13 years!

Today marks our 13th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been married for 13 years, although at the same time it seems like a lifetime ago that I was single. We have been married now officially one third of my life!

Thanks to Irene who came over to take care of the children, we were able to enjoy a relaxing anniversary sans children (one day early). She truly helped make the day special and left a beautiful surprise at the end of the day. When I opened the bedroom door we were greeted by heartfelt cards and the scent of fresh roses. To top it off we have left overs from the meal that she planned, purchased and then prepared with the kids. Dziadzia (Grandpa) made us a large batch of his special chicken soup that we all love, so now I won't have to cook for a day or two. :-) I am feeling very lucky today that I not only married my husband but gained such a wonderful sister in law in the process. THANK YOU IRENE!

Today kicked off the first official day of project 365. The weather is less than perfect for outside photos (much like our actual wedding day) so I started with a picture of the roses for day one (theme,red).

Nice winter weather

Project 365

Simply it is just an excuse to stop and look at the world around me in a different way. I am embarking on this project with a group of friends, most of which are much more experienced photographers and will hopefully mentor me through this photo journey. We will be taking one picture a day for a year and every week we will focus on a different subject/idea. The start date for me will be Monday Jan 25th. I will have the theme listed for each week and up to 7 pictures displayed. The older pictures will be moved to the archive section of the 365 blog, where they can be veiwed and will remain. My hope is to learn how to use my new camera equipment, train my eye, and become a more creative photographer over the coming year. I have added a link to this new blog site to the left sidebar of my family blog. www.nauticgal365throughmyeyes.blogspot.com
The Themes so far!
Week 1- Colors: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Black, Choice and White
Week 2- Personal Treasures
Week 3- Guilty Pleasures
Week 4- Hidden Letters in Life
Week 5-Children
Week 6- Looking Out Your Back Door
Week 7- Textures
Week 8- Items Around Your House: Faucet, TV, Cell phone, Doorknob, Light Switch, Sink Drain, Choice
Week 9- Looking Up
Week 10- Self Portrait
Week 11- Structures
Week 12- Notions
Week 13- Springtime
Week 14- Landscaping

A little of this and that.

Tis the season again to be longing for the spring thaw and that very special day, April 15th! We attended DJ's work holiday party last night and had a blast dancing with friends and didn't end up getting home until almost 1am. Irene and Stanley came down to babysit and it sounds like the kids had a great time making dinner and cookies with Irene and playing a lot of wii . They are very generously coming back next weekend so that we can go out and celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. Boy did those years go by fast! DJ is busy working long hours to finish up year end financials and will be starting up with tax returns next week. The kids are also busy with extracurricular activities and it seems to be increasing hard each year to stay on top of everything even though I try to limit the number of things that they get involved in. Zoe is competing in two competitions now with school. The first one is a foreign language poem that she will be reading in Polish. The first round of the competition starts in about 2 wks and the final reading will be in April. She also won a spot in the first stages of a national spelling B and is studying to try and make it to the next round. I am starting to wonder if perhaps she is not my child because I was/am the most horrible speller.
These first two pics are from last week. Gavin's godmother bought him this adorable outfit for halloween but he ended up being a shark. I was going to use it for Christmas pictures but decided on a different family picture. It is size 18M-2T and is getting small on him so I put it on him and snapped a couple of photos the other day when the weather was agreeable.

Some pictures from ice fishing.  Gavin and I went out with my friend in the morning and caught a few bass/pickerel, took a break to get Marina from preschool, have lunch and warm up a bit and then headed back out for a couple of hours but we only caught one bass in the afternoon.

Here are just a few "wayback" pictures that I scanned for Zoe.

Winter sunsets and "wayback" pics.

I still have much to learn about my camera and I look forward to experimenting with different filters but I took a few of the sunset from one of my favorite local hangouts. Just how many pictures of the same sun can one own? I suppose it will all depend on the capacity of my electronic media to hold it. Here are a couple from last night. It was not one of those spectacular colored filled skies but was still picture worthy in my opinion. It makes me long for the warm summer nights though because although picturesque it is still bitterly COLD! Edit: As luck would have it the sunset tonight was full of color but I had no camera with me.

