November 1, 2008 Emmy's new car....finally!

The morning started quietly and I managed to get out of the house for a run before anybody else woke. 2 runs in 16 hours and I was feeling very motivated. It's been exactly 4 months since my diet and lifestyle change and I've happily lost 60lbs. That's a Danny and a half! According to my Wii fit I'm now within a normal weight range for my height, it estimates my optimal weight to be 136 lbs so I have 16 lbs to go or be able to fit into those size 8 shorts for Disney, whatever comes first. Dan and I took Emmy to work for 1pm while Mike stayed home to do some turning. Dan and I stopped at the grocery store on our way home, then layed down for a nap. Mike woke me up about an hour later saying that Russ from Spirit Auto called and said the car was ready. It was just after 3pm and I had to work at 5pm. Dan and I jumped out of bed and hopped in the van for the ride over. The car was parked in front and ready to go when we got there. I installed Dan's carseat, Mike checked the repairs and put her plates on. In minutes we were ready to go. We got home just after 4pm. I ate, dressed and since Em didn't know we had the car decided I'd take it to work with me, and Mike would pick Em up in the van explaining that the truck was having repairs. I really wanted to be there when she got it. However Mike primed Dan about the surprise and Danny was just too excited to keep it, and spilled the beans. I still got to give her the keys, and see that smile you only see so often these days. Em drove Mike and Danny home and I finished my night. I worked with the Assistant Manager tonight, but it's the last time for the week. I'll be working with kids and my Assistant Manager wished me good luck. I'll be responsible for the money, I've seen this before.

We have a busy week in store. Em's working on Monday. Potentially the last day Danny and I will have to drive her there. Tuesday is election day, which I can't wait to have over and fear the results. Mike and I will vote first thing that morning. Then Em has her road test at 9am and since we didn't have a car that qualified for the test, Mom is coming up from RI so Emily can use hers. Assuming she passes it we'll have a quick lunch before heading to RI to support Ed in his town council re- election campaign.
Wednesday Dan and I are going to do the "we don't have to drive Emmy to work" dance, and gladly push her out the door at 8:15am. He and I will then go to story time at the library, then come home for rest time which we've had to put on hold since we've had to pick Emmy up at 1pm most days. Mike has a woodturners meeting and I school so Em and Dan will hang out Wednesday night.
Thursday is a quiet day for us. Friday Em's working till 1pm then the kids and I are going to RI for a Relay for Life spaghetti dinner fundraiser that Alicia, Ed, and Kristin have organized. We're planning on spending the night and I'm looking forward to it!
I've been in touch via e-mail with my old D & D boss Paul who invited me to join him for breakfast Saturday morning to catch up. We visited briefly with Paul and his wife Paula (cute, I know) a couple of months ago after the Progeny cookout, but we were on our way home and the kids were anxious to go so didn't really get a chance to talk. Mike and I loved Key West the last time we were there and would love to do a trip down there without the kids. Since Paul lives there he's the perfect person to talk to. He was a big influence in my life, and taught me a lot about myself. It'll be good to get together, if Mom doesn't mind entertaining the kids for me for a little while Saturday morning!

October 21, 2008 Happy Halloween!

Since Dad got home so late last night we decided to wait until this morning to carve pumpkins. We were a little slow getting moving but once we did we were on a roll. Danny picked a wolf pattern for Daddy to carve, Em chose a funny dinosaur, and I, a cat. They came out pretty cute, can't wait to see what they look like tonight!

We finished up the pumpkins and since we needed to go to Walmart in Wareham anyway thought we'd stop in at Spirit Auto and see what was going on. When we arrived the car was no where to be seen. Mike and I went in and found the car in their one stall garage. Apparently the alternator came in and was replaced so they sent it across the street for an oil change and the technician over there found a rust hole in the oil pan so they were waiting for that part to come in. The promised it would be ready Saturday morning. We stopped at Sandwich Pizza on the way home then declared it nap time. Dan and Mike fell asleep nearly immediately, I tried but failed and decided instead to go for a run. I came home, took a quick shower and woke Mike and Dan up to get ready for trick or treating. Dan excitedly suited up and thought he looked great. If you can't tell he's Leonardo the teenage mutant ninja turtle. Since it was Mike & Laurie's men's night we made our way up there with our supplies then went back out to do some treating. We have maybe 10 houses in our neighborhood that participate which is just about perfect...not too much, not too little. Dan made sure to tell everybody that if they needed anything he'd be there to help. Pretty cute.

