Beach fun, anyone?

Hey, you know me and the rhyming silliness. So sue me, it's fun! :)

Who's that? The Gavinator having some small (!!)fun in the surf. Gavin asks, "Doesn't it look like I am rockin'?"
I was and am still very amazed at how very warm the water is compared to the last couple years temperatures. So the air temp is a bit cooler, at least the water isn't!



My brother in law Mark, Dan-the-Man and Mark's sister in law relaxing, chatting, watching the children.



The warren of kids, caves, tunnels, pools and sand mountains that a mere five kids and two adults (me and Dan) can do in a couple hours. These pics just do not do it justice...



Count 'em... 1,2,3,4,5!

Day two at Hampton Beach

Hey! I went to Maine yesterday to visit someone!



Nooo... Well, OK, I did see Spence, but I really went to see my excellent friend Kris and her newest little one, Bear.



Isn't he so sweet? At the age of six weeks, he's so tiny and demanding. Eat. Sleep. "Hey, Mommy, you always need to hold me, that's all I want you to do!" :) Since I am fairly well rested, I think that's SO adorable. Ah, I remember those days...



I drove the nearly two hours north into Maine to visit, and it was a very easy ride too. It was SO very nice to not only see and visit Kris, but to be able to talk too...! I miss living so close, but we still, somehow, manage to see each other every few months (it's still not often enough). It was a very nice visit, and somehow Kris managed to make a delicious meal of pulled pork with ice cream for dessert! She's already a Super Mom!

It was just after dusk when I arrived back to the beach house (ahh, that can sound so Hampton-ey. "Dah-ling, I'll meet you at the beach house..."). Just in time to go - once again - to the arcade with even more than our regular three kids in tow -- no worries, it's all good! More kids does not necessarily mean more chaos, just more interesting conversation, more friends to keep them all occupied. I just need to keep the latest number in my head. You see, whenever we are out and about, it's usually "1, 2,3" then "1,2,3" (I'm counting the kids :) "1,2... OK who's missing?" Well, last night and today it was "1,2,3,4,5"!! Once you as parents are outnumbered by kids, it's all attitude on your part to keep them "in line." LOL

Below are the three nine-year-olds playing SEGA Genesis - remember that game system? I guess my pack-rat-ness has paid off once in awhile. The games are quite interesting: Toejam and Earl, Sonic and Knuckles... Even the adults don't mind playing the games, especially since the controllers only have the 'two button' technology :) Remember Atari? One button and a joystick?!



Gavin has a friend across the street named Preston or PJ.
He is my sister-in-law's sister's son, and they are two peas in a pod, or can't you tell?



Another self shot of me and Dan - it's the only way I can actually be in a picture usually!



Last,but not nearly least, one of the best reasons to be all of us, the family, together at a vacation house at the beach...! Snuggle time with Grandpa, right before beddie-boo time!!



Now we're off to the beach!!!!

We've arrived to Hampton Beach, NH!!

We made it! A couple days late, but we are here, safe and sound! Arriving just as the sun set last night, we were in time to walk the boardwalk to get delicious fried scallops and whole clams (not the icky chewy strips), and yummy onion rings, all while watching the Wednesday night fireworks. Dan swears he gains ten pounds on this vacation! I say, who cares? Especially since we look forward to it ALL YEAR LONG!

So let the fun begin!

See, here's our van parked alongside the house we stay in. We, as in, my mom and dad in law, my brother in law, Pete, and my family of five. The two second story windows on that side of the house are our bedrooms. We are rarely there, as we are usually on the beach all morning, back to the house for the hottest hours of the afternoon, then back to the beach for more sand and surf fun. After dinner, around dusk, we go back to the boardwalk for the beach (yes, again- and are you surprised?), some entertainment for the boys at the arcades and then some real junk food (like salt water taffy, ice cream, you name it - hey, perhaps THAT is why Dan says he gains ten pounds, not the fried food :) .

And see the little house in the rear? That is where my brother and sister in law and son are staying (the other son already came and left - we are sad to have missed him).



There is a nice yard between the two houses for barbecuing, boccie ball, Frisbee, pickle, socializing fun!



Don't we look happy to be here? This is us, up much earlier than we usually get up. Must be all the pending excitement we are SO looking forward to!



