Christmas 2005

It has taken me a few days to post about Christmas, but that's only because I literally JUST washed and put away the pans I used to cook Christmas Eve dinner. It's a bit slow going to clean up. Of course, we spent our first Christmas in New England this year and our first without family around. It was both very sad and at the same time sort of nice to not have to go to any family parties or have arguments over what we were going to do for the holiday. We knew what we were going to do - pretty much hang out with ourselves!

We do have really great friends here and that made the week-end go by a with a little less homesickness. On Christmas Eve, we invited our friends, the Yoho's, over for a fun dinner. They have 3 kids and Grace had a lot of fun with their 3 year old boy. They are from Utah too and were home this year without family as well. We have really enjoyed getting to know them and have quite a bit in common with them.

On Christmas day, I made the mistake of waking Grace up early to open her presents. The bit of kid in me just couldn't force myself to wait until after church (we had to leave at 9:30am all dressed for church.) So, after all of us going to bed at midnight, I woke myself up at 7:00 and then Grace up at 7:30. (very early for us - the two of us usually wake up around 9:oo or 9:30!) She really did have fun opening the presents she had patiently waited so long to tackle and was so excited to see that Santa really did bring her the things she asked for. However, I think she would have been even more animated and more excited if she had been half awake.

This was definitely the year of the train for Grace though. She got tons of Thomas the Tank Engine pieces from many different people (including Mr. Claus himself) and also discovered a new favorite movie "The Polar Express." She's watched it about 8 times since Christmas Eve and we went out and bought the book today (couldn't believe we didn't have it already!) Anyway - our lives are now centered around the adventures of all of her train friends - even the beloved horses (who are still beloved) have taken a second seat to the trains for the time being!

Anyway, by the time we got to church, she was not in a very good mood and then by the time we got home from church, she was down right mean. We forced her to take a nap rather than play with her new toys and then woke her up again to take her to Rita's house. She was soooo mean when we did that. Luckily, though, she adores Rita's boys (age 23, 19, and 14) and they adore her too. So once she got there, she had a total blast playing with Tom, Andrew, and Coleman. We had a really nice afternoon with people who really feel like family to me. Rita has really stepped in and taken care of us this year and we are so grateful for our relationship with her, her barn, and her family. It has allowed me to survive and be happy here and consequently to be a good mom and a nice wife.

Well, we are all very lucky and very blessed to have received so much from everyone for Christmas. Our family and our friends are simply generous and amazing and made our Christmas very rich (in more ways than with the incredible presents that showed up on our porch and in our mailbox during the month.) Grace of course got very spoiled from all directions. I think about all the kids in the world who don't have a single thing that she does. I wish I could fix all that, but I guess the best thing to do is to be grateful for what you have and try to share and be as generous as possible. I think we try to do that, but we know that the scales still tip very much in our direction.

Thanks to everyone for everything that was sent our way - gifts, cards, letters, phone calls, e-mails, prayers, and thoughts. We were very happy to receive every single one.

Grace and I will be traveling to Utah from January 17th through the 31st. We will try to contact and visit as many as possible. We look forward to seeing you all again! Happy New Year (what is it - 2006??!!!!)

I'm 30???

Old enough and young enough that no one took a picture of me on my birthday! Well, actually, I've been saying I'm 30 for almost a year now. David is about 9 months older than me and as soon as he has his birthday, I forget how old I am and I say his age. It's totally true. My birthday is so close to Christmas that by the time the holidays are over, I just forget about it altogether. However, I really am 30 now and have joined the ranks of the 30-somethings. No more being associated with those 20-somethings. The 20's were great - college, new jobs, parties, crazy trips with friends, horse shows, weddings and a few babies here and there. But, I'm ready to be one of those generic people who just strives to keep a clean house, a car that runs and isn't sticky inside (although, I'm still young enough I'm not willing to hand over my pathfinder for a minivan), clean and happy kids, a good marriage and a few close friends. It's nice not to worry so much about what I wear, what people think of me, and whether I have the latest hairdo. (well, I guess I never really worried about that, did I?) Now, people just look at what Grace is doing and wearing and saying and they assume that if she's put together that I am too. So, naturally, all my focus goes to her. That doesn't necessarily come with turning 30 years old, but being 30 instead of 22 sure does help.

