Weekly Update

Carrie

This week....We should become homeowners!!  Closing later this week.  Sean and I got the house "Christmas ready" cleaning out the old to make room for the new :-)  feels good to purge!!!!  We got a babysitter and went to Boston House of Blues Saturday to see Manchester Orchestra play.  They were really good.  Over the week we had lots of kids over for playtime, never a quiet dwelling!!!!  Got in some really good walks and am still trying to teach Trent how to play fair in Chutes and Ladders!  We ended our weekend by heading to the Dinosaur Place and then Build a Bear.  Much needed quality family time :-)  Love having a long weekend with the kids!!!  I also found a 1969 VW bus for sale and am seriously considering getting it if the frame is sound!!!!  So cool!!

This week I hope to.........walk three miles 3 times.  Catch up on laundry after the washer was down for almost two weeks!!!!  Get more Christmas shopping done, pick out the new doors and windows for the house and bake Christmas cookies.

Kurt

 It has been a busy week for THIS little performance artist.  Sunday I performed as ALPHA (with OMEGA) at the Boston Convention Center where BILL CLINTON was speaking.  Its one of my favorite characters because we are encouraged to "interact" with EVERYTHING.  We can mess around with people, touch everything around...when we perform those characters its like we have JUST come to earth. you can check them out on WEMAKEPRETEND.COM
 The next day i was back up in Boston to perform at the ICA.  Its a beautiful space to show contemporary art.  I was an award statue at an event where DENNIS LEHANE (writer of Mystic River and many other things) spoke.
 Friday I was the GOD of WINE at a wedding in Connecticut. 

  I did NOT do my goal of writing some more songs. but thats ok  I started, and am more than half way done with one of my other goals....creating a gem stone gas mask!!!!!

  This week i would LOVE to start painting the new canvas that i bought at the salvation army, its the biggest canvas that i have ever owned.  I am excited to throw some TEXTURE on that bad boy.
  I also NEED to make an appointment for new contacts, i am pushing at least 3 years on this last pair (of two week disposables! woops)
  Also, my computer NEEDS more space and speed so i need to bring it to apple....in my research APPLE doesnt make memory for my aged computer, so i need to get the specifics from the people at the GENIUS BAR

 

Rob

Sadly, I have no photos for the week.  This could have been an excellent week - my birthday on Tuesday, the final battle for Neverwinter on Wednesday's Encounters sessions, 4 day weekend for the kids and a D&D game for me and both boys on Saturday.  Instead, it was a week of concern, conflict and compassion.  Sunday was spent scrambling for babysitting for Archer, since his mom was unable to get to the house when she said she would.  I was able to drop him off at a friend's house, and picked him up later that night. Allison wasn't around for the Amazing Race, so we saved it for later in the week.  When Monday rolled around, I left my cell phone charger at home, and my battery died.  Imagine my surprise when I plugged it in, and had half a dozen voice mails and texts!  Turns out Allison had a trip to the hospital, and in the end it wouldn't be until Friday that she would be able to go home.  Her parents came down to see her, but she refused visitors; it was nice for them to see the boys anyway.  I am largely not talking to her father anymore, because he thinks it not wildly inappropriate to threaten a teenager when you get lost.  They left in a huff on Thursday, but I got my fridge cleaned while they were here, so that is something.  Anyway, rather than get a lot of work done this week, I got to go in late Tuesday, oversleep Thursday and spend most of Friday driving around MA to bring Allison home (5 hours for the patient escort, 2 for the normal commute). All in all, a good week to  have nothing much going on.

Taking editorial license here and inserting Halloween pictures and description this week. -Kim

McGuire is the Green Lantern.
Archer is General Greivous, but with only the mask, and a knight's armor.  Think of it like Ceremonial Outfitting for the General - like Marine Blues.
The young lady in Orange is Ellie, dressed as Clyde (or whichever of the ghosts from Pacman is Orange).  The other young lady is Catherine, as a princess.  The other boy is Jim, he is dressed as the Companion cube from Portal.

Kim

Let's see.  I attended one PTO meeting and was kicked off the Air Force Base when trying to attend the second one since my license expired on my birthday.  The high school is actually ON base and it's terribly inconvenient for just this reason.  The armed guard actually wished me a happy birthday and told my to drive directly to the DMV.  I did.  I had NO idea my license had expired. 

I tackled the ironing pile but only to store a quarter of it in spring/summer stuff, deliver another quarter to the cleaners and ironed like five things.  Still on my to do list, but maybe not this week. 

