Happy Thanksgiving

So many things to be thankful for today and every day. Hopefully the people in my life know how thankful I am for them. I try to spread my gratitude for my family and friends (yes, that includes you, too)throughout the year and not save it for one day.

At church last Sunday, the children's "sermon" was focused on gifts. Amy, the fantabulous education leader, told a story that I will try to sum up...

When Amy was younger, she loved going to her Grandma's house. Her grandmother had a box under her bed full of gifts in case she was going to a party or someone's house for dinner. Once when Amy was over, she and her grandma had somewhere to go and they pulled out the box to find a gift. To Amy's horror, there were 2 gifts in there that Amy had given to her grandmother in previous years.

Anyway, this story and the special box of gifts under the bed reminded Amy, and trust me that she put this much more eloquently than I am right now, that often times as we get older, we don't use the gifts that we have as often as we once did. She is a fabulous artist and she realized that in the day to day hustle and bustle of life with 3 boys, a job and various other responsibilities, she let her gift of painting for herself, go by the wayside.

The whole purpose of her talk was to use your gifts and share them with people, not hide them under your bed and let them get dusty. Obviously, it resonated with me because I am still thinking of it on Thursday. I take pictures, but usually it is for a reason: someone is paying me to take their picture. My gift of taking pictures just for the fun of it, just for me, has been buried under my bed. So, time to dust of the camera and take some artsy fartsy pictures and you my blog friends will be the recipient of my "gift".

So, on this Thanksgiving, while we are being thankful, what gift do you have that is getting dusty?

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!!!

My Email Box is Full!

The first thing I do in the morning is turn on my computer and check my inbox. I am not sure how many people would even send me something between 10pm and 6am, but you never know. Well, this week my email home page has been popping up with 12-15 new emails every morning! That makes me happy! Then I go into my email box and none of them are from a real person.

They are from every website that sells something I. Need. To. Have.

And the emails are getting more frantic. "One day left of free shipping!" "Don't miss out on the last day of 25% off site wide!" "Last pre-Christmas sale, MUST ship today!"

OK, I am a very good shopper and have avoided the mall for the last few weeks for the sole reason that all those last minute shoppers STRESS ME OUT!

Now my beloved email inbox is stressing me out! It is making me go over my lists in my head every day wondering if I have missed someone or something! What if I order something and it doesn't get here by Christmas? Oh the horror.

It's OK. I will survive these last minute holiday deals. I just have to hold on long enough for the even better AFTER Christmas deals.

Then I can start shopping for next Christmas!

Dashing Thru the Kitchen?

I stated my expectations early yesterday, hoping that "Santa's watching, you need to help me clean up around here" would be enough. HaHa. All I had to do was mention Santa and the girls decided to reenact the big night complete with Santa, sleigh and 2 reindeer. 

This is what they said to me, "Get your camera ready. This will be great for your blog." 

This whole thing went on for over an hour, it was quite involved. In this first picture, you see the back of Santa's sleigh with lots of gifts. Please notice Melisa, they put in a tiara just for you!

Next, we have Santa B trying to help the lead reindeer K convince reindeer G that this was going to be great. Santa can't move much due to his overstuffed belly. He kept demanding cookies and milk every 5 minutes!
Reindeer G took a break from the action as Santa and his reindeer trot off through the kitchen. Notice DH in the background with coffee. It was a very long day for him. Hear the pity dripping sarcastically from my words? You have to read previous post to completely understand.
After an epic turn around in the hallway, it was back into the family room. (There you will see DH on the couch, where he spent a good portion of his day saying, "Never again...")
And here we have the team complete with all the kinks out of the system and ready to ride on the 24th. 
HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!

Oh, What a Day!

It's no wonder I have no time to blog these days. I think of posts in my head throughout the day, but they go as fast as they come. Yesterday is the perfect example of how a typical day has been of late.

I went with the 4th grade to the Museum of Science in Boston. You may have heard on the news about all the rain, ice and snow New England was getting yesterday? That meant nothing to us hardy New Englanders (or 'living in a bubble' Cape Codders), we perservered and went anyway. It was pouring buckets when we left (and had been for the past 3 weeks, I mean 2 days). It took us almost 3 hours to get to Boston on a typical 1 1/2-2hr trip. Let me simplify that for you

yellow school bus + 30 kids + 7 chaperones + lots of rain = 4 advil

If it had been any longer, I think the kids would have had to relieve themselves in their water bottles.

I hadn't been to the Museum in ages! They had some really cool things in there! Amazing, right? We saw an Omni theater presentation on Coral Reefs (very cool) and an electricity show and as many of the exhibits as we could fit in. B got a little friendly with a not so friendly dino.

The skyline from the museum of the city was beautiful albeit wet.

The kids were great and we all had a lot of fun. Then we hopped back on the school bus for the 1 hour and 45 minute ride home. We thought HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA that the kids would be whipped from the day. 

NOPE.

