25 Things

Did this on FB this week, so I thought I would be lazy and share on here too.

1. I started a blog last year and I love it. (www.ascapecodturns.blogsp

ot.com)
2. I have made many new friends on my blog whom I have never seen in person.
3. I love stationary stores. Something about all the paper, pens, stickers, books...
4. I take some pretty decent photos and at times have sold them.
5. My family is the most important thing to me in the world.
6. My friends are a close second.
7. M&Ms and chocolate chip ice cream would probably tie for 3rd.
8. Winter is not as fun when you can't ski everyday like you (I) used to.
9. I do like sledding with my girls though.
10. I would love to meet Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty.
11. When I was younger, I was in love with Eric from the Bay City Rollers.
12. I have one friend from first grade. (Yes, she used to love the Bay City Rollers, too.)
13. I have been in 6 weddings.
14. I have been to France twice.
15. I do not drink caffeine, nope not even coffee.
16. I love the beach any time of the year.
17. Ogunquit Beach (Maine) is the best beach in the country. Since I live on Cape Cod, I can't shout that from the rooftops.
18. I never had braces, but kind of wish I had.
19. I hope I can get at least one book published in my life time.
20. I love the 4th of July!
21. I want my kids to do things that they love, be happy and compassionate.
22. For pets I have a bunch of fish, a labradoodle, 7 horses and a goat named Millie.
23. I am allergic to all things furry amongst a host of other things which makes #22 ridiculous.
24. My house may not be neat, but my closets are.
25. I can't imagine living somewhere where I couldn't see the ocean whenever I wanted.

Oh and an update on Gretel... She is feeling better on her antibiotics. She does not have any major disease, just fighting some sort of infection. Thanks for all your good wishes!!!

Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,

I love the bit you did in the Year Without a Santa Claus. You certainly have a firm hand with those 2 boys of yours, Heatmizer and Snowmizer.

Anyway, what I wanted to talk to you about was today's weather on Cape Cod. You teased us with 5 perfectly snowman making inches of snow this morning after the kids got to school. Then you allowed it to rain. When I say rain, I mean RAIN.  There were about 2 inches of snow left by the time the girls got home from school. Not sledding material anymore because it was still RAINING. I went to a meeting tonight and on my way home noticed that the temp outside was 51 degrees. That is spring weather in Florida. I would have cherished the surprise warmth if not for the RAIN  that accompanied it. 

I took Gretel out for a pee a 1/2 hour ago and noticed there was no snow left AT ALL. And it is still RAINING and now we have about 35 mph winds blowing too. What did us Cape Codders do to piss you off so much today? Are  you exercising your power? Are you metapausal? Did your significant other tick you off? Was it those sons of yours arguing again?

What if I made you some brownies and we could get on with either spring or more winter. Please, I beg of you, no more of this teasing. I cannot stand the stress or the tears from 'where has the snow gone' questions. 

I am sure your choice in the matter will be obvious in the next few days. 

Sincerely "May stay in bed until May" Sue

The Vet

Gretel has not been feeling well the past few days. No real diagnosis from me the "not such a pet expert", but just knew she was not herself. She was tired, wasn't following me around the house, not getting up every time a door opened, basically just not herself. I tried to get a vet appt during the day, but couldn't get one until 6:30 tonight. K, B, Gretel and I drove the 20 minutes to the vet and herein is the scenario that followed...

We arrive at the vet, Gretel sniffs the entire yard, pees and I bring her in (where she sniffs the entire room). K brings her book and questions, B brings long division which she just learned and wasn't getting. G is trying to sniff everything while I stand on her leash and help B with division. 

me, "How many times does 3 go into 6?"

B, "18"

me, "Aurgh! That's 3x6!"

We get called into the office room. I kid you not, it was like a regular Dr's office where you sit in the examining room for 15 minutes. G sniffed, I picked things off of her, B struggled with div/mult, and K was reading a poster on dog  gingivitis. Then K checked G's teeth and decided she was almost stage 4. I told her to look at her own gums and compare. Then she proceeded to have a hot flash and took off 3 of her 4 layers. Can you have a hot flash when you are 11?

The Dr came in with no bedside manner whatsoever! She didn't even comment on how cute and clean G was. (Yeah, she was clean because she rolled in horse shit this afternoon and I had to give her a bath). She asked me what was up with her and I told her it was a feeling that I had that things weren't right. She basically rolled her eyes and asked me to help her put G on the table. Unfortunately K and B were at G's tail end . The "kind" Dr. stuck the thermom. right up G's ass right in front of the girls. They even studied the gingivitis poster just to avoid that scene. Then the Dr. said a bunch of words that resulted in drawing some blood. The words included Lyme Disease, Addison disease, poodles, blahblahblah....

