Life After Staff

The Perfect Pair Of Jeans

2012-02-05T14:17:00.003-05:00

I'm in that inbetween phase with maternity pants that makes me want to pull my hair out. With Ella, I was this pregnant in the summer. I paired my stretchy cotton, yoga topped palazzo pants with EVERYTHING and life was good. By the time my belly got big, the cold weather had set in and I boughta few maternity pants that fit.

Well, right now, my regular pants still button, but let me tell you, not so comfy. I use the elastic band trick, but then my fly is hanging open and I'm forever pulling my shirts down to make sure it covers it. I've got a belly band, but I cannot tell you how much I DETEST tight things around my belly/waist, so I kind of hate wearing it. Any my maternity pants? Forget about it. WAY TOO big around the waist...they fall to my ankles.

Well, I got fed up with it yesterday and hauled out some money my momma gave me for Christmas, which I was saving to buy maternity things for the spring/summer when my belly really needs them...and bought two pairs of pants.

Let me tell you...best money I ever spent! I could find pictures for you...but I bought them at Target and they are Liz Lange brand. One pair is black, stretchy around the house and the other pair is jeans. The gloriousness? They are UNDER THE BELLY pants!

The black stretchy is self explanatory but let me tell you about the genius that is the jeans! They are high enough in the back, but cut low under the belly. They have elastic on both sides inside the waistline of the jeans so that I can sinch them up right now, but let them out as my belly and waistline grow. GENIUS! And...AND they're really cute! They're dark wash with a thick Hem, fit great and just the right length. I wish I had a non-maternity pair that fit so well! $25 bucks well spent, and I can assure you I'll wear them almost daily so I'll get my money's worth!

Ella's First Ski!

2012-02-02T14:29:00.006-05:00

Winter has not exactly cooperated with us on our plans to teach Ella to ski this year at our local bump with a rope tow. You see, they don't have any snow making equipment. Imagine that!

We finally decided to head over to Gunstock which is an hour and change, but has a fabulous little conveyor belt the kids can ride up the bunny slope. Under 5 is free, adults are $10. Check out the world's cutest skier here! (And Ella's pretty adorable too, hehe ;) Ella has been stoked to ski ever since Grandma, Auntie Jen&Uncle Greg and Mommy&Daddy combined provided her with a whole used ski outfit for Christmas (We're talking skis, bindings, boots, helmet and goggles.) Every time it snowed she would ask, "Is this enough snow to ski on mom!?" But don't let that picture up there fool you. If only we had video you would hear the crying and screaming all the way UP & DOWN the hill. Did she dislike this fabulous little conveyor belt they call the "Wonder Carpet"? No. Did she dislike skiing? No. What was her problem then? "I'M AFRAID I'M GOING TO WIND AWAY!!!" "MOMMY, ARE WE GOING TO WIND AWAY!?" "MOMMY ARE MY SUNGLASSES GOING TO WIND AWAY!?" "I'M ALL DONE!!! I WANT TO GO BACK TO THE CAR. I'M AFRAID I'M GOING TO WIND AWAY!!!" The wind. That was her problem.Ever since opening day of ice fishing, when she saw the wind blow a folding camp chair across a very slick surfaced lake, she has been afraid of the wind. It doesn't matter if we are traveling 10 feet from the house to the car. If it's a slight breeze or a 25mph gust, the child starts asking if she's going to "wind away"...if mommy, daddy, bear, shovel, Hunter...whatever...is going to "wind away". It does not matter how many times we explain to her that she's to heavy to blow away. And it didn't matter how many other pint sized skiiers I pointed out that were NOT blowing away...it still terrifies her. It's just something she'll have to work through and outgrow, like her original distain for swimming.
Please notice she never takes her hands off her hat (which is velcroed beneath her chin) or her sunglasses. Why? You guessed it. Because she's afraid they're going to "wind away". I took those bad boys right off of her after a bit. T'was not the fairytale first mother daughter ski session I had in mind, but so goes life. We made the best of it and though it was hard at times, I kept my cool and kept a very upbeat, positive attitude the whole time. Whilst others on the mountain may have thought we were torturing the young lass, we know our daughter and had a good laugh. With heavy comforting, loads of positive words and high fives, and large doses of promising hot chocolate with marshmallows we got her to go down the bunny slope three times. Two were working on learning skiing and the last was a "fun run". And above, you'll see a clearly exhaustest Ella being skated into the lodge by mom. Wowzers! I forgot how tiring teaching toddlers to ski is. I remember being wiped out after a day of it when I taught skiing as a teenager. But three runs (with a screaming bundle of joy) for this 30 year old, preggo mama sick with a headcold was quite enough thankyouverymuch!

From the short experience I had with her, she's actually a good little skier for just turning 3 years old. We learned how to put our skis on and take them off. How to walk around in them a bit. We started learning our "duck walk" for getting up slopes. And we practiced making our piece of pizza.

We were headed home around 12:30pm and not two minutes after the van took off, the little one was OUT COLD. She done wore herself out!

Bathroom Redo

2012-01-27T13:39:00.006-05:00

So we're finally redoing the upstairs bath. It is much needed, but pretty far down on our immense "to-do" list for this home.

There's still a lot to do. Like...
~Install the tile (that we got from a friend for FREE!)
~Patch the drywall where Jason took out the recessed lighting (a.k.a. holes of icy coldness)
~Trim (details like that have not proven to be our strong point.)
~And maybe build in a linnen closet. (Ya know, nothing major.)

But paint is on the trim, door and walls, new harware is up and the shower curtain that inspired it all is hanging proudly! BEHOLD!

Belly

2012-01-25T13:27:00.002-05:00

Let the gaining begin! I feel wonderful these days (except for a massive headcold) and have even started drinking coffee again. I'm loving hazelnut coconut. Not sure if that's a weird preggo thing but man it tastes delish right now!

You can be expecting one of these each month. I love baby bellies and I love documenting mine! It will be neat to see how it compares to last time around. Already, I think I'm a little ahead of where I was with Ella at 4 months...but I think I had a head start too :)

16 Weeks! The first go 'round I started belly pics at 12 weeks. Because I was so thing to start with that you could actually see a little bump. I could have posted a 12 week pic this go 'round and it would have looked much the same as the first one...but that's not because of baby...that's because I started out that way. So it would have been deceptive to say it was baby bump ;)

Got to hear that fabulous heartbeat again yesterday and it's just perfect. I continue to LOVE the new practice I switched to and you better believe I'm excited that my next appointment includes the 20 week ultrasound!!! I'm dying having not seen this babe yet! I'm not a good waiter. So YES, you better believe we're finding out what gender this little love is!

When The Snow Came...

2012-01-16T17:58:00.008-05:00

wanting, wishing, waiting

now softly falling flakes

green needles capped with white

watching in wonder

warm in our nest

"Mamma can we play?"

Yes.

trapsing, tromping, twirling

sledding, sliding, swirling

angles flapping flying

face turned toward the heavens

eyes clamped against the chill

catch some on your tongue

howling wind, rosie cheeks

"Just one more minute,

mama please!"

frozen fingers,coaxed inside

sweet promises

of tasty treats

drying clothes, thawing skin

cocoa warming

from within

sitting, snuggling, cozied up

resting nesting

tasting heaven When the snow came.

Photography

2012-01-11T15:02:00.006-05:00

I'm going to take a photography class!

I'm so excited to cultivate something that is just my own!

I've not taken a class since highschool and college, and that was with my 35mm SLR, which I totally knew how to use.

This will be with my DSLR, which I've not a clue about, even though I've had it for a few years and have watched/read every online tutorial there is. And yes, I read the manual...it doesn't help.

No the class is nothing fancy. We can't afford fancy. We can't afford college courses, even at the local community college. It's our local Adult Ed. I have no idea if the teacher's any good. It's only three weeks and it's only $15! But I'm over the moon about it.

It's three hours a night for three weeks that I am out of the house, by myself (ya know except for the others in the class) trying to cultivate something I am (er...used to be and would like to be again) passionate about. I won't have on the mom hat, or the wife hat, or the volunteer hat....just the me hat, doing something for me. Yay!

If the teacher can help me figure out how to set my shutter speed and aperture so I can do cool things again and take pictures without flashes... and perhaps me how to get rid of the weird green and blue tones that my pictures keep exhibiting... it'll totally be worth my 15 bucks. And if it serves to inspire some new creativity...FABulous! Anything else is just icing on the cake!

PS: Have I mentioned lately that I love my woodstove again. I do.

Human Again

2012-01-11T14:54:00.003-05:00

~I'm 14 weeks and some jeans are starting to get hard to button.
~I feel like that's happening sooner this time.
~It's still nothing anyone would notice, I just look thicker in the middle. joy. Double joy when I don a bathing suit for Ella's swim class. It's that super fun, don't look pregnant, just look chunky stage ;) I'll take it.
~I really like when I start showing. Can't wait!
~Ella and I are back on the "preschool" train and our letter banners are once again growing (it's amazing what a month or so has done to her handwriting abilities! She's rocking it!)

~I'm cooking dinners, and actually eating them now too!
~I'm cleaning (like deep stove scrubbing, dusting, counter cleaning, can't believe how bad things get when they're not done for a few months, cleaning).
~I'm organizing. (Like whole storage room, and utility room, game drawers, craft drawers, junk drawers, closets, purging mania, got the nesting bug early organizing!)
~I can now go to the gorcery store! (I still have to take a few cleansing breaths now and then, but I'm not fighting the urge to hurl the whole time so that's a bonus)
~I've worked out 4 times in the last week and plan another tonight!
~I had coffee yesterday! WHOAH! I don't think it'll be a regular thing yet and I still don't like the smell permiating my vacinity, but that was huge!
I still feel lightyears behind and like I'll be playing catch up for a while. I'll still take it easy when my body tells me to, but as long as it's giving me the green light, I'll be full steam ahead!

The Crunchier, The Better!

2012-01-11T14:20:00.003-05:00

I've had it. As previously mentioned...I don't like the OB/GYN practice I'm attending. So I decided to do something about it. And now I'm SUPER....like SUPER DUPER excited to give birth!

(Don't get me wrong, giving birth the last time was a great experience, but the hospital EMMC, sucked. There's just no other words. It's birthing unit sucks. Like old, dull, institutional, small, no full baths in the labor rooms so one could stand in the shower...of course no birthing tubs, no birthing stools, nothin'. And semi private recovery rooms where you get AWEFUL roommates. I mean seriously? Sucks!)

I'm lucky I have options this time. My choices are Dover and York. I picked Dover because it's closer and a great doctor recommended them. The hospital really does seem great, but I'm not pleased with the huge practice.

So when a friend told me the midwives at York were "just a bit too crunchy" for her, I knew it sounded like my kind of place! When it comes to childbirth my motto is, the crunchier the better! Just to cover all my bases I toured the birth center and did a meet and greet with the midwives. SIGN ME UP! I left with a skip in my step and promptly called Garrison Women's Health and told their answering machine (because I never get a human!) that I was cancelling my next appointment and would no longer be attending the practice. I've not been so happy in a LONG time!

Here are some differences I'd like to Highlight:
Garrison Women's Health: Super huge, deliver 60 babies a month, wait a long time, see the providor, a different one every time, for 10 minutes who will ask you the same questions the previous one did, ask you to fill out forms you already filled out, and go over the same information the last one went over with you. And NEVER get a human on the phone and rarely get your message returned.
York midwives: Small, deliver 12-17 babies a month, always get a human on the phone, short waits, LONG and personal visit with midwife.
Garrison Women's Health: Sure you can see only midwives, we'll put it on your paper. Except out of four appointments you'll only see a midwive once and you'll have to cause a slight scene the last time just be scheduled with a midwife.
York midwives: Yup, you can see only midwives. You never ahve to see a doctor at all if you don't want to.
Garrison Women's Health: sure you can be guaranteed a midwife at your deliver... unless they're in another birth and then you'll get the on call doctor. Or if the doctor is primary call, you'll get him/her for a while, then the midwife later. Will the providor be there for most of your labor? Long story short, probably not.
York midwives: Yes you can be guaranteed a midwife. Yes you'll get her for the majority of the labor. The only exceptions would be if she had two people in labor which rarely happens, then her time with you would be divided (understandable).
Wentworth Douglass Hospital: If you're in labor, come up to this window, we'll beep you in. If its after 9pm or before 5am, go to this phone downstairs and call and someone will let you in.
York Hospital: Sweet little nurse says, "When you're in labor, just come on through that door and straight to our office and say, "I'm having a baby".
WDH: Sure you'll be in one (nice but rather small) birthing room (which likely will not have windows, and if it does, they'll overlook the parking lot) the whole time. Unless of course we deem you're not far enough along, then we'll put you in a holding room, eventually we'll move you to a birthing room and then if we're busy we'll move you to another recovery room.
York Hospital: We'll walk you down our mural painted hallways and put you in one of our (GINORMOUS) birthing rooms, (which all have huge windows and great natural light, overlooking treetops and maybe even a glimpse of the ocean) and there you'll stay.

So my choice is clear. And I'm all switched over and super psyched.

Long and Deep

2012-01-10T14:24:00.002-05:00

The day I wrote that last post Ella's nap was long and deep, as was my time with the Lord. It was sweet. And I needed it!

I spent time in the Word, but even more time praying. And I spent more time sitting in silence and listening for that still small voice than I did speaking (a rarity for me) but something I need to do more often! And He met me there. Oh did He meet me.

I so clearly heard Him saying that I need to focus on the things HE gives to me, not the things I set out for myself due to guilt, idealism, perfectionism, and comparison. Oh so true. How often do I write the plans and set the goals and not allow Him to do so?

So I asked what those things were and I waited. He very clearly impressed two things on my mind over and over.
#1) Time with HIM.
#2) With the energy I have returning, make sure I give it to Ella and Jason being present and intentional.

That's it. Two things. Simple. Sometimes hard. But totally doable.

And more than anything I truly did feel His grace wash over me. And I let it. The thought was bold and clear and lasting. Recieve My grace. You'll never be perfect. So don't get bogged down by your shortcomings. It won't motivate you, it will only serve to rob you of the JOY of right now! Holy Hannah Amen to that!

And so that's what I'm doing. Focusing on the things HE gave me and allowing His grace to soak in every moment, every misstep. And it is nourishing my soul.

I'm still up to date on my Bibl in a year plan...wahoo! And the devotions and prayer time that go along with that are my fuel! I'm not pushing myself on the mornings and I'm not feeling bad about it. I still get up when Ella wakes me. But we lay in bed much less, and we're cutting back to two shows each morning. (THAT, my friends, has not flown so well with the little. A monster I created over the past few months I tell you! A PBS watching monster :) I spend time with the Lord during her naps and either work out when J is home, or while she watches her shows. It's working out quite nicely.

Thank-you friends for kind and insightful words. Check out THIS post by my friend Amy on the subject. Love it.

Guilt...You know you experience it... and other honest ramblings.

2012-01-06T14:47:00.005-05:00

I'm sure some of us experience guilt more than others. I'm convinced women and mamas experience it more than our male counterparts. But boy oh boy have I been struggling with it recently. This is a bit of a processing post, so if you have time to read and pray for me and offer your thoughts or dittos, it'd be great.

I think it stems from my lack of doing ANYTHING over the past few first trimester months. I feel like a failure as a child of God, wife, mom, friend. I know, I know . . . extreme . . . and I need to give myself a break and I need to let God's grace fully soak in. I'm starting.

Recently I've been getting back in the saddle as far as organizing, dishes and laundry go. Although I'm doing more than nothing . . . which is what I was previously doing . . . I'm not fully back up to speed in the other areas like cooking, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, bathrooms etc, but slow and stead wins the race.

I've got more energy to play a bit more and be a bit more purposeful with Ella, but not as much as I used to for sure. Our preschool learning time is all but non-existant now and all-be-it educational PBS programing, TV is much more prominent. Oh how that disgusts me. But it's beyond true. It is, however, amazing how sweet, caring, sympathetic and understanding Ella is. It's like God's trying to pour out his grace through her so I can feel it in a very tangible way. Oh how it humbles me.

And recently a friend of mine posted about some goals of hers here and they pierced me to the heart with conviction. Not so much guilt here . . . well let's be honest, probably some . . . but also true conviction, because these are things that have been on my heart but I've been too much of a coward to put into words and attempt to put into action.

The Biggies are these:
1.) Read through the entire Bible.
I cannot tell you how many times I've attempted and fizzled. GRRRrrr. It's like a never ending battle. Mandy linked to a chronological reading plan with Joni Erickson Tada and I'm on track with it . . . thus far . . . it's only day 6 people.

