Silent Night

Peace and quiet. Briefly. The kids were great yesterday. The excess of cookies and grandparents didn't seem to send them too far into orbit. We found homes for about half the gifts, but the living room still looks like a tornado blew through. Especially with the tree and trampoline taking up so much space.

Trampoline. Big hit so far. They don't actually jump around much, but they like to hang out inside and toss the balls around. If you ever decide to do something similar, make sure that the airpump you buy works on a standard outlet. Otherwise, you and your loved ones will spend two hours in the driveway on Christmas Eve running the pump off the car's lighter. Fun.


Claire and Nathan had to help open every present. Claire actually got a head start on the 23rd when she followed Sprite into my closet and started unwrapping gifts while I was in the bathroom. She's a tricky one.


Obviously, this was all very tiring for a one year old.


This was Nathan's gift to Claire. We bought the jewelry box prepainted, but then Nathan got to decide where the glitter, gems and stickers went. It's a bit gaudy, but sweet.


This is my favorite gift. We've been buying Nathan knights for awhile, and Dad got the castle to go with them. It's wood, not plastic, and is pretty realistic. (Well, it would be realistic if it didn't have Spiderman and his ATV there too.) He liked the King and Queen that came with it, and I bought a dragon for Claire to give him. I think some siege engines and some archers will find there way into his birthday presents too.


Tomorrow, I'm off to Saranac Lake again for another medical infusion. It's Dan's birthday, so I'm hoping to be home early so we can go out for a b-day/anniversary date. Then I'm off to Vermont and New Hampshire for Roxanne's party on Saturday, as long as the weather holds. We've managed a White (day after) Christmas, but just barely.

Christmas Eve

 

Getting into the homestretch on the X-mas planning. These are the most important cookies, the ones we leave for Santa to eat. Along with a few carrots, and maybe some spiked egg-nog. Claire's snoozing already, Nathan is watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". When that's over, I still need him to help wrap up his present for Claire.

Pray he'll get to sleep. Santa's going to have to blow up a gigantic trampoline with a noisy air pump, so I hope Nathan sleeps through that. The festivities will be in full swing tomorrow, when Dan's parents join us and my Dad for the present unwrapping.

I'm really excited about this. As I've said, we kind of skipped things last year. And prior to that, Nathan was too little to really be involved with things. We're going to have a lot of fun. Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

Where would you rather eat?

Claire's
Claire
Natch's (Nathan Alexander + Claire Hayden) pronounced Natchez
Natch


from our draft proposal

The theme for our restaurant will be American food with a Southern flavor. This will give us a great deal of flexibility in our menu choices. For lunch, we will be able to offer quick buffet style meals, focusing on comfort foods in the price range of $4-8 for soups, sandwiches and salads and $8-13 for other entrees. Dinner will be more upscale, with a menu that changes seasonally and prices in the $5-25 range. We plan to have a full liquor license, primarily to serve our diners, but with some solo bar business as well. On Sundays, we will be open for Brunch only. As much as possible, we would like to include local growers and businesses such as County Meadows Cheese, Sundance Knoll Ranch Beef and 8 o’clock Ranch Lamb in our menu choices. The attached sample menu will show you our current plans. Within a few months of starting the restaurant, we expect to be able to expand to in-house catering. Depending on customer needs, we will add outside catering by our second year. We will aggressively market the catering business for the summer months to capture wedding and reunion business.

We have several ideas that we plan to implement to become involved with the community. We want to mix education with enjoyment by hosting beer and wine tasting dinners. These have been very successful at other restaurants where I’ve worked, and it will be a great opportunity to introduce our neighbors to great brewers and wineries. There is also a rising movement in this country called Slow Food, which encourages the use of local products at the dinner table. I’m sure our community would enjoy having a North Country meal in the company of some local growers and cheese makers. We’d also like to offer short one-day classes in cooking. All of these events will be ideal during the months when we have forecast lower customer levels. In addition, we will be contacting Paul Smith’s College, the C.I.A. and N.E.C.I to offer externships to culinary students. This regular infusion of students from around the country will help introduce us to current culinary trends, and also inject some new viewpoints to our menu.

Got any Money?

We need to submit a preliminary proposal to the college to be considered to take over the restaurant that failed. There are about a dozen people who've expressed interest in it in the last year. I think we'll have a strong proposal, we know the town, and know what people want. But we ain't got no moolah!

Dan says he's working on that. I started a business plan and tried to work on the financials today. But it's all estimates until I talk to Dan about customers and get more details on insurance, licenses and equipment leases. The numbers I have now shows us making a whopping 10,000 the first year. Seems about right. Later years are 100,000. We might be able to open with 80,000 cash, but I'd feel much better with 125,000. And that's with leasing the building, not buying new fixtures, and living upstairs the first year.

We're completely insane.

