Monday's Project

Taigen's been chomping at the bit to get back into his home renovation projects. This surprises me since he's been basically doing home renovation trying to find all of these frozen pipes with Dan!

Slowly but surely, he's chipping away at these bare walls (accented with nail holes!!!). Monday was slated to be the day for our bathroom. Fortunately for Taigen it is a small bathroom (smaller than the kids'). After snowblowing and shoveling, he got right to work taking off hardware and clearing out the bathroom. I headed off to the guest room for school. When we came back my bathroom had been transformed with just one simple coat of paint. It went from being dark and streaked to light and fresh. Taigen chose a very faint blue. Boy did it look drastically different from the dark tan that was up!

After lunch and a trip to Home Depot, he put on a second coat. Then he meticulously washed off all the hardware. Our former owners never removed any of it when they painted (including the mirror) so they were pretty splotched.

I went off for dinner with a friend of mine from church and when I came back, Taigen had put everything back on, hung pictures and cleaned up his mess. What a guy!

I'm sorry I cannot get a better picture of the bathroom, but like I said, it's small. Fortunately, you can see the pretty shower curtain (a steal of a bargain) in the mirror. I'm still deciding on/looking for some items to go on the white shelves, any suggestions?

Storm Pictures

Just look at what we woke up to today! Taigen said we got at least 13 inches.

Snowed In...Again

It seems that all the significant snow storms are hitting on either Sundays or Wednesdays this winter so far. Last night, the weatherman was forecasting snow starting at about 3 am. today. I don't know when it started because like any sane person, I was sleeping, but what I do know is that there was already a bunch of snow on the ground this morning when I woke up.

We were able to squeak in Sunday school and a morning service, but when we left the church the parking lot looked like it hadn't even been plowed. It was accumulating fairly quickly. Taigen canceled our evening services.

It's been a restful afternoon and so peaceful to just sit here and watch the snow come down while sipping my coffee.

Here are some pictures from the back door. I have to throw in a disclaimer regarding the deck photos. There was some snow already on the deck before this snow came, but still...there's a ton on there and more to come! Don't you just love New England winters? Such a beautiful picture out there.

Carolina's Courage

When we were still up in Maine we would go to the Dyer Library book sale every summer. Mom Mac worked there and would always tell us when it was. It was at one of those sales that I purchased several well-loved books to read to the kids when they got older. Yesterday Shaylen got out her stool, pulled Carolina's Courage off the top shelf and brought it to me to read. The cover is not appealing to the eye as it lost its dust jacket years ago, but the story was still enthralling to Marshall and Shaylen. We read five chapters last night. Since the twins were pestering me this morning with questions regarding Carolina and the outcome of the story, we sat down and finished it after breakfast.

You can still find this book for your young ones here or here, and read more about the author here. She has written so many good books!

From the inside it reads: "This is the story of Carolina Putnam and the doll that was her treasure. She loved it more than anything else in the world. She knew that she would never part with it, nor did she until -- but that is the story." Written by Elizabeth Yates. Illustrated with simple ink drawings by Nora S. Unwin. 96 pages.

Brrrr! It's Happened Again

We had record lows here this past week. Before we went to bed Thursday night we were a bit concerned about the laundry room because we haven't gotten the new insulated door on it yet. It was supposed to get super-cold overnight and we didn't want the pipes freezing and exploding like last time, especially since Dan, Nate and Taigen had just fixed it! We took the necessary precautions by placing a small oil heater (don't worry...it was safe) in the room to keep it warm.

I had worked hard all week to get ready for seven very special guests: Brennen and Lydia and their five cute munchkins were going to come for dinner on Friday and stay the night and spend a leisurely Saturday with us. What a special treat.

When Taigen woke me up yesterday morning, I knew something was up. He was supposed to be at church already since I knew he had wanted to get to church fairly early. He said, "We have another frozen pipe. The heat isn't working on the main floor again." I groaned. How could that pipe in the laundry room have frozen again? Taigen ran to church to get some things so he could study at home.

