Chalifour Family Blog

Happy Birthday Grammie!

2011-11-19T15:43:00.001-05:00

This is Alyssa's abstract art piece for you......it is really neat in person, very bright colors and pretty! Happy Birthday mom!

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T18:12:00.005-04:00

Here mom, so you can stop yelling at me. I notice that you're not mean to me when I am in Vermont, just when you're on the phone with me. You better watch it or else I'll bring up that time you actually fell asleep when I was talking to you on the telephone. If you would get into this century and start texting, you would have had the top picture a week ago. They dressed up Pumpkin Hollow last Saturday. Alyssa made herself a witch for that. Luke was a scary skeleton mean guy type thing. Oh, by the way, I painted both of their faces. Guess I didn't have to be born with THAT.

The picture below is from actual trick or treating, which was last night. It's hard to have the body of a butterfly when you're all bundled up in layers. But she was cute anyway.

2011-10-17T12:35:00.005-04:00

All dressed up for Sarah and Cameron's wedding on October 1st. What a fun time we had! We stayed in a hotel for two nights, the kids managed to swim in the pool four times despite our busy schedule, and we got to see lots of our friends and family all spiffed up. Alyssa was wearing two gold bracelets which she took very good care of...one given to me by her daddy and one given to me by our friend Sandra. It was a great wedding and reception!

First Day of School 2011

2011-09-01T22:14:00.003-04:00

First day of 2nd grade for Alyssa, first day of 5th grade for Luke.
(You can click to make it bigger)

First Day/Last Day

2011-08-31T23:04:00.000-04:00

Okay, APPARENTLY, I never posted my kids first day/last day pics from the end of the the 2010-2011 school year. So they are posted below. It poured on the first day last year so those ones are inside. I also was anxious about sending them off to school last year, this year...... NOT. Just kidding, I was a little bit (school started today). I'll post the new ones tomorrow, but for now, let's see how they have grown.....

2011-08-30T22:25:00.016-04:00

Oh, hi! I have a ton of stuff to post and am overwhelmed when I think of all the things I should be putting here for my 2011 book (though my 2010 book is not done either so, whatever). Anyway, this is one of my favorite pictures of the summer. Not so nice of me but I love the peaceful look on my son's face as I hold him. This was taken during our trip to Bar Harbor in July. When I look at this picture in my head I hear a quote that is written on my bedroom wall............

We do not remember days....
We remember moments.

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T15:10:00.009-04:00

We all take lessons from our mothers that affect us in our everday lives. Some of these things are big, some are little, and there are lots and lots in between. This Mother's Day I would like to share one lesson I learned from my mother. This lesson is not earth shattering and it will not change the world, it is simply something my mom told me when I was younger that has stuck with me. It is:

"It is not lady-like to swear. It doesn't sound good and it is not becoming to you".

I believe when she told me this I was probably a teenager and I remember thinking "Uh, okay" when she said it and thought it sounded so old-fashioned. But for some reason it stuck with me. I do not swear in public situations, I do not swear around people I barely know or even know pretty well, I did not swear when I was in the workplace, I do not swear in front of my children or my siblings' children, and I rarely swear, even still, around my parents. Do I like to swear?

YES!

If you are close to me I do swear because I like to (and come on, I couldn't follow my mom's advice 100% could I?). And when I am alone, wow, I swear A LOT. I like the emphasis it places on things and let's face it some words are just fun to say. But my swearing situations are limited. I view it as a way in which I show respect for people (by not swearing), and because of my mother, I am aware of how I present myself to the world in this regard.

Now all this being said, I would like to point out that I understand all people are different. I know lots and lots of people who swear in way more situations than I do and do I think they are bad or wrong? Absolutely not. I say, do as you wish.

But for me............for myself................I choose to honor what my mother told me. It's the little things that make up who we are. And it's the little things that mean the most.

I love you mom!

February Vacation 2011

2011-03-01T18:44:00.005-05:00

Last week I rented a condo in Jackson, NH for a few days. My kids love to go to the North Conway area, funny since growing up (there) I thought it was quite possibly the most boring place on earth. As it turns out, I was wrong! Going back now is fun and I appreciate the beauty of the mountains and all the fun things to do there in such a different way. I do have so many great memories of growing up and a part of me feels at home when I am there. I found myself thinking that I could seriously see me and my kids living there if we ever decided to move. As an added bonus, one of my favorite girls on the planet also has a house there, my oldest and dearest friend Jamie. We got to spend some time with her and her kids and for some strange reason we seemed to attract attention wherever we went (more on that later). I'm not gonna lie though, at one point I was giving some serious creative thought to "how can we ditch all these kids and go out?!" but unfortunately (or fortunately) we are not the fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants carefree twenty-somethings that we once were. We're adults now! With responsibilities! And so yes, we were in for the night every night by 9.

Skating at Nordic Village

We were on the go pretty much constantly for 4 days. We started out on Monday with a trip to Zeb's which is a store that my kids absolutely love. Then it was ice skating at the little pond at Nordic Village where we stayed. After that we went out to dinner and over to Jamie's for a little visit. When we got back Alyssa went in the jacuzzi in our room. I mention the jacuzzi because she asked me about a thousand times if she could go in it in the time span of about one hour.

The next morning we went to the pools and hot tubs, which Alyssa was very anxious for. I'd have to say that the outdoor hot tub was the best for me and Luke and Alyssa liked the outdoor pool.

This picture cracks me up....Alyssa looks like she's got no pants on!
This was after we went swimming and were going back to the condo.

Then it was off to Nestlenook to go skating. Joe and I stayed at Nestlenook a few times but I had never been skating there (or even seen people skating there actually). It's really, really pretty and the ice was great and we skated for hours. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. My kids are great, GREAT skaters and I am so proud when I watch them on the ice. They also had sleigh rides here with giant horses (see picture below) but we didn't go on one. This place was seriously beautiful and picture perfect on the days we were there.

That night we met up with Jamie, Kirra and Libby and went to my new absolute favorite restaurant on earth. I had heard about this place a while ago and wanted to check it out. It is called the Shovel Handle Pub and it is located at Black Mountain (also in Jackson). I am a big, big fan of old barns, post and beam style buildings, rustic anything, and when I walked into this place I seriously turned to Jamie and said, "Oh my God Jamie, this place makes me want to.............have a function!!" haahahha. Who knows, maybe I'll throw someone a slammin birthday party soon there :) Really, we sat down and I had to pretend to take pictures of my dinner-mates but really I was taking pictures of the building and trying not to seem like a complete dork. I want to drag my bed to Jackson and live in this place. Live music, great atmosphere, awesome food and perfect company. Between that dinner at the Shovel Handle Pub and skating at Nestlenook it was a seriously great day.

Why only one picture of the Shovel Handle Pub you ask? Well, after snapping all those shots of this beautiful place, I proceeded to delete them all off my phone a few hours later. Something in my head made me think I had already uploaded them to my pute....but alas, I was mistaken.
Yes my brain is in a complete fog at times.

The next day we tried (for the third time) to go tubing at Cranmore but the lines were so long it was just not worth it. So we ended up meeting up with Jamie and we went on a little hike to Diana's Baths. I have been here in the summer but never in the winter and once again it was an absolutely beautiful day. The kids all did great and had a really fun time walking in the woods and sliding down icy hills wherever they found them.

We found this gigantic really cool icicle (you can't tell how cool it is from the picture). It had all kinds of handles and holes and bumps, etc. Luke was having fun here but he's just too cool for pics these days.

Kirra and Alyssa sitting on a perfect log chair (which you can't see)

Now, this is one reason why I love Jamie so much.
Who else would tell all the kids to lick the giant icicle so that we could take pictures? Or was it just because we get a kick of seeing them do whatver we tell them to do? Ahhh, I guess it doesn't matter.

After our walk we went and had sandwiches at our condo and then we all went skating again. It was fun for everyone for about 15 minutes and then Kirra went into serious melt-down mode and it got really ugly for Jamie from there. I think all of us (excluding Kirra, but maybe INcluding a few innocent bystanders) are still recuperating from this episode. It was serious. Let's just say, I don't think Jamie is going to be going back to Nestlenook any time soon with her kids. Sorry Jamie! All was fine a few hours later though when we met them for dinner at Tuckerman's Tavern. For the record, my daughter ordered spaghetti at every restaurant we went to. She had it three nights in a row and one left over lunch. She also discovered Shirley Temples to drink, and that is her new favorite thing to order when eating out.

As I said before there was no tubing this time due to long lines but we'll go up and go some other weekend. We did some other fun little things too and the kids loved sleeping on the pull-out couch at the condo (big highlight of the trip). All in all it was lots of fun and when it was time to leave neither of them wanted to go!

She's got a way about her.

2011-02-11T08:55:00.002-05:00

I'm not a huge Billy Joel fan, in fact there are really only two songs that I like of his, but I happen to really love them. One is Summer, Highland Falls- one of my all time favorite songs, the other I love because it reminds me of my daughter. I heard it a few years ago and admittedly, it is a love song most likely written from a man to a woman. However, every word reminds me of Alyssa in some way. Although she completely exasperates me; makes me think she might drive me completely insane at times; never stops talking; singing or humming; is emotional and sometimes moody (even at 6!), I love her so much and feel so lucky to have her as my daughter. She pushes me in ways that I find new to motherhood; She is a busy-body and an incredible artist; She is deeply pained in ways she feels and shows but does not yet understand; She is friendly and beautiful and everywhere she goes she leaves having made a friend; She is all-in, all the time. She plays hard and sleeps hard. She is funny. Luke and I laugh at the things she says and does all the time. We look at each other and shake our heads when she does stuff that is just off the wall crazy. We know, it's just Alyssa. She is a challenge to us both at times, and I for one, and so happy I have him to experience her with. We know, she is a lot, she can be tough, she can make you laugh for days from one of her crazy antics, and thank God, she is ours.

2011-02-11T08:41:00.004-05:00

2011-02-11T08:07:00.001-05:00

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T19:35:00.007-05:00

Christmas, as always, was great for Luke and Alyssa. In fact, the whole month of December was pretty awesome. One of their favorite things every year is the Advent Calendar that they open every day after school. They get beyond excited about this as you can see (below). They came running and I mean RUNNING off the bus on December 1, both of them screaming "Adveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeent!!!!" I really wish as adults we still got this excited about something...anything (and if you are an adult that screams and throws yourself on the ground in excitement, then please, do tell).

(Let me just interject here that it is not my floors that caused Luke's sock to be so dirty. Early in December there was a lot of mud on the playground at school and Luke's teacher kept making him take off his shoes in the classroom because they were so filthy and he was tracking mud around. So there mom, not my fault.)

We went and cut down our tree early in December and by "we" I mean Uncle Jeff cut it down for us. We searched through hundreds of trees until we found one that we liked and by "we" I mean me, hahaha.

Alyssa walking the rows of trees looking for the best one.

This tree farm was the last place that Joe cut down our tree for us, and it is the first year I have had it in me to actually cut down a tree instead of buying one off a lot.

As it turns out our perfect tree looked much smaller outside. When we brought it in we realized it was HUGE! I had to clear out the corner of my living room for it and as I strung the lights we kept needing more, more, more. 750 lights later it was all decorated.

