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

Cole

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

*****It's now Audust 18, I just finally actually got to see this video. It basically took all I had not to cry. Hannah and Chris, you are amazing people and even more amazing parents. I hope little Cole gets better soon.*******

Visit Cole's Cause

Just a little wet

We got around 4 inches of rain between 11pm and 6 am last night. Everything that was dry is now under water. We were worried about our 'well' (aka stream and collection tanks) were all but depleted.....not so much now. Our water collecting pipe which usually rests an inch above the water line is now 6 inches under it and filled our collection tanks with muck that had been dried up all week. I had to run out in this gick to unhook the whole set up so we don't fill out brand new water heater (which we finally hooked up last night) doesn't get filled with dirt-y water. Joy! Like always these days, I have no control of photo locations so i'll do my best to tell you what's what. The pic of dry stream: the rocks at the bottom right of the pic is what you're looking at in the wet, filled stream pic. The 2 pics with the lotsa rocks, that's the end of my driveway....flowingg and filling fast where it should be and also were it shouldn't, one of the pics shows water running down our future lawn (no grass there yet). The one with the brown water and brush pile behind it is at the beginning of precourt lane, the water is pouring off ron and sue future homes lawn after coming through their rock wall and taking some of their baby grass with it which is the other pic. Wet wet wet. Oh my goodness! Poor jeremy is hanging off a train in this garbage right now. He ought to be a real 'happy' bear when he gets home. 

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Bad moon rising

Ugh! The kids and I went back to north walpole thursday. Jeremy had to work friday....or at least was supposed to until the job was cancelled thursday night after we were already home.... When we got there I unloaded all the dirty clothes we had accumulated since our last trip home and started the wash and then went to my in-laws to have some awesome as always dinner. I was there about 5 minutes and was pestered to run over to clyde and diane's house by ashtyn who wanted to see the kids. So we run across the street to say hi and give clyde his shrine on hoodie I still hadn't given him and heath tells me his mom is interested in my house. So he picks her up and I show her my house (my 3rd showing in 9 months :(  ) and then I go back to have my dinner and then back home to do more laundry and finally sleep. Friday I wake up at 6am for no good reason and start painting. I got the stairway, hallway ceiling, entry ceiling and basement stairway painted by about 10 and sue shows up with ashtyn. After a few hems and haws I decide whatever I have a ton of stuff done i'll go to keene with them. So we go to jcpenny's and sue buys the store out. She bought us all bathing suits, shorts, shirt, etc, whatever we need for our trip to punta cana in april. I wish I could still just go shopping :( , but I currently can't, so thank goodness ron and sue can and are willing to spoil all of us :) (thank you ). It was crazy shopping for clothing. Sue usually kidnaps me around my birthday and 'makes' me pick out a pair of jeans and a shirt or whatever and other than that I really don't buy clothing. I'm a packrat and if it fits, I wear it, I don't really care if it's out of style. I don't like style. I am a jeans and wife beater girl....and if it's cold out, a hoodie or my chunky hippie wool sweater will do. So anyway, back to shopping.... I have no idea what size I am. I've noticed that the more you spend on a pair of pants, the smaller your size becomes. A $14 pair at tjmaxx says i'm a size 7-9, my $38 carhartt's say i'm a size 6, my sister's $100 jeans say 0.... You get the picture. And if the dollar sign size thing wasn't enough, they've got womens, juniors, petites, full size, etc. I'm not a petite but a 34 inch inseem isn't the average girl world! I do not wish to have to cut 4 inches off every pair of my pants thank you. After attempting to figure out my size and finally picking out 3 pairs of shorts that almost don't show off my crud (which is another thing to the fashion world : if I wanted people to see my crud I wouldn't be wearing shorts, please stop making only daisey dukes and capris, there is a happy medium) and then it's bathing suit time. We go to where they are and find out that the are 6 bottoms left and 4 tops. 1 small bottom, which is too small and the rest are xxl, and the tops are all xxl. So I go back to the kids section where they had bathings suits from 2t to 18 which I thought odd but I go and realize that they are in fact kid sizes....although I don't know why we need a kids size 18 or anything above a 10 or 12 really..... I apparently and not only a 6,7,9, I am also a kids size 16-18. Can't we have one size latter. Which reminds me, sue picked up another bathing suit for me later in the day, it was european sized! It was a size 22....lol....i got it as far as my knees..... It was ashtyn's size. At least we got through it, had some laughs and are now almost totally ready. All we need to do is get sandals, sun block and some odds and ends for jeremy. And line up a dog sitter. So after the shopping fun, which did actually go well, sue took the girls and I to olive garden for lunch.....i might need to go switch those 5s and 6s for some 9s and 10s! I ate so much. I wished I had my 'thanksgiving pants' on. It was sooooo good. After lunch we headed back to the homesteads so sue could stash out vaca clothing so it wasn't touched until vaca. And I ran home to finish my painting project. I painted the porch floor and door just as jeremy arrived. He ran and did some random odds and ends around the house and then we went back to ron and sue's for dinner, drinks and socializing. Saturday came and it was off to crecent lake for my dad and linda's wedding. It was short, sweet and cute. We finally saw their cottage, which is adorable. Jeremy and I were forced to dance (there were only like 25 guests so each couple was 'demanded' to the deck for at least their dance) so after our forced dance we bugged the dj and made his playlist for him and actually continued to dance a bit. Around 7 we headed back to our house to get some food and watch the best fireworks in new england.... Rockingham old homes days.....from our backyard, but then decided to watch them with our friends and family from ron and sue's yard. It was nice. Jolene, dan, ashley, morgan, julie and ryan headed over with us. To our slight surprise there were a ton more people there than usual so we had lots and lots of kids there. A guy from the fire station, I think his name was tim, came over with a huge box full of bags of popcorn to give to the 20 or so kids, which was nice, and we all enjoyed the display. The monette crew took off after the show to get some much needed sleep before their 3 1/2 hr ride home in the morning and ryan went to our house to do the same. We stayed for one beer to say hey to everyone since we don't see them anymore. Just long enough for some 'hi' s and to see cathy's dog's 1 day old puppies and we were treated to some fried alligator (thanks greg) and then we headed up to our house too. In the morning julie and ryan treated us to some dunkin donuts before they headed on their 2 1/2 hr ride home and we frantically ran around picking up, finishing up, closing up, locking up and loading up before our 2 1/2 hr ride.....which ended up being more like a 5 hr process. We then ran over to ron and sue's to say our thanks and byes to them and the gallion crew and then ran to travis's house in c-town to get the washing machine to bring up here. After an hour there then head to home depot to get a new lp water heater since the one at camp blew up (not really, but it did die) last week.... 6-700$ later, we finally got on our way to the nek. We arrived around 5:30 and immediately started working on the heater issue. We set up and jeremy started digging post holes and we got the logs in place, filled the holes in and started the painstaking process of removing the piping and old heater. A few curse words and burns later and a lot of banging, we got it out. We opened the box to the new one and brought it into the shower building. Much to our shock and disappointment, it's taller than the old one and it runs on 3/4 pipe, not the 1/2 inch pipe we have existing and we're livid with the idiot at home depot for his 'help'... So it was another night of cold showers last night. Today I have to go out and get the fitting we need and 2x4's and hopefully we can get it done tonight. Oh the joys. 

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi