Hi it's me...

Emily's layout

2008-11-10T20:19:00.003-05:00

I'm posting this for Emily. She did it for a challenge on http://www.kidscanscrap.com/ (great scrapping blog for kids!).

For My Scrapbook Friends

2008-10-27T20:57:00.003-04:00

Yearbook Yourself

2008-09-14T16:32:00.001-04:00

This is hilarious. Here I am in my "1966" yearbook photo.

http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

September 11, 2001

2008-09-11T14:22:00.005-04:00

I made this video today with Adam's help. I kept the Sept. 12, 2001 edition of our local newspaper. I pulled it out today and took these photos of the actual newspaper pages. Turn on your speakers.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2008-08-26T08:36:00.004-04:00

It's Back to School time!

Today is the first day of school and with that comes new pictures with new clothes and shoes! I always stand my kids in front of the same tree. It used to be on the front steps but it's too shady and the pictures never came out good so I changed the picture location. This year they stood there like good little soldiers. I almost got Adam to crack a smile. At least he's not scowling. LOL

Here's they are standing at attention (no I did not tell them to do that).

I took the pic at this angle to show how much he's grown (4 inches in the last year). He's 5'4" and still growing. Even his friends he hasn't seen all summer commented on his size and deeper voice when they saw him at orientation yesterday.

Here's our 8th grader, wearing a t-shirt we're not sure is appropriate for school. If it's not they'll make him turn it inside out. He bought it with his own money.

This is the first year Emily has not worn a dress on the first day of school. This is middle school after all, and she needs to look more grown up. :-(

Here's our 5th grader.

Mosaic Me

2008-08-20T14:52:00.005-04:00

I got this idea from Katie.

1. What is your first name? Judy
2. What is your favorite food? chicken fettucine alfredo
3. What high school did you attend? Ludlow
4. What is your favorite color? blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Patrick Dempsey
6. Favorite drink? coffee
7. Dream vacation? Disneyworld
8. Favorite dessert? ice cream
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? wealthy
10.What do you love most in life? sleep
11. One word to describe you. reliable
12. Your Flickr name. judyQ (I actually don't have a Flickr account)

Here´s how you do it...Type your answer to each of the questions into Flickr search, using only the first page, choose your favorite image, copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows).

Beach 08

2008-08-05T20:11:00.006-04:00

We hit the beach today. We drove down to Misquamicut Beach in Westerly, RI. It's our favorite spot. We took a different route down this year. Every year we take the highway and I hate it. Someone I work with suggested a different route that's quicker. Well, it wasn't quicker but it seemed it because it was a much nicer ride. It was on a nice quiet road all the way down through Conn. DH, who was skeptical about changing our route, even said he liked it better.

Anyway, I was not a good little scrapper today because I took very few pictures. Either I was in the water or my kids weren't all that interested in being in the water. Adam spent a lot of time snoozing on the blanket. Emily spent more time in the water the last hour we were there. DH stayed with her while I snoozed on the blanket. It was a very lazy day. ;-)

Here's a few of the pics I took of our day. Warning...there's a a foot shot near the end! LOL

DH and the kids in the water. DH is teaching Emily how to ride the waves. She never did get the hang of it.

Adam heading back to the blanket after taking a dip.

I call him "Mr. Sullen." He's too cool to smile.

Miss Emily

While I was dozing on the blanket, Adam brushed the sand off my toe and took this pic. He thought it was hilarious.

We saw this on the way down to the beach but my camera was packed in a bag in the back of the van. Luckily I had it up front on the way home. I barely got this pic because the light changed to green and DH had to go. Look at the giant frog! There were two on each end of the bridge those cars are coming off of. I think this was in Windham, Conn.

Luau Party

2008-07-26T20:32:00.005-04:00

Emily had a few friends over for a luau themed birthday party today. We did crafts, a few games and water balloon tosses. Here's a few photos from the party.

The "cake." Emily and I made desert island cupcakes. http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50118
Ours look just a tad different from Family Fun's, but they were a huge hit. The girls thought they were pretty cool.

They made their own leis from an Oriental Trading craft kit and hula skirts from crepe paper. They didn't seem all that interested in making the hula skirts at first, but then they really got into it. They took them off shortly after this photo because they were hot and annoying. LOL

I like this pic. They kept giggling while I was trying to get a good shot.

They decorated flip flops with beads and flowers. They loved this project. Their feet were pretty dirty and they didn't want to put on their new flip flops. That's why I posed them like this. Left to right is Brooke, Emily, Alexis, Kaitlyn and Leanna.

White Mountains Weekend

2008-07-15T08:27:00.015-04:00

Emily and I spent the weekend in the White Mountains of NH with my sister Marilyn and her husband Phil. I love it there. It's a very long ride but once we're there it's a relaxing and fun.

Even when it rains.

We arrived on Saturday, the 12th at around lunch time. It was sunny and warm. After we unpacked the van and had some lunch, we decided to work out the kinks from the four hour ride with some letterboxing. I printed out clues at home to 9 boxes that we could look for over the weekend. Three of them were in a park in Bethlehem, which is the town we stay in. Phil knows the area - his family has owned the cabin for years - so we all piled in the van to look together. Marilyn and Phil were totally new to letterboxing but were up for the adventure. I'm so glad Phil was there because Mapquest, of course, was wrong on where the park is. Actually it might have been my mistake because I googled the school name given in the clues but apparently it was nowhere near the park where the boxes were hidden. But I digress.

I didn't take my camera on our first adventure. The clues took us around a turtle pond where we saw one tiny turtle that seemed to follow us as we made our way around to the trails on the other side. Good thing Marilyn brought the good bug spray. I went cheap when I bought spray for Emily and me and we suffered for it. We ended up using Marilyn's after we practically got eaten alive. But again, I digress.

The first box was in the woods on top of a giant rock that resembled an elephant with a spear in it's back (the spear was a fallen tree). Emily and Phil found the box buried under some sticks and bark. It was hidden by students at a local elementary school. They made their own log book. It's always interesting to see where others who have found the box are from. We didn't find the second box on our list. It was hidden by the same group of children. The clues were vague and we had to give up looking for it. We moved on to the third, which was very easy to find and was hidden under a flat rock. Emily was elected to reach under it with her long skinny arms. LOL That box was hidden by the school children as well. I hope they visit their box every now and then to see who's signed their log book. Marilyn said she had a lot of fun and would like to try letterboxing the next time they come to NH. Phil is an outdoorsman so anything having to do with hiking, fishing or hunting is right up his alley.

After we got back from letterboxing we vegged out at camp and watched Jungle Book on DVD. I almost fell asleep! We always eat well when we're at camp. I brought burgers for dinner and Phil cooked them on the grill. We had those will the awesome red potato salad I made at home. Marilyn brought a homemade marble cheesecake, which she and I ate while Phil and Emily went fishing. It was so yummy. Marilyn and I headed into town to see if the info center was open but they weren't. She talked me into stopping at a few antique shops (I'm not into antique-ing at all) but they were closed too. I saw this sign on our way back to camp. It was lying on the ground in a pile of junk next to a building. Since I didn't have my camera I snapped a shot of it the next day when Emily and I headed out on our adventures.

After everyone was settled back at camp we sat on the deck while Emily and Phil made s'mores. (Emily made them, Phil ate them). Marilyn and I didn't eat them but I did have a piece of chocolate. Emily took pics of the fire.

The weather forecast for the next day was heavy rain and wind. Boo hoo! Where did that come from? At home (in Mass.) we'd heard it was going to be a beautiful but hot weekend. Emily and I had planned to spend a few hours at Echo Lake which is a beautiful lake right smack in the middle of the mountains. We'd never been but Marilyn and Phil brought their boys when they were young and said it was a very nice lake. We got an early start on Sunday and headed out by 9:30 a.m. before the rain hit. It was overcast but I figured we could still have fun. Now comes the funny part.

Here's the sign entering the parking lot.

