First Day

Today was Ali's first day of Kindergarten! I can not believe my baby is in school! Here are some pictures from this morning. We were lucky enough to step out of the door and see the Barnes'. Melissa Barnes is the lady who has the home day care that Ali goes to. Her son Christopher was starting today too. She was out of town, but her husband Jason was walkin Christopher, older sister Laura (3rd grade) and friend Sophie. Here is Ali chasing Christopher next to the school.
Here is Alison in the school yard in her first day outfit.
And lastly here is Ali next to new friend Caroline in the classroom. (Caroline has the same Tinkerbell backpack as Ali)
I worked half a day so I could pick her up after school. She had a "good" day. She said Kindergarten is harder than she thought, she has to raise her hand to go to the bathroom. Her teacher just got the job, so the classroom is not set up yet, hopefuly it will be ready soon!

Little Piece of heaven

We were introduced to a little slice of heaven this summer. I was looking for somewhere to take Ali for a beach day. She gave me directions to this wonderful place. I am not saying gthe name of the beach, nor the city it is in because it is a neighborhood beach, and I like it that way!! Here is Ali in the water.
Here is Ali eating a popsicle from the Ice Cream truck.
Here is Ali at her little tideal wall (not very effective!!)
We have been there a few times, I would go there every weekend if possible! I love it there! There is amazing sea glass and shells, hopefully soon I can post some pictures of some kind of neat craft made from the glass and shells!

Strange

My ex-husband has a girlfriend. Although he will deny it, I can tell. For one, he has not called Ali on the weekend for quite a while. He has always called her nightly, annoyingly nightly. Even when she does not want to talk, he still calls and calls. Suddenly he stops calling on the weekends. Also, as my sister has pointed out, if you read his blog (click here to see it) his entries all talk about "we". "We" did this and "we" did that. He has suddenly been pushing through our divorce, bugging me about something that until recently was somthing that was not his radar. He was still waiting for me to go back to him. It has been bothering me, him having a girlfriend, and I have been trying to figure out why. It is certainly not because I want to be back with him. Oh goodness no. I think it is because I know the him she is getting right now. The Will I fell in love with. The fun guy who goes places, takes you on trips, is always trying to impress you. He is charming and funny and great to be around. I want to call this woman and warn her "It is all a ruse, he will change!! He will get mean and nasty and sick of you", but then I realize that may not be the case. I would imagine that he has changed since I last spent much time with him. He claims that he has changed, but I don't know for sure.

Although that is part of it, I think there is more. I think it is because he CAN date. He can go out whenever he wants. He can meet someone and not have to worry about what kind of person they are, are they safe to one day maybe have around our child. He does not even have to ever mention that he has a child. If he does, he will give the "poor me" story. I got one of his poor me story. The one I got was about his horrible ex-girlfriend who treated him so awful. He is going to tell her all about the wicked ex-wife who took his darling girl, the light of his life, and left. For me, being a single mom it like carying around a huge banner that says "don't date me, I have baggage" If I were to actually to met someone who is not terrified that I have a child, can I go out? Can I get a sitter, and can I afford a sitter? Am I going to be taking time from my daughter? I feel bad enough that we only spend nights and weekends together as it is, can I take more time from her to date and actually not feel guilty? It really does make me angry that he has absolutely no responsibility for our child. Yes, he does pay support for her, although not anywhere near what he can or should be paying. But that is it. He sees her a few times a year, and even then he stays with us, uses my car, and I am always around.

Although I am complaining about this, when it comes right down to it, I have Alison. I would never trade that for anything else in the whole world. I love my baby, I love being her mom. She is the coolest kid in the whole world. He is amazing, and I can happliy live without ever dating again if it means that she grows up healthy and happy. It is easy to complain when I see him dating and lying to us about it all that is going on ("I just want the divorce for closure", "I should start staying in a hotel when I come to visit, I don't want to bother you guys"), but I have an amazing child and the wonderful blessing to be with her every day. That is better than anything else in the world.