October 30, 2008 Happy Birthday Marley, Emily's car, Halloween

Another day begins and I woke wondering if we'd pick up Em's car today...I'm not holding my breath. Dan and I took Em to work, then to our Thursday playdate at the Oak Ridge Playground. We met Marcial, Ana and Tony there, we haven't seen them in a long time and it was good to catch up. Ana and Danny are the same age and the last time Danny saw Tony he couldn't talk. Dan was very excited when he found out that now he could and wanted to play hide and seek with Dan. He's gotten so big! Marcial is a hospitalist at Cape Cod Hospital, and just a sweet affectionate guy. It's always a treat to catch up with him! At noon we headed home for lunch and then off to pick up Em at work again. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store. Em's direct deposit hasn't started yet so I taught her how to make a deposit to both a checking and savings account with one check. Then we shopped for the making of pizza tonight. Last weekend seemed like too far away from Halloween to carve the pumpkins but we forgot to take into account that I was working Monday and Tuesday night, had school on Wednesday night and Thursday was Survivor, as well as Mikey working late to try to avoid working on Friday. Dan and Marley both needed a walk so we picked up Laurie and did our loop around Cove, Aritsan, Shore drive into the woods back to our house. When we arrived home, Dan asked if we could clean the pumpkins and I said sure. I'd lured Laurie into the house with a cup of tea, but promptly put her to work. Thanks for the help Laurie!
Spirit Auto finally called at 5:30pm to tell us the part never arrived today and they expect it tomorrow, we've heard that before. At this point I'm glad Mike will be able to come with us to pick it up. If something fishy is going on he'll flush it out.

October 29, 2008 Emmy's car, GED, and Sociology

It's Wednesday and we were supposed to pick up Em's car today. Emily is still not feeling well but has to work. We're planning to pick it up after work, but on the way in she said " Will it make it easier if I don't go to pick up the car with you" at which time I said "absolutely!" She gave me permission to pick it up without her. Although this will make life significantly easier for me, I worry that I've pushed her over the edge and she's completely overwhelmed with all that happened in the last few weeks. Dan and I dropped her off at work and immediately went to the registry in Falmouth for what I expected to be a long wait. I was pleasantly surprised when my number was called before I'd even removed it from the machine. To my surprise I had all the necessary paperwork and marveled how the registry has changed since my youth when 3 hour waits and missing paperwork were the norm. Five minutes later we left with Em's registration and headed home to wait for the phone to ring. At 1:30 Dan and I went to pick up Emmy from work and since we still hadn't heard took her directly to 4C's to fill out the GED application that they only take on Wednesdays. Orientation will be Thursday November 13th from 4:00 - 5:30 and the test will be on Tuesday November 18th and Thursday November 20th from 4:00-8:30. Since hopefully she'll be driving herself around by then I showed her where to park and where the classroom for the test was. We left there a little after 3pm and since we still hadn't heard anything about the car decided to call. Russ answered and said they'd found that the alternator was bad and expected the part to come in mid-morning Thursday. We went home and enjoyed a quiet afternoon before it was time to go to school. By the comments my professor has made I've concluded he's a democrat and since Obama's 30 minute info-mercial was due to air at 8pm I wasn't surprised when he let those of us who had already taken test 2, go at 7:30. On the way out he gave us our scores. I smuggly waited for my name to be called sure I had scored no less then an A+ on this exam. I was sadly mistaken and scored only a B. I could find only a couple of things he considered errors and am beginning to question his grading policy. I intend to talk to him next week.

