Itinerant Oak - A Family Journey

Monday, in pictures

2012-01-21T12:09:00.001-05:00

A trip to the opera

2012-01-13T08:49:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday we all went to see Hansel and Gretel at the Met. The production was a little scary for my tastes but the kids loved it.
Taking the train in:

Goofing around on the way there:

At the opera:

Photos from the Sterling -- Deep Freeze Meet

2012-01-10T12:18:00.004-05:00

We got back from the Opera at just after 9, so it was a little rough to get up at 5 am on Sunday and head out to MA:

Ben's highbar was a little messy this go-round; he was too nervous about the higher bar:

But he finally got 4.5 turns around the mushroom:

He stuck his vault landing and placed 7th:

Ski Photos

2012-01-09T07:05:00.001-05:00

Conditions were pretty cold so we didn't get a lot of photos over Christmas... but here are a couple

Birthday Dinner

2011-12-21T18:54:00.001-05:00

When did Ben get so old?!

Happy Hanukkah

2011-12-20T20:58:00.001-05:00

First Gymnastics Meet

2011-12-19T11:39:00.001-05:00

I know people are eager to see the pictures from Sunday, so here are a few. Unfortunately my camera take very poor low-light, high-speed picture s(I really need to upgrade to a DSLR) so I had to use stills from the video.

Ben had his first gymnastics meet on Sunday -- 40 boys from 7 teams competed. Ben moved up to a level 5 this fall and has struggled with some of the events so he was pretty nervous going into the meet. Overall, he did better than he and his coach were expecting.

He finished 3rd on the High Bar:

He did pretty well on the Parallel Bars, too:

Pommel/Mushroom is a tough event for him. He really struggled with the Mushroom and had to restart his routine 3 times.

Rings:

Ben is still struggling with the landing on the vault:

When I get a few minutes to rotate and compress the video, I'll try posting the high bar and PBar routines.

First time skiing

2011-12-18T07:07:00.001-05:00

We took the kids for a quick ski on Saturday to try out their equipment. Nik took to it amazingly quickly -- I blame the skating lessons.

What is that smell?!

2011-11-28T20:52:00.001-05:00

A couple of days ago we noticed a nasty odor in the semi-finished part of the attic we use to store gear.

We tried airing it out.
We tried drying it out.
We finally decided that there must be a dead animal in the attic crawl space so we spent 2 hours emptying it out.
Once it was empty, the smell had migrated to a closet.
So everything in the closet was subjected to a sniff test.
So what smelled like a dead animal?
A pair of kids boots that had come out during Snowtober and must have been put back wet. Eeeeew.

A girl and her chainsaw

2011-11-11T13:34:00.001-05:00

Prince Zuko & Harry Potter

2011-11-10T19:10:00.001-05:00

My new toy

2011-11-08T05:34:00.001-05:00

To cope with the huge quantity of wood in our yard, I got a new toy.

And put the kids to work hauling the fruits of my labor.

Just some of the brush...

2011-11-06T17:01:00.001-05:00

This is just some of the brush we cut and dragged to the side of the road today!

Sunny afternoons on the driveway

2011-11-06T06:02:00.001-05:00

Reading. Relaxing. Playing.

My kitchen

2011-11-06T03:24:00.001-05:00

The first morning

2011-11-04T06:21:00.001-04:00

We spent Saturday night sleeping in the basement because we could hear trees cracking and breaking under the weight of the snow.

Sunday morning we woke up to over a foot of snow and trees down everywhere. Almost every tree in our neighborhood lost some major branches or broke.

You can see the pine blocking our driveway (it is mostly buried because it fell Saturday night).

Mornings in a 44F house

2011-11-03T11:31:00.001-04:00

Drying clothes, power outage style

2011-11-03T11:20:00.001-04:00

Fun with play money

2011-10-25T16:24:00.001-04:00

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Nik's Favorite pumpkin

2011-10-18T19:55:00.001-04:00

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Apple picking

2011-10-09T15:37:00.001-04:00

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Getting to know the scouts

2011-09-25T18:33:00.002-04:00

Ben is moving up to Boyscouts this winter so we got to know one of the troops on a canoe trip this weekend.
Throwing axes:

Even Nik felt welcomed:

Canoeing into Simsbury:

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A rude awakening

2011-09-17T07:53:00.004-04:00

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First Day of School

2011-08-31T10:06:00.001-04:00

The only day I love more than the first day of summer vacation is the first day of school!

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Nik's Birthday

2011-06-01T13:54:00.002-04:00

We celebrated Nik's actual birthday with a small family party... Nik's bigger party won't be for another week... we did all the important birthday things...

Blowing out candles...

Opening presents...

Playing with new toys...

Bowling...

Rocket Day!

2011-05-26T11:35:00.003-04:00

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing last-minute... Ian and Nik building the rocket about an hour before the start of Rocket Day:

Simple math -- Scouts + Rockets = Trouble...

I am not sure if the most fun is in watching take off...

or catching the rocket...

[Obligatory Apocalypse Now reference/joke here...]

More LAX pictures...

2011-05-18T13:04:00.004-04:00

We have officially hit the I-can-pencil-you-in-next-month age. The mom-is-a-chauffer age. We go to sports practices, games, scouts, school activities and then we do it all again the following week. We are juggling field trips, play dates, rocket day, field day, birthdays, and a myriad things I don't even remember until I look at the calendar and think, "Oh, no. Was that TODAY?!"

We are, officially, at the busy age.

When my kids were younger, I looked at parents who had older kids and I promised myself I would never let my kids get as over-scheduled as their kids were... uh.. yeah... Here we are. It was so much easier to be a perfect parent before I had kids.

Despite my concerns, Ben has really come to love lacrosse. Which is good because Lacrosse takes up a lot of our time each week -- 2 practices and a game.
Getting geared up...

Watching the game...

Having a snack...

Exhausted and bruised...

Not a lot of game pictures... our camera is nice... but we need a better one to get non-blurry, long distance action shots.

5 Boro Bike Tour

2011-05-12T14:29:00.000-04:00

Ben and Ian (and 32,000 other people!) did the 5 Boro Bike Tour 2 weekends ago. They biked through Manhattan, then the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and finally ended the ride by crossing the Verrazano Narrows bridge onto Staten Island. 42 miles of biking, in all. Not a lot of pictures from the ride itself -- it was a little tricky to bike in a big crowd and take pictures at the same time... but here are a couple...

