Enjoy the scenery

Yes, I KNOW you'd all rather see pictures of Hannah and Lizzie being adorable, but occasionally I like to take pictures of other things.

Prior to having children I mostly preferred scenic photography -- most probably because it doesn't often move. So at the shore this past week, I spent some time actually NOT photographing Hannah and Lizzie, and here's the result of that (although of course they always do manage to get into a few photos. All of these photos are photoshopped a bit, which is part of the fun for me. Love that photo editing.

This is a bird sitting on a tree in the marsh after one of his buddies flew away:
Pretty much anyone who sees my photography knows that I am obsessed with sunsets. I would like to say that someday I might be obsessed with sunrises, but I'd have to get up way too early for that. Here's the sun setting over the Delaware Bay Friday night. I snapped this one on Father's Day at the Cape May County Park. I just liked the way Hannah and Rob looked walking back to the car ... I dropped the color out of it to emphasize freezing the moment in time:

This is Reed's Beach at low tide. The girls (of course I can't leave them out entirely!) had just surprised a flock of seagulls as I snapped the picture:Reed's Beach is famous (infamous?) for dying horseshoe crabs. They get tossed up on the beach and flipped over onto their backs and then they can't get back to the water and they die. It's very sad, except that without the horseshoe crabs for the gulls to eat, they'd be even MORE annoying trying to steal the french fries that you've smuggled onto the beach. Here's one that may have been trying to find her way back to the water as it swirled around her (most of the crabs on the beach are girls because they come close to the shore to lay eggs). After shooting this picture, I picked her up by the tail and tossed her back in the surf:I admit that I totally love the mood of this photo. It's another part of Reed's Beach. It was another sunset shot, but you can't tell since I vintage-ified it:My mother in law spotted this tree when we were out getting ice cream one night. The clouds were dark and ominous and the tree was just reaching out to them. I had to cut out the high wires though and then added some photoshop layers to make it more of a painting than a photo and I love the result. You may actually see this one hanging in my house sometime soon!Okay I will now return you to your regularly scheduled pictures of Hannah and Lizzie. :)

What Happens When...

This post answers the question, what happens when it finally stops raining and you tell two six year olds that they can put their feet in the ocean...Here's the answer ... but you all knew this was coming, right?:But first there was a lot of this...

And then some of this...

Some of this, too ...

And then some more of this...

And then, of course, this...

We're having a great time and have managed to get to the beach a couple of times, zoo camp everyday, lots of laughs, the occasional ice cream and even a thunderstorm or two or 17.

I'll blog more pictures when we get home, but wanted to get these up for those of you who are in Raz Report withdrawal.

Simple Woman's Daybook

For June 19

Outside my window... finally there is some sunshine. We've had 10 or 11 or 243 days of rain. The air smells wonderful, too. Which is really the only good thing about 243 days of rain.

I am thinking... about writing a book suggested by my friend Jim. It would be about twins and motherhood and all the crazy hi-jinks of my girls -- kind of like the stories I tell all the time. I need to finish my memoir first. Let's say it all together: TRACY NEEDS TO FINISH HER MEMOIR. Thank you!

I am thankful ... that Hannah finished kindergarten with no more incidents and seems to have calmed down quite a bit and is working hard to behave better. She even offered to help clean out the refrigerator yesterday ... and was actually HELPFUL!!

From the kitchen ... not much happening there right now. We'll have all sorts of leftovers and fridge tidbits for dinner tonight as I want to eat things that will spoil before we return from our vacation. So that means everything except maybe the ketchup.

I am wearing... blue shirt, blue pants, barefeet. Totally boring.

I am creating... the girls are working on some cards for their Daddy. But that's all I can say since he reads this blog!

I am going... to organize clothes for laundry and then packing, then I have to bake some chocolate chip cookies to bring with us to tomorrow and then I have to actually pack, and make lunch and dinner and make sure all the other little details are taken care of before we leave.

I am reading... Woman's World Magazine. I do have several books to take on vacation so I'm saving those, but right now it's WWM, so I can learn how to LOSE 10 POUNDS BY JULY 1 and other such important things.

I am hoping... that we have great weather for our vacation -- did I mention we're getting ready to spend a week at the shore with Grandma Connie? Well we are and we're all VERY VERY VERY excited about it. The girls will be going to zoo camp while we're there, too.

I am praying ... again for MckMama's youngest son, Stellan. His heart issues returned full force last night and he's been in the PICU since then. It looks like the original surgery was unsuccessful and he'll need further intervention to survive his childhood. Details at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

I am hearing... Mostly I'm hearing the birds singing outside. Somewhere way way way in the distance (like the basement) I can hear what I think is Hannah Montana, but might be the Between the Lions I told them they could watch. I'm ignoring it either way.