2.) Get up before my child so that I can prepare and greet her...not let her be my alarm clock. In that time before she wakes, spend time with the Lord and exercize.
Before I got pregnant I was getting up and hour before Ella (6 am . . . super hard for this lover of sleep). 3 days a week I would exercize in that time and then spend time with the Lord during her nap time. And the other days I would spend time with the Lord in that morning time. It was glorious. Mandy also linked to this AMAZING thing called Hello Mornings where women encourage and hold accountable other women to this idea of preparing for and greeting your children in the morning.

I have not yet gotten on board with Hello Mornings because I just don't know if I have the energy right now. I've gotten back into working out and my times with the Lord but it's usually during rest times, evenings, or later mornings when J is home. I am wiped and feel like I really do need extra sleep. But is that the truth or a lie? Is that just an excuse because I really don't like mornings? I don't know. I'm processing.

I do know that I fear failure in both of these areas. I fear repeating my same old, don't carry it through patterns. And this definitely feels like a weird, difficult time right now where I want to be/do so much more than I am, but I'm not sure if . . . if that's just my guilt talking and I need to cut myself some slack . . . or if it's really the Holy Spirit's prompting and I need to buck up and do it. I'm not sure how much any of this helped . . . but at least it's out there.

Heartbeat

2012-01-05T09:35:00.004-05:00

Our baby is only about 2 1/2 inches long. His/her little heart is only the size of a mustard seed. And yet it's fully formed. And beating. A "perfect" 152 beats per minute. Ella and I got to hear it yesterday and it is nothing short of a miracle. These things will never cease to inspire awe in me.

With Ella they did an ultrasound at 10 weeks just as routine . . . so I had already seen my baby...already had proof that she was REALLY in there . . . already watcher her wiggle around. This practice doesn't do an ulstrasound until 20 weeks, so the only proof I've had is being sick as a dog.

With the the sickness now fading away. Me not showing one little bit. And having a net weight loss of 3 pounds . . . this mama needed some proof that there's a living life inside her! Maybe that sounds weird to you, but it makes total sense to me. And I am so grateful for that muffled, rapid little whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

But in that sweet moment, I was acutely aware of all my mama friends who haven't yet gotten to . . . or at one point didn't get to . . . for one reason or another . . . hear that wonderful sound. I know too many. It's a strange feeling for aheart to be so full and so hurting all at once. And I am praying for all of you in your journey and in your healing. <3

The Tides They Are A Changin'

2012-01-04T14:02:00.005-05:00

I say I'm 13 weeks along. The practice I go to (whom I don't like and will likely be changing from shortly, but thats another story...) say that I'm 12 weeks along. To them I have this to say:

For two children we have collectively tried to conceive for a total of 5 YEARS. We use the fertility awareness method (general public, if you don't know what that is...look it up...read the book...every woman/couple should). I have tracked every temperature, documented every sign (trust me there's a lot of signs and I won't go into all of them beacuse it's definitely TMI for a public blog), and taken every ovulations test created for longer than I can remember! I know the very DAY we conceived. Your calculations are based on an inaccuarate, archaic, 28 day cycle, ovulate on day 14 formula. Take YOUR calculation and shove it!

But anyway, I digress. Another thing that confirms what I already know, is that when week 13 hit, a light switch flipped and I once again feel like human being. (It happened at exactly 13 weeks when I was pregnant with Ella too.) The following things have occurred within the last 4 days, that you might find simple, normal, even mundane. But to me...after months of feeling more nauseous and tired than I've ever felt, to me they are miracles!!!

~I haven't hurled!

~I cooked dinner!!! (and lunch too!)

~I started exercising again!

~I went out, to a restaurant (with many a mingling smells, INCLUDING my husbands open coffee mug on the very same table as mine) and didn't feel nauseous or hurl!

~And today, drum roll please......I have asked my husband to hook up the woodstove!

Yes that's right folks. It's not only been out of commission since the hurling began, but the smell still bothered me so much that J actually had to take it apart, and seal it off! Crazy I know. This is what it has looked like for the past few months.And might I also add, that I think God himself allowed unseasonably warm weather to occur during the period I could not stand the woodstove smell so that we didn't go bankrupt using more oil than we'd budgeted for. And now, low and behold, I feel magically better and well enough to run that bad boy again and the cold, cold weather rolls in...just sayin'. :)

My Hero

2012-01-01T09:48:00.005-05:00

I remember the conversation plain as day. It was back in October, and once again inspired by pinterest, I had a grand idea!

ME:"Jason! I really want to do this for Ella for her big present for Christmas! I found an entertainment center for $15! We can totally do this!"

JASON: "We? What do you mean we? Do you realize how much work this will be?"

ME: "All you have to do is pick it up...and maybe a few small parts of carpentry that require power tools. But that's a small portion of it and you like that kind of stuff!"

JASON: "Do you know how long its going to take to paint that thing? Do you realize how many coats it will take?"

ME: "Yes, yes. I'll get ALL the supplies and I'll do ALL the painting! Please? Will you go get it? Can we do this? She'll LOVE it!"

JASON: (begrudgingly) "Alright."

The entertainment system sat in a friends garage for a bit until we had time to start this fabulous project. Shortly after it made it's way into that garage, we were pleasantly suprised by a plus sign on a stick. Shortly after that I became violently ill and mononucleosis like exhausted. Even the wafts of paint fumes from behind closed doors was enough to do me in. Guess who ended up doing EVERYTHING (except for the very last finishing touches of detailed painting). Yup. You guessed it. Jason.

This man was working 12 hour days, 5am-5pm, getting home, feeding himself because I could not think about food, let alone look at it, taking care of Ella and putting her to bed, and then going to town on this project after Ella went to bed, and on weekends too. The man is my hero. We budget every penny, and we don't do a ton of Christmas gifts, this was Ella's BIG gift, without this...I'm not sure what we would have done for her. And one day when she's old enough to read this story and see how much her daddy was willing to do because he loves her, he will be her hero even that much more! And without further ado, here is the finished project (because of course I forgot to take a before picture...but just imagine big, brown entertainment center...you get the idea)

Here's what "we" did:

took glass out of big doors and replaced with plywood

added microwave and shelf
rehinged one door so that it opens downward for oven

made 4 stove nobs out of wood

1 coat gripper primer

2-3 coats of white

Added stainless handles and door pulls

cut hole for sink and plopped in an extra stainless bowl I had lying around

found old sink lying on side of road and grabbed it, used the faucet and nobs off of that

painted oven nobs, micro and oven door black

painted burners for stove and numbers for micro

printed one of my scenic photos 11x14 and added white frame and lattice to create window.

Voila! Easy as that!

The Best Gift!

2011-12-24T10:32:00.003-05:00

Normally two of my favorte smells are a crackling fire and freshly brewed coffee. However, presently, if you come within 10 yards of me with a cup of coffee in your hand I will likely grab said coffee from your hand and fling it out the nearest window...mug and all. And if I even so much as drive past your house and a waft of woodstove smoke manages to seep into my car I shall no doubt curse your name.

NO, I'm not losing it. I'm carrying the best gift of all this Christmas, a new little baby due to arrive in July!!!! It has been a long two year wait, along with three rounds of clomid which literally made me feel INSANE and whos crazy hormone elevating effects have made for a horribly sick momma this first trimester...but it is beyond worth it to be able to announce this news and we are over the moon!

Some of those two years I was patient, content, trusting and at peace. But I'll be honest, other times I was bitter, upset, sad and depressed. It was much the same rollercoaster of life and faith that we faced in our almost three year wait to get pregnant with our beautiful little Ella. No matter which phase I was in at the moment I would constantly repeat that God was in contorl, His will and His timing were perfect, and whatever would be was what was supposed to be. Sometime I believed myself when I said it and sometimes I didn't. But here I stand, growing a new little life inside of me (that honestly at times feels like it's sucking the life out of me :) and I am beyond thankful for every second of it.

I'm coming right up on 12 weeks. We truly, truly, truly covet your prayers for a full term pregnancy and a happy, healthy little love in the new year!

Rejoicing and praising God for this and so many other answered prayers this year. May you and yours have a blessed Christmas!!!

What A Difference A Year Makes!

2011-12-22T13:47:00.003-05:00

This morning Ella went from dead sleep to wide awake yelling, "MOM! I CAN SWIM ALL BY MYSELF JUST LIKE EMMA!!!" She then proceeded to run downstairs to our room and show me by hurling herself headlong onto my bed and kicking and paddling with all her might. She insisted that I had a video on my iPhone of her swimming with Emma and then going to sleep. I tried to explains dreams to no avail. The child is still searching for the video as I write.

Good thing it's time to sign up for our 3 months at the Y and take our winter swim class! We downed some breakfast, dug out our suits and hit the road for some free swim. This girl was OVER the MOON excited! And in the pool she swam (with her bubble), twirled, did blast offs and blew bubbles ALL BY HERSELF. There was much laughter and giggles and NO uncontrollable screaming. Oh what a difference a year makes! You can read about what I mean in this post entitled Voluntary Torture if you missed this joy of a post last year.

I also purchased her a swimming floatie belt thing where you can remove one foam peice at time as she gets better and better until she needs no help at all. And somewhere between the Y and home my daughter has combined the two terms bubble and floatie and now calls her colorful swim aid a "boobie". This term elicited such raucus laughter from me when it first came out of her mouth that I fear I shall never convince her to call it anything else.

Well, we're all signed up and ready to rock the Parent and Pike class in the new year...boobie and all!

Long Time No Post

2011-12-15T15:07:00.014-05:00

I know it's been FOREVER and a day since I've posted. So naturally I'll start out with pictures of Ella and the happenings over the last few months. I'll also throw in some Ella quotes as well, because they're just so dang cute!
Upon returning from her 3 year well child check up and talking about her new doctor, "Dad! He didn't shoot me!"
"I built a tower but it wasn't very impressive so I knocked it down."
"That is the end of discussion. Okay mom?" (after any sentence really. Apparantly I say this to her a lot...because she's an expert staller and negotiator!) We took a trip to see Auntie Jen and Uncle Greg and Ella took her first rides! We celebrated her third Birthday with both sides of the family. While she loves the presents and cake, she is very much not a fan of being the center of attention and generally hides under the table when being sung to or asked to blow out the candles :) Auntie Jen got this helmet for her and she wore it around the whole time. Good thing she likes it because I'm teaching her how to ski this winter! We bought her boots and grandma bought her skis! She's quite into decorating the house and tree for Christmas and she loves listening to Christmas music! Don't be alarmed if in the middle of belting out Jingle Bells she adds in that Jesus died for you and me. She's putting it all together and it's a joy to see/hear. Here she is supervising daddy cutting down our fat fatty Christmas tree this year (funny stories to go along with that...but maybe another day. She also took her toy saw and "cut down the tree" herself....along with every thing else in the house. I believe she cut down the chair, table, stairway, nightstand, bed etc. etc. Such a cutie!

Nature's Confetti

2011-11-12T19:32:00.002-05:00

There was clearly cause to celebrate in the universe today

The wind was whipping wildly

leaves were breaking free

sunlight glinted metallic off their wet whirling twirling bodies

and they floated through the air

like natures confetti

what a sight to see

Fun Fall Crafts

2011-11-02T13:26:00.005-04:00

Oh my, haven't we been having fun crafting! Ella asks everyday, "Can I have a craft mommy?" "Let's do a craft!" and then during her playtime she plays that she's making crafts. Between learning time, library story times and our other mornings, we do a craft pretty much every day. I'm so glad that we have these times together and I'm so glad that she loves being creative.
If you don't craft with your children, I beg of you, please do! There are SO many fun and inexpensive crafts to do all year long. It gets rid of boredom, opens up creativity, builds their mind and motor skills and creates lasting memories!
Here's what we've been up to!

The Thankful Tree! We tromped through the woods and found branches to make our thankful tree. Ella adores the tree and the whole process more than I had every imagined. At dinner time we each say something we're thankful for. Then I write them down on construction paper leaves and we hang them from the tree with green yarn. We do it at lunch with her little friend that I watch two days a week as well. It's such a great way to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and it's so festive looking too! Just imagine how beautiful it will look at the end of November!? "Beds," leave it to our littles to remind us to be thankful for the things we often take for granted. "Walks in the woods to see the deer tracks."Oh how delighted she was to find fresh deer prints, deer lays and deer poop in the snow in the trail just behind our house. By five she'll be an expert tracker!Window Leaves! Cut leaf shapes out of cardstock. Tape to window with painters tape. Dip sponges in tempura paint and stamp away. Who ever would have thought I'd let my kiddo paint my windows. But it is so fun and so festive! She loves peeking out the leaf holes!

Leaf Garland! On our little tromp through the woods we also picked up any leaves we liked the looks of. We brought them and and dried and pressed them between paper towels. Then I laminated them with contact paper and punched a hole in each. I grabbed my crochet hook and whipped out a chain made of green yarn and strung up this garland!Ella had a slightly different idea...look at this "mobile for baby" she came up with all on her own! It now rests over baby's crib!

Happy crafting to you!

Life Lesson: Always check your church bulletin before chucking it.

2011-11-01T20:29:00.004-04:00

The great thing about following Dave Ramsey's plan is that we're getting out of debt. The great thing about setting a budget, taking cash out each paycheck and ONLY paying in cash is that you really CAN'T go over budget!

The bad things about only paying in cash is that if you accidently happen to throw your "gas money"envelope containing $110 into the trash....you're pretty much out of luck.

Yes, this may sound like a classic Jason move...but I have to admit...it was me. I've learned some valuable lessons here. ALWAYS check inside your church bulletin before chucking it. AND always recycle, because if you throw the church bulletin (also containing the gas money enevelope because the envelope was in my purse and my church bulletin was in my purse and apparantly the two got tangled together whilst jostling about in my purse) into the trash with nasty chicken trimmings in it and then your hubby takes the trash out...you end up rummaging through really cold, really rancid trash to find your money.

BUT I FOUND IT!!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOO THANKFUL!!!!!!!!!

Cutest Monkey Ever

2011-11-01T20:20:00.006-04:00

Back in September when our pumpkins were turning orange and we started to talk about carving them on Halloween, my little one announced that she wanted to be Curious George. She's pretty in love with curious george episodes on TV and I love them for her as well. The pictures aren't great because my iPhone doesn't have a flash, but here's the cutest little monkey I've ever seen! Last year we went to trunk or treat at our church. But with 3,000-4,000 people streaming through in a two hour window (yes you read that right....it's a huge event!) it was just too much for Ella. She was tense and afraid and crying. So we changed it up this year. We went over to our friend's house. And it just so happens that our friend's daughter is the same age as Ella and one of Ella's best friends. We pulled the two of them in a wagon around the small loop road and Ella absolutelyADORED it! She usually sings or babbles herself to sleep at night. Last night all we heard on the monitor until she drifted off was, "Trick or treat! Thank-you. Trick or treat! Thank-you...." Then she woke up this morning saying, "I want to go trick or treating with baby." "I want to go to Halloween again!"

A Fall Crock Pot Party in the Snow!

2011-11-01T19:54:00.008-04:00

Our friends Megan and Dave threw a fall crock pot party this past Saturday. (I really wish I had pictures, but we were just having to much fun to snap any!) The idea is genius! Everyone brings a warm, toasty crockpot dish. The held it in their barn, strung lights, decked it out with fall decor and threw a few heaters in there in case it was a little chilly....

Well folks...in case you don't remember...Saturday, Oct. 29th, is when we got 10 inches of snow! But let me tell you, that made it even better! After filling our bellies, we threw on snow gear, caught fat flakes on our tongues, made snowmen and snow angels, played on the swingset, took a walk in the white wood at night and the bonfire looked brilliant against the crisply fallen background. I cannot use any other word to describe the night. It was magical!

We lost power that night and Sunday morning Jason went up and got Ella. She camp plodding down the stairs, heavy footed as usual, saying "Mommy! Mommy! The power is not in. A tree fell on the power so we can't turn the lights on and we can't flush the toilet!" Oh how I love her!

There's nothing like a good old fashioned power outage to reset a right perspective in my heart. I was so thankful for our woodstove, for cell phones, for a coleman stove by which to heat water for toasty beverages. As I washed up with a bowl full of warm water I thought about how many people in this world don't have running water...ever. We are SO blessed! If you live in America...even if you are poor....you are wealthier than much of the world and have so many luxuries...yes luxuries that others do not! Oh what a great way to start of this season of thanksgiving!

First service at church was canceled so we spent a lazy morning by the woodstove (so THANKFUL for that!) drinking hot cocoa and eating oatmeal, and of course...playing in the snow! We headed to church and right when we walked back in the door home, the power came back on!Once again, blessed. Here are some photos of my little snow angel and snowman!

