Hurricane

I survived Hurricane Bob

(below is 1 mile from my house and not the worst damage)

I survived the Halloween storm of 1991 - it had no name then, but it was like a monster.

Bring it on, Sandy. I'm a tough New England girl.

Back to it

Well, it's been way too long, but I'm going to try to get back at it, so without further ado...here's what I did today...

After getting Joseph of to school, I took Amélie to her 4 month ok check up (can you believe that she's 4 months old?? The only thing I believe less is that Joseph is 4 YEARS old!!!) .

My take-after-daddy's girl is growing more in length than in weight, but nonetheless very healthy and "perfect " according to the doctor ( see, I'm not the only one). She weighed in at 12 lbs. 2 oz. and 25.5 inches long. I've concluded that she needs a size 3 month long. Wish it existed! Even the size 6 month one piece input on her today was too short in the arms and way too big in the body!

So, this afternoon I decided to tackle a project. Last Saturday I went shopping at one of my favorite places: the town dump. Now before you roll your eyes at me, we have an area at our dump where people can drop off unused items or others to take for free rather ham growing hem in the trash. The swap shop. I do VERY well there. I learned from my mom, she once got a kitchen aid mixer! This particular Saturday I got over $400 of baby gear! A couple things for others, but 3 big things for us. A high chair that hooks on to the table which I'm loving! So is Amélie!! I got a baby gate and a new double jogging stroller. Now, I have a handmedown of a handmedown one already, but it is not good for an infant and it technically folds up but not really. This "new" one goes for about $230 on Amazon. I cleaned up 90% of it ( didn't get the under side done) this afternoon with Amélie watching. I did manage to walk to the gas station to fill the tires with air and get to pick up Joseph before the rain started! Here's a few pics. Notice the left side that's clean and the right that was yet to be cleaned and Joseph kept putting his arm around Amélie's head! I love that he can be sitting up and she can be reclined. Tomorrow: the big park!

Before....folded up and quite dirty

Clean........Still dirty

My helper...she was on phone duty (we were also waiting for someone to stop by)

My peanut in her new high chair at the table!

I LOVE that both of them can ride in this. Joseph's on the big side, but it will make the trip HOME from the playground much easier!

Obi Wan

Vacation

Jon and I were on vacation last week. We went to my mom's on the Cape. Jon gave me his iPhone as soon as we got in the car and while I did let him have it a little (i.e. when I left him and JJ at the beach so he would have it in case of emergencies) he was VERY good at letting go. We spent a lot of time on the beach and by the last day, Joseph was begging to go back to the beach with Daddy.

We left later than expected. I got the opportunity to work ALL day on Monday(which we desperately needed the money, so we were very grateful for it). So, we left Monday night instead of Sunday night. Not the end of the world.

Tuesday we slept as late as possible and we went out to get some groceries for the week and we all (my mom too) went for a long walk around the shore of Kalmus beach. This is one of my favorite beaches. There's a calm, harbor side, then a much more active side. Connecting the two is a long jetty that I love to walk.

Wednesday, Jon's sisters came to the Cape. This is the first time we've ever spent time with just the two girls. It's amazing to see how much they have both changed in the last 7 years. Becca got to meet Amélie and even though it was a quick trip, it was worth it! We miss her so much.

The next few days were full of lots of good fish for supper and lots of beach time. Fresh veggies from the neighbor's garden and LOTS of that wonderful salt air.

Mission Accomplished

This has been the state of our office desk for MONTHS...thus the pile up!

Pretty bad, I know. It's a combination of legitimate things that belong on the desk, other bags and boxes of compiled stuff from downstairs that were just thrown up here in attempt to get downstairs clean, and well....frankly, I DON"T KNOW!

For weeks now, Jon has said "I'm going to try to get the desk done today" and low and behold, it just kept getting put on the back burner. Either appropriate priorities took place (i.e. playing with our kids) or other house cleaning projects moved way up because they were places we needed to deal with for our daily lives.

So, yesterday, Jon and Joseph went grocery shopping. This is a several hour venture as we only do it twice a month and usually go to at least two stores almost a 30 min drive away. While they were out i decided to get this surface cleared off...finally! I knew if I could accomplish that, it would make Jon's day because i know its been bugging him for a long time (fyi..it's a mutual desk and mess).

Et...voila!!

Now in all fairness, I did not file, but i did sort and throw out a TON of papers, etc. See that small neat pile on the right, that's what's left on the desk to do-it's all filing.