It's a GIRL!!!!!!!

Well, I suppose we can understand those who like a real surprise on the day of delivery to find out the gender of their baby, but David and I are way too "type A" personality to wait that long and leave that much planning to chance! So, we figure, it's a surprise and really fun no matter when you find out who your next kid is going to be. We had our ultrasound yesterday and found out that we will be having another darling little girl. My mom said "you mean another barn rat." She's probably right. Grace and I will have her riding before she can eat solid foods. We'll have to resist stopping at the barn on the way home from the hospital in May. Of course, David (as all fathers do), was hoping for a son. He is still excited to have another "daddy's girl" and if she's anything like Grace, she will love to do the things he likes to do too. Grace loves all the sports, the outdoors, the hiking, the camping... He is going to be very out-numbered in our house though as every breathing creature here is female except for him! I told him I'd get him a male fish, but that didn't seem to help.

I am very excited that Gracie will have a little sister to be her pal. My sister, Melissa, and I have been best friends our whole lives and I hope the same will follow for Grace and.... (what's her name?) We've been debating on names. We had the boy name all picked out - very solid - to be named after my dad, but the girl names are becoming more of a struggle. Names I had once been set on aren't sounding right to me. David came up with Harriet quite a while ago and at first I thought it was just plain silly (if you were raised in the same SNL generation as we were with Mike Myers and the gang - you probably know the movie "So I Married and Axe Murderer." In the movie, Mike recites a poem about "Harr-i-et" and that is definitely going to stick!) However, the name is growing on me. I didn't even know what nickname you would use with Harriet (she MUST have a decent nick-name!), but my mom said that her Aunt Harriet was called "Hattie" which I think is actually pretty cute even though my mom doesn't like it at all. Gracie and Hattie? We'll keep thinking about it....the middle names are an equal dilemma....

Anyway, no need to go shopping for "boy stuff." I can delve into the 20 some-odd bins of girlie stuff I have in my basement and pull out all of the darling outfits I was hoping to use again. :-)

Let it Snow!

Well, we don't want to completely bore you with Boston weather, but we did get 2 feet of snow last Friday. It was pretty crazy and it has been so cold that very little of it has melted. Unfortunately Grace has been sick so we didn't go play in it much. She did ride Tinkerbell in it the next day and the two of them could barely get their hips above the snow. It has been nice though, to have white on the ground for the month of December. I can think of a lot of ugly Decembers when the Christmas lights try to reflect off of the brown ground and the grey sky.

David, of course, gets the job of snow clearing around here. He probably doesn't appreciate the snow as much as we do! Now the dog-gloo's really do look like arctic igloos. (like the dogs go in there anyway - it's so cold and the snow is so deep, they go potty as close to the house as possible and run straight back to the door to beg to be let back in)

"It is a bad bad weather day" (says Grace)

After lots of warm fall days, I'm afraid winter has finally set in. The snowstorm over Thanksgiving was cold but quick and it has been warm ever since. Today, it snowed again and I think it's going to be cold for many many weeks. (this is a view from my living room window looking across the Assabet river)

Yesterday I was just saying how I think my favorite season in New England is winter. (I'm not so sure about that today...) In my adult life, winter has been my least favorite season. Somewhere between high school and college (after I quit skiing and thinking that riding horses in any temperature was fun) I started really feeling the cold. I have terrible joints and as everyone says "no meat on my bones" and I get very cold in even the slightest chill. I also get winter-time depression. In Salt Lake, both of those things added up to hating winter because of the temperatures and the long gray inversions. Here, though, I'm at least finding a bright spot to winter.

I do still get cold and hate being cold and today - I AM VERY COLD!!! But, with all the trees in New England and the humidity and the bugs, summer is very claustrophobic for me and I dreaded going outside almost more than I do now. The sun never shone in my house through spring, summer, or fall because of the trees (sometimes, I was even turning on lights in the middle of the day during the summer), but now that the leaves are gone and the sun is low in the southern sky, I have sunny south-facing windows! I have enjoyed them every day. The sun comes across the river right into my living room and den and I remember now when we were looking at the house to buy last February, that I decided I could stand to be cooped up in the house in the winter with babies if I could sit in one of those sunny windows. Also, with winter, the bugs are gone as is the humidity.

