Sunday, December 21, 2008

It's official- he's ours!

Many of you have asked about Buddy. Once the weather got cold it became obvious that we were his primary residence. This cat is not a snow/cold cat. He loves to be inside all day long cuddled up and sleeping. At night he goes outside around 10:00pm to do his business but he is always sure to be back before we go to sleep- he does not like getting stuck outside in the cold. Now that it is very cold he doesn't go out much at all. I called his other home today. I figured with the snow storms they might be concerned and I wanted them to know that he was inside and quite content. I spoke with his other mom and we decided that we can become his official home. It seems they have a female cat that is the queen bee and she was none to pleased when he was brought in last year. They say they do miss Buddy because he is such a love bug but they are happy that he has found a nice home. We have custody but they have full visitation. In fact I called back tonight to see if their daughter, in 4th or 5th grade, would like to take care of Buddy when we go to VA. She can take in our mail and hang out with him while we are gone. Mom said it was a great idea.

When I told the kids they were so excited they ran to tell Buddy- they woke him up, he wasn't that impressed- he knew he was staying. How can I post about him without a picture or two? With all the work around the house this last week Buddy was beside himself. He wants to know what is going on, but they were freaking him out, but it was cold outside, but he wanted to know what was going on. Finally one day I found him upstairs in the hallway. Justin had put his sleeping bag in the hallway one morning and Buddy found it a fine place to take his nap.

Buddy just turned one in October. He is still very playful and fun- something we are all enjoying immensely. If there is a bag out- he is inside (never kick/move/ or pick up a bag in our house without checking this first). If you open a gallon of milk throw that plastic tab on the ground and he will chase it around forever. The kids made little houses with construction paper. One of the fell on the ground, look who found it?


While it is certainly quicker than we planned to get another pet- and if you ask Marc we were never going to get another pet ever- we are all really happy to have Buddy in our home and to know that we are no longer guilty of catnapping.

A Teddy Bear Christmas

Since the big snow storm was not expected until the afternoon Justin's Holiday show was still on. All of the older siblings got to come too since they had no school. I mostly took video and I hope to get that up on YouTube soon. Justin was a "teller", that was his word for narrator. He did a good job. He sings the songs at home all the time but as soon as it is show time he becomes totally disinterested- annoying. That was until it came time to dance at the end and that boy has moves. Well, the video will prove that. So here we are a lot of yawning.

This is my highlight. Yeah. Headband- not around his head, teddy bear paws- not on his hands, and his hands down his pants!!!
Oh wait, Travis and Mrs S decide to help Justin get his headband back up but he couldn't be bothered to TAKE HIS HANDS OUT OF HIS PANTS to help them out. He will so hate me later for these pictures- but I didn't make him shove his hands down there!
Ok, hope to get the video up soon.

Our Pre-Christmas Project

As you know by now our house is no longer on the market. We hope to put it on the market again in the spring time. One of the biggest issues with our house- according to the many people that came through was the lack of a closet in our bedroom. We decided to take this off-market time to put in the closet. We found a contractor we like and he said he had time to do the project right now, come the first of the year he was very booked. We said- do it!

Here we are day one. This is the view from our family room. The closet will be going on this wall. The closet will come into the room about 2 feet and we are putting built-ins on either side of the closet. This means that our current entertainment system will no longer work for this space. Oh Darn, guess we HAVE to get a big ol flat screen TV now- shoot.
Here we are at the end of Day One. This is the same wall. Remember this wall was originally an exterior wall of the house- the family room is an addition. That is why you will see the remnants of a window.
Here is the view inside our bedroom at the end of day one- thank you guys for supporting the ceiling so it did not fall on me while I was sleeping. We used to have the bed against this wall, but since the closet is going here we moved the bed to the opposite wall.
End of Day Two- big 'ol hole in my wall- view from inside the bedroom. Truly a room with a view. Note the radiators on the floor- plumbers came on Day 3 to get rid of those and install a new radiator on only one wall in our room.
Day 2, view from inside the family room into our bedroom. Privacy was limited for a few days- kids LOVED going through the hole.
Day 3 was a little slow going. Like I said the plumbers came and removed and replaced the radiators. Unfortunately we uncovered some termite damage that needed to be addressed. We had treated for termites a few years ago and this revealed some damage we couldn't see before. Silly me I have watched enough home improvement shows to know that as soon as you open walls you find things you didn't expect. Here is the damage.
Here it is all better!
Here is Tom our contractor- Dave, his partner, is a little camera shy, he is hiding behind the wall.
End of Day 4- Friday. Ahhh I have a closed up closet- sort of. At least I no longer have two room suite :) This is from the bedroom.
This is from the family room. Hard to photograph- sorry. This is from the side.
They think there is a good chance they will finish by Christmas- fingers crossed. Then we just have to find a few really strong people to move our previous entertainment unit out of the room- we're thinking craigslist.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

For the first time in many years I have the Christmas spirit! There are a couple of things that contribute to my mood. The first one is that I got control of my business this year. I set a clear and early deadline for taking pictures and I set a holiday order deadline and I stuck to both of them. This meant that for the first time in years I had most of December open to prepare for the holidays- yeah! Last year was horrible, between the picture taking and the trying to get the house ready to go on the market we did NO decorating- not even a tree- and I didn't want that to happen again. The last reason is that for the time in 10 years we are going to be in our house for Christmas morning. It will be the first year the kids get to sleep in their own beds on Christmas Eve. For the first time EVER our stockings are actually hung my our chimney with care (in the past our living room was either a) empty or b) a playroom filled with toys). We finally get to start doing some of the traditions that we have talked about doing when we are in our house- so yes that means chocolate cake for breakfast on Christmas morning- woo hoo! I am so excited to be at home for Christmas that I may have gone a little overboard for the kids this year- I am sure I won't hear them complaining.