AND I left nothing on the floor!

Bonus:

Here's my sweat pea who watched me sort:

She may have the longest eyelashes of us all!

Maternity Leave

I'm back. I didn't mean to go for quite as long, but I did and now I'm back....help me, friends, stay back. Let me go back...

It's July 26.  Since I last blogged, I've had a lot happen. The biggest event, is the long awaited arrival and then fast and a bit scary delivery of our daughter.

Amélie Maryse Chechile was born on June 16 at 8:38am, 6lbs 14oz, 20.5 inches long. I don't think I can tell the whole story of her birth now, but soon, I will. Let's just say it felt like an eternity at first and then like the TGV (which stands for something that means "High speed train" in French"). 

I'm staging a comeback today. I FINALLY accomplished (well, all but accomplished..still have to go to the post office) a thank you gift that I've been trying to get together for embarrassingly way too long and I think it was one big task that I've needed to get done before I could move forward and get back into "regular" creative tasks. Granted I have several other MAJOR projects I need to do, I'm going to be hopeful and try my hardest to get these things back into my everyday life: writing here, doing weekly photography assignments to learn and improve my photography skills, play music and practice calligraphy.

All of that on top of taking care of my kids and trying to keep up with housework. I'm so bad at it. Partly because I think there are other things that are more important to do with my time (i.e. taking the time to raise my kids well) and also cuse I'm just BAD at it. Always have been...my bedroom was ALWAYS a mess. My school notebooks however was OCD level organized and neat. Go figure. 

One project you can all look forward to seeing soon is a before and after picture of our office desk. IT'S BAD right now. I think the "dump pile" is over a foot and a half high. 

So keep on me friends if I haven't posted. I hope my posts/pics are interesting enough for you all to help me with this. I don't know if having a goal is wise at the moment or not, considering the ups and downs of life with a newborn, but I suppose if I don't at least have a goal, wether I meet it or strive to meet it, I will NEVER meet it. So, here it is: One weekly photography assignment and one prose blog post. 

Below is this week's photo assignment...it's kinda a cheat one, because all I had to do was find two pics to compare how much my photography has improved. Granted, my camera improved SIGNIFICANTLY!!! I'm hoping to be able to get to the point of selling prints (I think) of my photos. 

And...one last thing...Amélie is waking up so, here's a picture of her from the other day.

Look How Far I've Come

Click here to view these pictures larger

It's March and I still have laundry detergent!

Have I peeked your curiosity?

Good!

Over six months ago, I decided to try my hand at making my own laundry detergent. Being my mother's daughter, I couldn't just follow the "recipe", I had to tweak it a little. I did and i figured it should last us until March of this year. Jon said "okkk" with "I'll believe it when I see it" subtext. We are only 3 people but we produce a lot of laundry! I've also given away probably close to 250 loads worth away.

It is March 6th and I have emptied my two big containers where I made the detergent. I still have the canister that I "work from" FULL! My rough guess is that is about another 100 loads.

Now I really need to get going on marketing it locally. 

What other dye-free, perfume-free, all natural detergent can you buy for $10 for 75 loads? 

Separation between shirt and pant

No words can describe....

Nesting, pacing and preparing or just fed up?

My mom (my WONDERFUL mom!) took a day off from work two weeks ago and came up to help me conquer a household task that I wanted to get done: the playroom! While not everything was done in it that is in the plan (i.e. move my piano from Cape Cod up here and into the playroom), we got a lot done! She was a task master and we sorted toys and cleaned, reorganized toys in our storage compartments and did some minor rearranging (a lot of mental rearranging, like I said...PIANO!) 

She made a comment that I was nesting. Now, this is something I thought would be great to go through while pregnant, especially seeing as I'm not the greatest at cleaning and picking up without lots of motivation. Jon was REALLY looking forward to this stage of pregnancy when I was carrying Joseph, but I don't think it ever really happened. Not like I hear about anyways. In my last month after I had left my job and moved to Medfield, I got baby clothes cleaned and put in the dresser and the nursery set up. But I NEVER was obsessively scrubbing the kitchen floor! I don't think my desire to get the playroom toys organized was really nesting, but I was thinking ahead. I wanted to have it be the toys that he would be playing with throughout the summer at least. I wanted to get it to the point that it would have fewer options (don't worry, Joseph has NO shortage of toys and he has his couple favorites) and be easier to pick up and then find things the next day. These things all point to one less thing to try to do, or get frustrated with (kids and adults) while having a newborn. Before we did this, everything seemed to just get thrown in the big rolling bins under the train table and I noticed that the boys weren't playing with a lot of things simply because they couldn't get to them. That's no fun for them! We still had lots of toys out that Joseph has outgrown and we could never seem to organize them without having at least one "miscellaneous" bin. So my mom came and helped me refocus the toys. By the afternoon I was EXHASTED, but its was great! 90% of the time all he wants to play with is his train set and now he has more tracks available and more room to build on top of the table.