Arriving at Grand Central:

Taking the subway to their hotel:

PB&J for brekkie at the starting line:

Almost done! Celebrating crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge onto Staten Island:

The final stretch, riding the Staten Island Ferry back to Manhattan after the race:

Triumphant! Exhausted!

Art Fair

2011-05-02T11:37:00.003-04:00

Just a week after the science fair, the school had their Art Fair. The art teacher saves all of the major projects for most of the year and then hosts a huge 2 day art fair.

Ben's Picasso-esque print:

Ben showing his "what's on my mind" sculpture:

Nik's wire and clay sculpture:

Nik showing his building model:

Science Fair: Ben's Tsunami Project

2011-04-25T11:59:00.003-04:00

Ben was originally going to build a robotic bug, but after hearing about the tsunami that struck Japan and watching a special on giant waves Ben begged me to let him change his project. I was a little hesitant because it seemed like there was a lot of opportunity to have the project be upsetting... but after talking with his teacher I finally relented.

This project was all Ben. He did the research. He wrote the words. He came up with the illustrations and quiz. He designed the demonstration. I only helped with was a tweak on Ben's plan for the demonstration... Ben wanted to drop a heavy object in the tank and I was concerned that would cause a tremendous mess. I did a little reading and came up with the idea of popping balloons to trigger the wave.

Here Ben is getting ready for a demonstration.

The little corks are boats to show that the water doesn't move... the wave travels through the water.

Science Fair: Nik's Electromagnetism Project

2011-04-19T08:51:00.006-04:00

Both boys wanted to do the school science fair, and, originally, both wanted to do Volcanoes. I tried to steer them away from Volcanoes and boy and I glad I did... I think about 1/3 of the boys did projects on Volcanoes!

Nik then had all sorts of crazy-ambitious ideas that were either wildly dangerous, totally unfeasible, or both. I looked up a long list of science fair project, read the list aloud to Nik, and let him pick any one he wanted. He picked electromagnetism, which he insisted on calling "Electric magnets."

We read a little book about magnetism and Nik build an electromagnet from a kit I had bought for Ben's 3rd grade science:

How to Make an Electromagnet

Supplies:
battery, something metal, copper wires, little metal bits

Steps:
1) Put a wire onto a battery

2) Wrap it around something metal like a nail

3) Attach the other side of the battery with the wire

4) Pick up little metal pieces with the magnet

Nik did a pretty good job on the writeup:

What is a Magnet?
A magnet is something that has force around it. The force grabs metal. It can attract other magnets.

You may probably have 100 magnets in your house. There is some magnets you can't see like in your drawers and your tv, computers -- almost all your electric things.

What is an Electromagnet?
It is a magnet that is made with electricity.

Nik spent a very long time making sure his display looked nice:

And carefully demonstrated how the magnet worked to everyone who came by:

Lacrosse Practice

2011-04-13T14:05:00.002-04:00

Ben has been loving Lacrosse.
Catching:

Missing:

Throwing:

Cradling:

Having a snack:

ARGH!

2011-04-12T07:56:00.002-04:00

One of my children, bless his little heart, was eating a carrot while peeing the other day. Gross. I know.
He, of course, dropped the carrot in the toilet.
Did he fish it out himself? No. Did he go get mom to fish it out? No. He attempted to flush a 7" carrot. Which promptly got lodged so far back I couldn't reach it. EEEW.

So, I figured, in a couple of days the carrot would get soft and mushy and we could plunge it.

This morning, the same child, in his infinite wisdom, used that plugged toiled to go #2. It's not like there aren't 3 (!!) other toilets in the house!

So I was left with a toilet, filled to the brim with ICK.

Luckily I managed to plunge the whole mess... but I am having serious thoughts about investigating boarding schools this morning.

Or checking to see if there is a recall on my children because their common sense module was left out.

Or maybe I should start looking into convents. Anchoresses had the right idea...

Garden is coming along...

2011-04-05T10:22:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago we Nik and Ian put together 4 raised beds for me:

This weekend the weather was finally nice enough to get to work on the garden.

We spent Sunday morning getting the garden beds ready. Ian leveled the beds and I filled them with soil.

Nik wanted to come out, so he dragged a box over and supervised the work:

There is a vine that creeps along the back fence and I have been reluctant to cut it back until I could identify it. Unfortunately it is invasive bittersweet so it has to go before it kills the surrounding trees. As I was working on the garden I trimmed it back a bit.

Ben helped by waiting (im)patiently for Ian to be done so they could go on a 3 hour bike ride.

Ben and Ian are training for the 5 Borough Bike Tour in a couple of weeks!

Nik and I spent the afternoon indoors starting lettuce, kale, and chard seedlings. We also soaked pea seeds for the 4 rows of peas we plan to plant.

Manly hobbies...

2011-04-04T14:55:00.003-04:00

What's a kid to do when the weather is beautiful outside but he is stuck inside, sick?

Take up a new hobby, of course!

Dining Table for 12

2011-03-30T08:34:00.004-04:00

Since we host many family gatherings, we have been looking for a table that seats 12 for a long time... 2 weeks ago we realized we needed one by the following weekend... so we decided to make one.

We printed out one of the table plans from Ana White and went to Home Depot to buy the wood. When we got there, we decided to simplify the project even further. Ian suggested just buying a 4x8 sheet of plywood and pre-made legs. This would mean less cutting and also make the legs removable for easy transport and storage.

The end result looked nice... but because we did not build in as much structure as the original plan, the table was a little wobbly. So we spent a long time making it less wobbly.

Finally it was late Sunday afternoon and Ian was about to go out of town so I quickly put on the first coat of stain while the table was in the dining room.

HUGE mistake. I used Polyshades (which is a stain and sealer in one). It was awful. It was very hard to get an even finish. And, an hour after Ian left, the table smelled so much that it gave me a headache to be anywhere in the house.

So Ben and I tried to carry the table outside. But only 2 of the legs were now removable and we could not maneuver the table out the door. And none of the neighbors were around. So, in desperation, I sealed off the living room with plastic, bought a fan to create a cross breeze, and had to go into and out of the dining room through a window for the week.

Lessons learned: Stick with the original plan. Research a product before you use it. Stain in the garage, NOT the house.

I still have to paint the legs... but the table worked beautifully a week later when we had 12 for dinner.

Maple Sugaring...

