New Years Eve

It has been way too long since I have updated this! We had a wonderful Christmas, spent in New York with Julie, Pete, Lily and Mia. It was a perfect holiday, we went to Julie's church on Christmas Eve, which was Lily and Mia's fist time at church and first blessing. We spent time with all of Pete's family and enjoyed their Christmas customs. It was hard to come back home, but I knew it was time.

With 2006 coming to an end, I have been thinking about all the year has brought. Of course, most important is Lily and Mia. 2006 brought healthy babies to Julie and Pete, making me a proud aunt.

2006 was an important year for me. It seems most of my life I have just 'gone with the flow'. This year I had some decisions to make and situations to handle. This was definately the year I 'grew up'. When I was unhappy with Ali's old preschool, I had to deal with it. I had to make complaints, talk to people and decide what was best for my child. I ended up having to find a new preschool, luckily I went into this search much more prepared. At work I had to learn to balance my caring for my students with my job, which is to educate them in ELA, and then leave it all at the door when I head home.

This year I learned that I like perfume. I never wore perfume. I guess I never tried to find one I liked. Will always hated perfume (make-up too) so I never wore it. I now normally have perfume on, my new favorite being "London" by Burberry.

Speaking of that, today I looked in the mirror (I look in the mirror now before I go out) and was happy with what I have become. I was running errands, and was "dressed down" wearing fleece sweatpants and a long sleeve Patriots tee shirt, but I had my hair and make-up done. I never go out without make-up on. Not a lot, but I always have eye-liner on, and usually mascara and blush. Just a few short years ago, I NEVER wore make-up.

I now have a financial planner, a college savings plan for Alison and my credit rating is back on it's way up. I have my own apartment, car and furniture. I have a job I love and my life is mine. I guess this is really the year I found myself. I no longer go by what other people say, I make my own decisions, and don't regret them at all. I have made friends, gone out on a date (just one, but a start), and even gone out alone.

It has been a wonderful 2006, and I can't wait to see what 2007 brings.

Happy 2006 everyone, I hope yours was as wonderful as mine!

The babies are home!

Julie and the babies went home from the hospital on Tuesday. Lucky grandma Nindy is out helping them get settled in. Looks to me like they are settling in just fine!

Mia watching Lily sleep.

Two sleeping babies!

The Twins are here!

Yesterday, December 1st, a little after 11am Lily Marie and Mia Grace Sebastian were born! Lily was 6.03 lbs, 18.5 inches, Mia was 5.08 lbs, 18 inches. Mommy, Daddy and babies are all doing wonderful! Here are pictures from the day:

Mia is on the left, Lily on the right.

Mommy and the girls.

The Sebastian Family; Mommy with Mia, Daddy with Lily.

Nindy (Short for Nana Wendy) with Lily.

Uncle Frank with Lily, Aunt Jeanne-Marie with Mia (they were nervous, but you could never tell, they were wonderful with them)

Proud cousin Alison with Lily

And with Mia

Daddy holding Lily

Lily relaxing with Mommy

Simple Pleasures

Yesterday I was looking for a prompt for my classes and found a great one:

"Describe a simple pleasure you enjoy with someone"

It got me thinking of simple pleasures. I thought of last week when we ran to the grocery store after Ali's doctor appointment. When we were near produce I saw the boxes of Clementines and and exclaimed "Ali look!! Clementines!" We of course bought a box of them and proceeded to eat 3 on the way home (Ali ate 2, me 1). And of course I sang the song Clementine all of the way home. I thought of how wonderful simple pleasures really are.

