Tabs for taylor

This was the car-load of tabs we delivered to shriners hospitals in springfield on St. Patty's day. We literally filled my mom's trunk, probably beyond it's maximum capacity, and turned in 90 gallons of tabs, which is 220 pounds or somewhere in the vicinity of 430,000 individual tabs! Bringing tabs for taylor's total tab collection to: 144 gallons (360 pounds or 678,000 tabs) in 9 months, with the last 90 gallons being collected in just 3! I'm being told by our 'turn in point tabbies' that we currently have around another 90 gallons on hand and there more are being turned in every day. This tab drive wouldn't be the success it is if it weren't for everyone involved. I'm humbled that so many people are willing to help. Thank you all for everything you have done and continue to do to help my little girl and all the patients of shriners hospitals. All of you, and shriners, have been a true blessing to our family..... Thank you all so very much.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

No, we're not done yet....but we're gaining

I would have thought by now that my/our to do list would be completed. Not so much.

A lot has happened, as usual, since my last post......

Ron, sue and justin came up for a weekend. And brought with them an absolute ton of food, a bunch of warm winter stuff and about 100 movies. [a huge, huge thanks to everyone involved with that]. Sue took the girls and me to iroc to go swimming on friday for a bit and hooked me & jeremy up with a pass to go again and we got the girls memberships set up. I'm so excited.....the girls have free memberships until they're 17 thanks to iroc's local kids are free program.

While they were here we also worked on the addition a lot. We got the ceiling up, installed 2 lights, hooked up the kitchen sink, fixed the non-existant water pressure issue, hooked up the new shower dial thing, hung the kitchen cupboards up, insulated the ceiling, made an access to the 'attic' and {insert the sounds of angels here} halelujha!!! I got a washing machine!!!! Sue picked up an awesome-as-could-be front loader, and as much as it pained her to do so, they brought it up here (you rock!). I did about 14 loads of laundry that weekend. I was so excited to have a washer again after 6 weeks of hand washing....that weekend was the highlight of my month.....or maybe year....minus sunday, but that's another story.


Over the few available days before their visit and over this past weekend we carried on alone with our banging-it-out mission.......

In the addition: we got 1 outside light in, finished the metal roofing, put up soffets and closed up the ends of the roof, poured a cement slab for the back stairs, made the stairs, hooked up the electric lines to the generator house, ran electric from the addition to the porch, insulated the floor with fiberglass and covered it with tyvek (to be covered again with blueboard), covered the walls, put in window sills, moved the tall cupboard into the kitchen and moved the table, chairs and other kitchen stuff out there. Now the only things left to do out there are floor the kitchen and get the stove & fridge out there and hook up the heater.

As for the porch: we closed up the roof end and got soffets in (after 10 years of being open), put the ceiling in the porch up, put the inside walls back up, finished insulating the walls, ran new wire (because the evil porcupine jeremy shot had, previously and unknown before hand, chewed the old wire to bits), hooked up two outlets and a light switch, installed a light outside and a ceiling light, caulked the gaps, and hung the trim around the door. The to do list out here: finish around the windows on the short wall and hang trim.

Inside camp: we installed 2 outlets in the livingroom, moved the porch couch inside, put the cedar boards back up on the old kitchen wall, covered up the insulation in the living room and moved the woodbox to accommodate me bringing the rocking chair out of hiding. This to do list: get pumice board up on fireplace wall, finish putting up old kitchen wall (we ran out of lumer) and address the stairway support issue.

And basically the only other things left to do are put the clapboards back up and get the second bedroom upstairs situated. 

What a crazy busy summer.....and fall.

As for the monkeys: both of them have been sick. Pretty much since cabbage night. We went to newport for their t.o.t. On cabbage night adventure.....ashtyn was asking to go home after about 2 minutes....and if taylor could talk, she'd have done the same. We woke up to 3 inches of snow on halloween, so we called this year a wash for t.o.t.ing. And basically since then one or both of them has had a cough, fever, booger face, puke bug or the liqui-poo's.

It's going to be a long winter.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

    
Justin J. Towle, 29, died Monday morning, November 8, 2010 as the result of an automobile accident on Route 120 near Townhouse Road in Cornish.
Funeral services will be Saturday, November 13th at the Stringer Funeral Home in Claremont.  Visiting hours will be Friday from  5 to 8 PM.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made in his memory to the Arms For Kids, 227 Valley Street, Springfield, VT 05156.
A complete obituary will be in Wednesday's Paper. [eagle times]
    
http://stringerfh.com/2010 Obits/justin_j_towle.htm

totalchaosandmayhem.blogspot.com

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Birthdays, dogs, building & friends

Where is october going? I can't keep up!

4 of my loved ones celebrate their birthdays this month: Ron, Davie, my Mom and my Dad.

We have had a bunch of friends and family make it up to the nek to visit us this month too. Jessi came up with her little cutie pies charlie and maebel and the little bun in the oven that i'm so excited to meet in february. I didn't even know she and griffin were expecting..... I hadn't seen her or really even spoken with her since shrine on 2010 back in june. I was so happy to see them, as were the girls.

Next, justin, clyde and diane gallion made it up. Clyde and diane have never been here. Ron & sue have tried for the past 11 years to get them to come up and finally they did. Nothing beats friends and cold ones around the camp fire. Diane spoiled us too with a bunch of snacks and goodies and lisai's. They also brought up around 20 disney movies and a couple vcrs for the girls. Jeremy and I have {shhhh, it's a secret} been enjoying the new movies as well. I think we've watched the 50 or so I brought up about a dozen times.....so we've been pretty ansy to see something 'new'. The gallion clan stayed saturday night and around lunchtime they headed over to derby to go pick out and pick up their new puppy. She's a golden lab and I guess is bruiser's (ron & sue's youngest lab) niece. Shortly after their departure from camp, my aunt cindy and uncle mark (who I get to see once a year if i'm lucky) and cousin leslie (who i've seen maybe 4 times in the past 9 years) snuck over for a visit before they headed back down home from visiting mark's mom who lives a few miles away from us. It was an awesome weekend. It's kind of funny, I see more of my friends and family now that i've moved 2 1/2 hours away from them.

As for our addition building project: we've come a long ways since my last update.
We got the ends closed up and soffets in, the walls are insulated and we have plywood up as a temporary wall covering, the toilet, water heater, shower and bathroom sink are all in and working, we have some really nice linoleum on the bathroom floor, the storage area is insulated and some new light fixtures and outlets are in. Sue picked up a new front loader washing machine to replace our freebie piece if junk one {omg i'm sooooo excited} which will be up here soon and i'm working on insulating under the floor. My kitchen has had a major face lift in reverse though. We put in the door to go from old camp to the new part and in order to do it we had to take out the 10 foot counter which was the only real storage here and take down one of the cupboards. So I now have 2 cupboards on the wall and one on the floor which is also being used as a shelf for cereal and whatnot......so everything in the kitchen is kind of all over the place. And since I have no kitchen sink still, I still have to clean the dishes in the shower :(. But it's getting there. As far as right now goes, jeremy has friday off so we should be able to get the sink in and I hope to have the floor insulation done. I kind of want him to be here for that project because I have to use the table saw and I want everything cut correctly and it's too scary in my mind anyway, to run that thing with kids around. I can't wait though to have it done. To do the dishes in a sink, laundry not being washed by hand (again) and get the girls set up in their own room. Oh it'll be an awesome day. 

