new faces!

This is a before and after shot...

I had a mysterious bump show up on my face about a year ago. We think it is a colorless mole and I had it removed last week. I went to a plastic surgeon and he did a nice little stitching job - should be good as new! You can't even see the scar from his work on my lip last summer to remove that bump that was right below.

Earthquakes and Hurricanes - OH my!

I need to do a little weather update here before life slips by! Last week, we experienced our first earthquake around 1 pm. I was laying down in my bed and the kids were having some quiet time. Ellen was sleeping in her crib and the other kids were just playing and lying on their beds in their rooms.

I started to hear a loud noise that sounded like our attic fan rumbling but it was a much stronger vibration. Many things went though my mind like

- is this the attic fan going crazy?

- are the kids moving Ellen's crib across her room (she was briefly screaming)?

- where are the kids? in the basement messing with the AC unit?

- why am I shaking? Am I panicking? my hands won't stop!

- is this just my house that is shaking?

I got out of bed slowly and walked down my hallway. I immediately walked towards the furthest bedroom and was yelling, "where are you?" Next thing I knew (all in slow motion like a car accident) one of my kids was screaming at the top of her lungs, "stop it!" while standing in her doorway. She was petrified and I grabbed her and asked what is wrong. I thought that a tradegy of some sort had happened - I won't go down that thought process but I was scared and trying to sort through what was happening. My oldest three all came in the hallway and I told them to get in my bed immediately.

I still didn't know an earthquake had occurred as everything was a blur, we were scared, my hands were shaking and I was panicked. It lasted about 40-50 seconds, we were all shaken up. Ellen briefly screamed but seemed okay sleeping in her crib.

I told one child to go to the laundry room to see if the dryer had moved. I told another child to go to one of the bedrooms where we heard a crash. I told the last child to get my purse. They all moved quickly, came back and I tried to call Nate - cell phones dead. Then Grace heard someone outside and I told them all to follow me outside and we ran down the street to my neighbor. She said, "I think we had an earthquake." I was in shock. I turned on the TV, nothing was on, but I thought it was weird the cell phones were working.

Well sure enough we had an earthquake and we are fine! My kids adjust well to change but we have been edgy around here, very clingy, and not sleeping too well since. The one big aftershock woke me up at night but I was the only one that felt it and went back to sleep.

Nate was fine at work - that is a whole different story but basically he wasn't freaked out at all and NO he did not think it was a bomb in DC!

Hurricane Irene wasn't much of anything - more of a rain storm.

This is what fell in Ellen's room... one toy and a pack of diapers.

The portraits were all askew.

Close call on Sam's shelf...

Close call on the money jar...

The bear, helmet and Thomas book fell.

Cape Cod 2011 #2

Feeding the ducks
10 years next week!

More cousins

Cape Cod 2011

Just a glimpse into our vacation...

Cousins on the beach

Road Race Racers

BINGO night!
Aquarium visit

Earthcake update coming soon...

My cousin Andrew is marrying Nicole in three weeks. I went to the most beautiful bridal shower hosted by my aunts while in Cape Cod last week. Here are a few photos, I wish I took more ....

Karen's pool - so beautiful and so much fun to play in!

This is my Aunt Karen and Nicole. She was saying how happy she is that Nicole will be her first daughter-in-law. Nate and I will be going to the wedding in 3 weeks - we can't wait!

This is my cousin Molly. She is working on Nantucket this summer and came in for the weekend. She is so fun.

Happy 4th Bday SAMMY!

I love love little BIG boy Sam. He told an elderly lady at IHOP today that he was four and held up four fingers. That was cute b/c he still thinks he is two sometimes! We had a fun little day celebrating Sammy!

Gift on the mantel...

Homemade cake that didn't frost right so it looked like cookies-n-cream!
Perfect gift for a four year old boy with sisters that have many princess dresses!


Thank you FUN-cle Marvin and Aunt Lindsay.

Thank you Nana!

Pirate ship fun!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for my baseball bat!

Funny Things They Say (Volume 7) - on vacation

In reference to a couple kissing in a parking lot, Rita says, "Mommy look they are falling in love."

After having dessert and watching TV, my niece Joy whispered to me, "we let things slide a lot when we are on vacation."

Rita said to my vegan nephew, "Is it a hard life eating fruits and vegetables all the time?"

Rita said about some friends that are dating, "when is their royal wedding?"

One girl cousin says, "I want to be a princess." The other girl cousin says, "I want to be a queen with no kids."

While on vacation, my kids and their cousins found 2 baby rabbits in a nest. My nephew Bryce got all excited and asked my dad for a piece of paper. My dad said, "why do you need paper?" Bryce says, "I need to make a licensing agreement." "For what Bryce?" "To let others see the bunnies."

Don't Ask, Don't Tell (Volume 26)

WARNING: Long post!

This isn't really a funny "don't ask, don't tell" but it is a true "DADT." After I had my dessert party a few weeks ago, I thought I had vaccumed and cleaned up. But... a few days later one of my children stepped on a gold lighthouse earring and briefly showed it to me when we were outside playing one evening. She was more interested in the earring than her foot.