I never looked at the thermometer thingie inside the van to see what the outside temp was when we arrived. I wish I had. We knew it was windy because the van got pulled around a little on the highway getting there. I told Em we should put on our sweatshirts because it might be "a little chilly." That was the understatement of the day! LOL It was so windy and so cold I couldn't believe it was July! We walked down to the beach, all the time laughing our heads off because poor Emily was practically knocked over by the strong wind. Later Marilyn described it as being in a big bowl with all the mountains around us. We were probably in the middle of a wind tunnel. LOL I'm going to guess when I say with the wind chill it was probably 40-50° on the beach. The water was very choppy. There was only one other group of people there - adults from NY. Emily and I took a few pics. It was absolutely beautiful there and I'm disappointed that the weather didn't cooperate. It would have been a nice place to spend a few hours. It was not going to be a quiet day spent on the beach for us. We decided to continue on with our other plans.

Here's Emily at the lake with the ominous sky above.

Here's me proving that I at least dipped a toe into the water (it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be). Emily caught me making a horrible face. LOL (I'm going to have to teach her to always take more than one pic) You can almost tell how windy it was.

Our agenda included lots more letterboxing. Our clues took us to the Old Man of the Mountain viewing area, the Basin, the Baby Flume and Clark's Trading Post (Clark's is always on our list of things to do). We found all but two of the boxes - one was inside an info center but we couldn't find the info center. LOL The other was supposed to be near a picnic table at the Basin but we couldn't find the box. We got some great handmade stamped images in our books, got in some fun hiking and saw some beautiful things we hadn't seen before. One set of clues took us to a gazebo in the middle of the woods. We stopped at Clark's Trading Post for souvenirs (and a letterbox in the woods near the parking lot!). Halfway through our adventures it started to rain but we didn't let that stop us. We continued to hunt for letterboxes despite the rain. Being in the woods kept us a little drier. By the time we got back to camp it was pouring. We still had a great time and I realized I really enjoy hiking. Here's a few pics taking during our adventures.

Emily putting the box back in it's hiding spot at the Old Man of the Mountain spot.

Another Old Man of the Mountain photo. This is at the official viewing spot.

This is what's left of the Old Man of the Mountain. His profile fell off 5 years ago. It was originally spotted probably 100 years ago so it was a big deal when they discovered that it was gone. It's a big tourist attraction.

After we got back to camp we hung out and watch TV. Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea were on the public TV channel. Anyone who knows me well knows that's one of my favorite movies of all time. Marilyn likes it too so we settled down and watched it for a few hours while we ate...and ate...and ate. LOL It was pouring rain, there was nothing else to do! LOL We also dozed off a little. Phil went fishing on his own. When dinner came around none of us were all that hungry (wonder why?). It finally stopped raining and looked promising outside so Phil took us to a local swimming hole - it's actually a river. We walked about a half mile from the parking lot to get there, climbed down some rocks and hung out for a little while until the bugs started biting. I wish we knew about this spot when we'd brought the kids a few summers ago. It's the perfect spot to stay cool and have fun in the water. There was a nice calm spot in the water but also areas where they can slide on the rocks (safely). Here's some pics. It was shady so the pics are a little dark.

Emily, Phil and Marilyn standing in front of the quiet part of the water.

Marilyn and Emily watching the water.

Me, Marilyn and Phil. By that point of the day I'd already been rained on, wore a hood and hiked quite a bit so I look pretty ragged. Who cares, I was on vacation! LOL

Emily and I headed out for the four hour drive home at 9:00 a.m. Monday. We got home a little before 1:00. We'll be back in NH on Columbus Day weekend! I'm already tentatively planning to hit the walking trails on Cannon Mountain. :-)

Letterboxing 101

2008-07-08T23:53:00.005-04:00

Adam, Emily and I went on our first successful letterboxing excursion last week. We went into the Quabbin Reservoir and then to the Quabbin Park Cemetery. I say we went on our first "successful" trip because we tried it about a month ago, hiked through the woods and didn't find anything. Last week's trip was much better. The scenery was gorgeous. We found 2 out of the 3 boxes we had clues for and we had a good time. Here's some pics of our adventure.

This is the start of our journey.

Getting closer to the first box.

I found it!

It was on a tiny beach on the edge of the water behind this pile of rocks.

The kids are checking out what's inside. Emily is writing stuff in her own book.

Playing on the rocks.

Skipping rocks (though we told Adam it looks like he's dancing...lol)

Our view on the tiny beach.

We didn't find the second box and I didn't take pics either. It was some pretty rough terrain.

Our third box was in an old cemetery. This was the last gravestone in our list of clues.
I only took a pic of the poem on the bottom. See if you can read it.

Off to find the letterbox. It's supposed to be hidden in this log somewhere...

There it is!

Checking things out under a big shady tree.

Four favorites

2008-06-19T10:56:00.002-04:00

Here's four favorite songs on my mp3. (I couldn't figure out how to embed the videos into my blog - sorry!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCpT5m1WGGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MJwdY6Y0Hw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eim5jLlEPYI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMt53HYkfY8

Almost a teen, squeeky voice, hormones...

2008-05-12T16:09:00.004-04:00

My "baby" will be 13 in 9 days. :(

He's still so darn cute. Last night he snuggled up to me while we watched Survivor. If he wasn't snuggling with me he snuggled with DH (who had to do the man thing and rough house with him until he came back to me). Of course I'd never tell his friends that he still snuggles with mom every now and then.

Right now he's talking with his GF on the phone. He's in his room but I can hear him. Earlier he was on the computer while he talked with her so I could hear everything he was saying. It was so cute listening to the difference in his tone from how he sounds with his friends. He wanted to see her so bad today (they haven't met IRL yet but they talk on the phone all the time). I couldn't provide a ride because Em has dance and he was so disappointed.

Hormone Hell continues. He gets angry at the drop of a hat and raises his squeeky voice to me. He argues about everything which aggravates me to no end. I suppose it's all normal so I try to deal with the moment and move on.

He's taller than me. Someone recently joked with me that everyone is taller than me. But I'm still getting used to looking up at him. I just got done buying him a whole new wardrobe because not one single thing from last year still fits him. I was instructed not to buy anymore shirts with sayings from Target. I brought him to the mall with me to pick everything out so I wouldn't buy the wrong thing.

Girlfriends. Name brand clothes. More freedom. I'm not sure I'm ready for all of this.

Circus Time!

2008-05-03T22:27:00.004-04:00

We went to the Melha Shrine Circus today. It benefits Shriners activities in our area. I thought it benefited the Shriners hospital until I read the program while waiting for it to start. Oh well.

So the routine normally is this. We get there about a half hour before show time so we can hang out outside with the clowns. You buy a program for a small donation. The clowns pics are all in there so the kids can walk around and get their autographs and have their pic taken with them if they want. I had free passes from work so I parked myself in line to exchange them for real tickets and told DH to take the kids to see the clowns. By the time I caught up with them again there was about 10 minutes til showtime. We saw a few more clowns and then went inside to find our seats.

Our seats were HORRIBLE. lol I guess you get what you pay for! Normally we get box seats. They're roomier and you don't have people up your butt or walking in front of you the whole show. Free passes don't count towards box seats. We had the worst, most obnoxious woman sitting directly behind us - she was actually in the seat right behind Adam - for the whole first half of the show. She talked and talked and talked. Yes, it's a circus and it's loud. There's kids everywhere. We expect that. But this woman was ridiculous. She never shut up. Then the worst part was that everytime she saw something she thought was totally awesome she let out one of those whistles - the ones you make using two fingers. OMG I thought my ear drums would blow out. We weren't the only ones getting annoyed. Several people in front of us would look back everytime she did it. What an idiot. Then there were the two boys in the row in front of us. Nice kids. I'm sure they didn't know better but mom should have. The one in front of me kept standing up. Then they both had the glow swords and noise maker light up guns and would hold them up so we couldn't see. Oh joy. Such fun. Oh and did I mention that when we left home for the circus I had a full blown migraine? Yeah. Love it. I took an 800 mg ibuprofen leftover from DH's surgery and prayed for the best. Surprisingly it took the edge off the headache despite the annoying people and noise of the circus. During intermission I took Em down to the floor to see more clowns. That's when I took the pics below. (I didn't get any outside) When she and I got back to our seats we decided to move up to some empty seats in the nosebleed section - only about 3 rows higher than our original seats but away from Ms. Obnoxious. We didn't have swords in our faces. Life was good. We even had a better view and that's how I was able to take pics of the clowns pulling silly stuff out of a VW Bug.

