October

Saturday October 29th, snow! The perfect snow, three to four inches, fluffy and white, melted by the next day.



I went around taking photos of the halloween decorations covered in snow. Here are our pumpkins enduring the storm.


Luigi, McQueen and a kitty cat all ready for the Halloween parade and to go trick or treating!

Ok, NOW you can judge me

Once a month a local antique store has a design open house that I like to visit. The store is open 7 days a week, but once a month they decorate a single family home on the property with new furnishings, holiday decorations and other such sundries. I like to go and get ideas and the kids don't mind because there are always neat things lying around. It is known to them as the "Buffalo House" as the main store used to have a stuffed Buffalo Head (which someone recently purchased!), now replaced with a stuffed Yak head.

I like to go on Friday to avoid the crowds, but I should have known the "holiday" house would draw crowds all three days. So we waited for Charlie to get home from school and by 11:30 we were on the road north.

It was so crowded when we arrived. The design house made me claustrophobic. While all the finely dressed women looked for Christmas decorations, this no showered, 12 year-old northface fleece jacket wear-er surged through the crowds with two little boys. I was on a hunt for some furniture pieces that would round out some empty rooms in our house and this store rarely disapoints.

Dining room buffet, check! Bench for dining room table, check! Upholstered chair for family room, check! A few other little tchotchke's and I am ready to pay.

Thankfully the store set up an outdoor cashier, so I told the boys they could play where I could see them while I waited to pay.

Not two minutes later Jackson comes up to tell me he has to go to the bathroom.
Of course.
The nice woman behind me tells me she will hold my spot. Yay! No port-a-potty within sight, Boo! I rush him behind a barn and ask him if he has to poop, "no", another YAY!

As I get back in line, Charlie comes over to tell me he lost his toy in the pile of leaves near the barn. I tell him I will help him when I am finished which should be any minute now but feels like forever.

Finally, I am next in line. I can see Charlie sitting on the stone bench waiting for me and I can see Jackson's bight yellow coat (with him in it, thank goodness) playing in the pile of leaves. I pay, rush over to find Jackson standing half naked in the pile of leaves announcing to me he has pooped.

This is where I feel like time slowed and as I looked around saw everyone laughing, pointing while I turned bright red. As I pulled up his pants (should I wipe him with leaves?) he kept telling me "I didn't do it in my pants!" as I kept asking "Why didn't you come and get me?"
Besides this incident, I have let him urinate outside several times. Never have I let him defecate, we always find a bathroom for that...until now.

Trying to figure out the correct way to handle this situation, Charlie asks if we can find his toy now. I looked down at the pile of leaves and just laughed. No way was I going to stick my hand in that pile of leaves to find a $.20 toy. As his lip trembled, I told him we would stop at the Dollar store and get a new one, as I don't think he realized his toy was now probably covered in human feces.

Little man is pretty independent. I love that he is willing to get himself a drink or snack, put on his shoes, come looking for me OUTSIDE of the house (YIKES!), he is a go-getter. More often than not, I am caught by surprise at what he can do at age 3. Oh boy, caught by surprise this time is an understatement. When I asked him again why he went right there in the middle of all those people, he told me because that way I could still see him and he wouldn't get in trouble. Love this boy!
But yeah, I am THAT mom who can't control her kid and lets him poop in public.

Don't judge me, HELP me!

I would say we had a busy week, but I seem to say that every week. So I will just concede that we have a busy life. Most of it self-induced, but so be it.

I will get to Lucy's adoption story one of these days, she is too cute for words.

In trying to give this new dog a stable environment (which reads "I don't want her chewing things while we are out of the house"), Lucy, Jackson and I took a trip to the pet store to buy a crate and a few other things she desperately needed (the knit sweater is an absolute must for a short haired, underweight dog in the winter!).

As soon as we arrived at the automatic doors I realized she probably has never been shopping (how uncivilized!). Skittish and pulling in the opposite direction were good indicators.

We managed to get through the doors and she actually seemed to enjoy the outing. All kinds of people petting her, dogs wagging their tails at her and picking out new toys had her relaxed a bit...until we had to walk through the doors again.

This time the doors freaked her enough that she got in the way of the shopping cart. So jumpy, she pulled her neck right out of her collar and ran right across the parking lot. Heart pounding I yelled her name, but why would she come to me? I am a perfect stranger to her, I have traumatized her and she has only been called Lucy since August. I am sure she keeps looking at all of us calling her this and thinking, "Who the HELL is Lucy??!!"

