Easter 2011

Easter this year was a success! My Father in Law came up to spend Easter weekend with us.  With much careful planning and consulting with "The Easter Bunny", we made these beautiful Easter eggs.

 We had lots of fun trying to make designs and get the best colors

Carlie seemed to be more comfortable using her hands to dip the eggs rather than that little wire egg dipper you get with the egg coloring kit....

We had a lot of fun...And then it was time to take a rest with Grandpa.

Happy Easter!!

Patriots Day 2011

Carlie and I had Patriots Day off together this year.  Henri had to work (ha ha),so I decided we needed a girls day.  Carlie and I hit the road around 10am, headed for Rt. 6A. The plan was to to wind our way up to Dennis and explore Mayflower Beach. I was told that it is a beautiful beach and you can find Sand dollars there this time of the year.  It was a beautiful day for a drive!!  

When we got to the beach, this is what we saw first. (see above photo)

Carlie had her bucket and we were hunting for those Sand dollars.  We found a lot of other things like....a horseshoe crab...

 

And a few of these disgusting things that were spewed out of that sewage treatment plant in New Hampshire, that dumped millions of these little gross poop filters into the ocean...eew.

But mostly we had a good time finding cool things on this beach.  Then I heard those dreaded words..."Mommy, I have to pee".   Too many people around to do a quick duck and cover pee out in nature manuver, so we had to pack it up and leave.  It was a little cold and a lot windy and a long walk back to the truck. So long in fact, she had to sit and rest on the way.

   We ended up at UNO'S in Hyannis and had a great time at lunch together.  Then we decided to go spend a gift card at Bath and Body Works in the Hyannis Mall. (Carlie calls it the "Girl Store"...She couldn't be MORE right about that)!  After we shopped till we dropped, we hit the Carousel at the food court for a one time around.

 We saw some pretty cool things that day...

Beach house at Chapin Beach with Horse Shoe crab shells mounted on the front. Thought this was a cool idea and might try it at home.

Chapin Beach (photo by Carlie)

Chapin Beach Dennis MA.

And I think all in all it was a lot of fun!!!

Old Friends

We finally cleaned out the storage unit today where the rest of Mom's things were stored.  I was happy to give away alot of the large pieces of furniture to my dear friend who my parents adored.  Once again I find myself going through my Mothers belongings wittling it down again and gettting rid of things that almost 2 years ago I thought I could never part with.  Funny how you begin to get numb to giving away your memories. And the thing is, alot of the time, it's stupid things that hold strong memoies...like pens!  My mother had hundreds of pens...and some of them I have seen rolling around our house all my life. They don't necessarily work...But they are familiar and remind me of my old home and my old life that seems so far away now.  Mom also had a hundred journals,notpads and day planners.  Most of them not even used. She was big on anything having to do with getting organized but never really got it all together...I guess I know where I get it from!  It's all rather depressing to go through these things again and again....But fate works in mysterious ways, and today I got to spend some time with two of my most favorite men on earth besides my husband. Two friends that I have had since I was just 14 or 15 years old and who know me better than I know myself sometimes. One of these friends lives in San Francisco and I only see him every few years when he comes for a visit...The other lives nearby but he is so busy with his work and new family that we are lucky to get together once a month. It's just another reminder to me how blessed I am to have such incredible friends and how timing is everything.  This could have been a bad day if it werent for them.  But it turned out to be pretty darned good.

5 months later....

I had such high hopes of posting more often back in November...Here it is 5 months later and I am finally getting down to it.  I've sat down and opened this blog probably a dozen times in the last few months, but have either had nothing to say or not enough time to put it all together.   I'm having a "Stay home day" today with my daughter who is overtired and cooking up some kind of either cold or ear infection, so I figured while she is tucked into the "big bed" (Mom and Dad's bed) watching Horton Hears a Who with her teddy bear, I have 1 hour and 29 minutes to fiddle around with this blog.   I changed the background picture to a watercolor I recently did.  I have always loved drawing fish and if you had asked me when I was a kid, what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was "A marine biology illustrator".  Well, I'm a secretary...close enough.
   Anyway, the last few months have been interesting to say the least.  Carlie has grown by leaps and bounds. My husband finally found a job he LOVES and is local and is a great fit for him. (YAY)!  We have added a puppy to the family, her name is Boo and she is a black as night Shih-Tzu.  She and Cricket (our older Shih Tzu) made fast friends and are now inseparable. It's interesting how Boo has brought the puppy out in Cricket.  All they do is chase each other, wrestle and snuggle together.  It's like having 2 new dogs!
      We moved Carlie into bunk beds which was a huge ordeal.  Henri wanted her to have the bunk beds that he and his brother had as kids. I wanted her to have a full size bed that we could also use as a guest bed when we have company. (We live in a very small house and space is limited) . Henri and I argued back and forth about this for a  months,  sometimes in good humore...sometimes not so much, and got Carlie involved as much as possible trying to get her to take sides.  He finally won.  He managed to convince her that bunk beds were way cooler than a big bed of her own and I got over ruled. So I insisted they be at least painted white if they were coming here.   Henri spent about every day off he had, traveling back and forth to his fathers house in CT where the beds were stored, sanding and painting them with his Father and his brother even helped out with the project.  After a few weeks, the beds came home and I have to admit...They're pretty damned cute.  Carlie and I enjoyed shopping for new bed sets for them and chose one with owls and birds which is absolutely adorable.  She looks so small now in that bed.  Time just keeps marching on...