elias in PA

forget the poo, how about some BOO!

2010-11-01T08:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!

No poo update

2010-10-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

I'm about to make my second batch of the stuff so at best, it wasn't a total failure, at worst, I'm not sure I love it.

The smell ended up being fantastic. Somehow hair actually smells good and almost sweet after using it, even in spite of an apple cider vinegar rinse.
I'm still working with figuring out how to get it all over my scalp with my hair as long as it currently is. I've had to use two of the no poo balls to cover everything.
John has been using them since I made them. I've been using them on and off. We will continue the experiment and I take consolation in the fact that every time I use one I'm cutting back at little bit on chemicals and need of plastic.

Aside from the fact that they look like the delicious snowball cookies my grandma used to make, they have yet to be eaten (and that's a good thing).

Homemade Shampoo?

2010-10-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

I'm trying something new. About a year ago a friend mentioned that she had stopped using traditional shampoo and had started "no pooing." Sounded interesting but I didn't run out to try it.

Today I made my first batch of no poo balls.

I pretty much followed a recipe I found on a Canadian parents website.

1 cup of baking soda
a big squeeze of honey
a few drops of essential oil (I used tea tree and rosemary and I am not sure that I like the smell)
and enough water to make a paste

I rolled balls, about 1/2 an inch in size, out of the paste and am letting them dry.

I've read that you can use one of the balls as shampoo and then rinse with water, as you would normally do, or you can rinse with apple cider vinegar and water. I guess I'll try both and see what works.
It's an experiment so I'll let you know how it works.

Memememe

2009-09-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Chanie.

The rules are:

1. Open the fourth file that you store pictures in.
2. Post the fourth photo in that file.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Tag four other bloggers.

Okay, I don't have my photos organized into neat folders so I just picked the fourth one that came up in my search.
I love this picture of Thomas, it is from last spring and he was having such a wonderful time.

Hmmmm...who to tag.
How about Whozat, Amy H., Dawn H., and Julie R.

tuesday ten: ten things happening in my life

2009-05-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's time to ease back into blogging. I've been slacking off for a while and I have a plan to get back on track.

So...we'll start with the Tuesday ten...

1. I'm back on the farm. I'm going once a week and it is nice to get back out there. Things look beautiful and spring has definitely arrived in PA.

2. We're considering buying a house in town. It is exciting and terrifying. We have found a house we really like and it is in the same neighborhood we currently live in. We wish it was cheaper, we wish the taxes were less, we wish it had nice flooring under all that old carpet. Mostly we wish $20,000 would fall out of the sky and land in our laps.

3. Did you know that taxes are insanely abundant and high in PA? We're not in Georgia anymore.

4. Thomas is keeping us busy. He's winning awards in the county science fair, he's getting speaking parts in school concerts...the boy is a superstar!

5. JuJu...ah, there's always something happening in my life that revolves around her. She is a joy. She is busy. She is sensitive. She is currently singing, to her dolls, in her room.

6. The kids are starting tennis lessons this week. I hope it doesn't rain and I hope they have fun.

7. I'm busy with work. It's good. I sometimes wish there was more. Sometimes I wonder if I should get a "real" job (this is closely related to item #2).

8. The semester is over, but for the finals and grading, at Wilson. I can't wait to have John back again. Things get crazy when we are too busy.

9. We recently went to Pittsburgh. I loved the city! I enjoyed seeing art museums; happy, busy, friendly(!) people; good food (that wasn't the usual fare); even a Frank Lloyd Wright house. However, I was a little relieved (and that unnerved me) to get back to this small town where there is no traffic and virtually no crime. If only there was more good food and the natives were a little more friendly. I guess we take the good with the bad, right?

10. Mostly, as usual, the things happening in my life are wonderful. We have the flexibility again to travel this summer and we are looking forward to that. We can't wait to get to see our friends and family who don't live this far north (and I remind myself that if I had a "real" job that would greatly affect this freedom). We are excited to have some Cuban food and experience some real southern charm and hospitality!

ten things i like about snow

2008-12-16T07:21:00.000-08:00

1. I admire how peaceful it is. It is nice to watch it fall and I love it after a big snow when it seems so quiet and calm outside. It is beautiful.

2. I like having a fire in the fireplace and being somewhat oblivious to how cold it is outside.

3. There is nothing like a warm mug of hot chocolate on a snowy day.

4. I love watching the kids' excitement when they see it. Thomas can't wait to build things...snowmen, igloos, etc. Julian can't wait to make snow angels all over the neighborhood.

5. The dog LOVES it. She gets so excited in a lot of snow and it is fun to watch - not so much fun to hold onto the leash, however.

6. Having grown up in Miami, FL, I still always get really excited when I see snow falling.

7. I love looking at snowflakes. They are so pretty. Especially the big, fat ones. Check out this book. It's a great one for kids. http://www.amazon.com/Snowflake-Bentley-Caldecott-Medal-Book/dp/0395861624/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229441194&sr=8-1

8. I love snow days when there is nothing to do but hang out at the house and cuddle.

9. I love that it means winter is here. I get really excited about winter...until I am ready for it to be over.

10. Sledding!

will work for garlic

2008-12-02T13:11:00.001-08:00

Tthe fruits (or rather, garlic) of my labor.

And for the record. The dilly beans were delicious (or dillicious, depending on how fond you are of farm puns).

dilly beans

2008-09-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

After much searching for canning jars, not finding canning equipment, and some complaining to my friends on the farm about wanting to can dilly beans, we have some! My friends offered to can with me so we spent about seven hours picking, cleaning, boiling, and canning dilly beans. I have no idea how they will taste but I'm hoping they will be dill-icious.

We tried to go by the recipe for dilly beans as it is printed in the Ball Blue Book of canning - at least as far as the boiling time and the vinegar, water, and salt mixture. For the ingredients, however, we just did what we wanted to. We put in a hot pepper, at least 3 cloves of garlic (sometimes much more), a bunch of dill, and as many beans as we could fit in - all fresh picked from the farm.

ten things that happened today...

2008-09-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

1. I saw my baby boy get on the bus to go to second grade.

2. I watched another boy get on the bus for his first day of Kindergarten (and watched his dad cry).

3. JuJu and I got to hang out and go to the farm (where she pulled a weed so large that she pretended it was her husband and she danced with it).

4. I heard about how great school went today and all about the new friends Thomas made.

5. John donned his robe and walked in commencement at the college (let the semester begin!).

6. JuJu and I lay in her bed and read books and cuddled (one of my favorite things to do).

7. We all played lots of board games (another of my favorite things to do with the kids).

8. We went out to a celebratory first day of school dinner.

9. We had ice cream after that dinner (yum).

10. John and I watched part of the RNC (eek...gotta quit typing...it's still on and I don't want to say anything really nasty on here).

just can't get enough.

2008-06-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining and it is downright HOT here in PA. The kids have new bicycles and they are loving them.

Thomas is quite a daredevil. A few weeks ago, right after he got the new bike, he rode on a trail with some friends and flew over his handlebars when he went down one of the larger hills. When he flew over the front of the bike he landed in a thorny bush. As he retells the story, he says, "luckily that rose bush was there and not poison ivy." Well, at least he he is a positive thinker. He was bruised and scratched up but you can't keep him away from his bike. Last night he was riding up ramps and he is constantly looking for a curb to try to jump.

Julian has been riding quite a bit also. She loves going on rides at night and she is doing very well with her new wheels. She waves at everyone she sees and rings her bell whenever she gets the chance. Luckily her balance is pretty good (and she has training wheels) so she doesn't fall over when she is busy riding one handed and checking out the things in her basket.

Lily loves being outside also. She would stay out there all day if she could.

Is it possible for a dog to be loved too much?

plants...

2008-05-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

The garden is really coming along! Ahhhh....spring has been good to us this year. The rain is fairly frequent and it isn't hot enough to kill our salad greens.

Here is our herb corner. The mint was here when we moved in and it just continues to grow and spread. Mmmmmm....mojitos.

Blue peas and fava beans growing under and around bamboo poles. There are also some other things there...a tomato plant, some basil, and a pepper plant.

Cilantro. I LOVE it! I hope more of it comes up. Right now we just have a few of them that have popped through. My guess is that they would like it to warm up a bit before they appear.

Dill making its debut in our garden.

Another picture of the peas (Blauschokker Blue Pod Peas).

Mixed salad greens and arugula. It's delicious!!

Potatoes (a few different kinds)!

Tomatoes (black russian and yellow jelly bean)! There are some in the ground also but you couldn't see them in the picture.

And the cardoon I put in the ground last year. It made it through the winter and it is back!!

spring has sprung!

2008-05-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

I'm so thrilled that spring is finally here. The weather had been strange for a few weeks...very cold...very hot...very cold again, but it seems that spring has really arrived now. THIS is one thing we do like about this area. It is beautiful this time of year. The greens are so green, the lilac trees are so intoxicating, the azaleas are gorgeous, you name it and it is in bloom. It does wreak havoc on our allergies but I think it is worth it.

The other great thing about spring is gardening and farming! I've been back on the farm for a few weeks now and it is so wonderful. I love getting dirty out there and doing something useful with my time. I've planted cabbages, onions, bok choi, kale, chard, potatoes, and more. I've ridden on the back of a tractor to transplant seedlings. I've harvested and washed and reaped some benefits of my labor. I love the farm!

Our garden at home is seeing some promise as well. We've got peas climbing up the bamboo tripods, mixed greens and arugula filling in, herbs galore, fava beans and potatoes popping through the soil, and tomatoes just waiting to be put in the ground. It is so exciting to check on our garden every day to see what is coming up. We are waiting for our dill, cilantro, and carrots at this point.

Now if we can just get this weather to hold out for a couple of months. I'm already not prepared for the heat of summer.

ramblings from the baseball sidelines...

2008-04-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

JuJu and I were trying to entertain ourselves last night at Thomas's first baseball game (he did great, by the way) so we were running around, playing tag, and pretending to celebrate birthdays.

She was pretending it was her birthday and she opened her presents of tree bark (Barbies) and rocks (diamonds). Then we found a piece of concrete to be the cake. She made a wish and blew out the candles (flowers) and I asked her what she had wished for.

She said that she had wished for, "a nicer mommy."

Lovely.