The Kolvoord Petting Zoo

2011-11-01T19:34:00.008-04:00

A few weekends ago Ella and made the trip up to my sister's. Ella was a huge fan. Jen and Greg have three chickens, two goats, and a quarterhorse at their house. I'm pretty sure Ella thought it was her very own personal petting zoo. She loved seeing all the animals and pretty much wanted to feed them constantly.

Saturday morning we took a trip with Uncle Greg up to the Maine Jump. Crazy on a Saturday, but really fun and Ella did really well considering how loud it was and how many children were there.

Then after a much needed nap, Ella got to go riding! Over the years she has been pretty afraid of horses. She loves them in theory but when she gets next to one of any size she kind of freaks. But that all turned around this year! First she warmed up with a ride on Janie with Auntie Jen. Jen got Janie when she was 12 maybe? Janie is in her 30's I believe, and totally bombproof. She also does tricks...says please, gives kisses and shakes. She's only 14.3, but to Ella that's pretty big and she did awesome. Then we headed over to a barn where Jen keeps another one of her horses. This also happens to be the farm where I grew up going to summer riding camp, so it was very sweet to have my daughter take her very first solo ride here. Jen tacked up Frosty, and away she went. Seriously, to anyone who knows anything about English riding, just look at her form! Perfect :) She's a natural.
Waving to the camera!And if you're wondering if the trip made a lasting impression....well lets just say, at Ella's instance, I've been building, "Jamies" and "Srosties" out of legos for a week. Notice baby riding Janie in the background.
"Jamie needs a blankie because she wears one when she's cold". True."Jamie and Srosty."

Marketbasket Mayhem!

2011-10-29T14:38:00.004-04:00

We were running quite low on groceries...but payday wasn't until Friday and we'd already spent all of our grocery budget...so I decided to go shopping today...Saturday...bad idea. REALLY bad idea.

I expected Saturday to be pretty busy but, for those of you that don't live in this neck of the woods, we're predicted to get 6-10 inches of snow tonight! (Yes you read that right.) Apparantly today was SOOOOOOOO not the day to pick to go shopping.

When there were no carts in the return carosels in the parking lot and upon entering Marketbasket there were no carts inside either and I had to wait in a 6 person deep line just to get a cart....I should have just gone home. (And that was the situation even though they had 6 guys 100% devoted to trolling the parking lot and bringing in empty carts as soon as you picked your last grocery bag up out of it. I swear, they were like hungry grocery cart vultures!) Seriously people? We live in MAINE/NH. We're getting 6-10 inches of snow followed by days of 50 degree weather. I think we'll be okay. think you'll be able to get out of your house. I think the world will continue to spin on it's axos. You'd think it was the freaking Apocolypse or something!

But, gosh darn it, we have a family fall crockpot party to go to tonight and if I was going to brave that mess for spinach artichoke dip fixin's, I may as well just get my whole list's worth. I put on my BEST, most cheerful, most patient attitude and braved the mayhem with a sense of humor.

It was PURE insanity. It was a maze of carts that had to be maneuvered through at a snails pace. And the check-out lines? They looked a lot like this...but WORSE. (I swear if I'd remembered that my new iPhone can take photose, I would have totally taken and actual picture for you! THAT is how un-techy I am.) They had EVERY single line open and double baggers at EVERY single register. And each line at each register was still AT LEAST 6 people deep! I have NEVER seen anything like it.

And to my husband, who claims that Marketbasket is "ghetto", I have this to say. They were fully staffed, no super staffed, no uber staffed. They were staffed right out the wazoo. And EVERY employee was upbeat, kind and helpful. While looking for baguettes in a well picked over bakery section, the baker saw my woe and came out and told me he had fresh ones baking and he'd set two aside for me. A helpful deli person came right out from behind the deli and led me to the aisle with artichoke hearts. And the cashier was simply delightful even though she'd been there since 7am. AND you can still get one gazillion groceries for like $1.50. (I'm not even kidding. For all of my friends that don't have a Marketbasket close by and are stuck with shopnsave, shaws, and walmart...I pity you. I really do. If you had a Marketbasket near you, I swear you'd save 1 million dollars a year and eat like kings.) So if that's ghetto, then I, for one, LOVE ghetto.

Organization

2011-10-25T14:47:00.005-04:00

Do you have spots in your home that just drive you nuts? They're little so you put them off and put them off, until one day you just can't take it anymore!? Well I do. They're mostly closets and drawers.

But this one is our kitchen counter. I hung a basket up for mail, but papers just seemed to abound on the counter anyway. My measly attempt to contain phones, cameras, charger, keys and sunglasses, was a basket that ended up looking more like a rats nest and causing reeking more havoc than doing good. Here's what it looked like...and this is kind of neat compared to what it usually looks like. Oh man, that tangled basket of wires would keep me up at night!

Yesterday I just couldn't take it anmore. So I did something about it...for free. I used fabric that I had and left over dowels from my puppet theater project. I just need a fabric pen to lab the slots with, but THIS was my inspiration and this is what it ended up looking like. THIS is also a cool idea, which I may end up using for office or junk drawer things, but it would cost me money and again, it would be on the counter. I'm IN LOVE with wide open, clear, clean counter. It's like heaven to me!

Also, THIS is one of my new fave organizing websites. Yes, I think the woman has unlimited funds, but such great inspiration!

Frugal Me

2011-10-25T14:33:00.003-04:00

I swear when the cold sets in I just start getting the crafting bug. Money is always tight around here. It's a sacrifice that we stive to embrace. It's the byproduct of us chosing for me to stay at home and of us chosing to aggressively get out of debt. (And I might add that, other than our house, we've not purchased anything by credit since we cut up our card back in 2007!) It's worth it!

But the Holidays are upon us and it's an expensive time of year. We never buy more than one gift for each person, and just a handful for Ella, because we don't want Christmas to be all about presents. But even so, I'm all about way to be frugal! So I'm finding lots of neat stuff to make for super cheap. I just made this doorway puppet theater for Ella. I spent $10 and change on ALL the materials! (I've seen handmade ones just like it going for $65 on Etsy.) I just picked up some felt and I'm going to make her puppets out of those! Very fun to fulfill my creative side and very frugal to save our budget!

Both Are Going Home

2011-10-22T21:29:00.003-04:00

"Dear God, tank-you for aunt Karen and baby Jude. Please heal their boo-boos off. In Jesus name. Amen." This is the prayer that Ella has prayed literally every single night since we first found out about baby Jude and my Aunt Karen. She has never before taken such an interest. She asks to see pictures and videos of them each day. Until now, her prayers have been just her repeating after us and maybe telling God a few things she did that day. But she has prayed that prayer every night, on her own, unprompted by us. In fact, she sometimes reminds us.

She would ask me to play the videos of baby Jude over and over. She would say, "Mama, pray for him. No touch him. Touch all his boo-boos and pray for him." And so there we would sit. My laying my hands on each of baby Jude's visible boo-boos, then his heart, as we lifted those things, and the other needs up in prayer. It has been heart wrenching to see Brandon and Mandy go through this. The strength and faith they have had through this all, is a witness, inspiration and encouragement. The way I have watched my daughters faith grow in these last few months is beyond words.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to tell her that baby Jude is in Heaven now. No that's exactly what I'll tell her. That his boo-boos are all better now. That he is healthy and well. No more pain, no more tears. He is in the loving arms and presence of God. He is home.

Please, please, please do not let your prayers stop here. Continue to pray for this precious family and the road they are on. Honor them and read this post that so magnificently captures the beauty of faith, trust, and hope even in the worst possible times.

And please keep praying for my Aunt Karen. She is a walking miracle. She is astounding doctors and physical therapists and occupation therapists left and right. Though her left side is still not moving with the speed and dexterity she'd like and that often frustrates her, she is eating, talking, laughing, writing, walking, climbing stairs, working so incredibly hard...and she is going home! Only two months after we weren't even sure if she was going to make it, she is going home.

I am praising God in both these situations. That may seem hard to understand, but I am thanking God in both because I trust that His is will is best, even though it may not be what I'm asking for all the time. I know that God holds them both in his tight grip and I know that God knew how they'd both be going home.

I'm in love.

2011-10-21T10:50:00.004-04:00

Have you noticed the recent flurry of posts after a long dry spell? I guess I have to be inspired. And it's interesting what inspires me....dead cat stories, baby mullets, and now the iPhone. I'm not sure what this says about me, but whatever!

We recently switched cell phone carriers and got a free iPhone. Jason can't have a phone with a camera at his work...(ya know, so he can't take pictures of our Navy's sub fleet and sell them to the spys)...so guess who gets my trackphone and guess who gets primary custody of the new iPhone!?

We're really not techy people. And I pretty much despise it when people text and play games on their mobile devices instead of hold actual conversations with the people that are sitting next to them. So I'm going to try REALLY hard not to become one of those people. But I TOTALLY see the temptation!

We're not going to be on the internet all the time on this phone. And we're not going to use it to text up a storm. In fact, we really only continue to use cellphones for emergencies and when we're on the road.

What we ARE going to use this bad boy for is a GPS on the road, a handheld game to keep us occupied on long drives, an ipod to listen to our tunes, and what I believe to be the most important function.....a child occupier.

We've already downloaded some pretty cute and free learning apps for her (including Curious George ABC's, a few fisher price animal apps, and a counting app). And we ponied up $10 bucks for a season of Curious George that I'm quite sure will save my sanity a our 3 hour drive north today with a toddler that no longer naps in the car. Not to mention it will come in quite handy on big grocery store trips and waiting for food in restaurants!

It's been one day with this gadget and Ella is already in love with it as well. Don't worry, we're not going to let her become and iPhone junkie by any means. It will be for certain ocasions and perhaps as a reward at times. And I do think there's a lot of value in the learning apps and in helping to develop a (responsibly) tech savvy child this day in age.

The Mullet Cure

2011-10-19T19:27:00.015-04:00

It's true. My child will be three in a few months and she's seriously challenged in the hair growth department. I'm beginning to wonder if she'll ever have any real hair to speak of. Seriously. It's part of my nightly prayers ("Please let Ella grow hair.") I swear I keep it to myself. Don't worry, she won't have a complex. But she really does have a rather unfortunate "baby mullet". See. Well, let me tell you how tickled I was to learn this past weekend, that she LIKES headbands. And will wear them! I boy did I run with it. I learned how to make these adorable fabric flowers that night and prettied up four simple headbands in two seconds flat! See. And now, when wearing the headbands, it actually looks like she has some cute little bangs with some longer hair tucked behind the headband. See! Okay, okay, it's not really a mullet cure. More like a cover-up, and not even the best one at that. Pigtails are really the best cover up, but she won't keep the in for more than two minutes...except this one time at the Winslow's where she actually had them in long enough for Angie to snap this picture. See. Even cuter from the front, I swear. Oh boy, I love this little girl. Mullet and all!

Did I tell you the one about the cat tin?

2011-10-17T18:43:00.005-04:00

I've been in organizing/purging mode lately. The urge hits me often, but even more so just prior to the present onslaught of birthays and Christmas.

So I was taking some clothes to consign at a local shop. While I was filling out the paper, Ella was admiring all the shiney things in the counter display cabinet. "What is that mommy? What is that cat thing in there?" she asked.

I peered in and saw a small tin with a picture of a cat on it. I explained what a tin was and told her that the things in that case were for sale. "I want that mom. Can I have that?" (Don't even get me started on her "I want that phase" because it's a whole other story!). I calmly replied that we did not come to buy things today.

That's when the well-intentioned (and clearly soft) woman behind the counter said, "Oh, that's not even in there to sell. It's mine and I just put it in there for decoration. She can have it." I politely refused and explained she did not need to give it to my daughter. She insisted. I wanted to avoid carrying this on so I accepted and told her how nice that was and had Ella thank her numerous times.

The woman slid it from the display case and placed it in Ella's hands. "This is heavy mom!" she exclaimed, "What's in here?" The kind (and perhaps crazy/demented) lady behind the counter responded that she couldn't even remember what was in it. We attempted to open it, but it was glued shut. It was indeed heavy and felt like it was filled with sand. It had been filled and glued shut to be used as a paper weight, I reasoned.

Well, we got that cat tin home and Ella kept asking me to try to open it to see what was inside. It only took a slight little prying with a butter knife to free the lid from it's base and that's when I saw it. Yes, the contents were similar to sand, but just a bit more...ahem...finely ground.....or perhaps incinerated. That's right folks. It was a small plastic bag of ashes, a.k.a. A DEAD FRICKIN" CAT.

Ella can read my face and she knew something was up. "What mom!? What is it mom? What's in there mom!? What is it? Can I see it!?"

"Nothing sweetie," I replied, "Just some dirt." Then I chucked the dead cat ashes, sanitized the crap out of that tin and handed it right back to Ella. She loves that tin.

Marden's

2011-10-04T18:59:00.005-04:00

I could be wrong, but I think Maine is the only state that has Marden's. At let me just say, that all you folks who don't have a marden's 15 minutes down the road from you are SOOOO missing out! Listening to the annoying commercials is totally worth the bargains you find there. (Also, check out my friend's blog about ugly crap you can find there too. Hilarious!) From candy, to books, clothes to home decor, hardware to fabric...they've got it all. And fabric is what I was in search of the other day.

I've been wanting to slipcover pillows in my living room FORVER! And by forever I mean like a few years. I finally used some of the house budget for pretty instead of practical and had at it! I did the bench pillows, the couch and chair pillows, and because the fabric was so flippin' cheap I reupholstered the benches too! I even had 2 1/2 yards that I decided to make into a doorway puppet theater for one of Ella's Christmas presents!

Anyhoo, Here's what the benches and pillows looked like before:And here's what they look like after! BAM!!!

I took pictures to do a tutorial because I made rockin' covers that you can change out, and there are no zippers involved. Perhaps I'll post the tutorial sometime.

This Thing Called Love

2011-09-30T15:52:00.012-04:00

Don't get me wrong. I have my super share of days where I'm a wife like THIS. (PU-LEASE go read the blog on that link. It's hilarious. And if you say you can't relate, I don't believe you for a second!)

But then there are days like yesterday, where I just TOTALLY hit the nail it on the head. (Notice I choose to go into depth about this kind of day, whilst my friend Amy choosed to go into depth about her "crap on your head" kind of days. I think it's clear to see who has the higher self esteem ;) I'm talking, tidy house, dishes done AND put away, 4 loads of laundry, hot mulled cider on the stove with an accompanying mug bearing a sweet written message. Complete with relaxing music playing in the background when Jason walked in the door after a long day at work. He is one LUCKY man! Ya know...like once every 6 months or something :)

I do love this man. And I do wish I provided him with that kind of environment to come home to every day. Maybe I was feeling so inspired because we just had a fabulous weekend away in North Conway. Our new fave spots since moving down here. We decided to forgoe birthday and anniversary presents and combine them all for this weekend where we went EXTREME ZIPLINING with Alpine Adventures! So worth it! There are three levels of zipline tours here. We went for the most extreme SUPER SKYRIDER. There was only one ther couple so we got to hike back up and do more ziplines as well as go on even more extra ziplines from other courses.

We got to the top of the course by off-roading in this six wheeled army vechicle (Like, helmets required off-roading!).

All totalled I think we went on over 10 ziplines, a few zaplines, and countless sky bridges. One zipline was 1,800 feet long. Some were pendulums with some free fall time and we reaches speeds of 65 miles per hour! The views were amazing too!

Ready to zip!

We were already up really high in one tree... And then we climbed up that 30 ft. ladder even higher! See, there's the people below us on the wimpy tour :) None of our tree platforms even had railings around them. Slightly unnerving even for this adrenaline junky...especially when the tree starts swaying in the breeze, or is jerked about by a zipper jumping off! It's hard to get pictures that really show what it was like. We were SO high. And the zips weres SO long. And we went SO fast! The views were SO amazing. The videos might do it better justice! Suffice it to say, it was amazing.

Ella Bella

2011-09-22T16:50:00.008-04:00

I think it's time for a little light-hearted, cuteness on this here blog.
Isn't this a classic? Riding a scooter with underwear on head. She did it all by herself. It was a successful bedtime stall as it got mom and dad laughing and held off bedtime until mom could snap a few pictures!

This is Ella, clearly tickled pink with herself for setting up this little scene.
Here we have the baby asleep on her bed, with her monkey clock that tells her when she can wake up, and the other thing in here (you can't see it in this photo) is the card she got from Nanny. Now, Nanny also sent her a lovely book, but she's hasn't given a second thought to that book. She carries this card, in it's envelope everywhere, frequently taking it out to read it. It goes in her purse, her tent, her mailbox, and obviously her baby's bedroom. This is Ella covering a letter "A" with playdough. Man, she's got a great attention span, stays on task, and does really well! We also glued Acorns on a letter A. (I fear this is the only smile we'll get at ther three year photos!) Okay, I just HAVE to show this because I think it's amazing! I had her do a pin push craft over the letter A and an apple. I showed her how on the lower left of the A and the stem and upper left of the apple and then just let her at it...no coaching, no correcting, I just typed an email while she did it on the carpeted floor next to me. I was expecting pin holes randomly all over the paper and this is what she did!!! And this is a cute new outfit! I love the leggings and tutu look and so does she. She helped pick this out and wore it to one of our library times. She also used to have pig tails in her hair...SO ADORABLE, but those only last so long, and she only stands still for pictures when bribed! This adorable face? Yeah, it's just her eyeing where she was going to tear off to in the next second!

