You know those t-shirts that say "Life is good"? Well, I think they should make ones that say "Life is Crazy", because it really is. The summer just flew by and now Fall is right around the corner. Tomorrow will be my third week "officially" back to work, we've owned our house now for a month and a half, I'm almost 19 weeks pregnant, the race is over with, and life is busy, busy, busy!!!
Friday Barney and I went down to Baystate Hospital in Springfield for an ultrasound. The baby is healthy and very active :) Every time the technician would place the wand on my stomach the baby would push it away. The baby was also laying with it's arms behind it's head. We got to look at the heart, the kidneys, the stomach, and the brain. We have some great photos that I will try to scan sometime this week so that I can post them. This baby definitely already has a personality all it's own :) And for all of you people out there wondering if we are going to find out the sex of the baby the answer is no. And we also have not decided on any names. Tomorrow is my check-up with my regular doctor.
Barney and I have been plugging along on the yard. He removed some bushes that I felt were hideous, one of which my mom informed me was the Connecticut state flower, the Mountain Laurel. I told her she could have it! Next weekend we will lay the rock path on the side of the house. Today Barney cut down part of our Rose of Sharon bush, although it looks more like a tree, that was growing sideways. We also ripped out a bunch of the sweet pea plants that have overgrown the garden. There is also a brick boarder around the house that Barney has been digging out of the yard. I'm not sure if we will use the bricks for anything. Next we will borrow the weed whacker from Gary again to cut down a lot of the plants before we start digging out the roots. Our goal is to have a clean slate for the springtime. I'm going to create an album in our shutterfly account just for house pictures, in case anyone wants to see the progress.
Speaking of my shutterfly account, it's been forever since I have added pictures to the site and I have a ton!! Hopefully I will be able to spend some time this week updating the pictures.
Yesterday was the Jail Break 5k walk and race that Barney has been planning for quite a while now. I am so pleased that everything went well the day of the race and that things seemed to run smoothly. Barney took Friday off from work to go with me to the ultrasound and then to run errands for the race day. He had to pick up the t-shirts, pick up the road cones, and get the bags together for the pre-registred runners. After he was done with everything we headed over to Roberto's on Federal Street in Greenfield for Dinner. I had the stuffed shells with pizza sauce, it's one of my favorites :)
On the day of the race Barney was up and out of the house by 6:00. It was raining really hard and I just kept hoping the rain would let up. Kaitlyn and I were up around 7:00 and did some housework before setting out around 9:00 for the race. Luckily the rain had stopped! Kaitlyn walked, well strolled, in the race with Austin, Mandy and Connor. They started at 9:30. The race started at 10:00, I was so nervous that I thought I was going to puke. A few minutes before 10 a cruiser and a van came out of the parking lot with their sirens wailing. Three "inmates" got out of the back of the van and started running down the race route. If you were able to "Catch the Crooks" (meaning come in before all 3) then you received a special award at the end of the race. I was no where near being able to "Catch the Crooks". We were all lined up on Elm Street waiting for the race to start and when it did people took off! I remember thinking to myself "why are these people going so fast" and "there is no way I can do this". Luckily one of our friends, Scott Waldron, signed up for the race with the sole purpose of keeping me going. There was no way I could have done the race without him. I would have been mentally defeated and wanted to have thrown in the towel. He kept me going the whole way by just jibberjabbing in my ear and listening to me ramble on at times. I reached the first mile marker at 12:50 and was at the second mile marker around 26:00. I could not believe how well I was doing as I had never moved that quickly while training. Then came my downfall, the hill. After the hill I knew I could finish the race, but there was no way I could run the rest of the way. I was spent, my body was exhausted. Baby was wondering what was going on. Scott just kept talking to me, I had the golf cart and a cruiser behind me, and another cruiser beside me! Then I saw something great. Liz and Dawn had come out to meet me and run me in. I was so excited to see them and just overwhelmed at that moment. Then as we got closer Barney and Kevin came out to run in with me as well. When I turned the corner to run up, yes up, to the finish line everyone who had finished, well everyone in the race because I was last, was there to cheer me on. I was a little embarrassed and covered my face. Then I just kept running right to the bathroom because I had to pee so badly!!!
