Saying goodbye

When we moved in our neighbor (single dad with custody of 2 children) had a nanny to care for his children. She came in the morning to see them off to school and then back in the afternoon to meet the bus.

She was very quiet but eventually I started talking to her. I was new at the bus stop so I didn't know many people. I could tell she was not very comfortable hanging out with all of us. Once I determined that she had free time during the day, I asked her if she wanted to watch Tee during school hours. It would in no way interfere with her getting her family's kids off the bus in the afternoon.

She was unsure at first and decided to talk to the Dad next door. I don't know that he loved the idea but we went ahead with our plan.

At the end of the summer, she decided to leave the family. She was unsure about her husband's plans. He is in the military and was possibly being relocated to Florida. The relocation never happened and they were to remain here for the time being. So I started my planning.

I knew the only way I could get her to sit for me occasionally was to find her more families who needed the same type of service. I sent a notice out to the Multiples group I belong to and was able to get many people interested.

The plan worked out nicely and she was able to keep busy watching children and I was able to have her sit for me when I needed her. Definitely a win win situation.

During the last two years, she has meant a lot to me. I have always trusted her with my children and knew she would always take great care of them. We have had her and her husband over to spend Thanksgiving with us the last two year.

Recently, her husband has been given orders for a move to Hawaii (for 3 years). She will leave Maryland on Wednesday to spend a month or so at home before the big move.

She became close with many of the families she cared for. She wanted to have a party for all of us. This was held on Saturday night and we had it in our home.

We are going to miss her so much! She is the only person that I have had watch my children since we moved here (other than my niece). So sad to see her leave.


The sitter, her husband and the kids.


The sitter and I.

She made Tee a special birthday cake of his request. It was home made and delicious.

I think we are going to finally do it

We have been attending a church here on and off for the last 2 years. I am not the type of person to have commitment issues but have had a hard time committing to the church.

I guess I have a hard time dealing with change some times. The church is a bit different from what we were used to at our old church. I could probably write a novel about the difference but at this point it is just best to move on and find our church family.

I have said it before but the main part of service that really bothers me is when it is time to greet your neighbors at the beginning of service. Honestly, I don’t want to shake everyone’s hands (and I am not that much of a germ-a-phoebe). People move all over the place to greet and I just stand as a statue hoping to not have to greet too many. Maybe I have issues!

A few Sundays ago, we found out that our pastor is leaving (he has only been the pastor for 31 years there). We like the Pastor but I think 31 years in one spot is way too long. A new pastor has been appointed. He seems like a young guy who has started several churches in the area. I think this will mean good things for the church.

They also announced a new member’s class that will be held in March. New members are brought in front of the congregation, introduced, prayed for and some other stuff is done. In my opinion, this is too lengthy process for me (one who does not like to be the center of attention). I would rather just continue to check off the box of regular attender than go through the process.

I decided to email the minister in charge of the new member’s class and explained my position. She called me and we spoke for a while. I think she thought I was a recluse and I felt like I had to explain that I was ok and we did have friends but I just don’t want to stand in front on display.

So if all goes as planned, we will finally become members of the church through a transfer of membership with no big to do in church.

A connection in Blogging

I was first introduced into the world of blogging by a fraternity friend of my husband. He shared the exciting news of their Russian adoption and provided a link to their blog. The blog detailed their process from the beginning. The moment I started reading I was hooked. In the process, I ended up getting hooked on other blogs and some of those I still read. This was about 4 years ago.

I met my husband’s friend’s wife (I will call her CJ) at their wedding. As you can imagine, weddings tend to be filled with lots of people so we were introduced to her but did not get a chance to talk with her the remainder of the evening. They did not live in our city and our paths did not cross.

They had two daughters when they brought their special little boy home from Russia.
She continued to blog for a while then took a little break. After a while, she started a blog about her weight loss challenge (she did not keep up with this one) which then led to her last blog (mainly about her health and life lessons).

She had been having health problems for well over 2 years now. She was in the hospital about 1 time a month over the last few years. Every time she was in the Drs. told her she was “too complicated” and basically threw up their hands. There were always a multitude of issues and no one doctor could figure out how to “fix” her. She was able to go to a specialty hospital that treated her so well and they were able to start working on some of the issues.

She tried very hard to keep her blogs lively but it wasn’t always possible. Some days it broke my heart to think that one person had to endure so much. But every time she came back to her faith and new there was a plan for her.

