Archive for July, 2010
The visitor
Jul 14th
One day last week I was out in the yard with Brinley. She was beating the heat by lounging in the pool and I was soaking up some sun in a law chair. It was nearly 100 degrees out and extremely humid. At one point I went over to the garage to throw something away. When I got back Brinley said to me, “Mom, I just saw a shadow back in the woods. It had a black and white tail.” Now Brinley has a very vivid imagination and often makes up stories pretends silly and unusual things happen. Since I’m familiar with her grand imagination, I often play along. So, I replied, “Oh really, was it a skunk? I bet he’s trying to keep cool under the trees.” She just looked at me and then said, “No, mom, I think it was a raccoon because it had a long, skinny tail.” I said, “Oh yea, you’re right, it probably was a raccoon.”
She continued swimming and I continued sitting on my ass lounging in the chair. Seconds later I heard a rustling sound coming from the woods. When I say woods I’m referring to the tree area part of our yard that separates us from our neighbors to the back. It’s not a deep forest or anything. Anywho, after a minute or two of the rusting, which I assumed was just a squirrel or chipmunk, I turned to see a freaking raccoon emerging from the woods. In shock, I stood up from my chair, but then quickly stood still afraid that it would attack me. I mean it was during broad daylight. The thing must have been rabid, right? I didn’t want to scare Brinley so I didn’t tell her what I saw. I didn’t want her to freak out and cause the raccoon to go nuts and bite us. Ok, I guess I sound a little paranoid here.
Well, the raccoon was looking me right in the eyes and it slowly walked into our back yard, around to the side yard, continuing toward the front of the house. When I lost sight of it, I tried to walk over to the side of the house to see where it went, but I lost it. So I went back over to where Brinley was figuring it just went into the woods or across the street. Just as I was sitting back down I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was the raccoon!! I was now in the driveway walking by Scott’s car. It kept going past the drive way and over the small, tree filled hilly area and into our neighbors yard where I again lost sight of it.
I know I probably sound like a freak for being so afraid of the raccoon, but for some reason it just seemed strange to me that it would so casually walk through our yard in the middle of the day. I’m almost 100% sure that there are other raccoons that live in our woods and it doesn’t alarm me one bit as long as I don’t see them. I mean they’re nocturnal, right? So why should I see them unless they’re rabid! I should probably do some raccoon research before I keep making these claims. Our little visitor seemed completely innocent and didn’t bother us in the least.
Oh, what a night!
Jul 12th
This weekend Scott and I celebrated our FIVE YEAR wedding anniversary. Which, if you remember correctly, was July 3rd. Since 4th of July weekend is always a busy, busy time, we decided to postpone our festivities a week. If you live in the Northeast region of the US, you are probably aware that we were in a heat wave/dry spell for over a week. The sun shone down each and every day and it was hot and humid outside. Well, wouldn’t you figure that the day we picked to head into the city to celebrate five glorious years of wedded bliss would be the day that the dry spell ended. I’m not talking a little bit of rain here either, people. I’m talking about torrential down pours and flash floods.
We had to avoid this on our way in to the city:
And by avoid I mean we had to jump a curb, drive over some grass, and pretty much drive the wrong way down a one way street to get to a flood free road. (For any of you locals reading, this is Storrow Drive and we had to cut over to Beacon St.) It might not sound like the safest idea but everyone was doing it so we followed suit. Thank God we did otherwise we would have been sitting in that traffic backup for nearly 3 hours.
Once we found our way to the hotel the sun looked like it was peeking through the clouds. I was relieved because we had planned to have dinner in the North End and then walk around a bit. We pulled up and handed the keys over to the valet, to which Scott joked, “Have fun!” and I nearly puked at the $42/night parking rate. Upon checking in to the hotel, Scott mentioned to the front desk girl that we were in celebrating our 5 year anniversary (this will be important later). We got our room key and headed toward the elevator to our king sized bed, Fenway view room on the 5th floor. Heaven!
