For the next few days I will wait by the door for the mailman. I am expecting a very imortant piece of mail.

What is that piece of mail?

I will be waiting for a thank you note from the city of Providence for the hard work R.C. and I did this weekend. We had waited for the city to clean up "the car" mess, but they never came, and we were told that they never would come. We were told to wait for a heavy rain and magically all the debris would be washed away. Yeah, right! So, Saturday afternoon we got some shovels, brooms and a garbage can and we scraped the street where the rubber and other materials had melted to the road, picked up bolts and other metal pieces, and swept glass from the fire spot all the way to the end of the street where it had been scattered as the windows blew out. We filled a garbage can with car stuff and all that is left now is a huge, jet black spot in the road.

What's that you say? Don't wait for a thank you note? I figured they would over look our hard work, but a girl can dream.

It's done though. I will try to not think or talk of it any more (thank goodness, right?). I will quietly stay in my home and pack boxes and sort until our moving day (no, we don't know when or where we are moving, but it will be happening, so why not get ready?!).

Although the city of Providence has been unhelpful in the cleanup process, I do have to give credit to one of the kids from the street. We had just begun cleanup when he came walking down the street and asked if we wanted help. We told him that it wasn't neccessary, but thanked him for the offer, and he stuck around to chat and occassionally hold the garbage bag open.

And finally, just because:

I have 5 million thoughts in my head right now, some blog worthy, some not. It is just a jumbled up mess in my head right now and I can't (or rather don't feel like) sort each of them out into a complete train of thought. I have sat, ready to blog and I type and type and type and then I reread what I just wrote and it is hard for me to follow, let alone you wonderful readers, who would only get a snippet of the information. So...in times like these I turn to the bullets...

• Swimming has become something that we all look forward to each week. Last week, as we were drying off, Donny Barley and his daughter came in to go for a swim. Donny Barley is a pro skateboarder and it's really awesome to see how excited R.C. gets around him. We occasionally see him around town (he has a skate shop downtown) and R.C. has been to his shop to talk with him in the past...but maybe he wasn't prepared for a family of fans to greet him while he was in his swim trunks.
• I have been making yogurt for our family and LOVE how delicious, healthy and cheap it is. This last week I attempted to make soy yogurt just for something different. I failed miserably. It was horrible to look at and smell. You would think that those 2 things would deter me from eating it, but it didn't. After just half a spoonful I had enough. It was HORRIBLE! I have had soy yogurt before and enjoyed it, but this had obviously gone bad. My lesson learned...you can cut the sugar amount in anything you make except jam and soy yogurt. 
• The boys have begun a music class at the Y. Once again I felt like the proudest mother in the world. As most of the other kids (even the kids older than Russell) ran, screamed and interrupted the class, Russell and Max followed the teachers instructions beautifully. When the kids were sitting on the floor and the teacher asked, "how does piano sound?" Maxwell raised his hand, waited to be called on and then yelled out, "P". While he was correct that piano starts with the letter P, the answer she was looking for was "quiet". He was very proud of himself none the less.
• R.C. has been working, working, working. We look forward to every chance we get to see him, but we all understand that he will be home very little for the next few months, and very stressed/tired.
• After playing a family game, in which I won, called Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader, R.C. said a few words that just melted my heart..."We are both smarter than 5th graders, but you are smarter than me." I will cherish this quote for the next 70+ years.
  
• Sleep has come to me once again. I am able to enjoy roughly 3 good nights of sleep out of 7 and that is a great improvement. 
• The boys are learning states and capitals. Russell is doing fantastic and has about half (yes, that would be 25) of the states and capitals memorized. One night during supper we had a fun quiz to see who knew the most capitals. The outcome was surprising. Russell was able to say the capital names before R.C. and was correct on several that R.C. answered incorrectly. (This should not be taken as an insult to R.C.. It was all in good fun and everyone was laughing and having a good time. In R.C.'s defense, he has his mind full of other things right now. I don't blame him for putting states and capitals on a back burner for the next few months.)
• The fiasco with the car was the final straw for me. Other things have happened in the neighborhood over the last year and a half and I have been able to turn my head and pretend I don't see them, but this has made it impossible to turn my head. There is a completely different vibe in the neighborhood and it's not a feeling that I want to feel each and every day. I'm ready to move. I'm not object to living in a city, I think I did a fairly good job of adjusting, but I know that I don't want to live in a neighborhood like this one.
• We went to the beach last week. We all needed a break from everything and it was a warm day (mid 40's) so we took a drive to our favorite beach. I love the beach period, but the beach in the winter is AMAZING! We were the only ones there. We had the entire beach to ourselves. While R.C. took a nap in the car (he had worked very late the night before, but still wanted to get away for a bit with us) the boys and I walked and ran along the beach as far as we could and yelled and screamed as loud as we could. R.c. did wake and joined us after a bit. 

