beachy keen

For those unfamiliar with geography, Tennessee is sadly lacking in the beach department.

I grew up going to the beach multiple times a summer and have so missed it since I moved to the land of barbeque.

Friday night Grandma, Mom, Dad, AB and I took a trip to the beach. Naturally the one time in the last 3 years I have a chance to see the beach I grew up at it poured giant cats and dogs. While we waited for the storm to pass we went to a local restaurant. I was so proud of Annabelle. She may have been born in the south but she's a New England girl at heart. She gobbled up those clam cakes like they were going out of style. Much like her mother, she can't refuse anything that's fried.

 

The storm cleared by the time we were done eating and the sky was GORGEOUS.

I'll spare you the 48 other sunset pictures I took. 

 

Kidding. Here's another.

The typical four generations photo. The youngest generation was happier than she looks. Immediately after this was taken she walked straight into a puddle for some puddle jumping.



I don't understand why this isn't my front yard.



"Hug, Memere! Hug!" 

updates from the north

Leading up to this trip to MA I was worried we'd have a repeat of The Worst Flight in the History of Flights aka the blowout/vomit flight in April. It's no lie when I say I considered canceling the whole trip so I wouldn't have to wash out her disgusting clothes yet again. Thanks to Christopher's encouragement/insistence that we press on and Expedia's no cancelation policy we did indeed board the planes.

Thankfully we survived both flights without any of us needing a change of clothes. Instead we spent the first flight sitting in the 29th row with no windows in sight and a child who had the energy of three energizer bunnies. Still, wrangling the energizer bunny in a space smaller than a matchbox > being thrown up on. You'd think such success would make me more hopefully for a good flight back. WRONG. I go into the fetal position every time I think about it.

Ever since her birthday party in April, Sesame has been talking about Memere. She gets excited when she sees a picture of her. She wants to call her on the phone. She says her name all the time. I was hoping for an overjoyed reunion. This isn't exactly the face of someone being reunited with her BFF.

She warmed up pretty quickly after Memere started a tradition of giving her a "pops" (popsicle) every day.

Last Saturday we had a get together at Daniel and Erika's. Mom's birthday is next month and she hasn't had all her children together on her birthday in years so we surprised her with a cake and celebrated early.

Sweet Sesame is having the time of her life up here. She has so many people to visit with, everyone gives her food and she spends hours outside. She's visited with puppies, gone for rides in the wagon and had dance parties.



She's talking so much and exploring everything. She's been giving out hugs and kisses and started saying "love you!" Try not to slip on the puddle my heart makes as it melts.





a town is only as good as its coffee

The time has come for us to once again pack all our earthly belongings in boxes and move our entire lives to a new state on the other side of the country.

For those keeping track at home, this will be our fifth house/seventh move in four and a half years.

I've assembled a short list of requirements for our new town:

* Multiple GOOD Dunkin Donuts locations. That goes without saying. The DD here are so subpar but I go anyway because Dunkin Donuts is in my blood. Plus I have a .99 refill cup and it's fiscally responsible to take advantage of the savings. I did some research on our new town and the locals like Tim Horton's or a place called Spot. They're both THE PLACE for coffee. I'll do a study of the French Vanilla ice coffee in both places and get back to you with the results.

* The Big Three- Michael's, Joann's and the Hob Lob. Much like pillows or the perfect shade of lip gloss, crafts stores are a very personal decision. My big three may not be your big three.

* Good pizza and Mexican restaurants. Obviously.

* Trees. Our current neighborhood has a grand total of seven trees, none of which shade our yard. From the hours of 9am to 7pm our yard is a sauna. Knowing how life works, our next yard will probably be completely shaded and I'll be complaining about lack of sun.

* A doctor who has speaks English well and has an easily pronounceable last name. Bonus points if she magically knows my medical history without me having to tell her.

* NO FLIES. I cannot stand flies. They have followed me from our first home at Fort Drum and set up shop in every single house since. They have taken over the kitchen and I can't get a handle on the situation.

* Desired but not a necessity: interesting neighbors. AB and I spend a considerable small amount of our day getting to know our current neighbors. By that I mean we watch their comings and goings and give them all nicknames. Christopher doesn't understand my need to be well informed about the community. Typical male.

.Thursday.

I have started five posts in the last week and not posted a single one. I hate big gaps in blogging but I don't want to blog when all I have to say is the following:

Tuesday- Woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Stepped on the scale and I weigh more than I thought. I didn't like how I looked in the dressing room mirror. I pulled out five BRIGHT WHITE hairs. What a great day for my self esteem. I end the day by eating a rice krispie treat.

Wednesday- Planned on dropping Sesame off at daycare so I could have some alone time. I spent a mile and a half of our walk deciding where I'd go and what I'd do. Got home and discovered the little cherub had thrown up all over herself and hadn't made a peep about it. Daycare canceled. I eat two chocolates to console myself.

Please do join my pity party.

In more cheerful news, we're going to visit my family this weekend. I should be getting ready but instead I'm googling memes about food. Procrastination has always been a strong suit. So has overpacking.



Currently- the running on very little sleep edition

Before I get into what it sure to be an intellectual and brain-stimulating post, I have to say that insomnia is THE WORST. My young boss is very inconsiderate and insists on waking me up for work at 6 instead of 8:30 even if I've spent the night like this.



Nothing I say or do can be used against me.

+ Drooling over: pictures from Princess Charlotte's christening. The world has once again seen that they are the perfect family. I am once again considering throwing out all the clothes in my closet and buying new outfits that I think Kate would wear.  I'll also be adding royal baby pram to my next baby registry. This particular picture stood out because it appears William is having a deep conversation with my sweet future son in law about a) walking in the right direction or b) trying to cut him off at the pass before he sits down in the middle of the sidewalk. I can relate to both those scenarios. The royals are just like us.

