How much Gas can I save?

It is the new game I play in the car... How much gas can I save?
Today I didn't drive over 65 (huge accomplishment!) and tried to coast whenever I could.
I really paid attention to the lights and didn't take off or zoom up to any.

So I usually get about 30 miles to the gallon. It is my goal to increase that every time I fill up.
I don't know if it will make a difference but I will post after I fill up this week.

Have you consciously changed your driving habits to get better gas mileage?

It's been one of those days

It has just been one of those days. Which ended with me venting to MD, screaming into my cell, using naughty language and now he tells me that he couldn't get the volume turned down on his cell phone and he was sitting in his cube farm. Nice. Thanks Honey for letting me vent.

Sunday night and the house is quiet

Just some thoughts to end the weekend.

I can't believe I don't have bigger biceps after carrying around a 20 lb sack o' potatoes.

How do mosquitoes know to attack when you are holding the 20 lb kid and trying to do something with your other hand?

Why do mosquito bites on the hand itch the most?

I have a mosquito bite on my palm! How did that happen?

New Look for the Blog

Well, I was ready for a layout/color change.
I apologize if you don't care for change but I just had to do it.
I am also one of those people who likes to
rearrange the furniture more often than my honey-bear.
Thank goodness I can do again by myself.

P.S. I apologize if I change it again within the next week.
I am not sure if I care for some of the elements in this template.

A Documentary in the Making?

My daughter is almost 4 and loves to grab the camera and take pictures of EVERYTHING.
I am going to include a video clip. It is pretty obvious she did this by herself. Sorry the quality is terrible but you get the general idea.
The pictures are hers as well.




I laughed out loud after this one popped up!










Do you think she was paying attention when Mom uses the camera?

Hey Mom! Guess What?

Okay. I know when I tell you what I am so excited about - most of the women reading this will roll their eyes at me - and some of the men - but tonight I am cooking dinner with MD. He is giving me directions and I am doing the prep work. Crazy huh?!
If you know me and my family, you know that I don't cook and MD does. So tonight I thought I would step in and help since he was outside with the kids and I was inside anyway.

Have a great week!

Beautiful Saturday Afternoon

Last Day of Spring

So Summer starts sometime tomorrow. I will leave the particular time to those of you that care. Someday I want to get up when the sun comes up and watch it go down on the longest day of the year. But that day is not tomorrow. I think I would like to plan to get less sleep when less sleep isn't the norm.

Tonight we went to listen to MD play his mandolin with the Snow Leopard Collaboration.
I took a few shots with my (sing it!) iPhone... which I adore!!!

And one more item for today

It seems that I get on a blogging role sometimes and today is one of those days that I just want to share, share, share!

When I was pregnant with D, some people would comment about how two kids were, I don't know if more difficult was the comment, but definitely more time consuming. I think in my experience it has been a bit more draining at this point just because MD and I can't double team B now that we have added D.

So my point is that tonight at dinner, MD and I experienced one of the positives of having two kids. They were making each other laugh. Belly laughs. It is always so fun to see them interact that way when I know someday in the not so distant future, B will be screaming that D is in her toys or something of hers.

So your homework tonight is to make someone in your life belly laugh and have a good time.

Duck, Duck,...

Okay.
What you say after this depends on what part of the country you are from.
I learned in the car today coming home from daycare that my daughter has become a 'grey duck'!
And then when I tried to tell her that I grew up saying 'GOOSE', she said 'But Mom, Grey Duck is right and Goose is wrong.

I guess I should get used to it. It won't be the first time that I am told by my kid(s) that I am wrong.

What do you think?

Have you seen this?

It is from this website.

A friend pointed it out to me the other day.

Slightly scary...

:)

(You do see Bush's face on McCain's head - right?)

Returning to regular programming...

Vacation was good. We spent a couple of days and nights with my side of the family. It is amazing how different our lives were 4 years ago. No babies. This week I got to know my nieces and they are amazing little girls. We put our feet in the water but there wasn't any way you would have convinced me to put more in. It was freezing cold water.