Then this morning on my way to court (I had jury duty and was picked for a jury!!) I stopped at Starbucks for breakfast. I am normally not a Starbucks person, it is just so darn expensive, but the Dunkin Donuts parking lot was packed. When I looked at the menu in Starbucks, I saw my beloved Peppermint Mocha. Yes, back for the holidays is the Peppermint Mocha. Ahhh, simple pleasures once again. As I waited for my order to come up, I thought immediately of Deborah, my friend from Maine who now lives in Texas. One morning when we were both in Maine I was going over to her house, I think just for a friendly get-together, and I stopped at the Starbucks near my house. I knew Deborah was a coffee lover and wanted to bring something. They had Peppermint Mocha on the menu, it sounded wonderful, so I ordered one for each of us. When I got there, Deborah was thrilled, telling me that she LOVED Peppermint Mocha. So yes, once again, simple pleasures. I am not saying a dear friend like Deborah is a simple pleasure, absolutely not. A dear friend like Deborah is a rare gift from God; but a wonderful memory that warms your heart, that is a simple pleasure.

I have since decided that simple pleasures are the best of all pleasures. They are all around and always a wonderful boost.

Here's to simple pleasures.

Water baby

Ali has been taking swimming lessons and doing a great job. She listenes to the teacher, tries everything and gives it her best shot. We were fortunate to get Kelly, one of the best teachers in the whole world! We stared off on a bad note, she had a horrible teacher and hated going. We switched over to a different class with Kelly and she loves it. She has even gotten brave enough to try swimming without a bubble in the deep end. As a mom it is terrifying to watch, but with Kelly right there with her, I know she is fine. She takes the class with Christopher, one of her friends, which makes it easier for her. Christopher's mom is Ali's day care provider, so she is very happy with them there. Next week they start a new session, and hopefully we'll get Kelly as a teacher, and if not someone good.

Here are some pictures from swimming.
Olympics, here I come!

Ali and Christopher in the pool chatting as usual. Christopher had to have tubes put in his ears, so he has to wear a bathing cap. Ali saw his bathing cap and decided that she needed surgery on her ears too so she could wear one. I told her that I would get her one without the surgery.

pumpkin time!!

It's pumpkin carving time! I love Halloween! I think it may be something that they feed us subliminaly in the Salem School System, but I just love Halloween! Tonight Ali and I carved our pumpkins. I was thrilled to find great pumplins at an amazing bargain at Walmart. All of their large pumpkins were $4.00! We got two, one tall one and one round one (plus a bag full of gourds for Ali). The first one we carved Ali cleaned the inside of, she did a great job! She then picked out the design she wanted from the stencils that came with our carving kit and I carved. I put it out on the porch with a candle, and it looks great! Here is it:


For the next one, Ali "had no energy" so it was up to me. I tried to use a stencil, but I couldn't get it, so I did this one free-hand. I am pretty impressed with myself!


Here are the two of them on the porch all lit up!

And what is the best way to end a pumpkin carving night? Why baked pumpkin seeds of course! Ali was asleep before they were done, but I am sure she will be trying them when she wakes up! Yummy.......

Not broken!

On Monday I had yet another of my gracefull episodes. Yes, I fell. Luckily this time I did not land on my face but rather my knees. That's what I get for wearing big-girl shoes (platforms). I was on my way in to work, stepped on a broken piece of pavement, my ankle twisted and I went down on my knees. Ouch. I may have stayed there for a minute, but 1, there was a delivery truck RIGHT in front of me and I was mortified that the driver saw me go down and 2, I was afraid the curtains were open and my students saw me which I would never live down. The driver jumped out to make sure I was ok (nice guy). I went inside, but boy did it hurt! My left knee has an ugly bruise on the inside of the calf under the knee, my right side however was bad. I landed on my kneecap. I finally broke down and made an appointment to see my dr (after everyone who saw my knees said "OOOOOHHHH! Get that looked at!" I had x-rays and I am glad to say my kneecap is not broken, only bruised.

It's Fall!!

Alison and I were able to go leaf hunting today. For those of you not in New England, I am sorry. This has been a particularly beautiful season. This first picture is taken from my porch of the cemetary across the street.
Of course, Alison had to dress up to go leaf hunting. I mean, you can't be 4 and go leaf hunting in what you wore to school!
I think I took about a million pictures of this tree. The light was hitting it just right and the color was just amazing. I wish I had brough my *gasp* film camera with the telephoto lens, I could have gotten better shots. Maybe later in the week.