Our Summer

Do you like my mower? Our lawn mower broke, and I told my step-father I would like to get one of the eco-friendly ones that run on good old human power. He said "I think we have one in the cellar." Sure enough we did! It is the mower that was here when we moved into the apartment when I was three. The building has been in my family for a long time, my grandmother grew up in the apartment I now live in. This is the mower my great-grandfather used to mow this lawn. And what would you know, it still works fine! The blades are still sharp after 20 somthing years in the cellar. Here is an after picture, although it is more of a pool picture!


Although you probably can't see it, behind the ladder in the corner of the yard is a small fenced off area. Last year it was where I planted the veggies, the groundhog got in and ate them. This year it has a corn stalk Ali started at her babysitter's house during the school year. I think it is Indian Corn.

Here is my back porch garden. In order to keep the groundhog away from my veggies, they are container bound on my porch. On the right is a tomato plant, on the left front is a strawberry plant, then behind it another tomato. At the back you can kind of make out the wire that is attached to a container which has peas in it. YUMMY!



And lastly, my herbs. They are in buckets hanging over the porch. The closest bucket is basil, then Dill, Mint (not quite up yet) and lastly Chamomile.


Someday I hope to have my own house with a nice yard, with a corner fenced off for our yummy garden. I can grow all kinds of veggies in it. Someday.

normal Saturday

Today we had a pretty normal Saturday, except we had Will visiting. We were waiting for the call from Doug that it was Yard Sale time, but that call never came. He went without us. We headed out around 10:00 (late for a Saturday) and headed for a Yard Sale. Of course, Will had decided he wanted to go out for breakfast and was hungry, so he was pretty much like a 2 year old, so we quickly checked out one yard sale, then headed out for breakfast. After breakfast at the diner we went to two yard sales (a record low) but fortunately one had a ton of good books, so I did make out well. After the yard sales we ran some errands, I paid for the first two weeks of camp for Ali and we showed Will around the Beverly YMCA. We came home for a nap around 2:30 and woke around 5:00 (Ali and I are good nappers.) Will wanted to go out for dinner, and wanted to go to Woodmans in Essex, but when we got there, the line was down the street. We decided to head to Gloucester and go to Amelia's, which has the best tarter sauce in the world. We ate out on the porch, and then headed to Good Harbor Beach across the street for "a walk." Good thing I though to bring a towel.
Here is Ali playing in the sand. Good Ali!

Uh-oh! What is this? "Can I get my feet wet?" turned into "I LOVE THE WATER!!!" And notice the devilish look on her face
Now we have given up all notions of keeping dry. Here is Ali running in the water, completely drenched.
But, best of all, look at this fabulous picture. Ali found a Hermit Crab. I love the beach!!

After the beach we stopped for Ice Cream at Cherry Hill (Ali got M&M, I got 5 Star General (blue mint with oreos and white chocolate chunks) and Will got cake batter). Will has a cab coming at 3:45 to take him to the airport for his 6 am flight. The airport is about 30 minutes away making bad time. By the time we get up for church, he will already be in the air on his way home.

Ruggles Mine

We had a blast at Ruggles Mine today!!! It was a long drive (about 2.5 hours) but mostly through beautiful NH. It was a bit expensive ($20.00 per adult and $10.00 per child) and we rented two rock hammers ($3.00 each, plus $10.00 deposit per), but it was so much fun! It is mostly an open pit mine, so you get to walk around in these huge open pits and look at the ground, the walls and everthing around. There were a lot of small caves to go in and explore, even one with water in it! Here are some pictures of the site.

This is what you see as you first walk down into the pits.

Here is a better picture with some people, it helps show the scale of it! You can make out Ali's head on the bottom of the picture, bounding ahead anxious to start looking for crystals!

Here is one of the underground ponds. Very pretty!

Here is my bounty, all washed and drying on a paper towel. --->


Here is one of my favorite finds, next to a dime so you can see the size. It is all mixy with quartz in it. I heart it.

Here is another favorite. I love the black vein going through it, although I have no idea what it is.

Alison was the mica queen. She found some big honkin pieces of it!

And lastly, some pieces of rock that I broke out of the wall of the cave with a rock hammer. I can not tell you how good it feels to bang and bang on a wall with a metal hammer and break pieces off. I should be a form of relaxation. It makes sparks too. How much cooler can you get?

time flies

I keep meaning to blog, but then life keeps getting in the way. I am at the end of my 3 week summer vacation from school. It has been fabulous, Ali and I played a lot, we got a lot done, and we went to NY for almost a week. Pictures from that in a bit.

