Turkey Day!!

Well I hope everyone had a Superb Thanksgiving!! We spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home flying solo. (Well we actually had a woman over that we barely know, one of the missionaries investigators but otherwise solo.) Besides the fact that the chicken (our turkey stand in) wasn't done in time to eat with the rest of the meal, dinner went off without a hitch. I also made my first ever pies from scratch! They were amazing if I do say so myself. So much better than store bought. I thought I would have a few tragedies to report, but the pies both turned out well. Whew! Oliver had fun helping me make the pie crust. And now we are continuing Thanksgiving weekend by enjoying all the leftovers. Family and friends, we miss you, but at least we have good food to keep us company!

The Cooks!!


The Pies! Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie with cornmeal crust and Almond Coconut Peach Pie. Oh yeah, I know you're jealous!

I have to say that I put this video on even though I'm not looking my best. But Oliver looks cute and is talking, so there you have it.

Adventures in Tubbing

Why is it that every time I get in the bath tub, I am always accompanied by a 2 year old that wants to poke, splash, and play ball. Can't a woman get some peace?? It's not like I don't plan for the right moment, because I do. I wait until Oliver is very into whatever he is doing, playing with his toys, running around, bouncing his ball, whatever. He will be totally engrossed and so I think, here is my chance to get in a quick bath, so I run and gather all my stuff and get in and the POOF, there he is next to the side of the tub. "What Mommy doing?" Peaceful relaxing bath officially over. Our last tubbing experience involved 2 large knitting needles. Oliver found said knitting needles and of course brought them into the bathroom where he first poked me with them for awhile, followed by putting "pins" in my hair. Hmmm.....OUCH! Then he threw some of his other tub toys in the bath with me so he could then fish them out with his new knitting chopsticks and finally it ended with us having a knitting needle sword fight. (He lost by the way.) Needless to say, my bath time is usually cut short and most days I opt for the shower instead. But for some reason I continue to test the waters as it were....maybe someday I can fly solo!! Oh well, I guess these are the moments that I will miss someday.

He did it for the CANDY!!

O.K. so this post is a little late since Halloween is officially gone and over with, but oh well I guess I'm a little slow on the photo downloading! Oliver was Baby Elvis this year thanks to last years b-day gift from Uncle Greg and Aunt Kris Tina! He was a hit and did a mean lip curl! He didn't actually want to put the costume on until I informed him that if he did he would then get CANDY from people. Then there was no stopping him. Oliver loves candy. Sigh. He sported his costume to the playgroup at the library and got some treats, to our ward party (at which he wouldn't talk to anyone and was acting shy until someone gave him some candy and then he was all smiles and chattering away), and then on Halloween night. I think you can see from the video that he was in total awe at the amount of candy that was in his possession at one time! Good thing he's still at the age when the candy can magically disappear overnight and then Mom and Dad can enjoy it. Anyway, Halloween was a hit in Oliver's book and even when the older kids we trick or treated with were tired and wanted to give up, Oliver was still going strong spurred by the fact that he could get even one more piece of candy in his bucket, not to mention the fact that Zack kept hoping for the butterfinger jackpot!

What Oliver has been up to lately

Burning the Midnight Oil

REQUIRED

As many of you know, I have never been what one would call "athletic." I sort of have bad hand eye coordination, which makes it hard to excel in most sports. But I have recently found a sport I am really good at! Kitchen Baseball!! Oli pitches to me and I hit the ball. I am getting really good, I hit probably 88% of the balls thrown at me which is pretty good considering a 2 year old is the one throwing it. It has become his favorite activity the last 2 days. Watch out world series of kitchen baseball, here I come!!

*Since it's hard to take a picture of myself, and Oliver isn't capable of it yet, I had to settle for a cute picture of Oliver playing Kitchen Baseball instead.



My birthday wish: I've decided that every new mom and old mom for that matter should be issued one of these when they leave the hospital!! I mean seriously, who doesn't need a good massage like 5 times a day! And frankly Zack and I are too tired to give one to each other, but if we had one of these bad boys! Oh Yeah!
I'm thinking we could just stop eating for a month or two or five and then we could get us one of these chairs. When you sit in one at the store, it almost seems worth it. Almost.

A Trip to the Zoo

A few weeks ago we went to the Zoo in Providence, RI. It had been a long time since either of us had been to a zoo and after going we remembered how lame a zoo can be when basically none of the animals are out for viewing. Oh well. The animals we did see were fun and Oliver liked them. Of course his favorite thing at the zoo were the construction trucks working on a new home for the elephants! Go figure!






Just ignore the fact that I'm still eating my lunch in this video!! I didn't realize Zack was filming me as well!

New PJ's from Grammy and Grandpa

Coy Oli


Reverent Oli


Sorry this video is kind of dark, but thanks again Mom and Dad for the new PJs. Oliver loves the fire truck!!

Welcome to Mass

Any time you go to the DMV, you now you are in for a real treat. Either you get to wait for a long time for them to call your number, or you don't have the right stuff with you so you have to come back and do it all over again, or they charge you an arm and a leg for some stupid paper which in turn totally kills your day, or if you're really lucky, they do all three. There are so many things that can happen, but none of them are really good. I went to the DMV on Friday because I finally broke down and got a MA driver's license. I had been avoiding this for the past year I think secretly in hopes that we would somehow not be staying here and so I wouldn't really need one. But after a year, our car insurance wouldn't renew if we didn't get MA licenses. UGH. Sigh. I guess we're staying. But I had low expectations since I have already been there about 5 times since we've moved here for various things so I was prepared for the line, I had looked at the list of needed items again and again to ensure that I would have all the right things. I was prepared.
I got my number, I waited, and waited, and waited. Over and hour I waited. Then Happy Day! They finally called my number. I quickly collected our things and was dragging Oliver at a clipping pace behind me to get to the window on the opposite side of the building. I walk up and the woman in the picture above greeted me by asking what my number was. I said, "206."
This is our conversation:
WOMAN: I don't know what you've been doing lady, but I've already called the next number.
ME: Excuse me?

WOMAN: I called your number 3 times and you were too slow, so I called the next number, you need to pay attention.

ME: What??? (It seriously took me less than 2 min. to get over to this window.) Well I was on the other side of the building and I have a toddler, so I walked over here as fast as I could. (Meaning I dragged my 2 year old behind me as fast as I could.)

WOMAN: Well I already called the next number so you're too late.

ME: ARGGGHHHHH!!!!! You are kidding me. (I'm thinking I'm going to have to get another number and wait all over again.)

WOMAN: Just wait over there until I help the next person and then I can help you

ME: (Thinking to myself, why didn't you just say that in the 1st place?) OK.

She helps the next person. I wait there fuming.

WOMAN: Ok, come on.

I give her all necessary documents, without talking to her since I am still fuming. I take the vision test. I can barely smile in the picture because I'm still urked.

WOMAN: That'll be $90.

What the? $90? Just to transfer over a license? This is highway robbery. But I write out a check for $90 and give it to her.

WOMAN: (Imagine her speaking in a totally monotone voice without even looking up at me.) You will get you license in the mail in 10 to 14 days. Here is a temp. Sorry about before, welcome to Mass.

ME: Thanks. (I can feel the love already lady.)

The End. Couldn't be more pleasant! Really rolled out the red carpet for me lady!

On My Mind

First thing on my mind was that I have never seen anyone take a leaf blower to their entire lawn after they have cut their grass. Sure I've seen it when it's fall and the leaves have all fallen off the trees, but this was certainly not the case. They guy across the street from us (in all his shirtless, tattooed, beer bellied glory) was literally blowing his whole lawn. I guess to free it from the haircut he had just given the grass. Of course all those clippings are now still on the sidewalk right next to our car. Yeah, that looks much better! Which brings me to the second thing on my mind.

