December 7, 2008 Christmas trees/parties, midlife crises', more hiking

First off I'd like to comment on the comments made by anonymous'. One referring to whether or not Emily passed her GED, and the answer is we don't know yet. Good question though since I've had a profound lack of blogging motivation lately. The second questioning about whether I might be in the throws of a midlife crisis makes me laugh, aren't I too young for a midlife crisis? I will not blog about personal matters but if your truly concerned, please feel free to e-mail privately and I'd be happy to discuss it with you further.

Lots has happened. Mike celebrated his 41st Birthday on Thanksgiving day this year. Dan gave Daddy a Lion Webkin he named Max, and we gave him the World Tour game for Guitar Hero. Mike, Dan and I enjoyed a late fall letterboxing adventure at Crocker Neck Conservation area in Cotuit named Dr. Doolittle. http://www.atlasquest.com/ Then we started cooking and joined Mike, Laurie, Janni, Chris and Matt at their house for 5pm dinner.

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November 30th I drove down to Middletown to meet some old highschool friends at Holly's house for a mini reunion. It was good to catch up with Kristy, Selena, Sarah and Holly. Afterwards I met some former -Dunkin friends in Dartmouth for dinner. We had a terrific time catching up, we'll have to do it more often!

I went to see Dr. Mann again two or so weeks ago and since the no salt regime didn't seem to be making much of a difference he prescribed for me methozolamide (a diuretic) and after only the first few days noticed a significant improvement. School for me is going great, three tests down, 1 to go, and an extra credit paper passed in last week.

Mike and I have enjoyed two holiday parties so far this season, one for the woodturners, the other the annual Progeny party which was held in Warwick, RI on December 5th. Mom watched the kids while Mike and I spent the night at the hotel...very nice. Mike, the kids, and I drove down on Friday and since we were there decided to get our tree at Sweet Berry Farm. http://www.sweetberryfarmri.com/ We talked Mom into joining us, not as bad an experience as she remembered I don't think. Mike and I had a great time at the Progeny party, late night but we had a beautiful room this year and the food was terrific. Mike headed home @ 9am Saturday morning to Green Briar for a wood turning demonstration while I enjoyed a lazy morning at the hotel. Actually it wasn't particularly lazy considering I was in the fitness center at 5:30am, and in the Jacuzzi by 6:15 which is where I stayed enjoying the quiet morning with my book until I deemed it a reasonable hour to wake Mike up for breakfast. I went to RI to pick up the kids. Since Em, Taylor and Mom wanted to go see Twilight I thought it would be a perfect time to take Dan up to the Norman Bird Sanctuary to climb hanging rock. He'd never done it and I was excited for him to have the experience. http://www.normanbirdsanctuary.org/ He had a great time and was pretty excited to call Daddy from the top to tell him where he was! We made it home in time to unpack quickly, and for me to kiss everybody good bye for work. It was good spending some time in RI, I definitely miss it sometimes!

Emily is doing great, working, and driving. She's very responsible, and we've not once had to limit her adventures. She has become juggler along with Mike and I instead of a jugglee. She's such a big girl now.

Dan's doing well too. I think we've come to the realization he's just not getting enough interaction with me here during the day, and even though we try to stay busy, he's not spending enough time with kids his own age. He's outgrown many of the programs he used to enjoy and with the weather so cold we're just not getting out enough. Tomorrow morning we're going to talk to the intigrated preschool that's run out of the K-2 program at the KC Coombs school to see if they have any openings.

Even still, Dan and Daddy have a pretty cool crystal experiment they've been working on and is actually starting to produce. Dan's happy to see something finally happening.