Praising God

2011-09-19T14:54:00.002-04:00

I am praising God for His answer to prayers.

My Aunt Karen has always been a very strong woman, but lately she's been showing just how strong she is!

Just a short time ago she was in the ICU
Just a short time ago she was fighting infections.
Just a short time ago she was taken off of sedation.
Just a short time ago she could only blink or slightly squeeze hands.

NOW
She has moved out of the hospital into a rehab facility.
She is able to sit up in a wheelchair for extended periods of time (an hour or two)
She is moving her left leg (which is the side most affected by the anurism in the right side of her brain)
She is smiling.
She is nodding her head.
She pulled my uncle in with one arm for a hug and a kiss.
She's made her clucking noises for her grandson.
She whispered "Tom" (her husbands name)!!!

Make no mistake about it. She will continue to amaze, but this is still a long road for her and her family. So please continue to pray for God's strength, peace, rest and joy for all of them!

Proud Mama!

2011-09-13T14:43:00.013-04:00

Today marked our first day of more formalized learning for our little Ella Bella. I'm going to write and show what I've done so that, should some other overwhelmed mother of a toddler stumble across this blog, it might be of some help!

It doesn't matter that I have a good college education and graduated Summa Cum Laude. The thought of educating my toddler still terrified me! SURE, I know my ABC's, colors, shapes and numbers...but how do I best teach that to a two year old? How do I make that fun? How do I choose which method to use? I want to lay a foundation that won't need to be ripped up and redone by someone else!

But thanks to a lot of prayer, some good research, awesome creative inspiration from Pinterest, and some great friends, the weighty responsibility of educating my toddler is becoming less stressful by the second. Here's what I'm doing:
Mondays and Fridays are preschool story time at local libraries. Great for literacy, motor skills with crafts, and socialization.
Tuesdays and Thursday mornings will have learning time at the table where we'll focus on one letter a week as well as some colors, shapes, drawing, sorting, matchin, organizing etc.
Wednesdays I will go to Bible study so she'll get more socialization and practice with separation in child care.
Oh how I love routines and stability! So important for kids...and my sanity as well!

So today we introduced "A". I started by putting her letter A flag in her mailbox for her to find in the morning. Oh she was so excited! We went downstairs and hung her A flag on her banner. We'll put up a new letter each week and at the end have a beautiful alphabet banner to display anywhere! (See THIS post for a tutorial on how to make this frugal, no-sew fabulousness)Then at the table after breakfast we colored an A page, all the while talking about the different things on the page that start with A and saying our A sounds over and over. We continued our A sounds while making an A out of apple prints! Next we had fun making our "tracing goo". Dollar store hair gel, food coloring, and glitter in a plastic bag, and they have tons of fun finger tracing their letters. (Thanks Angie) She finger traced A three times! Later we read her letter A book that grandma got her for just this occasion! We will continue reviewing A in these ways throughout the week. Here are some other things we'll do to keep things lively...trace the letters I made in page protectors with dry erase markers. Finger trace letters in a box of salt. Use our flash cards...hunt for the A and then say the sound when she finds it. Draw the letter on paper and shape playdough over it or put stickers over it. Cut the letter our of playdough or cookie dough with our letter cookie cutters. Go on scavenger hunts to find things that start with A.
Ella won't turn three until Dec. Which means if she went into preschool this year, she'd be in preschool for 3 years before she's old enough to enter kindergarden. That's way to much preschool. But she's super smart and we could tell she needed a little more intellectual stimulation. We knew we needed to do something and boy were we right. So how did today go? Ella LOVED it! She was engaged. She was less mischevious throughout the day because she wasn't bored and we had a routine. She kept saying, "I want to learn my ABCD's." May aim will continue to be to just expose her to these things and have fun. But she is proving, once again, to be smart as a whip. She can now identify the letter A and what sound it makes! I'm one proud mama!

No Sew ABC (or anything really) banner!

2011-09-13T13:55:00.009-04:00

Want a super cute banner but hate the idea of sewing seams and changing threads millions of times? Me too! So here's my no sew banner!

Here's what you'll need

enough fabric for 26 flags (9"x11"each...free from my quilting mama)

Felt for 26 letters (I bought one pack of 14 pieces of felt at the $ store and this worked great, using one sheet for two different letters)

Pinking sheers so edges won't fray. (free from my mama!)

glue gun and glue sticks (mini with glue sticks just $5 from walmart)

aprox 26 feet of clothesline (I got a cute green and white one that's 60ft at the $ store!)

Using your pinking sheers so the unsewn edges won't fray, cut out 26 triangles 9 inches wide x 11 inches long. Cut all your letters out of felt and then use your glue gun to secure them onto the triangles. (I made my felt into 4 inch wide and 5 inch long pieces. I then used a ruler and a pen to freehand the letters and cut them out.) See look how pretty!Now take your clothesline...Wrap the top edge of each triangle around the clothesline and use the glue gun to secure the fabric back to itself and onto the clothesline. VOILA! I only have one letter on my banner, because we're putting one on each week as we learn them. When we go through them all, maybe I'll come back and put a picture up of the completed banner!

Updates!

2011-09-08T12:52:00.002-04:00

Aunt Karen and Grandma Fraunhofer's last trip to Maine in the fall of 2009

Aunt Karen

The journey will be long, but I'm praising God that there will be a journey. There's been a lot going on with my Aunt Karen. She's been taken off sedation. She responds to her family by opening her eyes, squeezing her hand, blinking and just recently a few smiles have appeared! She still doesn't move the left side of her body, so pray that that will come. She hasn't spoken yet, so pray for that. They continue to give her time off of the respirator and she breathed for three hours on her own yesterday! Praise God. Her fever is down a bit, as are her WBC. Her blood pressure is looking good and her lungs are looking a little better. Please pray for all of these things to continue in the right direction and please pray for this long road ahead!

Baby Jude
After my last post about all the positives Baby Jude had experienced, the rollercoaster took a steep turn. HE NEEDS YOUR PRAYERS. They cannot seem to stop the seeping from his incision. This is rare. PRAY THAT THE SEEPING STOPS as he cannot go onto any other surgery until this resolves. His body is not getting rid of fluid and he is swelling a lot. He has gained 4 pounds in 4 days. PRAY THAT THE SWELLING GOES DOWN, and that his body can properly rid itself of fluids. PRAY FOR HIS PARENTS AND THIS ROAD THEY'RE ON.

Kitchen is DONE!

2011-09-06T14:57:00.009-04:00

Well, at least when I'm feeling super duper crazy, I release that crazy energy into some serious productivity. I've sorted Ella's clothes and inventoried what she needs. I've organized closets and junk drawers and scrubbed holes right into the shower floors.

AND.........................

Drumroll please...................................................

WE FINISHED THE KITCHEN!!!

(okay so we still need to paint the ceiling patch and save up for crown molding.......but it's been such a long bleeping process, I'm just gonna call it done or I might cry.)

Might I remind you:

BEFORE AFTER BEFORE AFTER I love our dining room. I still don't love cooking. But I love my dining room.THE chandelier I wanted...found on Craigs List for a steal! The long hoped for, much saved for, if I could marry an inanimate object, I would...countertops!!!

Ella

2011-09-06T13:09:00.010-04:00

While I may have just mentioned in my last post, that she is in a stage that is very annoying to me right now, that's not to say that she's not still fabulous. I haven't written about her in a while and so many thing are piling up. She does so many new things so quickly I just can't keep up and have been feeling the need to jot some highlights down to savor! So here's what comes to mind right now.

She has a special relationship with the ONE pumpkin that materialized in our garden this year. She visits it at least once a day, usually multiple times. She pats it and always exclaimes something like, "It's growin'!" or "It's growed today!" or "It's turning (insert some color here because she doesn't quite have those down yet)." She loves to inspect the garden in general and point out what's ready to pick and what's not. And she likes to help harvest, although this momma get's a little stressed at her little haphazard steps!

A magnificent imagination. She's always pretending....to go to the beach, to go to the zoo, to go swimming, to go camping, to go to camp, to throw a birthday party etc. etc. And while it is generally adorable, this generally involves her taking EVERY LOVIN' toy in her playroom, to some other area, where she doesn't really use it, just piles it. She's always, "packin' up" and doing this and the sheer volume of toys that she moves and then has to be put back EVERY TIME drives me batty! And she does it OVER and OVER and OVER.

Loves her babies... stroll them, swing them, feed them, give them medicine etc. etc

She loves swinging on the hammock!

She sings lots of songs still, they just get better and better. She likes to dance along with some little kids videos like Laurie Berkner and such, but she's still a little shy with that.

She constantly asks WHY. Sometimes it's just to play the game, but most of the time it's because her little brain is really working overtime and she really is wondering about LOTS of things.

She still has a memory like a steel trap.

She is FULLY potty trained and VERY self sufficient!

She still has a pretty serious...and sweet mullett.

She continues to be the world's most persistant staller when it comes to nap time and bed time. Although frustrating at times, and we dont' give in, the things she does and says to stall are generally pretty adorable/hilarious (I need you to clip my nails, I need a tissue, I need you to snuggle me, I need you to move the pillow out of the chair, I need you to put the books on that shelf not that one, I need more animals, I'm cold I need long pants on...[when it's like 100 degrees out] and so one and so forth.) and give J and I a good chuckle in the evenings together.

She's still a great sleeper though. And she stays in bed in the morning utnil her monkey clock opens it's eyes and then instantly hear abover your head the "boom" or her leaping out of bed and then "pad,pad,pad,pad,pad,pad,pad," of her running little feet down the hall. Then she quietly walks down the stairs, tiptoes into my room, stands at the edge of me bed and says, "Boo!" or "Raawr!" or something equally cute to "wake me up".

She's still a nibbler and a picky eater. We don't give in. She eats what we give her or she doesn't eat...but she's stubborn and persistent little one (prob. doesn't help that both her parents are the same way), so mealtimes are less than our favorite times still.

She's ridiculously smart and ridiculously adorable.

Just Can't Shake This Feeling

2011-09-06T12:46:00.006-04:00

This mama feels like she wants to crawl right out of her own skin!

Maybe it's because:

I have friends and family going through some pretty scary times right now.

We just experienced two wretched days of high heat/high humidity AFTER taking the A/C out. (And I don't DO heat.)

All of the house and yard projects for this place feel never-ending and impossible at times.

There's always just enough money, but life always seems like there's still never enough money.

Bathrooms are deceivingly small little spaces, but are a ROYAL pain in the BUM to edge in!

We are in transition between seasons right now, and I'm anxious for fall.

I am trying to get a routine together for Ella and I for fall and I feel in flux

I am planning for the start the daunting task of beginning to educate her in a more formalized way and I feel woefully inadequate!

I just don't do change well....in general....ever.

Ella has reached a stage where a lot of what she does REALLY annoys me. (There I said it. Don't pretent you've never felt that way if you've ever been a mom of a 2 1/2 year old, because I won't buy it for a second!)

Patience has never been a really strong virtue of mine....yet. (Trust me, HE's really working on it with me!)

STUFF has been driving me insane! I feel the need to, and have sorted and purged and organized and purged, and purged. But it never ends! It is the bane of my existence.

We're still not pregnant and I'm really wrestling with/ struggling with understanding God's will. At this point I'm fine with whatever direction He leads us in, I'd just like some clarity as to which direction that is.

Or maybe it's the Clomid messing with me, because yes, this hippie got so desperate she resorted to trying it.

Or maybe it's none of those things. I can't really put my finger on it. I just hope it passes and I feel normal again....or at least comfortable in my own skin. And getting it all out helped a little.

Specifically Answered Prayers!!!

2011-09-03T08:55:00.003-04:00

My heart is jumping with joy this morning as I've read about little Jude's road and I just had to share with those of my friends that are following his family's journey and praying along with me!

Prayers are being answered. Specifically. AND NUMEROUSLY!

After having to continue to wait for his heart surgery because of his poor kidney function and seeping from his incision from neurosurgery, he underwent a scary transfer back to the hospital where he had his neurosurgery. They did another procedure. And it was successful!

Today, his creatine level is 0.5...way lower...way great...specific answer to prayer.

His x-ray of his lungs look great! called it "best in the PICU" specific answer to prayer for collapsed lung.

The neurosurgeon is "wonderfully happy" upon seeing his CT scan two weeks after surgery.

The neurosurgeon called Jude a fighter. But we already knew that didn't we!?

Keep the Prayers a Comin'!!!

And go HERE to read how Brandon and Mandy's 50 things they're grateful for today. Such a testimony and encouragement to me to see how they are living and relying on God through this all!

Thankful

2011-09-01T14:21:00.005-04:00

Between the end of August marking my father's passing, my Aunt fighting for her life in the hospital, and a never ending parade of little pink sticks that always tell me no, I've been having some tough days lately. On my worst days I give into my silly self-pitty parties. On my best days, I trust in the Lord and rely on the Holy Spirit to strengthen me and get me through. But no matter what day it is, I am thankful. I realize how blessed I am and I am thankful.

I am thankful for this man. I am thankful for this little girl who donned this outfit all by herself. I am thankful foror crisp late summer air and perfect blue skies with white puffy clouds.

I am thankful that I live in a place where this sweet little hike and beautiful views are just around the corner from my "dooryaad". I am thankful for the simple pleasure of rocking in my hammock like a baby.

I am thankful for really great friends.

I am thankful that my Aunt Karen is a fighter.

I am thankful that as they lift the sedation she has been responding to her loved ones with opening her eyes and squeezing their hands.

I am thankful that she has moved her arm and leg on her right side and thankful that she's even moved her leg on the left side (the side that would is most affected by anurism in the right side of her brain).

I am thankful that her pnemonia is not worse, but still praying that it gets better.

I am thankful that baby Jude made it to his two week birthday, but continue to pray that his bleeding and kidneys and lung to improve so that he can have the heart surger he so desperately needs.

I am thankful.

Happy Two Week Birthday Jude

2011-08-30T13:13:00.003-04:00

Today is baby Jude's 2 week birthday. I must remind you that this is the same baby that Dr.'s offered his parent 4 times in his first few days to just take him off life support.

I'm convinced God has bigger plans for this little guy and his family!

He is opening his eyes! You MUST CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO OF IT! The most beautiful thing I've ever seen!

His MRI is looking better. There is still bleeding but the brain tissue is looking more normal! Keep praying for that healing of his brain! The neurologist is hopeful and encouraged his parents (Brandon and Mandy) to be as well!!!

They are going to do the surgery on his two heart defects (which at many points, they were not even sure the surgeon would agree to operate on him)! That is probably coming at the end of the week. Pray for that!

I have been praying LOTS lately between Jude and my Aunt Karen and other things going on in my life. I hope you are praying with me! It's been a rough week for me, and this good news about Jude is just what I needed. Praising God for that!

Aunt Karen Update

2011-08-29T09:13:00.003-04:00

Please continue to pray for my Aunt Karen who had a brain anurism last Wednesday.

Praise God that scans continue to show no further signs of stroke or damage since the anurism and surgery.

She has developed pnemonia. Please pray that this can be treated and cleared quickly.

She has also developed a condition, not unexpected in patients who have experienced SAH, that decreases the blood flow to the brain. The doctors are treating this, please pray for this.

Please pray that God would heal the damage that was sustained from the anurism. Continue to pray that she would make a full and miraculous recovery.

Please pray for the day to come quickly that her husband, children, grandchildren, mother, siblings, and friends can once again see her beautiful eyes, hear her infectious laugh, and listen to her wonderful voice.

Needing Your Prayers Once Again

2011-08-26T08:57:00.005-04:00

This is my grandma Fraunhofer (my dad's mom) and my Aunt Karen (my dad's sister) on a visit to Maine two falls ago.

It seems like just yesterday.

My Aunt Karen is a woman of faith, a wife, a mom, a grandma, a nurse and so much more! She is an early riser and a hard, hard worker. She is a woman who is alway busy, always doing, always caring for others and nothing ever seemed to slow her down.

But Wednesday morning she was slowed down by a brain anurism.

