The Weekend in Pictures

It's a good thing we left early this morning. We were on the road by 8:30 a.m. and made really good time until we hit the Mass. Pike. Then it started to sleet and freezing rain. The traffic wasn't terrible but the iffy weather definitely slowed things down. If we'd left any later the roads would probably have gotten much worse. Thankfully we made it home without any trouble. The laundry is already going and the girls are enjoying a bit of downtime - something they haven't had in DAYS! I'm trying to talk Ed into getting the Christmas decorations out for me so we can start making this place FESTIVE! I'd really like to get the wreaths on the windows at least. Anyway, as promised here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving visit to Maine.

The dessert table. That would be my pie front and center. The beautiful cheesecake to the left was made by Randy's girlfriend, Christy.

Here's the whole crew (including Lucy, who incidentally seems to have a bit of a stomach ache today after consuming JUNK from the kitchen floor all weekend!). It was tough getting us all looking at the same time!!

We encountered this group of turkeys crossing the road by Keith's house. He said he gets at least a hundred of them trotting through his yard everyday!! I think they are the most ridiculous looking animal!

Here's Katie and Becky brushing Cash. They loved taking care of him. Becky said that riding the horse was her favorite part of the weekend. And now she'd like her own horse, thank you very much!

Here's Kaleb (Randy's youngest), Allison, Katie, Becky, and little Jocelyn (Keith's daughter). The white horse is Cash and the brown one is Lucky.

Allison got a kick out of holding the chicken. Keith has a large chicken coup for his 'flock' and they are currently producing one egg a day!! That cracks me up. He said they'll start to produce more as they get older. They're still pretty young.

So there you have it. Time to get Ed moving!!

Happy Late Thanksgiving

Happy late Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday spent with the people who mean the most to you. We are still in Maine enjoying a wonderful visit with our families. We got in Wednesday evening and will head home tomorrow morning -- early!
Thursday was spent preparing for the incredible feast that is what Thanksgiving is all about. My mother in law hosted 24 people and cooked over 30 pounds of turkey! The afternoon and evening was filled with food, a dessert contest, and a lighting ceremony. The dessert contest is a long tradition. My brother in law, Randy, and I started this contest years ago. It all began with pie crust. We were probably both still in high school when the challenge started. So this year I called for a pie contest between the two of us. Everyone else who entered made any kind of dessert they wanted but Randy and I made pies. I made the Pioneer Woman's Scrumptious Apple Pie. Randy made a strawberry apple pie. Neither of us knew what the other was making so it's pretty comical that we both made apple pies! I'll admit that my pie crust came out really good, but Randy's came out better -- he won the contest. All of the desserts looked fabulous - I couldn't eat any of them - I was way too full!! After the contest we all went outside where my father in law plugged in the lights that he worked so hard to put up for us to enjoy. They looked great! The kids were signing Christmas carols and dancing with the music.
Friday morning my mom, Robby's girlfriend, Sara, and I went shopping. Sara is such a nice girl who is just crazy about my goofy brother. They go together so well. I was glad to spend some time with her. We found some good bargains too! After shopping we went back to my parents' house to decorate their Christmas tree. The girls enjoyed that! Then it was off to dinner at the Sea Dog - YUM!
Today has been busy but laid back too. We went to Ed's other brother's house (Keith) where the girls rode horses and played with chickens! Keith and Erica's house is in the most beautiful location. The long driveway winds just enough to hide the house from the street. As you round the corner a clearing appears. The house sits in the clearing surrounded by more trees. There's a little pond, big boulders, and lots of quiet. The back yard slopes down to where Keith and Erica have cleared a pasture for the horses. It isn't your typical flat corral type pasture. It rolls through the hilly woods. The horses enjoy the shelter of the trees as well the openness of a small clearing. My girls had a blast riding Cash. My sister in law, Erica, has been around horses most of her life and has owned Cash for 13 years. She is so good with the girls and showing them what to do. I would say the best part of the time there was being with Jocelyn and Chase. Jocelyn is 2 1/2 and Chase is 1. They are both so very sweet and lovable. I will post pictures as soon as I get home. It was absolutely wonderful spending time with them!
Tonight we are heading to a Portland Pirate's hockey. We'll get to see our dear friends, Chris, Michelle, and Hayley Wheeler! Both of Ed's brothers are going too - so all together there will be 17 of us at the game! Fun times.
Tomorrow morning we are heading out as early as we can possibly get ourselves out the door. We've all eaten too much and stayed up too late. We need to recuperate a tad before school and work on Monday!!

