Holy Moly!

It's been a while since I posted! We're still here, and we've weathered the recent New England ice storm. We were very fortunate that we were only out of power for a little over 24 hours. We spent Friday without power, and bailed after Greg got out of work as the house dipped to 57 degrees. Greg's parent's were kind enough to let us, along with Greg's brother spend the night in their living room. They have a generator so they have heat, their refrigerator, and a little light so we played dominoes and made the best of it! Up until yesterday, we were the only ones in our family with power; but as of today, everyone except Greg's parents have been restored, so we're hoping that today will be their day! There are still about 150,000 people waking up without power this morning in NH. The damage this storm caused is unbelievable, you can still drive down almost any road and see the evidence. Our school is still set up as shelter, and the Emergency Alert System is still being being played throughout the day to urge people to seek warmth. We have had people from all over the US (I think there were trucks from Canada as well) come and help the electric companies gain some ground and I was so disheartened to hear Greg tell me the story he heard on the radio yesterday of the man who called the electric company and was so angered by his power not being returned, that he told the operator that he wished death upon him and his family. It's unimaginable how someone could be so cruel, there's just no excuse for it. Sure it's frustrating to be without power but these people are working their butts off to get the job done! So today I'm thankful for warmth, for the safety of my family and friends, and for the thousands of people who have left their families at such a busy time of year to help those who have been so affected by the storm.

More updates coming soon, with pictures I promise!

Another Blogger in the Family

Ian has really been into writing stories on the computer lately, and he wanted to start his own blog with his stories. He just completed his first post. If you would like to check it out, click here! He's very proud of himself!

Some Days Are Just So Good!

We had a great day today. Stevie was in a great mood, he took an extra long nap that coincided with Ana's nap, and there was no toddler to baby abuse! Ana was extra cute in her antics today, and Ian came off the bus in a really good mood! He came in, did his homework with no prodding, played a little Wii, and then asked to use the computer to type (he likes to write letters and books on the computer). This was the conversation that followed:

"Mumma, can we make lots of copies of my book?"
"Sure, but what do you need them for?"
"I'm gonna sell them!"
"Oh! What will you do with the money you make from selling your books?"
"I'll keep half for our family, then I'll give the rest to charity"

Holy moly! That was not the response I was expecting! I was so pleased! Now, I wouldn't be surprised if the answer tomorrow is, "I'm gonna buy all the Bakugan's in the world!", but I'm going to relish in today's response. But that's not where it ended. He out of the blue asked if he could read Ana her book before bed tonight, and he remembered when it was bed time and asked again. She sat right there with him in the glider while he read her "Moo Baa La La La" by Sandra Boynton. After he was done he asked if he could rock her, and I told him he could try, thinking it wouldn't really work. I put her back in the rocker with him and she laid her little head right down on his shoulder. I nearly cried it was so sweet. I helped him to hoist her into her crib and he tucked her in, gave her her silky lovey, and a book to look at and said, "night night Ana". I am just brimming with pride tonight. Somebody remind me of this moment next time I complain that he's being a pain in my tushy!

Day One Down!

We had our first day with little Stevie today, and we made it through relatively unscathed. He took all his bottles well, and took 3 nice naps, and besides a little cranky spell that was more due to me not knowing his schedule, we did pretty good! That is of course barring the little incident where Ana head butted him, then hit him, then tried to throw a shoe at him, but we're not counting that are we? Really though, I think this will work quite well. It may take some time for Ana to get used to the idea, but I know it will work out. I'm actually kind of glad in a way to see some jealousy issues in Ana because it just reassures me that she has bonded well to her mumma!

I Did It!

Well, here we are, November 30th, and I made it! I managed to blog every day this month, and I'm pretty darn proud of myself! Some days were harder than others, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. Greg is now asking me if I'm planning on keeping up with it, and I would really like to say yes. I definitely will try, but December is such a busy month, and I'm going to have my nephew every day starting tomorrow, so I'm not making any guarantees, but I'm not saying "no" either! We'll just have to wait and see! Anyways, thanks for following me all month long, I'll close the month with a couple of cute kids.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We are in the midst of a busy weekend! We spent the morning at the grocery store shopping for the fixings for tomorrow's Thanksgiving meal with Greg's family, and getting the house re-organized after a two week stint of sicky laziness. Shopping for a gluten-free Thanksgiving meal is pretty involved if you are not accustomed to the diet on a day to day business, but this is year number three and I think I'm getting into a groove with it. We will be having a completely gluten-free menu right down to the apple crisp with gluten free oats, which I have just this moment realized I've forgotten to ask Mimi if she has any of, so maybe dessert will have to be altered! In addition to preparing for tomorrow, my aunt Helen from Scotland is in the states visiting her daughter who has been working in New York City for the past couple years and they both flew in this morning to spend the weekend (at my mum's house). So we've just returned from dinner at my mum's with the whole family, what a lovely time we had! It was Ana's (and baby Stevie's) first time meeting Aunt Helen, and Ian is just absolutely in love with Catherine (my cousin) so it was just a really nice night for everyone! Tomorrow morning we will go back to visit for an hour or so before returning to get busy on the Thanksgiving feast before everyone arrives. Then we'll have to really kick ourselves in gear tomorrow night to get everything done that we wanted to before little Stevie starts coming to spend his day's with us on Monday. Please pardon all my run on sentences, my mind is going a wee bit fast at the moment! It's extremely busy, but really, it's the best kind of busy there is!

What Time Were You Up Today?

Well, I was one of those crazies up at 4:00 this morning standing outside the local Wal-Mart. I go with my neighbors every year, and even though there was nothing I needed to buy, it is always amusing, if not a little disturbing, to see the number of people who drag themselves out of bed at that hour to shop. I ended up snagging some pajamas for the kids, and some clothes that Ian desperately needed due to a recent growth spurt. Nancy and Marcia (my neighbors), then brought me out to breakfast as a celebration for my birthday which was so nice! Marcia then went on to work and Nancy and I continued on to Kohls and Target as I was still in search of something nice for Ian to wear for Christmas pictures. It's quite a challenge now that I need to coordinate two outfits, but such a good challenge to have! I just kept thinking about last year at this time when we were shopping for clothes to stuff in a gallon ziplock to send to Ana in Guatemala. It seems so long ago now, when at the time we were enduring the most agonizing wait of our lives! Anyways, were any of you crazy like me?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I laid in bed last night for a long time just thinking about how very thankful I am for my life. I have a wonderful husband, two amazing children, an equally amazing family, and group of people I call my friends. I have a roof over my head, food on my table, and an environment in which I can safely live and raise my family. I am thankful to celebrate our first Thanksgiving with Ana home, for the process that allowed her to become a part of our family, and for her caretakers who loved her and cared for her the eight months we were apart. I am endlessly thankful to Ana's birth mother who chose to give her life, even when she knew she couldn't be a physical part of it. It is simply impossible to find the words...

It's amazing to look back on your life, and see that things that made no sense at the time; things that devastated you, play out in the big picture so perfectly. I used to feel sorry for myself, for my infertility. I will openly admit I still go to that dark feeling sorry place now and then, but I can now look back and see if it wasn't for that part, that seemed so awful at the time, we wouldn't have ever had our eyes opened to adoption, and we wouldn't have our Ana! I probably wouldn't have started blogging, which led to so many friendships along the way; and I wouldn't have had my eyes opened to the difference one person can make in this world. There are so many ways to help those in need! Maybe this is my purpose, who knows. All I know is that because of something that darkened our lives for so many years, I feel like I'm such a different person than I was before. And I think I'm better for it. When all along I felt like it was so unfair that I was unable to become pregnant a second time, I was actually receiving the most amazing gift of all. God has blessed me with the ability to become a mother in two different, amazingly wonderful ways. It is a wondrous experience to birth a child, and an entirely different, yet equally wondrous experience to adopt one. I consider myself blessed beyond measure to have experienced both.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Books

Ana's new passion is books. She's constantly bringing us books to read to her, and she'll "read" them to herself as well, opening a book then spouting a bunch of garbled gibberish. When my mum was here last week, she brought her one of Ian's piano books and my mum opened it and started singing, "la la la la". Ana then took the book, plopped herself down next to Milo and started "reading" it to herself, "la la la la la". It was so cute!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I prefer paper, but the procrastinator in me usually ends up using bags.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real Tree

3. When do you put up the tree? The day/weekend after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually after the New Year

5. Do you like eggnog? Yummy!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Barbie Dream House

7. Hardest person to buy for? My brother in law

8. Are gifts from Santa wrapped or unwrapped? Wrapped

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A trip to the emergency room for an asthma attack!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? After Thanksgiving, though every year I swear I'm going to start earlier!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My mum's quiche and calzones Christmas Eve and Cinnamon Buns Christmas morning

16. Lights on the tree? alternate multi color one year, clear the next

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We've always traveled (though Greg's and my parents are just up the road), but it's harder with kids now!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star

21. Open the presents Christmas eve or Christmas day? Growing up, kids opened a present on Christmas Eve that was always miraculously a new pair of pajamas. We've continued that with Ian, and now I can buy some girly Christmas PJs!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Grumpy shoppers

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? We have a mish mosh (is that a word?) When I was growing up, our neighbor Charlene made us a new ornament every year and she has continued it to this day, not only for us, but our kids too! We have lot of lovely ornaments from her attached to a lot of good memories!

