My Winter Weather Report

Here's the funny thing about New England weather that many people may not know: the winter storms get names just like hurricanes. We just had winter storm "Aaron" come through on Friday and it dumped about 5 inches of snow in a few hours. Now winter storm "Brooke" is pelting our area with...rain. Ugh. I've decided that there is little worse than topping a beautiful snow storm with rain. Now everything is just slushy and gray.
But Toby and BJ did get to play out in the snow yesterday. Toby had fun, despite the cold that seeped through every layer of clothing he had on.

My Sense of Humor

There are a few things that make me laugh out loud.
My son usually takes the cake with that one. Tonight, it's his stupid Elmo flashlight that is quite humorous. Or, more specifically, the fact that it's 9:42 and I've resorted to unscrewing the light bulb in his lamp in order for him to stay in bed and go to sleep. So he's turned on his Elmo flashlight in order to read his books. Every 30 seconds or so I hear "ha ha ha aha ha" in Elmo-voice, which means he's turned on his flashlight (it automatically turns off after 30 seconds).
It reminds me of the major emergency we had here a few weeks ago when Toby blew out a socket by sticking a penny in it. After the fire went out (yeah, there was a night light in the other socket and that burned up nicely) we had to replace the whole outlet. Four thirty in the afternoon (in the winter) is not a good time to have the electricity off in order to replace a light socket only to discover that the only flashlight you own is programmed to laugh like Elmo every time you need to turn it on. Not so funny at the time, but hilarious now.

LOL Cats (see link at right) is another thing that I found that makes me laugh out loud. Take silly pictures of cats and write out captions as if the cats were speaking. Just plain funny, whether you're a cat person or not. Check out the site any time you need a laugh. They also have a "totally looks like..." category where you can see how two random famous people totally look alike. It's hard to explain but well worth your time to get a good laugh in. And it's free!

My New Christmas Tradition (Santa Arrives by Tugboat)

Santa Claus arrives by Tugboat in Mystic on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So we bundled up and met our cousins and families in downtown Mystic for the event. It was such a neat time to feel like we belonged to a community. Toby had a lot of fun playing with his cousin Elizabeth (they have a love-hate relationship). Norah just stayed snuggled up in the backpack and watched everyone. Toby thought the tugboat whistle was really loud. I don't even know if you can see Santa on the boat, but he's on the front waving. (And the story at our house is that Santa works for Jesus.)

My 50th Post

I was going to title this something like "My First Connecticut Snow" or something goofy, but then I saw that I've done 49 posts, so I thought that I'd just make this a combination of randomness and get away with a generic title.

We woke up to snow on the ground. Finally! It took long enough for snow to arrive. It all melted away in about 2 hours, but at least the barren trees looked pretty for our drive to church.
We tried out the Anglican church again. Completely disorganized. Toby and Norah seemed to be the only kids in the nursery, being staffed by 3 high schoolers who looked like they had just rolled out of bed 5 minutes ago. We didn't even sign them in or anything. We remembered from our last visit to this church that all the parents go get their kids for communion. So when I went back to pick up the kids it was still just Toby and Norah and the 3 workers. Toby was eating a snack so I had to wait while he finished. The high schoolers didn't say a thing other than "They were fine." When we were walking back to the sanctuary I noticed Toby was walking funny. I look down and his jeans are totally soaked! He had an accident (he said he hid behind a chair) and didn't tell anyone and they didn't notice. They even fed him a snack while he was soaking wet! We got him changed and sat through the rest of service. Afterwards he took me back to the room to show me where he hid to pee. There was a little wet spot on the carpet but there were no towels within a hundred yards of this room (how weird). So we just left and I can't bring myself to feel too badly about leaving a pee spot on their rug. There were 3 kids in there! How did they not notice my kid had an accident?

Yesterday morning Norah got up earlier than Toby so we were snuggling in the quiet. This breaks the silence: "Hello? Is anybody awake?" (Toby yelling from his bed). He yelled this about 5 times before I went in to see why he wasn't coming out. He was just laying in his bed -- he had leaked through his Pull-Up all over his sheets and he wanted someone to change them.
Potty training is such a special time....

Norah has her 9 month check-up on Tuesday. Hopefully her pediatrician will be able to give me some guidance as to why she's not sleeping through the night anymore. Yesterday Norah started cruising--she pulled up to the coffee table and caught sight of Toby's slice of bread. She then walked all the way around the table to grab the bread and stuff it in her mouth. So maybe she's not sleeping well because she's not getting enough to eat or because she's growing and moving all the time during the day.