I went in to Alyssa's classroom for a little Christmas party. They smashed a pinata full of prizes. All the kids were WILD. I don't know how the teachers stay calm amid the chaos sometimes, but I am so glad they do. All the kids had a blast.

(It was also pajama day on the day of the party)

Snowmen cupcakes that I made for the kids.

On the night before Christmas Eve Alyssa put on a show for us. She and Luke have been doing these things for years. Sometimes they include guitar playing, singing, dancing, etc. They always set up the living room with every chair they can find and lots of time they set up Alyssa's stuffies as part of the audience. This "Christmas Eve-Eve" show included singing original songs written by Alyssa and also some readings.

On Christmas Eve we went to Meme and Papa's as we always do. Lots of fun and food and cousins to play with.

All dressed and ready to GO!

Alyssa and her doll had matching dresses.

Luke had a really hard time falling asleep on Christmas Eve. No, no, no....not just like tossing and turning, we are talking hours of escalating tension (for him and I) which resulted in a few minutes of unpleasant, completely un-Christmas-like behavior (for him and I) and some seriously tense moments until finally, FINALLY the poor kid fell asleep. Alyssa........well, she pretty much laid right there, feet away from all the commotion at times, and slept soundly.

At 6:38 the next morning the kids came in my room to wake me up. Santa came through big time with a whole slew of Luke's hockey sticks that he loves for floor hockey and Alyssa got a horse that she wanted.

It's funny, we bought Uncle Jeff a new hockey stick for Christmas. Well, by complete coincidence he gave Luke the exact same stick! If you've ever been in a hockey store and seen the rediculous number of sticks there are then you would appreciate how crazy that is. Luke's stick appears to be lucky for him because he got his first goal in a game using it!

hmmmmm I wonder what this present is...

I bought Luke and Alyssa iPod Touches which were a big hit. They were totally unexpected and they absolutely love them. Of course they aren't allowed to use them any old time they want to, but for the few days after Christmas they spent a good amount of time playing on them and TEXTING! Yes, TEXTING! Luke actually said to me (as he was thinking about this whole texting thing), "Mom, this is great I can just text you when I need something. I won't need to talk anymore". Okay at that point I had a little hint of - What the heck did I just do by giving my kids these things- but of course Luke was kidding. They are really, really good at taking care of their iPods and adhering to the rules.

Christmas day we went to Auntie Steph's. More fun, food and family. All in all, a GREAT Christmas!

One last thing about Christmas. I always get this little tinge of yuckiness about holidays in which gifts are given....and trust me, I know I bring it on myself. I feel such a pressure to make sure that each one, especially each Christmas, is all that my kids expect and dream it will be. So yes, I spend too much money and buy too many things and when it's all said and done and I look at the piles of presents I say to myself, "This just isn't right! This is not what life is all about!" It makes me feel like I am teaching my kids to be materialistic and that I am filling their lives with too much "stuff". This is all despite our talks of what the true meaning of Christmas is, and about the whole dynamic of giving/receiving. But alas, when you're 6 and 9, when it comes right down to it, the most exciting thing about Christmas is getting presents .

However, on Christmas morning after Luke and Alyssa opened their stockings and gifts from Santa, the first thing each of them did was go to the tree and search for their gift for me that they had from school. I watched them do this, all on their own, and and I was truly surprised that at this time when they had mounds of unopened gifts from me under the tree that I know they were beyond excited to open, that they had been waiting, waiting, WAITING to open (at one point I heard Luke tell Alyssa that "it hurt" to wait any longer for Chrismas to come), what they wanted to do most at that moment was GIVE a gift, not receive one.

That moment, for this mommy, made Christmas magical. And it was all worth it.

Santa's Village 2010

2010-12-20T09:11:00.009-05:00

Yesterday we decided to go to Santa's Village. I have shopping left to do, treats to figure and bake, wrapping not even started and countless other things to do, but hey, yeah, let's go two hours north today! It was a lot of fun, not too cold and definitely worth it. Luke says this is his last year going (he thinks he's getting too old for it) but he had fun nonetheless and the favorite ride of the day for everyone (as always) was the rollercoaster.

Unfortunately I did not have my personal photographer along for this trip, so not too many pictures and not all focused and fancy like her's would have been. Just squint and use your imagination.

This is when Luke was explaining to me that it takes girls longer to
pee than boys (because they have to sit down). hahahhaha

The lights were so pretty when it got dark outside.

Gingerbread

2010-12-09T20:29:00.006-05:00

Gingerbread houses:

Luke, Alyssa, Kaili & Hannah

And gingerbread trees:

Alyssa, Luke, Rex & Reese

2010-12-08T00:08:00.005-05:00

Last night my kids were watching a special on tv and I heard my daughter whining for her brother to move over. "I baaaaaaarely have any room" she says (100% seriously). Ummmmm what's wrong with this picture? Poor Luke!
.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-27T18:56:00.001-05:00

We had a great Thanksgiving at home with Grammie and Beepa, Auntie Jo and Heather. It was also Heather's birthday that day so we had an ice cream cake for her too. Can't believe little Heather is 19!

Alyssa had cranberry day at school. She dressed in
red and made a beautiful cranberry sculpture.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-04T16:04:00.011-04:00

As we have every year since Luke started Kindergarten, we went to the Halloween festivities at the school two weekends ago. The kids dressed up in their "costumes" (in quotes because I am not sure if Luke's really qualifies as a costume or not) and they came home with some candy and a few little prizes.

Now, regarding the costumes.....Alyssa had her's picked out at least a month in advance after looking through catalogs and through some masterful process of elimination in her mind she determined what she wanted to be was a bat princess. Not sure I had ever heard of a bat princess, but hey, whatever. Then I looked in the catalog at what she had chosen and yes, this bat princess costume was pretty cool indeed, and guess what? The price tag was over $200! Ummmm yeah..........NO. So for the following month I searched out pieces from here and there to replicate a bat princess that was to her liking. We ended up with something that she felt "bat princessy" in so she was happy.
.
Luke on the other hand, totally different story. It went something like this....

Me: "Hey Luke, what do you want to be for halloween?"

Luke (barely looking up from whatever he was doing): "Hockey player.

Me: "Okay, do I need to get anything for you?"

Luke: "No I'll wear my hockey equipment."

DONE

While getting his skates sharpened one afternoon I saw some good socks that were Bruins colors so I picked those up for his "costume". He looked great and actually got lots of compliments both at the school event and while trick-or-treating.

Despite what you might think, Luke loves to hug his mommy. BUT he does
have to put on a tough face since he is a hockey player.

The day before Halloween I went to Alyssa's party at school which was really cute to see everybody dressed up. Alyssa was really excited that morning before school thinking about how much fun she would have that day. Luke told her (in the most monotone and matter of fact voice he could muster, emitting the tone of....the life of a 4th grader is SO HARD and ALL WORK and obviously sounding like he thinks his best school days are behind him) "Yeah, well enjoy it Alyssa. This is the last year you'll dress up in school". My mouth dropped right along with her's at the thought that this is it for halloween parties at school. THE HORROR!

As an extra-special-in-more-ways-that-a-mind-can-imagine treat, Luke and Alyssa went trick-or-treating with Jordyn this year! They had lots and lots of fun.

2010-10-29T09:59:00.001-04:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

2010-10-29T09:47:00.001-04:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

2010-10-03T15:18:00.007-04:00

Okay, okay ,okay. Here we are.

I've been sick. SICK I SAY! Two weeks ago I caught a cold from Alyssa. My kids get many, many colds throughout the school year and I rarely catch them. But this one...WOW it was a doozie. I was wiped out for two days and then thought I was getting better for a few days and then POW, I got a terrible sinus infection. My lovely sister JoAnn came over one night and I went to a walk-in clinic to get some drugs. I took antibiotics a couple days and although they took the excrutiating pain and numbness out of my face, they didn't agree with me. So then I had to get a couple more prescriptions and that's where I am now. I hate taking medicine. I am ALL FOR medicine, yet I hate taking it every day. I think there is a neti pot in my future.

So anywho, we've been moving right along here. Luke and Alyssa are doing great. On Thursday night Auntie Kim came and slept over and she took them to Pizza Hut. What a treat Auntie Kim is.....she has so much fun with the kids and brings energy and excitement into the house, even for Mamma! Rumor is that they didn't get to bed til 9 and they were showing the late night when they got home from school Friday....two grumps, but nothing a good night's sleep couldn't cure. (As a side note- Luke had a few choice words for me when he found out I was going out "again". Specifically "Where do you think you're going NOW??!!" as he rattled off the three times I haven't put him to bed in the last two weeks. I had to stand there and defend myself to my 9-year-old son. Ummmmm.....yeah).

As I previously said, Auntie Jo also came this past week for a couple hours to visit while I went to the doctor. As you may or may not know, Auntie Jo likes to watch some weird shows on tv. (Well, I call them weird but she calls them interesting. I am more of a mindless kind of tv viewer and have no real shows that I watch regularly, except on HBO and those are out of season at the moment. Anyway, she likes educational shows of sorts, shows about ghosts and shows about food, shows about travel, etc). So anyway, while I was gone she had them watching some show about giant food- "World's Extreme Pig Outs" I think Luke said it was called. They couldn't really grasp the term "pig out" because they had never heard of it before, but they were in awe of the giant hamburger, pancake and pizza they saw. Thank you Auntie Jo, for enriching my children.

Last weekend Luke did a hockey clinic type thing, so it was his first time of the season getting his skates on the ice. The clinic was very basic and he was really above most of it in terms of ability, but he loved just getting some ice time. He also was placed for his hockey program which will begin mid-October.

Luke attempting to give his best-bud Mark an elbow on the ice.

Last weekend we also went to Boston for our first (and Alyssa's LAST) Bruins game of the season. Every time we go to a game Luke says it was "the best day of his life" and this time he left saying the same thing. We weren't even out of Boston when he was wimpering in the back seat saying he wanted to go back. One highlight of the night was that we were on the Jumbotron- three times! Now, you may ask, "why was it Alyssa's last game?". Well, Alyssa is a great sport, she really is. She knows so much about sports and about players of many sports because she always is playing with Luke and doing his thing with him. She'll cheer and yell at the hockey players by name when they are on he ice, and she can watch a baseball game and know who's playing, at which stadium and retain some specifics that show that she really is paying attention. However, she IS a 6-year-old girl and she has other interests that excite her more. I have pretty much deduced at this point that her attention to sports is more of a personality trait than a genuine interest- she always, always ALYWAYS wants to participate in whatever is going on. When something is happening, Alyssa is all in, ALL THE TIME. If Luke is playing something, SHE'S PLAYING TOO. If someone wants to go somewhere- SHE'S GOING TOO. If I'm making dinner- SHE WANTS TO HELP. Okay, you get the idea. Now, the Bruins thing goes fine for the drive to Boston, the walking around the TD Garden, the eating of the food, the seeing Blades (the mascot), the getting souvenirs, the high up sign holding, the cheering, the pictures, the jumbotron, etc. That's all fine and good and FUN for Alyssa. But the actual 60 minutes that the men play hockey, that's not so much fun for her. She sits for a while, tries to spot Blades around the arena, looking at the signs, occasionally looks at the game going on, but that only lasts so long. Then she wiggles, wants to go somewhere, eat something, drink something (even though she's already full of food and drink)...she just wants to DO SOMETHING and that something is not sit and watch a hockey game. Since this was made very apparent at this last game we were at, I told her that I will take her to some other thing that she will enjoy and we'll leave the hockey games as being Luke's thing. If she asks to go back in a couple years I'll re-evaluate. But in the meantime I've banned her from the Bruins. For the record, she really did not argue about it one bit.