That's all for now.

The last few days the boys have been down with stomach illness so it was semi early to bed this evening. R.C. has been busily reading and doing other work from the comfort (and quiet) of the bedroom and I was looking forward to taking some tylenol, curling up on the couch and watching a movie until I fell asleep this evening.

Well...that did not happen.

Actually, it sort of did. The boys were in bed snoring, R.C. was in the bedroom working and I was on the couch getting ready to watch a movie. I was just beginning to feel warm and comfortable and minutes away from falling asleep when I was startled by a car squealing it's tires as it drove quickly away and then a loud (LOUD) pop that shook the house. My first thought was...hmmm...is that what a gun shot sounds like? I decided to play it safe (and cool) and act like nothing happened, but when R.C. called from the bedroom and asked what that noise was, I though maybe I should peek over the back of the couch and investigate. To my surprise, as I looked toward the 3 windows that face the street, I saw a flickering that didn't seem quite right and I automatically jumped from the couch to open the window and investigate. Upon opening the blinds I found that a car was completely up in flames RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE!! I immediately called 911, while R.C. tried to rouse the boys. The fire was so intense, close, and hot that we felt it was in our best interest to get out of the house. All the neighbors were outside as well, so the boys and I, and one of the girls from upstairs, went to another neighbors house to stay warm until things calmed down a bit. Everyone was thinking the same thoughts...this was no accident.

The car has been raising suspicion for weeks now with the neighbors and ourselves. Fancy Mercedes car. Young "suspicious" guys driving it. They park it on our street, but they don't live here...all the neighbors have wondered why it is always there. Lots of dings and dents in it...if you were to spend big money on a Mercedes wouldn't you try to keep it nice....or.....maybe it's stolen??? Hmmmm??

After spending some time at the neighbors, holding the new baby, and discussing what had just happened, we got the ok from the firemen that we could go back home. The boys were still in a daze so they went back to bed quickly, but I found myself glued to the window watching the firemen try to extinguish the flames, take notes and pictures, and finally tow the car away.

There is one person in this house who will not be sleeping tonight. Thankfully R.C. was home tonight and not in the studio working. I don't know how I would have handled a drive by (for lack of a better word) car bombing 15 feet from my front door if I was here alone. We were told that a detective may come tomorrow to talk about what we saw/heard so that could be interesting.

We are back in the swing of school this week. We started this semester with new rules and incentives and so far things are running smoother than they have in the past. Maybe by the time Max is ready to graduate high school I will have everything perfected.

This semester Russell is learning to "journal" on his own. Just before Christmas break he finished the first Harry Potter book so he is now reading the second and writes a summary of the chapter read in his reading journal. Other than that it's just normal 1st grade work/topics.

Max finished last semester having mastered recognizing and writing all his letters. This semester we are working more on reading. He is beginning to figure out sounds that go with certain letters and starting to recognize simple, frequently used words (such as: the, as, and, my, but, etc...). Russell also likes to help him with math, which Russell does a great job of teaching (who would have thought!).

Both boys are beginning to help with chores around the house more. They are becoming great table setters, bed makers and bathroom cleaners (what am I going to do all day now with them doing all my work?!). Yesterday Max helped me clean the bathroom in the afternoon and took great pride in it. When R.C. came home later in the evening he approached R.C., in the bathroom, and told him "you should try to keep the bathroom clean, we just cleaned it today".  All this said with his little finger shaking. What a guy!

This morning, since R.C. didn't have class and I got a good nights sleep (what a nightmare no sleep has been!!) we decided to go swimming at the Y. We spent an hour splashing around and helping the boys "swim". It was a great way to begin the day and get lots of energy out right away in the morning. 

LOOK! Pictures of Melissa!*

 

*pictures posted by R.C.

Is this a joke? (click on the word this, people)

I don't even know what to say about this, other than maybe the Forbes people should come drive around RI for a day, specifically between the hours of 3:00-7:00 pm, and then write about how safe they feel out on the roads with the knucklehead drivers around here.