My Leaf-Raking Apprentice

Toby has been a fun addition to my leaf raking responsibilities this year. In a year or two I'll hand the whole job over to him. I'll tell him that he started raking leaves at the tender age of 4 months. He was around for moral support than actual labor back then, but over the years he's gotten more helpful. Now he's interested in raking the leaves into bigger and bigger piles so he can jump into them. I keep telling him that a half an acre of leaves makes a big pile, but he's just focused on his one pile that he rakes, jumps into, scatters, and re-rakes. Meanwhile I move on to other piles until my arms want to fall off. And I haven't even gotten around to where most of the leaves are yet. Here's to an exciting weekend of bagging leaves. And a random blurb on leaf raking in general:

Here's one blogger's opinion on leaf raking:
"Simply put, there is no reason to rake leaves unless you are collecting them to use in a compost pile or as a mulch underneath trees and shrubs or around perennials. This should be heralded as great news because it saves you an unbelievable amount of work. No more raking means no more blisters, sprained backs, wet knees from bagging and wasted hours of shear boredom when you could be doing fun things." (Jeff Lowenfels from the Anchorage Daily News--just from a random hyperlink I followed earlier)
He goes on to state that what you should do with leaves (and what I'll expect Toby and BJ to do next year) is run over them with the lawn mower and turn them into mulch. Great idea, except that now all the leaves have fallen and we have to get a new belt for the lawn mower, so I'm stuck with this task for at least another year. But I think the truth of the matter is that people still rake leaves on their own (instead of mulching them with the mower or hiring someone to do it) in order to have something to complain about (or something to add to the list of things to complain about). It's also a conversation starter, although a rather weak one, of course, because it doesn't go anywhere other than "Yeah, raking leaves sucks."

So here's to old-fashioned whining and more fun times with Toby tomorrow in the yard. We'll rake leaves, jump in piles, and hope that it doesn't rain before we can finish.

My Long Days

The days when Toby skips his nap are the longest. Not only because I don't get the quiet time I need but also because he's grumpy and tired the next day, too. On Sunday we went to a birthday party for a six-year-old. It was for the older brother of Toby's little friend that we met at the library. The mom, Belinda, told me that she invited his whole kindergarten class and only two kids were coming. So we went to give the kid some guests for his birthday party. We pull into the driveway and realize this woman went all out--and her kid was only turning 6. There was a (heated) tent with a cotton candy machine and a popcorn machine, a pirate theme with a pirate ship cake and treasure boxes for all the kids, and a bounce house! Toby was in playland heaven. I ended up freezing because it was all outside and I didn't bring a jacket. (side note: it's taking me a while to learn that, unlike Colorado, when it's sunny here it's not necessarily warm) I went expecting to see maybe three kids and a quiet little birthday party. Instead I spent and hour and a half dreading the day that I have to reciprocate on the invitation for this family to come to our house for a party. But I'm glad Toby had fun.
On Monday Toby went to his gym class instead of taking a nap, which just equalled a disastrous breakdown until Daddy came home and took him to see his first big movie: Madagascar 2, which he loved. He came home dancing and went to bed like an angel.
So here we are after two days without naps. You can bet he's going to get one today! We might stay in our PJ's for most of the day. Toby ends up making a fort of some kind with the laundry basket to watch his favorite PBS shows. Here's a picture (he looks pretty tired):

My Kids in Stages

Here's a picture of Toby, just one week shy of 8 months, when he pulled himself up to stand using a toy that BJ's grandmother bought for him. And a picture of Norah, 10 days before she turns 9 months, doing the same thing with the same toy. It's funny to me that they are doing the same things but almost a month apart. And how Toby was going through these stages at the Chaplin house and Norah is also experiencing these things here in CT.

My Anonymity

Being out here in a new place has continually reinforced my feeling of anonymity. For example, I applied a few weeks ago for a part time position as a substitute librarian at the local library. I didn't get the job (I didn't even get to the interview phase--ouch). Now I'm about to pack up my kids and take them to that same library for toddler story time. No one knows who I am, so no one will be at the library saying "Sorry we didn't like you or offer you a job here."
There are times when I really enjoy my anonymous status. Like today. But there are many more times when I just wish I would run into someone I know and love at the library (or the grocery store or church for crying out loud!) so I could get a hug.
**On a side note with the job: I think I was more attracted to the $17-per-hour salary and the possibility of a 5-hour-per-week job than I was with actually getting a job. So the job hunt has resumed for now.

My Puddle Magnet

Toby's favorite thing to do is play in the puddle in our driveway. I love watching him play, but without fail he gets soaked every time. He's a boy, of course, so it's only a matter of time before he jumps in the puddle with both feet. Sometimes he's content to drag sticks in the mud or throw stones into it. This time he tried driving his lawn mower into it. He runs laps around it, depending on how big it is. But then he just decides, well, it's time! And in he goes.

My Fourth Halloween that Matters

This Halloween Toby was Thomas the Tank Engine and Norah was a Love Bug, but she fell asleep in her stroller while trick or treating and so she just looked like a fluffy pile of felt. I know Toby had a lot of fun going around the neighborhood at his Oma and Opa's house--he even braved a haunted garage! We had to do a practice run in order to remember how to go Trick or Treating.

My vote counted...if it got there in time.

We returned from a great weekend in Baltimore to see our ballots at the bottom of the mail pile. So if we had waited until the mail came on Thursday then we could have voted and not spent $36 to overnight our ballots to Colorado Springs. But we really had a relaxing and fun time with BJ's parents and I'm glad we didn't delay our trip.
I'm very thankful that we had the opportunity to cast our ballots, and it wasn't until I was faced with the possibility of NOT voting that I realized why it's important to me. The whole weekend in Baltimore there was one news program or another on in the evening and they were all talking about pollsters and all the "yadda-yadda-yadda" stuff that went along with the elections. As I was trying to engage in discussions about these news programs my opinions seemed empty. Without the vote to back up my voice my opinion means little. Democracy is an interesting thing and I shudder to think about living in another time or another country without the right to vote.

