Happy Halloween

Jack 'O Lantern

As of right now, we have two pumpkins carved. One is still waiting for it's artist to create something outstanding.

When I was a kid, we got pumpkins, someone handed us a knife, and we cut out shapes to make scary faces. At least that's what I remember.

These days, they sell kits with stencils to make fancy lit lanterns. The boys want to make these, of course. So much more fun than triangle eyes. But they can't exactly handle the knives.

So I end up getting to do the bulk of the handywork, after the boys have poked holes in various locations.

But that's OK. The boys are proud, and the lanterns are cool.

See A Show!

I'm going to New York in a couple of days.

I am going to New York to see Josh Cohen. Not that Josh Cohen, The Other Josh Cohen.

When I told Steve, he was confused. He was all, "Who's Josh Cohen?"

Most readers will already know that The Other Josh Cohen is a show. It's a musical. If you're in NY and you know my brother, you'll probably already have heard about it. But if you're in NY and you haven't heard about it, go see it! By all accounts it's fabulous! I'm pretty excited myself.

Frankenstorm

We're supposed to get another storm.

Last year we had a big storm before Halloween. Remember that storm? It looked like this:

We had two snow days before November, and they postponed Halloween a week.

This year, it's not supposed to snow. It's supposed to wind and rain. A lot. The only comfort I can take in it as that at least we see it coming, and that maybe it won't cause too too much damage. But I'm not holding my breath because we've already gotten an email from the police department on emergency procedures and storm preparation, and one from our lovely electric company telling us we are probably almost definitely going to lose power, and to please not call them and bug them on the phone when it happens.

Not to worry, though. The boys here are practicing their magic skills, and should be able to charm us right out of the worst of it. See, here they are, in glasses and ties, the magic kind. Not the muggle kind. In a day or two, they'll be experts.

Oven! Oven!

WIth a double oven, you can cook two things at the same time. I'm a little excited. Now I want to start cooking and baking. Thanksgiving is a go!

Ghosts of Halloween Past

Not the Long Past, mind you. The Recent But Still Hilarious And Often Adorable Past. Such as....

2008

2009

2010

New England Color

Not all the colors, but some of the colors.

Kitchen Sink

Here's a lovely view of my new window. And my new sink. And the clutter that has already accumulated.

Hard At Work

Ahhhhhh!

I love my kids.

When I start out a post with "I love my kids" then you know I'm probably going to complain about them.

I love my kids.

I love it right after bath because when I wrap them up in a towel they let me cuddle and hug them, just like when they were very little.

I love tucking them in at night because they hug me back. And also, I know they're going to be sleeping soon.

What gets me - and I don't know if other parents have this problem - but what gets me is the constant... the someone always needing... the... MAHHHM!

This is how it works. I come down and the kids are doing something. They don't need me. I start to do something, like pack school lunches. Suddenly the kids start fighting, or screaming. Or someone starts calling me "Mom! Mom! Maaaahhhm!"

When I need the boys to do something, say get dressed for school, or put on shoes to catch the school bus, I am required to follow them around, announcing every step. When I do, the boys get irritated. "I KNOW!" Who could blame them. I would get irritated, too. But if I don't, the things don't get done.

"Where are your shoes?"

"I forgot!"

"Do you have your library book?"

"You didn't remind me!"

Because reminding them at breakfast and writing out a schedule that says "Friday - Library Book!" is not enough.

The thing that really irritates me, though, the one I mentioned first... is the yelling. The "Mom!" thing.

Because as soon as I walk away, as soon as I start doing something, as soon as I step into the shower or sit down at the computer or begin a phone conversation - the calling begins.

They don't really need me. They just want me to be there.

I am annoyed.

Back to Life

It's been a week since we've been back from Disney World.

I keep talking about it, and I hope I'm not being too much of a bore. It's just that I really loved this vacation. I had such a great time.

I hope my brother and my mother had a good time. I really did turn into a bossy bee, making all the decisions about where we were eating, where we were going next... I discussed where we were going next as we were standing in line for a ride, and usually had the next two stops (at least) planned out in my head.

But there was almost no wait in the lines, and all sorts of new things were going on. I loved loved loved it.

Mom, Jamie and I did get to escape one night for a very fancy dinner.

At Animal Kingdom, Nate became attached to a certain goat, and Andy developed a fondness for a certain pig.

The hotel was being refurbished, which was a bummer. The main pool was closed, and the view from our hotel room was construction. The other pool was open, though. It  had a waterfall and a waterslide, and a kid's section that looked like Alice's Tea Party.

I never did get my mother to go on Tower Of Terror. We wore her out, making her walk around parks for three days straight, and by the time we reached Hollywood Studios she really needed a rest. I did take the boys on it, though!

We also went on Star Wars.

I could go on and on a describe every detail of the trip, from the busses there to the incident at breakfast with the cereal. But I'm not going to . You're over it already.


I will tell you that Nicholas started crying at about noon on Friday, crying because the next day we were going home and he wanted to stay at Disney World forever. It was really irritating, but I knew how he felt.

I usually compensate by planning other trips. So I started doing to same with Nick, involving him in my planning. For our next trip to Disney World, currently scheduled for sometime 2017. Nick liked the Floridian, although I an making a case for the Art Of Animation Value resort. Also, be aware siblings of mine, next time you are all coming, too! It's in the plan. And you can ask Jamie, I usually get what I plan for.

The Saturday Saga

It was a Tuesday.

It didn't start out so very bad.  It started out just fine. Except that I was really tired for some reason, and I still had to finish unpacking from Disney, and my kitchen still had to be put away, and I had two loads of laundry waiting for me to fold it.

