Ups and downs and road trips with E

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The weeks leading up to graduation have been tumultuous for Miss E. She’s got all the feeling swirling inside (and sometimes outside), like many other seniors at this time of year. Her senior trip was rocky, senior “skip day” was chaotic, and the boys are home getting in her space. She’s excited to be done with high school, scared to move on, worried her friends don’t like her, worries she’s going to miss all her friends, etc. Anyone who’s ever graduated from high school has probably had these feelings. We also have several busy weekends coming up, so last weekend E and I took a little road trip.

Road Trip

We started with a quick No Kings protest, which was packed!! After doing our part as good citizens, we spent the rest of the day in the hinterlands of Vermont, enjoying the sunshine and lush scenery.

Visiting the Haskell Free Library in Derby, VT has been on our bucket list for a few years now. The Haskell library sits on the US/Canada border and has been in the news a lot lately. It’s a beautiful library and we were excited to visit. Apparently author Louse Penny lives nearby and her next book takes place, in part, in the Haskell library! Unfortunately we got there exactly at 4pm which is when they closed. :( We enjoyed the exterior anyway. It is beautiful and interesting to be so close to the border. We waved at a group of Canadians across the bolder line. :)

The border
The board on the road
Imagine having to show your library card to cross a national border.
Channeling her inner lizard and basking in the sun

Then we had some sweet Sunday driving through the rolling hills, stopping only to charge up the car and our bellies, and headed to the Cold Hollow Sculpture Park, an outdoor sculpture park…. which closed hours before we actually got there. We got a great picture of the entrance sign though. :)

We thought about maybe sneaking in and checking out the sculptures anyway, but turns out its actually on a hill behind someone’s house, so we decided to be good and move on. We stopped for dinner and more charging, then drove home under a pink sunset.

We had a great day, she felt much better (nothing fills her bucket like car time with mom), and we fully intend to return another day… maybe a little earlier in the day. :)

Award Night

The following day we attended Senior Awards Night where we clapped for over two hours for kids we know and love and kids we’ve never even heard of before. It was a long ceremony, but E got a few awards (for science and good grades) and some grant money, and I got to chat with some old friends, so we considered it a good night all around.

Next up — graduation!

A few little BIG things

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Things are busy around here these days.

My tiny baby boy entered a new decade last week! Years ago my grandpa made a comment about how we take so many more pictures of babies than of older people. That came back to me just now as I realized I only took two pictures of Lex on his 20th birthday, but probably a hundred on the actual day of his birth!

The pile was small, but high quality..
The photos weren’t even good photos. Poor kid. I’ll have to do better on the 21st!

The weekend before, E and her friends went to Senior Prom. They took photos at the Powerhouse, had dinner at Panera, survived torrential rain to get there, then danced their hearts out at the Marriott.

We also attended the FRC wrap party on a recent weekend. E and her teammates designed trophies for the coaches and we 3D printed them. We had fun at the party and everyone enjoyed the awards.

G and E presenting the awards.
The gold is their robot design. :)

I’m currently home alone, getting a tiny taste of the upcoming year. Lex and E drove to Worcester together to meet with Lex’s roommates and landlord for next year. They planned the trip, including extra time for whimsey, and seem to be having a great trip. They’ll be home soon. E sent me some photos while Lex and his roomies made plans. I can’t wait for the full update when they get home!

The living room
His bedroom. Now to figure how to furnish it!

R spent the day sleeping, waking up at 4pm when I woke him!, then headed out to spend the evening with friends. I’ve been alone with the cat and dog for company.

We are skewing towards calm around here, but the chaos still rears up… usually around midnight! And I love it. <3

Happy Mother’s Day

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I want to write something deep and profound about motherhood, but the words never come to me when I want them to, so instead I’ll just say, it was a good day. I woke up to a clean kitchen and a cute card on the table.

We went out to brunch (organized and paid for by the kids and Alan), then the boys went home and cleaned my car while E and I got mani/pedis.

We watched a movie (that I napped through) then the L&A got pizza and we watched silly TV for awhile. It was a very wonderful day.

Each phase of life is unique and this one is no different. I now have three kids who are all legal adults with licenses and jobs. They make plans, they pay for things, and they still love me and show up for brunch. <3

Pretending to be short again so I can feel tall. LOL.

The one important thing I failed to do is call my own mother. So sorry, momma! I love you forever and am only the mom I am because of the mom you are! You modeled the way for me. Modeled kindness and acceptance and grace. Modeled handling the calm and the chaos. Modeled it all and for that I will be forever grateful.

Happy Mother’s Day!

HOFSTRA!!!

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We had an exciting weekend in Long Island recently. Eve and I drove down late Thursday night, met up with Rosy, then spent Friday at Hofstra University for an Admitted Students Day. We talked to a bunch of people at the resource fair, met Kate (one of the mascots), had lunch in the dining hall, and got a personal tour of the dorms. The dorms are awesome! We’ve visited a lot of dorms over the past few years and these are by far the best!

