Now that they've been given out...

I can share Hannah's Christmas pictures with everyone!!!

Newsflash

Hannah's First Step

December 15, 2008

On December 15, 2008, Hannah took her first step. This small step towards walking is a giant leap towards toddlerhood! Her mom and dad are incredibly proud and taking this new development one step at a time.

Ice, Ice Baby

Thursday into yesterday we had an ice storm that hit NH almost as bad as the storm 10 years ago. Fortunately, though, the roads weren't too bad, but ice formed on so much stuff that there were downed trees and power lines blocking roads everywhere. We went without power off and on during Thursday night, but it went out for the day at about 4:30am on Friday. John got up to check on our sump pump, which the well was full. He bailed out some of the water, but it was useless. At 5am we both got up, and bailed out more water, but it was coming in just as fast as we could get it out. At about 8 in the morning, our good friend, Jared, came over to help us with the water, because I needed to keep an eye on Hannah. Because we had turned the heat up in the house during the overnight, it wasn't freezing in the house, but it was below 60, so it was getting chilly. The storm didn't last long, but we were without power until about 6:50 Friday night, when PSNH played a cruel trick on us - our power was on for about 30 minutes when a transformer blew (I saw the explosion out the window, and John and I both heard all the noise) and we were without power again. We had only been able to get the house warmed up to about 60 degrees before it went out again. We had dinner out at a Chinese restaurant to thank Jared for all his help (he stayed all day to help bail out the water), so it was good to get a hot dinner and get warmed up. I took Hannah out in the car during the day too so she could get warmed up and we could pick up some groceries - we did manage to find one store that was open and running on a generator. No heat though, which was kind of a bummer.
We have a neighbor with a generator that let us plug our sump pump in with an extension cord while the power was down, which was a life saver for John and Jared.
Anyway, we got our power back last night at about 10:45, but the sad part was that we forgot to switch our sump pump off the generator and back onto the power, so when our neighbor shut off the generator, we had no pump. Oops. Needless to say, we woke up to a flooded basement. It wasn't terrible, and we've finished the clean up already, it's just still a bit damp. At least we had the forsight to tile our computer room floor.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the damamage at our house:This was a branch that broke off our pine tree in the front yard. Part of it was sticking out into the road, so the town helped clean some of it up.

This is out back yard with some branches down all over the place. We have some massive clean up to do today.

The branch you see behind our grill next to our clothes line actually damaged our chain link fence. How it didn't hit the house, we'll never know.

The lovely fence problem...

Our broken down front yard tree again.

The fence again. Remember that you can see our clothesline in this picture.

More back yard damage...

A kind of blurry picture of the "damage" a branch did to our roof. Fortunately, it also didn't do anything structural.

Remember that clothesline you saw earlier? Yeah, it's gone. Another branch fell, narrowly missing John, and took out our clothesline.



The ice on our honey suckle bush.

Icicles on the deck

The honeysuckle



Trees that are ice covered.

Lots of pictures to update!

I've been crazy busy lately, but I have a lot to update!

Hannah turned 10 months old yesterday! I can't believe how fast the time is going, and I don't want her to grow up any more!!! She needs to stop right now! She's so much fun at the age she's at that I'm always afraid of what it will be like as she gets older. She's a pro at crawling now, and loves going up the stairs! In fact, several times in moments of... forgetfulness, Hannah has managed to start climbing the stairs because we forgot to close the gate at the bottom! She wants to start standing up on her own, and will now start letting go of things for a few seconds and is getting better at maintaining her balance before falling down or grabbing on to something again. She'll be walking before we know it, and I'm DEFINITELY not ready for that!

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately, gearing up for Christmas and such. I'm trying to make some gifts this year, and more than just the two I managed to get out last year. So far I've already done one and a half gifts, so I'm well ahead of schedule for now. The rest of the winter I plan to knit from my stash, as well as work on a sweater that John bought the yarn for as a birthday present for me. I can't wait to get started on it! By the time it's done, it will be to warm to wear it!

So, here are some pictures, as promised!

All bundled up and ready to go out!

Hannah and the kids at Moms Group

Hannah learns how to unload the dishwasher

Hannah thinks this Santa guy might be a little scary (he was a really nice guy though!)

Hannah gets a piano lesson from Daddy


Coronet hat, Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn, Dusty Purple, size 8 needles.