Now let's get the sunscreen on!

Shhh! Don't wake the DRAGON!!!

Sometimes we have a baby red dragon who sleeps in our living room. Oh the stories he tells of far-off and far-away places he has traveled, even at such a tender young age!



Even for a tiny, young dragon, he has might and knowledge far beyond the capability of our fleeting human lives. Upon being awoken, this red dragon hesitates, possibly thinking about what to do with this larger human with a camera. (He may also be confused with an earlier dress-up game where blue Celt face paint was the order of play?)



Upon making his decision, no one shall pass.



Ho! What is that?! A warrior has come to challenge the mighty red dragon! This warrior is so fleet and fast on his feet that my lens (and it's lovely three second delay) cannot catch the fatal moment!



Oh! The dragon has been stuck in the neck by a samurai sword! That is possibly very fatal to our house dragon! What shall we do? A magical sword is the only way to defeat such a mighty red dragon, despite it's young age (as it is much older than all of our human ages added together!)!



Ah! Luck be praised! It was NOT a magical sword and the damage, although seemingly deep and deadly, was merely a slight scratch!



And so the delighted dragon does a happy dance :)

One of my recent hobbies

These past couple years I have been doing wire weaving, also called trichinopoly. It is an ancient Viking craft that (I think) is very easy, but it is very, very repetitive...

Below is a close up of Dan's necklace. I tried to shine it up a bit, but the interior weaving was not touched by the silver polishing cloth. Ah well. It gives it some dimension, perhaps?
Materials: 20 gauge sterling silver wire, purchased silver finding/cone.



Below is another technique of wire weaving, that I learned during our recent Pennsic trip. It is similar to the necklace in the weaving process, but it is worked quite differently afterward.
Materials: 28 gauge sterling silver wire. This was my first attempt with such a small gauge wire. I like the way the 20 or 22 gauge looks better.
And what a difference in shininess! Dan's necklace was once this shiny...



...And so was my necklace as well (below). I used the same wire as the ring above. The necklace also needs some more polishing, I see now. I did a double weave around one a chopstick that is usually available when ordering Chinese food locally. Too bad the detail isn't better.



I will be listing similar items for sale online very soon. I am attempting to get decent and focused pics of items (these particular items are not for sale however). If anyone is interested, I can send a link to the shop once it's open. Shameless plug, I know and apologize!

We went to the Great Escape today

We got season passes to the Great Escape and try to go as often as the kids will let us. I say it is their call, because we would like it to be fun fun fun. Too much of a good thing gets tiring and not fun for my kids. Dan and I would like to go perhaps separately, to go on some of the crazier rides. But without children? -what kind of terrible parents are we?!!

Do you remember Storytown? The little houses are still there -- that is surprising, especially with all of the renovations and large commercial rides/themes they are constantly adding (Looney Tunes Town or Wiggles World anyone?)



These small houses still seem to be exciting fun for little ones! That I am happy to relate.

The three second delay on my camera could not catch the prime photo ops of such energetic and enthusiastic children in these tiny houses... My three boys and a friend here waiting for my camera to catch up to their antics.



Below is Dan spouting religiosity to a very amused Connor. If only you could have heard us laughing!! Dan can really get Connor going! I would relate some of it here, but do not want to upset anyone. Sorry!



BTW this is the only house that Dan and I could comfortably stand up in.

And here is the gang in the town tavern. Pretending to play with the glued checker board.



I tried to get Gavin in the doorway of the blacksmith shop. That three second delay, I tell you...!



Overall it was an exhausting day running from tiny house to tiny house and then to the farthest part of the park for the water rides. Gosh the walking, more walking and then waiting in line. We did have fun with the tubes, water slides and silliness while waiting in lines.

We were going to go again tomorrow, but the unanimous no's from the children and the dog days of Summer has made relaxing around the house the order of the day (that means I do the ever-increasing laundry and trim the oh-so-out-of-control grass in the back yard)! No rides and excitement? Who's kids are these anyway? :D

I spent part the morning helping Connor to solder the capacitor, diode, voltage trigger and transistor onto what will eventually be a solar-powered robot, called a "solar speeder." Later this evening we'll start a fire to burn some of the mountain of wood we have in the backyard. Or perhaps go to a festival in downtown GF. I hear there are fireworks!! That's great free entertainment!

