Weekend tales

Well there was just so much to talk about this weekend. Saturday was a fantastic day. It all started with the yard sale, which was very successful. Then my BFF Kim stopped by with the kids for a quick visit and she gave me such a cool birthday gift. It's from kupcake konz. I love to bake cupcakes in ice cream cones, and someone thought of a way to make it easier-good deal!
Now, yard sale people are very interesting. I understand they are out for a bargain but seriously, some just take it too far. Take one of the last customers of the day. She was eyeing the Dora House and figures. We had so much to go with that set-probably about $150 worth of stuff brand new. I had asked for $15 but by this time of the day, I just wanted it gone. So I came down to $10. She says to me, will you take $5? I replied no. I explained that there was a lot of accessories. Then I said, well, maybe I'll take $8. I'm thinking seriously, I just need the space.
So she says will you take $7? Now I am getting irritated. No.
Will you take $8 and throw in the tea set? Very cute tea set. No. I tell her I will just donate it to my daughters school. And I once again pointed out that $8 is a steal and she should be happy with that.
Finally she says, OK, I'll pay $8.
I guess I can't blame her for bartering. I would maybe do the same. But honestly? There is something to be said for paying a fair price for something. I half wish I told her forget it and just kept it for spite. I guess that is just the kind of person I am! Bet you never knew that about me.
Of course we would have made another dollar, but Katie took a pair of her dress up shoes off the table. She really did not want them to be sold. Nevermind that they are too small. Or that she will probably break an ankle in them. So she kept saying please mom! I want to keep them! Finally she agreed to sell them, but for a price. "OK, I want $100 for them though." Since she was manning the kids table I caved. Ok, take them off the table Kate. She wore them around the driveway for the rest of the day.
But overall it went very well and we were so happy with what we cleared at the end of the day.
We took our winnings and splurged on lunch-well, if Margaritas was open we would have splurged, but we had to settle for Wendy's. The kids loved it anyway! Auntie and Larry were at the house when we got home-so nice to see them for a quick visit. And Auntie left cupcakes.....mmmmm.
So funny, we tried to get the girls to guess what was in the bakery box.
Auntie-"what's your favorite thing Katie?"
Katie-"SHOES!"
Auntie-"No, food, what's your favorite food?"
Katie-"Goldfish and apples"
Paige-"chicken!"
OK, we had to just tell them....

Then we spent the whole afternoon outside enjoying the sunshine. I love that my girls are totally girly, but when they are outside they are tomboys. We played frisbee. Then the girls took turns hitting the wiffle ball. They both have great form. Paige just crushes the ball over the fence. She is a Line-drive Lady. Katie is a switch hitter, though we practice mostly on the left side. Leftie's make more money. Besides it's just natural for her and she's that much closer to first base. I spent about 2 hours just playing with the kids. Next on the list was soccer, then time on the swingset, and finally we ended the day with some yard work.
Ahhhh......
Then it was inside time and Mark ran to Best Buy to pick up a new movie for a treat. As a last minute thing, he went to see if there were any Wii Fits-and there was one left! What luck! So for dinner we had a picnic and watched Bolt! It was fun family time but the girls thought it was scary. After they went to bed Mark and I pulled out the new Wii Fit-so great. If I can stick with it I think it will definitely make me healthier.
So Saturday rocked. Today is good too-Wii fit with the kids in the AM and now office work and hopefully scrappin' for me. Don't mind the rain either, maybe the rest of our snow will melt!
Sorry for the rambling today. Hope your weekend was as good as mine!
Kristin

It's Friday night and I ain't got nobody...

Well, that's not totally true. Hubby is at the Club for the drawing. Kids are sleeping. And I of course did not get enough done today. I spent most of the day purging. Love that. My life is cluttered and it makes me stressed out. Everyone needs a good purge now and then.....

The motivation is a big yard sale tomorrow. It actually got me to throw some things out too-old stuff. Not that you can tell. There is a HUGE pile of crap in the garage where Mark's car usually sleeps. Not tonight. Hopefully tomorrow it will be empty again and his car can go back home! One thing I am not parting with is cute little girly things. I had save some of my favs that were in good shape still and just found out I can share them with Miss Jen! Yeah! I see even MORE pink in the McLaughlin future! Congrats guys-it's one heck of a ride and worth every nanosecond. Enjoy it all.

