It's that time again...

It is amazing how things can be going along swimmingly and then someone puts a hole in you inner tube.

She isn't even here yet, after a well needed reprieve of a few months, but the MIL is due to arrive tomorrow for the weekend.

I felt I needed to lay some forgotten ground rules with my man to which he responded...ummm...not great and not super receptive. Here are my rules...I am shouting it out to the universe in hopes that the planets will align and it will all be good(and so my mother in law won't make me crazy.) 

Now before I get into my list I have a big shout out to the only person who reads my blog and knows me in the real world.  She has taken a hop across the pond to become a mother in law this very weekend.  I know that she will be a fabulous MIL and I sending my best wishes to her and the happy couple.  I am sure her fascinator will be fascinating!  Can't wait to hear all about it!

so now to follow is my guidelines to a successful weekend visit from the mother in law:

1. She does not discipline my children when I am there to do it.

2. She doesn't touch my laundry since we have just gotten all of our socks and jeans straightened out since the last time she was here and put cloths away in the wrong dressers.

3. Oh yeah, she STAYS OUT of any dressers.  (I have a 14 year old boy, she doesn't need to be going in his dresser! Privacy please!)

4. She doesn't open her big mouth to interject when I am conversing with my husband.  If I ask my husband a question she butts right in and makes up excuses or explanations for him...gee I don't know how we have made it these 18 years without her butting before now?

5. She doesn't make back handed and/or passive aggressive comments.  (I will have a list for you all on Monday cause she really can't help herself)

6. She doesn't wear her ridiculous wooden clunky shoes and clunk and shuffle around on all of my hard wood floors.

7. She doesn't cram my splenda container full of her rat poison cancer causing sweet n' low that she bring from her house.

8. She doesn't come into MY bedroom when I am sleeping because she thinks it is time to get up.

9. Now even though she knows everything about everything, just for me she won't let on that she knows everything about everything.

10. AND she makes sure there is at least a cup of coffee left for me in the morning.

Now is this too much to ask?

Please understand that these rules were developed in response to the crazy shit my MIL has done, I didn't just make this up to be a pain in the ass.

ahhhhh, I feel so much better.  Bring it on and heaven help us.

a lovely weekend in New England...

I had high hopes to do a post about my beloved Pats.  We had a family gathering today to celebrate some birthdays.  When the Patriots are playing that just means double the fun.  We all love football and love to watch it together.  I will save my blog on my family and the Pats on another more joyous day considering the spanking Brady got with 4 interceptions...ouch!

My oldest was off to Block Island for the weekend with scouts.  That left the three of us so we went apple picking.  I am working on my photography skills.  They aren't great but I am learning you just have to keep shooting and get the feel for different settings and lighting.

We went to Stowe Apple Orchard. They have a lot going on there.  Horse rides, mining for gems and arrowheads, hay rides and other fun stuff for the kids.

 

It has been a late season for apples around here.

We picked Mac's. Just nothing like a Mac right off the tree.

 I love to take pictures like this.  

It confuses some people who think they should be posing for the picture.

Our day's take a bushel of Mac's for $20.

I made apple dumplings when we got home, they were so good.

A post on that to follow. I am thinking of a new

post 'In the kitchen with the chick'.

From now through Spring I cook and bake a lot.
 The leaves are just starting to turn.

    

 

My boy had a blast with the corn cannon.

 and mining for arrow heads...

It was a beautiful day.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

Some people have hot tubs for 6 people...

we have a dirt bath for 13 chickens...

 Here is Big Bossy right in the middle of it all.  I just love that girl.

Just a normal Saturday morning spa treatment around here.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Bake at 105 degress for 90 minutes...

Ok...this isn't a new recipe.  It is about Bikram yoga.

Yes, believe what you hear if you haven't tried it.

It is a most sadistic practice(I think, but my opinion about it changes moment to moment)

It is 90 minutes of 26 yoga poses in 105 degress and 50% humidity. 

By the way, did I mention I hate the heat?

I signed up for a 2 week unlimited membership for $20.  I started this past Saturday.

I figured, it was $20 no big deal if I didn't like it.  Then 10 minutes into my first class

I couldn't believe I spent $20 on it since there was NO WAY I would be back.

My first 90 minutes of Bikram yoga brought me through a gamet of

emotions and physical feelings.

I often thought I would puke.

It did occur that I should run out and don't look back, eff the $20.

But...I actually made it through the class,

mind you only doing about half of the poses and the rest

of the time just trying to get used to the heat and the class.

 I have never sweat so much, I am talking buckets!

Sunday I was toast and did not go to class, but was very surprised when I got out of bed in the morning and my knees and feet did not ache as usual. 

I thought that there might just be something to this.

I went last night, was able to do more and continued to feel better.  Then today I thought that I was actually up for a class again.  Here is the long and short as it has effected me so far...

- I have not craved any junk food or eaten any.

