First Week of July (CT)

Continuing on with our trip to CT...

We spent the second week at my parents' house in Mystic. It is located in such a great place. We walked several times to Mystic's downtown by the draw bridge. It's very pretty and there is a playground on the way. 

We went to visit the USS Nautilis at the US Sub Base in Groton. They have a great museum with parts of subs and recreations. This gun was outside, so of course they had to sit on it for a picture. 

There are several control panels from various subs inside the museum. They could have spent hours flicking the switches, turning the knobs, and pushing the buttons. Hmm, how can we recreate this at home?

The USS Nautilis is a retired sub and was the first nuclear sub in the US fleet. They have a portion that you can tour. Alexander had to climb a bit to get through this hatch.

I couldn't fit the whole sub in the picture while having the boys large enough to be able to tell they were mine, but you get the idea of how big this sub is.

July 4th!

Nana got the boys balsa wood planes to put together and fly.

It's a hard life being a dog. ;) They did just get done exercising.

 

July 5th

We went on the Essex Steam Train. Their cousin is in the middle. They really enjoyed it, but it was hot!!! There's no air conditioning on an ancient train, and it got into the 90's that day with a lot of humidity.

I worked with Alice at the UConn Health Center many years ago. We became good friends. She now lives in MA and drove down for the day to spend time with us. I'm so happy she did! It was like we were hardly apart.

This is Alice's daughter with Alexander, we'll call Lil C. Alexander was extremely shy with her until later in the day. Don't you love her eyes!?! You can see Nanny, Poppy, Nana, Papa and Uncle Brad in the picture behind them.

We got Aunt Julie in this one, too! Here, Alexander is pretending none of us exist.

 

 Lil C was so cuddly and cute. We had a good time together.

After a quick lunch, we drove up to Gillette Castle in East Haddam. We didn't actually go into the castle, but walked around the property. Bob and I used to do this before we had kids. Here they are on a covered bridge.

Someone made kind of the top of a castle turret (not sure if I spelled that right) out of rocks. It had quite a path to get up to it, but of course the kids loved climbing up there. Alexander's trying to look tough while Glenn and Lil C have their sweet smiles on.

Daddy taking the boys dangerously close to the CT River, which was swollen above normal and moving very fast.

A beautiful bridge on our walk

Nanny and Poppy hiked with us and Lil C thought she should help Poppy get up the last hill.

Walking on train tracks that go nowhere

 

The start of our summer vacation

To thank Alexander's friends for coming to his birthday party, we made this in the driveway. They thought it was cute. We gave a picture to each of his friends.

The boys and I went to the farmer's market on our town square mid June. Near there, our town recently put in a splash pad by the town hall. We did not come prepared with swim suits. So, they were trying to dodge the fountains. Eventually, though, they were soaked.

You might wonder why Alexander has long sleeves on in the middle of summer. Well, that's because he has an independent mind. He wanted to wear his Spider Man shirt, despite the weather. At least he was cool after running through the water. 

On June 22nd, we set out for a 3 and a half month trek around the country (the eastern half, anyway. We stopped the first night just south of Washington DC. We brought our pop-up camper so that it would be cheaper to stay at all these places we wanted to see along our journey. Also, it gave nice cool place for our dogs to rest while we were out seeing the sites (yes, it has an air conditioner). 

We set out the next day on the DC Metro. Glenn liked to watch out the window. But Alexander commented on everything he saw. They loved it!

We had planned to walk on the National Mall in the morning while it was cool. But it was raining. So, we went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. They loved seeing all the different aircraft, although they didn't stay long enough in one place so that Bob and I could read about them.

After we left the museum, the weather had cleared up. So, we walked the length of the National Mall to get go the Lincoln Memorial. It's a long walk, and it was hot! But Bob and I enjoyed it. :)

The Washington Monument is still covered by scaffolding due to the earthquake.

The Lincoln Memorial steps

 

View from the Lincoln Memorial.

