If...

If girls are made from sugar and spice and everything nice...

And boys are made of snakes and scales and puppy dog tails....

They why are my girls coming home with toads and frogs and other slimy stuff?

What's the buzz?

The afternoon was perfect, warm with a slight breeze. They asked if we could have lunch outside. I said sure, why not and proceeded to put up the new sun umbrella at the table. Without it, we would sure bake. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him. The nerve of him, flying right by me and up into the loose piece of siding. Every summer I have to deal with them. Slowly moving the siding to check for damage, it happened.


The fucker stung me. Right on the back of my hand. Now, 24 hours later, it's still slightly swollen and it still hurts when I try to bend my fingers. When I'm just sitting there, it throbs a little and itches like all hell.

I've sprayed it twice and there is still one persistent little fucker in there, building away, oblivious to the poison that surrounds it. Tonight, I spray again.


I will be vindicated!

At Dusk

We enter through the visitor's foyer. We no longer need to stop at the front desk, we head straight back and ride the carpeted elevator to the main floor. The girls take turns pressing the M button. Meenie no longer hesitates before steeping into the elevator, no longer holds my hand. We step off at our floor and walk through the doors that say Rehab. In front of us is a nursing station, to the right a hallway of patient rooms, to the left a sitting area. It's all carpeted, to keep the patients from falling, prolonging their stay. As we turn, we see her sitting there. Always on the right side of the sitting area, all alone in her wheeled chair, baby doll wrapped in her arms. There she sits not really watching the fish, not the TV. Just sitting. On the left, they sit, side by side, as close as their wheeled chairs allow. His hand always cupping hers. Watching the news together.

We turn left and head down the hall towards the next nursing station. We see people as we pass by, nurses, CNA's, PT's and patients and residents. Some in wheel chairs, propelled by their arms, their legs, however they can get along. Other require help. Some are up in walkers. They stop and say hi. Not really to me, but to the three little one's with me. At first, they stepped closer to me, clutching their treats (a snack, a picture, a plucked flower). Now they smile and say hi. They offer a hand. No longer are they afraid. They've become accustomed to being stopped and asked questions. Even the nurses slow down as we make our way down the hall.

We now turn left, third door on the right.

They walk in, handing over their gifts. "Hi Mema*, how are you today?". And then we visit. They sit on the bed, talking about their day. They walk down the hall, carefully matching her slow and steady steps, holding onto the walker as if to help. We visit the birds and if it's nice, step out onto the patio. They play with the bunny. Watch the birds. Run and sing and dance. And of course, they visit.

We walk her back to her room, and then it's time to say good-bye. "we'll come back tomorrow they tell her. We'll bring you something nice". And with that, we walk back down the hall, retracing our steps back.

"I love this place" they tell me, as the stop to admire the water fountain on the way back to the car.

*My mother-in-law had her knee replaced last week. She's doing great and we expect her to come home this week.

Summer vacation by the numbers (so far)

We've been busy lately, so here's a quick by the numbers post.

4- # of bottle of antibiotics (3x a day for 3 weeks) to treat Lyme Disease
15 - # of hours spent at soccer camp for 1 child
15 - # of hours Einey complained she was bored (while Meenie was at soccer camp)
1 - skinned knee from falling off a scooter
2 - # of blueberries on our bush this year
1 - gallon of raspberries picked from the yard
5- # of times a day the girls have been changing clothes - 1 in the am, 1 into a bathing suit, 1 in pm clothes, 1 into bed clothes and then occasionally once for other reason still unknown to me
40 - # of hours Husband works a week (no this is actually a good thing - way down from normal)
3 - # of birthday parties attended
18 - # of miles hiked
8 - # of letterboxes planted
320 - # of slug counted on one outing
51 - # of letterboxes found
17 - # of stamps carved waiting to be planted
7 - # of days gone by where a child hasn't picked up a DS OR Wii remote
4 - # of times a week we go swimming
6 - Time I've been getting up in the morning. With Husband going into work later, I've been unable to fall back asleep
2 - # of kids also usually up at 6
7 - times my basement has flooded due to rain (and I wouldn't be surprised if it does again today)
623,520 - # of bug bites we are all sporting, damn mosquitoes
10 - # of times we've watched the Neverending Story
2 - # of times we've watched the Secret Garden
2- # of times we went to a movie this summer
5 - minutes spent out of the water in a time out for wrestling (administered by the lifeguards)
120 - # of times Meenie can hula hoop

That about sums up our summer so far. Nice and relaxing for the most part.

