It is so nice to have the sun out, temps in the low 70’s! What a great day today was. I was able to clean and spend time outside. Tomorrow I hope to get the basement open and dry that out a bit more. There is still so much water in the basement. Thankfully, I have everything in plastic containers and nothing was ruined, the only bad news is that it gets musty smelling unless it dries out quickly.

Meanwhile, the kids are driving me crazy…their computer finally died a painful death and they will have to deal without for a few weeks. But I booted them outdoors…so it isn’t all bad

And for this installment of the picture thing…I wish this guy had moved with us. Maybe I get find a frog to take up residence in the pond this year.

The kids and I visited Franconia Notch and the Flume, as well as Mt Washington.

The Flume (click on picture to see the rest of the pictures)

Mt Washington

This is milkweed…

I left this pretty ugly plant grow, in hopes that I would have a very special group of visitors. Today, I checked and was very happy to find this little visitor.

This little guy is a monarch caterpillar, hopefully he (or she) will grow into a beautiful butterfly before too long.

As my Eldest has gotten older, and progressed in school, I told her that I would one day like to have an “honor roll” bumper sticker or my car. She has always gotten good grades and I knew that it would not be difficult for her. Generally, I don’t measure either of my children by the grades that they get, more importantly, I measure by how they work, study, and how their teachers see them progress.

If they get C’s and B’s, but the teachers all say that they work hard, they participate in class and are overall good students, I encourage them to try harder, but I am not going to be upset. And if they were ever to get A’s, however, the teachers think that they are goofing off, not working or paying attention…that is going to make me a little worried.

My Eldest is going to a math/science school for part of the day. She is taking classes that most high school students’ don’t take until they are in 11-12th grade. (Physics) She has had some difficulties, but she works hard, and tries her best, so this sticker is a testimony to her hard work and perseverance.

As of this afternoon, I am the very proud Mom of a high-schooler. It seems like not long ago, she was going to her first day of kindergarten…graduating 4th grade …starting 5th grade… My little girl (not so little, anymore) will be going to high school next year. She was very lucky to be chosen to go to a special school for math and science for part of the day, then to the regular high school for the rest of the day. This Math and Science school will enable her to do whatever she wants when she gets to deciding what she would like to do as a grown-up (did I just say that?)

I am very excited for her, but really scared for her as well. Times have changed, and how teens treat each other, has too. In the last few weeks, I have seen the changes in a few of her friends, that concern me. I just hope that her true friends stay close to her and those who are not, have little contact with her in the future. Oh well…I am sure that she will be fine.

Me, however…well, I am really beginning to feel old.

Well, I didnt get any pictures of the kittens the other day. Clarence, the larger of the two, went home with his new “Mom”. Clarence is a beautiful approximately 6 month old kitten. He is cross-eyed…hence the name Clarence. But little Jim (I had an idea for another name for him, but forgot it when I got todays migraine), became sick just before he was to be picked up. I took him to the vet instead. He is now on anti-biotics and he is doing a little better now. I will have him for a few more days, untill he is doing better. But because Jim is still not well and I can not bring him upstairs, I have not had any instance to take pictures. I can not take any chances with my cats so the kitten has to be kept away from them. I do go down to visit with Jim several times a day, to check on him and also to spend some “play-time” with him. He is about 6 to 9 weeks old and very playfull. Hopefully, I will have a chance before Jim goes to his new home.

I do have a few pictures of Bruno, I let him out onto the sunporch, so he would be able to get some fresh air and have a break from the basement. With having Jim in the basement, quarenteened in a corner, I can not let Bruno have this regular “out” time, which he is so used to. I really can not take a chance of my cats, and Bruno, getting sick. FIV cats are so much more suseptable to sicknesses, and must be kept clear of sick kittens if at all possible. So, Bruno gets to have his afternoons on the porch, in the sunshine, whenever possible.

My kids have gone from the “vacations are cool” to the “I’m bored” and “I cant wait to go back to school”. Eldest has opened a good portion of her new presents, including one that she worked on all day. She wants to be a paleontologist, so I got her another “dig up the dinosaur” project. This one was much more difficult that she expected, and probably more of a learning experience. The plastic dinosaur bones were encased in a hard chalk, and she had to chip slowly away at it. She did finally finish and I think that the velociraptor is now assembled.

