Walker Mom

Walker's New Haircut

2010-04-26T19:52:00.003-04:00

When we got home from our fun anniversary weekend, Walker decided to have a hair cut. He did that last year too - wanted a hair cut after a weekend away. It's hard to find a place on a Sunday. But again, Super Cuts was open (we even had the same stylist we had last year). I have to say I really like his hair long. But it is not my hair and therefore, not my decision. He wants a cut - who am I to say no to that once a year request!?

Last look at the cool, skater kid look.

Here comes punk rock kid!

He loves his mohawk and colors. The colors are temporary (spray and gel). The cut looks better to me without the hawk.

Triple color hair! Red, green, purple.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

2010-04-26T19:20:00.005-04:00

We learned something this weekend - beer should not be put into a blue plastic container. It does not look appealing.

The Sheraton always has nice, comfy beds.

The pool was the best part for Walker.

Eating lunch at the Gaslight Company Restaurant

Tuckered out after 2 hours in the pool.

Walker loved the cool turnstile at the historic graveyard.

Poco Diablo had the best pickles. Walker did the "Great Pickle Odyssey" at each place we went -rating the presentation and taste of pickles (which he loves!). Poco's won for both!

We came too! Walker too this of us at lunch at the Gaslight Co.

We just celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. Can't believe the time has gone by so quickly. Yet, on the other hand, look at all we have accomplished and built together. Walker has been with us for more than half of those years. He has also managed to get us to include him in on the annual celebration. We love it - we feel our anniversary is a celebration of our family and so naturally, this includes him. Besides, I can't even imagine going to a hotel with a pool and him not being there.

This year we decided to hang out in Portsmouth for the weekend. Again, we had great weather. You never know what you are going to get in April in New England! We stayed at the Portsmouth Sheraton. It was as nice as I'd remembered from our last visit. I just love their bedding. We really love their location - right in the heart of the Market Square area. Everything fun to do is within walking distance - the harbor and tugboats, tons of gift shops (including candy and toy!) lots of museums, historic graveyard and restaurants and microbreweries.

We went to Albacore Park that houses one of the 1st submarines to be built in the USA. I can't believe they had 55 men living onboard. I wish I'd brought my camera on the sub. Scott tried to climb up into the top bunk of a 3 tiered bunkbed unit thing and was SO claustrophobic!

Me and the Albacore.

Walker and Scott at Albacore Park.

The pool was great, though about 10 degrees cooler than it should have been - that and the whole pool area. Room service was yummy (Walker loves room service and it is so much easier to get him to sit nicely for a fancy dinner in a fancy hotel restaurant). We watched "Avatar" on in-room TV. I hadn't seen it, but Scott and Walker had. I thought it was really good. I was also glad I didn't have to watch it in 3D, which gives me a headache.

Walker loved this gift shop with the toilet and fake poop. Nothing like poop to brighten an 8 year old's day! This was a cool store called Macro Polo.

Merry Martin Christmas!

2009-12-26T13:40:00.008-05:00

We all had a great time for Christmas. We had a total of 12 family members for most of the day. Everyone had fun playing all the new games. Eventually, a few of the brave wandered upstairs to the music room. Seems like it always goes that way.

Nanny having fun listening to John and Scott.

Scott and Rita sang a duet.

John singing, "I'm Too Sexy." It was so funny with him shaking his hips around!

Me and Rita

Joanne and Rita (or Nanny and Grammie)

Listening...

Mom, rockin' out!

She had a blast!

Singing and dancing.

Grandparents all together now...

Jonathan and Uncle Ed playing the new pool table.

Walker and Nanny in the middle of an intense round of "Connect 4"

Grammie, Grampie, Nanny and Walker at "Connect 4"

Nanny makes her shot in a game vs John.

Grandpa takes his shot.

Yeah! Bakugan.

Christmas cuddle.

Cool Tom Brady shirt.

Just what he wanted - pickes!

Football santa hat.

Christmas Eve

Cape Cod Trip

2009-09-18T17:03:00.005-04:00

We finally made it to Cape Cod this summer. It was great to see Uncle Frank! Sue and I took Kaylee and Walker for two nights in August. Too bad our "big boys" couldn't make it. Dad was there too and we all had a blast! We went down on a Tuesday and home on Thursday so we avoided the crazy, weekend traffic. We came home the same day they were bringing Ted Kennedy's body to Boston. Luckily, we made it off the Cape before they shut the highways down (for security). If we'd waited until after lunch time to come home we would have been stuck in traffic for SO LONG.

Kaylee and Walker in Uncle Frank's living room.

The secret place, up the ladder in the living room.

Walker and Uncle Frank having a nice, morning conversation.

At the Chatham Bars Inn for drinks.

Kaylee and Sue at the Chatham Bars Inn. Great place, right on the beach.

Kaylee and Walker on the trampolines.

Walker on the bumper boats.

Dad and Sue at the bumper boats.

Sue at Franks.

Dad and Sue. You can see the ladder for the secret place in the background.

Dad and the morning paper.

Dad and Frank. Walker on the comper.

At Skaket beach.

Kaylee on her laptop.

French fries on the beach.

Computer at Franks.

Snow cone at the beach.

Dad and Uncle Frank at Skaket Beach.

The fun never stops

2009-04-19T10:21:00.005-04:00

Busy days lately. Now we're into baseball. We've got practice 3 times a week. We've got to fit that in with boy scouts and hip hop (not to mention my work, Scott's work and school). Everything is going so quickly lately. Summer will be nice. Time to slow down and relax.

Studio life this time of year is crazy with everything recital (ticket sales, costumes, choreography, rehearsals, music, programs, chaperone finding, dance photos!). I'm done with all my dances. Good. That's a HUGE relief to me. Trying to finish 15 dances makes me feel like I have homework all the time until it's done. So now it is all done and I'm very happy about that. I like all my dances and think the kids do too. I've actually got one more dance still in the works but it's not for recital, so it's not "time sensitive." The one that is not finished is for my new adult jazz class that we just started 6 weeks ago. We're doing a 10 week session in Andover for adults. It's fun. I like to add on a little bit to that dance every week, but since we're not performing that piece it's more fun than work for me. Something different for me, choreographing for adults. It's fun and good, but I'm still ready for summer!

Here are some pictures of a sleepover a couple weeks ago - Walker's best friend, Gage, slept over and they actually sang some karaoke with us and LIKED IT. A first for Walker. See, parents can be FUN!

Gage and Walker singing to Spongebob music. Matching Spongebob pj pants were the "costume" of the evening.

Scott's not too sure about this. You can see how good the boys are by this look.

They're really getting into it.

Future rock star?

The Green House

2009-04-10T15:04:00.006-04:00

I noticed the first flowers of spring today in our yard.

We started our green house a couple of weeks ago. We planted carrots, peas, wax beans, green beans, strawberries, and some flowers: sunflowers, marigolds, lavendar, hosta. It was nice to get into the warmth of the green house. Now we have to remember to water every day. We have it on the timer to heat during the dark hours. It still gets really cold at night. Yesterday there was ice on the bird bath in the morning. I plan to can a lot of veggies this year. It'll be nice to have them rather than have to buy them at the market next winter. I'll be a regular earth mother all summer. Walker can help and he can learn all about it too.

Scott being a little goofy over the planting.

Walker mixing up the soil and water. Then he's being goofy too.

Kaylee Slept Over!

2009-04-10T14:31:00.008-04:00

We finally got Kaylee for a sleep over again. It'd been quite a while. Everyone is so busy with their own activities. We made it happen last Saturday night. She is such a good kid. She and Walker have always gotten along really well. Now at 11 she is still making time for him. So good of her. When I picked her up after work Saturday afternoon we went to the market and she got to pick out the snacks. No more peanut allergy so that is good! I think it was a rough couple of years for her, since she loves peanutbutter so much. Now she can finally eat it again.

Saturday night they watched movies and played with Legos.

Kaylee is really good with Legos.

Sunday we went for a "Mystery Ride." They didn't know where we were going but I did. Fun. We ended up at the SSC, the See Science Center in Manchester, NH.

http://www.see-sciencecenter.org I'd never been there. It was really fun. It has a HUGE Lego model of downtown Manchester. I could have looked at it for so long. It was really cool. Must have taken years to complete. I was bummed because I forgot my camera. The following were taken with my phone. They came out alright, though.

Gear center. They were all magnetic. You could get them all to work together if you tried. Walker did not really have the attention span for that, though. He wanted to run all over and see what else there was to see.

Cool mirror room.

Pulley chairs.

Air ball. They had different size and weight balls and this air thing. Each ball stayed up or bounced on it differently.

The task was to get all these large nails on top of the red pole. We had NO IDEA until we looked at the cheat notes.

Super big bubble maker.

The Millyard in Manchester. All Lego, with running train, trolley, little amusement park and running water.

These pictures just can't do this project justice. It was amazing.

Have I mentioned this Lego Manchester is really cool and big?!

Sunday morning we got up and did our 4th annual Easter Egg coloring. Kaylee has always done it with us.

They have to reach as far away from themselves as possible. I guess that's what makes it so much fun.

Egg dunk.

Almost done and then the finished product. They turned out great! Each year the kids spend a little longer with the project. At the end they were mixing all the colors together.

Walker served his eggs to Scott for a snack. Yummy!

Spring is here...

2009-04-02T14:36:00.003-04:00

I can tell it is spring. The snow is gone. Walker is wearing a windbreaker and flying his kite. We've started riding our bikes again. Summer can't be far behind. Except that right now it is pretty chilly. I'm up here at the computer with a nice, hot cup of coffee.

It's been busy lately. Walker started Intramurals at school. He loves it. They play a lot of games and run around and get nice and sweaty. We were lucky to get into that program. Only 20 first graders got in and he was one of them. Yay! He was so excited. The only downside to it is that it is on Tuesday - like everything else he does. We go from that to Hip-Hop, then cub scouts. We always hope there is no homework assignment on Tuesdays!

Baseball starts soon. Saturday morning is the team photo. Walker is on the "Owlz." It's a step up from t-ball - "farm league." Last year we did not have a good experience with t-ball, but that wasn't our fault. The coach and her son weren't wonderful. This year Walker's cub scout leader is the baseball coach! That guy is awesome. Most of his cub scout den will also be on the team, so we know the boys and families. It'll be fun. I'm looking forward to it. This year is the first time he gets the complete uniform. Last year it was just the t-shirt and hat. Now it's that plus the pants and baseball socks. He'll be so cute!

Only 6 more weeks of dance classes (not including vacation, but hey that's vacation). I'm almost on summer vacation! As much as I love dance, I love summer even more. We are all looking forward to camping.

Here are Walker and some buddies at the Pinewood Derby. They made their race cars and then raced them. We didn't win, though. Which is actually a good thing, because then we didn't have to go to yet another meeting to the state finals. But we didn't tell Walker that.

Ready, set, go.

Walker's hair is getting really long. We colored the underneath of the back red. He's wanted to do it for a long, long time. We finally had some time to do it. It looks cute. I like it long. Obviously, Walker does too. It's his hair, he can do what he wants with it (to a point!). Scott doesn't like it.

Walker in hip-hop right before the pinewood derby. You can't even see the red hair from the front.

Family Karaoke Night

2009-01-31T15:16:00.005-05:00

Walker FINALLY decided it might be fun to hang out with us in the music room last night. He's usually dead set against it and makes us feel terrible about having any fun without him. But last night was different. We spent time first planning his "pinewood derby" car for boy scouts. After that Walker said he didn't want us to go sing. We don't usually on a Friday anyway, but since he brought it up we decided it sounded like a good idea. Scott and I are so evil! I made Walker the "official photographer" letting him use my new camera. He had a great time. He and Scott even did a couple of little comedy routines. Walker mostly said, "Yeah, like an idiot." But it was funny and seemed to work with whatever the theme was.

Walker being a little ham.

Beginning stages of the pinewood derby car.

Planning the pinewood derby car.

Walker took this one. I never would have thought to, but it's a good one. This is one of the binders I made that catalogs our music. Apparently, I had a lot of free time on my hands over Christmas vacation.

Scott and Walker - the standup comedy team.

He looks cute adjusting his mic.

Thinks he's funny.

The actually are funny together. Sorta the kid version of Cheech and Chong.

Walker took this. Don't know what I was looking at. Shaggy hair day. At least it's shiny. Sue gave me a new shampoo and conditioner that she hated but I like it. It's Garnier Fructis. Thanks Susie.

We took this of ourselves. Looks it. Our eyes are the same color.

We only missed one day of school this week due to snow. Some districts are going longer into the summer. Our district came up with a great plan where we won't have to go longer in the year. They're adding 10 minutes to the beginning of the day and 10 to the end. It won't really affect anything for us, but does meet the state standard for school days. So, I think it was a good solution. Have I mentioned we are halfway to summer? I miss camping. I'm ready to be warm all the time. I'm going around with my fingers frozen all the time these days. Even immediately after working out at the gym and I'm sweaty I still feel cold. Gotta wrap up in big sweaters and dream about Sandals, St. Lucia. If I win the lottery that is where I'm going first.

Walker took this picture of Morgan. She's a cutie. I can't believe she will be 9 this summer.

Indoor fun

2009-01-23T14:50:00.004-05:00

Monday was a school holiday so we met Braydon and his mom at Party Playland in Hampstead. It's a cool "bouncy house" place. It's like a big warehouse area with 6 different bouncy set-ups. They especially loved this slide.

Braydon and Walker hamming it up.

They wanted me to take these pictures for "their" girlfriend, Ashley. I printed out a few for Walker to take to school, but he said they were too afraid to give them to her.

Silly kids. Walker's good at making funny faces.

Walker and Daddy boxing in the kitchen last weekend.

Boxing soon turned into wrestling.

We spent 7 hours driving to and from Providence, Rhode Island last Sunday. Why so long? It was a very bad snowstorm. It was supposed to stop, or at least not be as bad as it was. We went to an open audition for Walker with a talent and modeling agency. He loves that stuff and really wants to be in the business, so we try to take advantage of any opportunities we hear about. It was a long ride, though. Yuck. He did well in the audition. Maybe we'll hear something. Maybe not. We'll keep trying. He wants to be a model for Kohl's catalogs.

Twilight - too scary for Walker

2009-01-22T14:45:00.003-05:00

I just finished the 2nd book in the "Twilight" series. I'm loving it. I got started because I'd heard that it was the best thing since Harry Potter. Walker wanted me to read it to him, but I thought I'd read it myself first. If it was good, I'd read it as fast as I wanted. If it was inappropriate I wouldn't read it to him. So, I finished the first one. Walker wanted to know what it was about. I told him about the love story between the human and the vampire. Nothing scary, no death and destruction (I left that part out). Suddenly, he is afraid of vampires. He doesn't want to be left alone in a room at night. Last weekend I made him a garlic clove necklace and he wore it. He felt much better. He also wore my big cross of nails. So he was doubly safe. Funny what sticks in their minds. I will not be reading this series to him. I have not discussed the werewolves from the next book with him. I can't wait to read the 3rd book. I'm anxiously awaiting Bella to be bitten and made immortal. Good story.

We've been busy. Walker is back to hip hop. Boy Scouts is also taking up some time. We've been doing a lot of play dates. His friend, Braydon, is coming over today after school. We've got Gage's 7th birthday party on Saturday. Walker's birthday invitations are all made out and ready to go, but I thought it was a little early for sending yet. The party isn't until Feb. 21. I can't believe he is going to be 7 already! The time just flies by.

I'm into the 2nd semester at Andover School of Ballet. We are halfway to summer now. We'll be gearing up for recital soon. Busy times ahead.

Here is Walker wearing his garlic necklace and his nail cross.

He should be safe from vampires now.

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T14:36:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2009. Whoever would have thought? Years ago I remember thinking about how old I'd be in 2000. I always thought, "Wow! That'll be really old." I imagined I'd never be able to do anything ful at all, ever again, being THAT old. Funny how time changes perspective.

