Show and Tell: Demo and It's About Time!!

I have mentioned before that I live in an old house, a very old house, an 1800's farmhouse to be exact.

We love it. We fell in love with it the minute we did our first walkthrough. This love may have blindsighted us to the degree the current owners lied through their slightly-crooked teeth
about how much work had been done to the place.

We've re-wired the whole place. And that's why my husband nearly got electricuted when the knob and tube in the kitchen was still live...

Oh, the septic tank? It's been pumped every two years, and the most recent pump was just last year... Really? Is that why the guy from the septic place said it was full to bursting and we just nearly avoided it bursting cause it hadn't been done in at least 4 years?

Oh yes, we gutted every room, took out the plaster and lathes, added sheetrock and insulation -- *ahem* -- except the kitchen.

Ok, they told the truth about the kitchen. But they had to, with it's obvious plaster sticking out behind older-than-dirt wallpaper and the stunning hot-pink, plywood kitchen cabinets!

Anyway, over the course of the 8+ years we have lived here we have done little to the interior. Painted some rooms as rainbow babies arrived. And, yes, contracter Jer has actually re-done the kitchen, making his own cherry cabinets and an exposed beam ceiling I could still lie down and stare up at for hours.

And so recently we began a conversation we've had about a million times. "You know, for being such a big house it really only has three bedrooms" he said. "Yeah" I responded, "and I really miss my guest room. The girls need a playroom. *sigh* I know we've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they cannot sleep together, but - seriously -..."

And together we finished, for we have said it to the point of naseum, "girls that size do not need bedrooms that big!"

Oddly, the conversation we've had a million times resulted in a different ending. "Well" my amazing husband said standing in the upstairs bathroom staring at the jaccuzi tub that doesn't actually work, "if I eliminated that wall and put a door here I could put a wall here, then here, and...."

You get the point. He has vision like that. I just nodded and smiled because I don't, and, even though the conversation had never progressed to this point, I still thought it was all musing and possibilities.

Until the day I came home to, this:

It seemed our 'project' had begun.

"This is a perfect size bedroom for a little girl, don't you think?" he asked me. And, yes, it looked lovely from this side of the camera. Check out the 180 degree shot!

Bear even got in on the action! She loved demo and was quite good at it.

She really loved throwing all the lathes out Comedian's bedroom window! Oh -- and in case you didn't catch on. Do you see any inulation? Sheetrock? Um, no -- really? Grrrr.... can you say, can.of.worms?

I won't even tell you about the mess the pluming is in. Liar Liar, pants on fire....that's all I have to say.
Even still, the ever growing project seems to make my family happy. I, for one, have never been happier to live within the realm of chaos. It means change is coming! Bear loves beating on things with a hammer. And Comedian, well -- just look at her and her daddy!

Current Status: The bathroom is in the hallway.

A new wall is under construction...

Comedian sleeps nightly in a 'room with a view' - if you will... (the other side of the room - to the right- is the nice, homey shot from the beginning of this post!)

And, the jacuzzi tub still sits on the front porch. Does that make us the owners of a 'redneck yard' I wonder?

Stay tuned, this project is sure to get more interesting or frustrating or expensive, or -- all of the above! But, one thing is for sure it will result in: 2 appropriately sized bedrooms for small girls and a playroom / guest room for playing and visiting!

Ahhhhhh.....progress. Nice yes? Dont' forget tos check out what everyone else is showing and telling.

Show and Tell: Pumpkin Pie in a Jar

Remember these? Yeah. Part of the super, duper fall harvest.


Well, they sat, and sat, and sat for a bit more until Halloween had well passed and if we didn't do something soon, so would they.


"We can't let them rot" Jer said, a little manic, I worked hard growing all those.


"Yeah" I quipped, "You successfully grew a kabillion tons of something you don't even like the taste of!"


"Well" he retorted, for all yet to be retorts have to start with 'well', "I suppose it doesn't can very well..."


I felt a little be sad for him. He did put a lot of energy into those gorgeous pumpkins. So, I caved. I called his mother, otherwise known as the queen of everything canned.


"Oh sure" she said in her 'we are farmers and anything can be done' voice, "it takes a little while but it can be done and it's pretty good."


When I relayed this news to him - another Jeremiah inspiration hit.

Ok, it's slightly more labor intensive than my clever byline, but not much. The pumpkin is cooked and spiced. All you do is mix 4 eggs, 18 oz evaporated milk and 1 cup of sugar together. Dump in your pumpkin, stir and split between two pie crusts.