My Vote COUNTS!

I am so frustrated.
We sent in an application to Colorado weeks ago to have our address changed to CT. We still hadn't received our ballots last week so we called the El Paso county voting office. After being on hold for 15 minutes we got someone to figure out where our ballots were. They hadn't even been mailed.
Now here we are, planning on leaving tomorrow morning at 8 for Baltimore, and we have no ballots. I want to vote! What can I do? Not much. I was almost in tears with the voting person today complaining about the situation. She didn't really care.
Tomorrow morning we're going to the post office at 9 am to see if they have our ballots. At least the guy I talked to here was nice. He said he'd keep an eye out for it. But we are delaying our "vacation" to Baltimore just to fill out our ballots.
That's how important this election is to me. You should have seen me in a huff about it when I got home this morning! It made me realize that I can't take my right for granted. I want my vote to count, if only to illustrate to my kids in 15 years that it's important for them to vote, too.

My Last Two Weeks, Part 2 (The Teeth)

Here's the pictures of Toby's tooth emergency. (When we called it that he started worrying that an ambulance and fire truck were going to come to our house, which is what happens in an emergency.) On the left is the "before" and on the right is the "after."
I told a friend here what happened on Monday and she said "Thank God you're from dentists!" or something like that. We are so thankful! Our aunt Judy took x-rays of the tooth and found two vertical fractures in it. No chance of saving the tooth. So she referred us to a great pediatric dentist who took the tooth out on Thursday. Toby did a great job!
Ironically, this is the same day that Norah's first tooth emerged. She's now getting her second bottom tooth. Thursday was also the day she started crawling, thanks to Lincoln's example in Florida.
It's taken us a while to get used to the idea of Toby without a front tooth for the next few years. He likes showing it off, which is good. I think he should be a hockey player for Halloween. Alas, no luck finding a jersey. We had very poor luck finding any ghost costume for Toby. Who knew? So he's going trick-or-treating as Thomas the Train. Toot toot!

On a random note....
I've had a lot of fun reading a few historical fiction novels about Queen Elizabeth I. I just spent the last two nights (after the kids were in bed) watching PBS's Masterpiece Theater version on The Virgin Queen. It was really good. Now I want to see the movie The Queen, about England's current queen. So fascinating!

My Last Two Weeks, Part 1

A lot has happened in the last two weeks. Too much to put into one posting. So here's a little highlight reel from Florida. I didn't get any pictures of myself with both kids. Probably because we spent most of the week in swim suits by the pool or at the beach. The weather was awesome! It was so relaxing to be in Florida with my family. Of course, my ideal relaxing vacation doesn't include three kids under 3 and four adults crammed into a two bedroom condo (in an over-55 community to boot), but I came home refreshed none the less.

• Day one at the beach--Norah tastes sand for the first time.

• Day two at the pool--Toby has to wear ear plugs while swimming. They worked (when he wasn't pulling them out to illustrate that they sink); no ear infections upon our return home.
• Day three and four--more time at the pool (Lincoln's three months older than Norah) and more time for Norah to observe Lincoln crawling. Her face said it all: "Mom! You never told me I could move around like that!!!"
• Day five--rainy day (sad face) and then a walk on the windy beach. An evening trip to the pool turns scarry: Toby trips on his towel on the way home and smashes his face into the sidewalk. Ends up with a broken front tooth. He's okay because he gets to watch Thomas videos and eat ice cream for dinner.
• Day six--breakfast at the beach, lay out at the pool for 20 minutes, and then pack up and fly home. It's worth noting that Toby and Norah both slept for two hours of a three hour non-stop flight. Record breaking, I think.

My Pumpkin Pouting

What do you think she's thinking here?

My Cooking Ability

I burned water yesterday. No, I'm not kidding.
I was steaming carrots for Norah and I let them go too long. The carrots had a nice, burnt aroma to them and the water in the pot beneath the steamer basket completely steamed away, leaving nothing but charred black remains of carrot water. Yuck. We left and played at the park for an hour just to let the stench leave the house. I'm awful.

My Super Power

If I had a super power it would be entirely contained in my little finger. I want to be able to wave my pinky finger and have any toy, piece of clothing, pillow, or other debris in my house propel itself into its proper place.

My Love Bug

We found Norah's Halloween outfit today. I couldn't resist. She's a little love bug. This is a terrible picture, but this is the only one I got where she's not crying. We'll see how she does on Halloween!

My Fall Fashion Preview

It's time to pull the fall and winter clothes down from the tubs in the attic. This is a perfect weekend for it because it rained all day yesterday and will continue through tomorrow.
It took me about 20 minutes to pull out Toby's summer clothes and fill one drawer with his winter clothes (most of which are too short)--that includes packing away the clothes we're hoping will fit him next spring.
Now when it comes to Norah it's a whole different adventure. She's got several bags of clothes that I'm going through to sort out what she can fit in for the winter, not to mention the adorable clothes she's only worn once that are now too summery or too tight (the 6-9 month size snuck up on me). I am so thankful that we haven't had to buy Norah any clothes due to the generosity of others, both in gifts and hand-me-downs. So I'm not complaining about it in the least. It's just funny to me how different this routine is now that there are girl clothes in the mix.
I always like bringing out the new season of clothes because it feels like I have gone shopping without actually having to set foot in a store. This season it's even more fun because last fall and winter I didn't fit into any of my regular clothes because I was pregnant. Hooray for "new" clothes!