My favorite part of the circus was the clowns. It always is. My least favorite is the animal acts, except the dogs. I feel sorry for the tigers and elephants. The dogs are so darned cute and they look like they love performing. There was also an incredible acrobatic type routine by a young lady. She was amazing. (she got the woman behind us all excited...lol)

Em getting "High Towers" autograph. He's on stilts. (she's the one holding her hair back)

Friendly clowns. I should have waited another second to take this but it still looks good with all the bright colors.

The clowns pulling a ladder out of the VW Bug. There were 5 or 6 clowns in the car too. That darn purple dolphin balloon was in front of us the whole second half of the show. lol

That's the ladder. I'm sure it was folded up in the car but they made it look like it came out like this.

Pulling out a big screen TV. hehe Thanks for looking.

Mosaic

2008-04-01T20:20:00.002-04:00

I'm doing Katie's challenges a little backwards. Anyone recognize these people? We love our Webkinz!

To-Do List of the Week

2008-04-01T19:48:00.004-04:00

Here's my list of things to do this week.

1. Drop off medical forms for Adam's doctor to fill out for summer camp.
2. Get my teeth cleaned. Adam has to have a filling at the same time.
3. Bake blueberry muffins for the Boy Scout Paper Drive (and bake sale) on Saturday.
4. Pick up Adam at the library on Thurs. He's starting a new session of "Tech Teens" volunteer work.
5. Clean my house. I've let it go.

R Look-alike Meter

2008-02-08T12:03:00.001-05:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family reunion web site - Pedigree

R Look-alike Meter

2008-02-08T11:59:00.001-05:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family photos - Dynasty

Christmas 06 Memories

2007-12-03T21:49:00.000-05:00

I originally planned to make this a goofy photo gallery of last year's Christmas pics. Then I found a few I liked and thought I'd share. Have no fear, there's some goofy ones thrown in too (shh...don't tell Charlie...hehe).

O Christmas tree...(only about half the ornaments I own are on it) Emily was sick AGAIN for Christmas. I think it was at least the third time she's been too sick to go out. Should I mention that she was sick on her FIRST Christmas? (I even journaled about it in an old scrapbook!) Charlie took this pic on Christmas Eve morning when we were eating yummy baked French toast that I made. She didn't eat any of it. :-( She asked me to make it again this year. Hopefully the fact that she was sick on Thanksgiving will mean she'll be healthy for Christmas.

We went to my stepdaughter's for Christmas Eve dinner. She cooked her first turkey dinner ever and almost set her condo on fire when she left a pan of grease in the hot oven. hehe Charlie and Christie ran to ventilate the kitchen. I ran for my camera. There's Emily just taking it all in (she drank ginger ale all day).

Christmas morning. This is a bad pic but it shows the no sew blanket I made for Adam. He sleeps with it every night so it's already pretty worn out.

Here's Emily with her no sew blanket. She loves it and it also keeps her warm at night, though hers is still in really good shape (must be a girl thing...lol).

This is our old kitty Samantha. We didn't know it then, but it was her last Christmas with us. :-(

Here's Morton sniffing his present from Santa.

Smile, you're on candid camera! Adam got a new (used) digital camera. He still loves it.

Emily looks like she's expecting something to jump out of the box.

OK, these last three pics were taken by Adam on his new camera. Note how every child must take pics of their toys. What else is there? Adam got all this stuff for Christmas. I have no idea where this photo was taken because that rug is not in my house. lol

Oh, who's this beauty queen looking so bright eyed on Christmas morning? hehe Here I am holding up a hoodie that Charlie gave me. I think I wore it once. It's not my style (there's matching pink pants to go with it too...lol).

Charlie, just hold up the gift. We'll try not to wake you.

What I'm Thankful For

2007-11-21T15:54:00.000-05:00

I need to get better at this. I should take lessons from my son. I made this very short and very bad video about what I'm thankful for. I ran out of memory on my camera. LOL

Elf Yourself

2007-11-21T15:41:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from my family to yours.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9560607450

Crop

2007-11-11T14:52:00.001-05:00

I scrapped 7 pages at a crop last night.

6x6 Gift Album

2007-11-04T16:03:00.000-05:00

I made this album for my friend for Christmas this weekend. A little background...in 1979 when we were 17 and 18 years old we flew down to Louisville, Ky. to see the Bay City Rollers (a long way to see a band you say?). She has family down there and at the time she had a pen pal down there too. The pen pal talked her into coming down and she invited me to go along. We had an amazing week down there. The album covers two days and only a handful of photos we took when we saw them. The white strips are journaling. A little bonus about this book is I still had a few souvenirs tucked away along with a page and a half of journaling that Deb and I wrote after our trip. I must have been a budding scrapper back then to have written and saved everything like that. A HUGE thank you goes out to KT (rowarrior) for sending me the yellow tartan ribbon from Scotland. It's the same tartan that Woody used to wear so it means a lot to me to use it in this book. I also found a pdf file of tartans online and printed out the red that's throughout the book. A former member of the band used to wear that one all the time. This was a real labor of love. I can't wait to give it to her. :D

Here's the cover. If you click on the images you can see them bigger.
The photo on the left is Debbie and me as teens (I'm on the right). The photos on the right are photos we took of Eric at the hotel. He's standing in front of the ladies room door. hehe

The band had a soccer game with the DJs from a local radio station during the day. Afterwards they had an autograph and photo op session. I took a ton of pics of the soccer game but they were so bad I didn't bother putting them in the book. I devoted four pages to the soccer game photos. The white circle on the fourth page is a scan of a paper plate autographed by Eric. As we ran out of the house to go to the game we asked Deb's aunt for paper and she handed us a couple of paper plates. LOL I still have it. Deb is on the bottom left with Woody. That's my big head front and center on the bottom right. hehe Our photo skills weren't the best as you can see.

The guy in the blue jacket is Eric (more about him in a bit).

We also have a ton of concert photos but I only used these two which were the best. The one on the left is the marques at Louisville Gardens. I also scanned an original ticket stub and the sign we held up during the concert. (I still have the sign and it's about ready to fall apart after all these years...lol)

This page has no photos to go along with it. After the concert Deb's friend rented us a room at the Hyatt Regency where the Rollers were staying. This was by far the highlight of our entire week. Long story short, Eric visited us in our hotel room for about an hour and a half. Nothing happened. Not that I didn't have a chance, I just chose not to. After he left our room we gathered up the things he used. I saved a pack of matches and a used match and the glass he drank from (which smelled like his after shave). Deb has a couple of things too but I've forgotten what she has. The glass was never washed because that would have gotten rid of his scent. LOL I took a photo of the items the other day so I could scrap them along with all the journaling about that night.

The morning after...they headed out and we headed back to her aunt & uncle's house. In the photo on the right the girl on the right's face is scratched out in blue pen. I have no idea why. We must have hated her for some reason. LOL I'm guessing Deb will remember because she remembers things like that.

Thanks for looking. :D

Mama's Little Helper?

2007-11-03T11:24:00.000-04:00

I went grocery shopping this morning. I unloaded a few bags from the van and went back outside for more. When I came back in this is what I found.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T19:11:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween from the Invisible Skateboarding Man...

And a blue witch (I think it's actually a wizard costume)...

Randomness...

2007-10-29T22:01:00.000-04:00

Katie want's us to blog something random so here goes:

Here's some photos I took of Adam this summer. He wanted me to catch him in action doing wheelies on his bike. The lag on my camera leaves a lot to be desired. Note: No child was injuried during the taking of these photos. hehe

Flower Kitty. Can't you just see the mischief in her eyes?

And shortly after I took the above photo this happened. Of course I had to take a picture of my two cats doing what they do best with each other. Note: No kitties were injured during the taking of these photos. hehe

An old concert ticket stub I found last week. I'm scrapping a mini album of an event that happened 28 years ago for my best friend's Christmas present. This will be going in the book (look at what the cost of a concert ticket was in 1979):

Tagged

2007-10-27T08:43:00.000-04:00

I've been tagged by Jeanne to tell where you were 10/20/30 years ago.