Say hi to Spencer

Friends of ours moved to Maine. I think I have finally have forgiven them for moving away. Well since it's been almost a year since they left the area, I think I have to accept things as they are and it helps me seem more grown up...

So they have pets. One that is never seen and the other is one of the coolest cats I know. And by "cool cat," I do mean literally a cat, stripe-y orange, who acts cool. Spencer's personality is quite charismatic in a spunky sort of way. He's definitely a presence in a room that may be filled with human-people, so I think he's a person in that definition of the word. I miss his personality, but that's not another reason to still be sad about my friends moving away and taking him with them. Ahem, so anyway...

We visited them in January, after a big SCA shopping event called Birka in NH. It was only another two hour-or-so ride north to see them and their new house.

Now, without further ado, everyone please say hi to Spencer.



He's cute, isn't he? Some of you may say, "Yes, he is." While other might be thinking, "Eh, he's a fuzzy orange cat... Seen one, you've seen 'em all."

I personally love, adore, get happy about dogs. It's not that I don't like cats, it is just that I am really really allergic to them (only one allergy amongst a billion others). I can touch one, but have to wash immediately. So the scene is kinda OCD looking when I visit Spencer - you see, he's just so Mr.Personality for a cat (most likely was a dog reincarnated as a cat, hm, Kris?) that I cannot help but partake in the Spencer fun-ness. He fetches! Look! He tries to get you to pet him! He instigates stuff, even! Ok, that is like a cat, but he does do well in trying to get the boys' attention. Good idea for a spunky cat, you may think? Hm, lots of hands and equal energy across species. Spence is most comfortable in one of his home habitats, the kitchen counter, and perhaps may be overly confident, eh?

There are two sides of "the story." Let's look at the concrete evidence (Well in this case it's digitally concrete per se):



Well I am not certain Spence was ready for the Haley invasion into his abode. In his attempt to indicate how great his need was to be pet, Spencer knocks nearly everything over on the counter. Ahem, bunny ears, anyone?



So by sheer numbers (of hands) and (in his mind) an annoyingly high child energy level -- or perhaps the fact that the camera has been in his face for at least twenty photos by this point? (and nearly all are blurry or repetitive) -- Spencer retreats to what is assumed to be a safe place.
See the Gavinator's hand creature there? Poised to strike, I mean, er- pet Spencer again!




No matter where he goes, he cannot hide...







Finally, I note the ado behind the curtain and curtail the commotion quickly. (Ha, I love that :)

It was an awesome visit and have since returned for in April to say hi and hike in the lovely Spring sunshine in Maine. The camera stayed in the car for that visit, on behalf of Spencer's nonverbal request to maintain his sanity.

I am so very much looking forward to visiting during the last week of August while in Hampton Beach, NH to see their new little Bear!!

I work only every other weekend, didja know?

I can't tell you how loud the groans are from my boys when I tell them that Mommy has to go to work soon. They reply something like "But you just were at work, and, anyway we'll miss you!" I do miss them too (I will not mention that the first hour or two here at work is a bit relaxing by having to only single-focus, and not multitasking all the time, but it is still work, eh?). Honestly, I wonder what my kids will do with such an upbringing. Dan and I try to tell them that most families don't see each other for at least eight hours of the day, five days a week...

So I am now at work. Again. Ugh. Too many extra days lately, in my opinion. I don't mind helping out coworkers who need a day or two off, or attempting to make up for the 16 hours of missed time while vacationing. Surprisingly, I have a few minutes to let you know what an insanely busy place this hospital is on the weekend, and that does not include the weekends in the month of August, within this tourist filled town of Saratoga Springs. Due to patient confidentiality issues, I am unable to delve further. But, now that the track is open, it has really hit the fan, as the saying goes.

I will recap once how my shift works -- and I have absolutely NO complaints at all about this either! I work every other weekend in the CT department by myself. I punch in at 11pm on Friday night, work twenty-four hours until 11pm on Saturday. I return on Sunday morning at 7am for another sixteen hour shift.

Sounds crazy, you say? It is, but I'm me, remember? LOL What you may not realize it that I am then off for an entire twelve days(!) before having to work again, if I do not pick up any extra shifts (and I really try hard not to). That allows me all kinds of time for the myriad of hobbies and activities.