Exercised five times if you count a lame yoga routine and a slow walk for two of the days.  I've got to get more motivated!

Attended Rachel's first piano recital(Popcorn Popping) and Ben's sixth(?)(The Entertainer).  They both did excellent jobs.   It's fun to see their progress.  Closed out the soccer season with Ben's last game ending in a tie:1-1.  He played full-time goalie and saved their butts several times.  Way to go!

Began Christmas shopping/planning.  Made smoothies every weekday.  Wouldn't you know, Rachel liked the "monster smoothie" the best?  The boys did not.  Funny girl.  It's the best way to get more fruits and vegetables into Ben.  Plus, just some morning food.

This week I need to complete the preparations for the garage sale.  We are clearing out toys and clothes mostly in hopes of raising enough money to buy someone a new smile from the organization Smile Train.  My kids' hearts are very touched by their ads.  We've had to wait until soccer ended to find a Saturday to do it.  We've been stockpiling things for months now and I'm anxious to move them on and do something nice as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

A first grade program and another PTO meeting this week.  Also, Dave and I are taking a gun class this week.  Should be a fun date learning to shoot!

Until next week...

Siblings' Update

Carrie, Kurt, Rob, Kim     July 2011   Glastonbury, CT

We are terrible at staying in touch.  We are going to try to do better by documenting one week at a time.

KIM

Mrs. Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction

     Last week, I successfully finished up the Halloween celebrations and turned 41.  Halloween seems to get more drawn out every year.  I suppose when my kids are all gone and it is quiet and boring around here I'll look back with a melancholy regret that we don't do more to recognize Halloween.  For now, I'm glad it's over.  School parties, church party, neighborhood parties, costume rentals, sewed costume details (that's right, by me), carved pumpkins, assembled gingerbread haunted house and collected so much candy.  Success. The kids also got well-child checkups (on their snow day) and flu shots.

This week I plan to:
1.  Attend two PTO meetings, one at the high school and one at the elementary school
2.  Get the oil changed in Dave's car for him
3.  Schedule doctor and dentist appointments for myself
4.  Tackle my ironing pile
5.  File
6.  Start my Christmas shopping
7.  Make smoothies every morning for Ben and Rachel.  Ben really needs to be eating/drinking something before school.
8.  Exercise five times this week.
9.  Make a plan for the Physical Fitness Merit Badge for Jake and Ben (and maybe myself)

ROB

It would be impossible to try to sum up the whole year, so I will only be looking at the past week, starting with Saturday, October 29th. Snow in October in New England is nothing particularly new or odd, but an October Nor'Easter, with most of the leaves still on the trees?  That is a little less common.  We had batteries, and flashlights, so the boys and I were happy to sit at home and watch the snow fall like crazy - after we ran a few errands.  Archer was playing a new game he bought himself - Sonic Unleashed, we had some frozen pizza for dinner, and were sitting downstairs when the power went out t 7:30.  No worries - I had my cell phone, used it as a light to get upstairs to light some candles.  It was not a terrible way to end a night.  McGuire read for about 3 hours in candle light, Archer and I hung out, and eventually went to bed early.  When we woke up Sunday, the house was fairly cold - stupid gas furnace, with battery-powered thermostats, and it still wants some external power to actually turn on the furnace!!!  We had plans to meet up with our D&D group, even though only McGuire was playing that day.  Archer and I brought a DS and my netbook to use the store's power!  We went to dinner at Fridays so that I could see the Patriots game against the Steelers (bad idea), and I brought them over to their mom's apartment since she had power and they didn't have school on Monday with the power out in most of the town.

I went home to sleep in a cold house, since I was still going to work in the morning.  I was pretty happy to wake up with power, but my alarms were obviously not set, so I got to work later, anyway.  Three of the kids that show up to D&D were coming over for Trick or Treating - I should have some cell-phone photos to insert here later.  The kids had Tuesday off, as well, so I am already thinking that they will be losing a vacation with the first winter snowstorm.

Wednesday was supposed to be the day Allison and I got our divorce approved by a judge, but thanks to some misinformation, I took the day off from work. and we got "properly attired" for court for no good reason.  Instead, we both went to our residences - I was lucky enough to see my neighbors leaving their house, so I dropped 100 bucks to get the kids they hired to clean their lawn to take the biggest debris from my yard, too.  I then used the rest of the day to have my car looked at so that I could get it to pass emissions.  Turns out that will cost about 1500 dollars, so I have some hard decisions to make there, the car has 200,000 miles on it, but it is a Camry, so getting a lot more miles out of it is not out of the question.  Still, not a great way to take a day off from work.  We did get penciled in to get judge time on November 10th, though.  The rest of the week was fairly copacetic - we had some surprises with Allison on Saturday, which led to  to juggle some plans on Sunday, but all in all, the weekend went well.