Nathan as an Elf

Silly, silly, silly.

A Kiss from Claire

We had one of those perfect family moments on Wednesday night. All of us were in Claire's room, which usually means we're tossing stuffed animals and dolls around. But somehow we got Claire in a kissing mood. She kept going back and forth between Dan and I giving us kisses. We'd argue over whose turn it was, and how many kisses we wanted. Then, we'd sic her on Nathan and she'd climb all over him trying to give him a kiss while he tried to get away. Finally, we got him to participate by switching to a zerbitz contest.

Did I spell zerbitz right? Do you know what I'm referring to, or is this a word only Dan and I use?

A mortgage of one's own

Joy got me in a househunting mode and now I want to buy this house.

So, I need to get off my ass and find a job. 10 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 10 acres. If I tell you how much it costs you're going to want to move here too. Okay, 99,000. Now, move here and be my neighbor!

Home safe and sound after 3 hours in the car and 6 hours hooked up to an IV. Cross your fingers that it works.

Rituxan

Feeling a bit stressed. I start a new arthritis treatment tommorrow and the warnings for it go on for sixteen pages. I also haven't been able to find much info on how well it works for people, and what the long term side effects may be. It's been used for years for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma patients, but it was only approved for RA this past year.

The worst part is that I have to go to the oncology dept of the hospital to get it. I'll be there for a few hours getting the drug through an IV drip. And then I have to go back in two weeks for a second dose. If it works, I'll be pain free for six months.

Gimme Gimme

Even though Claire isn't talking much, she's definitely learned how to get her point across. Imagine me, sitting comfortably in my chair, until the little rugrat comes up and starts tugging on my clothes or finger. If I do not immediately get up, she will continue pulling, while at the same time, falling on the floor and crying. Persistent. Then, she will lead me to her goal(blankets, room, doll, kitchen cabinet, refrigerator) and whine until I probe into her mind and figure out what she wants. Fun Fun Fun.

Everybody Jump Jump Jump

My Christmas Shopping to-do list is almost done. Except for the kids. I haven't gotten them so much as a candy cane for their stockings. Claire doesn't even have a stocking. After watching Nathan run laps around the living room and Claire bounce on a package of toilet paper, I've decided that we should get a trampoline. But what kind.

There is this
Pros: room for two
Cons: Huge

or this.
which also plays music. Can't decide if that's a pro or con.

I think I'm leaning toward #1 because I'd rather have something that the kids won't fight over. I'm afraid they would always be pushing eachother off #2.

I have to decide and order soon. At least two websites I've been to tonight have been out of stock. But I need to check with Dan first. I think he's still holding out for getting Nathan a drum set.

Oh Tannenbaum

There are not enough lights on this tree. Part of the problem is that everything had been boxed up for two years and two moves. One strand of colored lights had an inexplicable cut on it. And my habit of saving candy canes to hang on the tree turned into an ooey, gooey mess. Plus, this is a really fat, full tree. We couldn't get much higher than 6 feet because of our low ceilings, so we made up for it in width. And the lights just disappear into the depths of it.

It's not quite done yet. I've got some red bows that I like to put on, but I've got homework due tonight. You'll get the full pictures sometime before Christmas.

The goose is getting fat

I used to like to wait until mid-december to put up lights and decorate for Christmas. Growing up, we never had a tree up before the 15th. But, I have a surplus of Christmas spirit this year after last year's disasters. I've even been listening to the "Holly" station on XM radio.

I put the outside lights up two days ago, wanting to beat the forecast of rain and snow for the next week. I got a light-up Frosty today, too. Couldn't resist. But my attempts to put him up during a break in the rain were twarted by the lack of a polarized plug. That, and the thunder. And more freezing rain. So I left Frosty tied to a tree and will attempt to get him plugged in tomorrow. My favorite purchase of the year so far is a $10 light timer. I program the lights to come on at dusk and go off 9 hours later. Yay for not going outside and Yay for saving electricity.

Too bad my Christmas shopping is still completely unorganized. I don't even have good ideas this year. Getting a pair of socks for my Mother-in-Law is about as far as I've gotten. At least I got it together in time to order my cards from Shutterfly during their 20% off sale. Here's one of the reject pictures.

I believe in ...... hmmmm

I decided to go to chuch today. I don't think I've ever been able to say that before. Wow.

I'm never going to be Catholic again, that's a given. But I've always felt that children benefit from religious education and from being part of a charitable community. When we lived in D.C., I considered going to Quaker services, but didn't really want to go alone. Now that we're here, and getting settled in, I keep thinking that church would be a wonderful way to be involved in the communitity and for the kids to meet new people.

