China Philips

I cannot get over how repulsive a personality China Philips has! I am absolutely STUNNED anyone would even stand NEXT to her! How was she ever part of a BAND?! I just had to get that out. Whew.

Apple Picking

We made it to an apple orchard (Conant's to be exact) for Maine Apple Sunday and had a blast. We picked three large brown paper bags worth of Cort's and Mac's, picked up some cheese and got a picture of Doug with the General Lee (thank you Wendi for help with the name!). :)
Zari put about 3 apples in a bag and then said she was done and sat down and age two apples under the tree...endless amounts of adorable right there. She was EXTREMELY EXCITED at the idea of going apple picking, but I guess the actual ACT of picking apples isn't that thrilling because then she asked to sit in the car so she could watch her DVD. LOL Oh well. We went to the store and got her a balloon and bought some locally made coffee and cheddar cheese <sooooo good with apples!> and headed the 20 minutes back home. I'm in process of making applesauce, and I need to find those little cinnamon red hot candies so I can make some spiced apple rings and other goodies. Has anyone seen those lately? I'm almost thinking the dollar store might have some?? I'll also be making more pie filling.. I canned blueberry a week ago and now I'll do apple, after that no more pie filling. I may do some different jams for gift giving, but other than that this canner is going BACK IN THE BASEMENT I'M DONE. lol I don't know how the ladies did it years ago but holy moly it's alot of work putting up food!
Zari started her second round of swim lessons this past weekend with her swim buddy Blaze that we  met last year in swim class. The changes in the two kids is astounding! LOL They actually notice each other this year! At one point Blaze was trying to sneak a feel of Zari's hand and leg, I just about died it was so adorable LMAO Zari pulled away and was all WHHHAAAAT do you think you're doing?! Ha! Both kids seemed to have retained what they learned last year, and I know I can speak for Zari and say that she is much more brave in terms of putting her face in the water. I even dunked her all the way under once. She had her mouth wide open laughing but didn't take in any water.. I didn't dare push it though. The instructor says to blow hard in their face right before dunking them to get them to close their mouth and eyes and hopefully NOT take in water. Zari also blew bubbles in the water which I couldn't get her to do last year to save my life! She also kicked her little legs the ENTIRE TIME we played "pick up the balls in the water" game that she adores so much. During our free time we played Humpty Dumpty ALOT so that she could climb up the pool wall and "jump" into the water. She went almost all the way under a few times doing this, and again, did fantastic! I'm thankful, and will feel much relieved when she earns her fish fins. Now if only she could breathe under water I'd feel much better! My grandmother had a hard and fast no water over the belly button rule as a child. Which is really okay with me since lakes and oceans get pretty freaking in the yuck department.
Oh oh oh I got Zari a tricycle at the thrift store today for $3. The new one I've had my eyes on is $40 locally...so $3 was a "no brainah". I also got some SUPER COOL MARTHA GREEN (Read: Jadite colored) melamine vintage coffee cups... I got 8 for myself and another 4 for Zari to play with lol. Or yeah..12 for me. And a cute wire closing jar with a retro "Popcorn" inscribed on the front. And a vintage strawberry/mushroom/egg slicer... I bought a new one a few years ago used it once and broke it. So I've never gotten to have the fun of slicing hard boiled eggs like they do in restaurants! It's the small things, folks.
My tomato plants have almost had it. I canned one batch of salsa last weekend and have a ton of fresh tomatoes on the kitchen table waiting for me to do something with.. I'm thinking Mark Bittmans Tomato Onion Salsa (YUM!) We ate GALLONS of the stuff last summer with the tomatoes from my in laws. SO GOOD!
I went to the chiro today for my ongoing back problems since "The Fall", and let a swear word slip when she had me on the table LOL needless to say the back cracking hurt, and it continued to hurt all the car ride back to work, and then while I was complaining about it hurting to my coworkers..it stopped. And then it felt GOOD! And I've been AMAZED all day about what I've been able to do without pain. I seriously cannot believe it. So very thankful..although sweet JESUS I HOPE I DON'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH PAIN LIKE THAT AGAIN TO GET HERE. It was the first time I've had it hurt while there...usually she uses a gadget on me, and the one other time I was on the table it didn't hurt. Holy Hannah I'm getting prickles just thinking about it! Eek! Anyways..another appointment on Friday, keeping my fingers crossed!
On the potty training front, Zari hasn't gone in our potty in weeks. We also haven't been home much, even on work day evenings. But she went yesterday! A biiiiiiiig ol' river of pee came streaming from that child much to every ones delight. I started ANOTHER potty chart (the 3rd and really into
I think that's all the news for now...at least all that I want to take time writing about before I have to run! Pictures later when I get some more time.
Hmm.. "alot" still isn't a word, hmm? Oh well.

