Is the neighbor's house on fire???

one sunday evening last december, we we just finishing dinner when we heard a terrible racket of fire sirens and saw flashing red lights through the windows. they were definitely coming right into our court! we thought for sure that one of neighbor's houses was on fire and rushed outside to see what all the commotion was about. we were pleasantly surprised!

tonight, just after dinner, the same thing happened.

the fire trucks come first, sirens blaring, lights flashing, and decked out in colorful christmas lights. then come some of the firefighters, on foot, passing out candy canes. then you hear the music and the magical man of the hour makes his appearance! needless to say, the kids find it terribly exciting! alexander rushed out onto the rain-drenched sidewalk in stocking feet. hadley's socks were nowhere to be found, so alan carried her. by the time we came in, her little feet were pink and freezing!

5 random things...

this is for pinkmilk...she tagged me! i haven't forgotten you, i've just been busy!
but first off, let me say that i've done this before: http://spyderette.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

but i will do it again, for boredom's sake, and to brighten your dreary idahoian existence.

1. i LOVE the cure. (like anyone who knows me didn't know that.) but what you might not know is that i heart them in a freakish, obsessive, and downright disturbing way. i own all 23 albums. yes, that's right, 23! plus a few rarities, hard-to-find stuff, limited releases, and at least 3 concert bootlegs. robert smith's birthday is april 21, 1959, and i have tickets to see them at madison square garden in june.

2. i once met gwen stephani backstage after a gig in provo, utah at the geneva steelworker's hall. she was still with no doubt, and they rocked!

3. i can sing the entire score of "joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat". that's right! jealous?

4. i don't like chocolate that much. there, i said it! in fact, given the choice of a chocolately dessert amongst an array of others, i will NOT choose the chocolate every time. (does that even make any sense?)

5. i once did yoga in times square in new york and plan to again. and this random fact is a total cop-out if you read my previous random facts. :)

Sneaky McSneaker

alan and i have been amazed at hadley's ability to sneak SILENTLY out of bed and into the hallway, downstairs, etc. tonight, i caught a glimpse of the sneakmaster in action. i was in alexander's room, listening while he did his reading and i saw her in the hallway, seeming to glide past his open door. a closer look revealed her secret:

she had placed two thin paperback books on the floor, planted one tiny foot on each book, and was slowly (and silently) sliding each foot foward, making steady, quiet progress toward the bookshelf in the hallway. i was agog and nearly fell out of bed/laughed out loud. amazing. how on EARTH she came up with that one is beyond me, but i sense an elaborate alarm system in our future, particularly when she reaches her teenage years.

put THIS in your pantry and, er...smoke it?

honna, this is for you! go buy some for your food storage! it's sooooo yummy when cooked in the crockpot overnight! this tiny little can (28 oz) will feed a family of four 5 delicious breakfasts. if you can find it, try this recipe:

1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups water
2 cups milk
pat of butter
about 1/4 cup sugar, brown sugar, or honey
dash of salt

cook on low in the crockpot overnight. my crockpot cooks hot, so i have to set a timer (the kind you use for christmas lights) to come on at about 3 am. i make sure to stir it at around 7 or so. when you are ready to eat, dump in some frozen fruit of your choice, stir and cover for about 5 more minutes. i LOVE it with strawberries or peaches, but blueberries are good too. you might need to add a little more sugar. it can only be described as "creamy deliciousness" (thanks k, for the recipe).

this would also be good with dried apple slices and cinnamon added to the crockpot at night.

Crusher: crayfish de el DIABLO!

some of you may know that xander has an aquarium with fish and creatures from the Delaware & Raritan Canal, which runs near our house. among the creatures is a largeish crayfish that we named "crusher".

crusher and i have not had a good relationship. in fact, i think he's evil. he freaks me out and stares at me with his beady eyes whenever i'm near the tank. i have no problems with the other, smaller crayfish. just crusher.

it all started the first night we set up the aquarium. the next morning, crusher was MIA. he made an escape attempt the FIRST NIGHT! we found him under alexander's bed, and alan put him back in the tank. we opted to cover the gap left by the filter with tinfoil.

over the past few months, crusher has made several escape attempts. the foil, however, usually foils him (puns rule) and we find him INSIDE the filter housing. he gets thrashy and feisty too, when you open the cover and gives you a good scare.