The mom behind us got a kick out of it though.

sometimes growing up stinks

2008-03-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

Our guy has had a rough couple of days. Last night he had fun at baseball practice (it was his first Little League experience) but he stayed up too late. He was grumpy and uncooperative at bed time and that doesn't bode well for any of us.

While I was putting him to bed John came in and said that his Poppy (grandpa) in TN was sending him a new baseball glove. We bought everything else but were hoping an older glove of ours would work. It didn't really...hence the need for a new glove.

He was excited to find out that he was getting a new glove but then he started to cry. Really cry. Body shaking crying. He missed his grandparents...all four of them. He told me about things he liked to do with each of them. He missed his aunts and his uncle and his cousins. He was just so sad. It broke my heart.

I could do nothing other than tell him that we will see them all this summer and will even get to spend some time with his best friend in Georgia. It did make him feel better.

Tonight was the annual school roller skating party. Thomas wanted John to go with him so JuJu and I stayed home and had some girl time. When the guys got home, I could tell something was wrong. Thomas immediately started crying when he got inside. Evidently he fell down and cried and his friend called him a cry baby. After this, Thomas kicked his buddy (there is some disagreement about whether or not his friend kicked him first) and had to go sit out for a while. This episode was followed by more failed attempts at skating and culminated in more crying; complete with his friends wondering what was wrong with him and if he had been hurt. He cried and cried when he was telling me about it and said he never wanted to skate again.

He cried when he told me that he wanted to see his teacher but he had his skates on when he saw her and he couldn't get over to her before she left the rink.

I'm sorry that he has had such a rough couple of nights. It breaks my heart. I'm sad that while I think some of it stems from him being tired, I think some of it is just the pain that comes from growing up.

I sure love that kid. I'm not sure I am ready for him to grow up.

ahhhh....spring

2008-03-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Spring is really on its way. We have started our tomato seeds (Black Russian and Yellow Jelly Bean varieties) and put some marigold seeds in a pot so that we can transplant them. I was going to just sow the marigolds into our plot but I thought the kids would like to watch them come up inside.

I was also able to go help at the farm on campus yesterday. It was so nice to be back out there. I didn't work in the soil at all but the five of us there were able to put the plastic on one of the hoop houses. It will be ready to work in soon.

The kids and I also went on a bike ride back to the farm after Thomas got home from school. We went to cut some bamboo off to use to stake our peas and beans. I didn't think ahead too well, though, because we had about 6 long pieces of bamboo (at least 5 feet long a piece) and we had to then get them back home. I stuck them in the bike trailer with Julian, they were sticking out of the front and back of it, and Thomas rode behind us to make sure they didn't fall out.

I'll have to admit, he cracked me up when he made a siren noise and told me he was the bamboo police and he'd heard of a bamboo thief who was on the loose. Funny kid.

Luckily we just had to ride them back to campus and John walked our bamboo poles home.

I know they aren't that exciting yet but here are our tomatoes

And our marigolds

ten things i'm not as fond of...regarding this town

2008-03-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I gave you the good...the ten things I like about this town. This week I'm going to give you the bad and the ugly.

1. The cost of living. Yes, we moved to the north, from the south, and we did expect the cost of housing to be a little higher but this is just strange. Somehow, the market reflects the fact that we are close (??) to DC. It would be a very long commute, at least an hour and a half with no traffic, but evidently there are people who do make that commute so the cost of housing reflects that. Odd....especially given the next nine things.

2. The general lack of tolerance for others, particularly minorities. Again, moving north of the Mason-Dixon line we expected less racial prejudice than in the south. Given the fact that one of the first things I saw on our initial trip to the local pool was a confederate flag bikini (who even knew they made those?!), that hasn't really been the case. The bigotry has been much more obvious, to me, than in other places we've lived. Don't even get me started on the religious ignorance/intolerance. I won't go there. Maybe I will around Christmas time.

3. The size of the town. Through no fault of its own, this town is small. It feels small. There aren't great restaurants. There isn't much to do.

4. The alcohol regulations. This isn't only our town, it's the whole state. You have to buy your beer by the case (unless you want to pay a lot of money and buy it by the six pack in a bar) and you have to buy your wine and liquor in a state run liquor store. Thus limiting your options considerably. Our town can at least call itself home to a "Premium Wine and Liquor Shoppe." Thank goodness.

5. The whole town sometimes smells like manure. There are a lot of farms around here and on some days (pretty much every day in the spring) the smell of manure is overwhelming. Now I don't mind that smell if I'm actually working on a farm but walking around the neighborhood is a whole other story. The funny thing is that nobody talks about it or seems to notice. Aaahhhh, smell the fresh air.

6. Did I already mention that the restaurant options are extremely limited? It need to be stated again. Also, there is only one really stinky mall and one awful movie theater that only takes cash! What is up with that?

7. Strangely enough, many people here don't get irony or sarcasm. I don't know why...they just don't get it.

8. There seems to be some of a "children should be seen and not heard" mentality. I can't even begin to count the number of sideways glances we have gotten when our kids were just being kids. I don't mean running around screaming in a restaurant kids, either, I mean just being happy, fun kids. And sometimes the kids are just being sad kids. Oh boy, you should have been there (and one of you was) when Julian got upset at lunch in a restaurant. I actually had someone come and tell me that she should have brought her earplugs to lunch. And what about the time the lady suggested we put Julian on Prozac. Wow.

9. The weather. I know it could be worse, way worse, but when is spring going to arrive?! I'm usually done with winter about four weeks before it is done with me.

10. Again, not really the fault of the town but living here puts us far away from our families and best friends. And that stinks...maybe worse than the cow manure.

another haircut

2008-03-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

John and I were hanging out downstairs the other night while we thought the kids were getting ready for bed. Julian runs downstairs and says, "Daddy! You won't even recognize JuJu when you see her because she got a haircut!" I'm in the other room wondering what she is talking about...especially considering the fact that she was right in front of him while she was saying this. I go to see what is up and there she is, her hair is about 5 inches shorter in the front and she looks like she is growing out bangs (which she has never had). So, we tried to clean it up a little bit and here she is with her new 'do.

Our biggest concern was this: Thomas was in the bathroom with her while she was using the very sharp scissors to cut off a lot of her hair and he didn't say anything. Funny how he will report pretty much everything he thinks she has done wrong but he didn't consider this to be an issue.

ten things i like about this town

2008-02-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

In an effort to be positive about my surroundings I will dedicate today to good things about this town in which we live.

1. Our friends. We have made some good friends here. People I feel comfortable around and people who I know we can count on if we ever need anything. That is important.

2. The fact that we are semi-close to DC. We decided on a whim to go to DC Sunday and it was really cool to be able to do that. Not everyone can decide that they want to go to the Air and Space Museum and make it happen.

3. The Farm. I love that I can work on the farm, learn so much, and be in such a healthy environment.

4. Seasons. Okay, I'm kind of ready for winter to end and I know that I will complain about the heat of summer but there is something wonderful about spring and fall. I've never lived in a place where I appreciated spring nearly as much as I do here.

5. Our house. Yes, we rent -- and I remind myself often of what a good idea that has turned out to be. I love that we are close enough to the college that John can walk and it is nearly never a problem to remain a one car family. I love that I can walk to the houses of some of my friends as well. I think it's great that on nice days we can even ride our bikes, as a family, out to the farm.

6. Thomas's teacher. She isn't really part of this town, per se, and I have mixed emotions regarding the school situation in this town but I love his teacher this year. She is so excited about what she is doing and she is very good at it. He loves her because she teaches him so much and I think a little bit because she is so pretty. :-)

7. I like the fact that I often see someone I know when I'm out. I know that many people don't like that aspect of small town living but I like connecting with others when I'm out. Some of that might have to do with the fact that I grew up in Miami and hardly ever just bumped into people I knew when I was out. Here it is amazing if I make it out of the grocery store without seeing a familiar face.

8. I like that we are four hours from NY city and three hours from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Okay, we haven't been to these places (well, the kids and I have been to Pittsburgh a couple of times) since we moved here but it's nice to know that we could. I think we will make an effort to go to Philadelphia and New York City in the next year.

9. It's fun to live so close to places that shaped our national history. We can be in Gettysburg or Antietam in hardly any time. I had no clue that there was another Washington Monument (the original one) and we have even been to the top of it. We are also very close to the Appalachian Trail and have been in that a couple of times since we moved here.

10. I like that we feel safe here. I've never really felt unsafe in other places we've lived but I know that it isn't everywhere in this country that you can walk your dog at midnight and have no fear that you will be fine (even with the most non-threatening dog known to man).

the library is a grand place

2008-02-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

I love the library.
It has provided us a great place to meet people when we have moved around so much.
The library provides our kids with activities, friends, and story times led by wonderful story tellers.
It provides us with free books that we can check out and return when we are done with them.

After story time last week I was browsing around and came across two gems in the children's section of our local library.

One of them is a book that I remember my mom reading to me when I was younger and I was reminded of it during a recent visit to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Annex.

The book is called Hiroshima No Pika and was written by Toshi Maruki. It is the story of a seven year old girl, and her family, who were at their home in Hiroshima the day that the atomic bomb, nicknamed "little boy," was dropped by the Enola Gay. It is a poignant tale and at this point I haven't read it to Thomas. I know that JuJu is too young and I don't know if Thomas could handle the harsh reality written in this narrative.

We talked extensively about atomic bombs and nuclear weapons on our trip to the museum but this story breaks my heart.

At the museum we saw the Enola Gay, just feet away, and Thomas and I discussed how Paul Tibbets might have felt and what he might have been thinking on August 6, 1945. It was amazing to think that a plane that changed the world was just sitting among many other planes, of little significance, in this hangar.

The other book that I picked up was out on display and it just caught my eye. It is called The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain and was written by Peter Sis. It is Peter's story of growing up in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. I learned many things reading this picture book and the illustrations are superb. Thomas enjoyed the story as well and the part about the police carrying around scissors to cut the long hair of boys really stuck in his mind (having recently been a boy with very long hair himself). I highly recommend it.

So... visit your public library. That is my PSA for the day.

super saturday...and sunday

2008-02-03T17:35:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun yesterday! It started with a trip downtown to enjoy the annual Ice Fest. We enjoyed the ice sculptures but didn't sit in the ice throne...we might have to go back down there tomorrow and sit in it. Thomas did find some things he liked, though.