Fast forward to 10 days later. My mom had Rita over to her house for dinner. My mom - a nurse - called me and asked if I had seen Rita's foot lately. "No why mom?" "There looks like there is an infection of some sort. I think you should soak it." So that I soaked it that evening.

The next morning, 1st day of VBS at church, she had a big yellow Jello-like, the size of a quarter, spot on the bottom of her foot with a mysterious red line traveling up her ankle like a piece of yarn. I called our "fabulous, trustworthy, calls me at home often, small town peditrician" and got Rita in. She cultured it and put her on meds. The culture came back and according to our ped, she has "MIRSA (a type of staph), strep, and a bunch of nasty things going on, you need to be suspicious." A week went by, good news, the antibiotic worked fine! Story is NOT over.

The day she finished her meds, we were getting ready for our trip to Cape Cod. We were leaving the next day and Rita woke up with what appeared to be a sunburn on her face. When I changed her, I saw that her entire body was full of a horrible hot rash. She had an allergic reaction of some sort the day AFTER her last meds. Poor thing. We still left for vacation and appears to be doing great once the rash cleared up! Lesson taught to her... MUST TELL MOMMY IF YOUR FOOT HURTS!

Family Photo Shoot with Nate's family...

When in Michigan, Nate's family got professional photos done to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's 65th wedding anniversary. Here are some highlights. If you want to see more of them, click on this link!

I love this photo, do you notice we are on an island!

Nate's grandparents Grace and Marvin

Grace and Rita

Dinner in Georgetown

My friend Tonya had a birthday last week and we celebrated with a fancy dinner in Georgetown with another couple. It was so fun and I ran into some friends from high school too!

Tonya's good friend LeeAnn and her husband Don.

Tonya and Mark...

Tonya holding the watermelon salad that I ordered. Very delicious!

Nate and I...

Nate doesn't look as excited as me to take a photo.

Ta-DA! Dining Room Table!

So here is the big reveal of our dining room table. I wasn't looking too long on Craigslist before I found this beaut'. I love the table legs. I love that it has two leaves. I love that the chairs are narrow. I love having more ROOM to eat! Eating is very important to my family...as if I never mentioned that.

The lady who sold it to me was really great. She let us have the chair covers which are very handy for the spills from the kids. I love that the table is a "rustic" look and therefore it won't show as much wear as time goes on.
You will see the old dining room table in the background. I got that out quickly last night on Craigslist and some dude from Georgetown came and got it at 9 PM. I told him I had a lot of memories at that table and to send me a photo of him playing poker at it with his dude friends. Nate thought that was ridiculous!
Happy Birthday to Sam today! He is a spiffy four year old. His teachers (Hi Kristin!) were so nice to him at Bible Camp today. Special Day for him means no nap and the whole afternoon on the slip and slide.
Happy "birth" day to my dear friend Pam's new baby... I won't reveal the gender in case others don't know yet but it was a good gender.

Kitchen Before and Afters!

I am trying to do some great before and after photos of our kitchen. It is 98% finished. The last final touch would be a turquoise KitchenAid mixer! Here are some photos so I hope you enjoy.

We are trying to figure out still what to do with our cordless phone on the wall and will eventually upgrade our fridge and dishwasher... when it breaks of course!

It took a lot of work to clean, sand, clean, prime, paint all the interior and exteriors (shelves included) of all the cabinets. That is why this project has taken probably 10 months with 4 kids! This is my one and only pantry and it works great. I am not one to keep a lot of food on hand for storage or stockpiling. Here is the after shot! We took down the bannister at the top of the cabinets, added the chalkboard, and spray painted all of the knobs and hinges. The tables and barstools have been great for the kids and when I cook or bake a lot, I make them into an island in the middle of the kitchen.

Before: After!! The walls are painted grey, we added a bamboo shade, got a new oven and hood and my favorite addition was my new rag rug that I had custom made! It is made from tie dyed tee shirts.

This is a photo I found of the close up of our cabinets before and how awful our oven was... so we treated ourselves to a new oven after I got paid for doing some freelance marketing for my brother's company.

The new oven and hood looks great, doesn't it? I am not as bothered by the countertops as I was initially. I had to get rid of the wood cabinets. Way too much WOOD!

This is another before shot and you can see how we had this "table structure" sticking out from our wall. I thought I would like it but love that it is gone. This is another shot of our chalkboard. It is our organizing tool for everyone in our family. Some certain people in my little family love their meals and he needs to know what is for dinner everynight ahead of time!!

Another shot of the crazy table we took out!

This is what we did in place of the table. I really wanted my depression glass to be on display and this was the best I could do for displaying it. I also framed my favorite pastel drawing that Grace made this year of a rooster.




Hope you like it! I have been waiting to post this until I got the rag rug. When I get the new mixer (someday) I will post that too. Tomorrow I will try to post my new dining room table!!