Silly shots of Crazy J

Promotion to gold belt

After a year and a half of hard work, Nolan earned his gold belt, which is the highest ranking belt in the ranger program.In a few short weeks, he will begin in the young adult program where he will now start working towards his black belt.  We're super proud of his dedication!

Happy Birthday Nolan!!!!

Nolan has wanted his birthday party at Kidz Planet for years now, so this year we schedule it.  However, the morning of his party there was more snow- this time 6 inches of biting cold, wind driven snow.  Some kids couldn't come last minute, but we had an overall good turnout.  It was great to be 7 today!

Knocked out!

Nolan's top tooth has been hanging by a thread (literally) for a few days now. Chris and I are, um...persistent when it comes to trying to get the tooth out.  Nolan is an all natural guy while Chris and I practically beg him to let us tie it to the door or the back of the car.  When it finally did fall out, it was quite the story:

Nolan was playing basketball,  and tried to get the ball.  In the process, he got knocked down / fell to the ground.  In slow motion, Chris saw something small and white bounce across the court.  Nolan stood up, held his hand to his mouth and screamed.  Sure enough....gone.  Nolan scrambled for the tooth while the game was still going on as every parent in the gym watched.  A little bit of blood, a quick trip to the bathroom to was off his face and regain his composure, and he was good to go.  You can't ever say that Nolan does things in a boring way......

Winner!!!!!!

This month Nolan's school celebrated reading and each week the kids' names were put in for a grand prize.  Imagine my surprise when I got an email from Nolan's teacher saying he'd won a popcorn maker!  He was so proud of himself and the look on his face was priceless as everyone congratulated him at dismissal.  Needless to say, we promptly celebrated with popcorn when he got home.  Life is good for Nolan!

More blizzard pics

Blizzard 2013

A few posts ago I wrote how we have been having a lackluster snow season...I should have bit my tongue. We were hit with a honest-to-goodness blizzard that couldn't have come at a worse time- Chris was away in Vegas.  Now, we knew that a storm was coming but we never really thought it would get that bad, so before he left Chris showed me how to start and use the snowblower using the electric start.  No big deal, right?

Well, we got about 22" of snow which was way too much for me to maneuver.  As the wind howled and power started to flicker as I was going to bed, I knew we were in trouble!  The lights went out at 9, and sometime during the night I brought both kids in bed with me when they realized the power was out and we were going to need to conserve heat.  Fenway, of course, was unimpressed with everything.

I had made plans to go to a hotel if the power wasn't back on by the next night- except the state shut down ALL roads and I wasn't sure how I would even get there with my car buried.  Thankfully, two of my neighbors came over and plowed the driveway, and out power came back on at noon.  The kids actually cried- they were having fun without power and were excited about the idea of staying in a hotel with a pool and free breakfast buffet. 

In the midst of all this, Chris's flight was (not surprisingly) canceled and he was re-booked for THREE DAYS LATER.  Neither one of us was satisfied with that so he was able to book a flight home...into New York.  He got in around midnight, crashed in a hotel and rented a car to drive from NYC to Boston.  A trip that usually takes about 3-4 hours took almost 9 due to the fact that many roads were not plowed and a tractor trailer jackknifed.  When he finally got home, we all breathed a sigh of relief.  Next time we will take the forecast more seriously!    
 

self portrait, upside down

self portrait, upside down