+ Spitting out: a fly. There was a fly in my coffee and it went in my mouth. What a fine way to start a Monday.

+ Watching: Sleepless in Seattle. Last night I sat on the living room floor watching it as I painted my nails. I had never seen the whole thing but I loved it. While my nails dried I ate ice cream right out of the container. My ten year old self who believed being an adult meant watching whatever you want while you eat whatever you want would have been so happy. I also thought by age 26 I'd be running an orphanage with 25 children and married to an astronaut. There were a few things about life I didn't quite understand.

+ Smelling: a dirty diaper my new gardenia candle. We went to Bath & Body Works this morning and I got sucked into the 50% off section. After much scent testing (and very little positive feedback from AB) I picked out two of the 3-wick candles. I have never been so excited to light a candle. I might go back and buy five more.

+ Reading: Life After Life. From the Amazon review as I'm too tired (see above) to write my own: "Every time Ursula Todd dies, she is born again. Each successive life is an iteration on the last, and we see how Ursula's choices affect her, those around her, and--so boldly--the fate of the 20th-century world." Its not as morbid as it sounds for a book about someone who keeps dying.

+ Writing: Annabelle's birthday card. Before you judge me for being three months late, I want you to know I did buy the card in March. It went from sitting on the stairs to sitting on my dresser to laying the floor by my bed back to the dresser. Yesterday Annabelle found it, tasted it, and pulled the raised flower off the front. She dropped it down the vent and it joined the earing and quarters she previously sent to the place of no return. 

+ Eating: chocolate. All the chocolates.

I know it looks like I'm being a pig but I'm not. I'm doing a study of chocolate textures. It's for the good of the people. 





party like it's 1776

Christopher had Friday off so we kicked off our Independence Day celebration early. Our time here is quickly coming to an end and it seemed like a good day to cross visit Abraham Lincoln's birthplace off our lengthy to-see list. I dressed AB up in the first of her three patriotic outfits and off we went.

The cabin Abe was born in is located inside a replica of the Lincoln Memorial on the farm where he spent his first few years. Except that it's not the actual cabin he was born in. For many years they believed it was, but in 2004 it was confirmed that the logs were cut down when Abe was 40 years old. At this point the cabin was already inside the memorial and it's my personal belief they decided to leave the fake cabin because it would have been too much work to remove it. (For what it's worth, I also believe they could have figured out it wasn't THE cabin maybe, I don't know, 100 years ago. How hard is it to count tree rings?)

The area surrounding the memorial was very pretty. Annabelle entertained herself by pulling the flags off the plastic flagpoles. 

She used the flag as a tissue immediately after this picture.



Yesterday we took another trip to a recreated 1880's village. Annabelle was wearing THE CUTEST ruffled red shirt and blue pants with white stars that Christopher said made her look like a Vaudeville dancer. Whatever. Everything was going great until we were pulling into the parking lot and she threw up all her over my freshly cleaned car, her brand new car seat and the outfit that I never got a picture of. Between our TX trip and yesterday I have cleaned out enough gross car seats for the next decade. I told Christopher that I was really growing as a person by not being completely distraught over the fact she was now wearing a pink onesie with a bear on it instead of the outfit I bought her in April. I can still be a good mother even if she's not dressed to the nines. What a lie. Three minutes later I saw children in red, white and blue clothes and I was singing a different tune. I almost taped a sign to her chest letting the whole place know we she had just experienced an unexpected and catastrophic wardrobe malfunction. 

Somewhere along the way the people at Patti's 1880's Settlement got confused about what the 1880's were really like. Not one thing about the place was historic in any way, shape or form. For starters, there's was a mini golf course. I may not have been alive in the 1880's, but I'm fairly certain there wasn't much putting going on. There were a bunch of animals, a few shops and a little playground, but they all screamed "Built in the last 20 years." The only thing truly 1880 was the temperature. I'd say it was around 1,880 degrees.

Due to car difficulties we didn't make it to church today. That didn't stop us from breaking out outfit #3. You can't see it, but the white I wore was two new white hairs I found while doing my makeup.

Let's take a brief trip down memory lane to last 4th of July. I don't know why I always do this to myself. I swear we just took this picture last week.



I hope the skirt fits her next year. If not maybe I'll make it into a headband. What better way to celebrate your independence than a giant tulle bow sitting on your head. 





Thursday.

I told myself that while Annabelle took her afternoon nap today I'd finally sit down and crank out a post for the old blawg.

The only problem is I can't think of ANYTHING to say.

I had twelve ideas on Monday but now I'm coming up dry. Why I'm even continuing to type is beyond me. I took a twenty minute cruise around pinterest looking for inspiration and found this instead. FYI, wannabe criminals of the world.

You don't say.

 

Since any dreams I had of being a Swedish criminal have been dashed, I'll be stick to my day job of washing Annabelle's hands after she sticks them in the toilet water and getting blue crayon out of her mouth when she thinks she's found herself a new snack. These things don't happen when C is home with her. The first time he stayed with her alone all day I thought, "He'll finally get to see why I don't usually get much done during the day." Wrong. Not only did he wash and fold all the laundry, he cleaned the floors and washed the inside of the refrigerator. There may or may not have been days in the past year when he's come home from work and heard this reply when he asked what I did during the day. "Well, I took a nap while the baby took her morning nap. When she took her afternoon nap I laid down for just a minute then didn't wake up until two hours later." Take note, future mothers. That's how you do it. Watching someone run through the sprinkler while you sit in the shade eating a popsicle TOTALLY requires two naps.