While downtown we also checked out ArtFest. We saw many of our friends and artists working on paintings and prints. Our friend Bob (an art professor at Wilson) even let Thomas assist him with his printmaking. We bid on the monograph that Thomas helped with and we won it. We were all very excited. Now we just have to figure out how to frame it. Luckily, Bob has offered to help us figure that out also. We are excited to have an original piece of art by one of our friends.

After ArtFest, we went over to Wilson to go on a helicopter ride. John won the ride in a drawing and since he didn't really want to go, the plan was that Thomas, Julian, and I would go.

All was going well until we ran up to go on. We got closer and it was so loud that Julian decided it was not something she was interested in. I ran her back to John and Thomas and I went up. The pilot flew us over town and we even saw our house. Our neighbors were probably wondering what was going on because he got pretty low and hovered right over our street. It was cool. We saw John's office, the farm, and lots of places we recognized. Thomas loved talking to the pilot on the headset.

We finished our great day up by going over to our friends' house to hang out and have pizza and cosmopolitans (well, milk for the kids) and share wonderful conversation.

We didn't do much today but we did go for a walk at the Army Heritage and Education Center. They have a really cool walking trail there and John had never been. We had a nice walk and got to see some cool stuff, like a full-size model of a WWI trench. I'm just relieved that we can make it out of there without someone getting upset about our bumper stickers. We've only been twice but so far, no problems.

It has been a great weekend.

book tag - you're it

2008-01-28T19:49:00.000-08:00

My wonderful friend Cat tagged me to play book tag so here goes.

Share line 5 of the 161st page of the book you're reading.

I've been helping a friend proofread a book the past few days so here is the answer for that page turner...
"It is presented as follows."
It is a nursing book and not nearly as interesting as the last book I helped her with.

The other book that I am reading, and not getting paid to do so, is The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
I haven't actually gotten to page 161 yet but it looks like at that point in the book I will be reading Selections from Women and Economics
Line 5 says:
"and their effect is observed and the diet varied by physicians, who do not do their work by instinct, either."

We're also reading Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary but since it is up in Thomas's room and he is asleep I cannot tell you what it says on page 161 (assuming there is a page 161).

So...now you know what I'm reading and you're it!
If you have a blog and you're reading something, aside from this blog, write what is on page 161, line 5. If you don't have a blog and are so inclined...you can write your line(s) in the comments.

new year, new hair, and new beds...

2008-01-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

2008 has meant some big changes in our home already this year. Julian had her first haircut ever and Thomas decided to "trim" his hair. He meant a real haircut when he said trim so we went pretty short.

before

after

before

after

In addition, last week Julian moved out of her toddler bed and into a big kid bed. She loves her new bed and is doing pretty well sleeping in it.

It is cold here in PA but Lily has found a way to keep warm.

birthday boy

2007-11-19T17:51:00.001-08:00

It is hard for me to believe that seven years ago today I went from being just Alice to being Mommy. It's hard to remember a time when it was just John and I hanging around the house doing whatever we wanted to do and going out wherever and whenever we wanted to.
Yet...I do remember the time when Thomas was born, fairly vividly. We were living in a little rental house in Austin, TX. The home was cozy and welcoming. We were very comfortable there. We had great friends and wonderful neighbors. We had had a baby shower recently enough before he was born that the "baby shower" banner was still up in the dining room when we came home from the hospital. Thomas's room was all ready and we were so excited to become parents.
The labor and delivery were fairly easy and uneventful (as those things go) and at 3:24pm on Sunday, November 19, 2000, John and I became parents.
I couldn't stop smiling and John cried. It was a wonderful moment.
Over the past seven years we have watched our baby boy grow into a wonderful child. He is smart, insightful, charming, adorable, and just fun to be around (of course, I'm a little biased).
Happy Birthday sweet Thomas.

happy halloween

2007-10-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

These are from yesterday. More pictures of my two favorite Power Rangers coming up later.

Julian at school.

Carving pumpkins.

ten halloween memories

2007-10-30T18:55:00.001-07:00

1. Being a mermaid when I was younger...my mom made the entire costume and it was beautiful. I was so proud and felt so special.

2. Being George Washington. My mom made that one also. She never even flinched when I came up with what I wanted to be for Halloween. Amazing.

3. The year I broke my finger on Halloween. I broke it at school and sat in the ER with my mom while other kids went trick or treating. I did get to go to my Halloween Party but I went late...and as a Hula Girl with her finger in a splint.

4. A Halloween in college when John and I went to a party dressed as a football player and a cheerleader...I borrowed his sister's cheerleader uniform. Thanks, Chris!

5. Halloween 2001...when Thomas took his first steps. We were at a party at our friend's house and Thomas walked. It was amazing.

Uh oh...now I have to reach...

6. I love carving pumpkins for Halloween. It is fun to do and so much fun to see them on Halloween night.

8. Going to pumpkin patches is great. I had never even seen a real pumpkin patch until we moved to GA. I thought that "pumpkin patches" were just places where people brought pumpkins to sell them. Who would have thought I would spend so much time on a farm?!

9. I remember always wanting to wear some of the really fuzzy costumes when I was a kid but it was never cool on Halloween in Miami.

10. Oddly enough, Julian froze last year as a princess...maybe we should have gone to Miami to trick-or-treat.

horses in chambersburg

2007-10-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

We went to a fall celebration at the Wilson College Equestrian Center. We all had a wonderful time.

Ride 'em cowgirl!

There were some other crazy activities...

Fun but messy.

And many pretty horses...this one was friendly. I didn't realize until after we walked away that he was probably so excited because I had two apples in my hand (that the kids nabbed in the apple bobbing area). Morgan, these are for you. :-)

boo!!!

2007-10-28T18:24:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!

JuJu grows up...a little

2007-10-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

This morning Julian sang at the Church where her preschool is located. She was such a big girl. She went up the aisle all by herself and then she sang and did all of the hand motions. She was thrilled that we were there to see her and so proud of herself for singing on stage.

She's on the left with the pink tights and navy blue dress.

She's such a lady...she did at least put her legs together for the children's sermon.

Here she is walking down the aisle by herself.

And here she is singing.

ten things i'd like to get rid of

2007-10-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

1. Oh so much baby stuff sitting around in the attic and basement (Whozat and Shrike...when I get the word, you're getting some stuff!).

2. The sofa and love seat (but I don't want to get rid of it just yet...I'd like to hold off as long as possible).

3. The extra papers and things that we need to sort through and just weed out.

4. The histiocytoma on Lily's leg and the crusty spot on her ear (we can hope that the $68 I spent in pet meds at the vet will help with that).

5. The jumping that the dog does...does that count as getting rid of something?

6. About 10 pounds

7. Some of the clothes in my closet...and in everyone else's closets around here.

8. All of the clutter around here...I don't feel like we have a lot around here but I like to be pretty minimalistic and right now I feel like there is too much stuff.

9. My alarm clock...maybe time altogether.

10. Famine, war, racism, chauvinism, hatred, bigotry, pedophilia, bullies, insane salary distribution (ie. pro athletes), guns...the list goes on.

what have i been up to?

2007-10-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

School has started and Thomas is in school for 6 1/2 hours a day, Julian has been going to school for 5 hours a week...so what am I doing with all of my free time?
Mondays and Fridays Julian and I hang out and do things we need to do...like grocery shop, go to the outlet mall for fall clothes for our ever growing girl (even if that means a wrong turn and a mini trip to WV), watch Dora episodes, and hang out with friends for planned (Monday) and impromptu (Friday) play dates.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays while JuJu is at school I go to the farm on campus and help out in whatever way I can. I do a lot of weeding and last week I picked tomatoes in addition to weeding some kohlrabi, broccoli, and salad mix. It is so much fun and I love being out there. It was the first time in my life that I ate a tomato right off of the vine and it was by far the most wonderful tomato I have ever tasted. I will miss being at the farm when the season is over. It is great exercise and I'm using muscles I didn't use much before. I'm painfully aware of that other days of the week.
On Wednesdays Julian and I go to story time at the library in Shippensburg and then, after lunch, I head off for my tennis class. One of the great advantages of John teaching at Wilson College is that I get to audit classes for free. This is how I took the gardening class last spring and how I am taking my tennis class this semester. Playing tennis for two hours a week has provided me even more of a workout than the farm work alone. While I play tennis, John gets to spend some quality time with his baby girl.
Saturdays I have been helping out at the local farmers' market. The college has a stand and I've been working there at least every other week from 7am to 1pm. It is wonderful meeting other people from the community and just being a part of something so amazing.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I've gotten to myself this semester. I feel like I have gotten so much out of my time...I've learned very valuable skills (okay, I don't know how valuable tennis is really but farming must have some merit) and feel so good about myself.
I owe a lot to John who pushed me to find a school for Julian to attend so that I could have some time to myself. He is also more than willing to help me audit any class I feel interested in whenever he can. I think he really enjoys the alone time with Julian.
So, that's what I've been doing over the past weeks. I feel refreshed, although physically exhausted much of the time, and renewed. I hope that the end of the summer/start of the fall season has been as wonderful for you as it has been for me.

10 things about school

2007-09-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

1. Julian didn't cry at drop off today!!!
2. School is for learning.
3. School is for making friends and learning how to deal with people who aren't your friends.
4. School is for challenging previously held beliefs...so that you can either defend or modify them.
5. Thomas likes to go out for recess two times at school (first grade is the best!!)
6. Julian likes playing at school
7. School is for trying and experiencing new things.
8. Remembering school makes me think of the peeling paint in front of my old elementary school. Ahh, Kendale Elementary.
9. High school...you couldn't pay me to go back there.
10. One of the best things about school is...SUMMER VACATION!!!!!

preschool update

2007-09-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

It happened today! The day that I didn't think would come so quickly. We got to Julian's school this morning and after she walked in and I hung up her bucket (they use buckets instead of backpacks), I said goodbye. Expecting the worst, I braced myself. She turned to me, smiled and waved goodbye!!
I felt so free and light and such a sense of relief as I said goodbye to her and left her classroom.
When I picked her up the teacher said that she didn't cry at all today...not even a moment of sadness.
It made me so happy.
She is growing up.

preschool for princesses

2007-09-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Last week was Julian's first week of preschool. On the first day, she woke a little apprehensive and a little excited. She told me, however, that she wanted to go to another school because this one had boys. She suggested that the boys at her school attend Thomas's school. I mentioned that since his school is only for older boys and girls the three year old boys went to her school. It didn't make her happy but she seemed like she could maybe deal with it.

