Thus ends the reading...

but really the year, no reading.. that is just a line from church which may be said after the person reading one of the readings finishes. It seemed fitting as this is the last day of 2009. I have been practicing saying 2010 as twenty-ten as I like the sound of it better than saying two thousand ten. History prevails as all other years are referred to as 2 double digits, with the exception of the last decade as people fumbled with saying the year in a way that was comfortable. twenty-ten. I like it. Imaging saying out 1999 or something it seems rather ridiculous. to cumbersome.
2009 certainly wasn't a banner year for awesomeness, (is any one year ever really better than the next for the average person?) but there are some things  that happened for for me that I'm glad about.
-I managed to keep my job when other people haven't been so lucky. I have been trying diligently to not complain, about the bad days (of course there have been some days where it was just so bad I had to complain) because every time I do, I feel lucky to just have a job. I have also done my best to correct the things that the boss yelled at me for, and even had some stuff added to my plate voluntarily. At my work there are no evaluations. You can only assume you are doing things okay when the boss doesn't yell at you for something stupid.

-last year I taught myself to crochet and this year I managed to get others at church to make a bunch of baby hats and blankets for the new little babies at the hospital. I have found a thrill in yarn shopping. (it's so old lady, I know) I have perfected the hat pattern on one of my favorite blogs. I have made all kids of different sizes with all kinds of different yarn for tons of different people. for grown up I make skull caps and for kids I've been known to add on ear flaps with ties.

Here is my hat in a super alpaca yarn. I also just made a little protective sock thing using cotton yarn for my new GPS which the husband got for me for Christmas.

ok. so due to children now being awake I have lost my train of thought and need to find a new one.uh.. ah ha!
I got one. yesterday afternoon I had a persistent dull headache. not a migraine, but tylenol and ibuprofen doesn't touch it. I have learned over the last couple years this is due to low body temperature. like 95 degrees low.. it's odd. at one point I scoured the internet on why this would happen and the only thing I came up with with is hypothermia.... that is not the case in my case. It is not very regular so I can't attribute it to a new pms symptom, but it happens enough that when I get this headache I take my temp and it's low. weird. speaking of which I am still adjusting to pms symptoms after having my second child.. I never had any until some time after Liam was born.  Insta-bitch catches me off-guard almost every time... and watch out when it hits, it hits with a vengence, and I feel bad about it, but my tolerance for annoying family members disappears, and I am miserable for about 1.5-2 days... the cramps catch me off guard too.. it is always a full day of being uncomfortable before I realize I can take some tylenol, in true blonde fashion.. a little slow to the punch I guess.. lol this has been happeneing for less then 2 years.. oh the joys of getting old..

oh! Evan has lost to 2 upper front teeth!!

it is hard to get a decent picture of this kid, so you better appreciate this picture! I have also misplaced my regular camera.. can't seem to find it, so I'm back to using my cell phone cam.. Thus I was unable to take any pictures at Christmas.

Oh yeah.. I have started to think bout other careers. I even took some classes as pre-req for the elementart education program at umass, but didn't take classes this semester as they weren't offering the ones I needed. In the meantime, I have also considered going into Middle school science, which I think I would really enjoy, but I need to take soem refresher courses to pass the test, and those classes weren't being offered either. unless I wanted to take them MWF at 1:25. can't do that, sorry... and with all the recent budget cuts to towns and schools having to lay off teachers, it may not be the wisest field to get into at this very moment. I have also toyed with the idea of going to photography school, which we have in the next town over.. It's very good and only a 10 month intensive program. so the down side is that I can't work while going there oh, and the tuition is $50,000.. yeah.. but you get some pretty awesome stuff once you walk in the door with that tuition being paid. including industry stand camera and all your books and stuff paid... but I bet I would really dig it, I just can't to that until liam is in "free school" aka kindergarten, most likely.

that is all for now.. I guess. I hope everyone has a great and joyous new year.. Stay Warm. Stay Healthy

I'm not afraid to say it

Merry Christmas!!

You heard me, have a great Christmas.... If you celebrated Hannukah, I hope it went well, and if  you do Kwanzaa, then I hope that goes well too or Yule, Festivus, or celebrating the solstice. I can not stand the generic holiday wish. Has society gotten everyone to the point of saying the word "Christmas" to have the same staggeringa nd frighening effect as saying "Voldemort"? It seems so, but I am the new Harry Potter, so to speak, Christmas, Christmas, CHRISTMAS!! mwa ha ha ha.... giggle

I'm enjoying my Christmas cookies that I made last night, and Liam helped decorate, and soon enough I will be Christmas shopping.. yes on Christmas eve.. (stupid bi-weekly pay schedule). Then tomorrow, I will be opening Christmas presents, and none of that generic "holiday" bullshit either.  It is all to celebrate Christmas.