2. The junk the people that moved out of that apartment left on the sidewalk which is now stylishly adorned with the grass clippings, also next to our car. Why do people do that? Why do you put out junk that no one would ever want as if you are offering good free stuff. It's total junk and it's broken. And again we have to park by it and look at it from our windows. If you have good stuff, sure- put it out there, it will be gone in a heartbeat, but junk, well that's just rude. Besides, I'm tired of looking at it.

3. Is it ever appropriate to ask someone if they are growing a gut? I think not. Zack had someone ask him this the other day and both of us just thought there is no conceivable reason that you should ever say this to anyone. Luckily we both know that Zack does not have a gut, nor is he attempting to grow one and we also know the person that asked him this while he may have been serious, it just extremely rude. (Wasn't his first rude comment and I'm sure won't be his last.) I told Zack he should have asked if said person was looking for some competition?

4. Is it disturbing to anyone else when you see an older woman shopping in the underwear section?? I don't know why, but it just seems like they should be sticking to the granny underwear at that age. Nothing lacy, leopard, or with floss should be in their hands and/or shopping cart if you catch my drift.

5. At the library yesterday I witnessed many strange and sad things. Most exciting was that a security alarm went off and they didn't know why and everyone had to evacuate. I never found out what it was. I was hoping it was a bomb or something since I was standing near the windows. I also witnessed a woman or girl rather asking another girl if she had some deodorant and the other girl pulling out a stick and giving it to the first girl who then proceeded to raise her arms above her head and put it on in front of everyone evacuated outside the library. She could have at least gone around the corner or tried to be a little discrete. I wish I could say "kids these days" but I doubt she was much younger than I am. But my favorite library moment was two moms who were both yelling at their kids and being really ugly and mean to them. And in the same breath one of them turned around to a little girl playing with a puzzle and so sweetly talked to her and helped her. It was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I thought, "boy, you should try and be that nice to your own kids!!" I felt sad for their kids, and there were a lot of them. And then I wondered why people like that keep having kids when they clearly just treat them like they are a huge burden and annoyance. Probably to get back at their cheating boyfriends that they still love. I have one word: Adoption.

6. Should I be trying to potty train Oliver?? And at what point should I put him a toddler bed? Soon? Later? I guess I better start investigating into some of these issues.

Just some random thoughts.

I'm in LOVE

Last week we took a day trip to Maine and New Hampshire since we live relatively close to both of them. And let's just say, I fell completely in love with Maine!!! And New Hampshire isn't chopped liver either. We just went to the bottom of Maine, it's about 2 hours away from where we live, so it was a doable drive with Oliver. Over all he did a great job, there were some sketchy moments in the car when all was not well, but they passed and we enjoyed the beauties of the seaside. We went to we went to several coastal towns in Maine and it was simply one of the most beautiful places either of us has been. We just loved it. All the rocky beaches and lovely homes. They were exactly what you would picture some New England towns to look like. I asked Zack if he could commute to school from Maine, but he said no. Oh well, I guess we will just have to go back and visit. We also went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was a really fun town too. It has a lot of shipyards in their port which makes it kind of interesting. (Especially to Oliver!) And we ate at a really good Mexican restaurant there. YUM. Anyway, it was a great trip, and we would love to take any visitors there should they come to visit us. HINT HINT!! Enjoy the pics....

This is the most photographed lighthouse in the United States. Yeah, that's right, we went there, and you should too! So come and visit.

On our walk to the beach in Kennebunkport, it was really fun to see all the marshes and homes.

The sandy beaches at Kennebunkport. The sand was super soft! And the water was really cold!


I think this was Oliver's favorite part of the trip, the lollipop Zack bought him!

The beaches in York, a little more crowded, but pretty.
Nubble Light just outside of York. It was really pretty. Too bad Oliver had fallen asleep in the car, so we couldn't really spend a lot of time there.
This isn't actually where we ate, but we did eat at a lobster place in Maine.
And this is the lobster we ate!!
Oliver loved the ships in Portsmouth and the place we ate, was outside right on the port. It was so fun to watch Oliver ooohhh and ahhhh over the boats.

