Teacher Alexa

Alexa got her Christmas present in the mail from Grammie Sharon today. Her very own school set. She was really excited to get this. Grammie we hope you are feeling better as you can see she really enjoys it.

Getting her supplies all set up.

Using her pointer.

Teaching the class.

Her students.

A Horse is a Horse

The girls asked Santa to bring them some sit on ponies. Santa left them a note explaining that they wouldn't fit in the sled. He left some pogo sticks instead. Grammie Sharon came to visit this weekend and brought these...

Apparently Grammy doesn't have the same rules as Santa. They are enjoying them immensely. Here they put on their princess dresses and were riding to the Ball.

Echo

We headed out for an adventure at the Echo Center in Burlington today. The downstairs exhibit was on giant robotic insects, which Alexa was adamant about avoiding. To be honest, they were a bit over powering. I am not sure what kid wants to look at an eight foot tall moving praying mantis. So we stuck with the usual exhibits...

Sanded some rocks to explore erosion,

made a mountain form,

said hi to the turtles,

dug for beluga whale fossils,

played in the water table,

ate lunch by the lake,

became a bit freaked out by the creepy underwater music at the giant fish exhibit,

and explored a sunken ship.

Then we came home once we had taken it all in and the weather had cleared. Which left us a lovely afternoon to help Grammie Sharon learn how to set up her new tent before her camping trip. I would like to thank her for taking me back down memory lane. Back to when I was 19 and working at Life Sports in Ellsworth. We often had tourists come in and decide that they wanted to camp at Acadia National Park. So they would buy a tent from the store, and then we got to go out in the parking lot and teach them how to assemble it. Yep.. good times... I know you are thinking what sucker took camping and tent assembly advice from a 19 year old me?  Shocking isn't it? I must say, the yard is a whole lot easier to pitch a tent than a black top parking lot. And check out that tent...

I am now calling it the guest cottage.

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Alexa had her wish granted. She was begging for more snow and here it is. True to her word she helped out with clearing the drive way today.

Of course she tends to take a few breaks here and there.

We even got Grammie Sharon help out. It just doesn't pay to a guest at this house (you should see the people who come and fix my bathroom drain, she got off easy).

The only one that got out of the snow removal work was Chloe, who is still in bed with a fever. Although she is so stir crazy she would love to get out of the house. Well, further than the doctor's office.

That is a Tylenol induced smile...poor kid.

Pumpkin Painting

There is a very small grass -triangle shall we say? Across the street from Chloe's school. On Tuesdays there is a small farmer's market there. Today after I picked the girls up we stopped on our way home to purchase two pumpkins to paint for Halloween. Alexa picked a small "baby" pumpkin and Chloe a larger one because, "I have plans, and I am going to need space." We arrived home and they girls were set to get right to work. I situated them on the floor in the living room (gotta love wood floors) because look at this...

Grammie Sharon was busy making dinner! I can not tell you what a treat it is to get home from work and smell dinner already cooking! Yummy!

At any rate dinner was yummy. Alexa developed a love of feta cheese and tah da... decorated pumpkins!

Alexa's...

and Chloe's...

They of course went on to paint many pictures after because once the paints are out it is hard to stop.

Grown Up Dinner

The girls and I have been having a wonderful visit with Grammie Sharon. They headed off this afternoon to have a sleep over at their dad's house. Grammie kindly decided that she wanted to take me out to dinner. This was a wonderful offer as I rarely eat out and the chance to eat in a "grown up" restaurant sounded like a wonderful luxury to me.

I got to pick the restaurant and opted for Parima. A wonderful Thai restaurant that I haven't been to in probably eight years. A place that I would not get to go with my children as it does not offer cheese quesadillas or macaroni and cheese. It was extremely hot and humid here today and after the walk downtown it was deliciously cool in the restaurant.

I realized as we walked in that, due to the heat today, I hadn't had much of an appetite. Smelling the food scent made me notice how hungry I was. Sharon decided we should order a couple of appetizers. We chose some spring rolls and dumplings. The spring roll plate contained two rolls and the dumpling four (small) ones. It took the edge off the hunger, but I was definitely eager for the main course. I had ordered a salmon roll with caper sauce. It arrived and I paused to look at my plate. It contained eight medium leaves of Romain lettuce, a five inch by one inch piece of salmon, and a half a cup of noodles, plus a dish of sauce. Now I know I am not a large person, but let me assure you- I like to eat. This was not much food. I had also envisioned it coming all put together. Some how when I have to put my food together it kind feels like I might as well have cooked it myself. It also leads me to wonder why I have to keep ordering things in my life that come to me needing to be put together.


The restaurant is small, and soon after we arrived a three piece jazz band began to unpack and warm up. It became obvious that the band was going to over power the small restaurant. The comedy of the plate containing eight leaves of lettuce that I was suppose to assemble and roll into my dinner along with the jazz band warming up cancelling out all conversation made me start to laugh.

We followed up our dinner with a trip around the corner to Ben and Jerry's. Where I filled myself up on a waffle cone of Phish food, that I believe was the same size as my plate of dinner. It was a yummy treat on a hot summer day.

A Day With Grammie

I had to go to work today. I spent the day with my teammates organizing curriculum and spelling groups. I do not have daycare for the girls over the summer. I am the daycare. So in order to attend the meeting I arranged for Grammie Sharon to come spend the day with the girls. It is always interesting to come home after being gone all day and see what the girls have been up to. It was even more interesting to see that they had use the camera to take pictures while I was gone. So what follows is the photo evidence of a day with Grammie Sharon.

Now Grammie is known for her picture taking. She uses actual film in her camera. She gets some wonderful shots. It is thanks to her that I have actual pictures of myself with my girls! However apparently Alexa felt that we needed some pictures of Grammie too...

And then you dance...

I titled my blog And The You Laugh because it seemed the answer to the question people always ask me. How do you do it? I guess I started writing it to chronicle how I do. I am not anything special and I take it one day (sometimes moment at a time), but it always seems to end in the same place no matter what the event... I laugh.

Today was a day like that. A hectic mix of errands and cleaning. Trying to get settled after returning from being away. The girls made more Fairy Houses in the backyard. Chloe's is pretty elaborate. She made them sea shell beds with leaf blankets, a rock table with little rock chairs including a piece of sea glass as a centerpiece.

Chloe's:

Alexa's:

and I spotted this in my yard.

A bit of an omen since I have to go to work tomorrow for a meeting.

The day ended with Grammie Sharon arriving. She kindly drove all the way here to babysit for me tomorrow so I could attend a meeting. Grammie bought the girls some ballerina dresses. They spent the evening putting on a dance show! As you can see they had blast and can't wait to do it again tomorrow.

So we never know how things will end, but I can almost guarantee if you let yourself they will end with a laugh. You just try putting on a ballerina dress and dancing around your living room and see what happens!

Stella

I named my car Stella. I share this only because I know that I am not the only person who gives their cars names. Stella got her name from the play "A Street Car Names Desire." You know the famous scene where Stanley realizes he screwed up majorly and is yelling "Stella!" up the stairs. It is because of that scene and my laziness in shoveling my driveway that my car arrived at its name.

See Burlington, Vermont gets a lot of snow; a whole heck of a lot of snow some years. Sometimes I just don't realize that it is going to snow as much as it does and therefore don't get up early enough to shovel the driveway out. Sometimes I come home from work to find the street plows have closed the drive in, and sometimes (my favorite) I get up shovel the drive and in the two hours it takes me to shower, dress, eat, get the kids up, dressed, and fed the street or sidewalk plow has come by again and plowed another pile at the end of my drive. That makes for a grumpy start to your day I tell you. It also leads me to offer you the real estate advice to never buy a house on the right hand side of a one way street- because guess what side they pile all the snow on? Anyhow sometimes I have been known to just drive through the pile of snow at the end of my drive. When this occasion arises it seems that you should cheer for the car. I mean Subaru's are great for winter driving, but occasionally even I think I have asked her to clear a pretty big pile. At any rate, I have trained my girls to shout, "STELLA" while we back through. If nothing else it distracts them from the impact.

