It's been a busy two weeks! The car woes continued, but came to a clean end...the shiny red car has passed inspection for another year with MORE new tires in her near future. Oh well. I much rather have a few hundred dollars than a few thousand in car repairs.
Some of my summer groups at work have ended but a laaaarge one started this week...30+ kids with me and 1 helper...it was rough, but we made it through. Now I only need to do that 2 more times this month before I can relax before the real work insanity starts. Speaking of which it's been nuts today because I fell at work on Tuesday and have been submitting all the necessary paperwork today...this has involved a lot of typing, phone calls and using the fax machine. Now my supervisor has to make an appointment for me to see the work approved doctors before they'll pay for my chiropractor visit. Luckily the place they want me to go to is right around the corner from my office, so at least it's not far.
We took Zari to the fair twice while it was in town..the first time we went with my parents and she had a great time..I almost think the novelty of having Grammy ride in the backseat WITH her was almost as fun as going to the actual fair.. So during these two trips she got to ride a pony (twice), pet a bunny (she got a ribbon for bunny petting), see a Rattlesnake show, see a Sea Lion, watch the lumberjacks and play inside the Toddler Area that had a bunch of Step 2 brand toy's for the Littles to unwind with. She would ride in the little cars for about two seconds before saying "I'm Done!" hoping out and then into the next car, riding in it for 2 seconds, hoping out and..well you know the rest.. There were like a dozen cars that she did this to. She also got her "drivers license" here.
We didn't go on any rides.. My office gets free tickets, but the tickets don't include rides, and she's probably too little anyways..so we were happy to stay off (especially momma who gets motion sick in her old age). Doug tried a fried Snickers bar and fried macaroni and cheese. And we got a really yummy $8.00 fresh squeezed lemonade that was sooo yummy. We've been drinking lemonade all summer..but cheating by using the bottled lemon juice and splenda..so this tasted particularly spectacular.
Last Saturday was my brothers birthday (38 years old...seriously?! I might have to start calling him a MAN now instead of a BOY) =P After a celebratory lunch at my parents house we took Zari home for a nap and then went to our second fair trip...we got home at 8:30 (bedtime is 7:30) and she didn't go to bed until 10pm. We paid for it the next two days. But I'm happy to report that the child is now sweet and lovable again. Boy oh boy she was nuts. Happy one second crying the next, throwing a tantrum after that... it was rough. I looked at Doug at one point and said "I hope this is just her recovering from the fair and not The Terrible Twos"!
Potty training is slow going. She seems to be doing well at Grammy Rolnicks..going pee on the potty almost once every day there. It has been going at home...she's earning lots of stickers for trying...but hasn't put anything in for I want to say a week or two now. Honestly I've been exhausted and haven't been pushing the issue (as you probably SHOULDN'T anyways)...plus we're hoping to go away for a few days in a couple weeks and I already know I'm going to keep her in pull ups the whole time so I kind of don't want to get her trained and then stick her back in the pull ups. Confusing? Yes.
My garden is now in stage 3... We've harvested twice I've planted the third round of fall crops.. my sweet parents bought me zucchini to fill my zucchini void and I'm hopefully going to make zucchini "crab" cakes today or tomorrow.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/connies-zucchini-crab-cakes/detail.aspx
I've planted a bunch of Chinese cabbage varieties, kale, bunching onions for spring harvesting as well as beans, radishes, and the two varieties of carrots. I'm super excited about the bok choy varieties I planted too...that stuff is so damn yummy. Just put it in some chicken broth and I'm happy as a pig. And eating like one! Har har :)
We're hoping to visit Wendi and family this Saturday "upta camp" (always wanted to say that) I'm super excited to drive through the small towns I've heard my friend Theresa talk about so much.. Doug and I are big fans of small towns and their small stores...Lately I've been seeing these "You know your from __suchandsuch town___ if you remember..." groups on facebook..and all these people (20+) years older than me are remembering all these small town stores that used to be in my hometown.. I remember a few of them..but it makes me so sad I didn't really realize how much we depend on Walmart, Lowes and Hannaford in our town. Our town used to be fairly self sufficient.. we had our own movie theater, drive in theater, roller rink...and tons of other stores...now we go to Bangor if we need something, or one of the big box stores now located in our town...when I realized that it made me so sad...and I think I'm going to try buying local...at least within Maine for Xmas this year.. I'm hoping on making a lot of my items anyways so that will help offset the cost of the local items that are more expensive. This isn't a hard and fast rule of mine..just something I want to explore.. I've been such a hermit these past few years (Who am I kidding, MY ENTIRE LIFE) that I don't even know what is in our "Downtown" for shops..and I'd like to help out the little guy...the little guy that reminds me of what my town used to be like!
Oh! And we think a place that the facebookers have been talking about might've been owned by my husbands grandfather and uncle (they passed away before he was born)..so that's kind of neat.
