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.