So, winter is not all bad. I just wear so many layers that it is a chore to get dressed and undressed and do all my laundry. Also, with my new automatic garage door opener that David and his Dad installed for me, I don't have to scrape (nor do I have to go anywhere in the morning!) It doesn't compare to the days when I left my house at 6am in the dark and had to scrape my truck and warm it up before trudging off to work.

I do love Christmas and I love snow at Christmas time, so I guess I will endure the cold for the time being. I think I will want spring somewhere at the end of January though. Spring came very late last year here. In fact, we really didn't get spring. It went straight from winter to summer in the middle of May. Next year (as in 2007), David promises that he will take me somewhere tropical for a vacation in February to make the winter shorter. Hopefully, after the snowstorm passes, the sun will come out and I can sit in my window...

dancing sugar plum fairies and girls in velvet dresses...

Last night, we took Gracie to her first Nutcracker performance. We debated about attending the Boston Ballet at the opera house downtown, but decided it was too much for a 2 year old and also a little too expensive. We opted for a local performance put on by a traveling ballet company called "Commonwealth Ballet." They performed at the Acton High School. I was so excited to dress Grace up in her red velvet and satin dress (she wouldn't let me do much with her hair though) and take her. I have always loved to get dressed up and go to the Nutcracker. My grandmother has taken me every year for at least 20 years and now I get to keep the tradition going with Grace. The performance was done for a fairly small crowd and you could see very well from all of the seats in the auditorium. It definitely wasn't of the caliber of Ballet West and Capitol Theatre, but it was still really fun and they did have a few guest dancers from professional ballet companies who did a great job in the solo roles and such. Grace was really good through most of the performance. She was mesmerized by the dancers and the music. She got a little tired at the end, but still didn't fuss much. At one point, she was trying to move her arms like the ballerinas and singing quietly "do as I'm doing." We ran into several people we know (which seems weird now, to know enough people to run into them in public places...) Our friends, the Whatcotts were there as well as some girls from the barn. Grace pooled some money from her piggy bank with some money she took from my purse (she is very good at increasing her funds from going through my purse) to buy herself a little nutcracker and a ballerina to put on our tree. She is so much fun to have at Christmas, now that she understands and is big-eyed with wonder about the magical things to do with the holiday.

A little full, lot of sap...

The best part about the day after Thanksgiving is not all of the leftovers or great deals at stores, it is simply being able to begin thinking about Christmas and decorating the house. It seems as if every year, the stores start promoting Christmas earlier and earlier. I remember walking into Costco the week after labor day this year and already seeing Christmas items. I thought to myself, "Unbelievable."

Growing up, we always had an artificial tree that we put up and decorated the day after Thanksgiving. As I got older I became the setup and light man as my dad had lost all desire (or maybe just patience) after having done this ritual for so many years. Even after being married, I would still help my Mom out because I knew how much my Dad loathed the Christmas tree lights. Michelle and I always have had a small artificial tree because we have never had a place large enough for a big tree. This year we decided to do a real tree since we have a little more space and we both enjoy the natural pine smell. So after Michelle had spent all morning shopping (and spent all her money), we loaded up the family and drove to pick out the Chapman Family Christmas tree. While quite a few people around here like to cut their own tree, I saw no need to trudge through the cold with a 2 year old in tow. So we went to the local nursery, Stow Gardens, and picked out a perfect little tree.

As I hoisted the tree up on top of the car I couldn't help but think of Clark Griswald and hope that I was going to make it home without incident. Long story short, we got home with the tree intact and decorated it last night (little toy train included). Grace is so much fun this year as she is to the point where she understands what is going on. She was excited to help decorate the tree and now can't wait to give her presents we bought to people. I just hope that she keeps Michelle's present a secret. I have given her proper anti-revealing training, but she will probably be under heavy interrogation. Hopefully my techniques will keep the secret safe.

White Thanksgiving?

Well Thanksgiving morning we woke up to quite a bit of snow. It was acutally nice to see, as it gave the neighborhood a really nice look. Luckily the snow was light and fluffy and we easy to shovel, but Gracie and I were unable to build a snowman because it was so dry. So we had to settle for some snow angels and playing with the dogs. We all had a good time playing in the snow except for Michelle who hate the cold although she did get a few action shots.