The best part of it all is, Joseph and Matteo play with MORE toys now that there's LESS in the playroom AND they can clean up the toys by themselves and have yet to put something in the wrong place. 

Now...to move the piano....

Rings

When I found out I was pregnant with Joseph and was due to be born in October, I came up with a brilliant idea! The birthstone for October is an opal, my FAVORITE stone. I told Jon (knowing full well he was hoping for a son) if we had a girl we should get her a piece of jewelry with an opal in it and if we had a boy we should get ME a piece of jewelry with an opal in it. Well, I got the best of "all" worlds: Jon got his son, I wanted a son first too, AND I got a piece of opal jewelry.

I had in mind perhaps a ring. I used to wear several rings as a teen, at least one on each hand and gradually stopped. I had a claddah ring through all of my relationships and by the time I met Jon, kept it on my left ring finger and replaced it when Jon gave me my engagement ring.

After a lot of looking I decided on a style that I wanted. I found a petite set of birthstone rings that are made to stack one on top of the other. They have 3 options, a ring with one, two or three gemstones and little diamonds surrounding the gems. My idea was that for my first child, I would get the one with one birthstone. For the second, the one with two gemstones. Since Jon and I hope to have three someday it seemed perfect.  A little over 2 years after Joseph was born, on our 5th anniversary, Jon gave me the first ring.

It's perfect. It's petite and delicate and just right for me.

Looking forward, most likely our little girl will be born in June. Though, even if we are able to get this second ring soon after she's born, it will not get ordered until she is born....just in case. I hope I won't have to wait two years, but even if I do it'll be worth it.

I think they'll go nicely together.

It's A........

Well, it was long week last week.  Jon had a meeting Tuesday, Bible Study on Wednesday, wedding rehearsal and dinner on Thursday, his first wedding ceremony on Saturday, plus a "normal" Sunday. HE was very busy, I, however, felt like the week dragged on. It would have been bad enough just having Jon have so much extra to do, but what made seem even longer was the anticipation for Monday. The big ultrasound. In someways it seemed to come so quick, in others, the last week was so slow. Nonetheless, it arrived. My advice to teenagers to how to get through the toughest years is "just keep breathing and you'll make it through".

Well, I kept breathing and made it through. Monday came in with a horrid temper tantrum from Joseph over the color of bowl that his yogurt was in. We finally got out the door and off to my doctor's office. So anxiously awaiting the baby to uncross their legs so as to be able to be sure of whether it is a boy or a girl. The baby was in a hard position to get some measurements. Slowly but surely, the US tech was able to get all that was needed. FINALLY, the tech was able to get a "good shot" to confirm what she thought the baby was and to be able to show us how she came to that conclusion. Oh, yes, the baby also had the umbilical cord between the legs too! In the end though she was able to show us in a good clear shot that it is a girl. A modest one apparently.

Here she is! Not the best picture, but decent profile picture.

Still working on a name, but I'm getting anxious to decide....

Expect a lot more about her very soon....

Good Night

Nothing like a good night's sleep right? As students, we sacrificed it frequently. As adults, we begin to learn the value of it. As parent's, we fully understand the value of it but sacrifice it frequently for the well being of our tiny dependent child. Then they learn to sleep well. There's nothing so precious as a sleeping child.

I'm known for taking pictures of Joseph when he's sleeping. He tends to get pinched eyes from the flash on the first couple of takes. I can't help it though, I cherish those moments so much. Going in and giving him a kiss and telling him I love him and capturing that moment. Being 3 has lots of times that are not peaceful. It does me good to revel in those ones that are.

Here are some recent shots of my precious little boy sleeping. Before we know it, we will be up and down all night with another newborn, but for the moment, we sleep.

Joseph was home sick from school and nothing's better when you're sick than sleeping on the lap of a parent who loves you.

New dinosaur PJ's.

Constellation PJ's...so cool!

Sometimes, he's very twisted on his bed.

Good night Cape Codders....

Even in my sleep NO FLASH MOMMY!

I'm hungry....what else is new?