Dan's mother, who was raised Quaker, goes to the Unitarian-Universalist church in Canton. I had no idea what the U-U's are, but generally thought that if my liberal, secular in-law liked it, it might suit me too. A few weeks ago I took the Belief-o-matic quiz on belief.net and found that my beliefs coincide with the U-U beliefs 100%. (Roman Catholic was about 13%)

I had a very nice time today. The sermon seemed to be talking about me (take a risk and try something new), the people were friendly, Nathan had fun in the playroom, and it smelled nice. Yeah, I have a thing for incense and candle wax. I just need to work out the details of what to do with Claire. She didn't want to be left in the nursery. Janet stayed with her so I could hear the sermon, but I can't do that every week. I'll have to work out how to take turns with her, or see if Dan wants to come, so I don't miss all the services. Nathan should be more easygoing, although he was shy, and also thought the music was too loud.

Z is for Zamboni

Enjoyed a rare Friday night off with Dan by going to a St. Lawrence Hockey game. This is the first men's game we've gone to, we were hoping the crowds would be light during vacation. There were still a lot of people though. Nathan was having a lot of fun, but when the Saints scored late in the 2nd period, he was scared of all the noise. Cheering, sirens, blaring music, stomping feet, the usual. Luckily, it wasn't a high scoring game, or he would have wanted to leave sooner. Making it through two periods was all we had expected anyway.(1 1/2 hours)

I'd like to go back, but not by myself with two kids. I'll have to see if Janet wants to come to games and hold Claire, or leave Claire at the grandparents. And I absolutely will not brave the BIG game against Clarkson.(the college in Potsdam)

Here's a picture that Nathan took of the game. And a few more I took.

Home again

I went down to CT for Jon's funeral from Sunday to Tuesday. Just me, at least I remembered the cruise control this time. Fairly typical Irish wake, crying interspersed with laughter.

Now that I'm home, I don't think Claire has forgiven me for leaving for three days. Either that, or she just likes Grandma better than me. Very fussy little girl. Luckily, Dan's been off the last two days, so she's been spending a lot of time in his arms. She'll forgive me eventually.

A true gift of life

It's a terrible thing to be 25 and have a brain tumor. That's what happened to my cousin Jon. He was given 6 months to live by the doctors. Thankfully, happily, joyfully they were wrong. He had surgery, the tumor was removed, and then he went out and lived his life. He fell in love, he started a business, he sang and wrote music. And now he is truly gone. Fifteen years later.

I remember...
running all over the yard playing Star Wars, and Jon was always Darth Vader.

the 4th of July party where he kept taking pictures of people's tongues, and how odd the finished "tongue" album looked.

he and his sister Mary singing a song to me at my wedding reception.




This is a photo from our family reunion last year. Jon (next to Dan and Nathan) was getting sick again by this time, the news today was not surprising. I'd like to believe in heaven today, because I know my Mom did, and she'd love to see her favorite nephew again. They were the clowns in the family, it's not right that they've left us so soon.

My nerd gene has kicked in again

I was stressing out all week over my accounting assignment. It was due at midnight last night, and I still had half the questions unanswered and hadn't taken the quiz as of 6 p.m. A horrible feeling was coming over me, related to the fact that this was only the first chapter in my career defining major, and I was having problems.

Decided to take a slight break from things and read Chapter 2 while waiting for inspiration. What a breeze! It still had lots of new information, but it was practical knowledge that I could relate back to work experience, instead of the theories and grand themes of chapter one.

Not only did it make it easier to get back to first assignment, but I got all of this week's work done by 11:00 pm as well. Plus, I reviewed the syllabus and realized what a small fraction of my grade this work was. Not that I can skip it, but at least it was a reminder that I could fudge one question each week without failing the class. Not worth stressing over.

Add to that the fact that I just selected a research topic for my second class and have no work due for the third and I'm golden.

Must Listen To Doctor ! !! ! !!

So, I'm stupid.

I knew that taking 5 mg of folic acid daily would reduce the side effects of methotrexate (nausea, mouth sores), but once I stopped taking prednisone everyday, it was a little tough to remember to take the folic acid.

But then I started finding mouse size lumps of hair in the shower every day. Hmmmm, what does that prescription form say? Hair loss is another side effect. Maybe, just maybe, I should take my supplement everyday. That would be smart.

But I'm stupid. I still didn't take it everyday this week before taking my methotrexate yesterday. And then today I took some prednisone on a mostly empty stomach. Oooops.

So, nausea. Check. Just in time race to the bathroom. Check. Afternoon spent not eating anything and drinking only weak tea. Check.

Do you think I learned my lesson? My hair certainly hopes so.

Waaaaaa Waaaaaa

Don't ever let your kids see you put the blankie in the wash.

 

 

I think she understood that when the dryer stopped making noise that they were ready. She pulled on one of my fingers to get me up and dragged me into the kitchen. I pulled out her quilts one at a time and she just looked at me like I was deranged. Then I got the blankie and she immediately held her hands out for it. Now she is rolling around on the floor with it.