Images of Autumn in New Hampshire

It snowed this morning! Snow!? I do realize some parts of the country have been getting snow for a bit now, but it's just a tad too early.. that means the color is going to fade from the trees and the world is going to be very brown/grey for quite a while. I love the white of winter, the greens of summer and spring and the brights of fall, but I really could live without the between seasons of mucky grey/brown.

Hope your world is colorful!

xoxo~

Abbie

Summer...

My nephew 7.15.08

I have been enjoying the simplier things and quiet moments. OK, I am lying. My husband would have snorted loudly when he read that. Actually, as much as I would love to settle down and just breathe, my family stresses me out. To the point of an ocular migraine yesterday morning. Mind you, I do love my family, but for some reason, I get quite flustered when everyone is around. Take dinner the other evening. I had my brothers over with their families and my mom. There were only 13 of us, not that many considering there are usually 6 at our table every night. It ended with my 9 year old son projectile vomiting all over my 'clean for the moment' kitchen. Uuuhh??? Why? It was a difficult evening anyway, but why? Why must it end so? Are anyone else's 'perfect' family moments and summer get together's foolishly ridiculous too?? Anyone? Or are all the photos I see on your blogs the 'true' story? Romantic, fabulous, and sans vomit?

Oh well. Our pack is going to my aunt's house later, I'll try to sneak some pictures for you. Her gardens are to die for and the house, oh the house. The barn, the buildings, just about the most perfect 200+ year old New England farm you have ever seen.

Hope you are relaxing and breathing.

Local goodies that my daughters eat by the fistful.

A few pages I had created for a collaborative book project a couple of years ago. They seemed 'spring like' to me when I was brousing through my image file.. It snowed here yesterday. SNOWED!! So much for Spring coming early this year for NH. Our driveway is mucky mess with 4-5" of slushy mud and the yard still has 3 feet of snow on it. The apple trees are still buried and there is really no signs of Spring except for the slight blurring of the bare trees, as the buds start to grow. 6 more weeks and we should be in 'mud' season! Yeeeehhaaa!!

Left in the dark..

Z with his Nana

It always seems like nothing ever goes right.. does that happen to anyone else? I spent yesterday morning running errands, picking up cake fixings and new snowboarding gloves for Z. (His ninth birthday was yesterday..) When I got home, about 2 PM, we had no power. No oven, no TV, no vacuum, no laundry. Oh! It'll force me to take a break, I said to myself. Ha! The girls were nuts and there seemed to constantly be one screaming for hours.. I couldn't make Z's Birthday cake, (my mom baked it at her house finally) And, although it wasn't too cold here, (about 40 degrees) the house cooled off considerably and once the novelty of no electricity wore off, it wasn't fun anymore. I decorated Z's cake by candle light. It was a good thing we didn't have lights because it wasn't pretty.. the power stayed out until 11 pm. Once it kicked back on, of course ,we lit up like a Christmas Tree due to T flicking switches all evening trying to turn the lights on. So, I got up, turned off everything, and woke up this morning to a horrid mess of melted candles, empty pizza boxes and a spattering toys everywhere.

T is peekin'.. she helped him blow out candles..

But, on a brighter note, I am so excited about the response I got the swap post below!! Yeah! As soon as I can, I'll let everyone all the tidbits of info.. hang in there with me, everything will be just fine! As said on Seinfeld, "Serenity Now!"

The sun is shining, the snow is melting, and it is just a gorgeous day!

Smiles,

Abbie

Thank you, Snow Globes and the Winners Are....

Hi everyone! I hope all is well out there in the great wide world. First, I want to thank everyone who left such wonderful, supportive comments on my last few posts. I have very few friends that I see regularly, and was nice to have your support and prayers. It feels like I have some special, fabulous friends out there and you are all fantastic! Thank you!!

Our world feels like a snow globe right now. As if someone had picked up our tiny universe, shook it violently and put it back on the shelf to settle. Occasionally, we get picked up again, shaken, and now we are waiting for things to reach some sort of routine. My mother-in-law is staying with us for the time being. There is no other place we would rather her be, and the children absolute adore having her at the table and to talk to. She and her husband were married 52 years. Her world not only has been shaken, but completed blown apart. My husband's parents are/were his best friends, and although he his doing well, the loss of his father is the most painful blow he has ever experienced. Also, to top off the list, my husband's close friend, lost his father on Saturday. There will not be a service for my father-in-law until the spring, but we couldn't avoid a funeral, as we will be attending the one for his friend's dad tomorrow. Fate arrives in three's. I hadn't mentioned it before, but two weeks ago, I attended a funeral for a close friend of my mother's family.

God willing, the rest of the season will be calm and quiet. I have been struggling with all the changes to our home and routine. The dining room/playroom is now a bedroom and my craft/business closet is now a jumbled heap in the room above our garage. It is hard to welcome another in our home and not upset the delicate balancing act we are all doing. Family has been visiting every evening and the house has been a buzz with laughter, tears, and ciaos for close to a week now. The children are getting by the best of any of us, I think, as they don't understand the recent events very well. I have dreamed of a three generation home for years. It seems to be best for the children and helps keep the family close and safe. Now that it is here, the changes are fast and furious, but I think, after things have calmed we will all be OK.

