December Wrap Up

Christmas was a very fast and slow week at the same time. We have all been sick at some point during it. Declan was on antibiotics for an ear and sinus infection and the past 3 days have been hazy for me because I have taken so much Sudafed. I am convinced it doesn't work as well since they took out the ingredient people were making meth with but its too embarrassing to ask for the real stuff from the pharmacist. Hopefully we are on the tail end of all the sickness.


The kids had a very good and very early Christmas. They questioned which toys were from us and which were from Santa so I'm afraid they might be starting to doubt him.

There was no doubt that the Star Wars Legos were from Daddy though. I'm not sure if he buys them for Declan or himself.
As of today though, Christmas is cleaned up and the tree is outside. Usually I keep it up through New Years but for some reason this year I just wanted the house back to normal. That's not to say I won't be vacuuming up random tree needles through the summer. Now I just have to get back on schedule and figure out what day of the week it actually is.

10 Favorite Things

My 10 favorite things around the house right now....


The flower mobile Grace got as an early Christmas present. I thought it would be a huge pain to assemble but Grace, Declan and I put it together in less than an hour. Now it hangs by her bed reminding us of Spring.

The Christmas tree that is now in the kids room. I always wanted to get a little tree for their room but couldn't justify the cost of a 2nd tree. This year, LL Bean didn't sell out of their tabletop trees like they usually do, so employees got them for free. Not a great economic sign but I'm concentrating on the tree.
It's cold outside now so that means Owen has moved indoors with us again. He is our only outside cat because he came to us that way and we have never been able to break him of it. He has a very busy life outside but he tends to stick close by at least. Now, he is around all the time mostly sleeping, eating or scratching. Still, its good to see him and the birds and mice are happy he is inside too.
The fact that Peter has rediscovered his bed as a place to sleep instead of the couch. I love him but trying to relax on the couch with 14 year old cat breath next to you is not fun. Neither is the evil eye he would give you if you dared to sit next to him and disturb him.
The old photos my mother is making copies of. I've only gotten this one so far but apparently there are more coming. This one is from 1944 and is of my fathers first trip to Maine. He is the young one between the man and the woman who happen to be my DeGroot grandparents. I really didn't have any pictures of them before this. I have no idea who the man to the far right is though.
The 70% off Christmas decorations sale at Kohls. I updated some of our ornaments and bought some other decorations like these jingle bells.
My 1960's souvenir Rangeley plate I got off EBay. I've never seen anything like it so it must have been hanging in someones house or camp for years. I hung it in the kitchen but need to find a better place for it.
The British candy from the British store in Freeport. One of our photogs at work is diabetic and seems to channel his sugar cravings towards me. This week he got me 3 Crunchies and a Curly-Whirly while out there on a story. This is the only one left.
That something around here is flowering. There is a foot of snow outside this window but one of my cactus's (cacti?) has put out its yearly flower. It only lasts a week or two but is a very pretty pink and green while it lasts.
The mini vases I bought from my friend Beckys studio sale. They are adorable and I want to buy 10 more and fill them my windowsill with them.

Ready For Christmas

Our very disorganized Christmas is slowly coming together. We were really thrown off losing last weekend to the storm, and most of this week to being sick. I'm sad to report that we couldn't even go as a family this year to get the tree. I had to grab one by myself on my lunch break yesterday. We usually all go together to pick it out but it just wasn't happening and the 3 coming snowstorms weren't going to help so it is what it is. At least its in the house and the kids got over their disappointment of not picking it once I dragged out the ornaments. Tim is in charge of the lights and then we do the ornaments. The tree turned out much bigger than I thought once all the branches fell but we still managed to fill it up. In fact, I think there are too many ornaments on the tree this year and most of them are bunched around the bottom about kids height up.
It took a while to get them all on the tree especially after making sure they both had equal piles they were in charge of. Wouldn't want one of them to put on 20 ornaments while the other only had 19!

There is a good mix of actual traditional ornaments.....


mixed in with the homemade ones. As you can guess all the homemade ones are at the bottom of the tree and mine are all at the top. I got all my Christmas cards out this week so now all I have to concentrate on is getting the presents wrapped. That usually doesn't happen until Christmas Eve while I'm watching It's A Wonderful Life. I really miss those days when that movie was on all the time at Christmas. Am I alone in this?

