It's not all bad

No. That is not Venus, goddess of love and beauty, laying on that clam shell. Although I can see how you could make that mistake. We went up for a visit with Eric's parents last weekend, and had a great time. The day was a perfect blend of sun and breeze, and Bob & Cheryl spoiled us into relaxation. Although the day wasn't exactly warm enough for a swim Cheryl, Zaky and I ventured into the pond, because it will most likely be the last chance to do so before the cold weather sets in. Poor Corie couldn't swim due to her toe injury, but after a bit of sulking even our moody little preteen couldn't maintain a pout on such a beautiful day. Eric spent most of his day trying not to share his toys with the kids, but they would have none of that! They were hot on his trail touching his stuff until he finally gave up and put his toys away. Bob, Cheryl and I enjoyed the show while it lasted. I have added some new pictures to our Family album on Google. I am trying not to post to many pictures in this blog so that dial up people won't have trouble loading the page. It wasn't until we tried to look something up online at my Dad's house that we realized how spoiled we were with our cable hookup. As we were waiting for our pages to load I kept picturing a little emaciated gerbil on a rusty wheel running round and round. Poor Amber. It's no wonder why she was never on Facebook.

Our kids are growing up. Wednesday morning Corie couldn't decide what to wear to school. Everything I held up got a scrunchy face. Finally she said "I want something black. I want tops with skulls on them. I want to dress like Amber...in black". I said, "you mean goth?" She said "Yes. I want my Dad to take me to my favorite store, Hot Topic". Okay. She's a Sprague, so I knew it was going to happen, but I thought she'd make it past nine years old before we got to this point. On the other hand we have Zakary who went into the kitchen and made himself a peanut butter sandwich without assistance for the first time. Now if I can just get them to clean their rooms... ha-ha.

Bad Things Come In Fives....

It's school time again. Zakary started preschool this year. He has school on Tuesday and Thursday, and he loves it. Corie starts 4th grade this year, but the exciting news (in her opinion) is that she had two trips to the emergency room due to an infected toe. They lanced it on the first trip and removed the toenail on the second trip. It seems to be healing without further complications, but it's really gross to look at. Eric and I have exciting news also... our washing machine broke, then our Taurus broke, and then our Rav 4 broke, and then our Taurus broke again, and we had to cancel our vacation plans so that Eric can work overtime to pay for all our broken stuff. Talk about being bummed out! I'd start drinking, but I can't afford it.


We had two new additions to our household: Butterfly and Fish. We found Butterfly in our yard. It was missing some leg parts and two wings, and was so pitiful that we had to take it in. We had it about 2.5 weeks, and I was just about to give it to my mother-in-law (who was begging us for it) when it passed away. Sorry Mom. We will keep an eye out for another mutilated insect for ya. Fish is still alive and well. Zakary never named it, so I did ("Fish"). Eric's name choice for the Beta was "Master Beta", but I didn't feel like explaining that one to the kids. Fish is Zakary's reward for successful potty-pooping. Corie is working on earning a fish of her own, because Fish looks lonely in his tank. She wants to name it "Sticks", but I was hoping for "Chips". What do you think? Fish & Chips or Fish Sticks?

It's been a while since my last post. The man forced me to work overtime the last couple of weeks, so there just wasn't any time for important things like blogging. Zakary has been using the potty faithfully with no accidents or backslides, so we treated him to a trip to the Shelburne Museum. They had a one-day-only toy train exhibit, so Bob, Cheryl, Zaky and I (Eric was working OT) spent the day there. Zakary was so well behaved never trying to touch or grab any of the displays. He just watched those trains so intently trying to figure out how they worked. They had all kinds of models. His favorite to watch was the N-Gauge, but he was most anxious to own and play with the Lego train set. The only thing that he did not enjoy was walking into one of the building to be surprised by a clown standing in the corner. Luckily Grandma Smith was there to cling on to for protection. Note the picture below:

Corie spent over a week at her other Grandma's house in NY, so she missed the museum trip. She did get the princess treatment from her Oma though, and returned home with a new pedicure, iDog, Invader Zim paraphernalia and purse (which she coincidently forgot to bring back to her Dad's, so I've decided to see how well it works... so good so far... it's really more my style anyway).

We have had buckets of rain this summer, so our woods are loaded with mushrooms... and I have a new camera. See where I'm going with this? If you have any interest in checking these pix out just click on MUSHROOMS. The soil has stayed so moist the fungi have also started popping up in the garden. Here they are keeping company with the basil. The rain has also wreaked havoc on my poor squash & cucumber (or at least that's what I'm blaming it on). The plants are plagued with mildew. I was treating it with a homemade chive remedy, but it's spreading to fast. I did get a pleasant surprise while weeding. It looks like the experimental okra planting is a success. I had doubts as to whether or not it was warm enough to grow okra in Vermont, but the plants are producing. In fact they also have a lovely flower that resembles hollyhock. Here a a couple of photos....



Aren't they pretty? Of course they are prettier when they are cut into rings, rolled in cornmeal, and deep fried.

I can't end this post without mentioning what Eric's dad, Bob, deposited in our driveway. He brought up Eric's pride and joy, his 1977 Blazer. This will be all that Corie, Zak & I will see of him for the rest of the summer...
... but doesn't he look happy!

As you may (or may not) have noticed a hit counter has been added to my blog. Last week I had 5 hits, and I want to thank all five of you. Of course I had to call you all on the phone and ask you to go to my blog, but the fact remains that you did come here. I feel so special.

The week started with a garden full of summer squash and green beans. I went through my collection of recipes, tried some new ones, and froze what was left. If you are overrun with zucchini I recommend Paula Dean's Zucchini Bread. Yum! After being inspired by the Lunch In A Box blog I decided to organize my bento supplies. My Mom had given me a set of plastic drawers that would be just perfect, so I spent hours arranging the cutest collection of bento supplies you've ever seen. I took pictures of each drawer and called the kids in to admire my hard work, but as I put the set of drawers in their new home the bubble burst. What was that thing my Grandpa Sprague always said???? "Measure twice, cut once".
Oh well, at least it does fit in sideways.

This was a really busy week at work, and the next two weeks promise to be just as loaded. Don't worry though, because I did find time to do some online shopping. My first stop was Newegg.com where I purchased a new Canon Powershot A590 digital camera. We like it a lot so far, but we still haven't used most of the fancier options. My second stop was at Ichiban Kan. I hadn't planned that shopping excursion. While innocently checking my email it came to my attention that they had gotten in a new shipment which included new bento supplies. If you clicked on the "pictures" link above then you noticed that there is no room in those drawers for more bento stuff, so it looks like it will be time for reorg when the box arrives. The last stop was at LL Bean. Our little Zaky starts preschool at the end of the month, so we bought him his first school backpack. Eric did a little shopping himself... an orbital sander and new work boots. Boring but practical.

Eric, Zaky and I went up to Bob & Cheryl's house this past Saturday. Eric and Bob spent the afternoon in a futile attempt to drive Eric's "antique" Blazer to a garage for repairs. While Cheryl, Zaky and I spent our time in the pond. Yes, you heard correctly. Zaky finally got in the water. Cheryl's grandma powers were at full force and Zaky was powerless to resist. Here are the pictures to prove it...

I spending a relaxing day floating on a big, pink clam shell (probably looking like Aphrodite although no one actually said it out loud), and after a great dinner Eric and I headed home. Yes, that right I said "Eric and I". Zaky stayed for a three night visit with Grandma & Grandpa and a trip to Santa's Village. Don't feel sorry for Corie though. She has been at Nana & Grandpa Sprague's house for the past week, and that will be followed by a trip to Lake George with her dad. That left Eric and I childless for two days this week. I suppose you are wondering how we spent those lovely 70 hours. A romantic dinner? A movie in the theater? Watching clown porn? Nope! We did a little shopping, and upon returning home Eric went to downstairs to Manland and played video games while I went upstairs and played in my sewing room. Like Tony Shalhoub said in Galaxy Quest, "It's the simple things in life you treasure".

Whitney

Some of my fabric stash.

We finally got the house (almost) clean in time for our company. It was hard to plan a menu without an itinerary, so I did most of the cooking on Sunday morning opting for salads and lunch meat. Although I have hundreds of cookbooks I scoured the Food Network website and found two new salad recipes and one new dip recipe to try. The salad recipes (Greek Grain Salad and Cobb Salad) were great, but the dip recipe was awful. Dad, Pat & Amber arrived Sunday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday. We did some shopping around Burlington and went down to the waterfront on Monday. Tuesday we spent the day at Kill Kare State Park. It's a small park, but it's really beautiful. The weekend went by way to fast, and it was depressing to come home from work Wednesday night to such a quiet house. Corie went home to NY with them. She's going to spend a week there. I can just hear her "Nana, look at me", "Grandpa, watch me climb this tree", "Amber... Amber... Amber, look at me now". Okay, so maybe a quiet house isn't so bad. Next week Zaky is scheduled to go to Santa's Village with Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Bob. When I die I want to come back as one of my kids!

Nothing makes you realize how uneventful your life is like writing a blog. Oh sure, if I posted once or twice a year I’d have lots of interesting (or at least semi-interesting) things to write about, but try posting every couple of weeks and ho-hum. It’s not that we don’t enjoy most of our day-to-day activities, but they just aren’t the most interesting things to write or read about. You did however come here to read about our daily life, and I will not let you down…

I’ve survived another work week and am looking forward to the weekend. Dad, Pat & Amber are coming up for a visit, so we have been working on getting the house presentable. Actually to be precise Eric and I have been the ones doing the work. Much like Sisyphus and his rock we make little progress, for no matter how fast we clean the kids are somewhere in the house undoing our efforts. Eric did manage to get our new potties installed. I didn’t know that there was anything wrong with our old potties, but apparently they were wholly inadequate. I guess you have to be a plumber to understand, but we are now the proud owners of twin Mansfield potties with matching Church slow-close potty seats... I told you this wasn’t going to be exciting!

It's been a little slow at work, so I've had some time for the internet... Wanna see what I bought? Of course you do.

I have wanted the "Stuffed Toys" for a long time, and almost had it for Christmas but lost the bid last minute. The Japanese craft books are excellent. I've got about 10 in my collection so far, and about half of them are written entirely in Japanese. I also bought some things at Ichiban Kan. It the first of several purchases I plan to make with them :) They have bento items at great prices, but they sell out really fast.

I've recently joined Facebook and can't believe how many friends I've heard from. Now we have another bunch of people that we don't have time to keep in touch with :) I can't end this post without commenting on the photo of Zaky. We took it the day before his 4th birthday, and we sent it into PBS Sprout's Musical Mornings show. I think we sent it in to late though, so it didn't get aired.