Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Faces

Last night after one or two rounds with the crankies I sat down on our bed and Husby brought Toby in to me. We sat on our bed playing with little blue penguin and bouncing a little then after a while he reached for my face. He likes my face and he likes my glasses. This is usually very painful for me! So last night when he reached for me I took my glasses off and put them to one side. He reached up and put his palm on my cheek for a second and then just looked at me. His face was merely inches from mine and we were just sat there looking into each other's eyes. We passed several minutes in this way and I don't know how I managed to keep the tears of joy and love from spilling over. Then he saw little blue penguin again and started chatting to him.

But for those few minutes I was the only thing in his world. He was as lost in my eyes as I was in his. For those few minutes the only thing that existed was mummy. For those few minutes I had the undivided attention and love of my seven month old. Face to face staring deeply into each other's eyes I fell in love with my little boy all over again. I didn't know there was room for anymore love...

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Volcanoes and Bacon Sandwiches

Well since Mount Eyjafjallajokull has allowed air travel to resume across the northern skies our trip to England has been re-booked and we are now once again counting down the days till we get to go home.

I have been remarkably un-thankful of late and so am prepping myself by thinking of all the wonderful things I miss about good old Brittania. If we accept that I miss my family and friends most of all I offer the following advantages of a sojourn in the homeland...

1. The BBC - Oh for a commercial free channel with quality programming and real news.

2.Bacon Sandwiches - Thick White Bread, thick Juicy Bacon and Brown Sauce - oh yum! I will inevitably eat at least one a day while I am there!

3. Outdoor Markets

4. Sidewalks - the ability to walk to the destination of my choice even if it is 20 miles away.

5. Public Transportation - oh to be able to hop on a train to any sprawling metropolis or "no starbucks" hamlet.

6. Sausages - you have not lived till you have had a proper banger - Even the Store value version tops any offering in the states.

7. Cadburys Chocolate - and not the kind made in Pennsylvania by Hershey, the kind made in Bournville, not 45 minutes from my parents house.

8. Tea. Proper Tea. In any cafe, bar or gas station. Tea with milk. Not having to ask for milk. Tea. Not having to specify from a choice of 12 herbal blends. Proper Tea.

9. Shopping for clothes that no one over here will have!

10. Small cars, small roads and sheep crossing small roads.

11. Fish and Chip shops

12. The colour Green - rolling hills - being able to see for miles around without being atop a mountain!

And so many more....

Friday, April 23, 2010

Of Puffins and Daycare

I have a dilemma. I work. I have a seven month old. Since Toby was 2 months old his aunt has been living with us and taking care of him in our home. She leaves us in a month to work on a Puffin Cruise in Damariscotta. We visited the daycare a friend uses today. They are lovely people. It is a loving, nurturing environment. It is cleaner than I could ever get my house. It is the price we had budgeted for (which still has Husby reaching for a part time night job). It is in a great location. Dear friends of ours have two children there. My Dilemma is this... I want to stay home. I never thought I would want to stay home and by the time I was done with maternity leave I was itching to get back to a world of Grown Ups. But I want my son to spend his days at home with someone who loves him and will hug him. I don't want him to be in someone else's home from 7.30 am to 5.15 everyday. I want to play with him and teach him and take him on field trips. But that darned mortgage eats one entire month's paycheck and so we need the second income. I have prayed about this so much my head hurts and I know his plans for me are bigger than I can see. But I want to stay home with my baby.

And yes you heard me correctly, a Puffin Cruise in Damariscotta.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

My Maine Home





Husby and I had been looking for houses for two years, he had stipulated that we couldn't have children until we owned a house so I was somewhat frustrated.

We had an unusual joint perspective. In England all water is town water, all sewage is town sewage, most heating is electric hot water radiators, no basements, no land. I grew up in a terraced house which means that the walls on either side were the walls of our neighbors. Very condo like. Husby grew up in small town Maine in a colonial on Main Street with a big patch of land and woods less than a mile away.