We 'might' have a new dog. Her name is chelsea and she's almost 2. She's is an excellent dog. She doesn't need to be leashed or penned up, she stays right with you and she just loves the abuse the kids give her. Courtney tollerates abuse.....this dog seriously cherishes it. The two are an excellent match. I hope everything works out and we get to keep her. Right now is supposed to be a sort of test run to make sure the dogs like one another and that we like being a two dog family. She reminds me so much of my dog brandy. If courtney and cheslea were mushed into one dog, that would be brandy. I think that's why I wanted her so much. But we'll see how everything goes. 

Hopefully i'm working soon. This paycheck to paycheck garbage is beyond old and I am done trying to borrow a nickel today, to pay back yesterdays dime at the price of a quarter. I've had it. I exhausted every avenue and turned up empty handed and broken armed. Last week I found 3 new roads to check out and am on it like there's no tomorrow.

Oh yeah, taylor turned herself into the jolly green midget. Funny huh. The girls found the food coloring and decided taylor would make a lovely baby shrek. Dawn and baby wipes work miracles.....it washed almost all of it off. She has a little spot of her wrist and the soles of her feet are green, but everything else is gone.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Letter to santa

Dearest santa claus,

Last night we received our first of many flakes to come. I truly thought jeremy was messing with me until I looked outside and saw that evil white garbage all over the place.

One would think that being a northern new englander for 29 years, my entire life, would have conditioned me to accept, tollerate or even, dare I say it, 'enjoy' the winter weather. Well, not so much.

I can not stand the cold. In my perfect world it's never below 75. And i'd prefer it to be around 85-90: tank top only on my harley weather. That would be great.

I do ask for a white christmas but i'd also like it to be back in the 70's on the 26th. I've been a good girl. 

Please.

I'll leave out extra cookies for you :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Twin state jeeps n things 3rd annual toy drive

I just received this email from
Dave, twin state jeeps n thing vp. Jeremy and I used to be a part of this group. We enjoyed many a muddy, rocky, trail-blazing runs with this group as well as helping out with the annual toy drive and monthly food shelf collections. This year has been especially tough for jeremy and I and we are unfortunately not going to be able to help out like we wish we could, so i'm posting this on my blog and facebook in hopes that others back near home can maybe help out.

The toys need to be dropped off or a pick up scheduled by november 5th. If you plan to make a monetary donation and/or you are a business looking to sponsor, i'd recommend contacting dave asap.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance to all who help. Here's wishing tsjnt a huge 3rd annual toy drive!!!! We miss you guys.

"I am sending this to everyone on my contacts list because this is important to me. Twin State Jeeps N Things of whom I am the Vice President of is asking for your help. We raised over 300 toys for families in Claremont and surrounding communities last year. This will be our 3rd annual toy drive and I need your help. We are looking for (New) if possible, clean unused toys for the toy drive. Books and board games are also wonderful. We are also looking for donations to purchase toys. A donation of as little as $5.00 goes a long way to help someone. If an individual or BUSINESS would like to donate, a $50.00 donation gets your name and or business logo on our sponsor web page for one year.
We ask that you check out our web page at: www.twinstatejeepsnthings.com for more information on what we do as a club for our community.
Toys can be picked up by us at your convenience. If you are interested in sending a cash donation please send it to:
Dave Collise
C/O Twin State Jeeps N Things- Toy Drive
8 Hardy Ave.
Claremont NH. 03743"

totalchaosandmayhem.blogspot.com

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Photographic evidence

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Building, building and more building

The addition is coming along. It's not a super fast paced project but we're going as fast as we can.

It rained from saturday the 25th until saturday oct 2! We had flood warnings in effect from noon on october 1st until around 2am on the second. Parts of hinman settler rd (the road that brings us to 'civilization') were under water, and today when I went into orleans I was detored because they're trying to 'fix' the bridge. Jeremy's train tracks washed away again somewhere up here. When we were in st. J, we were detored because the river was over route 5 and the town and police had center brownington shut down because the church, farm and road (5 way intersection) in the very center, were under water.

So with all this water barrelling out of the sky, putting slippy tyvek and tin roofing on a very freaking steep roof (with a busted arm no less) was not an option. But saturday, the skies cleared. And although it was cold as my idea of hell, jeremy and I got the tyvek and metal roofing up. Unfortunately, we were one piece shy {you wouldn't expect anything to go smoothly for us would you???? Where do you think 'chaos and mayhem' came from? Such is my life}. So, the roof is 'almost dome'. Then we got the 4 windows in and I cleaned them up.....soooo pretty. After that we went to bed. We'd had it. The next morning we set out to get some more accomplished. Now all the walls have plywood. Yay! and we started in on the big triangle opening {i have no idea what they're called}. The 'to do' list for this week end (if anything goes well) is: finish big triangle things, metal roof 100% finished, tyvek the outside walls, shower, toilet, water heater, sink all into and hooked up in the new bathroom area and outside door in place. If we manage to get all of that done, which I pray is finished friday, then we need to work on insulating, cutting out the wall and putting up the inside door and maybe some actual siding getting put up. Some point soon we also need to get the rest of the inside walls covered and trimmed. Oh the never ending joys.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Mayhem turned two!

Little miss mayhem turned 2 on friday. I still can't believe how quickly time flies when you have children. I remember the summer before I started kindergarten and thinking fall would never come, and now i'm just like: wow, slow down here! Yesterday I was pregnant with ashtyn and now she's in school already! Yikes! Tomorrow they'll both be married and i'll be a grandma.

Taylor's party was small but nice. My mom, dave, julie and lisa came up to celebrate. We didn't get to have cake which bummed me out but it was okay. The girls killed the cake I made, or I should say crystal made, and so I just said the hell with it. Jeremy and I laughed about how mangled it was and since friday was taylor's birthday (when it happened) and since it wasn't frosted, we just let the girls eat the rest of it....after us adults snagged a little piece....it was yummy! My mom was going to buy a cake, and crystal offered too but in the end I said no and so we just enjoyed some burgers, dogs, present opening and watching the new tinkerbell movie.

Speaking of presents: my kids are spoiled. They each basically get to birthdays. They have their own and they have each others. Ashtyn got a ton of gorgeous new outfits...not really a ton, like 6 or 7, but still a lot....and a treasure chest full of wizard of oz dress up stuff, a light up glinda gown for trick or treating and some other fun goodies. Taylor got a beautiful dorothy dress and tinkerbell and another pink fairy outfit. They both got some new pj's, footies and non and some really nice fuzzy blankets from auntie julie and my aunt lisa made taylor an awesome quilt.

