Out with the old

I’ve been searching for a while for a new look for our room. We’ve had our bedspread for {ahem} several years. Can you tell?? Yes, I started having to wash in hot water because of allergies. The good news is that the allergies aren’t as bad, but the poor fabric just can’t hack it. . .

So the other day I saw a room in BHG and did something that I never do—I looked up in the back of the magazine to find where to buy the bedspread. It is beautiful, no?

Here’s the catch. Yes, did you see the price on that puppy?? Three hundred and fifty smackeroos. {!!!} Seriously, that’s still ninety bucks even if by some miracle I found it for *seventy*five*percent*off* {{Sigh}} Needless to say, it was back to the drawing board for me. So then I began searching for similar fabric to piece together a quilt {or more realistically a duvet cover…}
This one is a possibility:

I could even fork out the 8 bucks a yard. Sure sounds reasonable next to $350!
But I’m not ready to stop looking yet…

Games

The other night we went over to dinner with some of our good friends from Kansas. They introduced us to the game Ticket to Ride. It was great fun!
Actually, games have been on my mind recently as I've been thinking of Christmas gifts. I saw a blurb on a morning show the other day about the best new games of the year. They mentioned Ruckus, Sorry Sliders, Qwirkle, Pictureka and Quelf.
So I've been compiling a list of games to get for our family.
But I'm wondering, what are your favorite games??

Cabin Fever

I realized today that we are about to have two full weeks of no school. Uh oh. Having no school during the winter is a little tricky for us non-skiers. I better make some plans... {And yes, my coat is *still* in storage!}

Nutritionally Dense

I was leafing through a magazine from the library this weekend and one of the articles was about parents making a difference in their kids’ schools. Oo, I thought that sounded great, so I started reading…One of the examples was about a group of parents who decided that they didn’t want junk food in the vending machines anymore. Great Idea, thought I. Then they explained how they were able to get it changed from having candy bars to having potato chips and fruit snacks….???!!!??? HUH?? Since when are potato chips and fruit snacks healthy? Sounds like somebody’s parents need to go back to school!

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

Recently I’ve been having fun browsing blogs of perfect strangers and looking at all their Christmas Decorating ideas and what not. {I started out looking for ideas for our new house. Maybe I’ll post about that later.} A bunch of them are having little “tours of homes” today where people can post pictures of their decorations {blogs really are the epitome of narcissism}. So, in the spirit of the season, I thought I would post some of mine for your enjoyment and inspiration… Just keeping it real, people.

First, don't you love what I've done with our Christmas Garland? This is the second time I have tried to put it up. . .

Here are some lights I bought this weekend. They were 75% off. Still in the bag.

Here are some ornaments the kids got at Primary. On top of the TV, since there is no room in this inn for a tree.

OK, lest you think I am wallowing in self-pity or seeking sympathy, I will mention that we have had some Christmas Cheer around here. The kids had fun at the big faculty & staff family party in the WILK. And we had a fun time the other night at The Professor’s department Christmas Party. {Not to mention some delicious salmon!}

But I can’t help but feel like this year our Christmas is just a little bit Charlie Brown. “Isn’t there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about?!?!”

Decisions, Decisions

Today I can either do laundry to avoid doing dishes. OR I can wash dishes and avoid doing laundry. Oh, whatever shall I do??

Is it just me?

So here is my dilemma {well, one of them...}: If I stay home, I end up eating. If I leave the house, I end up spending money.
Which is worse??

So we went out for ice cream tonight to CELEBRATE

“The bank” approved the offer we made on this house!!

To state the obvious, it is not a moment too soon! I was actually starting to sweat about where, oh *where* will we put a Christmas tree in this place?!! Plus, Sears has our appliances on sale for 25+% off this Friday morning, and we’ve already had to pass up their sales twice! Talk about cutting it close…Plus my coat is in storage and I’d really like to get it out. {I guess that’s what happens when you pack your house up in July.}
As you can see in the pictures, the house is not quite finished. The builder {who is currently in jail} went under and we are the suckers who decided it would be worth it to put in the counters, toilets, faucets, A/C, garage doors, appliances and carpets…not to mention the yard. I like to think of it as our Sleeping Beauty castle. You know, having to slash through all the thorns to get to the princess. Those weeds are as tall as me. Now that. Is. Tall.
As you can also see by the date on the pictures how *ridiculously* long and drawn out this process has been. It has really been aggravating at times. But I think it will turn out to be worth it in the end. I had originally hoped we might be in by Thanksgiving. Obviously not. Christmas is probably a bit of a stretch, but maybe maybe maybe by New Years??
And here’s another bonus: we locked in our interest rate today at 5 1/3%. Cha-Ching!! Seriously, that is going to make a huge difference!
By the way, we went to Baskin Robbins for our ice cream cones because they are a dollar on Tuesday nights. You might want to investigate whether yours has that.