Now, enough whining.. I let my husband and mother-in-law pick the winning numbers randomly and they picked #'s two and seven. So.. Mary will be receiving the icicles and Rhondamum will be getting the craft basket... thank you for all the comments and if I had to guess, my shop will closed for sometime. I do hope to post about my crafty adventures and have more giveaways. It makes me so happy to be able to send off pretty packages to others.. perhaps it's time to join some of the great swaps out there in bloggerville. I hope everyone is appreciating and loving their family, enjoy! (Mary and Rhonda, I just need your snail mail addresses emailed to me..)

♥ Abbie

The Discipline and Exercise Routine of a Coke Addict..

I started an exercise routine the other week. I got up in the morning and before the kids woke up, did sit ups, push ups (girly ones) and leg lifts. I was sore for three days and haven't done it again. That pretty much sums up my fitness program. Does anyone else a problem staying inspired? It is so hard to keep up the momentum, but my belly is paying a fair price for my lack of enthusiasm. As some of you know, I am a very petite woman, and am not over weight. Just ridiculously out of shape. As I get older, and with each additional child, it seems like I have body parts sagging I wasn't even aware that I had! Frustration hits and the only kisses that help squash the pain are Hershey's.


It's time for a revolution! A fitness, nutrition revolution! More Water, must drink more water. OK, I need to drink any quantity of water. Right now I drink none. Zip. Zero. I am a Coke addict. Coca-Cola, that is. The original, no diet or caffeine free for me! It is my carbonated, cold coffee sans the creamer. Deep therapy and water. Inner peace. I'll start tomorrow.

I stepped out of bed this morning and was already fretting about tomorrow. As I sneaked around so I wouldn't wake up T, I saw this view out my bathroom window. The master bath is open to our bedroom. (the toilet has its own water closet for privacy) It made me breathe. Took a breath, and calmed right down. It snowed almost all day yesterday and left a lovely dusting of white on the trees. Our home is 'minimally ' decorated, but with views out of windows like this, who needs 'stuff'? Besides, less dusting. So, tomorrow I will be thankful for the family, the friends, the food and the time, but today, I am thankful for my bathroom.

So far, the kitchen floors have been scrubbed, the cabinets cleaned, the house dusted, vacuumed, organized. I reshuffled the formal living room's bookcases, put away all of the bits and pieces that had strayed from their places, and have been working on a time schedule for baking, cooking and roasting. The grocery store is my next stop after blog land, followed by table shuffling, turkey cleaning (16 pounds), stuffing prep, and all the china needs a quick rinse. The linens need to be pulled out and pressed if time allows, and the children need to be cleaned.

And, unlike Martha, I don't have a slew of staff to help. Although child labor laws don't count here do they?

I hope everyone has a lovely holiday and stops to breathe for a moment and enjoy. I took my solitary breath this morning and probably won't breath again 'til Friday.

Wrinkles in Time..

This is a post I pulled from one of my old blogs.. I reread it this evening and it made me laugh outloud! I am now 32 and I have gracefully accepted my wrinkles. My face is not tan, and I use only one facial mosturizer.

"Hit thirty and everything went to hell in a handbag. WRINKLES! Arrhhhagghh! There are wrinkles everywhere! They sneak in, a small almost invisible line and WHHALLLOOPP! CRACK!! a large fissure has taken its place overnight. Actually, I am fairly wrinkle free if I remain completely expressionless. No more smiling. Or frowning. Looks of confusion. No more glaring at my son.The preservation has begun. At what age is it OK to have wrinkles? 50? 40? Did those few years of sneaking cigarettes from my mothers purse hurt my skin so badly? How about sun tanning? Do I need to be pale and washed out for an eternity? Or is orange better from the fake tanners? I truly look best with some sun my face. I think most people do. A natural glow. Provided by mother nature herself. Does mother nature really hurt us so badly that we have to use four different products to cover our skin from her? What about fresh air? Vitamin D? Screw Wrinkles! If I have a few maybe they will be unnoticed on my bare, tan face! HA!"

Nothing ever goes perfect!

(This entry is NOT for the squeemish..) Why does something always have to go wrong when so many things are going right? My new babe (2 weeks old today!) has slept 7 hours straight twice now, and the other nights sleeps very well. (allowing her ever grateful mother a full nights rest almost every night since she was born!) Miraculous, I know... gotta love formula! Sorry lactation supporters! My milk dried up with no problems, my 8 yr old has opted to continue daycamp for the summer, (I gave him the choice to stay home and play with his sisters instead) The weather is gorgeous! Hot, but fabulous! (I think the temp outside right now is 95 degrees) Up until the other day I felt great; rested, thinning at a good pace, starting to fit into pre-preg clothes, enjoying my husband home on vaca, and SLAM! I wake up, bleeding heavy (it had almost stopped) and with pain and discomfort. Almost 2 weeks after the birth. Not pretty. (if you don't like blood STOP reading...) The doctor removed some hefty blood clots. Not a pretty thing, or comfortable for that matter. I now have blood clotting meds and an ultrasound scheduled for fri. to see that everything is ok. WHY can not ONE of my pregnancies go SMOOTHLY????? From start to finish?? What the heck? Is this Mother Nature's way of telling me something? Don't worry Mo-Nature, I'm not having anymore! Promise! Got the message!
Anyway.. thanks for listening.. I needed to vent..