First of all, we have a member of our family that has rejoined us from afar!!!

Jet is home!! Jet lived with us here in Ma, and in Ga and FL, but when we moved back from FL, we left her with my sister while we found a place to live, and since she got along so well with Julie's cat Shadow (RIP Shadow) she stayed there. Shadow died last year, and now with the twins, Julie felt like she was not giving Jet enough attention, so we took her back!

Will and I got Jet when she was about 5 weeks old. My friend had her mom, and she was the last kitten, and they couldn't find a home for her. She was a tiny ball of black fur. Although you can't really tell from this picture (she was not into getting her pucture taken) she is an absolutely adorable cat. She is rather smallish and thinish, with a small head, with BIG ears and BIG eyes. She looks a bit like Momo on Avatar. She is an absolutely delightful cat. She is very independent, she does not like to be held. If she wants to be patted, she will come up and flop down next to you and meow one of her "meeps" She is rather skittish in nature, so she is never underfoot. She does not demand expensive food or litter. She loves to roll around in catnip and sits behind my head at night and purrs with her mouth open. I forgot how nice it is to have a cat in the house, purring behind my head when I watch TV and sleeping at my feet at night. She does the silliest things, she doesn't really meow, she talks. She "eeps" and "meeps" and every once in while does the silent meow, when she looks at you, meows, but makes no noise. She likes to flop down on on side when you are looking at her then roll around and make all kinds of cute cat stretches. She and the bird get along fine. The bird squaks at her a bit, and she stares at the bird a bit, but they have an understanding; the bird stays up, the cat stays down.

As I mentioned, we also went to New York. My neices are absolutely adorable! Here are some wornderful pictures.

Mia is on the left, Lily on the right.

Lily, Ali and Mia. The girls just think Alison is the neatest thing since pureed peaches. They watch whatever she does, and laughs hysterically at all of her songs and dances and any other thing she may do. One day I caught Alison standing on the back of Julie & Pete's couch talking jbberish, I was about to tell her to GET DOWN, WE DO NOT TREAT FURNITURE LIKE THAT, when I noticed the girls in their bouncy seats watching her laughing away. It seems that the naughtier the action, the funnier it is to them. We are in a lot of trouble once these girls become mobile. Ali is going to have her own peanut gallary egging her on.

Tomorrow we are off to Ruggles Mines in NH for some mineral, rock and hopefully crystal collecting. I will post all about it soon!

Updates

This is horrible, it has been a month since I last posted.

We have been busy! School is winding down, so I have been trying to get lesson plans written, transcripts caught up and the summer session planned. Our move to the new facility looms large, so any free time at work is spent packing. Being the English teacher, I have the most books to pack.

Alison is playing soccer and she is very good! Of course, I am biased. I think she is one of the best on her team. However since it is the Under 6 team, that is not a HUGE thing, most of the kids stand in the middle of the field and talk. I found a new sitter for the summer which is very good news. The sitter from last summer is looking at colleges and won't be available as much. Ali finishes preschool in a few weeks, then after the summer she is off to Kindergarten. I can't believe my baby is headed to kindergarten!

The poetry slam at school was a HUGE success. The boys were incredible! The ones who participated did an amazing job. They really put themselves out there to perform and were outstanding. The ones who watched were the perfect audience. They listened quietly, clapped when they were done, and had even heard about the beat poets who snapped at poetry and did that. Everyone is asking when we are going to do it again!