2011-03-23T20:09:00.003-04:00

A couple of years ago, my parents decided to tap their sugar maples. The first year was a bit of a fiasco... but in the succeeding years they have refined the process. Every spring they produce a small batch of the most delicious maple syrup. They even brought us a bottle when they came to visit us in Australia!

The kids have always wanted to see how the magic happens, so we drove down to watch the trees get tapped:

Nik helped carry the bucket:

Shadow provided amusement:

The sap was particularly sweet this year. Sweet enough to drink!

(Yes, I know... I am a month behind in posting... I'll try to catch up in the next week)

Garden dreamin'

2011-02-17T14:03:00.005-05:00

Today was so exceptionally warm and beautiful that it got me thinking about spring and gardening. Looking at the calendar I realized that St. Patrick's day is right around the corner... time to get in gear if we want to have peas this year.

The kids and I are pea fanatics. In Michigan we grew 4 double rows of peas one spring -- and ate every pea. Not a single pea made it to the freezer.

Peas didn't grow well in Georgia... so the last time we grew peas was 2004... so here is a picture of my garden from May 2004!

I ordered seed catalogs. As soon as this snow melts, I am going to site the raised bed for the peas. Spring is so close I can almost taste it!

Garden dreamin'

2011-02-17T14:03:00.001-05:00

Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T15:36:00.002-05:00

We found out on Sunday that the kids did not make Valentine's boxes at school. We also found out that giving out candy was a standard part of Valentine's day fare in CT... so a flurry of shopping and crafting ensued.

The results were pretty cute. Ben's monster box:

Nikki's robot:

On Monday Nik was home, sick so I didn't get as much done as I wanted. Ok, I got nothing done. In the last hour before Ian and Ben came home, I managed to hastily cobble together a quick Valentine's dinner, including cheesecake squares. I put out a red tablecloth and some candles and Voila!

Since Nikki missed the party at school he brought home his candy today. Do you think Nikki was satisfied with his haul?

Ugh...

2011-02-14T10:11:00.002-05:00

Nikki has had quite a week.

First the doctor took off his cast but put him in a splint for another month so he has another month of no gym and no recess.

Then he got stuck in a chair.

Then on Saturday Nikki woke up with strep.

Then, this morning, the threw up as soon as he got to school so the poor kid is missing Valentine's day.

My son did WHAT in school today?!?!

2011-02-11T14:18:00.002-05:00

The nurse at the new school called me apologetically, "Your son got stuck inside a chair today."
WHAT?! Only Nikki could somehow manage to get stuck inside a chair.

It took 2 adults to get him out and he scraped up his shoulder.

Nik's Gingerbread House

2011-02-08T10:27:00.003-05:00

Ok... I know it has been a while... but I have finally downloaded the pictures of the gingerbread house Nikki decorated:

This weekend was another lost weekend for us. We spend the weekend clearing snow and ice and not much else. One of these weekends we will get to go have some fun... or maybe finally get some more unpacking done. With all the snow, we have not made any progress on the house in over a month!

What we did last weekend...

2011-02-04T08:24:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday we spent the whole day raking snow off of the roofs, shoveling the decks, shoveling away raked snow, etc.

I actually got up on the roof of my studio and shoveled it off. I was a little nervous -- I wasn't sure how I was going to get a ladder close to the roof... but then by the time I raked off the first couple of feet, the snow was piled so high by the corner that I just stepped up from the pile of snow directly onto the roof!

Then it snowed again on Tuesday so we did it all again. Then it sleeted, snowed, and iced on Wednesday. So we did it all again. So far we have had two very minor leaks that we have been able to take care of...

Ian and I are exhausted and sore. And they are predicting another 3-6 inches tomorrow and then a bigger storm late next week. Enough, already!

Life giving you snow? Put it to good use!

2011-01-28T11:38:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the mountains of snow that mother nature has been throwing at us, textile artists all over have been playing with snow dyeing. After looking at blog after blog of beautiful results, I decided to take the plunge. Only, when I was out at the art store, I got distracted and forgot to buy the dyes!! Luckily I had a tie dye kit that I had bought for the kids but never used because it came with pink and purple as the two colors!

I soaked the fabric, scrunched it, heaped it with snow, mixed the dyes, and poured them on:

It looks like a giant snowcone. But less tasty.

Here is the snow, mostly melted. And my patience, running out. It took 6 hours for the snow to melt:

It is too cold in our house for dye to set properly so I nuked the fabric for 5 minutes (in a craft-only microwave, of course). The results are nothing short of spectacular:

I guess I don't have to wait until spring to start dyeing, eh?!

Would you like some snow to go with that snow?

2011-01-27T07:25:00.003-05:00

The view from our front door:

The view this morning from the top of the driveway (our plow guy was already through once):

I don't think we will be getting out this way anytime soon:

Our roof shovel comes in this afternoon. I think we need it:

Where, exactly, are we supposed to put this new snow?!?

They are predicting two inches on Saturday and another storm next week. At this rate the kids are going to be in school until July.

Snowboarding

2011-01-24T08:33:00.004-05:00

On Saturday Ian and Ben ventured to the nearby ski slopes and took snowboarding lessons...

I thought they would be tired and bruised after their lessons and be home by lunch but they both took to snowboarding and stayed at the mountain until it was getting dark!

They were both so tired and cold when they got home! Ben almost fell asleep in his soup during dinner.

The Cast

2011-01-21T08:17:00.005-05:00

On Wednesday Nik got a cast...

He was really excited to get it signed so we stopped at the craft store and bought a silver Sharpie.

On Thursday was Nik's first day back at school since he broke his elbow and he was nervous. I drove him in so I could talk to the nurse and his teacher -- the first person we ran into was the school nurse and she made him feel comfortable. His teacher and classmates were very sweet so he had a good day. His classmates were funny. When he explained how he broke his arm three of them said, "That's why MY mom won't let ME play on the stairs!"

The cast is much more comfortable than the sling so for now he is excited, but I think that will wear off pretty quickly. He has been restricted to no gym and no recess so he is spending recess in the nurse's office drawing. It is going to be a long 3 weeks...

Llama drama...

2011-01-19T08:39:00.004-05:00

I guess it wouldn't be our life without constant drama...

On Friday Nik and Ben were playing in the basement while I was cooking dinner when I heard a shriek. I sprinted down the stairs; Nik was on the floor, crying hysterically. He had been fooling around on the stairs and fallen off of the top step (there are no balustrades) landing on his elbow.