This hat is one of the few that are being made for Christmas gifts this year. I'm excited about getting some hats done, and I have been happy with the way this one and the one I'm working on have come out. Hopefully I can keep up the pace!

What D&D Character am I?

I Am A: Lawful Neutral Human Ranger (3rd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-14

Dexterity-13

Constitution-11

Intelligence-13

Wisdom-12

Charisma-13


Alignment:
Lawful Neutral A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Class:
Rangers are skilled stalkers and hunters who make their home in the woods. Their martial skill is nearly the equal of the fighter, but they lack the latter's dedication to the craft of fighting. Instead, the ranger focuses his skills and training on a specific enemy a type of creature he bears a vengeful grudge against and hunts above all others. Rangers often accept the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods. His skills allow him to move quietly and stick to the shadows, especially in natural settings, and he also has special knowledge of certain types of creatures. Finally, an experienced ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw on natural power to cast divine spells, much as a druid does, and like a druid he is often accompanied by animal companions. A ranger's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Family Portraits are here!

Hannah goes to the Children's Museum!

Hannah had her first trip to the Childrens Museum of NH today with her little buddy Spencer. The two of them had a great time!

Hannah starts learning about colors and patterns

Hannah in the back, Spencer up front

Hannah finds a mirror near the floor to see herself in!

What on earth are these things???

Hannah finds some tunnels to crawl through!

Spencer plays trains and checks out the rest of the room.

My thoughts on president-elect Barack Obama

I think it's a great thing for our country to have President Elect Barack Obama. I am very excited about this, for a lot of reasons. 1) He's not George Bush. 2) We finally have a non-white president! and 3) I think he's got some good ideas for our country. I voted for Obama. In fact, I voted a straight Democratic ticket this year. We had a Republican president and two Republican senators from our state. This year, I wanted to give the Democrats a chance to change things up and see what happens.

That said - let me put my political and religious views out there so you know where I'm coming from:

1) I am a liberal Roman Catholic. I am pro-life, but I am also pro-gay-marriage. Otherwise, I believe in what the Roman Catholic church teaches and believes.
2) I am a Democrat. Shock and awe! A Catholic Democrat?? A Catholic SOCIAL WORKER??? How does that all go down? SURPRISE! You don't necessarily have to agree with everyone all the time! Again, I'm pro-life!

Okay, here are my thoughts:

I am adopted, hence why I am pro-life. There was a very good chance I may not of been here today since my birth mother was 16 when I was born. People need to "let not our hearts be troubled." There is nothing more that can be done. You voted. It's kind of like in elementary school when you and your friends voted about what game to play at recess. 7 of them wanted to play tag. Only 3 wanted to play hide and seek. Bummer, but you got over it.

I said I was pro-life, but to me, that's not the only issue. When I work in a homeless shelter and see middle class families losing homes, I have to vote with other parts of my conscious.

We aren't close to being a socialist nation. There is a lot of misunderstandings and fear when people think of it, but it's because of the absolute power the government gets along with it, and people get drunk with the power. Please, please, PLEASE do your homework. Understand what the actual idea of Socialism/Communism is. The problem with peoples fear of it is that we've never seen it actually work. I'm not saying we should even BECOME a Socialist or Communist nation. I'm just saying that people need to understand what they're talking about before they say that Obama is a Socialist and so on.

A lot of people have made the accusation that Obama is a terrorist. For all we know, a lot of people could be terrorists. We need to be careful saying things like that, or we'll end up with McCarthyism all over again, only with terrorism instead of communism.

I'm not trying to change anyone's mind about anything. I just want to make sure everyone knows where I'M coming from, and understand why I think Obama could be a positive change for the country. Before accusing him of anything, we need to at least give him a chance.

The results of my plunge...

I failed to mention that I received an e-mail back from the editor of the parenting magazine I submitted my article to yesterday. She accepted it! I'm really excited about that!!! It will be published likely in January or February, but I will keep everyone posted as I hear more.

So now, I can add "freelance writer" to my résumé. That makes me happy.

Hannah has discovered a new hiding spot:She recently discovered that it was a lot of fun to hide out under the dining room chairs. In this picture, she had tipped over Kane's (our dog) water dish over, and dumped water all over the floor. She was then content to play in the water under the chair for a little bit. I let her for a few minutes, but then decided we should probably change her wet socks and pants.

This past weekend, we had our murder mystery party, Death of a Wizard, with a bunch of our friends. We had a really great time! Hannah even came with us, though she didn't make it into the pictures.