This is what happens when I try to clean

  

You ain't got no alibi, you're just UGLY

 
I am a conniseur of ugly shoes. Granny boots, clogs, Doc Martins, wooden soled sandals - I've owned them all. And even I thought Crocs were hideous the first time I saw them. However, after having back pain all weekend from my no-support flip flops, I picked these up yesterday. I took them off to sleep, but have worn them every minute since getting them. The back pain is gone, I'll have to wait and see if they have an impact on my arthritic knees and ankles. 

Up in smoke again

I thought Dan was likely to change his mind about wanting to move, and had been taking steps to get a job and daycare here. He really wanted to go back to the Lodge, and I didn't think the offer from the new place would be enough to change his mind. But tonight he was talking to his old boss and the equation has changed. His old Chef is leaving, and he's the main reason Dan wanted to go back. He wanted to work with Ken again. Plus, Ken thought that the owners may decide to sell before finishing the reconstruction. If that happened, the new owners wouldn't feel any obligation to take Dan back.

So, Vermont is seeming more and more likely. We'll be going next week for his interview, and I'll start looking for houses/apartments.

Perfect Day

Dad's here this weekend. Spent last night playing monopoly, I took the tournament 2-1, and watching the Sox win. Perfection.

Water, Water nowhere

About two weeks ago our water heater went down for a few days. Not much fun, but at least we could flush toilets and get water for the kids to drink and run the dishwasher. Annoying, but not too bad.

Saturday, I discovered that when the electricity goes out, the pump to the well stops working too. At least this time we were showered and dressed, but I had nothing to make up bottles for Claire or to wash hands. So we decamped to the in-laws for a few hours until the power came back. On Sunday, we finally got our lazy asses in gear to shower around eleven, and the pump wasn't working again. So, another trip to the in-laws shower. Caught the landlord at his parents on the way out and told him. He very quickly diagnosed a worn out gear and replaced it.

Good thing he's not a doctor, because his diagnosis was wrong. Once again, had to shower at the in-laws today. Mike was at the door the second he got off work though, he's been a great landlord, and just replaced the whole pump. Yay!!!! Baths, and dishes, and laundry yippeee!!!!

Marriage Telepathy

I have a new theory why couples who are together a long time don't speak to eachother. It's got nothing to do with running out of things to say. It's caused by the fact that you start reading eachother's minds so often that you forget to speak aloud.

It starts out innocently. You both say "So, you want Pizza tonight" at the same time and you laugh and think that's pretty funny. Then it spreads. A typical conversation begins to lack nouns and verbs.
"Honey, where's the...."
"In the closet"
"Why"
"Nathan"
"K"

Still you think it's normal and no cause for alarm. Then come the days when he picks up the phone to call his parents, and you start getting the kids ready to go, because you know he's calling to make plans for dinner at their house. Or he turns out the only light in the bedroom without asking first, because he knows you're only reading because he's reading. Or you see him standing forlornly in the living room, and hand him the keys/mp3/sunglasses that you realize he misplaced before he even asks about it. Hopefully the code of silence breaks enough at this point for a "Thank you", but no guarantees.

And this is after just 12 yrs of marriage, how bad will it be at 25 or 50?

Yummy

Now that we're possibly moving to Vermont, my new life goal is to be CFO of Ben & Jerry's. With that in mind, I feel a responsibility to buy one of these every day for the rest of my life.


More details here.

Lazy Days

Meant to post these earlier, but the insert photo button was AWOL.

Nathan's been going to swim lessons several times a week all summer. This is him with his teacher. She's been really great, and Nathan has thrived. Here he is getting the treat of dunking her because he'd successfully gone underwater.



And here's some more of underwater Nathan. I swear he's half fish. Another Mother there was asking how I got him to not be afraid of water, since her twin boys are still hugging her and the beach most days. Once I told her that Nathan's afraid of cats and screamed like a girl when one was meowing under our car yesterday, she felt better.


Just one more week of lessons. It feels like summer is ending already, since whatever Dan and I do, I need to think about being back at work by the end of September.

My disease is making me sick

My health insurance situation is making me nauseaus. I just got a letter today that we'll be dropped from our state sponsored insurance as of Sept 1 because Dan's income is too high. New York's other program is $400.00 a month, and seems to only cover $3000 of prescriptions each year. I think the Enbrel I just started is $1000 a month.