I brought him up to the kitchen, put some ice on his arm, and continued cooking. An hour later his elbow was swollen terribly and he was still sitting with his head down on the counter and whimpering... so we called a new neighbor who took Ben and, as soon as Ian got home, we bundled Nik off to the peds ER in Hartford.

Nik fractured at least one bone and possibly two... ER put him in a splint...

I've been to quite a few peds ERs... and I must say the one in Hartford was the nicest. Everyone we met -- the nurses, docs, techs -- all were great with kids. They made Nik feel comfortable with what was happening and were very kind and compassionate. Today we're going to peds orthopedics and hopefully they can hard cast his arm so he can be a little more active again.

Nik has been handling all this with his usual cheerful aplomb -- he is excited to have a cast for his classmates to sign.

Studio, WIP

2011-01-13T09:37:00.003-05:00

Our new house has a finished basement that is almost the same size as our previous house. The rooms are nicely finished, but the previous owners had cats so the carpet needed to be pulled up. We had a local flooring company price out redoing the whole thing and the cost was astronomical -- half of what out kitchen remodel cost in Atlanta! We decided to have them put in carpet in the kids area and we would Pergo the studio ourselves. The Ikea version of Pergo was cheapest... so we went with that:

The Ikea stuff looks nice but the construction is pretty cheap... The laminate is not nearly as nice as Armstrong or Pergo. It is also much harder to lay then Pergo. The pieces do not fit as neatly and perfectly together as we are used to. Many of the pieces needed fiddling with to get them to fit right. Oh well... it was less then half the cost:

At least the room is a rectangle so there weren't too many cuts:

Voila! My studio has a floor!

While we lay the floor of the studio, the carpet guys laid the carpet. Unfortunately, after it was in, they noticed that the pieces of carpet did not match up in color -- the whole roll had dye issues. ARGH!

They are back this week to put in a different carpet. Fingers crossed.

And even MORE snow...

2011-01-12T16:31:00.003-05:00

We got dumped on last night... 18 inches of fluffy, light snow made difficult wading for Shadow:

But gave the kids an opportunity to try snowshoes:

The snow was knee deep for me:

The plow guy did the driveway but where to put the snow from the front walk?!

At least the mountains of snow from the plow guy made for great snow caves!

First snow construction...

2011-01-12T13:12:00.003-05:00

The snowplow pushed up mountains of snow, perfect for digging tunnels:

Lot of snow means snowmen, of course. Regular size...

And Jumbo!

Nik made 3 more balls that size and Ian helped him stack them up. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Nik's finished snow giant before it melted and fell over...

First skiing...

2011-01-11T08:21:00.003-05:00

After the movers arrived we found the skis we had bought for the kids back when we lived in Michigan...

They were a little small even for Nik but he had a good first run...

First snow meant first shoveling, too. We only did the top of the driveway and the sidewalk before we flagged down a passing plow guy and hired a service for the rest of the winter. :-)

First sledding...

2011-01-10T08:38:00.006-05:00

The day after Christmas brought 12 inches of snow -- the most snow the kids had ever seen. They were out at 7:30 in the morning sledding down the hill in our yard...

They went sledding in the morning, they went sledding before lunch, we took them sledding to the golf course after lunch, they went sledding in the afternoon before the sun went down:

Ian and I even went sledding at the golf course:

That night was the most tired I have ever seen the kids. They were falling asleep during dinner!

First skating...

2011-01-09T09:29:00.003-05:00

On the last day of school, the local rink hosted a Christmas party complete with hot chocolate, cookies, and Santa:

Nik spent most of his first skating session falling in every direction and clinging to the rail... but by the end he got the hang of it and was shuffling around the rink...

Ben took to the ice like a champ thanks to the roller skating he did in Atlanta. And the bravado of a 10 year old.

He even tried his hand at Turkey Bowling...

Turkey bowling?! Why yes... Bowling. On ice. Using frozen turkeys.

The kids really loved skating. I haven't been skating in years and I remembered how much I loved it, too.

Woo Hoo!

2011-01-04T08:31:00.001-05:00

Movers are here...
By tomorrow I should have internet... so I can actually post again!

See y'all tomorrow!

Woo Hoo!

2010-12-19T15:20:00.003-05:00

We are all doing a little happy jig...

Against all odds we closed on a new house on Friday!!!

We will be moving in on Monday... so we will have limited internet access for a while. Our stuff won't get here till Jan... but we will be waking up Christmas morning in our new house! I'll post pics as soon as I can.

Thanks for everyone's good thoughts, crossed fingers, and prayers. They worked.

2010-12-15T11:42:00.001-05:00

Toasty toes.
Cozy hat.
Yummy cake.

And a snowball fight after dinner.

Perfect day.

So... how are things?

2010-12-10T08:40:00.004-05:00

A couple of days ago was the last night of Hanukkah and I finally got a good picture of our cute menorah...

On the positive front, I got the kids registered for school. Today they meet their teachers and they start on Monday.

On the negative front, I have daily panic attacks that something will happen and this purchase will still fall apart. And the kids have been driving me nuts. And it is freezing outside. And I am not sure we will have our stuff by Christmas. And I miss everyone so much it hurts. And the one friend we have made is moving to Dubai on Sunday. And I don't really want to talk about it all so I am not answering emails or returning calls or texts (sorry GA friends... I love you... I promise I will return your calls and emails once I feel a little more positive.)

Simsbury Celebrates

2010-12-06T09:11:00.004-05:00

Our first weekend in Connecticut coincided with Simsbury Celebrates -- an annual holiday festival. The main street in Simsbury closes to traffic and fills with open houses, carolers, demonstrations, and other holiday excitement. We saw a snowboarding demonstration, a bubble show, and a gingerbread house contest:

Stopped at an pub for dinner and a drink:

Mmm... every drink should come with bacon!

Watched all of the local fire trucks parade by, decorated for the holidays:

And collected hats full of candy canes.

The evening ended with a great fireworks show... and us freezing cold. Even with the coat and boots I borrow from my mom, I was absolutely frozen by the time the fireworks ended. The next morning we went clothes shopping.

On the housing front, we thing things are moving forward relatively smoothly. Fingers crossed, we will be in the house by Christmas... I don't want to talk about it too much because I am afraid of jinxing the process...

Chanukah, Chanukah...

2010-12-01T13:15:00.003-05:00

Chanukah, Chanukah,

Festival of teeny, tiny lights...

