Fall

Fall - October is such a great month!
Some pictures of our fall: Once again, blogger won't let me change the order of the pics - so these are not in the order I intended. Picture Below taken at Kykuit - the Rockefeller's Country Estate - this is their view of the Hudson from the back of the Property. It was amazing. Learned some stuff about the Rockefeller's on the tour - seemed like a good family who did good with all that money. Our guide's Father worked on the estate for many years, so she had some personal stories that made them seem a little more real. We went to our favorite farm to get pumpkins - and pet the dogs. Before Chris left we told the girls we would think about getting a dog when he got back. Ashlee has been mentally shopping for one for months. I'm trying to think up a new excuse about why it's a good idea to wait a while longer.

While in the Hudson Valley, we went to "Blaze" on one of the estates - over 4,000 carved pumpkins. Here is Heather with the girls in front of the sunflower fields. They had a few real pumpkins, but the rest were plastic - I wondered before we went how they kept them from rotting. It was pretty cool. Heather came to see us last week - we really enjoyed her visit and hope she wasn't too bored.

Taken at the working farm - Phillipsburg Manor - in Sleepy Hollow, NY. We toured this during the day and went back the next night for "Legends Night" At night, the farm transforms into a story-telling, song singing, headless horseman riding party that is really fun. Except the night we went, it was POURING rain - flash flood warning for the area, so, we might have stayed longer and enjoyed it more had we been dry.

Pickin out the perfect pumpkin at the farm - not in order.

Beehive and bees at the "Blaze"

Taken as we approached Phillipsburg Manor for the "Legends" night.

Last but not least, Paigie loves "belts" - headbands that Ashlee usually wears in lieu of a real belt to keep her pants up. Paigie has adopted that fashion style and I think pulls it off rather nicely! There are 5-6 headbands around her waist in this picture, plus on in her hair.

I guess summer is really over - we've had a string of cold/cooler days, so it's time to pack up the flip flops and get ready for winter. Everyone keeps saying we are going to have a rough winter. I'm waiting for our local weather guy - Glen "Hurricane" Schwarz to make his winter prediction. There is a good chance he already has, I haven't watched the news in weeks. Anyway, here are some random thoughts from me tonight:

Glee - could someone please explain this show's popularity with people my age to me. I know several people who love it, David Bianculli from NPR loves it. . . so I've watched it a couple of times to see what the deal is. I don't get it - the kids are lip-synching (fine for some scenes, but when they are supposed to be performing?) and doing it poorly, many times not even moving their mouths at the right time. Plus, the girl sounds a little bit too much like Britney Spears you know that sound tunnel, electric voice? The camera work (I'm sure it's on purpose) is jerky and bouncy and gives me a headache. I'm pretty sure they are aiming at a younger demographic, but why do adults love it so? I did hear really great music this week from Pomplamoose, new to me, but soo good!

NPR is helping me be a grumpy mother. I hate to say it, but it's true. Their shows are just so good and it makes me feel like I'm informed and can be a little bit educated about current issues. Plus there are just so many stories that you would never hear on regular TV/news. I have their schedule memorized and I'm sad when I miss a favorite show. For instance "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" comes on at 4:00pm on Saturdays, which is a bad time and I miss it more than I hear it and "This American Life" comes on Sundays at 12:00, we don't get in the car after church until 12:20/12:30 so I usually miss most of that. And, I probably shouldn't be listening to it on the Sabbath anyway. Sad - but the really sad thing is that if I am listening to it (when I'm cooking, cleaning, driving etc...) I tune the kids out, want them to be quiet and get mad if I miss something. I'm thinking I'm going to have to give it up a little bit. So, don't ask me about current events, interesting stories etc... because I won't know.

Last one - I took the girls to the park the other night, one that is far from our house, because we are collecting leaves to mail to Chris. It was a beautiful evening, the air was clear, the sky was blue, without its usual haze and the leaves have started to turn. I felt so grateful to be there. After a few minutes a couple of other families arrived - younger than me probably by a few years - and I got a little panicky. What if I am nearing the end of my playground years - not for a while, Paigie is only 2, but what if she is the last one? I wanted to freeze, pause, make time go slower, I mean really what if? We had a great walk through the woods, a happy chatty drive home (no radio!) and just a great rest of the night. But, then tonight, at about 8:00, all I could think was "go to bed, go to bed, go to bed, go to bed...." Part of the reason why motherhood is so difficult, I guess.

And, Heather comes in 2 days!!!!!!!!! We are very excited.

Conversations with My Sister

The picture above doesn't really have anything to do with this post, but she's just really cute. This is a Saturday night, after a bath, playing dress-up with her sisters. Both the earring stickers and dress were worn to church the next day, after she slept in both of them. I did manage to get a shirt on underneath the dress. There is just no time for arguing about clothes on a Sunday morning - whenever she gets dressed we go through every dress in her closet at least once, sometimes three times or more before a choice is made. In fact, that may be our new Sunday strategy - letting her sleep in the dress she is going to wear the next day.

About 2 weeks ago, I was talking to my sister about school etc... for her kids. Her oldest started early morning seminary this year. She gets up and eats breakfast with her every day - sometime in the 5 o'clock hour. So they can have one on one time together. She said "I'll bet I'm one of the only mom's who does this." and not to brag about it, but to say, "Why?" I told her it's because she is a good mom. Below is a picture of the sunrise Maggie took one day last week. She gets up at 6:30 and enjoys some alone time - alone. Because I sleep until about 6:55 and then get up and make her lunch and give her a kiss and send her out the door. And I don't have to go to work all day. I need to change this, because one day I'm going to want a do-over for these years.

