To the Island We Go

We are off to Martha's Vineyard this weekend.  So, no Sunday Songs for this week.

Though, I did peek at the songs that were sung at todays' service.  

And my favorite is Days of Elijah.

Enjoy.  I love the lyrics.  Whenever we sing it in church, it stays with me all day. 

So, we got up really early this morning to head to Woods Hole to catch a ferry to Martha's Vineyard for Sunday & Monday.

D waiting for the ferry to pull out.

D & hubby.  Love them.

We are here visiting family.  It was a wonderful day, which included a walk with Gramma Suz's dogs.  The weather was perfect.

E walking Gracie.

The path we walked along was lined with bright green moss.  It's the kind of moss that makes you think that fairies could be real.  Gorgeous.

D with Gracie.  Gracie is 14 and is very sweet & slow for the girls to walk.  Until she wanted to go swimming in the pond.  Then I made sure hubby took over.

E with her Red Sox Hat.  I love that it's on all askew. 

Oh my girls.  Could you please not grow any older?  Pretty please????

On our way back.  Absolutely beautiful winter day.

Hubby & I were even able to sneak away for a couple hours to check into our hotel. The girls went to the YMCA to do some swimming with Gramma Suz.  Perfect.  

I had booked us a room with 2 double beds.  I got a great deal using our AAA discount.  Yay AAA!

The plan was for the girls to stay with Gramma Suz, but we wanted to have the extra bed just in case they changed their minds.

Well when we went to check in, Amanda at the front desk asked us if we wanted to upgrade our room to a suite.  

Hubby & I looked at each other with the "well, we will if it doesn't cost too much" look.  So, hubby let Amanda know that our only concern was that we still needed to have 2 beds, just in case our girls decided they wanted to stay with us.

Amanda assured us that we would still have the 2 beds.  So, we said sure but were still a little cautious of the extra cost.

Then Amanda said that it would be just an extra $25.  Well, hello suite at the Harbor View

Off we go to check out our suite.

Holy smokes, is it a suite.  It really should be called a small apartment.  Amanda is my new BFF!

It has 2 bedrooms, with king beds each with its own bathroom.  And a living area/eating area with small kitchenette.  And a gas fireplace.  Wow.

And there is an outdoor shower on a small balcony off one of the bathrooms.  How fantastic is that for summer visits to shower and wash off all that beach sand?

I might not want to leave tomorrow.  Just saying.

After taking a walk down to the harbor, we met back up with the girls.

  Quintessential Martha's Vineyard. 

Kelley House, another hotel in Edgartown.  Owned by same people as the Harbor View.  The Kelley House will forever remind hubby & I of his sweet Aunt Sue.  

Water like glass.  Boy, do I love the water/ocean.  A lot.

Harbor.  Edgartown.

Close-up of a well used fishing boat.

Edgartown Harbor.  Love.

Traps of some kind.  They don't look like typical lobster traps.  Not sure what they are used for.  To trap something, that's about all  I know.

Yup, still don't know what these are used to trap.

And it's a good thing we kept the 2 beds.  Because D & E decided they wanted to stay with us at the hotel.  Now they are enjoying a nice king sized bed.  Sound asleep.

E getting snuggled in for the night.  Happy girl after a long day.

potd #48.  Love this shot of E walking in the woods.  

Dreaming of Jeannie

The girls had a sleepover with one of their very best friends, S last night.

All the girls played great last night and I didn't even have to go up to tell them to go to sleep.  I did hear lots of moving well after they were supposed to be asleep, but I let them be & sure enough soon after all was quiet.

As usual, they were up early this morning.  But, again they were great & off they went to play in the basement.

I was happy.  It bought me another hour or so of sleep.  Yay!

After a very yummy breakfast of homemade sticky buns, the girls decided they wanted to watch some I Dream of Jeannie.

D & E stated watching Jeannie last weekend at Sissy's house.  Like Gilligan's Island, they are hooked!

Man, I am loving my Roku right now.

So happy they are watching shows like Gilligan's Island and I Dream of Jeannie.

So much better than some of the junk that is on Nickelodeon & Disney right now.

Anyhoo, they wanted S to watch Jeannie.  I don't think S knew what she was getting into, but she was a great sport.

And then, she was hooked

I absolutely love the look on S's face in this picture.  She was happy watching Jeannie & she had Lucy laying in her lap. What more could a girl ask for?!?!

I love the fact that these shows seem to be timeless.  And that my children are enjoying them so much.

Let's just say there was a lot of snuggling going on while watching.  S is ensconced in the "cozy corner" of our couch.  That's the official term for that spot.

And it gets called when they are headed to watch tv.  Kind of like shotgun.

"I call cozy corner" and done you get the corner.  And it truly is cozy.

Sitting in the "cozy corner" right now.  And very happy about that.

So, including our dinner out tonight with friends--including S's parents R&S---the girls spent a total of 27 hours together.  Non-stop.  And it was perfect.

All were happy, albeit sleepy when we got home from dinner tonight.

potd #47.  This pic says it all about these girls.  Nothing like being completely comfortable with one another. We always joke about S being part of the family when she is with us.  From the looks of this pic, that's not too far off!  I am so glad they have each other.  It is fun to watch them grow up together.