We had a very casual New Year's Eve. It started snowing early in the morning and we got another 6 inches or so. Later in the day it started to slow down and the 3 of us were able to get to Hawaiian Isles Chinese Restaurant. Yummy. Walker saw and partook of his first pupu platter. He loved the fire in the middle! We went to bed at 10, but I did sneak back up to watch the ball drop with Scott.

Walker had his first sleep-over that was not at a relatives house. What a big boy! It was harder for me than him. He slept at Gage's house. Gage and his brother each had a friend sleep over, so it was a crazy house for their mom, Tina. She took the 4 of them to Friendlies Restaurant, then bowling, then called to ask if Walker could sleep over. I ended up driving a suitcase over there so Walker would have everything he needed. He had a good time.

Speaking of sleep-overs, Walker slept over at Auntie Sue's last night. She took Walker and Kaylee to ice skating then Walker called to see if he could sleep over there. I must be the overnight bag express delivery service. I dropped off his bag and a movie. He called in the morning wanting to come home and play Halo with Daddy. He'll be sleeping over there again tonight. We are having an adults only party here to celebrate my birthday (2 days early). Jonathan and Kaylee are babysitting. They have a little cake and some party snacks so they can celebrate over there. Here will be Sue and Donnie, Steven and Coreen and Lisa (not sure if she'd bringing her husband). The count-down is on to 6PM.

We're not ready to go back to work and school Monday. None of us is ready to get out of vacation mode. Yet, I actually think Walker is ready because he's getting bored. He does want to see his friends. He has only had 1 day of school in the past 4 weeks due to his pneumonia then the school being closed for a week due to the power outages. Nice, long vacation.

I go back to work Monday too and so does Scott. Next Saturday begins "peek" week at Andover School of Ballet. Unfortunately, it is the 1st day back from vacation for all our Saturday classes, so we don't really have time to prepare for the peek week (when the parents are invited to come into the classroom and I become a public speaker). Fun. Just 5 months until summer vacation. I'm looking forward to camping. I love my work, but I love vacation even more. Guess it wouldn't be vacation if we did this all the time, but still...

Some Christmas day shots...

Walker and Grammie. Walker is wearing his new Simpson's t-shirt.

Walker opened up the gift from Daddy and was amazed to see the Milennium Falcon. The REALLY BIG ONE. He loves it.

Grampie came with this HUGE red bag full of presents.

Walker and Nanny.

And a couple pictures from the night Walker slept at Gage's. When Walker's away, Mom and Dad play...

Countdown to Christmas

2008-12-23T11:30:00.005-05:00

Walker finally went back to school today. I was able to get all the gifts wrapped and relocated to the basement for easy "loading" up to the tree on Christmas eve (as opposed to the cold attic where they were).

Scott is back up and about. He went off with Ed this morning to get some new tires for his newest project car. He gets the stitches out of his nose tomorrow. He'll be glad about that. It's been bothering him. Sinus surgery looks much more painful than anything I've ever had done. Poor guy. He's on the mend, though, and should be back to normal pretty soon.

I'm waiting to hear from Walker's teacher. I don't know if I'm supposed to bring things in for the party today, since the party was supposed to be yesterday. I left her a message and am just waiting. I can be there in 15 minutes if she wants. But it's just waiting, while I could be at Wal*Mart finishing up a couple of things. Oh well.

I've got to go to Steppin' Out this afternoon to finish my costume orders. They are now officially late. But that's only because of all the cancellations. I would have had it all done 2 weeks ago. Can't believe we are that far into the year already.

Walker starts back to hip-hop after the holiday break. I'm more excited about it than he is. The way he's been going with his activities he's going to want to quit in about 4 weeks. I won't let him, though. It's not fair to the teacher who is letting him and Lucas join the class very late and putting them into the choreography. Plus I've already paid for his costume. He's in now until recital time.

We're supposed to have a Tiger Cub den meeting tonight. I feel like I have so much OTHER stuff to do! It'll be fun, though. We've also got the last rock climbing class this afternoon. But Walker doesn't remember that, so we may just skip it. Too much running around.

California Dreamin...

2008-12-22T14:19:00.005-05:00

You'd think we would definitely be in the Christmas spirit by now, what with all the snow! But all I feel right now is weary. ALL of last week there was no school due to the power outage. We had no electricity for 9 days. Ugh! Today there is no school again, due to a huge snowstorm we had last night (Sunday). Not to be confused with the last huge snowstorm that blew through on Friday night. Scott and I spent three hours with the new snow blower and electric shovel. I'm moving to San Diego. I think I finally know what "weary" feels like.

At least the snow makes for some cute pictures.

That is a lot of snow on my car.

The snow is up past Walker's waist.

Scott and the industrial strength, new snowblower. Good thing he got that little red shelter thing. You really need it cuz the snow flies back up into your face without it. It is fun to run it, but not for as long as we needed to. It's a total body workout. Ow, my arms and back!

Climbing up.

Sliding down.

Into a pile.

Later we made snickerdoodles. That was fun. It was easy. One of my students gave me the "kit." All we had to do was add butter and an egg. Yummy. Hopefully, we will be able to save one or two for Santa.

I still have a lot of cleaning to do. Everyone is coming here for the holiday. I haven't even decided on a menu, never mind actually go out and buy anything. I also have a lot of wrapping to do. Looking forward to December 26.

Thanksgiving weekend fun

2008-12-10T12:03:00.006-05:00

We had such a good time Thanksgiving weekend. We had people over a few nights. Lisa was the first "victim" when she came over to take our Christmas photos. Unfortunately, I hadn't yet received my new camera, so all the singing antics with her live only in my memory. Next time we'll get you!

The day after Thanksgiving Coreen, Steven and the girls came over. They brought a friend, John. We had a great time singing. Even Amanda got to sing before the men came upstairs. I dressed her up in Rock Star gear.

How sweet and innocent they are: Amanda, Lillyin, Walker.

I love the faces, especially Lilly's - she looks like she's a little nervous about her crazy friend.

Coreen and Steven singing while Scott listens.

Coreen looks good on the mic.

John and Scott.

The next night, Saturday, the Lapierres came to play. Walker was very excited because he hasn't had a chance to play with Danny very much this school year with everyone being so busy. Walker was only upset for a while when Danny came up to sing with his mom and dad. Everyone loves singing with us except Walker. Figures.

Danny and Shelly.

Proof that Shelly will sing. She took a while to get into it, though. She was the toughest "nut to crack." The last time she came over she didn't get on a mic at all. Everyone else always does the first time even if it takes a little while.

Danny and Tom. Like father, like son.

Even I was there.

Walker and Danny played a lot of Fusion Frenzy that night.

Scott and Tom belting out a tune.

New Christmas Camera

2008-12-08T16:49:00.006-05:00

I just love my new camera. I am having a lot of fun with it. I never saw the need before. Thought film was just great. Now I can take and retake pictures until they actually look good. A lot of them DON'T! Who knew?! Have I mentioned this camera can even take movies? I love it. I don't know if I can get a movie here, though. Do I have the knowledge and power? I'll try. I took a short video of Walker making banana bread with me this afternoon.

OK, just tried that and no success. I'll figure it out later. Here is a "still" of it. Walker lost one of his front, top teeth Saturday morning. The tooth fairy came again and left him a $1.00 coin. Very exciting.

Yummy banana bread. We had 4 over-ripe bananas and it turned out very good.

We went over to Laurie and Audrey's house yesterday. We hadn't seen them in a while. Audrey is growing so big. She'll be 5 this weekend. The kids had a good time "catching up." We're going to Audrey's birthday party on Saturday. It's at Party Playland, the bouncy house place. Fun!

Walker and Audrey at Audrey's house.

OK, here it is, finally. It took a while to upload, but it worked. My experiment worked. Now we'll just have to get something actually video worthy - maybe Saturday at the bouncy houses...

A Day in Dover

2008-12-05T16:37:00.007-05:00

Coreen has given me another bunch of pictures. She's so good about that. These are from a great day trip she and I made in early September with Walker and Lillyin. The plan was to go to the Children's Museum in Dover. We did that, but we also ended up going to the Garrison Hill Tower, Chili's Restaurant, the Dover Falls, and a petting zoo. We were all tired by the end of the day. Oh, we also hit Dover Point Playground and Park. What a day! Can't wait for the warm weather so we can do it again.

Lillyin and me in the music room at the Children's Museum.

Walker and Lilly in the mirror room.

Lilly and Walker playing this cool game where you try to move the ball with just your mind. The more relaxed you are the better you plan. They went back and forth for a long time before Walker won. I tried it with Coreen and she totally kicked my butt! Walker was next to me yelling at me to relax and there were about 25 people standing around watching. I've got no calm under pressure!

Walker and Lilly in the art room at the museum.

At Dover Falls.

Walker and Lilly on the tower. A lot of people think they are twins. Walker is actually 13 months older than Lilly. They are very cute together. Same energy and craziness!

Way up on the tower. Good work out getting all the way up there.

The petting zoo.

Old Camping Memories

2008-11-29T12:42:00.008-05:00

Coreen gave me some pictures from Whit's End. I also just had some old film from that trip developed. So here they are... finally. Some of this trip has been up here before, but most will be new to the blog. I miss summer.

This trip was fun. Me, Scott, Walker and Kaylee went with Coreen, Steven, Amanda and Lillyin. We stayed 4 nights and 5 days. When we first arrived we didn't like the placement of our two sites. They were big, but no close trees for tying tarps. They also seemed very far away from each other, even though they were adjacent sites. We got permission to use a different site and the owners of the campground allowed us all on just one site. We set it up so that we had plenty of tarp space in between the two campers. Good thing because it rained the first 2 nights of the trip. The Bear Camp River almost crested. Scott and I stayed up until 3:30 one night, to make sure we weren't flooded out. Not this trip. Good. The river ended up going down over the next couple of days, so we were able to finally do some tubing down the river. Fun!

Walker and Lilly going a bit stir crazy. Too much rain.

Walker and Lilly playing a camp favorite, Staplemanchen.

All 4 kids playing Staplemanchen. It's amazing what they'll do camping that they'd never even consider if they were home with all their high tech games and such. It's one reason I love camping.

A little respite from the rain. It started up again a little while after this, but at least we were able to sit out around the fire.

Rain can't keep Scott from cooking meat on a stick.

Another rainy afternoon. Scott and I were playing cribbage.

Kaylee, Scott and Walker. Still raining.

Playing connect 4. You can see the water dripping off the tarp. At least it wasn't freezing.

Finally, some sun. Everyone line up and lets get to the pool!

We had the pool all to ourselves this day. It was great.

Ah, sun and fun.

No rain!

Getting ready for tubing.

Tubing.

Walker, in front of the Weather Channel forecast. It was foreboding. We should have scrapped the whole plan for that next trip, but we didn't. Pictures coming some day. That next trip was the one with the death and destruction. We were excited to head out to Ames Brook.

After Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T16:00:00.006-05:00

Happy Post Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful day at my in-laws, Rita and Charlie. It was fun and yummy.

Rita gave me my Christmas present early... It's a new digital camera! I'm so excited. It came with a photo printer too. I'm so not technical, but I'm trying to figure it out. I got my first batch of pictures uploaded to try here.

The upload process is pretty slow... now I need a new computer!

Meet my new camera. Yippee! This is the best gift I could have gotten. Just what I needed and wanted.

Scott's brother, Uncle Ed.

Scott's dad, Grampie.

Me and Scott.

Grammie and Wags.

Walker and Scott. Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Eve

2008-11-26T13:35:00.004-05:00

Walker is home from school today. The three of us are on "vacation." Walker is having a play date with his friend, Jarrett, from school. Here is a picture of the two of them.

They actually sat at the counter and ate their lunch very nicely. Now they are playing X-Box games. I know they should be outside playing and using their imaginations, but it is chilly today.

Nanny and I took Walker, Kaylee and Walker's friend, Gage, to the mall Sunday. Why do we do that? It's like I forget every year how crazy it is this time of year and want to go do it again. Luckily, Kaylee is very good at wrangling the little boys for us. We rode the escalators, the carousel and went to Build a Bear where they each got a new bear. We also had their picture taken with Santa. Here it is:

Kaylee tried out and made the cheerleading team at her school. She is excited. She's really good. I went to a competition of hers for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It looks like fun and they make it look easy (but I'm sure it's not).

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We are going to my in-laws. Rita is making everything. I spoke with her yesterday to see what we should make/bring and she said nothing. I'll bring some wine then.

Scott and I finally figured out how to use our fancy new recording/mixing/burning software. We think. So giving cds of us singing is still an option. Our very lucky families and friends! We're planning on figuring out what we are good at and practice recording those songs. Maybe next year we'll do a Christmas album!

Happy Thanksgiving. Eat a lot of turkey!

The holidays are closing in...

2008-11-21T19:04:00.004-05:00

Well, we finally had to turn the heat on. It's been unseasonably cold here. We've been using only our wood stove, but last night was the turning point with temps below freezing. Now we are anxious about our oil, but we'll stay positive.

Lisa is coming over tomorrow when I get home from work to take our annual family photo. We usually make 100 copies and make it into a Christmas card, but the way things are this year, we''ll probably just use it as our annual 8x10 and forego the cardgiving except for a few close family members. I was going to skip it altogether, but realized I'd probably regret it since we've done it the last 6 years. I don't want to skip a year after all. I like seeing how everyone changes from year to year. We are hoping Lisa can stay for a while after the photo shoot. We want her to sing Led Zeppelin with us.

I have only a few more work/class days until Thanksgiving break. It's a fun time of year with the kids. I've been asking everyone what they want to eat most at their Thanksgiving dinners. I get some interesting answers. Some have been: cotton candy, apples, gummy bears. I've never had any of those at my Thanksgiving dinner. We're going to Scott's parents house again this year.

Walker is now taking rock climbing lessons at the YMCA in Haverhill, MA. Here are a couple of shots. It's so scary to me. I wouldn't want to be way up there, but he loves it!

He's the guy on the back wall with the black helmet (in the glare of the picture). He goes all the way to the top and rings the bell.

Walker on a different "face" of the climbing wall. This is a scary ledge to get up on, turn around and continue climbing to the top. He's really good at it.

Halloween Happenings

2008-10-24T19:36:00.004-04:00

It seems that Halloween lasts longer than Christmas. We've already got two parties under our belts and we've got another one tomorrow night and trick-or-treating next Thursday AND Friday nights. Oh, and don't forget the classroom party. I've been called upon by Walker's teacher to be a co-room mother, which means planning Friday's 1st grade classroom party. I'm stealing an idea for food that I got from my friend Felice's blog - scary popcorn hands.

Walker has two costumes he is wearing this season. He wanted to be a ghost last year, but I didn't have a white sheet to cut up and didn't ever get around to buying one (didn't try too hard). This year I mentioned it to Mom and she happened to have a white sheet and white pillow case. We cut a hole in the sheet to go over Walker's head. We cut eye holes in the pillow case for his "hood." Unfortunately, once we put it no Walker's head he looked like SpongeBob Squarepants. So I cut the pillow case round and got out the sewing machine and it looks much better. His other costume is a dead guy. We got that one at Wal-Mart. He's worn each one once. The elementary school party was last Friday night. He wore the dead guy. It was a fun party. Wish I had some pictures, but I don't. Tuesday night he wore the ghost costume to his boy scout pack party. There were about 100 people there. It was a lot of fun. The older scouts created a spooky walk in the woods and did a great job. Too bad it really scared the Tiger Cub scouts. But it was all in good fun and I'm sure most of the boys have finished crying and screaming by now. The worst part about that party was that it was raining. It started out with just a mild drizzle so it wasn't too bad, but at the end it was a major downpour. I was soaked, and so was Walker. It was cold too, and I was a bad mother and didn't even have a coat for my baby. I thought it would be indoors since they said it would be if it was raining. No one really minded the wetness, though. Not when there were cool things to do like eat a donut off a string or shoot bugs with a laser gun.

