering our new plantings to avoid frost all the way until THE 18th (!!!), and enduring the windows open, the windows shut, the windows open, the windows shut. One night the boys wear summer pj's to bed, the next night they're wearing long pants and long-sleeved flannel. One night we're shivering under an extra blanket, the next night we need the ceiling fan. Makes no sense, and probably contributed to the fact that all 4 of us have been...well...under the weather. Jonathan has finally stopped coughing. It lasted 4.5 weeks. He's on Zyrtec now, doing better, but I'm still not at all convinced it was only allergies. Matthew had his for just over 3 weeks. I don't think his was allergies at all - I think he had a respiratory infection the whole time. Which I believe he gave to me, which I gave to Mark. I've had it for 2.5 weeks now, Mark for about 2 weeks. Last night, we were still up at midnight, coughing our lungs out and sucking down Ricola's. I think, think, THINK we're all about out of the woods at this point.

So that's been our May. The usually beautiful month of May, and this year, it just hasn't been the greatest! But things are looking up. Today, for instance, is Jonathan's last day of school. They're having a little song presentation at 10:30, followed by a picnic lunch (if it doesn't RAIN!) and then he's done. We're looking forward to summer - vacations, trips to Grandma's, soccer camp, swimming, playdates, walks on the trail, bicycle rides, picnics. Lots of things planned, and I'm sure summer will go by WAY too fast for all of us!

The only other redeeming quality of this bedraggled month? The Farmer's Market started yesterday! Anyone who reads my blog knows how much I love the Farmer's market. Right now, in my fridge, I have fresh asparagus, spinach, onions, strawberries and lettuce, right out of the ground. Most was picked yesterday. There is nothing in the world better than food made with fresh produce, and seasoned with herbs right out of my own backyard. Last night, we had chicken florentine pasta seasoned with my own home-grown rosemary and chives. I know I have a long weekend of cooking and washing produce ahead of me - but that's okay - it brings me true joy to be able to use this great stuff and it's so good for you!

So I leave you with the Chicken Florentine recipe - partially absconded from a few websites, but mostly my own creation:

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
olive oil
salt + pepper or garlic pepper salt

2-3 spring onions, scallions or 1/4 sliced yellow onion
handfull of fresh chives, snipped
nice sprig of fresh rosemary

1/2 c. white cooking wine
1/2 - 3/4 c. heavy whipping cream

a big colander full of washed, torn, fresh spinach
salt and pepper

pasta of your choice

Trim and cube the chicken breasts, season with salt and pepper or garlic pepper salt and saute in olive oil until cooked through - 5-8 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. Add a little more olive oil, add the onions and saute for 3-4 minutes until they begin to turn translucent. Increase heat to medium-high, and add the cooking wine. Bring to a boil, and let about half the liquid boil off. Then add the whipping cream, bring to a boil again, stir until thickened and reduce heat. Add the chicken back in, and the rosemary and chives. Keep over low heat.

Meanwhile, cook pasta. Use another pan to wilt the spinach - add some olive oil, throw in the spinach and bring up the heat. Toss and stir the spinach until it begins to wilt a bit, then cover and reduce heat. Allow it to reduce and wilt, but don't let it go to far, and don't let it lose that bright green color.

When the pasta is done and the spinach is done, strain both and add it all together in the pot with the chicken/sauce mixture. Serve hot with freshly grated pecorino romano cheese.

Enjoy!!

Potty Training, Take One

2009-05-24T06:44:00.002-04:00

When Jonathan was almost 3, we decided it was time for him to lose the diapers. About 5 days later, he was fully trained, even overnight. Not sure how that happened, the only explanation I have is that he basically trained himself. We were there to make sure he had the physiological ability to "hold it" and to "know" when he had to go, and once we knew that, a little encouragement here and a little firmness there, and he was done.

Then there's Matthew. He's about the same age as Jonathan was when he trained. He'll be 3 next month. So yesterday, starting the long weekend, we decided to give it a go. Let's just say: no such luck on this one! He'll sit on the potty. He'll sit on the potty for an hour. He'll read books, he'll giggle, he'll play with his toes, he'll point to all his body parts. But eliminate waste from his body he will NOT. No, he'll save that until we get him up, put on his new Elmo underwear and send him out to the kitchen for lunch. Talk about floodgates!

Back to the drawing board. We'll be sitting on the potty everyday. Just for fun. Just to read. And to play with our toes. But just wait, Matthew. The one day that you let your guard down and something comes out of either nether region, wait until you see that celebration! You will want to go again and again and again....we hope.

A Gift From a Little Boy

2009-05-23T06:58:00.002-04:00

Last night we ate dinner outside on the patio. We love to do that when the weather's nice, but the one problem is keeping the boys in their seats long enough to finish. There are too many things for them to look at outside, and the toys they left behind to come to the table are sitting there in the yard and in the driveway, beckoning to them all through the meal.

Last night was no exception. I think it was Matthew who escaped the table first, followed shortly thereafter by Jonathan, who had at least FINISHED his meal. In a way, it's not so bad. Mark and I get to enjoy the rest of our meal getting our words in edgewise, and switching the conversation to topics that sometimes shouldn't be covered with the little guys present.

So there they were, playing at the edge of the wooded area. More or less behaving. All the sudden, Jonathan seemed to find something incredibly interesting. He picked it up, and started running back to the table, a look of high excitement on his face. I had no idea what was coming. A baby turtle? A feather? Some icky bug? No, it was a rock. In fact, it was a heart-shaped rock. Nothing more spectacular about it, except it was about the size of his palm, and it was indeed, a very distinct heart shape. He held it out, his eyes bright and shining, and brought it to me - "look Mommy, a heart-shaped rock!" I marveled, more at his fascination than the rock itself, until he said "it's for you, Mommy." Awwwwwww. Melt my heart, man. I added it to my collection of "very special things" on my bookshelf, and told him I would cherish it for life.

And I will.

A Hike at the Park

2009-05-22T08:33:00.002-04:00

One of the reasons we even considered moving to this part of Maryland was the easy access to outdoor opportunities the area provides. All one needs to do is hop in the car and in less than 20 minutes, you can be at some great places to commune with nature. There's hiking and camping, picnic grounds, fishing, canoeing, kayaks, you name it. So when all the stars aligned last weekend bringing us a great weather day, minimal chores to get done and the boys were in relatively good moods, we decided to throw together an impromptu hike and picnic last Saturday.

And what a great day it was! We packed some lunch and some snacks and drinks, jumped in the car and headed for Rocky Gap State Park - a gorgeous area of Mountain Maryland about 15 minutes from our house. Rocky Gap has it all, a nice lake, a lodge, campgrounds, a beach, a mountain or two, golf course, and the requisite hiking trails. That's were we were headed. We haven't explored much of the park yet - most of our exploration had been limited to the Lakeside Loop Trail - a relatively flat, well-traveled trail that circles the lake, goes through the campground and begins and ends at the parking lot. Great for little kids, and lots of great views of the lake. But this time we wanted to check out something different, so at the trail heads, we consulted the map and saw a different trail - the Evitts Mountain Trail that connected to Lakeside Loop and would bring us back to the parking lot within a decent time for lunch. So off we went.

Neither Mark nor I checked the difficulty on the Evitt's Mountain trail. I mean, why bother, right? Our 2 year old and 5 year old could handle it. Right. Actually, it wasn't TOO bad. There were some areas that if someone would've fallen, it would've been disastrous. But what a gorgeous hike it turned out to be. A few minutes through the woods and the trail started going down, down, down, and finally wound up in a gorge with a rushing river at the bottom - we got to cross a neat wooden bridge and then start the major uphill. There were some huge rocks, some cliff-like topography, lots of birds and blooming spring vegetation. Matthew needed to be carried a bit, especially up the slopes, but for the most part, the boys did great and we made it back to the car in time to dig into lunch - well-deserved after a hike made for champions!

I'm ready to go again. So are the boys - all three of them! Nicest part? What we came to Western Maryland for - close to home, didn't cost us a dime, no fighting mass humanity to get where you're going and when you get there, not a soul in sight. We passed nothing but wildlife on that trail, and only started running into a few folks as we got closer to the more well-traveled areas. Lots to explore around these parts - and with the boys getting bigger, looks like a lot of adventures in the coming years!

Swamped

2009-05-21T09:39:00.002-04:00

Oh where oh where have you gone, time? I look at my blog and just weeks have gone by. I'm afraid I'm going to have to resort to the deadly "bullet entries" just to get caught up....let's see....

- Three weeks. That's how long Jonathan's been coughing. And coughing. And coughing. Sometimes it's tight, sometimes it's loose (I know, TMI), sometimes it keeps him up half the night, other times he sleeps for 12 solid without a peep.

- Twice. That's how many times we've been to the doctor over this. No fever. No other symptoms. Doctors are thinking allergies.

- Two weeks. That's how long Matthew's been coughing. Did I mention the hoarseness? See above for the doctor schedule.

- Eye drops and Zyrtec. That's the solution for the moment. And riding out this horrible pollen wave this Spring. Maybe in a week or two, things will look better.

- Three days. That's how long I'VE been coughing. But unlike the kids - I have a bona fide cold. I think. Perhaps I'm in for three weeks of this myself. Sigh.

- 70's - 80's. No, not the era, the TEMPERATURE! Finally! Although it was in the 30's overnight two nights ago, it looks like we're finally over the hump, spring has sprung for good, bring on summer, we're ready!

- One brandy-new lawn mower to replace the one that....SOMEONE....broke.

- One very, very clean toolshed (thank you, Grammy and Grandpa for spending the weekend with us so we could get these chores done!) making room for said new lawn mower.

- Spring planting, courtesy of Mark? Getting there. Onions, tomatoes and squash are in the ground. Most perennials in. Annuals are getting there. Plans in the Fall to rip out a hillside or two for a large-scale terracing project that will become our NEW veggie garden next summer.

- Work, work, work. Thank, God, both jobs secure. Enough said.

- School? Jonathan only has 3 more days! Then, end of year picnic. Parent conferences (for pre-k?), kindergarten open-house, and then, in mid-June, soccer camp! If he likes it, he can join the local league in the Fall.

- Potty training? Commences this weekend in full glory. Have spent the last few months "getting to know the potty". Jonathan was so easy. Matthew seems a little...resistant. Wish us luck!

So that's about it right now, unless you want to hear about the "to-do" list. Trust me, you don't. Nice three-day weekend coming up with some nice weather...we're planning on sticking around to try and do this potty thing, so hopefully we'll get a lot of it done. And in between, throwing a large variety of food on the grill for three days in a row. VERY much looking forward to a nice weekend with the family! Happy Memorial Day!

The Half-Year Update

2009-04-29T10:14:00.003-04:00

Wow, where has time gone? Seems like just yesterday I was writing the November update, and here we are - 6 months later and ready for another one!

So where are we? Pretty much the same as we were in November, and sometimes, that's a good thing. Not to say that change isn't good, but occasionally, you need a little steadiness in your life, a little status quo to maintain sanity.

On that note, we'll start with Mark this time. He always winds up last on the list probably because he has the least change of all of us on a regular basis, but these days, he's busier than ever since Spring is finally here! Mark is busy planning and planting. He put in a ton of onion plants - enough that if they all come up and yield onions, we'll be selling them (or rather paying people to take them) on the street corners. He's also buying annuals and planning the vegetable beds, and already has a few veggies bought - we're just waiting for mid-May to put them in, because around here, that's usually when the threat of frost is officially gone. Add to that list cutting the grass, getting out the patio furniture, tearing out old landscaping and putting in new, mulching all the beds, everywhere, keeping the deer off the flowers, planning a windowsill scraping and painting "party" (with me as the only invited guest), and a shed-cleaning out party (again, a small party, at that), and add in the usual chores of helping out with the kids, keeping this place shipshape, and always, always, doing all our mail, financial stuff and bills, and you've got one busy guy, but one very appreciated guy. Really not sure what I'd do without him!

Next, we have Matthew. Matthew is almost 3 - he'll have his birthday in late June. My previous fears of him never talking were unfounded, and been replaced by the fear that no one will ever understand a word the kid says but maybe me, Mark and Grandma. He's the poster-child for garbled speech. But it's getting better, and we'll let the doctor decide when and if he needs some kind of help. Matthew is kind of a brute. He barrels his way through life, knocking over pretty much anything in his path, his path to whatever he has on his mind. He is also extremely vocal about his needs and wants, and these vocalizations tend to escalate rather obnoxiously until he figures out he's not going to get his way. Then he goes and has a tantrum or tosses a toy. And then he gets to see his friend the Naughty Corner. Did I say Terrible Two's back in November? I sure did. Still there. Waiting for three. Hope it magically changes! But what can I say - he's cute as a button and loves to snuggle, loves to read books and color and play with rocks - anywhere, anytime. He also loves animals and music and sports. He adores his big brother, follows him around, repeats everything Jonathan says, including sneezing and one time, he even mimicked Jonathan when Jonathan tripped and fell on the steps. If I hadn't been concerned for Jonathan's welfare, I think I would have wet myself laughing - he even made the same grunt noise as he fell as Jonathan involuntarily did.

Much to Jonathan's misery. Jonathan loves his little brother, no doubt, but Jonathan also loves his independence, his privacy, and his toys. And he particularly hates it when one of his toys gets broken or goes missing, courtesy of Matthew. But that's what little brothers are for, I guess. Anyway, Jonathan is now 5 years, 2 months, going on about 12. He is almost finished his first year of "school" - his pre-k ends at the end of May. He'll be off to kindergarten full-time in the Fall, and I'm not sure how I'm going to stand it. I said this about pre-k, too, but that was only 3 days a week for half a day. I can't imagine life without my big boy all day, everyday. If you ask me, schools get the best of your children. Early in the day when they're sharp and clever and happy and well-rested. Then, the school sends them home to you - tired, cranky, hungry...thanks a lot. Anyway, more in the Fall on that one I guess. Jonathan is a pretty studious one. Although he loves the great outdoors, riding his bike and going to the playground, his mind is always pre-occupied with some scientific or numerical notion - he counts things he sees, comments about shapes of leaves and the position of the sun in the sky, plays with a calculator in his spare time (Mommy, did you know that 45 plus 51 equals 96?!!!), and is obssessed with learning the states, their location, their capitals, their nicknames and their size ranking. He's really growing up - he can dress and undress himself (when he puts his mind to it!) although he sometimes needs help with a particularly difficult button or a shirt that's tough to get over his head. After most meals, he'll clear away his dishes, putting them in the dishwasher or sink, without even being asked. And saints preserve us, he is finally tasting and eating a wider variety of foods. Thanks to a little strong-arming from us, plus what seems to be a newfound curiousity (or maybe from just watching his school friends eat different foods at lunchtimes in school), he is finally coming around in that department. A few nights a week, I'll still make his favorite, noodles with butter, but other nights, he must at least try what we're eating, or if I truly don't think he'll like it, I'll make him a hot dog or a quesadilla or a peanut butter sandwich. I certainly don't expect him to eat tossed salads with chicken, feta and avocado, but that happens to be one of me and Mark's favorites....so you gotta do what you gotta do!

As for me - not much change here. Busy, as usual, busy at home, busy with the kids, busy with the part-time job, keeping up the house, busy with the flute and various choirs. Had an opportunity to join the local performance band, but had to turn that one down - just not enough hours in the day, and flute committments already take up enough family time; I just don't want to add any more right now. I'm looking forward to summer and the freedom it brings, the warm weather, the windows open, playing with the kids in the pool and summer hikes and bikes. Not to mention one of my absolute favorite things: the farmer's market! Fresh produce is coming, and I can't wait!

So that's us, for this half-year, anyway. Like I said, not much going on, but I'll take it. We have our jobs, we have our home and we have enough leftover to have fun. Right about now, that means the world to me!

Could I Live Without China?

2009-04-22T09:07:00.003-04:00

Last week, Mark showed me an article he was reading about drywall that had been manufactured in China during the height of the housing boom here in the US a few years ago. Seems that they were manufacturing drywall so fast because demand was so high, that they weren't paying a whole lot of attention to the process (big surprise) and now the drywall which is in people's homes, is leeching all kinds of toxic crap and making people sick. Well, gee, China, thanks a lot. Not bad enough to hear about toxic dog food, excessive lead in children's toys, and whatever crap was in the baby formula. It got me thinking....first of all, I can't even begin to imagine the factories over there. Considering practically everything we buy is made in China, they must have factories from one end of the horizon to the other. And with however many billion people to work there, and how fast their production is...it's surprising that more stuff isn't faulty, although, technically, it is. Every month I read magazines that tell about recalls on all kinds of stuff...lamps, toys, grills, you name it. It started me wondering...could I live without China-made goods? A quick inspection of everything around me, including the little toys I'd put in my kids' Easter baskets, the plastic eggs and even the basket itself was made in China. Half or probably well over more than half the stuff in my kitchen....well, I could've done a full-house inventory, but we all know what the outcome would've been. Wow.

So I said to Mark - what do you think? Could we do this? Could we put a moratorium on Chinese-manufactured goods coming into this house? Would we, COULD we survive? He was skeptical, and of course, so was I. But think about it. If enough American families did this, it would not only force China to reconsider their shoddy manufacturing, but maybe, just maybe it would expand other markets, like hmmmm, AMERICAN made products? Okay, that's a stretch.

Our first major purchase since then - shelving from IKEA. I'd had my eye on this shelving for about a year now. We did the research, we measured, we packed up the boys and found ourselves in the IKEA store. Never gave nary a thought to where this stuff was from. Just bought and loaded and transported home. Imagine my surprise (and DELIGHT) when we discovered that this particular shelving system was absolutely NOT manufactured in China, rather, it was from Canada, and it was made from sustainable wood products! Oh Happy Day! Gotta love IKEA! And then, yesterday. Here in Cumberland we have this great blanket outlet - Biederlack blankets and they have 50,000 in stock. And I had never been there! So with both little guys in tow, I checked it out yesterday, and bought a great American-made blanket/bedspread thing for our guest room for summer. I will definitely be doing more shopping there in the future - great blankets, even greater prices and local!

But then, a backslide. I've been doing great with the clothesline outside - loving going out, getting a breath of fresh air, hanging up the clothes, NOT using the dryer....but I needed a thing to hold my clothespins (Jonathan was working out for a while, but he tends to run off with my clothespins!) So at the grocery the other day, I found a little canvas pouch-thing on a hanger that was designed to do JUST what I wanted, so I threw it in the cart, no hesitation. Then, I picked it up again and turned it over. China. DOH! And I put it back in the cart. I NEEDED it! What am I supposed to do, go home, search the internet, pay three times as much plus shipping, wait two weeks.....you know the drill. Well, that's just great. That's like a vegetarian eating a cheeseburger and saying "But I was hungry."

So I made sort of a deal with myself for the future. I'm going to make an honest effort to find things not made in China. If I'm pressed for time and have no choice, well, what can I say. And I'm thinking something else might just come out of this. Maybe, just maybe, it will cut down on some impulse purchases. Did you ever think - hey, I want "xyz" so you ran out to buy it the very next day? But sometimes, you think - hey, I want "xyz" and you wait until say, the weekend to get it, and by the weekend, you discover you could live without it? Happens to me sometimes, so maybe if I told myself, I'll buy "xyz" if I can find one not made in China, I may just realize I don't need it after all, and save myself from bringing more stuff into the house.

So why not join me in my China-manufactured goods semi-boycott?

Hot Cross Buns

2009-04-10T21:49:00.002-04:00

Man, it has been TOO LONG since I've blogged about food and the fun I have in the kitchen! Not to say the cooking has stopped, no indeed. Sometimes I think I spend half my life in this kitchen...somedays it feels like I never leave it. But in a way, that's okay. My kitchen's big and sunny with lots of big windows that overlook the yard, the gardens, and out to the mountains. If there was a room I'd pick to HAVE to be in, it'd be the kitchen.

And so it's with lots of happiness that I bring you: Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday. I was under the mistaken impression that these were traditionally for Easter Sunday. Wrong. Going back to pre-Anglican England, these were almost exclusively for Good Friday - with the cross on top to remind us of the crucifixion of Jesus. Well, why not I asked myself. I consulted a couple of recipe books, then searched online...then did what I always do - take the best parts of several recipes and conjure up my own.

I also learned a really neat new trick. I used to raise bread in my bathroom - don't laugh! There's a wonderful heater in there and the rest of the house is relatively cool - in winter that is. So it's hard to make sure my doughs are staying nice and toasty warm. I read online where a great place to raise dough is actually in the oven with just the light on. The heat from the incandescent bulb provides a nice warm environment, and the closed oven is free from drafts and from curious little fingers. Particularly curious little fingers that have ahem....been in the bathroom and it's environs.

So anyway, I did the first rise in my bread machine - just didn't feel like getting the big mixer with the dough hook out today! I know, I know, I SHOULD be kneading it by hand...but why? Mixer does it so well! Anyway, used the bread machine since it was still on the countertop from last night's pizza crust. Did the first rise in there. Left it in an additional hour. Then shaped the dough into balls, then stuck it in my "oven with the light on" for several hours. Cut some crosses in the top and baked, then glazed with sugary icing and there you have it! Yum. Almost too indulgent for Good Friday, but not really...they're not really all that sweet, and these turned out really light and fluffy. The raisins got a little shredded by my bread machine....darn, didn't think of THAT....but it turned out fine since they got all dispersed throughout the dough rather than just a raisin here, raisin there.

But now, who's going to eat all these buns?

That's Just What Mommies Do

2009-04-09T09:05:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I think I went from room to room just carrying things around. I'd put something down in one room, pick up something else, trying to organize, trying to straighten the mess that is my house and my life. I walked into Jonathan's room and sighed. Somewhere around two dozen books were piled next to his bed, in his bed, on the floor next to the bed....the child likes to read himself to sleep at night, and while I can't fault him for that, he hasn't yet grasped the concept of returning the books to the bookshelf the next day!

So, guess who gets to do it? And I just can't put them back on the bookshelf. My OCD tendencies take over, and I must line them up by size and genre - that is, the two volume children's dictionary (yes, he reads dictionaries) must go together, and the Dr. Seuss collection must be grouped together. Call me crazy, but I'm a little anal about that stuff.....gee, ya think that's why I never get half the stuff done around the house I should - 'cause I'm too busy alphabetizing my spices? NAH!

Jonathan was at school, so this task actually only took a minute or two, and didn't get ripped apart immediately, because...he was at school! Fast forward to bedtime. I was in the kitchen putting away some groceries because I'd just returned from the market. In my absence, Mark had handled baths, bedtime snacks and teeth-brushings (love you, sweetie!) and Jonathan was ready to be tucked in. I THOUGHT he had already settled in when all the sudden he comes running out to the kitchen.

He says to me "Mommy, I have to thank you for something." I said "You do? What do you have to thank me for?" He tells me "Thank you for straightening my books, you did it beautifully!" Awwww. Well, shucks. He has this cute little smile on his face - the kid was actually really grateful! I hugged him and told him "you're welcome - that's what Mommies are for..." and then I stopped and thought to myself WHAT did I just tell him? Did I just tell him that Mommies are there to clean up everyone's mess and re-organize everyone's life and make things all pretty and neat again (of course, at our own expense)? Did I just say that?

I guess I did. And if it brings my little guy that much pleasure, I'd do it all over again.

