I wish I had some great things to blog about, but the past week has been very uneventful. VERY.

Here is what we do everyday:

 Looks exciting, doesn't it? 

Russell has been working on adjectives the last few weeks. On Thursday he was given a worksheet to complete in which he had to use an adjective to describe his home, family, favorite food, town, etc. I had to cringe, and agree, when he wrote "trashy" to describe his town. Take that Providence. That's the best I can do for interesting stories from the week. 

The biggest thing that happened last week was an eye doctor appointment for myself. I hate the eye doctor. Not a specific eye doctor, just the news that the eye doctor gives me. I have always had a fear of going for a routine checkup and finding out that I have 2 weeks left to see before I go blind. This time I heard the dreaded, "That's the best we're going to be able to do for you." Although he did give me a new type of contact to try and I was shocked at how much better I can see with them, and scared at how poorly I was seeing before and not realizing it.

Last week the boys started their spring programs at the YMCA.

Russell chose to take a martial arts class. I did not go to his class with him so I do not have stories to share from that, other than I hear he should wear some pants that don't fall down next time. (RC and Max watched the class and passed that message along)

Max wanted to take swimming lessons for his activity. I signed him up for a class in which I would get in the water with him, per his request. We attended the first lesson and the teacher was impressed with Max's "swimming" ability and promoted him to the next class level. This means that I no longer have to get in the water! Russell and I took him to this class on Friday morning and he was a bit nervous, but once he met his teacher he was showing all his swim moves and had a great time. The only time he got upset was when they told him class was over and he could go get his towel. He truely is a fish.

Russell has been obsesed with Super Mario Brothers since our Wisconsin trip. Uncle John played Mario with the boys one evening (and well into the night) and it was definitly a huge highlight for the boys. Since being home, Russell is thinking one thing...Mario! He is constatly humming the Mario theme song, jumping to "collect gold coins" and wondering if John beat level 3 yet. One thing he has done is build a Mario set out of Legos.

 

 

This is his King Kupa's (sp??)Castle he created. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It really is pretty cool, complete with little hammer throwing guys, jewels, and a flower coming out of a pipe. Today is castle demolition day though. Max is itching to get his hands on the Legos and make something he likes.

There is just too much to share about our trip.  I keep putting it off thinking it will get done on it's own...so far, no luck with that...so I guess it's up to me.

The boys were little angels on the planes. They loved the attention they received from the flight attendants. The men attendants were giving them high fives each time they passed, and the women made sure they had ample drinks (juice) to make it through the flight. On our last flight home I sat next to a pilot who was heading to Canada. We talked about kids and he told me all I ever wanted/needed to know about flying. He could not say enough good things about the boys and praised their good behavior over and over. He said that he can fly his kids for free, but every time he does the flight attendants get after him because his kids are causing such a ruckus. Once again, thank you boys!!

We had a good week seeing family and babysitting my niece and nephew. I spent 3 days at my sister's house making messes and chaos with 4 kids, and it was great. The boys loved spending time with Grace and making faces at Mitchell. Mitchell is cuter than I could have imagined and I was so happy to get to visit and help out. 

Russell helped by reading stories to everyone.

Gracie holding her baby brother.

Crazy Max holding Mitchell for the 1st time. He wanted to hold him ALL THE TIME!

Sweet Grace helping give Mitchell his pacifier. Actually she would gently put it in his mouth, then pull it out and listen to him wail. What a nice big sister! (She really is though)

They are a pretty cute bunch of kids!

Miscellaneous pictures:

We had a great week visiting with the family. We were all anxious to get back to R.C. though. We arrived at the Providence airport around 10:30 pm and my fantastic husband had a cup of coffee waiting. (Yes, I realized the time, but sometimes you just need coffee...like every second of every day.) 

Thanks for a great trip everyone!

We made it safely to Wisconsin and have been having a great time. Mitchell is the cutest little baby, and Gracie is a perfect big sister. The boys and I (mainly I) have been watching them the last 3 days while their mom and dad work and go to school. It's been a lot of fun! More on our trip later.

