Many apologies for mysteriously disappearing for over TWO WEEKS! This is unheard of. I’m a little disappointed that not even one of you faithful readers thought to make sure I was still alive, but I’m going to assume that you all have an underground network that fills you in on our whereabouts. We had a fabulous trip to Virginia and North Carolina, with a brief stop in Massachusetts. And now we’re really happy to be home! What hermits we are. I’ll work on the stories from our trip over the next few days. In the meantime, here’s a picture of Emily having a fantastic time after lunch at the Michie Tavern:
Hmm, perhaps not that fantastic. So maybe she didn’t want her picture taken right then. She really was having a good time right before that, though. Here’s a better one:
What can I say? She looked totally adorable in her ladybug costume! By the time we were ready to make our debut on Friday afternoon, she had resigned herself to the fact that the “hat” was staying on, so she quit tugging at it and moved on to more interesting things.
Lorraine and Kelly were nice enough to bring animal crackers for Emily’s first trick-or-treating event. And Janis bought stickers for her. (Which she tried to eat, but, um, what’s a little adhesive in the grand scheme of things? I suspect it builds character. Or something. Well, we’ve save those stickers for a little later, anyway.)
Instead of carving pumpkins ourselves, which is decidedly messy and time-consuming, we just admired the ones that Fairwinds Florist put in their window display.
You may not know this, but ladybugs are naturally very inquisitive. Apparently, they like to eat green squiggly things and lunge for glass coasters….
We didn’t go trick-or-treating, but we made sure to visit the bank, Mom’s house, Mary and Steve’s, Ray’s, and Grandma Jane and Kermit’s. Emily enjoyed displaying her cuteness. In fact, I think she’d like to wear a costume every day.
I’m quite delighted with myself. This is not unusual. Chris comes home from work many nights and as I recap my day — including all of my funny quips and commentaries — I shake my head contentedly and remind Chris that he’s very lucky to be with me. I usually get a noncommittal “mmm hmm” in return. But that’s okay; I know he knows what I know. Sometimes I make him say it out loud, but other times I let it be. [Picture me pointing two fingers at my eyes, then over to your eyes, then back to mine.]
So what set me off today? I had the urge to make split pea soup. I went to my cookbooks and found the recipe. I always make notes on recipes that I try — I include the date, the overall approval rating, and any other notes that might be useful for the next time I make it. I often find my commentary quite amusing when I look at it at a later date. Today was no exception:
Yes, that’s correct: it reads “very good — induces labor — omit carrots.” I have another recipe that has the note of “fan-ghetto-tastic”, or there’s one that I apparently didn’t like because I retitled it a “dung cake”. Ahh, what a legacy I will leave for my child….
Also causing me to shake with mirth at my own recollections: in honor of Halloween, I thought my favorite-coworker-to-pick-on, Ed, should be given a trick instead of a treat. I mean, treats are everywhere…who goes for the trick these days? The mere idea of playing [yet another] prank on Ed has me giggling with glee. It also causes me to take a slow and meandering stroll down memory lane as I remember other delightful tricks that I’ve played on this man.
There was the incident of the little red car. Ed likes NASCAR. Why, I couldn’t tell you. Even though he’s a fully-grown man, he keeps toy NASCAR cars in his office, proudly on display. Why would he tempt me like this? Surely any court of law would agree that I was being taunted. With the help of Kelly and Rhonda, we decided to steal the car and leave photographs of it in its place. We took it all around town and each day, a new picture would mysteriously appear. Here’s the car in front of Pepper’s Pub! How did the car get to the gas station? Look, the car’s in front of Ed’s house! Even the president of the bank is in on the car heist! Oooh, good times, good times.
Then there was the time I had a true stroke of genius. Ed leaves his reading glasses on his desk each night. I couldn’t help myself; a mischievous feeling came over me. I found some Saran Wrap in the kitchen and meticulously cut out pieces that were the exact size of each lens, then I carefully stuck them on. Ed got in to work the next morning, put on his glasses to look at his computer screen, and found everything to be totally blurry. He silently shook his fists at the cleaning crew, who obviously were doing a bad job, and wiped the lens off. He put the glasses back on; they were still blurry. Now he was mad. He cursed whatever filth must be spewing out of the air vents to cause such a film on his glasses. He cleaned them again; again he could not see. The angry commentary went from inside of his head to outside of his mouth. (Luckily for him, no one was around at that hour of the morning.) Upon closer examination of the offending glasses, he noticed that a little something was starting to lift off of the corner….