Thankfully, the heat upstairs and in the classroom were working so we were able to have school yesterday in a comfortable climate. Taigen paced like a caged animal, checking here and there looking for the culprit all day. I'm afraid he didn't get any studying done.

We called the Jorgensens and had to cancel. It was so disappointing, but we knew it was for the best. It would not be relaxing for them to have to clean up a mess should our pipe burst.

Dan Perdue graciously came over again after work and went through the house with Taigen to find the guilty pipe. Only after feeling along every pipe and eventually cutting through drywall in the laundry room did they finally find it. Thankfully it wasn't frozen hard and a bit of hair dryer magic loosened up the slush to get the heat working again. God is so good! Had that pipe been frozen rock hard and then exploded, that mess would have been so hard to clean up. It was in a very hard-to-reach spot: in the wall behind the dryer, running between the main part of the house and the garage/guest suite addition. Taigen had to lay on his belly and shove insulation in there with some sort of tool.

Poor Dan, he was at our house until close to 11 o'clock! All he would accept from us was a piece of my chocoloate chip cookie dough cheesecake that I had made for the Jorgys. I sent one home to his wife as payment for letting us borrow her handyman hubby. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did giving it.

Thankfully our living room is warm again and hopefully (PLEASE!) all of the non-insulated pipes have finally been sufficiently taken care of so that this won't happen again.

4 Pokes + 4 Pokes = Lots of Tears

We just got back from Marshall and Shaylen's Five Year check-up. This was the first time they have been to the doctor in a while. It was also the first time they have been to this doctor. She was a gem and the kids loved her. She made the mistake of asking Marshall if he could draw. He nodded his head and she asked, "What do you like to draw?" You know the answer: airplanes. Then she made a second mistake. She asked him if he could draw a simple airplane on a piece of paper. Pshaw! He started drawing and proceeded to do one of his infamous drawings and wowed her. She said she would hang it up. She liked Shaylen's picture of a sunflower and promised to hang that up as well.

I'm thankful to say that they both are developing very well. Weights and heights are just over the the 75% mark and are proportionately great. The doctor said that they are speaking well (we all knew Shaylen could!), developing well both mentally and physically, and are very healthy. It was a great visit and I'm very impressed with the doctor.

However, the visit had to end with immunizations. Both Marshall and Shaylen don't remember having their previous ones so it was a new experience. I made the mistake of having Shaylen go first AND keeping Marshall in the room while she got them. (Dumb, Crystal...truly dumb.) Shaylen put on a brave face with her first two, but cried out with the 3rd and 4th. Poor baby. Even I cried! And then, it was Marshall's turn. He wanted none of it. There was a bit of a struggle and he started crying way before they even got the needles out, but it got done quickly. The good news is that they won't need pokes again for 6 years. Hallelujah! I think it's harder for me to watch all of it.

Other than four sore arms, the kids are back to their cheerful selves and have two Band-Aids, two stickers and one pencil to show for their check-up.

Shaylen's Stats:
43 pounds
44 1/2 inches tall

Marshall's Stats:
47 pounds
46 inches tall

Little Adults

Shaylen wanted so badly to help me yesterday. I was busy making a huge pot of potato soup and she offered to help cut up the veggies. Even though it made me very edgy, I allowed her to cut up the celery with one of my duller knives. She was ever so careful and did a wonderful job. It was cute to watch her chop off the end, set down the knife and pick up the small piece and place it in the measuring cup. In the time that it took me to chop up six cups of potatoes, one cup of carrots, and one cup of onions, she diligently filled her one cup with celery. What a good and faithful helper!

Marshall meanwhile was typing away at the computer. He loves typing big nonsense words, but loves making it appear that he is typing up letters and emails like Mommy and Daddy. I was able to download the font their curriculum is in so he can make his "emails" look like his school papers.