She had such a strong passion for life, her children and writing. And it was evident in every post she wrote. And even though I only met her once, I feel like she has been a good friend of mine for years.

She unexpectedly lost her life this past Monday and it makes me so sad. Her last FB post was “On a jet plane…..Here is to a healthier life. Missing the hubby and kids already! Love to you all”. That to me says it all.

I am certainly going to miss reading her posts or looking at her FB page but I am so glad that she is no longer in agonizing pain.

Our weekend

Our road has finally gotten back to being a two lane road, thanks to the front end loaders that came out this morning. My boys can finally get back to riding the bus to school. I also heard this morning that the next system moving in on Monday evening into Tuesday is supposed to be rain. That is both good and bad. Good because the snow will melt and bad because the snow will melt. Hopefully, it will be a soft rain.

I am looking forward to a normal routine. The 2 hour school delay was hard. We are always up so early.

The husband left for his annual ski trip out west on Saturday and he finally made it there today. A blizzard caused flight cancellations. He had a layover in Chicago but left early this morning. When I talked with him this afternoon, he had already been skiing.

The boys had a basketball game this past weekend and EE finally showed up to the game. We started bribing them with money to be a little more aggressive on the court. On Saturday, EE scored two baskets and played so well. I feel like he needed the score to gain a little more confidence. Jay has scored several baskets in various games. They have one game left on Thursday.

The boys were invited to another slumber party. I feel like such an old fashioned Mom. It was for a child in the neighborhood. They were only allowed to go until 9pm. The Mom was kind enough to bring them home for me since Tee was asleep.

A busy week is in store along with a busy weekend. Lots to do!

Recovering part 2

Maryland has not had a large storm like the two that came through in many years. Looking at the snow on the ground you would think we live in a place like Minnesota or upstate New York. Our city has done a good job recovering from the storm. There is only so much you can do in a day.

I have 2 weeks worth of recyclables and trash sitting in my garage. By Friday, I will have so much trash stacked up at the end of the driveway because it most certainly won’t fit in my can. Today was a holiday; however, the city is having normal recycle and trash collections. It would normally be pushed back a day. I am looking forward to wheeling my recycle can out and being rid of at least half the trash sitting in the garage.

We only received mail 2 times this week also. We were told that the mail person would not deliver your mail unless the path in front of the mail box was clear. The husband and I worked Saturday morning to clear a path because I really wanted my mail. Our mail person was so nice, I saw him get out of his truck at most of the houses. I was so happy to get my People magazine. I rely on my magazine to get me through my Tuesday gym workout on the stair stepper.

Yesterday, the school superintendent closed schools for tomorrow, Tuesday. They have driven around the city and determined conditions to be unsafe to allow children to walk to bus stops and in some cases to school. There are also schools that still have not been plowed. He urged us to help our neighbors by clearing the sidewalks near and on the path to the bus stops.

Tomorrow will mark 7 ½ days that the kids have been out of school. It seems a little unbelievable to me. I question whether Wednesday will be another day off. I can tell you that my kids will not get in a bus with the condition of our road unchanged. I will drive them if I have to.

I had conferences over the phone with the boys’ teachers last week. One of the teachers I spoke to said that they were finally getting back on track from winter break and now this unplanned break was going to be difficult on the children.

I have heard speculation regarding school being in session on certain days off, maybe one or two around Spring break and a few professional development days. If not, my kids may be in school until the first of July.

Keeping my fingers crossed for school to be in session on Wednesday!

Recovering

Having 2 blizzards back to back is not a good thing. The winds were fierce and snow was blowing all over the place. It started snowing Tuesday evening and the REAL snow came on Wednesday. It didn’t stop until late Wednesday evening. They were begging people to stay off the roads. I don’t know where you would go in the weather because everything was closed.


This is what it looked like for the majority of the day.

Our deck was so packed with snow.

My husband shoveled Wednesday evening and then paid some kids to help him finish the bottom of the driveway. I have to admit shoveling is hard work. We will be investing in a snow blower for the next season. As you can imagine, there is not one available in this area right now.


This is what it looked like on Thursday.

The city has worked hard to get streets cleared. Unfortunately, our neighborhood has been neglected. Our street is not fully cleared. We probably have maybe a lane and a half open (and lots of bumps of ice). Up until yesterday it was mainly just a sheet of ice. Our street did get a layer of salt dropped today but still no sign of a plow.