Then, on Sunday night, I was on the phone with my sister again. She was cleaning up after Sunday dinner. (We had just eaten also, we are two hours ahead of her. It's our thing - eating dinner as close to bed time as possible) She made cheesy potatoes at the request of her oldest and was throwing the leftovers away. She doesn't keep leftovers. Why? Because she's smart - her kids don't eat them and neither does she. I have day's and day's worth of leftovers in my fridge. I eat them almost every day for lunch, and still they go bad and need to be thrown out. This is one of the reasons I miss C - (I know it's super romantic) he eats the food I make, he likes more than 5 things, and sometimes he helps eat the leftovers. Below is a picture of my fridge - 3 of those containers will pass the 7 day guideline and be thrown out this weekend. I even have left over Macaroni and Cheese - who's going back to that? Certainly not me, and I'm assuming none of the girls since I've offered it as an after-school snack and not had any takers. P.S. The salad in the deli container is the salmon bow-tie salad from Cost-Co - a mistake as most deli salads are.

So, to sum it up, my sister is smarter than me and a better mom. I feel like that about my siblings - I wish I were like them in more ways. I'm glad they still like me anyway.

For C.

Sometimes, the girls say funny things and I wish C were here so that I could tell him, or so we could laugh a little bit together. I almost never remember to tell him when we are on the phone or in an e-mail, so I am posting a couple here for him.

On Sunday, Maggie was on the phone with one of her friends from church, planning something for Activity Days and somehow the conversation turned to homework. Maggie - "When my dad is here, he helps me with math, but he helps me the old-fashioned way, not the way I learned it. Half the time I don't even know what he is talking about, I feel kind of bad."
I can't remember anything in particular that Ashlee said, except that she was making plans to turn the school into a haunted house, gets sick about talking about "fashion" with the "girly girls" at school and she spent 40 minutes on the couch with Paige, reading Junie B. Jones to her. So Paige went to bed with her "chaper book."

Paigie - sitting on a plastic bag (for about 2 minutes) during a soccer game on Saturday. On the way home, Maggie shared some of her Gatorade with her and Paigie said "That's refreshing." Things like that are particularly cute coming out of a two-year olds mouth.

Love you C!!!!! Be safe!

Back to School

We are back in school now - 2 days down, 178 (school days) to go! Here are the girls on their first day of school. Ashlee has 28 kids in her class this year, almost double what she's had every other year of school here. It must have something to do with budgets. But, her teacher seems very capable and very happy. She looks a little bit nervous because she doesn't want to be late (it's one of her goals this year). We went back to school shopping last week and they each got to choose 1 outfit - Ashlee chose a dress with leggings and new shoes. I asked several times in the dressing room "Is this what you love and can't wait to wear?" Anyway, the morning of school, she decided she wasn't "really comfortable" wearing dresses to school -and wore shorts instead. Thus continues our streak of buying first day of school clothes that are either worn only once or not at all to school - I think this is the 4th year. Oh well, the dress is dressy enough for church, so we will hopefully get some use out of it that way. This is Maggie after school - she hated that sign, I think it made her feel too young. Paigie is so happy to have her sister home. Look for that "Cinderella" dress again and again and again. It's one of 2 that she constantly wants to wear.

Good-bye summer!!!! We are sad to see you go. Welcome fall - I am trying to embrace your return and the return of schedules, bed times, busier routines that you bring!

Jersey Shore

Today we went to the Jersey Shore for probably the last swim session of the summer. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE it there. I love getting out of the car and feeling the sticky air, I love hearing the waves before we see them. I love that first glimpse of the ocean, it's always exhilarating. I love people watching, I love jumping the waves, I love to attempt boogie boarding. Tonight we stayed late enough to watch the real boogie boarders and surfers. We don't usually stay that late, they have to wait for the lifeguards to leave at 5, and it seems like they don't really start showing up until close to six; it was really fun to watch them. I love all the beautiful houses in shore towns, and I also love the not so beautiful houses. I love the boardwalk (although if you stay too late, it's not so great to have young kids with you.) I just love it and if we ever move, I think the shore will be the one thing I will miss above everything else. In my dream life, we would own a Jersey Shore house and visit it often and stay for weeks in the summer . . . and then when we get old, we have grandma and grandpa camp at the shore. . . doesn't that sound wonderful? Although I'm fairly certain that the Jersey Shore doesn't really show up in Christopher's plans (real or imagined) for the future.

Lessons Learned

Well, we are home now and I have been trying to catch up with mail, weeds, back to school (4 days!) etc... Here are the last of my summer pictures - they're not in order.

Lessons Learned from our Summer Vacation

#1 Lagoon is fun, especially if you go with fun people. We were able to go twice and had a great time both times. It's also really nice to have someone bring dinner in to you while you are riding rides. (Thanks mom and dad!) This was taken while we were in line for the last ride of the day...the Ferris Wheel, which is almost as scary for me as any of the big roller coasters. Lesson #2 - Aunt Heather has lots of pretty things and is really generous with them. From shoes, to dresses, to jewelry, all three girls had great fun playing dress-up with her closet. She also gave Paigie her first pedicure, which she loved.

Lesson #3 Thirty....something is a long, long, long way from 20, 22, 24. That's me playing for a few minutes with my family's indoor soccer team. It was ugly, and the picture is blurry on purpose. It's a long way away....really long.


Lesson #4 Grandma's House is fun, and My Grandmother's backyard is still a magical place.


#5 Cousins are fun.

We had a really fun summer. It was great to spend time with family and establish stronger relationships, I'm really glad we went. Thanks to everyone who took time out to spend with us, and to my mom and dad for letting us stay so long and disrupt their lives.

School starts on Tuesday and we have everything just about ready...we are looking forward to a great year. And, we are at the halfway mark for the deployment - YAY!!!!!!!