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.

Seriously, I need to pause life

Everything is flying so fast I barely have time to think about it, let alone write about it. Last Wednesday, Taylor took her first digger. The 3 kids and I were getting ready to run away from the house for a little while and Taylor was last up the (cement) stairs..... suddenly my dog decided she wanted to go back outside.... Taylor going upstairs + Dog RUNNING down stairs = bump and bruise on forehead and road rash on the nubbie. The even more cruddy thing about it is: if she had her prosthetic on, she would have caught herself, therefore not smashing her poor little face and nub. She started acting shy about her nubbie lately so I decided I'd give her a couple days without her arm to "gently force" her to not be embarrassed or whatever about her arm..... nice idea that worked out horribly. So I called down to Shriners and talked to a couple of the OPD crew and had my thoughts confirmed.... no arm until its healed.
A little while later my so far lousy day got better. I received an email from a guy named Jim who saw my Tabs For Taylor ad on Craigslist .... and to my surprise.... this email wasn't spam.... he informed me he had a 5 gallon bucket full of tabs that I could have if I knew a way to get them from him in Rochester..... no problems there thanks to my Aunt Lisa who went and picked them up for me. So that made me pretty happy.
Then, Little Miss Chaos, broke her nite-lite. SCREAMING, bleeding EVERYWHERE, more screaming.
"Where is the glass honey?"
"I broke it in the kitchen"
"Well if you had broken it in here there would be more than just the one piece that was stuck in your finger"
"I brokted it in the kitchen!"
This goes on for 5 minutes while I run frantically around looking for this glass before either of the 2 little ones find it. I then get her band aided up and continue my hunt. I can not for the life of me find it anywhere. She laid down and watched some TV while I continued frantically searching for the pieces of light bulb. I blocked the little ones in the living room so they can't get into the kitchen and find the glass for me..... another couple minutes go by and I hear it. The sound of a little metal pan from the kids kitchen set falls to the floor and lands on the itty bitty pieces of glass. And where is this glass? RIGHT WHERE THE LITTLE ONES ARE PLAYING!!!!! There was a baby doll outfit on top if it so I never saw it. What a monster. Thank God neither of the little ones touched it. I grabbed them and put them into the glass free kitchen and vac'd it up. Once Ashtyn woke up I found out she was trying to hide her nitelite so I wouldn't be mad. She failed, but she won't be touching glass again anytime soon. So my day was kind of back to not great. The phone rings. My father in law is calling to let me know my dog ran away and is at their house. Once the kids all wake up from their naps, we walk down to get her (they live 3 houses away). Taylor and my "borrowed kiddo" are in the stroller and Ashtyn's holding onto the stroller with me and the dog is practically glued to my left knee (the one closest to the road). We get about 30 feet from the end of the side walk where we would cross the street to my house and SQUEEL BAM YELP This idiot hit my dog. The dog limps over to the house and lays down in the yard. I'm standing there stunned thinking: A) my kids are watching their dog die, B) they're going to see me kill that moron and C) they're going to see me die when daddy gets home and finds out "his baby" is dead. I hurry across and check her out and she's okay, just really scared. The 90-someodd year old guy huddles over and asks if she's okay. Once I tell him she's alright he starts going off on me. He's lucky I was the one he dealt with and not Jeremy.
Long story short: Wednesday wasn't a good one, aside from the tabs.
Saturday the kids and I went with Grammy and Grampa Precourt to Yankee Candle and Ashtyn got to make a jarred candle at their wax worx station. She thought that was just the best thing ever. And then we had an awesome lunch at Chandler's (the restaurant at Yankee). Sunday was Ajlyn's birthday party so we hung out at Sam and Rene's house from 11:30 until around 8. We brought up the tractor to do some work in their yard so I got to "play" with the 'bota for a little while which is always fun.
And now for this week: Ashtyn's learning to ride her bike (finally). The little one is just too little for her and we still haven't found (or remembered to look for) the itty bitty inner tubes for the little bike....so I brought down her big one. She did awesome! She went all the way down our street and around the round-about-thing and back up the street a bunch of times. She loved it. Other than that its been normal craziness: getting ready for the birthday party/going away party on the 24th, getting ready to move Jeremy, Ashtyn's school stuff and all the last minute stuff for my Shriners fundraiser. Oh I can't wait for August. I'm not doing ANYTHING! (I hope)

Had to put this one on.... gotta have my princess dress on with my muck boots to play in the mud..... that's Mommy's girl.