Today was a big dance day too. Paige had musical theater and got to try on her recital costume. Talk about cute! They did the routine twice for us and it just made all us moms so excited for the big day. It is going to be fantastic. Every girl in class was so into it and just had fun. You can see it written on each of their little faces. They are so proud of themselves-such a great confidence booster and self-esteem builder. On the way out of the studio Paige said "Mom, there is nothing more fun than dance. I think I might never stop dancing". Hearing that makes every minute and every dollar worth it to me. I told her that it should always be that way-fun first. If it isn't why bother with it? Life is too short.

Katie didn't come to dance with us today because daddy was busy prepping for the big yard sale. She got to participate in class last week as a make up for one she had missed earlier. I thought it was great. And she had a blast. But man, did she take it home with her. All weekend I'd see her in the mirror with one hand on her hip and the other in the air. Posing. That girl is really growing up too fast.

Here's a sneak peek at the fashions for this years show!

Ba ba ba ba barbara ann.....

I want it all!

Last but certainly not least-GIDGET!

No, sorry, I hear you out there asking where my hip hop costume is. No photographs exist! That is why I like being the one behind the camera! A video will be available some day-that will have to be enough for you!

Have a super fabulous weekend.

Kristin

Sunday is here...

Well, another weekend down. Am I the only one who feels so inadequate every single Sunday night? I always have way to many things to do on the list and never get to them all. I am trying harder to prioritize better-moving kid items to the top more and chores to the bottom more. This weekend was pretty good for that. I did almost all the cleaning on Friday while I was home waiting for the Maytag man to fix our recall issue with the fridge. So this weekend I spent a bunch of time playing camping little people with Katie and Paige and I learned our way around the Webkinz world today. Intriguing. Wow, I had to spell check that word. Still not sure it's right. Anyway we are going to have to limit time on that one. Paige LOVED it. I think there are many good things about it-learning about money, etc, but what a time sink!

This weekend was also Meat Bingo. For those of you who are saying "what the hell is meat bingo?" let me explain. You do not play bingo with pepperoni slices instead of chips or daubbers. You play for meat. I think I have described this in a previous post. It is man's bingo. You drink $7 pitchers of beer and play for meat instead of money. Last time I won 9.5 pounds of pork ribs. This time I won a $50 cash game, but it was a tie so I had to split it. Oh well, better than nothing. They are really going upscale now-it threw us all off. We used get 3 playing cards from 1983 stapled together . Now they are not only new cards, but laminated! Someone got all crafty! It certainly loses something to see them all nice and pretty.

Speaking of pretty, when you go to meat bingo you certainly are. If you need a self-esteem boost, I suggest you go. Everyone tells you that you are beautiful and by god by the time you leave you feel it too. Really. It's not just alcohol-induced either.

And I did get some scrapbooking done this weekend-just one layout but it's something. Here it is if you want to take a peek.

I love vintage style layouts and this is the first time I think I've gotten there. Happy art.

And here is one Paige did today.

I swear she does this all on her own!

And one last thing for today. I wanted to share a special birthday card from my buddy Steph. She rocks. And this made me laugh. Thanks big turk! Inside it says "Let's give them something to talk about"!

Have a super week!

Kristin

Scrapbooking

Most people who know me well know that I am into scrapbooking. I think I sorta am-I have a whole room set up and more stuff than you can imagine. But mostly I think I am into sorting and buying scrapbook supplies. That is how it feels anyway, for something I am so "in to" I hardly ever do it. I really love getting into the design and I always feel like I need blocks of time to be creative. So I don't do it unless I am inspired or have a lot of time with no distractions. That's like 5 times a year.
But the real reason to scrapbook is not for me time, or creative time with pretty paper and glue, but to preserve the memories of my family. To write our history. To let everyone who touches my life in some way know how I feel about them. Put it in writing so it is there forever. Mostly, it's for Paige and Katie. They will always know how I feel about them. We will remember all the little special moments. Plus it's just plain good for them. I read somewhere (probably in a scrapbooking magazine-another hobby of mine) that looking at pictures of themselves is really good for a child's self esteem. I saw that first hand this weekend. Our mantle was bare so I framed a bunch of pictures and put them up on the mantle. Two of each kiddo, one of the four of us and one of the girls from the BBB in Disney. They loved it. Katie keeps staring at it. And then I asked the girls some questions about me from a survey on facebook. They talked a lot about scrapbooking.
So that sealed it. I need to do more for us. For them. It's a way for them to see my love for them, to hold it and feel it and see it anytime, anywhere. I know it's important. I always have. But now I need to make it a priority. Even if it's just bits of time here and there I can squeeze it in. That is why I keep this blog too-so I can get my thoughts down when they are fresh, then I can look stuff up when I need to scrap about it. My online scrapbook for the world to see.
It is also how I got into photography. I quickly learned that the best scrapbook pages have really great photos. So now I am fully into that and again scrapbooking is sliding. I have lots of images piled up waiting for their stories to be recorded!
I have my own style for recording these memories. I don't work in order. I don't like to catalog events. I like to convey emotions and use the images to bring about feelings. I try not to journal too much on the pages. I try to write about feelings, not just facts and dates. Most of my pages have one big picture on them. And a few accents. Some words. I rarely use big titles. There really is no wrong way to scrapbook. So however I want to do it is just fine.
Paige is really into it too. It is something we will be able to do moving forward. Katie just started. I love watching them glue pictures to paper and writing their thoughts and drawing their pictures. Such good creativity. Good stuff.
So here are a few of my most recent layouts-from this weekend. Sorry for the bad stitching job-I am working on that.
Create memories. Preserve them with art. And remember to get into a few pictures here and there yourself.....