For dinner we were invited over to our friend's, the Whatcott's, along with 3 other families from our ward. It was a lot of fun to have a big group for Thanksgiving and Grace had a good time playing with the dozen or so kids that were there. Grace still hasn't learned the joys of the turkey dinner as I think she ate the least of anyone there, but her daddy got his share. The food and company were both good and I think everything was a success. The Whatcott's did the turkey and stuffing and farmed out the other items. We brought a cranberry-pecan salad, sauteed asparagus and portabella mushrooms, and some famous carrot pudding. Sorry Dad, maybe next year. The carrot pudding wasn't much of a hit, but it sure was a conversation starter. That is one thing you have to say about English/Scottish dishes. You may not be able to stomach them, but they are great conversation pieces.

This was Michelle's first Thanksgiving away from family and my first since my mission. The holidays accentuate the fact that we are away from family, and can make the time difficult. However, it is conforting to know that we have friends nearby that help ease the pain during the holiday season.

Hiking the Whites

Yesterday I went on my first hike in the White Mountains up in New Hampshire. Hiking is something that I was really into in high school and my early twenties. I would occasionally go on small hikes with the young men back in South Salt Lake, but I haven't done any major hiking in a few years. It was nice to get out again.

The Lincoln Lab Outing Group (I hope their aren't any closets :-P) made their first hike of the season yesterday. Our fearless leader believes a hike is only worth it with snow, ice, wind and single digit or negative temperature. We chose Mount Carrigain for our hike. It is the 14th highest peak in New England and one of 48 peaks over 4000 feet. Coming from Utah, the height doesn't mean anything as I have done over a dozen 13,000 feet peaks. However, it was still a lot of fun. After many years, my equipment was still working well, the spirit was more than willing, but the flesh was a little weak. By the time we got home I could barely walk. My left knee with tendonitis was flaring up, both my legs were extremely sore from all the stepping motion, and I tweaked my right ankle and knee.

Once home, a nice hot bath and some Ben-Gay sure helped. I may not be 20 anymore, but with a little help the body will be back for the next hike in a couple of weeks. Some might say I am crazy to drive 7 hours (roundtrip), hike 7 hours in the cold and snow, and beat my body up for a mere 4700 feet tall mountain that wasn't even above the treeline, but all I can say is I did it "Because it is there."

A UTAH MAN AM I!!!

Last night after getting home from a hike in the White mountains, I was feeling pretty sore (more on that latter). I asked Michelle the outcome of the Utah/BYU game and when she told me 41-34 I thought she was joking. How could my Utes have done it? This is the team that gives away games in the second half.

Needless to say I was pretty happy and some of the pain from my hike drifted away. A dismal season has been replaced by a good one just from the fact that we have now beaten the "team down south" four years in a row.

Who am I, sir,
A Utah Man am I!
A Utah Man, sir,
Will be 'til I die.
Ki-yi!

Dear Santa...

Yesterday Grace decided she wanted to write a letter to Santa Claus. Michelle and I are amused by how quickly Grace has picked up the concept of Santa. We have talked to her about it, but haven't said a whole lot, but she has run with the idea. So here is the letter that Grace wrote (through Michelle).

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I would like: Thomas train, Percy train, Emily train, Edward train (or Toby), Henry train, James train, track, tunnel, sleeping place for trains, bridge, waterfall, one horse or two, books.

I already have a baby and clothes and movies, so no thanks.

Thank you Santa,

Love Grace

As you can see, Grace is big into Thomas the Tank Engine. Hopefully she will continue to be a nice girl and she might get some of the things she asked from Santa. I don't know if two horses, even Tinkerbell size will fit down our chimney though!

Not much to say for ourselves...

We haven't updated the blog in a week now. Mostly, it is because we haven't really had time, but it is also because our lives are pretty boring. We actually like boring for the most part. It means that things are going as they should and nothing requiring extra time, money, or worry has happened. We are getting excited about Christmas. Grace and I are especially into it. This is the first year for a very long time that I can remember it "feeling" like it should be Christmas. The last several years, it has come and gone and I barely had time to enjoy it or savor it. David says it's because I'm not working - specifically, not teaching school. That is actually a huge part of enjoying life for me. I've actually had time to sit and think about the holidays, what I want to shop for, and really getting into the mood. Grace has also made it much more fun. She really understands Santa much better this year and has cheefully made her list (mostly of Thomas the tank engine stuff) and is patiently waiting for him to "bring her a present." I also bought tickets for the 3 of us to go see the Nutcracker Ballet at a local performance done by the Commonwealth Ballet. I have always loved seeing the Nutcracker and I'm excited to continue the tradition with Grace. I hope she likes it as much as I do. We are dragging David to it. He doesn't like the dancing much, but does like the music.