I first of all praise God that he orchestrated the following circumstances. She was visiting her daughter in the Twin Cities, near big hospitals. I second of all praise God that my grandma found her. I third of all praise God that her son-in-law Jeremi had decided to go into work late and so was there to respond quickly and call 911. I praise God that she made it to the hospital still conscious and coherent. I praise God that they found the bleed and performed a successful surgery. I praise God that she made it through the surgery.

But there is a long road ahead, one that is uncertain. So please pray.
She is in the ICU and heavily sedated. Pray that there are no further anurisms, that she does not experience stroke, and that she makes a full and miraculous recovery.

The Poop Jar

2011-08-24T15:54:00.004-04:00

While Ella has been pee potty trained for quite some time, she's still not pooped in the potty. Oh sure she did it a few times in the beginning but they weren't really successes, because they really just made her more scared. So we backed off because I was afraid she'd hold it in with the veracity that she held her pee in, and we'd have a real medical issue on our hands.

But when your child knows she needs to poop and afterwards says, "Mom, I pooped. You need to change my bum." And while changing her she reminds you to "Make sure you don't get any poop on your hands mom." You know it's time. And although this might be completely unrelated...when your toddler tells you she's "building a cantilever" and she actually is...she can probably go poop in the potty.

Now, just so you don't think we're totally being played...she does have some sensory processing issues that make change and new sensations very anxiety provoking. But we're working with someone from CDS and we've learned so much about small little things to do and changes to make that have made a WORLD of difference in just a few months time. But I'm still bound and determined to have her FULLY trained befor three.

So, in light of all that, we decided to wait until after all of our summer traveling was done...which was A LOT. We made a social story about it and read it a lot. We prepped her for it, telling her after we get back from camping, Pull-Ups are gone and she'd be pooping in the potty. We returned from camping and she participated in getting rid of the Pull-Ups. Then we went over the system with her and introduced the Poop Jar (thanks Kristie for the great idea!).

Once she fills the Poop Jar up with pom-poms she gets to take a trip to York's Wild Animal Kingdom. We scoped it out online and she's super excited. She said the kangaroo was her favorite animal so a picture of him made it on the jar.

So she gets to put one pom-pom in for every time she sits a while and tries. (This is difficult for her because up until now, she's run around for a good 1/2 hour to work out her poo.) And she gets to put 5 pom-poms in if she actually goes. She also gets a swedish fish and m&m's for an immediate reward when she goes.

I thought I was in for another long battle...but it's not been so bad. We implimented this on Sunday when we returned from camping and she resisted that day and most of the next, holding it in and clearly becoming uncomfortable. But then, on Monday, she did it! It still scares her, but she did it again today! I think this will prove to be much less of a struggle than I thought! Yay!

Wiggin'

2011-08-23T13:25:00.003-04:00

So I was buying some pregnancy tests yesterday, (Now don't anyone go getting all excited...I buy pregnancy tests all the time. In fact, I think they've been a staple on my grocery list for the past 6 years except for the 9 months I was pregnant with Ella. That's not the point of this story. I know I was kind of evil with the picture over there :) loading my groceries into my cart and tending to Ella when I heard the cashier say, "Are you Wicken?"

To which I wanted to turn around and say, "Dear Lord, please tell me what about my appearance, speech, mannerisms or grocery items makes you think I'm Wicken and I will go home and immediately change all of those things!" But instead I politely stated, "I'm sorry, come again?"

At which point the woman held up my pregnancy tests and restated her original question, "Are you Wiggin'?"

"Oh, no not at all," I replied, " We're hoping."

"Oh, oh my gosh. That's so great," she responded as her face lit up, "I'll say a prayer for you. It's so nice to hear someone wanting a baby!"

It was an interesting and ultimately nice little exchange. But I felt my heart heavy as I wheeled my cart to the car and drove home. Don't get me wrong. I know there are still plenty of people who want children and plan and hope for them. But what a sad statement it is about our society when those people... those planning, wanting, hoping for, happy to have a baby people are exceptions to the norm.

How have we reached a point where it is commonplace, for people to be so reckless in their actions. To think only of themselves and their wants and not consider what the consequences might be...pregnancy, birth, the creation of another human life that had no say whether or not to come into this world. And how it breaks my heart to know that the typical and expectel response to being pregnant is to be "wiggin'".

Call me old fashioned here...but we ALL know how babies are made. If you don't want one...DON'T MAKE ONE. AND, if you can't take care of one, DON'T MAKE ONE. I long for a world where babies are made only when they are wanted. Where they are brought into the world only when they will be given the utmost love, attention, financial wellbeing and stability in life. I know...I'm a dreamer. But I like to keep dreaming.

(Stepping off soapbox) That's all for now.

How Our Garden Grows

2011-08-23T13:12:00.004-04:00

I'd say our first year gardening has been a success. Here is a salad I made the other night solely from our garden alone! Lettuce, cherry tomato, pea pods, cucumber and carrots. Yummm! I've pickled 6 quarts of cucumber and eaten many fresh. I've used our onions in recipes, and sliced some beautiful big tomatoes as well. We've got squash and pumpkins coming in too! AND I've also canned 22 pints of dilly beans, frozen several pounds of beans more, eaten near a ton of beans and there are still some growing and blossoming! They're the bean plants that never end!

I got to thinking about our meager little plot and I was overwhelmed with gratitude. How blessed we are to have a home, a beautiful home. How fortunate we are to have land that we own. How prosporous we are to be able to buy seed and supplies. And how favored we are to have MORE than enough food to eat every day...from our own garden none the less.

Take a moment to think about the world as a whole. There is a HUGE percentage of the world's population that does not have these things. Think about why it is that you were born where you were born, and live where you live and have the things you have. If you live in America you are fortunate and you are rich. Don't keep it all to yourself. Spread the love.

Update On Baby Jude

2011-08-23T08:35:00.004-04:00

Baby Jude is one week old today!!! Praise the Lord! This is a little boy who had brain surgery in the first days of his life because blood was covering most of his brain. The doctors asked his parents 4 times in the first few days if they wanted to just take him off life support. They said no, and have an army of people praying with them.

As of Today:

An eye that they thought would never work, is responding well.

The dopamine that was once required to keep his blood pressure stable, has been turned off (A VERY specific prayer his momma, Mandy, had asked for.)

He was tested off the respirator and breathed on his own!

He is being transferred back to the first hospital because they have an excellent pediatric heart surgeon. Pray that the doctor will do the surgery and it will fix his two hear defects. This boy is a fighter and God is answering prayers for healing.

The road is no doubt still long and he is by no means out of the woods. Keep praying!

Anaplasmosis

2011-08-19T10:58:00.002-04:00

The verdict is in. Hunter has anaplasmosis. This is what the vet thought based on the symptoms. It is very hard to diagnose by bloodwork but they did confirm it.

It is so similar to Lyme disease. It is caused by a bacteria carried in ticks. Dogs get lethargic, lose their appetite, get upset stomach, have stiff swollen joints and usually run a fever. Hunter never ran a fever. If it progresses too far, they can have seizures, neurological affects and it can affect the liver and kindneys. He's not had any seizures or neurological affects and it doesn't seem to have affected his liver or kidneys, let's hope not.

The good news is that after a four week course of antibiotics, most dog make a full recovery. He's been on his meds for one week and the only symptom he still displays is a limp, but it's much more slight than before. His prednizone has cleared up his itching, he's eating like a champ, and chasing his ball once again. Yay!

Spiritual Conversations With My Two Year Old

2011-08-18T13:26:00.003-04:00

Me: I love you.
Ella: Why you love me Momma?
Me: Oh sweetie, I can't even begin to tell you all the reasons why. Because I'm your Momma and I'll always love you no matter what.
Ella: Yeah.
Me: Do you know who else loves you?
Ella: Daddy.
Me: Yes absolutely! Do you know you else?
Ella: You tell.
Me: God. God loves you very much.
Ella: And Jesus.
Me: Yes. (Decided not to delve into the whole Trinity, Jesus is God thing right now.)
Ella: Are we going to go see God? Up in Heaven?
Me: Oh yes honey, some day. But not right now. And hopefully not for a long time.
Ella: Are we going to go dere in da car?
Me: No sweetie, when we go to Heaven we won't need a car. God will take us up, up, up through the sky.
Ella: (Eyes grow WIDE with amazement.) Are we gonna have wings Momma!?

Pray For Baby Jude

2011-08-17T14:39:00.002-04:00

There is a little boy named Jude Matthew that entered this world just days ago, and his life hangs in the balance. We spent a summer with his parents Brandon and Mandy when we were on staff with Cru. They are amazing people. Read more about Jude's battle HERE. And please pray for this precious baby and his family.

Hunter

2011-08-12T19:54:00.002-04:00

When it comes to Hunter (Our Beloved 11 Year Old Golden Retriever), we definitely don't treat them like they are little people, or children...

He's not allowed on the furniture or on the bed...but he does have a memory foam dog bed of his own. He doesn't get people food or tons of treats and chews...but he does get the TOP OF THE LINE all natural dog food and dog treats. He doesn't ride in the front seat of the car, but he does travel with us almost everywhere we go. We don't take him to a groomer or dress him up....but we do brush him all the time, keep his nails trim and I'm a pretty handy home groomer with the feet and ears if I do say so myself.

Oh who am I kidding, Hunter's life is WAY cushier than mine, he is our first child and there's nothing we wouldn't do for that animal.

This is a picture of him last year...rounding the corner on 10 years old. Looks amazing right? And he acts it as well. He's in better shape than most dogs half his age, not a stiff joint to be found and other than so pretty fierce seasonal allergies he's fit as a fiddle, with the only indicator of his age being his slightly graying face.

But lately, he's had us a bit worried. After his vaccines in May he got really stiff and started to limp. It did settle down a bit for a while but then came back. We put him on glucosamine and chondrotin suppliments. But now everything's gone down hill...and FAST. He limps on two legs hardly putting weight on one, needing to be carried up and down stairs, he started itching like crazy and ripped so much hair out that he has a bald spot, he became super lethargic and stopped eating. It was like he aged 5 years in 5 days and Jason and I were crying in bed one night because we thought this was the beginning of the end for him. We're just not ready for that so...

It was off to the vet A.S.A.P. They believe it is a tick born illness (not Lyme) but that's really just their best educated guess.

So, our old man is on a white rice and boiled venison diet and loving it. (very glad we have deer in the freezer by the way). He's got an antibiotic for the tick born disease, a steroid for the itching that caused him to rip his hair out to the point of having a bald patch, and the dreaded cone around his head to keep him from doing more harm to his poor skin. If this course of treatment helps, then the diagnosis is correct.

He has regained his appetite and a little pep. But he's still itching like crazy and his limping is only a little better. So back to the vet we go tomorrow and see what they say.

The Harvest Continues

2011-08-09T13:33:00.007-04:00

After we returned from our weekend at camp, this is what I hauled in from the garden.It is our THIRD bean picking. I have already canned 17 jars of dilly beans, frozen two pounds and eaten plenty more! There will be AT LEAST two more pickings from what I can tell.

The tomatoes are exploding and so are the cukes. I pulled a carrot and onion just to see where they're at...a bit more time for those. The poor little pea pods in the back corner are from the few pea pants that survived the bunny raid. 'Fraid there won't be many of those! But they sure are tasty, eaten as pods or peas!

I picked four pounds of pickling cukes today and am taking my first stab and pickling them as we speak! This stuff just makes me giddy!

8 Years and Counting

2011-08-08T13:58:00.005-04:00

Yup, today is our 8 year anniversary. Still going strong. Call me sappy, I don't care. We're literally more in love every year. And what, pray tell, does one get on one's 8th Anniversary? Well, apparantly the traditional gift is bronze. What the crap? We've never really done the traditional thing.

If you're my husband, 8 years of marraige gets you a sweet little card with messages from your girls, a yummy dinner (that is fully prepped, but you have to grill) and a wife that shaved, put on a lovely summer dress, did her hair and dabbed on some make-up before you came home from work today.

And if you're married to Jason, 8 years of marraige gets you.... a stop at the flower shop on the way home from work, but they were closed soooooo....nothing. Oh wait, it gets you a second effort trip out while you put the babe to bed that results in a redbox and dessert from Fogarty's.

It may not sound exciting to some folks, but it really is grand.

And by the way, our real celebration takes place at the end of September. We decided to forgo presents for anniversary and birthdays this year and instead take a weekend trip to NH and go on an extreme zipline/suspension bridge/rappel canopy tour. AWESOME!

Dive!

2011-07-31T21:24:00.004-04:00

Lots and lots of fun and relaxation was had on our vaca. We jumped off the dock and swam pretty much every morning and on into the evening. We took a trip to nanny's house where Ella had her first tube ride. She liked it at a crawl but didn't so much enjoy it when we sped up just the slightest bit to plane off. She thought the tube was much more fun on land. And she fished with daddy right until the moment we left. Once again, not a bad view huh?

Fly!

2011-07-28T13:59:00.007-04:00

We had the neatest experience while fishing one morning. A bald eagle soared over head and landed in a nearby tree top. It then proceeded to swoop down and grab a fish from the water just 20 feet or so away from the boat! I don't have a zoom lens or anything on my camera but I did capture it all! Here it is in sequence.

Swimming!

2011-07-28T13:34:00.007-04:00

It's amazing what a whole week on the water's edge will do. Althought Ella was extatic about having the water at her doorstep to begin with, everything is on her terms. At first she would just wade to her waist. Then she would jump in if we held her hands. Then she would let us hold her and take her out into the water a little deeper (for a few seconds at a time only). Then she would let us hold her belly down and practice her swimming. And on the 7th day....she SWAM!!!
We would be holding her having her practice swimming to the other and then just let go a little at the very end. She was not fond of this but got used to it. Then she would wade into the water to us and we would slowly back up encouraging her to swim to reach our hands. Finally she would gingerly pick her feet up off the ground and swim a foot or so to us. She just kept getting bolder and bolder, plunging right in and swimming further and further! We had a few setbacks, with water getting in her ears or face which scares her, but by the last day at camp she was jumping off the deep end of the dock to one of us and swimming around with all the adults! Now we go for dips in grandma's pool and she swims the ENITRE length! Although she can still be timid and times and a little frightened, she can also often be heard saying, "No! Don't hold me. I do it myself!"

Sunrise and Sunset

2011-07-28T09:43:00.008-04:00

This is the view from the front porch bedroom that we love so much. There's no sleeping past 7am most mornings anyway, so we don't mind the light filtering in from the sunrise. Beauty.
A glassy lake evening troll in search of a picture of the huge snappers we saw the first night. Of course, they eluded us this evening, but the fish did not!

Our fisher-woman extroirdinaire. Seriously. This two year old gets her own worm, knows exactly where to find the bobbers and reels like nobodies business. Casting is another story...duck and cover!

My loves.

Success. She needs to touch them :)

The ride back got a little chilly. Nothing daddy's sweatshirt and hat and a little snuggle can't fix.

And the sunset just as we were rolling in.

Bean Bounty!

2011-07-26T13:31:00.003-04:00

(We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming of family vacation trips to bring you this post about beans.)

Last night I had THE sweetest experience. Jason, Ella and I headed out to harvest our beans. J picked green, I picked yellow and Ella alternated between us both coming to collect the ones we'd picked and put them in the containers. Family together, simple pleasures, marveling at God's creation and the production of "fruit". Delightful! And this morning Ella and I turned our picked beans into Dilly Beans! This is my first run so we'll see how they come out when we can taste them in a few months. Ella amazes me with her maturity and helpfulness. I prepared the beans last night. This morning she stood with me at the counter and carefully followed instructions, pouring in the water, vinegar and salt. Then she diligently placed one clove of garlic and one head of dill in each mason jar. I put in the hot pepper (1/2 have crushed red and 1/2 have ceyanne as I found recipes calling for each...we'll see!) and then she and I packed the beans together. We played "airplane and zoo" while they processed and voila! (And yes, that IS a sneak peek at our new counters in those shots as well :)

Boatrides

2011-07-25T18:56:00.007-04:00

We couldn't have asked for nicer weather. There was maybe one day at the beginning of our week where a few showers passed through and other than that it was blazin' hot. Anywhere else it would have been too hot for me, but at camp there is always a generous breeze and the shore is shaded by towering pines from mid-morning on so it's perfect!

While camp is still "campy" it has all the luxuries of home...electricity, full bath, and running water. It's really quite perfect. And there's a party boat for the using! So perfect for little ones. There's ample room to run around, but they stay quite safe with the perimeter railing. It's also fabulous for casting, spinning rod or fly rod. I love to jump off and swim, and of course my fave, sunbathing. We're teaching her to drive already.Early morning just after a shower, and just one of our many fishing successes!My mom was able to join us for a few days. I could get used to this.He's livin' the life.

Cousins

2011-07-25T18:39:00.006-04:00

I think they're technically second cousins, but I don't really keep track of all that. At least three of the days that we were at camp, Ella had the pleasure of visiting with her cousin Ryleigh. Ryleigh's a year older and they get along fantastically. They love each other!