The boys found the DC squirrels to be very friendly. They didn't move out of your way when you walk down the sidewalk. We saw one squirrel eating a peanut butter cracker. I had to make sure Alexander didn't touch it while watching it. They also commented on how much meatier they are than our FL squirrels. 

We walked back to the Metro (which was almost all the way back to the museum). We got ice cream on the way back, just to cool off. Alexander's turned his mouth black!

The day after we were in DC, we went to CT. We spent about two weeks there. During the first week, we went to Bob's parents' house. Then we spent the second week at my parents'. We went to Ikea (had to with it only being a few minutes from Bob's parents' house).

 

We went camping in the middle of our stay in CT. We camped with my brother and his family and some friends. It was nice to just stay in one place camping for the sake of camping. The boys and their cousin made a sculpture out of wood.

Alexander with Papa (my parents didn't camp, just visited)


Glenn with Papa

Alexander pretending to sleep.

Glenn ready for bed.

 

Beginning of June

I am completely behind on this blog. While I'm on vacation, I thought it would be a good time to update it. So, here's the first installment. I have been enjoying selling jewelry for Premier. It's been fun going to all the parties, especially when my hostesses pick out their free jewelry. I'll begin teaching again for Kaplan July 31st. This time, my weekly seminar will be on Thursdays at noon. It will be nice not waiting the whole day to do the seminar in the evening. Plus, this keeps my evenings available for jewelry parties.

In the beginning of June, we decided to have Alexander's 5th birthday party with his friends from school. We knew we were going to be away for his birthday, plus the school year was ending soon. So, we decided to get it in before his friends left for vacation. He decided on a Scooby-Doo theme. I found on a couple of websites ideas on how to make a scavenger hunt. I told the kids to come inside to open presents, but they were gone!!! In their place was a note saying they had to follow the clues. The first clue brought them to the dining room to color pictures of the characters. You can also see Scooby the pinata on the table. They found the clue to move on under the table.

 

 

The next clue brought them out to the yard for musical chairs. The clue to move on was on the fence. That brought them to another part of the yard where they worked in teams to make each other into mummies using toilet paper. The clue was on the shed. I put it up high so they couldn't reach it because I knew by then they would know what was going on.

 

They then moved to the lanai for cupcakes.

Under the patio table was the last clue, bringing them back to where the presents should be in the living room. Of course the note at the end saying, "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids" went right over their heads. Here's the aftermath of the presents being opened. 

After presents, we did the pinata. and then they went swimming. He really enjoyed celebrating with his friends. He thought he should already be 5 and go to school with his brother on Monday. :)

 

The next day, Glenn and Alexander decorated Alexander's room with the leftover streamers. It was supposed to be a spider web.

On June 6th, Alexander graduated from Preschool. He was not happy about it. He did great singing the songs and reciting rhymes at the graduation, but was not happy afterwards. He knows he's going to another school next year and only two of his friends will be going with him.

His friends tried to get him to smile.

Later that day, I was just starting to make dinner when I heard a thump then a cry from Alexander's room. I went in and blood was gushing from his head. Turns out Glenn pushed him while they were playing into a toy chest and it hit him right square in the middle of his head. We knew right away he was going to the ER for stitches. I brought Glenn to our neighbor's house and we whisked him away to the ER. He did extremely well! He held a wash cloth to his head the whole ride, not wanting me to touch it. By the time we saw the doctor, it had pretty much stopped bleeding, but did need four stitches. They put some cream on it to help it numb, cleaned it up a bit, and then he didn't even feel the needle with more numbing agent in it. She was so good to make sure he didn't see the needle. He said ouch, but later said he didn't feel it. I'm so grateful on how well they took care of him. He got his stitches out after four days and you can barely even see the scar now. 

I will add more posts to continue the update when I get a chance. We are driving half way across the country, and camping, so I don't know how good a connection I'll have tomorrow. 