My Favorite Blogs - Part 4 -- And Other Stuff

I've worked quite a bit this week. It's been fun and challenging, but mostly fun. I like being in a different classroom each time I'm at school and getting to know different kids. Monday I actually spent part of the day in Becky's class and the other part in Allison's class. Today I was the librarian. That was a bit more work than I'd imagined but I had a good day!

I did get to make Pumpkin Cookies this week. They are a favorite in our house and they never last long. Here's the recipe:

Mix the following:

1 1/1 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 can pumpkin (or pumpkin puree!)
2 3/4 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. slat
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Stir in 1 cup of butterscotch chips and 1 cup of walnuts, if desired. We do the chips but no nuts.

Spoon onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. Depending on the size you could get up to 6 dozen. Enjoy!

I promised another blog recommendation. Faithful Froggers is another amazing blog. Heather is the mother of 5 children and lives in the Tampa, Florida area. She has a set of triplets, one of whom passed away about two years ago. His name was Jacob and he had a rare form of cancer. Heather is so open about her grief, but she is also extremely full of hope, full of joy, and full of faith. Her family adopted a beautiful little girl from Guatemala about a year ago and Heather shares her family's joy at having this special addition to their family. You'll feel like you know this family after reading just a bit of Heather's blog. And you'll feel truly blessed by her unwavering faith. So those are my favorite blogs for now. I'm always checking out new blogs based on the recommendations of other blog readers. I'll let you know if I come across any other great reads!!

I'm now reading the third book in the Twilight series. The movie is in theaters starting today. My friend, Natalie, and I have plans to go see the movie together. She's the one who got me hooked on them!! I hope the movie does the book justice! Don't bother to try and sign them out from your local library. There is no doubt a huge waiting list! I tried to sign out book three and there were eleven people already waiting - I went to Barnes & Noble and bought the book instead! Anyway, find the books if you can - you'll love them!!

Basketball is starting this weekend for Allison and Rebecca. I can't wait to watch the little kindergartners trying to play! Rebecca is an old pro by now - at her age it starts to get more competitive and really fun to watch. I'll try to get some good pictures to share.

Have a great weekend!

This and That

I'll get back to blogging about my favorite blogs next time. I have at least one more I'll share with you.

I worked a full day on Thursday and a half day on Friday with a little boy with Down Syndrome. He was very sweet. Everyone who knows this kid loves him. We'd walk down the hall together and all along the way people (kids and adults) would stop to say hi or hug him. He'd light up and share their enthusiasm! Being in the classroom with him was a bit of a challenge. I was at least the third person to work with him that week and he'd clearly had enough. He was stubborn about many things and I was completely unsure of how to encourage him to do what he was supposed to be doing. Finally, we took a walk down to the special ed room and got some help. He was very excited about having computer time and that became a great motivator for getting him to do his work. That was kind of a turning point for us. It was really all about us getting to know each other. He's a good boy and I genuinely hope I get to work with him again sometime. He pretty much won me over when I caught him staring at me early that first day. When I looked up at him I smiled. He smiled back real big and said, "You're pretty."

A friend loaned me a couple of books from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It's written for teens but it's so good it doesn't matter what the intended audience is! I know it's now a movie - at least the first book is - but really, when a book becomes a movie it's always a good idea to read the book BEFORE you see the movie! I read the entire first book yesterday (500 and some odd pages) and today have gotten deep into the second book. Good stuff. A little creepy but GOOD!

My big goal for the week is to make pumpkin cookies. My kids love them! Somehow I have not found time to bake them yet. This week girls - I promise!! Uh-oh, now I have to do it!

My Favorite Blogs - Part 3

Today you have to visit c jane enjoy it. This blog is written by Courtney - a new mom who lives in Utah with her husband, new baby, and is currently the guardian of three of her sister's children. Her blog is truly inspirational. Her faith is strong. Her love and devotion to her family is unmatched. There is so much I could say...I want you to know the circumstances that have led to her taking care of her sister's children...I want you to know how precious her family is to her...I want you to know all about the journey she's been on...but there is no possible way I could do her story justice. You have to visit her blog yourself to see just what I mean. Her blog continues to remind me of what is truly important - Check it out!

I also have to share these pictures with you. When Allison was teething her front teeth came in after the others. She looked like she had little fangs and her smile just cracked us up!!! Now that she has lost those two front teeth her smile is similar to the way it was - way back then!

Allison at 7 months with her goofy grin!

Allison at 5 years old with another goofy grin!

