A Little Snow

This is what the backyard looked liked yesterday morning. When I took this picture the snow had all but stopped. A little while later it picked up again and we ended up with a little over an inch of snow. Our neighbors actually made an entire snow family in their front yard with the little bit we got. It was very pretty but I'm glad it's melted today!

The forecast is calling for a nice, clear couple of days. I'm thankful for that since we'll be travelling this weekend. I think it will be cold but that can be dealt with pretty easily.

For the first time in seven and a half years I am not wearing my glasses. I decided to give contacts a try. My prescription is a bit tricky and I always just stayed away from contacts thinking they wouldn't be a good idea. I got the contacts yesterday and I'll try them out for a couple of weeks to see if they'll work out. Yesterday was difficult. I couldn't see well, my eye felt irritated, reading was a nightmare. This morning started out that way but things have improved dramatically over the last couple of hours. I can read just fine and I am barely aware that anything is in my eyes. Maybe this will work out... I'm looking forward to buying myself a pair of inexpensive sunglasses!

Becky starts basketball this weekend. She is on a really nice team, good girls, nice coach... I think she'll have a good time this season. She's in the 3rd/4th grade league this year so it'll be a little bit different for her but I think she'll do fine.

My mom and I have decided to head to Freeport on Black Friday! That could possibly be the worst idea on the planet, especially since my mom is dealing with a badly sprained ankle, but I think it'll be worth it. I LOVE shopping in Freeport and I haven't gotten to in quite awhile. Mom thinks she'll be okay for a couple of hours so we'll be good.

Do you know the state of your school's budget, resources, class sizes, etc.? I'm finding out a good deal more than I can wrap my head around about ours. It's actually quite discouraging and a HUGE eye opener. Apparently, we have elementary schools in our district that have VERY small class sizes (let's say 9 or 10 in a class). The idea has been suggested to combine classes (let's say 2nd and 3rd). This idea has been repeatedly shot down by folks on the school committee who don't believe it makes sense from an educational stand point. ON THE OTHER HAND; our district High School has had to let several teacher go over the past couple of years which has impacted class sizes drastically over there. For example, there is only one Geometry class offered and 29 students are in that class. Four or five others were told they couldn't take the class due to the already large class size. I was flabbergasted by that. Imagine your PUBLIC school not allowing your child to take a math class because they couldn't possibly accommodate any more students! That's INSANE! There just isn't enough teachers to go around over there because of these cuts. Somebody tell me again why it's okay to keep an elementary school teacher on for ten kids but not okay to have enough teachers on at the high school. I guess if these elementary schools were reorganized it would free up LOTS of money. Money that could be used to pay for additional teachers at the high school level as well as a middle school Resource Officer. Hmmm...the budget is always explained in a way to make the average person think we have to CHOOSE between teachers and resource officers. It seems to be there are very doable ways to have BOTH. But, what do I do with this information? Do others know about these things? I don't know what to do about this. Is a letter to the Editor worth a try? I just don't know. After the holiday I will call the lady on the school committee who seems to want to change things and ask her what I can do. Maybe she'll have some ideas. It really is disturbing to know that things are so WACKY and nothing is being done about it!

I've got to get some things done before the girlies get home. It's another half day of school. We have a busy afternoon planned so I have to get things accomplished this morning!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! And remember: Gobble til you Wobble!

The True Christmas

I wanted to tell you about a very cool interactive Nativity I bought for us to use this Christmas. It's called What God wants for Christmas. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Please check out the link where you'll find a detailed description of the Nativity. I always feel like we haven't done enough around the Christmas season to really put the emphasis on Jesus' birth. What God wants for Christmas seems like the perfect way to put some real focus on the true Christmas story!

Speaking of Christmas...I am actually doing pretty good with my shopping list! I have LOTS to do still but I have some ideas and just need to get the shopping done! Our nieces and nephews are getting older, and as you know, the older they get, the harder they can be to shop for!! Or, the things they want are SO EXPENSIVE!

Anyway, check out the link!

A Little of This and A Little of That

We've been to a couple of restaurants recently that have these Sweet Potato Fries and my mom made them once when she was down for a visit. I thought I'd try to make them. I didn't have an actual recipe but I figured, how hard could they be! They were easy, yummy, and good for you too! So here you go -- try them out!

Sweet Potato Fries

Wash 3 sweet potatoes and cut them into french fries (leave the skins on). Put them in a bowl and sprinkle with about 2 tsp. Oregano, 1 tsp. Salt, and 1/2 tsp. Pepper. Drizzle Olive Oil over the fries and mix thoroughly. I used about 1 Tbsp. Spread fries in a single layer on a cookie sheet and cook for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Remember to flip fries after about 20 min. Enjoy!


I'm officially half way through my writing course. I mailed in assignment 5 yesterday! YAY! This assignment required me to do a character sketch and then create a monologue for the character. It took me awhile to get into it but once I sat down to write it out it came together easily. My last assignment was to write a non fiction article. I really enjoyed that one! I struggled at first with a topic but once I figured out what I was going to write about it practically wrote itself. My instructor has encouraged me to submit it to a magazine for publication. I won't give you any more details until (unless) it works out. I'm excited about the possibility of seeing my writing published but also extremely nervous about submitting it. It's very likely that I will receive MANY rejection letters before my writing finally gets into print. I'm trying to be realistic. We'll see.

The girls had a half day of school today. We went to see Bee Movie. It was cute. There was some adult humor that, in my opinion, was borderline inappropriate. I never understand why movie makers have to tarnish a perfectly good story with some unnecessary elements. I still think it was a decent movie and overall I would recommend it. We are really looking forward to seeing Disney's new movie coming out next week, Enchanted. That one looks super cute!

