Happy Holidays

Winter Solstice has become one of my favorite holidays. In order to feel the long night, our family turns off all lights in the house at sundown and lives the rest of the evening by candlelight. We eat dinner (yummy Chinese food) by candles and then the rest of the evening the candles end up spreading throughout the house so we can live without electric light. I even did dishes by candlelight. We played games and this year we rented a couple of movies. It is not something I would want every night but once a year it is a fun, family evening. This year we were still awake as the final candles burnt out.

Christmas was a little different this year. Christmas-eve the kids and I went out to dinner, as has become our tradition since we moved here. I then went to the church for the candle-light service, because the choir was singing. I had never been to that service and it was really nice. The kids didn't want to go and stayed home and watched movies instead. I then went to a party with some friends and had a really good time. I had some interesting discussions with the widest range of individuals I had ever seen in one place.

Christmas day Glenn came over to open presents. Everyone got plenty of presents, even though we cut down this year. Kara's big present was an i-pod touch (I didn't get a picture of that one) and Tim's big one was Guitar Hero World Tour, here he is opening it:

Glenn stayed at my place and played with the kids while I went to the pot-luck at the church, which was a good time, visiting with old and new friends.

Since Christmas the kids have been having a lot of fun with the guitar hero. I have tried to play with them, but can never get far on drums or guitar. Kara has let me sing on a few songs but she likes playing that roll, often in combination with the guitar.

My Baby is 12!!!!

It is hard to believe that it has been twelve years. Tim is and always has been my independent child. He has always done things in his own way and in his own time. Although he was considered full-term when he born, he was a preemie. His lungs were not fully developed. After he was born he was immediately taken to the nursery and put on oxygen. At 8 hours old they air-evaced him to the NICU, where he spent 8 days. At 6lbs 12ozs he was the biggest baby in the NICU. As soon as he was removed from the ventilator he began to make his demands known, he wanted to be held all the time, the nurses would take turns holding him as they did their paperwork. When he came home from the hospital he still insisted on being held all the time. I had heard of attachment parenting, but never thought much about it, until he insisted.

The truth is he still likes to be held on occassion. He is such a funny kid, and can be so sweet. He senses the moods of those around him, when others in the family are upset, he gets upset. But, he can be so much fun to have around. He has a quick wit and laughs easily. He can also be quite the philosopher, discussing the meaning of life and the possibilities of the universe. He can express quite an attitude at times and enjoys pointing out the inconsistencies, injustice and unnecessary aspects of life (and especially school). He is not one to follow the crowd, but finds his own interests and hobbies. He loves music and has great rhythm, he has shown some ability on the guitar and bass guitar (he would be a great drummer, but I'm not sure I could stand to have a drum set in the house). He has done amazing claymation, and has recently begun making domino designs. He really is an amazing kid and I look forward to witnessing his progress throughout adolescents and into adulthood, I can imagine a million possibilities for his future, and I am excited to see how and what he chooses to do with his life.

Progress???

There have been a lot of changes going on, and I feel I have made some progress in the many things that I want to do, and then there are areas that I am not doing so well.

Doing Well:

Exercise: I have been getting to the gym 3-4 times a week and yoga once a week.

Eating: I have very recently been doing better about eating more vegetables and nuts.

School: I finished everything for this semester and I believe I have A's in both classes (final grades are not available yet).

Social: I have been fighting my hermit tendencies and forcing myself to get out into a social arena at least a couple of times a week.

Housework: I have been getting the house completely clean at least once a week (the good part about being separated is the kids are at Dad's a couple of days a week making this possible).

Motherhood: I am feeling a good connection with my kids most of the time.

Procrastination: My list of things I am procrastinating is actually quite small at the moment.

Still Needs Improvement:

Exercise: I need to figure out what is causing all these little pains that make me have to ease up on the exercise, both my hip and shoulder are currently aching (is this just part of old age).

Eating: I need to cut back on the junk food, sure I am eating the veggies but do you know what else is good with the veggie dip? Pringles.