I was finally able to get out of the house on Friday after being cooped up for 7 days. My husband was driving my SUV to work. I had a babysitter scheduled on Friday and was so happy to hear that she would still be able to get to our house. I fled the moment she walked in. It felt nice to be out and about again.

I did have to cancel a facial appointment that I had made but was able to keep my hair appointment. A good cut and color makes such a difference. Then it was off to run errands for the party.

Yes, I decided to keep the rescheduled party on for Friday evening. I purchased a Murder/Mystery party from this website. I have to admit I was skeptical about purchasing something like this on the Internet. I looked at it and researched different parties on the Internet but kept coming back to this one. I wanted to celebrate the twins’ birthday but did not want to spend so much money like we have in the past.

The party was fun and the kids had a great time. The kids were a little wild but keep in mind that they have been out of school and probably cooped up for a week also. They did a great job with deciphering the clues that led them to the next. We did have to help on some. They figured out that EE and Jay were both murdered by their Father. We had to help them figure out who did it.

Can't believe my sweet little (ok, not so little) guys are 8 years old already. Where does the time go?

Bracing for round 2

It is official; school is canceled for the remainder of the week. I knew that this would be the case. The second storm is rolling through as I type. The prediction is anywhere from 10 to 20 inches of snow (on top of what is still left from the first storm). It will snow from this evening until tomorrow evening. That sounds like a whole lot of snow to me. From what I understand, this has not happened since 1996 where they had a few storms come in over a few days. This will definitely be a season for the records.

The boys were supposed to have their Valentine’s celebration in class on Thursday. We completed their cards yesterday. Every year, they hand out just cards with no candy. Each year they come home with so much candy. We won’t eat all of the candy. In fact, right before Halloween we cleaned out their candy bag and trashed a bunch of old stuff (a lot from the prior Valentine’s day). We don’t eat much candy. They tend to forget about their bag and then it sits there until we clean it out. Not sure why I decided they would hand out candy this year but they are giving out Nerds. I have not heard when or if they will reschedule their party.

I had the boys work on some math pages yesterday. Need to keep their minds working. They are definitely playing too many video games. Today I asked them to write a paragraph about the snow storm. Jay got right on it after breakfast. He wrote the 8 sentences I asked him to about the fun we have had in the snow and the not so fun part of the storm (power outage). EE threw a fit about not knowing what to write. My husband and I helped him with some ideas on how to start. But the fit continued. The deal was no video games until the writing assignment was completed. About an hour or so later, he finally sits down to write. He writes 2 well written pages. He had some punctuation issues but they were minor. Tomorrow it may be answering questions about a book they have to read.

Yes, cabin fever has started to set in. I am ready for the snow to move on out.

I will call this Winter Break

Our road is still snow packed with one strip cleared for cars to make it out of here. Although, the people who live at the end of our road are stuck. A snow plow never made its way down to the end of the road. I have heard that the reason our street was plowed is because we have a state trooper who lives in our neighborhood (before you get to the end of the road) that must be able to get out.

We did walk down the road yesterday to let the boys sled down the hill. It was a hard walk up the hill but at least a good work out. We took turns carrying Tee. We made it with a lot of work. The boys had a great time sledding. This was Tee’s first time. I had taken my camera but I didn’t want to have to take my gloves off. Tee loved it.

The boys and I played outside for a little while before lunch. The sun is shining and we needed a little fresh air. We saw the mail person driving down the street. God bless him. He delivered mail to those that he could. He had to get out of his car almost at each house. I also saw him climb on a huge snow drift to reach a mailbox. I was very happy to get my People magazine today.

I received a note from the school system stating that school is cancelled for tomorrow. I could have predicted that. We have another snow storm coming in late Tuesday into Wednesday. This was a short week for us to begin with since we were to have conferences. So Wednesday and Thursday were already supposed to be half days and they have the day off on Friday. It will be interesting to see when they will reschedule conferences.

I think I will start looking into booking our vacation to the beach.

Unpredictable/Unbelievable

There are many things in life that are unpredictable. It is so important to be flexible and able to roll with different situations.

Most days the boys’ moods are unpredictable. We can be great one minute and then downhill the next. I didn’t know that boys can be so emotional.

