Brent and Ben kick off the weekend

It's only been 24 hours since our visitors from Washington arrived and already we are having the best of times.  Brent's mom just hit it out of the park during a short family softball game in between General Conference sessions today.  (General Conference refers to one of the two weekends a year that Mormons stay home and have church on the couch -broadcast from SLC, Utah. It is the best!)


Brent and his brother Ben especially enjoyed the four hours they spent together hearing the voice of the prophet and other church leaders.

Here they can be seen kicking off the session New England style. They took off this morning together after Ben found out that we had NO Lobster in the house! He'd been complaining about it nonstop since I served him a chicken dinner last night. They came back just in time for Conference (see Elder Holland in the background) with lunch . . . for them.  Two lobsters. We were thrown a few scraps.  Marcus was the only one who wasn't screaming for their own lobster. He refused to even come to the table after Kennon forced him to watch his uncle throw the wriggling bug into the pot.

Once their stomachs were satisfied they finished "watching" the session together on the couch. We did our best to hear the broadcast amidst all the snoring going on after the lobster fest.  We definitely needed a bigger couch.

My buddy Marco

A couple months before we left Buffalo I gave a whole box of diapers away. We were done with them in this household. Marcus hadn't wet his pants in weeks. Even at night he consistently woke me up to take him. My 25 month old was the easiest, youngest, best trained kid out of 5.  For 3 months. 

Then we started loading the moving van. From moving day on -all through the vacation in Washington, trip across the country and back, and our first 6 weeks here he literally refused to go. I know this is normal to have these kind of upsets revert potty trained children but I couldn't believe how long this went on. I've also had tons of people tell me that summer time is the time to potty train your boys because they just stop and pee whenever they feel the need in the great outdoors. Whatever! I firmly believe that there isn't much a parent can do to push a kid to do this. I think the best advice is to stay positive. So Marcus took a big summer break. It wasn't easy staying positive through it all. But. .   

He is now 31 months old and potty trained. . .  again. I haven't had to tell him to go in five days.  I don't know what snapped inside of him.  I'm not giving away the large box of pull ups I bought yet but I thinking he has finally stopped punishing me for taking him away from his Buffalo potty. 

Heck, the kid SLEPT in a bathroom in Buffalo. (A large closet hooked to my bathroom). It was a tough thing to leave that closet and convenient potty behind.  The totally crazy thing was that all DAY this summer I had him wear pull ups. But at the end of the day, off came the pull-up and on came the undies for bed.  He wets all day, but has yet to pee his bed.  No matter how much he drinks he just has amazing control. When he wants to obviously.  He is totally backward, wouldn't you say.  I am not complaining. .  really.  I'm glad he's not a bedwetter. But, I'm just saying. . the kid is weird.

He is always taking off on his own outside since the kids when back to school.  He never bothers with shoes. He thinks our back sliding glass door  is his personal entry. He really is the only one who uses it so I guess it is. Whenever I unload him from the car he tells me, "Mom, you go your way,  and I'll go mine". 

I have let him explore the yard on his own because so far he stays in the perimeter, but I worry the whole time and check on him every 5 minutes. It's pretty easy to do a quick check. He is well trained. I holler a "Marco" out the door and back comes a"Polo".  The other day I followed the "Polo" and found him completely covered in black. Especially all the way up one arm. I asked him where he had gotten so dirty. He told me "from the hole in your car." I wasn't smart enough to figure that out on my own, so he led me out to the van's muffler. "See Mom, there's a hole". 

Gee that looks like tons of fun, Marco.

Besides the constant wandering of the premises, Marcus is a great buddy for me while all the others are away. First off he is an excellent shopper. This is unheard of for a boy, right? For some reason I have found it way easier to shopping train him then potty train him.  He will browse Target with me for H O U R S. Then we hit the thrift store. . for another hour and the kid is still rearing to go. Back in the car, he always asks where we are heading next then offers suggestions, "Should we go to TJ Max, Mom?" One reason he is so easily entertained in the shopping cart is because of his singing habit. He has only made it through 20 or so songs in Target and has way more in his repertoire for the next stop. One of his standbys is always at the check out when the checker tells us goodbye. "Have a good day" He immediately starts singing the American Idol song to them. "I had a bad day!"  He doesn't watch American Idol but he has sisters and they teach him way more than nursery rhymes.

Secondly,  he loves my shopping snacks. He's the only one of my kids that refers to carrots as dessert just like he was taught, and will snack on raw almonds all day with me. He also doesn't have the normal phobia's my other children do of green where they aren't expecting it. The other day he wanted PB and J for lunch. I only had a loaf of store bought white bread and felt horrible about giving him that. I decided to try an experiment.


I spread the Peanut Butter on one side, jam on the other. Then I sprinkled side A with Wheat Bran and scattered side B with 6 baby spinach. The peanut butter stuck them all nicely together.

Lunch was served while I looked on. Marcus ate an entire half without comment. Then he picked up the other half and said, "Mom, why did you put salad in my sandwich?" "Because I knew that you loved salad, Marcus." "Oh, Thank you, Mom!"

I suggest you not try this on any kid over the age of 3. Gotta start'em young. . .  and even then somehow that hasn't worked out for some of us sisters.


While my little sister Alainna was visiting I found out he's way more stubborn than I ever imagined. Right after Alainna's visit with the dentist she was having lunch with us and was sitting next to Marcus. He was swinging his fork around a little getting more and more crazy, while Alainna was complaining a bit about how hard it was to chew with a numb lip. Suddenly he wound up right then swung hard left piercing Alainna right above her lip quite forcely. We all sat there stunned, especially Marcus. Alainna was numb and thus wasn't even sure if she was hurt or not.  She rushed to the mirror and found she was bleeding where she had been stuck. 

Marcus sat there not sure what to do.  So I told him. It was an accident but he needed to tell Aunt Alainna that he was sorry. He refused.  And the more I tried to convince the more upset he got. Finally he was placed in a timeout chair and told that he could get up when he was ready to say two little words to his aunt. 

He sat there for 20 minutes refusing and often screaming out, "I didn't do ANYTHING!" I was determined to teach him this lesson and stopped by often during the time to remind him that I know he didn't mean to do it, but he still needed to say sorry. Just two little words. Finally I convinced him he could whisper the words and that is what finally worked but man it was pretty funny to hear him so determined at 2.5.


I have been so lucky to enjoy several years of just one kid at home. Caroline had a couple years and now Marcus is having a turn. It really is fun to have a buddy. I need to think about a replacement for that because eventually he will leave me too. I can't imagine life without my buddy.

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.