My New Addition

2009-04-06T09:01:00.002-04:00

Guess what I got this weekend? Yet another step in our conservation-minded life goals: outdoor clotheslines! I'm very excited...see, I grew up hanging clothes outside with my mom and grandma who lived next door to us. Mom would get up in the summer and throw in a load or two first thing in the morning, then hang them out when it was still relatively cool. By lunchtime they'd be dry. Sometimes we'd be out or busy, and they'd still be hanging when a good old-fashioned summer afternoon thunderstorm started brewing up - and we'd have to dash to the clothesline to get them in before it started pouring. So, until now, I've been longing for a clothesline - and not just for nostalgia! Did you know that the dryer is one of the biggest energy hogs in your house? It's my eventual goal to get one of the high-efficiency washers to not only cut down on water use and overall "loads" because of their larger capacity, but also the increased spin velocity cuts down on dryer time since the clothes are more efficiently wrung out. But for now, my very old washer that came with the house is working just fine, and I hate to just toss a perfectly good appliance! So that'll have to wait a while.

Why haven't we had a clothesline yet? Hard to say - I guess in a way, it was difficult for me to get outside with two toddlers - our yard has some dangerously steep drop-offs and it's not like you can let a couple of little ones just wander while you're struggling to hang a load of sheets and blankets. My kids were and are never the type to sit there and wait...first chance they get, they're off and running in whatever direction is away from me! And of course, hanging clothes causes some of them to need to be ironed, something ELSE that takes up time I really don't have, but seem to have more of now than in the past few years.

But now I think I can swing it, at least I'll give it a try! I love the smell of laundry that's been dried outside in the sunshine and wind - glorious. Especially sheets and towels! The lines we installed are great - they're retractable, so when you're done, you just unhook the lines and they reel back up into their housing that is attached to a pole, or the side of your house, or, in our case, a few trees. In the winter, you just pull a pin and take them inside. So no unsightly lines hanging all year round, or at all when you're not using them.

My first project...washing the winter comforters and bedspreads and blankets at the laundromat (since my washer is not high-capacity, I have to take them out....hmmmmm....ANOTHER reason for a new washer!), but at least now, rather than paying to dry them at the laundromat, I can just bring them home wet and hang them up...saves money as well as time - who wants to sit in the laundry for several hours waiting for stuff to dry?

OH - and I almost forgot! We also did something new in the garden this weekend - Mark planted me a bunch of onions! We've never grown onions before, so we're not sure what to expect, but if they all come up, we'll have onions up to our eyeballs. We're talking about expanding our gardens for next year...it's too late now to start digging up sod, and the time to really do it is in the fall, so the planning has begun for that.

Loving the positive changes and steps toward nature: air-drying clothes and growing more and more of our own foods! Is a chicken coop next in our future? Not sure the neighborhood ordinances would allow that one!

More Stuff....

2009-03-30T08:28:00.003-04:00

I've been thinking about "stuff" lately - material possessions. A long time ago, I read someone's blog post about "100 things" - something like some guy decided to pare down his life to only include 100 things and I thought to myself holy crap - I couldn't do that in a million years, unless I could say something like one thing is entire set of cookery and a set of silverware and the dresser in my bedroom with everything that's in it. Individually, I think I went over 100 before I even hit the silverware...okay, maybe mid-way through the silverware, but you get my point. And what if it came down to the lawn mower or the car? Huh? Huh? What do you do then? So I scoffed a bit. I thought - well, if you live in a high-rise and you don't have kids and you don't ever eat at home, it might just work out for you. But for those of us with families and homes and property, good luck. What are we supposed to do with the 100 things in the shed we use to hoe, till, garden, shovel, prune, mow, dig, trim, fertilize, edge, water, rake, weed, saw, I could go on and on....and still come to the same conclusion...it's just not feasible.

But lately, "stuff" has been taking over our life. The other day - last Friday it was, I found myself stuffing newly washed sheets into our linen closet, and I do mean stuffing. More like ramming. Like put my body weight behind it and hold it in place as I shut the door and hope for the best the next time I open the door. And I sighed. Something has to give. Granted, it's a very small linen closet. AND we have four beds in this house, two queens, a full, a twin, AND a pull-out, so make that 5 beds. But let's add in blankets, summer weight and winter weight sheets, summer and winter comforters - whew, no wonder I have no room. And that's just one example. So I re-opened that linen closet door, and literally pulled everything out and reorganized. Somehow managed to get most of it back in with some room to spare just by refolding a lot of it and organizing it a bit better, but it still doesn't help with the overall picture. We have a LOT of stuff! A lot of necessary stuff.

Like, for instance, a turkey roasting pan. Got it for my wedding. It's an awesome pan! Love it. Use it maybe 2 times a year. But I do use it, and I'm certainly not getting rid of it just because it takes up room. So I need to store it.

So in an effort to make our lives more organized, a few months ago Mark and I tore up the "4th bedroom" downstairs to make it an official storage area. In our defense, this room would never have really been a bedroom...it's unheated for one and dark. Mark has his "office" down there, but didn't mind sacrificing the rest of the room to the "cause". So in a weekend, we ripped out the old stinky carpet, cleaned the floor, got a pile ready for the dump, and reorganized the rest. Dandy. Except now, we need shelving. And it occurred to us that we needed some additional storage in our mudroom, so we went to the furniture store this weekend and picked out a piece which will be delivered on Wednesday. Now we're loosely planning a trip to IKEA to get some of their heavy duty shelving systems for our new storage downstairs.

Does it ever end? Stuff comes in the house. Need a place to put it, so we move something to accommodate it, then have to find a spot for the old thing. Not everything can get tossed or donated, so then we need to buy furniture or shelving or whatever to accommodate the old stuff and eventually, when that fills up, we'll find ourselves either deciding we really DON'T need that old thing 10 years down the line, or buying more shelving to accommodate even more old stuff.

So I'm trying to get my head around this. I feel like we do a fairly good job of only keeping stuff we truly use. We've tossed a LOT. And we've donated and sold even more. And yet it keeps coming. I've heard that you expand your possessions to fill the space you are given, and that may be true, but what happens when you start to overflow? Is there ever a house with a large-enough linen closet and enough storage areas and shelving to accommodate ALL your needs? I think not. Because as long as you perceive that you have the space, you'll keep buying. So I can't decide whether we're slaves to our possessions or the other way around.

And don't even get me started on home maintenance. Talk about slavery!

Mommy, I Can't Concentrate!

2009-03-23T14:41:00.003-04:00

Yes, apparently, Matthew was making a little too much noise this afternoon and was disturbing Jonathan's concentration while he was putting together a puzzle WHILE watching tv. Hmmmm, what's wrong with THAT picture?

Nevermind how many times MY concentration is utterly destroyed by BOTH of them...or that I can barely get a word, thought or action in edgewise half the time. But I had to have an inward chuckle at that one. And couldn't resist recording it for all posterity!

Some Birthday Pictures

2009-03-13T08:05:00.003-04:00

We start off with the requisite "wheeled toy" to add to the already overwhelming collection that's already in the house....this one is from PlanToys, which we love since they use sustainable wood products and it's an American company. The toys are really cute, all made of wood, and with the cars in particular, the wheels are rubber so they ride really, really, really quickly across the kitchen floor!Next, we have either a Hot Wheels or Matchbox (I've long-since lost track) Monster Truck Jam ramp. When you're not using the thing as a ramp (noticed the smashed up cars on both sides!), the whole thing folds up and can be used as a carrier for up to 10 (yes, 10!) Monster Trucks. How many Monster Trucks did the thing come with, you ask? 1. How many more Monster Trucks does Jonathan need, now? According to Mommy Math, 0. According to Jonathan, 9. Darn - shouldn't have taught that kid to add and subtract!

And, of course, what child's birthday can be celebrated without giving a LITTLE something to the OTHER child? Well, let's see, Mark and I gave Matthew Ramone and Flo, and Grandma and Poppy gave him Ham and Halloween somebody or other, then later, we gave him Mack - the one you can load up Lightning McQueen and transport him all around.....this kid made out almost as good as his brother!And, finally, we get to the cake. I have no idea why Jonathan wanted a jack-o-lantern for a birthday cake, but I asked him three times on three separate occasions, and he never wavered. So I borrowed some cake pans from a friend's mom and voila. The stem is an upside-down sugar cone. It was a collaborative effort between Mark, me and my dad while Jonathan was at the bowling alley for a little party for one of his school friends. He was delighted when he saw it - glad I could make him happy, and HOPE he doesn't want something like a pirate ship next year! I'm not artistic to begin with, so these kids birthday cakes are taxing my limits!

OH, Okay, one more. We gave Jonathan this cute little butterfly net, along with a child-sized hoe he can use in the garden this spring and summer. He quickly found out he could catch a lot more than just butterflies! Watch Poppy's glasses, Jonathan, remember the time you broke them...and then you broke Daddy's....and.....

Next birthday, MINE! I keep asking Jonathan how old Mommy is, he keeps saying 29 (I'm not kidding!) Love it! The tricky part is asking how old Mommy is going to be! Then he says what any normal pre-schooler would say: 30. Hmmmmm, what to do now? Oh well - guess he'll find out it was a joke sooner or later!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JONATHAN!

2009-03-10T11:48:00.003-04:00

Today is Jonathan's actual birthday - nevermind we've been celebrating it since Saturday! My mom, dad and sister came up on that day and we had cake and a party, and then I had to make cupcakes for his school yesterday, and today I'm getting suckered into making yet another cake-ish item since, well, it IS his real birthday! Luckily, we still have some presents to give him, or I'd be off to the store today, too!

Anyway, Jonathan is now 5, and although I find that hard to believe, I was also reflecting on how much he's done and seen in this short little life he's had so far. The child has a passport (that's the photo we used for it, above), and now has his first, of hopefully many, stamps - Mexico - acquired just a few weeks ago. He's quite the traveler - so far in his young life he's been to Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and California...whew! Did I miss any? He's literally climbed mountains, and he's played on the seashore. We've hiked, we've biked, we've visited huge cities and tiny towns. He's ridden a horse and been bucked off, and he's ridden a camel. He's been on a roller coaster and been bowling. He's been swimming in pools where the heat has been unbearable, and been bundled up in snowstorms and blizzards and gone sledding with teeth chattering in the cold.

Of course, all this adventure comes with a price: he's been in the emergency room 4 times already. Although, admittedly, he wasn't injured while traveling or going on adventures. (Well, sort of) We'll keep our fingers crossed on that one!

But anyway, as he grows older and older, we hope to add to this list - a list of places he's been and cool things he's done. We want to show him and his brother the world, literally and figuratively!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan. We love you tons!

STILL In That Vacation Bubble

2009-03-05T08:43:00.003-05:00

Ya know, it wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have sub-zero wind chills half the week! Then I could just start to enjoy "spring" around here and quit thinking about why in the world we left Mexico in the first place!! But this is my last blog post about our trip - mainly because the rest of the pictures really aren't worth posting, and to be truthful, we actually didn't take that many.

The butterfly photos above were taken at XCaret, a resort of sorts, I guess you could possibly call it an eco-resort, but more like a "natural recreational area". Basically, it was a large peninsula, privately owned, that you could spend the day doing all sorts of stuff - swimming, diving, snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, sunning on their beaches, floating down an underground river, hiking, eating, watching Mayan shows, strolling through the botanical gardens, the ruins, the craft fairs, the gift shops....did I miss anything? For a flat fee, you got in, then you could pay extra to do some of the more specialized stuff. Mark and I, Jonathan and the in-laws went one day. Rode a nice coach bus down to Playa Del Carmen and arrived at XCaret around 9:30 in the morning. What to do, what to do, what to do FIRST!? They tell you up front that you can't do it all in one day. And they tell you to not miss the Mayan show that starts at 6pm and runs until 8pm. Well, we already counted that out - we were headed back on the early bus at 5pm because we didn't want Jonathan out that late. We figured 8 hours was enough for all of us.

So while the in-laws were kind enough to watch Jonathan for a bit in the morning, Mark and I signed up for a snorkeling trip that went until lunchtime. Mark was a little hesitant, but I somehow convinced him he needed to come with me, so we found ourselves on a boat with snorkeling gear in hand. Ten minutes later, we were anchored over the second largest reef in the world. Into the water we went. Now before I go on, I have to say, I have gills. I grew up swimming since I was about 3 years old, have always had a pool in the backyard, body-surfed in the ocean from as far back as I remember, and will swim anywhere, anytime. I am a certified scuba diver, but unfortunately, don't get much chance to dive anymore. Mark, on the other hand, sinks like a rock. He seems a bit uncomfortable in the water, and truly doesn't like to get his face too wet - even in the shower. So, yeah, he's going to try snorkeling. Hmmmm.

To make matters worse, Mark's snorkeling gear seemed to have some issues - he couldn't get a nice fit with the mask so he had some leakage and it proved to be a fairly windy day, so some of the little white-caps were breaking over the top of the snorkel and these weren't high-end snorkels. Too late - I wished I'd brought mine along - it was back at the villa - a nicer one with a check valve on the end that prevented that. Anyway, Mark lasted all of 5 minutes.

I hated him to miss out, but now I have a goal - work with him in our pool this summer until he is comfortable with the better equipment and maybe he'll be okay for next time. And there will be a next time, my word. Ever seen those tanks at Rainforest Cafe? They have these saltwater tanks with about every color of fish in the world....well, it was sort of like that. The reef was alive with fish of every size, shape, color and description. And the color combinations were astounding - black with royal blue fins, blue with lavender fins, royal blue with bright yellow, red and orange spotted, white and orange striped....it was like sensory overload. And the reef itself was amazing. And with the winds and current, everything was moving, and if you peeked into the reef, you could see more fish hiding. As long as you stayed fairly close to the boat, you could go anywhere you want, so I got to spend the next 40 minutes in an exotic world of sea life - lost in amazement, and struck by how silent that world is.

When we got back to shore, we met up with Jonathan and Mark's folks and had some lunch, then we started walking around - we found the butterfly exhibit and saw the marvelous blue morpho butterflies as well as many other gorgeous species. A few pics are above - the one is the blue morpho, the other is called a Malachite. The blue morphos are munching on plantains - everywhere in the habitat they had these laid out, there were half a dozen or more butterflies munching. The trick was to snap the picture when they opened their wings!

After that, the in-laws hit the botanical gardens, while we went off to find some animals for Jonathan to see - they had some in captivity - monkeys, peccaries, an ox, some donkeys and then we found the bird exhibit which had scarlet macaws, flamingoes, parrots and even some wild birds like a Yucatan woodpecker - a life-bird for both me and Mark!

A few minutes in the gift shops, and exploring an old silver mine shaft, and listening to some Mayan entertainment finally ended our day. We caught the early bus back and made it back to the villa in time to throw some dinner on the table and get the little guy into bed.

I would definitely go back there - mainly to take advantage of a few more of the water sports trips and to perhaps catch the evening shows which are supposed to be pretty spectacular. Despite it's popularity, there weren't huge crowds and the place is well-run and clean.

So now, onto the rest of my life! This weekend, our weather forecasts are saying almost 70 degrees, so perhaps I can stop living my life on a very comfortable poolside lounge and actually be able to go outside here in something less than a down parka. One can only hope. Back to our regularly scheduled blogging - next entry: my child will be 5 years old next week....

A LONG Day in Mexico

2009-02-27T07:22:00.002-05:00

Did you know that 38 years ago, there was no Cancun? It was just a tiny fishing village on the coast of the Yucatan peninsula, which is actually a very large, very flat coastal lowland. This land was the land of the Mayans. There's quite a bit of history there, so we decided to try and spend part of our trip visiting the ancient Mayan ruins and learning a thing or two about these mysterious people.

The resort we stayed at had a tour agency which booked all kinds of tours, so after talking with them, we decided to pass on the more crowded Chichen Itza ruin which was closer to the hotel district and be a little more adventursome. They had a tour called "Coba and Caves" which visited the Coba ruins - once a thriving Mayan village 18 square kilometers in size. Not only was it huge, but it also had one of the largest excavated temple ruins that you could climb. It also stopped at some caves, one where you could go swimming, so we thought this was a better match for us. It promised to be a long day, but we figured Jonathan could handle it, after all, it was at least 4 hours on the bus back and forth, and he loved the busses. He got to look at the roads and the road signs written in Spanish, and all sorts of neat things like "sideways traffic lights"...ahem. (see future blog post about 4 year olds who are obsessed with all kinds of civil engineering structures...)

ANYWAY. At 7:20 am, a lovely air-conditioned coach bus pulls up in front of our hotel and loaded us up. Along with snacks, towels, camera, binoculars, swimsuits, sunscreen, drinks...in other words, two backpacks jammed to capacity. There were only about 5 other people on the bus and only the three of us got on at our hotel. We thought it would be a really nice trip with only 8 people. Wrong! We proceeded to stop at hotel after hotel and pick up one or two people here and three or four more there, until 2 hours had passed by and the bus was almost full to capacity! And we still weren't at our first destination! Okay, so the Mexicans stick to their own schedule, fine. But we didn't get to Coba until about 11:00 or later. Whew. Long morning on the bus. One nice thing was that our two tour guides were both Mayan, or of direct Mayan descent. They still lived in little Mayan villages, they knew all the history, they even spoke some of the Mayan dialect. We got quite the education along the way, which, happily, was part of why we wanted to go.

Anyway, fast forward - we're finally at Coba, it's a 2km hike through the jungle to get to the temple ruin and it's hot. Jonathan's doing well, so off we go. We stopped at a few lesser ruins along the way to listen to our tour guide, and then we finally made it to the base of the temple. Wow. It was big. And high. But this is what we came for, so up we went. We had no problem getting up there - 121 "steps" to the top - but some of them were more like a "step and a half". Jonathan and I scampered up, or rather, Jonathan scampered and I wondered how we were going to get back down. We finally reached the top - see the photo above, and notice the death grip I had on Jonathan's arm...it was scary! Trust me, you did not want to go tumbling down those steps. We spent a few minutes catching our breath and getting some pictures, then it was time to go back down. I'll spare the details - but thank God they had a rope you could hold onto. You can see it behind me in the second photo - it went all the way down to the ground. THAT'S how I got down, one hand on that, the other hand on Jonathan, taking the steps one at a time on our backsides. Jonathan was fine with it - "let go of my arm, Mommy!" and "Mommy, you're squeezing my arm too tight!" We'll just leave it at that.

Off the temple, then 2km back to the bus in the hottest part of the day - mostly shaded though through the jungle. We dashed back to the bus and arrived with only minutes to spare, hot and sweaty....only to have to wait 20 minutes for the last stragglers - c'mon, if the family with the 4 year old can make it back on time, where were you? Sigh.

Next stop? A Mayan cenote, or sinkhole. Except this sinkhole was in a cave, 60 steps (more steps!) down and about 70 degrees. But wow, was that refreshing. The Mayans say swimming in the cenotes makes you younger. 40 minutes in the water, and I definitely felt younger than I did an hour before! It was very neat - I had my mask and snorkel with me so I got to explore a bit. The waters were crystal clear and along the edges you could see where the cave walls went down and with side chambers - a scuba divers paradise. The guides said that many crystals and precious gems had been found in the formations. I looked, but didn't see anything.

Lunchtime! Finally! It was after 3 by the time we got to the Mayan "restaurant". It was an open-air place, with outdoor furniture for tables and chairs and serapes for tablecloths. They had a buffet-style lunch with authentic Mayan food - don't even know what half of it was, but it was good - a chicken dish, a beef dish and a pork dish, along with tortillas and rice and beans. Fabulous. I think we were all starving.

Back on the road - and our last stop - this time to Aktun Chen cave - a huge cave system with all the fun extras - fruit bats, low-hanging stalactites to crack your head on, more steps, and it's very own wise-cracking guide. They even had a jungle to walk through to get to the mouth of the cave, and the jungle was filled with things like mosquitoes, monkeys and jaguars - luckily we only saw the first two. They also had some "kept" animals - peccaries and deer and some beautiful peacocks.

We finally made it back to the hotel at about 9pm. Jonathan was asleep in my arms when I got off the bus and the in-laws were a little concerned - they expected us around 7. So did the tour agency! But all was well. It was a great day, packed with natural wonders and history, and Jonathan loved every minute, which, in the grand scheme of things, made it worth every penny!

A Few Pics of Mexico...More Later

2009-02-25T08:28:00.004-05:00

For that fun-loving good time in a foreign country, there's always the local tourist-trap restaurant. We found it - or maybe it found us. Pericos in downtown Cancun - translates to "Parrots". They have live entertainment, waitstaff that is constantly entertaining, and after you're done your meal, they drag you off to have your picture taken, see above.

Our particular waiter was fairly charming, always smiling, always fun, that is, until he threw a gigantic plastic cockroach in my lap. Picture this - you're in a restaurant, and all the sudden the crazy woman at the next table over stands up, screaming, throws her napkin and literally runs around the table trying to get away from the ickiest thing ever. Ahem. That would've been me. But it LOOKED real! Plus he had this contraption on a little string, so it was moving and he somehow dragged the string up my arm so it felt like it was running on my arm. Eeeesh. Still gives me willies as I'm writing about it. I guess I could forgive him as he kept bringing us our drinks balanced on his head - even the free round at the end of Pancho Willies? I think that's what they were called. Supposedly with vodka, gin, rum and tequila, but ours were complimentary, so pretty skimpy on the actual alcohol. But tableside (and still on the waiter's head), an assistant lit up a gravy ladle of vodka and poured flaming liquid into each one. FUN TIMES!

And then the picture - we probably wouldn't have bought it except for the cute little "bandito" in the middle....the 4 year old had a blast, and what 4 year old wouldn't have!? Mark, ever the sarcastic one commented that we must've had "TOURIST" stamped across our foreheads, but hey, it made for a pretty fun evening, especially for the kids. The live music was just kicking up when we left, so it was a fun show. One problem, though - the food wasn't all that!! Surprisingly, we kind of expected more authentic food, and I ordered fajitas, thinking I would really get a good, Mexican version of that dish. Sigh. Hate to admit it, I've had much better fajitas at Chevy's Fresh Mex here in the states. Too bad - won't be going there again!!

Anyway - more Mexico pictures later - I'm still trying to sort them out, and really, really disappointed in myself that we never got one of the view of the Caribbean Sea from our balcony! It was so beautiful - such beautiful blue colors! Oh well...next time! :-)

Did I Say 5? Make That 6.

2009-02-23T13:01:00.002-05:00

That would be emergency room visits. Seems like I just finished that other blog post - you know, the one about Matthew's nose "falling off." Well, fast forward a few days and we come to ER visit number 6.

For those of you more acquainted with our personal lives, you know that we just got back from Cancun. Hmmmm, maybe THAT's why I haven't posted in awhile! Nonetheless, we just got back yesterday from 6 days in Mexico, plus a few more days tacked on either end to get back and forth from the airport, and to drop Matthew off at Grandma and Poppy's house - he didn't go to Mexico with us - call us crazy, but taking this particular 2 1/2 year old on a plane is, trust me, nobody's idea of a good time.

Anyway, dropped Matthew off, then me, Mark and Jonathan headed down to DC to stay overnight in Crystal City by Reagan National Airport, where our flight left at 3:30pm the next day. That particular night happened to be Valentine's Day, so we took the metro, went out for a nice meal, then got Jonathan back to the hotel and we all got a great night's sleep, woke up ready to hit Cancun. Of course, we had a few hours to kill, first.