My little cuties

I'm not-so-patiently awaiting the release of this week's Compass paper.... There was a photographer at the butterfly dance Sunday and she took a zillion pictures of both girls.......... cute, cute stuff.

Its that time of year again

The first Saturday of August is the day of my family reunion every year (on the Lemieux and St. Sauveur side)....it is also the peak of our Old Homes Days celebration.....So every year on this Saturday we go to our reunion location and hang with the family. We get to see our relatives we don't know, the ones we do but don't see except for on this day every year, and of course the ones we see all the time. Its usually a blast....minus those few awkward teenage years when its not "cool". The kids and I had a blast, Jeremy was stuck at work, and around 5 my more immediate family departed to go back to my place for the Old Homes Days fireworks display.

Today Julie, Jeremy and I took the girls to the Cheshire Fair. It was a good time even with the sprinkles.... Taylor's having a total cow right now though so I'll have to share the stories later...I just wanted to get the pics up before people start calling to ask where they are

The best place on earth

It was punk day for miss Taylor...she finally has some hair...I felt the need to show it by putting it in a mohawk

The girls and I went to Shriners Hospital yesterday to get Taylor's new arm. Every time I go there I love it more and more. We got there ridiculously early but it never really matters, there's so many people to see and talk to and wonderful things to look at and things to do. Ashtyn and I had a quick lunch outside since Taylor was sleeping when we pulled in and then I grabbed the gigantic trash bag of soda tabs

(this is only a portion of what I brought in....and yes that is a 5 gallon bucket... Many thanks to the Ladies Auxiliary in Charlestown.....we love you)

and Taylor and in we went. We weren't even there 5 minutes and Ashtyn was ready to live there forever. Her big thrill for the day was getting to see Sulley (from Monsters, Inc)....well that "big" adventure was tossed out to see Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Sylvester and Pepere LePew who were visiting Shriners Hospital from Six Flags. Tweety was in love with Taylor, Ashtyn was in love with all of them, and Taylor was kind of like, why are these "little" animals bigger than me?

I thought Ashtyn might have a break down when the characters left but luckily there were some volunteers with a playdough station set up....crisis avoided...yay. Someone didn't show for their appointment, so we had ours early.... We got her new arm and then Rob (her prosthetist) showed me how to change the hand.....6 months of having this thing, I would have thought I would have figured that one out on my own....duh.... so she has 2 hands or her prosthetic now.... the new one is a bit larger than the old one and her real hand...its Ashtyn's size...or maybe a little bigger...but its the only size they make that hand in...she'll grow into it. And I know Kristy (her therapist) will work her magic teaching skill wand and Taylor will be a pro at using it and picking things up with it in no time. After our visit in O&P we went out to the lobby area and hung out there for at least an hour. Seriously this place is just awesome. I know I'm a pretty boring individual, but SHC rocks! We hung out with the receptionists and Ashtyn and Taylor played with the ball machine thingy.... and a Shriner from Pyramid Shrine in CT, Robert "Bob" Harriman and his wonderful wife..... I'm so sorry I forgot your name..... they played with the kids and spoke with me... it was a wonderful time. Bob put his Fez on Taylor, it was so cute. And of cource as usual my pictures are super limited.....I need to drag someone with me on visits just to take pictures for me. The publicity crew did take a bunch of pics of me and the girls with the characters and when I get the email, I post those pics too.


Bob and Taylor


The ball machine thingy....and Ashtyn's favorite seat


A good sign :)


It was a great time and a great day...even with the over tiredness..... I'll post some pics of Taylor's new arm today hopefully...she wasn't very interested in any more photos being taken last night.


These are the pics they took of us...

Can't tell I'm embarrased....

