Uncle

This is our patio. The green thing in the middle is the umbrella for our table.

View from garage towards patio. 

The woods behind our house. Hard to tell how tall the snow is, but it's about my height from being plowed/blown.

Okay, Okay Mother Nature. I get it. You win. UNCLE.  

Since I last posted we have received at my estimate  over 40" of snow. Oh, it hasn't fallen all at once, but the vast majority is still on the ground (and our roof). I'm done. I'm calling Uncle. You can stop any time now, "Mom" before I start calling you names!

Other than the snow (which we have had a lot of fun with, as well as some grumbling by us adults) things have been moving along here. The big kids are both in Basketball. Amelia has practice once a week and games once a week, and Declan has 1.5 hour combo practice/games once a week.  Finn keeps taking swimming lessons and it's almost always his favorite part of the week.  We've also gotten to go to a local college game as well as a couple of HS games.  

I think all of her game pictures are on my "real" camera. Too lazy to look right now.

In addition to Basketball we've been skiing a few times. Amelia tried snowboarding once and skiing once, and the boys both have skied twice (lessons, I "lodged" it).  In addition Amelia and I went X-Country skiing with some good friends. It was a great workout but I didn't find it as challenging as downhill. Whew!

We did travel to both Jeannette and Newark for the holidays and I was able to catch up with some girlfriends in Westerville. It was a complete whirlwind trip and everyone (and I mean everyone) got the stomach bug so it was rather interesting as well!  We loved seeing all of the cousins, though- as always. It's hard to be away and know that everyone is growing up without you. We were grateful we got to see as many people as we did, albeit briefly.


I received a super surprise birthday gift from two very dear friends- they decided to brave the elements and come visit me.  We had an awesome time exploring Boston. It's actually the first time I've been in the city without the kids with me- so it was fun to take in some of the shops, etc. We could also walk a lot further, faster.  We topped off the night with a trip to Rino's Place, which was featured on Diners Drive ins and Dives. While the food (and company) was excellent, I wouldn't recommend it- as the wait and the seating policy were both terrible. Luckily we hunkered down at the bar across the street and chatted away!

We are currently on Winter Break- so we are all getting a bit stir- crazy, but we are doing the best we can. We were able to get out for a bit today which was great, and we had a hallway basketball tournament on Monday. :)  We'll find a few more things to do and projects to tackle the rest of the week. 

  The following is what our yard/drive looks like as of today 2/19.  We actually got around 3 more inches this afternoon- but you get the idea.

View from back patio towards driveway 

View from back of house

Trees that used to have bottoms

View of fence to see how deep it's getting

Those are my knees not my ankles

Side of driveway. Snowblower for height perspective

From Laundry room door looking towards driveway

As always we love and miss everyone and would love visitors any time!

It's The Holiday Season!

Merry Christmas from Santa's helpers!

It is so hard to believe that it has been 5 months since we've moved here. The time has flown by! 
Everyone has been asking how the weather is here. So far, so good. We had our first significant snow today- and it was really only an inch or two, plus slush, sleet, rain. No cancelled school, much to the kids' dismay! They can't believe that Ohio has had way more snow than here already. I told them to just wait!!

The kids remain well. Declan is at the cumulation of  his play. It is called "Christmas at Dobb's Diner" and is about a group of kids stranded at Christmas. The flip side is that there is drama at the North Pole and Santa might not be able to head out. The cast is comprised of kids all ages 8-12 and they've been working hard since September.  Declan plays the part of one of the elves and is having great fun.  He also takes piano lessons and starts Basketball this week. Better to be busy than bored, I guess.

Amelia continues to play and LOVE the trumpet. I never would have guessed she'd be such a "band geek" (I say that affectionately) but she is and she's loving it.  She is also playing Basketball and she'll start softball in the spring.  She is busy with her dog walking business and I joke that she makes more money than I do. :)  Amelia's big news, however, is that her scoliosis is now at a point where she has to wear a grace. She just started wearing in a few days ago, so it's still a major adjustment, but she's doing great so far. 

30+ degree curve middle- top is 24+ degree

Finn continues to be Finn. He is taking swim lessons as his only extra curricular activity. He's content to just do that, and so are we.  We've both been making friends, though, both at jazzercise and through mother's club.  It's been fun to have some social interactions.

The Christmas season is upon us and we've enjoyed Advent services at the church we've been attending. We also hosted Matt's department here for a Christmas party, so it was fun to get the house ready for guests. 

Party time!

We saw a "reindeer" scoping out the house, and the kids have played Santa a ton as well.

Above- one of Santa's reindeer looking for a landing spot!
Below, my own reindeer and Santa and helper.

And, because we don't want to live here and not do the things that there are to do- we visited Edaville. It's an amusement park South of Boston (pretty close to the Cape actually) that has a train that runs through its festival of lights. The big kids sat on Santa's lap, we decorated cookies, we rode the train and we had a great time!

Projects, Projects and more Projects

Both an advantage and disadvantage of not working is that I have lots of time on my hands. I'd love to say that my house is super clean or that I whip up gourmet meals, but I can't. (In my defense for the meals, we do eat at home just about every night, but evening is actually when we are busy, so no gourmet!)  But what I have done is started a lot of home projects (which I talked about earlier). While this is great in making this house "ours" it kind of stinks for my husband because that means I shop and spend money just about every day. haha. But, seriously, I'm still a bargain shopper and I think most of what I have bought are good, sound purchases.  Pictures to follow of the living room now done with the exception of maybe some square ottomans to sit against the wall and eventually a new couch or couches. 

We are definitely settling into a routine here. It's great. The kids are enjoying their activities and school, I am learning the area more and more each day and the weather and foliage is gorgeous.  We can't complain about the fall weather here, that's for sure!

We are gearing up for a visit from "Nanoo and Grampa" (Matt's parents) so that should be awesome for the kids.  That will quickly be followed by Finn's birthday, our Halloween party, Matt's birthday/visit from my dad and brother for the Steeler's/Pat's game, then the Hanley's visit, then Matt's brother visits and it's Thanksgiving. Whew! We'll be busy but in a good, fun way!!

Not sure if I posted this already. My favorite project. I found this pallet type thing in our woods. It's great for haning all of the kids' stuff. I do plan to paint bright gold behind it, but we have some repair work that needs done to the wall first. I took out the funky desk that was there.

My foyer bench- one of my Consignment finds

Living/Family room

Living/Family room complete with photo bomber.                                                                                                                      

My other photo bomber. The wall is actually a grey blue color. At certain times of day it seems to match the dining room built ins, but it is actually much more blue. I like how it provides flow between the rooms, though. The ottomans will go to right of TV console

Our back woods. Can't wait to see this in the winter

View down our driveway towards main road

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From closer to the house, looking down drive

Looking across our front yard

front door. I love the giant mums

Fall is in the air

 Everyone promised that the Fall would be beautiful here in New England. And although it has only technically been fall for a few days, so far I couldn't agree more! There are lots of apple orchards here and plenty of trees and already they are slowly starting to change color- and sometimes even smile at me!

School is in full swing now and all three kids are totally loving it. They are making friends and seem to be caught up academically so we are so happy for that.  Declan has started practicing (5 hours a week!) for a theater production. It's a Christmas show called "Dobb's Diner". It seems really fun and he loves it. He's also taking piano and so far, so good with that.  Amelia has had 2 Field Hockey games and while she's still learning, really enjoys it.  And Finn will start swimming in October. Busy and fun!

I have been busy trying to get involved with PTO, exercise class, and the local mother's club; basically ways to  try to keep busy and meet some people. As much as I love Finn, he's not exactly giving me adult conversation (though sometimes the stuff he says is amazing).  We spent a lovely day Sunday with some new friends and it was so good for us to feel "social". We are planning to host a Halloween party. It might be small, but it will be a fun way to get to know some people better.