Rhode Island does have good traffic laws, especially the new "no texting while driving" law, but people do not know how to follow the rules. People refuse to stop for crosswalks, and if you happen to be at a 4 way stop with stop signs, expect to be there for a good 10 minutes while the other drivers try to figure out what to do. Usually what happens is I wait, knowing that I do not have the right of way, try to wave on the person who does have the right of way, then they wave me on as if it's my turn and I am holding up traffic. So then I decide to talk about how it is not my turn and they need to learn traffic rules as I go anyways because they obviously aren't going to go...but as soon as my wheels begin to roll, they decide it is time to go also, so I slam on my brakes and wait for this person to go, then they slam on their brakes also and give some "kind" hand signals which I shake a fist to and after a few moments of inching forward and braking by all parties I finally get through the intersection. 

That all might have been confusing and difficult to picture, which is exactly how it is to drive here. Difficult and hard to picture until you actually do it...which I don't really recommend...you will only get angry and wonder why you decided to leave the comfort of your home that day.

And that is only one very mild case of how driving here stinks! 

Another new year?

Sheesh! We were just getting started with '09 and now it's already time to move on.

It's been a good year with very little change for the 4 of us. We have all settled into a routine with R.C.'s crazy school schedule, so even though it would not be considered normal for most people, it felt normal to us. The boys are growing like giant weeds and have been very healthy all year (we only had one round of sickness). They are both doing great in their schooling and get along beautifully during their "down time". R.C. is excelling in school and has been able to be home most evenings for supper, which is a wonderful change from the previous year. I am keeping busy with lesson planning and trying to keep everyones lives in order.

You see, very little change.

I feel it's all in preparation for the coming year though. In 5-6 short months we hope to be relocating and beginning a new adventure. The where, when, why, and how are yet to be determined, but the coming months promise to be busy, stressful, celebratory, scary, exciting, and adventurous.We don't know if we will be in a large city with everything within a block of our home, or in a small town where the nearest gas station is 3 hours away. We don't know if the boys will be enrolled in public school or if I will continue to homeschool them. We don't know if we will be on a coast near an ocean, in the desert with a cactus in our front yard, or in the north where we will be snowed in 10 out of 12 months.

Although the coming year holds a lot of unknowns, it is exciting to begin something new. Rhode Island has been good to us, but we are ready to move on. I fear if we stay here much longer my perfect driving record will be no more, due to road rage, or we will gain 50 pounds each due to too many Dunkin' Donuts.

Watch out 2010, here we come!!

We have been having some very lazy days enjoying our time with no school work to complete and no late studio nights. We have been doing very little except "hanging out" so there is not much to blog about.

We have found these 2 men roaming the house though...I guess they could make things interesting.

Merry Christmas from the Sayler family!

I don't think I will be blogging tomorrow or the next day, so I thought I would send out a Merry Christmas now.

Here is our family picture for today....

Yes, some are still in their jammies, but hey, whatever keeps people happy.

Today the boys have been plotting their wake up scenerio for Christmas morning. I made the mistake of telling them how early I would wake up as a child on Christmas morning. I must have been so annoying on Christmas morning when I was 17 8 years old. I remember one particular Christmas morning waking up well before 5 am and being told by everyone that it was too early, so I sat in the bathtub (no water and PJ's still on) singing Christmas carols for well over an hour. Sorry family...what an annoying little sister I was on this day!! I see that now!! :) haha! My days of payback are here...

Anyways...Merry Christmas!

We will have a white Christmas after all!!

I'm sure you heard on the news that New England got record amounts of snow last night, and it is still coming down. We awoke this morning to probably a foot of snow on the ground, and at least a 2 foot drift in our driveway. Since we are the "caretakers" of this house now, due to our landlord living in Missouri, we are responsible for snow removal on the front steps and sidewalk, the driveway and the parking lot out back. We all bundled up this morning to head out and shovel some of the snow away and play in the fluffy white snow. After shoveling until our arms and backs ached we did what any responsible "caretaker"/parent would do. We left our shovels in a snow bank and went sledding. We live on a massive hill and just behind our house is a perfect little sledding hill and R.C. found a plastic tray of some sort in the basement that worked great as a sled.

We still have A LOT of shoveling to do, but it can wait until later. There are few plows out and roads are covered, so there is no rush getting cars dug out.

R.C. put this video together with some little video clips we took while sledding...he sure knows how to do videos better than someone. We sure like having him around during his break!!