Did you know that underneath the hotel/airport district in Crystal City is an underground network of malls, hotel access, parking garages, restaurants and metro access? Well, you do now. And underneath the Marriott you can walk for miles and find just about everything you need, without once seeing the light of day. So that day, we went down there to grab some quick lunch for Jonathan (we were still stuffed from breakfast) and to buy some last minute stuff to cram in our carry-ons. Headed back to the hotel lobby to catch the shuttle to the airport and get there in plenty of time...when the unthinkable happened. Jonathan tripped and fell. Hard. On his head.

I'm still not really sure what happened, but he was a few steps ahead of us, doing his usual hop, skip, jump routine, and he must've gotten his feet tangled up. He managed to break his fall a little with his hands, but that didn't prevent his head coming into full contact with the cement floor. Took us a good 5 minutes to get him to stop screaming hysterically. Next, we saw a huge lump on the side of his forehead. Now when I say huge lump, I'm talking huge. Bigger than any lump I've ever seen on any kids' head, my own included. We're talking sticking out a 1/2 inch. Horrible.

Man. What to do? Get on the plane? What if he had a hairline fracture? What if he had any kind of swelling inside? What about hematoma? What if he started seizing or passed out at 40,000 feet? We were beside ourselves. And by now it was about 12:30. We needed to be at the airport SOON.

Long story short -- eventually, with the encouragement of the hotel staff, we called an ambulance to at least get a professional opinion. Unfortunately, the paramedics felt he should go to the hospital so off we went. I rode with Jonathan in the ambulance, while Mark got our car and followed. On the way, I made my appeal to the ambulance guys: please, oh please, is there any way we can make this really, really fast? Bless their hearts, they called ahead and put us in "expedite", and to make a really, really long story even shorter, we were in and out of there in half an hour.

Happily, nobody felt there was any reason why he shouldn't get on a plane, there was no fracture and it was only classed as a minor head injury. By now, though, it was 1:45. I dragged Jonathan through the ER doors, hopped in the car, got LOST on the way back to the hotel, but somehow got righted again, parked the car, threw ourselves into the airport shuttle, and made it through bag check and security with time to spare.

So to the staff at the Marriott Crystal City, the ambulance folks, and the staff at the Arlington Medical Center, thank you. Your hard work and diligence and respect of our time and schedules allowed us to make our plane and enjoy a wonderful vacation, worry-free. And Jonathan is fine - still pretty bruised even 8 days later, but no worse for wear. And if anything, the whole ordeal made me more cautious for the whole trip, which was probably a silver lining. And maybe, just maybe, Mr. Jonathan will learn a lesson or two about hopping around so much!!

You Learn Something New Everyday...

2009-02-12T08:32:00.002-05:00

Happens a lot at our house.....me or Mark will be sitting on the computer in the kitchen doing whatever, the kids are at the table either eating, playing with cars or drawing. So one day a few weeks ago, Jonathan had some paper and crayons, and announces he was going to draw a picture of a "dracula". A WHAT? I ask. A "dracula", Mommy, he says, you know, the largest vegetable in the world. I'm like HUH? And I said "What's a dracula?" Then he sighs, turns around with barely hidden disdain, and says very slowly: "Mommy, I said a JACK FRUIT." Okay, hmmmm, that cleared THAT up! What the heck is a jack fruit anyway? I decided to ask him, while simultaneously asking Wikipedia.

Well knock me over with a feather, the kid was right! Well, almost right. Technically, it's a fruit, not a vegetable, but I do think it is classed as the largest fruit in the world. Grows in Caribbean locales. I happen to glance at what Jonathan is drawing (from whatever memory he has) and it is strangely looking exactly like the picture on the computer which he hasn't seen. By now, I'm more than curious. "Jonathan. Did you learn about Jack fruit in school?" More disdain. "Nooooooo, ~~idiot~~ Mommy. I learned about jack fruit on Toot and Puddle."

AHA. Finally. Well, at least the television is good for something, right? And for those of you who are uninformed, Toot and Puddle is a show on Noggin that not even I knew about until just after Christmas. Maybe it's new, maybe it comes on during dinner hour when the tv is most definitely off. Or maybe it just slipped through my radar. The things you learn. Whether you want to or not!!!

SPLAT!

2009-02-11T10:41:00.002-05:00

Here we have Matthew. Lovely, huh? Sigh. Short story...I was cleaning up the kitchen. I heard THUMP....WAAAHHHHHH! That's all I know. Jonathan was no where near him, niether was the dog. Blood was everywhere. Called the pediatrician, explained what it looked like, and got the ever-so-helpful "we don't even look at facial injuries, you have to take him to the ER". Heavier sigh. Okay, I get the part about how the lowly pediatrician doesn't want to make a call on whether a facial injury will need stitches, etc..., but can they at least LOOK at it? I asked the nurse that. She says - "Well, does it LOOK like it needs stitches?" What I wanted to say was "HOW SHOULD I KNOW, I'M NOT A DOCTOR, MORON!!" Isn't that why I called in the first place? So off to the ER we go.

Fortunately, the ER was practically empty at 2pm on a Wednesday. Unfortunately, the one other person who was there, and who was directly ahead of us was puking her guts out. Great. I got out the wipes. Meanwhile, Jonathan is talking non-stop, and Matthew, despite blood still trickling is running wild. After an hour and a half of waiting, seeing triage, waiting, going to registration, waiting some more, wipes still out, getting put into a room, waiting, more wipes, boys rolling on the floor, more wipes, more wipes, more wipes, we finally see a doctor.

No stitches necessary, he says. But that "flap" of skin will probably turn black and fall off. Yummy. Home we go, with some antibiotic ointment to keep germs out. Yeah, right.

Once we're home, Jonathan is acting strange. First, he sets up a barrier between him and Matthew at the dinner table, telling us he doesn't want to look at Matthew. Next, he refuses to get into the tub with him. Meanwhile, he is absurdly curious about how his wound is progressing, checking it every once in awhile to see how it's doing. A little odd. It was a week before I found out why.

Eventually, Matthew's wound scabbed over and although it never really turned black and fell off, he did lose the scab, so I guess that sort of counts. And he has a little scar, but it it well camoflaged next to his nose, so it could've been a lot worse. Apparently. Jonathan tells me one day that the "doctor was wrong, Mommy." I'm like, "What doctor?" He tells me "Matthew's doctor. Matthew's doctor said his nose was going to turn black and fall off."

Ahhhhh, like puzzle pieces falling into place - THAT'S why he didn't want to look at Matthew or get into the tub with him - I guess I wouldn't have wanted to either if I thought his nose was going to turn black and fall off!!! Poor kid. Next time, I leave Jonathan with his daddy or a friend when I take Matthew to the ER.....because I know there'll be a next time. Despite being really careful with these guys, this was our fifth ER visit with the boys. May it always be so minor....

And happily, we didn't wind up getting whatever puking-woman had. Thank you, wipe manufacturers. I owe you one.

Sigh.

2009-01-30T13:53:00.002-05:00

Hate it. HATE IT when I don't have time to blog. When I don't have time to really do much of anything, but have to prioritize one thing over the other, like changing Matthew's sheets after he wet through his diaper last night, or say, putting some semblance of dinner on the table. So what happens to the blog? Nothing. It sits there, waiting for me to update it. And it never gets done. And I really hate that.

Considered quitting. Blogging, that is. But then I remembered why I started it in the first place, and that was, to keep a record for myself, a journal if you will of things I want to remember, places we've been, cute things the kids have done or said, meals or cool foods I have made or tried, and of course some photos here and there. I find myself going back to read my own posts from a year ago and find that I love reminiscing about this and that. So for now, I'll try to keep up with it. Sorry for the long breaks here and there - life is so busy these days!

And these days, I've been thinking about Jonathan's upcoming birthday in March - he's going to be 5 years old! 5! He's getting so big, so tall. And everyday I see changes in him and am simply amazed at how big and grown up he seems all the sudden. A few examples:

One night at dinner, I was trying to get Matthew to eat with his fork. He still prefers his fingers! But on that night, he was doing pretty well, and Jonathan took notice. "Look Mommy! Matthew's eating with utensils!" Utensils? What the heck is that? Is that a word a 4 year old should know? And a few nights later, I was working while the boys, all of them, were horsing around in the living room, playing chase and "Boo", etc... All the sudden, I hear a bloodcurdling scream from Jonathan who had just been startled out of his wits by his daddy coming around the corner....and Jonathan exclaims "Daddy, you startled me! I'm flabbergasted!" Ummm, Jonathan, are you like going to school in the London countryside? What is with you?

And then the other day, I'm on the phone with my mom. Jonathan was in and out of the room, seemingly engrossed in playing with his cars. At one point, mom and I were discussing someone who had passed away, at least, I thought that's who we were discussing. Anyway, when it was fairly clear that mom and I were talking about two different people, I tried to clear it up and say to her "Are we talking about so-and-so? I thought she D-I-E-D?" - spelling out the word I didn't feel like explaining at the moment, even though I wasn't even sure at that point Jonathan was even listening. Immediately, the kid looks up from his cars and says to me "Mommy are you trying to say "Died"? I'm like - "I sure am, buddy, do you know what that means?" He told me yes, he knew what it meant, it meant that you don't grow anymore. Well, I guess there's a little more to it than that, but for now, that explanation was good enough for me.

Jonathan, you're ahead of yourself in years, son. Can you slow down a bit and wait for Mommy to catch up?

A Trip to Pittsburgh

2009-01-21T15:52:00.002-05:00

Last year, we went to Pittsburgh for an overnight...for the second time since we've lived here. After that trip, we decided that Pittsburgh was a long day trip. No sense spending the extra money for a hotel room, right? It's really only a little over two hours away.

This past weekend, we made our third trip to Pittsburgh....and stayed overnight not one, but two nights. Why, you ask? Why would we do this? Well, Pittsburgh has IKEA, which we don't get to go to often and we're mulling over some future purchases. And also, there's some cool museums and neat things for kids - and since we hardly ever go places exclusively for the kiddos, we decided wouldn't it be nice to take a day and do something just for them.

So Friday afternoon found us all packed up - kids, dog and us, on our way to the Steel City. No matter it was only 2 degrees. No matter the Pittsburgh-Ravens game was on Sunday, and I fully intended to wear my Ray Lewis jersey, even though I was anticipating being killed by Steelers fans. No matter we had to pay an extra $100 to let the dog stay at the hotel when she only weighs 13 pounds and doesn't shed and is hypoallergenic. If I were the hotel management, I would charge a "toddler-cleaning fee" rather than a "pet-cleaning fee" because certainly, those two little guys of mine were going to make more of a mess in the room than Bella would. But I'll try to keep my thoughts about hotel management and non-refundable pet-deposits to myself -- at least for THIS blog entry.

At any rate - it was a good weekend. The hotel was nice and quiet and had a fab breakfast both mornings (thanks, Marriott!). We did get to IKEA and got some ideas and some little things we picked up along the way - and probably would've gotten a lot more had the boys not been in total meltdown mode. And the museum? Awesome. The kids were in hog heaven. It was the Carnegie Science Museum and truly, it is mostly geared toward kids. They have all this cool stuff you can do - like sit in a what looks like a restaurant booth and press buttons and all these different types and magnitudes of earthquakes are simulated. Scary. But fun! And the shadow wall - you press a button, then pose in front of this wall and it flashes a light, and when you step away, your shadow is left on the wall. My, we had fun with this one! But one of the best displays was the train village - wow. It was huge and it was spectacular - I think Matthew would've stayed there all day just watching all there was to see. It was definitely the best train exhibit I've ever seen. And yes, we managed to spend a few hours in the 3-6 year old area - where literally, a kid could just be a kid. They had it all - huge water table with waterfalls and channels and ping pong balls and sieves. And the ball factory - geesh, we couldn't get Jonathan to leave!

It was great to just be able to watch the kids do their thing, not have any kind of time limit - we really, really need to do more of that kind of stuff! After all, we're always dragging them around to our stuff, which mostly consists of grocery shopping and trips to Lowe's to get something else to fix something wrong in the house....

Speaking of which!! As if it wasn't bad enough that on one night we were there, Pittsburgh got down to some ridiculous temperature, something below zero, and they reported on the news it was the coldest night Pittsburgh had seen in 15 years. Then our drive home took twice as long as it should have thanks to a few wrong turns and snow where it shouldn't have been. But we came home to a house that was 47 degrees!!! We're still unsure what happened - either it was so cold the oil got sluggish in the lines, or the programmable thermostat really malfunctioned, but that was not pleasant. And to top it off, my beloved Ravens lost to Pittsburgh - but hey, at least it was a good game. And I did wear my Ray Lewis jersey and lived to tell about it!

So there was our weekend - been playing catch-up since we got home - not sure where time goes these days!

The Latest Dish - Shrimp w/ Cabbage

2009-01-13T09:10:00.003-05:00

Wish I had a picture, because this one turned out really, really good! I had half a head of cabbage leftover from veggie soup last week, trying to figure out something else besides cole slaw, which, just doesn't fit in January, if you ask me. So I started thinking...what would a Thai chef do? Why did I think this? Well, remember from the holidays when Mark and I got the opportunity to visit Lemongrass? Well, since then we decided to somehow try more Thai food, and happily, we found Banana Leaf - a Thai/Asian place just a mile or two from our house....gee, why had we never seen that before? We tried carry-out for the first time just a few nights ago! Yum.

ANYWAY. Shrimp in the freezer. Thawed, peeled and sprinkled with some ginger and soy sauce. Cabbage sliced thinly, sauteed with a little oil and garlic and salt and pepper. Take out the cabbage, stir-fry the shrimp, added a little water from cooking some rice noodles, and at the last minute, threw in a heaping tablespoon of all natural chunky peanut butter just for fun.
Tossed back in the cabbage and then tossed with the noodles. Wow. So easy. So low-fat!

So NOT a crowd-pleaser...well, Mark and I loved it. The kids ate their usual....dry cereal and some sort of noodles with butter. Ho hum. Maybe one day they'll try what we eat.

More New-ness...This Time, Tea

2009-01-08T11:39:00.003-05:00

We're coffee people. Have been for awhile. Not a morning goes by without a big pot being brewed, sometimes 2 or 3 pots on the weekend. Pretty much every road trip either begins or includes a stop for a cup-to-go. Tea? Well, iced tea, sure. And a box of some herbal teas hiding out in the back of the kitchen cupboard in case someone got sick and needed something soothing.

But things are changing, and wow. Teas are a whole new way to enjoy life! It started with my in-laws, visiting in the fall. I asked if they needed any particular foods on hand that they liked...well, they said, FIL likes to drink a cup of tea... So off I puttered to the grocery and picked out a box of Celestial Seasonings...an assorted box of mixed fruit teas. Although FIL only drank a few cups of it during his visit, Mark and I made quick work of the leftovers. During the late fall and weeks leading up to Christmas, I would come in after a late night music practice, actually looking forward to a nice hot cup of tea to warm me up. Mark would join me, and we started to wonder aloud what the world of tea had to offer besides Celestial Seasonings. Not that it was bad, but we knew there had to be something else out there.

So I hit the gourmet section of the grocery, and Mark hit downtown Cumberland. What a liquid feast awaited us! Starting with the grocer, I discovered a ton of possibilities. Mostly tea in bags, all sorts of brands and flavors, caffeinated, decaffeinated, fruity ones, spicy ones, zingy ones, earthy ones. The organic aisles brought even more possibilities. I was literally overwhelmed. Why had I not noticed this before? After all, the tea aisle is also the coffee aisle....was I that blinded? Oh wait...we hadn't been buying our coffee at the grocery much anymore....we had moved onto the mail-order, organic, fair trade stuff....but I digress....

Back to tea. Mark visited the tea shop in Cumberland...didn't even really know we had one, but alas, we do! This was a new animal...loose teas. Having no idea the difference between a rooibus and a chai, he left empty-handed, but not empty-minded. We settled for a tin of Gypsy Fireside Chai from the organic grocery aisle and decided to do a little asking around, a little research.

Then came Thanksgiving. On Black Friday, we found ourselves in Columbia Mall in Howard County where we stumbled upon a store called Teavana. Oh my. First, we hovered around the free samples at the front of the store, tasting and oohing and ahhing. Then we ventured to the back, where loose tea in tins awaited us....tons of them. We knew not where to begin, but decided to start small and familiar, so we selected 2 oz. of Caribbean Breeze, one of their herbal infusions. It is described in their catalog as "A torrid melange of strawberry and raspberry pieces, elderberries, apple bits, kiwi and passion fruit pieces, citrus peels, rosehips and hibiscus, rose petals and blue mallow flowers." Hmmmmm. Somewhere along the way, we picked up some tea strainers, and we were in business.

Caribbean Breeze turned out to be pretty good. Very, very fruity, and once we got the proportions of water to tea to steep time correct, it's very good. Like Celestial Seasonings on steroids...very, very flavorful and deep. The Gypsy Fireside Chai was also very good - although in bags so easier to deal with, and readily available at our local grocery, along with about 12 other flavors, just ready to be sipped.

Since then, we've moved on. My cabinet now includes the last of the Caribbean Breeze, and it has been joined by Caramel Rooibus from the Cumberland store (part of my Christmas present from Mark!), a Matevana Rooibus Chai from Teavana when we were again visiting after Christmas, and a Rooibus White Chocolate Toffee...some leftovers a girlfriend gave me when she discovered that we had discovered tea...a sample she got from somewhere and she didn't much care for. Haven't tried that one yet! It sounds a little on the adventuresome side for me!

And it feels like we've only just begun, between white tea, black tea, green tea, rooibus (red) tea, oolong, mate's, herbals and infusions, 'twould seem our tea-drinking days have only just started!

And the best part? No calories in most of it!! Mark likes his with a little honey, I usually have mine with some herbal sweetener, so we can indulge all we like without messing with the old waistlines. Plus, tea has a lot of antioxidents and other ingredients that are health-beneficial. Bottoms up!!

Another Year, New Foods

2009-01-07T09:58:00.003-05:00

With the new year, I made a (sort of) resolution. Try some new things, foodwise. New recipes, new ingredients, new ways to cut costs, cut fat, cut preservatives. I even got Jonathan involved - I told him as his resolution, he should try something new every week. His take on this isn't quite what I had in mind - he told me that eating bow-tie shaped pasta was trying something new. Well, okay. The one shape of pasta he'd never tried before. Sigh. But it's a start. Last night he tried my homemade veggie soup, but only a little broth, and then he stopped because there were "too many things floating in it." That would've been basil and thyme. Heavy sigh. One day at the time!

But for me and Mark, there will be some new stuff, starting with my brand-new sourdough starter! Well, brand-new is kind of a misnomer. This strain of sourdough is actually almost 250 years old! My friend ordered the starter, then split it out and gave me some - and that's her cute little crock in the first pic. You keep it in the crock in the fridge, and every week or so you feed it and it's always ready to be made into breads, waffles, whatever. She just gave it to me the week before Christmas, and so far, I made regular sourdough which we ate for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and yesterday, I made a half whole wheat/half regular sourdough which we ate with our soup last night. Yum. The second pic is one of the loaves from yesterday, which will be part of our dinner tonight! It's fascinating. I've read stories about women of yore who nursed their little sourdough starter through wars, moves, harsh winters....and they made bread for their families everyday. No, they didn't have the cool dough hook attachment on their electric mixer to knead the stuff..ahem...but still. It feels colonial!

If anyone's interested, try the King Arthur Bread Company website. They sell the starter as well as the crocks and have a bunch of recipes to get started. If you live in LaVale, I'll be happy to pass along some of my starter! Actually, I'd be delighted --- makes me feel like a frontier woman!

Next up....quinoa. I've been reading about this super-protein for a few weeks now and I'm ready to give it a try. Got a few recipes in mind.

So while not actually a resolution, more like....a continuation of the way I want to live that kind of started last summer. Eating lower on the food chain - cutting out the middle man as much as possible. Buying local and organic. Getting the kids interested in better choices. Although I don't serve packaged foods as rule here at home, the kids still haven't grasped the concept, so we'll try to work on that!

Meanwhile, I'm off to order my own sourdough crock!

Recap - The Holidays In Review

2009-01-02T19:59:00.003-05:00

Can you say whirlwind? Let's do this in bullet form, because if I didn't, I'd probably be here all night.

1 house, completely cleaned. Sheets washed, curtains washed, ironed, rehung, all woodwork scrubbed down, windows sparkling...making way for:

5 houseguests, starting Dec. 23rd and lasting until Dec. 27th, who ate:

about a dozen varieties of homemade cookies, candy and cakes, in addition to:

one huge pan of homemade lasagna, and a crockpot full of chicken parmigiana.

Two little boys, delighted that a combination of Santa and both sets of grandparents brought:

gifts too numerous to count, but included a toy piano for Matthew, a hot wheels racing set for Jonathan, lots of new clothes and books, art supplies, toy cars, and a brand-new Thomas and Friends wooden railway set and train table and the list could go on and on....

At least 4 bottles of wine opened and consumed, making for some very happy adults, as well as...

our new passion - tea! Hot tea, loose tea, tea strainers, rooibus, chai, wow, what fun!! Last year it was cappuccino, this year, tea.

Great weather all around - some cold days, but not too bad. A little icy on Christmas Eve, but it didn't stop me from:

playing my flute and singing with two choirs at two different churches, one at 4pm, one at 10pm. Loved it - also played two other concerts, one on Dec. 14th, the other on Dec. 28th, with two other groups. Totally trying to immerse myself more in Cumberland's music scene, hoping the greater exposure brings me...well, greater exposure!

One trip to the Baltimore area where we stayed for 4 nights, one of those nights partying with:

old friends from where we used to live! What great fun - Happy Hour at the old watering hole, followed by:

a fabulous Thai meal at a cool, hip, Annapolis place called Lemongrass. If you're a local and you like Thai, give it a try - especially the crispy green bean appetizer! And all of this:

without the kids! (Thanks Grandma and Poppy!)

And now? Let's see, one head cold (me), one stomach virus (my mom), more clutter around the house (thank you, Santa) and something new, as of tonight.....

one little boy named Matthew, sound asleep in his big boy bed, instead of his crib! We came home from Grandma's, pulled apart the crib, stashed it in the closet, put up the guardrails we'd bought months ago, and took him into his newly designed room. He looked around, and said "Where is it?" We told him, "It (the crib) went bye-bye, and now you sleep in the big-boy bed." We laid him down, turned out the light and voila.

And keeping our fingers crossed for the rest of the night!

Oh, and before I forget...New Year's Resolutions? Return to eating like we did from July until about the first week in December, when everything went to pot, I started Christmas baking and recall that huge pan of lasagna. Back to the healthy habits, starting tomorrow. And this year? Even more organic, more healthy, more self-sufficient. Hey, maybe we can plant a larger garden this spring, if we could just figure out how to bear-proof it.

And more time with the kids. Since school started, it seems like I've had less and less time - of course it's the busiest time of year, but now that we're heading into the slowest time of year, at least for us, it's time to really start setting aside more time for the boys, nurturing them, playing more with them, taking them cool places. Family is our most valuable asset, and we're so lucky to be so blessed.

