Visitors from Long Island

 

I am working on a new blog name. I feel like it I am back to coming up with a name for our dental office. That was brutal. I love to write, but I really hate to title. It's kind of the same problem I have with facebook and twitter. Too short and sweet for this girl. For now we are - In the woods by the sea. I  wouldn’t be surprised if my readers read that and decide that this blog just ain't what it used to be.  Something about being the biggest family in the neighborHOOD lent for some great writing. I read the buffalo blogs of friends since I have left and just laugh and laugh and really miss it all. It seems like nothing insane happens outside of Buffalo.  But who would go back? Not me. I am enjoying our life in the woods.

The thing is we don't have to go camping anymore for ambience. This is Friday night at our place. These woods surround the back of our house. The word is that they are full of ticks so we mostly stay out of them. I don't know how long this will last with Marcus. He is always right on the edge. Barefoot and usually barebottomed since his bottoms are often cast off because he wet them.  He's pretty easy to find though. He answers to "Marco" with a  "Polo". Everytime. Don't forget and call him Marcus or he won't say a thing though and you could be right on top of him and not know it.

I refuse to have any of us join the large population of people suffering from lime disease around here. Google it sometime. It is scary stuff. And all it takes is a couple days of an undiscovered tick and you've got it. 

So our paradise does have it's one big problem. But it's a great excuse to bathe your kids right.  I used to get notes from the school about head lice. Now the notes say,  "We went into the woods today. Check your kids for ticks."  

We are so happy with our schools here. They have 2 recesses a day! That's two more than we had in Buffalo.  And they have a pumpkin patch, woods to explore, and even have a slop box for leftovers at lunch to feed the local pigs. Caroline is purposely packing extra every day so she has plenty for pig slop.

 Camille competed in a small county fair and took second place. We drove into town and were looking for the fair that I saw advertised. I saw a small gathering in a park and asked some leaving if this was part of the fair. She said, "No, this IS the fair." 

This was my kind of fair. No carnies, large crowds or worries of losing your children, no overpriced ride passes to be begged for. Just a small town of 4 thousand enjoying the day together. Very quaint and very wonderful. They had an egg and spoon race also. All the kids ate their hard boiled eggs after. They were brown eggs so I figured some chicken farmer in the county raised them.

Kennon joined cross country and is living up to her roots. Not mine. No, No definitely not mine. My side is not known for speed.  But the other side is a different story and I have really hoped that I might be raising some runners to keep up with their cousins.  She insisted that this first meet was not a race.  Though it clearly was since she placed.  She wasn't nervous, lined up at the back at the pack, then talked much of way with a friend running next to her, and didn't even sprint at the end since she says she didn't even know it was over till it was. But even taking it all in stride she finished the 2.5 mile in 17:10 which I was thought was amazing since I am still trying to beat my best mile time set in 8th grade - 8:01.

Now she understands the whole racing aspect I am really excited to see her next meet.

The trampoline continues to be the best thing to ever happen to this family. And it is a bit of a novelty around the neighborhood. We may be the only one's with one and I guess that's why when I met a lady from a few streets away at the cross country meet she said, "Oh, yeah, I know that street. That's where the trampoline house is". The fame spread all the way to Long Island and our nearest kin came for a visit. Actually Alainna came to avoid paying to visit a dentist, and her husband Stephen came along to compete with Peter for favorite uncle. He jumped with them for hours and easily won the new title. 

 He even let them carry him off to the dress up room, where they worked hard to find something for a 6 footer. I think he fit into almost everything in width but they were way too skimpy in length . . so I guess that's why I don't have a picture to share with you.

By the end of the visit, though wonderful as he was Caroline was still calling him Uncle Peter.

I just posted this one and asked Marcus who it was and he told me, "Uncle Peter" then started singing "little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his ear." Some thanks after all the books his Uncle Stephen read to him.

They are less than five hours away from us if they plan it right. That means driving through Manhattan between the hours of 2 and 4 a.m. They arrived at 7 a.m on a Thursday and left at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. Talk about being trapped on an island.

After completing his Phd we think he should apply to teach piano at UNH and live by us. We tried hard to show them how good life might if they should so chose . On Saturday we hiked around the bay a few minutes from our home. 

It was a gorgeous day and once again I myself was convinced that I have a found a little peace of heaven. Mom, I have come a long way from the days when I used to complain about your enthusiasm for hiking. I now am all about these kind of family activities.

It was pretty easy as hikes go but there was this one hill that we had to scale. 

 I even thought to bring trail snacks in my backpack and we found the perfect spot.