Tomorrow night we are excited to see the first public appearance of our friend Steven's new band, Protolithe. They've been getting ready for months and now it's all coming to fruition at Steven and Coreen's annual Halloween party. We all have to dress up. Scott is going as Dr. Death. I'm going to be a pirate and Walker will be one of things. We're supposed to set up the camper in their yard so we can camp out overnight (thus not having to decide who will be the designated drunk). Hopefully, it won't rain, like it is expected to do. There are children's activities until 9PM then they are all either going home or going into house or camper and the adults will rule! Should be a good, crazy, time. I'll have to drink a huge Monster before this party since I'll be working all day tomorrow teaching 5 classes before this party. Walker and Scott have an all day event as well - the Tiger Cub (Boy Scout) Loopa Palooza. He will earn 4 badge things for his belt.

Here are a couple of pictures that were taken by Allie Burke for the wall of "fame" at Steppin' Out. Pretty good and no double chin! That's always important to me.

Which one should I use for the final product? Either would be black and white.

Road Trip

2008-10-16T13:29:00.003-04:00

Walker and I got back Monday from a road trip to Worcester, MA. We visited Dad for two nights. It was a lot of fun. Dad always gives up his room/bed for us, so we are very comfortable there. We were very busy. Sunday we went to Southwicks Zoo in Mendon. http://www.southwickszoo.com/ Walker was just saying last week that he'd never been to a zoo. So he was especially happy to go see all the animals. It's a good place. A little expensive and the animals were mostly asleep, but overall a fun place to see. Both Walker and I agreed the elephant ride was our favorite thing that day.

The next day we went to Stowe Farm www.stowefarm.com/ We all agreed for the price we liked that place even better. They had a rock climbing wall, petting zoo, pony rides, teepee, gem mining and more. Walker had a blast. It was beautiful out there in Mendon, MA. Luckily, we had very good weather so it was perfect to be outside for both days. We're looking forward to going back to see Grandpa again in June. We'll see him before then, of course, but he'll probably be coming up here rather than us going down there. It was very nice seeing Dad and Marie.

Walker got his progress report. The teacher called him a class clown in a way that clearly states she does NOT think that is a good thing. He's a smart little guy, but likes to play more than sit still and be quiet and focused. We've got to figure it out somehow. I'm sure it'll be fine. If that's the worst thing he does then I guess we're OK.

We just got our second big bag of hand-me-downs in two weeks. We are so excited! We love free stuff. Just when we thought we didn't have a hand-me-down network we're the recipient of clothing people buy at kids Gap and Old Navy. Yippee! It is saving us a ton of money. My project this afternoon is to go through all Walker's clothes and take out the ones that are too small to pass on to the guy we give hand-me-downs to. Everybody wins.

My 25th class reunion is this weekend. (How did I get that old????) It is a three-event thing. Saturday is a family apple orchard trip. I can't go to that because I work all day Saturday. I can't get a sub for 5 classes. Nor do I actually want to. Saturday night is a dinner/dance thing. I've had so much of that for so many years. Scott too. We are both much happier at home. Neither of us wants to drink and drive. We do our drinking at home. I sound unsociable saying that, but it's true. I partied at dance clubs and bars for years and years and have totally gotten my fill of it. So we are skipping that event too. The one on Sunday I'd go to, but it's during Walker's soccer game. Guess what? I'd rather be at the soccer game than having a tour of my old high school. I go back to my high school every May and June for 8 recitals. Walker and I are always walking around the school killing time between shows. I don't have to skip a soccer game to do it. Maybe I'll go to the 30th. I have gone to every other reunion (every 5 years) but I'm just not feeling it this year.

Off to closet organization.

Me and Walker on the elephant. It felt really high.

Zoo brochure.

I Love Tuesdays

2008-10-07T10:22:00.003-04:00

It's finally Tuesday. I love my job too, but Tuesday I'm off and I can be a full time mom/wife and also get time to myself. What do I do with this time? It's such a gift. Today I brought the treadmill into the playroom. It's been out on the breezeway and no one has been using it. It was fun to use indoors. I watched a "Baby Story" and walked. I still cry at that show. After that I went through my clothes closet and got together a bag of clothing for Goodwill. Good stuff, just out of date. I've been watching "What Not to Wear" so now I know what I'm talking about. ;-)

I'm heading off to Wal-Mart in a bit. I want to get some scrapbooking supplies. I have so many pictures to put in albums. I'm also in the market for a Hot Wheels or Matchbox Car storage case. Walker has one, but the hinge is broken and it keeps falling apart. He has so many cars we need to keep them organized. I didn't like anything at the Toys R Us website, the reviews of the 100 car case were all bad. People all said it was cheap and terrible. The 48 car model got a better review but we need more space than that. The Wal-Mart in Plaistow didn't have any, so maybe the Wal-Mart in Epping will have something. We're lucky, we have Wal-Marts in either direction about the same same distance apart.

Christmas shopping is weighing heavily on my mind. I'm trying to buy something each week, so it's not all at the last minute and charged in a frenzy. I have 2 things for Walker already - an X-Box game and a 700 piece Lego set. I don't even know what else to get. He wants everything he sees on TV, but has so many toys that he doesn't play with. We went crazy buying Ben 10 and Pokemon toys last year and they sit collecting dust. Building toys seem to be what he uses the most these days. I don't even know what to tell the family, who will all be asking very soon what he wants. Time for him to make his list. Oh, he does want big-ticket items like a laptop and an ipod and a cell phone. But NO. I'm not getting that stuff for a 6 year old!

Here's a picture of Walker and Kaylee a few weeks ago at Chuckie Cheeses. They were "riding" a scary roller coaster. There was a huge line for this game/ride.

October is here

2008-10-03T13:42:00.008-04:00

I can't believe it's already October. We have beautiful foliage here. Hopefully, it won't rain and pull the leaves down early. I like this time of year. It's so pretty. Even Walker likes looking at the colors. It's getting chilly here. The days are warm but the nights are getting colder. It's almost time for starting fires in the wood stove. But not yet. I usually try to hold out until November. Save our fuel.

It's going to be really cold tonight at soccer practice. Two weeks ago the other moms and I froze. One woman was smart enough to bring a blanket, gloves and a hat. I'm going to do that tonight. Last week we got cancelled due to the rain.

Sue got new TVs for Jonathan and Kaylee. So, sweetie that she is, she gave us the two tvs. I never thought I'd be someone with a tv in every room. However, it will be nice. We don't have cable upstairs, but we do have an extra VHS player and an extra DVD player. So I took those from the tv in the playroom that now has only cable and the old x-box and put a tv w/VHS in Walker's room (we have more tapes for kids than adults) and a tv w/dvd player in the master suite. Walker was very excited to come home from school and see that yesterday. He rested in his room watching Power Ranger's movies for a while. Good, that gave me time to work on his renaissance faire costume but that's another story... Anyway, thanks Sue!

Scott's work outing to Canobie Lake Park (amusement park) was post-poned from last Saturday to Sunday. Scott took the day off so he wouldn't have to sleep all day and go to work that night. I was happy I could go early with them, instead of having to work all day Saturday and meet them later, after I was exhausted. It was the BEST time at Canobie we've had in a very long time. I think it was because it was drizzly and overcast that the crowds were not there. We didn't have to wait in line for anything. It was great. Except for the spinning rides. Scott and I are more and more sickened each year by spinning. Unfortunately, that is what Walker really likes. Luckily, he doesn't mind riding alone. He went on the Tilt-a-whirl 4 times in a row. He also went on a ride called "Wipe-Out" 4 times in a row. Both of those make us sick. Scott and I did go on each once. All of us went on the very wet "Boston Tea Party." Scott and I got off but since there were no lines Walker continued to ride it another 7 times and was soaked. It was warm and humid so that was good and being wet didn't bother him. It was really fun. Next year will be even better. Walker is about 46.5 inches and he needs to be 48 inches for all the big roller coasters. Next year he will have a totally different experience. He's a little daredevil. HE loves thrill rides. I do too, as long as they go up and down and not around and around!

It's almost time for me to make the permanent switch to a digital camera. Not because I don't love my film camera. Scott bought it for me a few months after Walker was born so I could have good pics of him. But because Hannaford is no longer developing film. It was so convenient there since we are there several times a week anyway. If I can't find a close film developer then I'll have to make the switch. Of course that means a lot of money put out. I'll also have to invest in a better printer so I can actually print the pictures. Why does everything have to change so quickly? Scott and I are still holding off on buying ipods or mp3 players. We'll just wait until the NEXT new thing comes along.

My classes have been meeting now for 5 weeks. I know just about everyone's name now. Good. I usually tell people it'll take me til the end of November to learn all the new names. Luckily, this year out of almost 150girls I have, I have had most of them before. My 3 year olds are mostly new, though. Today's class was good. I know everyone in there now. Tomorrow's 3 year olds are a little harder for some reason. More kids in the class and most of them brunette.

Scott is getting ready to paint his K5 1973 Blazer. We bought it back in 1995 and he worked a lot on it back then, but after Walker was born it came to a stand-still. But now he's back in full force and it's about to be finished. He's got the garage all cleaned out and plastic "walls" hung. Painting begins this afternoon! He's very excited. I think we should show the truck at "Cruise Nights" next summer. It's going to be really cool.

Here are some pictures from summer. I'm still thinking about summer. Still wanting to go camping. The flood trauma has worn off (me - not Walker) and I'm looking forward to going again. We only got 2 trips in, since the last one was cut way too short. I have some camping pictures to post next time. Here are a few cute ones of Walker, Audrey and Scott.

We have the swing-set out back that Sue and Donnie gave us. It has a platform area up at the top of the slide. Walker and Scott are talking about enclosing that area for a little playhouse sort of thing. Scott wants to just make it simple. Walker drew his out with something like 6 rooms, including an in-ground pool! It was cute to see him drawing out his plans.

And here are the finished plans. Nothing has been done yet. Maybe after the Blazer is done.

Audrey and Walker, getting ready to jump into the pool. Ready...

Jump... (You can see part of the patio Scott made that goes from the pool area to the back of the breezeway and the back slider.)

Splash!!!!

End of Summer...

2008-09-05T10:07:00.006-04:00

I can tell that summer is nearly over. Kids are back in school, I'm going back to work and the pool is turning green from lack of use. We'll miss summer. We're already missing Water Country.

We were supposed to go to Canobie Lake Park tomorrow with Scott's company. But they called to postpone it, due to the bad weather we are expecting. One of the hurricane's is coming up our way (whatever is left of it anyway). So we don't get to go there. Walker was bummed. I was bummed too, but also a bit glad. I start back to work at Andover tomorrow and am usually exhausted after 5 hours of teaching, never mind running around an amusement park after it. So, personally, it'll work out better for me. Walker and Scott will begin their "Daddy Days" with some light saber fights, wrestling and bike riding instead of Canobie. Walker loves his Daddy days, when I work Saturdays.

I like fall. I like getting back to work and meeting all my new students. I'm excited to start back to class tomorrow! In fact I'm up here at the computer, supposed to be getting music and lesson plans together, but I'm doing this instead. You know how everything else is so important when you have "homework" to do.

You know I love summer and am a real "summer girl" at heart. Only 9 more months until we start summer again. This time NO JOB WHERE I GET UP AT 5:30 EVERY DAY. Here is a look back of some of our summer outings...

Fourth of July Party with the Grandparents at our house

Happy Birthday USA. We had a flag cake and Walker blew out the candles. All 4 grandparents were with us for our cookout/pool party. It was fun.

Walker and Grammie battle it out. Grammie brought over her new water gun.

Grandpa played t-ball with Walker.

We even got Grammie, Grandpa and Nanny to sing karaoke. Grampie wouldn't do it. They weren't too bad.

1st Camping Trip of the Season to Danforth Bay, Freedom NH, with Sue, Donnie, Jonathan and Kaylee

Setting up camp. We liked this campsite. We had a great view of the lake. It only rained once this trip - for only a short time. No floods. We probably should have quit while we were ahead.

Sue and Kaylee in my camper. We were playing cribbage.

The guys enjoy the campfire. Me and Sue sitting around the fire.

Walker and Kaylee. Walker got a new camp chair after this trip. He was disgusted by how small this old chair was. When did he get so big?!

Jonnie and Walker just hanging around.

Lake swimming at Danforth Bay. Nice, clean lake.

More photos

2008-08-28T18:04:00.004-04:00

Here are some more pictures taken by Lisa for Walker's portfolio. They both did a great job. These were all taken at our house.

Some new, random pictures

2008-08-28T10:00:00.007-04:00

My dear friend, Lisa, came over a couple of weeks ago to shoot Walker's portfolio. He wants to start catalog modeling so I thought this was a good first step. I just have to get them printed. Here is a preview of them. They came out very good. He is very cute and she is a very good photographer.

His serious look.

Check me out, look.

Walker started school yesterday. The days are LONG without him at home. The bus doesn't bring him back until 4PM. Long bus ride home. He likes his class and teacher and seemed very happy about everything last night. He was tired.

I finally got some summer rolls of FILM developed. These are somewhat outdated now, but you haven't seen them yet, so...

Sue, Donnie and Kaylee came over for Scott's birthday party (back in June). We had a pool party. Sue, Donnie and Scott ate steamed clams.

They also had lobster.

They love lobster. Walker, Kaylee and I had cheese and crackers while they ate this stuff. We're not lovers of this type of food.

Walker designed his own "toga" out of an old pillow case.

Back stage at Show 2 - Steppin' Out. This was Walker's ballet dance, "Best of Friends." I taught this Kindergarten age ballet and tap class. I like how Walker's costume matched so well with the girls. Of course I chose it that way, but it's always nice to see it actually looks good. They danced with their own stuffed animals - best friends. Get it?

Walker reading "Hop on Pop" to Audrey, our summer girl.

Audrey and Walker playing with Walker's Spiderman stunt set.

Walker and Gage enjoy a good battle of Pokemon.

Kingston Days

2008-08-21T14:54:00.003-04:00

Here is Walker at Kingston Days, our towns annual birthday celebration. It is such a fun, small town event. We love it.

This booth was set up to advertise Lee Speedway. All the little boys wanted to get in the race car and "drive." It was even FREE. Cool, considering how expensive everything else was.

Flash flood camping...

2008-08-19T18:46:00.004-04:00

It's been quite a wet summer. Each of our three planned camping trips had rain. In fact each produced more and more rain than the last.

Almost 2 weeks ago we headed out to the Ames Brook Campground in Ashland, NH. It wasn't raining when we got there and we were able to set everything up. Our site was on a beautiful, small, babbling brook. Of course, once we were set up the rain started. Our friends, Coreen and Steven and their girls arrived soon after the rain and they decided to wait until the rain stopped before setting up their site. The 7 of us were trying to stay dry, sitting at the picnic table under our big 20x40 tarp. As we watched the brook rose higher and higher. There was a rock that was about 3 feet sticking out of the water and within 20 minutes it was completely covered. We put the kids in Steven's truck (and by the grace of God they actually stayed there - safe!). The four of us packed up our entire camp as quickly as we could and got our camper out of there. As soon as we pulled the camper up and out of the site, the brook crested, having gone from 20 feet across to 300. Our site was underwater by about 3 feet. We were lucky that we were all safe and alive. We only lost 2 tarps, a bike helmet and a stack of wood. Sadly, a family lost their 7 year old when their car fell into the river shortly after a culvert was swept downstream. Coreen, Scott and I saw the culvert and the car both heading down stream. Very sad. We spent the night at the Days Inn at Campton then came home the next day. None of us were in the mood to continue camping or even try to find a campground that wasn't flooded. There was major flooding in the lakes region, where we were. We're done camping for the season.

On the brighter side, we are optimistic and have booked two trips for next year. Hopefully, we will all feel drier by then!

This was our nice site, on the brook. Notice the electrical box/hookup on the right.

Our site right after the brook crested. Steven and Scott. Notice the electrical hookup box behind Steven. The water went high very quickly. The nice, small saplings at the back of our site were gone by then. Washed away, even after surviving a mountain spring.