So with that in mind, off to do some chores so I won't have to do them in the morning when my little guys are up and around.

Happy 2009 - I wish all peace and happiness!

What Was That Thing I Needed To Do?

2008-12-10T08:01:00.003-05:00

Around this time of year, I start to get frantic. Not because I'm not getting things done - I AM! But because of the list of things still left to do. And if I sit down and write it all out on paper, I get even more frantic, because then it's actually visible, this list, and while the joy of scratching something off is tempting, the fear of having to add two or three more things just wrecks it.

So I commit these "things to do" to memory, and then wind up waking up at 2:00am, saying to myself - now WHAT was that thing I needed to do tomorrow?

And the worst part? I am a relentless procrastinator. I don't know why I do this to myself, but I've learned over the years that I work much better under pressure. Only trouble with that is, I get high-strung having to deal with stuff at the last minute, and I get frustrated when the time I've allotted for each task actually winds up taking a bit longer than I anticipated, and then I truly do get behind with no time left to finish everything on the ubiquitous list.

Mark tries to help - he tries to put "early" pressure on me - pushing me a bit to get something started, get me off my butt, stop piddling. Sometimes it works. Sometimes just the momentum of getting started with something gets me on a roll. It's the idea of the task that shuts me down the most, not the actual "doing" it. Because for all my procrastinating - I'm also a finisher - that is, once a task is underway, I MUST COMPLETE IT.

After 38 years of living, you'd think I would have this down to a science, and would have learned to use my strengths and squash my weaknesses when things get busy. Well, the best I can say? I'm trying. I really am! Yesterday I got most of my Christmas cards written. I still need to write a few update letters for some of them - relatives we haven't seen in a few years usually get a letter. And last names beginning with Q through Z still await me. But what did I have to sacrifice to get A-P mostly done? Time with my boys. And I hate that. Jonathan in particular can almost sense when I need extra time to myself and I'm trying to get stuff done, because he picks those times to be especially needy. He wants to read, he wants to watch a movie with me, he needs a drink, he needs a hug. Then he comes in and stands next to my chair, silent, until I acknowledged him and said "Now WHAT?" And he says "Mommy, I just wanted to tell you I love you." Sigh. Well, that's sweet baby, but Mommy NEEDS to get this done!! That's what I thought. What I DID, was pull him up on my lap and cuddled for a bit. Then threw him out so I could get more done.

And right now? I'm procrastinating even more. SHOULD be getting food ready for an office party we're supposed to be attending this afternoon. SHOULD be getting more cards written. SHOULD be working on that update letter. SHOULD be making a list for the market with all the stuff I'm going to need for baking and for holiday meals and things I want to make ahead and freeze. SHOULD be putting in a few hours of work so I don't have to work tonight after dinner so we can finish decorating our Christmas tree. SHOULD start wrapping some gifts while Jonathan is out of the house at school. SHOULD do some more cleaning, more laundry. Oops. I said I wasn't going to write it all down, didn't I?

A Random Cleaning Tip

2008-12-04T11:49:00.004-05:00

With the approaching holidays, we're all looking for a shortcut or two, and when it involves cleaning, well, you've come to the right place! Don't get me wrong, my house is usually somewhere between needs a really good vacuuming and filthy squalor. It is never really and truly clean, and if it ever would be, it wouldn't last 30 minutes. But that doesn't stop me from trying. And those "trying" times usually occur right before Christmas, and sometime in the Spring if I'm really motivated. Everything else is just maintenance cleaning.

So right about now, I'm trying to get the house whipped into shape, and once again, I'm faced with 108 panes of Andersen window glass. Yes, you read right. 27 casement windows, front and back and the front and back of the storm panes as well. Not enough for you? Okay, add in a triple-sliding glass door, front and back, and 6 floor-to-ceiling panes, each one 4 feet across. I think they call them picture windows? I call them torture. Anyway, lots of glass. And with a southern exposure on most of it, that streak-free shine is tough to come by.

So here's my cleaning tip. Ditch the Windex. Nothing but crap. Forget wadded up newspaper, forget water mixed with vinegar. You want sparkly windows with no streaks, go to your local gas station and pick up a gallon of windshield washer fluid for $1.00. Voila! Get a clean rag or some paper towels and go to town! And the best thing, it takes like half the time because the washer fluid isn't greasy-feeling like Windex is, so it wipes away quicker. And it works well in all weather - and in bright sunshine.

How did I find this out? Sheer desperation. Those huge picture windows were just too much. We finally got a squeegee like the pros use, and I didn't have much Windex left in my bottle, so I spied the washer fluid sitting there in the garage, and dumped it into a bucket. Necessity truly is the mother of invention!

Oh, and one more tip. As a first step, get an old dish towel, wet it with plain water, wring it out well and wipe down the windows with that first. It removes the worst of the gunk that causes streaks in the first place, and loosens up stuff like bug poop and squashed bugs and the residue from the random bird vs. window crashes. Let that dry, and then just use the fluid to shine and sparkle.

Happy Cleaning! May all your windows be streak-free. This has been a public service announcement from the Society to Destroy Substances that Claim to Clean Windows But Really Don't. Have fun!

Who Needs an Alarm Clock, Anyway?

2008-12-02T08:32:00.002-05:00

He did it again. Jonathan. Gorilla lungs. Mark had already gotten out of bed and turned off the alarm/radio and ventured out to make coffee. Me? I didn't have to get up this morning - no school on Tuesdays for Jonathan and both kids were still asleep anyway, or so I thought. I drifted back to sleep, wrapped up in a tangle of blankets with the dog. Then the screeching began. I tried to ignore it for a few minutes. But then the "MOMMY!" started. It was pretty pathetic-sounding. He actually sounded scared. So I went to his room, opened the door, still mostly asleep, and there was my poor little guy, all curled up and hugging his stuffed dog, wailing that he had a bad dream.

What would any Mommy do? I got in bed with him, pulled him close, told him "Mommy's here." Then he tells me his dream was about an automatic gate. He went through it, and I didn't follow him. Hmmmmmmm. I guess that could be pretty frightening for a 4 year old?

I just find it somewhat amusing that my little guy's dreams don't usually involve monsters or things chasing him or the like. No. Rather, Mister anal/fastidious dreams things like his brother tore down his tower of blocks, or his room was messy, or in one instance, the room was upside-down. Oh well - guess I'd rather have him dream about that stuff than the monsters anyway. We all have our own monsters, right?

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse...

2008-12-01T12:47:00.002-05:00

...someone gets trampled to death in Walmart. If it wasn't so pathetic and tragic, it might actually be somewhat humorous, had the guy not DIED. Had the morons that ran him over not continued to shop, ignoring the requests of staff to leave the store so they could assess the situation. Had they not complained that they had stood in line for two days so they weren't going to stop shopping. People, when has a bargain been more important for the respect of human life?

Somewhere in between the wrapping, the decorations, the shopping, the baking, the parties, there has just got to come a time when people remember what the season is really about. And when that point is reached, then and only then can a peace settle over us, when we realize what all this madness is really about. It's about a tiny infant being born 2000 years ago. And all the gentleness and mystique that surrounds the story of that lowly birth, my friends, has NOTHING to do with a raging, out-of-control crowd, pushing their way into Walmart, trying to secure a bargain ahead of everyone else.

It IS tragic. But if one good thing can come out of it, let it be this: live your life as if it really mattered. Stay focused on what the important things are. Think before you act. And before you go and trample someone to death, consider if whatever you're after is really worth it.

Christmas Questions

2008-11-24T09:17:00.003-05:00

Okay, last one, I promise! Well, maybe. Depends on what it is. Feel free to copy and paste into your own blog - always fun to read what others have to say!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? A lot of both.
2. Real tree or artificial? Again, both. Last year we had our first artificial. This year, it's going up downstairs, while our main one in the living room will be real.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually about 2-3 weeks before Christmas.
4. When do you take down the tree? After the Epiphany which is usually on January 6th. MUST leave it up at least for the 12 days of Christmas!
5. Do you like eggnog? Gack. Anything with raw egg is gross.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? You can't be serious
7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad
8. Easiest person to buy for? The boys
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Of course. Several. We're Catholic.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Better not say - you never know who reads your blog!
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Home Alone
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Early November
14. Ever recycled a Christmas present? I'll never tell
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Treats! The homemade kind. I love everyone's special homemade cookies - ever notice that people tend to save their best baking for the holidays? "Oh, that's my great-aunt Helen's recipe!
16. Lights on a tree? Absolutely. This year I might go for the LCD's just to be different. LOVE putting up lights. LOVE sitting in the glow of the tree.
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night
18. Travel or stay home at Christmas? Usually travel. This year home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - a revelation!
19. Can you name all Santa's reindeer? Yes. Take my word for it.
20. Angel on top of the tree, or star? Two doves. This year I'd really like to find an angel, but so far they all look deranged.
21. When do you do presents? Christmas day.
22. Most annoying thing this time of year? Long lines, people acting like morons, parking lots, endless holiday parties with endless fattening goodies that you can't resist. Remember Great-aunt Helen?
23. Favorite Christmas dinner? Whatever is served and whatever I don't have to cook. I'm too busy!
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? For everyone to be WELL, and to have a good time and enjoy the most special time of year with each other. And to not gain 5 pounds.

The Bi-Annual Update

2008-11-19T10:17:00.002-05:00

Wow - time is going by so fast! With the upcoming holiday season, we are just swamped, and me with very little time to blog! But it's been over 6 months since my last update, so here's what's been going on with us lately.

Since my last update, we've had two major changes. First, Jonathan started pre-k, which I'll talk more about in a minute. Second, I started working again. I work from home, part-time as an independent contractor for an environmental firm. I do digital mapping, or GIS, and so far, it's working out great. Working from home certainly has it's challenges, but Mark's been great about watching the kids while I work in the evenings and sometimes a few hours on weekends. And it's only part-time, which means I can set my own hours and just work as much or as little as I want. So if you do the math and figure that I actually haven't eliminated anything in my life, but actually added a part-time job, you now know why my blog has been suffering lately. Hey, something's gotta give!

Jonathan is now 4 years, 8 months. He goes to school 3 mornings a week, and so far is doing very well. He loves it, looks forward to it, talks about it all the time and when he's home, he wants to "play" school, so I'm thinking the choice we made to go ahead and send him was a good one! It's a new chapter in our lives, for sure - pick-ups, drop-offs, school fund-raising, constant, constant communications from the school in the form of reams of wasted paper that gets sent hom every single day....sigh. They sent a full-year calendar of the school's events all the way back in August. I do not need to be reminded of them 16 more times with 16 more sheets of paper that is stuffed into Jonathan's backpack everyday. But I guess if that's my only complaint, then it's okay. In other Jonathan news - he's reading now, probably at a second or third grade level. How he got there, I have no idea. But I give him harder and harder books and he reads them straight through, and if he hits a word he doesn't know, he SOUNDS IT OUT. Ummm, who taught you phonics, Jonathan? When he's home, Jonathan has been showing a great interest in learning to cook and bake. Any long-time reader of my blog must know that this makes me happy - now if I could just get him to EAT what he makes, I'd be even happier! But so far, no dice. He started out assisting me with some recipes that I make all the time, like waffles and pancakes, but now he's been starting to look for recipes on his own and showing a desire to make them for others. Just last week, he found a recipe for oatmeal-raisin cookies in his book "Mouse Cookies and More", and with just a tiny bit of supervision, he made the whole thing himself, including cracking the egg! When I suggested he eat one of his cookies, he told me "No, Mommy, I made them for you!" Awwww. How to melt a mommy's heart in one simple step. So then, a few days ago at his school's book fair, the teacher sent home a list of books each child found and was interested in buying, so it was no great surprise to see at the top of Jonathan's list "Disney's Magic Kitchen Cookbook". What a cute book! Full of recipes geared toward kids with a Disney character on every page. How could I not buy it for him? Maybe this cooking craze will last, or maybe it will just be a passing thing. But knowing my little Jonathan, once he's hooked, he'll be hooked for life. Maybe he'll be a great chef someday.

Then, there's Matthew. Matthew is currently 2 years, 5 months. He is finally learning to talk, although he still seems to prefer his own language, which is most certainly not English. We're working on this, but haven't yet ruled out a little intervention if he hasn't made a lot of improvement by Spring. This is not to say he doesn't understand us! It's pretty obvious the child hears and understands every word we say, and, just like his brother, doesn't miss a thing. He just picks and chooses what he hears and goes with it! One of Matthew's favorite activities lately is sneaking into the bathroom, and emptying the contents of our vanity drawers into the trash can. Or knocking down whatever his brother just built. Or sneaking off with a non-washable crayon and decorating our walls. Or discovering the lid off of the liquid soap and fingerpainting the whole house with it. In other words, can you say Terrible Twos? But he's also the sweetest little snuggler you'll ever see - he loves to curl up with us and read or watch tv, or to just "be". In many ways, he's a gentle little spirit, but, like his brother, and I imagine many children his age, he has an agenda and he's sticking to it! Many a tear has been shed because Mark and I, and sometimes even Jonathan decide that we're not going along with the agenda, and it apparently breaks his heart!

I'm sorry to say the sibling rivalry hasn't gotten much better since the last update - there are days when the two of them are offended that they're each breathing the same air. But overall, I would think that things are maybe ever-so-slightly changing. The times when they actually play together and erupt into giggles and squeals may be catching up to the times when it erupts into screams and tears, so that's a step in the right direction. The biggest problem is that Jonathan is very independent, and Matthew likes to follow him around and do what he sees Jonathan doing. Hmmm, what's wrong with THAT picture?!

As for Mark and I? Well, you know about me. My busy is now even busier. And Mark, as a direct result, is busier too, but I can't say enough good things about a guy who comes home from working an 8 hour day, gobbles dinner, and then is responsible for watching the kids, bathing them every night, doling out the bedtime snacks, getting them into bed, and then cleaning up after them, i.e., picking up all the toys and putting them away, cleaning up all the sippy cups and bowls lying around, picking up their clothes, etc....whew, makes me tired just thinking about all that! But he does it, and lately he's been doing it every night. Sure, I'm there to intervene in a crisis - helping out with soap in someone's eyes or finding the one and only bath toy that's acceptable that evening. But Mark's a saint, I'll admit that, but only once! Mostly, he just knows, as I do, how fortunate we are to have this little arrangement where I can work from home, saving us all kinds of extra expense while actually providing us with more cash in these depleted economic times.

So there we are. Just re-reading this update before I save it and post it, I can't help but notice that if someone were to read this, and then ask to describe our family in one word, that word might be...well, not to overuse a word, but that word might be "busy." I'm guessing many families can be described this way these days, but I hope it doesn't seem like that's all we're about. Sure, we have a busy life, but we find time, or rather, we make time and plan time to be a family, to do fun things together, and to make it work. And it's ever-evolving. What worked for us 6 months ago isn't working now, and what's working now probably won't be working 6 months from now. So on that note, I'll check back in 6 months from now and re-assess where we are, then. In the meantime, stay tuned for holiday festivities, more cooking fun and yet another "getting to know you" - this time with a Christmas theme!

Yet Another....

2008-11-08T14:34:00.003-05:00

My cousin sent me another of those "getting to know you" things by email, so once again, I'll share it here in my blog. Enjoy!

1. What is your occupation right now? SAHM and part-time independent contractor GIS analyst for environmental firm (work from home)

2. What color are your socks right now? dark brown

3. What are you listening to right now? The sound of the two year old (not) napping while kicking his crib and playing his aquarium music, and the movie Ratatouille in the living room which is, for the moment, entertaining Jonathan.

4. What was the last thing you ate? A handful of vegan animal crackers I got from Trader Joe's that the kids WON'T eat.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? In a pinch, but it's been awhile and if I were you, I wouldn't trust me with your clutch

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Mark - I was out shopping and I told him I'd be home with carry-out for lunch!

7. How old are you today? 38

8. Favorite sport to watch on tv? ooohhh, tough one. NFL football, probably, but I like the olympics, too.

9. What is your favorite drink? Coke? Though I rarely drink it anymore.

10. Ever dyed your hair? Yes, if highlights count

11. Favorite food? whatever's cooking

12. Last movie you watched? That Thing You Do

13. Favorite day of the year? Christmas Eve

14. How do you vent anger? lock myself in somewhere and read or watch tv

15. Favorite toy as a child? my bike?

16. What is your favorite season? Fall

17. Cherries or blueberries? cherries

18. Living arrangements? 4 bedroom home I share with hubby, two sons and a dog

19. Last time you cried? Hmmmm...can't really remember...does that mean life is good?

20. What's on the floor of your closet? Lots of shoes and probably a matchbox car or two

21. Friend who will see with you've had the longest? Shannon

22. What did you do last night? Several hours of work at the computer, then found a movie on On Demand

23. What are you most afraid of? My husband or children getting injured or sick

24. Plain, cheese or spicy burgers? Cheese

25. Favorite dog breed? cute and sassy

26. Favorite day of the week? Friday

27. How many states have you lived in? 1

28. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

29. Favorite flower? whatever Mark plants in the spring for me!

Tuxedo-Black Christmas Tree?

2008-11-05T10:29:00.003-05:00

What will they think of next? In case you can't see it too well - this is an all-black Christmas tree. I actually saw one of these at Walmart yesterday. Black. With little white lights, but still, totally black. Am I the only one who thinks this is just a bit...strange?

Don't get me wrong - black has it's place, for sure. My first car I purchased with my very own money was black. By choice. Black clothing, black vehicles, black accessories (purses! shoes!) - all very elegant, very classy, very tailored. Love it.

But a black Christmas tree? Black TREE? I'm sorry, but when I think of black trees, I think of forest fires. Old, charred wood, blackened branches, leaves gone....

I understand not all trees need to be green, of course. White Christmas trees reminiscent of snow perhaps, and then there's the silver and gold trees, while not exactly true-to-life, at least they are festive and sparkly and have their place.

But Black. I just don't see this one catching on. And if it does, I guess I'm in for a major attitude readjustment, because I'm just not going to make it!

BOO!

2008-11-03T14:28:00.005-05:00

A very busy day Halloween turned out to be!! We started at Jonathan's school, where, despite my misgivings about 14 pre-k kids carving their own pumpkins, enough parents showed up to make it quite a success! And despite the fact that it LOOKS like Jonathan carved the pumpkin "all by himself", let's just say, he did MOST of it. Okay, SOME of it. He had a good time, and I did most of the finishing touches!

After carving, the kids got to climb into their costumes. Here, Jonathan is a tiger. I was surprised he decided to dress in this particular costume - I had borrowed a few from a friend, and he didn't seem to like the tiger much. But once we got to school and I showed him the choices I'd brought, that's what he picked.

And so they all lined up for a photograph - there's my little tiger all the way to the left. Then they had a big parade and a party in the classroom. Then, we got to take the little sugared-up goblins home. Oh, the joys of parenting!

The parade was outside this year - it was a stellar day - almost 70 degrees! Why am I chasing a pumpkin, rather than watching the parade? The pumpkin is Matthew. He decided he'd rather run around the track and the football field than wait for his brother to march by with all the elemetary school. So guess who gets to run him down?

Back home for dinner. Trick-or-treat started at 6pm, so while we got Jonathan into his SECOND costume of the day (for trick-or-treating, he decided to be the alligator/dinosaur), we let Matthew go to town on a cupcake. Mistake. By the time he was done, cupcake was everywhere. Oh well - what can you do right? We just put his costume back on - good thing they're washable!

We head outside to the yard for a few minutes, where the pumpkin takes off again. Daddy caught up to him trying to get into the shed! (Which, btw, we just a brand new coat of paint a few weeks ago! Sharp, huh?)

Finally, pumpkin AND dinosaur corralled, off we go.

It was truly a great night for trick-or-treating! The weather was great, and lots of neighbors were out and about. Mark and I both went with the kids - it probably would've been pretty hard for just one of us to manage both kids anyway - and we took a big basket of candy with us so when we met up with other trick-or-treaters, we would just give them the candy on the road and tell them not to bother going up our long, steep driveway because we weren't there! As it turned out, good thing we both went - those hills are steep! Between three things of candy, the wagon, the dog (another mistake, but we're learning!) and the two little guys, we about had our hands full! But the kids LOVED it and didn't even complain too much when Mark and I had finally reached our breaking point and told them we were going home: LAST HOUSE! When we got home, Jonathan stripped off his costume immediately, but Matthew stayed in his long enough for us to get a few pictures! Here's one of him checking out his loot, and another of him giggling over his brother's antics!

So anyway, that was Halloween '08. All in all, a great day for the little guys! We were thinking that since Halloween was Friday, then on Saturday we wouldn't make any plans, just let the sugar wear off and have a slow day. But that didn't happen! We got up the next morning, noticed the kids were really kind of "normal" and decided to take off for Morgantown to do some early Christmas shopping! We spent a long day messing around Barnes and Noble and Target and a few other places, mostly wasting time since we never seem to remember that taking both kids shopping with us is NEVER time well-spent. But we did manage to get a few gifts bought, another two or three researched and priced, and we finished the day with a stop at the West Virginia Brewing Company. Quick stop at Arby's drive through, and home we went. All in all - a great weekend! Looking forward to Mark having the day off tomorrow so we can get some more landscaping/yardwork done...did I mention we were KILLING ourselves in the yard these days? Happy November!

Chili and Scones

2008-10-28T08:49:00.004-04:00

The Fall Baking has been well underway here for a few weeks - I'm just behind on posts! This was last weekend's goodies - a huge pot of chili and some Fruit and Oatmeal Scones. We also made cut-out Halloween cookies, which are almost gone already, and of course, the requisite apple pie which was several weeks ago. AND, I made my very first pot roast with a beautiful 7 bone chuck roast cut from a grass fed steer. What could be yummier?

NOTHING like baking in the Fall. Hearing the wind blow, the leaves rustling, smelling the smoke from the chimney, coming in from a cool day with rosy cheeks and bellying up to a table with nice, hot, savory meal. Not to mention the good smells, the nice warm kitchen, the little children's faces that light up when they see a ghost-shaped cookie!

We're busy this week - we just had the grandparents visiting for the weekend and they left yesterday, and of course Halloween is on Friday. Jonathan has a big Halloween parade and party in school, and a pumpkin-carving party so meals this week might be a bit rushed here and there. But there's nothing like gathering the family around the table - actually any time of year, but this time of year it just feels special. Maybe because all summer we've been eating outside, half the time in our damp swimsuits, or picnicking somewhere. Bringing everyone back inside to the warm glow of autumn with all the fall colors, looking forward to the big holidays...to me, there's nothing like it. I love Fall. And all the sensory stuff that goes with it. I'm going to go light my gingerbread-flavored candle this morning and plan some meals for the week! And maybe, just maybe start my Christmas gift lists....

3's About Me

2008-10-24T19:21:00.005-04:00

My friend Shannon sent me an email with one of those "About Me" things - so rather than email it back and forwarding along, I'm putting it on my blog, just for fun. This one's called 3's About Me. Feel free to cut and paste into your own blog, but I'm not tagging anyone. Enjoy!

Three jobs I've had in my life:
1. Short order cook/crab slinger at carry-out seafood joint
2. Meat wrapper in butcher shop of local grocery store
3. GIS Analyst for 2 agencies of state government

Three people who email me regularly:
1. My friend Judi
2. My friend Jennifer
3. My mom

My favorite foods:
1. Pasta and {fill in the blank}
2. Brownies, cookies, pie, cake, need I say more?
3. Panini sandwiches, especially the ones with neat sauces, like pesto-mayo or sun-dried tomato aioli, etc...

Three places I've lived:
1. Maryland (Randallstown)
2. Maryland (Annapolis)
3. Maryland (Cumberland/LaVale)

Three shows I watch:
1. Cold Case
2. Survivor
3. Without A Trace

Three places I'd rather be right now:
1. Curled up with a book, a hot mug of something and NO interruptions
2. Hiking at Zion National Park
3. Someplace warm, sunny, refreshing and with plenty of free, reliable babysitters

Things I am looking forward to this year: (ummm, does this mean 2009?)
1. Great vacations with various family
2. Jonathan going to school FULL-time!
3. Matthew getting potty-trained

Things I dread having to do:
1. Going to the grocery store with both kids
2. Cleaning the inside of the mini-van
3. Scrubbing out the tub (yuck!)

The Devil Made Me Do It

2008-10-17T16:21:00.002-04:00

I just can't help myself. I promised myself I would ignore politics with my blog, and I tried. I really did. But this just beats it all and I just HAVE to pass it along. In case you can't see it all, there they are - Obama, some guy in jeans, Hillary, then the inset of the Palin family - and everyone but Obama saluting our flag, our nation, our patriotism with their hand over their heart like we were all taught in kindergarten. Everyone EXCEPT Obama. What's with that?

Notice here that I am not endorsing a candidate either way. I don't do that. Why? Because I know who I'm voting for. Because I care to be an informed American. See, I take my right to vote very seriously. And so I don't try to sway others to see my side. I believe this highly individualized right to vote that our forefathers gave us should be just that: individualized. If you care; IF you care enough to have a say in who should hold the most powerful position in this nation, then you should be able to research and decide for yourself which candidate would best be suited. You shouldn't be influenced any other way. It's a personal choice, based on personal morals, beliefs, priorties. Unfortunately, that's not the way this nation works.

Every time you turn around, there's some idiot in your face or on your tv or in the paper endorsing a candidate. Great. And by idiots, I do mean idiots. Take for instance, celebrities. First of all, if they knew anything about how the REST of America lives, they might just think differently, but no. They have their $5 million dollar mansions or $20 million dollar mansions or whatever, and they dare to pretend they know what's best for America? What America are you talking about? And really, who cares about your opinion, Paris, Britney, Matt, Cheryl or whoever? Paris, for instance...YOU videotaped yourself having sex and then got mad because it went out on the internet. Let's see, that puts you in the category of not being able to make a rational decision, so why would I even care what you think? Same goes for all of them. And while I'm on the topic, show of hands of everyone who thinks that Angelina and Brad would NOT have 6 children under 7 if they didn't have like 10 nannies? But I digress.....my point is, if you don't LIVE the American way of life, the America that 90% of the nation knows, then shut your pie-hole. Nobody cares.

The latest thing I just read: the media is in a quandry - what are they going to do on election night since they're so sure that Obama is going to have the election wrapped up by dinnertime that they won't have anything suspenseful to broadcast for the next 6 hours? What will they do? OH NO!! Gee, I don't know, maybe actually wait until all the results are in so we can avoid the embarrassing mess that happened let's see, 8 years ago? You would THINK that these geniuses might have learned something from THAT? Sigh. All I can say? Thank God for movie channels. Because that's most likely what I'll be watching election night if I watch anything at all.

So see? I wasn't Obama-bashing after all. Well, maybe a little bit, but it really wasn't my intent. I'm not sure what's going on with that photo - for all I know, it was doctored by the media as well. But it does make you think. Think. And that's all I ask of my fellow Americans. Don't be a lemming. Make up your own mind, based on your own research.

Some Random Photos

2008-10-17T10:09:00.006-04:00

Little boys eating breakfast one (must've been warmer) morning -- we haven't been in short-sleeved pajamas for a few weeks now! What's on the menu? Waffles, crayons and a parking garage, what else?

A walking stick. Which is a type of bug. They look like sticks - so if you see them in a tree where they're SUPPOSED to be, they're so camoflaged you can't even tell. THIS one was on our patio door and Mark can't resist photographing icky bugs. THIS walking stick looks more like a walking branch to me, but I've been told it's a female, and they're much bigger than the males.

Matthew indulging in the finer things in life - I managed to get the picture BEFORE he had ice cream up his nose, on his shirt, on the table, on the chair, in his lap, on the floor, you get the idea. We do lots of ice cream around here!

Watching the Raven's game! Every Sunday, Matthew and I put on our matching Ray Lewis jerseys and watch the game. We were relegated to the bedroom tv on this particular week because Jonathan and Mark were glued to the Redskins. Or maybe Jonathan was glued to Noggin and Mark was forced downstairs to the guest room tv. At any rate, why Noggin gets to be on the big flatscreen and we have to watch football games on the smaller, inferior tvs is a mystery. But that has been changing! Noggin is just as good in the bedroom, and we've added a little tv to the kitchen so I don't have to miss the action while I make dinner!

Actually, for Matthew, it's less about the game, and more about hanging out with Mommy, who apparently is all that and a bag of chips lately. Well, more like ever since he was born. Most of the time, it's cute and sweet, but other times, Mommy needs, well, a little quiet time, a little privacy. But they're only this little for so long, right? So for now, I'll endure the little guy, who might as well be one of those sticky little burrs I've been picking out of the dog's fur lately.

In other news, today I feel like baking. After three or four days of really nice weather - in the 70's - today is the start of what looks like the true beginning of cooler weather in these parts. Indian summer is over in a big way. So this morning, I'm baking up a batch of Toll House cookies for the boys, and then later on, I'm going to try this recipe for Fruit and Oatmeal Scones I found in one of my Pampered Chef cookbooks. Be a nice treat for the weekend with coffee while we sit inside with coughing kid(s) and watch the leaves swirl around outside. I'm also making a huge pot of chili for the weekend and beyond - and that means cornbread too! Can you tell I'm hungry right now!? I'll try to post some of the final product photos - I really miss blogging about my recipes and my fun in the kitchen!

Bloggin' in REAL Time

2008-10-15T20:22:00.002-04:00

Okay, thought I'd try something different, or, rather, try to distract myself less I run out the back door and scream at the top of my lungs into the crisp mountain air tonight. Why? I'm sitting here listening to Matthew scream and scream and scream. I put him to bed half an hour ago. He usually goes in fine - give him a sippy cup with some water, give him a little pat, cover him up, press the button on his little crib/aquarium/music thing and depart. Good for 12 hours. But lately, he's been having a few issues. Perhaps it's related to the two HUGE molars the kid's getting. This child grows the biggest teeth I've ever seen. Like horse-sized. He's getting his two bottom final molars and it's got to hurt. Or perhaps it's related to the hacking cough he's had since Monday. Or maybe it's because we've been babying him a bit (well, he IS a baby) and going into him lately, because a) he's getting molars and b) he has a cough. Somewhat of a circular argument, but I digress.

So half hour ago, I rocked him awhile, kissed his sweet little cheek, smelled his freshly washed head, snuggled in the rocker with him and he was fine. Then I made the supreme mistake of telling him it was bedtime and putting him in his little crib. It's been angst ever since.

So what to do? What to do? Go into him? Pick him up? NO. Will not do one bit of good - he'll just stop crying and then when I put him in again, he'll be hysterical another half hour. So how about going in and giving him a little pat? Nope. He's too old for that. Maybe would work on an 8 month old. But I know as soon as I walk in there, he'll shoot right up, hold his little arms up to be picked up and be all the more insulted if I don't actually pick him up. Sit here and listen to him cry more? Well, so far, it's done nothing except cause me stress. Nail-biting, self-hating, parental technique-doubting stress. I want to scream. He's still screaming.

By now, with the cold he's got, his face is probably soaked with tears and snot. His mattress sheet is probably soaked and slimy. He's probably all congested and has swollen eyes, face, etc....
WAIT. Haven't heard anything for about 30 seconds. Is he....giving up? Still quiet. Could he be falling asleep? Fingers crossed. Heart rate falling ever so slightly. Still quiet. Silence. Don't breathe. If I could whisper-type, I would.

While I'm waiting, let's talk about Ferber. Many people don't like him or his ideas about kids and sleep. I didn't think much of it until my very sanity was in question, then I bought his book. While the man isn't the genius some make him out to be, he does have some good ideas. And while "Ferberizing" your child can be emotionally painful, it does work in the long run. When Matthew was 8 months old, he was waking up to nurse 4-5 times a night, then sleeping half the day and not eating much through the day. It was the Ferber method that not only reversed that, but got him sleeping entirely through the night at about 8.5 months, without even a nursing break - something that Jonathan never gave up until he was completely weaned at one year. So ever since 8.5 months, Matthew's been sleeping through the night wonderful. Except in times of sickness, or if we're traveling or whatever. Jonathan? Well, we weren't so lucky with him - he started sleeping through at about a year old, but it was hit or miss. For the most part, we can't complain. Once they're actually ASLEEP, our kiddos sleep fairly well, and for that, I can be grateful.

And right now, I'm REALLY grateful, because Matthew is still quiet, so it looks like he's down for the count. Hope he stays that way - although it wouldn't surprise me if he needs a midnight round of motrin for his teeth. We had to do that the other night, and we fought our instincts tonight to give him a dose before bedtime. Maybe we should have!

Some Artwork

2008-10-15T08:56:00.008-04:00

Remember this? You might, if you're a long-time reader of my blog and/or on my Christmas card list -- this was the photo from the photo card that became our Christmas greeting from last year - Christmas 2007. Now take a look at THIS:

Nice, huh? That's my father-in-law's rendition of Jonathan, as he copied it from the photo. Mark's dad likes to draw, paint, etc...(I think he'd be mortified if I actually said he was an "artist" so let's leave it at that...). At any rate, he tinkers around and when he gave this to us a week or two ago (a total surprise), I was touched. Nothing like original art of your children, no less. I'm going to frame it and hang it up here shortly. Not sure exactly where yet, but we'll figure it out.

But the story doesn't end there. Jonathan understands what the photo is all about and I think he was pretty impressed with the fact that Grandpa drew a picture of him and for him....so the other day, he asked for a piece of paper and a pencil so he could draw a picture for Grandpa. This is what Grandpa is going to get when they come for a visit in a few weeks:

A little person of some sort:

A caterpillar:

And a butterfly: (don't you love the way everything has a face?)

And there's the little artist with the whole array of drawings - there's a few more things on there - the top thing is supposed to be a couch and the thing down to the right is a house with steps leading up the side....he wasn't too happy with the way they looked so he didn't "name" them.

So not bad for a four year old. Better than I could do myself - could he have inherited the art gene that seems to have skipped right over Mark? And trust me, it didn't come from me - I am the most hopelessly deficient person when it comes to artistic ability ever. So we'll have to see what comes of this - in the meantime, I'm going to get him some new arts and crafts things for Christmas and see what transpires!

Oh, and PS - sorry about the little blog vacation recently. I've been up to my neck in all kinds of stuff, and blogging has sort of taken the backseat to some other priorities. But if you know me, you know I can't keep my mouth, well, fingers, shut for too long, so stay tuned and I'll be adding more regularly again!

Buzz, Buzz

2008-10-01T22:36:00.003-04:00

Busy as bees we are - sorry I haven't had much time to blog these last few days. Work meetings, kid stuff, fall yardwork, football games -- so many activities, so little time!

Stay tuned for more, coming your way very soon!

And School Starts to Pay Off

2008-09-24T10:07:00.002-04:00

My good friend, the one with 5 boys, told me last year when I was particularly frustrated with Jonathan's behavior "don't worry, once he starts school, things will change for the better." Who was I to argue? She certainly has experience in those matters. But secretly, I was thinking, what better child to defy a generation's worth of the inevitable? Jonathan would be sure to be the one holdout in a classroom of compliant children.

But happily, and with extreme caution, I can report that already, we're starting to see some of those changes. It started early. He had only gone to school one or two days, when I stopped hearing "pee-pee-potty." Now he tells me he has to use the "bathroom", and the other day, he excused himself from the dinner table, announcing he had to use the "restroom". Good heavens, who are you and what have you done with Jonathan?

Unbelievably, he has earned his gold stars every single day, even the day when he apparently fell off his seat in the computer lab - he still got a gold star along with a note from the teacher to "please work on teaching Jonathan to sit on his bottom". Mark and I shared a quiet chuckle over this one, after all, if Jonathan is even IN a chair, it's a victory.

The other day, Matthew was (supposedly) taking a nap and I was telling Jonathan to please keep quiet. We were walking down the hallway toward the kitchen, and I reminded him yet again to not run like a herd of cattle, when he turns around and tells me he's going to teach me a song. He puts his finger to his lips and starts whisper-singing "Quiet as a mouse, here we go...quiet as a mouse on tippy-toe...." all the while tip-toeing up the hall past Matthew's door. Whoa. Amazing.

He even likes to play school. He'll get the whole living room set up as a classroom, and calls the kitchen the "cafeteria". He plans a lesson! He announces it's reading time, or time to learn numbers or letters (he has these posters and he'll point to each number or letter and "teach" me what they are). Then there's "game time", coloring time, etc... All the while, he's the teacher, of course, and you never saw a child so still, so focused, so poised. He could play school all afternoon, if I let him. I indulge him a bit - I'll pour a cup of coffee and go in and learn my letters again. But I've now realized that we can also "learn" things like "how to unload the dishwasher" and "cleaning up the classroom before your brother wakes up and finds the crayons and colors on every surface we have, including the LCD screen tv". And HE DOES IT. Happily. With no WHINING!

I realize this is all part of growing up. But I don't think it's a coincidence that all these nice changes have come about just 3 weeks into him starting pre-k. So for now, I'm grateful, and looking forward to even more changes ahead!

You've Got to Be Kidding...

2008-09-19T09:35:00.002-04:00

So I read this article just the other day. I can't even remember where it was - but very possibly it might have been August or September's issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Yes, I get it. No, it doesn't help me make MY home and garden better, but we can dream, right? So there's this article about stay-at-homes. How in the past, a stay-at-home spouse was in a position to be coveted - after all, it usually meant that the family was so well-off, one spouse could afford not to work and had the "luxury" of staying home. It talked about the fact that some families don't do it for "monetary reasons", rather, they enjoy the fact that one spouse can stay home and handle the day-to-day affairs of the household, leaving their evenings and weekends free to have fun. Of course, they had an example - an interview with a family - one spouse stayed home - can't remember which one, but Monday and Friday were "errand" days, Tuesday was grocery day, Wednesday was laundry day and Thursday was cleaning day. "It all works out so well!" they gushed - they have the weekends free, no errands to run, no groceries to buy, food is there and prepared.....ok. So what in the world is wrong with this picture? As if setting aside an entire day to shop for groceries and an entire day to do laundry isn't ridiculous enough, this couple HAS NO CHILDREN.

Okay. You have no kids. And you still need all that time to get your day-to-day household business done? C'mon people, are you nuts? After all, how long does it actually TAKE to do the laundry for two people, one of which stays home?! Presumably, that's at least one person that doesn't need to be ironing and laundering special-care items that one would wear to work say in a business setting. And gee, does it REALLY take a whole Tuesday to shop for groceries for two people who actually EAT their food rather than sulk petulantly at the plate in front of them full of a carefully prepared meal that will eventually wind up in the trash?

I remember when Mark and I were just a couple. Our little family of two - we lived in a townhouse in Annapolis, we both worked at the same office, we commuted together, we played co-ed volleyball, we went out to eat with our friends, and SOMEHOW, we managed to get our laundry done, procure food for the house, and STILL had plenty of time to keep the place neat and orderly, and weekends were awesome - I still remember we used to have friends over, go out of town, go to the beach for the day, visit parents - I never once remembered staying home on weekends because OH NO - we both worked, therefore we had to go grocery shopping and pick up the dry-cleaning and it took an entire Saturday!

So I'm a little unimpressed with the logic. "Getting things done so the weekends are free" doesn't seem like a valid reason to be a stay-at-home. Take some advice from someone WITH kids, where's it actually an advantage to be a stay-at-home. We get all that stuff done, too, during the week. We drag our screaming, protesting, picky-eating, whining, and half the time, coughing and sneezing kids with us to the grocery store, the dry cleaners, the bank, the liquor store, etc... We do laundry when we can - throw in a load at 6am, by the time you're ready to leave for school or the library or wherever, it's ready to go in the dryer, fold it at midnight. And cleaning? Well, it's an ongoing thing. Maybe our homes aren't in Better Homes and Gardens (HA!) but things do get picked up, and the vacuum does get run once in awhile.

I'm not saying families of two shouldn't have a stay-at-home. Just please don't try to tell me the whole week is just filled to the brim with "errands" and "running the house." I'm thinking that there must be an awful lot of bon-bon eating going on!

Trouble A-Brewin'

2008-09-17T10:03:00.003-04:00

If you've ever had kids of any age, but particularly, 4 and 2 year old boys, you know that this is nothing but trouble. Jonathan is allowed to use the computer - he has his own log-in (the others are password-protected) and he knows how to get it set up. He loves Noggin.com to play games, to draw and paint and to see his television friends come alive on the screen. But if there's one thing Jonathan does NOT do well, it is sit down, on his bottom, on the chair. He even got a notation about it from his pre-k teacher, apparently because he fell off his chair while in the computer lab at school. So, here he is, half-on, half-off the chair, and Matthew decided to take full advantage.

The miracle here, is that for one, Jonathan even LET him climb up there in the first place. Usually, Jonathan will not tolerate the intrusion and shove him down before he can even get half a leg up. And the other miracle is that Jonathan actually tolerated it for a LOT longer than I ever thought he would. Hmmmm, could pre-k be making a difference? I removed Matthew in a pre-emptive strike - Jonathan never once complained about him. Of course, Matthew was sitting quietly and watching, not pulling Jonathan's hair for a change, and not grabbing for the mouse -- very uncharacteristic for my terrible-two!

More Thoughts on Recycling

2008-09-15T15:29:00.003-04:00

A comment on my previous post inspired me to continue with the recycling theme. There's some history here, and a few questions. The first question is (or was): is the message getting through? Are people "getting" it? Are they understanding that recycling helps the environment, and can also help out with the "bottom line?" A good question, but here's an even better one: what are the communities and local governments doing to inspire people to reduce their own waste and embrace a more conservationist attitude?

Let's wind the clock back a few years. Okay, 15 years. Eek. I worked in Annapolis, in a cube for state government. So did a few friends. One of these friends used to stroll by my office almost daily, come in, peer into my trash, remove anything recyclable and take it with her to heaven knows where. To her credit, she didn't end our friendship over it. But nor did a few dirty looks and heavy sighs on her part convince me that I needed to put myself out long enough to go figure out what in the world she was doing with my empty Coke cans and then go do it myself.

Fast forward a few years. Mark and I bought a townhouse in Annapolis, and one of our first housewarming gifts courtesy of the Anne Arundel county government was a brand-spanking new blue recycling bin. We could set it out on the curb once a week loaded with a mishmash of bottles, jars, paper....we didn't even have to sort! How easy was that? And wow, it was free!! Well, as free as county taxes could be considered free, but let's not get off the topic. They also picked up our trash once a week, so who could complain? Then we moved to Allegany. Uh-oh.

Guess what? Allegany doesn't pick up trash. Nor do they give you shiny blue bins for recycling. Nope, you haul it yourself. Now some very enterprising folks bought some dump trucks and offer their services - curbside, that is, for a nice fee. We resisted for a few years, but finally gave in - after all, those disposable diapers (did I say that!) can get stinky in between trips to the local landfill, and don't smell too great in the back of a mini-van either. And recycling? Well, I must say, although they don't provide pick-up, the county seems to do a pretty good job of providing many places to recycle many things. Cans, bottles, plastics, newspapers, cardboard, motor oil, magazines, you name it. And unbelievably, half the time, the bins are so full you can hardly get your stuff in! Which begs the question: are there that many forward-thinking folks in this little mountain county? Or could there be...another reason?

Well, let's pick it apart a minute. Let's see, we have to contract our own trash pick-up. They come twice a week in this neighborhood. They'll take just about anything, but their unwritten rule is no more than 6-8 bags a week. Big stuff you still need to take to the landfill yourself. For the people that don't contract the pros, you pay 50 cents a bag (40 gallon maximum) to haul it yourself and heave it into these gigantic dumpsters at three or four dump sites around the county. You have to buy these bright orange tags at local vendors and stick them to each and every bag. With me so far? But guess what? Recycling is FREE. You can drop off plastic bottles, glass bottles, paper, all that, as much as you want, for free. So let's do the math. If a family of four generates 2-3 bags of recyclables a week in addition to regular trash, that's $1.50 a week at the landfill, well boy howdy, that's almost $80 a year saved by recycling alone. Effortless.

I'd say the Allegany County government has given families a bit of incentive to recycle, no? Let's see some other local governments start putting some surcharges on the amount of trash you're allowed to leave by the curb, and watch how many folks take a second look at the value of recycling.

Save Some Money, Save The Environment

2008-09-12T08:37:00.002-04:00

With all the talk about rising costs here and every newspaper and magazine carrying articles about how to reduce use and stretch the dollar we're re-thinking our daily lives and have come up with some ways to reduce in our own home. This is by no means a complete list, just some of the things we've done recently. Every day I try to think how I can save more, or do just one more little thing that will translate into a bottom-line savings by the end of the year, either for us, or for the environment. So here's some ideas - if anyone has any more, let me know!

Reduce the plastic-bag-at-the-market waste: I've purchased 4 or 5 of the re-usable bags from the grocery store - the ones I got from Trader Joe's are the best! Did you know that you can fit 3 or 4 times the amount of "stuff" in them? So rather than bringing home 10 flimsy plastic bags that rip and tear, you bring home 3 or 4, and there's no waste. And occassionally, if I do get a drippy pack of chicken, I'll put that in a plastic bag, sure. But then when I get home, that plastic bag gets used as a liner for Matthew's trash can where his diapers go, or a liner for the bathroom trash can.

Light bulbs - I never thought I'd do it - I hated flourescent light. But the ones they have out now you can hardly tell the difference! There's a slight delay when you flip the switch, but after that it looks just like incandescent. Yes, they're tons more expensive at the outset. But they last for years, and save you money for every minute they're on.

Paper towels - whew we do go through some paper towels around here. But lately I've challenged myself to see how FEW I can use in a day, or a week. Whereas I used to make a salad and use one to catch all the peels, seeds, etc..., I now just use a cereal bowl and scrape the bowl right into the trash. Where I used to use one or two to clean up the kids after a meal, I now use a separate dish rag and launder it every other day or so. And spills? Well, why NOT dirty up a clean dish towel and toss it in the laundry? That's what they're for! I surprised myself - I tried to go a whole week by only using one paper towel a day, and wound up only using about 4 the whole week!

Plastic baggies - okay, ziplocs have their place, for sure. And we try to re-use them whenever we can and whenever it's practical. But when you're packing lunches and putting sandwiches, chips, fruit, etc...ALL into little individual zip-loc or other plastic bags, that's a bit of a waste. I try to now use waxed paper for most stuff - it's more biodegradeable. And I've purchased some re-usable plastic containers for things like sandwiches and snacks...not the MOST environmentally friendly choice - plastic to replace plastic...but at least it's not winding up in a landfill everyday.