We had a fun moment while we waited for our dorm tour guide to arrive. We were standing at the welcome table with several “Pride Guides” (student tour guides) around. One of them asked Eve if we’ve been there before because she recognized King Gerald! She was excited to hear that it was the same shark! She told us she actually has the King Gerald pin on her bulletin board! She brought a bunch of her friends and they all oohed and aahed over sharks, Gerald, and E’s artwork.

After we got done on campus we drove down to Jones Beach to dip our toes in the Atlantic. It was super windy and cold though, so it was a very brief visit, but fun nonetheless.

Then we did a little shopping and headed back to the hotel. Rosy and Eve were going to go swimming in the hotel pool, but everyone was tired so we rested for a bit first. Eve was restless and grumpy a bit, until she finally said “Would it be wild and crazy of me to just make a decision now?” I laughed and reminded her that deposits are due in two weeks so she’s going to have to make a decision soon! She said “I’m just going to go to Hofstra.” We snuggled up in her bed and used her phone to accept the offer and put down our deposit. Afterwards she was full of energy and happily went swimming with Rosy.

She’s going to Hofstra!!!

The next day we took the LIRR into the city to visit the NYC Aquarium. It took us three trains and lots of time to get there because it’s on Coney Island, and the weather was wet and drizzly the whole time, but it was well worth the trip! We saw a sea lion performance, otters, fish, and sharks! Eve was thrilled!

She looks ready for college, right? :)
Coney Island Boardwalk

When then went back to Times Square and braved the elements to get some dinner and make it to our show. Rosy wanted a diner and we ended up at the Westway Diner, which apparently is where Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld first came up with the idea for Seinfeld. Who knew?! It was pretty tasty diner food. :)

We rounded out our adventure with tickets to Dungeons & Dragons The Twenty-Sided Tavern, an interactive Dungeons & Dragons production at Studio 42. It was a ton of fun and absolutely hysterical. You use your phone for the interactivity part and they said photography is welcome, so we took some pictures! On the LIRR on the way back to the hotel, E posted a picture from the show and tagged the guy. Much to her surprise, he reposted it on his account! They ended up having a friendly back and forth for a little while. She loved it.

Sunday we said goodbye to Rosy over waffles then headed home. Eve wanted to take the ferry so we did a little exploration in Port Jeff while we waited for the ferry. Eve and I are very slow travelers, in a most whimsical way, so we got home late on Sunday, but it was a great weekend. Alan babysat Huxley for us and provided excellent pick-up and delivery service.

Gerald loves the sea!
We let Gerald “drive” while we were on the ferry.

Now that Eve has made this big decision, we move on to the next thing….

Happy (late) birthday to Miss E

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I’m a little behind on the postings, but I can’t miss this big one! The last of my babies turned 18. We’re all grown-ups around here now! Kinda. LOL.

We celebrated with robotics, painting, muppets, and sushi. I took the birthday squad out for pottery painting and dinner. I thought we could go to a restaurant, but after much discussion they decided to get sushi take out and watch the Muppet Movie at home. They were all wound up after painting, so I drove to the local park and kicked them out to run around for a bit while we waited for our sushi order to be ready. They maybe be growing up, but they are still the goofy kids I know and love. <3

A bonus year with Team 95!

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I felt like this year I got a bonus year of FIRST Robotics! Lex joined in 9th grade, R joined a year later, and E joined this year! She was a little up and down all season, but she stuck with it, had some new experiences, discovered some new skills, and formed some new friendships.

The team went to three events, as usual, but two of them were new events, one in Maine and the other in Vermont. Vermont’s first FRC event! Grasshoppers had to represent!

Cutie little grasshopper
Smart little grasshopper!
Alan and I went up to visit.
Preparing for alliance selection.
Team 95 invites…
Captain E

The UVM event had a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream robot! Alan and I went up to spend the day with E on the last day. Our ice cream robot picture was photo bombed by the guy who took Eve’s senior pictures. He takes a lot of sports photography for the school and other events. He was there photographing a sporting event at UVM and stopped by to get a few pics of robotics too. :)

It was really cool to see how important she is on this team. The coaches were frequently asking for her input and advice on alliance selection and other teams. She helped with organization and was the brave one who led the alliance selection team at each event.

Big smiles! Lex was happy to be back for an event.
R2D2 is a pin collector too.
The alliance select team, heading to the field. I love this picture!

For the district championship Alan, Lex, and I all went down to spend the final day with Eve. Districts is a bigger, longer event and Eve rocked it the whole time. She made it her goal to collect swag from every single team (she made a spreadsheet!) and wore the swag the whole time. There was a Star Wars group there (not sure if they were a team or something else), so there were R2s and Storm Troopers and other Star Wars characters wandering around the event.