KURT

      I saw the band CSS in boston, Brazilian Dance ROCK they are SO energetic and fantastic.  I wore an army shirt that i made.
     I dressed as Kurt Cobain for work on saturday, which i may say came out Fantastic.  I then worked as a statue at some rich peoples house outside of boston.  I was King Neptune standing by them clams. then got back from that and did three costume changes for a halloween party in my building.
     Sunday I dressed as the "zombie boy" from lady gagas Born this way video @ a bar/restaurant DOWNCITY in Providence (it was on Kitchen Nightmares).  i won third place which is a $50 gift card to the restaurant.
     Monday i was in my stuffed animal suit with my friend Katie in the NYC Halloween Parade.  the largest pedestrian parade in north america.  We marched and posed for pictures....the costume didnt get much attention, so we did a costume change later when she wore the pants, and people LOVED her.....it made me happy...next year we are gonna make her get ALL the attention.
     I've been planning on moving to NYC when my lease is up in Providence.  Last night Jon and I broke up.  I have a lot of goals in my mind, and usually I dont set DATES for.  Although they do get done but this one week at a time will be fun.  In this next week i would like to record at LEAST one more song.  ive been doing recordings for a while....and i would like to get better at music, so i need to work...although when it comes down to it i will have to find someone to sing for me, i am just no good.

 CARRIE

     Last week........ a snow storm caused some serious damage around the state.  We were lucky and only lost power for two days.  We trick or treated with my friend and her four kids at an old folks home, but they horded the candy!!!!  So we went on the green with another family we love.  Too much snow, so we opened the van up and drove down the green.  Lame but fun!!  Carved pumpkins, made a gingerbread haunted house and had two days of school parties.

     This week.......I'm freaking out!!!!!  We're supposed to close on the house tomorrow.  Still trying to get home owners insurance.  Because of the storm, the insurance agencies have been closed. No joke, going on 10 days without power.  I have been left out of the process because Dad, Uncle Jim and the mortgage broker wanted to make things easy for me.  Now I'm clueless.  And frustrated.  My goal is to bake something tasty and go for a run.  Or speed walk. It clears my head.  My babies are keeping me grounded and that keeps my eye on the prize.

     On another happy note......  Sean is taking me to NYC for my birthday weekend!!!  Staying at the Trump Soho.  So, as things stay crazy I have something to look forward to.  :-)  I'm a lucky girl.  Just have to keep reminding myself I'm strong and can take everything that's thrown my way.


 And that's a wrap for our inaugural week of "Updates".  Can't wait to hear from you all on Sunday!

Turks and Caicos

Beaches Resort   June 4-11, 2011
Oh my.  How do I do justice to such a great vacation?  Let's start with some pictures...

The clearest waters and most fish we've ever seen. 

Rachel is like a fish.  She snorkels without fear.

Ben gives a thumbs up to Caribbean warm waters.

Jake prefers scuba diving, but humors us occasionally by snorkeling.  His main job is to keep Mom from drowning.

Triple-decker at the pool.

While Dave and Jake went on scuba tours (six of them!), we enjoyed the beach (and water slides, but I didn't get any pictures).

This is how I get time to finish my book on the beach.

What's this?  The boys trying to turn sandcastle building into a competition? Who would've guessed...

Looks like the boys think they won...

Teppanyaki dinner

 

Baking cookies with Cookie Monster.

 

 

Dave enjoying the only surf around.

We LOVE the beach!

Goodbye for now...we'll be back.

Every vacation feels like the best one at the time...I imagine we'll have more "best" vacations to come. Like Rachel tells us, "the best part is spending time with my family."  (The boys call her a kiss-up, but I think she's sweet.)

On Our Way

You know it is going to be a great vacation when your family members all call to wish you well before you leave and warn you to be careful.  "Tell Dave," they all say.  And then on your way to the grand destination, you have occasion to sleep on the floor of the airport.  We're in for some memorable fun!

 

 

Charlotte USA, thanks for vacuuming before we arrived.

The Freshman

I've had the nagging feeling that I should get back to blogging for several weeks now.  Who knows what causes these impressions...guilt, a knowledge that it will serve my family well someday, something more significant.  I can't say.  I do know that Jake needs to be spotlighted.

This boy, or should I say man (at 6 feet tall and 180 pounds he certainly does not look like a boy) is one amazing person.  He has taken to high school like a fish to water.  It would seem he can navigate through most of life's challenges without much fanfare or drama.  (I will chalk that up to his father's influence.)  He is fifteen and drives me crazy some days with his procrastinating and lack of urgency about things, but man is he a joy!

I'm not the kind of person who loves teenagers.  I don't find them terribly charming, as a whole.  The surly attitudes and contempt for authority make them somewhat of a challenge for me.  That is not to say I did not come to love the Beehives I worked with a while back.  They were charming, and in fact quite respectful and kind.  But I am not a parent who has looked forward to having a teenager.

First Day of School 2010

That being said, Jake is teaching me the pleasures of this stage, like a wonderful first-born child should do for his younger siblings.  He is funny.  Oh, so funny. And smart, and kind, and helpful, and capable.  He has a quiet confidence that I admire and envy a little bit.  I should probably trust him more to navigate his school work responsibly since he has been able to work it out so far on his own.

I want the BEST for him so sometimes I nag, and pester him to DO more, and achieve more, but the truth is he is everything I could possibly hope for in a child.  He loves his family, and is a loyal friend, and most importantly, he knows the importance of living the gospel to find real happiness.  Plus, he has mad shooting skills in video games.  If we're ever invaded by zombies, we will prevail.

I love you just the way you are Jake.  Good luck on finals!  We're in your corner.

Summer Vacation 2010

We kicked off summer vacation June 3rd with Dave having the week off.  He took us up to Mt. Baldy in the FJ Cruiser for our first family off-roading tour.

My favorite moment was after I hopped back in the car after helping Dave navigate a very tight passage and Rachel said, "I know something that starts with S, Mom"  What's that Rach?  "S is for SCARY."

Apparently, she doesn't have an adrenaline addiction developed yet.

Rachel's dance recital was June 5th and she did marvelously.  My daily calendar's quote that day was, "When in doubt, twirl."  How fitting.  Especially if you saw the dance.  After the dress rehearsal she told me she almost cried when she got on the stage and I was surprised but tried to comfort her.  She said "No, Mom.  I wasn't sad.  I wanted to cry because I was so happy."

Here are some photos of our little ballerina.  Just this week she was moved to a longer ballet class with older kids.  It makes my life considerably more complicated having dance after the boys get home from school (since it's soccer season) but she seems to love it.  She's not a baby anymore!

And swim team began even before school let out.  It was the defining activity of our summer since it took up every weekday morning from 7-9:30am.  Rachel followed with swim lessons every day until 10:45am.  That's a lot of pool time!  It's a good thing most of our friends were at the pool too every morning.  Baby Dane was the source of much joy and love this summer.  He probably will not remember the summer but we will never forget it...

Jake is on the back row and Ben is nearly dead-center looking like he's ready to jump out of the picture.

The boys did a great job on the team and the coaches were tremendous.  They both improved in form and speed considerably.  Jake has even said he will go out for the high school team since he knows the coach now.  Great news!

Ben's Injury - Part Two

I can't really move on without documenting "Part Two" of Ben's hurt leg.

All the kids went to the pediatrician for their well-child checks after we returned from vacation.  While there the pediatrician insisted on removing Ben's stitches.  It had been 7 whole days but they said to leave them 7-10 days so I was hesitant.

That night we attended the end-of-the-season swim team party but would not let Ben swim since the stitches were so newly removed.  Good thing because he woke up the next morning with it splayed open again.  SO gross.  Dave was so mad he was fuming.

We had to get him to the ER to  get it cleaned and re-stitched.  The painful shot to numb it and a good scrub down followed by thirteen more stitches.  What a trooper.  I became a wound-care nurse for two more weeks and worried myself sick about infection and complications.  I am not cut out for dealing with medical issues!

I was a wreck.  Everything turned out OK but I'm mad at the doctor for taking them out too soon and mad that every medical thing at our house has to be so darn complicated.  Remember my wisdom teeth...

Here's sweet Ben surviving round two of the ER.

He's such a charming guy...

Dave took out the stitches himself after 14 more days and it was a bit tough.  Ben endured quite a bit of pain and then the nervousness of it opening up again (though that seemed incredibly unlikely since the stitches had nearly grown into the wound).  Let's NOT do that again.

It finally, finally looks like a normal scar to me.  As the second ER doc told him though, his leg-modeling career is over...We sure love you, Ben!