Telling Jackson to stay by the cart on the sidewalk, I walked quickly across the parking lot to the little spot of grass Lucy had found and is sniffing (thank you town of Leesburg for perfectly placing that fire hydrant!). I grabbed her by the skin of her neck, put the collar back on and dragged her to our car. While I am opening the car door and getting her situated, I see my little man strolling up behind me.

My three year old crossing the busy parking lot, I nearly fainted. I closed the door to keep the dog in, hugged little man tight and just kept asking him, "did you even look for cars?" And then saying "buddy, you can't cross streets like that by yourself."

Pretty much in shock over the entire situation, this elderly woman walked by shaking her head at me and my stellar parenting skills and muttered, "he didn't look, you know."

Thankfully, thankfully, I believe the good people outweigh the bad. As I am in disbelief that this woman just said this to me, another woman is pushing my cart across the parking lot over to my car, asking me if everyone is ok. I almost cried and I almost hugged her. Thankfully we are all ok. A little rattled, but ok.

Hershey Park

So much fun!

After trying to meet friends at Hershey Park this summer without success, we finally made it towards the end of September. We had great weather and so much fun!
The kids all got along really well, the boys enjoyed many of the rides.



Avery's favorite ride was the Frog Hopper. She went on it many, many times. It was so much fun watching their faces.


Jackson went on a lot of rides, but there were some that he wasn't quite big enough for...yet. While the big kids went on other rides, we found a toddler scrambler for him to enjoy.



Charlie experienced his first big rollercoaster! While he says he liked it, he also says it was very scary. And while the husbands went on all the crazy coasters, the wives and kids enjoyed the more tame ones.

It was so great to get the two families together, we hope to do this again next year.

A lot of fall fun

We have been blessed with a lot of beautiful weather this fall. We have taken advantage and the kids are having so much fun!

Yesterday Jackson and I met Charlie's kindergarten class at the farm we visit frequently. It was nice to see Charlie interact with his class and meet some other kids and parents. The kids picked pumpkins, learned about growing pumpkins and apples and then fed some of the animals. Always a fun place to visit.



Went pumpkin picking and the kids had a great time trying to lift the heaviest ones into the wagon.


This was the first time visiting this local farm and it was great. Really close to our house, family run, great picking and prices. Looking forward to their strawberries and raspberries next year.

A visit to the Lake

Two wonderful visits to Grandma and Grandpa's lake house this summer. Seeing the area from the water is fun and so beautiful. The kids have never been on a boat, so they were excited!




We beached the boat in a cove to let the kids get out and swim and explore.


A view of the 'hood from the water.

September 11

I was trying to figure out the appropriate way to spend Sunday, the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our country. The kids don't know a thing about the day, have never seen images, have never talked about it, so I knew it was up to me to make the day special in my eyes, to remember all those lives lost.

I knew there was going to be a special presentation at church, so I was a little nervous about the oldest going into service with me. Thankfully there were no photos included in the presentation, she is still oblivious which is fine with me at age 7.

We heard from an American Airlines pilot who lost many of his colleagues that day. What is typically his flight, 77 from Dulles to Los Angeles (which eventually hit the Pentagon), was scheduled for another pilot that day. He was able to help support the families of those that lost their loved ones, the most memorable moment, his pick up of the deceased pilot's car from the airport parking lot. He also told us about his orders to fly that flight 77, changed to 149, for the first time once it was reinstated September 21, 2001. He told us how the crew prayed together before take off and when they landed, how they all cried that flight 77 had finally reached its final destination.

We also heard from a couple who owned a bed and breakfast in Cape May. How they took in a man with no luggage, no home address, no phone number and no credit card number in October 2001. The couple's mission, to take in all who are weary and weak and need a place to rest, housed this man for weeks while he got his life back together. He had lost 13 staff members in the towers falling and was not able to get to his lower Manhattan apartment due to the damage and toxic smoke. He needed that place of refuge and the B&B was able to help him start healing from the horrific events.

It was so touching to hear these stories.

(A fantastic Raven's win should be noted for making the day exceptional)

The evening was pretty special as well.

Our little town unveiled a memorial statue, dedicated to all first responders, especially those who lose their lives in the act of saving lives. The statue is one of the I-Beams from Tower Two of the World Trade Center, the stone that supports it was found near the crash of flight 93 in Pennsylvania and the flag flying was flown over the Pentagon days after the attacks. Three local men came up with the design, local high school students help weld the piece together and the town came out to pay tribute to all first responders. It was a wonderful ceremony and quite emotional to watch local fireman touch the I-Beam and start crying.

I love that this town paid tribute to the day in such a special way.