Oct. 1997 - That's easy. I got pregnant with Emily over Halloween weekend. We hadn't planned on having more than one. However, when Adam was a little over two years old I started feeling the desire for another child. I didn't say anything to DH. One day we were talking and out of the blue he said "shoud we have another baby?" It was a done deal. I got pregnant on our first try and Emily was born in July 1998.

Oct. 1987 - I was enjoying a new boyfriend. We met in August 07 and became inseparable. By that fall he moved his toothbrush and some clothes into my tiny apartment. We did so much together. I didn't have cable TV so we took a lot of walks to the video store and the local park, watched a lot of rented movies and spent a lot of time on the phone when he didn't spend the night. He moved in officially a few months later and I married that man three years later.

Oct. 1977 - I was a senior in high school. I actually hated high school. I had a few friends but none I kept in touch with after school ended. High school was very clique-y and I didn't hang with the cool crowd. Why hang around with people who looked down their noses at others? Anyway, I had one super close friend who lived in another city. We celebrated the 30th anniversary of our friendship in 2006. In 1977 not only was I in high school, I also worked part time after school five days a week doing data entry at a printing company. It was the start of a very long "career" (if you want to put it that way) in printing.

I'm going to tag Stephanie and Laura!

Pumpkins

2007-10-26T20:35:00.001-04:00

Katie challenged us to post about something fall related last week. I'm almost two weeks late with the challenge. Oh well, better late than never right?

Emily and I went and got our pumpkins today. Usually Adam comes and we make an event out of it. He didn't feel like coming (I guess that goes along with being 12). I didn't feel like doing a hayride or corn maze or any of that stuff. I haven't been feeling well the last two weeks and I'm just not into it this year. This is the latest I've ever gotten my pumpkins.

Anyway, we went to our usual place but instead of going out to the field and picking them ourselves we just bought them outside the greenhouse. Emily had fun on the giant pumpkin playground.

And playing around with these things:

Rhymes with Orange, Oct. 20, 2007

2007-10-22T15:24:00.001-04:00

Uneventful night at the mall

2007-10-12T22:48:00.001-04:00

While the boys are camping Emily and I went to the mall tonight. JCPenney had a big "door buster" sale. Emily seemed to like that phrase. She kept repeating it.

First we stuffed ourselves at Friendly's. They got my order wrong (left the bleu cheese dressing off my sandwich...humph). I knew better than to send it back. Bleu cheese is bad for me anyway right? Then I couldn't use my coupon for a free kids meal. Who knew Emily ordered a big kids meal, not the small that the coupon was good for. Dinner cost me twice as much as I planned.

Did I mention DH had more repairs done on his truck today? *sigh*

I really wanted to hit Penney's. They had shoes on sale but none that screamed for me to take them home. We picked out a winter jacket for Emily. I can't believe the regular price was $80. That's highway robbery. It's certainly nothing special and there's no way this jacket is worth 80 bucks (I paid $32 on sale). We headed to the petite dept. because I've busted out of my small pants. The cords were on sale for only $15 tonight but after holding two pairs in my hand I said no, I'm going to lose weight and fit into my old ones dammit. Emily keeps telling me I'm not fat. I tell her I know that. But I've gained enough weight that my pants don't fit me anymore. It's frustrating. Anyway, I did get myself a couple of shirts. Emily fell in love with a new stylin' top that was on sale so I let her buy it. She's not spoiled at all.

We stopped at the dollar store and picked out some scrap stuff and a couple of really cute teacher Christmas gifts (yes, we'll add more to those $1.00 items later).

It was a fairly dull night at the mall but at least I got two shirts for myself. I'm going to have to live in just jeans for awhile because I refuse to continue to buy bigger pants. Monday I'll be back on WW.

Venting about complainers

2007-10-11T16:30:00.000-04:00

Until about 5 or 6 weeks ago I worked with a woman on night shift named K. I've worked with her since I started there just over two years ago.

K is a constant complainer. She's not happy with anything. She always finds the negative in a situation. K finds it necessary to find fault with any new procedure and idea that's brought up. She airs her dirty laundry about her marriage at work. She picks apart coworkers she doesn't even know. I find it very hard to tune her out, especially when I want to be aware of work issues going on around me. She's one of the reasons I was so happy to finally change shifts. I love my new hours. The people are great. I don't even mind the work, even on days like today when I feel like a hampster in a wheel running and running but not getting anywhere. LOL

Anyway, K worked day shift on Tuesday. I found out she was coming in sometime during the day on Monday so I tried to mentally prepare myself for it. I was prepared but she still aggravated the hell out of me. My plan was to keep my nose to the grindstone and do my job with limited interaction with her. I only spoke to her when necessary so I wouldn't have to be part of one of her tirades. I actually thought she'd keep it under wraps during the day when the bosses were there. It surprised me that she sighed and complained for the full four hours she was there. She even said outloud for the room to hear "I'm here for four hours and then I'm getting the heck outta here." And towards the end of her shift she repeated more than once "I can't wait to go home!" WTH? If you're so miserable quit the damn job! Oh, I almost forgot. When she first got to work her first words to me weren't "hi" or "good morning." They were "You get dressed up for work?" (insert blank stare here) I was wearing a polo shirt, jeans and a corduroy blazer. If that's dressed up she needs to get out more. I told her those were my everyday clothes. She actually tried to argue the point, as if you're supposed to come to work looking like you just rolled out of bed.

I had a hard time shaking off K's negative kharma after I went home. I hate when that happens. I dread the days that I have to work the night shift because my kids have a day off from school. Would it look bad if I went in to work screaming and kicking? LOL

Wow, this is a mean post but I needed to get it off my chest.

Katie's Challenge #15

2007-10-10T19:34:00.000-04:00

Ha! My second post in one day!

Katie's blog challenge this week is to redecorate our blogs so here's mine. I was getting tired of the blue w/polka dots so I was glad to take on the challenge.

I've decided to do some fall decorating. How do you like it?

Weight Watchers update

2007-10-10T17:18:00.000-04:00

I haven't blogged about my WW efforts in a few days. It pretty much went out the window starting last Friday when we went to NH. My weight was up a couple of pounds on Monday (my official weigh-in day) which I fully expected. I didn't deprive myself while on my mini-vacation! I didn't log my weight into my WW weight tracker this week. I couldn't bear to see the numbers go up so I left it alone. I've been careful since. I'm not counting points but I am being careful about not binging (although those cookies continue to call me in the afternoons!). This morning my weight was back down to where it was last week before we left.

The boys are going camping this coming weekend so it's a girls' weekend. I plan to take Emily to Friendly's for supper Friday night. We're going to a crop at the LSS on Saturday so that means pizza for dinner. For those two reasons alone I've decided not to bother counting points. I'll start fresh again on Monday, which is the start of my WW week. This doesn't give me permission to go crazy on the days that I don't have something special going on.

Working days is helping me stay on track. I pack my lunch and snacks and only eat what I bring from home. The vending machines are in what I refer to as "the bowels" of the company - in the dirty, yucky pressroom. I rarely go in there. I always pack a sandwich or small portion of leftovers from dinner, fruit and yogurt. Today I treated myself and brought one of those small 30 cent bags of Fritos. If I don't eat all my food I try to eat it as my snack when I get home. That doesn't always work though. I'm usually craving something with more substance than fruit or yogurt. I'm going to have to figure something out for that time of day. I'm also getting into the habit of having a cup of coffee when I get home. I only have one cup in the morning before work and then drink water once I'm there. I've cut back on my coffee without even trying to. I used to drink 3 or 4 cups a day when I worked nights.

Now I need to get some exercise. It should be a no brainer to take a walk after work. But usually when I get home I just want to sit with my cup of coffee and relax.

Fall in the White Mountains

2007-10-07T19:42:00.000-04:00

We headed to the White Mountains of NH on Friday afternoon. When we left our house in Mass. at 3:00 p.m. it was about 80 degrees. By the time we arrived at our destination it was 6:45 p.m. and in the 60's. Quite the drop in temperature! We were all in our summer shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. Brrr! BTW, I got to drive up again. I guess DH figured since I did it once I might as well do it again! It was an uneventful drive - just long. The highway in Vermont is two lanes, hilly and nothing but trees and the occasional small town for 100+ miles. The foliage got more colorful the farther north we got. The White Mountains weren't as brilliant as I had hoped. We either missed the peak (I think a lot of trees had already dropped their leaves) or they just weren't as bright because of the lack of rain we've had. Even the rivers were very low.