Speaking of school, we have successfully completed the 2nd quarter of school. I am so very thankful and pleased with the twins' hard work. I always think they are doing a great job, but when I look at the total number of points accumulated at the end of the quarter, I realize that they did do a good job! Of all the reading and evaluation papers that were to be recorded for the kids' Beginnings class (Reading, Phonics, etc.), Shaylen only missed one point and Marshall only missed two. If grades were given, they would both have gotten A's. Math & Bible are no different. It makes my heart so glad (and relieved!) to know that they are still eager to "go to school" and are excelling in their work.

Our New Red-Bellied Friend

A while back, Taigen mentioned that he saw a new bird at the feeder. When he described it to me, I thought it was a Downy Woodpecker. This one is black and white with a small patch of red on his head. Taigen insisted that it was a large patch of red on the head. He looked in the handy-dandy bird book and pointed to the Red-Bellied Woodpecker. I told him that we've never had one at the feeder before. This was exciting news! We spotted one that same week and when I went to go get the camera and turn it on, the batteries decided that it was time to be charged. I missed him entirely!

I had noticed this morning that there was some activity at the feeder. The Tufted Titmice and Blue Jays were going back and forth and the Juncos were gathering up leftovers on the ground. I looked a bit more closely one time and saw our new friend swinging on the suet! I grabbed the camera and started snapping. He is so big and beautiful! The pics of him on the suet didn't turn out well, but he flew to a tree and was still long enough for me to grab a couple of shots. I'm delighted he came back!

2009 In With a "Bang"

Last week we noticed that the main floor of the house was not heating like it should. The upstairs and guest room were heating just fine so we were a bit confused as to what the problem could be. Our friend Gary came over on Friday morning to check things out but couldn't find the problem. He thought that there was possibly a slush dam in one of our pipes since there were parts in the basement that weren't as insulated as he would like. He showed some things to Taigen to help remedy the chill in the basement. Valuable advice!

We put a space heater in the coldest part of the basement (the storage area) as a quick fix until Taigen would have time to get down there and fix the insulation issues. On Friday and Saturday, we were in Massachusetts. Our hope was that when we came back, things would have returned back to normal. Thankfully, (I say now) it hadn't. It was still about 54 degrees.

On Taigen's day off, he closed up the bulkhead door really well and made sure that there was no draft coming through. On a whim, he thought he would check the laundry room which is actually in the garage. The garage and guest room were an addition and the former owners put the washer and dryer in this little heated area right off the kitchen. The room is never really what I would call warm, but I think that's due to a hollow door. (We definitely need to replace that with something more efficient!) Taigen checked the heat register in the laundry room. It was stone cold. After feeling around outside, he found a gap between the wall and the siding that he could stick his hand up into. There was NO insulation. No wonder the pipes froze! Taigen fixed the insulation issue and we put the space heater in the room and shut the door. Maybe that would move our "slushalanche!" Boy did it.

We left to run to the store and were gone about an hour. When we came back there was water flowing out of the laundry room and down into the garage. I guess the space heater defrosted it, eh? Taigen ran and turned off the water and I grabbed the wet/dry vac and started vacuuming. It was a mess.

Our good friend Dan Perdue came over right after work and brought his son Nate. He took a look at it and was willing to fix things right then and there! After a quick trip to Home Depot, and him pulling out his special tools (I have no clue which ones they were, but Taigen loved them), they fixed the entire register for just under $30. Maybe to someone who does this all the time it would not seem like a big deal, but to us, it meant the world!

We have so many things to be thankful for:

1. Friends. We are so thankful for these men who know what to do (they are a wealth of information!!!) and are willing to do it. It is so true that a church is made up of many members and each of us have our own talents to use for Him. I don't know if Dan and Nate had any other plans on Monday night, but we're sure thankful they dropped everything and came to our aid. It was nice of his wife, Karen, to share her knight in shining...uh...blue jeans.

2. The leak was in the addition, not the main part of the house. All the flooding went to the garage and not into the basement where the storage was. Surely there would have been damage to our stuff.

3. We were only gone about an hour. Any longer, and Taigen's garage would have been an ice rink. OR things could have defrosted while we were in Massachusetts and caused a lot more damage & run up our water bill!