Silly Squirrel

Ahhh, it's the Friday of a long weekend.

I worked really hard today on my Year of the Cat adventure.

I am working on cleaning out hubby's old office which has since become a catch all room for all things that don't have a permanent home in the house.

In other words, it's a disaster.

So, I spent a good portion of the day going through stuff.  I organized a bunch of pictures.  I went through a lot of the girls' artwork & some previous years' school work.

Gosh it's hard to pick what to save and what to toss/recycle.

All in all, I put a really good dent in that room.  I ended up with 1 bag of garbage, one box of household items to donate, & 1 bag of old clothes to donate.  And I filled my giant recycle bin by half.  And garbage day was just yesterday.

I am officially on a roll.  Yay for Year of the Cat!

cue photo of Charlie the kitty.  Official Year of the Cat mascot.

Through the course of the day, I happened to be doing the breakfast dishes.  And what do I see?

That's right.  A very brazen squirrel had climbed up to the deck to find my suet feeder.

And he feasted.

In awkward positions.

Then I scared him by banging on the window.  That's right, I am a bully of squirrels.

He jumped off, but was soon back for another taste.  Hmmmm.

He even got smart and spun the suet feeder to the other side.  Obviously the larger suet cake on the other side tastes better.  Duh.

Lucy just watched.  Couldn't take her eyes off this squirrel.

Then I opened the door and she ran over & scared him off.

Didn't see him again for the rest of the day.

Scaredy cat squirrel.  All Lucy wanted to do was to say "hi!  wanna be my friend?"

Wonder if he'll be back tomorrow.......

potd #46.  Silly upside down squirrel.

VH1's 100 Greatest

There is just something about all those 100 Greatest lists by VH-1.

I get sucked in every time I am channel surfing and come across any kind of 100 Greatest __________.

It could be any of the following:
100 Greatest Songs of the 80's
100 Greatest Songs of the 90's
100 Greatest Songs of the 00's
100 Greatest Songs of All Time
100 Greatest Albums
100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs
100 Greatest One Hit Wonders
100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs
100 Greatest Dance Songs

You get the picture.  I've seen them all.  Some of them multiple times.

Even hubby gets sucked in to them.  He's a music guy.

Are we the only ones who love these lists?  I shouldn't think so, since VH1 keeps making them.

The hardest part is each 100 is broken down into 5 1-hour episodes.  Each episode covers 20 songs.  Aren't I good at math?

So if I start watching and it is any where in #'s 61-100 I am done for.  At that point I am watching and I am watching it all.  And usually it doesn't matter what time it will end.  Crazy, I know.

But, I have a need to know which songs are at least in the top 20.

Must be some of the OCD that I have.  Maybe.  I am not committing that it's an OCD thing.

If I have seen the list before, then I am ok not watching the whole thing.  But if I haven't, then I really really like to know which songs are on the list.  See, it can't be an OCD thing.

Alright, stop laughing!

So, while waiting to watch Grey's Anatomy tonight, I stumbled upon a 100 Greatest list.  This one is the 100 Greatest Women in Music.

I watched it till Grey's came on & now I am flipping back and forth during commercial break for Grey's.  They are at #46 now.  Toni Braxton.  I know you were wondering.  Kyle Minogue was #47.

So, I am in.  Haven't seen this one before.  I continue to flip back & forth.

From the looks of it this one doesn't end til midnight.

So, no early to bed for me tonight.  Though I will finish watching it up in bed, I am sure.

potd #45.  The fancy box of chocolates hubby sent me on Valentine's Day.  Oh-la-la.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Good golly,  I need to go to bed earlier.

Last night was a super late night.  I didn't go upstairs to get ready for bed until 12:35.

Yikes.  And it's not like I was doing anything especially important.

I blogged, I surfed pinterest, and then I started to knit.  At 10:30.

That was my mistake.  What I did come to realize last night is that I am a goal knitter.

So, I started knitting and had a goal in mind of how much I wanted to get done.  And once I got to that point, then I would go to bed.

And I knew this morning it was going to be hard to wake up.

But I reached my goal.  Yay for goal knitting.  Sort of.

So, this morning it was a little rough getting going.  But, not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  And my morning coffee was especially savored.

As was my mid-afternoon coffee.  Oh, and the coffee I had at knitting tonight.

So with all that coffee, it's sure to be another late night.  Ha!  Just kidding.

I am so going to bed earlier tonight.  Midnight's early, right?

No really, I am going to do my best to be upstairs by 11:30.  No really, I am.

potd #44.  Enjoy D's "how to play basketball" drawing.  I love the step-by-step of how to shoot a basket.  And the expression of the ball being dribbled is fantastic.  At least I think it is!

She just makes me smile with pictures like this one.  And you can't miss the smiley face with the double exclamation points.  That is her teachers' influence. Love it.

Be Mine Valentine

It is very cute to see Valentine's Day through the eyes of my 3rd graders.

They get so excited about bringing Valentine's to their friends at school.  Their excitement started a few weeks ago when they were picking out their valentines.