It was really nice that they were able to make it up here. It's around a 3 hour drive each way so it's hard to do it often, and it's not like they could stay here since there's not much room, but they made it and ended up actually staying longer than planned. Davie was helping jeremy and mack build the addition and I kidnapped lisa to bring her on a walking tour of our land and then showed her the old house...whats left of it....she was so excited about that. I was kind of excited and confused by my visit to it. I found some old insulator or whatever it's called from a utility pole.....there's no electric out here...why on earth there would be insulators out there, I have no idea....but I hope to find out.

When they left they took my last 'tabs for taylor' wishing well. My mom is putting it in her yard so people can drop their tabs off there. I'm so excited! She's submitting my write up along with one of taylor's tab filled pics to the newpapers out her way. Mom you rock!!!!!

I, we, finally got to meet the girls' new pediatrician yesterday. She seems awesome. I really miss dr. Hall back home, but I, so far, am really happy with dr. Bannach. Taylor had her 2 yr well child check up in the morning and since ashtyn's been coughing and is now producing phlem, I brought her in after lunch. The doc played with taylor a bit to get her to feel comfortable and was really impressed to see taylor in action: taking armie off, putting armie back on, reaching, grabbing, climbing everything, moving a huge wooden chair around the room, climbing up on the counter, turning on the faucet, getting soap from the dispensor, washing her hands, getting the paper towel to dry them and then climbing back down to find the trash. She was doing great. She loved how independent taylor is and how nothing slows her down. We talked about orthopaedists and shriners hospital and how we'll always make the drive to mass because they are awesome and we talked about her cold, blue nub ('cause it was when we were there) and then about her speech and ot services etc and that she's doing great. I know she's doing well but it's nice to hear it from others too. And then came the hard part: the hep b vaccination. What a trooper. She was unimpressed about me holding her down but didn't even make a peep about the needle. And was all excited to get a booboo bandaid. All done. So we said our goodbyes and went to the hospital. During our visit we had also discussed that taylor had tested positive for lead again. I can't for the life of me figure out how and when I described our current 'home', the dr was shocked too. The camp is all virgin (untreated/preserved/whatever)cedar and pine. No paint anywhere. So we're kind of assuming it's a bogous finger prick, which is why nh doesn't do finger pricks....so we went to the lab at the hospital to get some blood the old fashioned way, directly from the vein. Again, taylor was a trooper. She was scared of me restraining her and then when she saw the needle, she watched silently as the tube turned red and filled the vial. Another booboo bandaid and a sticker for being such a big girl. All smiles, she said bu-bye to everyone and we left to go pick up ashtyn.

We get back down to barton, get ashtyn, drive back up to camp for some quick pb&j and then back over to newport to the dr's.

I had to convince ashtyn that she would not get any shots, or finger pricks or anything of the sort. That she just needed to be weighed and measured and have her lungs heard.

Please, please be good.

She did not want to pick up the toys she tossed all over the play area but other than that she was good. The doctor gave her a nebulizer treatment for her nasty cough, wrote a rx for the treatment so we could do it at home and sent us on our way.

Luckily we have a medical supply place up here so we could rent the nebulizer. Holy cow! 200 bucks for the damn thing....we rented it for 20. Makes me continue to hate my insurance company.

In the end I was very happy I did get ashtyn in to see the doc but I felt like an ass for not doing it last week......and jeremy didn't get to cry about a pointless dr visit :) I keep reminding him our deductable is pretty much nailed already.....and he keeps threatening to go get a vasectomy.....jerk. Lol.

Anyways, jeremy and mack finally got the walls up and the roof streamers. They managed to get the plywood and plastic sheets on the roof and no sooner did they get down the ladder, it started to rain. And it's basically rained non stop since. I put all the plywood that was outside, the trim boards, windows and insulation in the addition area so we almost have a porch again. I've got another 30 or so sheets of plywood on the porch still to move out there but I hurt myself enough moving stuff yesterday. I can not wait to have two useful arms again!!!!!! Ugh!

Well, that's it for now. Off to 'chores' and whatnot.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Celebrating 85 Years at Shriners Hospital

Powered by    * Please note, the sender's email address has not been verified.       You have received the following link from imninstar@yahoo.com:             Click the following to access the sent link:       Celebrating 85 Years at Shriners Hospital*                 Get your EMAIL THIS Browser Button and use it to email content from any Web site. Click here for more information.   *This article can also be accessed if you copy and paste the entire address below into your web browser. http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/Celebrating-85-Years-103804224.html

I really did do a good job on myself

Huh. So, my understanding of my wrist issues have been found in error and i'm just now grasping the reality of what went down and how messed up I really am.
First of all: the arm bones. I messed that up badly. I pulled my ulna (small bone, the bottom one when doing thumbs up) out of it's happy home within the nest of little wrist bones, not my radius like I had thought.
Second, I don't know if I mentioned it on here or not but I had this one xray pic that looked like I had smashed the top off of the bigger forearm bone (the radius bone).... I never asked my ortho about it. The first visit, I didn't even noticed the 'idea' of a crack on my xray, and then on my second visit, dhmc was a mad house and my ortho was all excited for me that my ulna was going back in place that I forgot to ask about the questionable looking xray. Well, yesterday it showed up again on only one xray again.....so I mentioned it. He corrected me on my total bone headed wrongness in switching mentally the radius and ulna, and clarified the whole ulna moved out thing
.....duh....brainfart....or maybe vicodin induced stupidity....anyways, and then he says that yeah, I did break the top of my radius off and then he showed me how the bone is re-fusing and that there's a kind of bump of bone now where there wasn't before.
Well that sucks. But he assures me things still look good and he'll see me again in 3 weeks. Now I get to lose this obnoxious stinky huge cast.
I've been feeling about 80% lately. My wrist does hurt if I pick up something real heavy but for the most part I don't have any pain at all. So i'm sitting there in the cast room shooting the breeze with the whole casting department and 'my guy' gets my yucky blue cast apart.

Oh my friggin painfullness!

It was like sitting, bleeding at the woodpile on that fateful saturday morning all over again. I had to lift my left hand with my right one to get it into the sink so I could feeblie attempt to wash some of the stink off.

'could I have a couple shots now? This is horrendous!'

He replies, 'you just told me how you wished the er doc broke your arm without the shot since the shot was more painful?'

Lol. 'no, I mean vodka or something'

.....not so much..... So I finish my pathetic effort of cleaning myself and carry my broken appendage back to the bed so he can [hurry up pretty please] put a new cast on. 

New cast on and finally ready to go. I set up my next barage of appointments and go rescue crystal from ashtyn and taylor :) and continue on our journey to home depot.

There's so much more to this story but it's just going to have to wait......sorry

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Sept 21

I was side tracked by my evil but not so surprising er bills that I entirely forgot to give an update on my oh so much fun re braking adventure. Well, it worked. I had my xrays done a week after my dhmc er visit and everything looks good so I don't need to have surgery. Yippee! I've had my cast for 3 weeks today and I am going back to dartmouth in a few hours to have a new one made and another dose of 'radiation'....can't see my bones enough I guess...