I've never felt so proud of myself before and I could tell Barney was really proud of me as well. This is something I've wanted to do for a while and it was soooo hard!! There were so many days I wanted to quit or felt down about my progress, but Barney and Kaitlyn just kept me going. Thank you to everyone for making the race such a success! Some of the other people who ran the race were my mother-in-law MaryAnn, Corey and Liz, Matt and Dawn Kempf, Ruthie, Tatiana who also ran with me and kept me going!!, a bunch of guys from the jail, Mandy and Austin pushed Kaitlyn and Connor in the walk, so many other people that I just cannot think of right now. Oh, Mandy won a gift certificate in the raffle and Liz won Red Sox tickets!! Thanks to Jeanie for making delicious muffins!!
Ok, I have to pack my lunch and iron for tomorrow. Have a good week :)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Wallpaper...
..is finally coming down!!! Thank goodness, we have started with the downstairs bathroom, just to see how it goes. It is coming off easily and there is no other wallpaper underneath. This was our test room. The wall paper is coming off easily with soapy water and a scraper. Kaitlyn's room will be next.
My mom and Kathryn came up for a visit this weekend. We mostly hung around the house since the weather wasn't so great, and that was just fine with me! It was a long week at work and I was ready for some r&r. This morning we all headed over to the Franklin County Fair. Kaitlyn had a great time petting the animals and riding a couple of rides. We watched some pig races, oh my, and had an updated child id booklet completed for Kaitlyn. Barney and I entered a few raffles, hopefully we will win some home heating oil, and we took in the sights of the fair.
This afternoon Barney got some work done in our yard. He took out two bushes. One that was in the front of our house right next to the driveway, and one on the side of our house next to the porch. I was very happy to see them go!!
We had some crazy thunderstorms this afternoon with the thunder booming right over our heads. Surprisingly Kaitlyn slept right through the storm. We did have some water come into our basement though. We'll be keeping an eye on that.
So next for the house.........
1. We need to get the plumber over here to unclog our bath tub drain, see about some leaky faucets, and hook up a new pipe for our washing machine.
2. We need to finalize the details with our electrician for the electrical upgrade and set a date for that to take place.
3. We need to get some estimates for replacement windows on the second floor. Not that the windows are bad, but they have chipped paint on them with most likely contains lead and it is a very long and tedious process to remove lead paint, something neither Barney nor I are qualified to do.
4. Keep working on the wallpaper.
5. Keep pulling the weeds and bushes out of the yard.
That's all for now!!
My mom and Kathryn came up for a visit this weekend. We mostly hung around the house since the weather wasn't so great, and that was just fine with me! It was a long week at work and I was ready for some r&r. This morning we all headed over to the Franklin County Fair. Kaitlyn had a great time petting the animals and riding a couple of rides. We watched some pig races, oh my, and had an updated child id booklet completed for Kaitlyn. Barney and I entered a few raffles, hopefully we will win some home heating oil, and we took in the sights of the fair.
This afternoon Barney got some work done in our yard. He took out two bushes. One that was in the front of our house right next to the driveway, and one on the side of our house next to the porch. I was very happy to see them go!!
We had some crazy thunderstorms this afternoon with the thunder booming right over our heads. Surprisingly Kaitlyn slept right through the storm. We did have some water come into our basement though. We'll be keeping an eye on that.
So next for the house.........
1. We need to get the plumber over here to unclog our bath tub drain, see about some leaky faucets, and hook up a new pipe for our washing machine.
2. We need to finalize the details with our electrician for the electrical upgrade and set a date for that to take place.
3. We need to get some estimates for replacement windows on the second floor. Not that the windows are bad, but they have chipped paint on them with most likely contains lead and it is a very long and tedious process to remove lead paint, something neither Barney nor I are qualified to do.
4. Keep working on the wallpaper.
5. Keep pulling the weeds and bushes out of the yard.
That's all for now!!
Friday, September 7, 2007
A Passing
I forgot to say that my friend Kerry's mom passed away Monday night after fighting a very long and courageous battle against cancer. I just want her to know I am thinking of her and praying for her family.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Back to School
Where did the summer go? It's hard for me to believe that I have been back to school for over a week now. With everything going on I feel like I need a working vacation just to feel settled. I still have boxes of packed stuff in my house, although all of my clothes are now put away, and my classroom....well let's just leave it at the mess on my desk from last June is still sitting there.
