Ok, not really.  But, since I was not posting on here at the time I know that when I look back later I am going to miss some of the photos I didn’t include.  So here is a little reminder, to me, of Christmas ‘09.  Ross turned 6 and Francesca turned 3 this past December.

They really enjoyed their trip to visit Santa.

They made Gingerbread houses.

We had pouts.

We had smiles.

We had a fabulous Christmas! There is nothing like Christmas with little ones to bring out the wonder.

While I was on my self-imposed, not-on-purpose blogging break, lots of stuff happened.  One very important thing was that Ross had his karate test and earned two stripes on his belt.  It was his very first test and it was very official.  He didn’t know how he did until he went to his karate class the week following the test.  His Sensei had a little ceremony for the kids who tested and then congratulated Ross on earning two stripes. He then very officially added his stripes (just like orange duct tape - ha!) to his belt.

Here he is with his Sensei looking all proud.  Congratulations Ross - way to go!

I went to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday.  It was a bit chilly and the Market is nearing the end of the season.  I went specifically to get our knives sharpened.  They have an older man that comes to the parking lot and sets up his knife sharpener contraption.  He sits on this thing and pumps the pedals and the wheel turns allowing him to sharpen the blades.  I wish I had gotten a photo of him, but I didn’t want to be rude.  He was really busy, you just drop off your knives (or garden tools, scissors, etc)  and he takes them in the order in which they are dropped off.  It took about an hour and an half, during the wait Francesca and I shopped the market.

They had the typical locally grown produce, some beautiful flowers, pumpkins and gourds, baked goods and handmade soaps.  They even had gourmet doggy treats and some seasonal doggy scarves.  We had fun looking and buying.  We bought some butter cookies to munch on while we walked, some mini pumpkins and gourds and a Scooby Do neckerchief for Moose for Halloween.

On the way home, I was driving along and was stopped in my tracks by the Halloween decor on this house.

This is a HUGE display and the biggest spider I have ever seen.  Here is a close up of the carnage.

A little too gory for our house with little ones and all but I applaud their creativity!  I hope to capture some other neat Halloween displays around here - I’ve seen so many - now I just need to get my camera and go for a neighborhood walk.

With apologies to Bill Martin Jr.  and Eric Carle. (Photo from Barnes and Noble)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear…

What Do You See?

I See Francesca Looking At Me!

Sorry for the bad photo, that’s actually a reflection of Francesca in the window.  The bear walked right up to the window to get a better view.  Not sure who was looking at who.

I am in a state of flux.  It’s been a while since I posted.  I’ve been doing nothing and I’ve been doing everything.  School starts soon for Ross.  I can’t believe he will be in Kindergarten.  School may or may not start soon for me too.

I still look for jobs.  I look all the time for jobs and there really is not much out there.  And what is out there isn’t great - and for all that “not great”ness, there are hundreds of people hoping to get an interview.

I’ve thought alot about going back to school in the last year and a half.  Switching careers entirely.  I’ve always wanted to teach.  With the kids being young and in 3 years Francesca will enter school too, timing might be good.  By then I could be done with my Graduate degree and have my teaching certificate.  And I can be home in the summer with them, as well as Spring and Christmas break and other holidays.  I’ve really enjoyed being home with them and it seems to be the blending of both worlds, the work and home worlds.

I might have found a program that would allow me to do that and still manage my home life and family obligations.  I just need to decide quickly.  Classes start in less than 2 weeks.  Fortunately I do not need to take the GRE as my grade point average was well above the 3.0 designation.  3.94 in fact.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  I would need to take the basic skills test and order official transcripts from my two schools/degrees.  And fill out the application and psych myself up for school - as in NOW.

I have some questions about this program and need to get adequate answers before I pursue this option.  I’m actually very excited about the possibility of going back to school.  I could be teaching in 2 years and only 4 classes shy of my master’s Degree.  It’s a very disciplined program similar to the Elmhurst Management Program I took in the late 90’s.  There is no break taking or lessening of schedules for 2 years.  It would be too hard to catch up and recover.  It’s funny how such a chain reaction comes about from job loss or other events not orchestrated by ourselves.  I likely would never have quit my job to make a career change.    