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Leftovers from Christmas Eve

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I have everything I could possibly want

26. Favorite Holiday Tradition? Going to church with our family on Christmas Eve

Toddler Work

I am in constant wonder about what goes on in a toddler's mind. She's really starting to understand what we say to her as evidenced by the running to the highchair at the mention of a meal or the complete breakdown when we whisper, "night night time". I just so cool to see how she's starting to process things. But the busy work is what is fascinating to me. I remember Ian doing these tasks as well, one time in particular, carefully transferring multiple bottles of water from one location, across the room one at a time by way of plastic dinner plate. Tonight Ana spent almost 15 minutes pushing a plastic bin from one end of the house to the other, at each end re-arranging the contents of the box (a DVD case and the little box Ian's slinky came in) before turning around. It's so funny to watch how determined she is to get her "work" done.

I Want the Sickies to Leave Our House!

Greg and I are both sick now. Seems like it's been non stop for about a month. Ana started with her first bout with wheezing three or four weeks ago which resulted in her being prescribed Pulmicort, an inhaled corticosteroid. We had a heck of a time getting her to take that medication, and she improved in a day so we were wondering if it was indeed necessary at all so we stopped it until we were to have an appointment with her regular doctor. Somewhere after that, Ian had a cough and sore throat for few days, but nothing major. Then Ana had a pretty bad bout of diarrhea (yeah, Milo had it too, at the same time, arrgh!), followed by Ian who again got past it pretty quickly (that kid has some immune system, thank goodness!). Before we could get back to the doctor to discuss Ana's medications, she started with a runny nose and minor cough that very quickly progressed into this latest bout that landed us in the ER the other night. We had to follow up with her doctor's office yesterday only to find out that on top of her breathing issues, she had a full on ear infection as well. So this poor little girl is taking quite a laundry list of medications, and isn't afraid to tell us exactly what she thinks of it! We have to fight her every step of the way, which is nebulizer treatments 6-8 times a day, amoxicillin twice a day, and prednisone twice a day...not to mention the random sprinkling of Motrin or Tylenol for achies, fevers, and ferocious teething! So when I woke up this morning with pretty much no voice, I was more than a little grumpy! On top of feeling icky, we were going to celebrate my birthday with our families tonight and I didn't want to take the chance of getting the baby sick, so I turned them away when they got here and we decided to do it at another date. Anyways, my mum and dad and Greg's mum ended up coming over for tacos anyways, and they gave me some lovely presents; an mp3 player from Greg, Ian and Ana, a yogurt maker from Greg's mum and brother (I've wanted one for so long!), and a craft table to help set up my craft room (ready for crafting dates ladies?!). Thanks for coming over guys, I hope we didn't infect you! And thank you for the wonderful gifts, I am so excited! Hopefully we will have all recovered by Thanksgiving so I can pour the kisses on my nephew again! Before I end for the night, I just wanted to also send thoughts out to my sister, her husband Mike and his family who are in Michigan right now for Mike's uncle's funeral. We've been thinking about you, and love you guys so much.

So What's the Big Deal About Today?

Don't feel bad if you didn't know what today is! It's pretty obscure, but still very cool I think. Ana spent the first 255 days of her life in the arms of others. I am happy to report that today she has been in our arms for 256 days. We have tipped time in our favor, she has officially been home with us longer that she was without us. I just LOVE the thought of that!

Not much tonight I'm afraid. It's been a rough week, Ana's been sick, and her sleep has been off. Ana and I ended up in the ER early this morning as she was wheezing and having trouble breathing. We got to bed at about 5am and were up at 8:30 for a long day. I find it so ironic that we have asthma on both sides of our family, and our biological child has managed to escape the disease yet Ana, who shares no genes with us quite possibly has it. How strange is that? Anyways, it's just after 9:30 and I just returned home with Ian from a PTA showing of the movie Kung Fu Panda. I am exhausted, so I'm going to go to bed. Before I go though, tomorrow is a big milestone for us, can anyone guess what it is?