For Bruce

Bruce Alyson Gates - 4/59-5/07

I’m sorry you’re hurting
But please don’t mourn me
For at last I am happy
I am finally free

I can soar with the hawk
High over the wood
I can rustle the leaves
Where in life I had stood

I’m the first ray of dawn
I’m noontime’s warm light
I’m evening’s first star
I’m the songs of the night

You can’t understand
Why I left you so soon
But you’ll now hear my voice
In the call of the loon

When you miss me look up
To the sky where I soar
Go out to the woods
To the place I adore

I am always with you
Look around and you’ll see
I am finally happy
At last I am free

Lisa Ritcher

Poetry Slam

Tomorrow is the first ever Poetry Slam against Alliance House. Alliance House is a treatment program near here, run by the same agency as us. Many of your boys go on to Alliance House when they leave us. I was sitting next to the English teacher at a professional development day when we hatched this idea, and now it has come to fruition. I am so nervous! We are hosting it (since many of our boys can't travel), they are coming around 10, and we are slamming it poetry style. I am excited, Alliance House is bringing close to 10 guys, mostly our former residents, and we have close to 10 that are going for it. I made muffins and congo bars (the Congo bars were a specific request), they are bringing cookies and we are providing punch. I would never ask my boys to put themselves out there unless I was willing to also, so I wrote a poem to perform. I had written one called "Ode to the N word - dedicated to Hansel and all of my boys who try to get me to say it", but I just don't feel like it is done yet. So tonight I wrote a new one. I think it is pretty good, I know it will be well received by the kids. Here it is: (untitled)

You think you’re sly with your
SugarHoneyIcedTea
Like you invented it
Like we were never kids

Or ShutTheFrontDoor
Sure…..

You try to pull a fast one on us with your
Fff this and Fff that
Ya, we never pulled that one either

How about the ring finger bird?
Nope, not an original

You flash your gang signs
Then act surprised when caught
Like we don’t know what you are up to

On dogs we do.

We sigh when you curse us out
You’re not the first
You won’t be the last

We roll our eyes when you complain about
Not using colored pens
Not wearing certain brands
Are you really surprised?

You try to play the race card
Claim it’s all about race

It is

A race against time
To show you who you can be
To help you find your way
To prepare you

A race against the past
Helping you find your way out
Proving you are more
Proving you can

A race against every bad thing
Pulling you in every direction

And we keep coming in day after day

Ready to race

Ready to force it

Ready to steal points

Ready for you

Lily & Mia

How adorable are my nieces???

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!

I know this is a day early, but we are going to be so busy tomorrow, I don;t think I will get the chance to blog. I love Easter. All week Ali and I have been talking about what is going on biblically. Today we discussed how tomorrow we get our "Alleluia" back and why.

Here is a picture of Ali with the Easter bunny last weekend.

writing

I have never been one to share my writing, but if I want to be a writer, I need to start! This is something I wrote yesterday at my professional development day. We were assigned the prompt "a turning point in my life" and had to pick either "when time stood still" or "when time flew by." I picked time standing still. I got some very positive comments on it. Here it is:

I remember the day I said goodbye to my friend Sarah. She was in my kitchen, we were 18, and we both knew we would never see each other again.

Sarah was my “drug buddy”, to use a phrase from a Lemonheads song. I had met Sarah through a mutual friend. At first she was the source of the drugs we did, but she became my friend. She had all the great parties I heard about but never attended. We hung out with skaters, taggers and druggies, all male. Not wanting to appear weak or girly, we had to keep up a strong front. Desperation to define ourselves drew us together.

Quickly my life hit a turning point, graduation. I had been accepted to a college 1200 miles away. I was the first in my family going to college. If I was going to succeed, I had to grow up. No more drugs. Mo more running from my problems. No more lies. I knew that meant leaving Sarah behind.

She came by one evening to say goodbye. We both pretended that we would see each other soon. We smiled nervously and talked about my first break. The moment is frozen in my mind, Sarah in my kitchen saying goodbye. Realizing I would never see her again. I hugged Sarah and said goodbye, leaving my rocky childhood behind.

Community Service

Today I took 6 of my students, one counselor (thanks Jeff) and went to my church to get some work done. Our parking lot was in bad shape. It is surrounded by a fence and other properties, and over the years trash, leaves and "crud" has piled up against the fence. We were there for four hours raking, bagging and cleaning the property. I think we removed about 30+ lawn and garden bags full of stuff! We also cleaned up all of the landscaping around the church grounds. I wish I could post pictures, but since they are juveniles, I can't. I wish I could show pictures of T, who has one of those smiles that makes you smile. He spent most of the time chasing Alison and playing ball with her. And A, who grabbed the camera and took about 10 pictures of himself. The same A who was in class last week talking about how he feels like a loser because of where he is and what he has done. There was J, a talented artist who rips up all of his pictures as soon as he is done, a talented write who says "I hate to write" who did the work of 4 kids. D, who misses his year-old son, who worked the whole time while joking with the guys. Lastly there was E & E. EA was away from his "boy from the out" for once, and it was nice to see him not putting on a show, and EG who worked hard and even seemed to forget that he is always trying to fit in, he just fit in for once. I wish I could show the great pictures I took of them when we were done, but they pictures go to the school, no where else.

