January 10, 2009 Emily flies to VA, and Museum of Science

Our day started very early. Mike woke me up at 4am with a cup of coffee. I climbed out of our nice warm bed (thanks to our electric blanket) and out into the cold world. Quickly dressed, woke Emily and started the van while Mike showered. I carried Dan down from the loft and directly into the van, we left the house at 4:35am.
The trip to Boston was uneventful. Danny didn't fall back to sleep, but rather kept himself busy with his Leapster. Emily seemed calm and happy. We arrived at Logan a few minutes before 6am. Checked Emily's bag in at Jet Blue and sat to wait at the airport D&D until the boarding of Emily's flight was imminent. Then we ushered her to security, gave her a hug and watched her as she entered and exited the checkpoint. She was on her way. Mike, Dan and I went in search of the observation area, unfortantely when we finally found it we couldn't see her plane. With no time to move again, we waited to see her plane in the air, since we did have a good view of the end of the run way. That's her plane airborne just as the sun was breaching the horizon. I couldn't help but think what a wonderful adventure and what a great day for flying. Another first for my not so little girl.
Mike, Dan and I found the car. Paid the $12 it cost to park for 2 hours and headed for The Boston Museum of Science. While in route, Dad called and since I'd neglected to find out what time the museum opened enlisted Dad to check for us. We ended the call with love and thanks, and asked him to let us know when Emily had safely landed in Richmond. We went to the museum and even though the exhibits didn't open until 9am the museum itself was opened so we strolled and took advantage of the bathrooms, and the sights to be seen from the outside. Dan did find a sign that said Live animals this way, so following the signs we made our way to the basement where sure enough the animals lived. There were snakes, rabbits (not in the same cage) two white ferrets and our favorite a Meercat. She was really cool, obviously very aware we were there and very curious. She blinks from the bottom lid up, very strange to see. We liked her and I sent a picture text to Em knowing she would like her too. We made our way back upstairs a few minutes before 9am and just as we were shoving our coats into lockers got a text from Emily saying she'd landed. I was relieved and continued to text back and forth with her until she'd found Vavo, claimed her bag and were on their way home. The boys and I bought our tickets, decided we'd see a 3D shark movie at 10am and started exploring the museum. As always lots to see and do. Our collective favorite was the taxidermy room. We were all very impressed by the saber tooth tiger skull, and the Kodiak and polar bears. Dan loved the shark movie, the guys looked pretty daper in their glasses. We finished exploring just about noon. Paid $13 to park there for 4 hours. With the $5 per person library pass and the movie admission for all of us the total was $28. Not too bad for a morning at the museum. We quickly found the highway and made our way home, with a brief stop at Old McDonalds in Plymouth for an on the road lunch. We arrived home at 1:30pm. Full and tired and we all layed down for a nap. It was a good day. Emily's happily visiting her grandfather and Kathy for 12 days, Dan had a great time at the museum and I had a night of work to look forward to. Unhappily another snow storm as well. Winter in New England.....

