Massachussets, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont weekend

I had a trip all planned for labor day weekend but never convinced Brent. Last week we were approaching the Yom Kippur 3 day weekend and once again I was pressuring him that the best way to spend it was on a road trip with his family. Finally Friday morning, literally as he walked out the door, he said, "If you can make all the arrangements and have the car packed, I'll go."

So I called my old Rick's roommate Becky who lives in Rhode Island, apologized about the very short notice, and warned her that we were coming her way. We left 20 minutes after Brent got home that evening and began an 8 hour drive around 7 p.m.

The kids slept most of the way while Brent drove and I talked to him. That is the only way we can travel unfortunately. It would make sense to take shifts, right so we could both get a little sleep? But, I have inherited a serious case of narcolepsy from my father and once the conversation dies down I have no warning and can fall asleep with a couple minutes at the wheel. And the last thing Brent wants to do when he gets a break from the wheel is talk to me. And I feel really bad about my problem so I stay awake and talk to him because I think it's only fair if I am going to make him drive. So we talked and talked until we pulled into Newport, RI at 3:30 a.m., quietly let ourselves in and crawled into bed.

After at least a couple hours of sleep everyone was up and we had a great day hanging out with all ten of our kids. The kids rode horses in true New England style complete with riding helmets and gloves.

We all took a turn on their backyard zip line (Brent really got this kid going. I stood on the other end and it was all I could do to stop him every time before he slammed into the tree. He was all giggles on the zip line. We need one of these so we can zip out of the tree house.)
In the afternoon we drove to the beach and our the kids got to dip their toes in the Atlantic Ocean. Then we walked the cliff walk along all the summer mansions. Becky has both a 12 year old AND a 10 year old daughter - how much better could two best friend roommates have planned that? Savannah and Kennon both had their friend for the first time in history we had no sibling/friend rivalry. We need to find out where the military is sending this family next and go with them and set up the dental office there. My children would be thrilled.

Savannah had Sarah all to herself

Unfortunately the camera charger was forgotten at home and we only had about 10 shots and it died. And they weren't too great since I was turning it on and off so fast to save the battery and had no time to get the perfect shot. The camera was sorely missed the rest of the trip. Rhode Island was nice but there was so much fall glory once we got farther north and I got nothing.

I felt like I was going on a family trip fielding style. My family once went on a grand back east adventure to all the sights and I swear never took a single picture.

It was wonderful to hang out with another mother of five. Like me she is a supermom. Around here if you have five kids and you don't swear at them constantly you are amazing. Our families were so similar . . close in age, and LOUD.

And Becky is inspiring in other ways. She is preparing for her 4th marathon. I am still trying to work back up to the mile they used to make us run everyday in Junior High.

We left Sunday morning and before you worry, yes we did make it to church. But before then we went to Plymouth Rock and had a quick driving tour of Boston, enough to see the Boston Harbor and Fenway Park. And enough just to make the girls all mad that we had come all the way to Boston and were now leaving without seeing the Paul Revere house or the graveyard. Their grade school teachers are doing a great job.

Church was in Nashua, NH at 1 p.m. a beautiful town 45 minutes north of Boston.
I was so happy to be in New England for autumn. It was all the perfect setting at the perfect time of year if you ask me.

AND NO CAMERA! (So these are all images from online of things that I saw)
After church we just kept driving and visited many little New England towns. Keene, NH was a nice place. Maybe I could even live there. Then onto Brattleboro, VT. I don't think I could live there. Lots of dreadlocks and I saw grown women kiss for the first time ever 1 minute after we pulled into town. We found a hotel in Brattleboro, after about an hour cooped up in the van while it rained, the kids complained and Brent found a room on Priceline.

The next day was another beautiful drive. We stopped off at Bennington, VT to visit the Revolutionary War Monument. If you thought Saratoga was the turning point of the war you are wrong. It was Bennington. For a couple bucks you can ride the elevator to the top of the obelisk erected in the 1880's and see New Hampshire on the left and New York on the right, so it is pretty tall. And the valley is just perfect. I am in love with New England autumn.

The kids were typical. Good on the way there since they were excited. Bad on the way home because they were back to normal.

Caroline of course was car sick. But, she is the best car sick girl ever. I always keep a large bowl with a lid in our car. We had just started into the hills on the way home and Caroline hollered out, "Throw up bowl, please!" She is always super polite when she is sick. I threw it back and she filled it within 10 seconds of receiving it. Then she was all back to normal. I think the rest of us are more bothered by her vomiting then she is.

Thanks to Brent for going along with my road trip. He always wants to know why I don't just take off of on my own when I want to go somewhere. Then he goes with me and remembers why. I would kill us all.