Great news.

I don't think I've written about this topic yet, but last year, in June I think, we learned that Paige has some significant hearing loss in her right ear. We found it at a routine hearing test at her doctors office. I really thought it was going to be fine when we went for the follow up, but lo and behold she has trouble hearing high pitched sounds in her right ear. In her left ear she has some trouble hearing low pitched sounds. Between the 2, she hears pretty well, for all practical purposes. She isn't really affected at all because they compensate for each other, and because the high pitch loss is not in the conversational range. It's all pretty interesting, I have learned a lot about hearing through the whole process!
We do know the cause, her vestibular aqueducts are too big on both sides and the supporting structure in her cochlea is indistinct. They found it on her ct scan back in Sept. I guess this is the cause for 30% of hearing loss in kids like her. It has likely been that way since she was born. At least we know-I just kept thinking "thank god we came to boston" because I think in NH no one would have gone to this detail to find out what the cause was and we may never have found out. This aqueduct thing is fairly new and controversial between radiologists because the difference in size is like 0.2mm from hers to normal ones. Incredible what we can do now. The hearing loss will likely continue over time, but no way to know for sure-it will fluctuate too. Some Drs don't let their patients with this play sports because any head trauma can make it worse. Thank god she's into dance! Our Dr doesn't really restrict activity though, she thinks that would be worse.
Also, 10% of these cases are due to a genetic defect called Pendred syndrome. 100% of Pendred patients have this type of hearing loss and also thyroid defects. So we tested her for this gene and they didn't find any defects. Doesn't mean it's necessarily normal-just her coding regions are intact.
I keep reminding myself that she could be so much worse off, it could be cancer or something else terrible, but it's not. We will have to adapt, but we can and that's the important thing here.
So the good news is that we've tracked her for almost a year now and she has not had any significant change in her hearing during that time. We can now monitor her just twice a year instead of 4 times per year. And we can do it close to home instead of driving to Children's Hospital each time. I love her ontolaryngolist-I am sure I spelled that wrong-so we will continue to send the results to her and have any future follow up with her.
So that was the best part of my day-things are status quo and no more drives to Mass. for these appointments! Yay! Gotta celebrate each little thing.
Have a great weekend.
Kristin

Big Day

Well a big thank you to everyone who sent happy birthday wishes my way today! I do appreciate it and each one makes me smile just a bit brighter. Extra thanks to Karen for the sweet blog post http://karentasteslife.blogspot.com/2009/03/happy-happy-birthday.html. Nothing like photos from the 80s to make you smile!
And a bigger thanks to mom and dad for hosting my little party. It's been a long time since I've had a "family" birthday party and it was so fun. Thanks a lot! AND for my WPI sweatshirt! Finally! I am not sure I can part with my original, but at least I have a decent replacement now!
Glad the week is over for me.
TGIT.
Kristin
29. Again.

Birthdays.......