Several people have told me that though the wooded Northeast is truly beautiful they could never live there because they get claustrophobic surrounded by beauty on all sides.  Maybe in Altoona PA that is possible but not in seacoast NH. 

Okay, so you all know after recent blogs that I am thoroughly in love with our choice of locales. If you will all remember with me now though, it was such a hard decision to make and so doesn't it make sense that now I go on and on about how happy I am  and that it feels so good to be here? It's just so interesting how things work out after all the worries. I had a church leader tell me during an interview in February that we shouldn't rush into any decision if we didn't have an answer. We needed to wait upon the Lord until it felt right. That was not what I wanted to hear when we felt like we weren't getting any help at all with this decision. By the end of April his words were haunting me. How long were we going to have to wait?  Finally we announced the PA decision because we had been stewing over it forever and thought we would never feel sure so we just needed to jump in and do it. We would make it work. Almost immediately life got amazingly worrisome and stressful. 

And when you are in the thick of that it is so hard to see what seems so clear now. It wasn't a good decision. We felt so trapped and worried and we hadn't even made a commitment yet.

Now it's all so clear that we had to wait till this practice was available so we could come here. I think maybe there are multiple places we could've gone and fit in and and made contributions.  

But we had specific requests. We wanted to go somewhere where we wouldn't have regrets after all the choices before us. We wanted to live somewhere beautiful and exciting. I think it is so good to reflect and remember when the Lord gives you the exact thing that you asked for. And just to be clear I know that the there will be many trials ahead of us.  And though life is good it's definitely not easy now nor do I think it's all downhill from here. But I am so grateful that he has  provided us with peace in our lives, especially since that is specifically what we were asking for above all else. 

I had a good weekend. Looking forward to more visitors.

Photos by Kristen

One of the last things we did in Buffalo was to get the whole family together for a very long overdue photo shoot.  This actually was our first one ever with a official photographer,  and that means I'm not counting Penny's Portrait studios.  And the only reason we finally got this one is because it was FREE!  Two years earlier at a Christmas party with some friends I had been the recipient of "a free photo shoot by Kristen".   Not only did she take 150 photos, but edited them all -and spent who knows how many hours?  Kristen Hassell, you are the best!  That what's I call an awesome white elephant gift.

 

  

In the rush to get 7 people ready I failed to notice that Kennon put on eyeliner, and Camille clipped on earrings. I did notice that Savannah was wearing her high top converse and those were switched out for the first half of the photo shoots.
Kristen we miss you and are so glad you squeezed in the time to make good on your gift at the last minute. Her husband was leaving in a just couple days for officer's training when she took these. I have nothing but good to say about this woman. She sings, plays the piano, is a dental hygienist, speaks spanish, dances, writes, and takes care of three boys at her house all in addition to be the best photographer around. Check out more of her amazing photography here.

Labor Day

I can never remember the purpose of labor day but usually feel pretty let down if there isn't one last big summer BBQ involved. This year was one of those years that I was sure to be jipped. We have no BBQ (since we were forced to leave ours in the buffalo backyard when it didn't fit) and no invitations came our way.


In the a.m. we worked at the office. Always plenty to do around there. Here is Camille earning $10 bucks, actually $8 after her Dad saw all the stuff she missed.

 I have been asking around for a local place to go swimming besides the beach. The beach is awesome but you can't exactly swim there. Everyone told me to head to the University Pool.  So we checked it out early in August since it's close by.  But when I saw the crowded pool and found out it was $7 a person- it just wasn't going to happen. I hate swimming in community pools and I couldn't spend $7 x 7 even if my kids hated me for it. With all this water around there I was determined to be swimming for free.


I mentioned this to the Bishop Sunday night while we had dinner there. He told us where his family goes. No beach, but a bridge crossing the river. They like to jump off there. So Monday afternoon when the work was done, we found the spot up in the woods 3 miles from our home. It was a bit crowded with new UNH coeds, but they were super nice and didn't seem to mind our family crashing their party.  I was the first to jump. It looked way higher from the top. The water was way warmer than the beach but definitely the blackest water I have ever swum in. But it smelled clean and I knew there was no chance of alligators so it was just fine by me.

Caroline went next, thanks to her father dropping her off the side. I told her that parents get arrested for throwing their children off the bridge.

He almost threw his son over next but I stopped him. We are easy to recognize in this picture. Brent is the white bald head giving his 6 year old a pep-talk before "helping" her over the edge. And my girls were the only ones not wearing bikinis as usual. Doesn't anyone besides senior citizens wear a one piece these days? Not on my side of the country.