Drop off was sad but not too awful. Just slight face flushing and eyes that welled up with tears but didn't overflow (hers). Whew. We made it and even though the teacher said there were some tears later in the morning, by the time I got there to pick her up she was all smiles.

We celebrated her first day of school by lunching at "Old McDonald's" (her choice). It was just us girls and it was nice.

She only goes to school two days a week and the second day was equally fine.

Today, however, we are on week two of school and she started asking last night if she had to go to school today. She didn't want to go.

This morning's drop off was disastrous! She was clinging to me so hard that I had to remove her hands from my shirt while the teacher took her away from me. She was crying for me and I had to leave the room so that she wouldn't see me crying also. It was honestly one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life.

The happy ending for today is that when I went to pick her up I could see her talking to one of her new friends through the window. She looked so happy. The teachers said she only cried for a couple of minutes and had a wonderful day. They even gave her a certificate for only crying one time today.

Let's just hope that Thursday's drop off goes a little more smoothly...and more easily for mommy.

first grade

2007-08-31T18:42:00.000-07:00

Our baby boy is growing up. This young man who cried every time his father dropped him off at preschool has come a long way in the past couple of years. He was so excited about the start of First Grade...meeting his teacher, making new friends, and seeing his friends from last year after a long summer away.
On the first day of school Thomas woke up before his alarm went off and was dressed and ready to go before John and I even got out of bed. He rode the bus to and from school and had a wonderful day.
As an added bonus, we met another family in our neighborhood who also have a son in first grade. He is in the other class but he and Thomas are having a great time waiting for the bus together.
He has gotten to attend PE, art, music, and library already this week and he has enjoyed them all. He came home today singing a new song and yesterday he showed me how he learned to draw a face in a different way.
His teacher is new to the school and a recent college graduate. She is very young and according to Thomas she is "very sweet." He has told us, so far, that the PE and art teachers are a little "bossy," as is the other first grade teacher. His teacher, however, isn't bossy at all. He has even told me that he thinks she is nicer than me. Uh, thanks buddy.
Aside from the kid who was picking on him the first day (we think it was because of Thomas's long hair but Thomas seems unaffected by it) all is going wonderfully. The bully kid was moved, we aren't sure why, to the other class after the first day of school so that was a bit of a relief on our part.
Thomas's attitude and the fact that he could ignore and calmly ask this other child to stop calling him a "girly girl" impressed both John and I. We agreed that he handled the situation much better than either of us would have at that age. I figured that I would have said something mean and threatened the other kid and John said he thought he would have cried and felt badly about himself. We were proud of our self-confident, smart, and wonderful young man. He is truly a great kid...most of the time.

Here are some pictures of him.
Here he was last year on the first day of kindergarten.

Here he was on Monday. A few fewer teeth and more hair.

Walking to the bus stop.

Stay tuned...the baby girl starts preschool on Tuesday.

garden update

2007-08-17T08:21:00.000-07:00

Some of the things in our garden didn't survive our 6 1/2 week vacation. Some things, however, seem to have thrived in our absence.
We prepared part of the larger bed and all of the smaller bed for late summer/fall planting yesterday. We hope to get some seeds in the ground today. We are excited at the prospect of growing more food.
Yesterday we harvested the rest of one of the carrot rows. Julian helped.

Here are the fruits (or vegetables) of our labor.

We have harvested some tomatoes and right now we have quite a few green ones on the vines. Our basil is looking great also.

Basil

Tomatoes

Rows of tomatoes with a row of basil in the middle

Here are some carrots on the right, marigold (that has taken off) on the top and bottom, and two little pepper plants at the top of the bed on the left.

ten ways to beat the heat...and a bonus

2007-08-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

1. Turn on the a/c
2. Go to the pool
3. Hang out in the sprinkler
4. Barton Springs (if you are in Austin this is the best way...if not, it's a very long drive!!)
5. Cold beer
6. Do some laundry...the basement is cool
7. Grill out...it's cooler than turning on the oven.
8. Grocery shopping...hang out in the refrigerated section
9. Go to the movies
10. Watch a movie filmed in the arctic

the bonus...ten places Lisa could look for Emma's Nintendo DS (any other suggestions are welcome as this thing has been missing a long time!).

1. On top of the fridge.
2. I forget...do you have a basement? If so, check it out.
3. Tool box?
4. On a shelf in your very organized garage
5. Behind some dishes in a kitchen cabinet
6. In the back of a desk drawer in your office
7. On top of the computer armoire
8. Behind the TV
9. Under your bed
10. In an old purse at the top of your closet

Good luck, Lisa!

pictures from the last part of our trip

2007-07-31T18:02:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures.

This girl loves her dog!

Fourth of July fun in TN

We took Mimi out for tea as a belated Mother's Day present.

Happy Birthday big girl!

Papa had fun at the party!

Lily really liked Thumper (Aunt Heather's bunny)

Happy Birthday pretty girl!

Look at the awesome cake that Aunt Heather made!

Mimi Parker made Juju an adorable new outfit. Thanks Mimi!

We had fun with the cousins!

Hanging with the meerkats at the Nashville Zoo

Juju and Isa...together again

A party for three beautiful girls.

The guys took Papa out for 9 holes of golf. They had a great time!

summer recipes from the new york times

2007-07-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

101 simple meals ready in 10 minutes or less. That all sounds good to me.

I haven't checked them out yet but I plan to when I have a quiet moment tonight.

home sweet home

2007-07-24T17:35:00.001-07:00

We got home last night. It was a nice trip back. We even saw the final two license plates we needed to complete our quest for all 50 states. We lucked upon Hawaii when we were in Memphis. Who would have thought?! We did pretty well considering we didn't even start keeping track until we left Florida.
I don't remember our final mileage count. It was somewhere around 6300 miles total. I can't say enough about how great the car did. We passed the 80K mile mark on our odometer and the car still runs so well. Bravo Subaru! Our Ford Contour was falling apart at 60k miles and trading it in for our Forester was one of the best decisions we ever made.
We had such a wonderful time at our last stops. Athens was so much fun. We got to stay with our wonderful friends Amy and Ed and our friend Becky (my college roommate) even came up to see us one night. We felt so lucky that she made the trip because we have missed her terribly! It didn't seem like we'd been away from Amy, Ed, Javi, and Isa at all. John and I always say that we feel like we are staying with family when we are with them. It is so comfortable, fun, and easy. Such a pleasure.
We got to hang out with Mimi and Papa Elia for another couple of nights and then we got back on the road.
I don't know if I have mentioned how proud we are of the kids. They did so much better than could have been expected on a trip this long. Even Lily did a great job. By the final day she had turned into a great traveller. And she wasn't all that bad before. She has done well settling into our home. I think we are ready to work on some more training with her. She needs more help with jumping, pottying, and chewing appropriate things. I guess the basic puppy problems.
The house...well, let's just say that I have realized that I have some control issues. As soon as we walked in the door I saw toys that were out of place and I didn't feel settled until I straightened up a bit. Maybe I should work on this. It is not normal. We also lost some plants while we were gone. Well, some plants and 13 fish. The fish are all gone now. The kids are asking for a beta fish next. The garden still looks pretty good, however. We had some of our tomatoes and carrots tonight with dinner and they were delicious.
Overall it was a good experience and the house is in good shape.
So...the trip was fun, the house was taken care of, and 6300 miles and about $600 in gas later we are home safe and sound and sleeping in our own beds.
The car isn't completely unpacked but once I find the cord for the camera I will put some pictures on here.

georgia on my mind...

2007-07-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

After a great evening in Greenville, SC with Christy and Rob, we are in Athens, GA. Greenville was a great city. I expected it to be cool and fun but it was even better than I thought. The city is very cool and seems to have much to offer...in addition to Chris and Rob. I even got to meet up with one of my old friends from High School. That was fun and an unexpected surprise.
We got to Athens on Monday and have been hanging out with our wonderful friends here. Thomas and his buddy Javi are getting along great and Julian and Isa are loving being back together...about 98% of the time. The adults...well, we are so happy to see Amy and Ed again and are loving being here. John has been receiving nightly beatings in Gamecube football and the boys (the younger ones) are giving the Wii a workout. Amy and I even got to box the other night.
We are heading back home next week and I can't believe we have been on the road this long. It doesn't seem like we've been gone long at all.

it's been a while

2007-07-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

We are still in Mt. Juliet, TN and I haven't had that much time to blog. John is still out of town (he gets back today) and with two kids and a new dog I have to be on the lookout pretty much all of the time. Once we get the kids to bed I'm exhausted. We tried to watch a movie and I fell asleep both nights (yes, we even split it into two nights!).
I meant to write something here on 7/11 because that was Julian's birthday. I didn't get to and I will devote a blog to her once we get back and I have access to my pictures. For some reason I decided not to bring our laptop so I can't put pictures up. Poor planning on my part. She had a very nice birthday and she is now three years old! I cannot believe it. She wants to have her ears pierced for her birthday but I don't know if that will happen when John gets back because if she is upset or whiny, I will need reinforcements. The trip is still going well and Lily might make it out of the house without destroying anything of real value. She has until tomorrow...when we head off again to Greenville, SC to spend the night with Aunt Chris and Rob. We hear that they took our Wii with them so we have to retrieve it!

another great family visit

2007-07-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

We left John's parents' house this morning and it was hard to go. We had such a nice time. They were wonderful helping us train Lily to be a good girl and are always so much fun to be around. It was a relaxing week despite the fact that we had a new puppy in the house.
Thomas loved playing golf with Poppi and we loved seeing him enjoy his grandpa so much.
All of the ladies went out for tea on Saturday. It was a belated Mother's Day gift from us to mom. We had such a nice time. Julian got a mini tea (including her own pot of tea and tea sandwiches shaped like butterflies) and she felt like such a princess. She was fun to watch and it was nice spending time with Chris and mom.
We got to hang out with some of our friends in Morristown last night. We commiserated about living in small, conservative towns and wished, again, that we lived closer to them. It is sad when your favorite people are spread out all over the country. We are fortunate, again, that we have been able to see so many of our friends.
We got to spend more time with Aunt Chris and Rob also. We all loved seeing them and Rob was great with the kids...and the dog! Thomas loved playing War with Rob and was always up for a video game challenge. Thanks Rob!
Other big news is that we got a Wii. We are all sore for playing too much yesterday but it is so much fun!!! After playing with Claudia's (and the cousins' and Kate and Simon's) Wii we had to have one. What a great investment. ;-)
Thanks to Mom and Dad for having us for the week! We all had a very nice time.
Today we arrived in Mt. Juliet (near Nashville) and have descended on my sister's house. John flew off to a seminar in D.C. for the week...enjoy the peace and quiet...but will rejoin us here on Saturday.

tennessee and the dog

2007-07-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

We picked up the dog on Sunday and she is doing pretty well. Having a new dog is hard work. I knew it would be but I've been a little surprised at all of the effort it has taken. She is not tolerating her food well and keeps getting sick. She is, however, very sweet and is putting up with Julian very well. In fact, Julian fell on top of Lily (the dog) the other day and Lily didn't even flinch. Thomas is learning to keep her down off of him and he is doing well. He says he loves her.
As long as we can get her to stop jumping and start keeping her food down we should all be fine. She hasn't had any potty accidents in the house (knock on wood) and is doing well otherwise.
We are having fun in TN and are enjoying being with John's parents and his sister and her boyfriend came up last night. It is so nice to be with family again. This summer has been great because we have gotten to see so many people we love. I hope we can live closer to them all again one day.