I've Decided

During the recent aftermath of Halloween, I have decided that I no longer enjoy candy. Now, show me cake, ice cream, cookies, or pastries and you’ll have to *hold*me*back*. But candy I seem to have outgrown.

Family Night--Dollar Skating

When was the last time you went rollerskating?? It had been a long time since we had gone until monday night. Our cousins invited us for their school fundraiser. Serious fun. Easy did surprisingly well on skates. {Though she did manage to trip both myself and the Professor at least once.} Cuddles’ need for speed compelled him to ditch the skates after about ten minutes and go for the scooter.


Here is part of the conversation in the car on the way:
Easy: What is blonde hair?
Me: It’s what people call yellow hair. Like Sam’s.
Cuddles: What is white hair called?
Me: White hair.
Easy: Or gray.
Me: Yeah, or gray.
Cuddles: How do people get white hair?
Me: Well, as you get older it just starts to lose its color.
Cuddles: Like Daddy’s hair is white.
Easy: And gray.
The Professor: What?! Thanks a lot you guys!
Easy: Your hair is gray. And white, Daddy.
Cuddles: Dad, have you even looked in the mirror??
Lucky for me red heads are the last to go.

Conversation after preschool

EZ: what does invisible mean?
Me: It means you can’t see it. Visible means you can see it, and invisible means you can’t see it.
EZ: Ok. {pause} What does Out-visible mean??

Lame

So I got a letter the other day from the school nurse. Apparently Cuddles was missing one of his required shots. And by required, I mean: required in Utah but not required in Massachusetts. Nice. Anyone can guess how well that went over… {especially with the award-winning bedside manner of the nurse at the county health department. How about we not flash the huge needle in his face. Maybe try getting him looking in another direction first. I’m not a nurse, but it just seems like a good idea.}
Our bribe was a trip to “Chucky Cheese-its” afterward. We didn’t buy any pizza, since the last time we were there the kids ate a whole lot of nothing. Just the tokens. Also, last time we were there Cuddles didn’t see anything he wanted to redeem his tickets for, so I held on to them and this time he ended up with a hundred and fifty. As if he hasn’t had enough sugar lately, he decided on this for his prize:

Blast From the Past

The other day I was at the library and came upon a Smurfs DVD. So I checked it out and brought it home for the kids to watch. They *loved* it! It is now their favorite show. That and The Brady Bunch, which they also recently discovered on one of the PBS channels here. Cuddles calls it “The Funny Show.”
But there is one thing that has him puzzled: “What does it mean to ‘smurf a tree’?”

Oops

By the time I remembered that I need to register to vote after moving, it was too late. Oops. So now we will be absentee voters in Massachusetts. I guess that’s not such a big deal; it’s not as if either state is a swing state. Actually, my consolation is that I will get to vote against John Kerry one more time.
And no matter who you are voting for, you can’t tell me that this isn’t seriously *hilarious*!

A Tasty Treat

I’m not really into crafts. They always look cool but they never really turn out right and then they just seem to pile up as clutter. So I try to stick with bigger projects, like useful home improvement stuff or consumable things like FOOD.
For example, a few months ago I made some cream puffs for a friend’s baby shower. I had made them before, but I had forgotten how much FUN they are to make! It’s like playdoh for moms!
And then I found these


These are from the Bakerella blog {see sidebar link}, or you may have seen their cousin, the cupcake pops, on Martha Stewart. So I finally made some for my little sister’s b-day this weekend and they were not only super FUN, and super CUTE but also super TASTY! And you also get to impress your friends and relatives.

poem

In honor of the season, here is one of my favorite poems
by e e cummings

l(a

le
af
fa
ll

s)
one
l

iness

Monday: Wash Day

When I used to do laundry in the laundromat here I used to always get ticked off by that person who would come in and fill up all the washers at the same time. I mean, seriously, how rude. Well, now that person is me. I did 7 loads this week. {I actually did more than that last week but on two different days.} I figured out that I actually do less loads if its all on one day. But it sure ticks off the other poor souls who actually expect to find available washing machines when they need them...There's probably a really nice word for people like me.