I had this post done a few weeks ago, but never hit publish...oops. So, until I can upload pictures from our trip and tell about that....

A few weekends ago the boys went to a birthday party for one of their friends. This was a birthday party to beat all other birthday parties. It was held in the kids gym at the YMCA, there were snacks galore, pizza, cake, and a cape making station. It was super hero themed, so the boys went dressed in their best Spiderman costumes and had a great afternoon running wild and eating pizza and cake with their friends and 20+ other crazy kids. There were so many kids running around dressed as super heroes, but the real super heroes were our friends, the mom and dad, who put this shindig on for their little guy.

We took a half day off from lessons yesterday. I had errands to run and the boys were just needing a break, so after reading lessons, we got our shoes on and headed out the door. We went to the mall and wandered (purchasing nothing), then walked around Target picking up toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.. We were out walking around in public for about 2+ hours.

It wasn't until I was putting my bags of toothpaste and mouthwash into the back of the car when I realized something just wasn't right with my outfit. I bent down to pick up the reciept that I had just dropped and I saw this:

 

That's right, I was wearing one red shoe, and one pink shoe. They are the same shoe, just different colors, so they feel identical on my feet. I found this shoe and it is very comfortable, VERY affordable, and comes in all different colors. Maybe I should pay more attention to what I look like before I leave the house, instead of being so concerned with making sure the boys go to the bathroom and wash their hands. I guess it could have been worse, I could have had a red shoe and a turquoise shoe on. At least these 2 are both in the red family. Upon thinking about this, I can't even remember which shoe I meant to put on. Was I trying to wear red shoes, or was I trying to wear pink shoes? I don't know. 

Today the boys and I sat down with construction paper, scissors, glitter and glue. We were all ready to make Valentine's Day cards. I thought I had a great idea when I pulled out 2 small boxes of the, always classic, "Sweethearts" candy hearts. You know what I'm talking about...the small hearts that are pastel colors with sweet Valentine messages, printed in red, in the center of the heart. Or, at least, that is what they are supposed to look like.

I thought we could get a few Valentine sayings from the candies and enjoy an afternoon treat at the same time. Well, that didn't work out as planned. First of all, Russell's box had 5 pieces in it, and Max's was filled to the top. Luckily Max was more than happy to fill Russell's box to the half way point so they had an equal amount. Secondly, all the words were printed off center so we had no clue what 80% of the hearts said; not too helpful when we were counting on these candies for words to write on our cards. Finally, the only hearts that printed clearly said, "TEXT ME" and "TWEET ME". These are not sweet words that I want to hear from my valentine, and the boys had no clue what they meant. Does the cyber world really need to get involved in everything?

What happened to "LOVE ME", "BE MINE", "YOU'RE SWEET" and "HUGS AND KISSES"? Were people really writing the Sweetheart company asking them to include "TWEET ME" on a candy heart? I doubt it. Maybe I'm annoyed by this because I don't really know or understand what twitter is, but come on!

Our card making afternoon lasted about 15 minutes. Russell was only interested in cutting up the paper and drawing cartoon characters that make you think of anything but Valentine's Day, and Max wrote his name over and over on a couple of hearts and then wanted to make glue mountains and cover them in glitter.

Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today (who me?!) but I threw in the towel on card making after these 15 minutes. It was one of those days when we fight to make it through our lessons, I found a stash of dirty clothes under the bookshelf that no one would claim, and I feel like I want to let the dishes pile up because all I want to do it grab a warm blanket from the radiator and watch a mindless movie. Maybe we will try card making tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Today was not a fantastic day. Today was not even a good day. Today is not one I would want to do over. It's days like this when I need more pictures like this:

What is that? It's Max squishing his nose into mine (what we call a "snuggle kiss") while he takes a blurry picture of it. Bad days are few, but they happen, and they pass. Maybe tomorrow will be a snuggle kiss day, not today, and I'm ok with that.