R.C. has become very good at making our evening espresso. This was a beautiful one he made the other night complete with whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon. And the best part is it only cost about $0.25 to make, yet it would cost $3.00 in a coffee shop. This could be the reason that I have a hard time sleeping at night and find myself awake at 3:30 am watching reruns of Intervention and Hoarders. I have no plan to cut it from my diet anytime soon though.

This week we had our water heater give out. Luckily the plumbers were able to come and install a new one so we were only without hot water for 24 hours.

This week our dryer stopped working. Luckily we have radiators and I can do a small load of laundry and then lay it on the muliple radiators throughout the apartment and dry the items. This only works for jeans...or things that you don't mind being very stiff once they are dry. I'm not about to try this on t-shirts or underwear.

This week R.C. has been working at home. He has been needing the sewing machine so he sets up "shop" on the kitchen table and works the day away. Due to this, the boys can't concentrate on their school work. They have become used to having R.C. home only on the weekends so since he has been here they think it is the weekend and school work doesn't have to be done. It has been a HUGE struggle this week to complete our lessons without me wanting to pull my hair out or threaten to send the boys to bed at 5:00 pm. Luckily the week is almost over. R.C. is done with classes for the semester today, but the boys are still going to be working next week (the first half of the week only...chill out! I'm not that much of a "mean homeschooling mom".), so we will see if next week is as rough as this week.

Due to our dryer being broken, and BOTH of the boys having "accidents" last night, I had to make a trip to the laundry mat this morning. I took some coffee to go and some school work for the boys and set off to spend my morning among several swishing washers and tumbling dryers. Luckily I was at the laundry mat and was able to wash my sweatshirt immediatly after my cup of coffee decided to spill all down the front of me as I was pulling into the parking lot.

The repair man for the dryer was supposed to come 2+ hours ago, but I still have not heard the doorbell ring.

sigh.

Today is R.C.'s birthday!!

This is the last slide show of the year and it couldn't be dedicated to a better person.

R.C. is the best dad/husband/friend we could ever ask for and hope he has a wonderful birthday today!

R.C. has "grown" a lot in the past year and it is exciting to think about what the next year will bring...and where it/he takes us...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY R.C.!!!

It's been over a week and you might be wondering what we have been up to.

Well...let me give you the update, in picture form...

We have been making, and yelling into, megaphones during science.

We went to take part in "Christmas with the Paw Sox" last weekend.

We ate free hotdogs, drank free soda, and saw "Santa Paws". We also got to go in the Paw Sox club house. We also received tickets to a game in the spring (this could have been the real reason we went....)

We have been taking pictures of books we are now reading.

We have been busy taking close up pictures of our teeth so we can play dentist properly.

We have been taking other weird pictures of ourselves and tubes of chapstick.

We have learned how to take a self portrait with the camera. Setting the timer on the camera and running to get in the picture is a new favorite past time for some of us.

We have been wearing big boots.

And some of us have been great brothers lately and really cute.

That's the run down on what is new and exciting in Little Rhody.

It's time for an overload of photos!

First up are the Christmas drawings we did this morning. The boys did an awesome job and put great detail into their drawings. Max even made sure to put a microscopic red nose on one of his reindeer pulling the sleigh. (Russell only wanted a picture of one of his drawings...trust me there were more...MANY MANY more.)

And finally (what? finally already? Talk about cutting to the case on this posting) I thought that while I had the camera out I would try to get a decent picture of the boys. I didn't ask them to pose a certain way, all I did was ask them to sit next to each other. From there, well....

A quick break for eggnog...

And they end on a good note...

I've heard chatter that people noticed there have been no pictures posted showing the boys birthdays or birthday cakes. Well, you see Russell would not allow me to take his picture with his cake, so I felt there was not much to see. Then when Max's birthday came around he was all for getting his picture taken, but to keep things even and fair I felt I could not post pictures of Max with a cake since I didn't post pictures of Russell and a cake. Does that make me sound crazy? Maybe. But, here are the cakes I made this year for the boys. Russell requested a Pokeball (pronounced poke-e-ball). Trust me, this looks just like one. Max wanted a lego cake. I opted to make just one lego brick in his favorite color, blue.

Let's talk Santa hats for a minute.

Personally (yes, this is my personal opinion, you don't have to agree.) I think Santa hats are rediculous unless you have a red suit, beard, and jolly, bowl full of jelly, belly to go along with it.