Playing at the neighbors in Utah

Having fun at Concert in the Park with Grammy

Zack the Scouter

I'm pretty sure this is how Zack appears out on the mountain tops of Massachusetts today. I can picture it now, Lady Liberty's got his back! He is on a scout camp today much to his dislike. Well he doesn't dislike the scouts themselves, just the act of camping and "scouting" as it were. His Young Men are attempting to do a 50 miler involving hiking, biking, and whitewater rafting. Sound fun? Unfortunately it has been pouring rain on them. Poor guys. Just the fact that Zack is at a scout camp is a big deal for him. His idea of roughing it involves a dumpy motel near a forest. Not really scouting material, but he's trying. He isn't actually staying with them except one night and then to follow them in a car while they ride their bikes tomorrow, in case something happens and they need help. I'm sure there will be horror stories to tell when he returns. That's my man!! Hope he has fun! What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the tent wall! he, he, he :)

Reading in bed with Grandpa

Not only did Oliver get up every morning with my Mom while in Utah, but often he got to read books before going to bed with my Dad which Oli loved!! Talk about the royal treatment as parents!! Sleeping in everyday for 2 months!! Heavenly! Oliver had a blast! Sorry I got you in your PJ's Dad!

Catching Up the Blog

WE'RE BACK!!! (Okay so this picture isn't really us coming back since we flew, but seriously it felt like we had that much luggage at the airport! Good thing the person picking us up had a mini van because it was FULL!!) So I know, I know, it's been a while since I've posted anything on our blog. This is largely due to the fact that we were in Utah for 2 months. Yes 2 months, visiting family and just getting out of Craziville for awhile. It was a much needed break and we really enjoyed it. I could have been blogging all a long there, but instead I sort of went on a computer hiatus and just relaxed and thought I could catch up when I got home. But then we got home and I didn't really feel like doing anything on the computer for awhile, and then I did, but I couldn't get the computer to download all our pictures from Utah, so then I thought that it wouldn't be as good to tell about what we did in Utah without the pictures.....so here we are. I will just have to do some catching up. So bear in mind that when you read most my posts in the next few days it will sort of be in flashback fashion.
As for being home in Craziville? Well it's still Craziville. In true Craziville fashion we went to pick up our cars the night we got home (we had parked them at our Bishop's house to keep them off the streets for 2 months) and the Toyota wouldn't start. Dead battery. UGH.....which then took us 4 trips to their house to finally get a new one installed. Two trips were just dumb, and 2 trips were us just being dumb and forgetting things like tools to get the old battery out and the new one in. Duh. But finally today the Toyota is up and running again with it's new battery! Now Zack said it's making a funny noise. Cars. It's always something.

We also have an endless construction going on right outside our house. I mean right outside our house. It's been going on since the day we got home and there is no end in sight. Zack actually heard one of the workers say this morning that they just wanted to give up on the project and just let it sit there. Not a good sign that they will be leaving anytime soon. So from 7am to 5pm we have our trusty workers beeping and pounding away out there. Luckily Oliver has been able to sleep through it all. Thank goodness. And actually Oliver has been in his own little boy heaven because anytime during the day he can look out our windows and see dumptrucks, backhoes, concrete crushers, and whatever else is out there. Plus our own personal policeman. So he has been loving it! He will just sit and watch them sometimes, it's pretty cute.
Otherwise, not much else going on here for us. Just getting back into the old routine. It's been exactly a year since we moved to Craziville, MA and I can't really say it's been a good year, but it's been an interesting year. I'm just hoping it will get better and not worse in year #2 here. At least fewer car related incidents! Here's to hoping!!

You scream, I scream, we all scream for.....

Here are some fun pictures of us having some ice cream on a semi-warm day. I think Oliver was really enjoying himself. It's pretty rough as a kid! :) He likes ice cream just a wee bit!