Busy Day

Spent the whole day running around. As it turns out... Molly DOES have a bladder infection. Lucky for her...She hasn't peed in the house since Sunday. Got some very expensive antibiotics to help her get better. She is kinda cute.

Alex had his first golf lesson today. he loved it. He likes any sport where there isn't a chance he'll get his butt kicked by a bigger person. This is the perfect game for him. A game against yourself.

My realtor said my house needed some staging. I will admit I was a bit shocked by that but everything she suggested, I had already been thinking of so it wasn't too bad. Hopefully the new pictures will give a better idea of the interior of the house. Fingers crossed.

Would love to add some more fun things to this blog but I still haven't figured out how everything works yet. I'm not that computer savvy so it'll take a little while.

Well, off to bed, I'm tired from the day. Haven't taken the pillow shams off of Ted's side of the bed except to wash the sheets. It's nice only having to make one side of the bed everyday:)

I am so spoiled

I knew I was spoiled but it really hit home when He actually left and went to another state. 

He would  close up the house at night before he went to bed.

He would pick up all the dog poop in the yard.

He would bring me Tylenol when I had a headache and  didn't want to walk all the way downstairs to get it.

He would fix things. Anything.

He would stay awake at night so I could fall asleep first and not be scared.

He would do the BIG grocery shopping for the month and i would come along to keep him company. He wouldn't even let me help load the car. he would do it all.

I miss you Ted.

 can't wait until we're togather as a family again.

Monday's Happenings

Had to take Molly to the vet today because there has GOT to be a medical reason for her peeing all over my house. She is making it very hard for me to love her right now. She spent all day at the vet while they tried to get her to "pee in a cup". Of course she didn't perform. When I picked her up they said to just keep trying to get a sample. So all the way home I tried to figure out what I could slip between her legs while she peed but that she wouldn't notice. I finally came up with the perfect thing. A long skinny Tupperware lid. I took her home and kept her on the leash and when we went outside she of course peed immediately and I slid the lid between her legs and she peed right on the lid. I am so brilliant!! Then I had the challenge of getting this flat lid of urine into the kitchen without sloshing it all over the floor. Ha it worked!! DONE! Got my sample and will drive back to the vet in the  morning to find out if there is a medical reason for her peeing all over my house.

Next on the list was Indy's big day of getting her cast off. She has been counting the days and was so ready to get this thing off.

I of course took a couple of pictures of the exciting event.

The last picture is of how some things get neglected when other things are going on. I would NEVER leave a kitchen sink full of dishes! No Not Me!!  

Feelng better

I'm feeling better. I had a little melt down...OK maybe a big melt down but I am recovering and may have taken a few bystanders down with me but I had to radio for help.i.e my husband and Mother and Sisters. They will always pick me up when I'm down. I know I can count on them and my family to hold me up. That's what we do. We hold each other up when we're down. 

I had a bad day but we are entitled to a bad day. Tomorrow is a new day.

It's getting to me

IT's getting to me...Ted being gone. It's finally hit me. I have no more patience. I wake up cranky and I go to bed cranky. I can't even blame it on PMS because I just ended my period. I just can't do this for too much longer. Maybe it's the weather, we have had more cloudy days than sunshine. More rain than sunshine. More bugs than no bugs. I'm done. 

I don't like myself when I am short tempered with the kids. I can't help it... I just don't have any more patience with their antics.

I even got a new realtor and I am out of gas as she asks me to paint this and paint that. I don't want to do anything. I can replace the doorbell button and I can clean the muddy dog prints off of the front door but that's about it. i really don't have enough energy to do much else. If someone can't see past a few butterflies and polka dots on a couple of bedroom walls than oh well. 

Buggy Friday

I just remembered how much I hate humidity and bugs. I walk every day( well not every day but most days) with my neighbor and today it is 7:30 am and it's already 74 degrees and so humid that the sweat runs off of you after only two minutes of walking. The there is the mosquito's and the black flies and oh yeah the huge deer flies that bite you and it hurts!

Over the Winter we would walk everyday until it started to get really cold and so then we would set a temperature limit... it had to be at least 17 degrees before we would go out. Then we said that was crazy so we set the limit to 21 degrees. Of course that didn't work either so as the season went on the limit went up up up. at the end of Winter it had to be 30 degrees and no snow coming down.

Now I believe I'll be setting a bug and humidity limit. I will not walk if it is hotter than 72 degrees and there must be no bugs!!

So I guess I'll see my neighbor in the Fall when the conditions are perfect for walking!

Did I mention that I hate to sweat and don't like bugs??

"NO COMMENT"

I love writing this blog but half the fun of writing is to see what you the reader think of it. So perhaps you could take a moment and write something. Even if it's just..."hi"

Thanks.

First Day of Summer

Today was the first official weekday of Summer. Although it may not have been hot and sunny we still had a lovely day up at Squam Lake. We were invited by our friends who have a compound up there. the kids had a blast, kayaking and paddle boating and frolicking in the not too cold water. i think the water in this lake is magical. Every part of my body (who am I trying to fool, my legs only) that touched the water is super soft. Ari says the same thing, she got totally wet and her entire body is baby soft. I actually think that this whole area is magical, when you get up there you just see things differently. It's so quiet, green, lush and peaceful. Here are just a few pictures from our beautiful day...enjoy. And I know you'll be happy to see that I didn't photograph any food! Only because my tuna sandwich didn't look very appetizing after being squished in a baggie for a couple hours.

NOT ME MONDAY

*I did NOT listen to my neighbor tell me how much she hates the smell of her fresh cut garden peonies in her house when she has her entire house filled with Yankee candles and air fresheners!! I will  Not give her tons of shit for that as long as I'm here!

* I did NOT lie to my children and tell them I forgot my bathing suit just so I wouldn't have to get wet in the lake.

* I did NOT bribe Indy with a huge scoop of cool whip( yes I know Mom..It's fake food) just so she would eat a piece of veggie fritata for breakfast.

FOR TED

HI Daddy, I love you Daddy. You're the best Daddy in the whole world.  from alex

I love you daddy, I'm painting a picture frame for you and I want to show it to you when we skype today. from Indy

Hi Dad, Happy Father's day. I love you. Love Ari

To my darling husband, Happy father's day! You balance our yin and yang of parenting and I love you for that. The kids are so lucky to have your loving touch and constant love. I love you so very much and miss you tons!-Stephanie

Arianna Kathryne

Ari always tells me that I only write about Indy. Today it's all about her. Today was the last day of school for all of the kids but I feel the most emotions about my beautiful first born.

 You see this was a hard year for her. Her world stood still for a bit and we wondered if she would come out of it unscathed or  a bit beaten. She lost a very close friend to suicide. The entire 8Th grade lost a close friend. WE as parents stood by and watched them struggle and come together as a family and get each other through it. 

I didn't want my baby's innocence taken away like this, I wanted to protect her from the pain. I wanted to take her pain away but I couldn't. She had to feel it. She had to mourn. I just kept telling her that whatever she was feeling was OK to feel, but inside I was screaming to take away her pain.

 She is emerging from this. She is growing from it. She has managed to continue to bring home A's and also a great attitude.

Sometimes I wonder why she is a little quieter. Says a little less than before, but I know this will take time, more than a few short months. She will emerge a little scarred. Who wouldn't? I am a little scarred. Yet even though her world stood still for a bit, she grew a couple of inches, and was still voted "most outgoing" by her peers.

 She is strong, beautiful, smart, kind, hysterically funny and I am thankful every day that I have her in my life and that she has the rest of HER life to experience joy.

Strawberry fields and fields of children

This morning instead of sipping my coffee concoction ( Ted says I can't even call it coffee because it has more hot chocolate than coffee) and watching the Today show I went strawberry picking with my neighbor. We went about 15 minutes from our house and hit the fields with buckets for the kids and large box/baskets for us. The berry fields were busy with mom's picking for their families and older couples that looked like they might be picking to make jam and to eat. It was so much fun, the kids had no problem filling their baskets and I quickly filled mine and then moved on the help Kate fill her 2 boxes since she will be making jam and feeding her family of 6.

I never knew that New England had so much to offer in the way of fresh fruit. In June we have strawberries July there's  bluberries (which I have all over in the woods in front and behind my house), August yields tons of fresh fat blackberries(which I also have all over in my back woods) and then in September theres always apples and pumpkins. I came home this afternoon and washed them and the kids and I have just been standing over the sink eating them. I have all kinds of plans for these berries... strawberry shortcake, strawberry crepes, etc.

Right after picking berries I took Indy to school and styed and helped out with field day for the entire Kindergarten. The kids moved from game to game in groups of 7 and played all day and ended with watermelon and popcicles . Unfortunately I forgot my camera in my car so I didn't get any pictures of the kids. Yep that's me gettin the super mom award again!

Oh well at least I was there. I know I take a lot of pictures of food but at least you have something pretty to look at while you read.

WHATS FOR DINNER??

Dinner idea?? How about grilled marinated chicken and grilled veggie and bread salad.

SALAD

1 cucumber seeded and peeled/cubed

1 tomato sliced/cubed

set aside

1 red pepper

1 orange pepper

1 red onion thickly sliced

1 french baguette sliced 1 inch slices

grill all veggies on grill

bast bread slices w/ olive oil and grill on both sides.

Chop all vegies when finished add to tomato and cucumber

TOSS W/ VINAGRETTE (recipe below)

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 tsp dijon whole grain mustard

1 T vinager (any)

1/2 cup olive oil

mix first 3 inredients and then whisk while adding olive oil

salt and pepper to taste. That's it!!

toss all veggies while warm and serve warm.

NOT ME MONDAY

Welcome back to "Not Me Monday". This is the day we can confess to all the things we did "not" do last week.

* I did NOT call Ted in a panic to suggest we lower the price on the house since we haven't had a showing in 6 weeks. Even though the realtors caravan said it is a "perfect" home and priced perfectly. I did NOT use a shreiky voice while talking to him even though he said,"do you hear yourself??" I said he was crazy and I was NOT panicking about the house not selling, nor was I talking in a shreiky voive. No not me. I'm cool as a cucumber. I'm fine all by myself with the three kids, two dogs, house etc. No I fine...really

*I did NOT try to figure out how to block my face in the web when I'm talking to Ted. I always look my best with air blown dry and makeup on. I would NEVER try to block him from seeing me because I look haggard and worn out. Never , no not me.

Other than these teeny tiny thing's, It was a good week.

Pictures

                                                      Me and the sisters in SB
                                                             Vermont Barn
                                                                   Halloween
                                                                York Maine
                                                        Church in Portsmouth NH
                                                                  Somebody's Birthday
                                                        Chipotle in NH-yippee!!
                                                                      4th Of July

Sun and Rain

This weekend is coming to an end. Saturday brought 80 degrees and sunny. I cut the grass and the kids played in the hose all afternoon. They had a picnic on the front lawn OUTSIDE the invisible fence so the dogs wouldn't eat their hot dogs. It started raining last night and continued to rain all night and has rained most of the day. It is supposed to pick up again in a while and storm all night. I lay in bed last night listening to the rain. That's what I do these days. I can't sleep so I wake up at 5:30am and listen to all the birds and frogs who don't care that I'm trying to go back to sleep. They are happy. it's warm now and they all have their babies so everybody is singing in the morning. 

Ari has been reading my blog and she has filed a formal complaint that I write too much about Indy and not enough about her. On the other hand she says she tells me everything and frankly it's not that entertaining so I'm left to write about whom ever gives me the goods, and lately it's Indy. Plus in my own defense, she and I spend the most time together since she's only in school for 2 1/2 hours.

Since I am saving all my funnies for "Not Me Monday" I will just post this and some random pictures that I have taken and have not had this big of an audience to oohh and awww over my stuff.

MOOOO!!!!

                                                                This is a kids scoop...I swear!

Indy's class took a field trip to Beech Hill farm today. It rained all morning but the sun came out just in time for us to arrive. I love farms. they had all the regulars...cows, goats, pigs, horses,etc. They also make ice cream so of course we all had some. I took some pictures. I will now start my campaign for a "Big camera". I am really loving taking pictures and I think I'm ready for a big digital camera. Please leave a comment if you agree :)

I'm Gushing

Three of my nieces have graduated from High School. Corey, Brittany, and Meredith. They were the sweetest and cutest kids and have become three stellar human beings with some amazing gifts. I am honored to be in their presence and look forward to the next chapter in their lives. They all three play volleyball and will continue to do so in college with full scholarships. 

Congratulations girls...YOU ROCK!!

I love you TONS!!  I'm GUSHING with pride.

Aunt Steph

Parenting from the web

Since Ted has been gone I have been talking to him everyday on the web via ichat and Skype. It's so nice to see his face and for him to see me and the kids. I even told him to feel free to yell at the kids so they wouldn't miss him too much:)

While he and I talk he tells me that Molly is eating out of Henry's food bowl and other goings on behind my back. I love it.

Last night he talked to the kids for a long time. They really miss him so it's nice  for them to get one on one time via the computer so they can talk about their day. Alex was even able to show Ted his new haircut!