For the last 1/2 hour the front of the bus (read girls) started singing Christmas carols which would have been lovely except the back of the bus (boys) wanted nothing to do with them. Or actually the boys wanted to recreate their own songs like Jingle Bells, Batman smells etc and they tried to get a rousing rendition of We Will Rock You going. Yup, the girls kept singing the nice Christmas Carols throughout all of this. Guess who was sitting in the middle of the bus, knitting her second scarf of the day? Yeah, me. So

yellow school bus + singing kids = 4 advil and a bottle of wine

Wouldn't it have been lovely to come home at almost 5 to a husband and daughter who had done some household chores instead of riding their horses in the mud for 2 hours? Yeah, it would have. Instead, I put in dinner, folded 2 loads of laundry, did more laundry, did the dishes from the day before, caught up my MIL and mom on the day and averted a fight between 2 tired girls. 

Then I went to a Christmas party. This feat included 6 different outfits, standing on the toilet to look in the mirror, thinking to myself that I probably shouldn't have put back 6 pork chops for dinner (no I didn't!, but felt like I had) and applying makeup to hide the circles under my eyes. We drop the girls off at my parents because I knew I only had an hour or so in me and arrive at the party.

Walk in, hello to the hosts, hug my friend Faith and realize that my dress is on backwards (yeah, that's right), run into the bathroom and switch it, go straight to the bar, talk to a bunch of people that turned to yelling because there were a lot of people and I couldn't hear myself or anyone else for that matter, watch my husband do shots of Jagermeister with his brother, said "Goodnight, find your own ride home" and left. 

Yes, I am a movie star and I made a cameo appearance at that party.

Picked up 2 extremely tired girls, came home, put them to bed, looked at the mail and found the best little package from Melisa that included some very creative and beautiful cards complete with initial and a tiara!!!!

Totally made my day and I went to bed with a smile on my face thinking of my friend that I have not even met in person(yet), but know so much about!

My smile lasted until about 2am when I heard DH stumble in...

today could be another long day! 

Halloween

I know, you have all had enough with the Halloween thing. I know I have. I am happy to have enough candy now though to get me to Thanksgiving. Just wanted to share a few pictures from the night.
Please pardon the horrid lighting on this picture. B was a witch, not a mean witch, but a fashionable witch. K was dressed as her cousin C and earlier in the day, C was dressed as K. She had his tilt of the head and look down so well that her friends thought she was him! Until he showed up in pink pants!
Had to stop by Auntie KK's and Uncle Squishy's house, too!

I have to get my intravenous of candy hooked back up. Tootles!

Happy Halloween!

Wonder where I get my sense of humor? Well my mom sent me this the other day. Thought you would all enjoy a little Halloween humor!

Martha Worthy?

Fruit kabobs on pumpkin straws in a watermelon jack-o-lantern. Isn't the 6th grade lucky?

Halloween in August?

I went to Target today with my friend Amy. I puffy heart Tar-jay and so does she, so it made for the perfect outing! I wound up with socks, but my kids scored some cool stuff and of course I got Halloween candy.

Mind you, I get no trick or treaters at my house.

Still, I get the candy.

So does Amy.

K wants to set up a spooky trail ride for some of her friends, so she asked me to get some Halloween stuff to hang off the trees. Sure, K, no problem.

I must back up and say I don't really enjoy Halloween. Yes, I have fond memories of trick or treating with my brother and sister and sorting all our candy when we got home, and then trading it, and then keeping it hidden in my closet and making it last until Christmas. The whole costume thing disturbed me... the sweaty plastic masks, the snow jacket under the plastic costume, the not knowing who was coming up to you, the year my mom dressed me in a trash bag and called me a raisin, and on it goes.

So, in Target today I sauntered over to the Halloween section and was floored by how large it was! There were costumes, decorations, candy, goodie bag treats, talking candy bowls, large Frankensteins, an adult's chicken costume and more candy. Remember in the 70's when you just walked into KMart the week before Halloween and bought your plastic costume in a box and a few bags of candy?


Now, you have to plan your costume in August because what you want will be gone by the end of September.

The good news is, the Christmas decorations were starting to appear in the back corner.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

A brief post to let you know I am still here and thinking of you. Before you hear about my Maine vacation, I will share with you a billboard that I passed while driving through Boston the other day. I guess this saying is for Svedka vodka, that is not as important as the saying....

"Have Cocktails, Not War."

Happy Labor Day weekend!

4th of July

What a wonderful (hot) weekend! All 4 of us were in the big town parade. K rode her horse and DH, B and I were on the Women of Fishing Families (WOFF) float. Our symbol is a big pink boot. I have a video on the making of the float, the float, the parade, the beautiful house we were parked in front of during the parade line up, the boot on the boat and the trip to the beach with the boot on the boat, K and my cousin Allycia, B and Grandma and the beach. So, sit back, maybe grab a glass of wine, some popcorn and enjoy. Hope your weekend was fun too!


4th of July