Oh c'mon, what's vacation without getting to do things you normally aren't allowed to do at home! Neither of theses little monkey's fell off and bumped their head.

Fun with their "pack-packs". When Ryleigh was in the lead, they were "going to school". When Ella was in the lead they were alternating between going "grocery shopping" and "taking their naps".

Camp!

2011-07-25T13:14:00.005-04:00

We took our vacation at family camp. Or "Everybody's Camp" as it was dubbed by sweet Sophie. Because that's just it...every one is welcome here. It belonged to Jason's Grandmother and she passed it on to her four children. And now Jason and I are blessed to have part share in it as well. For the first time ever we took an entire week off and had a family vacation. It was glorious! Ella started liking jumping into the water. She still won't tolerate her head getting wet though.

She had a ball exploring all that the water had to offer...rocks, sticks, leaves, bugs, fish.

She quite liked the little kayak trip that Daddy took with her.

And thank heavens for Aunt Diane bringing this sandbox down! It was a much needed option or else mommy and daddy would have had no break from the water from dusk until dawn because that is where Ella asked to go the second her eyes popped open in the morning until they closed at night!

Maine State Wildlife Park

2011-07-25T08:11:00.008-04:00

After returning and trying settle back into normalcy, I'm finally getting around to our vacation pictures. So all of the next posts will be our vaca broken down!

We kicked off our vacation with a stop at the Maine State Wildlife Park. I do reccomend a visit. It is filled with animals native to Maine (except maybe the peacock) and the only animals kept here are ones that cannot be in the wild due to injury or abandonment etc. You get to be quite close to all of them and feed some of them as well.

The Gah-den!

2011-07-19T16:03:00.012-04:00

Perhaps one of the most exciting things about coming home from vacation was finding my garden looking like this: Above you see carrots, lettuce, onions, spinach, yellow beans, green beans, peas, cucumbers and tomatoes. We had a little bout with some persistent bunnies so we threw up a fence (and by "we" I mean my fabulous hubby put up a fence to avoid the complete meltdown of his wife over the peas that had been munched.) to keep it safe whilst we were away and forever more for that matter. The plants grew FEET while we were away for 10 days. It was so exciting! Thanks to my mama for keepin' it watered!
Above we have cantaloup, butternut squash, some sad little watermelon plants and some rockin' pumpkins. And below is a sampling from the flower garden in July!!!

Mircale On A Stick

2011-07-08T21:26:00.002-04:00

I talk a lot. If you know me, you know that. I also comment often on how much God teaches me through my little daughter. Well, I think He's giving me a taste of my own medicine.

On one hand, I am delighted that Ella is so advanced in her speech. She amazes me with the things that come out of her mouth and they are also a constant (like from the moment her eyes open until the moment she drifts into dreamland constant) source of laughter and joy.

On the other hand... I really wish she would JUST STOP TALKING...for like one second...of any of her waking hours. There I said it. If you're the parent of a talkative toddler, you totally understand. If not, don't judge me!

Being that I am a first time mom and a type A personality through and through, I did not let Ella have one drop of sugar before her first birthday. And I did not let her have a lollipop until yesterday. The reasons were numerous for my lollipop ban, rotten teeth and choking nightmares topped my list. But let me tell, you folks, it's all over.

The teller at the drive through window whispered through her microphone and aked me if my little one wanted a lollipop. Eagle ears in the back doesn't miss a darned thing. So then the voice in the back seat went from saying, "We're at da piggy bank. We're at da piggy pank aren't we mom? Mom, we're at da piggy bank. Can I go in da piggy bank and play wit da bead tings? Oh, look mom! A twuck! Look mom, look at dat! It's a big twuck. Look mom, an umwella! Look mom, peoples! Look mom, fwowers! Look mom, a sign!" to "Mom! Mom! What's a wowipop mom? Hey mom! Mom! What's a wowipop? Can I have a wowipop mom?" (Are you getting the picture her?) So in a moment of sheer weakness I broke down and told the teller to hand over the blessed lollipop. And after having my sweet little motor mouth ask nicely in a proper and full sentence, I handed it over to her.

And what. do. you. know. SILENCE. The whole. drive. home. And there you have it...A miracle on a stick.

I went home and purchased stock in sugar-free, dye-free, chemical-free, organic lollipops and then proceeded to purchase a life supply of them.

How do YOU spell sexy?

2011-07-04T20:32:00.002-04:00

Tonight, THIS is how I spell sexy: s-t-e-a-m m-o-p. I came downstairs after a pretty long week, and a bit of a trying time putting Ella to bed to find THIS!I never hinted, I never asked, nothin'! And this wasn't just some half-hearted job either. He had moved every object into another room, swept and was currently steam mopping my kitchen and dining room.

Oh man. Does he know how to LOVE this woman!

What IS that noise!?

2011-07-02T07:46:00.004-04:00

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scrape, scratch, scrape. What the heck is that noise!? I thought. Where the heck is Ella? I then wondered, clearly paying enough attention to my motherly responsibilities.

Me: Ella!

Ella: YES MOM!

Me: What are you doing?

Ella: YES MOM!

Me: Can you come in here please?

Ella: YES MOM!

And in trots THIS adorableness. Me: What are you doing in your room?

Ella: Yes.

Me: I'd like you to answer me please. What are you doing in your room?

Ella: I dwawin a petty tee on da wall! (I'm drawing a pretty tree on the wall).

Me: Excellent.

Not sure where I left the sidewalk chalk that I used to sketch out the murals on her wall, but she found it! And that cute little thing set right to work emulating her mama. I just had to smile (and give her a little chat about not drawing on the walls until she's much older and mama says it's okay.) and thank my lucky stars it wasn't something like lipstick on a couch :)

It Really is an Illness...

2011-07-01T14:26:00.005-04:00

Do closets haunt you? How about drawers? Well, they haunt me. Seriously. If everything else in house is all neat and tidy, but the closets and drawers are a wreck, they haunt me. I know, you can't see them...but they keep me up at night. They call my name! It really is sick.

I've been redoing the upstairs. It involved rearranged lots of rooms in the upstairs of my house. I moved, painted, sorted and organized. OOOOh, that last word...organizing....how I love it! The amount of love with which I love organizing really must be a diagnosable illness of some kind.

I did it to Ella's room & closet and the office & closet. Then I moved on the piece de resistance! THE STORAGE ROOM. You know, the room where crap just congregates! It is now sorted, purged, organized and categorized! Oh WOW. I really CANNOT even put into words the swell of happiness this brings me when I look at it. I kid you not...multiple times during the day I'll just open the door and gaze longingly at it. Glorious! Simply Glorious!It's like my crack. I know...like I said...Ill.

Berry Sweet

2011-06-28T21:22:00.006-04:00

Tis the season for strawberries! We picked with friends the other day. Ella did so great filling her bowl with only ripe ones. And her little friend introduced her to the joys of taking one big bite of a fresh berry and then chucking it with all her might into the surrounding grass. This is new and very exciting for her! My lawn is now littered with half-eaten berries. What fun we had in the sun today. Swinging, splashing and devouring!

This is Love

2011-06-25T23:03:00.008-04:00

"This is love; that one's wife would find a home for one's dead animals upon one's walls." I can't be certain but I'm pretty sure that's somewhere in the Bible when Jesus us speaking of true, selfless love. (Please tell me you know I'm joking!)

If you don't know my hubby, there are three things that you really must know about him:
#1) He is a wonderful man of God.
#2) He is an AMAZING husband and father
#3) Even before he was all of those other things, he was a fisherman.

He loves to fly fish. He's in his glory when he is bushwhacking his way in to the most remote stream. He's happiest to catch and release. (in face the fish you'll see later on is the only one he's ever had mounted) He expertly ties his own flies. He guides trips. He teaches others. It is not a hobby. It is a passion. It has become a way for him to conect with God in His marvelous creation. He takes Ella all the time, but he doesn't go just for himself as frequently as he did before wife, house and daughter. So when he does, he goes for a nice long chunk. He guided a trip on Wednesday that was a great success and he's been fishing in Rangley ever since. I'm anxiously awaiting his return. But his time away gave me a chance to turn Ella's old bedroom: Into THIS: The new office. Complete with entire side devoted to Jason's fly -tying and two walls devoted to his dead, stuffed or fishy things.It's a continuation of his father's day present. I got him three new plastic containers in which to organize his fly tying supplies. But then I got him this desk off of freecycle (SCORE!), painted the room, painted a great quote and a few basic pictures, (The quote reads, "To go fishing is the chance to wash one's soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with thimmer of sun on blue water. It brings meekness and inspiration from the decency of nature.") and hung his dead things on the wall. I call this one the "Jackalope". It weirds me out to no end. But hey, love is sacraficial right?Before this, he was tying flies on a tiny desk crammed in the back of our storage room. And he certainly did not have his dead things around to keep him company :) I CANNOT wait to unveil it when he comes home tomorrow.

Mixology

2011-06-23T07:10:00.004-04:00

While my honey is away, I will play....with paint.

Jason is gone on his annual fly fishing trip. He actually guided a day of fishing for a little extra income on Wednesday and then his two friends from up North are joining him at which point they will all fish their brains out until Sunday.

For Father's Day I got him a rockin' desk off of freecycle, three new storage containers for all his fly-tying gear (and a really sweet homemade fishy card) and now I will work my butt off to get Ella's old room painted and turned into a craft/office room where he has his very own personalized fly-tying space!

To save money, I am mixing the remainder of three left over gallons of paint. (They are all a shade of light green.) The polls are now open for voting on whether this is going to be a raging success or an epic failure. Feel free to chime in your thought.

Of COURSE pictures will follow!

Kids Say...

2011-06-20T14:16:00.002-04:00

...the cutest things.

Maybe it's because she busts out very big words for a very little girl - out of no where. Maybe it's her sweet sing-song voice tone. Maybe it's the detailed inflection she adds. Or maybe it's just because she's mine...but I just cannot get enough of Ella's little quips. They never fail to melt my heart or make me laugh or simply amaze me. Here's a few recent conversations.

This morning jumping on a mattress on the floor:
ELLA: I jumpin in da bwue wagoon! I goin' undew like da kids doos! Da watew's weally warm!
ME: Oh wow. Look at you! That's great honey.
ELLA: Hewe. Fowd my bwanket fow me and set it wight hewe. NO. Not dere. WIIIIGHT hewe. 'Cause I patended it's my towew. You can dwy me off wif it when I get out of da watew. K, mom?

Today driving home from errands:
ELLA: MooOOoom?
ME: Yes love?
ELLA: I can have a sip of youw delisus coffee?

Today sitting at the table eating lunch:
ELLA: So. We goin to sing happy birfday to me. K, mom?
ME: Oh I see. And when do you want us to sing happy birthday to you?
ELLA: Ummmm.... Fursday.

Meet Theo.

2011-06-17T14:01:00.009-04:00

Introducing...Theo the Turtle. He was sitting in the middle of our lawn this morning.We think he's quite special.
He's pretty darn big too!Ella decided she'd like to play with him. And because her favorite things to do right now is dump water, Theo got lots of water dumped on him.
She was quite intrigued by him, "Hello little turtle," she would say. We did lots of touching...his shell, his feet, his nose, his head, his belly. And then she tried to get him to crawl into her bucket.
Poor little guy. He put up with a lot. So we returned him to his home.I'll admit. There have been days (quite recent days) when I've cursed this yard of ours that needs so much work. But I really am grateful for our land! Thus far this spring we have:

caught toads, frogs and snakes.

trapped tadpoles, raised them into frogs and released them.

caught (and accidentally de-tailed) a salamander...sorry little buddy!

seen a mama deer and her tiny tiny fawn strolling through.
daily, watched happy little bunnies that munch on our clover and let us get very close to them.

seen more birds than I've ever seen in my life.

watched the squirrels and chipmunks frolic...even right across our deck (Ella's loves it...I'm teacher her to scare them away...you should hear her roar at them...HILARIOUS!)

And today we got to meet and play with Theo.

I LOVE that Ella loves animals and all things outdoors. I LOVE that she is not afraid of them. In fact my motto has always been, "Go ahead! Touch it!" and so she does, with such wonderful curiosity surrounding her new discoveries. I LOVE teaching her about all of these things and continually seeing the world afresh through her eyes!

Big Girl Room!

2011-06-14T13:32:00.006-04:00

I should really be weeding the garden... and finishing stacking the wood...I really want to bless my husband with that suprise when he arrives home today...and I will. But FIRST I must post this!
We moved Ella into a new room (because it is brighter and has two windows for lovely airflow in the summers) and got her a big girl bed!

Some bedding and curtains from a friend inspired the color scheme.

And I finally got to paint the tree that's been lingering in my head for over a year. It came out EXACTLY as I had pictured it! VOILA! I am EXTATIC about the way it came out!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I painted the same little creatures that we see frequent our yard everyday. How she loves her little woodland animals. "Bunnies, biwdies and chickmunks." All I'm missing are our friendly deer. Perhaps I shall paint one of those too some day. I absolutely adore fulfilling my passion for art and creativity while completely something practical and something that is a blessing to my beautiful daughter!

Summer Time!

2011-06-08T13:27:00.015-04:00

Here's a sweet little photo of our family just before taking off to help a younge couple celebrate their marriage at their reception in Maine. Ella looked SO adorable in her little outfit. And man o man does she look like me as a child in this picture! We tried to take the milk away. Really we did. But we had to wake her from a nap to get her going and the jaws of life themselves weren't going to pry that cup from her face!Look at the hard workin' man! And all this wood is only HALF way through our first pile...these stacks are a good 30ft long and they wrap around the corner too! I've said it before, I'll say it again. This child is an adrenaline junky just like me. A new found joy this summer is swinging in the big girl swings. And she has to go, "WEALLY HIGH!" or nothing at all! Her new fave snack (thanks to daddy letting her pick out the absolutely worst kind for you at the grocery store... ahem.) is the "nanola bar." I spring for the Annies version!Ooops! Dropped a piece! "Where'd it go!?"C'mon! I've got to put in the obligatory potty picture! Especially with her on the big potty!The other day, after a bit of alone playtime I came into the playroom to find this: When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I packin' my bag to go to gramma's house." I see. And surely every girl needs a cowboy hat to go to gramma's! This is everything she had put in it! So cute! The garden is growing like crazy. We're splashing in pools and running through sprinklers to stay cool and we're stacking wood like crazy so we can move on to tackle the indoor renovation projects.That's what's happening 'round here!

A Weekend Alone!

2011-05-29T18:40:00.010-04:00

I think we've found the thing in our family that really makes us tick...time apart. Oh now, don't go getting all worried on me. I know that there are people who can't stand to be away from their family for more than a split second. Well, to each their own!

A few times a year Jason takes Ella and goes away for the weekend. He gets to help get camp ready for the year, Ella gets to see all the fam and It leaves me free to get the things done around the house for which I can never seem to find enough hours in the day (or the things that just never quite make it to the top of my priority list when my two babes are around :)

Oh how glorious it is to sleep in, go at my own pace, eat meals in peace, acomplish task after task without interruption, have time and quiet to think and reflect, have spare moments to break out my camera. Oh how wonderful to have my family return to a happy, refreshed mama, who feels accomplished!

So here's what I did this weekend. Hand graded, seeded and mulched the areas of lawn that needed it. Dug up and planted many a new perrenial plant from a dear friends grandmother. Created and planted the veggie garden and melon mounds as I like to call them. And I threw in some dishes, laundry, finances, hosting at church, baking and small group. I also busted out my camera to take some pictures of the variety of beauty in my gardens these days. Enjoy!

Counter Tops!!!

2011-05-24T13:50:00.006-04:00

Ugly counter tops have plagued me for as long as I can remember. A portion of the countertops in my college apartment were just plywood if I recall correctly. Then I moved on to ugly trailer counters. Next it was off to very seventies counters in our over the garage apartment (but those were probably the best and most neutral of them all). Then I lived with old, seventies, ugly, cut apart and pieced back together counters in our first house. We did replace those with counters with ones that I LOVED. But we only put them in to help sell the house so I only got to enjoy them for a short while until they became someone else's nice, brand new counter tops. That was probably more painful than never having had them at all! Next we had some VERY country blue counters in our apartment in Sanford, but I have to say... TOTALLY made that work. Just when I thought it couldn't get much gaudier, we bought this house (I love it, it's huge, its gorgeous, I'm not being ungrateful here) but the counters people. THEY ARE TEAL.

