animals

here are some animals we encountered:

aren't we brave. the hippo was called lou. short for lucifer. ooohhh

okay... so I hate the disney channel, disney marketing, most of disney movies. but I forgot how much I loved the park. I found that it was even more fun as an adult. why? because it's just plain ole fun AND you get to see the faces on your kids. sort of like these faces.

the castle was so pretty. my favorite memory was when the boys and I decided to ride Dumbo and it worked out that we were on Dumbo, in front of the beautiful castle, in the air as the fireworks were going off. besides Aaron's being terrified of being up so high and desperately trying to lower our elephant, it was absolutely magical. all we could see was the vast sky filled with exploding colors and a fantasy multihued castle.

after a long and wonderful day we waited for our boat ride back to the cabin. I was amazed by how many people brought babies. I can't image it was much fun for them

Gabriel was speechless after Space Mountain. but the wait almost was what put him over the edge.

because you deserve to smile today. :)

sorry it's taking me such a long time to write about the trip. We have returned to a very busy week. plus our friend David is staying with us until his opening! Once things slow down I will, I promise.

Here the boys are running with Jane and Don's miniature horses. yes... running with horses. heaven

i liked their doormat. Chris and I thought one could be appropriate for us.

speaking of running into things...poor Aidan

Next time we travel south I would love to spend more time in Virginia and the Carolina's. there is so much to see. At Jane's I read a piece on Gullah Island. would love to go. I think it was the trees that really captured my heart. Besides Jane, Don and the horses of course.

We're in Virginia. Got to Jane and Don's around 7pm. i wish I had my camera out to catch the boys faces when they saw the miniature horses. they are about the size of Gabriel. I'll take some today.

We found spring! It's so beautiful in southern Maryland and Virginia. I love the trees. Jane has a gorgeous yard. lot's of stuff from my youth so I am having all sort of memories. Right now I am sitting @ my grandmothers dining room table. Jane has a photo of my mother and me on my first birthday sitting at the end of this table (like I am now).

we kept seeing signs that said, "Friends meet at Horne's". Of course we found that funny. so when Chris needed a cup of coffee he stopped in. The lady didn't' have change for his purchase and asked him to wait while she ran home to get it. Chris suggested she check in another register and surprise, there was some money. oh... Aidan needed to go the bathroom so we stopped off at a store, there was a sign by the rest room that stated, "blankets are not paper towels" I think it was a way of saying only flush toilet paper. I think.

oooohhh, not so pretty but earth friendly.

we have two different directions for getting there. AAA triptix has us going NY, NJ on 84. mapquest has us on 95 straight through. Once we hit south Jersey they follow the same route.
if you have an idea of which the the better route would you e-mail me? I don't htink I ever went by 84 but will if it's quicker.

thanks

another option from the Drudge Report, the Drudge Retort

Now I am going to start researching places to eat on the way down.

My Mom and I took G and Ethan to see Meet the Robinson's yesterday (cool animation was it's only plus). we were surprised to see that so much destruction was caused by this storm. Many huge trees on the ground. very sad.


so much work to do. I think we may be in better shape than it looks... it looks pretty bad. down to the nitty gritty details and cleaning. I am not really sure where to start so I'll spend some time here.

we are all very excited to leave. hoping we can track down spring somewhere.

Max's photo's

Exactly

Big

Saddness, ground zero

A root of a tree from 9/11

Hans tells Max all his secrects

Karin and Anilla are cute

This is not a color one would find in nature

View from Anilla's window

Where's Max's head? I see Swathi!

It looks like we have found an answer to our lawn issue, clover. though I do hate the thought of being trendy , it really may work for us. plus, sending the boys out to search for a 4 leaf clover can be a great way to spend a hot summer afternoon.

I am not worried about this at all. nope, not me. not at all.

Max and Karin are due to leave NY Sunday night. I am sure they'll be fine. yes? I know if I suggested they leave early they would be sad. I may just have to make them sad. They are having such a great time though. This morning I was a little sad (therefore I should want to make them sad?) because Max is having such a great time he doesn't' want to talk to me on the phone. I am rambling. sorry, just imaging what college will be like. Maybe I should emotionally cripple him so he stays with me forever. yes, good idea.