Around the house... I like to leave the house in decent order when we travel. There's nothing worse than coming home to a house that's a disaster area. So I'm in the process of straightening things and decluttering and probably later I'll vacuum and have a cup of coffee.

One of my favorite things... is VACATION, of course. I'm not one of those people who needs a lot of things to do, either ... just continuing my normal routine IN A DIFFERENT PLACE makes me happy ... as does having other people who are interested in playing with Hannah and Lizzie (grandmaconnieuncledudeauntlinda).

A few plans for the rest of the weekend... Did I mention vacation at the shore?

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

This is what I'll look like in about three or four days at the beach in Stone Harbor, N.J. Only I'll have different sunglasses, my face will be thinner, my double chin will not be as prominent -- but I'll still be smiling.

Random Roundup

* School ended yesterday and my girls are CERTIFIED kindergarten graduates. They came home with report cards and 'diplomas' and thank you notes and -- in Lizzie's case -- a 102 degree temperature. Here are Lizzie and Hannah with their certificates and Hannah is also holding the coloring/sticker book I gave them for good report cards (we also went to Sonic for lunch and Dunkin' Donuts for dessert, but let's be honest, that was mostly for me!)

* On the one hand I hate it when one of the girls is sick because it's no fun to be stuck inside when it's the first day of summer vacation, but it also means I get compliments like the one Lizzie gave me yesterday afternoon: "Mommy I love to hug you because it makes me feel a little bit happier when I'm sick."

* Report card report -- It appears that Lizzie has bloomed into quite the student this past quarter. She got a couple of "4s" on her report card and she kicked butt on her achievement tests. Hannah did well, too, and I'm confident (at least right now!) that she'll be up to grade level with our summer work/play program. Hannah did especially well in both music and gym.

* My brother is trying to follow in my footsteps by saving drowning children. Last weekend T.A. jumped into a pool to save a kid who was struggling. Forty years or so ago I jumped into a pool to save my sister Tina who was under the water in a neighbor's pool. Oddly enough, I never got past advanced beginners in camp swimming lessons. Oh, and T.A. is such a copy-cat. :) This is a picture of my brother, the life saver, and my sister the life savee (by me ... T.A. rescued a much younger person):

* FOUR MORE DAYS UNTIL VACATION, PART ONE!!! (This is the girls during last year's vacation at the shore):

* I hit a pretty big plateau on Weight Watchers this month but have lost weight for the past two weeks, bringing my total very near 23 lbs, which is very near 25 lbs at which point I am going to get a pedicure. So you can follow along with my weight loss by watching my toes!

* There's a pepper growing in Rob's garden. It's about one inch in diameter right now, and I want to have it for dinner tonight. But it's probably best to let it get a little bigger so I can share with others. Of course I used this strategy with the lettuce, too, and the only one who got to enjoy it was a rabbit.

* I got the go ahead from the Eagle to interview David Cook (American Idol winner last year) and am hoping that his publicist gives me the go ahead, too!!! Here he is. Love him:

* Only 12 more weeks until the first day of first grade. :)

Kindergarten Picnic

Tuesday was the girls' Kindergarten Picnic. This is different from Field Day, which was held last week, because there is food and blankets involved. Then there are games. For Field Day there are games and THEN a snack.

So now you know.

We had fun, the girls and I. Even Lizzie was having a little trouble ignoring me (which she does very adeptly when I'm helping out in the classroom) since I brought a towel for us to all sit on that wasn't all that large. And just so you know, this towel had to be APPROVED by Lizzie and Hannah. The original blanket that I was rolling up to put in our picnic bag was veto-ed by the pair because (and this is a quote from Lizzie): Mommy's bottom might not fit on it. :) Thank Goodness I'm on Weight Watchers or else I might just take offense to that. As it was, we needed TWO towels, but that did seem acceptable.

Our lunch consisted of turkey and cheese sandwiches, whale crackers, yogurt smoothies and marshmallows and chocolate drops for dessert. Neither Hannah nor Lizzie is a big lunch eater, but I didn't want to look like I was starving them, so I packed the full lunch. Then they each ate the crackers the chocolate and the smoothie. Exactly like they do at home.

I enjoyed my sandwich though.

Then it was on to games. Which happened to be up a high, high, high hill, which I am happy to say I managed to scale with only the help of my trusty cane.

Here's a picture I took from the top of the hill. I have always thought the school was on a prime piece of real estate with a great view. Don't you agree?

The games were cut short by about 10 minutes because of thunder, but everyone managed to have a good time anyway. Even though it was very humid and very buggy. But you know I don't mind the heat, so it was okay (that's a joke.)

And besides, when they got back to the classroom they had a snack of Oreo cookies, apples and water.