Kind of funny side story:

Last wednesday I got a call from a local number that I didn't recognize.
I answer, 'hello'.
'yes, Mrs. Honeycutt?'
'yes'
'hi this is [nurse] from [local hospital] orthopaedics. I'm just calling to remind you of your appointment tomorrow'
'for what?' I am so confused.
'your 2 week check up' she happily rebuttles, 'from your surgery.' she's starting to think i'm a moron. 'your wrist.' I can almost hear the 'duh' in her voice.
'oh!' I say. 'well that's funny. I never had surgery. I couldn't get ahold of you guys and decided it was a bad omen so I went to dartmouth, where they reduced and set my wrist and I don't need surgery'.
Who feels dumb now? Haha. A stunned silence is all I get in response. And then, 'oh. Sorry. Um...... I guess you won't need to come in then. Well, ooops, have a nice day.'
Wow! Really?
I guess in the end I will go with the general concensous up here: the local hospital sucks! Except for the awesome, awesome nurses who took care of me....you all rock!....or at least the orthopaedic dept up here sucks, and the er secretaries.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Happy 85th Birthday Shriners walkathon

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/mass_appeal/community/happy-85th-birthday-shriners-walkathon

The high price of learning

I just received the first two (of likely a dozen more to come) of my insurance statements for my wood stacking/falling day of fun.

My first notice is for my er visit here. $2041.22 to clean the blood off of me, stitch my head wound, xray my wrist and put me in a splint. Ouch! And how much did my insurance company pay? Not one cent! Who is stuck footing the bil? Moi.

The next bill was for visit number 3 of my first visit to dhmc. It was for my er visit there when they re-broke my wrist and casted it. $1666.00 of which I have to pay $268.08.

Why did they cover nothing at north country and a good chunk of dartmouth hitchcock? For starters, north country is an out of network facility and we have to meet our annual out of network deductible of $8,250. (5500 family, 2750 individual) before they will pay anything. Since we haven't reached it yet, they paid nothing. Whereas with dhmc, they are in network and our annual in network deductible is $7,500. (5000 family, 2500 individual) I was $268.08 away from my individual annual in network deductable, so we have to pay the 268 and for the most part they'll cover the bulk of the rest....except the ot & pt, i'm sure there will be some battles with that....(they refuse to pay for taylor's ot).

I am still waiting for the statements of 3 sets of xrays and 2 visits to see the orthopaedic specialist. Followed by next tuesday's appointments with the casting department to remove this cast and then make a new one, another set of xrays and another visit with orthopaedics, which will be further followed by another set of visits with all three and ot/pt. I'm estimating another $7k, bringing my cost of learning not to stack wood seven feet high on stupid wobbley pallets to about $10,000! Awesome.

What's even more fun is my ot/pt will be at north country so i'll likely get to pay out of pocket for that. Taylor's 30 minute visits are $243.33 (each week) so yeah, that'll be expensive. We might meet one of our deductables this year. That's just swell {insert sarcasm here}. And the hospitals will get their money in monthly installments of $50 at most, since, {insert dr. Evil's 'muwah-ha ha ha ha' laugh here} i'm poor. And since I busted my self up nicely, I can't work. Isn't learning fun.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Boo-boo's, water and school

As always, a ton of time has gone by so I have tons to say.

First, I had my 1 week check-up at dartmouth. The 're-breaking' of my wrist worked so I do not need surgery. Yay! But i'm stuck in this huge armpit to fingertip cast until the 21st (3 weeks.....and yeah it smells....yuck) and then 2 weeks in a shorter cast and then a splint for a little bit.

Next, we have water!!!! Our old method of water collection and distribution was not 'winter friendly' nor would I even consider drinking it. It actually was ok to drink it but years ago I had a couple night crawlers come through so that killed the whole drinking idea for me, even after I bought a filter system for it, just wasn't gonna do it. But now we have a nice, new well (many thanks to ron, sue, louis and dave) and all the piping is happily buried so we have year round water....and it is definitely drinkable

Next, we finally got started on the addition. We are adding a 12x20 area which will be split kind of 30/70. The smaller room will be.....dut dut dut daaah....an inside bathroom! No more going outside in the middle of the night to pee! And yes we do have an actual flushing toilet already but it's in it's own little bathroom house thing and like our old water system: seasonal. So everything is going to be north east kingdom winter friendly. Yay! The other part of the addition is going to be the kitchen. The current kitchen is also the dining room so more space is needed and will be available soon.

And, little miss chaos, has started pre-k. She is so happy and just loves it. Her teacher's name is miss julie which she thinks is just the best thing ever. Back home, her school didn't offer bus service. You had to be enrolled in the special ed school in order to be picked up, and then you were picked up by a mini van with a 'school bus' sign on it. She was furious at the idea of one of those 'buses' coming to get her (and not because those are for children who need extra help, she has no idea what special ed is or the short bus jokes.....its because 'big kids' don't ride little buses) So when she found out it was a fullsized bus she was psyched. She rides it down to the high school and then the bus driver walks her to another bus which then takes all the little ones over to the pre-k school. That first day I was a little worried. Minutes before the bus showed up ashtyn asked if it was a woman driver..... I had no idea. I was anticipating a huge meltdown...which of course would have been over-tired-exagerated and in front of people, so we're talking huge, huge meltdown. And here comes the bus. And we look. And thank God. It's a woman driving. 'Bye mommy. Have a good day' and she held our neighbor's son's hand (who thankfully rides too)  and they waited for the driver's signal to cross the street, crossed and got on the bus. And off went my baby on a new adventure. 
I went back down the road to camp so jeremy could leave for work and wondered if I should wake taylor to drive to ashtyn's school. We weren't here for orientation and she was with my mom because of my arm when I finally found out about the school and registered her so the poor kid didn't know who her teacher was (she knew it was julie but not who julie was) or where to go. She only knew what I had told her about the bus. In the end I decided to not be that parent even though it killed me.... I let taylor sleep. I knew everything was ok. Once the kids got to the pre-k, staff members go out to the bus to escourt the kids off and into the school, and on the first day, (or longer if needed) to their classrooms. It's the school and bus co's policy to never have any of them without an adult escourt. Some of their safety measures scare me and remind me it's not 'safe' anywhere anymore: when you walk in you enter the main office, you then have to be buzzed in through the locked door, then walk to your child's classroom and knock on that door so the teacher can unlock that door and let you in. Each classroom has it's own bathroom and door to the playground. The entire place is in a sort of lock down mode. It's weird. It makes me feel like ashtyn is safe but also that she's in danger, like kid abductions are a common threat. We didn't have security like this back home, where my locked car was stollen from my driveway and our convenience store was robbed at gun point, we had an unlocked door, four women and 20 little kids....and this place is a quiet, peaceful place.....so i'm not quite understanding the hightened security......but I guess it's better that it be overkill than not. But aside from this shady topic.... She had an awesome first day at school and has another awesome one every day. She loves it. And as much as I love the no fighting, bickering, screaming, whining, etc, I'm bored and I miss her all morning and can't wait for school to be over. 

