Finally!

After a week of single digit temps and below zero windchills, I was finally able to send the kids outside today. Yahoo!

Our Sunday Project

After the younger kids went down for their naps this afternoon, Rachel and I decided that we would do a project to help the birds........we strung cranberries! It was sticky and they smelled kinda funny, but I really enjoyed having a half hour to sit and chat with her about nothing in particular. Quality time. Now we are just waiting on the birds!

Safe To Say She Likes It!

A special visitor

I took these pictures on Monday, January 12th in the field next to the Franklin Pierce Homestead at about 3:30 in the afternoon. I was thrilled! I had never seen an owl in the wild. (I think Chad was jealous, too!) Rachel took them to school with her to do show and tell. What a great surprise!

Rachelism

We have all had a nasty gastrointestinal thing recently, except Rachel. This evening she was standing next to me and she ripped a good one. I said, "You had better watch it, Rachel, because you might be getting sick. Why don't you try to go to the bathroom before you have an accident."
"Don't worry, Mom" she says, "I just have gas. It is just natural gas."
Hahhahahahahhaha!

On the Lighter Side

Wish I had my camera to take a movie of Ben and Rebecca yesterday morning. Rachel had left for school and Chad and I were home talking in the living room. Suddenly Rebecca burst out in this HUGE giggle as Ben shouts Peek-a-boo! It was the first time that I can honestly say that they were playing together. Interacting without beating each other up. It was sooooo CUTE!! Ben was behind the long red curtain which frames the slider, and he would poke his head out and yell Peek-a-boo! Rebecca thought it was the best thing she had ever seen. LOL She crawled over and tried to uncover him, then he let her control the curtain and yelled his part when she pulled it away. I tell you, it was ADORABLE! 10 months and 2.5 years. Too cute. Makes my dream of them growing up as good friends seem almost possible!

They Call Him Kipper

Kipper the Dog. My previous post about the sirens in the distance got me thinking about what it was like for us in those first days and weeks after the fire. My uncle and aunt were generous and offered the use of their house in Washington, NH. It was warm and dry and a place to re-coup, yet close enough for us to go to the house everyday and keep in contact with friends.
It was surreal. I want so badly to be able to describe it, but I can't find the words. We had nothing. Barely a pencil to our names. The house in Washington was a wonderful gift, as our alternative was living in a hotel room with a two year old and two dogs and a cat (it took us a week to find Samantha, poor thing). But the house was also weird. We felt so strange looking through cabinets trying to find silverware and knives. When we sat on the couch the squeaks were not familiar ones. We would put Rachel to sleep at night on a mattress on the floor in the bedroom and then go into the living room and just sit there and look at each other.
During the day we would prepare lists and go shopping for our immediate needs. I will never forget my first trip to Target, however, when I walked into the foyer and just stood there like an idiot by the carts because I literally needed everything and didn't even know in which direction to turn. So I turned around and left before I hyperventillated. Such irony that before the fire we stopped looking at sale flyers and such because they never held anything we needed and that day we needed it all.
And then there was Kipper. Rachel had been into the Wiggles, and Kipper and Spot....but the only videos we were able to salvage were two Kipper ones. We watched them over and over in those first few days. I can't hear the theme song without flashing back to Rachel kneeling over a green footstool while Chad and I tried to rebuild our lives. They call him Kipper...that cute, gentle dog.......makes me feel like I had the breath knocked out of me every time I hear the song. I have never introduced Ben nor Rebecca to Kipper......and now you know why.

Icy Dread

Chad bought a scanner. One that you can tune in to the police/fire/hwy dept. etc. He got it so that he could get the scoop on what the hwy dept. is doing during a storm. He can also get NOAA at the push of a button in the truck. Anyhoo, I finished programming it to the 4 local channels and he put it on top of the tv armoir in the livingroom. NH atmosphere at its best. LOL
Last night as I was getting ready to put Rebecca to bed it squawked and the voices talked about the Washington Fire Dept needing Hillsboro tank and pumpers to assist them at a house fire. The coldest night in years and they had to fight a fire.
I walked upstairs with Rebecca and sat in the rocker cuddling with her, smelling her hair, and singing her lullabyes when off in the distance I heard the sirens.
I can't describe to you the feeling of dread that washed over me and settled in my stomach. It is going on 5 years since our fire, but a feeling of helplessness and, I don't know, despair maybe? still haunts me when I hear sirens going to a fire. I almost felt guilty to be warm and snuggly with my baby while knowing the journey that that poor family was about to embark. May God bless them and keep them safe, as he did my family.