Here are Hannah and Lizzie not eating the lunch I packed for them:

This is Hannah and her friend Ben (on her right) and her boyfriend Carver on her left. I'm pretty sure from this picture (which I didn't take, by the way, I think Lizzie did) that Carver does not know he's Hannah's boyfriend:So let the games begin. This is a game that I contributed. You toss the oddly shaped bean bags into a bucket. Hannah was terrible at it, which was extra sad because we play this at home ALL THE TIME:Hannah was much better at soccer:Lizzie playing under the parachute. Each kid had to call out another kid's name and they had to run to each other's place under the parachute. They LOVED it!In this game they had to transfer water from one bucket to another bucket via two sponges:Here's Hannah taking her turn with the parachute. Kids LOVE the parachute:And finally, Lizzie delivering a pizza. She's much faster than Domino's:

The Kevins

We had a picnic in the park with the girls birthfather and family on Sunday, and it really was just a pleasant day. We've been getting together each year with them since the girls were first adopted and it's nice to see how everyone changes/grows from year to year.

I know a lot of people fear open adoption, but it's really worked beautifully for us and I was remarking to Rob the other day that it really feels more like we are friends than birthfamily/adoptive family.

And as I always say to other families who are on the fence about openness, the best way to see who is the "real" mom or dad is to have an open adoption. The children draw those boundaries very clearly.

So yesterday we traveled down to Delaware and spent the afternoon picnicking and flying kites and talking and laughing with Big Kevin, Little Kevin and Grandma Kevin. Here are the pictures...
Kevin brought two kites and had the kids running around for at least an hour trying to get them to fly. They did fly with the running, but there wasn't enough wind to sustain them. And once, that big shark kite that Kevin's holding dove from the sky right onto my head. Yes, the LAND SHARK tried to get me. (Saturday Night Live, anyone?)
Lizzie helps supervise Kevin's putting together the shark kite:
Hannah gets ready to launch the shark:

Here's Grandma Kevin, Big Kevin, Rob, Lizzie, Little Kevin and Hannah. As most of you know Little Kevin is Brandy and Kevin's first child. The bio resemblance is quite clear in this picture, I think: This is probably my favorite picture from the day. I love the smiles and I love the way Hannah is looking at Big Kevin. So sweet:

Hannah took this picture. Suffice it to say that Hannah and Liz took lots of pictures and in nearly all of them someone is sticking their tongue out:

Lizzie took this picture. As you may have noticed the girls changed shirts partway through the afternoon. Grandma Kevin gifted them many clothing items and, you know my girls, they had to put them on to model:

There was a tiny gazebo with three seats made from tree stumps in it, so of course the kids had to try it out before we left:Here's the whole gang. I had the camera set on timer and nearly missed getting myself into it. I was supposed to stand in the space between Kevin and Hannah and between the cane and the distance I barely made it. But here we all are:

Fire

Rob and I were awakened at about 3:15 this morning when something exploded outside our house.

We both looked out the window and saw a small orange glow coming from the direction of the street. And then we heard an unmistakeable sizzle. We had no power. Something was burning. And the glow was getting bigger.

With the window open we were able to discern that our neighbor across the street had just called 9-1-1 because a tree had fallen and knocked down the power line that runs in front of our house. It wasn't until we walked down to the end of our driveway that we saw the power line draped across our driveway and several small and smoky fires at the edge of our property.

The power line was very much alive and sputtered and sparked every once in a while as we waited for the fire department to show up. That took about 35 minutes (since the ground was saturated with water and there is a stream between the the fire and our house the house wasn't in any danger, but still it didn't seem as if the local fire folks saw this as an emergency.)

It turned out that they coudn't do anything until PECO (electric co.) showed up and I think that took another two hours or so. I went back into the house in case the girls woke up (Lizzie is very afraid of fire and freaks out when the fire alarm in our house goes off or when she hears a fire engine.) Rob finally came back in around 5 a.m. and PECO arrived very shortly thereafter. We were still awake because by this time Lizzie WAS awake and scared and wasn't about to sleep.

It took awhile but Lizzie fell asleep, the fire was out and power was restored to our home.

This is how it looked last night (Rob took the actual fire photo as I didn't trust myself to get to close!)

In this picture I'm standing at the end of our driveway and shooting towards Favinger. You can see the wire hanging down on the left side of the photo. The headlights are from the firetruck.
There was a lot of smoke that didn't set off our smoke detectors (it was actually blowing in the other direction):

And where there's smoke, there's fire:

This morning the only vestiges of last night's excitement is our front yard littered with the tree limbs PECO cut down (the tree was a live tree, by the way, not dead wood), a few charred spots near the edge of the road, a somewhat tired Mom who had to go and register a dozen or so brownies for my troop next year and a very very tired Dad who couldn't fall back asleep after the fire (of course we all know that nothing interferes with my sleep so I was able to get in another couple hours after the din died down!)