As for Thanksgiving, we have been invited to eat with our new friends, the Whatcott's. They feel like family now that we've lived at their house for a week. Grace is excited to "go to Thanksgiving with her friends and eat turkey." I am looking forward to getting our first real Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.

Since we don't really have any particular event to document this week - here are some fun pictures of Grace (has she had her picture taken enough?)



We hope that this coming week brings fun and holiday spirit to all of our friends and family. We desperately miss those of you who don't live nearby and wish we could see you during the coming month. Please stay in touch, and don't forget us on your Christmas card list!

Doubling the Family

Well for the past week we have been babysitting/housesitting for our friends the Whatcotts. They went to France for a week and asked Michelle and me if we would watch their kids. We agreed so we moved into their house for a week to look after their four kids. It was actually a lot of fun, but Michelle and I both said it is a good thing that people don't generally go from 1 to 5 kids. When you just add 1 kid every 2-3 years you gradually go insane and don't realize it instead of instant insanity.

Grace had the most fun. She loved having her "friends" to play with and she cried every morning when they got on the bus to go to school. Whether it was playing jedi knight with a light saber or jumping in the leaves it was more fun with other people. She misses her friends but is now super excited to have a little brother or sister come May. Of course Michelle and I will be prepared for some more insanity, but isn't that what kids are all about?

FREEDOM!!!!

Well after 45 days of being under "house arrest" due to Shadow's unfortunate encounter with a skunk, the dogs are finally out of quarantine and free to roam about. What did the dogs do with the newly acquired freedom, you may ask? They both just sunned themselves on the asphalt on this beautiful fall afternoon. Ah, the dog's life.

Night Riding!!

Well with the daylight savings time change it is now officially dark at 5 PM and needing lights after about 4:30. Since I have been trying to commute to work by bike as much as possible the darkness poses some challenges. I hadn't ridden since mid-September due to Michelle being gone, my parents here, and then plain laziness. I am lucky enough at work to have a friend that use to race and has lots of fun bike gear. He has outfitted me with a nice headlight system and prodded me back into riding. I haven't done much night riding, but around here, it is kind of necessary. Since Boston is much closer to the start of the time zone relative to where Salt Lake City sits in the Mountain time zone, we get light earlier and subsequently dark earlier. Last night was my first commute home in the dark. Things went well although I did hit a big pot hole after being blinded by some car's xenon lights going the other way. I found that cars are much more cautious in the dark and I felt much safer that during the daylight. Cars that normally would pass me with only a 12-18 inches gave me 3 feet. It is nice to get back on the bike and hopefully I can continue to do so until it snows and the roads become significantly narrower and full of sand. Of course the best part of the bike commute--passing a mile worth of backup going to Route 2 and avoiding the long line of cars waiting to get onto the base. You have to take advantage of the perks of riding your bike.

Happy Halloween!

Well, we had a fabulously beautiful day for Halloween. It was warm and nice and just perfect to be outside. (hugely relieving after what we saw on Saturday!) The only thing that was bad about the day was saying good-bye to Aunt Emmie. She had to get home to see little Sean in his costume too.

Grace put on her Eeyore costume again and proudly wore it about the neighborhood. We went to about 7 houses near ours and then she and I were tired enough to go home. She got pretty good at saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" at the doorsteps. She collected quite a bit of candy between our generous neighbors and the very well-attended trunk-0r-treat. We only had one kid come to our doorstep, so now we really have a lot of candy. I feel very sick of it. I'm craving a good fresh salad - something with absolutely no sugar in it. Grace hasn't quite gotten her fill yet. She has eaten a lot of candy and doesn't seem to be slowing down- she isn't happy that we've slowed down. She keeps offering us candy and is upset that we don't want any more.