And just one more picture. My favorite color leaves. When I saw this I kept thinking Robert Frost's Poem "Nothing Gold can Stay." Although he is talking about spring, I think it also applies to the leaves. Gold is the hue least seen, and it is gone to orange and red so quickly.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

- Robert Frost

New Church

Alison and I went to a new church today. Last year (school year) we were going to the church I grew up in, but I wasn't very happy there. Ali did have a great Sunday School class, but there was nothing there for me. There wasn't anyone there my age and any suggestions or ideas that I had seemed to fall on deaf ears. Then I read an article in the local paper and one of the people quoted in it was a lady who attended my church when I was little. She was in charge of the acolytes and she was also my confirmation teacher. When she was ordained she moved to a new church and I lost touch with her. This article mentioned that she is now the minister at a church a city over from me, so I decided to try that. It was wonderful! Everyone there was extremely welcoming, Alison had a ball in her new Sunday School class. I was able to talk to the minister briefly and reminisce a little. It is such a relief to have a new church!

visit to NY

Last weekend Alison and I headed out to NY for my sister's NY baby shower. We had a great visit. The shower was wonderful, she received most of what she had registered for (well, what was left) and enough money to get what she didn't receive. Ali was a huge help with opening and throwing away away paper while I sat in the back and chatted with her friends. The next day I helped Julie organize everything and pack it up. They bought the co-op last Tuesday, so hopefully they will be moving in the next few weeks.

Julie looks amazing. From behind you can't even tell she is pregnant. No stretch marks yet, and she is at 30 weeks with twins. She is going to kill me for this, but here is a picture from last weekend. We had a great time feeling the babies moving. Ali loved it. Julie was very sweet in sharing her tummy with us!

Julie had a dr. appt this past week, you can read all about it on her blog. The babies are doing great, Lily is now bigger than Mia. Julie is doing great.


School has kept me busy. I am definately holding myself to a higher level now that I am a "veteran"teacher. I know what is expected of me and I want to exceed it. I have been doing better organizing everything which really does make a difference.

Ali's dad has a blog from Afghanistan. If you are interested in what he is up to, you can go to it here: pain-in-my-butt. Yes, yes I know it is silly making that the link, but what the heck, simple things for simple minds.

I have to get off of this computer and go through the winter coats, I think Ali is going to need a new one. She has gotten so tall this year!

Time flies when I am back in school!

I started back to school the week before Labor day, it seems like yesterday, and now I realize that I have not updated this in a long time! The entries I imagines all about our vacation are not going to happen, so I decided to just include two of my absolute favorite pictures from out travels. The first is Stacey and I rocking out at Hard Rock Cafe in Boston. I had such an amazing time with them. I haven't seen them in almost three years, but it was like only a day had passed. That is the sign of true friendship!

After all of our time in Wisconsin and Illinois visiting family and friends, Ali and I had one more trip. Just the two of us. We were going to be driving near Niagra, so I asked Ali if she wanted to go. I figured I would get a resounding "NO!" I told her we would be near a famous place where there is a pretty waterfall and we could go if she wanted. She did and I am so glad we did! We spent about an hour there, but what a great hour it was! So here is Ali and I on our last day of vacation at Niagra Falls. This is my favorite picture from vacation.

Start at the beginning

I have decided the best way to chronicle my vacation is to start at the begnning. My last day of school was Wednesday, the 16th. That night my friend Stacey and her family came out to visit for two days.
Stacey was my best friend in Florida. Her son Kyle was 5 and Ali was about 18 months, and we did everything together while our husbands were out to sea. At that time, Stacey was pregnant, she had Ryan a week before I moved to Maine. We kept in touch through e-mails and phone calls. Her husband Nick has been transferred to Great Lakes, but while they were moving, they were coming up to MA for her sister's wedding. Perfect time for us to get together! Here is me and Stacey and Ryan, the newborn, our first night.
Thursday we had breakfast in Salem and then headed to Boston so I could give them the "Lisa's tour of the best of Boston in one day"
We hit the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues, here is a picture of the kids on them and the whole Lutze family on Mrs. Mallard.