Busy, busy, busy....As always

Last Wednesday we went to the petting zoo again and went blueberry picking since the strawberries are done. Jessi and her kids joined us as did Amie and her son. As usual, the kids ate more berries than they picked. But they all had a blast with the animals again. This time they all managed to find peacock feathers on the ground so they got some souvenirs. We had a little PB&J picnic there too which was nice. Thursday morning I drove out to Springfield to pick up the new-to-us brush hog Sue bought for the tractor. I wish I took before pics of it..... bright red, a hint of surface rust, but in all around good shape. Saturday the thing kicked my butt. I grinded and sanded and painted and now my arms feel like they're going to fall off. It now has not even a speck of rust and is Kubota orange (to match the tractor...and the backhoe)...who says you can't be a hick and fashionable at the same time. Then on Sunday....Jeremy, the kids and I made the 2 1/2 hour trek up to Winnipesaukee and surprised my Mom, Dave, Ryan and Julie for Julie's birthday. We surprised everyone else that showed up too. The last time we were up there was 387 days ago...(July 4, 2008)...this was Taylor's first trip to Alton. We all had a great time. Ashtyn had a tea party with Grand Ma Ma and Papa...which no one else was allowed to join in.... And both kids just loved every ounce of never ending attention. The ride home they weren't so happy about but...that's expected. Tomorrow, its going to be almost 90 degrees out and SUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!! So we are planning a swimming adventure. Scary stuff right there.....my white bum in a bathing suit....and in public. Yikes.

So the last 10 days flew right by......

Friday the 10th, was the beginning of it all..... I got the go-ahead from all my kids' parents to take the kiddo's strawberry picking and to the petting zoo (both are conveniently located at the same place). Jessi, Maebel and Charlie were originally going to be joining us but at the last minute Jessi got an invite to the ocean, so we got ditched..... I do not blame her one bit.... I would have ditched to go to the ocean too. Especially since her "invitor" was doing all the driving......So I packed up the 5 kids and myself and off we went for a day of animals and berries. I have never seen these kids have so much fun as they did that day at Wellwood. Oodles of fun, oodles of poop on shoes ( thank goodness I asked the parents for 2 sets of shoes) and oodles of berries in their tummies. A full day of fun for about 6 bucks for the 7 of us. You almost can't beat that.

Once 5:15 pm came around and my last "borrowed" child went home, Jeremy and I along with Ashtyn and Taylor made our 2 1/2 hour trek up to Brownington for 9 days of just us and nature. (and a little bit of tv thanks to the generator). We got there around 9-9:30 (we had to stop for gas and pee breaks etc), unpacked and went to bed. The next day was the annual pig roast (which turned out to be not a pig roast this year....we had beef instead.... I pigged out on the chili I made and the huge fruit salad someone else had brought) over at the Glodgett's. As usual the food was awesome and the fireworks were great. Ashtyn and Taylor both had a blast. Ashtyn fell in love with a little boy named Thomas and Taylor was infatuated with Joe and Rita's little girl.... I forgot her name again....sorry...... And everyone there was awesome. They are all really great at involving the kids in practically everything. The fireworks ended around 10 and at that point it was definitely time for the kiddos to be in bed so we went back to camp. Jeremy and the other guys decided it wasn't their bed times yet so they went out with the ATVs or whatever they had to ride on. I went to bed with the girls and woke up around 4am to : "just so you know when you get up, my atv's done for the summer" WTF? He is ok and all is fine, but his atv.......definitely out of commission for at least most of the remainder of 2009. Apparently he stood it up on a crazy steep hill and instead of it finishing its ascent up the hill, it decided to fall on its face and roll down the hill. Lucky for my death defying mad man of a husband he is really (sadly) good at ditching the crash and so he ditched and only has a little bruise on him (a big one on his ego) and a huge one on the atv. That day the kids and I went to the park and let Jeremy sleep off his anger about crashing. The rest of the week was less exciting. A lot of clearing "our" land (hopefully it will be ours) and burning brush. We did see tons of wild life, which is the norm up there, but it was better than usual this time. We saw 2 moose, together, just 2 fields down from our cow path (road), a ton of Mommy dears and babies, huge wild rabbits, and tons of random enormous birds that were enjoying something very near by the camp.... there was a sad animal story on the adventure home Sunday morning.... someone was driving south, like us, an apparently their hatch opened up on their car which spilled out a bunch of clothing.... and the family dog.....right onto 91. Needless to say the dog didn't survive the tuck and roll............ Thursday night Ron and Sue showed up. I swear they came up only to scare the life out of me and have a good laugh about it. Ron got this huge GIGANTIC black spider that was at his work and stuck in in the shower. Everyone had a good ha raw about it.....except for Ashtyn. I had to pet the thing to prove to her it was fake. Friday we dubbed around Newport and Derby. Saturday we went to the circus at IROC..... and we decided to not bother once we got there. Instead Ashtyn got a pony ride, cotton candy and some bouncy house action. Then we peeked around inside IROC and then went to the GoKart place down the road for a 3 generation race between Grandpa, Daddy and Ashtyn. Then some lunch and fun at the huge play area at McDonald's. After a full day of running around we went back to camp for our last night of no-extra-kids and packed our stuff. Then unfortunately today arrived and we had to depart. So we drove home, unpacked, made my phone calls, checked my 254 emails!!!!!! and now here I am.