We put out our jack-o-lanterns. I think I saw one other in the neighborhood. I guess no one gets too excited about it around here. We don't have a lot of kids or younger families in the area, so it's not as festive. Still, we love our older neighbors. They are very good to us and couldn't have been more excited for Grace to knock on their doors last night.

Went to Maine...

We took a trip up to Maine yesterday to do some shopping in the Kittery outlet complex and add a state to our list of states we've been to. It wasn't great weather, but we decided to go anyway. In fact, it ended up snowing. This is the first snow we've seen since last spring. It was actually kind of depressing and very cold last night.
The shopping complex was too huge to do it all, so we just hit a few stores. Then, we drove to Kittery point to see the harbor and some views. Maine used to sound so far away, but it turns out, it's only an hour from our house now. We must live very far away! ---I forgot to add this photo - here's our first snowfall in our yard!!!

Aunt Emmie is here!

My sister Emily came to stay with us for the week-end. She mostly came to see Grace in her Halloween costume. We are trying to make the most of the 4 days she is here so we've really been packing in the activities. We picked her up from the Manchester, NH airport last night and took her to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Scupper Jack's. This morning we went to Shelburne Farm and picked out 3 pumpkins to carve. Grace had a very hard time deciding which pumpkin she wanted, but finally decided on a little one. I got a tall skinny one and decided to carve it into "bampa Lyle" with a mustache. Emily carved hers into "mo Debbie" and Grace made hers into a cute face for all of her aunts. Grace also thinks that the big pumpkins look a little like "bampa Earl" and "mo Grandma."

This afternoon, we went to the barn and Grace was able to show aunt Emmie how she rides Tinkerbell. We were worried that she wouldn't get to do it with her arm, but it is healing really well and she is using it more now. It's also finally to the point that we can put some warm clothes on her to go outside.

After going to the barn, we came home and got ready for the ward Trunk or Treat. Grace went as Eeyore. The rest of us went as ourselves. This week has just been too crazy to come up with adult costumes. David had one ready to go, but I was too slow to get something together for Emily and me. Grace wasn't very happy that we weren't dressed up though. The party turned out to be really fun. Grace had a blast at the cake-walk and had lots of fun playing with her friends. She didn't get into trick-or-treating as much as she did last year. Towards the end, she warmed up to it, but it wasn't her favorite thing. We took our jack-0-lanterns and lit them outside our trunk and took some southwest white bean chili (recipe courtesy of the Covili's) to the chili cook-off. Apparently, our local New Englander's didn't like it as much as we do, so we didn't win.

Gracie's first ER visit...

I wasn't too sure that we should make this post. Normally you should make record of the first word, step, day of school, etc. David wanted to, so I guess I will do it. Well, you never want to go to the ER with your kid, but most people end up there at some point. We ended up there last night. I was at a fireside, Grace was staying home with her daddy because she had a bad cold. I got a message during the fireside after hearing the phone ring in the church hallway to "call David on his cell phone." I didn't think too much of it - maybe he had to take her to the doctor for her cold? That would be weird, but maybe? Then I couldn't get a phone signal in the church, so another member of our ward walked outside with me and we both kept trying until he finally got David on the phone. The signal was so patchy, all I heard was "Grace", "boiling water", and "ambulance." I officially started freaking out. Brother Gentile was extremely nice and offered to drive me to the hospital and help David give her a blessing. It turns out, that Grace had been helping David in the kitchen and grabbed a pot off of the stove to hang up on the rack. (She loves to hang up the pots after we do dishes.) She didn't know it had boiling ramen noodles in it. David half-caught her and at least knocked the pot out of the way of her face. They called 911 and rode in the ambulance to the hospital. She ended up with many 2nd degree burns and maybe one 3rd degree burn on her arm and small burn on her chest. She is supposed to heal well and she's been an awesome patient. She is now over her cold (in miraculous time) so she can just focus on getting her arm better. She was very happy to get bandaged last night and says "my arm ok" and "it feel better now." She was also very proud of her bracelet with her name and age on it. We are so lucky to have so many people around here who have offered to help us and who have checked up on us. It's rough to have something like this happen when you don't have family around, but we have unbelievable friends and they have all been in contact many times today asking what they can do. There really isn't much to do now except keep Grace's arm covered and clean for a couple of weeks, but it's nice to know that we have people we can ask if we need help.