4. The cost: $30 and a batch of cookies for the guys. There was never a happier $30 spent! We were worried that the problem with our heat would require so much more to fix.

God has been and continues to be SO good to us.

Massachusetts Trip

Jason's birthday is December 29th and this year he turned 30! Joni confided in us when they were here for the kids' birthday that she was wanting to throw a surprise party for him. It worked out beautifully for us to go down this past weekend. Taigen worked on Monday and we both worked on Thursday (New Year's Day) so that we could head down on Friday evening and stay until Saturday afternoon. We called and "asked" Joni if we could come and spend some time with them. She said that she would "ask" Jason if that was okay. Since we've done this before, he wasn't suspicious. Aren't we sneaky?

Enzo was so excited for Marshall and Shaylen to come. The twins were so excited to go and play too, but also thrilled that they could sleep in the "spare room" like Anne of Green Gables did when she stayed with Aunt Jo at Beechwood. Cute! I love Marshall and Enzo's matching jammies and Curious Georges. Don't you?

Taigen packed the snow stuff so that he and Jason could go take the kids sledding while Joni and I stayed back in order to ensure "Julia got her nap" on Saturday morning.(and we could secretly prepare for the 40+ guests that were going to arrive). The guests started pouring in at noon.

Taigen said that when they pulled up Jason noticed cars that belonged to people he knew and only then knew that something was up. Boy was he surprised to see a house full of friends! We hope he had a wonderful time. It was a blessing to be part of the festivities. God has given us such wonderful friends.

New Year's Eve Fun

You won't be shocked when I tell you that we had an additional storm on New Year's Eve. Seems like they always hit on church days, huh? The storm wasn't too bad so we continued on with our plans for the day. We went over to the Dustin's (a family from our church) home for a get together and we enjoyed the company of several other families. We brought along the kids' snow stuff and they went outside and went sledding with the older kids. They had so much fun! I think the older kids enjoyed "babysitting" them too.

That night we had a very small group of folks that braved the storm to come to church. Afterwards we pulled out the ping-pong balls & table, the foosball table, the board games and whipped out some munchies. I waited and watched the kids to see how long they were going to last. We knew they wouldn't last until midnight! We had brought two cars so that Taigen could stay late and I could go home and get the kids into bed. Surprisingly, they ran around as if it was only 7 o'clock and groaned when I finally decided to take them home shortly after 10. It was such a wonderful time with our church family. There was laughter, hollering, smack-talking (from the men at the table!) and kids running around and playing. Good memories!

The Dress

Aunt Karen must've had fun doing froofy-girly things with me when they were here this fall because she went home and proceeded to sew a dress for Shaylen. It truly was a labor of love and you can tell with every little stitch. The jacket is reversible (so it doesn't have to be worn just at Christmas) and Karen's new sewing machine even did these tiny snowflake stitches all along the hem of the dress (I'm so sorry that I didn't get that part in the photo! You're going to have to trust me on that one.). The details are amazing.

Shaylen wore the dress tonight to sing her class' part of the Christmas program. She looked like a million bucks and we're so thankful for the beautiful dress. (NOTE: Yes, the dress is wrinkly...that's not Karen's fault nor my neglect. Unfortunately the kids are still in a 5-point harness carseat so the seat belt comes up through the middle of the legs. No matter how much they look pressed, neat and ready for church, the seat belt destroys all my work. Sorry!)

If You Give A Kid A Gift Card

Uncle Kyle, Eli and Quinten gave the kids gift cards to Target this year and boy did the kids have fun spending it. We went down every toy aisle! Shaylen had picked out a stuffed animal and an Easy Bake Oven and was content with her choice until Marshall and I rounded the corner and spotted a huge stuffed dog. It was love at first sight and Marshall wanted to spend his gift card on that. Shaylen immediately asked him, "Marshall, will you share that with me?"