I wanted them changed the second we moved in. I didn't care if we were trying to live within our means, buy only when we have the cash and get out of debt. I was ready and willing to purchase beyond our means, to become slave to the debtor, heck I think I'dve sold my soul! I begged Jason! I grovelled...I schemed... I did all that I could think of to try to get him to crack and stoop to my superficial level. It was NOT pretty people! But the man is a rock. A ROCK I tell you. You cannot crack that one. He held firm and insisted that we save up the money for new counters. "FINE!!!" (I finally gave up, knowing he was TOTALLY right, and probably stomped off like a teenager to pout for a while in one last ditch effor to get him to cave.)

But, with all the debt paying down, oil buying, wood buying, college fund saving for Ella, gas and grocery price increasing, emergency fund saving, blah, blah, blah....it took us a year to save up for those bad boys.

But let me tell you....walking into Lowes, picking out the exact counter top I wanted, with the exact edge I desired and seeing the slight look of shock when the lady assumed I'd be using a credit card but I was not....felt SOOOO GOOD!!! It was SURELY worth the wait!

The curse of ugly counter tops shall leave my household in two to three weeks. And we don't have to trade for the curse of debt to get them!!! Thanks for being my rock honey ;) Pictures will surely follow when they are installed.

What We've Been Up To

2011-05-22T13:33:00.011-04:00

I feel very much like a friendly little woodland creature that has come out of hybernation and is already busily going about the business that needs to be taken care of in order to prepare for the upcoming winter!It is fun and exciting, but also overwhelming at times. There is so much to be done and it feels like we've not even made a dent! Here's what we've been up to!We plash in puddles, hunt for salamanders, toads and frogs and catch tadpoles in a bait trap. Ella constantly askes to "check da twap for more fwoggies?" and then emphatically answers for us, "YESSS!". The 15 tadpoles in this bucket are the ones we put back. We are happily raising 15 more in our new pet keeper that has found it's home in my kitchen. Many of those 15 are awaiting their pending adoptions by many of our little friends that want to watch them grow as well!I have been joyously watching all my perrenials come back with vibrancy! I've even split some, rearranged some and moved some to fill in other gardens. EVERY SINGLE plant you see here was either found on our property or given to me by a friend! How glorious! What a blessing! I love building things with rocks. So I continued this rock border around a second side of my house and filled it in with plants I split or plants I got from my friend Megan. It doesn't look as stellar as the other one, but it will! That poppy in the front there might not make it, but all the rest will surely thrive!And then I made a slight attempt to beutiful the backyard with some annuals in a few barrels placed around the deck.Of course, we've been watching our birdies! We couldn't pass up a great deal on 4 cord of wood (and because we've been Dave Ramseying it hardcore, we had the cash in the bank!). So Chainsaw Steve (I'm not kidding, that's how he answers the phone) dumped this fabulousness at our house today (And gave us an UNBELIEVABLEY great estimate on taking down a nasty tree for us!). Now all we have to do is stack it as opposed to the felling, hauling, cutting, splitting AND stacking hubby did last year. I'm telling you, this pile is one GORGEOUS sight!Jason cleared probably an acre of brush to open up our yard and woods. Then he chipped it all! Now he's spreading it to begin to fill where we're going to extend our lawn. Lookin' good! We've both been plugging away at this 10 yards of loam. Some went in my new flower beds, some is filling ruts, some is covering and seeding lawn, and a lot is going to our garden!
Here's a portion of our garden rototilled and loamed. The rest of our garden is sitting under the rest of the loam pile. We need to get that all moved so I can plant our very first veggie garden next weekend! Can't wait!

Bird Nerd

2011-05-19T10:21:00.013-04:00

I think I'm officially a bird nerd. After a year at this house, not putting up bird feeders because it attracts the squirrels that like to live in our attic, we've thrown caution to the wind!

When Jason cut down all the brush, birds started showing up in droves, eating insects out of the piles of brush, getting nest building materials and even building nests in some of the piles. Ella LOVED watching them! And I have to admit....I did too!

So I put up the two feeders I had, bought two more, got some premium bird seed and bought a bird book. Now we watch the birds EVERY morning at breakfast. We sit at our dining room table and watch through the double doors that open to our backyard. It is so nice! We use the bird book to identify and learn about each bird we see. Ella adores doing this, is learning quite a few bird names, and often asks to read the bird book as one of her bedtime stories :)

Here are the birds we've seen at our house thus far!

Blue-Jay. (We've only seen him once. Because as pretty as they are, they're bullies. And it was quite a site to watch ALL the other male birds gang up and give chase to drive him away!)ChickadeeEastern Towhee Goldfinch Tufted Titmouse Some kind of Warbler White Breasted NuthatchWhite Crowned Sparrow

Sea Dog Mother's Day 5k recap!

2011-05-08T16:10:00.008-04:00

Well I did it. I ran my 5k today. Thanks in part to my hippie doctor.You see, I got really sick Wednesday and there was no way I'd be running a 5k in a few days...I could barely drag myself out of bed and walking up stairs...forgedaboudit! Thursday evening I learned I had a strep infection. But after starting some natural antibiotics/immune boosting herbal hippie pills Thursday evening I began to mend.

I went for a 3 mile spin on Friday and kinda felt like I was going to die. Too much too soon. Lesson learned.

But Saturday had me feeling much better. A little TOO better perhaps, because when my 10 yards of dirt arrived, I could not stop myself from building a small rock wall, hauling 7 wheelbarrow loads of dirt and transplanting plants. NOT a wise choice the day before a race. Lesson learned...again...maybe.

The race went like this: A lot of people! Hard to get my pace going in a pack. See. There's my head. Nice camera work J-dog! At mile one my pace was 10 seconds faster than I was shooting for. YES. Just into mile two my lungs were burning and twasn't a pretty picture. That's where I lost my time. But once I hit the 1/2 way mark I got back on pace. When I hit mile three I picked up my pace and I had quite a bit of kick left at the end. I passed a lot of people. I like that. (Cha-ching, cha-ching Noelle!) I was shooting to pace myself in the beginning and run a faster second half of the race than the first half. I accomplished that...but probably only because I lost so much time in the beginning part of the second mile. I finished 1minute 30seconds slower than I hoped. But this type a perfectionist will try to be happy with that.

Because you know what? It's not really imporant if my numbers weren't down where I wanted them to be. What's important is staying healthy and running for a great cause on Mother's Day like Maine Breast Cancer Research! 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. each year. 40,000 don't win the battle. Here's looking forward to seeing THOSE numbers go down, down, down!

Potty Training Update!

2011-05-05T14:12:00.004-04:00

A little under three weeks ago we embarked on our potty training journey.

I'm proud to say that with a super exciting sticker/prize/candy reward system and ridgid consistancy, Ella is fully pee potty trained!

She went from a girl who held it for almost 24 hours one day... to a girl who peed in her undewear every time all day long the next day... to a girl who finally got with the program but still held it a lot and was still uncomfortable going pee and still had to sit for a LONG time every time to do it.

But it's amazing what's happened within this last week. She doesn't hold it at all. She tells US when she has to go. She goes in by herself, closes the door and insists, "Mommy leave so Ella can go pee." Then she does her business quickly, wipes herself, dumps her potty herself, wipes her potty herself and then flushes it all away. She runs out beaming with pride ready and waiting for her 1 swedish fish and 1 m&m. (P.S. Kristie, she insists on going "pee on the froggy"! THANK-YOU!)

She's gone 6 times today alone! And one of them was at someone else's house...momentous ocasion there! She's been dry at nap time and morning time ever since we started!

Now, pooping is a whole different ball game. She's done it twice but insists that she doesn't want to. We've transitioned so that she only gets a prize for pooping. AND she gets 5 fish and 5 m&ms for pooping! I think this will be slower going but I'm optimistic.

I also think that learning to do this without mom or dad (like at church, or with a babysitter or in any kind of childcare setting) could prove to be our biggest difficulty. But I'm not going to rush that. I'm very happy with where we're at.

If the marshmallows and Jesus went to Heaven...I want to go too!

2011-05-02T19:21:00.002-04:00

The Saturday before Easter, Ella was very excited to go to her friend Lauren's Birthday party. She kept asking to go and I kept telling her it wasn't until later. At 10am I told her we'd go after nap to which she replied, "I go take nap NOW, K?" I chuckled at her eagerness and thought of how I could explain it better. Then I grabbed a plastic toy clock that we have and put the hour hand on 10am. I told her "This is what time it is now." Then I moved the hand and counted, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3. "We don't go to Lauren's birthday until it gets to here. Okay?" This seemed to actually work.

Well, A few days ago our Easter books came in the mail. (There was a slight glitch in the shipping, but they refunded the cost and the books have served as a great follow up/reinforcer to all we did with the Easter Season.)

After reading one she exlaimed, "I want go ta Heaven Mum!". And I told her how excited I was that she wanted to go to Heaven, but that it would be a while (hopefully). To which she replied, "I go ta Heaven NOW! K!?" Again I reiterated that I hoped it would be a long time until she goes to Heaven. She jumped up in bed excitedly as if a lightbulb had just burst on,"Mum. You go get da clock, K!? Den you turn da tings aaaand den we go to HEAVEN!" I just about died laughing at the cuteness!

Her beautiful desire to go to Heaven also gave us our first opportunity to share with her how to do that! I asked if she knew how to get into heaven, and told her all she needs to do is ask God into her heart and ask him to forgive her for the naughty things she does. We've had that conversation a few times since and it blesses me so to know that we've already been able to plant that seed with her! Oh how I pray it grows!

There are also some other neat remnants of Easter that I pray linger a while as well. When you ask her why we celebrate Easter she'll usually say, "Jesus woze fwom da dead!" Then she'll quickly go on in a strung together excited blabber saying, "And da marshmallows were all gone! Dey not dere! Dey go up ta Heaven and Jesus go up ta Heaven and dey wid da God!" Because the resurrection rolls were a giant success and she was ASTONISHED (slash upset) that the marshmallows that she so adored were not there anymore! We talked a lot about how Jesus went up to Heaven after he wasn't in His tomb, so I'm pretty sure she surmized that that's where the marshmallows went too! :)

The following are just a few excerpts from the two books which I LOVE!

"The unmoveable moved, the stone rolled away!

Hurray! The first Easter, God's victorious day.

The women ran quickly to find the eleven,

explaining that Jesus had gone up to Heaven."

~J is for Jesus by Debbie Trafton O'Neal

"This story's amazing and all of it's true.

He died on the cross for me and for you.

If you love Jesus, believe and obey,

then you can see Jesus in Heaven some day."
~An Easter Gift for Me by Crystal Bowman

An Ella Daddy Adventure!

2011-04-29T20:12:00.008-04:00

I'm sorry, but the kid is a natural. It just runs in her blood. She can't help it.

Jason has been feeling a little burnt out these days after his stint in San Diego and overtime every week. So he decided to take a 4 day weekend this weekend. He kick it off this a.m. with a little Adventure for Ella and himself (read: YAY mommy gets to sleep in!!!). He planned it completely on his own. He got up with Ella and right after breakfast whisked her away to Cabela's. She got to see all the big fish and all the animals. And THEN she got to pick out her very own fishing pole! Of course...she picked the Barbie one...FABulous...but I digress. They went to the playground on the way home and then after har nap we all went fishing together and I snapped all these priceless photos! (Oh, and just a potty training P.S. she stayed dry all day...outings and all!) Oh, and if you're thinking this was kind of a self serving daddy date for Jason, you're wrong. This kid LOVES fishing. She's been on a spastic fishing high all day! She can't get enough! And she certainly isn't 'fraid a no worms either! Thatagirl!!!

T minus 9 days.

2011-04-29T13:20:00.002-04:00

We're T minus 9 days from my first 5k of the season. I've kept my 3 days a week training up through long days where Jason's worked a lot of overtime, rain or sun, and one very difficult potty training experience...THAT is an accomplishment in and of itself for me!

Today I ran my full 3.2 miles. I was slower than death. I think I'll blame that on a very hot day, very hilly route and a strong wind that obviously hated me. Yes, yes that's what I shall blame.

Here's hoping that today's time is not indicative of what I'll acomplish on race day! :)

Potty Talk Continued

2011-04-27T12:49:00.003-04:00

I'm sure this is getting old. But I'm a SAHM and this is my life right now.

I hate to speak too soon but I think I've solved our potty training woes. Ella tried holding it in FOREVER and realized it didn't work.

Then she tried just going in her underwear ALL DAY LONG so she didn't have to have the unfavorable sensation of going on the potty. This, however, DID work for her. Because as much as she hates the feeling of being wet...it only last a few seconds because she'd be dripping all over the place and I'd quickly change it. Then my two year old would stand there and point and tell me where I needed to wipe the floor. Yes I had her do it, but the girl loves to clean so another win for her there.

Today I busted out my cloth diapering supplies and slapped a waterproof outer layer around that undie. I told her she had two choices: go in the potty, or go in her underwear, which would be held in by the "undie cover" and she would have to sit in wet for a while (5-10 minutes I determined). She understood. Didn't even want to test it out. She's been dry all morning and peed in the potty twice.

Now, it's still not a stellar experience. It takes her a looooong time of sitting, and whining and tapping her feet trying to hold it in, or trying to go (which one I'm not sure) but she does it. So it consumes pretty much my WHOLE day...I'm hoping it will continue to get easier!

Potty Talk

2011-04-26T12:44:00.002-04:00

Just a little updatydoo.

(And thank-you to those who have encouraged me and told me that every child is ready at a different time. I don't feel pressure from others. I do have a desire to get her trained. But we started up again because SHE was showing interest in the potty and wanting to wear her big girl underwear etc. etc.)

Yesterday Ella was in undies all day and dry ALL day. She peed ONCE. At 11:15am. And not again until this morning. Seriously. How DOES she do it?

But Today? Today she's been in undies all day and peed in them 4 times and it's only 12:30pm. Can you say Jekell and Hyde? Can you say confused mommy!?

I've done nothing different. Pump the liquids. Set the timer. Try every 30 minutes and ask if she has to pee in between. Sticker for trying. Candy and Prize for going. I'm as consistant as clockwork and Ella's all over the map.

Again, advice welcome from those following the saga. Is she not ready? Or is today just a test of a different kind?

Adventures In Potty Training a Smart, Stubborn, Unique Girl

2011-04-25T12:58:00.002-04:00

WHO KNEW that potty training would test me to just within the bounds of my sanity!!! (Please any parent with experience, read this whole post and give me some advice! Or at least encouragement!)

Quick backstory: We started potty training Ella at 22 months. She was interested and excited by it. Because mommy and daddy's observations and good timing, we had a few successes. But other than that it was clear that she really couldn't tell when she needed to pee. She did however know exactly when she needed to poop. And the one time she pooped on the potty it really traumatized her. She had a belly ache, it hurt when she went, she was crying after she did it. No good. She was petrified of the potty after that. So we took a break.

6 months later makes a WORLD of difference. We've been at it for 7 days. She's in underwear all the time. We have a chart. She gets to put a sticker on the chart for every try. After 10 tries she gets a piece of candy. For every success in the potty she gets candy and a prize! She 100% understands the system. She TOTALLY understands wet and dry. She TOTALLY understands that she's supposed to go in the potty. She COMPLETELY knows when she has to pee. And she has control over it. OH BOY DOES SHE HAVE CONTROL OVER IT!

There's the rub. Ella's very particular about MANY THINGS. And she's averse to new sensations. She HATES change. This being said. She does not like the feeling of going pee in the potty. However, she also does not like the feeling of being wet. Lucky for her (not so much for me) the girl can hold liquid inside of her like a camel in the driest season of the desert!

She's also ridiculously smart. She knows that she gets to wear a pull-up while sleeping or when we go out of the house. She knows our weekly routine so she knows when any of these two things are going to happen. So she will HOLD her pee (We're talking up to 5 HOURS) until she gets a pull-up on and then immediately go in her pull-up. OOOHHHH so frustrating!!!! We've been at this for 7 days. She's gone in the potty 3 times (only because I'm sure she was on the verge of her bladder bursting) and been wet in her underwear only once. Camel. I'm telling you.

So this morning I switched it up! We'd been at this since 8am. It was now 11:15am. The child was crossing her legs, holding her crotch and doing the potty dance like I have never seen before, in her desperate attempt to hold it in. Then I knew she was getting close to her breaking point because she started asking to go down for a nap!

"It's not time for a nap. Why do you want to take a nap?" I lovingly inquired.

My 28 month old replied, "I put big girl pull-up on on go nigh-nigh. I pee in pull-up." (At least she doesn't know how to lie yet!)

Impressed with her communication, forethought and sheer determination, but livid at the same time, I made up my mind and upped the ante "Sure," I said, "You can take a nap, but NO PULL-UP FOR NAP."

Whadaya know? 30 seconds later, she'd trotted herself to her potty, pulled her pants down and peed a lake.

Oh man. I'm really up against it here folks. Give me anything you've got!