Sweet

The kids have been sick with some stomach thing for the past several days. Lucky me, it is now my turn. But that is not the reason I am writing tonight. You see, my son wakes up from naps crying. He wants to snuggle, he wants to be held, and heaven forbid if you have to get up, he screeches like it is the end of the world. Well, today he slept for hours and it was 5 before he opened his eyes. The crying started but I had to be in the kitchen making dinner. Wouldn't you know that my sweet daughter, who usually practices her bullying on her little brother, went over to him, sat next to him and said, "It's OK buddy, mom has to make dinner but you can rub my hair." And he did. And all was right in the world. What sweet kids I have!

You do the math....

A family of 5, no washing machine, and an entire town trying to get a space in one of two laundrymats. Not pretty. We were on day 5 without power.
I brought Ben with me and went down to try to do 4 loads of laundry. Just the essentials. Ben fell asleep in the car and I was lucky enough to only have to wait about 10 minutes for the oldest machine in all of NH to clear for me. After a couple of false starts (the last time I did this I was in college...20 years ago or so) I got everything going and sat in the car with Ben to wait. Why do they have 23 washers and only 7 dryers???? I will be forever trying to figure that out.
Needless to say, I combined two loads for 30 min in a dryer and then gave up. I stopped at Aubuchon Hardware on the way home and bought one of those accordian drying racks for $35 *choke* and headed home. Hmmmmmmm.......how to dry 4 loads of laundry. The socks and undies went on the rack, the tshirts and pants we hung in our coat closet which is surrounded by the radiant heat pipes and stays a constant 95 degrees, but where to put the rest of the stuff??? OK, some over the lamps, on the vacuum handle, over the backs of the chairs......no, I couldn't do that. Could I? Well why the heck not- it wasn't being used for anything else, certainly! Poor thing was just standing there in the corner begging to feel helpful. So that is what I did. It still feels wrong, but desperation is the mother of invention, yes? I hope it doesn't keep me out of heaven. [Author's note: There is supposed to be a picture of my poor christmas tree covered in laundry here, but for some reason it is not uploading. Arrgh!]

The Ice Storm of December 2008

I got up to go to the bathroom just after midnight on Dec. 12, 2008. As I was sitting there I looked outside and thought to myself- wow- there is a lot of ice out there and it is still raining really hard. Maybe I should have prepared better.......maybe I should have at least brought a flashlight upstairs with me. It would really suck to have one of the kids wake up at 2AM and have it be pitch black in here..... I guess I will go down and get- Oh, crap! The lights went out. And stayed out. For a long, long, LONG time.
My beloved hubby has a small generator for the business so he brought it home the next morning and did his voodoo and viola! We had heat and water. Amazing. All in all it wasn't too bad. The worst part was everyday at about 3:30 when you knew that by 4 it would be dark. We'd do the flashlight scramble and I had everyone run around and clean up the floors so no one would trip. Then it was a stovetop meal (we got really good at noodles and hamburgers) and cards/ board games until an early bedtime.
At first the kids were up each morning between 5-5:30 as usual. Once they discovered that it would be dark for at least two hours and they couldn't watch any tv they started to sleep in a little longer. Like until 6. Bah!
Seriously, though, it was amazing how quickly they got used to having no tv. I was actually a bit saddened by the 4th day in thinking that the lights would go back on and we would lose the wonderful family atmosphere we had going. We were in the routine of things and we knew how to operate by then.
By the 5th night I was on my knees praying for electricity. I thought about learning to say the Hail Mary but I couldn't google it so I was SOL. I had had enought. The kids were fighting and getting into each others things and I wanted to send them away, but we only had so many lanterns and I don't think there was a 'D' battery to be had in all of New England. Another night around the table listening to bad knock-knock jokes and my daughter slaughtering the Star Spangled Banner for about the 347th time. Yeesh!
I was on the phone with one of Chad's customers when the power came back. I screamed, told her I would call back, and the kids and I did a happy dance around the kitchen for a good 10 minutes. That night we turned the tree on, I think every tv in the house was on, and as I looked outside and noticed the sunset it was with a feeling of peace rather than tension. It is good to have your world shaken up every now and again to help you realize just how blessed you really are............but I'm sure glad my turn was over!

A Whole Month

How did it happen that I have gone a whole month without posting? Oh, wait....I remember! Six wonderful days in the dark after the ice storm. Boy, do I have some posts to do about that one! Then is was Christmas at home, Christmas with Chad's dad, Christmas with my family, Christmas with Chad's mom and Cici and then New Years! Whew! This past week has been spent catching up on paperwork, bills and a bid for the town of Weare. I am exhausted! We are definitely on the good side of things, though. Rachel is happily back to school, the younger kids are down with their friends and I am relieved to be getting back on a schedule. Here's to a great 2009!