Anticipation.

It was funny.  Yesterday, mid-day, Tim emailed me a message with the subject line of "something useful".  I opened the message up only to find a link to a 23 qt pressure cooker/canner.  Huh?  I wanted one of these last year and he didn't want to spend the money for it.  I jumped on the opportunity and ordered it from amazon and even with free shipping I got it delivered today!  Color me one excited little bee.  

I think we shall name her Queen.  Because when I see it I hear "Under Pressure" by Queen.  Yes, I'm a dork and I name all things. It bugs the heck out of Tim.

here she is...I don't think I put her together properly.  Yikes!

I unpacked it and started flipping through the instruction book and now I'm a bit scared too.  It's a little intimidating.  I'm going to have to really read the book and not just thumb through it.  I think Tim changed his mind about the pressure cooker after we spent an entire day working with a ton of tomatoes only to lose them all.  That was a bummer.  Not this year.

We've been discussing our garden this year.  We know that we want tomatoes, potatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers and beets.  Oh, and I'm sure we'll have boxes of chili peppers all over the place too.    I am thinking that next month we'll be bringing up the grow lights and starting our seeds.  

Oh, there is nothing like thinking about gardening in the middle of the winter.  This has been a long, cold, icy winter.  I look out into the back yard and long to be out there with the sun beating down on me and working in the dirt.  I can't wait.  I think the starting of seeds and taking care of them as they grow will help the winter hurry on out of here.  I'm kicking myself though for not planting any bulbs in the fall.  I was so busy that I completely forgot about it and now I'm going to be sad when everyone else has amazing spring flowers coming up and I'll have nothing. I will plant bulbs next fall.  

Not too much else going on over here.  We are half way through the school year. The boys are doing fabulous.  Connor has discovered that he LOVES geometry.  We've had a lot of fun learning that and playing around with it.  Aidan is writing almost as neatly as I do and is reading small books to himself now.  We got everything done in January that we wanted to do.  We got both of our credit cards PAID OFF.  We are sitting pretty right now planning for summer festivities and gardening. 

I hope everyone is staying warm and happy.

Friday Fun!

I did the dreaded deed today.  I did something that I don't like doing, but did anyway.  I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. The germ factory.  Why?  Because they've been doing really good in school lately and Connor rocked his endocrinologist appointment and well, they've been whining about it for a while.

It wasn't as bad as I remember it.  Of course it was partly because it was at lunch time and most kids were in school.  They basically had the whole place to themselves with just a couple of pre school wee ones running around.  

Connor on a Star Wars game.

Aidan showing great determination and patience.

A happy duo.

Aidan in his fave place.  He spent most of his time up in the tubes.

This was actually a really neat thing.  It was a roller coaster simulator that they rode three times.  Connor got scared on the last one and I jumped in to finish off the ride and got off the stupid thing with motion sickness.  I must be getting old.  Nah.

The kids were great.  They didn't throw a fit when I said it was time to leave.  They didn't fight or argue.  They actually thanked me when we were done.  I will almost admit that I had fun.  I'm just not sure I'll tell the kids that. ☺

So, it's crazy cold here and we are going to spend the night in front of the fire and watch some movies I think.  Nothing major planned this weekend.  It was supposed to be our clean up the outside weekend but not when the high is 12.  Too cold for me.  

I hope everyone has a faboo weekend!

Blogging bug hit.

I guess the time and energy that I put into this blog is paying off.  Connor has decided that he wants to start and run a blog.  I say go for it.  He actually wants to write?  Who am I to stand in his way?  I think it will be good for him and he's so excited about having one.  Aidan wants one too and I told him that if he is reading by the end of kindergarten, he can start one too.  Until then, he can guest write on Connor's.

What else is new?  Hmmm...Not too much.  We got the closets 90 percent done last weekend but then both Tim and I came down with the kids' colds and couldn't finish. It will be added to the weekend list for the upcoming weekend.  This weekend we are supposed to work outside and pick up a bit.  I suppose how much we get accomplished will depend on what the temps are.  They are supposed to be brutal.  