- I usually drink 2(really 4) cups of coffee to get me through the morning. Today I had one and then craved a glass of water!  This is monumental for me! I really can't function without at least 32oz of coffee in the morning.  I also plan old LOVE coffee so for me to stop at one cup is not normal.

- I have not had knee or feet pain in the morning.  I usually hobble around for 10 minutes to work the aches out.

- I think that I would love to go to bed to sleep, but I am not exhuasted.  I can't believe how much energy I have.

- I can't remember the last time I had as much focus to get things done, at work and at home.

- I am happy.  I normally am happy for the most part but there have been a series of lumps and bumps on the road of my life I have taken over the past couple years that have changed me a little.  I feel more like my old self, 'pre lumps and bumps'.

- I am normally a skeptic about everything, even this before I tried it.  I tried it because I felt like I needed a jolt in my life. Something extreme, short of electric shock theraphy.  Well this has been extreme.

- Without even needing to make a concious effort, I go into that hot room and think of nothing but the moment.  I can't remember the last thing that I felt let me leave it all behind to focus on taking care of me.

I will continue to keep you all posted on my progress.  Bikram yoga might not be for you, but I hope you are all able to find that 'thing'.  I forgot how important it is.

Freakin' Fourteen...

I should have known...
This photo was not my first clue, but I think a boy who 'takes a meeting' with Santa in such a way may just be a bit of a handful as time goes on...

Well here we are almost 6 years from when this picture was taken and my sweet, bright little guy is...you guessed it...Freakin' fourteen. I also refer to him as my Radioactive Boy Scout. He...

• is taller than me and I am 5'8" though I still tell him(and for now he believes) that I could make him cry like a girl in 25 seconds if necessary.
• wears a size 11 shoe and has the biggest feet in our house.
• eats more in a day than a small third world country(we go through a 1/2 gal of milk in the blink of an eye and when I scramble eggs for him it is a minimum of 4 or 5 for just him)though is tall and lean.
• over the years, he has taken apart our water softener system, detached the drain pipe from our kitchen sink, taken apart every electronic toy belonging to him(and his little brother), taken jewelry apart, built rockets that could take out a satellite, tried to build a Jacob's ladder to arch electricity, mixed more household materials together we are lucky we haven't had a HAZMAT team to our house, disassembled every hard drive and VCR that our family and friends have given to him over the years, and frozen and exploded more things in my freezer than I can even count.  

Now he is 14.  He knows everything.  He has it covered. He just started 9th grade. He says he needs us to give him more 'liberty' and if we did he would do everything he is supposed to do.  Well, that worked for 5 days and then I got an email from his teacher that he failed to pass in an assignment that counted as a quiz grade.  The day before I got this email I clearly said to him..."If you don't have all of your school work done you are not going to your Aunt's for the weekend."

Long story short...guess who stayed home this weekend.  It was supposed to be my weekend.  My husband and youngest went Cub Scout camping and I had a weekend planned of full of girl stuff.  His punishment turned into my punishment.  I wasn't going to let him sleep late and be on his computer all day or doing whatever.  I dragged him to my pedicure, he sat in the very warm waiting room for 90 minutes during my first Bikram Yoga class.  He was up early to take care of the chickens and take care of the lists of chores I put together for him.  I explained Monday is a new week... do your 'job' and you get 'paid' by doing fun things on the weekend.  Next weekend his Scout Troop is going to Block Island...he better do his job, I love him but I don't need him attached to my hip.  Here's hopin'...

12 on the 12th

1. I'mmmm baaaccckkk! Recovered from Irene, the start of school for the boys and other craziness I am back to my blog and feeling very out of touch with the goings on in the world of the blog.


2. We are down to 19 chickens here in the coop and the freezer is full. Yum, yum, yum.  Roasted a half of chicken last night and made a yummy quick Bisquick pot pie tonight.


3. I have to learn how to make Cracker Barrell Chicken and Dumplings.


4. We have an injured hen.  One of our black stars is favoring her leg. There is no obvious injury and she is getting around to food and water... we will have to wait and see.

5. I can't put into words my feelings about the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My husband is a first responder, my nephew just finished basic.  He and his father are shipping off to the middle east.  So much loss, so much lost since that day because of that day...

6. My friend thinks a medium channeled her mother...I don't know what to think about her experience. Then I wondered(making it all about me) if I went to a medium, who from the great beyond would stop by to see me?

7. I finished The Help, so good.

8. My man is taking my little one camping this weekend and my sister is taking my oldest...that leaves me...in peace...alone. Fall decorating...cleaning...pedi...so much to do and only one weekend to get it all done.

9. I love New England in the fall.

10. I am going to start Bikram yoga on Saturday. If you don't hear from me, yoga in a room heated to 105 degrees just may have done me in.

11. My blog remains on the QT.

12. Why 12 on the 12th? This New England chick loves our #12. Go Pats!

(12 on the 12th a day late due to tech issuues)