This year we have two advent calendars we are working on. The first is the one that Grandma gave us years ago. It is a big wooden calendar and every day you open a door and put another toy on Santa's workshop. I have to say this is the first year that the items have stayed in the doors until it was their time to be hung up. Every year in the past one or the other child would take them all out to look at them and sometimes to throw them around the room. The other calendar is a Lego Calendar. Again since we will be here for the entire time I thought it would be fun to truly count it down. The kids take turns opening the doors. It is very cool. There are over 10 Lego people in the set- that's awesome since people are tough to get without buying a set. Each person than has a few days where different items that pertain to them are opened. The kids love it.

Yes we do have a tree. We thought about cutting it down ourselves, but in the end we went to the same stand we go to every year. Here is Jessica with the chosen one.

Justin was far more interested in following the workers around and peppering them with questions.
Here is our finished product. Pretty funny- can you tell the kids did almost all of the hanging? This is before the tree did a face plant a few days later.
I think my tree looks better in the dark. It is a great shape and so pretty all lit up.

Caroling!

Last week Jessica's Brownie troop went caroling at the nursing home. They wore their Christmas best. They have done this every year and really enjoy doing it, the residents also love seeing them every time they come. The first stop was the front room, they had a fire going and a guitarist helping them out.

The girls spread out and shared their lyric pages with the residents.
Here is Justin when he decided to sing his version of Jingle Bells- you know the one where Batman smells and Robin lays an egg- luckily she couldn't understand a word he said.

Jessica with her celebratory donut.
Justin really likes Chocolate Glazed donuts, but this one had frosting and sprinkles. After trying unsuccessfully to remove those items he just put his donut back in the box.
Then they moved on to continue caroling for those that didn't make the big meeting.
Here is the whole group. Um, can someone tell me why there is always one child who has to be a goofball?

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Our latest obsession- Solitaire!

A few weeks ago, Jessica and I went to CT to visit with some Frost Valley friends. Some of the older children taught Jessica how to play B.S. (she believes this stands for Bologna Sandwich). She loved it. Later that weekend Jill came and picked up a deck of cards and started playing Solitaire. Jessica learned quickly and so it begins. We went through a few days where she said she was going to play Cemetery- um corrected her on that. Then I told her that we could play double solitaire. Now we have Justin's interest. Much to my surprise he learned how to play too. He is painfully SLOW so it can be hard to play with him. The picture above was the first time we played Triple Solitaire. Anyway this is played everyday in my house now by one or the other of the children. I have to admit- I LOVE IT! I used to play double and triple solitaire all the time as a child with my sister and my Dad. Very excited the kids are enjoying it, now I have people to play with- I am restraining my more competitive card playing side and letting them learn. As soon as they are good enough- watch out.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Ten on Tuesday- Cookie Day!

Following other bloggers lead I am doing a 10 on Tuesday addition today. Every year a group of friends and I get together for Cookie Day. It began before Jessica was born with my Mom and Dee but has since morphed to a group of five of us, Bec, Emily, Robin and Dee. We have gone through this day in a variety of ways. Some years we arrive in the morning and bake all day until we are exhausted and covered in flour. Other years, when the holiday rush has become too much, we each bake at home and then get together to eat dinner and swap cookies. This year we did a combination. We each baked 2 different cookies at home and then arrived at Dee's house in the afternoon and baked at least one kind each together. It was the best of both and we have decided this is the perfect plan. We get the fun and comraderie of spending the day together chatting and all pitching in with various recipes- without being exhausted at the end of the day. Dee was a wonderful hostess- providing food, beverage, DVD of log burning on the fire (my favorite part) as well as baking good galore.

Without further ado, here are some examples of all of our hard work. Some were taken on cookie day and some I took just now at home.

1. Bec is not a baker. She knows this, she owns this and embraces it. So we are always looking for no-bake options for Bec. Here is our favorite this year- looks can be deceiving- it does not taste like a burger.
2. Dee made a yummy fruit and nut chew thing, I was skeptical at first but admit to eating more than my fair share of these since returning home.