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Better than ezra

I'm so bored! This sitting around garbage is for the birds. I can't do anything. And I hate the word 'can't'. My girls hear it all the time, 'you can do anything. Can't is not an option in this house' I have told ashtyn I don't know how many times that 'can't' and 'hate' are naughty words and their use is basically forbidden. But here I am. All alone. With 'can't' on my mind. I need to do dishes.....can't. Need to do laundry.....can't. Need to mop.......can't. I 'can't' do any of that stuff....not only because I physically can't yet, but I can't get this stupid cast wet and I also can't because jeremy broke a water line, we found out after we ran out, and the stream is dry. Awesome! I need to put my hair up...... I can't. I want to cut it all off..... I can't. I'm getting pretty sick of sitting here. I've done all I can do and i'm now just stuck waiting for 4 to get here so I can go get ashtyn registered for school....which starts tuesday! So I guess there's a positive topic. Ashtyn got in to the pre-k program and i'm psyched. She'll get to ride the bus in the morning and unless things change over the next few days, i'll pick her up at noon. I'm still going to try to get her in the full day program but we'll see. Her teacher's name is miss julie which she is just going to love. I'm so excited for her. Now I need to work on lining up preschool for taylor. These poor kids have been stuck with one another and me for months. They need more kids to play with.....and stat! Another good thing: the addition is getting started tomorrow as is our well project! No more stream water! Yay! And an inside bathroom.....super big yay! Bigger kitchen/dining room....more yay! No more peeing outside in the dark because I have to, only if I want to........ I'm so excited I could bust. That's all I needed, a little venting, find a happy topic or two, now i'm in a much better mood....so thanks :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Part 2: time to make and re-break

We did make it to donna's birthday party sometime around 4. I got to tell my story another 50 times. We all had a great time. Sunday morning my mom and dave came to kidnap our monkeys for a few days since i'm kind of useless. When they left we went to town to rent a bunch of movies. When we got back we made dinner and just laid in bed and enjoyed copland, clash of the titans and repomen and went to sleep. Monday morning came way too early. 5:30 I get up, make jeremy and myself lunch and head to what's supposed to be my first day at work. I got there, was handed my timecard and paperwork and informed I might not be allowed to stay. 13 minutes later I was escorted out. If i'm 'lucky' I can work there after I am released to work by a dr 'if' they have any possitions available at that time. Great! So I get my things, drive down the street to the hospital, park my car, call jeremy to tell him, and I cry. This time very much like a baby. I waited 3 months for this job, finally get it and poof, gone. He calms me down and I head back to camp. Then I get to spend the rest of the day calling drs and dentists to cancel all the appointments the girls had this week, call dhmc to schedule my surgery, call westaff, call call call whomever. And in between out going calls i'm bomberded by people calling me, so I get to tell my story another million times. I get my call back from dartmouth, they can see me now but I explain I have no one to go with me at this second so tuesday morning would be better. I've been in agony for 3 days, whnat's another 12 hours. So I call jeremy, mom and mom #2 to let them all know and then head back to the hospital to get my xrays. 
Jeremy gets home around 7 and we decided to just head down in the morning, much to everyone south's dismay. 
We get to dartmouth and the place is packed. I drop my xray cd at the imaging dept and go check in at xray which happens to be where everyone under the sun is waiting for their dose of radiation. We wait for 30 minutes and all I call think about is how delicious the pizza from sbarro smells. I hadn't eatten or drank anything since I went to bed because of the anesthesia possibility so I was starving. I finally get my turn and go get another batch of xrays. When I get out jeremy has reached the breaking point of hungry. We had 30 minutes until my date with knives, needles, pins and plates, so I tell him to go eat. He finally does and i'm jealous but know that I can't. He gobbles it up and we head to orthopaedics. We're in there barely long enough to give the receptionist my insurance info and we're brought to my room. We are greated by an almost-graduate who asks a bunch of questions and is baffled that I was not given a reduction in the er. He explains that I might not need surgery and what he plans to do to fix my wrist without cutting it open. He goes out to talk to my would be surgeon and then the surgeon comes in and talks to us and tells us the same thing. Basically, i'm going to be sent down to their er to have my wrist re broken and set back the way it should be....hopefully. And if all looks well on xrays a week from now, no surgery, if it doesn't, then it's time for the shiny metal objects. 
So I walk down to the er and check in. My nurse comes out to get us and brings me to my new room and gets my vitals. A minute or so later my new dr comes in with her helper. She explains to him, jeremy and me what is going to happen and then she gets out 2 syringes and a bottle of something to 'block' my pain. Let me just tell you....bullshnykies....it didn't block squat. 1/2 cc of crud to kind of numb my skin and the 10 cc shoved directly into my break. It felt like a knife was scraping the top of my radius and ulna....holy crap did that hurt. I'm flipping out but calmly and laughing histarically, so jeremy's laughing and now the docs are laughing. They start grabbing supplies and they told me they guessed on what color i'd like: black. I agreed, but then realized I would be able to doodle on black so I opted for baby blue. Sara, my dr, then told jeremy when she rebreaks my arm she wants him outside, so he kidnapped my phone and went out to the waiting room. She then started explaining to her helper what she would do and without anywarning in mid sentance she pulled twiced and busted my wrist. Oh man did that suck! She's this tiny little thing too, and I even told her how amazed I was. A few more minutes of torture and I had a blue cast and a massive, throbbing wrist. Then she pulls out this cast cutter, which looks like a bone saw or the cut off tool jeremy has for the air compressor....either way not fun. Wtf? Sara explained how my cast was really going to be like a splint, they'd cut it but tape it back on to allow some room to accommodate my swelling and swollen wrist. She could tell I was scared and they told me it was a special blade that won't cut skin. Bullcrap, i'm thinking. Nope. Sara turned it on and stuck it on her arm. I wanted to puke just seeing in my head what was about to happen but to my surprise: no blood. I felt better. So she starts hacking my cast. That saw doesn't cut skin but oh man, it can burn. It gets pretty toasty and my tender little wrist didn't appreciate having the veiny underpart grazed. Ouch. But it was over. She put some tape on to hold it together and sent me back down to xray. All good down there and then it was time for thank you's and goodbyes. 

I called the local hospital to see if I could do my xrays and check up here......they don't want any part of it. They're mad I didn't go with their recommendation of immediate surgery....so now I go back to dartmouth next week for more xrays and a follow up to see if this re breaking thing worked. 

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Learning the hard way

By now you've likely seen or heard of my winter wood project. Well lets just say it's now jeremy's project.