Here are some pictures of Lily

The kids resting with her.

where are the elias now?

2007-07-01T04:02:00.001-07:00

We left Austin the day before yesterday and spent the night in Memphis. It was nice and we got to swim the night we got there. Thomas is becoming such a great swimmer and Julian is even picking it up a little. Yesterday morning we hit a great Starbucks and drove to Mt. Juliet (near Nashville) to see my sister and her family for lunch. It was so nice. We planned to only be there for two hours but it ended up being four. They had a Wii also (we've got to get one of those things!!) so we got to play some more games. After that we headed back to Morristown for dinner. We're working on the enormous pile of laundry that has accumulated and are excited that we will go pick up Lily (our dog...she had a name change) in four hours. John and I are both a little nervous about how she will act and hoping that she will be easy to house train. It is a little nerve wracking to think about taking her to people's houses and not just our own but we are crossing our fingers that she acts like the perfect pet.

goodbye austin!

2007-06-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

We left Austin today. It was sad to say goodbye again. Thomas cried last night because he didn't want to leave Texas. We had so much fun, saw so many great friends, and had a perfect visit.
I am now a year older...well, just a few days older really but my age has changed. I had a nice birthday seeing friends at the park, hanging out with Becky and the kids, and walking around town. Then, my great friend Tinley took me out for a birthday dinner. John watched the kids and Tinley and I had such a nice time catching up with one another. I got to see a lot of old friends and coworkers as well. I'm amazed at how quickly we reconnected and it didn't seem at all like three years had passed.
I knew that I missed my friends in Texas but seeing them again really reminded me of exactly how much. Last night we got to go out to dinner with our friends Keith and Sarah. They treated us to our last Texas BBQ for a while.
We had so much fun watching the kids catch up with their friends. Once they all got back together it was like old times.
Here are some pictures.

It was so nice to see Ian and Rebekah again.

We even got to have breakfast with them one morning.

Sadie, Julian, and a very patient Fiona.

Thomas and Shane catching up over a video game.

Mickey and Julian riding the fire truck at Zilker Park.

Is this kid adorable or what?! Our friend Paula met us at Zilker with Mickey and Danny.

Julian and Henry having fun.

Claudia, Henry, and Becky were able to join us again. I didn't get pictures but Becky and I had a rousing bowling match on the Wii after lunch. I'm still sore.

We went to the Hula Hut for lunch.

The kids hanging out.

We had such a nice visit. I can't wait until we make it back to Texas again. I hope it isn't three more years!

pictures

2007-06-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

We are still having a wonderful time in Austin.

This morning John and Julian took the car into the dealership and we now have a squeak free car with new oil. It wasn't cheap but we got out for under $300 so that's something.

This afternoon we drove all around town. We had a wonderful brunch at Kerbey Lane Cafe. Thomas finally met a pancake that he couldn't finish. We never thought we'd see the day. In his defense, it was huge!

We showed Thomas our old house and our first apartment. He didn't remember our house or street at all. It's funny how a place that was his home for more than half of his life can be such a distant memory. Well, so distant that it isn't even a memory.

We went vintage shopping and ended up at our favorite Goodwill store. We got some stuff for the kids, including some new cowboy boots for Thomas.

Tonight we met a bunch of old friends at Phil's Icehouse. It wasn't here when we lived in Austin but it was great. It would have been one of our favorites if it had been around three years ago.

We had such a great visit with our friends. It was wonderful to see everyone and it seemed as though we hadn't been gone very long at all. Certainly not three years.

Ahhh, it's good to be back.

Here are the pictures I promised.

This one is in Miami still with my friend Eunice and her son Sebastian

Thomas and Poppi hard at work cleaning algae from the pond.

Our friends Jen and Jeyson drove down to see us. Thomas and Jacob and Julian and Jillian really hit is off!

The boys had similar interests.

Here we are

Here we are at Pok E Jo's last night

And waiting for the bats to come out

We weren't the only ones waiting...this is a big event.
Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the bats but it is too hard and too dark to capture them.

Just a couple of pictures I took while we were out today.

Great friends and lots of fun tonight.

on the road again...

2007-06-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

After two very long days in the car we have arrived in Austin!!!! We got here last night and have already done some of our favorite things. We went to dinner at Thomas's favorite BBQ place, Pok-E-Jo's, went to the coolest (and our favorite) toy store in the world, Toy Joy, saw the bats emerge from under the Congress Avenue bridge, and shopped at the most wonderful Whole Foods I've ever seen. They were building it our last year here.

I'll admit that John and I made the drive out to Austin with some trepidation. We were worried that the town wouldn't live up to our memory of it but we were wrong! We were so happy to be back "home" and the kids have been excited to see all of the places that we loved when we were here.

Tonight we will get to reconnect with some old friends and that will be so nice. We can't wait.

The car is in the shop and is getting its belts (and some other thing) replaced. It will take up a little of our trip budget but it will still be cheaper than four plane tickets.

We had such a wonderful time in Miami and had a hard time leaving. Thomas even said, as we were pulling out of the driveway at 5:30am, "sometimes I can't tell if my eyes are crying because I'm sad or if my hair is just in my face." I think he was a little sad to leave Mimi and Poppi Parker's house. We had a great visit. Thanks mom and dad.

Again I have pictures but the cords I need are in the car so I will post them later.

pictures, pictures, and more pictures...and a couple of video clips

2007-06-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

Some from last week in Orlando.

Julian with Princess Aurora...AKA Sleeping Beauty.

Thomas and Papa in "Mexico."

Thomas and cousins with an ewok.

Julian and the ewok made a special connection.

Us with Shrek.

And here we all are before we left.

Getting ready to feed the Tarpon on Tuesday in the Keys.

Heading into the ocean.

Having fun with Papa.

Checking out treasures with Mimi.

At the beach yesterday.

The Monkey Jungle
Here is King...the Gorilla

Here are the kids feeding the monkeys. This was so cool! I couldn't stop feeding them myself. Those monkeys are smart!

Yummmmmm...Shorty's corn on the cob.

more fun in miami

2007-06-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

We are having so much fun. Yesterday we took the kids to a little beach that we like here. It is a quiet, nice family beach that we can get to without having to deal with too much traffic. That is a definite plus when in Miami. When we got back from the beach we had a wonderful spaghetti dinner including homemade key lime pie for dessert. Thanks mom. :-)
Today we packed a lot of fun into one day. We started off by going to the Monkey Jungle. We all had a great time. I'll post pictures later. We saw swimming monkeys and the coolest Gorilla. It was the first time I'd ever been there and it was fun but it was HOT!
We came home for lunch and then headed out to the Miami Science Museum to see the Dinosaurs of China exhibit. The dinosaur exhibit was fantastic and the kids loved the permanent installments as well. There were a lot of hands on activities for them to enjoy. For dinner we went out for BBQ at one of my dad's favorite spots, Shorty's BBQ. Thomas had ribs and the kids loved their super buttery corn. We've just finished off the last of the Key Lime pie and are getting ready to head to bed.
We've decided to spend one more day in Miami and do the drive to TX in two super long days instead of three very long days. Let's hope we don't regret it.

a day in the life

2007-06-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

Ten things I did today

1. Went out to lunch and a book club meeting with my mom.

2. Went shopping for shoes with my mom...and she bought me a new pair for my birthday. Thanks mom! :-)

3. Drove down to the FL Keys while Julian napped and Thomas became increasingly thrilled to be there and surrounded by the ocean.

4. Watched Thomas throw bait fish to some enormous Tarpon. Some fast, greedy seagulls got a few also...they snagged them before they hit the water!

5. Went to the beach with the kids and my parents.

6. Captured some hermit crabs and sea snails to examine with the family.

7. Threw them all back in the water.

8. Collected shells and pieces of washed up coral.

9. Ate seafood for dinner...including alligator, conch fritters, crab cakes, and delicious coconut shrimp.

10. Enjoyed watching Thomas help my mom make Key Lime Pie. He had such a nice time helping her and I enjoyed watching them.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow of what we did today. It was a nice day.

movies

2007-06-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here is Julian meeting Mickey. She was so happy she was speechless.

And Julian meeting Donkey. She had just bought a pair of Donkey ears and a tail and was wearing them. What I didn't catch on tape was him saying, "you're the best looking kid I've seen all day" when she first walked up to him and his saying, "you look great in those ears...not me, I look like a deranged Easter Bunny." He was pretty funny.

orlando

2007-06-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

We had no Internet access while in Orlando (GASP!) so I missed a lot. I missed meeting up with some of my friends and I missed updating my blog on a more regular basis.

The trip is going well. The car is making some strange noises but we are attempting to ignore them. If we turn the radio up loud enough we can't even hear them.

Last week we stayed at Disney World with my parents and my sister and her family. One of my Aunts even came for one night and it was the first time she had seen Julian. It was nice seeing her again. We had a BLAST last week! Almost as exciting as seeing my side of the family again was going to Disney World and Universal Studios. The kids had so much fun at Disney. Julian was thrilled to meet Mickey Mouse and Donkey from Shrek...videos to come later...and ride roller coasters. Okay, she didn't ride anything big but she felt so grown up.