Well I've got lots more to catch up on, but for now, that's all folks. :-)

2010-09-20T22:04:00.000-04:00

My darling daughter has been sick and did not go to school today. Truthfully, she felt ok but was coughing every 30 seconds so I didn't want to send her in. I woke up this morning, also sick, so she and I spent the day together with no Luke.

Hmmm you'd be surprised at how much a small girl can talk in between coughing every 30 seconds. When Luke is here he takes half the load....and "half the load" is a lot. Trust me. She just never, ever, has a moment when there is nothing to say, sing or hum about. How is that?

Anyway, I left her downstairs for a while for some solitude in my room. I could hear her chit chatting away down there and I guess she was playing school with all her stuffies. When I came down she had something to show me.

I have been telling her to write out words how they sound to her because she was constantly asking Luke and I how to spell things to the point where we might as well just write it down ourselves. For example, she makes me cards all the time and they used to be just pictures. Now she likes to write things.....sometimes looooong things....in them and she'll come to me every minute and ask me how to spell each word. Of course by the end she'd hand me this card and I would know exactly what it said in it before I opened it up. Nice still, and cute I know. But better to open a card with a surprise inside, n'est-ce pas? Anyway, I was very proud of her for not asking how to spell one word that she wrote on the white board. It says:

"My mom likes the Killers and dogs and cupcakes and my mom loves me and my brother (heart heart heart). And my mom loves her self and she loves Jack. He is our dog and she loves stones and she loves her mother and father. She loves a lot of things. Love, Little Artist."

Funny how a child can make you want to cover your ears one moment and.........well......RUN, and the next she can make you feel like you just want to stay with her in that moment forever.

I don't dig on swine

2010-09-09T18:02:00.006-04:00

About a week ago there was a ground hog in my yard. No big deal.....cute and I had never seen one in my yard so that was cool.

A couple mornings later there was a big porcupine. Again, kinda neat to see him and he ran right away as soon as he heard noise so no biggy.

But today? What do I see in my yard???? PIGS!

At first I yelled to the kids and thought it was funny. These two giant oinkers running around.

But after a minute I was like...........well, wait a minute.....what do I do? So I called the police. After a while...........too long of a while, they showed up. In the meantime, the pigs DUG UP MY FLOWERS! I was so stinkin' mad!!!!

I got a mop and tried to shoo them away and they just OINKED AND SNORTED AT ME! I don't know what to do around pigs.....and I didn't know if they were wild or fierce or not (there was one at the fair last weekend that bit a poor little boy's foot and bit Alyssa on the hand!) so I was trying to keep my distance. But I'm mad. The flowers I had planted there were there for 5 years and they started from tiny little pots. They may not have meant anything to those pigs but they meant a lot to me. Stupid swine.

The police officer told me to bang on a pot and that would scare them away and he would try to find the owners. But they didn't leave until they had one more roll in the area they dug up.

Now I have to fix that. I am not happy.

Just for good measure, here is a picture of my daughter, pre-pig.

I love this kid

2010-09-06T21:23:00.004-04:00

Luke watching his sister jumping high on the
Euro Bungee at the Lancaster Fair.

ummmm, yeah.

2010-08-25T09:24:00.006-04:00

First day of first grade and first day of fourth grade. Pouring rain so no outside pictures and I am anxiously awaiting 3:45 for the school bus to bring them home. I am sure tomorrow, or the next day I'll be "happy" to get them on the bus in the morning, but UGH, WHAT!!???!! this is craziness.

Castle in the Clouds

2010-08-12T16:24:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted to go to Castle in the Clouds. I took the kids in July. It was.........okay. I am glad I finally went but probably wouldn't go again. We did get to see Zeus, the larget draft horse in the United States (second largest in the World!). The whole story of the Castle is its owner is pretty interesting...a rags to filthy riches story and back to rags. The views are beautiful. I bet it's unbelievable in the Fall.

The "pebble" on the drive up the mountain.

Waterfall on the drive up

Pretty views of Lake Winnipesaukee

On the Trolley up to the Castle

I really looooved these windows.

They were my favorite part of the Castle.

Pretty gardens

I only had one coin so Alyssa made a wish and then she held it up to
Luke's face (?) for him to make a wish too.

Alyssa liked this room. It was one of the maid's rooms.

Luke's Birthday 9!

2010-08-11T16:01:00.003-04:00

On Luke's Birthday this year he chose to go to Hilltop Fun Center and go on Go Carts, play Laser tag and other arcade stuff. Laser tag was the big hit....lots of fun! (Notice he is sporting fohawk courtesy of his cousin Taylor....he says she put everything in there to hold it up, including handcream. ???)

Auntie Cindy, Uncle Jeff, Alyssa, Taylor, Cindy-jo and Kaylee on the go-carts.

Luke

Luke and Mark

2010-08-10T19:57:00.002-04:00

Notes and reading

2010-07-26T10:54:00.009-04:00

For years with Luke I have left little notes around the house every so often for him to find. In the past year Alyssa has begun to read so she's in on it too now. The notes are usually some sappy sweet litte tidbits of love including words like"dumpling-doodle" (be quiet....don't judge me) or they could be a simple "Good morning". A lot of times, in fact most times, we never dicuss the notes and I just find them discarded around the house somewhere and then throw them away. That has always been okay with me and I have never felt any need for my kids to acknowledge them in any way or for them to reciprocate their love to me in response.

Luke has been reading- really reading- since he was four. He loves sports magazines and would sit with one by himself and was so hungry for the information that he pretty much taught himself to read after being taught some of the basics. However last year in school he was having some problems with retaining the books he read. You see, my son can tell you just about any statistic about hockey, baseball or NASCAR that he's read about, but ask him to read something that he's not interested in and it's in one ear and out the other. He pretty much "reads" stuff to get it done but doesn't pay attention to what he's reading. Due to this phenomenon I started reading his books (at home reading that he had to do for school) before or after he read them so we could kinda talk about them casually in hopes that he might attempt to retain more from them and pay attention. Thankfully this worked and was actually fun for me, turns out reading kids books is kind of fun.

So anyway.....one night a few months ago I tucked him in to bed and he was going to do his usual 15 minutes of reading and then go to sleep. He was reading a book about hockey that he liked and was going to finish it up that night. I went downstairs to the living room. After a few minutes I saw him sneak into my room and then out. I didn't say anything since he went right back to his room but it did strike me as odd since my kids don't go in my room ever to play and are generally not allowed to be hanging around in there (yeah I'm mean I know...but they have the whole rest of the house to mess up so not my room!). When I went upstairs later my heart melted with what I found:
:

(He gave me his book to read with a note)

I couldn't help but feel the same way as the first time each of my kids told me they loved me. Of course since they were tiny babies I told them over and over that I loved them. When they learned to talk I never asked them to say it back to me or "schooled them" in terms of being polite with the phrase, I just waited until a time when they thought it or felt it for themselves. When each of them finally said it to me it was heatwarming and real to me. To this day I probably tell them a hundred times I love them for every one time they say it to me, and that's just fine. Because that ONE time.............feels like a million.

2010-07-14T13:04:00.000-04:00

A month in the life....

2010-07-12T21:18:00.005-04:00

a beautiful sight

makes your heart skip a beat

hopes

the smiles

beautiful

a miracle

A month in the life....

2010-07-11T19:51:00.004-04:00

Luke, I love you!

A month in the life....

2010-07-10T19:53:00.002-04:00

Friday: This weirdo jumped off the boat today!!!

A month in the life....

2010-07-09T13:32:00.003-04:00

Thursday: Jack is so hot! No swimming and supposed to be recovering from his surgery last week. It's been soooo hot here and humid and poor Jack has not been in the lake even once. It's torture for a lab!

A month in the life....

2010-07-08T20:39:00.004-04:00

Wednesday: Luke with a frisbee on his head doing the Papelbon (River Dance) for Jack0.

A month in the life....

2010-07-07T18:20:00.002-04:00

Tuesday: Boating. (Trying to beat the heat)

A month in the life....

2010-07-06T13:40:00.005-04:00

Monday: Catching pollywogs. Nice look from my daughter, huh? I told her to take it out of the net and hold it....and she was trying to....but he was slippery and kept slipping through her fingers.

A month in the life....

2010-07-05T13:42:00.003-04:00

Sunday: Hot tub

A month in the life....

2010-07-04T13:25:00.002-04:00

Saturday: Alice in Wonderland

A month in the life....

2010-07-03T14:05:00.000-04:00

Friday: Maidstone

A month in the life....

2010-07-02T22:55:00.002-04:00

Thursday: Kickball

A month in the life....

2010-07-01T16:19:00.002-04:00

Wednesday: Dress up- two varieties; and pea shucking.

A month in the life....

2010-06-30T15:33:00.004-04:00

Tuesday: I didn't take any pictures yesterday but we were busy! Auntie Kim and Jesse came over in the morning and we worked on an Alice in Wonderland project (more to come on that later) and then Luke and Alyssa went to Meme's and Papa's in the afternoon until last night.
.
In the meantime, here is Luke's first day of school picture and a fake last day of school picture. Basically I just had him pose with his backpack a few days ago because we were waaaaaaaaaaay to excited on his last day to remember to take a picture.

A month in the life....

2010-06-29T20:56:00.006-04:00

Monday: Errand day with my (perfect) little helper

Alyssa had a play-date so Luke and I hit the streets on my usual Monday errand day. We went to TEN stores and Luke was an unbelievable helper. He pushed my carts, he helped me find what I needed everywhere we went, he opened the tailgate of the car when I was carrying heavy bags so I could just slide them in, he kept track of my lists and crossed things off for me. It was GREAT! He didn't beg me to buy him things and he was an absolute joy to be around...happy, fun, interesting conversation...who knew errands could make such good mama and son time?

A month in the life....

2010-06-28T18:24:00.009-04:00

Oh, hi.

This is Sunday's picture. Alyssa is playing with bubbles outside.

And here she is blowing bubbles for Jack. This picture was taken approximately 3 hours before I realized for sure that I had yet another expensive problem on my hands. Jack couldn't keep anything down on Sunday and was acting suspiciously calm, cool and collected. Definitely reason to cart his furry butt to the Emergency Veterinarian. Sure enough, he had something in his belly that was causing him problems. To be exact, pieces of bone. You see, last Thursday I bought a bone for Jack at the Farmer's Market. I asked the guy which of his bones were safe for Labs (avid chewers) to which he replied "Any one of them!". That should have been a red flag right there because there were some bones on his table that I would not even have considered giving my dog because they were too small and weak looking. But I picked a big strong-looking one and on Friday night I gave it to him. I watched him with it (he was soooooooooo happy to have a treat!) and after a short time he bit a piece off and swallowed it. Of course I took the bone away immediately and honestly thought that the piece was small enough to not pose a problem for him (and didn't even know if it actually was bone that he bit off or meat or whatever). Sure enough, it was bone. Bone enough to cause me some serious financial anxiety and pain, and more importantly, it was bone enough to cause Jack a terrible stomach ache and at 1:30 this morning he was having surgery to remove it.