I'm also happy to report that one of our credit cards is officially paid off!  This is big news.  We are very happy.  We are very close to paying off the other credit card as well and then the only debt we will have will be the student loans.  Wahoo.  This is pretty exciting.  We've worked hard at this goal and it was so nice to pay the one off.  

Not too much else going on.  The kids are trucking along in school.  Connor just did a reading benchmark with his teacher and he did awesome.  I knew he would.  He had to do three timed readings to see how many words a minute he can read.  The first one he did was 130 words, the second one he did was 156 words and the third reading was 133. Why the difference?  Because on the first and last reading he was reading with such emphasis and drama that it was taking away from his numbers.  The second one he just read straight through after his teacher mentioned to just concentrate on reading.  After it was done I had to explain to him that while it was awesome for him to put such feeling into the reading and how it made it fun to listen to, he needed to just read on tests like this.  His teacher did say he was reading at an advanced level and that made me feel good.  

That being said, it's time to get back to school with the wee ones.  Hope everyone is having a great week.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some pics up again...it's just that there isn't much going on right now.

Dear Winter,

While I enjoy the snow and we have fun playing in it, I'm over you.  I'm tired of being cold all the time.  I'm tired of the grey skies.  I'm ready to start playing in the dirt again.  I'm ready to see green grass and bright flowers again.  I mean really, must you be only 13 degrees on Friday?  I have to go out first thing in the morning when it will be likely 0 degrees out to take Connor to his endocrynologist.  I would much more prefer it to be warmer.   Let's get the rest of your snowing done and bring on in Spring.   Are you listening Mr. Groundhog?

Yours, 

Busy Bee

Planning.

Call me crazy, but I like to plan things. I  am a list maker.  I like to have everything organized. 

We are starting to make our plans for  our year.  We have a ten year anniversary celebration/trip to plan.  Tim mentioned a trip to Ireland which I would love, but not sure if we are going to pursue it.  We have a lot of little things around the house to work on.  We have hiking trips to plan and maybe even a camping trip.  

In the past I have used notebooks to write everything down and then I'll put my notebook down not to be found for a month or two.  I figured since I have this little bloggie still up and running that I could do some planning here.

We have taken a weekend trip already once this month so I know that we won't be going out of town again for at least three weeks.  This weekend coming up we are planning to work on the closets in our bedrooms/classroom.  A while back I had the crazy idea to change everyones' bedrooms around but never got around to switching around the closets.  This weekend it will be done.   The following weekend will be outdoor pickup.  Crazy, I know, to do it in the middle of the winter, but I think the scarecrows can come in off the front porch.  

Oh, I just thought of something I have to do in the next week:  send Aidan's DS to Nintendo for some warranty work.  Self, remember to print off the Fed Ex label and send it.

After those two weekends are knocked off we are going to each weekend hit a room and super clean it.  I mean tear everything out of counters, pulling things off of shelves, scrubbing everything and doing touch up paint work.

So, there we have it....the month of January is all set up.  I know this year is going to be a good year and I'm excited!

Now, I'm off to take care of two weebles with sniffles.  Too many weekends away has finally caught up with them I think.

A good way to start out the new year!

How you say?  By spending the weekend with good friends that you don't get to see very often.  We packed up the crew and drove over to CT to spend the weekend over there.   The kids were very excited because they haven't seen their friends since last summer.  When we got there the house was swarming with girls.  They apparently had been up most of the previous night preparing for a "show".  I was laughing when they were getting ready to start, Jenn said she needed another beer.  I knew then what we were in for.

Future American Idols?

Connor and Aidan hanging out on the stairs, I think amazed by all the girls in one place.  Scared, perhaps?

After a third set, things started to turn sour and the boys were lining up on the couch to start taking the girls out.

After the show, the girls all left with their parents and it was left to being just our family and Samm's.  The kids all had fun playing on the wii and then all disappeared so that the adults could have some fun.  We tried to get them into bed at normal time, but that did NOT work.  Finally around 11:30 we had to split them up.  If we hadn't I'm certain they would have stayed up much later.  As it was, they both woke up at 7:30 wanting to get back to playing.