I had accepted the fact that my sister was going to have a baby very soon and I would not be able to see her, or the new baby, for several months. With hopes of a move coming, we have been saving every penny possible and tightening up our belts in all areas of life/spending (as if we could do this more?!). So, needless to say, buying 3 plane tickets was out of the question (I say 3 because RC has too much going on to make a trip, so it would be just me and the boys.) The thought of this made me sad and angry since I so badly wanted to see the baby and help out my sister in the first part of being a mother of 2. I was bummed to say the least.

But not anymore!

Just a few days ago I got a call from my other sister with news that she could score 3 plane tickets to anywhere in the U.S., but they had to be booked the next day. How could this be? Free tickets? THREE free tickets?

Well, it's true. It just so happens that my sister has a friend, who has a father in law, who works and racks up points to be redeemed for airfare. The father-in-law was not going to use the tickets he has acquired so he offered them to my sister's friend (his daughter-in-law). My sister's friend was not going to use them so she offered them to my sister. My sister thought about coming here with my mom and dad, but then had the wonderful idea to offer the tickets to me so that I could come and see the new baby. I called my sister's friend to get all the details and give her our info and she booked the flight and had our flight info for me within hours of me hearing of this deal. What a great chain of events! I am so thankful for people not being able to travel so that these tickets would funnel down to me, and so very thankful for kind people who would not just say "eh, forget about these tickets, I'm not going to use them, so no one is going to use them."

So, myself, Russell, and Max will be making a trip to chilly Wisconsin to see our new nephew/cousin (and family!) in the next few weeks. It will be a quick trip, but one we are so very thankful for.

And finally.....

 

 A cute little baby boy, Mitchell, was born February 2nd!!

This week we have been taking a Twister break during our lessons and yesterday I thought I would capture a bit of our twisted fun on film.

Last weekend we made another trip to NYC. It's so hard to say no when the school offers bus tickets for super cheap and there is still so much to see and do in the Big Apple.

Once again, I turn to bullets...