People are doing a "Wayback" week on Facebook, where you post pictures of yourself from your childhood and in doing so I realized that I only have a couple . Most are at my mothers house but I was able to find these two. Wow, my mom should have put down the scissors and let a professional handle my hair or at least straightened out the bowl before cuting. I am not sure when she sought out a trained hairdressor but I  remember lining up in the kitchen with my siblings for our haircuts and my brothers getting the buzz in the warm weather (I guess that is what hippie mom's do? :-).  I was showing the kids these two pictures and Marina said "what, you were a boy you when you were little?"  haha :-)

"The Best Day"

Zoe sang this for me on Sunday at the library... sniff, sniff. I doubt she feels this way some days but I will take it when I can get it :-) Too bad the mic. was not working so it is on the quiet side but I still think it was sweet but I am TOTALLY biased.

In Search of Fishers and Playing with SLR.

Picture of a Fisher but not one that I took. I am hoping that all mine will be close mouthed ones. Actually they are really cute and I think the most dangerous part of them is their retractable claws from what I have read.

I took the new camera with the 18-55mm lens out for a test spin in the back yard in hunt of the fishers and to give them our discarded Christmas tree for their collection. I do find it funny that most of the information I have read on this creature does not fit the mold for our backyard neighbors. First they are supposed to be nocturnal but I see them at least once a week during the daytime running through the yard. Second they are supposed to be solitary animals. There are three that I see traveling together since last spring and they are all full grown and not pups at this point. Third they are generally thought to keep their distance from humans but that has not been my experience. They have been very bold and will run through the yard while we are outside and once while I was trying to snap a few pictures (which I did but they are not very clear) they turned around and came running back toward me and two of them ran up a tree about 10 feet away from me and started in with some noisy vocalizations. DEP assured me that even though they make a great meal out of small dogs and cats and I often see dead squirrels hanging out of their mouths that they shouldn't bother a toddler. When I was rafting this past spring the raft guide told me that they were plentiful in that area and had been known to take down black bears (not sure how true this is?). I am not totally reassured but so far the only time they seemed to have any interest in us was when I pursued them with the camera. I did find many of their tracks in the snow yesterday and found some of their favoite little caves. (pictured below) I still have much to learn about the camera though and was playing with some of the settings so the pictures are not the best they could have been at this point.

Back on schedule.

Today is the first day that everyone is back at work/school and although I really enjoyed the unstructured time with the family it is nice to get back on schedule. DJ was able to take off several days before and after Christmas, including my birthday which was a real treat. I only had to endure mild teasing this year from my Evil Sister In-Laws but I don't expect them to go so easy on me next year. Hopefully they will show some mercy since they themselves have already made the fabulous 40 mark. Now I just have to make sure that I do the fab. part and the forty part will take care of itself! :-)

The Holidays were enjoyable but quick lived in retrospect. Zoe cantored Christmas Eve mass and Violet was an angel in the pageant. After church we headed up to DJ's sisters house to celebrate with the Polish side of the family. Kids, kids everywhere... The cousins had fun playing with each other and doting on baby Julia. Some cute pictures of Gavin breaking bread with Julia and if I remember I will post them when Suzy forwards them. hint hint... Even though we arrived home late on Christmas Eve, it did not deter the kids from waking up early to see if Santa made an appearance. It was pretty funny because as most parents do we used the Santa is watching line on the kids for at least the last month in an attempt to encourage good behaviour. I think Marina was concerned that Santa might not show up because of her many warnings and transgressions during December. When she came downstairs she scanned the room and her stocking and with a satisfied look on her face she exclaimed " Well, that worked out well then. He came because I cleaned up yesterday" I think her take home message was that she could misbehave all month and do a quick makeup session and still get the goods.
We broke down and bought the wii for the family as the big present and each person received a game. Santa also brought a gift and filled the stockings. This year we tried something a little different and instead of opening presents and heading to my mother's house we stayed put and had my side of the family here for brunch. Everyone brought something (many things) to eat so we had plenty of food, so much so that I never ended up cooking the ham I had purchased to cook up for the evening meal. Later in the day we had friends over and snacked on all the leftovers and the kids had a chance to play with their friends.
DJ was skeptical at first about getting the wii when we are trying to go less plugged in but we are all having so much fun with it and are now considering getting rid of digital cable for a bit. Not a big deal for me but I think DJ will miss his sports coverage.