It is amazing to me how utterly hungry one can feel when growing a baby. The change of how they grow should explain it and it does, but that in itself (how exponentially they grow) is mind boggling. 

Fruit & Veggie "baby" This is an awesome site that helps put the minute size of a baby and it's rapid growth in some perspective. Right now, my baby is halfway between a turnip and a bell pepper (17.5 weeks). 

Last night I could feel the baby moving a little. Jon can't wait to be able to feel our little one moving, but it'll still be some more time before that happens. I whispered to my growing belly "I may regret this, but kick as much as you want. I love feeling you move!" It's true. Even when Joseph changed the shape of my ribcage, I always enjoyed feeling him move around and kick. 

We will get to see it a week from tomorrow and hopefully no longer have to use the pronoun "it" anymore. Everyone keeps asking me if I feel any inclinations about what it may be. My hopes are stronger than any real feelings. I unabashedly am hoping for a girl, almost as much as Jon was hoping for a boy. I will be happy either way, especially after what we went through last year, a healthy baby is perfect. One "old wives tale" that seems to be very true is that boys sit lower in the uterus than girls do. Jon did say that he thinks I'm carrying higher than I did with Joseph. So, we'll see. Quite literally. We are also planning on bringing Joseph to the ultrasound. We think he'll like this "movie" and hope it will cement that there's a baby in Mommy's belly. He's getting it better and better and the bigger my belly gets and his stays the same, the less he thinks he has one too. We will also have pictures next week that we can bring home and share! 

Pray for a girl! 

Baby Gear - it's like going camping without GOING anywhere

Did you know that you need "gear" for a baby? A tiny newborn that can't even hold their own head up (which, there's about 10 different products for THAT!). While YES, of course, there is very little that a newborn NEEDS. Their mother and diapers is really it. Which leads me to, the gear is really less for the baby and more for the parents. Jon and I were overwhelmed when we first went to Babie's R Us when I was pregnant with Joseph. We had to make a second trip, it was just too much to do at once. What was worse was we didn't know WHAT we needed let alone what we WANTED. When we registered for wedding gifts, we both knew things we liked and dreamed of having some day for our home, but a baby....no clue.

I just spent a little time on amazon. Putting together a list of baby stuff we will need/want for our next little one who will be here before we know it. I have 7 items on my list. One we need (a baby monitor), one is diapers. I got a wrap when we were visiting family for Christmas that I'm very excited to have and another item that I would like to be able to have now that I'll have a nursing baby AND a three year old. No more stay at home and just hold and nurse all day. Time to be much more out and about. I'm grateful for all the gear we already have and that which has been promised by friends and family. Mostly, we were very relieved to find that our infant car seat hasn't expired. Did you know that car seats EXPIRE?? Like milk?? Yup, they do. Some hospitals won't let you bring the baby home unless you have a valid car seat.

This is the wrap I got and I expect that I will look like this a lot next summer. There's nothing better than having your baby this close to you.

Fresh Start

I've seen many things in this 3 days that we've had so far of 2012 that reference "Fresh Start". Fresh start for organizing, fresh start for dieting (typical new year's resolution I'm glad to be able to dismiss this year), on and on.

Jon made a commitment to read the Bible in a year (done before) AND blog about it...every day. My mom gave me the most wonderful magazine for Christmas called "Artful Blogging". While I've only read and looked through part of it, the cover alone was very inspiring.

All this to say, now that the holiday season is over, and for us it truly does feel as though we survived it, I want to spend more time here. I read in the magazine about a woman who basically had "blog camp" for a month. Blog every day for a month. While I'm not sure that I'll be able to do that realistically, I do want to write more and keep progressing in my photography skills.

That leads me to touch on another christmas present that was VERY unexpected and I am still a little in awe about. My best friend Sarah had one of MY photographs put on canvas and put on a frame. She said that she heard or read that one of the most inspiring things for an artist to have in their home is something of their own on the walls. I never would have done this for myself, but it is already inspiring. It's very weird to have my picture become art hanging on a wall. I feel conceited saying this, but it does make me want to continue in hopes that my work will be on someone else's walls and give them pleasure when they look at it and maybe even inspire them. Here's a picture of my ART...ON MY WALL!!!!

So, I know I have much to catch up on. I have a novel of a post still in works since the last time I posted just waiting to be finished. Christmas prep, Christmas events that just ended yesterday combined with being pregnant left me quite overwhelmed this year. Hope you all understand and keep me accountable here.