Next was the Swan boats. After the Swan boats we headed down Newbury Street, admiring all of the shop windows on the boutique end, laughing at the tee shirts in the French Connection UK store, then we went to Hard Rock Cafe. Here are some pics of the kids with guitars and Nick eating lunch.
After Hard Rock, we went over to the Hancock Building to get the best view of Boston from the observation tower (not to mention a moment of weightlessness if you jump just as the elevator starts its' descent) only to find out it has been closed since Sept 11th 2001. Bummer. Guess I haven't been there in a while!
We continued on down Newbury street and I introduced them to some of the the classic Boston stores such as Newbury Comics where I found a perfect pin for school. It says "Gangsta Nerd" on it and I can't wait to wear it tomorrow. We then stopped for Ice Cream at Ben & Jerrys, here are the kids at their table eating.
As for my funny story for the day, well the Cow Parade is in Boston. They have all of these life sized cows (ceramic? porcelin?) around the city painted and decorated. The kids had fun pointing them out. At one point, Nick said (to himself) "What's with all these fu**ing cows?" Of course, Ali heard it, and the next cow she saw, she said "Look Nick, another fu**ing cow!"

Back from vacation!!

We are back!!!
We had a great vacation! We went through 7 states, visited with 11 relatives, 8 friends, I got together with 1 friend from college, talked to another on the phone and visited one natural wonder.

I have many stories to tell and lovely pictures to post, but I also have to unpack and run a million errands before school starts tomorrow. I will be posting all of our vacation adventures soon!

Another Perfect Day!

Yet another amazing Sunday. The weather was wonderful and I really wanted to go for a nice bike ride. I called my step-father and had a discussion, we decided to head to Topsfield and try out the state park there. My sister Katie unfortunately fell after about 10 minutes, so that ended her and my step-father's day there, but Ali and I continued on. First, we found this lovely stone house and gate.

We actually stopped and took quite a few pictures here, I will try to show more later.

Here is Ali on the back of my bike trying to look scared from all of the noises in the woods. (Such a dama queen) I think she was getting sleepy and did not want to fall asleep, so she decided bike riding there was "spooky."









Luckily while were riding, we found a "Fairy Arch" For those of you that do not know what a Fairy Arch is (which is everyone but me since I think I invented it), it is where bushes grow together to form an arch over a path. It is where Faries get married. You can go uner them to make a wish. Ali was all too happy to run over and make a wish. She also looked for fairies. She did not see them, but we think we heard them giggling a few times.
After our fun at the fairy arch, we finally headed back to the car. We took a "wrong turn" pulling out of the park (there is never wrong turns, just adventures) and found our way to a neat little farm stand. Right after we pulled in to take a look, two ladies on horses rode in. Ali and I decided to go and ask them if we could pat the horses. Not only did they let us pat them, one of the ladies offered to let Ali ride her horse!!!! Ali had a nice little ride around the parking lot on a beautiful horse. Of course at the time I did not have my camera on me, but here are the horses a little while later grazing on some grass.
While patting the horses, we noticed pigs! What was really funny was that one of the horses was terrified of the pigs. His eyes were huge staring at them, and he was trying to pull back. And the pigs were behind electric fences!

Despite the smell, I found them quite cute. They had these wonderful enclosures, big areas with lots of food and shelter and tubs of water. There were two seperate enclosures with a path going down the middle. They were rooting around in the dirt and mud and snorting like crazy. I have never heard such vocal pigs! I have to say, their faces and floppy ears were quite endearing!

What a perfect day!

Scooper Bowl!

Tonight was the Scooper Bowl in downtown Salem. What a blast! This is the second year we have gone. You pay a fee ($5.00 for adults, $3.00 for kids) and then get to sample ice cream from local vendors. You get trays and the go to each table and receive small cups with different flavors. It is held on the common, and they have face painting and a band playing.