We were invited to a friend's 70th birthday party at 2, which we obviously planned to attend....so we knew we didn't have the time to get the sono tubes in for the addition so we decided to work on the wood. Jeremy bucked up the last lengths of tree and I was running the wood spliiter. Ashtyn and taylor were safely away from us but still within sight... I know some of you will wonder. So, jeremy finished bucking and then went for a quick ride on his quad with the dog and I continued splitting....and yes, you can do the two-manned splitting garbage but i'd rather be in control of it all.... A couple minutes go by and he's back and starts running the handle of the splitter, which I just stated: I want to control it all or have no part of it. And please understand, it's not that i'm a control freak it's just I tend to f up when i'm watched and when he and I work together it's basically definitely going to happen and he's going to get hurt and well, it'll be my fault, so I avoid that stuff. So, I let him take over the splitting but, being the nice wife that I am, I placed all the bucked up wood closer to the splitter so he didn't have to keep running all over to pick it up. Aren't I sweet?
So then I start stacking up all the split wood. We only 'need' (we assume) 2 more rows and we'll be set for the winter. I start in on the first one. I grab an armful, like 7 or 8 pieces and stack them all nice in their new little row. I'm all proud of how my ends are these days. I used to be really really bad tying the ends, but now they are awesome and sturdy and i'm so excited I split and stacked about 98% of our so far 7 1/2 cords of wood all by myself. And yes, all by myself, during naps and whatnot. So now that it's almost done i'm just gitty with not having to do it again until next year. Another armload beautifully placed. And another. Look over to check on both kids. They're good. Another armload. Another armload... BAM! I hear a few curse words and the blaaght of the splitter motor. Oh f bomb. That hurt. 'are you okay' he asks. 'shut that thing off, where are the girls?' I respond. They are still safely away from us but have realized something bad just happened. 'oh s#*t, you're bleeding'. 'yup, can you go get me a towel'. He does. 'let me see your head'. 'i don't care about my head, I just mangled my wrist'. So a few more seconds of quick conversation and blood going everywhere. 'load up the kids and when you're done I need you to pick me up off the ground cuz if I do, i'm just going to faint'. So he gets the kids in and comes for me. I had to skip catching the blood for a bit so I could use the towel as a sling and pick up my arm. Not a pleasant feeling by the way. So we get on our way and I shockingly calm. I'm snickering about the lousy roads up here and how it'd be a smoother ride if we drove in the ditch. And we get to the hospital. Now it's do or die time. I unvelcro my left glove to finally see the damage and to save my glove from the doctors cut-happy scissors and then remove my never-ever-off-of-me harley davidson bracelet. Well, so far not bad. Removing the stuff hurt real bad but no bones protruding and no blood. It's a bit swollen and purplie. Now, everyone I know up here a) goes to dartmouth (which is 2 hrs away) and b) has expressed that they'd take their chances with bleeding to death driving elsewhere before going to the local one,so i'm a bit scared how this is going to be. Just for the record, I don't think it's as bad as they say but there were a couple annoying employees. So we pull in. There's this huge 'emergency room' sign on the building as well as normal sized signs everywhere. Jeremy pulls up to the door. I assure him I can walk the 15 ft so he can park the car in the closest spot available (100 ft away). So I get to the door, under this huge sign....'um, ma'am the er door is around the corner'.....really, that's super. So I stagger over to that door, it was only like 20 ft away. There are two receptionists at the desk. Neither look at me. The one at the window is casually talking with this girl about panic attacks and whatever, and i'm getting mad. Suddenly things are fuzzy. So I decide to go sit down. Jeremy walks in with the girls and I tell him I haven't been checked in. So he gets right up there. 'i'll be with you in a moment sir' and the woman sits down and starts eating a salad. Really? Wtf?! Meanwhile i'm chatting with a mother and daughter who are also waiting to check in. I explain what happened and they look at my blood covered head which is now covered with blood soak dreadlocks. They talked with me and the girls for a bit and finally in the background we hear 'what can I do for you sir?' 'my wife is bleeding all over the place and she broke her arm'. She looks at me....'i have a patient for triage' she says over the walkie talkie. well that got the fire going. Here's a nurse, there's a nurse, everywhere a nurse, nurse. Little nina messed up bad, eieio!
The secretaries we dealt with going in sucked! But the nursing staff made up for it. They were awesome. Cleaned me up, gentle as could be. I can't say enough good things about my nurses. They get me cleaned up, the doc comes in. I have gotten the 'oh'-face about a dozen times now. Everyone is in awe of my wrist. Doc stitches up my head and I get 'bedded' over to xray. That sucked worse than the stitches but the tech was a sweetheart and tried her darndest to make it as quick as possible. I snuck a peak of my xrays on the way back to my room. Yup, that's awesome. I basically ripped my radius (top bone of your arm when you do a 'thumbs up) away from all the little bones that make up your wrist, and shoved it into my ulna (the bottom one). Awesome. Goodstuff. So she wheels me and my bed back into my room and I await my goopy messy cast making adventure. Doc asked me what color and I went for this hot pastelled pink...ha!....and quickly realized it was an ace bandage. Huh? He then informs me I need to have surgery on tuesday-ish...but basically asap...and that's when I finally cried. Not like a baby, but I did cry for a minute. Then I put my tough girl attitude back on and they braced my arm. We were done now but had to wait as a man was brought in from a motorcycle accident (we wanted to not only respect his privacy....this place is tiny....but also not further tramatize the girls). As we waited jeremy commented on how many people came in to check on me and how I must have told what happened at least a dozen times. I then informed him it was how they try to make sure this wasn't a domestic abuse thing. That got him fired up but he quickly settled realizing that crap is a sad reality. So....now that i've said 'so' 52 times in this post....the moral of this story is: don't stack your wood 6 ft high, especially if its on wobbly pallets.....

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Oh the joys of 'the boonies'

Taylor and I set out on a grocery mission this morning while jeremy, ashtyn and bryan ran off to littleton, nh to buy out home depot. We were headed for price chopper and big surprise, I went the wrong way, not once but twice. Once I stopped laughing at myself and got on the right path, I passed a crew holding a yardsale. As I drove by I wondered what kind of bonehead has a yardsale on a friday? Just as i'm passing their driveway I notice a pink snowsuit that looks brand new and ashtyn's size. I hem and haw with myself because I know I have zero cash on my person. I swing into the motel and head back after I shook my purse and heard the sound of lots of change. I pull into the driveway to check out this snow suit and as i'm pawing threw my purse i'm instantly mortified and don't want to get out of my car. $1.75! Wtf! So I figure whatever I can't get it but i'll at least go look. 50 cents!!! Holy cow. I grab it and run up to the guy who I assume is just like jeremy and happy to be rid of old kids stuff. I ask him if it's priced right and he says 'that's what the sign says'. Um, I missed the sign. So I toss the suit in the car and scavage like a lunatic for more change. I ended up finding another 75 cents and run back to the hangers and tables like a little kid at christmas with a blank check. I grabbed a never been worn pair of pants and another winter coat for ashtyn, a pink gap fleece hoodie for taylor and a really cute pink and purple hand crocheted sweater that they can basically share. Score! Ashtyn has been whining all week that she needs a new snow suit (the evil monkey is excited for winter....bah humbug is my thoughts on that) but now she has one! Awesome goodness.


