It's been awhile, again!

Hello, again, everybody. It's been a couple weeks, but what a couple weeks it has been.

I was working ALOT--it almost felt like too much. But sub calls are so much like siren ones--it is very difficult to say "no". Especially with Summer approaching, and knowing that the paychecks will end very abruptly soon after!

Spring is yawning it's way into upper Connecticut. Our weather is fairly similar to Owego--we aren't on that much of a different latitude than you all--almost a straight shot due East. However, it isn't unusual for it to be gorgeous and sunny here, and pouring cold rain in Owego.... or vice versa..... Today it is very sunny and the frigid morning holds the promise of a warmer afternoon--high 50's today, and (YAY) 70's tomorrow. We are making a long list of warm weather activities to cram into one day as it looks like cold nasty weather is on it's way from the West. (blah)

Everyone is here this week due to Spring break. I am having a rare hour to write--a guilty pleasure paid for by shameless use of a long DVD.... (bad mommy!) We always have so much fun! So far this week:

Wednesday--I travelled to Owego to attend some of the memorial events surrounding the Binghamton shooting--more about that later, since I was so intimately attached to that group.
I picked up Dan and Susie and we got to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa.

Thursday--played a couple hours with the Dove kids and then drove to meet Andrea and Stephanie for lunch in Albany. That was fun, until Stephanie (and Mommy and baby) were ready for a nap.... we know all about THAT, so we quickly helped clean up and got out so everyone could rest! (ah, I remember those days!)

Friday--spent a wild and chaotic day readjusting to having everyone in the house again! Susie and Dan were reunited with their neighborhood buddies--I've mentioned before that there are about 18-20 elementary kids that wait for the bus outside our yard--the kids that live up and down our side street. Five of them live close enough that they don't need permission to come over and play. So for most of the week we've had at least 13 kids aged 3-15 running amok in the three-four yards around us. I love it--I just gave up getting anything done and sat out on my new wicker chair cushions and watched the show. There are enough of them that they don't fight too much, but I kept the band-aid box close by since there were a fair number of bike bumps and skids.


Saturday--Scott started working on the cars--our money saving solution was to have him do all the Spring maintenance on the cars instead of taking them to a mechanic. So far so good, but a few times he got "stuck". He now has many new tools (happy, happy man!) and has made many trips to various shops, Internet sites and our new favorite store: Auto Zone. Hey, if you ever have a car question, they are AWESOME--they have a lot of specialty tools you can borrow for "free", and they are very knowledgeable. They even have a computer that you can come and hook up to check electrical/technical problems--again, free. For us Auto Zone is a little bit of a drive, but worth the trouble.

I was even able to come out and help a couple times--I helped configure the new belt for my car--that was fun!

Sunday--we enjoyed Easter Sunday service at our "new" church. It was a nice service, always with tons of kids. I think the pastor said that more often than not the percentage of children in the congregation well exceeds 60%. As there wasn't any Sunday School, it was a lively service with all of them wiggling in their Easter best... but all cheerful! The Lenten "sacrifice" of giving up chocolate was lifted, so the kids were all smeary after the children's sermon--they were so cute. After church the Sunday School sponsored an Easter Egg hunt in the playground which was really sweet. They also hunted for the stations of the cross as part of it--it didn't take very long, and was nice and simple--it might be a fun idea for one of your community outreach projects in Owego.

Mom and Dad came later on and we had a great dinner of Lamb, garlic mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. The lemonade pound cake and cream puffs for dessert weren't any trouble either....bytheway.... (hahahahaha)

Monday: We had fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, went to Chuck E. Cheese down in Waterbury, got lost coming home, ha ha ha. Mom and Dad were awesome and took the kids out for dinner and a movie so Scott and I could grab a rare night "out". We went down to Torrington and had dinner at Bogey's--a little pub that a couple we met recommended. It was pretty good.

Tuesday: We said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa and took Alannah to Hartford to meet her new neurologist. Let me tell you, driving to Hartford was a heck of a lot nicer than driving to Syracuse! The Children's Hospital there is very nice, and I liked the Dr. It is about 1/3 of the drive it was to get to Alannah's old neurologist, which is awesome. Everything seems fine--they will just continue to monitor her once or twice a year.

Wednesday, and plans for the rest of the week: We kept working on the cars, and playing and playing and playing out in the fresh air. All the bikes are getting tons of mileage. Hopefully we will get a chance to take the kids to the new Japanese restaurant. They have Hibachi pits! Friday is supposed to be the nicest day, so hopefully we will go visit a park or two.

It is going to be very hard to say goodbye to Susie and Dan on Sunday. :(

I will be putting a lot of new pictures up--I have lots of pictures of Alannah's play, growing Coal and many others!

Enjoy!