Youngest was given quite a few science type gifts, so this evening Hubby and Youngest sat down to make crystals. Though Hubby had to help out with just about every step, Youngest was very excited to help out. Youngest even got to wear his “safety goggles”. Youngest was also given some solar system projects. one of which shines a star map onto his ceiling. Other than that, Youngest has now finished filling his 4th notebook with his “comic book” drawings of “Fishman”.

Well, that is about all the news from here for now…more later.

A year ago today, I got the fateful phone call from my brother telling me that I had to get to my Dad. He was close to the end and we needed to be at his side. It took just 4 hours for me to drop just about everything and leave. By the end of the week, my Dad had passed away.

Tomorrow, I am going to attend the funeral of a very special friend. I didn’t realize that my friend was actually younger than my Dad, and was quite shocked when I learned. She seemed to have so much spirit, so much life, so much wisdom…I really will miss her. My Dad and my friend both died of cancer, not the same kind, but that doesnt really matter. This makes this day, this week, so much harder to get through.

(ggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

Today started off really good…didn’t end up that way, unfortunately.

I was able to get a bit more of the house “unpacked” and broke down some boxes. If the boxes can be broken down, we are going to save them in a bigger box, for the next time we move. It isn’t a huge box, but big enough to keep some boxes. I really hate having to search for boxes.

Then…

I went to pick up the kids from school. I got out of the van and headed for the area where I meet the two kids. I didn’t make it. I inadvertently stepped into a rut, and my ankle turned. I felt the darn thing snap too. The pain went down enough for me to walk normally back to the car. But after driving the whole 1 mile home, I couldn’t walk. My ankle has swollen up a bit and it is very painful. I called the doctor and he gave me a prescription and told me to keep my ankle up.

I mulled over the idea of going to the hospital, and being my normal ornery self, decided that it didn’t turn enough colors to make me believe it is broken. The only bruise is on the back of the ankle bone (the one that sticks out) and it is about the size of a dime. After telling the doctor, he didn’t think it was broken either. I make a horrible patient…must have something to do with my being an EMT in a previous life, and three years of nursing school.

Unfortunately, it has also put a damper on tomorrow’s plans. We were going to go back up to Old Sturbridge Village again. As I can’t walk, I will be staying home, but the kids and hubby will be going. They were too excited about the trip; I didn’t want to keep them from going. They will take pictures and I will go again sometime soon.

So, instead of walking around Sturbridge, I will be watching a Harry Potter marathon with one of my friends, who want to keep my company while I am home alone. I might hobble outside, if it is nice and put some bulbs into the ground. I meant to do that today…but for obvious reasons, it never got done.

Oh well, just call me gympy

We had a fairly “successful” night…or so my children would say. Eldest is at the “I dont want to dress up, but I want candy” phase, but she went to a friends house for a little Halloween party. Youngest decided that he wanted to be Spiderman.

The “returns” are in and I think that both of my children “stashes” weigh in at a healthy (?) 10 lbs each. I didnt actually weigh them on a scale, instead I used the “it feels like about 10 lbs of candy” mothers scale. This year, the little mice that…um, occasionally eat a piece of candy or two, will have to go on a diet though, as their bags are full of chocolate, a migraine sufferers nightmare.

Now, it is time to change decorations, for the next holiday. I misplaced the little fall flag though and it will take some time, I fear to find it. (or I will just get another one, as they are on sale this week at the craft store) I didnt put to many decorations for Halloween, and the decorations that I did put out can stay for Thanksgiving, I do have some new decorations for Thanksgiving though, and I really do look forward to dressing the place up a little for the holidays. I also need to de-clutter, or in other words…move the boxes to the basement. If I havent unpacked them by now, they are probably not going to be needed right away, and I can take some time to look through them and determine where things are going to go. It is so nice to have a basement

Well, the alarm is due to go off in a couple hours, so I best get some sleep.

Laters all

The last couple days I have been begging pleading with the lady, who owns the first house (not the one I took the picture of). Two days ago, she called me to see if I had found a place yet. I had not and she was a little stand-offish, but I let her know that I do have the money to pay the rent, that I have no debt. So after verifying that I did infact have the money that I said that I did, I was finally able to convince her that I infact could afford to rent the house from her and that I would not be a “risk.”

Tomorrow, the whole family gets to meet her and see the house (good thing they trust me), I give her money and she gives me keys! Yeah!

Thank you, everyone (you know who you are!) for the prayers.

now to fill boxes and plastic containers with everything we own…but we are one step closer to getting outa here!