Despite the fact that she complained about practices, dreaded going to events, and fussed a lot, she ended each event on a total high and made lots of friends. The coaches and freshman boys love her. She spent the whole drive home from the final event sad that the season was over and thinking of ways she (we) could continue to be involved in the future. :)

One way may be to continue making buttons for the team and maintaining the teams website. I’ve been doing it for the past few years and Eve took over this year. In the past the team had a tradition of giving away Keebler Grasshopper cookies to the other teams, judged, volunteers, etc after each event. Sadly Keebler stopped making those cookies (or changed something, I forget) and one coach decided to make cookies instead. She asked for volunteers to help, so of course I volunteered!

The season is now over. They had their “unpack the truck” meeting tonight. There will be a few other “off-season” and recruiting events over the summer. Eve is excited for all of them. I’m excited that she found something she enjoys, people who respect here, and, I got an extra year of robotics fun! Yay!

A Sunday of ups and downs

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Last Sunday I took R down to MA to catch his bus back to college. He had a very busy spring break, so it was nice to have some time to catch up with him before he left for school again. We had a good trip down, despite the on again, off again rain.

After dropping him off, I made a spur of the moment decision to zip over to Worcester to watch Lex march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was a total spontaneous trip and I loved it! The weather was perfect, the crowds were varied in all ways, and suitably drunk for noon on a Sunday. LOL. The WPI marching band was early in the parade, but I parked near the end, so I walked along with the band as they finished up the route. There was another band mom there too (probably more than one), and she was following the band the whole way. We joked that we are “with the band” and therefore must be cool. 😂

This is a playlist with five videos. Not the best quality, but fun anyway. Dad — watch until the end! I took a video just for you! :)

I met up with Lex at the end and we got bagels for lunch. He said several band members didn’t make it to the parade, the bus never came, and he had to play two drum parts, but otherwise he had fun. Alan had just brought him back to WPI on Saturday, so it hadn’t been that long, but it was still nice to see him. 💗 I also enjoyed the walk back along the parade route. The energy was high and it was fun to be part of it.

On the drive home, things took a turn for the worse. I was routing to a charging station, cruising along, then suddenly started getting an error message saying “Vehicle may not restart. Service is required.” Umm… ok. I kept on to the charging station. When I got there, I plugged in, the car said “charging” for a second, then “stopped charging.” Threw a few more random error codes. I unplugged/replugged a few times, but no change. So I decided to move to a different plug, but when I tried to put the car in drive, it didn’t work. Just threw a bunch of more errors. So now it won’t charge, won’t drive, and is spewing error messages across the screen. I then spent the next few hours researching error codes, calling Tesla, calling my insurance company, calling Eve, calling Alan, and calling a tow company. Not necessarily in that order. In this time the battery died completely, with the window down, and the wind whipped ahead of an impending storm.

Eventually, about four hours later, the tow truck came and towed the car to the nearest Tesla service station. Alan picked up Eve and they came down to pick me up. Alan thought maybe we could replace the 12V battery and get the car going again, so we went to the service station. He and Eve braved the winds to do some diagnostics, then we went to WalMart (the only place open at that hour) to buy a battery and some tools. Back at the dealership we got the old battery out, the new battery in, and the car started. Yay! Lights on, screen on, windows up… but still no drive. Each time we tried to put it in drive, we got all the same slew of error messages. So we gave up and Alan brought us home, after a quick stop to recharge our bellies and his car. We drove home in heavy wind and think fog. It was a late night for us, especially him!

The Tesla service center was able to diagnosis it today. I was hoping it was a big battery issue, because I have another year left on that warranty. But, alas, it was not. It’s a “PTC heater failure.” Apparently that’s an important thing and part of the “high voltage” circuit thing and no longer under warranty. 😭

Tomorrow, E and I are taking the day off from work/school and going back to MA to pick up the car. Maybe we’ll swing by and see Lex again. LOL.

Life update

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Hey all, it’s been awhile. I’m debating if I should keep the blog going, now that everyone is almost off and away. Maybe through E’s graduation, then stop. I’m not sure. Anyway, for now, life has been busy. Somehow I got a calmer job and feel just as busy — though I am getting more sleep than before, so that’s good!

Here’s a photo gallery of updates. E is at an FRC event (she’s loving FRC this year!) and I’m on my own for the weekend. I’m celebrating that by doing practically nothing at all! LOL. I turned down a few plans and have been enjoying the day at home.