.....oh yeah....and it rained......a lot. and hailed and rained and tsunami and blah. Mother nature doesn't like me. Its only when I have plans in July it rains.

And we're home again

It is amazing how fast time is flying these days. The short story of the week is: I had 5 kids all day every day, with the exception of Friday.....Thursday night at the last possible second we decided to go to camp for the long weekend. Jeremy cleared a bunch of our "spot" and we're going back to hopefully get a lot closer to "finished" on Friday of this week. The weather was decent, beautiful Friday, on and off sun and sprinkles on Saturday and then crazy beautiful Sunday. The bulk of that evil rain garbage was only around at night....and there was a lot of it. But we're home now, safe and sound, to do it all again this week.....I'll be back for more story telling adventures once I get some food into our bellies.


To view the millions of pics I took click here

One project down, five thousand to go

Jeremy and Ron finished our wall of shakes!!!! Finally, after 3 years of looking at tyvek and/or clapboard, its done...... with the exception of stain. Julie and ryan came down for weekend and the 6 of us had a cookout with my dad and Linda and went to Terry's to go fishing for the afternoon. If was nice, and then rainy, and then nice, and then sweltering hot and finished off nice again.
Mother nature is a crazy one!



Jeremy, Julie and Ryan finally got to see Dad's new tree house he built "for the kids" which is code for himself. I have dubbed it the "New Cabin". For those who don't know.....when we lived across the road from his current location (he'll never leave the general location of where he is...EVER) he built this awesome little cabin just in the tree line on the corner of our driving range. And when he moved I thought for sure he'd have found some way to lift it and drag it across the road to his new house. Sadly he left it, and so this is his replacement for it.


The tree goes through it, it has 2 floors, a tons of windows and doors, a rope and bucket pulley system, a fireman's pole and you can enter via rope or stairs, which flip up to keep others out, if your feeling antisocial. It is so awesome! I don't think my dad will ever hear the end of it.....my sister and I are totally mad at him for not building us something like it when we were little. Don't get me wrong, Julie ahd her cute little Alice in Wonderland house, but what did I want with that thing? I was 9 when he built it. I had to crouch down to get in the door. I didn't want a little girl house, I wanted a tree house!

Back at the homestead

We made it home. Hours before I would have liked to but.... you'll have that I guess. I was so delighted to have a flushing toilet at camp..... well now I'm scared of it. Not the toilet, or the very nice hot, hot, super hot shower its located next to, it is the unfathomably HUGE spider that has made the "bathroom" his home. The picture is pretty blurry since I cropped it and keep in mind I was no where near the thing when I took the pictures of it. I want to crawl out of my skin just thinking about that nasty monster. Bleck!

The original picture of mr nasty spider is in the slide show. Some of the pictures are probably dumb, Ashytn was using the camera a bit, but whatever. I have to round up the kids so that's all i got for you right now.