To add insult to injury, when the doctor went in, she discovered that the bones (there were two pieces) were actually in his colon, which meant that he may have been able to pass them. This is something she couldn't tell from the x-ray. She did say that they were quite sharp though so it was good that they were removed.

This is Jack's second operation to remove something from his insides. It is the third time he needed x-rays to see what he swallowed. Jack is age 2.

Needless to say, no more bones of any kind. Ever.

Sorry Jack, I was trying to be nice to you!

A month in the life....

2010-06-27T15:22:00.002-04:00

Saturday: Making pies

A month in the life....

2010-06-26T19:45:00.004-04:00

Friday: Beachin it on a beautiful day.

Coincidentally, you may have heard that a moose made an appearance at the exact beach we were at (Long Sands, York, ME). I saw the story (he walked right out of the water!) this morning ....wish we had seen him!!
,

A month in the life....

2010-06-25T17:47:00.004-04:00

Thursday: Picking strawberries and raspberries.

A month in the life....

2010-06-24T16:24:00.006-04:00

Wednesday: Here is my (gulp) fourth grader and my first grader with their lips glued to soda straws in celebration of passing their grades with flying colors. I told them we could go anywhere they wanted to for dinner and what do they choose? Wild Willy's Burgers. It is a no-frills type of restaurant and yeah, the burgers are good I guess (I haven't eaten a burger in 20 YEARS, wow) but wouldn't you think that they'd at least choose a place with a waitstaff? Nope, they can get that at home, so what's the big deal?

Congratulations Luke and Alyssa, another fabulous school year complete!

A month in the life....

2010-06-23T13:26:00.004-04:00

Tuesday: Painting rocks first thing in the morning.

A month in the life....

2010-06-22T14:01:00.004-04:00

Monday: These are my kids waiting to be fed. I had just started cooking dinner but they decided they'd sit there and stare at me like this til they could eat.

On another note, here's a little tidbit from yesterday:

Since it's summer, I will now have the great pleasure of grocery shopping with kids in tow (insert sarcastic tone please). Shopping with both kids goes something like this: Luke rolls his eyes before we even leave and asks 10 times if he HAS to go. Followed by asking the entire way how many (SPECIFICALLY) things are on my list. Followed by asking how long (SPECIFICALLY) we will be IN the store. When we get to the store, the kids keep themselves entertained by jumping on only a certain colored square on the tiled floors. This means they are jumping all over the place and in their own little worlds, not paying attention to the fact that they are in a grocery store and people are trying to shop. I have to constantly tell them to move out of the way as they jump in front of other shopping carts, making their way to follow me. When this gets boring for them they decide they want to help me by taking things off the shelf (it's like they wake up from their game dreamworld and they say "hey! we're in a store!") and despite my pleas for them to walk behind the cart, somehow they always end up in front, which means I am trying to maneuver it so I don't hit them. If you haven't done this, you don't know how annoying it is. Imagine pushing a shopping cart with two short people walking a foot in front of it that will stop at any moment to point, dance, talk, etc and you have to plan accordingly or else hit them.

Anyway, that's my little rant on grocery shopping with kids, I don't hate it because I do like to have them around, it's just something I have to mentally prepare myself for and know that it is not going to be a fast processs.

So yesterday Alyssa came with me (Luke is still in school til Wednesday). I stopped at the salad bar and she was staring at a tray of hard boiled eggs and she asks me this question:

"Mommy are eggs chubby?"

I had to ask her a few times what she was saying (it kinda sounded like "shubby" because I don't think she is too familiar with the word.) Once I figured out what she was saying, I had no idea how to answer it. I was a little dumbfounded and laughing inside. I don't know, what do you guys think? Are hard boiled eggs "chubby"?

-ALSO-

This morning Luke and I were walking out to the bus and he told me "The party starts tomorrow night at 8 o'clock." Oh, okay, I said, knowing this must be his end of school celebration since he finishes tomorrow. He said "Yeah, I am going to have a Guns-N-Roses concert at the Strafford Garden (the living room). You play the songs and I'll sing them". Okay Luke, can't wait!!!

A month in the life....

2010-06-21T17:17:00.004-04:00

Sunday: The kids had a blast on Sunday when Meme took them swimming at Auntie Cookie and Uncle Dean's camp. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures so here's another cute one from the wedding we went to over the weekend.

A month in the life....

2010-06-20T21:03:00.005-04:00

Saturday: Wedding for Cindy-jo and Corey. Here are the fabulous 5 cousins.
(Luke, Taylor, Jordyn, Alyssa & Hailey)

A month in the life....

2010-06-19T13:01:00.001-04:00

Friday: Alyssa's last day of Kindergarten. She's grown!
(Look close and you will see she has a tattoo almost in
the same spot on her right arm in each picture.)

A month in the life....

2010-06-18T11:43:00.002-04:00

Thursday: Hawaiian Day at school.
Alyssa came to my room before I even woke up.
She had no clothes on, wondering what she could wear
for Hawaiian Day. Luke.....not so much.
He did come home wearing a lei that someone gave him though.

A month in the life....

2010-06-17T17:12:00.005-04:00

Wednesday: Last playdates of the school year.
Ellie came over and Alyssa was a
talking-high-heeled-wearing-hula-dancing rabbit.
Luke and Mark played guess what? Hockey!

A month in the life....

2010-06-16T14:06:00.002-04:00

Tuesday: Never too hot to strap on the pads. Never too sweet to look mean.

A month in the life....

2010-06-15T16:00:00.001-04:00

Monday: What to do when there's no baseball to rush off to after dinner?
Wrestle/roll around on the floor/laugh constantly for an hour (and
force your brother to give you a ride on his back).

A month in the life....

2010-06-14T16:33:00.005-04:00

Sunday....late-morning guitar lesson with Uncle Jeff.

A month in the life of Luke and Alyssa....in pictures

2010-06-13T09:50:00.002-04:00

Since I can't seem to get my writing act together, I am going to attempt to post one picture a day for 30 days. It might be somewhat tricky because summer is coming and I'll be at camp sometimes. Internet access is not reliable there.....but I'll do my best!

Some of Alyssa's 2010 t-ball team with their trophies

Today's picture is from yesterday...the final baseball and t-ball games of the year have been played! It was a GREAT season and the kids had lots of family come to see their games this year. Auntie Jo was at almost every one of each of their games, Papa made lots of appearance at Luke's games and among others we had Auntie Kim, Jesse, Meme, Auntie Amanda, Uncle Tim and Hailey, Grammie and Beepa, and Heather and Taylor. Uncle Jeff helped coach Luke's team this year which was great! Between Luke finishing up his hockey program (which lasted until the end of April) and t-ball and baseball, most nights of the week for the past two months Luke and Alyssa and I were on the go. It was unusual for us to have a night at home without having to go to the ball fields or hockey rink. This made for lots and lots of rushing---homework, eating, driving, playing, to bed, bed, BED! All the busy-ness was worth it though, and we had lots of fun this spring.

Luke had a BIG baseball year....he got lots of great hits and made huge strides in fielding the ball. He started the year as the first pitcher on the mound for AMI, and he ended the same way....pitching the first inning of the last game of the year. Luke got a game ball this year for a great defensive play he made while playing third base! I can't say enough about how far Luke has come in his confidence on the field. Just to see him out there with all eyes on him as he tries his hardest to throw great pitches is so telling of how far he has come. It makes me so proud to see the progression of his confidence as he allows his personality to shine through in new situations. Way to go Luke, I can't wait for next year!

Alyssa also improved a lot throughout her season of t-ball. This was her first year and she was one of only a few girls on the team, and the only girl to finish out the season. I am so proud of you Alyssa for sticking with your team and making every play with a smile on your face! You improved so much in your running (instead of kind of merrily-skipping-along between the bases, she now "runs like she means it!"), and your swing improved tremendously. In your final game you went 4-for-4 hits off coach pitch.......no tee! It was so much fun to watch your games Alyssa and you always make all your fans laugh.

2010-05-22T07:52:00.003-04:00

Dear Internet and old people-and you know who you are- no I am not ignoring you. You pop into my head a thousand times a day as I think "oh, that would be good for my blog"....but alas....something always comes up and pulls me away. Sometimes that "something" that pulls me away is absolutely nothing...it could be just a few minutes to myself where I don't feel like trying to write anything that might make sense. But lots of times the "something" really is something- we've recently been on a marathon of hockey, t-ball games and practices, baseball games and practices and watching hockey playoffs. Trying to fit in playdates and sleepovers and homework and even DINNER sometimes is hectic. (I feel like I am constantly yelling at my kids "eat! eat!" as I rush around getting packed up for wherever we need to be next). So now it is Saturday morning, Luke and Alyssa are sleeping at Meme's and Papa's, and I have a quiet moment to think straight. So here is a picture of my son that makes my heart swell with pride- and my eyes well up with tears- Luke on the pitcher's mound in the first inning of the first game of the year:

That's all you get for today. Baby steps people, baby steps.

2010-04-29T22:41:00.002-04:00

Alyssa's 6th birthday party was at KaBoom Funzone. She had so much fun last year at BounceU, we thought we'd try this new bouncy place out since it's a lot closer to us. Alyssa had 18 friends and cousins at her party and everyone seemed to have had a great time! I have yet to put away all her gifts, I need to find room for them first, which will warrant some great organization (and possibly some sort of miracle).

I never actually shopped for Alyssa this year, I just picked stuff up here and there as I saw things she would like. When I went to go pull the gifts from all the places I had hidden them, I could not believe the mountain of presents I had for her. SPOILED. Yes, my children could be considered spoiled with all sorts of material things. But not "spoiled rotten". They are good, good kids. I left all of my gifts at our house for her to open when she got home from her party. She was so funny when she was opening them, she was high high high on life............you may be able to see from her silly expressions in the pictures below. My sweet daughter....she's so funny and so beautiful.

Doesn't it look like my cupcakes had their

school picture taken with this background? hahahahaha

Home

2010-04-22T17:42:00.009-04:00

Today these two beautiful girls will be home after four months in Memphis at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

I can't look at this picture without thinking of how far this family has come, and I know only a fraction of the reality of what they have been through in the last seven months. It's so strange to think how quickly life can change. One moment everything is fine and the next minute the world is upside down, making people long to turn back the clock......for things to go back to "normal". At times since Jordyn relapsed in September the situation looked very desperate...and scary. But......somehow tonight this family will sleep under one roof again............together..............with no cancer in the house. It is unbelievable.

No one knew if this day would ever come.

