Wednesday, July 27, 2011

It's Official!

I'm a registered, id carrying, college student!  I'm kind of terrified, and kind of excited!  I know it's an important step to where I want to be in my life.  I can't wait to start getting into the photography classes, but so far I'm taking a couple of the other requirements, so when Norah is in Kindergarten I can more fully devote myself to school.  So this semester I'm taking English and a Math class.  I don't know if they're full year classes, or semester classes.  Either way, it should be interesting to get my feet wet in a classroom setting again.  One class on campus and one online to be done at home. 

Wish me luck, Apparently the rest of my life starts today!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Crazy Weather

We had more crazy weather down here today.  After the June first tornados that hit, I think everyone is a little paranoid.  I got a few phone calls asking if we were ok, and letting me know that we had a storm on the way.  Fortunately for that, since I actually almost never turn the tv on in the afternoon.  So other than thunder and dark clouds, I wouldn't have any idea what was going on. 

The wind was absolutely relentless.  I have literally never seen so much wind.  A couple miles away there was crazy hail, but we saw none.  Kat was on her way back here after the storm and she said there were trees down and fences in the road up the street from us.  So I'm thinking whatever it was, it just missed us.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Busy and Hot

It's been a busy, hot week!  My birthday was very nice.  A trip to Eric Carle with some of our fabulous friends, and a cheeseburger for dinner to top it off.  Tuesday I had to work, but everyone had their A/C on, so it was bearable.

Wednesday was Steven's first weekday off in exchange for working on Sundays.  So we did some errands, had lunch, and then headed to the local wading pool.  We stayed there for a couple hours, and both girls spent the whole time in the water.  Totally worth the $4 to get them in.  Thursday after work we headed over to the library to see the Toe Jam Puppet Band perform.  The girls love them every time!  After that we were headed back to the house to get cool because it was 100 outside, but instead Kat called us to join them at Coldstone for a pre dinner ice cream snack!  The girls both had Cotton Candy, and I tried their Strawberry Basil. 

Yesterday we headed over to Forest Park in the morning to meet up with some friends and have lunch.  We had a nice picnic, and then we parted ways so that I could take the girls over to the splash park.  They had a blast and cooled off there, but it was still SO hot that I was sweating just sitting still.  I heard we got up to 103 in some spots locally.  So after that we went home to cool off, but I forgot we needed milk, so we headed to the fruit store, and ran into Kat again.  She invited us to their friends to swim for a while, and we took them up on it.  Both girls had a blast cooling off in the pool, and Hannah is turning out to be pretty darn good at swimming, even if she needs her arm floaties!

Today we're heading down to visit some friends, so we're all excited about that too! 

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Thirty

Tomorrow I'll be thirty, and I can't really complain for all the good things I have right now.  I have two gorgeous girlies, who posess both comic timing and good behavior when it counts.  I'm married to a wonderful guy who always puts us first, and truly has our best interest in mind.  Sometimes that's not easy to find in a partner, but I've got it.  We own a house, we can pay our bills, and we can still do fun stuff sometimes too!  Steven even told me that since he's working so many hours these days, that if I want to start going to school that I should look into it so I can do it in the evenings online if possible.  I couldn't ask for much better to be honest.  Seriously, why does everyone dread turning thirty?

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Weekend

I feel like we spend all week looking forward to weekends.  Steven has been working a lot of hours at his new job.  It's not really a big deal to me, I remember him working crazy hours before we had the girls.  But they're not at all used to him working so long, being here so little, and being so tired when he is here.  I'm hoping they can get used to it, because all the extra hours mean that when he IS here, we can do fun things.

So this weekend, Steven has to work Sunday, so we're cramming all the fun we can into today.  There are plans for some errands, and hopefully some fun stuff for them too.  Tomorrow Grampy and Mimi are coming over to visit while he's at work, so that will be something good.  Monday I have off from work, and it's my birthday.  I'm thinking we'll go to a park of some kind, or depending on the weather, maybe the Eric Carle museum.

Next weekend we're headed down to visit friends and maybe go to the zoo for our annual zoo trip with them.  We've done it every summer since Hannah was 14 months old.  We now have more kids and more fun every year!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Toto Photo

I don't know why Kat's brother Victor is Toto, his own nieces all call him that, and now my kids do too.  So Toto came to take pictures at the girls baptism.  He's a professional, and is fantastic, and we are so SO grateful he was willing and able to be there.  I got them today, and they're all amazing!  I posted them on the shutterfly site, but here's just one to share.


Monday, July 11, 2011

Fever

Hannah's running a fever today.  I noticed it around lunch and it's hanging on this afternoon.  So she's resting on the couch with movies and water.  I'm hoping she can kick it fast!  It's super hot today, so having a fever when it's hot has to be ten times worse.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Exciting!