We’ve had a very wintery winter this winter! Los and lots of snow!
We took the ferry to Plattsburgh. Half the lake is frozen, but they broke enough ice to keep the ferry moving!
SUNY Plattsburgh
We visited Lex and saw an excellent WPI game and pep band. :)
Love these kids <3
I ran a most excellent puzzle competition at work.
And a most excellent spelling bee!
FRC requires closed toe shoes, so I bough E a pair of Cons and she decorated them.
Sharks…
and dinos.
Acrylic on canvas

I got a new job in the summer of 2023, then I got a new job at my job at the beginning of this month. I’m now the head of the tech services department with two people reporting to me. It’s actually a pretty high up position at the library. It’s keeping me way busier than my previous job at this library, though not as busy as teaching! Not many professions keep you as busy as teaching! I had a few programs left to finish up as part of my old job though. A puzzle competition that went super well and a spelling bee that was a blast. Now it’s all tech services from here out. I’m learning, on the job, that tech services really involves a lot of accounting!

We’ve been busy visiting colleges for accepted student days and to watch awesome music. We watched the WPI pep band support their basketball team to a win, then watched Lex perform with his Video Game Orchestra at a WPI talent show. It was a busy day for music and we loved it. I always love watching him perform!

Eve has been accepted to all four of the colleges she applied to. One she changed her mind on, but the other three are still contenders. We are doing the “Accepted Student Day” for all three, then she’ll make up her mind.

I’m driving a giant rental SUV again. This time is a brandy new Chevy Blazer EV. The Bolt that I bought for the kids last February died. Apparently Chevy is having a problem with the 2020 Bolt batteries giving out. The dealer didn’t have an rentals available and their reimbursement rental program was a total joke. It would have cost me over $5K up front and only about 70% of that reimbursed. It was super annoying and frustrating, but I channeled my inner “Um actually, I need to talk to your manager” and got things sorted out. However, because the teens are teens, they can’t drive the rental, so I’ll be driving it for the next few months while Eve drives my car. I kinda want to swap out the Tesla for something else anyway, but that will have to be another day, and after another raise.

Eve is off at an FRC event this weekend. She tried to join the team a few times off and on over the years, but didn’t feel welcome. There are a few new coaches now that made a difference to the team dynamic and she’s really liking it this year. She’s been doing some social media, some hands on fabrication and mechanics, and some logistical organization. She has come home from each practice in a pretty good mood and her texts from this weekends events have been positive.

Hmmm…. what else? I think that’s going to be it for tonight. Let me know if I should keep blogging. Maybe June is a good time to wrap it up? Maybe not? Thoughts?

A most whimsical day

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A quick look at the blog shows that I’m a wee bit behind on blog postings. I’ll catch up eventually, but for now, here’s a little post about a truly whimsical day Eve and I shared today. We drove R down to MA to catch the RIT bus back to college, then we went adventuring!

We started at the Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield, MA, one of the five Springfield Museums. We went to the science museum too, since we were there anyway. The first thing we saw was a super cool and active wood turtle. We watched it work very hard to get over the (fake) rocks to reach it’s food. It was probably the most active turtle I’ve ever seen.

I made several short videos instead of one long one. That decision resulted in me missing an exciting moment that caused everyone watching to gasp! See if you can figure out where it was. LOL.

The rest of the science museum was pretty cool too. The gift show, however, was just meh.

Then we ventured out into the Dr. Seuss sculpture garden. There were several fun sculptures, including a Horton Hears a Who sculpture that double as a play structure for little kids.

The Dr. Seuss building had various themed rooms, lots of characters and play places, and the whole upstairs was historical documents and stuff from him. Theodor Geisel doodled on everything and the museum had lots of random things collected with his doodles. He also had a lot of correspondence, all on Cat in the Hat stationary he drew. They also had his baby book on a video display. That was neat to see. The whole place is pretty interesting.

I’m having trouble getting the photos uploaded here properly. If you want to see lots more photos, here’s a Google album.

When were done at the Springfield Museums (or at least the two we were most interested in!) we headed a few towns over to visit the The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. The whimsey started right in the parking lot with a Hungry Caterpillar bug.

The Eric Carle museum is smaller and a little more museum like, but no less interesting. The open center area had huge wall art done by Carle on his studio floor with paint brushes and rollers. There were several side galleries with different displays, a reading room with loads of picture books, a studio for creating art, and the best gift shop! I wanted to buy everything there! I restrained myself… but barely.

We had a great day full of whimsey and fun. <3

Happy Thanksgiving – 2024

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Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a quiet one this year, delayed a day due to snowy weather.

E and I picked up Lex from WPI on our way. R decided to take a ridiculously long bus ride home to visit his friends instead of joining us for Thanksgiving. We went to the movies, had yummy dinner, and enjoyed the family time.

Apparently I only took dog pictures this trip. LOL. You’re welcome, Joyce!

On the way home we met up with Alan in passing, stopping to charge the cars and swap some family updates. Then the kids and I did some holiday shopping at the very crowded mall before dropping Lex back at college and heading home.

I am thankful for this family I have. I am a lucky daughter, sister, mother, and friend. 💛