Wakeful and Dreamin'...

I could not sleep last night. I think my eyes finally closed around 1 am, and I was up with the sun (right now its lightout at 5:40 am). Thoughts kept streaming through my head. One was of a new idea I have for posting on my blog. I think from now on, when time allows, wether daily or weekly, I am going to post free 'clipart' type images from my 'stash' for people to utilize, download, enjoy or pass along. I had the most difficult time finding quality FREE images that I actually might want to apply to my art and my life. I hate to pay for anything if its avoidable, so I thought I'd pass along some love to my blog readers. So.. that will be my next post. The start to my free, LARGE format, Clipart Stash Share Campaign.
Also, I purchased the lastest edition of Somerset Life to read in the hospital after the baby comes. I couldn't wait that long!! It was calling for me from the bottom of my overnight bag.(which I packed the other day when I had the false labor) So, I think between the LARGE coffee frappe I had yesterday afternoon and the giddiness of all the new projects streaming through my head there was no sleep to be had by me last night.

If you are curious as to the image on the left, well.. that is a reminder to me of where I came from and where, my belly is going back too. Yep my girth went from that to this. Mind you, it took alot of coffee frappes.

;) Abbie

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False Labor

Well last night I thought it was the time. I got very excited, giddy actually. All smiles. Contractions had started! Every ten or 11 minutes. Uncomfortable, and semi regular. No go. It was FALSE LABOR. Geesh. How disappointing. But, it is a sign that perhaps FINALLY things are going to start moving. Downward, I hope, but at this point I'll take any direction this baby wants to go. My delivery is scheduled at the hospital for Friday the 15th. So, that is the LAST day that I'll have to wait. 6 days away. Its gonna kill me. Those 6 days are gonna go by slower than the past entire 9 months. tick. tick. tick. tick. tick.

DAMN IT! WE @#$%ING STINK!!

We have two wonderful little miniature pinchers (mind you, their names are Bonnie and Clyde). Small dogs, about 11 pounds each, look just like mini Dobermans. Well, they (led by the aggresive female) screamed under our deck and got a full attack of SKUNK spray. GOD DAMN IT, IT STINKS. The entire damn house. Luckily most of my products are already sealed in plastic and stored away. I'll have a person who HASn't been in the house to check them and see how they smell. I hate getting used to stink. I know I smell horribly, but I can't do a frickin' thing about it. MERRY STINKIN" CHRISTMAS!!!
>:( I hate smelling like skunk ass.

Just switched...

I was having problems with my header image being too large for my blog so I switched to Blogger Beta. Don't know if it was a good thing or not. I'll soon see. Why can't things just stay simple? Everything needs to be updated, improved, changed! If you have problems posting comments or seeing anything let me know. OOOoooo.. now I can label my posts... hmm.. we'll put this one under 'whinning'.

Guilt..

Why must we feel guilt? Guilt when things can't get done, or don't get done. Guilt when things don't happen, or we don't make them happen. Or when things are just down right out of our control. Take today for instance. My son is sick. Fever, sore throat, headache. But I am suppose to work on Friday. My one day a week that I have a 'clock in, clock out' J.O.B. so, I called in. Like any good mother. I can not and will not expect my mom to watch 3 kids. (one 5 months, one 17 months and one SICK) I just can't do that to her. she would probably say yes, but that is NOT the point. Before an employee I am a MOM. A caregiver. An 'I-can-make-you-feel-better-with-my-kisses' Momma. But I got such a guilt trip when I called. I think the exact quote was "I'll leave that decision on shoulders." Ouch. Why can't they just say, "You stay with your child where you belong, and we'll get by just fine." I am there to pick up slack when others are sick or on vacation, why can't they be there for me? Now, they will cover, because I didn't give them a choice. But why do I fell guilty? I shouldn't, should I?
Ok.. I must go care for my children.
:) Abbie

uugghh..

Welp.. the morning sickness and fatigue have finally kicked in. Yeeash. 6 weeks. Can't mother nature give me a break? Just with one of my children? Please? I'm not asking for much.. just to not feel like I'm gonna hurl all day.

I suppose I should feel blessed. I am bakin' a bun. Creating life. Adding to our family. I just wish I felt like tdoing something. All the aprons in my shop have sold. I really should make more, people seem to like them. But, good lord. I can't even get out of my own way. By 11 am I'm exhausted and just want to curl up and go to sleep.

OK, enough whinning. I have projects to finish and a guest book to finish assembling. Have a loverly.

:) Abbie