So, that probably makes the decision to go to Vermont a little easier, but I still need to find something to bridge the gap between Sept 1 and whenever Dan's new job would provide insurance. Or if we stay in New York, I need to get a job ASAP that has insurance so that we aren't on the NY insurance long enough to hit the prescription cap.

Any gap of more than 63 days in coverage bumps the RA into a pre-existing condition, and new insurance wouldn't cover it for a year. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to move to Canada.

Just put me in a straight jacket now, insanity is just around the corner

My brain is going to explode. Dan's sent a resume to an Inn in Vermont. I should be thrilled. This is where I wanted to go last August, this is the place we pinned our hopes on in December. BUT I DON'T WANT TO MOVE AGAIN. Aaaarrrrrghggh.

Which is really a silly thing to be stuck up on, because we were always going to be moving again. If he gets this job, we wouldn't go back to Placid next spring, we'd stay in Vermont for the forseable future. So if anything, this is great, because we'd get settled back down faster and be out of this holding pattern we're in now. Plus, it's ridiculously close to my Dad's. Less than an hour, and even quicker in the summer when we can go over Bethel mountain instead of around it. And I'd get to see Red Sox games again.

Cons- I have to be careful not to lose Health insurance, so I don't like moving around as much as we used to. Plus, I'd have to change doctors.
- I'd actually miss my Mother-in-law. I was afraid that close quarters would lead to a lot of backseat mothering, but it's been great so far. And my Dad is not going to be up for babysitting as much as she is.
-Packing, again. Aaaarrrrrgggghhghghghghghghghghg.

But the pros outnumber that, especially the pro of not having Dan stab his boss or co-workers because he's fed up with his underpaid, overworked and underappreciated job.

I think I'll spend the day cleaning out the closets and throwing out toys. Wouldn't hurt to be prepared.

Everything hurts today

Summer Rain

There's a thunderstorm blowing in, finally. I know that temps in the 80's are nothing compared to the rest of the country this week, but with no A.C. and chasing the kids around, it was hot enough. And it didn't help that Nathan fiddled with the thermostat Tuesday night so that we woke up to an 80 degree house. We'll be back in the 70's tomorrow after this front comes through.

It was strangly fitting that our hot water heater broke during the hottest days of the summer. Dan braved the cold shower, but our well water is below 50 degrees, so I didn't attempt it. Instead, we spent the weekend shuttling back and forth to the in-laws until our landlord could get the part on Monday. Of course that was also a night that Claire had a bad reaction to milk and spit up all over me, herself and my bed. That's a night when a warm bath would have come in handy.

Dan's off being a free man tonight and showing off his tattoo. He's gone to Burlington to see Les Claypool, a bassist formerly with Primus. I'll have to think of some treat for myself in return. Lately, my only time alone has been my drives to my doc, not really the "me" time I'm looking for.

Ahhhhhh, a giant squid

I didn't really believe Dan when he came home with this last night. I poked it a few times thinking it was temporary, he didn't appreciate that too much. It's certainly bigger than anything I'd want, and it was a little strang to be sleeping next to it. The artist did a great job with it, very detailed with good color. Takes some getting used to though. 

School Days, School Days

One of the (many) reasons I have not gone back to work yet is that very few jobs list "BA in History" as a prerequisite. Even with all the accounting experience I have, I'm pretty much back to square one if I go for a job. So, I've submitted all the paperwork to go back to school and get a BS in business from Empire State College.

It's all online. I have no idea how long it will take, a lot depends on how much credit I get for classes taken at Bates. Just for the major, it would be at least 10 classes, and I think I'd only do 2 a term, 3 terms a year. But I probably have to take some Math and Science courses too, Bates curriculum was a little too easygoing and I never took a Math course there.

The plan:
Graduate
Work for bank as Financial Planner
Make tons of Money
Open own Financial Planning business
Make truckloads of Money
Open Restaurant and invest in Commercial Real Estate
Make enough Money to buy a small Island

Sounds good, right?

Another Arthritis Update

Had another Doc appointment. I am generally feeling well, but not perfect. And especially after the 1 1/2 car ride and 1 1/2 wait in the office, I had stiffness in my knees and elbows. So my doctor submitted the paperwork for Enbrel, which is really a miracle drug for RA that's only been available a few years. In order for the insurance to approve it, you have to have tried the older, cheaper drugs first, and failed to find relief. Since my Doc helped write the rules on when my insurance would approve my prescription, he's pretty confident I'll get it.

