The Best Part of a New Couch.

In case you were wondering, the best part of getting a new couch, at least as far as Atlee and Greeley are concerned, is when your father moves the old couch onto the front porch and says, "Go ahead and jump on it girls."

Greeley Turns Two and We Go to the Gettysburg Fireman's Carnival to Celebrate.

I'm sorry I haven't been around as often. Shea's home for the summer. It requires some determination to wrestle the computer from him. On the bright side, Shea's on the computer, Atlee and Greeley are watching TV, and my house is a lot cleaner than usual.

Greeley turned two yesterday! The big discussion before hand was that two was pretty big. Two was soooo big it meant no more nursing. In the past, I always felt a certain nostalgia when I weaned a child. I wasn't quite sure if Rich and I would have more, and would this be the last child I nursed? Yeah. Not feeling that so much this time since I'll be nursing another in five months.



We celebrated Greeley's birthday with one of her favorite dinners: pasta, pesto, grilled chicken and garlic toast. However, dinner was just a prerequisite to the good stuff, her birthday cake. All day yesterday we got to hear about how it was her birthday and her birthday clearly meant birthday cake. After cake, we headed off to the Gettysburg Fireman's Carnival with Pete and Amy.

The ferris wheel was very impressive as we approached.

Atlee wanted to ride the ferris wheel and Rich asked if I wanted to go with her. Not thinking about it, I said sure. As we ascended, I remembered I am afraid of heights. I did manage to wrench my hand from the center pole long enough to take this picture of the carnival from above.

Atlee moved on to the flying bee ride. She loved it.

Greeley took a tour on the cars. She liked it at first, but then the cars went faster and faster and she didn't like it so much any more. There may have been some scared crying. What's a birthday without a little terror, right?

Uncle Pete bought both girls the giant lollipops that are the size of their heads. He also won the birthday girl a stuffed horse.

In the mean time, Shea managed to ride some rides with Uncle Pete. Then he found the game he wanted to play as the prize was a light saber.


Happy Birthday Greeley. And Happy Birthday to two people who share her birthday, Uncle John R. and Small Pines (formerly known as City Mouse.) Now, if you'll excuse me, there's an 8 year old hovering over me and breathing down my neck.

Gettysburg Family Art

In the spirit of the Gettysburg Festival, starting this week, I've decided to share a few pieces of art from around the Gettysburg Family household.

First is a landscape by my brother Bob. I love it. It's at the top of our stairs as you walk into the upstairs living room.

Next is a painting my Mom and Dad brought back from China for me. It's also at the top of the stairs. I guess I need pretty pictures to motivate me to walk up the stairs.

Please forgive the flash glare on the following piece. It's my garage sale ballerina. I purchased it for $10 at a garage sale in the midst of even poorer days. After I bought it, I spent the next four hours dreading what my husband would say when he learned I had spent $10!! on a piece of art. He got home, saw it and said, "It's nice." There's a lesson in there about trying to anticipate others' reactions.

Last up is just one piece from a whole collection. I like to call it "Greeley's Crayon on Freshly Painted Wall." Not to be confused with her "Ink or Marker on Upholstered Chairs."

2009 Gettysburg Fire Department Carnival

Hello again. It's that time of year again. The time when my Google searches based on "Gettysburg Carnival" sky rocket. So, to make it easier for everyone, the Carnival this year will be Tuesday, June 23 to Saturday, June 27, 2009. This information is compliments of the Gettysburg Fire Department.

In other news, don't forget the Gettysburg Festival. This year's dates are June 18- June 28. This festival offers all sorts of different events: film, music, art, dance, and on and on. I'm pretty excited about lots of activities for kids. Then, Rich and I are hoping to go see Jake Boritt's 759: The Boy Scouts of Harlem . But, since we haven't reserved tickets yet, I maybe shouldn't encourage too many of you to see it quite yet.

Where I Ramble and May or May Not Have a Point.

We'll start this post with a picture of some pretty flowers. Because one of the many things I love about summer is having fresh flowers around the house. Rich and the girls went out to a friend's house yesterday and came home with these flowers for me. I have no idea what they are, but they make me happy.