Wednesday is volunteer in art day. No, not Prince spaghetti day. But I loved that too. I do enjoy art class but today started out a bit awkward for me. Seems my little munchkin told her class that tomorrow is Mommy's birthday. When Mrs. D saw she me in class she announced to everyone that it was almost my birthday and everyone should sing Happy Birthday to me! Well that was cute, embarassing slightly but cute nonetheless.
Where it got a little fuzzy was when the whole class started chanting "Are you 1, are you 2, are you 3"...and so on. When they hit your age you are to do something to let them know-clap? Jump? Sing? Not sure. Anyway-I told them they would be counting for an awful long time.....and stopped them at 21. They then started trying to guess if that was real or not. One little guy guessed right-apparently he heard Paige-and they then started chanting again. "She's XX, she's XX...." Lovely.
At bedtime, Paige asked me if I was excited for tomorrow. I said I was, but when you get older birthdays just aren't as exciting as they are when you are younger. In her infinite wisdom she replied "Mommy, they can be as exciting as you want them to be. It's your choice." So smart for so young. I wish I could freeze her in time. That is why I scrapbook (can I really say I do that?) and write this blog-to remember these moments forever and hopefully remind her that she never needs to change. She can choose to stay happy and always have a good day. We just need to learn how to control our mindset. Happiness is a choice. Not a circumstance.
So choose happiness-and spread it around as best as you can.
I choose to enjoy being 29 this year. Again. It was kinda hard the first few times, but now I am getting used to it.
Kristin

Best Day Ever.

Well, that was Monday for me. Not sure exactly what was so very perfect about it, but it was peaceful and I somehow made it to my happy place. I worked from home, finished up a big project. Walked Paige to School. Had a snowball fight with Katie. Ate dinner with the whole fam. Good stuff.
Today, however, was clearly Katie's best day ever. She got a glimpse of her recital costume last Tuesday at class and was so excited to try it on this week. All week-every morning-it was "Is today Tuesday?" When I said no, the reply was "Awww, is tomorrow Tuesday?"
Well, it took forever, but Tuesday finally came again! Today! I have never seen her so excited to go to dance. It was all over her face. In her voice. In her smile. It emanated from her.
When the time came and Mariclare put her costume in front of her she squealled-literally-with such joy. It was a bit too big, but we found one that fit and the girl was glowing. She kept saying "Thank you mommy, thank you, thank you!" I love to see that look of pride on her face.
It was better than Christmas, Easter and birthdays all rolled into one. That is all I am ever going to buy her for holidays. I'll flip through the catalogs and pick a recital costume. Done.
When it came time to take it off she was OK with that, knowing she'll wear it on stage in June and again for pictures. Yes, I did take a few shots of her in it, and no, you can't see them. Not until after the recital!
The best part was on the way home, in the car, she randomly sighed sadly....."I miss my outfit already". How ironic-as Miss Jen pointed out-that this was the same girl who wanted to dance in the recital naked! Gotta love that Boom Boom.
Paige also got to try on her Barbara Ann costume. So pretty. She loved hers too but it's not such a big deal-she's done this before. She did comment that she'd like to wear the shirt for her next school pictures! It really does suit her-maybe she will wear that one again someday.
Photo work to do and I should be doing that now so I can hit the hay.
Hope your tomorrow is the best day ever!
Kristin

Birth of hockey fans.....

We had a jam packed weekend. Started with a trip to the Museum of Science. Where it's fun to find out! We had a great time with our friends and their adorable little girl. She has the most beautiful red curly hair. Love it. It was a perfect morning, got in early, saw a few exhibits, caught the porcupine show and had some lunch. We were home by 1:30ish to get naps in before the big night!

Saturday night we took the girls to their first hockey game! It was the Maine Black Bears (Go team!) versus the University of Lowell Riverhawks. We started with dinner at Lui Lui and had some great pizza, and even better beer! Then all 16 of us headed over to the Tsongas for the big game. We were all dressed in blue and white, I donned my old worn out CCM hat, and passed out pom poms for the kids. Mark picked up our group of tickets and we headed inside, or so I thought....

Apparently a few of our tickets were for Friday night's game instead of Saturday! Who got stuck with those? Me and the kids! Everyone went in but us. Katie was so upset-she could hear all the fun inside and thought she was missing out! Once it got straightened out we went inside to our seats-row 3 behind the Maine bench! GREAT seats!

Unfortunately I can't say the same about the game. Gone are the days of UMaine domination on the ice. They were pummeled. Annihalated. Buried. I'd go on but it might make me cry. It was a 6-0 loss, but the girls LOVED being there. That made the night a success in my mind. A few more UMaine hockey fans were brought into the world.

I will say this though-they stood out like sore thumbs. Things are so different these days. Paige, Katie and their buddy Julia sat and really enjoyed the game. They could be heard cheering "Go Maine!" and "Do your best Maine!" When Lowell scored it was "That's OK-you tried really hard!" And they really enjoyed the live disco band between periods. Who wouldn't? This video is of them boogying down. I had to apologize to the family in front of us for all the commotion, when I explained it was their first game and they are are dancers at heart, they could only say "I can tell!" They were so nice, the girls were having fun and the Lowell fans just enjoyed watching them have a good time.