One would think --in today's money-oriented society-- that I might just want to work more hours, at another job, or whatever, with all that free time and low cash flow. But we manage and 'make do.' No cable TV (yay, no commercials!), no charging stuff (unless it's a $1400 car repair emergency!), but we have no car payments, rarely ever eat out (have you ever made veggie sushi at home? mmm, delicious!) , and we have no real savings either... That is scary!

And I can't see it changing too much once Dan's graduated and working, initially. Well, then, of course then I can work less, you see, and then Dan will have a job that doesn't slowly break his body. Warehouse work was physically hard -- not difficult, but it was brain-numbingly boring, to make it crystal clear. He had surgery scheduled to debride calcifications from tendons in his AC joint, but within three weeks of quitting the warehouse and lifting a collective 40,000lbs daily, Dan was amazingly but completley pain free. So Dan will be a teacher (YAY!), and will hopefully still have Summers off, to boot!

Not living paycheck to pacheck would be a nice thing to shoot for sooner than later. It could also happen even sooner once we win the lottery (but we never play it) or one of our lovely relatives or friends wins the lottery and is willing to share with us out of the kindness of their hearts. Honestly, I am not hinting at anything, and am definitley not seriously counting on it happening! :)

Oh so easily I digress. OK, if I play that "If I had more money..." card, then (A) I would have to work more, and that's not including the jewelry business I have dabbled in since Spring and am gearing up to "really" concentrate on this Autumn. Or (B) Dan would have to work while in school and most likely not do as well academically. Somehow we manage to make ends meet AND still have a ton of time to spend together. Not that there are no issues with not having cash on hand, mind you. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

You know, I might consider getting another job to fund a trip to visit my sister in Florida or even see friends in Europe or something like that. But to buy a larger house (that would mean more rooms to clean!), it is not so much high on the priority list.

At some point soon, we'll all be grown up (me, Dan, the boys all included), but in the meantime, I'm not rushing away from our fairly relaxed, play and friend-filled days. So what, my family walks to a tune of a different drummer. And it is most enjoyable!!

Phew, done now. Hope it wasn't too unhappy for you to read how fun-family-filled and work-free our time is... As a consolation, I promise pics of our next jaunt to the Great Escape... with our really-what-a-super-deal season passes... during a sunny weekday afternoon... on the water rides and roller coaster. It is super fun for everyone! (That was supposed to rhyme.)
Bye bye for now. xo Jen

Pics as promised of Pennsic (and prior)

Yep, love the 'literation (ok, that should be alliteration, but poetic license, ya know?)!!

OK. I've unloaded the pics and there are sadly too few to even remotely indicate the fun and extent of the two weeks spent in the middle of a Pennsic town of nearly 11,000 people. But luckily I do have some pics of our visit to Rochester, playing hide and seek in the park near our friend's house.



Here Rael is helping Gavin be "it." That tree is home base. I think Rael was very nice to volunteer to help since there were four adults as well as a couple other kids from the playground also joining in the hide and seek fun (ok, we took over the park with the game).

So here is Katherine and Connor hiding behind the barely discernible hill (especially in this photo) in the park. There's a park kid already trying for base. I was standing sideways behind a large tree (it was large enough to hide me - pretty old tree you got there).



And then everyone's off and running to base while I'm still standing still and hiding. I think this time I was tagged 'it.'


Next is Katherine and me with a self shot. I snuck up behind her and then said "Say cheese!"



Not too bad for a surprise pic, eh? With rumblings and rain, we were chased from the park to the safety of their house. Luckily the rain only lasted some minutes and then we were off to my birthday lunch with another self shot...


And one with Dan included. And then the entire family :D Nice artwork on the wall, eh?


But that's not all! No, no siree! I have a few of our Pennsic trip as well, but not nearly as many as I took on my birthday, unfortunately so... But here is one of the first sightings of the campsite while we were still on the highway, about five minutes after our first scent of campfire!



Here are all but one fighter from our Freehold encampment. They look so happy, no? I mean, going off to war and all that... I wonder how Uust (Josh, the guy in the blue shirt) will fight with two heads? That's Asgar (Dan) leaning in there ;)


There are a few others that I will add later, but there's not too many, sad to say. TTFN!