The New Boat!!!!

Wow!!  He did it!  My father purchased a new boat!  Next summer is going to be amazing...man I need to find a way to get it off!!  It was put in the water 2nd week of September, and most of us got to ride this season.  So we got a little bit of a summer extension thanks to the boat! We still need to think of a name...going to work on that.  

Farm Fest and Apple Picking!

I always dreamed of living in the Country, and the city..but now it's the Country's turn.  I am loving it!  Love the deer, the turkey's, the cows, and most especially the farms in the area.  Every year this town has something called Farm Fest.  Several local farms open up and have activities and events to show off what they do and let us play. We did it last year at the farm nearby, and this year we hit a couple of them.  Great way to start off Fall I say! 

Apple picking is an upstate tradition.  I have done this every since I can remember. There are several places to go around here, and several places closer to our house to go.  This year we chose to go with tradition, and go to Hicks..well, thanks to Rachel Ray ( our resident celeb)...this place is now on the map..and..a little too touristy for our taste..but we did it this year.  First we went to a maple sugar house where they serve the best pancakes in town, and the best syrup in the area of course.  Many great photo ops...

 

"Home" ...where exactly is that?

Home.  I am tending to notice that "home" is many different places.  When we lived in MA and AZ, home was NY/MA.  Now that I am back on the east coast..AZ feels like home.  And oh, how I miss it. Unexpected, never thought in a million years, really miss it. I miss my house, I miss my friends, I miss my job, and I just plain miss my life. I am doing better.  Better than I was last year as this time.  Having every night just me and Little Miss, was hard.  Not normal family life.  No time to connect to other adults outside of home, like I used to be able to do.  No girls nights, all because it's me, single mom every night. This..and I really did have a good life!  I had a job I felt good about, a place I belonged, and a life I established.  It was home.  I find it incredible that I am missing that home, as much as I missed this home..and thought I needed to come back so badly.  

Do I regret it?  No. We didn't come back so much because we missed it, as much as we wanted to raise our daughter here, in these schools, in this climate, in this culture.  We enjoy it too.  How much I miss, the life I had is the surprising thing. 

Sooo..this summer we got to see some of our peeps. It felt like a warm glove. Seeing my mother, all helped..but now I miss it again.  

Mimere and Pipere..oh and Sadee

Sunday Morning Bagels!  Just like the old days! 

 On the dock..touch of Fall in the air.

The original scooter gang 2012...

Home  is where your people are...lucky us..we have a couple of them.  

School and More Friends From AZ!

Well, here we are, the time has come for school to begin.  After much thought, plans, cancelled plans, we are ready.  Let me give a little background here.....
Little Miss's school is one of the last holdouts in the area for all day Kindergarten, this has troubled me from day 1. Not because I want her gone all day, or need the day care (although I did need that) but because I thought she needed all day K. So, starting in the spring, Frank and I visited private schools, we talked to teachers at her pre-school, and we researched. We decided the best thing to do was a "wrap-around" program that her preschool offered.  Essentially this would be all day K..but all that busing to and from all these places concerned me.  Another issue was Frank was finally supposed to be put on the day shift, which meant, we needed more than 2.5 hrs a day of coverage, if I was going to work.  But in  August, after being promised for a year, Frank's employer told him they need him on 2nd for another year.  At first, not happy, then we realized, that we will not have to do the wrap around program, saving money. We spoke to the school, and they explained that the children in K will not be starting from scratch, those who don't know the basics will be identified, and given extra schooling so that they get up to speed.  This made me feel a whole lot better about half day! In fact, it all seemed to fall in place perfectly! She actually is getting more schooling simply because she is going 5 days a week!  Phew.  Life is good! 

We also had some company for her first day of school!  Mel and Ross were here to help us send her off!  How appropriate!  They've been there since the very very beginning of journey.  Made the Day very special..despite the hangover we might have had from the Sunday festivities...ahem..that's another blog post. 

And there my baby goes!!!!  

More Summer Musings...

Well as the summer went on, so did the parties, hanging out between our lake house and my cousins on the other side of the lake. My mom and Karl came home for a month, and we got to spend some time with them, Little Miss even did  sleepover with them for a few days!  1st time away from Mommy. All and all was a good one, good last summer of not being a school kid.  We talked up kindergarten, and had fun doing our shopping for school.  It was the end of an era in our family.  Now we embark on a new phase of our lives.  School. 

Glorious Hydrangea's in Maine, I just can't get enough of these!  

Cousins in a tree at the 2nd annual cousin get together!  

Hanging with friends from pre-school..being goofy kids! 

Fabulous Morning Glories that we planted from seeds we were given from her pre-school teacher. A nice goodbye gift that we will enjoy hopefully for many years to come. 

The cousin reunion!!  

Summer 2012!!!!

What a fantastic summer it was!!  Not only was the weather amazing, it was busy busy busy!
We started the season off by spending the weekend up in the Adirondacks with our local FCC chapter.  Its a wonderful group, and we have met some really great people that I hope will be life long pals.  Little Miss has met some great friends too. Every year they do a weekend up north, and the girls from China range in age from 15 to 3. It's really neat to see them gather in the groups of friends, and form these connections of people who really "get" what its like to be adopted from China, or Korea.  We had a great time, and this we we only did 1 night, but next year...I think we will shoot for the whole weekend! 

 Traditional Chinese dinner prepared by the group, here are the girls making won tons

 Then in the first week in July our first visitors from AZ came to see us.  It was wonderful to see them, wonderful to connect again to someone from our old life.  We still miss it so much. Erin and Megan were just what the Dr. ordered for homesickness. 
We got to show them where we life, show them what the true upstate is, and show them where I grew up!  They got to see what life is like here for us, and I think finally understand the draw of why we came back.  

Recital and Graduation

Off to a great start! Summer started with preschool graduation  in June and the dance recital. 

 My girl in her glitter dance makeup.her favorite part! 

Dancin Fool! 

Was a VERY LONG day...and of course very hot, in an auditorium with no A/C..do the math on that one! 

The big pre-school grad! 

It was a great start to the summer.  It was also a very long 2 weeks!  Seems like everything was happening at once! We ran around like crazy people for that last week.  Vacation and friends from AZ were coming,  just what we needed to unwind!