More raging water. Can't believe this was a sweet, quiet brook an hour before this.

And more raging water.

The fire and rescue squad. They blocked the road. Thank goodness we got out of there before they came. We could have been stuck there with the road washing away. By then we just wanted to leave and get somewhere dry. You can see that Theresa Simone woman who was on the news all that night and the next day in the background with her white hoodie. Just call her hysterical witness.

The road/bridge after one of the culverts (there were two) washed away. That camper was going to be washed away soon.

At our "Whit's End"

2008-07-31T22:57:00.004-04:00

We were camping from last Wednesday to Sunday. It was "extreme" camping with monsoon rains and a nearby tornado. We made it through 2 nights of that stuff and settled in for some sun and fun. It's always fun, no matter what the weather. Like everything, it's what you make it! The company and food were great the whole time. Whit's End is a great campground. We will definitely make it a yearly trip. http://www.whitsendcampground.com/ If you go to the camp map check out site R15. It's river front and the owners were nice enough to let us put both our pop-ups on one site so we could actually camp WITH our friends. Very accomodating. Very big site, so we didn't feel squished, even with lots of kid stuff, bikes, clotheslines, shoes floating away, etc.

We were camping with our friends, Coreen and Steven and their 2 girls Amanda (11) and Lilyin (5). In our camper were me, Scott, Walker and Kaylee (11).

Coreen was so nice to send me the following pictures. Mine, of course won't be developed for another month or so. I still have to pick up the pictures from our first trip this year to Danforth Bay with Sue and Donnie and the kids. Those pictures will be coming soon.

Scott and Steven relaxing the first night.

Walker, Lilly, Amanda and Kaylee down the bank to the Bear Camp River. You could fall down this if you weren't careful. This was before the big flood. The water rose to just about 2 feet below the "cliff." They weren't able to get down there again.

Haning by the fire. Steven, Coreen with Walker, Kaylee with Lilly, me with Amanda. Scott took the picture. The tent in the background was our "changing room." After the first night there were a few puddles in there and we had to be careful where to put the luggage. Next time we get a camper we'll actually think about things like luggage and storage. Who wants to put up a tent with a camper. Pain in the neck. This was a very fun trip. Even if we were all very wet for a long time.

Rain rain, go away

2008-06-28T11:23:00.004-04:00

It was such a great, clear, sunny, warm spring. Now we are into thunderstorms every day.

Scott bought a new shed and started building it yesterday. It was SOOOO hot. Helping was miserable, scorching heat and lots of sweat. That's hard work! We got almost half done and it started to rain, hard. We kept working, glad to be cool for a change. It's not easy to work in the pouring rain. But we kept it up until thunder and lightening were really close and I gave up. I didn't want to be struck. Scott came in too for a little bit. We got some clear weather for a while and went out again until the next T-storm. Today he should be good on his own. He's doing the roof and doors. Not that I don't like to help, but that's more his thing than mine.

The rain all week kept us inside a lot. Not easy now that we have an extra child. I thought (foolishly) that two kids would amuse each other and make my life easier. Not a chance. Even a very good one like Audrey is still difficult. She idolizes Walker, which works to her disadvantage. They bug the heck out of each other. I should have realized. A good play date lasts two hours maximum. Audrey is with us from 5:45AM until 3:30 PM. All I do is break up fights. Walker has been doing better, though. He'll just tell me he needs time to himself and goes up to play Webkinz world. They seem to do better if we are away from the house or outside. We're doing a lot of book reading, art projects and school work so they are both ready to return to school in the fall. Then in two weeks they both start dance classes, so that'll also give us something fun to do.

Walker is sleeping over Auntie Sue's tonight. I thought he was having Kaylee sleep here, but when he called I heard him ask if he could sleep over there. So that'll give me a little unexpected "free time." Maybe we can go out to a grown up restaurant tonight. Maybe we'll do some recording. Scott has figured out all his new audio recording equipment. We haven't really had a chance to use it yet, so tonight could be the night.

Here is my little friend Lily in the dressing room before her dance in show 6.

"Walking on Sunshine." Lily's sister Amanda, 2nd from right. They are the girls of my dear friend, Coreen. This was their competition tap piece.

Me and Amanda before show 6.

Here are some of the beautiful iris that bloomed on the patio. I love iris.

Last day of kindergarten. Tyler, Nolan, Walker and Gage. A little blurry, but hard to get the 4 of them to stay still!

Walker in the pool. We think we will use this picture for Walker's pool party invitation. Possibly another one as well.

6 Months Ago... Walker's Birthday Party

2008-06-24T20:45:00.004-04:00

I finally got some pictures of Walker's birthday developed and scanned. The fun of using film! What a surprise it is when I finally get some pictures back. These are from Walker's birthday back in February, when he turned six. It was a fun party. It was a two-parter. The first part was Walker and all his friends for fun and games at the studio. After that party the big kids came back to the house for a sleepover. Check it out...

The morning of the big day - Scott and I gave Walker his new bike. He rode it in the house for about 3 weeks (it was still very wet and snowy outside back in February).

The party is just getting started with the "Walking Song." Gotta get everyone warmed up. Walker is in the red shirt next to his big-kid friend, Danny (in orange)

After the games we came into the party room (at the studio) for cake. Danny, Walker, Audrey.

At the studio, waiting for the other guests: Scott, Marie (Dad's friend), Walker, my mom.

Back at our house for party, party 2. The big boys played X-Box 360, Jonathan, Danny & Walker.

Later the four of them (these all stayed the night) wrote a play, then got costumes and make-up then we video taped it. I told Danny I'd put it on You-Tube. He was horrified. I wish I had the technology to do stuff like that. Here are Danny (long, dark hair), Kaylee (blond back of head), Amanda and Walker

Danny, Amanda, Kaylee and Walker in the bathroom, getting ready for their "show." Notice Walker's very red lips.

I feel much better now that this is up. Now I can move on to more current topics, like getting up at 5:30AM every day. More on that later.

Back to Work

2008-05-28T10:27:00.003-04:00

This afternoon and tonight we're back at the theater with 2 more rehearsals. It's going to be a long night and difficult for Walker to get up tomorrow morning. But that's it for late Wednesdays now. Almost done. Exhilerating and exhausting at the same time. Rehearsals for both shows 6 and 7 tonight then for number 8 tomorrow and then it's a weekend of real, live audiences and then... DONE! Going to get my costume rack packed up and ready to go soon.

Walker and I are looking forward to our 2nd annual overnight trip to Worcester when this weekend is over. We go to visit my dad. Probably next Wednesday afternoon. This year Walker will have to skip a couple of days of school to do it, but travel is educational!

I finally got some film developed. Below are a couple of pictures. I have more to scan in, but why do it all at once.

Here are my friend, Coreen and her cutie, Amanda singing at the best karaoke place in town... my house. We can get anyone to the mic.

Walker and Scott coloring the hard boiled eggs we were going to use the next day for Walker's birthday party. They were for the egg on the spoon race. Walker really got into it. I know, these are old pictures, Walker's birthday was 3 months ago.

Obviously, the date on these pictures is wrong. This was NOT taken in 1998. I think I just hadn't redone the date after replacing the battery in the camera. Anyway, here is a typical picture of Walker watching TV. He LOVES his blue ball (actually has 2 of them). He's always balancing on them in some fashion. It's a very good all over muscle work-out. No wonder he's so strong. I should do his work-out!

1st Weekend of Shows

2008-05-26T10:06:00.006-04:00

We're done with the first 4 shows. It was fun. Walker was wonderful in his role as Toto in Wizard of Od. He's done now. I've still got 4 more shows. All my little kid classes are done too, so now I only have to deal with me and my costumes. Almost over. We're looking forward to summer classes - and other summer fun too!

We're going to the Memorial Day parade in town. Later we're meeting up with Sue and the kids to go to the cemetary with Mom. We always plant fresh annuals on her family plot.

Happy Memorial Day!

Here is my 3 & 4 year old class, my youngest class at Steppin Out. They are all ready to go on stage for their tap dance. From left: Brooke, Mackenzie, Grace (whose mom gave me this picture) Leah P., Ava, Leah T., Kylie. They are really cute and did a great job with both tap and ballet.

Tomorrow's the big show...

2008-05-23T19:55:00.004-04:00

We're halfway done with our dress rehearsals. 4 down, 4 to go next week. Tomorrow starts our weekend of 4 shows. It's very exciting. Walker is dancing with the adult jazz company. He's been so good all week. It's long and tiring. The glamorous part is for about 2 minutes when you are on stage. The rest is hurry up and wait. Walker has been a real trooper with all the late nights and waiting and changing and sitting still and listening and following directions. Tomorrow is his glory day. He's got friends coming to see him in the first show-the one with 3 of his dances.

I took some pictures on my cell phone this afternoon of some of my little girls. I hope to get them here later in the weekend.

Walker was supposed to have a t-ball game at 9 tomorrow morning then go do the 2 shows, but he wisely said he thought he had enough to do. Hey, it's only t-ball, not like he's letting down his team or anything. Dancing on stage is way more exciting to both of us anyway.

We're still waiting for some good, long rain, but ever since Scott put in all those trees it's rained for about 4 minutes every day. Not enough.

Happy Memorial Weekend!~

Looking forward to July... Here is our campsite for our 1st trip of the season to Danforth Bay with Sue and Donnie and the kids. Looks nice. Wooded. It's across from the beach and a small stream runs between ours and Sue's sites. Can't wait!

Busy Season

2008-05-21T23:36:00.005-04:00

The first weekend of shows is over now. Only two more fun, busy weeks to go. Walker is doing great! He's got some good stamina for hanging out backstage and staying up late. It's much easier this year now that he's older. He's able to hang out with the other teacher's kids back stage and wander around the theater with them instead of just having to be in my sight all the time. Makes it easier on both of us. Luckily, Danny is there and that makes it all super fun for Walker.

Unfortunately, with all this recital stuff going on Walker has had to miss a lot of T-Ball practices. We've so far been able to make the games. That makes us look lame, but they know where we are, so it's OK. It's hard to "do it all."

I can finally talk about Auntie Jeanne and Uncle Buddy's 50th anniversary. It was really fun. I almost mentioned it a couple of times, but I know Jeanne reads here, so I didn't want to ruin the surprise. What a great celebration! I loved Bill's movie!

Walker is ready for summer vacation. We made a paper chain of how many school days were left. Each day we rip one off. He's down to just 20 more school days.

Scott is really busy with outdoor work. We've got a lot of wood to stack in the basement (once we get it in). He's also done a lot of planting around the yard. He dug a trench and put in edging and mulch all around the house. It looks really nice and was a lot of work. But it'll be worth it in how much easier it is to mow around now. It'll be a lot less week whapping.

Hopefully, the weather will start to get even warmer and we can get the pool water temp up. Walker's been in twice now, but it's only about 60! Brr!!

Walker's class hatched chicks a few weeks ago. This picture was sent home by his teacher, Mrs. Paul. I love the look on his face and how fascinated he and Gage are.

The kindergarten class also hatched a duck. They had one BIG egg and couldn't wait to see what was in it. Here is the duckling. All the babies ended up on someone's farm.

This great picture is from the Christmas show. It was taken and given to me by a wonderful photographer, Allie Burke. She is the official Steppin' Out photographer. I finally got it scanned in. Walker and I have an appointment with her for dance pictures. I wasn't going to do it, but then I noticed we have matching blue and turquoise costumes so what the heck. There goes our economic stimulous check! If they come out good I'll put them here.

Back to the Beach

2008-05-13T22:25:00.003-04:00

The weather has been so nice we were back at the beach last week. Walker and I love going to the beach. We especially like walking on the jette. Can't wait for summer when we can do the fun stuff more often.

Here is Walker at the Hampton Beach State Park. You can barely see him amongst the boulders.

We had a picnic on a flat rock here at Hampton.

Walker and a friend in their hip-hop costumes. This is for his Tuesday class. They are dancing to "Move it Like This" by the Baha Men. It's really cute. There are about 14 girls and 4 boys in this class.

We're gearing up for recitals. This is the last week of regular classes at both my studios. This weekend we've got the Andover rehearsal on Saturday and the 3 recitals on Sunday. Next week is we've got Steppin' Out rehearsals every day and 4 shows the next weekend. We repeat that the week after and we're looking at 3 weeks of shows. Hope I don't get a cold sore now!

Walker has two more loose teeth. The tooth fairy should be coming in the next month or so. He's going to be rich. Between that and all the house cleaning he's doing he's making lots of money. I've decided to put half of what he makes right into his bank account. Otherwise he just spends it on snack food at the studio (the new cafe is making the big bucks).

We've got money down and confirmation of dates for two camping trips. Both are in July. The first is at Danforth Bay with Sue and the family. The other at Whit's End with Coreen and her family. We're looking forward to lots of fun!

Goodbye Grandma

2008-05-06T10:13:00.002-04:00

Glory Nason
November 29, 1917 - May 6, 2008

Scott's grandmother died this morning at about 1:30AM. She was in Exeter Hospital. There was no real diagnosis. She was just getting very old, weak, frail. She's been fragile for quite a while but got much worse in the past two weeks while she was in the hospital. She will be missed. We loved her.

Spring Has Sprung

2008-04-22T21:19:00.005-04:00

The weather has been great! I finally felt comfortable in washing and putting away the winter coats and snow pants. Hooray. The daffodils are finally out, so it must be spring. We've been keeping busy with lots of outdoor activities.

Walker and Gage at the "lake." It's really just a big puddle of water caused by the melting of the snow and lots of rain in March. It's out on the power lines on our woods trail. They loved throwing things in. They were trying to make a bridge. Too bad the sticks they threw in just floated away.

Walker on the monkey rings at Stepping Stones Playground. He can still get across. He worked so hard on this last year. This year it was a breeze, even his first try. He's got very good upper body strength. More than me!

You know it's spring when Scott breaks out the yard vac. Why rake up the leaves when you can vacuum them up?! This is a great rig.

Walker on the tree swing. He'd been running through the sprinkler. Warm enough for him to do that, but not me. I don't really like super-cold water.

"Boogie Back to Texas" adult tap company from Steppin' Out. I'm middle row, 3rd from right. This was taken a few minutes before we went on stage at the Gotta Dance competition. Have I mentioned we took home a platinum award?

Lost a Tooth!

2008-04-09T09:43:00.006-04:00

Walker lost his very first tooth Saturday morning. He was so excited. It's been very loose for about a week and bothering him. Of course it came out while I wasn't home. I was at competition. But he told me all about it on the phone. We put it in a cup next to the bed with a big sign on it so the tooth fairy could find it. She came! She left a $2.00. Cool.

He looks so different now. Especially when he's not making a silly face.

A whole new smile. We've entered "big kid" world now.

Competition went well for our studio as a whole. My tap company (I refer to it as the "Go Mom" group) won platinum for our dance "Boogie Back to Texas." Unfortunately, a woman who dances with us, who is also a teacher at another studio, STOLE the choreography and put it on her own students who also competed in the same competition. What a looser! I don't know how she'll be able to show her face there on Thursday. We'll see what happens. Anyway, adult jazz company also got a platinum award for "Wizard of Odd." I'm a lion in that one. It was fun and now performing is over for a few weeks until recital time.

Lost a Tooth!

2008-04-09T09:43:00.001-04:00

2 Days Til Competition

2008-04-03T09:21:00.005-04:00

The 1st dance competition for Steppin' Out will be held this Saturday. It's an exciting time at the studio. Are we all ready? Of course. If not, well, it'll be over in a few days. I'm always excited to hear what the judges have to say, so classes will be interesting next week with their comments. It'll be busy on Saturday for me. I'm teaching my first 4 classes at Andover. I got a sub for the last class, so I'll be able to get to the competition venue early. I want plenty of time to apply those false eyelashes.