• Max did NOT want to wake up! He was angry up until we walked out the door, then we was happy and excited...but boy was that 20 minutes of getting dressed and eating breakfast while crying ever long!
• We bundled up with extra layers because it was a very cold day. When we got in the car to go to the bus it was a balmy 8 degrees and the high during the day was 25 degrees. Due to the cold, and the difficult time we had waking everyone up, I was a bit concerned with how attitudes would be, but no one complained of being too cold the entire day. We talked about being cold, but no one whined or complained...nice!
• We began our trip with the bus getting a flat tire and we had to pull off the interstate several times during the trip. We lost time due to this, but some how we managed to make all that time up, and then some. We got off the bus an entire hour earlier than we had expected!
• There were some students sitting behind Russell and I on the bus who were trying to be cool and get a rise out of the kids by yelling "beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, etc...."(those "beeps" are all the colorful 4 letter words you can think of.) over and over and louder and louder. They were obviously doing it on purpose. I turned and gave them one look that was supposed to strike fear into their little freshman-in-college souls, but it didn't work. My next move was going to be to shove a bar of soap into their mouths, but due to the fact that I didn't have a bar of soap in my purse (let alone several) I was stumped as to what to do next. That's when I saw my kind, gentle husband raise out of his seat, stare with full force and the hooligans, and (to make a long story short) told them to quiet down.
• Our first stop was MoMA. Years ago we got the boys the book "Seen Art" which is all about MoMA and the different works of art that can be found there. It's a great book if you have little kids...or if you don't, you could still read it (I won't tell). We spent several hours walking the halls of the museum and seeing everything we could. Both boys loved the special exhibit, which was Tim Burton drawings, painting, clay figures and short movies. Russell also LOVED finding a painting by Salvador Dali that is in said book. He found it and walked as quickly as he could to it and just stared and smiled. Max was taken with Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with Ball painting. 
• We took a break half way through the museum to head outside for a hotdog on the sidewalk.
• Next up was a walk down to The World Trade Center Site. It was strange to be there and think about what happened on 9/11 and the chaos that filled the streets that day. Actually being there and seeing the exact spot these events took place made it seem all the more scary and strange. 
• Wall street was next. We saw the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall on Wall Street, where George Washington was sworn in as President in 1789. 
• We found beautiful "old New York" where buildings were only 2 stories high, streets were narrow, and there was an old pub on each corner. It was quiet too. If felt as if we had just walked into another country and another time.
• From there we walked to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty a little closer than we had before. We were disappointed because it seemed about the same distance as before and we were all super cold, so we booked it back to the warmth of the subway as we made our way to Chinatown. In Battery Park we found a turkey, a live turkey, but the boys didn't think it was real because it didn't have its "gobble", "beard", "whatever that red hanging thing is on a turkey". In Battery Park I had to smile and laugh because it was the first time we had ever been approached by someone with a ,"psssst...psssst! You need a Rolex?" I love it! People really do that, it's not just in the movies.
• Whoops! We forgot to get off the train at Chinatown so we decided to skip it.
• We walked the streets until we came to KATZ Deli, where we were meeting a friend for supper. We enjoyed a DELICIOUS (words cannot describe how good this sandwich was!!!) pastrami on rye with mustard and some house made pickles. This deli is a favorite of one of my favorite chefs, authors, travel channel face, Anthony Bourdain, so it was great to be sitting in a deli where he had been and still (so he says) loves to go when he is in NYC...along with almost every other celeb, politician, true New Yorkers, etc.. This is also the famous deli where "When Harry Met Sally" was filmed. We had a great supper chatting with our friend and admiring all the famous people pictures on the walls. The boys were not interested in the sandwiches (too bad! more for us!) so we took them to get a slice of pizza and they were happy.
• We walked the streets of the East Village on our way back to the bus pick up location. 
• Max saw a live rat crawling on some steps and thought that was the coolest thing ever.

Once again we walked the entire day, except for a few subway rides, and the boys never once complained. Max gets the "trooper" award for this trip. That little guy is a great walker, but due to the cold and the distance we were going, R.C. and I both offered him a lift a few times, but he declined each time with a, "you don't have to." Although we did pick him up a few times just to show our appreciation for his great attitude and willingness to walk even though he was tired. Russell is 7 now so he is expected to be a good walker and he does not disappoint. I've said it before, and I will say it once again (although I'm sure it won't be my last), I love the excitement these boys get from museums and they are great kids who know how to behave so I never fear taking them to places where things could be fragile. I'd take them anywhere!

*Stay tuned for super exciting news in the next few days! The boys and I are taking a trip and we will see a new family member soon...well, soon as in a few weeks, but sooner than we thought we would get to...

Often times you will hear someone preface a story with, "to make a long story short". It's a great way to tell, and listen to, a story. You don't want to listen to all the boring details of a story when it could be summarized into a few short sentences, and you can save yourself some breath by summarizing your own stories you are telling. "To make a long story short" is a well known phrase used by all at some point or another.

Today we met up with some friends to play at the gym. The kids were running wild (for 3+ hours!!) and I had a chance to sit and chat with a friend while we watched our kids slowly lose all the energy they had built up from a day of lessons. Soon I found my eldest child standing in front of my friend telling her he had a story to share. She was all ears and he began his story. After about a minute of talking he paused and said, "to make a long story even longer...." and he proceeded with his story telling. She glanced at me and I shook my head knowing all too well that he was not joking. It was true. He could have summed up what he was trying to tell in a few short sentences, but instead, Russell decided (in true Russell fashion) he would tell every little detail, plus a few he decided to throw in just for kicks. His story that could have been told in a minute or less soon took 5 minutes to finish.

*I realized, as I was writing this, that I should take my own advice and cut to the chase on most of my stories. Whoops! I'll try, I promise.

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!!