October 28, 2008 Sick and Title

Mike and Em both woke up this morning with sore throats, at which time we concluded they both have Dan's cold. Dan is feeling significantly better and is attempting to expend all the energy he's stored up in the last few days. Em didn't need to be at work so we spent most of the morning sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. The dealer we used doesn't keep his titles in house, and the Title was due to arrive sometime this morning. We were hoping it would be early, so we could run up to Needham to have the insurance started then back to the registry, then finally back to the dealer to pick the car up. But the phone didn't ring until nearly 1:30 so the kids climbed into the van for the ride to Wareham, Em and I signed all the necessary papers and left there 10 minutes later with the title and RMV-1 form in hand. Eric is supposed to come by tonight to stamp the form and initiate the insurance. Dan and I will take a ride to the registry tomorrow before we pick Em up from work to register the car, then it's just a matter of picking her up and coming home so Laurie can give us a ride over to pick up the car. I'm glad it's almost done, and we can move on to her actually passing the road test. Dan had a good time painting his turtle shell, we hadn't taken shrinkage into account but Dan's happy with it anyway. We're running a little behind in Halloween preparation but with Mike, Em and I all home on Friday I'm sure we can get everything done!

October 27, 2008 Dr. Bowers,

I had an appointment with Doc. Bowers, who is our Primary. I had a small unhealed dot on my back that he said should be removed and rather then go to see a surgeon I opted to have him do it in office. No big deal. It seems strange to me that someone can do something painful to you and for you not to feel it. He numbed the spot and I watched him cut into my skin, knowing it should hurt. Then I watched him take a scalding hot instrument and not only touch it to the open wound but rub it. I could see the smoke and smell the flesh, but felt nothing...absolutely bizarre. As I sit and type this I'd never know that anything was amiss back there.

October 29, 2008 Update - Dr. Bowers just called to say the biopsy was negative. Hurray, guess I don't have to swear off the sun just yet! Florida here I come!

October 26, 2008 Happy Birthday Jonathan !

We spent early Sunday morning just hanging around. A quick moving but strong storm moved through on Saturday night so although it was warm, the morning was overcast and damp. We were all invited to Green Briar nature center for their annual Volunteer Brunch, so Dan, Mike and I went over there for 11:30. The spread of food was amazing. Lots of vegetable salads, raw fruit, and an incredible tomato and aspargus casserole that was to die for. I was in heaven. We walked down to the dock and spied the swans through a beautiful red maple tree, and I wished I'd brought my camera. Our terrificly calmed morning gave way to a chaotic afternoon. Since we had men's night we were respondisble for providing the GAK for the days 1pm Patriots game. Well, we

were at the grocery store shopping for the ingredients at 12:15, the picks still needed to be put into the computer, and when we arrived home found out that our next door neighbor needed help with his dock and another neighbor's tree and telephone pole caught on fire the night before and wanted to borrow one of our generators which was strategically hidden deep within the shed. Mike started the GAK while I did the picks, then he went to help our next door neighbor with the dock while I finished the GAK, then we both retrieved the generator from the shed. He was headed up the road with GAK in hand at 1:10pm.

Em and I went next door to see Mr. Remsen who is also our insurance agent who quoted us a price of $1911.00 for insurance for Emily. We made a plan to meet him here on Tuesday night, but we're hoping that we can pick up the paper work from the dealer early Tuesday morning, take a run up to Needham to have the insurance started, then come back down to the registry and finally take delivery of the car Tuesday afternoon, before I have to be to work at 5. High hopes, Wednesday afternoon is probably more likely.

Since Sunday was Jonathan's 5th Birthday (Happy Birthday Jonathan!) the kids and I hopped in the car for the ride to Little Compton RI. We arrived early but Alyssa, Megan, Jami and Jonathan were gracious hosts and taught us all about chickens. It was great to be able to spend time with just them, I don't know any of them nearly as well as I should. They truly are a great bunch! Dan, Em and I learned about both the baby chicks in the basement and the full grown chickens out back. I'm in love and will try even harder to talk Mike into a small flock in the spring!

Jonathan's party was great. Kristin is a fabulous cook and it's always a pleasure to feast there. We had a great time catching up with everybody, and seeing how to kids have grown. It takes only a short time for some very major changes. My nephew Zachary was just a boy the last time I saw him, now he's well on his way to becoming a man. I think that fact alone makes Emily like to antagonize him even more.