A Day at the Lake

This weekend we decided to take my father-in-law's boat to Summit Lake in Argyle. We went with Dave and Chrissy and their kids. All the kids took turns on the tube - and so did the men of course. Noel, being quite over tired, fell asleep in my arms with her head propped up by her life preserver. It was so cute, but I didn't have my camera on the boat.

We now have a cat

We decided it was time for a family pet. So we went to a local shelter and found this darling whom we re-named Samantha. (Her name was Lambie, but we thought that was kind of weird) She is a GREAT cat. She is 5 years old and very calm. She is very tolerant of Noel and stays off the furniture for the most part. It is obvious she is just so happy to not be in a shelter any more. She came from a home where she was well loved, but a new baby was allergic. She had been in the shelter for 6 months. It is hard to find homes for adult cats which is funny because they are so much easier than any kitten or young cat! Part of me thinks I must be crazy to add more work to my life - vacuuming everywhere every day, brushing her, feeding her, cleaning the litter box - but she is just such a grateful cat I can't help but like her.

Lessons from my mom that she never knew she taught me. Lesson: Dishes

One of my best friend Sarah Gagnon (Baumgarten for those who knew her when) were discussing all the time it takes to do the household chores required to keep a neat home. We, and I think many other moms, would agree that dishes are a time-thieving culprit. Some of you may have the luxury of dishwashers; but anyone who has bought an older home in New England – or anywhere really – knows that installing the space hog in an already cabinet-sparse kitchen is often not an option. Then we began to talk about how our mothers seemed to do it all – vacuum, dishes, clothes – with time to make dinner every night! How is that possible? Have we slipped into some time warp that zaps time? Doubt it. Are we lazier than our mothers? Well, that’s more probable than a time warp… Or maybe it is because we’ve become obsessed with silly things that make accomplishing tasks harder than they have to be. Sarah and I both recalled similar sinks in our homes growing up. In the morning mom would fill one side of the sink with a few inches of water and dish soap (by the way she still does this). That would do for washing the dishes from breakfast until some time in the afternoon. Then she’d do the same thing after dinner. As a teenager I thought the lukewarm, semi-sudsy liquid floating in one side of the sink was disgusting. Thus as an adult I became obsessed with HOT water and LOADS of suds. No washing MY dishes in THAT type of water… I used a lot of soap and a lot of water… But often found myself loosing steam, even though my dishes were awash in it. So Sarah and I asked ourselves, when did we become obsessed with “sterile” and forgo good old “clean”? I never contracted any strange disease because my mom washed our dishes in THAT water. In fact, I would consider myself quite healthy. Again in my life I have learned from my mom – old dish water never killed anyone (don’t quote me on that) and it makes hand washing the dishes more manageable. I guess we just need to learn from the experts – they’ve been doing it a lot longer than we have. Thanks mom.

Little Miss Noel

Our little girl is growing up so fast! She turned 18 months May 29th.

She discovered how to get around the stair blockade at David and Chrissy's. Luckily, our new house does not have stairs!
Noel discovered she has a love of cream cheese. What can I say? A girl after my own heart.

Our House

So we bought a duplex in Cohoes this May. There is still a lot of work to be done, but here are some pictures to give you an idea of where we are now. We are on the first floor, we are working to renovate the second floor. We'll have pictures of that when it is done.