She took G in the back room and we went back to the waiting room. K and B weighed themselves on the "dog scale". They took off at least 5 pounds for clothes. How do they learn that at such a young age? We don't even own a scale. G came out quite happy and finally noticed the cat in a basket on the counter. She growled at it and then ignored it and went back to sniffing. I told K to put on her 3 layers even though her face was still bright red. We finished B's division with the knowledge that she needs to practice her multiplication facts. The Dr. comes out and rattles off "antibiotics, plain wet dogfood, lyme test not positive for lyme, but other tick borne illness, platelets, maybe another disease, won't know for a few days, keep her away from horses and quiet for a few days." WTF. 

That bedside manor was received to the tune of $210. Poor little doggie.  Poor little wallet. Then I proceeded to have the hugest allergy attack on the way home which resulted in allergy medication and inhaler, a shower and a large glass of wine. Yeah, so it's not a proven fact that wine helps furry allergy attacks, but it sure helped take the edge off the evening. Now I have to go look up random words on google and find some multiplication flash cards. 

Nada

I cannot think of anything to write about tonight. It is cold outside, DH is fishing, hopefully he is not icefishing 100 miles off shore. B was home sick today. I think Gretel is sick too. How do you know if your dog is sick? She is either under the weather or has seasonal depression disorder. She's doing all the regular eating, drinking, peeing thing, but something is just not right. Hmm.

Yesterday the girls made a car out of our 2 office rolling chairs and attached a baby stroller to the back. I think it wound up being an SUV. It was complete with seatbelts(scarves) and cup holders. They informed me that they were coming through the drive through to get their lunch. They placed their order, and proceeded to window number 1 where I collected their "credit cards" and told them to proceed to window 2. There I gave them their wrapped grilled cheese, apple slices, chips, soda and lemonade. They ate in their "car" at the kitchen table. These are the times that my heart grows 15 times. I just love that they play together and enjoy each other and are so creative! They are certainly not perfect, but times like these, they come pretty close!

Have you ever put Wallies on your walls? They are like little wallpaper cut outs. Well they go on really easily, but don't come off very easily. I now have stubs for thumb nails. 

If your daughter wears an extra small at Aeropostale you can get really cute tshirts there today for $1.99. 

Have you ever played the game Catch Phrase? It is a riot! We played it this weekend with some friends and were in hysterics. This game has caused me to wet my pants more than once.

I've emptied my head, I think I can go to bed now.

35 Degrees and Sunny!

You know it is winter when a sunny, 35 degree day feels warm enough to go walk on the beach. My sister and I took Gretel and Bruce to exert some energy. Half the ocean was frozen, but they managed to find the part that wasn't. They seemed to be enjoying the 32 degree water, but I couldn't convince Karen that we should try it.

Needless to say, we have 2 tired doggies tonight!

The Gym

I worked out with my parents today.

Yeah, let me give you the full picture. 

My Dad has always been a runner or walker, skier, does exercises every morning type of guy. My mom on the other hand has avoided exercise like it might give her the plague her entire life. Well, ok, there was a time that she skied when she and my Dad were dating, but I think that was just to hook my Dad. Then there was the time she played basketball for a day and sprained her finger and that was that. 

So, my little town has a community center and it has a cute little work out room in it. It is less than the cost of a pair of Uggs to join for the year. They joined yesterday and then said Happy early Birthday, we got you a membership too. 

We all went today, together, at the same time, in our Olivia Newton John headbands and thongs and got "Physical".
                                                                                                   What's with the fat guys in the picture?

I am allowed a little exaggeration, this is my story. They both hopped (that's a bit of a stretch) on the treadmills, so that left me with the eliptical. I have always been afraid of elipticals, but decided I had nothing to lose since we were the only ones in the gym. After the first 2 minutes of going backwards, I figured out how to go forward and actually didn't mind it. 

Then my Mom asks me if I want her to show me the machines and how to work them. OK, very cute, but I am a gym rat from way back when people lifted rocks and stones instead of sitting on a sweet machine. So as I was reintroducing myself to these muscle burners, a man walks in and announces that he is new. Well you would think my parents had been at the gym for a year the way they jumped in to help the man. My mom was attached to some tortorous device, but insisted on giving the man directions on how to turn the "new person DVD" on from across the room. My Dad got the guy a chair so he could sit and watch and learn how to "work the room". 

All and all a very fun time at the "gym". Hours later, my thighs are feeling a twinge of "hey, you did something to me today". We left the gym together and my Dad said that we ought to go 5 days a week and the look on my Mom's face was priceless.

 Too bad I didn't have my camera.

Yes. We. Can.

Today was an amazing day in history. 

I didn't need to be in the crowds on The Mall to appreciate what was happening today.

I actually enjoyed being at my parents house all warm and toasty watching on a big screen.

Maybe one of the things I liked most was that Obama has a team attitude. We, as a country, got into this mess together and we, as a country, will get out of this mess. He offered up one of the most important words in the english language....hope.

