Busy Weekend

 

This weekend Jason and I began our fall clean-up process as well as installing the deer fencing around the back yard.  I spent most of the day of Saturday and Sunday cleaning the yard while Jason installed the fencing.  Jason worked diligently only taking breaks for food and managed to complete the fence install before it was dark on Sunday.  I took breaks for food and to run some errands. 

Ali had a birthday party to go to on Saturday for her friend Erin.  This meant I had to go out on Saturday to get a gift for Erin as well as bring Ali to the party.  The party was only an hour and a half so it didn't really make sense for me to come home so I fit in a run while Ali was at the party.  Once we were back home again I got back to work on the yard.  I continued my work today until I went to the cheese shop to pick up cheeses in preparation for Thanksgiving.  I'm happy to say I finished the front yard and started on the back.  I will hopefully finish the back yard tomorrow. 

At least tomorrow I can let Watson out back with me while I clean up and I don't have to worry about him wandering off!

Dentist

Last week I took both kids to the dentist.  Ali had complained about some pain in her mouth so I figured now was as good a time as any to have their teeth cleaned.  Ali went first on Monday and Sofia had her appointment on Friday.  They both did great.  The dentist said they do a great job brushing their teeth and neither of them had any cavities.  The dentist did talk to Ali about sucking her thumb since she is changing the shape of her jaw.  I guess we will have to get more strict about not sucking her thumb.

ENT update

Last week I brought Sofia in to have her ears checked. She had had a slight cold in the middle of November and I thought her hearing might be a little down so I figured it was a good time to bring her in to an ENT. I had wanted to have her checked anyway since having all the issues and tubes etc in Czech I just wanted a U.S. doctor to check her out. We arrived at the doctor's office and the nurse practitioner came in to take down Sofia's history. When I mentioned that when Sofia had her tubes put in Czech they found a cholesteotoma that definitely changed the game plan. It was definitely something to be taken seriously. They moved us to a different room so that the doctor could look at Sofia's ears through a microscope. He said they looked good and had some fluid behind the drum but that is was very liquid so not a problem. He mentioned that one ear drum had a slight bubble shape to it which could just be how she was formed but since he had never seen her before he couldn't be sure. He wanted to make sure that there was no reoccuraence of the cholesteotoma so he sent us down to have a CT Scan done of Sofia's ears. Once complete we headed back to the doctor's office. I am happy to say that there is no cholesteotoma and Sofia's ears look healthy. The doctor did say that at a minimum I should have her ears checked every year but he would like it done every six months. If there is any dramatic change in her hearing that would be a sign that the cholesteotoma is back and they would want to see Sofia in his office right away. He did soften it a little by adding that if it hasn't come back by now that it probably wouldn't. That was good to hear. So, after a thorough check I am happy to report that Sofia and her ears are doing fine.

Ski Expo

Last weekend we also went to the Ski and Snowboard Expo in Boston.  Jason and I had gone to this expo years ago and decided it was time to check it out again.  We were hoping to find kids equipment for cheap.  We remembered the expo being filled with vendors selling equipment at fairly low prices.  Well, we were dissappointed on that front.  We did get a pair of gloves for Sofia and also one for Jason but there were no children's skis at all.  The event is mainly vendors from resorts/mountains.  It was still not a complete waste becuase it was fun and we were able to speak with a rep from Shawnee Peak about lessons for the kids.  We will stop by when we are near there next week just to confirm the information but I think that is where we will put the kids into ski lessons this winter.  We also stopped by the booth for Big Sky Montana and the guy gave us a Big Sky sticker.  We were very excited about this becuase he just had some in his bag and wasn't just giving them out so we thought we were going to be out of luck.  Big Sky is the only place that we have skied that we did not have a sticker from.  All the other mountains we have skied we had stickers for that we put on our ski tube.  It was just a fun way of keeping a memory.  Unfortuantely this leads to bad news.....On Monday I went to go put the sticker on our ski tube only to realize that we do not have a ski tube and also therefore no skis!  They apparently never made it over from the Czech Republic.  Of course it is already past the insurance time period so we are out of luck and left with trying to figure out what we do about skis this year.

On a more upbeat note, here is a video of the girls at the expo trying to walk across a rope.

End of Soccer

The girls had their last soccer game of the season last week.  Thankfully it wasn't as cold as the previous week and actually ended up being quite pleasant.  It is amazing how much the girls have improved over the course of the season.  Their teams have stopped moving around the field in clumps.  They haven't mastered the game by any stretch but they are starting to see how the game works.  They had a great season and are excited to play again next fall.  They opted out of playing in the spring league because it is a coed and they are not quite ready to play with boys.  I am fine with that.  I am just happy that they had such a good time playing a game that I loved as a child.  Here is a picture of Sofia's team at the end of the game.  Unfortunately i forgot my flash card for my camera when we went to Ali's game but I did take a quick video with my phone.