The only thing I felt bad about is missing a big chunk of New England and by not making it to Maine. The lighthouses, the beautiful beaches, fresh seafood. . .

We drove past some fresh lobster advertised near Plymouth Rock, MA for $6 a lb . . . and we had the cooler space? . . . Then we remembered a really bad experience we once had transporting meat across the country. . . So we just kept right on a'driving.

My old man

I always knew that Brent's sense of smell wasn't as keen as mine. He bought a smoker's house and never even noticed or at least. . . . failed to mention it to me. It wasn't a good surprise.

Well now that he is pushing 40 the rest of his senses are apparently going too.

This morning was a little crazy since we had just got back from a 3 day weekend in New England. No one could find their book bags, and there was nothing in the house to pack for lunches. Two kids missed the bus.

Brent was the first to pour his bowl of cereal. He took one bite of his frosted shredded wheat and said, "Oh, this is terrible. The cereal is way too sweet." I was trying out a new grocery store's generics.

He gave his bowl to Marcus who started eating but made slow progress. Then he poured some for Caroline and had a bowl of cornflakes himself. Just as he was finishing up I took my first bite - spit it out and ran screaming into the kitchen so I could rinse my mouth out.

Completely sour milk. I couldn't believe he just ate it. And thought it was just bad generic cereal. Once he saw me spitting he agreed that his second bowl tasted bad also, but said he just figured his taste buds were going and kept eating. And this is the man who tells everyone what a great cook his wife is. I think I need a fresh opinion.

And some fresh milk.

I will keep the old man though. He likes my cooking.

A fight in nursery

Marcus lost his first real fight,
his pride
. . .and his Sunday shirt.

Ruby's Dad was pretty proud.

I guess they had to pull this big girl off of him in the 1 year old class today. And it's only his third week.

Next time you make homemade pizza. . .

Try this:

Dump 1/2 a bag of fresh spinach in a pot and saute on low with a little olive oil.

I chopped it up a bit first.
Let it cook down (takes about 5 minutes)
Then dump in your normal pizza sauce- whatever you use.
I like Hunt's Traditional spagetti sauce. It's good and the cheapest. I also add extra italian seasoning and a little red pepper, cuz I like spice.
Then make up your pizza with your spinach laden red sauce.
It is delicious AND the kids won't notice all the greenery they are consuming.
I always add spinach to my spagetti sauce anyway so I thought, Why not pizza?

Reflecting on Bethel

I am on a roll, and having fun now that I am blogging. I actually was thinking I was done with blogging lately and should go back to journal writing. I want to write and get my thoughts out of my head but they are way too personal for ya'll. Besides the same old mothering and housekeeping thoughts, I have been consumed with the job search for Brent. I keep trying to give up my obsession and just let him take care of it, but it's such a big deal -where you are going to end up- and I can't help doing research on all the pro's and con's of areas. But like I said I would rather write pro's and con's in my journal than lay them out there for the world to see just in case we end up in one of the areas that I previously told everyone was on the too many cons list.

Here is one place we most definitely won't end up.
Bethel Alaska

Here is the fine place that he lived most of the time he was there. And they didn't charge him a thing for these fine accommodations.

I have meant to tell a few true stories about Brent's three week summer externship in Alaska so here goes.

The information he received beforehand recommended that he bring some of his own food since the food was extremely high priced there, though they would be giving him money for food.

Brent interpreted bring "some food" to bring "ALL YOUR FOOD" and during the days leading up to the trip I was frantically packing for him. I made a menu that rotated about 10 different meals and as requested had all the items ready that he would need. I made up my own mixes that would just need one ingredient like pancakes, pizza, corn bread, wheat bread, and soup. It was a menu just like the one he always insists our family should focus on, "grains and beans". He brought a little container of yeast, powdered milk, cracked wheat for breakfast cereal, even some frozen cheese and a package of pepperoni for the pizza. We filled a big Rubbermaid tub that weighed 50.0 pounds that he paid to bring with him that was pretty much just -FOOD. The whole time I was making up these mixes I was thinking, "I am wasting my time. He's not going to work all day, then come home and make pizza or home made bread and chili from scratch."

When he got there his roommate told him about a sweet deal on produce. For $40 a week a large portion of farm fresh fruits and vegetables could be delivered to the apartment. Brent thanked him for the advice but said he'd be just fine with his wheat and beans.

I thought at least he would have to buy eggs and milk. But No. There were some eggs left behind in the fridge. And he mixed up his powdered milk which worked just fine for his morning bowl of cracked wheat cereal.

He did get invited to some great bbq's by the dentists and I guess those sporadic fine meals got him through the leaner days.