Thomas had fun with his cousins and would have been happy to just play on his Nintendo DS with them all day but he allowed us to drag him out to the parks as well. He still likes Thunder Mountain Railroad but he has gotten a bit more timid in his roller coaster riding and passed on Space Mountain this time.

Universal Studios had less to offer the younger kids. Our nephews, however, loved the bigger roller coasters. They did have a cool Dr. Seuss area that Thomas and Julian loved and that was fun.

In addition, there was a Jurassic Park area that had some water cannons and we all had fun over there. We got very wet at Universal but it made for a fun couple of days.

EPCOT was a hit with Thomas. He loved visiting the countries and I loved eating at them. :-) Great day there all around.
In addition to all of the fun with the kids, John and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary last week. We had a wonderful night out, without the kids, at Disney's Victoria and Albert's restaurant. The food and wine were superb and we enjoyed every moment of our evening. My parents and sister and brother in law were kind enough to watch the kids for us so they had fun as well. It was a memorable and very special time for us and I'm so glad that we were able to do it. I definitely chose a wonderful person to be my mate.

We are now down in Miami with my parents and have been taking it easy so far. One of my best friends from High School came over today and we got to meet her adorable son for the first time. It was so nice to see her again. Tomorrow we plan to go down to the Keys for some time at the beach and some fish sandwiches. Yummmm.

a new addition

2007-06-09T13:34:00.001-07:00

We got a puppy today!
Papa said he wanted to get one for Julian so we went on a hunt today. This one caught our attention...mostly because she looked so sweet and shy...and we took her out. She is the most calm six month old dog I've ever seen.
She is some sort of beagle mix. We loved her coloring, the fact that she doesn't seem to shed, her temperament, everything. Even though John and I thought we wanted a huge dog, realistically she is probably a good size for us. She weighs around 30 lbs and although we don't know if she will get bigger, we doubt that she will get much larger.
Her name at the shelter was Topsy but we want to rename her. Right now we are thinking Rocky. We wanted to give her a name that signifies where we got her and Rocky Top seems to work. It's either that or Dolly. ;-)

we're off!

2007-06-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

So...seven hours down. We are in TN tonight. The kids were good in the car but bedtime is another story.
Julian just keeps saying, "I want to go home." Oh my.
We finally got her to sleep...by allowing her to sleep with me in another room. We'll see how the sleeping arrangements go over the next 5 weeks. Should be an adventure.

the time has come

2007-06-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is a big day...it is Thomas's last day of Kindergarten. He has had such a wonderful year. He loved school more than he ever has before and has learned a lot. He has turned into a great reader and his writing continues to improve.
As much as he has enjoyed the year, he is excited about the upcoming summer break.
Here he is...before

and after...at field day a couple of weeks ago.

On another note, we head off on our summer vacation tomorrow. We will be on the road for at least five weeks. We have found a wonderful family to stay at our house while we are gone and that is nice. We have packed...for the most part...and cleaned the house. Yesterday we cleaned out the car. Two garbage bags of trash and two bags of toys and shoes (really, there were at least 10 pairs in there) later I think we will have space in the car for all of our luggage. With any luck we won't reenact Chevy Chase's antics from National Lampoon's Vacation on this trip. I do plan to sing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot when we cross the Mississippi...the might Mississip...ho ho ho ho the 'Ole Miss...the old man...

Man I LOVE that move. It's right up there with Mr. Mom.

I hope to keep up to date on here so I can let you all know where we are and what we are doing.

monday's garden...on wednesday

2007-05-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it is clear that I haven't been taking weekly pictures of the garden at our house.
Here are some I took today.
Two rows of tomatoes (including two really tall ones from our neighbor) on either side of a row a basil. The tomatoes are looking great and the basil is coming up nicely!

The spinach. We've been covering part of it to protect it from bunny foo foo. You can see how the part toward the bottom is finally getting bigger again while the top of the row is practically non-existent.

And check out these carrots! They have taken off.
I've found that we can't transplant them so I hope they don't get too crowded out. I guess I could thin them but I'm not ready to do that yet.

Here are Thomas's sunflowers with a row of cilantro in front.

Yesterday we harvested some broccoli and cauliflower from the farm on campus and it was delicious. We all enjoyed it and have broccoli for tonight. Yummmmm

And last but not least...it's been a long day for Juju. Whew.

show and tell

2007-05-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

Every Friday is show and tell day in Thomas's kindergarten class. Every Friday morning we run around looking frantically for something über cool for him to take to school. He has taken the largest Transformer known to human-kind. He has taken his wine cork collection. He has begged to take his Nintendo DS but we vetoed that because it is something that he cannot afford to replace. He has taken multiple other great things but it always seems that some other kid tops him. Lindy brought in her two hissing cockroaches, Andrew brought in a real shark jaw, Brant brought in some kind of shark baby in a jar, and Tici had the coolest Littlest Petshop toy ever!
This past Friday was no exception...we started discussing what he would bring as soon as we woke up. I told Thomas that we needed to go up to the farm to harvest some food and check on the plot and he was elated to take a bike ride (we cannot get him off of his bike lately). When we got up there he suggested that maybe he could take some food from the farm for show and tell. What a wonderful idea! He picked a large beet, a carrot, a cabbage, and a few peas (we took those from the student plot next to ours...they have tons of them so I figured a few would be okay). He was so excited to take the food from the farm and talk about the plot.
When I picked him up from school he told me that everyone loved what he brought. He was almost giddy with excitement. He said that his teacher even opened up one of the pea pods so that they could see the peas inside. (little did I know that they have been talking about seeds and plants in his class and they have even planted some seeds in little styrofoam cups). He gave her the beet because they aren't our favorite things to eat at this house. Later that afternoon his friend Eric came over and he was telling me how much he liked Thomas's food. We all took a bike ride to the farm and Eric picked some more food out to take home to his mom. He was thrilled to get her some vegetables.
Who would have thought that the garden plot that has brought me so much joy these past four months could bring so much joy to a class of kindergarteners who have never even seen it.

ten things i would never EVER own

2007-05-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

1. A "W" bumper sticker.
2. Any article of clothing with writing across my rear end.
3. A gun.
4. A GMC Suburban.
5. A super large, super expensive house (at least I hope not, on the expensive part).
6. A rat or mouse as a pet.
7. Another American car.
8. A pair of snow skis
9. A car with worse gas mileage than our current one.
10. Stock in Halliburton.

It was hard for me to think of 10 things.
Of course, some of these answers are subject to change...some are not. ;-)

the peonies have bloomed!

2007-05-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

They are gorgeous.

The rhubarb was also ready to harvest. We chickened out of making a rhubarb pie, however. We were worried that we would hate it so we decided not to waste the sugar and flour. It does look pretty in this picture.

It will be a week tomorrow since Thomas learned to ride without training wheels. We cannot get this kid off of his bike!! He would ride 24 hours a day if he could.

And here is our favorite carrot model.

This is the biggest carrot we have harvested from the farm to date.

What's up, doc?! What's up with that face, Juju?!

who needs polly pockets...

2007-05-19T18:26:00.001-07:00

When mom has a basket full of nail polish bottles?

ten things that are always in my grocery cart

2007-05-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

1. Cereal...at least 3 boxes of it.
2. Bread...at least two loaves.
3. Some Quorn fake chicken stuff.
4. Fruit...bananas, apples, and at least one other fruit.
5. Veggies...usually broccoli, green and another color of bell pepper.
6. Yogurt
7. Cheese...at least a block of cheddar and typically some sort of crumbly cheese for salad (feta, gorgonzola, or the like).
8. Wheat Thins...because I love them.
9. Candy...because the kids are with us and we can't keep them off of the bulk bin aisle.
10. Flowers...lately we've been getting flowers for the kitchen. Just the cheapy ones that cost less than $4 a bunch. They make me happy.

We used to always get salad but now we get it from the farm. We save at least $5 a week on organic lettuce and it is much fresher. :-) We get our milk at another store...because we can get hormone and antibiotic free milk that isn't organic and doesn't cost us over $7 for a gallon of it. Thank goodness the farmer's market is opening soon...we will get local, fresh produce and cheese there for the summer and into the fall.

more pictures from mother's day

2007-05-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

The reasons I get to celebrate Mother's Day.

The coolest plants! I don't know what they are but the flowers bloom below the huge leaves. They were amazing there in the dark forest-like area.

Last but not least...just so you know you are looking at my blog, here is the ubiquitous garden plot shot.

happy mother's day

2007-05-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful day! I got to sleep late (thanks John) and then we went out for doughnuts. After that we went to a book sale on campus and made our own stamp for a letterbox (more about letterboxing) that we hid here in town. It was so much fun! While we were on campus we checked out the farm and John worked with Thomas on riding his bike. The training wheels are officially off! McDonald's for a celebratory dinner and now the kids are in bed. It was a great day.
Please ignore my talking to Julian in this one...she kept running in front of Thomas and it was scaring me.

Love to all of my mom friends and especially to my mom and mother-in-law. I love you both.

the plot up at the farm and a picture of our new nemesis

2007-05-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

Oh, isn't he so cute! Too bad he is eating our spinach. I haven't seen his parents yet and he is adorable so I'm trying to overlook his shortcomings. In this picture he is in our neighbor's yard.

Julian and I went to the farm today to harvest some herbs, a carrot, and a beet. Here are some pictures from our time there.

This is the plot (just the little 4x10 spot right in front of the camera). Starting from the bottom left (the yellowish stuff with red in it) we have mixed green lettuces and on the right are the cabbages. Above those are cauliflower, then dill, then spinach, next up are cilantro and parsley. After those are the broccoli and then just past those are the carrots.

The cabbage is looking great!

Check out the dill.

The cilantro is the tall one...nearby are parsley, cauliflower, and the dying spinach (not to be confused with the spinach at our house that is being eaten by the cute bunny pictured above).

A beautiful broccoli plant. I had never seen broccoli growing and it is amazing.

The picture is a little blurry but here is a floret growing inside the head of broccoli!

Here are the carrots. We pulled one up...it was small but we will eat it anyway.