Holidays in a hotel are tricky.

The movers packed our menorahs; both of them are in storage somewhere in Massachusetts so the boys and I went out in search of menorahs. We drove ALL over town and we finally found one at ... drumroll please... Walmart! It wasn't in the holiday section, of course -- it was sandwiched between potato chips and canned pumpkin in the food section.

In the end we got an adorable, teeny-tiny menorah. It uses birthday cake candles and it about 5" tall. We also got a couple of dreidels and some gelt. I promise to post pics once I find that *!*#& thingy for downloading them.

For Chanukah you also need to eat something fried... traditionally we make latkes but since we set off the smoke alarm yesterday we needed a ready-made alternative... Luckily the solution was right there in front of us next to the dreidels -- potato chips. Thank you, Walmart, for your ingenious product placement. Chips are perfect -- after all, they are potato AND they are fried in oil! Almost like latkes... and it was either chips or Dunkin Donuts.

Umm, yeah... in answer to your questions...

2010-11-30T08:41:00.003-05:00

Yes, I had a lovely Thanksgiving.

Yes, it really sucks to be crammed into a 1 br hotel room all day.

Yes, I really miss my house.

Yes, I really, really, REALLY miss all of our friends.

Yes, I miss the kids' school.

Yes, I will post some thoughts and pictures when I have a moment where I feel positive.

Yes, I will return all of y'all's phone calls... see previous sentence.

Oh, and I can't find the thingy to download pictures.

Nik's last day

2010-11-23T11:42:00.002-05:00

Birthday donuts at lunch...

Goofy best friends...

Working hard on an art project...

And saying goodbye to his beloved teacher...

Bad attitudes are contagious

2010-11-22T15:01:00.006-05:00

When my friend A* moved to Chapel Hill from Boston she hated it. She hated everything about it. And anyone who talked to her got an earful about how awful Chapel Hill was. It is hard to make friends when you have a terrible attitude. I find that whenever we move, I go through the same thing as A*. At first I detest our new home and hate everything about the area. Nothing works, nothing is right, etc.

So, pardon me, while I vent. I know things will get better...

We went to the closest grocery store today -- Big Y. It is a huge store... and yet somehow had nothing. Not our two favorite brands of bread. Not the ingredients we wanted. No gluten-free hamburger helper meals. It was depressing.

To make matters worse no one smiled. When we go to Publix everyone smiles at everyone. The checkout people are cheery and friendly. At Big Y it was like being in an alternate universe where everyone was in a bad mood.

Waah! I wanna go HOOOOOOOOME!

Ben's Last Day

2010-11-22T07:53:00.003-05:00

We finally decided it was time to move the whole family up to CT... so the kids had their last day of school on Friday...
I joined Ben for lunch...

Gave his teachers a last hug...

Watched the kids at gym...

Got some pics at free play...

And watched the chaos of Friday Night Skate:

Happy not-yet-birthday

2010-11-16T11:06:00.006-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, we had an impromptu early-birthday party for Ben. He invited a couple of friends over to spend the day. The night before I was racking my brains trying to figure out how to keep 4 boys occupied for a whole day when I had a brilliant brainstorm (if I do say so myself). I got each of the boys a Hexbug Nano (a miniature, cockroach-like robot made from a toothbrush head and a vibrating motor) and a sheet of foamcore. The boys spent many happy hours constructing maze-like habitats for their bugs and then playing:

I was really impressed with how well they worked together, how carefully they used the hot glue guns, how they helped each other, and how creative the habitats were. All I did was cut the foamcore into strips and squares.
Afterwords they watched a movie:

And had a cake that Nikki made:

Ha ha ha ha...

2010-11-15T10:15:00.002-05:00

Ben's favorite song from Friday Night Skate is Dynamite (Taio Cruz). I didn't know the song and he couldn't remember the title or artist so he said, "You know it's that song with the chorus: 'Saying hey oh/ Galileo'"

I looked up the song and lyrics and started laughing. The actual chorus is:
"Saying hey oh/ Got to let go"

I like Ben's version better. :-)

How we are living...

2010-11-15T09:12:00.004-05:00

After the moving van left with our stuff, our house was pretty empty...

Luckily some friends quickly brought over the important things -- a couple of comfy chairs and a TV...

Some Legos...

And a couple of matresses...

A comfy chair, a lamp, and a sketching notebook... what more do you need?!

Everybody sing with me...

2010-11-10T19:31:00.007-05:00

Oh yeah. The roller coaster continues.

Apparently the buyer's realtor didn't tell them we were getting HVAC quotes... so they sent us a formal withdrawl letter (of course their realtor didn't bother to check his voicemail, or email, or call our realtor before sending the letter). So when they heard that we were investigating the HVAC they were confused. So then they spent the day figuring out what to do. And we spent the day trying to figure out if they were really confused or playing games with us. So frustrating.

As of this evening they want to go ahead if we agree to put in a new HVAC. But technically they have already withdrawn their offer. And in the meantime we have started talking with another buyer. ARGH...

Sing along with me:

They're hot then they're cold
They're yes then they're no
They're in then they're out
They're up then they're down
They're wrong when it's right
It's black and it's white
We fight, we break up
We kiss, we make up

Spaghetti Taco Night

2010-11-10T07:52:00.003-05:00

Last night the kids and I needed a pick-me-up so we decided to make something crazy for dinner -- Spaghetti Tacos. Spaghetti Tacos are exactly what they sound like -- crunchy taco shells filled with spaghetti. (The idea comes from a show called iCarly).

How was it? Surprisingly good. Really. I am going to make it again. Something about the juxtaposition of the crunchy taco shells and squiggly spaghetti really works.

I added a little taco seasoning to the spaghetti sauce and, if I had to do it over, I would have added some sausage or ground beef, too. I also broke the pasta in half so it fit in the shells.

For desert we watched a couple of episodes of iCarly we had on DVR.

Belated Halloween pics

2010-11-09T09:49:00.004-05:00

I finally found both the battery charger for the camera AND the thingy for downloading pictures... so here are pictures from Halloween. :-) A little late.

Ben, sewing his costume:

Ben was The Hooded One from Bone. Here is his finished costume:

Nik was a mummy:

And I was a kid from Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson series):

Wow...

2010-11-08T09:38:00.003-05:00

The house is empty... the corners are filled with dust bunnies. I plan on sweeping each room using a toothbrush to keep myself busy. :-)

Thanks to some friends we have 2 comfy camp chairs, a small tv, and 3 inflatable beds.