Since there's no school today the girls and I are lounging a bit. Becky and Allison are upstairs playing school and Katie has retreated to her room to read. They are still recuperating from the late nights we had in Rhode Island.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Our Weekend in Pictures

We were in Barrington, R.I....

Allison lost her other front tooth shortly before bed Friday night. She and my mom were being crazy and it came out. I LOVE her gappy, granny grin!!

Little Miss insisted on sleeping with the sleep mask she found in the goody bag provided by the hotel. I was surprised she actually fell asleep with it on!

Saturday night we went to the Providence Place Mall. This picture of the escalators may give you some idea of how large it is! It's also carpeted throughout which I found kind of interesting.

Now don't go thinking I've lost my mind! I had to take a picture of the restroom hand dryer. It was the coolest, most efficient hand dryer I've ever had the pleasure of using! And...it was a DYSON!!

Sunday we went to the beautiful Narragansett Bay where the shore was literally covered in shells.

I loved hearing the Sea Gulls cry and feeling the brisk sea breeze. Katie didn't seem to mind it either!

Becky found a perfect oyster shell - top and bottom. She brought it to school today to show her class.

And the reason we went to Barrington was for the soccer tournament. Our girls won the championship and brought home the Douglas Cup. They weren't scored on the whole tournament! And Katie scored the game winning, only goal of game four!! A great way to end a great weekend!

My Favorite Blogs - Part 2

I hope you checked out the Pioneer Woman's blog yesterday. I check in with her every morning while I eat my cereal. Actually that's the time I check in with all of my favorite blogs!
Today I want to introduce you to Way Out West. This blog is written by my dear friend Heather. We've known each other since elementary school and our blogs are how we keep up with each other! Heather is a Maine native who now lives in beautiful Idaho with her husband and two young boys. After a few years as a working (outside the home) mom, Heather now stays home with her sweet boys. Her blog is funny, inspiring, real, and relevant. It's refreshing to read about the struggles she experiences in raising her family as well as the joys. This upbeat blog is also the place to find fantastic recipes, with photos I might add. Way Out West is full of fun ideas to share with your children like, Muffin Tin Monday, a new regular feature that Heather has done for a few weeks now. If you want to spend time reading about things you can totally relate to then head on over to Way Out West!

The Northeast is experiencing the most balmy November weather! It's a bit drizzly today but WARM! We'll take it! It won't be long before we're up to our EYEBALLS in snow - which I love! We're off to Barrington, Rhode Island tomorrow for our last soccer tournament of the season. I'm so thankful that the weather will be so much warmer than last year. We all froze our bee-hinds off!

Some of you may remember my rotten luck with all of my kitchen appliances. Basically they all ceased to function - one at a time. All except the dishwasher, that is...until recently. About three weeks ago it also stopped working. Actually, it worked fine until it was time for it to drain the filthy, nasty, water. So now, I own a pretty, new, stainless steel dishwasher! My old one was white, which was fine since it matched the cabinets. But since we found this one on clearance at Sears, at my other appliances are stainless, we figured we'd go with the shiny silver model. I like it just fine. I don't think I'm particularly attached to any of my kitchen appliances. They're all nice enough but if I'm going to be excited about an appliance it's going to be my DYSON vacuum!! I do love that machine...

I think I'll take old Lucy girl for a walk before the girlies come home from school. I hope the humidity doesn't frizz my hair all out like I stuck my finger in a socket!!!

Let Me Clarify

I don't want to defend my opinions or keep hashing this out, but I feel that my comments about many voters not doing their homework needs some clarification. I really hesitate to even do this but I want to be sure that you see my meaning. And for the record I'd have most definitely voted for Obama if I thought he represented my views better than McCain. This excerpt from Howard Stern's radio program demonstrates the ignorance with which some people went to the polls. It clearly shows what I meant about "doing their homework". SalInHarlem.mp3 (3256.5 KB) Please, check it out. It doesn't really matter at this point but it is interesting none the less. Now, that's enough political stuff. This blog is hereby a politic free zone!

My Favorite Blogs - Part 1

I went to work yesterday for the first time in nearly 14 years! For three hours I got to color, read books, play math bingo, and listen to calendar time and classroom election relsults! I was working one on one with a little girl in first grade. She was a sweet girl with chubby, freckled cheek who liked to hold my hand. It was a good first day of work.