The dishwasher - HAS an air dry cycle. We never used to use it. We do now. If we run a load after dinner, before we go to bed we remember to crack open the door to the washer and voila! By breakfast time, all the dishes are dry. If I have to run a load after breakfast, I do the same thing and they're dry by dinner. We also never run half-loads, and we never bother with pre-rinsing - it's just not necessary anymore. We also have an Energy-Smart dishwasher - courtesy of the previous owners of this home, so at least I can feel good about that!

Leftovers - this may be a no-brainer, but in the pre-kid days, we used to eat out so much that leftovers would go to waste too often. I can recall pulling the trash can over to the refrigerator and just dumping huge loads of food. Occassionally, I still need to "clean out the fridge" where I'll find a half of a lime leftover from a recipe where I only needed a tablespoon of lime juice, and a jar of salsa that is about 1/4 full and a bag of carrots that has one or two carrots that are starting to turn black. But usually, that's about it. Leftovers around here get eaten. Mostly it's because we eat out less, so there's more opportunity to get creative with last night's dinner. But more often, it's because in my head, I usually have a plan when I cook. I make herb chicken breasts one night, and the next, I'm cutting up the leftover chicken and sprinkling it in a salad. I also go to the market with list in hand, dinner ideas scrawled out in some fashion. It doesn't ALWAYS work out, but it's gotten MUCH better over the years!

So there it is. The list is ever-evolving. Some things we've always done like using cloth diapers part-time, and turning out lights when we leave a room, and setting the timer on our thermostat. But other things, we've needed to make some adjustments. Hope this list inspires you a bit!

The BACONATOR

2008-09-08T12:50:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I was sitting around watching some tv this weekend...I know, I know, real inspiring. But let me back up - Jonathan woke up with a cold on Friday morning and wound up missing his second day of school....I don't know who was more disappointed, him or ME! And in my quest to have him healthy and ready to return to school Monday (today), we layed pretty low this weekend. Hung out at home, I cleaned the laundry room, we watched some football (take THAT, Ocho-Stinko!) and caught some House episodes (that's a cool show!) since USA was running a House Marathon all weekend.

So on comes this commercial for Wendy's new sandwich, the Baconator. As if the name wasn't bad enough. Two "beef" patties, cheese, SIX slices of bacon...whatever. WHEN are the people in this country going to learn? Every time you turn around, there's some new huge load of food just ready to be purchased. Combo meals, combo platters, pick 5 for $5. Blah, makes me feel bloated just thinking about it. And the marketing agencies love it. The bigger they can make it look on tv, the juicier, the more crap they pile on, the more people will set aside their remote, grab their keys and dash out the door so they can wrap themselves around the latest pile of calories and saturated fat and then whine because their pants don't fit.

Don't get me wrong, my BMI needs a little work, and I address that every day. But it's only within the last year or so that I really started to be disgusted with the fast food industry. These people don't care about you, not one bit. Oh, they may claim they do! "We do it all for you". Yeah, right! What? Give you heart disease? Bigger burgers, bigger fries, "up"-sizing, "Do you want to "round that up?" (heard at Roy Roger's drive-thru recently), "super-value" combo meals...does it ever end? Remember the Shaq-Attack meal they had at BK some years ago? I swear that burger was like 8 inches in diameter. And with all the health issues and the media focusing on better eating and childhood obesity, you would think these national chains would get a clue. But no. And why? Because people are still eating there!

And the response of the fast-food industry: salads. Great. Okay, so I'm going out for a meal, presumably in a hurry or need the convenience, and I'm in my car....yeah, a salad is just perfect. Just the easist thing in the world to eat while whizzing down the highway at 65. Plus, if you add it all up, you realize you just paid $5.49 for something you can make at home, literally for about 90 cents. Yeah, they do it all for you all right.

Oh, yes, thank you Arby's for putting some deli sandwiches on your menu. Thank you for giving us another option that doesn't involve a fried burger on a white bun with cheese. Hmmmm, have you ever seen the nutritional information for these so-called "healthier" options? Most of Arby's new sandwiches are close to or over 700 calories and average 30 grams of fat. Add some curly fries and a Jamocha shake, you're talking enough food for two days for the average American.

I try. I really do. As a family, we eat very, very little fast food. When we do, it's usually breakfast since the kids really love their McPancakes. And chicken fingers and fries are easy to eat in the car for them and if I'm sick of making peanut butter sandwiches every day. But Mark and I have learned. We bring along a power bar or something, and get a coffee and watch the kids eat, or we'll go through the drive-thru to get the kids' food, then go get some sandwiches at the local deli and everyone's happy. And even the kids are limited. No more than once a week, and even that rule may need to be refined a bit. Don't want to be raising kids that when their pediatrician asks them what they like to eat, they say "Baconators!"

Our Little School Boy

2008-09-04T14:44:00.005-04:00

Just before getting into the car:

Now we're in the car, ready to go:

Just before we picked him up at lunchtime - he wasn't done coloring his fish:

The final product - his first art project! Not bad for 4 years old!

And that elusive gold star for good behavior. I'm still convinced she mixed up Jonathan with some other little boy -- we'll see how it goes from here on out!

So there's the pics of the first day of school. A good experience for all of us! Let's just hope the rest of the year goes as smooth.

Today being Thursday, he didn't go, of course, but he is happily looking forward to going tomorrow. Today, though, we had to go to traffic court. Hmmmmmm....why, you ask? Well SOMEONE got a speeding ticket in July. Who? Well, it wasn't Mark, and Jonathan and Matthew don't drive yet. So who does that leave? Luckily, Mark's office is in the same building as the court, so he was able to watch the boys while I went upstairs and got probation for 6 months for going 81 in a 65. Oops, next time I won't ~~get caught~~ speed! They shouldn't be allowed to pull over moms in mini-vans. I wish some of these troopers would get the opportunity to drive ALONE with two children age 4 and under for 2 and a half hours. They would let mini-vans slide by the radar for the rest of their career!

Jonathan's First Day of School

2008-09-03T12:44:00.003-04:00

Well, today was the day. Mark still has the camera, so I can't download the pictures, but I will later this week. How did it go? I would say....GREAT!

We started early: Mark and I were up at 6:30, sucking down coffee, me making waffles - the one thing Jonathan was guaranteed to eat in a hurry. By 6:50, we woke Jonathan, and Mark dressed him and sent him out to me, little sleepy bed-head guy. I gave him a waffle, noticed the clock said 7:00 and realized I could breathe. Mark then woke and dressed Matthew (what a great hubby!). I put Matthew's breakfast on the table, finished packing Jonathan's lunch, ate my own breakfast, washed some dishes, cleaned the countertops, brushed my teeth, washed some faces, combed some hair, supervised a potty trip, and poured a cup of milk for Jonathan. Time check: 7:25. Perfect. Into the car. WAIT! Stop for pictures!

By this time, everyone was fully awake, including the sun on what looked like a gorgeous day in the making, thank goodness. All we needed was pouring down rain, right? Not to be - it was sunny and bright.

Everything was smooth, the morning was flawless. Dropped him off at his classroom, and the one who had a meltdown was Matthew, who was horrified that we were LEAVING! I think Matthew wanted to stay with his big brother in that big, bright room full of cool toys! But Jonathan was great - he found an immediate friend and started playing with some train tracks, and when I told him goodbye, he threw me a little wave and said "Bye Mommy!" and went right back to his trains. Thank God. I didn't expect tears or hesitancy - after all, I know my Jonathan, my little social butterfly and I knew he'd fit right in. And all the excitement of the morning didn't give me time for remorse.

Mark and I picked him up together - we peeked in the classroom to see a room full of little ones, all sitting nicely and quietly, eating their lunches and coloring their pictures. Even Jonathan was still, quiet, compliant. Here I thought he'd be the one running amuck while all the other kids would be sitting nicely. He even got a star for good behavior! Does this teacher have a magic wand?

And then he came out of the room, backpack in one hand, lunchbox in the other. His face lit up when he saw us and he smiled, and as we walked toward the door, he turned and said "I love school". Enough said. I'm not sure there's a happier mommy anywhere right now!

My How You've Grown

2008-08-28T22:26:00.003-04:00

This is Jonathan. In wading back through a bunch of pictures, I found this one, and it's as far back as I can access right now. I'm guessing he's about 14 or 15 months here. He's now 4 and a half, and will be starting pre-k in a few days, and while I find myself alternately happy as a clam and a nervous wreck, I've resigned myself to just not think about it the next few days, and just go with whatever hits me that first day.

But in the meantime, I'd like to do something different, and share with you Jonathan's birth story. This huge milestone in his life takes me back to the day he was born, when I held him and wondered what time would bring. And since this blog is meant to be a journal of sorts, it wouldn't be complete without a story of how he came into the world.

It was a cold, snowy morning in March in Annapolis, MD, where we lived at the time. I was past my due date, and getting more and more anxious as the days went by, and more and more uncomfortable. The previous morning, I had visited my OB who told me I was about 3 cm dilated, but because it was my first baby, they weren't ready to push things along yet. If, she said, by Friday, this baby hadn't arrived, I would come in, and we would schedule an induction for the following week. Well, the next day was Wednesday, and at 4am that morning, I woke to a gush of water - my water had broken. I, of course, didn't know this, I thought I had rolled over in bed and wet myself. I proceeded to spend the next hour in the bathroom, alternately standing and sitting, trying to decide if I was still wetting myself, or if it was truly what I thought it might be. By 5am, I woke Mark. And by 6, I was on the phone with the OB. No, I wasn't having any kind of contractions. Yes, I was pretty sure it was my water. Go to the hospital at 8, she said. So for the next two hours, I called my parents, emailed my boss, some friends, some family, and sat by with Mark, watching the gentle snow fall on an ever-lightening, but pretty gray and cold day.

By 8:30, we had not only arrived at the hospital, but they had determined that yes, indeed it was my water that had broken, had gotten me checked in, assigned to a room and ready to go. But I still wasn't having any contractions. By 9:30, they decided I needed pitocin. And by 10, I was having contractions. Mild at first, then they started getting worse. They kept upping the amount of pitocin to increase the contractions, and finally, around 2pm, I was in full-blown labor. Trouble was, I wasn't having an easy time with the contractions, go figure, and I was still dilated only to 3. I tried a pain med, but all it did was make me dizzy. So there I was, still in the worst pain ever, and now dizzy on top of it.

By now, it was 3:30 and I was in agony. The nurses wanted me to walk, but I flat-out refused - I could hardly stand up, much less walk. My OB approved an epidural and it was immediately put in by about 3:45pm. God Bless epidurals. God Bless anesthesiologists. Relief!!! It was immediate, and it was wonderful. In one hour and 45 minutes, I went from 3cm to 10cm, and at 5:30, I started to push. Little did I know, the hard part had just begun! For the next two hours, I pushed, I heaved, I played tug-of-war with the nurses with their little rolled-up towel-ropes, I pushed until I thought my head would explode. Luckily, there was no pain. Zero. But I was sucking oxygen in between contractions, and I was exhausted. When he finally crowned, the OB, of course, was nowhere to be found. The nurses said - "just go ahead and breathe through the next few contractions until she gets here", which I did for the first one or two, but after that, I told them to get that OB in that room or I was pushing that baby out myself. My, that OB did appear quickly after that!

About a minute later, Jonathan entered the world....8 lbs, 2 oz, 21 inches long. It was a little after 7:30pm and I was just wiped out. But he was here, he was healthy, and that's all that mattered. Thankfully, his birth was an uneventful one. We had some issues later 0n - I was pretty sore and couldn't really sit down for about 3 weeks. And Jonathan had some inflammation in his neck called torticollis. But 8 weeks later we were back to our new normal, and since then, I can't believe all that has happened, and I can't believe in a few days, I'll be sending him out into the big world. He'll always be my tiny baby, my firstborn, that little guy I fought so hard to bring into the world.

Good luck, Jonathan, our little son. Get used to it early, since you'll be doing it for the next 13 years!

Educational Road-Kill

2008-08-26T15:02:00.002-04:00

We took a trip to Altoona, PA this past weekend. Needed to do some shopping for Jonathan since he starts school next week. Why Altoona, you ask? Well, it's about an hour, maybe slightly more, away from us. It has many, many large retailers all close together, it's a nice drive, and Pennsylvania doesn't tax clothing. Hmmmm, so while we spent a ton more on gas than we saved on tax, we still got a nice outing, a nice drive, perfect weather and lunch at Olive Garden, which is pretty unusual for us (unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks for $5.99 - can't beat it)!

So we get on Rt. 220 North toward Altoona, and the road-kill begins. A squirrel here, possum here, porcupine up a few miles....this is nothing unusual, for some reason Pennsylvania doesn't get to their road-kill very quickly, if at all. We generally do see a LOT of dead animals along this route - maybe because a lot of trucks rumble through at night, but that's just a guess.

So we're crusing along, and we pass what looks like a fairly large animal, dead, of course, but we whizzed by so fast, we didn't really see exactly what it was. It started a debate between Mark and I for at least the next 5 miles. It was big, yes. Not a deer though - the fur was too long, too shaggy. A bear? Wrong color. Around here we have black bears, not grizzlies or brown bears. Ummmm, a rug that fell off the back of someone's pickup truck? :-)

Unable to reach a conclusion, we let it drop. Until late that afternoon, on the way home, when all the sudden, we remembered. Luckily, we hadn't passed it yet. We started looking, we slowed down. There it was. Wow. Bear. Definitely bear. But....again....wrong color. What the heck?

Well, guess what? Black bears do actually come in different colors, one being what they call "cinnamon". And upon researching it when we got home, we found that only 1% of the bear population in Pennsylvania is cinnamon in color. It isn't often you see a road-kill bear. It's not often you see a bear, period. So, road-kill aside, it was pretty neat to see one, particularly of that color.

And if you haven't blogged about road-kill, you just aren't blogging!

Did You Hear THIS Olympic Story?

2008-08-24T20:08:00.003-04:00

Yeah, I indulged in a little of the summer olympics. Despite all the negative propaganda about the Chinese government, under-age gymnasts and the computer-enhanced opening ceremonies, you can't deny that watching the games and getting to know a little about the athletes is just plain interesting. And growing up in Baltimore, I'm especially fond of Michael Phelps, I mean, who wouldn't be? The guy is amazing. So it was with a bit of disappointment the other day as I was reading a commentary from Amanda Beard...remember her? Swimming sensation herself from either Athens or Sydney - can't remember, but probably Athens (2004 Games). Anyway, I remember watching her swim and of course, like many Olympic atheletes, hadn't heard another word about her in the mainstream media since then. Until a few days ago.

Amanda Beard just recently posed nude for PETA. Why PETA needs someone to pose nude is beyond the scope of my intellectual capabilities, but I digress. Anyhow, during a subsequent interview, she was questioned about her "dealings" with Michael Phelps. Only being privy to a very short segment of the whole interview, one is led to believe they are talking about romantic dealings, and presumably those that may have occurred during the Athens games. The interviewer asked some pretty personal questions, let's just say the question was as personal as you can get with dealings between a man and a woman....got it? Okay, so here's Amanda. I don't know the girl, don't even know much about her. But her response was something akin to "No way. Ewwwww. He's nasty...."

Real nice, Amanda. I mean, sure, not EVERYONE can be Brad Pitt. But let me tell you something, sweetheart, you ain't no Angelina Jolie yourself. So before you go calling someone else "nasty", take a good long look at yourself in the mirror...and not just your looks. Give your character a once-over as well. Because despite how you may feel about someone, it's really not nice to say such things, and trust me, nobody thinks you're cool. About all you accomplished is making yourself look like an ass.

A tip for Amanda: next time, let's try to have a little respect for our peers, shall we? Never know when it's going to come back and bite us in the (bare) butt.

LaVale's NEW McDonald's

2008-08-22T10:24:00.004-04:00

Imagine this: you pack the kiddos into the car, promising McNuggets and fries for lunch, head to the local McDonald's, and when you get there, the McDonald's is....a pile of rubble. Yes, this actually happened to us - April or May I believe it was. No worries, at least, not too many. There are 4 other McDonald's within reasonable mileage of our home, and we could wait a few months while they renovated. Why did they renovate? Well, apparently, the MickeyD corporation felt the structure was outdated. Since it had been built before the drive-thru era and the drive-thru had to be subsequently retrofitted, the parking lot configuration was a bit awkward, and evidently, so was the interior since the employees had to go down steps to enter the drive thru area themselves. This, plus it seems many McDonald's are getting a face-lift these days I'm guessing triggered their decision to knock the whole thing down and start again from scratch.

Well, guess what? They just reopened. Must've happened just as we got back into town. On Wednesday, I took the kids to see what it was like. Oh boy. Not sure what Ronald was thinking here. First of all, it's smaller. This is not good. If you've ever seen this particular McD's the morning of a WVU home football game, everyone and their brother on their way to Morgantown wearning navy and gold piles in and you can barely get in the door. And when Fall color starts in the mountains. And when summer weekends begin at the lake. This is a busy little place, all year round. And not only did they make it smaller, the seating configuration is just...stupid. Where they could've put in a ton of seats, they've got this artsy, semi-circle configuration of booths and tables facing a giant-screen tv...hmmmm...just what I needed as I ate my fast food, more television.

But wait - they've got the McCafe now. Now you can order Cappuccino and McLatte. And Iced McMocha. Which I tried, only because I was given a free sample. Now I'm not a fan of iced coffee to begin with, but...it just wasn't that great. Very sweet. Too sweet. So when the guy passing out the free samples noticed me tossing mine into the trash (oops!) he approached me. Asked me what I thought. I told him - too strong, too sweet. He says "too strong coffee or too strong chocolate?" Chocolate, I told him. He smiles and says, well, that's because they're putting extra shots of chocolate in all the mochas so people will "like them better". Whaaaattt? People who LIKE mocha or iced mocha like them because they like them, not because they're as sweet as a cupcake and loaded with chocolate syrup. Oh well, I guess they figure most of the clientele at McDonald's isn't going to like a reasonable rendition of mocha or latte or whatever...and I can't see why not, after all, their paletes are discriminating enough to enjoy the finer things in life, like a Big Mac.....

Oh well. Maybe they'll do okay. Maybe the WVU fans will stick with the new and improved drive-thru, now that they're certainly not going to be able to get a seat anywhere. And maybe they'll figure out that McCafe just isn't going to attract the crowds they're thinking about, and they'll convert that area to more seating!! Hey! Great idea! Ronald, are you reading?

Some Texas Pics

2008-08-22T10:10:00.007-04:00

Just a few pics from Texas - the top one is Mark's family - his mom and dad, his sister, Donna, niece Chloe and brother-in-law Peter. As it's almost impossible to get a good picture of everyone, including the over-sugared 4 year old, I'm posting this one, because even though Jonathan is looking away, trust me, it's better than the other one! The others? Just a few random shots. Mark loves to take nature pics, so the butterflies were all his work. Jonathan even had a little butterfly land on his head - that was at the zoo. And the pic of my little guy sitting all by himself in the Japanese Tea House? That was actually taken in Austin at the botanical gardens. We were taking a break from the heat and the sun and it was cooler in the little stone house. A word to the uninitiated: if you don't like the heat much, don't travel to South Texas in August.

Mexican Coke?

2008-08-21T09:06:00.003-04:00

So while in San Antonio, we were staying in this nice suite courtesy of the Marriott Corporation, which had a nicely equipped kitchen. To save a little money and to save our waistlines from 21 straight meals restaurants, we managed to eat most meals in, which required several trips to the local market for supplies. On one of these trips, I happened to stumble on Coke which looked a little different than usual - I picked up one of the bottles and noticed it was bottled in Mexico. Hmmmm, interesting, but not being much of a soda drinker, I didn't pursue it farther. Until dinner that night. For some reason it came up in conversation, and BIL Peter said that the Mexican Coke was made differently - in this case, it was made with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. Well, knock me down with a feather, how cool is that? I mean, anyone who reads this blog knows that we are at least making an attempt to eliminate that crap, along with hydrogenated oils from our diet. One of the major reasons we stay away from soda in the first place. Not that PURE SUGAR is like, good for you, but you get my point.

So we couldn't resist. As soon as we could, we hit the market, grabbed a six pack and decided to do a taste test. The verdict? Well, not having much to compare it to (we opted against getting a regular Coke and doing a blind test!), we couldn't tell a huge difference, but there was definitely a slightly "cleaner" taste? What do I mean by "cleaner"? Well, the only thing I can compare it to is a hoppy beer. If you drink beer, you know what full-bodied, well-hopped beer is. You drink it, you swallow it, and the taste lingers in your mouth. With Mexican Coke, after you swallow, the taste is pretty much gone - none of that heavy, sometimes cloying after-taste you get with a regular soft drink.

Calories? I have no idea. Didn't read the label that far. Didn't much care - after all, even with a chemical-free version, I'm still not going to drink all that much soda anyway, even if I DID live somewhere where it would be readily accessible. I just wish other manufacturers would take the hint and start producing more chemical-free and healthier alternatives to the usual crap most everyone eats. Seems like there's been some change for the better lately - after all, there's much more organic and natural foods available, but it still isn't enough, and definitely not on a scale to meet the demands of a nation. I just wonder when the public is going to wake up and say "gee, that's a toxic chemical, maybe I shouldn't INGEST IT." Maybe if they did that, and put these guys out of business, they'd have no choice but to produce healthier products, rather than substituting cheaper alternatives, which boosts their profit, but ironically, isn't passed onto the consumer. No, see, these companies actually charge more to poison you.

And with that happy thought, I'm off to the farmer's market to stock up. Came home to an empty fridge and am dying for some fresh, locally raised, healthy foods!

We're Baaa---aaacck!

2008-08-18T20:28:00.002-04:00

Betcha didn't even know I was gone. Well, maybe you suspected something since I haven't blogged in about a week and a half or so. I was GOING to say something about going away on vacation, but I recalled some of the conversations from earlier in the summer about security and blogs and people knowing where you live...so I wasn't about to announce to the world - hey, guess what, you know where I live, you know who I am, well GUESS WHAT? We're going away for a week!

Anyway, all a moot point, since we're now back. We were in Texas, San Antonio to be exact. Vacationing with Mark's family. We had originally planned this trip around Mark's niece who was going to be performing her music on Riverwalk, but plans went a little awry so while no music was played, at least not publicly, we still had a great family visit and managed to do lots of things, even though it was HOT!

On one day we went to Austin and toured the Austin Nature Center. We saw lots of butterflies and had all kinds of fun with a big snake in the Japanese Gardens. Another day we visited Cascade Caverns and another day we went to the San Antonio Zoo. We also saw the Alamo and ate a few meals on the Riverwalk and took a boat tour. So all in all, a pretty good vacation - and we have lots of pictures which I'll post....someday!

Did I mention we left Matthew home with my mom and dad? Kind of a bummer of a decision, but in the long run, an extremely wise one. Matthew is very "2" right now, we were sharing a suite with three other people, and it was so hot he would've been miserable and made everyone else within a 100 foot radius miserable as well.