Here are our Ben & Jerry's yummies and our tickets. There was "Chocolate Chocolate" which was chocolate with brownies in it, "Strawberry Cheese Cake" and "Lemon Sorbet"

Here are the selections from Treadwell's. There was Black rasberry with chocolate chunks and Mint Chip.Ali's favorite was the black rasberry with chocolate chunks. She declared it "The best ice cream ever"

We were going to get more (we still had three more vendors plus unnumerable returns) but the lines were very very long. We decided to get Ali's face painted. She decided on a ladybug on her armWe were even lucky enough to have Will out visiting before his deployment to Afghanistan, so he was able to experience the Scooper Bowl at Salem Common!

A great night had by all!

The rest of the week

It has been a few days since I blogged, mainly due to the heat. Wednesday it was 101. 101. WIth the humidity it felt like 115. I could imagine that in Florida, but in MA?? Thank goodness Ali's babysitter has a pool, she was nice and cool all day. Unfortunately for me, it was a long time in a un-air conditioned building. Some rooms are air conditioned, but not most. Of course I felt lousy by the time I got home. Thursday was cooler, and sometime in the afternoon the temp broke and went down quite a bit, but not in our building. Once again I went home feeling lousy. But now the weekend is here and the weather is supposed to be beautiful. We are going to yard sales tomorrow. I will be sure to post all the wonderful details. I think in the afternoon we are going to get a few of my students and take them to my grandfather's house to do yard work. He has had two surgeries this summer and has not been able to do any sort of yard work. I think it would be nice for the boys to do some community service, and I think it would mean a lot to my grandfather and his wife. Sunday we are either going to the beach with my aunt or we are going to an Animal Planet thing going on near here.

Today we went a toured a new preschool for Alison. We loved it. They have a nice fenced in play area outside, they have big windows and a pretty open building. The teachers were nice, they kids looked like they were having a ball, they have a pre-k curriculm, they serve meals and they are only $20.00 more than we were paying that the other place. I am very happy. We are going to register her there and she will start in September.

Power Outage

We lost power yesterday, apparently around 2:00 in the afternoon. It did not come back on until after midnight. Apparently a phone pole had been rotting and just snapped and fell, the weight of it bringing down the two next to it that were also rotting. Luckily my step-father told my grandmother, so when I went to pick up Alison (she stays with Nana on Mondays) she told us to stay put and avoid the heat. Thank Goodness for Nana!

It was an interesting end to an interesting day. I had called it my "no-good-very-bad-day" much to Alison's delight, but have since changed my mind. When I arrived at school I realized that I had forgotten to pick up the movie "The Outsiders" that I had promised one of my classes I would get. We had just finished reading it, and we were watching it next. Then a quick phone call to the preschool down the street that I had been hoping to enroll Alison in revealed that the opening was gone. At lunch when I stepped outside to run and get the movie a nasty little wasp landed on my hand and bit me right between the knuckles. I had to go back inside and make sure I didn't have an allergic reaction, then head back out (more cautiously) to get the movie. At the movie place, I realized I was a dollar short, then realized that my debit card was sitting at home next to my computer. I ran out to my car to get the change, grabbed the movie and headed back to work. As I pulled into the parking spot, my car stalled; I had run out of gas. The mailman helped me push the car into the spot, and I used the half full gas can the house uses for the mower to power me back up so I could get to a gas station. Then I found out there was no power. As I sat on Nana's couch I realized it really was not a terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day afterall. I mean, there are always other preschools, I didn't have an allergic reaction to the sting, I had the change in my car, the mailman helped me push the car in, I borrowed the gas and container from the school AND I stayed at Nana's to avoid the heat. I think I was actually pretty darn lucky.