Halloween

Due to the freak snow storm trick or treating was put off for a week in our town.  Fortunately the kids had Tuesday off from school and the weather was beautiful so having the delay worked out well.  To be honest though, Jason and I were both done with Halloween.  We kept up appearances though for the kids.  I was a little worried about how trick or treating was going to go since I knew some people/neighborhoods went trick or treating on Halloween even though the fire chief said not to.  I wanted the girls to have the full experience of Halloween with lots of kids on the street and loads of candy in their bag.  We decided to head over to my friend Margaret's neighborhood since I knew their neighborhood had not done any trick or treating on Halloween.  I gave her a call and we headed to her house for pizza with about seven other families.  The kids had a blast.  Jason finally got to meet some of my friends and was able to meet all the husbands as well.  We had pizza and drinks and then headed out for trick or treating.  I stayed for the first few houses on the street but when we looped back past Margaret's house, Margaret and I headed back inside with all the women and let the Dad's take the kids trick or treating.  It was great all around.  Jason got guy time, kids got kid time and I got girl time.  After filling their bags the kids game back and headed into the basement to play while the Dad's headed to the basement to watch hockey.  We didn't end up coming home until around 10pm.  The kids were exhausted but it was definitely a great introduction to Halloween American style.

Aldi/Lidl

While we lived in Statenice I would go to a shop named Lidl.  The slogan was "It's Cheap".  It was cheap.  You couldn't go there with a grocery list since what they had was always different and some days they wouldn't have butter.  However, it was always a surprise when you went and sometimes you felt like you hit the jackpot and other times you made due with what was available.  Fortunately for me there is an Aldi supermarket in the next town over from us now.  Aldi is a German grocery chain like Lidl which is also German.  It is very random but cheap.  They surprisingly brought the whole european concept with them when they opened this store...you have to insert a coin to get a cart which you get back when you bring the cart back and you have to pay for bags or bring your own.  They don't bag any groceries for you either.  As I'm so used to this it doesn't bother me at all and makes me feel slightly at home.  Today I went to Aldi since they had sweet potatoes on sale for $1 per bag which is quite a deal.  I didn't get a cart becuase I was just going in for sweet potatoes.  I should have known better!  I went back out and got a cart and added items to it as I went along.  I was reminded of how I felt about Lidl today when I hit the jackpot at Aldi and came across bacon wrapped filet mignons on sale.  I never thought I would say it but I miss Lidl.....thank goodness for Aldi!

Swimming

This week Sofia started with the Raiders Prep Clinic which is the group that is getting ready to move onto the swim team.  Technically it is a step backwards for her but she doesn't seem to notice and had a great time on Tuesday. It is a much bigger group than she is used to and a lot more kids her age.  I think all the change to the new team makes the fit fine for her.  She is still swimming laps and building endurance.  I'm not in any rush for her to move up to the actual swim team either since this current schedule works well for us.

With Sofia's increasing ability and endurance with swimming I decided it was time to get myself in the pool.  I want to be able to keep up with my seven year old!  I know that if she keeps swimming she will at some point surpass my abilities but I want to keep that as far away as possible. :)  I get the added bonus of some good exercise and hopefully I will do my first triathlon next summer.  I'm already swimming 1/4 mile (18 lengths of the pool) without stopping.  I just need to be able to do it faster and without as much effort.It is fun getting in the pool but since it only takes 15 minutes to swim 1/4 mile I'm not in the pool for that long.  It will be nice going a longer distance so I feel like I have spent some good time in the pool to make the changing/showering time worth it.

American Girl Birthday party

Sofia went to her first American Girl birthday party yesterday for her friend Emma.  She has not expressed a ton of interest in American Girl dolls but my friend warned me that that would all change after the party.  As we walked in to the store (there is a cafe upstairs) I was asking Sofia is she wanted one of the dolls and she said not really I just like dressing them up.  I dropped her at the party and left to spend an hour and a half browsing the mall.  When I arrived back and picked her up she announced that she "really, really really" wants Kanani.  We left he party and Sofia and her friend Kate browsed the American Girl shop for probably a good thirty minutes.  I didn't mind that she was doing it since it gave her some more time with her friend and since she had a friend to browse with it meant I could stand around talking with Kate's mom, Kara.  As we drove home in the car Sofia looked at the American Girl catalog.  She announced that she really wanted Julie's bed.  I asked her how much it was since I want her to be aware that American Girl doll and their things are very expensive.  I guess she gets that though because she said, "Ummmmmm...I don't want to tell you."  She did eventually tell me it was $125 and we talked about that she can ask for it for Christmas but if she is asking for expensive things like American Girl dolls, accessories and new skis that she may get fewer packages since Santa can't spend all his money on one person.  She seemed OK with that.  I guess she is growing up yet still my baby who wants to play with dolls!

