An afternoon in a Princess Castle

Sorry I don't write much anymore. Life right now is in a very quiet place. We have our little routine of school in the morning, cleaning and playing in the afternoon, working out, making supper for Daddy when he gets home, and then spending the nights hanging out together before the very early bed time of 7pm. (Not me, I stay up and read).

Our afternoons playing are spent in Rowan's pink princess room. She could quite possibly be the most spoiled 3 1/2 year old ever alive...






















Pink enough for you?

Sunday in review

Today we went to a meeting after church to find out about signing up for membership. It was nice because we got to meet all of the major players in the church management and talk for a bit about what brought us there etc etc.

We shared warm conversation and learned quite a bit about the people we worshiped with every week.

After the meeting it was quite late in the afternoon. Instead of putting Rowan down for a late nap and messing up bedtime schedule,. we opted instead to keep her up. She's finally at the age where she can skip a nap and still function.

Anyhoo, with our free afternoon devoid of nap time we ran out to a local food market. Its one of our favorite stores around. They have as much local produce as possible as well other small local shops that rent out space within the market. There is a bakery, a speciality butcher shop and even a cheese shop!

We bought some aged gouda which is one of my all time fave cheeses... and the best part of the whole trip, some granola! Granola, you might ask? Yes, granola. Magnificently sweet salty chewey crunchy granola that you can't stop eating... its as good as potato chips!

The best part.. its all natural, with no preservitives. Basically its oats, honey, seseame and poppy seeds, almonds and brown sugar. Its amazing... and I can't stop eating it hahaha.

Check out thier web site, and I highy suggest trying some!

http://www.meandollies.com/

Another NH Snow Day

It never seems to end around here, they're predicting about 20 inches today and over night. School was cancelled this morning so Rowan and I spent the day snuggling warm inside, watching the snow gently fall outside the window. She watched movies and played while I crocheted and watched her in amuzement.

Once Daddy got home we bundled up and headed out once again into the cold Nor'Eastern weather... and played in the snow. What else is there to do in New England?

Chatty Cathy

I have alot to say today.. but I'm to lazy to articulate it all into coherent paragraphs, so I resort once again to the bullets..

(accept I don't know how to put bullets into my blog)



Today is my wedding anniversary as I noted below... Hubs wrote me that adorable albeit adolescent style poem down there and I totally heart him forever for it :)

I bought new shoes yesterday... and I love love love them! I feel sort of "cool" wearing them because they're label brand... and I don't buy that type of stuff often. :) (accept when they're on super clearance and probably left over from last season..shut up, I still feel cool)




My friend Ryan let us borrow her GPS over the weekend to maneuver around Boston.. I still have it in my car... and I love it so much I want to make out with it and perhaps go on a weekend excursion to the Keys with it as my forbidden lover..... Its my new BFF and I may never give it back to her....do you think she'll believe me if I tell her I was robbed and they assailants took it from my car???? And then I went and bought my own because I liked hers so much??? I think that's believable right???? No???


I am working on another CAL block from the Ravelry site... pics to post later today once completed.

I forgot to put deodorant on today and I smell like a Moe's sub..... do they have Moe's Sub shops in other states I wonder??? They're pretty big in New England.

Rowan was not sick when I picked her up from school yesterday for "being sick." Manipulative lying toddler cucka head.



Happy Birthday to my mom!!!!

Mommy Advise

So not everyone has a toddler.... but some do. I don't know about you, but my toddler is a constant grazer. She never eats big meals.... she'd rather pick at stuff all day. I know this is actually a healthier way to eat. We're not meant to eat big meals... our bodies function much better eating small things often, so instead of fighting her behavior and insisting she "eat everything on her plate", I just go with it.

I have always had weight problems... and I think a lot of it comes from the culture and background I grew up in. Back in the 70's... health wasn't an important topic. I remember meals consisting of burgers and fries.... deep fried of course.... I don't remember having a lot of fruit around the house, and butter was definitely the condiment of choice.

It's my goal to raise Rowan healthier... My husband has really great eating habits... yogurts.. protein, etc etc... I do my best to eat as healthy as I can.. although I am a carb addict through and through.

I fear for Rowan... that she end up with issues.... although I doubt she will... At almost three years old she is still 25 lbs... putting her in the 5th percentile on a good day. She's a small kid.

And I think a lot of it has to do with us letting her eat the way she wants to eat as opposed to forcing meals upon her. There are days she barely eats at all. There are days she devours everything in sight. My goal is to let her body and her desire drive the amount of t food wants.

I will give her a small plate of food when we cook dinner. But if she doesn't eat it, I don't fuss. Generally she'll pick... she likes broccoli a lot... as well as certain meats. But if she doesn't like a particular thing, then she doesn't like it.

I'm sure many mom's probably find my philosophy repulsive. I let her eat cheerios for dinner??? Yup I do. And sometimes fruit chews haha. But sometimes she'll eat a bowl of granola.. or a gogurt too.... so I think she's making ok choices for herself... even now at the tender age of 3.

Ok so I do have a point with this post I swear lol

Because Rowan grazes all day, she constantly asks for snacks or "something else to eat."

This means we have to make a gazillion trips to the kitchen all day long and its quite time consuming.

So we've come up with a fabulous new method. At the beginning of every day or after school, we go to the kitchen and we fill up a snack bag with all her favorite snacks. I have tiny plastic cups with lids that we use. She gets fish, crackers, fruit chews, yogurts, popcorn, nuts, granola, etc etc.

Then she keeps her snack bag with her in the house. She carries it around... and when she wants a snack, its right there for her to choose. It saves us so much time! And then when we're immersed in a good movie.. we're not interrupted to go to the kitchen for snacks.. we can all stay cuddled on the couch together... and nibble on crackers :)

Consequently, her current choice for her snack bag is a her plastic Micky Mouse trick or treat pumpkin hahaha

Ha... cold my butt...oh wait

So I came downstairs only minutes ago from having showered. I walked straight to the kitchen to get my morning coffee... as is customary.

I was eager also to check the Thermometer hung outside my kitchen window.... the Weather Man has been predicting today was going to be sub zero cold.

HA!!! Wrong Mr. Weather man!! wrong... its 25... yeah that's cold... but certainly not "Artic" hahaha jack ass weather man... hahaha.. I laugh in your face.... oh.... oh wait.

shit

that's not 25...




its negative 15..... negative!!!




oops..... damn artic weather.

Adoption Option..What's your function???

Yes... adoption. This is a hot topic around my household... something I am passionate about... something my hubs is dead set against.

Now I'm not talking babies... I got one of them. I'm talking teens... teens stuck in the foster system without a family... who will probably be spit out of the foster system at 18 not having anyone to go home to for Christmas.... and this makes my heart so sad.

And for some reason I have this desire and a Godly drive to save a few of them... My hubs thinks I'm nuts... that it's a ton of work.. that they have issues emotionally and behavior problems. Of course they do...wouldn't you in thier situation? But I dont' want to do this because it's easy... I want to do it because I know it's hard, and not mant people will do it because of that. I want to show a few kids in my life time, that things don't always suck.... and that they are worth loving.

Maybe it comes from my issues as a kid... feeling unloved.... maybe that makes me want to help other kids so they dont' have to feel that way. I don't know.

Ministering to others is a very important part of being a Christian. Some do this in soup kitchens, some do it by givings thier money to special causes... I want to do it by giving my love to others whom may not recieve love otherwise. Am I nuts?

So I plant little seeds in my hubby's head as often as possible. I send him pictures of teens in waiting from an adoption/foster site. I try my best to convince him that perhaps if he looked past how hard it would be... he'd see how rewarding it could be.

And I pray.... for a way to make it happen.

Until Death do us Part

I had a conversation with the hubs the other night about marriage. We were watching Food network and the Ace of Cakes fella had made a cake for a couple's 50th wedding anniversary.

After doing some math in my head, which I'll admit took me quite some time, I figured out that we'd be 77 years old when we hit that milestone. 77 years old.

This just got me thinking about us, and our marriage. I really can't imagine spending my life with anyone else... When I think of Barney and I, I think of forever. I can't think of a single thing that would ever make me want to end our marriage... well aside from him having an affair... but Barney is a good honest man, and although his eyes may stray... I know his heart never will. And even through something like that, I can honestly say that I would put effort into working things out if he told me he was still in love with me. When I said "through good times and bad" I meant it.

So I asked him...."Boo, do you see us making it that long? Being married until we're 77?" I was curious, curious to see if he thought of our marriage as being as permanent as I did... he said....

"of course I do... I wouldn't have married you had I not thought this was forever... and I still do."

My heart warmed..... and I wondered if his ass would be just as hot at 77 as it is now.... hmmmmmm

New Hampshire - and the great ice storm

Yup, so we lost power on Friday morning, and we didn't get it back until Friday night. We had no heat though, so we went to a friends house who had a generator to have a sleepover. Rowan was excited because Lily is her BFF and it was her house.. woo hoo!

My hubs got the generator going and we had heat, one light and a TV, can't beat that.... then as we hunkered down for our nights rest.... kapooey! The generator kicked the bucket... so sad.

Thankfully we called a friend at our condo, and the condo's had power back! woo hoo.. its a miracle because supposedly 1.5 million people in the state are without power.

So in the middle of the night we packed up the two girls, ourselves, and all our junk to drive back here for our sleepover.

Its been fun! and now the entire state is coming to our house to use the shower lol

good times.

Thanksgiving

We had two Thanksgivings this year. One up north and one down here with Boo's fam.

I love going home though to my parent's house. They have no cable and so we spent the night talking and playing scrable. :)

It also snowed up there, yikes!

Lazy weekend

Its been a fairly lazy weekend. Although I shouldn't really say that. Yesterday was madness.

We started the day with a cranky toddler whom was up half the night the night before. She woke up pissy and was kind enough to carry the attitude on throughout the day.

We had to get new tires put onto our truck. The old ones weren't even inspectable (accept for our super cool mechanic that will slap a sticker on it for us).

So we dropped old betty off at sears bright and early and then putz around the mall for a bit. Rowan played in the playhut there, and then it was off to my friends Elissa's for her twins bday party. (www.fulltimemumma.com).

I thought it was tough pulling a bday party together for one kiddo... try 2! God bless Elissa... i'd have drowned all my babies in the tub by now (just kidding...).

It was fun though and its always cute seeing Rowan interact with other kids.

Oh did I also mention she insisted on telling an entire room of strangers about everytime she farted??

Oh and did I also mention she monopolized the bathroom for 15 minutues while she then proceeded to poop while a very pregnant woman patiently waited in line. Poor lady.

Anyhow, after heading out of the party we went back to sears to pick up our truck. 700 dollars later supposedly it "drives so much better". Sure... whatever.

Today was more relaxed. We had church at 10, and then went to the grocery store to pick up some fruit and vegi's. Then it was nap time. (for the kid not me).

Its now 3 and she's still sleeping! Lazy child.. ahh well she must need it.

Barney and I have been snuggling on the couch watching the boob tube and eating chocolate chip cookies... if only she knew what she was missing! hahaha