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March 31, 2006
Beach Day
Ever since we moved here in January I have been dying to get to the beach which is only about an hour away. Yesterday was the first (kind of) warm day that we have had in a while so the kids and I decided to go. We live in a fairly rural area so we had to take many windy country roads through the New Jersey Pinelands to get there. Very beautiful.
Our mission was to look for sea glass and cool rocks. We didn't find much of either, but the kids brought home a ton of shells. Of course it was too cold to get near the water but that didn't stop Henry. He got soaked and frozen, as I knew he would. Good thing I had brought a change of clothes for him because we then stopped for dinner and ice cream at Friendly's.
Posted by Julee at 10:05 PM | Comments (2)
Friday Random Ten
Shuffle Those MP3s
1. Delicate Decemebr - Erin McKeown
2. A Happy Ending - Spearmint
3. I Wanna Be Adored - The Stone Roses
4. Rank Stranger - Wayfaring Strangers
5. Windy - Go Sailor
6. Autrefois - Pink Martini
7. I know You Tried - Luna
8. Sometimes I Do - Social Distortion
9. Calling for You - Iris Dement
10. Is This Desire - PJ Harvey
Posted by Julee at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2006
Legos, Legos, Legos
What do you do if you spend an outrageous sum on a super-duper, fancy, cool lego set and then spend hours putting it together only to have it broken to bits in a few days with the pieces strewn everywhere and mixed in with the thousands of other pieces in the house? Then what do you do when the direction book that goes with the aforementioned lego set is left on the floor only to be stepped on and ripped up? (I guess there was a reason it said for ages 9 and up) Do you pull out your hair and scream at the kids? No, because we all know that makes everyone feel so much worse, including the mommy. So you go to the store and buy special strong tape and plastic page protectors and put back together the booklet and all of the other ripped up booklets and put them in their own very special binder. And then you sit down and help the kids sort through the legos and put them in those special bins you got them so they can keep them organized.
When we were out shopping the other evening we came across another super-duper, fancy, cool lego set and the boys immediately started drooling. I said, "No way!"
Posted by Julee at 09:52 PM | Comments (5)
Pictures
I need to post some pictures before my family members and relatives start to turn on me. (They only really like us for our kids)
Posted by Julee at 09:09 PM | Comments (2)
March 22, 2006
They Made it with Legos!
A Harpsichord
An Air Conditioner
And last, but certainly not least, Henry made this boat:
Posted by Julee at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
Wiki Wednesday
Brought to you by Verbatim
Playing for the second week in a row!
Vladislav Petrovich Krapivin was born in the city of Tyumen on 14 October 1938. He finished the department of journalism of the Ural State University. Even during the studies he was accepted to work in the newspaper "Evening Sverdlovsk", several years worked in the periodical "Ural Pathfinder". From 1965 he is a full time writer. The first book, Voyage of Orion was printed by the Sverdlovsk publishing house in 1962. There were released more than 200 publications of Krapivin's books on different languages.
Posted by Julee at 06:34 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2006
Paleontology Fashion
It's important to look good, even when you are digging for fossils.
I'm trying to keep very busy to help pass the time until Eric gets home, and I like to get out and do things anyway. So on Sunday the kids and I went to The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. It was actually my first time ever in Philadelphia.
Posted by Julee at 09:25 PM | Comments (3)
March 19, 2006
Adventures in Craftiness
Eric has been gone 12 days now and the lack of adult conversation in the evenings has started to get to me. So when my neighbor, who sells rubber stamps, invited me to her monthly "stamp camp" I jumped at the opportunity to get out of the house.
The hostess had prepared work stations for 5 different "make and take" projects. I was awestruck by the array of specialized tools- from a mess-proof glitter tray to a contraption to help you score your cardstock with a perfectly straight line. The ink pads had a special flip top design so they are always stored in a way to create maximum flow. Since it has been a pretty long time since I had perused the aisles of Michael's, I had no idea that crafting had gone so high-tech.
Stamp camp was fun. I got to meet a few more neighbors, which is always good. Plus we ate some great cake, which is always good too. And it's nice to get in touch with my crafty side.
What could be better than female bonding over cake and cute rubber stamps?
Posted by Julee at 09:29 AM | Comments (1)
March 17, 2006
Stuff Portrait Friday: Brought to you by the Letter C
Couch:
This couch is less than a year old but thanks to my sons, you would never be able to tell. (You should have seen what they did to last one!) I know you can't see it in the photo, but it has a few dirt and oil stains. Oh well.
Coats:
My children have never really played with the train table we gave them, but thank goodness it doesn't just take up space. It makes a wonderful surface on which to pile our coats and hats. There are 4 coats, 2 jackets and 3 hats in that pile. After a few days of beautiful weather last week, I was hoping to put them away for the season. But alas, spring has not quite sprung.
Candles:
I am not a candle person. First of all I really dislike scented things. They really irritate me. Secondly I have small children. So these are the only candles you will find in my home.