My Scapegoat

I have taken to blaming the squirrel family living in our yard when things go missing. They tend to throw nuts at the house and when we walk to the mailbox or put out the trash cans we sometimes have to walk through a hail storm of nuts. I'm not kidding. So I thought when Toby's running shoes went missing (they are one of two pairs of sneakers he has: one pair has lightning McQueen on them so those are the "race car shoes" and the other pair are his "running shoes") I thought that the squirrels had gone to new heights of annoyance. I kept waiting for sneaker pieces to rain down on the yard. However, I was a little too quick to judge the rodents and I should have blamed my poor organizational skills: the shoes were under my bed. Go figure.

My construction site

The guys at the boat yard were tearing down some old broken boats the other day. You should have seen Toby, glued to the window, with diggers in his back yard. He must have thought that Bob the Builder was coming to his house. I'm kicking myself for taking a picture of the diggers and forgetting to snap a shot of Toby drooling over the diggers! They've had the forklift, the loader, a dump truck, and a bulldozer all out working on clearing up the boat yard. It's been great entertainment for him!

My day without coffee

Do I even need to blog about how this day went? Doesn't the title speak for itself?
Toby has an ear infection. I got an appointment with Dr. B. at 10:45. But I am supposed to work in the church nursery until 11. What do I do? "Hey, BJ, why don't you swing by the church, pick up Toby and bring him to the doctor? Then I can meet up with you after I'm done at 11." Sounds simple. But not really. I gave BJ the wrong directions to the doctor's office and I ended up beating him there. Oops. I keep forgetting that neither of us really know where we are going and at any moment we can take a wrong turn and be 5 miles out of the way. It's messed up. And it just got worse from there, so I won't go into details.
I should have known better than to embark on this day (or any day for that matter) without a cup of coffee, even if it's just decaf and I'm just fooling myself into thinking that it will wake me up. At this point I've been drinking decaf long enough to believe that it does have some effect on whether or not I can function through the morning. And I would consider myself a morning person. So excuse my while I drag my 30-year-old joints to the kitchen to make tomorrow's pot of coffee. I've learned my lesson.

My OD on carrot cake

Yes, you all know that I turned 30 on Tuesday. A big celebration was had by all. I spent the better part of the day wiping runny noses and eating carrot cake. Our family got together on Sunday to celebrate my grandmother's 88th birthday and my 30th. BJ bought a 1/4 sheet carrot cake, my favorite. We ate about half of the cake on Sunday and, lucky me, the rest came home with us. Between Monday afternoon and today I have managed to eat more than my fair share of carrot cake. When we brought it home I scraped off a cup and a half of excess icing (and froze it for later consumption), so at least that's not going to my hips just yet. But, really, this birthday will be memorable to me because of the massive amounts of carrot cake I have ingested. It's quite sad.
BJ had class all day yesterday (he left at 7:30 am and got back at 10:15 at night) so I just spent the day with the kids, just like every other day. Toby wasn't feeling great so we watched mass quantities of tv while snuggling under blankets. We ate Wendy's for lunch at a local park. (I opened my birthday gifts from my parents in the drive-through. Who was I kidding thinking I could wait until we got home to open them???) I chickened out, yet again, on asking a mother of young children for her number to arrange a play date. What is my problem?? This has to be the worst one yet because she had three year old twin boys--how perfect would that be for Toby to play with?
Now I'm 30, probably 5 pounds heavier (an unintentional side effect of the gift from my husband I'm sure), and I feel like my joints are creaking and snapping every time I walk. Good thing I still have a 20-something husband to keep me feeling young.

My Trendsetter

Toby thinks I was taking a picture of his motorcycle, but really I wanted you to see the outfit he picked out for himself and dressed himself in. He's standing on the plank that is the beginning of our wood pile for winter. (And the sandals are on the wrong feet.)

My Saturday Morning

I haven't even been out of bed an hour. Norah woke up at 6:30 so I fed her in bed while trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep (not successful on that point). Toby came in at 7 and crawled into bed with Horton, Big Dog, and Little Dog. Our whole family piled into our double bed. Somehow the only one who was able to sleep through all the commotion was BJ. So I decide to get to work and run downstairs to the cellar with some laundry. Guess what greets me down there. A dead mouse. What should I do when I come within a foot of a dead mouse splayed across my cellar floor at 7:30 in the morning? I think I should just go back to bed. I surely am not moving that thing! Isn't it a man's job to deal with rodents and bugs--whether living or dead? BJ's already gotten Toby killing bugs in the house for me. Let's hope he doesn't initiate Toby into the rodent-clearing duties just yet. On a side note, Toby made it through the whole day yesterday in big-kid pants with only one accident, and that was at home while playing in the garden. We went to two stores, a restaurant, and a toddler's gym class and he stayed dry!!!! Hooray!

My Desk

If you could only see what's on my desk top right now it would give you great insight into my life (as I'm sure that is true of anyone's desk). There's an airplane and a small race car (both Toby's) on top of BJ's AF Reserve paperwork on top of an iPod that's not working and a picture of Kelli when she was 18 months old (long story on how that came into my possession). There's two coasters and a receipt (for BJ's new phone which we had to purchase when Toby threw his old one into a cup of tea), as well as our digital camera and various cords. Our family calendar is buried somewhere with "to do" lists on it and VA paperwork that BJ still hasn't filled out (maybe this public announcement will be enough to remind him to call them!!!). If I were to analyze the contents of this desk top I would say that I start many projects without fully completing any of them and that since having kids I have resorted to having piles as my filing system. My teammate of 3 years at Bates would be so proud of my evolution: I could never stand having piles on my desk at school and she worked with piles at least 6 inches deep in many places! I should mention that this is a good day for my desk.

My Dinner Club Course

Since I didn't do that much for the last couple of dinner clubs I thought I'd post a picture to show that I haven't lost the desire to enjoy nice food while staying at home. Norah is eating homemade puree of peas on the left and carefully blended infant rice on the right. Mixed to perfection a la Karen Barger (of dinner club fame). Doesn't it look delightful?

My Favorite Month

At the risk of sounding very narcissistic I think September has always been my favorite month. It has a sense of renewal about it with schools starting again after a summer break. The hot weather starts to break off but it's not so cold yet. The leaves start to change colors and yet everyone still enjoys being outside. The insane season of raking leaves hasn't started yet (you rake for about a month straight out here). I love the fresh apples you can get this time of year, and I'm actually going to make it to the Stonington Cider Mill this year for the apple pressing.
On a side note, the last time we lived in CT our friends came to see us in September. BJ and Eric went fishing with my uncle and Amy and I hung out with the kids. We were going to visit the cider mill, we drove by the cider mill, but instead ended up at Starbucks. I still don't know what I was thinking! Maybe it was a bit too crowded for us to go with the two babies (Toby was 3 months and Bekah was 7 months old). Maybe we were a bit overwhelmed with the thought of all the energy it would take to carry the babies around a cider mill... At any rate, I AM going to go to the cider mill this fall. Who knows, maybe the Dales will make it out here for another visit and we can try it again? Here's a picture of me with Toby at the Starbucks--I look really tired. And that picture was taken right before both our kiddos spit up. It was like synchronized spitting.

My 9th Anniversary "Redux"

I just wanted to add a note about our 9th anniversary because there were some special moments, and, since my mom came out this week to visit, BJ and I actually got to go on TWO dates without the kiddos! BJ and I seemed to find great cards for each other that really summed up how we feel about this time in our lives. BJ's card said this: "Someday, many years from now, we'll look back on this crazy time in our life together and wonder how we did it all ... and then, those ordinary, everyday moments that we often take for granted will shimmer like stars as we recount them." Sitting at the edge of the Mystic River watching the sun go down on a wedding reception at the restaurant where BJ and I ate dinner last weekend will be one of those starry memories. How special to celebrate our anniversary by being outside observers of a new marriage just getting started.
My card to BJ summed up perfectly how I feel about being relocated from friends and family in this major life transition: "Everyone has a path in life -- loving you is my path. For me, the future isn't about where I'm going. It's about where we're headed together and what we'll share along the way. ... (mushy stuff edited) ... I know without a doubt that I want to go on walking the same path with you forever."
I think paying some greeting card writers/companies a combined fee of $6.72 for words that express perfectly our sentiments towards each other as well as towards this life stage was well worth it. Ahh, Abbi has a sentimental side ... who knew? And how many ellipses can I put into one blog post?

My Pile O' Pink

People warned me, and I just didn't believe them...Until now... Norah, decked out in a pink onesie, with a pink bib, and a pink blanket behind her, have shown me that it IS possible to have an entire load of laundry of pink clothes. It's a good thing we like the color pink!

(Norah started eating rice cereal this week, and she is just the cutest thing learning how to eat!)

My son the fish

We went to my aunt Dona's pool on Wednesday night for a cook-out while my mom was in town (and a spontaneous celebration of my grandparents' 65th anniversary--WOW). Toby, with his life jacket on, swam all over the pool all by himself for about an hour and a half. I lasted about 45 minutes with the kids in the pool before I got too cold. Toby stayed in a while longer before dinner. Then we got him out of the pool long enough to eat. Somehow he decided that he could go back in the pool (at about 7 o'clock--the sun was almost set and it was getting cold!). So he runs off to a corner and takes off all his clothes! He proceeds to run laps around the swimming pool looking for his swimsuit--buck naked infront of 20 dinner guests! My cousin's daughter Siobhan decided she wanted to go back in the pool too, so they swam together for another half hour! It was pretty impressive!

My Painter

Toby needed an activity to stay occupied while I unpacked. Here's one that worked and we got some cute pictures out of it too. I put food coloring into piles of shaving cream and gave him some tin foil to paint on. I drew a scene in marker (a red umbrella on a beach) and had him color it in.
He's so cute when he's into a task!