Every person in the picture below is brave beyond words (though I'm pretty sure not one of them feel that way). Tonight, and I pray for many, many nights and years to come, my heart will be warmed at the thought that their deepest wish for the simplest of things- to be together- has come true.

The battle is not over and there are still many obstacles to overcome, but today is a beautiful day.

Six

2010-04-19T12:20:00.004-04:00

(This beautiful picture was taken by my sister Stephanie.)

Happy Birthday to my darling, sweet, daughter who has the most beautiful personality imaginable....who never stops talking, singing or in some way making noise...who always loves to play with her brother, no matter what he is playing....who loves to make new friends and knows more people at school in every grade than you can imagine...who gives her teachers and classmates and family and friends compliments whenever they pop into her head....who loves to ride her bike and go hiking.....who now officially hates bugs and screams when she sees them....who is an excellent ice skater in her first year of skating......who makes the funniest faces of any girl I've ever seen....who paints and draws and colors and makes beautiful pictures for the world.....who now reads books on her own and can count by 5's and 10's and multiply by 2's. Happy Birthday to my favorite favorite FAVORITE girl in the world!

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

2010-04-17T16:36:00.007-04:00

Happy Birthday to my favorite man on the planet.

Hope it's a great one Dad! I love you.....

Easter Weekend '10

2010-04-06T20:12:00.012-04:00

These are the Easter eggs that Alyssa and Luke colored this year. Alyssa colored a dozen at her friend's house and she made ones that were specifically for other people. You may notice that the one on top has Luke's name on it and a hockey player. Alyssa made that one for him. The one with all the flowers was made for me. She's so darn cute.

On the day before Easter we were coloring eggs at 8 am. After that I made some cupcakes for the next day and then we were off to a big helicopter egg drop. Except it was a little TOO big. The organizers never dreamed how many people would show up (10,000+) and did not plan accordingly. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to drive a distance that should have taken 15 minutes to get into the place. Then we waited a few minutes for the helicopter to drop the eggs. However, there were so many people that it was complete chaos (think...people losing their children because they let them run into a huge crown to gather plastic eggs ???, people being trampled, pushed, etc). Alyssa managed to find one or two eggs and that was it. Luke didn't even want to go out when it was his age group...he was all set! After that big fiasco, we waited an hour to get out of the place.

Now, this all happened on an absolutely beautiful Spring day and we were pretty bummed that we wasted four hours on this thing. However, the good part was that we got to see Auntie Amanda and Hailey, Taylor and Meme and Papa. The kids got some goodies (lots of goodies actually) from Meme and Papa. So that part of it was great. Next year though, we think it would be a good idea to just go to Meme and Papa's house and have Papa fly over in his airplane over and drop the eggs. That would be much better. Luke and Alyssa and I agreed NO MORE HELICOPTER EGG DROPS FOR THE CHALIFOURS. EVER.

When we finally got home that day I made a boatload of frosting and started frosting my cupcakes. Uncle Jeff came and picked up Luke to take him to a stick and puck practice. I worked on my cupcakes for a while but the whole time what I really wanted to be doing was watching Luke play....so finally I stopped fighting it and I left everything and walked out of the kitchen, told Alyssa we were leaving and we went to the ice rink. I am so glad we did. Luke was playing with a few other kids and it was awesome to see him skate with all his equipment on.

After that, Alyssa and I made a mad dash to Walmart to buy plastic eggs for an egg hunt I promised the next day (nothing like waiting til the last minute huh?). You may remember that last year I swore that I would do two different colored eggs-one for Luke and one for Alyssa. Well I was not going back on that promise so Alyssa and I searched through what was left at Walmart and we found something suitable. Then we picked up some Chinese Food (by now it was 8 o'clock) and rushed home to eat so they could get in bed before the Easter Bunny came. Of course I had to finish my cupcakes and clean up. Then do my other motherly (Easter Bunnily) duties. My oh my what a long day.

On Easter we went to Steph and Chris's and we all had a great time. Another beautiful day and the kids played lots of games outside and Alyssa ran up and down a hill a bunch of times (is that fun??). Baby Ella was there and Alyssa loved playing with her. All in all a pretty great Easter weekend. Hope it was good for all of you too. :-)

2010-03-29T23:41:00.000-04:00

Okay, well.........maybe I am subconsciously trying to make my book for 2010 really easy by having no posts, who knows. We've been busy.....lots of fun stuff so here are some tidbits.

Here is Luke all suited up in his gear, minus skates (finally...but I still need to find a hockey bag to carry all this stuff around in). He skated with Uncle Jeff in full gear last weekend and did great, which is cool because honestly, there is A LOT of padding on this kid and it's got to be weird skating that way for the first time. He looooves his hockey gloves, and probaby would just prefer to wear his gloves, helmet and have his stick. But he's a trooper and I am just fine with covering every single part of his body with some sort of padding so that he doesn't get hurt ;-) He starts his learn-to-play program next Monday. His friend is playing too and he is really excited for it.

Last week we had a visit from Grammie which was the first time we have seen her since just after Christmas because they've been traveling all over creation. Beepa could not come this time so we are anxiously awaiting seeing him this weekend for Easter. Luke and Alyssa love all their grandparents so much and are so blessed and spoiled to by all four of them. Alyssa had Grammie doing something every minute....lots of coloring, reading, games and just generally bossing her around (as usual....she's got an agenda for anyone who is willing to comply). Of course it was nice for me to see my mom as well, I miss my parents when they are away in the winter.

We've started having some nice Spring weather and last weekend we went on a little walk that we often go on to see a roaring waterfall.

Last weekend we also went to a Bruins Alumni game (vs. "The Surfers"- local Hampton, NH area surfers who put together a hockey team) to benefit The Molly Rowlee Fund. I was having flashbacks to when I was a kid, seeing my dad sitting at the edge of an ottoman, three feet from the tv, yelling at the Bruins players as if they could hear him. Terry O'Rielly, Brad Park, Ken Linseman were there just to name a few. Andy Brickley, Bob Sweeney and Reggie Lemelin to name some more. And, Luke's favorite (though he didn't play that long ago) Bruce Shoebottom who was checking everyone on the ice (all in fun). The cab driver from the commercials on NESN (commedian Jimmy Dunn) was the master of ceremonies at the event and Luke liked seeing him too. Alyssa got a few autographs. All in all- lots of fun and a neat experience. Though I've got to admit, very touching and sad and a crazy mix of emotions to think that this event was put on by a family who lost their 5-year-old daughter in a matter of months to cancer. For us, to sit in the audience as a family who has been so personally touched by cancer, knowing that my children pray for their young cousin Jordyn at night before they close their eyes, is, heart-wrenching. It's been kind of tough for Luke in the past week after learning of what happened to Molly (since he is old enough to understand/ask questions about what the game was all about) and he is faced with the reality of life and what can happen to any kid, including himself- a thought he had not previously pondered but has been thinking about quite often lately. I hate that he even thinks about this stuff.....but we just do the best we can and I just pray that his mind chooses not to worry about the "what-ifs" for too long.

(Taken on my phone....Andy Brickly, Brad Park and Terry O'Rielly on the bench)

Anyway, on a great note, last week was our long-awaited-much-anticipated 2nd Boston Bruins game of the season. Our seats did not disappoint....we sat right next to the tunnel where the players enter/exit and I had to practically pry my hand out of Patrice Bergeron's hand because he grabbed it as he walked by (ie: I reached down as far as I could into the tunnel and he tapped it when he walked by).

So, we had this really REALLY loud guy that sat directly behind us and kept yelling at the Boston players. At one point he yelled something negative to the Bruins captain, (Alyssa's favorite player and the one she yells to constantly and holds her sign up for) "Big Z" Zdeno Chara. Big Z is 6 feet 9 inches tall without skates and just absolutely huge. So the guy behind us yells at him and Big Z shoots him a look and says something back to him (in Russian I think) that made me weak in the knees. I think I actually considered getting up and running outta the place just based on the fact that all of a sudden I had the realization that this guy is a FORCE that could do some serious harm to someone if he chose to. Later on Big Z scored and as he came back to the bench he shot the guy behind me a "Now what are you gonna say" look. FUN STUFF. The guy was definitely annoying and loud (Luke moved down so he wasn't sitting in front of him anymore and he was actually giving me a headache). BUT, before he left he went and bought two pucks and gave one each to Luke and Alyssa. He said it was for putting up with all the yelling, so, he wasn't so bad afterall.

For the record, Luke IS too old and too cool to stand with Blades (the Bruin bear) BUT,
he is too young to not do what his mother tells him to do.

(watching practice before the game)

And finally, for this post, my sweet daughter had her first ever sleepover at a friends house. She slept at her good friend Ellie's last weekend and of course did beautifully. She got to color some really awesome Easter eggs and play lots of fun stuff. She is getting so big, I can't believe she will be SIX in just a few weeks. Here she is anxiously waiting to go to Ellie's. Her shirt says "Be Amazing".....Alyssa my darling......you ARE amazing!!!

2010-03-08T20:09:00.012-05:00

Hello!

Geeesh I can't even remember all the things we've bee doing lately, it's been so long since I posted. I know we had February vacation a short while back. We spent a few days in North Conway at my friend Jamie's house, just the three of us. The kids loooved it there, in fact, we have taken a liking to calling it "our place in North Conway" since Jamie said we can stay there anytime :-). We had to stay somewhere for free because Jack was sleeping in the penthouse suite at the doggy hotel living the high life. Surprisingly enough there was NO SNOW on the ground up there. We brought ice skates and there was no ice to skate on either! We were however able to go snow tubing at Mt. Cranmore which was a blast. The first day we went (we went two times) was a picture-perfect gorgeous blue sky, white snow on Mt. Washington, "warm" day. It was great. The next day was a lot of fun too but not as nice weather-wise. We also went to a store called Zeb's which my kids love and we went to Cold Stone Creamery which my kids think is some sort of tradition when we go up there (just because we did it once last time we were there, does that make it a "tradition"?). Gotta love spending $8.50 for two size small ice creams. BUT, my babies are worth every penny and we had a lot of fun. The following 4 pictures are of us hanging at Jamie's.

These last two pictures were taken in the morning, so.....gimme a break!
I don't have very many pictures of me with my kids.

At the tail end of Februray vacation we were without power from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon due to a big windstorm that came through the area. There were hundreds of thousands of people without power so yeah, it was going to be a while until I got mine back since I am always THE LAST ONE to get it. Anyway, you may remember that I got a generator a short time ago, and let me tell you, I LOVE IT. It runs my heat, frig, water and various important lights around my house. It was really VERY manageable around here and I am so thankful that I actually followed through and bought the thing. The only part that I'm not crazy about is that it has to be filled with gas ever 8 hours or so, which means I have to go outside behind the garage at night, IN THE DARK WOODS, by myself to fill it. I have figured out that I am a big old wimp and I need to get a life. I did it though, and now I'm ready for all no-power situations that come my way. :-)

There was another thing that happened the night of the windstorm. My basement flooded. Yeah, that pretty much stunk too. This has happened two other times since I've lived here, during major unheard-of flooding conditions. It rained many, many inches that day/night and with all the snow on the ground the water just had nowhere to go. It seeped up through a crack in my basement floor. So this started happening about ten minutes before the power went out. Long story short (wet-dry vac, sump pump and a late night), it's fine now. But, it SUCKED. I think I might look into those advertisements I get in the mail asking me "Wet Basement"? Yeah buddy, help me out!!!