On Sunday our church is having a huge Thanksgiving dinner. I'm sure it will be a good time! I signed up to make stuffing and cheesy carrots. Hopefully I don't mess anything up!! I love how this church goes all out to offer great family events. Everyone is so willing to pitch in and do their part! It's such a blessing to part of a such a wonderful church family.

Some exciting Allison news: She swam at swimming lessons on Wednesday without a bubble!! Yes indeed, she did it! She was jumping in without it and everything. Her teacher was always within arms reach. I was so proud of her! And sweet little miss was clearly proud of herself! I was really happy for her - what a big achievement! One more way my baby girl is growing up...

Can you even believe that Thanksgiving is next week?! We'll be headed to Maine - it's been too long since we've been up just to visit! We are all anxious to meet our new family member, little Chase! And, just in case I don't post again before the holiday I will leave you with this funny quote I read somewhere: On Thanksgiving - Gobble till you Wobble!!

Round 2 of the School Resource Officer Debate

It appears that the battle over having a School Resource Officer at Katie's Middle School isn't over. Some of you may remember that last Spring I spoke at a School Committee meeting urging them to reconsider eliminating our Resource Officer position. They voted to get rid of her anyway. I thought that was pretty much the end of it because SO many of the committee members were adamantly opposed to funding the position any longer. Well, yesterday while I was working in the library at Becky's school a School Committee member who was working there as well, asked me if I'd be willing to speak again at a Education subcommittee meeting next week. She'd like me to be there to 'remind the committee who they represent'. It doesn't sound like I'll be making some formal 'speech' but rather just saying a few things and be done. This meeting is also much less formal than a full fledged school committee meeting so I'll be able to respond to comments the subcommittee members make - it also means they can ask me questions and put me on the spot, so to speak. I told this lady that I'd be glad to come to the meeting...WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I'm not GLAD to go to that meeting and SAY A FEW WORDS! I don't want to go!! Someone else would be WAY better at sharing their thoughts! I also think some of the subcommittee members may recognize me and want to throw rotten food at me!! I know they don't want to keep rehashing this issue! BUT, I do feel like this is an opportunity to be involved in the 'system' and hopefully improve things. Can't complain about things if we aren't willing to try and change them, right?

We are headed to our FINAL soccer tournament this weekend in Rhode Island. I hope and pray the weather will be nice! Nothing worse than watching soccer in the cold rain! The hotel we stay at is beautiful and we're close to Providence and an awesome mall there and great restaurants. Our team has not been very good this fall so we're not expecting any big wins or anything but Katie has played well and had a few great moments - that's what it's about for me anyway - seeing my girl do well and have fun in the process!

Rebecca has had quite the difficult adjustment to third grade. The work is much more difficult and the expectations are much greater. She still cries some mornings about having to go to school. But, I've seen her school work steadily improve along with her confidence and she makes a conscious effort to keep her chin up and dry her tears. She's always had separation issues, ever since she was small, poor thing. Report cards come out this week and I'm sure Becky will be surprised by how well she's doing. Based on her schoolwork I'm guessing A's and B's which is certainly nothing to complain about!!

Katie on the other hand is thriving at school. She's about to get her first straight A report card! She's worked very hard for it! She also tutors sixth grade students who need homework help. I never have to ask her to do her homework or check on projects she has for school. She's extremely responsible about her schoolwork! Now if she'd only CLEAN HER ROOM!!

Allison is happy and carefree. Her life is easy and fun, just as it should be when you're four! Next year will be FULL of BIG changes for my little miss. I'm not sure what the adjustment to school will like for her. She's doing fantastic at swimming lessons and is on her way to swimming without using a swim bubble (on her back) very soon! She's very brave about trying new things and enjoys the attention that comes from all of us when she succeeds at something.

Lucy is still the best dog on the planet. The other day we were at a pet store and asked if we could play with the black lab puppy they had there. She was SOOOOOOOOOO cute, endearing, soft, sweet, playful......The neat thing was seeing Ed love on this puppy. I've said it many times, the man is not a dog person. But Lucy has changed him. He appreciates the gem we have in our sweet girl and it's softened his attitude toward other dogs. We all had such a good time playing with that little black puppy, but it was nice to say goodbye knowing our fully house trained, out of the chewing phase, mellow old dog was waiting at home for us :)

It's raining here today and is much cooler than it has been. Can't complain though because we've had the most wonderful fall so far.

Election day - GO VOTE!

October Recap

Allison and I went to Ioka Valley Farm in beautiful Hancock, MA for a school field trip. The weather was a bit soggy but we had a really fun time. Here she is in the pumpkin patch!

Our soccer club hosts a tournament every Columbus Day weekend. We had gorgeous weather! That's Katie in the center of the picture.

On a rainy Saturday when soccer games got cancelled we decided to head to Boston to catch a Bruins/Flyers game. Flyers won! Ed's brother and his family met us there. Very cool!

Our end of the soccer season pizza/pool party! Check out this great action shot of Allison and Rebecca jumping off the diving block!

Tinker Bell and Hannah Montana from Halloween. Trunk or treating was kind of boring so we came home and trick or treat (ed?) in our neighborhood. Katie and her friend were dressed as beat up soccer players!

And on Halloween afternoon our nephew Chase was born! He was a couple of weeks early and weighed in at 5 lbs. 3 oz. I can't wait to meet him at Thanksgiving! What a cutie, eh?