And now for the folding...

Getting old fast

These pictures were not staged. . .

We were getting ready to watch a movie {on the computer, since the DVD player is in storage} and this is what I saw, so I took a picture. How cute. But it quickly turned into this.
I think we will all breathe a little easier once we can finally make up our minds and buy a house already!! We have one that we would really like to buy. It's a short sale so we have had to do a little extra research and number crunching first, but I think we are just about ready to make an offer. If they don't take it, we'll have to find something else fast, or else I'm not sure there will still be four of us left to move out...

Quote of the Day

"I know everything" --Easy

Road Trip Pics

Mass of Ketchup

Here is a rundown of our move/road trip:
8/6: Pouring rain, which is of course ideal weather for loading a moving truck. Luckily, by the time the rain slowed down the truck showed up {4 hours late}. So we loaded until we could no longer see, stand up or think strait. H.L. who is now on my list of Saints had the kids all day. And night. They ended up sleeping over…

8/7: To summarize, here is what Missletoe said when she came to pick up her airbeds, “I was driving around the corner thinking how sad it would be to drive up to your house with you guys gone. Then I got here and decided it is WAY WORSE that you are still here!” I guess it was unrealistic of me to think we would leave town at 6am. Yes, I should know better. After our life-saving neighbors filled us up with KFC and Pokemon cards we finally got on the road a little after 3. Only 6 hours late…Drove to Palmyra {we were supposed to stop there for lunch and then sleep in OH}.

8/8: It was pouring rain in Palmyra so we didn’t see any sights, and we only stopped in Kirtland for 1 hour instead of 3, but we made up some time and got to our hotel in Indiana. Only had to pull over on the side of the freeway twice. Had a headache all day; whether it was from the stress or the screaming is anyone’s guess…Did I mention I was in the car with the kids while the Professor was all by his lonesome in the van listening to his Stephenie Meyers audio books??

8/9: Let the kids swim at the hotel so they could pretend like they were having fun and then we hit the road. Here is some advice: DO NOT drive through Chicago. Even on a Saturday. Or at least factor in an extra 3 hours. Here is an actual quote from Easy, “Oh, not another toll!” *Finally* got through to the west side of Chicago and thought the worst was over. But then, somehow we were in the left lane of course and the sign said “cars right lane.” So we were trying to get over, well a semi was blocking me, but The Professor got over to the toll lanes on the right. But there was not a toll booth on the left lanes. OK, I’ve been through my share of toll booths but this one completely eluded me. So at this point I thought we were now on separate freeways and I’m freaking out and screaming into my walkie-talkie {!!!!!!!} Not a happy moment…He says he’ll catch up to me. O….K…. So I drive along, slowing down and now I’m in the right lane going the minimum speed and feeling dazed and confused. Turns out, those left lanes were for the EZ Pass or whatever, but I’ve never seen anything like them before--and I know tolls! Of course it felt like an eternity until I finally saw a sign telling me I was still on I-90 West and then The Professor caught up to me. So, seriously stay as far away from Chicago as you possibly can, unless you are going there on purpose. But it was smooth sailing from there into Minnesota where we stayed with my little bro and his fam for the weekend.

8/10: Aunt Cake made delicious German pancakes and we went to church. I don’t know all the details, but we were told that Cuddles had a little altercation in his Primary class…we’re all just a little stressed out right now.

8/11: Hung out and watched the kids fight over the toys. We could look down the stairs at the playroom and see Cuddles run past with a certain prized toy in hand and then a distressed cousin following close behind. This happened at regular and frequent intervals. Ah, good times! But we got to go see a free movie {Horton Hears a Who} and to dinner at a fun pizza buffet.

8/12: Watched the rain and the Olympics and hit the mall soft play area.

8/13: On the road again. Drove to North Platte, Nebraska. The dvd player finally died and then the hotel pool was closed. But we uncovered a gem in that little town: they have this park where they have old carnival rides for super cheap and super cheap ice cream cones. Severe weather hit just as we were finishing up our ice cream. I was thinking how this would be a fabulous time to have golf ball sized hail through our windshields in the hotel parking lot!! Luckily it didn’t get to that point. But we did hear Easy talking in her sleep, {and I kid you not}: “No, don’t make me get in the car!”

8/14: Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’ out of Nebraska, through Wyoming. I didn’t think it looked as bleak as they say. Cuddles noticed a lot of corn {I guess that was beginning back in Indiana}. He kept asking when we could stop and pick some. We got into Utah at 7-ish. Ate dinner and slept in Heber. The hotel was nice and we enjoyed some late-night swimming…and then almost set off the fire alarm/sprinkler system. Needless to say I was out of the room while other un-named individuals were reheating leftover morsels from their dinner. In Styrofoam cups. In the microwave.

8/15: Got up, ate breakfast and headed to our apartment. YAHOO!

So, when people ask me, “How was the move?” what do you think I should say??

Dying to know

I’m sure that you are all just on the edge of your seats wondering how things finally turned out with selling our house. Well, me too!
We do have someone looking at the house right now who seems pretty interested. But it’s not like that hasn’t happened before… We've had one ridiculous offer {but I guess it never hurts to ask} and one offer that was really close, but they changed their minds in the middle.
As if this whole ordeal weren’t already enough to drive me bonkers, someone has apparently swiped our “For Sale” sign *and* someone was running a scam ad of our house for rent on craigslist. {I have a love/hate relationship with craigslist at the moment…}
Here is the phrase that keeps coming to my mind when I pray: “Thou art not yet as Job.” OK, I guess that is true. But I’m finding out I’m no Pollyanna either.

Ammunition

OK, everyone, now that the cross-country road trip is in view, I am picking everyone's brain for your best tricks for subduing those kids in the back seat...DVD player--check, Leapster--check, binoculars--check...

Holy Social Commentary, Batman!

We took the kids to the movies the other day. We let them choose between Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda. {The Professor and I were rooting for Kung Fu Panda, but Cuddles decided we needed to see the one about robots.} I am a huge Pixar fan, but I have to say it was not my favorite in their line-up so far. And it was actually kind of rough as a kids flick, maybe due to the lack of dialog. Cuddles was loaded with questions {not like that is unusual} and Easy lasted in her seat for about the length of the animated short {which I actually liked better than the feature in all honesty.} Plus the film spent most of its time throwing stinging jabs at our, shall we say, growing sedentary lifestyle. Not that I disagreed…
It also reminded me that I need to watch Hello, Dolly.

A Little of This, A Little of That

This one is partly to show off {since it seems to be fewer and farther between that those occasions arise…} and mostly to give a little helpful how-to:
It seems I still have a little bit of creative juices left in me. I made this fabulous birthday cake {a while ago, of course} for Cuddles. And I’ll even tell you the trick!!
After procuring the character you would like to portray on your cake, you smack down a piece of waxed paper on top of the picture. Next, you take a sharpie and trace over the important parts. Flip that baby over and pipe out a thin line of frosting to get the outline. Flip it over again, position onto the cake top and press down gently so that the frosting gets transferred onto said cake. Now you just fill it in with as much frosting as you can stand!!
Let’s just say I had a teensy sugar headache after finishing off the decorating on this one…
***
And on the girly side, I was recently tipped off by my pal A.B. about some fun hairdo blogs. {I’ll add one or two onto my sidebar--"she does hair"} However, Easy has granted me permission to do her hair “on Sundays only.” But that’s fine, mostly because of how quickly it changes from this…

To this…

Saturday I woke up at 9.

Here is a little run-down of our family's Freedom Celebration:
July 3rd:
4pm-- arrived at the Hatch Shell for the free concert with Boston Pops and Rascal Flats. Sat around and picnicked with friends and was introduced to everyone we didn't know in the vacinity by our three year old. {"Hey what kind of chips do you have? Mind if I try one?" "Oh, that's a nice statue of liberty hat, mind if I have it?" "Ah, you brought an umbrella, how about if I sit on your lap??"}
8:15--Severe weather arrives, but we hold down the fort so as not to lose our precious spot on the grass. All the wimps lost theirs.
8:30--Concert begins.
10:00--Confetti cannon next to us shoots off, startling the Professor and delighting the children. Can't find Easy...Luckily everyone in the crowd already knows who she is and she's quickly spotted.

July 4th:
2:00--Naptime!!
6:00--Dinner at the Barking Crab. Then we meander over to the Children's Museum because it is of course Target $1 Friday.
8:30--Leave Museum and zip over to the Esplanade for the fireworks show.
9:00--still inching through the crowd trying to find a spot. No chance of sitting tonight...
9:30--Inching along, inching along, and suddenly some preliminary fireworks go off. Everyone stops in their tracks. I guess this will be our spot...
10:30--Sigh of relief as the fireworks finally start. EXCELLENT!!!!
10:50--Easy falls asleep. She almost made it...
11:00--Inching along towards the nearest T stop to commence a subway ride I would rather forget...
12:48--Pull up into our driveway.

And now you know why I woke up at 9 on Saturday.

Lightbulbs

So, we’ve been “investing” in the new fancy compact fluorescent bulbs for several years now. Let me just say that I’m getting disgruntled. So they’re supposed to last for 6-7 years. Right?? Um…no. Ever read the box?? Down at the bottom on the back. Basically if you never use them they’ll last for a few years. Ok, so whatever that’s a bummer. But I could have gotten past that. Then I figure out that the things are laced with mercury. *Mer*cur*y*. Excuse me, HELLO!!! And I consider myself a decently informed individual. I listen to talk radio. But I did not know that these world-saving lightbulbs contain mercury. Not until one got shattered all over the floor did I notice the itsy bitsy teeny print in the smallest font imaginable. “Contains Mercury” {Is it just me, or shouldn’t that tidbit be a bit more prominently displayed??} Oh, that’s just fabulous!! Not to mention the past bulbs who obviously didn’t last the full seven years that made their way into the LANDFILL through my unsuspecting garbage bags!! I guess I’m just not seeing how that is better for the environment. It’s just a little bit frustrating when we keep hearing of these *magic* fixes to replace our awful energy guzzling whatevers, only to find out that whatever it is we’ve been told to switch to is just as bad, only in a different way. {I mean, don’t even get me started on ethanol…} And yet, my mantra seems to be: “Go Green, despite Al Gore.”

And since I’m on the subject of lightbulbs, here is an example of what can happen when you are lazy and don’t put the bulb back into the fixture:

It almost looks like a lightbulb in there, doesn't it??

He's good for something...

And just when we had removed that hornets nest,

Easy pointed up and said, "There's another one!" Good Grief!!

??

Can anyone tell me why we have commercials for
FOOD STAMPS!!!!?????

We are the Champions, my friend

Can I just say that we have had the year of all years when it comes to sports!! Red Sox won the world series, Patriots had their almost perfect season, KU won the National Championship, and now the Celtics have the NBA title. It just doesn’t get any better than this!! This is once in a lifetime stuff, here!!!
So in our attempts to soak it all in before we leave Boston, we headed downtown for the “Rolling Rally” on Thursday with the Celtics. It was kind of on a whim, because we had some passes to the Museum of Science from our neighbor that we needed to use, and so we thought we’d fill up the day with FUN.
Well, the day was full, and so was the SUBWAY!! We waited in line for a half hour just to get to the ticket machine at the train station. At this point I was wondering if we should just bag it. Then we played sardines all the way to downtown. It was an interesting ride.

When we got to Boston Common we walked for a little while til we found a spot that we could see through to the street and waited. I will say we had better luck with the waiting part than our last few parades {Plymouth at Thanksgiving was preceded by a fire and the Memorial Day “parade” was an hour and a half of waiting for five minutes of “parade”} And of course, since I am an idiot, my camera battery *died* --and I kid you not—seconds before the Duck Boats appeared {which is also the same moment that Easy remember she had to go potty} It was super noisy, which Cuddles enjoyed at first because he got to holler, then he decided it was too much. Easy was all about the confetti. She was picking it up off the ground the rest of the day. Nice.