Oh yeah, forgot to mention - one jar makes two pies.


Cool huh?


But, just in case you were wondering, my mother in law's nonchallance turned out to be the understatment of the year to the tune of a couple early morning nights waiting for the pressure canner to de-compress.


Still - the pies are yummy!


Any post-thanksgiving food revelations for you? What's everyone else showing and telling?

Show and Tell: Click - Clack - Click - The Punchline I Never Saw Coming

I love scrapbooking. I love taking pictures.


I didn't even care, much, that my camera was on it's last clicking legs. The images were getting hazier, the battery door was cracked, and the recovery time between pics had me yawning.

Even still, when I lost the camera I was devestated.

And, it was right before the bowling event when I was supposed to be uploading images of all the raffle items to the website!

I begged to borrow a friend's. She's a good friend. She let me.

I lived fitfully without my camera for three weeks only letting a random, "Oh - I wish I could take a picture of that" or "I guess this will have to be a mental picture" pass my lips, lest I receive the raised eyebrow look from my hubby.

Two weeks before the event I raised the question of buying a new one. I approached it well, I thought and he was on board before I even finished my well practiced pitch. So, I went for it.

"Well, I could get what we had before. You know they are pretty cheap now. Or I could get a good camera."

He raised his eyebrows. I continued.

"Yes, its an investement but the quality is amazing and the features are awesome and if I get it this weekend with the S.e.ar.s card there is a percentange of money off and no financing for 18 months!"

With eyebrows still raised, he nodded, then smiled.

And so, that weekend I took 30 minutes out of my 12 hour (9am to 9pm) scrapbooking day with my good friend (the one who lent me hers) to go buy my new tashmahal of cameras!





















A half an hour later I re-entered the Hol.ida.y I.nn proud as punch and ready to keep scrapping the backlog of pictures I had so I could take hundreds more with my new toy!

As I approached the table my friend raised her eyebrows. "What did I miss?" I asked.

"Your husband called." she said, "He found your camera."

I acutally laughed out loud. "Ha! Good one. That's really not a funny joke, though" I said, still laughing.

"Not kidding" she replied. "I'm not creative to make that up."

And so, I used my new camera to take a picture of my old camera and vice versa - and wha-la, a show and tell in the making!

Yes, I asked him if that meant I had to return the new one and the benevelent soul he is said no, but 'no Christmas presents under the tree for you' in a very soup-nazi kind of voice)

I can live with that. My camera rocks!


Now, go see what other good shows and tells are out there this week!

Show and Tell - The Ties That Bind

The chinese raffle for Bowling For Babies has taken great gabs of my time as of late, and I've loved every minute of it. They have been arriving via email, snail mail, UPS and in person.

I've made new friends and been reminded of tried and true ones. Today, these showed up.

They are from Babysmiling. Her show and tell for the week describes them perfectly, but what it doesn't say is how the package reminded me that my friends live far and wide. That, presumably, the words typed here stay with them for a spell, causing them to make an effort to package and ship bowls even while reveling in their new twin babies!

That is what amazes me most. Our binding ties remain, even as babies fly, or are born, and life takes over for a time.

I've shared before, but it's worth repeating in my emotional state that other blogging friends are participating in this event too.

Martha from A Sense of Humor made this gorgeous necklace.

And Lindsay from Destined To Be An Old Woman With No Regrets sent this framed shot all the way from her Canadian post as she watied out the end of her pregnancy!

Pamela donated a copy of her memoir, Silent Sorority.

And Are You Kidding Me? donated time to crochet some angels for the ornment drive!

And so, you can see why I feel like this raffle is as much yours as it is the people who physically walk in the door of the Springfield Bowling Alley on Sunday, November 15th.

Sure, you may not be able to take advantage of a gift certificate to a local eatery or come in to pain your own pottery, but there are many prizes in the ever growing list that could easily be shipped to your front door.

CLICK HERE to preview the current item list. READ the raffle directions. Then, if something catches your eye, ENTER using the donate button and be sure to specify how to distribute your tickets!

Thank again, to each of you, for your support over the last year. Your words have sustained me through every transition. This reality is yours to celebrate too.

While you do, peruse what the rest of the class is showing and telling!

Show and Tell: Abundance

We like to celebrate the abundance of things in our life. We use it to teach the children gratitude and satisfaction for our experience. We recognize that others don't have even that.

This time of year is full to bursting!

Emma's bush is full of gorgeous red leaves. Even as Comedian grieves the fact that they will 'fall off and die" she makes a point to mention they will "pop back after the snow melts".