We started off looking at places we could buy cheap and fix up but none of them were really worth the asking price. Over time we gave up looking for the things we wanted in a house, land, woodstove, fruit trees, porch, three bedrooms, two stories and started looking at everything. We put in an offer on a Ranch that had been host to chain smokers for fifty years and thankfully that didn't go through. We put in an offer on a quirky old house that needed some work and thankfully that didn't go through. Then we upped the price we were willing to pay and we found it. The description was perfect so we did a drive by and loved the house and the neighborhood. 20 minutes out of town, nicely situated in the country, a park just down the street. We made an offer within three hours of seeing it and moved in four months later.

Private well, private septic, oil furnace, 2 acres, fruit trees, woodstove - what on earth was I going to do with all that!


I have to say that there are far more quirks than we knew about when buying it but we love it! The day we moved in (before we knew about the fleas they left behind) was the happiest day of my life. Bringing my baby boy to his home comes a close second ;-)

Friday, April 16, 2010

And the award goes to...



I received an award from a little green birdhouse . . . a wonderful thoughtful bright spot at the end of a very long week - thank you so much! If you haven't visited a little green birdhouse you need to. Everyone should have this amazing woman and her beautiful son in their life! She inspires me on uninspiring days.

So, award rule ~ post 7 fun facts then link back to the award giver, and give your own fave blog the Beautiful Blog Award. Here goes . . .

1. I am an aspiring author and always have several unfinished stories on the go. I have only had non fiction pieces and poetry published so far but remain hopeful.

2. The first time I ever wore a bikini someone decided to take my picture as I was coming down a water slide and put it in the brochure - the bikini went on hiatus for 15 years!

3. My husband came up with a theory about the expansion of the universe that is still discussed at NASA - when he in high school!

4. I have an unnatural attachment to Lobster Rolls since moving to Maine and try at least a dozen different places each summer.

5. I once had an interview at Buckingham palace but turned the job down to pursue my Masters Degree.

6. I am addicted to everything Disney - my Bachelor's thesis was on Disney's representation of foreign cultures to American society.

7. Even when people assume that the baby pooped I cannot blame him - I am such a bad liar and proud of it!

Okay so aside from a little green birdhouse I have several go to blogs from the many I follow

Lollychops always cheers me up and gives me new crafty ideas
This Blessed Nest has already been nominated but she always makes me sit back and enjoy the sunshine
OpieDawn - every time I need some colour in my life!
House full of Monkeys A woman who tugs at my yarn strings!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Desmond and Penny

Lost was on last night. I used the hour beforehand to catch up on last week's episode so my evening was completely Lost. My favourite characters in this show are without a doubt Desmond and Penny. They love each other in spite of flaws and faults, in spite of hurtful actions and hateful family. They love each other enough to wait eight years for a phone call. Their love for each other is so deep that it spans alternate universes - as we saw last night many loves span alternate universes. This is how I love Husby.

Husby and I met in college, I came over to study at the University of Southern Maine for a semester and was living in a dorm that shared occupancy with the local art school and technical college. Husby was studying computer science at the technical college. One day he walked into the cafeteria and, knowing nobody, sat at a table where the people seemed to know each other and were having fun. He was greeted by a barrage of accents from all over the world and there began his journey.

I remember being friends with this great guy and halfway through the semester realising that my great friend was the same guy as the annoying kid who'd sat with us in the cafeteria. My great friend was also the same kid who showed up an hour early for a movie because he didn't know if "half seven" in British meant half an hour before seven or half an hour after seven and then proceeded to talk through the entire movie.

He says that he knew I was beautiful when we first met and then we talked and he knew I was a beautiful person. We went on a cruise and a friend of ours pointed to a star that she and her boyfriend had named for them. She couldn't remember which one it was however and kept changing her mind. I leaned over to Husby and said "They really should have just picked the darn moon then she'd never lose it." From that moment on he was hooked.

For me it was more gradual and while the highlight of my day was getting back to the dorm and having Tea with husby, I didn't look at him in that way until I walked in one day and he was coming out of the shower. The steam, the wet hair, the bare muscles, phew my goodness.

