A year in Review

Howdy from Hunstville Alabama!

Yes that's right since the last blog post a YEAR ago we have relocated to the sunny (rainy lately) South.  I am not going to try to recap the last year with a LONG WINDED verbal monstrosity. A picture says a thousand words so I will use a bunch to make up for the lack of wordiness here.

 Many game nights all year long. Still working on the good sportsmanship thing.

 After 31 years of biting my nails I decided to quit. Now to work on the rest of my flaws!

Isaac turned 8. He was baptised and started scouts. Momma isn't ready for him to grow up!

 We upgraded Amusement parks this year. Six flags was a blast.

 Ben's tomato's were AWESOME! Let's hope for the same this year.

 I enjoyed canning again. I love looking at my bottles! So colorful!

 

I finally got a good drivers license picture and then we move. I am clinging to my license with all I have. Ben is trying to get me to change so I can register the Pilot.  We will see how long I can hold out!

 

Micah turned 6 this year and started Kindergarten. A more precocious child you never met!

  I rocked Princess Leia this year. No that baby isn't mine but I'll claim her for sure!

 I painted the house. Enough said. I hate the color yellow now. And green, and blue and brown and ....

 We spent Christmas in Texas with my sister. Nothing like the beach on Christmas Eve eve. We missed Ben who stayed home getting ready for the move.

 I took the boys to the Houston Space center. Angry birds was present, therefore it rocked.

 Took Tara house shopping in Huntsville, she picked me out a great house. Not this one. (I am partial to this Tuscan master bath, the ivy looked lifelike!)

 We got our last huge snow blizzard 2 weeks before we left. Just a little parting gift from New England.

A Crazy woman ran into me 1 week before our move. Good thing Ben was visiting for the weekend. Not like I needed anymore stress in my life!

 Isaac turns 9 in two months. I can't believe how old he is. He placed 2nd in his 1st pinewood derby. This was the same day we left our beloved New England. So glad we got to see everyone before leaving.

 Our new home. We have an acre. Ben has to mow. HAHAHAHA! We are loving it.

We love the dog park here. Lily is making new friends as long as they don't try to get us to pet them. A little possessive that one.

Grandma came to visit and fun was had by all.

Children

Two conversations that happened.

Conversation 1.
Micah: Dad will you play light sabers with me?
Me: Sure.
Me (after several minutes of playing light sabers): Ugh, you chopped of my leg. You win.
Micah: It's okay you have 12 more lives.

Conversation 2.
Me: Grampy wants to borrow our bb gun to take care of the squirrels in his yard.
Isaac: Can we have the squirrels after he kills them?
Me: Why would we want dead squirrels?
Isaac: To roast them.
Me: What are you going to do with a roast squirrel?
Isaac: Give it to the Indians.
(Natalie and I trying not to laugh)
Isaac: I'm sorry, I mean the Native Americans.

And here are some pictures.

Getting ready for his first baseball game.

A light dinner of popcorn.

Nothing strikes fear into an enemy's heart like a blaster, a light saber, and officially licensed Nickelodeon undies.

Dirt and sunshine made for a wonderful spring break week.

Adventures in the South

Here are some things I did while on a recent business trip to Huntsville, AL.

• Ate southern food: grits, biscuts and gravy, greens, chicken fried steak, hushpuppies, fried catfish.
• Ate fruit salad with my fingers after dropping my spork on the airport floor.
• Went to Wal-Mart to get a feel for the local way of life. It was completely indistinguishable from the Wal-Mart in Tewksbury and not very different at all than the Wal-Mart in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Drove a rental car in third gear for two days before I mastered the subtleties of Nissan's automatic transmission controls.
• Visited an army base and didn't see a single person doing pushups or running in formation.
• Sat in an endless series of meetings while thinking only about how to optimize my water consumption to maintain that oh-so-delicate balance between dehydration and needing to use the bathroom more than my seven month pregnant co-worker.
  

Midweek Miscelanea

Two notes on my participation in the American polity:

• You have to pay taxes on the turbo tax service to file your taxes with fine state of MA.
• I have not registered to vote in MA in hopes of avoiding jury duty. On the same day we file our taxes I get a jury duty summons.

My hotmail account is completely hosed. I apologize if you have sent me an email in the last week and I haven't replied or if you sent me an email in the last week and I replied with some interesting information about job opportunities or great deals on Canadian prescription drugs. I can now be reached at benghis37@gmail.com.

This is what Natalie looks like when she's loosing badly at UNO Attack.

Random December 1st post

My boys have done cute things lately. They really have, but this post is not about them. This post is about my little girl. Lily is driving me nuts with her chewing. She chews and destroys at least one personal item of mine or Ben's a day. I love the dog but AHHHHHHHHH! So this is to remind me that I don't want to shoot the dog.

She loves me warts and all. She is always excited to see me coming. She can't tell if I have gained a few pounds. She doesn't know if my outfit isn't color coordinated. She really doesn't mind if I make a mess in the Kitchen (more food for her). She warms my freezing feet. She doesn't mind that I smell after working out. And the list goes on. So I guess I won't shoot the dog, but as a good friend put, I think it's time for a little doggie BOOT CAMP!

What did you do when the power was out?

I:

• Went sledding.
• Cooked in the fireplace.
• Brought a 200 lb wood-burning stove into the house only to realize I don't know really have the proper supplies (or any idea how) to set it up and then brought it back to the garage.
  
• Filled the first floor of our house with smoke (see above).
• Discovered that my "Zero Degree" sleeping bag should really be called a "40 degrees if you have a sweatshirt and heavy socks on" sleeping bag.
  
• Realized how profoundly electric lights interrupt my circadian rhythms.
  
• Walked the dog at 4:00 am (see above) through deserted streets while pretending I was in a post apocalyptic zombie movie.
  
• Threw out some tuna noodle casserole that was probably still good, but let's face it, no one was ever going to eat that.
• Was thankful for family and friends who watched the dog and the kids and the wife and helped us maintain some semblance of normalcy.

This picture was taken during the "this is kind of fun, good thing we're so well prepared" phase of not having electricity.


This was the perfect excuse to add another internal combustion engine to the roster.

Merry Christmas... I mean Happy Halloween!

So as many of you know Halloween was a little strange for us this year.  It was postponed a week due to a snow storm that knocked out power for us for 4 days. Ben has already called dibs on that story so I will just post some pictures of Halloween.

 and this was just the beginning. The boys were thrilled, their momma not so much!

 And this is what it looked like when we woke up.

 So this is on the 6th of November. It was a good thing we didn't carve our pumpkins when we were supposed to!

 I tried to talk him out of this costume but nothing doing. That mask freaks me out. It is smiling, creepy.

 Oh, this pose. So many things to say, none of them do it justice!

Happy Halloween!

hmmm, time has past....

I have a general lack of enthusiasum for blogging at the moment. But I have decided that I better start catching up before it becomes a monumental project. So I will take a page out Ben's book and do a recap.

 We got rid of our Behemoth glass desk that we have had for 8 years and Put our dinning room table in the.... what else, the dinning room. Ben and I have decided that we are now well and truly grown ups.

 I made a table runner out of the Fall material I have been hoarding for two years. As Ben puts it, when I get something in my head I don't stop until it is out. He hasn't figured out if it is a blessing or a curse.

 Our new desk is in its proper place. We love it, and the fact it only cost 25 bucks!

 Everyone marvel at my grown up dinning room. Oh and my awesome floors.

 Grammi and Grampi took Micah to the Topsfield Fair for his Birthday this year. This happens to be the same fair they took Isaac to about 3 years ago. Guess what, they both liked the tractors!