Caroline wasn't the only one Brent gave a lift to. Savannah had a bad day and didn't swim at all. She was still recovering from an injury she sustained on Saturday after they finished setting up this.

 Our first trampoline ever. And already a sprained ankle. Five kids worked for 3 hours on this thing. Even Marcus was a ton of help. He carried off a 1/2 dozen screws and the girls spent an hour scavenging the yard for them.

The girls had to come up with a combined $100 and Dad paid the rest. It was a NH promise. Something to bribe them away from Washington. 

They insist that he also bribed them with a promise of a dog in NH. That was before he knew about ticks. Now we are both too worried about it running around through our woods collecting ticks and then brushing them all off in our house. It's pretty impossible to have outdoor pets here with the long winters. I don't know if they will ever talk us into that one. We already regret the trampoline. Even an enclosure doesn't save your ankles.

After most of us jumped and swam (Savannah sat and babysit on the bridge) for an hour we went home to shower and out for the burger that mom was craving. Did you know we don't even have a Red Robin in NH? We settled for Applebee's. And the burger was the only disappointment of the day. It was good, but when you're craving Red Robin since you can't grill at home, it's hard to substitute with an Applebee's burger.  Not the same. We should've bought a grill instead.

Introducing Applewood Family Dentistry

This is the Place. BEFORE we took over.

Task 1- Way too many out of control shrubs. The morning after we signed Brent woke up at 3:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep of course. So he got out of bed for an early start. I sent him with the camera. By the time I showed up at 10 a.m. the worst of it was out and ready for the girls and I to haul off. Behind the lot there is plenty of wild areas to just drop it off and forget about it.

Take away the jungle, new stain on the deck, fresh bark and a red door. Now that's more like it. The Doc is ready to hang up his shingle. We still have some black shutters up in the attic to hang.  The building is actually way bigger than it looks. It has a couple office spaces downstairs and around the back that are rented out. Also an upstairs storage area that we need to finish and for a staff room and office for the boss. 

We were so anxious to get going the first day inside that we had all the original  furniture out on the front lawn before I remembered to use my camera. We pulled the bench back inside and snapped this photo.

We decided to work around the Dr.'s original murals, and even incorporated them in with the name of the practice -Applewood Family Dentistry. The selling Doctor (and our girls) would've killed us if we had painted over this artwork.

This whole wall display was free. A yard sale was giving the baskets and vase away at the end of the day when I passed by on my way to the practice. And Ed Stull from the Buffalo ward once offered us the mantle, which we took, though we had no use for it. After 3 years, and several coats of white paint we finally found a place for it. We would love to have a nice picture of our Washington Apple orchard displayed here (How about it Ben?) but until then this will have to do.

THE Bathroom. Not too pretty.

A little better after paint, lots of scrubbing on rust stains, a stolen mirror from my living room, and some lovely Goodwill art. Once again it will do until something better arrives in my inbox from Brent's brother Ben.

This is another precious mural that definitely had to stay. This is the old doctor's operatory. He had a patient paint his home there. I wonder if the patient does trailers? That way the new Doctor could personalize his own operatory.


We are still working on it. I can't wait to have the floors refinished and get the operatory lights and upholstery all color coordinated but we also have to make a living and lately he is pretty busy doing that instead. . . and I am glad. 

First Day/New School

6 a.m.

 At wake up,  Camille is discovered asleep with her first day outfit already on, including the book bag over her shoulder.

 6:10 a.m.

Everyone is looking refreshed 10 minutes later during our family scripture study.  Well, Camille and the Dentist are. There is no telling why Caroline is looking scared.  The other two are clearly still sleeping, though they are sitting up.

7:05 a.m.

 The 7th grader and 6th grader waiting for the middle school bus. One takes the first day outfit very seriously. The other plans to blend in and not look like she tried too hard.   Both will make friends just fine!

No posing in front of the bus shots in middle school. I hid behind the tree and popped out for this one.

8:10 a.m.

Our third grader got bored and decided I woke her up way too early. I agree. She spent the time finding the perfect accessories. Her sister's scarf given to her by her aunt's Candice and Andrea, and a headband she made last year at Activity Day. Our first grader is the only one who got free school clothes this year.  The other girls bought a few precious items they picked out with their office earnings.  I love shopping with them now they are using their own money. They head right back to the clearance rack with me, ignoring all the stunning displays up front. If it is under $10 they will consider it, but usually decide it is too expensive if it isn't less than $5. They have been trained well and now I am turning it over to them.