recently, he has taken to "hanging out" on the filter pipe that goes down into the water. he just stays there forever, looking nonchalant, as if to say, "don't mind me...no escape plotting here, just hanging out." alan makes sure to push him off with a pencil and back into the water.

alan and i have both said that if we don't watch him closely, i"n five years we will either be working for him, or dead by his hand." (thank you for the great quote, 30 rock!)

yesterday morning, the first thing i noticed when i went into alexander's room, was that crusher was, once again, missing. we were running late and did a quick search -- we picked everything up gingerly off of the floor, pushed the bed to the other side of the room, peered under the dresser, inside the filter, everything we could in our limited time. then we closed alexander's door, and blocked the crack underneath with a beanbag. by the time alan got home, crusher stil had not turned up. it's an uneasy feeling having a creepy crayfish loose in one's home, believe me!

anyway, after an hour of searching for crusher last night in alexander's room, hadley's room, bathroom, laundry room, and pile of laundry on the floor of the upstairs landing, we started searching our room. we didn't see how he could have possibly made it that far, but began the search nonetheless.


the good news is that we DID end up finding him.

the evil thing had survived the fall from the tank and off of the dresser and walked a grand total of 40 FEET! to end up in the back of our walk in closet INSIDE a pair of my favorite shoes. i believe he was lying in wait just to give me the fright of my life when i put on those shoes. and i ALMOST wore them yesterday! eeeeeeeek! (shudder!) along the way he bypassed several good crayfish hiding places. it creeps me out that he chose MY shoes, waaaay in the back of the closet. in order to get there, he had to find his way out from underneath the dresser in alexander's room, out the door, bypass the pile of clean laundry, cross the entire length of the landing, squeeze UNDER our closed bedroom doors (eeeeew! ) MAKE A RIGHT TURN, followed by ANOTHER RIGHT in order to get to said shoe, which has about a 4" chunky heel (which means it took effort to climb up in there), only to curl up and DIE in MY SHOE!!!! (do you sense the creepiness?) i tell you, the thing was pure evil.

many thanks to alexander, who was all for exploring my closet in the first place only to be told repeatedly by alan and myself that "he wouldn't have gone that far". i gotta hand it to the kid -- he thinks like a crayfish. i almost didn't search the closet, but decided i didn't like the idea of a crayfish vanishing into the wilds of my home, so i took a flashlight and systematically peered into each and every shoe. i'm glad i did, or i would have had a very unpleasant surprise indeed.

alan removed him, cleaned out the inside of my shoe with a clorox wipe (at my insistence), and put him back in the tank. you see, last time we found him, though he APPEARED dead, he revived after an hour or two and was fine, although perhaps a bit more evil and more determined than he had previously been.

this morning, he was still most definitely dead, floating at the top of the tank. we scooped him out, dumped him in a trash bag (thank goodness it's garbage day) and said a few words: crusher, we'll miss you. you were a smart crayfish, and good at escaping." (i left out all the bits about being the crayfish of the devil spawned from hell itself -- i figured i could at least try to say something nice). alexander added "good-bye crusher, i'll miss you". it might be appropriate to end this tale with "rest in peace", but i say "good riddance to bad crayfish". i may never wear those shoes again.

Thanksgiving FHE in a Flash

some of you know that i got the genius idea a few months back to have monthly FHE themes and plan lessons around those themes. i'm a little OCD and actually have a chart for the entire year with lessons planned. each monday, i consult the chart, print off any materials, and voila! instant FHE without pain or anguish. granted, most of these lessons are only about 15 minutes long, but with young kids, that's just long enough.

now that my little intro is out of the way, i'll get to the REAL reason for this post:

our FHE theme for november is "being thankful" (go figure, huh?) anyway, this is a fun activity to do with your family for thanksgiving no matter what your definition of family is and no matter your religion.

make up several slips of paper pre-printed with:
"I am thankful for:
To show my gratitude I will:"

sit down together and fill them out. fold them and place them in a basket on the dining room table. each night at dinner, each family member can choose a slip and perform the act of gratitude the following day. i think alan and i will each choose one and the kids can share one each day until we are out of slips. i made 9 slips.

one example to get you going:
i am thankful for food to eat.
to show my gratitude, i will help clean up after a meal.