I hope everyone enjoys their day in whichever way they choose, stays warm, and gets drunk!

Operation: Getting Old

Yesterday was the hubster's 30th Birthday. I could tell for days that he was disappointed that I didn't have any fantastic plans to celebrate.. then the other day one of his friends happens to call and suggest he and another pal take him out to play pool and have some drinks later today... *evil grin* he asks me if I was up to this business and I denied it... so while he is out later I will finish tidying up and put out some snacks, and then hopefully by the time they all return We will have a house decently full people, food and decorations.

on another note I finally updated photos around the house with prints that I just had printed. :) some of the boys and some taken of the crappy tree in the back yard.

shit it's cold!

Here in western New England where all the residents have the mantra of "Don't like the weather: wait 30 minutes, it'll change", really did it to themselves this time. On Thanksgiving it was t-shirt wearing weather outside, and the next week it feels as though we have all been living in Canada. God damn it it's cold! right now my stick on temp thingy on the window is telling me it's barely 20 degrees, and my accu-weather Firefox add-on on the bottom of the window tells me 13 degrees... I like the winter, really I do, I like the snow and welcome the cold.. it's when it becomes frigid that I don't like. too flippin' cold! Can't we just build a huge wall along the border with Canada and expect that it will keep out the cold?? If I liked Canadian weather patterns, I'D LIVE IN CANADA!! Living in a 100 year old house that has mediocre insulation (at best) is not the most fun place to live in the winter. We have quite the chill going on here. We need to shrink wrap the windows on the doors... the bak room where our computer is located is often particularly chilly compared to the rest of the house..

Christmas is coming up! can you believe this year is coming to a close already?! Crap, where did it go?

blog cherry

has now been popped....

Here is where I tell you something witty, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. My desk is cluttered and I'm poking around on lunch break. If you are lucky and I find the time perhaps I will post some pictures of things that strike my fancy. I like to take pictures and often I like to think I take visually good ones.. Often I think of things to post and never do. My goal is to try to post these stupid things.

holy long time, Batman!

yup I haven't blogged all summer. holy bejeezus.. not like I have tons of readers anyway. I mostly post on facebook these days, but usually I copy the post here, for my loyal fans.. Thanks mom. :P


Leaves are are in peak color, not at bright as other years, but nice none the less.

From 2009-10-11

Columbus Day weekend turned out to be a blast! a long lost friend of mine decided to take a ride out here for a day and hang out. Her daughter came and hung out too

From 2009-10-11

This picture was taken at the park at the end of our day near our swim area. the kids had a blast playing and hanging out. we spent several hours at yankee candle for their fall festival and painted pumpkins, got faces painted, made some wax hand molds.. and some pictures

Evan has started kindergarten this year, and loves it :) He is learning all sorts of neat things like sign language, dance and tae kwon do! His favorite subject is Math.. (he can add and subtract very well), and he can even read some.. Holy Crap!!

I have been super busy with work lately driving all around and doing lab stuff.. in fact I should be doing that now, but I felt the urge to waste a few moments.. I have also been working on crocheting a few things. I'm real lousy about photographing my things though. I have made a few hats recently and now I"m working on a Wubbzy doll. If you don't know Wubbzy you obviously don't have small children in your life!. . my 2 year old loves him.

I have recently unpacked our SNES and N64 and boy have I missed them.. the husband and I have been having a great time with the SNES while the nearly 6 year old loves the mario kart on N64. the Wii still gets used as well.. mostly for golf these days.

so much has been going on, I really should take some more time to blog about things. I always read other peoples blogs rarely to I write my own.. such is life

how did mom's do it back in the day... staying home with the kids for so long...