Our first Visitor

Uncle Peter is the new favorite uncle, and has the title of first visitor. He'll probably be our visitor with the shortest stay also. I thought my parents were the best at that up to now. Peter arrived at midnight and was gone by 8:30 a.m. Caroline and Camille had a blast turning their room into the guest bedroom and even left him his favorite cookies (baked by Camille) next to his bed. He is interviewing for a summer law internship in Manchester, which would really be a dream come true to get him and Candice up here.

After we said goodbye, the kids and I headed straight to the beach for only our second day enjoying the ocean we live right next to. I don't know how two weeks could make such a difference but we all agreed that the Atlantic was way warmer than it was on our first visit. The weather has been in the 90's for 3 days straight so I guess that made all the difference.  Here we are at Rye Beach enjoying our last day of summer. 

I get so nervous having five children at the beach. They can't hear you when you holler at them because the waves drown you out. And they keep getting braver and braver and farther out in the surf.  Marcus wasn't too brave.  He just wanted me to put him down so he could chase the gulls on shore. That's seagulls, by the way, not girls. Marcus calls girls, "Gulls".    I tried to bridge the gap in the middle and keep an eye on them all. It's not as fun as it could be.  Can't relax on the beach or ride the waves but it's better than. . .  not being at the beach. 

I spent some of the time talking to a couple next to us. I cherish each time I can have a new conversation with someone because. . we just don't know anyone. It's easy when you live in a area where you naturally have a social life with family or even while we were in dental school because there were so many others like us that they kind of became family.  Now I realize it is going to be much harder to make a friend.  I am a lot like my Dad in that I could just talk to complete strangers forever and have the best time in the world. But then I have a harder time taking it past that point and turning it into a friendship. People have always done that more for me and if they didn't then I just didn't have a close friend.


Another thing I have definitely been noticing is. . everyone is so warm and kind in New England.  I can't think of a single rude encounter I have had. . .and that is something coming from Buffalo. Our neighbors in Buffalo were fabulous. Just like the saying goes, "City of Good Neighbor". But drivers???  and Almost everyone in the service industry were so rude and acted like you were really inconveniencing them to be in their business at all. It was so bizarre.  I can't tell you all the times I told myself I was going to call a manager, and then all the times I observed a manager acting just as badly. And the swearing. I heard really bad words every time I went out. And much of the time it was from employees. I think I have heard 2 swear words (We don't have cable) since I moved to New England.

If you ask me, I think there were a lot of unhappy people living in Buffalo, at least on my side of town. And now I am surrounded by happy people. It's pretty great. So I'm just enjoying the overall friendliness and great conversations I have had at random places like the post office or grocery store..  People are especially friendly when they hear we are a family of 7 that moved here. . .  just because.


Totally untrue what they say about New Englanders being standoffish.

Date night in Boston

After one very long, very strenuous week at the office we got out of town Thursday evening. Only 1 hour and 20 minutes to our nearest temple- Boston, Mass.

It is so nice to have a three day weekend right now with the practice only open Mon-Thurs. Brent needed this time to recover.

Second week starts tomorrow. Hopefully things run a lot smoother. It has been a little crazy for him jumping in like this. He has had a full schedule of dentistry every day. .  .well except the day he had to make an unscheduled shut down for maintenance. We are still confident we bought the right practice in the right town. But As Anticipated it has been a bumpy ride so far.  It would've been so much easier to just get a job. . but it'll all pay off in the end.  . . WE HOPE.

Brent can fix anything. If it breaks. . .  He takes it apart- Superglue's, jimmy rigs - Whatever it takes, but he has it back together and running smoothly by the end of the day.  Around our house that is a prize possession. The kids and I break at least one thing a day. 


Apparently that is the way it goes around the office also.

Brent's VERY first day was a total bust. After 15 years without a single glitch, the suction system went out exactly at 10 a.m. Monday morning just as he was finishing making his first buck ever as a dentist. 

All appointments had to be canceled for the day for both him and the hygienist. I guess you can't do dentistry without suction. His office staff urged him to call the dental suppliers after a couple hours of his tinkering.  But Brent was determined to figure it out and avoid a thousand dollar professional office visit. 

Turns out, the system was completely backed up with 15 years of amalgam. He spent the rest of the day in the attic or basement successfully unclogging it.  (Just a little edit by Brent.....I didn't unclog the system, I had to replace the entire plumbing of the suction system by working on top of and around the desks of the office below the practice-Not my idea of an ideal first day as a dentist.  I felt like I was back in my farming days fighting fires)

Tuesday they were open for business again. 

