October Fun - Part 3

The NEXT fun weekend quickly followed when Aaron's parents (hereby to be referred to as Grandma and Grandpa) flew in two days later.

Here is the run down from their trip.

Wednesday I picked them up and then picked Aaron up from work and we ate burritos from Anna's Taqueria on the way home.

Thursday: Grandma and I hit the fabric store in the am to prep for Halloween costumes, then they watched Tessa while Aaron accompanied me to a doctor's appointment*, then Aaron, G-ma, G-pa and Tessa hit the Saugus Iron Works again (luckliy Tessa is a good sport about seeing things 2x in one month!) while I did some work.

Friday: Everyone but me went and looked at pretty fall leaves while I got started on Halloween costumes for that night's Trunk-or-Treat party at our church. When they got home the prep continued. That night, obviously, we went to the party.

...three drivers?!

My entry in the "Scary Cake" contest...I was assured by the organizers that if there had been a 2nd prize I would have won it...
Check out the winning cake here...silly Mormon jokes ;)

The Three Bears

Saturday: Train show in Hingham, caught a view of the City from Hull (and ate yummy pizza at random sandwich shop), and tried to take the tour of the Adam's National Historic Park - unfortunately their website wasn't lying when they said "because of the recent release of the documentary, weekend tours sell out fast." We did get to take a tour of the Presidential crypt though (a very reverent experience I think) and then look around the grounds of the Adam's "big" house. Well, Aaron and his folks did. Poor Tessa fell asleep 3.5 minutes before we got there so I sat with her, I've already seen the John Adam's site (and in case I haven't recommended it to you - GO!)

Sunday: Church, lunch and a tour of Marblehead...sound familiar?

I love love love this picture!

Monday: Our original Monday plans were either too far afeild or closed so we headed to Ikea. We got some GREAT deals in the "as-is" department. Hopefully I actually use the stuff we bought and can post about it later. Then we killed just a bit of time by walking around the lake in Wakefield. By this time Tessa was completely into the "having four adults pay complete attention to her" vibe and loved loved loved the park there. We were killing time before going to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner...oh...I ate SO much that I could only manage a bite or two of chocolate cake dessert. Can you believe it?

Tuesday: Aaron had to head back to work but Grandma, Grandpa, Tessa and I drove to Lowell to see the National Park site there as well as the New England Quilt Museum. We had originally also planned to see the Trolley Museum but it was only open on Thursday through Saturday...darn. We made up for it by going to Subway for lunch.

Wednesday was get up early and go to the airport day.

Another whirlwind of a week!

*Third clue here people!

October Fun - Part 2

The second fun weekend in October quickly followed Columbus day weekend.

My old roomate/college buddy Jen came for her annual New England Fall Getaway. The original plan was that she and I would run the "Witch City 5k" together...but I bailed out.* But we still did a lot of stuff. Hum...lets see if I can remember...

Thursday: Saugus Iron Works and PEM.

Friday: USS Constitution, lunch with Aaron at Wagamama, Museum of Fine Arts

Saturday: Boston Harbor Islands, the tail end of the South End Historical Society House Tour, dinner at Salem Beer Works (complete with an hour wait for a table and some baseball watching time).

Sunday: Jen ran the 5k...Tessa and I were in charge of pictures. These included me forgetting to turn the "record" function off after the beginning of the race, a few blurry "action" shots, and then a nearly perfect "finish line" shot of the timing clock...would have been more perfect if another runner hadn't moved into the line of sight. So...apparently I am not the professional photographer I thought I was. We made homemade Indian food (some sort of curry) that afternoon (picture of all our yummy ingredients below) and then went to Marblehead and found a Fort that I've never seen before. Having Jen visit is good for that.



Monday: House of Seven Gables, hotdogs from Boston Hot Dog company and then to the airport for Jen's trip home.

I'm sort of freaking out because I took a bunch of photos that I can't find...where oh where could they be?

*Clue #2

Doctor Overdose

Today I ended up going to three doctor's appointments.

Aaron had a sinus infection and so I gave him a ride to the doc at 8:00, then to the subway.

Quincy has been vomiting so off to the vet he went at 2:00.

And between those I had a doctor's appointment at 10:30*.

I wonder if Tessa knows how lucky she is/that she is being left out...actually, she has a pedi appointment sometime soon, I better find out when. I have to get her blood drawn before I take her...quadruple ugh...Aaron? You wanna do it?

*Clue #1

You know...

I was just realizing that I have a pretty good group of readers that comment on my blog, even if I what I write is mindless rambling. Thanks!

October Fun - Part 1

"Have you been to the Fair?" In how many towns across the country do you hear that question? I guess despite our incredible sophistication there is something inherent in our make-up that draws us the the wholesome goodness of the fair.

Well, goodness, except for the occasional shyster that tries to steal $10 from an innocent passerby/patron by using the ol' "Oh no, you only gave me a $10" trick. Luckily for this innocent passerby (you know of whom I speak) his wife was there to, in her sweetest, nicest voice demand the correct change back. Close one...that almost obliterated all possible enjoyment our day at the fair.

Other than fair food (you know in all actuality the "going rate" for fair food itself is a bit of a con act) our main goal in going to the fair was to show Tessa the animals in the petting zoo.