In other dance news, Walker will be dancing the role of Toto in the "Wizard of Odd" in the May recitals. He's very excited about that. At first the thought was that we'd be using a stuffed dog. But a real, live kid is even better. Another child will be doing it this weekend in competition, though. But Walker will be in 3 or 4 shows in May. The dog costume is very cute.

I was excited to finally be able to make reservations at Whit's End Camping Area. Unfortunately, the sites we really, really wanted are booked for the entire summer. Darn. I thought calling at 8:30AM on the first day they are open for reservations would guarantee us what we want. What I didn't know is that people book a year in advance. So now I know. When we leave there this summer we'll reserve the best sites for next summer. Ah, planning 2009 already. Something to look forward to. We did get river sites, but they are a little "cliffy." We were there last year and enjoyed it, but still, I really wanted the nice, flat beach sites. Oh well. I guess as long as there is water nearby we'll be OK. Our favorite sites are waterfront, so we'll be happy. Early morning fishing, right off your front doorstep. This trip will begin on Wednesday, July 23. We've got 4 nights booked.

We still had snow on the ground on the first day of spring. Below are some pictures of Walker celebrating.

Daffodils popping up.

Still got snow.

We were excited when a few days after the first day of spring it snowed again. There was enough snow to cancel school last Friday. Here we are playing out in it. We really did get a lot of snow!

When you shake a tree, lots of snow falls down onto your head.

We finally used our new snowman kit (new, bought back in November).

Scott likes plowing so much he even plowed his old tractor. No seriously, he was pushing it into the garage to change it's tires. Walker and I thought it was a funny sight.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-17T12:09:00.003-04:00

We woke up to find we'd had a visit from leprechans! They scattered "leprechan gold" all over the house. They also caused quite a bit of mischief by overturning chairs and putting things where they didn't belong. They left M&Ms too. Quite exciting to find on a Monday morning before school.

Walker, this morning ready to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The leprechans left him this hat,

We held our 3rd annual Easter Egg coloring event last weekend. Walker and Kaylee love it!

Marching Toward Spring

2008-03-14T12:19:00.004-04:00

Scott, Walker, Kaylee and I started a bunch of seeds in the greenhouse. You know spring is coming soon when we start that! We each picked out 2 packs of seeds we wanted at Agway last Sunday. No sprouts yet. We need a new space heater for the greenhouse. The old one is broken and it's been very chilly.

Here are a few pictures Coreen sent me from last summer's camping trip to Eastern Slope. I've got to get them off my desktop (where I keep them until I use them here so as not to forget).

Me and Jonathan at Coreen's site. Our camper is in the background. Corona Light in the foreground.

Sue, Lilly, Me, Steven and Tasha in the Saco River in North Conway. The water was crystal clear and very cold, even in August. Tasha really is wearing a bathing suit even though it doesn't look it. There have been a lot of questions about that.

Steven and Scott working on their tie-dye projects. Who knew tie-dye would be such a big hit with the adults in the group. We scavenged through all our stuff for anything that we could use: sports bras, socks, washcloths, shorts.

Mandy working on her project, Tommy in the blue and red and Walker's bare belly in the background.

Have I mentioned that I like camping?

March - In Like a Lion

2008-03-02T18:11:00.004-05:00

Happy March! Spring is just around the corner. I'm so glad we had a storm on March 1. Doesn't that mean the weather should be calm, warm and beautiful toward the end of the month? Scott says the farmer's almanac predicts another 12 storms this year. Bring it on! I need a few more snow days.

Walker was able to get out and ride his new birthday bike in the driveway on Friday afternoon. He loves it. It's much bigger than his old bike, so he's getting used to it. He was riding it in the house all week so it was nice to finally get it outside.

Walker on the new bike. His coat even matches.

Walker and Scott snuggled up Friday night.

This is how Walker drinks hot chocolate - he uses a spoon.

Kaylee and Walker making brownies.

Kaylee eating the brownie batter.

Today's the big day

2008-02-23T08:29:00.003-05:00

It's February 23. Walker's 6th birthday. The first thing he said this morning was, "I'm six!" He's very excited about his party this afternoon. We got up early and changed the sheets on the guest beds so everyone has a fresh bed tonight for the "VIP" part of the party. Today is a 2-part event. At 2:30 we have his "kid" party at Steppin' Out. We'll be playing party games like: sack race, 3-legged race, musical mats, 4 corners, etc. We'll have cake there (no ice cream - he doesn't want it so why should we spend the money). If there's time we'll do more games. He doesn't want to open presents there. The past couple of years we've just brought them home to open in peace and sanity. We both dislike it when everyone rips open the gifts for the birthday person. He'd rather enjoy it slowly and open his own presents instead of get aggravated by the littler kids "helping" him. After that party is over we're moving into phase 2 of the party where his big kid friends come back to the house for a sleepover. More cake and pizza and other assorted junk food, along with present opening, movies and games. Busy day ahead. We've got to get busy cleaning.

Walker hasn't even asked about any gifts we might have for him. I can't wait until Scott gets back from plowing (it snow yet again all day yesterday). We got him a new bike! We also got him a new x-box game (Pinata) and the movies Spiderman 2&3 (he already has 1). When people ask what he wants he's been saying cough drops and gum ball. He'll probably end up with quite a few. Art supplies are always good. He hasn't even used the Christmas toys much so he really doesnt' need toys. He also wants gift certificates to Kohl's so he can do some clothing shopping. I'm so glad he likes that, but it's sort of unusual for a 6 year old to love shopping isn't it? He loves going into the dressing rooms and trying things on. Of course he is the type of person that everything fits AND looks good on, so he wants to buy everything.

Mom is getting her new sun room/3 season porch addition. If the weather is good construction can start in just 3 weeks. She is very excited. It's going to be really nice and add more usuable living space.

Mom (far right) at Tokyo Joe's with some friends.

Mom (far right again) with friends at their Valentine party.

Mom has a more exciting social life than I do. She's got parties, plays, shows and other events a couple times a week. I'm glad she's got lots of friends in her neighborhood.

Rainy Monday

2008-02-18T11:51:00.006-05:00

Here is a picture of Scott watching a Patriots game. Not the Superbowl. This was back when we still had a chance. The Christmas tree was still up.

It's warm and tropical here today. Feels like spring with the warm breezes and soft rain.

Happy birthday Felice.

We're getting ready for Walker's birthday party on Saturday. I know his bunk beds are for his birthday, but I wanted to get him something more fun and give him a surprise. This morning I got him a new bike. It's 18" as opposed to the 12" he'd been riding. It came with training wheels which is a good thing. He'll probably learn to ride without them this year, but he still needs them now. Of course, now that he has a big boy bike, I'll need to get one too. My only other option is to start running (fast). Think I'll go with the bike option.

Walker up in the top bunk of his new birthday bunk beds. He will only sleep here if there is someone sleeping in the bottom bunk. But it's still fun for him.

Here are a few more pictures from my birthday party. These are from my camera (the FILM one). I told you they'd take a while to get here.

Me and Sue

Sue and Scott

Lisa and Sue

Ann, Lisa, Sue

Dreamin' of Summer

2008-02-07T10:18:00.000-05:00

Walker has no school again today due to the weather. It's the 2nd day off for him this week. Dance classes were cancelled this morning. A fun, snowed in morning for us.

I've been thinking about summer. We're more than half way through the school year, so summer is almost back. Last June's trip to Smuggler's Notch, VT was so great. It's a really family oriented resort. Something for every age. I'd go again if I could afford it! http://www.smuggs.com/ to check it out.

Below is a postcard of one of the Smuggs pool areas - the Mountainside pools. This area was Walker's favorite. Three pools and lots of slides, waterfalls and fun.

We're ready to book our camping trips. We're going back to Whit's End in July for about a week. We thought that was the best place we went last summer. I also want to try new places. You never know until you try, right? I've been doing lots of online researching of NH/VT/ME campgrounds and have come up with two to try. Crow's Nest Campground in Newport, NH http://www.crowsnestcampground.com/ and Ames Brook Campground in Ashland, NH http://www.amesbrook.com/ look like good ones. It's hard to tell from just a website, though, as we know from experience. Both these places have riverfront sites as well as pools and playgrounds. Waterfront sites at areas with pools are what I've been searching for. Who wants a campground with no swimming on site? Sounds hot and dry. When I think of camping I think of waking up and seeing water, having coffee with my feet IN water. Stuff like that. So come back here and look for the reviews after we've tried these.

Now we just have to figure out the WHEN and WHO will be going with us details and we'll be all set to book. We've learned you have to book very early (like when they first open for the season). You can't just decide in August to go away for the weekend and expect any available sites, especially good, waterfront ones. So, any people in our camping circle that want to come with us anywhere let me know soon so we can put it on the calendars.

The Pats loss was a devastating blow for all of New England. How sad this week has been. I think it's also sad that both Brady and Moss have decided not to go to the Pro Bowl. Are they really injured or is it sour grapes? Seems a little like poor sportsmanship to me.

Go Pats!

2008-02-03T17:34:00.000-05:00

Less than an hour to go to kick-off for Superbowl 42. We are very excited and ready to watch and win. We are looking forward to an historical "perfect season." It'd be a devastating loss to everyone in New England, but especially to those players. I hope they can pull this off one last time. Then they deserve a vacation. Disney World? Anyway, we are ready. Scott just took a roasted turkey out of the oven. It smells yummy. He also just put scallops and bacon in the oven. Like I said, we're ready for the game.

Kaylee came over this morning. We were so glad. Walker was tired and grumpy from staying up too late last night. Danny and his family came over. We even got them to do karaoke but that's another story. So Kaylee was the only one able to bring Walker out of the tired grumpies. Good. We got to see her because she didn't feel like going to watch 8 hours of wrestling. Jonathan was at another tournament. He did well, we hear. Came in 2nd today! He always places well. We're all proud of him.

I told Walker and Kaylee we could do whatever they wanted. They chose bowling. That's twice in one week for me. Apparently frequency does NOT make me a better bowler. We went to a different bowling ally. They were big balls, not candlepin. I'd never used big balls and neither had the kids. Walker used a 6 pound ball and Kaylee an 8. I tried to use an 8 pounder, but the holes were too small. I had to go up to a 10 pounder. My poor back. Kaylee got the high score out of our 2 games - 103. My top score today was 91. She and I both got strikes in our last box. Cool. My poor back, though, is going to keep on remembering today for a while.

Kaylee playing "glow" air hockey at the bowling alley. We went to Striker East this time, in Raymond, NH.

Walker playing air hockey.

We have a herd of turkeys living close by. There are 30 of them. They march single-file up the road to eat across the street from us. We bought cracked corn today and Walker and Kaylee spread it around the yard so the turkeys would come to visit us. And no, the turkey in the oven is NOT from the wild herd. We'll see if they like cracked corn.

Walker, this morning in the "movie cart" at Hannaford. He's getting a little big for it now, but he wanted to check out the new show they added, the Wonderpets. He also got a surprise episode of the Backyardigans. That wasn't advertised on the cart. A bonus. And only $1.00. He was munching on one of those free cookies. It's good to be a kid at Hannaford.

Walker and Nanny on Tuesday. We were leaving after our visit (Nanny Day is every Tuesday).

"B" Day

2008-01-29T21:24:00.000-05:00

Monday Walker and I had a very fun day. Our two big activities started with the letter B. This has given me the idea that maybe we should have a letter of the day once in a while. Could be fun. Try to find some horses on H day or get a haircut. Anyway, back to b...

After I picked Walker up after school I asked him if he wanted to go outside. We'd planned to do that earlier. It's cold, but not too bad. He decided he didn't want to play outside again. He'd just done that at recess. He opted for the "mystery ride" option. We just get in the car and I pretty much make up my mind as inspiration strikes.

We ended up at Exeter Lanes Bowling alley. I didn't even think it was open, but it was. We were the only customers there, though. Walker had never been, but we have been talking about it. The place is a real blast from the past. I don't think anything has changed in there since 1960. I'd never actually been in there so maybe things have changed, but it looks like a place out of the old tv show "Happy Days." They have bumpers now on some of the lanes so that kids (and adults) don't just get all gutter balls. I'd never bowled with them. They really helped my game. I bowled an 86 (with bumpers). I did get 2 spares. Walker did great for his first time. He really liked it. The shoes are different there than they were when I was a kid. I think that's a good thing. They were fluorescent. I hate bowling shoes. Borrowing them, I mean. About 15 years ago I was on a league from my work (Weeks Family Restaurant). We had a lot of fun back then and that's when I bought my own bowling shoes. I can't stand wearing other people's shoes, especially strangers. We didn't know we were going bowling when we left the house, otherwise I would have dug mine out and saved the money. I should just keep them in the car for that "just in case" time when we go bowling.

Walker kept sitting on the thing the balls roll back on. He loved pressing the reset button.

Even candlepin is a little big for his hands, but he did well. You can see the fluorescent pink and green shoes.

After bowling, Walker asked where we were going next. http://www.hamptonbeach.org/
We were half way to the beach, so we went there (thus the B words, bowling/beach). It was COLD, but I love the beach in the winter. Scott and I met when he lived there and we spent our first winter together hanging out on the beach. The beach playground was open so we got to play there for a while. The waves were crazy big for the NH coast. Must be stormy out to sea. It was very strange to have both snow and sand on my boots. Nothing was open on the strip, so we didn't have to spend any money. I'm so psyched we live close enough to the beach that we can just go there on a whim.

Contemplating the coast. Cute profile.

Beach boy.

New Laundry Appliances!

2008-01-25T17:22:00.001-05:00

There's been so much going on with all of Scott's home improvement projects. This week he finished the water filtration system. Our water was drinkable before, but it had high iron and mineral counts and made everything (including my hair over a period of time) turn orange. So we shouldn't have to scrub orange stains out of the toilets anymore. And my hair might stay blonde when I make it that color, rather than becoming strawberry blonde! The water also tastes even better. Ah, fresher water.

Scott finished the water and figured he'd move on to the washing machine. It had been filling very slowly lately. He fixed the filling issue, but something happened to make it not stop filling itself up. That can be very BAD. So basically, he pulled a Tim, the Toolman, Taylor on me. Darn. I didn't think we'd need a new washer for a long time. It was only a few years old. Oh well, Scott and Ed went to Loewe's and came home with a new washer/dryer SET! We didn't even need a dryer (yet). The dryer was in the old trailer when we bought the place 12 years ago, but it was in good shape and dried the clothes. That's all it needed to do, right. Well, these new ones are awesome. I didn't realize how exciting doing the laundry can be. They wash, dry, fluff, etc. Lot's of buttons. Every load seems to come with lots of decisions. How big, how long, water temp, and other things I'm not used to thinking about when I just pushed 'start' before. It's fun. The first loads have just come out. They are fluffy and clean! Thank goodness.

Walker wrote all his Valentines last night. He did great. It took a long time, but he kept at it. He did all the kids in his class (14) as well as signing his own name. We had some left over after that so he did more for his "big kid" friends. We're going to work on his birthday party invitations soon. It's coming up in a few weeks. Can't believe he's going to be 6.

Walker at Sue's (Uncle Donnie in the background) on Christmas day. He wore the suit given to him by Danny. We love hand-me-downs.

Walker and Danny "belly dancing" on Danny's 13th birthday. Must be a guy thing.

Heather Ledger

2008-01-22T23:04:00.000-05:00

OMG! I was NOT expecting to see this tonight. How sad. He was awesome. The following article is from People.com. I'm still in shock. Never saw this coming. Just terrible...

-----------------------------------------------

Heath Ledger's Family Speaks Out on His Death
TUESDAY JANUARY 22, 2008 10:30 PM EST

Heath Ledger's father Kim has spoken out following the shocking death of the 28-year-old actor Tuesday in New York. According to a statement from the family: Heath's family confirms the very tragic, untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda. He was found peacefully asleep in his New York apartment by his housekeeper at 3:30 p.m. U.S. time. We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their well wishes and kind thoughts at this time. Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life but few had the pleasure of truly knowing him. He was a down to earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and selfless individual who was extremely inspirational to many. Please now respect our families need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately.