My Reminder

It's rained off and on almost every day since we got here. And even though that really stinks because we can't go outside during (as well as before and after) the rain storms I at least have pictures available on the internet to remind me of where we live. In case you haven't visited yet this is a picture of Avery Point campus surrounded by the Thames River and Groton beach on the top and several marinas on the bottom. It looks out over Fisher's Island and on Saturday morning we walked to campus (you can actually see our house in this picture--roughly) and looked out at Long Island. No kidding. So this place has potential.
As far as where our house is located in the picture? See where all the boats are moored? The solo dock on the right is a straight shot from our front door. If I put my car in reverse starting in our driveway and floored it I could drive straight off that dock (with nothing but boats to block my way). But I wouldn't do that because right now our car is the most valuable thing we own....

My 9th Anniversary "Celebration"?

BJ and I attempted to celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary tonight by going out to eat. We wanted to go to our favorite family gathering place that we had the last time we were living here--Portabellos. We were dismayed to discover that sometime between May of 2006 and August of 2008 the restaurant closed. So we had to settle for a simple restaurant in downtown Willimantic called The Post Office (actually it's now the Main Street Cafe and Brewery and much more expensive than we remembered).
I say that we attempted to celebrate because Toby put on a real show for the other diners in the restaurant. From playing keep-away with BJ in the parking lot on the way into the restaurant to the five times we had to leave the table for time out in the bathroom (yes, five times) Toby single-handedly ruined our nice night out. On the way home BJ and I reflected on just how awful his behavior was (and we couldn't pinpoint a reason for it), and we decided that he has never acted so poorly at a restaurant before. Not ever. It got so bad at one point another waitress came up and asked, "What is he, about three? Don't worry, it gets better. I was about to pull my hair out with my three-year-old." Nice. How's that supposed to make us feel? Better? I think I would have rather had the manager ask us to leave. It was that bad. I was so horribly embarrassed the only thing keeping us there to "finish" our meals was the desire to celebrate our anniversary with some time together. So much for that idea. At least I have the leftovers. Hopefully we'll buy a microwave soon so I can eat the leftovers and enjoy a hot meal and laugh at the memory of just how bad Toby was. Really, even if someone had a video camera there taping us you still wouldn't believe it was Toby acting out. So it will be a while before we attempt another meal out with Toby.

My Internet Problem

My Internet problem is that I can't seem to spend more than a day or two away from it. I wouldn't call it an addiction because I can quit at any time (really I can). But it felt like I was doing something wrong by not checking email several times a day or reading up on the latest buzz about Stephenie Meyer's newest book (yes, I admit to liking books that are written for teenage girls). It was nice to not be distracted from the task at hand (unpacking a 1900-square-foot house to fit into a 1000-square foot cottage), but once our Internet was hooked up this morning I jumped back into old habits. I must learn from this last week of Internet-less living. It can be done. Plenty of people don't have access at home. I saw many of them at the library when I went on Friday to check my email! It's just not as easy to do at the library when you've got two small children to keep an eye on while trying to read the super important emails you get as a housewife and mother of two small children....Hmmmmm.

My Crappy Hot Day

The disadvantages to moving in the middle of July: Monday 90 degrees, Tuesday 90 degrees, Wednesday 90 degrees, Thursday 90 degrees, Friday 90 degrees...No air conditioning; Being surrounded by cardboard boxes (I hate the smell of cardboard); Saying goodbye (while sweating in the non-air conditioned 90 degree heat); Recovering from saying goodbye over several bottles of wine with great friends while being surrounded by cardboard boxes, 90 degree heat without air conditioning, and two hot cranky kiddos....
Did I mention that it's going to be 90 degrees or higher all week here in the Springs?
Ugh. I make excuses to run errands just to get into my air conditioned car or a store! Not very green of me, I know.

My Babysitter

I think we should send PBS a large check just for the fact that all of Toby's favorite cartoons are on PBS. Right now he's jumping on the bed shouting "Mom! Bob the Builder's on! Come and see!" I should be getting ready for church. It's nice to have the 3 year old occupied while attempting to get ready in the morning (or check email for a second). The cool thing about Connecticut public television (which might be our only TV option) is that you get 3 PBS stations: Boston, Rhode Island, and Connecticut! :)

My Kids are Helping Me How?

Trying to downsize our stuffed animal collection means we have to take them all out to play. Which equates to: no packing or giving away animals; take pictures instead!

My Superman

This is how Toby helps me pack. He finds his old Halloween outfit and wants to wear it today. While I pack one box he is unpacking another! So fun.

My Countdown

Hard to believe there are only 7 more days in this house. The moving van will be here one week from today. Yikes! Any idea how long my to-do list is? Well, there's one full page for every room of the house, it seems...
We're looking forward to cooking a ton of food to use up what we have in the freezer. It reminds me of the time that BJ's mom cooked up all that meat from her freezer before she moved to Ohio (how long ago was that???). BJ and a bunch of UNC wrestlers ate all that meat until they made themselves sick! I don't think we have that much meat to use, but there is a Prime Rib involved.
The kids are sleeping (glorious synchronization--who knows how long it will last), so it's off to more pre-packing duties!

My 4th of July

We had a great time for the 4th. We went to Keystone for three nights with my parents and my older sister and her family. It was really fun. This is a perfect visual to highlight the trip. BJ looks tired (which he was--he came up late after a Collective Soul concert and graciously took the uncomfortable sofa bed). I look sunburned (we walked to the downtown area of Keystone's resort at least twice every day). Toby looks wired (he didn't get to bed before 9:30 every night). Norah looks the most well-rested because, well, she slept a lot. She actually slept through the night for the first time while we were there.
It was really fun, and while the fireworks were simple, we got to sit really close and they echoed throughout the valley of Keystone. Toby (and Norah) really enjoyed them. The best part for me was to watch the fireworks through Toby's eyes. It was like seeing them for the first time. He got so excited and at one point he stood up and yelled "Oh my gosh!" So cute.