Next week is my birthday, and when Steven asked me what I wanted, I told him I wanted a new lens for my camera.  So after some research and deciding, I've come up with the one I want.  Now we're just waiting for the last check from the old job.  Hopefully it comes on Friday, because I really want to get it ASAP!  I decided on a 35mm 1.8 prime lens.  So because it's a fixed focal length, there will be some new composition challenges, but with a ginormous aperture, I should be able to take gorgeous photos in the house without the flash.  A fabulous plan, since we live in New England and sometimes the weather is questionable.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Short Weeks

I love short weeks following long holiday weekends!  It's like an extra bonus added in.  Our week was relatively peaceful here.  Aside from having Kat cart me all over so I could drop off/retrieve my car from service, it was blissfully normal.  A fabulous hot July so far.  I had the ac on earlier, though it was less humid yesterday, so we turned it off.  In the afternoon we also had Magi and Mimi over for dinner so Kat could go to a work meeting.  Everyone played nicely, except Norah.  She seems to think that when you play "duck duck goose", she should always be the goose.  Everyone tried to nicely explain it to her, so I removed her and reminded her that playing nicely with friends and taking turns means your friends will want to come over to play again.

Then of course, the post dinner dessert meltdown.  Yesterday I made tacos for dinner.  One of Norah's favorites, but she chose a hard taco instead of the usual soft I give her.  I don't think she liked it, and they're hard to eat.  So she chose not to eat.  I reminded her as she got down that if she didn't do a good job on her dinner there wouldn't be any more chances to eat for her.  She agreed.  Until I couldn't put off the other three any longer, and they all got a TJ's cookie.  Then holy hell broke loose, and the poor girl ended up falling asleep in her bed midtantrum. 

Fortunately, today she ate all her dinner and even had seconds.  She insisted that "tortellinis are my favorite!  I will eat them all up in my belly button!"

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Home!

As happy as I was to go see Sara and Zach in New Hampshire.  As thrilled as I was to be a part of their special day... there's nothing like being home in your own house and bed.  The chaos started Saturday when Steven defied the borrowed GPS and headed East instead of West.  So because of that we ended up on 93 North, stopped dead, sitting.  For a LONG time.  It was less than pleasant.  Add to that Sara waiting for us to drop off the flowers (seated conveniently between my feet for the whole 3.5 hour trip) and take her back to her Mother in Law's with us.  It was a little nuts.  So we finally get to Sara, and as we pull off the highway, Steven notices my car is making a horrible clunky noise.  Not at all good.  So we drop off all the stuff at Jean's house, and head to the hotel to check in and get ready for rehearsal.  While we're there, Steven asks about garages, and one is available to check out my front end, deems it "safe" and we're good to drive, despite horrible clunking noises.

Rehearsal is awesome and fun.  There was lots of last minute plans, and who's going to do what, when. In fact the ONLY bad part is me stepping wrong out of the back door of the house and twisting my ankle very uncomfortably.  The girls are excited, and start wondering if the pool at the hotel is any fun.  So we head out about 7:30 to take them back to go swimming and my ankle was in heaven in the hot tub.  The girls go to bed as soon as we get upstairs and are asleep in record time.  Meanwhile Steven goes out to find ibuprofen and sandwiches because we're starving.  I ice my foot, watch a movie, and eat.  We head to bed and realize that a Queen size bed, is TEENY compared to our bed, and Oh man, Everytime I move, we're touching.  I don't mind touching, but not when I'm sleeping!

Sunday morning finally comes, with matching dark circles for all of us.  We head to breakfast and the pool, followed by the LL Bean outlet and some other stuff.  We go back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding and check out.  We're going home, and man I miss my bed.

The wedding was fantastic and beautiful!  Everything seemed to happen either just right, or with minimal issues.  Sara and Zach seemed to have a good time, and everyone attending seemed to also.  I only wish I'd been in the right place with my camera to get pictures of the wedding party jumping in the river.... in their gorgeous clothes!

Friday, July 1, 2011

The time has come

The girls couldn't be more excited!  Tomorrow we are leaving for the long drive to Auntie  Sara and Uncle Zach's wedding.  We're spending two nights in a hotel, and we have to bring more stuff than I can physically imagine.  I've finally gotten to where I've packed nearly everything.  Only the stuff we really need for the morning is still not in the suitcase.  Steven is supposed to find the cooler so we can bring the wings and flowers up safely.  He's late at work tonight, so hopefully he finds it right away in the morning.  Otherwise I forsee an early stop at Walmart to get a cooler.

We're all thrilled and can't wait to see everyone, and of course, pictures to come.  Oh man, I should put my camera in the suitcase.