January 8, 2009 Harmon Girls, Emily's trip to VA

We had a mostly quiet day on Sunday, it was miserably cold and I can't help wishing I were someplace warm. I have a friend in Ft. Lauderdale who keeps nudging me to visit and since a trip down to help a friend move fell through I'm itchy to go. However Emily was the one we were booking a flight for very late on Sunday night when I got home from work. Emily will be flying Jet Blue Boston to Riohmond on Saturday January 10th and returning Thursday January 22nd. I'm glad she's going and I know she'll have a great time, although I'm still working on Mike to take Dan up skiing for the long MLK weekend so I can go to the beach. We'll have to see what happens. I did enjoy a wonderful Monday, I dropped Danny off at school at 9am - then drove to the Shinning sea trail in Falmouth for a run. We'd had icing the night before so the first mile or so on the trail was ice skating, but as the sun rose the trail melted and I enjoyed the much needed exertion. A long leisurely coffee break was followed by another high energy sprint back. I wasn't sure how long it would take me to do the round trip so Emily agreed to pick up Dan at school and since she didn't get to see the Tale of despereax with Dan and I on Friday decided she wanted to take him to see Disney's bedtime story. With time to spare I did some shopping and met them at home a little after 2pm. I had a terrific morning,was glad to have expended some much needed energy and have some time to enjoy myself. Since I had to work I set up roast chicken, mashpee potatoes and asparagus for Em throw in the oven.
Tuesday I had a doctors appt with a new gynocologist. My current midwife is in Wareham and with no future plans to have children decided it was time to find somebody closer. My primary suggested a doctor in Falmouth who is only a Gynocologist and just recently got appointed to chief of Surgery. We met only for a consult but I liked him instantly. I had orginally planned on taking Dan with me but Buzz was taking the girls to the CC children's museum and invited me to drop him off there so I could go alone, I agreed. My appt went a little long so Buzz decided to take all the kids to our house until I got home. It was good to come home to a house full of children. Joey ran into my arms yelling with arms flailing. I miss those girls sometimes! We fed them lunch and the kids played, Dan was so happy to have them there. We set them up with movies upstairs, Joey and Ruby took turns using Buzz and I as trampolines, we finally got them sort of settled down and watched Hook for a while. 5pm came and it was time for them to go. Dan wanted a toy with his birthday money from the Stop and Shop in Mashpee commons, the house was trashed and with only a vague idea of what I was making for dinner knew we needed to get moving. I decided to try making french onion soup with scali bread patti melts. Of course saw 3 people we knew at the store and arrived home at 6pm in a frenzy trying to get dinner made before Mike got home. With just about everything done, table set, swiss cheese happily burbling on top of a very nice french onion broth, and crunchy french bread cubes, 3 inch thick patti melt sandwiches nearly perfectly browned, Mike pulled in and declared he wasn't really hungry! UGH!!!! He ate a little anyway, dinner was good. I had made a piece of salmon for me, with some mixed vegetables. We cleaned up dinner and settled in for a quiet night.
Wednesday we woke up to rain with a one inch layer of slushy ice coating everything. I had to make a quick trip out to the store, so we dropped Seneca's bottle off with Buzz at work then went stopped at Cape Maid farms so Dan could play with the animals. On our way home we stopped at Stop and Shop in Marston's Mills to pick up dinner. Danny decided it should be ravioli, garlic bread and salad. We picked up what we needed and left. However I'd forgotten that Dan had brought his leapster into the store, we had used one of the car carts and accidently left it there. I didn't notice until I got home and since it's at least a 10 minute ride frantically called the store asking if anybody had turned it in. I got a very rude person who was no help at all. I drove back and thankfully found in right where we left it. That leapster is the difference between a nice quiet 4 hour flight to Florida in February or a very loud obnoxious one.