So far we have spent way too many hours on it but it is been a fun distraction during last weeks cold, snowy days. The favorite game is wii fit so far and everyone wants to weigh in and compete to get the top slot for the games. Sports resort is another popular one and DJ and the older two are fans of Mario smash bothers. So much so that DJ let them stay up until 1am competing the night before my birthday. Yikes!

New Years Eve was spent with friends in our home and Gavin was the only one who didn't make it to midnight. He was also the first one up in the morning but luckily we were able to convince him to snuggle with us in bed until almost 10am but he was not about to go back to sleep. I think that is the latest that we have slept in for many years. I don't think we left the house at all that day but we did manage to take down the tree and inside decorations. The outside will have to wait until it thaws out a little. New England has been totally frozen over.

For my birthday present I got a digital SLR camera that also takes HD video. It was a combined present from several people and I picked it out and ordered it myself after researching options and finding it on sale with two lenses included. It arrived yesterday so there has not been much of an opportunity to play with it yet. I am considering signing up for a class this spring in hopes of improving  my photoghraphy skills.  I am looking forward to seeing what it can do and with the addition of the 75-300mm zoom lens I should be able to get some awesome shots of the Fisher cats while still keeping my distance.

Is it New Year's yet?

This is the most crazy but most fun filled time of the year and probably the only part of the winter that I enjoy. This year more than most though I have realized how hectic the season has become and how much more relaxing/ less stressful it would be to do less. I was shocked by the number of trips we had to make into the attic to retrieve all the decorations and am finding a conflict in our schedule more days than not. We have already decided that each child will get only three gifts under the tree this year including one from Santa and one being a joint family gift.  We picked names out of a hat for the kids and they will each give each other a special gift of something nice they will do for that person but they are still working on the ideas.  We are donating the gifts that they received from DJ's work holiday party. Of course they wanted to open them right then and there but have not asked about then since we decided to give them away.  The real eye opener for me was at the party last weekend one of the little cousins said to his mom that our playroom was better than the Target store. This was a real indication to me that they have way too much stuff and most of it goes unplayed with, only to be a constant source of material to be cleaned up. It is not that we buy them things often and almost never on a whim but just that having 4 kids and a large generous extended family makes the toys add up over the years. So one of my missions for this new year is to simplify things for all of us in both activities and in possessions that require our attention and care. For me this means continuing to purge closets, drawers and files and for the kids it will mean selecting favorite toys and both donating and tossing the remainder. I am also trying not to bring anything into the house that is not a consumable unless it is absolutely necessary. The kids are not totally on board yet but we will take baby steps. DJ grabbed a few library books about simplifying life with kids and there are tons of great ideas that I am going to start implementing. The other thing that we are working on curbing is TV time for DJ and the kids and computer time for mommy. (including recreational blogging) :-) My hope is that in making these steps we will be able to relax and enjoy our time together more and concentrate on some new outside interests.   One new fun thing that I am looking forward to learning this winter is ice fishing.  I found myself an all season fishing mentor and he is going to show me all the ropes or should I say lines this winter.  Should be fun,  I just need to break out the thermals and hope that I can take the cold!  I am also trying to put more time into a business idea that I have been tossing around for the last two years and that I finally have a workable game plan for. It is a long term project and I believe it will take several years to reach fruition but it should allow me to make my own hours and work in my field of interest. We shall see how it all works out but at the very least we will all have less to clean and more time in which to do it.


Happy Holidays to everyone and Best Wishes for a Great New Year!

We will eventually be getting our Christmas cards in the mail and my goal is to have them beat Santa's arrival. It might be a close call...

*I will add more pictures to this Holliday slideshow as time allows.