My Summer Vacation

The news came in this week: I passed my comprehensive exams!
I will officially be a "master" of something (once I get my piece of paper in the mail that declares it). That feels nice. It feels even better to know that I have no desire to go back to school in any way, shape, or form in the future. Just in time, I'd say, considering we're going to be spending about 3 years with BJ back in school shortly. So this is the last of the summer vacations we'll have for a WHILE. And of course (leave it to the Strawsers) it won't feel like we're on summer vacation because we'll be downsizing and prepping our house to get ready for moving day--a mere two weeks from now and all our earthly belongings will be stuffed on a truck heading east. Sad day.

So my summer reward for finishing my master's has come and gone: I read Stephenie Meyer's newest book, The Host. Roughly 600 pages of interesting Sci-Fi mixed with a little bit of lovey-dovey stuff--completely clean because, after all, she is a Mormon housewife you know. It felt good to read a book and not have to review it or get tested on it, so that's all I'm going to say about my "reward" book. I am still waiting for that perfect margarita (now that it's official).... That will be a nice end to a short summer vacation, too.

My Morning Alone

Oh glorious day!
BJ took Norah to church and my parents have Toby for the weekend. I got time to spend all by myself this morning! Of course I used to it finish my exams, but still--it was so nice! I forgot what it feels like to have a quiet house in the morning. This is completely different to having the house quiet in the night-time; the kids are sleeping, the house is dark and creepy then. But I just love my house in the morning with the sun streaming in the kitchen window.
It could just be that everything is more beautiful and bright now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of my master's program....It's a beautiful day at the end of this tunnel!

My First Third Birthday Party

Toby had fun (I think) at his party last Friday. Did BJ and I have fun? Well, it certainly was stressful trying to keep track of so many families, and Toby just thought it was a free-for-all with gifts and cake. I asked Toby what he did for his birthday and he said "I got a race car cake all by myself." He's really into the "all by myself" phase. Except when it comes to potty training. Who says we get to just pick the things we'd like to do ourselves and then leave other things for mom and dad to take care of? I'd like to see Toby's list when he's an adult of the things he's doing all by himself and the things that he's expecting someone else to do for him. Hopefully the latter part of the list is shorter than it is now...

My Blog Titles

A quick word about the titles of each blog...
No, I don't intend to leave BJ out of the family blog. He's welcome to post anytime he wants to. The trend to start each post with "My" in the title stems from the TV show Scrubs. The show has been on NBC for over 5 years and every episode is titled "My____." There's a link under the Favorites column. It's like Friends, where each episode is called "The one where ____." This is kind of like that. Except I'm not making any claims that my life and thoughts are as interesting or funny as JD's (the narrator and main character of Scrubs). I also am not making the claim that these posts are all about me me me. It was just a fun way to start a blog. I don't know if it will stick or not. We'll see how long it works. Maybe after the first hundred posts of "My" I'll start with "Our" in the title and see how long that lasts. Fun little writing experiment--not narcissistic I hope!
P.S. I am really supposed to be working on finishing master's projects and studying for comps, but Toby's not asleep yet and it's much easier to try and distract myself with this than homework!

My Sleepy Car Ride

I love it when my kids sleep in the car! They were worn out from a busy 24 hours so they fell asleep almost as soon as I got them buckled in their car seats. I returned home yesterday afternoon from a quick trip to Denver to visit my parents and spend time with Kelli and Lincoln, after Toby's birthday pool party. I took my dad out for coffee for Father's Day (a week late). He had some really encouraging advice about our upcoming move, which I appreciated very much. He said we should try to think about how to use our gifts in our new situation, how to improve on what we find in CT. He said that we get to start with a new attitude out there; even though we're leaving here with an attitude of "this sucks" the people we meet out there can think of it as "bravery" for starting a new career path.
So on the way home I thought about that conversation and everything that's gone wrong leading up to this move (that post will probably come at a later date--just to document the pile o' crap we've had dumped on us). The song "Ruin Me" by the Jeff Johnson Band came on the radio. Even though both of my kiddos were zonked out in the back seat I turned the radio up as far as I could stand and sang along (truthfully I turned it up really loud in order to not hear myself singing along!). The lyrics, which I can't find anywhere except on other people's blogs, highlight what I think God is trying to drill through our heads at this present time. Here they are:
Woe to me I am unclean
A sinner found in your presence
I see You seated on your throne
Exalted your glory surrounds You

Now the plans that I have made
Fail to compare
When I see your glory

Ruin my life
The plans that I've made
Ruin desires for my own selfish gain
Destroy the idols that have taken your place
Till it's You alone I live for
You alone I live for
You can visit Jeff Johnson's myspace page to hear the song.
So now you know, if you see some lunatic driving in her silver Honda with two sleeping kids in the back seat and she's singing her lungs out, it's probably to this song. (She's driving very safely, of course, just singing her lungs out.)