On a lighter front, we can talk about Aretha Franklin's chapeau. The girls luckily got to watch the inaug. at school. B's comment to her teacher was "Who is that singer? I don't think she is on Itunes". She's the Queen of soul for Pete,s sake!

I loved the color pop of Michelle's outfit. Laura Bush's was a little bland, but I suppose she didn't want to out do Michelle. How cute was it that Michelle brought Laura a little gift?! 

And those 2 little girls. So damn cute! I keep thinking of the Disney show, Corey in the House. I suppose if you have never seen it, you will have no idea what I am talking about.....And the "kids" show last night was so great! My girls were thrilled that I let them watch the whole thing and stay up later than usual. Yeah, we'll be paying for that by Friday. The only singer we actually didn't understand was Bow Wow. What was up with his songs? You could say I am old that is why I didn't understand, but the girls didn't either. Phew. 

I am sure I will watch all the recapping tonight and think of more things to say. 

An African American as President. 

Awesome!

Ugg

My girls want Uggs. They would probably sell the dog to get themselves each a pair. I cannot buy them for them due to financial reasons, but would I if I didn't have to worry about money? I have never worn a pair of Uggs, so I am not sure if there is some mystical feeling your feet get when wearing them, but crap they are expensive! 3 years ago, I found K a pair of purple Uggs at Marshals in her size for $50. I snapped these up and she loved them and wore them to death. It was before the Ugg craze, so she was fairly unique in owning them. Now, however, EVERYONE (that from my girls) has them. Of course there are fake Uggs out there that look the same, but are missing that little Ugg tag on the back. My girls have fake Uggs from Target. Oh the horrors! I have offered to put a little tag on the back for them, but they have adimantly denied the offer.

B slept over her BFF's house last night. Her BFF let her wear her Uggs around a bit. She loved them and these are B's words,
"my feet feel betrayed without Uggs".

Kids know how to go for the jugular. Still can't get them for them, but I am hoping summer comes quickly so they will be back into flip flops. I just hope Uggs don't start pushing their furry flip flops for summer.

Random-ness

Here are some random thoughts that spin around in my head as much as my washing machine spins around (a lot!)...

It's butt cold out, but not too bad without wind. DH is going out fishing tonight and I don't envy him one bit. His is a sucky job in the middle of winter. The next time you have fish, think of what it takes to get to your oven.

It's a 3 day weekend and I am so happy that the girls have time to play. That's right, PLAY. Not with ipods, cellphones, video games, but with their dollhouses and each other. Shhh, they don't tell their friends that they play dollhouse or barbies because it is not cool. Isn't that sad?

I have had one big headache all week from stress and lack of sleep. I am hopeful that the economy is going to turn around with President Obama.

I am on Facebook, but was not sure I was going to like it in the beginning. I dabbled, found a few friends from college and HS that I had lost touch with over the years, but decidedly liked my blogging better. Then I got the hang of the searching for people thing and started looking up summer friends of mine from Ogunquit, ME where I spent every summer 3rd grade through college. Luckily I found my friend Joyce, who I am so so happy to be back in touch with after about 20 years! Someday, I will look for a picture of me and Joyce's brother who was one of my first boyfriends. Think late 1970's, navy blue short shorts with white piping, white tube socks with red stripes..... Groovy for sure.

Evidently, our PTO is planning a big "prom" the end of March for the parents. It has an 80's theme, I've heard complete with disco ball and balloon arch. Since there is no way in hell I am going to fit into my sweet 80's prom dress that I actually wore in the 80's, I may have to start hitting up Ebay. Maybe I can find the DH a nice matching tux?

A Snowy Day on Cape Cod

Yes, it was cold, but not as cold as Minnesota.

Yes, it was snowy, we got more than Boston.

And yes, it was really pretty.


See that ice? That's the ocean. I never knew it could freeze until I moved down here.

A friend of mine's boat tied up at the dock.

A 2 headed horse?

Nope, just 2 horses having some dinner.

B-isms

I have been cleaning out my "office" (that is a very loosely termed word) and found something I had written down that B said in May of 2005. She was 6 years old. I had asked her what her favorite numbers were....

2 (the number of the month she was born)

19 "because a lot of people guess that"

free "Daddy's favorite number"

cheap "Mommy's favorite number"

This kid is going to go far someday.

Alaska's Deadliest Catch

Some of you know that DH is a fisherman and some of you know that we love to watch the Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel(the one show we can actually agree on!). The new season does not start until April (which is killing me!), but I have a few suggestions for those die hard fans.

We both just read the Hillstrand brothers' book Time Bandit: 2 Brothers, the Bering Sea and one of the World's Deadliest Jobs . It was excellent and a quick read (like I read it in one day).