Sunday morning found us all ready to get into the Christmas spirit, Mike brought our tree in just as the rain started to turn to snow, Mike the kids and brought up the Christmas decorations, turned on some Christmas music and quickly realized we couldn't find the tree lights. We did what we could and decided on a road trip to Hyannis to pick some up. Kmart had just what we needed and since it was lunch time we decided to go to our new favorite restaurant Sam Diegos. http://www.samdiegos.com/ I always thought it was a chain restaurant so wasn't

much interested, but after the woodturners party there Wednesday night I was hooked on their fish tacos. One of the woodturning members owns the restaurant and gave us a very impressive tour of the kitchen during the party. Mike and I were sure the kids would love it as well, and weren't disappointed. We came home with full bellies and quickly set to decorating the tree before the 4:15 Patriots game and 5pm work for me.

November 18, 2008 Relay Fundraiser, Gallery opening, Cuddles, and Bubbles, snow

I haven't blogged in so long I feel like it's going to take forever to catch up. I guess things here were pretty uneventful until Friday afternoon when Em, and I drove down to the Relay for Life fundraiser. After Dan's drama on Tuesday night we decided it might be good if he sit this event out. An old friend Brian Cook was DJing and it was good to see him again. It was a good turn out and a fun time. Kristin, Alicia and all the kids did a great job! The fundraiser ended and we went back to Moms house. I woke up at 5:30am, ran up to Newport Hospital, down Bliss to Green End Hill and back to Mom's via Valley Rd. It was a great run and I was thrilled to be able to get out even though it was still dark. It was nice to be back in the city! I met Paul at Blue Plate diner at 8pm, had a nice quiet talk, and a spinach and mushroom omelet. It's been too long and good to catch up. Hopefully we'll get another chance before he spends the winter in Key West. I drove home, but Emmy decided since she didn't have to work until Tuesday that she wanted to stay in RI. It made me wonder what she'll do when she's old enough to decide. Stay on Cape, or move back to Middletown. Mike worked in Middletown on Monday and brought Em home with him Monday evening. Tuesday Emily asked if she could take Danny to see Madagascar 2. She's driven with him in the car loads of times, but never without me and although I didn't think I'd be nervous I was. I told them she could, but she had to call me when she got there and before she left to come home. They had a great time and made it there and back safely. Saturday night Mike had a meet the artist at the gallery where he has 17 pieces. Dan behaved beautifully, and they had a great turn out. If you look in the background of the picture above you can see one of his platters over his left shoulder and a small bowl to the left of Danny's head. It's all very exciting and we're very proud of him...now how about making some Christmas ornaments......Mike?.....Oh Mike?
Mike and I didn't formally celebrate our anniversary this year, we did go out to dinner which was great, but we were definitely in need of a night out so we asked Em if she thought she could handle watching Danny over night. "Sure" she said. Mike and I spent the night at the International Inn a.k.a cuddles and bubbles a couple of years ago and had a terrific time, so after some coordinating we decided on Sunday night. Mike would take Monday off, and Em already had it off. Em, Sarah, Dan and I went to the mall 11am ish, did some shopping. I was thrilled to find a very form fitting knit dress perfect for dinner, and Emily a bright yellow shirt from Hot Topic she loved. At 3pm we checked into the room, stripped Danny down and filled the jacuzzi, where he had a great time splashing, playing and swimming. We got him dressed and I sent the kids home. Mike arrived a little while later and we enjoyed a nice quiet evening alone together and a fabulous dinner. I had the lobster imperial that was terrific, Mike had the prime rib, one of the best he's ever had. http://www.cuddles.com/ . We woke early and checked on the kids, they were actually still sleeping when we called. They drove into Hyannis to meet us for breakfast then Emily set off for the mall while Mike and I took Dan back to the room for one final jacuzzi swim before check out. We had a great night and are pretty psyched that for a small fee Emily will babysit for us overnight! It was definitely the right move on her part, considering she's been petitioning to go to a friends 16th birthday party in the Catskills and wants to take a friend, another family and our van. She's shown such great responsibility, and maturity that we told her she could go. Of course she took the first part of her GED tonight, I'm somewhat hoping we don't get those scores back before her trip on December 5th.

For the record it's 10pm, 35 degrees outside with a light 6MPH North wind and we've been having light snow flurries for the last 20 minutes! I think that qualifies as our first snow!

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....