We'll then move onto the rambling part of this post. I've been sort of mulling the seed of this post since we first told someone we were expecting a fourth child. Rich and I usually keep a pregnancy quiet for the first three months or so. With this pregnancy we each told a close friend here. I told Amy, because I had to explain why I was turning down her offers to go out for a girls' night out. Amy responded with, "Congratulations!" Rich told Pete, who has been one of his best friends since they were teenagers. Pete responded with, "Are you f**king serious?"

Over the last few months, I've noticed that when people discover I'm expecting number four, the responses seem to fall into either the "Congratulations" category or the "Are you f**king serious?" category. Rambling forward to last night. Rich and I went out to dinner, without children. After a lovely dinner, as we were heading out, Rich saw an acquaintance in the bar section of the restaurant. I was waiting by the exit, ready to leave. The acquaintance asked how Rich and the kids were doing, and Rich mentioned we were expecting number four. At which point, the woman seated with acquaintance, a complete stranger, says, "Don't you know what causes that?"

Now, a few points in the interest of fairness. First, Rich found it amusing and laughed. He was not offended at all. Secondly, she had had a few cocktails. I've discovered over the course of three and a half pregnancies a little information about people who have been drinking. It turns out that they are not nearly as witty or amusing as they think they are when you haven't been drinking. [I don't think this revelation applies to me when I've been drinking though. I'm pretty sure I'm every bit as pretty and amusing as I think I am. ] Thirdly, I'm a bit flush with hormones right now. I am willing to admit I might be a bit more sensitive than I would otherwise be. However, all those points aside, I found I was not amused. I was not amused at all.

So the summary of all this rambling, I guess, is this: When someone tells you they are expecting another family member, the appropriate response is ALWAYS, "Congratulations."

This has been a Gettysburg Family etiquette lesson. Next week we'll cover no elbows on the table or speaking with your mouth full. Please feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.

Farewell Mountain House.

The closing on the Mountain House went through this morning. We'll certainly miss some things about living there. We won't miss some other things so much. Like when I had to put chains on the car so I could drive Shea a mile down the mountain to the bus stop. Not missing that so much. Or realizing I was out of milk and that it would take me an hour to make the round trip trek for a gallon of it. Or when the new owners mentioned they had been up at the house clearing brush and found one sixteen foot black snake and two copperhead snakes, one a baby and one three feet long. I'm not going to miss the snakes so much.

Cape May Vacation Rental

Did you hear we went to Cape May this weekend? That picture up there? One of my new favorites.

This one of Shea playing in the sand is also one of my new favorites.

Greeley didn't like the ocean, but she loved the sand. Luckily all this ocean and sand were available one block from the vacation house. The house was located on Stockton Avenue- a super easy walk to the beach. But I've decided the photos on the rental listing don't really do this house justice. It was absolutely beautiful. See for yourself.

A cozy porch for visiting on a warm summer's night. When we arrived in Cape May on Friday, it was just before an incredible thunder storm. Rich and I sat on the porch and enjoyed the lightning show.

The rental web site also doesn't show this tremendous dining room table. Look at how little Greeley looks eating her snack. And we all know she is a big girl, not a little girl. Certainly not a baby.


And now I know what I want my kitchen in Gettysburg to look like. It doesn't though. It probably won't anytime soon. But this kitchen was pretty darned nice. And oh so modern.

Somehow Rich and I were lucky enough to get the bedroom with a whirlpool in the bathroom.

Perhaps it's because the kids' bunk room was right next door.


The kids had their own bathroom. Actually each bedroom had its own bathroom.

This was the wet bar on the third floor. I suppose you wouldn't want to walk all the way down to the kitchen to get a drink some days.

And yes the house was really, really nice. But that's not the best feature. The best feature is by far its location a block from the beach. Or at least that's what Shea and Atlee said.

And believe it or not, this was not a paid promotion. Although I'm open to the possibility. I'm even open to the possibility of reviewing other vacation homes on other beaches. Any vacation home owning readers on Lake Winnipesaukee need a review? Contact me. We'll talk.