And, after a year when the topic of in-town summer conversations lamented on various responses to, "And how was your garden this year?" we consider ourselves wildly abundant to have this:

I mean, look at the size of that blue hubbard squash

The chickens are all grown up. They say "don't count your chickens", but I do. There are 23 and even though only about half are currently laying we fill an egg carton a day.

A pantry full of canned vegetable will sustain us for the winter.

The outdooor furnace we (Um: I mean he) fills morning and night sits next about 22 cord of wood.

And so, it seems that if the world were to stop turning for a few moons we would be allright. For we have more than enough, no - much more than enough to be happy and healthy.

What are you grateful for that others might not have? What are you showing and telling?

Show and Tell - Refrigerator Surprise

I don't love venison. It's not necessarily because of the vegetarian point of view and I'm not even bothered so much by the perspective of the hunting community. I just don't like the taste. The fact that it is leaner and therefore, healthier for you than beef, doesn't persuade me.

Honestly, I feel the same ambiguity about beef. Interestingly, I am often asked as I order a 'veggie sandwich' or a local venue's creation called 'the asparagui', "Are you a vegatarian?" To which I reply, "I could have been, but I married into the wrong family".

For, this, is what one of our chest freezers looks like, nearly empty.

In a few months I will be mentally thrown back to my retail days in the dairy cooler as we rotate the 08 meat to make space for the newly wrapped sirloin, hamburg, chuck steak, stew meat and top and bottom rounds of 2009.

And so, it is not uncommon for the inside of my fridge to look something like this:

as a variety of beef and pork selections naturally defrost to meet the requirements of my menu planning for that week.


Yesterday, I opened the fridge to see a stack of meat taller and wider than I remember taking out for the week. I pulled one package after another - venision...the whole bunch. Eyebrows furrowed, I tried to make out the markings R.K.


You see, when we slaughter it is a very old-fashioned, men in the basement with sharp objects and women upstairs with paper and tape kind of process. We, the women that is, write things on the packages like the date, what variety of cut it is, and the initials of the person who owns the chest freezer the package will call home.


C.T. would have made sense. J.T would have made more sense. D.T, his brother, could even have cause me to stop mentally searching as they often trade cuts depending on what is left in each other's stock. But R.K. I couldn't place.


And then, with a clarity and connectedness to rival Keyser Soze, it hit me...


The dent in his brother's car

The phone call Sunday morning

The glimpse of a ribcage in the back of a truck as I dropped the girls off for church


R.K.


Road Kill


There's got to be a redneck joke in there somewhere, but right now I am hardpressed to find the humor in it. Ick. Just Ick.

What are you showing and telling?

Show and Tell: Birthdays and Deathdays

I suppose there really isn't much of a difference in this show and tell.

We celebrated Emma Grace last Tuesday on what would have been her 9th birthday.

No pictures of her thined out, well past little girl face. Just those of our everchanging ones that transform annually in her scrapbook.

The cake, strawberry - just as Bear said it should be.

Days later, the phone rang. "Great Gram has passed" my mother in law said, continuing with details about the funeral this week.

"Your Great, Great Grandmother has died" I told the kids, next day over breakfast.

"Is that the lady that Gram took me to see?" asked Bear, "The one who was 100 and sooooo old she couldn't even get out of bed, or walk, or talk?"

"Yes dear" I said, "that's her. Great Great Gram Brown". "Oh," continued Bear, "Well I still have a Grandma and a Great Grandma and Emma was waiting for her so I guess everything is just fine."

Oh Yes my sweet girl. A long and happy life ended by age is what I would call 'just fine'. And, although it took me a bit of time to find this picture, it was worth it to remember when she could walk, and talk, and hold newborn baby girls with the love of family still intact in her mind and heart.

What are you show and telling?

Show and Tell: The Tell Is Not Always The Show!

For example:

The closest we made it to Mt. Washington was here -

the up and down, so narrow I thought my life might be in danger more than once trail road of Smuggler's Notch.

And, our ride up the trail? These,

two borrowed, and not-so-cushiony I might add, bikes that left my arse feeling might sore for days to come. Still I managed 8 scenic miles, ooohhing and ahhhing all the way. FYI - The bike path along Lake Champlain in Burlington is gorgeous!

And, our version of camping?

We DID have the tent, air matress (without a way to blow it up, but would have figured it out), a shovel, food, and tp - but then we saw the clouds roll in and heard someone say the word 'hurricane' with some disscussion before and after and decided to call Jer's cousin who happily took us in!!