The weather also seems to be a little unpredictable. Last weekend, when we went skiing they were calling for a little snow at our home possibly. The storm was tracking to the south of us and it would have to travel about a 150 miles north to hit us. Well, our area did get snow and it came in and pounded our area very quickly. The weather people were a little off on this one.

So early last week when the forecast for snow for this past weekend was made I was a little skeptical. Is it really going to snow or will it miss us? But as the week progressed, the forecast remained the same and the amount of snow accumulation increased.

Ee and Jay celebrated their 8th birthday on Thursday. Their party was to be held yesterday, Saturday. On Thursday, I decided to re-schedule for Friday of this coming week. More on their birthday next week. Good thing I did because this is what happened Friday night into Saturday.

Friday around 9am. Friday around noon and still coming down.

Out front window of neighbor's car Neighbor's car disappears.

Finally stops late afternoon on Saturday and we go play

Tee helping shovel the driveway.

We lost power at around 2 am on Saturday morning. Luckily, we were able to light our gas fireplaces to get the house warm.

My husband along with a few others spent the entire morning outside shoveling and blowing the snow off of our driveways. The snow was so high that a few people had to break it down so that the snow blower could work. They would take alternate who was working the snow blower. I think they were all sore by days end.

Our power was restored at around 12:30. Which in my opinion is great. It may be that the electric company spokesperson lives close by. But prior to our power coming back on the guys spent some time carrying a heavy generator in the deep snow from my neighbor's back yard to our garage. My husband was going to hook up the fridge. As soon as he got it turned on, the power magically came on.

It is reported that we got 38 inches of snow. Our back deck had 30 inches but I bet other places are definitely closer to the 38 inches.

Looking to the coming week, it is supposed to be a short week for the boys. Conferences are supposed to be held this week. This means 1/2 days on both Wednesday and Thursday with a day off on Friday. I just got a note stating there will be no school tomorrow. My prediction for Tuesday is iffy. The weather people are forecasting another snow on Tuesday evening into Wednesday. Should provide for an interesting week.

Next up on our list of purchases, a snow blower!

Ski Trip

My husband grew up in the very cold mid-west. So he grew up skiing and still enjoys it now. Every year with the exception of a few he has taken a guys trip out west for some good skiing. He would like for our boys to learn how to ski and enjoy it as much as he does.

He planned a trip for us to go to the Poconos for a weekend. The drive was not bad. We arrived at our hotel around 3:30. It seemed a little late to get geared up for tubing. So we unpacked and went to dinner. It was so cold there.

The view from the top of the mountain at our hotel down in the distance.

The boys decided that they wanted to learn how to snowboard instead of ski. They did a class on Saturday for about 6 hours. I watched them for a while because I was a little nervous that 6 hours was too long. My fingers kept getting so cold that I would have to go indoors to warm them up. I was wearing nice warm gloves my husband bought for me. Then my toes were freezing even though I had nice warm ski socks and boots. I thought that they must be freezing out on the snow.

The first thing they had to do was learn how to fall correctly. They learned how to fall on their fronts and backs.

They started out learning how to snowboard on a little hill.

They were taught to snowboard down to their instructor and then fall down.

By the end of class they both had gotten the hang of it and were snowboarding down a hill.

EE loved snowboarding.

It was a very cold day outside on Saturday. But the school had the boys take many breaks and go inside to warm up. It was a long day for them but they did learn a lot. EE said he would not mind taking another class but would just want a half day. I think Jay liked it but he was very tired. I think they need to learn how to ski also.

Tee was so excited about skiing even thought he had no idea what he was getting himself into. After we spent some time getting the boys ready with their equipment and signing them into ski school it was Tee's turn.

My husband got them both geared up and ready to do. He skied with Tee between his legs. He then took him over to the bunny hill. They went up the ski lift and down the hill. Tee absolutely loved it. They rested and warmed for a little while and then Tee was ready to go out again. Several more runs and then it was time to let Dad have some ski time.

Tee was ready to go.

I stayed inside the lodge because I couldn't manage to be outside anymore. Did I mention how cold I was? Then Tee and I went back to a very warm hotel room so he could rest.

We had hoped to get some tubing in but we ran out of time. Next time we need to stay at least one more night. I am very glad that the boys enjoy the sport. As for me, I am not sure if skiing is really for me. Maybe one day I will try it.