 I should be finding out about pre-k on tuesday or wednesday next week to which is awesome! They even pick the kids up and bring them home.....sweet. It only took me 3 months to find out there is a pre-k program here!!! That i'm a bit annoyed about, but....hopefully, she'll get in. I might have to call my local reenforcer to help with that, but she needs to be in school. She's too damn smart to be at home.

Taylor's doing really well with her speech 'issues'. She still doesn't articulate properly but she's putting 3 and sometimes 4 words together. Yay! 

I go to my safety training for work on monday. I should know by the end of the day if I actually do have the job or not. At my interview the supervisors knew I needed to train as well as work nights, so i'm a little leery about this 7am on monday thing.....we'll see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I think that's about it for now.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Carly is in the miss lake county pageant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WiHgsmPQGQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

How is it that the days go by at mach10

So to catch everyone up to date....monday, the 16th, taylor and I had a special morning with my aunt kathy, uncle randy, cousin matt and his girlfriend renee....and my uncle's parents and several of his cousins. The 'tate' clan from all over the place ventures up here each year for their family reunion. I couldn't let my family be in the area without a visit so thanks to the internet I was able to figure out where they were, which blew my mind..... Mark's house is maybe 2 miles from me.... And so taylor and I strolled on down to mark's, found out 'my crew' were in town at the hotel. So we head over there to track them down and after a bunch of hugs and kisses and 'this is....' and 'nice to meet you's' , they invited us to the brown cow for breakfast. So we head over there and find out they don't have room for the 30 or so of us, but they worked on making sure we all gone our tummies filled. While they were rearranging stuff to accommodate the lot of us, we were greated by a 5 minute horrific downpour acompanied by some pretty intimidating lightning and thunder. It apparently killed power to most of newport and we later found out it killed it back at home in nh too, but the storm was short and we scooted inside for a delicious feast (many thanks to joel and susan). Afterwards mark played tour guide and brought us out to see elk, buffallo and deer. Oh my goodness. I'm used to seeing elk....we stop in derby all the time at cow palace so the kids can see them...ashtyn thinks they're reindeer....so anyway, we see them all the time, they are some big critters, well, the elk we saw that day put just about every large animal i've ever seen to shame. We actually saw a moose at the end of our excursion and I was laughing because keep in mind this was a moose and a pretty big one at that, but compared to the elk we saw, the moose looked like a miniature donkey. We even got to heard a baby buffalo back into it's corral. It broke out through a hole in the fence and couldn't figure out how to get back in. So we kind of stalked him and when he finally saw the way back in his mommy was there waiting. She was so happy to have her baby back, the silly beast was trotting literally when he got back threw the fence. It was a sight. The whole trip was pretty awesome...and the fact it's right down the road was really cool....and the new people I met were all awesome. I can't wait to visit. I found out later that joel and susan live like 2 miles away too in the opposite direction from mark and kristy.... I'm smack dab in the middle. After that adventure we headed back to camp to await cathy's arrival (friend from home, not my aunt kathy I mentioned earlier). Cathy shows around 3 and I finished up my laundry, made some dinner for all of us and got to stay up late talking girlie stuff which I haven't done in I don't know how long. It was nice. Ashtyn came home the next day with ron and sue, just a few hours after the fridge and stove scared me and needed to be shut off. They arrived around 5....with a chest of lobsters for us for dinner! So I ran around and got the grill going, realized it was a very good thing I brought my large pot from home (or we wouldn't have been able to cook the yummy treats) and cooked everyone dinner. Harlow's corn and lobsters fresh out of the atlantic = awesome!!!!! The next day ron and I fought with the gas lines and appliances. He got a new regulator, ran new lines, we cleaned and re cleaned everything....nothing fixed the stove..... I told him I thought the pilot was too high and it needed to be adjusted but neither of us knew what to do to do that. We hemmed and hawwed and worked on the fridge for a bit and then I mentioned the papers that were bolted to the range....maybe that will tell you how to adjust it. Low and behold! Yay! Ron fixed the stove! So we're all excited and we get the fridhe back together and back in it's spot and then it's dinner time. I made some sheppards pie, our style, and then we went over to marg and louis's. We hung out at the garage for a bit until it was bed time for the monkeys and sue, the kids and I went to camp leaving the guys with louis and the atv's. The next morning ron and sue were gone before we woke up, and no it wasn't late, it was around 7:15. Around 10 I smelled something not good. Turned out to be the fridge. It wasn't cooling anymore. The stuff in the freezer was still frozen but the fridge was not doing so well. Jeremy re-levelled it and we waited to see if it was working. That's basically how the next 4 days went: check the fridge, tilt it, shim it, hope it works, repeat. We did have a little break in the fridge cycle: justin and crystal came up to visit friday through monday, and bryan and rachel came over saturday night. We dusted the cobwebs off our brains re-remembered how to play asshole. And sunday day justin, crystal, jeremy, myself and the kids went to the fair down in barton. The girls had so much fun. Taylor could actually go on some rides with just big sis and ashtyn could go on almost everything. I think she had the most fun on the gravitron....that spinning room that has a drop out floor....yeah, she went on it with daddy. We found out while we were there that apparently all the really bad clothes, shoes and hair do's from the 80's have sadly become 'cool' again. It was pretty funny. All I could think about was jen's post last year with the king and queens of redneck, white trash-dom, fully backed up with photographic evidence..... I actually checked her blog while I was waiting for fries to see if she was there and laughing with me...but nope :(.... I still had a chuckle though. After we exhausted ourselves with endless rides and smash, bang and the honking of the fire alarms at the demolition derby, we ventured back to camp for a rematch of our oh-so-politely-named card game with bryan and rachel. Monday afternoon we said our goodbyes to justin and crystal (they'll be back up again friday :) ) and we got back to our fridge issue. Finally, the fridge is working. So tuesday I went grocery shopping. I have never been so excited to have a glass of milk. Now we are at today. Jeremy left some time this morning with bryan to go to alton to pick up his truck, trailer it to charlestown, pick up the jeep and plywood in north walpole and trailer that here. About a 12 hour day, in the truck. Not my idea of fun. Which is why we stayed here. I talked to him about 2 hours after they left, they were 40 minutes away....not a good start. I got a call around 2 and found out I got the job i've been trying to get for 3months. So I called jeremy to tell him the good news. I could barely understand him due to his lacking cell signal but I caught something about someone dumping diesel on him and his truck before the phone went dead....more not good stuff. Then around 6 he called and asked me to look at my keys..... I didn't understand it but looked anyway. Turns out the jeep is now locked, the key to it is not in it or in my house, my house was unlocked when he got the and the power which I shut off a month ago is still on. Not impressed about the house being unlocked....to say the very least.....my realtor will be hearing from me in the morning. I don't know what has happened down there over the past 3 weeks but someone's head is going to roll, especially after I have to deal with Mr. Cranky pants when he finally gets back here. So, that is basically how I spent my last 10 days....and now you're up to date.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Hello phone....picture attatchment would be nice

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Father and daughter moment....