But what he doesn't know is the cost. The drug is at least $1000 a month, and my insurance may say I have to pay a percentage rather than a flat $30-40 a month. If it's affordable, I'll have to give myself weekly injections. If it's too expensive, then we'll switch to drugs that are administered in hospitals by infusion about once a month. But they have more serious side effects.

Doc wasn't too keen on the idea of getting a tattoo either. I will have a supressed immune system and if I get an infection, I'll have to stop the Enbrel. I'll wait and see how Dan does with his tattoo. And also wait until after the summer, when I won't be going swimming anymore.

Laura Bush would hate it

After 15 years of discussion, I think Dan and I are finally going to get tattoos. He's very excited about it, so excited that I think he's forgotten that he nearly passes out just watching me get blood drawn. He's decided on Kokopelli, who's associated with food, surrounded by a sun with blue flames, blue for the gas flames in a kitchen.

I'd always wanted something Celtic, but couldn't decide where to put it. But now I want to celebrate being pregnant, giving birth and breastfeeding. So I think I'll put it up high on my breast. I just need to finalize a design. I kind of like this goddess symbol,

but instead of the spiral on the belly, I'd use this celtic symbol


for the breasts and belly.




Unfortunately, I have no artistic talents, so I can't quite figure out how to make this look like a decent tattoo. Any thoughts?

Arrggh!

  

aack, a new obsession

I get sucked into computer hobbies easily. I can stay up for hours wasting time. Sims, fanfic, fantasy baseball, crosswords, minesweeper, each has had their moment in the sun. Especially when I was working the nightshift in Georgia. I'd spend so much time online, that I wouldn't finish my work in time. I'd punch out at 2:00am and spend another hour or two working to make up for it. Then go home and stay up until Dan woke up to go to work.

Now I've found out that Atari.com has online Monopoly. Eeeep. In three days, I've logged about 40 games. I'm not completely ignoring the kids. But if Dan comes home and finds torn kleenex and waffles strewn about the floor again, he'll be justified in hiding the computer from me.

Pirate in Progress

 

Nathan was invited to a dress-up birthday party this Sunday. No, he is not going as a 13 yr old girl. I picked this up at TJ Maxx and decided that with a little surgery it could be a pirate costume. I've cut off the cap sleeves and removed the skirt. I'm going to cut off the bottom of the leggings so they have a rough look. But I'm stumped about the front of the shirt. It's way too girly. I think I have to turn it around so the back is the front. And Dan says we need a sash and belt. Have to look around the house some more. I'll post the final product on Sunday. 

This is getting ridiculous

Bird #3 was flying around the house when we got up this morning. Dan handled that one. I sent an e-mail to an Audobon member and discovered that we have European starlings, they're an invasive species, so I don't have to feel any guilt about removing their nest or otherwise injuring them.

I shoved a box up into the hole in the kitchen, hoping that would block them, but bird #4 dislodged while we were at a demolition derby today. I got him out of the house pretty fast, then heard that something was scratching around inside the box. Birds #5 and #6, two chicks, had gotten stuck in there. At least it was pretty easy to get them out, since I only had to move the box with them in it. I'll try to anchor the box a little better, but also make sure I can move it again if something gets trapped. Our landlord is out of town, but I'll call tomorrow and see if he has a ladder to get rid of the nest and plug the holes better. Enough is Enough!

What is this, a bird sanctuary?

Another bird, this time an adult. It started flying around the living room when we got home, hitting every window at least once. I tried to corral it using two lacrosse sticks, hoping I could direct it out the door. Finally gave up and opened one of the windows. He got the hint quickly and took off across the lake.

Communing with Nature

While the kids were napping today, I heard a small noise in the kitchen. I went to look, thinking it was Nathan, but he was still asleep. About an hour later I was in the kitchen and noticed a lot of dust and crap on the corner of the counter. This is under an area that juts out next to some cabinets, but isn't actually a cabinet. And I just noticed today that it wasn't closed up, so it's essentially open to the attic.

This corner of the attic is also home to a nest of birds, and they make quite a racket all day. Especially today, they were squawking like crazy. So I thought they must have knocked the dust down. Then I finally noticed that there was more than dust on the counter. Hiding behind the detergent, trying not to be noticed, was a little baby bird. She must have been there at least an hour.

Aaackk. What do I do? I quick went to the internet and typed "baby bird out of nest" into the search engine. She had lots of feathers, so I think she's at the learning to fly stage, but I couldn't tell if she was hurt. The advice was to put her back in her nest, but I couldn't get to it. So the second option is to make a small nest and leave it near the main nest. I got my winter gloves on, and carefully lifted her into a bowl of leaves, then covered the bowl with a strainer. She was moving her legs and wings around a lot, so that seemed to confirm that she wasn't injured. I took my cargo outside and wondered if her parents would find her, and how long she'd use the makeshift nest for. But as soon as I took the strainer off, she leaped out and hid in the flower garden. I hope that now that she's outside again, she can fend for herself.

Ya know, I'd like a normal day again. Add this adventure to Nathan running full bore into the Lifeguard chair and giving himself a bloody nose, and I'm about done for the day.

Mother Lion Roars

Let me set the scene for you. We'd just arrived at the beach. I was still putting sunblock on myself and Claire. Nathan decided to introduce himself to a little girl in the water by splashing her. I've told Nathan not to do this, but he's three, I have to remind him everyday. Meanwhile, the father is telling his daughter that she should splash Nathan back. I don't like this advice, but I need another minute, and acknowledge to myself that Nathan would deserve it if she splashed back. She's at least five, maybe older. Nathan dumps water from a scoop onto her head, and then splashed her a third time before I can get down to stop him. The father responds to this by splashing water right into Nathan's face.

I lit into him. My voice carried across the whole beach, and probably into town. Dan could have heard me in the kitchen. "He is three, he was just playing. You are an adult, SIR." (I kept saying sir, but in the really sarcastic way that would get me kp duty in the army)"If you have a problem you come see me, you do not splash a THREE year old in the face." etc, etc, etc. He argued that he was trying to teach his daughter to stand up for herself, and I yelled back that he was teaching her to be a bully. He thought that was pretty rich coming from the mom of the boy who started things.

But my point was the same that schools have been making for years. That you don't respond to bullying by fighting back, you teach kids to leave the scene and go to an adult. When Nathan or Claire get splashed, knocked down or generally run over by older kids, I remove them from the area. Does he think that if Nathan had hit his daughter, he'd be justified in hitting Nathan?

So we removed to the opposite end of the beach, and spent an hour waiting for my heartbeat to slow, and wondering if I was going to have to deal with the father during the swim class we'd come for. I mentioned it to the swim teacher when she arrived (who I've gotten to know slightly) and she'd heard about it from the lifeguard on duty. The guard thought I was gonna clock him, and felt that he would have deserved it. I'm probably going to be the talk of the lifeguards for a few days.

Okay, I think I finally calmed down now.

WOW

Can you imagine going to your prom in a dress made of duct tape?



How about over 6000 kids going to the prom dressed in duct tape? Check out this.

Diet Day 3

Okay, so I lost 4 lbs already. I know it's mostly water, and the rate will slow down after the first few weeks, but it's still pretty cool. My short term goal is to lose 25 lbs by Joy's reception. It may be tough without exercise, which I need to talk to my doctor about.

The diet is Good Housekeeping's Supermarket diet. No gimmicks, no fads, very little "banned" foods. Processed white flour and soft drinks are the only real evil foods. For two weeks each day's meal, and one snack, is planned out. But it's all pretty good, and fast to make. There's a few instant meals, like energy bars or frozen dinners. And some cooked meals, like Penne Rigata last night. Friday night there's even beer allowed, to go with the Amy's organic veggie pizza. The shopping list for the first two weeks was 5 pages, because it had info on how many calories, sodium, and fiber should be in the products I bought. The one drawback is that it assumes I'm cooking for more than one, so I have leftovers of some things that Dan isn't around to eat, and that I can't eat while on the 2 week bootcamp. But I can plan things differently when I get to the main diet so that doesn't happen.

Today's breakfast was toast topped with P-butter, honey, apple and cinnamon. Snack will be a whole fruit popsicle. Lunch is leftover Penne, and then canned Lentil soup for dinner with spinach, feta and 1/2 pita. Yum.

At The Beach

If this doesn't get your biological clocks whirring, nothing will.



She's been standing for short stretches since about Mother's day, but whenever I got the camera out, she would lunge for it. So this is the first picture I have of her standing. The strawberry Teva's are too precious for words.

BTW, the camera is an Olympus Stylus 600. I haven't read all the instructions yet, and it has about 24 "scene modes" to use. The pictures don't seem as sharp as the Fuji was, so I need to check to make sure I have it on the highest setting. It fits in my pocket, is weatherproof (which presumbly will also make it thrown food proof) and has a long battery life. Perfect mother camera.