So...

For some reason Greg found my last post very amusing, and couldn't believe that I put those silly pictures of myself out for the world to see. He wanted to know how I was going to top it. Well, I'll show you how, honey! With some Goofy Greg giggles of course:

In princess regalia at my 30th birthday party:

And how about the Chiquita Banana sticker day?



Ian was wise to run away, but there was no escape for poor Ana. She didn't seem to mind much though...



Milo on the other hand, I think he wonders daily how he ended up in this nut house...Doesn't he look thrilled?

When Cammie Gets Bored in the Car...

Funny pictures happen! I was just looking through the Guatoberfest pictures trying to decide what I was going to blog about. I had forgotten that about 13 hours into the trip down I got a little punchy and took some interesting pictures. They made me giggle, I hope they do the same for you!

A family photo of sorts. Ana is sleeping, Ian has a toy on his face, thankfully, Greg is paying attention to the road and there's my goofy face peeking out from behind the camera...



This is in the mirror under my visor...there's the green gooey toy he got at J.R.'s (more about J.R.'s below).



The number of billboards was staggering. Even more staggering though was the content of said billboards! I can't believe some of the advertisements I saw! Here's a good one:



We saw literally hundreds of ads for J.R.'s store. We just HAD to stop there ad see what all the fuss was about. Besides, we needed a camcorder cassette, and I wanted some baby oil to remove some wax from my eyebrows I waxed on the way down (now that's talent wouldn't you say?!). They supposedly have EVERYTHING! Well, guess what? They didn't have camcorder tapes OR baby oil...go figure! They did however have a selection of over 40,000 towels in stock. Geez, if only we had needed a towel...

We left there with Ian's nasty gooey green (probably toxic) toy that occupied him for a good hour and a tube of yucky smelling lip balm. Oh well, at least it was a nice little break from the car...

Another Haiku

Very tired tonight, but I am determined to keep up with this blogging every day! Not much to offer tonight, but I hope you enjoy another Haiku:

'Twas such a long day
No napping for Ms. Ana
Whiny Ian too

Guess Who Came to Visit Today?

This handsome little fella!

And his mummy of course. And his Nannie too! My mum took the day off of work because today was going to be the day Amy started her new job, thus the first day I would be watching my cutie nephew Stevie. Well, it turned out that Amy's start date was pushed out a couple weeks so we just got together and had coffee and quiche, it was lovely! I may be biased, but I do think you will all agree that my nephew is a such a cutie patootie! He is smiling now, and starting to notice things around him. I'm just so excited that Ana and I are going to get to spend our days with him in a couple weeks! Ana did okay, but she was way less interested in the baby than she was in his stuff. She tried over and over to sit in his bouncy seat. She stole his bottles, his pacifier, and rifled through his diaper bag. She did try and feed him a bottle, she put one of her shirts over him like a blanket, and appeared to try and share a toy with him so I overall, would say we did all right! Thanks for such a nice day ladies!

We Did It...

Ana got her first haircut today. We just couldn't stand having her hair in her eyes any longer. We figured that we can do bangs for now, then when she is old enough to understand if she doesn't want hair in her face that she needs to wear a barrette, we can grow them out if we want to.

She sat very still and let the hairdresser wet and cut her hair with no fuss, I was so proud of her!

Before and after shots. Not a very good before picture, I know, but I think you can get the idea. She looks so much older, doesn't she?



And of course I had to wrangle her hair into pigtails once we got home. She just wouldn't cooperate for a good picture, but I tried my best! I'm hoping to get the kids Christmas pictures done tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have more to offer then! Wish me luck!

Something About My Kids Sunday

How about a random little something
about Ian and Ana every Sunday?

Ian cuddled with his doggie (his stuffed lovey) for the first time in a very long time last night.

Ana stood at the bottom of the stairs yelling "Da Da" this morning, before then proceeding to climb the stairs looking for him singing "da da da da" all the way up. It was very cute!

Fun Night!