She was completely put off but the rooster who pecked at daddy's hand. But the bigger animals were okay by her and she tried to pat each one.



We forgot to go back and get a picture of Tessa next to the giant pumpkin. Obese veggies are apparently a fair favorite. But we did get to ride on a school bus which billed itself as a "shuttle" from an "economy" parking lot at the highschool. This picture, and the one with Tessa pushing the stroller show exactly how thrilled she was by the time we ended up leaving. We are lucky that when she gets overwhelmed it exhibits itself in out of control silliness instead of a more standard grumpiness.





Here are two pictures of the garden exhibit. The "greener" one is for my dad...this tree is really cool and the layout was very peace inspiring. I think would look great in an indoor pond (I have more pics if you are interested)...



And here is my attempt to copy a photo layout that Alicia did when we were in Palmyra...Alicia, how come you never posted the original pic on your blog?



And now moving a little into random territory:

We went to the Fair on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend. On Monday Aaron went to work but invited us into the City to go to lunch with him and some co-workers. I was pretty much in heaven after getting to play all day Saturday and THEN have a lunch date on Monday. That afternoon Tessa and I played in the backyard - I took pics because her coat is sooo cute!







Tessa is such a good example - one day a few weeks ago she spend most of the morning reading an Ensign magazine.



And finally - we feel it is our duty as good parents and design professionals to teach our daughter that sometimes you have to pay good money for good art. Here she is handing over the plastic in exchange for "Tower of Learning" by A. Udy.

What excuse...

What excuse shall I use for my lack of blogging and general lack of creative motivation in general? Believe it or not I have tons - TONS - of wonderful ideas of cute, fun, educational activities to do but absolutely NONE of them have been implemented. I think that at this point the thought does not count. I get no credit for thought.

But anyway, we just had a visitor over the weekend (someday a post with photos will follow) and I am headed to the airport to pick up the next round of visitors (someday a post with photos will follow).

Living where in live (you know where) + it being October = My Excuse.

Lucky in love

This picture is not an uncommon one at our house. Am I enforcing bad behavior by letting Tessa pull the DVDs out of the cabinet? I don't really know, but it doesn't seem like it is worth the hassle to STOP her since it is not going to ruin the carpet, or hurt her, and frankly, if one of the DVDs gets ruined, well we probably won't ever watch it again anyway.


But wait...what is this...


Did my 18 month old STACK all of those DVDs gently next to the chest? I can assure you she did not!

I think the culprit can be quickly identified. If it wasn't Tessa, me, or Quincy - the logical, yet alarming conclusion is that it was the 31-year old male member of the family, who obviously thought if it was okay for the not yet 2 year old to do it, then it was okay for him. (I mean sometimes you just CAN NOT find anything to watch...and then you are expected to clean up after yourself!?)

Anyway - it is kind of petty for me to post this considering it happened a few weekends ago and he did (eventually) clean it up. And it is beyond petty when you find out that last night he spent all evening doing a deep clean of the living room in preparation for the 3 weeks of visitors we'll be having for the rest of this month. I have to say, it looks a-MAZ-ing!

While he was cleaning he found a note...written to me on 4/21/1994. It was unsigned and I don't recognize the handwritting from 14 years in my past (YIKES I'M OLD!) It was a chain letter that I was to "copy word for word and give it to 7 (double underline) girls in 4 (another double underline) days. Remember No (double underline) boys." Then on the "4th day drink a glass of milk and say a guy's name 5 (you guessed it, double underline) times." If I did this he would ask me out within 6 days, but if not I would have bad luck in love foRevEr!

Do you remember the part of this post when Aaron spent all evening cleaning the living room? I guess we can surmise that, although I didn't have a date invitation when I was 14, I must have followed the instructions because that doesn't sound like bad luck at all!

VP Debates

I hereby proclaim: I think either political candidate would make a good** president.

Though they each have things I disagree with, and though there is one who more closely matches my beliefs and addresses my concern than the other* I am pleased to say that I feel both presidential candidates will do a good job. I am unbelievably pleased and surprised to realize, and strongly believe, that for once we are not choosing between the lesser of two evils.

I wanted to post my impressions of the VP debates before I heard any commentary by the press because I was so impressed by the results. You could easily argue that the bar was set low, and that may color my opinions. However, in reality the VP candidates were leaps and bounds above the presidential candidates in terms of clarity, focus, and of course one of my pet characteristics, civility. And, shock of all, they seemed to follow the actual debate format that I learned in high school (time limits, rebuttals, next question). In terms of stating their principle's platform clearly they both did a good job and I feel like I can be confident that I understand the differences between the tickets. And like a breath of fresh air, they admitted that they agreed on certain issues. Agreement, you are kidding right?!

With one more month to go I hope I still feel confident about either candidate on election day (come on press, don't ruin it for me.) Of course ultimately I hope I feel this way four years from now...

*ha ha, not telling who, care to guess?

**whatever that entails

Unremarkable Me

(This is a tag...not (just) me bagging on myself)

1. I make plans to exercise but don't.
2. I eat breakfast.
3. I waste time on the internet.
4. I can drive.
5. Some times I take a deep breath, just because.
6. I'm right handed.

If there is anything unremarkable about you as well,
I encourage you to blog about six of them.