A simple, yet amusing, prank was the day I took the remote control for his TV and looked for a place to hide it. I finally found the perfect location inside of the attached VCR slot. He was impressed when he finally found it.
Just recently I took the liberty of rehanging a picture in his office…upside down… Good time, good times.
And then there was the time I disconnected his printer from his computer, but left everything else plugged in so it would light up, etc.
Today’s trick: a rather elaborate scavenger hunt to find the TV I will be absconding with. I’m clapping my hands just thinking about the funness he will be subjected to first thing Monday morning. The first note, which will be placed where the TV should have been, reads, “Trick or Treat! You weren’t here to choose, so we selected for you: trick! Follow the clues and hopefully you’ll track down your TV again. (We don’t want you to miss Dr. Phil and Oprah!)” Oooooh, I’m so excited! Can’t wait for Emily to wake up so I can put my plan into action. Much to Ed’s future dismay, I have the next prank already conceived of in this crazy brain of mine. Obviously, I can’t spill it here — someone might tell him about it before I have a chance to do it!
Emily has her first illness. She’s developed a nasty cough, officially called croup by the ER doctor we went to visit on Sunday. (Okay, so maybe the ER was a little unnecessary, but she sounded terrible! We were worried she was going to stop breathing.) There’s nothing to do for it but let it run its course. She continues to be in a good mood; she just sounds like a braying donkey. Night is especially bad, even in spite of the humidifier we have running in her room.
We introduced her to bubbles the other day. Fun.
She always helps me vacuum:
She loves Bear.
The ‘cakes is very interested in, well, everything. As soon as you set her down, she’s crawling off to explore something. I was trying to get her ready for a bath the other night and she kept leaving the room. I though it would be funny to get naked pictures of her but even that was difficult because she was already on-the-go to her next destination!
My man, being manly as he jackhammered the old frost wall out so that the paving guys can do their thing on Thursday. (I made sure to include only the picture where Chris was hard at work and David was “supervising”.)
Another view of manly men at work, and also a shot of the newly “riprapped” hillside to keep landslides at bay.
Emily wearing her camo outfit for the last time. She didn’t even make it to the start of hunting season!
Emily is wearing my first crocheted hat — it turned out pretty well!
Another beautiful day for a walk around town and then a trip to our favorite, the swingset:
Emily loves the bear that Grammy Ann bought for her. She consistently crawls into this room, pulls him down, and then wrestles with him. It’s so darn cute.
Lady Emily and sherpa Gimpel have been taking advantage of the last days of decent weather. There have been many heavily-bundled walks through town and on a warmish day last week, we took a trek up Blue Hill Mountain with the fabulous baby carrier I bought at a yard sale. I was bummed that I hadn’t used it yet; this was the perfect opportunity! I did learn, rather quickly, that carrying an extra twenty-five pounds of baby and paraphernalia makes the hike a little more arduous. In case you wouldn’t have guessed that yourself.
Lady Em rides in style.
The view on our way up.
With the carrier on, I couldn’t see what Emily was doing. Being the resourceful woman I am, I just snapped a picture of her to make sure all was well. (And it was, other than her hat being worn at a rakish angle.)
A smattering of Fall leaves — I thought it was quite pretty.
This picture is a) proof that we did indeed reach the top and 2) overlooks our house (somewhere in that collection of buildings beyond the yellow tree). If you look closely, you can see Nathan looking out the window.
We’re in the home stretch of our garage project. There are a few small tasks that need completion, then the driveway gets re-paved, the walkway gets re-bricked, and the Youngs bid adieu to their snow shovels and ice scrapers. WOOHOO!
On an unrelated note, here are Emily and Nathan forging an alliance:
For Emily’s first Halloween, we decided to rehab an old ladybug costume that Lorraine’s daughter wore for years and years. Emily thought it was a good idea until I strapped the hat on her head for size this afternoon….
Emily has one of those learn-to-walk pushcart lawnmower toys. Historically, she has liked to play with the toys on the front of it. Just for kicks, Chris turned it around yesterday to see what she’d do. She pulled herself up to standing and then, in front of her totally flabbergasted parents, she proceeded to run for ten feet. Our jaws dropped and we stared at each other. She loved it; couldn’t have been more pleased. Who needs to walk when you can run instead?! Now she gets mad when we take it away from her, or when she crashes into a wall and can’t back up.