Last night I watch the Illusionist. if you have seen it or read the short story please tell me what you thought. I feel a bit disappointed with the happy ending and wondering if that's how it happened in the story. what? you say I should go read the bloody story? umm... okay, another good idea.

this is not us. this is.
sort of cool that there is a Longfellow Books in both Portland's.

i just dropped Max off at the bus stop. He and Karin should get to New York around 12 or 1am.

RIP Mr Vonnegut

big decisions

Max is going to Cheverus. I paid the deposit yesterday. Still sounds strange to my ears but it does feel right. He is very happy. he is going to the jazz concert tonight, checking out his new digs.

We are going to Florida as planned. Ari looked on the Disney website and found a good amount of stuff he'd want to do. plus, we will bring something to protect his hand (bubble wrap?!). Of course we then remembered that the point of this trip was to see family. I can guarantee that they won't jostle his arm. chris's dad has obtained golf carts for the kids to drive. oh my.

shopping is not fun

i tried to get some clothes for our trip today. was able to find the boys some things but I hated everything i saw. At least I hated it on me. didn't' find anything downtown, tried the mall (major yuck), always hear people say they find things at Target. All i found was crap. I guess I am not really sure what I like. i think I need a fashion consultant. Wonder if they do goodwill. That's most likely where I'll end up.

I am wondering if it is Portland or me.

Easter

We had a nice day. The boys has fun coloring eggs and were left beach pails with flip-slop, beach towels and candy.

Regrettably some cracked. we thought they still looked pretty

G loved them all

Then Aidan, and I met up with some friends for a chilly beach romp. the kids played with odds and end they found at the beach. they made a teeter-totter, catapult, measuring devise. Here G is being measured in stones. they did try to catapult G but A. i wouldn't let them and B. it was too low to the ground. Gabriel was very disappointed.

Aidan too

Aaron had his cast changed this morning. He has an S shaped scar on his hand. sort of harry potter-ish. he will have his hand in a sling for about 4 weeks and cannot get it wet nor go on any rides at disney (direct orders from the doc) how's that for disappointing news. I am going to check out the wild animal park and Epcot center for him.

snowstorm in April

so not to get his cast wet Ari wore a bag on his hand


Chris, Ari and G made a way cool fort. it had big walls and compartments

plus perfect snowballs

G even grew some snow freckles

Gabriel said that April had the best April Fools joke ever. We thought it was Spring!

Aaron is doing well. He made it through school yesterday and the pain seems to be lessening.

yay!

Here's Aaron when he just woke from surgery. he had to try to eat some crackers and drink ginger ale. He must keep his hand raised at all time for at least a week and he can not move any of his fingers since he has a screw in his hand and finger movement could upset how they heal.

all in all his is doing great. Last night was tough , I hated it. He could not fall asleep because of the pain. having your son cry himself to sleep and not be able to help his sucks. Though it does remind me to be thankful that it is only his hand and it will get better. we are giving him Tylenol with codeine, it seems to be working better this morning.

The doctors have been amazing. His doctor from the emergency room at Maine Med (Dr Chris Bowe) even called last night to check on him.

Joelle taught me to knit on Sunday. Came in handy yesterday. I really wasn't focused enough to read. knitting is very good activity to do while you worry. I am making Aaron a scarf. i hope anyway. joelle and I only had a few moments before one of the Little's needed us so I have a very basic knowledge. not sure how I started with 40 stitches/loops and now I have 55. it's looking sort of oval. hmmm....

the good:

Ari is in great spirits

we had a wonderful time in Boston despite my feeling like *#!*, The Celtics won and we saw Sammy, Z, Joelle, George then My dad and Michael. While Chris and the boys were at the Garden we went to the North End for dinner. A big thing for me was that I was able to appreciate Boston for the wonderful place it was, miss and still know that we are in the right place. this after I was so sad last night about not getting to go out with Karin and Emmy and thought I would feel determined to find a way to move.

the bad:

we came home to a message from the hand surgeon saying that we should not feed Ari breakfast since he is really unsure that we will be able to avoid surgery.