Now, to get the video camera out so we can get her walking. Dan's Aunt & Uncle were so nice to give us a video for Nathan's birth, and we never, never, never use it. I'm just not a home movie person. But I'm feeling bad now that we don't have more of Nathan's toddler years to show his grandparents and Gram-gram.

I'm Full

Pretty good start to the diet. Had some whole-grain cereal for breakfast. It has flaxseed, which is good for my RA. Not very tasty, but I topped it with strawberries. Had a handful of nuts for a morning snack. Lunch was a chicken/spinach/tomato wrap with baby carrots. And I just finished an egg topped spinach salad. And I still get to have a glass of milk for another snack. Yippee!

Full Confession Time

Okay, here goes.....I weigh 224 pounds and wear a size 24 pant. Ugh. I'd like to blame some of that on the prednisone, but that only covers the last 20 pounds. Where'd the rest of it come from? Oh right, I eat candy and/or ice cream everyday, never eat veggies, and eat out too much.

So the diet starts tomorrow. I HATE the term diet, it makes me think of skinny women trying to meet impossible goals. This is more of a lifestyle makeover. I'm following a two-week 1200 cal bootcamp with every bite of food planned out. I need that, because I've forgotten how to shop and cook in all the years that Dan has worked nights.

Then it's up to 1500 cal. Although the diet plan says if the 1200 really kills me, I can go to 1500 early. I've really only dieted once before, when we were in Georgia, but too quickly fell into a rut of eating the same thing everyday. So it got tiring quickly, plus I was still eating junk on Dan's days off. This needs to go well, 224 is a scary number.

Looking for friends

Awhile back I found a blogger who lives near me and decided to bookmark her site to see if we had enough in common for me to introduce myself. Now, it's two months later and I'm still checking in everyday and have yet to say hi. Partly it's that she was talking about moving, and it took awhile to determine that she was just moving across town and not to her fiance's town. She knits, she likes the same movies and books, but she has no kids. I know that's not fatal to an established friendship, but it's a little tough on a new one. Meanwhile, I keep thinking I'll run into her in town and feel weird that I know about her job, fiance, and the fact that she's wearing renaissance costume to her wedding. Does this make me a stalker?


In other news, the attempt to meet people at the playground fizzled in the face of weeks of rain. But I ran into a woman at the mall yesterday (hippie british chick) and Nathan and her son had fun running around the toystore and pet shop. So we made tentative plans for the beach today, but it was overcast so she didn't come. We'll try again on Sunday, at which time I'll test out my new Olympus weatherproof camera.

Lake Placid Lodge

If you have a few thousand dollars to spare, I'd definately recommend a week here, or at any Relais et Chateax property.

Exhibit A. When we arrived, we were offered champagne, juice, tea and a cruise around the lake before we'd even checked into the room.

That's Whiteface mountain in the background. The lake was gorgeous. It was in the eighties but nice and cool on the water. We checked out the estates and boathouses on the lake and picked out one for when we win the lottery.

Exhibit B. The cabin room.



The bed was gigantic, I had to do a pole vaulting move to get up on it. Too warm for the fireplace, although they had a fire for roasting marshmallows outside after dinner. And all the minibar items were comp, which is a nice change of pace from the 3.00 cans of sodas at regular hotels.

Exhibit C. The view from the room. Enough said.


Exhibit D. The bath. We were there less than 24 hours, and I spent about 3 hours in the tub. Huuuuuugggggeee!!!



It wasn't quite the experience it should have been without the main Lodge building. The kitchen (a temp set-up in a Semi) is too small to do a 7 course meal, so instead they have a small bistro set-up in one of the cabins. The plus is that we could eat on the deck right over the water. But I would have enjoyed a full gourmet dinner, and a chance to relax in the library or lounge. Dan didn't want a picture of the big gaping hole in the ground, but we noticed many boaters who slowed down to take a look at it.

They were busy gutting one of the buildings that technically survived the fire, but had extensive smoke and water damage. Hopefully, they can move on to the building phase soon and meet their target to fully reopen next June.

Ah, peace

Pretty, huh? That's where I'll be tomorrow night. Dan went down to Lake Placid for a staff meeting with his once and future employers. While he was there he finagled an all-expense paid night for father's day/my birthday.

Three cheers to the in-laws for watching the kids for 24+ hours. Hopefully they'll survive the experience.

Need a new Camera

I haven't posted in a few days because I like to post pictures, but my camera doesn't work. I turn it on, and two seconds later it powers down. Changing batteries doesn't help, but it's possible that all my rechargables are low on juice. So maybe I just need to buy new batteries.

Unfortunately, once I started looking at the new camera options, and the smaller sizes, I'm got hooked on wanting a new one. Any advice on which one to get? Amazon has about a thousand options and it's impossible to narrow them down.

Working for a living?

I need to write this down to help me think through the problem........

I was just doing the math again trying to decide when I should go back to work. My current fomula of weekly rate-taxes-daycare=$3000 year. Which just about equals what I'd have to spend on health insurance since I'd lose our current coverage if our income rises. That might be a little pessimistic, but even my optimistic calculations only come out to taking home $6000 a year. Yuch!

What to do, what to do.
1. The Lodge is supposed to be on schedule to open next May.
2. Daycare rates will drop as Claire gets older, and when Nathan starts preschool.
3. We really need to guard what is left of our savings so that will have money to move back.
4.It'd be better to add to the savings so we can buy a house asap.
5.Weekly expenses will probably drop if I'm not taking the kids out to lunch and going shopping every other day. Heating bills in the winter will also drop if no one is home.
6.We'll probably lose the current health coverage in Nov. anyway when they realize that Dan gets overtime. I should get a job that provides ins. before then.

A. I'll never see Dan.
B. The kids will be sick more often, and I'll need to take time off work for my Dr.'s appnts.
C. R.A. is still not under control, I shouldn't start work if I may have pain.
D. It'd be nice to be with Claire for first steps, words etc. (She's a slowpoke re:walking)

Hmmmm, I think this means I should go back to work. As long as I find daycare and a payrate that skew toward the optimistic. Then work on our budget some more to make sure that our net worth goes up after I start working, or at least goes down at a slower rate. Nothing would stop me from quitting two months later if it's a disaster.

Country Weekend

Went to the demolition derby today. It was just down the street, we could hear the engines revving from the driveway. The green car in the center is 38DD, driven by a woman, she won this heat. Completely ridiculous, weird fun. Nathan was not as into it as we thought he would be, although as soon as we got home he took a couple of cars and started smashing them together. I think the crowd just about equaled the entire population of the town.

Friday night was the beginning of the Dairy Princess festival in Dan's hometown. We went over for the big wheel races, although Nathan wasn't old enough to compete yet. There were a lot of John Deere tractors to crawl around in, and the night ended with a bluegrass/honky tonk band playing. 

Arthritis Update

I was feeling good before my Doctor's appointment on Wednesday. It's been two months since I had the flare-up in my shoulders (a week of having pain everytime I lifted something), so it seemed to me that the Methotrexate I started 2 1/2 months ago must be working. But I'm still on 7.5 mg of prednisone. I tried to cut down to 5 mg two weeks ago and it did not go well. It wasn't horrible pain, but for two days I ached in every single joint in my body. I think that's over 30 points altogether, 10 fingers and toes, wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees, hips, feet, hands and neck. I could get through the day fine, but when I tried to sleep, each of those points throbbed slightly as if someone was driving small tacks into the bone.

Patty, the nurse practitioner, did not see this as a success. "We're going for perfection" is what she said. Patty, by the way, is great. She saw me at the first appointment and spent more time listening to me cry over the lost job, lost house and lost apartment then most doctors spend talking about the disease. So, we've added leflunomide (or Arava) to the mix. It might not last, because the side effects are pretty unpleasant for 30% of the people who try it. But if it works, it's been shown to boost the effectiveness of the MTX by 20%. And in the win-win column, if it doesn't work, then I'm one step closer to getting my insurance to approve the newer, hopefully better, drugs.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering if the old wives tales of knowing when the rain is coming based on the pain in your knee have some merit. Because it's been raining all day, and rained two days ago, and I've been feeling worse than I have for weeks. Yuck!

87 Degrees now

The kids had fun with one of Claire's birthday presents today. There is water in there, and also leaves, dirt, grass and a popsicle stick. I fed the hose into the turtle's head so that he sprayed water, but that is not a camera friendly activity. Nathan had a blast running throught the water and drinking from it. Although I wish he hadn't shoved the spray in Claire's face quite so many times. And it was a trial getting him to come inside when I wanted to take a break.

Right now we're holed up in the living room with the curtains closed, waiting for a thunderstorm to cool us off. For some reason, Nathan has decided that his favorite movie right now is "A Christmas Story", so I'm being tormented with scenes of snow as I sit here sweating. No central air in the house, and the A.C. we tried to put in the bedroom last night is missing some screws, so we only have fans right now. But the wind is beginning to stir the curtains, and I see the underside of the leaves outside, so hopefully the storm will come soon. 