I'm just making it in under the wire for my November 15th post, it's 10:38 on Saturday night. I just got home from dinner out with my brother and his wife Amy, and my sister and her husband Mike at the Holy Grail restaurant, the fairly new restaurant converted out of the towns former Catholic church location. The food was SO GOOD! It's the first time EVER that we have gone out together, just the six of us. We had such a great time and I can't wait until the next time we all get together. I had two, maybe three glasses of wine and it was more than enough, so I'm going to close on this short post for now, and apologize if anything doesn't make grammatical sense! Good Night! Thank you Mimi for watching the kids on such short notice!

Bangs, or No Bangs?

Okay. I've been battling with what to do with Ms. Fancy Pant's crazy hair. It is finally long enough that it doesn't stick up in every direction anymore, but we have hit the crossroads where we have to decide; "Bangs or No Bangs". I have long liked the look on a little girl where the hair is pulled back in a simple bow parted to one side. It's what I try to do with Ana's hair every day. My dilemma is that she refuses to leave anything in her hair for any length of time so her hair inevitably ends up right back in her face. We often opt for a "whale spout", "tilted whale spout" or high double ponytails because it is easier to pull into an elastic multiple times than having to re-part and place the barrette. Then again, if we cut her some bangs, we'll have to keep up with it, but her hair won't be in her eyes all the time which would be so nice!

Here's some pictures of Ms. Crazy Hair in her many styles:

My favorite, pulled to the side in a barrette, a bow is even cuter! That's my Uncle Bob with her by the way, she thought he was pretty cool. More about that when I finally get to my Guatoberfest update.

Double High Ponytails:



Whale Spout:

Tilted Whale Spout (see how she has another layer of bangs growing in? These are too short to pull into the elastic):

And this is the one that makes me want to go get her a haircut. Just imagine how cute those normally placed pigtails would be if those bangs weren't hanging in her eyes. They were pulled to the side in a barrette when we left the hotel, which was lost minutes after we reached our destination!



So what do you think, "Bangs or No Bangs"?

Unbelievable!

I am very frustrated tonight. Two days in a row now, my seven year old has come home with a new swear word. One taught to him by a fellow first grader (the "B word" also a female dog), and the other he read on the back of the school bus seat (the mother of all swear words, the "F bomb"). In all of his seven years he has never heard a swear in our household, now to hear he's picking them up at school, arrgh! Thankfully, he didn't use the words, he just asked us about them, he must have known they weren't okay somehow. It just really irks me to feel how very little control I have over what he is seeing and hearing now that he is in school, and this is just the first grade! These are the days I really ponder home schooling...

Oh What, Oh What Shall I Blog About Tonight?

I don't have easy access to the computer with my pictures on it this evening, so I can't do any of that catch up, but I can tell you about my weekend in Lake George considering I only took two pictures that I'm sure you wouldn't miss anyways! So, onto that crazy first night.

After we settled into our upgraded hotel room, we were rather hungry. Not wanting to venture very far, we called down to the front desk to find out if the hotel's restaurants were open. They weren't. They were closed for the season. As was almost every business in a 5 block radius we would soon find out. So we asked them if they might be able to suggest a place nearby where we might be able to get something to eat. They gave us walking directions to a place called Garrisons, supposedly only a half mile or so away, and we were on off. We walked out the back door and immediately knew we either misunderstood the directions or were given bad information as the only path we could see was the one that led to the closed outdoor pool. Hmmm. What to do? Trek across the lawn out into the darkness, naturally (mum you might not want to read this). We walk to the back of the property thinking that the drop off ahead must be a stairway, right? No, actually it's a very steep downslope that ends up practically on the roof of another building! After re-evaluating the situation, (and thanking our lucky stars our kids weren't with us running ahead as would likely be the case), we head off in a different direction, through a strange parking lot, and down to the main strip. We only know it was the main strip because we were told so, otherwise there was no indication. This place was a ghost town (did I mention that it was 6pm on a Friday?)! I don't think there was a single establishment open, and during our trek we encountered a total of three people; a woman out walking her dog and a couple who were, like us visiting the area and trying to find that one restaurant that was open. Anyways, after walking for a while and feeling like we were off track we asked the lady walking her dog if we were going in the right direction to Garrisons. She explains to us that it's actually across the lake but if we want to take this side alley down to the water, we can walk along the boardwalk out around the end of the lake. So we try, and I have to say, I was already creeped out before venturing off the main strip but this was ridiculous! I was just praying to see other people! But there was not a soul in sight, empty ticket booths, empty ferry boats, and lots of piers that just reeked of a swamp monster attack about to occur. After walking for another good 20 minutes, we notice to our right a set of stairs labeled with our hotel name, and realize that it is the path we were supposed to take. By this time, we had been walking a good 45 minutes, my asthma is acting up, and did I mention Irene is pregnant? I took out my handy dandy GPS and map out to Garrison's from that point and it tells us that we are still 1.8 miles from the restaurant...ummmm, seriously? We decided to take the stairs back to the hotel and to find a place via car. We drive up and down the strip (and farther down the road in each direction) and are still unable to find a place open (even McDonald's was closed!). So we decide to navigate to a grocery store, (a skeevy little market tucked behind an alleyway) and wouldn't you know it, we found a pizza place open! Not just any pizza place, it's one called Pizza Jerks that we found advertised when we were researching the area and were hoping to locate. Things were looking up! To make an already long story a little shorter, the pizza at Pizza Jerks was pretty darn tasty. The service left much to be desired (they forgot to put in our pizza until about half an hour after we ordered it...I thought Irene was going to jump over the counter!) which I guess might just be where the name came from. Anyways, when it finally did come, we enjoyed our meal, picked up some snacks at the creepy market and made our way back to the desolate hotel to relax. Irene had borrowed the complete Anne of Green Gables series for us to watch over the course of the weekend and brought her portable DVD player to plug into the hotel's tv. Well after not being able to get the player to work for a while Irene called the front desk only to find out they don't allow you to plug anything into the tv's because they have pay per view movies, at $10.99 per movie those greedy monsters! So we decide on Made of Honor which we both thought was pretty cute, then we both quickly drifted off to sleep dreaming of the places we thought we would visit over the weekend that we now knew were closed (no Sticky Bun, no Candy Apple, waaahhh!)