We made a stop at BK for lunch and then hiked over toward the Museum of Science, passing by The Garden, where coincidentally, the Duck Boats were returning and we saw the players again with hardly anyone else around which was pretty cool. Except I could have done without all the cigars… seriously.
Spent the rest of the afternoon at the museum and then after we got home Cuddles saw the parade on the news and it just blew him away -- “Hey, that’s where we were!” “It’s on tv?!”
Oh, and here’s my quote of the day: MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas "Our standard operating procedure is becoming pretty standard." Okay.
Easy fit right in with her {ahem} bottle from which to take a few swigs...And yes, I purposely dressed them to match in yellow so that I could find them easier if misplaced. {And another thing I need to do before we leave is buy some Celtics stuff...}

A Bit of Nostalgia

Luckily for us, summer has seemed to arrive a bit early this year. We’ve been trying to balance keeping the house clean to show {and hopefully sell} it {which is *so* getting old} with enjoying the sunshine and the great outdoors while we’re still here.
And it gets me thinking about the things we’ll miss about Boston. . .{people not included}
Kiddie cones at Friendly’s. {best value on the planet!!}
The BEACH!! Enough said.
History and atmosphere. You know, like living in the middle of the woods with wild turkeys in your yard, and all the fabulous old houses, so many things to see and do. There’s a distinctive character to New England that I will miss. I like to say that it’s a great place to live…if you’re rich!
The Library. I don’t know, I just really like our library{s} here.

Hannafords. It's always been a big deal for me adjusting to a new grocery store whenever we move. {Luckily this time I'll be heading back to familiar ones.}

As well as some of the things we *won’t* miss. . . {again, people not included ;-)}
Multiple-lane roads. Now these are not just the roads with more than one lane for each direction. We’re talking about the kind where you’re driving along and there’s two lanes. Driving along, Oops! Now there’s one lane… Driving along…two lanes again!!…driving along…back to one lane…
Tolls. Talk about the least effective way to collect money. I mean, seriously!! Plus there’s the times when you pass the toll booth to get off the freeway, figure out you took the wrong exit then pass the toll booth *again*-- amazingly annoying.
Driving. It’s insane!! People just make up rules! I realize that Utah drivers don’t have a great reputation either, but what it boils down to there is they just like to drive fast.

{OK, I just noticed those are all about driving...}

Oh! Here we go-- Poison Ivy and Ticks!

And then there are the things we are looking forward to in Utah:
Drinkable water. I used to think this was a given until living here. I now know what keeps the bottled water companies in business.

Provo Canyon. {Saving my pennies for some rollerblades}
SIDEWALKS!!
Restaurants. We still haven’t been anyplace where you can get such great food so abundantly. Our theory is that when people don’t down any alcohol with their meal, then the expectations for the food are higher. Our favs {and its been a while, so I’m hoping they’re still around}: Magleby’s Take-out, China Lily, California Sub, Einstein Bros. and any number of Mexican restaurants.
Proximity to things like Costco, Target or a church or parks.
Public Swimming Pools. This may sound weird, but for whatever reason, there aren’t many of those in New England. They just have swimming “holes” and believe me there’s a big difference. Plus everyone and their dog has a pool in their backyard, even though you have about two weeks of swim-worthy weather.
Suicide lanes. Never thought I would miss those, but they don’t really have them here. Maybe it’s because all the roads are so old and there’s not enough space {and basically every lane is a suicide lane…}

BYU Campus. It's not really Utah we're going for, its BYU. There's just no place quite like it.

A little confession...

Shooting Spree

Photos, that is. I’ve been a bit camera happy recently…
That, and I’ve been experimenting with the Picasa photo editing stuff {since it’s free} {and since I’m in the market for a new photo editing/scrapbooking program since my trusty Picture It doesn’t even run on my new computer…I guess it has lasted me 8 years…} So here’s a whole slew of photos from our lives of late. But don’t expect any great captions…

OK, this is taking a while and now I've apparently reached my size limit. I will have to put the rest up later. Plus some of the best ones are still on my cam. Sorry to get your hopes up, but now you have something to look forward to...