More Birthday pictures

More pictures, as requested......

Here's "Cousin Kyle" as he's known to Nathan. He'll be going into sixth grade next year, and is quite the budding artist. I got him a "How to draw comic book characters book" and art markers for Christmas. Dad just got him a Chinese brush painting set because he was doing some of that at school and liked it.

More family. Dan's father, Kyle again, Kathy and Ray. The fantastic weather came in time for Sunday, but it was hot, hot, hot.

Claire's 1st Birthday Party

Here's our Queen for a day opening her haul. She mostly got gifts to share with her brother. A small pool, a sandbox, the extra big wagon and a toddler table with chairs. We took them both for a spin in the chariot. When we're out with the stroller, Nathan sometimes gets tired, so this will be a great alternative.

I missed taking a shot of her covered in frosting, although you can see she worked it into her fingers pretty well.
We had a great time with lots of family here. Ray, Kathy and Kyle got to come and celebrate. My Dad is still here playing with Nathan. And Dan's parents came for lunch and cake too. We had gorgeous weather, and a nice relaxed afternoon playing outside and looking over the lake. Now we're exhausted.

Birthday Party To-Do list

Buy Grill
Clean House
Bake Cake
Wrap Presents
Assemble Toddler Table/Chairs gift
Plan menu for 10 for party
Borrow more chairs
Weed yard
Get balloons
Decorate

All by Sunday. The only thing I've done is buy a patio furniture set and some extra plates. And at least she's so young that it's only family and I don't have to deal with party favors, games, and a dozen sugared up kids.

Embarrasing Picture #417

I could have taken the Cheerio off her nose, but what's the fun in that? 

Stupid, Stupid Phone

When we moved, I decided to give Vonage a try. We'd had VOIP in DC for a few months, and it worked okay, but this time it's a pain in the butt.

A few weeks ago the cable modem started to freak out on me. I thought it was an internal problem and tried replacing the modem and all the connecting wires. And of course I couldn't call Time-Warner to report the issue because the phone didn't work. Finally a neighbor called it in, and we found out that there had been a tree on the line. Another week went by and there were still problems with the connection dying. But it was a weekend so I had to wait for Monday to report it in person. They came out again, and said this time it was definately fixed.

But it's still screwed up and ridiculously slow. It's like having dial-up. Forget watching the streaming baseball service I paid good money for, or uploading photos. I got a service man to come out again (it was about 5 visits total) and he blamed the phone router. That's unbelievable, that after three weeks of it being Time-Warner's fault it would suddenly be Vonage's fault. But I can't argue it, because I can't call Time-Warner and do all the various ping tests with them. (We have a cell, but there's no service in or near the house.)

Meanwhile, the phone is worse than useless. I can talk for about two minutes before the signal degrades so badly that I have to hang up. TIVO can't update my listings, so as of today it doesn't know what's on TV anymore. I tried setting up a new service last week, but it was a discount company that couldn't seem to deal with the fact that we don't have a landline already, and apparently tried to call instead of e-mail me when they couldn't fill the order. So today I ordered up Verizon, although it will be a week before it goes in. Grrrr Arrggghh. That's what I get for trying to save $30 a month.

Celebrations

Yesterday was Claire's first birthday!! But more on that later. We're putting off the birthday party for two weeks, because Dan had to work yesterday, and Ray and Kathy couldn't come to visit either. So yesterday was a bit more about Mother's Day. Claire made sure I got off to a good start by waking up at 11pm and staying up for two hours. She's getting her molars already, and has been fussing a lot the last week or two. Then we all had to get up at 7:30 for Dan to get off to work. He's worked about 75 hours this week in preparation for Mother's Day and local college graduations. And the coming week will be the same with two more graduations next weekend. So Mother's Day morning was the same old same old of doing dishes, laundry and cleaning. That's actually to my liking. Don't give me flowers or jewelry, although sleeping in would have been nice. (But I got to do that today, so all's good.)

Dan's parents came over for a Mom's day lunch. Janet brought some flowers to cheer up our yard a bit. Nathan made this for Grandma to put in her garden. (The tin is temporary.)

And I made this to eat.
So that was fun and Martha Stewarty.

What color is my parachute?

I'd like a career. I revisit this topic many times, and still haven't made any progress. Over the last few years I've considered Librarian, Financial Consultant, CPA, Restauranter, blah, blah, blah. The one I come back to the most often is Math Teacher. I'd like to take revenge on the Mr. Kowalchyks of the world who scare people, especially girls, away from Math. Years in accounting led to me rediscovering my aptitude for numbers, and any time they sent a trainee my way, I enjoyed teaching.