It's officially December

Our Christmas tree looks more chaotic each year.  Everyone wants to help and they all want to put their own special ornaments up and the traditional glass balls get left in the boxes.  Oh well, it still looks beautiful in a disorganized, random way!

Thanksgiving

We decided to spend the Thanksgiving holiday in Vermont and I think we may have the makings of a new tradition. We stayed in Newport a couple of years ago during Thanksgiving and that was enjoyable and the mansions were beautifully decorated but I think Vermont was even nicer. Things were hectic the previous week so we didn't end up leaving until Sunday and made the trip in an uneventful 6 hours. I was concerned at first that there might not be enough to do in the area this time of year and the kids would get restless. It turns out that there was so much to see and do that we could have easily spent an additional week there without skiing and still not have seen/done everything we wanted to. They had a great little water park and play zone at the resort and everyone was incredibly friendly. I was initially planning to go out for our Thanksgiving meal but once we were there and settled in, it just seemed like it would be more relaxing to cook in and spend the day at the resort. It was a little of an adventure in shopping to get the ingredients together for the Thanksgiving meal and it took a few stops at local stores to gather up all the fixings. As it turned out I forgot to buy sugar to make the cranberry sauce and didn't realize it until I was ready to make it. I had to improvise and use honey instead. The kids baulked at the idea at first but soon realized that it still was tasty and went as far as to ask me to prepare it that way next year. The one big downer about this trip was that DJ had a project due for work and ended up spending about 2 days on the laptop and phone in order to make the deadline. That left me to play lifeguard to the kids, which was no simple task when everyone wanted to be doing something different and they had no real lifeguards on duty. Personally, I think they should have someone on staff there at all times. I was shocked at how little some people watched their children in this potentially dangerous environment. The other bummer was that it was unseasonably warm when we arrived. This was perfect for hikes and sightseeing but not conducive to skiing. We will hit the slopes later in the season. We did get snow the day before we left that transformed the mountains and gave us a taste of the winter to come.

We arrived home with Christmas on our minds and in our ears from the holiday songs on the radio. We decided to pick out our Christmas tree early this year since the calendar was not looking friendly for the month of December. It has been trimmed and the house is decorated. Now it's time to add Christmas to the yard but we still have more leaves to rake.

Less than 24hrs on the job and Gavin has fixed our old elf on the shelf.

Raking leaves

An ongoing project!

Tale of the Shark the witch a pirate and a snow princess...

Below are a few pictures from Halloween. We had a great time trick-or-treating and visiting with neighbors. I knew it was time to go home when Gavin started saying at each house we went to... Last one, this is the LAST one, OK? He was a tired little shark but did enjoyed the experience. Zoe was disappointed because her friend who was going to join us became ill and was not able to go out.
Pumpkin carving was fun and we kept them simple so the kids could help cut out the faces. Violet insisted on doing hers all by herself. Unfortunately, all it took was one wrong move and the pumpkin ended up with a cleft palate and it took much consoling for her to learn to except and embrace it (still was cute). The kids did a super job of picking out all the seeds and we feasted on them for two days. Violet even picked out her pumpkin especially for the abundant lines that it had in hopes to have it chock full of seeds.
We are closing in on the Holiday season and I am bound and determined to get this house in order with the FLYLADY flylady.net before Christmas. At least that is the intent but I will be happy to even just get rid of half the junk that we no longer need/want and get all the paperwork, drawers and closets organized. This may require me to stay away from the computer and put the cell phone out of commission for a spell.
Gavin made a smooth transition into his big boy toddler bed and mommy is almost ready to pack up the crib until the grand kids arrive YEARS from now. Marina has settled into her new twin bed and is enjoying her mermaid comforter. We are all looking forward to our upcoming vacation to the Green Mountains and are hoping for some good skiing weather and some time to unwind. Off to see what the fly lady has in store for me tomorrow!

Birthday Video

This is my interview with our 12, 7, 4 and 2 year old.  This was shot with only a flip camera and was put together quickly for birthday purposes.  There are two or three repeat clips because we did not have time to preview before rendering but the thoughts are still there... or NOT!  :-)

Happy Birthday Diege!