If you haven't checked out the pictures that Christine took, then you should.. I only have a few of my own as my only camera is on my phone. We had a pretty good week if I do say so myself. Of course there were funny things and frustrating things, but whatever... go with the flow, right? Poor Brady got poison ivy from the little park at the Allen street school. oops. my kids never got poison ivy there, but she did comment that it may have been growing under the stairs. Thankfully It's not that bad of a case of it, but still crappy nonetheless. We had fun playing at the park

. We also enjoyed the parks at North Parish, Green River School, and Unity Park.
Another day I dragged the gang to Yankee Candle, not so shop, but to play. They have never been!

we were playing the trumpeting horns like band geeks.. lol.. The funny thing is Christine tried first unsuccessful, but then I did, and I was successful!! (funny seeing as how she was the one who played the wind instruments while I played percussion) then she tried again and wanted to try taps but the opening was too small to do this without an actual mouthpiece. We taught Ev and James how to play it like a trumpet too. I don't even want to think about all the germs that were on that thing. whatever.. Liam playing it reminded me of those Ricola cough drop commercials.
Several times we played in the sprinkler that Christine brought (and left for us, accidentally)

let's rub mud on each other

the boys had a blast playing the the resulting mud puddle.
Evan and James were pretty much inseparable except when there were shenanigans and biting. Poor Brady was very sensitive to Liam telling him No! all the time. but if we told Liam to be nice he would then gesture to brady to c'mon that it was okay.. It was frustrating and cute all at the same time.

My sister takes more pictures than I do. Surprised?? not me. I think it's genetic. we can't do cartwheels either. never could and I don't know of a single cousin on my mom's side that could.
One of the nights she asked me where we could go to see some mountains.. "in Greenfield?" i said... "I think you actually have to be in the mountains... oh wait we can go to Poet's Seat Tower.." and so we did, and I nearly drove by the road. lol We saw the most gorgeous sunset. It was bright red and unfortunately our cameras didn't catch the color

On Saturday the weather was finally good enough to head to the River Beach! and so we did we got wet splashed and played in the sand. Can anyone else in Western Ma do a backfloat besides me? I have not found anyone that can.. I find this odd and so does my sister. as we were leaving the kids decided to get wet in the puddle in the parking lot.

only my kids swim in the big ass puddle at the swim area...

. weirdos.. the water was really warm though!

apparantly I was betty crocker 90% of the week and Christine was the maid. not intentional though and not to say she didn't cook and I didn't clean, but that's how it worked out.

junior prom: revisited

Jason and I went to the junior prom last night and had a nice time. my first prom was back in 1997, and my god, have things changed...

I realized that i have fallen off the hot and current music bandwagon, and apparantly it was some time ago. lol.. Us adults were playing name the tune, and the winner was clearly the 21 year old girlfriend of the new math teacher. ha. They played only 1 rock song, 3 slow songs, the new electric-twice, and the marcarena-ugh... no ymca, no twist, no shout.. none of what one would usually hear at a party. that was odd.

I realized that i also fell off the fashion bandwagon, and half the prom dresses worn, i didn't classify as prom dresses.. when did the mini prom dress become the latest style? just seemed weird to me, as I don't think anyone ever wore a a fancy mini dress to the prom, and i'm not talking just a shorter than floor length dress, i really do mean Mini.. as in barely covers the ass... it was at that point when I realized all the adult women where wearing black dresses... except the principal who was wearing a dressy pants style getup, that had black pants and a gold top, it was nice. Some girls wore flapper style outfits, i had no idea that was coming back. lol.

I realized that kids today dance in the same manner as we did as teenagers... don't the realize that "grinding" is soooo 10 years ago?! and then there was the everybody slow dancing to a song that sounded upbeat to us... and it wasn't even the end of the night when everyone was tired either.

I realized that the adults were concerned about where the dessert was..... and then it showed up.. score.. warm apple crisp! and then we were all about "where's the coffee?".

I realized that the last 30 minutes were the longest 30 minutes EVER, the other adults all seemed to notice to as we all had our phones out checking the time every 2 minutes.

I realized I learned to drive in heels last night! lmao.. it wasn't so bad. and if you know me you know that i don't normally wear dresses, let alone high heels. I think the last time I wore heels was at my wedding.

