life is busy

but good busy

my day yesterday
up at 5:30a
train to work
work until 3:45p
gym
10 minutes on the elliptical
biceps and triceps (owie! but effective)
train home, reading my new book
stop & shop for groceries
home
put groceries away
clean out fridge
old lettuce, carrots, taco salad, oranges into strainer and into the woods
(no composting method yet- so we let the animals enjoy our leftovers)
ate dinner with dan
rotisserie chicken (easy!) and rice
chopped up my fruit for snacks at work
while dan fixed the lazy susan
amy, ray, ben and bella came by to say hello
they're here visiting for the week because ray was supposed to be away on business
so nice to see them! the kids are getting SO big. ray ray's voice is changing! AHH!
finished the veggies
made my salad for work
took a shower
tidied up the laundry room
packed my gym bag
uploaded and edited pictures of riley from sunday
went to bed around 9:30p

phew! what a day. busy busy
still no time for scrapping
which is driving me slightly crazy
but it was a good, productive day
with a nice, unexpected visit
and i've been sleeping like a baby... think its the
back-to-the-gym effect.
either way, i'm loving it.

Today will be more low-key.
Post office after work.
then.......
out to dinner {Girls Night Style} for
Grammy's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR GRAMMY!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Riley Girl

i baby-sat Riley
{or "Riley Girl" as my mom calls her}
on Sunday night.

we hung out for a bit
she showed me how she can roll over on the couch
















already old enough to be fascinated with the camera
she's catching on quick ;)



















and already posing
talk about working the camera
those eyes and that grin
she's going to be a knock out
watch out boys!










these next two are my favorites!



{giddy and full of life}


























{getting tired, ready for a bottle}
... and yet her eyes are still so intense!

relaxing in her car seat while i made her bottle

bad lighting
bad angle

cute baby
extra cute bib
cute little thumb to suck
amazed that she's only got one in there! usually she's clamoring to get the whole fist in there and is furious when it just won't fit.







the rest of the night was not so memorable...
she cried for at least 30-40 minutes after she ate and had her diaper changed
nothing wrong, but she just was not a happy camper
but we survived
i finally got her rocked to sleep
and relaxed for awhile before jeff and melissa got back.

all in all it was a great night.
love you baby girl!

a-little-bit-of-everything-weekend

it was a little bit of everything
almost all good stuff
so it was enjoyable,
though (as always)
all too quick

friday i left work just a little early
and got caught in the downpour on the way home
out the window went the plan for grilling
and cleaning my car
revised plan: watching Rocky Marciano, Bobby & The Brave One on our ridiculous bedroom tv.
as it got dark and we were (still) watching movies, i started to realize it really is like being at the movie theater. we don't watch all that much tv but when we do, its really enjoyable. i suppose we can't fault boys for wanting these ridiculous things when we get so much pleasure out of them.

saturday i woke to the alarm at 7:30
to begin what i declared Circle of Life Day
i started off vacuuming and cleaning my dirty dirty car
which had accumulated at least 1/3 of the woods since we moved ;)
(not part of circle of life day--- maybe part of dirt's circle of life...
from the ground
into my car
into the vacuum
back into the woods {where I emptied the vacuum canister})
i digress

10:00 mass for uncle nicky at st. francis
nice mass
a little hectic
{it was a natale family event}
[part one of Circle of Life Day]

then scooted out of there
to make a 12:00 baby shower for michelle
[part two of Circle of Life Day]
again, nice but a bit hectic

had planned to go home, rest
clear my head
relax
but then weather held out
sun was setting beautifully
and so i headed with dan
to Dauphtucket
for Amanda's 18th birthday party
[part three of Circle of Life Day]
we parked and David picked us up on the boat
we got there at the same time as Matt, Krissy and Will
a nice surprise
as i didn't think they'd be coming
with Will not feeling so hot the day before

we ate some dinner
willy played with the doggies
4 dogs all in one place
heaven on earth
we sat by the fire and chatted
watched the various weather patterns all around us
beautiful pink sunset to one side
dark dark clouds with lightning behind on another
bright blue skies dotted with puffy clouds in still another direction
it was amazing
no rain for us
just beautiful lightning
which gave way to the brightest moon
and a few really gorgeous stars
which willy kept waving to
hello stars
hello boat
hello lightning
a perfect night to sit with friends around the fire
willy snuggled up and falling asleep on my shoulder

and then it was over so quickly
back on the motor boat
back to dry land
{but really nice that home was just a few miles up the road}

sunday
woke up around 9
dan and i ate our cereal in bed
watching Knocked Up
and cuddling for awhile