When we got up we were treated to a family of deer eating in the back yard.

baby deer getting ready to do some munching

The rest of the family showed up for breakfast after some more food was put out. The kids and I had fun watching them.

They all played together and then we had to get on the road.  The boys were not happy and have already made plans to go back (they think they are going back next month...I don't think it will be that soon).   

Proof that fun was had by all:

Connor passed out on the way home.  He never sleeps in the car.

Aidan zonked out too.  It was a quiet ride home. 

It was funny too becuase we weren't home an hour and Nick, a neighborhood friend, came over and played for two and half hours.  Now Aidan is so over tired he's cranky. Me thinks he will be in bed early tonight.

Tomorrow we start school back up from our winter break.  I'm hoping it will be a smooth transition back.  I'm hoping to keep up with the bloggie but I'm not promising anything right now.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a good start to the new year.

Hello 2009...

I hope you will be fine.  I'm a poet and I don't know it.  Ok, enough.

2009 came in uneventful, which is a good thing.  We took the kids to see Bedtime Stories on New Years Eve and then we came home and attempted to stay up to ring in the new year, but three of the four of us were asleep by 10.  Oh well, the year came in without us.

New Years Day we played games, watched a movie and burned a couple of candles that Debbie had given us.  They are bayberry candles and there was a note with them saying that it was a Colonial custom to burn these candles on New Years Day for good luck...so burn them we did. 

box of candles...they smelled really good.

Fired up...ready to go!  Sorry,  couldn't resist.  Sorry mom that the candle stick holders aren't polished.  I had to scrounge around to find them.  I also notice that I need to dust the bricks on the fireplace.  Another thing to add to my "to do" list.

A blury picture of candles and fireplace burning.  If I could find my tripod the picture would look better.  Another thing to add to my "to do" list.

This brings me to my "to do" list.  I have to much to do on my list.  I'm not sure where to start.  I know better than making resolutions because I never keep those.  I will put some goals out there and work very hard to make these goals.  

My first goal is (as usual) is to lose weight and get healthy.

Second goal is to make sure we get done with school on time and have fun doing it.

Third goal is to at least once a month find a new state park and hike it with the family.

Fourth goal is to organize the house.

Fifth goal (which should be third) is to start some serious savings.

Short term goals, and I mean I want them done by the end of this month is to clean up around the outside of the house.  Finish moving closets around.  Get the big bookcase down into the basement.  Read my book club book.  Lose 10 pounds.

Books.  I'm trying to read three books at once and it seems none of them are getting read.  I have to read Sense and Sensibility for our book club this month.  I'm trying to finish Half Assed and the Beck book.  I don't really have time during the day to read and when I try to read in bed at night, I end up falling asleep after two pages.  Not looking good for me.

Gardening.  I know, I know, that was what this blog was supposed to be about wasn't it?  I have two see catalogs waiting for me to look over.  I have started thinking about what I want to grow this year.  I know for sure there will be tomatoes and beets.  I have been loving my pickled beets that we stored, so I need to double how many I grow this year. I don't think I'll be doing radishes or carrots.  Potatoes I think are a go again and of course zucchini.  I would like to try some melons this year and maybe a pumpkin or two.  I need to figure out when I should be starting seeds downstairs.  Add that to my "to do" list too.

Lots to do.  This should be a good year.  I'm hopeful.  It is looking good for Tim for keeping his job after the takeover.  We are a month away from having our credit cards completely paid off.  We are looking to get a "new" used vehicle...one that is a little bit bigger for our growing boys and dog.  We will celebrate being married ten years this year.  I think that alone is pretty awesome.

Ok, Aidan is waiting for a hot game of Perfection and is getting impatient.  That, and I have to go make soup for dinner because Tim just called and said he was so hungry he was ready to eat his hand.  I am going to scoot out of here for now.

Happy New Year to all!