Cool dude!

Mason loves to put on Auntie Kris's sunglasses. He is one cool dude!

Littleville Lake

Today after work we took a ride to Littleville Lake to see if it was still frozen. I guess it's going to be a little longer until we can kayak there!

Marley's pink streak

For a couple of weeks now, Marley has been asking to get a streak in her hair. Kristen told her she could get one right before they went to Disney. Not wanting to do anything permanent, Kris bought something that sprayed on. It was kind of "cakey", but Marley was very excited about it. Tonight she asked me to take a picture so she could e-mail it to her friend. Yikes. This all was a little bit of too much growing up for my comfort zone.

Update: On Saturday Kristen took Marley to Toby's cousin who is a hairdresser. She put a pink streak in that looks much better than the sprayed on kind. They came to see me at work to show me. I'm getting used to it; I have to, I know this is only the beginning!

This picture was taken on Kris' phone and I took it off Facebook, so not the greatest, but the streak really does look a lot better!

Little cars and coloring

Watching Mason play with his little cars tonight reminded me of how much his father used to like his little matchbox cars.

Mason and Marley were coloring tonight. This is the first time Mason's coloring paper went up on Grandma's refrigerator along with Marley's. "Color" he says!





Note: I just noticed that Marley's paper is supposed to be sideways, but I'm too tired to take another picture. Sorry, Marley!

Second day of Spring

Spring can be such a tease; 30's and 1 inch of snow today.

First day of Spring

Today was the first day of Spring, and I can't think of another year when I welcomed the beginning of Spring more. This has been a long hard winter. It doesn't seem possible that the snow piles are almost gone. They were so huge that I didn't think they would ever melt.

Here are a couple of signs of Spring around my house today.

Marley blowing bubbles in the back yard.



My daylilies starting to come up.



Buds on the tree in the back yard.



From Channel 22 News
Snowfall so far this season & records:

November: 0.2"
December: 6.7"
January: 40.5" - A new record!!
February: 25.4"
Total: 72.8"

Welcome Spring!!

Saying good-bye

Tonight we had a get-together at my boss' house. She has been asked to leave her job after almost 35 years. I have worked for her for almost 14 years. We have been undergoing a change in adminstration for more than a year and this was part of that change. It is going to be a hard adjustment and one that none of us are very happy with. We sure had a fun time tonight, though.

High country Vermont

Paul and I took a ride to Vermont today. It was a beautiful day, cool but bright sunshine. We took a ride up to what I call the high country (elevation somewhere around 2300 ft). The last time we were there was in November during an ice storm. Today those hills that were so treacherous then were hardly noticeable today. The picture above is from Hogback Mt. The view there is incredible on a clear day.


This next picture is of Harriman Reservoir. It is starting to melt and turn into ice chunks. Very weird.








As we were driving I noticed a pink hue on the trees. I realized that this was because the trees were starting to bud. This was the first sign of Spring that I have seen so far. What a welcome sight.

Corned Beef Dinner

This is a picture of the corned beef all ready to go into the oven. I cooked four of them for dinner from 7:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., and then put two more in (Toby wanted leftovers for him and Mark) until 8 p.m. What a feast. Trust me, it comes out really good in the oven.

Here's the recipe:

Corned Beef

Oven 325 degrees
Place corned beef in pan, fat side up
Slice an orange and arrange on top of meat

Cut up one carrot, one celery, and one onion and place around meat
You can sprinkle corned beef seasoning packet if desired (I don’t use it, I don’t really like it)

One inch of water in bottom of pan. Cover pan.

Flat Brisket – I cook 13 lbs for 7 adults
Cooked for 5 ½ to 6 hours

Good-bye McDonald's toy

Tonight I brought down the McDonald's toy and let Marley and Mason play with it for the last time before I packed it all up to give back to my friend Cindy. She let me use it for Marley back in 2003 when Marley was about 2 1/2. She had a lot of fun with it over the years.

Cindy now has a little granddaughter of her own and it's time for the McDonald's toy to go home. Mason had never seen it before. He's really a little too young for it but he had fun opening the doors and sticking his head out.

Thanks, Cindy, for years of fun with McDonald's!





Earlier today Dot had her 6 month checkup at her doctor's office. She looks pretty good, don't you think?

Bubba Gump and Yale Genton

Today we went for a ride to Vermont to the scrapbook store. After we were on the road Paul said the glare was bad and asked me to get his spare hat from the back seat; he had forgotten his hat. He keeps Bubba Gump in the car for a spare.

When we stopped at the Vermont Visitor Center I took a good look at him in that hat. We might need to put a different hat in the car for a spare.

On the way home we went by where the old Yale Genton was. It is now a Honda dealership (actually we bought our new car there last April). I was thinking about how much I used to like that store. More recently we used to get Paul's dress clothes there, but when I was a young teenager I remember walking there to shop.





This is a picture of me at about 15 or so, my cousin Lynda, and my friend Janie (who lived with her grandmother in the house that Kris, Toby and Marley live in now). Janie and I both had on what they used to call "shells" at the time, bought at Yale Genton. It's funny the things that go through your head - just a little tidbit of information for anyone who is interested.

Another funny thing about Janie.  I'm not sure how old my cousin Lynda was at the time, but she said to Janie, "My mother says you have bug eyes."  I told Ettie what Lynda said and Ettie was horrified.  She asked her why she would tell her that, and Lynda said, "Well, you did say that."  Note to self - be careful what you say in front of your kids, lol.

No more bagel cutting for Kristen

This has not been a good couple of weeks for Kristen. Two weeks ago she burned the top of her hand on the toaster oven. Today while cutting a bagel she cut her hand and ended up having four stitches in the ER. All of this took place at work. She is probably banned from the kitchen there by now.

This is the first time she has ever had stitches. At least it is her left hand, but it's going to be a rough week or so until the stitches come out. I hope your hand feels better soon Kris!

Mason visits Prims

Mark was really pressed for time to finish writing his paper by Thursday morning, so we brought Mason to church tonight. Paul, Marley, Mason and I had supper at church, and then Mason came to Prims. The girls loved him. He was really good, playing and having a good time for the first half of the night. Then all of a sudden he wanted me to hold him. I brought him in to Marley's class for a little while and he stayed with her so that I could help Pat a little.







Pat brought her ferret in and all the girls were having a great time. It got a little wild in there, which is probably why Mason wanted to be held.

End of an Era, Combustion Engineering

Today we had an appointment in Connecticut and on the way home we drove by Paul's old work. He got laid off from Combustion Engineering/Alstom after 31 years in 2003.

He had heard that they were going to tear down the old buildings. Today we saw that they had started.

It's had to tell from this picture, but there were guys in asbestos suits working on the outside of the building. The reason they kept the big site so long is because of nuclear contammination that needed to be cleaned up.



The remnants of the company are now in two rented buildings, one of which is a building that they rented for overflow space many years ago.



They also rent this building.





This was the "main site" where Paul worked when he first got his job there in 1972.




I remember the first time he took me down there to see where he would be working. It seemed so far away from where we lived (about 25 minutes). We took his parents there one Sunday afternoon. There is a pond behind the building with ducks. We brought bread and fed the ducks (and, yes, I am pregnant - about 7 months. The day we found out I was pregnant was the same day he found out he had this job).



Kind of sad; the real end of an era now that the main building will be gone.