School: I need to focus on actually learning, I didn't do ANY of the reading this semester but still managed good grades, but am I learning enough to pass the boards?

Housework: I need to work on having the kids do chores. It is so much easier to just do things myself.

Motherhood: I am not doing a good job getting the kids in bed at a decent hour.

Other things: I have been doing far too much escape reading. I spend too much time with a book in hands and my feet up against a space heater (there are other more cost effective and environmentally friendly ways to warm my feet). And although I have tried to cut back on the eating out I still go out to eat more than I should, I need to do a better job planning dinners.

Overall:

I am feeling hopeful for the future. It feels like standing in the fog, I can barely see the near future and beyond the 18 months, when I finish school, it is totally dark, but I am hopeful and feel good that things will work out.

Life's ups and downs

This blog is supposed to be about my life, but somehow it is easier to write about the good times than the bad.

Most people who read this blog already know, but I feel it needs to be said. Glenn moved out and now I am learning how to do this single parent thing. It isn't all bad, the house is easier to keep clean, and the days the kids stay at Glenn's are nice and quiet, but they don't like to sleep there and usually end up coming back here to sleep, but those evening hours home alone or going out and coming home to an empty, clean house are kind-of nice. Glenn's place is really close so the kids see him regularly. As long as we can manage financially until I finish school in a year and a half, I think things will work out.

So now that I got the big news posted, maybe I will do a better job at posting regularly.

Mr. and Mrs. Sarah Cox

My baby brother Doug just got married to Sarah. We welcome her to our family, having a younger sister is great. It was also a wonderful weekend.
The Cox family all stayed in this house on the lake. It was great, this is a view of the house from the lakeThis is the view of the lake from the house. Saturday the girls, attended a henna party that Sarah's friends had for her. We all got henna tattoos, and had a good time getting to know her friends and family. That evening there was a BBQ at her parents' house. Her mom showed the kids her horses and let them have a ride if they wanted.
But mostly it was a good evening of visiting and eating. Here is my big brother Paul, my Dad and his wife, Liz all hanging out before the BBQ.
The kids liked to pretend like they were sneaking into the alcohol, but we checked their drinks regularly to make sure it was just watered down soda.
Sunday morning we hung around the house with the family and a couple of Doug's friends that stopped by. We ate pancakes, took the kayak out for a ride and then started getting ready for the wedding.

Everyone looked very nice and presentable. This is my sister, Lori, Amy, Kara, and Josh

Here is Doug ready and heading out to get married.

I didn't take my camera in to the wedding, I am sure I will have access to some of the pictures taken and will share them then. But we had tons of fun, a wonderful ceremony, great dinner and lots of dancing. We got everyone in the family on the dance floor at least once. Kara requested the Cha Cha Slide and then when no one else knew it, she led the dance for everyone.

Monday everyone's plane was leaving in the afternoon so we all drove out to Niagara Falls and then Kara and I took off driving from there. Here is my Dad and Liz in front of the Falls.

It was a wonderful weekend, but extremely exhausting. I also missed out taking pictures of a lot of things because I was too busy having fun and didn't want to worry about pictures.

Home Alone

Today is Tim's first day of school for this year. He is starting a new charter school where he will attend classes two days a week and do school at home 3 days a week. I think it has potential to be good for him, but I am sure these first few weeks will be a little difficult to transition.

The nice thing is Tim and Kara are at school, and Glenn is at work today and I am home all by myself. I haven't done much of anything, a little cleaning, blasting the music without anyone complaining, and running a few errands. It is also nice to turn off all noise and listen to the peace and quiet for a few minutes. Yes, it is nice to be home alone on occasion.

Glenn is changing jobs, going back to his old employer and will be working weekends again. There are a lot of nice things about the weekend job so hopefully it works out well.

Linkin Park

Tim went to his first concert this week. He got to see Linkin Park, and a bunch of other bands he didn't know. He went with Jaron one of his best friends. They had a lot of fun, I wish I could have gone too.

