I am a hero to one!

Well, I could really use a positive today, and my three year old DD gave me that.

She has become fixated on the fact that Mommy used to drive an ambulance. She asks me all the time about "what happened next" and I run through what happens from page to the trip back home. She loves it. asking every moment 'and then what happened".

So this week they announced to the preschool class that a Police officer was coming to school. And DD told the class "my mommy drives an ambulance". Of course that was followed up with them wanting to see. So She has been begging for pictures.

Today I found some pictures of my old North Brunswick First Aid and Rescue Squad pictures. Alpha 3, and Rescue 4. Pictures of me and Kasia in front of an Alpha by Farrington lake. Pictures of me sitting in the back of a new Rig.

I did not even get in the door before she was babbling, wanting to see "mommy's ambulance pictures". When I produced the pictures, she just about went nuts. She was bubbling and looking at all the pictures, repeating what I stated, and then pointing to them and telling me what they were.

And today, in the midst of what feels like another midlife crisis, loosing yet another pregnancy, my only child looked up at me with awe, with respect reserved for Spiderman and Firestar and told me "I'm so proud of Mommy, I want to drive an ambulance when I am old".

So there it is, for a fleeting moment, I was invincible. A hero. I think I will hold to that memory.

20Jan09 I just need a little change?

Change anyone? So has anyone felt sweeping change taking over just past 12:00 noon?

Tick, tick, tick.... nope.... Nothing yet.

What change do I want? what change do I think Obama will deliver? To me? Not a whole hell of a lot.

First of all, I fall into middle class hell. Too rich for the handouts, too poor to know the tax loops so I can keep my money. What is to come for us? Relocation of the bit of material we have been able to aquire? Wonderful. I don't see us in the handout line, and sure as hell see us in the "take from them" line. And what do I have to take in comparison to the uber weathly?

So what change can he offer me? Maybe a 401K that is worth than the 1/10th of what I put into it! Maybe my monthly medical premiums not creeping up as they do each year. How about realizing that the cost of living wage increases are a joke, and that Inflation is real. {come on, who has been able to buy a pound of lunch meat for under $10.00!}.

Maybe someone who will tell the oil whores to go pack it?!? I doubt it. We will play victim to international polotics for years to come.

So how will things change? That I would love to know.... Bring it on Big O! Prove me to be wrong about you and your promise of change.

After all, everyone could use a little change

2008, not the best of years.

So 2008 has ranked up there with the suckyest years ever. Started out the year by miscarriage #3 at the end of december 2007. Had miscarriage #4 in April. Lost my Matthew cat. Lost Peake cat. In November before the holildays, husband's contract position was terminated, leaving him unemployed. And rounded out the year by discovering pregnancy #6 was not viable. Wonderful.

Do I have enough hope left to think 2009 will bring good things or just continue the misery that 2008 inflicted? Jury is still out... check back next year. :)

NH Ice Storm

Well, we had contemplated purchasing a portable generator since it seems that the power grid is always going out here and there, plus our house is wired with a transfer switch and an external plug.

But like most home projects, we put it on the back burner, right up there with new gutters, studding out the basement, fixing that sink drain that seems to always clog... oh and I could list so many more...

Well, was probably a bad idea. In early december an ice storm came thorugh depositing about 1/4 to 3/4 an inch of ice on everything. Trees snapping sounded like gunshot throughout the night. And due to the fact that NH has some really nice "scenic roadways" the trees are always right along the road, (ok, and those that are not protected as scenic are just in the sticks anyways, and most are dirt!) so the power lines snake in and out of tree branches.

We sat it out the first 24 hours, using our propane gas log set for heat. But after that, with no well for water or flushing toilets, nothing to cook on, and well 47F in the house, it was time to start thinking of other plans. Poor Madeline could not understand why we wanted her to keep her hat, jacket, and shoes on. All the things we tell her to take off when she gets home. She even went as far as to ask me to sit on the toilet first so to warm the seat for her!

Packed it up and headed out to family 6 hours away, could not find gas within 2 hours of our home due to power outages or gas shortages. We ended up spending four days as refugees, following the news on the internet and calling our neighbor.

Bought a generator and drove home with all the Ashplund tree crew bucket trucks heading east with us.

We were lucky, out of power for about 3-4 days, some around us went as long as a week and a half! So at least next time we have a generator.

Now we just have to put to the list of house projects connecting the right pigtail to the power cord.. LOL...

The birds are back in town

I had been a bit neglectful of our backyard feeders, and let them dry out for a while. But on Sunday, I went out and filled up the suet and seed hoppers. I swear I heard one of the woodpeckers singing in the woods at the top of it's head.

Sure enough the first one to arrive was a downy woodpecker. Happy to check out the two new suet cakes. Shortly after that came the black capped chickadees and then the titmouse. I saw at least two pairs of cardinals. And sure enough out came the blue Jays and by the end of the day, the top was off the barn style feeder and one was standing inside it.

It was nice to stand at the kitchen window and see them all out there on a rainy foggy day. But it seems whenever I fill up the feeders, out comes the predators as well.

So this morning I woke up to a pile of white and grey feathers strewn around the back feeder. Sigh. I guess I must feed the hawks as well.