Barney and I have started working on some home improvement projects. I need to remember to take both the before and after photos to document the projects. Last weekend we attacked part of the jungle. We cut down the 3 foot tall weeds along the side of our garage and have gotten almost all of the roots out. These weeds must have been growing for quite a while as the roots were very thick and deep. Kaitlyn helped out by putting the torn up weeds into the barrel. Luckily we have a place to dump everything as Barney's dad has a ravine he is trying to fill in at his house. This weekend Barney is going to take out a few bushes and dump them in the ravine. We also bring all of our grass clippings there. My mom is coming up this weekend and so hopefully she can give me some pointers on the yard. Oh, so the weeds we tore up were along the side of the garage. We only own about a foot's wide worth of land there so I think we are just going to fill it in with stones. You can't really use it as a cut through to the backyard because of the way the fence goes. I'll post some pictures of it over the weekend.
Last Monday we went over Tom and Ruth's for a couple of hours as they had a Labor Day BBQ. I'm jealous that they have pretty flower beds! Kaitlyn was excited to see Bridget the dog, but Bridget had a play date somewhere else that day. It was good to see everybody and catch up.
Tonight I took Kaitlyn to the Franklin County Fair parade. She loved seeing the horses and listening to the music. Someone gave her a rubber duckie that says "Franklin County Fair" on it and it was her prized possession. She had a great time and the good thing was we could just walk to the street where the parade was. Hopefully we will make it to the fair this weekend. Kaitlyn wants to go on rides, but I'm not sure if they have little kid rides.
Kaitlyn got to meet some of my new students today as I forgot my lunch and she and Barney brought it to me at work. She wanted to play with all of the toys. The other morning when I was leaving I told her I had to go to work and she told me she was going to work and when I asked her where she worked she said, "With Mommy". Oh, how I wish I could stay home!! I miss her so much during the day. She has settled right in to her new daycare place so that's a relief.
Next weekend is the big "race". It will be more of a jog, then walk, jog, then walk. I feel awkward when I jog as my waddle is coming on a little. I hope to get it done in 50 minutes. Next year it should be easier!! I'm very excited for Barney though as there has been a good response to the race and they've had tons of sponsors. I'm very proud of him for coming up with this idea and putting it together. He also has a great group of people at the jail helping him out with the organization and sponsorships. You can find out more about the race at http://www.fcso-ma.us/new.html and click on Jail Break.
Well that's all for now!
Barney and I have started working on some home improvement projects. I need to remember to take both the before and after photos to document the projects. Last weekend we attacked part of the jungle. We cut down the 3 foot tall weeds along the side of our garage and have gotten almost all of the roots out. These weeds must have been growing for quite a while as the roots were very thick and deep. Kaitlyn helped out by putting the torn up weeds into the barrel. Luckily we have a place to dump everything as Barney's dad has a ravine he is trying to fill in at his house. This weekend Barney is going to take out a few bushes and dump them in the ravine. We also bring all of our grass clippings there. My mom is coming up this weekend and so hopefully she can give me some pointers on the yard. Oh, so the weeds we tore up were along the side of the garage. We only own about a foot's wide worth of land there so I think we are just going to fill it in with stones. You can't really use it as a cut through to the backyard because of the way the fence goes. I'll post some pictures of it over the weekend.
Last Monday we went over Tom and Ruth's for a couple of hours as they had a Labor Day BBQ. I'm jealous that they have pretty flower beds! Kaitlyn was excited to see Bridget the dog, but Bridget had a play date somewhere else that day. It was good to see everybody and catch up.
Tonight I took Kaitlyn to the Franklin County Fair parade. She loved seeing the horses and listening to the music. Someone gave her a rubber duckie that says "Franklin County Fair" on it and it was her prized possession. She had a great time and the good thing was we could just walk to the street where the parade was. Hopefully we will make it to the fair this weekend. Kaitlyn wants to go on rides, but I'm not sure if they have little kid rides.
Kaitlyn got to meet some of my new students today as I forgot my lunch and she and Barney brought it to me at work. She wanted to play with all of the toys. The other morning when I was leaving I told her I had to go to work and she told me she was going to work and when I asked her where she worked she said, "With Mommy". Oh, how I wish I could stay home!! I miss her so much during the day. She has settled right in to her new daycare place so that's a relief.
Next weekend is the big "race". It will be more of a jog, then walk, jog, then walk. I feel awkward when I jog as my waddle is coming on a little. I hope to get it done in 50 minutes. Next year it should be easier!! I'm very excited for Barney though as there has been a good response to the race and they've had tons of sponsors. I'm very proud of him for coming up with this idea and putting it together. He also has a great group of people at the jail helping him out with the organization and sponsorships. You can find out more about the race at http://www.fcso-ma.us/new.html and click on Jail Break.
Well that's all for now!
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