Sissy brought over a Current catalog that had some really cute valentines.  E picked out some that you make into origami hopping frogs.  Very cute.

D picked out some very cute ones that look like an Iphone/Ipod Touch.  They have flaps on them that you flip up and there are messages underneath.  Messages like the ones you see on the conversation hearts.

We then picked out some cute bouncy balls and some Snoopy bookmarks. We love Snoopy.

Fast forward to last week when our order arrives.  Everything was great.

Then, I took a peak at D's valentines.  And I got really perturbed.

looking at these messages, which one do you think I take issue with?

Yup, you guessed it.  "hot stuff".  Are you kidding me!  They really put that on valentines that are geared toward the under 10 age group.

Because last time I checked, there weren't many teens or adults buying valentines in packages of 24 to hand out to their friends.

I was so distraught.  What was I going to do?  There was no way I could let D give those out.  So, I broached the topic with her of getting different valentines because we couldn't give out valentines with a message that was inappropriate.

Let's just say, that didn't go over well.  There were lots of tears.  And I was in that moment, a mom who was feeling very helpless.

Sissy came over the next day & D showed her the valentines and expressed her distress.  And then, Sissy came to my rescue.

She was brilliant and suggested putting stickers over that message.  Then, D could still hand out her valentines as planned.

Thank you sissy.  Crisis averted.  I am so glad she has more years of parenting experience.

So, last night the girls put their valentines together and were so eager to bring them to school today.

I was lucky enough to get in to E's class today and help the kids decorate bags for their valentines.  The kids had a great time and were very creative.

I love it that even the boys still have fun with Valentine's Day in 3rd grade.  I know that won't last too much longer.  But today, the boys were just as excited to pass out their valentines as the girls.  Love it.

Here are some of the kids' bags all decorated and filled with valentines.

Days like this are days when I want to freeze the girls at 8 1/2.  Moments like today go by so quickly.

As they get older, I treasure these days even more.  Because I know that in a blink of an eye they will be over and they will be grown.

But for now, they are mine.   Love my little valentines.  And hubby's not too shabby either.

potd #43.  E's bag all decorated.  Cute & sweet.  Perfect for Valentine's Day.

Year of the Cat

Did you know?

It's the Year of the Cat.  Well, not really.  At least not according to the Chinese New Year.

But, it is the Year of the Cat in our house.

Charlie.  My Mascot.

What does that mean, you ask?  Well, it really means that this is the Year of Organization in our house.  You know, the simplify, clean stuff out, organize your life kind of thing.

Now, you are probably wondering why I am calling it the Year of the Cat.

Well, we came up with the name a few years ago.  See, we've tried the Year of the Cat before without much success.

About 3 years ago, right around Christmas I was doing a little internet surfing.  Mostly reading stuff about end of year clean out and starting the new year off fresh.

I probably had wandered onto the Flylady website at some point that night.  I had tried the Flylady method before, but just never stuck with it.

Though I will say that to this day--thanks to Flylady, I still make my bed every morning and make sure my sink is clean before going to bed every night.

But alas, I just couldn't keep up with the rest of it.

So anyway, as I am reading all of this stuff on organization and how to do it better, I am tremendously inspired to really get things organized in our house.

Now mind you, the house isn't a future episode of Hoarders.  But, as we all usually feel, it could be a tad bit more clean & organized.

Basically what needed to be done was to donate all things that weren't really being used or needed to Goodwill or some such organization.  You know, to help other people fill their houses!

So, hubby is in the kitchen with me as I am being inspired and I say to him, "Hey, do you know what next year is going to be?"

And you know what he says?  That's right, he answers with, "The Year of the Cat?"

At first I am indignant and say, "NO!!!  It is going to be the Year of Organization!"

He may have said something along the lines of, "sure".  But then I think, wait cats are always cleaning themselves.  So, I say to him, "Yes, you're right!  It is going to be the Year of the Cat!  Because cats are very clean and so we are going to get everything organized."

See how clean Charlie is?

So, that January it became the Year of the Cat in our house.  And I think it lasted until maybe January 10th or so......

And the next January came and again it was declared to be the Year of the Cat in our house.  And sadly it didn't stay the Year of the Cat.

Now, fast forward to this January and again it was declared the Year of the Cat.

And happily, I must say that this year it seems to be sticking.  So, finally in 2012 it is actually the Year of the Cat in our house.

Hubby cleaned out the garage a few weeks ago & we were able to get rid of a bunch of stuff that has just been hanging around for much too long.

I have been working on the inside of the house and have donated 6 large garbage bags to Goodwill.  Much of that has been clothes--mine, hubby & the girls--but I was also really good and weeded through my old pocketbooks and got rid of quite a few.

It really feels liberating for it to be the Year of the Cat.  I like simpifying our lives.

So, Charlie the kitty is my mascot for 2012.  Stay tuned for Year of the Cat updates.  And it's not too late in 2012 to have it be the Year of the Cat in your house.....

Thanks to my girlfriend R for letting me take pics of Charlie and have him be my mascot!

potd #42.  Some Valentine marshmallows I made for D & E.  Strawberry marshmallows dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles.  Improvised from an idea I found on Pinterest.