Dick Small stopped by for a visit
and so then we got motivated
laundry
cleaning
Dan headed to the garage
to continue
staining the furniture

house updates:
the wine fridge finally came in
{i say finally because dan ordered it in april}

the two stools for the island came in

the siding and gutters have been ripped off
the new siding is in
{aka ON the front lawn}
dan and chuck will start installing this week
and then get the bulk of it done
once the new doors are delivered

back to sunday...
dan spent the rest of the day working on the furniture
i went to Joannie and Joe's surprise 25th anniversary party
at Debbie and Jack's
fun day
beautiful weather
nice to see everyone

then home to baby sit riley
she's sooo stinkin cute
pictures to follow

so that was my weekend.
true to the title right?! :)

one word

snagged this idea from my friend christine's blog

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair? un-cut
4. Your mother? kind
5. Your father? funny
6. Your favorite thing? relaxing
7. Your dream last night? forgotten
8. Your dream/goal? happiness
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? scrapping
11. Your fear? heights
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? earth
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? omnipotent
16. One of your wish list items? GPS
17. Where you grew up? rockland
18. The last thing you did? unpacked (boxes at work)
19. What are you wearing? dress
20. Your TV? ginormous
21. Your pet? black
22. Your computer? lappy
24. Your mood? sluggish
25. Missing someone? yes
26. Your car? efficient
27. Something you're not wearing? socks
28. Favorite store? target
29. Your summer? bliss
30. Love someone? definitely
31. Your favorite color? depends
32. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
33. Last time you cried? yesterday

past due--- Willy pictures Tuesday July 29th

We started out the afternoon playing in the yard. Willy LOVES his wagon, pushing it back and forth across the lawn... or just posing!















Then we practiced walking.
Tongue out just in case it helps with balance.
One hand out just in case you fall!































Then pushing over towards the garden with a timeout for:

How Big Is Willy?!

(one handed style)




























Couldn't resist this shot. Leaning down to get his water bottle (or something like that) out of the wagon. One foot on the mulch and feeling really wobbly- but trying desperately not to fall over!




































taking time to smell the flowers




























....which seemed like fun til he fell to his bum and in the process of trying to get back up, got mulch (aka dirt) on his hands. that didn't go over well. he tried ignoring it, going back to touch the flowers (so fuzzy and cool)... but the darn dirty was distracting. i tried to leave it for a few. "you're a boy, kiddo. gotta learn to get dirty." but after a few minutes, he wasn't having it, so i broke down and wiped it off.






then we came inside. forget why. but another push-toy in here, willy's tractor was plenty of fun.

must have been a problem with the seat that he had to hammer something back on ;)



























this one cracks me up.
looks like he's yawning or something and i'm covering his mouth.
he's saying "ahhhhhh" and i'm patting his mouth so it sounds more fun "ahh" -- "ahh" --- "ahh"
he thinks its funny :)




























this is one of those "what the heck happened with this shot?" photos
but more and more, i just love these :)































unfortunately the poor kid was still feverish and all the playing made him sweaty
so after awhile, we ditched his clothes

poor little guy

poor little guy probably got us all sick too, but that's ok ;)

how can you blame someone who's this cute even when they're sick?

a little goes a long way

When I got on the plane to Florida this past April, I was pleasantly surprised to have some decent in-flight reading material (supplied by Delta).

Somehow I hadn't heard about this "Earth Hour" on March 29th (which at that point I'd already missed), but the article had some great, eye-opening facts about how a little goes a long way.

To give proper credit this article is by Jim Hackler in the March 2008 edition of Sky [by Delta]

If you think changing small things in your own life won't make a difference. Think again.

• If the thermostats in every house in America were lowered 1 degree Fahrenheit during the winter, the nation would save 230 million barrels of crude oil- enough to fill an oil taker 400 times. (That's the amount of oil being imported into the United States from Iraq each year).
• If every American switched to receiving just one bill as an electronic statement instead of a paper one, the one-time savings would be 217,800,000 sheets- enough to completely blanket the island of Key West in a single layer of paper.
• If 1 quart of leftover paint was recycled from every renovation project in America this year (10 percent of all the house paint purchased in the United States is typically thrown out), it would reclaim 2.5 million gallons- enough to paint the White House every year for the next 43 centuries, or to paint San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge 250 times.
• One out of every 3 pounds of the waste that Americans generate is just for the packaging, which each year adds up to 77 million tons- enough to fill the Lousiana Superdome in New Orleans 37 times.
• If every newspaper reader in the United States recycled just one typical Sunday paper, he or she could help create 212 million pounds of cellulous insulation- enough to insulate 118,767 Habitat for Humanity houses. That's nearly twice as many houses as all the Habitat homes built in America so far.
• If every American collected 1 gallon of water once a week while waiting for the shower or bathwater to get hot (and use it to water your houseplants!), the total saved would be 15.8 billion gallons of water a year- enough to fill the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., 2,338 times.
• One hour of using a gas-operated leaf blower produces the same amount of greenhouses gases as a car driving 4,400 miles- that's a round trip from Salt Lake City to New York City.
• One soft drink recycled by each elementary school student in America would save 24.8 million cans. That would be enough aluminum to create 21 Boeing 737 airplanes.
• Replacing just one 500-sheet roll of virgin toilet paper a year with one 500-sheet roll of 100 percent recycled toilet paper in every American household would leave 424,000 trees standing- 16 times as many trees as in New York City's Central Park.

endings

it seems like this month is going by too quickly.
its only the 12th but it feels like its almost over.
and with that, the end of summer.
the end of warm weather, which already seems to have taken leave
it was 58 and rainy when i left for work this morning
i could have used a jacket
i forgot just how cold 58 degrees feels when you're not used to it
i'm not ready for summer to be over!!
still a few more cookouts and fun things to look forward to
and hopefully some good weather to accompany it
so let's cross our fingers for that.

speaking of crossing fingers
(willy's new favorite trick)
today's the end of my tuesday babysitting adventures
with the little man
krissy's done with summer classes after today
and the fall will bring a new schedule
and a new routine
which is good
its nice to switch things up
and of course i'll still see will all the time
and what's better is that our weekly dates
can now include krissy!!
the tentative plan is to switch houses each week
cook dinners
play games
maybe get out for some adventures
now that willy's old enough to do more on his own
so its the end of our tuesday dates (pictures to follow, i promise)
but the beginning of something new and fun
with some of my favorite people in the whole world.

we rang out the end of dave's 21st year last night
with pizza
and chocolate cake
that's the way do it, in my humble opinion

today i've been catching up at work
4 unexpected days off
took a toll on my to-do list
but i'm back in the
'manageable' category
(just barely)

so back to it....

jinxed myself

wow, just looking back to see when i last blogged
10 days ago
welcoming august
talking about how normal things were
and how absolutely happy i was with that

and that was the jinx
within 12 hours of that post
i was coughing
thought it was a tickle
an allergy
but nope
but sunday (@ work- even better) i sounded like a smoker
with the hack i'd developed
went home to rest and that was the end of it

i spent the entire week in a fog of nyquil=
the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever,
best-sleep-you-ever-got-with-a-cold medicine
and sure the sleep was good, but that's about all i did

that and watch tv
which is soo horribly boring
and would have been even more so if not for a few decent movies
and the new Planet Green network

love Emeril's new show and how he makes healthy meals quickly, all while showing me how to use some of the products i'm intrigued by at Whole Foods {but have no idea how to use}

G Word is pretty cool too despite its corny hosts. some of the features are downright fascinating-- like the one about how human hair is being donated to make into hair mats to clean up after oil spills. what a great idea that is! and what's better? it works!! AND instead of burning the oil and releasing the gases into the air after its sucked up--- with this way, the hair mats can actually be composted and organisms actually metabolize the oil and turn into mushrooms which (they're still testing to be sure) can be eaten!!! talk about simple, back to basics thinking.

well now i'm back at work
starting another week
not making any comments on how i think it will go
we'll just wait and see.

on the docket:

• dan's brother dave's 22nd birthday is today. happy birthday dave! see you guys for pizza tonight
• tomorrow's my last tuesday of babysitting will. summer classes are ending for kris and the fall will bring a new schedule. but we're already cooking up another fun weekly date-- and this time i should get to see krissy as well! hooray.
• another busy weekend ahead. uncle nicky's mass, michelle's baby shower {TWINS!} and joannie and joe's anniversary party!