And while Jonathan was pretty well-behaved overall for a 4 year old, he had his moments. One of which was at the San Antonio airport. I leave you with a story - and it's called "How to Board an Airplane Well Ahead of Your Fellow Passengers"

The story: we flew on Southwest Airlines. For the uninitiated, Southwest doesn't assign seats - you can sit anywhere you want. And they don't have first class. Getting on the airplane first? That's a different story. There's this complicated little set of rules they have: starting 24 hours before your flight, you can log in online and get your boarding passes and print them. Or you can wait until you check in at the airport, but if you wait that long, you'll be sitting in the middle seat all the way in the back. So if you're good, and you log on exactly 24 hours before your flight, you'll probably be in the "A" boarding group, and you get your pick of seats. Like my in-laws who were on the same flight as us. THEY logged in early, got in the "A" group, promised to try and save us good seats (although saving seats really isn't allowed...). We were actually in the "B" group, but because we had Jonathan with us, and he's 4, we were allowed to board with the "Family Boarding" which happens after all of "A" has boarded, but before "B" boards. So there we were, standing at the gate, waiting for the "A's" to board. Here comes Grammy and Grandpa. They give the guy their boarding passes, smile at us and start walking down the jetway. That's when Jonathan starts to freak. "GRAMMY! GRANDPA!" WAAAHHHHH!!!!! Mark and I are already at the "oh crap" stage after a few previous outbursts from Jonathan, so just as we're about to smother him with a carry-on and drag him to the nearest restroom, the boarding pass guy gestures to us and stops the rest of the "A's" and says "Just c'mon, you can board now!" So we got to cut ahead of everyone else and go chase Grammy and Grandpa down the jetway and grab our seats. Gotta love Southwest. And for those of you whose children can be persuaded to make a stink at the gate, here it is - the lowdown on cutting your way into line. I'm considering trying this to get OFF the airplane next time - nothing like a kid screaming his head off to part the sea of bodies.....

Pictures later this week I promise. Right now I have about a ton of laundry to figure out!

Let's Go to Vegas, Baby!

2008-08-07T22:37:00.002-04:00

I'll bet most of you had no idea I was a closet slot machine freak. Yeah, yeah, I know. But seriously, the first time I played a slot machine was on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, when I was on a business trip way back in....whew. I don't know, 1997? It was fun! $20 worth of quarters netted me $150 more after only about 20 minutes, and I walked away a happy woman. Key phrase there: "I walked away". That's the tough part.

Over the years, I've tried my luck elsewhere, only sporadically, though. After all, we still have a mortgage payment. Once we went to Vegas in 2005 and I limited myself to ~~$80~~ $120, which I promptly lost so fast I wondered if I'd been robbed. And I've visited Charlestown Races and Slots a few times...with my parents, no less. Appallingly, my parents have decided that slot machines are FUN! But that's another blog entry! Once I went with them to Charlestown, I took and lost about $100, but the next time I went, still pregnant with Jonathan, I took in $20 and walked out with over $300.

Now, I know and you know that in the long run, you can't beat the slot machines. How many Vegas travel guides and gambling manuals have been written about this very topic? But that doesn't keep people from trying, those of us, say, without mortgage payments...oh, WAIT, you mean, some people play these things even when they're in debt? No. Don't believe it.
ANYWAY....I was lamenting to my mom the other day how wouldn't it be cool if you could play these things just for fun - you wouldn't have to use your own money and it wouldn't matter if you won or lost. Her take? Well, what fun would that be? But a day later, she calls me and tells me I can play online....for free. You just log in and ~~pull that little handle~~ click that little mouse to your heart's content. Thanks, Mom.

So, tonight, for fun, I tried it. I tried it because I literally have 5 pounds of green beans that my husband's co-worker brought him from his garden, and I spent an hour this morning cleaning them and snapping them, and tonight, I'm parboiling them, getting them ready for the freezer. So I had a little time on my hands while I waited for this gigantic pot to boil...twice. So what's the harm in a little slot action? Well, for one, it is truly kind of boring. I mean, yeah, you're not losing your money, but guess what? You're not winning any either, and that's half, well, heck, ALL the fun! And for two, YOU WIN TOO MUCH! In 20 minutes, I went from $75 (credits) to almost $2000 - now I KNOW this wouldn't happen in real life. Trouble is, Joe Nimrod and Sally Idiot don't know this. They'll sit there and watch the numbers climb and start thinking "Well ain't I one lucky dawg, I think I'll go play slots for real!" And then you and I know what happens...they'll trot themselves out to Vegas where the bank-account emptying will begin. Somewhere behind freeslots.com is some big name like Harrah's or Tropicana, take my word for it. Have these people nothing better to do?

So I guess my free online slots experience wasn't so great after all. It did pass the time while boiling beans....but unfortunately that's about all I can say about it!

Ramblings of a Sleep-Deprived Blogger

2008-08-02T14:52:00.002-04:00

Somewhere between when your kids are tiny infants, and when they get to be, say, 4 1/2 and 2, you come to appreciate, REALLY appreciate a decent night's sleep. We at our household, are very fortunate in this department, son #1 was in bed for 12 hours last night, son #2 went for a whopping 14. But that's not the norm - they just played a little too hard in the pool yesterday. So I can't complain about the kids keeping us up. Not this time anyway.

Let's go back a week. Friday night a week ago, someone near us, perhaps even in town somewhere decided what a great idea it would be to have a fireworks show. Fabulous. They must've paid a LOT of money, because these were the big ones. We couldn't see them, but we could hear them. And when they finally had their grand finale at about 11:30pm, we had been TRYING to get to sleep for half an hour or so, and it did nothing but make us even more awake. We'll call this sleepless night number 1. The very next night, sometime around 4 in the morning, Mr. Skunk decided to spray somewhere VERY nearby. If you've ever been awoken by an odor, you know it's possible - to be sleeping peacefully one second, and the next, wide awake, gasping for fresh air, trying not to gag. This skunk was CLOSE. Like right outside the window close. And it took forever for the air to clear. Say hello to sleepless night number 2. The next night, we got a reprieve. That's not saying we slept great, but at least nothing woke us up. The next night was Bat Night (read below). Sleepless night number 3. The night after Bat Night was "Wake Up 10 Times Looking at the Ceiling Because You Think a Bat MIGHT Be There Night". Sleepless night number 4. The next night was a double-whammy. Mr. Skunk was back. Luckily, he hit us this time at 11:30, shortly before lights-out, and the smell only lingered until sometime after midnight. But then at 3 am, some fool in some fool truck comes roaring up the driveway, causing the dog (who was asleep on our bed) to start barking. I got up to look out the window, and the fool in the truck is shining this huge, powerful spotlight on our HOUSE! At 3 am! Once he spotted our house number (I guess), he drove off. Try getting back to sleep after that one. Sleepless night number 5. And then there was last night, the crowing glory. Or maybe the grand finale (let's hope). Thunderstorms. Tremendous, severe, unending thunderstorms. The first one hit around 11. It finally stopped rumbling around midnight. But at 1:30, it kicked in again and rumbled loud and often, off and on until 3. Back to sleep, only to be awakened at 4:30 by the worst one of all. By 5:40, I had to get up and check the radar to see if it was EVER going to stop storming. It did. At 6:30. Son #1 got up at 8. And jumped on me. Sleepless night number 6.

The fool in the truck? We still have no idea. We did call the state police and inquire as to whether perhaps someone was looking for an address in the middle of the night. They said it wasn't them. A bit disconcerting, but no harm done, just another sleepless night.

So tonight. Tonight we want to sleep. Please, mother nature, skunks, bats, idiots with fireworks and fools in trucks, leave us alone! Because tonight we'll probably have kids with belly-aches to deal with!

And it did occur to me that perhaps IF we had air-conditioning in this house of ours, and IF it would've been running and all the windows shut up tight, we probably would've slept GREAT this week! Just another reason to install A/C....but I digress.....

There's a Bat in My Belfry, I Mean, My Bedroom....

2008-07-29T05:39:00.005-04:00

Ever wake up to a strange little sound? Nothing big, just a small, little sound that jolts you from sleep, something that's not quite right. That happened this morning - actually it happened about half an hour ago. Both Mark and I were awakened (rudely, I might say), by what sounded like something hitting the screen in the window from the outside. I opened my eyes just in time to see the flutter of wings at the window, then closed my eyes to go back to sleep. Mark, however, was still looking around. "It was one of those big moths hitting the window", I told him, go back to sleep. "No", he said. "There's a bat in the room". I was like "Mark, are you crazy? I saw a big moth out there!", and he goes "No, I SEE the bat flying around the room." EEK. I opened my eyes just in time to see something flying and furry pass within about a foot of my face. Dove under the covers. Wondering what the heck we were going to do next, when Mark gets out of bed (!), grabs the screen from the window, and then, LEAVES THE ROOM. He shut the door behind him and LEFT ME THERE! MARK!! After that nice post about Mark a few days ago, I was ready to kill him. But I guess he had to use the bathroom, because he was back within a minute, again shutting the door behind him. So there we were. Me, him and the dog all in the room, bat still going crazy, me hiding under the covers, scared to move.

We were trying to use reason - maybe Mr. Bat was attracted to the ceiling fan - the whirring sound the blades make. But how did he get in the house in the first place and why wouldn't he leave? Mark turned off the fan. Bat still flying around. Should we turn on a light? Mark thought that might attract every insect in the neighborhood and give Mr. Bat good things to eat. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we didn't see him flying anymore. Did he land somewhere? Like in my closet? Or did he actually fly out the open window?

Well, the jury is still out on that one, because Mark finally persuaded me to leave the room, and he came out a few minutes later - he told me he checked every crevice and no bat. So we assume he flew out. But again, how in the world did he get in? And was he flying around in our room half the night? Yuck. We checked the fireplace flue, but it was shut. Strange.

I like wildlife, I do. I wouldn't survive up here if I didn't. And I guess in the coming years we'll get a chuckle out of this one. But wildlife needs to stay outside. Like spiders. They have 3 acres (and that's just OUR property) to roam around to their heart's content. Why do they need to come in the house? I have no patience for critters in the house, as my family can attest - my broom and my fly swatter have been hard at work in the four years we've lived here. Mr. Bat - you got away with one. Try it again, you might not be so lucky....but on the bright side, our house is curiously bug-free this morning.....

Say Hello to My Political Ignorance

2008-07-23T08:45:00.003-04:00

I was reading an Associated Press article online this morning, and ran across Obama's campaign schedule and noted he was in....Israel? And headed to the Palestinian region today. That was enough to give me pause. Gee, how many voters live there? Okay, like I said, I'm not that politically savvy - maybe it's a brilliant move, who knows. But then I read more. And I read how the Palestinian leader would like for Obama to get one thing out of their meeting which I believe is today. He would like Obama to "focus immediately on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if elected, or any gains made in peace talks could vanish." That's a direct quote. Um. Excuse me? So let's see, Obama gets elected, gets sworn into office in January, gives a speech, retreats immediately to the Oval Office and.....starts to proctor peace in that region? Hello? Could someone please tell me why this should be the top priority of whatever newly elected leader we'll have come January?

I understand that foreign policy, particularly Mid-East foreign policy does have some bearing on how folks over here will cast their vote, but c'mon! And actually, despite what I said above, I can see how Obama's reception in those regions of the world perhaps could influence our voters and how they feel about how he will handle those issues. But wow. For other world leaders to request and perhaps even expect that the US President be firmly entrenched in and give priority to a battle that has raged for centuries kind of makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up, know what I mean?

We would like our new President, whoever he may be, to place priority on some issues closer to home, thank you very much. And right now, we're in no direct conflict with Israel, quite the contrary, although I could never figure out why the US is so enamored with Israel, could someone explain that too, please? But back to those home issues - yes. We have issues. There's like, the energy crisis for one. I would've said "gas" crisis, but my husband corrected me this morning on that, so now it's "energy" crisis. Then there's like, oh, I don't know unemployment, drugs, national security, education, you know, those little things.

So, Obama, here's the deal. I haven't made up my mind yet. I'm watching you closely. I'm not sure what to make of your little trip this week, paid for with campaign funding, no less. And no, I'm not politically-inclined. At all. And I don't understand all the issues, all the time. And frankly, I don't have time to follow it all. Which makes me, let's see, very, very average. But I'm an American. And I vote. So you'd better start impressing me. I'm a Republican, so you MUST impress me.

And The Gold Star Goes To.....

2008-07-22T08:20:00.002-04:00

My husband! I meant to write this yesterday, but I got so behind....Monday mornings kill me. But I got up yesterday morning pretty beat - it had been a long, frustrating weekend. First of all, we were all kind of wiped out from coming back from my mom and dad's the day before. Nobody seems to sleep well there - Jonathan gets to bed late, Matthew is in a pack and play in our room and if he wakes in the night and sees us in bed, he crawls out and joins us on the bed and does NOT go back to sleep. So we have to put him back in the crib and leave and come back only when he's back to sleep....which sometimes takes an hour. And then when we have to get up early, he usually wakes up. So we were all a little sleep-deprived. Then when we got home, the toilet broke. We think it had been on it's way out for some time, but this time, some little plastic piece on something called a ballcock broke completely off. Uh oh.
So here we were, Friday night, just home from an impromptu dinner on the road, unpacking suitcases and laptops and pool toys and I have to run to Lowe's for a replacement part while Mark started baths. I got home in time for bedtimes, but realized I bought the wrong part. So first thing in the morning, I'd have to go back to Lowe's, plus make a trip to the grocery since we had just gotten back. Did I mention it was about 1000 degrees this weekend?
The next morning, a quick trip to Lowe's and the market turned into an all-morning affair, and I didn't get back until almost noon and had to make everyone lunch. Then onto the toilet, and I realized for the second time that I had bought the wrong part again. This is after about 5 phone calls to my dad, who knows how to repair a toilet, let me tell you. So he finally convinced me to quit trying to replace the old part; just buy a totally new valve and install it.
I'll spare you the rest of the details, and the two more subsequent trips to Lowe's, but we finally got the toilet working again. Just in time for me to get dinner on the table. Still Saturday. Sunday was better - we actually got in the pool as a family and had a great time! But I was still tired out and bogged down with the heat and having to cook so much and plan meals - it takes so darn long to do all that sometimes!
But back to that Gold Star Award. Why am I giving it to my hubby? Because yesterday morning, upon reflection, I realized something. I had not changed one diaper the entire weekend. I had not dressed one child the entire weekend, in either day clothes or night clothes. I fed them their meals, but not their snacks, and I may have prepared one drink. While I was running around, sweating, fixing toilets and in general feeling sorry for myself, Mark had completely taken over with the kiddos and saw to their needs. True, the British Open was on in the background keeping him happy, but I'll let that slide - he rocked. Thanks, Mark. I needed THAT break!

So, You Want Kids?

2008-07-18T21:50:00.005-04:00

Well, it's been a long couple of days. We just got back from a 2 night stay at my mom and dad's house; both Mark and I had work meetings near Annapolis, so we spent a few days down in the area. Today was actually my meeting - and I had to be there at 7am. Which meant that I had to get up around 5:30, which I was dreading. But somewhere in between showering and getting dressed, I had this amazing revelation. Everyone was asleep (well, everyone except my sister who was up getting ready to go to HER job). But everyone else was sacked out - which meant I didn't have to change any diapers, I didn't have to make anyone breakfast. I didn't have to break up any fights, I didn't have to search through 300 channels before I figured out which one was the one with cartoons at my parents house, where cable is all different. I didn't have anybody pulling aside the shower curtain saying "Mommy, what are you doing?" I didn't have to match up sippy cup lids and valves and cups. I didn't have to find the "red car" that got lost somewhere in the backyard the night before. I didn't have to rush. And I didn't have to think of one person's needs...except my own. No. All I had to do was shower, get dressed and walk out to the car and drive away. It was.....refreshing. Now would I want to do this every day? No way. As a matter of fact, that's why I was so excited about this new job - working from home, allowing me to keep much of my own schedule and NOT having to get up early, to shower, to get dressed in something other than shorts and a tshirt, to drive. But on this one day, I had some freedom from the usual drudgery, and it really felt good. But coming home after a long day to sticky kisses and warm little hugs made me forget all about the freedom of my morning...I had missed my little guys. They were in good hands - I left them with my mom and dad for the day so I wasn't worried....but I just missed them. Can't have it both ways! And so I leave you with this, which I copied off Michelle's blog, and I think she copied it from someone else. But it is so true - I had to laugh out loud several times reading this thing. Enjoy! And thanks, Michelle for the laughs, and for the blog fodder, and by the way, yes, we know ALL about 2 year olds who don't want to sit in their stroller. It's not fun. Not fun for us, and horrifically not fun for anyone within a 25 yard radius.

Thinking of Having Kids?
Do This 10 Step Program First

Lesson 1
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their…
1. Methods of discipline
2. Lack of patience
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels
4. Allowing their children to run wild
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child’s breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 2
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel…
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approx. 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down gently, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at midnight and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1am.
4. Set alarm for 3am.
5. As you can’t get back to sleep, get up at 2am and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45.
7. Get up at 3am when alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4am.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive.)
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 3
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out…
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 4
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus in the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this- all morning.

Lesson 5
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don’t think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle Cheerios all over the floor, them smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 6
Go to the grocery store. Take the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 7
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a 9 month-old baby.

Lesson 8
Learn the names of every character from all shows on PBS, the Disney Channel and Noggin. Watch nothing else on TV but shows from these channels for at least 5 years. (I know, you’re thinking “what’s Noggin?”) Exactly the point.

Lesson 9
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying ‘mommy’ repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each ‘mommy’; occasional crescendo to the level of supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 10
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt sleeve, or elbow while playing the ‘mommy’ tape made from lesson 9 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Lots and Lots of Waterfalls, Mommy!

2008-07-15T15:24:00.006-04:00

Well, we made it to Blackwater Falls in West Virginia over the weekend. Packed the car, packed a picnic lunch and hit the road early Saturday morning. And it was well worth the trip! Escaped the 90 degrees in Cumberland and arrived to a lovely, clear 78 or so in Davis, WVA. Did some hiking, saw the falls. Ate some lunch at a shady picnic table. Did another hike. Saw a snake. Followed blazes along the trees (Jonathan is Blaze-Master). Stopped at the local brewpub (hey, Mom and Dad have to have SOME fun!), stopped for ice cream, then pointed the car toward home. All in all, a great day. Except for the brewpub. Brews were most definitely not up to par. To say we were disappointed was an understatement. Oh well, can't win them all - we've been to brewpubs from Alaska to Florida and Maine to California - they all can't be great!

So, what's on my mind today? Well, under the category of "kids say the darndest things...", we have the following story: Yesterday, I stopped by Jonathan's new school - the one where he will be starting pre-k in the fall - to chat about the error they made in our tuition bill and to talk about the tuition buy-down program because I was a little confused on a few points. I left Matthew with Mark at his office while I did this so I could at least concentrate a little on the subject at hand, but took Jonathan with me. So here we are, chatting with the nice ladies. When all the sudden, Jonathan takes it upon himself to mention to one of the women that she has "something" on her hand. Well, that "something" turns out to be a patch of pretty good eczema, from what I could tell. The woman handled it well - she tells him "oh, that's just some dry skin, honey..." But Jonathan wasn't done. "Hey, you have some on your leg, too!" And then: "And there's some on your foot! And more on your elbow!!!" He was really getting going now. At this point, my kid is standing there roving his eyes all over this woman, having taken it upon himself to inform her of every inch of eczema she had. Now I give this woman some credit. She was in her 40's, tanned, fit, attractive. She obviously didn't have too much anxiety about her condition, but believe me, once Jonathan started in, she pretty quickly removed herself from the room. And there I sat. Mortified. For the record, I corrected him the first time he mentioned anything. But I guess I didn't say the right thing - I quietly said to him something along the lines of "Yes Jonathan, you get that sometimes in the wintertime - we have to use that special cream, remember?" Which wasn't exactly true - he did get some seasonal eczema TWO winters ago, but hasn't had it since. I was just hoping he'd shut up! But he didn't. And the woman got away before I could really apologize. But then, to apologize would've perhaps brought more attention to it than need be, making her more embarrassed?

Ugh. Something new everyday. I guess we're at the age when I have to sit down with Jonathan and explain to him that it's not really polite to point out people's differences to them, no matter what it is. But will he get it at 4 years old? I'm waiting for him to walk up to some stranger and say "You're fat" or "Your skin is all brown" or "You don't have an arm!" And unfortunately, Jonathan will do this, because one thing he is not, is shy. A month or two ago in the grocery store, he found a penny. A nice, shiny, new penny. Let me tell you, he told everyone we passed, everyone we saw and everyone we came in contact with all about his penny, all about how he was 4 years old and how his brother kicked him in the head that morning. Most people thought he was just this little charming kid. I thought it was a nightmare. Now all the sudden, we've moved beyond talking to strangers. We not only talk to them, but we point out their medical conditions to the embarrassment of everyone in the room.

So now I have to teach him not to talk to strangers. Another shred of innocence lost. It makes me sad.

A Trip to Some Waterfalls

2008-07-10T09:21:00.003-04:00

I was going through some photos, trying to get an order ready to get some prints, and I ran across these -- these were taken when we went hiking up at Swallow Falls State Park here in Maryland last month. We try to get up there about once a year, and this visit was particularly nice because for some reason, hardly anyone was there. The weather wasn't great - at one point we had to duck under some hemlocks to avoid a passing shower and some thunder rumbled in the distance, but we escaped the worst of it, luckily and were able to do the whole trail, and see both Swallow Falls (that's the one Matthew is looking at), and Muddy Creek Falls, which at a whopping 53 feet, is actually the highest falls in Maryland. They're running high in these photos because we had such a wet spring. Usually, the water's not quite this high - but it's always nice to see a waterfall at it's peak!

It's a nice spot - Garrett County is Maryland's westernmost county out in the panhandle, and is the county just west of where we live. There's lots of nice parks up there, lots of public land. Lots of places to go hiking and camping, or rent a cabin for a few nights if you wanted. We're pretty fortunate to have all that practically in our backyard - we love to pack a little picnic lunch and drive up there for the day. And because of the elevation, it tends to be cooler so in the hot summer months, it can be a cool escape, especially if you find a trail under some of the old, towering hemlocks. Nothing beats a hemlock forest on a hot summer's day - it's Mother Nature's air conditioning!

Anyway, we were pretty proud of our boys - although Matthew spent very little time in the stroller (Mark folded it up and put it on his shoulder for most of the hike!). He's sort of at the stage where we can't trust him to walk with us, but he won't be restrained! But Jonathan's getting to be a regular woodsman! The kid loves trails, loves to hike. He WANTS to go off on side trails and go to the water's edge and throw rocks. We try to gently discourage this, but his sense of adventure just runs non-stop, and we have a hard time not letting him just go and explore - after all, how else do they learn?

There's nothing like taking a kid outside and exposing him to all nature has to offer. Recently we took a drive close to home doing a little birding, mostly from the car, and Jonathan had a fit because we forgot his binoculars. He loves to be outside and explore, and I think Matthew's going to be much the same way.

Stay tuned for more pics along this theme: we've been trying to get up to Blackwater Falls in West Virginia for several weeks now, but life keeps getting in the way. Maybe this weekend!