Posted by Julee at 12:14 PM | Comments (4)
Friday Random Ten
Shuffle Those MP3s
1. Technicolor Girls - Death Cab for Cutie
2. See the Constellation - They Might Be Giants
3. You Lie - Muffs
4. Shameless - Ani DiFranco
5. I Walk the Line - Johnny Cash
6. After Dark - Le Tigre
7. The Beauty of the Rain - Dar Williams
8. No Danger - The Delgados
9. Underdog - Lisa Loeb
10. Three Hopeful Thoughts - Rilo Kiley
Posted by Julee at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2006
Star Wars, of course
Posted by Julee at 10:04 PM | Comments (1)
Wiki Wednesday
Karen at Verbatim came up with a fun meme, Wiki Wednesday:
1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on "Random article" in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it. (or at least an excerpt)
We can all be guaranteed to learn something new on Wednesdays. Here's what I got:
ARJ is a tool for creating compressed file archives. It was invented by Robert K. Jung. ARJ probably stands for Archiver Robert Jung. It is no longer in wide use.
Now, aren't we all a little smarter for having read that?
Posted by Julee at 10:01 PM | Comments (1)
Hail to the Chairman
Today when I took this poster to the store to buy the frame, I accidentally dropped it (the poster, that is) on the ground of the parking lot. My immediate reaction was to quickly see if anyone witnessed my clumsiness, but then I relaxed with a sigh a relief, remembering that I was in New Jersey and it was 2006. In another place and time I surely would have been denounced for my foolishness.
Posted by Julee at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2006
Henry received an invitation in the mail...
...to join the Handyman Club of America. I wonder if they know that he is only 6 years old.
Posted by Julee at 01:48 PM | Comments (1)
Way to go Kansas!
Sebelius Signs Bill Protecting Rights of Breastfeeding Mothers
Posted by Julee at 01:45 PM | Comments (2)
If You are Having a Bad Day.....
...there is usually someone out there who feels worse.
And if you are still having a bad day Watch This Video.
(I know the redneck video is pretty old, but it's original link has been dead for a while. I was happy to see that it has been preserved in all of its glory on another site.)
Posted by Julee at 01:43 PM | Comments (1)
March 07, 2006
Could it be?
A sign of spring!
Posted by Julee at 09:46 PM | Comments (1)
Cookies
Iris and I made Coconut Oatmeal Cookies this afternoon. I don't normally keep crisco in the house so I used all butter instead. They came out really well. I'm going to send most of them to Eric tomorrow. I don't need a whole cup's worth of buttery decadence sitting around in my kitchen. With the amount of physical training he's going to endure over the next month he will be able to handle a few extra cookies.
Posted by Julee at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)
Off to Camp
Eric left this morning. The shuttle came to pick him up at the ridiculous hour of 3:30 am. I talked to him briefly this evening and he said they spent a fair amount of time this afternoon learning how to march. He is training with a really tough bunch: the dentists are in the same class as the lawyers and the chaplains.
I'm going to make the most of having him gone for the next month. I'm going to keep myself and the kids very busy so the time will seem to go a little faster. I also bumped up to the top of our Netflix queue all of those Masterpiece Theatre productions I have been wanting to watch. Daniel Deronda arrived in the mail yesterday.
Posted by Julee at 09:31 PM | Comments (2)
March 03, 2006
Picture for Today
Mr Snazzy New Haircut
Posted by Julee at 04:48 PM | Comments (2)
Daytrip With No Kids
We seized the opportunity of free childcare from the visiting in-laws and took the train up to New York for the day on Monday. It was really the first time we had gone somewhere without the kids for a whole day and it was definitely worth Eric using a vacation day.
We had really wanted to visit the MoMA since it reopened a little over a year ago. We were really reluctant to do it with the kids because it's kind of expensive and crowded and we knew they would not be able to tolerate it for very long.
We were actually a little disappointed. I had read a few reviews on the new building describing it as understated and modest in a city of bold and loud architecture. But I thought the building itself was outright boring, afterall this is the MoMA. The collection was fun, a sort of greatest hits from most of the heavy hitters. But Eric did notice the absence of many artists from the 1980s and 1990s.
Anyway, after the museum we went and gorged ourselves on salted meat at Stage Deli. We then took the subway downtown to stroll around SoHo but it was so bleeping cold and windy we managed a few blocks before we decided to head to Mulberry Street for coffee and dessert.
It only took about an hour to get to New York so you know we are going to have to do this a lot more while we are stationed here at McGuire.
Posted by Julee at 04:45 PM | Comments (1)
Friday Random 10
Shuffle Those MP3s
1. Stockport - Badly Drawn Boy
2. Two Dolphins - The Sea and Cake
3. Caress Me Down - Sublime
4. I Can't Quit You Baby - Led Zeppelin
5. Fake Frowns - Death Cab for Cutie
6. This is Love - PJ Harvey
7. Road to Joy - Bright Eyes
8. Speedy Car - Stereolab
9. Twisting - They Might Be Giants
10. Chach - Calexico
Posted by Julee at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)