My Training Show

I finally had my training show last night as an independent jeweler for Premier Designs jewelry. My sponsor actually did the show, and I prepped everything and showed my own samples. It was an exciting night. I had 15 ladies here, who I thanked so much for supporting my new business. They had fun and I even got to know a few of my neighbors some more. With their support, I was able to get 13 new pieces to add to my samples to show at shows. I already have three firm shows booked and several in the works. Next Friday will be my first real show where I am all on my own. Who would have thought that I would be excited about getting in front of a bunch of people to talk? But I really am! And this job is really a blessing. Bob has three crowns (don't tell him I shared that) that he needs to get and other things always pop up. This will help so much, and I get to have fun while doing it!

Even more of a blessing is how I feel God working through me. I have two friends who are really in need of extra money. And now they are considering selling, too. If they do decide to become jewelers, I will become their sponsor and help them become successful. I didn't really get into this to help other people, but as I have been learning, it's not all about me. :) God has his own plan for me and if he wants me to help these friends, I am willing. I am just blown away at how great this group of jewelers are. Now only are they so supportive of each other, but God is important in all of their lives. I think living in the south also adds to this. It seems everyone I meet is religious. I guess that's why the south is also considered the Bible belt.

Well, that's my excitement  Glenn also shared some excitement today. He is, yet again, student of the month. This is the third time this year. He was already student of the month for his regular class twice. The P.E. teach apparently also chooses a student of the month and she chose Glenn for March for the characteristics of trustworthiness and honesty. I'm so proud of him. He is so eager to please his teachers (except when it comes to writing) and they enjoy him so much. I had a conference with his teachers earlier this week, and they really do love him. It's so good to hear that his has continued to be used as the example for the class. And he's always so modest about it. He didn't even want to tell Bob, because he knew we'd gush over him.

Alexander is his usual goofy self. He admitted to urinating on the trash can this week after I found it wet and smelly when cleaning. I couldn't get mad since all little boys need to try aiming at things other than the toilet. Hopefully that's the end of that, though.

I know you all love pictures, so here's a picture of the boys in a super bubbly bath. Glenn has quite an impressive bubble hat!

My Easter Boys

We had spring break last week. We went camping in our pop-up camper for the weekend beginning spring break (and my birthday weekend). It was up in Mayo, FL on the Suwanee River (about 2 hours NW of us). It was a nice campground, but we had bad weather. The first night was fine, but it rained most of the next day and night. We ended up going to the lodge a couple of times because of severe weather. But they had board games, which helped us pass the time. We did get a nice walk in along the river before the storm came. 

Then we spent the week in Daytona Beach with Bob's parents and uncle. We had a relaxing time. Unfortunately, it was chilly and very windy the whole week. We did go up to St. Augustine for the day mid-week. The boys played mini-golf every day. 

We got home the day before Easter. Who needs the Easter bunny when I have these cute Easter boys?

So, I have not posted on here about my new jobs. I actually have a couple. I'm still doing some work with Bob in the office. But I am going to begin developing an online course in epidemiology (the study of the spread and control of diseases) for my old boss at the University of CT. Once we have developed the course, I will begin teaching it. We should have it complete by the end of the summer. 

I am also a "jewelry lady!" I was making some jewelry and was going to begin selling it. But then I went to a Premier Designs home show, and fell in love with their jewelry. I also found that the compensation as a jeweler was amazing. So, I signed up last month and have my training show next week. I've very excited and have already received so many compliments when I wear my jewelry samples. This will also get me out of the house and have fun while I'm making money. Yes, I get out when I go to work at the office, but I'm the only female, so I'm not really socially engaged there. And doing online courses is great for a work-at-home mom, but it's not so good for the social aspect of my life. I have already met a couple times with the other ladies in my area that sell Premier jewelry, and they are a great bunch of ladies. We get together once a month for training and fellowship. 

To go along with my new jobs, I got a new haircut. I have been progressively getting shorter cuts. Bob liked my hair shorter, so I really got it chopped today. Bob even likes it straight better than curly, which is the first time he's said that. It's fun to play with my new hairstyle.