other fun stuff:

• megg, tom and oisin are HOME (emelyn has been here for a few weeks already)!!! i got to meet sweet little (not so little at almost 13 lbs) Oisin. he's such a boy. already. barely looking like a baby. he's so strong, already holding his head up. good natured and ready to smile. and handsome. he looks a lot like emelyn but with more of tom's looks mixed in. he's gorgeous. got to see them at their welcome home party on saturday and again at mom's pool on sunday [what a prize i was, still sick and trying to avoid the babies as much as possible so as not to pass on my germs, but still socialize. yeah. fun]
• i have some pics from yesterday (you know i was sick when i didn't even bring my camera to megg's welcome home party!!!)

ok i'm the only one manning the fort at work today. and i need to go take advantage of the peace and quiet to get the mounds of work i have waiting for me done.

so have a good day.... hopefully more posts this week!

welcome august

finally friday
a good week
a normal week
as if i remember what normal is anymore

today i'm defining normal week as: a seven day period of time involving no out of town guests, no mass exodus moving from one residence to another, no scheduled vacation, no weeknight commitments, dinners, birthdays, deaths, hospital visits of any kind.

although i guess a normal week doesn't end with working until 7p and then heading back to work on sunday, but that's how it worked this week. and it got so busy friday night that i hadn't finished this post. oh well.

i worked friday night, managing the renovation of an office suite here at the hospital. i know what you're thinking. friday night AND sunday, during the summer. you signed up for that? are you nuts? well, probably. but signing up to do this is likely going to win me some huge points. and i'm taking of next friday as a trade off. so i think i'm making out ok.

plus staying here late friday made for a good excuse to go out for drinks afterwards. i met up with waveney, kim and steve and headed out for drinks in brighton. atticus met up with us a little later to join in on the festivities. some decent food, mezzacorona wine (sweet!) and a little dancing= fun night out with the gang. thanks guys! :)

saturday was "explore scituate day" for me.

we woke up to dan cohen working on the house- removing more siding in preparation for the new stuff going up. we picked out the new stuff this week. its called "mist" which means absolutely nothing because from that name you're probably thinking its some sort of blue or seafoam or something ridiculous like that... but its a light tan color. tan colored mist? hmmm, well maybe it exists!

we got up and tried to get motivated and as dan got into the shower, the jordan's furniture delivery guys arrived to take away the spare room bed and deliver the new one. it fits so much better in the room and the bed looks beautiful! :)

as they loaded and unloaded, we sorted the bags and boxes of recyclables and returnables to take to the dump [now that we finally got our sticker]. we loaded up the Escape, complete with box of cardboard on top (who knew I had roofracks?!), and headed out. we ran into Uncle Ray at the top of the street and found out where to bring the returnables. then we ran into a union buddy of dan's while returning the cans. they chatted for a bit, and as we pulled out of the driveway, larry pulled in. "its official, i'm a townie" dan said. we used the can money for coffee {mmmm} and dan's new obsession- Dunkin Donuts' hashbrowns.

dan showed me how to get to the post office {where i returned some curtain rods we didn't end up needing} and then how to get to the dump. we unloaded all of the recyclables into their respective bins and learned that we can recycle even more than we thought! so exciting! we bought our Scituate Town Trash bags (overpriced and strangely sized) and were on our way. and for those of you wondering, despite the fact that we are now the residents of 396 clapp road, we did not bring anything home from the dump with us.

next it was off to home depot to buy trash barrels for sorting our trash and recyclables in the basement along with some other odds and ends. i even got dan to come into homegoods with me (while we waited for our pizza). no good finds, but it was nice to browse around and spend the day together.

for such a short weekend, it was a nice once. we spent the evening at matt and krissy's playing Go Fish (or Goat Fish as Uncle Danny liked to call it) with Emelyn, Daniel the Great performed magic tricks for Emelyn, we played with Will who is still under the weather, and chatted and ate with Matt and Kris.

and now its sunday and i'm at work for the foreseeable future. the new office workstations are looking great. the cabling is going in well (got to meet some of dan's work buddies). we still have no power to the area which could be a major disaster but i've got some guys coming up to look at it so i can't freak just yet. (ETA- they came! they're installing! they rock!!!)

ok back to work...