November 5, 2008 Em's road test, Ed's election, President elect Obama

We've been very busy since the last time I blogged! Monday pretty much went as scheduled. Other then driving Em back and forth to work it was a pretty quiet day, which was good because Tuesday promised to be extremely busy. Mike and I both got up early Tuesday morning, took showers and headed to the polls to vote. I didn't vote for McCain because I wanted him to be President, I voted for him because I didn't want Barack Obama to be. He makes me very nervous and I felt that I'd rather have more of the same over the unknown.
Mike and I arrived home only minutes before Mom and Mo arrived. Em drove Mom to the registry while I drove with Dan in Em's car. We arrived right on time, walked up to the road test desk, checked in and were told to drive around the back and wait. Mom drove up so Em could use her car but her insurance information wasn't on her registration and rather then the registry calling the insurance company to get it we decided that Em would just take the test in her car, with Mom as her sponsor. The instructor told her it would be about 20 minutes so while she waited Dan and I went over to Shaws to get an embroidery needle so I could finish my poncho and decided while we were there we'd get a card for Em, and a couple of "congratulations on your new car and license" gifts. We bought armoral and glass wipes, a $15 gas gift card, and a couple packs of her favorite gum. Then we waited out back, camera in hand, for the test to start. The instructor asked Em to turn on her high beams, but she turned on her windshield wipers with spray instead...good thing the instructor had a great sense of humor and instructed her to where the high beams probably were. The rest of the test went well, Em did a great job and passed with flying colors. $60 and a signature got her a temporary licence and we were done. I'm very proud of her. She drove home following us down Rt 28 from Yarmouth and flinched for just a minute as we passed the Cape Cod Mall. She's been coveting a sweatshirt at one of the shops and Mom and I thought just maybe she might get brave and go her own way. She didn't and followed us home until she got to Pimlico Pines then she took the first road and pulled into the driveway just before us at which time Mo knew she'd passed the test. Mo took Mom's car home and Emmy drove Mom, Danny and I to Sweet Tomatoes to celebrate. We had an incredible Pesto and Feta pizza, and a Cesear salad before Em drove us to RI. Our first stop once in Middletown was to check on Fran who was working the polls at Middletown High School, then up to Sachuest Point for a walk where Dan was excited to see two white tailed deer, then stopped in at Royal Plaza Hotel to see how Ed was doing and ended up staying there for the rest of the night. The hotel was closed except for Ed's party. Ed had a room right between the lobby and the lounge where the party was being held, and invited the kids and I to spend the night. We agreed, brought in the bags and settled in. Dan ran around and eventually knocked over a huge bar and broke the lamps that were on top. Thank you Kristin and Alicia for cleaning up the mess! He had a small cut on his hand but was otherwise unharmed. Darned kid! People came and went and as the night progressed the excitement rose. Paul stopped in to say Hi < and have a drink with me. Yes, I am drinking on occasion and am really trying to learn moderation. It was good to see him and catch up but between the noise in the room and Dan's bar tipping fiasco we didn't really get a chance to talk. Glad we'll have a quiet chance to catch up on Saturday. Ed's friend Jonathan arrived and treated me to one of the best hugs I've had in ages, it was good to see him as well.
Em helped Alicia pick up the pizza's and a Sushi platter that was incredible. I ate more then my fair share. We watched as the results come in and were thrilled for Ed when he came in 3rd place. http://www.ri.gov/election/results/2008/general_election/middletown/ He shared the win with some of his favorite running mates, which should make for a very effective council. Ed and Zach hopped in a limo for the ride up to the Biltore in Providence to wait for the national election results as Alicia, Taylor and I cleaned up. Emmy decided she wanted to spend the night at Mom's house rather then stay at the hotel. We kissed her and Mom goodnight and told her to pick us up at 7am for the ride home. Dan sacked out immediately but I tossed and turned for a while. I finally fell asleep but awoke at 2am probably curious about the Presidential race and was saddened when I turned on the TV to see Obama giving his acceptance speech. I was pretty sure he'd win but was holding onto hope. He spoke well and I was impressed with his promise of a brighter tomorrow. I can't tell you how much I hope to be wrong about the man. I eventually fell back to sleep only to awake at 6am, I put the news back on and watched the RI state winners and losers scroll across the screen. Rather then shower I decided to dress and pack up. At 6:55am I woke Dan up and told him it was time to go. Em pulled up right outside, jumped out of her car and walked toward the lobby doors. She disappeared only to reemerge pointing to the door. I walked out to the lobby and noticed everything was dark, no lights, no front desk person and upon trying the doors found them locked. Hmmm.....very strange. Then it occurred to be, the hotel was closed for 3 days except for the party. I wonder if the manager didn't realize we were there! Dan walked out in his PJ's and I started trying doors, then noticed a release on the window in our room and figured if nothing else we could leave that way. I wasn't exactly thinking straight. But the window was blocked and although it would open it was only about 4 inches wide. Enough room to pass some of the stuff out to Em, and possibly get Dan out but certainly not me! I finally took a deep breath and stopped to think. There must be an emergency exit here some where and started making my way down the dark hall. Sure enough we found an exit, tried the door which opened sans alarms and promptly left via the back of the building. Whew! I was having a Bates motel moment! Dan, Em and I made a quick stop at D & D for breakfast sandwiches, juice, coffee and hash browns before Emmy drove us home. We made it home just in time to drop Dan and I off so Emmy could go to work. Dan and I showered, and changed and went to story time at the Sandwich library. It was teddy bear day and their craft was to make nature crowns. Dan had a good time, but was ready to be home. We passed Emmy, who didn't have to work till 1pm due to schedule confusion, on our way home. She had both dogs and was on her way to meet us at the library. It's strange having a child with so much independence but it feels good too. I have school tonight, and Mike has a wood turners meeting so Em will be babysitting Dan. I wonder if they will stay in or go out....