OR
to show my gratitude, i will take some food to a friend or neighbor/ buy lunch for a friend, etc.

they should have some logical connection. have fun, and remember to count your blessings.
each night, you can report your act of gratitude before taking a new slip.

halloween part one

okay julie, this is for you. nothing like guilt first thing in the morning! and get batgirl over here too!

last week for FHE, since alan had to work late, i decided to take the kids to a local farm/pumpkin patch/corn maze. (note: not NEARLY as cool as the one lindsey, jake, pat and kelli went to. #1 ours closes at 6. #2 no giant slide. #3 no slide of any kind or haunting ghoulies. #4 no corn to get down our pants.)

anyway, we entered the maze at about 4:30 determined to conquer. above is alexander showing the way. (never let a 6 year old lead the way through a corn maze) not that mom did any better.

there were 6 stations to find. each had a puzzle piece with a bit of the map on the back. we found #1, #2 (tee-hee, number two), #4, and #5. what a "co-in-din" (hadley's version of the word) that i was accompanying a 3 year old and 6 year old, but we couldn't find #3 or #6! not to mention that we found our way out without finding #6 -- multiple times! we kept going back in, determined to conquer, even using the puzzle map to walk through -- we could see which areas we were missing exploring, but still couldn't find even the areas, let alone the checkpoints! poor mindi called us twice only to be told that we were "conquering the maze". i'm so embarassed. we finally had to leave because it was getting dark and the farm was about to close. luckily we had no problem finding the exit repeatedly.

in the pumpkin patch, corn maze looming in the background. it was near this spot on the way back to the farm stand that hadley pointed to the ground and tugged my arm "look, mommy, a cell phone". we managed to find it's grateful owner back at the farm stand. there was no way she ever could have found it. we were off the path and it was discovered in the way that only a 3 year old can discover things. close to the ground, not paying attention, wandering off, etc.

hadley's little pumpkin, ready for the face to be carved. you will have to wait for the "after" shots.
carve o' rama. we were all a bit tired, since this was post corn-maze and KFC but pre-bedtime when it should have been post-bedtime.

and finally, some halloween shots pre-halloween! we travelled forward in time, then back just to bring you these photos in a timely manner. two whole days before halloween! (okay, there was a trunk or treat party). alan and i were among the handful of adults to dress up, and i've got to take a moment to say "step it up Princeton 2nd! this is halloween people! dress up already!"

that said, josh was as much or more dressed up as we were, and he wins the coveted spyderette's web costume award. it involved head-shaving, ya'll! (zach looks pretty cute too!) kristin CLAIMS she was there, but i still say she's making it all up.

josh looking creepy.
swampy with a hint of a smile. bonus points if you can identify what candy dad is sneaking in the background.

yowza! someone from P1 actually asked me if that was my real hair. yes. yes it is. and the eyelashes too. and i think i like this new makeup look for daytime.

swampy really enjoyed lurking around this tree for some reason...

more in the next post...keep scrolling!

halloween part deux

cricket, because she was MIA in the farm photos and she just looks so darn cute.

a rare photograph of the elusive "swampy" the swamp creature. can you spot him?

girls just wanna have fun.
our decorated "trunk" (hatchback?). we literally did this in about 10 seconds by grabbing stuff we had out as decorations at home.

and we won a prize for "bootiful" decor! i'm so cheezin' it here.

family portrait a'la halloween.
lady liberty givin me some sass.
aren't we a charming couple? a litte pale maybe. guess we should get out more. notice the eyebrows on alan. monobrow works great for angry eyebrows. so do you get the connection here? alan is a butler, and i'm a maid. (can you name the particular maid that i am? maybe i should say "a domestic" instead.) i actually purchased a tray and white gloves for alan, which he left at home on accident. oh well.

the cutie pies. liberty and swampy. i think i might change their names permanently.

ooh, the angry eyebrows are really working well here!

everybody get swampy

hey everybody, do the swamp-thing boogie! we went to a combined ward trunk-or-treat on saturday night and we all had a blast! there was dinner followed by games for the kids and wrapping up with trunk or treat and a fun couple from first ward who had disco music blaring. we danced and danced. my video of hadley dancing didn't turn out, but here is alexander, which is just as entertaining. we literally had to drag hadley away from the dance party.

sorry it's sideways! amy, did you figure out how to rotate these? it's upright when i view it at the source. hmmmm.

oh the places you'll go

i've given up on trying to put blogger images in order. i can't figure it out unless i upload them one at a time, which, frankly, i'm not willing to do. consequently, these are all mixed up. deal with it and i will too.