So Stella, yes Stella, is my car. She has had a bit of a rough time of it lately. The latest was my return to NH from Boston yesterday when my check engine light came on again for the second time in three weeks. I decided to call the closest Subaru dealer to where I was staying in Derry on the off chance that they would be open on a Sunday. I was surprised when a very peppy woman actually did answer. I explained my situation that I was traveling and heading back to Vermont tomorrow and that the check engine light came on. I went on to ask if someone might be able to look at it and tell me why it was on and if I could drive it home.

Peppy woman: "Oh I am sure it is nothing."

Me: "Well, I know it could be nothing, but I have a ways to drive tomorrow and I just want to be sure."

Ms. Peppy: "Oh I am sure it is no big deal these lights just come on."

Me: "But it is a check engine light. I mean shouldn't we, um, you know, check the engine?"

Ms. Peppy: "How about I put the manager on and he can reassure you it is nothing?"

I re-explain my situation to the manager.

Manager, " Oh sure we could probably help you tomorrow. The repair department isn't open today. They open tomorrow at 7:30. Why don't you call then and they can fit you in."

This seemed like a good idea. So I called at 7:40 this morning and spoke to a man in the repair department. He seemed to feel that since the light was on constantly that it was probably something not firing right. Apparently you are in really deep doo doo if it is flashing on and off. Then you can't drive it at all. He said it should be fine to drive home I just might find that I had less power on the hills. Because you know there aren't any hills crossing New Hampshire and Vermont. It is practically like Kansas out there...what with the two MOUNTAIN RANGES I CROSS.

Never the less I decided that maybe I was being overly paranoid. This being me and I am prone to about 14 different neurotic tendencies. I decided to head for home as is. I did pack extra water and food and charge up the cell phone in the event of a breakdown.

I would like to tell you that I was so happy and relaxed to have made my decision that I sailed right on home. I did sail right on home car wise, but of course this is me so I obsessed over every lurch, squeak, and ping for the entire 4 hours. The hills were especially fun as I crawled up then at between 40-45 miles per hour. I discovered that it behaved better if I didn't try to accelerate too much but kept an even pace. This was, of course, difficult on the steeper hills. I really enjoyed the red tractor trailer who sped up behind me blowing the air horn for me to go faster. Everyone relaxes more when we look in the mirror and see a giant grill and the word MACK written on it. I am not sure why he felt it so difficult to move to the left to the passing lane and go around me. There was no other traffic, perhaps he wanted the dog to move its head so he could see the Wonderpets movie on DVD too. I know the kids complained a lot about that.

Anyhow we made it. In my stress ridden drive I did have a lot of time to think about this situation. I think I have a suggestion for Subaru that will help cut down the stress of other rule following drivers like myself who feel that check engine means one should, you know, check the engine. Perhaps we could have three different lights come on instead that would describe the situation more accurately. They could say something like this:

1- Check engine, you know when you get around to it I have plenty of time no worries.

2- Check engine, now, we got big problems brewing

3- Get out of the car do not drive 5 more feet or the car will be engulfed in flames.

Maybe it is just me but I would find this more helpful. That way I would misplace my stress. As it was I fretted so much my all the way home waiting for my constant on light to start flashing I never changed my CD once. That means I spent 4 hours listening to the same Kasey Chambers' CD. I am now complete depressed about starving children in Cambodia and every guy who ever broke my heart. I am going to need long run in the morning to recover form all this.

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Boston photo highlights:

Grammie Sharon proves herself fearless by pulling out a crab (I wasn't going to touch that thing) for the girls to pet.

New England Aquarium

After spending a leisurely morning with Grammie and Auntie Kim, the girls and I headed down to Boston to the aquarium. I had gotten on line before leaving home and purchased the tickets online. I highly recommend this should you go. We by-passed a huge line on a warm day and got right up to the reserved ticket window.