I saw a woman walking down the street today with a Santa hat on and her hair styled around the hat. Obviously the hat was going to stay there all day long and not just to get a quick laugh as she walked into the office. What makes grown adults think that these hats are cute/funny/appropriate? Once they don that hat, in my book, they have just lost all chance of being taken seriously about anything. ANYTHING.

Never have I seen an adult walking around with a turkey tail fanned out for Thanksgiving, or dressed in a diaper carrying a bow and arrows getting in the Valentines spirit. Even pilgrims, who had very distinct hats, don't have a following like Santa. Leprechauns have hats too, but no one wears them. Why is the Santa hat so popular and accepted?

I try to not judge people on what they wear, I mean, really, 98% of the people walking the streets on any given day are more pulled together than myself, and yet, I have never had the urge to wear a Santa hat. My advice...if you find yourself standing at the mirror in the morning, thinking, "hmmm...what would make this outfit really pop?" and your answer is, "I need a Santa hat!" Maybe you should rethink the entire outfit.

Let's save the Santa hats for....SANTA...and little kids who get a Christmas picture taken. Just little kids! The entire family does not need to wear them.

I'll give you my opinion on those embarrasing (never should have been made) Dr. Seuss hats another day...:)

Looks like I failed my mission to blog each day in the month of November. I had made it 27 day without missing and then I go and miss the 28th day. I really have no excuse. I wasn't super busy. I was home all day, except a quick trip out to get tissues, bleach and dish soap. I spent all day listening to R.C. read Pinocchio to the boys and Christmas music. I had all the time in the world to blog, I just forgot.

My voice is finally back. I went a week sounding first like a chipmunk and then like Gonzo (from the Muppets). Max is also feeling better. He and I spent a very quiet day at home on Friday while R.C. and Russell went to the studio to do some work. Although I don't know what work was completed since the only answer I got from Russell, when asked about what he did, was: "I took out trash and recycling, carried things for dad and read a book in the bathroom." Could all of that really taken 3+ hours? Well, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that Max and I had quiet time to re-coop a bit.

Today I put the boys to work and we scrubbed this apartment. We even pulled out the fridge and stove to vacuum and mop behind them. Russell did dishes and Max helped vacuum while I scrubbed the floors, got laundry together, dusted, cleaned the oven and scrubbed the floors again. The place was looking spotless, and not 15 minutes later the toys came out and it looked messy again. Sigh. There is just no winning.

Friday was a lazy day of stories and drawing...

We left Wednesday morning to visit Mass MoCA, an art museum in North Adams, Massachusetts. We had a beautiful drive through the Massachusetts country and even managed to find a full service gas station! Who knew those still existed!? After sitting in traffic FOREVER (said in a voice similar to the boys from The Sandlot) we finally got to Mass MoCA. It was a great museum, to say the least. The building alone was great to look at, let alone all the great art and art videos there were to see.

Our favorite pieces were the Sol LeWitt drawings. There were over 100 drawings and each one was amazing! Russell even remembered seeing a few of these pieces in the St. Louis art museum, which we took him to years ago, before Max was even born! His memory is pretty fantastic! We walked around in amazment looking at these drawings until the museum closed and then headed to our hotel room. It was a cold and rainy night so we went out only to find food at a little diner then we headed back to the room to turn on the heat and watch more T.V. in one night than any of us have watched in years.

Sol LeWitt entertains the boys:

We all had a good nights sleep and a quick breakfast in the lobby and then we were off to finish the last leg of our trip. We arrived at Aunt Holly and Uncle Bob's well over an hour before we were expected, but we were still welcomed into their beautiful home, and once again (as I said last year at this time also) it felt great to be with family for the holidays. The boys were thrilled to see a bit of the Thanksgiving Day parade and chase the cat and dog around the house. We had a wonderful meal (as I'm sure most everyone did on Thanksgiving) and then relaxed, played games and chatted, while the boys continued to chase the dog and cat.

The boys had everyone's attention during the meal (except maybe R.C.'s, due to him trying to block them out) and kept people entertained with story after story. They talked about everything from Harry Potter to R.C. and I getting bit by spiders. They were kind enough to describe in detail what the bites looked like, what size they were, what color they were and where they were on our bodies. It was lovely dinner conversation. :)  When they tired of stories they decided it would be a good idea to play "telephone" around the table. Everyone agreed to participate and we all enjoyed a few rounds of "telephone" before they were distracted by the dog once again. 

We had a great 2 days!

Today was a great day. Much to be thankful for. We are home now and quite tired. More to come.