hadley at the farm with the chickens. she wants to get some. thanks grandma and grandpa s. luckily, townhouse living will not accomidate chickens.

family portrait on liberty island. no, really. we're on liberty island, i swear.

the lovely lady herself. it is worth noting that hadley was so taken with lady liberty, that she wanted to be her for halloween. luckily, we procured a costume for a mere $12, plus torch. i will include photos in the next posting.

more at the farm. hadley's preschool class took a trip there. for those that don't know. her preschool class consists of herself and 4 other kids from the ward. the moms each decided to brave one 9-week term. mine begins in january (GULP). from left to right: joshua, buster (litte brother to cricket, who was not there that day), hazel, hadley, warren (little brother to hazel), and brianna.

"miss liz" and students.
shelley, this is for you: hadley frolics in the autumn mist. (okay, leaves, but still...)

oh, look, hadley got a big girl bed! yes, it IS a queen-size! all the better to serve as a guest room, my dears! doesn't that make you want to come and visit? just look at the luxurious pinkness of it all!

t-rex and friend. the natural history museum is amazing. we have been twice for a few hours each time and still have only seen about 1/3 of it. (but have seen the dinosaurs both times)

alexander compares his arm bone to the arm bone of a dinosaur.

the kids on the liberty ferry. ah, new york! what a view!

and once more...the grand lady herself. if you click to enlarge, you can just make out the itty, tiny people on the observation deck below her platform. we have not been able to get a time pass to enter the statue either time that we have been. maybe next time. alan says he only has one more liberty trip in him, so we had better make it a good one.

i've been a bad, bad, blogger; part 1

once school started, things got crazy around here! i was subbing 2 yoga classes a week at the gym, teaching 2 of my own, and teaching 2 private sessions per week as well. between being at the gym tuesday through friday and shuttling hadley back and forth to preschool and trying to stay on top of the housework, blogging fell by the wayside. but i'm back, with updates going way back and keeping all 4 of my loyal readers up to date on the latest adventures in jersey. first, some highlights from our summer:

have you ever seen a more literal interpretation of "kiddie pool" -- there are 6 in or around the pool, one very tired girl in the foreground and 3 babies in their own pool off to the side. i love this picture, they are just having so much fun!

one of the cutie babies.
and another. for some reason, liam was MIA for this photoshoot.

here is hadley striking her best pirate pose for the treasure hunt grandpa and grandma put together for their scurvy gang of pirates. note the squinky eye. i guess her eye patch was in the shop that day.

aaaargh!
love the determined face in this picture. by gum, she's on a treasure-seeking mission!

ditto on sheer pirate determination. love the sliding down with swords. so un-PC.

this should have come first, but i was too lazy to change it around. i love my daddy's cute face in this photo. he's reading the first clue, thus initiating the treasure hunt. they actually had to DIG UP the treasure from an area near the garden. too funny!

we had so much fun with the cousins this summer and love an miss you all! not to mention grandmas and grandpas! love you!

i've been a bad, bad blogger; part 2

more from our summer:

kids watching a spectacular fireworks display

aforementioned kids rapt faces

two beautiful twin princesses. their faces are priceless!

sophie looks so tickled to be dressed the same.
holding hands. careful, the cuteness is infectious!

alexander in salt lake.
hadley with great grandma. i think she popped in to visit grandma at least once a day. i love this photo. :)

soundtrack of my life?

stolen from lindsey:
turn on your ipod (or itunes)...hit shuffle. list the songs in order of the following descriptions. kinda fun and interesting.

Opening Credits: In Between Days – The Cure ("In Between Days is the best Cure song ever and Capricorn doesn't want to hear otherwise" -- from a horoscope several years ago)

Waking Up: Rip Her to Shreds -- Blondie

First Day of School: Wake Up – Alanis Morissette

Falling in Love: Asleep – The Smiths (what are the odds? wake up and asleep? come ON!)

Fight Song: -- Baby Fratelli – The Fratellis

Breaking Up: -- Casual Match – Suzanne Vega

Prom: All Hail Me – Veruca Salt (I guess this in AFTER the breakup and I’m really bitter!? Maybe I came back to him and caught him with another woman. Hussy.)