If this program does not work out for me, I am left to look at programs beginning next fall based on application deadlines.  Not the end of the world but a while for a dream deferred.  Although I can use that time to take any additional undergrad classes / gen. eds. I may need for my teaching certificate.  In the meantime I have an application for Substitute teaching.  We used to laugh and say “Change is Good” at work when there was yet another policy or procedural change or shift in focus, which seemed to happen all the time.  We were being facetious, of course.  This time, I really mean it.  Change is good.

Patio Garden.  And I use the “patio” word lightly.  It’s not so much of a patio nor is it really a Florida room.  It’s more of an eyesore.  The structure was at one point a Florida room - really a rather nice attribute back in the 1950’s and 1960’s I’m sure.  It was wired with speakers and a sound system of sorts and electricity.  Off to the side (out of picture range), near where the vegetable garden is remains the remnants of a small pond.  A neighbor tells me there used to be fish in it and everything.  Now all that remains is rock and concrete.  And man, is it hard to break that stuff up and get it out of there.  They built it to last.

Our short term goal is to rebuild the roof and supports over the foundation, fix up the cracks in the concrete and use the space as a patio.  Long term goal is to build out and add a family room in this space.  For now it has an old fiberglass cover which will remain until money falls from the sky (or wherever it comes from).  My vote was to pull the roof off, my hubby wanted to leave it on as it provides relief form the rain (or snow) when you access the garage from the house or when we let the dog in and out.  Guess who won?  He did.  As unsightly as it is, there was an even more unsightly patch of dirt directly in front of the “patio” that was the very first thing you saw when you walked into the back yard.    That I could fix.

I added a Spirea japonica “Frobell”, a Yarrow plant, three Rose Coreopsis plants, some transplanted Hostas  some container annuals, transplanted some rocks and added 2 solar lights.  The patio itself is still not a pretty place but the view is adorable.  At least when you wak into the backyard you are greeted with a little pretty.  

I have admired the Spirea in other gardens and have a Spirea “Little Princess” in the back.  The “Little Princess” lives up to its’ name though and is small and compact.  The Spirea “Frobell” should get a nice 3′-4′ spread and height and fill in nicely.  Plus the “flowers” look pretty enough to snip and bring inside to enjoy.

The Yarrow was an impulse purchase.  I would have bought more but this was the only one in this color, the rest were “Summer Pastels” and multi colored.  I heard from Nicole that htis has a tendency to spread.  I hope it does, otherwise, I will be adding more in the future.

View as you walk into the yard.

All in all, a quick, easy and fun fix to an eyesore.  All accomplished in an afternoon.  Looking at this post, I have to go out back now and remove that piece of wood that is falling down behind the garden.  I started to do it and was distracted, until I saw it now in the photos.  Hope the whole darn thing doesn’t come tumbling down (or do I?).

It’s a drizzly day today but I noticed that finally my Peonies started to bloom.  This is the first year I have seen so many buds on my plant but all of neighbors have had flowers for days.  I was afraid my buds would never open (not sure if that is even a founded fear but none the less it was real to me).  I have my first Peony this year.  I don’t know the type, it was here when we bought our home but it has such pretty shades of pink.

My neighbor to the South has all different colors of Peony plants along the fence line - so pretty.

This bloom inspired me to take some photos of the garden.  Not the best day for photos as it is overcast but the pictures are okay.  This is our vegetable garden - it was planted a couple of weeks ago and it doesn’t really look like it’s changed much - our weather has been so cool, hopefully it will warm up soon.  We are ready for summer.

We have Sweet Cherry tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, Heirloom tomatoes ”Rainbow Mix Cherry”, Roma tomatoes, Rutger tomatoes, Big Boy tomatoes (we really like tomatoes) as well as basil, Jalapeno peppers, Melrose peppers and California Wonder peppers.  We also have an overflow of tomatoes and basil along the North fence, not sure how well they will do there.

In the containers we have oregano, chives, garlic chives, cilantro, rosemary, and parsley.  Off to the side we have a bean (not sure what it is but it was white) that  Ross planted in school).  I wanted to plant zucchini and some lettuces but ran out of room and time.  I am hoping to expand the garden next year.  We had planted peas in the spring but nothing came up (they were old seeds).