After dropping our stuff in the room, we made a reservation for dinner, which wasn’t until 8:30pm and then headed out to take in the city and stop for a snack to hold us over until dinner. We were gone an hour tops. When we returned to our room we saw this:
That’s right kids, the receptionist sent a bottle of champagne and chocolates up to our room for us! How’s that for service! It took the sting off the valet parking charge.
After downing the bottle of champagne and pretty-ing ourselves up, we hopped on the T and headed to the North End. By this point, the rain had totally stopped and it turned into a pretty nice evening. We walked through Faneuil Hall and down Hanover Street before making our way in to Strega for our 8:30 reservation. As we watched Italian Mafia movies we dined on stuffed portabella caps, lobster ravioli and shrimp and scallop fettuccine. We were beyond full. However we couldn’t call it a night without stopping into Caffe Vittoria for a sweet treat – iced B-52s and chocolate mousse cake!
We then headed back to the T and made it safely back to our hotel where we hit up the bar for one last drink before calling it a night. After a fantastic nights sleep ::wink, wink:: we rolled out of the king sized bed at 11am!! We packed up our things, checked out of the hotel, and requested our car from the valet. But in true Bostonian fashion, we didn’t leave without grabbing breakfast first. Where else but Dunkin’ Donuts!
Where were the girls you might ask? They were home with Mimi who took fabulous care of them while we went out and pretended they didn’t exist. They were beyond spoiled and loved. And when we got home, Brinley was not happy. She kept asking for us to leave. I’m wondering if the bag of chocolate munchkins left on the counter had anything to do with that?!
The Odd Couple
Jul 9th
Last night I went grocery shopping. Alone. It’s amazing what is considered enjoyable alone time when you’re a mom. I was only gone about an hour, but it was an hour free of whining, begging, and melt downs. I could completely focus on the task at hand – filling my cart with food! There was no one asking for candy or cookies or needing to go to the bathroom half way through the store. I didn’t have to pay attention to anyone else. Yet, for some reason, I found myself thinking about the people around me. It’s amazing what you notice when you don’t have two nagging kids in your presence.
It started as I was getting out of the car. A woman was exiting the store. I’d guess she was in her late 20′s or early 30′s. She was tall, wearing a pencil skirt, a blouse and cardigan, peep toe heels and shiny jewelry. She had her long blonde hair perfectly straightened and just enough make-up on to be noticed. She walked toward the parking lot carrying a cardboard box. Walking toward her was a man who was probably around 40 or so. He had on stonewashed Levi’s, a light yellow polo shirt and sneakers.
The woman noticed the man and said to him, “Oh, hi! I was just going to bring this out to my car.” He said to her, “Let me get it for you.” And he took the box from her. They walked together, pretty closely, to a mid sized sedan and he put the box in the trunk. Then they turned and walked into the store grocery store together.
For the remainder of my time in the grocery store I kept trying to think of what their relationship could be. They didn’t seem close enough to be married. And she seemed a little young for him (in my opinion). They seemed very mismatched to be a “couple”. She was well dressed, tall and looked important. He was dressed very casually and was much shorter than her with salt and pepper hair. He definitely wasn’t old enough to be her dad. Maybe he was her brother or a coworker? But they’re initial encounter seemed on the awkward side, almost like on a first date. Maybe it was a DHG (disproportionately hot girlfriend) situation. ( If you are unaware of the DHG situation, please click here.) But who would go on a date to the grocery store? I still can’t figure it out. I have no idea why I even care about this, but it’s just one of those things. What’s your guess? Have you ever encountered a “couple” like this?
Our new Family Room!
Jul 8th
Our new house was built in 1969. So even though it’s new to us, it’s not actually new. Many of the rooms need updating but overall, our house is perfect and exactly what we wanted. We have an awesome neighborhood. In a given day I probably see 3 cars pass by my house, and they belong to people who live on our street. Our yard is private and very shaded with natural boundaries, no fences. There is plenty of room inside for all of us and all of our stuff but not too much space that it’s a nuisance to keep clean. I’ve already showed you some of our yard (we own a half acre) which is probably my favorite part of owning a house but I’m excited to show off some of the inside as well.