But how do I do it? I start my research the same way, checking local colleges for courses. Realizing I have to get a double major. Worrying that my Bates GPA will screw me up on transferring the Gen Ed requirements. Deciding that I can afford tuition. Then remembering I've got two kids now, and how can I afford to put them in Daycare or feed them if I'm not working for 3-4 years. And if I do work and go to school part-time, I'll never see them.

Isn't there a looming teacher shortage? Shouldn't people be clamoring to give me $100,000 cash so I can do this?

Torture

Both of my kids strongly resist any attempts to cut their fingernails. I don't really blame Claire, I snipped off part of her finger the day she was born, so that didn't set a good precedent. I'm not sure how Nathan got so worked up about it, but each time just got worse and worse. And of course the more I had to hold him down and wrestle him, the worse the next attempt became. At least in the good weather I can let them fall asleep in the car, then snip the nails while they are sleeping. The rest of the time, I let them grow out, then we end up with multiple self-inflicted wounds like the one Nathan is sporting on his nose today.

A few weeks ago Dan and I lied through our teeth and told Nathan he would turn into a girl if he didn't let us cut the nails. I'm embarrassed to say that worked. Today I was able to do it by promising to sing a song for every nail he let me cut. The Skywalker theme for the pinkie, Peter and the Wolf for the Thumbs. Can I give him anesthetic next time?

Root, Root, Root for the home team

Spent a nice day outside today. Decided to take advantage of the fact that we live near several colleges to see some free sports games. Went over to St. Lawrence first. Dan went there for soph-Sr year, his Mom and uncle are alums, and his Dad taught English and was a Dean. They were hosting the Lacrosse League championship. I couldn't quite get Nathan to watch the ball. He kept getting scared by some guy who was yelling himself hoarse, and got really frightened when the home team scored and everyone yelled and banged the bleachers.

After a pit stop at the In-laws, we went to Clarkson University, they were hosting St. Lawrence in a baseball doubleheader. This time I took us over to the fence next to the dugout where it would be quieter. But Nathan still didn't want to watch the game because he kept getting distracted by the dogs that people had brought. And then he got in a near scuffle with some other kids. He's so unsocialized from spending all winter with just Claire and I. He thinks when he sees other people that he can just run up to them and say hi and they'll automatically want to play with him. Plus, he's big for his age, so other kids don't understand why he's behaving that way, they think he should know better. We've been spending more time at the playground with some kids we met there, but I think I need to look into some structered class or gym time for him to try.

It's funny that we did baseball and lacrosse today. Dan and I are in a small battle over Nathan (and Claire's) sport's soul. Dan is not a baseball fan. I like lacrosse well enough, but I don't think there's a mother in the world who actually likes watching her child play a heavy contact sport. Especially if I have to endure Hockey too. Which is pretty much a given when you live in Upstate New York.

Budding Artiste

 
I could have stopped him, but he was having fun. At least it's washable. Last week he took a permanent marker to his foot instead. He decided he needed an "owner" (like Woody and Buzz in Toy Story who have Andy's name on their feet). But I'm not too thrilled that he put purple marker on Claire's face too. He can move pretty fast sometimes.
He's also becoming quite musical. Janet took him to a Peter and the Wolf puppet show a few weeks ago and then got him a Sesame Street version on DVD. Not a day goes by without him asking me to sing one of the theme songs. I got him a flute recorder at the dollar store yesterday, and he likes to take sticks and play conductor. Finally, the sticks are something other than lightsabers! 

Found

On top of the T.V. How obvious.

Hide and Seek

A few hours ago I took out two sticks of butter to make cookies. There is only one stick of butter on the counter now. Do you want to take bets on whether Claire or Sprite find it before I do? Or will I not find it until we pack up to move next year? I'm trying to think like a three-year old to track it down. I've looked in the bathrooms, his underwear drawer, back in the fridge, and in the bowl where we make cookies. This is going to be FUN!

Dan went to buy a grill today and came home with this instead.
Although I'm not sure I have it put together very well. The training wheels are not quite right, Nathan took a spill before I even got the camera out. And he's a bit too passive, wanting us to not only push him, but steer for him too. Our street is dead-end, so it'll be a good spot to practise. At least until the summer people come back.
And here's a picture of Claire so she won't feel left out.