Another One!

We've been hinting around about it on our blog and some people have been told, but I guess we should officially say that we are adding to our pack. Gracie will be a big sister sometime next May. The due date is May 16th, but everyone knows that is just a suggestion to the baby and they have their own plans. I went today to have an ultrasound to figure out the due date for sure since we weren't too clear on it. It's what we thought it should be, but it was nice to make it more certain and also to get a sneak peak at the little alien I'm growing. David and Grace came too and Grace was pretty excited to see the "baby in my belly" that is making me "not feel so good." Since we don't have a scanner anymore, this is a photo of a photo. Ultrasound photos are hard to see anyway, so this will be even worse. But, here he/she is. Can't wait to find out which one! I've been having a dreading feeling that I was having twins, so it was also relieving to see only one little body in there!

Saying Goodbye

Well it finally came time for my parents to say goodbye. While I know that they won't miss the New England weather, small winding roads, traffic, and rarely knowing which way is north, I know that they will miss Gracie. They may even miss Michelle and Me. I won't go so far as to say that my mother will miss Velvet and Shadow, but my dogs will miss my dad.

It is sad living so far away from family. Phone calls help, but it is sad that Grace doesn't get more interaction with her Grandparents. She especially adores her grandpas. Hopefully, despite the distance, she will maintain a strong bond with her grandparents and other family members, and maybe some day her Daddy can get a job closer to them.


Of course with all the rain this last week Grace spent plenty of time in her room playing with Bampa Earl and Mo Grandma. It will be tough for Mom and Dad to keep up with the spoiling she got from her grandparents.

The rain also allowed the Chapman's to pursue the intellectual side. A few rousing games of Scrabble got the blood flowing and and in the end we all won so nobody went home feeling sub-par. Even Grace got in the action, spelling her name and reading the dictionary getting ready for the next game.

Rain, rain, go away...

Well we are now on our seventh day of rain. We haven't seen the sun since last Thursday (8 days). What a great week for vacation and my parents to be out here visiting. While we have still done things we had planned, we have been thankful for our gore-tex jackets and warm cars and house. Grace has had a lot of inside time with Grandpa and Grandma and she is going to miss them when they fly back to SLC tomorrow.

I'm almost wondering if we are having a second flood. The Assabet has been going up and is much swifter now after a week of rain. It is almost as if God is punishing our fine city of Boston. The Red Sox get swept, the Patriots are decimated by injury and not looking very good right now, and the rain just keeps coming.

Michelle has had the worst of the weather has she has had to still teach riding lessons in the rain. Along with the nausea and lack of energy she is just hoping to make it through next week. Hopefully she will start feeling better soon. As for me, it is back to work on Monday and the daily grind. Vacation has been nice, even with the New England rain, but it will be nice to get back to work.

Finally made it to Boston...

We've lived here for 7 months and have never been to Boston other than to go to the airport and to a Red Sox game. Having company who wants to sight see has finally gotten us out of the house and downtown. Today, we rode the subway into town and went on a "duck boat" tour of the city. The duck boats are World War II amphibious vehicles. Some are replicas and some never went to war, but the one we rode in was a 63 year old tried and true war vehicle. It had been in the invasions of Sicily and Italy and a few other places in Europe. The driver drove us all over downtown Boston and pointed out all of the major sights and then took us right into the Charles river to see some more. Grace got to drive the "duck" in the river and was way excited about that. We feel better that we've finally seen some of the important places from the settling of our country and the start of the Revolutionary war (seeing as we live here and all!) We saw the Old North Church steeple (where the 2 lantern signal was hung - one if by land, two if by sea), Bunker Hill, and the areas first settled in Boston to name just a few. We even drove by the bar that the show "Cheers" was based on. We also spent some time in Lexington and Concord yesterday learning about the battles there and the people who lived there. I have never had a good U.S. history class in my school life, so it's really good for me to learn about it and even better to learn right on the spot where things happened. I feel very un-educated at times when things are new to me that should not be new at all. I guess I'm in a great spot to catch up on my American history. I don't have any excuses anymore, that's for sure.After the tour, we spent some time today at the aquarium downtown. Their big tank is really amazing as are their small exhibits. Of course, Grace loved it as she loves anything to do with creature life. I loved it too. It reminded me that I used to really love studying biology. I forget about my biology background and training and when I see something like the aquarium it brings back all of my college courses and subjects that I really used to think about a lot.