This is a giant Hosta that my friend Anita gave me a division of from her garden.  I hope it grows as large as hers, it’s just beautiful.  The orange ribbon along the fence and here and there in the garden mark where I planted last fall.  In this photo the orange is the Annabelle Hydrangea that I planted last October.  It was so tiny when it arrived - I can not imagine how long it will take to be of any size and substance.  I planted four of them along the back of the yard.  

This planter thingy was a must get rid of over the last few years.  I tried, but I couldn’t budge it.  It is set in concrete and is really set in the ground.  Last year I spray painted it and decided to try to live with it for now.  I am leaning towards glad that I did.  The Bishops Weed grows high on the bottom and I planted annuals in the top planters that will hopefully grow down.  The Potato vine in the middle should do so as well.   My vision was to have plants trailing down from the pots and then have plants on the bottom that were very tall so that the planter can’t really be seen.  Not sure if I have chosen the right plants for this but the beauty is that they are annuals so I can change them out.  I may grow some tall perennials at the bottom, it’s hard to say if they’ll come in as the Bishops Weed is so full and when it shoots up the flowers it gets a little tall.  I’d have to put something in that was already a decent size to survive, I think.

It gives some height to an area along the back of the yard that is in need of foundation plantings.  Right now there is an awful lot of green along the back of the yard. but soon the Peonies will be more visible and the Allium is starting to get buds.

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 There are seven little Allium buds peeking through all the greenery.

This little lovely was a pass along plant from my cousin Carols garden.  It is her “What is it?” plant, as she does not know what it is.    I have so much of the garden to share, but I’ll post it later this week.  I want to show you the side garden and the garden along the back of the house, as well as some of the container plantings.  For now, I’ll leave you with a closer view of the plants on top of the planter in the back. 

Potato Vine

Other assorted annuals (I have misplaced my tags - I need to find them to identify what they are).  I believe the middle ones are cone flowers and the ones to the side trail but I can’t recall their name.  I’ll find the tags soon and post their names.

Ciao for now, I’ll post more garden soon!

Well over a year ago, when he was first signed with an agency, Ross’ very first call was to audition for a major motion picture role.  His agent emailed over the story line and it was for the role of Matty in an untitled original screenplay.  It was billed as a psychological thriller in which a 19 year old is “haunted by a dybbuk - the soul of  a dead person barrred from Heaven — in the form of a young boy who perished in Auschwitz.” 

In reading over his lines for the audition we were a bit concerned about the content of the film and how the experience would be for him. Ultimately, we decided that his lines for the audition would not be in context of anything else and,  what was the chance of him actually landing this role as it was his first time out (and the role seemed more than supporting).

Ross auditioned and he did well I suppose as well as a first timer, but he didn’t get the part.  We were not surprised nor were we disappointed, we thought it was great experience for him to audition and what fun it will be when the movie comes out to be able to say he auditioned for it.

We have been waiting ever since to see what the movie will be.  Well, thanks to Brandon’s key eye, the mysterty is solved.  The movie is called “The Unborn” and from the looks of the trailer it looks like we may have saved a boat load of money on therapy down the road.

The Unborn Trailer ,  shows a scene Ross actually did for his audition - standing over the crib and swinging the mirror to hit the babysitter’s face and then saying “He wants to be born now” . Creepy.  And kind of cool. 

I am not the fan of horror movies that I was when I was younger.  But I just might have to see this one because of the fact that Ross had his first audition for this movie. That, and the fact that someone thought my son looked like he’d make a good disturbed, possessed child.  Freaky. 

So it’s still snowing outside today…. when Francesca went down for her nap, we bundled up and headed outside to make a snowman.  The snow was not exactly good packing material.  Let us introduce to you, Frosty the snow blob….

To scale.  He looked cold.  We added a scarf.

Maybe tomorrow the snow will be more cooperative and we’ll add to him.  Or start anew.  Ross really likes him.

Ross turns five Christmas Eve, but last weekend we had a birthday party for him.

They dug for dinosaur bones and did dinosaur crafts,

they made and expolded volcanos….

they went on a nature walk,

and visited the animal room.  A good time was had by all!