OUCH

when the swelling in Aaron hand did not go down we took him in for an x-ray on Saturday. Turns out he has a broken hand. According to the the person reading the x-ray, a fabulously broken hand ( this IS Aaron ya know). in the above image you can see that he growth plate is completely out of place on his index finger.

Yesterday afternoon was horrible. Chris had to take him into the hospital where they needed to make the decisions to operate or not. At first they were going to operate, Aaron was very nervous (as you can image, so were the rest of us). The doctor, whose name was Chris Bowe ( a good omen?), then decided that it would be better to see the hand specialist first. We meet with him on Monday, he will do a somewhat non-invasive attempt on fixing his hand (they will numb his arm and obstruct his view). if that does not work he will have to have surgery. I hoep this works.

In the big picture, it could be worse.

we are so lucky for all we have. i must know this every moment of life.

hack ack ack

this cold sucks.... didn't' really sleep last night due to this cough.

Poor Aaron. Yesterday he was over a friends house, they were playing basketball in his yard when the wind knocked the basketball stand over, right on Aaron. I am keeping him home today. he got a pretty big bump on his head and his hand is swollen. The doctor said it sounds like he got a mild concussion and we may need to take him today to check his hand. it's not broken but the swelling has not gone down. How will he do origami?!

I had to cancel everything I had going on today because of the bloody cold. i am going t try to rest as much as possible. I am feeling guilty because there is a lot a need to get done here (besides the normal chores), find the missing negative I need for the book, put together curriculum ideas for the east school and so on.

instead I am obsessed with my back yard. the wood chips either need to be replaced or we need to add a ground covering. of course there is always grass, irish moss doesn't' need as much water but I am not sure how much activity it could handle.

my head hurts...back to bed

in the past week I have read two galley's of mystery type book that take place in Portland. I find that strange. One is by John Connolly which is based entirely in Portland and the other by William Martin which takes place in different parts of New England but he spends a good amount of time in the Old Port (in a fictionious antiquarian bookstore). in the John Connolly book the character is friends with Portlander June Fitzpatrick and was hiding out at one point behind Joe's smoke shop. So bizarre... Is there no escape from this city (or "a city in name only" as stated by one of these book)? When are we getting out of here? I also think it's odd that on one hand I complain about how small this place feels and then on the other I am purposely reading these book because of their relationship to Portland.


in other earth shattering news:

- Chris's has had hte same cold for 3 weeks. Now Aidan & I feel sick. hack hack hack
- if things work out I will see Karin, Emmy, Deb & Stephanie on Saturday night.
- Emmy leaves for Italy soon.
- Max's blue bass is on it's way to the shop for some minor repairs
- G had a horrible day last week. I think he is still feeling bad
- Joelle, Sammy and Z are coming on Friday (unless we need to quarantine the house)
- Aaron has turned this week into the week of many play dates
- Mika and Henry are bored of winter

okay...

i'm doing it.

after saying I wasn't going to do this for years and years I have finally decided to do weddings and portraits. what made me change my mind? 1. kids being old enough 2. finding a partner that I would enjoy working with and 3. it really is a good way to make money. Jennifer and I are currently putting together our information. With my schedule and her classes (she is a senior at MECA) we plan on taking just a few jobs at first but will get more aggressive in a few months. We did start a blog and may hang up a few flyer's locally. Not much on it now. Eventually we'll get a web page going too.

for portland families

Chris's friend Alex is having a kids workshop tomorrow from 10-1.
Sounds like lot's of fun. I think they are working on Cornell like peices. The address is 142 High Street.

yahooooooooooo!!!

Hi this is Aidan! Last week I had baseball tryouts and... I MADE IT!!! I am on B&M Beans! The fart team! Sorry couldn't resist! ;) HA HA!!!!!!

car alarms

an invention straight from the depths of hell. do they really stop people from stealing cars? when I hear them I either want the thief to speed it up or to track down the owner of the car and blow a horn in front of their house for a while. last night a car alarm across the street went on for well over an hour. finally at 11:45 I called the police and were able to track down the owner. I am so tired today. not fun.

before this annoying event Chris and I watched this piece on the art theft and search for hte Isabella Stewart Gardner Museums stolen paintings. Very interesting. had the best collection of characters. watch it if you can.

dumb and dumb

in the same weekend I managed to break mycell phone and Max lost his.

if you have recently upgraded yoru phone and are looking to get rid of your old (must be cingular that takes a certain card) one, please let us know.

things are looking up

Here's the plan for our trip: on our way down we will stop and see Jane in Virginia. we will have 3-4 days with Dad and Charlotte. 2 days in Vero Beach. then we are off to Disney. we have rented a cabin. it is a 5 min boat ride from the main entrance. this way, when the kids have the afternoon meltdown (which is a given at disney) we can go back and eat lunch and swim. From there we head up to Georgia to see Gabriel. then home.

plus when the boys and I went to the Y this morning it wasn't' freezing and we are getting a hardware store right up the street.

Deb tells me that she has spotted cardinals. Spring is on it's way!!

Aidan, Aaron and the boys down the street spend most of yesterday walking around the neighborhood with shovels. they made $5.50 each. Their method. they would spot a house with snow and start shoveling. if the person was home, they'd come out and ask if they were doing it out of the goodness of their heart or for $. the boys answered, "we'll do it for free unless you would like to pay us" (and this happened every time) they made a variety of amounts. one guy, $10.00. one lady cookies (yes, we knew her). Too bad they didn't' do this earlier in the year.

I went to a 70's party last night at Zero Station. Was very fun. I don't' have much in the line of 70's style clothing but was able to put something together. My new hair do was what really pulled it off. someone thought it was a wig.

Words from Max:

I went to poker last night. we didn't' play (as usual) but they did have a cake for me. Jesse gave me a toy dog. I also got some cd's victor wooten, primus and les claypool.

words from Aidan:

Hi, I'm Aidan. I am so cool and the red sox are going to go all the way this year. and....I had baseball tryouts last week. I will find out in one week if I made it.

max said I type so well I could be secretary.

because you need to smile

I could show you the whole episode but I will just post this one song.

I posted about this episode before. i really like musicals. Meg, I did see this as a possible jump the shark moment from your post.

Good thing

we postponed our trip. If not, we would have left eary this morning. The weather is horrible and G is throwing up.

Life is funny sometimes.

i know i'm nuts

so there is no need to remind me.

in my desperate need for guidance I decided to do a tarot spread. I am seeing that it looks like there may be good times ahead, change and success at something that may be seemingly stagnant? how can that be? I am not good at reading my own tarot. Especially when I want something new to happen. a bit out of practice on the whole. thoughts? I e-mailed this to Deb who is so good at reading.

* Deb pretty much got the same thing I did. I like how she narrowed the change bit down:

afraid of change, when change is right and natural now. go where your fears are but be adaptable, flexible.

why?

What am I doing that is so important or time consuming that I have not updated my families blog? nothing. nothing at all. I mean we are doing things. lot's of things. good things. bad things. fun things. boring things. but nothing worth writing about really. I feel like i am doing more preparing the way for things.

max was expelled.

Kidding..... just trying to make us sound more interesting then we really are. actually he told me to write that. he also said he hopes your leg falls off.

Happy Birthday Max!!!

The start of the baseball season

boy. there is nothing better than playing baseball in maine. Especially in March. I am not sure what I enjoy more... searing for the white ball in the snow or having to dig out of the hole it created and is now frozen in.

Max and I took turns sitting in the car. Here I am pitching to Aidan

Here I am ducking when he hits the ball towards me. My big issue with baseball is fear of the baseball. Wimp

This morning Aaron joined us on our morning trek to the Y. he was so cute. when I woke at 5:45 he was pacing in the hallway.

scary movie

this was a good/scary kids movie. check out these movie posters. I wonder if Aaron and G will end up in our bed tonight? hmmm...

Max and Sammy 2 years ago.

We are going to postpone our trip a few weeks due to a going on @ the store. The kids are a bit disappointed but fully understand. we may be able to take a bit more time this way.

that's all I have to report. off to get some work done then I'm in the boys school. fun fun :)

My mornign buddy

Aidan and I have begun going to the Y in the morning. He loves getting up and out while the house is still asleep. While i exercise he plays basketball. This morning he had the gym all to himself, when I went to go get him he was running around, shooting hoops with a big smile on his face.
We tried to wake Max, didnt' work out to well... sort of like trying to wake a bear.

boys in snow

On Friday we had another snow day. second of the season. Last time there were barely any cars on the road I let the boys play with our neighbor in the snow banks. they stayed out most of the day creating their own world out of snow our little street. This time there seemed to be more activity on the street so they had to stay in a yard. (they did find a tree to climb in a neighbors yard until she started screaming that it was her tree and she was going to call the police on them. Guess they didnt' understand that when I said yard I meant ours or their friends). They ended up in our yard building this hungry snowman. He was very cute. sorry I didn't take a better photo, that would have involved me getting dressed and that just wasn't happening. Today he is a pile of sticks, olives and stones. poor snowman.

it's very cold again today. I can feel the money seeping out the windows.

It seems so strange that Max is almost 14. 14. 14 years old. CRAZY

Chris has not smoked for 18 days.

sometimes i wish there was an adult in the house

When Chris and I were first married we decided to move to CA. This very large decision was done over a bottle of wine (or two) and the non refundable one way tickets were purchased that evening. We almost moved to Seattle but changed our mind since my mom lived in San Diego. That turned out to be a great experience but one would think that we would have learned to put more thought into decisions. Up until now we have been pretty good about this. Last night we bought tickets and are moving to Cork, Ireland in 3 mos.

kidding... though I would love to do it. seriously.

a week or so ago we decided to take a road trip to FL. It sounded like such a great time that night and the kids are so excited. Now that we are actually putting it into action I realize that it's nuts. this is going to be a whirlwind trip. 1 night here, 1 night there, 2 night here and angry family members who feel they are being slighted.

why? why? why?

plus... the thought of leaving Henry in a kennel was just to disturbing for us so we decided that we were going to take him with us. has anyone ever taken a dog on a road trip?

maybe I should have someone house sit.

this weekend

was a nice end to the school break. Karin came up and she and Max were able to get out to dinner and go to the Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng reading. Yesterday we were to have a day to ourselves but G wasn't feeling well (the night before and in the morning. course was fine by 9am) so our plan was altered a bit. So he joined us for lunch and when Karin took me to get my eyebrows waxed @ Akari. is it strange that I found it incredibly peaceful? Enjoyable even.

I am concerned that G and Max are lactose intolerant. Let me change that, I know G is and think Max is. I am taking away all dairy for a week. Max is miserable, he really loves dairy. I hope for his sake he isn't'. or... I hope he is like Matt and can still eat yogurt and drink that lactose free milk (he HATES soy milk as much as I hate cow milk).

it's almost Max's b'day. 14 years old. Because of Florida and NY he is going to nix the b'day party this year. He has requested I make the dinosaur cake I made him when he was 4. this should be interesting.

We lose out again

Here it is a week after Whole Foods opened here in Portland. I was excited about the money we residents would save from their price wars.... not happening. Now that Whole Foods bought out Wild Oats there will be no price wars... Wild Oats is due to close in 3 mos (what I heard from a employee at local store). So now we have no local store, no price wars, no Trader Joe's.

* Update*

I just read that W.O.'s may stay open for longer than I first heard. Still I am sad that W.F.'s is such a mega corporation. Buying out it's competitors.

scrotum scrotum scrotum scrotum

So the ridiculous ride that The Higher Power of Lucky the 2006 Newberry award winner has been on found it's way into The New York Times (there is follow up dialogue on this in the papers more recent letters. I am a bit late in putting this on the blog....sorry). This is a wonderful book that is being censored by librarians because it uses the word scrotum on the first page. Of course if they read the book beyond the first page their opinions may change. It's a story of a young girl searching for truth.

My family loved the book and Gabriel's reaction to finding out the meaning of the offending word. He fell off his chair laughing.

more confusion

We had a wonderful time in Boston. Karin's event was crowded but great. The museum is beautiful and she looked lovely!
The evening before, Joelle, Karin and I saw a great movie . I know what you are thinking... me seeing a movie while it's still in the theatres. shocking. I really loved the movie but the last scene really bothered me. Karin too. guess it wasn't actually the last scene but how they lingered on the last shot.
The kids had a blast with their cousins. was able to spend some time with Deb. Saw Janice and Emmy for a moment. (hopefully I will see Emmy before she leaves for Italy ). Watched dumb tv with mom and Eva.
I miss them so much. On the drive home to Portland I felt so sad. Aidan asked again, why can't we live closer to family. I play these scenarios over and over in my head.... us trying to pay Boston prices, finding a community with good schools, the over crowded everything, more stores for me to wish I could shop in but can't afford. These are all good reasons for not living there...it just seems to get harder and harder. I love Portland. it is my home. I just miss my other home.

checking out the new store

I finally made it over to the new market in town. We now have a Whole Foods. On the whole I like it but I like the feel of Wild Oats better. It's smaller, nicer colors and the layout is easier to navigate. The store brand is very reasonably priced and they did have lot's of options. I didn't have time to get something from the non-grocery area but will try that soon.
That's my story for the day.

oh my...

this cracks me up...

Batman Sighting Puts Schools on Lockdown


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- To an Arizona middle school, Batman! Three schools in the north Phoenix suburb of Cave Creek were on lockdown for about 45 minutes Wednesday morning after a student at Desert Arroyo Middle School reported seeing a person dressed as Batman run across campus, jump a fence and disappear into the desert, Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said.
The student described the person as 6 feet 3 inches tall and possibly male.
"We're assuming it was male, although they did have a mask on," Clark said.
Officers combed the desert around the middle school. A nearby elementary school and high school also were on lockdown as officers sought the caped crusader.
The result - no Batman.
"It's just one of those interesting little stories that we looked into but we couldn't find anyone," Clark said.
Nedda Shafir, a spokeswoman for the Cave Creek Unified School District, said putting all the schools on lockdown was a precautionary measure.
"We didn't want to take any chances," Shafir said. "We just don't want to put anyone at risk."

Look what the Valentine BunnyClaus brought us

This weekend Joelle, Sammy and Z were here. So much fun. We are all so crazy in love with them. I am really sad we are not closer. I wish we were around the corner from them and Ethan.

Sammy was obsessed with Ari guitar.

Aidan said that when they are around he feels younger because it reminds him of when Ari and G were babies. I must say that having htem around does give me a new appreciation for how self sufficient my are.

I heart PhotoMarket

They fixed my camera.

I am happy

oh... the sorrow

i know i said I would post happy things but that was before this:

last night I wanted to take some test shots of Ethan for the proposal I am working on and discovered that my camera does not work. I have narrowed it down to a why but not sure if it can be fixed. I will take it in tomorrow. I have heard that if it is possible to fix it could cost between $350-500. Since my the technology of my camera is a bit passe it would not be a good choice. But I cannot afford a new camera. I do not think I can live without a camera. What if I get a job? What if this book happens?


I love my camera. My brother and father bought it for me.

watch this

pretty amazing/sad. I sometimes think we are further ahead than we really are.

Seems I have posting depressing stuff lately. Here is some good news:

- Max is better
- Chris and G did get the flu but it didnt' last long
- My Mom and Ethan are here
- We are going to order a pizza for dinner and make smoothies
- Karin's job seems good

I am sure that there is more good things to report but that's all I can think of right now.