I was examining Shaylen's stuffed zebra and I noticed a small tear in its neck. Taigen told her that they needed to go and trade it for another one. They took off again for the toy department while Marshall and I looked in another section. Apparently she had contemplated her choice in gifts and changed her mind considerably because when she and Taigen rounded the corner to where Marshall and I were, she also had a huge stuffed dog, just like Marshall's. It was hilarious. They were so elated over their dogs and just about as elated to purchase it by themselves! They have been playing with them ever since. Shaylen's dog is named "Ruff" and Marshall's is named Cadillac (after Dad's dog in CO). The dogs are just about as big as they are, but not too big that they can't sleep with them. Thanks Uncle Kyle, Eli and Quinten!

Christmas Day Fun

We had such a relaxing and wonderful Christmas. The day got off to a good note with Cinnamon Sticky Buns! Yum. This is a tradition in our house and we enjoyed every morsel. Another tradition in our house is reading the Christmas story. Marshall and Shaylen have a beautiful book quoting the Luke 2 passage with beautiful illustrations in it. Taigen read this and then we sang. It's so nice to have our kids join us.

We leisurely opened up gifts (one at a time), inserted batteries, assembled, oohed and aahed over every gift. We got really spoiled this year (but then, we do every year!).

Christmas day was a beautiful day so we pulled on our snow gear and went outside to play. Sunday's snowstorm brought wet snow that was perfect for a snowman. It also made great snowballs. Yes, we had a snowball fight, but I must've packed one a bit too big because when I pegged Shaylen with it, she cried! Ooops. We packed down the snow slide again and shoved Marshall off to see if the wet snow helped him go any further. It did and even though he wasn't zooming, he did finally make it to the end of the slide!


Later on we had a yummy dinner, enjoyed a few phone calls to family and even got in a video call to Zambia. It was a full and wonderful day.

Early Christmas Program

A while back Taigen suggested us going as a family to a local assisted living place to put on a Christmas program. We have a dear couple that comes to our church that just moved to one a couple of months back and we thought it would be neat to go and sing for them there. The programs director thought it would be wonderful so we started rehearsing with the kids. We also thought it would be really neat if we could get one of our families from church to come with us. The family we asked is very musical and they've done this kind of thing in the past. Could we combine and do our musical programs together this year? Thankfully and eagerly they agreed! The wife plays piano (and helps me at church quite a bit), the husband plays trombone and teaches music at a local school, and the kids play strings: violin, cello and viola. They are amazing to listen to, but what makes them even more amazing is their incredibly sweet spirit and willingness to help. Marshall and Shaylen LOVE their teenage daughter and are frequently begging to have her come and babysit.

We pulled together about an hour's worth of music for last night. We traded off and on and even got the residents to sing some of their favorites with us. At one point, a dear lady shouted out, "I think the little girl wants to sing Away in a Manger!" Taigen said, "In fact she does and will do so a little bit later in our program!" As promised, Shaylen and I sang all three verses of Away in a Manger (I don't think she would have done it by herself). I picked her up and put her right by the microphone so all could hear her sweet, grovelly voice. (Those of you who've heard her know that when she talks and sings she tends to always sound like she's just getting over a cold. It's so cute!) She did a tremendous job of singing out and remembering every word. Taigen and I were practically bursting with joy! Marshall did his part safely behind a pole where he could avoid the strangers' eyes. Poor fearful Marshall. No worries, his day will come, we know.

It was a huge beautiful room (the dining area) and it had a beautiful Yamaha Clavinova digital baby grand piano to play on (is it too late to put that on my Christmas list?). We were so honored to be able to go and do this and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Hopefully it can become a wonderful Christmas tradition with our kids.

Better Late Than Never

Look who decided that gym class wasn't scary after all? Of course, it did have to occur during one of the very last sessions of gym class, and well after the class was full for the next session (and I didn't sign them up) but at least we took a very tiny baby step closer to full-blown participation in first grade, right?

Sunday's Storm Pics

After all was said and done, we got about 14-15 inches. It was so beautiful to wake up and see a fresh, new blanket of white on the world.

In With a Bang!