Sorry, that was long! That's all for tonight I guess...

New Discoveries

Yesterday Ana started nodding her head "yes". She's been shaking "no" for several weeks and has used it often to refuse kisses, hugs and bedtime, to name a few. Well yesterday, we were getting ready for nap time and I asked her if she wanted to read a book and she shook her head "yes" with what seemed like a lot of concentration to make sure she was going in the right direction. It's like she just suddenly realized her head moves up and down, and she used it all afternoon long yesterday. We wondered if she was really using it appropriately so we tried it out at dinner last night (Fremont Pizzeria after Ian's teacher conference, yummy!)...

"Ana, you want some pizza?"
shakes head "yes"

"Ana, you want some chicken?"
shakes head "yes"

"Ana, you want some french fries?"
shakes head "yes"

"Ana, you want to go to bed?"
shakes head "no"

By George, I think she's got it!

Ah Ah Ah Ah Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive...

I'm home. I had a great time this weekend and I'll write more about it later but right now I'm exhausted. I just wanted to share with you an interesting story I heard on the radio on the way home yesterday. Do you like that song "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gee's? Well, apparently it's valuable for much more than just dancing. Apparently when you are administering CPR, you are supposed to apply 100 chest compressions per minute. The University of Illinois medical school reports that in a small study they conducted, when CPR students are learning how to do chest compressions, that they are much more accurate when they are following the beat of a well known song. The song they have found to fit the bill is, yup, you guessed it, "Stayin' Alive". Very interesting, don't you think? It clocks in at 103 beats per minute and is one of those songs that you can't get out of your head once it's in there! Can you imagine being in the situation of having to revive someone, "Ah ah ah ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive....." playing over and over in your head? Or maybe you're the type that don't think well inside your head so you are actually singing it out loud? Just imagine the scene for a moment.....So load it on your MP3's folks just in case! There was another song that fit the requirements very well, but "Another One Bites the Dust" just didn't seem quite appropriate! No, I'm not kidding...

More Catch Up

How did I not post these pictures of the first day of school?

The annual "on the front steps" picture

The neighborhood gang:

Ana exploring new areas of the house while brother is away. Yes, she climbed INTO the dishwasher...she is pure trouble!



And lastly, here is Ian enjoying his "after the first day of school" snack of chocolate chip cookies and milk. He was very excited.

Hello From Lake George!