October 22, 2008 Walking and more grown up things for Emily

We awoke on Sunday morning to a beautiful cool fall day. We had breakfast and since nobody had to be anywhere until 2:30 I asked Mike and the kids to join me on a walk. They all agreed and we decided we'd check out the trail of tears off of Rt 149 in Barnstable, a 10 minute drive from our house. It was a nice path through the woods, Dan placed his arrows when we came to a new path. Marley found a ball and had Emily throw it for the duration of the walk. We were in the woods for nearly an hour before making our way back to the van. The ride home was filled with the sounds of "I found another tick" and we promptly frontlined Sampson who made it through the entire summer without needing it. In all we removed over 50 ticks between the 4 of us! Dan and I worked on wrapping his friend Justin's birthday present and making him a card for his 2:30 party, at which Dan had a great time. I went to work and enjoyed the quiet but efficient company of my Assistant Manager, as predicted we were done with hours to spare.
Monday morning we took Emily to work, then did some grocery shopping for the week, and came home and did laundry. It was a perfect fall day, with a brisk north wind. I dried our sheets on the line in 30 minutes and happily dried 4 loads in one day. I think that's a record! Dan, Marley and i took a walk down Cove Rd, to Shore Drive then through the woods home. It's a 40 minute walk and Dan really enjoys it. Monday night I worked as well, and again were done with only minor things left to do at 7:30. My Assitant Manager and I are now fighting for customers just to keep busy! My how the pendulum has swung!
Tuesday Dan and I took Em to work again and since it was another nice day and all the laundry was done we decided we'd spend some time at the playground. We pulled in and found the Harmon's there. Buzz and I had a chance to catch up while the kids played. We had lunch at the playground then since Dan's been nagging me to go we went over to the Cape Cod Children's museum http://www.capecodchildrensmuseum.org/to play for a little while before having to pick Emmy up at work at 2pm. I spoke to James at Citizen's bank when I was there on Monday about opening a checking account for Emily so she'll have a debit card. I've gone back and forth about whether I wanted her to have one and ultimately decided I'd rather help her navigate money management and banking under my supervision before she's old enough to do it on her own. So after work we went down to talk to James who set Emily up with her own Checking account under our account. The stipulations are that she will have $50 direct deposited into her checking account every week and all the rest will be direct deposited into her savings account. As it stands Mike and I are the only ones with access to online banking on all the accounts so I'm pretty confident it's a good way to start. She excitedly ordered In the Wild checks until she saw the price. Hey kid....this is real life now!
Wednesday was another busy day, Dan, Em and I all went to the Sandwich Library for Mr. Parson's storytime, then headed to Wareham to follow up with a recommendation from one of the Saturn dealership salesmen about Spirit Auto in Buzzards Bay. We pulled into the parking lot. The man Russ, who we were told to speak with, promptly met us in the parking lot. We told him what we were looking for and he directed us to a 1998 Ford Contour 84K miles, $2900. And somehow it felt right.....He said he hadn't looked at it yet, but was due to go in tomorrow and would give us a call. Em's calling it hers, hopefully we'll all go check it out Friday afternoon after she gets off work. On the way home, we decided we'd go take a ride to 4C's. I had to schedule another math assessment test to try and bring up my grade by 12 points to avoid a remedial math course, and since we were there I thought we'd check with the GED office about scheduling Emily's test. Everybody was very nice, and it was amazing how anti public, pro home school everybody was. Em will take the GED test next month and if she passes it could start college as early as this coming spring. I'm so excited for her, and wished that college had been an option for me at her age. I think I could have done well in the community college live at home setting.
I'm excited to report that I'm confident that I aced my Sociology test tonight. I was confident about the first test too, but completely studied the wrong information and came away with only a C+ (I cried) this time I'm confident I gave him what he was looking for....I'll find out in a week.

September 12, 2008

Friday started of quietly. Dan pulled out his piggy bank and asked Emily to help him count what was in there. It turned into a lengthy lesson in counting money. I weeded the front gardens, the pea patch and the tomato garden. We did a dump run and cleared the playground from toys that children over 4 no longer use.


Mom arrived and took Emily to Sweet tomatoes http://sweettomatoesinc.com/index.htm for lunch, while I showered and Mike, Dan and I went over to Marshland 2 to meet Wayne for lunch. Dan had beanies and weinies, I had grilled swordfish tips, with mashed sweet potatoes and rice, and Mike had an enormous bacon burger. As I watched him take his first bite, grease dripping from the bacon sticking out the bottom I thought... YUCK. It's been 10 weeks since I've eaten any meat, and my reaction to that burger makes me wonder if I'll ever eat it again.
I took Dan home for a nap, while Mike went to Waynes house to firm up some details for the Cranberry festival and the Al Stirt Demo next weekend. I read quite a bit of Chapter 3 in Sociology before Mom arrived. After lunch, Emily drove her to Mashpee High School to pick up her friend TJ from school. Mom let Emily drive TJ from the High School to the common's which admittedly is only a mile down the road, however I've yet to allow Emily to drive anybody except Mike, Dan and I. Sarah met Em and TJ there and brought her home when they were done. Dan woke from his nap and he, Mom and I took seperate cars up to Stop and Shop. She needed Chocolate chip cookie fixings and we needed to shop for men's night and football. Who ever has men's night is respondsible for providing GAK on Sunday for football. It's a dip made from hamburger, onions, olives, green peppers, salsa, and cheese whiz, served with corn chips. It looks like vomit, so we named it GAK.
For men's night we decided on fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, cesear salad, and brownie sundae's for dessert. The night went well, Diane and I did some research on a nudist campground http://www.sandyterraces.com/ down the road since she was appalled that the newspaper was always running it's ads. Everybody went home and I quickly fell asleep on the couch. Dan however was wide awake and Mike put him to bed sometime later.

August 11, 2008 Mom's 60th Birthday party

Saturday was fairly uneventful. I woke up a little after 7am, quickly drank my garden patch and took my vitamins then hustled Marley out the door for a run. While I was out I noticed a peculiar rattling sound while passing in front of the field next to Cape Cod Pediatrics on Rt 130 and wondered if it was a lyricen chorus. Gerry says we have them in Falmouth so it wouldn't be very surprising to find them in Forestdale. I made a note to check my sound files later and decided it was indeed lyricen that I was hearing. Made our way home in time to drive Emily to work. Mike, Dan and I then set out to turn in cans and bottles down at the local package store and then headed home for lunch and a nap. I had about an hour at the beach before it was time to take a shower and dress before picking up Em at work at 4pm and then heading to work myself at 5pm. I walked into a different store on Saturday night and was thrilled that what I found on Friday wasn't the norm. JJ was there along with the Asst. Manager who was on till 8pm and did all the sweeping and mopping, and another girl who was on till 6pm. Much, much better. The night went along pretty uneventfully, and in slow motion compared to the night before. JJ and I left at 12:20 or so, and I arrived home to find Mike still awake and ready to hear about might.

Sunday morning we all slept in since nobody had to be up this morning! I was the first up however and decided I'd go for a walk. My walk turned into a run at the normal running spot and I was thrilled that even with work I managed to squeeze in three days running again this week. Came home to clean out the puppy cage and Dan noticed that Abigail's eyes were open! The pups are two weeks today and are really starting to move around, even walking at times. Let the games begin! Tank is still the largest by far, and even though Abigail was the last one born and slow to start she's ahead of the others developmentally.

Mike, Em, Dan and I piled in the car at 1pm and headed for Adam and Kristin's house for Mom's 60th Birthday party. Em drove the entire way, including over the Bourne Bridge. She was very nervous but quickly got the hang of highway driving and on several occasions had to be reminded that the speed limit was only 65. Dan quickly joined Alyssa, Megan, Taylor and Julia in the pool as soon as we arrived. Em went town to check out the chickens, who are really pretty neat! Mom arrived and the party started. Lots of food, veggie platter and casserole, chips, hot dogs and hamburgers, nacho dip, and king crab legs (thanks Ed) At one point Adam brought out a bottle of tequila and some Dixie cups and asked who wanted to do shots. The picture above shows the participants including the birthday girl. The party ended with Zachary taking an impromptu dip in the pool after picking on his old aunt all day. Em drove us home, and we arrived just after 7pm to a house full of miniature barking. The puppies learn so quickly! Here is a youtube video of the pups!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6nq0IlAwB0