Happy Birthday Diege!   I hope you have been enjoying your special day.  Here is your present from the kids to you.  Hopefully you will find both the edited video and the full script (below) to be entertaining and that it will bring a smile to your face.  Now on to dinner... 

Daddy interview
questions + answers

1. What is something that dad always says to you?
Zoe: Daddy always says to… be nice to each other. And in the morning, because since we wake up at the same time he says have a good day at school and then I say have a good day at school, I mean work.
Violet: Good night (Mom: All that) No, hi. (Mom: When does he say that?) Um, when I come home, or when he comes home.
Marina: Um… clean up.
Gavin: Don’t know

2. What makes dad happy?
Zoe: Um, chips. Chips make my dad happy. Anything salty or spicy. And us! He likes baseball too! Yeah, next question.
Violet: Being nice. And doing chores, which I don’t like to do.
Marina: When you clean up.
Gavin: Daddy likes bakugans

3. What makes dad sad?
Zoe: What makes my dad sad is, when we fight as siblings. And when my mom is not happy. As my dad’s saying goes, happy wife, happy life (Mom: Smart man your dad is)
Violet: When I’m mean to my sisters or don’t do my chores. And when I don’t pay attention to him.
Marina: If you don’t clean up. When you don’t listen to him.(Mom: Do you listen to him?) Um yeah!
Gavin: Don’t know.

4. What does dad do to make you laugh?
Zoe: With his bad jokes. His “look. Oh and when, Violet and I are watching Hannah Montanah or something and they something like “Oh no, I can’t make it to the concert.” And my dad says,”Oh no, oh my gosh, they won’t make it to the concert! Whatever shall we do?” He loves to do running commentary on our shows.
Violet: I don’t know, tickle me?
Marina: When he acts like a clown. But, he never makes me laugh.
Gavin: Smiles

5. What was dad like as a kid?
Zoe: He was a young Polish lad.
Violet: I don’t know, I wasn’t there.
Marina: He didn’t have a ‘puter. He played games.
Gavin: Don’t know

6. How old is dad?
Zoe: 41. As of today 41.
Violet: I don’t know. 50. No sorry, 40 like 40 something. In the 40’s
Marina: 100!(Mom: Oh my goodness, he’s lookin’ pretty good for 100) 14! 15! Yeah! (Mom: Is that your final answer?) 100.
Gavin: 2!!!

7. How tall is your dad?
Zoe: My dad is 5 ft. 10 in. tall. Oh ba-bam!
Violet: I don’t know. I’m 4 ft so he has to be more. 5 ft. No sorry 10 ft.
Marina: Really tall.
Gavin: Bigger.

8. What is his favorite thing to do?
Zoe: Watch baseball, spend time with us and eat chips.
Violet: Um like go biking and have time with his family.
Marina: Eat. Go on the ‘puter. Watch tv. Watch the Red Sox. Goin hikin’.
Gavin: Don’t know.

9. What does your dad do when you’re not around?
Zoe: Work and watches tv.(Mom: You don’t think he parties?) Isn’t watching tv a party?
Violet: Work. Or watch some tv.
Marina: Go to work. He’s at work and we’re at home.
Gavin: Don’t know.

10. If your dad becomes famous what will it be for?
Zoe: Winning “Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader” shows or something.(Mom: Let’s encourage him to do that then)Yeah.
Violet: Hmm, I don’t know. Oh, I KNOW!!! Uh, maybe like you know, being the best dad.
Marina: Money, ‘cause he has a lot of money.
Gavin: Don’t know.

11. What is your dad really good at?
Zoe: Math. Yup, math.
Violet: Being the best dad. Work. Being nice um putting us to bed and saying goodnight
Marina: Um, holdin’ stuff that’s really heavy.
Gavin: Don’t know.