During vacation Luke and Alyssa also got to sleep over at Auntie Kim's house and they had a blast. Everyone involved said the time was waaaay too short and went by waaaay too fast. We also went to a play, Willy Wonka, and Papa joined us. My kids haven't really watched the movie but they loved the play. I loved it too...one of my favorites from when I was a kid. We had two birthdays, Amber turned 6 and Jordyn turned 9!

What else? Luke is almost all fitted up with hockey equipment because he'll be starting a learn to play hockey program next month. He's excited for that! We signed up for baseball (Luke) and t-ball (Alyssa) last week so that will be coming up too.

Last weekend we had dinner with Sonny and Taylor. Taylor dyed her hair black and she looks b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. I first saw her at cousin Amber's bowling birthday party (again-where my kids had a TON of fun) and I didn't even recognize her. She looks adorable in all her hair colors. We miss Tracey and Jordyn so much and hope they can come home from St. Jude's soon. Jordyn is doing pretty well but they both are really missing home.

We went to Boston yesterday because it was a gorgeous beautiful day. We did the Skywalk at the top of the Prudential Center. I was so surprised at how much Luke liked it. They have a little phone-looking thingy that you stand at any window and type in a number and it will tell you what you're looking at and teach you about the city. I thought it was really interesting, I had been up there before but never listened to the audio tour. Luke stood at every window listening and looking out and then moved on to the next one. His favorite part of course was seeing Fenway Park from up there but he listened and enjoyed all of it. Alyssa....not so much. She was pretty good but was less into it than he was, but come on...she's 5 and generally what she wants to do is more outrageous than listening to an audio tour.

I don't have a lot of pictures......but here are a few recent ones. Mostly of Alyssa dancing. They'll have to do.

And oh yeah, she loves to scooter now too. My wood floors are loving it :-(

Best and I mean BEST buddies

2010-03-01T12:05:00.013-05:00

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Happy 9th Birthday Jordyn!

Luke and Alyssa and I miss you and your mommy soooooo much and can't wait to see you.

2010-02-21T19:25:00.001-05:00

2010-02-19T09:41:00.008-05:00

For a while now I've been letting Alyssa dress herself- as in pick out all of her own clothes from head to toe. I'm not talking just on the weekends, every day- and you know she's in school now. It's been surprisingly difficult to bite my tongue with some of the outfits she comes up with- ALWAYS a dress or skirt- ALWAYS colorful. I find myself wanting to tell her maybe she should wear a different color tights or maybe different shoes, etc. But in doing that I'd be defeating the purpose. She always asks me "do you like my outfit mommy?" and some days my "Yes!" response is more emphatic that others (sometimes I have a quizzical look on my face I am sure at first sight...but truthfully, as a mother, I always think my daughter is adorable in anything she puts on). Some days when I drop her off at school I am kinda like.....these people are going to wonder who's dressing this kid....but honestly, it's about HER and not ME, right?

In addition, Alyssa often dresses herself several times per day. What she puts on in the morning may be strewn across her bedroom floor in an hour, as her mood changes. My laundry piles up from this.

Anyway, she dresses herself immediately when she gets up. She acts like she just cannot wait to get dressed. Last Sunday she and Luke were playing NASCAR in anticipation for the Daytona 500. Uncle Jeff bought Alyssa a Jimmy Johnson (her favorite driver) t-shirt last year so when I got up she was dressed like this (unusual for her to be wearing pants but she was playing the part):

And an hour later she was dressed like this:

Rocking out on "stage" to Muse's "Uprising" (a current favorite for both kids).

2010-02-08T17:07:00.004-05:00

Yes, well, that nasty stomach bug that my kids had, I got it the day after my last post. That day happened to also be my birthday and I can honestly say it was the worst birthday of my entire life. I think I suffered more pain on that day than my own mother did the day she gave birth to me. Haaaa. Mom, come on, I'M SO FUNNY!!! Really, what an awful day, night, everything AWFUL! And since that day I've been thanking my lucky stars every day when I wake up not feeling like that. So glad it's over.

So last week is just a total blur. My kids had Friday off for a teacher workshop. We went to see the movie "The Tooth Fairy" with some friends. All the kids said they liked it but I found myself checking my email and surfing the internet on my phone because I was so bored. However, they had fun, and that's what counts.

Friday night Luke and Alyssa slept over at Meme and Papa's. Alyssa was supposed to sleep over a few days prior but that got canceled (along with Luke's ear tubes) because I was sick. When I picked the kids up on Saturday, in typical fashion, they did not want to leave. Never do these kids ever want to leave wherever they are to go home. Mama is chopped liver. On Saturday we night skated on the pond and they went to bed on the early side because they were tired.

Sunday we went and bought Luke some new hockey skates. I am so proud of how well he is doing at skating, and it was time for him to move onto real hockey skates so that he can be ready when he begins a hockey program (still trying to figure out when that will be by the way). The skates took some getting used to for him, but by the end of his skating session he was flying around the ice like his regular crazy self.

All-in-all it was a pretty great weekend. Too bad I didn't take any pictures..............

hi

2010-02-02T21:16:00.009-05:00

My babies have been sick for days. Some nasty stomach bug.

Alyssa started it last Thursday night at 12:30. Luke managed to stay feeling good until Sunday morning. Both of them are still fighting it off and on. No more throwing up but just on and off belly aches. I hate it when my kids are sick, but of course I know they'll be fine soon.

Luke is supposed to have tubes put in his ears on Thursday. He has had repeated ear infections since he was age 5. Strange, usually kids get them when they are smaller and outgrow them by his age. Anyway, I'm not looking forward to him being put out for the procedure.....but.....what can I do. Every time the kid gets a cold he ends up with a raging ear or double ear infection that ends up bursting. He is also allergic to most of the best antibiotics to treat them. So....tubes it is.

We are excited to go to another Bruins game on March 25th. Luke kept begging me to go to another game and I told him he had to buy his own ticket, thinking that would keep him quiet since the tickets are expensive. Well wouldn't you know this kid hasn't spent any of his allowance for many many months and had enough saved up. So we're going. We'll be eight rows up behind the Bruins bench, right by that tunnel thingy where the players come in and go out....so look for us!!!!

Both of my kids got report cards a couple weeks ago. Luke got all A's (where letters were assigned) and improved in every area. Alyssa also improved in every area (they don't give out any letter grades in Kindergarten). I was so proud of them! Little geniuses, they take after their momma.

I received my blog book in the mail but the last 20 (of over 200) pages were not bound in the book so they are sending me another one. I still have some edits to make and I want to change some stuff but all in all I like it a lot. The thing I like most about it is that Luke was sooooo looking forward to receiving it as well, and the day I got it he sat down immediately and read it cover to cover for two hours. God, I love this kid. He's read it about 5 times since then and he tells me what a good job I did and how much he likes it. How could I be so lucky to have a son who acknowledges my hard work.... I don't know.

First Hockey Injury

2010-01-20T18:13:00.006-05:00

Yes, Luke has gotten his first real hockey injury that caused a call to his doctor. Luckily it looked worse than it was and it's not a season-ender.

Basically what happened is, his friend came over on Sunday and they were playing hockey outside in the driveway. Somehow the friend slipped on a little patch of ice as he was taking a shot on goal and the stick hit Luke's face. When I first looked at it I was slightly freaking because the cut was bloody and there was blood in his mouth and around his tooth. Thank goodness his tooth was not loose! He's already had one of his adult teeth broken in another incident. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but anyone who has seen him in the last few days has been like "WOW....DUDE....what happened??!!"

This was a good lesson that I need to go get him a new helmet with face protection SOON.

2010-01-18T11:07:00.004-05:00

We've been talking about Martin Luther King for a few days...who he was, what life was like for black people during his time, what life is like now, etc. Yesterday Alyssa and I were talking about his "I Have a Dream" speech and asked her if she has a dream. She said yes...(she takes his words literally the way a 5-year-old would). She said:

"I had a dream I had cancer and there was a really nice doctor that gave me medicine and made me all better. I loved the doctor, he was so nice! I have a dream that there is no more cancer!"

D-R-E-A-M

2010-01-14T09:00:00.006-05:00

***This is your warning that this post is not about my kids and strictly an opinion of mine based on a current world event***

I just read some comments after a news story about what is going on in Haiti. In case you have not heard, there was a 7.0 earthquake on Tuesday. As many as 100,000 people may have died (many more wounded) and 3 million people are affected. I was shocked to say the least at the lack of humanity and self-centered nature some people have in these comments. And I am not talking just a couple or a few, I am talking about a substantial amount of the comments coming from people who are either opposed to helping Haiti because “it’s not our country” or making the decisions on the issue based around politics or religion. I am shocked….SHOCKED. The Haitian people just suffered a major natural disaster. The people fear going back in their houses due to aftershocks (if they even have houses anymore) so they are sleeping and living outside. They have no power, no way to get food, water, medical supplies. They hear people- some their own families- calling for help from crumbled buildings and have no way to help them….no equipment, no resources. There are dead bodies in the streets. There is no air traffic control, definitely no organized way of dealing with the tragedy from their own government at this time.

Regardless of what you think about their situation as a country, the circumstances are what they are right now.

The last comment I read blasted the people of Haiti for continuing to have babies when the country is so poor and making them live under these circumstances. And by the way, “sorry about the earthquake”. Such an uninformed, uneducated, ignorant statement is so easy for so many. These people don’t look at the problem (or any problem probably) past the surface and then self-righteously make wide, sweeping generalizations acting as if they’ve solved the problem.

If people don’t want to help, then fine. I truthfully don’t have a problem with people taking care of themselves and their families first and being responsible with the resources that they have. But seriously, why do people feel the need to spread such hatred and negativity into the world? When I see the pictures of what is going on in Haiti RIGHT NOW it makes my heart ache for those people….women living outside with infants….no power, water, food. Could I do that? It sends a panic through me just to think of it. I was miserable last year when I didn’t have electricity for 8 days due to a weather occurrence. What if I didn’t have A HOUSE? FOOD? WATER TO DRINK? A BATHROOM? WHAT IF THERE WERE PEOPLE LAYING DEAD IN THE STREETS? And what if there was no organized effort at fixing the problem?

Seriously people, where’s the compassion? The humanity?

I am not saying that everyone should drop everything and make Haiti central to their lives. There are many, many, many people who will see the struggle there and do what they can. My point here is that when a tragedy like this occurs, maybe we just need to take some time to see what is happening to these human beings WITHOUT spreading judgment and negativity and filth into the air.

There will be a time for analyzing and offering opinions about what has and is occurring but, is it right now?

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Bloggety blog book

2010-01-13T21:09:00.008-05:00

I'm sooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

I'm sorry.