I have escaped for the weekend to meet up with my best college friend Irene in Lake George, NY. We arrived around 5pm yesterday and as is always the case with us, it has been quite the adventure already! We first started talking about this idea back in August and planned on a weekend in mid October. It just so happened that was only a week or so after our debit card numbers were compromised so we had to postpone, but that's besides the point. Irene was the hotel researcher. We talked back and forth multiple times over a stretch of days trying to find the best rate, while still maintaining minimum creepiness. We settled on the Fort William Henry which has three different levels of accommodations (we opted for the lowest level "Standard West", motel style where the room doors all open to the outdoors) and got a great rate for both nights through Irene's AAA discount. Anyways, Irene called on Thursday to check our reservations and found that this time of year (being the off season for the area) they close that portion of the hotel and we had been upgraded to the mid level hotel (the Premium East), sweet! We then arrive last evening and are told that we have been upgraded again to the "Grand Hotel" at the very same rate we had been quoted for the Standard West level. We were psyched, what a great start to the weekend!

Irene's done getting ready, so I'll write more about our first night adventures later. For now, we are off to a crafts fair, hooray!

Favorite Photo Friday

L is for
L a z y S u m m e r D a y s




This was actually a couple years ago now. We took a swim, then I went inside to get changed. When I came out, this is how I found Greg and Ian, they really were sleeping! It was so cute I just had to take a picture. I love fall, but sometimes I really long for those lazy summer days!

Ever Have One of These Moments?

I gave Ana a bath after lunch today. She smelled wonderful! I dried her off and let her run around a bit in her diaper before taking her upstairs to get dressed. I didn't realize that she undid her diaper while she is sitting in Ian's little recliner chair. When she got down from the chair, I noticed something fall onto the floor just before her freshly bathed little toes squished down onto it. I realized in an instant that it was poop. I scrambled to grab her so she wouldn't spread the mess, grabbed the wipes and scrubbed her toes clean before turning to clean up the mess on the floor. After I got that done, I went to grab a diaper and realized that she had retreated to the hallway and was examining the floor between her feet. That's when I realized she was standing in a puddle...yup now she's peed on the floor. I grabbed a towel to clean the new mess up before trying again to retrieve her and get a diaper on. She's back at the chair where the whole thing started and was about to pick something up off the floor. You guessed it, she pooped again! So I diaper her, clean up the mess, bring her upstairs, and dress her before she strips again. Thank goodness it was nap time!!

Apple Picking

Okay, there's a fair amount of catching up to do. Luckily there are 25 days left of November to fill! This was our apple picking trip a few weeks ago. I hadn't downloaded my camera card so I think I went in with space for about 11 pictures (ahhh!). I think I was able to get the shots I wanted to though.

I tried to get a picture of the kids together, this was the best I could get with a scowly Ian squeezing Ana in a headlock. Ahhh, siblings!



Wait a minute, I lied. I just remembered this shot of Ian pushing an apple into the bib of Ana's overalls. She either wouldn't grab it, or kept dropping it. I can't remember which, but it was still cute.



The picking of the apples, of course:

Ian was so cute, he found a teeny tiny apple just for Ana. It was just the right holding size for her little hand, she carried it all the way back to the car. She thought it was pretty tasty too!

They had a little petting zoo and Ian got to feed some of the goats not only their grain food, but bottles of milk. He refused to go in at first I think because he thought it was for "little kids", and he was trying to be cool. You could tell he was just aching to get in there and it took a little while to break him, but he finally caved and he had so much fun!

Ana wasn't too sure about the animals, she was happy to let daddy feed them.

She did eventually get into it though and made her way around the pen touching all the animals tails. She then flat out refused to leave!

Voting

Ian was pretty excited to tag along with me to the polls today. He was full of questions about who gets to vote, and how the votes are counted, and how do we find out who wins. Ana? Well she really didn't have a choice in the matter but I think she was okay with it. She had a grand time pulling on the booth curtain from the backpack while I dutifully blackened my ovals. Three bodies in a booth were a tad squishy, but we came out okay, and Ian walked out with his "Future Voter" sticker proudly tacked to his chest. As much as his growing up kills me, I am so proud of the little man he is becoming and love watching him start to take interest in the world around him!