Cold Tuesday

2008-01-22T08:57:00.000-05:00

The weather here is so cold. Bet they won't even go outside today for recess at kindergarten. We're going through a lot of wood now. Still trying to conserve the expensive oil. So where is more snow? We're ready for another snow day. Here are some pictures from the last big snow day. Walker loves to go and play in fresh snow.

If you stick your face in the snow like this,

You can end up with a face full of snow. Like this.

Scott plows the driveway into BIG piles. Great for sledding.

Walker and I did some shopping at Kohl's yesterday. He's needed new pants for a couple of weeks now. His are all getting too short. His legs are growing like crazy. We hit it on a lucky day. We found 4 pairs of pants he liked that fit and were buying them. We found out it was buy one-get one free. It was also 30% off the total if you charged it. Cool. We got a lot of stuff and didn't pay that much. Walker thinks I should get a job there. It's not a bad idea. I could use some money to put aside for the long, fun summer. I'll have to think about that. I actually do have some morning times available. Should I just use that time to sit around doing nothing or should I make some money? Hmmm.

Home Projects

2008-01-15T09:22:00.001-05:00

Walker, last night in the bath. He wanted me to see his scary, green hands.

We've had a couple of busy weeks around here. Scott has been working hard to complete several projects (at the same time). They are all pretty BIG projects and I'm always amazed by what a professional job Scott does. I mean, I know he can do it, but how does he know how to do EVERYTHING?

This is a very blurry picture of Walker, but I was actually just trying to show the new oil barrel (to Walker's right). It's now, installed, filled and running.

Scott is here, working on the new water filtration system. There is another tank about that same size as the white one shown and is on it's way. Then he can finish that up. You can't see it in this pic, but he also recently installed a second sump pump (in the corner to his left). The first worked fine, but he thought a second, back up one was a good idea - just in case.

Here's the new generator box. I just learned how to use it if I need to. We didn't loose power in the last storm, but Scott still wants to. Maybe I should just be late on the electric bill...

I love the free publication that Kraft foods sends me. They have a lot of yummy, easy dinner recipes. I enjoy trying new recipes, enjoy cooking and drinking wine at the same time. I'm like Julia Child. If you want to subscribe to this magazine (FREE!) go to www.kraftfoods.com/share
and sign up. This week I tried their shepherd's pie recipe. It's even better than my made up one because the mashed potatoes have garlic and cream cheese in them. I also tried their lasagna but added in hot sausage because I like it. The cheesy, spinach manicotti looks good, but I'd use those extra large shells. I find manicotti difficult to work with and always end up ripping them by mistake. I'm gonna go out for the ingredients to the "mac & cheese taco bake" and the "Caribbean pork N Rice." Walker won't eat any of this, of course, but we always have plain chicken, pork, steak and pizza available for him. I make at least 2 different main courses every night (just like my mom used to). Scott and I would get bored if we ate like Walker.

I've got 5 rolls of film to pick up this afternoon. Yay. Lots of pictures. I really need to get going with my scrapbooking. I'm a year behind and really dislike that feeling.

Another Snow Day

2008-01-14T15:10:00.000-05:00

Check it out - I can now take a picture and get it here in the same day. That's so new to me. These are still from my new phone. But Sue is going to give me her old digital and now I'm way excited to get it! I never realized it'd be so convenient. It'll definitely make me want to post more. It's always better with a picture or 6. This picture is Walker and Morgan when we came in from the snow. Morgan is so cuddly now. She used to hide from people. But having Walker around has really gotten her out of her shy phase. They are great friends now. She tries to wake him up every morning around 5 by purring near his head. She doesn't wake him up, but I end up waking.

We love snow days! We were pretty sure Walker wouldn't have school today, but you can never really tell. So we did get him to bed at the regular school bed time last night. Happily, we woke up to a message on the answering machine saying school was cancelled (not that we don't love school). We thought we'd have a pj/lazy morning, and did. We made a big breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage. Scott and Walker played Halo (the original one today for a change of pace) and I continued to watch season 3 of Melrose Place.

After lunch we got dressed and ready to go out to play in the snow. We've got a good 12 new inches in the yard. We needed it. The old snow was looking grungy. Scott was out plowing while Walker and I played outside. I dragged the Christmas tree way over to the side yard to the compost bin. When I took it down I just stuffed it out the front door (which we never use) and there it sat for the past 2 weeks. It was heavy to drag and the compost bin felt like it was 3 miles away, but it's good exersize. We also got to do a little sledding, down the "hills" Scott creates when he plows. Short, but steep little slopes for us. It's exhausting walking and playing in the snow.

I just checked to see if we'd have dance classes this evening. The web site said to check back after 2PM. No dance tonight! Yay! I love going to the studio, but it's so fun to have a special snow day where all the regular stuff is called off for a day. Now we can just relax the rest of the day. Scott is taking tonight off so he won't have to drive to work in the worst of it. Maybe we'll drink a little beer tonight. It'll be like a Saturday night for him.

Walker and I are going to make a banana bread. I want to use up the soft, mushy bananas we have left. I hate wasting them. I love cooking and baking with that snowed-in feeling.

The news just mentioned that the power company is expecting outages. Scott is actually hoping to loose power. He wants to try the new generator for real. We did have a practice outage Friday night, but that's not like the real thing. We're all set for anything now.

The snow pile is higher than Walker

Walker loves snow.

When I saw that "Rock of Love II" is a new show, I just had to wonder whatever happened to Jess? I thought Brett Michaels had found true love. Something tells me he wanted to find women more than love. So now they are at it again. The previews show Heather, the crazy chick that tried to win him by getting his name tattooed on her neck. She's baaack... As a judge or something.

Have you seen the show "Celebrity Rehab?" It's so sad and insane. Horrifying really, yet somehow addictive. I can't believe the condition of Jeff Conway. He was so hot as Kenicki in Grease. Crazy. These are the shows I get to watch when I actually get tv time for myself with noone around. It's all that's on late at night, right?

Got a camera phone!

2008-01-11T12:15:00.000-05:00

My old cell phone battery is dying. I can charge it up, every night, and I'll still get only about 5 minutes to talk. I make a call and immediately say, "If my phone dies..." I started looking at new batteries before Christmas. I must be cheap because I can't see paying $45 for a new phone battery. I was thinking more like $10 at most. Scott got tired of hearing me talk about it so for my birthday he gave me some cash to get the new battery. I finally made it to the Verizon store Wednesday morning. I really did just want the new battery. But the sales clerk said he just wanted to look up my account, yada, yada. Come to find out it was contract renewal time. You know what that means - a new phone! For free! The free model was the photo phone with a ton of other features that I'll never use. I don't even have a digital camera so this is pretty exciting. I even figured out how to email the pics from the phone to my computer for printing. Scott even got a new camera phone. So exciting. I didn't have to pay anything for these new phones the sales guy said were worth $200 each. I'd NEVER pay that for a phone. So what if we're locked into the contract for another 2 years. I like Verizon anyway and was not thinking of switching. The best part is I still have the birthday cash that now I can spend on something else - as well as call everyone and talk about it and take pictures of everything. All in all a good deal and a good day.

Tomorrow starts "peek week" at the Andover School of Ballet. It's the day parents are invited into the studio to watch class. It's very distracting to the kids, especially the little ones who want to keep running to their parents for hugs. It's distracting to me because I know they are all taking video and photos and it's usually of my backside. Also, I'm not a very comfortable public speaker and it's like giving 5 hours worth of oral reports. But tomorrow is the longest day so I'll get that out of the way first. It's also sort of fun for the parents to finally get to be in the room and see what we've been doing. The director also comes in to talk to the parents first, so it makes the classes go by quickly. But I'm glad my b-day party was last week. I know I'll be exhausted by the end of tomorrow.

We're having lots of rain. Walker and I would prefer it to be snow. But at least the cars are being rinsed off. Of course Scott just paid to have his washed. That is why it's raining.

Picture taken on my new cell phone. Walker in the teacher's room at Steppin' Out. He's haning on an empty clothes rack. I don't know why it's in the teacher's room.

Another cell phone pic. I took it of myself in the car before work Wednesday afternoon in Andover.

Birthday - Girls Night In

2008-01-07T09:50:00.000-05:00

We had a great time for my birthday. Just me and Scott and 4 of the best "girls." We ate scallops and bacon, shrimp, chips and dip, nachos and meatball subs. Drinks included frozen strawberry margaritas, beer, wine and tequila shots. Yum.

There was a brief moment of extreme excitement when the fire broke out. All I can say is NEVER open gifts on a table full of candles. Luckily, we put it out quickly and then vacuumed it up and moved on.

We played Taboo for a while then went on upstairs to the music room where we got on our rock star groove. Even the skeptical found her inner rock star! Below are some of the pics, courtesy of Ann and Lisa, the para-professional photographers. They take great pics. Of course the pictures I took will be here in about a month - after I get them developed. I'm still a film user. And I like it that way.

We had to get our "before" shot. In front - Ann (sister-in-law) back - Sue (my sister), Lisa (best friend from high school), Coreen (newer, dear friend), me, Scott. We all have our margaritas. A couple people even added extra tequila.

We love being supportive to Scott. Looks like a bachelorette party pose.

Me and Sue, almost ready to go upstairs to sing.

Me and Lisa, upstairs and almost ready to sing. We're about to sing the Zappa song, "Titties and Beer" that we first learned back in 8th grade. Just a few years ago...

Here we are actually singing Titties and Beer.

Me and Sue singing "Loaded Gun" by Slaughter.

Head banging. You never worry about the neck pain you will feel the next day at this point. It's fun at the time.

Sue singing "Nothin Compares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T10:39:00.000-05:00

This is from our photo shoot for the Christmas card. Walker is always so cute.

We're back to the regular routine, starting today. I love vacation, but real life is fun too.

Post Christmas Let Down

2007-12-29T09:24:00.000-05:00

This is an older photo, but it reminds me of playing in the snow, so I'll use it until I get some snow pictures developed. It's Walker and Audrey "painting" with shaving cream. It was back in July. So cute.

Well that happened fast. All the hype, work, fun and now it's over. Maybe we should move the holiday to once every OTHER year. Wouldn't that make more sense? Our beautiful tree is shedding needles all over the carpet every time anyone even looks at it. I am rarely motivated to take down all the decorations and put them all away. It's so much fun to put it all up, but I wish I had a maid to take it all back down. That'll probably be our project today.

Walker got tons of gifts. His favorite is still the XBox 360. He and Scott play Halo every day. They are on Halo 3 of course (for 360) but they have also been playing Halo 1 and 2 since we found out you can use all the original XBox games on 360. That is a good thing! I also found out yesterday that 360 has the original Pac Man pre-loaded on it. Cool! I used to love that game in the 80's. It's different playing with a tiny toggle than a big, sturdy joy stick, but I think I can get used to it. Other gifts included a boxed set of season 3 of Melrose Place (for me), a magic kit, toy shooting gallery, pin-ball machine, tons of Ben 10, Pokemon, Power Rangers and Transformers (for Walker) and Bioshock and a new baseball glove (for Scott).

Walker has been busy with play dates every day. Yesterday we had his friend Danny sleep over. We wanted to help Dan celebrate his 13th birthday! He's an awesome kid and really great with Walker. We tried to get into Chunky's Cinama Pub (where you can get a whole meal served to you while watching a movie) but they had sold out of Alvin and the Chipmunks. So we ended up at another theater. Yikes, $60 for 4 of us to get admission and popcorn and drinks! Oh well, it's only money. We don't go to the movies that often (now we know why). Alvin was a fun movie. Nice and short for the young set. It was PACKED. Why doesnt' anyone work on Friday at noon?

Vacation has been fun. We've been playing and eating and drinking for over a week now. It's almost like summer. Well, the goal today is to get at least some of the decorations put away. Maybe I'll just do the tree and leave the rest for another day.

The Patriots play at 8:15 tonight. Could they possibly win again? It'll be their last regular season game of the year. It'd be awesome!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2007-12-20T09:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays!

It's snowing here again. We get about 6 inches every other day. Children all over town are loving this. Fresh, new snow to stomp around in all the time. It hasn't been good snowman snow yet, though. It's been too cold so the snow is fluffy, except for a thin layer of ice about a foot down.

Anyway, we're ready for Christmas. Presents mostly wrapped, Christmas books and movies scattered about.

I finally got around to scanning some more pictures in. They are a bit out of date, back to Halloween, but still cute.

Audrey and Walker. Audrey dressed up for Walker that night. She loves to dress up in her pretty dresses. Being a 5 year old boy, Walker didn't even know what to say except for his usual response, "Whatever." I think she looks beautiful. Love the boots!

Walker in his new Cars "bunnysuit."

1st part of our Halloween night. We went to Grammie's neighborhood and met up with these friends. From left: Audrey, Walker, Gage, Alex, Kyle.

Later we met up with our Danville friends for more trick-or-treating. From left: Walker, Tommy, Owen (on Amanda's lap), Lilly.

Ed (Scott's brother) and Scott singing in Scott's studio. Let the good times roll!

Happy Holidays

2007-12-07T17:32:00.000-05:00

Wow! It's been a very long time since I've written anything here. Things have been pretty busy. Fall has just flown by.

The Christmas show is taking up extra time on the weekends. It's very fun, but something else to get ready for, get dressed, get to on time. Tomorrow is the dress-rehearsal and Sunday the show. If you live in the area, the show is "A Merry Littel Christmas" at Pinkerton Academy in Derry at 2PM on Sunday, December 9.

This picture is Walker's first day of Kindergarten. We wait for the bus in our driveway. We usually play catch with the basketball. Now we don't because of the all the snow and ice in the driveway. We stand out there as short a time as possible. Notice Walker's first day of school outfit: name tag, back pack and "manpris."

I just got 3 rolls of film developed. Some were from August and the final camping trip of the season. I miss camping. Only 6 more months and we'll be back in the camper.

It's so easy to buy presents for little boys who watch TV. Every commercial that comes on we hear, "I want that!" Every time I walk into a store that sells any type of toy I could spend $200. Each year we say we'll cut back. We do, but for the OTHER people. Not the boy. He still gets a great Christmas. Lots and lots of things from Santa Claus.

We've been using Scott's music room a lot for Karaoke parties. People are funny. They say they won't sing. Then give them a couple of drinks and suddenly they're unstoppable. It's very fun. We love playing "rock star." Apparently, everyone who comes over also does. Scott is thinking that maybe we'll have to move the equipment into another room. Make another room for it actually. His room houses a lot of antiques and valuable collections, as well as his music stuff. It'd be terrible if someone fell over and wrecked the room. Maybe we'll end up finishing the attic area over the garage. Eventually. Then Scott will feel comfortable actually inviting more than 2 people at a time into that room. However, the fewer people that come, the more mic time we each get, so...

Last weekend we had a game/karaoke night with 2 other couples. That was fun. I want to do it again. We played Taboo. When we paired up and played as couples none of us did very well. When we switched it up and did girls against guys the girls kicked butt!

Let the games begin. This picture is when Walker first started to get into video games. We were still using the old X-Box. Here they are using the even older Nintendo-64 (still my favorite!). We just got X-Box 360 for our big family present.

Walker with his friend Gage at the Kindergarten open-house. They got to ride the bus and check that all out. They don't ride the same bus now, though. Walker is sad about that. Gage lives in North Kingston and we are in South Kingston.

I think this was the last day we used the pool. Walker wore this "swimmy" every time he went in the pool. It works very well. We feel comfortable with him going in even if we don't - as long as we are right there on the deck.

Walker at soccer practice back in October when it was beautiful outside. He's in the red pants.

Walker, styling his hair after a tubby. He hates having wet hair and won't put on a pull over pj top until it's dry. He also likes to style it like Zac Efron where it's pulled forward from the back (if that makes sense).

We live at the end of the rainbow!

