The Good Part About Living in a Small Town

Luminaries along the track

While I always say that this town has drawbacks and strangeness (see earlier post about the strange things about living here http://theeshaveit.blogspot.com/2009/08/things-i-see-in-central-pennsylvania.html), there are a lot of wonderful things about this area. One thing is that when something bad happens, the area really pulls together. Recently, a couple local high school students were in a bad car accident on their way back from their prom. One is still in a coma, the other will be paralyzed from the waist down. A huge tragedy for both families. The local towns continue to put signs up offering strength to the families and kids, and do fundraisers to help the families with their bills. The newspaper posts updates on the kids' progress regularly. You just don't see that in a big city.

Luminaries in the football stands

We also band together to support cancer (its end, of course, not supporting its' existence!). Every year, there are several Relay For Life teams that do various events to raise money. The largest event is held at my university. For 36 hours people walk around the track, buy luminaries in honor or in memory of someone with cancer, or do something else to raise money (raffles, etc). The luminaries are put all along the track and it is really quite touching to see them all lit up. People camp out over night and there is constant entertainment - from local bands, to karaoke, to contests, etc. The kids and I entered a frozen t-shirt contest. I had never heard of this, but they have a bunch of t-shirts that they have folded, soaked, and then frozen. The goal is to be the first team to put on the t-shirt. I have to say that it is much more difficult than it sounds! It would also be a great game for a kids party.

Walking the track

Also, here is a video of E and e at a recent picnic. It's amazing how busy and silly two kids can be with a little grass and water. First, they collected the grass and laid it evenly around the faucet, then they built a moat, then a mountain. They were quite a mess by the time they were done! (sorry about the glitch -- I had to shoo away a bee!)

E and e getting silly

Catching Up

Well, my semester has been over for awhile now and I have been playing catch-up around the house. I took 13 more bags of clothes to Goodwill the other day and still really trying to get the house in order. It's actually turning out to be a good thing that we are not doing a lot of traveling this summer because it's so rare that I get to spend time getting things organized.

E has signed up for swim team, so he's swimming four nights a week. I'm seeing quick improvement in his skills since he is getting a lot of feedback. He loves it, too...Thank goodness. e and I spend time doing various things while I try to watch him swim - off and on. e LOVES basketball. So, while E is swimming, e and I go into the gym with her Dora ball and she shoots some hoops. It's actually pretty funny to watch her since there are all these big college guys playing around us. Then we go color her Tinkerbell coloring book. Hopefully, these activities will continue to keep her busy...Swim team goes for several weeks!

e playing basketball...with the big boys in the background!

The latest on the weight loss...I'm feeling SO much better these days. Fifty pounds down and still averaging about 2 lbs a week. It's been so great to be able to play harder with the kids, run up and down stairs again, and just feel better about myself, overall. Now, I just need to get some updated pictures of myself so I can post them on eH and start dating again.

I'm a Baby-Head

That's e's newest occasional name for me, or anyone she's mad at. It's usually preceded by "you're mean!" Well, what can I say. The REALLY bad people are "stupid-heads" and "shut-up heads." Fortunately, I don't ever get those titles. I just have to laugh.

E and e on a foot bridge during our hike

Finally getting a chance to post about our Mother's Day weekend. Last year, we tried a family camp located about three hours or so from here. We loved it so much, we decided to make it an annual tradition. The camp does a special weekend for Mother's Day every year. It's really a wonderful place. It's actually kind of the Wisteria Lane of camps, I have to say. Everyone is happy and smiling, the children all play well together....everyone obviously drank the punch on the way in.

e and E on the "kissing bridge"

There are non-stop things for us to do during the weekend. Arts and crafts, bonfires, tea-time and massages for the moms, hiking, boating (when weather permits), horseback riding, a zip line, archery, educational hikes, lots of other activities for the kids, you name it. Everyone stays in cabins and the camp does all the cooking. We eat with the same people every day so we get to know each other fairly well. There's lots of music and dancing around the tables when it's time to clean up the dishes (which we do ourselves), and lots of crazy activities/games to bond kids and parents. We had a blast. Sunday morning (Mother's Day), at breakfast, all the kids are asked to go to the kitchen. They then all come pouring out at once carrying flowers for their moms. I usually have a hard time holding back the tears at that one!

E climbed up the bank a lot faster than his mom!

Even though it's a long drive there, it's so much fun. This year, though, we froze! Friday night when we got there, we hardly needed a jacket. During the night, we had a great thunderstorm which, of course, brought the cold weather and made it VERY windy Saturday. I think it was in the 40s all day on Saturday, then into the low 30s Saturday night. While the cabins have heat, they are not insulated very well! So, the kids were fine, but I was freezing! It even SNOWED Sunday morning! After breakfast I took the kids on a long (cold!) hike around the lake - hoping that the cold air and long walk would put them straight out for the long drive home. No such luck! e slept for less than an hour and E merely rested his eyes for about 20 minutes. Oh well. The intent was good!