Friday night we relaxed after we got there. There wasn't anything else to do. Their TV only picks up two channels so we watched Ghost Whisperer, which scared Emily so I had her play her personal CD player so she couldn't hear it (it's basically a one-room cabin except for the bedrooms upstairs). We were all in bed by 10:00

The next morning I got up before everyone else and hopped in the shower. While I was in there I heard everyone talking but didn't think anything of it. Well, it turns out while I was in the shower DH spotted this in the far corner of the backyard sitting under an apple tree:

Yeah, that would be a big black bear. DH took this photo with my camera. He actually took about six pics and this is the best of them. A couple of other people took pics too and none of them came out that great. I guess in all the excitement they couldn't focus! LOL I was really bummed that I was the only one who didn't see the bear. DH actually spotted it first and woke everyone else up to see it.

After the bear excitement I cooked breakfast with a little help from my sister. We had bacon, eggs and toast. Nothing fancy but I made enough food for 8 people. My sister taught me a great way to make bacon without having to stand over the stove and watch it splatter. You just spread all the slices on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven at 400 degrees until their done. They come out nice and flat.

After breakfast we headed to Clark's Trading Post where the kids each bought a stuffed animal (Adam bought a big black bear that he named Bear). I bought a Christmas ornament of a black bear hanging onto a red Christmas ball. We then went on to Lost River, which was pretty crowded. It was hard to take our time because we had people behind us every step of the way. There was one group of people near us that was totally annoying. There were about 8 adults (no kids) and they kept stopping to take pics, which is fine. Everyone does that. But they also kept backtracking which you can't do because the walkways are narrow. They kept cutting in line to go into the caves. One of them almost wrecked one of my pics. Here we were polite enough to stop and wait for them to take pics, yet when I was standing there with my camera up taking a pic of Adam this guy walks right into it. Duh.

Here's a pic of my kids and me about 1/4 of the way through Lost River.

This is DH and the kids. Doesn't DH look thrilled?

The kids are checking out the falls.

This is Adam entering the Lemon Squeezer cave. You have to be able to fit through that little opening in order to go in, otherwise you could get stuck. The opening is about 12” wide (this, btw, is the pic that the rude guy almost ruined).

There’s another area where we could look down and see the people going through for a short distance. One girl freaked out and wanted to get out NOW (another almost ruined photo op!). She was right in front of Emily and squeezed back through all the people. I was trying to take the kids pics as they went through this section while she was freaking out. I did get the pic but it’s not as good as I would have liked. This is the photo. That’s Adam with the green shirt. Emily is right in front of him with a white shirt. The girl freaking out is on the right heading in the opposite direction.

We got out of Lost River just in time. The rain clouds moved in fast. By the time we got back to the cabin it was sprinkling. Our shower was leaking so DH and BIL spent the afternoon doing plumbing repairs. I took the kids for ice cream and by the time we got back it was pouring rain. We spent the rest of the day in the cabin. We had a big dinner of homemade lasagna, rolls, salad and homemade cheesecake (dinner was made by my sister). My BIL lit a fire in the fireplace and the kids and DH made smores (I was stuffed from supper). My sister and I watched the Best of Saturday Night Live on video tape with clips of John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. It was hilarious (we did have to FF through a couple because the kids were there). They put on a movie called 300 which I could not get into at all so I went to bed before 10:00. I was really tired because the fire made me sleepy.

This morning we had a huge breakfast of French toast and bacon. BIL took the kids and dog for a long hike to the river. They came back wet and dirty (but happy). After that we packed up, I threw some sandwiches in the cooler and we headed home. DH took over the driving, thank goodness. I was tired of driving, plus I have a cramp in my neck from the bad beds in the cabin. We got home around 4:15. After sitting in the car for almost four hours I ache all over tonight. Between the neck thing, all the stairs we did at Lost River and all the time spent in the van, I feel like a little old lady. Tomorrow I have to work while the rest of my family has the holiday off.

I didn't get any actual foliage pics. The really pretty sights we saw were on main highways so it wouldn't have been safe to stop for photos.

Oh, did I mention Weight Watchers went right out the window this weekend? Tomorrow is a new week.

Another pretty good day

2007-10-02T20:25:00.001-04:00

I bought what I thought was pretty decent roast beef from the deli last night. I was looking forward to a roast beef sandwich at lunch today. When I bit into it the roast beef was rubbery. Blech. I'm sensitive to deli meat textures - they have to be pretty darn close to the real thing for me to eat them. I only ate about half my sandwich before I finally threw it out. At least it saved me a few points! LOL

Otherwise I did ok today. I had a few cookies after work (I love cookies). I made a nice pork tenderloin w/rice pilaf for dinner and ate smaller portions. I just had an apple with peanut butter for a snack. Points wise my day is a little high but I'm sure it's not as bad as it was two weeks ago when I was enjoying a free for all.

We leave for New Hampshire on Friday afternoon. I won't be counting points or worrying about what I eat. We always feast at breakfast and dinner in NH. And let's not forget the snacks (this time it'll be brownies, homemade cheesecake and pumpkin bread). Can you see why the diet will be on the back burner this weekend? On the plus side, we're going to Lost River and it's quite a workout (lots and lots of stair climbing).

Down a couple

2007-10-01T15:57:00.001-04:00

I had my official weekly weigh-in this morning and I'm 130.5 - down two pounds from last week. I'll take it.

I'm doing pretty well today. I still had my cookies ;-) but only two. I'm doing a good job weaning myself off junk food.

Four hours of walking counts as?

2007-09-30T17:38:00.000-04:00

We went to the Big E yesterday. For those who aren't from New England and have no clue what that is, it's the New England State Fair which runs for three weeks every Sept. We were there from about 2:00 until after 6:00 p.m. Most of that time was walking, standing, walking, waiting in line, eating (hehe), walking, eating some more. We even went on the ferris wheel, which I haven't done in years. I'm afraid of heights. I tried not to think about how high we were, especially when they stopped us at the top while unloading and loading.

Anyway, I imagine I burned quite a few calories with all that walking. Even though I wore my walking shoes my feet were killing me by the end of the day. Then we had to walk about a mile to the car (it was packed yesterday and the Big E parking lot where we usually park was full). I went to bed at 9:00 p.m. and slept until 8:00. I guess I was pooped!

I had my share of fair food - fried dough, french fries and a cream puff (a Big E specialty), all washed down with Motrin and a 20 oz. diet Coke. hehe Then I had supper when I got home. Despite all that, the scale is down this weekend. We'll see what it says tomorrow on my "official" WW weigh-in day. I'm back on track today but I'm not bothering to count points because they went out the window two days ago. I am being watchful of what I eat though. I'll start counting again tomorrow. Counting points is a pain in the butt.

Katie's challenge this week is to post a challenge. I'm going to challenge myself to stay on track for at least four days and to post about it when I do. Instead of posting what I did wrong, I'll be posting what I do right.

I didn't do so well again

2007-09-26T17:52:00.000-04:00

The tortellini portion I planned for myself was ridiculously small. So right there I blew my points for the day because I would have starved if I didn't eat more. Then I had more cookies (but only 3 this time!).

Tomorrow is another day and I promise myself I'll do better.

Evil cookies

2007-09-25T16:48:00.000-04:00

I binged on 11 cookies today. There, I said it.

Of course it was my own fault. I brought red grapes to work and didn't eat them. I figured I'd have them for a snack after work. Instead I let myself get too hungry, then raided the cookie cabinet - three times. I'm not beating myself up because what's done is done. I have to admit my stomach hurt after I was done.

This is just a minor setback. I'm already back on track and have my food planned out for tomorrow. Cheese tortellini w/sausage isn't the healthiest choice for dinner but I don't eat "diet" foods. If I can't learn to eat the foods I love in moderate portions then what's the point. (11 cookies in one sitting is not a moderate portion...hehe)

Here's the evil cookies.......