I have highs and lows. I dropped the kids off at school and fought to keep back the tears while I explained why they were back... then I got home, made myself cozy, and now I am feeling pretty optimistic. Must be the beautiful sunny day.

Or the Scotch.

ARGH!

2010-11-07T20:32:00.003-05:00

Would someone PLEASE let me know which god I pissed off... and what I need to do to appease him or her...

Our buyers refuse to buy the house unless we put in a new furnace and AC. WTF?!?!?! The furnace and AC both work. I had the AC blasting all summer and the furnace has been keeping the house cozy warm despite the arctic weather we've been having.

Have you EVER heard of buyers asking sellers to replace a functional system?!

I -- don't -- get -- it.

What did we do wrong?!?!?!

Should I burn some sage? Light a candle?

Ian visited 7 more homes today. None of them are perfect. Our realtor is steering us away from the one we like the most because it is hard to sell...

I just want to crawl in a hole and hide.

Every time I think this whole mess couldn't possibly get any worse it does.

The only bright spot in the last week has been my movers and they left today. Along with all our belongings and furnishings. We have had the best movers EVER. They have been kind, sweet, helpful, and warm. When they saw my kids were stressed they took their own TV out of their sleeper cab and loaned it to us for the weekend.

I miss their cheerful banter already.

It just gets better and better....

2010-11-07T14:08:00.001-05:00

On Friday the purchase of our house in CT fell through... leading to a very long and stressful afternoon as we tried to figure out what was going to happen to our stuff...

So it is Sunday afternoon and the packers are almost done. Our stuff is going into storage. Ian is out house hunting again and the kids and I are borrowing inflatable beds, dishes, and camp chairs from neighbors...

:-)

I'm ready for our luck to turn...

Phew...

2010-11-04T19:54:00.003-04:00

Well... despite getting only a couple hours of sleep and taking care of two sick kids I managed to throw everything I wanted the movers not to pack into the little side area in the attic.

At least I hope I did.

I am not actually sure. I just kept throwing things upstairs haphazardly so everything is in a jumble -- clothes are mixed up with books, papers, electronics, snacks, school supplies, and toys. It looks like an explosion. It took me 20 minutes to find my cell phone charger.

I got done around 7:15 and sat down to breathe. The movers pulled up 15 minutes later. I almost started crying.

In the end the day went relatively smoothly. We've had a lot of movers over the years... and these have to be three of the nicest guys... They made my day by being endlessly cheerful, funny, and kind.

So we survived day 1.

Nikki perked up and was bubbly and chipper by noon. Ben slept most of the day. Poor kid -- he missed his going away party at school today. I hope he wakes up feeling revived... I would hate for him to miss the field trip tomorrow, too.

Bwa ha ha ha ha

2010-11-03T19:30:00.002-04:00

You know that joke... what is the difference between a Russian optimist and a Russian pessimist? A pessimist thinks, "It can't get any worse" while the optimist thinks, "Oh, yes it can."

Well, guess what.... BOTH of my kids have the stomach flu. They both started throwing up within an hour of each other.

Gotta go check on them...

Apparently...

2010-11-03T10:12:00.002-04:00

Apparently I can't read... or do simple math.

For some reason I thought I had two days between Ben's all-day birthday party and when the movers come. I don't. They come tomorrow. &($*#&!

To make matters worse, on my calendar I have that the movers pack tomorrow and friday and load Monday/Tuesday. Where did I get that? I don't know. The movers pack tomorrow and load Friday/Saturday. WTF?!

Can someone please help me find my brain? I must have packed it up when I packed up my studio... H-E-L-P

Oh, and did I mention I woke up feeling cruddy today? I got the nasty cold that is going around.

Ugh...

2010-11-02T18:06:00.002-04:00

Stuff still going on, on both the buying and selling end. Don't wanna talk about it... movers come on Thursday and I am not sure we have a house to move into to. Bleh.

Had a great Halloween. Ben had an early party today. When I get my act together I will post pics... but right now I am treading water out here.

Today is November 2nd... Ben and I had been planning on doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) together... I am feeling a little nostalgic for homeschooling this afternoon.

Ideas of awesomeness...

2010-10-27T15:07:00.003-04:00

I had some little cardboard scraps that I gave Nik this afternoon...
"What are these?"
"Scraps. You can use them."
"I can make an art craft from this?"
"Yes"
"Ideas of awesomeness are popping out of my mind!"

Counting down, Oz style...

2010-10-25T08:50:00.002-04:00

5 sleeps until we see Ian...
6 sleeps until Halloween...
10 sleeps until the movers come...
17 sleeps until we close on our new house...

Stress and Quilting

2010-10-23T19:24:00.003-04:00

It has been an incredibly stressful week -- stuff going on with both the house we are buying and with the buyers of this house... so stressful that it culminated in a total meltdown on my part on Thursday. Total, complete, utter, sitting-on-the-floor-sobbing-hysterically meltdown. I don't want to talk about it. :-) Really... it is too stressful still to write, think, or talk about. Hopefully it will all be over soon -- I REALLY need a light at the end of this tunnel.

On Friday I decided to take the WHOLE morning off -- I went to the fancy quilt store and bought a couple of small pieces of fun fabric with absolutely no plan in mind. I brought it home and sat with it for a while... then I decided that the fabric wanted to be placemats for the kids. I quickly threw these three placemats together:

Since they are just two layers of fabric they were too thin and floppy to free-motion quilt like I had originally planned... so I did quilting in the shape of a rocket on one and I am going to do simple geometric lines on the others.

Then, feeling like three placemats were an odd number, I made a smaller placemat with the remaining scraps of fabric I had. So, by lunchtime, I had run out of fabric.

After lunch I was sitting on the porch and looking at the pretty dogwood leaves when inspiration struck. I pulled some leaves off of our dogwood and used the kids' water-soluble soft pastels to do a leaf rubbing on the leftover white fabric from Nik's costume. It came out too bright and cartoony so I am overdying it with tea as I type.

It feels SO good to be playing again.

Nik's costume... hint 1...

2010-10-21T17:43:00.004-04:00

Nik and I spent the afternoon ripping a king size sheet (from the thrift shop) into strips.

Now the strips are being dyed in a tea bath to give them a nice aged-and-dirty look...

Want to guess what Nik's costume will be?!

Really?!