Mini Vacation

My hectic summer work schedule has ended - I survived with only minor mental trauma - and we celebrated by staying with family and taking Zari to the Maine Wildlife Park.  If it involves animals, we all enjoy it. It was a nice secluded, open space. "Crowds" were extremely manageable - and they had a nice variety of animals. About halfway through we turned around to look and see what made this horrendous honking...only to find a rogue goose walking around as if he owned the place. Shortly after we found the peacock enclosure. They had a male and female and a few baby peacocks, funny little things that look like baby chicks with long necks. They had a feed machine and for .25 cents we fed the...chipmunks. The peacocks wanted nothing to do with our offerings, but those chipmunks were aggressive hoarding our corn...I saw one even take the corn directly from a young child's hand. Am I the only other parent that thinks that was stupid? Anyways...I took a few hundred pictures of the turtles sunning themselves, then we visited the fish hatchery where we all had a great time feeding the fish. I've always loved feeding fish at fish hatcheries, seeing them swarm and jump is very exciting and Zari enjoyed it very much...that is, when her food actually made it INTO the water. We need to work on teaching her to NOT throw like a girl. Because right now she's definitely got my arm! Lucky for her she has Doug's legs. :)

Sadly the day after we returned from our mini vacation my parents-in-laws dog died. The morning after Doug explained to Zari that Rusty had died, and that means he's not coming back. Unfortunately being 2 years old this obviously isn't satisfactory and she's asked me a few times now where Rusty is. Today when dropping her off at my MIL's she saw Grampy's truck in the driveway and said "Grampy and Rusty are home!" ...er...no.

Tomatoes! 3 plants fell over during the hurricane, and I had to harvest 4 completely green ones (currently residing on the windowsill) because a branch of one plant broke off while I was trying to stake it back upright..but everyone seems to be doing well - and we had no damage to our home. A piece of my neighbors tree fell on a fence...honestly I don't know WHICH neighbors tree it is, but the branch is mostly in our yard...and on this fence that is owned by the guy next door.. anyways no one has done anything with it..possibly because no one else but me realizes it's on this guys fence. OH WELL

I hope Bruen's Tree Service is keeping track of the referrals I've been sending them..our neighbors in the back had a couple very large trees fall on their neighbors fence and HOUSE. Scary stuff!

So back to tomatoes.. I have a small stash of harvested tomatoes...Unfortunately it's small so I don't think I have enough to really go through the trouble of making salsa or sauce and canning it... But I'm also chomping at the bit to make blueberry jam. I wish home canned food lasted longer than a year..for all the work I'd like it go last a food 5 years rather than the 1.

I'm getting the furnace cleaned tomorrow. It's hard to believe it's that time of year again. I should probably clean all the Cheerios out of the registers before he comes tomorrow... I wonder if he'll find any crayons or cat toys when he goes to clean the filter?