Staying on track

2007-09-24T20:54:00.001-04:00

I'm doing fairly well with Weight Watchers. We went to a party on Saturday night and I didn't count points. I didn't go crazy and eat everything in site but I enjoyed myself. I had some pasta & meatballs, a few drinks, some cake and a cream cheese brownie. I didn't deprive myself. ;-)

My first official weigh-in was today (even though I started the program less than a week ago). I chose Monday as my weigh-in day. My thinking is that it'll keep me motivated to eat lighter during the week and keep my points down. That way I'll have a lot of flex points left for the weekend if I need them.

Anyway, the scale says I lost a half a pound. I don't feel any different. A half pound isn't much. It could be nothing more than fluctuation. I'm not downplaying my efforts, I just think it's too soon to see true results. I started my period today so the fact that the scale went down at all is pretty good. At least it hasn't gone UP.

I haven't gotten around to much exercise. I walked tonight for about 20 minutes while Emily was in her dance class. My intention was to walk for 40 minutes. The route I planned out in my head only took half that time. I don't like walking in that area of town. The neighborhood is kind of crappy and some of the streets have too much traffic (I have to cross them, which makes me uneasy). I know I can't walk while she's in dance forever because pretty soon it'll be to dark to walk after dinner. That's when I have to make myself walk after work. I just can't seem to get myself out the door right now. I'd have to leave as soon as I get home so I can be home when Em gets home from school.

I made this recipe last night. It came out pretty good. I put it through Weight Watchers recipe builder and came up with 5 pts per serving. Even though the recipe says it serves 4, I set the serving size at 8. There's no way I could eat a quarter of this in one sitting.

Speedy Chicken Stir-Fry

8 oz. angel hair pasta (capellini), uncooked
2 cups small broccoli florets
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup KRAFT Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. each: ground ginger, garlic powder, crushed red pepper
1/3 cup chopped PLANTERS Dry Roasted Peanuts

COOK pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 3 min. of the pasta cooking time.
MEANWHILE, spray large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 6 to 8 min. or until cooked through, stirring occasionally. Stir in dressing, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper; cook 1 min., stirring occasionally.
DRAIN pasta mixture; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture; mix lightly. Spoon evenly into four serving bowls; sprinkle with the peanuts.

I left out the peanuts. I also used Good Seasons bottled dressing because Walmart didn't have that variety in the Kraft. I also think next time I'll use a little less pasta than the recipe calls for. I have a ton of leftovers!

Weight Watchers Part V

2007-09-21T22:19:00.000-04:00

Or is it VI? Or IV? I've lost track.

I started Weight Watchers online two days ago. Again. I lost 33 lbs. in 2004. Then I regained 15 lbs, most of it in the last year. I'm tired of not fitting into my clothes. I bought three new pairs of bigger jeans. They look ok. But I want my old jeans to fit me. So here I am again.

Weight Watchers set my daily target at 18 pts. I added 2 pts because 18 is too low. I was always at 20 and they had no right to take away those 2 pts, dammit. My starting weight is 133 lbs. My goal is 123 lbs. I'm 5' tall and 46 years old. My healthy weight range is 102 to 128. I'm technically only a few pounds overweight but I'm uncomfortable so I'd like to lose 10 lbs. My meals are pretty good. It's the junk food that does me in. Cookies, chips, ice cream. It's an addiction and I have to treat it as such.

Day #1. (yesterday)
23 pts., 1 activity point
Not bad.

Day #2
29 pts., 1 activity point
Not so good, but I'm being honest with myself and tracking everything.
I have to work harder for activity points because of my lower weight.

If I blog everyday maybe I'll stick with it. Even if no one else reads it I'm ok with that.

You'll Never Guess What Happened!

2007-09-09T16:56:00.000-04:00

I had a two day tag sale this weekend. I was getting rid of stuff dirt cheap just to get it out of my house. I met a lot of really nice people. Nobody was rude or mean. Everyone seemed happy to walk away with some great bargains.

I was trying to get rid of a ton of kids clothes. We're talking 12 years worth (see an earlier blog entry). I had boxes lined up along my driveway filled with clothes. People were grabbing them for 25 cents each. A nice man came and said he had just taken in a little foster boy who arrived with only the clothes on his back. I told him he could take what he needed for free. I helped him pack up a big bag of clothes, some shoes and a few toys for the little guy. He offered to bring back a bike (a bike of all things!) for Emily but I said no thanks, she already has a fairly new one. I was happy just to unload a bunch of clothes. I told him to come back again if he needed more.

Today he showed up again with a shopping list from his wife...LOL. When he got out of his car he reached into the trunk of his car and I said to Emily "uh oh, he brought us something." I couldn't tell what he was carrying. When he came over to us I could see he'd brought packs of CARDSTOCK and printer paper. I told him he had no idea how happy that made me because we're scrapbookers. He then told me he has a bunch more in his shed at home and he'll bring me more packs of different colors. It's 8.5x11 and not Bazzill quality, but it's perfect for cardmaking or matting. He brought two packs each of brights and pastels so I split them with Emily.

The guy was quite a talker and told me he worked at a paper company for years. He also took away another big box of clothes. (yay!)

How was that for an awesome trade, especially since he brought it over without even knowing I'm a scrapper. It's kind of weird that our paths crossed like that.

I added a Buddy Map too

2007-09-05T20:40:00.000-04:00

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to add yourself to my buddy map!

Purge is the Word

2007-09-03T16:32:00.000-04:00

Katie said the right word when leaving a comment on my last entry - purge.

I spent about 3 hours today purging 12 years worth of clothes. There. I said it. 12 years. Adam turned 12 in May. His baby clothes are in boxes in my basement. Emily's are too. The boxes and bags were stacked so precariously that it looks like it's never going to end. Everytime I thought I was getting close to the end I'd find another bag or box of kids' clothes. What the hell? Why, instead of driving the stuff to Goodwill, did I throw it in the basement? 12 YEARS!!

I got so overwhelmed I could feel my blood starting to boil. Emily was helping me. She was doing a great job but I started to snap at her. It's not her fault. I'm so angry with myself for allowing this to happen. I think it's safe to say I even have too much for a tag sale. I'm still going to put it out for dirt cheap and as the day goes on offer it for free. But when it's all over I still have to haul 12 years worth of clothing to Goodwill. This is going to take a month when it's all said and done. Have I said how disgusted I am with myself? Where's the Clean Sweep people when you need them? (although they'd probably be pretty proud of me today)

I got so overwhelmed today that I quit without finishing the job and walked out. I grabbed my keys and drove away. I didn't want to continue snapping at the kids just because I was feeling frustrated with myself. I took a short drive, had a good cry and went home.

I guess this is a lesson in what not to do for the rest of my life. No more procrastinating and no more being a pack rat.

This is Xtreme Flylady at its worst. I don't even care if I make a lot of money at my tag sale. I just want this crap out of my house.

X-Treme Flylady

2007-09-02T12:27:00.000-04:00

Jeanne got on my case because I haven't blogged in well over a month so here I am. The only exciting thing going on in my life at the moment is that I'm getting ready to have a tag sale next weekend. For those of you in other parts of the country, a tag sale is the equivalent of a yard sale, garage sale, etc. You put your junk in your driveway, hang a bunch of signs around town and hope people come and pay you money to take it away.

We're pack rats. I won't take credit for all the crap in the house. We have what we call "the locked room" in our basement that is FULL of baby and kid stuff. There's toys, strollers, bikes and boxes and boxes of clothes. I already went through a lot of the clothes and put a bunch on ebay over the last couple of years. This time I'm hauling everything upstairs and it's either going in the tag sale for next to nothing or in the trash. What isn't sold or given for free is going to Goodwill. It's not going back in the house. I expect to be making a few trips to Goodwill after all this is over because unfortunately I don't have a good tag sale location. I'm praying for decent weather and a good turnout.

Today I'm X-treme Flylady. I get to do this again tomorrow too.

Pretty in Pink

2007-07-23T16:19:00.000-04:00

Katie's Challenge #3

2007-07-18T18:25:00.000-04:00

I skipped challenge #2. I had a lot going on last week getting myself ready for my weekend away and getting Adam ready for a week at camp as well.