One week he flew out to a remote fishing village that he said was much prettier than Bethel. Unfortunately it was very remote and either didn't have a grocery store or Brent was just sticking to his principles. He had hurriedly thrown a weeks worth of meals in his bag planning to make a couple pizza's that would get him by and of course he had his cracked wheat and powdered milk. Once he unpacked he found out that he had forgotten the cheese. This was the week that Brent starved in the remote fishing village of Toksook Bay, Alaska.

Here's the lovely closet of brent's temporary bedroom. Clothing was very low on the priority list as you can see and he simply needed the tub space for food. So from the looks of things it was pretty easy to decide what to wear every night when he took off the scrubs.

"Hmmm. . . I think I will choose. . . the ORANGE shirt tonight."

This is what I call roughing it.

By the way, I would LOVE recommendations as to where this family should settle next summer.
So, If you LOVE where you live
please do beg us to come and join you.
Also, tell us of a wonderful old dentist who would love to work with Brent for awhile before handing things over.
As long as they aren't anywhere near to this location on the map.
As in Bethel, not Buffalo.

I've always hated this fridge.

You know that you are in for it when your one year old learns how to open the fridge. I have never heard of a one year old opening a fridge. Maybe it is just my stupid fridge and I can add it to the things I hate about it. Too small, too short, broken temp dial, TOO SMALL FOR SEVEN, too easy for an 18th month old to OPEN! So now he is a big boy he can set the table himself whenever he wants to. . . .ketchup, bbq sauce, jelly. . . Oh, what fun he is having.

One day I found him having an egg party while I was doing laundry in the basement.

The next day I left him for 2 seconds and found him with the leftover chicken wing box in the living room. First he dumped out the sauce in the kitchen. Then carried the dripping box into the living room and started brushing his teeth with the buttery red sauce. He really like his toothbrush and found a great new toothpaste.

If my house and obviously my fridge look to be an unorganized mess blame it on this little bundle of trouble, not I. I seriously can't keep up with him. But I am laughing my head off.

I took him to the zoo for the very first time yesterday. Here he is over the first fence and trying to figure out how to scale the next one and he'll be in his with his pals the monkeys.

"That kid belongs in the monkey exhibit."

A direct quote from someone passing us at the zoo that saw Marcus jump a foot in the air and start swinging back and forth hanging from the drinking fountain.

Anyway, it was like taking a kid to Disneyland for the first time. He was swept away that all these things really existed outside of his storybooks and stuffed animals. All the girls were so excited for him to go but also mad that we hadn't gone all summer when they could go too. I opted not to buy a zoo pass this year because it got really boring going with the girls in years pass. They even thought so and would groan whenever I said, "Well, we could go to the zoo?"

But Marcus. . chasing him down, keeping him off the fence, listening to him say, words like "Gorilla, Elephant and Otter" and seeing the huge wonder on his face. . . definitely not boring.
Here are the other 13 children from the ward that accompanied us. Marcus is in the middle in the cheapest, puniest and definitely the Worstest stroller in the bunch. No surprise. I have a big mall stroller that back in it's day (1998) would've been a good rival for fine strollers at playgroup. But that was before it went through 5 kids, miles and miles of dusty farm roads, and then 2 years left behind in a mouse infested garage in Washington finished it off. It only goes out now for strolls on my side of the neighborhood. It fits in okay over here but I wouldn't be caught dead pushing it for playgroup.

Thanks for the free pass Sara. Marcus would love to go again. Hint, hint.
I should've let this kid next to him ride in the vintage 1998 stroller. He gets along just great with mice I hear.

Just kidding Natalie. As you can see your mouse secret is safe with me.

A fresh start

Caroline told me the night before that she thought the first day of kindergarten was more exciting even than Christmas. Since then every night she asks me, "Mom, when do I get to go to school again?" and is always so thrilled when I reply, "Tomorrow!"

So she is loving it and we hear rave reports from her teachers via Savannah. The gym teacher told Savannah that she was "a treat" and that she sat with a full grin staring right at him the entire hour. This picture below she just got off the bus and is telling me that it was so easy and she didn't even have to write her name a single time. I have been scaring her all summer to get her to practice her name with stories about writing CAROLINE on every single paper. Labor Day was exactly that around here. We cleaned the shed out, worked in the yard, then some of us painted the scraped and painted the rusty old shed. Brent, Kennon and Savannah went to lunch. They finally talked him into soup, salad and bread at Olive garden if they agreed to go dutch. They have been insisting that they deserved a restaurant visit ever since Brent went to Red Lobster's Endless Shrimp and downed over 100 of their favorite things in the world. I ate 50 myself. I think I should've eaten more though because I woke up the next day still craving some coconut shrimp. Two of the other guys in the dental school friends annual shrimp contest ate just over 200. So we were eating light.