Julian's new friend. I think her name is Oscuro. She is very kind and sweet with Juju.

ten things i think about while i'm driving

2007-05-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

1. I wish I was walking (or biking).

2. How much does gas cost now?

3. Hmmm, maybe Juju is falling asleep! Will I be able to get her into the house without waking her?

4. Crap, we are late again!!!

5. How many more hours will we have to be in the car (this is if we are on a road trip)?

6. Is there something going on with the transmission? It does something strange around 35 mph and I know it has a little problem but I keep hoping it will just go away.

7. I think about what I'm going to order to drink at Starbucks when I'm on my way to my stitch and bitch. :-)

8. Crap, we are running late!

9. Why are there no good radio stations around here?!

10. What is that smell?? It's usually one of the many farms around here...we like to say, "ah, smell the fresh air!" Gotta keep a sense of humor about it.

last day of class

2007-05-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Today was the final for my gardening class. I will honestly say that it was the best final "exam" I have ever had. We met at the barn up at the farm to wrap up and then we went up to check out all of the plots. We talked about what we could have done differently and what was coming up. Then we harvested anything that was ready to eat from all four of the plots. We washed up our food and then had a feast! Everything was so fresh and delicious! Our carrots will get bigger but we ate a few little ones today. We had all kinds of lettuces and greens and even a cabbage that was ready. I even learned how to harvest our broccoli when it is ready (should be ready in a week or so).
It was so much fun and I will genuinely miss going to that class every week. Luckily, farmer Mary has allowed us to keep our plots for as long as we would like so I can keep going up there to harvest our goods. Yummmmm, nothing better than fresh veggies.

in the garden on monday

2007-05-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to post new garden pictures every Monday so that I can chart the progress of our garden and yard.
I know I just posted some pictures yesterday but since they were from about a week ago I thought Monday would be a good day for this.

The cilantro is coming up!

Here is a view of spinach (the row to the left) and two rows of carrots on the right.

Five little pepper plants.

Tomatoes...a little cheating going on here. Our neighbor gave us the plants and I just put them in last week.

Thomas's plot. A row of cilantro on the left, sunflowers to the right, and spinach on top and at the bottom.

Guess who?

Some other new things popped up in the yard.
Rhubarb

And peonies, I can't wait until they bloom.

I love these little guys. They are all over the place.

The white lilacs are gorgeous and so aromatic.

Some flowers that we planted on the side of the house. I know there are nasturtiums but I can't remember what else we put over there. I guess we will find out.

This has been so much fun. All four of us love going out in the yard daily to see what is coming up.

in the garden

2007-05-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

How exciting! There are little tiny plants coming up in our garden. These pictures don't do it justice but I will take some more soon and update you as new plants grow and sprout.

Here is some spinach

Some of Thomas's sunflowers.

Some tiny, tiny carrots...you can barely see them in there.

Some day lilies that we didn't plant but they are so pretty. Thanks to a previous renter who put them in.

And what fun is a garden/yard if you can't share it with your friends?!

A few more beauties that someone else planted. They were gorgeous!

10 things i love about life

2007-05-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

1. My family...my parents, my in-laws, my sister, my sister in law, my nephews, and even my brother in law. All of them.

2. My husband. He is a wonderful, thoughtful man. I knew he would be a perfect spouse when I realized that I liked myself more when I was around him. He supports me in everything and is my favorite person to talk to. I'm so lucky that we are married.

3. My kids. They are so much fun to be around...most of the time. They are so smart and enjoy learning new things. I love to watch them experience and enjoy something different and new.

4. Our garden. It is so amazing to watch things grow and come up. More on that later.

5. The college. John doesn't get paid a lot of money, by any standards, but he is getting enough so that I can stay at home. It allows us a lot of freedom and it is wonderful to be at home with the kids. I love all of the fun things that we can be a part of at the college.

6. My friends. There are the friends who I don't get to talk to nearly enough and haven't seen in over two years yet whenever we get together (in person or on the phone) I still feel like we haven't been apart a day. There are the friends who I have haven't seen or talked to in more than two years but I still think about often, and my guess is that they do the same. There are the friends, some of whom I've never met but who know nearly every detail of my life from the past seven years. There are the friends in town who I love to get together with to stitch and bitch or just have a martini. And then there are the friends who I live too far from and miss terribly even if I do talk to you on a nearly daily basis!!!

7. My health. I know it is corny but I am so happy with the fact that all of us are healthy. It means we can play in the yard, run for exercise (if we want to), walk to school and work, and ride our bikes around town.

8. Our home. I wasn't happy to be renting when we first moved here but I like our house a lot. It is comfortable and the location and neighbors can't be beat.

9. The new mirror we got at Target last night. It doesn't have to do with life, really, but I love it!

10. The fact that the kids scream and yell. It keeps it all real...man, I wish things were a little less real right now.

before and after...recycling at its best

2007-04-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am my father's daughter. Not enough like him that I will stop on the side of the road to pick up a baseball cap but I love a great deal and finding stuff for free is the best! For the last couple of weeks our town has been having "bulky item collection." For those poor souls who may not know what that is, it is when you can put your large junk in front of your house and the borough will pick your items up and take them to the landfill for you. John and I work hard to reduce our trash output and took some pride in the fact that we didn't have anything to send to the landfill. We did, however, do our share of finding treasures. John found a basket to take to work (I haven't seen it and don't know what he is doing with it). In addition, we found some great things for the house. I saw some benches at a house nearby and I thought they might be in fairly good shape. I eyed them up one night when I was in the yard with the kids and then I decided to get them. I carried one over (just a few houses over) by myself and then a nice neighbor came and helped me carry the other one. John and I replaced some broken boards and painted them and they look adorable!
Here is John hard at work.

Here they are mid process.

Here is the final product! One is green...sour apple...and the other is purple...sugar plum. I think they turned out great! And at under $9 a piece for the total investment, we did pretty well.

Another thing we picked up were a couple of pick up a couple of pieces of scalloped wood. They look like they were valances of some sort. If you've been to our house you might remember the pole with the rotting piece of wood outside of our kitchen window. We used it as a bird feeder, tossing seed on it during the summer and fall, and a snow gauge in winter. Now we have painted the old, rusty metal pole and have repurposed the old valances, that were already a cute color, into a flower box! Check it out.

And from inside (ignore the dirty window, please). Much better than the ugly thing that was there before.

John also picked up a punching bag but we are still figuring out how to hang it.

So Dad, how did we do? :-)

the terrible twos

2007-04-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

You know, Thomas was a pretty good kid. He gave (still gives) us some rough times but overall he's been a pretty easy child. When he was two years old he tested the boundaries and exerted his will but overall he was a joy to be around. We didn't know how easy we had it. Times were rougher when he was three and didn't get that much better until...well, I guess things are better now. He's nice more days than he's mean and that says a lot.
Julian, on the other hand...well, let's just say I think that whomever coined the term "terrible twos" had a child like her. Oh my goodness...she is a handful. I will spare you the gory details, although I was this close to taking a video of her screaming today (heck, most of you reading this have probably heard it first hand anyway). She had fit after fit today. The first big one lasting an hour and a half. She had another 45 minute one this afternoon and she is in bed now but that was not before she threw a fit about going to the potty before bed. Followed by 20 minutes of screaming at the top of her lungs at us. Oh boy.
You never know what will set her off. One day a person could smile and wave and she will be so charming and say hi and wave back but the next day that same interaction could drive her to uncontrollable tears.
Don't get me wrong, she can be the most precious child in the world and she melts my heart a minimum of three times a day but some days (like today) I am ready to send her to toddler boarding school.
I know that tomorrow morning she will apologize for crying and screaming...she usually says she's sorry (how sweet is that?!)...but this evening she has me dusting off the parenting books to see what I need to do with her.
Thank goodness it is the weekend so that I don't have to deal with her alone.

our garden

2007-04-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

We are attempting to have a garden at our house. It is small, 3'x7', but we are excited. We've never had much luck growing anything but we haven't really tried all that hard. This time, with my expert knowledge (having audited one gardening class) we feel like our odds have improved slightly.
We will see. One big obstacle is that we are leaving for a long vacation at the beginning of June. Because of that we have planted our seeds and seedlings a little early for our area. We aren't supposed to put things into the ground until mid May but we didn't want to wait that long.
Heck, it's all an experiment, right?
It all started with the greenhouse in our dining room...yet another reason we moved the plants outside. We were tired of eating in the living room.

The guys are hard at work. Putting things into the soil.

Julian was busy pruning the ugly plant next to the garage. She's free to do what she wants with that thing.

Let's hope the next time I show you this plot there is some more green in there.
We planted some of our tomato seedlings, some pepper seedlings, and some lavender seedlings. We also put in basil, cilantro, carrot, spinach, and sunflower seeds.

A picture of some random stuff in our kitchen window. Some sugar cane we found at the grocery store. The kids loved it and I was happy to let them try it. I remember eating some from a field in Florida when I was younger and it is something I really enjoyed. The flowers are from our yard and from our neighbor. She brought a bunch of daffodils over for us.

1o things the kids said to me this week

2007-04-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

1. Can we go outside? Ah, the weather has turned beautiful and we have been outside as much as possible.

2. Can we work on my blog? Thomas's new addiction. He wants me to get on there with him multiple times a day.

3. Mommy, I love you! It was mentioned by both of them...multiple times I'm sure, but Julian has a way of saying it at the sweetest times.

4. I don't want to (turn off the TV, come to dinner, come inside, go to time-out...you name it).

5. Can you play with me? Oh boy. This one is uttered on a constant basis around here.

6. Look at that beautiful sunset. Our kids are fans of sunsets...always have been.

7. You have short sleeves and I have short sleeves! Julian is all about comparing clothes and what people are wearing. The girl loves clothes in general. She goes through them like...I don't know what...something that goes through stuff quickly.

8. Can I help? Thomas has been enjoying helping in the kitchen and it's fun. Tonight he helped make the pizzas.

9. I don't want you to sing to me tonight. This was a sad moment. I had upset Thomas at bed time (it was mutual) and had to make amends before he would let me sing to him. It broke my heart.

10. You are the best mommy forever! I love you too, too much! Ahhh, that's my girl. She has a way with words.

books i found around the house...not on the bookshelf

2007-04-21T18:06:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of books around here...although anything remotely philosophical typically resides in John's office. We don't have the space here.

I walked around the other day to see what I could find that wasn't on a bookshelf or in a designated book basket.

Here is the first group of books...they are John's, although I think some of them look interesting.

Another one of John's...I don't think this one looks as interesting as Peter Singer but I haven't asked.