The Ice Storm Of 2008

How did you spend your weekend? Did you hear about or experience this? It's been a very long weekend for us.It started for us on Friday morning. The storm started Thursday night and I heard the sleet but didn't think much of it because we had been told it would turn to rain in Portland and be more of an inland storm. Well. the exact opposite happened. I should have known something was up when I woke up Friday morning and we had power but no cable. I went off to work for the usual storm hell of taking cancellations from everyone. At about 9am or so, Tim calls and tells me a tree branch a couple houses down, broke off and landed on the power line and caught fire. This of course knocked out the power on our street only. No one around us in the neighborhood lost power and I knew right away this was not good. The last time we had a major storm and we were the only street out, we went 5 days without power. I will just add that we live 1 mile from the power company office-just saying! Tim also then asked if I had seen the swing set that morning and I had and it was perfectly fine.

As you can see here, it wasn't fine anymore and didn't survive the ice storm. Its very sad because the kids spent many hours on it but it was also the least of our worries.
Here is the branch that caused all of the problems. One small stupid branch.


These are the ice covered trees in our backyard. Amazingly enough, the only branch we really lost was the one that came down on the swing set. The kids were very matter of fact about it-they just told me we could get a new one in the spring. I just have to figure out how to get this one to the dump.

My bushes out front took a beating too but should be okay once the ice melts. They needed to be trimmed anyway.

I think the look on Declans face sums the day up for all of us. Somehow, in the middle of all this we had the annual kids Xmas Party at Channel 13. Santa and his 2 elves made it in to deliver presents to the kids. Declan wanted nothing to do with them but Grace hopped right up and got her present.
We spent Friday night at home but it was bitterly cold and we were tired and dirty and both kids were getting sick, so we ended up at the Howard Johnson's in South Portland by Saturday afternoon. I was a little worried because I didn't know anything about this hotel but I knew we hadn't covered any OD's or murders there, so I went. It turned out to be a really great decision. They had lights and hot showers and the kids loved the pool. I didn't get in because I don't really own a suit anymore because they are evil to shop for.

We were deprived of the Internet for only 1 day but we felt totally cut off from the world. We were very happy to be connected again. Declan was able to check in on his Webkinz and Grace watched some I Carly.

We prepared ourselves to spend a few days there even though it wasn't exactly in the budget. This morning, about 15 minutes before check out time, I decided to try calling home once more to see if the power came back on and miraculously, the power was back on! We had to pack fast or pay for another night that we wouldn't need. Tim and I started throwing things in bags and we made it with just a few minutes to spare. Now we are home and the cats have gotten over being left behind. The house took about 6 hours to fully warm up and I have done about 10 loads of laundry. I am very thankful we made it home when we did because somehow, Graces sniffles turned into full force projectile vomiting. She started that tonight so we're in for a long night but at least we are home.

New Projects

A snowy Sunday and a sick day today means I had time to get some projects out of the way. The first was one I found here online. It sounded complicated and mathematical which usually means I shouldn't attempt it. They are paper globe ornaments and you are supposed to use your old Christmas cards to make them. I went through my old cards but didn't have the heart to cut any of them up. I was all set to go to the craft store and buy some heavy colored paper when inspiration struck my cheap heart.

I knew of 2 stores where they had heavy paper in all sorts of colors and they encourage you to take them for free-Lowes and Home Depot. I realized I could go there and load up on all the paper I wanted in the paint department. I especially liked getting the Martha Stewart color samples because I know what she charges at the craft store. If you plan to do this, you shouldn't take your children with you. I tried to go unnoticed as I took about 50 samples but Declan kept loudly asking me if I had enough paper yet and could he get a whole big pile like me. Since the paper was free I did decide to actually purchase something to make these. I bought the big hole punch (with a 50% off coupon) because it made things go a lot faster than individually cutting out a million 2 inch circles.
The directions said to use tacky glue but that didn't seem like it would hold everything together very well with all the bending so I used my hot glue gun and that made things a lot faster.


So, I spent a snowy Sunday afternoon making five of these and once I get in another trip to Home Depot, I will be making a few more.

I was home sick today and I finally made the Scrabble tile pendants that I bought last summer. They have been sitting on my desk since then and I tell myself every weekend that I will get to them but it never happens. These are definitely my test ones because I made a few mistakes. The papers came with the kit so they are not exactly designs I would have chosen myself. I will also be more generous with the glaze because they feel a little lumpy. Now that I know how easy they are, I'm going to order a bunch of tiles and make some more.

I Promise This Is The Last One

A Visit To Rangeley

Now that gas prices have come down, the kids and I made a long overdue visit to visit my parents in Rangeley last weekend. We were stuck inside because winter has started there.

The lake was a little too cold to swim in.

Declan froze his tongue tasting snow.

Grace did too.

We took this same picture during the summer and the view was a lot different.


I always drive the kids past the church were we got married but they really are bored by it.