Katie wants us to blog about 15 things we love right now. I'm not sure that I can come up with 15 but I'll give it the old college try. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Summer
I love everything about summer. I don't think there's anything I don't like about it. Give me 100° with 99° humidity and I'm ok. I love walking around barefoot, wearing short sleeves and shorts. I love looking at my flowers in the garden. I love hanging my clothes outside to dry.

2. My new minivan
It took a few weeks for me to warm up to it because during the week we bought it a few negative things happened as well. Now I love it *almost* as much as I loved my old one. I really love that it has working A.C. (no more wind blown look!) and power windows. Loooove those power windows!

3. My LSS
My LSS is celebrating their 1 year anniversary this weekend and I plan to be there! The owners are the nicest, friendliest, most helpful store owners I've met in a long time. They know both me and Emily by name and I love going to their crops.

4. Summer fruits
There is nothing like biting into a piece of red, ripe juicy watermelon, cantaloupe or honeydew. Those are my favorites. I can't find honeydew this summer for some reason. I don't know why it's not in the stores. I buy a whole watermelon just about every week because I eat it everyday. I love, love, love my summer fruits.

5. My summer bag
OK, some people call it a purse, some call it a handbag. In my neck of the woods it's a pocketbook. Mine is navy blue canvas with pineapples all over. It's cool and I've gotten compliments on it.

6. My living cat
He's 16 and my first "baby." We adopted him a year after we got married. He was a stray that my husband found outside his shop. He was named after the company he worked for at the time (Morton). He's a part human/part cat. I can't imagine our family without him.

7. My deceased cat
It probably seems strange to blog about a deceased pet but I lost her recently. Actually, it was almost two months ago but it doesn't seem that long. Samantha was 14 and sick most of her life. I took care of her and made sure she was comfortable and happy. It was tedious and many times frustrating. She had a mean streak for many years which is the reason we had her declawed. She made it hard to love her. However, in the last few years she bonded with me and made it hard for me to not respond to that. I had moments everyday where I would wish I didn't have all the responsibilities that came with her. But in the end when I had to make the decision to let her go I cried like a baby. I still think of Samantha everyday and miss her cute little face and her soft fur.

8. My job
My job is nothing fancy and will never make me rich but I like it. I tried for years to get into the company I work for. I finally got a job there two years ago as a typesetter (typing editorial copy for a newspaper). Less than two months later I was switched to a position that's more up my alley, which is building ads. I've slowly increased my hours and just found out this week that I'll be switching to dayshift in Sept. I'm psyched to finally have a chance at a normal life after being on nights for 11 years.

9. My computer
Without my computer I wouldn't have met some great online friends. Even though I've never met many of them IRL I feel like I know them. I've been hanging out online regularly since 1999. I started with WebTV, moved onto a regular computer in 2001 and we got our new computer this past February. The new computer rocks. I can access 99.9% of what I need (some things still aren't compatible with Vista).

10. My digital camera
I got my camera for Christmas in 2004. I still haven't mastered much on it much more than point and shoot but I love it just the same. I love not dealing with film. I love that I can see the image right after I take it, then delete it if it's a lousy shot. I love that I can crop my photos before they're printed. I can even take short videos with my digital camera.

11. Ebay
I love buying and selling on ebay. I haven't done it much lately because I've been busy this summer but I'll probably start up again in the fall.

12. My husband
Just because I've listed him as #12 doesn't mean he's that low on my list! My husband is sweet, hard working, lovable, funny and cute. He can make me laugh until I cry. He can also drive me insane. He treats me very well. I hope we can get back what we've lost over the last 11 years once I'm back to a normal schedule. Right now most days we're like two ships passing in the night.

13. My son
My son is my first baby (didn't I say that was my cat?). I think he's given me every gray hair on my head but I love him to death. He's a cool kid. He loves me. He's 12 years old but he still calls me Mommy when no one's around. He's away at summer camp right now and I miss him so much. I worry that he's ok and hope he's having a great time.

14. My daughter
My youngest and the last child I'll have. She and I have been joined at the hip since her birth. She's my little buddy and we're very close. She's beautiful and sweet (most of the time!). I worry about her dealing with the teen years - I know girls can be mean to each other. She's so sweet and sensitive that I hope she can toughen up just a little, but not too much. She's turning 9 on July 23. Happy Birthday baby girl!

15. My garden
It needs a little bit of weeding right now but I love looking at all my flowers. I bought two new daylilies in NH. I'll plant those in the next day or two after I pull some weeds. My garden is an eclectic mix of daylilies, black eyed susans, coralbells, tall phlox, shasta daisies, asters, batchelor buttons, bee balm and a bunch of other stuff I can't even remember. LOL

Hey, I did it!

White Mountains, NH

2007-07-17T13:57:00.000-04:00

Emily and I went on a mini vacation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire over the weekend. We followed my sister and her husband up and stayed at my BIL's family's camp. It's a pretty rustic place but it has all the comforts of home so it's a lot of fun.

We arrived Saturday afternoon around 1:30. Emily and I had eaten lunch in the car on the way up so we relaxed while Marilyn and Phil had their lunch. On our way into town we saw a flea market so as soon as they were done we all piled into my van and went back to check them out. Some of them were closing up shop (by 3:00 p.m.?) so we didn't buy anything. We saw a sign for a concert by a bluegrass band on the common the next night so we made plans to go. When we got back to the cabin I started dinner (Marilyn and I each brought dinner for one night). I made red potatoes with olive oil, garlic & onion, bbq chicken breasts and corn on the cob. I'm not a grill person so Phil did the grilling...hehe. We all stuffed ourselves and afterwards we had a couple of little visitors on the deck - red squirrels. One was bold enough to climb onto the grill and nibble on the leftovers. He even licked up the leftover BBQ sauce in the container. I snapped a bunch of photos but most of them came out blurry. This is one of the better ones.

That night we hung out at the cabin. We sat on the deck and ate s'mores - Emily was in charge of roasting the marshmallows. She and I were in bed by 10:00 p.m. We were pretty tired from the long ride up there.

The next day we woke up and it was raining. :-( Not just drizzling, but pouring buckets. Emily and I were bummed. I'd planned on taking us to Lost River Gorge which is not something we can do on a rainy day. We had a big breakfast (Marilyn made egg nog french toast - YUM!!) and hung out for a little while. Emily and I headed out to Clark's Trading Post about a half hour away. The kids always like going there. It's a little souvenir shop. I seem to remember it being bigger than it is but it was something I told Emily we'd definitely go there while we were up there. I got a t-shirt for Emily and DH. She picked up some postcards, a stuffed animal and a bag of rocks (lol - $4.00 for a bag of shiny "gemstones" that she picked out herself). Her Uncle Phil had given her a $5.00 bill before we left so she had extra money burning a hole in her pocket! When we got out it looked like it was drying up outside so we ate our lunch in the car (again!) and headed to Lost River Gorge. By the time we got there it was sunny! This was by far the best part of the weekend.

At Lost River Gorge you walk down stairs and across boardwalks and explore the gorges and caves. There's several caves you can go through. I only went through a few because I didn't want to crawl on my hands and knees through some of them. Emily went through all of them, including one called The Lemon Squeezer. In that one you have to fit through a guage at the entrance to see if you'll fit through the cave. The smallest opening is only 12 inches wide so if you can't squeeze through that you're advised to skip it. LOL We had a great time there. The views are breaktaking. I don't even know how far we decended but we went all the way to the bottom and then back up again (my legs were sore the next day from all the stair climbing!). I took a lot of pictures. These are my favorites.

Emily at the entrance and the start of our adventure. I wanted to show the stairs decending.

Look closely at the tree roots next to Emily. I had her stand near them to show the size. The gorge is made up mostly of rock. The tree roots grow around the rock and find the smallest piece of dirt to attach themselves to. You can see just to her right how the roots look clawlike. We saw this everywhere in the gorge. Some places in the gorge itself there was nothing under the rock but air and the roots were wrapped around it. It was pretty cool.

This is just a couple of pretty views in the gorge. In this photo you can see the boardwalk. That's what we walked on throughout the whole thing. There was lots and lots of stairs - first going all the way down and then going back up.

We saw lots of underground waterfalls.

Here Emily is coming out of one of the caves. I didn't go into this one. I didn't like the tiny entrance. There were lots of parent-type people going in at the same time as her so I let her go through by herself.