The other suggestion is a newish blog that I found today called Dutch Harbor Dirt. This is the main port of call for the crabbing boats. Carlisleboy is the hotel manager of the main (only?) hotel in Dutch Harbor. Even if you don't like crab boats, his pictures of Alaska in general are breath taking!

So that's it, my personal recommendations for all you Capt Phil, Jake and Josh, Sig and Edgar, Jonathan and Andy, Keith etc.. fans!

Rock Hard Abs

I do not have rock hard abs, but did at one point in my life as a ski racer. Now I am trying to get rid of a little belly shelf and treat my body a little better this year. I enlisted my girls to help me do situps and B decided that she could do them with me while K is our commander/bitch/boss. She has lots of different types of sit-ups for us to do and laughs at us while we do them. Well, ok, we all laugh because sit ups make me pee, something they cannot understand at all. (hmmm, could it have something to do with 8lb13oz and 9lb7oz babies?)

So yesterday I am walking around feeling very fine and fit after 2 days of sit ups. Complimenting myself, wondering why I didn't try this sooner, walking a little taller and thinking that my pants are feeling loose already.

Then I went to the bathroom and realized that my pants had been unbuttoned for a few hours.

Oh, yeah, the girls got a good laugh over that one!

Blog-aversary!

Hey, guess what today is? My 1 year blog-aversary!

How crazy is that? I don't know why I think it's crazy, but it just doesn't seem I have been pouring my heart out to the world for 1 whole year!

3 Great Things that have come from this blog:

1. My new little community of friends that I have made. I started out reading a ton of blogs and have narrowed myself down to the greatest little group. I think about you guys during the day and somehow you check in with me too. How great is that?!

2. My writing and spelling have improved greatly! And even more important, I like putting ideas, stories, STUFF, down on paper (ok, computer). It is such a positive outlet for me!

3. I am chronicling the little things my girls do, so I don't forget them a week after they've happened. I love that they get into the blog thing too and are often found saying, "you better get your camera, this is something for your blog".

Thank you to all my bloggy friends! I am looking forward to seeing where my blog can take me and am especially looking forward to my first blogher conference in July!
Bring it on!

Xmas 2008

Here is my Christmas letter that I wanted to share with you all in December, but that didn't happen. It is just too good not to share. Haha, why don't I just pat myself on the back. Here is the picture that I did not use, but could of, had I thought of taking it in June. Enjoy!

‘Living on the Elbow of Cape Cod’
To the tune of ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’

December’s here, can you hear me?
Grab a cookie and some hot tea.
Hear about the year,
Crazy will be clear,
Living on the elbow of Cape Cod.

Gone away is our money,
Two in braces, not so funny,
8 horses in our yard,
Mucking stalls not hard,
Living on the elbow of Cape Cod.

In November, we went to see the Mouse,
2 kids, 4 parks, 5 days, tired feet!
We said, “Exchange girl?”
Yes, in August.
Clarisse came from Marseilles
It sure was neat!

At the barn, you’ll find K......eeee,
Jumps and rides like a banshee.
So great at hip hop,
Soccer, loves to shop,
Living on the elbow of Cape Cod.

Our B is jumping rope on the school team,
Swimming at the Y and playing soccer,
Singing with the chorus, liking ice-cream,
Loving school and friends, she’s a talker.

Barn or boat, that’s where DH is,
Horses and fish, that’s his biz.
He learned how to jump,
Without going thump.
Living on the elbow of Cape Cod.

I was elected, to the school board,
Vice Pres. of the W.O.F.F. board,
Snapping photos at weddings, wishing you blessings,
Living on the elbow of Cape Cod!!!

Happy 2009!

HappyHanukkahMerryChristmasHappyNewYear!

Have you ever gone to a gym fairly consistently for a month or 2 and then not gone for a month? You know how hard it is to go back. Everybody staring at you wondering where you have been and if you can hold up to your rock star status with the weights. Well, that's at least what is going on in your head. That first step in the door is almost as painful as your muscles will feel after your work out.

Well, my last post was December 19th and I am feeling that same stress. How do I fit in 3 weeks of "stuff" into my posts that are usually rock star-esque? Ha Ha.

Before Christmas was just mayhem and then we switched houses for school vacation. Some of you may know that we have 2 houses in town and one we rent out during the summer months. Well the one we rent out is newer and bigger than the house we live in, so we "vacationed" there for school vacation. My whole family was able to stay with us, there is a great sledding hill in the back yard, there's a much larger tv, BUT no internet.

Oh the horror, right? No internet!

Everyday I seemed to have something to blog about, but didn't have a computer handy and heaven forbid I write something down. I also wondered about all my blog friends and what I was missing and how their holidays were!

However, during this lapse of blogging, I managed to up my "follower list" by 2. Does that mean people like it when I DON'T write?

Too bad, because baby I am back and ready to rock! I mean write!