Happy Campers

2007-08-02T22:29:00.001-04:00

Here is a picture of Walker and his friend, Audrey (5 & 3). They are playing in our "secret garden."

This has been the best summer of my life. Pretty much everything has been fun, fun, fun. I've had a LOT of time off to spend with Walker. It's been great to have a change of pace from the "regular" year. Have I mentioned I love summer.

We used to camp, years ago, in a small tent without much else. We gave it up once we had Walker. Occasionally, we set up the tent in the yard and "camped out." We didn't think we liked it. I thought of myself as a HOTEL GIRL. That all changed last summer when our good friends, Coreen and Steven, invited us to go camping with them. We went out and bought a new, bigger tent, and a few other things. I wasn't really looking forward to it at all. In my mind it was "have" to go camping when I'd discuss our plans. Well, thank goodness they dragged us out there. We really enjoyed it. I think Walker liked it much better than he liked going to a hotel. There is so much more to do. We liked it so much, in fact, that we went and bought a pop-up camper. Now we like it even more - not sleeping on the ground. I also like having a sink to do the dishes in.

So, this is our camping summer. Last week we went to a campground called Whit's End in Ossipee, NH. http://www.whitsendcampground.com/ We had sites on the river. It's a great river for family tubing, even small children would be able to do it. There is also a pool and rec hall and play ground. Clean showers and rest rooms. We're excited to go to Eastern Slope Campground in Conway next weekend for a couple of days. http://easternslopecamping.com/ Then the week after that we've got 5 days at Goose Hollow Campground in Thornton, NH http://www.nhcampgrounds.com/ We've never been to either of those places, but hope they are as fun as Whit's End was. Now we just need to get more creative in our camping food. Everyone was sick of the hot dogs we had last weekend. We went through 3 pounds in just 4 days! But hey, they are easy to hold on a stick over a camp fire. Easy and fun for the kids to do. Think I'll try sword fish next time out.

Tomorrow is my last day of my only 5 day work week this summer. OK, so it's the only 5 days I've worked this summer. But hey, I'm on summer vacation. After finishing college with a teaching degree almost 20 years ago I'm FINALLY able to be on a teacher's school year. I never want to work summers again except for the couple of weeks of dance camp that I do now.

Have I mentioned I love summer?

Does any family ever finish all the freeze pops you get in one of those 100 packs? We keep buying new ones every year, but still have all the old ones in the freezer. Seems Walker only eats them when friends are over and playing outside. Or they multiply in the freezer?!

Here's another one of Walker in the secret garden.

Spring Thoughts

2007-04-18T20:47:00.000-04:00

I found a couple more pictures from this past winter's StillPointe performance. I was reminded of it when I was asked to perform the "Three Women" piece again. The photo below is from that piece. It was good and it was fun, but this is a very busy time of year, so I'm going to pass

on it this time. As much as I enjoy performing and am flattered that the director of the program actually called me to do it (after I'd begged out when the girls called) I said yes. But then I thought again and realized this would mean the rest of this month's Tuesdays to practice, then 4 nights at the end of the month. I just can't do that to Walker. It's too late, too many nights in a row. Of course, he wants to do it (he says), but I wouldn't be happy about it with him being super cranky from being up too late that many nights in a row. He'd also get bored. So, I got a replacement for myself and taught her my part Tuesday. Hopefully, it'll be wonderful. Anyway, her name is now in the program, so it's not up to me any more.

Then there is this dance, another of which I will not be performing again in this show. It was fun, but I didn't even really know this dance, having only done it a couple times in the studio. I hate performing so unprepared. It's the stuff nightmares are made of.

"Dress Rehearsal"

2007-03-04T21:35:00.000-05:00

This afternoon we had our Sanborn Dance team fundraiser. This was actually the dress rehearsal for the Steppin' Out Dance Company. Money for them, practice in front of a live audience for us. It was a win-win situation. Now we are just about ready to compete at Danzjam next weekend. These photos are from todays performance.

Walker did great in "In My Own Little Corner." It's a sort of Cinerella story. He's the prince and tries the shoe on a few of the girls in his group. It doesn't end up fitting anyone. He's happy about that. He said he doesn't want to get married anyway. He's a little ham. It was a long day, but fun.

I realized that the costumes for my tap piece are not that flattering for even the best of bodies. Oh well. The "go mom" group had a lot of fun anyway.

Here are a couple from "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree."

Walker's Birthday

2007-02-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

Today is Walker's birthday. I can't believe he is 5 years old! It has gone by so quickly. All day I'll be looking at the clock thinking about what happened 5 years ago at "this time." I do that every year on his birthday. Five years ago today, at this time, 9:52AM Scott was making us bacon and eggs. I was relaxing on the couch watching TV (on bed rest). Walker seems to be realizing he's growing up and sort of doesn't want to. He's been talking in baby talk and wanting us to feed him. I guess that's indicative of him being aware of this childhood time being on it's way out. Of course he's still got a long way to go. But he's not a toddler any more. He's starting kindergarten in the public school in the fall. It's just unreal. We've been celebrating this birthday for almost a week now. Last Saturday was the "kid" party at Off the Wall Gymnastics. It was great there. They do a very fun birthday party. Plus we didn't have to clean before and after the party as we would had we done the party at home. We had 13 children and most of their parents. The gym instructors led the kids through floor workouts and parachute games, then challenging obstacle courses. The last 20 minutes was "open gym" where they could run wild and crazy. We chose NOT to open presents at the party and that worked out very well. It's always so crazy and never fun for anyone, including the birthday person. So while the kids were eating cake I packed up the gifts in big black trashbags and Scott brought them out to the car. Instead of doing presents we had a game of pin the tail on the donkey after cake. Then handed out goodie bags and that was it. Of course, then we had more fun, once we got home, opening all the gifts in a relaxed way. Sort of.

The above photos are Walker back in the fall. He had his leather jacket on with my boots and Scott's cold weather hat. Walker thought it was the perfect outfit in which to paint a gourd. Since it was still fairly warm we were able to do it out on the breezeway.

This morning Walker got to open two more presents since it's his birthday. He got another Transformer and a Lincoln Log set. Lincoln Logs were always frustrating for me and Sue when we were kids. Not much different these days. Scott was able to make a house, though. Maybe they will be more fun as Walker grows older. Walker is at school this morning. He was excited to wear the birthday crown, birthday sticker and bring cupcakes to all his classmates.

This afternoon we'll go to an early dinner at Bugaboo Creek. We all like it there. We brought Walker there for his 1st birthday and they've sent us free kid meal certificates every year since. We haven't gone back for a birthday since, though. They do a fun birthday song when they bring out a piece of cake.

Tomorrow is the family party. We've got a bit of cleaning to do before the family comes over. We've also got to bake another cake. Luckily, we like doing that. We'll have a big family spaghetti dinner and more presents. Fun.

I can't believe what is going on with Britney Spears. It's very sad, especially when I think about those poor babies. They need their mother AND father both to be healthy and sane (as well as responsible). I hope it all works out for them.

I've had vacation from Andover this week. It's been a bit of a break. I would have been there now, but I'm able to be at home on a Friday at 10AM. Alone, since Scott is in the basement with his brother. Ah, coffee and a free minute. I do have to get ready for teaching "Stretch and Tone" at the YMCA soon, though. But that's fun and good for me.

We had a bit more snow last night. Just about an inch. That'll freshen the yard up a bit for more outdoor fun. We've still got a good 7 inches or so on the ground.

January 6 - 72 Degrees!

2007-01-08T15:43:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of us (and my nephew Jonathan) hanging out by the pool on Saturday. It was so warm I can't believe this is January in New Hampshire. We scooped leaves out of the pool. Walker was even pouring water all over himself. Just another crazy Saturday at the pool. If this keeps up we'll have to add chemicals and start the filter up again. This is supposed to be our cold, snowy season. We had to search for our shorts and sandals.

My friend Felice just reminded me of one of the terrible Christmas presents Walker received from Santa. Floam. He's wanted it since first seeing it on Nick Jr. It was so NOT worth the wait. We were all sadly disappointed. It was not at all like the commercial. In the commercial it looks easy to work with, fun to play with. We couldn't even scoop a spoonful out of the tub easily. It was super gluey and wouldn't come off our hands. We couldn't roll it into a ball or stick it on anything. We ended up throwing the tub away after that one experience. Maybe we were supposed to open the tub and let it dry out for a month or so?

Another loosing gift this year was crystal rocks. You know, the kind that grow into small "mountains" from tiny rocks. Unfortunately, the information/direction packet was so scary talking about how toxic the chemicals are, that we dumped the project about 5 minutes into it.

Other, better Christmas gifts included: Labyrinth (the game), Zingo Bingo, Spongebob Monopoly, Spongebob Life, Caribu, Yahtzee, Jenga. He also got action figures, puzzles, cars, Batman costume and more. It's insane the amount of things he got.

It's been difficult getting back to our "real" life. I liked vacation quite a bit. But it's fun going back to classes and being busy again. All we did during vacation was eat and drink (or so it seemed). We also did fun things like "go to the hospital for lunch." That was Walker's fun thing to do during vacation. He loves riding the elevators at the local hospital. The food at Exeter Hospital is actually very good and very well priced. All in all, a fun vacation.

Almost Christmas

2006-12-20T14:55:00.000-05:00

One of my dance friends gave me a bunch of photos from the Northern Essex Student performance. That was sweet of her. Here is one of my solo. Walker comes out at the end, so technically, I suppose it wasn't a solo. But I did dance by myself for 4.5 minutes before he came out. Anyway, I'll upload some more of the performance pics to my Epsom account later for anyone who wants to see more.

Every time I go into a store it feels like it's the LAST CHANCE to get anything. I can't believe I spent $100 at Rite-Aid this morning. I had to go in there to pick up sample sizes for stocking stuffers and came out with those as well as a sled for Walker, "Floam" that he's wanted for 2 years, some bath tub science toys and a hair straightening iron for me (that I'll probably use once - like the large barrel curling iron I got myself last Christmas). Some other stuff, I'm sure.

I love the antique shop, "The Three Sisters." There are always different things in there. I got Scott, the collector an antique umbrella stand with an old golf club, an umbrella and a cane in it. On the way out of there a coat rack called out to me, so I bought that too.

I'm almost done. Just have to get one more thing for one couple and Harry Potter 4 for Walker. Oh, also have to do the food shopping. Scott and I have a "date" to plan the menu for the event tomorrow. We're not having tons of people, but for us, the 14 that we do have feels like a lot, since it's usually just the 3 of us.

I'm very excited to be able to bring Walker to his dance company class today. I finally have a Wednesday off from Andover while he does have class. I can't wait to see their dance. Right after that we've got his Christmas Karate party at the dojo. His friend, Tommy, is coming to that too. We won't be able to come home until after we get to Hannaford to pick up some baby carrots for the preschool Christmas party tomorrow morning. Whew!

Holiday Countdown

2006-12-05T13:31:00.000-05:00

We went back to Sears this morning to pick up the Christmas
cards we had done a couple of weeks ago. The mall was surprisingly UNcrowded. We got to visit with Santa. When asked what he wanted for Christmas, Walker said, "A Christmas Tree." Poor kid, doesn't even have a tree - yet. Sheesh, we're getting one this weekend. Walker looks like a little, biker boy in this shot.

This evening after Scott left for work and Walker went to sleep, I started to hear the "chirping" of one of our smoke detectors. They do that when one of the batteries is dying. So I went and got out a 9 volt battery, which we keep on hand just for this reason because you know they will always start chirping away in the middle of the night. I kept hearing it but I couldn't figure out which one it was. I went and stood under each one and waited for the noise again. Each time I heard it I was under the wrong one. It was getting frustrating. Finally, after visiting each one a second time the phone rang. By the time I got off the phone with my friend Ann Marie, the chirping had stopped altogether. It happened last night as well, and then stopped just as abruptly. How odd. Perhaps it's not the smoke detectors at all? Maybe it's a lone cricket. But that can't be right. One little chirp at a time? Who knows. Maybe I should replace ALL the batteries. But then again, why do that and waste the ones that don't need changing. Such are my mysteries.

My cold was brief. It felt like it was coming on strong last Saturday, but after the 1st day of sore throat and stuffiness it went away. Good.

I'll feel so free after Saturday night. Once these shows are over it'll all be easy. The Christmas show will be fun, of course, but I'll be in holiday mode the minute they are over. I'm going to come home and drink a Corona (or several). All these rehearsals/shows have really put a damper on partying!

One Show Down...

2006-12-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

Saturday's show at Northern Essex went smoothly. Walker was great, he was tired and bored, but did what he needed to do when he needed to do it. My little professional man. Someone asked me if I was going to buy the DVD of the show. I said I wasn't, but she made me feel guilty saying I should because Walker was in it. I've got lots of his show DVDs and I've only watched them once. Maybe one day I'll regret not buying it. Anyway, that wonderful woman actually got a copy for me, so I do have it. I can't help it if I'm cheap, especially this time of year.

We're just very tired from this long, late weekend. Sunday was spent in rehearsal for next weekend's Christmas show. As most rehearsal related events, it was a lot of hurry up and wait. Walker was super over tired from the night before, but we made it through. Luckily, Scott took today (Monday) off, because we slept very late and Scott was able to take Walker to school so I wouldn't be late for work at the "Y."

I started out so strong on my Christmas shopping. Now I'm just ready to stay OUT of the stores. I'm not in the spirit of the season yet. Can't even think about wrapping things. We don't have a lot of Christmas cards yet. We haven't sent ours out yet, either. I have to make the trip back to the mall/Sears to pick up the finished product then write out the labels, etc. We only ordered 30 picture cards, so if you get one you'll know you were in the top 30 people on our list! I actually cut a lot of folks out this year. Anyone (except old college roommates) that I haven't spoken to in 10 years is off the list. So are distant in-law related relatives that I don't know. I ruthlessly edited the card list. Maybe I'll only have to send 30 cards anyway.

Time to get out to Karate.

December Spring...

2006-12-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays! Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas. At least at our house. We've got all the decorations and lights up - except a real tree. We'll get that in a couple weeks.

Walker did a great job at rehearsal for my Northern Essex student dance showcase piece. I asked him if he liked my dance and he said it was too long. Then I guess I got the point of the piece across. We'll be performing on Saturday night at 7:30PM. Then I'll be done with that class, except for the viewing of the recorded show, which may be more painful than the show itself!

As I write, the rain is pouring down after slamming into the window. Could rain break my window? We're expecting sever thunder storms. It was 69 degrees yesterday. It's too hot for winter coats. I'm not complaining, of course. I'm always glad to save on heating costs. Still, I am looking forward to some snow. Walker wants to wear his new boots.

I hate going to the Cumberland Farms store/gas station in Plaistow, NH. It's convenient; that's the only reason I keep going there. I thought Cumbie's was supposed to be a wholesome, happy place. Every time I'm in there the cashiers are grumbling to each other about how terrible it is to work there. They also seem to treat the customers like we are troubling them, taking them from what they are doing (grumbling) and disturbing them. I'll have to plan to NOT go there anymore. I did read in Good Housekeeping that you could find out who to write to/who owns what businesses on Hoover.com. I haven't tried it yet, though.

Walker is going to be in yet another show, this one for his preschool, on December 14. I'm taking the morning off from work to go to his rehearsal (can't handle the thought of him driving with a "chaperone" I don't know). I'll have to have the video recorder ready to go. It'll be the first time he performs that I'm not directly related to the project. His teachers say he handles stage direction very well. That's my boy!

The more I go to Starbucks, the more I like it there. I used to be opposed to the high priced coffee, but it's not any higher than Dunkins and it's a lot better. Or maybe I should say it's just a lot different. I keep going there and I don't even have to pay. My students keep giving me gift cards in large monetary amounts (for which I'm very, very grateful!). So, I'm an addict of Starbucks now. Oh, er, I mean a fan. I love coffee.

