One Man's Trash . . .

. . . here are a few photos of another recent project I took on. We acquired an old desk and chair for free from an obliging neighbor. I cleaned it, sanded it, and re-painted it. I think I improved it, don't you?

Above: Before . . . Below: After.

If we shadows have offended . . .

. . . think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear. - A Midsummer Night's Dream Act V, Scene 1

Last night some friends invited us to watch some Shakespeare in the park with them. It turned out to be so much fun! We saw 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

Sarah sitting with some of our friends (Arwen, Nathan, and Gavin).

The fairies were Sarah's favorite part, and she just had to have her photo taken with one of them. She also had to approach one of the fairies during the intermission so she could tell her how beautiful she thought she was. Sarah also 'flew' all the way back to the car - pretending to be a fairy with beautiful pink wings . . . I'm sure glad we have good friends who invite us to do fun things.

Blessed are the Cheesemakers . . .

Last year, I read a book that inspired me to attempt to make my own cheese . . . at home . . . by myself . . . 

My sister was also inspired by the same book, and had acted upon the inspiration to great success.  So, when she decided to come for a visit this summer, I got myself a beginner's cheese making kit, and got excited to have her help me make my very own mozzarella.  Well, two gallons of whole milk, and two failed attempts later, we were still cheese-less.  We could not figure out what went wrong.  But, we were out of time, and my sis had to fly home.

I was determined, however to give it one more try, and, after tweaking the recipe a little, and consulting some online help, I officially became a maker of cheese . . . a mozzerella maven if you will.  

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The result?  A beautiful ball of perfectly fresh spongy and delicious mozzerella.  My hubby, who is a connoisseur of sorts of fresh mozzarella, gave it his best compliments. 

And we enjoyed the 'fruits' of my labor that night at dinner.  

If at First You Don't Succeed . . . Tri, Tri Again.

Hooray!!!  I did it!  Okay, okay, we did it!  Yesterday, Tim and I competed in our first ever triathlon. 

After I had to miss the Woman of Steel triathlon in May, Tim said he would do one with me here in CT, so I started some research and found one about an hour away from our house and on a Saturday.  We both completed the Tolland Summer Solstice triathlon.  Tim finished in 1 hour 25 minutes, and I finished in 2 hours 5 minutes.  

We started with a 300 Meter swim in a 59 degree pond - yes, it was VERY cold - too cold to even put your face in the water!  Tim finished first in the swim for his heat, and 3rd in the swim overall.  I definitely wasn't first in my heat, but I wasn't last either:).  The swim was followed immediately by a 12.5 mile bike on rolling hills - I felt like I was almost constantly going uphill - guess I need to do a lot more bike training if I am ever going to do this again.  Finally, we finished with a 3 mile run.  After getting off the bike, I felt like I was lucky to even walk, let alone run, but eventually my legs got some feeling back into them, and I did run at last.

Look, I even have a smile on my face at the end of the race.  Again, Hooray!  That's one disappointment turned into a triumph, now we just need to keep hoping for the other one.

Nothing like a little trip to Hawaii . . .

. . . to help you forget your troubles for a while.  

We just got back from a week in Hawaii with my family in celebration of my parent's 45th wedding anniversary.  We had a wonderful time, and Sarah had a total blast playing with all her cousins for seven days straight .  

Thanks mom and dad for a wonderful trip!  The house was awesome (28 of us all in one house - including two brand new babies), and the beach was wonderful!  

We stayed in Kailua on the opposite side of the island from Honolulu.  It was more rural, a slower pace, and a perfect beach for kids and grownups alike.

Disappointment . . . and the Blog Posts that Never Were

*Disclaimer*  This post is depressing.  Do not continue if you don’t want to be bummed out.

Do you ever find yourself anticipating some event or experience, and as part of that anticipation, picture yourself sitting down to your computer to post about it on your blog?  You know, thinking about what you might write, imagining the photos you might get to choose from?  

Well, for about a year now, I have been anticipating one certain event that I was going to be so excited to post about . . . I was going to participate in my first ever triathlon.  Last May, my mom and younger sister participated in the Woman of Steel Tri in American Fork, Utah, and when they were done, they invited me and all my sisters/sisters in law to join them for the race this year.  I got excited.  I started to train.  I learned how to swim.  I did my best to be ready. . . 

. . . and then, something else came up.  Many of you know that we have been hoping for years to adopt another baby, and, though we have had several opportunities pop up, they have all fallen through.  Well, in about February, our profile was selected by a young couple expecting a baby girl.  They were considering adoption as a possibility.  We met with them, and felt really positive about the whole thing.  Hooray, another exciting event to anticipate posting about.  The only drawback was her due date . . . the same week as the triathlon.

Of course, having a new child in our family is more important than running a triathlon, but we prayed that the timing would work out that we could experience both . . . it didn’t.

We found out that the mother was going to be induced the very day I was scheduled to fly to Utah for the race, so I cancelled my flight.  The baby was born that day (Thursday) and then we had two excruciating days of waiting to find out if she was going to go through with her plan to place her for adoption. . . she didn’t.

Right as I was going to pick up the phone to call my mom and ask how the race went, we got the call that we hoped would inform us to get in the car and drive to the hospital. Instead, our social worker informed us that the mother had decided to take the baby home with her, and we were left with nothing.  No race . . . no baby . . . just a heap of disappointment, and a lot of tears.  We will get through, like we always do, but it sure sucks in the meantime.

What I've been doing in my spare time . . .

. . . and of course, by 'spare time' I mean the time I have spent neglecting my wifely and motherly duties ;).

So, about 10 years ago, Tim acquired this lovely old rocking chair with the intention of fixing it up.  He did make a new seat for it, but then ten years and two moves later, it still looked like this . . . 

. . . then, when I realized that I was spending quite a bit of time moving the chair around the house so that no one would sit in it and possibly have it fall apart on them, I decided that I needed to either get rid of it, or spend a little time and elbow grease fixing it up.  The easier choice would have been to just get rid of it, but I like a good challenge.  So, this is what happened next . . . 

. . . then, finally after about four weeks, today I finally finished replacing the seat, and this is the finished product . . . 

I love my 'new' rocking chair . . . why don't you come and sit in it sometime?

Spring has (finally) Sprung . . .

. . . and it is a lovely thing, indeed.

I was out in our backyard the other afternoon when I encountered this charming little woodland fairy napping on our 'porch swing' . . .

. . . isn't she sweet?

We took advantage of the warm, sunny days to move our garden to a sunnier location . . . it was a lot of hard work, but we are looking forward to harvesting many delicious vegetables in the months to come.