When we bought the house, it appeared that the family room had not been updated, remodeled, renovated since the house was built. It had dark paneling, a tile drop ceiling, very poor lighting and a dingy indoor/outdoor type carpet. Here is what it looked like:
click image to enlarge
We knew that this would be a room that we would spend a lot of time in as a family, especially during the cold winter months when we wouldn’t be spending as much time outside. So, this was one of the very first projects that we decided to tackle. We had big visions for the space and knew that we wanted to maximize the square footage as much as possible. We found a contractor on ServiceMagic.com and got started right away. Here is what the project entailed:
- remove paneling, ceiling, carpet
- install new windows in front of room, close in rear windows
- rip out built in cabinets and move wall back to gain square footage
- install drywall for the walls and ceiling
- install 8 recessed lights on dimmers
- install new trim, baseboards and doors
- install new carpet
- paint!! We did this ourselves to save on costs.
I am beyond thrilled with the finished product. The contractor was here for full days (usually 8am til around 6 or 7pm) and it took him about two and a half weeks to do all of the work. He was a one man show and did a phenomenal job! We’re in the process of furnishing the space which will be our family room/TV room/playroom. The entertainment area is set up and the couch and main furniture is in. Now it’s time to get some pictures on the walls and dress the windows (this could take a while). So, without further ado, here are the after, unfurnished, undecorated pictures of the room:
I promise to share more pictures once we get the finishing touches in. We’re already enjoying the space and loving every minute of it. I can’t believe how big it is. The girls have so much room to play and we have a little home theater set up on one side. Scott is thrilled to have his surround sound system set up and our TV and couch look perfect here. I know we’re going to spend a lot of time in our new family room. Couldn’t be happier!
It can happen to anyone.
Jul 7th
As I told you yesterday, we spent the day at the beach on Saturday with lots of family. It was crowded but lots of fun. This was the firs time, really, that we had the girls at the ocean. We’ve taken them to the beach at my parent’s lake house, but it’s on a small lake and it’s rarely crowded. You can see from one end of the sand to the other easily. The beach on Saturday was more like this:
Ok maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but that’s certainly what it felt like! I’m not a huge fan of the beach to begin with so this left me a little bit uneasy. In between shaking sand out of my bathing suit bottom and cleaning sand off of the kids’ cups (hands, mouths, food, towels) I spent just about every other minute of the day making sure that I could see both of the girls. We had a lot of family members around us so I always felt sure that someone had an eye on each of them at any given time, but if I couldn’t see them, it made me a little nervous.
Well, after we had been there for about 3 or so hours, I got more comfortable in the setting and everyone was having a great time. And then a woman approached us. She was a bit frantic looking. She started hollering to anyone who would listen, “A six year old boy is missing. His name is Shane. He’s wearing a camouflaged bathing suit.” My heart immediately began pounding at the thought of someone’s child missing on a very crowded beach. A parent’s worse nightmare. I made sure everyone that I was with knew what the woman said and then I stood up and started scanning the crowd. My heart would start racing even faster (if that’s even possible) and then I’d immediately look to both of my girls making sure they were right there with us. If I couldn’t find them for a second, my throat began to feel a little tight.
The woman continued to walk up the beach making her announcement. Then she saw some police officers standing at the top of the sea wall. She climbed up the very uneven, sand covered, concrete stairs to talk with them. They radioed the message to other officers and the woman descended the stairs. And fell. This scene was totally upsetting. She hit her head on the stairs when she fell. So now not only was she searching for her (I’m guessing) grandson who was missing on the crowded beach, but she was being taken away on a stretcher to the hospital. I felt like I was going to throw up just thinking of it.
Well, I won’t leave you with a sense of panic. Instead, I will leave you relieved. Not minutes after the woman was taken away the little boy was found by his family. The woman was fine and just required a stitch or two to close her wound. But this will forever leave a mark with me. I will never lose sight of my children in a crowd. I will never become complacent where I think “that will never happen to me”. It can happen to anyone. Be vigilant. Keep your eyes and the eyes of anyone who is with you on your kids at all times.
