Yada Yada Yada

Update in Photos

Christopher and his dog are visiting for a bit.   

Today we went to Kent Falls, CT. 

This sweet man held my bag which was full of water bottles among other necessities:

This girl would not kiss her Daddy unless he had 'no scratchies".  He was already for the smooch but she had to check to be sure that she would not be scratched by his face.

This crew is ready to hike to the top of the falls.

This young man didn't want to hike to the top and stayed behind with the Momma. So he became my victim for photos.   

  After the hike -- we all met at where 1the water fall ended and splashed around for a bit and then walked to where the car was parked.  There was picnic table near the edge of the river there and we had some fruit and water and the kids threw rocks into the water for a while.

    She also had some chips with her watermelon. She requested pony tails today but they are a bit higher than usual.  I am so in love with how cute they are nonetheless.

This amazingly cute child is my sweet Daniel.  He told me that this was a great day and he had never been to anyplace as cool as the falls.

The Grandfather, the son and the granddaughter (the dog).  Christopher and his baby might be staying with us for a long while.  We will have to wait and see on that one.  Christopher has to go back to Virginia and close up his apartment and also put some closure on his long time but over relationship with his girl M.  He said he wants to be with his family but he and his girl are on and off as often as she calls him on his I-phone.    We will have to see on this one. 

What a great day we had.  I am amazed constantly at how close we are to such amazing nature.  I am so in love with my crazy family.  We ended the day with dinner, a campfire and sparklers and then a family movie.  We are really out there as family's go but I am so in love with us as a family.  We just work and click and belong together.  Life is just so good.

Lyme

And I am not talking about the refreshing citrus kind. Lyme as in Lyme, CT where Lyme disease was born.  Born in the tiny body of a tiny deer tick and has spread from that location to parts far and wide.  The wonderful disease that comes to the forefront of my mind after the joy of the warm weather hits and I realize that now I have to do tick checks everyday after the kids have been out.

This morning is was Margaret who had a tick in her hair and it was all in -- with just the little feets and butt sticking out.  We had to hold her down and yank it out and it came out in two pieces but we got it all.  I do not think it was a deer tick because it was too large but we have to be on the look out for the bullseye rash nonetheless. 

I wonder every year at this time, if I would have realized that this would be part of my life every Spring, would have that been the deal breaker on moving to CT?  Hmmm, I am still not sure of my answer on that.  My husband had Lyme disease a few years ago and was out of work for 4 months or so.  Luckily it was caught in time and it responded to the antibiotics and he has not other lingering symptoms.

He always asks me to check him after he mows the lawn and I noticed a big bullseye rash across his side of his torso and I told him that I think he has Lyme.  He told me 'Oh no, that is just a heat rash."  I insisted that he needed to get it checked out and he insisted that he didn't.  We had a bit of a heated argument about it and I told him that the pediatrician has always told me to be on the look out for the rash if I know the kids got bit.  He insisted he didn't have it and went on about his day.

NOT until I looked it up on line and showed him the rash did he start to believe me.  He asked me to print out the web page I was showing him and he took his copies and went away to read it.  About an hour later he came back and was holding his head, saying "I don't feel so good, I think I have a fever" and by the next day he was too sick to even go to the doctor alone, I had to go and fill out all his papers for him.  Hmmm, seems kinda convenient that he had no symptoms or didn't even believe when I said it only when he looked at the rash on line.  He was totally F-I-N-E fine until he read the symptoms and THEN HE HAD them all. coughbullshitcough

I also forgot about my seasonal allergies.  I am suffering with a big sinus headache, scratchy throat and itchy eyes.  That would NOT be a deal breaker for moving here though because I had all of these symptoms even when I lived in the city.

So the moral of this post is too check in and say HEY I am alive and I am STILL loving the Spring temps and blooming world around me but from behind the screen in my house and from my computer desk.