Good Bye Envious Swimming

When we moved back to the States I started the girls at Envious Swimming.  It is a great program offered in Warwick that has learn to swim programs straight through swim team so the kids can grow within the program.  The girls loved taking lessons there.  They loved their teachers and have really improved their swimming.  Sofia moved up onto the swim team and is doing amazing.  I sat down one day though and started doing the math.  I realized that I was putting one hundred miles a week on my car to bring the kids to swimming...about 5,000 miles a year!  Add the price of gas onto that and the fact that we drive an hour there and an hour home for 30 minutes of swimming for Ali and 45 minutes of swimming for Sofia.  It just was not worth it especially since Sofia really wanted to start swimming more than once a week.  I started looking around us for swim teams that also had learn to swim programs since Ali is not ready for swim team.  I spoke with Marshall who is the head coach at Envious to get his take on the different options.  We settled on the Westboro Tennis and Swim club which I will write about in a separate post.  The kids had their last practice with Envious on October 28th.  They were very sad to leave.  Hopefully we will have a chance over the course of the year to pop in to Envious to swim with the team since the kids would really enjoy that.  I made sure I snapped a couple pics before we left.  Here is Sofia with Marshall and a video of Ali diving with Dori.

Deer

We have deer that come to our yard.  We know they come because they are eating some of our bushes and most recently we know because they are kind enough to use our backyard as their personal toilet.  Apparently we will have to train the deer as we have trained Watson which is to only poop or pee in the woods!  I also think if they are going to eat my bushes and poop in my yard they should be kind enough to stop by when we can see them.  It is only fair!  I was finally rewarded with seeing the deer the other day.  I was sitting at the kitchen table and Watson was in the sun room.  He started barking like crazy.  I assume it was just a squirrel but he wouldn't stop barking so I got up to check to make sure it wasn't a coyote coming back into our yard.  I couldn't believe it when I got into the sun room and sure enough there were two deer standing at the edge of the woods.  I was surprised they hadn't run away with all Watson's barking and then with my movement walking into the sun room.  I turned around and called the girls in to see the deer.  Again even with the movement the deer stayed where they were.  I decided to go get my camera so I left eh sun room went upstairs to get my camera and change my lens and then come back to the sun room and the deer were still there.  They are clearly not shy of humans! I was able to snap a few shots before they wandered off.  We will be putting deer fencing up soon so that they won't be coming into our yard but I'm glad I got to see them at least once.

Freak Snow Storm

I can't believe we had a Nor'easter in October!  For those of you reading this who are not from the area a Nor'easter is basically a really bad storm.  You can read more on it HERE.  The problem with having a nor'easter in October is that all of the leaves are still on the trees.  The heavy snow sticks to all the leaves which become to heavy for the tree which then breaks limbs or completely falls over.  We watched the weather forecasts and we seem to be right on the line between the 4-8 inch band and the 8-12 inch band.  In the end I would say we got about 5-6 inches.  Throughout the evening Jason and I would go out and shakes the snow from the smaller trees/shrubs in our front yard in hopes of saving them.  By 11:30PM we went out for one last shake of the tree and to shovel the driveway.  The driveway was a giant pile of slush so we wanted to get it cleared before the temperatures dropped and we had 5 inches of ice.  We were fortunate in that we hadn't lost power all night when many people around the state had lost power.  We went to bed hoping for the best.  We woke up in the morning and still had power which was a big relief.  We had lost it at some point in the night since our clocks were flashing but that was easy to deal with.  We looked outside and despite being October and having snow on the ground it was beautiful.  The sun was shining and glistening off the snow.  We had breakfast and then headed out to tend to the yard and survey any damage.  We shoveled the driveway and shook the trees clear of snow.  Two trees had large branches snap but not enough to ruin the look of the tree.  One semi-big tree snapped its branches in two near the bottom so that had to be cut down but we didn't do it that day.  After clearing the driveway and shaking the trees we decided it would be better to enjoy the snow than to try to do any real clean up.  We got the sleds out and made two tracks down the hill in our backyard and the kids had a blast.  Jason and the girls had a snowball flight.     
Sofia was ready and had built a little snow wall to hide behind. While the snowstorm caused quite a bit of damage around town and around the State, we came through it relatively unharmed and were able to enjoy the fun of having our first snowstorm of the season.  The was enough damage around town though that the girls did not have school on Monday.  We will have to hope this is not a trend otherwise the girls will be in school until July.

Pumpkin Carving

While pumpkins seem to hit the shelves at the end of August I refused to purchase one until at least October.  I did decorate the house with fall items by mid September but pumpkins really mean Halloween to me.  Also I knew as soon as we bought pumpkins the kids would want to carve them and once a pumpkin is carved it does not last very long.  We waited until about a week before Halloween and went and bought our pumpkins from Harvey's Farm.  We all like going to Harvey's.  It is close to us and it is an organic farm and the farmer and his daughter are very nice people.  We bought to nice big pumpkins.      The girls decided how they wanted to carve their pumpkins.  Ali chose a design out of one of the pumpkin carving books but Sofia designed hers all by herself.  She got a piece of paper and drew what she wanted he jack-o-lantern to look like.  We taped it to the pumpkin and the cut it out.  I did the cutting but Sofia pushed all the pieces out of the pumpkin and she also sorted out her seeds from all the inside junk.  Jason cut Ali's pumpkin out but she also did the same as Sofia and sat there and separated all the seeds out of her pumpkin.  They were both happy with their end products.

Blogging slacker

I have been a blogging slacker.  For those who read the blog I apologize.  Life seems to by going by at high speed and before I realize it another week has gone by and I haven't blogged.  I will try to be better at writing regularly so you can keep up with our lives.