So - have you guessed our dream weekend vacation? Yup - we played tourist in our home state!!

And, it was FUN!

There was a little bit of this. Um...a chain resturant is like crack to us have to drive 45 minutes to think of reaching one.

You KNOW I can't resist this two-word phrase. We visited three winerys on this trip, yeah - in Vermont! And Jer doesn't even like wine. I guess he must love me ...


Did a little fishing...

Made a kickin' meat sauce, that added the right taste to the homemade lasagna.

Procured all the necessary ingrediants for making our OWN fruit wine. See, I told you he loved me!

And took a slight detour on the way home to taste some icccce -creeeaaam!

All in all - one of the best weekends in a long time. So how's that for flying life by the seat of your pants?

Not bad for a girl that used to make a spreadsheet just to decide what movie to go see. Now, what is the rest of the class showing and telling?

Show and Tell - The Show

My husband is allegic to poison ivy. Well, if we were to get techincal about it, he is allergic to the oil on the plant.

"Hmmm" he muttered about a week before our anniversary in May, "I think I might have gotten into some poison ivy."

"I'll call the doctor" I said. "No" he replied, "I don't think it's much. Maybe it won't happen".

A week later I was making calls. I was cancelling the childcare we had in place for our weekend getatway. And, of course, one to the doctor - for him.

"Sorry" he muttered, over and over. "No problem" I said, meaning it, we'll just cash in on those childcare overnights and go away for Emma's birthday this year. It will be great!"

It had hit his blood stream.

He was covered head to toe, literally.

It took six weeks to clear up.

Ick.

***

Because the weekend of Emma's birthday we will be at The SIMON Project's Ride to Remember (a SIDS foundation that supports support groups) we are taking our mini-vaca this weekend.

"Um, I hate to say this but I think I got in the ivy again." He told me this on Saturday. Saying nothing in return I picked up the phone. "You have an appointment at 2pm" I told him five minutes later, "and we are going away this weekend. I don't care that we can't afford it. We can't afford not to go. Get your meds and start taking them today."

We really can't afford it - financially I mean. I already have had to make choices to delay paying things that allow me to without penalty. But I speak the truth when I say that we cannot afford not to go.

This time of year it is essential for me to feel connected. If not, I can easily drift so far into myself that I become strangely vacant. It happened just a few weeks ago and it isn't pretty. And so, somehow we will find a way to get here:

To the top of Mount Washington.

We might even take this:

The Cog Railway.

And with any luck, and perhaps a little angel on our side, we might get to see this.

We will bask in each other's presence. Just to two of us, going grass roots to rediscover the things about each other that made us look twice all those years ago.

***

"Damn" he muttered, August 8th 1999. I feared he might be out of words, for we had talked the night away, unable to leave each other's side, "I think this might be the beginning of something special."

Well, I say: Damn the weather. Damn our finances. Damn that poison ivy.

We will go to the top of that glorious mountain. And we will come back renewed. Ready to start the school year. Ready to celebrate our daughter's heavenly birthday. Renewed and ready.

So there's The Show...Next week, The Tell! What is the rest of the class show and telling?

Show and Tell - The Story Behind the Story

I'm Baaaaack, courtesy of Two Bass, A Beer, A Benedryl and A Blessing Way.

What!? You don't know the story yet? Well - click on over and read that first! Today, for Show and Tell - I offer a pictoral version and they will make A LOT more sense if you read the story.

The Tale of Two Bass

Begins with a boat, well - a canoe actually.

"HEY!" I joked, after not catching about twenty fish in a row, "I'm getting better. I can gauge the size of the WEED I have on!" "Heh" Jer managed, "better take a picture of it then." So I did.

$14 fish number one

And $14 fish number too, where, because I am suave like fisherwoman, I managed to catch the net too!

The Tale of A Beer and a Benedryl

Well, I didn't actually take a picture of either (Ironically it was a Bass Ale) so here's a representative shot of the Shiraz that hides in the back of my pantry for what I like to call, 'executive decision emergency' nights.

Oh, and while I was self medicating the rest of the crew was oogling over their fish:

No, I did not take drastic measures because of my fish tally! I told you it would make more sense if you read the story!

So that leaves...

The Tale of the Blessing Way

Which, because of the tone of this post and the time I will defer for yet another day. But I think the picture says just about all you need to know. We were six connected, in-tune, red-tent sisters by the end. It was just about perfect.

What are you showing and telling?