Tuesday, October 26
I'm doing about anything I can to not pack right now. I'm making phone calls, surfing the net, sorting through old photos. I decided I should just go ahead and post. We're actually in very good shape. The movers come Thursday morning and the place is nearly packed up. I just can't wait until it is all over.
The boys are a little freaked out but they are handling it as well as they can. We have made a point of getting out and doing fun things to keep them distracted. On Sunday we went hiking at the Audubon Site in Canton, MA. It is the same place we had tried to hike in Sept. but couldn't because of the mosquitoes. I'm going to take them to zoo while the actual move is happening. Here are a couple of pics: Iris and the boys. Notice the boys are wearing their Mass Fire Academy hats.
I also have to mention that the Red Sox are making it really fun to live in Boston right now.
Saturday, October 23
When it rains it pours! Okay, I'm being a little dramatic but we are in the middle of packing up our home and the transmission and front brakes go out on our car. The transmission was covered by the warranty but the brake coverage expired at 12,000 miles. Our minivan has 17,000 miles. C'mon! don't you think brakes should last a little bit longer than that? Also Henry has been sick off and on all week and I can hear him coughing, with a deep chest rattle in bed right now.
I do have some good news though. We got Eric's official acceptance letter from the Air Force Perio program today. We had always thought that we would be in the Air Force until 2014. Well, the letter says we are done 2011! Yay!
Also a big Congratulations to my old high school friend, Catherine. She is getting married next summer!
If you want a good laugh check out Sneeze. I found it at Cassandra's Rantings of a Stay at Home Mom.
Wednesday, October 20
This website was featured in today's Boston Globe: Bush Relatives for Kerry
Sunday, October 17
We signed a lease and we're moving on October 28. That's in 11 days! The apartment is the second floor of the other triple decker that I mentioned in the post below. The consolation is that it is much nicer and a little cheaper than our current place. And it has been completely deleaded. It's in nearby Jamaica Plain which is closer to the dental school. Eric will be able to take the Orange Line (which is a 10 minute walk) instead of the commuter rail. This will cut his commute down considerably. But the next 11 days are going to hell, and that's putting it mildly.
I sat down and wrote a list today of all of the places I need to send a change of address. I can't believe how long it is! All the subscriptions, utilities, insurance policies and much, much more. It made me think about when Eric and I were teachers in Japan and how we were responsible for one bank account and paying 3 bills a month. That was it. Today even with all of our efforts to live a fairly simple life, it is still so complicated. Anyway...
For the 3rd year in a row we took the kids to the pumpkin patch at Verrill Farm in Concord. We brought home 5 nice pumpkins, one for each member of our family. We probably won't have time to carve them until after we move but at least that will be before Halloween. Here are pictures from today: Iris, Henry and Eric & Theo together.
Friday, October 15
The past two days have been pretty big around here. Yesterday morning I purchased our own domain so this page and our e-mail addresses will be changing soon. With all of these moves, we really felt we needed to do that so we can have permanent e-mail addresses. As soon as I get all of the technical details ironed out I will update everyone on that.
We decided not to go with the triple decker down the street. We didn't want to feel like we had to work extra hard to keep the kids quiet all of the time; it's just not fair to them. So when we called Meg, the owner, she said she actually has another triple decker nearby for us to look at. We are doing that in a few hours and if we like it we plan on signing the lease today. We just want to get it over with!
The biggest, most important news is that we got a call from San Antonio yesterday. Eric has been offered a spot in the Periodontics program at the dental school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. So in June we will be making another move, a really big move.
Wednesday, October 13
We are purposely not watching the debates. In previous years I used to love watching them, as well as the pundits every Sunday morning. But I can't stand seeing any of it anymore. I'm not sure why, but I think I'm starting to become more and more cynical. Anyway, there's a really good baseball game going on right now and we've definitely already decided who we're voting for.
We looked at a nice apartment yesterday and it's only a block a way from our current location. It's the 2nd floor of a nicely restored triple decker. The owners live on the 3rd floor and they really like us. They said we are a right fit. However, their elderly parents live on the first floor and are a little concerned about the kids being too noisy. They said they would let us know by the weekend. If that doesn't work out we still have a nice apartment as a back up.
Here are pictures of Theo and Iris from today.
Sunday, October 10
Today we went to Lowell, MA for the Canal Heritage Days. It was strange because there was really not anything going on. The city and the two National Historic Sites we visited were nearly empty. We did walk the Merrimack Riverwalk which runs alongside a handful of abandoned textile mills. Here is a picture of Henry from today.
After Lowell we drove up into New Hampshire a little bit and the autumn leaves are just out of this world. When we are out tomorrow I am going to try to take some pictures of them.
Creative Combinations: A random generator of adjective/noun pairs. It's fun.
Tuesday, October 5
During the summer I wrote about how we are being evicted in November because Penny, our landlady, is condoizing (yes, I'm using condo as a verb) the two apartments in the two family house in which we live. It has been really nice and quiet the last couple of months with no work being done. Well, last week she called to let us know that she wants to start having the old paint removed from the outside trim, right outside our windows. The first three contractors she approached wouldn't even consider the job because it's lead paint and we have 3 small children. She found someone who will do it but we have to sign a waiver first. That's not going to happen.
Here is a picture of a little brotherly love. You can't even tell that Henry got 3 booster shots at his check-up today.
Saturday, October 2
My boys spend a great deal of time acting out various manmade and natural disaster rescue scenarios. Fire, tornadoes and the Titanic are their favorites. But with all of this talk of Mt. St. Helens, I'm pretty sure we will be hearing a lot about volcanoes in the coming days. Here is a webcam pointing at Mt. St. Helen's. At the time of this posting, I didn't see any volcanic action, but ABC news says it may erupt soon.
Speaking of natural disasters, Colleen at Create Some Joy refers to a link with a hilarious theory regarding all of those recent hurricanes.
And speaking of presidential campaigns, have you ever thought about how the 2 major candidates and their running mates would look in drag?
Here is a picture of Iris from today. She is starting to get some more hair.