Ebay Harrassment

2006-11-03T14:59:00.000-05:00

I've been getting messages from a supposedly upset Ebay customer. This customer uses inappropriate language and accuses me of not sending him/her an item that he/she has paid me for. The thing is, I have NEVER even signed on to Ebay. I'm thinking this is an attempt to get me to sign up to it as whenever I try to respond to this message (3rd time I've received it) I can not reply unless I sign in or up to Ebay. I don't want to do this. But it's stupid and irratating. It's not a big problem in the grand scheme of things, of course, but a little irritation each and every time I sign on to my private email account. I keep a separate email on yahoo for all the crap emails and junk, but this Ebay is coming to my private one and it's making me angry. I know, if I have nothing else to be angry about things must be pretty good. They are, but still, I'd like a day without having to see this angry email directed at me which shouldn't be directed at me. Anyway...

I waited in line in the the McDonald's drive-through this morning for 10 minutes. That's a bit extreme. I'd just told myself if we didn't move an inch before 8:25 I'd just leave (this was after placing my order). By the time I got the order I felt I really aggravated. I don't leave enough time for that sort of delay. I was running late this morning anyway, hadn't had time to eat at home, thus the need to stop for a quick coffee and food. I ordered what used to be my favorite breakfast there (until today), a McGriddle sandwhich. I ordered it with no egg, just sausage and cheese. I got it (after 10 minutes! I know I've already mentioned this) and it had egg on it. OK, easy enough to remove. I hope I didn't pay for the egg I threw away. But the sausage looked undercooked and unappealing. I threw that away too, leaving just the yellow cheese and the muffin part. It wasn't very good at all. I was sickened. Ugh. How disappointing when I'd been looking forward to my junk food "fix."

The good news of today...

After my classes at Andover I left the studio to walk around the corner to Starbucks (I still have gift certificates from students to go there). I passed the Andover Thrift Shop, same as always. I've never been in there before today. Something made me stop and go back. I entered the shop, thinking about how trendy and hip it has become to shop for "vintage" clothing/items. Can I just say, that place is now my favorite store! I found about 10 coats I wanted to buy. The one I actually bought is a beautiful, classic, long, camel hair Lord & Taylor coat. I've seen similar ones in Bazaar and Vogue that are at least $1,000. The price tag said $15!!! I asked at the register if this was really the price and the ladies thought I was complaining that this was too much. I laughed and said, no, I would even give them $20 for that coat. It's been years since I've bought myself a new coat. My winter coats are actually all hand-me-downs from my mom. The are all great, of course, but this is another great one. I even got some clothes for Walker at $.50 each. Wow. I love that place! I've got to go back next week and see what they have for Scott. To think I've been walking right past that store for 2 years!

We've got a play date at the Burger King playplace in an hour. Should be fun. Hopefully, it'll be cleaner and better than last time we were there.

So Little Time...

2006-10-29T21:05:00.000-05:00

There are only 8 weeks until Christmas. Only one more big paycheck (being paid monthly does have it's drawbacks). I bought a few fun games for Walker this past week. I'm excited for Christmas - new games for us all!

The wind is whipping about madly. Lots of towns in the area lost power hours ago. I hope we don't. I'd better get a flashlight ready just in case. Either that or go to sleep, then I won't need one.

Walker has his "holiday harvest" party tomorrow. They aren't doing a typical Halloween party. I guess that's respectful of everyone's religion and all, but for the kids celebrating Halloween it's a drag. They want to wear their costumes now - again and again. We did get to go to a fun Halloween event yesterday at a local elementary school. It was really fun for him. For us adults too. So anyway, for the party tomorrow I was requested to make orange jello. We did jello jigglers. They are much more fun than just a bowl full of jello. Oh, they are supposed to wear their pjs to the school for the party, so that's like a costume. The kids are all excited about it. Walker went to bed in his Spiderman pj's and is excited that he'll wake up and be ready for school and not even have to get dressed.

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of work for the one college class I'm taking. It's now a lot of reading, a lot of writing and making up pieces of dances as well as a full length piece that is a duet (with Walker) and a full length piece with a group of women in the class. I'm not really falling behind, but I'm not really getting a lot of out if. I'm just playing the "game" and doing the work as quickly as possible to get it out of the way. I've got other stuff to do.

This morning was nice. We skipped church/Sunday school. We did not have soccer today (the last game is next week). We also skipped the "family and mall" scene rehearsal for the Christmas show. I was going to skip the 3:15 rehearsal, but then realized I'm the one who has the music and I have to be there. It'b be bad if I wasn't there and they had no music. So we were there for that one and the one at 4:30. But it was nice to hang out at home all morning. After next week soccer will be over, so everything won't be so rushed every Sunday. I enjoy being part of the Christmas show, but it's taking all afternoon every Sunday and we're getting worn out. I've even cut my groups rehearsal from 1 hour to 45 minutes. They are doing really well and are ready to perform next weekend, though the show isn't until December 9. Tickets go on sale next weekend! The countdown to free Sundays begins!

Signing off now before the wind clears this rambling...

Halloween Prep

2006-10-18T21:54:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of Walker and Lilly. It was the first day we got to our camp site. Our first meal. They were so excited to finally be CAMPING! They kept saying, "We're camping, we're camping." We finally gave them some lunch after we'd set up all the tents and tarps. They had a great time cooking over the open flame. Walker even ate the hot dog after cooking it.

The air definitely has that fall feel to it. The leaves are turning from bright colors to dull brown. Houses have smoke coming from their chimneys. All the evidence I need to say that summer really is gone. How sad. Already I miss going barefoot outdoors. On the other hand, there are only 9 1/2 weeks until Christmas!

Every Wednesday after I teach at the YMCA I get my check, cash it and go do some shopping. Walker is going to have a fun Christmas. I've already made a pretty good start on a pile of gifts for him. I've been going to different stores each week. Today it was just Rite-Aid (since it was where I was and fit the schedule!). I picked up some art supplies and bath toys like tub crayons and paints. They also have a pretty decent toy isle there and I picked up an inexpensive game of checkers. Last weeks trip to Big Lots was a lot of fun. I got a lot of interesting new games - we're a big game playing family.

I can feel Christmas in the air. OK, maybe it's partly that we're teaching choreography at the Andover School of Ballet for the Thanksgiving weekend Christmas parade. Each class has a different Nutcracker song to dance (part of) in the parade. Or is it that I spend every Sunday in Christmas show rehearsals at Steppin' Out. It's fun and makes the holiday season last a bit longer.

We're getting ready for trick-or-treat. Walker LOVES that. He doesn't remember a lot about being three, but he really does remember last year's trick-or-treating experiences. This year he will be Darth Vadar. Hmm, how does he carry a candy bucket and a light saber. At least the saber can double as a flash light/reflective device.

We've got our homemade mini ghosts hanging on our cherry trees. Pumpkin lights out front that we light once in a while then usually keep lit for another 4 days!

I like October. I've been telling my classes it's October and I'm allowed to be a real "witch." Yeah, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I thought I lost a CD that I borrowed from the library. I burned myself a copy before "loosing" it. I thought about just giving them back the burnt copy, but then thought they would just think I had the original. I looked everywhere and decided that I just lost it at one of the studios. Darn it. How irresponsible of me. But I was fixing my error. Yesterday I ordered a new Blue Man/Complex CD from BMG music. And you know what happened? Of course, today I found the library copy. I just KNEW that would happen. That's partly why I ordered it, so I would finally find it and end my internal struggle about loosing a library item. I'm actually surprised we haven't lost anything before this. We borrow at least 10 books and 4 videos a week as well as music CDs and audio books. I love the library. So does Walker. They are having kids do mini book reviews. They get to hang them up and also get a prize for doing it. I'm sure that's Walker's movitation. It is quite funny to hear his review (and write it down for the public). He'll rate a book a "6" and when I ask why he'll say that he liked it and that it's a "medium."

I finally saw "Mona Lisa Smile" last night. It made me think of my mom, who was a Pembroke girl at the same time this was supposed to have taken place. I don't see too many chick flicks, unless I borrow from the library. Then I have to make a point to go downstairs and watch after Walker is asleep. It's easier, and usually more interesting for me, to just read a book.

We have to come up with "themes" for our choreography pieces for my dance comp class. I thought I was going to do something about my sister and I coming of age. But I think I'm changing it to something about motherhood and a growing child. I may have a couple of kids to use as more grown up "Walkers" and do some sort of growing up sequence. We're supposed to do the choreography without any music, not even think about music. That's really out of the box for me. Should be interesting. We had a group project where we had to come up with short phrases. We never knew these were going to turn into pieces that we had to use in the show as well. The prof. saw my groups and said it looked to her like some sort of third world group of women in all their pain and suffering, supporting each other and giving each other hope. Yeah, sure, just what we were going for. Glad she liked it anyway.

Autumn Friday

2006-10-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

This is a picture from August. We visited Portsmouth, NH, a seacoast city. Walker loved running along the docks. In the background is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The weather is beautiful here. It really is. I'm also in a good mood because I've started Christmas shopping. I'm trying to NOT charge anything this year. We'll see.

A lot of peope must be taking advantage of the great weather. I had a low attendance in my 3-year old dance class this morning. Either that or everyone now has the croup which has been going around. Walker had it last week. It sounds much worse that it is.

I do not like the Shaws supermarkets. They are overpriced. Even with my "discount" card, they are still more than Hannaford, where I usually shop. I just stopped by Shaws because it was convenient for me today. Unfortunately, it was a bad experience. Except for the backed salmon with curry sauce that a very pleasant gentleman was preparing at the seafood counter and giving out samples. The cart I used pulled very hard to the right. It didn't do that until I'd started loading groceries into it. Then what would I do, leave the store and change carts? I didn't, but did get more and more aggravated as I went. I kept smiling, though, as I always do at the market. It's a sort of game Walker and I play (even though he wasn't with me today). We try to smile because we've noticed that most people in grocery stores are not smiling. I don't know why? We like to shop and are (usually) happy with it. They now have TV screens at the registers so you can watch while you wait. I'd prefer NOT to watch TV and get checked out quickly. They only had 2 lines open and they were very long lines. They should just pay someone their mimimun wage to check people out, rather than upgrade all the isles with TVs and keep people waiting. I can watch TV at home. Don't need to at Shaws!

But like I said. I am still in a good mood. Even though I am still getting bills for ear tube removal surgery that Walker had in March. For some reason the insurance doesn't want to pay for it. Unfortunately for them they did pay for the anesthesia for this procedure. So why not the procedure!? I hate "issues" like this and tend to just put the envelope aside and hope it all goes away. It is on my list of things to do, though, so that it is purged from my mind completely.

Happy day to you!

Columbus day

2006-10-10T21:57:00.000-04:00

It was great to have some time off yesterday. Most of our activities were cancelled due to the holiday. But it did make us realize that we really LIKE our busy schedule. Just hanging around gets annoying after a while. I mean, really, how many games of "Old Maid" or "Crazy Eights" can we play? Luckily, the weather has been beautiful, so we get outside and use the trampoline or swingset or take a walk in the woods.

I wish there were more holidays coming sooner than Veterans day. But I suppose I shouldn't wish it away too quickly. Christmas shopping time is upon us and will be in full fury soon. I can't believe Wal*Mart already has all the holiday things out. We have just decorated for Halloween, never mind Thanksgiving or Christmas.

We did leaf "rubbings" yesterday. It was truly a step back in time to me. We used to do it every year with my mom. Now we've got apple prints to try. Oh, yes, there is also carving the pumpkin for some real excitement with a knife!

We had a fire in our chimnea Saturday night. It's actually an old wood stove my sister gave us, with a pretty, glass door/window to it, that we now have on the patio in the above picture. It was very chilly outside, but beautiful and clear, so Scott came up with the idea to burn some stuff and heat the patio area at the same time so we could enjoy being outdoors. We've moving up from yard bonfires!

Here's an irritating thing that happened this afternoon. I went to buy gas and snacks before going to the studio. You know the high prices of gas; it's not like I'm going to get anything for only $10. So I had the only money I had at the time with me - a crisp $100 bill. Walker and I went into the local Mobil station (possibly my 1st mistake), shopped around and picked up a bunch of drinks and snacks (to keep him busy and quiet with me at the studio). We waited forever in line and I ordered my gas - $40 (you have to "prepay" here now). With all the other stuff we were buying our total was going to be over $50 so I didn't think paying with a $100 would be a problem. After all, it's really only 5 $20's! I was refused service if I didn't have anything smaller. Yeah, I could have paid with a credit card or debit card, but I wanted to pay with cash. What the hay? Can't you use cash anywhere anymore? The guy would only have had to give us back $50. Anyway, we walked out with all our stuff on the counter. I will NEVER go there again, even though it is convenient. Even Walker was upset about it, of course, because we didn't have any fun snacks. He kept telling our story to everyone at the studio. Good boy - so I didn't have to be the one to actually start the whining, but I could chime in, whining, with his story. After our classes we actually did get to buy gas - at the local Shell station where we should have just gone in the 1st place - they have a Dunkin Donuts there! So anyway, that is my biggest aggravation of the day. The inconvenience of that "convenient" store!

It's the Little Things...

2006-10-04T13:19:00.000-04:00

So far it has been one of those days where all the little things were good. For example, I went for my Dunkin Donuts coffee expecting to pay $2.00. When the server said $.53 I thought she was wrong. Nope, customer appreciation day in my favor. I'm so happy about it I may stop there AGAIN on my way to the next job!

I did a little more Christmas shopping this morning. There was a huge toy clearance area at Wal*Mart. I got 5 really good things for only $27. Not just junk, but actual things that are already on the list of things to write to Santa about.

My classes at the YMCA this morning were good. The kids are so well behaved and a joy to have in class. All of them!

The monarch butterflies are starting their southern migration. They seem to have a path directly above our house. We keep pretending they are the ones we "hatched." All four of ours Walker named Steve (I don't know why). Every time we see a butterfly we have to say hello to Steve.

I do not like that new shampoo and conditioner called "Sun Silk." It makes my hair feel yucky, not good, soft and silky. I'll be going back to Pantene as soon as I'm through with the SS (yeah, I'll actually use it all up even though I don't like it - I'm cheap). My sister also recommends the Dove line. I did try that and it was good too.

We went for a hike at the state park yesterday. There is a lean-to there that we renamed the "Shrieking Shack" after the one in Harry Potter and the Prisoner from Azkaban. Walker liked blazing new trails through the woods. We do have woods near our home, but are not comfortable walking there as there are hunters out now.

Anyway, back to life.

Another Day, Another Tantrum

2006-10-02T21:19:00.000-04:00

Here I am staring a blog. Hmm, not a great time to start. It's been a very long day. Before becoming a mom, I never realized children were still into the whole "tantrum thing" long after the toddler days were over. My preschooler is 4 and has very big opinions on everything and his mother's temper to go with it. We are so much alike it's scary. Also very interesting to see how my personality and Scott's have morphed together to create this little guy.

Anyway, this morning's issue was itchy tags on the pj's. He wanted them cut off immediately. He'd been wearing them all night with no issues, but it became terribly important for those tags to be gone right NOW. Unfortunately, I do not have scissor hands, or even keep a pair upstairs in any bedroom. That was all it took for a huge meltdown. So, of course I can't have a tantrum and let him get away with it (maybe I should, but anyway), I always say, "Nothing good will happen, blah, blah, blah." No TV with breakfast with that behavior, no sir! Of course that made it worse and one thing led to another and off we go an hour later to preschool all grumpy.

But, you gotta love the resiliency of kids. Luckily, he was in a great mood when I picked him up after Pre-K.

While he was at school, I was off to my own class. A choreography class where we are working hard to learn how to "free your neck."

I feel like the mom in that Dunkin Donuts commercial where she's driving all the kids to all their activities. That's what I do every day and I only have 1 child. Soccer, karate, dance, speech, school, library. No wonder we need our coffee!

I'm trying to use my pedometer a lot, make sure I get enough milage in. Today I only went 3.5 miles and didn't even try to run the rest up before bed. Too tired. Hopefully, I'll have something more interesting to report the next time.