I am currently completely obsessed with a blog book I am making. I was going to do this three years ago but it seemed like too much work. For some reason now I am taking it on, and of course now I have years more to do. I have been working pretty much non-stop since last Thursday on putting all my blog posts from 2009 together to make the book. My plan is to do one book per year. Since I am a scrapbooking drop-out, this is a good option for me. But it's a lot of work, and when I start a project it's hard for me to think of anything else until it's done. So blogging is on the back burner for now until I can get my head straight again. Unless I can find some medication for my obsessive nature?

In the meantime, did I mention how GREAT the ice is over here?

2010-01-10T22:39:00.001-05:00

Skating, skating and more skating

2010-01-06T20:21:00.007-05:00

My kids are heavy, heavy into skating these days. They took lessons that ended in early December. Thanks to Uncle Jeff they have been skating every weekend since. This includes skating at the arena where they had lessons at public skate, plus public skate at the Rinks at Exeter (Luke loves that place!), or Uncle Sonny's Crazy Canadian ice patch, and most recently, on our pond.

Jeff cleared the ice on New Year's Day, and again the next day, and again the next day (it snowed all of last weekend). Luke and Alyssa skated and skated and skated some more, well into the dark some of those days. They are so lucky (word does not suffice), not only to have such a great Uncle, but to have one that is an incredible skater to teach them. If you see them skate now as opposed to even a month ago you will see how much they have improved, and I am talking **leaps and bounds**. Their daddy was a really, really good skater, as I have said many times- a precious sight that touched my heart every time I watched him. But if you asked Joe, he would tell you (and did tell me on several occasions) that Jeff is a g-r-e-a-t skater. He was right, and he is a also a great teacher!

And darn, for me an added bonus---these lessons are free!! :-)

Taylor, Alyssa and Luke
December 19, 2009

Here's the grounds manager, and trust me, the "patrons" are relentless and
demanding when it comes to cleaning the ice off. It's a lot of work!

2010-01-01T23:42:00.009-05:00

Luke, Alyssa and I had a really great appetizer meal on New Year's Eve. We (and by "we" I mean mostly Luke) polished off a whole bottle of grape-apple sparkling cider while talking about our favorite moments of 2009. Among some of the favorites were:

Mom (I was allowed to give 4 great moments of '09 by "the Host" as Luke called himself, the one who says the rules of what you can say. This was really hard to pick- we did a lot of fun things last year. I started a separate '09 recap post but it's not done yet....):

~ Seeing Alyssa graduate from pre-school

~ Watching Luke get his first hit in Rookie League baseball

~ Blue Man Group

~ The Killers Concert

Alyssa was allowed 2 by the Host I believe:

~ When Uncle Jeff pretended he was on an elevator on the back deck

~ "Sitting with her family on New Year's Eve talking" (sweet!)

"The Host's" highlight moments included:

~ Blue Man Group

~ Going to his friends house

~ Having his friend come to our house

~ Christmas

~ THE BRUINS GAME (which, he maintains was the best day of his life)

Funny, the Host gave himself the oppportunity to say more moments than Alyssa and I got. :-) At any rate, that was our starting point to discussing a whole bunch of great, great and fun things we did in 2009. Alyssa's choice of being able to be with her family on New Year's Eve also sparked a long discussion of how lucky the three of us are to sit and talk and eat together when some people we love are hundreds of miles away in a hospital having a very different New Year's Eve. We made lots of toasts, including to Jordyn, and Tracey, Sonny and Taylor, and we are praying for Jordyn to get better.

Luke stayed up until after midnight and Alyssa tried soooooooooo hard but she conked out at 11. Next Year Alyssa!

~Happy New Year Everyone~

First Bruins game for luke and Alyssa

2009-12-31T17:13:00.006-05:00

I am almost afraid of posting some of these pictures for fear that my sister is going to come here and hurt me. ha ha ha

Luke really, really, REALLY loved the game. He did not want to leave the TD Garden and he's been asking me constantly when we can go again. Alyssa was a very good girl, she enjoyed herself but she was watching the clock at the end. She held up her sign every chance she got and danced and cheered. LOTS OF FUN!!!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-29T16:56:00.005-05:00

Before leaving for Meme and Papa's Christmas Eve

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Auntie Cindy's big bad bingo game

Christmas morning, 5:49 am

That's a big box for an ice hockey stick!

Have you ever seen a cuter baby (other than your own of course)

Bob guessing his present (he grew really tall while he was away)

The day after, 50 flavors of jelly beans = endless pleasure

2009-12-26T10:18:00.003-05:00

At school the kids have a shopping day where they can buy things for 25 cents for their family. They choose who in their family they buy for. This year Luke thought of his fur brother, Jack. He picked out a stocking for him and Jack loooooved it. He hasn't even torn it to shreds yet, which says a lot.

Better watch out

2009-12-23T22:05:00.006-05:00

I spent seven hours today making cookies. SEVEN HOURS, I said, in case you didn't hear me. I even made the gingerbread dough last night and I thought I'd be flying right through the whole process due to my incredibly organized forward thinking. Yeah, that didn't happen. Thank goodness I had a daughter to help me. Yes, you know, a 5-year-old who, after you roll the dough all out nice and perfect, plops a cookie cutter right in the middle, then hapharzardly uses the cutters all around, willy nilly, cutting into each other, etc. I think I must have gotten 3 cookies per dough roll with her help.
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Just kidding Alyssa, I loved having you help me. And our cookies came out beautifully didn't they?.
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I asked the kids to pick out their favorite cookie out of all of the ones we made. Alyssa picked the exact same cookie as I had picked in my head for my own favorite. Weird. ,

We made another kind too, but I didn't take any pictures of those.

In between cookie batches, we were working on Christmas crafts.
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Merry Christmas to all, near and far.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday.

2009-12-22T08:10:00.007-05:00

Alyssa came to me this morning with *real* thought-out discussion. Basically, she wants to know if Grammie and Beepa can come live with us.

Alyssa (calmly): "Mom, can Grammie and Beepa come live with us in our house?"

Me: "No Alyssa, Grammie and Beepa live in VT at their own house."

Alyssa (emphatically and immediately ready for her defense): "But MOM! We never get to see Grammie and Beepa hardly except in the summer! And Tyler..."

Me: "Alyssa, you're going to see Grammie and Beepa in a few days on Christmas."

Alyssa: "But Tyler (someone in her class) has HIS grammie and grandfather live with him!"

Me (just listening): "Um, Okay."

Alyssa (big eyes): "...And his mama and daddy and all his sisters and brothers and his aunties and also his grammie and grandfather. THEY ALL LIVE TOGETHER" (she's mad at this point and I am the worst mother ever).

Me: "Wow, they must have a BIG house!"

Alyssa (acting as if I am being completely unreasonable): "No, they don't have a big house!"

Me: "Well, Alyssa, where would we put Grammie and Beepa in our house? We don't have any room for them."

Alyssa (as if I am the most unreasonable and unwilling parent on earth): "Well, Tyler does it and he doesn't have a big house. He has a duplex!" (Me kind of laughing because I've never heard Alyssa talk about a duplex before, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what a duplex is).

Me: "I'm sorry Alyssa, Grammie and Beepa aren't coming to live with us."

Alyssa: "But we never get to see them! That's not fair!"

So, mom and dad, based on the above information, I fully expect that you will be breaking the news to Alyssa that you're headed to Florida after the holidays. And if you really want to help me out, you can let her know that you have to live in your own house and it's not her mean mommy's fault.

G-bread

2009-12-21T12:14:00.003-05:00

Last week we decorated gingerbreads with three of our favorite friends. All the houses (and the tree that Alyssa made) were different and all beautifully crafted. :-) In addition the an impromptu dance party broke out, with no fog (I'm out of fog juice). Next time I'll be prepared. Fun Fun Fun!!

What the...............

2009-12-17T19:19:00.001-05:00

We went to Santa's Village on Sunday. We go every Summer but for some reason it didn't work out last July....or August.....and I intended to get back to camp in the Fall to go and that didn't happen. So, for the first time we went in the Winter. It was fun! I wish I had dressed better...specifically I wish I wore boots. So I'll remember that if we go back again in the Winter. My kids were dressed perfectly and were comfortable and had a blast.

Sometime when I get really ambitious I am going to put each year of my kids standing in front of this thing side by side. I can't wait til I do that! It's gonna be cooooooool.

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Luke is a real joker these days and I guess he thought it would be funny to pretend he was picking his nose when I took this picture. Thanks buddy.

The kids decorated gingerbread cookies and ate them.

Alyssa sat on this donkey that she has some sort of strange affinity for. Last year she wouldn't get off him and caused a big scene when she was forced to. Hey, I understand Alyssa, I want a mini-donkey myself. Actually, I wanted to get one for Jack, to give him his own pet so he might learn some responsibility. But then I found out that mini donkeys live for thirty five years, so that's not happening. Sorry Jack, no mini mule for you this Christmas.

Now, what is up with this? This rabbit usually has blue pants on! I guess he changed his pants for the holidays.

Here are a couple pictures I stole off my big sister's blog. She met us at the Village. She takes much nicer pictures than I do so I thought I'd give your eyes a little treat:

It snowed and the ride home took over three hours (it should have taken about 2). Uncle Jeff drove us though and we arrived safely. However, the next day I went off the road in the truck because some of the side roads were still icy....I was fine but now I am the owner of two broken vehicles- though both are drivable. I was rear-ended a month ago, maybe I didn't mention that.

Anyway, this concludes this year's trip to Santa's Village.

2009-12-12T09:15:00.015-05:00

What up peeps???!!!

Let's see.....

Last night I took my kiddies to see the movie Old Dogs. It was an okay movie for all of us. My favorite part was seeing old pictures of Vinny Bobbarino at the beginning of the movie. (....Whhaaaa?.......) Some funny parts but mostly just fun for the three of us to be together.

In other news, Alyssa got to go on the morning bus yesterday because she had a field trip. She was pretty excited to see some of her old pre-school pals who she doesn't see at school because they are in different classes. They went to the Nutcracker at the Porstmouth Music Hall. Does anyone remember when Alyssa used to call the "Nutcracker" the "Buttcracker". Ha ha ha she's so funny.

Speaking of butts, if you have been around Luke in the last month or so, you'll know that if he gets you to say "What", he says "You're stuck with it." He does this constantly at home. (Help!) Anyway, he and Alyssa quickly devised an alternate option in case you catch on and are quick enough to stop yourself from saying "what" and say "yeah" instead. That option is "Your butt stinks". So each scenario goes something like this...

Luke: "Mommy"

Me: "What"

Luke: (gleefully) "You're stuck with it!"

-or-

Luke: "Mommy"

Me: "Yeah"

Luke: "Your butt stinks"

That's what my life consists of for the past month. It's constant. Whatever. They had previously kept the "your butt stinks" comments in the house with a plethora of other inside jokes that we keep between our own walls. Sometime recently that changed. Luke told me he's got his whole class passing on the alternate option, telling each other their butts stink. Nice. Lets just all keep the sweet pictures of my kids in our minds.

Let's see, what else do we have going on. Oh yes, we went and got our Christmas tree last weekend and put it up. It's pretty darn nice if I do say so myself. Too bad I couldn't get a nice non-blurry pic of my kids in front of it, acting like they like each other.