Winter is officially here and it has come in with a bang! The snow started in lightly this morning, but by the time we left church this morning, the snow was accumulating quite a bit. Taigen announced this morning that we were going to cancel the evening service. Travel home was slow.

All the weather stations had put out a severe storm watch starting at 6 pm tonight. That's hilarious because we've already gotten about 5-6 inches already. The worst part is still to come. We could get up to 14 inches of snow!

I've been enjoying it all afternoon from the comforts of my heated home. To my surprise the birds have been at the feeder all day! They are all fluffed up and cute. We've seen a woodpecker, the tufted titmice, chickadees and juncos.

Our deck is covered again. You'd never know I shoveled it yesterday. I found it funny that the snow is so wet and sticky that it is clinging to the decorative, spinning "thingy" Dad and Cathy gave us to hang up in our yard (what would you call this?).

The Christmas program is tentatively rescheduled for next Sunday evening depending on who all is still in town that is in the program and what the weather is like. There is another (smaller) storm scheduled for Christmas eve! I'm hoping to be able to do it this year, but in the meantime, I get in an extra week's worth of practice. Whew!

Snow Much Fun

Our choir was supposed to go to the Kittery Trading Post last night in order to do a brief program for the shoppers. Only problem is, we had a terrific storm blow in and dump about 6+ inches of snow on us starting in the late afternoon. It was beautiful to watch, but terrible to drive in. It normally takes Taigen about 20 minutes to get home. Last night it took him 55! I'm thankful we decided to cancel and stay inside last night.

When we got up this morning and looked outside, it was picture perfect! Taigen was up early this morning and was camped out in the guest room studying. I'm thankful he didn't go out driving in winter's wake.

After lunch we got on all of our snow stuff and went outside. Taigen's ensemble (parka and hat) makes him look like a logger from the North Pole, but his Maine friends would be proud. It's his "snow-blowin' outfit." I chuckle every time he pulls on that hat! At least it keeps his head warm. (Thanks, Steve Gauthier...I think.)

He pulled out the snow-blower and the kids and I grabbed our shovels. There was a lot of snow to move around, but thankfully it was light and fluffy. After all the work was done, we worked on the sled run. The snow had to be shifted around and packed down, but eventually we got one going. Taigen was a gem and piled up a huge mound of it in the middle of the yard in order to make the run longer and to get the kids going a bit faster. For some reason, Marshall never really got going, but Shaylen took off like a pro. Maybe it's because she doesn't weigh as much and just skims on the top?


This afternoon's activities were so much fun, but I had to pull myself away and go in and practice for the Christmas program. Marshall and Shaylen told me about a snowball fight they had with Daddy. I gave them big mugs of hot cocoa (Shaylen thinks the word "cocoa" is funny!) to defrost them after their frolic in the snow.

We're looking forward to tomorrow. Our calendar says we will have a Christmas program in the evening service, but a huge Nor'easter is blowing in and supposed to dump another 6-12" of snow starting at about 6 o'clock. This snow will be wet and heavy. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I'll keep you posted.

First Snow

We finally got our first snowfall. Yesterday morning it was snowing when I woke up and proceeded to snow most of the morning. It looked so pretty during the school day. Fortunately, I didn't have to concentrate on school as much as Marshall and Shaylen so I was able to watch it.

When Taigen came home we bundled the kids up and allowed them to go outside and help shovel. They love their new shovels that they got from the Bowmans for their birthday. I don't know how much help they were to Taigen, but they sure had fun.

After Taigen was done snowblowing the driveway, they pulled out their snow disks (more birthday presents) and tried them out. It was hard pulling them back indoors after that. It was the highlight of their day. They had to find out the best way to do both disks (soft and hard). Once they figured out the best methods, they flew along their path splendidly!

A friend from church told me about a sledding park in downtown Dover that is free. We'll have to take the kids there after more snow falls. According to the weather reports, that should be soon since the weather forecasters are predicting that we should get a dumping on Friday evening, again on Sunday and then more on Christmas eve! You've got to love winter in New England.