Life: Bare -- The Cure “If you’ve got something left to say, you’ve got to say it now – anything but ‘stay’….” sounds more like breaking up to me. L

Mental Breakdown: The Last Day of Summer – The Cure (more sadness. no wonder i’m having a mental breakdown!)

Driving: London – The Smiths “Smoke lingers round your fingers, train, heave on to Euston…do you think you’ve made the right decision this time?” (with a driving, train-rhythm)

Flashback: The Kiss – The Cure (must be an angry flashback to prom)

Getting Back Together: Lonely -- Frente “I can’t get enough of your love, babe”

Wedding: Lolita – Suzanne Vega LOL! (can’t believe the hussy tried to ruin my wedding)

Birth of A Child: The Same Deep Water As You – The Cure (i actually listened to this album when x was born…but still, not the happiest birth song.)

Final Battle: Honest With Me – Bob Dylan “I’m stranded in the city that never sleeps…some of these women just give me the creeps” (more hussies, apparently)

End Credits: +810+ Clare Quilty (nice! it seems that though the movie is at an end, it seems that life holds much more in store)

travelling down
down the road
i see your face
in the mirror
and i see your face
in my mind
i feel your heart
it is beating
it beats with mine
travelling down the road

back to school

so we are FINALLY getting back into the swing of things and we FINALLY started school last thursday (september 6), so i can FINALLY do some updates. i get overwhelmed at the thought, so i'm striving for short and sweet updates, but more frequently. we'll see how that goes...

hadley is so excited to be starting preschool! since it's so expensive around here, we opted for a co-op with a few other women from the ward. we are each taking a 9-week stint as teacher, so hopefully i can get through that come late january!

here is hadley, so excited on her first day of school. she's got her backpack on and is ready to go! she also will proudly tell you how to spell her name. she loves to trace "dotted" letters that mom draws and is working on writing it all by herself.


and here's alexander, beginning FIRST GRADE! can you believe it? alan and i can't. we think he's growing up much too quickly! just look at how big this kid is! he was a little apprehensive about starting 1st grade, because he loved kindergarten so much and couldn't imagine that 1st grade could compare. he also confided that he was worried about "all the quizzes" in first grade (what? lol!) but after a few days, he told me "i LOVE first grade!", so i guess things are going well. he is required to read every night and is really doing great with that. he amazes us!


and for the close-ups:


we are looking forward to a visit from g'ma and g'pa peck in early october and are still begging for thanksgiving visitors! anyone at all! we'll take you! we also added some fish, snails, and crayfish to our family via an aquarium, but i will post more about that soon.

we love and miss all our family and friends "back in utah". xoxox

The Hadley Show

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Those kids can DANCE!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Jersey Fresh

check it out! not only am i FINALLY back from utah, but i got all of the lovely food you see above for under $25! i've made a new discovery, and i have to say, i LOVE the trenton farmer's market. cheap delicious produce all right next to halo farms dairy. a half-gallon of milk there is $1.11 and bread (yes, even the yummy homemade sourdough you see above) is 99 cents! see, groceries CAN be exciting!

so, here's my loot (clockwise from top left): 1 loaf wheat bread, 2 loaves sourdough, 6 ears of corn, 2 pints of ice cream (chocolate with chocolate almonds and pistachio), 3 gallons of milk, 4 zucchini, 3 yellow squash, 2 tomatoes, a bunch of potatoes, 1/2 pound deli-sliced black forest ham (in the paper wrapping) 2 red and 2 yellow onions, a grundle of green beans, and a head of garlic.

not too shabby. the farmer's market makes shopping fun again. and, like their sign says, they're open all year! woot! come visit and i'll take you there. you'll love it. and if that doesn't float your boat, the window in halo farms that lets you watch the cartons being filled with milk and various juices whilst traveling on a conveyor belt will. that of the fact that ice cream is 2 for $4. it works for my kids every time.

i have downloaded all my utah photos and will be posting about my adventures in the beehive state soon. it was so good to see so many to you!
smooches and hugs and a boot to the head (you know if you deserve it)

girl talk

this is just too funny not to post... hadley and lucy-- chillin at the block party. making a few phone calls, chatting it up, applying some sunscreen. they moved the chairs like this all on their own. i love these photos. caption contest! the winner will be declared to be the wittiest of them all and possibly win a sweet prize. :) oh, i highly recommend clicking on each image to see it larger.








there's more below folks, scroll down!