Still our road was not easy, I was dating his best friend from high school and he was dating my room-mate. We lived in a soap opera for a while and I won't drive you crazy with the details but one day my boyfriend hacked into husby's email and confronted all of us about our feelings. We don't see him anymore but I was maid of honor at my room-mate's wedding - Husby was her husband's best man!

This happened after three months and about three weeks before I was due to leave. We weren't together, we couldn't do that to my room-mate, but when she went home for Christmas break he told me he loved me and was going to ask me to marry him when we graduated. I told him I couldn't tell him the same thing.

The next day I flew home. I cried all the way to Boston airport then I got on my plane to New York and looked at the empty seat next to me. The only person I wanted to be in it was Husby. When I got back to England I called him and told him I loved him too (actually I may have IM'd him - I was 19 after all)!

For three years we lived in separate countries seeing each other only two or three times a year. The soap opera continued, my high school love finally told me he loved me, Husby thought I was going to leave him on many occasions, my jealousy of the women in his life knew no bounds. But through phone calls and emails I believe we got to know each other far deeper than we could have done in person. In September 2003 we were married and I moved to Maine.

My parents were next door neighbors as children and think it's cosmic reparation that my true love had to live 3000 miles away. I am sure that in an alternate time-line we would have still found each other.



Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A New England Morning

Frost in the air, a woodstove warming the kitchen, chickadees waking up the other birds with their morning chatter.

A hot cup of PG Tips (Tea)by the stove with Husby, Blueberry Buckle in the oven.

Buds springing to life on the Peach Tree, chickens clucking in the neighbor's garden.

And Toby reading "That's not my Teddy" with mummy.

Monday, April 12, 2010

The problem with not living in England

If I owned a house in England there's a 99% chance that I would not have a basement therefore my basement would not have flooded. Since I had no basement my washer and dryer would not be in the basement and wouldn't be flood damaged. Since I had no basement I wouldn't have a furnace and it wouldn't be flood damaged and I wouldn't need 7 grand to replace it. Since I had no basement my stuff would be suitably stored in my house instead of in 20 tote boxes in my living room and hallway.

Not to mention the fact that If we currently lived in England I would still be on FULLY PAID MATERNITY LEAVE at seven months and still have 5 more at partial pay to come without even touching my sick time. America doesn't even match most Eastern European countries for maternity leave - in Bulgaria I would be paid until Toby's second birthday. What an appalling state of affairs.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

LollyLoco



In the past week I have gone a tad overboard with my Lollychops Roses. Memorizing Patterns is a dangerous thing people. Today I had a very sleepy son and some time to get creative...





Monday, April 5, 2010

A few of my favourite Spring(s)

I'm not usually a huge fan of Spring. I'm not a gardener so I don't really look forward to my garden because I know it will be messy. Spring in Maine is called Mud Season, mud season makes for unremarkable shoe choices on most days. I have very fair skin and burn very easily, Spring means that summer is coming and I always manage to burn before I am ready for it. Spring means Easter and Easter means egg hunting with the family (shiver!) none of whom are under 20 anymore! I am also the abnormal person who prefers sheets from the dryer rather than the air! I LOVE winter. I LOVE Christmas. I LOVE snow. Spring kind of ends my season of sweaters and tights that I love so much.

This year however I have Toby. Toby loves to be in the Garden.



Toby loves to hunt for Eggs.



Toby gets fun Easter Baskets.



Toby frolics with Sheep



Toby has hippity hopped into my world and put a spring in my step.



Being exiled from our own house due to water logged furnace we spent the whole weekend with Grandma and Pepere. Toby loved this.



I loved it too as it gave me time to sit and crochet without worrying about a six month old! I now have the Lollychops rose pattern committed to memory and have found my favourite yarn to work in. Alas the pictures are still trapped on my camera but will follow shortly.

I'm even thinking of planting those seeds my mother in law gave me for Easter.

Happy Spring everyone!