Busy Weekend

Wow, did we have a busy weekend! The weekend before finals, each semester, my university has a big party for all the students. This party includes lots of inflatable things to jump on, a band, lots to eat, and other stuff to keep everyone busy. It turned out to be a perfect day, so I took the kids over. They had a blast jumping, running, and doing everything they could to burn off energy. That evening, my Dean had an end of the year picnic at her house. The kids were absolutely exhausted by the time they got home that night!

E at one of the inflatables at the partye about to go through the obstacle course inflatable at the party

Yesterday was the last day of Sunday school for the year. There is always a big potluck lunch on the last day and other ways to celebrate the day. After the usual morning service, the kids got to paint one of the ceiling tiles for each classroom, then we had a talent show and the potluck. E did a magic trick which was actually pretty cool. Unfortunately, I had to help him with it...I felt bad for being the only parent having to help with their kid, but he had to ask an audience member to cut a string. If that audience member accidentally pulled on the string, it could have ruined the trick, so I told him to just call on me as his assistant. He was really excited about the whole trick. e didn't want to do anything this year...maybe next year.

E doing his magic trick

After Sunday school, the kids got a great opportunity to meet a concentration camp survivor. This woman was in a camp that did a lot of plays and operas. She played the cat in 55 performances of an opera called Brundibar. So, my university put on the opera with her as a guest. Fortunately, it's a lighter opera and is more kid oriented. It's about an organ grinder who has monopolized a city corner by bullying everyone away. A couple of kids need to get some money to buy milk for their mother and they want to sing on the same corner but keep getting bullied away. Finally the animals (cat, dog and bird) rally the help of other children to help them and overpower the bully - who runs home crying. They are finally able to get milk for their sick mother. It's a cute play, but of course, I was thinking about the origins of it and of this woman playing the same role 55 times in a concentration camp...all I did was cry through the whole performance! Out of 62 children in her camp, only four survived. Such a sad story. But, it gave me a great opportunity to talk to the kids about the Holocaust and how terrible it was and how few survivors are still around.

e and E with the Holocaust survivor they met...she wrote a book which she signed -- a copy for each of them.

All in all, a really fun weekend!

Just Thinking

I've been thinking more and more about either adopting another child or becoming a foster parent. I have no idea whether I could handle another child financially or otherwise, but of course I could. Foster parenting becomes more of a challenge when I start to think about the details, like what to do when we want to travel, and the fact that I may have to give the child back to a not-so-good home. That would just rip me apart. Of course, adoption has its challenges, too. It's probably more money than I want to spend right now, and would take a long time. I'm not getting any younger. So, I'm leaning towards the foster parenting. Has anyone done it? Any feedback on the process, challenges, etc? I am fully prepared to try to adopt a foster child if it works out. Isn't that cheaper than going through an agency? Not that it's all about the money. I just see so many kids out there that need a better home, and I think ours is pretty great.

Diary...or Something Like That

Yesterday, e found a little book that I had given each of the kids to make pictures in, scribble, draw, write, whatever. We called them diaries. She found hers on the counter and says "hey, Mom! I found my diarrhea!" I just couldn't stop laughing.

Purging

I've been doing a major purge of the house...it feels good. When the guys were working on finishing my basement, I took the opportunity to spend a morning with them and go through all the stuff down there. It has been a storage hell and it was nice to have help getting all the junk out. I ended up having him take a truckload of stuff to Good will and probably another truckload of trash away. There's still a bunch of stuff down there, but at least it's more manageable now. I'm ordering the carpet for down there today, so I should be able to get it organized once the carpet has been laid. I'm looking forward to having that space more usable.

I've also been going through my clothes. Already, I've given away about 9 trash bags full of clothes to Good will. All the winter stuff in larger sizes that I know I will never need again. Boy, it's really great to be able to say that. I put together three more bags just last week, and I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a few more by the time I finish cleaning everything out. I guess this says something about what a clothes horse I've been...But there was a lot of stuff, too, that I looked at and just decided that I had been keeping too long - regardless of the size. I suppose I could sell the clothes on eBay or something, but I just don't want to deal with it. I just want it all out of the house.

I went out with Rodney again this past weekend. This was the guy I went out with about five months ago. Between then and now a lot has happened with both of us, but we've stayed in touch via email. His son had a very aggressive form of cancer (doing better now but not completely out of the woods), and he's got some business stuff going on. Anyway, I really do like him as a person. There was no lack in the conversation and I think he's probably a fun guy. I'm just not feeling anything...no physical attraction.

I really need to get back on eH now that I've lost some weight. I'm feeling much better about myself, but I still think I have quite a bit of weight to lose. I had plateaued at a 35 pound loss forever, but this past week, I think I have finally moved off the plateau. I was down almost three more lbs on the scale this morning. I guess it's time to repost some pictures on eH and try again...I think I look a lot different (thinner and got a new do!), and we all know that with men, it's all about the visual.

The kids had a great weekend. I took them to the trampoline place up the street on Saturday because it was just kind of a cold day. After Sunday school, e had her soccer practice and then I took them to the rock wall gym. They slept well last night! The soccer practice is with ALL four year-olds. It's so funny to watch them play. They do a few training type activities and then they play three-on-three (not a lot of rules at this point, though). All goes well until a butterfly happens to fly across the field. Then the attention is no longer on the ball but on chasing the butterfly.