Heading Down the Highway (or parking lot)

I swear I learned how to drive by mowing our acre of lawn. I had to steer, not hit rocks or trees and use a gas pedal. The only casualty I had was running over a snake. I did not even feel badly about it. Not too many people have riding mowers on Cape Cod unless they are of the wealthier land barons. If lawns are big enough, the people usually have a lawn service. Therefore, my girls are subject to learn how to drive a car the old fashion way.

K will be 16 soon (or if you are a police officer, she already is) and has gotten the bug to drive. Her Dad has taken her up and down the driveway in a huge truck, backwards. Interesting way to start. She drives the truck around the horse ring, too. I am pretty sure that they take the horses out of the ring first.

I took her over the weekend to teach her the beginning steps, adjust your mirror, the seat, turn off the radio so you can concentrate, put your phone in the trunk so you can concentrate, put a big sign on the car to announce that you are a new driver....

She did pretty well, actually. I gave her my whole spiel of being a defensive driver and always be prepared for anything. She rolled her eyes. I asked her to take a right and then a left and she missed the left. My voice may have gotten a little louder, but according to her, I was yelling at her. Now she just wants to drive with Daddy because he doesn't yell. I was just impressed that I didn't have both arms on the dashboard and a bottle of anti-anxiety meds in my lap.

Before she drove, we went to a town landing to take some photos of the icy ocean. (see yesterday's blog) She asked me if we were at a landing that is 4 miles away. When  we got to the big parking lot, she asked if this is around where so and so lived. "Um, no... so and so lives 2 miles that way."  This is more of my concern with her driving. Maybe her dad can handle the driving up and down the driveway and I will handle the teaching of the streets of Cape Cod, save my money and buy her a GPS. I still have a few months before I have to send her out solo. That's when I will need the bottle of anti-anxiety meds.

Didn't I just take this a few weeks ago?

Sundays In My City

It has been cold here this week. As a born and raised New Englander, I am OK with the cold.  What I love (and the fishermen don't like) is when the ocean freezes. It looks cool and before I moved to Cape Cod, I never new that saltwater could freeze. K and I went out and took some shots yesterday....

Stay warm!!

Dear Girls,

Dear Girls,

It has come to my attention that I have done you a disservice.

I do too much for you.

Even as you constantly remind me that you are not little kids anymore and I should let you do more things, go to the mall, walk downtown, etc...

However, it was glaringly obvious yesterday when it snowed that I have not taught you some major life skills. I do not ever recall either one of you picking up a shovel and shoveling snow. I know you know how to dig because you have dug plenty of holes on the beach in the summer. Shoveling is a similar technique, you just shouldn't wear your bathing suit while doing it.

I cleared the snow off the car while you 2 were inside getting dressed and eating breakfast. There was a thick layer of ice on the car, too, which I didn't bother scraping off. I figured I would let the car run 10 minutes before we left for school and it would melt. I, however, FORGOT to turn the car on early. You both left the house a minute before I did and when I got to the car, you 2 were sitting in it, presumably waiting for ME to scrape off the ice. You can hope to heck you have a garage when you get older or a spouse who treats you well, but in the meantime there will be many cold winter days where you will need to think ahead and put some of these skills to work.

I have gotten many an "oh man" or "you can't be serious" look from you both when I have asked you to put your dish INTO the dishwasher. I realize it is "one more step" and might put you in contact with something "icky", but if you don't do it, then it is many more steps for me.

Basically, you 2 have it pretty darn good. Somehow I have taught you how to make macaroni and cheese and baked goods. You can dress yourselves, put on your own makeup and do your own homework. These are all life skills that you have learned and will serve you well. Now, I have to add some new skills because one day, you will be living on your own or have a family of your own and you will need to be independent.

So, in the next few weeks, I will be asking you to do a few more things around the house. This, you will perceive, to be a phase that I am going through and if you just placate me for a few weeks, things will go back to normal, aka: mom doing everything. You will be annoyed when I say, "you cannot go out with your friends until you have vacuumed the living room", for example. I am willing to take the heat because I know that you will need these skills. You are not 5 anymore, even though that is how I see you sometimes. It's very hard for moms to let their kids grow up.

I love you to pieces and would like to do everything for you, forever, but this is not going to help you in the long run and will probably make me resentful and angry. We are a girl team and we can do this.
Now, what's for dinner? Macaroni and cheese and brownies? Great... get cookin'!

Ooodles of love,
Mommy

Oh, Second Grade...

I have a love/dislike relationship with Facebook. Yesterday, it was a love. A former classmate of mine, put this picture up on Facebook and started tagging people.

There is nothing like reading 70 comments from people, most of whom you haven't spoken with in 30 some-odd years.

Also, it is pretty amazing that I knew 19 of the 26 names of the kids, when I cannot remember what I did last weekend.

In the comments,

I found out that one of my friends had planned to wear her Winnie the Pooh smock shirt with another friend specifically for picture day.

That I must have been sort of trampy. I mean look at how short my jumper was. (There that gives you a hint of which one I am).

That I had a boyfriend.

That the girl not looking at the camera was looking at the clock. (Or practicing for a future mug shot, not sure.)

In my mind,

I know that there is a girl who I wish I could find on Facebook. She moved in maybe 5th grade, but we were close buddies for the years before that.

There was one kid who was the type to eat paste.

That there was another kid who was a little odd and I wonder if he is an engineer now. (No offense to engineers.)