Tim doesn't start school until after Labor Day so he and I are hanging out at home during the day not doing much of anything.

Kara started High School last week, so far things seem to be going well. I'm excited about her photography class since my last class involved a 35mm camera and learning to develop pictures in a dark room. I hope she learns things about our new digital camera so she can teach me. I have struggled in my attempts to use my past knowledge on this new technology.

My school starts this Saturday, yes I actually signed up for Saturday classes, that way I only have to drive into campus once a week, and the rest of the family can fend for themselves for the day.

Home at last

No pictures today. We drove about 8 hours to make it home. Stopped a few times, mostly for food and other basic needs. But also stopped to race go-carts for the first time. Tim wasn't tall enough but they didn't check that and let him drive. He had driven Grandpa's Gator, but said it was fun to drive without anyone telling him to slow down and be careful.

It is good to be home, but now I am going to have to start cooking and cleaning again :P

36 States

First, I feel like I short changed our day in Boston, it was a long hectic day. I would love to spend a few more days there, I could spend a lot more time seeing the historic sites, Kara would enjoy it too, but Tim, not so much. He could care less if this was a place that changed the course of America, but I drag him along as much as I can. Here are a couple of observations about Boston, there are Dunkin Donuts everywhere, actually that is throughout the North East but outside of Boston we saw an intersection where there were literally a Dunkin Donuts on two of the four corners. So we have had our share of munshkins (sp?). Also, Bostonians are very nice. As I was trying to find our way to China town and our parking lot, I consulted my handy dandy map and both times I did, someone stopped and asked if they could help me. I was very impressed by how helpful they were.

OK, yesterday I wasn't able to post because Hilton didn't offer wifi in the rooms only in the lobby and I didn't want to mess with sitting in the lobby. But what I didn't post was our stops in Rhode Island. We stopped by a local library, and a very pretty one too. Kara has this dream of being a librarian in Rhode Island and so we let her see at least one library.


We then stopped by the beach for most of the afternoon. It was a beautiful day. The kids played in the water, I chose not to get in and instead read for hours and got a nice bright shade of red along my right side.



Along with watching the kids swim, and reading, I also watched the crazy seagulls, this one and I had a staring contest


Today was a driving day. We pretty much spent the day driving. We drove through the Bronx (I didn't realize until we were in the midst of that traffic that we would be getting that close to NYC) we made a stop in New Jersey to do laundry, and then found a hotel in Pennsylvania, one with a pool so that the kids could get out some energy.

Well with all of this driving my kids have now been in 36 states, most of the 14 left to see are in the South. I guess we have more trips in our future.

ups and downs of vacation

As promised here are a few pictures from Salem. BTW, I loved Salem, it was a beautiful town, and fairly easily to get around.

Today was spent in and around Boston, we spent the morning at the beach, it was cold but that couldn't keep Tim out.

Kara hung out on the beach and worked on Sudoku puzzles

We then went to the historical section of Boston, here is where it is believed that Paul Revere began his ride

If I remember correctly this picture is the church where the lamps were hung. One if by land two if by sea.

This is the State Capital with actual real gold leafing on the roof

After touring some historical sites we went to China town to get some dinner.

Not pictured is the time we spent searching for somewhere to find a GPS so that I could then find everything else we wanted to see. Boston was alright, but it is a little too big and too crazy. I like cities a little more manageable.

We are now in Rhode Island and I am really tired.

POOP SMELLZ LIKE CHICKEN ^.^---BTW that was just written by Tim

M and M

We made it to Maine and Massachusett today. We didn't do anything in Maine other than get in far enough to say we have been in the state. It was raining and there wasn't much we wanted to see so...we ended up heading back south to MA.

We spent some time in Salem, visited the Witch Trial Museum and took a trolly tour. We then got lost again driving to our hotel room.

OK here is my take on city lay out. First, why in the helk can people not make straight roads? Why are so many cities filled with winding curvy roads that are impossible to keep track of which way you are driving? Then, why do neighboring cities have major roadways with the same name even though the streets are not connected? UUGGHH!!!