The other thing that I've been doing is slowly work on house projects.  We lived in our house in Westerville for 8 years. Everyone knows I pretty much did not like the house from the day I moved in. However, there were several projects I wanted to do that would have really improved the house. The biggest project we wanted done was to have a patio put in.  Matt drug his feet about every house project, including that one. Finally we had it put in, and had landscaping done, last fall. We loved it. We had about 2 weeks to enjoy it.  I think that really kind of hit home with Matt that why wait to do some of the "fun" projects? Do them while WE get to enjoy them. So he's been on board with some of my craziness.  
Below are some pictures that show the "after" of the dining room as well as my new TV console. It was quite a find!! Once we paint the wall behind it I will do some after pictures of that room as well.

TV Console. Was to be sold as a sideboard, but I loved it for this!

New table, painted the built in hutch grey, removed the bookshelves, new hardware.

The "new" columns. Don't they look a million times better than the weird Roman ones?

The light is really bad in this picture, but on the right is my grandma's old curio. I did a shabby chic paint on it of grey and white.

You can see the curio better in this picture.
We even took the baby blue carpet off of the stairs! They really really need painted, but it's still a major improvement!

Almost a Month

Our trip to Boston with mom and dad

It's a miracle! mimi hits the beach!

Paul Revere's House

Oh my! It's been almost a month since I posted?! I guess I feel like I've been posting alot of our activity on FB so I haven't had much to say on here.

My parents came for a whole week to visit us at the end of August. That kept us busy, but it was so fun to explore with someone else and, of course, to have visitors!  While I've made a few friends, I don't get to see them very much, so it can get a bit quiet around here. Everyone knows I like to talk, so it was nice to have someone to chat with for a week!  

The kids started school last week and they all 3 seem to be liking it so far. No homework yet, and still settling in, so we'll see how they feel in a week or two once we've really battened down.

Amelia has started field hockey. She said she's still learning and is kind of slow, but she thinks it is really fun and has met some more girls- so that's good.   Declan will start practice to be in a community (children's) play this week and he'll start piano next week. Busy fall schedules, but good. Still trying to decide what to do with Finn- I'm hoping maybe swim lessons.  I will also be taking him along with me to Jazzercise on his off days from school. Something new for me, too! I've never done it. I haven't worked out since March, though- so it's [well past] time!!

I am really enjoying the area and the things there are to do here. It is historical and beautiful.  However- I'm not sure if it's a local thing, a NE thing or maybe everywhere (since I've never been new before) but it is SO HARD to get information from people. Geezy peet, it's driving me crazy.  For instance there was a paper sent home with Declan on the first day (not before school started mind you) that said "if you will pick up your child from school every day please fill out this slip and turn it in. You will come to the school doors and your child will be called from the cafe for you to get." Okay, fine. But what if you have to just get your child sometime?   So, I called the school today as I have to get Declan every Tuesday. The lady answers "hello" (not who she is) I basically tell her I know if I'm picking up every day I needed to fill out that paper, but what if it's only once in awhile (or in my case, once a week). And, I kid you not,  this woman who WORKS IN THE SCHOOL says, "Well, now you know, I'm not really sure." WHAT DO YOU MEAN???? She goes on to say "I guess you just write a note to the teacher saying you'll be picking up" I have to reply "But, do I need to park and come into the  building, or is there a different method?" Again her reply is, "well, I guess that's what you do, but you'd really have to talk to (different person). UGH.  Certainly I am not the only person who has had this issue- right?
   Example 2- Amelia's school has given very specific instructions on how and what time to drop the kids off in the morning if you drive them. But nothing has been said if they are walkers. What door they should go in, if it's okay to get there early and stand around outside.. nothing.  
Example 3- I signed Declan up for a play/children's theater type of thing. I never got anything beyond the basic flyer. It had how much I owe and when I need to pay it and the time and days of practice. It somehow assumed I knew WHERE practice was, sign in/drop off procedure and who to pay.  Even after I asked those questions she never bothered telling me who to make a check out to.  

Can you tell I'm frustrated today? It's feels different to me than Ohio in that there people were always willing to go out of their way to help you, guide you, instruct  you, help you find the answers. Here I fell like I'm always kind of just on my own.  It also doesn't help that I don't have a network of people to ask, either.  Oh well. Still finding our way- and next year I'll "just know", too.


Oh, I have been working on my dining room re-do also. I am almost done- and will post before and afters when I'm completely finished! That's been my project of the month! :)