I lived in Boston for a year while I went to graduate school. However, I was a poor graduate student and definitely didn't have money to go to the aquarium. Not to mention I got around via bus and subway. I really had no idea how to get to the aquarium via car. You would think that knowing all this I would have printed out a map before leaving- you would be wrong. It made for an interesting adventure. It actually didn't take us too much time to get there. Despite my miserably poor sense of direction, the Big Dig having tunneled under any interstate highway I would have remembered, and my usual backwards attempt to find things (water..it is near the water..which way is the water). We made it.

The girls enjoyed the seals and penguins. They are always a big hit. The touch tank area is fun too. Grammie was able to brave the dangerous terrain and reach in to pull a crab up for petting. Leaving Chloe to brag, "My Grammie could do it."

We had lunch in the cafe. The hit the gift shop on the way out where the girls each picked out a new stuffed animal. That way they can join the mass of 50+ other stuffed animals in their bedrooms. Should those suckers ever organize in some kind of real life Toy Story adventure we are done for. The best for me was the check out guy at the gift shop who was rapping his way through each transaction. I admire people who can be upbeat and fun even at the most mundane jobs. The guy was a riot!

Everyone had a good time even though it was really crowded. We seemed to spend the perfect amount of time there. Not being one of those parents that feels like they need to drag their kids through each and every exhibit to get their money's worth (although I do appreciate those people- they help make my kids look like the well behaved ones). I am content to leave when ever the kids seem to reach the point where they are getting weary.


Unfortunately, my car seems to be rebelling against any traveling I do this summer. On the way out my check engine light came on AGAIN. I called and found a place in Manchester that can look at it in the morning. Considering all the work I just had done on it I am more than a little annoyed. I am going to run it in early and hope for the best. Grammie says she can watch the kids. Maybe this way I won't have my dog up in the car lift like I did the last time. Although it may have had them take pity on me.

Grammie Sharon Visits

We had company this weekend. Grammie Sharon came to visit from New Hampshire. Grammie visits are always fun for all of us, myself included. Grammie likes to spoil us. She took us shopping at April Cornell on Church Street telling the girls that they needed to help her pick out something for Mommy (a late birthday gift). Which went something like this:

Chloe or Alexa (it alternates as they pick items off the racks): Mommy how about this? This is really pretty.

Me: Oh that is a rather bright flower pattern,

or I don't know if I have ever seen that much embroidery on one shirt,

or Um that is a pretty bow on that jumper.

You get the idea.

I did get a beautiful skirt and top despite my handy assistants. Grammie also bought the girls each a very girly dress. They were very excited. She went on to have her own shopping time on Church Street to get some travel basics for her month long trip to Europe in September (including seven days in Paris!).

Other treats for me included a nine mile run ALL BY MYSELF! It was a good run. I am still trying to see if I can get enough long runs in this summer to be ready for a fall marathon. I usually try to set a 13 mile long run as my base, and then build from there. We shall see if I make it. I still have some time before I will know for sure. I have some other guests coming that I can shove off babysitting tasks on (too late to change those plane tickets now people).

Plus, Grammie cleans for me... here she is slaving away cleaning up the kitchen while I get the little people off to bath and bed. And no that isn't a new frock she bought to wear in Paris. She actually took the rug outside and shook it out. Huh. Is that how it is done?

It is a big treat not to have to clean up the kitchen after getting everyone tucked in.

Grammie also brought me some goodies from her old house in Maine that she sold. She gave me a weed whacker- practically new. And this...

a drill thingy. Excellent. It will have a lot of uses I am sure. Now I just need to figure out how to use it. So the question is, what sucker do I rope into showing me how? Start working on your patience now Curry. Yep your job as a brother-in-law is never done. See why Ryan won't leave Arizona?

Other big events?

Look at this.

Can you read it?

It says, "Alexa." Yep, she did it all by herself.

She is kinda proud can you tell?