The Enchantress

My darling Margaret just melts me. She is my buddy, my shadow, my helper, my girl and my everything.  When I sit in the recliner, she makes her home between my legs.  When I lay on the couch, she makes her home behind my knees (as Daniel calls the HOLE). When I sit on the bed and put on my makeup, she sits right next to me and puts on hers too.  When I go in the basement, outside, to the store, to the PO, etc . . ., she wants to come with. '

I love sitting at the breakfast table and she comes and sits right next to me and we talk and we say 'cheers' and click glasses and she shares whatever I am eating or asks me to 'help' her with her food and we sing songs or read books.  I love this time - just me and her.

Yesterday we were watching the movie 'Enchanted' and during the scene when Amy Adams and McDreamy dance at the ball, Margaret told me that we were going to dance.  "I am going to put my hand here and we put our other hands here and we spin" is what she told me.  She want to put her hand on my shoulder and us hold out other arms out like the couple in the movie.

So I do and we do.  We waltz around the living room and I feel like my heart is going to burst.  She is looking at me with such an adoring look and I almost felt like weeping from the sheer joy I am feeling at this moment.  We try to copy the moves we see on the big screen adding twirls and dips and big sweeping steps around the living room.  Then the song is over and we have to get ready to take M to school and the day continues on.

Later on I was reliving this moment in my mind and trying to recall her face and they way she was looking at me.  There was so many emotions in her face -- love, joy, excitement, adoration, pride, contentment and maybe a hint of entitlement - as in I am so loved and adored in this family, of course someone wants to hold me and dance with me.  I feel like my heart reflected all those emotions right back to her.  I felt so loved and adored and wanted and needed and enjoyed in those few minutes while we danced.  I don't ever want to forget it.

As Daniel would say "Good times, Good times."

Photos and Details

I am going to try and do a quickie post.  Try, I say because I seem to have a problem keeping it short.  Whether or not I am typing or talking, I go on and on and on.  You do not know how much editing I DO for my entries here but they all seem to be so long.  So lets go!

My helper girl.  She says "I a good helper girl" and I agree.  I take the photos and she puts them in the baggies.  I always have to fix the bags she makes because she smooshes everything in but she still is a good helper girl and I never fix them in front of her. 

A sunbathing Hermoine.

New shoes -- worn with her new footless tights and a cut pink shirt dress from Gammy.  She was the most fashionable girl at the Pine wood Derby.

Daniel in the back yard.  I couldn't get any good photos of him at the Pine wood Derby with his car because after the cars get weighed in, the boys are not allowed to touch them again until it is all over.  They have a new fancy track and the men do the racing now.  I do not like it at all -- the boys can watch from the sidelines but they are boys from 1st grade to 5th grade -- how long do you think they stay sitting and watching the Dads drop their cars down the track?  BORING. 

TT (Stephen) in the yard yesterday.  The temps are getting warmer and we get to spend  little more time out there every week.  For this boy to be outside and having fun without any prompting to get off the computer from his parents -- is a great thing.  I think we all have seasonal disorder here and are craving the sunshine.  A few more weeks indoors and we all might get scurvy.

They are all looking at the camera at the same time!!!! HURRAY!!  AND smiling too!!!! grinning from ear to ear face

Oh Daddy is making faces at me behind my back.  Who cares, I got some good photos!  smilie face

Glorious Spring Embellished Flowers from my etsy store: CareFree Glimmer.  I have one set left and my husband cut some more flowers yesterday and I have to find the time to embellish them today and more will go up tomorrow. 

I do have these build your own sets - inspired by SPRING!

Hmmm -- love these colors together.  Makes me want to eat some Easter candy.  Too bad my kids do not see eye to eye on what is tasty candy and they have nothing tempting in their baskets.  I can see the good side of that too -- I think God worked that out for me.

Still loving the LOLZ cats, and other LOLZ animals.

Check: LOLZ Cats  for lots and lots of LOLZ.