There was one thing that happened that I will always remember. We went inside the church to use the bathroom, and the boys asked if there was somewhere they could pray. I opened the church door, and they silently went in to the darkened church, knelt down at the alter and prayed. As I stood at the door, and watched them, I saw them for what they really are. Not juvenile deliquents, not at-risk teenagers, but children of God. It is an image I wish everyone could see when they see them. Not rough teenagers looking mean, but children who kneel at the alter and ask for forgiveness. It is an image I will always keep with me. As we walked back out to get back to work, T turned to me and said "Now that was some good praying", and flashed that grin.

It is days like these that I know why I love my job so much, and why God led me to it.

writing or Writing

I had a professional development day last week, and although I abhor driving all the way out to Worcester and back, I do tend to come back with lots to think about. One thing that out instructor brought up was that it is difficult to teach writing if you aren't a writer. We don't have to be Writers (people who submit and sell) but writers, people who write. It really got me thinking. Do I consider myself a writer? I would like to, but I just don't write enough. Everything I have read says that to be a Writer (or writer for that matter) you have to write every day. Goodness knows I don't. Sure I write lesson plans as needs be, and e-mails along the way, but I don't just write.

So how do I start? A lot of people have suggested a journal. My problem tends to be that I am too tired when I go to bed to write in a journal. Maybe I need to start going to bed earlier and write in it. I also get bored with a journal (that says a lot for my life), so maybe I need to start looking for writing prompts for myself. I sure do have a million for my kids, I make them journal every day, but maybe it is time for me to. I have also thought about taking a course. The problem is, it needs to be an online course. I am just not ready to give up more time with Alison just yet.

I just have to start writing...

Favorite Quote

One of my friends from college has a blog, and she always has these great questions to answer. A recent one is "What is one of your favorite quotes?" I have quite a few. I have this great calendar at work, it is a daily one, and it is "Fabulous Broads." I forget who the quote is by, but I have it above my desk, it says:

"I may be a bad girl, but I am damn good company."

Another of my all time favorites is from Alice Roosevelt:
"If you don't have anything nice to say, come and sit by me."

A favorite movie quote? This one reaches back to a movie from the 80s, "Real Genius":
"I am thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said 'I drank what?'"

And my favorite faith based quote:
"God never gives us more than we can handle, but sometimes I wish He didn't have so much faith in me"

podcasts

I have recently joined the masses in subscribing to some podcasts. I am not sure what took me so long, but I am addicted. I have 4 subscriptions, and I listen to them in the car on my way to work (after Ali is dropped off.) They are:

Merriam-Webster Word of the Day. I love this because a) I can use most of these word in a sentence, but I can't define them and b) the give the etymology of the word, and I LOVE etymology! After I listen to it I make up some sentences so I will remember it.

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty tips for better writing. I think this is pretty self-explanatory. Love it!

NPR Story of the day. I love these, I get smarter with each one I listen to!

NPR Pop Culture: Gotta stay hip and up with the times!

For your enjoyment, a picture of me, wearing one of Ali's wigs. I love those wigs, more than her I think!

Mommy Favs

I have been thinking of the things that make my life as a Mommy easier. What are the new things that I think are cool?

1. Pediacare decongestant strips. Ali hates medicine. Hates it. She will fight me to the end about taking it, usually crying herself into a frenzy. Without it she sleeps horribly (all stuffed up and snoring). The strips are perfect. Once she is asleep, I slip them on her tongue and the melt away in a few seconds, giving her the dose with no fighting! Does slipping her meds when she is asleep make me a bad mom?

2. ToothTunes toothbrushes. These are the new toothbrushes that play music when you brush your teeth with them. It transmits the music through your jawbone, so you hear it loud and clear when you are brushing, but no one else can really hear it. It plays for 2 minutes (which is the recommended time for brushing), but only when brushing. When you stop brushing, it stops playing. Ali loves this, she is excited about brushing her teeth and I know she is getting the full 2 minutes in.

3. Baby Oatmeal. Although not new, it is a lifesaver for me. Ali has eczema and her hands have been horrible this winter because of all of the bitter cold we have had (well that and swim lessons). Oatmeal baths are great for her, but it is so expensive! It is like $5.00 for a few packs of oatmeal bath. I heard somewhere that regular baby oatmeal works just as well, so I tried it. It works better! It is a lot less expensive, and it really helps her skin. The only change I had to make to her bathing routine is to rinse her hair with clean water, the oatmeal was getting stuck in her hair!

I can't think of anymore, so I guess that makes it my top three!

Ali dressed herself this morning, and she was a sight! She put on a gold dress-up skirt with gold sequins on, and begged me to let her wear it. Why not? She added a purple tee shirt, black tights and black cowgirl boots. She topped it off with an off white knitted cardigan that is about two sizes too small. We went for a nice walk, then headed out to run errands. While in my mom's car (mine is in the shop - ugh!) she found her Cat In the Hat hat she made in preschool Friday and put that on. People stopped and watched her as we walked through Target. The nicest thing was, everyone was smiling. Don't you with you could put everyone in a good mood, just by what you are wearing. At Target she saw a pink cowgirl hat she wanted. I said no, but then she put it on, and it was so darn cute on her that I changed my mind. I also got her a orange terry-cloth hoody to replace the too-small sweater. The total look was amazing. Ahh, to be 5 again.

The Baptism

Here is Lily getting ready to go home after the party after the baptism. As you can see, she has had quite enough by now!










Here is Mia ready to go. She was a little less cranky than her sister (surprising given her nickname - Miss Mia Fussy Pants)










Here is Daddy, Mommy and the girls. Although from this picture it looks like the party was at a bar, it was not. It was actually at a very nice Italian bistro that Julie and Pete frequent. The food was amazing, and there was a lot of it!








Here are we three God Parents. Jeanne-Marie is Pete's sister and Frank is her husband and Pete's best friend. Let me just say that they tanned for weeks for the baptism.








And here is the proud cousin. These are the cups that were placed out for everyone to drink out of. She thought she was just the cat's meow with her cup (which is filled with watered-down coke).

I love how green here eyes are in the picture!

update update update

I have fallen behind on my updates! So much has happened in the last month or so! Ali has started a new preschool. Yet again I had a problem with her preschool and pulled her out. There is a preschool at our new church and they had openings, so Ali is now going there. She loves it! She is in a pre-k class with all 5-year-olds so she is being challeneged and learning daily. She comes home with homework! She loves having homework, it makes her feel like a big girl, and she is just learning so much.

Ali ended up in the hospital overnight recently. She developed a stomach bug on a Wednesday, had a fever and was throwing up. She started throwing up blood on Thursday, so our Dr told up to head to the ER. We were there forever, and it was determined that she was very dehydrated and needed to stay. She had an IV (and was such a trooper about it) where they gave her fluids, anti-nausea meds and Zantac for the bleeding (it was determined that the bleeding was from her tearing her stomach lining and throat from throwing-up so much). She was doing much better by Friday afternoon and was sent home. It was scary for a while there, late Thursday night she was pretty much unconscious, the Drs couldn't really wake her up. They sat her up and moved her around and asked her questions, they were able to get her to open her eyes for a few minutes and answer a question.

Ali had a fabulous birthday party at Pump-It-Up Party at the end of January. She had 17 kids come and just about as many parents. They had an amazing time! I highly recommend the place! Pictures to come!

This is vacation week. We started the vacation out with my nieces' baptism on Sunday. They askedme to be a God-mother which is such an honor. Jeanne-Marie (Pete's sister), Frank (Jeanne's husband and Pete's best friend) and I are the God-parents for both of them. I have the absolute pleasure of babysitting the girls today while Julie and Pete are at work. I will have lots of pictures to post soon.

I have to go make a bottle for Miss Lily.