I don't know how a normal person manages to be a dentist. I am sure that there are people that can be hired to do these things. . but how much would it cost and how long would it take? I am convinced Brent is is our best resource.

He also found out during his first appointment that the burrs used for drilling don't shut off with a simple foot tap. It was more like a long pronounced stomp. That's something you would prefer to find out before you are inside someones mouth. Later, after questioning the former dentist he told him it had been like that for years and he'd grown accustomed to the extra time and strength it took to shut the darn thing off. 


Brent fixed that also. . . of course. Just another day at the office.

And he also fixed THE CHAIR. The one that has sat right in the middle of it all collecting dust for over five years. There are three operatories in the office and one of them has been out of commission forever due to a dental chair that just stopped working one day. Two different dental supply reps came out and spent several hours with no luck. Rather than replace the chair, that operatory was abandoned and became a storage room.

 Brent took a look at it, and within an hour of tinkering . . . It was the best seat in the house! His hygienist liked it so much she asked him to please exchange it for the one in her operatory. 

So that is how things are going at the office. 


At home. . Marcus refers to the big blue house as "New Hampshire". I spoke with him so much about his new house in NH that it is all one and the same in his mind. Now whenever we run errands or leave for the day. . . or even go on a walk he keeps asking "When are we going back to NH?" 

His favorite game is Marco Polo. Sometime in Washington this summer it started and he would play forever, us saying Marco and him answering "Polo".  Yesterday he took it way too far. I didn't even know we were playing. I just knew I couldn't find Marcus and I had been yelling "Marcus" all over the house for over five minutes and was beginning to panic.  The girls came to help and Smart Savannah hollered out "MARCO".  Just then from behind the dehumidifier we heard a "POLO".  He had been there the whole time just waiting for it. Little turkey. 


Caroline is insisting on doing some school shopping with her hard earned painting money. I reminded her of her overflowing closet. Not only has she inherited the hand me downs of four sisters, but has also been the recipient of many other families in Buffalo that thought we looked like we needed a donation. The last bag we got in her size were full of Hannah Montana T-shirts. At least 10. She was in heaven for months and even went through an "I am going to be a rock star when I grow up" kick. 

But now that she is looking forward to first grade. . .  Hannah Montana is so yesterday. Everyone knows it's Miley Cyrus now, right? So she was telling us all this on the way home and declared that she won't be wearing a single hannah montana to school, they are all "too Kideous".  

Don't you love it? Kiddish and Hideous all in one word. I think that word is going to be used a lot around here. I love it. 


"Caroline stop whining, You are acting so Kideous!" 

Savannah has declared our sunroom to be the Dress up/Craft room. She had it all unpacked and organized before I had any say in the matter. Now it's easy to put on shows like this with all these accessories right at your fingertips. . rather than down in the Halloween boxes in the basement. 


Camille and Caroline go along with everything she comes up with.  They each redecorate their separate rooms every other day. One day they have yellow throw pillows on the bed. The next day they are silver with sequins thanks to a shirt they found in the donate box.. They have learned the art of re purposing quite well from their mother. 

Kennon thinks decorating your room once a day is way too kideous for her. She spends her time blogging, playing the hymns, and reading Twilight. I finally gave in and let her read the series.

As for Kashann, for the first time since we we arrived I'm enjoying settling in and having some time to figure out what you can do with a big rental house after moving in from a 15 ft. pod. So many empty spaces. Too many windows to cover.  No money coming in from dentistry. (It probably isn't even that big but you have to remember what I am coming from) I can't help but call that one- our house in the hood and this one- the Big Blue House.

We were invited to our first party here. We were pretty surprised to recieve an invitation from the dentist that once interviewed Brent in his office, since instead of working there we bought a practice just 10 miles away from Dr. Howard.  That's another big plus about the area, I guess. They don't seem to hold a grudge. This party wasn't your typical backyard bbq. It was an actual pig roast, and we all wore our island garb.

 Brent and Marcus were the only ones in the family who own Authentic Hawaiian. Brent was super proud to put on his Dad's shirt with the gold buttons. It isn't usually very appreciated but that never slows him down and he always insists that when it comes to party shirts this is as good as it gets.  Marcus is wearing Brent's shirt that he got from Hawaii when he was a toddler. Thanks Momma Jo for saving it for Marco. Talk about a proud father son moment. And look at the perfect backdrop that is everywhere to be found outside.

There was a craft table, bounce house, slippin' slide, and a hired band. And I was the only one who came potluck style with a salad and fresh peach pie. It was all catered. Oops! 

We met many other dentists and specialists in the area and everyone was super encouraging. Nice to make a few friends.