If you have talked to me in the recent weeks I may have told you about a dozen times that I was going to the prom.. Very excited about it. lol.. It was super fun to tell people I was going to the prom, considering my age, people looked at me funny, and I was highly looking forward to a night out of free food, and no kids. it's true. funny how your priorities change when you grow older...

all in all a nice time :)

mother's day

a richie's life

Recently a friend of mine who has had nothing but life long issues with his family, got an email from his brother who criticized who he is, who he was, and who he is trying to be. His brother pretty much told him that his life was better because he had all of these things that cost a lots of money.. a new $30k car, a brand new this and a brand new that, and after the long list, he also said he had $30k in his checking account, implying that because my friend didn't have any of that, he doesn't have a rich life. That really upset me, because it shows that my friends brother doesn't even know him, even the slightest bit.
I don't know what I would do without my mom and sister. Recently my sister and I were talking over photo comments about how we grew up poor, but we were absolutely happy children. We have no regrets about not having a dad growing up--being raised by a single mom (since I was 1 year old), and in general a simple lifestyle. We were happy, and we didn't have lots of money by any stretch of the words. Even now as a grown up I consider my life to be very rich, and I don't have any of those expensive things that my friends brother was so arrogant about. not even the $30k in my checking account! (don't get me wrong I wish I did) but there would be so much I would do with that money, including helping my family and my husband family as priorities.

I yam who I yam.. rootbeer anyone?

Can you pinpoint at least 1 specific event from your youth, that has made you the way you are as an adult? I can... my entire adulthood isn't based on this one event, but it's a big part of my personality now. I was a girl scout as a child and liked it for the most part. This is not one of those times. I was in Clarissa Colliers mother's troop and it was rootbeer float night.
Well i don't like rootbeer, and the troop leader said that after everyone had some ice cream in their float that I could have a bowl of just ice cream. okay, no problem.. well I never got that bowl of ice cream. I was very upset, and sat there and watched every other girl there eat a root beer float, including the troop leader and the other moms.. becuase they "ran out". you would think that one of the adults would offer the poor girl some ice cream, but I dont' think they did.. all I know is that I was left out, and it felt miserable.
To this day I can't stand it when a child may feel left out, say at a birthday party, if a friend has Celiac, I'll make a gluten- free cake for them or cup cakes or something because my heart just breaks when something as simple as this happens, because it happened to me. I try to be as accomodating as possible in any given situation, and I don't think anything of it.
Who would've thought that such an event would have such an impact in my life?

A meme to do, thanks to Mom

un Official rules:

* You must link back to the origin blog (I linked Snaggletooth)

* Post 7 facts about yourself, whatever you choose, long, short, ect.

* Post the rules, so they know what to do.

* Tag 7 folks, n link them so everyone can hurry up n visit.

* When you're done posting your facts, go comment on their blogs,

so they'll know they gotta do it, (for the fun of it).

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

(There's no nasty curse for not continuing the chain in this meme either...)

Want fun n games?

Want questions? Want more readers n comments?

Just DO IT! N tell 'em SnaggleTooth sent ya-


ok mom, here goes:

1. I taught myself how to crochet, and I love it... when I have yarn. I also like to sew and quilt when I get the chance but without a dedicted sewing room, it is difficult to find space that is occupied by clutter or in range of the kids' paws.

2. I want to go back to school and do what I always wanted as a child? guess... tv? nope.... guess again..... lol... I'll just tell you it's easier that way: teacher.. and I'm thinking of going towards elementary.. I just have to pass the tests and take some classes before I can enroll in a program. I've got to have some money too, atleast some money to pay the bills while I go to school so it has to wait until Evan is in Kindergarten (aka: free school). I can hopefully atleast take some of the pre-req's in the meantime

3. I'm super excited about the upcoming class reunion. I hope we can make it! and I'll be super bummed if I can't.. but I will do my damnest to be able to be there.

4. an easy one. I have 2children. boys in fact.. this is funny because my 1 and only sister also has 2 boys. My mom had 2 girls when she had wanted boys.. now she's got 4! I find it hard to raise the boys, I think, because we didn't have any in our family growing up.. I like to think that I'd have an easier time with girls, but I could be wrong.

5. when I was in High school the comments I got most frequently on my report cards: "concientious", "works well with others", and "too talkative". I hated working in groups. The teachers put me with the lazy and/or dumb kids thinking I could cajole them into doing work, when it never ever worked that way. Once in history class the group members didn't do anywork, so I gave up and did it myself, not including them on the assignment. I did tell the teacher that they did diddly squat.

6. I took 2 semesters of Finnish while in college. I really enjoyed it, but was unable to take any more semesters because my senior year the professor when on sabbatical in Germany for the year. I hardly remember it though which is too bad, but I did manage to retain a good chunk of Spanish in my brain, form the years I studied that.

7. My family is the most important thing in my life.. and not just the kids and such.. everyone!



seven people who I assign to this task..
Amanda * J
Becky K
Eileen D
Christine J
Kelly H
Kristen P
kim w