We took a break on potty training while we were away...when we got back to our normal schedule on Monday Zari ASKED her Grammy if she could use the potty, and then went on to put so much pee in the potty that Grammy started to worry a little bit because she wasn't STOPPING lol
I believe she asked the other Grammy the next day if she could use the potty too..She's coming along, that kid. :)

I put a top sheet in her crib...She's had a fleece blanket that I've caught her ACTUALLY USING...so I thought now would be a good time to introduce a sheet as well. I bought a down comforter for this winter...it's an LL Bean comforter I got from Goodwill, it's been washed and dried twice and it's still in one piece so that's good. She loves "my" green blanket that is an "alternative down" lap blanket..it's really good for playing hide and seek and peekaboo with. I like it because it's "Martha Green", from my massage office when I had such a thing, and the warmest lap blanket we own. Doug is forever trying to steal it, but I won't let him. But I DO let Zaria. She's so spoiled I know. ;) Anyways I think because of her green blanket love she'll hopefully take to the down comforter just as well. Exciting times in her crib! I still cannot get her to use a pillow to save my life. She'll read like 2 pages of a book on a pillow and then toss both out of the crib.

One last Zari tidbit... We went shopping at Old Navy the other night and she saw some pink shoes   and asked for them! She's on her third pair of pink shoes now...We've tried to be very careful about not pushing pink on her...and she doesn't care about it for anything else, but when it comes to footwear she really likes her pink shoes. Her favorite color is actually green... She's very happy to use the green crayon, to search for the green car that lives by my MIL's house, to eat a green (pistachio) muffin, receive a green balloon, etc.

Well that felt good, I had a lot swimming around in there. Thanks for the mind dump everyone! And I hope you had fun reading about my daughters pee, and her favorite color and her love of pink shoes. =P

My little musician

<Having technical difficulties with the video I'm trying to upload. It might be too big? That's my best guess. Anyways this post is fairly meaningless without it. I'll keep trying...>

This one's for you Ellie! Yesterday Zari said she was "going to play music like Ellie", and she started drumming on my food dehydrator and singing. She's always been very shy about singing in front of an audience, so this is an EXTRA special video.. She usually won't let me take video or pictures of her when she's feeling shy, so this is THREE times extra special.. Sorry for the hyperactive mom chatter in the background.. I get a little nuts when she gets super cute. :)

Yard sale goodness

I had a phenomenal day with my friend Wendi and her family at their camp... and have just tasted the frosting on this cake of goodness. I bought a Sony turn table at a yard sale today..it's not very old, 8 years, so it's newer than any other record player I've ever come in contact with. I now have a way to play my childhood record collection! I have records from the 70's that were my brothers that I inherited, as well as my all time favorite "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" record with read-a-long-book. I love this Winnie the Pooh so much that I frequently watch this video on YouTube because I feel nostalgic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbyO-iPb7xo
Zari has good taste as well and doesn't need to be forced to watch this with me. :)
So now I have an awesome tan/burn glow from being in the sun, my Sim Social Meter is full, and I have a record player and will now become one of those snobs that only buys records. The only thing that sucks about these is how short they are LOL I'm finding I have to get off my rear quite often to changes sides or correct something. Yes yes, laugh at me... BUT I HAVE A RECORD PLAYER AND YOU DON'T!
Oh and as we speak I'm using last weeks yard sale purchase..(or rather a few weeks back) my food dehydrator.. I'm dehydrating the massive bunch of Chives my mom helped me harvest from her garden. What a good, GOOD day! :)
And tomorrow my FIL is supposed to help my husband install our front screen/storm door! Yeay! :)

"Look at my beautiful potatoes!"

We gave the potato barrel a tip and she poured out 5.8 lbs of organic homegrown potatoes!! My mom and Zari were with me, both enthusiastic, both adorable and helpful. I can't tell you how fun it is to play hide and seek with your homegrown garden produce!

Originally I planted 6 potato "eyes" in the barrel...we saw plenty of examples of baby potatoes that would've kept growing had we let it go longer. Next year I'll try and wait a few more weeks...I doubt I can do it though :)

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.