The Gerbils

The gerbils are:



Sakura and Hinata! Nobody seemed to have guessed it correctly, so I guess we'll keep the new fridge ourselves...

And on an unrelated note, today is exactly one hundred years since the Tunguska Event.

Heaven

Tonight, my friend came over with Udder Delight maple walnut ice cream. The interesting thing is that we were out geocaching yesterday and noticed an Udder Delight ice cream stand right where we were caching. We did not stop, but that clearly was a mistake.



I think we need to do more caching up there, since this ice cream was sooooooo good!



Tonight, only two kids were at home, both of whom do not like ice cream with nuts. So my friend and I were forced to empty this container all by ourselves, before sharing my joy at it with my 500 closest friends online.

Wow!

Yesterday, for one reason or another, I ended up without ANY kids at home from 8am till after midnight. Wow! I can't remember when that has ever happened before, at least not since Sylvia has been born.

I briefly contemplated celebrating by cleaning or decluttering, but luckily my common sense and sanity kicked in and I decided to do some fun stuff instead.

I puttered around the house, played a game of go, studied some Korean, and then dragged my friend to the fitness center to lift weights. I even had a shower WITHOUT anyone knocking on the door 'Mama!!!! XXX is PURPOSELY annoying me!' You know, as opposed to when someone accidentally annoys her.

We had fun at the fitness center and then went geocaching. Our first geocache brought us where we shouldn't go and we got kicked out, including a fervently barking dog, and slightly annoyed Vermonter. My brilliant plan was to talk Dutch if anything like that happened, but it turns out that I forgot all my Dutch when it counted. I guess it's good that I am naturalizing.

Second cache was less exciting, but beautiful pond. The best find of the day was this farm stand with amazing flowers.




On the way up, we drooled but were on a mission. On the way back, we drove past, and I mentioned 'Today is my friend's birthday and I NEED to give her some of those.' flyingfisher happily U-turned the car, exclaiming 'Good, I had been looking for an excuse to stop here!'

We stopped and we oh-ed and we ah-ed and we bought cool hanging baskets and were amazed at the fact that this all was self service 'Just leave your money in the money box'. I love Vermont! And my friend ended up with this for her birthday.



Time for dinner with my friend at an Italian restaurant, and life was good.

Came home to indignant kittens 'NO ONE was around the whole day, WHAT were you thinking???? Couldn't you at least have called? We are hungry! And it rained!'

Sourdough Dino!

Add a new cakepan (found in the thrift store), and a sourdough starter which needs to be used because of the lack of refrigeration options.



Get Dino the Sourdough Chocolate Cake Dinosaur. Decorated by the kids.

First Cucumber

Yesterday, we ate the very first cucumber from our garden! Have been eating greens from it too. And strawberries. So good! I love summer!



And yes, I still do exist, just spending a lot of time driving around town getting kids to classes and activities. This week was the start of daily swimming lessons. All my veggies have been planted. Still working on finishing up all my flowers. Maybe will do that before getting everyone off to the pool.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Yes, I know it's almost over, but I was too busy enjoying the solstice to have time to post. We went to the farmer's market, where we got fresh, local, organic strawberries. We also got ice cream and other goodies, although we had to hold off on some because of lack of refrigeration. Very annoying, that is.



For lunch, someone took me out on his poker winnings. Later in the day, I decided that the solstice should be celebrated by hiding a solstice cache, so I called a friend, and we did just that.



And yes, that meant that we did bring flash lights, just in case the sun would set before we ran out of caching time. Strangely enough, that didn't happen. The sun set while we were hiking, but we made it to the parking lot before it got really dark.



We made a fire and roasted marshmallows, and a good solstice was had by all.

Broken Fridge...

Yesterday we found water on the floor and a non-working fridge. Living out of coolers now and going to Sears to tell them 'I want THAT model YESTERDAY!'

Oh well, the fridge was old already when we moved in 10 years ago, so it was bound to happen someday. Saves me having to clean it.

Love is Pink and Purple

Yes, my daughter and my friend indeed did paint my living room wall pink, while I was gone for the weekend. Without notifying me in advance about the colour, yes.



And they painted my bedroom purple...



At least, three of the bedroom walls. The fourth one got painted blue when I came home.



And did I mention that they decorated the freshly painted white wall?



It was wonderful to come back to so much love and positive energy!
Happy Love Thursday!

Small Furries

Introducing Tara's two new pets.



Naming them was not an easy business, but she finally settled on some anime names, names that will be about impossible to guess, but I'll give you a chance. They have proven themselves excellent destroyers of empty toilet paper rolls, which I am sure is a useful skill set to have around the house.

Both are girls, if that helps with the namings issue.

Cat Girl Turns Twelve!

My oldest daughter turned twelve years old! She celebrated by morphing into a Cat Girl.



Of course, as a Cat Girl, she needs familiars, so she now is the proud owner of two new pets. Twenty-five bonus points for anyone who guesses correctly which type of pet.



Somehow she seems to have passed from girl to young woman, it is really cool to witness the process. She is maturing fast.



Happy birthday, dear Cat Girl!

Melting!

Did I mention we are melting????



We have a severe thunder storm watch, but Vermont has a tornado watch, so I hope we will at least get some rain!

Bubbles

Bubble fun at our local science museum.



Yesterday, it was hot, humid, and we knew our local science museum has air conditioning.



So what was more natural than going there, and spending some time before going out for ice cream.



The bubble burst!





They figured out how to blow bubbles just using their hands, very cool.



After bubbles, we went off to have ice cream. Life is good!

Naturalization Saga, Part VII, The Letter

Today was hot, hazy, and humid. A day to have ice cream. A day to be lazy. A day to look at all the plants to be planted in the garden and say 'Tomorrow!'



Today, also was the day that I got The Letter. The Letter stating 'You are hereby notified to appear for a Naturalization Oath Ceremony on Friday, July 04, 2008.' Wow! The Letter! The ceremony will be in Portsmouth, NH.



I will have to figure out all the logistical details. Maybe we should stay overnight in a hotel. I feel tempted to spend the day in Portsmouth, and hope they have fireworks over the ocean at night. But I can work out all those details later. The big picture is that today, The Letter arrived! Woohoo! BTW, any local help on Portsmouth NH hotels or July 4th events will be appreciated.



Time line:

• December 31st, 2007 : Mailed naturalization papers;
• Jan 9, 2008: Check was cashed.
• January 13th, 2008: Got I-797C, Notice of Action ("We got your money and will contact you within 365 days")
• January 22nd: got FingerPrint Notification
• February 4th: got finger printed
• Later during February: Got invitation for interview;
• March 28th: Citizenship Exam, got recommended for approval;
• Today, June 7th: Got invitation to ceremony!

Pink for the Win!

Pink flowers in a pink vase for our birthday girl.



Pink bunny chair for fuzzy love.



And pink wall is what happens if you leave your kids and your friend all by themselves during the weekend...



I will write a long and gushy birthday post another day, now I just want to sleep! I can't believe it's FOUR YEARS ago she was born under our maple tree.

Quote of the Day

Sylvia 'I love you more than the dirt in the playhouse!'



Thank you, my dear. I think...

Happy June!

May your days be filled with sunshine and happiness.



May your journey lead you to amazing views.



And may you be surrounded and supported by tons of love.



Happy June!