We Match!

Grandma and Grace must have called each other Saturday night because they both showed up on Sunday morning wearing Scottie dog outfits. They were pretty cute!

Will the rain ever end?

It has rained every single day that David's parents have been here (except of course, the day they spent working inside the garage.) Grace decided to be a die hard rider and ride Tinkerbell in a downpour. They had the most fun splashing through puddles and trotting over trot poles as they both got soaking wet. Poor Tink though; she didn't want to go back out to the pasture when we were done. She desperately tried to dive for her stall on our way out of the barn. That was Saturday. She's probably turned into a seahorse by now with the water that just won't quit.

Moving on up!

Well the Chapman's finally have a power garage door opener up and running. That was the one thing I told my Dad he had to help me with while he was here. This is the first house we have had we a power garage door opener and I know Michelle will greatly appreciate it come this winter. The job took about 7-8 hours total and it went fairly smoothly. We had to get creative to shore up the support for the motor mount, but once that was done it was fairly easy. Now if only we had a 2 car garage.

The garage project was about the only thing that has been good this weekend. The weather has not cooperated and it has rained all weekend. The Red Sox played poorly and got swept by the White Sox and the Utes had some questionable play calling in the end to to not be able to score on two different drives inside the 5. I guess the Utes are inexperienced this year, but I am worried that they have reverted back to the McBride era of lax attitudes and discipline.

I will have to update tomorrow about the great fun Grace is having with her grandparents. She sure is loving the additional people to play with.

The Chapmans have arrived!

My parents have just arrived for a 10 day visit so see the sights of Boston and hopefully take in some of the wonderful New England colors. Grace sure is happy to have "Mo Grandma" and "Bampa Earl" here.

FHE

Tonight we were invited over to the Doty's along with several other couples for Family Home Evening. It was a lot of fun to have dinner and talk with everyone and then discuss ways to get going on our food storage. Certainly the biggest problem Michelle and I have had is just knowing where to start and then finding the room for it and rotating through the stock regularly. I think that this group will be a lot of fun as we plan to meet once a month and cover various subjects. It was also fun for Grace as she now adores older girls and had plenty of kids to choose from. Michelle and I have been doing a better job of building of our food storage since moving to Stow, but we can do better. One thing we really need to do is get some water stored. We have a well on our property and if the power goes out we would be without water. We will have to get that done this weekend.

Beautiful Fall Afternoon

Everyone around here has told us that the autumn season is incredible. While the leaves have yet to start changing colors, the weather has been very nice with it cooling off substantially at night and high's in the low 70s. We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday in between sessions of LDS General Conference to walk down along the Assabet river by our house. While our dogs are under quarantine the Animal Control Officer said we could take our dogs for walks if they stayed on leash and we kept them away from other people and dogs. Luckily it is fairly quiet around our house so we didn't run into any other dogs. As we got to the bridge we saw two couples putting in with their canoes and it made me think that we need a canoe. I am sure the river is absolutely beautiful when the leaves change. Grace enjoyed our walk so much that she found herself a walking stick to use. She also wanted to walk Velvet (who is currently her favorite dog). Hopefully we can get a few more walks in before the cold weather really hits.

Sleep? Who needs sleep?

Yesterday was a difficult and depressing day for all of us. While trying to listen to LDS General Conference I was being worldly and watching/listening to the Red Sox and Utah Utes games. Both ended with the wrong team winning. The Utes have no offense this year and I have to wonder if the Yankees symbolize all that is wrong with America. I know my friend Jared would agree. Worse yet, Grace fell asleep at 7:45 PM last night but instead of sleeping through the night, she was up and ready to go at 11:00 PM last night. Since Michelle is having a tough time dealing with the pregnancy that meant it was "Daddy Time". After spending 90 minutes trying to get her to go back to sleep I gave in and we went downstairs to watch Grace's new favorite adult movie, Spiderman. Finally at about 2:30 AM Grace fell asleep and dad got a couple of hours of sleep before Grace was up and at it again. At least I was able to make Michelle breakfast in bed this morning to try and make her feel a little bit better.