I wonder about every one of these students and wonder how they are now.

I love stories about people's lives. I guess I am a bit like Oprah (haha, I just compared myself to Oprah), in the fact that everyone has a story and I WANT TO HEAR IT.  Oh, yeah, I have plenty of stories. Wait,

.....YOU want to hear them?

It's a Girl Thing

I spent parts of  2 days last week doing something good for myself.

And no, it did not include manicures, facials, chocolate or wine.

I had my annual GYN appt. and a mammogram. (If you are a guy and are blushing, feel free to come back tomorrow.) You have to take care of the inside as much as you take care of the outside.

This being said, I spent some time in the past 2 days, wearing  beautiful pink johnnies. I swear I tried to take a picture of myself in one, but my iPhone camera wasn't working. I took my iPhone straight to the iPhone God at Verizon, where he fiddled with it and fixed it. See...

Adrian is the best of the best when it comes to figuring out phones.

Anyway, back to my johnny....
I am curious to know if there is a certain way to sit comfortably and modestly in a johnny.

One can adopt the Cosmo pose of laying down on the table on your side and welcoming you Dr. with a wink and a smile.

There is the Good Posture award pose, where you would be sitting up straight, legs dangling, but this  usually only lasts for about 3 minutes until your back starts hurting from actually sitting up straight.

One can always try the slouch, but try holding in your stomach while you are slouching. Not a good look.

Crossing your legs is really awkward in a johnny.

Once you figure out how to sit, then you have to figure out what to do. Counting freckles, wondering how much Purel a Dr's office goes through a day, reading all the flyers on the wall even if they have nothing to do with you (where to get a flu shot, how to figure out your time of ovulation, newborn class), trying to listen to the Dr. talk to the patient in the next room(they should really supply glass cups to make this easier), or do you pull out your phone.

If you pull out your phone, where do you put it when the Dr. comes in? Awkward. I think my new invention will be fancy johnies with pockets for phones.....or snacks.

I should have them out by the year 2113....

Sundays In My City

Spent a little time reading in the beach parking lot today. The sun was so warm (in my car). Couldn't resist snapping a few pictures with my phone....

Happy Sunday.

2012 Christmas Card

Hope your holidays were happy and your New Year jolly!! Here's a glance at our Christmas card and "letter".

* 2012 has been an interesting year,

We laughed, celebrated, shed a tear.

We were blessed with a new family member,

One nice day in late December.

*Paty is from Chile and spent the year stateside,

For 6 months with us she did abide.

She fit right in to our crazy fam

To learn lots of english, she did cram.

*We showed her as much as we could,

Boston, NYC, Maine, but not the hood.

She loved it all and was more than a guest, 

One day going to Chile will be our quest. 

*K is now a sophomore in high school, 

She played soccer this fall, which was cool. 

She is still singing and improving every day,

She worked with her dad this summer on the bay.

*Long Lake Camp for the Arts was a dream come true,

3 weeks of singing, acting, new friends and circus, too!

She’s accepting donations to go back next August,

To sing and hang with her friends is a must!

*B is ruling the school in the 8th grade,

Swimming is her sport of choice, but soccer, too, she played.

Her swim times are dropping every meet,

She’s made some money baby-sitting: totally sweet!

*She won a scholarship to go to ASLP,

3 weeks at Nerd Camp filled her with glee.

She learned improv and built a robot,

Swam in a survival suit and hung with friends a lot.

*New this year, I am back to teaching, 

I still was able to spend the summer beaching.

Photography is still my number 1 hobby,

Coming a close second is sitting in the pool lobby. 

*Our dear friend, Brad, passed the fourth of December,

His smile, his smarts, his strength, we will remember.

We love to keep up via Face book and Twitter. Do you?

Look us up! Merry Christmas! Love K, B and Sue!

It's Winter. Just Putting It Out There.

The alarm at 6:00 this morning was not kind.

I have spent much of the last week with the Christmas gift my brother and his family brought to the Cape: the crud. I bought out the Purel aisle and increased my vitamins tenfold when he called on Christmas Eve saying that he and his wife were sick and my adorable nephew had conjunctivitis, but not to worry, they would be down by 12 on Christmas day.

Needless to say, no form of vitamins or Purel or wishful thinking was keeping their germs from attaching on to me and staying for the duration. That being said, a lot of half projects got done in the house this school vacation. Half the decorations are down, we reorganized half of B's room, the laundry spent a lot of time in the dryer, half a drawer got organized.... you get the idea. The problem was, I would need to take a nap or cry or lay down half way through anything.

So now, it is back to school. The alarm blared, I rolled, shut it off and turned on the T.V.. I mainly watch for the weather because all the other news is usually depressing. The weather today, turned out to be just as depressing. Words such as windchill, freeze, bundle up, frigid were thrown about by the overly cheery weather man in his suit in his warm studio. I wondered how fast I could get up, turn on the heat and hit the shower before I realized that I could see my breath in my own house. Then, I realized it was going to be too cold to go out to recess ALL. WEEK. LONG.

Then, a commercial for Atlantis came on the T.V..

$65 a night, plus some discount on airfare, plus dolphins frolicking, plus drinks with umbrellas in them.....

I think my brother owes me and might be just the thing I need to truly kick this cold and save on my heating bill. Now to convince him of that and to convince my principal to give me a month off.... Hmm, maybe I could pitch it as a sabbatical?