Small Town Livin' (Part 2)

2008-07-09T08:21:00.002-04:00

So a few posts ago, I talked about my current hometown. But it was all demographics and geography. Today I have a few words about culture.

I've heard the stories about life a few generations back. People trusting people. A slower way of life. A friendliness brought about simply by proximity. This doesn't exist any more in big cities, sad to say. Maybe in a few leftover pocket neighborhoods, but as a whole, it CAN'T exist anymore. But I will say that this town I live in still has some of that, and I'm getting really, really used to it.

First of all, the town is small enough so that you do get recognized a lot. This works both for us and against us at times, if you've ever sat next to us at church, you'd see the absolute worst side of Matthew, and there has been the occassional need to physically leave the table at a restaurant for a few minutes... But for the most part, people recognize us and our kids fondly, and this does surprise us at times, but that's the town. I'll be at the mall, and some high-school kid will approach me and start this big conversation and I'll have no idea who I'm talking to. Big, friendly smile, nice conversation....then she'll say goodbye and "see you at D'Atri's" and then it hits me - our waitress from the other night at one of the most popular restaurants in the area. And this isn't a one-time occurrence - this happens all the time. I see people at the library, at the farmer's market, everywhere. The other day at the farmer's market, a woman approached us and started a conversation with Jonathan....again I was clueless, but eventually she told us she knew us from church. Uh Oh. Cringe.

But then, the shop owners recognize you also. In the strangest ways. We moved here 4 years ago this month, and ever since then, we've been taking Bella (the dog) to get groomed about 5 times a year to a local groomer. They stay pretty busy there, but even so I called them a few weeks ago, and simply said "I need to bring my dog by....", and the woman says "Oh, let's see when we can fit Bella in." Now I know she must have caller ID, but to remember my dog's name too right off the bat?

Or when we go to one of our favorite places for Sunday morning breakfast after church - the waitstaff there never seems to change! They love the boys, and always talk to us. One time, we hadn't been there for months - life circumstances, I guess got in the way. When our waitress appeared, her mouth dropped open - "Well where have you guys been? We thought you were mad at us! So good to see you, let's see, an unsweetened tea for you and a coffee, right?" Amazing.

The people in this town are just plain friendly. They like each other. They like to help you. They appreciate your business and go out of their way to make you feel welcome and it feels genuine.

And they trust you. And this is the amazing part about this place - I've never seen so much trust with businesses. When we first moved up, we needed furniture. We went to a local place in Westernport, which is about 15-20 miles away from us. A family-owned operation, but big. Big showroom stuffed with furniture, not flashy, no pressure, exactly what we wanted. We picked out a few things. Went to the desk. They said it would be a few weeks. They'd deliver for free. "Want a deposit?" I asked. No. A few weeks later, a truck pulls up. Furniture hauled up the steps. Bella bit one of the guys. He laughed. Furniture arranged in the room. "Can I pay you guys?" No. They'd rather not deal with payments. "Just call them and give them a credit card number or stop by the showroom sometime." I was stunned. I mean, sure, they know where I live and all, but um, did they just front me cash or what? Needless to say, we've bought LOTS more furniture from them since then, even one time when I had a choice of the exact same loveseat from a more local dealer for slightly cheaper, I still bought it at the original place because I like the way they do business. When I told them that, they promptly knocked off a percentage of the love seat, just in appreciation for what I said. Say WHAT?

I could go on and on with all this, I've only been here 4 years, but things like this happen all the time. There aren't any big corporations making the rules, and I guess the business owners treat people how they want and it pays off in the end.

Of course I'm not saying it's all wonderful. Choices are limited here. I've talked about the shopping, the dining, the lack of big retailers. Now that I think about it, I wonder what those big retailers would do to the mom-and-pops....hmmmm, rather not consider that right now. The libaries aren't great - there are lots of branches but they're rather small. A new book hits the shelves and the hold list for the one copy they get is like 12 patrons long. There's not a lot of cultural diversity. There's not a lot of fine art type stuff, although that is changing a bit with the appearence of some nice art galleries downtown, and with the local college holding concerts, etc...

Previously, I'd lived in the big cities - the Baltimore-Washington corridor - my whole life. So had Mark. So moving up here was a big, big change. But the slower way of life grabs ahold of you and doesn't let go. If you sit more than a nanosecond at a light that just turned green, you don't get the finger, or the blast of a horn or even an impatient sigh from the guy behind you. But if you don't get started soon, he might just get out of his truck and come to see if you're okay. And there's the chatty check-out lady at the Fruit Bowl - a local produce and candy market. If you're in a rush, which DOES happen, you do NOT want to get in her line. She'd be fired in a minute if she worked within a 50 mile radius of anwhere with 100,000+ population. But everyone seems to love her.

So yeah, it's a trade off. But there's something about friendliness, trust and feeling welcome that touches your heart and soul. And that's more valuable than the best shopping, dining and culture any day of the week.

Matthew's Birthday Weekend

2008-07-07T18:10:00.011-04:00

As promised, some pics of Matthew's birthday weekend a few weeks ago. We started out on Friday when Daddy took the day off work so we could take the boys to the amusement park. They loved riding all the little rides - and Matthew got to ride for the very first time! (But we still got him in for free, since he didn't turn 2 until 2 days later! Score 1 for Mom and Dad, Amusement Park - 0. Don't worry, they'll get us back next year!)

Matthew seems to share Jonathan's fascination with the balls that hover in mid-air. Jonathan was obsessed with this last year and I think Matthew is not far behind. Actually, it's pretty cool. And the whole area is contained so that meant that Mom and Dad could have a moment of sanity (and a bathroom break) and not worry about them running off anywhere....

And here's Jonathan, looking out from "The Little Engine That Could" - part of Storybook Land" which, on paper sounds really cool for little kids, but in the flesh wasn't really "all that." We didn't spend much time there - once Jonathan remembered about the rides, we were off to the other side of the park!

The next day, Grandma, Poppy and Aunt Rachel came up for an overnight visit to celebrate the real birthday on Sunday. Jonathan loved having his grandmother and aunt around to read to him and play with him - he likes it when they come for what he calls a "sleepover".

And Matthew scored all kinds of cool presents. The kid digs balls. He's already catching and throwing like a champ. My poor house. So far all such activities have been relegated to the basement. But every once in awhile, another ball sneaks up the steps until I banish it again.

And Matthew also got this cool new road carpet....hmmmmm, why is JONATHAN playing on it? Because he'd already thrown Matthew off of it. Not a very nice older brother!

Time for cake. Yes, I made it. Yes, that's black granulated sugar making the road in the shape of a 2. Yes, it was a big mistake.

Because by the time JONATHAN blew out the candles, Matthew had already found his way into the sugar, making a huge, huge mess. And once the cake hit our mouths, everyone's mouth turned greenish-black for hours. Teeth, lips, gums, tongue. Even the dog. No more black sugar. Or dark purple, green, blue or anything else. It LOOKED good. It even tasted good.

But oh boy, what a mess!

Anyway, that was the birthday. All wrapped up now, of course. Since then, I gave most of the leftover cake to my friends' boys who came over to swim the next day....suckers! I warned them, but I think they thought it was cool.

In other news, we revised our "eating out" plan the other night. I'm not sure if I ever posted this since it was instituted before I started my blog, but shortly after Matthew was born, we made a decision to cut back, way back on eating out. Mostly because I quit work and we were looking for ways to cut some corners, financially speaking. So our plan was to limit our meals out to one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner per week. And for two solid years, this plan has worked great. We didn't count trips - if we were on the road, we didn't keep track. And sometimes we traded a breakfast for a lunch, etc... But for the most part, we followed our plan, and although I was now cooking at least 18 meals a week, it was okay. It worked.

But lately, we've noticed that we've been sneaking in a few more meals here and there....like Mark would leave for work without a packed lunch, and I would take the kids to the mall and meet up with some friends and we'd all have pizza at the food court. Then Mark would walk up to the sub shop. Since we weren't eating together, we didn't count those meals. You see where this is going.

So we sat down the other night and, even though I'm working again, we decided that in the name of high-priced gas and other expenditures, we would cut back on eating out even more. Besides. Restaurant food is getting out of hand. Entirely too much food. Entirely too expensive (um, a few months ago, Ruby Tuesday charged me $3.19 for an ICED TEA. A plain one. Not one of those fancy fruity ones.) And ridiculously priced kids meals. Why on earth are the charging $4.99 for a grilled cheese and fries when I can make it at home for like 85 cents? If that? And in addition, eating out only 3 times a week over the past 2 years has helped me hone my cooking skills. Leftovers never go to waste anymore because we eat at home so much, and buying stuff in bulk, like boneless chicken breasts makes it so much cheaper in the long run.

So here's our plan. Whereas previously, we figured we were eating out anywhere from 12-15 times a month, now it's down to 11. If any of those 11 meals goes over $25-30 before tax and tip, it counts as two meals. And as further incentive, if we eat LESS than our allotted meals per month, MARK has to cook the make-up meals. HA! I'm loving that one. Because at this point, the only reason to go out is because I'm so busy I can't cook, or because I just need a break, thank you very much.

Yeah, it takes a little planning ahead, and a lot of time on my part, but in the end, I really think it's worth it. Restaurants are raising prices just like everyone else. And I just really hate to pay $5 for grilled cheese!

A Few Notes For Mr. Grisham

2008-07-04T19:39:00.002-04:00

Wow. I just finished reading John Grisham's latest offering: The Appeal. I have to admit, I'd seen a few reviews by others who thought it wasn't his best work - they didn't like the ending, blah, blah, blah. To me, the ending was fine. Actually, the whole read was pretty good - if you like books that appeal to the masses, are easy to follow and have a bit of intrigue to keep you going. None of Grisham's books are earth-shattering, and yet, they are bestsellers. But I digress... ANYWAY.

I have to hand it to him - the guy knows how to weave a plot. I think his characterization could use a little more work, but I'm not a critic, what do I know? Oh, wait, I was going to talk about The Appeal!

Okay - here it is: that book scared the crap out of me. I'm almost afraid to consider the possibility that our government, our justice system, and our elected officials are THAT influenced. Basically, in a nutshell, a heavy-hitter corporation loses big in a liability trial, and throws around the mega-bucks to make sure the appeal goes the opposite direction. This includes both legal and illegal methods, and implies that big, big money is what really runs our nation.

So what can one say? "That's not fair!" Well, it isn't, but what can we do about it? Get out and vote? Ummmm, that's what the people in the great state of Mississippi did (in the book). They came out and voted in droves. For the bought candidate. The one with the funding to run a wink-wink campaign. The one who smeared the incumbent with falsehoods and misleading propaganda. The one who didn't even know he even wanted to be an elected official until big business coerced him with an offer he couldn't refuse.

Now I know this is a work of fiction...but really, how much is truly fiction, and how much of this could (and did and DOES) really happen? Congressmen hosting $1000 a plate dinners for a heavily guarded list of attendees, Gulfstream 5's paid for by the mega-rich hauling around our elected officials, hush-hush meetings taking place in the oldest and most elegantly decorated steakhouses that have private, red-boothed rooms that only a fraction of a fraction of a percent of our citizenry even know about.

Or maybe this truly is just a work of fiction and I'm a damned fool. Maybe Grisham's a better writer than I give him credit for.

Nah. I don't believe it. Why? Because of the underlying premise. Money. Read the book. Every one of the characters, from the lawyers, the judges, the plaintiffs, the corporate stiffs, heck, even the PREACHERS; all they cared about, all they laid their lives on the line for, all the sacrifices: Money. And lots of it. And here's where maybe Grisham is a genius. He never has them admit it openly, but at the mere mention of big bucks, his characters show it. I'm not going to give examples. There are too many. But the way these characters seem to respond to the idea that big money is coming their way reminds me of the Grinch when he gets the idea to raid Who-ville, and he smiles that smile: that evil, twisting, self-satisfied grin.

I never had a doubt that money is what really runs this country, from the top on down. But to read such a chilling example of how EXACTLY money can (and probably has) done this makes me nervous. And it makes my skin crawl.

Can You Really Fall Off the Face of the Earth?

2008-07-03T14:39:00.003-04:00

Boy my blog suffers when I get busy. I hate that. I hate not having time to open up blogger and furiously type whatever comes to mind that day, or share some pics with friends and relatives, or relive a funny or happy moment. But life took a turn for the busy lately, and my blog took the brunt of it.

So rather than bore you all with endless details, I'll fill you in briefly, and try to get back on track soon.

First of all, despite my recent post where my "blog-sense" fell under some scrutiny, I am still perfectly comfortable divulging details of my personal life - just maybe I'll be a bit more careful in the future.

A day or two after my last blog entry, my great hubbie took a day off work so we could take the boys to Idlewild Park - sort of a kick-off to Matthew's birthday weekend. After frolicking in the park for a few hours, we left when a thunderstorm came up, and drove out to the nearby Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, PA. Despite ANOTHER thunderstorm, we were able to hang out there for a few minutes - a very powerful place. The kids didn't get it, of course, but maybe in the years to come, we'll take them back. We had no idea it was only about an hour from our house.

The next day, my parents and sister were coming to spend the night and celebrate Matthew's birthday. Which meant that after a long day at the park and the memorial, I had to go home and start cooking and cleaning. Amazingly, it all got done and they arrived the next day after lunch. From then on, things were a blur. Except for the fact that Matthew's birthday cake turned everyone's teeth and tongue black. More on that....later.

My family left on Sunday afternoon, and I had two days to pack up because we were then headed to my mom's for a solid week. Oy. It's tough to leave in the summer - the pool needs almost daily attention, the plants need to be watered, the grass grows like the weeds that are mixed in.....but luckily my wonderful friends volunteered to do all this dirty work for us while we were gone, so we COULD leave with no worries.

Why'd we go? Meetings. Classes. Celebrating Matthew's birthday with his other grandparents. You know, life. Mark had a two-day class and some meetings at his HQ office in Annapolis. And I, yes, previously little, old SAHM me, am now a working woman. I signed my contract with my new employer on Monday and am now earning wages to contribute to our household funds, which, admittedly, have suffered a bit since I went on my 2 year hiatus after having Matthew.

I have it good - I have a great job that pays well, and I get to work at home, set my own hours, and my HQ is about 120 miles away - so at 58.5 cents a mile, even a meeting there every once in awhile can be profitable.

In this day and age, I got lucky. An old colleague I worked with about 10 years ago remembered me and contacted me last Fall. It's taken this long to get work, get a contract and get started, but in this case, patience paid off. Thanks "old-colleague", I am forever in your debt.

Anyway, we came back home last night, and right as I type, hubbie is on his way home for the long holiday weekend. Don't blame me if I don't blog all weekend....I'll try, but I make no promises! Happy 4th, Americans!

Small Town Livin' (Part 1)

2008-06-18T10:15:00.002-04:00

Okay, we all know how it is when you get a bad case of blog-block. That's when you can't think of anything to blog about that day, and rather than bore the cyber-world to pieces with a tale about what you found in your 2 year-old's diaper that day, instead, you just don't blog at all and hope something "bloggable" happens soon. Or, happily, someone actually REQUESTS you to blog about something. So, Ohighway, this is for you.

I live in a town called LaVale. It's a mountain town, nestled between the city of Cumberland (population 22,000), and down the hill from Frostburg (population 8,000). LaVale isn't actually a town - with a population of only about 4,500, it's called a "census-designated place" or CDP. Hmmmm, that doesn't sound so appealing. I think I'll continue to refer to it as a town, even though apparently it falls into the Cumberland-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Yuck - that's even worse.

Okay - so let's talk reality. LaVale is a suburb of Cumberland, plain and simple. The National Road (Rt. 40), or National Highway as it is referred to around here winds it's way out of Cumberland through a beautiful, scenic pass called "The Narrows", where sheer, towering rocky cliffs appear on one side of the road, shooting up from the river bed of Evitts Creek, and densely wooded steep hills are on the other side of the road. Hey, they don't call it The Narrows for nothing! Anyway, if you can manage to get through The Narrows, heading west along National Highway, which, incidentally isn't a highway at all, you will drive right through LaVale. Supposedly at one time in history, General Braddock marched troops right down this road, but that's history, and I'm no good at history, so we'll leave that to Wikipedia if you're so inclined.

Travel along this National Highway for a few miles, and drive right through this small ~~census-designated place~~ town, and you'll start to notice a few things. First of all, there's really no "main street." When I think of small towns, I picture in my mind a tight little knot sort of near the center of it where several roads come together and close by are the post office, the fire station, a few local businesses, and a cafe or two - always a cafe. LaVale doesn't have this. The first thing you'll notice are the houses. Built in the early 1900's, these stately homes that line Rt. 40 are for the most part, meticulously cared-for, well-landscaped and impeccably decorated during the holidays. I suppose if I owned a home on the National Road, I'd be sure to take some pride in it's appearance as well. Notice, though, that I said "for the most part". There are some holdouts, but ain't that America?

Scattered amidst these homes, you'll start to see some signs of life: there is a post office, a library, not one, but two fire stations, and some of the homes are actually businesses if you look closely enough. An art gallery here, a travel agency there, even a dentist or two. Keep traveling, and all the sudden the road opens up into a large, busy, business district. And here it is, folks, the highway stop. Here's where you find all the conveniences: fast food, hotels, grocery stores, Super WalMart, the mall, Lowe's. It's not long - a few blocks east-west, and a few blocks north-south and it's over. But it bustles. It draws business from both Cumberland and Frostburg, sustains the citizens of LaVale, and pulls many a weary traveler from 68 - the major highway that slices right through the mountains and exits right there in the heart of things.

So in a nutshell, that's our geography. We have the only movie theater for miles around, the only Walmart for many miles around, and as the population increases and the demographic continues to change, we're starting to see more and more franchised businesses appear, to the delight of some folks, and to the chagrin of others. Hey, this area's been long overdue for a Target, a Best Buy, an Outback Steakhouse. Apparently, they're still in negotiation, and they may wind up within the Cumberland boundaries. But for now, LaVale will have to be happy with the Kohl's that's opening this Fall. At least one step in the right direction!

I'm not entirely sure why this "Cumberland-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area" has dragged it's feet for so long in getting large retail businesses in here. Everyone from this area makes regular trips to places such as Johnstown and Uniontown, Pa, Morgantown, WV, Altoona, PA, Winchester, VA and Hagerstown, MD to do major shopping. Those towns, some of which aren't much larger than Cumberland have everything - all the modern "conveniences". And they're all about an hour to an hour and a half away. I'm sure the combined populations of the big three (Cumberland, LaVale and Frostburg) plus the surrounding/outlying areas could easily support many more businesses and retail franchises, but for many years, the city council had blocked development for whatever reason. Finally, though, I believe they're starting to see the light and are opening some doors for the hungry, corporate traders who would like nothing better than to dot our landscape with Olive Garden and Sam's Club and Barnes and Noble. I say bring it on! My wallet is waiting.....

Stay tuned for Part 2, and if I'm feeling particularly literate, part 3.

Daddies Rock!

2008-06-16T18:07:00.003-04:00

Well, as it turned out, Father's Day was a gorgeous day - nice enough for some swimming, and more than nice enough to throw some steaks on the grill and eat outside. The boys just loved the pool and swimming with Daddy - and I think Mark even enjoyed it, even when Jonathan leaped onto his back and said Okay, Daddy! GIDDY-UP!

I have to give Mark some credit here - mostly because I trashed him a few entries ago and figured I need to make it up somehow. Mark's a great Daddy. I know this because I look forward to the minute he walks in the door from work every night - because I know that my 8 hours alone with the boys is over. I know I can rely on him to walk through the door, put down his briefcase, and become a Daddy in an instant. He doesn't have much choice. A pair of children and a wild dog are all flinging themselves at him at once, leaving hardly any room for a very grateful wife - grateful that he not only is home safe for another night, but home to complete our family.

The free time that I do have, the little there is, I owe to Mark. Being able to even write this blog and keep up with it as much as I can is in part because of the time he allows me to myself - right now he's downstairs rough-housing with the little guys and I get my moment of sanity.

So Happy Father's Day, Mark. Thanks for being such a super Daddy to our little boys!

The Grass is Always Greener....

2008-06-12T21:47:00.004-04:00

Okay, at risk of losing half the people that read my blog, I'm going to talk a little more about the farmer's market. But with a new twist this time, and really, you'll see it's actually NOT about the market as much as it is about grass. Okay, grass-fed beef.

Today, we went again to the farmer's market. See, in this neck of the woods, the farmer's market runs 4 days a week. Slightly different locations, but basically the same folks. Nice, nice people. If, say, on Tuesday, I ask a vendor when they're going to have lima beans, she'll say "maybe by Thursday - you going to be here on Thursday?" It's so neat when they recognize you.

Today I ran into someone new. This gal Amanda was selling grass-fed beef from her organic farm. Since 1942, her family has been raising first dairy, and now beef cattle. I was intrigued. See, a package of ground beef has not entered my household in, oh, I don't know, about 8 years. We just don't eat all that much beef at all, and ground beef is definitely on the no-no list. Very occasionally, at a restaurant, I will order a big, juicy burger. Sometimes, you just need it! But I haven't even done that in almost a year. Ground beef just has had too many knocks lately. It's scary. Now steaks - not so bad. A couple times a year, I pick out some thick juicy NY strips and grill them up for special occasions - someone's birthday, Father's Day, etc...but I digress.

So Amanda and I chatted, and I learned a lot. First of all, these black angus guys they raise never eat a thing but grass their whole life. Never grain. They never see an antibiotic, never see a hormone. They are allowed to roam in the pasture. And to what does this translate? To me, it says safety. To everyone else out there, it means flavor and nutrition. Add it all up, and you've got a yummy burger, with minimal chance of e.coli, lower fat, lower cholesterol, no hormones or antibiotics in what you're eating, and increased nutrition in the form of Omega 3's and vitamins and nutrients. I'm sold. I came home with two one-pound packages of ground beef. For $3 a pound. And for dinner, we had burgers. Burgers on the grill. With cheddar cheese.

If you can eat something and hear angels singing, this is it, people. The last time I tasted anything like it was in Cortez, Colorado in September of 2005. We had stopped in this town near Mesa Verde National Park during our Road Trip 2005 and ate at a local restaurant that specialized in home brewed beer and grass-fed beef. Divine. Trust me, a burger from McDonalds' doesn't taste anything like this, and that's just scary.

So I'm letting my guard down a little. I'm letting a little beef back into our lives. Happily, the people that raise these happy little steers live right up the road in Mt. Savage, Maryland - and if some day, I'm REALLY feeling bold, I can buy a whole beef if I want it. But that's a lot, and I'm starting small, and going to see what happens. Might try a few steaks next time.

If anyone is really interested in some of this, and interested in more than just flavor and safety, check out eatwild.com

And by the way, next time you make burgers on the grill, try this recipe:
1 lb. ground beef or turkey (if turkey, use 93 or 85% lean, not that gross 99% lean stuff)
2 tsp. worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. liquid smoke
1 egg, beaten
handful of seasoned bread crumbs if mixture's a little wet

Shape into 4 patties (1/4 pounders). Just before grilling, brush with a little olive oil and sprinkle with a little kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Now we all know about grilling burgers on the grill, right? Don't flip until you're sure they're done on the one side, otherwise they'll fall apart. Have fun! And find some grass-fed beef where you live - trust me, you won't be disappointed!