I didn't mind him taking off to lunch with the complainers Kennon and Savannah. Caroline and Camille thought putting on garbage bags and getting your own brush was it's own reward. Marcus was napping. Well, we hoped he was. He now spends most of his nap time running around his pitch black closet trying to escape. I built a wall out of tubs to keep him out of my bathroom. I usually find him every morning curled up with his "hippo deedee" behind the door. I decided to stop spanking him when after a week it was doing no good. He would run right out behind me. Spanking once every few months as a reminder worked perfectly for keeping my daughters in their beds, but marcus is requiring all new parenting methods. He seriously thought my three hard spanks on his bare leg were part of the fun nap game. So no more spanks for Marcus. I will just have to lock him up I guess. Then as soon as I got the kids out the door for the first day of school Marcus and I started in on this project. I am one of a very select group of housewives (at least from my investigations) who loves to paint rooms. I would redo the rooms at least twice a year if I could talk Brent into it. By the time they all came home from school the job was done and it was looking rather dreary compared to the happy orange room we were used to.

But dreary in a clean sparkly way. Orange was just yelling a little too loudly at me the last little while. It is now "wheat bread". I will post a picture as soon as I get it all rearranged. Rearranging furniture is another one of my very favorite things to do. Unfortunately I am stuck waiting on Brent. I insisted that the fireplace needs a new home on the other side of the room. He was finally talked into and now needs to do some "man work" that involving pulling tubes through walls etc.

Brent and I have been getting along so well lately. I think it all started when he was so easy going about my decision to paint and even went with me to pick out colors. Once we got to home depot he talked me out of pensieve sky (light blue) reminding me that the reason I told him I was painting is that we needed neutrality for the sale. I wanted that blue so bad though. I guess that's why I end up with a different color in every room of my house. I never want to go the safe route, I love change.

My favorite change right now is a quiet house for at least 2 hours a day while Marcus naps. I am savoring it this very instant and it is a beautiful thing.

I went to see my dentist this morning. He had a couple improvements he wanted to make on my teeth. We were just starting in on the first one when the staff came by and asked him if a young lady applying to dental school could assist him.

"Sure, no problem" , he said. But as she was out of earshot he whispered to me, "Should I tell her not to ask me any questions?"

The last time he filled one of my teeth his assistant was peppering him the whole time with, "What's that you are doing right now? How many teeth have you pulled? So how do you feel about. . etc " It was like having Caroline around and I know Brent and was sure that it was driving him crazy since he really needs all his brain power and isn't so good at thinking and talking at the same time.
Anyway, she came right back, and sat down and the first thing she said to him was, "Do you mind if I ask you questions while you work?"

A short pause . . . then Brent replies, "Sure, no problem." So I had a fun time once again, all rubber dammed and unable to chirp in, listening to him trying to keep up with her questions. He will have to lay down the law with his assistants once he gets his own place I guess.

No talking to Dr. Casper. He's working and needs full brain capacity

Visiting East Aurora, NY

For the second time we visited the Explore and More Museum in Aurora. Our favorite activities this time were taking turns building a log cabin and enjoying a fine concert by Musico Marco. Afterwards we stopped at the legendary Vidler's on main street.

A place where a bag of popcorn is just a nickle away.

And also home to the wildest mechanical horse ride this side of the country.

wedding snapshot

I don't have a scanner, so I never have any old pictures on my blog. Plus, I left all my photos in Washington so this picture shocked me. My cousin posted this on a family website. Now I can see the 13 years.

Brent 26, Kashann 20

18 months

Marcus was finally old enough for Nursery Class on Sunday. And of course there would be no tears. New toys, new friends, fishy crackers. . . Seriously what is there to cry about?

So he loves Sunday's just all the more. He already loved them because he gets to wear a "TIE" every Sunday just like his dad. I get him ready because Brent goes early for meetings. When we all meet up in our row I hand him over to his Dad they both check out each other's white shirts and ties.

Sunday's are special. Marcus knows that.

Still ONE MORE WEEK OF SUMMER to go!

I am tired of fun. Every day it's a new plan of super fun because NO ONE wants to waste their summer. And this week has to be the best ever because it is the very last one. Whenever I put a stop to the fun, because I feel that it's polluting my kids, or maybe I am just tired, I hear, "You are wasting my summer!" Their summer is very precious to them.

I can't want to be my boring, work-aholic, super efficient self again. These kids really cramp my style. How do the homeschoolers do it?