2010-10-19T09:06:00.003-04:00

So 7:25 on Monday morning (5 minutes before we walk out the door) Ben says to me, "Mom, I need some porcupine quills for school."
WHAT?!?!
Porcupine quills?! Oh, no problem. I've got a box of those laying around.
Why do children only remember things they need for school *just* as you are walking out the door?

I think I mentioned this... but I may not have. Ben has decided he wants to try public school again so he started 4 weeks ago.

It has been a challenge. Homework is exhausting. Ben can't accurately copy from the board what he has to do, he forgets what is due, and getting the work done is like pulling teeth. He forgets his homework folder at school. Then forgets it at home. Then forgets to hand it in and I find homework he spent 45 minutes working on crumpled at the bottom of his backpack. Sound familiar?

Plus the mouthiness and crabbiness. He is stressed, exhausted, and picking up some attitude and vocabulary from his peers so his behavior has been a little challenging, too.

On the plus side he is loving school. He has been there four weeks and he is still having a great time. He has decided he wants to start public school when we move to CT!

It is making the move all that much harder and sadder. He is finally back with his friends. He has a teacher I adore. He is in a great class... and we are leaving.

Argh!

2010-10-18T09:31:00.002-04:00

For the first time in 4 years the house is empty and I *FINALLY* have time to work on an art project. I eagerly went upstairs to my clean studio to sit down and make something. Then I remembered...

ALL of my stash and art supplies are in storage. ARGH!

Finally I found a scrap of Halloween fabric and made myself a headband. It felt so good to sit at my sewing machine.

*must*resist*urge*to*buy*fabric*

Too much fun?

2010-10-17T09:21:00.009-04:00

How much fun is too much?

On Friday Ben had an all-afternoon playdate with a friend. Then we all made pizzas together. Then I dropped them off at Friday Night Skate for two hours. Friday Night Skate is held at a local church and is only open to 4-6th graders. The kids really look forward to being old enough to go. At FNS they strap on roller skates and spend two hours racing around, knocking each other over, clinging to the walls, falling down, and generally having a great time. The chaos and noise are indescribable. Ben was giddy with excitement and sugar when he got home.

On Saturday, after rushing around to get the house ready for an early morning showing, we headed to the school for 3.5 hours of rides, cotton candy, pizza, and games. The result? Two very happy, sugar-high boys:

Then Ben's friend came over for the afternoon and evening. They were both so tired from so much excitement that they just lay on the couch and watched Scooby Do. Apparently there IS such a thing as too much fun.

An update, finally

2010-10-11T07:48:00.003-04:00

Sorry I have not posted... it has been a terribly stressful couple of weeks. To get our house on the market we have had to de-clutter, stage, and do all those house-prep things. Ian and I worked from morning till night and collapsed, exhausted, every day.

Last week we went to Connecticut to buy a house. By ourselves.We saw 40 houses over 3 days... and liked a couple but did not fall in love with anything. We made an offer on one we liked but could not agree on a price because the owners were unwilling to move at all. So, on Friday morning, we really did not know what to do. We were talking with the realtor when she said, "Wait. There is a house coming on the market today at 1. Drive by and tell me what you think -- I might be able to get you in." We were supposed to be leaving for the airport at 1 but we drove by the house and called her and said, "We have to see this house."

We saw the house. We spent until 2 writing an offer. We almost missed our flight!!

That night we heard nothing so we started to get worried. The next afternoon we found out we were in a multiple-bid situation so we had an hour to prepare our best offer. Then we waited. And they pushed off the decision. And we spent another 24 hours feeling nauseous. Finally, just as I was making dinner on Sunday, we found out -- WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So what did we get?

A 1700 sq ft ranch with 2 bedrooms.

I can hear you saying, "What?!?!?" all the way from down here in Georgia.

Let me tell you why we fell in love... we pulled into the driveway and we could see the whole Farmington Valley from the driveway. The house sits at the top of a 2 acre meadow with wildflowers and a pond. The interior of the house is amazing -- gleaming hardwood floors, those beautiful vintage black-and-white bathrooms, an open floor plan, a HUGE porch. And every room has views. The basement is walkout and fully plumbed for a bathroom so we are going to finish it and put in 2 bedrooms, a bath, and a play room.

Did I mention there is almost 5000 acres of trails just up the street from the house?

And this house is districted to the elementary school we really liked?

We are in love. I woke up with a HUGE smile on my face this morning for the first time in a month.

Visiting Goody

2010-09-29T18:32:00.001-04:00

Last weekend the boys went on an impromptu trip to visit their great-grandmother in Florida:

A break

2010-09-28T19:02:00.003-04:00

Our last day in Connecticut we took the morning off to have some fun... we went to the beach.

Ben buildt a model of Jamestown:

And Nik dug a fort:

Ian and I sat, read books, and relaxed.

It was after 9pm when we got home on Wednesday night...

More CT pics...

2010-09-28T18:51:00.002-04:00

We don't have a lot of pictures of our trip to the Hartford area... We were stressed and tired. We went to a half-dozen open houses, visited 4 schools, and drove around 5 towns. All in 2.5 days.

We did stop between Avon and Simsbury to eat some fresh apples in the beautiful fall sunshine:

In the evening we collapsed in our room. Ben worked on homework:

Nik read:

And we all fell asleep early feeling like the day was conquered:

A little belated, pics of CT...

2010-09-27T07:47:00.004-04:00

Right after Ian accepted the new job, we decided to go on a little reconnaissance trip to CT to check out the towns. We found a great, last-minute deal to White Plains airport and called my parents to see if they wanted visitors for a night. To my surprise, my mom sounded a little hesitant on the phone. When we landed in CT, she mentioned that we should stop and get some pizza on the way home. My mom is a great cook with a huge garden so I was surprised she hadn't cooked... as we drove by her house on the way to the pizza place, Ian noticed a bunch of trucks in their driveway. It turns out my parents had finally decided to gut their kitchen... and demolition had started a couple of days previous!

Luckily, the weather was beautiful so we set up a table in the front yard and spent all our time outside.
Hanging out:

Picking vegetables in the garden:

Talking on the phone:

Even taking showers:

I warned him not to play in the dirt!

And reliving our own remodeling experience:

I'll post pics of out recon trip tomorrow.

Morning

2010-09-26T07:37:00.003-04:00

After a week of feeling panicky and overwhelmed I woke up this morning actually feeling excited about the move.
Maybe it was the full night's sleep I got?
Maybe it was the good session we had with our CT realtor on Friday?
Maybe it was all the sugar I had yesterday...