So when it was bed time I asked the usual question-what was the best and worst part of your day? Well the worst was pretty simple.

Paige: "The worst part of my day is that our hockey team lost. They didn't score as many holes (aka goals) as the other team. I think we need a bigger guarder (aka goalie!). He let a lot holes through. But that's OK, he did the best he could do and so that is all that matters. Maybe next time we'll get at least one hole."

Ah, the birth of a hockey fan. So different from me at age 6, watching my uncle play up in Berlin, yelling "SKATE OVER HIS FOOT!" Right next to my memere, yelling what I can only imagine are four letter words in french. She would have been proud last night. I am sure she is.

Hope you all had as excellent a weekend as I did.

Kristin

I'm back!

Hey everyone, I know it's been a long time! Sorry for the big hiatus!

Well last week was the big disney trip, it was fantastic. Magical even. You can see all kinds of pictures on my website in the allegro folder. Paige was in the mini mini group-so cute! Password is allegro. They danced to Rescue Me as little lifeguards and Yummy Yummy Yummy I've got love in my tummy as little chefs. They joined the whole group at the end to When I Grow Up-it was all so fabulous. Miss Jen and Miss Mariclare did a wonderful job organizing and preparing the girls for the trip. Paige will never forget it as long as she lives. You can tell she is just floating on air still! One of her favorite parts was the class with the Disney choreographers-they even had Goofy join them-so fun for them all.

She did ride Thunder Mountain-3 times! That was clearly her fav, but space mountain, not so much. It was weird actually, she was kinda "over" it. She was not interested in princesses, which was fine by me, but she didn't want to ride the rides, she really just wanted to hang out with her friends. I guess I can't blame her there, but she seemed a little "old" and I was surprised by it. Guess they do grow up fast. Sigh.........

Here are a few of my favorite shots-

Paige and Ilysa at EPCOT. Posers.

The whole Allegro Crew!

Paige and her Fairy-Godmother-in-training. She was from Pennsylvania.

Paige and Tatum before going to the Bibbiddi Bobbiddi Boutique. We got in early and had the park to ourselves. Of course I had to stage a photo shoot on the way in....

Paige in the finale workin' her stuff

Paige in Yummy Yummy.

Paige in Rescue Me

Just to prove I was there-Paige and me with Minnie at Chef Mickey's.

While I am on I just had to blog about something that really disturbed me today. I was listening to the radio (not news radio like usual, but Kiss108-when did I get so old?) and I heard about Chris Brown and Rhianna. From what I know, he beat the snot out of her on the way to some music awards a few weeks ago. Like bad. He was covered in blood, his car was covered in blood and she had to go to the hospital. I think she was supposed to perform too. Anyway, you would think, open and shut case. They're done. His butt is toast. No. It doesn't seem to work that way.

He is going to try to cop a plea deal to get off with just probation. PROBATION. It doesn't help that she is back with him. Oh yeah. It's OK honey, I know you didn't mean it, or maybe she said something she shouldn't have (in her mind anyway....). I really can't judge her-I understand that it's really hard for women to deal with abuse, and some just can't take the pressure to leave the sorry ass that is doing it to them. So she is not pressing charges, although it isn't the first time he's abused her. She is sticking by her man.

Well, I have a few big issues here. First, she has resources to help her. She isn't the mother raising 2 kids with no education who has no money and no one to help her out of this situation. She has money. She has lawyers. She has people. She probably has a body guard for cryin' out loud. Lotta good he's done her.

The biggest issue I have is the message she is sending her fans. Her young, impressionable, female fans. She is basically saying to them that it's OK for your boyfriend to mush you to a pulp. As long as he apologizes and buys you flowers after. He won't do it again. He still loves you, right? There are documented patterns of abuse and every girl who sees this story needs a good sit down from BOTH her parents to tell her that Rhianna is making a bad decision. It is not OK for someone to do this to you. If you find yourself in this situation you need HELP. It isn't easy, and it may not feel right, but no one should feel that they aren't good enough to leave, or they need to be the one to "help" him through this.

If you are reading this and have young fans who've seen this on the news in your family or close friends, talk to them about it. Make sure they know it rarely gets fixed, that men who abuse women rarely change. And that there is always someone there to help them. Be strong. No one can take better care of you than you. You are worth it.

Until next time-hopefully not two weeks from now, hopefully no bad news to rant about!

Kristin