The house we stayed in was amazing! Built in the 20s - it had a large porch on it with two swings and lots of other seating.

It was a good first family vacation.

First Food

We have had another first in the household.
D ate his first food last night.
Sweet Potato - yum.
He is a growing boy!

The stuff that I have to remember

Coming home from daycare today - I saw some driver throw their cigarette butt out the window and of course I made some comment and of course my daughter hears me.

'Mom, what is a cigarette?'
'Oh... it is a stick that people smoke and then litter on the ground. And we all know that litter is bad - right B?'
'Yeah! And we don't want to eat litter either - do we Mom.'
'Right.'

She also picked right up on the naughty word I used and used it correctly the other day.

You know when you are a new parent - you have all this energy to stop swearing and eat right and lose that extra weight blah blah blah - and then they get older and you spend all that energy just trying to get them to keep their fingers out of their nose and mouth and don't have a lot left for the other things. So I apologize in advance if my daughter uses some bad language in your presence. Please know that I had a weak moment.
:)

Another Wonderful Saturday

Life is so good when you can walk and not feel acky.
When I was pregnant last summer, I just didn't feel like doing anything physical. My body hurt and being sweaty was not fun.

So this summer has been good so far.

This morning we went to Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. We missed the early spring flowers this year - trillium, trout lily, false rue anemone among them. But we did see the yellow lady's slipper.
Here are a few pictures.

Today in History

My friend Meema highlights big days in history.
So today I googled 'today in history' and guess what happened today in history?

In 1844, the Young Men's Christian Association was founded in London.

Coincidence? I think not.

Friday before VaCa

Is it just me or is the Friday before vacation the pits.
There is always one more thing you should get done before you leave and it never fails that I get questions from staff so I don't get as much done as I should.

Then everyone is telling me to have a good vacation and all I can think about is how much work I will come back to.

Don't worry Gentle Reader - I have already put all that work behind me and won't even think about it until I am driving in on that day I go back to work.

Have a relaxing week.

Rolling Over...

...is so easy, I can do it in my sleep, Mom.

5 months old tomorrow

D is 5 months old tomorrow.
What a change already.

Oh you know... God, Church, Religion. The easy stuff

I go to church, I can say that is true.
To give you a little background - church has always been one of those 'musts' in my life. My mom was the church choir director so we were there every Sunday during the school year. To tell you the truth, I didn't really like it. I liked the seeing my friends part. But every other part of church felt like I was wearing something that just didn't fit.
So fast forward to me having my own family and here we are again... going to church every Sunday. We compromised with the denomination of Protestantism and attend an Episcopalian church. I love the music outlet they provide and enjoy seeing everyone but it still feels like I am an outsider when it comes to the religious aspect.

Today I was reading Janis' blog and came across a term I wasn't familiar with - neo-agnostic - so I googled it. I came up with this website and the following definition from Winifred Gallagher:

``They're caught between a rock and a hard place,'' she said. ``They can't quite get into religion because they believe that religion is belief in the unbelievable, that you have to check your brains at the door. They see religion and the mind like water and oil, two things they can't harmonize.

``On the other hand, they have religious experience, longings and impulses that point to some sacred something. They're not classical atheists or agnostics, because they haven't quite given up on the whole thing. Sometimes they think there may be a God, or they wish there was a God. They say they are spiritual, but not religious.''

That is pretty close to the way I feel. I would like to believe but I just can't quite get there.
My son was recently baptized and the Rector asked me why we wanted to baptize him and I came up with... 'Well we want to have him join this community and know this is a start on that journey' blah blah blah. Then she asked B her opinion and she said 'Because it is what you do with babies'. That was really the answer I wanted to give but it wouldn't have been appropriate for me to say.

So now I have been told that it is mainly the parents responsibility to teach their children about God. When I heard that, a little voice in my head said 'Yeah right'.
Okay. I can do this. I can believe in Christ's teachings and try to teach my kids those lessons.
It is just like manners. They are a good foundation of a good life. A basis for the way people should treat each other.

It doesn't mean I believe in God though.