Atlanta has one of the best gluten-free fairs in the country. 70 vendors come from all over the country to give out coupons and samples, talk to customers, and let people try their treats. Since GF foods vary so widely in quality this is a fantastic event -- I discovered I really didn't like the expensive cookies I had been eyeing, found a new GF hard cider that is dry, bought some whoopie pies from my favorite baker, and had waaaaaay to many cookies and bits of cake. It was wonderful. I also got some samples of products that I had wanted to try but was reluctant to buy a $7 box. Some GF products are so bad that even my kids won't eat them!

Time to go work on getting the house ready to go on the market!

Ch-ch-ch Changes...

2010-09-16T08:54:00.002-04:00

It's September... Last year, this time, we found out we were leaving for Australia in 10 days. Guess what?! There must be something in the air this time of year because I have an announcement this year, too. Here goes...

We are moving to Hartford, CT. Only this time the move is permanent -- Ian is accepting at job in CT.

Ironically, I think Ian's move date will be almost identical to our move date for Australia. The kids and I may move with him mid-October, or we may stay here in Atlanta until after Halloween.

Once again, my friend the Magic 8 Ball has predicted the outcome before we were sure what was going to happen. I must say that the Magic 8 Ball is a little creepy in its veracity and consistency.

How do I feel? Excited. Nervous. Overwhelmed. Sad.

The kids know. Ben is sad to be leaving his friends and excited to be near grandparents, the ocean, and skiing. Nik is Nik. He only cares about having a real Halloween this year.

It has been pretty stressful to be in limbo since July... now I can kick into gear. I'm not so good with uncertainty... I shine when I have a huge task and a tight deadline. Today I am making a list of what needs to be done in each room to put the house on the market and figuring out how many boxes I need to pack up our miscellanea so the house will show well. I am also making a list of possible schools and towns so I can start researching where we will live. And starting to look for a gym for Ben. Phew.

Art with shapes...

2010-09-10T10:53:00.003-04:00

Nik's class is studying shapes. Each child had to make a collage using all of the shapes on they were given. It was really fun to see the different designs the kids came up with: towns, parks, castles, pirates. Nik came up with an alien world:

Lunch with Dad

2010-09-06T11:47:00.003-04:00

Ian was pretty busy the last two weeks with interviews and was unavailable many afternoons when Nik got home from school so Nik was really missing him. Ian decided to surprise Nik by joining his class for lunch.

Ms. H then invited Ian to stay and read a couple of books to the class.

One of the great things about Nik's school is how welcome parents are at the school. Parents come have lunch with their kids. Parents come read to the classes. Parents volunteer in the library, the lunchroom, and at drop-off. Parents help out in the gardens, art classes, and science lab.

Glimpses of our homeschooling week...

2010-09-03T12:06:00.005-04:00

Conducting physics experiments using Lego cars:

Continuing work on The Pinta:

Studying value and Winslow Homer in art:

Using the results of the physics experiments to build the ultimate rubber-band powered Lego car:

Most of these pictures are from project day. We take 4 days to complete most of our work (grammar, spelling, writing, handwriting and typing, math, and history) and dedicate one day to labs, projects, experiments, poetry, and art. We tried spacing the projects out during the week but then they always felt rushed or we didn't get to them or I was too tired. Now we take a mid-week break and really get to focus on our projects without time constraints. I think you can guess what Ben's favorite day of the week is...

Three little scouts

2010-09-02T20:02:00.003-04:00

If you look at Nik carefully, you can see he is cross-eyed trying to figure out exactly where his fingers go for the Scout salute.

Webelos: Aquanaut Badge

2010-08-29T19:42:00.003-04:00

Working on the Webelos Aquanaut Badge before it gets too cold.

Jumping in wearing a lifejacket...

Swimming:

Pretending to abandon ship off the Titanic:

Throwing a ring to a friend:

And pulling him in:

Glimpses of our homeschooling week...

2010-08-27T13:39:00.005-04:00

You know the saying... "If it's slimy it's biology. If it stinks, it's chemistry. If it doesn't work, it's physics."
We definitely find that to be true our house, at least one experiment we do each week doesn't quite work.

This week I found a really cool demonstration that is an optical illusion -- a conical shape appears to roll uphill. But, of course, for it to work you need to get the hill and cones right. I couldn't... so Ian stepped in to save the day:

And, sure enough, eventually we got an eye-popping demonstration -- the cone appears to roll uphill.

I have several books of physics experiments that I have bought, plus the physics text we are using, and I find that I turn to Liem's Invitation to Science Inquiry constantly. If you are a homeschooler and you don't have it, you need to download it now -- it's FREE.

Making a model of The Pinta...

And then painting it...

Project Day: Poetry

2010-08-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

Looking in the Pot

Popping, sizzling, things in the pot.
so delicious, so hot.
sizzle, sizzle, pop, pop
bacon in the pot!

***
The only thing better than bacon is poetry about bacon. :-)

Why is it so surprising when things actually go smoothly?!

2010-08-25T08:25:00.004-04:00

On Monday I had to have an infected wisdom tooth extracted. And, to be honest, I was terrified.

Why? Well... I've always been scared of dental work to begin with, but then then 2 years ago I had a dentist really mess up several of my teeth.

To make matters worse I have both a fear of anesthesia (when I was a kid I had some minor surgery and I remember being on the operating table and trying to tell the doctor that I wasn't out yet while he was getting ready to start) AND I have a fear of oral surgery (I woke up from anesthesia while the dentist was struggling to find one of my wisdom teeth and was awake while he removed my last tooth).

So I spent the weekend a wreck. Sunday I had to keep busy because every time I stopped to think I had panic attacks. I read 4 Harry Potter books Sunday afternoon after one panic attack led to an asthma attack. Oh the drama. I was so nervous that I even made poor Ian nervous.

On Monday morning we drove to Buckhead and I was shaking. I was the first appointment, so the dentist took me back and, after some struggle, they got the IV line in. Next thing I knew I was waking up. Just like that. He managed, in 30 minutes, to put me under, extract the tooth, and get me into the recovery room. 15 minutes later the nurse and Ian walked me to the car and I was on my way home. Wow.

This morning my jaw is a little sore but I feel mostly OK.

The only hitch... apparently while under anesthesia I asked the dentist to keep the tooth... Eeew.