Keepsake Moments

A week ago, Super Mega Dad awarded me the Keepsake Blog Award. I haven't forgotten, I've just been busy. The sun has finally decided to shine on the East, for a few days at least, now if we can just hit temps above 80 degrees, we'll be all set. Anyway, the day he posted it, we went out for a hike and, you guessed it, played with bugs. Not just any type of bug, but slugs in particular. The girls loved terrorizing them getting real close to them until they pulled their eye stalks in. We didn't bring any home in jars. We actually don't bring any bugs in, they can be jarred, played with and studied, they just have to stay outside. That's not so say we don't get them in the house from the door that's always left wide open.... And then we've been going to the lake to swim. Which is nice because no one ever goes to the lake. It is so peaceful, usually just us and a few friends. And as long as we leave the snake alone, we're all set :)

So, anyway, the rules of this award state, that I need to tell a "keepsake moment" in my life, as well as to pass on the love to some of my fellow bloggers who will probably never see this post because most of them are heading to BlogHer and will just delete the gazillion posts in their blog readers when they return. I'm supposed to come up with ten of them, so here goes.

My keepsake moment goes back to when Moe was born. She was, a complete surprise baby. I found out I was pregnant when Einey turned two and Meenie was 6 months old. I was in shock. And denial. And shock. Even as my belly grew bigger, I still couldn't fathom that I was going to have another baby. To top it off, Moe was breech my whole pregnancy. There was a huge probability that I would not only be bringing a baby home to two very young toddlers, but also be recovering from a c-section. Thankfully the stars aligned and I had a great doctor and no c-section. I remember telling my Husband the day before I went into labor that I couldn't do this. That I wasn't ready. That we couldn't have another baby. But when I met my beautiful daughter three days later (yes, I was in labor for THAT long), it made me forget all my apprehensions. Moe just fit into our family and before long, I couldn't remember what it was like not to have three little one's (that's not to say it was all rainbows and cotton candy, because there were numerous rough patches there).

So that's my keepsake moment, when I realized that everything would be fine. We have three kids and we will survive. And I wouldn't change it for anything!

So now onto the tagging, although really, it's hard to pick just ten.

Clink is just an awesome person - as a photographer, writer, mother and friend. She doesn't post often, but really, with a toddler and new puppy who could blame her. You should check her out, her posts always make me laugh.

Mrs. Chicky is also another great woman. I don't know how she finds time to blog (in multiple places too! And I swear she had a dog blog somewhere but I must have been mistaken) and have so much fun with her beautiful daughters, but she does. I'm sure your already reading her work, because seriously, who isn't?

Mrs. Chicken is also another great writer and mother. She captures life in ways that you can just see and feel. She's also not afraid to say just how tough this motherhood gig is. Hopefully she's getting some much needed R&R this week with the sun and the salt air surrounding her family.

Fairly Odd Mother is an inspiration to me. She's got three kids close in age to my girls. And while many of us New Englanders were going bat-shit crazy with the rain and cool temps, she didn't complain as much. Many of us were counting down the days until school starts again, but not FOM, her kids are home year round. She has to be a saint..... She makes this all just seem so easy!

Letters to Catherine is just an amazing blog. How could it not get a keepsake award? I hope they turn this into a book for sweet baby Catherine. I started reading last June (sorry I don't comment) and was captivated by how strong Katie and Donnie are. Catherine was so very sick, even before she was born. They didn't know how long they would have to spend with her once she was born. Soon Catherine will be one year old! It's been a rough road, but Catherine is so very strong.

Stimey is my next honoree. She writes about Life. Autism. and Gerbils. Her three boys remind me so much of my girls and many of her outings I can picture happening to us. From chasing birds to falling off statues, we've been there before. Funny story semi-relating to Stimey. I was out with friends last week and we were playing an ice breaker type game. One questions was "has a blog". A friend looked at me and says "you have a blog". She is an avid reader of Stimey's and found my blog when Stimey linked about letterboxing. Totally random and just well, unexpected.

Audrey makes up one of the three parts of Mom generations. She has four boys under the age of four, but still seems to have so much energy. Plus, her family rocks. She's writing daily fashion advice for moms right now, so go check her out.

Only three more to go....

Karen is another great read. She is mom to three boys and a birth doula. Seriously, what's cooler then that?

Kate is also another blog I read often. She's in the processes of moving, and even if she states otherwise, seems to have things under control. I remember how much of a pain in the ass it was to move when it was just the two of us, going from apartment to house, I can't ever imagine moving with kids (although hopefully we will in the next 2-5 years). Not only that, it was short notice for Kate.

