Billie’s Blog

Big doings in our family last weekend – the kids went to their very first feature-length movie at the movie theater!  How exciting!  They did really well, even though it was so crowded Will had to sit on my lap.  Thankfully, for my lap’s sake, kids’ movies aren’t so very long. 

We went to see Madagascar 2, a Disney movie sequel to Madagascar, strangely enough.  Joe and I had seen Madagascar on DVD shortly after it came out, but I don’t know if the kids had ever seen it.  I suspect they might have seen it at daycare, because they’ve both been running around singing the “Move It, Move It” song from the movie.  In any case, they did a very good job of sitting still and being quiet, eating popcorn the whole time, because that’s what going to the movies is really all about!

And my artsy-fartsy shot of the day:

After the movie, we made a short trip to Walmart, and then headed home.  This is what happened on the 15 minute ride home. 

For all of you that don’t live in the frozen wastelands of the north, you might be wondering why the kids are so bundled up and why it’s dark already after a 2PM matinee.  Just for reference, the high temperature yesterday was 20 degrees.  And yes, it is almost dark at 4PM.  By mid-December, it will be dark at 4PM.  Earlier if it’s cloudy, which it often is in the winter here.  I happen to be such a night owl that I really enjoy the longer winter evenings we have here.  Makes me feel like it’s OK to just go home and snuggle up on the couch in front of the TV, instead of working outside.  It also reduces the incidence of dogs being hit by cars after work and being viciously attacked by porcupines, thus lightening the emergency call load just a bit.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is this week?  Almost Christmas.  If only I had some money left to do Christmas shopping . . . . . . .

Two years ago today, a red-faced, screaming 19 month old girl was placed in our arms in a hotel conference room in Nanning, Guangxi, China. 

What a long way you’ve come, little girl!

We are so blessed to have you in our lives!  We couldn’t imagine living without you!

We celebrated with her favorite dinner of macaroni and cheese (homemade, thank you very much!), and a special dessert of “pupcakes.”  White only, with white frosting, which is all Anna will eat right now.  She eats chocolate everything else, but turns her nose up at chcolate cake.   I gave both Anna and Will their own little plates with an assortment of decorating sugars so they could design their own toppings.  They had a good time with that.  Anna even ate the actual cake portion of both her cupcakes, so they must have been good!

We got the kids’ first school photos yesterday!  We have many years to look forward to, but I think their first editions came out pretty well.  The baba and I definitely ended up with cuter kids than we really deserved . . .

The only other recent event was the Northeast Kingdom Community Orchestra fall concert on Sunday afternoon.  Mama plays principle clarinet with the orchestra, and had to spend much of Saturday afternoon at a dress rehearsal.  The concert was early afternoon on Sunday, so we had to rush home from church and go straight to the concert venue.  The kids did very well sitting through the 2 hour concert.  We played the overture from “Russlan and Ludmilla” by Glinka, and then the entire “New World Symphony” by Dvorak.  It was an ambitious undertaking for us, and some parts definitely came out better than others, but overall, it was entertaining, I hope.  I continue to enjoy the opportunity to play real symphonic literature.  Who could have imagined that I could move to such a small rural area, and find a group that plays this kind of music?  Not always well, but we do play it.  Incredible!  I would have thought that once I left the larger metropolitan areas, my days of playing Beethoven and Dvorak were over.  There are many times that I have to kick myself to drag myself out of the house on Sunday afternoon and give up three hours of my precious day-and-a-half weekend, especially now that I have to work on Mondays again, but it’s worth it.  I was in on this group from the beginning – it started 5 years ago under the auspices of Lyndon State College, and I was at that very first rehearsal. 

After the kids’ school Halloween party last weekend, the actual Halloween events were a bit anticlimactic, but they got to go Trick-or-Treating on Friday night.  What could be better than collecting a Liz Claiborne designer plastic Halloween purse full of candy?!  Because our neighborhood is so spread out, you really have to drive between houses when it’s cold, and dark.  That’s quite a pain when you’ve got 2 little ones that still have to buckled in their car seats while driving.  It would just be easier to leave them in the car and have the mama jump out and run up to the doors holding their bags.  I didn’t think that would go over so well, so . . .  

My technician Natalie suggested we visit the neighborhood she grew up in near the clinic in Littleton.  Baba brought the kids to the clinic at the end of the day, we dressed them up, and we headed out for Natalie’s neighborhood.  Her mom said we could park in her driveway, so that’s what we did.  There was a nice loop roughly the size of a city block that we walked around.  It took about an hour, which is as long as two kiddos can go after dark in their furry little costumes.  I will say it’s a good thing that Will has very warm hands, because he kept the mama’s hands warm throughout the trip.  I had to keep switching him from side to side so I could get alternate hands warmed up! 

They filled up their bags, and I think a good time was had by all.  They are slowly working on their candy when the mama lets them get ahold of it.  We have a deal that when they’ve eaten all their supper, they get free reign with their bags for about half an hour.  Will can put away a lot of candy in that time, but Anna is pretty conservative.  I did catch her trying to sneak a handful of Smarties into her room after dinner tonight, though.  I think she wanted to have them for the morning.  Pretty clever!

 Will practicing his trick-or-treat technique with Auntie ‘Nee at the clinic