I took Andrew to Story Hour at the library, and we were going to have an early lunch and a nap, so I would feel rested up for the rest of the afternoon and actually make soe headway in my huge mountain of chores.

I was just grabbing a can of alphabet soup for Andy's lunch when Steve walked into the kitchen and suggested we go to Nashua to pick up the light fixtures.

I wasn't happy about it, because I was really hungry and really tired. But I am an adult, and was able to realize this would be better in the long run. I could nap later. So I said OK.

Andy, however, is 4. He was very unhappy about putting off lunch, even though it was only 11am. He wanted ABC soup, and he wanted it NOW. He didn't want to eat out.

I tried reasoning with Andy, and then bribing him, and then finally just picked him up and flung him into the car.

We picked up the lights from a rude lady who apparently mistook snooty for profesional. We went to lunch at an irish pub that got very crowded very quickly. I realized I forgot to call the lady that works for the school district so I could get fingerprinted tand could then go on Nick's class trip the next day.  And then, finally, we headed home.

I was driving, even though I really didn't want to be.

And I was tired, and was really looking forward to a nap.

We were so close, on our street about a mile from the house.

I kind of saw it happen before it actually happened. You see things rushing toward to windshield sometimes - rocks, branches. Usually they thump and them bounce off. But this was a huge branch, one with leaves. It hit the corner of the car and made a huge loud crashing noise. I instinctively closed my eyes and turned away from the branch.

When I opened my eyes the windshield was cracked. There was an impact point not quite unlike a bullet hole in the upper passenger side corner, and cracks shot out from there. The windshield was still up, but there was enough damage to spray glass all over Steve.

When we got home, we were able to see where the branch had hit the body of the car - it was dented, paint scraped away.

If I had been driving six inches to the left, maybe it would have just brushed off of us.

If I had been driving six inches to the right, maybe it would have crashed right through and into Steve's head.

I flapped around the house like a crazy wet hen while Steve did the actual work calling the insurance company and getting the car fixed.

We were down to one car on the day of the field trip, for piano lessons, karate lessons. I have been cramming all three kids into the back of Steve's station wagon, which smells like gas.

Mostly I was just shaken by the whole thing. It was so random. What are the chances of being hit by a huge falling tree branch? It's like the sky was falling. I drove by there twenty minutes later (on my way to get fingerprinted) and there was no branch on the road. No huge half-tree thing which I imagined must be necessary to make such damage.

So... yeah. It took me longer than I thought it would to unpack, put my kitchen in order (not quite done) and catch up on laundry (I give myself until Monday.)

Thursday Kitchen Update

Well, it's almost done.

As of this moment, we are missing an oven. There are two light fixtures that need to be installed. A patch of ceiling needs to be sanded and one spot around a ceiling light needs to be painted over. One drawer handle needs to be installed.

And the workers need to pick up 1 floor pad and 1 light they left behind.

I have got to find homes for things yet to be put away - the pool table is full of items. Pots, waffle irons, cookie cutters... various kitchen items I forgot we have, rarely use, cannot give away because what if we decide we NEED to.... I don't know.... make three thousand batches of cookies with a cookie press? What if we did that and I had given the presses away?

I also need to comb through the hutch and it's drawers. I need to go through the cupboards in the "new" laundry room and figure out what should be kept in there. I need to figure out a way to put up the tall cleaning items, like the broom and the mop.

And then I need to move things places, actually do the work. Buy a new microwave that isn't melting in the back. A new toaster oven that heats from above and below.

Thinking about it makes me tired.

But I love my new kitchen.

It looks like this:

Hidden Mickeys

The thing about Disney World is... they like Mickey Mouse.

I mean, they really like him. He's everywhere.

And when I say that, I mean that they really put him everywhere.

We stayed at a really nice Disney hotel, thanks to my mother. The furniture was nice, the wall paper was nice... but even then, Mickey was hiding everywhere. And a few other Disney characters, too.

I started amusing the boys while I was unpacking by having them find all the hidden Mickeys in the hotel room. Mickey's? Mickeies? What's the plural of Mickey?
Anyway, ten minutes later my mother had a frightened look on her face. "I think I'm going to throw up," she said.

I took pictures of a few from our hotel (not the theme parks.) You'll see what I mean.

hotel room wallpaper

hotel hall rug

more hotel hall rug

hotel room desk

hotel room lamp - this isn't really hidden

hotel bathroom wallpaper

hotel lobby floor

hotel lobby floor

hotel lobby floor

Florida Family

One of the best things about visiting Florida is that we get to see family.

My Aunt Myrtle lives in Florida, not too far from Daytona Beach. She lives there with my cousin Andy.

There is a little bit of a generation gap between my Florida cousins and myself. My mother's brother was much older than she was, and when she was still quite young he had married Myrtle and they had a couple of children.

My mother, on the other hand, waited longer to have a family. She was (gasp) almost 30 when she had me.

The result is that my cousins had children that were the same age as my brothers and sister. One of them, Scott, still lives there with his wife and their two kids. (Keli  lives in Paris - she's the one with that cute little baby, remember?)

I'm embarrassed to say that, even though I had my camera, I didn't take a great number of pictures during our visit. I suppose I don't want to get in the way of having comfortable conversation with relatives I rarely see, and then just forget to get out the camera. Jamie has some great group shots.

Florida 2012

I did, however, manage to take a few of the boys playing in someone's bedroom. Ah, family!

Heroes

Our trip to Disney World gave us the chance to run into some of our favorite heroes.

Such as:

Abraham Lincoln

Winnie The Pooh

Tigger

Super Nanny

Alice

The Mad Hatter

Zombie Obama (Zombama?)

Peter Pan

Daisy Duck

Goofy

Safari Mickey

This Guy

Strange Awning Animal

Phineas and Ferb