Diary of the Phone Cursed Family

I hate telephones. Greg and I have never had luck with them. We've had an army of different cordless phones and we always end up going back to the cheapo $7.00 wall mounted, corded, WalMart special. The only problem with that is I have friends that like to talk (and whom I like to talk to!). And with the cheapo attached to the wall model, my ability to speak to said friends is severely limited by the fact that I cannot chase Ms. Fancy pants when I am attached to the wall. And Ms. Fancy Pants needs chasing, yes indeedy she does...often. Anyways, the cheapo WalMart special suddenly became picky a few weeks ago and decided that if you don't hold it exactly the right way, or if you, *gasp*, move while on the phone it will disconnect your call. It's very annoying to have what would be a 5 minute "quick question call" turn into a half an hour ordeal because you keep becoming disconnected! So this weekend, while I was out, Greg apparantly had enough of the "hang up game" and yanked the phone off the wall. I only found this out last night after mentioning to Greg that the phone hadn't rung all afternoon (an absolute rarity in our house!) So we went on a phone hunt through the house knowing that we surely had some retired models lying around. We now have three (yes 3) cordless phones that are now all plugged into different sockets in my kitchen. I don't remember why these phones went out of commission in the first place, but after having immense difficulty making a simple phone call to the doctor this morning I decided to just plug every one of them in and test them all.

Let me introduce you to the delinquents:

This one we've tried on and off during the demise of the cheapo one over the past few weeks. Doesn't like to hold a charge for very long. I'm giving it this one last chance to prove itself...

I plugged this one in and remembered that it has an answering machine in it (bonus!). Well, it still contained 18 messages from whenever it went out of commision ( I have no idea when or why!). So I plug it in and listen to the messages and discover it was around the time of my sister's wedding. If you have been following for awhile, this was also the time when we had been matched for the domestic adoption that ended in the birthmother changing her mind. So the majority of the messages were people calling to check on us, talk about drudging up bad memories! Cursed phones!

This is one that has been on the wall since I discovered Greg's secret yesterday. It seemed to be working well until this morning it took me four separate phone calls (separated by varying lengths of charging time) to make a call to Ana's doctor, get through the automated options, and have enough time to leave a message, arrgh!! (Did I mention that I'm out of minutes on my prepaid cell phone as well?)

Knock on wood, that last one has been doing okay for most of the day. It is now 1:11 and I've had a few phone conversations, and was even able to receive a call back from the doctor. I'm not holding my breath, but at least I can now turn my head while on the phone without losing the call. For the moment, I am satisfied...

RIP Cheapo Corded Phone

It's a little after 4 AM

A Haiku

We turned back the clock
Who forgot to tell the kids
Four is too early

NaBloPoMo

I just joined NaBloPoMo. That's National Blog Posting Month. And in doing so, I am committing myself to blog every day for the month of November. My blogging upkeep hasn't been stellar of late so I'm hoping I can keep up with it! I don't know what I'll talk about every day, but come on by and find out! So here's to day one!

Favorite Photo Friday

K is for
Knight, and Knuks...

Yeah, I know that's skunk backwards, so I cheated a bit!

The kids had a great time Trick or Treating this year. Ian got away with presenting his treat bag on the end of his sword for a couple houses before we caught on and insisted he carry it in his hands before he stabbed someone. Ana was quite content just riding along in her little pink car, I don't think she made a peep the entire time. I think she just enjoyed watching all the kids run along in front of her. Ian petered out at the same point as last year, his hands were just too cold to continue! That's okay though, we definitely don't need the extra candy in the house!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Jack-O-Lanterns

Last night we carved our pumpkins that we bought at the corn maze a few weeks ago (geez, yet another thing I failed to blog about...I'll get to it!). We all had so much fun!

Ian loved the design part, he designed both his and Ana's pumpkins. I have to say, his pumpkins were pretty cool! He made a creepy one for his own and decided on a goofy one for Ana so it wouldn't scare her. Ana watched Ian very intently while he designed her pumpkin for her.

He did not however enjoy the scooping out part. He has never really liked that part, he says it is "gross". For all the bugs and frogs and creepy crawlies this boy has touched, it never ceases to amaze me how pumpkin guts can reduce him to a whiny mess! He flat out refused to do it, but Greg insisted he take two handfuls out which he did with a disgusted look on his face.



Ana on the other hand thought that was the coolest part. She had no problem squishing, squeezing and even at one point tasting the pumpkin innards. She even gave her pumpkin a big 'ol kiss! She kept chanting over and over, "pum-pa, pum-pa", she was so funny!



Greg brought pumpkin carving to a "overdone as only Greg can" level by taking the tops off with his jigsaw and using his dremel to carve portions of his design. Seriously, this man will find any excuse to use power tools in any way other than that they were intended.



Check back tomorrow, because tonight we had Trick or Treating here and I'm going to post pictures of the kids in their costumes because it fits for the Favorite Photo Friday letter K. I'll say that Ian's costume begins with a K, and Ana's ends with a K. Don't give it away any of you who already know, for the rest of you:

Any guesses?