A book Julian got from the library. She really liked it. Hard to go wrong with Eric Carle.

Some of the random magazines we enjoy, on the living room floor.

Here are some of Julian's favorites...in her room, in front of her bookshelf.

The stuff on my bedside table.

The stuff on John's bedside table.

Onto Thomas's room.

So...that's it. For that day at least. There may be books all over the floor but I take that as a good sign. It means they aren't collecting dust on the shelf. :-)

fabulous friday

2007-04-21T18:05:00.001-07:00

We had a great day Friday. We rode our bikes pretty much everywhere. Thomas, Julian, and I rode to school to drop him off for his day at kindergarten and then Juju and I went on a small bike ride (in my failed attempt to get her to take a nap). After school was over, we all rode back to go over to campus with John to check out the PA Climate Awareness Day events. I got my bike tuned up for free and checked out a demonstration on making bio-diesel fuel. The coolest part for Thomas was riding on all kinds of different bikes...including the conference bike. Bob Swaim had all kinds of cool bikes and Thomas rode on pretty much everything he could. Bob seemed happy to have someone so interested in all of the great things he brought with him to campus. Julian was thrilled with all of the dogs around on the farm. All four of us were enamored with a Burnese Mountain Dog puppy who was there. He was the most adorable thing we had ever seen. He looked like a little teddy bear. There were at least six dogs there and Julian loved every single one of them.
We went to check out the garden plot, since the events were up at the farm, and weeded the bed. Julian and Thomas then fed the chickens. It was so nice to let the kids run around in a place where they were safe and I was able to take my eyes off of them for a few minutes knowing that they would be okay. That is not something I feel comfortable doing at home (the yard is small, the street is close, who knows who is around) but it was nice to be able to do it for a few minutes there. I know Thomas enjoyed his freedom and Julian looked so happy hanging out with the chickens by herself.
We all went out to dinner with our friends Julie, Luis, and Max and then all of us headed to the spring Orchesis performance on campus. It was wonderful!! The kids all sat quietly though the whole thing and they enjoyed the dances so much. So did the adults.
It is amazing how much Wilson College has to offer. Thank goodness it is here! Of course, if it wasn't here...we wouldn't be either. ;-)

Ten Things I Keep Putting Off

2007-04-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

1. Laundry...yes, we brought it down to the kitchen last night but it still hasn't made it into sorted piles and into the basement to actually be washed.

2. Finishing a blanket I'm knitting for Julian. Wow, it is slow going.

3. Figuring out if I want to propose some sort of employment situation to the college. Do I want to work? Do I not?

4. Cleaning the awfully dirty windows around here.

5. Putting away the Easter egg candles on the mantle.

6. Giving away some of these toys! We have too many of them.

7. Doing something with the cloth diapers that we are done with.

8. Looking at new furniture. We need a new love seat (so a new couch also, I guess) but I want something nice, and also cheap. Good luck.

9. Giving away some of our old baby board books. I need to put them away, at least. The new books are taking over and the old ones need to go somewhere else.

10. Exercising. Okay, the weather is my excuse here but still...I need to lose some pounds because I know I am going to have to get into a swimsuit many, many times this summer!

Thomas has a blog...he's in my links to the left

2007-04-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

fishy stuff

2007-04-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago when we were getting the pet urge and backed out, for what was maybe the second time, of adopting a dog from the local animal shelter, I took the kids to the local pet and hardware (strange mix, I know) store to get some fish.
We made an investment of a whopping $20: one bowl, some colorful rocks for the bottom, a couple of fake plants, some food, and 11 feeder fish ($1 for all of the fish). Before we even bought the fish I told the kids that the fish were not going to live long. We prepared them as much as possible. So much so that they were shocked when all 11 fish were still swimming in the bowl the next morning.
It has now been close to three months and we have only lost one fish. We consider this to be a major feat. When Squidward did die, Thomas took it very well. We flushed him and said goodbye.
Tonight, however, Thomas and I were watching the fish and noticed something odd. One of the fish (one who is part of the group he named the Naked Brothers Band because we cannot tell them apart) seemed to be struggling to stay under water. Twice this evening we caught him near the surface. He seemed to float whenever he wasn't swimming toward the bottom of the bowl.
I sent Thomas to bed with the thought in his mind that he might be down one more fish in the morning.
For some reason, however, even though I really don't care about losing another fish this has suddenly turned into a project I feel compelled to tackle. Even though this one fish cost us a grand $.09 I want to keep him alive. Imagine my surprise when I found this information upon a simple Google search. Looks like I have another use for that bag of frozen peas that we use for an ice pack! Maybe this member of the Naked Brothers Band is just having trouble with his swim bladder. Who'd of thunk?!
So, the fish had their frozen pea dinner and we'll see what they look like tomorrow.
I guess we should change their water tomorrow also. It is looking really murky and gross in there. It's a real pain to change the water...hmm, I wonder if that has something to do with their lack of longevity.

***update*** The fish are all fine today. The ailing member of the Naked Brothers Band has made a miraculous recovery! The fish have a clean bowl of water and they all look wonderful.

dreary weather

2007-04-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. This is getting old. Having grown up in Miami it was always a dream of mine to live somewhere that had four seasons. It seemed to be hot and humid there all year long...except for those two weeks we liked to call "winter" when it got down into the 60s! Since getting married in 1997, we have lived in Texas, Georgia, and now Pennsylvania.
I'll admit that I was looking forward to the snow. I was so excited to get the kids snowsuits for Christmas...I never had one growing up. They got sleds from their grandparents that they couldn't wait to use. We bought a bunch of firewood and enjoyed sitting in the living room around our warm fireplace. We loved the first couple of snows. We made snowpeople! We made snow angels! We went sledding! We didn't even mind the shoveling so much. By the third or fourth snow of the year, the shoveling was wearing on us a bit and we weren't quite as excited to get on in the snow. Thomas did branch out and try his hand at igloo construction though.
Today, it is April 16 and it is windy, cold, and spitting rain, ice, and snow outside.
Next week is supposed to be nicer. I'm hoping that the nicer weather will be here for good. We've already seen tastes of spring here, and even a day that felt deceptively like summer. Yet, here we are again...on a day that would make all of the people in Miami run for their big winter coats, gloves, and scarves.

real estate

2007-04-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

Anyone I’ve talked to recently knows how hard it was for us to find a place to live when we moved to PA. We were shocked with the selection (or lack of) we had in our price range, the size of the yards, the lack of central air, the condition of the older homes that we found so charming in their online pictures, the proximity of the neighbors, you name it. We struggled, in the end, with our decision to rent rather than buy. I know that on some level I felt like a failure. We owned a house in GA, we loved owning our home and it was a great place. We didn’t want to go back to renting again and renting meant that we were going to have to move again at some point…the prospect of which still makes me cringe.
It all worked out in the end and we really like our house. I like that when there is a problem we just call someone to fix it and it doesn’t cost us a penny. The best part came yesterday, when John e-mailed me this article from the NY Times. Ahhh, we DID make the right decision and we no longer have to try to justify it to ourselves.

weeding with juju

2007-04-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

One thing I like about Thomas being at school is having time alone with Julian. I remember being worried when she was born that Thomas would miss being the only child around our house. He would miss not having John and I dote on him 1,440 minutes a day. I actually cried in the hospital after Julian was born because I felt I had let Thomas down, somehow, by having another baby. I remember, however, something my good friend Sarah told me. Something like...just think of all of the alone time Thomas has had...your second child will never have that time alone with you. Too true...and spoken like a woman who grew up with three sisters. ;-)
That being said...I enjoy my time alone with Julian and try to relish every moment of it. It's hard when she is screaming for hours on end but on days like today, it is wonderful.
I am auditing a gardening class at Wilson College and part of our assignment is to have and maintain a garden plot. There is a great natural farm on campus and they have let our class use some of their plots so I get to go up there a few times a week. I find it very cathartic up there. It is quiet (except for the clucking chickens, the crowing rooster, and the barking dog) and a great place to reflect, relax, and do something meaningful.
The kids love to go to the farm...Julian especially. I was worried about taking her today though. I knew I wanted to weed the bed and wasn't sure how long she would be able to hold out. We brought a bucket to collect the weeds and headed up there. Julian hung out with me and helped me weed for half an hour. We saw wonderful things...earth worms (that wriggled in her little hands), roly poly bugs (that kind of worried her), a slug (that we put in our bucket of weeds that we fed to the chickens when we were done), and a bumble bee (that we tried to be calm around). She loved being up there. She looked at all of the vegetables that were growing...the ones from our class and from the CSA...and pretended to be "farmer Mary" (the resident farmer for the college).
When we got into the car to leave, Julian pretended to be farmer Mary driving her tractor. The look on her face was priceless. She was so full of joy and I felt so fortunate to have spent that quality time alone with her.

Tuesday Ten

2007-04-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ten (or so) Things I Thought I'd Never Do...

1. Be a stay at home mom.

2. Support my husband while he went to 7 years of graduate school.

3. Have a master's degree that I don't really plan to use for a paying job.

4. Have a daughter with blonde hair and blue eyes.

5. Have a son with long hair...really long.

6. Live in a house without central air.

7. Ask to see the placenta after I gave birth.

8. Give birth without an epidural (wasn't really my choice but I'd do it again if we ever have another child).

9. Still be nursing my almost three year old.

10. Be so excited about planting a garden in the spring.

11. Be this responsible.

And...mostly...be thrilled to have done all of these things...except for that central air thing.

Just trying this out...

2007-04-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

I've been inspired by my friends who blog and I'm trying to keep up with my own generation. I don't know what I will write about yet...probably just the typical travails of being a parent in 2007.
We are living in south central PA and who would have thought that the "bible belt" extends this far north?! I certainly did not. It was a surprise to both John and I when we got here to settle in. This is the farthest north we've ever lived and ironically, the most conservative place we've lived since we were married nearly 10 years ago.
Luckily, the college John teaches at is a welcome blue spot in this swamp of red so we have found some like minded people to hang around. We've also found an organic farm and a grocery store with some options. The restaurants, on the other hand, are nothing to get too excited about.
I'm sure that C'Burg will hold an important spot in my blogging as it tends to be one of my favorite things to talk...er, complain...about.
I'm going to try some pictures in here so you can see who I'm hanging out with today and the sweet guy who is at school right now.