After Lost River we went back to town and stopped for ice cream cones (we both had Moose Tracks!). We went back to camp and my sister was there. Phil had gone out for new sunglasses because his broke. We all piled back into my van and headed down the road to a daylily farm. Marilyn had already been there earlier that day but she's the family gardener so she was thrilled when I asked if she wanted to go again. LOL She bought another daylily and I picked up two for myself. That's my souvenir from the trip.

When we got back Phil took Emily fishing and I fell asleep on the couch. LOL Marilyn made a spaghetti dinner w/homemade coffee cake for dessert (yum). After dinner we went to the bluegrass concert in town. Let me tell you, this is real small town stuff. The seniors loved them. LOL The band played well but their chatter between songs got annoying so we left. When we got back Em and Phil stayed on the deck and made s'mores for everyone while Marilyn and I hung out inside. This is Emily and her favorite uncle making s'mores (she's blowing the flames out on her marshmallow...lol).

The next morning we had another good breakfast (Em and I had bacon/egg/cheese on english muffins), then we packed up to head home. Marilyn and Phil planned to stay another day but I had to work that night. It took us four hours to get home. We stopped in Vermont and had a picnic lunch halfway through the ride. I took this photo heading down Rt. 91 in Vermont. Taking a picture through the windshield while doing 65 mph didn't give me much of an opportunity to frame the shot (lol). It also doesn't do the view justice. It's a really pretty drive with green scenery for as far as the eye can see.

I have to finish this by saying that I'm am extremely proud of myself for doing this trip basically by myself. I followed my sister and BIL up to NH and got vague directions to Clark's from my BIL. However I - me, myself and no one else - found my way to Clark's and Lost River Gorge and back to camp without a hitch. It's something I was extremely nervous about but I wanted to give my daughter a fun weekend without relying on my sister and BIL to entertain us. I didn't get lost once - not one single wrong turn or anything remotely close to it. Everytime we found our destination I'd hold my hand up to Em in the back seat so she could give me a high five. It felt like Thelma & Louise!

Doing a happy dance!

2007-07-07T16:41:00.001-04:00

I've had 2 sets of photos from 2005 that have been a thorn in my side. Whenever I have an event that I take a bunch of photos and want to scrap them just right, I end up sitting on them forever then just throwing the layouts together to get them done and put away. Well, that's sort of what happened this time too but like always, I don't care. Two sets of photos and two sets of layouts almost exactly the same (10 pages total) are done, journaled and in their albums! YAY!!!

Finally...

2007-07-07T09:20:00.000-04:00

I think I'm finally seeing a light at the end of a long tunnel.

I've been working second shift for 11 years. I had a break for about 10 months during that time. In 2004 I finally went on dayshift when Emily started 1st grade. Four months later the company closed and I was laid off. I was out of work for 6 months before I found my current job, which as luck would have it is second shift. *sigh* I took the job because I've always wanted to work for this company. It's close to home - less than 10 minutes to be exact. The downside of taking the job was that the hours were less than half of what I had at my previous job and the pay was $5.00 less an hour. It was a huge cut but with no other options available, I took it. Within a couple of months I was given a new job title (something more fun for me) and a $2.00 raise. Even with the raise, my first 12-18 months working there was incredibly tight on our budget.

My two year anniversary was July 5th. My department got a new supervisor last Feb. or March. Almost immediately positive changes started taking place. Within a few weeks I picked up five extra hours per week (something I'd asked the previous supervisor for and never even got the courtesy of a response). A few weeks ago when she asked how I like my hours I told her my ideal schedule would be mother's hours during the school year, second shift on school vacations. I'd also like to pick up even more hours. She said it was probably doable. I was psyched. I sent her an email the other day and reminded her of our conversation. She replied quickly and said she's ok with it and we can sit down and discuss it with her assistant when I'm ready. I talked to that person last night and she feels positive about the change as well. I can't believe I'm finally on my way to a normal work schedule that allows me to be home with my family at night and bring in more income as well. I'm hoping to pick up another 6-10 hours a week.

I started at this company only working about 12-15 hours per week. I put my nose to the grindstone, minded my own business and kept my eyes and ears open for opportunities to improve my situation. Each time I saw one I jumped on it. The new supervisor has been a blessing to our department and to my personal situation. I'm now working about 19 hours a week. I'm hoping my new schedule gives me 24-28 hours per week. It's been a long 2 1/2 years working my way back to almost where I was in 2004. What it's taught me is that it's possible to survive on less - much less - and still be ok.

Quiet 4th

2007-07-04T17:05:00.000-04:00

It's been a fairly quiet 4th this year. We went to the parade this morning. It's a small town parade and lasted only about an hour. I had to pee so bad when it was over so I couldn't wait to get out of there. LOL Instead of walking to the Summerfest down the road we drove home. We took the kids to lunch at a small ice cream stand that also serves food. Spent a small fortune on hot dogs, fries, soda and ice cream. Then we came home and DH and I took naps. LOL The poor kids had nothing to do. The neighborhood is quiet, there's no friends around today. I finally decided to take them back to Summerfest even though it looked like rain. Sure enough, as soon as I stepped outside to head out it started to rain. We went anyway. It was an adventure while I tried to find my away around a town that I don't know the roads at all. The only road I do know is closed today because of the 4th. We finally got there and walked around in the rain. A lot of the booths were tearing down already, even though it was only about 3:00. I spotted a booth selling American Girl doll outfit for only $5.00 each so I let Em pick out four as an early b-day present. After less than an hour we headed home - another adventure. I headed the wrong way and was heading towards Conn. before I was able to turn around. The detours took me all around town before I finally recognized where I was. Now no one's hungry because of our big lunch. I planned a nice dinner on the grill (bbq chicken breasts, red potatoes, corn and strawberry shortcake for dessert).

I miss the July 4th's of my childhood. Every year we went to my Aunt & Uncle's house. They live right on the parade route - it's the biggest parade in the area (not the one we went to this morning). All the aunts, uncles and cousins on my mother's side would get together there on the 4th of July. They had a built-in pool and a large yard for games like softball, frisbee, etc. We'd get there early in the morning and set up our chairs for the parade. It lasted at least two hours and we'd have a blast catching candy, getting balloons (remember having a balloon tied to your wrist so it wouldn't float away?) and hanging with our cousins. Then we'd go back to the Aunt's & Uncle's house for a day long picnic. Everyone brought their own food. Some brought illegal firecrackers. We'd spend hours in the pool. My father was a milkman and usually had to work. He'd show up after his shift in the afternoon. If we were lucky my parents would let us stay long enough to watch the fireworks that night.

It's because of those childhood 4th's that I always find myself disappointed in recent years when it comes around. It's no longer like it used to be. Everyone's grown up and gone their separate ways. We don't go to that town for the parade because it's not "our" community, if that makes sense. The local one we go to has people we know marching in it. I know we should make our own traditions but somehow that's never happened. Several years ago we used to provide the fireworks for picnics at my sister's house, but after the state started cracking down on people crossing the boarding from NH to Mass. we stopped. I don't think my husband is as into the 4th as we used to be so any suggestions I make are met with some resistance. Maybe next year I'll send him up to NH in the spring and tell him to go have fun shopping at the fireworks store so we can have some fun in our own backyard. ;-) I miss those days.

Katie's Challenge - Entry #1

2007-07-01T17:46:00.001-04:00

I created this blog so I can participate in Katie's blog challenge on Scrapbook Playground. The problem is that right now my mind is blank and I don't know what to blog about! I have a blog on Scrapbook.com but I only write occasionally. Please be patient while I learn my way around this Blogger thing.

I'm supposed to blog about what's going on in my life right now. I have enough to write a novel so instead I'm going to post pics of a few things I did this weekend:

I took pics of Emily on the swings. She wants to do a monkey layout of herself. ;-)

And I made this for dessert . It's a blueberry pie. As I was putting the ingredients together I realized I didn't buy enough blueberries so it's kind of flat and lumpy.

I also spent some time here (my scrap table):

While I was at my scrap table I made this. It's an altered cat food can...lol. I'm going to put it on my desk at work to hold paper clips. It beats the paper cup cut in half that I'm using right now.