12. What is your dad not good at?
Zoe: Cooking real meals. When my mom went to Florida for 4 days we had pasta, then pasta, then leftover pasta and cereal. And then the last night we went out to McDonalds.
Violet: Being bad. Shaving his own hair. Like you always have to shave it. I don’t know, ok. Can we just go onto the next question?
Marina: Picking up stuff that’s more heavier. Like the stairs and the house.
Gavin: Don’t know

13. What does your dad do for a job?
Zoe: He is an accountant. And in the winter he is a tax personer.
Violet: Go to a water company.
Marina: I don’t know. He has no job. Taking care of his kids. It’s yours too. Oh wait, he counts money.
Gavin: Makes applesauce.

14. What is your dad’s favorite food?
Zoe: Chips.
Violet: Blueberries. Yeah, I think he likes blueberries.
Marina: All kinds of food. Chicken.
Gavin: Pretzels.

15. What makes your dad proud?
Zoe: When I do good in school and/or if something good happens at work.
Violet: When I do my chores.
Marina: If we clean up.
Gavin: Don’t know.

16. If your dad was a cartoon character, who would he be?
Zoe: Mario from Mario and Luigi. Doot doo doot. (Mom:Why?) Because…he has brown hair. (Mom: Anything else?) I don’t know. Wait, no! He’d be Luigi because he is tall, and has brown hair, and likes green. That’s why.
Violet: I don’t know. Maybe someone in Star Wars. Oh, oh Anakin…Skywalker. Like a jedi.
Marina: Um a farm…er. ‘Cause everybody is a character. ‘Cause I want him to be a farmer ‘cause I want to see animals.
Gavin: Little Einstein

17. What do you and your dad do together?
Zoe: Math homework together. Well, actually he does it for me. (Mom: WHAT?) No. Sometimes, he will do the problem and then he will ask, ”Do you understand now?” And I will be like,”Yeah… no. But thanks for doing the work.”
Violet: Go to the movies.
Marina: I like to make towers and he looks at them. I like to read with him too!
Gavin: Don’t know.

18. How are you and your dad alike?
Zoe: We both have brown hair. And we are both tall. (Mom: You’re not tall) HEY! (Mom: Hey, don’t kick your mother.)
Violet: I like Polish and he’s Polish.
Marina: We’re not the same.
Gavin: Don’t know

19. How are you and your dad different?
Zoe: My dad likes math and I… I don’t. I like healthy stuff and he likes beets. I don’t like beets.(Mom: Beets aren’t healthy? He likes tofu) Tofu is just pointless.
Violet: He’s a boy and I’m a girl. And we’re different in a lot of ways. Like, he doesn’t have blonde hair, I do. He doesn’t have blue eyes, I do. So, we have like different DNA’s. I don’t like scary movies and he does. And I don’t like James Bond but I used to.
Marina: He has black hair and I have blonde hair.
Gavin: Don’t know

20. How do you know dad loves you?
Zoe: I just know. And ‘cause he tells me. And I know.
Violet: ‘Cause he’s nice.
Marina: ‘Cause I say I love you daddy and he says I love you too!
Gavin: They don’t love me. Mommy love me. Yeah, daddy loves me.

21. Where is your dad’s favorite place to go?
Zoe: Fenway.
Violet: I don’t know, home. What I don’t know, I’m not him.
Marina: Um carnival, he brings me to carnivals. Yeah, ‘cause he brings me to it. That’s my favorite place. Daddy’s favorite place is Disney World and everyplace.
Gavin: I ‘da know. Church!

Apple Picking

Almost Autumn

It is starting to feel a lot like fall. The leaves on the trees are just beginning to change around here. The fairs have begun and halloween costumes have been chosen. Zoe has even decided to go trick-or-treating this year. We have started to settle into our fall schedule and I am looking forward to a 4 day Disney vacation with a couple of my friends next week and a trip to Smugglers Notch Resort in VT with the family in a few months. We are hoping to do a little skiing if the weather cooperates. I used to love to ski but it is something I have not done in years because it seemed like I was either pregnant or nursing a newborn for the past decade. Time for pumpkin and apple picking and my least favorite project... Switching out everyones seasonal clothes. It just adds to the laundering fun.

Mystic Aquarium, Once is Never Enough!

Snapshots of Summer

Magnificent Maine