3. Emily made the jam thumbprints this year- an annual favorite.
4. One of Emily's other cookies just before going into the oven, this is a chocolate cookie with a Rolo hiding inside.
5. Dee's spritz cookies before going in the oven- perfect little trees.
6. Bec's other no-bake beauty. This is two Ritz crackers with peanut butter in the middle covered in chocolate. We all agree this is best when frozen.
7. Dee's famous and always requested peanut butter blossoms.
8. My chocolate snowballs, although they look more like snow patties now. I also did some yummy M&M cookies but alas there are no examples to photograph...
9. Robin's chocolate macaroon
10. Also from Robin, not sure what they are called, just know I can't stop eating them, there is chocolate and caramel involved- can't be bad right?

That's all for now folks- hungry yet?

Thanksgiving

None of our usual extended "family" could make it this year for Thanksgiving so we had a very small crowd, just us and Mom. We left a little later than we planned because just as we were heading out the door Justin sat down and decided to write out the Alphabet. This is something he is only recently showing an interest in doing so we didn't want to discourage him.

Here is the whole gang (all of these pics are with the "little camera")

Mom just did a turkey breast this year since the numbers were small- but it was Yummy!

Here is Justin helping to make the fruit salad and saying "Happy Thanksgiving!".

Jessica waiting oh so patiently for dinner....

On the Saturday after T-giving it was my 20th high school reunion. Here are Marc and I all spiffied up! Not sure why I make him go with me, I promised that he can skip out of the 30th.

It was so much fun, and I swear that wasn't just the wine I was drinking making that conclusion. It was so fun to see everyone. If you were there you were in a good place in your life and happy to see people. All the old "hurty" feelings were gone, it was more than half our lifetime ago. I had a GREAT time. Here I am with my senior prom date- Jeff a.k.a Nubba.

Since all of my old pics are in the POD I can't show you a picture of us then- although I think Kelly might have one she can email me that I saw on Facebook.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Justin Update

As many of you know we have been struggling with Justin's behavior. He was having some serious tantrums and meltdowns- beyond what you would expect for his age. We had a behavioral therapist come into to school to observe him and give us some suggestions. She believes he does have some signs of ADHD- honestly no surprise- and has referred us to the ADHD clinic in Springfield for more observations.

In addition my friend Shaz suggested we look at his diet. Something I have been meaning to do, but honestly I am a bit lazy. She suggested we just try to eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup. Willing to try anything I decided to try it out. The biggest change for Justin means the elimination of Fluff from his diet. Some of the other items, maple syrup, ketchup, and jelly all of other alternatives. I have to say I noticed a change in his behavior. Suddenly he wasn't spending most of his day screaming at me- that is a nice change.

But yet, he still was having some issues so I have gone back to my old standby. I put him to bed earlier. We found he was falling asleep in the car in the afternoon- a sign a that he was overtired. So we began to put him in bed by 7pm and suddenly my little 6:50am alarm clock was sleeping past 7:30. And go figure with one extra hour of sleep every day he has become much more pleasant and rallies quicker from issues. He has been fairly willing to go to bed early and doesn't even leave his light on. Things were pretty unpleasant there for awhile but I think we are on an upswing.

On a positive note Justin is all about writing and drawing right now. He is asking how to spell things, he is talking about going to Kindergarten, and he is really enjoying his various preschool workbooks. He loves counting and singing. Here he is with a picture he drew of Daddy picking a flower- the flower is saying "oh no".

He has recently started playing a game with Jessica in the car called "Would you rather...". It goes like this: "Jessica, would you rather fly or be the Flash?" or "Jessica, would you rather have no hands or no feet?" or "Jessica would you rather be really strong or really fast?". Sometimes she answers sometimes she doesn't but it amuses me what he comes up with.

Here are some pictures of Justin. He seemed to be willing so I grabbed my camera and ran outside to take his picture- forgot to check the settings on my camera but not too bad.

One more story. As I was pulling out of the driveway to bring him to school last week we had this conversation:

Justin: Mommy you have to die.
Me: sorry?
Justin: you know, like Aunt Marcia, you have to die.
Me: (understanding now) Oh yes, we all die sometime.
Justin: your Daddy died of a heart attack.
Me: yes that's right.
Justin: Aunt Marcia had a sickness the doctors couldn't clear.
Me: yes that's right.
Justin: yeah, it checkmate her.

It took me a minute to understand what he said, but I think it is so facinating to watch him take his understanding of one thing and apply it to another. In essence yes Aunt Marcia was checkmated.

A Day at Laughing Brook

In this season of holiday photos I was gone most weekend days for most of the day. Marc decided to take the kids to Laughing Brook for some hiking and fun. So they headed out on a Sunday when I was at Wilbraham & Monson shooting families all day. Unfortunately about 10 minutes into their adventure Justin slipped and fell into the brook up to his waist and they had to come home. He was so sad and bemoaned his fate for the whole week. Well one week later they headed out again and this time Justin was very cautious and avoided "slippery rock" at all costs. These are Marc's pictures, not sure if I understand all of them but I will share.

It seems there was a lot of rock throwing...

um.. not sure..
pretty sure Justin was collecting sticks the whole time in order to have lots when they played Pooh sticks at the end.

Playing Pooh Sticks (from the Winnie the Pooh stories in case you are confused- drop a stick on one side of the bridge and run to the other side to see whose stick wins).