Easter. My Favorite Holy Day.

2011-04-22T13:30:00.005-04:00

As you can see by the previous post, I have nothing against celebrating Easter and spring in a fun, kid-friendly fashion. I've got nothing against eggs, chicks, bunnies, and baby plants. They are cute, beautiful, fun signs of new life. And Lord knows I have nothing against candy! My child will never be deprived of any of these things.

But she will also never believe in the Easter Bunny. She will always know the REAL, wonderful, glorious, miraculous, life-changing and POWERFUL meaning of Easter.

We've been doing the Resurrection Eggs that my mom got for Ella before she was born I think ;). You can buy them here, or make your own here or here. It is a simple and fun way to tell the Easter story. After dinner we read a passage from the Bible, tell her a breif story and then it's reinforced by her opening an egg and finding an object that corresponds with story. She LOVES it. She asks to "open 'nother egg." I mean, she loves it so much we can use it as her reward for eating enough dinner!

I had no idea how much she'd understand or retain at this age, but she never ceases to amaze me. We review from time to time and so far she'll tell you that:

Jesus road into town on a donkey.

The men paid Judas money to tell them where Jesus was.

He ate dinner with his friends and they all drank from a cup.

Jesus was praying in the Garden.

They hit him with a whip and it was mean.

They put a crown on his head and it hurt him.

Jesus died on a cross for you and me.

The men played a game to see who got his clothes.

They poked his side.

I am not boasting about these things. I am just a simple momma, who loves the Lord, who is trying my best to teach my child about Him. Any success and results are His doing. But it sure does this momma good too! I cannot tell you what renewed joy I find as I discover again, my Savior's story through the eyes of my child who is hearing it for the first time.

Oh how I can't wait to get to the part where He rose again! To tell her that He is not dead, but that He lives! I plan to use this fun little resurrection roll recipe to share this with her!

And that folks is why Easter is the most important Holiday in my book. Because it celebrates the work accomplished on the cross. Jesus did live. He was an amazing man. He did many amazing things. But if he died on the cross and stayed dead. He's not my Savior. And I'm in the wrong boat!Oh but He did not stay dead! The evidence abounds! And only because He lives, only because He died and YET conquered the grave, can we have new life in Him, if we so choose.

Happy Good Friday to all. Bless you as you ponder the glorious atrocities He suffered for you. And Happy Easter. Bless you as you celebrate that HE IS RISEN INDEED.

Bunnies and other thoughts.

2011-04-20T13:07:00.003-04:00

I found these two cute little bunnies hopping around my house today :)And althought it's a bit dreary, there's so much to be done and life is a little overwhelming right now...I am happy and I am grateful.

One thing I am grateful for is that ALL of the seeds I started are up! They are up and green and hearty and growing and it has me excited about my garden to come!!!

JUMP!!!

2011-04-18T10:13:00.005-04:00

Ella's new favortie past time is JUMPING. Anytime, anywhere, off of anything. I scored some more balls from a secondhand shop while I was on my girls weekend. Last night we filled her ball pit up very full and she couldn't get enough jumping into it!

Running the Boston Marathon!

2011-04-14T19:18:00.007-04:00

Okay not me. My sister-in-law. But I'm back at that pavement pounding too and I'm gearing up for my second 5k. Thanks to my friend Noelle who suggested the Mother's day 5k on May 8th to get us off an running (pun intended). It's exactly the motivation I needed to get back into the swing of things. It benefits Maine Breast Cancer Research. The course record for women in something like 16:59. I plan on crushing that! (Insert uncontrollable laughter here!)

But really I've impressed myself. After taking a good 3 months off, I picked back up and on only my fourth run I trotted out two miles like it was nothing! I feel great. My goal is simply to improve on my first 5k time and if I stick with my training program I think I'll knock that out of the park!

Enough about my little trots though. Let's talk about this lady right here. My sister-in-law, Erin, is running the Boston Marathon on Monday!!! Her first marathon to celebrate her 30th birthday! (Now I could think of a WHOLE lotta other ways to celebrate that momentous occasion that do not include self-torture bu that's just me;) More power to her! She also hopes to run it in a qualifying time...ya know, just in case she decides she wants to torture herself some more somewhere down the line. So send some good vibes, thoughts, prayers her way Monday morning because that means she needs to run sub 8 minute miles for 26.2 miles straight. The woman has trained like a rockstar and raised money like a celebrity apprentice contestant for the charity she is running for. She has three days left and still has something like $200 left to raise if you want to help her out go HERE!!!

Run Erin Run!!!

GOOD LUCK!!!!

P.S. Also a shout out to the woman running south on Rt. 4 in South Berwick today. She was truckin' right along like nobody's business...up a hill...pushing a TRIPLE stroller...with three toddlers! You're my hero!

In Process

2011-04-12T13:12:00.010-04:00

Our yard is...how shall I say this...hmmm....In Process. (read:looks like a flaming pile of poo). And it's hard for me. It's really, really hard for me. But I must keep the big picture in mind and remember what I am SO thankful for!

You see. We have a big house on three acres...not because we're rich (well we ARE rich compared to 95% of the world but I digress) but because God saw fit to bless us with a STUPENDOUS deal. Stupendous deals usually come with a lot of work. And ours did. But we knew that.

The yard used to look like this:

BIG house feeling clustrophobic squeezed in tight by woods THICK with crazy underbrush.

Now it looks like this:

Underbrush gone, small and dead trees thinned, two sweet little trails recleared for family romps and will eventually be stumped and grated and be a more expansive lawn that fades into some prettier woods.But for now, it looks like this:

Flaming pile of poo. And don't even get me started on that there moat...I might cry. But don't worry, that's going this summer too (if all goes as planned).Everything is brown. All the brush and stumps are just lying around in chaos, they need to be cleared and chipped and chopped and what not. We need heavy machinery and fill and earthwork and grass seed. We're far away from the beautiful yard it will be. IT WILL BE. I must keep my vision!

P.S.Do you think that's how God looks at us when we're in process? Which is always. He's sees the mess that we are, He's not blind. But He chooses to focus on what we WILL be. Because he KNOWS his plans for us. He knows His vision for us and He knows how beautiful it will be. I think so.

Here are the thing I'm thankful for. A big beautiful home set far back off of a dirt road. Land. Those goreous birch trees that are going to be seen in all their splendor now. Friends who helped clear. Friends who lend us awesome clearing equipment. Family that's lending us a woodchipper that will eat up to a 12" thick log (WHOAH BUDDY!). A husband that works his cute little behind off ALL THE TIME. Life is good. Piles of brush and all :)

Pet Net!

2011-04-11T09:17:00.002-04:00

Remember these?I have no idea who created them or how long they've been around. I know my sister and I both had one when we were little. Man, oh man, do I love them! The gajillion stuffed animals that were once scattered all over the house now have a tidy little home that takes up NO floor space! Ella's quite intrigued by it too. She loved putting it up and going on an "animal hunt" to find all of her stuffed animals around the house and put them in their new "hamock". Now she gets to pick out two or three each day and night to play with/sleep with and we're both happy campers!

GOVERNMENT - What are you good for!?

2011-04-08T13:50:00.006-04:00

In case you've had your head stuck in the sand and don't know about this....the congress and the senate have not been able to agree upon a budget for the 2011 fiscal year.

Why not? Basically in the congress, the republicans want to cut a bunch of spending and the democrats want to keep spending where it is and neither is willing to budge.

So what does that mean? That means that they've argued and dragged their feet and remained pig headed for so long that if a budget is not passed by midnight tonight, the government will shut down.

Oh wait, let me re-phrase that, the "non-essential" parts of government will shut down, which largely boils down to the hard-working, working class people who actually get crap done. WHICH, by the way, INCLUDES MY HUSBAND. So hundreds of thousands of people will be on vacation....UNPAID vacation....for an undetermined amount of time. I say undetermined because it will be as long as it takes for the JACKASSES is the congress and senate to do their jobs and pass a budget. But don't worry, the jackasses still get paid.

Oh that's right....I straight up swore....in all caps...on my blog.

I just cannot even handle the craziness right now. I have no words for this. It is downright unaccepatble! My brain cannot even wrap around how ludicrous this is! THIS IS THEIR JOB. The result of them not doing their job is that hundreds of thousands of people will be on UNPAID LEAVE. Do our senators and congress men and women have any idea how many people are living paycheck to paycheck these days and have mouths to feed and simply cannot afford to be UNPAID!? I really don't think they do. I really don't think they care an iota about their constituants and the average Joe. Because if they did, they would have gotten a budget passed LONG before this so that a government shutdown wouldn't have even been in question. But now it looms on the horizon.

So in this lovely nation we now have the people who work hard every day getting shut down and not paid...while the people who have NOT DONE THEIR JOB shall continue to get paid while they try to muddle through their gridlock that is devastating others. I say we don't pay THEM until they DO IT!

P.S. fortunately we live within our means, have put money into emergency savings and household savings and have been plowing ourselves out of debt with vigor so we'll be okay. We'll be tight, but we'll be okay for a bit. But if it takes them any length of time, we'll be up a creek like many others!

The Cutest Little Hostess!

2011-04-05T14:09:00.006-04:00

I have THE cutest, sweetest daughter EVER. Argue that yours is the cutest and sweetest all you want...I know I'm right. And here's the picture story proof ;) On Friday morning when we were waiting for Daddy to get home in the snow storm (Ya know, banner hung, balloons flyin', table set, coffee brewed) and it was taking forever...I decided to unload the dishwasher. Ella always helps me do this. She put away the silverware, took out some plastic dishes and off she went.

I turned around to see this. She had set her own little table and placed her baby in the seat!Then she poured tea and drank it and helped baby drink some.Then she sat baby in her lap and looked adorable...like this. Then she got even more adorable and gently fed the baby some "cupcakes". THEN...she neatly stacked every dish and cup and put them away in their own little places in her little kitchen.Then she put baby in the stroller, looked up at me and said, "I'm taking her to the zoo." And off they strolled!This was ALL completely on her own. I said not a word to her! Just stood back, observed and snapped away. Oh melt my heart!

Daddy's Home!

2011-04-02T14:35:00.004-04:00

The submarine was finished slightly ahead of schedule and they ran into no problems with J's systems when they put it out for tests. So he took the redeye home Thursday night. I actually think he had the harder time traveling out of the two of us. He was wedged in a middle seat between two large men on the non-stop flight home. Even thought it left at 11pm, he didn't sleep a wink. The plane arrived an hour late. The bus from Boston to Dover was running another hour late (remember this is in the middle of our foot of snow April fools snowstorm). The guy who gave him a ride home got stuck 1/2 way down our unplowed dirt road. He spent 1/2 hour pushing the guy out and then had to trudge througha foot of snow, hauling all his luggage, down our road and then down our long driveway. He walked through the doorway at 11:45am (a mere 12 1/2 hours since he had arrived at the San Diego airport to depart) and weary, weary man. He was greeted by a banner, balloons, yummy monkey bread with strawberries, fresh coffee (yes as you can see by the picture, we ate without him because we expected him hours earlier :) and two very happy ladies...but I'm not sure he even knew which way was up by then! We are ELATED to have him home! It has been grand!

We're BACK!

2011-03-29T14:07:00.004-04:00

Aside from running through the airport to catch our second flight and travelocity telling me we had seats 17E and 17F on that flight and then booking us seats 25B and 28B (yes that's two center seats 3 rows apart) the trip home went beautifully!

P.S. that ticket lady told me there was nothing she could do. I asked her if she or I or someone could ask someone to switch seats. She replied that I had two center seats so I had "no bargaining power" to which I replied, "I have the cutest 2 year old on the planet. Oh lady, I've got bargaining power." Please see exhibit A below. (Or maybe I sweetly replied, "I'm very hopeful that someone will be kind enough to move for a mother and her child.")

Either way, if that ticket lady wasn't going to help me, I was going to plop my two year old in her center seat between two perfect strangers and say, "Have fun! I'll be three rows back if ya need me." I'm pretty darn sure I'da had some takers on switching seats then! Not that she's not the most adorable two year old ever...but there's something about toddlers on planes that stikes fear into the hearts of even the toughest, most unflappable of humans! I'da done it. I would have. But then she helped me. Yay!

And one last helpful travel tip: Do not go grocery shopping at 7pm EST, when you've just been away for 10 days and have just finished a 12 hour day of travel cross country with a two year old. It's not pretty. You will forget what you need and you will buy large amounts of expensive comfort food with the nutritional value of paper in addition to the few staples you needed for the two toddlers that won't care how tired you are tomorrow :)

Check out my other San Diego blogs as I've now added pictures!!!

San Diego Zoo

2011-03-27T19:57:00.022-04:00

In backwards order, here is our trip to the zoo in photos. There were many more animals and many more pictures, I just picked my faves! San Diego Zoo. A-MA-ZING. Ella LOVED it! She wasn't scared at all of any of the animals. She was a peach and did so well even though we didn't leave the zoo until 2:30pm (Normal nap time is 12:30 or 1pm). I got a lot of great photos! Ella picked an adorable stuffed monkey to take home with her. It's arms velcro around to hug her and it has a baby that velcros around to hug it. We also picked up a great children's book about a panda bear and a polar bear (two of her favorites and ones that she often gets confused with each other :) She took a quick snooze in the car and now she's in full blown "over-tired mode" getting one last dip of her toes in the ocean with her Daddy. Early to bed and early to rise for a 6:30am flight tomorrow. Sad to leave but a great finale and Daddy will be home a week after we return so it won't be long now until some normalcy returns to our life!

Seals and Folliculitis

2011-03-26T18:50:00.005-04:00

Yesterday morning we went and saw the seals being fed right here at the hotel. Ella loved it. T'was a bit rainy so most of the rest of the morning was spent inside. But the sun came out later and Daddy took her swimming in the pool when he got home. She'd spend every minute there even if she had her druthers...even if she froze to death doing it! Then we all packed in for little drive to seal beach in La Jolla where the momma seals birth their pups. The beach was just COVERED with mama seals basking in the sun along side their pups. Ella made the observation that "they're stinky!" and she was right! I'm not sure if it was fish or poo or what but when the wind blew just right it was pungent! We got quite close and Ella loved it. We also saw a VERY preggo mama and hoped we'd get to see her give birth...but no dice. Then we hit a local cafe for dinner and had a little frozen yogurt to top off the night. T'was quite a late bedtime for Ella but luckily our little one gets loopy and goofy when she's overtired...not grumpy. Granted, she doesn't listen quite as well in the overtired state but man oh man does she make us laugh! (She hops everywhere and narrates it, "hop,hop,hop,hop...". She sings made up songs that are a mix of all the ones she knows. She tells stories. And she laughs and laughs and giggles and giggles. She talks in funny voices and also gets extra ticklish and loves to tickle us!) If sleep weren't so important for these wee ones, I'd keep her up late much more just for the entertainment!

And today our little lady warranted a trip to the walk-in care for a serious case of the itchies. She's got tiny little raised bumps on her skin, most of them aren't red...just raised. She first started itching on the nape of her neck and back of her head and that is still where she is the itchiest but now they're all over. She says, "I itchy!" and scratches until the skin is raw :(. I was hoping it was just a reaction to any number of the new things her skin has come into contact with this week....(sunscreen, hotel linnens, laundry detergent, pool, sand, seawater). And I was wishing against the worst case scenario in my brain (bed bugs, scabies, something from bird poo in the water) . The doc seems to think it's folliculitis (staff infection of the hair follicles on the body) and prescribed antihistamine and antibiotics. I'm definitely more worried about giving her another round of antibiotics in less than two weeks than I am anything else, but I dont' want an uncomfortable little girl on a 7 1/2 hour plane ride home. Ughhh!

Sunset Cliffs Boulevard & the Ocean Beach Pier

2011-03-25T16:51:00.010-04:00

We had another glorious beach day yesterday. We browsed a shop or two and I introduced Ella to Dippin' Dots. She often asks to ride the "alligator" (read: elevator) and it cracks me up everytime! Last night when Jason got home, we took a drive down Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and it was gorgeous! Picture the roads along the coast in Acadia except even closer to the cliffs, no trees separating you and the cliffs are a beautiful, rick, red sandstone that look much less sturdy than the granite of Maine. Below, the crashing waves carve away deep caves at the water's edge. I have to say that if I owned one of the million dollar homes sitting but 20 ft. from the cliff's edge...I'd not be too certain about the ground on which my investment is perched!!! Then we walked out the LONG and high Ocean Beach pier. We watched a myriad of surfers, Ella ran and hopped to her little heart's content, then we ate a good ol' fried seafood dinner in the Ocean Beach Pier Cafe (which is literally ON the end of the pier), watching the swells roll beneath us. As the sun was setting we headed home. It was by far my favorite evening yet!