And on a completely different subjuct, I just finished reading a great book. It is called "The Pilot's Wife" by Anita Shreve. Supposedly it was made into a movie, but I guess I missed that one. I actually grabbed it by mistake. My friend Deborah has amazing taste in books. She once recommended "gods in Alabama" by Joshilyn Jackson on her blog, I read it and decided I was definately going to follow her recommendations from now on. Recently in her blog she mentioned she was reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" and I filed it away in my mind. At a yard sale over the weekend, I saw "The Pilot's Wife" and was very excited that I had found one of Deborah's books at a great price. It wasn't until I was home looking at Deborah's blog that I realized the error of my ways. However, the book looked good, so I read it. It was great. I don't want to give much away, but after reading some in class (I know, bad me, but the boys were finishing The Outsiders) I was suddenly disappointed, even a little angry. I didn't want to read anymore. It wasn't until this evening when I was home that I realized that I was empathizing with the main character, which showed me the true brilliance of the book. I ad been so caught up in it, I was angry at it! I highly recommend it!

I leave you all with this.... "Do it for Johnny!"

perfect day

What a perfect day! I slept in (a little), then called my aunt. My Aunt Sue, Alison and I then went

The beach! Nahant beach to be specific, where we had a great time swimming, playing frisbee, catching some sun and

Ali drew a picture of her daddy in the sand. What a sweet girl.

We had to head back from the beach fairly early because Aunt Sue had to take Uncle Bruce to the train station so he could get to work. Back at home, Ali played in her pool while I did some work around the yard. Then I stretched out on what is one of the best yard sale finds I have ever made

A hammock. We LOVE our hammock. I have been working on the yard this summer, I made a brick patio (not real even like a professional one, but still great), got some chairs and made the table you can see in the background to put the herbs on (so the groundhog doesn't eat them) and hang flowers under. This hammock made the area complete.

But I digress....

I was laying on the hammock reading a book and talking to Alison, when I looked up and saw this
And this

Our neighbors were eating outside, they had music on quietly, it had a nice beat to it, down the street some kids were out playing, the birds were chirping and every time the breeze blew, my wind chimes around the yard made music. I realized it was a perfect day.

This was the first blog entry that I didn't publish

Ohhh... My first blog entry. I have wanted a blog forever, but Deborah's blog has driven me even more. Although she lives half a country away, I feel like she is still right around the corner. Each day (more or less) and I can sign on and read what she and her family have been up to. Since I have friends and family all over, I thought this is definitely the perfect idea for me! Of course, the Julie started a blog to chronicle her pregnancy and I was green with envy. Actually it was a good thing, it pushed me even harder to stop thinking about it and DO it!

I am at a total loss as to what I am going to do this week with the boys. With the weather hot and no AC in my classroom, I have to keep it very interesting and preferably make it so they don't realize they are learning anything new. I want to do this great lesson plan I read about using toys from then they were growing up. You spend a class period letting them play with the toys the have them write an essay (five paragraph, probably narrative) about the toy they like the best. Unfortunately that entails getting the toys from when they were younger, which means going on eBay, so that is going to take some time. I have been bouncing around an idea of having them make some sort of advertising campaign for different parts of speech. For my higher-level students I may have them come up with a campaign for grammar rules. That would definitely help them grasp the different rules and parts of speech. It would also segway nicely into another lesson plan I have been forming in my head about grammar. I would like to take songs they know, print out the lyrics and have them go through and edit them to make them grammatically correct. That would be so much fun.

Doing the weight-loss thing

I am doing the weight loss thing. I know how to do it, I just needed the motivation. Well, the company that owns the place where I work is sponsering a "Summer Weight Loss Challenge," so it is on! I had to first check and make sure I could join the team since I don't actually work for that company, but after the OK, I signed up. The weigh-in was Thursday, *ouch* I have let myself go. But hey, it just means it will make it easier for my team to win. The finaly weigh in is in December and the prize is a $50.00 gift certificate for each member. I started right back up with the way I did it last time, journaling everything I put in mouth and measuring amounts. Today I signed up on fitday.com for a journal and journaled yesterday and today, and I was pretty impressed with how I did. I have also started working out with dumbells and doing crunches as well as going on bike rides. Hopefully I will see an improvement! I have a feeling I will lose a bunch at first, then even off, then lose slowly.