My Attachments

We had some friends over last night that just had a baby three weeks ago. They asked if Norah has attached to anything. My response was, "anything soft." But Toby never really attached to any one thing. Instead, he now has to be carrying something with him (see the car and the cup in the photo?). In this picture they are both trying to blow spit bubbles. Norah's pretty good at it (she learned from her cousin Lincoln last week).
So this conversation got me wondering....Did I have any attachments as a child? Do I have any now? I remember that I had a bear I really liked and I lost it after church one day. Since I've been through the "I lost my little dog!" phase with Toby I have to say "thanks" to my parents for trying to appease me when I lost that bear. We've been to the Y twice to reclaim lost things before bed. They pretty much don't let Toby bring anything to the Y anymore because he tends to leave things there--all because their toys are much better than what he brings. That's why he hasn't attached to anything, I think. He's always ready to play with something else.
My attachments now are probably my kids. I feel weird going out in public alone without them. (Going out with BJ is just such a treat it's never weird to be without the kids.) When I'm solo I'm usually running errands or studying for school. So I feel incomplete without the baby carrier or Toby running by my side. I remember feeling this way after Toby was born. I felt like I needed the baby with me as if to announce, "ok, I'm only this heavy because I just had a baby. I'm not normally this big." So my attachments were born out of my own pride and self-consciousness.

My Cynicism

I'm guessing I may have to edit the title of this post to say "Part I" because I don't think I've gotten through the cynicism of moving and everything that it entails..... But I found this picture online and it made me laugh so hard! A little background: I have to read so many stupid posts for my online masters classes. Over the past two years I've had to put up with certain people's typos and "Yes, I totally agree!" postings. It's difficult to carry on an intelligent conversation about literature or library administration via email, but that's basically what this masters program tries to do. So I'm down to the last two weeks of class before my comprehensive exams. I thought about adding this picture as my signature line for the last week of class just to show that I don't care about trying to impress anyone anymore. I don't know if it would go over well... :)

My Dark House

It's amazing how creepy a house can be when there are no lights on... I've gotten into the habit while BJ's away of putting the kids to bed and then keeping the house dark and quiet. It's a nice silence. But it gets really creepy after a while when I hear things go "bump" and I'm blinded by the light of the computer screen. I think I'm going to be blind by the time I'm 35 from all the time I spend staring at a computer screen in a dark room... Oh my gosh, 35 is only 5 years away....

My To-Do list

What can be said about procrastination? When I am staring at the mountain of things on my To-Do list and just keep adding more (and the ones I add are things I've done anyway just so I can check them off!)?
Why do I do this? I have these huge projects before me: paint the kitchen, fix the leak in the pipes that's causing water to seep into the basement, downsize our belongings by half, finish my masters, and so on.... Yet all I want to do is sit here at the computer and surf and read trashy gossip or sit and watch Norah blow spit bubbles. I don't see much hope for myself. And yet the laundry continues to pile up.
I can't imagine working full time in the fall, and yet sometimes I feel like I was more efficient with the house-keeping when I was working full time. Oh wait, that was before these kids came along. I'm sure I could keep a perfect home and accomplish everything on my To-Do list if I didn't have to run around wiping noses and bottoms and cleaning up after someone (or three someones?). But I tell you what, there's nothing in the world that could make me give up the time I spend with my kids. Not even the allure of an accomplished To-Do list.

My Long Night

Yeah, it's almost 4:00 in the morning as I write this. What's got me up at this hour? (And typing on the computer instead of trying to get back to sleep for that matter???) Not my 3 month old, believe it or not (although she is what woke me out of my sound sleep 45 minutes ago).
Money.
I hate it. I hate that we've had money (income, that is) for the last 8 years and now we don't. That's a scary thing. And I mean really scary. It's funny to me that I can actually count the years that we've had income. Our first year of marriage we had nothing. We lived on school loans. I think I might have made $300 a month in my work study position. The rent and tuition money came from school loans. Loans we are still paying off to this day (and will for another 6 years or so I'd guess). I got my first teaching job paying $24,000 in Johnstown in 2000 and I thought that was so much money (compared to nothing it was a lot of money--but I wasn't deluded into thinking I was being well paid mind you). Then in 2001 we moved to the Springs and I started out making $28,000 in D-11. Again, a nice pay raise but not ever thinking that we made a lot of money. I don't even know how much BJ started making. It's always been like that since he started in the AF. Maybe it's because he didn't get a paycheck from the AF for the first few months. Maybe it's because we always seemed to make enough to live on, you know.
I didn't know how nice we had it. Until now. There's something shocking that no one tells you when a spouse looses their job: there will be a time when the money runs out. It's only shocking because it's glaringly obvious and yet you never seem to see it coming. That's why I'm up right now listening to the train whistle blow from across the highway. (On a tangent, I always hated when Toby would be up in the middle of the night but it seemed special to me when he'd quiet down enough from whatever was keeping him up to hear the train whistle. That was just a nice mother-son moment when he'd whisper "the train!" to me.)
And now I've heard something go "bump" in the night twice since I've started typing and I think I'm going to go check it out.....

My Book Lover

If you only knew...
I put Toby to bed at 8:30 tonight. At 9:30 I heard a rustling sound coming from his room. If you can see the clock, it says 9:35 PM!