And last, but not least is......

Suburban dwelling-Sierra. She writes about living in the suburbs with her kids balancing work and home.

Okay, so I just noticed that everyone I chose lives on he East Coast (with the exception of Mrs. Chicken, but she is staying on the EC while this was written, so that should count, right?)

Snippets

We've been absent lately. The sun has finally decided to shine here in New England. Not consistently, but there is sun, so we'll take what we get.

• I can't remember the last time (if ever) that we watched the Fourth of July fireworks in jeans and long sleeve shirts. And could have used a blanket to curl up with.

• I LOVE spending my afternoons at the lake. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! We have a beach pass for the local swimming hole and most of the times, there are just one or two other families. And five life guards. Sooooo relaxing! Yesterday there were 31 people, but most came as we were packing up to leave.

• Having fruit in the backyard rocks. Last night, the girls and I went out side and picked a bowl full of raspberries. Yum!

• Having farm fresh veggies rock! We joined a farm share (not CSA because we don't have to volunteer). We get an email once a week with the weeks offering and prices and then place our order and pick it up on Saturdays. My kids have been asking all week to snack on turnips and beets.

• Thunderstorms, while cool, suck. Don't get me wrong, I love thunderstorms. But lightning sucks. We were sitting in our living room the other night with the screen door to out back open. And all of a sudden, BAM. lightning hit about 10 feet from out back deck. It scared the crap out of everyone.

Where we think the lightning struck. The plants in theis area are all laying down and scorched.

• Hiking is great. We've done a ton of hiking lately. Our last trip was about 3 miles. It took us awhile, but we stopped to enjoy the sights (Israel Putnam's Wolf Den, and Indian Chair and creatures - snakes, frogs, toads, ect.). We stopped for lunch, we letter boxed. We enjoyed ourselves. But it was tough terrain. up and down, up and down. At one point, about 3/4 of a mile in (and in a valley) Einey took off running. And tripped over a rock. And fell. She banged her hip and her shoulder on a rock. She had a hard time standing. We were at a loss of which would be the easiest way out. We ended up chopping an adult Tylenol in half and carrying her a bit. She rested and within a 1/2 hour was walking on her own again. So we continued on. Whew!

After the fall...

• If Moe uttered these words outside of our car, I'm sure DCF would have been called. "Dad, why do you always hit so hard". Apparently when dad had her last week while I was at GS camp with Meenie and Einey was at a party, they were playing punch-out. Apparently, he hits harder then her.

• Einey is almost finished with her three week course of antibiotics for Lyme. She is back to her normal self and hasn't run a fever since she started the meds.

• I pulled a tick off of Moe's eye yesterday. It was stuck right on her under eyelash. Yuck!

My favorite garden. Last year I pulled out my veggies here and put in some cheap plants I found. Please ignore the weeds, it's been a tad rainy.

• I haven't had much time to garden. I need to weed, order mulch and finish digging my pond. I have most of it dug out, but need to do a tad more. It's been a bit rainy to work outside. The last time I was working, I had to push the wheelbarrow full of dirt six times up and down a hill to dump it in the back corner of our yard where I needed to fill in a bit. After I had just lugged the lawnmower up and down. I was tired!

After a 5 hour hike.

• School is starting the end of August. The other day I got our tuition bill and then promptly lost it. Somehow, this is the only bill I ever lose, but I do so every year. I realized I lost it when I went to make an inquiry about a minor discrepancy. I also haven't made a doctotr's appointment for Moe's pre-kindergarten physical. I need to call the nurse. She had a physical last October, which should cover her start - since it's within a year. She doesn't need any shots (even at her five year physical). but she needs bloodwork (why they need to know her white blood count baffles me). But if we do it before October, the insurance won't cover it as a well visit. And I'd have to bring her back in October for her five year phsical. So yeah, need to see if they drew blood last October. And the nurse is only at school two days a week. I have yet to order uniforms for Meenie. I need to do so soon.

That's about it, if you need me, I'll be in the woods or at the beach.

Off on adventure...

And the rain came tumbling down

It has now effectively rained for 948 years, since the dawn of time 32 days in a row (minus one or two days thrown in to try and keep us sane). So by my calculations, I should have built an ark and the rain will stop in about 8 days. Right? RIGHT? I mean, it has to stop sometime.



Because that's how I feel!

I want more of this:

And less thunder and rain. It's not fun hiking in the rain!

Heck, I'm embedding the Wiggles into my posts now (we haven't listened or watched the Wiggles in almost four years!). I must be losing it!