The kids finished ice skating lessons last Sunday and they were AWESOME! Both of them did really, really well on their last lesson, I couldn't believe how much they had improved from the week before. They passed out sticks and pucks to use so Luke was pretty happy with that, even if it was plastic. He's going to start a hockey program at the end of February.

We had a snow day on Wednesday. We got about 10 inches of snow here followed by an afternoon full of rain. We went outside at about 6 at night when it as kind of light snowing and I fired up the snowblower while the kids played. I quickly realized that I was going to be snowblowing about 4 inches of heavy thick slush under several inches of heavy snow. It really was not fun. Especially since it started pouring after we got out there. I was soaked and the kids were oblivious to the rain and I had to tell them to go inside. Now it's freezing cold here and we have icy driveway. Hmmmmm winter........

Well on a good, no, GREAT note, I have decided to finally get a generator. So, "You're welcome" in advance to all the people who have had to sit and listen to me whine like a baby when I have no power. What I wanted was a 12,000 watt standby unit that turns on automatically as soon as it detects a power outage. I think that would be entirely sufficient for me. However, the price tag was a little too hefty on that one. So I am getting one that will run the necessities for me...heat, water and frig....and some other stuff too. I lose power all the time here for some reason so it will be worth it..

Wednesday December 9, 2009

Oh, and on a final note, I keep wanting to mention this.....We went for a little hike up Blue Job about a month ago on a nice weekend day. There weren't a lot of people around so I was brave and let my Jack-o off his leash. He was soooooooooooo funny. He kept turning around and looking at me like "is this okay?" ; "can I really do this?" etc etc. He stayed right with us. Luke was a little bit ahead but always in sight. Jack would run up to him and maybe a couple steps past him but that's it. He would always run back to me if I called him. He was awesome! My Jack. Can you believe it??? MY JACK!

That's it for now folks.

2009-12-09T09:41:00.003-05:00

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Today is a snow day. No school.
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From the other room I could hear the kids talking but not really make out what they were saying.
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Then I hear Alyssa in this evil voice clearly say:
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"Horseradish" (pause) ..... "Brownies" (pause) .... "AND MY MASTERPIECE OF DOOM!"
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What exactly could they possibly be talking about? I am in for it.
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Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-07T12:16:00.005-05:00

Here's something you've never seen before....Grammy and Beepa with Luke and Alyssa on Thanksgiving for the first time ever. Thanks Auntie Jo for all the cooking and cleaning you did, and for giving up your bed ;-)

2009-12-02T07:32:00.000-05:00

On Friday we went to a Monarchs game (AHL hockey). It was kind of a big deal because last year I told Luke he had to make it through three Monarchs or UNH hockey games before we would go to a Bruins game. Now, you must understand something......As I have said before Luke has had issues with noise. He has been known to get very nervous (shaking, teary, fidgety, anxious and genuinely worried) about noise levels at things that most kids would just plain enjoy. Uncle Jeff and Uncle Sonny took Luke to a Monarch's game last year and they all ended up walking around the concession area for most of the game until eventually they left. That wasn't his first time, either. It's been a battle, but one that thankfully seem to be behind us.

Luke loooooved the game. I was prepared to not even stay for the whole thing just for the sheer fact that I thought my kids would get tired (it started at 7:30-their usual bedtime) but there was no way that Luke was leaving early. He didn't know any of the players on the Monarchs (unlike the Bruins where he's got every player and stat catalogued in his brain) but he just loves to watch them play. He is a true hockey fan.

Alyssa, my darling daughter, loves everything that her brother does. She knows a lot about hockey too and was great for a solid two periods of the game. In the third period she got a little bored and fidgety but never left her seat or was disruptive. There was a time when both my kids would have been out of their seats, walking the isles disrupting everyone around them if they got bored- it's actually nice that they are a little older and don't do that anymore. Alyssa just stayed in her seat and was being really silly and funny, and entertaining me (I was good for two periods too.)

All in all it was a successful outing, and less than 48 hours later I was scouring the internet for the best Bruins seats I could find. I let Luke choose the game on the upcoming schedule and I scored big time last night. The kids will finally get to go to the TD Bank Garden in a few weeks for their first B's game. I know I told Luke he had to make it through three games but.....I changed my mind. He's ready!!

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On another note, I have instituted an "no more hats" policy. Luke lost his Red Sox hat at the movies a while back, and Alyssa lost her pink Bruins hat (that's the last you'll see of it in the photos above) at the Monarch's game. Apparently none of us are good at doublechecking these things....so we have lost our privilege.

2009-12-01T16:28:00.001-05:00

Day 1 of the Advent Calendar (behind them).....my kids love this thing and look forward to it every year to count down to Christmas. They both ran off the bus today, dropped their backpacks and ran straight for it. Wouldn't it be nice to be this excited about.......anything? :-)
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2009-11-26T10:04:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all my peeps!

Love to all

Skating

2009-11-23T23:50:00.003-05:00

Luke and Alyssa started skating lessons on Sunday.

This is Alyssa's first "official" lesson, Luke has been through a couple rounds of lessons in the past when he was four and five years old. Joe and I used to have to bribe him to stay on the ice for the whole hour, and he was definitely a clock-watcher. Last winter he skated a few times, once was when our lake up North was a giant unbelievable flat sheet of ice. That was awesome! He liked going to an arena to skate this time, though he and Alyssa were both a little disappointed there is no jumbotron there hanging over center ice. Truthfully, I think they are both really yearning to skate at the TD Bank Garden in front of tens of thousands of fans.

Cousins Hailey and Taylor and were also there on Sunday, and our friend Rex also made a short appearance. All in all they did pretty well. Luke was very excited but half-way through his ear started hurting really badly from his ear infection. They both did great!.

(Before we left)
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Taylor has blue hair

These two might enjoy socializing in the bleachers
as much as or more than skating.

2009-11-22T12:27:00.004-05:00

Just when I took the "just in case" bed off my bedroom floor (as in, just in case a kid is sick and I want to keep an eye on them at night so they sleep in my room), Luke shows up at 3:17am asking me for medicine. I felt so bad for him, he asked me so politely... "mommy can you please take me downstairs and give me some tylenol?" (insert sweet, sorry-to-wake-you whisper). He said his ear hurt and I knew instantly he had an ear infection. I had wondered if his flu and cold symptoms from last week would cause problems in his ears. I gave him medicine and he went back to bed but he returned to my room in a few hours...."mommy can you please take me to the doctor?"

2 hours later we were in the doctors office with the doctor confirming a terribly angry looking ear. He is feeling okay....he's had some fluid drain from it which is really gross but I am glad it relieved some of the pressure and pain for him. Poor kid!

2009-11-21T23:42:00.001-05:00

The Chalifour tank has been running on low for weeks now, with all that has been going on. We are dealing with some pretty big life issues in our house, and on top of that last Friday started a week-long flu-a-thon, that we are so happy to have behind us (fingers crossed). Last night I decided enough was enough, I had to do something fun or I might go over the edge! I decided on Blue Man Group and was lucky enough to get some great tickets online. I've been before so I thought this might be a good show for all of us since it appeals to people of every age. My kids love to go to Boston and we try to go to some sort of live show every few months, whether it be a play, an 'on-ice', a sporting event, etc. These are the types of things that I truly enjoy and always have, and I love to drag my kids along and see them enjoy it too.

Blue Man did not disappoint...my kids sat in their seats the entire time, no fidgeting or restlessness, they loved it! For those of you who have seen Blue Man before, Luke's favorite part was the toilet paper and Alyssa's was a part where the Blue Men went outside of the theatre. Uncle Jeff's favorite part was the music. My favorite part was....the whole thing.....going out to do something fun with my babies (shut up-I can still call them babies if I want), not thinking of any worries....and watching a three blue baldies spit marshmallows.

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On a separate note, I think I can **finally** say goodbye to Luke's over-sensitive nature to noise levels. This has been a problem and a hinderance for years for us in going places. Luke often flips out or refuses to go places where it will be loud (or what he perceives to be loud). I brought his ear protection to Blue Man and he didn't ask for it at all, wasn't nervous or preoccupied with what the noise level would be. Thank goodness he has outgrown that stage, it took a long time, but I think we're in the clear now!

On another separate note, I am also so thankful that Luke would stand for a picture with a Blue Man. In the past when the opportunity came up and I asked him to take a picture with performers of shows, etc, he would say "no" and HE MEANT NO. This time he did say no at first, but then he complied. Alyssa always needs a little coaxing too but she is generally easier to talk into this stuff. Just seeing him there shows me how far he has come.

Happy Birthday Grammie!

2009-11-19T17:06:00.001-05:00

2009-11-17T10:05:00.004-05:00

Alyssa seems better today, and hopefully she will be able to go to school tomorrow. Her fever returned last night for a short time but she looks much much better today so I am hopeful. She is singing at the top of her lungs at the moment with her headphones on.

Luke woke up feeling good despite his 102.5 temp in the night. He had medicine every three hours to keep it under control. At this point he has no fever and his medicine has worn off so maybe he'll beat this faster than Alyssa.....if he has no fever today and feels good then he could go to school tomorrow too.

I am feeling fine other than a sore throat and going stir crazy from being housebound. Again, thanking my lucky stars for no puke. Thank you thank you thank you!

2009-11-16T09:13:00.005-05:00

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9:18pm
Alyssa was feeling better today but then tonight her fever came back. She fell asleep on the couch watching the Bruins and when I put her in her bed her temp was 101. Luke has had a fever all day and I have not seen him move out of his spot on the chair which he is using as a bed. He is actually still up because he's been resting all day and he's also watching the hockey game, which lifts his spirits a little bit. His doctor said expect this to last 5 days, which I am kind of believing since Alyssa is starting her 5th day tomorrow.

As for me, I am thankful this whole scenario does not involve any puke. Goodnight.

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9:13am
Luke woke up this morning with a fever. Both kids will be staying home today.
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2009-11-15T08:32:00.008-05:00

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Uhhhh well Alyssa is feeling worse tonight....back to 101.7 fever and she threw up when I gave her some ibuprophen. I am hoping it was an isolated incident because she doesn't like the taste of that kind of medicine all of a sudden (though she took it all day/night yesterday with no complaints). Anyway, she played more today but generally she is SICK!! Hope tomorrow is a better day. Luke is fine so far. Mommy has a sore throat and is generally feeling kinda yucky. :-(
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Alyssa seems better today, still has a little fever with medicine but lower than yesterday and through the night. She's coughing and sneezing a lot but playing, not laying on the couch. That's your update peeps.
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2009-11-05T00:27:00.002-05:00

So tell me my blogger peeps, what is the consensus on the consumption of the halloweeny treats??? During the rest of the year, when my kids have candy it is generally one piece at a time, maybe two. To dole out halloween candy this way seems like it would take forever plus one day to get rid of it. So my general feeling is to just let them eat it as they want it (within reason), with me enduring fits of wild sugar dances and screaming and general chaos for a short period and then POOOOOF it's gone. Well, after a couple weeks POOOF it will be gone I hope.

What does everyone else do?

By the way, my kids went trick-or-treating for less than one hour and they filled their buckets. I can't imagine how much kids get that go longer.