Of course the big news at school, and everywhere for that matter, was the election. Allison has a competitive spirit. It was difficult for her to be bantered about her choice for president. She held firm though and defended her choice. At home she was glued to Fox News as we watched the election results trickle in, no I'm not kidding! She kept saying, "I want to watch the voting Mommy!" So we did. You may see her on Fox News one day as a political analyst! Of course I'm disappointed in the results. I really feel that many voters didn't do their homework on the president elect before they voted. With great restraint I will leave it at that...

For the next few posts I thought I'd highlight the awesome blogs I read. There are tons of bloggers in bloggerland and I only read a handful but they are GOOD! Today I want to introduce you to The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond is the blogger. She and her husband are raising their four children on a working cattle ranch in Oklahoma. Her blog is chalk full of fabulous photography, recipes, and anecdotes from her life on the ranch. Currently, her husband and two daughters are visiting the Dominican Republic with Compassion International. Compassion is close to my family's heart and reading Ree's updates from her family's visit is truly inspiring. Read about Compassion International here and then go to Ree's blog and read the first hand account of what Compassion does and the impact the visit is having on Ree's family. Spend some time perusing older posts from the different areas of the site. You'll love getting to know this modern day Pioneer Woman!

The Week in Review

Been a whole week since I posted. Oops. Been kinda busy around here. Big decisions. Business trips. Halloween. 'Nuf said.

So. Katie is going back to school full time. Now don't go assuming it's because I'm incapable of teaching her or that she's difficult to teach. Fact of the matter is she's an awesome kid with a sweet spirit. It was not an easy decision but I truly feel that she is supposed to be in school. God doesn't seem to want my children in a private christian school or at home. He's made it clear to me that I need to stop fighting Him on this point and just trust that He knows best. That may sound like a bunch of crazy talk to some of you, but for me it's the truth. I'm glad to have help in this journey of raising children and living my life!

I've got me a new job. A paying job. The kind where you go in and work and then leave and then get a paycheck. An actual, for real, paycheck. The kind that can be put in the bank or spent at the mall. I haven't had this kind of a job in 14 years!! I'm now a substitute paraprofessional at Becky and Allison's school. I'll work one on one with special needs learners, help in a classroom, or fill in at lunch and recess duty. Funny that I've done some of this as a volunteer but now I can actually get paid for it. Cool. Being a substitute is right up my alley because I'll still have plenty of time to volunteer in the girls' classes, write, and do my regular errands, and be home with my girls! I'm excited to start.

Ed was gone again all week. I don't like it too much when he's gone. I miss him. The girls miss him. It's too quiet around here. I have to take the trash out and I don't like that too much. The week goes by slowly for all of us. But we love when he gets home! The girls fight for his attention and he bops around the house saying things like, "I love my girls!" He enjoys being the center of attention among his adoring fans!

It snowed this week. Can you even believe that! I'm not talking flurries in the sky but actual, stick to the ground, build a snowman snow!! The girls loved it! I love snow too but in October?- not so much!

Yesterday (Halloween) Katie and Becky both had parties in their classrooms and I volunteered to make cupcakes for both. Then I talked Katie into making the cupcakes. She made over 70 cupcakes! I was so glad that she was willing to do it! The parties were lots of fun. The school does Character Dress Up day where the kids dress as a book character. I loved seeing all the kids dressed up! Allison was Hannah Montana - I know she isn't technically a book character but try telling that to a five year old! Becky was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. They both looked adorable! Then of course last night was trick or treating. They got dressed up in different costumes! Katie handed out candy and Lucy tried to devour a chihuahua dressed as a bumble bee. A fun time was had by all...

Becky the Clown ready for some trick or treating!
Allison the Princess in her princess pose!

Today we are getting a couple of house projects done and then heading to Albany. Our house is still officially 'on the market' but no one has looked at it in a couple of months. We figured it was no big deal and we'll just stay here. We like our house. Well, the realtor called and asked if she could show the house on Monday. The listing contract expires this weekend but I told her to go ahead and show it...whatever, right? She'll take the sign with her when their done looking at the house. And if they don't want the house that's fine - it will be off the market and we won't be showing it to anyone else. Still, there are a couple of small projects that should be done before people come traipsing through here. I'm so glad Ed is here to do them!! I'm sure that right about now, he is too!
No soccer this weekend! This is the first time since Labor Day! Next weekend is a tournament in Rhode Island and then we are officially done with the fall soccer season! The tournament is fun - we get to stay in a beautiful hotel, in a beautiful spot, close to Providence, and with a pool! Not a shabby way to spend a weekend!

And finally...a video that demonstrates Katie's evil tendencies!