I got to the hotel, finally, and discovered that my power cord to my computer was left in the last hotel room, so I am going to post this quickly so that I can save some power. I will add more pictures hopefully tomorrow, assuming I can find my way to the closest Circuit City to buy a new one. And a GPS so that I don't have to drive up and down the wrong Washington street again.

Vermont and New Hampshire

Today we drove into Vermont and New Hampshire. Both are beautiful places, it makes me wonder why the helk we live in Indiana. The road we traveled through Vermont brought us through many small towns all filled with local shops and almost no chain stores, or restaurants.

Bennington, VT also had all of these neat statues that were often difficult to distinguish from pedestrians. Kara took pictures of all of the ones we came across. Her love of taking pictures of strangers was given the opportunity to get close up and creative.

It was the type of town that would be nice to live in, but traveling through with three hungry people who are reluctant to try new things, the Olive Garden in NH was a welcome sight.

While in Vermont we stopped at a cemetery where Robert Frost is buried.


The cemetery also held the remains of a number of Revolutionary War soldiers, their graves were marked with flags. It was neat, but because all soldiers were men, the feminist in me wanted to also show recognition of the women who sacrificed and would have even been willing to give their lives for freedom.


We then made it to the coast and spent a little time walking on the beach.



Tim reminded me of his father when he decided to start getting in the water when all we intended to do was walk on the beach.


Today's drive was a little long for the third driving day, and through the winding mountain roads that were beautiful but slow. We are looking forward to a little less time in the car tomorrow.

Back in the US

Last night we went to bed excited to wake up and have some excitement. The excitement began earlier than we expected when the fire alarm went off in the hotel at 2:30am. Looking out the door and not seeing any smoke I took a minute to get a bra on and we headed down to the lobby and sat with our fellow guests until the fire department checked everything out and said it was a false alarm. Not being able to get right back to sleep we watched Nickelodeon until we were ready to get back to sleep.




When we got up in the morning the kids got ready very slowly. They were enjoying themselves watching Sesame Street, here they are following Burt’s instructions to “pat your head, rub your tummy, hop on one foot and sing Mary had a little pigeon” We could have stayed in Indiana and done that.





We then went to Niagara Falls. The falls were beautiful! I even got a picture of Kara smiling, she normally likes to make goofy faces for pictures.














I'm falling












































it was also fun seeing the diversity of people there. I don’t know how many languages we heard and Kara loved taking pictures of random people.

We made it back into the US where I noticed that we do a lot better job of marking directions to a highway than they do in Canada. I was happy to see that after getting lost or nearly lost a number of times.

We decided to stop by Palmyra and walked through the Sacred Grove. It was a nice peaceful place. We didn’t stay long or take a tour because we needed to get back on the road.













We made it to Albany, NY and will hopefully have a good night sleep.

Howdy from north of the border

The kids and I made it to Canada today. We left home this morning and drove into Michigan, the 30th state the kids have now visited.

They actually posed like this for the picture at the rest area.

We then entered Canada, no problem crossing the border, and I figure if we can't cross back we will just move in here, it is so beautiful.

It was a long drive; the kids passed the time by being goofy.

We finally got to the hotel. As Kara got ready and had some down time, I took Tim to the pool. He swam while I read. It was too close to dusk to hit Niagara Falls, so we drove to the Downtown area of St. Catherine and walked around. It is such a beautiful area but most of the pictures Kara took were with her cellphone so I don't have those now :(

We found a wonderful vietnamese restaurant

and stuffed ourselves. The kids were both talking about what a great day we had, even though we really didn't do anything. Then...

as I tried to get back to our hotel I couldn't find the South bound entrance to the freeway and got lost, after driving through a nice neighborhood and quite a ways into a vineyard I called Glenn and freaked out a bit, found an address on a church and he was able to mapquest us and talk us back to our hotel.

I just asked the kids and they still think it was a good day, Tim said getting lost made it even better.