If you can tell....the blurb at the top of the tree is jeremy, and the little feet at the bottom are ashtyn's.... Gee, kiddo lets break our legs together. .....this is why i'm mom...that scares me

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

New blog to share

Thanks to little miss mayhem, i've had the privilege of meeting this wonderful, very supportive and always helpful lady named Debi. Debi and Taylor both have congenital upper extremity amputations. Taylor's on the left and Debi's on the right. We first met when Taylor was about 4 months old, minutes after Taylor received her first prosthetic arm. Debi shared a glimpse into her life from birth to present and I left that day knowing without a single doubt that Taylor would grow up strong and always be able to do anything and everything she put her mind to. I love being able to get her feedback on things. Generally I really only have the insite of other parents of children like taylor who have been in my shoes, I don't often, or ever usually, get to hear and see things from the amputee's perspective. Debi has shared her experiences as a child, teen, adult, mom and now grandma. She's been through it all and then some i'm sure. With '1/2 a century' of knowledge and experience, Taylor will always be in great hands with Debi around. That said, Debi has started a blog so that she can reach out and help and educated even more people. She just started it a few days ago so there are only a couple posts so far but i'm truly looking forward to her posts to come. Her blog is called
Single-handed Solutions and the site link is:
 www.singlehandedsolutions.blogspot.com 

Enjoy!

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Another butterfly lost

A while back, this girl stumbled across my blog. She was looking for help, support and answers reguarding the recent news of her 20 week gestation nephew's limb deficiency. We exchanged emails a few times and then her sister, the one having the bundle of joy, joined in and we exchanged emails too. We have kept in touch as best you can in the busy world of work, family and play. 'Little Man' was due to be born on august 30th and i've been waiting to hear the great news of his arrival. I got it this morning. But it wasn't the great news it should have been. 'Mom' had some bloodpressure issues suddenly and so the baby needed to be delivered early. He was born on saturday august 7th, and he passed away on tuesday the 10th. My heart aches. Rest in peace Nathan. I hope you find peace 'mom',  'aunt' and all of your family.  My thoughts are with you.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Busy day (second attempt to post)

Ashtyn is off enjoying old orchard beach with grammy and grampa, and jeremy is working so taylor and I joined jeremy at work. Today st. johnsbury is having this sort of summer fest with a farmers market, bounce houses, you name it. Almost every business in st j has a tent set up on the street to entice you to buy their goods. And because it is a town wide 'fun day' they have a special passenger train (which is why jeremy's working on a saturday). Taylor and I went on the first run which took us from st j to barnet and back, the next one went to lyndonville and the last one will go to barnet again. We had a nice time. We got to enjoy different scenes than we were used to going on the bf to chester runs back home. I didn't even know that the connecticut river (pic posted) was up here too. There were some local celebrity types on board with us, radio djs, photographers, etc, all excited to see a passenger train run through their town. Jeremy and bryan did an excellent job 'driving' the train. It was a little speedy at one point I thought anyways, jeremy laughed at me about it, but whatever. The other kinda scary part was the zillion 100+ year old bridges we relied on to carry our tonage of trains and people across the connecticut and passumpsic rivers the whole trip but I guess if jeremy has to do that daily with 40 cars full of freight it could handle the engine and our three cars of people. I got to feel like the technology goddess for a little bit as I uploaded pics to facebook during the trip. This guy, who I found out later was the dj, was talking to brian (our train tour guide from bellows falls) about how the train should offer wifi and they both grumbled back and forth about not having cell signal (get verizon!!!!) I laughed when I heard him on the radio on my way home as he told his listeners about how he couldn't broadcast from the train because there was no signal available on the route..... Could have used mine..... He also could have done his blog post that he wanted.... But nope, I figured it out too late.....sorry. I felt bad about it really, especially after hearing his really great plugs for green mtn on the radio. Jeremy's embarrassed.... The radio crew took pics up on the engine and he's in them...haha, they weren't posted yet but the blog where they should be is www.vermontradio.blogspot.com .... Wicked funny! Anyway, I wish taylor wasn't so tired, it seemed like it would have been pretty fun to roam the streets of st j for a while but she was out before we left the parking lot. Oh well, maybe next time.

Rustic? Spoiled rustic, maybe.

Yes it is a big bit out of the norm but it has everything you could really ever need. We have a fridge and freezer, heater and a water heater all thanks to the power of propane. We have a flushing toilet,  3 tvs, dvd players, vcr's, more movies than I can watch in a month, a huge generator to power the things the propane doesn't, big huge batteries that can power the stuff too, a wood stove along with my monster stack of wood to burn (the photo doesn't do it justice but it is taller wider and longer than the 8 person camper), a washing machine and microwave now, and 4 insulated walls and a roof over head. And if that's not enough fun, we've got 3 atv's (4 if you count taylor's power wheels), the tractor with 5 or 6 implements, 2 streams, our little clearing along the rest of the 80 acres to play on, an awesome atv trail down to our friends houses and we can even ride our atv's on all the town roads! That sounds like some good fun to me. I've got all of this in my yard (in laws yard :) ) ...... The only other things I need like stores and a reminder of why I like being a hermit (those people are everywhere), I just drive into newport or derby, like 6 miles away, and all is good. We even have a mcdonald's. The only thing this area doesn't have to offer is a walmart, but we don't need it. We've got the nek walmart: evansville trading post. They've got more stuff than I could even fathom....and just because it's wicked funny i'll give them one more plug: you can get married at the store, well, kind of behind it, in their chapel, but, ya......funny stuff right. So they're better than walmart. I'm still laughing about it...... Anyway. I may not have plattsburgh or burlington down the road but I haven't ever had them so I don't and wouldn't miss it. Somedays I think about missing keene and ckaremont but then I remember I hated those towns. I liked some people there, and I do miss them, but that's it really. And I do see those people either when they come here or I go back down there and I do love my house and wish that I could bring it up here, and i'm missing my harley too but the kids cause some massive riding issues anyway, and she'll be here soon enough.....other than that it's basically awesome. One thing I do miss: turning on the light switch. We do have a couple switches here but you have to go out and turn on the generator first, so it's not nearly the same.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Ok Jolene, here are some camp pics

Same as always, no control of pic lacation.....

So, when you're looking at the camp, on the right is the 'bathroom' (shower and yes, a flushing toilet)...its the two toned plywood building/shed thing....behind the bathroom we added on a wash room/building thing for the washer and water heater so they aren't crowding up the bathroom or getting soaked by rain or shower water. The wash room obviously isn't completely finished as you can tell from the missing heater and sideways washer and the obvious lacking of a door or front wall, whatever, but it's getting there. We have to move the heater and re pipe it and do something about the chimney for it. But all in due time. I can't do it alone and jeremy needs to work :( Hopefully by the weekend it should be finished up. 

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi